Weekend Goals (22 Nov 13)Follow

Friday night here, that means it is probably sometime Friday on your part of the planet. So, let's get things rolling!

WoW: With the XP boost from the anniversary, it seems like a good time to keep pushing alts along. Lots of farms would have been handy early in MoP, I'm going to guess that lots of garrisons will be similarly useful in WoD. Leveling my old Mage will give me a second Enchanter/Tailor. I'm not betting on us getting the boost to 90, I have a feeling that we're going to be expected to use the cash shop bonus to catch up.

RL: Hopefully get some Tyger time. Otherwise, I'm staying indoors as much as I can.

Now, let's hear what you're all up to.

RL: no real plans that im aware of might visit some family on sunday.

Games: ESO beta starts at 6 tonight so hopefully i get a jump in on that. Maybe get on WoW for anniversery stuff to get credit for logging in maybe run a dungeon havent in a month or 2. Only have 2 months left on sub. will more than likely re-up on expac release.

RL: I was handed someone's account at the office two weeks ago and have been spending 14 hour days there, with 6 hours on Saturday for good measure, so I've had little time to game. My wife and I will see my daughter on Saturday and again on Sunday, like every weekend. So that leaves a few hours on Sunday, and possibly Friday and Saturday nights for:

Gaming: I've been caught up in Skyrim again, closing in on 700 hours played. I foolishly started a new Civ V game one night this week when I had less than an hour to play, and wound up one-more-turning myself into 6 hours sleep, which is deadly for me at this point. I need 7 minimum, so no Civ V the night before work. I may log into WoW because of the anniversary. We'll see.

Have fun everyone.

WoW: I'd like to at the very least, hit 90 on my priest. Shouldn't be too hard, she's about halfway through 89. It'd be nice to get a good start on gearing her up too, but we'll see.

RL: Working 16 hours this weekend, and I also need to get started on a paper that's due Wednesday.

Heh, I can't get away with that this time. Basically I was supposed to turn in the rough draft back on Monday, and we were to get it back with notes today, then turn in a final draft on Wednesday next week. I've been having a flare up of inability to focus because of my ADD and not taking my vitamins that help me with it, and I didn't turn in the rough draft. As a result, my final grade on the paper will be lowered by one letter. So it needs to be a good paper.

You didn't have me for a prof. I require a prove up equal to roughly 40% of the assigned total page count.



That's why I require a prove up.

Psh, I did a 20 page research paper for my senior seminar in two days and got an A. Research and all.

Oh, I'm sure the paper could have been much, much better.

But my goal wasn't really to advance my writing skills.

I have difficulty writing in pieces, because I get really pissed when the words don't flow together properly.

Like, I have written 10 pages, come back to the paper, and been unable to pick up the right thread to make it flow the way I want. So I just delete those 10 pages and start over.

Because I just can't write the second 10 pages without the entire narrative flowing properly and be happy with it. I will stare at the page and be utterly unable to construct a sentence I like. And I can't move on to the next sentence until I'm happy with the first. When I do that, I end up with two sections that just don't fit together. I mean, I'm sure they're fine, but I can tell the flow is off, and it drives me insane.

I usually glance over my papers again to be sure I didn't miss grammar issues and such. But rewrites of even a paragraph are rare.

The paper isn't the end in and of itself. The end is what the paper is serving.

In the case of a class, that paper was generally a grade. So going for the good paper was obviously the superior choice. That said, I can't think of a circumstance where communicating a point wasn't an important part of a good paper. And as a history/philosophy major, essentially all of my papers were about communicating very particular points in a very clear, precise manner. Philosophy more directly structured and history more abstract, but central style not so removed from one another.

If I was doing grad level work, or looking to get published, then sure. I'd probably need to do a second draft. But for undergrad and the stuff I do for work? One draft was usually well more than what was needed. I only got lower than As on papers I really half-assed.

The problem is that I realistically never learned how. Only one year of my 12 years of grade school English was really concerned with teaching me to be a better writer (because it was the only teacher I ever had that actively forced you to do better over time). I wrote papers on books I didn't read, without sparknotes, and got perfect grades. Because it was a skill that came easy to me.

Same thing with studying. I have literally no clue how to study. It's not a skill I have, because it wasn't one I EVER needed until college (and even then, only rarely in my highest level classes). I have no clue how you do it. I could never succeed in a law program, because I just don't have that skill, and I have no clue how to develop it.

I tried, but by the time I needed it, I just couldn't do it. That's why I did well in history/philosophy. History sucked when you ended up with an ancient professor who cared a lot about specific names/dates. But most of the professors cared that you understand and explore the narrative, and it's okay if you didn't remember if the battle of whatever was in 1657 or 58 as long as you could really discuss the importance of that battle, its causes, its effects, its players, its overarching place in history, etc.

Philosophy was about arguments. It's simple, and poetic. You study philosophy by thinking and arguing with yourself. I'm good at that.