Too much thinking

I have not been writing enough.  I never stop thinking about writing, but as I have said before the problem is taking some of the time spent thinking and actually writing some of it down.  All the thought in the world is pointless if you do not actually get it down on paper, or computer screen.  Outside of just writing, I have a lot that needs to be accomplished.  It seems like that is a constant.  The semester ends and I am expecting some big break and it turns out to be more of a mental vacation than an actual break.  It has been three weeks since fall semester ended.  I took a May session class, which means I have been in class starting the Monday after finals week.

In May session, I had been taking Psy 301, Statistics.  Of course I aced it, I only missed two questions the entire session.  The first one I got right, but missed two points for not showing how I got the degrees of freedom, which is a fairly autonomic calculation that one should not be required to write out, n'est-ce pas?  The second question I did not understand, I felt it was a confusing question, of course it was not a calculation.  I know now what the professor was looking for and I felt my response was incorrect, but it was not so far off base that it could not have been correct if I understood the question. Therefore, I give myself a pass, especially considering the question could be revised.  I must say, this class got me thinking that I should have probably gone into statistics.  I mean yes, I had statistics before: Econ 206 (Descriptive statistics), Econ 306 (Inferential statistics), and Psy 361 (measurement, not really stats, but still aced it <enter appropriate emoticon here>).  I aced each and every one and I noticed others struggle and this is unfathomable.  The way I see it, there are two possibilities, statistics is not hard or I am just good at statistics.  Although it is probably the former and not the latter, I cannot help but recall all those that seem to struggle with it.  Nevertheless, it is not too late for a career in statistics, but I am not sure what jobs I might qualify for and have the ability to perform in entry-level and I really do not have the resources to further my educational endeavors at this time, graduate school.

Now it is a new session and for me another course:  English 300.  It will be a miracle if I ace this course!  Do you believe in miracles?  I have not been looking forward to this and I am still not ready for it, but will I ever be more ready?  To be fair, what I write is not (always) bad.  I mean, there are obvious mistakes that I sometimes make and part of that has to do with the incompatibility between my brain and the computer.  I am not going to conduct a root-cause analysis, but I am good at typing, therefore, that is not the problem.  I DO have a big problem with editing, I feel that I could edit all day long and still not be satisfied and I usually DO NOT write quickly enough to edit all day.  Usually I finish my paper and never go back and edit it.  This happens for two reasons, one I am writing it and when I finally finish it is time to turn it in or two I finish a little bit early and I am too tired of it to look it over one last time.  I will inevitably look it over again, but after the fact I may only make mental corrections.

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I just got side-tracked.  Refreshing my thought process: write more, no break, stats, eng, hmmm.  I think I let myself get distracted because this was not going where I wanted it to and it was going to be difficult getting it back there and I already spent a lot of time on it.  I only partially remember what I wanted to say.

Okay well more and more is coming back to me.  I think the problem is I have a lot I am thinking about and not all of it is related.  Some will just have to be ignored.

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I have 5 essays (two-page maximum) and a research paper (eight-ten pages) to write in the next month.  My problem for the essays is clearly not writing two pages, it is writing something of substance in under two pages!  The worst part is that I pick the topics, at least from my current understanding.  We did have our first meeting today but the first day rarely accomplishes much except looking over the syllabus (probably so they know everyone looks at it at least once) and everything else a professor wants to hand out (I only say that because today our professor handed out: policies, syllabus, rules, guidelines, schedule, suggestions, etc.  We had 4 hand-outs and two of them were single sheets with something different on the front and back.  However, the first essay is due on Thursday, so I guess I better get writing.  This session is going to fly by, it will be nearly over shortly after it begins.  It would be ideal to post my writing assignments here before they are due and then any feedback would be welcome.  Of course, that would require me to get on top of this and get them written right away.  I will make that a goal, but do not feel bad if I don't follow through.  I still have some stuff I was planning on posting last semester that I need to take care of; I usually compose blog posts in the blogger so when I decide it is as ready as it is going to get, all I have to do is click post and forget it or re-read it and then forget it.  Anyway, if anyone does have suggestions for topics I could write about for English 300, feel free to let me know.  I have very few ideas right now.  Plus, I would be more inclined to post my paper here after getting the topic from you all!

Now let us take this full circle back to where this was supposed to go and avoid the tangent that is lingering in my brain (perhaps save it for another post).  I have been "neglecting" the blog as of late.  I say that, because I check it practically everyday and I also get instant e-mail notification of comments etc.  However, it really is not going to do anything without me posting regularly.  You read that right, I check it everyday, it keeps up with statistics and I am addicted to them.  I can look at my view count and tell you if anyone has been here since I last checked (likely a couple hours ago).  I know it is pretty sad with a tiny bit of hyperbole.  Nevertheless, my stat check habit is partially what has me discouraged (my LinkedIn profile typically has pathetic stats, fyi).  For the most part, I write for me, but there is not a lot of point in doing that unless I am writing something worth reading.  I am fairly random and outside of those that know me and realize this, I am not sure there is much enjoyment for those few that do happen to read my posts.  Part of this is based on an assumption, but I think there might be some truth to it (based on the data <exclamation> or my analyses thereof).  Put simply, there is room for improvement and that is where my head is at.

Thanks for reading.