Look! I'm alive! And spending a lot of time smoking on my balcony in Japan. My camera is well on its way down the long, painful road to death, but along the way its newfound tendency to fuck up is creating some pretty cool pictures.
In this one I'm being grumpy about the rain. And probably none too pleased by the creepy pink sky.
Oh so I finally got my grades and evaluations from last semester in! I thought I'd share them with you, oh mighty SG land....
How Life Has Transformed (Fifth Term Japanese Language Class)
Grade: B+
In this course, Fenny read an autobiography and analyzed how particular events form one's life and what kinds of influences from Japanese culture were reflected in the autobiography. Throughout the course she prepared for class solidly. However, there were a few times that she fell asleep in class. Therefore, I met with her and discussed the issue and it improved.
In the beginning of the term, Fenny had difficulty comprehending longer texts, but as she practiced hypothesizing the content from what she understood of the texts, she became able to get the gist of the content correctly and participated in class actively.
As her final project, she wrote her own autobiography. In her autobiography, she wrote two events/occasions that made her who she is now. At first, she struggled to describe the events cohesively, but after several revisions of her autobiography, she became able to explain events logically, and successfully presented her project in class.
(For the record, I am in fact capable of explaining events logically. There's a long and frustrated story behind this autobiography business, and I won't subject you to it. You can thank me later.)
Advanced Projects in Printmaking
Grade: B (by the way, fuck this teacher)
Fenny worked hard, overcoming some early struggles to create some very good work. She made a great deal of progress over the term.
While at first Fenny's work was a little timid and tentative, it became increasingly less so over time. She has created a much more confident base from which to work.
(Seriously...fuck this teacher. And I'm not just saying that because I totally worked my ass off and deserved better than B in this class (I promise I am not one of those people who normally complains about Bs, this was just total bullshit), this guy was one of the most obnoxious teachers I've ever had to deal with. Oh, and he totally loved my work in class. Asshole. Okay, I'm done.)
Piano
Grade: Pass
Fenny has been stalwart and methodical in her work over the term. Her goals boiled down tot he memorization and technical mastery of the 1st movement of Clementi's Sonatina op36 #3 and the learning of Schubert's Impromptu op 142 #2 in A flat major. The two pieces present quite different problems and are widely varied in genre, a circumstance that soon affected her preparation.
The Sonatina required her to move away from the written page into a sure memorization and internalization of the patterns, trills, and fast passage-work. The Impromptu's difficulties lay more in her unfamiliarity with the genre, the troublesome key of A flat major and the density of the 4-6 part chords combined with a melody played by the upper fingers of the right hand. (Yeah....this piece was INSANE! But awesome.) The Sonatina presented a personal target which she was determined to overcome where the Impromptu fell more in the realm of exploration which left the piece less formed in her mind.
The happy result was a fine performance of the Clementi work in the December Piano Play-In. Any glitches were entirely due to a case of nerves. Overall, however, the essence of the piece shone through was charismatic and sensitive to the musical idea and the rapid flow of scales was impressive. Fenny can count this as a real success which can only improve with more performance experience.
(She's being extremely kind re: the performance...I always get nervous and fuck up when I try to play at the school performance, but this time around the butchery was epic in proportion. Really, it was painfully bad. But she's right that it was entirely due to nerves, because in front of two or three people you should hear me rock that shit. They don't just call me "Magic Fingers Fen" cuz I know how to please the ladies.)
Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience: Mind-Brain
Grade: A
Fenny's weekly written assignments indicated that she had achieved a solid understanding of the major functions neurons and brain architecture. There were two major papers. In the first paper students compared and evaluated a report in the popular press with the findings from the original scientific article. For the second paper students described an original neuroscience article, evaluated the conclusions, and made suggestions for further research. In her first paper she gave good descriptions of the main points of the two target articles and a good critique of the relationships between them. The second paper presented a description and a critique of a recent article that related meditation experience to cortical thickness. Fenny's clear writing reflected deep and careful analysis of the main issues. She has a lively style of writing that holds the reader's interest and yet is appropriate for scientific communication.
(It's been about a week since my mom sent these grades to me and this A has yet to sink in. I was figuring I'd get a low B or a C in this class, but decided to take it anyway because it looked (and was) mind-blowingly interesting. I am so fucking pleased with myself. You can probably feel my gloating from your present location. And that last comment on my writing makes me unbelievably happy, especially considering I did in fact write both papers in their entirety the night before.)
Reading and Writing Poetry
Grade: A+
Fenny was an exceptionally good student in this course. Her poems are complex, rigorous, moving and ambitious. I was wildly impressed with her work. Fenny is also a very fine critic of text, and her thoughts on the books we read together were mature and deep. Fenny's critical paper was excellent. She was a regular participant in class discussions, and her comments on her peers' work were empathetic, critically sound and articulate. I have every confidence in Fenny's future as a reader and writer.
(I can't even begin to explain how much this last one means to me. Especially as this teacher is a god among men. An adorable, flamingly gay god. And I would drown 40 puppies to have another class with him.)
