Shopping week
Sep. 20th, 2005 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirLowell House, on the Feast of Sts. Andrew Kim Daegeon and companions
::stares glumly at planner:: How did I go from having no homework to a full workload all in the space of one day? Admittedly, not all of it needs to be done by tomorrow, but nonetheless, I feel the old familiar burden of schoolwork settling in.
My intended course schedule has changed drastically at least three times since I arrived on campus, and it's due for another change, which exasperates me to no end, even though I must admit that the end result is probably a lot better for me in the long run. That is to say, Korean, which previously occupied a two-hour afternoon slot on Tuesdays and Thursdays, will be moving to Monday and Wednesday afternoons...which means that I could have enrolled in Meselson's genetics seminar after all. Except of course it's too late now, since it's a lotteried course and I've already missed the first meeting. Oh whatever. I've decided to take credit for research instead of a second biology course, and while this means that for the first time in my college career, I'll be taking only one real science class, it also means that my schedule will be a lot more comfortable. (Nonetheless, I feel like a wimp. On the other hand, my GPA just may go up this semester. ::hopes::)
This semester's course line-up:
1. Molecular Mechanisms of Gene Control - The first lecture was held today, and oh my gosh, I love this class already. Professor Maniatis isn't one of those spectacular lecturers but he's very clear, organized and precise, which is more educational in the long run. But most of all, every topic on the syllabus interests me intensely; these are the questions in biology I want to explore after all. We had an overview of the coupling mechanism of splicing factors and other proteins associated with pre-mRNA processing to the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase today. So elegant! Professor Maniatis briefly mentioned this interesting model of DNA being compartmentalized in the nucleus and mobilized to the appropriate "gene factory" where the gigantic polymerase complex was assembled (rather than the traditional view of individual polymerase enzymes diffusing through the nucleus to find the promoters), and I wondered if that had anything to do with the computational analysis that one of the labs at the CGR is doing to uncover "expression domains". Random note: a part of me is seriously considering taking that structural biology course next year, even though I suck at chemistry.
2. The Book of Job and the Joban Tradition - I shopped this course yesterday without any intention of taking it, and to my surprise, I liked it so much that I ended up deciding to give up the course on Dante's Divine Comedy. Yes, I know, a course title like this one would lead you to expect far too much theology--I mean, that's why I avoided courses like The Christian Revolution last year after all--but while the reading does include a lot of Bible passages, you also get to read Mesopotamian religious texts, Aeschylus, Maimonides, Kierkegaard, Kafka...in other words, I can't deny that the class has a heavy religious streak, but it phrases the questions in existential terms, which are terms that I can accept. And I suppose the book of Job itself is quintessential for its spiritual doubt rather than faith. Anyway, I'm actually rather excited about it. What do you do when faced with seemingly meaningless and arbitrary tragedy? How do you explain it? Can you explain it? How can you reconcile the chaos of reality with the human urge to impose order and explanation on the world around you? Et cetera. Strangely enough, my only memory of reading the book of Job focuses on that passage on the dimensions of the Leviathan--I kept wondering what species of whale that would correspond to.
3. Knowledge of Language - I haven't even shopped this course yet. I did shop it freshman year and liked it but didn't take it then because of scheduling. Of course, it's a different professor now, but I hear that he's really funny and engaging, so hopefully, it'll be all right. Besides, I always wanted to take a linguistics class. I went and bought the required reading at the Coop today, and one of the books is titled Doctor Dolittle's Delusion, which seems to be about whether animals are capable of language. Interesting, isn't it? It looks ridiculously easy.
4. Advanced Korean - One more year of Korean, and I'll have my language citation. Professor Oh just emailed the class with discussion topics that we're supposed to prepare by next Tuesday, and oh-so-casually informed us all that I'm up first to present a "news briefing" next week. Ugh. The unfortunate result of being the student that the professor is best acquainted with (I had him for Korean in freshman year as well). We are also supposed to learn all the vocabulary in advance, do the reading and finish the grammar exercises. ::sighs:: You know, despite my griping about the time switching, I think it'll be better for Korean to be on Mondays and Wednesdays because then I don't have to race out of Sever to Fairchild in order to get to my biology course on time. If I switch my days in lab to Tuesdays and Thursdays, then I just have to stroll downstairs from lab at four to go to lecture.
