Today's the last day of classes. I have a paper due today, then I have to finish my final report for this class (both only need minor revisions), then I'm dooooone.
But first, I need to write this blog entry.
One of my goals with keeping this blog was to improve my writing. I wanted to improve at elaboration (the fine art of not rambling while not being too concise) and brainstorming topics. Did I accomplish that? Eh.
In my main writing class last semester, we were given only one or two writing prompts, and I'd just sit down and write like crazy. This semester, I have a different teacher, so obviously there's a new writing-prompt-style I had to adjust to. We always got between two and four prompts - seven for this last paper - and it's become more of a challenge to think of good topics. You'd think that with seven different writing prompts, I'd be able to think of something. Apparently not.
Sure, I'll still think of good ideas... for a paper that's maybe a page or two. The current requirement is five to seven pages. Yikes.
One of the prompts for this assignment was to "write the paper you've wanted to write all semester." Or, in other words, "write whatever the hell you want." At the last minute I ended up rambling about how I've changed a lot in the past year; how I miss certain aspects of myself/my life, but at the same time, I'm excited about the changes. It kinda fell into the rant/rave prompt, it kinda fell into the "what have you learned about yourself" prompt, but mostly it just fell into "write whatever you want."
It's a completely different writing style than what I'm used to. All my papers this semester have employed humor. I'm jealous of everyone else and their eloquent writing, and I've wanted to try it all semester. I'm okay with humor, but I don't want to be known just for that. I even wrote a bit about this in my paper. This time, there's maybe a couple lines that'll make people chuckle; the rest of it is all holycrapemotion. And right now, I feel pretty good about it.
...Um, I guess I went on a tangent of sorts. Oh well, that's okay. But I'm at work right now, and someone's bound to walk in at any minute, so I should post this now.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Yikes.
ArghIhavenotime.
I just finished a paper that's due in 20min.
I'm falling behind on my blogging.
I don't have my choir music memorized.
I need to unravel yarn.
I was bad when I put choir posters up around town. I stopped at the craft store downtown, with intentions of only buying one set of needles so I could make socks while on tour. I left with two sets of needles, and a hank of green yarn that will become a hat. I could have just looped the hank around my feet and rewound it into a ball, but I was dumb, thought socks!, and started trying to split the yarn in half. Grr. It's getting close, but I still have three tangled piles of yarn. Hopefully I can at least finish untangling before the show tonight.
Yeah, it's opening night. I'm not too nervous, as our light cues are pretty easy this year. We decided to do a formal dress theme for the show, though; it was the guys' idea, and now I have to shave my legs so I can wear a skirt, those bastards.
I'm more nervous about the music. We leave for tour on Sunday. There's a part of one song that we didn't go over until today. Yeah. We're all gonna flub words, and it's gonna suck. Whee.
And that leaves blogging. Well, I've only been in my room for a couple hours each day, which involves eating (to stave off the vertigo) and yarning (so I have something to do on tour), so yeah. I'll try to blog at least once more in the next couple days...
I just finished a paper that's due in 20min.
I'm falling behind on my blogging.
I don't have my choir music memorized.
I need to unravel yarn.
I was bad when I put choir posters up around town. I stopped at the craft store downtown, with intentions of only buying one set of needles so I could make socks while on tour. I left with two sets of needles, and a hank of green yarn that will become a hat. I could have just looped the hank around my feet and rewound it into a ball, but I was dumb, thought socks!, and started trying to split the yarn in half. Grr. It's getting close, but I still have three tangled piles of yarn. Hopefully I can at least finish untangling before the show tonight.
Yeah, it's opening night. I'm not too nervous, as our light cues are pretty easy this year. We decided to do a formal dress theme for the show, though; it was the guys' idea, and now I have to shave my legs so I can wear a skirt, those bastards.
I'm more nervous about the music. We leave for tour on Sunday. There's a part of one song that we didn't go over until today. Yeah. We're all gonna flub words, and it's gonna suck. Whee.
