as one ends, another begins

Dudes, um, so... okay. I may have mentioned that I was taking the GRE this weekend? Once or twice? I've been studying for it constantly, almost as much as I've been complaining about studying for it?

Yeah. So it turns out that they give you your scores on the reading and math sections right after the test is finished (you have to wait two weeks to get your score for the writing section). And I'm not going to tell you my score, because honestly, who brags about their scores on standardized tests, right?

Besides, if you consider that the SAT and the GRE have the same scoring scales, I've gotten 20 points dumber since high school. Gross, right? Fuck standardized tests, right?

Look, in the interest of me finishing the boring drawn out mess that was my GRE experience, let's just say that I now have (more!!) proof that I am really fucking smart. Ha! Probably smarter than you!! I'm smarter than everyone!!! Hahahaha!

Oh, I kid. You might be as smart as me.

All right, good night.

math math gre math study study

Exciting news! I think I'm starting to understand percentages! I did sooo well on the percent practice test. Only a hundred or so more pages of my GRE Exam Math Workbook, and I'll be ready to not fail the math section like I have on every other standardized test I've taken!

OMG! This is boring! I promise I will do interesting things, or at least write interesting things, as soon as I've taken the GRE. Check back May 7th!

(Not really, check back earlier, I promise I'll make it worth your while.)

math is hard

If I do a practice test based on one mathematical concept and get 12/15 right, but that one concept will only be tested in 2-3 of the 28 (28?) math questions on the GRE, and I'm 75% likely to answer a word problem correctly but 30% likely to answer a quantitative comparison question correctly and -100000% likely to answer a data interpretation question correctly, what is the probability that I'm going to write something whiny about studying for the GREs instead of something obvious about how scary it is that more than thirty college students were murdered yesterday? Or something probably selfish about how I had this moment of panic when I realized it was in Virginia, but my cousin is okay and so are all her friends, so somehow that makes it easier for me to deal with? Or something about how lame it is that I only heard about the shooting today, because apparently I live under a rock?

cop to it

I saw two people being arrested on my street yesterday. The whole process was a lot calmer than I would've expected, but as Kira pointed out, this is the real world, not Cops.

I've been working on a website for my friend Wael Abifaker for three hours now. It's basically done, or at least as it's going to be this weekend. Tell me what you think. Considering that I did the whole thing in five days, I'm pretty happy with it.

In other news, I started actually studying for the GRE, and I remember a lot more math than I expected. I haven't registered yet as I am scared of wasting $130 and also that I'll totally bomb it, but I'm taking it either the last Saturday in April or the first Saturday in May. No reason to put it off any longer! So exciting it almost makes you want to vomit.

lazy

GRE word of the day:

prec·i·pice n.
1. An overhanging or extremely steep mass of rock, such as a crag or the face of a cliff.
2. The brink of a dangerous or disastrous situation: on the precipice of defeat.



I am feeling indecisive. And I am feeling that things are about to change in a way that I can't anticipate. I can't even really explain what I mean, and I've been trying for at least the past five minutes.

At some point about a month and a half ago (maybe two?), I stopped writing and reading and doing anything of value. I'm not going to bore you with details, at least not yet because I'm not sure I can explain it well, but I think maybe things are getting better rather than worse. Phase II of my aforementioned project is not an option, which was not my decision. The rejection is difficult to handle, but I think I'll be happier without doing Phase II. I feel like I've been half-awake for so long, only doing enough to get through the day, but now maybe I'm finally ready to do more than the bare minimum. Maybe?

I think I've gotten dumber since graduation. I think this is all graduation-related angst. I find it hard to take myself seriously enough to actually write about my "angst," and I also find it hard to write when I've spent the past two months doing nothing but sleep, work, and watch TV online. Oh, and let's not forget all the time I spend reading gawker.com.

I don't really know how to wrap this up... I'm just happy that I'm excited about life. Well, maybe not excited... cautiously optimistic might be closer to the truth.

i'm only happy when it rains

Sonia and I went to the Bronx Zoo in the rain, and it was seriously pretty awesome. We got ridiculously wet, and every time we went into a building to dry off, it would be raining harder by the time we left, but I bought some cow socks and some giraffe socks, and I saw a pygmy marmoset AND a gueron AND a really sad, wet grizzly bear, so it was pretty much awesome.

Today's GRE word of the day is tyro, n., beginner; person lacking experience in a specific endeavor: "They easily took advantage of the tyro.