A few articles I've found interesting lately:
There and Back Again, by Nick Paumgarten, looks at the phenomenon of the commute in the US. Paumgarten rides along with one woman who travels six and a half hours a day to and from work. He makes the very good point that, for many people, the extra two hours of leisure time granted by the introduction "of the eight-hour workday are now passed in solitude. You have cup holders for company." What's the point of having that extra time if you spend it in your car, on your own?
Handguns in Roxbury, Tanks in Baghdad, by Wick Sloane, made me cry the first time I read it. Sloane, a writing teacher at a community college in the States, describes what happened after one of his students was shot and killed. Although I think he stumbles a little towards the end when he tries to connect the murder to the financial inequities that exist in the education system, it's an important point to make, and still a moving story.
Philip Weiss examines a new kind of radicalism at Columbia University, in
One, Two, Three, Four, Can a Columbia Movement Rise Once More? Apparently Students for a Democratic Society, one of the most important and prominent student political organisations of the 1960s, has reformed. As Weiss points out though, the Israel/Palestine issue makes everything just a bit more complicated this time around.
And finally, on a slightly more bizarre note,
Girth and Nudity, a Pictorial Mission: Leonard Nimoy (of Star Trek fame) is taking photographs of obese women.
Showing posts with label University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label University. Show all posts
Monday, May 14, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Life, university, and everything
I had a surprisingly good day at work today, which happens infrequently enough that I thought I should mark the occasion with a post!
Part of my job involves talking to high-school kids about uni, about what it is and why you should apply and, most importantly, why you should come to my uni in particular. Today it was a group of 14 and 15 year-olds, who I usually dread. But this group turned out to be kinda fantastic: polite and engaged and actually interested in what we all had to say. The two things that seemed to really resonate the most was that, firstly, it's ok if you don't know what you want to do when you leave school, and secondly, it's ok to change your mind. I occasionally get asked what my best piece of advice is for new university students, and those two things are what I say every time. Plus, high-school is just something to endure before you get to uni, but the teachers don't often like that one.
I didn't really know what I wanted to do once I finished school, apart from go to uni to do... something. I still don't really know what I want to do once I (finally) finish my degree, but increasingly I'm getting to be ok with that. I see so many high-school students who are freaking out because people keep on asking them what they want to do with their lives. If I can't work it out at the age of 22, how on earth are they supposed to at the age of 16 or 17?
Most of the high-school students I talk to seem to view picking a uni degree as some enormous, unchangeable decision, when in reality I think it's one of the most flexible, changeable decisions that you can ever make. It'd be interesting to do some kind of study of how people's career plans and their major interests change over the course of their time at uni. I unexpectedly discovered a passion for American history; others decide administrative law is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or that being an actuary is indescribably (and inexplicably!) sexy. I don't think it's made clear enough to students that the preferences that you put down on your uni application form do not have to dictate how the rest of your life pans out, and more often than not, they don't. And it's this omission which often makes my job equally frustrating and fabulous, like today.
I have heaps more to say on this subject, but this is all starting to sound a little like a careers advice talk, so I'll stop. Also, it's 5pm, so I get to leave my boring, 9 to 5 job!
Part of my job involves talking to high-school kids about uni, about what it is and why you should apply and, most importantly, why you should come to my uni in particular. Today it was a group of 14 and 15 year-olds, who I usually dread. But this group turned out to be kinda fantastic: polite and engaged and actually interested in what we all had to say. The two things that seemed to really resonate the most was that, firstly, it's ok if you don't know what you want to do when you leave school, and secondly, it's ok to change your mind. I occasionally get asked what my best piece of advice is for new university students, and those two things are what I say every time. Plus, high-school is just something to endure before you get to uni, but the teachers don't often like that one.
I didn't really know what I wanted to do once I finished school, apart from go to uni to do... something. I still don't really know what I want to do once I (finally) finish my degree, but increasingly I'm getting to be ok with that. I see so many high-school students who are freaking out because people keep on asking them what they want to do with their lives. If I can't work it out at the age of 22, how on earth are they supposed to at the age of 16 or 17?
