Hagrid is in the House!

Mom gave me a stack of my old school photos (extra prints, etc.). I know she must have more back in Kentucky, because there are so many years missing here. Also, none of them have years on them, so I'm not entirely sure what grades some of them are. I've done my best to identify them, and will try to get better dates from Mom, as well as scan the missing years.

Kevin Jacobs (Grade 4?) I *think* this is Grade 4, but it could be Grade 3. Either way, this portrait would have been taken at Pastorius Elementary in Nürnberg, Germany. Notice the ungroomed hair, and the too-tight shirt, buttoned poorly. I've always had such great fashion sense (I get it from my mother).  This was around the time I started to get chunky, as is evidenced by my sprouting man-boobs.	Kevin Jacobs (Grade 5?) I'm pretty sure this has to be Grade 5, for a couple of reasons. Grade 5 was my first year of school in the U.S., and I'm sporting the scar under my right eye that I got when my uncle tried to teach me to shoot guns after we returned to the states. Also, the outfit is not a Catholic school uniform, so it can't be Grade 6-7-8. That means it would have been taken at Terrace Manor Elementary, Augusta, GA, in 1979 or 1980.	Kevin Jacobs (Grade 7?) The uniform definitely says St. Mary's On-The-Hill Catholic School in Augusta, Georgia. I went there for 6th and 7th grade, and this could conceivably be either of them. Note the really bad haircut. Not long before this photo was taken, I had a psychotic break, where I chopped off my hair with a pair of scissors in a fit of self-directed rage. It took me many years and lots of therapy to learn how to cope with my mental illness.

Kevin Jacobs (Grade 9) Freshman year of high school, 1982-1983, Silver Valley High School, Yermo, California.	Kevin Jacobs (Grade 12) Senior year of high school, 1985-1986, Ft. Knox High School, Ft. Knox, Kentucky. The tie was a borrowed clip-on.	Kevin Jacobs (Grade 12) Senior year of high school, 1985-1986, Ft. Knox High School, Ft. Knox, Kentucky. I remember barely fitting into the rattan chair.

Took my final in ENG 335 Postwar Global Film today. Think I did all right. As long as I get a 'C' in the class, I graduate.

Day after tomorrow is the POLSC 445B Québec Studies final, which is open book/open notes, so I am not worried about that... but I also have a 15-page paper due... eeek! Ah well. It's the finish line. One last push over the next 48 hours and...

I AM DONE!

The deed is done. I applied for, and was granted, a hardship withdrawal from my Interpersonal Communications class (COMM 327). That means I will be finishing 9 credits this quarter instead of the 14 credits I started out with.

What this means for graduation is still unclear. I met with my adviser at Student disAbility Services this morning, and he thinks it might be possible to graduate me anyway with what I have. That would be SO sweet!

Of course, it's also still possible that I will need to take one more upper division class during summer quarter. One more is do-able. I should know within the next 24 hours what the verdict is.

Whatever the outcome, finish this quarter or next, one thing is clear: I won't be able to walk and receive the diploma until August. It's past the deadline for submitting graduation requests for this quarter, so no matter which outcome, I won't actually get the diploma until the August ceremony. Oh well.

My apologies to everyone I got excited with my anticipated June graduation date.

I'm at the finish line. I'm limping across, but I am almost there....

PLSC 445B -- Québec Class Notes
Class notes -- 2008.05.12
( Click for class notes )

PLSC 445B -- Québec Politics
Class Notes -- 5-May-2008
( Click for class notes )

A couple of new vocabulary words I learned during my school readings:

sine qua non - noun: Latin, “without which not”
Something absolutely indispensable or essential, a prerequisite
Example: Defence of the French language has replaced the Catholic Church as the sine qua non of Québécois culture.

patrimony - noun: That which is passed down through the father in a patriarchal system, such as an estate, property, entitlements, legacy or birthright; in a broader sense, a heritage.

