Adaptation Paper on Pride and Prejudice

For those of you who don't already know (which isn't very many of you, I'm sure), I'm in love with Pride and Prejudice. In. Love.

We have a very close relationship. Very close. Bordering on unhealthy. It's really much closer to an obsession actually. I'm really obsessed. But I can't help it! I feel incredibly protective of the novel, and I often find myself having to suppress my combative tendencies when other people say that they love the book.

No, you don't love the book. I do. You couldn't possibly love it more than me. End of story.

It's pretty bad.

Don't believe me?

Proof: I have read Pride and Prejudice thirteen times. Or rather, I stopped counting how many times I'd read it after the thirteenth time -- and that was in high school.

Proof: It was my go-to therapy session after every breakup -- especially in high school (to reaffirm my faith in men and romance).

Proof: I can quote the first paragraph of the book verbatim. And I have a huge appreciation for people who think they are being super clever by adapting that first sentence into something else for journal articles, posters, etc.

Proof: When National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) rolled around last November, I wrote a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. And I started my first sentence with yet another clever adaptation of that first sentence (thereby negating the cleverness. Damn).

Proof: I go crazy with those silly internet pop quizzes on anything related to Pride and Prejudice, and I'm kinda miffed if I miss something. For example, the other day I missed a question on Colonel Fitzwilliam. I couldn't remember his name. How could I forget his name?!

Proof: Give me a passage from the book, and I can tell you exactly who said it, what was happening at the time it was said, and how that passage relates to the overall theme of the book.

I need to get a life.

That is, after I write this paper.

Because, ladies and gentlemen, I get to write a paper on Pride and Prejudice. Booyah baby!

It's a paper on adaptations and why the director adapted the book into a movie the way they did, and I am going to town with this one. I haven't had this much fun writing a paper in .... probably ever. In fact, I'm actually writing this paper on a Saturday and not experiencing convulsions and intense procrastination urges (except for maybe this blog). Not bad, considering senioritis has hit hard this semester.

All this P&P talk makes me want to pick up the book again. At this rate, I'll never get anything else done.

Oh well.

Learning Photoshop in Art Class

I absolutely love my art class this semester. And what's not to love?

I get to paint for six hours a week on my own projects, and I have a really nice, helpful (kinda cute in a tormented hipster artist kind of way) T.A. around to answer my questions and give good suggestions about things to work on.

It's like heaven, only a bit too early in the morning.

Last week the class trekked down to the computer lab in the basement to learn how to use Photoshop. The assignment was to bring pictures to class and then use Photoshop to collage them together.

I loooooved this assignment. Not only did it force me to get out and take pictures with my camera (will post those pictures soon), but it helped me relearn Photoshop, which I was obsessed with in high school. Also strangely reminds me a lot of my nerdy gamer first boyfriend. I credit him for my Photoshop interest and the fact that I took up snowboarding. If I remember correctly, he was also my first kiss and the kid who dumped me because I wouldn't put out (though I'm pretty sure I didn't even know what that meant at the time). I had to work really hard to eek out a couple tears on the drive home.

Anyway, back to that Photoshop collage. It's below.

Can you tell what I added?

I tried to make it look as realistic as possible (instead of an obvious collage like most of the others). I'm not sure what this says about my imagination, but whatevs.

I started with this as the base...

And then added the below items.

Getting the perspective correct on that tire rack took so long. It wasn't until my (cute hipster) T.A. mentioned the words "vanishing point" that I understood what I needed to change. My mother would be proud.

The sky took for-freakin-ever to put in. Mostly because I got all OCD on the thing and had to erase ever single pixel of the old gray sky before adding in the clouds -- and I insisted on keeping the electrical wires in tact.

Let me just tell you how relaxing methodical labor like that is. You don't have to think, you just work. 

It's the best.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my brief dip into the world of photo editing. 

I need to buy me some Photoshop for my computer. Preferably before I lose my student discount. 

I'll have to add that to my list, along with Final Cut Express. So much to buy, so little time!

Quote of the Day

While discussing a Bollywood film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula in my capstone class...

Professor: "Does anyone want to watch a clip of Dracula violently inseminating a poor village woman?"

One person raises their hand.

Professor: "Okay! Let's watch it!"

Penmanship Issues

I hate writing the letter I. The lower case version is okay, I guess (though really boring)--- but that capital I? Atrocious.

How do you make that look pretty?! It's all straight lines and angles. No room for a swoop. And the cursive I just think looks foolish.

 VS

Active Study - How to Learn

Rarely does anything informative or helpful come out of my sorority's chapter meeting. It's usually, "dress up, walk in, get paper, sing/recite, listen as people read directly from said paper, recite/sing a bit more, leave." Repeat every Sunday.

But at our last chapter, we actually got this really neat hand-out telling you how the human brain retains information. Fascinating.

For example:

1. The human brain learns best and fastest when there is kinetic energy involved-- the in-putting of information must be active. "The 'recording disk' of the brain accepts new material much faster if it "hears," "sees," "feels," "tastes," and detects motion (kinetic energy) during input or recording time." 

2. Learning requires the expenditure of energy. With notecards, "the student must be actively engaged in producing the sounds, using muscles and burning energy to make the sound." 

3. Some experts believe that information is better mastered if you group it all in groups of seven items or less at a time.

4. Association is a key to memory:

   a. You remember approximately 10 percent of what you read.

   b. You remember approximately 20 percent of what you hear.

   c. You remember approximately 30 percent of what you see.

   d. You remember approximately 50 percent of what you hear and see together.

   e. You remember approximately 70 percent of what you say (if you think as you are saying it).

   f. You remember approximately 90 percent of what you do.

Makes me wonder if I should reinstate jumping jacks into my study routine. Kinetic energy + burning calories = smart and thin. Ka-ching!

Notes from Professor Yoch

Today my Shakespeare's Comedies professor, Dr. Yoch, told us that he'd like us to be able to speak well on the spur of the moment, "so when you take over the world, you will be indicative, sensitive, and imaginative."

I'll have to work on that.

I'm a good student. Really.

Sometimes when professors look at me all disappointed for not turning in a minor assignment on time (when I've had one of those busy weeks, both personally and academically, that equal almost zero sleep and requires impeccable time management in order to survive), I just want to take them by the shoulders and shake them, shouting, "You don't understand! My life is in chaos!"

Please just cut me a little slack sometimes. I promise I wont abuse it.