Looking down through the titles of my last posts, I've noticed a pattern. So, the title of this post is going against the norm and challenging tradition by being completely ellipsis-free!
It has been almost a week since I blogged last (not counting the little post I just published), so I figure it's time for an update. Mainly because a certain someone is going to get back to college and internet access soon, and she'll be checking my blog (I'm sure it's the first thing she'll do, even before email and facebook! Well, maybe not before facebook. But you get the idea.)
Someone needs to get out their little violin and play "My Heart Bleeds for You" because I'm having a pity party in my room. Not really! I came down with some bug--I think it's just a normal cold, but with some of the comments I've heard lately, I almost thought about going to the hospital!!--and I have been shunned from social activities. So instead of playing Uno and such, I'm sitting here writing discussion board posts for college. And blogging.
But on the bright side, I'm feeling much better than I did yesterday! The past two days I've had a fever. Not a high one, just high enough to make me dizzy, disoriented, and confused. (YES, that is unusual. Thanks for asking.) I didn't want to get anyone sick, so when the relatives came over for Thanksgiving dinner, I quarantined myself in my room and ate whatever my waitress (AKA my amazing mother) brought me while reading Luther's treatises. It was a unique combination. Unfortunately I don't remember much of what I read because I kept falling asleep. How annoying.
Speaking of fevers, we have quite the thermometer saga in this house. You see, *someone* in our house is a hypochondriac. I will not mention names. A while back, the aforesaid hypochondriac was certain she had a fever, and thus took her temperature. *Without* shaking the thermometer down first. So it still said 103 degrees (from--I think--the last time I was feverish)...and yet she wasn't sick. I still laugh about that one. But she has the last laugh, because I am completely incapable of reading a thermometer. I have tried and tried, and I can NEVER see the line of mercury. At all. I always give it to the aforementioned sister and she reads it. If I ever have kids, I will have to get the kind of thermometer with a digital readout, or else I will have to take them to their aunt's house whenever they are sick. Actually, I like that last idea. Hmmm....
Wow, I'm rambling. As long as I'm in a random mood, I'm going to write things without bothering to transition from one paragraph to the next!
I'm listening to some awesome music. I recently discovered the album "Where Strength Begins" by Phillips, Craig & Dean and basically fell in love with it. (Yes, my dear Tennessee reader, I put that phrase in just for you!) My sisters somehow aren't as thrilled. I'm not sure if it's the perpetual loop that I put that CD on, the volume, or the songs themselves. They nod appreciatively when I tell them I've found "a new favorite song," allow me to subject their eardrums to the latest and greatest, and then escape when I'm not watching.
I'm just glad my computer is allowing me to type tonight. Sometimes it gets so slow that I will type something, leave, and come back a few minutes later only to see that "I" am still typing. One agonizing letter at a time.
My computer died. But it was worth it, because when I turned it back on, Firefox informed me that it had lost my pages and gave me my favorite message: "Well, this is embarrassing." I LOVE that. So creative. It makes the frustration of re-opening tabs worthwhile.
But Skype is a different story. I hate the sound that plays when it starts up. It sounds like a bunch of people inhaling together, preparing for a blood-curdling scream. Always makes me jump.
Okay, I will stop now. I love writing disjointedly. I have two essays due next Friday, so I will not be blogging until after that. Sayonara! (No, I don't know Japanese; I just thought it sounded cool.)
~once a political blog but now the ongoing story of a girl who met a boy and fell in love~
Friday, November 27, 2009
This sums up my life lately...
My logic homework has started to remind me of doing proofs in geometry (felt like writing "QED" at the end of one of the problems!), and anything that reminds me of math in any way is bad news! So the above picture adequately depicts my experiences with Logic. :)
Saturday, November 21, 2009
On the dangers of essay writing....
Dangers? Yes.
As you may have inferred from my last post, this week has consisted almost entirely of writing papers. I smile when I think of the time it took me to write the health care paper (part of my application to Patrick Henry College). It was a 7-page paper, and yet it took me at least a month--maybe more. How did I suddenly learn to write a ten-page theological term paper in three days? One word: deadlines.
Deadlines are an absolute necessity for me. They force me to write when I don't feel like it, and also turn me into a raving lunatic. Well, not quite, but you don't want to hear some of the bizarre things I've said in the midst of a paper-writing brain fog (Erika just gives me this "look" and I know that once again, I am not making any sense and should either go to bed or write some more--and I unfortunately must pick the latter).
