October 2012

Just did about 6 readings for poetry. They only became available today, so I'm not sure if they were meant for tomorrow's class or next week's. *shrug*

Got 2 philosophy readings to do now, that also became available today.

And apparently my poetry essay has been graded, but I can't figure out where the actual grade is... This class is doing things online, probably to save paper, but it means I don't know how to find out my grade.

Hopefully I'll find out tomorrow...

ETA: Did the philosophy readings. I think I'll spend some time planning my topic choices for next year, now. I picked up a piece of paper today from the Uni that outlines how many subjects you need to do for a Major or a minor.

Hi, as I said on the other thread this month my goal is to write 60,000 words and finish off my 52 story challenge (I was on story 34)

So far I have 20,000 words and have just started my 41st story. Things are getting more difficult though since I am finding it hard to come up with ideas.

Pretty sure I actually passed today's math quiz. Yay!

I don't know whether it's a good pass or bad pass, but bad pass is better than no pass.

We're all doing pretty terrible as a whole... xD Out of 5 points, last week's high score was 3 and the average score was 2. Hopefully we're getting better.

The professor's office hours are half an hour before and after class, and we actually had to go find a classroom large enough for all of us so we could get homework help. His last words before we left were "See you all half an hour before tomorrow's class!" So, so true...

And I got to watch part of Godzilla in another class today. Fun fun.

~Amber~

Yes, a pass is a pass. I found out today that someone failed the poetry essay in our class... I don't know my grade yet, so I'm really worried that I've failed. Ack!

I'd be happy with 51%, to be honest. Anything above that is cake.

Got a B on my quiz. I'm thrilled. So much better than I have been doing. Average score was around 3/5 so I feel like I'm doing pretty well.

~Amber~

Need to start editing my sociology essay today. I'm handing it in 6 days from now... I'm going to add 1 (maybe 2) more quotes first... We got new survey data this week that might be useful.

And I have 2 assignments due 2 weeks later, which I really want to get on top of sooner rather than later. One is a philosophy essay (final assignment for that class) and the other is my poetry portfolio. I've got most of the portfolio done already (really glad I kept up with it from week to week instead of leaving it to the last minute!) so it's just a matter of a few final entries, and editing it. The philosophy essay hasn't been touched yet.

So I'm going to have a busy week! Oh, and I need to write another poem.

So I typed up a new quote for the essay, but I don't think I can fit it in... We'll see after I do a proper read-through editing pass.

Also received 3 CDs of music in the mail today, so I'm trying to get all my homework for the day done quicksmart so I can justify spending 3 hours listening to music...

ETA: Nope, new quote won't fit anywhere. *sigh* On the plus side, I did 3 editing passes (1 per CD rip ) and the essay's a LOT stronger now.

It hovered around the 2000-word mark, so it's bang on. It's currently at 2069... I probably wrote about 250 new words, but took out about 200. Like I said, the essay is a lot stronger now.

ETA2: Wrote 14 lines of a poem. I have to do a reading in next week's class, one of my own poems. Thankfully I don't have to memorise it! But I do need to try to tailor it to my audience... Having some troubles with it. But I've got 6 days to get it polished. This is also poem 15, getting me to the bare minimum for my final assignment. Hooray!

One class today, so I came to school in my jammies. Well, when you spend seven of your eight hours on campus for the day on the couches/chairs, you kinda stop caring about what you're wearing and more about napping comfortably

My one class was totally worth showing up today though. It's so much fun. My professor thinks she should be recording the class cuz we're so funny

Also, I turned my pet kitty into a giant spider-eating, building-crushing monster for my homework. ^^

~Amber~

They actually record all our lectures at my Uni.

Technically it's focussed on the teacher, but some discussions do get recorded.

Doing virtually nothing today, except visiting grandparents and grocery shopping and cleaning the house. Will return to Uni work tomorrow.

ETA: Shopping done, grandparents visited. Now to clean the house... Might get some Uni work done if I feel like it. Going to dinner tomorrow, so I need to get some stuff done early on.

Didn't wind up cleaning last night. But I've done some this morning. Just swept up a bit. There's more sweeping to do, and I'll have to clean the bathroom as well.

For now, I think I better get some homework done...

ETA: Poem finished. Essentially it was finished from yesterday, but I hadn't realised until I looked at it today. Also wrote a portfolio entry... I think I better get back to cleaning, then work on my sociology essay for a bit.

ETA2: Did more cleaning, then read 6/13 pages for a philosophy reading. They're big pages with tiny text... It's gonna take a long time to get through it all! And it's very dense subject matter.

ETA3: Finished the reading. Fortunately the last 2.5 pages were references, which I didn't bother reading. Going out to dinner soon... Going to have to power through the homework tomorrow and Monday.

Geez, where is everyone?

Anyway, I just added proper referencing to my sociology essay... It was a right pain in the butt. I had to go searching for 2 articles because I didn't have the information ready-on-hand... *sigh*

I'll edit it once more tomorrow, then it's getting submitted. Now to work on my philosophy essay...

ETA: Chose my essay question for the philosophy essay. About to mine some articles for quotes... It's due in 22 days, 3 weeks basically. I really want to make some progress on it now, though.

ETA2: Mined the lecturer's powerpoint slides for the relevant week for the essay question. Got about 800 words that may or may not be useful. Next? A lengthy reading where I'll have to actually type the quotes instead of copy-pasting... *sigh* Still, it's good to make progress. My final assignment of the 4 due soon has now been started!

