And, we're off!

I survived the first two weeks of school. I think it should be a very interesting semester. In my psychology of learning class, the teacher just had a baby and wants to have one of her graduate students teach the first half of class. The first class she taught was so uncomfortable. The poor thing was so scared she could scarcely breathe. The second class went much better, which gave me cause to hope. The class covers behavioral psychology, which is something I know something about.

I am also in the next step of the scheduled ISU increments: Measurement and Test Construction. I have to make a test of some sort. I am not sure exactly what and how as of yet, but I am starting to get into the swing of things, so I'll figure it out. I have a way of doing that, you know.

Then I have History of Psychology. This is going to be a fun class. There is going to be a lot of writing, which I do like. (not that you would know it by the number of posts to this blog as of late)

So, with all of that heavy learning, I decided to take an elective. Drawing I. So, I am in a class now where I HAVE to draw for three hours, twice a week. Darn. It is so cool, because I usually put art last - when I have done all the work. Problem is, I never get all the work done, so art never gets to happen.

I thought I would share what I have done so far. (except for the "blind" drawings that look like they were done by a two year old. - blind drawings are drawings that you do without looking at the paper, only the subject)

On the first day we had to do 20 drawings in 2 hours. None of these are very good, but then, I only had an average of 6 minutes to do each of them. It was fun. I got to loosen up my drawing arm, and open up my lazy eyes. Everyone liked the girl. I thought it was ok, but no more.



The teacher didn't think my flower "popped". I asked him what he meant. He didn't think it popped off the page. 6 minutes, folks.He did like the funky looking guy that I used to doodle in high school. I thought it was goofy.

He thought my tropical scene was too commercial.


















The texture of the bow is odd. The curve of the ribbons awkward.
On the second day of class we drew a skeleton.
I got tired of drawing the skeleton a million times, (this is where the blind drawings came in), so I drew some kids drawing the skeleton.



On the third day, we did my favorite kind of drawing: Gestural drawings. Mr. V. only gave the high school students a couple of minutes to scribble out an image. We had 1/2 hour a pose. I had so much fun. Others complained though. Some of the people in the class complain a lot though. Artists can be so temperamental!





And so, we're off!

Zach has started classes. He wants so badly to be successful. I hope he makes it. He has so much ambition. He learned a lot this summer. It feels like all that is about to be put behind us. We don't know how long we'll have until Terry gets out yet, but we are definitely going to make the most of it. They say justice is blind, I just didn't realize how slow she was too!

I was mean last weekend! I read a new blog in which the blogger was bashing her boss. She felt that he was inappropriate when he bought an employee beer. She also complained that he had been accused of sexual harassment. She said it was because he had an mental illness - asberger's syndrome. I wrote in her comments that asperger's is not a mental illness, and that someone with that disorder getting a position of that magnitude with that power is amazing, and instead of being hated for his social awkwardness, he should be understood. Why can't people just tell him discretely that his has crossed one of those invisible lines? Instead, let's humiliate him on the blogosphere. I told her I would be watching her blog with the intent of outing her to her boss. I think I took it to far, but I was really upset about it. She hasn't posted since. She probably started a new blog under a new name. Hopefully she will be a little more considerate of people who have autism, and a little more discrete about what she writes. No blogger is safe from being outed.

I did some pretty heavy reading this summer. I read Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion and I have to say, I didn't find anything one could argue with. Well, except the part where he says evolution is the best evidence against the existence of Abraham's god. I think the best evidence against the existence of Abraham's god are the doctrines used by the three major religions of the world that were spawned by Abraham's god. I don't think I'm alone in that thought, because I also read Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation. And I started reading Christopher Hitchen's god is not Great and he really lays into the religious doctrines of the three major religions. And he would know, he studied the bible at great length as a school boy in Europe.

I continue to believe that Abraham's god is not the kind of god I could worship, and anyway, what kind of a god wants to be worshipped? I still can't help but feel that there may be more to us than just this biological existence. However, I question whether that belief isn't some kind of evolutionary baggage that has made humans feel so much more special than they are. If everyone in the whole world believed that this is it, this is all we are and all we have, would we be so quick to kill each other over what happens in some after life?

I am currently in the process of processing this information in conjunction with some of the psychological information I have and am learning. I am too tired to write about it now, but I will. I might not get to it until after this semester is over. I still want to finish Hitchens' book, and get some more psychological evolution to make sense of some of the concepts banging around in my head.