"Is It 'Shedule' or 'Ske-Joo-Al?!!'"
Hello again. I figure that it's appropriate, as we begin another three and a half months of the frantic absorption of knowledge, to inform you of when that absorption will take place for me and just what it is that I will be sucking into my porous brain.
The following is my class schedule for Fall of 2008:
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Monday, Wednesday, and Friday:
8:00-9:00- Literary Criticism. We haven't gotten too far in this course yet, but I forsee it being somewhat frustrating. I think that literary criticism has its uses, and I'm glad that I've learned to read literature for its subtext as well as its surface meaning. However, reading literary criticism completely divorced from any actual literature promises to be maddening.
9:00-10:00- Contemporary Latin American, African, and Asian Fiction. I'll henceforth refer to this class simply as Contemporary [Whichever we are studying at the moment] Fiction. We just got done reading several examples of 60s and 70s Latin American magical realism, which I found highly entertaining.
2:00-3:00- Advanced Composition. A pretty standard, dry formal writing class. A necessary evil, but with Dr. Delmaramo, my Creative Writing professor last year, teaching, I figure I'm in good hands.
Tuesday
9:30-11:00- Japanese History. Most of you have heard my complaints about my fellow students in this class. Today, when Dr. Buck brought up the fact that we should be considering research paper topics, one guy automatically piped up with "Ninjas!" I'm sure I'll have many more anecdotes from this class in the future. Unfortunately, I have a hard time following Dr. Buck's lectures; I find he isn't specific enough. Luckily, the textbook is very clear.
12:00-1:00- Readings in Religious Studies. Looking over the syllabus, it seems that we'll be reading mostly thinkers who put religion in a somewhat scientific context. They range from people like Friedrich Schleirmacher, who wrote that human emotion was the most important aspect of human religion to more pragmatic people like Sigmund Freud. His book's called The Future of an Illusion, in case you were wondering where he stood on the subject.
1:00-3:00- Linguistics. I can tell this class is going to be really hard, but I think it'll be very rewarding as well. We're learning about neurology and language, the movements of the mouth in pronouncing words, non-verbal communication, and all manner of interesting stuff.
And Thursday is the same as Tuesday, minus Readings in Religious Studies. I also have choir rehearsal from five to six on Monday through Thursday.
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So, those are my classes. I try to make myself as available to my friends as possible without going over to the dark side (getting a cell phone), so I figured you should know when you are least likely to get ahold of me. Obviously, I do other stuff besides class, but your chance of getting me increase exponentially if you keep those times in mind. If I'm not in, of course, you can leave a message and, unlike the vast majority of individuals who make empty promises on their answering machines, I will get back to you as soon as I can.
But yes, the school year has been going well enough so far. This past weekend, I went home to spend the three days celebrating Tim's birthday. He's seventeen now, which means he's legally allowed to view R rated flicks in the theater without parental supervision. We saw both Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder this weekend; he was carded neither time, so we figure he could have been doing this for about a year now. On Saturday, the day before Tim's birthday, we caught Kung Fu Panda at the dollar theater. This post is already lengthy, so I won't go into great detail, but I recommend all three films.
This coming weekend, I likely won't be back in town, as Bobbie has, to my surprise, suggested going kayaking with our friends Xaq and Andy this weekend. This sounds like loads of fun to me, so I'll probably be sticking around. I'm going to try to make it back into town the following week to see Burn After Reading on opening day with Tim and whoever else wants to come along. Beyond that, I have no set plans.
So, until we meet again, I hope those of you in school will be as studious as I, burning the midnight oil, hitting the books, putting your noses to the grindstone... Wow. Burning, hitting, grinding... why are cliche metaphors for hard work so damn violent?
-Dan
The following is my class schedule for Fall of 2008:
---
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday:
8:00-9:00- Literary Criticism. We haven't gotten too far in this course yet, but I forsee it being somewhat frustrating. I think that literary criticism has its uses, and I'm glad that I've learned to read literature for its subtext as well as its surface meaning. However, reading literary criticism completely divorced from any actual literature promises to be maddening.
9:00-10:00- Contemporary Latin American, African, and Asian Fiction. I'll henceforth refer to this class simply as Contemporary [Whichever we are studying at the moment] Fiction. We just got done reading several examples of 60s and 70s Latin American magical realism, which I found highly entertaining.
2:00-3:00- Advanced Composition. A pretty standard, dry formal writing class. A necessary evil, but with Dr. Delmaramo, my Creative Writing professor last year, teaching, I figure I'm in good hands.
Tuesday
9:30-11:00- Japanese History. Most of you have heard my complaints about my fellow students in this class. Today, when Dr. Buck brought up the fact that we should be considering research paper topics, one guy automatically piped up with "Ninjas!" I'm sure I'll have many more anecdotes from this class in the future. Unfortunately, I have a hard time following Dr. Buck's lectures; I find he isn't specific enough. Luckily, the textbook is very clear.
12:00-1:00- Readings in Religious Studies. Looking over the syllabus, it seems that we'll be reading mostly thinkers who put religion in a somewhat scientific context. They range from people like Friedrich Schleirmacher, who wrote that human emotion was the most important aspect of human religion to more pragmatic people like Sigmund Freud. His book's called The Future of an Illusion, in case you were wondering where he stood on the subject.
1:00-3:00- Linguistics. I can tell this class is going to be really hard, but I think it'll be very rewarding as well. We're learning about neurology and language, the movements of the mouth in pronouncing words, non-verbal communication, and all manner of interesting stuff.
And Thursday is the same as Tuesday, minus Readings in Religious Studies. I also have choir rehearsal from five to six on Monday through Thursday.
---
So, those are my classes. I try to make myself as available to my friends as possible without going over to the dark side (getting a cell phone), so I figured you should know when you are least likely to get ahold of me. Obviously, I do other stuff besides class, but your chance of getting me increase exponentially if you keep those times in mind. If I'm not in, of course, you can leave a message and, unlike the vast majority of individuals who make empty promises on their answering machines, I will get back to you as soon as I can.
But yes, the school year has been going well enough so far. This past weekend, I went home to spend the three days celebrating Tim's birthday. He's seventeen now, which means he's legally allowed to view R rated flicks in the theater without parental supervision. We saw both Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder this weekend; he was carded neither time, so we figure he could have been doing this for about a year now. On Saturday, the day before Tim's birthday, we caught Kung Fu Panda at the dollar theater. This post is already lengthy, so I won't go into great detail, but I recommend all three films.
This coming weekend, I likely won't be back in town, as Bobbie has, to my surprise, suggested going kayaking with our friends Xaq and Andy this weekend. This sounds like loads of fun to me, so I'll probably be sticking around. I'm going to try to make it back into town the following week to see Burn After Reading on opening day with Tim and whoever else wants to come along. Beyond that, I have no set plans.
So, until we meet again, I hope those of you in school will be as studious as I, burning the midnight oil, hitting the books, putting your noses to the grindstone... Wow. Burning, hitting, grinding... why are cliche metaphors for hard work so damn violent?
-Dan