Most of the high-school students I talk to seem to view picking a uni degree as some enormous, unchangeable decision, when in reality I think it's one of the most flexible, changeable decisions that you can ever make. It'd be interesting to do some kind of study of how people's career plans and their major interests change over the course of their time at uni. I unexpectedly discovered a passion for American history; others decide administrative law is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or that being an actuary is indescribably (and inexplicably!) sexy. I don't think it's made clear enough to students that the preferences that you put down on your uni application form do not have to dictate how the rest of your life pans out, and more often than not, they don't. And it's this omission which often makes my job equally frustrating and fabulous, like today.
I have heaps more to say on this subject, but this is all starting to sound a little like a careers advice talk, so I'll stop. Also, it's 5pm, so I get to leave my boring, 9 to 5 job!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
A few things have happened recently...
So yes. I dropped out of uni. Maybe some very belated explanations are in order?
It's just for this semester, and I fully intend to go back in semester 2. I already had a little tiny neurosis about the fact that I was going to be almost 24 by the time I graduated; dealing with the fact that I will now be almost 25 when I finally finish my bloody undergrad degree has been, well... challenging. But! The decision is made, the forms are in (although, funny story: looks like the uni has actually lost my form, which should be fun), and I've moved on. Pretty much.
Of course, the decision was made a lot easier by the fact that it would have been pretty much impossible for me to finish this semester. I don't think it would be exaggerating to say that so far 2007 has been pretty crap. I mentioned a while ago (February 23 to be exact) that my back has been giving me a bit of trouble. Yeah, I'm still having a few problems - problems which mean that have seen my visit the physio 8 times in the last 7 weeks. At the moment I'm going twice a week, as well as half an hour of exercises twice a day. There was about a week there in the middle when I pretty much could not move; standing up for more than 5 minutes was excruciating, and sitting was completely out of the question unless I had very large amounts of strapping tape covering my lower back. I missed a bit of class because of that, as you might imagine.
And then my mum had a massive stroke.
The stroke happened on the evening of March 20, but my dad didn't call me or my brother until the next day at around 6am; it was the stereotypical early morning call, where your first thought is "no-one calls at this hour with good news." Which was true. I was on a flight at 9.15am (as an aside, I think I deserve some crazy respect for my high level of organisational ability that morning!), and made it to Hobart just after 12pm - mum had been transferred from Launceston by air-ambulance because apparently they don't have a neurology ward at the LGH. Who knew.
Anyway, the next week or so was as crap as you can probably imagine. There was brain surgery and ICU and then HDU and living out of a suitcase and only two visitors at a time and... well yeah. Not a fabulous time.
And then of course there was the unnecessary stress of trying to work out what I do about my courses, with the HECS census date fast approaching. So I came back to Canberra the next week on the Wednesday before the census date, met with various people, including all my lecturers, my physio, and faculty advisors, and decided to drop out. I'd promised one of my lecturers (who was absolutely wonderful, by the way - went far far beyond the call of duty in helping me out, and I'm not sure I would have made it through that week without his help) that I wouldn't make my final decision until Friday afternoon, and I didn't: the form was handed in at 4.50pm, so no-one can accuse me of rushing into the decision!
I'd originally planned to move back down to Tassie until July, but after talking to even more people etc. I've decided to stay up here and work full-time, which will hopefully earn me enough money to do the travelling I'm desperate for, and to take some of the 'financial burden' off my parents' shoulders. My boss up here has been absolutely fantastic throughout this entire debacle, and while she couldn't offer my a full-time job, she made sure that she found me someone who could, which means that as of today I have gainful full-time employment until classes go back in July!
So yeah. That's what has been happening in the life of me. There are a whole lot of other issues both related and unrelated to all of this which have been going on and for various reasons I don't particularly feel like airing on a public blog. As I said before, life has been generally crappy the last few months, but things are looking better. My mum's doing well; she's been transferred back up to the LGH, which makes it easier for everyone. She can talk and write and speak and everything like that - it turns out if you're going to have a massive stroke, my mum did it pretty well. She's still fully paralysed down her left side, so she's got months and months of rehab ahead of her (side note: many hilarious conversations can be had with the phrase "my mum's in rehab"!) - I don't think anyone was expecting me not to take out the 'most physio in 2007' award for my family, but looks like I might just be beaten by my mother...
