Hello all!
Sorry to leave you out of the loop for so long. I saw one of my fellow bloggers tonight and had a minor "freak-out" when I remembered that I should have written LONG before tonight.
But I digress.
I'm moving in to the final 3 days of J-term this week. To some extent, it feels weird that Luther is able to compress a semester worth of class into one month. However, in looking at all the work I've had to do this semester, I can believe it. I would never go back to my first class of this month, but I'm sure it would be less intense. We've read three books, or parts thereof, and written over 7 papers on them and related material. Luckily for me, I like to write. Maybe not that much, but I like to write. Tonight, I finished a project I was doing for the class on the Apocrypha. Wikipedia it, its pretty interesting stuff.
I didn't follow my resolution for this month: working out every day at Legends, the campus fitness center. I went once, and it was enough to convince me not to go back. Call me lazy, but until my metabolism gives out, I'm going to let it take care of me! I don't know if any of you feel intimidated about going to a gym, but it took a lot of effort to bring myself to go just because of that. Surprisingly though, there are certain hours you can go to the gym and be virtually the only person there. It's nice, especially if you have next to no idea what you're doing. I'm the type of guy that likes to have the facade of knowing everything about everything, but working out was and is definitely out of my area of expertise.
The other thing I found out from my experience was the fact that Luther College offers personal trainers for noobs like me. It's too bad I didn't find that out before I gave up, but I think it's pretty cool that we have the opportunity to work with someone to acclimate us to the idea of working out. Maybe next time.
That's all I've got for now, talk to you soon!
~Jake
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
J-Term: the Rise of the Dorians
Hello All!
So I lied. I didn't post after finals like I said I would. Mostly, this was because there really wasn't as much to write about as I thought there would be, and also because I was DEAD. To recap, finals take a lot out of you, even if you only have 4 classes. When you combine the stress of passing the class, preparing for a huge test, and taking that test...its fairly exhausting.
And I'm late getting you a J-term update. What is this world coming to?!
So, as far as J-term goes, I was originally signed up for a class that I thought sounded interesting. Well, I really didn't think it was so much interesting sounding as was the fact that it satisfied not one, not two, but THREE graduation requirements. It was a triple whammy. I showed up 10 minutes early to class on Monday and was really excited to get started. Well, it took me about 15 minutes into the lecture to figure out why it was such a gold-mine of credits. It could have been the most painful two hours of my life. The material was easy. There were no problems with comprehending some of the ideas that the professor said. I took notes diligently, writing down everything the professor said and wrote, hoping to gather SOMETHING from the lecture. No such luck. In reviewing those notes after class, I found that there were exactly 3 things of any importance or relation to the class. The rest could have come up in a conversation over coffee! So, maybe I'm being harsh, but from that point I knew I did NOT want to spend the entire month of January restraining myself from repeatedly banging my head on the desk. Ok, I was harsh again, but now maybe you understand why I didn't name the class. *note to self...go back and check previous blogs to make sure name of course is not mentioned.*
Well, all was not lost. I spent the next 24 hours frantically trying to sign up for anything else. I would have taken anything, and luckily, a spot opened up in another class. It was an afternoon class, and I was so ready to get out of my previous course that I went to it on that same day. It was hard, but I may not have been around to write this if I hadn't switched.
Being as I absolutely love my new course, I feel it is safe to mention the names and social security numbers of the participants. Or at least the name of the course. It's called "The Grail Quest," and could be one of the most interesting courses that I have ever taken. Its an English course, and we have been doing A LOT of reading of medieval texts (for those English junkies out there, the Arthurian Romances). The way I understand it, we in the class are just trying to learn more about not only the legends surrounding the grail story, but also the history and culture of the time period. This is really cool for me, mostly because I'm a big Dan Brown fan, and I find anything about the grail myth, be it the Indiana Jones, Monty Python, or the DaVinci Code grail, fascinating.
Enough about my classes though, there's something bigger going on on campus this weekend. If you haven't heard of Luther's Dorian programs, I'm inclined to say that its too late for this year...? But don't quote me on that, check the website music.luther.edu for more info. They have camps and festivals for everything music, choir, band, and orchestra. This weekend is the Dorian Vocal Festival. There are about 1000 or so students that come to participate in an honor choir and solo contest. Depending on where you're from, 1000 may seem like a huge or tiny number. But on a campus of only about 2,500 students...a group of kids that size makes a HUGE difference. It's a great time for a ton of kids interested in Luther's music program to come up and find out what's in store in the vocal department. I know quite a few do scholarship auditions too.
