The Sound and the Fury

I just found out that they have not released the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet on DVD yet. Why!?!? Yet another thing that I can await with eager anticipation.

I’m determined to win my botany lab’s bean growing contest.  One of my seeds finally broke surface today, though all of them have germinated.  The root has come out of the bottom of the pot.  Even if I don’t win, I’m having fun with it.  I am very excited because I was chosen as one of twelve people who get to work in the greenhouse on top of Stevenson with the greenhouse director.  I get to set up four hour-and-a-half sessions with him to label plants, transplant specimens, and germinate some seeds (including cashews).  Make fun of me for this if you must, but I’m so amazingly excited for this.

Miriam visited last weekend.  I was really glad to have her come to school, though it was odd seeing her in my room with all of my school friends.  I think (hope) she had a good time.  My friends liked her and thought that she was funny.  There was, unfortunately, a lot of down time, and we didn’t do anything too exciting.  Travel, too, was incredibly difficult for her.  In total, airport delays tripled the time that transit should have taken her.

Next weekend (Saturday) is my birthday.  Unfortunately the Luibrand twins (with whom I share my birthday) will be out of town on a Lambda Chi retreat.  My friends and I will find something fun to do in celebration.  My sister gave me sealing wax and a seal for my birthday when she visited.  It’s really retro and deck (way old school retro, too).  Unfortunately, you can’t use it with e-mails.  Speaking of which, Mr. Berger-White hasn’t e-mailed me back since my last message, though by now I should know to expect that.

Since I’m going to be reading so much Shakespeare this semester, I though I’d institute a quotation section from whichever play I’m currently reading.  Here is part 1.

Andrew: “But I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.”

Toby: “No question.”

(Twelfth Night 1.3.85-7)

Here are some awesome time-lapse videos my botany teacher showed us.

Long time, no update.  Deal.

I saw Children of Men the other day.  It is an incredibly beautiful movie, and I cried several times.  (However, despite my dry eyes, Pan’s Labyrinth is still better.)

I worked out for the first time in living memory the other day.  I was still sore several days later (today);  It was extremely cleansing, and I think it would be a good idea for me to do that at least once a week.

I’m reading Lolita right now and, despite the beauty of the language, it is a pretty twisted book.  I won’t give anything away, but for goodness’ sake! the girl is only 12!  The reason I started Lolita not having finished Gravity’s Rainbow is simply because I lack the concentration needed to read such a thick book.  I think finishing easy books while trying to read (and never finishing) long books is quickly becoming a habit, if not a hobby, of mine.  So it goes.

I finish Hamlet for class on Wednesday.  I’m not entirely satisfied with how Prof. Marcus is leading class, but I’m going to give her a little more time before a make a true judgement.  My botany teacher is really weird.  The first day of class, she gave everyone a rose.  Today in class she gave us all pears (which, interestingly, are part of the rose family, along with apples).  Very random, but I’m going to see if I can’t grow a seed I salvaged from the pear.  Her lectures are really disorganized and difficult to understand which may mean that, unlike biology last semester, I might have to do the outside reading to understand the material.  Along with the exercise, doing the outside reading in my classes is one of my goals.

Encorp! is going to be very tough.  I think I underestimated the ease with which I would be able to memorize 30 minutes of music and drill.  Wish me luck!

We are to mariner, our ships’ sole survivors, in this belly of a whale.  It’s ribs are cieling beams; it’s guts are carpeting; I guess we have some time to kill.

A drawing by Ben Wagner (deviantart), a friend of mine.

A lot’s been happening, but nothing that I really care to write about, and nothing anybody would find interesting. A few days ago, I went and saw Pan’s Labyrinth with Matt York and his dad. It’s a film by the same director as Hellboy, and the Spykids series, but don’t be fooled by his less-than-serious-art track record. This movie is incredible, and one of the best that I have seen in quite a while. It’s set in Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War (right before the start of WWII). A little girl (Ofelia) goes with her pregnant mom to live with her step-father, a fascist officer in Franco’s army, in an abandoned mill in the country where he is fighting guerrilla insurgents. Ofelia must contend with both the volatile atmosphere of the military compound, and her own fantasy world which is not as perfect as one might think. She is set three increasingly difficult and dangerous tasks by a faun/satyr in order to regain what he claims is her rightful throne as the Princess of the Underworld. This movie can be exceedingly violent, and in a very realistic way that will make any audience gasp in unison at several parts throughout the movie. While not for the faint of heart (or stomach), this movie is absolutely exceptional, and comes highly recommended.

Ofelia and the Faun.

Gravity’s Rainbow is going very slowly; I’m not going to finish before school starts up again. It’s very good, though.