Schedule for a few weeks

Just got done checking out my syllabi (this is the plural of syllabus, which is the thing where your teacher tells you what they expect you to do and you say “like hell am I doing that”) and making my schedule for the next couple of weeks. Thought it might be relevant, so I’m going to show it to you! It’s a sheet of plain, lined looseleaf folder to a quarter of the original size. Nothing fancy here. For your benefit, bonus information will be added such as due dates and course names. Oh, and one side note, any time I say “read” I mean “read and highlight important information.” It takes a lot longer to read and pay enough attention to highlight things.


        Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies (ALDS): Do readings before class (usually a couple of pages in length), write paper for the 18th of October (3-4 pages in length, and that is NOTHING - I expect to slap this together in very little time. It can be on anything relevant to our subject material, and the name should tell you that’s an extremely broad category. I’ve got a few ideas and I just need to find a few good citations and put it all together. This isn’t something I need to research for a week, I just have to write about a thing. My biggest concern with it is proper terminology - should I use L1 and L2 instead of typing “first/native language” and “second language”? I know that’s the norm, but I am an ENGLISH STUDENT and I DO THESE THINGS THE RIGHT WAY. Even if it takes six times as long to type!)


        French (FREN): Watch J'ai tué ma mère (french indie film from Quebec, heard good stuff about it, I just need to spend time on french culture), write my cultural journal (due October 5th) about the movie (basic summary, personal evaluation, what did I learn or like about it), write my cultural journal about the Voltaire passage I read (some random thing of his that hardly anyone remembers, but it happens to be only a hundred pages or two and that’s far more palatable than Candide), read Cyrano de Bergerac (I did this during my public transit time today, which is great - just had to read the first act, and I’m in love with the language), do research on Gilles Vigneault (group presentation near the end of October, 10-12 minutes in length, and I’m researching his political life - it will be very easy to get behind on this, because I have a vague due date and nobody to report to. Will have to get some group organization going on so we can practice and stuff), write résumé (this is a summary of an article about “une phoque moine” which is a sea lion or whatever and it has to be 150 words long lol)


        Computer Science (COMP): Assignment #2 (due October 13th, and we have yet to learn the stuff it requires, so while I could teach myself, why waste my time? I’ll check it out next friday probably)


        Linguistics (LING): Finish reading Chapter 3 (Phonology), take notes on Chapter 3 (in OneNote, so this is my “studying” and will also make it easier to study for my midterm), do assignment #3 (due October 7th), study for midterm on October 14th (chapters 1-3, not sure just how much studying I’ll do - review the assignment questions for sure, read the notes I took on the chapters and lectures, but I don’t know if I’ll read the chapters themselves again… it takes a loooong time)


        Psychology (PSYC): Read chapter 3 (accomplished this morning before class, the last few pages after class - this is what we’re covering next week), takes notes on chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3 (this is for studying purposes, and will likely take a long time - but it’s important, because I have to…), study for midterm on October 13th (chapters 1-3, all multiple choice, worth 20% of final grade - will read review sections in book, personal applications (practice questions I think?), some stuff about how to pwn multiple choice exams, and check out past exams at the library)


        I have no class on friday, but I am going to the University of Ottawa for a study comparing my first (english) and second (french) languages. Should be cool, actually! I’ll get a 1% credit for my final mark in PSYC 1001, and if it’s neat, I may write my first ALDS paper about it, or something related to bilingualism. I’ll spend the morning and early afternoon (my appointment is for 3:40 PM) working on stuff for french, because it’ll be nice to cross that stuff off. If I have extra time, I’ll keep reading chapter 3 for linguistics. Third LING assignment if I have time.


        Saturday, I’ll probably take notes like a madman, and that’ll feel great because I like all of the things I’ll be reviewing and I like to have a fat block of text to look back at. If I wind up with extra time at the end of the night, I’ll pretty up my old notes and upload them!


        Sunday, I’ll do whatever didn’t get done the last two days. Taking notes, ALDS reading, french projects, whatever. I know I won’t finish this all in one weekend despite my obvious optimism, so the goal is to make sure I have things for the following week done. Namely, the cultural journal for french, my LING assignment, and the reading for ALDS. So that’s not really a lot of work. The rest is all working ahead and that’s a very smart thing for me to do.

