The Mid-Semester Slam

I say mid-semester, but we really only have about six or so weeks left of classes until Christmas break. Nonetheless, on Monday night in my graduate class, the professor gave us our take-home midterm exam. Take-home midterm. I mean, how hard can that be, right? Uh.

Part 1 originally consisted of three questions. Our response to the first question had to be 3-4 pages; the second, 6-7 pages; the third, another 3-4 pages. Well, we talked her into decreasing the size of that part of the midterm to 2 questions worth 10 pages. Ten pages is still tough.

The response limit for Part 2 is 20 pages! By this point, I’m not freaking out anymore; I’m laughing instead because I think it’s all a big joke. In class I expected her at any moment to be like, “October Fool’s! The midterm’s off.”

All of this intensive paper writing wouldn’t be so bad, but we have a 10-20 page research paper and accompanying presentation due in a few weeks for the same class! I’m also taking another class from this professor, and I have to write another 5 pages to finish up the research paper in that one. All this paper-writing is going to total around 55 pages over the next four weeks if I reach the max for each paper, which will be likely for me because my style isn’t very succinct.

Well, for the past couple of days the library has been my home from sunup to sundown. A few minutes ago I received a series of texts from my roommate: “Are you in the library?”, “Geeze, have you been in there all day?”, and “Have you gotten a lot done?” haha. Surprisingly, I’ve had a very good outlook about everything. I’m not being as much of a perfectionist about my work as I normally am. Perseverance and laughter are key. The best thing about the whole situation is that Josh is going to come see me at the end of the long haul!

My advice for fellow undergraduates is to never take a graduate level class until you reach that level. I am getting nothing out of this except a letter of recommendation…and I guess a pretty lackadaisical work ethic.

Arkansas TV Anchor’s Death

 

I hear that these tragedies occur on a daily basis, but I’m still shocked by Anne Pressly’s death. Only 26 years old. And it’s not like she lived in the ghetto.

 

A young couple at my church in Arkansas brought their newborn for the first time today. Brother Carl invited the father to show off his new son in front of the congregation, and boy, did that daddy look proud. The baby was so pink and tiny, and as I saw him later in his mother’s arms alongside the couple’s three other young children, I thought, ‘Wow. How scary being a parent must be; how scary to see such cruelty, hate, evil in this world around us and to know that you’re bringing an innocent life into all of this.’

But then I began to consider the fact that for thousands of years mothers and fathers have probably been thinking the same thing. First murder, recorded in early Genesis: Cain kills Abel. Imagine how horrible this must have seemed in those days. Murder is horrible today, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like we’re so desensitized to it now that we’re just like, “Oh man, that’s bad” and then don’t really give it a second thought unless the victim is someone in our inner circle. If I lived back in the day and heard about Cousin Cain and Cousin Able, I would’ve thought, ‘Um, no. No babies for me. People actually do this to each other?!’ Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t have truly stuck to the part about no babies.

I guess my conclusion is this: I’m sure that God’s children have always had some fear in their hearts for their offspring because sin, since Adam’s transgression, has always been present on and in this earth. Although in our shallow, time-oriented minds, sin seems forever and ever, it’s not.

God is forever and ever, and He’ll take care of us.

The Third Wave of Feminism

As a Human Development and Family Science major, I get quite a bit of exposure to feminist thought. One of my textbooks for my graduate class is called Family Theories (White & Klein, 2008), which includes a chapter entitled “The Feminist Framework and Poststructuralism”. As mentioned in the video, feminism as a social movement in America began around the early 20th century with women’s suffrage. The second wave occurred in the ’60s and ’70s, and according to White and Klein, my generation is leading the third wave today. The authors write, “Certainly, it is this third wave that usually identifies with postmodern ideas of relativism and anti-essentialism” (p. 218). Without getting too deep into essentialism, I am just going to say that from my understanding it is not how it may sound (e.g., the opposite of relativism); rather, it is a way of categorizing groups in research methods. Therefore, I don’t have a problem with the anti-essentialism aspect of today’s feminist movement because I do believe that significant levels of diversity exist within similar groups. Relativism, however, is the facet of today’s feminism that is major cause for concern. While it may theoretically seem like a Utopian ideal, the epitome of embracing diversity of thought in order to learn from one another, relativism is one of Satan’s many tools against Christianity. I see it in the classroom as professors incite their students to applaud liberalism and denigrate conservatism. They praise same-sex marriage laws and try to disguise abortion as a simple contraceptive option, but they defy true relativism by labeling people with opposing ideas as “bigots”. Relativism will never work in this world, and Christian women, especially, need to fight against this force that characterizes today’s phase of feminism.

