Classes this Quarter

As I finished up my four-year plan, I realized that I have a little problem with classes. While I'll have enough units to graduate, I won't have fulfilled all the right class requirements. This is mainly due to having "lost" a year at AUP - although I got all the units (surprisingly enough) nearly none of the classes transferred. So, I basically started as a freshman all over again. It would have been mostly manageable, except for my brilliant idea of having two majors (CS and Philosophy). Now, I'm stuck with having to do a quarter or two more, if I want to get everything done. I'm unsure whether or not to change the Phil major into a minor. Anyhow, here are the classes I'm taking this quarter...

- CS 157: Computational Logic. This is taught by Michael Genesereth, my honors thesis advisor. It's about reasoning over logical sentences using programs; writing proofs using deterministic methods and such things. It looks like a rather interesting class, and in any case will most likely prove (heh, heh) extremely useful in my thesis work. After all, my project pretty much revolves around 'proofs' in converting sentences to diagrams etc. Attending the Logic Group's weekly meetings has also been very useful, as so much of it feeds straight into this class.

- Phil 100: Greek Philosophy. A class on (you guessed it) ancient Greek Philosophy. It's taught by Chris Bobonich, who's quite a character. He seems to be quite a good lecturer, but he has interesting particularities that are very hard to describe. For one, he uses different sentence intonations and emphasizes odd words, which make his lectures interesting to listen to. He also does unusual things, such as wandering around the classroom and staring down students while lecturing something completely normal. His classes are fun, and I really like Greek philosophy - we'll mainly be covering Socrates/Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics. I need this class for either the Phil major or minor, so either way works fine.

- Phil 150: Basic Concepts in Mathematical Logic. I'm afraid that this is yet another introduction to logic. I realize more and more that taking Phil 50 last quarter was pretty much a waste of time, except for 4 units' worth of A+. Anyhow, this class seems more rigorous, but still, it doesn't look like it's going to be particularly hard. Aurelie and I are both taking it because it's the prerequisite to Phil 151, which has the reputation of being the hardest class at Stanford. People tremble in fear, quake in their boots and shiver in the night at the mere thought of 151. What's unfortunate is that Phil 150 has very different expectations, so as I've heard it really isn't much of a preparation. In any case, I can use it for the Phil major and minor, so it works out in the end. Phil 151 counts towards either CS or Phil, which is good for me; Aurelie has no choice but to take it for her SymSys degree.

- Engr 40: Introductory Electronics. Another class I'm taking backwards. It seems to be an engineering study of circuitry. I'm having to brush up on all my electricity physics from high school, but all in all it shouldn't be *that* hard. Of course, the problem with classes that aren't too hard - this one and Phil150 - is that everybody tends to do quite well in them, making the curve that much higher. If you get 98% but enough others get 99%, well, you get docked. Oh well.

- Dance 46: Social Dances of North America I. Since we've been taking dance lessons outside Stanford, we figured it would be fun to take classes here as well - it's a lot easier to get to, and significantly cheaper. You have to pay a one-time fee of $50, which gets you into all dance classes. So we pay $50, and get at least three quarters' worth of social dance group classes. That's as opposed to Starlite Ballroom's fee of $48 for four lessons. Eep!
The dance class itself is rather fast-paced - *much* faster than at Starlite - but so far we've had a lot of fun. As part of the class, we have to go to a 'Ragtime Ball' in November. I'm not sure what exactly that is, but it's apparently a ball of some kind... The 'big deal' is the Viennese Waltz in February, but that costs $70/couple in addition to having to rent a tuxedo and a ballroom dance dress. The total price is therefore about $250/couple. Wowzers!


In addition to the classes I'm taking, I also have the infamous Honors Thesis to write. I have to find the discipline to allocate time for it; if I don't, I'll just spend my time between classes doing other things. My current task is somewhat technical so I'll write another post shortly about it.

Anyhow, that's all what I'm up to this quarter, class-wise. This is what my calendar looks like:
http://binarygoblin.stanford.edu/calendar/

Posted on 10/01/05 at 13:15:17 by dchaley .
(permanent link)

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