heat with a beat

I just thought I would pass along one of the more interesting topics we have discussed in our History of Rock class.
Not only was Rev. C.L. Franklin one of the key players in the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s, he was a pioneer in the early days of soul music. His fire and brimstone sermons were so popular that they were recorded, put to music, and distributed by Chess Records. Fittingly, his immensely popular style became known as "brimstone with a beat".



If Franklin's name sounds familiar when considering the topic of soul music, that is largely due to the legacy of his daughter Aretha.

degrees of progress

I came to the strangest and most wonderful realization yesterday. I was pondering the courses that I need to enroll in next semester, in the spring of 2006, and it dawned on me: after next semester I only have three more courses left in order to complete my BA degree! With that being said, I still won't be graduating from the U of L until the 2007-2008 school year because I also have three practical semesters that I have to finish in order to complete my Education degree. But hey, I am so excited because once this semester is done I only have two more semesters of cramming for tests and writing papers. I have always enjoyed academic writing, but at the same time I will be so happy to complete this portion of my education.

I also met with one of the faculty members in the Education Department this afternoon to discuss the finer points of my program and it turns out that I will be able to have two minors in my degree to go along with my program. So, I will have a History major along with German and Religious Studies minors; hopefully that will make me employable when it is all said and done.

It is not as though any of these things are new developments are anything new, it is just nice to look back over everything that I have been doing since moving to Lethbridge and to see degrees of progress.

some pictures

Here are some pictures taken by Wesla's boss

american history mid-term

I am really enjoying my American History class, it seems to be filling in so many of the blanks in my mind concerning the historical roots of American ideology - including many of the differences of opinion within the nation of America. However, the disadvantages to a survey course such as this is two fold: many of the subjects cannot be addressed in detail, and the volume of material covered has the potential to be overwhelming.

Our midterm on Monday will test us on all the events from the establishment of the Chesapeake and New England colonies in the early 17th century to the end of the American Civil War. I type all of my notes with my laptop in class and I have in the neigbourhood of a 100 pages of notes to review. The one true saving grace for this course is that the Final is non-cumulative.

ich bin krank und müde

I am sick and tired! Not in the colloquial sense, but rather in the sense that I should be in bed getting over this cold, doped up on NeoCitron and Nyquil, and not sitting here in my History of Rock Class. There is one big consolation to this night class: all the notes are posted on the net so I don't have to worry about writing anything down... it couldn't be sweeter.

juror duty cont...

Thankfully, I received a letter from the Alberta department of justice excusing me from juror duty. I guess it pays to whine about how missing class could cause irreparable damage to my school year. I figure that I am paying good money for the classes I am enrolled in so I don't exactly want to miss them.

nhl 2005-2006

I have been a Oilers fan going back to the glory days, and I am so glad to see the game back on the ice. I had my first chance to watch a game in the new regular season on Tuesday night, unfortunately it turned out to be a 3 - 1 loss to the Kings.

I must say that I enjoyed the new fast pace to the game, but it seemed to me that there were too many unnecessary penalties called. If it wasn't for the penalty trouble I think the Oilers could have pulled out another win to give them a undefeated 4 and 0 start to the season, but it wasn't meant to be. The Blue and Orange play host to the Stars on Friday, maybe they will do a better job than the hurtin' Flames did tonight.

thanksgiving

We had a great time this past weekend with all of our Thanksgiving festivities. We spent most of our time visiting Wesla's family up and around Edmonton. We headed out Friday night after Wesla was done work and stayed the night at her dad's place in Wetaskawin. Saturday was the L'hirondelle family reunion (Wesla's mom's side) in Villneuve. We also spent one night at each of Wesla's married sister's homes. Good times with X-Box and Axis & Allies with the bro-in-laws.