But yesterday she wiggled her toes and today she bent her knee. So right now, things could be a hell of a lot worse.
It's just for this semester, and I fully intend to go back in semester 2. I already had a little tiny neurosis about the fact that I was going to be almost 24 by the time I graduated; dealing with the fact that I will now be almost 25 when I finally finish my bloody undergrad degree has been, well... challenging. But! The decision is made, the forms are in (although, funny story: looks like the uni has actually lost my form, which should be fun), and I've moved on. Pretty much.
Of course, the decision was made a lot easier by the fact that it would have been pretty much impossible for me to finish this semester. I don't think it would be exaggerating to say that so far 2007 has been pretty crap. I mentioned a while ago (February 23 to be exact) that my back has been giving me a bit of trouble. Yeah, I'm still having a few problems - problems which mean that have seen my visit the physio 8 times in the last 7 weeks. At the moment I'm going twice a week, as well as half an hour of exercises twice a day. There was about a week there in the middle when I pretty much could not move; standing up for more than 5 minutes was excruciating, and sitting was completely out of the question unless I had very large amounts of strapping tape covering my lower back. I missed a bit of class because of that, as you might imagine.
And then my mum had a massive stroke.
The stroke happened on the evening of March 20, but my dad didn't call me or my brother until the next day at around 6am; it was the stereotypical early morning call, where your first thought is "no-one calls at this hour with good news." Which was true. I was on a flight at 9.15am (as an aside, I think I deserve some crazy respect for my high level of organisational ability that morning!), and made it to Hobart just after 12pm - mum had been transferred from Launceston by air-ambulance because apparently they don't have a neurology ward at the LGH. Who knew.
Anyway, the next week or so was as crap as you can probably imagine. There was brain surgery and ICU and then HDU and living out of a suitcase and only two visitors at a time and... well yeah. Not a fabulous time.
And then of course there was the unnecessary stress of trying to work out what I do about my courses, with the HECS census date fast approaching. So I came back to Canberra the next week on the Wednesday before the census date, met with various people, including all my lecturers, my physio, and faculty advisors, and decided to drop out. I'd promised one of my lecturers (who was absolutely wonderful, by the way - went far far beyond the call of duty in helping me out, and I'm not sure I would have made it through that week without his help) that I wouldn't make my final decision until Friday afternoon, and I didn't: the form was handed in at 4.50pm, so no-one can accuse me of rushing into the decision!
I'd originally planned to move back down to Tassie until July, but after talking to even more people etc. I've decided to stay up here and work full-time, which will hopefully earn me enough money to do the travelling I'm desperate for, and to take some of the 'financial burden' off my parents' shoulders. My boss up here has been absolutely fantastic throughout this entire debacle, and while she couldn't offer my a full-time job, she made sure that she found me someone who could, which means that as of today I have gainful full-time employment until classes go back in July!
So yeah. That's what has been happening in the life of me. There are a whole lot of other issues both related and unrelated to all of this which have been going on and for various reasons I don't particularly feel like airing on a public blog. As I said before, life has been generally crappy the last few months, but things are looking better. My mum's doing well; she's been transferred back up to the LGH, which makes it easier for everyone. She can talk and write and speak and everything like that - it turns out if you're going to have a massive stroke, my mum did it pretty well. She's still fully paralysed down her left side, so she's got months and months of rehab ahead of her (side note: many hilarious conversations can be had with the phrase "my mum's in rehab"!) - I don't think anyone was expecting me not to take out the 'most physio in 2007' award for my family, but looks like I might just be beaten by my mother...
But yesterday she wiggled her toes and today she bent her knee. So right now, things could be a hell of a lot worse.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Just tell me what's going on!
Interesting article in the Washington Post about how universities are struggling to keep in contact with their students. Even though they all have mobile phones and laptops, and obsessively check their email, getting important messages out there to all students (the example given is one from Virginia Tech, where there was a gunman loose on campus and they wanted to tell students to keep inside!) is incredibly difficult. When you've got to filter through crap emails from everyone from the careers centre to student admin on a regular basis, it's pretty easy for actually important information to slip through unnoticed.
