Lazy days

This is a weird time of school limbo, at least for myself and several other people I've talked with, because we've had two days of class, and we know that by next week or the one after at the latest we'll be incredibly busy yet again, but for right now we're just not that busy at all. The general consensus is to act like you're busy, so that you get in the habit. Along that vein I spent a good bit of yesterday reading for various classes, and the rest of it mostly sleeping in hopes of fighting off this really badly timed cold which hit me on the first day of class.

My classes this semester seem to be good, I'm on my last CHC, or MHC as they're now called, and I anticipate that it's going to be boring but manageable. I'm also on my last semester of German, and that promises to be fun and relatively easy as usual - I can't get over how nice Hunter's German department is! Although, in our first German class we did have an elderly auditor from a neighboring class room come and steal the chair we were using to prop the door open... Biology continues to be interesting, though challenging, and my chemistry class seem to be infinitely better this semester than last, thank goodness. Not only is the professor much better, but he seems to have fostered better students: I've already been invited to several study groups, both online and in person!

This week I'll be volunteering to do interviews with applicants to the Honors college, and meeting with a professor from NYu whom I'll be interning with for the spring. Last week I went down to Johns Hopkins to meet with researchers there, one of whom I'll be working with over the summer. Things are starting to get busy and exciting again. But for right now, the school limbo is working nicely; I was happy to spend the day snoozing, eating, and watching movies with my boyfriend, something we both needed before the stress of school sets in. Once the semester is underway it can be hard to remember to relax, but it is important - burning out is not a good feeling. As I ease back into the workload and the long hours, the textbooks and papers, I'm definitely hoping that days like today don't fade away entirely.

spring-a-ling

There's something about having this long break that really makes it hard to get used to school again. Here I am, on my bed at the dorm, reading chapter 36 of Biology, and I just cannot seem to understand all this gibberish about water potentials and transportation mechanisms in plants. There is something about the air at the dorms: its so dusty (maybe because I don't clean my room as often as I should) that I feel the dust enters my brain through my ears and then my mind is like a bookshelf covered in dust and grime....Oh well.
School is like braces: when you first get them on, you're like "oh no! I feel so constrained, so uncomfortable, so hurt!" and then you get used to having them on, and you don't mind them as much, and they are even a conversation starter sometimes, but there is still nothing like the sense of freedom you have when they finally come off.

Starting Again

Spring 2010 was greeted by...snow. Go figure.

I've been back at Hunter since Monday (working), so waking up for my 10:10 CHC was a lot easier than it could have been. I'm actually pretty excited about this one. I have Professor Vengoechea, who is an architect and city planner, and he's planned some pretty interesting sounding field trips and assignments. Plus, no books to buy, and a relatively light reading schedule (a VERY satisfying change from last semester. Egh.) No ideas about final projects, but there's plenty of time for that.

Und Deutsch 202! Ich habe eine neue Professorin - sie heisse Frau Anderson. Es geht gut. (She seems to finally be the professor to push the class at a quick pace, rather than dealing with people who don't put in any effort. Also, I'm excited to be taking a course from someone who isn't a native German speaker. I think it'll boost my confidence a little bit...)

I've only met two of my five professors so far - looking forward to next week! I hope everyone else is as well.

-Katharine

It has been long time....

Hello everyone! It has been a very long time since I have blogged and I never provided a bio of myself so I will do so now.

My name is Amanda Bastone, as I am sure many of you know, and I just declared a double-major in Sociology and Art History last semester. I don't have a minor yet however, I am considering Political Science or Italian. I would like to study abroad in Italy, preferably Rome, and study art and architecture while dining on magnificent Italian food and practicing my Italian speaking skills. However, I would also like to go to England, perhaps for sociology but mainly because I want to go to Liverpool and trace the steps of the legendary Beatles. Yes, I am one of those crazy Beatles fans who even dreams of getting a degree on Beatles' history. Yes, it really exists so look it up.

Anyways, I am a second semester sophomore who is also in the Thomas Hunter Honors Program; I am taking my first class for the program this semester called The Evolution of Scientific Thought. It is a fascinating class and Professor Alexandratos, as far as I can tell at the moment, is a comical and fair professor. Although I do like the course, I can tell it may drive me insane by the end of the semester since it questions what is reality through a philosophical and scientific perspective. However, I had experience with deconstructing reality over the summer in my Eastern Religions course and I survived so I am confident I will be fine. I am sure I will still know a chair is a chair and not just some amalgamation of atoms that can theoretically form anything. A chair is a chair and you sit in it.

