Nevermind

You know you did ok in a class when understanding what you're supposed to turn in for the final is more complicated than the final itself. They gave us a pretty easy exam, and I could have gotten 100% if I'd studied better. The first half of the test was basically on the first three weeks of the class, stuff that I've understood for months but never taken the time to memorize entirely. The second half was basically data entry then analyzing a few numbers to figure out if the economic model worked. Whatever, no one had any trouble with this thing. The point though is that I passed, with little sleep the night before. I just hope the other exams will be like this, although I have to say they could have taken it up a notch or two for this class.

Now off to bed for a nice long nap.

Here's to firsts

I am so royally screwed for my econometrics final tomorrow. It's ridiculous how much of this class passed through my brain but didn't stick. Of course, misery loves company, and I'm pleased to note that most of the people in my class are in similar states of confusion and frustration.

I wonder if I can graduate if I flunk this class, which is worth 5 credits and therefore extremely important.

Music Essentials

This is what I use to procrastinate or keep me entertained while I clean my room on a Saturday night.

SomaFM
Internet radio, live from somewhere in the Haight? I particularly like the Secret Agent station

Internet radio stations tailored to you taste:

Last.fm
Must register (very quick, easy) and install a small, simple-to-use program to listen.

Pandora.com
Uses a mildly annoying Flash interface, but it allows you to listen immediately.

Type in a few bands/artists you like, then sit back and enjoy. Here's a review/comparison sort of thing:

Pandora and Last.fm: Nature vs. Nurture in Music Recommenders

Good times chez les Belges

It was an innocuous text message, 'hey Robin, come grab a beer and check out a concert next door.' Yes, it was one of the Thursday night parties at the Belgian house. This French guy I know from the American house invited me over and got me through all the keycard security and into the basement where a random cover band was playing. But it didn't matter what kind of music if was, this was a cultural exchange!

Which meant they had like 10 different types of Belgian beer for 2 euros a bottle. Three or four bottle later, I'm wondering how I'm going to get up in 6 hours. I probably won't. But it was good fun, and excellent beer. I'm just going to have to make a quick visit to McDonalds for a shot of anti-hangover fries.

Yumm!

Still a sucker for good grades

I've mentioned to a few people that all I care about here is passing my classes. And now that I've got my first grade I know that I was lying: I'm a total GPA whore.

(by the way, don't read this if you don't want to hear me gloat)

It's really just a matter of pride. It's stupid but I feel like I have to prove to my professors that I'm not the idiot I seem to be when I blurt out a few hardly-coherent sentences in class or, on the other hand, sit silently in my corner the entire semester. Not that it matters what they think, or that they even necessarily think that.

In any case, I'm just happy to be able to say that I went to France for grad school and I threw off their curve (for one assignment). Take that, assholes! It's just one class, but after my constant worrying, a touch of overconfidence and arrogance couldn't hurt, right?

FYI: I got a 17 out of 20. It's rare to get anything over 16. No one has ever actually gotten a 20, because that means that you're perfect, and they just can't let you think that. Also, it's funny that in the note the professor included with my grade he didn't say good job or anything, he only pointed out some esoteric critiques of the subject that I didn't cover, and that my essay and presentation were too long. Can't fault him for that, and my papers were always too long back in high school (Matt, no comments please). Not a question of overachieving, I just have problems with concision (have you noticed yet?).

It's funny though that positive feedback is so rare. For example, in French you say 'not bad' (pas mal) if something is good, and 'it's not terrible' (c'est pas terrible) when something pretty much sucks. Another example: In some famous play this guy is in love this this lady, tragic story, etc. He asks her if she loves him, and she says 'I don't hate you' (je vous hais point), which, it turns out, means she's madly in love with him. Apparently this is related to the political climate under Louis XIV when Moliere and company had to say the opposite of what they meant to critique the king. You'd think though that the king would have caught on at some point.

violence, and more violence

Saw a black man randomly get attacked by a couple of drunk Arab/North African? guys in a pretty nice part of Paris -- the guy seemed to be ok, but it was so weird to see this happen right in front of a movie theater with hundreds of people around. Seems they were just looking for a fight. By the time my friends and I got over to where it was happening the guys, including the black guy, all ran off, chasing each other down the street. I don't think they caught the guys, but I'm now an incoherent witness in the French police department computers.

