Friday, January 28, 2011

Twelve Delegations

In every Sociology and Anthropology class I have ever taken, there is always this one person that sticks out. They're always a full-grown woman, of at least forty, who has obviously Returned To School. Probably to Finally Earn Her Degree. She always sits right up front, and she is never afraid to share her opinion of something with the whole class. Even though whatever she has to say is a huge waste of time. She will always ask about why whatever we're learning differs so much from her personal experiences growing up, and the answer is always that personal experiences don't always match results from large-scale studies. And then she will assert that her experiences are more correct, and probably tell us an anecdote about her son or daughter that is more or less irrelevant. After a few weeks, nobody sits by her anymore.

I only bring this up because there is a lady like that in my Sociology class right now, and it seems like my professor knows her type and doesn't like it. I find that hilarious. I could tell that my professor had her pegged after the second long-winded and ultimately useless question she asked, and stopped calling on her. But that doesn't stop this lady, she'll interrupt the lecture if she has to. When this happens, my professor gives off very strong (and very practiced) body language that says to hurry the fuck up and stop talking.

It's incredibly entertaining.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Best Western Europe

I'm supposed to be doing reading for a class (I am very far behind in reading in that class because I only just bought my books, despite this being the third week of school), but this current reading is boring to me. It is also 50 dense pages long. So instead I thought I'd read the professor's notes on it. Right at the top there, she wrote that this is a radical piece, and she really hopes that it sparks debate and discussion. I may not be very far into it, but I think I understand the main theme: Europe is not the center of the world, and most of the world is nothing like Europe.

Whaaaaaaaat?

I never would have thought...!

It probably does have a few radical ideas in it, but the ones outlined in the intro are pretty common ideas to anyone that has spent time talking to a foreigner. It's also annoying to read about how Europe is considered to be "The West" and everything is else everything else, and we're not sure exactly were Western Europe ends and oh, I guess America is sort of apart of Europe I mean it has to be apart of something. It confuses me that a power as big as America is barely even considered to be a Western culture by this guy.

But then again, I'm still not very far into it. Maybe he discusses other large powers, such as Japan and America, later on.

Do you think the radical idea my professor was talking about was that America doesn't matter to Europeans? I do wonder.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Clippers

Things I am missing:
- iPod
- Nail clippers
- Tapestry needles (3)
- Blue Scissors
- iPod connector
- Rechargeable batteries (2)
- Special pencil leads (3)
- Digital camera
- Thumb drive (4)
- Japanese-English dictionary
- Scotch tape
- Sharpie (2)
- Computer files (hundreds)
- Photoshop disk
- Flash MX disk
- Guitar picks (15+)
- Red bandanna

Where the heck are all of my possessions?