LittleJudy.com

School Daze

I took a big leap of faith this week and I'm still feeling a bit stunned: I quit my job to go back to school full-time.

It hasn't really sunk in yet.

I still have this overwhelming feeling that I'm supposed to be working on something. I still feel like I should be checking my email, looking for the latest news, or coming up with the next big idea to improve the product I manage.

For the next several weeks I'll be catching up on a lot of things around the house that need doing including household paperwork, cleaning out closets, giving away clothes, book, etc. I start a new mentoring program called iMentor.org this month and I'll be volunteering with Red Cross at the NY Marathon in November. 

Right now "celebs" is the biggest word in my tag cloud, but that's going to change. I'm sick of writing about entertainment and celebrities, which is one of the reasons I am leaving the media world (more about that in future posts). A few months ago I Googled "should I quit my job and go back to school?" and was disappointed I couldn't find very much. So, I'm going to try and fill that niche myself here.

Stay tuned.

My first final

It wasn't until I was on the train on my way to school that I realized I was on my way to my first final in 18 years! I think I did well even though it is so hard for me to write by hand..
Next up is my Spanish class which beginsJune 4....I can't wait...wepa!!!!

My textbook dissed Shakira

I finished reading my first class assignment, Chapter 1 of "Media & Culture 5 - An Introduction to Mass Communication (2007 Update)." 

There's a discussion about how culture can be defined as "a set of products sorted into high, low or middle positions on a cultural skyscraper," with tractor pulls and Jerry Springer on the ground floor and "Hamlet" and "Finnegan's Wake" in the penthouse.

I follow the analogy but I have a serious issue when it comes to the placement of one of my favorite artists, Shakira.  They've got her on the low end of low culture. What the hell is that about?

Girlfriend is writing songs in two languages and she's extremely creative both musically and as a lyricist.

She's also intellectually curious. I remember one time she was at the morning show on 93.1 FM Amor and I was there to take photos and video (the photo at left is from that interview).

During one of the commerical breaks -- when most artist would fuss with their make-up or text message or find something to complain about to their publicists -- Shaki started leafing through some of the books left behind by various authors who had visited the show.

I'm not saying artists don't read, of course, but I definitely know another book person when I see one.

On one of her concert tours she hired a history professor to go with her, so she could get a daily history lesson. Just because.

She supposedly recited the alphabet at 17 months, began writing poetry at 6 and when she was 7 she asked Santa to bring her a typewriter because she wanted to write.

Back to the skyscraper chart for a minute. I don't mean to knock Beyonce, but they have her in the middle on this chart, several steps above Shakira, and two steps above Gorillaz.

I guess the author couldn't see past her bellydancing moves.

I'll stop now. I wonder if anyone will bring this up in class tomorrow?

Back at school!

Well my break is over and I am back at school waiting for my first class to begin...it looks like it will be in a lecture hall. Update later!

Update: First of all, the photo at left is students waiting for the next class period to begin.

My class, Media 180, consists of two 50 minute lectures a week, and one 50 minute class discussion.  This is the first class I've had in a lecture hall in a very long time (I think the last was an Economics 101 class at Pace about a million years ago.)

The syllabus looks really interesting. It says the course "offers a deeper interpretation of the mass media than is typical in public discussion. We'll review the history and technology of selected mass media but pay particular attention to the cultural values the mass media support in contemporary life."

I'm looking forward to looking at media from an analytical approach. I usually deconstruct as I consume television, film, commercials, Web sites and I hope this class will be add a new dimension to that process.  I was able to get the textbook today, too, and I have to say the college bookstore was really efficient and much better than Shakespeare & Co. across the street.

The professor pointed out that people often refer to The Media as a big, bad entity. You know, "It's The Media's fault that [fill in the blank]" Something which, by the way, I hate, partly because I am a cog in the big media machine myself but mainly because I don't see The Media as one entity having one agenda. I see, for example, a difference between FOX News and CNN, or, say, my own CBS News radio and Pacifica.

I'll ask myself the same question after a few weeks of this class and see how my point of view has changed.

Next week, our case study is -- MADONNA! I will refrain from telling the class we had the same ballet teacher. 

Mission Accomplished!

I finished my very first semester of college in 18 years. I'm proud to say that I had perfect attendance this semester -- one of the perks of being a grown-up is a stronger sense of responsibility, I suppose!

So I have about six weeks off before I go back. Which if I didn't have noisy neighbors would mean an extra two days I week I can sleep in late!

In the meantime, I'm working on my Spanish by reading "El Leon, La Bruja, y El Ropero" en español. Can you tell me what famous work of fiction that is?

All set for next semester...

Well, here's what doing with school:

I got on A on my term paper! That means that I'm getting an A in the course since I had an A average on the first two exams, handed in all five of the response papers and had perfect attendance (unless I play hooky Tuesday!)

I was able to get my MMR shot, well the first one any way, which means I can take more than one class.

Registration was still a nightmare, though. I woke up early in the morning last Monday, well early for me, and went online to register for my two classes. No matter what I registered for, I was told I didn't have the necessary pre-requisites even though none of the course I was registering for had pre-requisites!

I called the registrar who said that they had no records of my math and english competency scores which I took at Brooklyn College in 1981.  I pointed out that they do have in my records that I've taken English composition and Pre-Calculus with an A in each. Not good enough.  I had to call the testing center.

So, I waited till the testing center opened at 10 a.m. and called. They told me that my test scores were in the CUNY system, but hadn't transferred over to the Hunter system. (CUNY is the City University of New York which includes Hunter, Brooklyn College, Queens college and several other New York area schools.)

It took 24 hours for the problem to get fixed. Apparently Brooklyn College had entered in my test scores incorrectly.

At any rate, I was able to register for the two classes I wanted to take! The first is Introduction to Media Studies which is a pre-requisite to all my major courses. The other is Intro to English Literature which is a pre-requisite for a lot of really cool literature courses as well as several in my major.

The other exciting news is that I got the results of my Spanish language placement test. I was placed in Intermediate 2, which is the fourth course in the four required semesters of language.

Well, Tuesday is my last class of the semester and then I get to take a break until January 28.

Just finished my first term paper

It's not a paper exactly, it's actually a letter to a public official, but I finished it on time and didn't stay up all night doing it either (this is my usual bedtime, since I work 1 to 9).

I forgot about so many things!  I don't remember the proper footnote format, or whether or not I'm supposed to put this in a fancy bookcover.

High school, junior high, and my smattering of college courses are all kind of jumbled together and I can't remember which goes where.

Plus, I don't think I did a lot of papers in college because when I first went to school I was a dance major and then when I went back again I took a lot of computer programming classes.

Of course, coding on an IBM 360 and using freakin' punch cards has to count for something!

Seriously, though, I'm lucky that this is my "return" class because the professor is allowing us to do rewrites. So, if it's a matter of formatting then I can still correct them.

That leaves two more writing summaries and I'll be set for this class since I have an A average on my two tests and I haven't missed a class session yet.

Next up....I HAVE to get that MMR shot this week or I'll have problems registering on Monday. Stay tuned.

Some school updates

Tomorrow is my second exam in my Intro to American Government course. 

I feel a little more relaxed about it, which may not be a good thing. I think I was more organized in my study schedule for this test, but somehow I feel less prepared.

To be fair, there was more stuff to study this time. I think we only had two essay questions to review on the first test and this time around we had four. Two out of the four will be on the actual test and we'll have to choose one. So if you study three of the four questions ahead of time, you should be prepared.

At least this time around I will remember to bring pencils instead of pens!  I've already sharpened three of them. 

Wednesday morning I'm going to go get my MMR shot at the Chelsea Health Clinic. My doctor doesn't have MMR shots, because she doesn't treat kids.

She suggested I call a pediatrician. I did, but the one I called acted like I was asking her to perform open heart surgery on me. 

So I called the Board of Health and I'm off to what back in the day was where one went if one needed a shot of penicillin, if you know what I'm talkin' about!

I need the MMR shot so I can enroll in more than one class. New York state law dictates that if you are getting 6 or more credits in a semester you have to have your vaccinations.   

Registration is Dec. 4, and I hope I can get into an intro to media studies and an english lit class. That will knock out two more core courses and give me pre-requisites to take more in my major. 

Okay, off to get some pre-test slumber!lkoi

90 Minute Jury Duty

Add something new to the list of reasons why it's great to be a mature college student: NO JURY DUTY!

After spending an hour (no lie) to get through security at Kew Gardens' Borough Hall I finally got to the jury waiting room where I, uh, waited. 

Borough Hall (above) is to 60 Centre Street in Manhattan (below) what Penn Station is to Grand Central.

It gets the job done, I suppose, but it ain't pretty. Seated with the hundreds of other prospective jurors in theater style seats I waited patiently for the bailiff (I assume that's what he's called) to come around and give us what he called "the jury speech."

There were these lovely plasma screen TVs hanging from the ceiling, but of course none of them were working. There were also some computers in the back of the room, but I didn't get to play with any of them.

At least I had a crochet project with me  (new sweater, short sleeved, Homespun yarn.)

So, after I sat around for another hour (it was 10:30 at this point), the bailiff came back to give us "the speech."

We were told to hand in our jury summons, unless we were eligible for exemption from duty.  He listed reasons like, "if you are no longer a Queens resident, if you are not a United States citizen, if you have been convicted of a felony, if you are a caregiver to an elderly family member or a child, bla bla bla bla." It was the same speech I heard while waiting on line earlier and had read on-line, and in the back of the jury summons.

And then, and then....

He said the magic words "if you are a full- or part-time student, and you are scheduled to take classes between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. during the week, you are eligible for exemption."

I was interested in participating in jury duty and thought I'd be able to knock it out in a day or two and simply go back to work on Monday. But then I realized that I have an exam Tuesday and that might pose a problem if I actually got picked for a jury.

So, I decided to do the responsible thing.

When they called up our row I spoke to a clerk who took my jury card, wrote the word "left" on it and told me I could leave. That was it!

All I have to do in the future is photocopy my college ID and my class schedule and then mail that in to the court.

Criminals about to stand trial, at least in Queens, can rest a little easier tonight.

My first test!

I survived my first college test in 18 years. I was in an absolute panic beforehand though. 

The test would include one essay question and six definitions of terms he we could pick from a list of ten. He gave us a list of several words that might end up on the test as well as three sample essay questions one of which would end up on the test. 

is that a 21st century thing or is it just this prof? I'm not used to this much advance help.

I did plenty of studying and practiced writing out the essays and definitions of some of the terminology used in the class. My mom stayed over the weekend before the test and she helped quiz me, which was fun. It was like seventh grade all over again!

So, I get to class after a night of studying and I realize that all I have is pens. Now, you have to remember that I'm used to writing everything on a computer, you know, with a DELETE key and spell check. On top of that, I'm used to having the luxury of a professional copy editor (not to mention the aforementioned mom who emails us when she finds any errors on TheShowbuzz.com,)

The thought of writing by hand scared the heck out of me, so having pens only made me panic more. I can't even remember the last time I used a pencil or an eraser.

Luckily, the nice guy that sits next to me (I think he's the second eldest in the class) let me borrow a pencil.

The funny thing was that I was so nervous going in but once I got started writing everything flowed very well.

In fact, I got a 94 on the test!

Next week I meet with an academic advisor to plan my course of study. There are so many courses I want to take, so hopefully my advisor can help me narrow down my choices.

Man, this is so much fun!