I should add that I am against the variation of feminism known as “liberal feminism”, but I definitely consider myself a “cultural feminist”. I’m not all about achieving the type of gender equality that espouses the idea that women can and should do anything that a man does, and vice versa. This type of feminism ”ignores any true biological differences between sexes” (White & Klein, 2008, p. 227). Liberal feminism is what most people think of when they hear the term feminism. Cultural feminism, on the other hand, is a movement that is designed to elevate the affective, expressive, and emotional nature that typifies feminity to the same status as the instrumental nature that typifies masculinity. I’m not saying that men aren’t emotional or that women aren’t instrumental (this is where the denotational difference between “sex” and “gender” are important), but, almost inarguably, women tend to be more emotional and relationship-oriented than men. Often, it’s a battle between head versus heart, sensory versus intuitive, thinking versus feeling. That the first in each of those spheres is the preferred trait in our society is what I think needs to be reevaluated. Masculinity, though clearly different than feminity, should be no more esteemed than its counterpart.

Pumpkin Painting

God has blessed me with a fabulous roommate these last couple of years. We’re proof that really different people can become the best of friends. We have our disagreements and irritated moments, sure, but the good times far outweigh the bad. Those good times include doing some really fun activities. Earlier this semester we learned the Thriller dance together. I found a forty-clip YouTube series that teaches the dance in incremental steps. We haven’t practiced in a while, so I’m sure that we’ve forgotten much of it, but it was a blast at the time.

And then this past Saturday evening we bought pumpkins to paint while we watched Step Up 2. People in Arkansas must not understand the concept of painting pumpkins because we were asked by more than a few people: “You’re not carving them?” Ummm, do you think I care to stick my arm in that thing?

Chels and I were proud of our masterpieces but not so much of the way we looked post-pumpkin painting. So after taking several pictures that night, we decided that we would take some more the next morning after church.

The pumpkins were heavy, but my pose is a bit of an exaggeration of the weight. Haha, I’m always ruining the pictures. Chels is super cute as always, of course!

 

Anti-McCain Public Service Announcement

The fact that this PSA is devoid of any substance and is promoted by cute, young celebrities says quite a bit about my generation. Like, seriously. I’d be thinking the same thing if it was a McCain ad. The basic message of “Don’t Vote for So-and-So” is not analogous to the “Don’t Do Drugs” slogan. Although people like to debate the marijuana issue, we can all pretty much agree that drugs are bad. An effective political ad, however, needs to give me cogent reasons for voting for or against a certain opponent. Even then, of course, I’d take the message with a grain of salt. But at least I’d have respect for that PSA.

Oh, Blake Lively. You’ve got it all figured out, huh?

more about “Anti-McCain Public Service Announcement“, posted with vodpod

 

Running to Relieve Stress

Just now, in the midst of writing yet another paper (story of my life these days), I got this sudden urge to run in a 5k race. I think it has to do with my window being open and the cool autumn breeze floating in around the edges of my shabby piece of purple fabric that Wal-Mart calls a curtain. Of course, with the pleasant nighttime breeze comes the obnoxious street noises–the motorcycles, the emergency vehicles, the songs of drunk people. Anyway, as part of this workout kick that I’ve been on lately, I went running yesterday, and I got to thinking about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and its relation to anxiety and stress.

This is going to be one tough week for me, and as many people know, I’m pretty nervous about getting everything done and doing it all well. Yesterday, yes on a Saturday, all I basically did for several straight hours was homework and application stuff. On top of that I studied for the GRE for a long time (I’m finally taking it this Saturday!), which made me nervous. I just can’t stand not feeling prepared for tests, which is my problem with the GRE. I’d rather be tested on a whole textbook and know that all of my study material is right there in front of me than have to learn a bazillion gazillion (haha…I’m starting to think of Madea in Diary of a Mad Black Woman when she’s getting the order of her millions and trillions and hundreds and thousands places all mixed up, not too unlike my mom when she reads the minutes at church. Okay, I’m laughing now. I love you Mom!) words in the English language or try to figure out the many ways in which x, y, and z appear in algebraic and geometrical word problems and quantitative comparisons.

