Tag Archives: Midterm

Crunch

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Well, it’s week eight and man ‘o man is it getting intense! I’ve got so, so, so much to do — and it all starts today! From midterms, homework, and essays — to advising, registering, and doing a good lost item deed, it’ll have to be a well-orchestrated string of events to make sure everything goes smoothly. I’m kind of panicky because I don’t feel I have complete control over all the different things, but I think I’ll create a checklist for at least today to help me accomplish it all.

Looking forward, assuming all goes well, I’m quite excited for Thanksgiving and winter break. I’m especially excited for Black Friday and, hopefully, snow. But, I have to keep myself focused on current tasks ahead of me or I’ll just lose all motivation. Okay, not really… But it’s difficult to stay working strong when you think about Thanksgiving and winter and cozying up while it’s bitter cold out. Ah, yes.

So, I’ve got lots to do — time to take on this complicated day. Ugh.

Autumn Vibes

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LaubBlätter10

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The leaves have faded from lush greens to rich golden hues. The last time I posted we were just on the verge of this annual change, but it’s been a while and now pumpkin spice lattes and scents of apple cinnamon are in full swing. The first big rain is arriving within hours and I once again find myself in my cozy happy-place… None other than the Madison Ave. Starbucks on this grey afternoon. I love it here — and surprisingly I find myself more productive with my homework than I ever have before.

The majority of my midterms were this last week — going into them I predicted a distasteful wipe-out. However, thus far it seems I conquered the big kahuna and am smooth sailing again. Miracle, or skill?… Definitely skill. Aside from that, all seems mellow. Halloween is coming up and I’m sort of wishy-washy on a costume. See, you can’t just have any costume — there are definitely some difficult guidelines to work around.

First of all, you have to have a unique costume. You can’t be going around to people and having each one overlook you or question what the hell you are. You’ve either got to completely stand out and be bold — or be one of those that has a costume that everyone just nods at and you blend in. Placing in the middle of these roads will not have you looking so fly (like a G6).

Secondly, your costume needs to be functional. You’ll be at parties and walking around elsewhere. Your costume needs to be able to keep up with you and the different activities you will be doing. This (usually) means your costume should not need a mask nor props to make your image complete — because if you decide to ditch the mask or items you are holding, you’ll lose that identification factor and you’ll have to begin explaining to people what you are.

Finally, your costume needs to be something you are comfortable with. The Halloween stores sell overpriced, cheapy costumes that, if you look closely at them, you realize how low quality they are. Some people enjoy just throwing on some quickly-manufactured cloth and going as that creature or thing. Meanwhile, other people like me want to look good in a costume. Looking good is pretty much the primary target for us. We will alter all Halloween costume plans just to achieve this goal. We take advantage of Halloween to pull off our most GQ-esque appearance with, obviously, some creative spin to it. But, it often involves real clothing items which grope your wallet in that back pocket sometimes a little more than you’d hope. Anyway, I don’t know why I just am thinking of it now, but I think it’d be really swank to dress in a really awfull/awesome colored tuxedo — maybe avocado green or something! It’s just a silly idea.

Whew! I’ve lost track of time — past 4pm already. I’m hungry and feeling inspired to finish the rest of my homework back at the studio. My peppermint mocha is all finished and I’m shutting my books. Music… Off. WordPress… Posted!

F1: October 20, 2009

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  • Yesterday was jBlog’s 100th post on its 1st birthday!
  • Sunday evening I had to interview random people regarding an event I was required to cover for Writing for Media (WR-201). I was so nervous! I ended up attending the premier of Not Evil Just Wrong, a documentary on Global Warming. I’m glad that the people I interviewed had mixed opinions – it will help when I write up my assignment. But I have that still to do, plus my beat journal. Urgh…
  • Math 245 midterm tomorrow… That class is still quite strange. My professor was hired the week prior to school starting, so his methods of teaching haven’t had years of OSU student conditioning, if you know what I mean. He doesn’t even know what actually goes on in recitations – he thinks we have our “study groups”, when in fact we don’t. He makes his midterm so that we will take the exam during our 50-minute class, but he assures us that we won’t be able to finish all the problems. But we should feel comforted because he grades on a curve. See… this could be a good thing when it comes to grades, but it could also be bad because there is no actual fixed form of grading – essentially it becomes based on how he believes you did, not whether the machine graded your answer right or wrong. So, what I’m thinking is that if you go through all the problems and show some work on each one of them, and then go back through and complete the easiest ones and whatever the rest you can complete, then you have a much greater chance of scoring higher because he gives credit for showing your steps and procedures for more problems than anyone else, technically. But what if the majority of the class does perform the “trick” I just mentioned and I don’t? Will I get marked down because I didn’t use the same method for testing as others? In my mind, it doesn’t seem to come out all that fair, unless he actually does use a bias to essentially offset this issue. We shall see…
  • Going home this weekend – was supposed to be last weekend, but then I realized that I had two midterms this school week and two papers due Friday, so it’d be best if I hit home this Friday such that my work load will be much less, and stress be much lighter. I will be heading home the first time since I moved down here to Corvallis. It will be nice to play Boggle at Starbucks in the aura of this autumn weather. I need to also go to Haggen to see if they still have my final paycheck (yeah… from 4 weeks ago) and also to say hello to some people I miss. I will also be going shopping for new clothes!… It’s a procedure I usually whine and cry about, but I’m actually eager. This dieting is going well, except all the clothes I have here at the apartment are fairly large and baggy now. I have to put my hands in my pockets in order to keep my jeans up, and unzip my sweatshirt because it curls all up without a stomach there to keep it straight (confusing to explain, I know). All the belts I have are too big as well. So… I suppose this is a good thing. I can’t wait to see what pant size I can fit into! The only thing I’m a bit iffy about going home is my loss of traction on this diet, and the fact that even though I will be enjoying home, I’ll also be missing great times here in Corvallis. Though, Halloween weekend will be a new experience.