Mark Davis Profile: Mark is a senior Philosophy major from Leavenworth, KS, minoring in Religion. In addition to being a Resident Assistant in Eaton Hall, Mark manages The Edge radio station, reviews movies for The Hilltop Monitor, and is a student worker in the campus Marketing Department. Interests: Sleep, video games, books, music, movies, comics, and web design.  Personal Blogsite    Recent Posts Only Four More Weeks - 03.31 Spring Break A'Hoy - 03.10 New Life Goal - 03.03 Finally Feeling Well - 02.25 The Beginning of the End - 01.21 This is My December - 12.04 Worse than Finals... - 11.27 Thanksgiving Break - 11.19 Hello, Nihilism - 11.12 November Slump - 11.05 Next Semester - 10.29 Break/Procrastination - 10.22 Flailing till Fall Break - 10.15 7 Weeks Down, 7 Left - 10.08 First Post - 10.01

 Tuesday, April 22, 2008  

Down to the Last Two Weeks

Although I’m excited to think about the 5 days of classes and 4 days of finals which stand between me and graduation at this point, I’m kind of freaking out a little bit. Not because I haven’t heard back from anywhere that I applied for jobs, and not because I will actually be living someplace other than Leavenworth or Jewell, and not because I’m “all grown up now”… but because I have to finish writing three papers (totaling 45 pages) this week. After that is finished, finals will be a cinch.

The first paper is due Tuesday and is for my History of Philosophy 2 course and is over Sartre’s Existentialism as a Humanism, in which I will most likely argue that he is right and everyone else is wrong because I love existentialism. The second paper is one for my GenEd Capstone and I’m actually still up in the air over that topic right now… but it is due Wednesday, so I have a bit of time to figure it out still. And the last one is also a presentation which I am supposed to give Tuesday, but which I’ve already told the prof can’t happen until Thursday because I was sick last week and couldn’t finish up my research while being sick and miserable.

I think the thing that I am most excited about for the next year or two is that I won’t have to read and write so much academic stuff. I love philosophy, but when I’m reading it all the time I get super depressive and bored. I’ve also been having a lot of fun writing fiction again lately… my first few years at Jewell killed my creativity and fiction loving side because I took a few Creative Writing classes and ended up critiquing everything I did after that to death. But the context I’m writing in now is for webcomic series I’m thinking out with some artist friends (one of which should be starting up in June). I was afraid this side of me would be dead forever, but I am really enjoying this writing stuff much more than I have in years. It’s at the point where it really seems like I can’t stop thinking about writing lately…

Anyway, I’ve blogged enough. Now its time to go eat and move on to the different stages of productivity I go through when writing papers. See ya for the last blog on this Jewell supported blog next week. 

 Monday, March 31, 2008

Only Four More Weeks

I’ve been trying to ignore the fact that we just have four weeks of school left. I’ve tried to not be one of those seniors who knows how many days of class I have left until graduation. I’ve really pushed myself to work hard up until the very last day… but I feel my spirits caving in, my body giving up, my mind slowly going into summer mode. I have been having a harder time than ever getting through my readings for class, I still haven’t started writing my research paper which is due in a week, and I have a test next week and another paper on the horizon. But, no matter how much pressure I put on myself, no matter how much friends push me forward, no matter how much time I set aside for homework, I just can’t seem to focus or care any more.

Part of it is that I’m not gonna be going straight into grad school because I’m pretty burned out. In the past 5 semesters I’ve done 32 hours of philosophy, and I’ll leave the school with almost 40 hours in the major (and it only required 24 until this past year). I’m really proud of that, but I’m also really wishing that I would have spread it out a little more evenly. But that wouldn’t have worked because my first three semesters of college were an academic waste of time. I got my GenEd requirements mostly finished and I got some cool classes in before switching to the best major offered at the school (Philosophy, duh)… but I wish I could have taken some of the courses earlier so I wouldn’t be so brain dead and tired right now.

Oh well… let this be your lesson: don’t waste your time at college. If you aren’t happy in your major and have concerns about the professors, then re-examine your choice of majors and maybe even the school you’re at. Although I didn’t stick with the creative writing major, I still write a lot and have fun doing it. I took the creative writing classes I wanted and enjoyed them. And although I might just be a Religion minor, I enjoyed those classes too. And although I get slack from everyone outside of Jewell for being a Philosophy major, I have really enjoyed the classes, the professors, and the work I’ve done.

For the next two years before grad school, I won’t have any real world application of what I’ve done at college, but I will still enjoy thinking about what I’ve learned, reading more in the areas I have an interest, and I will have fond memories of the classes and profs. That’s what college should be about, I think… finding what you love to do and helping you to pursue it. Even outside of the academic realm, my time at college helped my fine tune my web design skills which I’m getting paid to do now. I had the opportunity to start an online radio station and manage it and all the shows/DJs who are on it. And I’ve had the chance to be a Resident Assistant and get to know the majority of each incoming freshmen class, which has kept me more in touch with the college and with my immature side.

