Semester
Posted: January 12, 2012 Filed under: All's Well That Ends Well 5 CommentsCan you believe this is my last semester of school? Ever? (Probably.) Jarom has no finals, but he does have a 30-page paper to write and then The Bar. (Yes. In capitals.) This is what my semester looks like…
Soc 339, Theories of Social Change. For whatever reason, this course was previously called Soc 429, and it still fills the requirement for 400-level courses. But it has no final exam, is taught by a really laid-back professor I’ve had before, and looks like it will be a good end-of-school-career class. I have it Tuesdays and Thursdays right around lunchtime. Downside: I’m usually busy getting the kids ready to go to the sitter’s house before I go, and although I pack lunch for them, I don’t get something for myself. Today I grabbed some honey roasted peanuts and a Jack Link’s beef steak (like a Slim Jim but more real) from the little store in the Wilk, but when I got to class I found out that “peppered” beef steak means PEPPERED. I took one bite and my mouth is still burning, 10 minutes later. (That’s right – I’m in class right now. The professor is out of the country until next week, so we’ve been having guest speakers tell us all about international internships and field studies, none of which I can do. So don’t blame me for being distracted.)
Soc 490R, Sociology of Suffering. I’m taking this from my favorite professor, the one who teaches the core theory courses. Total: 4 classes from him. This class is official titled “Sociology of Suffering: Nietzsche, Weber, Suffering, and the Moral Order of Modernity.” So far, fascinating. I have this Mondays and Wednesdays in the afternoon. Which means…no class on Fridays!
Soc 350, Introduction to Social Psychology. My very last required sociology class. I couldn’t get in to the section I wanted, so I’m taking this through independent study. Don’t worry, I have everything planned out so I’ll definitely finish it on time and graduate in April. (Hooray!!)
The big question, of course, is what happens after graduation? So far, we don’t know. I’d love if the answer is “Jarom gets a decent-paying job in or near Provo so we can just stay put instead of having to move,” unless of course it is decent-paying enough that we can move out of the basement. Finally.
Whatever happens, I can hardly wait until the semester is over!
The Unnamed
Posted: January 10, 2012 Filed under: Book of Sand 4 Commentsby Joshua Ferris | 320 pages, published 2010
The main character in The Unnamed, Tim Someone, is on his third relapse of a strange compulsion: he walks. He walks until he collapses from exhaustion. He walks out of meetings, out of buildings, across towns, in the dead of winter. Despite seeing numerous doctors, having tests of every sort done, visiting psychiatrists, no one can explain what it is or why it happens. The compulsion is “the unnamed,” of course.
It’s an interesting premise, and it was carried out nicely. I liked how Ferris depicted Tim’s gradual descent into madness (sorry, spoiler) and how the compulsion takes over so completely. There was a little too much swearing for me, and I felt like several potentially interesting storylines were brought up but not adequately addressed.
Big spoiler: you never find out what the unnamed really is. I suppose that’s fair, but as Americans don’t we desperately need closure? Even (especially) in our entertainment?
Also, I’m pretty sure that one of my ancestors actually did walk compulsively. I vaguely recall hearing stories like that. Anyone want to confirm or deny?
TMI
Posted: January 9, 2012 Filed under: Dangerous Book for Boys 3 CommentsYeah, you probably don’t care to hear about this, but it’s my blog and I’ll write what I want…and today I want to talk about potty training.
Most of the Evan-aged kids we know are girls. I hear that girls tend to potty train earlier than boys do, so I was a little jealous but not shocked that a lot of Evan’s friends and cousins have stopped using diapers. For the past year Evan has had a few pairs of underwear that he used for practice. In retrospect, it’s probably a bad potty training approach to just put your kid in underwear and let them figure out (through accidents) when they need to use the toilet. Also, it hasn’t ever worked. Evan knows that if he’s wearing underwear, he should tell me if he needs to use the toilet, but he just hasn’t been able to make the real connection between “I ought to” and “right now I actually need to.” As a result I decided a while ago to not worry much about potty training until Evan seems more interested on his own.
So…last night Evan was having a bath. Something disgusting happened, maybe you can guess what? As a result I mentioned to Evan that maybe he could try sometime to go in the toilet instead of in a diaper (or perhaps the bathtub). He asked for underwear after he got out of his bath and I obliged.
And he went in the toilet twice after that! And three times this morning! I don’t know where this has come from except that he has suddenly made the right connection. (Also, he loves stickers. Stickers are great rewards.)
There’s your TMI for the day. Potty training FTW!
Jarom
Mika
hilleries 