*bounces in*

Thanks Chi! Plans? Nope. I still have that paper to write. I'm in class all afternoon too. So no plans outside the norm. Aaron is cooking me a birthday meal though. He asked me what I wanted and he's going to cater to me tonight. :3 Already got some NY Strips (were on sale, but still!) and he's going to BBQ them and do homemade twice baked potatoes and fresh greenbeans. He even asked me what I wanted to drink. :XD I'm loving the pampering.

Oooh. That sounds really nice! Yay!

Aww, happy birthday, Izumi!
Sorry I missed telling you! I hope your day goes awesome and the meal Aaron is cooking for you rocks. :) It sounds yum.

It does, doesn't it? Especially the twice-baked potatoes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZOOMY!

That is all. :)

Thanks guys! I'm going to go slink back and work on this paper. It's frustrating as I'm really not finding much to support my paper. Talk about radical thinking...maybe I need to not care as much about my step kids?

Mmmm, twice-baked potatoes. :drool:
Step-parent rights are definitely a more radical issue. Here's a nice article from TIME that may help a bit, I don't know. Are Stepparents Real Parents? - TIME

Good luck with the paper! :hug:

Thanks for that article, Steel! That was very well written and had many points in it I wanted to argue. It's sad that because it doesn't evoke so much emotion that it won't be made a big deal over news stations to gain the momentum it needs to be changed. It's sad. Even my own father was arguing that the law SHOULDN'T be changed and was right the way it was.

I'm sorry but I married into this fractured family, and I understood by marrying my husband I was also taking on helping him raise his two kids as a secondary mother. I've told both him and the kids many times that I know I'm not the 'real mom' and have put emphasis and corrected people and said I'm 'step mom' but I honestly wear that badge with pride. These kids weren't born by my decision, but because of the love and devotion of their father and how much I love and respect him and want to support that relationship I emotionally try my hardest to treat these children with as much love as my own children, if not more. I just wish their mother would appreciate it, and would grant me the right to be a part of their family.

Do you have to give a speech on it, or is it entirely via writing?

*flops over and sleeps* Class... meeting... do not want. Want sleepy! T-T

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Thread updated. I'll be off and on today, but mostly off until about 3pm EST. Depends on how quickly I get my stuff done/how long my class and meeting take.

Still taking offers. :3

You're taking offers, I'm buying BOOBS. Maybe we can work something out. :)

I'm thinking no.

Ouch. :(

Nothing stings quite like getting shot down by your own wife.

Perhaps you should attempt romance. :XD

ROFL. Romance fail.

Guys just don't get it sometimes, do they? :XP

Yah I have to give a sort of speech...About the paper, but she hasn't really elaborated.

Nope, they don't. T_T *heaves a sigh*

Is it for your final? I only ask since there's what... 3 or 4 weeks left of the semester? I still can't keep my dates straight.

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When does your summer session begin?

I'm glad the article helped, Izumi. :)
I'm always happy to help with research. It's one of my best skills.

Oh lordy, kids. I'm exhausted, and I have four more hours left. *headdesk*

No my final is yet ANOTHER paper that she gives us the class before last. We then have two days to write a response and type it up and we hand it on the last day. She said if we want the paper back with her notes we will need to include a SASE when we turn it in.

I've got to work on Essay 5 now, while she looks over the rough draft we handed in today. Essay 5's rough draft is due Tuesday. Luckily, it doesn't require any research as it's an essay regarding our experience in the class and peer editing. I think that overall that experience sucked. I found consistently that people were below par. I think only one or two papers I read felt like any effort were put forth in them and it kind of saddens me. While I could do better, I do try to make my papers have substance. I also try to leave as much feedback as I can, without being too harsh.

I hope you can get a good sleep tonight, Steel. :(

Izumi, that sounds an awful lot like my peer editing experience in Composition 101. We were asked to keep a folder with all our work, in a specific order. I now forget exactly what it consisted of as it's been going on 4 years, but I know we had to have all of our papers in order, the drafts showing progress, etc.

And I think a handful of reflection papers.

I hated peer editing because barely anyone did their assignments. I was asked to peer edit this guy's work when he had like 2 sheets of paper in his entire folder. I tried to be nice about it, but I ended up saying, "I think we both know you didn't do your homework, so I can't really offer you any constructive criticism on getting this up to par."

Something like that. I just wasn't impressed. I hated how some students just sloughed off.

Yah I know. I had to edit this one girl's essay this afternoon and I just said I think it has potential, but it just doesn't FEEL like you're trying to persuade me to do something. I said to her what kind of action do you WANT the reader to take? I told her seriously she needs to narrow down her paper to a SPECIFIC type or instance of the great lakes being polluted and really dig up the facts. Move people to want to make a change. I seriously read her paper and thought "so what"?

The other girl's was a breath of fresh air and I told her you have an AWESOME idea and I can tell you're passionate about it. The only problem I had was how did she want to approach it. I wrote several ideas on how to flesh it out to make it a really awesome paper.

I just wish people could passionately pursue their college education, instead of just 'getting by'. I guess I'm kind of guilty of that in my Emergency Health, but that class and subject lacks any intrinsic value to me and I really find myself struggling when she throws in tons of medical terms. She teaches a medical terminology class, and the girl who sits next to me (and helps me with the terms she throws on her quizzes!!) says she is a total and utter bitch in her other class...she's all nice and stuff to people in this class as it's pretty basic.

That could be it, though. English Composition to some of those people is like Emergency Health is to you. I lack passion for Latin. I lacked passion for Zoology. I still got decent grades, but I didn't apply myself in those in the slightest. I couldn't care less about some of my classes.

Plus Freshmen are usually trying to get into the groove and have yet to be inspired by classes. That, and typically they're very young.

Well I'm not really for all the grammatical shit and reading all the things in the book she assigns...I just have too many opinions for my damn good and was flabbergasted when people's faces looked blank when we were given assignment topics. I guess I have some sympathy for those fresh out of high school, as it's just a case of ignorance. :XP

You'll see the flabbergasted faces for years to come. :XD But if you can get into your meaty classes with someone as passionate as you, it's going to be that better of an experience. I just wish my friend hadn't encountered the hardship she did. She had to temporarily drop out this fall. Not sure when she can get back.

Oh, man, this is why I loved being in Honors College. Sure, we *all* did our papers 2 hours before they were due, but we were good at it. And we all cared about A's.

Our honors director said he specifically looked for how good people were at procrastinating when accepting them into the honors college. He said it seemed to be a trait nearly every very good student shared. It always amused the heck out of us.