First day of classes, more Blind Go babble

[tarigwaemir]

Lowell House, on the Feast of St. Joseph of Cupertino

First day of classes today. (Yes, our uni starts late.) I went into the Moral Reasoning class (Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory) with high expectations and actually had them met. The professor has the self-acknowledged tendency to make "grandiose and ludicrous statements", and he started off by promising us, "If you read these texts and take them seriously, I guarantee you that they will change your life." It sounds a little cheesy in retrospect, but I rather liked his enthusiasm. Because though it may be naive, that is what I want out of a liberal arts course: new ideas that will change the way I think for the rest of my life.

Then the MCB course, Developmental Biology, in the afternoon. The professor has a cool Australian accent. (At least I think it was Australian, though I could be wrong.) Last year, I didn't plan on taking developmental biology at all because I didn't think I was altogether interested in development (I'm...not much of a cell biology person, insofar as looking at tissue organization and whatnot). But the truth is, most of the interesting genomics projects involve developmental patterns, so I might as well give up my unreasonable pigeonholing and give the course a chance. I'm probably going to end up taking it, although I'm shopping another MCB course, Structual Biology, tomorrow just in case. (I think I'll be really bad at structural biology, which involves a lot of chemical biology and crystallography, but I do feel that I need to be able to at least understand a crystallography paper as a researcher.)

Tomorrow I'm shopping Modern European Intellectual History (because I can't allow myself to graduate from a liberal arts college without reading Foucault and Derrida) and Intertextuality (a literature course that has on its reading list T.S. Eliot and A.S. Byatt). Taking both would be suicidal, so I'll have to choose between the two. I'm leaning more towards the history course because of personal educational imperative...I can always take a literature elective in the spring. Oh, and the aforementioned Structural Biology also meets tomorrow. I should probably shop more electives, but then why make the choice difficult for myself? The two courses I'm looking at already have high CUE ratings and interesting syllabi. (The amount of reading for the history course is unholy though.)

I just made a private post for myself with my guesses for all 29 blind_go fics. Some of them are better guesses than others, and I'm convinced that some of them are utterly wrong and will need to be changed, once I come up with better guesses. -_- The writers I'm less familiar with are especially difficult, particularly when they have similar styles to the writers I do know well and make me second-guess myself endlessly.

Just to be clear, I don't know who wrote what (only silvermuse89 does), but I won't be eligible for the guessing prizes. This exercise in guessing is purely for my own amusement, which is why it's sad that I'm causing myself a brain aneurysm over it. I do have certain advantages over other readers purely by my position as mod because (1) I can access the inbox to check what order submissions came in and (2) I can see all the screened comments with other people's guesses. But strangely enough, I don't agree with most of the guesses that have come in so far.

Yours &c.

Post-script: flonnebonne jokes that everyone ought to write five blind_go aftermath posts. Well, here I am, already finished with the third one (fourth if you count the private post)...I should really stop talking about blind_go before I drive the rest of my friends list mad.

Comments

[schwimmerin.livejournal.com]

I think it was British, actually, it didn't quite sound twangy enough for Australian. I could be wrong though, haha.

[troisroyaumes]

I thought it sounded a bit too twangy to be British but not twangy enough to be Australian, so I was unsure. You're probably right though because I'm bad at telling apart accents. Also, he did say he went to Oxford.

[ladydaera.livejournal.com]

Ah! You're both taking developmental biology together? *grin* You guys make me so envious, I wanted to take that course last year. It sounds like it's going to be such a cool semester! Who's teaching the Moral Reasoning? And the structural biology course? Crystallography is pretty cool to learn about, I think, it's just not that fun to do.

[troisroyaumes]

Well, Jenny's not decided yet (especially since one of the Developmental Biology midterms coincides with two other midterms in her other classes), but we both shopped it this afternoon. Although you might be thinking of the Craig Hunter course, because I think that was offered last year. (It was called Developmental Genetics and Genomics.) The one being offered this year is just called Developmental Biology and is taught by Andrew McMahon, he of the...British or Australian accent.

The Moral Reasoning course is being taught by Michael Puett, and the Structural Biology course is being taught by Rachelle Gaudet and David Jeruzalmi. More Gaudet than Jeruzalmi I think.

(Psst, sorry I haven't written back to you. blind_go has taken over my life. I'll definitely write to you once it's all over though.)

[ladydaera.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're right, I was thinking of the Hunter class. I remember the structural biology course, though, or at least I remmeber there was a course that Gaudet and Jeruzalmi co-taught. McMahon sounds fun, if nothing else you can enjoy listening to his accent. :-P It's awesome that you're actually excited about your MR class, that was one CORE subject I definitely avoided... And no worries about the correspondance, wait until you have time. Certainly, I disappear for abnormal intervals when work takes over my life!

