30 Days of Blogging Honesty

Created by the wonderful Tom Baker and Cherlyn Cochrane (Click their names to be linked to their respective blogs), this challenge offers a question a day to be answered directly and honestly by the bloggers partaking in the challenge.

You must do all thirty days, although it’s alright not to post one every day if your schedule doesn’t allow for it. I am going to try my best to complete the whole challenge during the month of April, but we’ll see how things pan out. I may have weekends I am too busy studying for the LSAT. As I said in my below rant, that is extremely important to me right now, and I cannot compromise anything. I’ll probably get started writing out some responses now while I have the time and then scheduling them to be posted in a timely manner.

PS. I am going to kick off the honesty by stating that I will probably Photoshop myself a new banner (with a transparent background) because looking at the white bg on this one is killing me a little bit on the inside.

HERE IS A BIG FAT LINK TO TOM’S ORIGINAL POST ABOUT THE CHALLENGE!

 

But to break it down for my readers, if you’re interested in accompanying me on another month-long journey (I haven’t done a committed month of blogging since Poetry Paradise so it’s long overdue), here’s what you need to know:

The Rules:

1. You must answer 30 questions.
2. You must place the above graphic on each day’s post.
3. After the 30 days is over, you must complete one of the dares.
4. You must make every effort to reply to any and all comments left on your blog during the 30 Days and the Dare.
5. Everyone must make a concerted effort to visit the blogs of other participants and comment on their responses.

The Questions:
Objective: To answer a question each day, in complete honesty.

• Day 01 — The one thing that it seems like everyone else on the planet is into but I just cannot stand is…
• Day 02 — Not including food, blogging or television, my most guilty pleasure (this includes chocolate)…
• Day 03 — Regardless of my current status, do I believe a person should save themself for marriage…
• Day 04 — A blogger friend I’ve known for over five years told me she has been blogging anonymously all this time and most of what I know about her is her fantasy. My reaction to the news is…
• Day 05 — This is embarrassing but on average I cause the toilet to overflow about this many times a year because of deposits I made…
• Day 06 — My worst cooking disaster involved _____________ and this person/these people…
• Day 07 — I went to see a psychic, and was given the opportunity to ask three questions – I would ask…
• Day 08 — If I could afford it, the piece of famous artwork you would find in my home is…
• Day 09 — When the cashier gives me this amount of money for change I know it’s too much money to dump in the charity bucket…
• Day 10 — The last time I snooped into something I wasn’t supposed to (like a medicine cabinet in a friend’s bathroom), I found…
• Day 11 — When I’ve had a really bad day the first thing (not person) I reach for is…
• Day 12 — My favorite song to dance and sing to when no one is looking…
• Day 13 — I once got so drunk and lost control and this is what I was told I did and have no reason to doubt it…
• Day 14 — Because my parents never found out, I remember getting away with __________ as a teenager…
• Day 15 — Given the choice between infinite time or infinite money, I would choose…
• Day 16 — I’ve just been granted the power of resurrection but I can only use it to bring back one dead celebrity. I would bring back ________ because…
• Day 17 — There are many mysteries in the universe. If there were one truth I could learn, it would be…
• Day 18 — I would agree or disagree that high school is/was the time of my life… Because…
• Day 19 — The film that best describes how my day-to-day life feels is…
• Day 20 — I’m half naked, cold, tired, hungry, hurt, wet and just washed up on a deserted island. The first things I need to do to survive is…
• Day 21 –  The person or persons that do not read my blog but I wish he/she/they would is…
• Day 22 — Allowing another person to fully love me means they must…
• Day 23 — Allowing another person to fully love me means I must…
• Day 24 — Given the choice between having to live the rest of my life without my voice, or living the rest of my life without the ability to hear, I would choose…
• Day 25 — My biggest pet peeve that has nothing to do with blogging, being online, computers or anything else related to the Internet is…
• Day 26 — I would break the law to save a loved one if…
• Day 27 — I have an inner voice, and if a friend spoke to me the way my inner voice does at times, I would…
• Day 28 — If I could do one thing that is socially unacceptable and know I would not be judged, I would…
• Day 29 — My television is showing the same show on every channel. I really don’t mind watching ____________ (from the 1960′s) and I really love this show because…
• Day 30 — One question or subject matter if I were asked here on 30 Days of Blogging Honesty I know I would refuse to answer or definitely lie about is…
• Alternative question: Your daughter tells you she is bringing home her boyfriend for dinner. When they arrive, she introduces you to a man who is not your same race. Sometime during dinner she announces that they have been married for the last six months. What bothers you more? The difference in race or being excluded from the wedding…

Catch UP!

