Thursday, February 14, 2008

101st Post

Since I missed commenting on the 100 mark....so there!

Okay, I know what I'm doing. Whew. Weight off my mind.

Went to six lectures today. Sustainable Development--fascinating. Starting with history, from 8000 BC and talking about population growth and the environment through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Colonization. I am officially taking it. International Relations...dull. Not sleep inducing, and I will certainly go to the later lectures about the foreign policies of various countries, but it has the same problem as last semester of assuming that their course is so popular that they don't try to make it interesting or accommodate students at all (ie having 3 times the workload of other courses). So that's what I'm switching to SD. Psychology. I think I'll stick with this one, since I've been consistently happy and, while I suspect it will be and remain my weakest subject, I just need to put some more time in. We're doing perception now, which is interesting insomuch as I never had even a basic anatomy class, and social psychology and memory/cognition which are coming up should be fascinating. Economics--I knew most of the stuff from Gibert-Rolf, actually, seeing as it was macro. Cool to audit for a few days, and I think I might have been happy going down that path, but not at this point I think. Social Anthropology continued to be a fascinating topic taught by a boring professor with vaguely offensive videos and points about the "otherness" of other cultures. I may continue to audit lectures because they do say interesting things about other cultures, but I'd rather get firsthand experience of habits without the patronizing Western viewpoint. Philosophy continues to be a bit basic but really good, since the subject of "logic" should really come out of the closet and just go by its real name: "arguing". Perfect.

So: Philosophy, Sustainable Development, Psychology

And, it looks like I'll be able to direct this semester! I'm definitely leaning toward Moliere's "The Doctor Despite Himself", a purely silly farce about the medical profession, class, gender, and the other usual suspects. I'm thinking about thematic sort of things I can do already, and the idea I like most is donating maybe 50% of profits to Doctors Without Borders or some other relevant cause, both to promote the production and the publicize it, and to try to break out of "the bubble" of St Andrews a bit. But mostly because it just sounds cool.

I'm feeling up. Valentines Day, whatever, but its also ironically of the most bitter and sexually frustrated guy I know's birthday, which is fun. So we're going out tonight.

3 comments:

swallace said...

Sounds like a great plan for the semester. Doctors without borders is an amazing organization, so the donation would be perfect (and they were founded by a group of French doctors and journalists, so how perfect would that be to a benefit from a Moliere play!). Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

how's your V.D.?
haha. i am sad to hear you dropped IR. relations (personal as well as international) has always assumed the aspect of too much work amid the duldrums... glad to hear that "otherness" is not merely a term uttered by english grad students studying derrida, and even more happy to hear you want to experience firsthand other cultures without the hedgemonic perspective... hence your boondoogle. use it and use it well young man!
on the subject of sexual frustration...

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a good call Brian. Your dad went to a restaurant the other night that had "sustainable duck" on the menu. Seems impossible to me. Once you've knocked the head off, it's no longer sustainable. But maybe after you're all educated in this area you can tell me why I'm wrong! Glad you posted, Bri.