"And when we're done we'll boil 'em down for glue"
Ugh taking a break from GRE studying. I haven't been doing it nearly enough as it is, but good lord is it dull. Plus it wants me to go through the verbal stuff first and keeps saying "you should really work on your vocabulary! Really! You don't know enough words!" and it's just nonsense: they haven't had a single word I've not heard in the book so far. Some I couldn't define offhand, but I could use all of them in a sentence. Like come on, are these words people don't know? Torpid? Austere? Ennui? COME ON I knew all these in high school, and this isn't the SAT. Whatever, though, I'll take what I can get. And the example questions sometimes have weird/difficult shades of meaning so I'm not too proud to say I've missed a couple.
I'm more worried about math, but still not overly concerned - it's all stuff I know already, I just have to make sure I remember it, and remember it easily/quickly. Which is what the practice and studying are for I guess. The part that makes me super nervous is the essay-writing. I mean, it's never been a problem for me to write BS essays in timed conditions before (see 2 silver medals at State for Academic Decathlon, both for books I hadn't actually read), but it makes me nervous because a) I feel out of practice and b) I some how feel like it'll be graded really harshly and/or I won't be able to come up with sufficient information to make a coherent paper. Boo hiss. Oh, well. I'll get to that, soon, too. The essay section is actually the reason I haven't taken any of the practice tests yet :/ I'm not excited about it.
Unrelatedly, the dream I had this morning is making the whole day weird. I think it might make a really good book, actually, if I could figure out how to flesh it out properly and attach a better plot than "she/they figure out what happened" - or at least one that's more involved than that. Basic starting point: everyone in the country (possibly world? Dunno how global I want to make it) has died. They just fell down dead. I mean I guess logically it's sort of more coma-like, but it's my dream so it's a non-rotting, magical death. Eventually, they start waking up. People wake up at different times, and nobody knows how long it's been (but they do have a sense of it being later than it was). Sort of Flash-Forwardy at this point, but not really. Anyhow, everybody remembers how they woke up, what it was like - but it's not the same for everyone. There are about 12 different things people remember about waking up (for some it was following the smell of food, for some it was waking from a dream, for some falling, some digging, etc). Anyhow it turns out there are 12 supernatural figures of some kind responsible for this, and a whole society redevelops, incorporating their 12 temples etc. Many years later, the heroine (or at least protagonist) finally wakes up.
I don't know if that sounds interesting to anyone else, but I think it could be a good starting place. Thoughts? I know this method of soliciting opinions hasn't gotten me very far in the past, but it's always worth a shot. It's really sticking in my head and I want to know if it piques anyone else's interest.
I should really do some packing, too. Maybe I'll see how many pairs of shoes I can fit into a box today. OH! Speaking of shoes - elyndys, I don't know if you've been to Office recently, but Friday they had those heeled oxfords in new colors! I really liked the blue, but also the cracked white with little flowers reminded me of fancy tea sets and I sort of loved them, except I probably wouldn't wear white shoes...
Anyway I should probably try to get those shoes organized, and then probably do more GRE stuff...and possibly work up some outlines or something for the dream story. Maybe that will help.
I'm more worried about math, but still not overly concerned - it's all stuff I know already, I just have to make sure I remember it, and remember it easily/quickly. Which is what the practice and studying are for I guess. The part that makes me super nervous is the essay-writing. I mean, it's never been a problem for me to write BS essays in timed conditions before (see 2 silver medals at State for Academic Decathlon, both for books I hadn't actually read), but it makes me nervous because a) I feel out of practice and b) I some how feel like it'll be graded really harshly and/or I won't be able to come up with sufficient information to make a coherent paper. Boo hiss. Oh, well. I'll get to that, soon, too. The essay section is actually the reason I haven't taken any of the practice tests yet :/ I'm not excited about it.
Unrelatedly, the dream I had this morning is making the whole day weird. I think it might make a really good book, actually, if I could figure out how to flesh it out properly and attach a better plot than "she/they figure out what happened" - or at least one that's more involved than that. Basic starting point: everyone in the country (possibly world? Dunno how global I want to make it) has died. They just fell down dead. I mean I guess logically it's sort of more coma-like, but it's my dream so it's a non-rotting, magical death. Eventually, they start waking up. People wake up at different times, and nobody knows how long it's been (but they do have a sense of it being later than it was). Sort of Flash-Forwardy at this point, but not really. Anyhow, everybody remembers how they woke up, what it was like - but it's not the same for everyone. There are about 12 different things people remember about waking up (for some it was following the smell of food, for some it was waking from a dream, for some falling, some digging, etc). Anyhow it turns out there are 12 supernatural figures of some kind responsible for this, and a whole society redevelops, incorporating their 12 temples etc. Many years later, the heroine (or at least protagonist) finally wakes up.
I don't know if that sounds interesting to anyone else, but I think it could be a good starting place. Thoughts? I know this method of soliciting opinions hasn't gotten me very far in the past, but it's always worth a shot. It's really sticking in my head and I want to know if it piques anyone else's interest.
I should really do some packing, too. Maybe I'll see how many pairs of shoes I can fit into a box today. OH! Speaking of shoes - elyndys, I don't know if you've been to Office recently, but Friday they had those heeled oxfords in new colors! I really liked the blue, but also the cracked white with little flowers reminded me of fancy tea sets and I sort of loved them, except I probably wouldn't wear white shoes...
Anyway I should probably try to get those shoes organized, and then probably do more GRE stuff...and possibly work up some outlines or something for the dream story. Maybe that will help.