End of Semester Wrap Up: Numero Uno

Now, I have no idea if there will indeed be a sequel to this post come spring, but I figure, Why not? Anywho, The Fall Semester at the Good Ole University of Massachusetts has come to an end. And what a semester it was. Filled with break ups, new relationships, new friends and new classes. Nice and corny right? Well with that out of the way, let me just say this; It was bitchin'.

One of the things I am most proud of is the success of my master plan to get through this semester without books. (Read here.) I haven't gotten all my grades yet, but for the most part I'm thinking I did pretty well. I'll update with that later. Breakdown!

• Food Science: Plan of just getting info from the slides in class worked pretty well. Anything I didn't learn in there was covered in my discussion section. Nothing in the packet would have helped that much, plus not having the packet was a great way to make sure I went to class, which was definitely a bonus. Besides being a bit dull, and sometimes a little gross at times, not too bad of a class.
  
• Greek Myth: That class was awesome. Hands down, best class I've ever taken. Dr. Tuck was a boss, and knew everything I could ever think to ask. I don't know what else to say, I mean I wanted to go to that class every day, and when I couldn't I made sure that I got notes, or worked hard to catch up. Didn't need the book once. I love Greek Mythology, I loved that class, and after I finished the final, I shook Doc Tuck's hand and said a hearty Thank You. Guy said thanks for taking the class, and I took off into the sunset. Okay, not really, but still. Fairytale ending.
• Anthro: Class still straight up sucked. Ended up getting an 86 on the final though which, I can assure you, nearly made me fall off of my chair. The lecture was hardly worth going to, seeing as most of the time I read a book, or did a crossword puzzle in the newspaper, and all the slides containing the minimal information presented ended up online. Only way I ended up doing well was going through the study guide (which was almost as long as the notes I had for the test) and filling in all the information from my words, and from the 20 some odd pages I photocopied out of the book. Seeing as I only needed the words out of the end of the chapters, I copied all of those, along with the review of the chapters, then copied the glossary out of the back of the book. Problem solved. 75 dollar book, meet 3 dollars worth of photocopies. Take that.
• Legal Studies + Honors Seminar: The rules ended up being: Honors Students take 1 of the 2 tests, write 1 of the 2 essays regular length, the other 2 pages longer, skip the final test all together and add 2 pages to the final essay as well. Got a 96 on the 1 test, wrote 1 3 page paper, 2 5 page papers, and showed up. That's it. As class was right before the seminar, I could just pay attention on what I was supposed to read that class, and talk about what we talked about in class after. Easy enough. Don't get me wrong, really interesting class with some cool insights on the Law, but for the most part, the readings were pretty long, we talked about it in class anyway, he gives you the questions for the quizes before the actual quizes, and I didn't want to buy the book. Whenever I needed the book for an essay, I just borrowed it from a friend, or if I had to, the library. (I didn't have to.)
• Astronomy: Not much to say. We just kinda sat there all semester. He talked. Other older kids asked really stupid questions, and every once and a while we went outside. Then we had a quiz on the entire semester at the end which acted as a final. It was 5 fill in the blanks, 8 multiple choice, 2 label the pictures, and 5 short answer.... Yeah. Not bad, but arguably not worth the effort to walk across campus every Tuesday night.

So that's the breakdown. 5 classes, 0 books. Go me right? I'll update this later with grades and stuff so you can weigh how I really did, but for the most part, I'm chalking this one up as a win here team. I urge you to follow in my footsteps, put the money you would spend on textbooks for something more useful, like food and video games. Send schools a message to lower their prices. Study hard, Party harder. Wait. Scratch that, reverse it. Thank you.

I'll update one of these days with my thoughts on some of those sweet, sweet trailers that came out at the VGA's right before finals kicked off, but until then, Merry Christmahanakwanzika and to all a good night.

Update: Got my grades (well most of them) so here's the breakdown for you to decide whether buying books or not is worth it.

Food Science: A-
Legal Studies + Honors Seminar: A
Greek Mythology: A
Anthro: B-
Astronomy: Still Unknown

Looks pretty damn good to me, but hey, you be the judge.

