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Gwah - I hate my readings...
Oct. 4th, 2005 11:21 pm...one of the things I get and yet don't about academic papers is that they spend twenty, thirty, even sixty pages describing things that then fall into a nice, neat conclusion paragraph. If someone wanted lots of knowledge, they could skin introduction and conclusion sets and cover a lot of material very quickly. Of course, they would be missing out on all the methodology, which I suppose is important in some way, shape, or form. But it makes for hellish reading when you get there. Even my own thesis could be summed down into about one page, yet it took sixty. That's just the academic way, I guess.
In regard to that, I will be burning things with many-colored flames as I exact my revenge. They told me flat out that this is a hamster-wheel race for the next two years, and that if I can figure out a way to accept it and deal with it, it will go much more smoothly. I wonder whether that says something about the process of instruction, and also about whether we are simply trying to cram too much information into our heads in the name of "professional training" and are forced to deal with those consequences on our own minds. I don't think I'm going to retain a whole lot out of any of my classes here, and I'm only five weeks in. That's not good. It's like being injected with glitter, in a way.
Also, since I'm supposed to be perpetually aware of context, and because I just read an academic paper on this sort of subject, although not necessarily in quite as "Rah! Shake off your chains!" terms, Context controls content. It's how one can spend many thousands of dollars on a flag.
Also, if you want to worsen relations between the West and the Islamic world - here's how you do it. (It's the first of three excerpts, all chained together) While there's no doubt that the world of Islam is a major power, I note with the medievalist's perspective that it has been such for hundreds of years without considerable friction, excepting the Crusades, where Europe was thrashed and sent home for meddling in business that it had no part being in. While the U.S. needs to gain assistance in beating down the violent strains of all religions (where I Eye strains of other, more popular and European religions as well), it's not the right idea to be bringing back means that allow you to categorically discriminate against whole classes of people. You tend to make more enemies that way, not less.
Anyway, that's the stuff for tonight. Tomorrow will likely be a mess of boredom, of an important meeting, more work on one of my assignments, then another meeting for a different course. Plus, for that same project, a different meeting on Thursday just to make sure we've got a good project to write the report that's due on Monday. Notice a trend here? Things are slightly more hectic, even though there aren't nearly as many papers due this month. That would be next month. So while juggling the necessity of completing a project and doing all the work that's necessary, one wonders just precisely where my free time is going to go. The answer? Out the window, of course. But that's okay, because there is a break at the end of the semester, which gives me a week or two to regenerate lost sanity points and then go at it again.
In regard to that, I will be burning things with many-colored flames as I exact my revenge. They told me flat out that this is a hamster-wheel race for the next two years, and that if I can figure out a way to accept it and deal with it, it will go much more smoothly. I wonder whether that says something about the process of instruction, and also about whether we are simply trying to cram too much information into our heads in the name of "professional training" and are forced to deal with those consequences on our own minds. I don't think I'm going to retain a whole lot out of any of my classes here, and I'm only five weeks in. That's not good. It's like being injected with glitter, in a way.
Also, since I'm supposed to be perpetually aware of context, and because I just read an academic paper on this sort of subject, although not necessarily in quite as "Rah! Shake off your chains!" terms, Context controls content. It's how one can spend many thousands of dollars on a flag.
Also, if you want to worsen relations between the West and the Islamic world - here's how you do it. (It's the first of three excerpts, all chained together) While there's no doubt that the world of Islam is a major power, I note with the medievalist's perspective that it has been such for hundreds of years without considerable friction, excepting the Crusades, where Europe was thrashed and sent home for meddling in business that it had no part being in. While the U.S. needs to gain assistance in beating down the violent strains of all religions (where I Eye strains of other, more popular and European religions as well), it's not the right idea to be bringing back means that allow you to categorically discriminate against whole classes of people. You tend to make more enemies that way, not less.
Anyway, that's the stuff for tonight. Tomorrow will likely be a mess of boredom, of an important meeting, more work on one of my assignments, then another meeting for a different course. Plus, for that same project, a different meeting on Thursday just to make sure we've got a good project to write the report that's due on Monday. Notice a trend here? Things are slightly more hectic, even though there aren't nearly as many papers due this month. That would be next month. So while juggling the necessity of completing a project and doing all the work that's necessary, one wonders just precisely where my free time is going to go. The answer? Out the window, of course. But that's okay, because there is a break at the end of the semester, which gives me a week or two to regenerate lost sanity points and then go at it again.
