-27-
Hrm. I love that man.
He moved the due dates of paper 6 back,
again, and it makes my life. I have so much other work to do right now, and I was so stressed, trying to figure out when I could work in time to do everything. And now, I have a few more days, and it's after all my other stuff is due, so thank the heavens for that.
However, he mentioned us having to come to the final exam time period on Monday the 19th, which is not going to work for me. I've already arranged to go home on the 17th, so I'm not going to be able to go. I'll have to talk with him, figure out another time for me to do the assessment.
[Edit 12/7: So, I had a chat with him, and told him I couldn't go. He's perfectly fine with it, and is currently in conversation with the library about whether people can do the assessment at another time. And in fact, he's delighted that I want to make it up. Hurrah!
We keep doing things with sentence structure, and paragraphs, and whatnot. I mean, it's nice and all, but I get really bored with it after a while. Grammar is by far my favorite part of the English language, but to do it for two weeks straight, just dissecting people's sentences, I can't handle it.
And it turns out, our Christmas party has been postponed to Monday the 12th. That'll be nice, but I was really looking forward to having it Friday. This week has been crazy, with work that's due and things of that sort, and party was going to be a nice break. Ah, well. Monday will still be lovely.]
-26-
So, Thanksgiving vacation was lovely. And with Thanksgiving vacation comes Black Friday shopping. Everyone waking up at 4 AM, rushing out to the first store on their list, hoping to get the best deals on Christmas gifts. I can understand doing that with toys and such, because those go really, really quickly. But why would you rush out to a clothing store? The clothes aren't going anywhere. Take your time and get up later, you'll feel better.
I remember a couple years ago, we went shopping on Black Friday to a toy store. It was CRAZY. Seriously, people were attacking each other to get some Elmo toy, if I remember correctly. The thing with kids is, they don't care what they get for presents. They, for the most part, are happier with the box it comes in than the actual toy! And yet parents are still going crazy trying to get the latest toy for their kid. I just really don't see the point.
Oh, and the snow was so lovely. It really made the holiday. And all the radio stations were playing Christmas music, all the classics, and some of the bad new versions. Oh, bad music, how I unlove thee.
So I went out on Black Friday, bought myself some lovely new sweaters for basically half price. Saved a disturbing amount of money on the jeans I'm wearing. Hurrah for cheap things!
-25-
I just want to say two things. I kept seeing things that reminded me of class today.
First off, I saw a bellringer outside the mall, and Seth commented how that tied in with Nissenbaum. And then I said, "Seth, it's Saturday, I'm not thinking about school!"
And then, we were in a gift shop, and they had all these cheesy Christmas trinkets and whatnot, and my first thought was, "Hm, I should buy my Secret Santa gift here!" My next thought, "I should get something for Schacht! He would totally appreciate." And then I was distracted by the pop-up cards. Oh, they were so cool! One of them opened up to a fireplace, and the flames rotated. Then another was this elaborate gingerbread house. Amazing. They were also incredibly expensive.
That's all, though. That, and the city of Rochester already has its Christmas tree up in downtown, those losers. At least wait until after Thanksgiving, please.
-24-
We got our first snow yesterday! Oh, it was so exciting. I was going to take some pictures of it, but there really wasn't enough that stuck to the ground to make it worthwhile. And I was talking with my dad, and apparently, it's supposed to snow like crazy over Thanksgiving break. Mmm.
And so, we were discussing ... the paper. Yes, the paper. We had a lovely sample from last year's class, on how to do it, ideas, and the like. Make sure to make other corrections, don't just use what the teacher gives you. Be agressive in your correcting! It's not so much how well you corrected the paper, but how well you *tried*. Big difference between the two. Like Schacht said, it's not whether you bring the paper up to an A, it's how much work you put in.
... That's all I've got.
-23-
A closed laptop policy has been installed. I feel cut off from the world.
We were discussing the sixth paper, which made me happy. I was really confused as to how we were going to hand in a draft of an editing. It didn't really make sense to me.
So now the paper is due the
Friday Monday the fifth, with a start on it due the Wednesday beforehand. Not too bad.
You know what bothers me a bit? It's nearly Dcember, and we have no snow. I feel as though that's a smidge unfair. I mean, come on. It reminds me of that Christmas a few years ago, when we had absolutely no snow. A green Christmas. That just doesn't mean Christmas to me. That's why I could never live in a warm climate, one without seasons. I want my cold winters and my hot summers. Christmas isn't Christmas unless you can look out the window when you wake up that morning and enjoy the powdered fresh snowfall.
