Well, my cough is still lingering, but I'm feeling a lot better than I did on Saturday. I'm looking forward to this weekend as I'm going to Lake Huron to hang out at a camp there with 80 or so of my closest friends, many of whom I have not met yet! Looks to be a lot of fun.
Well, the weekend was good, despite a runny nose that appeared Friday morning. I got to meet quite a number of people, though not everyone by a long shot. Hopefully, I'll meet more of them as time passes.
In the meantime, I've got some catch up to do in my language courses. I can't really claim to have learned anything last week while I was studying for midterms in my other classes, and so I'm about a week behind in Greek. Hebrew, I'm not really behind in, but I do need to do some studying to make sure I don't fall behind. I've also got reading to do for my English class (Arthurian Legend) and work to do for an essay in that class due late next week. I had forgotten how much of a grind school is, but it's way better than working!
Happy Thanksgiving, or Columbus Day to anyone south of the border.
Yesterday, I made a couple of pumpkin pies. They turned out reasonably well, considering that I had never made a pie before. I really should have gotten my mother to teach me when I was still living at home. But, of course, I didn't care to know; baking was not an art I was interested in.
In good news, my cold has pretty much cleared up. I still cough from time to time, but it's nothing so annoying as what I had a week and two ago.
This weekend I decided to try out pie-making. It's not as hard as I thought it might be. The crust didn't come out as I'd hoped, but I think that was because I was using a different recipe than my mother. Yumm. Nice creamy pumpkin pie with a flaky crust: just the thing for Thanksgiving.
No class today, of course, but I have an essay to write for Thursday. I got about a third of the required words done a couple of hours ago, but it ended up with a bad taste. I'm going to have to start from the beginning and get rid of the simpleness of the structure.
Well, autumn is in the air. The thermometer took a dive this week, and dressing in layers in required. The trees are changing colour, and you get a little bit of a nip on your nose when you walk outside at night.
I finished my first essay this week. I'm not sure I did excellent on it, but I hope I didn't do too bad. I should find out sometime next week.
The highway near my apartment is under construction. They appear, from what I can see on the roadway below, to be repaving the onramps. It's kinda cool seeing the big machines working on the road. I was suprised, however, by how many men were just standing around. Maybe they had to wait for the machines to move out of the way, but it looks rather odd.
I've discovered that I'm a little behind in my language classes. I haven't got all the vocab in my head for either one right now. For Hebrew we're supposed to have learned 80 or so words. It shouldn't be that difficult to learn that many. On the other hand we must be near 200 for Greek. I'm going to have to spend time studying them for a Greek test this Friday.
If you're ever really bored, check this out: a website devoted to helping you build your own artificial language. It's got quite a bit of stuff, though I think it is missing a number of things. Also there's a langmaker devoted to showcasing constructed languages. I find this stuff fascinating. Anyone actually thinking about constructing their own language should check out Basque to see just how different a "natural" language can be from English.
Well, I got my essay back on Thursday. I thought I had done okay, but, nope, it's a c-. A C-! Okay! So, I'm not an english major.
On the other hand, Greek is coming along fantastically, as is Hebrew. I'd say I could probably handle them both at a faster pace. Maybe, I should spend more time on my essays and a little less on languages. The Problem, of course, is that I don't want to. Writing this last essay was torture. At the end, I didn't care, really, if I passed it or not. I don't seem to be an essay type person. 'Funny that writing a weblog is so much more interesting.
The leaves on the trees are changing colour. Too bad we haven't had very many sunny days to enjoy them. It's been all cloudy and raining lately. It would be more depressing if I were stuck in an office all day and never say the sun when it did come out.
The power went off this morning at about 7AM. I'm not sure how long it was off, but I forgot this morning to kick the saradoc back on. Ah, well, maybe I should be getting that UPS. It had been almost two months since the last power outage, and now I suddenly get another one.
This week I have a couple of "midterms" (the second for each class). They don't seem to be quite so overlapping this time, but their still Thursday night and Friday morning, so I have to study for them together.
This Monday I got back a Hebrew quiz from last week. I had one mistake. When I was writing the quiz, I had come across a word that I didn't immediately recognize. I saw it was plural, but couldn't figure out the word. So I skipped it and came back later. Then I recognized it was the plural of city and wrote down city, not remembering to write it in english as a plural (cities). This was the first quiz I didn't get perfect. When the prof was handing back the quizes there was almost a look of disappointment in his face when he handed it to me. I knew then I hadn't gotten perfect. I looked at it and said to myself, 'I can make it up. Two quizzes don't count.' Of course, future quizzes will be harder, so I'll have to study more to get perfect in the course. Hey, I'm in 10th year, I'm expected to ace first year courses.
There's another quiz today and a midterm on Monday in Hebrew. And I should get a Greek midterm back today. Midterms are so much fun.
Weekend!
by alan on Fri 4th Oct 2002 4:36AM
Well, my cough is still lingering, but I'm feeling a lot better than I did on Saturday. I'm looking forward to this weekend as I'm going to Lake Huron to hang out at a camp there with 80 or so of my closest friends, many of whom I have not met yet! Looks to be a lot of fun.