5. Introduction to Research - In other words, getting academic credit for research that I would already be doing. My tutor suggested taking Molecular and Cellular Immunology instead, which has CUE ratings that nearly break the roof, but I...honestly don't find the subject interesting at all. (I was originally going to take that Biological Networks course, but then discovered that I was expected to be familiar with partial differential equations. -_- I've only had the most basic introduction to differential equations in linear algebra, and I don't even remember most of it. I'm starting to wonder if I know enough mathematics.) There's a reason that I say I'm not interested in medical research. ::sighs:: Anyway, have to run around getting signatures for the enrollment form tomorrow. My laboratory sponsor is sadly out-of-town, but I think if I beg at the tutorial office, the post-doc's signature should suffice instead. Note to self: remember to smile ingratiatingly at Barbara while asking.
There's probably a gazillion items I've left off my to-do list. Also I didn't get the House library assistant job I applied for...should I try applying for one at Lamont? I'm not exactly sure why I want a part-time job this semester--well, other than the chance to earn money of course--and I'm not certain if I ought to push the issue. I guess the problem is that I feel like I don't do enough, having only one major extracurricular.
Resolution for tomorrow: no napping!
Yours &c.
::stares glumly at planner:: How did I go from having no homework to a full workload all in the space of one day? Admittedly, not all of it needs to be done by tomorrow, but nonetheless, I feel the old familiar burden of schoolwork settling in.
My intended course schedule has changed drastically at least three times since I arrived on campus, and it's due for another change, which exasperates me to no end, even though I must admit that the end result is probably a lot better for me in the long run. That is to say, Korean, which previously occupied a two-hour afternoon slot on Tuesdays and Thursdays, will be moving to Monday and Wednesday afternoons...which means that I could have enrolled in Meselson's genetics seminar after all. Except of course it's too late now, since it's a lotteried course and I've already missed the first meeting. Oh whatever. I've decided to take credit for research instead of a second biology course, and while this means that for the first time in my college career, I'll be taking only one real science class, it also means that my schedule will be a lot more comfortable. (Nonetheless, I feel like a wimp. On the other hand, my GPA just may go up this semester. ::hopes::)
This semester's course line-up:
1. Molecular Mechanisms of Gene Control - The first lecture was held today, and oh my gosh, I love this class already. Professor Maniatis isn't one of those spectacular lecturers but he's very clear, organized and precise, which is more educational in the long run. But most of all, every topic on the syllabus interests me intensely; these are the questions in biology I want to explore after all. We had an overview of the coupling mechanism of splicing factors and other proteins associated with pre-mRNA processing to the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase today. So elegant! Professor Maniatis briefly mentioned this interesting model of DNA being compartmentalized in the nucleus and mobilized to the appropriate "gene factory" where the gigantic polymerase complex was assembled (rather than the traditional view of individual polymerase enzymes diffusing through the nucleus to find the promoters), and I wondered if that had anything to do with the computational analysis that one of the labs at the CGR is doing to uncover "expression domains". Random note: a part of me is seriously considering taking that structural biology course next year, even though I suck at chemistry.
2. The Book of Job and the Joban Tradition - I shopped this course yesterday without any intention of taking it, and to my surprise, I liked it so much that I ended up deciding to give up the course on Dante's Divine Comedy. Yes, I know, a course title like this one would lead you to expect far too much theology--I mean, that's why I avoided courses like The Christian Revolution last year after all--but while the reading does include a lot of Bible passages, you also get to read Mesopotamian religious texts, Aeschylus, Maimonides, Kierkegaard, Kafka...in other words, I can't deny that the class has a heavy religious streak, but it phrases the questions in existential terms, which are terms that I can accept. And I suppose the book of Job itself is quintessential for its spiritual doubt rather than faith. Anyway, I'm actually rather excited about it. What do you do when faced with seemingly meaningless and arbitrary tragedy? How do you explain it? Can you explain it? How can you reconcile the chaos of reality with the human urge to impose order and explanation on the world around you? Et cetera. Strangely enough, my only memory of reading the book of Job focuses on that passage on the dimensions of the Leviathan--I kept wondering what species of whale that would correspond to.