No-Shave November

Yeah, I took a month off, you wanna fight about it? But fo rizzle, my bad. I'm sure you guys were really upset. I could tell by the huge pile of reader mail I got regarding my absence (read: non-existent.)

So what have I done in this past month? Well I did that whole radio training deal. Kevin and myself turned in our program application for next semester, and if everything goes well you'll be hearing our show entitled, Our Sincerest Apologies come the end of January. Did some overnights, some sit ins, and now we play the waiting game.

Also did some classes unfortunately. Food Science is still touch and go, Anthro sucks, and Greek Myth is still bossome. By the way, Boss + Awesome = Bossome. Did that, picked my classes for next semester (going to be awesome), went home for thanksgiving, worked a little bit, and now I'm back for the last two weeks of the semester.

You might notice that nowhere in the above paragraphs did I say "I shaved." Most of the time you could chalk this down to me glossing over the unimportant details. But for the month of November, it's because I didn't shave. No-Shave November has become a tradition among my friends and myself, and we often find that we feel more and more manly as the month goes on.

"But Jim! Your rugged, manly beard must be out of control!"

No need for concern, my rugged, manly beard is fully under control. But I must warn you, some (I) have feared that it is too awesome. I love having a beard. My beard doesn't come in the best, but it is most certainly a beard, it is mine, and I love it. I don't know why, but beards have always just been one of those things that I've aspired to have. That, a hoverboard, a fedora and bullwhip, and the black suit, hat and Ray-Ban combo. Name those three movies and win a prize! (Not really.)

Back to my point. Beards are sweet. In my mind, the only people who don't like beards are guys who can't grow them, chicks, and the New York Yankees. (The hate is implied on that last one.) I mean really, growing a beard is pretty much the most masculine thing a guy can do. Girls can have six pack abs and ripped pecks, but let's face it, that's kind of gross. Barring the occasional bearded lady, you're not going to find a girl out there that can have a sweet beard.

Examples of great dudes in history with beards:

• Abe Lincoln - He had a top hat too, so x2 multiplier on the awesome.
• Heracles - Beard. Club. Lionskin. Three of his most identifiable features. Boom.
  
• Indiana Jones - He was always at his best when he sported the 5 o'clock shadow. Always.
• Confucius - Pretty much the greatest wisdom beard ever.
• Peter Griffin - He housed a family of birds in his beard.
  
• Merlin - I mean really. He's a WIZARD.
• Albus Dumbledore - See above.
  
• Jesus - 'Nuff said.
• Chuck Norris - 'Nuff said.
• Mr. T - I pity the fool who tries to start something with Mr. T. (Sorry, had to do it.)
  

The list goes on. Beards are great, and anyone who says otherwise is straight up lying to your face. So whether you choose to celebrate Octobeard, No-Shave November, Decembeard, Manuary, or some other twist on a month without shaving, go and be proud of yourself. You can grow a beard; You are a Man. And anyone who tells you, "Your beard looks gross!" or "You've got a little food hanging right off the side of your mouth there..." is just jealous, of your manliness.

Boss of the Week: Dr. Tuck

So the other day in my Greek Mythology class, we were talking about Dionysus, drinking, alcohol, and how in the ancient world it was seen as some sort of divine force, and allowed one to transform into someone else. It was interesting, but then my teacher busted out this story:

Back in the 80's, he was out on a date with some girl (who in retrospect wasn't all that hot) and due to the fact he didn't have a car, he ended up being out on the date with this girl and his three friends. He talked about how they loved tequila, got drunk then went to Burger King, (some of you may know it as the B.K. Lounge,) and were standing in line when these three HUGE guys walked in. Not only were they ripped but they also were wearing Gold's Gym wife beaters to prove it. He then told us about his friend Guido, a small guy, with a big personality. Standing at the back of the line, our teacher and this girl were right in front of the three amigos, so Guido goes up to him and whispers loudly enough so that everyone can hear, "Hey, Tony, don't steroids make your nuts shrink?" Immediately our teacher tried to brush it off as he looked around nervously, but it was too late; One of the big boys had overheard.

