CafeChatNoir

Not that I’m anti-thinkng, just more pro-not-having-to-actively-think. Basically I’ve just used up all my critical thinking skills for a while. Another class knocked out in my quest to be 10 years down the road with multiple degrees and waiting tables because I still don’t know what I really want to do. :)

The paper is done, hurrah. And I think it’s a bit of crap. Not that I didn’t do the research, the piles of printouts scattered about with notes scrawled in the margins and circles and arrows and exclamation points all over them prove otherwise. It’s decently written and all that, but there’s just no way you can *really* explore any subject particularly well with a 6 page limit. I really don’t like writing down to expectations.

During this paper, I discovered that apparently I’m a freak. It seems that writing papers in longhand isn’t as common as I would have thought. Guess I’m doing my part to keep PaperMate and Mead in business. All the online resources are great, but I still print everything out and take it, plus a notebook and pen and go somewhere else to actually read and write. Transcribe it into Word every now and again to keep track of how much I’ve actually written and don’t end up with a 20 page masterpiece when the absolute limit is 10 pages. Once I’ve gotten enough thoughts out of my head to satisfy the requirements and prove whatever point I want to prove, it all gets printed out, 1 paragraph to a page. Then I again retreat to somewhere else with pen in hand and the editing carnage begins. Strike, rewrite, add, rearrange. If I used a red pen it would looks like an axe murder had taken place. Add the changes to the paper, print it out again, and repeat. And repeat. I kill a lot of trees.

Best discovery during the course of the paper – the robin that lives in the porch swing has hatched her second set of babies! (And doesn’t care that the dog likes to sleep in the shade under the swing. Thank God it’s not a mockingbird, or the dog would be traumatized for life.)

So let’s just do this and I’ll get back to killing you with beer. (And Irish Coffees.)

But, we have to submit 2000 words by Friday at midnight for our class.

I know you don’t react well without a deadline, which is why I’ve not really poked at you up until now. We’ve got the sources and the vast bulk of the writing is already bouncing about, so it’s not like we’ve procrastinated THAT badly. (We also know how quickly we can get words to paper when needed.) It’s much easier to write when you at least have the words crashing about somewhere in your subconscious.

I couldn’t help but take notice of the fact that you did recognize the impending deadline and I appreciate the 450 words you allowed to come tumbling out this evening. However, in the future if you could hold off on a page and a half of insight until I am **out** of my car, it would be greatly appreciated. (And given the impending “no texting while driving law” showing up in a week, it’s not like I can Twitter myself my thoughts while at a red light.)

However, tomorrow we have to go balls to the wall. Or, temporal and frontal lobes to the wall. We still have to churn out another 1550 words or so. It’s not going to be God’s gift to research and analysis, but given the 2K word limit, it wasn’t going to be that in the first place.

Brain, I know you’re still seriously cranky over the fact that our super-awesome-spectacular initial outline was rejected because it would end up being “too long”, but I beseech you to get over it. Now it’s just about charming the pants of the professor with our arguments, despite the fact that we are the Rainbow Brite Leftist Liberal of the class. (Which is actually quite fun, but can be an impediment to an “A” in the class.)

Tomorrow, we’ll be outside in gorgeous weather with paper and pen and no distractions other than the birds. (And the dog when he gets pissy that I’m not playing with him. He’ll get over it.) But, we both know that this is when the best writing happens. And Brain, I’m not above taking the Hemingway route to finish this paper if required. However, I don’t have any Bloody Mary mix in the house, but I do have the Grey Goose, so we may be drinking martinis at 11AM. But, I do have olives, so they’ll at least be proper dirty martinis.

Brain, if you come through for me on this one, I promise you won’t have to think again until the beginning of August at the soonest.

Deal?

11 pages
26 paragraphs
248 lines
3027 words

Total Editing Time: 358 minutes.

6 hours of actual writing time to knock out 3000 words.  Not too bad.  It’s still a bit of a piece of crap, but it’s done and hopefully the next paper I’ve got, I’ll figure out a better topic.

A feature I absolutely love in Microsoft Word.  It’s nice to be able to see that I’ve managed to get over 85% of the paper written in a mere 5 hours. About 4 more paragraphs and then all I have left to do is make sure I’ve got the Works Cited done right and it’s finished.

Mainly I’m doing BS filler at this point.  I’d feel bad about that, but it’s a long standing academic tradition.

Don’t think it would have mattered when I’d started the paper, I’d still be wrestling it to the ground at this point anyway cause it’s such a crap topic.

It’s still like pulling teeth to get words to paper, but the paper is coming along, if a bit slowly.  I suspect I’ll get on more of a roll later this evening.

I’ve at least gotten a good chunk of it organized in my head – brief history of the two agencies, previous examples of joint efforts, previous examples of overlap or gaps, then justifications for combining the two, the end.

I am so glad this is the last big assignment.

Cause it’s freaking late and it’s hard to see straight.  Granted, I’m on a bit of a roll, but it won’t make any sense in the morning if I keep this up – even if at the current rate I could be finished by 8AM tomorrow.

I think I’d rather have the sleep.  And I’ve got plenty of time.

I’ve been struggling with this paper from the get-go, just trying to come up with a topic to start with. (Which was way too broad, but I finally got it narrowed down after a while, but it just hasn’t given me much of a “spark”.)

Well, I’m coming up on the deadline, and frankly, it’s just time to go completely into BS mode. It’s not like I have to actually believe what I’m writing or particularly care, just be choerent and have the sources that support it.

This particular class has been really hard to get into. It’s not that the base subject is boring (History of US Intel) but I think it’s just the reading materials for this particular class aren’t that great.

Now that I’ve finally gotten my brain into “just churn it out” mode, I can’t help but think I’ll have it knocked out with time to spare and probably well over the required length. Basically, I just have to stop caring too much about it, which has what has tripped me up so far.

Tomorrow’s quickie horoscope – sounds good to me: Your mind is extremely sharp today, and you are eager to discover some new ideas.

I have to get a research proposal done tonight. It’s just a page, and we have a list of themse to choose from in deciding what we want to write our final paper on, but nothing is jumping out at me saying, “Yes! This is the subject you want to write on!” Once I decide on something, I can knock it out in half an hour, it’s the deciding that’s the problem, and I don’t want to just close my eyes and pick something, cause this is the subject I’ll be stuck with for the final paper. (Though I may very well end up doing that. I can write about anything, but I’d prefer to pick something that I’ll enjoy researching.)

Not sure how keen I am on this particular class – the subject material is fine, but it’s compressed (8 weeks) and for whatever reason the prof doesn’t seem to be sticking with the standard “anything due on a particular week is due by Sunday” and has made Friday the deadline date so that’s got me a bit thrown off.

That, and I can’t decide WTF to write about.

6 pages knocked out and with enough time to make a decent dinner. Final edit on it tomorrow and it’s outta here. I have to do a survey for the class and I’m not exceptionally enthused about it, it’s kind of been an “eh” class for me. Not much of anything I didn’t already know from doing my last paper. Ah well, they can’t all be fireworks and “OMG!”

Final exam next week then nothing else until August. (Works well since I don’t much want to be trying to do papers at the beach next month…)

Nothing like being able to just go for the phrase “empire building in the intelligence community” and get a nice handful of good potential sources for your paper.

Even better is when the paper overlaps nicely with another paper you’ve done, and you were smart enough to keep track of all those sources you looked up before as well.

4.5 pages down, 1.5 to go, 30 hours to finish. (Most of those hours I’ll need to get the citations formatted right.)

Happy Friday everyone. Been a fun week with crappy weather here and now it’s all about trying to get rid of the ice. On my car. That I cannot remove. Seriously, I spent somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes today trying to get it off, and managed to remove about 1/4 of it and broke the ice scraper in the process. I am about ready to just go out and pour water all over it even though it would likely just result in more ice on the driveway, which wouldn’t exactly be optimal either. But dammit, I want a driveable car! Little bro is exceptionally generous in the lending of his auto whenever I need it, but still, I’d prefer to be on my own wheels, thankyouverymuch. (Of course, it just occured to me that I could move the car to the side of the street, which is already covered in ice anyway, and try the water trick there…)

But, the cold weather is perfect for Goulaschuppe and it will be ready to go here in about 15 minutes. I do love winter for the soup weather. :)

Been a nice week for the markets, some good consolidation days and some nice bumps with Bernake’s testimony on Wednesday and the some more flatness/consolidation going into the long weekend. I’d expected a little more of a bounce today with traditional short-covering, but you can’t argue too much with the week as a whole. Pays the tab for a few more rounds at GD’s and the tuition for a couple more classes.

