·:[ The (vast) Right Wing Conspiracy ]:·
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Philosophy of Class and Gender: It’s okay to be gay! And it’s also okay to drop a class when you have a prof that won’t accept anything late! STATUS: DROPPED.

Philosophy of Good and Evil: When you’re the only Republican, the only Christian, and the only moral absolutist in the class, you opinion is much needed! No wonder the teacher didn’t want to let me drop the class. STATUS: DROPPED.

United States Society: History is boring, the labs were a bit better, but the only thing that saved this class for me was the fact that I had my girlfriend next to me th entire time. Forced someone to listen to and (perhaps) laugh at my witty unending commentary. STATUS: WORKING ON FINAL.

World Politics: Reinforced my belief that all City College’s international politics profs are teaching the exact same course with different names. But hey, you can never learn too much about the Treaty of Westphalia now, can you? STATUS: STILL WORKING ON FINAL.

Narcotics and Literature: Lacan and Freud say make drugs legal! Especially since Hunter S. Thompson died (read: blew his brains out while, most likely, high on something/everything). Fun class, lots of work, the final is gonna stink. STATUS: STILL WORKING ON FINAL.

Critical Theory: By far the best class this semester. Amazing prof (if you are at Brooklyn College, track down Prof. Bayoumi) and even better texts (ever tried to write a dialogue between Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, and Benjamin while they sit in a Starbucks in the village? Nietzsche to Freud: “You’ve got to get laid, bro!“) and tests. Had a lot of fun, definitely learned a bunch. Also the token Republican/Christian/moral absolutist/capitalist. Oh well, what were we to expect? STATUS: STILL WORKING ON FINAL.

Other lessons: Don’t try to take six classes on three campuses and work 20 hours a week, too. Meltdown in the making. Oxford wants to be Harvard. Everyone wants to be Yale Law. Ex-Baptists prefer unisex bathrooms. Little Caesar’s public bathroom will never be the same. Getting the Truman is a big deal (see the newspapers!). But not big enough to get your name spelled or pronounced correctly (see the newspapers; Chancellor Goldstein’s speeches).

Oh, and the last and most lesson I learned this semester? If you don’t post on the blog, people won’t visit the blog.

Well, I’m getting ready for Europe this summer. I leave next Wednesday. Here’s to hoping I can blog regularly there.

Claudio

I probably should’ve done this for the past eight semesters, but its better late then never…

The First BiAnnual “What Did I Learn This Semester?” Post Extravaganza!

Here goes:

ECO294 - Computed Aided Statistical Analysis: I learned how to do regression and correlation analysis on data sets. Of course, those regressions and correlations were done using a program that costs more then a car to get a licenses for, so I will obviously be using it at home a lot. Truthfully, I learned a lot more in this class then I thought I would. I finally understand all of those formulas and nonsense we learned in Statistics and it was great to actually be able to look at data and find some meaning to it, instead of just talking about standard deviation and the correlation coefficient as if they matter in the real world.

PHIL30001 - The Rational Animal: No matter how many classes you miss (and despite the warnings in the syllabus), you can still pull and A-! Wait, I did actually learn something though….I hate Descartes. A whole bunch.

ECO330 - Marketing: Group projects suck. I say “um” a lot when I speak in front of groups of people (I only learned this because I was the only person in my group to ever present anything to the class). Did I mention group projects suck? I liked this class though, lots of practical knowledge picked up.

ECO271 - Corporate Finance: First off all I learned how to actually operate my financial calculator, so at least is no longer just an expensive paperweight. I learned that I may want to eventually sit for the CFA exam in a few years. I also (finally) learned what all those numbers used to describe bond prices in the newspaper mean. I guess I learned a lot.

ECO3220 - Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy: I believe this is the class in which I learned the most. I finally understand what the Federal Reserve does and why the Chairman of the Fed is really the most powerful person in the US (and maybe even the world). I learned all about inflation and hyperinflation and why those are both really undesirable, and exactly how the Fed combats them. I was a little apprehensive about this class, mainly because of the professor, but it all came out OK. Great professor, he seemed to know everything and anything about monetary policy and macroeconomics.

My Money, Banking, and MP professor also recommended this great book that I actually just finished, Freakonomics. More on that later, but definitely pick it up ASAP.

So there’s my semester in review. So far I have received two grades, and A in Comp. Aided Stat. Anal. and the aforementioned A- in Philo-torture.

I am just going to relax this week, clean my room, get a haircut, say my goodbyes at the Ash, and get ready for the start of internship-festivities on 6/1.

Just because I need a place to write it down…
Tentative Fall Schedule:
Monday/Wednesday: Investments (at Baruch), Science: The Natural Man (Honors College requirement, “science for poets”), Jazz History 2 (from WW2 to the present…definitely not my favorite period of jazz at all), and Elements of Calculus (calc for eco majors, not the ridiculously hard calc for engineers/architects I’ve been put in twice)

Tuesday/Thursday: Macroeconomics, Microeconomics.

20 credits, 6 classes, all required. Sleep? Not happening.

Blogging to resume this week.