This Leaf (speech class assignment)

Assignment: a 2-3 minute self-reflective speech with a prop.

I found this leaf a while back at Deep Eddy Pool in Austin.
Why did I bring a leaf to talk about myself? I could have brought my art supplies, printed one of my four unpublished novels, or brought any of the striped shirts that threaten to take over my closet.
You can tell a lot about a person by their tools, their toys, and their time. So why did I bring a leaf? Because things aren't that important. I can live without them. My possessions do not define me.
So how does this leaf define me? Do its exposed veins represent a fragile part of my personality? No. But I like this leaf.
You can tell a lot about a person from what they like–whether they can afford it or not, whether they admire it from a distance or come close to hold it in their hands.
The fact that I like this leaf might tell you that I like simple, free things. Things that make me wonder, or stop and think, whether those things are abstract or concrete.
These are the things that fuel creativity, a core part of who I am.
I can spend a lot of money on a fancy laptop, but those novels don't write themselves. I can own all the art supplies I could ever want, but without inspiration, what good are they?
And as for striped shirts, well, those still usually cost me something.

Textbook "Trauma"

I previously discovered that I did not, in fact, need to bring my laptop to school, nor did I need to carry around my English text, and there is no book for my Public Speaking class. However, I still needed my math textbook, my Japanese textbook AND workbook, and my history textbook.

I was thinking about this thing I saw where someone cut the pages out of a textbook, rebound them into several smaller books, and then only carried the part they needed. It looked wonderful except it kills the resale value (unless you can sell it directly to another student to whom that is valuable).

Yesterday I found out that the pages of my history textbook are perforated.

The new edition just came out (I was actually apparently supposed to get that for this class but I got it early and we're making it work) so the resale value on it has already probably plummeted. So from now I will be tearing out the pages I need and keeping them in my history folder which conveniently has a place for hole punched papers (and the perforated history pages have a margin large enough for punching holes). So that's a literal weight off my shoulders, haha.

I wish I could do that to my other books but those have resale value because I believe they are standard (every college algebra class uses this book. By the way Bethany Emma or peggy, you can totally use it if you take college algebra.)

I may have already said it but my Japanese textbook is gonna last me three semesters. Whoo! Less textbook=more money in the bank!

You know, to pay the rent or something. Sheesh, a textbook could easily be a month's groceries!

And I still didn't see the student guide for history. I may just have to take the first test without learning objectives... eh, I might do just fine. Maybe I will do that Tuesday or wednesday.

Yet another school post, sorry guys, really. I'LL THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE TO TALK ABOUT SOON ;~;

Um.

I had this long post about school and how I did all my homework and was bored and the night air was gorgeous and I liked my outfit but I think my iPod app deleted it since it had no title and was offline so I guess you're spared. Ya probably didn't care about my troubles with writing か anyway.

But uh yeah, school's going well.
Speech might not be hard like I thought and Japanese is definitely going to be easier than I expected (but still fun and challenging and history is going okay and I am mostly done with the unit (got some online stuff and a bit more reading to do) and I have a few more English things I can do tomorrow and math will be obnoxious but doable. The teacher isn't allowed to require a graphing calculator but she wants me to have one. I don't think it's a good investment since I won't be taking math past this.

Well, sorry about all the school posts. Once routine sets in they'll probably be about other things.

Let's see here.

Um, Japanese seems like it will be fun and challenging. It seems that the book will last through Japanese III so I guess I won't have to get new textbooks for that... cool. I tried to get my sensei to call me Aki. She said no. I'm stuck with エリズベス。(Erizibesu, which is Elizabeth with Japanese pronunciation blah) But someone from class called me Aki after class so that was cool.

Math is going to be annoying but doable. College Algebra, y'know. The teacher says she can't require us to have graphing calculators but we'll do a lot with graphing stuff... I don't want a new calculator. Urg. I have graph paper. She'll have some graphing calculators so if I'm forced to borrow, I'm forced to borrow.

History will probably be relatively reasonable in easiness, but it's going to take a lot of time.

English Comp 2 will be easy. 8D

And Public Speaking, well, I dunno what to make of that yet.

I got my bus pass today and checked for a book I still need that the bookstore still doesn't have.

And I sat on a bench for hours reading history. There was an occasional breeze but I sweated and probably didn't smell so great.

I brought my own lunch.

My backpack was super heavy! I'm glad it has wheels. I felt kinda obnoxious dragging that thing around while people around me had like, one messenger bag or whatever but I have to have all my stuff with me all day on tuesdays and thursdays. Other people can leave stuff in their cars and change it out as needed, but sorry, I can't. I'm wondering if my backpack will even fit in the lockers at the testing center. I may just have to take all my tests on Mondays. Except for that one math one we'll have to take in the testing center...

I did discover that I don't need my laptop, so that's a few pounds of relief.

But I have to bring my math textbook, my japanese textbook and workbook, my history book so I can study during the middle of the day, and notebooks for all those classes for note-taking plus my English notebook and any printouts I have for that so I can brainstorm and stuff, and a notebook for public speech later on so that I can prepare speeches and stuff. Plus there's my phone and wallet and lunch and iPod... the iPod isn't strictly necessary but I have alarms and room numbers and schedule on there... Hehe.

