Remember how I said that my Sociology exam was my favourite? Well, today I went to class and my professor had a special announcement. She said that in her 18 years of teaching, she's never had to make an announcement like this. Apparently, the exam content and answers were leaked and shared over social media.
She said that the people making decisions about this were two levels above her, but that this boiled down to the fact that all exams submitted were considered void. Our grade was going to be split over a midterm, a presentation, and a final exam, with the presentation being optional. This means that, without the midterm being considered, we have the option of having a 20% presentation with an 80% final, a 40% presentation with a 60% final, or a 100% final.
I mean, it's technically less work to put it all in one test, but that's a lot of eggs in one basket.
Our professor let us open into a question-answer period, but she warned us "I can't answer anything about anything". This led to some very repetitive questions and answers.
"I don't know if I'm allowed to ask this."
"You can ask."
"How did this person learn the answers?"
"That's confidential."
"Can we at least learn how we did on the test even if it doesn't count?"
"It's all been voided."
"Why is all this information confidential?"
"That's confidential."
And just those questions being rephrased over and over.
Apparently some students take their studies more seriously than I do. One student asked to leave class based on how sudden the news was. The professor seemed on the verge of tears.
I recently broke my bedroom closet. I broke my previous bedroom closet as well, but that was in the small room, so I just put up a tension rod and hung a curtain to replace it. But that was when I was in the small room. I'm in the big room now, and big room means bg closet.
I tripped and crashed into the small closet door, to be fair, which disfigured it and disallowed me to reattach it. I didn't do anything to the large bedroom closet though. It just came apart as I was opening it, as strange as that sounds. I was talking to a neighbor who has lived in the area longer than I, and she says that both her closet doors have come undone some time ago.
Remember how I said, when I was looking for curtains, that the only place that sells proper curtains are those family-owned bargain stores? The big commercial locations like Wal-Mart sell only garbage transparent curtains for some reason. Same deal for curtain rods. The big business places only sell tension rods at sizes too small to fit my closet. But the first random bargain store I went to sold a generic metal pole that fit my purposes quite nicely. I really don't know why the largest corporations have failed to produce large sheets of fabric or long metal poles.
Anyway, my current closet looks slammin'. I don't know why more people don't have curtain closets, unless their closets are so overstuffed that things are leaning against the doorframes, in which case, my default closets would fail anyway. My current curtain closet panel has a far more creative design than the generic whit sliding closet panels we started with.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Midterms
Well, midterms are done. First one I had was for East Asian Studies, which I found intimidating because the professor told us that the class average was only a little above 70%. Since the bulk of my classmates are from East Asia and are therefor kind of versed with the course material, it kind of made me feel like, "Wait, if these guys are only a little bit above a passing grade, what chance do I have?"
My study habits haven't been the best. I mentioned in my previous post that I've been struggling with fatigue. But the old adrenaline kicked in at just the right moment and I read an entire textbook, cover-to-cover, in two days. We're only halfway through the semester, but the book covered course content all the way to where were in class.
The professor told us that we aren't a history class and wouldn't be tested like one, but the textbook is titled "A History of East Asia". Feel like I learned the entire history of China in two days. Do you know how old China is? It's really, really old.
Should have listened to the professor though. I think I did well on most of the historical questions, but there were more questions on current-day China and geography than I expect. What makes it worse is that I feel like those were kind of the gimme questions. I mean, you should have a grasp of the second largest and fastest growing economy in the world.
Multiple choice test, fifty questions in an hour. Professor said there was no way we could use the entire hour, "If you stay for the full hour it is because you enjoy the atmosphere of the exam".
Of course I'm thinking that gives me about a minute per question, which doesn't feel like much. But he was right. Finished the test in like twenty minutes. Reviewed my answers and handed it in at thirty minutes.
Didn't leave that exam with too much confidence, though.
Went to review for the Sociology exam and I was laughing. I've taken enough Sociology courses that there was basically no new content, I barely knew what to study. Two hours for seventy questions, took like, 45 minutes. Came out of it with a lot of confidence.
