(no subject)

[oceantheorem]

Okay, you guys suck at interactive entries. *sigh*

The only thing I have to report today is that I despise Social Sciences classes, and I despise the university for forcing me to take them in order to graduate. I loved Latin, and I miss French, and I'm upset that I can't take more of either language because I'm too busy taking stupid intro psych classes and stupid body art of the pacific classes. You know, this "body art" class is mostly about European representations of "pacific bodies," and so far is a complete waste of my time in that it is not only boring, it is also repetitive, and my professor is extremely antagonistic towards scientists. So I don't exactly feel welcome in the class, and this hasn't helped my negative opinion of the subject matter so far. Also, I have to work in a group to write a term paper, about which I am extremely unhappy.

I decided today that I mostly hate people, and I really am an introvert deep inside, despite my best efforts to be an extrovert, and that lately I have spent way too much time with other people, and I need to spend some time alone. Which hopefully will lead to more writing. Said writing will hopefully be the kind involving my nice leather journal and my expensive pens, instead of my poor dilapidated laptop.

And now that I'm finished railing about the state of the world, I'm off to read another thirty pages about how night dancing is worse than day dancing because it's more likely to lead to "illicit sexual liaisons." Ugh.

Comments

Whoa

[owlishness.livejournal.com]

For one thing, chill. It's only been a day since you posted the interactive thing and I didn't even read it before you decided that no one bothers to comment on your livejournal.

Out of curiosity, do you guys at Santa Cruz have the option of taking classes pass/fail? And didn't you take the pacific art something something class because you wanted to? Because if you don't have to, by all means drop it if the prof is an ass. Of course, I'm guessing that it's required for something or other.

Re: Whoa

[oceantheorem.livejournal.com]

Yeah yeah yeah... I was in a bad mood. You couldn't tell?

Yeah, I'm taking the gen ed pass/fail, and believe me, if I had the option of life without this class, I would take it. But it's worth three different gen eds, so I'm taking it to kill all three birds with one stone, as it were. Per se.

I definitely did NOT want to take this class. I just originally thought it would be easy, so I was looking forward to the easiness of it.

3 for 1?

[owlishness.livejournal.com]

That's not bad though. If it covers 3, then it makes sense that it wouldn't be too easy. They gotta make you work for it if you're saving yourself that much time. Of course, those supposedly easy classes can always surprise you. The hard ones you can count on to be hard, but I had a friend who took an "easy" class (Contemporary African Politics or something like that) that turned out to be the hardest class he took that quarter.

Whatsup?

[tryptonique.livejournal.com]

Hey Kara,
I read this entry and found myself in large agreement. I think people should have more autonomy when determining their courses of study and not be forced into taking crap that has no use to them. I thought this in high school because as an attorney in the music business am I honestly going to need to understand the Pythagorean Theorem or the quadratic forumula? Hell no. Not being an ignorant troll has value, but if it is in your own self interest to have certain knowledge, a rational person will seek that knowledge out.

Btw...I'm majoring in the social sciences (Political Science and History double major), however one of my biggest complaints with the social sciences is the fact that they often lack emphasis on the SCIENCE part of the whole thing and opt into subjectivist nonsense that is bogus on a philosophical and pragmatic level.

Totally valid criticism.

-Evan

Re: Whatsup?

[oceantheorem.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't have a problem with social sciences, really, except that I'm forced to take classes I'm not interested in, and the professors of these classes are idiots. My professor is trying to make this class more "credible," I guess, because she keeps giving us stupid little assignments. It's all busywork. And you're right, none of it is scientific--it's all touchy-feely subjectivist stuff, and if you don't pull the right crap out of your ass you get marked down.

Not that I hate this class or anything.

I'll trade you your Pythagorean theorem for my art history!

I hope your classes are going well... Thanks for the empathy. :-P

Re: Whatsup?

[tryptonique.livejournal.com]

I think that social sciences can be wonderfully rewarding depending on the approach your professor gives it.

For instance, one of the best teachers I have had is the teacher that teaches Game Theory and Politics, American Foreign Policy, Political Violence and Revolutions, and International Politics. Dr. Carlson (this very teacher) is amazing because she does research based on mathematical models and applies these to Political Science in a meantingful way.

I have had other teachers like her that don't ignore

a) logical rules
b) the laws of causality

or are :

a) heavily politicized
b) overall useless.

I changed my majors so now I'm doubled in PS and History. I think History can be really rewarding as a tool regardless of WHAT you are studying. Understanding the Austrian school of thought in Economics is definitely improved if you understand the geopolitical climate at the time. Same with reading a lot of literature that is important. Beloved is a lot less meaninful if you don't understand what The Civil War was:).
Same with War and Peace. I also find political science valuable because understanding macro scale politics and the rules that have evolved regarding such politics can give you some interesting insights into people. Psychological insights, but instead of psychology just saying:

"X is a given condition that means Y" ...Poli Sci (if you understand it) says "people can be manipulated by doing A and following this rule (B)"

Since I'm going into the entertainment business, that is quite valuable. Plus they both lead nicely into law school and I find them interesting.

What I tend to hate about those bullshit classes is that they almost always have

a) attendance requirments
b) moronic professors (one of my profs last year just couldn't understand that tangential rambling does NOT equal meaninful instruction)
c) large class size (which means what miniscule learning you could be doing is totally squished out by 150 other people that are fallin asleep, doodling, or trying to hook up)
d) That smelly kid in the third row.

:)

-Evan

Re: Whatsup?

[oceantheorem.livejournal.com]

I am waaay too tired to reply to this post the way it deserves... but if I don't do it now I'll forget, so you kind of get stilted either way.

But I totally agree about the four things that these types of classes have. My gen ed class, this stupid body art class, has all four of those, except today the kid wasn't in the third row; he was in the seventh row next to me. And the class has about 300 people in it instead of 150, and the class is two hours long, so we generally spend about an hour total listening to side tangents that have nothing to do with what's going to be on the test. And honestly, for this class, all I care about is what's going to be on the test.

The bright side is that it's classes like this one that make me realize how lucky I am to have found a major that I like. I can sit in a biochem class and write everything down because I'll need to know it for the test... but the reason I actually write everything down is because I don't want to forget it. I love my major. So, if nothing else, these stupid gen eds remind me of how good I actually have it.

Remind me, and maybe I'll have some more to say about the social sciences and how I don't hate the entire field. Later. For now... it's bedtime.

Re: Whatsup?

[tryptonique.livejournal.com]

Whoops. I meant "meaningful" in that last post.

My bad.

-Evan

Re: Whatsup?

[tryptonique.livejournal.com]

damn. I also meant AREN'T heavily politicized or useless. Aiiie! GRRR!