Final Blog

Well the semester is finally wrapped up. I turned in my portfolio this week and finished all my finals this week. This semester seemed to have gone by so fast. Right now I’m debating on whether I should stay another semester at TCC or if I should transfer to ODU now. I’m leaning to transferring to ODU just because I know not all my credits are guaranteed to transfer so it would suck if I got my associates at TCC only to find out that I still need to repeat a similar past class because ODU won’t accept it. I’ll spend this weekend thinking about it and then decide because I know the deadline to ODU is coming up.

I liked all my classes. Philosophy gave me some interesting thoughts to think about, statistics will come in handy in the future, public speaking… Okay, that was a lame class, but history was fun as always with Dr. Rodner, and English gave me an idea on how a lot of college writing will be like in the future. My first semester of English felt like high school, and not even the writing I was used to. It was a letdown that I was in AP English back in school and the papers I was assigned were so easy. This semester actually rose to my original expectation of what English class would be like. Oddly, I liked the challenge. Easier things tend to not interest me at all.

I’m happy summer is here now, but I’m glad I took the classes I did this semester. So thanks Ms. Shaffer. Being in your class was fun! Hopefully you get that full time job at ODU, if not then I hope TCC provides you a room with a desktop and a projector, haha. Oh, and thanks for that information on ODU.

Presentations

Presentations were really interesting for the most part. I learned a few things I wasn’t quite aware of before and the handouts were actually quite informative as well. I liked how Ashley’s presentation pointed out the flaws on the abstinence program. I was one of the lucky ones as my schools taught me a lot about sex and any questions I had I could talk to any of my four sisters. However, I’ve had friends who’ve believed some myths on sex and it’s ended up getting them in trouble. The presentations on marijuana were pretty cool as well. I already knew a lot about the plant, how hemp was similar to marijuana but you can’t get high off of it, how you can’t get addicted to marijuana. But I didn’t know the whole history on it, where it originated, etc. The one presentation that could have used a lot of work was the one of nuclear energy. I don’t even remember who the guy was who did it, but his power point was plain and boring for both presentations and I don’t even remember what exactly he was researching or what his service project was at all.

Personally, I wasn’t as nervous to give my presentation as I used to be. I’ve been doing presentations all semester so I was getting used to it. It also helps that I knew a lot of my classmates. The more people I know personally, the less freaked out I get. I think my presentation went well. I had to cover a lot of information so I just tried to cover the main important parts. When it comes to the service project, I did the same thing. I wasn’t worried about my presentation on my service project just because it wasn’t as important as I thought my research presentation was.

Wrapping Up Soon

Well at the moment I’ve just about wrapped up my research paper. I’m curious to see what can be changed before I turn it in for a final grade so this week will be entertaining. I got writer’s block over the weekend and I had a very busy weekend so it was hard to find time to set around the computer, but I’m managed to find time. I gotta remember to email it to Shaffer on Monday though. It would suck if I did all this work only to get yelled at because of my short term memory, haha.

For the service project I’m planning on going to my old high school and volunteering myself for the drama teacher. Before I graduated the only people he had helping him to build sets were me and five other kids. All of us graduated at once and no one else was interesting in taking his tech classes so he pretty much has to do it all with the occasional help from someone who offers. Depending on my work schedule I would love to go there on Tuesday, but I usually get a day shift so it’ll most likely be on Thursday when I go to help out.

Besides that I also have one last speech to cover in public speaking. I’m thinking of just turning my informative speech into a persuasive speech just to save some time. It’s going to be really boring to me, because I’ll basically be doing the same speech twice, but I don’t care. With English wrapping up, and finals approaching I really don’t have time to research for another paper. Yeah, I’m getting lazy but as long as I get a good grade in the class I don’t care. And at least I already have the information, so I just have to work on my public speaking abilities and I'll be good.

Research and Service Project

So I’m working on my research paper and it’s surprisingly going by pretty fast. It was a good idea for my class to bring our research outlines and compare them with each other. Apparently I helped a classmate just by them reading how I outlined my paper. The outline also makes writing my research paper easier. It’s nice having a plan to follow. I’m glad the professor asked for a rough draft a week before the whole thing is due. I can easily cover four pages for the rough draft, and then another four for the final copy. It helps that I have a lot of sources and references for easy access to prove my point. Eventually I’ll hit a plateau like I do with all my writing assignments, but with two weeks to completely finish it, I’ll be good.

