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So what have I been up to lately?
1) Translating Latin. It's not trivial, but it's not brutal, either, except in quantity. (And even then, merely significant. Not overwhelming.) We're trudging on through the first half of the Aeneid, but by god, in a few more weeks we will FINALLY get to the second half, which I've only read in translation and summary before. I'm kinda looking forward to it. And the prof liked my first paper, which was satisfying: I got to do a close textual reading, and while I should pull out the Real Research for a later paper just to prove I can, on a paper that short (1500 words!) a more lit crit focus seemed appropriate.
I'm sort of hoping that I can come up with something interesting to say about Book 5, The Least Important Book Of The Aeneid, for my next paper. Just for the challenge of it. But frankly the endless funeral games don't engage much. Maybe I can do something about auguries in the book compared to the actions of the bird they're all shooting at for that one game? ...probably not.
2) Translating Greek. The professor for my Greek class is an absolute delight, which is good, because Plato is brutal. If the syntax is easy, I don't know the vocabulary; if the vocabulary is recognizable, it's because he's playing word games that I cannot put into sensible English. But it was a lot of fun to translate Lysias again, and see how much easier it was this time around, compared to my second year Greek class. (I should write my prof from that class and tell her; she is still my favorite prof ever at UT.)
*writes prof to tell her*
3) Writing fanfic. It is frankly intimidating to try to finish good solid original fiction, and then edit it, and then oh my god query it, and doing so while also stressed by classes is...you know. Hard. So I've been writing oh so much fanfic instead. It's fast and soothing enough that it's a reward instead of a chore, there's instant gratification, and when I make a mistake and botch something in a story instead of worrying about how I'll fix it in the edit, I sort of shrug and go "FANFIC!" (possibly while making jazz hands) and move on.
Some of it's just that it's nice to get back into a fandom again. A tiny remnant-population fandom, and just a subset of even that, but I really enjoy being able to hang out with friends and talk at length about the interesting corner cases and possibilities and rules interpretations and AUs and expansions and our Opinions On How It Should Go, as only RPGs really allow. There is a certain delightful freedom in RPG settings in particular, because they're written with the expectation that you will tweak them. There's no particular friction (necessarily) in someone else having a completely different reading on some important setting aspect than I do, because we can both shrug and go, "Hey, in my version" and "I wouldn't play that, but it's a cool idea" and "Huh, never thought of it that way, how would that affect this?" and move on.
Or maybe I just like being in a teeny tiny fandom that I just discuss with other reasonably mature adults who are friendly and polite about things. I like that. I have never wanted to get into Fandom Drama, and there is very little chance of with this particular area now.
4) Chores.
Which are very boring. We shall not speak of them.
1) Translating Latin. It's not trivial, but it's not brutal, either, except in quantity. (And even then, merely significant. Not overwhelming.) We're trudging on through the first half of the Aeneid, but by god, in a few more weeks we will FINALLY get to the second half, which I've only read in translation and summary before. I'm kinda looking forward to it. And the prof liked my first paper, which was satisfying: I got to do a close textual reading, and while I should pull out the Real Research for a later paper just to prove I can, on a paper that short (1500 words!) a more lit crit focus seemed appropriate.
I'm sort of hoping that I can come up with something interesting to say about Book 5, The Least Important Book Of The Aeneid, for my next paper. Just for the challenge of it. But frankly the endless funeral games don't engage much. Maybe I can do something about auguries in the book compared to the actions of the bird they're all shooting at for that one game? ...probably not.
2) Translating Greek. The professor for my Greek class is an absolute delight, which is good, because Plato is brutal. If the syntax is easy, I don't know the vocabulary; if the vocabulary is recognizable, it's because he's playing word games that I cannot put into sensible English. But it was a lot of fun to translate Lysias again, and see how much easier it was this time around, compared to my second year Greek class. (I should write my prof from that class and tell her; she is still my favorite prof ever at UT.)
*writes prof to tell her*
3) Writing fanfic. It is frankly intimidating to try to finish good solid original fiction, and then edit it, and then oh my god query it, and doing so while also stressed by classes is...you know. Hard. So I've been writing oh so much fanfic instead. It's fast and soothing enough that it's a reward instead of a chore, there's instant gratification, and when I make a mistake and botch something in a story instead of worrying about how I'll fix it in the edit, I sort of shrug and go "FANFIC!" (possibly while making jazz hands) and move on.
Some of it's just that it's nice to get back into a fandom again. A tiny remnant-population fandom, and just a subset of even that, but I really enjoy being able to hang out with friends and talk at length about the interesting corner cases and possibilities and rules interpretations and AUs and expansions and our Opinions On How It Should Go, as only RPGs really allow. There is a certain delightful freedom in RPG settings in particular, because they're written with the expectation that you will tweak them. There's no particular friction (necessarily) in someone else having a completely different reading on some important setting aspect than I do, because we can both shrug and go, "Hey, in my version" and "I wouldn't play that, but it's a cool idea" and "Huh, never thought of it that way, how would that affect this?" and move on.
Or maybe I just like being in a teeny tiny fandom that I just discuss with other reasonably mature adults who are friendly and polite about things. I like that. I have never wanted to get into Fandom Drama, and there is very little chance of with this particular area now.
4) Chores.
Which are very boring. We shall not speak of them.