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        Wrote that last night and tumblr died forever but someone revived it so we’re ok now. However two addenda (plural of addendum): one, I need to check out my lecture slides and copy stuff into my notes that I didn’t have time to copy, and two, I need to check out my french textbook so I can learn french grammar blah.

        Also, it’s funny to learn linguistics and realize that bullshit grammatical rules have no value and then go to a class and have to force bullshit grammatical rules onto myself. “It’s just the way french is,” “It’s just what we do,” “It’s a direct complement so it does this duh,” like none of this makes any sense so don’t pretend like it does lol. At any rate science is working to improve language teaching courses so the future should be great for other people.

100lbs-goal-blog asked
“Hey, do you have any study tips?
:)”

Why, I’m so glad you asked without any solicitation whatsoever! I was just about to post about a few things I was told the other day during some presentations at university.

  • When doing research, map out your sources and create a trail so you know where everything came from. If one thing links to another, it will help you find what you need to know when you’re looking for a quote you half-remember.
  • If something seems like it will fit really well in a specific part of your project, write it down, because you won’t remember by the time you finish doing your research.
  • In terms of pure memory, here’s some interesting numbers: you’ll forget 80% of what you learned in class within a week without any review whatsoever, but simply by reviewing what you learned that night you’ll retain 60% of the information. Basically, even if it seems silly at first, read over your notes when you get home. Check them again in a few days, then a week or so before your test or whatever you need to know the information for. It’ll take you less time than last-minute cramming, and you’ll get better grades as well.
  • If your teacher repeats something, it will be important. No questions asked. Make a note about it so you know to study it later.
  • To cut down on procrastination, make a definite schedule and do your absolute best to stick to it. If you dedicate an hour to studying and an hour to watching TV, you’ll get more out of it than you would if you spent two hours studying while watching TV.
  • Use a calendar to keep track of important dates and set starting points for important projects. Don’t just start working when you feel like it or have some free time. Decide that you’ll start working on an essay a week or two before the due date, and you’ll have it done on time and end up with a lot less stress.

I’ve also learned that taking notes on a laptop is far easier than writing them by hand, but it can come down to personal preference as well. I plan on copying my notes out by hand when I start studying for tests and exams, as an initial review of what I’ve got before I start the real studying. I’ve heard from some people that they can visualize the notes they’ve written, down to the colour of pen used, so obviously taking notes on a laptop would be bad for those people.

So that’s what I’ve learned in one day of class and one day spent at various presentations! Actually going to the presentations put me in a draw to win a Kobo eReader so that’s kinda why I did them. But hey aren’t you all glad that I went?!

I love being a leader sometimes. To show people the light and stuff. When I got to my linguistics course, about fifteen minutes early, I saw a lot of people inside and assumed it was another class finishing up, as they run ten minutes apart. I didn’t want to walk into the end of a class and wait for the next one, and there were a few other people outside as well, so we all waited around a bit.

More people showed up, and seeing other people waiting outside, they assumed the same thing as we had and sat around. I realized before very long that it had to be people who’d arrived early for linguistics in there, but out of complacency I waited anyway. A minute or two before class would normally start, I picked up my stuff and walked in the door. One look at the screens up front was all I needed: they simply said “Introduction to Linguistics.”

All I had to do was lean out the door and soberly say “hey guys class is about to start so we should probably make our way in.” It was all I could do to suppress a big, idiotic grin.

Carleton University Summer Orientation

Things I learned at my orientation today:

