Hello there loyal followers! I haven’t had a chance to do a post recently, for many reasons. Excuses include: reading three books at once, being busy with Mass Effect 3 and Assassin’s Creed, and lastly FINALS. I’ve had projects, papers, and ‘studying’ galore the past two weeks, and therefore haven’t had much time to read (it’s a lazy excuse, since I made time to play video games). Luckily, starting today, I’m on break until April 30th, when we start our May term class (a three week, three-hour-a-day class).
This week, I was expected to turn in a paper about feng shui for my Asian cultures class, turn in a screen adaptation of a story or book of my choice — I chose the prologue and first chapter of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss — for my film and literature class, and a creative project and researched rationale for said project for my British literature class. For that, we had to pick an author or story or something we focused on in class and do a project that had something to do with it. I chose to focus on “Love and Freindship” by Jane Austen. I wrote a series of letters to a male friend about interactions with two different female friends. It was a fun little study on how my attitude towards a friendship affects content of interactions and conversations.
Along with all this, I was playing two games. I beat Mass Effect 3, and although the end was a little… brief… as you may have heard from the outcry from the online community, it was a good game. It was very fast paced and exciting. I still prefer Mass Effect 1, mostly because of the role-playing elements, but the gameplay in 3 was quite fun. I have also just started playing through the Assassin’s Creed games. I’m only a few hours into the first one, but it’s fun and I will probably end up spending a good amount of my break playing it. I will most likely also do another play through of Mass Effect 3, just for good measure.
So, as a sort of replacement for a review this week, I decided to do a preview of upcoming reviews. I am taking a graphic novel course for May term, and will probably review each of them here. We are planning to read both Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman, which I actually read last year, but never thought about reviewing. We are also reading Watchmen, which I didn’t realize… When I read Ghost World and 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, I also checked out Watchmen, and am about halfway through it. The other graphic novel that we plan to read is Black Hole by Charles Burns. Along with standalone graphic novels, we are looking at an anthology called Best American Comics 2011 which is attributed to editors Alison Bechdel, Jessica Abel, and Matt Madden and a book titled Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud.
I am, of course, still reading The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. I am about halfway through, and it’s quite enjoyable so far. I’m hoping to finish it and The Hero of Ages over break, and have the reviews up soon. On a bit of a side note, after my final final today, I plan to stop in at the North American Review at UNI to let them know I am interested in a job (writer, editor, whatever they have). The NAR is the first literary journal to be published in the US and has a great reputation. When I attend UNI next year, I’m really hoping to be able to work there. Wish me luck!
