Standard Disclaimer: "If you don't like the way I do thing here, don't gripe and whine behind my back. Just tell me face to face, I'm open minded. Then go upstairs and pack. The door's thataway." (aka: if you don't want to get this, tell me)
Well, I know so many of you must be upset that you've had to go more than two weeks without my updates. (ha!) How did you survive, right? I'm back at school now and just got connected to Resnet this weekend. In case you don't know, Resnet is our school's computer network system for the dorms. Well, for those of you following my saga of being connected, it turns out that they had me hooked up in room 125, which is where I was last year. This year I'm in 118. So....instead of just getting a long cord and bothering people down the hall, I had them turn on the right switch for me.
First off, welcome my mother to the "discussion". Well, you can't really, since I blind carbon this to everyone. But she's here now. Yay!
Also, per a suggestion from TONY (like that?), I am going to start categorizing the sections. I know that I tend to ramble and talk about everything under the sun, so for those of you with busy schedules you'll be able to skim headings and if there's a section you don't care much about, you can skip it more easily. See, aren't I thoughtful? ;-) As usual, I'll go through the news in my life, and then get to the lastest added section of the "Shawn's Thoughts" (I promise, I'll have a better name by the time I get there tonight).
As previously stated, I am finally back in school. Been here two weeks now and loving it. One week of classes done. I nearly went broke the first week since I got here so early (spending all my money on eating; the caf isn't open and meal tickets are available yet!). But at least this time I expected it. The Big Sib retreat was fun, but I think I'm starting to feel withdrawal at not playing I Never yet. I do love that game. Maybe at the Fall ASG Picnic.
I have four very cool little sibs. Two of them did the scavenger hunt with me last Saturday. We have some very good pictures. My favorite, I think, is when we were pimping in the Goodwill store. There were five of us, three males, two females. Well, the three of us found these ugly green sports jackets there. Kait and Deanna went to the women's section and found some stuff of their own. Then we all added the gaudy ties and had our picture done wearing this stuff. It was so bad we said we were just pimpin' in the goodwill.
Anyway, as for classes. I started the semester with 18 hours. I was in an english class (English 485), Creative Writing--Fiction. Now everyone sit down, because the next part should shock you if you know me well.
I dropped the class.
The morning after the first meeting.
I hated it. It's a 3 hour class that meets 6-9 on Tuesdays (that's not the bad part, I was cool with that). The teacher comes in the first meeting and the 2nd thing out of his mouth is "Let me give you a list of reasons why you should drop this course". Now, most of you know me. Someone says something like that and I just want to step up to the challenge. Which at first I did. But then the class progressed and I learned a few things:
1) Our teacher is a bitter, arrogant old man.
2) The best way to improve one's writing is to write (this I've already learned). But in this class, we would only be writing two significant pieces in the whole course. The rest of it would be about four critiques (of other people's work) a week and anywhere from two to six story reviews (from supposedly "great" authors).
3) The man blindly worships Earnest Hemmingway and doesn't seem inclined to dissenting opinion on the matter, which I held. I see this as a potential trend for later.
4) He was indirectly bashing any kind of genre writing.
So, I decided that I have a busy enough semester ahead of me. I was taking this course for fun, not to prove to some old windbag that he's wrong; I don't need the added stress. So I dropped that class like last week's garbage which put me to fifteen hours.
That afternoon I get a call from Dr. Smith, the choral director. I've been in Chorale the past year and a half with her and have really enjoyed it. However, due to a scheduling conflict with a chemical engineering class I couldn't do Chorale this semester. This upset both of us a good deal. Well, she called me and left a message saying "I know you can't do Chorale, but we really need another Tenor in Madrigals and I was wondering if you were free then and would be interested." So after my last class that day I went to talk to her and found out that the time Madrigals meets is open for me. They had three sopranos, three altos, and one tenor and bass each. It couldn't have been better. So I signed up right there from the computer in her office, putting me back up to seventeen hours.
So, it looks like I get my creative outlet afterall and I get to sing, which is great. Our only performance for Madrigals is the Madrigal Feast at the start of December, so it won't conflict with anything else! Added bonus!
