So you're probably wondering why you should care about what I think my classes are going to be like this year -I'll tell you why!
Because reading about this keeps you away from your work for another 5 minutes, that's why! And isn't that why we're all here? To not do work, together?
Okay, so my first class of the semester was my Intro to Magazine Writing course, and the workload had me RUNNING for the doors! Omigoodness, there is so much research and active participation involved in this class that I just don't know if I'll have time for all of it. I immediately began searching for alternatives that would fit my schedule, but everything that had openings in it would either mess with one or more of my other activities and classes, or it wouldn't help me at all with my requirements and be a waste of time. So I decided I'd just have to stick it out and see where this class takes me. Hopefully not below a B, so I can keep my financial aide and scholarships, but we'll see.
UPDATE:
It's been a week and only four classes, but I think this is actually going to be a good class -I'm glad (for now) that I didn't drop out. I really like the teacher, especially compared to the other Magazine Writing teacher I could have had. My roommate has her, and apparently she's um, well lets just say she's a newspaper short of a few headlines. My professor is thankfully not INSANE and she really seems like she actually wants to help get us published, which is awesome! My first piece for that class is an article about procrastination.
Story of my life.
My second class is an Intro to Psychology class, and I knew it was going to be a lecture-based class because it has so many students in it, and the teacher seems very nice and incredibly qualified, but he's also very strict. I can tell he's the type to be annoyed if anyone moves around too much near the end of class, and he'll keep us to the very last second every day. I just hope that the topics will be interesting enough to keep me awake for two hours after a long shift at work... and just in case I'm trying to remember to bring Coca-Cola every class ;P
The next class that I have is a history class, and not even something cool like ancient civilizations or something. No, this is a class we've all had since 3rd grade -History of the United States. I can tell this will be a frustrating class because there's a LOT of reading to do for every class, and we have to post comments about each reading an hour BEFORE class starts so he can call us out on something we said. We absolutely 100% canNOT have our laptops in this class, so there's no chance of salvation, either. The thing is though -the teacher seems really cool. Well, dorky actually, but funny, too. I just hope he's more realistic about the readings than he acted yesterday.
My last class is a fiction writing class, and I haven't had it yet because it's only on Mondays. I'm not sure what to expect from it, but I hope it's more than what I've gotten in the past, particularly last Spring.
UPDATE:
I had my first fiction class, and the teacher is so chill and cool about life. My roommate had him last semester and she says he's really relaxed and doesn't really care all that much about deadlines and stuff. And even though it's a four hour class, it went by really quickly because the professor's cool and funny and we've got some pretty cool students in the class as well. There's even some of my friends from my writing class last semester!
What I hope will happen this semester:
I want to be the associate producer for Good Morning Emerson again.
I want to have a crew position on Speechless.
I want to be more than halfway through a manuscript.
I want all A's this semester.
I want to apply for a publishing internship.
I want to apply for a tv studio internship.
I want to meet a nice, straight boy.
I NEED to find an apartment in Boston, comfortably fitting at least 3 people with a rent less than $700.
I NEED to see my best friend Kimberly.
I NEED to save money to a) see Kimberly, and b) rent an apartment.
If anyone can help me with any of these things, let me know haha.
I guess that's it for now. Maybe I'll make a small update on how my fiction writing class is, I don't know yet.
Thank you for reading!
Go back to work now.
Amy Liz
P.S.
I just noticed how boring this post is to look at, so here!
Today was completely uneventful and has me begging for the fast-paced lifestyle of my Boston school life. I don't even care that I will obviously need to do homework and classwork and lots of boring textbook readings while I'm at school, at least I'll be working, and I'll have my friends back with me, and I'll be doing SOMETHING productive!
I was really sore from the gym the last two days, so I took a day off today, and I think it really messed with my day's motivation, because I told myself that I was going to write at least 10 pages of one of my stories, but I got down maybe two pages of one story, and then I started to switch to another but I got distracted by a twitter video from Disney and from the fast-fading light of the day outside, and it's difficult to write in bad lighting.
Also, am I the only person in the world who still writes their stories in a notebook? I realize this probably makes finishing something that much longer to accomplish, but I just feel like it's more personal and more a part of me and my mind and my soul if I take the time and energy to carve it out on lined paper and pen ink. Don't you? Or am I just being a sentimental, tree-killing fool? Even if I am, it will probably take a long time for me to change my ways, anyway. Probably the only that could give me a motivation to do such a thing is a VERY high paycheck, and even then I'll probably still try to write as much as possible down in my favorite college-ruled notebooks.
I've also learned something today:
Writing while watching movies/tv is not very productive, writing-wise. Its just plain distracting, and it throws off your focus and makes it difficult to concentrate on either project, the story or the movie, and you just waste time. Music has a similar affect on me, unless it's wordless background music. If there are words, and I know them, I won't be writing, I'll be singing, and I can't do both.
I'm watching Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" right now and it's SUPAH cute! Love this movie so much.
also, just saw this commercial when I signed on to YouTube to look for the "Spirited Away" commercial. Cute and it gets right down to the point, plus I LOVE FUNIMATION Studios!