My uni had an emergency of its own last week, and I must say was absolutely woeful in keeping everyone updated. Because I'm on the staff list I got an email telling me the campus was closed at 10.45am, but they didn't send out a similar one to students until 4.28pm! Information was posted throughout the day on the billboard, but it was pretty fragmentary and useless. Announcements went out on local radio, but how many uni students actually listen to local commercial radio every morning? If your house wasn't really affected by the storm (like ours) you wouldn't think to listen obsessively to see whether uni was open or not; just wouldn't cross your mind. The only reason that we listened was that one of our housemates had tried to go to the gym early in the morning and had run into just a few problems (i.e. flooding and ice!).
I get that it was a pretty unique situation, and understandably there were some computing issues on campus at the time that made getting in contact with people a bit difficult. But really, these are the kinds of situations where you need procedures like that to work the best.
My uni had an emergency of its own last week, and I must say was absolutely woeful in keeping everyone updated. Because I'm on the staff list I got an email telling me the campus was closed at 10.45am, but they didn't send out a similar one to students until 4.28pm! Information was posted throughout the day on the billboard, but it was pretty fragmentary and useless. Announcements went out on local radio, but how many uni students actually listen to local commercial radio every morning? If your house wasn't really affected by the storm (like ours) you wouldn't think to listen obsessively to see whether uni was open or not; just wouldn't cross your mind. The only reason that we listened was that one of our housemates had tried to go to the gym early in the morning and had run into just a few problems (i.e. flooding and ice!).
I get that it was a pretty unique situation, and understandably there were some computing issues on campus at the time that made getting in contact with people a bit difficult. But really, these are the kinds of situations where you need procedures like that to work the best.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Linky linky
Just a couple of links:
For those of you (like me), who are just a tad addicted to a little website called facebook, you might want to have a look at this article, about how what you do on social networking sites can make you lose a job, get you into trouble with university administration, and scare off potential employers. Equal parts bizarre and scary (make sure you read the linked story from a few months ago, too).
And from Overheard in New York, it's funny because it's true.
For those of you (like me), who are just a tad addicted to a little website called facebook, you might want to have a look at this article, about how what you do on social networking sites can make you lose a job, get you into trouble with university administration, and scare off potential employers. Equal parts bizarre and scary (make sure you read the linked story from a few months ago, too).
And from Overheard in New York, it's funny because it's true.
Little boy #1: I wish dinosaurs lived in Central Park.I know how you feel, kid. When I was his age...
Little boy #2: Dinosaurs aren't real -- they're from the TV.
Little boy #3: Dinosaurs are real, they just live on other planets.
Little boy #2: Like Pluto!
Little boy #1: Pluto isn't a planet anymore. The scientists blowed it up.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Storm madness!
Last night Canberra was hit by a 'supercell' storm, that dumped an enormous amount of hail and rain on the city in a short amount of time. Luckily our house (and neighbouring streets) escaped any damage, but the ANU? Absolutely totalled, it would seem. The campus isn't just closed for today, but for the rest of the week. It's like a snow day! The entire thing is just really bizarre. There are some great photos on flickr, as well as the ABC.
It's really weird to just be at home in the middle of the week. Of course, 90% of my classes are on Monday and Tuesday so I'm not actually missing out on much at all... but still, very weird!
It's really weird to just be at home in the middle of the week. Of course, 90% of my classes are on Monday and Tuesday so I'm not actually missing out on much at all... but still, very weird!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Overheard at university
One philosophy lecturer turns to another and says, "you know what I always found hilarious about Orthodox Judaism?"
Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch the punchline, but the mere fact that I overheard it all certainly brightened my day. Not exactly a phrase you hear on a regular basis...
Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch the punchline, but the mere fact that I overheard it all certainly brightened my day. Not exactly a phrase you hear on a regular basis...
Friday, February 23, 2007
Just some things
Random thoughts and happenings from this week:
I've somehow managed to 'do my back in' again, which, as you may be able to appreciate, is terribly exciting for me. Sitting is the biggest issue, which is a bit of a problem considering that uni started this week and I have several 3 hour blocks of classes. Bleurgh.