So, as much as I look forward to an academic break before moving on to the next level of education, I know that I’ll miss this one and all the people who were a part of it. I just wish that all these kind of thoughts would die for the next four weeks while I try to finish up everything…

 Monday, March 10, 2008

Spring Break A’Hoy!

If you haven’t figured it out by now, this is my last semester at William Jewell (as a student anyway) and it has been very rough thus far. But I’m almost completely caught up on the month of class I fell behind on when I had the flu and pneumonia, I’m done with mid-terms, and I’m picking up my copy of Super Smash Brothers Brawl from the mailroom this afternoon. Just 4 days and I’m packing up and cruising home for 10 days of rest, research, friends, movies, and videogames. I normally don’t care for breaks because they involve more packing and unpacking (which is something I hate doing), but I need to get away. I love Eaton, but after not leaving my room for 2 weeks and then spending so much time in here while catching up on homework, I’m ready for a change of environment.

As the semester drags on, I have been taking note of some things that I will most definitely miss next year, no matter how close to the school I am. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• The Professors: they are seriously the smartest, most dedicated people I think I’ve ever met. Not only that, but they are cool and want to know and teach their students. One reason that I’m worried about grad school because I’m really not sure if the profs will be as cool as they have been here.
• Eaton Hall: it completely rules. I have lived here for my entire 4 years of college and have been on every floor on the north side. Third was my freshman year, fourth was my sophomore year as Shepherd, first was my junior year, second was the interim time between summer school and the actual year, and now I’m back on first, for my senior year. I’ve loved being here, even when it is tiring, it is fun. No other dorm in the world could be as awesome as Eaton. I’m convinced.
• My Friends: they’ve changed a lot since freshman year (most of my friends from earlier years at Jewell transferred), but I will miss all of them. College kinda feels like a four year, live-in, insanely busy/hard summer camp. You’re around each other all the time, eat meals in a big cafeteria, talk about life after school/camp (but don’t seriously worry about it until you’re about to leave), and just have a lot of fun away from real responsibilities. I’m sure I’ll stay in touch with most of them, but I’ll never have this experience again and I will really miss it.
• The Activities: now, I haven’t been a part of many in my time here, but I have loved what I got to do with the paper (movie reviews and the cartoon), the radio station (don’t make me go into all the different stuff I do and have done), the RA position, the on campus events and lectures, and the Philosophy Dept. Game Nights.
• The Cafeteria: all you can eat should never be taken for granted.

I’m sure there are more and more I’ll come up with as graduation gets closer and closer, but for now those are the top 5 things I’m worried about missing the most. That’s it for this post I think… I’m off to annoy the mailroom workers and see if that game is in yet. If so, it might be hard to go to class, but I’m sure I’ll manage. Have a good week and enjoy break. See ya on the flipside… where it will hopefully be warmer.

 Monday, March 3, 2008 

New Life Goal

After having a pretty awesome Leap Day last Friday, I decided that I’m making it my lifetime goal to make every Leap Day a holiday. It doesn’t make sense why it isn’t anyway… I mean, it comes around every four years, makes the year a full day longer, and we have to work that extra day? No way. In the future, thanks to yours truly, it will be a holiday. We’ll have cake, and pizza, and presents, and get to sleep in as late as we want. It will be great.

On to more pressing matters (ie: school), I’m still about a week behind on EVERYTHING right now. It’s a lot of fun balancing your current workload, which is somewhat excessive, with the 500 pages of reading you missed over the span of two weeks. I’m getting there though… slowly but surely. My incentives to hurry up and be all caught up are approaching fast; I’ve got a midterm on Wednesday and a paper presentation on Thursday. I also have a test and another paper due next week. So I’ll be forcing myself through the depths of reading hell this week to pull something decent off at the last minute. It’s worked in the past… hopefully my reliance upon induction won’t fail me now.

What tends to complicate things is my over commitment to extra-curricular and non-curricular activities. Running a radio station as a full time student and Resident Assistant is complicated; especially when you don’t get paid jack for doing any of the work. But, it has generally been fun to get the music all organized, train new DJs, listen to their new shows develop and grow, and see the listener base jump with each new show that goes on air. It would still be awesome if I got any sort of real reimbursement out of the whole deal though (other than my scholarship which I got to keep when they killed the actual radio station). At least by reviewing movies for the Hilltop Monitor, I get into the movie for free… and when doing the comics for the Monitor, I get the same amount in scholarship as I get for the radio station… which, trust me, has taken a lot less time to do than the station has.

My biggest non-curricular activities are two things which I really love: videogames and my webcomic. I haven’t had a chance to play any videogame in the past week; even on the weekend I was cramming for the upcoming tests, reading like crazy, and just trying to stay above water (or at least close enough that I could use a straw to get some air here and there). But, I have managed to keep my webcomic up to date (updating every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). It’s getting more viewers now than any of my past comics have, and its still growing like crazy.