Anyways for those who actually stuck it out through all that, thanks, and now you know why I was too busy to update much this fall
In this one I'm being grumpy about the rain. And probably none too pleased by the creepy pink sky.
Oh so I finally got my grades and evaluations from last semester in! I thought I'd share them with you, oh mighty SG land....
How Life Has Transformed (Fifth Term Japanese Language Class)
Grade: B+
In this course, Fenny read an autobiography and analyzed how particular events form one's life and what kinds of influences from Japanese culture were reflected in the autobiography. Throughout the course she prepared for class solidly. However, there were a few times that she fell asleep in class. Therefore, I met with her and discussed the issue and it improved.
In the beginning of the term, Fenny had difficulty comprehending longer texts, but as she practiced hypothesizing the content from what she understood of the texts, she became able to get the gist of the content correctly and participated in class actively.
As her final project, she wrote her own autobiography. In her autobiography, she wrote two events/occasions that made her who she is now. At first, she struggled to describe the events cohesively, but after several revisions of her autobiography, she became able to explain events logically, and successfully presented her project in class.
(For the record, I am in fact capable of explaining events logically. There's a long and frustrated story behind this autobiography business, and I won't subject you to it. You can thank me later.)
Advanced Projects in Printmaking
Grade: B (by the way, fuck this teacher)
Fenny worked hard, overcoming some early struggles to create some very good work. She made a great deal of progress over the term.
While at first Fenny's work was a little timid and tentative, it became increasingly less so over time. She has created a much more confident base from which to work.
(Seriously...fuck this teacher. And I'm not just saying that because I totally worked my ass off and deserved better than B in this class (I promise I am not one of those people who normally complains about Bs, this was just total bullshit), this guy was one of the most obnoxious teachers I've ever had to deal with. Oh, and he totally loved my work in class. Asshole. Okay, I'm done.)
Piano
Grade: Pass
Fenny has been stalwart and methodical in her work over the term. Her goals boiled down tot he memorization and technical mastery of the 1st movement of Clementi's Sonatina op36 #3 and the learning of Schubert's Impromptu op 142 #2 in A flat major. The two pieces present quite different problems and are widely varied in genre, a circumstance that soon affected her preparation.
The Sonatina required her to move away from the written page into a sure memorization and internalization of the patterns, trills, and fast passage-work. The Impromptu's difficulties lay more in her unfamiliarity with the genre, the troublesome key of A flat major and the density of the 4-6 part chords combined with a melody played by the upper fingers of the right hand. (Yeah....this piece was INSANE! But awesome.) The Sonatina presented a personal target which she was determined to overcome where the Impromptu fell more in the realm of exploration which left the piece less formed in her mind.
The happy result was a fine performance of the Clementi work in the December Piano Play-In. Any glitches were entirely due to a case of nerves. Overall, however, the essence of the piece shone through was charismatic and sensitive to the musical idea and the rapid flow of scales was impressive. Fenny can count this as a real success which can only improve with more performance experience.
(She's being extremely kind re: the performance...I always get nervous and fuck up when I try to play at the school performance, but this time around the butchery was epic in proportion. Really, it was painfully bad. But she's right that it was entirely due to nerves, because in front of two or three people you should hear me rock that shit. They don't just call me "Magic Fingers Fen" cuz I know how to please the ladies.)
Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience: Mind-Brain
Grade: A
Fenny's weekly written assignments indicated that she had achieved a solid understanding of the major functions neurons and brain architecture. There were two major papers. In the first paper students compared and evaluated a report in the popular press with the findings from the original scientific article. For the second paper students described an original neuroscience article, evaluated the conclusions, and made suggestions for further research. In her first paper she gave good descriptions of the main points of the two target articles and a good critique of the relationships between them. The second paper presented a description and a critique of a recent article that related meditation experience to cortical thickness. Fenny's clear writing reflected deep and careful analysis of the main issues. She has a lively style of writing that holds the reader's interest and yet is appropriate for scientific communication.
(It's been about a week since my mom sent these grades to me and this A has yet to sink in. I was figuring I'd get a low B or a C in this class, but decided to take it anyway because it looked (and was) mind-blowingly interesting. I am so fucking pleased with myself. You can probably feel my gloating from your present location. And that last comment on my writing makes me unbelievably happy, especially considering I did in fact write both papers in their entirety the night before.)
Reading and Writing Poetry
Grade: A+
Fenny was an exceptionally good student in this course. Her poems are complex, rigorous, moving and ambitious. I was wildly impressed with her work. Fenny is also a very fine critic of text, and her thoughts on the books we read together were mature and deep. Fenny's critical paper was excellent. She was a regular participant in class discussions, and her comments on her peers' work were empathetic, critically sound and articulate. I have every confidence in Fenny's future as a reader and writer.
(I can't even begin to explain how much this last one means to me. Especially as this teacher is a god among men. An adorable, flamingly gay god. And I would drown 40 puppies to have another class with him.)
Anyways for those who actually stuck it out through all that, thanks, and now you know why I was too busy to update much this fall
VIEW 25 of 71 COMMENTS
glad to hear you got the chicken hat! (better thank the girls for that one too)...
I MISS YOU!!! LOVE YOU!!!