Two Days In

School started on Thursday again for me. I had two classes that day and they are going to be my two hardest I believe. My Archeology Theory class is the history of the field and what social trends and changes in science caused things to evolve. There is a tremendous amount of reading required and we have to write 2-3 pages on each article we read. My History 702 class is on American history from 1789 to 1877 (Antebellum era), but is not a typical survey course where we go in depth about historical events and memorize times and names. Instead we will be focusing on labor, especially slavery and the economy, and discussing how the things we read fit into the historiography. This class also has a lot of reading but fewer papers.
Friday I had my History 720 course, which is a methods class where they teach us how to be historians and give us exposure to the various careers and interests. There is a bit of reading in the beginning and a few papers throughout, but for the most part it is a discussion course.
I still have yet to attend my American Architecture course, which will be on Wednesday. I am really looking forward to this course. There is going to be a bit of reading and memorizing styles, but this will be the most practical course for my degree.
All of my professors are extremely helpful, friendly, and informative. Only one of my professors is intimidating, and I think that stems not only from the fact that he is the only one I didn't have contact with in my undergrad degree, but also from the fact that he is known as a major player in the academic world for the history of slavery.
Right now I also have two jobs. I am working my assistantship at the State Parks doing historical research for new information kiosks at some of the parks. Later on I am also going to get to go on an archaeological dig (finally) and do some preservation work. I have also kept my internship doing GIS (mapmaking) at Richland County. This means I am working 34 hours and taking four grad courses. I am going to try this for at least a week to see if I can handle it. I am not so sure about it, but I won't know until I try. I can always leave my internship at GIS, and they have told me that they would be willing to take me back in the Spring if I was interested. So we will see how well I handle it, and if it fails I will at least be able to fix the problem and not hurt my grade because it will be early enough.

On another note... the lovely football players are already at it. USC is getting quite the reputation for having football players that are always in trouble. In the last two years they have had several arrests for fighting (at games and in public), vandalism (of their own office and vehicles), gun charges, drug charges, etc. Yesterday the quarterback and two others were suspended from the first game for not attending the summer courses they signed up for, which caused them to be put on academic probation. The new graduate students and I were talking about this today and I mentioned how it will be like this all year. Right after saying that I saw the news headlines and it turns out another player was arrested this morning for bringing a weapon on campus. It was unclear whether the firearm was unregistered or not, the press made it sound like it was.
Two days in and we already have four players suspended. I think that is a new record, but not one we should be proud of.

Fun day

Today we went to Charlotte to see the Body Worlds exhibit of artistically-preserved human bodies. We both found it fascinating, although one of our buddies had a severe case of the jibblies at first and we thought he was going to pass out. But he got through it and we had a good time.

Also, tonight we watched Hot Fuzz, which had better acting, writing, directing, and cinematography, a better story, and a much bigger budget than Shaun of the Dead, but wasn't as funny. Still a good watch.

The death of evolution

I recently read Fahrenheit 451, the classic novel of a dystopian future America. Most people think the book is about widespread censorship by a tyrannical government, but that's not exactly true. In the book, the American people have, on their own, rejected books and all other intellectual pursuits. This is encouraged by the government once it becomes obvious that they can use it to repress and control people, but the root cause is the public's growing obsession with television.

Bradbury's point, in more detail here, is that the real culprit, the real devastator of American society is television. Given that this book was written over 50 years ago, I would imagine that a modern take on the story would point the finger at other forms of media, in addition to television, but for now suffice it to say that the story is about the damaging effects of television addiction.

If you've not read it recently, Bradbury describes how the government uses this massive censorship to, among other things, keep the population under control and mentally dormant. Specifically, we are told by Fire Captain Beatty, that the most popular shows on television engage the audience by requiring so little brainpower to comprehend that even the tiniest amount of consciousness spent watching them can allow the audience to feel intelligent and accomplished.

For example, Beatty describes one of the most popular television shows as being a game show in which people are asked if they know the lyrics to various popular songs. Of course, most people do, so they are allowed to feel as though they have accomplished something worthwhile, even though song lyrics surely number among the least valuable things a person can commit to memory. In that way, television strokes the ego and flatters the viewer for what amounts to essentially nothing.

