I finally finished the first draft of the second paper for Sociology! It's due Monday, but I needed to have a draft early enough to get it to Smarthinking and back. Initial objective: completed! I'd like to do well, but I'm not sure my interpretation of the requirements is in compliance with Mr. Packard's intentions, so we'll see. I'd like to do well on this; most of my quizzes have been 100%, while my previous paper was 98% and my midterm exam score was perfect. Mr. Packard wrote on the score sheet that I'm the second student in his nineteen years teaching this class to get a perfect score on that exam. That's when he started putting smilies on my grades.

I was telling Christine about it--she's been doing a paper for Psych, but she's got a lot going on, so her grades are suffering. This means she's getting A-minuses instead of A-pluses. Christine has high standards, so we've been getting along well. She was telling me about her experience with Soci, earlier this year--she did pretty well, but the paper I'm working on now is one she had a bad grade on, and in comparing that grade with the others she had in the class, she happened to mention that her midterm score was 103. "Was Mr. Packard your teacher?" I asked. Yes--in other words, if it wasn't for Christine, I could've been the first student ever to have a perfect midterm score! While I'm wishing for nice round numbers.....if I'd waited a year, I could've been the first student in twenty years......

AAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGH. My brain is gone, my paper's gone, the sunshine's gone! At least the Easter candy isn't gone......

Brain: Try going back to look at the remaining math later in the day. For now, play some music.

Paper: Uh.....finish typing it at school tomorrow, when I can access what I wrote yesterday? It would help if I had some idea how I'll rewrite it by then, of course....

Sunshine: It's back. It'll come and go today. Maybe I should go graze the sheep.

   Is the proverb "Ignorance is bliss" a fallacy? It's a questionable point, certainly. The study Sigelman mentions suggests that this is the case; that people are happier the more they know. I think this is certainly possible, as the more you know, the less likely you are to run into stressful situations through ignorance. There are many examples of cases where a little more knowledge would  have averted a great deal of unhappiness.

   My favorite illustration of the point occurs in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The Bennet family is ignorant of George Wickham's true character, which leads them into the error of permitting the flighty youngest daughter to accompany Wickham's regiment to its station in fashionable Brighton. Wickham takes advantage of Lydia's innocence and elopes with her, and the Bennets, their friends, and their relations suffer a great deal before the situation, easily prevented with a little more knowledge, is remedied. The entire family, with their friends and relations, would all have been much happier had they been a little better informed.

   In my own experience there have been several incidents when a little less ignorance would have materially contributed to happiness. In one case, it was the middle of winter and extremely cold outside. Two of our goats were pregnant, but we didn't know when they were due. It was through sheer luck that I discovered the newborns as I was checking on the sheep before bed; had they been born half an hour later, the kids would have died before morning. As it was, their legs and ears were frostbitten, and their bodies weak with cold. I stayed up all night with those kids, warming them in the house and trying to get them to eat. It was several days before they could walk properly, and their ears were always puckered from the frostbitten edges. Had we only known they were due, a close watch would have been kept on the mother, and the kids would have been born in a warm room, with us standing by to make sure all went well.

To use a historical example, had the British soldiers garrisoning Fort Ticonderoga been aware of the American plan to take the fortress, they would have made sure the fort was better guarded and in better repair. But the Americans found a weak point in the wall and snuck in, and Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys took the fort with ease. If the British had known what was coming, they might have at least been fully dressed when they were taken prisoner.

There are many more examples, and they all support the point: you will be much happier if you know what's going on. Ignorance leads to a number of states, none of them even remotely blissful: they include stress, mess, injury, illness, defeat, and humiliation, to name a few. A stitch in time saves nine, but only if you've spotted the tear.

Edited a little when I typed it out, but not as much as I'd have liked. It took five minutes more than allowed on the test to write it. -_-;

It was ten when we larked, and pretty hot. We met no one on the first leg, but early in the second leg there was a teenager and his.....man, I don't know. Grandma? I didn't get a very good look. They remained within earshot behind us for most of the second leg. The boy sounded like he was talking a mile a minute, but I'm not sure what about. Maybe the weather--Lark and I were broiled by the time we got back.

After lunch Philip had me work on the SAT. I finished that practice test, and he totaled my score, although I don't think he scored the essay, which I finished. Oh, right--gotta post that for Mom. I think, besides that, my score was 1150, though. Not counting the essay. I took half-an-hour to write it, without referring to my last attempt (and going in a somewhat different direction). My arm was cramping before I finished.