Today was indeed my first day of classes and so far, I love/like all of them and I am very psyched for this semester. My MHC seminar, Shaping the Future of New York City with Professor Glassman seems like it will be a very work-intensive yet very rewarding class. The reading on New York city seem fascinating and include The Power Broker and Gotham to name a few. The research project seems interesting too and I am going to try to find a topic I really love and identify with. Our job is to propose policy change for New York City and to have a sweeping vision of a greater and better New York. This is a daunting task that involves networking and interviewing but these skills are needed to succeed in life and are a great asset.

I also really look forward to studying 20th Century Art in my art history course because not having an art history class last semester was pretty traumatizing. I mean, if you really love something and have to go without it for awhile it does hurt pretty badly. Although art history involves an extensive amount of memorization, interpreting the artwork and reading how critics interpret it is very thought-provoking and fun. You are basically learning how to creatively deduce meaning from a visual image or some other form of art.

First of last

Today was the first day of the last semester of the rest of my life. Well, unless you count, you know, the other semesters I'm going to have. Like, at law school and all that. Unless I end up at one of those weird places that does trimesters. Whatever. Point being, I just finished the first day of my last semester at Hunter.

I ended up taking that practice LSAT yesterday morning, not Monday. Turned out it's only 4 sections, so I actually could have squeezed it in another day. I got a 165, according to the little chart in the book, which isn't bad. Need to speed up on the logic games--I answered all the questions right, when I got to them, but only got through 14/24. So yeah. Everything else, I got on average 18/22 right, but I had about 10 minutes left over at the end of each section, so I can afford to take more time on that. This is really putting me back in SAT-studying mood, fixating on the scores and whatnot... and if the SAT is any indication, by the time I'm midway through law school I won't even remember what my score was.

But enough of test angst. Today was a good day. I have one class: Polsc 219, Women and the Law (which I kept thinking was Constitutional Law, for the longest time... I got very confused putting my schedule together last semester). Professor's great, readings so far are light. We're just starting with pretty basic stuff--lovely outlines and summaries about the differences between trial courts and appellate courts, the evolution of separate-sphere gender ideology, yada yada. And we get to argue cases in class for oral presentation, moot-court-style! Yay!

...And after that, the day wrapped up with a lovely Mock Trial meeting. Well, actually, the day officially wrapped up with a lovely shopping run, when I realized I had nothing to eat but Frosted Mini-Wheats.

Adios Argentina! Te extraño!

Today, I woke up at the extremely early hour of 7 am. For some of you early birds it might be normal. However, for me, it is exceedingly early, especially during the winter break. I did not complain when my roommate woke me up because I knew I had to get ready to leave Mar del Plata via bus to travel to Buenos Aires.

I still can't believe I'm leaving Argentina in a day! It's too soon, I don't want to say goodbye! I've gotten so used to the lifestyle here, primarily the weather. Have i mentioned it's 80 something degrees here?! My body will become frozen the moment I step foot onto NY soil! I'm only kidding, or am I?

In addition to not wanting to pry myself away from the marvelous weather, I also don't have the heart to part with the prices here. Riding in a taxi here is 1/4th the price of riding one in NY. The price disparity also holds true for food and other goods. Beverages which would cost $6 in the Big Apple are $2 here. Food items that would be $20+ in the Empire State are only $5 here.

My biggest complaint about leaving this paradise is that once I get back, I wont even be able to relax at all. The day after I get back, school will start up again, and I will be stuck in an unending cycle of work. Don't get me wrong, the work will be enjoyable, because I am taking classes that I am interested in. But, it's always hard to get back into the vicious cycle of school. So now, all I have left to do is mentally prepare myself for it. I'm sure that won't be too hard, now will it?

54 Degrees and.... Rainy!

The weather put such a damp on what could have been a marvelous day with great weather! I stepped outside today and was greeted by piping rain and umbrella-destroying winds - seems like I am not meant to enjoy the last few days before classes resume. On a lighter note, it's time to return to the Brookdale dorms! I never thought I would've missed that place so much, but I do. I need to get to doing things with my time - during the winter break, I really didn't accomplish much. Nevertheless, I tacked on another class for this semester, and can't wait to take on my classes. I Hope everyone is ready to start up a new semester and do well.