Wednesdays I'll only have to bring math and history for before and after speech class. Mondays I won't bring anything extra since I can drive home right away and I may just take any tests beforehand by going early.

Anyway I'm still figuring things out. Goodnight.

The first day

So the line for the cashier's office was too long and I opted to wait until tomorrow to get a bus pass. I found all my classrooms and then sat around singing "I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain, etc" under my breath to try to calm my nerves and it worked alright.

Then I went to speech class. I went and sat down in the first available seat, avoiding looking at faces as I usually do. The girl in front of me had a paper bow the color of her shirt and a sketchbook in front of her. She seemed pretty crafty/artsy but I didn't talk to her. We had to play some little game and I found out the guy next to me drew too, and it was confirmed that the girl in front of me did. The people were friendly, so that was cool. The teacher teaches high school and might be late sometimes and at least at the beginning it looks like the class will be pretty easy.

We have to do a short self-reflective speech using an object next week. The wheels are turning... I considered bringing nothing as my object as a statement about how I feel that too much "stuff" is unnecessary, but I thought maybe that'd be pushing it... XD

Day 11- a turning point in your life.

This would be the day I realized I didn’t need to get a degree I didn’t want for a cost I couldn’t afford at a place that would stress me out with the competitiveness.
Instead, I could get an associates degree at the local community college with more varied and useful (and a whole heck of a lot cheaper) class choices and get started right away on my life’s work.

Zombie Updates

And so one of the zombies tells me I'm an exceptional student.

Yes, yes I am. And you can't have me or my exceptionally tasty brain. Nyeh nyeh, zombie.

I'm going to get a lesser degree in zombie fighting because I don't plan to dive right into a pile of more zombies once I've defeated the lesser horde. That is, I'm not going to get some fancy degree at some expensive university just to fall into the conventions of "normal life" and all its complication after college. I'm gonna keep battling to live simply and truly and that field work will qualify me even more than any fancy degree in weapons tactics could. The tactic is simple. Shoot zombie in the head. Repeat. Who needs to spend a lot of money to learn that?

That's why I'm probably gonna just go to a community college zombie risk area.

Zombies

Due to my mild mild mild fascination with zombies and their correlation to college I have decided that the zombie apocalypse is coming for me in Fall 2012 which is soon. I must do what I can to prepare and fend them off. They have warned me many times over and I have infiltrated their population a few times but fall is when things get serious and I'm going up against that horde of zombies face to face.

PREPARE YOURSELF

FALL 2012

I BATTLE THE ZOMBIES

OTHERWISE KNOWN AS COLLEGE

THE BATTLE WILL LAST ANYWHERE FROM TWO TO FOUR YEARS

Will I emerge victorious, changed, but stronger?

Or will I become one of them?

Only time will tell.

Here's what I can do now to prepare: Jobs and scholarships. If I can pay the zombies enough to distract them from devouring me while I'm among them, they won't chase me once I'm out of there. Never never never never will I take out loans to bribe zombies. I may never free myself of them that way.

I can develop my skillz. If I can prove to the zombies that I can survive without them then cool beans. But if being among them and shooting them dead makes me a stronger person, BRING IT ONNNNN

This is a really poorly put together metaphor but whatever. XD

Zombeh college

I just got an email from one of the colleges I've considered... and the whole thing is written in Comic Sans.

...What kind of school is this, anyway? On top of being overused and annoying, Comic Sans makes me think of elementary schools, not universities. >__<

OH LOOK AN OPPORTUNITY TO RANT ABOUT COLLEGE 8D

Here are the things that annoy me about colleges:

1) They cost a lot of money

2) Four more years of school. Who wants that?!

3) In an attempt to be personal, the opposite is achieved... "Elizabeth, check out Blahblah University!" "We are still looking for your application, Elizabeth!" Anybody who knows me knows I do not go by Elizabeth. Thanks for automatically filling my name in from some list. I feel really loved.

4) "We've extended the deadline just for you!" ...four times. Look, I know that you had all these extensions planned beforehand and have them set to send out if you don't get my application early. But maybe I didn't want to send you an application! DX

5) COLLEGES ARE ZOMBIES THEY ONLY WANT YOU FOR YOUR BRAINS

You know, there's probably a lot more, but these are the ones that I thought of right off and five is a good number so let's leave it at that.

Everyone seems to think you've got to have a college education because it gets you better jobs, those jobs pay better, and it's just the "thing to do," but I dunno. I'm still figuring all this out, but I don't want to spend money on an education that won't matter later on. I mean, if I'm trying to sell someone a print of my artwork, are they gonna be asking to look at what degree I have? XD

Oh, and one more thing that drives me crazy about colleges- Almost every mascot like, ever, is an animal. "We're the cougars, oh yeahhhh!" "Be a walrus with us!" Those two were made up, but TCU's scares me... I don't really want to say "I'm a horned frog! 8D"

Someone should make a zombie their college mascot. I'd go there. Maybe.

braiiiiiiins