School Update!

We went on our second field trip today to the Waste Water Treatment Plant. Oh boy. Not exactly exciting, but it still performs a very valuable function and it was interesting to walk around and see some of the processes. Disappointingly, the were filming some cable series I have never heard of called Leverage while we were there so we couldn't go down into the tunnels where they were shooting. Stupid TV shows. Our tour guide said that some of the scenes from The Hunted (a pretty crappy movie) were also filmed in the tunnels. Next week's trip is to the Storm Water Treatment Plant. Still not very exciting, but it should be interesting too. I am currently working on next week's homework, which isn't really much more than reading a National Geographic article about the Klamath River and answering some questions about it. I had heard about the controversy about the dams, the salmon, and water use before and the potential outcome could be very positive. Will they actually remove the dams by 2020?

Online classes are kind of weird. You never really know what you are going to get. The two I am taking couldn't be much different from each other. In Personal Health we are encouraged to post a lot on the message board and are required to do a certain number of posts on different subjects. I have never really been one to engage much in online conversations. I think most of the others in this class are much younger than I am and are used to doing this already. I'll get in the minimums, but probably not much more than that. The assignments have been eye-opening for me. I have known for a long time that I need to change my diet, get more exercise, and quit smoking. This course is making me look at all these, and more, all at the same time. The papers I have been writing have involved looking at my health objectively and reflecting on it. So far it has been motivating me to start making some changes. I have been walking every night for at least 30 minutes, I'm keeping track of what I eat and how much I smoke. I'm trying to make some better choices about what I eat (this might be the hardest one for me) and how much I eat. I hope I can stay motivated to change my behavior and start some new habits. And I'm trying to drink a glass of red wine every day but I keep forgetting about it. I should put the bottle some place where I can see it better. If you want a decent cheap of wine, you can't go wrong with the black cat.

International economics class is not so touchy-feely. We are reading about tariffs, quotas, VERs, and export subsidies this week. This is pretty hard and the assignment has some parts in it that are going to require a second reading of the text. Possibly a third. There isn't a whole lot of posting required, although we will have to start giving feedback on other students nation reports next week. I'm doing mine on Germany. I have already learned a lot about their economy just by looking up some numbers. I think that I am still the only one who has posted their data and statistics. It's not due until midnight Saturday but it really wasn't very difficult. I think that there are a lot of people who have or will drop this class. We started with about 30 registered and probably at least half will drop it. I still think it is interesting, although there are certainly parts that aren't. There is a lot of reading and writing for all three of my classes this term so I haven't been able to devote as much extra time as I wanted to this subject.