word vomit
Haven't posted on here in a while, least of all anything of context.
Got to see Smelly and Pate this weekend, as well as Tim, Bill, Jules, Becca and Meghan, none of whom I've seen in several weeks (I see Tom, Jen and Steve constantly), but Smell and Pate are the big deals, living all the way in Chicago (which has many suburbs) as they do.
We also broke Waterfalls at one point, thanks to stacking stupid rules on top of each other.
Parties and drunken weekends are, sadly, at something of an end because I've spent entirely too much money in the last three weeks and am pretty much broke, so outside of houseparties, and I guess Locker Room on Thursdays, I'm gonna be absent. But then, this weekend was kind of special and the next two weekends involve houseparties anyway so it's all good, yo.
As much as I love my friends and love hanging out and drinking with them though, that's not the point of this post.
I wanna talk about Bones and Buffy and a bunch of other shows!
No, actually I was gonna talk about school, because aside from politics, I only have three topics I ever mention on LJ.
I have an exam tomorrow morning in Russian, which I'm not nearly as confident about as I was the first one. I feel that I've been letting my studies slip, which is partly due to partying and playing WoW, and partly due to being sick last weekend (I did miss a class and this chapter is suffering for it). I spent about three hours on homework today, and did the same yesterday, and still haven't really studied for the exam. I have the concepts down and understand the grammer rules, it's just a matter of remebering the specific spelling rules in question, which will be the tough part. We'll see how it goes, I'm going to review some in the morning because I'm going to bed after this post.
I also have my GRE on Tuesday, bright and early at 9am, which will be a hoot, let me tell you. Actually, I'm not terribly worried about it, I've got a prep CD from the guys that made the test which I'm gonna look at tomorrow. Yes, I should have been working with it for a while now. I am a procrastinator.
Thing about the GRE though, is that all the advice I've gotten about it basically makes it not that scary sounding, although honestly have no idea what kind of stuff will be on it. I know there's some math, which Dr. Kline tells me not to sweat, because she didn't even have a math class during her undergrad (lucky) and she still got into Georgetown, so I think I might be okay. As a disclaimer I'm not implying that I'm somehow smarter than Dr. Kline, who I have a very deep respet for (also she tells totally sweet stories about Russia), but that our brains seem to work in similar ways and I'm by no means stupid, not to mention the fact that the parts that are apparently more important for my program is the stuff that I wasn't worried about anyway.
I'm dropping my car off at the dealership so they can change the oil and stuff and also find out why it sounds like there are large beads rolling about in the roof of my car when I turn I shit you not, and I'm going to make Erik pick me up and then probably play some WoW while I'm hanging out at Mom's tomorrow after school. Yeah that there is a run-on sentance my friends.
Speaking of grad school though (which Steve should attend ZING!) I'm currently looking at focusing on Russian media and mass communication. I've got e-mails out to a couple of professors at Rutger's and Georgetown who would be interesting to work with or at least get some advice from (and Dr. Kline studied with Richard Stites, the guy at Georgetown). I've also stopped saying that I want to study Soviet history, and have switched to simply saying modern Russia, which implies all of the 20th Century as well as some bookending with the 19th and 21st. Basically, you can't study post-Soviet Russia without looking at Soviet Russia, without looking at late Imperial Russia beause there is just too much continuity.
I'm also finding that I really enjoy my language and culture classes, and I'm taking a reading class next semester as well, to bolster my Russian reading skills greatly, which in turn will help my speaking and writing because hey, you get better at a language by using it. Also I feel I have a pretty solid grasp on English and wow did I read a lot as a kid.
I said when I started this semester that I was considering going to WSU for a BA in Slavic Studies as a fallback plan, and while I'm confident I'll get accepted to at least one graduate program, that's not a completely unpleasent possibility. Of course, I'd rather go on to grad school and get to the history, but if I did end up going the second BA route, well it could certainly be worse.
In more personal news, my da is almost done in Utah, but hopefully he'll be going to Louisiana afterwards instead of comming home to Michigan, although he'll probably be here for a bit at least. The gig down there would pay really well, and if it went permanent would basically fix everything. Even if he was just there for six months (which would be the minimum) I could quit and just go to school next semester which would be totally awesome. Plus, if it went permanent, my folks would move down there, which would be great, because I imagine the cost of living is lower, there's basically no snow ever, and also Michigan is an economic blackhole that frankly isn't worth my parent's time anymore.
Plus I could go visit them and only be a few hours from New Orleans, the thought of which is basically orgasmic.