ETA3: Up to page 4 of 30 for the article I need to mine for quotes. I kept putting it off because of the sheer length of it... Cooking dinner now, but I'll try to get more done later.

ETA4: I decided to take a new approach. I would just write down all the section headings, get my head around the topic, form my argument, then I'd know where to look for supporting quotes.

Only, in this particular article, there are 38 section headings! No way can I fit all that into a 2000-word essay! And when I say it's a 30-page article, I mean 30 pages in Adobe, with 2 scanned book pages on each Adobe page.

What the hell have I gotten myself in for? *faceplant*

Cliff Face said:

Geez, where is everyone?

Click to expand...

They're all very busy writing, I hope

I am on story 45 now, and have writen 32,000 words this month. My critical voice is on 'high' at the moment, so it is hard to keep up the progress.

Also, starting to feel a little nervous about NanoWriMo. It is a while since I actually wrote a novel, and I am stressing about whether I have forgotten how to. (Yeah, I know that is stupid. *shrug* )

I'm sure you'll do fine.

Okay, so yesterday I did 3 more edits on the sociology essay, then printed it out. Handing it in today... I think it's pretty good.

ShadowFox said:

They're all very busy writing, I hope

Click to expand...

Hahahahahaha... That's a good one.

Homework, homework and more homework for me. Blehhh.

~Amber~

Handed in my essay. Too late to change anything now!

3 more assignments to work on, then exam time comes around. I so need a holiday!

ETA: And I just realised that 2 of them are due in 15 days. Eep!

ETA2: OMG, I just got my poetry essay results! I didn't fail! Woohoo!

Sure, I only got 60%, which is just a Pass (kind of like a D) but I DIDN'T FAIL!!!

I had been pretty certain I was going to fail, and now... Now I'm more confident in actually passing the entire poetry class. It's like I just had a shot of vodka or something... I passed! *lightheaded*

So long as I pass poetry, I don't care if it's a low pass.

Sounds like bad teaching to me. I mean, I know you kicked arse in High School maths, so if the new math material is difficult, yes it's more difficult, but it should be taught properly. If you get my meaning?

A study group might help, also.

/mother hen

Okay, so interesting day...

Started out by getting a philosophy essay back. 85% woo! That's another A. Now I basically need about 82% on the final assignment to get an A overall for that class. I can do that, I think...

Then had poetry. We spent an hour with all us students reading a poem out. I went last (we went round the room - I would've either been first or last) and I was pretty pissed. Basically, every other poem, people found something nice to say about it. Not mine... And I thought I gave a good reading!

I suspect it may have had something to do with getting out of class early, but still... Someone could've said something nice about it.

So fucking over this poetry class. Just 1 more class for it, then handing in 2 assignments. Never again!

To top the day off, I got stuck in a bathroom for about 5 minutes. The lock just refused to open, and the only way out was through the locked door. I mean, if it had been a stall, I could've climbed over or under. But it was a room - with a stupid fucking lock.

Finally got out, thank Goddess! Not using that bathroom again!

/rant

So yeah, long and varied day... Glad to be home.

Cliff Face said:

So fucking over this poetry class. Just 1 more class for it, then handing in 2 assignments. Never again!
.

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Different personalities, of course, but I think I would have hated doing a poetry course at university. It is all so subjective. And probably full of pretentious people who produce poor poetry.

Yeah, it certainly wasn't my first choice...

Rather, it was my *only* choice. Long story.

Basically, I had already done 7 first year topics (I did 4 in a free-entry program and 3 last semester). You need 8, but can do 10. Anyway, I signed up for 3 more (bringing it to 10) but then got a phone call from the Uni.

The woman there convinced me to do some 2nd-year topics. Only, it had to be in philosophy and creative writing, as I hadn't done the required units for any other stream. (My 8th at the moment will open up sociology 2nd-year topics next year.)

But the rub is... there are 2 main 2nd-year topics, but you have to do them in order - 1 per semester. Because this is 2nd semester, I couldn't do either. The first doesn't run right now, and the 2nd requires completing the 1st.

So I had to choose electives in 2nd semester, which amounted to poetry for creative writing, and (given that I didn't want to do a religious topic) the philosophy class I'm doing - no other options.

I'm enjoying the philosophy class, but NOT the poetry one.

But like I said - it was my only choice. I kind of wish I hadn't let the woman at Uni convince me to not max out my 1st year credits...

*shrug* It's almost over now...

Just had a fab idea to up the stakes and the tension at the start of my story yesterday, which has made my enthusiasm flare up again after a quiet few days when I was distracted by other stuff.

Cliff Face said:

Sounds like bad teaching to me. I mean, I know you kicked arse in High School maths, so if the new math material is difficult, yes it's more difficult, but it should be taught properly. If you get my meaning?

A study group might help, also.

Click to expand...

I think the main problem I'm having is that all the stuff being explained in the beginning of each chapter in the book is essentially stuff I already know, but the problems are trying to use that information in ways that don't make sense to me because it's not explaining the connection at all, and I'm not getting much help with that part. I did well in my other math classes because once I see the connections, they're there and I can use them whenever I need to. If the connections were never established, then there's really not much I can do...

And unfortunately our class's study group is on Saturdays, when I am half an hour away from campus and unable to go anywhere because I can't drive...

Something's telling me I'm going to be changing my grading option to pass/no pass so I don't majorly fuck up my GPA in the first term...

~Amber~