I have used two full erasers on math today.
I am still nowhere near ready for my trimester final on Tuesday.
I still have no topic for my Lit presentation.
BUT! Tomorrow I am going to see The Cherry Orchard in the city! And it will be fun! And I am excited!
And the Lit presentation is on a book I am in love with, by an author I am in love with! Which you should read, if you haven't yet: The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro.
And I can sort of do integrals!
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
In love
With my IB Lit paper topic.
I love it.
I'm actually enjoying writing a paper at midnight the night before it's due.*
The unfortunate consequence of this is that it is taking forever to write, for some reason. I stop and think waaaay more often than when I'm writing about topics I hate.
*If you want to go all technical, it's a day and a half after it was due. Because it was due on Monday. Which was a snow day. And we have no class on Tuesdays.
I love it.
I'm actually enjoying writing a paper at midnight the night before it's due.*
The unfortunate consequence of this is that it is taking forever to write, for some reason. I stop and think waaaay more often than when I'm writing about topics I hate.
*If you want to go all technical, it's a day and a half after it was due. Because it was due on Monday. Which was a snow day. And we have no class on Tuesdays.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
January
January is a pretty big month for me. My History Day paper is due at the end of the month, I have a IB Lit practice comparison to write, plus eventually the actual IB paper, and there's a Model UN Conference starting on the twenty-ninth. Plus I take my driving test on Friday.
So I have all this stuff to do.
One thing that I find helps me to get stuff done is having a to-do list. It's odd, because I always have in my head what I need to get done anyway, but having the physical list, ordered by priority, doesn't give me a chance to wander around the house indecisive about what comes first.
Here are my goals for today:
1) Write at least two paragraphs of the Lit paper. In theory, this should not be difficult, because I already have a very detailed outline to work from. I've always found, though, that writing the paper takes longer than I expect it to.
2) Write one of the briefs for my Model UN committee. I'm on the Supreme Court. A friend, for Christmas, gave me Chemerinsky's Con Law tome. So my research consists of looking up the relevant sections in his book, skimming the Federalist Paper that deals with the issue, and reading the statue that applies. Notice that reading the actual Constitution isn't really part of that.
3) Try to figure out my focus for the History Day paper is going to be.
4) LEARN TO PARALLEL PARK.
If I focus, this should be doable. If I spend two hours reading the New York Times like I did last night at one a.m., I won't even come close to finishing.
The non-required things I want to do at some point, not necessarily today or tomorrow:
1) Read more Ibsen. I read Ghosts and A Doll's House while I was away. I want to reread Ghosts and possibly read the other plays in the book I have. Ibsen is a really cool writer. His characters are as dysfunctional as real people.
2) Finish Much Ado About Nothing. So far, it's not as funny as, say, Twelfth Night, but it is funny.
3) Catch up on The New Yorker? I'm two weeks behind, as usual.
I have a feeling that I'll be able to finish the Shakespeare this weekend, but I'm not sure about the others.
And by the way, people? I checked my analytics and I have at least twice as many visitors as I have commenters. Which kind of creeps me out.
So I have all this stuff to do.
One thing that I find helps me to get stuff done is having a to-do list. It's odd, because I always have in my head what I need to get done anyway, but having the physical list, ordered by priority, doesn't give me a chance to wander around the house indecisive about what comes first.
Here are my goals for today:
1) Write at least two paragraphs of the Lit paper. In theory, this should not be difficult, because I already have a very detailed outline to work from. I've always found, though, that writing the paper takes longer than I expect it to.
2) Write one of the briefs for my Model UN committee. I'm on the Supreme Court. A friend, for Christmas, gave me Chemerinsky's Con Law tome. So my research consists of looking up the relevant sections in his book, skimming the Federalist Paper that deals with the issue, and reading the statue that applies. Notice that reading the actual Constitution isn't really part of that.
3) Try to figure out my focus for the History Day paper is going to be.
4) LEARN TO PARALLEL PARK.
If I focus, this should be doable. If I spend two hours reading the New York Times like I did last night at one a.m., I won't even come close to finishing.
The non-required things I want to do at some point, not necessarily today or tomorrow:
1) Read more Ibsen. I read Ghosts and A Doll's House while I was away. I want to reread Ghosts and possibly read the other plays in the book I have. Ibsen is a really cool writer. His characters are as dysfunctional as real people.
2) Finish Much Ado About Nothing. So far, it's not as funny as, say, Twelfth Night, but it is funny.
3) Catch up on The New Yorker? I'm two weeks behind, as usual.
I have a feeling that I'll be able to finish the Shakespeare this weekend, but I'm not sure about the others.
And by the way, people? I checked my analytics and I have at least twice as many visitors as I have commenters. Which kind of creeps me out.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
One month to go...
and I have a lot that I want to do. Some of it's practical, some of it's not, but there's only one month left! And only two weeks before tennis starts up.
Warning: this post RAMBLES. A LOT.
