This past week has been brutal at school. I had to do an annotated bibliography for Humanities that involved TWELVE SOURCES and between a half page and a page of summary for each entry. On top of that, I've had to read two short stories for American Lit, and do Math homework and Statistics homework. This weekend I have a five page Literature paper to write, Math homework, a Statistics quiz to study for, and I still have two short papers for Humanities that I need to write that were due weeks ago!
The coming week doesn't seem like it will let up much, either. Besides the Statistics quiz, I have an Excel project and quiz for Math, I need to prepare a five minute PowerPoint presentation for Lit class, and I may have jury duty Wednesday, which will just throw everything out of whack. I wouldn't have minded jury duty so much had it come over the summer when I wasn't really busy. But during a semester when I'm struggling to make straight A's, and falling slightly short in a couple classes, it just comes as a bothersome and unnecessary distraction.
I am still hoping to get accepted to State soon, but because it is still hanging in the air whether or not my GPA will be sufficient, I am needing to register soon for another semester at Wake Tech, just in case. I have enough credits for an Associates Degree, or I will after this semester, so I am really out of classes that I want or need. I may sign up for a couple Psychology classes, but beyond that I have no clue what to take.
Seeing as I've been a little overwhelmed lately with school -- I'm not used to actually doing work -- I am a little concerned with how I will manage to cope at State when the classes are harder and the professor-to-student ratio is considerably lower. And the cost of school will be higher at State, which means financial aid won't extend as far. Unless my stocks begin to pay off quick, I may be forced to get a job, which will only push my education goals further from my reach.
Right now isn't a good time to look for a girlfriend. At the moment I don't have the time or the money to devote to dating. But lately I've been feeling a little isolated and it would be nice to fill the loneliness. As a result, I've been thinking about Ex again as a sort of self-medication. She has become my latest imaginary girlfriend, filling a space held by so many other girls before her.
Is it bad that I often seem to be walking the fine line between sanity and delusion?
Have fun and keep living life... or some approximation thereof.
I've never been one for dressing in costumes for Halloween. It probably wouldn't come as a surprise that I only recall trick or treating maybe four times as a kid. Unless I am in a play, in which case my job is to get into character as best I can, I just don't feel comfortable pretending to be something I am not.
Maybe if I attended more Halloween/costume parties I would feel differently, but then it could be a chicken or egg argument. It perplexes me as to how people choose the costumes they decide to wear. Apparently, alot of people keep an abundance of otherwise superfluous clothing in their homes for the sole purpose of assembling a costume once a year! I barely have enough clothing to keep myself covered for a week. And I wear that clothing until it's ragged and not even worthy for costume making.
This is probably a sexist observation, but it also seems as though women are more into dressing up for Halloween than men. I wonder if it has something to do with societal norms pushing women into a wider variety of roles in their daily lives. Women, after all, are expected to be mothers, businesswomen, therapists, chefs, and dirty whores on any given day! Men are only expected to be... present. I think it is no small leap that women are consequently better at dressing up for Halloween.
There is a little bit of irony to my lack of interest in wearing a costume when you consider that most of my life has been spent wishing I was someone or something else. Throughout my life I have, at various times, wished I were a woman, a time traveller, a teacher, a newspaper reporter, a radio DJ (at least I got around to doing that one for a little while!), a film director, an author, a wealthy entrepreneur, a restaurant owner, completely Caucasian, a cat, a penguin, a painter, a dance instructor, President of the United States, and God. I suppose I could cull together a costume related to some of those, but most would be hard for other people to decipher, and it seems that part of the point of the costumes is that they are immediately recognizable.
Most of the time people just dress in archetypes. The typical costumes seem to be monsters (vampires, zombies), movie characters (Harry Potter, Obi-Wan Kenobi), Super Heroes (Superman, Wonder Woman), or famous people in the news (Britney Spears, Sarah Palin). The problem with all of these is you need imagination and skill with makeup, or money for a pre-made, probably ill-fitting, outfit.
Now that I think of it, there is one component to the phenomenon of dressing up that probably compels people more than all others, and somehow makes the time/expense seem worth it. The sense of escapism, even for a brief time, is a thrill with which people have always had a preoccupation. There is probably something of great intrinsic value which comes from shedding the bonds of reality and dressing up as a naughty nurse or Captain Kirk if only for one night. As soon as I can figure out how to dress up as God, I'll work on discovering what that something is, exactly.
Have fun and keep living life... or some approximation thereof.
I made it through the first week of this semester. Every class that I'm taking is in some way a redo of a course I've already taken. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I'm taking Statistics I, which is a replacement course for College Algebra which I made an F on last fall, and American Literature, which is a replacement for British Literature which I withdrew from after several week last spring. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm taking Survey of Mathematics, which is a redo of the same course which I made a D on over a year ago even though I made A's on all of the tests! And, finally, on Thursday afternoons, I'm taking Humanities 220, which is a redo of the same class which I made an F in because I didn't do any of the assignments and pretty much just showed up for class!
