Whew! Finally, this term is over and I am free for the summer! Well, mostly.

Grades haven’t come out yet but I think that things went fairly well. I’m not pleased with how some of my finals went, but I was so burned out by the end that I think I did the best I could at the time. This was a really rough term and I’m frankly glad that it’s over, though there were a lot of good moments too.

Now, for the summer! I’ll be working full-time to help me save up for my China/Japan trip. We’re supposed to rotate positions within our IT department every six months with our intern program, but I’ll be keeping mine through the end of summer. They figured it wouldn’t be worth it for me to take a new job for three months and leave. I’m excited about that, because the group that I’m in right now (Database Administration) is full of really fun and supportive people and I really like the work that I’m doing. I’m especially happy because being able to devote all of my attention to my work projects is going to make them go a lot faster. I’ve basically been doing the same two projects for the last six months, which is OK considering how little time I’ve been able to spend on them, but now I’ll actually be able to finish them off and move on to bigger and better things.

My schedule is set up so that I have Mondays off and work extra long days on the other four. I need that time to do administrative stuff to prepare for China/Japan (move my bank account to a new bank, check on some stuff with my mom’s insurance, make sure all my IDs are up to date, etc.). It’s still several months away, but the summer always does go by really quickly and there’s a lot left to do.

Well, congratulations to everyone who graduated this year… and happy summer!

Well, everyone, we’ve made it to Week 10.

This has been the most challenging term of my academic career, period. It has been a struggle to keep up pretty much from day one and it’s still not over.

To recap: I have had three full courses and one half-course. Linux Programming and XML Web Services are two higher-level programming classes that required lengthy time investments for weekly homework projects, plus each had a midterm exam. History of Ideas 5 is an honors-level course that required roughly 50-100 pages of reading for each class, plus two 8-10 page papers and a book review (which means the need to take extra time out to read the book). The half-course is my Pre-Study Abroad course which didn’t actually meet very much or have serious day-to-day homework requirements but does involve two major assignments that also require a fair amount of time to complete.

Now, if that was all I had to do, it would probably be a challenging, but not impossible, term. Add on the fact that I work eight-hour days on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Add on the fact that I spend two hours in commute every day. Also, don’t forget that I have a time-consuming and responsibility-laden executive position in COW. Put it all together and you get a normally academically sound honors student who is happily involved on campus who has suddenly become a sleep-deprived, short-tempered wreck who struggles to get her sub-par homework in by deadlines. It has not been fun. I got a haircut on Saturday and my hairdresser mentioned, with some astonishment, that I had some gray hairs coming in. I was not surprised at all.

The most frustrating thing at this point is that it’s week 10 and things ought to be winding down, but I have just as many (if not more) obligations than I have had for the rest of this term. I’m going to have to keep pushing all the way to the finish.

Keep in mind that I am speaking out of sheer frustration right now, because it’s the end of a long weekend and I have only accomplished half of what I need to in this span of time. Sometimes it really seems like an uphill battle that goes nowhere. In truth, after everything is over, I’ll be able to look back and really appreciate the things I have done and learned this term. And, having had terms like this before, I can attest to the fact that these high-stress situations prepare you for future challenges. I am just a little burned out at this point and cannot wait for the term to end already.

Hopefully (and I know I keep saying this) I will be able to spend a minute to go over some cool things that are going on with COW and my personal life. Wish me luck.

Hey folks. There’s a ton going on, so let’s catch up a little.

First, Second City was very fun. I was a little hesitant about it because I didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out to be hilarious. It was a lot like Saturday Night Live with many skits that only vaguely related to each other. It was sort of oriented toward politics and social criticism, but it was so lighthearted and even-handed that I think anyone would enjoy it. The only downside was that we were packed in like sardines (the seating is all chairs around tables or up to bars and everyone was pretty wedged) and our server forgot to bring out the food for about half of our people. I was also nervous because I was sitting at the end of the aisle and was afraid I’d get grabbed to participate in a skit or something (I have bad luck that way) but none of that happened. It was very entertaining and I’d highly recommend it.

