Mild Insomnia...

...is not always a bad thing! I'm happy about what's to come, both class wise and life wise, and having trouble sleeping tonight because of it. Might as well do something worthwhile!

So! First impressions on classes this semester:

Spanish sounds like it's going to be intense, but ok. I know enough from before to get by at the start, and the homework thus far has been weighty, but useful. It's mostly just exercises and things, but later we have to do what is called a 'composition' which will just be a short paper on some topic the Professor assigns. The professor herself is kind of funny. Her name is Wha Sook Kim (pronounced 'Fasook Kim' with a light f) and she looks distinctly oriental, yet has a very thick Spanish accent. She's pretty intense, but more than willing to repeat herself or rephrase a question for us if we don't understand her. The class was supposed to have like 18 students, but about 4 didn't show and 5 hadn't actually met the requirements for it (which the professor says hasn't happened before), so we're a class of under ten.

Environmental Ethics looks like it's going to be awesome. I know the professor from last year and I like him a lot, and the homework is the same as well: keep up with the weekly reading and write some questions on it when it's your group's turn. The reading topics are exactly what I was hoping for: historical roots of our current crisis, ideals of 'human excellence' and what this should mean, the rights of non-humans including animals and, in some cases, plants, and just general philosophical questions about Environmentalism as a whole. And that's just the first half of the year; after that, he's letting us look through the second section of the textbook and deciding which areas look most interesting to us. Part of it will include how these discussions and problems can be to influence policy-making too, which is exciting for me. I'd like to be able to focus all of this philosophical mumbo-jumbo into real, useful situations.

History of Ethics looks good too, mostly just because I don't know a whole lot about how ethics and what is considered morally acceptable or not has changed since ancient Greece. I was disappointed to hear that it will be strictly Western, but I think the workload would be enormous otherwise, so no biggie. The focus is going to be on ancient Greece, modernism, and a little bit of 'post-modernism' (only in quotes because of how it appeared in the syllabus) including a good body of work by an influential philosopher in this past century named Bernard Williams, whom the professor has a lot of respect for. The class is pretty big, about 25 students, and there seems to be a lot more Freshmen than in the others. I'm hoping I'll have a bit of an edge with my experience last semester, but who knows.

Sociology looks fascinating. After the Professor (who is a visiting graduate student from UCLA) starting talking about the focus of the class, I realized how closely it will tie in to what I've already taken. All last semester I heard about how effective economical policy is greatly affected by public opinion and the current state of the populace, and about how the ancestors of mankind banded together and developed from tiny groups to our modern cities based only on their own group dynamics. This class will go a long ways in helping me understand the motives behind past decisions, and will hopefully give me a much better perspective into what motivates groups and individuals in the choices they make. The class has a ton of reading assignments, but these look interesting too. The books tend to focus on different aspects of society, including the need for security with fear (among other things) as a motivator, the same issues trough the perspectives of many people of different races and backgrounds, and, interestingly, the experience of college life and its effects on students. I kind of wish I had taken this course before holding any leadership role in scouts; it sounds like it would have been useful.

Alright, I think I'm tired enough to sleep now. Time to hit the hay. I leave you with a haiku I scribbled while waiting for Sociology to start:

No moss, rolling stone;
too busy for life to grow,
it misses the point.

Good morning, and have a pleasant today!