I've always been my own worst critic. Big time. It's no wonder that I've been super hesitant about actually moving forward with attempting to publish my thesis. You'd think the praises of the super intelligent Professor Burroughs would be enough of a kick in the ass! I guess not.
Well, my boyfriend very earnestly approached me and said that I need to stop being my own worst enemy. He said that such beautiful writing shouldn't be kept locked up somewhere and that I do have talent, as much as I'd like to deny it.
Sitting in the dentist's office this morning, I picked up an article about challenging assumptions you have about yourself and how it can break mental self-created bonds. Like me telling myself that I'm awful at math all the time (another thing I have to work on...)
Enough is enough and I'm planning on getting my act together. I contact the head of a local writing workshop and hope to get involved soon. I need to get the few essays I've written over the summer polished. Goal is to send it all out in early fall.
So, I registered and continued studying for the GRE today. Instead of playing around with the vocab (which is actually fun for me), I opened the big book of GRE and I read the following passage:
" Too many people think standardized tests as cruel exercises in futility, as the oppressive instruments of a faceless societal machine. People who think this way usually do not do well on these tests. The key to discovery that people who ace standardized tests have made is that raging against the machine doesn't hurt. If that's what you choose to do, you will waste energy. What these high scorers choose to do instead is to think of the test as a game.... You may think that the GRE isn't a fair or decent predictor of skills--but that attitude won't help you get into graduate school."
The book continues on to say that the skills accrued (OH LOOK ONE OF THOSE WORDS YOU THINK IS SO ADVANCED! -__-) through studying for the test is an art form of some kind. Oh boy.
What I do understand, all assuming GRE book, is that the GRE is an excellent BUSINESS. That's right. You've already made $200 off this broke college graduate just in study books and registering. Time is money, but I can't accurately evaluate how much time it will take to master this supposed art of GRE taking. None the less, there's more money there.
I have a 3.5 GPA. I attended a wonderful school with pretty challenging course load. The GRE isn't graduate school. It's just an expensive test run by a BUSINESS to get some score that claims to nail a student's abilities. Now that, GRE book, is bullshit. I'm angry at your tone and won't read you until I'm well and ready, Mister.
So, I think I started making a majority of my entries "Friends Only" 6 months ago. Oh well! Least I took the time to do this eventually XD Oh the juicy secrets you're missing out on :-p
If you'd like to be added to my friends- please comment or e-mail me. Thanks!
I bought these way back in Boston because I was amused with the cartoon on the back (basically edamame dilbert's adventures into snack-dom) . Today I realized how similar the edamame cartoon thing looks like Dilbert..and decided I needed to share this with the world because I'm over tired XD
I don't know why, but I kind of feel like George from Sienfield in that episode regarding the "Pensky" file today. Finishing up my internship is bittersweet. I'm leaving my "baby" in someone else's hands with written instructions.
Okay, so I admit it. My lovely locks are not naturally red. I've been dying my hair since October last year. People here at work tease me for being the stereotypical looking Irish girl with hard core pale skin, freckles, and red hair (all of which besides my boss thinks is genetic). I was flattered that my home dye job seems real.
but, I got to thinking recently...
My mother's side of the family is known for its red heads. My spit fire uncle and aunt sported bright auburn locks before age caught up with them. My cousins have strawberry blonde locks I'd love to steal so I wouldn't have to depend on Nice and Easy 101 every 4 weeks. I was only blessed with summer highlights. No one else in my hugenormous extendended family has red hair.
A lot of boys I know have a thing for the lushious red locks. What is it about the color that pulls so many to it? Is it because the color stands out in a crowd? Just how rare is a true red head these days? Is this attraction to the color nature's way of trying to preserve a dying trait?
Anyway! I came upon this article and was fascinated. Hope some of you find it as interesting as I did.
Will this century see the last of redheads?
With 4% of people carrying gene, it probably will fade
She was just walking down the street with her sister, in her old neighborhood, when an elderly woman stopped her car in front of her and called out, “I love your hair! It’s so beautiful!”
Caitlin Tydings was about 8 then, and caught off guard. Now a high school senior, she has since grown accustomed to strangers commenting on her strawberry-blond locks.
“My hair has always been somewhat of a personal trademark,” says the 18-year-old from Irondequoit, N.Y., the only redhead in her Irish family. “It’s just so rare here. I don’t have any other red-headed friends, and I can only count two or three girls — not even — in my school with red hair.”
If predictions by the Oxford Hair Foundation come to pass, the number of natural redheads everywhere will continue to dwindle until there are none left by the year 2100.
The reason, according to scientists at the independent institute in England, which studies all sorts of hair problems, is that just 4 percent of the world’s population carries the red-hair gene. The gene is recessive and therefore diluted when carriers produce children with people who have the dominant brown-hair gene.
Dr. John Gray’s often publicized explanation of his foundation’s findings: “The way things are going, red hair will either be extremely rare or extinct by the end of the century.”
Red hair — the kind that does not come from a bottle — certainly has made the endangered list. But with 4 percent of 6.4 billion people carrying the gene, says one scientist, it is too large a figure to be wiped out completely in the next 95 years.
“I think someone may want to check their calculator,” says the University of Rochester Medical Center’s David Pearce, an associate professor with a Ph.D. in biochemistry and genetics. The red-hair gene “will dilute out and become rare, but there are a variety of other factors that can change hair color that are not really understood well right now.”
The gene responsible for red hair — known as the melanocortin 1 receptor, or MC1R — was only discovered in the late 1990s. People have a good chance of being born with red hair if they have a mutation of that gene.
Red hair is found in all ethnic backgrounds but is most commonly associated with people of Celtic descent.
“I usually get, ‘Oh, she’s Irish,’” says Tydings. She doesn’t mind the assumption; she feels a special connection to the Emerald Isle natives who share her red hair, fair skin and freckles.
“I’m so into my heritage, it’s nice to express it physically.”
Red hair skipped two generations before sprouting on Brianna McBride, a 5-year-old preschooler from Penfield, N.Y. It comes from her great-grandmother on her father’s side.
“As a baby, we’d be in the store and people would always try to touch her head. She didn’t like that, so she was very shy,” recalls her mom, Alice.
As Brianna got older, “we started to point out other redheads, and she started understanding.”
The rules are easy; just post 10 things (in random order) that recently made you happy! Then tag 10 people and force them to post this meme. Because it is good. Everyone needs a little happiness once in a while.
1: Getting a text from the boy this morning wishing me luck and a good morning.
2: My boss said she was very impressed by my work.
3: Getting to leave work early to go to a book bindery. Need I say more?
4: Noticing my make-up looks fabulous today.
5: Got a call from Rob last night. Haven't heard from him in ages.
6: Had two excellent interviews with the docs today.
7: Getting a smexy text message from the boy at lunch.
8: My mom's cute voice mail.
9: The sheer feeling of accomplishment as I prepare for a meeting.
10: Getting checked out in the cafe..thanks for the free ego boost Mr.!
I tag...Honoumiko, l00kslikerain, heartbreakings0ng, and
So, after being on the road last night for 9 hours, in 7 traffic jams, and seeing 12 accidents..I came back to college and proceeded to ignore the draft due for Biology and just..went to bed. At 10 at night. That's really early considering how I usually run. Maybe this whole 9 hours of sleep thing is a good idea.
I'd like to take this moment to thank those who have been such good friends to me, my family, and to my darling. Thank you guys your love and support! I don't know what I'd do without you :)
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