January 19, 2009

I have officially started the second semester of my sophomore year. While my classes don’t coalesce perfectly like last semester (admit it, you enjoyed reading about my medieval adventures), they are amazing nonetheless. My first class, mathematics and art, is actually quite fascinating. I know, I know. you probably never expected to see me write that I’m taking a math class. But, I needed a math credit, and this class is awesome. We’re analyzing the mathematical structures of various art movements, and how different mathematical applications make each movement different from the other. Farwell, cosine and tangent equations! Hello, Polykleitous and Raphael! I’m also taking Fr. Vodoklys’ Early Christian literature, which is translating St. Augustine’s The Confessions. Yes, dear reader, that book is back! Just when you thought you were free…muwaha. Anyway, I feel like I’ve analyzed the work enough in English, and I thought that I should tackle it in the original Latin. Plus, St. Augustine has a beautiful command of Latin (as he should – he was the Roman emperor’s grammarian and rhetorician!), and much of his language’s beauty is lost in translation. I’m also taking Professor Mulrooney’s Tolkien seminar. Now, before you all think that I’m really crazy, I promise you that I have never dressed up as any character from Lord of the Rings. Okay, so maybe I have. But that’s not the point. The point is that we’re studying Tolkien in an academic light, which is amazing. It’s intensive reading (we’re reading everything that Tolkien wrote), and I’m one of the youngest in the class. Is it going to be a challenge? Most certainly yes. Am I beyond excited? Most certainly yes. My last class is my Honors seminar, the Ideological Destruction of Art. We’ll be studying the destruction of art in ancient times, whether it was for political or religious reasons, and the class will culminate in an independent research project in which we explore a modern example of the destruction of art. I think I might be leaning toward the French Revolution. But, that paper isn’t due for a while, so I’ll think about it later! So, while I’m going to be reading a whole lot this semester, I am so excited for all of my classes. Also, at the conclusion of this semester, I will be finished with all of my core requirements!

My first regular shift at Kimball was this morning. Most of my workers from last semester returned to work the same shift. I like to think that it’s a reflection of how I’m a captain. Of course, I do realize that it is based upon their schedules. This first day of work was so much better compared to the first day last semester. Unlike the beginning of last semester, all of the workers know how to complete every task. Scarily enough, we’re now beginning the captain selection process for next year. A couple of captains (myself included) already have lists of workers that we think would make great captains. And all of the Kimball magic begins there.

In other (random) news, it is freezing here. No, literally. It is freezing here. It is a whopping 5 degrees, and it’s supposed to drop down to -2 during the night. Last January was most certainly not this cold. This is Eskimo weather! I guess that it’s better than being distracted by nice weather, but still. I don’t think my studies would take a beating if the temperature rose into the double digits, at least!

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