*pant* *pant* *pant*

Because of the procrastination problem I had with putting off projects until the last minute at the end of last quarter, I resolved this quarter to volunteer to do projects and presentations early in the quarter, and get them done with.

Unfortunately, I did this in two classes, ENG 335 and COMM 327, and ended up having to give TWO presentations in one day! Eeek!

So I was up really late last night working on the presentations, then got up early to work on them.

At 11, I ran up to campus to meet with my COMM presentation partner, and do our final walkthrough of the presentation. Then I raced home, put the finishing touches on my ENG presentation, burned the powerpoint on a CD, raced to class, gave my presentation on Frantz Fanon & Algeria (see previous LJ entry), then raced home again because I forgot the tape measures I needed for my COMM presentation. Raced BACK to school, parked illegally in the lot, raced up to COMM class, and gave my presentation there on Nonverbal Communication & Proxemics. Whew.

After class, I went back to my car, and saw I had a parking ticket - I was expecting it, but I don't care it was totally worth it to go get the tape measures - and came home.

Whew!

Both presentations were well-received, though I won't know my grades on them for a while. I'm just glad they're done, and I don't have to stress about doing these for the rest of the quarter. Yay!

Now I just want to crawl into bed and sleep...

Winter Quarter 2008 grades are in, and I passed everything:

ENGL 351 Intro to Fiction Writing C+
ENGL 462 Grant Writing A-
JOUR 340 History of Mass Media C

The two C's were no surprise - I slacked off, and it took Captain Dylan's help to make it though with a passing grade. I worked my ass off the last couple of weeks of the quarter in order to pass. (Thank you, Captain!)
C is for Credit, that's good enough for me!

The A- in grantwriting was a surprise, because I slacked off in there just as much, if not more, and my team never even got a final grant produced. I think the professor was being generous, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth! That's 13 credits down... not sure how many more to go!

We're down to the last week before finals, and that means quarter projects are coming due. Fortunately, I only have one actual final (which I can take at home on the computer), but two portfolios and a poster presentation I have to turn in as well. And, of course, they're not done yet because I procrastinate like crazy.

I'm going to be OK, though. The Captain has been a real blessing through this. I actually get more homework done when I am at his place than when I am home by myself -- he won't let me slack off and go into la la land, cracking the whip on me to finish my stuff before playtime. It's actually working. He's like the disciplinarian I never had growing up.

He talked to my mother last week, and apparently Mom told him "Kevyn isn't very good at getting things done on his own." Too true, Mom, I just didn't know you had noticed! It seems I made the right choice in seeking out a captain to catch my wild wind in his sails.

Still, in the next 8 days, I have to get the following done:

JOUR 340 History of Mass Media:

• 1 annotated bibliography (50% done)
• 1 poster presentation on "Rosie the Riveter" in the media (40% done)
• 1 textbook to finish reading (80% done)

ENG 351 Fiction Writing:

• 3 stories to edit (0% done)
• 1 "stranger comes to town 2-4 page story to finish (50% done)
• 1 Conflict only through setting 2-4 page short story (0% done)
• 1 Character voice through dialogue 2-4 page shot story (0% done)
• 1 novel (Cloud Atlas) to finish reading (40% done)
• 1 2-4 page short story continuing a thread in Cloud Atlas (0% done)
• 1 unknown Cloud Atlas assignment that he hasn't given us yet, but will probably give us on Tuesday or Thursday
• 1 major re-write of my "Tigers are Predators" story (10% done, and this will mostly write itself)
• ...and all of this ENG 351 work will need to be compiled into a portfolio due a week from Tuesday.

ENG 462 Grant Writing:

• 4 pages of boilerplate grant materials for our project. Fortunately, because of circumstances beyond our control, the actual grant itself isn't going to be written, but we still have to present the project with a mess of grant materials for them to use going forward.

Whew.

It's gonna be a busy busy week. And, I still need to register for classes for spring!

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a school holiday.

I sure do wish I had remembered that fact BEFORE I rushed off to school this morning, and arrived at an empty classroom.