Monday, November 29, 2010

Bull Between the Horns

I was told to write "a 8-10 page paper on a relevant topic" for my Global Issues class.

Given that I hate this class and would be hard-pressed to do any serious damage to my grade, I'm not entirely gung-hoe about putting a lot of work and effort into this.

So, ticked at all the time we spent in recitation moaning about end of end of the nation state and how horrible this is for culture and communities, I wanted to write about transnationalism and ways that the concept of boarders are being redefined by globalization.

I figured this deserved some categories of ways and settled on economic, technological, ideological (politically), and cultural.

Yeah, super broad.

But I'm too lazy to narrow it down and do the amount of thinking and research that would be required of a narrower topic (say, MNCs specifically, or just focusing on Asia).

So I'm currently banking on arguing myself out of this little situation I've created. My topic isn't too broad. Every other topic is simply too narrow. And until a broader approach is taken, we cannot begin to "realistically" conceptualize the issue of transnationalism and therefore cannot even begin to competently discuss its legal, security, etc. implications.

Basically, I'm taking the bull between the horns. You'll note that two of my categories are the ones most often focused by those arguing for economic globalization and the later two are more often the focus of sociologists/anthropologists in their social theories of transnationalism.

In reality, these are two sides of the same coin but no one seems to be acknowledging it. Rather, the economic school is overlooking social consequences as mere afterthoughts/products of economic change, and the social school is looking highly myopically at cultural implications of grande and mystical economic forces that they often only vaguely refer to.

I shall close the gap! I shall build a bridge! I shall spur discussion and dialogue between the two schools for the sake of a brighter global future!! And I shall spend less time working because of it.

Sound convincing?

Monday, November 22, 2010

Testing, testing, 1,2,3.....

Just seeing if the blog a photo straght from Picasa thing actually works pleasingly.


 
Posted by Picasa

Friday, November 19, 2010

Hmm....

I'm a little worried about the new Parker and Stone "The Book of Mormon" musical. We all know the cynical axe the South Park creators have to grind when it comes to Mormonism, I wouldn't be surprised if this was their most glorious satirical exhibition yet. I'm also fairly sure there's a lot of members of the Mormon world that are fairly concerned about the potential this production has to further taint their already highly misunderstood religion.

I'm further concerned about it being set in Uganda. The missionary rules are a little different there, as they should be, it's not the United States, but a couple of things can be easily taken out of context and misconstrued. I've been told that missionaries have been "advised" to focus their efforts of financially stable families, I can see this easily being interpreted as selective salvation, but it's truly a method to ensure that Africa doesn't become one big Church welfare project. Additionally, there are certain rules pertaining to polygamist families in Uganda, that unless they don't get their facts exactly straight....idk. Again, concerned.

I struggle to understand how people can find so much entertainment in taking such a blasphemous, taunting, stance on something that people live their lives by and hold as sacred. In general. Go spend your time building people up, not tearing them down, there's already enough of that in this world, no need to contribute further for mere sake of amusement.

I'm gonna look into it more so be watching for a follow up post.

Pretty Sure

Pretty sure I officially have everything now.

Like seriously.

I barely know how to handle having so many luxuries in my life.

Just got my new Macbook Air and I'm loving it, I can't tell you how nice it is to have a fully functional laptop again!!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Punctuality

I am not a punctual person.

By any stretch of the imagination.

I don't know when or why I got to be this way, but ever since I remember being responsible for getting myself places at a certain time, I've been late.

I just....don't pressure myself to be there at a certain time. My arrival time margin of error seems to be wider than most (although that would presume that I'm sometimes early so I guess the....positive side of my margin of error?). I'm not bad at estimating traveling time, quite good at it actually, I'm just bad at leaving when I need to leave.

I suppose I've found compounding evidence in the fact that the polychronic cultures I've visited haven't stressed me out in the least. If anything, it was freeing. I'll leave for the bus when I leave for the bus, and it comes when it comes. I'll show up for a meeting somewhere between 4-5 and the meeting will start somewhere between 4-5. This whole snap to it arrive on the dot precisely attitude just doesn't click with me.

And it's not a matter of disrespect. It's not a disregard for the person/place/thing I'm going to. It's not some subconcious avoidance of some place I don't want to be. It's not that I don't take things seriously. I just don't take TIME seriously. It's not you, it's time.