And I have no idea when I'm going to get a chance to do my Christmas shopping. I usually spend a Saturday at the mall, searching for the perfect gifts for a few of my closest friends. And now I don't know when I'm going to get to do that, becuse I don't go home until, say, the 17th or so. And that's a bit late for shoppijng. So my friends might not be getting their perfect presents this year.
Although, my perfect Christmas present would be to see my best friend who's out in California right now. That would be ideal.
I think I'm going to bring a string of lights back to my dorm to decorate with over Thanksgiving vacation.
-22-
Wow, my paper doesn't make sense. But I'm really tired, and too lazy to fix it. I'll be surprised if I do well, because I feel like it had way, way, too much plot, and not enough everything else. Oh well, I can use it for paper six, to fix it and stuff.
Not having class on Friday was wonderful. Not that I don't like class, because I do, but having a day off was just nice. That survey was fun, too. Not the kind of work I was expecting to have to do. I figured we'd have to read some article in the coffeehouse, comment on it, that sort of thing. So the survey was a nice change. I commented on my anti-love for blogging, because I really think there's only so much that you can write about a class.
And now, bedtime.
-21-
A thesis. A sentence that will guide your entire paper. It allows a reader to know what you're talking about within the first paragraph of reading, and whether they will even want to consider continuing on.
In short, if your thesis sucks, your paper is probably not going to be very good.
So we'll spend today look at peoples' theses [thesises? What in the world
is the plural of thesis? I have no idea, to tell the truth.], and fixing a few lucky peoples' opening paragraphs. Those lucky people will a) receive a class-fixed opener, and b) have to reformulate their entire paper based on these fixings. Aren't they lucky! Hah.
I wonder if these entries are long enough to be considered "long." I feel as though they aren't, but I also feel that updating three times a week is plenty, compared to, y'know, those people who have updated a whole four times the entire year.
And now, to pay attention a bit!
-20-
First off, happy fourth. No one here will understand that, but anything that I write on the fourth of any month must include this fact.
And now, the real content.
Grammar.
In class today, we were discussing a certain paragraph on the board, and the topic of grammar came up. I became a bit violent over a certain misplaced comma, and was tempted to go on a rant about the education system's lack of grammatical teachings. Most people go through all of high school not doing a single ounce of grammar. And it makes me wonder how on Earth this can be possible.
I mean, I myself only know grammar for a few reasons. Reason one, my four years of Latin. You can't learn case endings, the dative case, and all the different types of verbs without comparing them to their English meanings. This fortunately allows for a great deal of grammar learning. Reason two, English 11. Our teacher, Mrs. Hartley, attempted to have a weekly grammar lesson. I would just get annoyed since I had already learned all these things, and those in our class who hadn't taken the Latin were all like, "asljk What's a comma?!one" That alone made me despise Friday English. The point is, though, that she still tried to teach us, even if we [for our own reasons] weren't willing to learn. So props to her for being one of the FEW English teachers still around who do such a thing. Reason three, I heart grammar. I always have. I love commas and word usage, and knowing what sort of verb fits where. Gives me a little bonus, I guess.
So everyone here doesn't know how to write a proper sentence, and it's still a bit upsetting. I just wish that people didn't think that spoken English and written English were one and the same. They are two very, very different languages. Sure, they use the same words for the most part, but other than that, there isn't much that is the same. You don't pronounce punctuation when you speak, so for all intents and purposes, punctuation doesn't exist. But people think that the two can be interchanged, and that you can use spoken English as written English, and that your paper will turn out fine and dandy.
Well, guess what. It won't.
Learn some grammar.
It'll make your life a lot easier, people.
-19-
A Christmas Carol -- a tale of Christmas that, while we're all raised knowing the story, none of us have ever read. It tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a grumpy old miser who despises Christmas. Thanks to the three ghosts, he is taught the error of his ways, and quickly changes himself into a cheerful, kind man.
I thought this was a relatively interesting read. Well, at least as you neared the end. Stave one nearly killed me, to be honest. The ghost of Jacob nearly made me fall asleep as I was reading it. Although, I was at work, and work *does* make me tired, so that may have been it. The staves got progressively more interesting, though, I feel.
And yet, even as I write this, I cannot help but think of the Disney version with Scrooge McDuck. Does that make me a bad person? And now I really want to watch that again. Perhaps I can rent it somewhere. Ooh, or Schacht should show it on one of the last days of class! That'd be spectacular. [Hint, hint.]
