Rashida! What a Pleasant Surprise

What the hell.  I think college professors have this backwards.  I just spent three hours on a take home test.  This is the second take home exam for the class and the first test took just as long.  I learned more from doing these exams than I have all semester long and I actually had to learn it myself by reading, comprehending and applying it to these never ending multiple choice possibilities that differ by one word each.  It's ironic because this class is the biggest "in-class" blowoff.  People skip class with no immediate or recognizable repercussion, and even when we're in class some students are doing schoolwork for other classes.  I'm guilty of this.  I often bring reading material I need to do from my other classes because simply half the time what the professor is lecturing on isn't even relevant to the material.  He goes off on tangents and tries to relate to us by talking about sex and how horny we probably are.  Um, this is a research methods class.  Not exactly the most orgasmic subject.  Regardless, my final grade will still be good because I worked my ass off on these take home exams.  The real question is, why don't all my teachers do this?!  I'm much more likely to read the material if I have it in front of me when taking my exam.  If I'm told to study for the in class exam, I find it a lot harder to self-discipline myself into reading.  If teachers claim students will skip classes if they allow take home exams than make your lectures worthwhile and noteworthy.  Plus, I was never taught how to study.

Thank God I'm a decent writer and most soc classes have more paper requirements than exams because I would be failing out, hard core.  Example: the bio class I'm required to take this semester only has exams, one being this morning.  Not only did I fail to dedicate a proper amount of time studying for it last night, I also forgot my calculator.  I honestly did try preparing last night but I was too distracted by the election.  Lies.  I started watching season 3 of The Office.  Which makes less sense than if I was being distracted by the election because I just finished watching season 6 of The Office.  I'm skipping around quite a bit and it's making the characters persona's all jumbled.  AND I DIDN'T KNOW RASHIDA JONES WAS IN THAT SHOW.  However, it's slightly easier than skipping around seasons like I tried doing with LOST the second time through.

I'm counting down the days for Thanksgiving break, as I'm sure most students are.  It's funny though because my classes were cancelled tomorrow and Friday.  I thought I was getting a little pre-Thanksgiving vacation as of last weekend, but as the week went on I slowly realized not having class isn't changing much of my work load.  I still have to work tomorrow night, baby sit all night Friday, write a paper, and seriously begin reading two long books for classes.  Plus, a teacher who is going out of town for over a week whom I have for two classes with on MWF's is actually making us go to class on Friday just to watch a movie.  This is college, woman.  If you're not there, we shouldn't be expected to be there either.  I love ranting to a computer screen because it can't tell me to stop whining.

The only thing keeping me motivated right now is the fact that is my last fall semester as a college student.  Unless I fail.  Choose to dropout.  Or contract an illness that postpones my graduation for another year.  Just bein' real.

xxxx
A

P.s. I get to see Leah tomorrow! *excitement*

So I Remembered About Genitalia

One of the benefits of a small university is that teachers make an effort to get to know you, at least the good ones who care about you as in individual.  Which unfortunately isn't that many of them.  I do have one professor and this is the fourth class I've had with her, so she was sort of forced to know me by name and face.  This isn't Rate My Prof so I'm not going to get into whether I enjoy her particular teaching tactics or not (they don't overjoy me) but I do like the information in the classes she teaches.  Her main expertise is anthropology, and since we don't have that as a distinct individual major *SIGH* it's just overlapped in the sociology department.  I would love to be an anthropologist and at my school being a sociology and public health student is the next best thing.  That's what I tell myself and don'tyoudarecrushmydreams.

So this teacher of mine finally caught a glimpse into the way my mind really works and what I remember based on my last exam she graded.  I didn't think much of how I answered one of the questions but her remarks made me giggle.  The class is Medicine and Culture and I had to define a 'culture-bound syndrome' and give an example from one of our text book readings.  Spoiler:  I don't always read for class.  A few days before a test I thoroughly skim the pages for bolded words or important looking theories and concepts and try to grasp what the professor will think is vital for an exam question.  I don't know how this happened but I ended up reading one of those side bar boxes with the darker background that most students always ignore.  Like, the case-study or just a long example of a concept.  Whatever, if you've ever seen a text book you know what I'm talking about.  The shaded background a different font basically screams "I'm less important, feel free to skip".  Anyways I can't believe it either but I read one and somehow remembered it for the exam, at a time of complete necessity.  So this was my answer for culture-bound syndrome:

"A culture bound syndrome is a perceived sickness related and pertaining to a specific cultural group.  An example is Koro which occurs amongst groups in Southeast Asia.  Men believe or have a fear that their penis will retract inside of them.  This is significant because it's an example of a health issue limited to a specific population that is directly inhibiting their bodily functions."

Legit.   And I was awarded full credit.  I don't think many of my peers used that example.  She left a note in the margin that said,
"interesting what some students take away from class..."

