I'll have to find other ways to procrastinate...

This is how I've written almost every paper. At the beginning of the semester, I know generally what I'm going to talk about and do a ton of research. Maybe even write up a rough outline. After a couple weeks, I ignore it until the end of the semester. Toward the end of the semester, I do more research, get the outline down, and most of the details if I have to give a presentation. If I'm motivated enough, a couple weeks before it's due, I'll do some writing. A week before it's due, I write like hell, pull a near-all-nighter the day before it's due, and edit up to the last minute. I'm actually going to miss this...

Advent Calendar

18th - 7 days till Xmas... Work, Finish IEL Paper
19th - 6 days till Xmas... Work, Write ALH Take Home Exam
20th - 5 days... Work, Continue Writing ALH Take Home Exam
21th - 4 days... Edit IEL Paper; Finish ALH Take Home Exam
22th - 3 days... Help Koviena w/ voiceover, Hang out w/ Claire, Give away stuff
23th - 2 days... Pack like a maniac; bring stuff to Salvation Army; Hang out w/ Gebra
24th - 1 day... Pack and clean even more maniacally

My Replacement

It scares the hell out of me that most of the people applying for my editing job don't know how to spell and have poor grammar. The least they could've done is spellcheck their application. One of the applicants speaks "Franch," another has good "writting" abilities, yet another has "a good grammar," etc. Spelling and grammar errors in an application for any job is bad enough, but to sprinkle them liberally in an app for a position as an editor is signing your own rejection letter.

U2 Rocked

The concert was awesome. A few times throughout the show, they got on their soapbox about human rights, the oneness of humanity, and ending world poverty. But, they're U2, so they're allowed to do that. At least it was a good message. At one point, Bono brought a 9 or 10 year old boy on stage to chant "No more" with him. A poignant moment. It was a little strange, but still pretty cool when they showed the first five articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on a huge screen behind them. I don't know where those guys get the energy - they played their hearts out for two and a half hours. We thought the show was over, but they came back and performed just as long as before the 2 or 3 minute break. Then, we thought the show was over again, and they came back and did like 5 more songs! Those sneaky guys... I'm really happy that they played their older songs for more than half the show. This one girl had a really good night when Bono took her up on stage, danced cheek to cheek with her, got down on one knee and kind of put his head on her stomach, singing the whole time. I think she asked him to kiss her, so he kissed her hand. It was sweet. Very cool how they get so into their audience.

Packing. U2 Concert.

As usual, I'm amazed at how much crap I've managed to amass. Summer clothes, books, CDs, DVDs, shoes, pictures, sentimental stuff, and jewelry are packed away now. So far, that's 2 medium sized suitcases and 5 boxes and it hasn't even made a dent. This is after I ruthlessly donated 3 huge bags of clothes. Why do I have so much stuff? How come I didn't know I had so much stuff? I swear most of it just magically appeared b/c I don't shop that much! The Salvation Army will be seeing plenty of me in the next few weeks.

More exciting news: I'm seeing U2 tonight! Chris has an extra ticket and was nice enough to invite me rather than scalp it.

Nostalgic already. Movies. This time last year.

Yesterday was my last day of class, possibly ever. I'm thrilled, but also a little sad. I've been in school for two decades and on December 22, my academic career will officially be over. As of now, I still have a paper, an exam, and a couple of short papers (3 pps.) to write. I hope to God I get a decent job within a couple months of graduating, because without school and without a job, I'm just a bum, and I'm going to be very not okay with going to law school to become a bum.

Tonight, I'm seeing a free advanced screening of Chronicles of Narnia. There are a ton of movies I want to see: Rent, Chronicles of Narnia, Aeon Flux, Pride and Prejudice. As for Aeon Flux, couldn't they have picked someone who looks more like her than Charlize Theron. She's sexy and a great actress, but Mila Jovanavich or Kiera Knightley look much more like Aeon Flux. Or even an unknown may have been more effective. Us grown up Gen X'ers who used to watch Aeon Flux on MTV know who she is and would see it w/o production spending a ton of money billing Charlize Theron. But, I haven't seen it yet, so I reserve the right to change my mind.

This time last year...
- I smoked half a pack a day.
- The house smelled like the art teacher's office.
- I paid the entire rent and all the bills for the nth consecutive month, squandering hard earned and borrowed money away on someone I used to trust.
- Car trouble was my hobby.
- I wished it was this time this year.

Almost Done!

Turned in my DV paper today. Woo-hoo!

New toy. Sparky the laptop. Tuesday.

I survived the forty minute presentation. It went by faster than I thought it would and most of the class was paying attention. Next challenge: 20 page paper due Tuesday morning. I have 7 pages as of now and rearranged my work schedule so I have Monday off to work on it.

The UPS guy showed up with my MP3 player this Friday. It also functions as a flash drive, so I copied everything from my laptop to my desktop. My poor laptop is on its last legs I think and I don't want to lose all my work from the last 3.5 years. It overheats and the jack for the power adapter is coming loose inside the laptop, so I have to prop up the cable when its plugged in. I think the connection is becoming less and less sensitive b/c I have to prop it up more each time. After I backed everything up, I used the laptop one more time - probably one of the last times. It actually sparked and made the electrical buzzing noise as I plugged in the power adapter. That's the problem with buying things second hand... the best years are gone - and so is the warranty - so it falls apart on you faster.

The goal is to have 15 solid pages and everything cited by the end of the day.

I can't wait til Tuesday. Then, this Domestic Violence paper will be over and I get to pick up my take home exam for American Legal History, continue writing my International Environmental Law paper, write a few short papers for Topics of Cultural History, and start packing. The key phrases that make me happy in that sentence are DV paper will be over and start packing. I'm getting antsy to leave here and wish I could start packing NOW. The exam and those papers need to be turned in on the 22nd. Christian comes up on the 26th. I hope to be mostly packed by then. There will be a day of cleaning and bringing things to the Salvation Army, and we should be out of here by the 29th.