More class possibilities

I've been geeking out over what classes I want to take in the next five terms and came up with this list. As I have said before, this is certainly not the last word on this and I may change my mind on everything. But it seems like I might be getting closer to actually figuring out what I want to do and would enjoy. We'll see.

• WR122 English Composition -OR- WR227 Technical Writing
• HPE295 Health and Fitness for Life -OR- 3 one credit PE classes like Tai Chi or Yoga
• HUM100 Intro to Humanities
• PHL206 Intro to Environmental Ethics (infrequent offering)
• ART140 Digital Photography (maybe)
• option - PHL191 Critical Thinking: Language and Layout of Argument (infrequent offering)
• option - WR222 Writing Research Papers (requires WR122 first)
• EC285 Intro to Political Economy (infrequent offering)
• SOC228 Intro to Environmental Sociology (infrequent offering)
• option - ANTH214 Human Environments: Ecological Aspects (infrequent offering)
• BI101 Biology
• CH105 General Chemistry II
• option - Physics or higher level biology or chemistry
• MTH112 Elementary Functions
• MTH251 Calculus I
• MTH243 Statistics I
• MTH244 Statistics II
• option - ESR172 Environmental Science: Chemical Perspectives
• option - ESR173 Environmental Science: Geological Perspectives 

It remains to be seen whether I'm able to actually get into the classes that I want. At least three of them (and two optionals) are not offered very often and could require commuting to another campus. The optional classes can be taken in place of classes I think I want, but may not be able to get into for whatever reason, and they sound interesting. I really want to finish the ESR series that I'm in right now (last 2 listed) even though I won't need the credits. All of these classes ,along with the classes that I have already finished, will complete the requirements for a 2-year transfer degree to Portland State University. I may be able to finish them by the end of the spring term next year, but may have to go through the summer term.

Field trip!

My Environmental Science class has five field trips, in addition to the regular class hours, as a part of its curriculum. The first one happened Friday afternoon and took place at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. The purpose of this field trip was to learn more about and see in person some of the invasive species in this area. Our lecture from the day before had a little in it about invasive species and we watched the OPB documentary The Silent Invasion which is a great short (56 minutes) video about invasive species in Oregon. I had seen this show about a year ago and paid closer attention to it this time. The trip to Oaks Bottom the next day was really helpful in that we could actually see some of them in person in the "wild". Our guide was a Parks & Recreation employee and was very knowledgeable and had obviously given these tours many times. I took some notes and learned a lot. We started at the north parking area and made it about halfway down the northern arm of the refuge. There was a lot that we didn't see. I want to go back there again soon. Some of the invasive species we saw and learned about are Locust trees, Geranium Robertianum (Herb Robert), starlings (the birds), English Ivy (outlawed! in Oregon), Butterfly bush, Clematis, Queen Anne's Lace, Dipsicus (teasle), and reed canary grass. We learned that all invasive species were native species in other parts of the world and not a problem where they came from. It's kind of a crap shoot when you introduce new species. An invasive species gets introduced to environments and climates that may or may not tend to make them more invasive in their new surroundings. This is a big problem in many parts of the country. If you've been down south you may have seen the kudzu covering everything and killing the trees and native plants. Another example is the rabbit problem in Australia, although they managed to finally get rid of them on Philip Island.

This first link is the Portland Parks & Recreation page, but this link for the PDX Family Adventures page has a lot more information on it.

So, a fun, easy, windy January afternoon at a small wildlife refuge on the Willamette River inside the city. Life is good.

I worry too much

I get so freaked out about exams. And it seems that I am really worrying about mostly nothing. I got the results back today on both my macroeconomics test and my math test. I got an "A" on both of them. It was close on the econ test though. I did horrible on the short answer portion of the test and only got 10 out of 15. If that was the only part of the test, I would have gotten a "D". Yuck. But luckily, I did really well on the multiple choice and ended up with a 30 out of 33 on that part. I was only one point away from a "B", which wouldn't have been bad, but I would not have been thrilled with that. And I made two dumb mistakes on the math test. If it hadn't been for those, I would have gotten a perfect score. Admittedly, it was an easy test and was mostly review of Math 95 stuff. If I can just keep this up...

Back to homework and studying.