Guess what new game show I just heard about? From Wiki:

Combining karaoke singing with a spelling bee-style competition, this show will have contestants trying to remember the lyrics to popular songs. In each episode, six lucky contestants will be selected from the audience to play a series of games that test their knowledge of song lyrics.

This isn't just similar to Bradbury's dire warning. It's not merely close. It's exactly the same. And if that's not bad enough, a rival network has already ripped it off with another show that appears to be identical.

Also, I have been made aware of the existence of a nationally-televised Bingo game show.

I think that part of the reason that Bradbury's work has been misinterpreted is due to the idea that it's much easier to believe in a malevolent government body deciding what's best for us all. Perhaps it seems implausible that Americans would jointly decide that they don't need books when they have Tivos and network television and other shiny things and diversions. In a nation where this soul-murdering garbage is among the highest-rated of these diversions, a nation where the endless fact-free news cycle is so busy covering the DUI arrests of various worthless dregs of society, I don't have a hard time believing in Bradbury's vision of the future.

Pathetic.

Serious Post-Potter Depression

I finished HP7 today after staying up late both Friday and Saturday nights. It was amazing. I laughed. I cried. Now all I want is more. I read everything I could on Wikipedia and I watched several of the interviews JK gave after it was all done, and I still want more. I want to know what happens right after the final chapter until the epilogue. I want to know more about the battle. I just want more.
It seems odd to think that it is done and that I can never read a Harry Potter book for the first time again. I felt the same way with Lord of the Rings, but I must admit I got more involved in these books and the personal side of each character. Especially when it came to my favorite characters, Fred and George. My favorite scene about them is during end of the 5th book. (I am sure if you have read them you know what I am talking about.)
So now I have to go back to the Muggle world and go to work tomorrow. I really wish I could stay absorbed in the books instead.

New Record

Today we hit a new heat record at 105. With the heat index from the humidity, that comes to 112 degrees! At least the air was blowing today. It has been pretty hazy and stagnant for the last few days.

HOT

Today it was 101 degrees with a heat index of 105. (That is how hot they say it feels with the humidity added.) We have a whole week of this according to the weather man. As miserable as it is normally, I can usually avoid being outside for the most part but today we had to do a site visit for an hour at a historic home and we had to dress professionally. I am also supposed to go out on Thursday searching for missing cemeteries with GIS. I think I am going to beg to have that one rescheduled after the headache I came home with today from being out in the heat.
Now I understand why Amy comes home from Dubai during the summer.

How do you reason with someone like this

One of my friends mentioned online that her son has chicken pox. I thought that was odd given that they immunize for that, so I asked her if she didn't. She informed me, and the rest of our friends via the internet, that she had not immunized her son and the reason why. She "researched" about it and found that immunizations create autism and ADHD according to this group called Generation Rescue. And on a minor note, her family has reactions to Pertussis, which I can understand being that I also have a reaction to that particular immunization. My understanding is that she hasn't immunized for any of the major ones, because she stated that when he is two she will immunize him for the big ones like Polio.
I tried to keep an open mind and read the article she sent me to read. Their research consisted of a telephone survey of nine counties in Oregon in which they asked parents if they had immunized their children and if their kids had been diagnosed with ADHD or Autism. Their findings were that boys were 1.5 times more likely to have autism and ADHD if they were immunized and it got worse the older they got. I found several flaws with this, but the two biggest were that there is no official test for either of these "diseases" and the fact that correlation is not causation.
I also went to the website for this group who wrote the article and their entire purpose is to "educate" parents about the dangers of immunizations and other instances of toxic materials such as mercury. Sounds completely non-biased to me.
It strikes me though that most of the immunizations we receive have been around for a pretty decent amount of time and you would think that something so dangerous would have been discovered by the larger medical community by now. I would also think there are far more dangerous things to worry about with a child than the small, if any, chance he gets some disorder from an immunization.