Robert

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:49:36 GMT

It is very hard to find articles on U.S. immigration in Spanish. I have to give a presentation on Tuesday (15-20 min in Spanish! scary), and I have to turn in an accompanying article tomorrow. Much difficulty. First test tomorrow - easy stuff. We're going to Madrid and Segovia for the weekend, which is pretty exciting. Luckily, it's warmed up here (into the 50s), and it stopped raining for a few days, although the rain is back on today.

Everyone talks about traveling while being abroad in Europe, but wow...it gets expensive. I'm thinking I might just wait until a Wednesday or Thursday and try to priceline a cheap flight to a random place. Then weekend trips could be worth the price. I don't really know how that works, but it might produce some good deals. I'm sure I could get some other people to join in on that plan. I booked a 200euro flight for Budapest, Hungary, where I am going with a friend during our Labor Day break (we get April 26-May 1 off...that's right...6 days off for Labor Day...Europeans just don't work). Apparently, that was a fantastic price. It should be...we worked hard on getting it down. And since we're staying with his friend there, no cost on hotels. Pretty cheap trip all around. I want to make my way to London on Paris, but it's quite expensive to get to Paris. London isn't quite as expensive in transportation to and from (it's actually incredibly cheap) but it's ridiculously expensive once you get there for food and hostels and such. For the two-week spring break, my current plan is to join Bob and go to Italy and Greece and some other Eastern European country he wants to go to. I figure I'll be lucky to keep spending under $500 on that trip. Ouch. But for 2 weeks...I guess that'd be ok. Once in a lifetime, right? We finish class on May 11, and Bradley is coming on May 14, and we're planning on hitting up Madrid, 2 cities in southern Spain, and Marakesh, Morocco. Flights to Morocco are surprisingly cheap from Madrid, so that trip shouldn't be too bad cost-wise.

I think I'm pretty well-adjusted here now. I didn't mean to come off as depressed in the last post, but Dane tells me I did. Oops. I still really wish I had internet access at home. Just to be able to check the news every now and then and to not have to walk 15 minutes to get on. It's pretty much an afternoon activity to use the internet. Oh, and heating...I wish they didn't cut off the heat in the middle of the night and not turn it on again until lunch time. The house mom situation is getting better (I don't know if I mentioned it last time). For the first two weeks, she got on to me almost every day about how messy I kept things. She was right for a while, but then she just got nit-picky. We're good now...but maybe she just hasn't gone on a cleaning raid in a while. The last was Saturday, and I'm just thankful for the 4 days without conflict. But she talks a lot. Hates the U.S. government, especially Bush and Condy. Talks about how dangerous the Jews are and how they control Bush. She also has some interesting things to tell...she knows a lot of history, of this area and the world, so over meals, I get good lessons. When I didn't know that the Romans used salt as a form of money, she went on a rant about how Americans think we're the center of the world and we don't study any other countries. I told her we did, but she then asked why I didn't know about their basic ways of life. I've been trying to think about how to respond to that, because I agree with her that Americans don't study history the same way Europeans do. I'm trying to put a finger on what we learn. It seems like we're into the military history, or at least conflict history. Important leaders, institutions, cities. Way of life, it seems we don't cover much. I think it might have to do with how we're tested. In history, from high school on, we didn't really memorize dates and such, but instead crafted essays about time periods and such using the basic facts. The importance wasn't in the facts but in our understanding of the progression of history. I speak in the past tense because I'm done taking history classes (I think). Anyone want to help on this one?

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 02:41:50 GMT

So I'm in San Sebastian for the weekend. Read the Culture section of the Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donostia

notice the date, and realize that I was in the city's main plaza for the mayor's raising of the flag and the beginning of the march. I didn't realize this was such a big deal until it happened. In the plaza people were pushing and pulling so much, we were lucky to be able to stay in for the festivities. And truly lucky not to be trampled to death on the ground. Crazy Spaniards.

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 17:45:46 GMT

I'm actually trying to keep a journal, though it won't be daily.

