Elston’s Blog

At two hours, this was a moderately long movie, although it was engaging enough as to not prompt any feelings of weariness or boredom. Having not read the Sherlock Holmes series for several years now, the details of the case are vague to me, but the movie does accurately portray the characters and general feel of the literature, even though the use of the marriage between Watson and Mary was exaggerated, and thus the tension between Watson and Holmes as well.

The use of special effects was decent, with the Thames and industrial London being portrayed accurately, at least to my limited knowledge, i.e. there was Big Ben. However I think the general bustle of the city was conveyed, as well as its vast size. There were the regular witty lines, the contrasting personalities of Holmes and Watson, and good acting. I don’t think that this film will be extremely successful, as its viewership will be somewhat limited to the people who actually read the series; little kids and high school teenagers  will most likely turn this movie down for cheap thrillers or romantic comedies.

Of course, as it is Hollywood, the mystery was left incomplete, with at least one more direct sequel with the professor, and then probably another to resolve the conflict between Holmes and his lover. Trilogies always work well.

On the whole, 7.8/10

I’m home once again, after four months in the chilly and now snowy Boston. It feels nice, a feeling of being comfortable and cleanliness that was definitely missing at college. I have my orchids on my desk again, all the familiar objects in my house unmoved, and finally a comfortable bed again. And oh, 70 degree weather.

On the other hand, disappointing grades put something of a damper on the holiday spirit, but there’s nothing to be done about it, except trying harder and developing better study habits for the next semester, which I promise to myself to receive all A/A-…which is hard I suppose, given the school. Sigh. Where’s the grade inflation?!

First semester at college definitely changed my perspective on life in several ways, mainly that I see success (whatever that meant) as less important than being happy and fulfilled in life. Life is too short to be filled with unnecessary stress over the unimportant, or to care about those things that can only lead to resentment or bitterness. Of course, I’m going to continue to strive for the best grades possible, and for a top law school, but perhaps with less expectation of becoming the greatest person of all time. Generally my sense of self-worth has been deflated to a certain extent, although I won’t deny that I can probably come off as arrogant at times (even though I think it’s just self-confidence…); this I attribute to the massive number of people smarter than me at school. Sigh.

So has college so far been life-changing? Well, it’s changed me, undoubtedly, but I like to think that I’m essentially the same person. Shrug.

It’s 5 AM Thursday morning, and I’m preparing to go to bed after another long night of inefficiently studying for my 2 finals this Saturday. This entire week, there have officially been no classes, as the Harvard admins have decided to grant their students a week to study for finals. Basically, this week has been rather blah as a whole, trying to study as much as possible at the expense of sleep while trying to balance out two finals on the same day.

It’s not so much stress as acceptance of the inevitably of some not-so-great grades. Having read the same content repeatedly numbs the mind, but then when I’m not doing work, I feel rather guilty about wasting my time. That’s definitely something about Harvard; when one isn’t studying, even if meanwhile engaged in legitimate extracurricular activities, it seems that time is wasted, and that one should rush back and study study study.

Oh well. It’s taken me three occasions to write this short blog post, which should portray the fragmented nature of my life here, trying to take naps, do random extracurriculars, and study… Oh well.