The end is nigh...

So this is that weird zone between Thanksgiving break and finals, when things are kinda winding down but kinda not because there's still stuff to do. Like, you know, finals. I spent most of my break doing homework, so that I'd be able to be more relaxed once school started again. Finished my feedback for my fiction and nonfiction workshops, and read Moby-Dick (yes, all of it. It's actually not bad, sort of presciently postmodern-esque). So I felt very accomplished with myself, until my professors went and assigned a whole new batch of homework. I did manage to take care of a big chunk of it over break, but part of me was hoping I wouldn't have to do anything else after that, ever... And then I went and got a cold, which was bound to happen sooner or later. This weekend is going to be tiring but fun: one of my classes, in lieu of a final exam, is doing a roleplaying game where everybody gets to be someone in some southern African political group. I'm on the Zimbabwe team, playing Robert Mugabe. It shall be most enjoyable.

On another note, I thought I'd share my personal note-taking strategies for class. As everyone says, to succeed in school, one must take good notes. I've become a compulsive note-taker--I'm always the guy typing madly away even when the professor says "You don't have to bother writing this down..." Which results in endless, confusing notes--in some lecture classes, I'll amass 4 pages, single-spaced, 12-pt font, for a single class session. In some classes, though, I really don't need to take notes most of the time (like writing workshops--noting down every single thing every single person says about every single story/essay leads to a lot of redundancy); in these classes, I tend to take notes longhand, and I need to keep my hands busy while listening. Which results in cryptic sheets of notepad paper covered mostly in doodles:


I am confident that, within a year, if I review my notes, this won't make any more sense to me than it does to you. But it looks pretty!