It's almost winter break. Almost. So close I can smell it. I fly home a week from Wednesday. And then I have a whole month to do as little as possible. Believe me, I'm ready. As much as I've enjoyed this semester and feel like it's gone as well as I could reasonably expect my first semester back from a prolonged absence to go, I'm ready to take some time off. The only things that stand between me and freedom are three exams. I have my astronomy exam on Thursday. Now, here's the sadistic part. Do you know what time my astronomy exam is? 8 in the fricking AM. I have a hard enough time getting up for my 9:00 classes. An 8:00 exam? I might as well just not sleep that night. I'll have to get up at 6:30. Which means if I want to get a decent night's sleep I'll have to go to sleep at 10:30. Which of course isn't going to happen, I'm never tired at 10:30. I don't know, I'll figure something out. I'll probably just load up on caffeine that morning and then crash after the test. A terrible strategy, I know, but I think it's the only way I'll make it through an exam that early.
Fortunately, my English and Religion exams are at more reasonable hours. Although you already know my feelings on English exams in general. Completely futile. Grades in college-level English courses should be entirely essay-based. The concept of having a student come in for an exam and write essays under time constraints...it's just a waste of time. What ends up happening is you get a good grade for writing essays that aren't terrible. Where's the point in that? Oh well. It's obviously not my call. Though it should be.
Beyond those three exams, this ten-day period is going to be extremely uneventful. It'll almost be like a warm-up for the real break. I have to come in here and work a little bit every day, but other than that...well, let's just say I'm going to be sleeping quite a bit. Today I slept until two, then got up and came straight here to work. After work I'll probably eat something and watch a movie or two until I'm ready to crash again. Rinse and repeat tomorrow. Wednesday I'll do some studying for my Thursday morning exam. I really just wish I could take all three exams today and go home. Once again, it's not my call. Though it should be.
Before I take off, I should let you know that this is going to be my last post of the semester. Don't despair; I will be back in mid-January. Hopefully I'll have something worth talking about then. Have a good holiday, one and all.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Back, Yet Again
Well, Thanksgiving break was good. I mean, I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate air travel. So that was no fun whatsoever. Wednesday, when I was leaving to head home, the traffic was ridiculous. It took me almost two hours to make the half-hour drive to the Fort Lauderdale airport. Fortunately, I had left about three hours ahead of time in case the airport was insane due to Thanksgiving, so I was still on time. Thankfully, for some odd reason, the airport was nearly empty when I got there. The world makes no sense.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Eating way too much and watching football. Those really are the only two activities included, and what else is better than eating way too much and watching football? I also saw some great movies. No Country for Old Men and I'm Not There were both absolutely brilliant. I slept in a real bed for the first time in months. So all in all it was a good trip.
Of course, flying back was even more painful than the trip home. First of all, it was pouring down rain in Nashville when I left. So the takeoff was a bit of an adventure. Secondly, it was freezing on the plane. It was to the point that when we landed, my feet were so cold that I had trouble standing up. Then, once I got to the airport, I had to wait over 30 minutes to get my bags. Then I had to wait another half hour on the parking shuttle. Then I had to wait another half hour for the parking shuttle to get to the parking lot. So with another half hour to drive to Coral Gables, it was over two hours from landing to getting home. It's enough to make me never want to fly again. Of course, I didn't need anything new to reach that opinion. Oh, and I forgot, there was a kid in the seat behind me that never stopped kicking my seat or hollering in Spanish the entire flight. And then when we landed I heard the people sitting two rows back complimenting the kid's father on how well behaved the kid was. Kids under the age of ten should not be allowed on airplanes. Or at least they should have their own special section. Flying is bad enough without loud, annoying kids. At least now Southwest doesn't give parents with kids pre-boarding rights. It was ridiculous that parents who were stupid enough to bring their little kids on the plane were rewarded with first pick of seats. The new situation is much better.
I'm sorry, I just hate flying.
Oh well, I'd better get over it. I have to fly again in less than a month. Life.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Eating way too much and watching football. Those really are the only two activities included, and what else is better than eating way too much and watching football? I also saw some great movies. No Country for Old Men and I'm Not There were both absolutely brilliant. I slept in a real bed for the first time in months. So all in all it was a good trip.
Of course, flying back was even more painful than the trip home. First of all, it was pouring down rain in Nashville when I left. So the takeoff was a bit of an adventure. Secondly, it was freezing on the plane. It was to the point that when we landed, my feet were so cold that I had trouble standing up. Then, once I got to the airport, I had to wait over 30 minutes to get my bags. Then I had to wait another half hour on the parking shuttle. Then I had to wait another half hour for the parking shuttle to get to the parking lot. So with another half hour to drive to Coral Gables, it was over two hours from landing to getting home. It's enough to make me never want to fly again. Of course, I didn't need anything new to reach that opinion. Oh, and I forgot, there was a kid in the seat behind me that never stopped kicking my seat or hollering in Spanish the entire flight. And then when we landed I heard the people sitting two rows back complimenting the kid's father on how well behaved the kid was. Kids under the age of ten should not be allowed on airplanes. Or at least they should have their own special section. Flying is bad enough without loud, annoying kids. At least now Southwest doesn't give parents with kids pre-boarding rights. It was ridiculous that parents who were stupid enough to bring their little kids on the plane were rewarded with first pick of seats. The new situation is much better.
I'm sorry, I just hate flying.
Oh well, I'd better get over it. I have to fly again in less than a month. Life.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Almost There
Oh man, it's almost Thanksgiving break time. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I need a break. Just have to make it through two more days and then I can just kick back for the rest of the week. And then when I come back to school next week, it's already practically time for winter break. If I can just survive a few more weeks, I'll be done with the semester. As I said, I'm ready for it to end. Granted, I have two papers, four tests and a quiz between me and the finish line, which is a little daunting. But it could be a lot worse. I'm definitely looking forward to eating well for the first time in months this weekend. I'll put on five pounds this week, and then lose it before winter break. Oh, that fluctuating weight...so good for the health. Man, there really is very little going on in my life right now. I wish I had more to write about, but I just don't. Next week I'll be able to tell you all about my exciting Thanksgiving, but right now...there's really very little to say. I'm reading Jhumpa Lahiri's brilliant short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies in one of my English courses, and I'm enjoying that. I've read the book before, but it's been five years or so, and I don't remember it very well. It's definitely one I recommend highly. OK, as I said, I'll hopefully have something worthwhile to talk about next week; this week was kind of a bust. See you then.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Another Monday
First off, a book recommendation. If any of you are in fragile emotional states, do not under any circumstances read The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat. This is one of the most depressing novels I have read in quite some time. It deals with the mass slaughter of Haitians that occurred in the Dominican Republic in the 1930's. The narrator is a Haitian woman who finds herself in the middle of the carnage. I haven't finished it yet (I'm reading it for class and we're only about two-thirds or so through) but so far it is a beautifully written, riveting, extremely disturbing novel. I recommend it to anyone who is not afraid it will send them into an emotional downward spiral.
Wow, it's hard to believe it's November already (Wow, that was an abrupt and not-so-smooth segue). And yes, I know it's been November for almost two weeks already, but I am still baffled by how fast this semester has gone. I mean, I leave for Thanksgiving break a week from Wednesday, and I take my last exam one month from today. That's crazy. And of course, living in Miami, there's this sort of temporal vortex where the weather never changes so you don't notice the progression of the seasons. I mean sure, it's a little cooler than it was when I got here in August, but I'm used to at least wearing long pants by Thanksgiving. I'm still in shorts and a t-shirt. Of course, I have no concept of time to begin with. I generally can tell you what day it is, and even maybe the date, but the chronological relation between two events? I'm clueless. In my mind, two weeks ago and two months ago seem about the same. I never said I wasn't crazy.
So, I've got one month to make or break my first semester back in school. Fortunately, I've put myself in a position where I think it's essentially impossible to fail any of my classes. So I've got that going for me, which is nice. I still have so many major grades left in the semester, though, that I can't really guess what grades I'll have at the end. I have one test left in one class, a paper and a final in one class, a test and a final in one class, two major quizzes in a fourth class, and (here's the crazy one) in my fifth class I have a paper and a major quiz left to complete, but I also have another quiz and another paper that I turned in three weeks and two weeks ago respectively and for which I still have not received grades. My concern is that if my professor can't grade a set of quizzes in three weeks, how is she going to grade all of our final papers before grades are due? Well, I guess that's not my problem. Although I would like to get those two grades back sometime soon so I at least have some idea of my standing in the class. Oh well. As someone who wrote much better songs than I once said, you can't always get what you want. Ain't it the truth.
Until next time, drive safely. And don't pollute.
Wow, it's hard to believe it's November already (Wow, that was an abrupt and not-so-smooth segue). And yes, I know it's been November for almost two weeks already, but I am still baffled by how fast this semester has gone. I mean, I leave for Thanksgiving break a week from Wednesday, and I take my last exam one month from today. That's crazy. And of course, living in Miami, there's this sort of temporal vortex where the weather never changes so you don't notice the progression of the seasons. I mean sure, it's a little cooler than it was when I got here in August, but I'm used to at least wearing long pants by Thanksgiving. I'm still in shorts and a t-shirt. Of course, I have no concept of time to begin with. I generally can tell you what day it is, and even maybe the date, but the chronological relation between two events? I'm clueless. In my mind, two weeks ago and two months ago seem about the same. I never said I wasn't crazy.
So, I've got one month to make or break my first semester back in school. Fortunately, I've put myself in a position where I think it's essentially impossible to fail any of my classes. So I've got that going for me, which is nice. I still have so many major grades left in the semester, though, that I can't really guess what grades I'll have at the end. I have one test left in one class, a paper and a final in one class, a test and a final in one class, two major quizzes in a fourth class, and (here's the crazy one) in my fifth class I have a paper and a major quiz left to complete, but I also have another quiz and another paper that I turned in three weeks and two weeks ago respectively and for which I still have not received grades. My concern is that if my professor can't grade a set of quizzes in three weeks, how is she going to grade all of our final papers before grades are due? Well, I guess that's not my problem. Although I would like to get those two grades back sometime soon so I at least have some idea of my standing in the class. Oh well. As someone who wrote much better songs than I once said, you can't always get what you want. Ain't it the truth.
Until next time, drive safely. And don't pollute.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Shocked
Wow, I must say, I am, as in the title, shocked. Shocked.