Speaking of classes (nice segue, wasn’t it?), I’ve gotten off my arse and registered for my next one. (The classes roll monthly, so not starting anything at the beginning of February due to the questionable status of my laptop was no big deal – I knew I’d be back at it soon enough.) This one is “Introduction to Intelligence” – it’s a 16 week one, and I’d add another 16 week in core requirements if I could find one, but all the others at the moment are 8 week, which would be like 3 classes vs 2 classes and well, I’m a wuss and don’t want to make that jump until I see how I can fare with 2 classes at the same time. I’ve done one of the 8 week classes, and it was a little tight at times, but I was also still working, so it’s kind of hard to judge how it would be otherwise. But, there are a couple 16 week ones opening in April, so I’ll pick one of those up. Also got word that I comped out of the 4 other classes, 2 basic english & 2 basic history, so go me. (I’m essentially re-doing undergrad, I want a better basis in the area than the accounting degree I’ve got before I go attempting grad level work. Bonus is that I’ve comped out of all the “fluff” and am only doing the core/major classes.)

A on the final paper, A in the class. Prof even said he learned a few things from it.

So, now I can take my laptop in to get the DVD drive fixed.

I am very happy to report the paper is DONE.

And being the idiot that I am, when I double checked the syllabus after finishing up this evening to make sure that 1500 words was what I needed (you know that stupid part of your brain saying, ‘did you really read it as 1500 words and not 2500 or 3500??!?’ )…well, not quite. It was 1000-1500 words. So, I’m technically slightly over on word count, but it’s all good – if the prof wants to dock me for being 17 words over limit, he can knock himself out.. All that is left is making sure it’s formatted properly and that my citations are in the right place in the text. The citations are a pain in the ass, but shouldn’t take long to tend to.

The thing is, I’m somewhat disappointed in the paper. Not that it’s bad or a half-assed attempt – in the space that I had, I made the points I needed and wanted to make, but the fact that the actual “writing” portion of it took the least time of the entire project (despite, or very possibly because of! a shitload of research/reading/note-taking/mental composition in the process of ‘writing’ it), and that always makes me think I am not ‘bringing it’, so to speak. Honestly, before the pen hits the paper, I have reviewed all the words a good three or four times in my mind, yet I still have my doubts. I had so much more I could have poured into it, but it would have put me so far beyond the word count that it would have actually been an issue in grading.

What strikes me as funny (in my own mind if nothing else) is that I continually underestimate the amounts that I can write on any given subject. (AKA, I can ramble incessantly when called for.) A 1500 word paper is roughly 5 double spaced pages. Earlier this week I was up at the bar with my peeps, seriously concerned that I would not be able to come up with enough information and/or specific examples on my subject to be able to fill up that much white space. (Nevermind the fact that I knocked out near 3K words on my fiction project in a single afternoon, but hey, ht’s fiction, you can make it up as you go along!) I was quite literally sitting there with Dave going over various terrorist incidents of the past 20 years, because I truly didn’t think I had enough examples and talking points for the paper and would have to bring in more specific examples from certain recent historical events.

As it turns out, the “bonus incidents” never needed to be brought into the paper. Little bro, who is slightly less removed from academic writing due to age if nothing else, reminded me to note all ‘bonus’ items and their sources, as there is a decent chance I’ll need them later. And being the smart one that he is, he’s right.

So, I’ve got a decent long form expository essay to submit (honestly, given the length, I can’t call it a research paper), and good notes should I ever encounter this subject (or something similar) in the future as a springboard.

I’ll be interested to see what I pull out on this paper for a grade. As it stands at the moment, I have a solid A in the class. Here’s hoping the trend continues! :)

The paper needs to be 1500 words.

It is on signal intelligence vs. human intelligence.

I have 1496 words.

God grant me the strength not to conclude this paper with, “In conclusion, we’re fucked.”

Kenmore appliances apparently suck. The dishwasher now has a new motor, and is working, but there is one more broken part they will have to order and replace as well.

The halfway mark has been passed on the paper.

Decided stopping and eating might be a good idea. Sadly, I can only go so far on coffee.

However, I am wondering if the spaghetti is going to be as satisfying as I thought seeing as how I am sitting here watching Alton Brown sing the praises of duck…

3 weeks til Shamrock, 2 until the St Pats Day 10K. Still need to get one more distance run in for Shamrock. Note to self: No more early spring half marathons, distance runs on treadmills suck. Basically, I need to find a July half marathon. Nevermind the heat stroke, at least I’d be able to train outside.

Class is finished, waiting on one last grade posting. A- at a minimum.