End of break, beginning of semester, etc etc

So in 3 days I begin my last semester of college. Ever. Wow. I've already got a short assignment to do for one of my Pol Sci courses, and I've ordered a ton of books from Amazon for my course on Beckett. It's probably going to be a pretty intense semester.

The break has been pretty good. Mock Trial has been meeting 3 times a week, which is fun. I've been having a jolly time studying up for the LSAT, focusing mostly on the logic games right now. Planning to take a practice test later today, which I should have done ages ago, it's just hard to work in a big enough chunk of time all at once.

In other news, over the weekend I watched the first (and only) season of My Own Worst Enemy. It's a pretty good show, which got canceled, inexplicably, after 9 episodes. All sorts of fun messing around with issues of identity and such, without being pretentious about it, mixed with a fun spy drama and something of a deconstruction of the whole spy-drama genre. Also, more double- and triple-crossing per episode than I've ever seen. The only thing that irks me about the show is that almost half the episodes do the whole thing where they start with an out-of-context action scene, then cut to "24 hours earlier..." which is just a cheap gimmick to build false suspense, and really should only be used once every season or two if absolutely necessary.

4...3...2...1...

School starts in four days. Just four days!
I'm actually really excited.
The break was awesome, and I'm sure I'll be remembering it longingly in not too long, but I'm looking forward to getting back to a more structured, productive existence.

Not that my break was completely unproductive. I did get to see my family alot, see old friends from high school a bunch, and read some books for pure pleasure. I also got a few hours of community service in at an organization called Donors Choose - as the daughter of a teacher who has benefited greatly from this organization, it was pretty satisfying being able to help them out, and I hope to go back and do some more volunteering.

Last but not least, I started, and for the most part finished, my opportunities fund application to study abroad this summer! The Hunter German department runs a study abroad in Kassel, Germany that I'm hoping to take advantage of.

So just what is this Spring schedule that I'm so excited about?

ENG 300 Creative Writing
-A requirement for all upper level English classes. I satisfied my basic English requirements with my AP English scores, and since I missed having an English class last term this was a must have.
GERMAN 203
-I took German 103 last term; 103 is basically 101+102 combined, so you can probably guess that 203 is 201+202 combined! And you can also probably guess that since I want to study abroad in Germany, I'm taking German because I love it!
CHC 150 The Peopling of New York
This semester's required seminar, which looks just as exciting as last semester's Arts in New York seminar.
ENG - Sexuality and American Culture
I guess after being in English withdrawal last term, I just had to take 2 English classes!
I saw it on the honors class list, thought the reading list had some great stuff on it, found the topic interesting...so I signed up!

Winter Break...

...is almost finished. I loved the reprieve, but I'm excited to have things to do. I love being on a schedule. I miss the high pace of classes and Hunter.

Products of break:

1 sweater, half of another, half of a vest, a baby blanket, and a pair of gloves.
1 batch of cupcakes.
20 or so delicious meals.
2 books read for fun (I've been knitting more than reading - I had withdrawal.)

I successfully spent a nice amount of time with my family without running into anyone from my high school, which is important to me. Overall, I'd say this whole break thing went pretty well.

I've already spent over $100 in textbooks for next semester, and that's only for two classes. Blegh.

I have one assignment to be completed by February 2nd. I'm actually excited to get something to do. It's for The Critical Perspective - we have to read three articles and critique them on style, content, or whatever we choose. I think it'll give me a good idea about what to expect next semester.

Returning to work on Monday and classes on Thursday! I'm sure I'll have more to blog about then...

- Katharine

Taking things into my own hands

Last fall was my first - and, I'm determined, my last - semester that was actually bad. It was just that simple - things went wrong. I didn't enjoy it at the time, but as people like to say about negative experiences, I did learn some things from it. The most important thing I learned was that I, at least, cannot stomach the idea of sitting back and letting school happen.

