Spring 2017: Breakdown of My Classes at USC

Back at it again with the class schedule, isn't that right? I know, me posting one of these is the only thing consistent about this blog. But according to my blog statistics, class descriptions are some of my most popular posts, so there you have it! So, if you're still interested in what classes I took this spring for my fake film major at USC, keep reading.

When you have that one 50 minute class on a Friday.

CHEM 205 | Chemical Forensics

This was my Physical Sciences GE and the last GE I'll ever take in my life, taken Pass/No Pass. It was a pretty simple yet interesting class, in which we talked about blood forensics, ballistics, fibers, time of death, toxicology and the different types of evidence, amongst other things. There was a lab each week and three midterms, and I did really well on all of them without studying too much, which pretty much proves how easy this class really was. Apparently the professor is one of the toughest ones in the Chemistry department and is known for his impossible tests, but he just asked us stuff like "Do you like turtles?" and curved the class to a B+ so he probably didn't take the whole thing too seriously either.

Grade Received: Pass

CORE 104 | Thematic Option Honors Program | Change and the Future: Church, Sex and State

Let me just put this out there: I loved my professor, and the subject material we covered is so important in today's society. That said, I don't think I learned as much in this class as I could have. We discussed the relationship between marriage and private property, marriage and religion, and non-normative marriage, to name a few things, and watched films such Carol, American Beauty and Brokeback Mountain. I also got to listen to some pretty interesting presentations and write a bunch of controversial papers (always loved those). So no, this was not a bad class at all. But, and I'm sure this is my fault as well for not doing the majority of the readings, although it was fun and easy, I feel like this class had very little substance. It had a lot of potential, don't get me wrong, but I felt like it was a little too broad and informal. Though at this point I'm not sure if it's even the class itself that didn't work, or it's all on me. So I'll keep thinking about that.

Grade Received: A

CTCS 192 | Race, Class and Gender in American Film

This has probably been the best film class I've ever taken at USC. Super short lectures with the Notorious PhD, very interesting readings, great screenings, and a TA who was just cooler and smarter than I or anyone else will ever be. I mean, first of all, she had blue hair. In class, we watched classics like The Godfather Parts I & II (The Godfather III doesn't exist, I hear), Do the Right Thing and Rocky, as well as films such as Boogie Nights (10/10 would recommend), Django Unchained and The Virgin Suicides. We talked a ton about the American Dream and the male gaze and read an article about the Oedipal complex and phallocentrism, so I definitely learned some things in there that I'll never forget. I also wrote a paper on Brooklyn (2015), liminality and the American Dream, so I got to do research on all the things I'm passionate about, which is always a plus.

Grade Received: A

CTPR 290 | Cinematic Communication

I made a bunch of terrible films that no one liked. Okay, that's a lie, my documentary turned out pretty good. I also spent an entire week trying to get location permits to film at a park downtown, which was an absolute disaster and I realized that hate paperwork, so I never want to be a location manager, that's for sure. That film was also supposed to be my masterpiece and my mom spent a fortune shipping me a wedding dress from Europe, I spent forever writing and rewriting and gathering props, and I even cast professional SAG actors in it. Needless to say, it all went wrong, our camera malfunctioned earlier that week, my crew wasn't confirmed until almost the day of, they tried to steal our equipment in Echo Park, and I'm still too embarrassed to show my actors the finished film. It didn't help that my entire class hated it. Apparently the rubber band on the wedding bouquet gave away how the whole thing was fake. Sure. Our last project turned out pretty good, though, so let me know if you want to see it.

ALSO: Please don't share the links to the films. There are copyright and other legal reasons.

Grade Received: A

CTWR 321 | Intro to Hour-Long TV Writing

I was going to say that this was my favorite class of the semester and that loved my professor, but she gave me an A- after promising us that we would all get As, so I'm little conflicted right now. We basically had to watch a lot of TV pilots (Breaking Bad, The Handmaid's Tale, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, UnReal (which I hated), This is Us, to name a few) and then talk about them. Yes, that's right, our homework was literally watching Netflix and Hulu. Our main goal of the semester, though, was to write a spec script (so an original episode for an existing show) for Stranger Things as a class. We each had a writing partner and were given scenes to write and rewrite over the weekend, and then in the end we put it all together into one big script. It was a really fun process and working with a partner is definitely something I'd do again. But then I got an A- so I'm not sure what to think anymore.

