eighthphase | Entries tagged with college stuff

I already suspected that my English class now is the same as the English class I took in eleventh grade, but now I'm sure. I also liked it better as my eleventh grade English class than I do as my first college English class. I mean, today we talked about MLA formatting and how to avoid clichés and redundancy in essays! Our final project for the class is a research paper; I don't know how long it is, but if it's shorter than 15 paged I'm going to scream.

Today in class "So what's this weird semi-colon thing do, anyway?" was an actual question asked of us by the teacher, and I was the only person to offer the correct answer. Everyone else was either wrong or just didn't know. Semi-colons!

I realise that my familiarity with the course material is because I've basically already taken the course, and that obviously I shouldn't expect that kind of knowledge from my classmates because I don't know if they have... except that I do know that there are at least two people in there who have taken the exact same English classes that I have, and there is absolutely no reason for them to not have volunteered the same answers I did, because they absolutely should have already known them.

It's like I'm turning into Hermione or something. I certainly raised my hand enough.

Anyway, enough about that. Today I actually finished arc four of Chasing A Starlight. Anybody remember that? I know I sure didn't.

Current Mood: annoyed

It's really annoying leaving the house when it's 60 degrees outside and staying out until it's 82. I mean, how do you dress for that? (I know how you dress for that, you wear layers. It's still really annoying.)

I wonder how they test the battery life of laptop batteries. For example, mine is supposed to have a battery life of "up to five hours." I used it yesterday with all the power-saving features I could possibly enable. It lasted two and a half hours. That's not good. (Of course, my laptop is a huge monstrosity... so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.) Wish I had a netbook. Not to replace this thing! Just to add to it. (My dad doesn't understand this, of course: "You have a computer, you don't need another one." Maybe I don't. But it would certainly be extremely useful.)

Anyway, I've got a Girl Scouts meeting later today, and naturally nobody's responding to messages about it (this is normal, if immensely annoying), and I need to start getting ready for class, since I have to get my brother out of bed to drive me to school and I don't want to be late. (Even if my first class is public speaking and I'd love to not show up, except that then I'd get dropped and I actually kind of need that class.)

When I wrote my last entry I neglected to mention that I was writing it on my phone, which should account for its oddness. But now I am on my computer! This is particularly important because it means that I got my replacement A/C adapter! :D I didn't think I'd miss my gorgeous laptop so much, but I did. ;__;

Still working on that Atlas Shrugged post; I need to work on the essay, as well, which is the really annoying part. Once I do that, I should have a post incoming. I just have to, you know, write the essay first. (Also my mum said we'd buy some books - her exact phrasing was "splurge on books" - after I finished the essay. I, for one, am excite.)

My stats class is pretty boring, I found; it's an online course, no matter what the professor says. I'm mildly terrified by my public speaking class, but then I turn bright red just giving an answer in class, so that's not surprising. Both my mass media and English classes seem pretty cool; the professors are both pretty chill, so that's okay.

So the first day actually totally sucked - I lost my wallet, which was horrible. I spent my entire stats class freaking out about it. Fortunately somebody turned it into student services, so I got it back. Even more fortunately, everything was still in it! So that was significantly less sucky.

I think it was something of a mistake to dive headfirst into high fantasy right after Atlas Shrugged; I'm pretty burned out on long epic things, and I can't tell where things are going or who I'm supposed to like or anything (although I managed to figure out that the queen and her twin brother were the bad guys, but they shoved a kid off a roof because he saw them doing the nasty, so that wasn't all that hard to figure out). I probably should have read some YA fantasy to get me back in the "reading something because I actually want to" mindset... but I've already read all the YA fantasy that I have, so perhaps not.

(I'm watching Iron Man: Armoured Adventures right now, and their Justin Hammer looks a lot like Rufus Shinra. Thought it merited mentioning.)

Anyway, my brownies are done, so I'm off to take a shower. I don't know why, but I kind of feel like I deserve one. /:

So I'm sitting awkwardly outside the building that I'm pretty sure contains the school library, with four hour between now and my next class. Welcome to my first day of college.

I really can't say how I feel about this all yet, honestly; it's still sinking in. I do think, though, that the thing I miss most already is being able to talk to all my friends - I mean, they aren't here, after all. Hanekoma is, but our schedules are pretty different, so he's not really around - though he did offer to take me out for lunch later, so there's that. In my first class is a girl I really only vaguely remember; I guess she was an AVID tutor, since that's what she seemed to recognise me from. Still, vague acquainttences aren't friends, really.

