Fall Semester Starts

Fall 2014. My last fall semester as an undergrad. Craziness I say.
But! I've not got the time to think about that! Because I've got three clubs to keep going as well as my classload to uphold. Yaaaaay~

Random point of interest: I have my first smart phone. Received about a month or so ago. Still learning ins and outs, and it will by no means replace my laptop. But even within the first week of school, I am appreciating its versatility and usefulness. Like a calendar! And alarms! And a slew of sticky-notes! (I used to paste them all over my computer. Now I have an app for that. XD) And email access!! I can get into my school email and send emails to professors and staff and people while not at my laptop! Like between classes! It's fantastic. (now if only you could log/sign off on Android... But once you're on, you're on unless you take the entire account off the device. XP)

Good news: there are tons of incoming freshman who seem to be enthusiastic about a number of things! Here's hoping that extracurriculars are some of them!
I know that the Doctor Who Club has gotten a great influx of members, our last meeting with the president of the club was proof enough of that. (being the premiere of the new season probably helped) Alas, our president is heading to China for the semester, so I'll be looking out for all that, but there are plenty of people actually interested in positions, so there will be delegation occurring! 8D Hoorah!
The Underground, creative writing club, hasn't met yet, but first week of school is a bit hectic for that. We'll be getting together the following Saturday afternoon, though. Hopefully there's a good turnout there too.
And finally The Review! Literary magazine! I'm editor-in-chief again this year~ Buuut most of our staff has graduated/travel studied/left. So here's hoping for a good turnout there too! We're having interest meetings this and next Thursday, for general interest and staff. *crosses fingers for much staff too*
The Paladin, the school newspaper, needs recruits too. I'm trying to send people their way too, because over half their staff graduated or left. :/ And they publish every two weeks or so.

As such, I have already mad quite a few posters and ads of different sorts. :3 Such is the extracurricular route. Get to learn with Photoshop again.

(maybe we'll have enough people to have an actual specified PR person do this kind of thing... not that I don't enjoy it! But... I have a lot of other things to get done too. -w-' )

And let's hear it for actual classes too!
I'm taking about 6 classes: Intermediate Ballet, Writing Popular Fiction, Contemporary Issues, Statistics, Senior Paper Research, and Family Process. Also an Institute course: Teachings of the Living Prophets, where we go over the most recent General Conference talks (or at least some of them). So far, they are all interesting! I was most intimidated by Statistics, and although I'm still going to be wary because of online components and such, I think that I'll be able to grasp everything readily enough. Family Process is actually likely to be the one more challenging this year. It's with the same teacher I had Marriage & Family with last year, and while it was a fun course, it was definitely a challenging one.
My senior paper research class may end up being a mix of research and actual writing, for a number of reasons. For one, I generally like writing and researching simultaneously, although of course there's always re-writes an edits, etc. But also, I believe I already have a topic picked out. Our first class meeting and I seemed to get it approved; but now I feel like I need a deeper thesis... (or even a thesis period)
My intended topic is the portrayal of mental illness in To Kill A Mockingbird vs. Jane Eyre. Without even starting to write, I can list of nuuumerous qualities and points of interest and such. I've even got a little area for notes in my phone on the ideas. But... I don't feel like simply close analysis is going to be good enough. Sure, I can do the 20 page paper simply on comparing and contrasting the two portrayals, pointing out how they differ and what that conveys. But... Why is that important? Yes, it's intriguing and fun and speaks volumes about the popular/general view of mental illness in society at the time... but I want to make it applicable today. Somehow. *sigh* That's what this 'research' period is for, I suppose.

In other news, I got approval from my Contemporary Issues professor to use psychiactrictimes.com as a source! 8D He asked us to find a reputable news-type site for information regarding issues today. I've been a part of PsychiactricTimes for at least a year or so now, and they always have tons of interesting articles. I'm sure that it'll be a great resource for this semester. >3 *excited*

And! Friends all over are getting mission calls! And my roomie/friend just got engaged! And stories are making progress, for myself and for many others I know!

