DONE!

The macro test turned out to be pretty hard. A calculator really would've come in handy, but eh, what can you do? It's over, and that's all I really care about right now. I'm finally free!

A nice, quiet day at the office today. It was just Wanda and I for most of the morning, so her and I went out to get lunch at Kewpee's together around noon. I hadn't been there since the week or two before leaving for London, so I was pretty excited about finally getting my lips around a king-sized olive burger. Mmmm.

Talked to grandma this afternoon. I guess some of my cousins are going over to her house around 4ish to see my A. Mary and U. Tom, but I'll have to miss out since I still have some work ahead of me. It sounds like Stefy and I will head down there tomorrow though for a visit, so that'll be nice. I'm really glad that Stef is going to have a chance to meet them, especially since they're up in Michigan so infrequently.

That's it for now. This might be my last post for the weekend, but if and when I get around to posting again, I'll probably have some pics to show off from my visit with the Shaughnessy's.

In case it's not clear, studying is much, much worse than actually taking exams. Once you go into class and take the test, it's guaranteed to be over within two hours. The same can't be said for studying. I just knocked off about 4-4.5 hours of cramming for my EC 302 final tomorrow. This is probably my second-easiest (or hardest, if you're a 'glass is half-empty' person) test of the week, so I guess it wasn't as much of a pain as studying for my micro test yesterday. Still, my brain is approaching the applesauce phase, so I don't know up from down right now.

Speaking of my microeconomics test, it actually went really well today. I felt pretty awkward about my chances headed into class this afternoon, but for some reason, it just felt like things clicked when I sat down. The first part was multiple-choice, like always, and I basically skipped right over it to concentrate on the story problems, since they're worth more points, and can nab partial credit. There was a bunch of really complicated stuff on this test that I didn't know enough about—boring stuff like Edgeworth boxes, the Cournot/Nash equilibrium, and a bunch of other crazy models named after smart white dudes—but since we were able to use notes on the test, I had a pretty good handle on the problems. All I really needed to do was follow my work from the sample test the prof gave us, and I was able to get what seemed like the right answers. I dunno though, I've been wrong before. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how I really did.

Today was my grandpa's 79th birthday. Can you believe it? Honestly, he's the coolest dude, and just an overall great grandfather, so I hope he had a nice birthday. Every year he always says that all he wants for his b-day is another one, which seems like a good attitude in a somewhat backward, cynical sorta way. I'm probably going to see him in the next day or so, since my Godparents are in town. For those who don't know, this is my Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom (my mom's aunt and uncle) who live in Florida. I haven't seen them in about 18 months, and they haven't been to Michigan in quite a while, so I'm really looking forward to our visit (whenever it ends up happening).

I just added my "21 For 2005 Mix" to the events sidebar on the right of this page. Take a look at it if you have some free time. Basically I just felt like sharing my favorite tunes of the year with everyone. I think music is one of those things that makes life better, and since it's such an important part of my life, I thought I'd pass along my favorites to my loyal readers.

Anyway, I guess that's it for now. Stefy's home in Bloomfield Hills tonight after finishing all her tests, so I'm here alone tonight. I'm pretty zonked right now, but I think there could be a couple episodes of Curb in my future before bedtime. Night, night!

Well, day one wasn't too bad. I think the COM 225 exam went pretty well. This test felt like the easiest one I've had in that class, and it seemed like I had an easier time flying through the answers. Hopefully I did well.

Today is the big one. My microeconomics final. I started studying yesterday at 2:30 in the afternoon, and didn't finish until about 8:30 p.m. Of course, I took a total of about an hour and a half worth of breaks during that six hour chunk of time, but it was still a lot of stuff to cram into my tiny little brain. I'm really not sure what to expect on this one. While I haven't kept up on our practice homework sets as well as I should have since our last test, I had a relatively easy time with the practice final exam. Still, my prof has a tendency to throw totally new and unrelated material on his tests that wasn't on his sample test. Right now it's basically hope for the best, but expect the worst.

Tomorrow is the home stretch. I'll spend most of my afternoon/evening tonight studying for my macroeconomics test. While I generally have an easier time with macro, it's still a really hard class. Whatever happens, all I care about right now is how I'll feel at 9:45 tomorrow morning.

My script, The Plagiarist = Registered. Yep, so for anyone thinking about stealing my amazing screenplay idea and making a movie out of it, you'll have to fight me and the Writer's Guild of America, East for it. I also submitted it for consideration to MSU's literary periodicaly "The Offbeat." No clue what they'll do with it yet, but I guess it's good just to get more eyeballs on that thing. I just hope they didn't think it sucked.

Day one of three for finals week. As much as I like to grouse about my exams, this semester is still probably one of my easiest yet. That's not to say that these won't be really tough exams, but the studying is a lot more focused than, say, having to write two or three ball-busting English papers in a two day swing, like I have in years past. Today is my COM 225 test, and right now I actually feel pretty good about it. You see, for the first time this semester, I actually bothered to look at the prof's study guide. I mean, 99% of the stuff is already in my notes, but there are a few trinkets in there that I think will come thru on the test. My teacher has a nack for pulling random shit out of her hat on these things. Even though I didn't really do that much studying last night, I still feel pretty good going in. Of course, all that could change. I'll let you know how it goes later today or tomorrow.

