New Classes

Thursday, 02 February 2012

This morning, I began another class at Hamline. Though dropping out of classes has become somewhat of a hobby of mine at Hamline, Jennifer is insistent that I not drop out of this one.

I had a class by this professor before. In fact, that’s one reason why I chose the class: if I see that a teacher is not a dipshit, I attempt to take more classes by the same teacher, thereby limiting my exposure to such dipshits.

When the professor asked what we were expecting when we signed up for this class, I raised my hand and (referencing the online description) said: “I expect to watch a lot of films.”

The professor, remembering me, said something like, “James, James, James,” which I think means, “You silly boy.” She then spent about 20 minutes explaining that we’d be watching documentaries, not films.

Later, she told the class that she grades more on improvement rather than on overall performance, so if we totally botch the first exam, don’t lose heart: she’s interested in how well we can turn that fumble around. I, therefore, plan to simply doodle on the first exam.

This evening, I once again hosted Atheists Talk. Tonight was a two-parter: first, I interviewed co-worker and GLBT rights activist Arthur Schultz, who gave info on why the freethought community should support GLBT rights, particularly by helping to defeat the asinine anti-marriage ballot initiative. Part two featured a discussion between me, Eric Jayne and Mindy Rhiger about Richard Dawkins’ latest book The Magic of Reality.

Friday, 03 February 2012

Owen has been sick for two days now. I took the day off of work to help out with Owen, especially since Isla has a class in the morning, Jennifer has an appointment around lunchtime, and I have to meet with my advisor at Hamline this afternoon.

I took Isla to her music class today. It’s held in a meeting room at one of the local libraries. I had a fun time, even if it is a little strange to just start singing and dancing around a bunch of other moms and dads (just one dad) that I’ve never met before.

Isla’s class is Music Together. The instructor knew her stuff. She kept pulling out a pitch pipe to ensure she was singing on key, and it appeared she had absolutely no inhibitions about said singing and dancing. She also knew how to keeps the kids entertained and interested, spicing things up with various dances, tossing bright scarves around the room, letting the kids play with instruments (they all took a turn at “strumming” the guitar) and just letting them do what they wanted when they wanted. For Isla, this meant that instead of using the drumsticks to beat the floor in rhythm, she would just hold the sticks in her hands and spin in a circle. Later, she attempted to escape over the gate. No one seemed to mind, though if there’s one thing that makes me more self-conscious than singing children’s songs with my daughter, it’s singing children’s songs without my daughter.

Anyway, I’m glad I went.

Also today, here are Bill Maher’s new rules regarding theists who seem to think it’s a stunning argument to claim that athiesm is a religion: