i corsi

I've just finished my second week of classes! Here's a little rundown, class by class...

BUS/ENG 307 - Writing for Business
Some days I like this class and this professor, and some days I don't. It's still a wait-and-see situation.
So far there's been a lot of reading about how to prepare to write a business document... and writing a bunch of memos about said reading. It sounds dull, and it is at times, but I'm hoping it'll curb my addiction to pretty prose and help me be more concise.

ITL 102 - Elementary Italian II
We took a placement test the first day. The second day, my professor told me I was one of the two people who were actually ready to be at this level. Thanks, 3-week intensive Italian 101 course!
Seriously, though, I need to e-mail my Italian 101 professor and thank him.

COM 209 - New Media
Lots of talking about the changing media of our time and what's new about new media and what's new for society as a result of new media. Instead of a textbook, we use a blog that our professor updates continuously with articles, links, etc.
Buzzwords: digitization, convergence.

COM 300 - European Mass Media
I wish I lived an Europe and I wish I knew more about European history; both would give me a boost in this class. The book (Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe by Peter J. Humphreys) can be dry at times, and it was written in 1995 so some things are outdated, but overall I'm finding it fascinating.
Buzzwords: pluralism, dominance.

COM 215 - The Computer as a Media Tool
So far, lots of Photoshop. I'm almost done with my first project, which is a poster design. Maybe I'll post that on here when it's finished.
Today we learned a video technique called "light writing." It's actually done with still images, taken with a very slow shutter speed to let in lots of light (or at least, that's how I understand it). Have you ever seen those videos of a city scene where you see the clouds move across the sky, it gets dark and you can see the headlights zoom down the highway? It's the same concept as that. Just to mess around with it, we made this short video in class today and exported it using QuickTime: