Gifts for Classics Students

Sometimes shopping for holiday gifts is hard - someone doesn't give you a list, and all you DO know is what they DON'T like.

So, this week is based on GIFTS BY MAJORS.

Today is Classics Majors (here included are Greek and Latin majors as well). I'd like to think I have SOME idea about this because I'm a Classical Studies minor, but here goes.

First, some basic advice: learn what language the major does (Greek, Latin, both, neither), and learn what sort of Classical thing they're interested in. For example, I've done Greek and never done Latin, and I'm vaguely interested in ancient religion and the transition to Christianity. Latin and Greek are different, and many majors WILL know the difference.

DEFINITELY TO BUY:

1. Find out their language - if they do Greek, Latin, or both. Once you find their language, find out if they have a favorite ancient author, and see if you can find a quote in the original language from the author. Put that quote onto a tote bag/ t-shirt/ hat/ diary/ item that you know they like.
2. If you're not super crafty but know what this person likes, follow THIS LINK - cafe press has a lot of really fun things in Latin/ Greek. 
3. BOOKS. Once you learn what sort of Classical thing they're interested in, find a book on it - even if it's only vaguely related. Does the Major study Latin or Roman things? Find a work on Roman emperors, gladiators, or the Roman mythos. If they study Greek things, look for Homer, Alexander the Great, Philip the Great, Athens, Sparta, ancient philosophers, the Ptolemaic line in Egypt....
4. Something to help with their language study. For example, something I wish I had gotten freshman year (instead of senior year) is a Greek Paradigm Handbook ($13 or so) that helps review noun and adjective declension and verb conjugations. And here is a comparable item for Latin ($19).
5. Search Etsy for some interesting finds, because goodness knows people are super creative. For example, this bracelet embossed with Homeric verses ($40), or this bracelet in Latin ($33). 

DEFINITELY DON'T BUY:

1. if the Classics Major is a Greek student, DO NOT buy them anything that uses the Greek letter Sigma as an "e". We know it looks like an "e," but EPSILON EXISTS FOR A REASON. What am I talking about? THIS.

Yea or Nay: Peppermint Things

on one hand, HOLIDAYS.
on the other, MINT.
Debate in comments.

Things I Learned This Semester

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!!

ACADEMICS

1. Don't procrastinate. You think it's a good idea to catch up on ONE MORE EPISODE of your favorite show, or one more level on that game, or something. It's a terrible idea. Don't do it.
2. Do your reading. Take notes. It takes forever, but it will help you later. Especially if it's a literature course.
3. Unless your professor talks at you FROM THE READING for a lecture course. Just take a lot of notes during the lecture.
4. Pace your reading. Take breaks. Go for a run.
5. Do your research. And actually show up to class.

OTHER LIFE

1. Make friends, but don't hang out with huge groups. Friends help, but huge groups can lead to drama and everyone hating each other.
2. Friends can be for studying. use them.
3. Working out can help de-stress. If you have gym anxiety, learn when the off-peak hours are and go at those times when nobody will be there so you can focus on not freaking out about doing other things.
4. Do your laundry. Just do it.
5. Clean your room occasionally. It'll help. Seriously.

Things about Finals

Interesting fact: finals week isn't usually the most stressful part of the end of the semester. It's usually the week before, when everything is due. The week before is usually called "hell week" because it's ONE OF THE WORST INVENTIONS. Some people say that you get through these weeks because of caffeine, while others will swear by sleep and exercise.
Both of these people are crazy.
Want to survive finals and hell week? TIPS FROM A FOURTH-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR.

PAPERS!
1. don't start research the same week a paper is due, unless you can survive on like 5 hours of sleep a night for a week. If you can do that, use that ability in the writing process. Still pace yourself on the research. You'll need it.
2. If you're the type who needs to dither about into your writing regimen, allow yourself time to do that. And also introduce yourself to the person who can survive on 5 hours of sleep.
3. Outline a lot. When you find a quote, put it in one of the supporting evidence points in the outline. Does it not fit neatly into one of your arguments? Try not to include it, unless it works well as a transition piece of evidence.
4. Don't. Procrastinate. Ever. If you're worried about starting/ finishing/ will it suck, STOP. If you NEED to dither until you finally do it, do that before Thanksgiving.
5. One thing I did this semester that was helpful in my final capstone paper is to have 4-5 index cards for each point. Label them as "general information," "quotes from text," "analysis of quotes+facts," and "tie back to thesis." Do this for as many points as you have/ need. Write down your sources on the index cards; include the citation on the back of the card. Use as many index cards as you need - you can probably get 100 for under $1.

TESTS
1. Study buddies are your best friends.
2. So are index cards.
3. And colored pens/ pencils. Color-code things. If it's a name you should remember, do it in one color. If it's a date, do another. If it's a particular piece of math, do another still. Or vocab, or plot points, or whatever.
4. Find out if the test is cumulative or since the midterm/ most recent test. If it's cumulative, study the most recent information first - since it's fresher, you won't need to spend as much time on it.
5. If anything involves long-answer/ essay questions, write out your study answers in complete sentences.

PRESENTATIONS
1. I have nothing. I don't really do presentations anymore.
2. I'm sorry.

On trigger warnings and coddling

I've heard some things about trigger warnings on college campuses lately, and I decided to put in my two cents on the matter. (This is your warning if things connected to triggers/ things that are potential triggers may be discussed here).
Firstly, let's define what a "trigger warning" is. According to dictionary.com, it is "a stated warning that the content of a text, video, etc., may upset or offend some people, especially those who have previously experienced a related trauma."
As I see it, the intended use of a trigger warning is just in the genre of "heads up, this is a thing that will be presented that may be problematic for some people." It's like how crime shows sometimes have a title card when they have reenactment in the next segment - "viewer discretion is advised." If you have had a particular experience that makes you particularly ill-disposed for that kind of content, it's a heads up that a particular kind of content will be featured.
Sometimes, college professors include trigger warnings where they're needed. Sometimes they don't. And whether they should has been a controversial topic for some.
Personally, I think that they should exist on the syllabus and that the professor should be available for for emails about missing class on a particular day. I get the feeling that many of those who need trigger warnings don't intentionally want a skip day from class; they probably just want permission to handle a potential problem in a personally safe space. If it's a movie, that might mean watching it on the student's own time and emailing comments to the professor, if that's part of the grade. Maybe that student does have some important and interesting thoughts about the particular content of that day's class, but doesn't feel totally comfortable sharing it in public.
To me, that's what trigger warnings are for - if it causes someone extreme emotional duress to interact with something in public, they should be allowed to handle it in private. They should not necessarily be exempt from interacting with the material (unless there are highly difficult circumstances associated with it). Light to moderate discomfort should be worked around in class - and trigger warnings provide a heads-up that light-to-moderate discomfort exists. It's supposed to be a heads-up, in case a student needs to emotionally/ psychologically prepare for a particular class beyond what they normally have to do.
What it does NOT mean is that everything should be warned as a trigger. If a student has some particular trigger material that isn't in the typical genre of "possibly triggering material," then part of the responsibility of both the student and the professor is to communicate about that. Not everything should be warned, but everyone should be open to compromise. If a student does get triggered by something that someone wouldn't think to warn people of, that would be a circumstance that needs communication between the professor and the student separately.

So those are my thoughts on triggers. What are yours?

That Time I Procrastinate

So procrastination exists. I've procrastinated on things before. I have a 12-15 page term paper due tomorrow that I still have to work on, but that's not the thing I've procrastinated on the most, though. The thing I've procrastinated on the most was an 18-page paper, which I had to to outline, write, and edit in 24 hours.
I didn't do well in that class.
I HAVE, however, got an outline, several quotes, and several points. I just need to write the thing.
So, mom, if you're reading this, DON'T FREAK OUT. EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL. (Really. At this point, it's just the writing. Almost all the research has been done. I have an outline. I have most of my quotes. I just need to actually connect them to things.) But it's time to stop procrastinating and finish my work!
And if you, too, are procrastinating by spending time on this blog, LEAVE AND DO YOUR WORK.

When is it okay to start doing Christmas things?

It's been a long-standing pet peeve of mine that Christmas merchandise has entered shops earlier and earlier every year. I understand that fall/ Halloween merchandise is sometimes treated the same way - when I worked retail this summer, one floor set for early fall merchandise was on August 1st. However, I would contend that fall is a season, and not a holiday, and that there are no merchandise-based holidays between September and Halloween that would get attention, except the existence of Pumpkin Spice anything and cool-weather gear. Additionally, Halloween is given a pretty concise time frame between September and the end of October.
This pet peeve of mine comes from a love of both holidays for different reasons. I love sweater weather. My favorite color is orange, in part because autumn is possibly my favorite season. I love the spooky aspects of Halloween, obviously: I tell ghost stories for my job. I love the color scheme of Halloween, and the chance to dress however crazy (or not) I want for one day a year, and to change my appearance and not just be me.
I also love Christmas. I love the time of year that I get to see people I haven't seen for a while and decorate in a way that's completely different from Halloween. I like the scents of the holiday season and giving people presents and making things for and with people. It's also a good reminder to slow down and think about other people for once. I know I should think about others outside of December, but it's often a time to reevaluate - how well have I done to help people this year? (This year, I have a very shoddy evaluation).
However, Christmas is given as HUGE a time frame as possible, it seems. Some of it is Black Friday/ Cyber Monday things where you can get gift and life essentials for cheap if that's what you need/ want (and you're willing to risk getting run over by others). But not all of it is "get this super cheap thing so you can upgrade your life and give some good gifts but also not go broke!" While some of it is that, I've seen Christmas decorations put out before Halloween and not clearance items, either. I mean, there were more candy canes alone than autumn and Halloween combined. I know that mid-October means that Halloween is nigh and that autumn is almost halfway done, but it feels like Christmas decorations alone are really what drive profits up in November.
Maybe that's why so many stores do Christmas decorations so early.
I love holiday music as well, but I've always had a weird feeling about not playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving. In my household growing up, usually Christmas music was reserved for after we put the Christmas tree up - and that was at least after Advent.
Maybe that's why I have such an aversion to seeing Christmas merchandise before Halloween - since I grew up Christian, I always associate the Christmas season with Advent. Advent is a full calendar month after Halloween, which means that Halloween is the time for ghouls and goblins and ghosts, and NOT for fun and cheer and spices.
But that's my rant about that. I'll try and be more coherent tomorrow.