He looked down at Guido, "Excuse me? What did you just say?"
Guido coyly responded, "I was just wondering if Steroids made your nuts shrink."
With a look of sheer anger, the Big guy asked if Guido would like to take this outside.
Guido obviously said yes, but then to take things further he said, "Tony, back me up."

Now with this on him, he looked at Guido, and then to the girl who obviously said, "Well, what're you going to do?" with that look that said you better get your ass out there. Begrudgingly he went out to the parking lot.

Shortly after, as he was laying on the sidewalk bleeding and bruised, he saw the girl get into the car with the three muscleheads and drive off.

Moral of the story: My Greek Mythology teacher is a Boss. As if being a walking encyclopedia on Greek Mythology, and sharing my views of making fun of those Jesus Lovers who walk around and hand out pamphlets all around campus wasn't enough, he's got hilarious stories like this one. I've probably learned the most in his class so far this year. Plus, it's one of those things where I actually like going to class. And so to you, Dr. Tuck, I award my first Boss of the Week award. Here's to you.

Don't Worry, I'm Still Here or Jim's Master Plan to try and get through this semester without buying a single book.

WHOOOOOOOOO BABY. Sorry bout the delay there folks, but I kinda sorta got swept up in that whole "Hey I'm back at college where I don't have to wake up till 11 every day and can eat and do pretty much whatever I want whenever I want," thing. My bad. But what's important is that I'm still here. For people who care you can find what classes I'm taking right here! Pretty chill right? Anyway, class is awesome for the most part. My Greek Myth teacher has said penis 3 classes running, I get candy for answering questions then stand in a field for an hour in Astro, I don't have to take tests because I'm in the Honors section for my Legal class, I could probably nap through Food Science and Ace it, and Anthro straight up sucks. Other than that everything's good in the hood.

"Now Jim, whats that second title for your blog today all about?" Well, I'm glad you asked. Cause you definitely did. Anywho, so one of the main lessons I've learned from my first year of college was that you don't really need to buy the books that the Professor says that you need. Some classes will put the readings online anyway, others will just review the material in class. There are the occasional few classes where you actually need the book. I might be in two of those classes this semester, but I am gonna do everything I can to get out of that. A few classes last year, I thought I was gonna need the book so I bit the bullet and bought 'em, only to find out that after the first test, where I didn't use the book to study, I could easily not have the book and've been just fine. So I'm going to do everything I can to get out of buying a single book this semester.

Aside from the main, and most pertinent reason, that textbooks are way too overpriced and after you've shelled out your 150 bucks for your one book for one semester, you can return it at the end of the semester for a solid 15 bucks, if that, I've also decided to do this in an attempt to test my theory that you don't actually need a book to do well. That and too see how resourceful I can be. See, I'm pretty sure that they have copies of all the books at the library. The only classes that I think I'm gonna need it for are Anthro and Legal.

• Food Science's book is a packet containing all the slides, I can subvert that by going to class.
• Astronomy, our quiz is on the constellations. And we get candy. Nuff said.
• Greek Myth, I think that I know enough already, and if I take notes and do the readings online I think I'll be fine.

The problem is Anthro. Mainly. Anthro I've got to do a Word list from the end of every chapter due Monday of every week. They're not online, and for the first two weeks, when they were because the professor wanted to be sure everyone got the book, I looked up the words online, and ended up guessing for a solid 25% of 'em. But I'll check the Library and if they've got it in there I'll see if I can't check it out, do all the word lists, or at least a solid few for a while. Besides that, there's Legal. I think I can get away with not getting the book, as most of the questions he asks us are more on our thoughts on the subject than the details of the subject itself. The Honors section is going to be hard though. I think most of those readings are going to be online, and the few that aren't I think I can borrow a friends book. (I've got 3 friends in another section of the class.) So. I think I can do it. I know that Zero of you few out there care, but this is a pertinent subject in my life right now so I thought I'd share. Anyway it was a good way for me to break back into this whole blogging thing. Ight. I'll hit you guys all up on the flipside.
Later hombres!

