I just realized that I didn’t take a test on Thursday night like I was supposed to. It was an online test and it was supposed to start at 5pm on Thursday. I completely forgot because I was getting ready for this trip. Needless to say, I am a basket case; I want to rush home right now so I can retake it if she lets me. It was supposed to be open book/open note and I have none of that stuff with me. I just e-mailed her…I hope she lets me fix it. I really can’t get a zero on the test…that would probably make me fail the class. I can’t believe this.

I’m writing this in a draft in Gmail because I can’t remember my WordPress password. The reason I can’t remember is I’m not on my normal computer operating system. raisinbottom emailed me today with questions about Ubuntu, and he mentioned Wubi, so I got all hyped up and spent the evening fighting with it. Again. My big problem, as usual, is the wireless stuff. When I mentioned to A what I was working on, she couldn’t believe it - I have installed and uninstalled Ubuntu at least four times now. I have a love/hate relationship with the damn thing. I was unable to get the wireless working, but I’m jacked straight into the network right now, so I can at least write this while in Ubuntu, save the draft, and go into Windows (where my passwords are all saved) and post it!

Anyway, today’s classes were pretty good. I enjoyed the project we did in Deaf Studies, and I was pleased to see another friend of mine is now in the class. A few other people joined too so it is now getting pretty crowded! More people came into my Linguistics class too, and it’s now huge, but we can’t get a bigger room so we are all jammed in tight in a semi-circle. It turns out one of the visiting students is emerge’s sister, I was tickled to find that out! I had some quibbles with some of the teacher’s opinions…I had asked about Gestuno, and then later I asked about Esperanto…and she tried to compare it back to Gestuno. In reality, Gestuno can be more accurately compared to Basic English, because Esperanto behaves very differently from either of those. She wouldn’t hear of it though - did I mention she’s excitable? Oh well.

Okay, now that I have had all my classes, here’s what I think of them so far.

• History - Teacher seems young but interested in the material. I think this is his first year without an interpreter, and his signing is pretty slow and he makes lots of mistakes, but he’s trying. There are only three of us in the class (the other two are already friends), so I’m not sure how class discussions will go…how can you debate anything with only three people? If two people agree, the other is just going to go “oh fine” and go along with them. Anyway, small class, teacher is interested, it’s all good. While we’re on vacation I think I will mostly just have a lot of reading to do.
• Deaf Studies - Disappointed that Fernandes is no longer the teacher…the Honors program coordinator knows what happened but isn’t saying. The new teacher is okay with my vacation and I think I will be able to keep up but I’ll definitely regret missing the class discussions. I already have all the required books in my personal collection, so at least I don’t have to buy any books for this class! Also I have two friends in the class and a couple of other people that I know a little bit, plus some people I don’t know. I was kind of relieved to find out that I could skip the “growing up deaf” assignment…we have to do 10 out of 12 writing assignments, and I am just going to skip that one and do the rest, which are easier for me!
• Linguistics - My teacher is so excitable. It’s mostly a good thing. I get the feeling the class might be tough, especially with being absent for two weeks. There is a test while I’m on vacation but fortunately it’s an online test anyway, but there might be quizzes that I will miss, which cannot be made up. I’ll have to ask and see if she will let me since I warned her about my trip a couple of months ago already. I have two friends in this class, yay! There are four visiting students though…all from Boston, all interpreting majors (I think), and all hearing. And all insular…I have seen them around talking to each other more than once. One of them actually admitted during class that she is hearing…I was thinking “oh honey, you have a lot to learn about Gallaudet.”
• Sex and Gender - This class is going to be so awesome. I will have to literally sit on my hands to give other people a chance to talk. See, being a queer person, I think about sex, gender, orientation, etc. a lot. And I already have a LOT of opinions, which I am eager to share…but I don’t want to dominate the in-class discussion! But seriously, it is going to be awesome; we have already started discussion and it is going to be great. I brought up David Reimer and the teachers mentioned that we’d be discussing him later, so I am ahead a bit! The class is being taught by a biology professor (my favorite teacher!) and a psychology professor so I just know this is going to be great. I am SO excited about this class!

By the time you read this, my Southern California 2008 set should be completely tagged, titled, etc.

Today was the first day of the spring semester. My schedule is as follows…I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, have I?

M/W - 10:00 to 11:50 - Introduction to Integrated Learning (Sex and Gender section)
Tu/Th - 9:30 to 10:50 - American History II (Honors)
Tu/Th - 1:00 to 2:20 - Introduction to Deaf Studies
Tu/Th - 3:00 to 4:20 - Introduction to the Structure of American Sign Language

This leaves Monday and Wednesday afternoons, and all of Fridays, for working. I hope to work 10-12 hours a week this semester.

Hooray, today was the last day of classes! I still have to redo my research paper (I’ve got 3.5 pages out of 8 so far) and do my history final, math final, and ASL final. The math final is due on the 13th, the ASL final is due on the 10th, and the history final is due on the 11th. The research paper is also due on the 11th.

Also, on Monday, I have to take the English final, which is reportedly pretty easy. That’s at 5pm though - it was supposed to be at 6:30pm but I begged to have it moved up because I live at least an hour away. I also have to see the lady about writing for gBlog (thanks to_be_in_snafu!) and also do the course evaluation for ASL, which my teacher can’t figure out how to post online, apparently.

Oh, and I’m officially a sophomore! All of my credits transferred, which is 26.5, and 26 means you have sophomore standing. So YAY! Of course most of them transferred as elective credit, including the one I really wanted to transfer (a Deaf Studies class), but hey, 26.5 transfer credits is more than 0 transfer credits!

I’m going to miss all of my friends over the winter break, though. I’m hoping to see kawaiibishounen but no guarantees…he isn’t that far though, so hopefully we can meet in the middle or I can go visit him or he can come visit me, or something!

I am offended by the last question on my final exam for ASL/Deaf Studies class. In summary, it says that we should be opposed to the UK’s Fertilization and Embryology bill, and we should pretend we are giving a presentation to the House of Lords on why it should be canceled. We are to use what we have learned in class about identity in our mock argument. Links are given to this article and information on the bill.

Now, the linked-to article explains that the bill would prohibit families from choosing a deaf embryo where a hearing one was available; it might also limit the ability of deaf people to donate eggs or sperm. So I can see why it’s related from that perspective. However, a half-second of digging turns up more information. The bill would also allow scientists to inject animal eggs with human sperm for the creation of human/animal hybrids, and it also allows lesbians to be named as the parents of test-tube babies without any reference to a father.

I object to the question having been asked at all. The idea that I should base my opinion on a bill on only one of its statements is absurd, but furthermore, the idea that I should be asked to defend a prescribed opinion to a political question as part of my final exam is outrageous. If they had told me to give my opinion on the question, I would have no problem with that. But defending the position they tell me, on only part of the bill…well, I just don’t know what to do about it. Should I contact the team of teachers who developed the exam and ask for an alternative question, or should I answer the question as if the deaf question is the only one on the ballot, or…my god, how can they ask such a thing?!

I’ve been using OpenOffice since I got my new laptop toward the beginning of the school year. My old one had Microsoft Office but this didn’t; it would have cost more to get it. The Word and Excel equivalents are great, but I cannot figure out the PowerPoint equivalent to save my life! I keep having to go to the computer labs at school to work on presentations. But it turns out there might be an easy way around this: academic pricing. Hey, I’m a student now, I can get this stuff! For example, CostCaptain.com has the entire Office 2007 suite for $129. (Although actually, none of the computers at school have higher than Office 2003, so getting 2007 might not be the best thing to do.) They also have Adobe PS Elements 5 for $100 which is about the same as the academic pricing direct from Adobe! (I know this because my father in law wanted to use my academic discount to buy a copy. Ahem.)

Okay, let’s see what I have to over the next two weeks.

• Finish reading From Pity to Pride and write a report on it
• City project - final draft, presentation (with cheese!)
• Enormous research paper about accreditation - my own topic choice - that I am probably putting too much thought into already
• ASL vlogs for this week and next week
• Three more math classes
• Two more history classes
• Three more FYS/English classes
• Two more ASL lectures and seminars

Final exams aren’t really on my radar yet, though I know the English one will be easy (but it’s AT NIGHT?!?!), the history one has already been given to us as a take-home, and the ASL one will be a vlog, also done at home. My math teacher didn’t give us a midterm, so who knows if he’ll give us a final. My math teacher is a little unorthodox.

This is just another gripe about my in-laws being so noisy at night. My brother-in-law is really noisy by default, he grew up in a loud household and he doesn’t know how to close cabinets quietly, close doors quietly, etc. He also thinks it’s okay to talk to himself and sing to himself all the time, so he’ll blurt out all kinds of stuff to himself just walking around the house at night. He apparently never learned that doing the dishes makes noise, because he does them at 11pm sometimes. Bang clatter crash! And him and my sister-in-law have a habit of singing to each other…really loud…as if nobody else lived here. It just drives me crazy. They’re good kids, I like them fine, I think they’re great…but why do they hafta be so loud?!

I am working on my research project about accreditation. I think my thesis is going to be along the lines of “Despite the need for improvement in K-12 deaf education and despite the cultural differences between Gallaudet and other universities, we can retain our accreditation with MSCHE” etc. Something like that.