Had an art project due that week too. We were doing "disrupted landscapes", which are like regular landscapes, but then you do something to offset the feeling that the rest of the image creates. Examples that we looked at were that melting clock image, that image with the elephants with stilt-legs, some landscapes with words floating through them, some images with monsters in them. I based mine on a photo of a mountain range that I took while I was in Mali. I really didn't want to disrupt it and was pretty uninspired on how to do it. Apparently that's a common feeling. Eventually I was like "Okay, what draws attention in this image" That rock formation "What do you notice about it?" That crevice looks kind of like a mouth and that grove of trees looks like a tongue.
So I drew some teeth and a tongue and eyes onto it. I'd forgotten I've got a thing for faces put on aspects of nature. Remember Tree Face? This was Rock Face. I so gloomily cartooned the face onto my painstakingly painted landscape, and then spent a solid half hour giggling at it.
My study habits haven't been the best. I mentioned in my previous post that I've been struggling with fatigue. But the old adrenaline kicked in at just the right moment and I read an entire textbook, cover-to-cover, in two days. We're only halfway through the semester, but the book covered course content all the way to where were in class.
The professor told us that we aren't a history class and wouldn't be tested like one, but the textbook is titled "A History of East Asia". Feel like I learned the entire history of China in two days. Do you know how old China is? It's really, really old.
Should have listened to the professor though. I think I did well on most of the historical questions, but there were more questions on current-day China and geography than I expect. What makes it worse is that I feel like those were kind of the gimme questions. I mean, you should have a grasp of the second largest and fastest growing economy in the world.
Multiple choice test, fifty questions in an hour. Professor said there was no way we could use the entire hour, "If you stay for the full hour it is because you enjoy the atmosphere of the exam".
Of course I'm thinking that gives me about a minute per question, which doesn't feel like much. But he was right. Finished the test in like twenty minutes. Reviewed my answers and handed it in at thirty minutes.
Didn't leave that exam with too much confidence, though.
Went to review for the Sociology exam and I was laughing. I've taken enough Sociology courses that there was basically no new content, I barely knew what to study. Two hours for seventy questions, took like, 45 minutes. Came out of it with a lot of confidence.
Had an art project due that week too. We were doing "disrupted landscapes", which are like regular landscapes, but then you do something to offset the feeling that the rest of the image creates. Examples that we looked at were that melting clock image, that image with the elephants with stilt-legs, some landscapes with words floating through them, some images with monsters in them. I based mine on a photo of a mountain range that I took while I was in Mali. I really didn't want to disrupt it and was pretty uninspired on how to do it. Apparently that's a common feeling. Eventually I was like "Okay, what draws attention in this image" That rock formation "What do you notice about it?" That crevice looks kind of like a mouth and that grove of trees looks like a tongue.
So I drew some teeth and a tongue and eyes onto it. I'd forgotten I've got a thing for faces put on aspects of nature. Remember Tree Face? This was Rock Face. I so gloomily cartooned the face onto my painstakingly painted landscape, and then spent a solid half hour giggling at it.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Post Grouphome Blues
Ugh... I've been really low energy lately. I feel like I was going so hard for so long, with all my jobs and suchlike, and I always had enough energy to get everything done, but now that life has slowed down, I'm exhausted all the time. I guess at a certain point, when I just kept putting more and more on my plate, the only thing that was keeping me going was the fact that I had that momentum. As soon as I let up a bit, I crashed. I think I may have burned out without realizing it, because I was so distracted. Now I don't know how to burn back in. I feel kind of emotionally stunted, it's hard to get excited about things, or mad or scared or even depressed about things. I just feel tired, even though you'd think a bit of rest would be energizing. I feel like I could sleep for days if I let myself. I haven't had so much free time since Human Services Foundation.
Oh well, I needed some time to recover after Canada World Youth if I recall, and that took place over approximately the same amount of time (six months) as my stint with three jobs, and even a bit with that workload as well as full time University on top of it. This past half year was not less intense than my Malian adventure, haha.
And there was that time in third semester of Social Services where I crashed after running on adrenaline when a bunch of assignments were due at once, which I described as "A painful, delirious haze" and thought I was "permanently broken" after the fact. I came back to form, though.