Anyway, I’ve typed enough to have put off some reading and recharge my brain for some more mind blowing philosophical inquiry. Hope your month started off great and I’ll see ya in a week.

 Monday, February 25, 2008

Finally Feeling Well

In case you have been wondering why I missed my blogs for the past month, I have one, all encompassing answer which I doubt any will argue against: the flu. That’s right, I have been sick for the past month. The week after my last post in January, several of the guys in my hall came down with a wicked cough, which turned into a fever, and then all the flu symptoms hit hard. Immediately it started spreading throughout the dorm, throughout the student body, and throughout the faculty and staff of the college. I got the cough late in that week, even though I went into my heavy sleep, healthy diet phase of trying to avoid sickness, and by the first full week in February, I was bedridden; for the entire week.

The next week was better, but not completely; turns out that, while fighting the flu, my body accumulated a few secondary infections which I ended up having to get meds for towards the end of the second week in February. The problem with the meds, however, is that all three of them the doctor gave me have the side effect of drowsiness and I had to take one twice a day, and the others with each meal. In other words, the whole third week is kind of a blur. And, now, it is the last week in February, and I am finally feeling the best I’ve felt since my last blog… the one downfall is that my meds have made my stomach act up and now I have to go back to the doctor.

The amazing thing is that I only missed a week of classes, and luckily it was the same week that the one professor I have for two courses this semester was also out with the flu for the same week. So, although I’m definitely behind in all my classes, I’m not as far behind as I otherwise would be. But that’s why I haven’t been on here. The combo of sickness and trying to get caught up on two 400 level capstone classes and another tough 200 level class has been killing my schedule. On top of that, I’m scrambling to catch up on work for my jobs and hobbies. I never thought that the second semester of my senior year would be this crazy.

After all, I managed to work it so that I only needed to take 12 hours of classes, and only needed one of them to actually graduate; but this is the hardest semester I think I’ve had at William Jewell College. If it isn’t the roughest semester, then it at least ties with my Fall semester. I thought senior year would be a breeze… man was I wrong.

Anyway, at The Edge is going great! We have 6 shows online regularly, another one starting in early March, and two others being worked on and prepping for airtime. We’ve risen from somewhere in the 30’s or 40’s to spot number 13 in Live365’s college genre! We just had an article published in the Hilltop Monitor. And we’re working on getting some merchandise designed and ready for people to buy.

Everything in the dorm is still kind of crazy, because the flu is still working its way through the rest of the campus body which has managed to stay healthy, but I think we’re almost through it now. And, in the middle of writing this note at 4am on Monday morning, the Eaton Hall fire alarms went off, interrupting the blogging process. Turns out someone burnt cookies. Fun times. So, on that note, I’m going to get some sleep so that I can be fairly productive today.

 Monday, January 21, 2008 

The Beginning of the End

The break is over, the last semester of my college career has begun, my classes are going well thus far, and I still have no clue what I’m going to do once I graduate other than “take a year off before grad school.” So, other than growing a year older this past December, not that much has changed since last semester.

The courses I’m taking this semester are pretty awesome though. I’m only taking 12 hours, which means that I don’t have to be in the classroom very much compared to past semesters, but it won’t be a walk through the park. I’m in State and Society, my senior general education capstone, which covers the issues of whether school vouchers and the teaching of evolution (and its counter theories) are constitutional. I’m also taking the very first Philosophy Capstone ever offered at William Jewell College, which is covering contemporary philosophical issues and is focused on having us write publishable work and learning how to submit articles to academic journals. And I’m in the very first History of Philosophy II course, which is covering the 17th century through the 20th century.

I’m really excited about the new philosophy courses because they are part of the new and improved philosophy major. I was just lucky enough to be a senior when this took place so that I’m not required to take these extra courses but have the option to be in them, instead of taking some more electives which I really don’t need or care about. And, hopefully, it will only get me more prepared for my grad school decision and experience.

Since I’m not doing more than 12 hours of school, I would normally have free time to spend doing whatever I wanted, but that’s too easy… so I’ve piled on other activities and hobbies to fill that time up. The Edge is starting a bunch of new shows this week, which I’m really excited about. My webcomic, boozeathon4billion, has been going for a month now and is getting a fairly good audience for such a short amount of time being online. I’m still doing movie reviews and weekly comics for the Hilltop Monitor. I’m still writing fiction and poetry as I find the time and inspiration to do so. And because my roomie joined a frat and moved down to the house, I have the room to myself. So, I’ve taken time to reorganize, bring more stuff back from home, and decided to get a couple small fish as pets, so that the room wouldn’t feel so empty. Since my fish tank only holds a gallon, I decided on two Zebra Tetras and have named them Beavis and Butthead because they chase each other around all the time and are pretty stupid.

