Procrastination

I'm staring down the last humanities paper I'm likely to have to write in my life. But, senioritis has hit in a major way, and I can't make myself focus on writing a decent finale. I don't really care about how the life and works of Sor Juana (17th century Mexican nun) are relevant for us in the year 2006. Fortunately, there exist websites which, in sufficiently large doses provide inspiration: NYTimes, YouTube, Wikipedia. Unfortunately they tend to inspire me to read the entire Sunday Magazine (this morning), watch all the Ask A Ninja videos (yesterday afternoon), finding the number of degrees of separation between the Sor Juana and Richard Feynamn Wikipedia entries (right now - it appears to be 3 [Sor Juana ->1990 ->Nobel Prize in Physics ->Richard Feynman], but using years is kind of cheating), and happily rereading my favorite entry (weather lore).

I still need to do a problem set and write my statement of purpose (or lack thereof). But it's not happening...

Bullseye!

The fire alarm has been trying to catch me in the shower all semester. When it came within half a second of succeeding a few weeks ago I figured that was probably the worst that would happen. But no. This morning I was enjoying the return of the hot water (there was none when I showered yesterday morning) when what should I hear... I love my life.

In which my suite has a party

My dining room table is mostly covered with a very large gingerbread/graham cracker version of CU. It was constructed last night by me, my suitemates, and many of our friends. We're not entirely sure what to do with it now... but it causes me to laugh in disbelief everytime I go upstairs. I've put a bunch of pictures on Flickr and hope to add more later, but here are a few of my better ones.

Quiz

What am I currently doing with my optics textbook?

a) Preventing other books on shelf from falling over
b) Supporting large gingerbread Low Library
c) Studying

By way of an answer, I sincerely hope my prof doesn't give us homework for a few days. Hopefully I'll get some camera batteries and post pictures tomorrow. :-D

The other half of applying to grad school

requires writing an essay, or Statement of Purpose. Unlike a college app essay, this doesn't need to be perfectly written and brilliant. But, like a college app essay, it does need to get done. And it needs to explain, among other things, why one wants to go to the grad school to which one is applying. I'm going to write a first draft of mine this weekend. In preperation, I'm trying to make a list of reasons to go to grad school so I can decide which ones will work well in my statement. What I have so far:

10 9 Reasons to go to grad school
1) Real World sucks too cliche
2) Get to work with smart people cliche and also true of good, paying, real jobs
3) Don't want to pay off student loans precursor to funding insecurities - not good for career
4) Easier than thinking of something else lack of imagination - not good for career
5) Friends doing it ... friends jumping off cliff
6) Teach For America requires dealing with teenagers won't be considered for TA positions
7) Too attached to running water/iPod for Peace Corps superficial
8) Happiness requires endless stream of new things to complain about problem
9) Don't want opportunities for decent salary/free time/social life/semi-permanent job/sleep before mid-30s bitter


Conclusion: I should have written my statement last semester, before I burned out. Oops.

Physics GREs = Done!!!!

Woohoo!!! The (hopefully) last standardized test I will ever take is now over.

I remember when I finished my SATs in high school that I was sad at the thought that my standardized testing career was over because I usually did pretty well on them and without stressing out much... However, after studying for and taking the Physics GRE I'm prefectly ok with the thought that now I'm actually done. Hahahahaha. Hopefully, with the passage of the next several hours and the consumption of irresponsible quantities of alcohol I will be able to put the experience behind me and go back to my usual not-stressed-beyond-functional self.

Sometime tomorrow, it's likely to hit me that I still have three miles of todo list to get through. But, whatever, my stress levels will be back to normal, and I can readjust my sleep schedule to normal college student time and up my daily caffeine dosage.