Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

up all night

Still working on my midterm for tomorrow.

Rather, I’m just starting … and have been in the “just starting” phase for the past several hours. I’ve had writer’s block something fierce. And my IKEA purchases from this morning (purchases in preparation for hosting some guests this coming weekend, including dishes/silverware, a LACK coffee table and a small table lamp) are proving far more interesting than my actual paper. And on top of that, my usual “fear of getting it wrong” has been working overtime these days, to almost paralyzing levels.

Which isn’t good when I’m working on a paper that makes up a sizeable part of my class grade.

It’s not that the paper topic is extremely difficult. The prompt:

How does media coverage, especially television coverage, affect the modern presidency in its struggles with Congress? Which one of the scholarly perspectives presented in class on the media and the presidency most accurately reflects the situation today?

I should be able to answer this question fairly easily. The thoughts are there. The class notes are certainly there. It’s just a matter of writing the silly thing.

Half a page down (in outline form). Six and a half to go. I have a feeling this is going to be an all-nighter.

I went on a caffeine run around 11:30 p.m. to the open-‘til-midnight CVS down the street, returning with two cans of Red Bull, a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper and a pint of Cherry Garcia. The Red Bull is a new addition to my all-nighter repertoire; we’ll see how my caffeine- and sugar-desensitized system will respond (if at all) to the stuff.