A clarification and

A clarification since several people told me it was unclear: in my previous post about the swing lesson, when I complained about the instructor at the studio not taking us seriously, I didn't mean that we were serious dancers- we're not, terribly, but we Are serious about learning, and about being there, and we can learn material and want to. We're serious about the dancing, even if we're not serious about being absolutely perfect, and ready to compete, etc. Just because we're not absolute perfectionists doesn't mean that we can't learn at a rate faster than your average snail or sloth. We were there to learn and prepare for a rather large performance, especially for us, and they didn't take that into account at all.

That said, today was a reasonable day- not Quite as productive as I'd have liked, but I'm in at least a reasonable place with my work. I'll have to write my whole 6-8 page paper tomorrow, but I can deal, it'll just be a tad annoying. Life goes on. But my seminar class today (Studying Sacred Texts) was awfully fun, and sparked a random conversation just after (or at the end of, depending on how you look at it) of our break advising our professor about his daughter's desire to quit guitar (she's 8: the age I both took up and dropped guitar myself).

A clarification and

A clarification since several people told me it was unclear: in my previous post about the swing lesson, when I complained about the instructor at the studio not taking us seriously, I didn't mean that we were serious dancers- we're not, terribly, but we Are serious about learning, and about being there, and we can learn material and want to. We're serious about the dancing, even if we're not serious about being absolutely perfect, and ready to compete, etc. Just because we're not absolute perfectionists doesn't mean that we can't learn at a rate faster than your average snail or sloth. We were there to learn and prepare for a rather large performance, especially for us, and they didn't take that into account at all.

That said, today was a reasonable day- not Quite as productive as I'd have liked, but I'm in at least a reasonable place with my work. I'll have to write my whole 6-8 page paper tomorrow, but I can deal, it'll just be a tad annoying. Life goes on. But my seminar class today (Studying Sacred Texts) was awfully fun, and sparked a random conversation just after (or at the end of, depending on how you look at it) of our break advising our professor about his daughter's desire to quit guitar (she's 8: the age I both took up and dropped guitar myself).

Weird Paper Writing

I just wrote and 8+ page paper (it was supposed to be 8 pages tops- I had to fiddle the margins out a tad, and it's still a little over 8 pages, darn it. Maybe I'll try and edit it down a bit, but I doubt I'll be terribly successful. Darn, this is the Opposite of most people's problem: my papers are generally at the upper limit of my page-count options.) in about 3 1/2 hours. This is more than a bit fast for me, especially considering that one of those pages was written in a bit under 20 minutes. It makes me worry about the quality of what I wrote. I have No idea if it's any good at all. But oh well, it's due tomorrow, and I don't particularly have time to edit it much, or let it sit and reread it after I've gotten some perspective.

Met with a my Maimonides professor today to talk about my presentation and final paper topics. The meeting was supposed to go from 10 until 10:30 when he had another student coming in. The other student never arrived, and didn't seem to be terribly expected, which isn't so unusual, said professor is notoriously absent-minded. In my usual fasion/luck I arrived at his office before he did. It was a pleasant and useful meeting: I now have topics for both assignments, although neither is terribly well defined at all. But well, I must to the library tomorrow to copy the illustrations about which I wrote for the above-mentioned paper anyways, so I should be able to get some of the books I need for these projects at the same time, if I time things well. Hopefully the books will be there. Otherwise- I think I saw one of them in the Beit Midrash (which utterly surprised my professor when I mentioned it). I'm not entirely sure that the final paper topic is entirely relevant to the class, but this doesn't seem to bother my professor who suggested it. It may be relevant to my Studying Sacred Texts class. Maybe I can show it to Professor Levisohn for kicks, or as an (longer than the actual assignment) addendum to my final reflection, or for some sort of consideration in my grade, I don't know.

Gave my Hebrew presentation today, it went reasonably well. Had a spontaneous class conversation/monologue from our professor about the difficulties of expressing your love and pride etc to family members, and how unfortunate that is, but how hard it is. It was odd, since I've never felt (or nearly never, barring teenage moments of extremism) that way about my parents. It's amazing how much I've learned about how much I appreciate them over the time I've been in college. I remember how much I have at some points complained, partially sometimes just because everyone else complained about their parents, and I thought it was sort of a requirement- and it seems sort of ridiculous. It was sort of strange to hear Sara (the teacher) talk so personally about her own mother- for the second time in the course, which she never did in the other two classes I've taken with her. She also just realized, after a conversation with Beth, that zodiacmg and I are dating, which is really rather remarkable considering the fact that we're generally rather obvious about it. Go figure. She was also rather shocked to learn that he dances. Odd, that.

Weird Paper Writing

I just wrote and 8+ page paper (it was supposed to be 8 pages tops- I had to fiddle the margins out a tad, and it's still a little over 8 pages, darn it. Maybe I'll try and edit it down a bit, but I doubt I'll be terribly successful. Darn, this is the Opposite of most people's problem: my papers are generally at the upper limit of my page-count options.) in about 3 1/2 hours. This is more than a bit fast for me, especially considering that one of those pages was written in a bit under 20 minutes. It makes me worry about the quality of what I wrote. I have No idea if it's any good at all. But oh well, it's due tomorrow, and I don't particularly have time to edit it much, or let it sit and reread it after I've gotten some perspective.

Met with a my Maimonides professor today to talk about my presentation and final paper topics. The meeting was supposed to go from 10 until 10:30 when he had another student coming in. The other student never arrived, and didn't seem to be terribly expected, which isn't so unusual, said professor is notoriously absent-minded. In my usual fasion/luck I arrived at his office before he did. It was a pleasant and useful meeting: I now have topics for both assignments, although neither is terribly well defined at all. But well, I must to the library tomorrow to copy the illustrations about which I wrote for the above-mentioned paper anyways, so I should be able to get some of the books I need for these projects at the same time, if I time things well. Hopefully the books will be there. Otherwise- I think I saw one of them in the Beit Midrash (which utterly surprised my professor when I mentioned it). I'm not entirely sure that the final paper topic is entirely relevant to the class, but this doesn't seem to bother my professor who suggested it. It may be relevant to my Studying Sacred Texts class. Maybe I can show it to Professor Levisohn for kicks, or as an (longer than the actual assignment) addendum to my final reflection, or for some sort of consideration in my grade, I don't know.

Gave my Hebrew presentation today, it went reasonably well. Had a spontaneous class conversation/monologue from our professor about the difficulties of expressing your love and pride etc to family members, and how unfortunate that is, but how hard it is. It was odd, since I've never felt (or nearly never, barring teenage moments of extremism) that way about my parents. It's amazing how much I've learned about how much I appreciate them over the time I've been in college. I remember how much I have at some points complained, partially sometimes just because everyone else complained about their parents, and I thought it was sort of a requirement- and it seems sort of ridiculous. It was sort of strange to hear Sara (the teacher) talk so personally about her own mother- for the second time in the course, which she never did in the other two classes I've taken with her. She also just realized, after a conversation with Beth, that zodiacmg and I are dating, which is really rather remarkable considering the fact that we're generally rather obvious about it. Go figure. She was also rather shocked to learn that he dances. Odd, that.