Relay for Life was also this past weekend, and I saw several other NCC bloggers there so it will probably be covered extensively. I was the team captain of a group representing COW. It was my first Relay for Life ever and I am SO glad that I finally participated. I lost my stepfather to cancer five years ago and so I like to participate in this sort of fundraiser thing just on principle, but after the opening ceremonies it became clear that it’s much more emotionally significant than “just a fundraiser.” Everything from the survivor lap to the luminarias to the sheer endurance required to finish the relay makes it a way to respect and remember everyone whose lives have been influenced by cancer. It also took a lot more effort to keep walking than I expected. I actually ended up hurting my ankle pretty badly by about 3 AM and had to stop walking, which was really disappointing. They had all kinds of cool stuff going on to keep us occupied though. Some of our COW people painted our faces and we offered to paint other peoples’ to raise money. The organizers put on did a karaoke competition (COW people contributed to two songs), showed Footloose, and ran bunch of tournaments (bean bags, limbo, hula hoops). The individual teams also held some of their own fundraisers, like selling candy or running a putting game. I’m actually really sorry I never did it before, and I am DEFINITELY doing it next year.

Budgets for student organizations are due today too, so that’s been an additional source of stress. COW is in a strange place because, if we keep the same executive board next year relative to this year, all but one member will be studying abroad next fall. We essentially are trying to do as much planning in advance as possible in order to make it easier for whoever takes over the exec board while we’re gone. We have seriously HUGE plans for next year, though. I don’t want to get too specific because nothing is set in stone yet, but every term we have plans for trips to major Chicago team sporting events and some kind of museum, as well as at least one “seasonal” event and at least one event that is designed to piggyback on other major college events to help commuters stay on campus. I’m really excited, even though I’ll have to miss some of it.

We have more interesting things coming up all over the place, so stay tuned. See you next week!

So it’s only week 3 and I’m already swamped with academic work. It’s bad times. The weather is just starting to get really nice, and I’m stuck inside doing computer science work.

If nothing else, balancing all facets of college life forces you to adopt serious time management skills. Right now I have to find time for classes, programming projects, readings, work, and just a tiny bit of sanity time, not to mention commuting time, and frankly I’m not doing a very good job of it. It’s been pretty crazy, but I think the worst is over for now.

Last weekend, an organization on campus sponsored a totally free trip to a local movie theater to see the movie 21. That was pretty much awesome, and being on the executive board of an event-centered organization myself I have a lot of respect for what it must have taken to make the arrangements to do all that. They rented out a theater just for North Central students (as in one single theater in the building, not the whole place) and they also gave us a small popcorn and drink for free. I mean, seriously, how cool is that? The movie was pretty good, too, and it was a fun experience all around. Everything is fun when it’s FREE!

Speaking of events, we’re working on getting all our COW events in order as well, and I’m really excited about this term. Among other things, we’re taking students to Medieval Times and a show at Second City, both for only $10 per person. I’m super excited for both of those and I hope that other people will be as well.

Overall this term looks pretty much amazing. There are no official events coming up for this weekend, though I do turn 21 on Saturday… and I’ll leave it at that. Later!

So it’s the final Friday of my woefully short Spring Break.

As I initially predicted, I didn’t get out too much.  As I had not initially predicted, a lot of that was due to the flu that I mentioned in my last post.  The fever only lasted a few days,  but I was coughing and miserable for a while afterward, which kind of took the wind out of my sails as far as going on wild Spring Break adventures.  On the plus side, it was pretty much awesome to be able to relax for once.  I had absolutely zero obligations.  It’s a beautiful thing.

We did get to go to Mitsuwa and Woodfield Mall on Sunday though.  Woodfield Mall always blows my mind.  It’s so much bigger than the malls out by my house, and it has pretty much everything you could ever dream of.  I mean, seriously–a Lego store, a Teavana, every video game seller you can think of–and that was pretty much just a corner of it.  It’s a geek’s dream. 

Mitsuwa was also entertaining as always.  I like to go there to pick up exotic Asian foodstuffs and spend a day cooking.  This time around I made miso soup, which turned out pretty well considering that I forgot to buy a major ingredient.  You can’t have miso soup without miso (fermented soybean paste, basically), and I got that much right, but there’s a special kind of vegetable stock made with kelp called dashi that I neglected to pick up.  I made it with regular vegetable broth instead, which was OK but not as good as dashi.  Oh well–now I have an excuse to go back so that I can try again.  I also want to visit a store near school called Super H-Mart, which I hear is similar to Mitsuwa, and might be a lot more practical since Mitsuwa is so far away.

I don’t know if I’ve talked about my cooking hobby much, and that’s probably just because during term I don’t have enough time to play around in the kitchen.  It is one reason that I’m kind of thankful I don’t live on campus–I have consistent access to a fully stocked and functional kitchen.  Some of the residence halls have kitchens and everything, but I like using my own space because I tend to make a mess. 