Because of my off-beat education, college was my first experience with a typical school setting (or, for that matter, and school setting). It worked at first; I spent my freshman year cruising along, taking an assortment of classes, getting good grades, the whole thing was quite enjoyable. I figured out what major I wanted to pursue and got to work on the prereqs; things were dull at times, but overall I felt that I had placed my education in good hands.

Then came this fall, and with it my disillusionment. With my major and GER's (general education requirements) as a guide, my schedule for, well, the next three years or so was pretty much mapped out. I settled in for a year of more prereqs and requirements, started working at my pcyh professor's lab, and generally continued along the obvious path.

The fact that my major declaration papers papers spent half a year living in my backpack without me ever declaring might have been a clue that things were not going so well, as might the fact that I felt so pressed for time that taking a shower seemed indulgent. But even so it took me a while to figure out something was wrong.

One problem was my classes; it wasn't that I disliked them per se, it was that I was just doing them. There was no passion or interest involved, they were on my agenda so I just did them. That was coupled with taking classes I wasn't very good at, which was quite a slap in the face and a real confidence killer especially after a very nice freshman year. Then there was the lab. I love working in a lab, I love doing science and being part of something significant. But jumping into the first lab that came along and which I was essentially told to go to was a big mistake. My next mistake was continuing once I realized I didn't like it. Before I knew it I was working 11 hours weeks before, after, and in between classes and working on an independent study paper in a lab where I just didn't fit in at all. At that point I felt locked in and figured I had no choice but to tough it out.

When I got through the semester, wrapped up my finals, and finally got a break, I can to the realization that had been nagging me for a while - I had worked quite hard to get into a situation that I patently disliked, simply because that was what had been laid out in front of me. In fact, I had lost all confidence in my goals, I was burnt out, and I no longer had any idea whether I really wanted to do with my life what I had thought I wanted to do. It was then that I remembered that I'd gotten a fine education for the first 19 years of my life without anyone telling me what to do, and that had worked much better for me. College, I realized, is best used not as a job but as a resource.

So, not to be cliched, but I stopped asking what I could do for college and started asking what college could do for me. I stopped obsessing over my classes and started thinking about how they may be interesting. After some hard thinking and a lot of talking (more like me complaining and acting as though I was ignoring suggestions, but really listening to them) with my mom, friends, boyfriend, advisor and pretty much anyone else, I've realized that my goals are still reasonable and are still something I want. I changed my spring schedule to have a lighter course load; I can make up the difference when I'm less tired and burn out, I started reading interesting research again, and I approached a young professor at NYU who I'd gotten in touch with about taking me on as a mentee for this spring (I have a research fellowship, so I kind of have to be doing some form of research). I'm going to Johns Hopkins this weekend to meet with several researchers about working with them over the summer. When I get back to Hunter after the summer break I'll start investigating other labs here at Hunter to find a new lab to be my home for the last two years. I'm happy with the changes I've made (or am making), and I think it will make all the difference to get my energy and passion back. I'm glad to have taken college back into my own hands, and I'm looking forward to a happy and successful semester.

"Vacationing" almost over

I am Finally FREE from the Horrendously Agonizing GASTROENTERITIS!!! I don’t even know how I contracted it! It must be the water! It’s so amazingly dirty here as they don't even filter it…go figure! It first started with me feeling groggier than usual that I didn’t want to get out of bed. How could I not want to go out?...It must be too sunny here in comparison to frigid New York. I reluctantly dragged myself to school at 8:30 am. After an hour passed, I could not bear the pain anymore. I told the teacher that I thought I had a fever. A fever, indeed, I did have. I went to the doctor in the hotel that I was staying at; however, she didn’t know what I had.

For a while, I was terrified that I would die from some nameless Argentinean disease. However, that fear subsided when they figured out that I had gastroenteritis. That diagnostic was after two whole days of suffering from that dastardly infection. The first three days that I had the infection, I was so listless to the point that I couldn’t even stand for more than 5 minutes. My stomach felt like it was going to experience an eternity of excruciating pain. During that week, I could only eat a few things, such as chicken and rice; I was not permitted to eat anything that was fried or uncooked. I’m in Argentina and I am not allowed to eat any of their delicacies…my life is wonderful.

Argentina’s loves meat, especially steak. In fact, they have international renown for their steak. I don’t get what the big fuss is about; their steak tastes the same as NY steak. All the restaurants ever serve is ham and cheese!...This would be a very disagreeable place to visit for vegetarians.

