Music makes the people come together...
According to my textbook for music class, all cultures use some kind of "octave" duplication. However, in Chinese music the octave is divided into five separate pitches, rather than our seven, and some Turkish and Arabic melodies make use of fourteen.

One question I had: the book also stated the obvious in describing major keys as happier-sounding than the more ominous or mournful minor keys. What I want to know is, why is it that way? Is there something about the mathematics of the minor key that makes it feel negative to us? I'm sure somebody has studied this.

He needs only this...to cover all the lands in a second darkness
I feel like I have recovered sufficiently from Thursday night to talk about politics again. As President Bush spoke on the last night of the RNC, my friends and I watched with sinking hearts. The consensus was that his speech was fabulous, even better than Kerry's, I fear. I shudder at the core to admit this, but there was a point about two thirds of the way through the speech, when Bush was dishing out his liberation-from-evil rhetoric, when I found myself wondering: Wouldn't it be wonderful if he were right? What if we've been doing the right thing all along? How reassuring would that be?

He was that good.

It didn't help that in the room with us were three conservatives, two of them senior guys who were extremely knowledgeable and well-spoken. One of them has worked as an intern for Bush and assures he is the most humble man alive. The other is socially liberal and disagrees with Bush's stands on marriage and abortion, but will vote for him because he sincerely believes in his economic and foreign policy strategy. Our demoralizing debate following the speech almost brought me to tears and made me suddenly realize how truly wretched politics is. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and never hear another word of Republicans and Democrats. The fight for victory in November seemed hopeless, but more than that, I suddenly saw why so many people stay out of activism. It drains you deeply.

Last night, I was party-hopping with friends when I encountered a longtime campaigning buddy of mine from the days of Dean. He was completely trashed and depressed, and pretty much the only thing he could say was "52-41! It's over!" I had been avoiding newspapers and polls, but my stomach reeled. If Bush really gained that much on Kerry, my once-pounding hope for success is scarcely more than a faint heartbeat.

We must drink, speak and breathe hope for as long as hope survives, and when it is gone, we must yet endure, for endurance beyond hope is the true mark of the strong.

Classes galore!

No classes on Friday for me...the joys of college life. Based on the second round of shopping yesterday, I have decided on five classes for the term. From the group I described Wednesday, I will take two: Archeological Ceramics, and Fiction and Forms of Narrative. In addition, I will take all three courses I shopped Thursday: Foundations of Modern Archaeology, Listening to Music, and Ancient Civilizations of the Andes. I really loved all of them and hope that lvoe will continue. I think I want to major in Archaeological Studies now. This year is going to be great. If I weren't so tired I'd have more to say.

Shopaholics Anonymous
Now Playing: "The Wind," Cat Stevens
The joys of the first day of classes. I can't begin to be coherent right now, so I'll just summarize each class experience in its own paragraph.

"Language, Culture, and Society" (Anthro 118): A good course that I would be happy to take. I wasn't enthralled with it, but the lectures seemed interesting and the prof gave me a good vibe. He played a Monty Python clip for us. A number of my friends are in the class, which is always helpful. Reviews seem positive, but the negative ones complain about the course being too broad, disorganized, or dry. The subject seemed really interesting, but I'm not exactly sure where he'll go with it. Final Verdict: Pending

"Structure and History of English Words" (Linguistics 108): At first I really didn't like this class because the prof spoke in a flat monotone, but as it progressed he seemed to let his guard down and reveal his sense of humor. The material seemed to take a similar trajectory -- dry and abstract at first, then more intriguing as the examples got specific. Like the previous course, this is an interactive lecture, but it meets in a smaller room, which is comfortable. Unfortunately, it meets on Friday, but the sections are optional. It will be offered again in my senior year. By the end of the class I was feeling positive enough about the course to oeruse the texts, which seemed both dry and fascinating, paradoxically. It was just so wholly new. I'm still not sure how I feel about -- I really wish I felt passionate about spending my time doing linguistics problem sets so I could learn all the wonderful insights into our rich language. Final Verdict: No.

"Fictions and the Forms of Narrative" (Lit 120): This was a really good experience. Whenever a course declares it will change the way you look at stories, it had better have something to say or else it just sounds pretentious. Apparently it used to be so controversial they listed it as "Lit X" in the course book! I was impressed by the lecture, though. It actually did put some new ideas into my head. I wish I could reiterate them in an intelligent manner! I'm very excited about this course (it's team-taught and mixes lectures and seminars) as well as the reading list. Final verdict: Yes.

