Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Deadlines, Deadlines

Ok so the outline thing was a success, hutzza! And the 1st chunk is due...::looks at clock:: today. I finished it but (g)od I need sleep. 28hrs and no sleep is a bad idea.

The only other capstone is this gal named Allison who's really nice and her topic is kind of interesting. A bit like 'well that sounds like a history capstone' but it's on women in the military during WWII and she's in Army ROTC so it has more meaning for her than it does for me, Marine JROTC aside. There's another kid who's preparing for his now to present during the summer about missionaries in S. Africa and I'm kinda feeling like the white elephant in the room when it comes to this whole 'comic book-Norse mythos' idea.

The capstone meeting was more of "You're doing WHAT?!" by Dr. Taylor and Patterson and while they didn't shoot down the idea, they were kinda hesitant of the idea that I'm doing an undergrad research project on comic books. 'scuse, 'graphic novels'. But Ruane is being all supportive and such and telling my to write my pa-tootie off so...yeah.

Febuary 20th is the next capstone meeting. The 13th is when the next chunk of my capstone work is due. Throw in a football trip to Key West and well...

::spazz::

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Real Work Starts

Coniption is, what the hell is real work? I figure I've done the hard stuff (the reading, the gathering) and now all there's left to do is to sit down and write it. Problem is that I'm *horrible* at organizational flow on papers--every. Last. Professor. Tells me so. I mean, I make my point, my content's fine, it's just it's not beautiful *looking* like it should be. Aie.

So while I read the Study of Comics over break ( that horribly dry book, jeez) and Post-it note tabed Vol. 3 of Thor, I uh...free flowed wrote about 2 pages before saying, "This sucks!" and putting together an outline to see if this works.

Said outline is here.

Yeah, this is going to be one of those, "You did squat over break" capstone meetings. /headdesk

Friday, November 16, 2007

Proposal Cram

Proposal before Ruane removes the suck and fail

Marvel Time Line

Annotated Bibliography redone

Yeah. /dies. Well, I hope it doesn't suck as bad as I think it does although I am pretty sure it does. -_-; I had kind of forgotten about it until yesterday and Ruane was like, "Oh yea, I need that tomorrow" and I'm sure I turned as white as a sheet...which is pretty hard considering. =P But Moutain Dew is the college crack so it and a few Kevin Smith movies worked to keep me awake.

Rosiene just said that what I was doing in the proposal was ok, Ruane and him are behind me talking about it. Taylor did give me a funny look though--he's a historian after all for like, Civil War stuff but I'm hoping the 60's of it wins him over.

Well now for Dr. Ruane to fix it. And not kill me. x_x

Friday, October 26, 2007

Thor vs. Communism, FIGHT!

Actually, that's what Dr. Don Blake aka Thor seems to do w/ most of his time. That and fight aliens that look vaguely Asian. Comic books reflecting the times much? I read half of Volume 1 and kind of stalled, mostly because I have weekly meeting w/ Dr. Patterson. It's like he kinda wants a thesis statment *now* and I'm looking like a deer in head lights going, "We just came up with this idea, halp me plz!" It's the 10th week of classes and by the 15th week I have to submit a proposal...

Yeah, you could hear the "Gurk!" coming from my mind. So I have 4 weeks to write this in between my Britain, Philosophy, Art History, and Space Exploration papers. Oh and read the books for those too.

Sometimes I hate myself.

So the comic book slant is awesome, really cool and further proof that I hope I am as smart as Dr. Ruane when I get older. As for a Thesis statement...I'll grab a white board and toss some stuff around. Hrm. Like I need to find out *exactly* what I need to write. Dr. Taylor wants me to do like Norse mythos in the 60's which would include westerns [as if my grandmother didn't watch enough "Gunsmoke" and "The Rifleman" in my child hood] but I don't know. I asked Dr. Perdigao to be my second reader and she said yes so I have like the 2 coolest professors in my department on this, giggity-giggity. /dance

That and I need to register for classes next semester, make wedding plans, and oh yeah, find a job. Yar.

But first, Thor has to stop a Communist revolution in some small latin country.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

An actual coherent post

Stream of conscious writing equals bad. Alright.

