Paperwork

What with my severe sense of the exact, I have problems filling out forms. I really do like doing it, but I’d rather not add to my difficulties by slashing the wrong box. Unfortunately, the number of forms I have to fill out seems to balloon as I grow older and I have to fill [...]

Read Full Post »

What I Learned from the SAT

Having taken the SAT the morning I rushed off to take a vacation, I had an interesting experience and felt it worthwhile to comment on the test.
In the first place, I had a totally different experience than I did on the PSAT. When I took the PSAT, we had to register at the only local [...]

Read Full Post »

What I learned in Business Law 2200

My chronic absence has not been for nothing. In fact, I actually learned something while I was away. (Imagine that!) In light of my experiences, I think it was actually worth it too take a class in business law and get a little behindhand on everything else.

* The first thing I learned was that procrastination invariably leads to naps. This sort of nap, while infinitely enjoyable, almost always leads to odd situations. One day, in the beginning of the semester, I decided that I needed to be in a certain frame of mind to read my law book. (Poor fool, I had not yet learned that law creates its own frame of mind.) I waited until late afternoon and read the chapter in admirable detail. Unfortunately, the homework assignment for that chapter was due the next day and it was already quite late. I worked into the night and finished sometime around two. The next morning rolled around at precisely five fifteen a.m. I awoke with great vigor. My vigor wore off sometime around ten that morning. I had to have a nap. But my dad was still in the office where I was encamped and I had loads of schoolwork to do. I would simply have to put it off. I awoke sometime later to find the edges of the last thirty pages of my chemistry text saturated with drool. (Fortunately for me, and my younger sister who will be reusing the book, the pages of the chemistry book are made of heavy, glossy paper–perhaps in foresight of such an occurrence.) Another awkward situation arose with student advising. My father is by now quite used to it, but the sight of a body stretched out on the floor, even if studying, has never quite lost its tendency to startle visitors.

* I also learned a thing or two about detail. I read everything in detail. I have never quite been able to loose that trait. But law added a whole new dimension to it. Since every. single. insignificant. word. is important, I began to ready even more slowly. This did not help my stress levels at all. Then, toward the end of the semester, although I still hadn’t properly learned the lesson about procrastination, I began to learn how to skim. I read several chapters the evening before the quiz. Although this was not due to skimming per-say, I like to think that it was because I was getting better at seeing what was important. (Yes. My grade was lower than average that day, and I fell asleep on the floor again. Not recommended.) My normal reading is still a good bit messed up, but at least now I can skim.

* I learned how to look for what is important and honed my blather power. You focus on the issue in the case. You find the rule. You use the magic words to apply the rule and talk about contingencies. You recap in the conclusion. Period. In theory, at least. I tended to focus on the issue, find the applicable rule and any other rules which came into my mind. I talked about the issue in detail, the contingencies, the possible contingencies, and the contingencies had the facts been different. I find it hard to strike a balance.

* Around this time I discovered that the common man knows little about the law. My sister brought home a book from a friend’s favorite series, The Ranger’s Apprentice. It was indeed well-written for a kids book. However, the characters took to bashing lawyers. “The treaty was drafted by lawyers so there is a certain ambiguity to it, Baron Arald sighed.” Ha! treaties count as contracts practically, and those have to be reasonably certain. (In this case, name all the parties, the subject matter specifically, the consideration, and the time of performance.) The author goes on to confused the origins of common law, and bewail lawyers as strange people who can’t make up their minds and adore paperwork. But then, perhaps the problem lies not with the author, but with myself. I started seeing law everywhere. I also saw an appaling lack of law. Basic knowledge ought to be required in our politicians.

* Another thing that happened connected with the law class was my glasses broke. As a result. I stumbled around for two weeks (For one of which I was on vacation.) in a blur. It is rather amazing what you notice when your eyes have to adapt to change. I noticed depth without my glasses. I noticed color and detail with my glasses. Leaves were razor sharp and vivid. More importantly, so did the whiteboard. As I am a visual/tactile person, I remember little of what I hear. The beautiful outline my father drew on the board meant nothing because I couldn’t read it. Be thankful for what your professors demonstrate. Also, be thankful that your professor writes legibly. If you claim that your teacher’s writing is illegible, you ought to see your own. My father graded everything from typed pages to Edwardian script to something very different. Yes, it was that bad, and worse. I learned that profs like your papers typed.

* Hallways are wonderful places. Old certificates and empty bulletin boards and cleaning people. Most of the professors either avoided eye contact or smiled at me like their favorite granddaughter, and most of the students looked like zombies in a rush. The maintenance people were fun, though. I know not what makes an enormous file cabinet being zipped down the hall, or a computer being delivered to a non-existent office so funny, but it is. Anyway, maintenance people don’t all dress alike, and they don’t look like they’ve been doing the same thing forever. I like them.

* Regardless of what I said about profs in the preceding paragraph, profs are really nice, generally. Merciful, I should say. I, for one, got more slack than I deserved. But I learned about work: plunging in and getting it done. And that, I think, about sums up my semester.

Read Full Post »

I go to school!

