This was an assignment for one of my graduate classes this semester. We got to practice ethnographic coding and analysis on any source we chose. Naturally, being the fangirl that I am, I picked Science Fiction movies.

(I broke up some of the block text so it's in a slightly different format than how I turned it in)

“For the Greater Good”: Themes of Life and Death in Science Fiction

“They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better.” --Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity.

“You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you've created.” --Commander William Adama, Battlestar Galactica.

( WARNING for 3 pages worth of writing )

Time for an update, bullet point style!

+ I still can't believe I'm graduating tomorrow! I'm not sure how many from the anthro department are graduating with me...two that I know of for sure and the ones that were in Belize with me even! Family is getting here tomorrow morning at 8, ceremony is at 9. Will have pictures up on Facebook at some point!

+Surprisingly, got a B on my SUPER HORRIBLE Lit Review...but I guess it wasn't too bad if my professor liked it enough to give it a B. *shrug*

+ Fanime on Sunday and Monday. MY SISTER KY IS THE CUTEST SUKI EVER. 'Course, I may be biased on this matter :> Bri and I have our cosplay ready to go as well, so we'll be looking out for all FMA cosplayers to goof around with. Hopefully tons of pictures. Sadly, will miss the masquerade and FMA, Avatar gatherings but no worries! Next year we're going the entire weekend!

+ We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but gas in NorCal has now hit $4.00. I almost fainted at the sight of the counter this morning x.x

+ Tons of cleaning to do tonight for grad party tomorrow and I need to figure out what shoes to wear for the ceremony. This is, understandably, SERIOUS BIZNESS.

+ Unfortunately, will not be able to work at the Phoebe Hearst Museum in Berkeley in September as they are laying off all of the people working on the SURGE project in June. So much for getting a job in my field right after graduating. Still looking!

+ Rehearsals for The Music Man start on Tuesday and I have extra hours at work, so it really feels like I just traded the busy of school for the busy of RL. Not complaining.

+ Time for me to go get stuff done! La!

Two weeks of school left +finals week. I'm not worried about those five page papers, just the 10+ page one O.O

School

+ 10-15 page lit review for arch.
+ Final presentation for arch. +finish reading book +meet up with presentation group
+ Study for final in geog.
+ 5 page landscape paper for Geog. (in Vallejo)
+ 5 page paper for Eng.
+ Two final response papers for geog.
+ Final response paper for arch.
+ Discussion group assignment for Eng.
+ Turn in Eval. sheet for for anth. by Wednesday NO LATER.


RP

+ EP's for new Milliways pup once approved (OMG SUKI)
+ Post for Old West RPG
+ Work on Janet's ascension plot


Other

+ Plane tickets for field school (~$700) X.X
+ Hotel for fanime
+ Lodgings for road trip
+ Rehearsals begin May 27th, find out rehearsal schedule
+ Call A. at work this week (preferably today after 3pm)
+ Ask for more hours at work
+ Email F.
+ Email A.
+ Email J.

+ It seems like every time I go into the city, I fall even more in love with it.

My Historical Arch. class went to the Presidio on a field trip today...checked out the adobes and artifacts, including some slightly broken headstones which I went all :D!!! over. Plus, there was a really cool old-timey milk carton that I was intrigued by.

To top it all off, it was a GORGEOUS day, the bridge practically shone in the sunlight and it was the perfect Bay Area spring weather that I love so much.

+ Where am I going for Spring Break next week? Memphis! Will it all be fun and games? Nope, I'm presenting my paper at the Society for Applied Anthropology conference there and having minor freaks outs about it every so often.

But the good news is once that's over I get to visit Civil War battlefields, eat ribs, and, oh yeah, Graceland!

Then I'm flying into LAX instead of SFO and meeting friends for Disneyland...that park has become our spring break tradition!

Wait, what? Homework, you ask?

Oh yeah. That. :((((

+ Well, I've finally decided on a field school to spend the rest of my financial aid on for this summer. Look, ma! The Carribean!

I mostly picked it cause it was the cheapest and I still have to pay rent.

+ Am I really graduating this May? I can't believe it myself sometimes. I've got my cap and gown and pretty tassel all ready. The drunken revelry is being planned and the announcements are waiting to get sent out.

Meep.

+ I've recced a few more things at the crack broom. Gotta get all of them in before I leave for spring break!

+ MMMmmm. Chocolate.

This is my post of happy relief!

I was SO sure I had gotten a C in my linguistics class (linguistics and I just don't get along) and I managed a B! *does happy dance* I think that might have been due to my final presentation which, IMHO, rocked.

Also, something not so cool. HUGE storm last night. Apparently it knocked out the power for a bit because I woke up this morning to a blinking alarm clock and the realization that I was late for work because of it. No love for that storm :( Our flag also got decapitated from our house O.o

Think I may have caught a cold bug of some kind, AND they had me doing manual labor at work all day (which basically translates to clouds of dust. EVERYWHERE.) But it was okay I guess because I got to organize things. This makes me exceedingly happy.

Man, I don't think I've done a post like this in a while.

In SHOPPING NEWS...

I was being bad yesterday and bought two party dresses. In order to get rid of my guilt, I have to remind myself that they were insanely marked down AND oh, SO PRETTY. And sparkly. And I'm weak when it comes to clothes. *nods*

Anyway, time for dinner!

One thing I realized after my advising meeting:

GRADUATION IS IMMINENT.

Okay, so I knew that already, but now it's finally setting in. Expect increasingly more flailing in the near future.

Three classes left!
+ Historical Archaeology, which I am SO looking forward to :D
+ Working Seminar, not sure what we'll be doing exactly, but it should be interesting.
+ One more upper division GE, that I still need to find.

Gotta run to class!

*pulls out hair*

SOMEONE SAVE ME FROM FINALS!!!

*brain melts*

Time for the "now that I've been to all my classes, it's time to talk about them" post. Yay! *throws confetti*

French 102 = This class is basically going to be review for me because I didn't want to miss a semester of French in order to wait for the next one in the fall. My teacher is really nice and kind of reminds me of Madame from SCC.

Geology 110, Natural Disasters = This is a huge class in one of the smaller lecture rooms. I can tell that my teacher is really into geology which is great because that ends up being contagious during lectures and helps me do better. My geology teachers at SCC were like that, too. I 'm looking forward to this one. Still debating on whether to minor in geology.

Anthropology 340, Living in a Pluralistic World = I'm not too sure about this class yet because I only took it on the advice of my advisor, I'm not even exactly sure what it will be about yet. My teacher is nice, though.

Anthropology 341, Emergence of civilizations = This was basically a last minute choice because the history class I wanted was already full. I thought this one might be too diffucult for me but, after the first class introduction, I think it should be okay. But OMG, my teacher is AWESOME! So very awesome! She sort-of referred to Stargate at one point at the beginning of class about not giving her any links that had to do with aliens building the pyramids and then...later, she asked the class if there were any Stargate fans. I have a teacher who likes Stargate! This is awesome :D And she's very funny, had the class laughing every once in a while.

So, overall, I have really enjoyable classes and great teachers. This semester is looking good! :D And, OMG, I love the dorms, I should've moved out sooner!
~Liz

Currently hiding from:

1) 20 page research paper due Monday that's not even close to being done.

2) Creative writing midterm due Monday. Haven't even started.

3) 5 page screenplay due tomorrow. Stuck at 3 pages.

4) Studying for French test on thursday.

5) Life, the universe, and everything.

Just...wah...blarg...