Wasting time to prevent exploding head

I've reached a point in my macroeconomics class where I am not very happy with my understanding of the current topic. Chapter 27 covers Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand and the interactions between the two. I read the whole chapter and am now trying to answer the required questions. I understand the concepts, but there is just so much information presented in this chapter that I am having a hard time remembering all the different causes and effects. And I think that understanding this chapter is very important and that the next few weeks will build on what is in this section. I hope that the instructor is able to go over and simplify (at least a little) these things. I'm still enjoying this class, much more than micro, but it's certainly not any easier. I'm just kind of wasting time with this post, but I needed a little break. I still have 6 more questions to answer, which could take several more pages and maybe a couple of hours. I wanted to write at least one more article review this week, but I might not have time. I spent a lot of time over the weekend studying for the first exam we had on Monday. I should have used my time a little differently. Oh well. I don't think that I'm in a different place than most of my classmates. And I think I got at least a "B" on the test. At least I hope so.

And for some reason I'm not remembering a lot of the math that I already learned two terms ago. I thought that retaking this math class would be much easier than it seems to be. Everyone else seems to like the teaching style of the instructor. I don't necessarily dislike it, but nothing seems to be sinking in for me. I need to start doing something different, but I'm not quite sure what that is. Maybe I need to do extra homework problems. It really frustrating that I can't remember stuff from only two terms ago. And I still have at least three more math classes ahead of me.

I wish I had a USB socket in my head and could just download all of this stuff. But then everyone would be doing it. I seem to be having some motivational issues this term and I also seem to get distracted way too easily also. I'm not sure what happened. I hope it passes soon. At least my environmental science class isn't too hard, but is more work than I thought it was going to be.

At least three more years to go. And it certainly won't get any easier.

Watch this movie

In the past 6 months or so, I've been watching quite a few documentaries on socially important issues. These have included The Cove, Food Incorporated, The Warning, The Ascent of Money, and several others. While I recommend that everyone watch these enlightening shows, I also know that many people won't because they just aren't interested in the subjects, don't care about them, think they are biased, or just don't want to know about many of the injustices and horrible things that are going on in the world. But, because of this week's incredibly stupid Supreme Court decision concerning corporations and their ability to fund election advertising should raise serious concerns for everyone in the country who actual cares about our political process, regardless of your political or social leanings. I just finished a movie last night that I think YOU need to watch. It's called The Corporation and is a Canadian documentary from 2003. It discusses modern day corporations, their status as "persons" (and you thought the 14th Amendment freed the slaves), and compares their behavior towards society and the world to that of a psychopath. I know, this sounds kind of ridiculous, but you should reserve your judgment until you have actually watched it. It's hard to disagree with what they present. This movie is available to watch for free on Hulu.com or can be downloaded from most bit torrent sites. It's probably available from Netflicks too, but I haven't actually checked. It's a little long, at about 2-1/2 hours, but is easy to watch. You owe it to yourself to learn more about this.

Extra credit DOH!

The instructor has given us our first optional extra credit assignment in my Environment Science class. Basically, you decide on something that you can do over the course of the term that can make an impact on reducing your ecological footprint, keep a journal on it, and then write a 2-3 page paper on it. I decided that I would stop driving to school so much and either walk or take the bus and maybe stay at school during a 2-1/2 hour break between classes, which should cut at least two trips a week. That shouldn't be too hard. I had planned to start this today. I got to school a little bit early this morning, about 1/2 hour before class started. I looked in my backpack for my econ binder so I could go over some test review stuff before class. Where is my binder? I grabbed the wrong one this morning! Crap! I need it! It has my homework and two article reviews in it that I was going to hand in today. So much for fewer trips today. I had just enough time to drive home, exchange binders, and get back to class with about 3 minutes to spare. This "project" has gotten off to a bad start. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

New season starts for the Rose City Rollers

Last night I went to the Expo Center with Chuck to watch the season opening bouts of the Rose City Rollers. For those of you who don't live in Portland (or do, but don't know what this is) here is a little bit of info about this exciting sport that is becoming more and more popular across the country and is beginning to attract a following and participation in other countries as well. The Rose City Rollers is a women's amateur flat track roller derby organization. This isn't the roller derby of the 1960's and 1970's that comes to mind for many people. That was more akin to "pro" wrestling and movies like Unholy Rollers or Bay City Bomber capitalized on the sensationalism and helped prevent any legitimization that those involved in roller derby at the time may have desired. There is a pretty good article in Wikipedia ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_roller_derby) on the history of roller derby if you want to know more.

