Friday, May 20, 2011

.. And So It Continues.. Week Two Of Finals (Days 133 - 138)

(Being the thermo-tastic days of:)
MAY 15 - 20, 2011

Ugh. Some Friday. That Thermodynamics final today was the first final that sucked. Not worried about failing the class, but that had to be the first final in a while where I came out just content to pass versus acing it. It's not like I didn't study, or didn't feel ready - I studied all week. There's just no way to study 7 chapters worth of material and remember every little detail come exam time, especially when there's no way of telling what he's actually going to ask about. As lucky as I was studying for all the right things with my last finals, only some of the things I spent the most time focusing on appeared on the final.. Man, I just can't get over how difficult some of his questions were. But oh well, it's over and I'm glad to be done with thermo. Not my stuff. Plus, if the graders are as generous with their points as I feel my answers deserve, I mayb still be looking at the English equivalent of a B. Granted, letter grades don't really matter over here: if I pass, I get the credits towards the class back at Case (no letter grade); if I fail, no credit. But pretty sure I'm looking at three passed classes - only one to go!

This past week has once again not been too exciting as most of my time was spent preparing for the final. I was able to go out and have fin Tuesday evening though: went to a Mexican restaurant (possibly my first one since being in London whatttttt?!) courtesy of IFSA-Butler, the program I came over here through, as a farewell burrito dinner. Yum! Afterwards, I went to a nearby pub for a pint with some pals before eventually calling it a night. But that was pretty much the highlight os the week fun-wise. Tried to get into Parliament Wednesday morning to see Prime Minister David Cameron address the people and do some Q&A. Plus we could've apparently watched a bunch of old British men in grey wigs yell at each other, which sounded AWESOME. But, when we went to check it out, there was a possible 3-hour wait for people that hadn't reserved spots beforehand (which I'm pretty was only available to UK folks..). Soo as this was at 10am, I naturally went back to continue sleeping in to my usual wake-up time of noon. Never gets old. No idea what I'm going to do once I'm home and have to wake up for work. Yikes.

Speaking of home, only a couple more weeks! It's crazy how fast is sneaking up. One final to go, a week and a half to make sure I've seen/done everything I need to do in London, then the long plane-ride home. Excited to be home though: my family and friends, home-cooked (as well as American restaurant) food, my big bed, the DOLLAR. So sick of this exchange rate. Hopefully lots of fun plans for the summer! I know I'm already thinking about a trip to Quaker Steak and Lube for all-you-can-eat wings the first Tuesday I get home with all the pals; also a possible road trip to my buddy's Jersey beach house..? Heck yeah. Lots of birthdays coming up at the end of June (and Brittney's is today!! so happy birthday!), and Garrity's was yesterday. Nuts. Everyone's going to be 21 except me! That's going to be rough: going from being legal over here, then back to the American drinking age for the summer.. It'll be nice that I'll be turning 21 right as next semester's starting so I won't be missing out on too much.

Anyway, this is probably just going to be a quick recap post..

Some movies from the week: ended up watching 'Lawrence of Arabia' after posting last week. Good flick, though a bit long at 3.5 hours. Liked the main character, story just kinda died off at the end though.. Another couple were 'Gone With The Wind' and 'The Social Network'. Never watched all of GWTW at once before.. which makes sense at FOUR FREAKIN' HOURS. Good thing I had nothing better to do. Good movie though, which I'd been meaning to watch for some time as it's near the top of a couple 'all-time best' lists. Plus you gotta love Clark Gable, man..  I really enjoyed 'The Social Network', which I was afraid wasn't going to live up to the hype. I loved it! Maybe it's because I'm a computer guy and laughed to myself whenever I recognized what was going on with the programming and hacking parts.. But I liked the acting and the story (regardless of how skewed the movie is as far as what actually happened), with some absolutely fantastic writing. Real solid flick - I was not disappointed. Last but not least was another 'classic' (I'm not really under a particular genre right now, just kind of picking them as I go): the 1957 courtroom drama '12 Angry Men', which I was actually surprised at how much I liked. Real good film for being just a bunch of guys in a room for an hour and a half. Top-notch acting all around.

Thinking about popping in the 1957 Roman Polanski noir classic 'Chinatown' with Jack Nicholson tonight. See how that goes.

As far as music, I think the only new things I got were Noah and the Whale's 'Peaceful The World Lays Me Down', which is pretty good, and Cage The Elephant's self-titled album. I'd already had Noah's one album 'The First Days of Spring', but I actually might like this one better. More folky, nice sound. I'd been meaning to get CtE's since they released it back in 2008 and just now got around to it. Whoops. Better late than never.

Not much else going on. Between the studying and movies, the only other thing I can think of is I've been writing a couple songs. It's going to be a busy summer for recording if I find time when I get home: I've got 12 songs in the "ready" folder on my desktop that are completely written and ready to be recorded. Here's hoping I get around to it.

Did I ever say I finished catching up on all 83 issues of the Walking Dead comic series? Well, I did. And they were awesome. Makes me excited to see where they go with the show from here, since they barely scratched the surface in that measly 5-episode first season.

And I hear that new HBO show 'Game of Thrones' is pretty good, so I might check that out after I finish the last season of Dexter (finally back on track with that..).

Hmmm that's about it..
Oh yeah - happy rapture! Haha gotta love that..

Good music of the moment:
Noah And The Whale - '2 Atoms And A Molecule', off their album 'Peaceful The World Lays Me Down'
Love this song. Great stuff.

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Nothing else to say.. hooray for the weekend!
Cheers!

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