I had three meetings on Wednesday, and I got stood up for all three of them. What ever happened to common courtesy?! To the "sorry, I can't make the meeting this afternoon, can we do it another time?" phone call. Double bleurgh.
As mentioned above, uni started back this week. Two of my subjects look fantastic, but the other two are so excruciatingly boring that they effectively cancel out any enjoyment I may derive from this semester. Triple bleurgh. Also bleurgh to my IT subject, which can't seem to organise seemingly important things like timetables and lab registrations with any level of adequacy.
Bleurgh. Some good news is needed... hooray for finally having net access at home! Very very exciting. I was getting a little tired of structuring my life around only being able to read my email between the hours of 9am and 5pm on weekdays. And yes, my life does depend, to a large amount, on when I can read my email :)
Random fact: did you know that there used to be a bar in the Pauline Griffin Building? The Union used to be in there, as well as the staff lounge. Strange but true. Well maybe not that strange, but still vaguely interesting. Well, maybe not vaguely interesting...
I've had the song 'This Land is Mine' by Dido in my head all week. Yeah, I have no idea why, either.
Also hooray for finally getting a dining table in our house. Literally eating off the floor gets a little boring after the first two months or so.
Hooray for still getting birthday presents over a week after my birthday. I absolutely love birthdays that are spread out over weeks (or even months, like my 21st). Although I'm not entirely sure about this whole 'being 22' thing; I feel really rather old, especially considering (1) there are far too many 17 year olds running around the campus, and (2) I now have to tick the 'fourth year' box when I fill in forms for the university, which makes me feel like I've been around forever. The gap between being 20 and being 21 didn't feel like much at all. The gap between 21 and 22, however... chasm.
And to end on an amusing note... a McSweeney's List: Mildly Disturbing Greeting-Card Messages. "Happy Easter! May the blood of Jesus, spilled for you, splatter your holiday with warm crimson cheer."
I've somehow managed to 'do my back in' again, which, as you may be able to appreciate, is terribly exciting for me. Sitting is the biggest issue, which is a bit of a problem considering that uni started this week and I have several 3 hour blocks of classes. Bleurgh.
I had three meetings on Wednesday, and I got stood up for all three of them. What ever happened to common courtesy?! To the "sorry, I can't make the meeting this afternoon, can we do it another time?" phone call. Double bleurgh.
As mentioned above, uni started back this week. Two of my subjects look fantastic, but the other two are so excruciatingly boring that they effectively cancel out any enjoyment I may derive from this semester. Triple bleurgh. Also bleurgh to my IT subject, which can't seem to organise seemingly important things like timetables and lab registrations with any level of adequacy.
Bleurgh. Some good news is needed... hooray for finally having net access at home! Very very exciting. I was getting a little tired of structuring my life around only being able to read my email between the hours of 9am and 5pm on weekdays. And yes, my life does depend, to a large amount, on when I can read my email :)
Random fact: did you know that there used to be a bar in the Pauline Griffin Building? The Union used to be in there, as well as the staff lounge. Strange but true. Well maybe not that strange, but still vaguely interesting. Well, maybe not vaguely interesting...
I've had the song 'This Land is Mine' by Dido in my head all week. Yeah, I have no idea why, either.
Also hooray for finally getting a dining table in our house. Literally eating off the floor gets a little boring after the first two months or so.
Hooray for still getting birthday presents over a week after my birthday. I absolutely love birthdays that are spread out over weeks (or even months, like my 21st). Although I'm not entirely sure about this whole 'being 22' thing; I feel really rather old, especially considering (1) there are far too many 17 year olds running around the campus, and (2) I now have to tick the 'fourth year' box when I fill in forms for the university, which makes me feel like I've been around forever. The gap between being 20 and being 21 didn't feel like much at all. The gap between 21 and 22, however... chasm.
And to end on an amusing note... a McSweeney's List: Mildly Disturbing Greeting-Card Messages. "Happy Easter! May the blood of Jesus, spilled for you, splatter your holiday with warm crimson cheer."
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Damn kids!