And, thankfully, Jewell caught up with the times and finally let us have the day off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. You’re probably wondering how I plan to spend it, and so I’ll answer that right now: I’m going to sleep most of the day, wake up and do some reading for class, play videogames, and then sleep some more. Oh, and at some point (possibly multiple points) I’ll be eating. I think it’s a pretty good plan. Enjoy the holiday and have a great week.

 Tuesday, December 4, 2007

This Is My December

There is nothing better than the last two weeks of first semester; the temperatures drop below freezing, the constant wind we have on Jewell’s hill becomes everyone’s worst enemy, and classes are gearing up for finals. For most people, these are the worst two weeks, but as a philosophy/religion major, November is my personal hell, not December. I’ve got two actual finals to get ready for (Logic and Greek) and two papers to write (Philosophy and Religion), so I’m on easy street these next two weeks…which is good because my birthday falls right before finals week every year, so it’s good to be able to enjoy my birthday while everyone else is running all over the place.

My paper on Foucault’s power structure, and how counterpower could be exercised was finished 17 hours later than it should have been, but I got a 20 hours extension on it, so I did get it done “on time.” It turned out really well, I think, and because of that, I might revise/edit it over the break and next semester so I can submit it to journals and give an undergraduate colloquium presentation here at Jewell. Most people at the colloquium presentation would have no clue what I was talking about, and maybe even those who knew what I was talking about wouldn’t agree with me, so I might try to do something more interesting or controversial to the general public instead. Then again, losing people in the depths of philosophical inquiry is always fun, and really boosts one’s ego.

As for life as an RA in Eaton Hall, it’s still crazy. Most freshmen don’t have a real academic challenge until after Responsible Self (which is sometimes hard to believe because RS can destroy a good deal of freshmen each year), and because of that, this time of the semester is very restless and loud/crazy in the dorm. Since they haven’t had a real experience with finals before, most won’t prepare properly, despite having the RA’s warn them as upperclassmen that they are real exams/papers which can make or break your grade in a class. It can definitely be frustrating and even a bit depressing to see the same freshmen mistakes being made year after year without fail (or maybe I should say with failure).

Well, there isn’t much left to update about. This week should be pretty routine and I don’t want to think about last week any more than I have to... so, I’m off to get some breakfast for the second time this semester, and try to enjoy the day; even though it is 22 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

 Tuesday, November 27, 2007  

Worse than Finals Week

This past week was amazing, but a waste in regard to my academic career. My cousin Julie got married in Savannah, Georgia over this Thanksgiving Break, and so the entire family went down there for the week to meet her new husband (and his family), hang out for a while, enjoy ourselves, and see the ceremony before they ship off to the Bahamas. I took two bags of homework with me, most of it was for my postmodernism research paper, and the rest was for regular class work, and in the time I was there, I did so little homework that it really made me wonder why I even try to be a “good student” over breaks. I just end up hauling heavy bags of work I’m supposed to be doing around so that when I get back I freak out, miss out on hours and hours of sleep, and barely get everything done while losing a little more of my sanity in the process.

The good news which this week has to offer is that I finally decided on where my research paper is actually headed. I’m not spilling that news on here though, because it will most likely turn into a colloquium presentation next semester and I don’t want everyone knowing about it early. Just know that it is amazing, brilliant, and mind blowing… and the only way I could have come up with it is on this trip. It just fell into place. Now I’m just hoping that the rest of my homework will fall into place so I have time to write it.

I also found out, upon returning to Jewell, that this is my week to review a movie. I love doing that job, because I’m a huge movie buff, but this has to be the worst week in the world to sneak away for 2 hours for a movie just to come back and spend another hour writing a good review. On top of that, I’ve got to find out what’s going on this week so I can do a comic as well. Both jobs are great, but I have a feeling that the end products will be a little sub-par this week. My apologies in advance… but I’d still say this is in the good news category. A free movie is never evil.

The bad news, I’m afraid, is that this has to be the hardest week of the school year. I’ve probably said this before, but I mean it this time. Why? Because when you have a research paper due the day you leave for almost a week long break, have an awesome break, and return to daily papers, a Greek quiz, mountains of reading material, and a 15 page research paper, your will to be a diligent student is crushed almost immediately. This week will be an uphill struggle to get everything done and make sure I do a good job at everything I’m doing.

Luckily, I have awesome professors who are pretty lenient in these kind of circumstances, I live in the best dorm on campus (and have some of the best residents as well), I’ve got some great friends and colleagues backing me up, and someone was brilliant enough to invent caffeine, which will be my sleep substitute more than once.

I have to admit, though, that as depressing as it was to head back to school with all of this on my mind, once I got on campus, started unpacking, saw some friends, and started to knock out some homework, my spirits were up again in no time.