When I returned to class after my not-so-splendid sick days, I felt so behind. Everything turned out to be fine, as the professor was reviewing the material that I didn’t have the chance to learn. My small group welcomed me back and updated me on what the week’s project was.

As I got back into the Argentinean pace of life, I opened my eyes to the city that was in front of me and took advantage of my remaining days. I went to the beach, walked along the coast and rode a banana boat, and gallivanted around town, in several days’ time, of course. Have I mentioned how cheap everything is here? It’s a shopper’s paradise! I must get all my gift shopping done soon as I am leaving this sunny land in less than a week.

I can’t believe that school is starting in a week! Can you believe it? It’s unjust that they make me go back to school in NY after letting me study abroad in sun-drenched Argentina. They must be cackling to themselves, knowing how much it would annoy me. But, I can't say I am not looking forward to it. Anyhow, I must go and speak to a native Argentinean now! See you later!

Winter Break

Winter break is shaping up to be pretty much what I hoped it would be. I've been working in the lab recently like I never have before, seeing my friends, my family and my girlfriend in my other time, and sleeping plenty.

I've gotten into a good rhythm in lab, doing experiment after experiment and finally moving forward. This week is going to be my attempt to combine three different fluorescent stains on one slide to see the location of a protein, an mRNA and microtubules at the same time. My boss is away on a conference, and she'll probably come back with some cool ideas and a few papers.

Today is different though, because there is a whole clan of people coming over my house. Not really, but about 4 "Salgado" (the family of both my brothers' girlfriends) are coming over and perhaps 3 other people, so its going to be a chaotic blast. One of the Salgados actually is on the big mural in the subway level of Hunter West; there is a picture on the wall of her playing tennis because apparently she was pretty good.

I hope everybody is enjoying their winter as much as I am or even a little more - I'm not picky. Still, It will be fun to go back to classes.

Joseph

Soo, It's Been Sometime

Hmm, it has been a while since I last visited the blog; however, I have good reason! I just finished recovering from a hard fall + seven stitches, and can finally think straight once again - hopefully, all the screws upstairs are still tightened because classes are back in session ten days from now! After my bloodied trauma at Bryant Park, I decided to use some Winterbells therapy, which worked quite well. You should try it, and leave a comment with your score.
All in all, my winter break was consumed with little fun and a couple weeks of recovery; I stayed in most of the days. Nevertheless, the next semester is rearing its ugly head and coming up close. I already have homework that I need to start, and I packed on more "cerebral" classes as some weird form of self-punishment/edification for the future. Odd? Yea, I know. Anywho, that is all for now. I hope many of you are done with all your college apps, and can finally get back to life as you once knew it.

busy busy busy

Whoever created the term "winter break" was apparently not familiar with the true life of college students, or at least not the college students I know. School is just two weeks away now, and this past month has been BUSY. First of all comes full-time work at the lab; my lab partner and I are working hard to wrap of a project from the fall and start a new one, while simultaneously training three new people who will take over when I leave the lab after the winter break - next week is my last week there! Things go way too fast, but I'm very excited to be working with a professor in the NYU psychology department this spring.

Then there's planning for the summer; next week I'll be taking a trip down to Johns Hopkins to meet with several researchers there in hopes of finding a lab spot for the summer "break."

Finally, break is the only chance for a slew of non-school things to happen; I've opened a new bank account, gotten my blackberry fixed, actually resurfaced at home, and today I finally got my driver's license (!). As I said - busy busy busy.

I Finish Big Book!

Just finished The Brothers Karamazov, or, as I like to call it, Law And Order: Crazy Russians Unit. It's a bunch of philosophical riddles wrapped in a murder mystery inside an enigmatically unreliable-omniscient-narrative structure. Very long (I started it over summer vacation, picked up where I'd left off sometime after Christmas). But good. You ought to read it.

3rd Molar Extraction

Well first of all, it's nice to see that there's someone else out there who didn't enjoy Avatar, since my friends seem to think expressing anything but awe and amazement at the movie is blasphemous.

Second of all, I have absolutely nothing exciting to report, because approximately a week ago I got my wisdom teeth removed.

