Note For Anyone Writing About Me

Guide to Writing About Me

I am an Autistic person,not a person with autism. I am also not Aspergers. The diagnosis isn't even in the DSM anymore, and yes, I agree with the consolidation of all autistic spectrum stuff under one umbrella. I have other issues with the DSM.

I don't like Autism Speaks. I'm Disabled, not differently abled, and I am an Autistic activist. Self-advocate is true, but incomplete.

Citing My Posts

MLA: Zisk, Alyssa Hillary. "Post Title." Yes, That Too. Day Month Year of post. Web. Day Month Year of retrieval.

APA: Zisk, A. H. (Year Month Day of post.) Post Title. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://yesthattoo.blogspot.com/post-specific-URL.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Not What I Need

I am currently taking a class in Chinese literature, conducted in Chinese. It's for the Chinese major. It's not what I need right now in my Chinese studies, but it seems to be what they want to give me. See, it's required that I take it before graduating with the Chinese major, and there isn't anything else running that it would make sense for me to take, so I am taking it. (And by those "not make sense," I mean "have already taken.") But this class doesn't really make sense for me to take right now either. I'm taking 7 classes, 1 math,  4 engineering, the lit class, and the Chinese Econ class. The math class is great. The engineering classes are mostly related to things that aren't my area (I don't need to know what happens when alloys are heated to the melting point or how buildings stay up or how to machine things because I am doing nanotechnology at room temperature and things behave differently at the nanoscale and I'm not able to work in machining because of my sensory issues.) However, the engineering questions need to be taken in a specific order at specific times in order to graduate on time, which I would like to do. Also, there is a good chance that I will need some of those things for the capstone project senior year unless we manage to get a nanoscale research project out of a company (fingers crossed.) The Econ class is needed for the Chinese major and relatively interesting.
The Chinese Literature class, on the other hand, is simply useless. The vocabulary we are getting from it is not related to what I would use in real life situations ever, nor is it the technical terminology that I actually need. (I need the vocabulary to take a graduate level math class and do nanotechnology research while in China. They are teaching me how to talk about morality. Which might manage to avoid complete uselessness if I get into autism self-advocacy kinds of things while I am in China, but even that is iffy. High-level morality doesn't play much into that many of my posts. I use raw facts and the basic "right" and "wrong" more. So this is not exactly helpful.
On top of that, I'm taking a lot of classes, assisting online math classes four nights a week, grading and tutoring for a math class at school, doing nanotechnology research, and trying to play sports. I say trying because this lit class is during Ultimate practice. Which is a problem, because my mental health takes a serious downturn when I'm not active. Not dangerous, but it would probably qualify in the depression area, which does not help with my already poor executive functioning skills. So changing my schedule around so I can actually play sports would be nice.
And finally, there is no reason that I have to take the two-semester literature sequence this year. I can take it the year I get back from China, or I might even be able to take it over the summer when I don't need to take anything else. I mean, that China trip that I'm possibly translating for has been designed to work with the Chinese Summer School, and I think they might have the literature course as an option for that now. So there are other ways I can get this requirement done.
Which means that I am highly tempted to drop the course. I mean, it meets Mondays and Wednesdays. If literature were to go away, I would still only have 12-1, 2-3, and 6:30-7:15 properly free on Mondays for doing things like homework and lunch and dinner. Wednesdays would have 12-12:30 and 6:30-7:15 and that's it. It's not like I have tons of extra time in my life for classes that aren't helping me right now.
Thing is, the people who run the program that is going to send me to China will probably be pissed when I tell them this. I've probably already played the "took Chinese for seven years before I even got here" card as much as I can get away with, and they aren't fans of not taking any Chinese classes. So I am a bit worried about bringing this up. I'll still have the two hours of tutoring per week, though, and I think they need people who actually speak the language more than they need to get pushy about taking language classes at a specific time. I hope so, anyways. They know I'm studying to take the HSK Level 5, which is an extra test score I don't actually need but will help me get in. Assuming, that is, that I pass. Considering that I was inches from passing two years ago, I think I should be able to this time.

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