new year, new quarter

Well, it's been a while since anybody's posted, so I figured I might as well say 'hi' while I procrasitnate reading the rest of the chapter for my history class.

I made the dean's list last quarter, but it doesn't seem like the school cares much for the few students who manage to do that since all we get is a letter say 'congratulations, give yourself a pat on the back & keep up the good work.' They don't seem to care that I worked 31 hours a week besides having 15.5 upper division credits which I got A- or better. But whatever. I actually enjoyed most of my classes last quarter. I was taking Elementary Modern Physics which was hard, but interesting and the teacher was hilarious. Mechanics was a bit easier but the homeworks took a lot of time. I also took Intro to Computer Programing which I got pretty easily and the teacher wanted to get me to add a computer science major or switch all together. Of course the homeworks and labs were VERY long. My religion class that I took last quarter was Biblical Archaeology and Culture which, aside from the two 4 page reports we had to write and give a presentation on, ended up being an easy 4 upper division Bible credits. Aside from classes and working 24 hours Friday through Sunday at the dinning commons, I was the TA for the Physics with Calculus class because the original TA had a biology lab to attend at the same time. I also was the TA for the Astronomy labs and I got to set up the telescope we have at the observatory and I've become an expert on where most of the autumn constellations are and I can name almost 20 stars in those constellations. I'll have to do some self study during the spring and summer before I know most of the visible northern hemisphere constellations and stars. Oh, and I occasionally tutored for the astronomy class last quarter. I only had 2 people come on 3 different days, but I wasn't going to complain too much since I did get paid and free time to work on my homework. And the one girl that did come twice said she did very well on her exams so that was good.

This quarter doesn't look like it's going to be as interesting, and I'm only taking 1 physics class which is the second quarter of Mechanics. So I'm getting more of my generals out of the way. I'm taking survey of music which as much as I love and enjoy most types of music, I'd rather not take this class. Today we learned about rhythm, melody, timbre, and got to listen to wolves howleling, a disturbing chant thing from some European country, and Sousa's Stars & Stripes. I'm also taking History 102 which I had tried to put off but I can't anymore, so I'm taking it from this crazy lady who might love history just a bit too much. I'm taking another upper division religion class called Women of the Bible and our first class is tomorrow so we'll see how interesting it is. I'm also taking Intro to Philosophy since its required before I can take Philosophy of Science and Religion which is a required class. It only meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I'll find out tomorrow how that class is. Oh, and the lady who's doing our gym class is making us write papers for it....the class is called Fitness for Women and I thought it would be something where I'd set up a little workout routine that I could do then leave, but it looks likek she's going to make it a bit more complicated & girly than that. She said somethin about a curves circuit or something like that & spinning & various other things that I wasn't paying attention to so I guess I'll see how that turns out.

At least I get to sleep in a bit more this quarter, my earliest class is at 9 and only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that will be nice. And I get to grade for another class this quarter instead of just the one math class. My advisor asked me if I was willing to grade the assignments for th new EMT class and since everything was multiple choice stuff from their books and basic fill in the blanks he doesn't think it will matter that I haven't taken the class and not even an emergency services major (they just created that new major this year). Also if the grader for the astronomy lecture isn't going to grade this quarter, they've asked if I'd do that too. So I might be grading papers for 3 classes, helping the astronomy lab, and working weekends at the caf.

I'll be going to LA January 18-20 for a physics conference which sounds interesting and it's specifically for women going into the physics profession. Other than that the only other interesting thing that will happen between now and next summer is I get to go to London with a group from home including my best friend. Its for an English class through the community college at home, but we don't have to get English credit if we don't want to. We'll be leaving at the end of May and we'll stay there 10 days. Since it is for an English class we'll mostly be focusing on the theatres and stuff like that. We're scheduled to see 3 plays and visit a few other places including Stonehenge. I'm looking forward to that a lot even if I will be missing a bunch of classes.

Well, I suppose I should get back to my reading. I hope everyone has a good year!
JJ