Horticulture class was interesting again. We looked at many pictures of gardens. I continued to make exasperated clawed fingers, because it was just so bad. He went over the definition of "site" six times. In a row. Like pre-school. I kid you not. At one point our sub told us that he wasn't actually a teacher and this was kind of his first instance in a classroom setting. It shows.
He also said that humans created the English language. Should... should we tell him?
I really hope I pass this class with a decent grade. I'm done.
He also said that humans created the English language. Should... should we tell him?
I really hope I pass this class with a decent grade. I'm done.
I was able to polish off the last page of that lifespan development assignment after horticulture and before Institute. I cut it really close on timing, but I made it! I got the work submitted and I headed out the door. Nice!
We had some guest speakers from Bouchard in my chocolate class today. As in, the bosses of the company. They brought some samples for us to try, and even used us for their research (They surveyed us on what we liked and even how much we'd pay for it, because these are chocolates they haven't released to the public yet). I tried this sea salt caramel that was really good, which was surprising to me since I didn't think I liked caramel. But I really liked this one. Probably because I tasted mostly chocolate with just a bit of salt. When we were surveyed using the i>clickers, only one person in the entire class - there were about 70 people there today - said they disliked it. Ha.
When chocolate class ended, I went to the Marketplace and had dinner. I tried to take my time, because SI for behavior analysis was starting at 5:30 today and not 5:00. It was the super session, and we had a list of topics that were going to be on the next exam, and we were going to go over every one of them. Surprisingly, not a lot of people showed up. Perhaps people had other obligations. We took an online vote on when we wanted the super session held. Let me tell you, I did not vote for one of my busiest days of the week. I tried for Tuesday. But I wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste.
The super sessions always go on for hours, and I stayed the entire time. I just really couldn't be bothered to get up and come home. Here I was receiving answers and testing myself with practice problems. If I went home, I'd have to pull out my notes for horticulture and chocolate, or work on my rat lab report. I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me. I'm doing well in my behavior class, and maybe I shouldn't have stayed quite as long as I did.
The evening bus wasn't waiting outside the TSC, and I was on the opposite side of the street and not in the mood to wait for it to show up and then take its really long route around, since Blue Square is either its last or second to last stop. I decided to walk back instead, even though it was a little cold. I made it back to my room around 7:45 feeling emotionally drained. I'd been working all day long, although admittedly chocolate class was easy today, and I did not want to deal with anything else related to school.
So after doing dishes and changing into pajamas, I sat down and started pulling the knots and snags out of a thing I started writing a long time ago and then set aside. Not precisely relaxing, but I've been wrestling with that story for years and I wanted to feel like I was accomplishing something. It will be nice when winter break hits and I can do all the writing and novel planning I want.
I wish I could commit to a story idea, but it seems like every time I think of something, someone else has already used that magic system, or is ready to insist that it's too cliche. I might be scrapping my glowing tattoos idea, but I should watch "Kubo and the Two Strings" to see how it worked for them. It looked from the trailers like its creators and I were on the same track, pulling tattoos from the body and pressing them onto things. Sigh. If only school didn't get in my way and I could be faster...
I think I'm gonna go the magical STD route now. I ran a quick Google search for "magical STD novel" and nothing really came up, so apparently no one has ever used that idea, or at the very least it isn't overused. This would allow many people in the setting of the story - Ethel's peninsula country - to use magic and have a society built around it, while still allowing Gavin - who's arriving from a third-world country where they don't have this sexually-transmitted disease so much - to not know how magic works very well. Also, Ethel's country is a tourist trap, so you get lots of people coming in, so maybe there are other types of magic out there, but you can bet this type is slowly spreading across the world.
This sounds to me like it'll solve other problems I was having too- namely, it bothered me how convenient it was for Gavin to immediately run across someone who just happened to be born with magic powers, and just happened to be practicing them despite living in a country where girls are forbidden to do so. Now moral issues have been called into play. I think when we meet Ethel, she'll be just recently coming off gaining her STD from someone in her school or neighborhood or whatever, so then she can be coming into her powers too.
And it'll be easy to create unpleasant side-effects of magic, even some that aren't directly related to "magic" and are just a result of an STD still being an STD. That will be fun. I'll just need to be able to sell my audience on the idea that a simple little STD can allow you to do crazy reality-altering things. That's the hard part, but if I can absolutely soak my world in magic, I might be able to manage.
