School is Boring

So it's only the 4th week of school and I'm already bored with my classes, and school in general. Maybe I'm just having an apathetic week but it just all seems so blah. I'm only taking 4 classes, so while it's manageable, it's not nearly enough to keep me all that busy. I only have to do homework 3 nights a week to keep up, and that's with multitasking. If I were doing homework and nothing else, I would probably only need 2 nights. My classes are all easy, and the homework is essentially busy work. Thus the issue.

I'm the type of person where if I'm not being challenged, I get bored...really quickly. If something doesn't challenge me, and doesn't keep my interest, I have little to no motivation to actually do it. Example: my spanish class. It's a retake, becuase I got so bored with the busy work last semester that I didn't do half of it. The problem was that said busy work was 35% of our grade and not doing it led to a bad grade, despite getting A's on my tests.

I like my classes, it's just a matter of them being able to challenge me enough. Breakdown:
>>Poli 360: Comparative Political Thought/Theory. The material we read outside of class is interesting, and I enjoy reading it. The professor simply restates the reading in class in simpler terms and his lecture style leaves me fighting to stay awake....at 130 in the afternoon. His tangents about his life are more interesting than his lectures. We have to write a 2 page paper every week based on the readings, then later in the week we're given a classmate's paper to critique. BORING! 2 pages?! I thought this was a 300 level class! This reminds me of high school...and considering my high school wasn't exactly the epitome of academic challenge that's pretty bad.

>>Span 301: Advanced Intermediate Spanish. Again, ridiculously easy for a 300 level class. Maybe it's just me and the ability God's given me to be stupidly good at Spanish, but as previously stated, all the homework is busy work. Answer a few BS questions based on some simple readings. Do some grammar exercises practicing stuff we learned in Spanish 1. The one good point is that the prof only speaks Spanish in class, and makes us do the same. Not that this is hard for me, but it's something that should start being enforced at the 201 level. If we're taking a language beyond the level required for university credit, we obviously want to use it somehow in our future, and we have to learn how to speak it, not just understand it.

>>Econ 102: Introduction to Macroeconomics. Your standard lecture class with the occasional online quiz and problem set thrown in. Reeeealllly simple, and most of it's common sense. Granted that's to be expected since it's a 100 level class. The prof isn't horribly interesting, but not boring either. He likes to relate everything back to Milky Way bars. Take notes, plan my week, make occasional sarcastic comments to my friends Cynthia and Stan who are in the class with me.

>>History 303: The Second World War. My favourite class by far. Dr. Laurie is god of the History department. Definitely one of the best, if not the best prof I've taken here. His lectures are entertaining and educational at the same time. His exams are challenging but not overly difficult if you've payed attention in class. Doing the readings isn't necessary but it's helpful. His papers are not overly long, generally 3-5 pages, but you have to write well for them and you have to actually do the work behind them, which is usually reading a whole bunch of stuff on a topic of your choice related to the class. My only issue with this class is that we don't have much to do outside of it reguarly. I look forward to the class; it's the highlight of my tuesdays and thursdays.

So there's my little rant for the week. Not to worry, I'm still doing my hw and keeping up with my classes, they're just annoying. It's troublesome to me when I have to actually try to find motivation to do school. Well seeing as it's going on 4am I should probably do that thing they call sleeping. Not that it matters since I don't have to wake up before 11 any day of the week. Gotta love that! I'm looking forward to the weekend (which essentially starts tomorrow at 7pm). Hopefully it'll snap me out of the apathetic fog I've been in this week.

Peace y'all.

P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson: Always have a couple rolls of toilet paper stocked in your room, so when your dorm (or campus in general as it would appear) FAILS AT LIFE BY RUNNING OUT OF TOILET PAPER you're not stuck using tissues. Reasons we love UMBC...

