Thursday, February 19, 2009

Math + Jess = ??

On Saturday, awesome blogger Tara Lazar is posting a super special Canterwood Crest video! There are three people in the vid and it's so fun! I filmed my bit on Wednesday and am sooo excited to see it spliced together. I'll put a reminder here on Sat, so definitely check that out.

Big thanks in advance to Tara and Roshni! You both rock.

I took a bit of a writing break this week and have been in cleaning out mode. Yeah. First tackled the closet. Boxes of clothes and shoes went to charity. Next? Books. Ah, but don't sob yet. They were textbooks that I couldn't sell back to FSU 'cause they were too old and/or worn. Seriously. I kept my math textbooks (Why?! Wasn't I tortured enough?), my G-I-A-N-T humanities book, a Spanish textbook that had notes in it and a falling apart communications book. Goodbye!

In the back of my math book, I found a piece of paper that I used to average my grade after every quiz or homework assignment. And, um, that grade kept going doooowwwwn with every quiz. *blush* And the SUPER sad part? I had a freaking calculator, but I *still* messed up numbers when averaging my OWN grade. Nooo! But it's true. I must be smarter now (ha!) and I noticed a few mistakes when I looked at the paper yesterday. I actually made my grade higher than it was. But even my poor averaging skills didn't raise the grade enough to keep it from being embarrassing. :)

The worst thing was that I was sixteen when I took that math class and I spent 3 hours a day in class, five days a week during the summer. It was one of those six week classes so the schedule was super condensed. I came home and did 3+ hours of homework to keep up and still didn't get the material. The poor math teacher tried to help me, but it just didn't work. I failed for weeks even after extra credit.

Near the end of the class, my prof handed me back a math quiz with a C+ on it. OMG! Yes! I grabbed the paper and said, "Thanks, man!"

Thanks, man. To a professor. Niiice. :D But, hey. I was excited.

And, when going through my boxes of books, I discovered a few things:

* I read a lot in college. A. Lot. And yet, I don't remember plots for several of the books. Hmm.

* I have an abundance of Shakespeare volumes. Seriously. And he's not even my fave guy.

* The gorgeous Norton anthologies (I have, like, 4.) deserve their own shelf. They're pretty.

* Ditto the essay anthologies.

* And, no matter how many times I had to read it in college (twice, I believe), I will never like Beloved. I know, I know. Toni Morrison. Oprah. But it's not for me.

That concludes this super-weird ramble about math and old books. Carry on.

3 comments:

Stacy Nyikos said...

I tried to sell some books back to the Notre Dame bookstore when I was an undergrad, and I remember this one particular day really well because I had a brand spanking new American Government book. Used only by me. Only one semester. They person doing the buying back said, "Sorry, but there's a new edition coming out." It was the one great spontaneous comeback in my entire life. I picked up the now, apparently, worthless volume and said, "Great. I guess I'll...read it again." And the sad thing is, I have. I've consulted the constitution and various sections often. So much for "new" editions.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I had the same experience with calc. I took a six week early morning summer class. Didn't understand any of it. I ended up memorizing whole pages of homework, hoping that the same problems would come up on the test. Somehow I got out with a B. My professor would have loved getting called man. He was an old hippie who thought that he could see the devine in math.

I agree with you about Beloved. I've read at least three other books by Morrison and Beloved is really not her best work.

Lianne said...

I feel your pain, I'm horrible at math!

Counting down to Saddlehill Academy!

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