I skimmed through the instructions for the service learning project due a week after the research paper and all I have to say about it is, “Really?” I’m all for helping the community, but I’d rather do it on my own time and free will instead of being graded on doing so. It’s an English class, I expect to write essays and research papers, not so much going out around campus doing a good deed and writing about it. Sorry, just not my cup of tea. I’m also hoping that we can do it on the TCC campus, because there’s no way I can convince my mom to drive out to ODU. She’s old and cranky, I’m lucky she even shares her car with me.

Eh, I guess I’ll get all my answers in a week or so. In the meantime I’ll just think about what I can do for my service project and see if maybe a few of my classmates would like to join in.

After Spring Break

Well there’s not much to say about what’s been going on this week since it was Spring Break. I personally spent it seeing my boyfriend, working at the local Dairy Queen and finishing my annotated bibliography. Well I can’t really say it’s finished, I still need to write about two more sources. I’m actually finishing for the night and thought I might as well get this out of the way. I have a new hatred for annotated bibliographies though, hah. Okay it’s not the bibliography that I hate so much, but the spring fever that has come over me this break. I would do anything except that one assignment over the break. The only time I’d work on it is if I had NOTHING left to do. Seriously, I cleaned the whole house before finally sitting down to start on it. I don’t know, I think in the future I’m just going to choose generic topics again. Don’t get me wrong, writing about zombies and the horror genre has been a blast this year, but it makes procrastinating much harder. I could Google abortion or same-sex marriage and within minutes find what I need; I can easily find books relating to topics like that. But topics like the evolution of zombies and how their audience has changed? Or the evolution of the horror genre and if it’s changed can be considered perverse or just evolution? As much as I love these topics, they’re not a constant highlight. I actually have to dig deep to find sources that can help and there’s not many credible sources out there about it. Bah humbug, next time I have to do a research paper I’ll just pick a generic topic. It’ll bore the hell out of my professor because it won’t be anything he/she hasn’t seen already, but at least it’ll be easy. The end of this semester can’t come any sooner.

Huzzah, Something Accomplished!

Well this week went by pretty fast considering that half the class was missing. At least on Thursday I got to see an example of how my professor wants my research paper. I still need to grab one of those folders, so I don’t forget until the last minute. Over spring break, I plan on finishing the annotated bibliography. I still need to find a few more sources before I can even complete it, but I’m not too worried. Oddly I enjoy doing my work at the last minute. When I have a lot of time on my hands I just end up doing something else. It’s not until the weekend its due that I really get any work done. It’s probably not the best habit, but it’s been working well for me for years. The problem is that people cram all their work for all their classes then expect to finish it within a few hours. At least I’m realistic about the whole thing. I keep an eye on all the things that are due and I’m good at estimating how long it’s going to take me. That way I’m not freaking out at four in the morning because I just remembered I had something else due.

I’m ready to wrap up the semester personally. Once I get through the research paper and performing a speech for another class, it’s smooth sailing for me. Besides once I’m finished for the semester I can take another job and really gather some cash for a new car. That way I can stop bumming off my friends for a ride to school, hah. All my classes are going well; the only ones that really suck up my time after school are English and Public Speaking. Not really surprising since both require a lot of writing, but it’s not really a bother since I get out of school early.

*dramatic voice* Last Time on Dragon Ball Z... I mean English class.

At the moment I’m working on my interview assignment, revising some of my previous work, and working on an informative speech for another class. I thought I’d mention it because it’s a lot like the research paper I’m also working on. The speech won’t be as long as my research paper but, I have to look for scholarly sources and inform the masses like the research paper. I also have to thank my English class for my public speaking assignment. A week or so ago one of the students said they were focusing on how gay marriage affects the economy. I thought that topic was really interesting and when it came time to choose a topic for public speaking I decided to go with that. I’m quite thankful for my classmates because I really didn’t want to another paper on played out topics.

I’ll be doing the actual interview today and start writing it all down tonight. I’m thankful that I get out early because now I have plenty of time to do all the work required and still have free time. That’s going to change next month once I start working again, but by then I’ll have a lot of major works done. I need to reread what exactly I need to do with my interview again but it should be smooth sailing. I’m debating whether I’ll use this interview into my research project or not. I already have interviews from professors, but I guess another interview thrown in wouldn’t hurt, especially if the interview goes well.

I don’t really have much to say about my English class this week. I mean Tuesday I wasn’t in class due to illness and apparently that class only lasted ten minutes. On Thursday I had a conference with the professor and that only lasted about fifteen minutes. I guess the conference was helpful. At least it gives me an idea of how I’m doing.