Jan 6, 2012

Bear With Me

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Please bear with me as I may not post consistently for a week or so. A new semester just started and I’m trying to get into a routine. I’m taking an accelerated German 101/102 class so even though I have one class at a time, it’s like having two. And with my full-time job, I’m not doing much more than sleep, work, school, and homework.

On the plus side, I can now introduce myself and tell you what I’m wearing, including the colors of my clothing, in German:

Ich heiβe Jenni. Freut mich. Ich trage ein Hemd, eine Jacke, eine Hose, Socken, und Stiefel. Mein Hemd ist lila, schwarz, weiβ, und grau. Meine Jacke ist grau. Meine Hose ist blau. Meine Socken sind weiβ. Meine Stiefel sind grau.

English translation: I am Jenni. Pleased to meet you. I’m wearing a shirt, a jacket, pants, socks, and boots. My shirt is purple, black, white, and gray. My jacket is gray. My pants are blue. My socks are white. My boots are gray.

Filed Under: School, Work · 12 Comments
Sep 8, 2011

The Art of Juggling

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You’d think I’d be a pro at juggling by now, but I’m not. And, when I say juggling, I don’t mean the throwing of balls, or other like materials, in the air while simultaneously catching multiple previously thrown objects. I mean juggling as in balancing life’s responsibilities.

The second week of school is almost over, and I’m trying to learn how to deal with going to school and working full-time again. Luckily, most of my homework is reading, which does take time, but it’s not hard reading. I get to read about different grammar and usage rules with a few exercises thrown in here and there to make sure I understand what I’ve read. So far, I really like my classes (Modern American Usage and Grammar), and I find them both very interesting. It’s just that my “me” time has decreased significantly.

I haven’t found a way to do some of the things I did over the summer. But, once I get used to my schedule again, I’m sure I’ll be back in the swing of things, including coming up with more discussion posts for my blog. Please just bear with me during this transition period. It should only take one more week, maybe two at the tops, to get things down.

Filed Under: School · 10 Comments
Aug 27, 2011

Getting Ready for School

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The first day of school is Monday. When I had three weeks until school started, I came up with a list of five things I needed to get done. I only accomplished one of them, albeit the most important. Oopsies.

  1. Finish watching LOST.
  2. Conquer Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
  3. Finish reading The Book Thief.
  4. Reread Shiver and Linger, so I can read Forever.
  5. Gather my sanity to get me through the next few months.

Now that I’m out of time, I don’t really care about the first four items. I’ll still do them, just during the semester instead of before. I’ll watch LOST over the weekends. After all, I only have 16 episodes left. And, I can conquer Zelda one week or another. After I get out of my reading slump, I’ll accomplish 3 and 4.

I had one thing that wasn’t on my to do list that I still had to accomplish. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to go back to school at all. BYU, the school I attend, doesn’t allow extreme hairstyles, which is anyone’s guess, but I was fairly certain my current color wouldn’t be allowed. Today, I remedied that and had my niece Carlee redye my hair.

Although I miss the purple … a lot, I really like the new color. I also love that it’s still a bit edgy, but within BYU’s rules. (The red isn’t quite as noticeable when it’s not in the sun.)

At this point, after I put all my supplies together tomorrow, I’m ready to go back and I’m quite excited about it!

Filed Under: Hair Dos, Me, School · 18 Comments
Aug 8, 2011

Where Did Summer Go?

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At the beginning of summer, I felt like time was moving slowly which is how I wanted it. Now that summer is almost over, meaning I start school in three weeks, I’m wondering where my summer went.

I’m not ready for school to start again. I need to qualify that. I’m ready for school, but I’m not ready for how it’s going to affect my schedule, especially my work schedule.

Currently, I work full-time and go to school part-time. Because of this, I have to fit my school schedule into my work schedule. As I’m getting closer to graduation, this is becoming harder to do because the classes I need are only available at certain times. This next semester, they happen to be available around lunch time.

Each day, I need to be to work by 7:00 in the morning. Then, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I have a class from 1:00 to 2:00. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have a class from 12:00 to 1:30. After class each day, I’ll go back to work and stay there until 6:00.

I’ll still be working only 40 hours, but because I’ll be there from 7:00 am until 6:00 pm each day, it’s going to feel more like 60 hours each week. The things I do to better myself.

I was able to work out my class schedule so I have a class each day. I like that much better than last semester when they were all MWF classes and I had to make up the time away from work on Tuesday and Thursday by working 12-hour days. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Before School Starts To Do List

  1. Finish watching LOST. I only have 16 more episodes.
  2. Conquer Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I only have Ganondorf left to defeat.
  3. Finish reading The Book Thief. I keep getting distracted and now I have no more time for distractions.
  4. Reread Shiver and Linger, so I can read Forever.
  5. Gather my sanity to get me through the next few months.
Filed Under: School, Work · 5 Comments
Jan 6, 2011

A Little too Pretentious?

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Yesterday was the first day of school for me.  I’m taking two classes this semester, Engl 295: Writing about Criticism and ELang 223: Introduction to English Language (a linguistics class).  I’m very excited about the ELang 223.  Even just after the first day, it has me wondering if I’d do better to major in linguistics (while still minoring in editing) than in English.  I guess I’ll see how I like this class.

My Engl 295 class, however, has me a little freaked out.  I was excited about the class until my teacher had us read the following on our syllabus:

At BYU, a grade of “A” indicates that student performance is “Excellent,” a grade of “B” equates to “Good” performance, and a grade of “C” indicates that student performance is merely “Satisfactory.”  I understand the use of the word “good” in the sense defined by the American Heritage Dictionary: “superior to the average.”  Accordingly, in order to earn a grade of “B” or higher, you must submit above-average work on a consistent basis.  If you understand the definition of “average,” you should be able to figure out that most of the students in most of my classes will receive a grade lower than “B”; the odds against an entire class being “above-average” are astronomical.

I’ll be the first to admit that some teachers do give As too freely.  However, the way this teacher is making it sound, it seems like it’s nearly impossible to get an A in his class.  I’m going to do my best.  I’m also going to challenge my perfectionist-nature during the entire semester to be okay with my best, even if it doesn’t coincide with what my teacher considers “good” or “excellent.”  My counselor even suggested that I don’t track my grade at all because I need to work through this issue of basing my “worth” on my grades.  Wish me luck!

Filed Under: School, Vents · 14 Comments
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