Measuring I.4.84

11-15-13

I sort of wish I could make this fiction-y, but I don't think I could. I'm not sure I want to, if that makes sense.

Anyway, this week I realized that I've been doing the same thing that Bean did at the beginning of Ender's Shadow, trying to conquer all the schoolwork when it was the connections with the people that needed to be created. I've been doing a bit of that, too, but it's definitely not the same as some of my classmates (one seems super unassuming and yet is sometimes talking about some informational, networking trip he made; he wants to share the information with us, which is nice, but he seems so on top of it).

I mean, this is the first week I've actually gone to speak to professors outside of class (and only one I spoke to is a professor I actually have in a class this semester). Granted, it is faculty advising and we have open advising, so anybody in our school can sign up to talk to any professor in our school, but still.

I ended up telling the one professor I went to advise with (more like, confirm everything I'd already planned out) that I've been adjusting to coming to such a big school (which is true) and that I'd been doing that by just trying to get all my homework done, and not visiting profs despite my desire to do so. The professor's advice? One, if a professor's office hours clash with my classes or with work, just e-mail them and set up a time, and two, "stop being bashful" because I'm paying a lot of money to go here and I should take advantage of what I'm paying for. Which I totally agree with.

But I suppose it rubbed against other things I've been told, like this here. And so I've been living in my head too much this week, feeling a bit like an impostor even though I know I'm not, and feeling a bit overwhelmed. That also might explain why I've been trying to earn the procrastination honor this week; I have stuff to do, papers to write, etc, but I find myself reading webcomics and eating ice cream instead, partially because there's still two weeks til the paper is due and partially because I don't know why.

Anyway, I have once again resolved certain things. The clue's in the title and this link.

The other resolution is that my confidence can't come from my appearance, but that's for a whole 'nother post.

Things We Waste Our Time On Instead of Writing Our Next Short Story Draft

3-14-10

I, like many people, are prone to procrastination. My math teacher in high school considered procrastination to be a "bad word" because it meant we didn't get our math homework done. Most of the time, I agree with this teacher I had, but that's usually because I'm so incredibly busy that if I procrastinated, I'd probably fall behind.

Well, I have been procrastinating on figuring out what sort of posts to do for this blog, and I've been procrastinating on working on my next draft of the short story I'm working on (at least, I think it's a short story; since I haven't typed it up yet, I don't know how many words it has). That got me thinking about what I do instead of typing up my next draft--and that gave me an idea for a post. Happy day!

Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook is a one-minute swapping the jewels game that I frequently indulge in. I probably shouldn't--though during spring break, I got a score of over 500,000--and I think it's actually addictive. I've pulled back a bit, but that's because I have homework. Actually, Facebook in general is a time-waster, although I do have legitimate uses for it (like keeping in touch with friends that I'm not in the same state--or room--with). However, I don't need to be constantly logged in and "liking" 419 people's status updates. Oh, the joys of the interwebz.

I am reading The Lord of the Rings for the fourth time, and I am finding more things to enjoy in it each time I read (perhaps I'll do a book review after I finish reading each section of it). I also have homework, though I did read some Tennyson poems for Monday's British Literature class. (We're studying the Victorians now!) Yet I need to work on my term paper revisions. Later, perhaps.

While reading news on CNN, I found this, since today is Pi Day, the day before the Ides of March (also, it's Einstein's birthday). Look for your birthday in Pi--or look for any other number string. It will seriously be cool and time-consuming. It will distract from both writing and homework.

Oh, and there's homework. Did I mention I did that instead of writing? *sigh* I like school, but homework can be annoying when you want to write. Especially if you're a procrastinator.

Now it's time to stop using this blog as procrastination and work on that draft.

~Ashlee