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So the other day I had my first real test of this semester. Well, ok, my second.
My first I suppose would be my Japanese 222 test we had last week on Chapter 28. I guess I count that as a little less than a major test due to the fact that they’re really closer to chapter quizzes. That, and I also tend to do fairly well on those with little hassle. Case in point, I made a 90 point something on that one. I only really studied the material the night before, as well. When midterms, finals, and the oral exam approach later in the semester I guess things will get more stressful in that class, but for now I somewhat ride on cruise control. Only the kanji really gives me pause, there’s nothing more than rote memorization involved with that and anyone who’s ever known me can explain why anything any of the conjugations of the verb ‘to memorize’ and me don’t fully click. Regardless, I copy them a lot when I’m studying, such as for the kanji quiz this coming Monday, so that I can at least cram them in my skull for long enough to pass. I really need to do the whole flash card thing, though. My goal is fluency and I have a long way to go. Never quite got there with German but I intend to go back and finish that someday. Also, I plan on learning at least Russian, possibly Korean or Chinese, and wouldn’t mind Latin or Greek. As well, I think I’d enjoy Icelandic. But enough on that. Just because I can; here are the kanji I need to learn for my upcoming quiz: 旅，奈，良，広，暑，困，富，士，登，丁，降，私，期，法，教，育，心，理，地，図，次，質，問，答.
For the first big test I referred to earlier, that would be in my East Asian Civilization class. Basically it’s a history of East Asia class where the grading is split up between four major exams, a paper, and participation/quizzes. Now, due to the fact that I ended up moving during the semester (right at the beginning, no less) rather than after classes dismissed for summer (the original agreement) I have been struggling to keep up in all my classes. This is the only one so far where it has actually shown itself, though. We’ve already had a couple quizzes in there which, rather than study at all for, I whittled away my free time ferrying boxes to my new apartment. So I failed the map quiz on China (it was only pass/fail; I couldn’t get 12 of 15 right so auto-fail). The weekend where I did my most moving was also the weekend I should have been working on the paper which constitutes 10% of my final grade. So, since I never had the time to sit and read the book (The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, for those who are interested) I consequently never had time to write the paper. This makes it that even if I make perfect scores on everything else in the class the best grade I can receive is a 90. Since that’s a forgone conclusion, I just hope I can somehow manage to salvage the shambles of this semester. This intro should serve to show a bit why I placed some emphasis on this particular exam. It was in three parts; the first was a short answer, fill in the blank sort of ordeal, the second was to write small paragraphs identifying 10 out of 12 people, places, and terms from our reading and lectures, and the final part was an essay describing the who, how, when, and why of Buddhist expansion in China. All this needed completed in roughly 75 minutes. Luckily, I had attended most of the classes and taken notes on my faithful laptop and had even read almost all of the textbook that was tested on since I have another class, Great Books of East Asia, that uses the same text and I had to have up through that point at least read by before the time that I suddenly had to move. So, after a night of cramming as hard as I could for it at work I think I did ok. Still haven’t gotten the results back yet, of course, so it’s just a feeling at this point.
My other classes are somewhat feeling the pinch now, too. My Chapter 28 kanji quiz (not the whole chapter quiz which I described above) I made a 14 on. Yes, that’s out of 100. I got two of those points for being able to write my name in katakana (ジェソン). I just hadn’t had the time to sit and do my kanji cram. My Introduction to Rhetoric class has barely noticed since there isn’t much in the way of assignments that aren’t.. let’s say more free-form. Today, for example, the group I worked with was to have a seven to eight minute presentation on how Plato and the old Sophists would have viewed MySpace. I say ‘was to have’ because since the other groups and following discussions took easily 25 minutes each we only made it through three of the six groups. Next Tuesday when we reconvene the professor has requested the two groups that were assigned presentations on voting programs and rhetoric to take the first 20 minutes of class to present. So, yup, we got skipped. Interesting thing is that the presentation is counting for two quiz grades. More interesting is the fact that she didn’t seem to be actually grading anything. She did use the term ‘attention whore’ in a question, though, so there’s something to that.. I think.