 Monday, November 19, 2007

 Thanksgiving Break

This week shouldn’t really even be called a school week at all; we have two days of class before Thanksgiving break. All that means, is that no one is going to get anything done for two days, professors are going to be upset that even their best students are slacking, and the dorms are going to be chaotic (or at least Eaton Hall will be, and that’s all that matters, because I live there). So, why do we have two days of class instead of just getting a full week off? Because fall break left us with a 3 day week and we’ve gotta make up for that somehow. At least our finals end on December 14th instead of the 21st like most other schools.

So, what do I have this week that I’m complaining about? Logic homework on Monday morning, greek homework and reading for early Tuesday morning, Postmodernism reading and another short paper (4-5 pages) right after Greek, and my Religion research paper due Tuesday afternoon by 4pm. On top of all that, I have to get my sources ready for my Postmodernism research paper which is due this next Tuesday, get my stuff packed up and ready to rock, and get all of my residents out of the dorm by 5pm so I can check their rooms, close up the dorm, and get home before it gets too late to do anything fun or productive. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the same day that Postmodernism paper is due, I have a Greek exam.

Normally I would be pretty laid back about all of this; homework is just homework, and there really isn’t any big reason to freak out over it. But, my graduation depends on the grade I get in my Ancient Greek course, I still haven’t gotten all of my sources sent from other libraries, and I’ll spend this break in Georgia because my cousin Julie is getting married.

I’m happy for her and everything, but I really want to ask why they couldn’t have waited a year, or put it off a month or so, or had it any other time of the year… because Thanksgiving break has never really been a break for me. It’s been a time set aside by William Jewell College so that all my professors can assign huge assignments which will inevitably destroy my work ethic, and make the last three weeks of the semester a living hell.

This is also the time of year I almost regret living in Eaton Hall, because the freshmen guys, as awesome as they are, have almost no serious work to be doing unless they’re in higher level courses or are the Oxbridge Honor Students. So, while I spend all night trying to get my homework finished for class at 9am the next morning, my residents are running around playing Halo3, finding haunted places in Liberty and checking them out, or just watching movies and TV shows until the light of day appears and signals them to crash before classes. I envy them and wish I’d have spent my freshmen year doing cooler stuff. I wish my classes were easier now, so I could still enjoy college, rather than trudge through each day. And it gets hard to do work when other people are happy and having a good time. I don’t want them to be miserable, I just want to have a little less on my plate, so I can actually get to everything I’m supposed to be doing.

But Eaton is great because of all those reasons I just listed, too… it’s a love-hate relationship, and although it might be unhealthy for my academic life, I just love this place too much to leave. It would be like giving up my best friends for complete and utter solitude. I just want this break to get here and be over like a band-aid being ripped from my flesh: quick and painless. Unfortunately, I doubt it will be either.

 Monday, November 12, 2007

Hello, Nihilism

The November slump has completely set in now. There is one week until the Thanksgiving break, one week until my Interpretation Paper is due, and two weeks until my Research Paper is due. But that isn’t what is killing my motivation and/or will to live. No, it’s the fact that I am currently writing my 18th daily paper for my Postmodernism course and my 24th Moodle post for the History and Methods of Biblical Interpretation. I usually handle the daily papers a lot better than this, but knowing that this is my senior year is really messing with my head more than I thought it would be. My friend and fellow RA, David, said that this didn’t even feel like college anymore, but like something else entirely… that has to be the most fitting explanation of my senior year. It’s unlike any other year at college, and I don’t know if that’s good or bad yet.

The reason for my title, however, is because I’ve started taking a semi-nihilistic view away from my postmodernism reading/course when I’m not sure it is actually in what we’ve read so far. There is a sort of depressing truth expressed that this is just contingently how things are and that if we were anywhere else, at any other time, and in any other country/state/town we would be different. There is also a power structure at work and it really seems like Foucault waterproofed this idea, because I just don’t see a good weak point to attack. It’s like I’m settling into an uncomfortable agreement to sort of disagree, while actually agreeing and wishing I’d thought of it first. That frustration has led to me not caring as much as I should; which is bad, because I never finish the semester strong and was hoping to do so this year.

However, I haven’t let it affect my duties as an RA! Just last week, David and I busted nine guys in one night for visitation violations at around 2:30am (our visitation ends at 1am). What is really ironic is that there have been several rumors going around the dorms that the Eaton RA’s don’t care what happens in the dorm, and then we came down on them when they let down their guard. I don’t really care for getting other people in trouble, but it’s my job and it has to be done. So, why not take pride in it?

Speaking of taking pride in something, my comic last week actually got some official, written feedback from the student body! Not good feedback, but feedback nonetheless. We, as a campus, have just started moving towards being a “green campus” in order to pull in all the environmentally minded prospective students and look good in the community (and to save the earth, I guess), so I poked fun at it in the weekly comic I do and the leader of the PSA, the student organization behind this green movement, sent me an email about it. In my comic, I claimed that it was all going to the same place as the trash, which actually has been reported by some students, but is obviously denied by everyone. So, I can understand why she would be angry about the comic, especially when the program is just getting underway, but, in my mind, it’s free advertising for the green campaign!... although, I think Al Gore could handle it himself.

