It's great to learn, 'cause knowledge is power!

So its been a little while since i've updated this thing. I'm been a bit busy and whenever I've had free time i've been using it to sleep. Thats a pretty accurate description of how my life is going as of right now.

I took 3 tests since my last post: 94 in Geography, don't know in Forensic Anthropology yet, and an 85 in Biology.

Lets focus on the Biology test grade. I'm pissed. not only was the test an arbitrary length of questions (it was like 72 multiple choice questions), the examples on the test were straight from the book. So not only are her lectures straight from the book, but so are her examples on the test and the test questions themselves. Why does this piss me off? Why would something so trivial and actually probably be a blessing make me so mad? Because I essentially paid the school $700 to have someone regurgitate information i've already read from a $200+ text book. $900 for information that I can easily teach myself, which is what i'm going to start doing. This class is the BIGGEST waste of my time. Why should I listen to someone tell me a limited amount of information? She doesn't even supplement the text with anything she's done, or other outside information. It's all literally from the book. so what i'll do instead is do all the end of chapter work, write down all the questions from the online quiz (which she also takes questions from for the test) and study THAT information. The only benefit for showing up to class is the hope of catching an "attendence" quiz, and if you take all the quiz's and get the questions right, you get 5 points added onto your FINAL average. Does anyone see how incredibly ridiculous that is? It's no wonder professors have trouble keeping kids in class. NO ONE WANTS TO SHOW UP TO A BOOK READING!


Ugh. Whatever. So instead i'll occasionally show up to her earlier lecture and spend that evening time with some Rugby action.


I have an Archaeology test next week that I'm not particularly excited about. He at least supplements his information, and even replaces some of the book information with better definitions from his own experiences. My problem with him is that 1) his specialty is kinda boring (burnt rocks are not interesting to me at all) 2) his stores are kind of pointless and 3) he is expecting us to be TESTED on some of his stories. Granted, its on the ones that had some relevance, but even then it's hard to pay attention.


Basically the only two classes I enjoy the most are my World Geography class and my Forensic Anthropology class. They have the right balance of information, supplemental information, personal anecdotes and randomness. 


There is a correct blend. I just haven't really been exposed to many teachers who didn't understand that. I find that frustrating. I guess that just means i'm going to have to put a little more effort into this education crap than I thought. boooooo. My Lab instructor for Biology even understands that, and he's a Grad Student.


Alright, I just took a break to vent some of this frustration out. 

September 13th, 2010

Lame title, i'm aware. Get over it, here's you're first real update on my life:

So after sitting in my forensic anthropology class today, I think i've pretty much come to the conclusion that  i'll be staying in San Marcos a bit longer than I planned. I'm strongly considering doing the Masters program here at Texas State in Forensic Anthropology."Why in the name of everything you hold holy would you want to stay at Texas state?!" you might ask? 4 words.

Forensic Anthropology Research Facility. Thats just the fancy name for the Body Ranch.

Not only is it the largest in the United States (A healthy 27 acres of ranch land), it's the largest in the WORLD. The next (functioning) research facility is at the University of Tennessee with a whopping 2 acres. The one in Tennessee also next to the university hospital, and the parking lot has now grown around the facility. Lets just say parking out in that lot in the summer must suck. A lot.

The US is the only country that will allow such research to be done period. Other countries have to use pig models, and the UK i think does their research with RABBITS because even pig remains are not kosher (see what I did there? hilarious pun, i know).

Ontop of the that, the program here at TSU is barely 2 years old. PLENTY of research to be done, and even if it wasn't so young, there would still be insane amounts of research to be done because San Marcos is in a totally different climate area than Knoxville. therefore the information gather from their facility isn't really applicable to any other area OUTSIDE of the knoxville climate unless your region is similar.

So yeah, Do I think my concession to come down to Texas State to finish my undergrad was a good choice? Its a fucking EXCELLENT choice. Sorry Longhorn buddies, I think i've just been converted into a Bobcat.

Side note: most of the work done by the graduate students at the Facility? Boiling bodies and diggin' ditches. So if nothing else, i'll know how to dig a ditch real well.

Their PHD program is still in the works but I would probably choose to go somewhere else for that, just for some diversity.

Like i said before, i'm heavily leaning towards this decision. Nothing is set in stone. My next step is to talk to an advisor and some of the anthro professors to see how I can set myself up to succeed in this endeavor, or if this even is the right thing for me.

I have a lot more to discuss but i'll leave that for another day. I think this one topic is good for now. Now that I have sufficiently informed you, i'm going to eat my ribs now that were given to me by Liz De La Garza. And i'm sure they're even tastier after talking about boiling bodies to skeletonize them. Mmmmm, meat.