liaku

STUDY CALC EXAM, on Thursday.
WRITE HISTORY PAPER, due Monday.
READ ALL OF BELOW, by Monday.
( Reading List of Doom )

It's raining and ugly outside, and I don't want to do any work. On the upside, tomorrow I officially declare my major, and all my study abroad stuff is mailed. At least that's two thorns out of my side.

greenie1980 suggested I post my reading list for the pleasure of all, and what with this being a brand new week with brand new assignments, my list has doubled in size.  The more the merrier!  On the bright side, I've finally written a rough draft for one of my application essays!  Yes!  Now I just need to polish it (a lot, it's kinda an ugly essay), and I'll have four more essays and a cover letter to go!  Woooo!  O, spare time, I knew ye well.

( List o' Doom )

Somehow, my workload apparent has not stopped me from buying tickets to two Hungarian movie screenings at Lincoln Center next weekend.  Insanity becomes me.  At least they were cheap.  And it's not this coming weekend at least, because then I seriously won't have time to leave my studying cave.

The weather was disgusting outside.  My umbrella (and it was not a crappy drugstore umbrella, it was actually really nice but it already had a hinge broken before today) is demolished.  It's usable if the wind's not strong (it's wicked) and if I hold down one of the sides whenever there's a light breeze or, say, a sneeze, but it was enough of a pain that I decided I'd rather take the rain.  This is significantly better than my dormmate's umbrellas.  Most now open upside-down or are simply in pieces.

I had a class scheduling disaster that may yet work out in my favor.  Basically, I got into the intro international politics class, a class I really didn't think I could get into (why the fuck do they put enrollment limits on intro classes when there's only one section?  It's a goddamn prerequisite for nearly every politics class I'm interested in!), but I somehow magically got a spot... but not before it was too late to change my biology lab section, which happens during the same time.  There are no other lab sections that I can switch into that'd fix the schedule conflict.  I went to the politics class, and it was awesome, I loved it, and I really don't want to drop it.

The solution I'm looking at is to switch into a different level of biology, the intro biology-for-majors rather than the biology-for-retards/non-majors.  It shouldn't present much of an increase in difficulty since my current bio professor is probably the single worst professor I've ever had (including the one that forgot to show up for his own review session) and I have no clue what I'm supposed to be learning, which makes learning anything quite the challenge.  Anyway, this is assuming that the bio-for-majors class has lab sections open for times when I'm available.  I'm waiting on an email back from the lab professor, but since she suggested it in the first place, I'd be annoyed if it turned out to be a dead end.  On the upside, the bio department has agreed to not bitch-slap me for being a pain in the ass with last minute changes.

I saw Corbin Bleu's debut as Usnavi tonight.  He was good.  Not better than Lin Manuel-Miranda (who was there hanging out with the audience before the show, btw), though his voice is very rich and gorgeous.  A lot of the time, he sung more than he rapped, even when he was supposed to rap, which I don't mind.  Most interestingly, in Hundreds of Stories," during a bit where Usnavi talks about his parents and them dying, he totally broke my heart.  That song's never raised anything but laughs for me, and Usnavi's bit in it was touching in a generic way, but Corbin Bleu was intense.  I never even realized how serious that string of lyrics are.  The biggest shame is how much he's out-charisma'd by the original cast, what few that remain, but that's understandable and forgivable at this point.  I swear, Robin de Jesus owns the stage in ways that few actors can ever aspire to.  I'd have a huge actor crush on him if he weren't so short.

I am completely lost in my German class.  Okay, I exaggerate.  I had no problems following along even if all the details were lost on me, and I was perhaps less lost than a few other people in class.  I am certainly at some level of lost though.  It's mostly just me forgetting all my vocab, so I'm going to have to review a bit.  In other news, German textbooks are expensive.  I have yet to figure out why anyone would ever buy the packaged version because even when bought new, the individual textbook+workbook is way cheaper.  (Seriously though, over $200 for two paperback textbooks?  They're not even nice-quality books!  Hell, they're not even acceptable-quality books. The workbook can't even be worth more than $30!)

At least the Hungarian textbooks are somewhat reasonable.  They're still a rip-off, but not by so much.

Barnard College sent me an acceptance letter.

Midterm today.  I feel... mildly confident.  Mildly.  Perhaps less than even that.  Tentatively nervous?  It's a good state to be in for  a midterm exam anyway.  100% confident is better, but I'll take what I can get.

I have another exam in Thursday in Politics, which means I've got about 8 chapters of reading to do, starting after I take today's midterm. I'm hoping to finish three chapters today, five tomorrow, and review Wednesday.  After that, I've rescheduled Wednesday's German test to Friday, so I've got to figure things out there too.  There's a vocab quiz in class today, but I think I can get away with taking it during Wednesday's class instead.

Also, I am surviving without my cellphone's alarm clock.  I just didn't pull down the window blinds, and I woke up at 7:30AM with the sun.  Jesus.  I kinda want my phone back just so I can try to sleep in a little more than that.

Because I did virtually no homework during my break, the next couple days are gonna suck.

( Step-by-step plan that I don't have any choice but to follow. )

I just realized why I have so much homework, essays and tests to study for.  Not to mention that "exam" in politics last Thursday.  I was wondering what the professor meant when he said he'd scheduled it early to avoid us having too many exams to study for at one time.

Turns out it's midterm week, and I just missed the memo.

A random guy got on his knees and proposed to me at the bus stop. I said no. He asked why. Then we went around in circles about it until I asked him to get up, which he did, and he asked if I would kiss him, which I did, and then I got on the bus. And told him not to follow me, and needing to say that was a bit creepy, but he didn't, so it was all good.

Watched the latest episode of Sarah Connor Chronicles today.  It was awesome (uh, except for the Sarah Connor hearing/seeing dead people thing, that was lame, but used quite effectively), and it whooped Heroes' ass as usual.  I especially loved how the camera zoomed in and hovered over the urinals and the sink in the bathroom with the suspenseful music going on--and nothing happened.  I kept expecting Weaver to murder whatshisface in the men's bathroom like she did before, so I thought it was pretty funny when it turns out she was waiting in the hallway.

Pushing Daisies is an awesome TV show, and I am now upset that they canceled it.  On the upside, I'm still only five episodes into season 1, so I've still got a lot to watch before I'm done with it.

Anyhow, I am, again, overloaded in work. My fault, really. I haven't been reading the politics textbook at all, and I just discovered we're having a test on Thursday based on the text. I'm hoping to finish two more chapters before I go to sleep tonight, and then take care of all my German homework (everything assigned for the chapter since I decided to put it all off until the day before it's due again) tomorrow.  I'll stuff in time in the art studio tomorrow too, or stuff it in somewhere anyway.  I kinda have to.

So, uh, given my progress on this essay thus far (and the common essay I need to finish--not necessarily perfect, but finish), I'm going to be up until 4AM or so.  Maybe I'll push to 5AM.  Given that I don't have to wake up until 11AM, that'd still get me six hours of sleep.  I can operate for a good amount of time (long enough for one class + a couple of hours anyway) with less sleep than that, so maybe 6AM or so would work too.

Actually, I'm going to admit that this essay is a lot easier than I thought it'd be.  I just can't focus on it.

And it seems like everyone loves Rebecca except me.  It's gotten to the point where I'm beginning to think I should read the book again, especially since the first time I read it was, what, when I was thirteen?  Fourteen?  Mind you, I still hate suspense in my novels, and while I could likely appreciate at least the writing more now, I don't think I'll find the characters any more interesting than I did before.  I guess once I watch the DVDs of the musical, I'll see if I feel like giving the book another shot.