Yo, Listen Up, Here's The Story:

About a blue girl....

Rie and I have been planning on dyeing my hair blue for a while now. Today we finally got around to it. First, let me say, my hair looks really good.

Now for the fun part. All went well during the slathering my hair with color, part. Then I let it sit for quite a while, because my hair is thick. And then, RIe left to go home and I went to rinse, as the bottle said.

A torrential downpour of blue cascaded all over me. My hands became purple. I stood in the water for AGES until each time touching my hair didn't bring new waterfalls. I shampooed. Got out, not touching my hair with the towel, and surveyed the damage.

The Smurfs had World War Three in my bathroom. I, as it seems, am the only survivor, and covered in Smurf blood. My shower hosted the Blitz.

Now, after a million baby wipes and nail polish remover, my face looks okay. My hands are still a little smurfy, particularly the thumbs and nails. Sonya and/or Rie is going to help me with my shower in the near future.

Once my shower is clean and I don't have the threat of having to pay OU for damages I will laugh about this. Oh, yeah, and after I'm sure I don't have to join a freak show or Blue Man Group.

Back to School

The first week of class is over. I like most of my classes, but I've already switched one of my required courses for another professor. I feel bad, because my little sister (sorority) was in that class so I was going to take it with her, but the professor is very vague about what he wants, and I want a class that I can get an "A" in.

Shakespeare looks like it will be good, although we're reading some pretty obscure plays it makes me happy because then I can make obscure Shakespeare references. We have a twelve page research paper, so that will give me the opportunity to find out how much i like researching Shakespeare.

In other, really exciting news, it snowed here on Wednesday, and it's snowing now too! In Atlanta! And up until Wednesday, I'd never really seen snow. I mean, it flurried once at home when I was four, and I have a picture of me at my grandparents at the whopping ages of 9 mos in the snow, but that's about it. So this is very exciting!

Not much knitting, having scoped out any classes where I can get away with it yet, though I plan on doing some this weekend :D

Book Review: Blackberry Wine

Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris

This is the book I received in the Book Swap. It's by the same author as the book Chocolat and set in the same village.

I enjoyed the book as a bit of a light read. The main character, Jay, was interesting to me and different from other characters I have seen. I loved the contrast between London, the small English time where he spent his childhood and the French village that he came to.

The appearance of his old friend Joe as an "out-of-body" traveller was interesting, but not as clunky as it could have been, and I liked it. The village characters are all quirky and interesting, and I felt a real pang when it was talked about how many villagers want to modernize their villages for tourism. Realistic, but sad.

Harris's prose is spectacular, and it's worth the read just for that. Her images are vivid and luscious. The two real peeves I have about the novel are these:

The narratives done from the point of view of the wine was inconsistent, and in my opinion, unnecessary. I appreciate the exploration of new techniques, but I think an editor should have cut that at some point. I also think Jay's romance with Marise was too sudden. She goes from reclusive to in his bed very quickly. I appreciate the off-camera talks that they must have had, but those would have been nice to see.

Overall, though, a good and quick read.

Book Review: Villette

Villette

by Charlotte Brontë

I technically started this book in September, but I set it aside for a while and didn't finish it until last week. Towards the end I had to force myself to read fifty pages a day just to finish it. That said, it's not a completely horrible book, but I was not a fan.

Too many of the occurrences were amazingly contrived. For instance, the main character, Lucy Snowe moves to an entirely different country and yet still manages to run into her godmother and, in a completely different fashion, a little girl for whom her godmother cared for ten years apart? No, don't think so.

Also, Brontë's prose, while brilliant, is very often preach-y. A big thing she seemed passionate about in this book was the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. But this was not too well-woven into the story. Long passages devoted to it exist instead, just barely tied onto the characters.

I liked the main character, but thought her final relationship was a bit disappointing. She ends up with a man who has tormented her for most of the book, in a very condescending way. She seems to end up with him because she is sympathetic to his past and he buys her a school.

Still, it's got some interesting characters, but not one I'd read again.

Scholar? Maybe.

Take the Quiz here!

It's a new semester and I'm getting all organized. You know what a great invention desk dividers are? I didn't until today. My pens, highlighters and sharpies are no longer all mixed together! Amazing.

I'm completely excited about getting my books tomorrow; particularly because I'm fairly sure that my Shakespeare text will be a copy of the Complete Works! :D I'm really hoping so.

You know, I write. I want to remain in academia and I consider myself somewhat of a scholar. But I've never been published (granted, I'm only 18), I don't write constantly, although I have ideas a lot. I hate rewriting. And I wonder, does this all combine to mean I may never be successful? I'm intellegent, but part of it is that I do my classwork. I just wonder.... I don't know. People knew more in ancient times, of course, in a way, there was less to know.

I guess we'll see where it goes....

What did you learn today?

I learned how to sew. My mom had not really sewn in ages, but because I wanted skirts we bought the fabric this summer. Because of our Europe trip, we didn't get around to making them until now.

Hopefully, this summer I can go out and get fabric on my own and make a couple more. I sewed the sparkly one all by myself! (er.... pictures when I'm back at school. Sorry!)

We're headed back to school tomorrow, and classes start Wednesday. I've had a good break, recovery and all that. So, bring it on Winter semester!

Winter Break How I love Thee

I love the endless time to read and knit and talk to my mom and not have actual work to do. I shall soon cast on the final project that I brought home yarn for (socks). I'm trying to finish reading Charlotte Bronte's Vilette before I go back, since I set it aside since September and one of my goals is to read all of my "to read" books before I buy new onces (pleasure reads, obviously, textbooks must be bought in a week, ack!)

I finished the last of my "Christmas knitting" for my friend who's had a rough semester and will give it to her when I get back to school. FO post once I have pictures of her in it.

My Mission101 has been going well. I've done all of the various "throughout the project" nitpicky things this week, and am working on the weightloss. Hopefully, once my cards are paid off, I'll have the money to invest in rejoining weight watchers and that'll be a big help.

I've changed my list a bit, getting rid of vague things such as "make better friends", because that's impossible to cross off. Instead, I've put on more things to help with my writing and such. So that's better. :D

This month's Bible verse is:

"We are persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things past, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creatures shall keep us from God's love, which is Jesus Christ, Our Lord" Romans 15; 38-39

FO: Hermione's Cable and Bobble Hat

From Charmed Knits .


I love this hat so much. I've worn it nearly every day since it got cold here, and I adore it. It's a little big; and I have to fold the brim up twice, or else this happens:
but I still love it. Made in Cascade 220 that I bought at the Purly Gates closing sale last year. It once going to be fuzzy feet, but changed its mind. So now I have an extra ball in the stash that I need to do something with.Needles as prescribed in the pattern, no mods to speak of.

Book Review: Mockingbird

Mockingbird

by Charles J. Shields

Called "A portrait of Harper Lee" by the author, I would call this: "A portrait of Harper Lee, but not the details people really care about", but that's me. Honestly, it seems to be a little bit more about Truman Capote than his friend Nelle Harper Lee. Personally, I would have liked to spend a little less time in the novel talking about her time helping Capote with "In Cold Blood" I also thought that there was too much talk about the people that surrounded Lee.

I was interested in the little details about the similarities between Lee's childhood and the world of Maycomb she portrays in the novel; and the looks into the reasons that she did not write a second novel, but I also somewhat disapprove of the fact that the book was written directly against Harper Lee's wishes.