Busy Busy

For only having four classes, I've been decently busy over these first few weeks of school. Thankfully it's manageable and nothing terribly difficult. I'm supposed to be writing up my critique of a classmate's paper from Poli 360, and Billy would scold me if he knew I was getting distracted yet again but I finished all the grammar stuff and muddling my way through the horrific phraseology of the paper. I don't understand how whoever wrote it (we all have numbers instead of names, I guess to promote more objective critiques?) can butcher their phrasing and grammar so much. The only excuse is if they are one of the students who doesn't speak English as a first language. Otherwise, I have to wonder how in the world they passed 8th grade English. Not trying to sound overly judgemental here, but these people seriously need to learn how to write academically. Starting sentences with "But" or "And"...not cool. Using two "but" clauses in the same sentence...really folks? It's not that difficult. You don't have to be an amazing writer, just write with some sense and clarity! Also, when the prof says 2 pages, he means TWO PAGES! Not 3, not 2.5, but 2. ugh. at least it gets me something to rant on in the critique.

On a related note, I got a text book at the UMBC bookstore for a reasonable price...shocking! $26 for my Poli text book, which was the only reason I actually bought it from here versus online or sharing Alethea's. Spanish book was close around $100...yeah not buying that one. Hooray for the library, same with History, cuz Heaven knows we don't actually read all 14 books. Since we can't do the papers on any of them it makes more sense to just get them from the library as theyre needed.

Speaking of the library, I'm still kinda ticked they turned the 7th floor study lounge into a computer lab, but in all fairness, it has been helpful. I went over to the library to print out a paper today, and I was amazed at technology. The paper was saved to my flash drive, and as I look at it, I'm amazed at how I can type something up on my computer, put a little stick in the side of my computer, and with a few clicks, my 2 page paper is now on this little tiny rectangular thingydo. It's pretty nifty, and extremely convenient. What's not convenient is that I had to walk to the library to print said paper, because of course my printer is STILL on the fritz...gotta get that checked out this weekend. I don't go to a nerd school for nothing, so time to find one of my tech savvy friends and get them to fix it. Also need to make a trip to walmart this weekend and buy ink, seeing as the ink I need is of course the ONE KIND THE BOOKSTORE DOESN'T SELL. gaaaahhhh.

So now that I've sorted out some thoughts, time to get back to that critique so I can sleep.

peace y'all.

P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the Week: Don't wear heels to a basketball game when you know you're gonna be on your feet cheering the whole time. I am so smart sometimes...(/sarcasm)

ramblings

So here I sit listening to my country music, thinking about the things I should be doing, and wondering what, if anything, I'll be doing later tonight. I have this lovely chunk of time between classes, and I have a very busy weekend coming up, so one would think I would read my supreme court cases or do my calc homework. Instead, I'm killing time on the internet, per usual. Ah well, I'll do something productive in a little while. Meanwhile, I've come to the conclusion recently that I really do like my life. Maybe it's the spring fever getting to my head, but I really do have a good life. When I'm not getting caught up in everything there is to do, or letting people get to me, I enjoy my life and I am grateful for it. Yes some things about my school annoy me and everyone else on campus, and yes I always have lots of work to do, but I have the privilege of going to school, when some people don't. Plus I set up my schedule knowing I'd be busy so no right to complain there.

Not much going on lately, staying busy with schoolwork, figuring out how to maintain some semblance of a social life (which usually translates to playing pool with my boys), looking forward to spring break. Gotta get through exams...speaking of which, my spanish profesora is...interesting. She's scatterbrained, ADD, contradicts herself, and has changed the date of our exam 4 times in the past 2 weeks. Currently its still scheduled for the last class before break. If she changes it to after break, I will be very unhappy. I don't want to study over break, I don't want to have to come back from break and first week back have to take an exam.

Political thoughts...friends of mine went down to the state capitol to testify/protest against a bill that would extend instate college tuition to anyone who graduated from a state high school, regardless of citizenship status. I wanted to go, but had an exam that day...boo. To use some internet phrasing I've picked up since being at school, this bill=epic fail. Seriously, there's a limited amount of instate tuition for legal residents already, do we want illegals to be able to get some of that, thus leaving less for the rest of us? Do I want my taxes paying for someone to go to school who doesn't pay taxes, and just lives here mooching off the rest of us? I think not. Stop coddling the illegals!! If they want to get the benefits of living in the US, they can damn well get off their butts and become taxpaying citizens. Don't whine about the children being brought here by their parents and thus it's not their fault. If they're going to college, they're old enough to know they're not supposed to be here, and they can take responsibility for their own citizenship. I emailed every single legislator on the committee that would hear the bill and told them in no uncertain terms not to vote for the bill. The legislators sponsoring this bill need to grow a spine and stop helping people circumvent federal laws.