  • they have a Womyn’s Institute
  • there’s a fee inside your tuition that gives you a complete public transit pass for Ottawa during the school year - something like half of what you’d have to pay going to school and coming home, except you can go anywhere ever, whenever you want
  • there’s a fee inside your tuition that gives you complete access to all their sports facilities, including yoga, pilates, and martial arts classes, as well as two gyms, a dedicated cardio room, a large pool, squash courts, etc.
  • they have like 7 places to eat, including a food court (A&W, Subway, Pizza Pizza, stuff like that), at least one dining service area - I’m under the impression that there is at least one other - where chefs stand in front of you and prepare everything from grilled cheese sandwiches to stir fry to pizzas to whatever your favourite ethnic specialty food happens to be - Chinese and Indian style meals were on offer today, a cafe inside the library (kinda like the Starbucks in Chapters, only on steroids), and a full service restaurant (waiters, menus, the whole deal)
  • they have a book store that will not only buy back your books, but is now offering book rentals for about 50% of new retail price - you sign a contract promising to return the book a few days after your final - which may be a loss if you’re a good used book salesman, but otherwise everyone wins
  • they have lecture theatres that… you may not believe this… STILL HAVE CHALKBOARDS IN THEM. I realize that with a much larger facility than my high school, it would be very expensive to update them, but like, chalkboards… and then slideshows… SmartBoards were invented specifically to combine these things into one beauteous creature
  • they recycle pretty much everything for you, from batteries to empty printer cartridges, and then they actually use these things - I saw an LCD monitor made from what must have been the recycled remains of an old white CRT monitor, because there’s no way it was originally made that way
  • after two years there, you can go on an exchange for one (or both) semester(s) to pretty much everywhere ever - perhaps I shall go see the world
  • our school colours are red with black, which is unfortunate because I actually own no red clothing, but I own plenty of black - as far as I can tell red is the social stuff and black is the serious academic stuff? seemed to me like the fun things were red and the academic stuff was black, anyhow, so I guess that’s appropriate
  • they have a computer science degree focusing on social networking and social games

Things I experienced worth noting:

  • there will be a lot of exchange/international/whatever students, like seriously a lot
  • there will be a crazy large amount of people in general, which is to say that people with all kinds of interests will be available to agree with you or simply be attractive
  • I shared the empty spots at my table with a girl and her mom, the latter of which joked that she would e-mail my mom to say I had met at least one person
  • I met an ex-Polish guy wearing a Rush t-shirt named Conred (pronounced Conrad of course) who assured me that the Polish are terrible, embarrassing people
  • I really wanted some pizza for lunch but like there was nothing disgusting and unhealthy like that, although I did manage to find some french fries and had some cookies for desert

Yeah so I dunno that’s what I did today. I’m not trying to promote stuff or say my university is better than yours, like I’m not some super excited school spirit guy or anything. I guess I accidentally promised (more like sarcastically humoured the request) to go do Fall Orientation, for a cost of $75, which is called C U (Carleton University, get it) At The Circus and I have zero interest in that, especially since I live off-campus. And so my mom paid for that already and now I feel guiltily obligated to go and not enjoy myself. Allegedly it’s all non-drinking, which is to say they won’t be providing drinks, but that’s not much of a guarantee that nobody will be drunk. As far as I can tell I accidentally made my mom pay $75 for these things (go to the events thing) and like I might go see a good movie if they were going to something good. I don’t really want to go to the beach and not be with anybody or go to a concert if there’s nobody I want to see, and the rest is so un-noteworthy to my mind I won’t even declare my non-interest in them.

        Academic orientation will be useful, although I would have assumed that was for everyone? Carleton Complete may or may not also be informative, likewise with Expo Carleton. According to their “why should I bother” section of the FAQ Carleton Complete will make me a brilliant success so it had better be worth $75 alongside the academic orientation. Actually, I don’t care about the money even if I have to give my own money to my mom. Expo Carleton could possibly be a showcase of thing people from the university have done, as I know for example that we have our own art gallery somewhere.

        I’m not hellbent on being boring and not meeting anyone, don’t get me wrong, I just look at this list of events and feel very disinterested. Turned off, even, and I’m sure I don’t need to explain that. Of course I’ll go out and do things that interest me, if I know they exist and can find my way there. That’s why I’m going to go see The Holly Springs Disaster next saturday. I’m not worried about being awkward and out of place there, because I’ll enjoy the event regardless of my locally friendless state. I can only hope that my charmingly polite attitude and witty banter will charm people taking the same classes as I am, though they may not necessarily share all of my classes because of my wonky degree. Thus far, this is the only way I know how to meet people. Its effectiveness is yet to be determined.

        Oh, slight caveat: each of our classes seems to have a discussion board or something for the students in the class to get information from their teacher and make plans to study together and discuss material and whatever, where I know all kinds of things about being awesome and befriending people. I knew my years of lurking would be good for something in university!

