School is a Vacuum Cleaner: It Sucks Up My Life

Y'all, I'm sorry for not posting sooner. This week has just been crazy and I've been going non-stop and haven't felt like I could just stop and breathe, let alone sit down and type out all the blog posts I want to do. And sadly... I don't think that feeling is going to go away any time soon. At least not till the semester is over. Sounds like it's time for the promised semester overview:

First Class of the Week
So on Wednesday nights I have what is officially called "Approaches to Emergent Media and Communications" but what is really just a research class. Which REALLY means that it's going to be super boring and a TON of work. I have a homework assignment that I have to turn in every week and we have 3 exams and a final and then we have the final research paper. I thought grad school was all about discussion and the occasional paper/assignment/final project? I can already tell this class will be a pain in the butt. PAIN IN THE BUTT!!!

Luckily, however, most of the people in the class are my friends so we can complain about the class together afterwards. Like how the professor spent 20 minutes and went OVER class time (which means I didn't get out of class till 10pm) about plagiarism, complete with examples and comparisons. It's grad school, if someone has plagiarized something, kick them the heck out of the program and school; they are complete idiots and SHOULD know better. I get that this is a problem and might need to be addressed, but, you don't have to spend 20 minutes talking about how people shouldn't do it and showing what it means to plagiarize. Alls you gots to say is, "Don't plagiarize in any way, shape, or form. If you're confused by what this means or have questions, come see me after class and I will gladly explain." That's it. It's a freakin' Master's level class, no need to treat us like we're in high school. But... I digress.

Second Class of the Week
Then on Thursday I have to leave work early (yup... which means I get to make up the time on Fridays that I normally wouldn't work. I'm quite upset by this fact) to go to my "Literature, Science, and Culture" class, which is all about game theory, itself and found in the literature we're reading. The first meeting of this class I missed (cause I was in Utah), so I met with the professor in his office when I got back. When I first met him, I realized he was an adorable old British man who apparently likes to wear super thick turtleneck sweaters and shorts (yeah that's what he was wearing) in his office. I talked to him about the class and I introduced myself and what not and then he laid this piece of knowledge on me (after he asked if I'd read The Lord of the Rings after me saying I like reading and have an English degree):

"I met Tolkien when I was at Oxford. He looks like Gandalf, just a miniature version of him."

I was too dumbfounded to ask him anything else (like what does he mean by he looks like Gandalf? the description of him in the book? Sir Ian McKellen himself or as he's dressed up as the character in the movie? Did you also meet C.S. Lewis???) so I didn't. The class so far has been filled with a lot of discussion that goes off on tangents and that sometimes appears to be over my head. Not to mention I can tell that a few of my classmates are going to be super annoying. This class just requires a lot of reading, and as far as grades it's based on participation and weekly reading quizzes (and I'm pretty sure I totally bombed my first one) with an OPTIONAL term paper and that's it. No final, no midterm, no required paper. This is both good and bad for obvious reasons. Let's hope I'll get in the groove of this class and not tune out what he's actually saying because I'm lulled by his British accent. Let's hope.

Third Class of the Week
Then later on that evening on Thursday nights, I have "Emerging Media Studio" which is essentially a film class with a little extra things EMAC related. I think this class is the one I'll have the most fun in and will probably learn the most. I'm not that great at filming, so I'm looking forward to learning more about it and geting some more hands on projects as opposed to just learning about it in generalities. We have an assignment (video or otherwise) every week, and then we'll have a final project at the end. So far though, the assignments have been fun and/or easy to complete. For example, the class's focus is on online identities, so the professor asked us to create a fake personality on any platform we choose and about anything we want. SO, if y'all are looking for a little extra entertainment in your life, feel free to check out my alter ego Betty Sue who lives in a trailer park in Oklahoma, loves country music, huntin', and NASCAR, and tweets some pretty funny pictures.

Bonus Class of the Week
AND THEN because I'm an idiot and like to torture myself, I'm auditing an Independent Study class that meets on Friday nights (not every Friday night just most of them) on Fashion and Media that would be really awesome if only I could invest more time and effort into it and could be getting credit for it. I warned my professor I probably wouldn't be able to contribute much, which she said she was cool with, but I'm hoping I can at least do one of the projects: make some kind of wearable computing/tech fashion thing. We'll see how it goes.

In Conclusion
And that my friends is my semester. Basically I'm going to be spending most of my time running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but other than that, don't mind me. Blogging is my release, so don't think I won't update at all, but just know that it might not be as frequent as I'd like it to be.