Muscial thoughts...I need to get more classical music for studying. I have a bit on my ipod, but alot of it is not instrumental, and when I'm listening to classical music, it's cause I don't want words. I'm going home for a few hours this weekend, if I remember I should try and grab some of my parents CD's and put them on my ipod. *Thinking* there's the Bach CD that used to start playing Tocatta and Fugue at 2Am when we forgot to turn off the CD player...that was always an interesting to wake up. There's also the instrumental hymns we got Daddy for Christmas...Always like more old hymns. I've come to the recent conclusion that I cannot live without music, especially country music. I get antsy if I'm anywhere besides class without music for any extended period of time.

Girly thoughts...went to the mall last week with a friend and did some spring preview shopping. I need $$ or some really good spring sales, cuz there's alot of stuff I want :). My spring wardrobe needs updating...yay gift cards. I could also use some spring shoes. I've gotten addicted to flats recently. I used to do heels all the time, but walking around campus doesn't treat heels all that nicely, especially if you go off the sidewalks at all. Flats last alot longer, are a bit more versatile (dress them up or down, they look cute with just about anything), and are usually cheaper. Acrylic nails are wonderful...they're extremely low maintenance, and they look good 24/7, and they last longer than a standard manicure, and they're easier to fix. Hair needs highlighting...but of course this can only be done at 2am hair parties, after a midnite grocery run. I'll have to look into arranging that. Speaking of groceries, I'm hungry...but that's pretty much a constant state of being for me. I love my metabolism but sometimes...

Random thoughts...a friend of mine recently parted ways with a girl he'd been seeing for a while (or so it seems, facebook tells all...). I know he cared about her alot, and I'm slightly worried he's trying to put it behind him too soon. I understand wanting to get over it and move on with life, but when you experience loss on any level, it's important to let yourself grieve, and let yourself be upset. Take a day or two and be depressed, be pissed at the world, be emo, whatever helps you. Part of healing is grieving. I was talking to my parents about this in the fall when my great grandmother went home to Jesus. She was my dad's grandmother, and had alot of influence on him growing up, and as I was unable to be home before the memorial service, I told my mom to make sure that Daddy took time for himself to let himself grieve. He was quickly getting caught up in everything that had to be done with making arrangements and helping my grandmother process all that needed to be done and dealt with, and I knew that if he didn't take time to let himself be upset, he would never be fully better. It's a similar thing with my friend. I know this is hurting him, and I hope he takes time to accept the loss so he can get on with his life.

On a lighter note...Spring is in the air, yay! The past few days have been really nice outside. It's not quite spring yet but it's getting there. It was raining the other night, and one of my friends commented how if it were snow, we would be accumulating quite a bit, and wouldn't that be cool. We then agreed that yeah that'd be nice, but we'll take the warm weather over the cold now. Besides, I like rain. I went walking around the "loop" that is the main road on campus, and by the time I got back I was thoroughly soaked, and probably did some damage to my ipod headphones (technology and water don't get along too well). It was fun though. It was earlier in the evening than I usually go for my walks, so there were still alot of cars going around, probably wondering why the heck I was voluntarily subjecting myself to the weather. Irony: listening to "Walking on Sunshine" while walking in the rain :)

I've always had a bit of a mischievous streak, and I like messing with people. Currently, a friend of mine from highschool, Angel, is trying to figure out who this blog belongs to. I of course am being very mean and just leaving little hints instead of telling him who this is. There's two rather large hints in this post, so maybe that'll help him out.

Uhoh class time so that's all for now.
Peace y'all

P.S. Common Sense Life Lesson for the week: If you're going to pay $40 to get your nails done, make sure they do a good job of it.