Aaand... scene!

Right. So tonight, after doing most of the work I wanted to do, I went outside and spun poi for a while, just because I could. My wrists held out for about 15 minutes, and then I decided to call it quits for the night. On the up-side, 1. I did not hit myself with high-speed spinning objects (too much), 2. I got some very confused looks. I call it a successful practice.

Tomorrow, I've got two more articles to read (one a 45-page French article, one a 10-page English one), and then outlining and writing. For the first time this week, I don't actually have anything scheduled, so I can take the whole day to work on this. After pondering in the shower, I now have a rough idea of how I'm going to outline this sucker so that I can work in everything I want to say. Yay for that. (Are you utterly bored with this talk about paper-writing? I am! Only 4 more days left!) The goal is to write 6-8 pages tomorrow, the same on Saturday (with perhaps a fast library-visit to check facts I don't have immediately on-hand), and edit on Sunday. Monday I hand it in, write the Latin exam, and that's the end of my semester, to all intents and purposes. Yay!

Now I'm going to go to bed. Strangely, this is actually early compared to the last two nights. G'night all.

And now comes the long, slow plodding

Sitting before me on my computer, I have an outline for my paper. I make very detailed outlines, noting not only the order I want to say things in, but also any quotes from my readings I think would be appropriate to each section. Invariably, I don't use all the quotes, as there is a lot of overlap, but I pick and choose when I get to each section. This means that my outlines are almost invariably longer than my actual papers, sometimes by a significant amount. Such is the case for my present paper: I've got 15 single-spaced pages of notes and quotes (without actually including any notes on my main primary source; those are in a different document) for a 12-15 page paper, double-spaced. Eh, I'd rather have too much than too little: I can cut very well, but adding filler is always something that makes me feel dirty (academically speaking).

So after lunch I'm going to sit down and start writing this baby, the last paper I'll have to write for academia for the forseeable future. I hate the actual writing of papers: by the time I've got my outline done, I know what I'm going to say, and putting things into full sentences with footnotes and academic style is increadibly tedious for me. Ah well. It must be done. Now that I've got my outline, I'm much calmer. I see a light at the end of the tunnel, and unless I'm really unlucky, it's not an oncoming train. Now, to lunch.

Edited 3:08 pm: Slow going! While I can normally do 3-4 pages an hour, I have only managed to write 4 pages in the last TWO hours! This is because I'm doing a very technical part of the paper, which involves checking both Latin texts and their English translations, and comparing them all to each other. Hopefully things will go a little faster now that I'm past that part.

Brain... exploding...

Right. In the end, today was fairly productive. In paper terms, I finished up my research, outlined it, and wrote 6 and a half pages. It's slow going for me, as I mentioned in my last post, but I will get the rest of it written tomorrow, damnit! Tonight, I decided that if I stayed alone in my room any longer, my brain would explode, so I took some Latin stuff over to Massey. I reviewed 6 old sight passages and read 5 chapters of the Vulgate, and got a free glass of wine to boot! Yay!

And now I'm back in my room, whose floor is currently covered with papers and two pairs of jeans (don't ask). I refuse to do anything that even pretends to be schoolwork for the rest of the night.

So... for something a bit different: I'm thinking of teaching a class at Pennsic, now that I've finally found a group to camp with. There is a 40-word limit for the blurb which will go into the class list book. Given that, I need your opinion on which of the following is more compelling:

( Blurbs behind here )

If you have thoughts either way, please let me know. Otherwise, I wish you all a good night.