Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Notes
In the future when having brilliant ideas about reforming social/academic clubs remember that this brings one in contact with bureaucracy.
This would be so much easier if I didn't live an hour (hour and half with traffic) away from my campus.
On a minor note we had a wonderful pre-class discussion/debate about why book burning is immoral. Which it is in my opinion and in (thankfully) most of my fellow classmates opinions. A quote I've heard before and I think needs repeating(and I paraphrase) "A society that burns books will soon burn people." As my professor pointed out by burning a book you are not just expressing your own opinion but violently suppressing ideas. Even if you do not burn all copies of a book you have still suppressed the idea.
This would be so much easier if I didn't live an hour (hour and half with traffic) away from my campus.
On a minor note we had a wonderful pre-class discussion/debate about why book burning is immoral. Which it is in my opinion and in (thankfully) most of my fellow classmates opinions. A quote I've heard before and I think needs repeating(and I paraphrase) "A society that burns books will soon burn people." As my professor pointed out by burning a book you are not just expressing your own opinion but violently suppressing ideas. Even if you do not burn all copies of a book you have still suppressed the idea.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Everyone loves gifts
Meme type thing taken from Quod She.
By the end of the calendar year, I will send a tangible, physical gift to each of the first five people to comment here. The catch? Each person must make the same offer on her/his blog.
If I don't already know you in real life, please shoot me a email with your address.
By the end of the calendar year, I will send a tangible, physical gift to each of the first five people to comment here. The catch? Each person must make the same offer on her/his blog.
If I don't already know you in real life, please shoot me a email with your address.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Prerequisites
Prerequisite. Those lovely things that you're supposed to take before you enroll in certain other classes. Prerequisites can often be annoying for students and seem to make little sense at times. They are there so us so that we , the students, don't take classes we're either a) not ready for yet or b) need to first gain the basic subject knowledge so that we can build upon it.
For example, you wouldn't expect a freshmen straight out of high school to be able to bypass English Comp and the world/British lit classes and go straight for Chaucer.
But most of you reading this know all of this, right? So why am I even bringing it up?
The last few semesters I've seen a smattering of freshmen in 3000 level classes, which I understand. Sometimes, freshmen are ready, or at least think they're ready. Plus, with AP tests and college credit while still in high school being popular in some areas, it makes sense that some incoming freshmen couldn be ready for 3000 level courses.
The problems start when you have freshmen in 4000 level seminar classes. No I take that back, that is just the most obvious problem. The problem is when you have people in 4000 level classes that have either forgotten everything from English comp or have never taken it. No, that isn't the full problem either.
The problem is when you have students in any advanced class that have not had the basics required to underst said advanced level class. Take an advanced American History course, in say the civil war, the students should have a basic understanding of the Civil War from their required American History classes, and so on and so forth.
I'd like to think, at my school at least, that these are computer errors with the on-line registration program (side note: Never mind that online registration programs are supposed to automatically assess a student's transcripts and have blocks in-place to prevent this kind of jumping). That freshmen really aren't being allowed (into seminar classes) by their advisors.
I'd really like to think that.
For example, you wouldn't expect a freshmen straight out of high school to be able to bypass English Comp and the world/British lit classes and go straight for Chaucer.
But most of you reading this know all of this, right? So why am I even bringing it up?
The last few semesters I've seen a smattering of freshmen in 3000 level classes, which I understand. Sometimes, freshmen are ready, or at least think they're ready. Plus, with AP tests and college credit while still in high school being popular in some areas, it makes sense that some incoming freshmen couldn be ready for 3000 level courses.
The problems start when you have freshmen in 4000 level seminar classes. No I take that back, that is just the most obvious problem. The problem is when you have people in 4000 level classes that have either forgotten everything from English comp or have never taken it. No, that isn't the full problem either.
The problem is when you have students in any advanced class that have not had the basics required to underst said advanced level class. Take an advanced American History course, in say the civil war, the students should have a basic understanding of the Civil War from their required American History classes, and so on and so forth.
I'd like to think, at my school at least, that these are computer errors with the on-line registration program (side note: Never mind that online registration programs are supposed to automatically assess a student's transcripts and have blocks in-place to prevent this kind of jumping). That freshmen really aren't being allowed (into seminar classes) by their advisors.
I'd really like to think that.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Poetry Friday: Sonnet 76
Diana Rigg reading Sonnet 76 from When Love Speaks
Sonnet 76
Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth and where they did proceed?
O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.
Sonnet 76
Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth and where they did proceed?
O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Because a good medieval tradition shouldn't die...
Per Omnia Saecula as something called Weird Medieval Animal Monday (or WMAM), where she features...well weird medieval animals.
Now in today's modern world we certainly couldn't have anything similar to those weird oddity of Medieval bestiaries could we?
Monkey Bees.
No really. Monkey Bees.
Now in today's modern world we certainly couldn't have anything similar to those weird oddity of Medieval bestiaries could we?
Monkey Bees.
No really. Monkey Bees.
Yes, I'm talking about the weird, stupid, and what-were-they-on animals of D&D.
Join Jared as he takes his readers through 30 YEARS OF VERY STUPID MONSTERS.
Check out the end of the article for a shout out to Pliny the Elder and the Bonnacon.
Monday, October 08, 2007
RIP Drier
My drier has officially died. It will spin no more, no matter what I do. Heat its got aplenty but it will not spin. Not to mention all the clothing that was in the drier at the time smell like a burnt up motor.
The worst part is that being its a stackable ventless dyer. Replacing it is going to be a pain and expensive. I've talked to my mum who is going to help me out a bit with the cost, not to mention letting me to laundry out her place for a while.
I, at least, have enough jeans to get through this week. So there's that.
Back to my paper.
The worst part is that being its a stackable ventless dyer. Replacing it is going to be a pain and expensive. I've talked to my mum who is going to help me out a bit with the cost, not to mention letting me to laundry out her place for a while.
I, at least, have enough jeans to get through this week. So there's that.
Back to my paper.
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