Wish Me Luck!

I'm presenting a short paper at a local conference tomorrow afternoon! I've given a few seminars over the past few terms (one last term and two this term) but this is my first oral presentation at a conference. I'm feeling a bit nervous right now, but I'm also getting excited. This is going to be fun!

An Overdue Update

School has kept me extremely busy, so I've been neglecting things like my blogs. Well, my personal blogs for fun. I had to start a blog for a class, so that one has gotten all of my attention lately (you can check it out here if you're interested).

Besides school, I got a new laptop and Halo ODST in September. My old laptop has given me tons of problems over the years, like the battery dying (and if I hadn't removed it, the battery would have eventually killed the laptop). The newest problem was that a purple vertical line appeared down the left side of the screen. If you want to see what I'm talking about, check out this page. Apparently this was a common problem with the HP ZD8000 laptop. I decided that this was the last straw, so I went out and bought a new laptop. The new one is an Acer. It's a million times quieter and cooler than the ZD8000, and also a lot faster. I'm still getting used to the keyboard (it's not as sensitive as the ZD8000's was when it worked properly), but so far I'm liking it.

Halo ODST is another thing I'm liking. I preordered it in the summer, and was counting down the days until it was released. Luckily it didn't disappoint. I haven't been able to play as much as I'd like (school is keeping me very busy) but I'm enjoying it. The campaign is a bit off - it's not as bad as Halo 2, but not as good as Halo 1 and 3. But once you play through it, you unlock the entire New Mombasa Streets, which is a lot of fun to wander around in. And the multiplayer is fun too. You battle with up to three friends against waves of enemies, instead of gainst other players. It's really tough, but great fun.

I also went to see Streetlight Manifesto in Toronto back in September. They were amazing! You can check out the pics on flickr!

The one thing I'm sad about is my lack of time to write. I wrote a quick poem on Apocalypse Madness for last month's quote, but missed writing for the September quote. I got to post this month's quote, and I'm really hoping I'll have time to write a couple of stories for it. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak some writing time in during the end of next week when I should have a bit of time.

School's Back in Session!

After a fantastic summer (fantastic as in fun, but not so great with the weather), I find myself back in school. But this year is different: this year I am a grad student! I'm really looking forward to the challenges that this year will provide. School started last week, and I'm already quite busy but having a great time. I will provide updates where possible, but a lot of my blogs will most likely fall by the wayside until December (except of course The List, as I will update it with some school books like the six Shakespeare plays I'll be reading!)

School is Over!!!!!

My final exam was this last Wednesday. I've been playing Halo since then, and didn't have a chance to update this blog. School is officially over for me this year!!!!! My two exams were both this past week, and everything else was handed in prior to that. I've gotten one of the two papers back so far and did alright on it. The two exams went alright; the Popular Fiction exam I feel extremely confident on, the Canadian Prose one not so much. But it doesn't matter, as they're both over!!!!!

No Spacelord Again

Sorry everyone, but it's that time of year again. I have a couple of papers and a group project coming due in the next few weeks, so once again I will be putting Spacelord on hold. After today's post, Spacelord will most likely not be back until after my exams in early April.

Exams are Finished!!!!!!

Yes, I know, this is a day late. But I finished my last exam yesterday!!!!! It was a bit brutal to get through (3 essay questions in 3 hours) but I made it and I am done! I now get to enjoy a couple of weeks off from school before Christmas!!!!! :)

What's Happening this December?

I haven't really done a post about what is going on in my life for a while now. So I figured, now is a great time, as I have a lot in store for December!

Well, I just finished an update on the List. The List has 102 books on it as of this moment. As I said in my post, I am planning on doing a lot of reading. I have started another anthology, I have a few graphic novels to read, and I'd love to get another List novel out of the way before starting into next term's school books.

But before I can even begin to tackle my reading projects, I am in the middle of exams (quite literally. I has one exam yesterday, and my last one is on Monday). My first exam went well (I hope!) and I have to get going on studying for the next one. Oh yeah, and I have to keep going with my applications to Grad school.

While this is happening, I have decided to stay away from Xbox Live. I've been itching to play a couple of games (I finally opened Assassin's Creed! It's fun! Why did I wait so long to try it?). I most likely won't be able to get back onto Live until Tuesday night.

But more important than Xbox are the writing projects. I know I already wrote an Apocalypse Madness story this month (so I'm off the hook as far as that goes), but I have an idea for another story or two. I can't make any promises, but hopefully they'll work out.

And now the moment that everyone's been waiting for: Spacelord should be returning next Monday (the 15th)!!! This isn't official yet (depending on how things go, I may have to hold off until the 22nd) but that's what I'm aiming for. My official decision will become public by the end of this week. So stay tuned!!!!!

Hamlet 2!

No, this is not a post in reference to the movie titled Hamlet 2. Rather, this Hamlet 2 is the play two of my friends and I are writing for a class. Our play centres around Horatio, the last surviving Dane from Hamlet 1. While lamenting how far Denmark has fallen since Fortinbras took control, he discovers the ghosts of his friends wanting revenge. So Horatio sets out on a journey into the bowels of Hell in an attempt to set the souls of his friends free!

Meanwhile, Fortinbras is making a pact with the Devil for troops to put down the revolting peasants. And Claudius is plotting to retake Denmark from beyond the grave!

I got to write Act 1 (there are three acts, as there are three of us). It was a lot of fun writing. Scene 2 is easily my favourite. I will be posting it eventually on Delivering Awesome (probably after it is handed in). I am also going to be drawing some pictures of scenes and characters for the play. If they turn out alright, I will post them on Delivering Awesome along with Act 1!

English Papers

This week, I have found out that I can't write an English paper to save my life.

Alright, that's not entirely true. I can write an English paper. It will follow the MLA format. It will even be written rather well. But I'll still end up with a crappy mark. And why would that be? It appears that I write the papers the way I write psychology papers. I guess that's what I get for being a psychology student in English.

What exactly does this mean? No, it doesn't mean that I'm psychoanalyzing Hamlet, or writing about oedipal complexes in characters. It is more of the style that I am writing in. I don't jump right into the texts and go; I give background information, acknowledging what came before. This isn't always a bad thing, but in the paper I was working on all week, it really wasn't necessary to go back to Plato.

Yes, the writing style may be alright, but it's my content that is lacking. I'm failing to analyze the literature properly. So I have worked on one of my papers since last weekend every day, getting help and trying to rectify the problem. Hopefully this time I'll do alright. I have one more paper due next week, and that's it for the term.

One way or another, this is a learning experience!

What's Coming Up

The next month or so is going to be rather busy! First and foremost, I have two papers due at the beginning/mid November, so they are going to be the priority. I also have a group work project that I'll have to work on, so that will also be important, but a bit less so because it's due at the end of November. But of course, the most important thing that's coming up is the deadline for Grad school, so I'll be working on that in amongst everything else.

Non-school things that I also need to do includes a lot of writing. I need to get working on my Apocalypse Madness story. I also would like to revise the story I wrote for the Artery (but I might hold off on it for now and submit it for the next one). I am hoping to be writing Spacelord in here somewhere, but I may need to put that on hold for some of these other projects.

There are also a few other projects I've alluded to. I want to revise the Rhyssa Thorn story. And maybe write part two to the Phantom Dust story (it was originally intended to be three parts, but I don't know if that will happen. We'll see when I start writing it, if I do!)

I also have a few things to read, both for school and for fun. I want to read Twilight before the movie comes out. I have to read one more Shakespeare play, Richard II. And then I have several books in Children's Lit (the first of which is The Black Cauldron).

This is going to be a busy month!!!!