That reminds me: the Writing Popular Fiction course is just once a week, for a three hour block. But it will totally be worth it. And it's with Orson Scott Card. So yes, I'm looking forward to learning how to write better, and to help others as well. It seems like it's going to be like a workshop type class, so this will definitely be interesting. And fun. Because writing is always exciting. CB (yes, even those papers that I procrastinate and feel I could do without.)

So! I'm going to go off and do some homework, possibly. Or just read an awesome essay on fairies/fairy stories by Tolkien a friend pointed out to me. Or maybe I should finish cleaning around my desk... Hm. Well, the TARDISes there will be staying until the club meeting tomorrow night at the earliest...
Ah well. I'll figure it out.

Talk to ya again!

SO Soon

And yet again, I am off to Virginia for school! However, this is my last year of school as an undergraduate. O_o Wow. Three years has gone by super-fast! Gah!
Not sure if I'm ready for this... But it will work out. I hope. Mrah.

I did an online course over the summer, entitled "Personal and Family Finance." I finally finished the last exam the other day, and now I have to wait for it to get graded, but it's done now. GAH. Overall, the course was fine, and I learned a lot of great information. But the last chapter had to be on investing. Stocks and bonds, retirement... I am so barking paranoid now about getting a Roth IRA, but I don't even have a steady job yet, so I am holding off. Anxiously. XP But other than paranoia, the most annoying thing has been the delivering method of the exams. It's an online course, self-paced, and the quizzes and practice tests were online/downloadable. I was asked to go to the nearest test facility to take exams, which I understand and didn't mind accommodating, despite it being about 45 minutes' drive away. (I've been making the trip fairly frequently this summer anyway, explained later) But the tests have to be physically mailed. From Utah. So after I complete the necessary requirements and such, I order the test online, and have to wait around a week for the test to come in. Sure, gives me plenty of study time, but I wanted to get this class over before the summer was done! And there was a lot of work to be done! So I usually ended up moving on after a few days of taking the practice tests... This last test. I wasn't sure if it would get here in time before I left for school. But hallelujah that it did! I've done it, done the best I can, logically guessed on what I was unsure about, and it's sent off. *throws hands in the air*

Speaking of going to Alpine frequently, I was able to find a wonderful dance studio to work out with during the summer! Cynthia's been a great teacher, and really helping me improve (and not lose whatever I had before XD). The other ladies in the classes were always lots of fun, too. It was fantastic to see them still working on keeping in shape, even though most of them are retired or close thereto. I enjoyed having class with all of them, and look forward to seeing them again at some point~ (possibly when I come back for Christmas?)
Also got to see a few friends in town after class. The Currys are a wonderful family, and it's been fun to hang out with them for a few hours twice a week. Yes, we would have liked a bit more time... But I had classwork, and some of them had jobs. So it worked out. Had lots of fun with the time we did have, though! One of the girls was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, but they're all catching on pretty quick what that means and will entail. So I'm glad that they have support for that, and that it's getting taken care of now rather than discovered later. Yay medicine! (and advice, and magazines, and recipes, and seminars, and...)


Oh, and if anyone is interested, here is a link to my Princess Tutu fanfiction! I've been posting the chapters, and I'm up to 40. Just 5 more to go, and the whole thing will be up! I'll probably finish posting next week, though, as this one I'll be traveling/moving. :/ But that will give you some time to catch up to the rest of it, if you want. XD
And I also started an analysis blog called TuTuTV, wherein I post an analyze Princess Tutu music videos, because there are so many wonderful ones, and I just can't go too long without analyzing something. :D It's quite fun.

Well I best get back to packing! I'll try to update again once I'm at school. Give a rundown of my classes and such. It's my last year... <w< SO there's a senior paper to be writing. (got to get it approved first)