As Promised

Here I am to talk in more detail about classes and the like.

Also, topics of note to touch on; Spore, New Job, New Eno/Byrne and TV on the Radio Albums.

So, first, my new classes.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have a class with Douglas Margolis which concerns learning the basic linguistic structures of English with a focus on teaching these things. It's basically, "learn English grammar/pronunciation with the express goal of teaching it to ESL" I've had Doug Margolis before, and the first thing that I noticed about him was that he looks vaguely like Jeffrey Tambor, the actor who played George Bluth in the sitcom "Arrested Development" He also talks with a slight lisp, which makes some descriptions of pronunciation a little awkward, though it generally doesn't lead to him being unintelligible.

Tuesday and Thursday is the home of the remainder of my classes. I'm taking a class about language learning in general. I'm taking a TESL class with Andrew Cohen, Pragmatics with Brian Reese, Phonology II with Daniel Karvonnen and Syntax II with Hoo Ling Soh. This is a moderately heavy load, with some difficult and esoteric concepts thrown in. I can survive though.

Of particular note is Dr. Andrew Cohen, who I will mention is a place and name-dropper. He likes to pepper the class with anecdotes, which are generally enjoyable, but can get a bit long-winded. It's the mere result of being 60ish, extroverted and having lots of life experience and little restraint. So, it's acceptable, just occasionally annoying (in an envy twinged way) to hear so much about conferences in Marseilles or the Hague or Kyoto. Cohen is an ideal professor for a class about learning language, an enthusiastic polyglot with years of language learning experience (he's taught for 17 years in L2)

My new job is ridiculously simple. I walk around an extremely wealthy neighborhood (compared to mine) and put promo slips on doors. This is morally abhorrent, as I'm probably just adding to the general litter of the city, still I feel that I'm not just doing evil. I am offering a free month of a decent wireless network. It's interesting the rush of fear that runs through me when I go through someone's yard. I get this feeling that people will ask me all sorts of uncomfortable questions regarding my activities, so I generally avoid any house with people outside of it.

So, Spore is pretty amazing. It's a new toy/game put out by the legendary creator of the sims, and it fulfills basically all of my childhood wishes for a game. That's not to say that it's perfect, but it allows a certain epic arc of time to pass that I could never really see in other games. The combination of beautifully presented but ultimately shallow mini-games makes for a wonderful whole. The game takes a life-form from it's beginnings in the primordial soup, to it's eventual landfall, rise to sentience, domination of it's planet and ecosystem, to the exploration of the immense galaxy. It allows for an incredible degree of freedom to basically do what one wants, which is what I love about it. This is because the kid inside me sometimes would rather have a sandbox to play in than a set of goals and story.

I'm excited for a couple of Albums that are basically out or out, the first "Dear Science," is by one of my favorite bands TV on the Radio. I've been listening to songs online, and I'm liking it so far, particularly the songs "Stork and Owl," and "DLZ." They present really inventive music in general, and from what I've heard so far, this spirit of real creativity hasn't faded at all.

Also interesting is the new effort by Brian Eno and David Byrne.Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is there first collaborative album in 27 years. The songs I've heard so far are pretty interesting, and I've always enjoyed David Byrne's voice. Odds are I will pick up both albums within a week or two.