My mom works in a deli and I have a lot of other family members who love to cook and bake, so I sort of picked it up from everyone around me.  The funny part about all that is that I’m really bad at cooking basics, but good at advanced techniques.  For example, I can’t make a grilled cheese to save my life, but I can make a pretty good rice pilaf.  When I’m bored (in this case, in the latter half of break when I was feeling better but still hanging around the house) I like to find really bizarre and complicated recipes and just spend a while putting everything together.  For example, Wednesday night I made ridiculously fancy mint-chocolate cupcakes according to this recipe I found online.  I did the whole thing, including making the cupcakes themselves from scratch as well as a ganache filling and buttercream frosting.  Everything turned out really well, but it took a long time to make.  At least I’m the only college kid I know who has ever made a ganache (though please inform me if I’m wrong in the comments!)

I have one more brief thought to share with you: save your coins!  While I hear that quarters are highly sought after in the dorms for laundry purposes, it’s a good idea to save them up in general.  I’ve been hoarding my spare change for a while now, and earlier this week I finally hauled it off to a CoinStar machine (my bank is a little weird about coin counting, but that’s another story).  Turns out I had almost $90 saved up!  I’m going to use the money to pay for books this term.  So there’s a lesson: keep the change!

Anyway, I’m off to make the most of the time I have left before classes start Monday.  Happy weekend, everyone!

Well, I (and hopefully all NCC students) have made it through finals!

I had a little bit of everything for my three finals this term. In my History of Ideas class we had an essay test (which is my favorite exam format, which may make me weird), in Discrete Structures we had a regular math-test-style exam, and in my Feminist Perspectives class we had to write a paper and then give a short speech about it. I think I did fairly well, but grades haven’t been posted yet so I’m not sure. I usually underestimate, though. I’m just happy to finally be done with Winter Term.

As for Spring Break… well, I kind of have to see on that one. All of my original plans for Spring Break (trips and etcetera) have been canceled because of scheduling conflicts, plus all of my friends will be working a lot over break, so I don’t know how that’s going to pan out. I actually have the week off of work and everything. It’s also unfortunate because I came down with a bad flu on the last day of finals. I was sick for that last speech, and, let me tell you, dragging your butt out of bed at 5 AM to make sure you can get to school on time for your 7:20 final, in which you have to give a presentation, is not fun in any universe. It’s even worse when you drag your butt out of bed and discover that you have a cough, body aches, and a 100+ degree fever. Ibuprofen helps but I still felt like crud. It’s gotten a bit better by today but it’s still no fun. If I’m feeling OK I have plans to go back to Mitsuwa on Sunday, but that’s really all I have going on.

By the way, have I mentioned before that I have about an hour-long commute, one way, to get to school? It’s not fun. Losing two hours a day in transit takes a lot out of possible homework or relaxing time. I used to take the train to school every day, which was convenient because I could work on stuff on the way, but I got tired of living by Metra’s schedule. Now I catch rides, which is cool for schedule flexibility but it’s hard to do homework in a moving vehicle. My work is also close to school, so if I’m working in the morning I have to get up at 5 AM so I can there by 7:30. You kind of get used to it, but it would still be a lot more convenient if I lived closer.

I’ll let you guys know if I’m able to do anything cool. Really though, I’m just grateful for the chance to relax for a bit. See you later!

Today is the first official snow day I have had in college. It’s really rare for a full day’s classes to be canceled–sometimes they will cancel just the evening classes or something, but today it’s bad enough that pretty much everything is shut down. It’s a pretty sweet deal, since I was supposed to have a midterm today but that will probably be delayed until Monday.I didn’t find out about class cancellation until I was three-quarters of the way to school today, and since it’s such a long drive (about 45-60 minutes under normal circumstances) I figured to just go the rest of the way. Plus, I have a responsibility to bring food to folks today–it’s Friday of fifth week, which means that it’s time for COW’s Cardinal Breakfast, where we bring in donuts and bagels to the Cardinal Lounge. People need their carb-laden breakfast, no matter what the weather is like!Tonight is also COW’s trip to Laser Tag, finally. I hope that people actually show up, but we don’t meet until 5:30 this evening. With any luck, the roads will be cleared, so people feel comfortable coming to campus and the bus runs okay. I’m optimistic, though, since people have really been looking forward to this event (not to mention that they’ve already paid to participate!) and wouldn’t miss it if things clear up out there.In the meantime, I should probably do something productive like work ahead on readings for my classes… but let’s be honest. There are no classes, snow is everywhere, and I’ve just consumed a lot of sugar. That sounds like a perfect formula for SLEDDING. If I do get to go, next week I’ll report on how it went. Stay warm!

