Just Because

In my Anglo-Saxon England class, we've been learning about how the Anglo-Saxons liked to make up history. Yep, they just made stuff up to make themselves look good. This includes many, rather fanciful, genealogies. I was telling my friend, Greg, about this on Friday night, so of course we decided that we too should make up our own genealogies, which in 6th century England would have made us pretty cool. So without further ado, I present my Anglo-Saxon style genealogy.

In the beginning Woden begot Thor, who begot Zeus, the king of the gods. And in turn, he begot Agamemnon, who begot Odysseus, who begot the great warrior Beowulf. Who begot the great King David, whose daughter was Mary Magdalene, and her son was named Noah. And Noah begot Julius Caesar, who begot Charlemagne, who begot Grendel, whose daughter was Jane Austen. Her son was Charles Dickens, who begot Gandalf the Grey, who begot Ronald, who's daughter was the fire-haired Epiphany who reigned over all. 

 Okay, so we took a few liberties, but this is basically what the elite 6th century Anglo-Saxons did. And yes, some of them did claim to be descendants of both Woden and Noah.

In other English history news, yesterday marked the 97th anniversary of the publication of Extricating Young Gussie- the first ever Jeeves and Wooster story! If you haven't had the good fortune to read any of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories, all I can say is that you're missing out. The series was also made into a rather fantastic television show starring Stephan Fry and a very young Hugh Laurie.

I haven't actually seen this episode, but the clip had me rolling around in my desk chair, helpless with mirth.

And finally, if you like free things, of if you like audio books, you should totter over to my dear Mama's blog to find a link to some really great free audio books that amazon and audible are giving away!

Sophomore Year They Said. It'll Be Fun They Said

I just got my final schedule complete with my violin lessons and chamber ensemble practices, and my main thought right now is, "What the *expletive* was I thinking?" To give you a taste of the extent to which schoolwork has taken over my life, see video.

     German is actually one of my favorite classes this semester. It's a lot of fun to speak German with my friends because it makes us feel very superior. "Can you ask me how I am in German? I think not."Actually we spend a lot of time watching goofy youtube videos and trying to insult each other in German (very challenging with such a limited vocabulary).

     Biology is another story. In fact it's quite similar to this story. My lab partner and I did indeed spend an hour peering into a microscope at some interesting little dots that turned out to be the side of our slide and not the onion skin we were supposed to be observing. It was a bit embarrassing to say the least.

    I'm also taking this amazing Anglo-Saxon history class. Basically we're reading Bede and talking about archeology. Our textbook even has pictures of random Anglo-Saxon stuff. Not only do I like looking at pictures, but it makes me happy when they mean that the actual text I have to read is shorter. Unfortunately my professor seems to have also figured this out. Ah well.

    I should probably stop checking facebook because every weekend my acquaintances talk about the lovely relaxing things they're doing,  like having fun. And every weekend I am sorely tempted to make some sarcastic comment like, "I'm having a great weekend too! Only 20 more pages of Plato to read! lol." But I don't. Every weekend.

Anyway, I'm off to get some more coffee and study German. Auf Wiedersehen!