No one here is like me. First of all, I’m the only southerner, and most of them have weird Yankee accents. But provincialism aside, they’re partiers, and I know that I am not. I’ll have a drink, especially the great one they have here that’s a mix of red wine and coke, but I don’t do the staying out until 5am thing, especially if it’s at a club. I hate clubs. Bars - ok, but I hate clubs. Not surprising coming from the worst dancer in the world. I hope that there is someone else in this group of sixty Americans that shares my view, although I was with all but 15 of them last night as they began their semester-long party.
The two things I wish I had here are an Internet connection at home and an easier way to keep up with the goings-on in the U.S., which could be considered the same as the former desire. I’m not just talking about the news (we have CNN in English) and what my friends and family are up to, but also things like sports. I want to watch the Saints in the playoffs, and other people here want to watch the Bears, but I think we’re SOL. Fútbol is the only football they have here.
The first week here at the University has been pretty boring. We had to do all the orientation stuff of learning where things are, talking about the academic side of our stay in Bilbao, and taking the Spanish placement test, which was super easy. I’m thinking that Spanish III is going to be too easy for me, but I don’t want to go higher because then I’d have to directly enroll and be here until July. I’ve got things to do this summer…I hope. Yesterday we went to Las Encartaciones. I don’t really understand what that is – whether it’s a region or what – but the trip consisted of a really cool cave that we unfortunately could not take pictures in and a visit to the oldest town in the region, which was founded in 1199. The Guggenheim was today, but I now see what my host mother was talking about. It’s a great sight from the outside, but the inside is pretty boring if you don’t like modern art. I don’t really know if it’s that I don’t like it or that I can’t appreciate it from lack of understanding, but I think those go hand in hand. There was one painting that consisted of 4 concentric triangles, each of a different color, and as I looked at it and listened to the description, I thought, “I could do that.” So is it just the idea that is so appreciated in modern art?, because the ability needed to make some of those works seems common.
And my host mother – she’s very nice. She likes to talk a lot, which isn’t really my thing, but I deal with it. She’s a great cook, and she gives me so much food I have to decline it after a while. Apparently, her mother died last night, and she and her daughter have to travel to “another country” to have the services or whatever. I told her I could just eat out until they got back tomorrow night, but she insisted that she cook and leave things for me to heat up.
So I’m definitely sick. Got the scratchy throat and cough. I suppose it’s just the cold, but these Spaniards sure know how to put some fear into you. They handed us all a sheet yesterday about how the mumps are going around Spanish university students, instructing us that we could get vaccinated on Monday if we aren’t already. And then one of the other guy’s host mom has malaria. I didn’t know people still got that, but apparently she just traveled to Africa 2 or 3 weeks ago.

The worst schedule ever

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 22:38:47 GMT

Here's my sucky schedule for this semester:

MWF 10-10:50 Span 331 Intro to Spanish Lit
MWF 1-1:50 Math 319 Intro to Linear Algebra
MW 4-5:15 Span 571 Advanced Spanish Grammar
F 3-3:50 Math 397 Special Problems (That's Mathlete class pretty much...of course, we have to meet on Friday afternoons)

TTH 8-9:15 Inst 316 Game Theory
TTH 1-2:15 Math 454 Intermediate Differential Equations
TTH 2:30-3:45 Inst 312 Multicultural Europe

I must say I am pretty pumped about becoming a mathlete again. In this class, we work hard problems and they form competition teams from the top people in the class. I doubt I'll make any team, but it will be fun competing in math again...except for the fact that it's late on Friday.

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 04:25:33 GMT

Today, for the first time ever, I rolled an "rr" in Spanish. I can now correctly say "chamarra" (jacket) and "burrito" (burrito). This is huge. I haven't been able to do it for all my 8 years of Spanish. Washington Nationals game was fun. They actually won.

Fri, 12 May 2006 16:00:50 GMT

He must've graded easy, because I got a 71. So I still have an A. Guess of my grades: 19 hours of A, 3 hours of B.

Thu, 11 May 2006 16:42:12 GMT

Uh...I just failed my number theory exam.

Mon, 08 May 2006 22:40:05 GMT

So, my professor, Dr. Harvey, doesn't give tests. He sends his grad student. For our 4:00 final exam, no one had shown up to give the exam by 5:00, so we went to the Dean's suite and told them the story, so now we're kind of in limbo. I don't believe a professor can schedule another exam time. I'm trying to find in the rules if I'll be able to avoid taking this exam, since I had an A before it. What an interesting situation.

Fri, 05 May 2006 04:09:44 GMT

Went to my last classes today. That's a relief. Two finals Monday, two Tuesday, and a 7-10 page paper due Wednesday, then a final on Thursday and one more on Friday. I don't know how I got stuck with the last time slot for a final exam - Friday at 4pm. I was looking at stuff in my Number Theory book that we didn't do, and I found this awesome thing. Those Pythoagorean triples from high school...there's a theorem about them:

There are infinitely many primitive Pythagorean triples x,y,z with y even. Furthermore, they are given precisely by the equations x=m^2-n^2, y=2mn, z=m^2+n^2 where m and n are integers with m > n > 0, gcd(m,n) = 1, and exactly one of m and n is even.

