Mark Thompson is extremely moody; unless you want to be embarrassed in front of 200 people in Lockett, I recommend being on time. He is obviously very intelligent, and enjoys the course material, but fails to translate that knowledge into effective teaching. You will take pages and pages of lecture notes, and find that the vast majority of them are useless. Five or six 250 word homeworks, 2 exams, both essay and identification. The second exam has twice the work, but in the same amount of time. He is a tough grader.
My advice: take Outland.