Meh. It's only the second day of uni and I'm already over it. When did university students get so bloody young?! The campus has been wonderfully quiet all summer, and then BAM! yesterday it was invaded by 17 year olds, wandering around looking lost and confused. I know I should feel sympathy or empathy or something like that, but mostly I just want them to go away. Bah.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Life-y kind of things
Some random thoughts:
I am completely (embarrassingly?) obsessed with the song 'I wish I was a punkrocker' by Sandi Thom. The lyrics don't actually make much sense, but I can't stop listening to the thing (you can watch the film clip yourself here). And yes, I know I'm about a zillion years behind the times when it comes to this song.
For some reason the sound on the computer that I'm using at the moment just drops out every 15 minutes or so, and doesn't start working until I log out and log back in. This is immensely annoying, and is severely interfering with my ability to watch Sandi Thom music clips.
Pandora is still one of the greatest things ever invented, but only when the sound on the computer you're using works consistently!
Mini-rant about university bureaucracy: for the last three years I have had to go through an incredible rigmarole just to enrol in courses that I need for my degree. This year is different only in the fact that the difficulty has actually increased. The last two days I've spent my lunch break trudging between faculty offices, as various people try to work out who needs to sign what and when. It's incredibly frustrating and just plain stupid - why oh why do I have to go through all this shit to do a course that I need?! A 2-second glance at my transcript would show these people that I have every right to do the course in question, but instead I have to have a form signed by three separate offices, before it is sent to a fourth for processing. Argh!
And the sound's gone on my computer again. Curses!
Some McSweeney's Lists:
Things That Get Way More Fun When You Add a "G" to Them: "ceiling fang".
Things an Overbearing Mother Might Say to a Son Just Waking From a Coma: "Meanwhile, I haven't even had a chance to sit down."
I got two lovely emails today from separate people who I helped through my job last year, saying thank you etc. So that was nice. I rarely get any kind of sense as to how what I do (and no, I'm not going to go into any more detail about what my job is!) actually impacts upon people in the long-run, so once in a while it's nice to get these kinds of emails.
Sound still not there. Stupid computer. I want punkrocker goodness!
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've recently become ever so addicted to threadless t-shirts, and my collection now numbers 5. So that's exciting. I tried to find links on the website to the ones I've got, but no luck. Sufficed to say that I've got 'The Communist Party' and 'The Loch Ness Imposter', and you probably don't. So there.
Hmmm. Ok, enough now.
I am completely (embarrassingly?) obsessed with the song 'I wish I was a punkrocker' by Sandi Thom. The lyrics don't actually make much sense, but I can't stop listening to the thing (you can watch the film clip yourself here). And yes, I know I'm about a zillion years behind the times when it comes to this song.
For some reason the sound on the computer that I'm using at the moment just drops out every 15 minutes or so, and doesn't start working until I log out and log back in. This is immensely annoying, and is severely interfering with my ability to watch Sandi Thom music clips.
Pandora is still one of the greatest things ever invented, but only when the sound on the computer you're using works consistently!
Mini-rant about university bureaucracy: for the last three years I have had to go through an incredible rigmarole just to enrol in courses that I need for my degree. This year is different only in the fact that the difficulty has actually increased. The last two days I've spent my lunch break trudging between faculty offices, as various people try to work out who needs to sign what and when. It's incredibly frustrating and just plain stupid - why oh why do I have to go through all this shit to do a course that I need?! A 2-second glance at my transcript would show these people that I have every right to do the course in question, but instead I have to have a form signed by three separate offices, before it is sent to a fourth for processing. Argh!
And the sound's gone on my computer again. Curses!
Some McSweeney's Lists:
Things That Get Way More Fun When You Add a "G" to Them: "ceiling fang".
Things an Overbearing Mother Might Say to a Son Just Waking From a Coma: "Meanwhile, I haven't even had a chance to sit down."
I got two lovely emails today from separate people who I helped through my job last year, saying thank you etc. So that was nice. I rarely get any kind of sense as to how what I do (and no, I'm not going to go into any more detail about what my job is!) actually impacts upon people in the long-run, so once in a while it's nice to get these kinds of emails.
Sound still not there. Stupid computer. I want punkrocker goodness!
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've recently become ever so addicted to threadless t-shirts, and my collection now numbers 5. So that's exciting. I tried to find links on the website to the ones I've got, but no luck. Sufficed to say that I've got 'The Communist Party' and 'The Loch Ness Imposter', and you probably don't. So there.
