The Last Semester Wrapup Ever

The last one of these I will ever write. Crazy.

ENG 384 - Great Film Directors

It was cool to sit around and talk about movies, and I got the chance to see some films I might never have otherwise seen (some good, some not so good). Still, it was an English class, with all of the papers that such beasts entail, so I’m glad this is the only film class I took.

GEOL 200 - Evolutionary Systems

We met about five hours every week for this class, and it still wasn’t enough time to cover everything we should have. The stated goal of the class was to be sure that we never look at the world the same way again, and they certainly succeeded in my case. I now realize that I’ll need to read for approximately the rest of my life before I have a firm grasp on some of the things we discussed, and even that won’t really be enough.

For the record, we discussed the ‘Dawkins is entirely full of shit’ comment on the next-to-last day of class, and Dr. Fichter’s explanation seemed to be that Dawkins is just too full of himself. We dealt in nuances in this class, and Dawkins’ views are absolute.

Should any current JMU student stumble across this looking for a recommendation, take this class.

SMAD 330 - Multimedia Law

This class wouldn’t be the same without Professor Gilliam. My sole complaint was that it was a very practical application of law, while I was looking for a more theoretical look at the basis of copyright and patent (and other) law. Still, the lectures made it worthwhile, and should I ever become a “creative professional,” I’ll have a good legal background.

SMAD 498 - One Nation Under Television

I’ll never watch TV the same way again. This class made me mourn the lost opportunities of the “American System of Broadcasting” and made me wish I was entering the industry, so maybe I could make a difference. There was some great class discussion every week, and though coming to campus for two-and-a-half hours every Wednesday sucked balls, it was still worth it.

TSC 210 - Introduction to Technical & Scientific Communication

Ask any Computer Science major, and he’ll probably tell you that this isn’t the greatest class on campus. Most of it just isn’t applicable, and the stuff that is applicable is covered in such an introductory fashion as to make it useless. On a positive note, it forced me to write my resume, which I will maintain for probably the next forty years of my life.