i spent 6 hours doing pre-calc homework, which incidentally is nothing more than algebra review. that's just 6 hours for one assignment. i get two a week, meaning i spend approx. 12 hours doing math each week. it is becoming quite a hassle, mostly because i am retaining next to nothing and half the time i get the wrong answers or have to interpret the answers in the back of the book.
today i realized that i have the first draft of a 5 page paper due on the 23rd. i'm thinking about doing the paper on jane eyre, but i'm not sure yet. i'm beginning to worry. that date may seem like a far way off, but next weekend i have to start preparing for a pre-calc exam. i'm going to the math tutor center for some extra help, since professor husu is of no use to me. he's very scatter brained. it isn't that he doesn't care, it is just that his office hours conflict with my classes, and he has a very mathematics way of explaining things that i just don't understand. i need someone to baby me when it comes to math, since i've forgotten the basics. i don't even know how to do division without a calculator anymore, and i still count on my fingers. i never even learned my times tables...
tomorrow i'm writing a paper on huckleberry finn on the issue of racism. it isn't the most original idea, but it is one of the set paper topics that we have to write about, so i don't really have a choice. i'm not sure which side i am taking yet. there is the view point that twain humanizes jim and redefines the word "nigger" through that humanization. on the other hand, the last 30 pages of the book basically makes jim look like a "nigger" in the more traditional, less flattering sense of the word. plus, the class issue is iffy, as a number of well-to-do characters in the novel also happen to use the word "nigger", right alongside the lower class characters like huck.
and what is it with the word "nigger"? why is everyone in class so afraid to say it when discussing this novel? they dance around it by saying "n-word", completely ignoring the context in which it is being spoken. newsflash, everyone knows what you mean when you say "n-word". i'm offended when people carelessly throw it around too, but academic discussions are an entirely different context.
anyway, Sunday i will be in new york city visiting some museum. it was a last minute field trip professor roden had to throw together because the exhibit won't be there next week. i'm stressed because i don't really speak to people in the class. normally his field trips are a lot of fun. last semester we went to some german museum, and tabitha, cathy and lashon spoke to me quite a bit. that was at the end of the semester, though. things are much different by the end of the semester, you get to know people in the class a little bit better and don't feel on guard around them. or, at least, i don't.
and i'll be entirely honest, i feel very dumb when surrounded by people in both my american literature and victorian literature classes. everyone is so profound, and everything i think or say in relation to the texts is stupid surface analysis. there is this kid andrew in my american lit. class who remembers every little detail from every book he reads. it is crazy. i envy people like that, who have really good memories. i begin forgetting things directly after i read them. usually i forget things while i'm reading them. it is embarrassing, because as an english major i'm expected to dissect these books that i can't even recall.
blah, i should go to bed. i am making myself get up at 11:30 so i can start planning for my huckleberry finn paper. i'm just procrastinating, i guess. sleep should be a welcomed comfort this semester, since i've lost interest in everything else. danny hasn't been emailing me because he's busy, and really the only other person i speak to online at the moment is mikey. everyone else is always away. i don't want to watch television, don't want to play video games, don't want to do anything. i just want to sit in silence and/or stress about school.
i might go to spectrum's GLBTQ support group this wednesday, if i can make the time. it is highly doubtful that i will be able to, but who knows? it is my last semester and if i don't do something about that pretty soon, i will have nothing to look back fondly on. it will be like high school all over again...