This one took me a while, but a couple of days ago I finished The Dragon Reborn, book three (of a planned twelve) of the late Robert Jordan's epic fantasy saga, The Wheel of Time.
I'm late to this party, I know; all the hardcore WoT-ies (including many of my siblings and my dad) started reading these books years ago. I read the first two or three books back when I was in high school, but I stopped reading them because I would only devote five or ten minutes a day to reading for pleasure, right before I went to bed. That's no way to read an 8000-page saga featuring hundreds of characters, unique locations and storylines, intrigue, shifting alliances, and all that stuff. So I put it aside and figured I'd come back to it later.
Well, when I got back into reading for fun (imagine that!) I knew I wanted to come back and read this series. I figured it would probably be better to wait until all the books were out and then read them, but I didn't want to wait that long, and besides, eleven of the books were in paperback, and #12 can't be too far out, right? So I got the first book during a bookstore trip, and came home to read that Jordan had just been diagnosed with a fatal blood disease. It figures.
So, now, everyone knows that Jordan has died, leaving his magnum opus unfinished. According to his blog, just a few days before he succumbed to his illness, he spent the weekend telling his close family members exactly how the story was going to end. What a neat experience that must have been! Unfortunately, of course, he'll never be able to see his 20-year journey end.
The task of finishing the book, A Memory of Light, now falls to a new author--one from my hometown and undergrad alma mater, coincidentally enough. It's supposed to be released in 2009, I believe, which should give me adequate time to finish the other eight books in the series.
Ahh, but book 3 is what this post is ostensibly about, so how is it? I enjoyed it! So far, I think Jordan's series is inferior to the other great "fantasy" series I'm reading: George R. R. Martin's fantastic A Song of Ice and Fire, but that's more praise for Martin than condemnation for Jordan. Jordan has built something of staggering scope and I am excited to see all the directions he can take all these characters. Yeah, yeah, I know, I understand that the series really begins to stall around book 8 or 9, and very little happens until book 11, but I knew what I signed up for when I bought book 1, and I intend to get through the rest of them.
It is interesting to see how considerably little has happened across three seven-hundred-page books, though. It took three books for Rand, who was established as the titular Dragon in the very first book, to finally proclaim that fact openly. Three books! Some series have everything wrapped up in three books, but not Jordan's.
In addition, despite the title of the book being The Dragon Reborn, a good 90% of the story revolves around all the side characters--Rand al'Thor barely appears at the beginning and at the end of the book, where he fights another (evidently inconsequential) battle against Ba'alzamon, a being as evil as Ba'al, Beelzebub, and a demon (?) combined! Apparently!
This post sounds really critical of the book, I know, but I did like it. I'm enjoying the rapidly multiplying threads of intrigue and interweaving plot lines, even though I know those will become a source of frustration as I read further into the series.
Ultimately there's no point in picking this up if you haven't read the first two books, but if you have, you certainly can't stop there! Read this one, too!
And now I'm going to go take a shower and go help my friend move.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
In my essay I will prove...
This semester I decided to do a split assistantship in order to get more funding. On top of my preservation duties I now also assist with a lower level history course. My main duties are to take attendance, answer the students questions and grade assignments/exams. I have had to learn how to grade for thesis, documentation, and conclusion so far. It was pretty interesting to see the difference between my writing and theirs. I really had too high of expectations for them, but I quickly adapted to a more realistic view. I know we all must have been at that academic level when we started college, but you don't realize how far you have come until you can compare like this.
On their first quiz I did have a few funny errors, such as assignation instead of assassination and un-PC terms used to describe minority groups. I know they worry about spelling errors, but so many of them seem to rely on the spell checker and go for the first word that is offered to them. Our goal this semester is to teach them how to write rather than memorize historical fact. So far we have gotten some of the students to respond and follow directions, but not all horses will drink when you bring them to water. The hardest part has been to teach students to write a clear, strong thesis and then use evidence to prove their argument.
This week though, the professor fell ill and because we were already behind and had an exam coming up, he asked me if I would cover his two sections. It was some what intimidating to stand in front of them and give a lecture I didn't write, but I think I did well. The other TA said that the students seemed to respond better to me, but I think that may have to do with the fact that the class is predominantly female. The other section was much quieter, but I chalk that up to the fact that they didn't know me like the other section did.
We also administered the exam today. They all knew what was to be expected because we gave them the questions ahead of time, explained the exam format, what was expected in their essay, etc. I made sure to clarify that they needed to use a specific number of sources from their reader since this was a major issue on the quiz the week before. I was getting questions and panic emails all the way up until 11pm. I also had one student email to say that she hadn't been able to acquire the reader for financial reasons. We made other arrangements, but I wish she had come to us long before late the night before.
During the exam we were careful to watch over the students for cheating and to see if we could identify any issues the students were running into. Well unfortunately I didn't catch one issue, which was another student who did not have the reader for some reason. I wasn't able to figure it out until after he had left the room, but he did email after to state that he didn't know we needed that we needed a reader. I know I had held that reader up along side the book at least twice the day before the exam to clarify that one was to be used during the test and the other was not allowed. Luckily the professor stated he would deal with that situation.
I did enjoy my experience teaching though and wish I had more opportunity to do so in the semester. I think it would be really interesting if the professor would allow me to write one of the lectures, but I don't think that is likely to happen since we are behind in lectures. I have been asked if I want to be a discussion leader next year, but my program is already setting up another assistantship for me that sounds even better.
On their first quiz I did have a few funny errors, such as assignation instead of assassination and un-PC terms used to describe minority groups. I know they worry about spelling errors, but so many of them seem to rely on the spell checker and go for the first word that is offered to them. Our goal this semester is to teach them how to write rather than memorize historical fact. So far we have gotten some of the students to respond and follow directions, but not all horses will drink when you bring them to water. The hardest part has been to teach students to write a clear, strong thesis and then use evidence to prove their argument.
This week though, the professor fell ill and because we were already behind and had an exam coming up, he asked me if I would cover his two sections. It was some what intimidating to stand in front of them and give a lecture I didn't write, but I think I did well. The other TA said that the students seemed to respond better to me, but I think that may have to do with the fact that the class is predominantly female. The other section was much quieter, but I chalk that up to the fact that they didn't know me like the other section did.
We also administered the exam today. They all knew what was to be expected because we gave them the questions ahead of time, explained the exam format, what was expected in their essay, etc. I made sure to clarify that they needed to use a specific number of sources from their reader since this was a major issue on the quiz the week before. I was getting questions and panic emails all the way up until 11pm. I also had one student email to say that she hadn't been able to acquire the reader for financial reasons. We made other arrangements, but I wish she had come to us long before late the night before.
During the exam we were careful to watch over the students for cheating and to see if we could identify any issues the students were running into. Well unfortunately I didn't catch one issue, which was another student who did not have the reader for some reason. I wasn't able to figure it out until after he had left the room, but he did email after to state that he didn't know we needed that we needed a reader. I know I had held that reader up along side the book at least twice the day before the exam to clarify that one was to be used during the test and the other was not allowed. Luckily the professor stated he would deal with that situation.
I did enjoy my experience teaching though and wish I had more opportunity to do so in the semester. I think it would be really interesting if the professor would allow me to write one of the lectures, but I don't think that is likely to happen since we are behind in lectures. I have been asked if I want to be a discussion leader next year, but my program is already setting up another assistantship for me that sounds even better.
New Bed
With T's Christmas bonus we finally purchased a new bedroom set. Since T is so tall, we decided to get a king size. In the showroom they had a queen size with a low mattress and tall showroom ceilings, so we didn't realize that the bed was going to be as big as it is. It dominates the room, but still looks good. It is so tall that I have to climb into bed literally. (Taller than my waist.) I have spent many days doing my reading for school in bed, but I wish I could spend more time sleeping in it.
Bunny
This little guy was in our yard the other day. We see him every so often. I went to go put the recycling to the curb and he didn't move an inch. He even allowed me to get this close to take the picture. I wish I had thought about using my zoom though so that I could get a closer picture.
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