Not to scare anyone who hasn't had them out, but it was much worse than I expected. Despite the repeated assurances by medicial professionals that it's a safe common procedure (which it is), it really is a surgery, and it can take alot out of you. I literally didn't leave my couch for days unless it was to use the bathroom.

My advice: get your wisdom teeth out as soon as your dentist tells you to, and if it's not a school break, anticipate missing some school (maybe you'll be lucky, and recuperate in two days, but you know the old adage: 'prepare for the worst'). Don't wait until one of them starts coming in, causing excruciating pain, or you'll end up like me - sleepy well before midnight on New Years Eve, holding a bag of frozen peas to your face.

Here's hoping you all had a better New Year than I did :)

I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations: Part II

So Part I of this ranting was stuff that bugged me about District 9's lazy little allegory. In this post, I shall complain about Avatar, which I saw in December, which showed me just how bad the allegory shtick can get. I'm going to avoid spoilers, though I'm not sure why--after seeing the first 35 minutes of Avatar, you'd probably be able to put together the rest of the plot on your own. Especially if you've seen Disney's Pocahontas.

First, the good bits: The physical worldbuilding is great. The biology and linguistics clearly had plenty of expertise going into them. If you're going to have a remarkably earth-like planet with remarkably earth-like flora and fauna, this is the way to do it. The visuals are stunning; the N'avi fall somewhat into the uncanny valley, not because they look fake--they don't--but because they're 12-foot blue-skinned lemur-goat-people. So on looks, the movie is total awesomeness.

Then there's the plot.

The Bad Guys are one part Europeans-in-Africa, one part Manifest Destiny, one part Blackwater, and one part Napalm in the Morning. The Good Guys are every single Noble Savage cliche to ever rear its head in western literature since the 18th century. The Bad Guys are on the Pretty Alien Planet to mine unobtainium. Literally. That's what they call it. What does unobtainium do? We don't know. A huge megacorp spends billions and sends people light-years from Earth to get this stuff, so it must be pretty fricking useful, but in two and a half hours of running time the film doesn't bother to tell us exactly what it's good for. Why? Because James Cameron doesn't really care about the humans in the film. He just wants to show us the pretty planet and the pretty blue lemur-goat-people and their awesome wonderfulness.

Lest you think I'm reading too deeply into this, here's James Cameron's own take on the movie:

"[T]he N’avi represent that sort of aspirational part of ourselves that wants to be better, that wants to respect nature. And the humans in the movie represent the more venal versions of ourselves, the banality of evil that comes with corporate decisions that are made out of remove of the consequences."

Does he not see the issues with this?

First: if you're doing something as an allegory about humanity, and you have aliens represent Good!Humans and humans represent Bad!Humans, how can you even hope to attempt to escape the whole thing having a humans = evilness slant to it? Sorry, it doesn't work that way. That's mixing a metaphor with itself.

Second: the N'avi are only good and wonderful because we're told they're good and wonderful. Their society is drawn in the laziest Noble Savage shorthand ever. All we know is that they're all Connected To The Earth (and there are some cool ideas here--verging on decent science fiction--that the film brings up and more or less ignores). They're all into their traditions and whatnot, which I think is supposed to show how wonderful they are; this completely ignores the serious issues most deeply traditional societies have with, for instance, rigid social hierarchies and gender roles and whatnot (see, for example, the problems faced by countries that have laws protecting both traditional society and women's rights). Would it be cool if the N'avi, for whatever reason, didn't face any of these issues? Of course. But then we'd need them to be actually alien, and we'd need the film to explore precisely how they're different from humans in this respect. Which the film can't do, because they're not alien. Which brings me to...

Third: You know how I was irritated about the non-alien aliens in District 9? The non-alien aliens in Avatar are the same, but worse. The shrimp-bug-people in District 9 are basically humans. The lemur-goat-people in Avatar are Good!Humans. They're less than human, because they're utterly and totally flat. Even the Evil!Humans in the movie are more interesting. As a matter of fact, by the end, I found myself chanting "Die, goat-people, die!" in my mind just because I was sick and tired of having their wonderfulness crammed down my throat. At least the bad guys had some amusing one-liners, a bit of attitude to them. Plus, I felt bad for them. I mean, the poor guys clearly don't stand a chance. Who can hope to win against SuperBluePeople?

