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I’ve probably titled many posts by the same name, but what can I say, it’s true. I am beginning my sixth semester at UC Berkeley, which is hard for me to believe. It seems like I was a freshman not too long ago; which, when you think about it, I was. When I walk around campus now, it feels very familiar to me, and reeks of knowledge and sometimes grass clippings. Whenever I start to doubt my decision to go to Cal, it doesn’t take long for me to whack myself on the head and look at what’s on my plate to make sure it wasn’t laced with something. Seriously, this is a wonderful place of learning, and with each new class I take, I realize that I don’t know anything, and I come to enjoy filling that void a little bit more.

To give you an idea of what insights are in store for you this semester, here is a list of my classes, all of which I find interesting and enlightening in some way. I have a feeling they’ll impact the subjects of my writings over the next few months.

• ISF 60: Science, Technology, and Values in the Global Arena: Living Longer, Living Better? - Dr. Urs Cipolat
• History 181B: The History of Modern Physics - Prof. Cathryn Carson
• CS 164: Programming Languages and Compilers - Paul Hilfinger
• CS 170: Algorithms and Intractable Problems - Prof. Christos Papadimitriou and Luca Trevisan
• Music 142: Wind Ensemble - Bob Calonico

Sound interesting? It does to me. That first class is turning out to be excellent, and I already read the first book, Our Final Hour by Martin Rees. It’s a very well written piece of cautious scientific commentary– and published this century, no less. You’ll be hearing much more about that.

So that’s my piece on academia for now. I am engaged, so forgive me if I forget to write home sometimes.