So back to the part of my getting nervous. Man, why can’t I manage a fluid writing style tonight?
I decided to go running on the hilly UofA campus. Hilly might be an understatement.
Then I realized that running was just what I needed to take the focus off of my test anxiety. My primary focus became on breathing and getting all of my muscles to cooperate in order to get me around my tortuous (don’t be impressed…I learned it yesterday and still don’t even know if I’m using it right) mile-and-a-half course. The basic need of survival definitely comes before any subconscious needs to worry in which I believe I must engage. As if worry ever did anything for anybody.

After this week I think I’m going to start training for a 5k.

A Report on My Mini-Vacation

About my life right now. Really, I don’t have time to write this, but I know that if I don’t do it now, it’ll never happen at all. Over lunch today I told a friend that I need some employers or servants to help me get all of my stuff done these next couple of months. That’s what professors do; they have the department hire grad students to write their lit reviews, collect their data, and help them with other parts of the research process. So what if I only have a high school degree–my work load right now probably rivals that of someone with a Ph.D. But I’m not complaining. Although I’m a little nervous about getting everything done, I love staying busy. Keeps me sleeping at night.

About my trip. This past weekend I went to two new states that I can now add to my states list (one of my life goals is to visit all 50): Alabama and Georgia. The land over there is incredibly beautiful. Really similar to NW Arkansas but…I don’t know…I just felt like the trees, which are super tall, were closer to the road as if they were lining it. I’m a big nature person (minus the getting dirty part), so that’s why I was in such awe of the scenery.

Atlanta was amazing. I know, I was only there for a few hours one evening, but from what I saw–and I saw a lot–I could say that it would probably be my second-choice urban place to live (after Tulsa) if I had to live or work in a big city. The traffic wasn’t too bad, the city was fairly clean, and I really liked the downtown area. Josh took me to this really snazzy restaurant called the Sundial. It rests atop a huge skyscraper, and I imagine that it’s pretty similar to the one in OKC, but I can’t say for sure because I haven’t been to that one. Anyway, after eating we went to the Centennial Olympic Park, which was so neat! It was dark outside by that time, and there was a fountain show in the shape of the Olympic ring symbol. The whole Atlanta experience was great.

Then I spent the rest of my time–except for a trip to the southern tip of the Appalachian Mountains–in Athens, where the University of Georgia is located. I didn’t get to see much of the actual city, but I spent some time on the campus. The two major differences b/w (man, I’m lazy) UGA and the UofA are that 1.) UGA’s campus is SO big and spread out! and 2.) their Ramsey Center stomps our HPER (the fitness facility). I was expecting a small culture difference, but the Georgians with whom I came in contact basically talked and acted the same way that we do here. I’m told that this isn’t consistent across the whole state of Georgia, though.

Hmmm…a couple of other highlights really quickly because I’m missing the presidential debate at the moment: Got to see the Ladyback volleyball team play Georgia. What a coincidence, right? One of my friends is the manager of our volleyball team, so I got to chat with her at halftime. It’s so weird because we’re both so busy that we don’t get to hang out in Fayetteville, but we have catch-up time in random Athens.

The downtown Athens area was so cute. It’s a lot like our Dickson Street, which yes, is party central and totally not my scene, but it had some quaint little shops and restaurants. As we walked past one store, I saw a cat in the window, and of course I went crazy. haha. It was the ugliest thing, but it had the sweetest demeanor. Kinda blends in with the surroundings.

 

 

 

I need to save some of my writing juices for a paper about career choices, so my vacation report has to end here. Let’s just say that I had such a great time that I didn’t really want to come back. I love traveling and witnessing God’s handiwork in other parts of the country and world. I feel so blessed to have been able to take a trip like that at a time when money is getting tight for many people.

Here’s my new desktop background. I didn’t get to bring my flowers home, but I still showed all of my friends the picture on my computer! haha. Thanks Josh!