spring semester

this past week has gone by so quickly...I'm thankful for my spring semester arrangement!
still frustrated by the work situation - but I will be patient and see where the Lord leads.

I think I did the following when I started fall semester, so I will do it again - just summarizing some initial thoughts about what I'm looking forward to learning in the next few months:
(no name-calling! I'm a self-professed nerd!)

cmns 386 - this course is about documentary media and explores questions of realism and how this media form has evolved over the past century (almost...1920s-200s). I love that we're talking about documentary as a cultural technology - how does it help us make meaning about the world? this medium is so rich with controversy, especially because it substantiates itself in being "presenters of reality". but is reality through the lens really reality? why is it that we are so much more susceptible to believe in the technical style of hand-held shooting?
Very excited - and I get to watch tons of docs! In class! As well...it's being taught by one of my favourite profs ever - and this is her field research, therefore making it all the more exciting.

cmns 323 (cultural dimensions in advertising) - I'm really looking forward to this one too...especially since we're talking about the bigger questions of how advertising connects with our society and culture (rather than discussing effectiveness and blahblah of ads). it's so interesting that we all take advertising so lightly (that it doesn't "affect" us) and therefore the idea of studying advertising just seems retarded to a lot of people. however, this is exactly why studying it is important: the fact that it appeals to the unconscious. the effect of an advertising culture is cumulative - we are like fish in the water...unable to break out of the environment we live in. advertising affects our view of other social issues...it gives us ideas, concepts, and tools for thinking...it helps us conceptialize who we are and hope to be.

cmns 332 (communications and rhetoric) - this one I'm the least knowledgeable about...I took the course on the sole basis that I had this prof back in first year and his lectures really helped affirm my faculty choice! we'll be talking about rhetoric (the art of persuasion) as a source of epistemology and how everything has a rhetorical component - the idea of language as a social function. I'll elaborate on a particular model that he showed us on monday (kenneth burke's pentag model) in another blog...it's quite fascinating. one of the course books is malcolm gladwell's "the tipping point", which I have just finished...a good thing, because it's probably deserving of a second read. i've been reading some of his blogs as well, and find him quite intelligent and insightful...not that I buy everything he says either (it's a good tool for further critical thinking!). oh yes...if his name isn't familiar - he wrote "blink" as well.

hist 390 (modern italy) - this course is the "dark horse" this semester...it's completely flukey that I ended up in it...it was the only higher level history course that fit. funnily enough, I've had the prof before and found him to be very good (strict but very clear and articulate)...it's a small class so I'm sure there'll be lots of opportunity to ask questions and clarify things...I have no particular interest in italian history, but feel fortunate that this is his speciality. as well, we'll be watching films in this class too because italian cinema is a great historical resource.

looks to be a fun semester - being a student is infinitely more fun than working a 9-5 job...(at least in my opinion)