Deus ex Machina

[oceantheorem]

So, along the same lines as the stuck songness is the stuck phraseness. For the last five days or so, I've had the phrase "Deus ex Machina" stuck in my head. I've been finding all SORTS of ways to apply the phrase to daily life over the last week. (For those of you that don't know, a Deus ex Machina is a plot device used in literature that... well... it's like plot cheating. The author pulls something out of thin air to resolve a completely otherwise unresolvable situation, something that couldn't at all have been anticipated, and something that makes the situation all peachy and perfect. It's a literary cop-out, sort of. In Latin it means "God in the machine," as though... um... you use a machine that's godlike to fix an unfixable situation. I think.)

So (and I swear this is related) this week I haven't had much free time. I studied for the GRE like mad, worked on my thesis a bit, got some cells going, went to classes, actually took the GRE, got stranded in San Jose for six hours afterwards, etc. I didn't start my PChem homework until last night, which was unfortunate, since it was due this morning. It wasn't that I was putting it off--I actually like this class and I really want to do well, and I *gasp* ENJOY doing the homework--it was just that I hadn't had time to start it before last night.

So I was up until past midnight working on the stupid assignment, exhausted and slightly crazed, in that sort of state where matchsticks are holding your eyelids up and you're laughing at shadows. I finally put the homework down (I only had like two problems left) at the end of my bed, in a neat stack, ready for me to pick up this morning so that I could get to school early and get help from one of my friends.

I got up this morning a few minutes late and sort of rushed out of the door. I picked up my notebook, which had my homework in it, and went to school. I got there half an hour early and opened my bag. Notebook, check. Homework in notebook... not check.

Panic ensued. I'm usually so organized and paranoid about homework--I'm not the kid that forgets shit and shows up unprepared! I almost cried. I hadn't slept much, I didn't have my (extremely important) homework, which I'd actually DONE, and wasn't just trying to get an extension on, and the caffeine in the cup in my hand was so NOT in my bloodstream. I wasn't going to be able to get my homework to the grader until Monday morning. I don't have a car and couldn't feasibly get up to campus twice today--too much other stuff to do (I actually ended up having to cancel one of my things anyway, and I'm still too busy to get back up to campus). So my homework was going to be late and my grade was falling and bye-bye graduate school... (boy, is my imagination overactive)

And then. The Deus ex Machina.

I got a scanner this week. My dad sent it to me as a five-month-late birthday present. I hooked it up on Wednesday. I kid you not.

So I rode my bike home, turned on my scanner, scanned in my homework (which was inside my textbook at the foot of my bed, right where I'd left it...) and emailed it to my TA.

Fucking Deus ex Machina. God in the stupid machine. God in the stupid scanning machine.

Comments

[bananasofdeath.livejournal.com]

god out of the machinery...

[oceantheorem.livejournal.com]

Well, close enough. I mean, even though in and out are opposites, really, the phrase means what I said it means. Or at least... it's close enough.

I wish I'd had a chance to take more Latin...

[bananasofdeath.livejournal.com]

all right, it's close enough. but man, you must not have been paying attention when you took Latin...

[oceantheorem.livejournal.com]

Well, I only took the one quarter. And yeah... I really didn't pay attention. I was taking it pass/fail and was WAY more concerned with my biochem and physics classes. That was the quarter that I didn't sleep (I mean, I slept even less than in other quarters) because I stayed up all night every night working on physics homework, and then I had to slog through biochem when the physics was done. So if I DID do my Latin, it was either during Latin or while I was waiting for another class to start... so I didn't really internalize much of it. I just sort of... passed the class by using context to decipher words. I did pretty badly on the straight vocab sections.
Anyway.
How are you?

[bananasofdeath.livejournal.com]

I'm doing all right... mildly disturbed by the amount of attention having a crush takes up... I think I forget what it's like every single time.

[oceantheorem.livejournal.com]

I'm having the EXACT same problem right now.

How's that going? Besides eating up all your time?

And how's other stuff? You owe me a letter...

[bananasofdeath.livejournal.com]

Er. I don't know how it's going. It just... takes up a lot of time.

He's SO NERDY!! AHHHHH!

Anyway.

Speak of the devil, I wrote you a letter this morning. I'll... try and get that sent some time in the next month.

Deus ex Machina

[kaminoshi.livejournal.com]

The origins of the phrase come from Greek drama. They would set up this horrible story line that could never possibly be repaired, and then they would literally lower a God, typically Zeus, in a cage-like machine/contraption. God would talk for a few minutes, and everything would be all better. Poof.

Although the scanning machine is pretty amusing...

Re: Deus ex Machina

[oceantheorem.livejournal.com]

Ahhh. I didn't know the exact origin. That's awesome.

*laugh* Yeah... I thought the scanner was pretty funny.