Extended Edition

OK, in the last post, I let the world of cyberspace know that I pulled an all-nighter last night/this morning. I was pressed for time at the time of composing that, so now all the worms and viruses in cyberspace floating around may pause a minute and become enlightened as to the exact events of my life last night. It was wild to say the least.

What can I say - all that beer made me lose my inhibitions.

KIDDING KIDDING

Ok, seriously...

After Lifegroup (http://www.lsuxa.org) I left to start working on my Western Civilization Paper, which I knew was due the next morning. As I walked back to my dorm, I saw Nancy writing her paper on the Laville patio, in the midst of all the music and the nightly gathering of break-dancers (who, I might add, are pretty darn good). I was astounded she was able to work there...i went and got my laptop and materials and sat down with John (whom I'd just seen...he was working on his paper, too) outside. We quickly found the break-dancing environment was not a good place of concentration for composing an Honors college high-caliber paper....or anything more than plain crap, for that matter.

You may wonder why I didn't write my paper in my dorm room...composing a paper is a solitary endeavor, you might say. Well, it always has been...except it bugged the heck out of me writing my last paper to bend underneath the bluish light of my antique desk lamp into the wee hours of the morning. You see, my roomate's asleep usually N.L.T. midnight...so if I study in my room, I have to do it under lamplight. Not a good study envirnoment, that....conducive to heavy eyes and falling asleep, etc.

So John and I walked to East Laville's basement, where a nice little set up of chairs, tables, sofas, etc., provided a nice little study habitat. Of course, we chatted a bit, (my usual downfall when I'm supposed to stuy)...and then there's the chatting with passers-by, which we did before I started my paper...and I would continue to do the whole night. True, I could avoid the distraction of talking to people if I stayed in my room...but as I said before, this is just illogical because of the darkness of my room.

I guess I started typing my paper about 10:30 because I had to reorganize my outline for about 20 minutes before that. College papers are not high school papers. Which may seem obvious. The point is you can't just dive into one and expect to get a good grade. You have to (sometimes) spend 2 hours brainstorming/writing an outline before you even start writing the paper. I'm saying 2 hours...I'm sure it could easily be more than that once I've moved on past 5 page double spaced papers.

So I dove into contrasting Cleon's and Diodotus' arguments in the Mytilenian Debate, as recorded by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War. If you can stomach reading verbose speeches, Thucydides is rockin' stuff. The logical flow of the speeches and the way they are organized is simply phenomenal. There's so many different points to draw from when writing a paper.

So that's what I did...from 10:30.......................till 7 a.m. (!!!)

Now here's the reason it took so long and some things that took place between those times:

Talking, chatting, talking, chatting, talking...
2 x regular dosage = 4 cups of coffee, twix, snickers bar, m & m's, dr. pepper.........
John took a turn playing pool, I write my paper. I play pool with this guy, John writes...
Joking around with J.P. incessantly
"Breaks" ... much music, etc...(more talking)...
After 3 a.m.: periods of great brain lethargy, noted by staring at laptop screen for extended periods of time with stupid glaring look on face, saying weird random things and laughing loudly at stupid stuff in the East Laville Lobby, feeling oneself nod off.............

By 5 a.m....I was so tired, the rate at which I was working was ridiculously slow...somehow I kept plodding on and wrapped it up at 7. At 8 Rachel John and I ate at Highland. We were all of course exhausted out of our minds and were saying weird, random (even scary) nonsense....
I went back to my room to work on another assignemnt...a reading journal for Plato's The Trial and Death of Socrates...then I revised my paper some, printed it. Slept for 30 minutes, woke up and went to seminar, turned in paper, discussed Plato in seminar....

...now here I am at work, bored. I finished shredding all that paper. **yawn**

You think this is a long journal post? Ha. I couldn't even begin to tell you fully just how long the night dragged on and just what it's like...

...but now I am a full-blown college kid.

I'm a college kid. I have successfully pulled off the infamous all-nighter. And you know what? It's not all it's cracked up to be. It leaves one feeling rather lame, physically.