For the first time in weeks I’ve spent several hours sitting in a chair reading. I’ve had a bunch of reading sitting over my head for almost three weeks, and while I’ve been able to stay on top of it for a while, I haven’t been able to read very much for very long, without a looming deadline. Anyway, I’ve found some sort of groove, which however dorky it may sound is really making me feel better about my self and my studies.
In other school related news, it looks like both biology classes are going to transfer in, which means that I have 6.75 units (27 hours) on the books, with another unit (4 hours) will transfer in as soon as I figure out how to get AP scores to transfer in. I think sophomore standing is 7 units and up. Junior standing is 14 units with the first tier of distribution requirements. I talked to the bio-professor who basically exempted me from every introductory biology class. There’s a “biological-issues” class that I want to get into, but it might be really hard to get into (because it’s a fluffy science for non-majors). Then again, having sophomore standing will give me a slightly higher priority. I’ve more or less decided on my classes for next semester. Introduction to Gender Studies; Psych 150 (Statistics); A feminist literature class (as a lit class); Some Biology Class that I haven’t chosen; and then either another psych class (Psychology of Women if it’s offered) or something like Weaving or something else.
Anyway. I think I broke out of my mid-semester/lunar eclipse related funk/slump sometime in the last few hours and I’m running up the hill.
At the moment I’m sitting in the basement of the library, taking a study break after a few hours of reading, using a desktop Mac, which is really cool. I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that I probably need to supplement my computing situation I need to talk to Chris (cough, cough) about duel monitor setups. Part of me wants to get a desktop that I can use as a file server, the pragmatist in me wants to get a fire wire hub and a few fire wire drive enclosures and drives. I also like having a keyboard with real keys. Maybe I’ll break down and get an apple Bluetooth keyboard. I think I’m going to end up milking the work-study system for all it’s worth (especially next semester), which isn’t hard, and should give me a useable, though not excessive expendable income for technology and yarn purchases.
Speaking of work-study, I’m going to be the “program assistant” for women’s and gender studies, or something. It’ll be great. I’m also going to a meeting for people who want to be R.As. The professor I’ll be working for is only here for a semester, so I don’t know if that job will still be there (or be as awesome/sweet) when Catharine comes back from sabbatical. I should be able to get an R.A. job next year, (I think the possibility of getting a slot next semester is unlikely at best, but this place is known for some crazy stuff.)
Five hundred and some words into this entry and I’ve managed to not get to most of the subject matter that I set out. Lets try to change that.
The bulk of the reading I had to do for class tomorrow, is a huge chunk of a science fiction novel: Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. It’s an amazing pice, and it’s kind of reminded me how much I really like science fiction. Which is an interesting thing to say on this campus, where the largest independent student group is “BSFFA” (pronounced phonetically: “bisph-fa”) or the Beloit Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. BSSFA is slowly taking over a dorm; it’s kind of funny. Anyway.
I like science fiction, I’ve discovered, and Robinson’s breed of the genre is just my kind of thing. My approach? Outlook? Perspective? Goal? Well whatever, I think that Robinson is trying to accomplish a lot of the same things in his science fiction that I would like to attempt. I think I almost want to work on Another Round again, which I haven’t had a desire to do in a while. I heard myself say, that I’ll probably finish the draft of that one before I graduate. In retrospect this is probably an unrealistic and foolish deadline. The only saving grace of this prediction is that I’m going to start a meditative writing circle, where me and a bunch of other folks, will converge on the spirituality room, talk for maybe ten minutes about what we’re planning on writing on, and then do a minute or two of breathing and relaxation and then we’ll write for an hour or two. I’ve done this kind of exercise a few times, and you’d be surprised how well it works.
As I think about it right now, it’d probably be best to avoid social theory. Maybe tomorrow.