I have started a collection of hobbies over the past year…
scrapbooking
painting
blogging
headband making
instant photography
And as if this list were not long enough, today marks the first day of apartment gardening. I really love flowers they smell wonderful and some even taste good! (Don’t knock it until you try it!) However, having someone buy me a bouquet of roses only to watch them die seems like a colossal waste of money.
Having someone buy me flowers so that I can watch them grow and bloom is a brilliant idea!
And so today I sent Eric to purchase the beginnings of my apartment garden.
provence lavender
mint
confederate jasmine
terracotta window box
2 terracotta pots
potters soil
miracle gro
I also learned my first lesson in gardening today (which also applies to life): don’t be too hasty.
You see, I really wanted jasmine so that I could make tea. As it turns out confederate jasmine isn’t a true jasmine. It’s simply been classified as jasmine because of it’s smell. In other words…it’s not good for making tea and putting in salad. Rather than return the confederate jasmine (I felt like that would be the same as adopting a baby and then taking it back, because it’s not all you wanted it to be), I’m keeping it. I did, however, order some maid-of-orleans jasmine from which I will make a tasty tea.
The maid-of-orleans jasmine was a special order from TopTropicals. They say it will ship in 10 days. Considering how impatient I was to get this apartment garden started, 10 days feels like an eternity.
Photos of my plant-potting adventure coming soon.
Here’s to my plants living healthy, happy lives. Cheers!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/knmurphy/ / CC BY 2.0
Why hello end-of-the-semester!
You sure did sneak up on me.
I take that back…projects, homework, and additional readings never sneak up on me, because I am just a bit obsessive when it comes to managing my time wisely.
Some people are not so wise. So here I am– I live another semester to pick up the slack.
So now I’m going to tell you all the secret to never getting stuck in a position where you have to do all of the work for your group…
Nominate yourself as team slacker!
Just kidding! What’s the point of paying for your education, if you’re going to try to get away with learning as little as possible? You do remember that you made a decision to go to college and you’re paying for right? I mean…if you don’t want to be in school, you don’t have to be!
The only thing you can do to make your life easier is prepare for catastrophe every time and brace yourself. In my life as an academic over-achiever, I’ve developed a group-project protocol to minimize (note: it’s not always possible to eliminate) stress in desperate times.
- Take control of the project from the beginning. If your teammates know that you are serious about the project and serious about your grade, they’re more likely to get working right away.
- Set due dates along the way. Separate your project into phases and set a due date for each phase. Make sure that the due date for the final project is at least a week before the professor’s due date. This gives you time to edit and compensate for any work that did not get done.
- Find the hard workers in your group and assign everyone a slacker to tend to. Some slackers may give the illusion that they are working on the project. If you don’t check up on them you may find that the “work” they were doing is unacceptable.
- Be ready to do someone else’s work. If you want an awesome grade and you’ve got slackers in your group, you’re going to have to pick up the slack. The best way to prepare for this extra work is to make sure that you understand the project as a whole. It’s difficult to do someone else’s part of a project, if you don’t know what the complete project needs to look like.
- Let your professor know who carried the majority of the burden. Do this without whining and without disclosing too much detail (which may make you seem like a tattle-tale). This may seem like a futile step, but I look at it this way: If the professor does do something about it (e.g. dock the slacker’s grade), the slacker might learn that he can’t always get away with slacking. This may save that slacker’s future group-mates a lot of stress, if he learns his lesson!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my five-step protocol for academic over-achievers working on groups.
(side note: etsy shop is “up” but mostly in the testing phase. I’ve decided not to invest too much energy in it, as my online endeavors (e.g. examiner.com and ehow) are monopolizing most of my spare time.)
L. Diaz Copyright 2009
I have a thing for starting art projects and never finishing. My artistic endeavors range from crochet to painting; from coloring books to scrapbooking.
While I have completed two entire scrapbooks and a half a dozen paintings, I don’t plan on opening up an art museum any time soon.
However, I do feel the beginnings of an etsy shop coming on!
Over the past few months I’ve become increasingly obsessed with these chic headbands found in stores like anthropologie. Naomi Davis’s sold out etsy shop, only caused my obsession to worsen. I had to have a headband– or two– but at $30 a piece I would never be able to afford the variety that my fashionista heart desired.
and then my inner [failed] artist decided to take charge!
After an initial mishap with some yarn and a crochet needle, I have successfully created my very own headbands! I have a few adjustments to make to my schematic and I will be offering them (assuming all goes well)– at reasonable prices– in my very own Etsy shop!
What do you think?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/velkr0/ / CC BY 2.0
“America, ever-idealistic, seems wary of the vocational-education track. We are not comfortable limiting anyone’s options. Telling someone that college is not for him seems harsh and classist and British, as though we were sentencing him to a life in the coal mines. I sympathize with this stance; I subscribe to the American ideal. Unfortunately, it is with me and my red pen that that ideal crashes and burns.”
- In the Basement of the Ivory Tower by Professor X
A lengthy read I suppose, but a lovely read indeed! This article is a beautifully written piece on the trials and tribulations of both community college English professor and community college student.
The arts are so often frowned upon by professors and students of hard sciences. However, the answer to a multiple choice question is clear to a Biology or Chemistry professor. The English professor must be more cautious, as his student’s grades are entirely based on his discretion.
In accordance with my philosophy, he fails those who fail. As a grade school teacher, community college professor, or university professor, you’re not doing a student who should fail a favor by passing him.
If you only read one thing this week let it be In the Basement of the Ivory Tower.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
