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 [...]

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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.

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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 [...]

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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.

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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 [...]

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The Ramblings of My Brain

Procrastination is a wonderful thing. Then again, it leads to not so wonderful results. The best reply when friends ask about summer activities is not the following: “Oh yeah, I’ve already got it all planned….For five months I’ll be doing homework!” In spite of the vast amounts of pity and sympathy that reply evokes, a more enjoyable reply is this: “For the next couple of months, I’ll be working on my cornering.” Never mind those corners are on graph paper.

Prince Caspian came out last night. I was very excited. I haven’t seen it. However, judging from reviews, the movie itself was conscious that it was a cool sequel. The trailer looks sweet, and they upped the special effects. I predict that people will like the movie if only for those parts. The movie is straddling two audiences: One audience wants to see the book on screen and done well; the second audience wants a second LOTR with action, darkness and romance without glaring Christian references. I think the movie makers have straddled the line fairly well, but neither audience is going to be fully satisfied. The first audience will remember that Caspian and Susan did not kiss, and that the second half of the book centera around Aslan. On the other hand, it’s going to be too tame for people who want LOTR. It’s a kid’s book, people!

That was my week. ~Joanna

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Championship

It appears that team 420, and I with it, are going to the FIRST nationals! So many teams won first place at multiple competitions that they had a drawing for lowly teams like ours to come as filler. However, the drawing took place eight days before they told us. FIRST also slapped us with a humongous entrance fee in proportion to the notice they gave us.

Despite this all, I’m rather happy to go.

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Problems with the Robot

Building our robot goes reasonably well, but it is strange how something so calculated and mulled over could be so hard to gauge the success of.
Our robot is basically designed to pick up rings and slide them over a stick. That would not seem so hard. It is. We finally got an arm worked up [...]

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Robotics by committee

To my complete and utter happiness, I am now developing ideas for a
robot. Transferring them to an actual metal structure, is sadly a much
different process.
Our first task was brainstorming. Once the rush of ideas had stampeded
past, there was not much left to do, so we wanted to build. Our mentor
(in all his wisdom and machine [...]

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“Math is broken”

Hello, besides wanting to kill my math book, things are pretty good here. James is home from college. I’ve joined a robotics team, and things are generally ok.
On the subject of the math book. I’ve just spent four hours correcting tests and trying to see how the book wants me to solve problems before I [...]

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