Still, got midterms coming up, and I'd really like to be in fighting form right now. But I'm too reflective, too relaxed right now.
Oh, I'm not worried about finances anymore. Last time I updated, I was stressed because OSAP gave me my money and it wasn't even half of what they said they'd give me. But they gave the rest of it to me the next day. I don't know why they gave it to me in installments like that, probably just to mess with my head.
I made maybe my stupidest financial decision this past week, though. I bought a washer/dryer. Problem is, I don't know how to install one. I got a good deal on it, which is why I did what I did, but still not exactly an everyday purchase, and I worry about my impulsive decision being based on the "financial comfort zone". People get used to being at a certain level of income, and if they suddenly shift dramatically, even if they don't realize it they will often work toward what they're used to. This means that if someone suddenly loses a lot of money, they will fight harder to bring themselves up to what they used to have, and more strangely, if someone suddenly gains a great deal of money, they will spend in a way so that they return to what they're used to. It's the phenomenon of the homeless person winning the lottery and finding themselves in the same living situation a year later. So I'm worried that I felt the sudden financial spike and made a rash decision.
But yeah, got the washer/dryer, figured I'd just stick it in the wall just like it seems you do with every other major appliance. I look at the plug and see it's a bit different from usual, figure I can buy an adapter or something. Look up how to install a washer/dryer and find out I need a source of hot and cold water. Suddenly feel stupid. I guess I figured that the water just magically produced itself when you plug it in, like the electricity transforms into water somehow. And then yeah, it occurs to me that all that water isn't just going to get reused, the machine probably has to dispose of the dirty water somehow. Really common logic type stuff. Didn't think that one through.
I'm home for Thanksgiving right now. I get today and tomorrow off for Reading Break as well. It's really nice to actually get holidays now. We had the traditional turkey dinner and the like yesterday, which was pretty swell.
Oh well, I needed some time to recover after Canada World Youth if I recall, and that took place over approximately the same amount of time (six months) as my stint with three jobs, and even a bit with that workload as well as full time University on top of it. This past half year was not less intense than my Malian adventure, haha.
And there was that time in third semester of Social Services where I crashed after running on adrenaline when a bunch of assignments were due at once, which I described as "A painful, delirious haze" and thought I was "permanently broken" after the fact. I came back to form, though.
Still, got midterms coming up, and I'd really like to be in fighting form right now. But I'm too reflective, too relaxed right now.
Oh, I'm not worried about finances anymore. Last time I updated, I was stressed because OSAP gave me my money and it wasn't even half of what they said they'd give me. But they gave the rest of it to me the next day. I don't know why they gave it to me in installments like that, probably just to mess with my head.
I made maybe my stupidest financial decision this past week, though. I bought a washer/dryer. Problem is, I don't know how to install one. I got a good deal on it, which is why I did what I did, but still not exactly an everyday purchase, and I worry about my impulsive decision being based on the "financial comfort zone". People get used to being at a certain level of income, and if they suddenly shift dramatically, even if they don't realize it they will often work toward what they're used to. This means that if someone suddenly loses a lot of money, they will fight harder to bring themselves up to what they used to have, and more strangely, if someone suddenly gains a great deal of money, they will spend in a way so that they return to what they're used to. It's the phenomenon of the homeless person winning the lottery and finding themselves in the same living situation a year later. So I'm worried that I felt the sudden financial spike and made a rash decision.
But yeah, got the washer/dryer, figured I'd just stick it in the wall just like it seems you do with every other major appliance. I look at the plug and see it's a bit different from usual, figure I can buy an adapter or something. Look up how to install a washer/dryer and find out I need a source of hot and cold water. Suddenly feel stupid. I guess I figured that the water just magically produced itself when you plug it in, like the electricity transforms into water somehow. And then yeah, it occurs to me that all that water isn't just going to get reused, the machine probably has to dispose of the dirty water somehow. Really common logic type stuff. Didn't think that one through.
I'm home for Thanksgiving right now. I get today and tomorrow off for Reading Break as well. It's really nice to actually get holidays now. We had the traditional turkey dinner and the like yesterday, which was pretty swell.
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