I haven’t listened to Deadsoul Tribe much yet, but the first song of their 2005 album The Dead Word came up on shuffle, and I decided to listen to the whole album through. I’m glad I did. I could have picked any song from the album, for musical content or for the lyrics so feel free to check out the rest of them on darklyrics. They’re a progressive metal band, and Some Sane Advice is a ballad so it doesn’t really represent the album very well, but at the moment it feels the most relevant to me. So that’s why I’m posting it, specifically.

http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/deadsoultribe/thedeadword.html#5

Hey man, while we’re passing through,
Mind if I confided in you?
Can’t stand the grappling hands,
Clawing away at everything they can,
Holding on to a ludicrous plan,
A day in the life of a modern man.
Where do we go from here?

—–

Hey man, in the civil life,
Everybody’s scared,
And hanging on to broken promises.
The whole damn thing is coming unwound.
Isn’t it disillusioning?
Every day the same old thing,
And only closer to the bitter end,
Searching for something to never be found.

Am I mistaken,
On the path I have taken?
Am I forsaken?

        So here I am, packing up stuff to get it shipped to Ottawa, telling people I’m going there just because I don’t have a better idea of what will make me happy. Maybe if I’m feeling brave I’ll throw an “I dunno though…” at the end. Logically, I can plan out the “best” life for me right now: going to Carleton, getting my fancy shmancy degree, finding a job with it or maybe doing awesome research (likely not in Canada, there isn’t much money here for research right now… could be different in 4-6 years though), then marrying someone or otherwise finding myself a purpose in life after becoming “successful.”

        Emotionally speaking, I simply cannot plan out the happiest life for me. I don’t know what will make me happy. Right now, there are a handful of people who make my life an unquestionably better place, but there’s only one I can see myself living with… Unfortunately, neither of us is really comfortable with that kind of dependence given our current relationship, and she doesn’t want to make this decision for me. To make matters worse, she’s planning on leaving here when she can afford it, which would mean I’d work somewhere and save up money for however many months, then have to choose between: whatever crappy job and apartment I’ve got, or following her like a lost puppy. We could look at that in a more forgiving way, but it still leaves me with the same problem: what am I going to do with myself forever? I might be happy as long as we’re supporting eachother, no matter where in the world we might be living, but I’d still need work, and money, and essentially all of the logical things offered by university.

        The reason I only mention people as a source of happiness is because I don’t really have any talents or hobbies I could make into a career. I like to write, but I just don’t believe I could be a professional writer. All I really need is something that wouldn’t have me leaving work at 5 pm and collapsing onto a psychiatrist’s chair so I can cope with the stress. That’s not really something you can evaluate a job on, although a broad generalization would be to assume that most jobs I get from a university degree won’t lead to super-happy-fun-times.

        The more I think about it, the more I want to wait it out and make a move when I find out what I truly enjoy. The more I go with the flow, the more I want to get it over with and just go to university. Until I flat out say “ok, I am going to rent an apartment here and see how things go from there” and disappoint everyone, I won’t stick with it. Now’s not the time to be making that decision public, but time is running out to make it… Course registration is June 24th.

        Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Time is running out.

Well, it seems like the university thing worked out… Not entirely sure yet. I won’t really know until they send me something, a letter, an e-mail, anything, and thus far they haven’t done much of that. Hmm.

Excellent, I’m in!

I’ll post their music later, rather than do another so soon, but I’ll tell the story anyway. I ordered a shirt and a cd from Stand Out Riot, for $20 after shipping. Wednesday, I opened a package from england and found:

  • Their album, Carnival Militia
  • The shirt I ordered
  • A Carnival Militia poster
  • Four stickers
  • Two pins
  • A Carnival Militia bottle opener
  • A hand-written note thanking me for buying their stuff

So lol that was cool. I told a friend about it and he got me to order the same for him. All because one of their friends put their album online. Just goes to show you what the internet is good for.

Well shit, fuck, goddamn, bugger me with a bloody spear, etc. All of those wonderful things.

Pay very close attention for a second. I may not be able to go to university next year, at all. Why?

I FORGOT TO HIT THE SUBMIT BUTTON WHEN I ACCEPTED THEIR OFFER

It says acceptance is allowed after the expiry of the offer, and… ok, I think I may have accepted the offer properly this time. I know it calls for caution when you’re determining, potentially, the rest of your life, but seriously?

What kind of a fucking idiot forgets to hit the fucking submit button? Someone too stupid for post-secondary education, I’d say.

Although I have another offer to University of Ottawa, where apparently a girl from my english class is going next year, I don’t really want to go there or do that program. That one expires in two days, but I don’t even know that I’d take it if I had to.