About four we left to go to the church barbecue at Bear Creek. We took nearly an hour getting there, having an inadequate idea which of the various roads claiming to be a part of Bear Creek Park actually led to the park facilities. We found it eventually, however, and I played volleyball with some of the other kids/young adults (in the more literal sense) until it was time to eat. Rachel and Liz Debenedittis and several people I didn't know were on my side, with Sarah and Abby, Elise Mann, Matt, and some more people I don't know on the other team. Ben stood at the net and hit from either side--'libero' playing taken to a new extreme. I was getting fairly decent by the time we quit. We ate at six, I think, sitting with Abby, Ben, Matt, and Rachel opposite, and I think Josh Mann on Philip's far side. After dinner I watched everybody play Frisbee until it was time to go at seven. There should have been plenty of time to walk the dog before dark, but it started raining, and then thundering, so we went along the road almost to the trail and then turned back. I'm beginning to hate thunder, especially when I'm outside.

Philip and I then proceeded to spend at least an hour wrestling with the math problems on the SAT practice test that I missed. It was pretty interesting. There was one that he missed, and a few that he said I didn't need to learn just then, sometimes because I was just getting there in algebra and sometimes because he just didn't want to mess with it.

After that we did what he calls calisthenics, the same program as last night. I did better,  but crunches are.....geh. Abs + crunches = jelly, for lack of a better description.

Then we got floats and watched episode 4 of Castle, which was the politicians one. "Hell Hath No Fury" is the episode name--possibly because the murder was arranged/accompliced by the guy's wife, with assistance from his campaign manager, who did the deed for her.

Then I read some Waverley, started Wickford Point, and went to bed.

It was pretty cool this morning, up until the sun came out--just before we larked. Oh, well. It remained very cool in the shade, with intermittent breezes elsewhere. We survived. There was a doe watching us from across the creek, once; she had a lovely cool nest in the tall grass under a tree, and looked very comfortable. Perhaps there was a fawn nearby. A bit later we met a girl out jogging. She was blonde, and my age or a little older.

New info and plan on the camping. Apparently it runs from the 31st through the 5th; Philip, for various reasons, can't go, but he does think I could go by myself, if he can find someone at church to give me a ride. This suggestion is making me, very quietly, freak out, but I'd like to try all the same, I think. I need a lot more info, though....

Finished the chapter on Germaine's ideology, started the one on her relationship with Napoleon, which tries--and is, so far, doing a pretty good job--to explain why she and the little Corsican did not get along. Oh, and I finished the verbal sections of the SAT, in some cases with half the time to spare. There were several questions, however, that I could not answer to my own satisfaction. Whether they will be to the test's satisfaction I do not know.

Ran over to Syd's after dinner. Maddy followed me through the house as I performed a perimeter check and cleared the area, and demonstrated a much better appetite for her gooshyfood than last time. Otherwise nothing of note. Well, the rain. It was sopping outside. It was down to sprinkling when we got out on our walk, and cleared up shortly after. Speaking of the walk, the most interesting occurrence was meeting a family at the bend in the trail near the head of the creek. The boy--early teens?--was holding a GPS device, and everyone was following. As I approached they were going off the trail, then rerouted onto is as the oracle told them they were getting cold. "Playing GPS?" I asked, after they'd noticed out presence--Lark first, as she wriggled up. She tends to be wrigglier with men than women, but here she had both--besides the mom, there was a girl somewhere around my age. Dad began explaining to me the game they were playing--GeoCache, by which you find various caches with your GPS, leave your name, and go on to the next. Exciting outdoor family activity. Sounds good. They certainly enjoyed it. Well, the guys did--mom and daughter weren't so vocal......although possibly they were merely eyeing me with suspicion as I peered at screens and things. I don't know. It was a good walk, anyway.

Lab-ish, something that reminded me of the golden/gsd

I finally get enough sleep, and I still want to fall over on the walk. What is wrong with me? Wasn't a very interesting walk, though.....

Did the grocery shopping with Philip. Grandma sent us to Whole Foods this time, which was interesting. Especially the deli area--the atmosphere is.....individual. With that out of the way, he dropped me at the library, while he took the groceries home and ran a few more errands. Typically, the library had Legacy but not Beguilement, continuing the trend of reading them in reverse order. Sigh. It's Beguilement that I particularly want, too. Oh well. Read Komarr until Philip called to say he was waiting.

