Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The coolest thing we did that day was attend our first Kresge Core Course lecture. Our Provost, Juan, is quite the Charismatic Chilean (that’s probably his username). Yes, he is from Santiago, and man, can he put together a lecture. A real mind-trip. He basically deconstructed language, what with signifiers (words) and the signified (ideas) and everything inbetween. We talked about the concept that language is the power to communicate ideas, and in the 21st Century, where ideas and information have become a commodity, those who produce language produce wealth. So in effect, he was telling us that to master language was the key to financial success. In realistic terms, it doesn’t mean too much, but I think there is something to be learned there. Who knows, I’m just a freshman, eh?
The high-point of his lecture, in my opinion, was when he showed the audience a picture of South America turned upside down on the map of the world. It meant a lot more, you know? Just because it was above everything, it gave it a certain kind of… ‘importance’. Language does shape culture. Interesting.
Thursday
Ate breakfast quickly and hurried over to our discussion class for the Kresge Core Course. We played a name-game, ate cookies, looked over the syllabus with the professor’s aid, Kristina, and then discussed Juan’s lecture of the day before. Like I said, I love living with intellectuals, and there are a lot of them here… but some of them can be a bit much. Endless debates on one sentence in the lecutre… Other than that, it was great, other than the fact we were all burdened with 60 pages to read and a two-page essay due on Tuesday. *cough* I’m still not done with the reading.
The rest of that day was filled with my Gender and Technology class, where we watched Michael Jackson’s Scream music video and Scorpio Rising. Watch it on YouTube and tell me what you think. The professor is cool, though.
Friday
My first lecture in Astrobiology: Life in the Universe. This is going to be a blast. I love exoplanets, even though its just because I love science fiction, which the professor does not. We watched Donny Darko. Yeah, its a classic studenty film, but its interesting. Gotta love that psychological fragility you feel when the credits roll and no one wants to be the first to break the silence and turn on the lights… you’re stuck in that wormhole still, you just don’t realize it until you see it again.
There we go, I’ve caught up. I feel proud to be a good steward of my memories. Let’s see what tomorrow holds.