I participated in it last year, and between the festival, people, and my overall experience, this weekend alone helped me figure out that Luther was the place to be...for....me. As a college student, I will say that having 1000 some kids running around campus isn't exactly a convenience, but it is kind of cool to know that a bunch of these seniors will be running around campus next fall. I wish they would do a study of how many people decide on Luther AND attend something Dorian.
*Moment for contemplation of retention rates of Dorian Festival*
ANYWAY, even if it was rocky in the beginning, this J-term's off to a great start, so we'll see what this next week brings!
Later!
Jake
So I lied. I didn't post after finals like I said I would. Mostly, this was because there really wasn't as much to write about as I thought there would be, and also because I was DEAD. To recap, finals take a lot out of you, even if you only have 4 classes. When you combine the stress of passing the class, preparing for a huge test, and taking that test...its fairly exhausting.
And I'm late getting you a J-term update. What is this world coming to?!
So, as far as J-term goes, I was originally signed up for a class that I thought sounded interesting. Well, I really didn't think it was so much interesting sounding as was the fact that it satisfied not one, not two, but THREE graduation requirements. It was a triple whammy. I showed up 10 minutes early to class on Monday and was really excited to get started. Well, it took me about 15 minutes into the lecture to figure out why it was such a gold-mine of credits. It could have been the most painful two hours of my life. The material was easy. There were no problems with comprehending some of the ideas that the professor said. I took notes diligently, writing down everything the professor said and wrote, hoping to gather SOMETHING from the lecture. No such luck. In reviewing those notes after class, I found that there were exactly 3 things of any importance or relation to the class. The rest could have come up in a conversation over coffee! So, maybe I'm being harsh, but from that point I knew I did NOT want to spend the entire month of January restraining myself from repeatedly banging my head on the desk. Ok, I was harsh again, but now maybe you understand why I didn't name the class. *note to self...go back and check previous blogs to make sure name of course is not mentioned.*
Well, all was not lost. I spent the next 24 hours frantically trying to sign up for anything else. I would have taken anything, and luckily, a spot opened up in another class. It was an afternoon class, and I was so ready to get out of my previous course that I went to it on that same day. It was hard, but I may not have been around to write this if I hadn't switched.
Being as I absolutely love my new course, I feel it is safe to mention the names and social security numbers of the participants. Or at least the name of the course. It's called "The Grail Quest," and could be one of the most interesting courses that I have ever taken. Its an English course, and we have been doing A LOT of reading of medieval texts (for those English junkies out there, the Arthurian Romances). The way I understand it, we in the class are just trying to learn more about not only the legends surrounding the grail story, but also the history and culture of the time period. This is really cool for me, mostly because I'm a big Dan Brown fan, and I find anything about the grail myth, be it the Indiana Jones, Monty Python, or the DaVinci Code grail, fascinating.
Enough about my classes though, there's something bigger going on on campus this weekend. If you haven't heard of Luther's Dorian programs, I'm inclined to say that its too late for this year...? But don't quote me on that, check the website music.luther.edu for more info. They have camps and festivals for everything music, choir, band, and orchestra. This weekend is the Dorian Vocal Festival. There are about 1000 or so students that come to participate in an honor choir and solo contest. Depending on where you're from, 1000 may seem like a huge or tiny number. But on a campus of only about 2,500 students...a group of kids that size makes a HUGE difference. It's a great time for a ton of kids interested in Luther's music program to come up and find out what's in store in the vocal department. I know quite a few do scholarship auditions too.
I participated in it last year, and between the festival, people, and my overall experience, this weekend alone helped me figure out that Luther was the place to be...for....me. As a college student, I will say that having 1000 some kids running around campus isn't exactly a convenience, but it is kind of cool to know that a bunch of these seniors will be running around campus next fall. I wish they would do a study of how many people decide on Luther AND attend something Dorian.
*Moment for contemplation of retention rates of Dorian Festival*
ANYWAY, even if it was rocky in the beginning, this J-term's off to a great start, so we'll see what this next week brings!
Later!
Jake
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