Fangirlin' It

Well, I start the first class for the paralegal certificate tonight at 6, so I have to go eat dinner right about now (it's only 4 here!).  It's all the way down in South Park, and I'll have to fight traffic on 77 and the Brookshire, which is why I have to leave so early.  I'm a little nervous, but I keep reminding myself that I just got a college degree, so I can do this.  Yes.

Ah!  I have now finished all my work except for preparing a short synopsis on my research to share with my class when we turn in the history paper next Thursday.  I still have to give my presentation on my English paper, but all the written work was turned in today.  The history paper, barring any cosmetic changes, I finished just now.  It's 19 pages, with a cover page and two pages of bibliography.  I really think it's the best paper I've ever written.  I'm considering asking my professor if he thinks I should submit it to an academic journal.  He was really impressed with my initial draft, and the final paper is over 12 pages longer than that, with much more detailed information and analysis. 

I'm really getting excited about graduation, y'all.  It's next Saturday, which is so much closer than it sounds!  Mom has gone all out for this; I think she may be more excited about it than I am.  It's been so long, and I'm really glad this is finally (almost!) over.  Then I have to finish up the application for the paralegal class, and (hopefully--crosses fingers and toes) I will be able to get a real job in an attorney's office in six months.  

Well, it's a little late for Halloween, but if you're looking for something horrifying, try the book I'm reading in my history class: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.  I've had to stop reading this before bed, guys.  Seriously, this is the most sickening thing I think I've ever been exposed to, and it's worse because it actually happened.  This actually makes the Western idea of what the Nazi concentration camps were like look like a picnic in spring, it's so horrifying.  This is the stuff that makes you go, "Oh, god, I never, ever wanted to know that," but someone's got to learn it.  I kind of just wish that someone wasn't me.

In other news, I finished my rough rough draft of the English paper (the one on the portrayal of the military in SG-1 and SGA) this morning.  We were supposed to 'workshop' each others' drafts; pass the draft to someone, they fill out a sheet about it, repeat.  Well, the people in my class are a bunch of slackers.  I mean, even more than I am.  In my group of four, I had six pages (missing some detail from a few sources and a conclusion for the eventual 8-10-page final paper), and one person I think had three pages.  The other two people had two pages.  One girl didn't even get to her actual thesis statement!  ::facepalm::  I finished up the rough draft to turn in this afternoon; it clocks in at just over 8 pages right now.

Now I have to really get going on the paper for said history class.  I really need to sit down and devote about a day to going through all my research material and making dedicated notes.  Then, I think we have a 10-page draft due soon-ish.  Yikes.  This paper is not horrifying, however; it's on British home front propaganda, official and unofficial and officially unofficial.  It's actually fairly interesting (to me) but I won't bore any of you with it.  

Wow, I think the girls behind me in the library this morning have just confessed to illegally taking controlled substances.  O.o  Yeah, if you don't actually have ADD, Adderall will keep you up all night and give you heart palpitations.  Duh.  And it won't really help you concentrate, either.

Well, apparently procrastination can pay off; that film paper and annotated bibliography I did literally at the last minute?  I got an A+ on both.  That, or this school really has no standards.  All the final grades aren't in yet, but in the two that are posted on the web, I got As.  This brings me up to just shy of a 3.0 overall GPA!  This is exciting, guys.  

On the down side, I'm sick again.  It's the sore throat with nasty white stuff all over, really gross, really painful.  I went to the doctor two days ago, and the rapid strep test was negative, but all the symptoms point to either strep or some other bacteria, so he prescribed antibiotics.  I opted to get it all over with and get the enormous penicillin shot instead of taking 10 days of oral antibiotics.  It leaves you kind of sore, and it goes in the hip.  Ouch.  But worth it; I think it's beginning to work.  I was supposed to drive down to visit my dad and stepmom in Alabama, but I'm not making a 7-hour drive by myself feeling like this.  It's a little disappointing, because this is the longest break from school I'll have until I graduate in December, and I haven't seen them since this past December.  Oh, well.  

There was a rare bird sighted nearby a few days ago, but I couldn't go see it at first because I had to study for finals, and by the time I could go, it was not there.  It was a purple gallinule, which kind of looks like a little kid got into the paints and coloured it in:

Ah, one final paper down, one to go.  Sort of.  It's not actually a paper, it's just the annotated bibliography as if we were going to write the paper.  It's due Monday, but I've already got my sources and started on it. 

I totally just wrote a seven-page paper this morning in an hour and a half, and it's pretty good.  That was due this morning, so I'm done with that.  Now I just have two final exams, which shouldn't be too hard, and I'm done for the semester.  Then I get a week off before I start summer session, but that's only one class the first session and one the second.  Then three classes in the fall and I'll be done.

I'm sitting here waiting for my morning class to start, and I look over to check the time on the wall clock.  My thought?  Huh, those always look the exact same no matter what classroom you go in.  I wonder if they're like, the bulk classroom-standard clock?  Maybe there's a classroom clock company.  Yes.  I clearly need caffeine.  Or something.  This building is kind of old, but I've noticed that all of them seem to be that way.  It still has an honest-to-God chalkboard and manual pencil sharpener.  And a row of coathooks along the wall.  I kid you not.  It feels like grade-school.  Almost done with classes for the summer.  I have another week.  I've registered for three classes in the fall; two history and one poli-sci. 

Has anyone seen the new movie Inception?  I really want to see it, but I kind of feel like a loser going to a movie by myself.  Waah, you guys all moved away!  Someone in my geoscience class said the movie was really good, and the previews Jen and I saw looked neat.  Nothing on the job front, sadly, but one thing at a time.

Two tests tomorrow.  Need to study tonight.

I'm feeling really nostalgic for The West Wing today.  Oh, show.  I miss your idealism, your snappy dialogue, your smart, dorky, funny, passionate characters, and your political escapism.  In honour of my favourite show ever, a quote. 

Shallick: ...right to keep and bear arms...

Toby: It doesn't really say that.

Shallick: Toby!

Toby: In fact, it doesn't say that at all.  The only way it says that at all is if you remove some words from it...

Toby: It says a well-regulated militia, being necessary for the security of the free state...the government shall not infringe.  The words 'regulated' and militia are in the first sentence.  I don't think the framers were thinking of three guys in a Dodge Durango.

Shallick: Well, you don't really know what the framers were thinking, do you?

Toby: No.  But I do know that  if you combine the populations of Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and Australia, you've got a population roughly the size of the United States'.  We had 32,000 gun deaths last year and they had 112.  Do you think it's because Americans are more homicidal by nature?  Or do you think it's because those guys have gun control laws?

That's it! I'm DONE with school this semester.  I finished my exams today with a marathon of both exams today.  I know I did well on the philosophy review this morning, only blanking a bit on one question, and even the psychology one was a bit better than expected.  So I may not have done everything I should have, but I took these exams, and now I am done.  'It is done, and I have done it.'  And now I am going to hang around with Muppet and Kaylie, and go out to eat in a bit.

Huzzah!

Well.  We lost.  And I will say straight up that the team we played were very good, and we did not at all look like the team we have been.  However, I think the biggest factor in this game was THE EFFIN' REFS.

I mean, everyone could tell these guys were godawful.  They called tons of fouls on us that weren't there, or that they didn't call when the other team blatantly committed them, they failed to call lots of things, not just fouls, and it was just really bad.  The NCAA should suspend these guys. 

Not that we helped ourselves much; Steph Curry only had 20 points, and we just really looked bad on offencive boards, got the ball stripped from us on fast breaks and driving to the basket, the works.  Ugh.  We need a turnaround, and fast.