it's the end of the world as we know it (and i feel fine)

[hathycol]

My exams are over. I would be jubilent but right now I just feel tired, headachey and a bit cheesed off because I have to go into work tomorrow after pimping myself to swap anyone for any shift. Bastards. I'm sorely tempted just to turn up and say "I told you I couldn't work Friday! Can I PLEASE go home?" and then hopefully go home. Maybe. I have an appointment to get my hair cut at 11am which I'm quite looking forward to, and then into Dundee for some well-deserved retail therapy and then go and get plastered in the evening. This is NO GOOD if I'm just shattered from work and can't go back to sleep due to exciting hair cutting and wanting to keep my bonce looking nice. OH THE TRAUMAS. I do need the money though.

My tutor was there for the exam. He cheerfully informed me that he was looking forward to seeing me in his special subject, which I had once expressed an interest in. I'm not sure if he was being heartily sarcastic or in fact did not despise me as much as he did and it was all a cunning act. He missed his calling in drama if the latter is the case. I'm sure he must despise me, given I flew at him demanding to know why the last question was such a bitch. ("Is the self-absorption of Pepys the reason why his Diary is such a valuable historical resource?" Fucked if I know was roughly mr answer, spread out over florid terms and four pages) but told him that I let him off because the rest of the exam was pretty good. Actually, it was; other than that horrible thematic question, I did one good gobbet, one passable one, and a fairly blinding essay on the subject of Pepys's personal religion. If I say so myself. Which I do.

But there we are. It's all over now, so I just have to drink lots of wine and wait for the results. I'm a bit shell-shocked, actually - what on earth do I have to do with myself now? I was watching Hollyoaks and feeling guilty until I realised that, in fact, I could watch as much Hollyoaks as I wanted. Oh my.

Comments

[hyrnetanga.livejournal.com]

"Is the self-absorption of Pepys the reason why his Diary is such a valuable historical resource?"

Wuh? *Makes puzzled face usually reserved for complex numbers and the like*

[tashmania.livejournal.com]

I did the same thing...!

However, yay for exams being over :-) You lucky thing!

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

That was roughly my response to the question. IN SHORT:

Pepys's Diary is about Samuel Pepys. He doesn't fill in context - he never names his wife, for example - and he only writes about things that affect him. He never, for another example, talks about Scotland, being an English Londoner. There in lies the self-absorption part. HOWEVER is this the reason why the Diary is such a valuable resource to historians?

To which my answer, after working out what the question meant, was "Well, a bit." Because it sort of is because it gives unparalleed access to daily routines and stuff like but ALSO the reason it is so useful is Pepys's attitudes to record-keeping, his skill at capturing a scene and the fact that he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

BASICALLY it is an arsey question that all of us struggled over.

And that is the most intellectual comment I've ever made on LJ.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Roughly, er, see below. Horrible, horrible questions.

YAY FOR EXAMS BEING OVER. I feel terrible for people who still have them, though! *pets*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Yay for exams being over! Congratulations on making it through.

[sevenhelz.livejournal.com]

GO YOU
also, did you mean to type "mr answer"? because i find it rather adorable :)
*hug*
x

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

I HAVE SURVIVED.

I only have to sit another... let me see... five exams in my life, not including the various graduate scheme malarky. Bloody hell.

[hyrnetanga.livejournal.com]

*Is wild with jealousy* I usually get landed with about 10 per semester! And half of them are oral exams!

Yes I know it's my own fault for choosing a silly course, but I'm still bitter about it.

[hyrnetanga.livejournal.com]

"He never, for another example, talks about Scotland, being an English Londoner"

I don't suppose he mentions the barren, frozen wasteland that is The North either?

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Not from what I can remember off the top of my head. Which is natural, I suppose, as buggar all happened in the North as this point in terms of news that would have reached London; Pepys was pretty introverted. Except for the Earl of Derby getting his head chopped off? (That's our local one that technically owns Ormskirk and everywhere around it for like a squillion miles; I felt dead proud.) I think he had his head chopped off before Pepys wrote about it. Eh.

Plus the North was pretty sparsely populated so nowt really happened. And we still technically spoke a different language... WE ARE HARDY CREATURES, US NORTHERNERS.