The lyf so short

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

... more to come when I'm capable of articulating myself again. Perhaps.

For now, let it be said that Neil Gaiman is Teh Awesome (which will surprise nobody), that in his voice and way of talking he reminds me a lot of Prof. Aczel, that I hate being incapable of uttering something intelligent at signings (alas, I am a personality cultist after all), and that nimielle and I had a flash of amusement at noticing that 'kneel' and 'Neil' are homophones. (Right, I'll explain that one. So as we were getting closer and closer to Neil and we were feeling all nervous and fangirly, I suddenly had to think of that anecdote with the guy meeting Tolkien in a pub and later recalling that it was really nice and they had a wonderful talk, but it was really really hard not to kneel, so I said to nimielle, "Whatever you do, don't kneel", and she heard, "don't Neil", and there was much exhilarated giggling.)

There were way too many brilliant, funny and deep Quotes of the Day, none of which are present in my brain at present, because I fail and didn't think of bringing some kind of recording device. Or a camera. Did bring American Gods and Neverwhere for him to scrawl in, though.

macalla_: Got your copy, too. Am tempted to keep it, because it's an all-new edition with the "author's preferred text". As it's dedicated to you, though, I guess you're lucky ;)

nimielle, thank you for coming along! I would've been terrified to go alone.

... and one funny tidbit after all, because I can at least remember that:
(The reading was held at a car dealer, because the lit.COLOGNE intends to bring literature to extraordinary places.)
Gneil: "I'll read a paragraph, and then Gerd will read another paragraph in German. It'll work. And if it doesn't, you'll get a free car."

... cannot brain. Off to London Below Bremen bed.

Yesterday, when I brought shiverdl home after the belated Christmas party at the WG, I said that it was time for Spring. Either Spring, or a decent snowfall; not, at any rate, the lousy cold grey raininess we've been having these past weeks.
Accordingly, it's snowing today. Speak of the devil...

Speaking of 'speaking': Is it bad that today in Middle English, when the question came up whether there was a common root to Old English queþan ('to speak') and Latin quaerere ('to ask'), and if so, where it would come from, that my first thought was, "Duh, Quenya. quet-, of course."?
I think it is. Fun, though.
Eru, I love my Middle English class. I'm so grateful for Mr Kohnen - finally someone who gives mediaevistic classes! And luckily, there'll be some interesting seminars in the new semester: Medieval English Literature, Early Middle English, Historical Pragmatics and Shakespeare's sources. AND registration won't begin before Feb. 1st, so I actually have a chance to get into those classes! *insert excitement here*

Speaking of the belated Christmas party yesterday: eliathanis painted Fëanor for me. Soooo pretty. I got lots of other lovely presents too - sealing wax and an eraser pencil and a beautiful Paperblank and a pocket calendar and an address book, the latter two decorated with old maps, and a LotR bookmark, but the painting is the best. (Not to slight all the other gifts, I hope you don't misunderstand. I love them all. But... Fëanor! Gosh, I'm so ridiculously easy to please.)

And the Anthro exam preparation made me want to play Age of Empires again even though it's evil and evolutionistic but at least it's not eurocentric. So that's what I'll try now, briefly, and then I'll start writing my termpaper on French Colonialism in the Southern Pacific (*yawn*). At least I already have a detailed outline this time.

I
A - 28/30
B1- 9/10
B2- 10/10
Ca- 6,5/7
Cb- 7/7
II
D - 14/16
E - 15/20
Total - 89,5/100
Grade - 1,7

...
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWP!