Natter 41: Why Do I Click on ita's Links?!
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Are you already in the stage that exercising has its own momentum?
HA! no. I'm queen of inertia. exercise never has momentum for me. What does work is for me to go every day and do the thing I plan on doing without navel gazing. So taking a day off is usually a bad thing. I had planned on taking today off, but I think I will either ride my bike or just go to a 7:30 class even though I said I wouldn't because going every day appeals to my obsessive nature.
How can you have papers for classes which didn't start yet? Are they a continiation of the former semester's?
All of the classes I've had so far have advanced reading we need to complete before the first class. We get the syllabi early enough that they assign reading and writing before the class begins. Crazy, huh?
I got sick the day after
And how are you now?
Were the kids upset that they were sick during a vacation, missing on fun instead of school?
reidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of ice. It melted when I spun it, which wasn't very nice
Oh, that's a funny one. I'm trying to translate it in my head back to Hebrew.
I found myself staying up longer, just to be alone for a little while
I think it doesn't say anything bad about the people around you. I think it's less about not-wanting-to-be-with-them and more about I-need-some-time-with-only-myself. At least, that's how it is for me.
I remember that last year, before coming to the USA, I was worried that one of my generous hosts will be deprived of just that sort of time. Not because they didn't want to have me, but because they needed to have their privacy.
to go every day
Wow, every single day? Go you!
Crazy, huh?
Yup. Especially with the writing. If it's something you can do with just the reading, none of the actual listening-to-the-lecturer stuff, it feels strange to me. There has to be something extra that you get during the class, which you (not personally, a general "you") can't do on your own. Otherwise, why notjust buy a book and read it?
why notjust buy a book and read it?
Well, yes. I totally agree with that. But, I think that they would like us to be prepared with some reading and have thought about the reading as demonstrated with writing so that class discussions can be discussiony and not just lectures.
Yet, totally irksome.
so that class discussions can be discussiony and not just lectures.
In one of the "history and philosophy of science" classes I took last year, most of the work was reading. The first lesson was an introduction, and in each lesson afterwards one of the students had to prepare a sort-of talk/points for discussion about the assigned reading. So the professor made sure we did the reading, but in a way that was supposed to open a discussion. That made sense, to me. But yours is, indeed, irksome.
What are the classes about?
[Edit: 7*6=42.]
That's crazy. I don't usually even buy books until after the first class! Of course, we usually can't get a fully up-to-date syllabus until then, either.
I can't believe how much I hate getting up for work every day. And I hate being late, when it's not on purpose -- my commute here usually takes around 45 minutes, except today it took an hour. I was totally going to be on time! But no. At least no one else is really here yet, either. Still.
I have one class on the Silk Road, which is totally fascinating to me. Especially now that I'm reading and since i've travelled to Central Asia and would love to go back.
The other class is Cervantes. Not just Don Quixote, but his world and his works' place in ours.
I don't mind the papers because they are each only 2 pages and therefore they would each take about 30 minutes to knock out. If only I would close my browser window and focus. Which I will do later today. I think. They aren't due for a couple of weeks so I have time. But if I finish them, then I can go play next week with little guilt and I can continue reading ahead which is my current plan.
That's crazy. I don't usually even buy books until after the first class
I even got by in a few classes without buying the books at all.
Jesse and Nilly, the other ish is that we only have 6 class meetings all semester so the first class can't be an introductiony thing. It has to be an actual productive class. My friend who was working on a doctorate in history tells me that it was SOP in his classes too though, so maybe it's a fuzzyheaded humanities thing?
And how are you now?
I'm mostly fine, thank you. I don't feel quite myself, but I'm not sick sick. My appetite's a little off, but I'm pretty sure that won't hurt me.
All of the classes I've had so far have advanced reading we need to complete before the first class. We get the syllabi early enough that they assign reading and writing before the class begins. Crazy, huh?
Oh, I would probably like to read before the class, but don't think I'd be big on writing papers before it even started.
I remember that last year, before coming to the USA, I was worried that one of my generous hosts will be deprived of just that sort of time. Not because they didn't want to have me, but because they needed to have their privacy.
You weren't here for very long (or nearly long enough), though. Having my mother here when we were going through Ben's little medical journey was a huge blessing. And even now? All of our laundry? Washed and folded, and put away. It's a modern day miracle.
In one of the "history and philosophy of science" classes I took last year, most of the work was reading. The first lesson was an introduction, and in each lesson afterwards one of the students had to prepare a sort-of talk/points for discussion about the assigned reading. So the professor made sure we did the reading, but in a way that was supposed to open a discussion.
My favorite college courses were run like that. I took some sociology classes (with a prof who I think is now at amych's university) who ran all his classes like that. If I hadn't found him so late, I think I would have switched my major. It all but became an unofficial minor for me. Did you end up enjoying that course, Nilly? What are you taking, now?
Jesse and Nilly, the other ish is that we only have 6 class meetings all semester so the first class can't be an introductiony thing. It has to be an actual productive class.
OK, that makes some more sense, then. But still, I had a class last semester that only met 7 times, and there was no pre-assignment for that one, either. Of course, my program is full of lazy-asses like me, so.
