The Calm Before the Storm: Twiddling my Thumbs and Awaiting the End
Division III
I am in a very strange place right now with my Division III. Where everyone else is plugging away, rushing to get as much done of their Division III as possible with the last month afforded to us. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs trying to find something to do. Why, you may ask? Because of horrible, horrible circumstance. Last week Natalie failed to give me the corrections she promised me on Tuesday. Despite me emailing her three times that week she never found the time to finish her comments. On Friday, when I was supposed to meet with Deb Gorlin to go over my second chapter, she emailed me the day of and told me she was dreadfully ill.
My carefully laid plans to space out my work have failed. I've done as much as I could in the meantime, reading through what I have written so far (although stopped for the fear that the words started to have no meaning to me after awhile), and have outlined and brainstromed to death my final two chapters. My committee told me not to write anything of my next two chapters until our meeting next week during Advising Day, as they want to have direct input on these 'pivotal chapters'. Yet, I've even cheated with that. With my results in hand I've begun writing a rant in my conclusion regarding arts in education, the death of critical thinking skills being taught in American education, and of course how NCLB and the standards-based movement is pretty much ruining everything about education while not enriching it in any way.
It is a very strange thing having a break 'forced' onto you and feeling so much anxiety watching everyone else working fruitfully while I sit trying to find things to do to take my mind off the fact that I don't have anything more to do. All I can do is try and take my mind off things so as not to provoke my anxiety, since from this unplanned break my life is going to be all the more crazy for while I catch up. I foresee the next two weeks being especially wonky as I rush to get caught. As if the month of April wasn't going to be terrible enough. Blessed be that the end is at least still in sight.
Tomorrow begins the trial, and as bizarre as it sounds I can't wait to start working again.
Mount Holyoke Windows I
Originally uploaded by Peter Gray. Photography
A few weeks ago after saving up and my parents paying for some as a late Christmas and Birthday present from last year, I purchased a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ50. My first real camera since the old Nikon my mom leant me for High School. I haven't had nearly as much time to play with it and familiarize myself both with the camera and about the art (and technical aspects) of photography. Yesterday, I went out with flamingjuly to Mount Holyoke to take pictures. We photographed for a few hours and got some pretty nice pictures of Mount Holyoke's gorgeous campus. I'm in the process of uploading those photos which you can view here.
I pretty frequently update my newly Pro'ed Flickr account, so if you're on Flickr friend me and check out some of the photos I've taken. I'd love feedback or comments! I've still got a lot to learn and the best way to do that is to get feedback.
I am in a very strange place right now with my Division III. Where everyone else is plugging away, rushing to get as much done of their Division III as possible with the last month afforded to us. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs trying to find something to do. Why, you may ask? Because of horrible, horrible circumstance. Last week Natalie failed to give me the corrections she promised me on Tuesday. Despite me emailing her three times that week she never found the time to finish her comments. On Friday, when I was supposed to meet with Deb Gorlin to go over my second chapter, she emailed me the day of and told me she was dreadfully ill.
My carefully laid plans to space out my work have failed. I've done as much as I could in the meantime, reading through what I have written so far (although stopped for the fear that the words started to have no meaning to me after awhile), and have outlined and brainstromed to death my final two chapters. My committee told me not to write anything of my next two chapters until our meeting next week during Advising Day, as they want to have direct input on these 'pivotal chapters'. Yet, I've even cheated with that. With my results in hand I've begun writing a rant in my conclusion regarding arts in education, the death of critical thinking skills being taught in American education, and of course how NCLB and the standards-based movement is pretty much ruining everything about education while not enriching it in any way.
It is a very strange thing having a break 'forced' onto you and feeling so much anxiety watching everyone else working fruitfully while I sit trying to find things to do to take my mind off the fact that I don't have anything more to do. All I can do is try and take my mind off things so as not to provoke my anxiety, since from this unplanned break my life is going to be all the more crazy for while I catch up. I foresee the next two weeks being especially wonky as I rush to get caught. As if the month of April wasn't going to be terrible enough. Blessed be that the end is at least still in sight.
Tomorrow begins the trial, and as bizarre as it sounds I can't wait to start working again.
Mount Holyoke Windows I
Originally uploaded by Peter Gray. Photography
A few weeks ago after saving up and my parents paying for some as a late Christmas and Birthday present from last year, I purchased a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ50. My first real camera since the old Nikon my mom leant me for High School. I haven't had nearly as much time to play with it and familiarize myself both with the camera and about the art (and technical aspects) of photography. Yesterday, I went out with flamingjuly to Mount Holyoke to take pictures. We photographed for a few hours and got some pretty nice pictures of Mount Holyoke's gorgeous campus. I'm in the process of uploading those photos which you can view here.
I pretty frequently update my newly Pro'ed Flickr account, so if you're on Flickr friend me and check out some of the photos I've taken. I'd love feedback or comments! I've still got a lot to learn and the best way to do that is to get feedback.