Is the Flue One of the Seven Liberal Arts?

Aaaarrrrghhh! Another science test today, and that means more hours of trying to memorize names and events - a task that I am all too willing to admit becomes harder with each passing year. I am at the time of my life where memories are carefully being screened for retention purposes due to limited disk space, and sometimes my mind will chose to forget Paracelsus, an alchemist who thought that everything was poisonous if not taken in moderation. Sure, I remember that now, but ask me about 2:30 or so. I am sure to say Para-who?

I didn't do too poorly on the last exam, and he promises to drop the lowest score from our three exams, but still - I wish there was an easier way.

Last night was our last Algebra Workshop class and we had our final. Algebra is funny in that it is one of those classes that is always building on what you already know, so once you master finding the X variable, finding Y is no problem. You have to remember what you already learned to progress - but not so in my History of Science class. The people we learned about for the first test will not be on the second test. Sure, it's true that science builds on prior science, but when it comes to remembering who contributed what, those connections become moot.

I wonder what these fellows would say about the flu shot? I am sure Paracelsus, an alchemist, would think it a good idea - if the dose is not too strong. I've already had the regular flu shot, and today I get the H1N1 vaccine available at Bard for students and staff. Good thing too. There are a lot of sick people on campus with coughs. It's rampant! One dorm was already quarantined this semester. I guess that's what happens when people live close together and forget the basic domestic skill they were taught as children. I am not taking any chances. I am getting my shots and washing my hands - lots. Have you gotten the shots? Why or why not?

Bard is a Liberal Arts college and I do have to know the seven liberal arts (from medieval times) for my test, but I don't recall influenza being one of them . . . let's hope that is not on my test today - or anywhere near me!

Hey Guy!

These days I wonder if my own husband has to read my blogs to find out what's going on with me lately. Then I started feeling guilty that I had only posted once this week and now he wouldn't know what's happening!

Okay, it's not quite that bad. We had a nice dinner at a local restaurant Tuesday night after we voted and before I stayed up way past his bedtime to read Othello for my Shakespeare class. I didn't have the heart to wake him up the next morning at 7:30 before I left for work either. He looked so peaceful and cozy. Last night was another late night. I stayed after classes at the library for a few hours reading and studying for an exam next week in History of Science. When I got home, two of his favorite television shows were on so I let him watch them in peace and only interrupted him during commericals.

He probably doesn't miss me all that much anyway! There are plenty of reminders. Like the leaves that I've not been able to help rake, and the food shopping that he's been doing for me and the clean basket of laundry he finds at the bottom of the stairs that means I am asking him to carry it upstairs. There are those dust balls tumbling down our hallway too. Besides, I am sure he notices that my side of the bed is messy those days I go to bed after him and wake up before him. Doesn't he?

When I do suggest that maybe I am away from home just a little too much, or when I am home and I comment on how much I can't do around the house these days, he just reminds me that it's only temporary and to look at the big picture. A few dust balls are so worth the effort, and he admits that he can always tell when I finally come to bed. Besides, it's fun to tell him I haven't seen him in a while so why doesn't he meet me for lunch? It's like having a weekly date with handsome stranger!

So Guy, if you are reading this to find out what my plans are for the next few days, here they are: I have a paper to write for my Shakespeare class, study, study, study and them some reading, reading and more reading. Can't promise I'll get much done around the house, but at least I'll be home. Thanks for being so supportive.

It's quite possible I'll being having lunch with that handsome stranger today! Yay!

To Live or Not to Live on Campus, That is the Question

I really like my time on campus two full days a week. Bard is such a beautiful campus, the trees are all ablaze with fall color, and there is always something going on, but lately there seems to be more going on the days I am not there.

Let's see . . . Paper due Monday at noon in a basket on the professor's door? Sorry, can't do that. I work, but I can email a copy and drop a hard copy off later that night. Swine flu vaccine clinics Monday and Wednesday at lunch. Errrr, sorry. Can't do that either. Will you plan any for Tuesday or Thursday? Swing dance lessons on Friday nights from 7-10 p.m. Dang! I can't do that either, and I am surely way too tired by Friday to drive 45 minutes to dance for three hours.

