Monday, January 30, 2012

School Update?

I'm bored. It's 8:42am. And I'm bored. Also, I feel heavy. Not sure why, but that is
the best word. Somewhat fatigued, exhausted, but mostly heavy. I slept nine hours,
maybe that's why.

Not much school has occurred for me to make an update.

I forgot how boring weekends are. I like college because of the high likelihood of
seeing people and getting happily distracted, but pretty much no one is here on
weekends. I may or may not miss living in a dorm. And by may or may not, I mean I do.

This post is just turning into grumpytown, isn't it? Apologies.

I've been learning how to do finger waves. I may experiment with that this weekend.
There was a time when I was able to get my hair to do something similar on its own,
with no product whatsoever, but I don't quite remember how or why. I need someone
to show me how to do pincurls because the written instructions do not make sense.
And it's pretty unclear what I'm supposed to do with the back of my hair after making
finger waves on the sides. It'd be nice to have long hair, but I just can't do it.
My shower has water pressure equivalent to rain, which makes hairwashing quite
bothersome.

Grumpytown, grumpytown, grumpytown.





Anyway. In spite of not much school having occurred... (ew, grammar is weird)

Biology 100 aka baby bio
I pretty much know this stuff or have come in contact with it previously through
Envirothon, Human Biology at PSY, other academic experiences, and paying attention
to the outside world. So far, we've "learned" about what science is, the scientific
method, concept-mapping, and chemsitry (to the extent of types of bonds, carbohydrates,
lipids, proteins, and nucleic acid). Our homework for Wednesday was redesigning a
poor test of the Atkins diet and I threw around some terms like standard deviation.
This professor needs to know that not all of his students are Freshmen. So, Biology
is okay, aside from the fact that it will most likely take up more time than it is
worth with reading, homework, pre-labs, and labs. Similar workload to Geology, but
potentially less capitivating because it is not novel information. Lab starts today.
Our topic is the scientific method.

Comparative Politics
This course has the potential to be enjoyable, but it is currently uncomfortable
because it is the first time the professor has taught an honors section of this
particular course and he is thus fairly unorganized. i.e., the grading section of
the syllabus includes essays and tests, but the calendar section only includes
scheduled readings. Oh, dear, coattails course. There are eight students total in
the course - two art majors, two business majors, a history/polisci major, a physics
major, a biology major, and me. But seriously, knowing what is expected of me, but
not when it is expected of me is pretty uncomfortable.

Public Mental Health
In spite of not having attended this course as of yet, I already like it. Good
professor, good material, good assignments and organization therof, and some good
classmates (that I know of; I'm sure I'll discover more when I actually go to class
tomorrow morning). We have a book report due on March 1 and for that I am reading
9 Highland Road, which is a casual analysis of a group home in New York. The prof
said it would be a good idea to start reading while there is time at the beginning
of the semester and I am already halfway done. This course will also be interesting
in that it is making me constantly aware of my own possibility of mental instability.
Don't overreact, readers, I'm fine, it's just weird.

Community
Yay! Sociology capstone course with all of my Methods classmates, what could be
better? The only thing I am worried about with this course is the possibility of
people not keeping up with the readings, which will be detrimental to discussions.
The paper assignments are also fairly daunting because there are no prompts of any
kind. But it could be pretty cool to have all that freedom.

Interventive Methods of Social Work Practice
I am calling this course SW Methods because its real title is far too long. I am
enjoying this course as far as the assigned reading material (although I do need
to compare my previous edition to the assigned edition to make sure chapters and
exercises are compatible), but the professor is fairly unorganized and does not
give off an aura of knowing what is going on. So that'll bother me. Another component
of the course is to complete twenty hours of volunteer/shadowing work. I may look
into working at John Wayland again, although I would like to do more hands-on work
than I did there before.

Piano Lesson
Seriously, anything with Dr. Taylor is awesome.

Jazz Band
As usual, I have to get used to sight-reading and playing jazz style again, but I
am looking forward to it. Our pieces include Take Five, Cotton Tail, and Power Surge.
Take Five is in 5/4, which is the best. I was just reminiscing about the two pieces
we did during 2009-2010 that had odd time signatures and how I would like to do them
again. Tada! Cotton Tail is one of those pieces that looks easy, but isn't. Thanks,
Duke Ellington, for having a really weird piano-playing style that doesn't quite fit
in with the rest of the band in predictable ways. And Power Surge is going to take
a lot of time to be broken down and learned because it is just so darn fast. Really.
Eighth note, sixteenth rest, sixteenth note is weird to play at quarter note = 160.
We have another piece, but I don't remember what it is.









Sorry if all of this sounded super grumpy. I didn't intend it to.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Last First Day of College

And what am I most stressed about? Picking my seats for the entirety of the semester.
Well, not really, but let's stick with that. Haha.

MWF
8-10am LIBRARY
11-11:50am Biology of the Natural World
12-12:50pm Comparative Politics, Honors
(1-3pm Biology Lab, Mondays only)

TR
8-9:15am Public Mental Health
11am-12:15pm Community
12:30-1:45pm Introduction to Methods of Social Work
3:30-4:30pm JAZZ BAND

And I have to schedule piano lessons, also. I'm hoping for maybe Mondays at 10am,
so that Mondays can be my bad day? Or Wednesdays at 1pm, but I'd rather not have
piano lesson on my first day. Heh.



So, expectations?
Biology: Yay, Freshmen and busy work. Phhbbbt, not.
Comparative Politics: No expectations.
Public Mental Health: Yay, good professor!
Community: YAY, SOCIOLOGY MAJORS!
Social Work: Based on previous Social Work courses? Bleh.
Jazz Band: Who knows!
Piano: Who knows!

Although, I do know that I've played piano about five times in the past month. Oops.



Yawn. I am looking for a nap already. I exchanged no fun and an early bedtime for
a lot of fun and a somewhat early bedtime. Completely worth it. Nap time in 3.5 hours.
First, breakfast, some errands, class, and class. Maybe lunch. Then unpacking and
organizing and satisfying my OCD tendencies. And nap! Nap nap nap!!