Hmmm. Ok, enough now.
Friday, November 24, 2006
The real world is... hot?
Hmmm, so it's been a while since my last update. Many many things have happened since then, including two exams, one change of address, and three afternoons spent waiting at new home for furniture deliveries! Yes, that's right, I have finally thrown off the security blanket that is residential college life, and have moved out into the real world. So far so good, although I'm quickly discovering that the real world is expensive, particularly when you're setting up a house for the first time. Who knew, for example, that beds cost so much?! I certainly didn't.
In other news, Canberra is hot, but then I think most people knew that. I'm staying up here for the whole summer (I'll only be in Tasmania over Christmas/New Year), and I'm not sure how I'm going to survive. At least the office where I'll be working has air-conditioning, as does the new house. So yay for climate-change-causing air-conditioning!
I'm still having trouble adjusting to the fact that the academic year is over; this year has simultaneously seemed to go forever, and for no time at all. Similarly, this semester has been both fantastic as well as absolutely hideous in places, mostly when my neck was being a bitch. But I did some fantastic courses this year (even my IT ones weren't that painful this semester!), and to say that I'm now rather passionate about studying American history is probably putting it rather mildly. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year; I've still got another year of coursework to do before honours, but on a point related to my new-found passion for American history, there are very few courses I'm actually interested in studying on offer next year. I have vague thoughts about possibly applying for an internship at the Smithsonian in the second half of next year, but we will see. I have to survive the deadly Canberra summer first!
In other news, Canberra is hot, but then I think most people knew that. I'm staying up here for the whole summer (I'll only be in Tasmania over Christmas/New Year), and I'm not sure how I'm going to survive. At least the office where I'll be working has air-conditioning, as does the new house. So yay for climate-change-causing air-conditioning!
I'm still having trouble adjusting to the fact that the academic year is over; this year has simultaneously seemed to go forever, and for no time at all. Similarly, this semester has been both fantastic as well as absolutely hideous in places, mostly when my neck was being a bitch. But I did some fantastic courses this year (even my IT ones weren't that painful this semester!), and to say that I'm now rather passionate about studying American history is probably putting it rather mildly. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year; I've still got another year of coursework to do before honours, but on a point related to my new-found passion for American history, there are very few courses I'm actually interested in studying on offer next year. I have vague thoughts about possibly applying for an internship at the Smithsonian in the second half of next year, but we will see. I have to survive the deadly Canberra summer first!
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
My mind on freedom
On Monday I handed in an essay for my American Sixties history course, focusing on the impact of television. As much as I absolutely loathe writing essays, I really enjoyed doing the research for this one, perhaps because I got to focus on two pretty disparate topics: the civil rights protests in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, and the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in 1968.
Anyway, as part of my research for the essay I watched all of the absolutely wonderful documentary Berkeley in the Sixties. Towards the beginning of the documentary there's a bit on how many students started out in the civil rights movement, before moving onto bigger and more radical things. The film has a fantastic soundtrack, but one song in this section got stuck in my head for days - 'I Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom', sung by the SNCC Freedom Singers. Desperate to hear it again, I did a bit of searching, and came across Sweet Chariot: the story of the spirituals, a project from the University of Denver, and the actual point of this post.
It's a really interesting site, with lots of information. Best of all, however, are the many many music samples you can listen to, including I Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom (the version of This Little Light of Mine on that page is also wonderful). Highly recommended: have a look around and a listen!
Anyway, as part of my research for the essay I watched all of the absolutely wonderful documentary Berkeley in the Sixties. Towards the beginning of the documentary there's a bit on how many students started out in the civil rights movement, before moving onto bigger and more radical things. The film has a fantastic soundtrack, but one song in this section got stuck in my head for days - 'I Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom', sung by the SNCC Freedom Singers. Desperate to hear it again, I did a bit of searching, and came across Sweet Chariot: the story of the spirituals, a project from the University of Denver, and the actual point of this post.
It's a really interesting site, with lots of information. Best of all, however, are the many many music samples you can listen to, including I Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom (the version of This Little Light of Mine on that page is also wonderful). Highly recommended: have a look around and a listen!
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