Why, just today there is a lecture on Avicenna, a medieval philosopher that we just happen to be discussing now in my History of Science class. And look, there's a piano/cello concert this afternoon. And a Free Press writer's meeting (okay, I am not a writer on the Bard campus newspaper, but I would like to write a story about how different campus life is for non-traditional students not living on campus). Maybe I could email an idea for an article? I'll find out.

Bard Stone Row Dormitories
Needless to say, Bard does a great job of keeping the students who live on campus active, involved and far from bored. There are movie nights, pizza nights, craft nights, dancing nights, concerts . . . well, you get the idea. I take advantage of what I can, like leaving work early this past Monday to go to a lecture from a visiting Yale professor on Dante's Inferno, which we are reading in class. It was a great lecture, but made for a very long day.

I realize that by not living on campus I'll never have breakfast, lunch or dinner at Kline Commons. I'll never have to buy overpriced health and beauty aides at the bookstore. I'll never really get to take advantage of the on campus gym because when I am on campus, I am attending class or burning the midnight oil at the library trying to get something done.

Living at home sure at benefits too. My laundry is always clean AND ironed. I get to sleep next to a warm body every night. My family and my cat are always glad to see me when I get home. I don't have to share a bathroom with a teenager (not even the girl at home!). The mess in the kitchen is my own so I can't get angry for anyone for not cleaning it. The list goes on and on, but you get the idea.

I am sure as my time goes on at Bard, I'll find ways to be more involved in the on-campus events. Sheesh, it's only my first half a semester there so far. I'll meet more people and find out more about more things listed and not listed on the school's event calendar too.

Until then I'll enjoy the view, and my own bed.

Thrills and Chills

What to know what's spooooooky? I'll tell you! It's downright scary when you understand something in one class because you learned it in another. It's creepy that names you never heard of before September start sneaking their way into the literature you are reading for different reasons and you can nod and shake your head and say, "Hmpf. I've heard of that guy." And it's really frightening when you find yourself looking something up at the Bard library that was mentioned during a class that you didn't know about before.

For example, we are reading Dante's Inferno in Comparative Lit and in the first ring Dante visits with his guide, the poet Virgil, he sees all the people I learned about in The History of Science Before Newton including Thales, Anaxagoras, and the bunch. And then when your History of Science teacher starts telling you how universities were started during medieval times and your face lights up with understanding because you've already learned that in another class when you discussed Benedictine and Cisterian monks. Or you find yourself hunched over a computer at the Bard Library looking up an German poem about a boy on a horse with his father trying to escape death's grip just because a character in a book by a Slavic author mentions it in passing. (The poem was Der Erlkonig by Goethe and you can read it here in its eerie entirety.)

See how scary it all is?

To scare myself even more, I'll be going with The Family to see The Birds tonight at the Bardavon. Still only a spine tingling five dollars for a movie and an organ concert, it's a great way to be scared together as a family.

Then Saturday it's off to Greenwich Village for a concert (Mike Doughty) where I am sure there will be plenty of night creatures about. It's Halloween after all and the Village is known for its parade of the creepiest and scariest on Halloween.

Yes, I'll be in costume as an enlightened Bard student. Beware!

Literate Literature

It sure has been a literate week, and not just because I am reading Hamlet for my Shakespeare class, The Bosnian Chronicles for my Slavic Lit class or Dante's Inferno for Comp Lit. You would think all those books in one week would be enough, butno - two amazing people visited two amazing schools this week and I was lucky enough to see both of these engaging, interesting men.

On Monday night, Bard's guest speaker was Barney Rosset. He was the founder of Grove

Press in the 1960's. Yes, the Grove Press! He also published D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover, fighting Congress and the Postal Service all the way. Rosset also publised Samuel Beckett in English in the United States and many other amazing authors including Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac and Larence Ferlinghetti, battling for First Amendment rights as he did. It is largely his activism that paved the way for today's contemporary writers. It was great to listen to his stories.

On Wednesday night, Vassar College's invited speaker was Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. He read excerpts of his book and then opened the floor to questions. Diaz told young writers the best thing they could do was stop arranging their lives so they did nothing but hang out with other writers. There is too much life out there to learn and write about to be confined. He also stressed that writing should not be done to gain one's approval, which may be difficult in this country as we tend to be nation of people that strive to be the best as viewed by other people. Don't write because of what other's may think, write for what you think needs to be written.

Both men were such great inspirations. One man created a literary magazine with nothing more than a dream and kitchen table, another started life with nothing but family and became famous because of his own doing, and for doing something for himself and not others.