3. Knowledge of Language - I haven't even shopped this course yet. I did shop it freshman year and liked it but didn't take it then because of scheduling. Of course, it's a different professor now, but I hear that he's really funny and engaging, so hopefully, it'll be all right. Besides, I always wanted to take a linguistics class. I went and bought the required reading at the Coop today, and one of the books is titled Doctor Dolittle's Delusion, which seems to be about whether animals are capable of language. Interesting, isn't it? It looks ridiculously easy.
4. Advanced Korean - One more year of Korean, and I'll have my language citation. Professor Oh just emailed the class with discussion topics that we're supposed to prepare by next Tuesday, and oh-so-casually informed us all that I'm up first to present a "news briefing" next week. Ugh. The unfortunate result of being the student that the professor is best acquainted with (I had him for Korean in freshman year as well). We are also supposed to learn all the vocabulary in advance, do the reading and finish the grammar exercises. ::sighs:: You know, despite my griping about the time switching, I think it'll be better for Korean to be on Mondays and Wednesdays because then I don't have to race out of Sever to Fairchild in order to get to my biology course on time. If I switch my days in lab to Tuesdays and Thursdays, then I just have to stroll downstairs from lab at four to go to lecture.
5. Introduction to Research - In other words, getting academic credit for research that I would already be doing. My tutor suggested taking Molecular and Cellular Immunology instead, which has CUE ratings that nearly break the roof, but I...honestly don't find the subject interesting at all. (I was originally going to take that Biological Networks course, but then discovered that I was expected to be familiar with partial differential equations. -_- I've only had the most basic introduction to differential equations in linear algebra, and I don't even remember most of it. I'm starting to wonder if I know enough mathematics.) There's a reason that I say I'm not interested in medical research. ::sighs:: Anyway, have to run around getting signatures for the enrollment form tomorrow. My laboratory sponsor is sadly out-of-town, but I think if I beg at the tutorial office, the post-doc's signature should suffice instead. Note to self: remember to smile ingratiatingly at Barbara while asking.
There's probably a gazillion items I've left off my to-do list. Also I didn't get the House library assistant job I applied for...should I try applying for one at Lamont? I'm not exactly sure why I want a part-time job this semester--well, other than the chance to earn money of course--and I'm not certain if I ought to push the issue. I guess the problem is that I feel like I don't do enough, having only one major extracurricular.
Resolution for tomorrow: no napping!
Yours &c.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 04:28 am (UTC)Seriously, I want to know if you learn more about this? ^^
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 10:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 04:33 am (UTC)Happy Birthday Tari!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 10:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 04:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 10:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 05:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 10:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 05:35 am (UTC)Oh yeah. Happy Birthday! I just received a LJ reminder. ^__^
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 10:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 11:37 am (UTC)And, oh yeah, thanks to the little comments by your other LJ people, BON ANNIVERSAIRE!! (because I'm not cool enough to know how to say that in Korean...>_>)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 10:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 10:21 pm (UTC)Well, nowadays most Germans would actually say "happy birthday" because there's not really an equivalent...you could say "Alles Gute zum Geburtstag" (best wishes for your birthday) or, the German translation of the birthday song, "Zum Geburtstag viel Glück" (lots of luck/happiness for your birthday). Those are clunky though...you can see why they tend to use the English ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 12:37 pm (UTC)1) Yikes!!! Genetics is something tats i avoid at all cost :P
2) Biblical studies huh? ermm... huh?
3) Knowledge of Language - Ah... i dun even speak my mother tongue properly :P
4) Korean... *heheh* i like the "shapes" of written form
5) Molecular and Cellular Immunology <= that is killer :( and partial differential equations is not as "bad" as it sounded... it rather simple once you got "a hang" of it :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 10:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 04:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 10:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-21 10:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-23 03:49 am (UTC)