I've been having issues getting to my 9am class that's 20 min away on south campus (if you know me, you're probably cracking up right now because you know I'm physically incapable of waking before 10). The bus is usually late which means I'm usually late, but I've resisted walking because...idk just don't want to walk.

I recently check up on my grade and noticed the toll this has been taking on my grade. I knew I was losing attendance and participation points, but I'm a GREAT participator in class, if not one of the best, so I figured the damage for my showing up 3-8 minutes late for a 120 minute class was minimal.

Nope, my A&P grade is hovering around 60% right now, which means I just landed myself AT MOST a B+ in the class.

Is this fair? I understand that being present in class, for it's entirety, is important. But I mean, it's not like anything happens the first 10 minutes of class. I'm being grades sheerly on the principle of punctuality. Is that important enough to be held back from getting an A(-)? Why on earth is it THAT important?

Apparently my professor for the course, when asked what was up with my grade, remarked along the lines of, "I just don't get it....the kids that are late are usually the ones that sit in the back and don't talk, Cortney is GREAT in class but she's always late....I just don't get it."

Um. WHAT IS THERE NOT TO GET? I'M NOT A PUNCTUAL PERSON AND IT'S NOT AT ALL RELATED TO MY ATTITUDE TOWARDS YOU OR THE COURSE OR THE MATERIAL.

Why on earth is there an assumed correlation there?

Monday, November 15, 2010

Question

If you were a party hardy, sterotypical Greek, above average wealthy, (authority challenging, vandalism inciting, rule breaking, hormonally charged) college freshman, either male or female, what would be sufficient incentive for you to submit daily answers to Community Standards quiz questions posted on my door? Gift cards aren't allowed. An ipod shuffle? Something from student stores of your choosing, like a hoodie? VIP tickets to a basketball game?

Friday, November 12, 2010

Sound Interesting?

This is the (current) introduction for my WMST paper:

To the vast majority of American society today, Mormonism is known as a highly conservative religion, regarded by some as a cult, of polygamists that worship Joseph Smith, get married at 18, have at least 12 children, oppose gay rights and abortion, and most important to this paper, relegate their women to spending their lives within the sphere of the home, ignorant of the outside world and dutifully obeying their husbands.

Within Mormonism, women are championed as those divinely endowed with the capacity for motherhood and are consequently a vital source of nurture and spirituality within the all-important unit of the family. It is their duty to raise and teach their children and thus the future of generations lies in their hands. This responsibility and power is said to be equal to, if not greater than, that of their priesthood holding husbands, with whom they are equal partners before the Lord and equally potentially worthy of eternal Godship in the afterlife.

It can be seen that there is some difference of perspective here. Instructed to be “in the world, but not of it” Latter-Day Saints have long embraced their identity as a “peculiar people” that might not always be understood in context of the current social trends. In a world where “women’s lib” is crusading for equality among the sexes through things like reproductive rights and greater employment opportunities, the traditions of Mormonism are ever requiring a unique paradigm to understand a culture that promotes gender equality through chastity and housewives.

The relationship between Mormonism and society at large is not static. Rather, as society changes, so to must Mormonism make clear, and frequently adjust, its stances on certain issues. A gospel of living doctrine and modern day Prophets, Mormonism is constantly in flux and thus as society changes, it perpetually is reestablishing it’s attitudes towards women. Yet, the common source of this re-establishment is always, and always will be, through the lens of the family, said to the key unit of society and the building block of nations. Thus, it cannot be said that as society has “progressed,” Mormonism has simply stayed stagnant. No, this would be altogether too simple. Yet, it can be said that as society moves farther away from the traditional nuclear family, the gap between Mormonism and society will be ever widening and thus increasingly difficult to bridge.

As this gap widens, a valid question emerges: can a Mormon be a feminist? Given that there are a number of Mormon women that are self-declared feminists, several of them housed at the church sponsored Brigham Young University, the answer seems to be yes. Yet, this raises three key questions. Firstly, what characterizes the self-declaration of a Mormon as a feminist? Second, what diversity of opinion exists among Mormon feminists? And third, in what ways is, or isn’t, Mormon feminism compatible with current “mainstream” feminism? In order to full explore these questions, a groundwork for understanding women in context of Mormonism must first be established and a series key topics relating to women in Mormonism will be discussed and critiqued according to multiple responses of Mormon feminists. Following this, will be a discussion of the experiences of Mormonism with feminism, both historical and personal, in an attempt to better understand the ways in which Mormon feminists identify themselves and how the church has responded to this. Lastly, will be a discussion of how Mormon feminism compares to current trends in feminism.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Rant

School sucks right now. I feel like I'm getting overly slammed for little things left and right and it's costing me dearly and my grades are a mess.