Literature does have more to teach us than just words on a page. It's great when you can meet men like these that remind you of that.

Nobel Noble Slavs

Just what is this class? It's easy to say Noble Slavs instead of Nobel Slavs, and I think most of us do a lot. Like the people who called Astronomy class Astrology class, but there is more truth in calling these noble instead of Nobel.

There are two criteria that each author must have to be taught in this class: the author must be Slavic and must have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. To win this prize for literature, your work must have some lasting literary value and benefit mankind. That is a tough call. A small group of people in Switzerland review the candidates for the year and make a decision, giving the winner a large cash prize. This prize is privately funded by the Estate of Alfred Nobel who at the turn of the century left most of his fortune just to fund the Nobel Prizes. What a guy! You can read more about the Nobel prize at www.nobelprize.org including this year's winner for Literature Herta Muller, another Slavic born author living in Germany.

Since this class is being taught by the professor that teaches Russian studies, I was afraid that this would turn into a class that dealt mostly with the history of the area and not the literature itself. It is listed as a Lit class, I am a Lit major and I love these authors from these cold, Slavic countries. I worried for nothing. Sure, with each new author there is some discussion about the area at the time that led the author to write such a book, but we discuss so much more. When we read Quo Vadis by Henyrk Sienkiewicz we discussed his talent of ending and beginning chapters and the literary tools he used to progress the story. When we read the story stories of Ivan Burnin, we discussed how he was brillant at telling instead of showing, often a big no-no in the world of literature. Boris Pasternak snuck his poetical style of writing into his narrative in Dr. Zhivago even including a book of poetry at the end written by the progrationist, Yuri Zhivago. Now we are reading The Bosnian Chronicles by Ivo Andric, and this man was able to share wonderful tales of Bosnian life during the Napoleonic wars but in such a way that you feel you are reading one fairy tale after another. He wrote stories as if he were reciting them aloud interwined in a novel about diplomats from other countries living in Bosnia.

Needless to say, I am just loving this class. It satisfies my craving for brilliant authors, close scrunity of style and just enough history of the area to make the story fascinating.

These Nobel Slavs are truly noble.

Will Mercury Collide with Mars?

I'll be the first to admit that the older I get the harder it is for me to memorize stuff and this is probably not the first time I am admitting this! I don't remember (that must be the second sign of old age). Where was I?

Oh yes - and when it comes to science, which you guys know I love, it can be painfully difficult for me to prepare for a test. I read and write and read some more. I try to remember all the little stories that my professor likes to tell us, but I need to spend an awful lot of time both before and after class to remember what we are taught in class.

There is one fellow tho, Ptolmey, that I think I will remember pretty well, especially when we know so little about him as a person. We think he lived somewhere in Alexandria between 70 and 140 BCE and he was a big believer of astrology, as well as the man whose astronomy the world followed for almost 1400 years before Copernicus shook things up a bit. Here is a sample of his wisdom(?):

"Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth."

He is best known for writing the Almagest, a delightful little book wherein he attempts to explain spheres, the fixed stars and movement of the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars. This guy was way off as the little video below demonstrates. If this video is correct, and I have every ready to believe it is, why weren't people more worried about collisions? Maybe they were but since the earth was the center of this universe, if anything happened it would be far away and Earth would be safe. Who knows? Remember too, this was long before telescopes and space shuttles, so he was pretty much going by what he saw with his naked eye and I get to him this was how the planet appeared to be traveling in the night sky.

Now I could only remember where I left The Guy . . . .he's not by my keys!

Do you throw out a bathroom if it is past its scrub-by date?

I made a point of having fun this weekend, and then almost regretted the decision. Not that I don't like having fun, don't misunderstand my regret, but afterwards I felt like I squandered my time when I should have been reading, writing and 'rithmeticing, but a girl's gotta have fun too, no?

Friday night we went to New York City to a concert and somewhere between the train ride down and the concert we found time to visit The Boy in his new apartment in Brooklyn. We didn't stay longer than to have some pizza with him and then we were off to the show, which was fantastic! By the time we arrived home and got ready for bed it was after 3:00 a.m. and we both needed to get up early the next day.