[card-mistress.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh. You've actually got 29 guesses already? I'm stuck at my 5th...

[troisroyaumes]

A lot of the guesses are me sticking in the leftover names in the leftover slots. If I counted only the ones I was sure of, I'd have only 7. _-_;; Plus, as I mentioned, I do have an unfair advantage. >_>;;

Good luck on the guessing!

[card-mistress.livejournal.com]

I just started my first-year at uni... And I'm beginning to know what you're talking about x_x
But wow, what grad program are you going to apply to? :)

[troisroyaumes]

I'm applying to Ph.D. programs in molecular biology or biochemistry or systems biology. I'm not certain yet about which schools though. ^_^;; That's one of the things I really ought to figure out soon.

Oh, good luck with your first year! I think that's really the best time in college. ^_^ Do you know what you're majoring in yet or is it still up in the air?

[card-mistress.livejournal.com]

Wow, a Ph.D (in biochem at that!). Doctor Tari, huh? :) Anyway, good luck with your application.

And I'm aiming for a BDes in graphic design at the moment. Afterwards I might apply for a Masters in Design or maybe a BSc in environmental studies. We'll see :) Thanks, by the way.

[clocklike.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, you make college sound so interesting! Now that I'm in my junior year I sort of want to graduate almost (vague and uncertain, I know) and head off already. I somewhat have an idea of what I want to do. *__*

Good luck with all your courses! ♥

[troisroyaumes]

Heh, I'm glad it sounds interesting...although to tell the truth, it can be quite stressful and nervewracking at times. Yes, I think by junior year, you start feeling ready to leave, especially once the college app process begins in the spring. I'm feeling ready to leave college actually, what with grad school applications coming up. XD;;

Thanks, Peradis~! ::hugs::

[meril.livejournal.com]

The University of Minnesota used to start this late (well, about a week later) when it was still on quarters. At least it didn't snow today? My first day of freshman year, it snowed.

Good luck on your classes. Your proposed schedule fills me with dread on your behalf. How many credits are you planning on taking? Also, your school lets you try out classes first?

[troisroyaumes]

Ack, snow on the first day of classes? O_O;; I guess there's something nice to be said for Boston weather then.

I'm actually taking fewer courses than before, so I don't think it'll be that bad. I can always choose to take the elective pass/fail if it grows too much for me. ^_^;; It'll be three lecture courses plus one course for thesis research. (Er, we don't use a credit system so I'm not sure what that's equivalent to.) The first week of classes here is known as "shopping period" where you can "shop" all the classes you're interested in before you officially register for them by handing in a Study Card at the end of the week. It's been very useful; last year I shopped a Core class without really intending to take it and was so impressed by the professor that I ended up taking it after all.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, you're taking MR78? I'm in there too! Prof. Puett is actually the head of the EAS department, and he's a great teacher. Plus, the head TF Vincent is like a small god walking upon academic soil. The class I took with them last year, no joke, did change my life. :)

Just to pump you up for it even more, I guess. I'm looking forward to it. :)

[sangoire.livejournal.com]

And that was me. Didn't mean to be so sketchy. :)

[troisroyaumes]

Yay, classmate! I thought I saw you in lecture today, although I was sitting in the other end of the room and couldn't be sure.

I'm really pleased because I've always griped about how all the Moral Reasoning courses were focused on Western philosophy, and lo and behold, a Chinese philosophy course came out just in time before I graduated. ^_^ Prof. Puett seems awesome.

[sangoire.livejournal.com]

Yay! I was also unenthused about fulfilling the MR requirement, because Western philosophy isn't really something that interests me either--I was actually considering using my study abroad semester to drop it. But the dream team of Puett + Leung returns, and I'll see you in class!

[flonnebonne]

Agh, you've done all your guesses already? AGH, YOU'RE SURE OF "ONLY" SEVEN OF THEM?

Also, way to take hard classes in uni. :) I was one of those English majors who kind of just cruised through and tried not to take anything too taxing on the brain. Ah, how long ago it seems. And that was but a few months ago.

I am quite certain I'll be scrambling to make five post-blind_go posts, ironically.

[troisroyaumes]

Well, remember that I have an unfair advantage because I know what order the fics came into the inbox. ^_~ I...also spent three hours going through all the authors' archives and taking down notes on their punctuation usage. ::is lame beyond words::

Heh, if the work ends up getting to be too much, I plan on taking the elective as pass/fail.

Just saw your post! XD Well, the inevitable entry that we'll all make after the reveal should count as an aftermath post too, right? XD

[flonnebonne]

I don't think your unfair advantage is that big an advantage, actually, since I'm sure some of us peeked into the inbox a couple of times. *whistles innocently*

Yes, the inevitable post about the big reveal should count! No selfish motives here! ^_^