After lunch Phil pinned me down for some math. I did another section of a practice test, and he walked me through all the geometry problems. Remains to be seen whether I remember any of it, but I guess it was interesting, and for the most part, comprehensible. There has got to be a better way to explain functions, though. "Little box that takes things in and spits things out" is not best calculated to latch onto something else in my head and stick to it.

Immediately after math Phil took me off the the dorm parking lot for a driving lesson. We were out about forty-five minutes, and at the end of it he had me drive home. Please note that this involves navigating the curve on Stanton, which freaks me out even when I'm not driving. I got us home, though. And into the garage, although Philip hit the parking brake at the same time I hit the driving brake. Insulting. Grandma laughed when I told her about it, though. Also when I mentioned that if I ever decide to pass for college-age with the bunch at the University, I have a much bigger chance of someone catching me than before. But anyway, I never even scraped the car.

Wonders will never cease. We were on our walk after dinner, Lark and I, and saw a doe. She was a lovely red, and her expressions reminded me irresistibly of a skittish sheep, her stare and the way she moved her head back. She was above us, some way up the slope, and I had hopes that Lark wouldn't see her. In vain. She saw the doe, and started toward her, not bounding but trotting, uncertain if she could chase. I called her back, telling her no, leave it, come, and, after some indecision ("But that looks chaseable!") she came. She did. She left a deer and came to me, and sat for her leash, and eagerly accepted a treat. She did strain rather at the leash, and went off hunting as soon as I let her off, but she did not, this time, see the doe, who had followed us suspiciously over the shoulder we'd gone around. She ended up deciding on her own to get out of there, and sprang away--in a somewhat deliberate manner, like a bounding jog--without being properly spooked. Lark did not pursue.

That was the main event, as far as I was concerned, but we met a couple--I think the woman was Japanese, and her smile made me think, "Oh, so that's why they draw the eyes as lines for smiles"--it was a very nice smile--and had a distant not-quite-encounter with a woman, two or three kids, and two dogs. I was in a position to make effective evasive maneuvers, so I did. The dogs were both larger than Lark, and while she's becoming more sociable she still doesn't appreciate situations like that. We got home with three songs to go on the CD I'd put in before leaving.

Up to episode 8 in Trigun. Ehehehe.

 

Mistress of an Age

The first four chapters of Mistress of an Age describe the history and characters of Germaine de Stael's parents and her relations with them. Her father, Jacques Necker, was a Genevan banker and millionaire, widely considered a genius, thanks to her mother's devoted promotion of him through her exclusive intellectual salons. He was not a genius, but good with money and kind. She was........ She was intellectual, but very emotional; chaste, but coquettish; loving, but stern to her daughter. Suzanne decided to educate her daughter herself, and did so rigorously, under the delusion that she was doing so after the pattern set forth by Rousseau's Emile. Germaine's education was opposed to this pattern in every particular. She ended by hating her mother, and turning to her father for the affection and indulgence her mother refused, having been terrified by the desperation of her daughter's advances into utterly spurning them. Germaine and Suzanne were extremely similar in temperament, and mortally opposed to one another, competing for the affections of both Monsieur Necker and society. In the end, Germaine won society through effort, assisted by her marriage. Her father, however, became extremely devoted to his wife after her death, when it was perhaps somewhat easier to endure her society, embalmed as she was in a basin of alcohol, to be joined at his death by her husband, obeying her, through habit, even in death.

Fetch paper, Lark outing X 

1 Algebra lesson X  

Read  Mistress to an Age X

Summarize reading X     

Brush dog   

Cleaning task X  

Fetch paper, Lark outing X 

1 Algebra lesson X  

Read  ?

Summarize reading     

Brush dog X  

Cleaning task X  

Karen Blixen

The Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke was born Karen Dinesen in Denmark in 1885. Her father, diagnosed with syphilis, hanged himself when his daughter was nine; she herself was given syphilis by her husband, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, a Swedish cousin whom she married, for convenience, after an unsuccessful affair with his brother. They separated in the eighth year of their marriage, and divorced four years later. Karen's friendship with Denys Finch-Hatton eventually developed, after her divorce, into what Wikipedia calls "a long-term love affair," with no result--Denys was killed in the crash of his biplane shortly before Karen was forced to leave Africa due to bankruptcy. While her syphilis was apparently cured, she suffered from ulcers, and was entirely unable to eat by the end of her life, when she died of malnutrition. She wrote in English for the most part, translating her works into Danish once they were finished, and eventually publishing simultaneously in both languages. Out of Africa was her second book, and her most popular work in English.

