Today's class spent time discussing the GUPS part of revising papers. I thought it was really beneficial information to go over. Many little things, such as comma necessity/placement and I vs. me/he vs. him type situations, were things that I was unsure about, and now I feel like I have a better grasp on grammar and punctuation.
However, I must confess that every previous time we corrected single sentences during class time, I always think it makes things a lot easier and leave class with every intention of applying that method to correcting my own paper. But do I really do that? Unfortunately, not really. I just revise it as a whole, instead of piece by piece, and I really think the latter way would allow for better/more improvements to be made.
This time I'm really determined though, especially since this paper is focusing on revisions, to actually go in sentence by sentence and make sure the GUPS are all used correctly. :)

The sixth paper is giving me some trouble :/
I'm choosing to rewrite my 4th paper, and I'm trying to improve it by using a new thesis. And thats not really the tough part, but it's more the journal part of it. My corrections aren't really just corrections on what's already written, but large movements, alterations, additions, and subtractions. So, its not like writing, "Paragraph 2 Line 4-I did this, because of this," but my supporting paragraphs are just based on some of the things I talked about in my fourth paper, and a lot of the things I used in the original paper aren't pertinent to my new thesis. So the structure of my content is all different...But I think I'm doing it alright, its just a lot of work...I'm not complaining per se...just sharing my thoughts/frustrations about this paper.
But it's the last paper for the course...Wow!
The semester flew by like crazy. I really can't believe it.

But I'm gonna cut this short so that I can go to bed. :)

I just realized that I haven't mentioned something about class in my blogs yet. We're doing a Secret Santa!
I love secret santa's, even though I don't really talk to anyone in the class(which is a fact that I hate), so it's not like a really personal thing, it's still fun. It really puts me in the spirit too-I love giving presents, and I really hope my person likes theirs :)
Ah-I can't wait to go home for Christmas and exchange presents with my friends and family. I'm really into crafts and stuff like that, so I'm big on homemade stuff, and I always have so much fun making the presents, and then that joy gets furthered by seeing the reactions of my friends and family.
I love when those people give me homemade presents too. They just mean so much more than anything you could find in a store. The thought and love and personal touches that go into homemade things is really unique and rare...Thats why when my mom asked me over Thanksgiving break if there was anything I really wanted for Christmas, I couldn't think of anything, but I told her to make me something. If I get something made by her, that'll mean even more because my mom isn't exactly into crafty things as much as I am, so it'd be extremely special coming from someone who wouldn't normally dive into an artsy project.

Hmm, I always find myself connecting this stuff to the things I've learned from class, and especially from Nissenbaum's book, and I'm thinking about how when Christmas became a domestic holiday, consumerism and materialism rose due to the purchasing of presents. It's really a shame that people didn't just embellish upon those household items that were previously given to wassailers, but instead searched outside of the home to provide gifts for their family members. I can't even imagine what a different atmostphere Christmas would have if it was centered around a tradition like this rather than one of purchases. Had this been the case, then many arguments and discussions, such as Professor Showers's blog, would probably never need to exist. And on that note, I think I'm going to go check that out, and think of some ways to provide a response that would be useful to others reading the blog.

This week is really not going too well for me...I hate missing class, especially when its to lay around drinking hot tea and feeling crappy. Things are so much different being at school than how they ever were before. Its really weird to not be like, "Mom, I don't feel good today...Can I stay home?" And and have it be completely your responsibility to choose what to do. But I guess that comes with growing up, even though I still feel like I'm about 13.

Anyways, I decided that I should check the Outbox for class to see who my partner for the 6th paper was, because it wouldn't be right if someone didn't get peer feedback just because I wasn't able to make class. Turns out that I could only find his journal though, so now I'm not too sure what to do.
I'm really not enjoying this paper too much. It's just a lot of work the way I'm approaching it, because I don't think I addressed the right thesis in my 4th paper, so I'm using a new thesis, and basically writing a new paper, but using some of the same supporting evidence. I don't know if what I'm doing is right, especially because rewriting instead of just doing corrections means that my changes are more complex than just altering stuff in a paragraph or rewording or something.
Oh well. Guess I'll find out after its handed in when I get my grade back.

I figure since I missed class on the 28th, I should at least make a blogentry...And its been a little bit since I've blogged, so it's probably nota bad idea to update.Feeling really crappy the past couple days made me realize that one thingI really don't like about this season is how much easier it is to getsick. Just another negative effect of the cold weather I guess.Anyways...Thanksgiving break was really relaxing, and it made me think alot about the long break next month. Digging out all of our Christmasboxes full of decorations, reminiscing about each specialornament/decoration, curling up watching tv on the couch with hotcocoa...It all made me get even more excited for Christmas next month. Even though I have no idea how I'm going to deal with being freezing forthat long, since the temperature change compared to how it is in the dormsis so drastic. Hopefully the warmth of the season will warm meup...Jeez-I'm so dorky sometimes lol...OK-Back to discussing the course...Last night as I was working on my 6thpaper, I went onto the course website, and noticed that the rough andfinal due dates were both delayed again. I just hope that it wasn'tchanged because of something important that was discussed in class onMonday. Hopefully not, but I always worry that the one day that I don'tmake it, I'll miss something important.Anyways-The 6th paper...I've found that it is testing my organizationalskills, as we're working with 3 word files, and then going back toNissenbaum and the primary source article as well. I'd have to say thatthis is a much different way of making a paper rewrite than I've done inthe past. It is making me work more diligently though, and the methodmeans my corrections are more important and substantial.

So its my birthday today, and I'm excited.
Since birthdays are holidays too, I figured it was ok to write a little bit about it in here today.

I have to say, my friends here at school are amazing. I woke up this morning to a decorated door/wall/hall area...it was more than I ever could have dreamed. I had streamers and balloons and signs and everything.
They even bought me a wand, tiara, and ribbon that says "birthday girl." How cute is that?!

Because this is my Battle for Christmas blog, I think I automatically start finding ways to connect anything I talk about here to the course somehow. So, that has me thinking about how far back various birthday traditions date. I wonder which culture first started giving presents on birthdays, and when...
And what about Birthday cake...cuz what would birthday be without cake and ice cream?!

K, well on that note, I'm gonna go get some ice cream!

I'll be sure to post a more significant blog sometime soon...

A couple blogs ago, I said something I might blog about later would be some of the facts I stumbled upon as I researched my contributing page of the Wiki Collaborative Writing Project.

Like most other Christmas traditions, I had figured that the stocking custom originated in some foreign country, and then was brought to America. To me, the most interesting foreign stocking tradition that I found was Puerto Rico's. They left out small boxes of flowers and greens under their beds, not for Santa or the reindeer, but for the Three Kings' camels. This makes me think that the Puerto Rican Christmas is fairly more religion-oriented than others. Not too sure.

Another thing I liked about the tradition was how charity-based it is. Originating from a sweet little story about a gift from Saint Nicholas to three poor girls whos widowed father couldn't afford their dowries for them to be married.
And this gift was a surprise for the girls. I thought that was neat, because for me it would always be such a surprise as to what I would find in my stocking on Christmas morning. Since it was filled with stocking stuffers, which normally were candy, but seeing as how I never really liked candy too much, I would never know what to expect in my stocking. Kind of like the girls never knew to expect gifts of gold in their stockings.

Also, I was hoping to find a larger amount of information on giving coal to "naughty" children. However, there was a large lack of information posted online regarding this aspect of the custom.