"Shakespeare and the Canon: Comedies, Histories, and Poems" (Harold Bloom): I came into this course when it was halfway over, and I literally could not fit in the tiny seminar room. I had to stand on my tiptoes to see Bloom and strain my ears to hear him. It's supposedly a seminar, but the whole time I was there no one talked but Bloom, so I think they should hold it in a lecture room. From what I could discern, Bloom seemed lucid, funny, and deeply brilliant, but he seemed to expect us to have read all the plays he was talking about already. Maybe that's just because it was an overview. Anyway, I didn't stay long because of physical discomfort, and I like Lit enough that I can pass on this. I don't particularly feel like studying the Bard this year after last year's saturation with the English tradition, and his spring course on the tragedies would be more up my alley anyway. Final verdict: No.

"Archaeological Ceramics": Wow. What an amazing class. I was so intimidated to discover all the middle-aged people in the course! That's what happens when your 300-level class is double-titled as a 700-level. There is another D-port soph in the class, though, so we'll help each other out. Everyone seemed so knowledgeable! I felt that the class would be doable and wonderful, and I was praying not to be cut, since there were 18 of us in the room. The prof was very nice, and knew everyone except me, so I asked if he wanted to go to lunch later in the week to get to know me. He responded eagerly and seemed glad to have me in the course, suggesting that he would try his best to accommodate everyone. Looks like we're in the clear! Yay! Final verdict: YES!

Phew. Three more tomorrow!

So many classes, so little time!!!
I'm so excited to start classes tomorrow! I'm praying that I get in to Archaeological Ceramics, because the texts and syllabus look phenomenal! I also want to take two archaeology classes that meet at the same time. One -- Foundations of Modern Archaeology -- is Anthro, while the other -- Ancient Painting and Mosaics -- is art history. Decisions, decisions! The other two anthro classes I'm looking at are Language, Culture, and Society and Ancient Civilizations of the Andes. I think I would prefer the latter because it got better reviews and is more archaeological, but I don't want to OD on native America this year. Although, I really don't think that's possible. I think I've found my calling. I bought am American Indian Art magazine (who knew that existed?) and wanted to cut all the pictures out and put them on my walls, but I restrained myself.

But I digress. Classes, yes, that was what I was raving about. I want to take Listening to Music for sure, and also might take a linguistics course, Structure and History of English Words. To satiate my literary taste buds I might try the intro lit course on form and narrative, which has a great reading list. Alternatively, I've been thinking about shopping Harold Bloom's Shakespeare class. Even though he is old and sick, he seems to be getting great reviews on the course evaluation website. I like the sound of his spring class on the tragedies more than the fall one on comedies and histories, but my spring schedule is booked and I feel that with Bloom every year you wait you take a chance that you might miss out on the opportunity. The downside is that I might like to get a flavor for something other than English lit after last year. Finally, there is Ancient Greek History with Donald Kagan, whom my favorite history teacher from high school recommended. It is supposed to be a great class, but extremely hard, which might not be what I need now. I'mn thinking I will audit the lectures. Shopping is going to make all of this so much clearer, I hope.

I love school. What a nerd. :)

Flip-flopping up in NYC
Mood:  lazy
Bush has repeatedly said he would not politicize September 11 this election. By choosing New York for the Republican National Convention, he is already on shaky ground. The city, though overwhelmingly liberal, is still deeply feeling the 9/11 attacks. On top of that inevitable association, the GOP plans to feature 9/11 victims' relatives the first night of the convention. So, when Bush says he's not going to politicize 9/11, he means he actually is gong to politicize it. Hmm.

A Whole New Year
It's so great to be back and see my friends again! My room is beautiful. Well, it will be when I've finished organizing it.

As I prepare for my second year, I have come up with a list of goals -- call them new school year resolutions -- for myself.

I. Inward: the goal here is balance:

A. Get into a flexible routine. There are a number of things I want to try to do every day this year:
1. Excercise 25+ minutes
2. Drink tea
3. Free reading 25+ minutes
4. Write for 20-60 minutes (blogging counts)

II. Outward
A. Articulation: I want to try to stop swearing (including "sucks") as well as saying "like" as a filler. There are so many better words to use!

B. Conversation: I want to be better at adjusting my conversation level to that of the discussion as a whole. Often I find myself being too quiet and pretty silent in group situations, while in different groups I end up doing most of the talking and being loud. I would like to be able to blend up or down to fit a given discussion.

