Donate

Posted: August 13, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Social Contract, The Story of a Mother | 1 Comment

Yesterday I learned about a family whose oldest daughter was diagnosed with high risk leukemia in 2010, whose second daughter has faced unexplained medical challenges, and who just had a stillborn baby girl.

I know from experience how quickly the medical and funeral costs add up. On top of that, this family still has medical bills from the care of their older girls. Can you spare $10 for them? I’m skipping donuts this week and next, and using that money for a donation instead.

There are a lot of people reading this blog now that I don’t know personally. We’ve been blessed to have lots of financial help with Christian’s medical and funeral costs. I’ve talked in the past about how I believe one of the fundamental reasons for existence is to help each other – will you help? If you aren’t able to donate financially, please consider sharing a link to the fundraiser page. I want to see everyone rally around this family and validate my belief in the good of humanity.

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Classics

Posted: September 16, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Social Contract | 1 Comment

This week for my inequality class we read some writings by Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. I’d just like to say that sometimes classics are more interesting when you have CliffsNotes, and less interesting when you have to read the classics themselves.

Sorry, world.

P.S. I also have a lot of trouble following the plot in black & white movies. Think there’s a connection?

Limited

Posted: June 21, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Social Contract | 2 Comments

Summer break is about halfway over! We still have some fun adventures coming up in the next two months, but I’m also looking forward to school starting again.

I have 6 classes left to complete – 1 general ed (physics), a statistics course, social psychology, and 3 400-level sociology classes. The physics, stats, and social psych classes can all be taken through independent study, and my plan was originally to do those during the summer, take the 400-level classes on campus this fall, and graduate in December. (Thankfully, I opted to take a little break, so I basically have the summer to relax.)

I knew trying to take the 400-level classes together would severely limit any flexibility in my schedule; since it will also be the Romgi’s final year of law school, I doubted we’d be able to work around each other’s classes. So I decided I’d just find a babysitter for while I’m at school.

It turned out to be a little more challenging than I thought to find a block of classes. I don’t want to spend an hour on campus in between classes, partly because I’ll be paying someone to watch the kids – and the less babysitting I have to pay that person for, the better. Eventually I was able to enroll in the physics class (Tuesday nights from 6-9 – the Romgi can watch the kids then, and by the way, that is an insane time for class), statistics (MWF at 10am, with a lab on Wednesdays at 9am), and one 400-level sociology class: inequality & society.

One downside right now is that there are several classes I’d like to take, but don’t have time for. I don’t need them to graduate and I’m not sure I can justify spending the extra money on babysitting, not to mention the extra time doing classwork. Here are a few I’d love to take if I could:

Soc 325 – Introduction to Sociology of Religion. This is taught by my favorite professor (he teaches the theory classes), and it sounds fascinating. Before I decided to major in sociology I was working on a (very informal) essay about religion in society. From the description the professor gave, this class is my essay, but better. Lots better.

Soc 365 – Sociology of Aging. There’s a lot of debate about how to care and provide for the elderly. Is it a responsibility of the individual, the community, or the government? This class examines that issue, along with social attitudes about aging and social policies regarding the elderly.

This may surprise you: Soc 328 – Sociology of Sport. I find it fascinating how complex organizations and systems have developed to govern and oversee sports. For example, we have a very clear history of the invention of basketball. In just over 100 years we go from the first game ever played to an official institution regulating professional games, teams, and players. I think it’s an interesting example of how complex systems develop.

Soc 390R – Social Welfare Policy. I imagine that taking this alongside the inequality & society class would be fascinating. I’d also be interested to see the BYU perspective on the topic.

Depending on what’s offered next winter semester, I may or may not be able to take Soc 429 – Social Change & Modernization, which looks at contemporary social change through the various theories we studied in Soc 311; and Soc 470 – Sociology of Law, which I think it fairly self-explanatory.

Then there are some non-sociology classes I’d be interested in taking, like ArtHC 111 – Introduction to Art History; Anthr 101 – Social/Cultural Anthropology (my limited knowledge of anthropology comes from watching Bones, and I’ll be honest, it sounds a lot like sociology…with more physical artifacts), Engl 356 – Myth, Legend, & Folktales; Music 201 – Civilization: Music, which explores history from Greek antiquity to the seventeenth century from the perspective of musical literature; and Phil 110 – Introduction to Philosophy.

But, for now I’ll just be glad that I’ve had the chance to take as many classes as I have. Switching majors four times has been a good experience, I suppose. (And when I finish I will have exactly the number of required credits to graduate. Sociology is a very short major.) What classes would you take, if you could?

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