And that leaves blogging. Well, I've only been in my room for a couple hours each day, which involves eating (to stave off the vertigo) and yarning (so I have something to do on tour), so yeah. I'll try to blog at least once more in the next couple days...
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Hi, it's me. Again.
Today ='ed panic.
I was scheduled to work all afternoon with two n00bs. I was worried how well that would go over. They handled it pretty well, though. I still received a barrage of questions, but that was to be expected.
I had to call the boss four times though. All during busy times.
1) the register said "drawer open" and we couldn't do anything, and I couldn't find the manager's key with which to restart the register
2) nevermind, the register magically fixed itself
3) a guy from the coffee shop came over wondering if we could loan him a box or three of straws
4) the gift card machine stopped working
And call 5) was to tech support so I could fix the damn machine, all for a lady who said she'd wait through a five-minute call but then took her $20 and went awol halfway through, all while continuing to field such queries as "what kind of ice cream do I use to make _______" and "we're out of pineapple."
I deserve a raise, bitches.
I have a paper due Thursday, and I'm kinda torn on what to write about. There are four options:
1) Transgression (read: breaking a law or crossing a boundary)
2) Work (a specific moment)
3) Define a mood
4) Something you've always wanted to do but didn't/couldn't/haven't
#3 would be really hard for me to write about, and I didn't have any decent ideas for #4. That leaves #1 and #2. I've already written about work for this class, so I'd rather not do it again. My only decent idea for #1, though, was when the bf and I were bickering in an elevator in downtown Minneapolis over the summer, and his friend said "why are mommy and daddy fighting?", causing a ganger with a gun to glare at us. I don't think I could write for four pages about that. We had to write minipapers this past week, however, and the first topic I chose fit #2 perfectly. It detailed a phone conversation I had at work, and it's a funny-slash-wtf story. The only problem is that it wasn't even finished before I realized that it was twice as long as it needed to be for that assignment. So, maybe I'll write about that. At least I saved what I had written for the last assignment, so I can just flesh out what I already have.
Or maybe I could find a way for the transgression story to work. I could use all sorts of examples to show how much we bicker, and throw some moral in at the end. I don't know what the chances are of that plan coming out to 4+ pages, but it might be worth a shot.
I was scheduled to work all afternoon with two n00bs. I was worried how well that would go over. They handled it pretty well, though. I still received a barrage of questions, but that was to be expected.
I had to call the boss four times though. All during busy times.
1) the register said "drawer open" and we couldn't do anything, and I couldn't find the manager's key with which to restart the register
2) nevermind, the register magically fixed itself
3) a guy from the coffee shop came over wondering if we could loan him a box or three of straws
4) the gift card machine stopped working
And call 5) was to tech support so I could fix the damn machine, all for a lady who said she'd wait through a five-minute call but then took her $20 and went awol halfway through, all while continuing to field such queries as "what kind of ice cream do I use to make _______" and "we're out of pineapple."
I deserve a raise, bitches.
I have a paper due Thursday, and I'm kinda torn on what to write about. There are four options:
1) Transgression (read: breaking a law or crossing a boundary)
2) Work (a specific moment)
3) Define a mood
4) Something you've always wanted to do but didn't/couldn't/haven't
#3 would be really hard for me to write about, and I didn't have any decent ideas for #4. That leaves #1 and #2. I've already written about work for this class, so I'd rather not do it again. My only decent idea for #1, though, was when the bf and I were bickering in an elevator in downtown Minneapolis over the summer, and his friend said "why are mommy and daddy fighting?", causing a ganger with a gun to glare at us. I don't think I could write for four pages about that. We had to write minipapers this past week, however, and the first topic I chose fit #2 perfectly. It detailed a phone conversation I had at work, and it's a funny-slash-wtf story. The only problem is that it wasn't even finished before I realized that it was twice as long as it needed to be for that assignment. So, maybe I'll write about that. At least I saved what I had written for the last assignment, so I can just flesh out what I already have.
Or maybe I could find a way for the transgression story to work. I could use all sorts of examples to show how much we bicker, and throw some moral in at the end. I don't know what the chances are of that plan coming out to 4+ pages, but it might be worth a shot.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Open Letter
Dear blog,
I am sorry I have been neglecting you as of late. I realize this is a personal blog, but there are things going on in my life that I feel are too personal to discuss in a public setting like this. There is something I'd like to celebrate, but it's only a rumored event thus far, so I'll wait until something actually happens before I talk about it.
So, for now, I guess I will do little updates.
I ended up discarding my teacher's advice and changing the topic of my last paper. I decided to profile my parents and how I was treated growing up. It was kind of therapeutic to get it all out.
We're singing Beauty School Dropout in choir. We started discussing how to cheese the piece up, i.e. pink hair, curlers, etc. I joked that I could knit a pink wig (I'm serious, here's the link). I think I'm being expected to make it now.
I still need to do my taxes. And my laundry. And finish my resume. And figure out what I'm cooking on Sunday. And find motivation to do it all. Blah.
I am sorry I have been neglecting you as of late. I realize this is a personal blog, but there are things going on in my life that I feel are too personal to discuss in a public setting like this. There is something I'd like to celebrate, but it's only a rumored event thus far, so I'll wait until something actually happens before I talk about it.
So, for now, I guess I will do little updates.
I ended up discarding my teacher's advice and changing the topic of my last paper. I decided to profile my parents and how I was treated growing up. It was kind of therapeutic to get it all out.
We're singing Beauty School Dropout in choir. We started discussing how to cheese the piece up, i.e. pink hair, curlers, etc. I joked that I could knit a pink wig (I'm serious, here's the link). I think I'm being expected to make it now.
I still need to do my taxes. And my laundry. And finish my resume. And figure out what I'm cooking on Sunday. And find motivation to do it all. Blah.
Monday, April 2, 2007
brr
It snowed! And it's freezing! And we're under a winter storm watch! WTF!
Last night, as the bf was coming upstairs, he was cornered by a couple of his neighbors. One was drunk, the other was sober. Apparently the following conversation took place:
drunk: *whispers loudly* "where are you going?"
bf: *points up*
drunk: *whispers loudly* "why?"
sober: "because his girlfriend lives up there."
drunk: *whispers loudly* "...why?"
bf: "because she has nice cans."
Goddamn, my boyfriend's an asshole. :P
I was worried about graduation. I didn't get my grad plans turned in until this semester, and I was afraid it all wasn't going to go through in time. I was down by records the other day and happened to gleam the grad list for my name, so the fact that it was there was a good sign. But then today, I received my acceptance letter in the mail. I'm graduating!
I also stopped by career services and had my "resume" checked, which was pretty helpful. I was planning on snooping around on Monster tonight during the Twins game, but then I remembered that I have a paper due tomorrow. Shit. I didn't even really get the draft done last week. I ended up kinda dwindling off, then writing down a bunch of questions I had for whoever read it during class. They gave some really good feedback, which helped me clarify what I was doing a bit better, but I'm still confused on the whole thing. That probably makes sense to no one except me. Point is, the topic is frustrating me. I like the idea of it, but once I got into it, I found it tough to write about. I want to change... but to what topic?
...Meh. Off to rack my brain for ideas.
Last night, as the bf was coming upstairs, he was cornered by a couple of his neighbors. One was drunk, the other was sober. Apparently the following conversation took place:
drunk: *whispers loudly* "where are you going?"
bf: *points up*
drunk: *whispers loudly* "why?"
sober: "because his girlfriend lives up there."
drunk: *whispers loudly* "...why?"
bf: "because she has nice cans."