This is my third year peer mentoring for the Honors 1010 (formerly 101) class. I absolutely love doing it and I love working with Dr. Barnes, too. Well, this year may be a "fun" challenge. There are 21 students in the class (not unusual with her section). But instead of the usual four peer mentors we're supposed to have, we have only one and a half. No, I do not make one and a half peer mentors due to my size and no, the other peer mentor is not just short and that's why she's half. Lu is half a peer mentor becuase she's only there part of the time (due to other conflicts). So....this means a heavier work load for me in dealing with the students. In a way (a very masochistic sort of way), I'm actually looking forward to it. It will give me a chance to get to know all of them really well instead of just four or five. But that also means a LOT of position papers to read in November. Hmm....then again, maybe I'll begin to find patterns in HOW these people put them together....hmm....
About an hour ago I had eight of my toenails painted. It was just a random thing. A friend of mine upstairs said she would do it and I agreed, having nothing better to do and wanting to do something different that wasn't quite as permanent as a tattoo or piercing (besides, those hurt and nail polish doesn't). So I now have purple toes, alternating light purple and deep purple. Unfortunately, I just realized that I don't think I want to go to the fitness center (and swim) with them like this, so they may not last as long as I'd hoped, but until I remove the color, my toes are a separate entity in their own right. Mitch thinks I should name them, but I don't know....that may be too hard to remember.
Last year Tyler and I had this idea to do a barbershop quartet. Unfortunately, we couldn't get more than the two of us into it. Well, he brought it up again recently and Adam was around and liked it, so we're now up to three. Then this afternoon I ran into John (the other Fine Arts Committee co-chair with me) and mentioned it to him and he said he would be interested in doing the other bass part. So we now have a quartet! Which is really cool. I'm going to talk to Dr. Smith (see above) about getting some music to work from and if we work fast enough, we may be able to perform a few things at the ASG Ball in a few weeks. I think this will be a lot of fun. I've never done something like this before, so I'm really excited. We'll probably also perform at the Honors Rectial Night (if we last that long, ha!). Oh, and I think we're calling ourselves The B-Sharps (get it? So many levels).
Maybe it's the night talking, but I like that name. Shawn's Abuse Corner. Unless I change my mind in the morning, that's what I'll call my "topic" section.
So, this week boys and girls, our topic is Sex Ed. Let's see if I can stay awake long enough to finish this. The Shrub (this is my nice name for our current president), if I recall correctly, originally wanted to teach just abstinance in sex ed in all high schools. Whether or not this is true or even still current is moot, it is a jumping board and I intend to attack this position, not make a case for or against his platform. :-)
So, the idea of just teaching abstinance. Supporters of this claim several backings. It should be the parent's job to teach their kids about sex. If we teach more than abstinance it will encourage sexual activity. Minors are too young to talk about this stuff. Am I missing something? (probably)
Now, I could argue the points of sexual inhibition in this country and the stigma we apply to sex, but that is a whole other ball of wax, so we'll save it for later. As you can probably guess, I am very much against teaching only abstinance in school sex ed classes. I do agree that parents should be responsible for teaching their children the basics (and maybe even details) of sex. But it's unreasonable to go that route entirely. Just as not all parents are great at teaching their kids math or english or whatever, some parents just may not be good at teaching sex. A qualified instructor would make sure that all important aspects are covered and is better equiped to answer questions.
But aside from that, let's look at the logic of teaching solely abstinance. When you avoid teaching all aspects of something, you will almost always breed fear of the subject. Well, you breed ignorance and ignorance breeds fear. The problems you run into are plenty. When someone is ready to have sex, they may not know what to do. Aside from confusion and potential embarrassment, there are potential risks involved as well. Aside from physically hurting someone (as with all physical activity, you can get hurt), there is the risk of disease to consider. There is also the risk of pregnancy if you don't understand how to use proper birth control practices (and even with them, there are risks; I think a lot of people assume that because they use a condom they are free from risk, which is not true; this needs to be better explained).
Let's face it, no matter how many times you tell someone "don't have sex", there are some people that are just going to do it. And nothing you do or say will stop them. A well informed individual is a safer individual. If they have only been told "don't have sex" they have a high risk of getting hurt (as discussed above). But if properly eductated, there is a better chance they'll remember something they learned and at least use some precautions.
Hmm....I could probably rant more, but I'm really running out of steam. I need sleep. I hope I don't have too many glaring logic holes up there. Feel free to comment, and again, tell me if you want them posted so I know if I can add them to my website with this email.
It's been fun. Let me know how things are going with you all. Goodnight! (btw, TONY: it took me about thirty minutes, if you take out all the distractions I had)