So after tossing a few ideas back and forward, Dr. Ruane came up w/ the idea of "Representation of Viking Mythology in Modern Culture". That totally works with what I've been reading so I am, to say the least, happy about that. Now since I know where I'm going, I can sit down and...

...watch movies, read comic books, and play video games. ::cackles maniacally:: God, there are days where I love my major and this is one of them. Oh there will be more work I'm sure of it, work that I really don't want to do but I'm in my happy place so leave me be. =P There's a list of stuff he wrote down so now it's all about going to hunt it down and reading it/watching it. I'm just excited that I can include Neil Gaiman in this--he's one of my favorite if not my absolute favorite author. Woo!

I promise if "The Pathfinder" is anywhere close to being as bad as "Alexander" I'm going to cry.

I read Vest Dan's capstone (during Art History class...not like I was missing anything) and it was like a Jet Li kick to the forehead as in, "So THAT'S what I need to do!". Not like copy, oh no, but as in format and how it was done and such. It's more, I guess the word I'm looking for is 'freeform' than the research papers I've done in the past.

Tomorrow I have a meeting w/ Dr. Patterson about all of this. I don't know exactly what to say but eh, I'll flow with it, tell him what I'm doing and it all should be like pigs in a blanket. Or something like that.

Friday, September 21, 2007

October 4th is D-Day

No, I know Operation Overlord was on June 6th. But my D-Day, huzza. That's when like I have to start doing serious work on the capstone like thing. ::scratches head:: Like I wasn't working already. Anyways, I'm glad it's after the round of tests but before Swamp Bowl (Football in Gainsville and nay, football against the mo'effin Georgia Tech Lady Bulldogs is full of win) so I'm dancing about that. And I'm looking forward to tossing ideas around with someone far smarter than me on the subject--I can't just toss around mythology w/ the boys in the apartment.

I'm ordering books and I r teh poor, yar. So I guess interlibrary loans ::shudder:: will have to do. FIT library. Bad touch. No mommy don't make me. ::sigh:: oh well. I'll go do some of that eh, tomorrow/Monday. I have a test tomorrow and work and gym conditioning and 2 football games the weekend so that means Monday it is.

Note to self: Reading Norse mythology while listening to German speed metal is highly condusive. Must find more. And stay away from WoW while I do it ><.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Lightbulb!

Maybe. Ok.

So, after playing with Google maps for a bit (if you *don't* like playing w/ Google maps, there's something wrong with you lol) Dr. Ruane told me that I was, to my shock, doing alright. Well that my bibliography is alright at the very least so I'll take it and run like hell.

So what does that mean? More reading. So I need to check on my books from Amazon and such...for more homework.

I'm totally going to attack the, "Mythology in modernism thingy" thingy. I think that'll be fun--alittle pop culture never hurt nobody.

So this weekend is Space Class and British class. w00t!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Me and Microsoft Word...

...are going to fight one day. Grr. Stupid spacing and crap.

Anyway, um finished Bibliography. http://atomikfenrir.livejournal.com/2308.html#cutid1. I'm missing the Edda book, I just realized that. -_-; I guess that's what slipping into the shower will do to ya. I'll add it later.

I'm wondering if I can quite possibly hold off that Capstone meeting tomorrow--the Belletrist and I along with the secondary funding committee need to get down with the get down. This time, I'll do it all *myself* so I know it gets done. People sometimes are lame.

Off to read the rest of the 2nd saga.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Cue lightbulb

So today I got alittle closer as to what I want to do in my capstone. Besides having books again thrown at me (If I wasn't used to it by now, that's kinda retarded), I kinda figure I'd like to do something with the modern interpretations of Norse mythology. Now if that'll include just the gods or the trolls and other stuff or what, I don't know. But it seems like an adventure and that's what I'm looking for--after all, I may or may not go back to school after this (loans, GPA explosion, custody of my brother, blah) so it's gotta be something that I want to do so bad I'm going to frame it when I'm done next to my diplomas and the signed pictures of Leonard Nimoy and Dan Marino.

