Better By Nightfall

Well, it's official, I've revamped the bulk of my schedule to reflect the same amount of credits I had originally for this semester but with fewer classes and, hopefully, a less stressful setup. At 17 credits total, it better be less stressful! When I originally planned out my schedule for the fall, I wasn't really taking major/minor oriented classes because I was trying to "gun down" my generals in order to take other classes. However, after further review of the interesting 128 credit hour Computer Science and Communications degree credit requirements, I decided it was best to change my schedule while retaining a few staples in my schedule. I'm still keeping Japanese 201, of course, Debate, Speech, and Energy for Society, but I dropped the others. I really wanted to take Swimming, but apparently it conflicts with almost every class I currently have. In it's place, though, I am now taking a Computer Science class that I'm a little uncertain of. It's worth four credit hours, but I can't tell what the class will be like from the course description or from anywhere else on the college website. While some teachers have previous semesters syllabi up, this class doesn't have a single one posted except for a very general course description. From that description, I'm either in for "the long haul" or a fairly decent ride. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Then, I dropped and re-added Anthropology 102 on Tuesday night from 6-9pm. While I hate night classes, I believe that this class will go fairly smooth given the previous semester's course syllabus and my questions to the professor. According to both, so far, there are no essays per se like the ones I had to do for my History 111 class, but there might be short answer/simple essay questions on the exams (especially if I miss a test and have to make it up). I think I can deal with that though, given the rest of my schedule will be somewhat hectic enough. And, from looking at my schedule right now, I'm predicting that I'll end up hating Tuesday's. However, in general, I think I'll enjoy my schedule given that certain classes (i.e. Debate, Japanese, Comp Sci.) don't kill me.


Speaking of Debate, I've taken a temporary vacation from speech writing to focus on World on Fire by Amy Chua. While I've only gotten through a sub-section of chapter one, the book is very interesting and is helping me focus on key issues and instances I'll be able to detail during debates. More on that note, Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis has also shed light on government policy and various other topics that I need to further research in order to do better this semester. Heck, I can't blame all of my losses on Christian, even if he didn't help me out. (Though, Annah, Brad, and Marty don't seem to care that he's gone. In fact, I think two of the three named celebrated his dismissal...or maybe all of them and more.)

Current Status:
DI - Basically done, cut and being memorized. I'm working on the accent with the help of my accent book.
POI - I can't find a poem like the one that that "hot black guy slammed at the vigil (A horny Lacey quote)." The task of finding a poem that borders along the lines of "I'm a Man, because I feel" has proven harder than I imagined. Google searches haven't turned up much, poetry sites haven't helped, and I'm curious to see if I might be able to find something on, dare I say it, deviantart.com.
Inform - Pondering Barton's idea he said I could use. I think it'd be good, but I'm wondering how I'd spin it. I'm still waiting for an e-mail from Marty about topics.
CA/ADS/Other - Exactly. I don't know what the fug' I'm doing as a fourth event. Lacey, Barton, any ideas? Maybe I should be asking the coaches...maybe, but not just yet. ;)


With all this free time from work, you'd think I'd be doing things other than debate, right? Well, I'm not. Why? Well, I haven't gotten my first paycheck yet, so I don't really have money to buy things. I do have money to do hangout with friends, but most of them are busy working, hanging out with the families or significant other, or just blowing me off. Either way, it's not a big deal. I'm not back here for them, but it would be nice to hang out with them if they weren't busy, joined at the hip to their families/significant others, ignoring me for some reason. I'm not sure why the last reason listed would even come into play, but I guess, given my record of pissing people off this year alone (i.e. Ana, Adriana, Cinco, Ashley, Peter [fruitcake], Heather, etc.), I probably managed to piss off quite a few people here without realizing it. Granted, I know a select few that I did intentionally piss off, but I didn't like them and they deserved it (i.e. Steve, the dumbass who's still stuck in H.S. "MOVE ON DOUCHE, MOVE ON!"). Or others who I believe I accidentally pissed off (i.e. Sean, apparently group blogs don't work for everyone and some calculators are bigger than others) through various actions of my undertaking. On the whole, though, I think it's just me being me. No, not in the slutty sense like Ana or Adriana. Please, like I get any bedroom action! I'm on a debate team. No, I mean it in the sense that "Either you like me or you don't. If you do, I'm probably not pissing you off. If you don't, well, you're a lost cause because I could care less." Apparently that policy doesn't always work, though. See how many friends I made in my dorm this year?

My point exactly.

So, until I get my money, I'm not buying much of anything. Until my friends want to hang out, I'm continuing with work and debate. Until my brother gets here, I'm enjoying myself. Until my package of books arrives, I'm praying and constantly worried that I lost them and other important papers. Until August rolls around, I'm keeping busy with what's important since that seems to be the best course of action. I take it everyone else is doing the same.