Any current freshman, sophomore or junior will remember the new forecasting that was used for class selection this year. The online system in the form of a Zoomerang survey was not only more confusing than the paper system that was used previously, but I felt it offered less explanations and options. I can see why having the class selection data in a digital form is useful and saves time, but in the form that it was implemented this year, it caused a huge disconnect between students selecting the classes and the advisors who know what is required in the four year plan. By transferring the system over the computer, it took the decisions out of the advisory meeting where class selections could be easily discussed before the decision was made, and instead meant that the students had to make the decision beforehand, remember it and then submit it online later.

Another problem is what I saw as a limitation of choice or confusing choices on the survey. Before this year if you wanted to jump up from a normal to an honors level course you could just write that in. This year I was confused when trying to go up from FST to HPDM. Maybe it's just because this kind of a scenario was not explained by Deri when he was presenting the new system, but I didn't know how to say I wanted to jump to honors because of the selections that were given. It would be so much clearer for it to say the names of the classes like “FST” “Algebra 2” or “Honors PDM” instead of “No Math Class” or “Continue on same track”.

It's not that I'm entirely against the new class selection process, and I fully understand the need to move to a digital system, but this system definitely has some kinks that need to be worked out and I hope next year the course selection can go much quicker and with less confusion.

Those of you who are regular listeners to the public radio program "This American Life" are probably familiar with the way host Ira Glass explains the show nearly every week: "Each week in our program of course we choose some theme, and bring you a variety of stories on that theme. Today's theme…(insert here)"

Each week I've enjoyed compelling stories, from the story of convicted murderers in Missouri who put on Act V of Hamlet to a conversation with a transgender man talking about his experiences of suddenly receiving testosterone.

As a big fan of the radio show, I was somewhat skeptical when I heard that This American Life would be producing a TV show (in addition to the radio show.) Glass has talked about building radio stories on a "anecdote, reflection" pattern. This pattern is what makes their radio show great. But how can it work on television? Nonetheless, I still wanted to see show. But unfortunately, I hadn't had the chance because it is broadcast on Showtime, a station I don't get. So when I heard that Glass would be hosting a special presentation that would be simulcast live (well, OK, live except here on the West Coast) across the country, complete with previews of the second season of the TV show, I had to see it.

Indeed, Glass did address the question of how This American Life was translated to TV. He mentioned one story from this season's TV show, about a physically disabled men dependent on others and on machinery to live. Now this man sent Glass a fascinating e-mail detailing an experience when his machinery went out, but he had no way to communicate the failure except by blinking his eyes wildly because he couldn't breathe. This e-mail, Glass says, would have made great radio, but on TV there's nothing to show while someone reads this account.

But Glass and his staff have created some great TV that retains the compelling story telling from the radio show. Many of the stories were funny, like the one about two inmates who attempted to escape using an elaborately and carefully constructed rope made of … dental floss.

One of my favorite pieces of those presented that evening is the story of an Iraqi man named Haider Hamza. He wanted to know what Americans thought about the Iraq War, and why they went to war against his country. When he talked to people in New York, where he had come to study, people almost always said they were against the war. So to talk to people for the war, Hamza traveled to the South and set up a booth, a "Talk to an Iraqi Booth". This American Life filmed as people of all sorts came up to talk to Hamza. Some asked utterly stupid questions, like "Are there fat people in Iraq?" Some were quite insulting. One man told Hamza that the Americans were like the parents and the Iraqis like children. In a very poignant moment, a young girl, whose own father is fighting in Iraq, basically apologized to Hamza and to all Iraqis on behalf on...