by on January 9, 2008

British Literature Is a Relief, After All

oldbooks.jpgI think I’ve struck a goldmine of a professor with my Brit Lit instructor. She is a Ph.D. with a care and concern about keeping people interested in reading. One of her emphases is that we understand the works that we read (which is almost all poetry [gag] and one novella [Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]) and concentrate on the historical significance of the Romanic “proper” and Victorian periods with heavy emphasis on biographical information on the authors themselves.

It appears that there won’t be all too much reading after all, and the exams will be deeper material that builds upon the weekly quizzes about the biographical information from our trusty copies of the Norton Anthology. We’ll see how tomorrow’s Expository Writing class goes.

Filed Under: College, Personal Tagged With: , , , ,
by on January 9, 2008

Spring 2008 Semester Begins Today

USF Bulls LogoClasses begin for me today. Campus opened back up Monday, but I’m only taking a course on Wednesday nights and Thursday nights. It looks like a 17 week semester, with a week off for Spring Break. I have my syllubi for both courses and have several things to dread… but I’m still optimistic, or trying to be, at least.

  • I despise literature courses in general. I’m a slower reader than I should be for how much reading I do. I’m more of a scanner and skimmer and only enjoy reading what interests me because I’m slower at it. I’m pretty much a 60-page per hour fun reader, and it drops like a rock if it’s complicated or I’m not enjoying it.
  • There are no out of class writing assignments for my literature class, which happens to be British Literature 1780-1900. /scream Everything is in-class quizzes and exams and participation.

Ok, that list wasn’t so bad, but it’s daunting to me, nonetheless. My Expository Writing course will be mostly fun because I love to write, but it appears that the text is one of those typical liberal arts devices to mind flay the last remaining shred of one’s youth and optimism about our wonderful culture and country. It’s about (seriously) “unraveling the myths that make up American Culture today:” Freedom, Family, Equality, Opportunity.

That’s disgusting! In order to write what I believe rather that spew the view of the textbook, I’ll have to cover all of my bases and not sound like an idealistic floosie. Who doesn’t like a challenge?

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by on January 8, 2008

Ben Moffitt: Unwanted Attention

Ben Moffitt - USFOracle.comIt was quite a year for my USF Bulls football team. They rose week after week in the rankings at the beginning of the year with one stunning victory after another, landing them in the most dangerous rank all year: 2nd. Second place switched teams so many times this year, it made casual fans’ heads spin. USF, sadly fell quickly after reaching #2. Along with their ranking, one of their stars fell was well.

He was the hero of many early moments in the season. Ben Moffit married his high school sweetheart, while still in high school, and got a scholarship to play ball at USF. As a senior, he got a lot of attention for his dedication to the team by driving over an hour each way to class and practices, never once being late or missing a team gathering. They interviewed his wife in the stands and on the sidelines a number of times to highlight his personal achievements both on and off the field. The media played up the”Father” “Student” “Husband” “All-star” as much as they could. Even the New York Times jumped on the hefty USF bandwagon in late September.

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