That's just incredible. You can find all Pythagorean triples with that. I'm such a math nerd, I know.

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 08:27:58 GMT

Found out a few days ago that I got accepted into a month-long leadership that will take place in Mexico for 2 weeks. All expenses paid. Pretty exciting. I live in a sauna with bugs. I've been working on my class schedule for next semester, and I just can't decide what to take. It all seems so...i dunno.

SPAN 331 - MWF 10 - 10:50 Introduction to Spanish Literature
EL 147 - MW 11-11:50 Tennis
SPAN 571 - MW 4-5:15 Advanced Spanish Grammar
INST 316 - TTH 8-9:15 Game Theory
MATH 454 - TTH 1-2:15 Intermediate Differential Equations
and 2 of the following:
MATH 319 - MWF 1-1:50 Introduction to Linear Algebra
MATH 401 - TTH 9:30-10:45 Combinatorics
HIS 360 - TTH 9:30-10:45 Europe in the Cold War, Detente, and European Integration
ECON 398 - TTH 11-12:15 Intermediate Microeconomics

Sun, 02 Apr 2006 02:32:05 GMT

So nobody got a lot of my songs, so here are the ones unsolved (I was surprised that no one got some of these):

2. “Is she fine, so well bred, the perfect girl, a social deb?”
Natalie Merchant – Jealousy
4. “When I was a young boy, said put away those young boy ways…”
John Mellencamp – Hurts So Good
5. “Yes I think it's safe to say, I feel good about the place…”
Everclear – When It All Goes Wrong Again
8. “Some of us, we're hardly ever here…”
John Mayer Trio – Vultures
11. “Head on down to 9th street gal…”
Ryan Adams – Shakedown on 9th Street
12. “Don't think me unkind, words are hard to find…”
The Police – Do Do Do Do De Da Da Da
14. “Girl, your daddy’s knockin’ on your door…”
Better Than Ezra – It’s Only Natural
16. “All alone at the end of the evening…”
The Eagles – Take It to the Limit
17. “Lookin' back at the crash site, I don't see me by the roadside.”
The Wallflowers – Invisible City
18. “Well I guess you left me with some feathers in my hand…”
Counting Crows – Angels of the Silences
19. “I don't want to get too close…”
Gavin DeGraw – (Nice to Meet You) Anyway
20. “Is it me or does it seem that life just carries on?”
O.A.R. – Get Away

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 09:21:11 GMT

After failing miserably at Bradley's name that tune game, I decided to make my own, so...

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!
Step 6: World domination!

~~1. “May the good Lord be with you down every road you roam…”~~
2. “Is she fine, so well bred, the perfect girl, a social deb?”
~~3. “Situation number one, it's the one that's just begun, but evidently it's too late….”~~
4. “When I was a young boy, said put away those young boy ways…”
5. “Yes I think it's safe to say, I feel good about the place…”
~~6. “Threw some chords together, the combination D-E-F…”~~
~~7. "I was tired of my lady, we'd been together too long…”~~
8. “Some of us, we're hardly ever here…”
~~9. “Road trippin' with my two favorite allies…”~~
~~10. “I love myself, I want you to love me…”~~
11. “Head on down to 9th street gal…”
12. “Don't think me unkind, words are hard to find…”
~~13. “She says it's cold outside and she hands me my raincoat…”~~
14. “Girl, your daddy’s knockin’ on your door…”
~~15. “You're leaving me here, dear…”~~
16. “All alone at the end of the evening…”
17. “Lookin' back at the crash site, I don't see me by the roadside.”
18. “Well I guess you left me with some feathers in my hand…”
19. “I don't want to get too close…”
20. “Is it me or does it seem that life just carries on?”

Commence your guessing.

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 01:12:07 GMT

Salman Rushdie spoke Monday, and the King of Jordan speaks tomorrow. For some reason, Ole Miss has begun to attract big name speakers. I do not know why, but I'm glad it is happening. When the King comes tomorrow, we can't bring in any electronic devices (including cell phones). And the whole audience has to be seated for an hour before he begins to speak. Intense, but well worth it.

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 05:04:52 GMT

Your Social Dysfunction:
Happy

You're a happy person - you have a good amount of self-esteem, and are socially healthy. While this isn't a social dysfunction per se, you're definitely not normal. Consider yourself lucky: you walk that fine line between 'normal' and being outright narcissistic. You're rare - which is something else to be happy about.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results.

I think I got the exact same thing as chris p...how odd.

