1. 14 January 2007

    The Big U

    Neal Stephenson

    600 days ago

    Reading this book makes me want to learn both to play the organ and write machine code (As far as Stephenson is concerned, I remember somewhere in the beginning of Cryptonomicon a discussion of how the two are, in fact, identical). As good as I’d expect a Stephenson novel to be.

  2. 22 December 2006

    Quick Semester Review

    624 days ago

    I finished my nth semester in college today, didn’t have too bad a time. In the past I’ve been a bit apoplectic when it comes to school, but I think that that’s working it’s way out of my system. It’s not like I’m depressed about school – it’s a plenty good time living in a little mini-real-life situation with a bunch of kids the same age as you. Having a real soccer team was a plus from last year, although club soccer was plenty fun there was a bit of discipline missing. I’m pretty much ignoring how much money it costs and whether or not paying it is rational, but my cursory investigations into that haven’t blown me away with fear or anything. Most of all I figure that I can graduate in 3 years (spring 08) and put up with it until then.

    Soccer

    I played on the newly started school team. I’m no superstar when it comes to playing, but I am the kid who’s played his whole life and just has fun. I started at left back and had a pretty good season, although it was long and cold: colder in october than in november, and our season went all way through october; we had a few practices while it was snowing. I had a good time, it was a few orders of magnitude more commitment than playing on the club team last year. But it’s nice that I show up at the school and they decide to start a program. We competed with all the teams in our division, but we didn’t too well with winning, coming in below 5 and above 2. I think there’s a good base to go from next year, we’ll see how that goes.

    English 3021 – Language and Grammar

    An interesting one, looking at english in how it works now and it’s history from the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes jumping the channel from mainland europe. I’d already been finicky with language usage, I just really hope that this class doesn’t start me off yelling at friends/strangers about using I vs me or that vs which or stupid crap like that. I can handle doing it to family, but friends just seems like stretching it and complete strangers beyond tolerable.

    Computers 3501 – Algorithms and Computability

    Here’s one of those classes that just didn’t quite work for me. I’m not expecting to fail or anything: on the first two exams I managed 95%, I should have done just fine with the labs, but I probably only turned in half the homework. I’m not sure what my deal was, but it’s nice to know that within the class there are plenty others in the same boat as me. Interesting subject matter, but just the way in which it came across sort of hurt my head and my sense of how school should work. I don’t know, last year in a class with the same professor I’d judiciously do the homework each night before it was do I just couldn’t this year.

    Honors – Some ridiculous title about progress and history that I cannot remember

    An interesting class, a bit of a survey in history and literature and ideas of time/progress. Lots of exposure to fun new ideas, a couple of books to read and lots of excerpts. I don’t know about the honors program at my school, I hate the elitist notion of me being any more honorable than anyone else, but I think that the program gives me a shot at taking some classes I wouldn’t otherwise be able to.

    Political Philosophy

    I just decided one day last year I wanted to take this upper level philosophy course. I’m fickle like that. Without much background in either politics or philosophy I was swimming upriver, but don’t think I did terribly. Fun ideas once more, what more can you ask for. I’d rather earn a D in a tough course than an A in fluff. I also shouldn’t have a D, I did better than that.

    Computers – Seminar 1

    Pretty much a fluff course, we had to do a ~30 minute presentation on something about computers and write a 2 page paper on something else about computers. And show up once a week to watch everyone else’s presentation. I did my presentation on human computer interaction from a historical point of view, looking back at some cool shit, and had a good time making it. Homework should always be fun like that.

  3. 06 September 2006

    730 days ago

    Let Us Not Pretend We Do Not Like the New Facebook.

    It is intrusive. It is voyeuristic. It is bliss.

    I’m with this guy. If you know about facebook, you know that it’s kind of scary. And I swear to god, just the day before this came out I was thinking about how facebook had to be tracking all this stuff, what if 20 years down the road they started selling off people’s databases to the highest bidder or something. But now it just all goes right out there into the open, for you and everyone else to see. Brilliant. Now if it only came as RSS. (To let you in on how big a fucking deal facebook is, 2/3 of my friends have recently updated profiles (3 days), 1/8 have updated in the last 8 hours.)

    via Kjell Olsen730 days ago

  4. 11 April 2006

    Essay Tests

    878 days ago

    Man I love essay tests. It’s almost like the less I study for them, or am even prepared at all to take them (I don’t really study ever), the better I do.

    Freshman and Sophomore year in High School I had classes that gave lots of essay tests, but not since. No matter what the tests are on, I always manage come up with something to say close enough to the actual question and I can come out with my A.