That's all, I guess.
Oh! Also, I finished "Clockwork Prince", by Cassandra Clare, and I think it's my favorite. I am in love with Jem. I'm only very scared that he won't get a very happy ending in the last book, "Clockwork Princess," but I hope to God he does -he's my favorite character right now, and I really think that if Tessa could man up and give him a chance, she and Jem could be very happy together.
But anyway, you should read the series. Start with "City of Bones" and go on from there.
It's an AMAZING series.
So it's winter break and my best friend Sara and I are having one of our ritual 48+ hours sleepovers where we just discuss what ever has been going on in our lives in the past few days since we last saw each other. When we were done with that, we decided to watch one of our favorite anime, Princess Tutu, which is absolutely fabulous, btw.
But about three minutes through the first episode, we had a brilliant idea!
Watch and see:
Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Tutu nor the english/ADV/Funimation dub of Princess Tutu.
All comments and opinions are not made to offend, but out of a loving and deep affection)
I don't want to do my projects and study for my finals today, so I'll make a new blog post -YAY!
So let's plot out some things for me to write about so I don't have to run out of steam too early and go back to finishing my "Religion in Eastern Cultures Take-Home Test."
Today I'll talk about a bunch of things that distract me from getting my work done during the day:
1. Pokemon
2. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (shut up, I know I'm a geek, get over it)
3. Facebook (but we've talked about this before, I think)
4. Tattoos
5. TV shows I need to catch up on
6. Online Shopping
7. StumbleUpon (I'm pretty sure we've talked about this, too, but oh well!)
Dammit, I even got distracted from writing this blog. I just found out that my favorite Google+ game that's not working right now is on Facebook -with less time to wait for your next round. So I was playing that for about, oh twenty minutes or so. NBD.
So Pokemon.
I found out earlier this semester that you can Google search "play pokemon online" and do just that! I've been playing Pokemon Yellow and Crystal and reliving my childhood for quite a few weeks now, and it's actually quite time consuming. Maybe that's why I wasn't cool in middle school...
So there's Pokemon. Very distracting. Very time consuming. Very worth it.
Oh goodness, this next one is both very difficult and yet very easy to explain.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
It's just so wonderful, and adorable. Both a blast from the past, and a look at contemporary television (plus like a thousand pop culture references slipped in!). There is always a lesson learned and the good possibility of a not-so-annoying song. Plus, the ponies are actually kind of smart, with "real world" problems and not super silly and ridiculous things. Well I mean, it's still a kids' show...about talking colorful ponies.
Anyway, the characters are well-developed and the story is never trite or repetitive. Just watch it, and you will understand my obsession with The Ponies.
Also, Pinkie Pie is my favorite pony, and she sings the very first song of the season.
...and there goes another 20 minutes to watching that first episode all over again...
(Also, if I could be any pony, I'd want to be a Faust version of a Flutter pony, from the original My Little Pony series)
Facebook
What isn't distracting about FB? It has games, it has everyone you've ever known your entire life, it has messages and chat, and now it has skype video chat, and that dumb Tickr thing that lets you know what everyone is doing THAT INSTANT. Even if you don't care.
Like right now, I'm still talking to my friend FB Chat, and I'm writing this, and talking to my suitemate. It's a mutlitasker's paradise. You can check out your current boyfriend's past girlfriends, spy on how your ex is dealing with the loss of you, and update your own status to show how much you've gotten over him!
Tattoos
This might seem totally random, but it's not, I promise. My suitemates just got tattoos today, and I went along with them for moral support. We didn't have an appointment, so we had to wait a while, and I got a good look at the facilities and the different kinds of tattoos people can get. The whole day (it was a good chunk of time that I wasn't at my desk doing my finals work, so this counts as a distraction) got me thinking that, if I were to get a tattoo, what would it be? Where would I put it? What would it mean to me? Because both of my suitemates' tattoos had really personal meanings for them, and the only thing I could really think of that would be important to me would be a Shamrock, for my Irish-ness and for my VERY Irish grandpa, but all of my cousins have that, and I'm "the rebel" of the family (yeah, okay, me a rebel :P) so I don't want the same thing as all of them.
I finally decided that if I was going to get a tattoo (I don't know if I ever will, because I don't know if I'll ever be prepared to cope with the fact that it's FOREVER) then I would get something like this:
I wouldn't get it very big, and it would be in a place that I could easily hide it, like on my inner upper arm, or on my shoulder blade.
I want the feather for a few reasons. I really like the way these look, first of all (these were done by George Motta, one of the apprentices at Stingray Creations in Boston, MA, and my suitemates' tattoos were done by Chris DeBarge -super nice, and he really makes you feel relaxed, especially if it's your first time. He was really chill and I would recommend him, because my friends' tattoos came out beautifully).