Let me backtrack for a second. At Wesleyan (which, if you remember, is where I last went to college), registration was a nightmare. I have no proof of this, but I just get the feeling the school's board of directors sat in a room for a day scheming to come up with the most painful, anxiety-inducing, stressful, and inefficient way to pick classes humanly possible. The process went something like this. At your appointed time on your appointed day, you packed into a small computer lab with a bunch of other students (essentially the number of computers in the lab plus one or two) and sat down at a computer, bringing up the registration website. With 30 seconds to go before your scheduled registration time, the person in charge would start the countdown. 30 seconds...25 seconds...20 seconds...15 seconds...10 seconds...9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...CLICK! At the moment the word click was spoken, it became a mad dash to try to secure spots in your classes of choice before they filled up. If you clicked a hair too early, you would lose a couple of seconds before you could re-click, and if you clicked a hair too late, most likely your class would be full. If you were really fast, you could maybe get into two popular classes. After these two clicks, all that was left were the dregs. Classes nobody wanted to take. So you had two choices: take the crappy classes, or go with a 2-class schedule and hope to pick up the rest in drop-add. Not good times.
So, you'll understand if I approached this morning (my registration time) with trepidation. I didn't know the exact process of registering at UM, but I just assumed it would be some variant on medieval torture. So, I walked to the registrar's office with my class-request-sheet. I waited in line for about five minutes, then I sat down, handed my sheet to a woman at a computer, showed her my ID, and waited for another minute. She handed back my sheet and said, alright, you're good. No stress, no anxiety, and I got all five classes I wanted. As I said, I was shocked. There's an episode of the short-lived but brilliant television cartoon version of the comic strip Dilbert in which Dilbert is fired from his terrible job at his terrible company. With a little help from Dogbert (and of course help means completely bs-ing his résumé) Dilbert gets a job at the top engineering company in the country, Nirvana Corp. The name essentially describes the experience of working there. Dilbert cannot believe that he doesn't have to fill out forms to obtain pens, or that more than one copy machine works, or that there is no marketing department. Of course, when the boss hears his marveling at the lack of a marketing department, one is immediately created, quickly and totally destroying the company. But what matters in this rambling comparison are the feelings Dilbert experiences at the way things work at his new job. He doesn't so much feel happiness as shock and incomprehension. This is how I felt today after registering for classes.
Now I just have to be sure and not screw up the rest of this semester.
Let me backtrack for a second. At Wesleyan (which, if you remember, is where I last went to college), registration was a nightmare. I have no proof of this, but I just get the feeling the school's board of directors sat in a room for a day scheming to come up with the most painful, anxiety-inducing, stressful, and inefficient way to pick classes humanly possible. The process went something like this. At your appointed time on your appointed day, you packed into a small computer lab with a bunch of other students (essentially the number of computers in the lab plus one or two) and sat down at a computer, bringing up the registration website. With 30 seconds to go before your scheduled registration time, the person in charge would start the countdown. 30 seconds...25 seconds...20 seconds...15 seconds...10 seconds...9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...CLICK! At the moment the word click was spoken, it became a mad dash to try to secure spots in your classes of choice before they filled up. If you clicked a hair too early, you would lose a couple of seconds before you could re-click, and if you clicked a hair too late, most likely your class would be full. If you were really fast, you could maybe get into two popular classes. After these two clicks, all that was left were the dregs. Classes nobody wanted to take. So you had two choices: take the crappy classes, or go with a 2-class schedule and hope to pick up the rest in drop-add. Not good times.
So, you'll understand if I approached this morning (my registration time) with trepidation. I didn't know the exact process of registering at UM, but I just assumed it would be some variant on medieval torture. So, I walked to the registrar's office with my class-request-sheet. I waited in line for about five minutes, then I sat down, handed my sheet to a woman at a computer, showed her my ID, and waited for another minute. She handed back my sheet and said, alright, you're good. No stress, no anxiety, and I got all five classes I wanted. As I said, I was shocked. There's an episode of the short-lived but brilliant television cartoon version of the comic strip Dilbert in which Dilbert is fired from his terrible job at his terrible company. With a little help from Dogbert (and of course help means completely bs-ing his résumé) Dilbert gets a job at the top engineering company in the country, Nirvana Corp. The name essentially describes the experience of working there. Dilbert cannot believe that he doesn't have to fill out forms to obtain pens, or that more than one copy machine works, or that there is no marketing department. Of course, when the boss hears his marveling at the lack of a marketing department, one is immediately created, quickly and totally destroying the company. But what matters in this rambling comparison are the feelings Dilbert experiences at the way things work at his new job. He doesn't so much feel happiness as shock and incomprehension. This is how I felt today after registering for classes.