Luckily, I don't have to decide until October-ish but it's nice to be going in the general/right direction or atleast *have* a direction. I'm alittle petrified of falling behind but I can't *not* fail so I'll postpone any mental breakdowns for after May, thank you very much. I'm not like spazzing out about the capstone itself but about where I need to fit it in in the two semesters I have w/ all the other stuff going on...ok, I'm spazzing alittle but not as bad as I thought I would. As the Vikings said, "Every hour wounds, the last one kills." And wounded animals are the worst kind.

I'll probably slap the rest of my annotated biblography on here later on when I acutally get home from conditioning, practice, and the Belletrist meeting. Or tomorrow. Tomorrow looks better.

So what did we learn today?

Modern interpertation of mythology is the bomb diggity.
I need sleep.
I meet Tues. or Thurs. depending on the stars and Dr. Ruane being cranky @ me or everyone else :D
I'm going to need *a lot* more books.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

First Assignment: Complete

Two orders of Chinese take out, a marathon of Top Chef, and a six pack of Smirinoff Ice later...

http://atomikfenrir.livejournal.com/2291.html

Notes from Gylfaginning are DONE. Wooo! ::hurricane dance::

Now to do my UK homework because I'm not a brown noser, I just need to get *that* done so I can focus on reading for Space Exploration class. =P

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Ok, I feel better

Apparently I'm doing ok...erm so far. Atleast according to Dr. Ruane and that's really all that matters hah.

I have an Eddas assignment to do, which I'm wondering where to fit it all in but I'll get it done. It's the bibliography thing I'm worried about because I don't have access to the lot of the books that I have written down. Er, problem? Yup. If anything though, it helped relax me about the up coming part of this alittle. It's just alocating my time right. 30 pages is going to be full of suck though by December.

Off to go read that. Yeah. (So tired)

Sunday, August 19, 2007

In the starting blocks

So I'm back in Melbourne after the loan process from hell. It looked like that all of my capstone work over the summer would be for naught but no, people came through for me and helped by the grace if the gods and a few Marines. So now come Monday I can start focusing.

The only things this senior year that are bothering me is work and The Belletrist--I need to start delegating authority when it comes to the crazy thing and just be the Editor in Chief not everything else. Last semester I *had* no one else but this one I intend to lassoing some freshmen to help. And work? Dr. Matar isn't there anymore so I'm just wondering how the atmosphere of the office is. We can sense changes like that, contrary to being just workstudies :)

Book wise, one of the books Dr. Ruane gave me is one I needed for mythology class, huzza! So I didn't have to buy it but it still leaves the massive mythology book, my art history text book, and my Sputnik book for history and space exploration that I need to get. I think all of these Proffs. have bumped their heads; if it's not 8 million books for one class, its a really expensive one, like 100 buck plus. We're not made of money here!

Mythology and Space Exploration are the two I'm looking the most forward to (no duh) since my capstone and being a former astro major. I think it will also help w/ my capstone to hear someone else talk about this stuff--I've been sitting in my room hearing myself that I think I'm going insane...more insane. Anyway. I know it'll help.

Also tomorrow I'll set up capstone meeting times w/ Dr. Ruane...I guess. I'm not exactly sure what I was *supposed* to be doing this summer and I'm worried that I didn't do enough. o.o Or I did the wrong thing. ::rubs face:: Ughhhhhhhhhh please don't be mad at me ::prays::.

So it's off to Barnes and Nobles to get the books that I don't want to pay for at the bookstore.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Of gods and goddesses

And a few others: Populated list and ongoing for referrence.