Fetch paper, Lark outing X 

1 Algebra lesson 

Read Dinesen X  

Summarize reading X    

Brush dog  X 

Cleaning task X  

Out of Africa

The editors' preface to Out of Africa talks about both her view of Africa and her life. It speaks of her writing; of her love of Africa, the fact most immediately apparent from her writing; and her life itself. I was interested, first reading this, to hear of her other writing; and it amuses me that everyone assumed that Isak Dinesen was male, although indeed it is a male name, so perhaps the public is excused. It is disappointing but understandable that the Baroness never returned to Africa: it is true: it would not have been the same, it would have been uncomfortably, horribly changed. But through her writing, she can remember the old Africa, her Africa, and we can learn of it. I was also interested to learn about her husband, who is mentioned once, in a reference to the early years on the farm, and nowhere else. The preface tells that she married her cousin, and that the farm was a wedding gift from their family, that they were married for seven years, and when they divorced, she stayed on the farm. The husband is, in fact, a means for getting to the farm and, as far as the rest of us are concerned, not much else. It is difficult to discern how Dinesen felt about him: she speaks of him little and casually, mentioning "my husband" and passing on to what she was going to say. It is as though he were irrelevant--and perhaps, to this book, he is. 

Alan Moorhead's introduction speaks more of the quality of the writing than of the author herself. He talks of the style, impressed that the poetry of her phrases, a difficult thing to carry off even writing in one's native tongue, has endured the changing of tastes the way it has. He considers the quality of her view of Africa, wondering if this, a European work, will be accepted by the Africans as African literature. I think it certainly should be. He considers her as a person; not, however, in a biographical way, but an intellectual, speaking not of her life, but her mind. I think it's interesting that both introduction discuss her attitude to the natives: one of love, respect, and very clear seeing. She does not condescend, Moorehead says: she accepts them, as humans, giving them, most importantly, their dignity.  From here he goes on to speak of her way of bringing quotes to mind in the day-to-day occurrences of the farm. It's very typical of the well-educated great women writers of that period, but Moorehead sees it as a particular necessity for writing like this: applied education, seeing the country through the eyes of literature. I believe the phrase he used was "connecting it to the whole of human experience." He concludes with, again, the question of whether this work will be embraced by the Africans as their own, and answers it: yes. Probably.

Out of Africa

I've read four chapters today, but of them all, my favorite is "The Somali Women." Farah's wife, with her accompanying family, comprised most of Dinesen's female company on the farm, and it is clear she enjoyed them. Her description of them is clear and amusing; my favorite part is her metaphor of the marriage game as war, with the women, in spite of their status as goods, clearly ruling the men. My favorite line, as she describes how all the men's wealth goes to their women, is this: ".......when they should be conquering the conqueror, and extortionating the extortioner." The men may be masters, but their wives are their mistresses.

Fetch paper, Lark outing X 

1 Algebra lesson X 

Read Out of Africa X  

Summarize reading X   

Brush dog  X 

Cleaning task X  

Out of Africa

"Wamai" tells of the long proceedings to determine the compensation for the children killed and wounded in the shooting accident, focusing on the boy who was killed. My favorite line, from her description of the taking down of Jogona's relation of the events of his adoption of one of the children killed, is a fine example of Dinesen's penchant for misquotation of Scripture: "Here was something which Jogona Kanyagga had performed, and which would preserve his name for ever: the flesh was made word and dwelt among us full of grace and truth." It's from John chapter one.

"Wanyangerri" is the continuation, dealing with the proceedings on the other side, for the wounded child; his time in hospital, the disputes over the compensation for his injury, and the solution of the problem. Also in this chapter she tells of what happened to the boy who fired the gun, Kabero; his sojourn with the Masai, and his eventual return to the farm. I think the most interesting part of this chapter is her description of the various tribes, the demographics, of Africa; the Arabs, the Somali, the Masai, and the Kikuyu--in that hierarchy. Her narration of the history there helps the reader understand the interactions of the groups throughout the book, and her metaphors are, as always, a delight.