After my first exam, I'm heading home and getting a jump on tomorrow's microeconomics test. It's almost certainly going to be the hardest of the three, and there's a lot of material to cover. The nice part is that the prof gave us a pretty comprehensive sample test from his spring final, so that will be good to study with. I'm still counting on plenty of hair pulling and paper crumpling on my part tonight. Kinda goes with the territory.

Just sitting here, listening to Ben Folds. Narcolepsy setting in from lack of sleep:

I didn't feel tired all day. Honest. It's just catching up with me right now. A nap sounds sooooo good. But there's studying to do. Sigh.

Good News Train! Just found out that half of the week betwen Christmas and New Year's is considered paid time off for me. Hooray! Now I won't be broke to start off the new year.

The countdown begins. My first exam is tomorrow at 12:45. Did a little studying for it last night, and will probably do more tonight. The biggies though are my two econ finals, which are on Thursday and Friday. Still, this first one tomorrow is going to be tough. I'm walking the razor's edge between a 3.5 and a 3.0 right now, so I hope this test is a little easier than the first two. I feel like the material in COM 225 has gotten progressively easier as the semester has progressed, but my teacher is enough of a biatch to make this one a doosy. We'll see what develops. Just another full day of work today, and then hitting the books tonight. That's about it for now though.

You ever have one of those days when your feet just never get warm? I swear, no matter what I did today, my poor tootsies felt like ice cubes. I still think someone needs to come out with the male Uggs. They could call 'em Muggs. They would be furry, warm, easy to put on, but they would look manly. I'd be all over that shit.

Well, I went into Professor Wray's office this afternoon to turn in the final draft of my script (really, the first complete draft, but the last one for the semester, anyway). It was nice to chat with him for a minute or two. He was very complimentary about my writing, and encouraged me to submit it to some screenwriting competitions next year. Don't know how much of that was him yanking my chain, but Jeff seemed pretty genuine about the encouragement. Still, it made me feel pretty good to hear that from a guy like him who's actually been in the trenches.

Kind of a weird night tonight. Not bad, just unusual. Got home early, so I spent some time studying for my COM 225 exam on Wednesday. Went over to Stef's to hang out for a bit. Ended up going out to get some Taco Bell for dinner. Drove Stef to her exam at the Business College (starting at 8 p.m., if you can believe it). Came back to her place to do some more studying. Went back out to pick her up about 45 minutes later. Came back to Stef's place again for some Piston's basketball. A little bit of everything on the menu, I guess. Tomorrow is going to be more of a full-on study night. There's still a lot left to do this week, but I'm really not sweating it. After having two midterms this semester with two econ tests a piece in each one, this is getting to be old hat for me. I still can't wait until I'll bedone at 9:45 on Friday morning. It'll be great.

*UPDATE: I stand corrected. Apparently Ugg does make men's boots. In case anyone needs one last Christmas gift idea, I wear an 11.

Kind of a weird weekend. But fun. Friday I flew solo while Stef and her girlfriends had their holiday party at her apartment. We eventually were able to hook up later at night, and ended up watching Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I hadn't watched the movie in several years, so of course I was excited. It's so bad, but I love it. Catch ya later, Bill and Ted!

Saturday was a good sleeping in morning. It was like 10:30 by the time I got up. Man, I love weekends like this. About midway through the day, Stef and I decided to take a trip over to her house for the rest of the weekend, since she had forgotten her roommate's Christmas present there the last time she was home. So, we hit the road a little before three, and made it to her house by the end of the afternoon. Once we got there though, we pretty much ended up turning right around to go see Syriana in Birmingham. While it's certainly not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, it is a very good movie. The best thing it has going for it right now is timeliness. While it's a tangled mess of about a half dozen different story lines, everything all sorta came together in the last twenty minutes or so. I mean, I'm sure there is some truth-stretching in the narrative, but at the same time, I don't think it's that crazy to think that our government will go to great lengths to secure oil. Definitely worth seeing though.

Stef and I pretty much spent the rest of Saturday night watching TV by the fireplace, trying to stay out of the way of her parent's annual Christmas dinner party. We were still able to snag some of the yummy food that Teri had catered from Pronto; man, that stuff hit the spot. Anyway, we caught most of SNL with Alec Baldwin later on that night, and it was pretty good. Probably the best episode of the season, but still not really anything to write home about.

Sunday was really low key for the most part. We slept in, and then lounged around for most of the morning before Stef's nephews came over for a visit in the afternoon. Sean and Marina needed to escape for a while to do some Christmas shopping, so we got to help Tim and Teri babysit while they ran to the mall. They're certainly a handful, but still a lot of fun to play with.

Stef and I hit the road back for Lansing by 4 in the afternoon or so, and made it back to my place a little before 6. We swung into Cosí for some dinner on the way, so that hit the spot. There wasn't a whole lot of time to kill at my place once we got there though, since Morgan and Kyra's Christmas pageant was starting at 7. They do this show every year, and it's always a lot of fun. This was the first time Stef was able to come with me too, so I was really glad that the girls were able to have her there. The show was really cute (like always), and I got a bunch of pictures while we were there; I'll be posting a new picture series sometime later today. My favorite part of the night was pigging out on free homemade cookies and punch after the show, so that alone was worth the price of admission.

Well, it's Monday, and my exam week officially begins today, although I don't technically have any tests until Wednesday. Still, it's nice to have a couple days at work before crunch time, and get some good hours in this week. Anyway, I haven't hit the stress wall yet, but I'm sure it's coming. That's it for now... I hope everyone had a great weekend!