Welcome to Blogmas!

If you've never heard of Blogmas, it's probably because I may have made it up.
I got the idea from several video bloggers, who do Vlogmas - posting a vlog every day between December First (sometimes they start the day after Thanksgiving) and Christmas. That is what I may try and do here. I don't know how it's going to work out, but it's worth a shot. It may turn into BlogCember, but let me first survive this week and we'll see how that goes.

So, first Blogmas post is over. Because I said so. And because the intro is also the easiest thing to do, sometimes. Right now, it is. And also, I have to go get lunch in ten minutes and I haven't put my contacts in my eyes yet. So I should probably do that.

HUZZAH!

What I learned in NaNoWriMo this year

Last night, I verified my word count on the NaNoWriMo website, meaning that now I have to type and edit this incoherent mess into something more coherent and less messy than before.
That being said, here are the things I learned this month.

First, I learned that spending time in the world before writing the novel is very important, especially when writing fantasy. I spent months planning and plotting and scribbling about the longest novel I've actually finished, and that was before November even started. On the other hand, I only spent a little time outlining a plot, doing one or two character sketches, and outlining a little bit in the magic of the world.
What's the difference between the two?
In the first instance, I spent so much time just thinking about the work - whether there are dragons and faeries, a little bit about what happened before the novel started, what sort of climate the world was in, even something along the lines of "what would this character's favorite pop song be in this world" - that, once November started, I already had a concept of my parameters. If I needed a plot twist, then I knew where to draw the plot twist from. Sure, some things might be inconsistent, but there was something to draw from.
In this instance, with only vague outlines of the existence of some beings, there was not a lot to draw from when I hit writer's block. Sure, shifting perspectives sometimes helped, but I didn't establish the history of the world to spend time building up some events and plot twists. If you make room for historical references, there are more things you can do with it.

Second, I learned that progress is progress, no matter how awful. Even though there are a lot of inconsistencies in this novel, there are a lot of okay elements, too. I had a journalism professor who often said, "write a beast, and then you can groom it." What she meant was what Chris Baty always says: turn off your inner editor and let yourself be awful the first time around. Rough drafts are rough for a reason. Now I have things to work with.

Third, I learned that thinking about writing does not boost your word count. Announcing to your boyfriend, your roommate, and your friend who wants to hang out that you can't spend time with them because you need to write.... does not mean you will actually write. (It makes you a little bit of a terrible person if you don't write, though. You should definitely write.)

Fourth, I learned that word sprints are your friend. Setting a timer for 20-25 minutes absolves you from looking at your phone during the designated time frame, and can help focus on things that involve novels and word counts and NOT looking at your phone and trying to find plot twist generators. If something is truly urgent, someone will call you, and if you don't focus on your novel, then the generators won't help at all.

Fifth, I learned that getting ahead doesn't mean you will stay ahead, and that getting behind doesn't mean you will stay behind. That's pretty self-explanatory.

And, finally, I leave you with a J.K. Rowling quote (found on goodreads) that pretty well sums up the difficulty I had in this NaNoWriMo season, because I did not do what she advised:

"Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have "essential" and "long overdue" meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance. I must therefore guard the time allotted to writing as a Hungarian Horntail guards its firstborn egg."

So Much for Blog-a-day in NaNo...

Yes, I am aware that I haven't blogged a lot this month. My excuse is that I'm lazy, and also behind on NaNo word count, and also need to do a lot of other things like homework.
Do I plan on finishing NaNoWriMo this year? Absolutely. I may need to lose a lot of sleep and put off a tad bit of homework until after Thanksgiving break is over (NOTHING I CAN'T DO WHEN I GET BACK TO SCHOOL, MOM. I'VE WORKED THINGS OUT SO I CAN HANDLE EVERYTHING FINE, MOM), but I do plan on doing it. I'm just quite behind.
All right, very behind.
I need to be on page 145 today. I'm currently on page 127. I have a lot to write.
Personally, I think I can do it, I just need to work on it a lot. And not edit other writing when I could be writing on the train. And not posting blog posts when I could be writing on the train. And not having coffee with people when I could be writing.
A comforting thought (I guess it's comforting?) is that I was in a similar situation last year. It's easier to budget out two or three hours a day to write when you don't have three or four hours of class a day. Yes, I have obligations for work and family and exercise and cooking for Thanksgiving, but I also don't have to go to class, and I don't have as much homework to do because it's all papers right now. (Other college students would be freaking out about the number of papers I have to do, but I already had my emotional break this month. I know what I'm doing.)
So, in conclusion:
1. I have a lot of novel-writing to do.
2. I have a lot of essay-writing to do.
3. I have everything under control (MOM.)