I am taking a Political Science class at Yale, Greek Mythology at Washington University and Experimental Molecular Biology: Biotechnology at MIT, all while doing a load of laundry. How do I do it?
I’m taking Open Courses at each school from the comfort of my laptop at home. And it’s FREE!
As far as my explorations have taken me, Yale has the most user-friendly and the best video lectures of any I’ve come across so far – but I’d love to know if there are other good sites!
Check out these links to find any one of at least 1,800 classes that may pique your interest. The OpenCourseWare movement was started in 2002 by MIT. And, evidently people with an intellectual curiosity from Darfur to Antartica have logged on and started learning from the crème de la crème.
Of course, these classes aren’t for credit and there are some drawbacks (such as you don’t get any feedback from your professor). But, hey, this is a great option and opportunity for anybody from a highschool student wanting to get ahead (Duke TIP is on line too!-but not free) to a retired person whose mind would like to do elder-hostel education, but his or her body or pocket-book isn’t up for the travel. Or, it’s just perfect for restless people like me that would rather do this than watch re-runs on tv during the writer’s strike.
“MIT’s initiative began with the idea of giving faculty at other universities access to how professors at MIT approached teaching a subject. But after the OCW project went online, the school quickly realized it had two other huge constituencies: students at other colleges, who wanted to augment what they were learning, and “self learners,” those not pursuing a formal education but interested in increasing their knowledge,” according to “How to go to MIT for free” in the Christian Science Monitor article dated Jan. 7, 2007.
http://open.yale.edu/courses/index.html
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/openuw/
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
For more than 25 years I have battled Raynaud’s Phenomenon — a strange circulatory problem that causes people’s arties to constrict which in turns causes fingers and toes to turn blue when they get cold.
And getting cold equals pain for somebody with Raynaud’s.
Heating pads and electric blankets have helped at night over the years, but about a month ago I came across a product that has totally changed my life.
Do Not Disturb, a company that markets it’s products for home spa treatments, has the most amazing booties and mitts that are soft. You stick them in the microwave for one minute and then stick them on your feet and/or hands and it melts the cold away throughout your body. It’s not the intense heat that traditionally comes from contraptions you put in the microwave and then drape across some part of your body. It creates a deep warmth down to your bones that lasts at least an hour.
It’s a treat for most people, but it’s a must-have for people like me. If you just can’t get warm, buy a pair of these booties. It’s the best $40 I’ve spent in decades!
Susan Gregg Gilmore’s Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is the must-read book as far as this bibliophile is concerned! It doesn’t hit stores until Feb. 12 (but you can pre-order on about any website that sells books). I got to read the galley in advance and all I can say is that Lee Smith is right — Smith’s 7th grade student at Harpeth Hall grew up to be a terrific writer and her first attempt at fiction is a winner!
Lee says:
This is a tightly-plotted, well-structured novel – I really zipped through it! If I had to make a comparison, I would compare Susan Gregg Gilmore to Fannie Flagg, but Gilmore more than holds her own. This is an unusually engaging novel by a very fine writer who knows exactly what she is doing.
Chances are, no matter where you live, Gilmore will be making an appearance near you. GO! You’ll love meeting the author as much as reading her book. For book tour dates and more information, visit her website: www.susangregggilmore.com
Here’s the skinny on the book:
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen
Susan Gregg Gilmore
Shaye Areheart Books | Hardcover | February, 2008 | $23.00 | 978-0-307-39501-6
CATALOG HANDLE
For readers of Fannie Flagg and Sheri Reynolds, here is a witty and unforgettable debut novel about a young Southern girl caught between two worlds, and coming of age in the space therein.
DESCRIPTION
It’s the early 1970’s. The town of Ringgold, Georgia has a population of 1,923, one traffic light, one Dairy Queen, and one Catherine Grace Cline. Daughter of Ringgold’s Baptist preacher, Catherine Grace is quick-witted, more than a little stubborn, and dying to escape her small-town life.
Every Saturday afternoon, she sits at the Dairy Queen, eating Dilly Bars and plotting her getaway to Atlanta. And when, with the help of a family friend, the dream becomes a reality, she immediately packs her bags, leaving behind her family and the boy she loves to claim the life she’s always imagined. But before long, tragedy brings Catherine Grace back home and, as personal events alter her perspective—and change grips Ringgold—she begins to wonder if her place in the world may actually be, against all odds, right where she began.
Intelligent, charming, and utterly readable, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is an inspirational debut from a talented new literary voice.
AUTHOR BIO
A resident of Nashville, Tennessee. SUSAN GREGG GILMORE has written for the Chattanooga Free Press, the Los Angeles Times, and the Christian Science Monitor. This is her first novel.
Happy reading!