Hey everybody!

I’m experimenting with moving Nail Spark* around again. Right now, I’m posting on a Blogger (nailsparks.blogspot.com) but I have no idea what will ultimately pan out. I can’t run two active blogs, I simply can’t. I’ve gotten so overwhelmed with the things I want to say that I end up shutting down and not posting anything at all, and that isn’t fair to the readers of either blog.

I’m going to go back to doing things my way then – slow and steady. The pact I made was that I would never apologize for not posting, because these blogs are like my personal diaries, and if I don’t have time to write in them, then I simply don’t have time and there’s nothing that can be done about it.

That’s fine for Controlled Derangement, which is my personal blog, but that’s not as okay when it comes time for Nail Sparks. A nail polish blogger is only as famous as her followers, and right now, I can’t say that I have too many. Nope, don’t have too many at all. And I want to gain more followers there, but just don’t have the time right now to post actively, blog, do my homework, study for LSAT’s, work, and maintain an internship. IDK what to do yo. There’s a lot on my plate right now.

These dilemmas aside, life is pretty good overall. I’m enjoying my time hanging out with friends, and sometimes, I catch myself with a goofy, silly grin on when reading texts from a certain person. It’s great and I’m happy and I’m all smiles when I’m thinking about that. But then there are times when the reality of my GPA sets in.

Let’s face it….At this time next year, I will know what the next three years of my future hold. I’ll know where I’ll go to law school and I REALLY, REALLY DON’T WANT TO END UP ON LONG ISLAND. I know St. Johns and Hofstra have great law programs – nothing against them at all – but I just don’t want to attend a law school which’ll make me commute from home. I don’t want to end up back home with no freedom after I’m finally 21 and when I’m ready to pursue a real, meaningful, lasting relationship. You can’t do those when you can’t stay out past 10 -.-

Minor details though, hm? Right now, there’s a lot of uncertainty and it’s taking me a while to accept that I don’t know what my future holds. I mean I know the far future – I AM going to be a lawyer. I really will. But the process of getting there…I have no idea how that’ll pan out and that is terrifying me!

I knew I wanted to be a lawyer fairly early in elementary school. I had a brief bout where I wanted to teach but my lack of patience made me abandon that idea fairly quickly. From 2nd or 3rd grade onwards, law is all that I’ve pursued.

I knew I wanted to go to NYU fairly early in high school. NYU was my dream, but I knew it was obtainable. I think I have the ability to step back and rationalize pretty easily when it comes to knowing my limitations. I applied to Princeton and Dartmouth but I knew I would be rejected. I knew I could get into NYU – I had the GPA, the AP scores, and the application. That isn’t arrogance, it’s just knowing where I stood in the application pool. And I did get in, and of course I didn’t get a full ride but I got enough to make that goal of mine a reality.

This is where I’m scaring myself. Right now, here’s the breakdown of what I really have to offer.

An overall GPA of 3.34
I don’t foresee it going up (by much) within the next two semesters, if at all.

Let’s face it. In HS I had a GPA of 4.0 and I still didn’t get into the Ivy’s. My SAT  score wasn’t phenomenal, but it was above average, and that’s probably the only reason I got the money I did for NYU. I also made it pretty clear that I would only attend if I had enough financial aid to make it possible, and that NYU was my dream school.

I came here three years ago all starry-eyed and full of dreams. Thought I’d do great since I’d picked the two majors I loved and a great minor to boot.

Now, here I am as a senior writing pretty bitterly about my love-hate affair with this school.

Do I love my NYU experience as a whole? Yeah, I do.

Would I have gone to another college if I had the choice? I think about it sometimes, and wonder why I didn’t apply to Emory or Loyola or Temple or even University of Michigan. Maybe that would have given me a different perspective, visiting these other colleges and comparing what I could have to what I already knew NYU was like. But overall, I don’t think I’m that unhappy that I wish I could take it back. NYU changed me for the better, and it has left me with too many priceless memories to count.

But if I could have foreseen my current situation (and unhappiness), I WOULD NEVER HAVE DECLARED A MAJOR IN POLITICS AT THIS UNIVERSITY. I should never have done that, and I have been regretting it since the day I took more classes than necessary and couldn’t justify dropping it down to a minor.

I’m now eight classes in at the end of this semester, out of the ten I need to take. I am also completely miserable.

I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed a single politics class at this university. The department has great, renowned professors who are undoubtedly great, charismatic people as well. But they simply cannot teach for shit.

