I kept waiting to post a real blog update until I felt healthy but since I've been sick with a flue and a cold for nearly 3 weeks, I'll just put something up. I'm half way through the school quarter and I've never been quite this far behind.

I'm not sure, now, what possessed me to squeeze a history degree into my education. After math and engineering where the assignments are clear, and a solution can be reached in a finite amount of time, history homework is quite daunting. There are no right and wrong answers - only better and worse answers.

I was talking to a friend several weeks ago and we noticed that humanities and history classes have a somewhat hostile environment. As a student, you are graded on your contribution to the class. The less progress and understanding the other students have, the better you look in the teacher's eyes. This, we concluded, makes for a stressful environment.

Engineering classes on the other hand, have a great deal of camaraderie. The grading is far less subjective and students are more than willing to help other classmates understand, learn, and excel.

The engineering environment seems to be a friendly group working towards a goal while the history environment is a cutthroat competition to convince (or trick) the teacher of your understanding and to rise above your classmates.

Time to get competitive I suppose - I have a big history test tomorrow morning...