10 Years After

Snowblind

School was cancelled today due to snow. That means I have some free time! Unfortunately it also means that I won't be able to drie to see my girlfriend this weekend. What's the opposite of 'every cloud has a silver linning'?

Here is an overview of my TR classes:

History of English An amazing class. I know a lot of trivia on this topic so it is nice to get a more substantial learning in this field. The class is rather high-tech for ETSU. There is a message board that we have to post a question or statement to weekly (converning the material covered). There are text in the library on electronic reserve* for us. I've skimmed a few. From what I've seen these are basically scans of text into a pdf format that are placed online. Due to copyright considerations they aren't permament nor are they complete text books. There is a etymology project fr this class which consists of a 5 page paper on the eytmology of a word from a list the instructor provided. I'm still debating which word to select. I want something with a rich etymological history.

(* due to the dynamic nature of the library Web pages, I cannot link to the list of electronic reserve texts as a collective from the library's page. I'd have to do so with each individual text, and, well, there are just too many. If you are interested go to the library's Web site, click on Search Catalogs and then select Course Reserve List.
Enter the following -
Instructor : Dr Gross
Department : English
Course : ENGL 3200- History of English
Section : Any
Then select Search.)

Probability & Statistics When I was in college before I always thought people called this class"problem stats." It's funny to realize that it was actually said "prob and stats." That's similar to when I was a kid and my father would drink "rum and coke", which I took to be "Roman coke." Anyways, this class doesn't seem too difficult. I've actually taken a a class taught by this professor before, way back when I was first in college. He certainly has changed, and why not? I have changed a lot since then. I'll just say that his, as I feel mine, has been an improvement and I think I will enjoy this class. When we covered stem plots yesterday I recognized the algorithm for sorting the values. I was taught that same way, sans the gaps, by a computer science instructor. I always love finding ways to make things applicable. Oh, and this calss seems rather high-tech as well. The class is split between a lecture room and a math lab. The lab is filled with black PCs and they all have small flat screen monitors. (Which I am always worried about knocking off the long tables we use as desks.)

Philosophy as Conversation I am not sure how to explain this class. It's an oral intensive class but it also has some writing involved. We have to do a summary and commentary on two sections out of the book for grades. This means a 2 1/2 - 3 page paper and presenting this paper to the class. (Another student and I volunteered to do the prologue of the book, so we both have only one more to do.) There is also a final oral project- either an hour in the intructor's office discussing philosophical topics or an 'idea on trial' sort of debate. I should say the class does have a theme, it's THE MEANING OF LIFE. We also have a midterm and a final. It's a very interesting class, but I can see why so many people drop- the oral presentations, the debating that goes on, etc. Plus, the instructor is a real smart ass. I think this is like Burgess who taught my Ancient Civ class last semester- though it could just be the way he is. I like him, but so far he hasn't turned his sharp-tongue against me.