    It’s nice to be able to take an upper division history class, do half the readings in the section, and ace the exam. I was expecting more of a C. I got 100/100. I had the biggest goofiest smile on my face for the next ten minutes. I felt the grade was a real testament to how much I kick school’s ass. The last section of the course I probably did 85% of the readings and got a 93.

    I still can’t decide whether it’s a good thing that I do great in school without trying, or a bad thing. On one side, I’ve always hated the kids who try hard in school – don’t you have better things to do with your time than homework? But then they’re the ones who are getting the most out of school. At least it seems to be that way. Maybe they just spend so much time on all that homework that they can’t see how little they’re really getting out of it.

  5. 14 March 2006

    Mumblings

    906 days ago

    I got picked to fill out a survey for my school, 15 minutes of button clicking. The quick reflection on college it provided wasn’t a bad one, and here’s what I put in the comments box after it was all said and done:

    I’m no big fan of “school,” and really only came to college for lack of anything better to do. I consider myself an ardent self learner and value skills learned independently and on my own time tremendously (probably because they so outweigh those I’ve experienced within school). School just hasn’t ever been able to keep me interested.

    Considering that, UMM has been better then I expected, and although I’m not yet sure whether or not I’ll be continuing with institutionalized education or not, I have enjoyed my time here.

    When people at home ask me how things are going, my response varies between “not bad” and “I haven’t dropped out yet.” As unenthusiastic is I sound, that’s really quite a testament.

  6. 01 March 2006

    919 days ago

    Cougar Soccer

    My school is adding a varsity mens team next year, I’ll be there. I regret going to a school without a soccer program a little, but hated the idea of a private school, and also the idea of going all to far away. I heard rumors that Morris was starting a team, and hedged my bets. We start practices after spring break, in just a few weeks.

    Kjell Olsen919 days ago

  7. 22 February 2006

    School

    926 days ago

    I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted to just raise my hand and say “when are we going to learn something?” in a number of my classes over the past week.

    I’m paying $4,865.42 (not counting housing and my meal plan). That is a shitloat of money. And I’m really not learning anything that I couldn’t just pick up a book and teach myself.

    I give interesting points to a few of my courses, but I’m really not sure if I’ll be able to put up with 2 more years of college.

  8. 29 January 2006

    Spring Semester

    950 days ago

    So I’m a few weeks into my second (real) semester of college. I’m taking 19 credits, which comes out to five classes. I have most of my work MWF, with four classes at about one hour each. I start at 9:15 and go until 11:30; break for lunch; then go from 1:00 to 3:20. Tuesdays I don’t have anything, and thursdays a Data Structures lab and Economics of networks.

    I’m still not sure about college. It’s damn expensive, even at a public school. I can’t say I hate it, but neither can I rationalize going into debt over it.

    I keep thinking there are better things I should be doing, and whether or not I manage to ever graduate will mostly come down to biting the bullet and ignoring that “this is a waste” feeling to come out of it with the requisite piece of paper.

    But I said I’d try out a year, and can’t say that its been a complete waste.

    French 3011

    Reading and Analysis of Texts. So far we’ve just started looking at french poetry. I’m surprised at how much french I know. Last spring I did some reading on my own (Le Petit Prince, Petit Nicolas, Rhinocéros) and got to the point that it’s not so much of a brain stretch to understand written french. But renaissance poetry kind of throws a wrench into all that comprehension.

    CS 1301

    We’re getting to go at things with scheme, which looks like fun. We’re not exactly moving fast yet, which always bugs me. I resent that fact that we’re made to take quizzes about programming on paper. They seem a bit antithetical retarded to me. I rely heavily on the computer when I’m programming, there really isn’t any need to sit down and memorize constructs and the finer points of syntax – the compiler tells you.

    Renaissance/Reformation

    I woke up one morning having nocturnally decided that I was going to take a class on the renaissance, and looked for one in the catalog, and there was one. The Renaissance is an interesting subject. I spend most of the time in any history class trying to draw parallels between now and then, and like to hope that right now we’re in a dark age and just ready to be reawakened into a new age.

    Data Structures

    Another computers course, I’ve been cutting my teeth on java for the first time. Having a bit of experience with ruby, java sucks pretty hard. It’s nice to learn something new, but it could be something a lot cooler then java. Unfortunately there’s probably one or two more course for which I’ll need to have a handle on java.

    In class the other day I said we should quit java, and the prof (same as in my 1301 course) made some noise about how much she liked smalltalk, so I’m going to see whether or not I could steer the course away from java. We’d maybe get to spend time on a second language, but java still seems requisite.

