Hey, at least it hasn't been three months since I posted...
- Final call: Holiday card post here (DW) and here (LJ). I am sending these out this afternoon at some point, so they will go out TOMORROW. (Hopefully they'll get where they need to be in time- apologies if they don't. Meant to do it yesterday and didn't manage to leave the house.)
- I feel like I should say something about what happened in Connecticut, but there are just... no words. No words. What kind of monster goes into an elementary school and kills a bunch of kindergarteners? I don't even know. What disgusts me, though, is that even the DAY OF the shooting, people were already using it to promote their own agendas- the "this is what happens when we take god out of schools!" kind of bullshit. No, asshole. This is what happens when a violent psychopath gets a gun. Shut up. I also find it disturbing that even though there was a similar incident in China the same day (with a knife instead of a gun, and as far as I know, no one was killed), there has been virtually ZERO mention of it in US media. And once when I did see it mentioned (on facebook), it was in comparison to what happened in CT with an "ours was more important because people were killed!" slant. Er. What? 22 children were STABBED. And that's apparently insignificant? How SICK is that? Why are we having this game of who's tragedy is worse, anyway? FUCKING SERIOUSLY?
- Classes are done. I have two more finals this week- Math on Wednesday and Sociology on Thursday- and then I am FREEEEEEE for the semester. YAY! I was going to go to math extended office hours this week, buuuuut. I don't know that I really feel like it. I half think I should stay home and rest (see next bullet point)- since I =have= to go out the next two days regardless. And there IS a last minute office hour session before the test tomorrow, so I could still go to that. I dunno yet. I still have a little bit before I need to decide if I'm going today.
- Sore throat started Sunday and full-on runny nose and feeling like absolute crap started yesterday. JOOOOOOOY. Though I guess that explains why I've been so tired lately. If we can hold off on the coughing until like, Friday, that would be fabulous- not counting on it, though. It would also be nice if I didn't end up having to go to the doctor, because no insurance, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one either. It's going to suck if I'm sick for the entire break. -_-
- Update on the Great Coffee Experiment: Haven't tried the tea yet, but Kelly told me that the vanilla flavor of the Starbucks Frappucino things was a lot better than the mocha, so I tried it. Why not. It's actually not bad! I mean, it's still not going to be something I'm reaching for under normal circumstances, but it's pretty good for coffee. Of course, it's a calorie bomb, but... No kidding.)
- I actually felt pretty good going out of the Art History final. Of course, when I say pretty good with this class, I mean that I'm confident I passed it. XD Which is a HUGE contrast with the midterm where I walked out going, "oh fuck, I just flunked a midterm." So we'll see how that goes. If I can keep that overall B I had halfway through the semester, that would be fabulous.
- Somehow managed to finish the final paper for English Comp about 40 minutes before it was due- the timing was mainly due to the fact that I had waited entirely too long to give up on my original thesis, which gave me roughly 18 hours to write the new paper. Including sleep-time, travel time, and other classes. Whoops. ^_^;;; (Basically, the old one was WAY too big of a topic. I have no idea what I was thinking, because trying to prove the validity of dream interpretation is -easily- a 40 page paper. At LEAST. I was drowning in research and I only had the tip of the iceberg, so I had to bail. Ended up doing how specific types of dreams can help people in real life.)
Interesting thing I learned, appropriately timed for finals- There's a reason that pulling an all-nighter to cram doesn't actually help you, besides being exhausted when you take your exam. Dreams end up getting processed through the same areas of the brain that control things like memory and learning. REM sleep (when dreams happen) actually helps your brain to process information that it's learned, so if you don't sleep, it negatively affects retention. Basically- if you stay up all night studying, you won't remember that shit. Whereas if you got even a few hours of sleep, it would give your brain a little REM time to help process the information. Trufax.
Anyway. The last day of English Comp wasn't actually a class, you just came in and picked up your paper. I got an A+ on it, even without that much editing (no time). Er. Okay? Not going to argue. That means that I got an A+ on every single final draft I handed in to her. Not too shabby! :D The teacher told me that she was always happy to get to my papers because she knew it would be a good one. ^_^ She also asked if I write outside of school stuff, and when I said I did, she was like, she was like, you should really get some things submitted. Insisted that she thinks I could be really successful at it. So I'm supposed to think about it and e-mail her if I decide I want to, and she'll give me some websites to check out for submitting writing. O_o (Also, along those lines, she told me that I'm in the top 5% in ALL of her classes- and she also teaches classes at a local expensive private college. And apparently I have a higher thought process than most people? And I don't give myself enough credit, which is definitely true enough. XDDD)
-Short Story teacher also had some nice things to say- how my love of reading shows in my writing (though I only liked one story this semester, so how that worked out, I don't know). I should speak up more in class because I have a unique viewpoint that people could benefit from. Also, when I expressed dismay about the quality of the final essay (it's just... all over the place), she was like, "You know, with the rest of your grades, it almost doesn't even matter." XDDD So I guess I did pretty okay?