Now I just have to be sure and not screw up the rest of this semester.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Back Among the Living
As I said in my post last week, I hate being sick. But as I have always been one to look on the bright side of life (and anyone who knows me at all is doubling over laughing at this comment), I've been trying to think of a positive to being sick. I think I've found one. After being sick, when you start feeling better, you feel better than you ever have before; you feel like Superman. At least I do. When I've been healthy for a while, I start to take my health for granted. I don't understand just how good I have it until I get sick for a week, like last week. Then, on a day like today, when I finally start to feel right again, it's like someone stuck me with a shot of adrenaline. I feel ready to take on the world and reassert my authority over my own life. I feel like an imposter has been inhabiting my body for the last week, and it's time to take back over. All in all, today I feel better than I have in quite some time. It's an odd feeling. Granted, at this point, last week is so foggy that I can't even be entirely sure it happened at all. If someone told me I had dreamed my entire sickness and that it was actually last Monday, I would believe that person without too much argument. I mean, my memory's not so good to begin with. Add in a disorienting sickness and I start questioning the very fabric of reality. Maybe I should change subjects before I get really confused. Or maybe it's too late already. Probably the second choice.
So, I don't think anyone would have blamed me if I had just stayed inside and lamented my poor health all weekend, and under normal circumstances that is exactly what I would have done. However, Friday night, despite the insistent complaints of every single bit of my physical being, I dragged myself down to campus for the UM Homecoming concert. Talib Kweli and Robert Randolph and the Family Band were there, and I never miss an opportunity to see Randolph, so feeling about 70% (generously) was not going to stop me.
As always, Randolph's set was an amazing experience. The healing powers of seeing that band tear into a set cannot be overestimated. I think if the losers organizing the event (I'm just kidding, I have nothing but respect for those who put together such a great free concert) had let them play for more than one short hour, I might have been cured there and then. Sadly, to be completely honest, an hour just isn't long enough for the full Robert Randolph and the Family Band experience. Shake Your Hips was noticeably abbreviated, with an awkwardly abrupt ending. The biggest problem is that a great jam band just continues to gather momentum as they continue to play, and Randolph is no exception. By the 1-hour mark, the band was firing on all cylinders, and another four or five songs would have been completely mind-blowing. As it was, the show built and built and built...and then ended. Alas. Nonetheless, it was a great hour. Those guys never cease to amaze me. Bringing out a (very) small horn section to kick into a cover of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" was an inspired new twist. I can't wait to see them again, hopefully next time as a headliner.
As for Talib Kweli, well...I'll preface this by saying that with a few exceptions I am not a fan of live hip hop. Don't get me wrong, I like hip hop; I like it a lot...on album. I have only really been impressed by three live hip hop acts: The Roots, J-5, and Cypress Hill. Talib wasn't bad by any means, but it just wasn't anything to write home about. It was highly entertaining for about a half hour, and then it got rather boring to just watch a guy rap over canned music, as is usually the case in such shows. That is just my opinion, of course. The crowd seemed to be enjoying the show just fine when I left.
Let's see, anything else? Go see American Gangster, it's fantastic. I register for classes on Wednesday for Spring, so I'll let you know how that goes.
So, I don't think anyone would have blamed me if I had just stayed inside and lamented my poor health all weekend, and under normal circumstances that is exactly what I would have done. However, Friday night, despite the insistent complaints of every single bit of my physical being, I dragged myself down to campus for the UM Homecoming concert. Talib Kweli and Robert Randolph and the Family Band were there, and I never miss an opportunity to see Randolph, so feeling about 70% (generously) was not going to stop me.
As always, Randolph's set was an amazing experience. The healing powers of seeing that band tear into a set cannot be overestimated. I think if the losers organizing the event (I'm just kidding, I have nothing but respect for those who put together such a great free concert) had let them play for more than one short hour, I might have been cured there and then. Sadly, to be completely honest, an hour just isn't long enough for the full Robert Randolph and the Family Band experience. Shake Your Hips was noticeably abbreviated, with an awkwardly abrupt ending. The biggest problem is that a great jam band just continues to gather momentum as they continue to play, and Randolph is no exception. By the 1-hour mark, the band was firing on all cylinders, and another four or five songs would have been completely mind-blowing. As it was, the show built and built and built...and then ended. Alas. Nonetheless, it was a great hour. Those guys never cease to amaze me. Bringing out a (very) small horn section to kick into a cover of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" was an inspired new twist. I can't wait to see them again, hopefully next time as a headliner.
As for Talib Kweli, well...I'll preface this by saying that with a few exceptions I am not a fan of live hip hop. Don't get me wrong, I like hip hop; I like it a lot...on album. I have only really been impressed by three live hip hop acts: The Roots, J-5, and Cypress Hill. Talib wasn't bad by any means, but it just wasn't anything to write home about. It was highly entertaining for about a half hour, and then it got rather boring to just watch a guy rap over canned music, as is usually the case in such shows. That is just my opinion, of course. The crowd seemed to be enjoying the show just fine when I left.
Let's see, anything else? Go see American Gangster, it's fantastic. I register for classes on Wednesday for Spring, so I'll let you know how that goes.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
I Hate Being Sick
I mean really, is there anything in the world worse than being sick? Especially that kind of sick where you can't really legitimately skip class or work, since you're not that sick, but you're just sick enough to make your life completely miserable. That's been my week thus far. And it's that great kind of sick where you're just completely dazed and in a fog all the time. Gotta love that. Class is really fun when you can't focus on anything for more than a couple of seconds. And work has been even better. I'll be working on a project and then just completely lose my train of thought. Or have problems that I should easily be able to fix but don't even know where to start. Not to mention, this is how things are today, when I feel the best I have all week. Oh well, I should feel better soon. The doctor told me it was some kind of viral infection that should run its course in a couple days. I hope he's right because I am tired of this.
