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Sep. 13th, 2006 10:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseWell, after three days worth of classes,a nd finally being in each class at least once:
So far I like all the professors. Bowler did make me raise a brow when he stated that Jesus was crucified in 33AD, but since it was in the course of trying to do a run-down of the fall of Rome in under two hours (two classes) I figured he didn't want to get into all the disputed details.
Butler is a lot of fun, but so far, Sixteenth Century Literature is feeling like a history class; he's been giving us the background history and culture before he actually talks about the works. Though I've already had to read one interminable, umpteen-page, and, IMO, not very good work, which we'll probably start talking about on Friday. (I start reading some of the other writers, and I keep going a while. I start reading this, and want to close the book. Well, at least it's not William MacGonagall.)
The Biology class is actually a course about current environmental issues. Thank goodness, he talks more slowly than Bowler. I would like more citations for where he gets his statistics -- while I entirely believe the grim picture he's painting (it matches most other accounts that aren't too obviously tainted by naysayers or doomsayers alike), and he does include some names for and against, I still feel an instinctive resistance when I'm not given enough names or sources.
Wednesday is definitely going to be the hardest school day by a long shot. Not because the math course is hard (First class impression is that this is going to be a cakewalk - we'll see if that changes), nor do I have any problems with the professor -- his accent is strong but comprehensible, and he has a sense of humour -- but because I'm at the University 12.5 hours with 6 hours of classes (History, Bio and Literature I get all of Monday Wednesday and Friday - Math is Wednesday night). I'll soon be having to use more of that time in research for various essays, but right now, when the topics are still very fuzzy or not available, it's kind of empty, even accounting for two meals' worth of time passing. At least I can sit in the computer lab a while to catch up on internet reading.
I have come up with one other thing to do, which is to take my teeny drawing pad (About 3" x 4") and copy pieces of (for the moment) Raphael paintings. The Raphael book is very very slim, and doesn't add substantially to my school burden, and his anatomy and poses are at least feasible. I figure I'm so out of practice right now that copying a master (even via the wrong medium) is probably a darn good idea to get me re-started. I also mean to do some doodling from life. But I've felt the old Renaissance Vixen title has become unearned (I'm dancing a lot less, singing less - though Church Choir has started again and at least one person has made a point of inviting me back in, since I said "check with me in September" -- and drawing and doing pottery not at all.) I want to get back into the multiple-arts thing. Since pottery's not especially portable, and not only do I have small drawing pads, but a nice tube to hold a handful of pencils unbroken (experience as a Fine Arts student taught me to Guard All Pencils and their Points as much as possible), that seemed the place to start.
It didn't help that I ache from pulling weeds, washing away sowbugs and centipedes (The brick pile is full of 'em; alas, I only got to squish one of the foul, nasty things that are centipedes), setting down bricks and shovelling gravel for about 4 hours yesterday. Almost all of our back walk is brick-lined and re-gravelled. There's a bit near the front of the house that isn't, but not enough to run out the rest of the big gravel pile.
I've sent one person the start to the novel to read. I'm still talking about it with Colin, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
forodwaith I really ought to call you. Still debating whether to ask anyone else.
The next writing project - I hope - is to get these darn reviews out of the way.
So far I like all the professors. Bowler did make me raise a brow when he stated that Jesus was crucified in 33AD, but since it was in the course of trying to do a run-down of the fall of Rome in under two hours (two classes) I figured he didn't want to get into all the disputed details.
Butler is a lot of fun, but so far, Sixteenth Century Literature is feeling like a history class; he's been giving us the background history and culture before he actually talks about the works. Though I've already had to read one interminable, umpteen-page, and, IMO, not very good work, which we'll probably start talking about on Friday. (I start reading some of the other writers, and I keep going a while. I start reading this, and want to close the book. Well, at least it's not William MacGonagall.)
The Biology class is actually a course about current environmental issues. Thank goodness, he talks more slowly than Bowler. I would like more citations for where he gets his statistics -- while I entirely believe the grim picture he's painting (it matches most other accounts that aren't too obviously tainted by naysayers or doomsayers alike), and he does include some names for and against, I still feel an instinctive resistance when I'm not given enough names or sources.
Wednesday is definitely going to be the hardest school day by a long shot. Not because the math course is hard (First class impression is that this is going to be a cakewalk - we'll see if that changes), nor do I have any problems with the professor -- his accent is strong but comprehensible, and he has a sense of humour -- but because I'm at the University 12.5 hours with 6 hours of classes (History, Bio and Literature I get all of Monday Wednesday and Friday - Math is Wednesday night). I'll soon be having to use more of that time in research for various essays, but right now, when the topics are still very fuzzy or not available, it's kind of empty, even accounting for two meals' worth of time passing. At least I can sit in the computer lab a while to catch up on internet reading.
I have come up with one other thing to do, which is to take my teeny drawing pad (About 3" x 4") and copy pieces of (for the moment) Raphael paintings. The Raphael book is very very slim, and doesn't add substantially to my school burden, and his anatomy and poses are at least feasible. I figure I'm so out of practice right now that copying a master (even via the wrong medium) is probably a darn good idea to get me re-started. I also mean to do some doodling from life. But I've felt the old Renaissance Vixen title has become unearned (I'm dancing a lot less, singing less - though Church Choir has started again and at least one person has made a point of inviting me back in, since I said "check with me in September" -- and drawing and doing pottery not at all.) I want to get back into the multiple-arts thing. Since pottery's not especially portable, and not only do I have small drawing pads, but a nice tube to hold a handful of pencils unbroken (experience as a Fine Arts student taught me to Guard All Pencils and their Points as much as possible), that seemed the place to start.
It didn't help that I ache from pulling weeds, washing away sowbugs and centipedes (The brick pile is full of 'em; alas, I only got to squish one of the foul, nasty things that are centipedes), setting down bricks and shovelling gravel for about 4 hours yesterday. Almost all of our back walk is brick-lined and re-gravelled. There's a bit near the front of the house that isn't, but not enough to run out the rest of the big gravel pile.
I've sent one person the start to the novel to read. I'm still talking about it with Colin, and
forodwaith I really ought to call you. Still debating whether to ask anyone else.The next writing project - I hope - is to get these darn reviews out of the way.