Let's see how it all goes.

FOOT-loose
The blogmistress is back from the Berkshires and getting settled in the city once again. We had more fun on support crew than I can really relate here, but it was surprisingly stressful as well. We spent more time driving and shopping than we did in the woods, it seems.

I must say I am very pleased with our performance -- my support crew visited my hiking group once; we visited one group 7 times! This group really took advantage of support crew. We brought them a bear bag rope the first day, then we helped them while they were lost on the trail. We brought them an extra fuel bottle the next morning. We ran into them while climbing Mt. Greylock. We woke up at 5:45 to hike eggs and avocados into their camp to make them omelets (at one of therir leaders' demands). We bought them extra pasta. On the last night, we let them take a shortcut by using one of the two campsites we had reserved, and then they asked to drop off a bunch of equipment for us to drive back to school so they wouldn't have to hike it out in the morning! Oh, and to top it all off, they were impatient waiting for their own bus, so they hopped onto another trip's bus and forced us to call the bus company and clear things up for the confused drivers.

We brought birthday parties and dance parties to other groups by hiking in coolers of ice cream and soda, a pink Disney scooter, and a ten-dollar boom box which we hooked up to iPods and dubbed the Ghetto Blaster. The freshmen were appreciative and looked like they were having fun.

I have heard it said that support crew is more fun than leading, and I hope that's not true. I enjoyed it a lot, but I have a feeling leading will be even more up my alley.

Happy Feet
Mood:  a-ok
FOOT has officially begun! These past two days were dedicated to intense first-aid training, which is not necessarily how I would choose to spend my time, but it's actually pretty fun. I really hope I never have to deal with any medical crises on my trips. Especially not anything resembling the drawings in the margins of our textbook. One of them has a picture of a man's leg fully impaled by an ice-axe. The funny thing is, it's the handle of the ice-axe that's impaling him. In fact, it's running straight through his thigh. Ugh.

Last night a large group of us broke into a variety of buildings (okay, "broke into" might be an exaggeration)in search of a TV where we could watch the Olympics. This was not my idea, but it sounded fun, and it turned out to be AMAZING! As the ever-profound Yogi Berra once said, "It's never over 'til it's over," and never was that more true than in the Men's Gymnastics All-Around Competition. Paul Hamm just rules. There are come-from-behind victories, and then there are come-from-12th-place-in-two-rotations victories. Speaking of Men's Gymnastics, did it seem strange how mean the NBC commmentator was to Hamm's teammate Brett McClure? He wasn't very kind to any of the athletes, but he just never seemed to let a moment pass without throwing McClure a backhanded compliment or a jab. Maybe he didn't like his unusual hair. Oh, and American Women's 4x200 Swim Team set a new world record. These sprint relays are the swimming events to which I find myself most easily relating, perhaps because of all the exciting 400 and 800 relays I ran in track.

Support crew is going to rock. Our new FOOT t-shirts are absolutely adorable. Unfortunately, they are also school-bus yellow. So it goes.

I Love New Haven!
Mood:  happy
Ah...

I am writing from the beautiful confines of Sterling Memorial Library. Since the hideous plane flight yesterday I have had the best time here. Despite arriving an hour late in Hartford I made my limo with plenty of time, and he took me right to Phelps Gate without my having to call a cab from the limo station. As soon as I saw the university buildings I was filled with delight. Even the humidity felt nice and homey. The hotel I stayed in was nice -- all to myself! -- and served me a wonderful dinner (very, very important when one has been eating airplane food, balance bars and taffy all day).

In the morning I slept in, showered, ate breakfast at the hotel, checked out at noon, and walked around town (or rather, down the road) with my huge backpack and duffel. I sat on the bench outside the art gallery and read until I got hungry for lunch and went into Atticus (yay!) for curry chicken salad. I figure I'll use every opportunity to eat meat and vegetables before FOOT sticks me on the bread, nuts and cheese diet. I finished some errands at the post office and such.

I was hesitant to give up my solitude, but carrying my luggage around finally got to me and I decided to seek out fellow FOOT folk. Duncan, Claire, and Liba were waiting on the steps of Bingham when I showed up, with hugs and questions and a key to my Vanderbilt room, which I moved into. Apparently I was only the 17th person to arrive. Now I am free until 8 am tomorrow. I think I'll call Anny tonight to see if she's arrived yet and wants to do dinner.

Did I mention I love FOOT and Yale?