On a brighter note, I met with my advisor yesterday to talk about classes for next semester. Of course, once again, this was made more difficult by my current condition, but I think I survived it. At the moment, the plan is to take two English courses, one French course, a history course, and some kind of easy science course to (finally) finish off my gen-ed requirements. I have decided (at least for the moment) to minor in French. If anything, doing so will force me to stay competent in the language, and I might lose my ability otherwise through not using it. Plus, literature's my thing, and taking French courses at the college level is pretty much like taking English lit courses in a different language, so I think I can survive the four classes or so necessary for the minor. Wish me luck. Next semester is going to be interesting. It should be easier in some ways, in that I'll be more into the rhythm of being in school, but it will be more difficult since, if my plans stay the same, four of my five classes will be 300-level classes. I've only taken one 300-level course in my college career thus far. I know I'm ready, but it should just be a large jump in the amount of work. Well, I guess at least that will give me an excuse for my lack of a social life. Hopefully the next time you hear from me I will be completely conscious.
On a brighter note, I met with my advisor yesterday to talk about classes for next semester. Of course, once again, this was made more difficult by my current condition, but I think I survived it. At the moment, the plan is to take two English courses, one French course, a history course, and some kind of easy science course to (finally) finish off my gen-ed requirements. I have decided (at least for the moment) to minor in French. If anything, doing so will force me to stay competent in the language, and I might lose my ability otherwise through not using it. Plus, literature's my thing, and taking French courses at the college level is pretty much like taking English lit courses in a different language, so I think I can survive the four classes or so necessary for the minor. Wish me luck. Next semester is going to be interesting. It should be easier in some ways, in that I'll be more into the rhythm of being in school, but it will be more difficult since, if my plans stay the same, four of my five classes will be 300-level classes. I've only taken one 300-level course in my college career thus far. I know I'm ready, but it should just be a large jump in the amount of work. Well, I guess at least that will give me an excuse for my lack of a social life. Hopefully the next time you hear from me I will be completely conscious.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Loud Noises!
OK, so just to warn you right off the bat, I'm in a bit of an irritable mood today. So if I sound unusually angry, well, I'm sorry. Maybe it's because of my irrational hatred of the Red Sox. Why do I hate the Red Sox? I don't know, maybe it's because after October 2004 they went from lovable losers to another Yankees, with bloated budget and insufferable fans and all the rest. Not that I'm particularly a fan of the Rockies, but come on, the Sox' best hitter is a DH, the biggest abomination since Scream 3. Sorry, I'm an old-school baseball fan. Or if it's not the success of the Sox, it's knowing that this weekend is going to be annoying enough for me to miss my classes and beg for Monday to come sooner rather than later.
First of all, I have to go to a wedding. I hate weddings. I haven't even met any of the people involved. Worst of all, since I've been down here, my wardrobe hasn't drifted out of the t-shirt and shorts genre, and I'm really not looking forward to wearing a tie. I hate wearing a tie (and a jacket and a dress shirt for that matter) almost as much as I hate the Red Sox. Don't get me wrong, I'm not angry about having to go; it means a lot to my mother, and I owe her a lot for the support I've gotten in recent years (or for my whole life for that matter). So, I'm happy to do this for her, since it's really the least that I could do. If I can get my brownie points all in one day's work, that's much better than years of small favors. So I'm not angry about Saturday, not at all. I'm just not looking forward to it.
Not to mention I have an essay due on Monday. And I like to have all weekend to procrastinate over finishing a paper. With this wedding on Saturday, I lose one very valuable day of squandering time I should spend working.
Oh well, really, I guess things could be a lot worse. I could be a Rockies fan. Or even worse, a Notre Dame fan. I guess you have to take the good with the bad. And overall, my life's going pretty well. My classes are going well, my mood's up, and my job is a whole lot less painful than working in a mailroom. And, in the realm of fortuitous timing, on this busy weekend there are really no good movies coming out, so I won't be missing much. I mean, when the two releases I'm most excited about on a weekend are Dan in Real Life and Lars and the Real Girl, there's something seriously wrong. I mean, there were five movies last weekend that I was more excited than any of the movies this weekend. That's poor scheduling. And no, I'm not pumped for Saw IV. Until next week, when hopefully I'll be in a better mood.
First of all, I have to go to a wedding. I hate weddings. I haven't even met any of the people involved. Worst of all, since I've been down here, my wardrobe hasn't drifted out of the t-shirt and shorts genre, and I'm really not looking forward to wearing a tie. I hate wearing a tie (and a jacket and a dress shirt for that matter) almost as much as I hate the Red Sox. Don't get me wrong, I'm not angry about having to go; it means a lot to my mother, and I owe her a lot for the support I've gotten in recent years (or for my whole life for that matter). So, I'm happy to do this for her, since it's really the least that I could do. If I can get my brownie points all in one day's work, that's much better than years of small favors. So I'm not angry about Saturday, not at all. I'm just not looking forward to it.
Not to mention I have an essay due on Monday. And I like to have all weekend to procrastinate over finishing a paper. With this wedding on Saturday, I lose one very valuable day of squandering time I should spend working.
