Things I overheard while talking to myself

So as of about 15 minutes ago I am done with undergrad classes and finals. My emotional state is somewhere between "Yay, I'm done!" and "Waah, I don't wanna go!"

Oh, and remember that seminar paper I was doing so much work on? My score on it was 97%. 97%. When it was handed back to me I only just stopped myself from saying "Holy shit!" out loud. She'd already hinted that I'd done well on it, but damn. I also did pretty well on the presentation part, which was basically just a PowerPoint outlining the major points of my paper, and I did it without notes since I actually find them distracting when using a PowerPoint.

I also have my Japanese final this morning and probably did okay, though I had a complete brain-fart and completed blanked on the kanji for the number seven. For the record, it's 七. I got everything else, I just couldn't get that one. Maybe because visually it's similar to ten, which is 十. Oh well. The worst part was that the final was at 8 in the morning, so I had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning to get there in time.

So yeah. The only thing I have left to do today is get my senior portrait taken for the yearbook, with the possibility that if they turn out good enough I can use them as a proper looking headshot. I've actually been meaning to get a decent photo of me to put on LinkedIn and the like, and this is a good opportunity. I just hope I don't look as tired as I feel, though they will do "digital touch up" which might mitigate that.

I'm done with the CrimJ paper, at least in this stage! Now I just need to send it to my classmate and catch any errors, and then I can turn it in on Tuesday.

Of course, the downside is in making sure that was done early I now have to cram for my Japanese dialog tomorrow. Oh well, I weighed how royally screwed I'd be to decide which one to prioritize and I think I made the right choice. The Japanese dialog isn't too bad, I think I can pull it off.

I'm glad that I technically only have two days of classes next week, since the end of this week has made me want to kill something.

In Japanese we have to do group presentations again, and naturally I got stuck with あまい　ゴキブリ when we were drawing names. Though I can now say that this kid is actually even worse than the kid he was nicknamed after. The other girl in my group and I both made it very clear to the professor after class that we're not at all thrilled that we're going to have to put in more work as a result of this kid, and since he is so clueless we're going to have to hold his hand the entire time, and odds are that he's going to drag down our grade. We don't have a choice, but we both wanted to have our feelings on the matter known. And again, I'm not trying to be an asshole, but this kid has honestly no clue what he's doing and half the time I'm pretty sure he's high. I don't appreciate having to do more work because of this schmuck.

Oh, and as I was walking to my next class I spotted The Ex with her arm around some girl. Lovely. It's even the same time of year she dumped me.

And then in my philosophy class we had some privileged, ignorant idiots who actually tried to use Social Darwinism as a justification for bullying. I hope I don't have to explain what's wrong with that. I also mildly lost my temper and apologized to the professor afterwards, but he said that in that case it was warranted.

So yes, just get me to the end of today and the two days I have next week. Hopefully I won't kick anyone into the next timezone, as sorely tempting as it is.

I like my philosophy professor, but he has a way of saying the name Kant (as in Immanuel Kant) that makes it sound like... another word.

Yes, that one. As a result I've been doing massive double takes for the last two classes because it's Kant's philosophy that we're focusing on. I'm certain that it's not his intent, but it's awkward.

Maybe this is why people only seem to pronounce it the exact same way you say "can't."

One of the assignments in my CrimJ seminar is to interview a professional in the field, and a judge I know from Western Mass suggested I call his counterpart here in Suffolk County. So I looked the judge up and called the courthouse yesterday, leeft a message, and today got a callback from the judge’s clerk.
 
The judge’s first name is Leslie. You can probably guess where this is going. Yup, I asked if I could schedule an interview with her and then had the clerk say that she would connect me to his voicemail since he was in the Dorchester court that day.
 
Fuck.
 
In my defense the judge’s profile on Mass.gov does not give any clue as to his gender, nor does it have a photo, and I know more female Leslies than male Leslies. Still, my face must’ve gone beet red. It’s also confusing because with judges you always refer to them as “The Honorable Judge So-and-so” and most of the time you don’t even use a first name.
 
