Cool tapes

If you like learning without the obligation of homework, check out this list of FREE online lectures, courses, and other good brain food. I've already checked out a lecture series on happiness/mood disorders, and am currently watching a series on Ancient Israel. Awesome stuff! Now I don't have to worry that my brain will waste away from lack of nutrients. Y'know, metaphorical ones.

Happy finals week!

And may the odds be ever in your favor.

P.S. I'm GRADUATING shortly and am in desperate need of interesting blogs to read. Have any suggestions?

Skool

The college experience, year by year:

Freshman

Sophomore

Junior

Senior

Failure is just success rounded down, my friend!

It turns out that you can pass Music Civ 201 without doing any of the readings, only going to class about half the time, and starting to study for the final roughly two days before it happens.

Although if you want an A, you should probably do the opposite of what I did.

The whole [redacted] universe is laughing...

Heh. I promise that the swear in the title isn't a bad one.

Finals are in a week and a half. I've written six papers and taken ten tests so far this term, with two and four left, respectively. I suppose that sounds pretty [redacted] awful, but when you consider the fact that I'm only taking Spanish 105 and ELang 529 (?... I still don't know), that none of the papers have been longer than three pages, and that all the tests have been for Spanish and haven't taken longer than 30 minutes, it isn't all that bad.

I have nothing else for you, so go look at this adorable blog.

I'm wide awake, it's the middle of the night...

My Spanish class forces me to do cultural activities every now and then, to help me become a more well-rounded person, I guess. Jordan and I decided to go to El Salvador Restaurante yesterday, because they apparently had a legendary food I needed to try, and I figured, Hey! Food=culture. Good plan!

So we went to this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant, and man. The atmosphere was sweet. Half the tables were legit booths, and the other half were the kind of cheap white tables you put on your patio.There were El Salvadorian decorations plastering the walls, in a weird-but-charming way, and the owner's kid/nephew/cousin was sitting in the corner, wearing an apron and coloring.

We ordered our food from a woman who spoke rapid-fire Spanish. I mostly understood what she was saying, and gave really good two- to three-word answers to her questions. All the while, I questioned myself: Was anything I learned in Spanish real? Do I sound like a total and complete idiot right now? Is anything I'm saying coherent or remotely grammatically correct, or am I just stringing together unrelated words in an unforgivable Spanish accent?

Apparently we did all right, because our food got to us, and I was so excited to devour it. We order "pupusas," which is Spanish for "a corn tortilla injected with the most delicious cheese, meat, and vegetables you've ever had in your mouth before." It also came with this shredded cabbage stuff that had been...marinated...in sauce. It was a lot better than it sounds.

After our happy mealtime, we got home, and within a half hour, my stomach said, "Dria. You made a bad choice today." And it proceeded to violently surrender its contents.

I suppose this means I had food poisoning. I was, in fact, food poisoned. Can you say it like that? Should it be hyphenated? I've never really understood what the term means. When people say, "Dude, yesterday sucked. I got food poisoning," do they really mean, "Yesterday I went to a shady 'authentic' restaurant and had the most amazing food ever, which I later threw up and now I never want to think about that place again, ever"?

Perhaps I'll never know what that phrase means, or if I was finally able to be an unwilling participant. I do know that I deserve extra credit on that Spanish assignment.

Whatever the mess you are, you're mine, okay?

I think that over the past two weeks, I've had every minor illness that one can possibly contract without going to the hospital room or dying. That being said, what should've been the best first week of a semester, ever, has actually been the most difficult and frustrating. But I made it through, and I'm surprisingly still optimistic about this whole Winter '11 idea.

My classes (and schedule) are awesome. I'm only taking three, and they're all language-related. If you know me at all, you know that this makes for good times for me. Which reminds me--yesterday, someone asked me if understanding the English language well helps in learning other languages, and my answer was an emphatic no. Exhibit A: me; Exhibit B: the German language. I did think it was an interesting idea, though. What makes one good at languages? Some people pick them up so easily and it's almost a hobby for them to learn another language.

As for me, I'm sticking with my native tongue and trying my hand at Spanish again, since I have a little experience and am married to my own personal tutor.

