Friday, December 7, 2007

Friday Absence - Finals Preparation

My apologies to the Friday class! I could not arrive because of a severe flu. I will post here by Saturday night whether or not I can make it Sunday.

Those with questions about Romeo and Juliet may post them here or email them. I will try to answer them on the blog by early next week.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

How to Find Your Class in the New Classrooms

Hello All --

As of yesterday afternoon, our new classrooms have no class numbers stamped or painted on them. Instead, small signs are stuck to the doors, usually by the window of the door. As a little extra complication, each sign has two numbers on it, only one of which relates in any obvious way to the class number.

Hopefully, the following will help.

Both classrooms are in 26A. That's the class on the north side (facing the student parking, facing the hill, the opposite side of the auditorium, the planetarium, and the big clock from where we have been all semester.

Friday Class will meet in 26A 321. That's on the third floor, on the far side (the north side, the side facing the parking, the side facing uphill) in about the center of the row of classes.

Sunday Class will meet in 26A 370. That's in 26A, of course, so it's on the north side of the clock, the auditorium, and the planetarium; however, it's on the south side of 26A, the side facing downhill, towards the pool, the auditorium, the planetarium, and across towards 26D, where we have been all semester. It's all the way towards the east (that is, to your right if you're facing the parking lot, the hill, so on and so forth.

Just as another hint, the sun rises in the east (and, for us, slightly to our south).

We will be writing in class this week. See you.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

What Thanksgiving means to me.

With the holidays literally just around the corner, I was curious and want to provide an opportunity on what Thanksgiving means to each and everyone of you. With politics, global economy, and controversy out of the way I would like to take some blog space to ask what this special historical holiday deeply means. For me Thanksgiving means more than just dressing up and eating and buying things. ("Black Friday" After Thanksgiving sale). To me this is a special day in which celbrates thanks and unity. As the best example and most popular story of the Plymoth Indians and settlers enjoying prayer and a bountiful feast in the new world, both found a level of trust and friendship to each other. This story to me is meaningful because it shows human compassion and emotion at its best. At the time showing appreciation to one another for selfless deeds. Thanksgiving is also a time where college students from abroad come home to see their folks again. When I was at my prevous university it was the first time I have not seen my family in over 5 months and it was a releaving feeling. Here in the United States tables are filled with many delicious food. Even meals are served with traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos on top of that some Americans with Ethnic background may serve rice with it or sausages. But nonetheless one fills himself with food. As in many other countries people starve and risk death. Here in our Thanksgiving we can safely enojoy full meals in the company of friends and loved ones. And I think that truly means something even though many take it for granted and see it just "as another day". Even in a deep sense Thanksgiving is exactly that "thanks" and by us celebrating this day we give thanks to whoever our God maybe and to the founders of this country who worked hard and made sacrifices to make it the way it is today. So I thought I would open up an open discussion for anyone who wants to express their own deeper meaning of Thanksgiving. I found an interestig discussion here: http://topolegionleague.virtuaboard.com/off-topic-discussions-f21/yum-official-thanksgiving-discussion-thread-t3241.htm about food and other random thoughts on it and many others can be found on Yahoo.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Upcoming Assignments

Here are the rest of the assignments for the semester, with their due dates:


  1. In-Class essay, next week (11/16 or 11/18, depending on the class)

  2. Research Project, due on finals day

  3. Final Test, written in class on finals day

NEW CLASSROOMS!! In-Class Essay!!

PLEASE NOTE -- Both Friday and Sunday classes will be in new classrooms as of this coming week. We will be in the new classrooms for the rest of the semester.

Let me be clear: the next class meeting will be in a new room; all meetings after that will also be in the new room.

Friday class will meet in 26A 321.
Sunday class will meet at 26A 370.

Both classes will meet during the regular hours. Anyone who shows up at the old building will probably find it barricaded for construction crews.

Building 26A is located just the other side of the big clock at the staircase, that is, just north of 26D, where we have been meeting. Both classrooms are on the third floor, I am told. I have not yet been able to verify exact locations.

Students will write in class in the coming session. The in-class essays will be in response to two of the readings: "The Storm," by Kate Chopin; and "The Metamorphosis," by Franz Kafka.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

PLEASE NOTE

ALL STUDENTS PLEASE NOTE:

The story "The Gambler" by Dostoyevsky will be REMOVED from the readings. Anyone who has read it is still entitled to write about it, but no one is required to read it.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Lakerfan on Global Warming, Re-posted

I've reposted this comment by Lakerfan that was buried in a comment due to tech issues:

I would like to rant about a subject that we have not discussed in class, but concerns me immensely.
It has been in the news lately that Al Gore recently was a co-winner of the Nobel peace prize for his work in the subject of global warming. Gore, and most of our media, reports that global warming is accelerating and that if we do not do something quickly, the process will be irreversible. They would have us believe that this will lead to rising sea levels, the extinction of certain species, and eventually the destruction of the earths atmosphere, and maybe us.Is this scarry or what? Or, is this exactly what they are trying to do, scare us.
As my trust for the media has waned in the last few months, I have begun to research this global warming subject myself.I ran across an article on digitaljournal.com, written by Michael Wagner.He reports that much of the medias information regarding global warming, is supplied to them by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.This is a 3,000 member panel appointed by the United Nations, consisting of mostly politicians, not scientists.Many of the scientists on the panel dispute the global warming findings, but are having their opinion deleted from the panels reports.
The truth, according to Wagner, is that most scietist in the world disagree with the idea of global warming. He reports that a petition has already been signed by 17,000 scientist that states they do not agree with the conclusion of global warming.
Hearing these statistics makes me leary of our medias reporting of the global warming facts.Does anyone remember the medias reporting of the "fact" that Iraq had WMD's. Was not that meant to scare the American public, as global warming is doing.And was not the truth regarding WMD's shown to be "they never existed".I know the two issues do not seem to be related, except that most Americans receive their info regarding these two issues almost exclusively from the media. It sure makes me wonder.
History has shown that the best way for a government to subvert their peoples rights or to accomplish an unpopular political goal is by scarring them into believing that it is being done to protect them. Personally, I do not put it passed our government to pull a dirty trick like this against the American public.