This Week in Unnecessary Censorship

... Nah, there's no unnecessary censorship here. But I do like the UC videos on Youtube. They are quite comical. Want to see one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vviBx6FkdbI . Watch it 'till the end. The last one is the best.

Now that I have your attention, I suppose I should tell you what I've been up to since I last updated.

This week is ultra-mega-super test week. I had two exams and a quiz today, followed by a quiz tomorrow morning. Every single one of my classes except for marching band had a quiz or test this week. And I have a band performance on Saturday, so that's kind of like a test. So I guess that makes all of them.

Most of these were the first legit tests of the semester. Okay well half of them. My bio test was the first big test of the year, as was my speech test. It was kind of nice though, for my bio test we were allowed to have an entire 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, both sides, for notes. And we were allowed one 3 x 5 notecard in speech. I'm glad I put more effort into studying for bio than I did for studying for speech, because my speech exam was more or less a piece of cake.

The thing I hate about tests though is that teachers will put completely irrelevant information on there. I don't understand why. For example, on my speech exam one of the questions was "What is the typical speaking pattern in Kenya?" First of all, why the hell would I ever need to know this? Second, it was never covered in class. It was one of those "Have you read the textbook?" kind of questions. I don't understand why they are necessary. I mean, who cares? As interesting as I'm sure the speaking pattern of Kenya is, it's not relevant, you don't need to know this ever, no one cares, and it has nothing to do with "the big picture".

That's what I like to think tests are. "Big picture" concepts. And most classes and their tests are like that. But every now and then you'll get some jackass who throws in a "trick question" like the speaking patterns in Kenya just to see if you've been reading.

Now if it were a class were reading the textbook was actually necessary, I could maybe understand. But a speech class? Come on! Why do we even HAVE a textbook for speech class? I've learned nothing new. Okay, well that's not true. I learned the technical terms for stuff I already knew. Do you know what the majority of our past unit was on? How to write an outline.

I learned how to write an outline in fourth grade. And I like the way I write outlines. I don't understand why I need to learn a newer, more stupid way of writing outlines. Why do my main points need to be in complete sentences? It's an outline, for crying out loud! Okay, here is how I would write an outline for a speech. (Pretend this stuff is indented and formatted correctly)

I.) Mayo Clinic

A.) stats

1.) x # of total employees

2.) x # of patients per year

B.) research

1.) cancer

2.) alzheimers

C.) buildings

1.) Mayo

2.) Gonda

3.) Siebens

And so on, and so forth. I write simple outlines. If I have info that I need to write out, like a quote, then I do that. This is how we're supposed to write outlines for the class.

I. The Mayo Clinic is the world's largest medical center.

A.) I will share some interesting statistics about the Mayo Clinic

1.) x # of total employees

2.) x # of patients per year

B.) The Mayo Clinic has done extensive research in several different areas of medicine.

1.) cancer

2.) alzheimers

C.) The Mayo Clinic has several different buildings.

1.) Mayo

2.) Gonda

3.) Siebens

I hate writng in complete sentences when I don't have. Wasn't this the whole point of Reading for College? Use less words, highlight stuff less, take less notes? I am getting conflicting messages in my education!

I hate my speech class. Okay, more like, I really don't like the teacher.

(For the record, AP Geography students, there are 300 shoe factories in Boston. This is a test question. I'm not kidding. It's vital to your education. KNOW THIS.)

Enough about my academic life. I am going to talk about band, because I know that bandies are a large part of my target audience. Unfortunately, I am going to talk about color guard instead of legit band. So, um, sorry.

Okay. I know in high school, nobody really likes the color guard (except you all love me 'cuz I'm awesome). In college, the few people I have been brave enough to ask what they think about guard say that they don't have a problem with them (but I know they're lying, I can see it in their eyes). They said that at the beginning of the season.