    Open Source vs. Proprietary Techonology: The Economics of Networks and Innovation

    Most obnoxious title ever. But probably my most interesting course. It meets once a week for a two hour block, and is all discussion (vs. lecture). Right now we’re reading free culture. So far I’ve come out of both the meetings excited for the next one, which hasn’t happened in any of my classes for awhile.

  9. 14 January 2006

    965 days ago

    On the Uses of a Liberal Education

    Here’s a good rant on how colleges are devolving into northern outposts of Club Med.

    What they will not generally do, though, is indict the current system. They won’t talk about how the exigencies of capitalism lead to a reserve army of the unemployed and nearly inevitable misery. That would be getting too loud, too brash. For the pervading view is the cool consumer perspective, where passion and strong admiration are forbidden.

    But such improvements shouldn’t be surprising. Universities need to attract the best (that is, the smartest and the richest) students in order to survive in an ever more competitive market. Schools want students whose parents can pay the full freight, not the ones who need scholarships or want to bargain down the tuition costs. If the marketing surveys say that the kids require sports centers, then, trustees willing, they shall have them. In fact, as I began looking around, I came to see that more and more of what’s going on in the university is customer driven. The consumer pressures that beset me on evaluation day are only a part of an overall trend.

    Colleges no longer have admissions departments, they have marketing divisions.

    How did we reach this point? In part the answer is a matter of demographics and (surprise) of money. Aided by the G.I. bill, the college-going population in America dramatically increased after the Second World War. Then came the baby boomers, and to accommodate them, schools continued to grow. Universities expand easily enough, but with tenure locking faculty in for lifetime jobs, and with the general reluctance of administrators to eliminate their own slots, it’s not easy for a university to contract. So after the baby boomers had passed through—like a fat meal digested by a boa constrictor—the colleges turned to energetic promotional strategies to fill the empty chairs. And suddenly college became a buyer’s market. What students and their parents wanted had to be taken more and more into account. That usually meant creating more comfortable, less challenging environments, places where almost no one failed, everything was enjoyable, and everyone was nice.

    In 1968, more than 21 percent of all the bachelor’s degrees conferred in America were in the humanities; by 1993, that number had fallen to 13 percent.

    Universities have come to serve, and not challenge, their students.

    It’s not that a left-wing professorial coup has taken over the university. It’s that at American universities, left-liberal politics have collided with the ethos of consumerism. The consumer ethos is winning.

    via Kjell Olsen965 days ago

  10. 07 January 2006

    972 days ago

    Tuition-free MIT

    College tuition today is extortion. And not just at MIT. The U of M charges $8,000/semester, and that doesn’t cover your room and board or your books.

    my ideal world: a high school girl in Vietnam with a cable modem attending all the MIT classes that she wants. Philip Greenspun

    And why not?

    via Kjell Olsen972 days ago

  11. 02 December 2005

    1008 days ago

    Never Underestimate the Power of Fun

    This is exactly what gets me about college. Play is extracted from work, and play inevitably becomes getting drunk and killing someone tearing down a goal post while celebrating a football victory (yes, thats my school).

    ...play=learning, play=practice, and learning/practice=survival. Play – and laughter – sends a signal to the brain that “this is good, and it matters”, which is why we’re often more likely to remember especially funny things than neutral or annoying things.

    I can’t understand how college makes work and play so irreconcilable. I’m all too close to dropping out, college just doesn’t any sense to me.

    via Kjell Olsen1008 days ago

  12. 16 November 2005

    1025 days ago

    my facebook

    Everyone in college uses facebook. I’m slowly starting to like it.

    Kjell Olsen1025 days ago

  13. 12 November 2005

    1028 days ago

    Lack of curiosity is curious

    students have always possessed far less knowledge than they should, or think they have. But in the past, ignorance tended to be a source of shame and motivation. Students were far more likely to be troubled by not-knowing, far more eager to fill such gaps by learning. As one of my reviewers, Stanley Trachtenberg, once said, “It’s not that they don’t know, it’s that they don’t care about what they don’t know.”

    Instead of a mainstream reverence for those who produce or appreciate works that represent the summit of human achievement, we have a corporatized and commodified culture that hypes the latest trend, the next new thing.

    via Kjell Olsen1028 days ago

  14. 11 November 2005

    1029 days ago

    Why You Need a Degree to Work For BigCo

    Of course we know that the educational component of University is a waste. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
    Like hazing rituals and wearing dark suits to work in August, attending a certain kind of University is a statement that you want to belong, that you know there is no practical purpose to the exercise but that you are prepared to make the sacrifice just to fit in.

    via Kjell Olsen1029 days ago

  15. 20 October 2005

    1051 days ago

    Missed class? Try a podcast

    This is getting absurd – why even pay for college? I bet there are a bunch of cool podcasts to listen to and learn from. In the days of the internet and free information, a college degree is really starting to feel like a $60,000 piece of paper.