My History of Ancient Philosophy class has taken very little of a hit due to my not completing the readings as of yet. The class is fascinating, the professor will go off on these wild philosophical tangents that, while related to the readings, aren’t always about the readings themselves. And we’ve only had one quiz so far that I made a C on before the whole moving thing came into the equation. However, by next Thursday at the latest, we have to have submitted a one page proposal for our term paper. The paper itself will comprise, I think, about a third of the grade for the semester. Luckily, he finally gave us some information about what he’s looking for on Tuesday. Basically, I need to pick one of the philosophers we’re going over this semester and one of their topics and write on that. Before he hadn’t given out anything as to what he wanted. He did, however, warn us repeatedly the first two weeks of class that those of us without a philosophical background would be hard-pressed to come up with a topic in only five weeks. I have to agree on some level when the professor only gives out general information about the paper a week before the topic is due. Anyway, that shouldn’t be a problem, I just have to pick someone. My Great Books of East Asia class is only graded really on four things: two presentations and two papers. My presentation is scheduled for the end of this month, the 28th. The topic I’m going with for that will be something related to the Three Kingdoms period (yes, the one of Koei fame) and warfare of the time. As of yet, though, I haven’t done a bit of preparation. I really need to start hitting the library or something.
Well, anyway. I have more to write about home stuff that I’ll leave for later.
So this is mine. Or rather, one of mine.
As of Sunday, February the 4th I have officially been living all alone for the first time in my life.
It still hasn’t really sunk in yet, I think. Not much feels different except that all my stuff is gathered together in one rather untidy room at the moment. Not that much can change there, seeing as I only have the one room. I have a small, 365 square foot studio apartment that’s located just down a steep hill from my classes at USC. Hopefully, though, after I get some things worked out, like having my cable installed, for instance, I’ll have a tidy small apartment.
As some of my not-yet readers may already know: my futon doesn’t fit in the place I measured out for it. Seems that this futon has some curving out arms on the frame that I forgot to account for. I’m currently thinking of having it replaced with a love seat. For now, however, I have my desk chair and 2 folding plastic chairs. Also I have the mattress of the futon folded over against the wall that I found out last night makes for a fine seating experience.
I still have a good bit to unpack, at least it looks that way. In all honesty it’s only 3 boxes left I think. There’s still a bit of stuff left at my old residence that I’ll pick up in the next day or two as well as cleaning to take care of over there. After that’s done and I have things situated here I assume that my life can get back on track. Currently it seems that it’s anything but.
I did not go to my Tuesday classes this week. Instead I was ferrying more boxes over in my Neon and doing some small cleaning as I could of the old room. All that lasted me till around almost 9 pm from when I got up at around 10 am. Today, or rather yesterday now, I found out I had a paper due and a quiz in my first class that day. Needless to say, I panicked. I really, really, can’t afford to fail any classes. When I got home, though, even though I couldn’t find my assignment sheet for the paper, I did locate my syllabus for that class. It turns out that the paper only counts for 10% of the overall grade and the quizzes for about 2% each. So, maybe I can pull this off after all. I just have to gear back up for studying somewhere in this messy pile of time that I actually don’t have right now. After all this moving nonsense is taken care of I hope I can get back on track.
The apartment is not without its own personal kookiness. I’m on the 10th floor, so my view is.. interesting. I see a good bit of skyline, but it’s on the side away from downtown. Instead I get to see the train tracks and the trains that blow by here late some nights. Some of the appliances leave a bit to be desired; the washer/dryer unit won’t achieve the so-called “super wash” that it touts so proudly on its little dial. Upon turning it to that setting it diligently fills up with water and proceeds to stay that way. So.. I guess “super soaker” was already taken as a name. The oven’s a bit.. nasty. The stove top has not been cleaned since the previous tenants and there’s a bit of rust on the unit. Not to mention that the burners don’t fit into the drip pans. Again, I’m dealing with non-level burners. Joy. The dish washer is fairly horrid. It smells like old mushrooms crawled in there and died. Strong fungal smell. One of the more annoying things, though, is the bathtub. It works fine, mostly. Hot and cold running water. Cold constant dripping from the faucet when nothing else is turned on. Normally, in a showering situation, it would be unlikely that my anything would end up near or beneath the frigid dripping but that’s sadly not the case. There’s no bar to hang a shower curtain from. I’ve been making due with impromptu bubble baths with Old Spice Body & Hair Wash serving as bubble bath. It’s a multi-tasker!
Well, now that I’ve started this fun new blogging experience I think I’ll close. It’s almost 1 am, my brother’s messaged me a couple times when I was AFK but not responding when I’m not, and I have to read more stuff for class tomorrow. So untill my next communique.. be well, all.