Goddamn, my boyfriend's an asshole. :P
I was worried about graduation. I didn't get my grad plans turned in until this semester, and I was afraid it all wasn't going to go through in time. I was down by records the other day and happened to gleam the grad list for my name, so the fact that it was there was a good sign. But then today, I received my acceptance letter in the mail. I'm graduating!
I also stopped by career services and had my "resume" checked, which was pretty helpful. I was planning on snooping around on Monster tonight during the Twins game, but then I remembered that I have a paper due tomorrow. Shit. I didn't even really get the draft done last week. I ended up kinda dwindling off, then writing down a bunch of questions I had for whoever read it during class. They gave some really good feedback, which helped me clarify what I was doing a bit better, but I'm still confused on the whole thing. That probably makes sense to no one except me. Point is, the topic is frustrating me. I like the idea of it, but once I got into it, I found it tough to write about. I want to change... but to what topic?
...Meh. Off to rack my brain for ideas.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
What?
I'm currently blogging for the following reasons:
1) I haven't done so in five days
2) I'm at work
3) I need to get myself into a writing mindset
You see, I have a 3-6pg paper due today, on one of three topics:
1) profile of someone
2) an event that affected your generation
3) your writing style
I had no idea what to do. Option #3 was out, because that was designed more for creative writing majors who need to do that for their senior project. My initial thought was to profile the bf, because he's crazy and that would lead to some good stories. But what specifically to write about? I thought about writing about a past "relationship," but I wrote about that for a class last semester, so I didn't want to do it again. Then I had the idea to profile my iTunes library, but that's not a living thing. I thought about knitting, but the only way I could tie that in is if I profiled myself, which I didn't really want to do. Then I considered writing about discovering a band, but that might cross into the obsession topic from our last paper. Then the bf suggested I write about one of my medical conditions and how it can be a pain in the ass. He offered me a paper he had written about ADHD as an example. Ding! It's frustrating dealing with his ADHD sometimes. So, I have a topic, I just need to figure out exactly how to write it (ie. lots of little stories vs. one detailed story). I have two pages down so far, so at least I have something. And it starts with the quote "get happy pants mushroom wheel." Yup.
On Thursday I took the bf out to the Chinese restaurant downtown for yummy delicious overfilling dinner. There's a Ben Franklin next door, so I decided to stop in and pet the yarn. They had the book Stitch and Bitch; I have a couple friends who own it and suggested it to me, so I picked it up. They have a pattern for a hat on straight needles! Patterns aside, it's a wonderful book. I already knew a lot of the basics, so a good chunk of the book was clarifying what I had kinda figured out on my own. And! it teaches how to fix mistakes! I am all about that. They also have SnB Nation, which is all patterns. I might have to check that one out too.
I realized that this is turning more into a knitting blog than just the all-encompassing personal blog I proposed to create this semester. And I don't even get much time to knit. Wha? I am enjoying this whole knitting thing though. I'd like to have a knitting blog, but I don't have the audience for it. I'm thinking of tracking down some other knitblogs and saying hi.
I also realized that I haven't actually finished much. I initially thought that the only thing I've finished was the dice bag (which looks like it's shaped better now that I have more dice weighing it down), but then I realized that I've also finished that ear warmer headband thing, although it ended up being really wide and looked dumb on me. I think I screwed up somewhere, too, because in the middle I somehow had one more stitch on my needle than I'd started with. I'd love to remake it, but with the number of rows reduced so it's not as wide. (I promised pictures of that one too... I should follow through on that.) I've also finished a glove, even though I'm redoing it. I have four projects going right now, though. That's the point I'm trying to make. I need to finish something.
Also on the knitting front: I ended up emailing the designer of the skull scarf I was so frustrated with. I got an email back within a couple days. Real nice, helpful lady. I still need a chance to sit down and try out what she said, though.
...Okay. I need to work some more on this paper. Since it's just the first draft I don't need to have anything real solid, but it needs to be a whole lot better than what I already have.
