| 14/2/2007 Something strange happened earlier. Until further notice all the seminars and lectures for 'Making of the American Nation' are cancelled. The only seminars continuing are the ones taken by Rachel Owen and not Robert Harrison. It's funny...Huw said that a few years ago Robert got so ill with something that all his lectures and seminars were cancelled for the entire term and even these days he's not quite right. Thing is, no one knows what the illness is. So I can only wonder how the Uni will solve this. I think the logical way: in theory, we can easily pass any course without going to a single lecture (however in History I've found lectures useful for their analytical perspective) because most of the work is done independently and interactively in seminars-and a lot of the independent work goes into reading for seminar prep. So the logical way to solve this dilemma would be to assign new seminar tutors so that we can carry on the work. In the meantime, I'm wondering whether I should bother continuing that book on American history we had to buy. Well of course I'll keep reading it-it's interesting. But I'm a bit ahead (did that on purpose) and considering most of the chapters are 30 pages long, it takes energy and patience just to read the darn thing. So as a break, I'm currently reading on the ancient foundations of Wales-unnecessary, but it's interesting and within the book! Ah...Welsh seminar. Yesterday the Czech followed by the Welsh lectures ate up the battery on my laptop and considering I was manning the stall in the hour between lecture and seminar, I couldn't go back to the flat and retrieve the plug. Before I had closed the laptop earlier the meter claimed it had 20 minutes of battery power remaining (at 10 minutes it demands to be plugged in or it would go to sleep) so I thought: Great, I'm safe since I'll be able to give my little presentation I had to prepare and then I shouldn't need it. Slight problem. The laptop refused to switch on. However I remembered enough from the presentation to tell David I learned nothing new on the rebellion of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. With his eyes he indicated the handout in front of him (which I also had with me) and said I was expected to have read at least 70% of the reading list in order to properly prepare (how silly of me, not only did I forget our handout contained a reading list for every seminar but when I first saw it, I thought we were expected to read it afterwards. That's right Nathan! Call me a <><). I felt nothing but shame throughout, but at the end David repeated what he told me to everyone (seemed he took our general silence and inactivity as a sign of underpreparation) and you could tell by his tone he expected us to do better next time. Course he wasn't stern or threatening, he's a little guy with a soft voice so you can't be afraid of him. But of course, he's probably used to this show of First Year stupidity and clumsiness (part of the general stereotype). Earlier I finished re-watching the episodes of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. It was on Youtube and considering how the staff have been better monitors of copyright infringement (ie. putting TV shows on it) ever since being bought by Google, I can only take it as a sign that either the company doesn't care or it hasn't been discovered yet. (I was so angry when Freakazoid got removed! I mean, COME ON! Is there a channel in the world that still shows it?) What I find funny is that one particular episode hasn't been uploaded and everyone's asking for it (I even want to see it): the one where Sonic, Tails and Robotnik get turned into babies. That's somehow remained more elusive than the Christmas special. Think I'll move onto Satam next... |