Again, I have not blogged in a very long time.  Actually, I was making regular blogposts at myanimelist.com regarding a project on Yokohama Kaidashii Kikou, so there’s some idiocy from me there if you’re interested.  Username: Jiji.

Last time I blogged, I mentioned looking forward to the PhD program as a break from all the work.  I knew at the time that was a silly thing to say, and boy have I learned just HOW silly.  I’m learning how to be a better student, but it’s not happening quickly enough to suit me.  I have an incomplete from last semester already, and that’s not a good sign already.  The prof is wonderful and very nice and she gave me a grade in anticipation of what she thought I’d do on the paper, but…here’s the confession…I haven’t written the goddamned thing yet.  Spring break is for that.  And the conference paper for the Modernism class.  (Thus the title of this little rant.)  My closest friends might have noticed an undercurrent of stress with me since Christmas, well that paper is why.  No worries, though — I will get it done.

You see, I have managed to convince myself that this is pretty much my last chance to do something with my life.  Yes, I know that’s faulty reasoning, but this is my blog, not yours.  As such, I am determined to do WHATEVER it takes to succeed at the PhD.  For some of you, this is bad news, since it means I won’t be doing too much with the manga scanlation world sometimes.

Anyway…news news…  I am taking only two classes and working at the Tennis Club.  The classes are quite enough though, I’m not sure I could ever take three classes at once.  British Modernism is basically a survey course with a very green professor, but a totally nice guy (he says before getting anything graded back from him…).  Because of the survey nature of the course, it’s been VERY hard to figure out what to write on for a graduate level course.  Ideally, any paper you write for grad school should be publishable.  I’m not there yet.  The Post(-)Colonial London course is the real gem.  The reading is a lot to keep up with (and I’m not keeping up), but it’s been very interesting so far.  How can I not like a professor who is 4 foot 10 inches tall and bullies people around, and gave me my paper topic on a silver platter?  She said, “You should do this, Eric.  It’s publishable and it would even make a good chapter for your dissertation.”  Almost no agonizing or thought required, I know what I’m writing about already.  Done.  Next?  Oh, I have to actually research it and write it?  Damn…

That paper is going to be a comparison of sorts of the kind of racially-mixed, cosmopolitan London of the late 80’s and 90’s to the racially-mixed, cosmopolitan London of Shakespeare’s time.  I’m a little worried, because this is more of a Neo-Historicist kind of paper, and I’ve never written one before.  I probably have a ton of reading ahead of me.

Nothing else much is happening with me.  If I think of more, I’ll (gasp) blog more.