Oh well, really, I guess things could be a lot worse. I could be a Rockies fan. Or even worse, a Notre Dame fan. I guess you have to take the good with the bad. And overall, my life's going pretty well. My classes are going well, my mood's up, and my job is a whole lot less painful than working in a mailroom. And, in the realm of fortuitous timing, on this busy weekend there are really no good movies coming out, so I won't be missing much. I mean, when the two releases I'm most excited about on a weekend are Dan in Real Life and Lars and the Real Girl, there's something seriously wrong. I mean, there were five movies last weekend that I was more excited than any of the movies this weekend. That's poor scheduling. And no, I'm not pumped for Saw IV. Until next week, when hopefully I'll be in a better mood.
Monday, October 22, 2007
OK, I'm Back
Wow, three-day weekends can do wonders for the psyche. If you didn't notice in the one ridiculously short and useless post I put up last week, I was burned out with a capital B. So I guess that would be Burned out. And that was on Monday. Three days of rest later, and I'm a little bit recharged at least. I'll probably be burned out again in a few weeks, but by then it'll be time for Thanksgiving break. Hopefully. I'd be doing even better if I hadn't had a killer headache last night that kept me from getting much sleep, but still, I'm more rested today than I have been in quite some time.
I wish I could tell you about all of the wonderful and exciting things I did on my break, but I'm just not that kind of guy. If you really want to know what I did on my break, I slept, ate, and went to the movies. Read a little bit. Listened to some music. Went to the grocery store. Slept some more. Sound boring? Well for me, it's about the best break possible. Just a chance to not really have to do much of anything. I saw four movies this weekend, one great (The Darjeeling Limited), one very good (Gone Baby Gone), one exceedingly mediocre (Things We Lost in the Fire), and one that was a waste of time and almost put me to sleep (Rendition). To recap, go see Darjeeling. Especially if you like Wes Anderson movies at all. It's brilliant. Gone Baby Gone is worth the trip, and the other two should most likely be avoided unless you're really bored and want to waste your money.
Let's see, what else is going on in my life? Well, it's getting close to time to pick my classes for next semester, which is always a stressful time. I mean, I don't like to think about what I'm doing tomorrow, much less in 2008. How do I even know I'll be here in 2008? I mean, I think I will be; I'm pretty much positive I will be, but I wouldn't bet my life savings on it or anything. How can I really be sure enough about anything to plan that far ahead. To make matters worse, I've got three semesters left at this school, God willing (or whatever supernatural force there is, if there is one, I've still got half a semester of Intro to Religion to figure that one out), and I think it might be about time to settle on a minor. I obviously know I'm majoring in English, but I don't exactly have huge numbers of credits in any other subject, so choosing a minor is pretty much a priority at this point. Anybody have any ideas? I'm open to any suggestions. My guess is it won't be astronomy. Or biology. Or math. But beyond that, I'm pretty much completely clueless. I mean, French is always a possibility, but I'm just not sure it's the right choice at this point. Oh well, I have a little time left to choose. Wish me luck.
I wish I could tell you about all of the wonderful and exciting things I did on my break, but I'm just not that kind of guy. If you really want to know what I did on my break, I slept, ate, and went to the movies. Read a little bit. Listened to some music. Went to the grocery store. Slept some more. Sound boring? Well for me, it's about the best break possible. Just a chance to not really have to do much of anything. I saw four movies this weekend, one great (The Darjeeling Limited), one very good (Gone Baby Gone), one exceedingly mediocre (Things We Lost in the Fire), and one that was a waste of time and almost put me to sleep (Rendition). To recap, go see Darjeeling. Especially if you like Wes Anderson movies at all. It's brilliant. Gone Baby Gone is worth the trip, and the other two should most likely be avoided unless you're really bored and want to waste your money.
Let's see, what else is going on in my life? Well, it's getting close to time to pick my classes for next semester, which is always a stressful time. I mean, I don't like to think about what I'm doing tomorrow, much less in 2008. How do I even know I'll be here in 2008? I mean, I think I will be; I'm pretty much positive I will be, but I wouldn't bet my life savings on it or anything. How can I really be sure enough about anything to plan that far ahead. To make matters worse, I've got three semesters left at this school, God willing (or whatever supernatural force there is, if there is one, I've still got half a semester of Intro to Religion to figure that one out), and I think it might be about time to settle on a minor. I obviously know I'm majoring in English, but I don't exactly have huge numbers of credits in any other subject, so choosing a minor is pretty much a priority at this point. Anybody have any ideas? I'm open to any suggestions. My guess is it won't be astronomy. Or biology. Or math. But beyond that, I'm pretty much completely clueless. I mean, French is always a possibility, but I'm just not sure it's the right choice at this point. Oh well, I have a little time left to choose. Wish me luck.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Short Week
You have no idea how glad I am to have a four-day week this week. I need a break. It's Monday, and I already feel like I need a break. I just have to make it through three more days, and then I have a nice long weekend. On the more positive side, I really should just stop worrying. Remember that test I thought I did so poorly on? I got an A. Now I'm really starting to think my teacher grades too leniently. Regardless, I'll take the A and be happy with it. Now I've just got one more paper grade to stress over. I'll probably get that grade back just in time to take another test or turn in another essay, and the stress cycle will start all over again. Such is life. Wow, for once I really don't have a whole lot on my mind today. I haven't posted since Wednesday, so I figured I would have plenty to talk about, but I'm a bit of a blank slate today. We're discussing a great film, The Battle of Algiers, in my English class. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. OK, I guess that's about it. I'll try to prepare my thoughts a bit before my post later this week.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
A Weight Has Been Lifted
OK, I mentioned last week that I am extremely neurotic when it comes to waiting on grades. I also said that after a year and a half out of school, I was terrified that I wouldn't remember how to write a good essay. This was compounded by the fact that the first of the two essays I wrote for Monday of last week was a real struggle. The words didn't come to me the way they used to, as if by magic. I had to fight my mind for every sentence, even every word. The second essay was significantly easier, but I was still concerned.