That, basically, is why Avatar is the worst kind of allegory out there. The whole point of good people and bad people is that they're all people, for crying out loud; how am I supposed to care about people who are just innately good? Who don't even have to try? Avatar has a less nuanced view of morality than Star Wars. It doesn't stand for anything remotely human; it stands for a bunch of half-thought-through idealized abstractions, rendering its message utterly pointless.


Okay, so that was my rant. Um... I'll do something less irritated in my next post?

I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations

Actually, the title of this post is a lie. But it's a J. R. R. Tolkein quote, which makes it okay. Tolkein wrote it in the preface to the 2nd edition of LOTR, where he politely disagreed that the War of the Ring had anything to do with World War Two or whatnot, and pointed out that if it had resembled any real war, the hobbits would have been totally screwed and the whole thing would have turned into a huge fight between Sauron and Saruman.

But I digress.

The point being that while Tolkein cordially disliked allegory, I've gotten really, really sick of it, to thoroughly non-cordial levels. So I decided to complain about it here, because I haven't posted in a while. So this is the first in a two-part rant about irritatingly allegorical sci-fi movies I watched last year.

Last summer, I watched District 9, which was a decent enough action-thriller-thing; personally, I think its greatest strength is as a deconstruction of the reluctant hero archetype. What bugged me was that the only thing people seemed to mention about it was how it's an allegory about apartheid-era South Africa. Well, yeah, it is. And it's really, really obvious about it. And commentators all went on about this like it somehow made the movie deeper and more significant. Except that it didn't. If the film has any message to deliver, it's "Apartheid was bad!!1!!11!!!!1!" Um... can you tell us something we don't know? And why do you have to tell us this using pseudo-insectoid aliens?

If you really want to make a film demonstrating Man's Inhumanity To Man or whatever, then make one that shows us how something as terrible as apartheid can come to be in the first place. Show us how people can justify repressing millions of other people; get us to empathize with the people doing the repressing, put us at the top of the slippery slope. That would be interesting.

And if you want to make real science fiction, give us aliens that aren't human minds in CGI bug skins. The aliens of District 9 are barely alien at all; okay, so they don't entirely look like us, and their language is all clicks and whirrs, and they get high off of cat food, but that's all superficial. Once you get past the "ick-they're-giant-bug-shrimp-things" factor, they're just humans--psychologically, socially, every which way.

Of course, because District 9 is all allegorical, that's the point, right? To push through all that superficial stuff and get to the common ground, right? But wouldn't it be a lot more interesting to see humans reaching common ground with a really inhuman form of sentient life? What about a species modeled after eusocial colony insects that wasn't a lazy metaphor for totalitarianism or repressive social hierarchies? That would raise issues.

So I was bugged by District 9, and disappointed that lazy allegory still passes for significance. But, hey, it had some cool-enough action scenes in the usual '00s jittercam mockumentary mode, and it really does a good job turning the whole reluctant-hero thing on its head, so it wasn't all bad.

Tune in tomorrow for Part II of this rant, wherein I shall complain a lot about James Cameron's little pet project, Avatar.

(Almost) Free Yoga

Yet another reason to love New York City.

http://yogatothepeople.com/

Winter Break

Hunter radio is taking the winter off in preparation for our return in the Spring. We will be holding elections in the first week of school. I urge anyone interested in getting involved to come down for the election. Just look around school for our posters- they will be all over the place.

I first got involved by attending an election and I ended up being Secretary, then Vice President and now I am running for President. It is a great club and if you have any interest in music or sharing your thoughts and ideas with Hunter College then the radio would be perfect for you.

I want to share some of our content with you. As with the first two, here is a third WHCS DJ who also happens to be an Honors College student. And perhaps our entrance into a new decade has made me even more nostalgic for the 90s but here is another 90s themed episode. The show is called Play It Again Sam and this episode is called 1994.

Summer in Sunny Argentina

Today is the only 3rd official day of Spanish Class in Argentina, but I feel like I've been here for at least a month already. I am already so accustomed to the different schedule here and the weather. The sun shines brilliantly everyday as if it were telling me, "I told you so...you are enjoying Argentina!"

