Musings on Various Issues...

Yeah, I know. Weird title. But that's really what this entry is about! Let's start out with the events of the week.
Classes are slowly rolling to a halt here. Finals are coming up after this next week of class, so the "new" material is slowing down. My finals range from 4 to 7 in the afternoon to 7 to 10 in the morning, so they're all over the place. Thankfully though, they're spread out over four days. People seem really stressed out, and there are signs everywhere about not getting stressed, getting advice, and all that kind of stuff. I'm not really getting stressed out yet, but i'm not ruling that reaction out yet. Hopefully it will not occur.
It's really cooling off weather wise here. It's been low 30s pretty much every day this week, so the winter coats and goofy boots that somehow became stylish with the females are out in force. I'm serious about these boots. They look warm and all, but bright pink ones with fuzz (and matching snowpants and ski coat) and the pant leg rolled up to just above it? That's cool? Guess I just don't understand women.
On to the musings.
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I've started figuring out iTunes and the many features built in. I haven't used the music store yet, because i really don't have the money. Or i'm cheap. Either one. Anyway, it has a lot of other cool features. At the risk of sounding like a payed-for ad, I think it's great. First of all, I'm listening to guy (who lives down the hall)'s Christmas music right now. Shared Music Folders, a feature of iTunes, works like this. When I'm plugged into Templin, or for that matter, any other network, I can access the music they put in the Folder. Now, it's not illegal, mind you. Only 5 users per day can access any one person's folder, and they can just listen to it. They can't copy/burn/manipulate the files in any other way. Nifty! Also, I'm subscribed to a few podcasts now. I don't own an iPod, and probably never will. The battery isn't rechargable after a few years, and it costs waaaaayyy too much to replace it. I just listen to the podcasts on my computer. Anyway, most of them are free, and I'm subscribed to 3: NPR morning news, some human interest NPR feature, and TheForce.net's podcast. All of them are very interesting, and I think it's a interesting new way to get information across. Could be a new mass media? Who knows? I just think it's a lot of fun.

Next muse:
There was a big argument here over the last few weeks. There was going to be a course (in the religious studies department, no less) about "the myth of creationism." The actual title of the course, after they took that tag off the end, is as follows: “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design and Creationism.” Orginally, there was a tag implying creationism was a myth. That got the department in a little bit of trouble, so after a story in the Kansan, they dropped the tag. Now, in an article in the Kansan today, they revealed the course had been canceled. People probably glanced at the headline, said "those stupid Christians" and went about their business. In fact, the reason it was canceled was entirely different. Paul Mirecki, the head of the religious studies department and also strangly and paradoxically enough, an atheist, sent a variety of emails over the past few years and posted them onto a yahoo.com listserve. They had things of this nature: calling Christians "fundies" (fundalmentalists) and saying that the course would be “a nice slap in their big fat face.” He got in huge trouble for this, and the class was dropped. (All this info is from the Kansan story, available here.) People immediatly thought that the class was dropped for it's content, and think that they can use this as another excuse to rail against "fundies." This shows the nature of our society. They are willing to either read waaay too much into an event (such as Kanye West's reading into Katrina) or waaay too little (in this instance.)
But such is life. Hopefully I can do something to counter all this crap when I get in the J-school. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
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Whew! Long one...hope you all didn't mind. See you all soon!
If you care: 14 days until Christmas Break!