    And at the University of Hawaii, hundreds of students in a computer science class are required to show up at a lecture hall only twice a semester—for the midterm and final. Instead of a textbook, they buy a small iPod at the bookstore, though most students already have one, the course professor said.

    via Kjell Olsen1051 days ago

  16. 03 October 2005

    1068 days ago

    The New Yorker: The Critics: A Critic At Large

    ...the character and performance of an academic class is determined, to a significant extent, at the point of admission; that if you want to graduate winners you have to admit winners…

    via Kjell Olsen1068 days ago

  17. 09 September 2005

    A bit more on college

    1093 days ago

    So I’m still ambivalent about college. I don’t know how much it’s helping me learn. I’ve always been a fiercely individual learner, and I’m not yet sure whether or not college is the right place for me. I decided to attend college more by default, I didn’t quite have anything else to do that would satisfy me entirely. I thought I should at least give it a try. But I’m still only lukewarm at best about it’s value, and what the fuck am I doing here when I don’t think it’s the best thing for me?

  18. 01 September 2005

    College again

    1100 days ago

    So I’m off at college, and things are going fine. A few quick bits:

  19. 28 August 2005

    1105 days ago

    Facebook | Welcome to the Facebook!

    I couldn’t have imagined how big a fucking deal facebook is with college kids – but having just uprooted, it’s oddly compelling to sift through and find your friends and acquaintances.

    Kjell Olsen1105 days ago

  20. 20 March 2005

    1265 days ago

    Living on the Cheap | Ask MetaFilter

    Suggestions as to how to obtain food on a budget: cook for yourself with fruits, beans and vegetables – a little meat mixed in.

    via Kjell Olsen1265 days ago

  21. 19 February 2005

    1294 days ago

    The New York Review of Books: Colleges: An Endangered Species?

    I might be on my way to college, and rightfully unexcited about it. Seems less like a real opportunity to me now then a doctored certificate of my ‘education.’

    In academia, in short, no less than in other privileged corners of American life, money is being funneled into the hands of a relative few. Once-shabby college towns have become boom towns where old dives remembered fondly by alumni are now upscale restaurants to which today’s students bring their high-limit credit cards, and parking lots are crowded with student SUVs.

    Amid these troubling developments, one hopeful sign is the growing public debate over who should go to college and how they should be paid for. Yet one hears comparatively little discussion of what students ought to learn once they get there and why they are going at all. Over my own nearly quarter-century as a faculty member (four years at Harvard, nineteen years at Columbia), I have discovered that the question of what undergraduate education should be all about is almost taboo.

    College has come from times in which it served to develop strong moral character, pronounced christian faith, to become an engine of elitist intellectuals. As the university system grew and sophisticated, the chief incentive for professors to uproot themselves to another institution would be the lessening of their teaching burden.

    At exactly the time when the struggle to get into our leading universities has reached a point of “insane intensity” (James Fallows’s apt phrase), undergraduate education has been reduced to a distinctly subsidiary activity.

    The history of American higher education amounts to a three-phase story: in the colonial period, colleges promoted belief at a time of established (or quasi-established) religion; in the nineteenth century, they retained something of their distinctive creeds while multiplying under the protection of an increasingly liberal, tolerationist state; in the twentieth century, they became essentially indistinguishable from one another (except in degrees of wealth and prestige), by turning into miniature liberal states themselves—prescribing nothing and allowing virtually everything.

    via Kjell Olsen1294 days ago

  22. 01 February 2005

    1312 days ago

    St. John's College

    Wow, an interesting looking college:

    St. John’s College is a co-educational, four year liberal arts college known for its distinctive “great books” curriculum.
    The all-required course of study is based on the reading, study, and discussion of the most important books of the Western tradition. There are no majors and no departments; all students follow the same program.
    Students study from the classics of literature, philosophy, theology, psychology, political science, economics, history, mathematics, laboratory sciences, and music. No textbooks are used. The books are read in roughly chronological order, beginning with ancient Greece and continuing to modern times.
    All classes are discussion-based. There are no class lectures; instead, the students meet together with faculty members (called tutors) to explore the books being read.

    Another school I’ve looked at is Evergreen, but the only colleges I’ve applied to are pretty run of the mill… I don’t like school much.

    Kjell Olsen1312 days ago

  23. Also somewhat recently

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