In WHAT universe does being 6 minutes late for a 120 minute class (whereafter I very actively participated) warrant losing HALF my participation points for the day?

In what universe does skipping 6 out of 33 problems on a problem set (they weren't any harder or longer than the others) warrant a BELOW failing grade for the assignement?!

Ugh. Gr. Argggggg. afkjadsfalkjsdf F U school.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Tattoo

Random thought: but I really don't get why people say, "I want a tattoo that says this jslfkjslfksfjs and then I want it in french/italian/sanskrit/hebrew/whatever language they don't speak"

1. Words on your body should be a language you understand

2. If you so choose a language other than your native tongue, it should be one that has personal meaning to you

3. The combination of the phrase and the language should have some sensical connection. I would probably go so far as to argue that it should only necessitate the use of another language if it is a colloquial phrase IN THAT LANGUAGE. Picking a phrase in english and then translating at whim often seems to take away so much of the meaning, both literal and sentimental.

For example: a lot of people like "joie de vivre" it sounds close to english and thus is easy to understand, the joy of life (fyi, joie is NOT pronounced joy, but closer to "jeu-wah"). Um, yeah, you probably won't hear that coming out of a french person's mouth any time soon. I feel like a lot of people use this in the sense of saying something IS their joie de vivre (which would more accurately be their raison d'etre), or a way to remember that life is joyful. Connotations translating, and its closer to "taking joy in life," relishing it. That's not how most people use it. Fail.

That's all.

Last Semester as an Undergrad

After an incredibly close brush with having to extend graduation through summer, everything finally fell into place. I even have time for a "just for fun" class for the first time since I've been in college (although, I'm liable to drop it for sake of cutting back on work).

As things stand right now I'm in:

-Advanced International Economics (which is going to suck bc I don't like intl econ, but it was the only 500+ course offered next semester). And it's at 8am MWF. Fml.

-Politics of African Culture: this double counts for my major and my visual arts, and should be really interesting. Or really soft sci BS and dissapointing. We'll see.

-Deductive Logic

-Yoga!

-Political Psychology (my "fun" class)

-And I WILL be in some sort of BS "get the requirement done" art class, but registration is closed to non-majors until after regular registration, so I have to wait and see what scraps are left over. Fingers crossed for photography, but it's highly unlikely.


So, overall, not too shabby. Not entirely super easy classes, it's only marginally lighter than my average semester. Underloading wouldn't have been an option anyway since it screws up my grant money so....just another semester.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Fortunate

I thought about titling this "Unexpected fortune" but then I realized that "unexpected" is sort of implied in the meaning of "fortune" given its association with luck.

And then I thought about titling it "fortuitous" but then realized that implied something happening entirely by chance, which isn't the case; a series of predictable events, had I thought about it enough, led to what I'm about to talk about, but because I didn't think about it enough, it was unexpected. It's a pleasant surprise and thus rather fortunate, but not at all entirely due to random chance, and hence not at all fortuitous.

Words are interesting.

Anyway.

I'm trying to sort out the mess that is my potential schedule for next semester. It's a...well.....clusterfuck. To say the least. I've got about 7 things up in the air that are all partially contingent on each other (the messy side of double counting) and thus well...its just a mess.

I'm nervous every time I hear my phone get an email because I'm afraid it will be another professor turning down another request for course approval for a particular requirement I'm trying to frantically fulfill. (ranting moment: you'd think two summers researching, one summer interning, and two semesters volunteering for a non-profit would get my experiential education requirement fulfilled, but it seems all to indicative of my life that....no, of course not.)

But the good part of the story is that I am now in need of a humanities course. I'll be taking probably 3 philosophy classes next semester (leaving me curious if I'm close to an accidental minor) so I was looking to mix it up a little and see what the english department had to offer.

Come to find out, they have a literary arts (very humanities) course in "life writing"

COOL!

So, hopefully, fortunately (but not fortuitously!) I will be able to take a course in the art of writing a life story next semester. Which will be very interesting to think further about how and why people share their stories the way they do, the implications of the way the story is told, and be able to develop a greater understanding of how to tell my story.

Nice, very nice.