I haven't blogged in nearly a week, which I know is sad for you, Blog Reader, as it has been an exciting week.

Class
Firstly, I'll write on my other 2 classes, since I already wrote about my other 3.
The Victorian Novel - This class is very formulaic. The professor has us write summaries for every reading assignment, and small in-class paragraphs every class session. It should feel like high school, but it's actually rather therapeutic for me, who is used to writing only on midterms, finals, and occasional papers. Also, this professor breaks the reading down into reasonable pieces from one lesson to the next instead of saying something like, "Read all of Wuthering Heights by next Tuesday." We're reading Jane Eyre right now, and I am in love. Why have I never read these books before? Yet, as with Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Charlotte's sister Emily's Wuthering Heights, I really don't think that I would have appreciated these books at an age much younger than I am right now. I don't know why, but I'm confident in this.
19th Century Scandinavian Writers - This is the online class I'm taking. It's interesting because, obviously, it's writing from the same time-period as the Victorian Novel class, so there are many common themes. It seems as though not everyone enrolled is familiar with using online messageboards, so I feel that I have a definite advantage in this regard. Also, it is possible to earn 150% in participation for each lesson. I intend to this!

Basically, my homework assignment for each of my five classes is: "READ!" Luckily, it's lovely reading for every one of them, although I think that this slow slogging through The Diary of Anne Frank is going to get to me after a while. I have been interested in the Holocaust since I was a child, yet I think that the first time I had a real, emotional reaction was this past Friday when we watched a short movie in class. How can human beings be so cruel to one another? I don't know.

Other Things Pertaining to Me
I spent most of this weekend with Antoine, and didn't get quite as much homework done as I should have, but I don't regret it. I feel that time spent cuddling and falling-asleep-on-his-shoulder is time well spent.

Anime Club
The first meeting of the semester for Anime Club was last night, and it was successful. There was one point during the night, after a conversation with some people I haven't seen in a while, at which I looked at the lecture hall we were occupying and realized how many people considered themselves members of this Club that I have belonged to since the second weekend of my freshman year of college - how many of them I would consider friends (not all necessarily of the 'I would trust you with my life' closeness, but close enough that we'll leave Club to get dinner on State Street together, or complain about classes together, or compare favorite anime series together), and then realized that I was the Club President. I know that Anime Club would continue without me if I couldn't make it for some reason, but I like to think that I've done a passable job of getting things a little bit more organized.

Our Club has a pretty intense process of selecting which anime to show during a semester - first, members submit series they own on fansub (only if the show isn't licensed in the U.S.) or DVD through our online forum. Then, forum members vote online to narrow the submitted series (usually 25-35 series are submitted) to 6 or 7. Then, at the first meeting of the semester, the first episode of each of these series is viewed. We then vote, and the top 3 series are The Chosen Ones. We watch 2 episodes per Saturday, and then finish the night with a movie or sampler of a long series. It takes a while for one to adjust to taking in 5 hours of anime in a single night, but somehow, it works.

And for all the geekiness that hangs about the members who attend, it is almost amusing how often members of Club pair up together and start dating. Of course, this makes for great pauses in conversation when telling high school friends or family members about my boyfriend.
"So, how did you meet him?"
"Oh, we met at Anime Club."
"Anime?"
"You know, Japanese cartoons?"
"......"
"But he's not, like, socially awkward, you know? He can function in a group!"

Ah, yes. So. Today, I was pretty productive. I did two loads of laundry, changed the sheets on my bed, cleaned the living room and the kitchen, cooked myself a nice dinner, did some homework, made hand-outs for the Anime Club table for tomorrow's campus Student Organization Fair, and watched Battlestar Galactica.


The Yay
Okay, how creepy is it that Gaeta would just randomly get up in the middle of the night when Baltar's trying to kill himself? He is so in love with him!
I have always found Gaius interesting, but I loved his scenes in this episode (even with his creepy long hair and facial hair), especially the imagery that was used.
“We have to find someone he trusts.” Cut to Gaeta’s smoldering, emo face.
Listening to Edward James Olmos’ voice as Baltar was under drugs was really well-done and awesome. Getting a glimpse of Baltar's inner monologue was also intriguing.

I really loved Roslin's kicking-ass scene - man, can she yell - but I was a little upset when they took it back in the next scene.

I like Anders. Even though Kara and Lee (although he needs to revert to his former glory) are my favorites, I still like Anders. He knows how Kara feels about Lee, but he can't help loving her anyway. Kara is safe with him, and she knows it. Lee getting back with Dee was sort of lame. I have yet to be given a reason to sympathize with Dualla. It seems like all she ever does is react to the people around her. I hope the character dies, truthfully.

The Suck
I’m getting really sick of these bars cropping up every 5 episodes. It’s always “the fleet needs a break once in a while!” It seems like they’re always taking a frickin’ break - Unfinished Business, Black Market (WTF?!), Colonial Day, etc. What are they doing about food? Fuel? Water? Are they having enough babies to sustain themselves? What happened to the Black Market? Bars, boxing rings, etc. make for nice plot devices, but it gets kind of old after a while. This show does so many things so well, but there is too much lazy storytelling, sometimes.

Okay, having the Kara/Anders/Lee/Dee angst play out opposite the Baltar storyline was a very poor choice. I’m normally very interested in Kara, and here I found the magnitude of the storyline utterly ridiculous.

Lee losing his ring and breaking down into a drunk, sobbing mess? No. No. No. Why do they keep killing who was once my favorite character??

The Random Thought
Okay, this is a random thought that just struck me that I hadn’t considered before. Did Lee ever find out about Kara’s participation in shooting people out the airlock in “Collaborators”? Lee has always sympathized pretty heavily with the need for constitutions and laws – something that made me like him back in the mini-series and season 1, when he was still cool. Wouldn’t he be very upset with Kara for her part in that? Then again....Given his relationship with Kara, I guess that’s pretty trivial to everything else he would be upset with her for that.