School is Murder and Other Tales of Woe

Well, I said I would not put these in any particular order, and I feel like it's time to begin ranting about school since there are only two weeks left in the quarter. (I have such impeccable timing... not.) I really just wanted to post this so I could say "School is murder... oh yeah, and dead week is coming up soon, so watch out!" Yes, I have an odd sense of humor. I blame my father.

As for school, my complaints are as follows:

• I just got over the stress of giving a 5 minute speech in Japanese class, only to learn that i have a speaking test next week and a final the week after that.
• I have to put together a video for my Communications class group  because apparently I'm the only one who knows how to use Windows Movie Maker.

...I can't think of anything else. Yeah. Well, those two things seem like enough to me. I really don't have the time to be writing this, but I wanted to get my stress off my chest and make you all feel bad for me. ("You all" being the 5 or 6 people who actually bother to read this thing.)

So, first Japanese: I was a dork and procrastinated. The whole stress issue was really my fault. I just hate talking in a foreign language if I'm being graded. It's not bad if I'm just trying to communicate, because people tend to be more forgiving than someone who is giving you a grade based entirely on how well you can communicate in a language you've only been practicing for about two and a half years.

In other words: "I'M GONNA DIE!!!!!"   (My famous phrase that I frequently utilize rather than say "I'm nervous" or "I would rather not do public speaking in a foreign language" or even "I don't really like getting up in front of my Model United Nations team and giving an impromptu speech about China's opinion on Least Developed Landlocked Countries (LDLCs).")

That's like grading a FIRST GRADER on their speech-giving skills! Most of the time when first graders give speeches it's "show and tell" and they get a big ribbon even if all they did was stand up on the stage and twirl their hair for five minutes! When we have a vocabulary (approximately) equivalent to a first grader, why can't our speeches be graded along a similar curve? I mean, yes I am not a first grader, but if I only have the ability to talk like one, can't you cut me a little slack? I may mess up some grammar. I may accidentally use the wrong word. But aren't I cute? Watch me twirl my hair!

Okay, enough of that. On to topic two:

COM 201 is a media studies class and we were assigned to do a group video project. My group has 4 people in it including me. I volunteered to make the video, even though it will probably take me between 5 and 7 hours to complete, plus I will be narrating the poor dear. (Trust me, the quality WILL be poor.)

As if this weren't bad enough, none of the other group members knew how to convert their own videos (add another hour of video conversions and downloading youtube videos or google images to my list of time-consuming activities). But hey, at least they would show up to the meetings and wrote their scripts. The last group member has dropped off the grid without leaving so much as a line of script for me to use in narration, and I don't have any vidoes or pictures from them. And even that much wouldn't be too huge of a deal if it weren't due TWO DAYS FROM NOW.

Yes. Let the stress begin............... Now, I know you're probably wondering why I would be writing this when I should be working on that video of doom and despair, but I kind of have stress up to my eyeballs and I need to release some tension somehow, and I've actually found this blog to be rather cathartic. Now, I don't put all of my thoughts here, (I usually talk things out with God and he and I work through most of my struggles together) but I do enjoy talking at the people who take the time to read this, and I wasn't particularly specific about why I was so busy in my last entry. And yes, I know it's only been about 2 days when I'd waited an entire 2 (or was it three?) weeks before updating last time.

But I never claimed to have a proper schedule, so I guess that's all right. Then again, if I gave myself a proper schedule I'd be more likely to keep it. But that would take all the spontaneity out of my blog and then I'd probably not have as much fun writ(rant)ing in it.

So, there you have it. School is murder, and other tales of woe. BEWARE THE DEAD WEEK!!!!

Signed,
               That person who irregularly updates her blog, the infamous and ineffable Rahib*.



*Apparently "Rahib" is what my first name looks like in my signature. This nickname was bestowed upon me by my kind father two winters ago. He felt obligated to parade about the house demanding who "Rahib" was and why they had signed our Christmas cards... the rest is history.

No, seriously, it should be history by now. But somehow it stuck...