I also learned in epi class that an average hamburger has pieces from about 400 different cows.  And botox injections are basically from Botulism which is a common toxin in food borne illnesses and when injected into your body paralyzes your muscles aka. no wrinkles.  Do what you will in life with that information.

xxxx
A

An Extra Hour of Buddhas and Boyfriends

Wow this weekend flew by, even with that time change.  I expected it to feel like it would make the weekend so much longer and it's really not.  It's just going to get darker earlier which will be somewhat depressing.  Meh.  Who cares, though.  It's winter time and November<3 and I'm pleased with that.  My beautiful boyfriend visited me last night with his brother Bryant and Rakim.  They arrived here before I was done babysitting so they stopped by to get my keys where I was babysitting and just made themselves at home.  I felt very inferior when I had to request they let me into my own apartment complex since I had earlier relinquished my keys.  These waiting in my bedroom made up for that feeling.

I think he prides himself on the element of surprise because I wasn't expecting them at all and I was pissed they weren't my favorite flower, daisies.  Once I read the note I was less pissed because at least he tried.  Joking joking joking.  SERIOUSLY JOKING.  I would have been ecstatic (and confused) if the boy had put even weeds in a vase for me.  Although I feel like he'd be trying to tell me something not so good if that were the case.

Ty, a mutual friend of both Bryant and myself, also came over because he hadn't seen Bryant in years.  For a while we thought Bry was just trying to silently terminate the friendship with Ty because he consistently avoided texts that Ty would send, but he's a resistant boy.  And alas, I finally remembered to give Ty his Buddha figurine which Genna and I bought for him in Australia to add to his collection.  We got back from Australia in June of 2011, and I gave him his gift last night.  Nice.  Oh, and did I mention Ty forgot it last night in the living room when he left?  I'll try and give it to him next year I guess.

Patiently waiting for his true owner.

Genna and I went thrift shopping (a favorite bonding activity of ours) yesterday and we were both successful with a few buys, but I got the good end of the deal this time.  The lady waiting on us at the cashier was getting frustrated (I think she was new) and ended up only charging me for my first item...when I had four total.  She told me with her mouth that my total was $3.88 while she told me with her eyes that if I shouldn't question her because I'll be saving myself $15.  Then Gen gets her two items rung up for $13.  We win some we lose some.  It's ok though because I paid her in cold hard cash for this months utility bills which is a huge deal.

I wish everyone a happy and fulfilling extra hour today.

xxxx

A

20 Seconds Can Get You a lot of Twitter Scrolling

Being a public health student I have the tendency to pay pretty good attention to my own health.  Weird, right?  I also have been forced to pay attention to the health awareness that surrounds us.  I literally wash my hands probably 25 times a day.  I think that's still not enough from the perspective of the health people in power(?) but to me I'm surprised I still have skin on my hands.  I'm not germaphobic, yet, but give it time.  That's not a funny joke though because I know there are people who are actually like that and constantly wear gloves and freak when they go in public.  I don't know those people personally but they exist the TLC channel.  I don't want to be like that.  BUT I am a believer in the idea (and obvious knowledge) that washing our hands is one of the best ways to combat sicknesses.  That, and eating healthy, but that's something I could talk fiercely about for blogs on end.  Today I was washing my hands after one of my bathroom visits (I act like I visit them for fun) and I actually read the public ad about hand sanitation that is posted right on the mirror and still no one probably notices is even there.

TWENTY SECONDS?  Do these people think we have time to spare in our days?  I can't be bothered with that!  I need to effing check my Twitter!  I've never actually considered this 20 second washing before.  Or tried it.  Twenty seconds is a long freaking time, in the grand scheme of a bathroom visit.  I tried it and three people had washed their hands in the time period where I was still lathering up.  They were looking at me like I had some type of fetish going on with massaging my hands together.  I just smiled at them through the mirror and basically said this with my eyes.  UM, NO BITCHES THIS IS WHAT I CALL PROPER HAND CLEANSING THAT IS GONNA KEEP ME FROM GETTIN THE DAMN FLU YOU'LL HAVE NEXT WEEK.    But seriously...

Sidetracking...but sort of public announcement related?

And then this afternoon I see a notice by my apartment elevator that signifies wet paint.  I'm not going to disclose the maker of the advertisement/notice because for some reason it feels wrong and like a form of defacement towards the company?  So I cut out part of the company when I took a pic of the paper so you couldn't tell who made it.

I have a big problem with this ad.  I'm not even a full throttle environmentalist, but I'm aware of environmental issues and I care about the Earth in general.  Shouldn't we all?  This picture is awful.  Why would we want to cover up the Earth with paint?  Why don't they just say  "Help us mask nature with our smelly acrylic!  Screw natural greenery, we have green from a can.  Mmmm."  As if that's not bad enough, what if I was illiterate!?  The picture would look like a higher power is pouring a can of red (obviously one would assume blood) over the world.  Dear Sherwin, is that the type of message you want to send to illiterate America?  Any color pick would have been better than red.  Yellow, just pour down the sunshine.  Or orange, pour cheese on us.  Americans would love that.

xxxx

A