So it's exam time over here in Queen's University (one tomorrow in fact). And after that, no more Queen's. The different is already apperent as the requests for money have already begun to trickle in. But that's not how I roll. Ask not what I can do for Queen's but what Queen's can do for me. Now I can't get any scholarships per se because I'm leaving. However, I just got an email listing prizes that I can submit an essay to (or, more accurately, cajole and/or browbeat a prof to submit it). The first one wants an esasy of "particular literary excellence." Now, I haven't written an historical essay of "particular literary excellence" this year. In fact I don't think I've ever written an essay with "particular literary excellence" in any subject so I think I'll let that one pass. The next one is for military history for a seminar. Now, as it happens, I have just written an essay on military history for a seminar. It was on atrocities during the English Civil War, which creates a weird mental state. Because on one hand they're atrocities and thus bad, but on the other I need them for my essay. So I'd read about the massacre of a hundred defenceless soldier's wives after Naseby because they were thought to be Irish and my first reaction is "Awesome! That'll go great in my ethnic hatred section!" (My second, more human, reaction was of course: "How has this not been turned into a song by The Decemberists?" But it's probably not that great. The last history one is on peace and neutrality resolving conflicts and I have one on Chinese foreign policy with regard to the Vietnam War which is about peace/neutrality only in so far as China didn't openly fight the US. But what the hey, I think I'll submit it (along with one for the woman's studies prize where I'll send by "16 Military Wives" essay). Will I win? Probably not. But why not try?
Not even trying, apperently, are the abstinence crew at Harvard. It's ironic that they're saving themselves for marriage because the aura of smug self-righteousness would most likely act as an effective contraceptive.