InsaneJournal

My textbook for Cults in America has a whole section about H. P. Lovecraft. It makes me wish my next book to read was something fictional, and not The Struggle for Russian Environmental Policy.

Right, classes. I promised I'd post about that, didn't I?

I'm taking six classes this semester.

Weightlifting: This is for my final PE credit. The teacher kept talking about how if we wanted we could lift for strength or lift to tone muscle or lift to lose weight, significant look mewards. Yeah, no. I told him I felt like I had no upper body strength compared to the rest of my karate class, and he gave me some advice. It's going well, but it's first thing in the morning, and it is not fun times. But mostly because they play that fucking song that starts out exactly like Werewolves of London, then ends up being all about Sweet Home Alabama. If you're gonna start out with Werewolves of London and I'm stuck in the weight room doing crunches, I want howling and perfect hair, damnit.

Cults in America: This apparently should be New Religious Movements in America, but the professor figured no one would sign up for that, so it's Cults. I like it. It's a little terrifyingly full of Religion majors, whereas I am really bad at religion, but it's damn interesting. We started off with reading apocalypses -- Daniel and Revelation -- and now we're looking at the history of new religious movements in the United States. My term paper's going to be about pagan reconstructionist movements, which I think is pretty broad so I'm probably going to focus on Hellenismos, since there's a lot about it. I pick these things for selfish reasons -- I'd like to examine how modern pagan reconstructionists have managed because I'd like to figure out how the various pagan religions of my Founders-era Europe operate amidst organized Christendom, and while I get the feeling they're not devoted as much to accurate reconstruction as they are to not pissing off the gods while also not pissing off the neighbors, I'd like to look at how real groups do things.

From Frontier to Urban Ferment: It's a history course! On the industrialization of America. And everything else that happened then. I like it because we get to talk about temperance ladies with AXES. I like axes. Not sure what my term paper will be on, yet. I'm thinking something entertainmenty, or maybe technological. Or it could be about axes.

Comparative Environmental Politics: Professor Jahiel teaches this one. I really like it, actually, but I'm a dork. At the moment we're reading about the German Green Party, who are, so far, fascinatingly crazy in all the right ways. Earlier we were tentatively looking at monkeywrenching in the US, but my classmates seem to find that too undignified and rowdy. (I like axes!) I'm doing a paper on Russian environmental policy with a focus on nuclear stuff, hence the next Book To Read. Apparently nobody else can pronounce 'nuclear,' and the other Sarah wanted my specialty (water quality) and since she has no discernable sense of humor, I decided to let her have it.

Advanced Karate: Is going surprisingly well. I mean, I still suck at it but I'm at least getting better at balancing on one foot while kicking imaginary people in the face -- a valuable career skill -- and those girls in back of me have stopped giggling about how FAT I am. (Why? Because I am FAT, and apparently nobody told me FAT people shouldn't be seen in public, because someone might notice they are FAT. The horror!) I do wish I had a uniform so I could wear my yellow belt (and still be FAT), but my Dalek shirt works decently AND Flowers-san is a Whofan. Nobody else on campus is, so I was like YAY FINALLY SOMEONE DOESN'T THINK I JUST WANT TO EXTERMINATE SALTSHAKERS AND R-2 UNITS.

Linguistic Anthropology: Just what it says on the tin, only the tin is nearly three hours of lecture on Wednesday nights. I was nearly going to have Clingy Jealous Girlfriend issues in it (apparently I should not share an interest in Lovecraft with another woman's property -- this happened to me freshman year when I dared share an interest with the Beatles with, again, another woman's property, because I am a personality'd Jezebel, who attends class and does group projects and other such sinful things) but I think I might have diffused it last class. We shall see. I want to do my term paper about sarcasm in this one, but Croaker's having none of it.

And that is that. The first five are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that wears me out a little, but then I have a four-day weekend. (Well, I try to lift weights on Saturday or Sunday.) I really didn't mean it to be that way, but that's how my schedule worked out. It's actually really nice, because I know with absolute confidence if someone invites me to a party one evening, I can either say Sure! or No, I Have Class, Sorry -- none of this "ooh, uh, well, I might need to do homework..." and then I don't.

Anyway, I should sleep because apparently I'm going to church tomorrow morning. Man, I don't even know what you wear to church. And we're walking.