Well, I got that first paper back, and I got an A. It is so good to know that I'm still capable of writing a decent essay, and that I am still my own worst critic. I really thought it was probably a B paper. A solid B paper, maybe a B+, but I thought an A was out of reach. Fortunately, as usual, I either undervalued my work or overestimated the harshness of my teacher's grading. Impossible to know which, but I think I'll just assume I undervalued my work. That way I can revel in the moment. Well, now I still have a quiz, another essay, and a test to wait for. If those come back with decent grades, then maybe I'll start to have an iota of confidence in my ability to succeed in my second attempt at college. Fingers crossed.
Let's see, is there anything else to talk about? Not really, I guess. Well, I could talk a little about what I've been reading in my English classes, since I am really enjoying both classes right now. In one we are currently reading some works by Jorge Luis Borges. If you haven't heard of Borges or have heard of him but never checked him out, you really should give him a shot. His "stories" (and I use that term in the loosest sense possible) are most likely very different from anything you've ever read. Very metaphorical, very metatextual, and some of the most dense reading I've ever had the pleaure of experiencing. Every sentence has layers upon layers of meaning. It seems pointless to only have one fifty minute period to discuss each story; we are missing so much of the meat of the work. Oh well, at least I'm getting to read it. In my other class, we just finished The Youngest Doll, a collection of stories by Rosario Ferré. Ferré's work is also very dense and can be difficult at first. Once I really got accustomed to her style, I fell in love with her work. It is bitingly ironic and satirical, and some of the angriest writing I have ever read. To some extent it defies description, so you'll have to take my word for it. We've just started reading stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. So far, I can say that his writing is absolutely beautiful prose and his stories are very interesting. I think I'm a couple of steps away from understanding any of it, but hopefully that will come. It usually does.
Alright, I've kept you too long. I can't wait for the baseball championship series to start. Can you believe there still are 12,000 seats available for game one at the BOB? Come on, people, your team is one of four left in the playoffs! Get out there and support them. If I could get there, I would so buy a ticket. But I'm in Florida, not Arizona, so I don't think it's going to happen. Although what I'm really looking forward to is the Beckett/Sabathia game one of the ALCS. And the Carmona/Schilling game two. OK, even I, the staunchest proponent of national league baseball, have to admit that all of the best teams are in the AL this year, for about the third year in a row. It pains me to say so, but it's true. Sure, the Cards won last year, but were they the best team? Or even one of the four best teams? Absolutely not.
That's it now. Really, I promise.
Well, I got that first paper back, and I got an A. It is so good to know that I'm still capable of writing a decent essay, and that I am still my own worst critic. I really thought it was probably a B paper. A solid B paper, maybe a B+, but I thought an A was out of reach. Fortunately, as usual, I either undervalued my work or overestimated the harshness of my teacher's grading. Impossible to know which, but I think I'll just assume I undervalued my work. That way I can revel in the moment. Well, now I still have a quiz, another essay, and a test to wait for. If those come back with decent grades, then maybe I'll start to have an iota of confidence in my ability to succeed in my second attempt at college. Fingers crossed.
Let's see, is there anything else to talk about? Not really, I guess. Well, I could talk a little about what I've been reading in my English classes, since I am really enjoying both classes right now. In one we are currently reading some works by Jorge Luis Borges. If you haven't heard of Borges or have heard of him but never checked him out, you really should give him a shot. His "stories" (and I use that term in the loosest sense possible) are most likely very different from anything you've ever read. Very metaphorical, very metatextual, and some of the most dense reading I've ever had the pleaure of experiencing. Every sentence has layers upon layers of meaning. It seems pointless to only have one fifty minute period to discuss each story; we are missing so much of the meat of the work. Oh well, at least I'm getting to read it. In my other class, we just finished The Youngest Doll, a collection of stories by Rosario Ferré. Ferré's work is also very dense and can be difficult at first. Once I really got accustomed to her style, I fell in love with her work. It is bitingly ironic and satirical, and some of the angriest writing I have ever read. To some extent it defies description, so you'll have to take my word for it. We've just started reading stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. So far, I can say that his writing is absolutely beautiful prose and his stories are very interesting. I think I'm a couple of steps away from understanding any of it, but hopefully that will come. It usually does.