My first class wasn't all that bad. I think it might be fun. I'm not so sure about statistics, though. /:

I, ever-curious, decided to look through my brother's GBA "collection". Imagine my surprise when I found that a good third of the games in it were actually mine! Most of them actually really sucked, so he can keep them, but I was not happy upon learning that the Phantasy Star Collections cart that I had so desperately searched for was with him all along. (Ironically it's the one cart I actually replaced, so he gets to keep it, since I don't need two. But still, it's the principle of the thing...!

Yesterday I finished Atlas Shrugged. I need time to collect my thoughts about it (and I'd like to have my actual computer with it's whole keyboard...) but I'll throw up a post about that once I've thought things through.

Today I started reading A Game of Thrones! Little did I know that the first book of A Song of Ice and Fire, which I had seen countless TVTropes references to, had been sitting in my mum's headboard for as long as I can remember. (Seriously, though, that particular printing has existed since 1997 and I'm pretty damn sure we've had it since 1997. And yet my mum only just started reading it earlier this year... and gave up on it, which is why I've got it now.)

Tomorrow I begin college. I don't know what to think, or even really what to expect. I only have two classes tomorrow, with a huge block of time between them during which I can't really leave or go anywhere (since I don't have my license, and therefore can't drive myself anywhere) so I get the feeling I'm going to get to know the campus really well, whether I want to or not. Well, either that or I'll end up making a beeline to the library and holing myself in there doing ~*~research~*~ for my stupid Atlas Shrugged essay.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but every time I type "Atlas Shrugged" I want to type it "Atlus Shrugged" because I'm more used to seeing the game company's name than the titan's name. It's really weird and I end up doing it basically every time.

Where the hell has today gone? It feels like it's about noon, but it's like four o'clock. /:

Things What I Need To Do Today:
- fill out a transcript request & turn it in
- camp out in front of the 100 book room until somebody shows up so that I can turn in my damned precalculus book
- get all my teachers to sign my yearbook
- take a picture of everybody in the amphitheatre during break, if everyone's amenable
- get my check-out form signed by my counsellor and the finance coordinator

The hardest part is probably actually the book thing. We were supposed to have them all in by Friday, but it's really hard to turn a book in when the room is locked and nobody's actually there all of the five times a day you stop by. So I'm going to go camp out over there this morning until the guy shows up, and then I'm going to get all my stuff signed, and if anybody complains I'll explain, but if they want to make a fuss over it, things aren't going to end well for anybody. So I hope nobody wants to make a fuss.

Also, after an adventure on my college's website, I found out that I do, actually, have to send in a high school transcript. I really wasn't sure, because the faculty were saying I did, but nobody I talked to at the college ever mentioned it, and the people I know who know more about the college than I do were saying how I didn't need to. Finally I went and looked, and after ten minutes of mindless googling I found that the answer was, in fact, yes.

Now, if that information had been posted on the website a little more obviously, that would have been nice.

Anyway, I've only got about half an hour left before I have to start getting ready, so it's back to mindless self-indulgent fanfic for me.

I feel like talking about my class schedule. Unfortunately, it's Sunday and I've got nobody to talk to. So I'll write a post about it! (This is how my thought process works. It's very strange.)

I'm signed up for four classes; together they make up fifteen units. Twelve units is considered full-time, but I felt a bit weird with only three classes, and I apparently need something like ninety units either to transfer or to earn an AA, I'm not sure which (but I'm supposed to do both, or something. It's weird). I've got an English class (Reading and Written Composition), a maths class (Statistics), a speech and communications class (Intro to Public Speaking), and a journalism class (Mass Media and Society). They're all transferable classes and they're all on the list of classes I need to take to transfer, so that works out nicely!

The actual timing involved works out nicely, too. I have at least one class every weekday: two on Monday and Wednesday, three on Tuesday and Thursday, and one on Friday. And they aren't all smashed together, either; Monday and Wednesday I have four hours between classes, and Tuesday and Thursday I have about two hours between my first two, and about an hour between my second two. My first classes start kind of early - 8:15 or 9:15 - but it's not as bad as high school, and it's not like I'm going to be there for seven hours a day or anything. And my classes aren't even all that long - two of them are just as long as my high school classes, and the other two are shorter! (Thank you, block scheduling.)

