Challenger

This week went by in a flash. My Technical Writing class had a Proposal draft due. Each group needed to put together some text, an outline, a schedule, and a bibliography with a write-up about each source. I had tried to motivate the two guys in my group to get started earlier, but we ended up starting it the day before the six-page Proposal draft was due.
We had each brought a topic forward earlier in the month, and we'd decided to compare computer platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc.) and decide which would be most efficient. I know absolutely nothing about this topic, but I agreed to work on it because we had already done a project about Geology. However, the day before this Proposal was due, the guy who had presented this topic emailed me that he'd be leaving town in the morning and wouldn't be able to help us work on it at all. I asked him to at least email us his sources, since we needed 6. I didn't hear back from him. So, I wrote the entire proposal while my other group-mate searched frantically for sources. He was only able to find one. The two of us decided we would need a subject change. I printed out our draft, stapled it, and went to bed. The next morning, I checked my email to find the other guy had finally sent me his three sources at 12:30 A.M. We did not do well at the in-class workshop, to say the least. Our final draft is due this coming Wednesday.
Our topic change ended up swerving in my direction. The first guy would be out of town until the following Monday, so it was just the two of us choosing a new topic. The thing is, when I had chosen my individual topic possibility, I wasn't entirely serious. My professor had explained our research paper as answering a question or solving a problem, not just looking up stuff and writing it down -- like "writing a dinosaur paper" would be. Christine did not respond well to this inference. Dinosaurs are not a childish topic with everything already researched and finished. So, I did a dinosaur argument to show her that it was possible (I know I'm a pain).
Well, now we're writing the dinosaur paper. That's right. So, every time she has referred to the "dinosaur paper" as the bad example in class will be challenged. I'm hoping she doesn't construe this as my personal vendetta against her harmless assumption. *sigh* The good thing is that it's an awesome topic. There is a controversy in the Paleontology field as to whether Tyrannosaurus Rex was a predator or a scavenger. Paleontologist Jack Horner proposed the scavenger theory in the early 90's, pointing out that there is actually no evidence that T-rex was a predator. It was just decided such because it was a big dinosaur with big teeth, really. So, my group (well, probably just me -- it's been the trend thus far) will be going through the evidence and data and deciding what the evidence alone says. It should be an exciting project. Three grades rest on my shoulders with this paper, though. It makes up a large chunk of our final grade, so I mustn't fail. It's already been difficult just to get our professor to approve this as a topic. (Yes, she gave me a very pointed look.) I guess we'll see what happens when Christine-the-writer and Christine-the-geologist are challenged together... Challenging the professor. I'll definitely find out what I'm made of!