The last metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace...
I turned in my last paper Tuesday, and so ends my first semester in Grad School. I have to say these last or three weeks have been mostly a paper writing blur to me. I had three major projects to finish up, and I can't remember how many smaller projects that mainly served to take away time from these major papers. Really didn't have time to do anything else. So many late nights writing papers. My room was so cold, I took to writing papers from my bed.
But now that is all behind me. I've turned in my last paper for the semester, and now I get a month off. Sigh, Of the three papers I turned in, I only really feel good about one of them. The first paper that I turned it was an absolute beast. 20 pages, basically the sum of what I had been learning in that class. I had to give a powerpoint presentation based on that paper on the Tuesday before it was due, so I used most of my weekend making that presentation. Then I used the notes from that to make the actual paper. Worked better in theory than in practice. I literally ran out of time trying to finish that paper. I got it to its required length, but I didn't have enough time to go back and proof read it (and if you've been reading me over the last year, you know I make a lot of grammatical mistakes. I also wanted to go back and add in more citations, but alas. Even printing it off was a hassle, I was running that close to the wire. I printed it off, then had to rush it to the proff nearly mintues before it was due. Afterwards, I felt extremely depressed about it. So I took a four hour nap, then did some cleaning and started to research on the next paper.
And then came Saturday. What a day...if was the day of Distant Worlds in chicago (Distant Worlds is an orchestra concert where they play music from the Final Fantasy series written by Nobou Uematsu.) I went to bed early that night, so I got up early that day. Did a little research, then I went UWM to pick up a book from the library I need for my report, and to get some cash out of the ATM. Unfortunately, I forgot the pin number for one of my cards, and I didn't have enough money my other card. I figured I'd need cash for tolls and stuff. So basically, I have to stop half way to Chicago to get cash from an ATM. Except I pushed the wrong button and only got a 20 instead of the forty I wanted. "Oh well," I figured, "Twenty should do." This would come back to bite me in the ass.
So anyway, I get to Chicago (technically Rosemont), so I go to scope out the area first. Parking at the concert hall is really expensive (20 per car), so I wanted somewhere cheaper. I was basically able to find a Park n' Ride next to a CTA station that only cost 5 bucks, satisfied that it was within walking distance of the concert hall, I then proceeded to Mitsuwa, cause I can never not stop there if I'm in the area. So I get some Ramen and bakery items, which leaves me with about 4 bucks left in cash. Anyway, skipping over a bunch of other stuff that's basically me driving around...I get back to the park n ride only to find out that their parking machines only except cash. No credit or debt. So I leave there, find a gas station ATM, get some cash, go back to the park n ride, pay, then walk to the concert hall. I had hoped to get there early, so I could get some reading done while waiting for the concert, but that didn't work out as well as I hoped. And then the concert started...
It was FANTASTIC.
The first song was just a choral arrangement of the prelude, and it blew me away. the rest of the night was just as great with all the premiers such as Jenova and Dancing Mad (both of which were great), a bunch of other songs they've never done in America like Melodies of Life, and of few other classics. Only thing I wasn't too crazy about was how they ended the night with an encore of the song they just played (which was just a version of One Wing Angel with a rock band). It's a fun song, but I've just heard it way too many times. But overall, I think it might have been the best FF concert I had ever been to.
Getting out wasn't as fun. I got lost. Baddly. Basically, I missed my turn, so I ended up going too far North. Unfortunately, I passed an Arena just as something there was getting up, so I got caught in that traffic twice. And when I finally get turned around, and seemingly on the right track, I miss my turn YET AGAIN! This time, I end up going down I 90 heading towards Chicago. Fortunately, I was able to get back on 94 (I was originally shooting for 294). I ended up in Milwaukee about 2 hours after I hoped to be there. sigh.
I end up sleeping in the next day until about noon. Finally, I start writing my paper at about 5. Usually when this happens, it's a very painful process. However, this paper was a breeze to write. Strange. Maybe it was about Japanese history, which is definitely my strength. I also got to use half the paper explaining the background of what I was writing, most of which I could do from memory. I'm not to sure if my professor will like it, but I got an A on my last paper in that class, so I'm not too worried. Finally, I got to my last paper. Fortunately, rough drafts of this paper were due earlier that semester, so I wasn't working from nothing there. But still, I under estimated how much time I had, ended up working on it all night, finishing up around 1pm. After trudging to school and possibly getting frost bite in my toe, I turn it in, then walk back. I play some video games in a trance like state, then got to sleep.
I didn't really hit me that I was done till the next day. But done I was. Unfortunately, I was out of underwear. So I did some emergency laundry, and then go to a rifftrax special event. After getting back from that, I realize that I was out of food. So I basically decided that I'd go back to my parents house, rather than buying so more food. So that's where I am now.
I guess the postscript to this story would be this: That 20 page paper was for my museums class. I needed to get a solid B in that class in order to proceed to the next level. Based on my calculations, I needed to get at least a B on this 20 page paper in order to get a B for the class. On Wednesday, I checked to see if there were any grades online yet. There was one. It was for my Museums class.
I got a B.
Best B I ever got.