Profs Say the Darndest things...

So, first of all, I will point out that this picture was taken in the Inn (our school's bar) on Cowboy and Cowgirl night. I know, Sam and I don't look terribly country, but we did know all the words to the songs...take that, posers.

Now, today's subject is: kooky things that profs say.

Item A: a priori (which means something like 'taken before the fact' or something...I dunno)

All of my professors mention this, and all of them pronounce it differently. This makes me laugh.
Byrne: "Eh Pry-or-eye"
Grenier: "Ah pree-or-EE"
Harrison: "ah pry-OR-ee"

...at least they all agree on how the 'or' part SOUNDS.

Item B: Grenier's crazy french idioms.

Grenier is French, and sometimes directly translates idioms from french into english. Here are some favourites:

"By their eyeballs and ears"
"That is little soup" (def: not important)
a "robot portrait" of someone (def: a generalization)
"late-minute" (probably a mangled version of last-minute)

Item C: Brown's terrible analogies/random sentences.

Our teacher, Douglas Brown, has some VERY odd stories and analogies....and a lot of them don't make sense. Today he said that something was dangerous, "like drinking while drunk". Uh...I do that all the time. I'm definitely in trouble.

Other things I learned from Douggie Brown?
-America has 49 states...uh..no, wait...50.
-Politics is all about tents. Who's in them, who's not, how big yours is.
-On that note, size doesn't matter, and length doesn't either. (maybe he was talking about essays?)
-The bigger the cleaveage, the bigger the difference. (This one was delivered with a wink and a nudge, but I have no idea how it's innuendo at all...I mean, sure, cleavage is sexy, but that just makes no sense.)
-Acadians hid in the woods for most of Canadian history.

Item D: Frank Harrison's Self-Depricating/Everyone-depricating humour.
My british History of Political thought teacher is funny. I love his class. One day a kid had commented on his talking about death a lot, and he said something like:

"Of course I talk about death more...I'm closer to him, inn-I? (that's how he talks)
He stops by every night for tea and a nice chat"

He also turns all moments into whatever we were learning at the time. Like people coming in late being subject to DOXA, the realm of opinion. (It is their opinion that they were late for a good reason)
or one day he was bleeding through his shirt and he said "oh! pain! my atoms are colliding quite painfully! get me some drugs!" (We were talking about Epicureanism...the philosophy of maximizing your pleasure and minimizing your pain.)

Anyway, that's all for today. I will have something to say about my other two profs at some point, I'm sure. (the girls, interestingly)

-Nat

P.S. I don't know why Harrison was bleeding through his shirt. It was on the back of his forearm. Your guess is as good, and probably as scandalous as mine.

Inside the Mind of a Bored Student...

Well, Today I thought I'd Share with you what it's like to be Natalie in her most boring class. The sheet basicaly speaks for itself, but you're going to want to click on it to make it bigger. My favourite is the quote by Dr. Byrne in the bottom there...that was right out of nowhere.

A brief breakdown of how I take notes: When I'm bored, I doodle. For this particular class, Byrne handed out our essay outlines then proceeded to read it verbatim for like, half an hour. Hence the abundance of doodles in the top half, with some essay tips sprinkled in there for good measure. The margins, I use for doodling some more, and for things I think of that I want to write down but that aren't relevant to the class entirely. Then at the bottom is where she started to teach again...our topic is now the Euthryphro...or something.

Enjoy.
-Nat

Midterms: My Humps (Dedicated to Tito)

It's midterm time again, and I forgot how much any examination period at school really sucks. Like, REALLY REALLY sucks.

I have all my midterms in one week, so it's like this one week from hell where fire and brimstone (whatever that is...you'd think I'd have learned about it by osmosis from being here in religiousville USA, but no) flame down upon me, and ADD is my new best friend. Every time I sit down and try to learn anything I get antsy and distracted after about five minutes. Very productive, Natalie.

Today was probably my worst day, which is a comforting thought since it wasn't all that bad. I had my Violence midterm today, which I anticipate being my hardest, content-wise. I also presented my ECON presentation today with Marc, which wasn't that hard aside from Marc is like, super-brilliant and so I was like "holy crap, I have to actually DO some work." It reminded me of Colony to Nationhood. (I only hope that this one didn't "nearly kill" Marc. Anyway, we lost the debate. Effing public opinion...but we did impress the prof who liked our arguments. So, in conclusion I sold my soul for an A on an ECON project, by debating FOR two-tier health care. And God probably killed some kittens.

I have three more midterms coming up, but they shouldn't be all that hard...there's Econ, where the prof is pretty easy, History of Political Thought (which will be multiple choice...woo!) and Canadian Politics-the wild card of the bunch. It could be easy OR hard, I have no idea. BUT today was the hump day for me...got all the hard stuff over with. (Hence the "My Humps" dance in honour of that fact)

Anyway, that is all for now.
Aside to my mother: I'm doing well and eating real meals, have no fear.
Love Nat

P.S. If this sounds jumbled, my mind is fried, so I apologize.