this blog has been moved to http://dog-and-boy.livejournal.com and will remain there indefinitely.

See you there!

-Ani

I thought I'd write today about something that one of the professors mentioned in Humanities class. It was actually last class that we talked about it, today we had a different subject and I will write about that too later. He was talking about how at any engineering school and especially a service academy there is a fair amount of pressure to chose a technical major, and the temptation to believe that technical "hard" classes are the only ones that are important. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course. But the real problems that the military faces have nothing to do with a lack of qualified engineers or technical knowledge. Of course we need those people, but they aren't hard to get. We don't have a shortage of engineers in Iraq, we have a shortage of translators and people who understand the culture. The mess at Abu Ghraib didn't happen because the guards needed more technical training, it was because they needed to learn how to be human. It was a good thought, and one worth considering, in my opinion. Sometimes it seems a lot of the faculty and departments are desperate to prove why they are relevant, but I think that was the best argument I have ever heard from any of them, the most sincere and the most relevant.
Today in Humanities, we talked about the first piece of literature that we will be reading, The Song of Roland. It was written somewhere between the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Old French or Anglo-Norman. It sounds a lot more like Latin than French. But it was the best, because one of the professors for the class is a Romance language philologist. He read some parts of it, and it was beautiful, it sent chills down my spine. I love old languages, especially when I understand some of it and if there is a translation nearby so I can look at the bits I miss. Very sadly, Dr. Reagan's husband (Dr. Reagan is one of my favorite professors at the Academy, she is awesome.), died about ten years ago, but was a Germanic language philologist (including Old English and Old Norse and other languages (I don't remember if she said Gothic (which I'm studying right now), or not) that really fascinate me), so I won't get to hear anything from him. She always tells me she wishes I could've met him. But at any rate, I am really looking forward to studying it.
Here is something really odd that happened yesterday. I don't really know what to make of it but I thought I'd write about it anyway. Coach wanted me to help him with some stuff, mostly paperwork from our tournament, so I worked on that Monday and yesterday and finished yesterday. But anyway, I was working on it with Kali, one of the girls on the team, and pretty much out of nowhere coach said in his usual Egyptian accent, "Kali, how come you cannot be...cute like Anthony?" Ummmmm. Awkward. Maybe if I was a little younger I would just take it as a compliment, but I definitely wasn't expecting anything like that and have no idea what made him say it. There are never any boring moments when you're around coach. Even when you're just submitting scores and rosters to the NCAA.
Today, early this morning, our four degrees triumphed over Fightin' Fourth in a knowledge contest. I just had to wake up a few minutes earlier than normal to go to it since they weren't calling minutes, so I was there to cheer them on. We were losing up until the last three questions. It was quite exciting. Unfortunately for the four degrees in fourth squadron, not only was winning the competition their last hope of getting "un-restricted" this weekend, but one of their own four degrees called their training officer "sir" instead of "ma'am." A training officer who has visited other squadrons just to yell at four degrees who made the same mistake. I only hope they are all still alive tomorrow morning.
There were some other things that I wanted to write about too, but I don't remember them now, and I just have to finish my Russian homework before I can go to bed, and I think I'm gonna go. If I remember them, maybe I'll write them later. Sorry I haven't written for a while. Maybe I will when I'm at David's house this weekend. Farewell.

I wrote a nice long entry last night, but it disappeared somehow. : ( Anyway, about today...

I had my first Humanities class today, and I really, really loved it. The subject, western literature and music, of course fascinates me. But we will also get to study specifically whatever we want for our paper and even our exams! There isn't really a set syllabus, and the only graded assignments are a research paper and two oral exams. That, along with my history class today, have really made me happy. One thing about being at the Air Force Academy that really frustrated me was that I felt like if I had gone somewhere else, I would be more able to learn about what I really wanted to learn about. I understand everything they say about the core being important and all that, but it's no fun going to school if you are never interested in what you are supposed to be learning, and you don't get to learn about what you are interested in. So now that I have a class I truly love, and my first majors class, I like it a lot better. Well, I hafta go. More later maybe. Farewell.