1) I haven't done so in five days
2) I'm at work
3) I need to get myself into a writing mindset
You see, I have a 3-6pg paper due today, on one of three topics:
1) profile of someone
2) an event that affected your generation
3) your writing style
I had no idea what to do. Option #3 was out, because that was designed more for creative writing majors who need to do that for their senior project. My initial thought was to profile the bf, because he's crazy and that would lead to some good stories. But what specifically to write about? I thought about writing about a past "relationship," but I wrote about that for a class last semester, so I didn't want to do it again. Then I had the idea to profile my iTunes library, but that's not a living thing. I thought about knitting, but the only way I could tie that in is if I profiled myself, which I didn't really want to do. Then I considered writing about discovering a band, but that might cross into the obsession topic from our last paper. Then the bf suggested I write about one of my medical conditions and how it can be a pain in the ass. He offered me a paper he had written about ADHD as an example. Ding! It's frustrating dealing with his ADHD sometimes. So, I have a topic, I just need to figure out exactly how to write it (ie. lots of little stories vs. one detailed story). I have two pages down so far, so at least I have something. And it starts with the quote "get happy pants mushroom wheel." Yup.
On Thursday I took the bf out to the Chinese restaurant downtown for yummy delicious overfilling dinner. There's a Ben Franklin next door, so I decided to stop in and pet the yarn. They had the book Stitch and Bitch; I have a couple friends who own it and suggested it to me, so I picked it up. They have a pattern for a hat on straight needles! Patterns aside, it's a wonderful book. I already knew a lot of the basics, so a good chunk of the book was clarifying what I had kinda figured out on my own. And! it teaches how to fix mistakes! I am all about that. They also have SnB Nation, which is all patterns. I might have to check that one out too.
I realized that this is turning more into a knitting blog than just the all-encompassing personal blog I proposed to create this semester. And I don't even get much time to knit. Wha? I am enjoying this whole knitting thing though. I'd like to have a knitting blog, but I don't have the audience for it. I'm thinking of tracking down some other knitblogs and saying hi.
I also realized that I haven't actually finished much. I initially thought that the only thing I've finished was the dice bag (which looks like it's shaped better now that I have more dice weighing it down), but then I realized that I've also finished that ear warmer headband thing, although it ended up being really wide and looked dumb on me. I think I screwed up somewhere, too, because in the middle I somehow had one more stitch on my needle than I'd started with. I'd love to remake it, but with the number of rows reduced so it's not as wide. (I promised pictures of that one too... I should follow through on that.) I've also finished a glove, even though I'm redoing it. I have four projects going right now, though. That's the point I'm trying to make. I need to finish something.
Also on the knitting front: I ended up emailing the designer of the skull scarf I was so frustrated with. I got an email back within a couple days. Real nice, helpful lady. I still need a chance to sit down and try out what she said, though.
...Okay. I need to work some more on this paper. Since it's just the first draft I don't need to have anything real solid, but it needs to be a whole lot better than what I already have.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
I WILL not get frustrated with this.
Part of the reason I decided to do a personal blog for my class project was to help improve my writing. In addition, I wanted to improve the way I look at daily life. My goal was to blog at least four times a week - for a class goal, anyway; my personal goal was to blog daily.
I'm having trouble finding things to write about.
I know I have plenty to write about. It's just a matter of three things:
1) convincing myself that the little things are important enough to write about
2) finding ways to flesh out my writing
3) forcing myself to sit down and write when one of my many ideas are floating around in my head
I'm gonna push myself to work towards those things in the coming weeks. But for now, I must go shower, since I decided to skip choir and laze around today.
I'm having trouble finding things to write about.
I know I have plenty to write about. It's just a matter of three things:
1) convincing myself that the little things are important enough to write about
2) finding ways to flesh out my writing
3) forcing myself to sit down and write when one of my many ideas are floating around in my head
I'm gonna push myself to work towards those things in the coming weeks. But for now, I must go shower, since I decided to skip choir and laze around today.
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