Anyway, my point of ending it on this note is to say this: try not to let things bother you so much this week. I’ve let everything hit me harder than usual because I’m worn down and frustrated, and that is just wearing me out even more. Roll with the punches, take a breather, and get back in the game instead of sitting out and pouting. Take it from me… no one cares about pouters. 

 Monday, November 5, 2007 

November Slump

November is the worst month of the school year for me. By now, all of my classes are at the most difficult stages of material which we will cover, I am working on research papers (two this year, both of which are due just before the end of the month), resident life in Eaton Hall gets crazy as the guys get restless, and I’m getting tired of staying up all night just to fit in the time to do all my homework, eat on a semi-regular basis, get sleep when I’m actually tired, and do all the work which my jobs and activities require of me. Oh, and occasionally I have time to see friends… but usually only if they are involved in one of the aforementioned things.

My biggest problem with this November-time slump is that I enjoy my classes! For instance, the research papers I mentioned are pretty interesting; especially because I get to pick the topic and find my own sources. For my Postmodernism seminar, I’ll be focusing on the issue of power and surveillance in Foucault’s writings, and how they affect the process of normalization, moral sensibility, societal interactions, and the discourse of sexuality. Most of you probably don’t know what that means, so I’ll briefly explain: Foucault puts forward the idea of power, which is a constant factor in every human interaction; he also incorporates knowledge into this idea of power. Surveillance is a way of normalizing both deviants and children, so that they understand what is expected of them and know that they should do as they are told because there is a constant surveillance of them. I will argue that, today, this process of surveillance is so prevalent that it is desensitizing individuals rather than normalizing them. Of course this was the very, very, very bare version of everything, but I hope you got an idea of what I’m doing for that paper.

In the other paper, I will be looking at a specific text in Mark (which I have chosen and already done one paper on), and will do a second “Interpretation Project” where I will, this time, focus on how one would interpret it via narrative-criticism. The other Interpretation Project looked at this text through the socio-scientific and historical-critical approach. The last one will look at it through the ethical interpretation (but that won’t be due until December). This paper should be fairly easy because I like the narrative approach and know it fairly well. It is just very time consuming.

As for my other classes, I have a Symbolic Logic Exam today and a Greek quiz on Thursday. So, it is very likely that, if you are reading this on Monday afternoon, that I haven’t slept since Sunday morning.

The other really big news is that The Edge is back online!! Check it out and let us know what you think. The rest of this semester will still be a bit rocky as we get people trained, work with the new scheduler, record new sweepers and jingles, and load even more new songs, but stick with us! We’ll get on our feet and rocking in no time.

That’s it for me this week. Have a good day and don’t let the November Slump pull you down.

 Monday, October 29, 2007

Next Semester

As this semester starts to wind down, we all have to look at what we will be doing next semester so as to figure out our schedules, meet with advisors and professors about those schedules, and get everything finalized before the night of enrollment gets here. For upperclassmen it’s no big deal, we get the classes we want/need most of the time (unless it’s a CTI Capstone class, those are harder to get into); but, being an RA in the main underclassman men’s dorm, it can be a fun ride.

Most of them haven’t thought about next semester at all, and those who have probably haven’t met with their advisors to get a schedule formally figured out. The one major exception is the Oxbridge kids, who pretty much have their schedule of all four years laid out and they just pick electives or a second major. So, what can be really fun, is when the freshman enrollment opens up on November 15th at 12:01am when guys realize they can’t enroll because their advisor didn’t “unlock” them (which means they didn’t see the advisor to get their schedule approved), or when classes are full and they have to redo the entire schedule because one or two classes didn’t fit, or when they forget, wake up the next day, and ask how to get enrolled to full classes. That’s a whole lot of “fun,” but since this is my fourth year in Eaton, I’m ready for it.

Next semester is different for me, though… it’s my last semester as an undergraduate student. I’ve only got 12 hours to take, so it won’t be quite as stressful (hopefully), but I’ve got to start figuring out what I’m going to do with myself from here. Jewell has given me a great undergrad education, but I don’t want to stop here. However, I am taking a year off to rest, try to get some cash in my pockets, figure out where I want to go and what I want to study, take the GRE and LSAT, and get my applications in to graduate schools early for the next round of enrollment. In the end, I doubt it will be much of a break because I’ll probably take a philosophy seminar since I’ll be staying around the Liberty area and don’t want to get rusty. But it’s nice to think of not having a full load of classes with daily papers, exams, research papers, and all my other on campus duties.

Although I’m ready to not be under quite this much stress for a year, I’m going to miss college a lot. The social atmosphere, the cool classes and professors, the events and clubs, the dorm which has been my home for so long now, it’s just so strange to think that I’m already getting ready to graduate. It doesn’t seem like four years have gone by since I left high school and came to Jewell.