The easy ones…it doesn’t matter, because the TA’s are the ones who grade, and an easygoing professor just means you’re going to do horrible on your papers because the TA will want more specificity than you were given during lectures.

Then there’s Power and Politics in America, quite possibly THE WORST CLASS I HAVE EVER TAKEN AT THIS UNIVERSITY. OR EVER. FROM THE PAST TO THE FUTURE, NOTHING WILL COMPARE TO THE MISERABLE WRETCH OF A SYLLABUS THIS CLASS PROVIDED.

I have a separate rant about that, and I should probably have mobilized my classmates and lodged a formal complaint within the Politics department but I was just so frustrated I didn’t want to deal with the Red Tape and the bureaucracy. So I’ll have my two cents on this here blog, and if somebody wants to tell me to kindly take it down and pursue the matter in private, I will gladly do so. It’s too late now, my grade is what it is and I have nothing left now but to be disappointed and disdainful that yet another politics class has failed me so cataclysmically. I’m starting to sense a pattern. This department SUCKS. Avoid. AVOIDDDDDDDD.

I think my misery is compounded by how glorious, helpful, caring, and GREAT the English department is, especially in comparison to the COMPLETELY CRAPPY Politics classes I’ve had to take.

But then I need to face the facts and realize that my writing skills are nowhere above average on the NYU Scale. Though I may have gotten A’s (or their equivalents) in HS, I’m never going to be an A student here. Everybody is better, and I’m stuck with the B+’s.

Well that isn’t helpful when you’re trying to build back up a GPA that’s been disastrously ruined by the choice of the wrong major.

So overall. I’ve fucked myself over and made the wrong decision, and realized it so late that I can’t take it back. I can only pray and hope that I’ll do well enough on my LSAT to counterbalance my low GPA. I’m sure it can be done, provided I have all the other things in the application package. The extracurriculars, leadership, etc. All of that can’t hurt, right?

So now you understand why I am SO, SO, SO stressed about the LSAT?

I don’t just want to score above a 170.

I need it!

Break is over

So let’s be real, and let the reality and stress and LSAT and drama just fuckin ensue again already.

Spring 2012 Week 4

March 19-22

IMPORTANT NOTES:
Need to obtain books for CLAP and P&PNYC by Monday or Tuesday. Check BobCat first.
Need to finish response paper by Tuesday night

Controversies in Public Policy
[ ] Participate in class, is that too much to ask for -.-
[ ]  Exercise 3 due  March 29

Comparative Legislative Institutions – Due Wednesday
[ ] GLM Ch. 8, 9, 11
[ ] Cox & McCubbins Ch. 5, 6
[ ] Aldrich Ch. 2
[ ]  3-4 pg Response Paper – Do political parties induce political equilibrium or do they simply reinforce existing equilibrium structures in Congress? [DUE MARCH 21] 

Classical Literature and Philosophy – Due Thursday
[ ] Anne Carson (ed.), If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
[ ] Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet (selections)
[ ] Page duBois, “The Aesthetics of the Fragment” in Sappho is Burning
[ ] Blog posts. 3-4 over the course of the week

Poetry and Politics in New York City – Due Thursday
[ ] Bring Frank O’ Hara book of poetry to class

Chapter 2: Linear Games

Hello hello! I’ve just finished reading and understanding Chapter 2 of the Logic Games Bible! I’m nearly halfway through the book at this point. I’ve been doing all of the drills it offers and thus far, I’ve managed to do MUCH better than I used to. Even if I miss an inference here or there, my diagramming is much more efficient now. The fact that I’ma ble TO diagram everything properly is already a major improvement. Before, I was just sort of writing out variables as I saw them, and I wasn’t making any inferences really. Or if I was, I wasn’t plotting them right, and so forgetting them for the questions I would need them.

It’s great, to knw HOW to set a game n in a manner that makes solving that game really easy. Whether I see global or local questions, I know how to tackle them.

And less frustration and anxiety when I see the Logic Games section is a beautiful thing. It makes the rest of the LSAT feel much more comfortable. Before, I would end the Games with so much frustration that I would mess up simple questions later by overthinking them and being mad about not getting the Logic Games right.

Hell, before, I was skipping entire games when taking practice tests because I got so bogged down and frustrated.

I’m doing SO much better!!! Progress is sweet.

The LSAT Powerstudy Weekend!

This time, I’m not talking about my past weekend, where I probably studied ~15ish hours between Saturday and Sunday.

Nope.

This time, I’m talking about PreProBono, a free LSAT Prep/Study program for college students! They have a couple “Law Weekends” every semester, and this semester, there will be one hosted in coordination with NYU LAW. NYU Law being so close to home, I was tempted to check it out when I saw the program pop up in the Pre-Law ListServ e-mail this morning. I usually trash those – I’ll have to start taking a closer look at them, it seems.

Ready for the power-study part? Here’s the program description, for the weekend at NYU Law. April 21 & 22

Program Schedule:
Saturday:
8:30am – 9:00am Registration
9:00am – 1:00pm Class
1:00pm – 2:00pm Lunch Break
2:00pm – 6:00pm Class
6:30pm – 8:30pm Reception & Keynote

Sunday:
11:00am – 1:00pm Class
1:00pm – 1:30pm Lunch Break
1:30pm – 6:00pm Class
6:00pm – 6:30pm Dinner Break
6:30pm – 9:00pm Class

There is a  $45 refundable deposit but the catch is that you only get the deposit back upon proper completion of the course. That means you’re on time, you stay for all of it, and you take it seriously! I plan on doing all of that anyway, because at that point, the LSAT will be 20 days away.

Damn. Shit’s getting real.

PS. I will, of course, let everybody know how the program goes. And if I get my money back ^.^

LSAT Commitment!

I was extremely iffy about when I was taking my LSAT. After an ensuing period of panic and frantic (omgwtfwhyamidoingthis) moments, I have finally come to terms with it.

The LSAT is a big, bad test. It is harder than the SAT, and I need to get at least a 170 if I want to have a good shot at getting into my dream law schools. If I want to stay in this area (which, due to recent developments, I do), then NYU Law and Columbia Law are really my only two viable choices. I might, however, go to a more feasible law school for a year, maintain a *stellar* GPA and then try to transfer into a nicer college.

That is probably the route I’ll have to take. Since my GPA right now is so crappy.

Le sigh.

But anyway, that isn’t what this post is about!

I’m taking the LSAT this June guys! JUNE 11, 2012, to be exact. THAT’S LESS THAN THREE MONTHS FROM NOW! But you know what, that’s alright. I’ve been studying daily since I made the commitment, and I have three months of solid studying to teach myself how to ace logic games.

So far, I’ve gone through about  50 pages (out of 229) of the Logic Games Bible in the past two days. Not bad for progress, eh?

This past weekend pretty much brought about an end to my short span of Spring Break procrastination haha. I was just in that slump where the sheer amount of work was overwhelming my capacity to get anything done. But now I’m over it and studying my ass off!

Here’s what I plan to finish this break –

[ ] 4 responses (3 pages each) for a Politics class

[ ] The Logic Games Bible

[ ] 1/4th – 1/2 (as much as I can get through) The Logical Reasoning Bible

[ ] At least 2-3 full LSAT exams.

[ ] Grade, comment, reason through mistakes for all the diagnostic LSAT’s taken

[ ] Register for a free exam through Kaplan. Probably for afterwards, once I’ve mastered the Games section more

 

PRODUCTIVITY! COMMITMENT! DETERMINATION! THAT’S WHAT PRYANKA HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT.

And the nerd…is totally back.

Spring Break PROCRASTINATION!

Muahaha now that Spring Break has commenced, I can relax! And take a break.

Which is alll I’ve done today. I only got out of bed briefly to make myself food ~2ish and then also to watch an episode of Tom & Jerry with Tommy and Carolyn. Now I /SHOULD/ study but obviously, I’m back in bed being totally lazy.

Spring is coming, but this weekend is still really cold. I’m suffering from V-withdrawal right now.

In other news, my brother took his SAT today! Wish him the best of luck ❤

 

I’m done with …

I’m done with all the assignments I had due before Spring Break. OMG the past two days have been so exhausting.

Too much nonstop studying. I read ALL of Nietzsche’s Birth of a Tragedy, extended version. Then I read about 4 chapters of Politics for one of my classes, 2 quasi-experiments and 2 strict randomization experiments for another.

After all that reading, I wrote a 3 page response paper for one of my English classes. I also finished another assignment due at 8AM. That one was designing a randomized experiment, designing a quasi-experiment, and analyzing one of the assigned quasi-experiments and interpreting the experimental design with regards to the use of regression-discontinuity. Obviously, I had to conclude whether the quasi-experiment resulted in any significant policy improvements as well as pointing out strengths, weaknesses, and improvements.

Talk about a mouthful. That short little assignment, graded out of 10 points,took me way more hours than is necessary 

Effervescence

Pryanka used to be really bubbly. She isn’t anymore, and I really miss her.