Grade Received: A- (sadness, utter disappointment, and feelings of betrayal #drama)

What the future holds: 

CTCS 403 | Studies in National and Regional Media: Refugee and Migrant Cinemas (taking it with the professor I had for 'Shot on Location,' 100% a topic I'm interested in, very excited)

CTCS 473 | Film and Media Theory (a dreaded Critical Studies class, a lot of work apparently, major requirement)

CTWR 415A | Advanced Writing (taking it with my CTWR 321 professor, supposed to be a continuation of Intro to Screenwriting, will probably get an A-)

CTWR 416 | Motion Picture Script Analysis (watching films and analyzing scripts, apparently a lot of fun)

LAW 402 | Psychology and Law (for my Forensics minor, deals with stuff like witness credibility, false confessions and cults, seems interesting yet intimidating)

SOWK 350 | Adolescent Gang Intervention (for Forensics, the only Social Work class for undergrads, apparently a popular class, very hands-on)

USC: Year Two!

Remember when, last year, I published a bunch of videos about my first semester at USC? It was fun, wasn't it? Yeah well I'm not doing that again. I'm also not posting another One Second a Day, because I'm a miserable failure my phone has been out of storage since June.

What I can do, however, is share a cool anecdote that will lead us all into a wonderful recollection of the adventure that this past semester has been. So here goes...

In order to end our last RA staff time of the semester on a positive note, our supervisors gave each of us a blank sheet of paper and told us to list everything we had accomplished these past few months. I, staying true to myself, stared at the empty page for a good ten minutes, then announced that I hadn't accomplished anything.

Now, as expected, this didn't elicit the best of reactions from my fellow RAs, with one of them tearing the sheet of paper out of my hands and threatening to write the damn list for me, so yeah that happened, but at the end of the day, this whole thing really made me think. Shortly afterwards, I had my RA evaluation meeting, which was essentially my supervisors glorifying me for half an hour, then telling me that the only area I'm lacking in is self-confidence. And, I mean, this is not news to me. But by now I've basically accepted it as a fact of life (which, again, points at me not having self-confidence) and I didn't think that this was something particularly worth worrying about. That is, until it led to me receiving a '2' for it on my evaluation sheet, at which point my perfectionism kicked in and I decided that I do need to do something about it.

And this whole ordeal was exacerbated with a conversation with one of my friends, which went as follows:

Me: I think I'm too negative.
My friend: Yeah, you are.
Me: Wait, really?
My friend: You just said our world is declining to shit.
Me: Oh. Right.

Therefore, in an attempt to turn things around and heighten my self-confidence a little bit, I've attempted to list all the things I've accomplished this past semester. So, in no particular order:

1) I've been an RA for an entire semester! And what a semester it was! 3 am incident reports, creepy FaceTime calls, vomit on my doorstep, programs where no one showed up, name what you want, I've done it all! And what's even better, I somehow found a way to enjoy all these things (weird?). Of course, the best parts of my job are my wonderful residents and my staff team, aka the fRAmily of the Century. Also, longer post to come on the RA life, so stay tuned.

2) I survived marching band! And I've got my sophomore jacket to prove it! The Silks also won Section of the Year and USC is going to the Rose Bowl. Oh yay! As part of band, we also took a charter flight to Dallas (so fancy) and headed back to the Bay Area to beat stanford (SUCKS). Fun fact, I also happened to quit band for a day, but that's an entirely different story (because sometimes you can't appreciate something until it's gone, or some cliche like that).

3) I took some of the best and most challenging classes possible, and got As in all of them. For more on that, click here.

4) I worked as an assistant director on two short films, which both turned out very impressive, and I'll share the links with you when I'm able to.

5) I learned how to cook pasta. Little things, everyone, little things. (I also failed to turn off the stove after my first attempt at cooking, leading to a rather passive aggressive exchange with my roommate.)

6) I got myself a turntable. Or more like, I rewarded myself with a turntable, because sometimes, you just gotta #treatyoself. Sounds a lot more appealing, right? I essentially justified this purchase by claiming that this is a gift to myself because I got the RA job. I still don't have any records, though, because I buy too many shoes they're expensive. But yeah, again, little things. I'm not really sure why this is an achievement, probably because I spent so long debating whether I really need it or not. Also, if you're curious, the exact one I bought is sold out, but this one is really similar (yes it's from Urban Outfitters, don't judge).

7) I was asked to sit with USC President Nikias during his annual Thanksgiving Dinner, gave an interview to KTLA the same night, and was the subject of an article for USC News (which, as it is, didn't turn out so bright, so I won't link it here. They misspelled my name in it, and that was just the least of issues. DISCLAIMER: my name is not Lillia, and if you call me Lillia, please don't expect any positive interaction with me ever again).

8) I went to New York City for winter break, with my roommate, and we planned everything all on our own and I put together the itinerary all on my own and we managed to survive five days there and you can read more about it here.

Aaaand I'm sure that there were other things as well, but if I can't think of them now, they're probably not that important. Also, I've got to reserve some things for the 20 Thing I Did at 20 list.