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 06:39:52 GMT

iTunes survey
Open iTunes/iPod or Windows Media Player to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrassing it is.

Sort by artist
First artist: 2pac
Last artist: The Zombies

Sort by song title
First Song: #41 - DMB
Last Song: Zoot Suit Riot - Cherry Poppin' Daddies

Sort by time
Shortest Song: Ataraxia - Everclear
Longest Song: Big D's Playground/Transition Man - Everything

Sort by album
First Album: 14:59 - Sugar Ray
Last Album: Yourself or Someone Like You - Matchbox Twenty

First song that comes up on shuffle: Cover This - Dispatch

How many songs come up when you search for "sex" - 2
How many songs come up when you search for "death"? - 0
How many songs come up when you search for "love"? - 51

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 23:04:13 GMT

Check this out - the impossible:

BUS 321 - International Business: A
POL 334 - Politics of the World Economy: A
ENGL 224 - American Lit Since the Civil War: A
MATH 305 - Foundations of Mathematics: A
SPAN 321 - Spanish Culture and Civilization: A
INST 205 - European Studies: A
Semester GPA: 4.0
Resident GPA: 3.95

Phew, my toughest semester yet, and my social reclusiveness paid off. And as one semester ends, the other is about to begin. My schedule looks great on one hand but killer on the other:

MW 4-5:15 SPAN 311 - Business Spanish
TTH 8-9:15 CHEM 105 - General Chemistry I
TTH 9:30-10:45 MATH 513 - Theory of Numbers I
TTH 1-2:15 INST 203 - East Asian Studies
TTH 2:30-3:45 MATH 375 - Introduction to Mathematical Statistics
TTH 4-5:15 POL 386 - European Political Economy

Rough tuesdays and thursdays, but practically a four day weekend since I have no friday classes and nothing monday until 4. I'm also thinking about dropping the chemistry for MGMT 595 International Business Management on M 1-3:50 with the same professor I just had for BUS 321 (It's his last semester here, so if I want to take it, I have to take it now). Thoughts? (All of you lj people saved me last time from taking a schedule that I'm glad I didn't do.)

Sweet...I get to do it

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 11:30:53 GMT

Seven songs I'm into right now per the request of B-Rad

1. Fallout Boy - Dance, Dance

2. Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Kind of Life (it is my favorite osng of all time)

3. The Proclaimers - Get Ready

4. Cherry Poppin' Daddies - Zoot Suit Riot

5. Zero 7 - In the Waiting Line

6. Black Eyed Peas - My Humps

7. Wham - Wake Me Up Before You Go (who could leave this one out?)

That was fun.

So I've got a 10 page paper due at 9am. And it's 5:30am. 3.5 hours to go. I've got just over 6 pages, and I'm at that point of nothing left to write. Well, we've got one of those lists of guidelines, and I can't get anything for two of them, and skipping any is bad since there are only 9. So I'm hoping I can finish on time. Once I finish this...the semester is practically over. I can't wait til 9am.

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 02:28:35 GMT

You are a
Social Moderate
(56% permissive)

and an...
Economic Conservative
(60% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

I really like that quiz. The questions covered many different topics. I'm kind of surprised, though, that I'm so close to libretarian.

Sun, 26 Jun 2005 20:35:51 GMT

I finished my 10 page paper. 11.75 pages. Wow. In two days...maybe 7 hours total. That's a record for me. I'm gonna start outlining before writing. It helps obviously. I just got really bored and looked through the Ole Miss catalog and made a list of all the classes I have/want to take. There are 43. And I limited myself. Darnit, there's no way I can take all of them. Anyways, here's my schedule for fall. I really need some input, especially from those of you who have already done a year or two of college, maybe even experienced the time scheduling I have planned. There are 21 hours, so I'm gonna drop one class, I just haven't decided which one. ** means required this semester. * means required at some point in time.

MWF
10:00-10:50 MKTG 351 Marketing Principles*
2:00-2:50 BUS 321 International Business**

TTH
9:30-10:45 MATH 305 Foundations of Mathematics* (if I'm a math major)
11:00-12:15 SPAN 321 Spanish Culture and Civilization*
1:00-2:15 INST 205 European Studies**
2:30-3:45 ECON 417 Labor Economics
6:00-7:15 ECON 530 Statistical Methods of Economics

I'm worried about those Tuesdays and Thursdays. The bad thing is, right now I would drop Marketing Principles, because I could take it over the winter. But I don't know about 5 classes every TTH.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 03:21:07 GMT

I just don't think I could've said it better myself:

Your Taste in Music:

90's Pop: Highest Influence

90's Rock: High Influence

80's Pop: Medium Influence

Adult Alternative: Medium Influence

Classic Rock: Medium Influence

80's Alternative: Low Influence

80's R&B: Low Influence

80's Rock: Low Influence

R&B: Low Influence

How's Your Taste in Music?