Seriously!  I’m getting pretty sick of sub-zero wind chills. I can’t remember the last time I felt my toes.
Due to a lack of imagination today (which I am inclined to blame on the cold), here’s a recap of stuff that has happened since last week in roughly chronological order:

Last Friday night I had to spend some time working on a paper due at midnight, but I ended up finishing by early evening, so that was cool.  My friends and I spent the evening randomly hanging out until we went to Brunswick Zone and played around in the arcade again.  My friend and I blew a ton of money on this ridiculous shooting game where we had guns and we were shooting at ninjas armed with swords and shurikens… and still lost.  It was hilarious.  We ended the evening drinking coffee and flipping creamer containers at each other at Denny’s till the wee hours.  The rest of the weekend was full of homework and family functions so there isn’t much to talk about.

Also, later this week we had our first meeting to register for the Games for Girls competition.  I’m excited for this year’s competition for several reasons.  We decided to do a puzzle-type game instead of a role-playing game, which is generally the standard, because we learned the hard way last year that scrapping large parts of a linear plot at the last minute can be disastrous.  We’re also not required to use the same software suite we were last year.   They always required us to use a software platform called Game Maker to build our games, which is good for what it does, but this year they gave us the option to use pretty much any platform we want.  We’re going to develop on the same platform used by real game developers who write for PC and Xbox, so that will be pretty sweet.

Other than that, it’s been pretty much solid schoolwork and trying to stay warm.  This weekend looks pretty low-key since no one wants to go running around in the cold.  We’ll see how it goes.  Later!

It’s the end of second week now, and classes are getting into full swing.  I’ve had to go back to spending most of my free time doing homework.  My Feminist Perspectives and History of Ideas classes require tons of reading (which is pretty typical for honors courses), and I need a lot of extra time to puzzle through problems for Discrete Structures 2.  I’m a little rusty, since I took the first Discrete course my freshman year and haven’t looked at it in the year and a half since then.  In any case, it’s a challenging workload but nothing impossible.

One of the things that interests me particularly is a collection of short stories that we’re reading in my Feminist Perspectives class called Feminist Philosophy and Science Fiction: Utopias and Dystopias.  The stories all examine gender from a science- or speculative-fiction perspective.  That in itself is interesting, because I can tell you from experience that women in science fiction tend to be cast in smaller or more stereotypical roles, so stories specifically written to address gender are a refreshing change.  I’m also a huge fan of the utopia/dystopia model.  In general I think science fiction and the like are among the best ways to explore new ideas and perspectives, and so far it hasn’t disappointed. I’d recommend it to any fan of science fiction or gender study.

I haven’t had a chance to do anything really exciting socially since school started.  I went to see the new National Treasure movie with my dad last weekend, but that’s really been it.  This Saturday is one of my friends’ birthdays, so some of us are going to go out for dinner and then see a movie to celebrate.  Also, next weekend COW is going to sponsor a trip to play laser tag, which everyone is really excited about.  Check in next week for a report of how well everything went!

I’m going to start this out by saying that I’m really happy to be back at school. I missed hanging out with everyone in the Cardinal Lounge, and I’m also glad to get into a better routine in terms of classes and so on. Aside from that, both my classes and extracurricular events look like they’ll be awesome.

I only have three classes this term, which is on the lighter end of a full load for trimesters. Two of them are honors classes so it will still be challenging. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have History of Ideas 2: Early Modern Thought (an honors class where we discuss literature from 1500-1800) and a seminar on Feminist Perspectives (which seems to be a literature-centric exploration of feminist approaches to society and culture). Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Discrete Structures 2, which is most easily explained as math and logic relating to computer science.

After classes, I had a meeting with the COW executive board to start to plan out when we’re going to hold our events. Putting everything down on paper really made me realize how busy we’re going to be. We will hold roughly one meeting per week starting third week, so a lot of planning needs to be done very quickly. Hopefully we’ll be able to get all the important planning done well in advance so that we can just enjoy the events when the time comes.

Things are looking up… I’m really excited.