« September 2005 | Main | November 2005 »
October 26, 2005
Happiness?
life
I feel like I have nothing to write about, but of course there's plenty that I can relate. Life's been going along solidly, with almost nary a bump. Now that I'm a senior and that I've sent my main college application off, I feel like I have naught a care in the world; practically all the stresses are gone. All that remains to claim my attention are my hobbies and my friends, things which I'm happy to give attention to.
My senior year is by far the easiest I've had at school; there isn't as much homework, and the classes are much more fun. Calculus is pretty cool, and Physics is downright awesome! I love working magic on the numbers and the little miniature worlds and figuring up what the results will be. French is pretty easy, although it may get a bit harder in the future, and the rest of the classes are also going quite smoothly.
The large senior research project does hold a bit of stress, but I still have plenty of time to work on it; the first draft for the word processing portion isn't due until December 7th. I suppose I should make sure not to lose track of this deadline, but even so my main challenge will probably be getting enough sources, particularly book ones. There aren't many books about PDAs.
The upcoming regatta is also making me a bit nervous, but I'm sure we'll survive. I just need to keep a good attitude about it. Even though our four doesn't usually feel terribly stable, and I don't feel terribly well conditioned, I do fine on the erg pieces and hopefully the next two practices will help the boat set up properly. I still don't know for sure if I'll actually be in the boat, but it seems likely since I've been rowing with it.
Now I just need to buckle down on my ukin' and writing, and make sure to live hard with my friends! My ukulele practices have become lamentably infrequent and this blog could obviously use with quite a bit of fattening. After crew ends this monday, though, it should be easy to bring my hobbies back up to speed.
Love your friends and enjoy your life!
Posted by Trevor Savage at 9:19 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2005
Colleges, Writing, and Loneliness (like I can bloody complain)
life
I feel like I'm starting to get a handle on my William & Mary application. The application itself is mostly done but for a bit of work on the activities section (it's rather vague in what should be included), my essay seems good enough, and although I've yet to start my résumé it should be easy and objective. My mom made a bunch of suggestions for my essay but I really didn't like that process; she was pretty much arguing for some ethereal "well reading" quality over the actual meaning of the essay.
Myself, I feel pretty anesthetized to the smoothness of a piece or writing; the better something is written the better it flows, but other than obvious things like incorrect or awkward usage of structure I don't notice writing "not flowing well". To me, getting the actual meaning of the essay across is far more important, and should always be the priority when choosing between two possible phrasings. My mom fought tooth and nail for good flow though, which quite unsettled me; I don't think I'll consult her much about my essay again.
It's strange how much easier I find writing for my blog than writing my college essay. Other than the essay's word limit they're both really the same; in both instances I write mainly about me. Part of what makes the essay harder is the pressure which is on it; it, more or less alone, has to woo the admissions officers. More so, though, the different editing process seems to get in the way. When I write for my blog I merely write what I want to say, reviewing it to make sure there're no mistakes and that the sentences came out how I wanted them to. It's largely an unconscious process; the writing and corrections just flow out. With the essay, however, I have a handful of other people offering corrections as well. I find these difficult to consider because I'm unable to assimilate them into my emotional writing flow.
In short, I'm not used to concentrating on form. My writing concentrates on function, with the assumption that with practice form will follow. While I will obvious correct any errors in form which I notice, my mind isn't really tuned to this wavelength. My writing's purpose is to convey a point, not to look pretty and flow like silk. Without meaning, appearance is useless.
Other than the college process things seem to be flowing well enough; there aren't any other turbulence in my portion of the sea, although things are a bit calm for my tastes. We really need more to do on the Eastern Shore; you can usually scare up one activity per weekend, whether it be yard sales, movies, eating out, a music fest, or some fusion of the above, but so far it's been quite rare to see several activities in one weekend.
This has really plagued me this last 3 day weekend; I've severed my connection to gaming, more or less, to make way for the far-superior socialization, but this has the downside of leaving me dependent on people who aren't always around as much as I might like. I wouldn't change this for the world but it still gets a bit lonely some weekends.
Posted by Trevor Savage at 9:23 PM | Comments (1)