I'm not too worried about my prospects to do well this time around in all of the classes. Let's just say that I've now learned from past mistakes (namely, not doing homework is NOT a strategy for success!) and should have no problem making straight A's, or at least close to it, this semester. If all goes well, this SHOULD be my last semester at Wake Tech, as I will have accrued all the credits necessary to earn an Associate of Arts Degree. But, of course, there's a small catch... It wouldn't be a story in MY life if it didn't have a catch, now would it? I was crunching some numbers earlier today, and I calculated that even IF I make straight A's this semester, I will graduate with only a 2.661 GPA, which is lower than the 3.0 GPA I NEED in order to get into the Psychology program at NC State! In fact, in order to make at least a 3.0 GPA, I would need to make straight A's this semester, next semester, AND THE SEMESTER AFTER THAT! It's amazing that 2 F's and 2 D's on your transcript could pull you down so far into the hole.
So, now, I'm in a quandary as to what to do next. I don't want there to be a lapse in my schooling, as I was hoping to go immediately from Wake Tech to NC State. Someone at school suggested I look into going to East Carolina University because their admissions standards are lower. I did look them up, and supposedly I could get accepted with as low as a 2.5 GPA. However, the problem is that ECU is around 75 miles away from where I live, which would mean I would either have to move (the most rational choice) or commute over an hour each way to school for two years (the least rational choice simply due to gas costs and wear and tear on my car, which already has over 120K miles on it). Honestly, I don't like either of those choices. Moving would mean giving up my current apartment, which is nice and comparatively affordable, and living in a small town which has nothing in it except the university. Granted, the rents are around $200 cheaper in Greenville than they are in Raleigh, but I'm not excited about the prospect of leaving what few connections to people and places that I have here at home. And commuting 150 miles round trip everyday would quickly gobble up whatever financial aid and loans I would be able to get during that time.
I haven't completely given up hope that I might be accepted into State, although the chances aren't looking really great at the moment. I will call the Admissions Office sometime next week and see if it is even worth submitting an application for the Spring semester. My hope is that, since I will actually have earned my Associates Degree, State will have a slightly more relaxed GPA policy for Associates Degree holders than for standard Transfer Students. But, as I said, things aren't looking great at the moment.
Have fun, and keep living life... or some approximation thereof.
School starts back up next Monday, so I'll be getting back into a regular schedule of blogging then. For now, I just wanted to share this video about biking that I saw on YouTube. I still want to get a bike one of these days.
This week my friend Osterberg, a hopeless Conservative, engaged me in a debate on healthcare. For his part, the argument against healthcare reform surrounds the issue of who should pay for it. Naturally, he resents the rich being made to pay higher taxes to support Obama's healthcare plan.
I'm not sure why Conservatives are such selfish bastards, especially since their Christian Bible says that it's harder for a rich man to get to Heaven than for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. Perhaps their Bible doesn't say that, but I'm pretty sure that the Jesus in their Bible never charged money to heal the sick. And since Conservatives are fond of pretending that the US is a Christian nation, why can't they see the value of government curing the sick for free? It's sad when increasingly atheistic European nations actually promote so-called Christian values like caring for the sick and the poor more readily than the US!
With regard to the money question, why can't Conservatives see that, even with higher taxes, they will actually make more money in the long run if the US has a Single Payer Health Insurance System (which ISN'T what Obama is working toward, but which is easier for me to argue the case for than that twisted clusterfuck of a program he IS promoting)? Currently, health insurance is a costly burden for companies to provide for employees. Small businesses often forego offering it at all. Even Wal-Mart has been criticized for not providing health insurance to more of its workers, instead encouraging them to use Medicaid. Several years ago, the head of General Motors said the company spent more on healthcare than on steel for its cars! And a major reason that US manufacturing jobs have moved to Canada and Mexico is because those nations provide free healthcare for all their citizens. If the US provided Single Payer healthcare for all, then companies would save untold billions of dollars every year. And, since Conservative CEOs are selfish pricks you can bet that alot of those extra savings would go right into their wallets. Of course, it would also save more US jobs, as well, since companies would have less cause to move elsewhere.
But, would Single Payer Healthcare benefit Osterberg financially? Well, yes. Aside from the obvious savings his family would glean from using the system, his wife happens to be a dentist. There are currently around 50 million uninsured people in the US. Some of them most certainly live in Osterberg's town. If they were to suddenly be covered by a Single Payer System there would be more people seeking dental care. That means more clients for Osterberg's wife which means more money for his family. And, of course, I have no idea if her practice provides health coverage for her employees, but, again, Single Payer would save her business money if that is the case.
There is NO logical rationale for opposing a Single Payer System. Even after taxes, opponents (and of course US society at large) stand to gain more than they would lose in the long run. If only the Conservatives would stop reading the Book of Genesis long enough to see that for themselves!
Have fun and keep living life... and tell your Senators and Congressmen that you want Single Payer Now!
This past week has been brutal at school. I had to do an annotated bibliography for Humanities that involved TWELVE SOURCES and between a half page and a page of summary for each entry. On top of that, I've had to read two short stories for American Lit, and do Math homework and Statistics homework. This weekend I have a five page Literature paper to write, Math homework, a Statistics quiz to study for, and I still have two short papers for Humanities that I need to write that were due weeks ago!
