Once long ago, when I was an undergrad, I had these things called "graduation requirements" (curses!). I couldn't just take a bunch of drama and history classes. Nooooooooo, I had to be well-rounded. Which meant GEs. Terrible, terrible math/science GEs.
I scoured the course catalog for classes that were more science-y and less math-y. Geology department. Volcanoes? Let's do it! Anything else fit into my schedule? Let's get this science GE stuff out of the way as soon possible. Hmm, what about a class on Rivers?
I was stupid. Rivers wasn't really a science class, it was a math class in disguise (and I know that science involves math, but whatever, this was ultra too much math). I sadly cannot do math. Well, I can do basic math if someone is forcing me, but engineer-esque math? In a lower division class? It's just not going to happen.
So as hard as I tried, as dutifully as I took notes in class, and even though I read the whole freaking book (which was written by the professor, not fair), my grade suffered. Because of stupid math that had no place in a SCIENCE class. I'll tell you, we weren't calculating shit in Volcanoes. We were learning about aa and pahoehoe (look it up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aa_(lava_flow)#.CA.BBA.CA.BB.C4.81). Or learning about renegade volcanologists who paddled a raft across an acid lake to get to a volcano. There was drama and natural wonders! There were no math formulas in Volcanoes.
You want some math, Rivers class? Here's some math:
Engineer > Rachel
Rachel + math = sad grade
Even though the math kept bringing me down, I actually learned quite a lot in Rivers class that has stuck with me.
Most important lesson that the professor repeated 3 trillion times: DO NOT BUILD YOUR HOUSE BY A RIVER. Even though that river may seem calm and quaint most of the time and it's a great place to walk your dog, that river will flood and your house will get washed away. This flood might not happen this year, but it will happen at some point in your life, and you really need to listen to the River Experts, because they warned you! But are you going to listen? I don't think so! Even though you should! Why aren't you listening? Don't buy a house there!
So this theme of living somewhere you probably shouldn't popped up twice this week:
1. In Caroline's play The Quiet of the Storm (look, pretty pictures for people who didn't go: http://theatre.usc.edu/gallery/index.cfm?groupid=228) Why do you live in a town where hurricanes kill?
2. In the New York Times article about tsunami stones:
Photo by Ko Sasaki
Coastal towns in Japan have a tradition of putting up large stones with inscriptions saying where people shouldn't build their homes. Some people listened to the stones and decided to live on higher ground. The people who didn't listen to the stones believed a sea wall would protect their homes. For a lot of people, the sea walls did nothing.
People have already gone through these experiences over and over, why don't we listen to past?
I, too, was lousy in math. Everything past long division caused me grief. In college I failed a course called "Idiot's Math." It met 5 days a week at 7:45am. That was part of the problem. I took the same course the following semester and escaped with a C. I have found, in real life, I don't need math. Since discovering that I have felt much better.
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