It's that time of year again, when students everywhere are catapulted out of the happy complacency of knowing their daily routine, into the stark cruel reality of facing down exams and final papers. Coming back from a delightful week off, after 14 weeks of the same thing, we all realize that there are only two weeks until finals. And unfortunately, by the time you realize that, one of those weeks is gone.
As someone very wise once said to me, however, college is not so much about learning things, but rather about learning how you learn things. And I know that the best way for me to get something done is to let it ferment in the back of my head. So while it may not seem like I've been doing much this week to prepare for finals, I've actually been archiving, cross-referencing, making connections, and hoarding away everything I could for the upcoming ordeal. Once the weekend hit, that's when it was time to get everything down on paper.
So the last two days have primarily been spent trying to force three-dimensional thought patterns onto two-dimensional paper, a process I've discussed and ranted about many times before. What's more, this particular
process was made all the less enjoyable by the assignment for my final paper for lit class. The prof is asking for a 9-10 page research paper (so far, so good) defending one of a number of subjective literary themes given to us. That's where my problem started. To me, a research paper is, well, factual. It has hard facts, backed by peer review, that can be used to support yet another hard fact (also, in theory, supportable by peer review). So asking to do that for a subjective literary theme, a topic against which I am already biased by a contempt for literary dissection, retarded "what did he really mean" questions, and... ok, well, we won't go there, thats another topic, and one not really suited for a public forum. But needless to say, I don't like it.
Anyway, that's what I've been working on for the last two days. And will likely be working on for the next five days as well, right up until this Saturday, when it's due on the same day I have a Russian language final exam. After which I will doubtless make friends with the bottle of rum sitting on my kitchen counter right before it's time to participate in a 10-man raid in my online game- an occurrence for which I have already warned people I will be not in possession of all of my wits. Oh, what fun.
And that's my excuse as to why there are no sketches for today. And probably Friday as well. And, unless you want tipsy sketches, next Monday as well. However, all is not lost. In my sanity breaks from writing this blesséd paper, I've been making construction paper chains to decorate the place for the holidays. Since I don't have enough to hang yet, I figured a great place to store 'em would be on my replica William Wallace two-handed broadsword. And you know what? I kinda like it. So here's my decoration: the Christmas Sword of 2011. Cheers!
As someone very wise once said to me, however, college is not so much about learning things, but rather about learning how you learn things. And I know that the best way for me to get something done is to let it ferment in the back of my head. So while it may not seem like I've been doing much this week to prepare for finals, I've actually been archiving, cross-referencing, making connections, and hoarding away everything I could for the upcoming ordeal. Once the weekend hit, that's when it was time to get everything down on paper.
So the last two days have primarily been spent trying to force three-dimensional thought patterns onto two-dimensional paper, a process I've discussed and ranted about many times before. What's more, this particular
process was made all the less enjoyable by the assignment for my final paper for lit class. The prof is asking for a 9-10 page research paper (so far, so good) defending one of a number of subjective literary themes given to us. That's where my problem started. To me, a research paper is, well, factual. It has hard facts, backed by peer review, that can be used to support yet another hard fact (also, in theory, supportable by peer review). So asking to do that for a subjective literary theme, a topic against which I am already biased by a contempt for literary dissection, retarded "what did he really mean" questions, and... ok, well, we won't go there, thats another topic, and one not really suited for a public forum. But needless to say, I don't like it.
Anyway, that's what I've been working on for the last two days. And will likely be working on for the next five days as well, right up until this Saturday, when it's due on the same day I have a Russian language final exam. After which I will doubtless make friends with the bottle of rum sitting on my kitchen counter right before it's time to participate in a 10-man raid in my online game- an occurrence for which I have already warned people I will be not in possession of all of my wits. Oh, what fun.
And that's my excuse as to why there are no sketches for today. And probably Friday as well. And, unless you want tipsy sketches, next Monday as well. However, all is not lost. In my sanity breaks from writing this blesséd paper, I've been making construction paper chains to decorate the place for the holidays. Since I don't have enough to hang yet, I figured a great place to store 'em would be on my replica William Wallace two-handed broadsword. And you know what? I kinda like it. So here's my decoration: the Christmas Sword of 2011. Cheers!
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| How festive! |
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