Well, I did it.

Friday the 21st was another D&D night, and my character got enough experience to move up to 2nd level. Yay!

On Saturday the 22nd, I managed to finish Mansfield Park. By 11:00pm, I was finished with the article for the Commuter, as well as a neat little sidebar I thought up to go with it.

I went over to Mom & Dad's house after that, and Anna and I watched some TV before we fell asleep.

Sunday, Kayla wasn't there (she was spending 10 days with her family in Alabama), so we didn't watch any Buffy or Angel. Instead, I read The Jane Austen Book Club, which I borrowed from Anna. I was kind of on a Jane Austen kick the whole weekend, despite having just finished all six of her novels--I just wanted more! And Anna wouldn't watch any of the movies (she has Pride and Prejudice times two, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma).

Tuesday was our mid-term for Astronomy. Most of the questions were multiple choice (and therefore extremely cinchy), then there were four short answer questions. The whole test was pretty easy--the only question I wasn't entirely sure about was the last one.

Wednesday, I went over to the Haven and did some reading about the fictional place that the game I've been playing on Friday nights is set in. While I was reading, someone put a movie on the projector called The Gamers. I didn't catch very much of it, but it looked like a cheesy college project. What little I caught of it was funny though. After that movie, someone put in one from 1960 that had Angela Lansbury and the lady who played the mom in Mary Poppins in it. I can't remember the title.

There was no class yesterday, because of the mid-term on Tuesday, and Kayla came back, so I went to Mom & Dad's for dinner. We had tacos--Kayla's favorite. When I got home around 10:30-ish, I watched last night's Smallville, then one more episode of MacGyver. I'm somewhere in season 2 now.

Tonight is another D&D session, and I got paid today. Yay money!

Book and School-Related Stuff

So, I decided at the beginning of the semester that I was going to write at least one article for the school newspaper per issue (or something like that--I was at least going to write for the paper). I contacted the person who used to be the advisor when I had my Journalism class a few years ago, who forwarded my message to the current advisor, who forwarded it to the paper's editor.

She was glad to get my message, since apparently she had been the entire newspaper staff last semester, all by herself.

Granted, with my schedule, I can't really do much in the way of hard news, and I'm terrible at that kind of reporting anyway. So, I offered to do some reviews--mostly book reviews, but I also thought about possibly attending concerts and such if they were free and I had the time.

Shannon (the editor) was enthusiastic at that idea, and told me that the deadline was this past Monday. So I wrote two reviews for the March Commuter (that's the name of the paper, The Commuter): one about The Chimes of Resdorn, and one about Temeraire. I thought of doing one about The Briar King, but it was the first book in the series, and I had just started the second, so I decided not to.

For the April Commuter, I will be writing a bit of a feature review about the works of Jane Austen (I've been meaning to read them for years, but never got around to it), which I will tentatively title, "A New Perspective on Classic Austen." I am not quite sure yet what subject I wish to pursue for the May Commuter, but I'm thinking of reviewing a few thrillers, or maybe branching off into horrror. I may even read some non-fiction, if I'm in the mood, instead.

I finished The Charnel Prince (sequel to The Briar King), and it left me wanting badly to read the next book, if there is one now. But alas, I don't have it, and if I'm to finish all six Austen novels before the Commuter's deadline near the end of March, I had to get cracking on those.

I've decided to read them from shortest to longest (as I do when I'm reading fanfiction at the Lois & Clark Fanfic Archive--because it's easiest unless there is a series). I'm just weird like that, I guess. So, this morning, I began reading Northanger Abbey, and I will persevere through until the end of Mansfield Park.

So far, I am on chapter thirteen, and it's quite interesting. I will not say more than that at this point, because I want to save most of my detailed observations for the article.

Once the semester is over, I will post each of the articles I have written for the Commuter here on the blog, in a new category, and those can serve as my literary recommendations to you.