My Thoughts: Alcohol

First things first, I will not be talking about alcohol and myself, or anything related to that. Perhaps I'll cover that someday down the road.

Moving on, what I want to talk about is the Drinking Age. You hear it everywhere. "21 means 21." Well over in most parts of Europe "21 means you've been drinking for a while now." I personally believe that the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Or if I'm really hoping on hopes, lower.

Reason 1: You can vote, why can't you drink? Would somebody be able to guide me through the logic that an 18 Year Old has enough sense, reason, and maturity to be able to vote for the President of the United States along with other elected officials, as well as serve in the Armed Services, but isn't smart or reasonable enough to handle and willingly imbibe alcohol? I would have to say that's kind of messed up, wouldn't you?

Reason 2: College. Most people either went to college, visited a friend at college, heard about college from a friend, or just sat down and watched Animal House. The point being that everyone, and I mean everyone, knows what goes down at colleges in terms of parties and the like. Kids go off to college, and they become immersed in this subculture of a drinking hierarchy. Everyone goes to school during the week, then Friday night comes along, and everyone goes out to party. (Okay, not everybody, but enough that I make a valid point.) I know at UMass there's some crap statistic floating around on different posters around Campus saying "3 out of 4 UMass Students know how to have fun without Alcohol. Do you?" First of all; Yeah I do. Second, I also know that all four of those students probably know how to have fun with Alcohol too. Plus, that they get this statistics from mandatory classes that have to be taken after students get busted for Alcohol tends to make these statistics invalid or at the very least heavily skewed.

Back to my point though, Parents send their kids off to College knowing that they're going to be all around drinking, and that they're not going to be there to watch over their shoulder. So it's best to let them just drop into this new setting, not knowing how to drink, and let those Frat Boys show them how to do a keg stand, right? Were the drinking age to be dropped to 18, most students tend to turn 18 their senior year of High School, when they still live under their parents Sauron-like gaze, which would allow parents to set a good example. That couple of months should be long enough for parents to give their kids some idea of how to drink responsibly. And if you don't think so, what's wrong with you that you can't sit down for maybe 1 night and tell your kid that drinking too much alcohol is bad for them? All I'm saying is that kids are going to school and most likely will be drinking before the age of 21. If you'd like them to learn how to drink from Frat Boys and other excess drinkers and party goers, keep 21 21. But I think it'd be a lot more reasonable to have kids learn how to drink under their parents than under Brother Buster at Beta Tau Omega.

Reason 3: Not every kid is as dumb as you give them credit for. Lots of people tend to have a big argument about lowering the age as 18 year olds simply aren't smart enough to handle this huge responsibility. Well maybe if you treated it more like a responsibility and less like a privilege, less people would take it for granted. I'll put it like this. Hypothetically, if the age were lowered, maybe even lower than 18, and younger kids were taught that alcohol wasn't to be abused, but used in moderation, and were allowed to experience this in little steps as they got older, they wouldn't just have this idea of alcohol as the forbidden fruit that the American School and Police system make it out to be. I remember back in the day sitting in my 5th grade classroom with the D.A.R.E. officer coming in to tell us all about how drugs and alcohol are bad. He was basically like, "Well Alcohol is horrible and you should never use it ever, but when adults drink it, because we're old and mature and can handle it, it allows us to relax, and have a better time hanging out with friends." Or at least that's what I remember. Given that description, kids would be dumb to not try it to prove how mature they were. If you were to ease kids into it instead of making it out as this Golden Apple, I am positive that it would definitely lose most of the allure that young kids see in it nowadays. It's only a big deal because some jackhole decided to make it a big deal. If you treat your kid like he or she is adult enough to handle it, they'll do everything they can to prove to you that they are in my opinion.

I could go on, but I know that some people have their minds all made up, and will disagree with what I said, as I am set in my way about this. So if anyone cares to write back and explain how flawed I am in my thinking, I would thoroughly enjoy getting into a heated debate about it, but otherwise I've said my thoughts. Jim out.