Work seems to be getting easier by the day. I don't think it's any different. I just think that I don't care as much, but I still do the job. Five days straight with the exact right amount of money in my drawer. I feel bad sometimes because my co-workers make comments on how I'll be moving on from this job. But I never talk about myself, not my education, grades, future, nothing, unless they ask me about it. Oh well, stuff I can't help. But I love my co-workers, both in St. Martin and In Ocean Springs. I really hate that so many of my friends from my graduating class aren't here this summer. Though I can't say that I'm really bored. It feels a little weird that I find myself spending most of my time with adults. All of my tennis team is adults, and all my co-workers, except 1 in St. Martin who is my age, are also older. While so many people aren't here, there are a bunch of people in town that I want to hang out with, but I just haven't had any time. I've been thinking a lot recently about school and future, which is weird, because it's summer. It's probably this paper lingering over my head due Monday. It feels like I'm halfway in and halfway out of school. I look forward to Tuesday to have my first real break from school since August. But with regards to future, I'm becoming more and more comfortable with the fact that my major has no set "next path" for me to follow. I look at all the different stuff I'm getting to study and realize that I love my liberal arts "Do you want fries with that?" education. I'm such a lousy writer...I'm already pooped after my puny paragraph here. So adios.

Fri, 20 May 2005 09:47:24 GMT

Ben made my last entry.

Happy times...

Fri, 20 May 2005 00:28:33 GMT

London has been fun. I met this girl yesterday and we have been having a blast. Her name is Rachael. She is an American that is also here in London for a little while. She is a bit of an airhead, but actually is really quiet and a good listener. The greatest part about her is that she will fit in my suitcase for the journey home. It has been difficult to take her out on dates due to the inflated price and the fact that she only eats sausage, but maybe we can work something out. Anyway, I'll post a picture sometime, so that you can all know my new found joy in life.

Thu, 19 May 2005 23:37:33 GMT

The library for the second time sent me some overdue notice for some girl, so I sent a reply expecting them not to read it as they didn't read my last reply:

GET IT RIGHT! DON'T SEND ME THIS CRAP ON MY BIRTHDAY. I
HATE YOU. YOUR SYSTEM SUCKS. I'M NOT MARIA. I AM A GUY.
AS ARE ALL PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN STOCKARD.

ROBERT DUKE

Kind of friendly. I was really just joking, but they didn't catch that:

Mr. Duke

Please send a copy of the original email or send the
complete name of "Maria" which should be listed on the
original email that was sent to you by our AUTOMATED EMAIL
NOTIFICATION SYSTEM so we can help clear this matter up as
soon as possible. Obviously your email address is in her
account for some reason. Maybe an error on our part or maybe
an error in the networked data system on campus- either way
we apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused
you especially on your birthday. Please show some patience
while we try to fix this. Rest assure your account is in the
clear and you are just simply getting "Maria's" email by
mistake. Also please disregard any other email sent to you
regarding this "Maria" outside of this one. It is being sent
to you automatically and can't be stopped until we are to
able find "Maria's" account.

Please note that the emails were not sent to you maliciously
or as any statement towards you being or not being a "guy",
our system works just like any other computer system- we
have our ups and our downs, and "HATE" is such a very strong
word- but it has been noted you feel this way. This email
has also been forwarded to Stan Whitehorn, Head of Access
Services, so he too can be aware of this situation.

Thanks for you time and please reply as soon as possible so
we can stop these emails from mistakenly being sent to you.

Again we apologize, and have a Happy Birthday.
-RP

Oops.

Yes! Goal Achieved! I Doubled Ben's GPA again!

Tue, 17 May 2005 21:15:44 GMT

Cal 4: A
Honors: A
Diff Eq: A
Latin American Studies: B
Spanish: A
World Music Cultures: A

Semester GPA: 3.82
Cumulative GPA: 3.92

So happy that Latin American is over with, even if I got a B. And yes, I got an A in calculus although I slept through the final.

Thu, 12 May 2005 08:17:16 GMT

I wish I could stop being sick. I'm 75% done packing, but my car is already full...this is not good. I need a break, and a few hours of sleep. Neither is coming soon. Two exams to go. Leaving Oxford in 15 hours.