Ranting (I'd suggest you don't read this)
Monday May 15th 2006
I’m actually feeling inspired today! I just finished writing an introduction to the children’s book that I’ve been composing in my head for the last couple months, and I think it turned out fairly well. But I’ll leave it at that incase I jinx myself by speaking too highly of my own work…
What else? Oh! I just watched a movie called Eros which was kind of cool. Wong Kar-wai was one of the three directors who worked on the film, and because I liked his other movies so much I bought Eros on a whim. Wong Kar-wai’s segment was actually sort of boring, but the cinematography was beautiful as usual.
I’ve also been watching a lot of Angel. I’m almost done with the third season, and I’m surprised to see that there are still random episodes in the midst of a huge storyline which will have nothing to do with the overall development of the plot. Overall I think Angel is great; it’s fun, it’s funny, and it’s epic. I just wish they would stop throwing in weird superfluous episodes which do nothing to enhance the story. (Why did we need the episode which shows Gunn selling his soul to get his pickup?) I also think that Fred should have been with Wesley rather than Gunn. Oh great, now I’m starting to rant. I better just stop now before I waste anymore of my own time.
School-bleh! I’m one of the only people I know who can’t stop bitterly complaining about college. Sometimes I wonder why I’m even going. I don’t enjoy the work (I find a lot of it rather pointless actually). For instance, in my writing 122 class the professor is having us do an argumentative segment where we will possibly have to defend a view which we don’t necessarily believe in. The topic we’re covering right now will be about dams and fish. Everything I’ve read so far while researching for this class proves that dams (in divers different ways) are bad for fish and for the environment-however, if I am chosen to be one of the people defending dams, I will have to try and come up with an argument as to why we should keep dams, despite their negative effects on environment. (Some positive things would include: cheap electricity and high paying jobs to keep the dam in tip-top shape). But seeing as the many dams that run along the Snake River system supposedly only make up a very minute amount of the total electricity which is being generated in the area, we wouldn’t lose out on that much cheap power. And as far as job-loss goes, the restoration of the rivers would supposedly help to repopulate salmon and help to revive the local fishing and tourist economy, thus creating a wave of decent paying new jobs to replace the ones that are lost by the destruction of the Snake River dams. SO, if it ends up that I have to argue in favor dams, it would utterly pointless for me to take part in the project. Why should I be forced to complete a project which supports a belief that is contrary to my own? Sure it’s good to know both sides of the argument, in fact it is essential to making wise decisions, but does it stand that I need to compose an argument in its favor to understand it? I don’t think so. The whole thing is bullshit if you ask me.
Another aspect of college that I hate is the fact that I have to take so many courses which aren’t directly tied to my particular degree. Nyssa and I sat down and did the math, and figured out that we could literally cut our time (and thus our expenses) in half if we only had to take courses directly relevant to our degrees. Now, while taking extra classes here and there may seem like a fun or interesting endeavor for a student who is going to school for free, and who doesn’t have to work, it is a totally different experience for the student (such as myself and numerous others) who are taking out mass loans to pay for classes, and who still have to work a steady job on top of school to support ourselves.
I think the option to take extra courses should always be available for students who are interested in taking them, but for those who realize that those courses will be of no worth to them in their future careers, they should be able to skip out on the courses entirely. This doesn’t mean we will have less educated people (because let’s face it, taking one course on a subject isn’t going to make you a well-rounded). If anything, taking only the classes directly relevant to your degree would expedite the educational process, and help you to retain more information by only enrolling you in classes which are relevant to your main course of study. This would mean that students of a particular subject would be TOTALLY devoted to that subject, and they would, in my opinion, not have to worry about memorizing superfluous subject matter, or about having to do busy work for other irrelevant classes which consume time that they could be using for their important classes.
I’m not naïve, I know that many subjects in life are relative to one another, and that we can benefit by having a good general knowledge of the world around us, however I don’t believe that we need to spend extra time and money in college to receive this overall education. If we spent half the time in college that we do now, we would gain many lost years in which we could have spent learning on our own and growing as intellectual and spiritual beings.
