Today I have decided to not pay attention to class. Well, to be honest I did not decide, I merely cannot, for the life of me, keep track of all that my professor is saying. As such, a wonderful friend of mine is sending me her notes from today. In my defense, I have written all the papers for this class and the final test is an in class essay that I can take time to prepare for. So the notes are not all too important. And the topic today is rather boring, even though he is a fascinating professor who one can tell enjoys his subjects and teaching.
There is one flaw in his classes though. Especially this one. This is all about Japan's Imperialistic years, which is a fascinating topic. However I love to play games such as Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Caesar III, 1604 AD etc. and it is not often for him to say something that makes me want to go and play the game. Even my other classes that ever deal with history (Which all my non-language classes do in some way) often mention Tokugawa.
Now Tokugawa was one of the three unifiers of Japan that was a very militaristic man that puts his clan in the position of Shogun (ruler) in Japan. In Civ IV, one can play as Japan with Tokugawa as the leader. Every time I hear the name I have an urge to go and play the game. To make it worse, there is also an era in history that is named after his clan. So the professor does not need to even be talking about something he did or refer to his life time, just the era. This is not helping my productivity!
Today's word is not a common word, however to any avid reader they would know it, but I have noticed that at times I only ever take the definition from the context. Which is a good skill, but it does not always lead to the correct definition. As in the case of this word, I did not know it could be anything but a verb. Go figure.
thwart (V)
1. to oppose successfully; prevent from accomplishing a purpose.
2. to frustrate or baffle (a plan, purpose, etc.).
(N)
3. a seat across a boat, esp. one used by a rower.
4. a transverse member spreading the gunwales of a canoe or the like.
(ADJ)
assing or lying crosswise or across; cross; transverse.
6. perverse; obstinate.
7. adverse; unfavorable.
No comments:
Post a Comment