I started my Saturday with a monthly writer's workshop that meets the third Saturday of every month at 10:00 at the Poughkeepsie Adriance Library (you should note that for next month!). The group was small and the meeting went quick. Then I had lunch with a woman from that group to catch up on our lives since the last meeting. Then the library sponsored a great writing workshop lead by Lyn Burnstine, a local author, musician and photographer that discussed blogging, sparking ideas and memoirs. She even had a couple of writing exercises planned and in just a few short minutes I had written a little story from a childhood memory and this little poem using words from a list that obviously didn't belong together.

Wispy butter burns on the stove

That blackened spirits dump in the trash

While a darting book hides underneath a dishtowel

Then I came home and fell asleep!

But the rest of the weekend I worried about the things I hadn't done, like reading my books for class, or studying for my math test, or perfecting two essays that are due this week. Even my bathroom is past is scrub-by-this-date date and that's still not done. I drove up to Bard on Sunday too to interview for open staff positions for their literary magazine, Lux, even taking more time from the things I thought needed to be done.

But you know what? I was glad to do all those things and I am really not as far behind with studying as I think I am. I can't just work, go to class and study. I will go insane! So, I am glad I went to the concert and see The Boy, and I am glad I spent so much time at the library and I am glad I had lunch with an old friend and drove to Bard on a day I didn't even have class, because it's true - girls just want to have fun!

Don't worry, I got 100% on a practice quiz today that will greatly resemble my test tomorrow and I am actually finding that reading Shakespeare can be fun too. This is going to work out after all!

TGIFun

Seems that Thursdays are always my busiest days, no matter what school I go to. At Dutchess, it was classes, classes and more classes and it was also club day and I often found myself running from club to club. At Bard, it also classes and more classes, tho I haven't joined any clubs yet, I was still there for almost twelve hours yesterday.

My day started with Shakespeare, where we are reading The Merchant of Venice and had a lively conversation about a painting which was thought to have been a picture of a woman for hundreds of years turning out to actually be Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton and probably, I said probably, Shakespeare's homosexual lover. Supposedly there is very indication that Shakespeare was bisexual, but he seems to have left a very small paper trail about his life though he certainly left a big enough trail of his plays, poetry and sonnets.

Then there's lunch break. At Bard on Thursdays, there is always some neat vendor selling clothes or jewelry or something. Yesterday a man was selling vintage clothes and some pretty cool ones at that. Then there was a table requesting contributions for a Post Secret exhibit they will be having later in the year and then I ran into another Returning to College woman that started Bard the same time I did for lunch.

Grabbed a cup of tea and was off to Slavic Lit where we just finished up Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Maybe not the best book ever written structurally, but what was fascinating was how Pasternak was a poet himself and wrote some things very poetically in the book and still felt the need to make Zhivago a poet and had the entire back of the book filled with Zhivago's poems based on stuff that he had already written poetically! I hope that makes sense because that's the theme of my paper due next week.

History of Science next where we are discussing T.S. Kuhn's book

called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions where Kuhn shares his theory of how anomalies and crises in science bring about change to the paradigm that scientists use and textbooks teach. My teacher tends to disagree with a lot of what he says so sometimes it makes it hard to know what to take from the reading or not.

Next class - Comparative Lit where we finished up the lais of Marie de France. Lovely little midieval poems written from songs about knights and the ladies they have affairs with that always seem to end in death and tragedy. How romantic!

Then I had about two hours between classes and belly dancing class at the gym so I went to the library to work on my Pasternak paper. Next thing I knew it was almost 8, and I had missed belly dancing! Oh well, at least my papers is like 95% done and one less thing I'll have to worry about this weekend.

And I am glad it is the weekend! The Guy and I are going to a concert at Webster Hall in New York City to see a relatively new band called Airborne Toxic Event. I'll have to remind The Guy not to let me fall asleep on the train though, which I tend to do every time. I need to read at least 100 pages of the Bosnian Chronicles for Slavic Lit! Then there is the grand re-opening of the Poughkeepsie Library and I hope to make a couple of those events too this weekend. You can see their entire schedule of grand opening, Big Read and regular events here.

TGIF folks, and I hope your F is for FUN too. Enjoy!

Unfair SUNY/CUNY Budget Cuts

I am home with a cold today. I know, it seems unfair, but what is really unfair is Gov. Paterson's proposed budget cuts for SUNY and CUNY schools in New York State.