Fetch paper, Lark outing X

1 Algebra lesson X

Read Out of Africa X

Summarize reading  X

Brush dog X

Cleaning task X

Golden retriever

Well, this one was interesting. It seemed like Cetaganda had been discovered and was an actual planet (although actually it's, like, nine?) and Beta and Vervain, but not Barrayar. Maybe they were just still isolated, though, because then I was Miles, in some sort of tunnel complex, anticipating Cetagandan invasion--which was two generations before him, but oh well. Anyway....then I woke up and it was still early enough to go back to sleep.

We larked at almost nine. Early in the first leg, before the scrub, we met a woman with a very fuzzy Golden puppy. I'm certain he was younger than Lark, but he was a little taller and much heavier. I got to pet him, although Lark was getting a bit hackly by then. ^_^ Fuzzy fuzzy!

Got home to deal with the laundry I'd put in the drier on the way out. Mom called during sorting--always nice talking to home. *huggles*

After algebra I started on the diagnostic test for math ability. It's really interesting seeing some of the strategies--I cheat a bit on the problems by looking at the choices on the next question, which is "So, how did you solve that last problem?"  But--yeah--it's interesting. I am scraed out of my mind now.

Lots of comp time--finished Superior. More chappies, please! I mean, come on! There're only two or three vols to go!

Was feeling restless, so Lark and I went for a run. Lasted from the gate almost to the end of the slope, and then I had to drop into a walk. It worked, though--now I'm just tired! ^_^ Seven pushups a bit before that helped too....Still have to do the situps.

Chicken and veggies for dinner. Lark dragged me outside right after to play. Doofus.

Looking forward to tomorrow. :D

Restarted Mother Sarah. They've scanlated ten volumes, and it's twelve volumes--completed. Nice, but....the closer to the end you are, the more cliffhangers there are!

Out of Africa

Lulu and The Shooting Accident

I love the way she describes Lulu the gazelle. Her queenly grace, succeeding the apparent fragility of her infanthood and the tumultuousness of her adolescence, is wonderfully described, demonstrating the poetic imagination of the writer.

The shooting accident, besides being a very sad story, is interesting for its illustration of the Natives' view of her. Especially amusing is her term for their use of certain white men as figures, symbols: brass-serpenting. Look upon the serpent, and you shall be healed, hm? Well, to a certain extent, it would seem so.

Fetch paper, Lark outing X

1 Algebra lesson X

Read Out of Africa X

Summarize reading X 

Brush dog X

Cleaning task X

Larky-parky pudding and pie....

Well, last night wasn't perfect, but it was better. Dragged myself out of bed with slightly more facility than yesterday, anyway. We got the wrong paper this morning, but when I called they sent the carrier, a big, colorless man, with the Post. Beautiful and I walked at nine, making it home a bit before ten but not before it got hot. Sigh.

Sid came over to talk for a bit, leaving before any nurses showed up.

Did my math while Maryanne was here, then read for a bit. Finished just before Grandma voted lunch. Used up the last of the ham for sammiches. Reading Chizumi to Fujiomi now. Funny.....it's only three volumes long! It's always seemed longer to me.....

Studied the SAT handbook while Diane was here. Some intriguing strategies in the math. As far as Gruber's concerned I lose points in vocabulary, though, because instead of using his technique for deducing the meaning of a word I already know the word. The antonyms are kinda tricky, but fortunately he says they don't use that in the tests anymore. He includes them for testing vocabulary, but I've discovered that knowing the word is one thing, and figuring out which word is closest to being its opposite is quite another. Is "complex" an antonym of "lucid," or would another choice be better?

Larked the shnorg after dinner, seven-fifteen to eight o'clock. Saw nobody. Cloudy, threatening rain. Pleasantly twilit.

Now reading Superior. Interesting--for once it's the heroine who's a bloodthirsty, enormously powerful cynic with the traumatizing past who's being gentled by the naive hero. Most unusual in shoujo--can't speak for the other genres...

"I don't want something I can't eat, you fool. Besides that--regarding the consequences of bumping into people--which do you choose, having the right side or the left side killed!? Why don't you quickly make up your mind!" 

Standard of edible and non-edible? Before that, is that the definition of being half-dead-----?!

Some poor sap tried to pay her off after she started yelling at him for bumping into her. I don't know where Yuusha is--normally he'd have intervened by now.