The first event I went to, about four years ago, unfortunately left me vowing to not go to another one. They oversold the event, had overpriced beer and food, overpriced parking (and wouldn't allow two motorcycles to pay and occupy one space - boo!) and I ended up leaving at halftime. I was impressed with the athleticism, competition, and excitement that the women displayed and was genuinely sorry that I didn't want to go back. Fast forward a year or so. Chuck's girlfriend, Melissa (aka Punchkin), had made one of the teams, Guns n' Rollers, and was actively playing and was steadily improving her skating skills. She quickly became one of the teams more valuable players. During some of our semi-regular weekly poker games, Chuck kept trying to get me to give roller derby a second chance. Since I now knew one of the players, I eventually gave in and went to another bout. By this time, smaller events were also being held at Oaks Park in The Hanger. This made all the difference to me. It was a much smaller venue, much cheaper tickets prices, slightly cheaper beer, and free parking. Since then, I have been going to every Guns n' Rollers game that I could, including scrimmages and bouts against out of town teams from different leagues. They have come a long way. I find it to be huge fun watching these ladies compete. And they are "real" women. No skinny little model types here. Not to say that these women aren't attractive, because many of them are, but they are more "average" American women, rather than what the "ideal" woman is apparently supposed to be. I think that its great that these women, and many other women around the country, are doing this. They are all amateurs and none of them get paid. They do it because its fun and they love the sport. I have no intentions of stopping to go see bouts. I also do it because its fun and I love the sport. Well, that and I like watching attractive ladies doing battle (or just about anything for that matter). Men are pigs.

http://www.rosecityrollers.com/

Douchebag of the Week

Once again, statements by Pat Robertson have outraged myself and many others. On a recent 700 Club TV show, Robertson has once again placed the blame for a natural disaster, this time the earthquake in Haiti, directly on the victims, saying that Haitians slaves had entered into "a pact with the devil" in order to defeat 19th century French colonizers of Haiti and were now paying the price. This is an absolutely ridiculous, outrageous, and insulting statement. And it's certainly not the first time that he has done this and I'm pretty sure that it won't be the last. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Robertson linked the storm and its aftermath to abortion in the US. And following the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001, he said that the lack of prayer in public schools and tolerance of abortion and pornography meant that "God Almighty is lifting his protection from us."

Pat Robertson is a complete wack-job. These three statements are only the tip of the iceberg. He has made hundreds of racist, bigoted, and inflammatory statements throughout his career as a professional nutjob. And if you believe the things that he has said, you too are a douchebag. He (and you, if you agree with him) is certainly not helping anything or anyone. Spreading hate and condemnation of victims through the veil of "religion" is horrible. If there is such a place as Hell, that's where he's headed.

Pat Robertson - Douchebag of the Week

Raccoons ate my succulents - OUCH!

I have a few pots of assorted succulents on the front porch. Due to the cold, they are shriveling up a bit, but were still doing OK. I went outside this morning and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I then went out a couple of hours later and saw this.

 

 

Stupid raccoons.

Back in school

I am so glad to be back in school. The three week break is just too long for me. I really don't care much for the holidays and felt somewhat lost. Now, I feel like I have a purpose again, am making progress, and moving forward. I did some volunteer work over the break, worked on my car a little, went to Medford, and generally just screwed off and wasted a lot of time on the internet.

My classes are EC202 (Macroeconomics), MTH111C (College Algebra), and ESR171 (Envir. Sci. Biological Perspective) for a total of 13 credits.

It seems that I am in the minority of college students who actually enjoy economics. I have been seriously thinking of changing my major to it, but I need to look into this a bit more. I've been reading some economics-related books and watching programs that have to with economics. The relatively new field of environmental economics seems particularly interesting to me. We'll see how that all turns out.

Math should be easy this time, because I already took this class over the summer. I wasn't happy with my comprehension of this class (even though I got a "B" in it) and decided to take it over. This decision will only slow me down if I decide to go back to my original plan of renewable energy engineering because of all the other math requirements for this.

Although I haven't even gone to a ESR class yet (first one is tomorrow), I think that this class will be relatively easy. I've been interested in this stuff for a while and have spent a lot of time reading about environmental issues, so I don't think they will be covering a huge amount of information that I don't already have at least some knowledge of. And, there will be field trips! There are 5 field trips involved with this class and we will be going to various environmental/sustainability/conservation-type places and we will be writing reports and doing small projects related to them. This should be a fun class. There are two more of these classes in the series that I would like to take also - Chemical Perspective and Geological Perspective.

Yay! School is awsome!