I’m almost completely done in Beloit until next semester. There is one more Rubbermaid to carry down to the car, plus the live animals, and our book bags, and then we can be on our way. It’ll be a difficult trip, the U-Haul limits the speed a lot, and yeah. But we got everything packed up, amazingly enough.
But I’m sure you’re more interested in how my semester from hell ended. Right. Well it did. I think I did well in my classes, perhaps not as well as I would have liked to, but I held down 23 credit hours, all of which were really upper level so I’m happy. I think I had/have something of a chance at As in 10 hours, A- in 8 hours, and really anyone’s guess is as good as mine in the last four hours (1 class) It can’t possibly be less than a B-, and probably won’t be better than an B+, but I learned a hell of a lot in that class, even if I’m still not sure I “get it.” But I have no regrets.
So lets go down class by class,
PSYCH 150 - Statistics: It was a good class. I totally understand what was taught, and I did reasonably well. I’m doing a lot of work with the professor (department chair), but I don’t know if I’m going to have a chance to take another formal class with her. It was a requirement, but it wasn’t a gawd awful amount of work, and I think I accomplished the goal. At the moment, I’m trying to find a way to get SPSS (the statistical package de jour, for psych) to work with my computer. No such luck yet, but I’m getting there, and I’m sort of sorry that this class was so locked up in pen and papering the solutions, and not teaching us how to use SPSS, but whatever.
PSYCH 256 - Cross Cultural Psych: I learned a lot, I guess. I felt that the methodology is completely flawed, and that the content was intro to psych, but asking the question “what about culture,” which is something I felt I did, when I was in intro. So maybe not the most productive experience, but it fulfills a requirement, and I wouldn’t have know how much I disliked it, without taking it. Not a total loss, but I’m feeling very, shrug about it.
WGST 360 - Writing Race and Sexuality: Amazing class, really really involved students, and the professor was into it too. It was also the class with the most tension. There were a number of times when the dynamic melted down, and we damn near killed each other, which I viewed as a problem. I’m totally not sure that I was prepared for the class, but I learned a lot, and would probably take it again, given the option. My paper was really interesting, there were a number of underlying flaws but I think it’ll be ok. I’m ambivalent, strongly, but that kind of thing happens. I think I got a lot from this class, but I think I ended up really demoralized about my own analytical and writing skills which aren’t that bad: maybe it was a clash of style, but whatever, it’s beyond me now, and the professor had a 1 year appointment, so that’s done with.
WGST 210 - Gender and Politics in the US with Global Contexts. This class had the worlds largest reading and writing load. It was too much at times, and while I started out ambivalent about the class (all of my friends who were taking the class with me, dropped it in the second week), I ended up really liking it. I did a lot of work, learned a bunch, have the resources to learn more and do more work, and walked away really happy. And while I don’t think my paper is publishable by any means, it’s probably the best thing (in terms of ideas) I’ve written this semester.
ART 150 - Weaving and Fiber Arts. Well that was a strange trip. I’ve discovered that I really really like knitting, and weaving doesn’t hold much appeal for me. So be it. I’m ok with that. One thing I learned, was how to spin, and I’m really interested in that now, and will continue to do this, it was a lot of work, and I turned in like twice as many projects as I needed to, so I’ll be fine. Also the instructor, seemed to be very interested in doing independent study projects with me in the future, which might be nice if I needed the credit, but I probably won’t.
PSYCH 390 - Special Project in Sensation. I was a research assistant this semester, and did a bunch of work. I wrote a lit review, collected and entered data, and participated with the analysis. While I didn’t like the study all that much, and I’m not sure that it means a whole lot, but whatever. We have the results we want, and really good results, so that’s exciting. I think the chances of the paper getting published are pretty good, and I’m really excited about that, and I’ll be able to get do some sort of research-y thing again and again, which is good.
PSYCH 285 - Journal Club. I got a credit hour to read an article and make a presentation. It was a great experience, a little work, but it was fun, and the credit was nice. I’ll defiantly be doing this one again.
That’s everything. Now to jump around a little.
As for this summer, I’m hoping I can do some sort of research thing. I’m almost certain that I’m going to be going to Kansas City for the summer, which will be a great experience. I hope I can make it work out.
This is probably the last TealArt I’m going to write from this computer. As you might remember I’ve been using a 12 inch ibook g4 (thats about a year old) for a while now. It’s a good machine, and I’d probably be able to continue to use it for years, but a number of circumstances combined, and I’m off loading it on my parents, and I’m getting a very shiny very spiffy, 15 inch Powerbook. 100 gb hard drive. 1.67ghz processor. 128 meg of video memory. 512 meg ram (to be upgraded, in August or December). Wireless (of course), No DVD burner, but I so have no use for that. It’s going to be fun.
I’ve been in a shawl knitting mood. I’m a good little bit into a shawl. I have another two planned. Did one earlier this semester, which is amazing looking. The summer is just to hot to make sweaters, though I have one that needs some sleeves that I’ll make as soon as I get to when I need a shawl break. Shawls take a long time, but I hope I can sell them or something, and if not they’re impressive to have, cheep to buy the yarn, and give you a lot of bang for the buck. So I’m going to keep that up for a while.
So that’s about it. I’ll probably be getting on the road soon. I’ll be around more this summer, and I promise to do something about this horrid design.