Why is my toe blue?

Incredibly, my done with sharing post got the third-highest number of hits of my posts this month. That's interesting, as, appropriately, I did not share it to my various social streams. So that might mean that there are people following my posts independently. Hello. Glad you're reading. It'd be nice to meet you sometime. ☺

Here's another author you should try. R. A. Lafferty is an absolutely delightful writer. He wrote some novels, but his main contribution to posterity and what you mainly want to pay attention to are his short stories. He wrote gnomic, puckish, playful, whimsical, mischievous, snarky, and sharp and clever stories, full of intelligence, myth and subtle, wry humor and philosophy. He's worth reading if you want to see the world through the eyes of a bizarrely skewed perspective. Recommended.

If you have any appreciation for art, check out Piranesi. Elegantly designed gothic structures, meticulously rendered. Ornate, architecturally precise constructs, labyrinthine dungeons, fantastic towers, magnificent in their splendor and ruin. Gorgeous, lush artwork. Evocative worlds of intrigue and mystery. Powerful, gorgeous, astounding work. Simply breathtaking. You can spend hours. Dive in.

Have you considered how much of history is lost? Most of our records are incomplete. The Library of Alexandria was burned, and was known to contain many histories and records. We have little indications of what the ancient Greeks read and studied, and their civilization went back further than we have records of. They had legends of civilizations going back thousands of years before them. Almost all lost. What we have is really just reconstruction and guesses. Amazing.

Want a cartoon? Sure you do! ☺



Peace,

Dave Roel.

When all your desires are distilled, You will cast just two votes: To love more. And be happy.

- Hafiz

          ...Wow. What I thought would have been a light and easy semester turned into one of havoc and despair, especially towards finals week. Okay I might be exaggerating a little, it really wasn't THAT bad. Everything was just more hectic than I anticipated, especially since classes had never moved at such a fast pace when I was in high school.
          Needless to say, I'm so sorry I disappeared towards the end of the semester--all those nights I spent not studying finally caught up with me. 

          Looking back on my first semester as a college student, getting into the groove of college was a lot easier said than done. I felt like the first half of fall semester was so breezy, with professors being so much more easygoing than high school teachers that I didn't have to worry. I was wrong.
          First semester I wanted to take as many classes as I could but now thinking back on that maybe that was an overstep, I should have taken it easier. This semester I'm definitely trying to change things now that I'm more of a seasoned freshman. I know how to pace myself better, I know how to keep up with the curriculum (or try to anyways), and to set reminders for myself. I bought all my textbooks early and read the syllabi before classes even began so I wouldn't fall behind on my academic or personal schedule. As far as things go, so far so good. I'll definitely keep up with blogging and keep you guys posted on how things are going! Hope you guys enjoyed all your classes so far and didn't have as much trouble parking as I did...Half an hour just to PARK? Insane! But, I did imagine it would be that bad so I got to campus an hour earlier, hope you guys did the same! I'm praying for the beginning-of-semester rush to die down and parking to be less crazy. 

Joy ☼

Deadlines

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've already got a lot to do and it's only the second day of the new semester.

Admittedly, it may be because I'm taking five classes this semester.

If you applied to UCs or CSUs, though, you probably are aware that the start of the new semester also signals that the deadlines for submitting the Transfer Academic Update (UCs) and the CSU Supplement (which possibly might only be for CSULB? I'm not actually sure) are approaching.

Parts of the forms can be a little bit confusing. Fortunately for me, my counselor is incredibly helpful and walked me through the parts I was having trouble with. Here are some of the issues I had filling out the TAU/supplement and how to deal with them-- I'm sure at least some of you are having the same problems:

•          (TAU) If you're using AP credit from high school to fulfill any of the transfer requirements, the form probably won't let you enter it. What I did-- to fulfill an English composition requirement with my APEL score-- is mark that I hadn't taken a class to fulfill the requirement and wasn't planning to, and then specifically list that I was using my score of _ on the APEL test to fulfill one of the English composition requirements. It seems a little weird, but the FAQ on the side of the page essentially says to do... well, that.
•         (CSULB supplement) If you've attended another college before or at the same time as FC, it can be confusing when the CSULB supplement asks for your total GPA from all transferrable college credits. From my understanding, this means you calculate the GPA based on every college course you've taken from every institution you've taken it from. For instance, I included all the courses I took at UCSD last year and FC this past semester. Then, you calculate your GPA:
  
  In my case, since UCSD is on the quarter system and CSULB and FC are both semester system universities, I had to take the additional step of converting my units at UCSD to semester units before adding it in with everything else.

Those were my main issues, but hopefully if you're filling out any supplements or updates, you've got more of a handle on it than I did!

Stay classy,

Caitlin.

New semester

Today is the first day of classes for the new semester. This is always exciting and potentially nerve-wracking. Will the classes be difficult? Can the ratemyprofessor ratings be trusted? Will I make any friends? Will I have any kind of a social life? All these questions are swirling through our heads as we navigate the parking lots, push through the crowded campus grounds, try to find our classrooms, take a seat (not too far up, not too far back), and try to calculate how much time we'll have to study for this class's tests. A large amount of things to pay attention to for the first day.

But, somehow, we get through it. We always do. By the beginning of the second week, routine has settled in. Listen to the lecture, take notes, study the texts for the relevant bits that will be on the test. Keep it up for sixteen weeks. The time seems to trudge along slowly and yet those darn tests always seem to zoom up on us before we know it. How can time be so flexible?

Is it all worth it? Statistics show that college graduates earn more money over their lifetime than non-college graduates, and most jobs of any significance require a degree as a minimum requirement. Regardless of our concerns about the economic future of the country, we must press on, trusting that college is our investment in ourselves. We may belong to a generation that is inheriting an increasingly unstable world, but if we are to make any impact, education is our first step. Let this thought be our guiding principle through this semester.

Peace,

Dave Roel.

All that matters is what we do for each other.

- Lewis Carroll