But, I can’t dwell on the future for too long, because I have a quiz and a paper due Tuesday, an exam on Wednesday, another paper for Thursday, and a research prospectus to get figured out and written by weeks end. As much as I hate this stress, I can’t help but love it at the same time. I never thought that I’d get to a point where I loved learning quite this much, but here I am, working hard, sleeping very little, and having the time of my life.

 Monday, October 22, 2007

Break + Procrastination = Fun

Fall break has been a big stress reliever for me, thus far. I’ve taken the entire weekend to chill, do laundry, sleep, play video games, and hang out with friends and family. By the time Tuesday rolls around, however, I’ll be working hard again so that I can get a research paper in by Wednesday afternoon, Logic homework in Wednesday morning, be studied up for a Greek test on Thursday, and will need to start on the huge amount of reading it will take to write my paper for Postmodernism. But, until Tuesday, I’m taking it easy and having some fun.

Several of my friends are using the break to get ahead on their assignments for different classes, but that kind of kills the whole concept of what a break is for: recharging. I guess that getting ahead allows for some slackening up of everything for a few weeks, but I’d rather take 3 days completely off, and then jump back into the whole school schedule. I don’t mind my daily schedule anyway; it’s a lot of work, but that’s not so bad. I think that when I get to graduate school, I’ll have it a lot easier than all of the kids from big universities who get to have a fairly laid back schedule compared to me. Jewell is definitely preparing me for an academic career after graduation, and that’s what keeps me here and working.

Sometime soon (hopefully this week), the school will get its big bandwidth upgrade and that means that The Edge, Jewell’s online college radio station which I’m the student manager of (and co-creator of) will be back on the air! We are still broadcasting right now, even though it sounds awful, but once we’re clear and awesome, we will start up our specialty shows and throw a bunch of new music and advertisements/sweepers into the mix. I’ve missed doing radio stuff so far this year. Even last year, when we were on and off air because of equipment failures, I got to do a show every week or so. But I haven’t been on air since this summer when the bandwidth became an issue… it’s very weird and I miss it. You can still check out our website though: www.theedgekc.com

However, being the cartoonist for the Hilltop Monitor has been very cool. I’ve been getting good feedback, too, so that’s a plus. I have fun doing it, like the people I work with, and am on scholarship for it; what could be any better!? If you haven’t seen any of them yet, you can hit www.thehilltopmonitor.com to check out my comics thus far; they are on the third page, usually the right side or bottom. And pretty soon I’ll start posting them, and the rejected ones, on my personal web comic site which hasn’t been updated since last spring. I’ll give that link when its up and running again.

That’s all for me. This past week has been all about preparing for fall break, enjoying fall break, and trying not to worry about getting everything done on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. That’s it for this blog though; but don’t forget to check out my personal blog for random updates and I hope you all are all doing well and had an awesome break. I’ll catch ya next week!

 Monday, October 15, 2007

Flailing till Fall Break

Although I’m almost burnt out, and I confess that Fall Break is the one thing keeping me awake enough to finish my reading, daily papers, and Greek translations, I have to admit: Symbolic Logic is getting cooler by the day. We started out doing basic atomic sentences, moving into some First Order Language (FOL) stuff, and then jumping into formal proofs, Boolean logic, and conditionals. And now, we’re getting into the really cool, hard, sweet stuff: quantification! I realize that most of you don’t have any clue what I’m rambling about, but just know that it’s awesome stuff that is making me millions of times smarter than you can imagine.

My big problem right now is trying to stay up to date with all we’re doing in Ancient Greek while working my butt off to get my grade up. I enjoy the class when I have the time to spend learning it and when we aren’t going super fast, but my professor is bent on getting through chapter 30 in this book, but we’re just now finishing up chapter 17. I think all three of the class members need to go in and just say, “there is no freakin way, so how about slowing down some!?”

The other stress on me, as of late, has been my cartoonist position with the school’s newspaper, The Hilltop Monitor. See, Jewell is a small campus and lately there really hasn’t been much going on that I can poke fun at, turn into a joke, or just take a cynical shot at… I mean, I come up with stuff, but most of it is sidelined because it is far from being clean enough to publish in a paper that goes out to alumni, friends, and family. Last week I did 4 different comics before one got accepted. So, since I have something like 7 rejected comic ideas (or complete comics), I’ve decided to revive my web-comic site so that I can host all of them on there. I’ll post that link once they’re up and all.

Other than that stuff, I can’t complain too much. RA life is treating me really well, and I’m very glad for that fact, because if it weren’t, life in the dorms gets very frustrating. All my guys get along pretty well, and there aren’t any “hall wars” like there have been in the past. There’s nothing worse than having to clean up other people’s stupid pranks in the dorm while trying to finish homework at around 3am… which seemed to happen a few too many times last year.

And I’m almost done reorganizing The Edge’s music library for when the bandwidth is fixed and we go back online after fall break. So, next week sometime, you will all have to tune into The Edge and jam out with me and my crazy friends.