Back to the grind
by alan on Tue 8th Oct 2002 12:38AM
Well, the weekend was good, despite a runny nose that appeared Friday morning. I got to meet quite a number of people, though not everyone by a long shot. Hopefully, I'll meet more of them as time passes.
In the meantime, I've got some catch up to do in my language courses. I can't really claim to have learned anything last week while I was studying for midterms in my other classes, and so I'm about a week behind in Greek. Hebrew, I'm not really behind in, but I do need to do some studying to make sure I don't fall behind. I've also got reading to do for my English class (Arthurian Legend) and work to do for an essay in that class due late next week. I had forgotten how much of a grind school is, but it's way better than working!
Happy Turkey Day
by alan on Sat 12th Oct 2002 4:42PM
Happy Thanksgiving, or Columbus Day to anyone south of the border.
Yesterday, I made a couple of pumpkin pies. They turned out reasonably well, considering that I had never made a pie before. I really should have gotten my mother to teach me when I was still living at home. But, of course, I didn't care to know; baking was not an art I was interested in.
In good news, my cold has pretty much cleared up. I still cough from time to time, but it's nothing so annoying as what I had a week and two ago.
Mmmm, Pie!
by alan on Mon 14th Oct 2002 9:21PM
This weekend I decided to try out pie-making. It's not as hard as I thought it might be. The crust didn't come out as I'd hoped, but I think that was because I was using a different recipe than my mother. Yumm. Nice creamy pumpkin pie with a flaky crust: just the thing for Thanksgiving.
No class today, of course, but I have an essay to write for Thursday. I got about a third of the required words done a couple of hours ago, but it ended up with a bad taste. I'm going to have to start from the beginning and get rid of the simpleness of the structure.
Autumn
by alan on Fri 18th Oct 2002 10:26PM
Well, autumn is in the air. The thermometer took a dive this week, and dressing in layers in required. The trees are changing colour, and you get a little bit of a nip on your nose when you walk outside at night.
I finished my first essay this week. I'm not sure I did excellent on it, but I hope I didn't do too bad. I should find out sometime next week.
Construction
by alan on Tue 22nd Oct 2002 12:07AM
The highway near my apartment is under construction. They appear, from what I can see on the roadway below, to be repaving the onramps. It's kinda cool seeing the big machines working on the road. I was suprised, however, by how many men were just standing around. Maybe they had to wait for the machines to move out of the way, but it looks rather odd.
I've discovered that I'm a little behind in my language classes. I haven't got all the vocab in my head for either one right now. For Hebrew we're supposed to have learned 80 or so words. It shouldn't be that difficult to learn that many. On the other hand we must be near 200 for Greek. I'm going to have to spend time studying them for a Greek test this Friday.
If you're ever really bored, check this out: a website devoted to helping you build your own artificial language. It's got quite a bit of stuff, though I think it is missing a number of things. Also there's a langmaker devoted to showcasing constructed languages. I find this stuff fascinating. Anyone actually thinking about constructing their own language should check out Basque to see just how different a "natural" language can be from English.
Essay back.
by alan on Sat 26th Oct 2002 4:40PM
Well, I got my essay back on Thursday. I thought I had done okay, but, nope, it's a c-. A C-! Okay! So, I'm not an english major.
On the other hand, Greek is coming along fantastically, as is Hebrew. I'd say I could probably handle them both at a faster pace. Maybe, I should spend more time on my essays and a little less on languages. The Problem, of course, is that I don't want to. Writing this last essay was torture. At the end, I didn't care, really, if I passed it or not. I don't seem to be an essay type person. 'Funny that writing a weblog is so much more interesting.
The leaves on the trees are changing colour. Too bad we haven't had very many sunny days to enjoy them. It's been all cloudy and raining lately. It would be more depressing if I were stuck in an office all day and never say the sun when it did come out.
Power Outage.
by alan on Sun 27th Oct 2002 8:03PM
The power went off this morning at about 7AM. I'm not sure how long it was off, but I forgot this morning to kick the saradoc back on. Ah, well, maybe I should be getting that UPS. It had been almost two months since the last power outage, and now I suddenly get another one.
This week I have a couple of "midterms" (the second for each class). They don't seem to be quite so overlapping this time, but their still Thursday night and Friday morning, so I have to study for them together.
Lost Perfection
by alan on Wed 30th Oct 2002 3:51PM
This Monday I got back a Hebrew quiz from last week. I had one mistake. When I was writing the quiz, I had come across a word that I didn't immediately recognize. I saw it was plural, but couldn't figure out the word. So I skipped it and came back later. Then I recognized it was the plural of city and wrote down city, not remembering to write it in english as a plural (cities). This was the first quiz I didn't get perfect. When the prof was handing back the quizes there was almost a look of disappointment in his face when he handed it to me. I knew then I hadn't gotten perfect. I looked at it and said to myself, 'I can make it up. Two quizzes don't count.' Of course, future quizzes will be harder, so I'll have to study more to get perfect in the course. Hey, I'm in 10th year, I'm expected to ace first year courses.
There's another quiz today and a midterm on Monday in Hebrew. And I should get a Greek midterm back today. Midterms are so much fun.