Nevertheless, I am still not used to the food here. The food comes in the most extremes of extremes. It's either very, very sweet or very, very salty. There is not a lot of variety here in Mar del Plata. There's no Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, nor Indian food, the cuisines I have grown up with. There isn't even typical Hispanic food! Can you believe that?! There's only Italian food; everything is Italian!

So, one would think that after the trouble she went through to get on this study abroad program, the level that she needs to be placed in for Spanish would be available. But no! So, I need to be placed in level C+; however, only levels A, B, B+, C, & D exist. I was placed into level D, at first, but that was too dificult for I have never read any work of Spanish literature before. Thus, I was moved to level C, but that level is rather easy. However, I'm going to stick with level C because even though I've learned the material before, it's a very good review, especially because I'm dealing with a foreign language here. And besides, the teachers are going to give me additional work, so it should be fine.

Despite my complaints, I am pretty happy to be here, with the sun radiating warmth and all. I am experiencing something that most college students cannot: life in another country, surrounded by another culture. Even though NY has a wider array of food than Argentina, I am still determined to enjoy Argentina to the best of my ability because who knows when I will get another chance at an amazing opportunity?

Free Time

It's so wonderful to have this huge long break. Sure, after a point all the days mesh together, and there really is absolutely nothing left to do. But it is such a beautiful thing to go out, to the mall or the movies and NOT deal with the hordes of loud junior-high and high-school kids on the subways or the streets. Beautiful.
Today, for example. After a meeting with a teacher, I can so go down to 34th Street, to that huge Forever 21 store and shop in just 30 minutes because there won't be clothes everywhere due to the rude and crazy students that shop there. And then, I can take the not-crowded subway back to Queens to tutor my little 5th graders, and then be home. All without chaos.
On the other hand, I really am running out of things to do. But I don't worry about that. Starting February, I'll be plenty busy when classes start again. So for now, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy my free time.

This was supposed to be the future...

...only two or three more months before it becomes second-nature to write "2010" at the top of my papers and on checks. I keep forgetting what year it is - actually, I keep forgetting what day it is. I just realized today is Saturday - this, my friends, is why Winter Break is fabulous. This is my first semester off since I started college and the amount of free time is quite nice. I've knitted a whole sweater!

On the downside (or maybe upside...depends), I've started to get emails from next semester's professors about books. My Sexuality and American Culture class looks awesome; only one textbook, plus Toni Morrison, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and a few other decent reads. It's a Macaulay course, so I know it'll be stimulating at least. Also, a lovely email from Sylvia Tomasch about reading The Power Broker next semester. Much less thrilling...

Grades are almost all in and I'm pretty satisfied so far. I'm only waiting on one more - it's freaking aggravating. I'm making cookies to stave off my irritation =) (BDSE, be prepared for cookies when I return!)

I hope everyone is enjoying these first few days of 2010, before our resolutions fall through and our apathy sets in about still not having jetpacks or pill-form dinners.

New Year's Eve in Argentina

Yesterday, I woke up quite early, but apparently not early enough for breakfast. Besides, I wanted to lie in bed for a while. Sometime later, I got myself up and took a shower in order to wake up. Around noon, my friends and I went out to look for a Mexican restaurant because we were craving some guacamole and burritos.

We walked around, but we couldn’t find a Mexican restaurant. The one that we found was not opened because it was New Year’s Eve. As such, there was going to be a celebration later at 9:30 pm. Since we knew that there was going to be a lot of food later on, we only ate some fruits and a salad.

Around 9:15 pm, everyone got ready to go to the New Year Eve’s Party. We walked 10 blocks and arrived at the restaurant, which was situated on the harbor. There were a lot of appetizers, but many of them were too salty for me. I didn’t even know what the contents of half of the appetizers were. Yet I tried them as I was set to taste what Argentineans think good Argentinean food is.

The main course was steak, of course, and there were barely any vegetables to balance out the meat. After we finished our main meal, we went outside to watch the fireworks that went off when the clock struck twelve. I have to say, though, it was so windy and cold that I thought Argentina had gotten it’s seasons mixed up.

We stayed outside for quite a while and then went in to find out that everyone was on the dance floor. It was then that I saw what the real Argentinean spirit looked like. Around 1:30 am, they served us ice cream on a brownie with a drizzle of fruit syrup. We walked back to our hotel around 2 am and fell asleep immediately after we hit our beds as we were thoroughly exhausted.