-Both "last days" for the English classes were on Thursday, so needless to say I left school Thursday feeling pretty damn good about myself. >^_^<
- We will see how that holds up with the rest of finals over the week, but hey. :P ---
This has been crossposted to my DW account. You are free to comment either here or there, if you'd like to comment. Preferably here, but it doesn't really matter. Whichever one works for you. :D
- I feel like I should say something about what happened in Connecticut, but there are just... no words. No words. What kind of monster goes into an elementary school and kills a bunch of kindergarteners? I don't even know. What disgusts me, though, is that even the DAY OF the shooting, people were already using it to promote their own agendas- the "this is what happens when we take god out of schools!" kind of bullshit. No, asshole. This is what happens when a violent psychopath gets a gun. Shut up. I also find it disturbing that even though there was a similar incident in China the same day (with a knife instead of a gun, and as far as I know, no one was killed), there has been virtually ZERO mention of it in US media. And once when I did see it mentioned (on facebook), it was in comparison to what happened in CT with an "ours was more important because people were killed!" slant. Er. What? 22 children were STABBED. And that's apparently insignificant? How SICK is that? Why are we having this game of who's tragedy is worse, anyway? FUCKING SERIOUSLY?
- Classes are done. I have two more finals this week- Math on Wednesday and Sociology on Thursday- and then I am FREEEEEEE for the semester. YAY! I was going to go to math extended office hours this week, buuuuut. I don't know that I really feel like it. I half think I should stay home and rest (see next bullet point)- since I =have= to go out the next two days regardless. And there IS a last minute office hour session before the test tomorrow, so I could still go to that. I dunno yet. I still have a little bit before I need to decide if I'm going today.
- Sore throat started Sunday and full-on runny nose and feeling like absolute crap started yesterday. JOOOOOOOY. Though I guess that explains why I've been so tired lately. If we can hold off on the coughing until like, Friday, that would be fabulous- not counting on it, though. It would also be nice if I didn't end up having to go to the doctor, because no insurance, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one either. It's going to suck if I'm sick for the entire break. -_-
- Update on the Great Coffee Experiment: Haven't tried the tea yet, but Kelly told me that the vanilla flavor of the Starbucks Frappucino things was a lot better than the mocha, so I tried it. Why not. It's actually not bad! I mean, it's still not going to be something I'm reaching for under normal circumstances, but it's pretty good for coffee. Of course, it's a calorie bomb, but... No kidding.)
- I actually felt pretty good going out of the Art History final. Of course, when I say pretty good with this class, I mean that I'm confident I passed it. XD Which is a HUGE contrast with the midterm where I walked out going, "oh fuck, I just flunked a midterm." So we'll see how that goes. If I can keep that overall B I had halfway through the semester, that would be fabulous.
- Somehow managed to finish the final paper for English Comp about 40 minutes before it was due- the timing was mainly due to the fact that I had waited entirely too long to give up on my original thesis, which gave me roughly 18 hours to write the new paper. Including sleep-time, travel time, and other classes. Whoops. ^_^;;; (Basically, the old one was WAY too big of a topic. I have no idea what I was thinking, because trying to prove the validity of dream interpretation is -easily- a 40 page paper. At LEAST. I was drowning in research and I only had the tip of the iceberg, so I had to bail. Ended up doing how specific types of dreams can help people in real life.)
Interesting thing I learned, appropriately timed for finals- There's a reason that pulling an all-nighter to cram doesn't actually help you, besides being exhausted when you take your exam. Dreams end up getting processed through the same areas of the brain that control things like memory and learning. REM sleep (when dreams happen) actually helps your brain to process information that it's learned, so if you don't sleep, it negatively affects retention. Basically- if you stay up all night studying, you won't remember that shit. Whereas if you got even a few hours of sleep, it would give your brain a little REM time to help process the information. Trufax.
Anyway. The last day of English Comp wasn't actually a class, you just came in and picked up your paper. I got an A+ on it, even without that much editing (no time). Er. Okay? Not going to argue. That means that I got an A+ on every single final draft I handed in to her. Not too shabby! :D The teacher told me that she was always happy to get to my papers because she knew it would be a good one. ^_^ She also asked if I write outside of school stuff, and when I said I did, she was like, she was like, you should really get some things submitted. Insisted that she thinks I could be really successful at it. So I'm supposed to think about it and e-mail her if I decide I want to, and she'll give me some websites to check out for submitting writing. O_o (Also, along those lines, she told me that I'm in the top 5% in ALL of her classes- and she also teaches classes at a local expensive private college. And apparently I have a higher thought process than most people? And I don't give myself enough credit, which is definitely true enough. XDDD)
-Short Story teacher also had some nice things to say- how my love of reading shows in my writing (though I only liked one story this semester, so how that worked out, I don't know). I should speak up more in class because I have a unique viewpoint that people could benefit from. Also, when I expressed dismay about the quality of the final essay (it's just... all over the place), she was like, "You know, with the rest of your grades, it almost doesn't even matter." XDDD So I guess I did pretty okay?
-Both "last days" for the English classes were on Thursday, so needless to say I left school Thursday feeling pretty damn good about myself. >^_^<
- We will see how that holds up with the rest of finals over the week, but hey. :P ---
This has been crossposted to my DW account. You are free to comment either here or there, if you'd like to comment. Preferably here, but it doesn't really matter. Whichever one works for you. :D