But I managed to get over my embarrassment long enough to leave a message asking for an interview, and I think I was pretty eloquent. Still, if I had Googled the name I would have seen that the first hit was an article talking about his work with juveniles.

I am going to tell this story in my class if only to help prevent another student from making the same mistake, and because despite my embarassment it is a funny story. I'm also pretty sure that the clerk is used to this since she sounded amused, so it probably happens a lot.

In one of my classes today several other students did a PowerPoint, and though it was pretty good they also had a rather… unfortunate typo.

Mainly, they meant to write “assess” but instead wrote “asses.” It might have just been the fact that it was the end of the week, but as soon as I noticed that I just lost it and had to cover my mouth with my coat collar so I wouldn’t interrupt them with my laughter. Apparently I was the only one who noticed, too, since despite my efforts to contain myself a few people sitting near me noticed the fact that I was shaking. I explained to the professor after class why I did that so he didn’t think I’d gone insane, and he admitted that he hadn’t noticed the typo either.

God, it’s been a long week.

I'm alive, just had no energy and nothing really to post.

This week went to College Night on Wednesday, had technical problems with my radio show (again) and have Monday off.

That's... pretty much it.

*flops back down*

Today was pretty good as far as classes go, though it did confirm that mentally I'm past college now, as frightening as what's actually past college is. I can see why upperclassmen get so annoyed by freshmen.

I had three today and on Monday Wednesday and Friday, and I knew the Japanese teacher. Unfortunately あまい　ゴキブリ*, the guy who just doesn't get it, is in the same class and demonstrated that he hasn't changed a bit by barging into class 10 minutes late with his music so loud you could hear it across the room, but I'm on the other side of the room from him.

My fiction writing teacher is also nuts, but in a good way. I think that's kind of given for someone who teaches a course like that. She definitely likes putting people on the spot.

And it turns out I've had my philosophy professor before in the Philosophy of Science & Myth class, but I didn't recognize his name when I signed up, being bad with names but good with faces. He recognized me too. He's also nuts, but I like him. My favorite thing about him is that he looks and dresses like you'd expect a cop to, but he's a philosophy professor. He's also extremely dry and quite hilarious. And now that I think about it he kind of looks like McNulty from The Wire.

Other than that today was kind of a wash, since I had to wake up early but gotten woken up even earlier by something, I suspect a neighbor's alarm clock. Once we're all closing our windows that should decrease. I was also kind of flabbergasted to realize that the potheads that live downstairs from me were already smoking before 8 in the morning. What's even more worrying is that I'm pretty sure one of them works in a hospital. I'm sorry, I don't object to the pot on principle and am all for decriminalizing it, but I don't care how good a doctor you are, if you're baked I don't want you treating me. The reason House can get away with that is because he's fucking House.

It was also fucking miserable out and raining the entire time, and I had to go on foot to and from. I got soaked going and even more soaked coming back, so when I got home I lay down for a few hours since I had an appointment at five. After a bit of that I realized I still didn't feel well, so I rescheduled my appointment for Friday. I just couldn't get back up and drag myself to the Back Bay in this weather, and since my throat is a bit itchy I'm hoping I'm not coming down with something. Although if I am I actually can't blame the school's petri dish of disease, since I actually started feeling this on Tuesday.

*See this post for an explanation as to why he's called that

Just got three out of four of my grades:

Elementary Japanese II: B+
Global Health & Healing: A-
Contemporary Science & Innovation: A-

The only one that's missing is the English, and they have to have the grades in by 5. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

I was running a little late for my English class this morning when I got an email saying that the professor's train was late so he'd be in a 10:30. However, we only have to stay 15 minutes before we can leave because the professor probably won't show.

So I had this mental image of rushing dramatically into class and telling everyone that he was on the way to keep everyone from leaving... but he'd also sent the email to someone in the Writing Center who had put it up on the board in the front of the room before we even got there. Oh. So much for that. A few people did in fact leave before he showed up, but it's there loss and he announced that they would be penalized.

I also got very little sleep last night because I was having one of those brain-won't-turn-off nights, and at work today I stuck to decaf coffee so I can get to sleep tonight. I usually hate decaf coffee, but I do need to get some sleep tonight.