As of right now, the EC guard only has work for two out of the four songs we're playing for our field show. We did have work for the third song, but we had to scrap most of it since it just didn't work with the drill (we were supposed to be doing pole work while jazz running 40 yards across the field in 32-ish counts... yeah... not gonna happen). So we have a big exhibition coming up this weekend in Chicago. The band sounds great, I'm sure they look nice too (I can't really tell since we're behind them most of the time and it's not like I'm paying attention to their lines anyway), and then there's the guard. Our first song looks pretty good, since we've known it the longest. Second song is probably a bit sloppy. Third and fourth songs are nonexistent.

And I am in no way blaming this on anybody. In college, they don't have a week-long color guard camp to teach the work for the field show. There's band camp, and that's it. So there is not a whole lot of time for us to squeeze in time to learn new stuff. We have somebody else write our work for us, so we have to wait until he writes it, and then the captains have to learn it well enough to teach it.

Yuck, I could never be a color guard captain. No way.

There's 24 girls on the color guard. If you think things are bad when you get even a small group of girls together, and then they start bitching about something or other, just wait until you have 24 of them. I try to stay out of whatever drama is going on. Most of it, I think, goes on between the upperclassmen, so... yeah I don't want to make any enemies by telling them to shut up. It's tough though, since I enjoy yelling at people and "sticking up for justice" and all that BS. Eh. I just get the feeling that something is gonna happen as far as spectacular bitch-fights goes.

Like how at JM every other week or so there'd be some chick fight in the hallways with hair-pulling and Spanish cussing? That's kind of what I think is going to happen.

... In other news, I'm pretty pumped for Chicago. I've never been there before, so it should be fun.

On that topic, sort of, I would like to thank everybody whom I have captained over the past few years. Thank you Speech Team and Mock Trial team for being AWESOME and not being disrespectful or mean or in any way "bad". I have a lot more respect for people in leadership positions who have to deal with people who aren't that pleasant or who are always arguing with the way you want to run things. I was lucky to have you guys as teammates. Please keep up the good sportsmanship and good work! I miss you. :(

Hmm what else have I done this week. My friend Ryan turned 19. We had a "surprise" party for him (pictures are on Facebook). It was kind of exciting. Then I went to my LEADS and SHRM meetings on Tuesday.

I feel really out of place in SHRM. Everybody is so serious. It kind of really bugs me. Like, the girls running the group are really nice and really friendly, but I just feel like I'm at a really dull business meeting. I guess I just feel out of place because I'm a freshman and I have no desire to have a legit career right now. I mean, I do down the road, but there's only so much a freshman in college can do, career-wise, other than take classes. Nobody wants a freshman intern, they don't know what they're doing. No employer wants to meet a freshman, they want somebody with, or very close to getting, a degree.

So we listened to a speaker in the field. She was in compensation and benefits, and she was a nice speaker and all, but I just didn't really care. I had a moment of "shoot. Maybe I really should change my major to psychology". I mean, seriously. I'm so bored!

And yet, I love The Office and stuff ('cuz that's totally a real depiction of corporate life!), and I'm like, "Yeah. I wanna be just like Michael Scott and wear a nice suit every day and have my own office." Except I'd be more of a Toby, because I wanted to major in HR. And, if you've ever watched The Office, you know how people feel about Toby... =/

I thought business was what I really wanted to do. And I just... I don't know.

I did hear through the grapevine though that International Business is becoming a legit major instead of just a minor or certificate program. But then I feel like oh, darn, I joined SHRM and everything, and I just... I don't know how I feel about it. HR? International Business? Healthcare Administration?? Augh, I just don't know. I mean, I want to travel. So Int'l Business makes sense, right? But I'm interested in management, because I like to be in charge and all that... ugh. I don't know. I know I got time, but... what if I decide to completely scrap the business idea altogether (though I don't know what I would do in its place...)?

Hmmmm. Career path meltdown. =/

On a lighter note, uh... hmm... eh. This week has just been pretty "blah". Not terrible, but not fantastic either. Busy. But, it's all good because I leave for Chicago in exactly 24 hours! Yay!