I just returned the my second session of my first formal course. I had thought that business was a fairly cushy major. Perhaps it is. I’m scared now. Anyway, even if I do flunk this Business law  course, I will have gained new experiences, most notably, getting up at five to beat rush hour. Fortunately [...]

Read Full Post »

Planned Chaos

I took the PSAT several weeks ago. It was very traumatic. Because the school didn’t have me on record, I had nowhere to sit. I had to sit in the corner and smell the cafeteria ladies making pizza. Despite my fears the day before and my subsequent massive panics, I am fairly sure that I did well. My mother is laughing.

My dad has proclaimed that the house is to be clean. It is so. Sort of. My younger sister has taken advantage the opportunity to have a clean room all to herself by contracting a fever. Little did she know that the vacant bed in my brother’s room is far more comfortable than my own. Ignorant of this information, I put off going to bed an hour to memorize Morse code for an upcomingcampout.

This upcoming campout was to be the epitome of planned perfection. Because our trips are often canceled, the Venturing crew made up a lists of the people coming, their phone numbers, who was riding with whom, and our activities. We were going to teach the older girls from the localAHG troop how to tie knots, signal Morse code, make fires, follow a compass, cook over a campfire, build shelters; and last, but surely not least, we were going to doteambuilding COPE activities with them. We had this all planned out. We then discovered that the leader in charge had forgotten to schedule and reserve spots for the girls to do COPE. Ducky. This didn’t dissolve our plans, but it sure made it harder for us teach them.Gah!

Anyway, I’m learning Morse code, fire lays, learning knots, how to make shelters, and picking out easy camping food recipes. I thought that becoming the president of the Venturing crew would eliminate some of the under-planned trips. It has, I suppose, but I happen to be doing a whole lot of the planning.

Read Full Post »

Bach in the Chimney

I am staving off anxiety this evening. I take my standardized test tomorrow. Conveniently, I’m too anxious to study. Fear makes you forget the little that you remember.
Anyway, what was I talking about? Nope, I don’t remember.
I was playing piano this afternoon when I heard birds in the chimney. I had noticed scuffling in the [...]

Read Full Post »

Clearly I Have No Say in the Opinons of Others

Sometimes I wish I could vote. Oh, to have a say in government! Unfortunately all the other people of my age would have a say in government as well, and I don’t trust their judgment. (not that I trust the judgment of half the population today) So while news of Sarah Palin is plastered all [...]

Read Full Post »

The Prince Caspian Film Isn’t Half Bad

It seems my blog gets more visits when I actually write on it. I didn’t think I was so popular…
This weekend I saw Prince Caspian at last. Is a result of seeing movies on a large screen that they seem slightly disjointed? Perhaps this resulted from the nonstop action; perhaps it was a result of [...]

Read Full Post »

Dish Washing (and other things that irritate me)

What with the eldest siblings gone, I am the oldest kid in my house. “And it isn’t funny, you guys! Come back!” Anyhow, in order to avoid depression and all-that-fun-ranting-stuff, I bring you my opinion on dish washing.

Dish washing is one of the great evils, up there with vacuuming and cleaning-someone-else’s-toothpaste-off-the-counter. Dish washing, however, has unique problems. Whereas with vacuuming, you can blow it off for a month before doing a quick job, dishes grow. When I washed several days of dishes while my parents were gone, I quickly realized that the entire house would be much more efficient eating off paper plates and never allowing leftover chicken in the refrigerator, cost-effective too, what with water restrictions. An even more cost-efficient way of reducing dishes would be not to use any at all, and use slap-dash vacuuming. Unfortunately, as I only have a miniature vacuum at my disposal, the job proved to be grueling. Thus I washed dishes.

I have two computer monitors hanging over my head. In the way of cleaning house, I wish to hurl them over a cliff. They sit in my room. In the case that my younger sister takes over my elder sister’s room, she will probably leave all of her furniture in our current room. I find this irritating. I know that Chris wishes her room to remain her own, but let it be know that I wish to hurl all the furniture my little sister leaves behind over a cliff. If you see a cliff, let me know.

Dissections also irritate me. Use paper plates or I will fling a perch at your head.

Read Full Post »

Time Travel

I have of late discovered time travel. The most telling consequence is this: yesterday, it was July the 22 of 2008. However, the calender in my room reads April 29 2008 today. Thus, I must be enjoying the cool weather of April and not just the blast of the air conditioning.

Another of the more telling results is that I may now sit in front of the computer and instantly find myself two hours after of the time I sat down. On a downside, I do not seem to be able to revert to the time I sat down. The secret to time travel I must assume, then, is the Internet. It has been touted as “progress!” “A tool for education!” I must assume that the education they speak of is the inadvertent discovery of time management and progress is the rate at which the Internet speeds through your available time.

But it is not only the Internet, but work that seems to be involved in time travel. Absorbing work bends and stretches time instead of moving through it. Work, it would seem, is not a series of pipes. But as I was saying, work always takes too much time. The difference is in perceived time and actual time. Work I enjoy tends to take actual time instead of the reverse.

The secret to time travel, I suppose, is a change in typical state. Time tends to move slow when doing something on hours on end, does it not? I recommend you don’t do anything; at least then the date on your calender won’t change.

Read Full Post »