Friday, August 26, 2005
The Weekend Is Here!
And I don't have much planned except to work, watch movies and play Halo.
I've got a bunch of assignments I need to get cracking down on. I need to finish up a Calculus assignment online. I also have a ton of Spanish work to do. First off, I need to do a little self-evaluation of my Spanish skills. Secondly, I have to do what we're all supposed to do every week: engulf myself in the Spanish language through the use of technology.
Every week I'm supposed to watch two episodes of news in Spanish. Then I'm supposed to take two news stories from each episode (4 total) and briefly summarize them. I'm also supposed to find fifteen vocabulary words I don't know, write down their definitions, and write sentences with five of them.
Also, beginning next week, I'll have to take part in some sort of bilengual chat community for one hour a week. It's done in connection with a school in Puerto Rico where the students are studying English. Basically, I'll have to chat with someone in Spanish for half an hour, and English for another half hour.
As I've already discovered, accomplishing all that every week is going to be a challenge, at least at the beginning. This is primarily because:
a) I have yet to find a Spanish news program. There are two Spanish channels - however, it seems that they're never for news, just soap operas and television shows. What happened to CNN en Espanol?
b) I've lived in Central America for 7-8 years. Does this guy really think that by watching news in Spanish I'll miraculously come into contact with fifteen words I don't understand every week? It's possible, but I doubt it. I think I'm going to have to check out a book in Spanish or something in order to find big long words that I don't understand and that sound pretty but that would never be used much in actual conversation. And seeing as how the class is on conversation, I fail to see how that helps me.
c) I still haven't figured out how to change my keyboard to Spanish on a Mac. That's going to really hurt when it comes time to chat.
So yeah. A lot of this weekend is going to spend working on Spanish work I already should have done this week, despite the fact that he only told us about it 3 days ago and has yet to clarify when actual news is going to be shown on television.
Plus, let's not forget I have a job. I've spent around four hours this week working on philosophy research. Tomorrow I'll spend another two working on it, in which time I'll hopefully be able to finish the foundation of this current project. After that, it's only a matter of fixing the small details.
Oh, and let's not forget that I have to read some English literature for my class on Tuesday.
Okay. Assuming I finish all of that work this weekend, here's how long it's going to take:
Probably around 30 minutes for Calculus, if I'm lucky.
One hour to watch two Spanish news episodes (after I find them).
30 minutes to type four brief summaries on two reports.
30 minutes minimum to find fifteen vocabulary words and do everything I've got to do with them.
45 minutes to read English.
Two hours to work on philosophy research.
That brings the total amount of work time to approximately 5 hours and 15 minutes. That's a lot for a weekend.
I'm also hard at work on an outline for a script. I need to work on finishing that, get started on writing the actual script, and also get started on a shorter script that I might actually have a chance of filming some time soon.
Anyways, hopefully I won't find myself too busy. I plan on going to see Crash tomorrow with a group of friends, and I'll probably end up watching Pulp Fiction some time soon. Should be fun.
One thing's for certain: I won't be going hungry any time soon. I had a few meals left over this week, so I decided to stock up on tacos. I've got enough Taco Bell in my refrigerator to feed a small army. My plan is to go to the dining hall a few times this weekend, and whenever I'm hungry in between meals I can chow down on whatever's left in the fridge. Maybe this way I might actually have a chance of gaining some weight. I just wonder if I'll start to get tired of Taco Bell. I mean, I usually eat there for at least one meal on Tuesdays and Thursdays, since it's close by after my dance class. Now I've got a weekend filled with tacos. It's possible I'll start to eat at the dining hall more often just for some variety. We shall see, we shall see.
I've got a bunch of assignments I need to get cracking down on. I need to finish up a Calculus assignment online. I also have a ton of Spanish work to do. First off, I need to do a little self-evaluation of my Spanish skills. Secondly, I have to do what we're all supposed to do every week: engulf myself in the Spanish language through the use of technology.
Every week I'm supposed to watch two episodes of news in Spanish. Then I'm supposed to take two news stories from each episode (4 total) and briefly summarize them. I'm also supposed to find fifteen vocabulary words I don't know, write down their definitions, and write sentences with five of them.
Also, beginning next week, I'll have to take part in some sort of bilengual chat community for one hour a week. It's done in connection with a school in Puerto Rico where the students are studying English. Basically, I'll have to chat with someone in Spanish for half an hour, and English for another half hour.
As I've already discovered, accomplishing all that every week is going to be a challenge, at least at the beginning. This is primarily because:
a) I have yet to find a Spanish news program. There are two Spanish channels - however, it seems that they're never for news, just soap operas and television shows. What happened to CNN en Espanol?
b) I've lived in Central America for 7-8 years. Does this guy really think that by watching news in Spanish I'll miraculously come into contact with fifteen words I don't understand every week? It's possible, but I doubt it. I think I'm going to have to check out a book in Spanish or something in order to find big long words that I don't understand and that sound pretty but that would never be used much in actual conversation. And seeing as how the class is on conversation, I fail to see how that helps me.
c) I still haven't figured out how to change my keyboard to Spanish on a Mac. That's going to really hurt when it comes time to chat.
So yeah. A lot of this weekend is going to spend working on Spanish work I already should have done this week, despite the fact that he only told us about it 3 days ago and has yet to clarify when actual news is going to be shown on television.
Plus, let's not forget I have a job. I've spent around four hours this week working on philosophy research. Tomorrow I'll spend another two working on it, in which time I'll hopefully be able to finish the foundation of this current project. After that, it's only a matter of fixing the small details.
Oh, and let's not forget that I have to read some English literature for my class on Tuesday.
Okay. Assuming I finish all of that work this weekend, here's how long it's going to take:
Probably around 30 minutes for Calculus, if I'm lucky.
One hour to watch two Spanish news episodes (after I find them).
30 minutes to type four brief summaries on two reports.
30 minutes minimum to find fifteen vocabulary words and do everything I've got to do with them.
45 minutes to read English.
Two hours to work on philosophy research.
That brings the total amount of work time to approximately 5 hours and 15 minutes. That's a lot for a weekend.
I'm also hard at work on an outline for a script. I need to work on finishing that, get started on writing the actual script, and also get started on a shorter script that I might actually have a chance of filming some time soon.
Anyways, hopefully I won't find myself too busy. I plan on going to see Crash tomorrow with a group of friends, and I'll probably end up watching Pulp Fiction some time soon. Should be fun.
One thing's for certain: I won't be going hungry any time soon. I had a few meals left over this week, so I decided to stock up on tacos. I've got enough Taco Bell in my refrigerator to feed a small army. My plan is to go to the dining hall a few times this weekend, and whenever I'm hungry in between meals I can chow down on whatever's left in the fridge. Maybe this way I might actually have a chance of gaining some weight. I just wonder if I'll start to get tired of Taco Bell. I mean, I usually eat there for at least one meal on Tuesdays and Thursdays, since it's close by after my dance class. Now I've got a weekend filled with tacos. It's possible I'll start to eat at the dining hall more often just for some variety. We shall see, we shall see.
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 8/26/2005 07:26:00 PM 
