First week of classes in spring quarter

My first impressions of my classes and professors.

The social anthropology class is taught by a very a young hip professor. Interestingly, he studied math and literature as an undergraduate at Rice and then got a doctorate in anthropology at the University of Chicago (top anthro school) after he realized that math and literature did not give him as much social interaction as he liked. For his PhD he went to study the workers at a Japanese leather processing plant. The subject of his study was something confusing about politics and labor relations. It is refreshing to have an example of an anthropologist who studies living and relevant cultures. However, despite the interest in my professor, I am off to a bad start, having missed two classes already, due to study abroad paper work which I procrastinated on.

The professor for anthropology of medicine is an amazing woman. She is currently working on seven different projects that focuses on victims of post traumatic stress disorder. One of her projects involved using Second Life, the MMO, to reintegrate returning soldiers back into normal society.

On one of her projects she received this (picture)


Nasty looking laceration



Not to worry though, it is just some movie make up.

Before coming to class, my professor was touring a movie studio that was helping train soldiers for their deployment. The studio would build sets that recreated Iraqi and Afghan villages and soldiers would be faced with an ambush situation. The particular scenario that she was shown, involved an enemy sniper in a building firing on the troops. Eventually, an rpg hits the building that the sniper is in and blasts him from the building. The sniper is an amputee, so the studio was able to turn his stump into a blown off leg using movie make up as shown in the pictures. The exercise is meant to give the soldiers a taste of battle in order to inoculate them for the stress in the field. It is always nice to see that there are actually jobs for anthropologists, and not just any jobs, but exciting ones too.

My psychological anthropology professor is a flaming homosexual, which would make you think the class would be interesting, but you would be very wrong. His lectures are boring and messy but his class is supposed to be easy so it all works out. Also every once in awhile he does something so flamboyantly gay, I cannot help but chuckle and stay awake.

Life-History Seminar and Practicum is the most open ended class that I have ever had. The whole object of the course is to interview one person about their life and try to deduce how their life history was influenced by their culture. Mind you, this is not a one time interview that you can bullshit. I have to do five to seven recorded, one hour interviews over the course of the next six weeks. I am very excited for this class not only because of how unique it is but also because there is this beautiful girl who sat directly across from me.

- muffinman

Thanks for visiting Jennie!

On the first day back from spring break, Jennie came to visit and little did I know I would be spending many hours with her over the next two days.

For whatever reason, Jennet was not being a very good host, so Jennie spent most of her time in SD with me. I skipped work to be a tour guide and even did somethings that I had never done before, like walk all the way to the end of La Jolla shores. Through spending an obscene amount of time with Jennie (she even went to one class with me), I discovered she still thinks I am the same person I was in high school and no matter what I said I could not change her perception of me. This is especially troubling because I was not the most considerate person in high school and I personally believed that I have changed and matured a great deal. Hopefully in time, Jennie will see that also.

The biggest surprise out of Jennie's visit occurred when I was having lunch with her mentor on her last day in SD. At first, I was apprehensive because I believed it would be an awkward experience, but in the end I relented because I thought I should step out of my comfort zone and I sensed a networking opportunity.

Little did I know that her mentor was the chief psychiatric resident at the VA hospital, and what was even more surprising was how outgoing and talkative he was. He took us out to a restaurant called George's at the cove, which had the most amazing view of the ocean and the best food I have had in SD. Over lunch, I told him that I was interested in a marketing career and that I was doing a of social media marketing. He misheard me and started talking about social marketing, which was quite the learning experience. Social marketing which up to that point, I had never heard of, is marketing to promote social well being. Think of public service announcements and you begin to understand what I am talking about.

At the end of the day, he told me to email him because he could get me in contact with social marketing people. True to his word, he connected me to two of his friends, who do social marketing and now I have an informal phone call/interview this Friday.

Life is so unpredictable.

-muffinman

Roommate Chronicles (Final Part)

As predicted Kevin ran out of motivation towards the end of the quarter. He abandoned his chemistry but luckily still managed to pass, which is a shame because he realized after he got his grade that he could actually have got a B- if he had studied. The silver lining here is that he managed to pull out of genetics with an A-, his second A grade in his five quarters in college!

Despite the valiant effort of living without a laptop for a whole quarter, he still ended up with only a 2.73. Short of his self set 3.0 goal for staying in school.

Since Kevin already paid for this quarter, he has decided to give himself another shot at redemption. He swears that if he does not get a 3.0 this quarter, he will actually carry through and drop out to community college.

There is a problem however.

The laptop is back

Kevin swears that he needs his computer for his two programming classes. However, since coming back, he has already installed NHL 09 on it and played for 6 hours straight for two nights in a row. Things are already going downhill in the first week!

Milan and I decided to bet whether or not Kevin will get above a 2.73.

Sadly, I had to bet against my roommate because the odds are definitely against him.

-muffinman

Thoughts on Winter Quarter 2010

Now that I have had some time to gather my thoughts and feelings on winter quarter, I can finally blog about it.

At a time when I thought things were getting slow and monotonous, winter quarter hits me a full list of surprises.

The quarter started off with me winning the marketing competition. This itself was quite a surprise, especially since I was not taking the competition too seriously, though I did put a lot of work into it. My friends assured me that I was going to win, but I always second guessed myself which is good, because you can never be too humble. The suspense only intensified when I met with the co-president of UIS, Mike T. and was told that I had basically won, but that they were still reviewing late entries (a reoccurring theme). Accepting the invitation to join UIS at that point in time, will be looked at as a pivotal moment in my college years.

Getting with UIS really flipped my world upside down, to put it in a cliche way. I have met so many amazing people, who share a common interest and are passionate about what they do. Not to mention that I actually was able to do marketing that actually worked. UIS has brought me numerous networking opportunities which has sort of settled my fears of speaking with strangers. Most importantly though, I have found a family at UIS and hopefully this time it will last.

When you actually work for a full quarter, it becomes a whole lot less appealing. The more work you do, the less exciting it gets. Also when you get blamed for something that is not your fault, it really really sucks, not that I did not know that already but when it happens in a professional setting it sucks even more. The upside to all of this, is that I have come to know my coworkers a great deal more and through them I have gotten a more mature view of life. When I hear about them talking about buying a new house or a washer and dryer, it really puts my life in perspective. Around the office I am constantly reminded that I am still very young and have a whole life ahead of me. Work has shown me how insulated student life is from the real world. I am thankful for my coworkers for reminding me that there is still a world outside of school and that I will be partaking in it soon.

Grades this quarter were disappointing to say the least. I dropped all of my economics classes which led to a pretty easy quarter and damn easy finals weak. Despite this however, I only end up with a 3.85 because I got an A- in a class that I was sure I had a 100% in. What makes it more frustrating is that the professor loved me and loved my writing, so how the hell did I get an A-? Maybe I should not have left early on the last day of class...

My friend situation has changed tremendously over winter quarter. Since UIS happened, I have found myself replacing friends. This was especially true after my roommates betrayed me ith the whole Ashley incident. In short, I gained a lot of new friends and lost a good old one and perhaps most tragically relationships with close friends took a turn for the worse. Is this all equal? Only time will tell.

This quarter marks the beginning of what may be the most pivotal moment in my college life. Getting accepted into the study abroad program for Shanghai was exciting, to put it mildly. As the quarter was ending, leaving San Diego was the only thing I could think about. I was prepared to just drop everything and leave for Shanghai without a second thought back when I was accepted. Though I am not so sure now. A year suddenly seems like an awful long time. One thing is for certain though, the end of winter quarter means I am just 6 months away from leaving.

- muffinman