Liberal Studies This Week

Sharing your experience as an online student

If you would like to become a contributor to this blog, contact Andy at aegiz1 at uis.edu 

Friday Fun: Something good on televsion - just not here

First, an apology. My goal is to add something useful and something useless every week but it's been a particularly jam-packed schedule the past couple weeks. If it helps, I did create the list of online courses and added that link to the main program page - you can find it here. That wasn't a blog post but it is useful all the same.

This week, I'm thinking that we need better options for television programs than odd men pretending to put their children in flying saucer balloons so that they get a reality show so that they can be followed around by photographers leading to endless complaining about their lack of privacy. I'm not sure what this Japanese television program is, but I'll take it over most reality shows any day.









Check out Chappie TV for more

You totally look like . . .



In my life, I have been told I look like many people. The most common and the one that was, at times, creepily true in the 1980s was that I looked like John Cusack



I didn't really like going to his movies because we did look an awful lot alike in those days and it was uncomfortable to see that face so large.



In the same time frame, my sister used to tell me that I looked like Tom Hanks. I think it was because we both had curly hair in an era of feathered hair.

When the Culture Club became an MTV staple, a picture of Boy George without his make-up rose to the surface. Yep, he looked at lot like me, even in my opinion.


As we all grew older, I looked less and less like them but started to look like someone else who had entered the spotlight. Even my wife thought I had the Data look and she bought me a small Data statue next to my computer keyboard.

Now that I think about it, the first time anyone told me that I looked like someone else was way back in grade school. That person is still a close friend and he will still occasionally refer to the fact that he thought I looked like Pinochio. I don't recall lying a lot back then and a didn't have a big nose (that came with puberty) so I can only assume that it was because I had a Pinochio lunch box and that's how he could tell me apart from all of the other kids.

If you're into people who look like other people (or things) you'll totally like this website


So. Who do you totally look like?





Friday Fun - This kinda stuff never happens to me

I really like The Sound of Music for a number of reasons: it was on TV the first time I kissed my wife, it was directed by Robert Wise who edited Citizen Kane and directed The Day the Earth Stood Still (the good one, not the one with Keanau) and it was playing in theaters the day I was born. This video gives me a fourth reason.

All Things Google

I like Google. I mean I really like it. Over the past year I have been slowly transferring everything I can over to Google. This includes my word processor, spreadsheets, and email. I do believe that in the near future professors will be able to use Google instead of Blackboard for running courses. We already use Blogspot and Google's wiki is much better than PB wiki or the other free competitors.

There is so much Google offers, it can be a bit overwhelming at times.

This Blog gives the ins and outs of Google. I find it incredibly useful. Whether you are an online student or on campus, if you are looking to make your electronic life a little better, check it out.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/

BK

Developing a plan for your degree

Creating an LIS degree plan can be a daunting process. Students must balance requirements and Boyer categories and the resulting process can seem like putting together a jigsaw puzzle of polar bears on a snowy day. It need not be that hard. Yes, there are dozens of decisions to make but this doesn't mean you have to worry about every decision. Here is how I would create an LIS degree plan.

When you start the degree planning process, you will have covered all 8 Boyer categories and should have a fairly good idea of what each entails and how it might fit into your academic planning. I'm not going to suggest that you forget all of this, but I would suggest that you put Boyer on the back burner as you start the process.

Degree plans include requirements, courses that you consider vital to your personal academic goals, and classes that may not be as important to your personal goals,but which are still necessary to meet our degree requirements. If I were creating a degree plan, I would address these three types of courses in order.

First, list all of the classes you need to take: LIS 301, LIS 451, an LIS program elective, ECCE, General Education courses (if you still need them.) There are some options to consider but you can't get away from these classes - they're required so write them down first.

Second, list the courses you really want to take and that you feel are important to you personally. This might take some research to identify your options but this should be the fun part of your planning. Hopefully you'll be able to fit all of these courses in your degree but they are a lower priority than the must-have requriements.

Once you have these two lists created, pull Boyer off of the back burner and consider how the classes you've listed fit into the eight categories and assign a Boyer category to each of them. If you've chosen the LIS program correctly (meaning you truly want an interdisciplinary degree)then your list of requirements and important classes will likely cover most of the Boyer categories.

If you've covered 6 of the Boyer categories without even considering Boyer when you developed your lists, then it's like having the jigsaw puzzle 80% completed before you start working on it. This way, you can worry about the 2 Boyer categories that didn't fall naturally into your plan rather than worrying about each of the dozens of decisions required by the planning process.

Friday Fun - An ode to eating too much

I may have mentioned this blog last year but it's still one of my favorites. Whether you need motivation to drop a few pounds or, like me, you like to look at food that is really bad for you rather than eating, you can't go wrong with This Is Why Your Fat. To give you an idea of what to expect, let me introduce you to The Widowmaker.


This is described as a pound and half of ground beef, a package of bacon, a package of italian sausage, a box of Hot Pockets, a half package of fried onion strips sandwiched between two Tombstone pepporoni pizzas then topped with Velvetta and marinara.

Look for more delicassies like this at http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/ You'll even find Springfield's own horseshoe sandwich listed.

Speaking of horseshoes, Springfield will be featured on the Travel Channel's Man V. Food this coming Wednesday. If you haven't seen this show I can't recommend it enough. The host is not a competitive eater, just a guy with a graduate degree from Yale who likes to eat and takes on local food challenges. In Springfield, he'll eat corndogs at the Cozy Dog Inn (a Route 66 stopping point), he'll eat a horseshoe sandwich (I make the best so ask me for the recipe if you want to try them), and for his challenge he will attempt to eat three bowls of Joe Roger's Firebrand Chilli (and yes, chilli has two l's within the Springfield city limits.)

http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Man_v_Food