I was miserable in tennis. Twenty hours a week, for what was going to be five weeks, was WAY too much, even ignoring the obnoxious twelve-year-old boys who practically turned me into a homicidal maniac. It helped, obviously. My coach, who hasn't given me any private lessons since the beginning of camp, was watching yesterday and told me that I've improved a LOT. Over the past couple days, since I've been trying to look for little bits of happiness at tennis, I have been noticing that I make a lot more of the "touch" shots, that are all about precision and control, than I used to. I can even handle myself at net now, unless the ball comes too fast at my head. But, since I was miserable and lonely, we managed to cancel the rest of camp sessions I was going to do. Instead, I'll play with my dad and take a few private lessons. Plus, I was asked to help teach little kids next week at the indoor tennis place I play at in the winter! (Only con: it's at nine a.m.)
So all of a sudden, I have a bunch of free time! Yay! I already went to the library. While I was on vacation, I read Election and Little Children by Tom Perrotta, and The Firm and The Street Lawyer by John Grisham. Then, this week I read The Abstinence Teacher, also by Perrotta, and I have Closed Chambers and In Our Defense out from the Library.
Perrotta's books were recommended to me by my freshman Lit teacher. Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher were both good. I clearly didn't like them as much as he did, but they were interesting, and Perrotta is REALLY good at developing characters. I mean, REALLY good. The problem with that is that by the end of the books you could half-predict what would happen. Election, the other book of his that I read, was way more enjoyable, probably because it focused on a student council election, and I could see parallels between characters and people at school.
John Grisham is John Grisham. I don't think much more explanation is necessary, other than saying that I thought all the main characters in The Firm were seriously fucked up. And the guy in The Street Lawyer was awesome.
I've also been watching lots of TV (bad postscript!) and just sitting around. This is good for me, I think, because I'm STILL feeling the stress from last year weighing down on me. Plus I know about all the different Law and Order shows, so I have figured out why I like SVU much more than the others. I think it's because I've always loved shows with strong and (maybe overly) idealistic, yet flawed, female leads (like Allison Janney in The West Wing and Amy Brenneman in Judging Amy). And neither of the other L&O shows have that.
The other day I had a doctor's appointment and successfully argued my way out of TWO OF THREE shots they were going to give me. Yes! But the doctor told me that he could tell I was right handed because the muscle in my right shoulder is apparently VISIBLY bigger than the one in my left shoulder. I'm still trying to decide whether that's cool or weird. I mean, I can't tell. But he could. Weird.
I've been doing a lot more little things, but I feel like doing nothing. Maybe I'll write some more later. Or maybe not.
Things yet to come this summer: Volunteer work. College visits. Phone calls and emails. Shopping. And, of course, summer reading.
Warning: this post RAMBLES. A LOT.
I was miserable in tennis. Twenty hours a week, for what was going to be five weeks, was WAY too much, even ignoring the obnoxious twelve-year-old boys who practically turned me into a homicidal maniac. It helped, obviously. My coach, who hasn't given me any private lessons since the beginning of camp, was watching yesterday and told me that I've improved a LOT. Over the past couple days, since I've been trying to look for little bits of happiness at tennis, I have been noticing that I make a lot more of the "touch" shots, that are all about precision and control, than I used to. I can even handle myself at net now, unless the ball comes too fast at my head. But, since I was miserable and lonely, we managed to cancel the rest of camp sessions I was going to do. Instead, I'll play with my dad and take a few private lessons. Plus, I was asked to help teach little kids next week at the indoor tennis place I play at in the winter! (Only con: it's at nine a.m.)
So all of a sudden, I have a bunch of free time! Yay! I already went to the library. While I was on vacation, I read Election and Little Children by Tom Perrotta, and The Firm and The Street Lawyer by John Grisham. Then, this week I read The Abstinence Teacher, also by Perrotta, and I have Closed Chambers and In Our Defense out from the Library.
Perrotta's books were recommended to me by my freshman Lit teacher. Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher were both good. I clearly didn't like them as much as he did, but they were interesting, and Perrotta is REALLY good at developing characters. I mean, REALLY good. The problem with that is that by the end of the books you could half-predict what would happen. Election, the other book of his that I read, was way more enjoyable, probably because it focused on a student council election, and I could see parallels between characters and people at school.
John Grisham is John Grisham. I don't think much more explanation is necessary, other than saying that I thought all the main characters in The Firm were seriously fucked up. And the guy in The Street Lawyer was awesome.
I've also been watching lots of TV (bad postscript!) and just sitting around. This is good for me, I think, because I'm STILL feeling the stress from last year weighing down on me. Plus I know about all the different Law and Order shows, so I have figured out why I like SVU much more than the others. I think it's because I've always loved shows with strong and (maybe overly) idealistic, yet flawed, female leads (like Allison Janney in The West Wing and Amy Brenneman in Judging Amy). And neither of the other L&O shows have that.
The other day I had a doctor's appointment and successfully argued my way out of TWO OF THREE shots they were going to give me. Yes! But the doctor told me that he could tell I was right handed because the muscle in my right shoulder is apparently VISIBLY bigger than the one in my left shoulder. I'm still trying to decide whether that's cool or weird. I mean, I can't tell. But he could. Weird.
I've been doing a lot more little things, but I feel like doing nothing. Maybe I'll write some more later. Or maybe not.
Things yet to come this summer: Volunteer work. College visits. Phone calls and emails. Shopping. And, of course, summer reading.
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