Monday, February 21, 2011

Move over, April

I'm firmly convinced that February is the cruelest month around here.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the way this month jerks you around with the warm weather, then cold weather, dry weather, then wet weather is just evil. Last week we had temperatures in the 50s, most of the snow melted, and I was able to walk to school without a coat on two separate days. This morning, big, fat snowflakes are pouring from the sky like someone is shaking out a giant bag of powdered sugar up there. It's beautiful, as always, but really? I had kind of hoped to be done with some of my winter gear.

Luckily, I didn't hope too hard. I saw this coming, since it happened last February and the February before that. Last week, when even professors were starting to hail the coming of spring, I was making sure to soak up the sun but not to get too used to it. Fool me three times, and I start to look pretty pathetic.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Four down, eighty-plus to go

I just turned in my first response paper for the Law and Social Policy Workshop I'm taking, and I feel pretty good about it. The reading assigned for it was interesting, a forthcoming tax law article claiming that government programs received by everybody, instead of targeted at poor people like welfare, can actually redistribute more wealth in the end because they have more popular support to help them last longer and give more generously.
It's nice to be done, and what reading I have for tomorrow can be done in the morning, so I plan to relax tonight and finish the second season of Deadwood with Russell. However, it just hit me that the four pages I just wrote were only the first of dozens and dozens I have to get done this semester. With about 90 days left and almost that many pages still to write, I'm realizing that the push I had to make to finish this first paper in time is what much of my next few months are going to look like.

Awesome.

At least one of my classes involves writing of a more enjoyable kind: most of the assignments for my Law & Mind Sciences Seminar are posts to the class blog! I'm planning to get the professor's permission to link to that from here (I'm sure he'll say yes, but it's good to ask), but in the meantime, I want to point you to an awesome website I posted about recently: Born Gay, Born This Way! Who knew little kids could be so fabulous!

Well, I had better run. I have a meeting to discuss my paper topic with the professor for Race and Justice: The Wire. He's a pretty busy guy, maybe the biggest celebrity professor I've had so far (in fact, I was interviewed by the local NPR affiliate about his class recently, and I'll be sure to let you know if I make it on the radio) so I had better not be late. Crazy how a paper that isn't due until the end of those 90 days I mentioned could be dominating my afternoon now. I guess I had better get used to it.