Magnum Opus

Well, here it is: My magnum opus. As you can tell from the picture I am really quite done with it altogether. (You can also tell I need a new haircut, but that's a different story) Anyway, I promised to post it and explain what a magnum opus is so here it is.
Ahem, magnum opus is latin for "great work" and signifies one's great accomplishment. An example of this can be found in the book (or movie) "Charlotte's Web", in which Charlotte the spider explains to Wilbur the pig that she has just finished her magnum opus, which in her case is her eggsack, from which her little spider children will hatch in the spring. A better (and much less icky) example could be found in Braden David Peterson, the magnum opus of Justin and Elise Peterson, who was born on Sunday. See exhibit A.

Exhibit A

He's so cute. Much cuter than my magnum opus, but probably even more time consuming, so I will just be content with mine for now: ) Congratulations guys, by the way :)

Anyway, for those of you who don't know, I am majoring in Community Health Education and one of the requirements is a class called Death by Planning. (Though the University of course uses the more technical title of Planning and Evaluation for Health Promotion Programs. Don't be fooled. The first desciption is better.) The class requires that you work with a group of peers to gather primary and secondary research on a given topic and population, in our case bullying among second and third graders. Then you have to develop an intervention program to combat the problem and implement it in a local school. Then you have to evaluate it approximately 87 different ways and say what you learned from all of it. This is then written up and repeated 486.2 different ways until you want to poke your own eyes out, or bully your teacher. I can't even really explain how much work was required for all this but just know that it was by far the most labor intensive class I have ever taken. So now its over and what do I have to show for it? Well, exhibits B and C, basically.

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

I was going to try to post a link so you everybody could read all hundred and ridiculous pages of it but 1) I don't know a quick way to do that, 2) I am so done with this project that I don't even have the energy to burn it, and 3) yeah right, like anybody would want to read it. Even I find it tedious! So hopefully the pictures will suffice.

And lest you think this is a desperate ploy on my part for some sympathy, which it is not, (yeah right, we know it really is:), let me tell you a few good things to come out of all of it.

First, I passed the class. YEAH! (On a sidenote, I think I have never been so disappointed with an A- in my life, but only because I was taking 18 credits and got straight A's in ALL my other classes so I would have had a 4.0 for the first time in my college career. How cool would that have been?! But I digress, and really I can't complain about an A-)

Second, it is one of those experiences that, while difficult and time consuming, I know will pay off in the long run and I really did learn a lot from it. And I know it will be really helpful in my career, when I have one.

Third, the group that I worked with was awesome and we all got along really well and became good friends.

And fourth, its over!!!! YAY!!!! And so is this post. Double YAY!

(Oh, except to say that I changed the template and I must say I quite like it. And I even figured out, and input some of the HTML codes for the colors by myself because blogger kept telling me there was an error when I tried to download it. So I am pretty proud of myself and I think I will never ever ever change it again. Ever.

Also, if you are still reading this post, I added a bookshelf widget (look at me and my technical terms. You would almost think I knew what I was talking about:) of some of the books I have read recently and most of them I would reccommend. (The main exception is Garbage Land but I will write more about that later in my much anticipated (yeah, right) post about recycling and edible cups) So if you are looking for some good material take a look. And if you have any great books that you have read recently leave me a comment because I am always on the lookout for a new one.)

And now I am really done. Really. So, bye.