Got to see Smelly and Pate this weekend, as well as Tim, Bill, Jules, Becca and Meghan, none of whom I've seen in several weeks (I see Tom, Jen and Steve constantly), but Smell and Pate are the big deals, living all the way in Chicago (which has many suburbs) as they do.
We also broke Waterfalls at one point, thanks to stacking stupid rules on top of each other.
Parties and drunken weekends are, sadly, at something of an end because I've spent entirely too much money in the last three weeks and am pretty much broke, so outside of houseparties, and I guess Locker Room on Thursdays, I'm gonna be absent. But then, this weekend was kind of special and the next two weekends involve houseparties anyway so it's all good, yo.
As much as I love my friends and love hanging out and drinking with them though, that's not the point of this post.
I wanna talk about Bones and Buffy and a bunch of other shows!
No, actually I was gonna talk about school, because aside from politics, I only have three topics I ever mention on LJ.
I have an exam tomorrow morning in Russian, which I'm not nearly as confident about as I was the first one. I feel that I've been letting my studies slip, which is partly due to partying and playing WoW, and partly due to being sick last weekend (I did miss a class and this chapter is suffering for it). I spent about three hours on homework today, and did the same yesterday, and still haven't really studied for the exam. I have the concepts down and understand the grammer rules, it's just a matter of remebering the specific spelling rules in question, which will be the tough part. We'll see how it goes, I'm going to review some in the morning because I'm going to bed after this post.
I also have my GRE on Tuesday, bright and early at 9am, which will be a hoot, let me tell you. Actually, I'm not terribly worried about it, I've got a prep CD from the guys that made the test which I'm gonna look at tomorrow. Yes, I should have been working with it for a while now. I am a procrastinator.
Thing about the GRE though, is that all the advice I've gotten about it basically makes it not that scary sounding, although honestly have no idea what kind of stuff will be on it. I know there's some math, which Dr. Kline tells me not to sweat, because she didn't even have a math class during her undergrad (lucky) and she still got into Georgetown, so I think I might be okay. As a disclaimer I'm not implying that I'm somehow smarter than Dr. Kline, who I have a very deep respet for (also she tells totally sweet stories about Russia), but that our brains seem to work in similar ways and I'm by no means stupid, not to mention the fact that the parts that are apparently more important for my program is the stuff that I wasn't worried about anyway.
I'm dropping my car off at the dealership so they can change the oil and stuff and also find out why it sounds like there are large beads rolling about in the roof of my car when I turn I shit you not, and I'm going to make Erik pick me up and then probably play some WoW while I'm hanging out at Mom's tomorrow after school. Yeah that there is a run-on sentance my friends.
Speaking of grad school though (which Steve should attend ZING!) I'm currently looking at focusing on Russian media and mass communication. I've got e-mails out to a couple of professors at Rutger's and Georgetown who would be interesting to work with or at least get some advice from (and Dr. Kline studied with Richard Stites, the guy at Georgetown). I've also stopped saying that I want to study Soviet history, and have switched to simply saying modern Russia, which implies all of the 20th Century as well as some bookending with the 19th and 21st. Basically, you can't study post-Soviet Russia without looking at Soviet Russia, without looking at late Imperial Russia beause there is just too much continuity.
I'm also finding that I really enjoy my language and culture classes, and I'm taking a reading class next semester as well, to bolster my Russian reading skills greatly, which in turn will help my speaking and writing because hey, you get better at a language by using it. Also I feel I have a pretty solid grasp on English and wow did I read a lot as a kid.
I said when I started this semester that I was considering going to WSU for a BA in Slavic Studies as a fallback plan, and while I'm confident I'll get accepted to at least one graduate program, that's not a completely unpleasent possibility. Of course, I'd rather go on to grad school and get to the history, but if I did end up going the second BA route, well it could certainly be worse.
In more personal news, my da is almost done in Utah, but hopefully he'll be going to Louisiana afterwards instead of comming home to Michigan, although he'll probably be here for a bit at least. The gig down there would pay really well, and if it went permanent would basically fix everything. Even if he was just there for six months (which would be the minimum) I could quit and just go to school next semester which would be totally awesome. Plus, if it went permanent, my folks would move down there, which would be great, because I imagine the cost of living is lower, there's basically no snow ever, and also Michigan is an economic blackhole that frankly isn't worth my parent's time anymore.
Plus I could go visit them and only be a few hours from New Orleans, the thought of which is basically orgasmic.