The Story of the Weeping Camel

Before last night, I didn't know much about camels. But after viewing the film "The Story of the Weeping Camel" I came to appreciate their soulful nature. Who knew a 90-minute movie could endear me to such an unusual animal?

The film is simple and unhurried, taking its cue from the lives of the Mongolian family it documents. And except for a sandstorm and occasional bleating of camels, it's relatively quiet too. Watching this movie is a unique experience in contrast with most movies churned out by Hollywood...

The story centers around the birth of a white colt, rejected by its mother because of a long and difficult labor. And although that's all I'll reveal of the storyline, know that by the end of the movie, the camel will not be the only one shedding a tear.

So, whether you love camels, are intrigued by camels, or couldn't care less about a strange animal with a hump, this movie is for you!

Home sweet home

Home sweet home!
Those words have never meant so much to me as they do now. Several nights a week, a lie down at night in the room pictured above. (The mattress on the right is mine.) Sawdust, drywall dust, plaster dust, normal dust, and plain ol' dirt - I lie in it, I breathe it, and most of the time, I eat it on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I have for lunch everyday.

It's definitely not a life of luxury, and hopefully, it's not a life I'll have to live much longer. The 90 minute drive back home is almost unbearable nowadays. I can't wait to take a hot shower, wash away all the grime, and put on some "normal" clothes (that is, clothes that have not been deemed as "work" clothes because of their excessive amount of holes and stains). And while Josh is a great friend and roommate, he will never compare to my dear sweet wife, Ashley, who is always at home waiting with a hug and a kiss.

...and yes, that is a toilet on the left side of the picture. And yes - one hot night last fall, Josh did find relief by resting his legs against the cool porcelain...

MAT update

All of the admissions requirements for Mars Hill have now been completed except for one final essay!

As for the MAT on Wednesday...
The test format was computer-based, which made it slightly more difficult than the paper/pencil practice tests I'd taken, but that wasn't the biggest problem. Unfamiliarity with asian dictators, obscure elements of the periodic table, and 17th century french literature proved to be most difficult. How many times did I guess on the 120 question test? Hmm...potentially 100...seriously. Some were educated guesses after narrowing the field to 2 options. Others were completely blind stabs with no indication of which of the four could be correct.

So, how'd I do? Well, the official results with my percentile rank among other test-takers will not arrive for a few weeks; however, upon completing the test, the computer immediately tallied the answers. I was given an unofficial scaled score of 430. What does this mean? I don't know other than the scale is from 200-600 with 400 being average. So, I scored a little better than average. Not bad. It wasn't as good as I hoped, but it would get me into Mars Hill...

However, as I left the exam room, the proctor printed out a form with my unofficial score. "Wow," she said. "That's the highest score I've ever seen."
"What? I thought 400 was average???" I responded. "What raw score does that translate into?"
I was completed confused at that point, but my heart began to race.
"I don't know, " she replied, "but I've been doing this for 3 years, and I've never seen a 430. I'll occasionally see a 402 or 407, but 430 is the highest I've seen."

What???!!!

Two days later, I'm still completely confused, and I'm probably even more anxious now to get the official scoring report with the percentile rank. A friend of mine in town scored a 419 at the same location, so something is screwy about the proctor's comments. Whether I did really well or just a bit better than average doesn't matter. Either way, I did well enough to qualify for Mars Hill.

The M.A.T.

Tomorrow, I take the Miller Analogies Test (M.A.T.) for admission to Mars Hill Graduate School. For those of you unfamiliar with the content of the test, I'll provide a few examples:

They read "blank" (is to) "blank" (as) "blank" (is to) "blank"...

1.kitten : cat :: (a. cub b. puppy c. lamb d. calf) : sheep
2.columbus: (a. New York b. Ohio c. Nevada d. Indiana) :: Little Rock : Arkansas
3.cain : abel :: jacob : (a. esau b. daniel c. joseph d. ezekiel)

Answers 1. c 2. b 3. a

Wow, pretty easy right?

Now for the good stuff: oh yes, the relationship can be 1:2 :: 3:4 or it can be 1:3 :: 2:4 - that's for you to figure out.

1. (a. Chaucer b. Poe c. Trollope d. Amis) : FLAUBERT :: DICKENS : ZOLA
2. (a. The Merry Window b. Naughty Marietta c. Iolanthe d. Carmen) : MIKADO :: H.M.S. PINAFORE : GONDOLIERS
3. BANTER : BREACH :: RANT : (a. invert b. cross c. char d. teach)
4. DADA : SURREALISM :: (a. pop art b. classicism c. naturism d. rococo) : MINIMAL ART
5. CZECH REPUBLIC : (a. Capek b. Hasek c. Havel d. Mucha) :: INDIA : NEHRU
6. ABSTEMIOUS : LOQUACIOUS :: (a. perspicacious b. sensible c. morass d. moderate) : GARRULOUS

ANSWERS:
1.Gustave Flaubert and Emile Zola were literary contemporaries in France, and Anthony Trollope and Charles Dickens were literary contemporaries in England
2. The three givens are all operettas written by Gilbert and Sullivan. Iolanthe is the only Gilbert and Sullivan operetta offered among the choices.
3. removing the b and e from the word banter and jumbling the letters gives you the word rant. Likewise, removing the b and e and jumbling the word breach gives you the word char.
4. Surrealism emerged from the dadaist movement, just as pop art emerged from the minimalist art movement.
5. The first democratically elected leader of the Czech R. was Vaclav Havel, and the first dem. elected leader of India was Jawaharlal Nehru.
6. Abstemious and moderate are both synonyms, and loquacious and garrulous are both synonyms meaning talkative.

So, how'd you do? If you got any of those right, you did better than me! Needless to say, I'll be doing quite a bit of guessing tomorrow afternoon. You know a test is ridiculously difficult when your score of 72/120 on a practice test is really good...

Well, after a week of studying, my hair is hoary, my brain is hackneyed and my complexion has been etiolated from studying inside. However, I have become erudite and perhaps a little invidious, even though I'm still not a polymath . Well, this fatuous post must come to a close - I don't want anyone to think I'm becoming contumelious. I simply hope you're happy my mind has been ameliorated. And please don't consider me to be perspicacious, for I am still the same quotidian Troy you've always known. I've simply been placed in a quagmire and was compelled to quell my querulous spirit and instead become quixotic.

Your Raconteur (that's my new self-given sobriquet),

Troy

p.s. I think that was the most useful means I've discovered of studying vocab...