A new semester

So the first week of classes of my last semester is over. As is the first weekend (pretty much). It is Monday, MLK jr. day, and we actually don't have classes for the first time since I've been at Denison! We usually have our three day weekend the week after the actual holiday, which is a bit silly. Anyways, this will mostly just be a brief retrospect of my initial impressions of my classes.

Vertebrate Zoology is ok so far. Nothing too exciting, and I think that it will be a fairly easy class. Our review paper (which is our major paper for the semester) only has to be 5-6 pages. The hardest part will be keeping it to 6, because we'll get POINTS OFF for going over. AHHH!!! I ALWAYS end up going over. Labs should be fun once we get our group project going. Meg, Liz, and I are doing a small mammal survey. Liz and I scouted out some locations in the Bio Reserve, and we'd like to do a "disturbed" location as well, most likely on campus or possibly at Dr. Frolking's.

Plant Systematics feels a bit strange at the moment. I guess I'm just not used to Dr. Hauk's teaching style. Class is laid back, but in a strange way. Maybe it's because it's just after lunch. Or possibly because it's in the same room as Animal Behavior and I sit at the stupid little "island" of tables in the middle of class. And it's moving a bit slow. I certainly don't know much about plants, but I DO know about phylogenies and I don't think we needed to spend so much time on them. The textbook is just so detailed, and the difference between that and the very watered down lectures (so far) is a little jarring. I think it will start to get fun when we learn more details about how to identify plant families and such.

Mapping only meets two days a week, and that is definitely a good thing. Our main "textbook" is basically an instruction manual for ArcGIS. It's dull. And our first little intro lab was also pretty dull. I think that the class will be boring, but at the end when I realize how much I can do with ArcGIS I'll be happy I took it. Besides, it's a good skill to possess.

Painting is going to be my most time consuming class, I think, but in a relaxing way. It'll be a little challenging to find large enough blocks of time to work (at least 2 hours at a time is probably needed). Today I only worked for an hour, but I also finished the painting that I was working on (a box still-life, painted in grey scale). In some ways I'm glad that I "waited" until senior year to take Painting. It's a nice change of pace. So is Mapping, actually, as it's pretty much a computer class and much more practical than other classes I've had. Having those two classes is nice, since last semester I had research and three science classes (physics, biochem, and wetland eco). I'd gotten into such a science routine, it's good to break free of that comfort zone a little bit.

Wisconsin

I can add another state to my list of places that I've been. Today I got back from visiting Liz in Wisconsin for a few days. Now I'm home for two or three more days before heading back to Denison for my final semester. Let's not get into the fact that this is going to be my final semester. That's a complicated topic, and I'm not even sure how I feel about it, so I'm certainly not going to write about it in a blog. Anyways, Wisconsin was fun, but I was sort of in a funky mood most of the time. A little tired and apathetic, and I tried not to make it show but I'm not sure how well that worked out. The point is, I think it was because I've been such a lazy ass at home for the past three or so weeks. Moreso than usual, I think, or maybe I'm just becoming more restless in my old age. I haven't been getting enough exercise, and I haven't been keeping myself busy enough. Sure, I was occupied re-reading all of the Harry Potter books, but that was actually quite a lot of reading, especially on just one subject. I really wanted to finish them all again over break, and I succeeded, but I probably should have done other things as well. And I overslept a LOT. I'd been getting around 10 hours of sleep every night. Sure, that sounds great and all, but it was too much of a good thing. Too much sleep makes me tired, and having nothing better to do, I would just sleep more because I didn't feel like doing much of anything else. I didn't even really move forward on the job search front at all. Let this be a lesson to me. I need to keep myself occupied in a variety of ways. Because I'm sure that before I start grad school, there will be periods where I'm not really doing much of anything. I just hope I get one of the longer SCA internships. And I hope it helps me to figure out what the hell I'd like to do with my life. And damn, I wish I had some money to travel. Maybe I'll look for an actual job some place cool after that first internship (which I'm assuming I'll get) so I can be in a new and exciting place and make some money. I might need to get a car, too. Damn. Oh well, time for all of that later, I suppose.