I've realized a problem that I have when it comes to choosing my own topics for papers: I suck at it. In the effort to be different and choose something that perhaps no one else will use, I end up choosing a topic that is very stupid and impossible to take seriously or do well. Back in sophomore year of high school, for instance, I chose to do some paper on the
Silent Generation (the one between the GIs and Baby Boomers), and it was totally not as interesting as I thought it would be.
Likewise, for my research paper for Comics & Culture this semester, we got to choose anything we wanted—
holllllld up profs. You shouldn't let me do that. (Though I guess this is maybe like practice for when I choose later on a topic for a senior thesis or something—but really! I never learn! Never!) Because for this paper, I chose to compare Art Spiegelman's
Maus and Captain America.
...really? Really. No, really? Yeah. Yeah, I know.
I mean, it has the potential to be really interesting, I guess, but overall, the more I wrote, the more I realized what a load of crap my paper was becoming. Maybe if I didn't have a page limit (I had a page limit for the rough draft, but I'm not so sure about the final paper—I need to look into this), I would be able to elaborate more on all of my points, and it would all (maybe) seem less stupid. But when I turned in my rough draft, I definitely felt like I had made a mockery of the whole thing. It was... it was just
not pretty.
But until we get that paper back, I have other papers to write and books to read. (Though I should go back this weekend if I get a chance and start to revise that paper, anyway. Because it needs it
bad.) I need to get cracking on my paper on José Leocadio Camacho for Latin American Society & Culture—conveniently enough, a lot of the resources I will be using are either written by or reference my professor for that class. Woe is me. This paper needs to kick ass now.
Le sigh. So I want to try and get a rough draft out within the next two weeks so I can take it by his office and ask him if I'm on the right track and all that jazz.
Plus, I want to write my anthropology paper this weekend so I can maybe drop into my professor's office this week to ask her if I'm the right track for
that one—it's due on Friday, so that one is a bit more pressing, I guess. And then I need to read two books for Wednesday and Thursday this week:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, and
Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number by Jacobo Timerman. (And then two more books for the next week.)
dshafkdlj. Just typing up all of that makes me want to rip my hair out. Why am I even writing this blog post?! I should be writing and reading and researching! Gahhhhhhhh!
In other news, my roommate no longer trusts me for I keep playing and singing songs that get stuck in our heads. Right now it's Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love To You." She hates me. I love it. Also, I may get to be a campus tour guide next year. I find out on Friday. I'm super hopeful (I think the interview went really well—I'm pretty optimistic about Juniata and I really think that came through), and super excited.
All in all, having no classes on Good Friday has been incredibly lazy—but thank goodness I have two whole days left to be productive before classes next week. Whee! Now to stop with the internet funness and get cracking. :/