(And also, I know we're talking positivity here, but just to be fair, for every achievement there were about two failures, so there's really no need to get jealous of me lol. I'm seriously considering starting a blog titled "Fail of the Day," that's how bad it is. But then I feel like 50% of my friends stick around just to listen to my anecdotes of the times I messed up.)

Fall 2016: Breakdown of My Classes at USC

Hey all,

This is a real tradition now, isn't it? But yes, for the third time around, you can read all about the classes I've taken at USC this past semester! I've had some really fun ones this year, though Fall 2016 also brought about that one dreaded class I just couldn't stand, so I can sadly no longer say that I've loved all of my classes at USC. Those bragging rights will be missed. But anyway, every cloud has a silver lining or some happy shit like that, and at least I'm done with it now, so without further ado, let's get into it.

I swear it wasn't as bad as it looks based on this schedule. 

CORE 101 | Thematic Option Honors Program | Symbols and Conceptual Systems: Icons

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. This class was just as great as I expected it to be, though it took a while for me to actually recognize how much I was learning. The professor is one of those people whom you either love or hate, but she definitely knows what she's talking about and was deliberately trying to get us to challenge her. It's difficult to put this class into a category, but if I had to, I'd say it's a mesh between art history and popular culture. We looked at more general art theory, religious icons, urban icons, celebrity icons, fictional icons, iconic photographs, the interaction between high culture and low culture, and ended the class with Andy Warhol and Walt Disney. And, of course, a field trip to Disneyland, with free donuts and a complementary stay at the Disneyland Hotel. The best thing about this class, though, was that there was so much overlap with CTCS 464, and that I could apply so much of what I had learned during my winter break trip to New York. Also, my TA was the best. 💕

Grade Received: A

CORE 103 | Thematic Option Honors Program | The Process of Change in Science: Searching for Life in the Universe: Mars and Beyond

Again, this class was phenomenal. The professor is the funniest and kindest and most knowledgable person you'll ever meet, and he even wrote us a song at the end of the semester, titled the Lowdown Irritating Melancholy Aggravating Life in the Universe Blues. And he performed it. With a banjo. We also took a field trip to the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and had some crazy amazing guest speakers. Now, the first half of this class was mainly geobiology, and we learned about things like extracellular electron transport and layered microbial communities, which are sure interesting, but I'll shamelessly admit that I had no idea what was going on. The second half, however, was when things got good, and -- again -- although I definitely won't remember everything I've learned, I now sure know what not to invest money in (hint: don't move to Mars, it's pretty miserable there). Also, did you know that there are such things as orphan worlds, which are planets that don't orbit a star? And that there are places called water worlds and-- Okay okay, I'll stop.

Grade Received: A

CTCS 200 | History of International Cinema I

Well, at least I'm done with this class. The professor isn't nearly as bad as her reputation, but the class is. I don't even know how I got an A, as my TA was the harshest grader and the assignments were impossible. I wish I had gotten more out of this class than I did, but it just simply wasn't happening. It also didn't help that I fell asleep during pretty much every screening. Tbh, the only thing I remember from this class is that in China, they called moving pictures electric shadows. That's kinda cool.

Grade Received: A

CTCS 464 | Film and/or Television Genres: Shot on Location

This was such a fun and easy class! We watched films like Rome, Open City, Double Indemnity, Safe, She's Gotta Have It, District 9, The Fall (2006) and The Darjeeling Limited and discussed some really interesting concepts, like the opposition of centrifugal and centripetal space, heterotopias, orientalism, and Third Cinema, while also talking about the business of location shooting and runaway productions and such. It also helped that for our midterm, we basically had to analyze a Coldplay music video, and for my final, I got to write about my favorite of favorite films, Paris, Texas. Also, the professor is very friendly and an easy grader.

Grade Received: A

LING 210 | Introduction to Linguistics

This was a GE for Quantitative Reasoning that I started out taking Pass/No Pass and felt rather apathetic about. However, it turned out pretty interesting and I was doing really well, so I soon changed that P/NP to a letter grade (then proceeded to get a 77 on an assignment lol). But yeah, the professor is funny and friendly and ngl very cute and explains everything very clearly, so I'd definitely recommend it. Also, this class made me use the suffix -ception far more often than it is okay. (Seriously, just head over to my NYC posts to read all about artception).

Grade Received: A

What the future holds:

CHEM 205 | Chemical Forensics (GE, taking Pass/No Pass, apparently on the easy side, sounds interesting)
CORE 104 | Change and the Future: Church, Sex and State (last Thematic Option class, about the changing perceptions on marriage)
CTCS 192 | Race, Class and Gender in American Film (major requirement, professor apparently a little dramatic, but amazing)
CTPR 290 | Cinematic Communication (the infamous film production class simply known as "290," you basically make films all on your own and then people shit all over them)
CTWR 321 | Intro to the Hour-Long TV Writing (writing a spec script for an already existing TV drama, should be current on about 20 TV shows, none of which I've seen so far, so fml)

And that is all for now, everyone!