But where does the dangerous part come in? It comes from being entirely focused on writing, to the extent that everything else is blocked out. For example, I have a small electric heater in my room (I love it--it keeps me from growing icicles) and every time I would get up from my computer, I would trip over it. Embarrassing. And how did I literally not hear three girls practicing violins just a short distance away?
And I haven't even mentioned my battle scars yet! (Be very alarmed.) Actually, no, I think I will keep the origin of the scar next to my left eye a closely-guarded secret. Just know that my computer monitor has sharp edges, which my mom has threatened to put padding on (to kid-proof my room. When I get older and smarter she will take them off.)
So yesterday was the deadline for both my Theological Term Paper and my Research and Writing Argumentative Essay. <---- That is the stuff of nightmares. No, really. Last night, after submitting both essays, I had horrible nightmares about italics and footnotes. I kept waking up panicking, wondering if I really had ended my paper with the word with. I almost turned on my computer to check, but then decided that even if it were true that I had...
1) Left notes to myself in my essay (Such as "expand more here")
2) Forgotten to italicize book titles in my footnotes
3) Written a paragraph entirely about myself (what?!)
4) Used the word I throughout the essay (a major no-no)
...it was too late to change anything anyhow! Although one of the first things I did this morning was look at my conclusion to see how I ended it. I was paranoid.
A blog reader mentioned that by now I must be a coffee drinker, but I actually am not. I probably would drink coffee if we had it around the house, but maybe I prefer the bleary-eyed, physically-and-mentally-exhausted look! (I don't....)
So...that's the story of my last week. It sounds rather depressing reading about it, so I should add that college life is not all bad! I do enjoy learning (sometimes!) and I have met some awesome classmates from whom I have learned so much. Their diligence and academic achievements constantly push me to keep going and strive for higher goals. (It's hard going from homeschooling with no one in your grade level to classes with so many people who are ridiculously smart....keeps me humble.)
That's it for now! I'll try to post again next week. Possibly.
[Note: I had originally planned to post both papers now, but I've decided to wait until I get grades and comments back. Shouldn't be too long!]
As you may have inferred from my last post, this week has consisted almost entirely of writing papers. I smile when I think of the time it took me to write the health care paper (part of my application to Patrick Henry College). It was a 7-page paper, and yet it took me at least a month--maybe more. How did I suddenly learn to write a ten-page theological term paper in three days? One word: deadlines.
Deadlines are an absolute necessity for me. They force me to write when I don't feel like it, and also turn me into a raving lunatic. Well, not quite, but you don't want to hear some of the bizarre things I've said in the midst of a paper-writing brain fog (Erika just gives me this "look" and I know that once again, I am not making any sense and should either go to bed or write some more--and I unfortunately must pick the latter).
But where does the dangerous part come in? It comes from being entirely focused on writing, to the extent that everything else is blocked out. For example, I have a small electric heater in my room (I love it--it keeps me from growing icicles) and every time I would get up from my computer, I would trip over it. Embarrassing. And how did I literally not hear three girls practicing violins just a short distance away?
And I haven't even mentioned my battle scars yet! (Be very alarmed.) Actually, no, I think I will keep the origin of the scar next to my left eye a closely-guarded secret. Just know that my computer monitor has sharp edges, which my mom has threatened to put padding on (to kid-proof my room. When I get older and smarter she will take them off.)
So yesterday was the deadline for both my Theological Term Paper and my Research and Writing Argumentative Essay. <---- That is the stuff of nightmares. No, really. Last night, after submitting both essays, I had horrible nightmares about italics and footnotes. I kept waking up panicking, wondering if I really had ended my paper with the word with. I almost turned on my computer to check, but then decided that even if it were true that I had...
1) Left notes to myself in my essay (Such as "expand more here")
2) Forgotten to italicize book titles in my footnotes
3) Written a paragraph entirely about myself (what?!)
4) Used the word I throughout the essay (a major no-no)
...it was too late to change anything anyhow! Although one of the first things I did this morning was look at my conclusion to see how I ended it. I was paranoid.
A blog reader mentioned that by now I must be a coffee drinker, but I actually am not. I probably would drink coffee if we had it around the house, but maybe I prefer the bleary-eyed, physically-and-mentally-exhausted look! (I don't....)
So...that's the story of my last week. It sounds rather depressing reading about it, so I should add that college life is not all bad! I do enjoy learning (sometimes!) and I have met some awesome classmates from whom I have learned so much. Their diligence and academic achievements constantly push me to keep going and strive for higher goals. (It's hard going from homeschooling with no one in your grade level to classes with so many people who are ridiculously smart....keeps me humble.)
That's it for now! I'll try to post again next week. Possibly.
[Note: I had originally planned to post both papers now, but I've decided to wait until I get grades and comments back. Shouldn't be too long!]
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
An attempt to excuse my lack of blogishness...
Okay, so lately I have been receiving cryptic messages; messages of indeterminable meaning, such as this one:
[D]ear Jessica,
Please blog[.]
Love,
[name removed to protect the guilty]
However, after a serious study of the aforementioned notes, which included outlining them, finding key words and phrases, looking the larger words up in the dictionary, reading backwards, and reading between the lines, I have come to the conclusion that I need to eat chocolate!! No, wait, that was the first hypothesis. The final conclusion was that I needed to go to www.blogger.com, enter some log in information, and click "Create Post."
So, I did.
Now that I am here, all that I can think of is the necessity of doing a bunch of other things...chiefly, writing the two papers that are due on Friday (note: one of them is nearly done, the other is started). Unlike some people who have the luxury of Thanksgiving break, I have four papers due in the next exactly two weeks.
What does this mean? It means that I will be getting very little sleep, writing and revising, and in my spare time, I will be completing all the other college work (reading textbooks, writing discussion board posts, taking exams, etc). And it means that I can't justify sitting here and writing a post about my life. Sorry! I'd love to write a creative update-ish post. Really, I would. That's something that I will try to do after this semester ends (if it ever does).
On a positive note, it also means that I will have four blog posts in the next couple of weeks...and you know how much you love reading my academic writings! (Hint: nod vigorously)
Prayers are greatly appreciated for my sanity and for clearness and cogency in my writing!
[D]ear Jessica,
Please blog[.]
Love,
[name removed to protect the guilty]
However, after a serious study of the aforementioned notes, which included outlining them, finding key words and phrases, looking the larger words up in the dictionary, reading backwards, and reading between the lines, I have come to the conclusion that I need to eat chocolate!! No, wait, that was the first hypothesis. The final conclusion was that I needed to go to www.blogger.com, enter some log in information, and click "Create Post."
So, I did.
Now that I am here, all that I can think of is the necessity of doing a bunch of other things...chiefly, writing the two papers that are due on Friday (note: one of them is nearly done, the other is started). Unlike some people who have the luxury of Thanksgiving break, I have four papers due in the next exactly two weeks.
What does this mean? It means that I will be getting very little sleep, writing and revising, and in my spare time, I will be completing all the other college work (reading textbooks, writing discussion board posts, taking exams, etc). And it means that I can't justify sitting here and writing a post about my life. Sorry! I'd love to write a creative update-ish post. Really, I would. That's something that I will try to do after this semester ends (if it ever does).
On a positive note, it also means that I will have four blog posts in the next couple of weeks...and you know how much you love reading my academic writings! (Hint: nod vigorously)
Prayers are greatly appreciated for my sanity and for clearness and cogency in my writing!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Taking a deep breath...
This is just a quick update to say:
1) I am still alive.
2) I have not forgotten my blog.
The essay that I just posted below is the product of a couple late nights and early mornings. It was crammed in between a bunch of other things, and a good deal of it was written in my hotel room in Cincinnati. So...it is what it is. Not the greatest, but it had to be submitted!
The last couple weeks were absolutely insane, but I'm finally caught up and able to take a breath! I may post later about my life, including the conference in Ohio (or not, you know how I am about blogging), especially if I can find videos or pictures.
1) I am still alive.
2) I have not forgotten my blog.
The essay that I just posted below is the product of a couple late nights and early mornings. It was crammed in between a bunch of other things, and a good deal of it was written in my hotel room in Cincinnati. So...it is what it is. Not the greatest, but it had to be submitted!
The last couple weeks were absolutely insane, but I'm finally caught up and able to take a breath! I may post later about my life, including the conference in Ohio (or not, you know how I am about blogging), especially if I can find videos or pictures.
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