I was a little bit worried about fitness - this ties in with the whole "I ate a salad and it didn't kill me, it was actually kinda tasty" thing from yesterday - but I'd forgotten one important thing that actually makes me kind of hopeful. I know I'll be driving a lot more - once I actually start driving, anyway - and that is probably not a good thing since I'll walk places less. But at the same time, I'm going to be spending a lot of time walking around campus. And, unlike the mini-campus my orientation yesterday was at, the main campus? It's on a hill. There's a ton - a ton - of stairs. So I'm going to be walking up and down stairs all damn day. I may not lose any weight, but I probably won't be gaining any, either - and maybe my knees will finally stop complaining about stairs.

(Finally, to end with something totally unrelated - I found out that, yes, it's supposed to be impossible to aim with the sniper rifle in Mass Effect; there's a proficiency you have to take when levelling up, which I never did because I always just let the game spread my stat points for me, and I'm not really switching guns anyway, because the assault rifle seems to be the best choice.)

Current Mood: bored

Today was a productive day! First I drew cards for Pinky and Shiki - it was their birthday. Then I went to their party! I didn't get to stay long, though, because I had college orientation. I'm officially a college student now, btw. Classes are all registered and paid for! Now I just need to find out what books I need, and um, learn to drive, so that I can actually, you know, get to class. That might be kind of important, I think.

Anyway, then I went out with mum and bought myself a new tablet. It's an Intuos! :D It's so fucking gorgeous, I'm still giddy about it. Then we went to Fridays and I... didn't actually eat all that much, really. Mum insisted on potato skins, and I tried some with sour cream, which was weird. It was, like, an anti-flavour or something. Then I shocked mum by getting my cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato on it - and with a side salad! (I basically have a total vendetta against all vegetables - tomatoes are actually my second most mortal enemy, you know.) The salad actually had cherry tomatoes but I let mum have those; it was just as well, because I couldn't quite tell if I liked the tomato on the burger or not. I'll have to try it again sometime. There was also some cucumber, and I got the chance to taste it without seaweed. It was kind of weird, but not in a bad way, I don't think. Like I said, though, I didn't eat very much - all the salad (though it was pretty small) and about a third of the burger. I just wasn't very hungry.

I'm ravenous now, of course, but we haven't got much easily-snackable stuff except for chocolate, and I... don't really want chocolate right now.

Also, I thought my day was great! Then I got home and found both cats on my bed - normally not a bad thing - and also that one of them decided to use my bed as a litter box. |:< I needed to change the sheets anyway, but still. Not how I wanted to do it. And then I got my lovely Intuos all set up, only to find that GIMP had apparently decided to save my most recent piece with a compression mode that it can't read. I spent hours on that - I had to basically draw the entire thing in GIMP, because the scan wasn't finished and wasn't very good, either - so I'm pretty pissed about that.

I need to think of a name for both my new tablet and the flash drive I bought with it. (I must have, like, six flash drives at this point. I can actually find three of them! That is, oddly, amazing.) I have no idea what to call them, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Current Mood: bored

l-lots of posts today I know .___.

More importantly, I have been placed! Apparently I am ready for Normal College Freshman English, although I think I might actually already have credits for that (except community college doesn't care about AP scores, so I actually don't, even though I would if I went to a Real College). I have a choice between a whopping five maths classes! I think these classes are Stats, Calculus, more Calculus, Trig, and Maths For People Who Suck At Maths, although, according to the course catalogue I found, they're all for people who suck at maths, so idk. (I do know that I won't be taking Trig, because the course description itself says that students in the course "seem very reticent about memorizing the special trig values, such as cos (π/6)". I've already had two years of maths with students like that, thanks, I don't think I'll be paying for a third.) I'll probably take either Finite Mathematics or Maths for Liberal Arts, depending on how masochistic I'm feeling when I register for classes.

I'm starting to feel that maths and I have a very complicated relationship. Normally when people ask me about maths, I reply, "I hate maths! Maths and I don't get along. We just aren't meant to be." The thing is, I'm not actually bad at maths. If I know what I'm doing, I'm actually really good at maths. Trig, for example. I am fucking amazing at trig. This is because I actually understand trig (except for analytical trig, which can fuck off and die for all I care, although I'm actually pretty good at it if you ignore the lowering powers part). Logarithms, on the other hand, I am not so good at. "When you put numbers like this, it means you're actually doing this other thing with them that isn't what it looks like at all." That is basically how I describe logarithms. (Although I have been assured that all you really need to know about logs for trig is that ln and e cancel each other out, which is pretty simple to remember.) And functions! There is absolutely no reason to have to solve f(g(h(k(x)))). There just isn't.

tl;dr: maths for the sake of maths is stupid and I don't suck at English. Those are the only two important points in this entire post. Now I think I am going to go eat a chocolate muffin.