Spring Quarter Classes

CHEM 33: Structure and Reactivity

Organic chemistry, functional groups, hydrocarbons, stereochemistry, thermochemistry, kinetics, chemical equilibria.

CHEMENG 25B: Biotechnology (ENGR 25B)

Biology and chemistry fundamentals, genetic engineering, cell culture, protein production, pharmaceuticals, genomics, viruses, gene therapy, evolution, immunology, antibodies, vaccines, transgenic animals, cloning, stem cells, intellectual property, governmental regulations, and ethics. Prerequisites: CHEM 31 and MATH 41 or equivalent courage.

IHUM 73B: Ultimate Meanings: Decoding Religious Stories from around the World

Is there more to life than survival, or does it have some higher purpose? Why is there suffering, death, and evil in the world, and is there some way to overcome them? Religious communities often answer such questions through the art of story-telling, through history, myth, biography and other forms of distilling human experience into narrative. These stories have shaped the world we live in, helping people to cope with difficult aspects of experience, influencing the way we love, suffer and die, inspiring the imagination, and helping to ignite conflict and violence.\n\nThis course introduces you to some of the great stories of the world's religions¿the sacred narratives of Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We will read these stories to learn something about the religious cultures that produced them, and how they have shaped human experience.\n\nIn the winter quarter, students will be introduced to stories drawn primarily from the Buddhist tradition in the many forms which it developed as it spread across Asia from India to Japan and beyond. We will look at the biography of the founder, the Buddha, the tales of his previous lives, the stories of his disciples, and of later saints and heroes, religious practitioners and ordinary folk. Students will learn to read these stories to see how they elaborate a persuasively constructed world of meaning in terms of which people can make sense of their own personal histories.\n\nIn the spring quarter, the focus will shift to the foundational narratives of Judaism, Christianity and Islam¿the stories of the Israelites¿ exodus from Egypt, the suffering Job, the life and death of Jesus and the calling of the prophet Muhammad. Do these stories have only one meaning, and who determines what that meaning is? Can a story's meaning change over time, and if so, what do such stories mean today, in a partially secularized culture very different from the ones that produced them? We will address these questions by exploring how these ancient stories have been re-imagined by recent thinkers and writers who can help us understand how their meaning has changed¿or is changing¿in the light of modern experience

MATH 20: Calculus

Continuation of 19. Applications of differential calculus; introduction to integral calculus of functions of one variable, including: the definite integral, methods of symbolic and numerical integration, applications of the definite integral.

New Classes

It's the first day of winter quarter! Today I had Chemistry, Math, and my Intro to Humanities class: Ultimate Meanings. Math and Chemistry were as expected, but IHUM was surprisingly hilarious. Our teacher is a really old guy from NOT Australia (I'm guessing New Zealand from his accent, but he never did tell us...). He started class by telling us Brother's Grimm story, click HERE to read it. He also told us another story, this one about the class and how he was duped into teaching it because he's fairly new on staff (IHUM is dreaded by both teachers and students because it's a required class that mostly is terrible). Overall it was pretty hilarious, and he optimistically suggested that the class might actually be fun. Hopefully my first Anthro lecture tomorrow is half as entertaining.

List of classes and descriptions follow below:

MATH 19: Calculus

Introduction to differential calculus of functions of one variable. Topics: review of elementary functions including exponentials and logarithms, limits, rates of change, the derivative, and applications. Math 19, 20, and 21 cover the same material as Math 41 and 42, but in three quarters rather than two. Prerequisites: precalculus, including trigonometry, advanced algebra, and analysis of elementary functions.

IHUM 73A: Ultimate Meanings: Decoding Religious Stories from around the World

Is there more to life than survival, or does it have some higher purpose? Why is there suffering, death, and evil in the world, and is there some way to overcome them? Religious communities often answer such questions through the art of story-telling, through history, myth, biography and other forms of distilling human experience into narrative. These stories have shaped the world we live in, helping people to cope with difficult aspects of experience, influencing the way we love, suffer and die, inspiring the imagination, and helping to ignite conflict and violence.\nThis course introduces you to some of the great stories of the world's religions, the sacred narratives of Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We will read these stories to learn something about the religious cultures that produced them, and how they have shaped human experience.\nIn the winter quarter, students will be introduced to stories drawn primarily from the Buddhist tradition in the many forms which it developed as it spread across Asia from India to Japan and beyond. We will look at the biography of the founder, the Buddha, the tales of his previous lives, the stories of his disciples, and of later saints and heroes, religious practitioners and ordinary folk. Students will learn to read these stories to see how they elaborate a persuasively constructed world of meaning in terms of which people can make sense of their own personal histories.\nIn the spring quarter, the focus will shift to the foundational narratives of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the stories of the Israelites exodus from Egypt, the suffering Job, the life and death of Jesus and the calling of the prophet Muhammad. Do these stories have only one meaning, and who determines what that meaning is? Can a story's meaning change over time, and if so, what do such stories mean today, in a partially secularized culture very different from the ones that produced them? We will address these questions by exploring how these ancient stories have been re-imagined by recent thinkers and writers who can help us understand how their meaning has changed, or is changing, in the light of modern experience.

ANTHRO 1: Introduction to Cultural and Social Anthropology (ANTHRO 201)

Crosscultural anthropological perspectives on human behavior, including cultural transmission, social organization, sex and gender, culture change, technology, war, ritual, and related topics. Case studies illustrating the principles of the cultural process. Films.

CHEM 31B: Chemical Principles II

Chemical equilibrium; acids and bases; oxidation and reduction reactions; chemical thermodynamics; kinetics. Lab.

BIG GAME!!

GO STANFORD!!

Every dorm had to paint a banner for big game, and this is ours! It's a competition; whoever's banner is the best gets displayed at big game. I think we're going to win, but Sophie's dorm totally stole our idea. Their banner says the same exact thing! Cheaters never win, winners never cheat.

Big Game is coming up...

GO STANFORD!!!

Halloween

Me as a flapper and Sophie as a Furby

Birthday!

The cake masters (Peter & Trevor)

The cake turned out tasting pretty good! Only problem was that those boys had NO idea what they were doing and thus the entire middle of the square pan cake was total mush. Somehow, a dormful of college kids didn't really mind that their cake was in it's liquid state.

Trevor making the frosting/ being bad

Peter turning cake making into an art.

Birthday crown (from Aunt Pam!)

Birthday balloons

(I still haven't figured out who put them there!!)

This was on the outside of my door at 7am when I had to go to morning hills. You can see the small hole i crawled through on the right. Didn't even wake me roommate up. Ninja. America (my roommate) and Trevor were responsible.

I asked Trevor to get me a penguin for my birthday; he delivered. My plan for halloween is to somehow sew/make a Mrs. penguin costume to match.