Speaking of a movie theater, I saw 13 (Tzameti) tonight. I think some of you will love this movie if it ever makes it out of the festival circuit in the US. This 22 yo roof worker guy gets caught up in an insane tournament where jaded rich old farts gamble with the lives of hapless souls who need the money. The craziest Russian roulette game you've ever seen.

Trailer here. Quicktime required. C'mon Matt, just install it. It's worth it.

Reminds me of Intacto, but way more insane. Hey Sabrina, I saw this with you in Berkeley a few years ago, right?

Here's the blurb from the website 13themovie.com:

"A clean-faced 20-year-old, Sebastien, leads an impoverished life with his immigrant family, constantly struggling to find the money for their next meal. When hired to repair the roof of the morphine-addicted Godon (Philippe Passon), Sebastien eavesdrops in on a conversation which appears to offer a quick and easy solution to his money troubles.

When Godon suddenly falls dead Sebastien decides to follow the instructions, meant for the recently deceased addict, in a desperate bit to secure some income for himself and his family.

He then becomes embroiled in what appears to be a wild goose chase, taking on the identity of Godon and following a series of clues which lead him ever closer to his impending fate. The trail eventually leads Sebastien into the heart of the French countryside and face to face with a ring of clandestine gamblers who bet on human lives. From this point on there is no turning back."

It's over!

You probably think my stories about academic life are boring, but I've had so much work that I haven't had time to go out and do anything really fun, except eating KFC at Place de Clichy with Claire Saturday night. But anyway, I'm exhausted and want to get this on paper, so to speak, before I go to sleep.

I had to give an exposé today, which is just a fancy way of saying a presentation. Really though, like most people I just read an essay I had written for about 10 minutes. I've been dreading this thing all semester and have seen some really good (or rather, incomprehensible and over my head, so therefore very good) presentations, and the professor is brilliant and super cool. Plus, usually in class I barely get out a few incoherent sentences when we discuss something because the prof manages to pull the coolest ideas out of his ass like it's nothing and it's really intimidating. I usually just shut up most of the time, since there are plenty of French kids who are able to contribute without sounding like a child.

So being one of only two things we've actually had to turn in, and my one chance to speak and not sound like an idiot (unless my writing was too bad), this expos had a lot riding on it.

As usual, I spent too much time researching and really enjoying the topic, which was: Are there more wars of religion these days? Vague ... yes, I'd say so. It turns out that the topic is vast, and I went from pre-modern European history in 1648 to Donald Rumsfeld's press confrerence last Friday about the war on terror to explain why mixing religion and war are such bad ideas. Yes, that's intuitive, but try explaining why in 10 minutes. Most of the stuff I read was just background, but I had so much background that I couldn't get the stupid thing written. I worked on it all weekend and stayed up all night last night (for what is essentially a 3 page paper!), and from about midnight to 3am I was sitting there going 'fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, I'm so screwed!' The document I was working was actually called 'Im screwed.doc.'

I don't know what happened, but 3 pages somehow managed to make it onto the page in a somewhat coherent order. Fifteen minutes before the presentation I printed it out and created an outline (a 'plan', in French) according to the strict Sciences Po rules (intro, two parts, two subparts in each part, conclusion, preferably with a brilliant quote at the beginning), going about the thing entirely backwards.

The thing in France is that they love plans, and in many classes the form of the argument and the plan is far more important than the actual content of the paper. This is especially the case with law school, I've heard. So as usual, I wrote the paper, then figured out what I had been meaning to say and wrote the plan in like two minutes. Apparently you're not even supposed to start writing until you have a killer plan and know exactly what you're going to say.

