My television dabbles

With sites like Netflix and Hulu, you can get into a lot of different television shows. I find myself interested in a variety of shows, some almost obsessively and others in just a dabbling sort of way. Summers lead to a lot of television watching, especially when I'm home w/ just my parents.

Here are some of those shows I tend to dabble in, or have dabbled in the last few months.

-White Collar. Mckenna introduced me to this show when we lived together but I never actually watched it until last fall. I watched the first two seasons which were on Netflix and then just stopped because I didn't want to be all fancy and find the third online, though I easily could have. Recently the third season was added though. That's been my project since I returned to Provo, and its been lovely.

-Grey's Anatomy. I watched the first three seasons of this show when they were actually on. I stopped watching for some reason or another but decided this past summer to get back into it. I've now seen all the seasons except the most recent. There's something strangely addicting about Grey's.

-How I Met Your Mother. I watched all of this show spring term. Lorraine actually started watching it right after I finished; we had no idea the other was watching it.

-Big Bang Theory. I have a weird relationship w/ this show. Sometimes I think it's hilarious. Other times I just can't wrap my head around why it's funny. Maybe it's the laugh track. Something about it is off-putting.

-Modern Family. This show is quickly becoming a stand-by show, one I can always count on. It's nerdiness, wittiness, sentimentality and seriousness is unmatched.

That probably seems like a lot of shows to dabble in but that's really what it is. I'll watch a bunch of one show at one time and then not ever watch it again, or at least not watch it again for a very long time. The shows that stick w/ me have to be really special.

Well, I'm going back to eating my Greek yogurt and watching the Star Trek movie now. Enjoy your evenings!

Last YouTube video I watched: As Long As You Love Me

The learning curve of semi-dangerous activities

Tonight I ended up learning one thing and teaching someone another thing.

I learned how to use Heelys and I taught about longboarding.

Never before had I even worn Heelys but the concept has always fascinated me. I mean, let's get this straight: THEY ARE SHOES WITH WHEELS. How much more awesome can shoes get?! Answer: Not much more awesome. It's a very strange thing to get used to, however. They require a great deal of balance and leg strength. The balance thing I expected but the leg strength not so much. It's not that I have wimpy calves or anything but I didn't realize how much work they would get. I ended up being able to go a few feet without holding onto anything after about 10 or 15 minutes. Maybe someday I'll buy a pair of my own and go zooming around.

As for the longboarding, that is something I have come to excel at and love. It's weird wheeling around on a piece of wood, in my case bamboo. My friend Kate has had her longboard much longer than I have had mine but she hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. She fell one time pretty bad and since then sort of gave up on it. Boarding can present a huge mental block, just like any semi-dangerous activity can. (Look at me, acting all legit, using the word "boarding.") After she let me mess around on her Heelys, we came to the conclusion that we should hit up the freshly paved road right by my house. It was a great night for it: not too hot and the road was very empty. For me, I wanted to be good at longboarding from the get-go, so I made myself good. I've only crashed once, though it was pretty bad, almost exactly a year ago. Since then I've just become more confident. Kate's biggest issue came from trusting herself to push off, something that troubled me for quite some time. I like to think I at least got her on the way to feeling more comfortable on her board. It was actually really fun trying to figure out what she was doing and how we could make it easier. I like the problem solving aspect of it.

What great fun. I'm quite excited to get back to Provo and find some new friends to board with. That's always a need in my book.

Last YouTube video I watched: Philadelphia Airport Speedrun (While writing this post about Heelys, I knew I had to watch this video again.)

Good-bye sophomore year

Today was the official last day of classes. I turned my papers in and life was good.

The most interesting thing about today occurred during my last class (of the day and the semester). It's technical name is History 202, and it's something like civilizations from 1400 to present. I absolutely loved the class and I am so glad I took it; I was worried at first since it is the first history class I've taken since senior year of high school and didn't know what to expect in college. It's been a great experience. At least for me.

In class there was a little time to discuss this reading we'd had from the day before. I talked about it w/ this woman next to me. She was probably in her late 30s, maybe early 40s. So you know, a returning student kind of deal. After we'd finished discussing I asked her what she'd thought of the class. She straight up said she didn't like it. At all.

I was dumbfounded. The professor was amazing, we hardly had any work besides reading, and if we ever did have quizzes they were so easy. The midterm was a piece of cake. Did I mention how AWESOME the professor is?

Apparently, she didn't like the way the readings never corresponded with things that the professor lectured on. Some of that had to do w/ getting behind in lecture but I think most of it is due to the fact that the readings weren't supposed to be the same as the lecture. You read on your own and learn material. You come to class and the professor talks about some of the same things except then he goes more in depth, really getting into it, as well as bringing up things not in the reading. This woman described him as "bringing up some interesting points" but overall she didn't like the format. She said his lectures were good and she liked his teaching style but she felt taking notes had no point. Before the first midterm she took "copious notes" but when the time came around for the midterm she used only the textbooks for information for the essays and she "did really well." After that, she just didn't bother taking notes at all. She said it felt like a waste.

Maybe I found this weird because my strategy in every class is this: write down anything and everything the professor says and to study for the exam read those notes over and over again until you feel like you really understand and can put what he said into context with everything else you know. I honestly don't know how she got through the midterm without using info from the notes. Maybe she knows something I don't but having earned a 97% on that very exam, I can't imagine her system working that much better than mine.

It was so weird to hear her almost deride this professor. He's honestly one of the most informed professors I have ever had. He knows what he's talking about and keeps class interesting. Even though it's a pretty big lecture hall, he treats it like a small class. All the things she didn't like about the class were things I loved. Things that made it absolutely a pleasure to come each Monday and Wednesday from 4-5:15.

I always find it interesting when people don't like the classes taught by the most awesome professors. To me, if you like the teaching style you like the class. According to this woman, she did like his teaching style, it was good. But that wasn't enough for her. I can't imagine learning much more in this type of class than I did this semester.

I guess my hope is that people will realize how lucky they are to have fantastic professors who are truly interested in what they are teaching and what the students are learning.

Last YouTube video I watched: 31 Nerd Jokes