At War

My home is at war right now, over the state of our internet connection. I gave up on this long ago, since logic doesn't work against my mom and her attachment to AOL (which I will never, never, never understand). I think was resigned to AOL. My sister, however, has to deal with this all year... which means she finally snapped and went on a rampage. A rampage that involved buying World of Warcraft, installing it, getting my mom to agree to paying for six months, and then sitting down and trying to download a 432mb file. And explaining that it's gonna suck on dial-up.

Arguing went on all night. I was dragged in on several accounts, including as an authority on the price of cable internet... which I am not. So I was yelled at by my mom for taking my sister's side (which could've been considered logical before the WoW move). And I was yelled at by my sister for not taking hers. This is what I get for inhabiting the middle ground. And meant I was treated to hours upon hours of arguing. Which is really what goes on all the time here...

Needless to say! Trying to download a 432mb file is killing the internet speed. So I couldn't get on aim at all last night. And probably won't be able to tonight. Or for the next few nights. Then, if my mom finally breaks (which she's probably bound to do under my sister's pressures, since she called the cable company today... and I don't even want to get into how stupid it is that this is what it's taken. WoW and lots of yelling. When AOL has, is, and always will be $30 a month (until it goes under because no one uses it anymore) when cable is $36 and like, fifty billion times the speed and reliability.) my sister will be on all the time. Playing WoW. ... Except when she's working. Because she has a job, and I don't.

My mom's tactic now seems to be "I'm pefectly happy with AOL. And I'm the only one who matters because you don't live here. Your sister doesn't live here." Erm... yes. Omg. This is what my last three weeks here are going to be like. Anyone want to adopt me (who isn't windresistant, because she lives with scary people)? Please?

While I'm here!

I have nothing else to vent at... no one I can pester is online, and my mom is being stupidly logical. I have a problem! (Which is obviously nothing new.) With my classes. (Which is nothing new.) I mean, besides the art class I can't ever seem to get into without scheduling conflicts, and the fact that I've got to take a poetry class and like it deal with it... I'm really not liking the idea of my creative writing class this quarter. See, in theory, I really need to take Advanced Fiction Writing. Which is... allow me to quote:

The goal of this class is to introduce students to the processes involved in fiction writing by emphasizing the technical aspects of the form. This class will undertake a study of the essential methods and practices involved with the creation of fiction, primarily through the intensive reading and analysis of stories by established authors, but also by guiding students in creating their own work. Students will learn to identify various aspects of literary craft and incorporate them into creative exercises. Students will participate in critical discussions of literary work, with an emphasis on an author’s use of the rhetorical strategies that fiction writing involves. Students are expected to illustrate their understanding of such strategies by utilizing them in their own exercises. The class involves many readings and a weekly creative exercise, as well as a final project. In addition, students are expected to participate in discussions and critiques in a online forum designed for the class.

So that boils down to lots of reading... and writing novellas. Me? Novellas? It's novel or nothing. Except for short things... which are invariably fanfic. You know, last night, my revenge on the world was almost finishing Which is Home. Except the internet was so slow it wouldn't even load fanfiction.net. Heck, the internet was so slow I couldn't load gaim, and that's saying something. Um... back to what I was talking about, though... I don't want to study what other people think makes things work. I can do that on my own. I want a writing class. Writing! One where I write! I'm probably mostly just freaking out about this class because of the stuff this guy has written. I think I've been over this before. He writes poignant short stories. Which is... not what I do. Judging by his books, we will Not Get Along. I feel horribly fake writing things that are meant to be taken seriously. I think it shows.

In the meantime, Intermediate Fiction has no description, but the instructor sounds like exactly the sort of writer I should get to know. Problem is... I already took that class last quarter. It's different every time, but I don't think that means I get to take it twice. So I'm looking right now at a pretty unhappy quarter. I have to take a poetry class. I've got to take Intro to Fiction (which apparently has an awesome prof, but is a lot of work and he grades hard), I've got to find a way to either con my way into the photography class or not have scheduling conflicts with the intro art classes... and I need to come up with something to turn in for these writing classes before September 1st. And if I don't get into this Advanced class (that I'm terrified of and don't want to take now), I don't get to write my senior project. Which means no honours for me. Not that it's entirely certain that I could even get honours anyway, because it still depends on my GPA... which is getting there, but not quite high enough yet. And with Intro to Fiction and Poetry still ahead of me, that could still go down quite a bit. Can't abide poetry. Don't put much stock in literary analysis because it's so easy to BS (I take great joy in BSing it, but as I'm painfully aware that within one degree of my arugments lies complete and utter BS (as opposed to slightly thought-through and reliant upon the text BS), I really don't think I could keep doing it beyond college). Really, if you can BS it, I can't take it very seriously. How am I an English major? I have no idea. Credits, probably. A series of credits. A major is not a truck, it is a series of credits.

So... it looks like I need to get over my fear of the department and e-mail the head, and ask her if I can take Intermediate twice. Or something. Maybe see if really needing Advanced to get honours means anything in the realm of getting into it... though if it did, the prof might come to resent me more. It's probably not the sort of class I should take and write pirate stories in in order to buck the system or whatever. (Though obviously I need to cover ninjas now. I must be fair.)

See... if I'd just stuck to being a Physics major three years ago, I would so not be having this problem. Why did I let physics scare me, why?

Edit! [7:00]: And while I'm musing on my esteemed institution... it appears that it can be just as bad at math as me. After all, it jumped six spots in the US News rankings by "engineering" the numbers (which translates to "fixing their mistakes"). Way to go, guys. This makes me feel better about being stupid sometimes.