I like the way that feathers can be really soft, but they can belong to something totally badass like a falcon, or an eagle. Maybe it's a stretch, but I like to think of myself like that -everyone tells me I look sweet and innocent, and then I bust out my super sarcasm and dark humor, and they're like "ummm, wtf just happened?" (where's my sweet little girl gone?)
heh heh, Black Swan reference ^^^
Also, I like to think in great big metaphors, so a feather or two could be like a talent, and I'm not really fantastically amazing at any one specific thing except writing (well, I've been told I'm a good writer, but we'll see what the rejection letters say lol). Mostly I'm just mediocre at most things, not bad but not really great at it, either. It would take a lot of feathers to make a wing, so I like to think that, if talents were feathers and I only had one special talent, then I could never have a wing and start to fly with it, but because I have a bunch of mini talents, like knitting, rollerblading, and drawing, then I can gather all of those small feathers together and make a wing and "fly." It's really corny, and it sounds a lot better in my head (hmm, maybe I'm not so good at this "writing" thing), but it makes sense to me.
Also, I hate birds. So getting a feather would mean that I wouldn't have to get a bird for the metaphor of flying/success.
Feathers are cool, too.
TV Shows I Need to Catch-Up on
I'm not really that big into cable shows, but this season a few new shows have premiered that I really wanted to get involved in. I'm finally all caught up with ABC's new show "Once Upon a Time" which is pretty cool, but as far as modern society meets fairytales, I will always prefer NBC's "The Tenth Kingdom." I also just finished watching the newest episode of The CW's "The Secret Circle," which is actually really different from the books, but it's still really good, and it's at a really tense and awesome part right now, so I'm very excited for the season to start back up again in January. I'm also a little miffed, though, because all of the shows this year started their seasons late, so I'm wondering if they're going to have less episodes in the season, in which case I will be very upset because that means Hollywood is getting lazy, and I know there are plenty of television writers that would be more than happy to write a full 26 episode season for a show they really cared about.
There's also a new show called "Grimm" which I plan to look into once finals are over, but I have no clue what that's about except, I'm sure, a vague theme of the Grimm fairytales. So I guess this is fairytale season for television this year.
Online Shopping
I spend way too much money now that I have my own credit card, and that's just not cool. WAY too much, and it's all stuff I like but don't really need, you know what I'm saying? But I get a discount, or at least that's how I console myself, and with the fact that I would have gotten it, anyway.
It's the day before Thanksgiving break here in Boston, and I'm a little frustrated. First of all, I didn't remember to update my blog when I said I wanted to. I'm almost three weeks later than I said, actually, so that's a pretty big fail.
Secondly, I didn't go to my British Literature class today -because it's pointless. We don't do anything in that class except discuss the reading, and it's not even insightful discussion, so anything I missed I probably figured out on my own, or I could have figured out from reading the summery analysis on Sparknotes.com. So I emailed the assignment that was due today to my teacher, and she says that she always sends back a "receipt" email letting me know she at least got the email, even if she hasn't read it yet. I sent this assignment last night around midnight, and I still haven't gotten my "receipt." So that's frustrating because I don't know if she has my assignment or not, and I really don't want to lose points on my final grade because she didn't check her email.
Thirdly, my little work minion on Mondays and Wednesdays is useless. I gave her stuff to do yesterday, and it wasn't even a lot, like something I just did in 10 minutes -TEN MINUTES! I gave this to her yesterday and told her I wanted it done while she was still here because there was still stuff that needed to get done before the break that I'd finish with my other assistant tomorrow. I come in to work this morning and low-and-behold, the work I gave her yesterday sits, untouched, exactly where I left it. She didn't even try to do it. So I asked some of the other people that work around us what they thought of this particular assistant and they tell me she never does anything that they can see. So I may be looking for a new assistant next semester. We'll see.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Pizza is a vegetable, according to Congress. I'm really glad Congress felt that the vegetability of pizza was a matter so pressing that it needed to be solved above all of our other problems in America, like homelessness, the national debt, and the failing education system, just to name a few.
Netflix has hit an all-time low in stocks this week. Not surprising, seeing as how Blockbuster's new commercials kick Netflix's ass!
And Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is carrying around a new Social Security plan he wants to initiate that will allow young workers to tap into their SS for private investment accounts. So far Gingrich is the top GOP candidate for the Republicans, with 23.2% ratings, closely followed by Mitt Romney, with 21%
In my personal news,
I handed in my second short story for my fiction class. My favorite part is the first paragraph. So here it is:
Once a month, my father would drive us out to this mall a few miles outside the city, and carry a yellow and green collapsible lawn chair to the lower level of the Macy’s there. He would set it up like we were about to enjoy a barbeque in the backyard, and sit down in it in the middle of the aisle between the shoe department and the bedding section. My older brother and sister hated these weekends, because they could have been out with their friends, or working or something, but Dad always made them cancel whatever plans we had to sit in the middle of Macy’s.
I don't have any personal affiliation with Macy's or any sort of special love for the store, but I thought it was a good place for this story, so I used the name...a lot.
I will probably not be working over the Thanksgiving break, which is a little sad because I like working, but it give me time to look into buying and learning to play the ukulele, because the ukulele is supposedly the simplest instrument to learn...we'll see if that's true.
Go to 17:53 to watch one of my favorite up-and-coming bands, Lady Snow and the Laser Bears -they play the ukulele.
