Monday, November 17, 2008

Next Semester

okay so here we go with a break from my usual political rants. What classes are you guys taking next semester? Fun ones? Not so fun ones? GO!!!


This is what I get to look forward to:
-Genetics & Molec Biol--scary shit
-Lab in Genetics & Molec Biol--scary shit up close
-Environmental Engineering--fuck if I know, it counts for cred
-Intro to Political Analysis--could be interesting. it's statistics + politics
-U.S. Foreign Policy: Selected Problems Intl Relations --gonna be awesome
-Spanish Level IV - ay, dios mio! no entiendo!

5 comments:

Camille said...

sounds fun james. I, on the other hand, am taking:
Masterpieces of Indian Art & Architecture (it satisfies a Core requirement- need it to graduate)
American Film History 1960-1990 (um- sounds like the class i desperately need- no?)
Social Psych OR Abnormal Psych (either way- interesting stuff)
Infant Development (more interesting stuff)
and maybe auditing Animal Behavior (i already took it but never went. curious now to hear what its all about)
and thats all... 2 of the classes are 1 day a week and earliest class is 10:35 2 days a week. awesome.

Andrew said...

hey! man, it's been too long since i posted a comment or a even blog on the internet. i was growing busier and also somewhat anti-technology...even considering buying a used typewriter.

Jimmy - i may have said this before, but i totally recommend reading any books by Noam Chomsky. He knows international relations and foreign policy very well.The book I read (but haven't finished) is called: What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World.

Also, for those interested, I get my news by podcast, from this site: www.democracynow.org
It's hosted by Amy Goodman and is one of the only national radio/TV news show free of all corporate underwriting. Yay for independent journalism.

Speaking of which, I'm a writer for "Perspectives", a bilingual Chinese/English newspaper at my school. However, my 2 articles have yet to be published. (I'll brag about it once they are).

my courses for next term will probably be:
-Intensive Intermediate Chinese
-Korean Cinema
-Visual Arts: Drawing/Painting Part 2

after that, i'm done with my electives and all my general ed. requirements.

lastly...i may be going on exchange to Beijing or Shanghai, China, from September 2009...for 1 year. And i'm planning a trip to Japan & South Korea for the spring/early summer.

andy's expected graduation year: 2010/2011

Andrew said...

Bender's Game - I just watched it. But before I say anything else...your thoughts?

Xtian said...

Andy-

I liked Benders Game. I thought it was better than 'Beast but not as good as 'Big Score. I love it when they wrap in past episodes or give a big revelation, in this case where dark matter comes from. Except that I dont think it quite fits 100%. The movie suggests that Nibbler had no idea who Leela and Fry were when he first meets them, but that conflicts with The Why of Fry when Fry travels back in time and Nibbler tells him they will meet up in the future.

I really liked Bender imagining the real world as fantasy (a la Johnny Bravo). A Lord of the Rings spoof is a little out dated, but it worked well enough. They had a fresh take on the "I am your father" line which I thought was neat and is hard to do.

The infomercial in Fry's hallucination was really out of place and long. Very family guy-ish.

Leela's shock collar was an underutilized tool to me. I really liked it but I was waiting for it to really pay off and be meaningful to the story.

Kind of an abrupt ending, I think there some loose ends I wanted closure on.

Overall it felt like a movie, was consistently funny, and had a lot of call backs to other episodes. Thumbs up.

Andrew said...

Christian-

I agree with most of your thoughts on the film.

Bender's Big Score had the great "Box Network" sequence.(And i forgot that Mark Hamill voiced the Chanukah Zombie!) The Leela, Lars, and Fry story was interesting to me. Al Gore was great. Time travel is hard to do but they did it expertly.And Gold Death Stars with Hermes using his organizational skills is super cool.

I wasn't a big fan of nibblonians and the lack of Zoidberg in this film.

Beast with a Billion Backs has a less interesting plot for Bender. Deathball was a clever idea. Fry's story is pretty good and the main concept of Yivo is clever, funny, yet disturbing. And Zapp is succeeding at sleeping with too many people...like another James Bond. Stephen Hawking is especially great in this film, however.

I was afraid to watch Bender's Game becuz I had high expectations for it. As a LOTR fan, I was looking forward to the spoof even though it's rather dated. I also think "Bender's Game" is an excellent title.

Yes, the informercial was too random and didn't go anywhere. Very unecessary and disappointing. I think they got too focused on writing parts for the voice actors to show off skills. (I had to listen to commentary to understand the Robin Williams reference for Morks/Morcs).

Morbo's Talk Show was a fun moment I could see more of. And the "I'm your father" reference was unexpected for me and totally worked. I applaud the writers for that one.

Shock Collar - I really agree. The only thing we learn is that Leela starts to enjoy pain. This should have been a setup for something.

Seemed like factory-farming, high gas prices, and off-shore drilling were inspirations for this film. It worked well with the dark matter.

Overall, I enjoyed it, it didn't disappoint me. But I know they can do better.