Le Temps Viendra vs. Lost In Austen

Well, I've only read the first chapter of Le Temps Viendra by Sarah Morris.  So far it is very very captivating! I definitely think I will love this book! However, one thing I noticed immediately when reading the description of this book is that this sounds very similar to the mini-series "Lost In Austen".

For those of you who aren't familiar with the mini-series "Lost In Austen", it is about a modern day woman who lives with her lazy boyfriend whom she has grown tired of dealing with. She is obsessed with the book "Pride And Prejudice" by Jane Austen and particularly with the main character, Elizabeth Bennett. She also hopes to one day meet and fall in love with a man like Mr. Darcy. Then, one day, she meets Elizabeth Bennett and they swap places, Elizabeth Bennett lives in the modern world and the main character (I can't remember her name) lives in Elizabeth Bennett's world.  She loves it there, but as time goes on she's torn between her world and the world of her favourite book. It's a very good series and i would highly recommend it to anyone who's a fan of either Jane Austen or the storyline of the book Le Temps Viendra.

I'm wondering if maybe Sarah Morris wasn't partially influenced by this mini-series. Especially since she is British, and "Lost In Austen" is a BBC production and, from my understanding, more popular in the UK then in the USA.

I just thought I would point out the similarities.  I'm really looking forward to reading this book. I've read about Anne Boleyn in the past and have always found her and her background fascinating. I love British History/literature (if you don't believe me, you should see the collection of DVDs my family and I own lol) so this book is right up my alley. My family's even wanting to read it after I'm done.

My Take on Tattoos

Many people view tattoos as a means of expressing themselves whereas there are still numerous "old-fashioned" people who view tattoos as inappropriate, or even as a sin.  Personally, I don't have any tattoos and more than likely I will never get one.  I have thought about getting one in the past, but honestly, the ink that they use in tattoos is filled with chemicals and toxins and I wouldn't want to inject that into my body.  I suffer from eczema and have skin problems and my body reacts very badly to toxins and chemicals sometimes.  Just dying my hair caused gobs of my hair to fall out! And I didn't even bleach it or anything. So who knows how my body would react to the chemicals in the ink they use in tattoos!

However, this does not mean that I don't appreciate other people's tattoos. I believe tattoos can be a great way of expressing yourself as long as you do it tastefully.  One of my absolute best friends has tattoos on her body and each one represents something about her life and her past. Her goal is for all the tattoos on her body to tell a story.  She has a catholic rosary necklace tattooed around her ankle because she grew up catholic and her mother was catholic.  It reminds her of her mother who died due to pancreatic cancer when she was only 14. She also has a tattoo of her daughter's name as well as the father of her daughter.  She is planning on more tattoos and designs to symbolize all that she's gone through. I really like how she's getting her tattoos and if I were to get tattoos that is how I would go about it. However, there are people who make mistakes and get tattoos that I consider stupid and ridiculous. For example, my sister once went to college with a girl who got a tattoo of a frog on (of all places) her stomach!  Talk about stupid! But it gets worse, just a few months after getting the tattoo she got pregnant.  According to my sister, the frog was stretched out badly by the time she reached 8 months. After she had the baby, the frog was all shriveled up and wrinkly. Needless to say, she regretted that tattoo and was looking into getting it removed.

For those who choose to get tattoos, I believe there should be a lot of thought put into which tattoos you pick and where, because you'll have to live with it for the rest of your life.

Chapter 32 of The St. Martin's Guide to Writing

Finally! I am writing my second blog post.  I meant to do this a lot sooner, but between having to work and my stupid internet not working, it got delayed. But, hopefully (with the help of a lot of energy drinks) I can get caught up.

Chapter 32 explains about how important it is to collaborate with other people especially when writing.  Allowing others to read your work as you're in the process of developing it allows you to get a different perspective on the paper so maybe they'll see things that you're missing or that need to be developed more.  It also discusses being blunt with the person's paper you are reviewing. Sometimes it's hard being frank with someone when they've made mistakes on their paper but you have to keep in mind that being "polite" and not telling them what's wrong with their paper is hindering them in the long run because they may never notice it and then end up losing points for it when it is graded. I know I really appreciate it when someone is frank with me when reading my papers if I made a mistake because then I can learn from it and fix it.  And there are times where I make punctuation mistakes or have problems wording something and don't notice it no matter how many times I read it and it isn't until someone else points it out that I realize it. So I think it's very crucial to have other people go over your papers and discuss them with you.

First English Assignment

Just an hour before I have to go to class, I finally finished my English assignments for this week. Phew! That was a close one! Juggling around 2 jobs while being a full time college student is not easy, but it is possible. You just really have to push yourself (i.e. stay away from facebook, actually more like staying away from the internet altogether). The assignment I was given was to read about writing business letters and memos and then we actually had to write a business letter to the teacher describing what we've learned in previous English classes, what we still need to learn, and how we write/communicate in our daily lives. The books we read from were a huge help in writing the business letter. I've learned about writing business letters before in previous English classes, but it's been a few years and I haven't written any business letters lately so I was a bit rusty.  I very much doubt I could have written the business letter as well as I did without the books. They explained the exact format to write a business letter in (i.e. how many spaces, where to put the address, how to close the letter, etc...) and how concise it should be and what you should include in it. We were allowed to use a fake heading and fake address so naturally I used the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry heading (from Harry Potter) and had the address be 221b Baker Street London, England (from Sherlock).

Anyway, so far I'm really enjoying the class, my teacher is very friendly and open, it looks as though we're gonna have some pretty cool assignments (this blog for one), and I'm looking forward to sharpening my English skills. Surely I'm not the only one that's excited about this class... Anyone???