Baldr - God of radiance, peace, and rebirth. Consort: Nanna
Borr - Father of Óðinn, Vili and Ve. Consort: Bestla
Bragi - God of poetry. Consort: Iðunn
Búri - The first god and father of Borr.
Dagr - God of the daytime, son of Delling and Nótt.
Delling - God of dawn and father of Dagr by Nótt.
Eir - Goddess of healing.
Forseti - God of justice, peace and truth. Son of Baldr and Nanna.
Freya - Goddess of fertility, wealth, love, beauty, magic, prophecy, war, battle, and death. Consort: Óðr
Freyr - God of prosperity and wealth. Consort: Gerð
Frigg - Goddess of marriage and motherhood. Consort: Óðinn
Fulla - Frigg´s handmaid.
Gefjun - Goddess of fertility and plough.
Hel - Queen of Hel, the Norse underworld.
Heimdallr (Rígr) - One of the Æsir and guardian of Ásgarð, their realm.
Hermóðr - Óðinn's son.
Hlín - Goddess of consolation.
Höðr - God of winter.
Hœnir - The silent god.
Iðunn - Goddess of youth. Consort: Bragi.
Jörð - Goddess of the Earth. Mother of Þórr by Óðinn.
Kvasir - God of inspiration.
Lofn - Goddess of love.
Loki - Trickster and god of mischief, strife and fire. Consort: Sigyn (also called Saeter)
Máni - God of Moon.
Mímir - Óðinn´s uncle.
Nanna - An Ásynja married with Baldr and mother to Forseti.
Nerþus - A goddess mentioned by Tacitus. Her name is connected to that of Njörðr.
Njörðr - God of sea, wind, fish, and wealth.
Nótt - Goddess of night, daughter of Narvi and mother of Auð, Jörð and Dagr by Naglfari, Annar and Delling, respectively.
Óðinn (Wodan) - Lord of the Æsir. God of both wisdom and war. Consort: Frigg.
Sága - An obscure goddess, possibly another name for Frigg.
Sif - Wife of Thor.
Sjöfn - Goddess of love.
Skaði - Goddess of winter Njörðr's wife.
Snotra - Goddess of prudence.
Sol (Sunna) - Goddess of Sun.
Thor (Donar) - God of thunder and battle. Consort: Sif.
Týr (Ziu, Saxnot) - God of war and justice.
Ullr - God of skill, hunt, and duel. Son of Sif.
Váli - God of revenge.
Vár - Goddess of contract.
Vé - One of the three gods of creation. Brother of Óðinn and Vili.
Víðarr- Son of Odin and the giantess Gríðr.
Vili - One of the three gods of creation. Brother of Óðinn and Vé.
Vör - Goddess of wisdom.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

|Books that have to go back soon|

  • "The Fury of the Northmen" John Marsden. ISBN 0-312-130805 1993. St. Martin's Press, New York, NY.
  • "The Daily Life of The Vikings" Kristen Wolf. Greenwod Press. Westport, Conn. ISBN 0-313-32269-4
  • "A History of the Vikings" Gwyn Jones. ISBN 0-19-280134-1. Oxford University Press. 1968. New York, NY
  • "Viking Age Iceland" Jesse Byock. ISBN Unknown. Penguin Goup. London, England. 2001
    "The Viking Achievment" Foote and Wilson. ISBN Unknown. Praeger Publishers Inc. New York, NY. 1970.
  • "The Vikings: Rise and Fall of the Norse Sea Kings" Rudolf Poertner. St. James Press, London, England. 1971.
  • "The Viking World" Jacqueline Simpson. ISBN 0-312-846592. 1980. St. Martin Press, New York, NY.
  • "From Viking to Crusader: The Scandinavians and Europe 900-1200" General Editors: Else Roesdahl and David M. Wilson. Rozzoli International Publication, Inc. New York, NY. ISBN 0-8478-1625-7. 1992
  • "Myth and Religion of hte North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia" E.O.G. Rurville-Petre. Holt, Rineheart and Winston. 1964. Printed in Great Britain.

More to be done in Ohio. Aie. A wee one's work is never done.

Monday, July 23, 2007

In a few...

Because I've been spending all of my time packing for Ohio, I haven't had much time to update and I read what I can. I think I'm starting to get the main pantheon of Gods seperated but as far as the wee ones and their wives and such, it's still a drag.

I took hand written notes on the "Religion of Ancient Scandinavia" so now i have to find where I left the consarnit tablet. I've been scanning through the rest of the books because they have to go back soon but I'm going to post their name, titles, and information here so when I get to shcool, I can find them.

Yeah, I bit off a little more than I can chew =P. Atleast for the time I was schedualed to have the books.

But I'm bringing some Joseph Campbell on the plane so it should be alright. I think.