Found several more potential races while procrastinating on classwork last night, including one more sprint tri. So, plenty to keep me out of trouble this summer.

For your amusement (yanked from another forum, apparently yanked from Dave Letterman)

Top Ten Signs Your Kitty Is A Genius

10. Meows in six languages
9. He’s the only one in your family who could assemble your Ikea coffee table
8. His whiskers are Bluetooth enabled
7. He only purrs when “Meet the Press” is on
6. Won 28 grand on Jeopardy’s “Kitty Week”
5. He rigged it so he’s got 10 lives
4. Earned the 2005 Nobel Prize in yarn-related sciences
3. Keeps putting the dog on Ebay
2. Not only calls 911 for you, also calls Z-100 whenever you need your Aerosmith fix
1. Winces everytime he hears George W. Bush say, “Nuke-yoo-lar”

The assignment states “limit your essay to 450-550 words”… I’m over. I don’t care, I’ll take the hit on it if he wants to ding me for it, I like the paper the way it is. So there. I’m such a rebel.

But, it’s done! All that’s left is the rewrite of the board discussion that spiraled out of control into a beer rating thread, and the final exam.

These papers that we’re doing are basically nothing more than a spot check on “do you need remedial English” and that’s fine, but my god, each and every one of them I’ve been beating my head into the wall trying to get words on paper. And this is just an outline…I just need one decent summary sentence and it’s finished, but I’m just a tad stuck.

In an attempt to distract myself and hopefully shake loose some coherent thoughts, I went and registered for the Reston Tri on September 10th… Registration opened at 7 and was full by 7:32. It is a very popular event, and only has 600 slots. Apparently in years past they did it over 3 nights w/ preference for Reston residents – this year they tossed it out on active.com and BOOM, full – and several emails on the TriRats mailing list saying how this was SO much better than last year. I totally got in under the wire – my registration confirmation email is timestamped 7:31.

OK, need to go yank one more sentence out of my head somehow…

OK, I manage to forget an entire section in my career research paper (the summary paragraph…) and I still get a 94 on it. WTF? Hell, I’ll take it, I’m certainly not going to argue the point, but damn.

But he did say I seem to have a good handle on it and he enjoyed reading it.

Paper is done. Topic and scratch outline for next essay is done. Topic: The need for a completion and exit strategy for military deployments.

No gym today, felt like crap most of the day. Hoping it’s not the stomach flu that’s heading through the office.

Cleaning service comes tomorrow and the place is a total hole. Much to get out of their way before bed, cause I don’t see myself getting up early to tend to it.

Men’s downhill on now – I’m getting dizzy just looking at the mountain they’re on… Holy crap, how do they DO that? (This is not helping with the housework…)

The 15K womens cross country is much better when you mute it and don’t have to listen to the commentators. (Can probably be said of most events)

Getting some traction finally on the paper – fortunately, it’s a fairly short one, I’ve just had a bad case of writer’s block on it. Then I need to come up with a scratch outline for a persuasive essay – any subject. That’s the problem – I have no subject as of yet. At the moment, I have no overwhelming need to persuade anyone of anything, and I doubt the prof will accept a treatise on why Guinness is the preferred beer of cool people everywhere… (Already started a shitstorm with that… We have to rewrite a discussion board because something I mentioned made the thread just disintegrate into beer comparisons… One of my classmates even said, “Poor Cynthia, she writes an extremely detailed response with great insight on imagined versus real obstacles and we turn it into a forum to discuss beer.”)

Did have a flash of brilliance and dropped the English class for the moment – even though it’s just a 1 month overlap, it’s not gonna work right now – fortunately, it’s within the penalty-free-no-harm-no-foul-here’s-the money-back” period, and there is still the chance I can comp out of it and skip it altogether, if the fine folks over at the College Board can still locate my AP scores from 15 years ago…

I registered. First class starts 1/2/06. 8 week version. Depending on what I can comp out on, undergrad could go quickly, or take a very long time. Sure, I could go straight for grad, but I want more intel foundations first, and this will accomplish it.

Who knows if anything will come of it, but it’s good to learn again.

So, I pop over to the AMU website to see what it’s all about.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

I’d have to redo my bachelors, but the masters programs, oh my god. Homeland Security, 13 Military Studies options, National Security, Strategic Intelligence… All with concentrations in Middle Eastern studies.

If I comped out of everything elective/humanities wise, I could have undergrad done in two years and then the masters two years after that.

Seriously, this place actually has things I am INTERESTED in.