As reported in the Poughkeepsie Journal and The New York Times , in an effort to reduce the budget deficit, Paterson wants state agencies to cut 500 millions dollars from the state budget, with more than 90 million being cut from SUNY and CUNY schools throughout the state (though I saw a number of almost $180 million cut from SUNY and CUNY schools in other reports).

That's outrageous! Now, more than ever, people need higher education at affordable prices. By cutting the budgets of these higher level education schools, the State of New York suffers in the long term with an untrained, uneducated, unemployable work force. Even if students are able to pay for any tuition increase (as I am sure this will create), budget cuts make for larger

classrooms, less available professors and major cuts in other services that these schools offer.

I am not sure what the answer is to help the State out of a budget deficit. That is not my area of expertise, but cutting funds to education does not help the budget in the long run. A well educated work force brings revenues to the State and that is just what this state needs.

We need to let the Governor know how we feel. You can write Gov. Paterson at State Capitol, Albany, New York, 12224 or by email by following this link: http://161.11.121.121/govemail (if link does not work try cutting and pasting it into your web browser). We need to let him know that these cuts are not acceptable!

Just please don't tell him that some cranky lady with a cold made you do it. So, please pass the tissues and let Gov. Paterson know that his proposed cuts are unfair and unacceptable. There has to be another way.

Fall Break!

Yay! I have a whole week off from classes! It's officially Fall Break at Bard which means no classes Monday and Tuesday, but for me that means I don't go back on campus until Thursday. Whew! I could really use the time to catch up, but alas, there is still lots of reading to do, two papers (one of which is due on my return), housework, yard work and work-work.

I noticed a major difference between Bard students and DCC students yesterday. When I asked people what they were doing on their break, some said they were going home and others said they were going to New York City, but no one said they were working. Not a single one. At DCC, I think everyone I would have asked would told me they were working over the break. Must be nice for those not working! Their break becomes a mini vacation! With my new schedule, I was told by my bosses that since I only work 25 hours a week now, I won't be getting paid for holidays anymore, so I may work on Monday and I may work Tuesday (thought usually a school day) to make up for the holiday. Where's the justice? When am I going to get to catch up on those things I need to catch up on?

Some things are not so different between DCC and Bard students. A woman my age also in the Returning to College Program at Bard told me yesterday that she was behind in all three of her classes and owed each class a paper or a project, but had gotten herself another week to complete them. I quickly asked if she worked too, thinking that was why she was behind. No, she replied, but she had a cold and couldn't focus. Also, this was her first time back at school in many years and she was still adjusting to the schedule. I've been at school for over two years now and I guess I've got a routine down now. I know how much time I need to spend at home for each class, but honestly, I could use some more time for each one too. I am sure she'll find her way eventually. Sometimes it is just a matter of do or die.

But it's fall in the Hudson Valley and our leaves are probably at their peak. That means it's time to change your computer wallpaper to something autumn-ny and pull out those rakes and get the yard cleaned up. I was hoping the wind the other day would blow them all away, but no, I've seemed to have gained my neighbors leaves instead! It would also be a great time to take a walk on the Walkway Over they Hudson . I bet the view is spectacular! And there is the Quilt Show at my old stomping grounds, DCC. It's there Saturday and Sunday.

Much to do over this break, but if you are a Bardian who didn't get to leave campus this week, let me know. There is plenty to do right here in Dutchess County.

Enjoy!

PS - I actually have a class in the building in the picture above. It's old and beautiful!

Without Warning

I thought we were friends. Day after day I tell you guys what is going on at Bard, yet none of you warned me. Not a one! And you all knew I was taking an Algebra workshop this semester, yet none of you felt it was necessary to warn me about the Quadratic Formula.

That's okay. I forgive you.

The class started off simple enough. What is the square root of this, what is x is this equation. Factor this, etc, etc. But what can you do instead of factoring she said, like it was going to be some amazing trick that would make it all simple. The Quadratic Formula!

I'll admit, it only took a couple of examples for me to understand it, but what a lot of steps to get where I need to go. The formula looks much more complicated than it really is too. But if you have a garden that is one size, and you add a walkway (like the word problem we did in class asked), and you know the new area of your square garden but don't know how much you added to it, you can use this formula to figure it out. Who said there is no practical use for Algebra? This just proves they are wrong!

It's things like that that make Shakespeare easier to understand. Believe it!