I'm still optimistic about meeting all my students, even though my getting-stick-all-the-time escapades sometimes get in the way. I've been able to talk with about two or three of them so far, and it's been so interesting to hear about how they came to choose BYU and to observe the mannerisms that make them unique. I know that people like to stereotype and generalize about BYU students (not to mention members of the Church), but I've found that every time I'm willing to put forth the effort to get to know someone (anyone) better, I end up appreciating and liking them more. People are a lot smarter, kinder, and better than we give them credit for. I love my job so much because I get to discover just how incredible people are.

You put the keys in the car...and DRIVE!

You know what? 10 proof cough syrup is so NASTY, but it makes my sore throat feel so much better. I've decided that after this bottle is empty, by my own doing or Jordan's, I'll only ever take pills. It's so much less nasty.

Last night I made the mistake of checking my work email right before going to bed. There was an email from one of my students asking for help with her schedule, and I got so excited that it made sleeping very difficult. I wanted to help her right then, but I figured that sending at email at 12:45 a.m. probably wouldn't be very professional.

I really want to go back to work (and school). The past two weeks have been AWESEOM [sic, but I like how that typo turned out], but I do enjoy some structure and having things to do, other than boring stuff or watching Psych.

Oh, and happy new year. :F

At least I'm not as sad as I used to be... no, wait, yes I am.

Sometimes the early bird just gets shot by hunters.

I decided to be proactive today and go buy textbooks for Dria and me while she stayed in bed to recover from a sore throat she's had for the last few days. I put on some pants and shoes, threw on my coat, and started the long journey to the BYU Bookstore.

First off, it was negative infinity degrees outside this morning. (Believe me, I checked Weather.com and it definitely said it was negative infinity degrees in Provo.) I used to consider myself a cold-weather person, but every winter I've spent in Utah has worked hard to convince me otherwise. Uh... I guess cold weather in California isn't really cold, anyway, so... there you go.

After a few minutes of slow-motion snow driving, I arrived at the base of Mt. South End of BYU Campus. Now that I don't live ridiculously close to campus, it has become painfully clear to me that no matter where I park, I'll have to walk at least fifteen minutes to get to my classes next semester. Just my luck that parking couldn't be closer to the north end of the school, which is where all of my morning classes are. In fact, they're in the JKB, which is pretty much the farthest north you can have a class (unless you go to the Salt Lake Center, I guess, but that's beside the point).

*cough* Little tangent there... Anyway, I trudged my way through the BYU-flavored snow cone, finally arriving at the bookstore, only to find all outward entrances blocked by giant CLOSED signs. My hope wavered, but my frozen body begged for warmth, so I found the closest entrance to a building I could find. Fortunately, that led me to the indoor entrance to the bookstore, where I was finally able to locate a sign with bookstore hours during the holidays. Now, don't go thinking that I was an idiot for not looking up the hours ahead of time; I tried. I really did! Unfortunately for me, the bookstore's website was down for routine maintenance (who does "routine maintenance" the day before New Years' Eve?), and I doubt they would have had the holiday hours up even if the site were working properly. BYU is, after all, notorious for having terribly unhelpful websites (which I'm helping to fix, by the way, but that's another story).

So there I was, trapped outside the bookstore by a sign that said, "Holiday Hours: ... December 27th to December 30th: 10am to 6pm" at 8:40am. I was left with a dilemma: if I trudged back out of the icy death trap of BYU, I would have just about enough time to turn around and trudge back, arriving at the bookstore just in time for it to open. Alternatively, I could find a bench and an old newspaper and take a nap in the warmth of the heated Wilkinson Center, but I thought Dria might think I had frozen to death. Also, I hadn't shaved in about two weeks by now, so security might throw me out and not let me buy any books anyway. I finally decided just to risk the arduous journey and head home to my sleepy wife.

There is good news, however.

Firstly, I survived both the trudge home and the later trip I made with Dria to buy our textbooks together. Secondly, we were able to buy all of our textbooks except for one of my Spanish books, which was completely out of stock. We were also able to get some shopping done at Bed Bath & Beyond, which is always a satisfying experience. Our apartment is just a little more organized now, and it's really feeling like home at last.

Despite BYU's best efforts at offing me this morning, today actually ended up being a pretty good day.