My Second Semester at USC | Photo Edition

"The key to survival is being selfish."

~ a quote that has nothing to do with this post, but I just used it to justify being an asshole while recovering from my wisdom tooth extraction. Anyway, moving on...

Second semester. Also known as the end of the beginning. The last semester you can spend being clueless and naïve and getting away with it. The last semester you can spend "exploring" the city you live in and acting like everything is new. So why not enjoy it while it lasts? And since I've already forced you to read so much, I have now decided to present you with some photos from spring break/trips to LA/band photos, and other things. Because USC is fun, LA is fun, and life is fun.

Part 1: LA Adventures

The Last Bookstore

Awesome bookstore in DTLA where I went with my friend Clara a Friday morning. Come here to buy records, browse books, look at cool art or walk around. Just don't buy the books. They're cheaper on Amazon.

 

The Broad 

The newest and super-popular art museum. Come here once to take pictures, then come back to look at the art. Which should be the point. Was here with my friend Clara over spring break and we spent over 2 hours in the standby line, but it was so worth it.

 

 

Da famous infinity room.

Little Tokyo

Walked down here with Clara after visiting The Broad. Really pretty and I don't really know what else to say about it. Expensive restaurants.

The Arts District

Cool street art. Cool places to eat (Pie Hole, Wurstküche). Very artsy. Obviously. Was here filming, and after going to Little Tokyo during spring break.

My Facebook profile picture, which you may have seen, was taken here. (Fun fact: I was standing on two bricks.)

Chili chocolate coffee. because why not be #hipster. 

The Wiltern (aka where dreams come true)

The concert venue where I saw Patti Smith live, and where I ran into the absolutely stunning Fabi <3

CONfire @ Dockweiler Beach

The weekend after wrapping CON, we decided to celebrate with an epic bonfire at the beach which was, well, epic. I also marshmallow kissed one of my friends. And if you didn't know, that's basically a spaghetti kiss with a marshmallow. 

Fun fact: most of us were trying to roast marshmallows with wooden sticks.

A terrible iPhone quality photo I could have fixed but chose not to.

People and the ocean and stuff and that orange juice wasn't orange juice.

My <3s.

Griffith Observatory/Hollywood Sign

My friend from high school visited me over spring break and she really wanted to see the Hollywood sign, and somehow the GPS took us to Griffith, so that's where we went. Though sadly we only had about 30 minutes there. 

I'd highly recommend going to Griffith during the day and staying there until it's dark. Also, check out the exhibition and go to one of the planetarium shows. They're so worth it.

I only took this one terrible iPhone photo, but to see the ones I took last semester, click here.

Terrible quality + color correction. But I didn't take a camera. Soz. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Part 2: Food

The Pie Hole

A pie place in the Arts District where they have slightly overpriced, but nevertheless amazing, pies.

Shin-Sen-Gumi

A Japanese food chain known for ramen (?) that my friend Clara took me to. A bit of a culture shock to walk in there, but not bad at all.

Café Gratitude 

A very overpriced hipster restaurant with organic food in the Arts District where I had a terrible milkshake. People love it, the aesthetic is 10/10, but I don't think I'll be returning anytime soon.

FUN FACT: I went to all these food places over the course of one day. 

Part 3: Disneyland

No explanation needed. Was there over spring break and during one of my study days. It's worth the price. So worth it. (Also, they're not kidding at Splash Mountain. You WILL get wet, so wet.)

 

 

Sarah and the giant toothbrush.

Part 4: Miscellaneous

CON Premiere

Read more about CON here. This was the premiere. Pretty underwhelming, but a good excuse to buy an very expensive Betsy & Adam dress, which if you're wondering, you may purchase here. Still feel guilty for buying that dress.

My FAVORITE girls <3 // Preparing for the CON premiere.

Marching Band / Silks Shenanigans

After the spring football game, during which the team (teeeaaam) essentially competes against itself (offense vs. defense, I believe), Ben Chua, the band photographer, offered to hold a photoshoot just for the Silks. Because, y'know, we're the coolest section and there aren't enough photos of us. 

(Also, Alicia, if you're reading this, I still owe you for the rice krispies, and I will pay my debt.)

So here are some of the best pics:

 

Fighting on with Tommy // My squad/best friends from Silks <3

Favorite photo of all times!

And that is all (BEAT the tide and Fight On!)

Stay around for more posts! 

xx