I really like having Akismet on WordPress. Why? Because I just logged into WordPress and found that I had 28 comments waiting for my attention in the ‘spam’ section. All of them were about ‘how to gain a few extra inches!’, ‘how to lose 150lbs in just 2 weeks’ (seriously, that’s what it said) and then there were a few in a language that I just cannot read (I did pull a few of the words and put them through a search engine and apparently it’s Russian… I could attempt to read Russian, but I wouldn’t be able to pronounce a thing or tell you what anything was supposed to be). Ahem, now that I’m done praising Akismet for doing an awesome job and preventing me from having to deal with spammers telling me how to gain a few extra inches (and that’s not in height, folks)… Onto the fun stuff.

I got my term paper topic today in my biology tutorial. Now, the tutorial is worth 25% of my final grade. Which makes that term paper approximately 10% of my total mark (meaning, all those pesky tests and quizzes is 15%). Which makes it worth quite a bit (the difference between an A and a B, for example). But we got assigned topics. We didn’t even get to pick our own. The way we were assigned topics were ‘pick a card’ from the TA’s stack and the number on the card corresponded to a topic number. Which… rather sucked. I got a somewhat odd topic, it’s about a part of a cell that’s rarely ever mentioned it any basic cell biology textbook. Yeah, it’s going to be fun. But, it’s only 1000 words and we only need 3 sources (and one of them has to be a popular source… Which has me confused because we were never allowed to use popular sources – i.e. newspapers and websites – before. It was always “Only use peer reviewed journal articles!” and now we have to use a popular source? WTF?). Good thing it’s not due until the first week of November! I only have 2 term papers this term (one for cell biology, one for psychology – however, I get weekly assignments for chemistry and 3 projects and weekly labs for my other biology – whoot). I think I’ll be getting started soon on both of them though (I want to get both out of the way before November.)

I really do need something else to talk about besides school, you know? I mean, it’s September, I’m in my “second year” and, honestly, school is the only thing that’s currently on-going. Clay’s been super busy at work lately, working way too much (as I say frequently, but I may be a little bit selfish regarding that), so I haven’t gotten to spend any time with him since I finished work (early September) which really sucks, to say the least. I haven’t really spent much time with people outside of school thus far. I see the same people every day (or every other day, depending on which class it is) and it’s fairly consistent so far.

I have gotten into a much better pattern so far. Go to school, attempt to stay awake in all my classes (easier said than done), do notes and readings before the next ‘set’ is due to be read (lagged a little behind in one class, but I plan on catching up tomorrow). I have a fairly easy pattern that I follow while I’m at home, but I’m still working on it so I don’t feel incredibly unproductive by not doing anything ‘school related’ while I’m at home… Also, trying very hard to keep up with all my assignments that I have to do – chemistry is kind of a demanding bitch that way though. But no, lately everything’s been going well… I happen to like most of my professors (except for psychology) and most of my TAs (except for biology – the one with the cards and the assigned topics – and not because of the assigned topics). Plus, I’m lucky enough to know at least one person in each of my classes (a few more now, in my chemistry class, yay). So that’s going well.

I just hate being in a class where I don’t know anyone or have issues making acquaintances with people. Like for the English literature classes I took last year (yes, I’m a sciences student – it doesn’t show sometimes), I made an effort to get to know people in those classes. First term, it was fine, because I did become friends with some people. But second term… I did make an effort but it didn’t work out. So I just mostly kept to myself in that class because everyone already knew someone in that class and didn’t seem to think that it was necessary to get to know someone new.

I hope everyone’s been having a wonderful week so far! I’ll be spending an absurd amount of time at school tomorrow (8am to 8pm – I have 1 class, 1 lab, also need to work on a lab project with my lab partner, plus studying and waiting for the information session that I’m attending tomorrow night to roll around). I’ll just be home after that for… watching Grey’s Anatomy (or part of it) and then just falling into bed. Sounds like the making for a good night? I think so!

Questions:

  1. What is one WordPress plugin that you like (obviously does not apply if you don’t use WordPress or just downright hate plugins)?
  2. How do you feel about assigned essay topics?
  3. What is one (or more) thing(s) that you are grateful for?

2 Responses

  1. Oh man, I would die without Akismet. My blog isn’t so bad, it’s only accumulated 29 spam since installation, but my Sims blog has about 2000+ spam. Ridiculous!

    Assigned topics sucks. I mean, of course, there is a general assigned topic, but when the focus of the paper is assigned for you, it just feels so unnecessary, and like … they don’t trust the students to think up of their own topics or something.

  2. I’ve actually never heard of Akismet. I should look into it.
    I get the worst spam ever! It’s ridiculous. XD

    Gaaaaah. I feel your pain! Assigned topics are probably my least part of school. That and trying to make friends in an terribly unfriendly class.

    Anyhow, good luck on your paper! I love Grey’s. 🙂

    1. What is one WordPress plugin that you like (obviously does not apply if you don’t use WordPress or just downright hate plugins)? I don’t think I use any plugins. *lazy*
    2. How do you feel about assigned essay topics? HATE. ;]
    3. What is one (or more) thing(s) that you are grateful for? My health and writing.

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