Here's my plan:

Assist-t-on un retour des "guerres de religion"?


I) Histoire et choc (History and shock)
a. Westphalie Afghanistan (Westphalia to Afghanistan)
b. Choc des civilisations et les extrmistes religieux (Clash of civilizations and religious extremists)


II) Terreur et rligion (terror and religion)
a. Guerre contre le terrorisme la schizophrenie (the war against terror -- schizophrenia)
b. Delcaration unilaterale d'une guerre de religion (unilateral declaration of a religious war)

Does that sound at all useful for writing a paper? (Plus, it's full of typos -- my copyediting teacher would kill me). But somehow the French kids are like plan-making kung-fu masters. At Sciences Po you should be able to turn any argument into to two main points with two subpoints in each. If you don't, you're being redundant and lame. This American girl went after me, and I found her expose to be kind of encyclopedic, which definitely has its place, and perfectly balanced, perfect for Sciences Po, but I think she could have been more radical about secularism in French society. Whatevah.

Oh yeah, so it actually went ok. The prof said it was very 'fine', which in French means astute or sharp. So hopefully I've redeemed myself. But it was so scary sitting in front of my computer without anything written at 3am. I hadn't even read it through once before I printed it out to take it to class.

Ok ok, I know this is really long but this week was kind of a milestone for me. Like I've mentioned before, two papers and this expose, due Thursday Friday Monday. And it went ok. It turns out that when I actually have work to do I like it here. It's just the 'learn all this but never try to use it' attitude that really bothers me. But although I may be exhausted, overwhelmed, relieved, and ready for more, all at the same time, life is good. I just need some sleep.

update

I know I've been neglecting this thing these last few days, but it's the end of the semester and everything is coming due at the same time. Like Thursday and Friday I had papers due in two classes, economic history class and contemporary political issues. So if anyone needs to know something about the origins of the industrial revolution and why Harvard professor Stephen Marglin is kind of a jackass, economically speaking of course, just ask. Otherwise I could explain a crazy theory of why political passions are on the rise.

In other news, I'm not getting much sleep because of these projects. I also have to give a presentation on Monday about whether or not religious wars are on the rise, and for the next 48 hours, except for a few hours of sleep, I should be doing nothing but reading, and hopefully writing at some point. So that's not really other news.

In real other news, we started signing up for classes today. As with last semester, it's a complete disaster since the online registration system is such shit. It's not just a French thing though, although that's probably part of it, because I know of one American university that uses it too. You can't see when the hours for any of the classes are until you actually start signing up, so juggling your schedule is a nightmare. Then, only a certain number of spots are open at a time, and the administration has to open up more, seemingly randomly, so the only way to get the schedule you want is to get lucky at the beginning, or sit there for 5 hours hitting 'refresh' trying to get the classes you really want. Fortunately there's no competition for most of my classes, but half of them didn't have hours listed, so trying to choose my language classes, currently completely full, was a mess.

What else is going on? I'm thinking Muslim protesting around the world need to chill out. Check out what has gotten them all worked up: political cartoons of Muhammed [skip over the diatribe at the top to get to the images below]. And the quote on CNN from the State department is just great. We can invade a country and piss off a ridiculous number of people, in addition to killing a bunch, but a few Danes exercizing freedom of expression that bothers some Muslims isn't cool: "In Washington, the State Department criticized the drawings, calling them 'offensive to the beliefs of Muslims.'" Because killing their asses apparently isn't offensive enough. This one guy I read about says he's just waiting for the newspaper to be shut down, like Denmark is Saudi Arabia or something.

What the hell is going on in the world today?

His time has to be worth more than $10/hour

Send an athiest to his neighborhood church

Bid it up on eBay.

Proceeds donated to charity.