That’s it for me this week. Thanks for tuning in and I’ll see ya after Fall Break!  

 Monday, October 8, 2007

7 Weeks Down, 7 Left 

This is the halfway point for us at Jewell… the first seven weeks will be over as of Friday, October 12th, and then we have another seven weeks until Winter Break. I’m usually not one to complain about the school year, because although it can be the most stressful experience of my life, I also love what I’m studying and couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. However, this is my senior year and my course load requires me to write a paper for every day of the week. By the end of this semester, I will have written a minimum of 240 pages for two of my four classes. And although that makes me feel like the smartest person in the world, it is also a lot to be doing with Senioritis biting at my heels.

In case you’re wondering, the two classes I’m doing that work for are: Postmodernism with Dr. Sperry, and History and Methods of Biblical Interpretation with Dr. Chance. Both are awesome classes with excellent professors, but its just a harsh workload since I’m also in Ancient Greek and Symbolic Logic. Nevertheless, I’m pushing forward with my head up and napping at every chance I get (because, as I’m sure you’ve heard, college kids don’t have the greatest sleep schedules).

Luckily, most of my classes don’t really have mid-terms or finals; instead, most of my religion and philosophy courses do essay exams. They’re take home essays, luckily, but are graded a lot harder than our daily papers and require more pages. I had one of those due last week… but thanks to Symbolic Logic and Ancient Greek I do have real exams this semester (this week, in fact). Normally I wouldn’t be too worried, but I came down with strep throat last week and missed classes on Thursday and Friday while trying to recuperate. So, I definitely don’t feel prepared at this point in the week, which means that my good old buddy, Senioritis, is catching up to me.

But I’m not scared. Unlike most of my friends, I try to take the laid-back approach to school, where you study as little as possible before tests (but enough to ensure you know the material), do the homework late at night, sleep as much as possible, and play video games to unwind. Of course, part of that strategy is to keep my test anxiety from kicking in. I do fine if I hit something on a quiz/exam that I genuinely don’t know, but if I remember studying it for days, I get frustrated with myself and I just can’t focus after that.

On that note, I think I’m going to do my Foucault reading and then play some Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 for my Wii. Have a great week and don’t work too hard.

 Monday, October 1, 2007

First Post

I’m getting into this Jewell blogging thing a bit late, so I’ll play a little catch up and do the About Me info in this post, even though I should have done that something like a month ago. Personally, I love filling out these about me things, because I love contemplating where I’ve been, where I’m going, and what the difference between the two is and how it happened. Of course, if you take the philosophical route, that could take years (if not a lifetime), so I’ll do that later. Maybe next week…

Mark at a glance:

• Age - 21 (…finally)
• Hometown - Leavenworth, KS (born and raised… so it’s very nice to be away from there. Even if Liberty is only 35 minutes away)
• Why Jewell? - Honestly… my girlfriend was going here when I was making the college decision, so that had a lot to do with it. Why I’m glad I came here even though we broke up? Because of the small class sizes, the one-on-one interaction with professors, the small/intimate campus life, and the people.
• Major - I’m a senior Philosophy major who is getting a minor in Religion (particularly Christian Thought and Tradition). My goal is to get my PhD in Philosophy, teach at the college level, write a lot, travel and give lectures and/or visit other colleges, and generally just revolutionize modern thought… or help push us in that direction at the very least.
• Activities - Radio, Newspaper, Resident Life, CRV and SigEp, a random web comic, and I play rhythm guitar and bass for a friend’s band.
• After Graduation - I’m going to take a year off to take some more undergraduate courses (probably at Jewell), figure out what I will study at the masters/doctorate level, get rested up for the rest of my academic career, and just have a bunch of fun.

I’m often asked why my personal blog is called The Mizark Show … and the answer is pretty simple, so I’ll give it to you before I get any more questions about it: when I was in high school, my nickname amongst our tight group of friends (where there was another Mark) was Mizark or Mizzy, and so “themizarkshow” (which just evolved out of that nickname) was never taken on ANY website. Thus my emails, blogs, etc are all under that. Personally I think it makes sense, because a blog is like your own talk show.

For those of you who know me, you understand how weird and off the wall I can be… so you don’t need a disclaimer. But for everyone else, I’m just gonna say that my personal blog will tackle philosophical and political issues, campus issues, religious ideas/traditions/thought which I have problems with, and a gambit of other topics. That may not sound like such a bad thing, but since I believe the concern, or, as I like to call it, the fetish with Political Correctness is ruining liberalism as well as America, I will tackle such issues with no real regard for tact. That doesn’t mean that I’ll just be plain out mean or unsympathetic to the other viewpoints; I’ll give them the defense they deserve, but I just hate using sugary, inaccurate terms.

With that said, we’re off on a sweet bloggy adventure through the depths of my mind and the business of my life. I hope you’re ready for it, and continue to tune into The Mizark Show.