--Mr. Burns

On second thought, it looks like I'll be dropping Urban Studies 101 after all. I consulted with another professor of mine, who noted that I described the Urban Studies professor as "a complete idiot" before going on to a longer, more exhaustive list of negative attributes possessed by the guy, and noted my overall level of frustration, cross-referenced it with complaints I'd voiced about my Philosophy 101 professor, and asked whether I thought I'd be learning anything in the course. I responded in the negative, and, given that, well, why not drop it?

The only answer to that is that I could use the three credits, especially as it would give me the leeway to drop one course in my final two semesters, which is a luxury I probably won't have otherwise.

On the other hand, pitting a course I know isn't worth it, versus the possibility of running up against a worse course later... well, I can see how that could be kinda silly.

I had thought the answer was "no."

On looking over the English Dept. class schedule, I realized that the answer was "maybe."

English, you understand, is the only department in which I would really have a prayer for getting into a course at this point. We're already in the second week of classes, after all; officially speaking, registration's already closed. So getting into a course elsewhere would be pretty unlikely. Whereas, in English, while it would be far from a given, I have the advantage of knowing nearly everybody in the department, even if that's only on the level of occasionally nodding to them in the hallway.

Anyway, it turns out that the one remaining course I need to complete my English major is being offered on Tuesdays and Fridays. By a professor whom I'm favorably disposed towards, although I know her least well of the three most recently hired by the department.

It's not the way I wanted to take the course. I greatly prefer classes that meet once a week, rather than twice. And I've already missed the first three classes. And it would mess up my English Department working schedule; I'd been scheduled to work 12-5 PM on Tuesdays, but this would knock out the first two hours. (Hmmm. I wonder if I could keep that time block, but switch it to Mondays or Thursdays? I should ask my boss, I think.) And I'd rather not have a course on Fridays. And it would require actual work, and I was kinda trying to take it relatively easy this semester...

But it has much to be said for it.

I am terrible at this sort of thing. I'm not remotely visual, and I usually resist generalizations like the plague. So while I see the point of the exercise, let's just say that my first attempt at this was a dismal failure.

But, hopefully, I'll get better at it by the end of the semester.

In the forty or so submissions I read through, I gave a large bunch of 0's, a large bunch of .5's, a bunch of 1's, a large handful of 1.5's... and one 2. But, not to worry, there is some redundancy built into the system, as all of us (and one or two others) will be rating all the submissions. So instead of each submission being subject to the whims of one harsh critic, they're instead subject to the whims of at least five harsh critics. (We're all pretty picky, it turns out. I am deliriously happy about that. Perhaps we shall succeed in holding the line, and put out a solid, high-quality journal this year.)

But there are still more to read and evaluate, and some of our better writers are finally going to be submitting stuff over the next couple of days. Anyway, we meet for Round Two this coming Tuesday night. (I have been assured that somebody will tape Buffy for me.)