Timothy
I’m actually feeling inspired today! I just finished writing an introduction to the children’s book that I’ve been composing in my head for the last couple months, and I think it turned out fairly well. But I’ll leave it at that incase I jinx myself by speaking too highly of my own work…
What else? Oh! I just watched a movie called Eros which was kind of cool. Wong Kar-wai was one of the three directors who worked on the film, and because I liked his other movies so much I bought Eros on a whim. Wong Kar-wai’s segment was actually sort of boring, but the cinematography was beautiful as usual.
I’ve also been watching a lot of Angel. I’m almost done with the third season, and I’m surprised to see that there are still random episodes in the midst of a huge storyline which will have nothing to do with the overall development of the plot. Overall I think Angel is great; it’s fun, it’s funny, and it’s epic. I just wish they would stop throwing in weird superfluous episodes which do nothing to enhance the story. (Why did we need the episode which shows Gunn selling his soul to get his pickup?) I also think that Fred should have been with Wesley rather than Gunn. Oh great, now I’m starting to rant. I better just stop now before I waste anymore of my own time.
School-bleh! I’m one of the only people I know who can’t stop bitterly complaining about college. Sometimes I wonder why I’m even going. I don’t enjoy the work (I find a lot of it rather pointless actually). For instance, in my writing 122 class the professor is having us do an argumentative segment where we will possibly have to defend a view which we don’t necessarily believe in. The topic we’re covering right now will be about dams and fish. Everything I’ve read so far while researching for this class proves that dams (in divers different ways) are bad for fish and for the environment-however, if I am chosen to be one of the people defending dams, I will have to try and come up with an argument as to why we should keep dams, despite their negative effects on environment. (Some positive things would include: cheap electricity and high paying jobs to keep the dam in tip-top shape). But seeing as the many dams that run along the Snake River system supposedly only make up a very minute amount of the total electricity which is being generated in the area, we wouldn’t lose out on that much cheap power. And as far as job-loss goes, the restoration of the rivers would supposedly help to repopulate salmon and help to revive the local fishing and tourist economy, thus creating a wave of decent paying new jobs to replace the ones that are lost by the destruction of the Snake River dams. SO, if it ends up that I have to argue in favor dams, it would utterly pointless for me to take part in the project. Why should I be forced to complete a project which supports a belief that is contrary to my own? Sure it’s good to know both sides of the argument, in fact it is essential to making wise decisions, but does it stand that I need to compose an argument in its favor to understand it? I don’t think so. The whole thing is bullshit if you ask me.
Another aspect of college that I hate is the fact that I have to take so many courses which aren’t directly tied to my particular degree. Nyssa and I sat down and did the math, and figured out that we could literally cut our time (and thus our expenses) in half if we only had to take courses directly relevant to our degrees. Now, while taking extra classes here and there may seem like a fun or interesting endeavor for a student who is going to school for free, and who doesn’t have to work, it is a totally different experience for the student (such as myself and numerous others) who are taking out mass loans to pay for classes, and who still have to work a steady job on top of school to support ourselves.
I think the option to take extra courses should always be available for students who are interested in taking them, but for those who realize that those courses will be of no worth to them in their future careers, they should be able to skip out on the courses entirely. This doesn’t mean we will have less educated people (because let’s face it, taking one course on a subject isn’t going to make you a well-rounded). If anything, taking only the classes directly relevant to your degree would expedite the educational process, and help you to retain more information by only enrolling you in classes which are relevant to your main course of study. This would mean that students of a particular subject would be TOTALLY devoted to that subject, and they would, in my opinion, not have to worry about memorizing superfluous subject matter, or about having to do busy work for other irrelevant classes which consume time that they could be using for their important classes.
I’m not naïve, I know that many subjects in life are relative to one another, and that we can benefit by having a good general knowledge of the world around us, however I don’t believe that we need to spend extra time and money in college to receive this overall education. If we spent half the time in college that we do now, we would gain many lost years in which we could have spent learning on our own and growing as intellectual and spiritual beings.
Timothy