Alright, I've kept you too long. I can't wait for the baseball championship series to start. Can you believe there still are 12,000 seats available for game one at the BOB? Come on, people, your team is one of four left in the playoffs! Get out there and support them. If I could get there, I would so buy a ticket. But I'm in Florida, not Arizona, so I don't think it's going to happen. Although what I'm really looking forward to is the Beckett/Sabathia game one of the ALCS. And the Carmona/Schilling game two. OK, even I, the staunchest proponent of national league baseball, have to admit that all of the best teams are in the AL this year, for about the third year in a row. It pains me to say so, but it's true. Sure, the Cards won last year, but were they the best team? Or even one of the four best teams? Absolutely not.
That's it now. Really, I promise.
Monday, October 8, 2007
And Now, Back to Normal
Well, first off, I must say, thank God the Falcons are terrible. The Titans played about the worst game imaginable and still pulled out a seven-point victory. 3-1's not a bad start.
Now that my parents are back in Nashville, I can get back to the grind. There's something really strange about the first couple of days after any kind of special occasion. (I know my parents coming to town is stretching it as a special occasion, but you understand.) Whether it's an occasion you've been really excited about, or really dreading, or whatever, there's a let-down when it passes. I mean, what now? Normalcy is always a little jarring.
That being said, my visit with my parents went about as well as is physically possible. A weekend is really the perfect amount of time. If they were here for a week, or if they lived here, I would get really tired of them. Believe me, I know; I lived with them for the last year and a half. Space is necessary. But a weekend is good. You can enjoy each other's company and have a good time without getting too much on each other's nerves. I'll admit, by Sunday I was glad they were headed back to Nashville, but that was more about me being spent and ready to have some time to be lazy than it was about being desperate for them to leave.
There are definitely perks to the parent visit, as well. I was really in a tight spot financially going into Friday. Then, I got my first paycheck on Friday and my parents were in town for the weekend, so now I'm rolling in it. Having your meals paid for for a few days, and getting your fridge stocked for free really helps. It's also nice to have parents who are really into good food and wine, because it means you get to eat at great restaurants for far too much money and drink fine wine. Quite a change from the normal quesadilla/pizza diet. For any of you who like sushi and have parents willing to pay far too much for a good meal, I cannot recommend the restaurant we went to Saturday night highly enough. It's a sushi restaurant in South Beach called Nobu, and we had one of the best meals I can remember. Granted, my memory isn't any good. But let's just say it was a great meal. For once I have a full, satisfied stomach. And that makes me happy. Later.
Now that my parents are back in Nashville, I can get back to the grind. There's something really strange about the first couple of days after any kind of special occasion. (I know my parents coming to town is stretching it as a special occasion, but you understand.) Whether it's an occasion you've been really excited about, or really dreading, or whatever, there's a let-down when it passes. I mean, what now? Normalcy is always a little jarring.
That being said, my visit with my parents went about as well as is physically possible. A weekend is really the perfect amount of time. If they were here for a week, or if they lived here, I would get really tired of them. Believe me, I know; I lived with them for the last year and a half. Space is necessary. But a weekend is good. You can enjoy each other's company and have a good time without getting too much on each other's nerves. I'll admit, by Sunday I was glad they were headed back to Nashville, but that was more about me being spent and ready to have some time to be lazy than it was about being desperate for them to leave.
There are definitely perks to the parent visit, as well. I was really in a tight spot financially going into Friday. Then, I got my first paycheck on Friday and my parents were in town for the weekend, so now I'm rolling in it. Having your meals paid for for a few days, and getting your fridge stocked for free really helps. It's also nice to have parents who are really into good food and wine, because it means you get to eat at great restaurants for far too much money and drink fine wine. Quite a change from the normal quesadilla/pizza diet. For any of you who like sushi and have parents willing to pay far too much for a good meal, I cannot recommend the restaurant we went to Saturday night highly enough. It's a sushi restaurant in South Beach called Nobu, and we had one of the best meals I can remember. Granted, my memory isn't any good. But let's just say it was a great meal. For once I have a full, satisfied stomach. And that makes me happy. Later.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Is it Really Just Thursday?
My God, this has been the longest week ever. Well, that's not really true. It's not as long as the many, many weeks I spent working 8-5 in a mailroom. Those were longer weeks. But we as human beings have short attention spans, and that was all the way back in July. So as far as I can remember, this has been the longest week ever. Thursday. And not even the end of the day on Thursday either. It's not even noon.
Well, at least I'm finally done with the bulk of my work for the week. In the last two and a half weeks I've had four tests and two papers. As I said earlier, midterm is a terrible time of year. On the bright side, the last of those tests and papers was yesterday, so now I'm pretty much smooth sailing until the end of the semester, which will be even more cluttered, of course.
I must say, the test yesterday was surprisingly difficult. Well, I guess difficult's not really the right word. I knew the material and could answer any of the questions with my eyes closed. Well, as long as someone read the questions to me, that is. The problem was, we were expected to write two essays in fifty minutes. This is why I think it's ridiculous to have tests in English courses. Really English courses should be all paper-based. It's impossible to write two decent, insightful papers about five authors in fifty minutes. It simply cannot be done. I write ridiculously fast (and this is not idle boasting, I always finish tests early) and I found myself struggling to squeeze in a second essay. So, of course, my first essay was good but overly general, and my second essay was crap. Fortunately, I'm my worst critic, so there's still a chance that I'll get a good grade. In English courses, I always get better grades than I would give myself. So I've got my fingers crossed. My hope hinges on the fact that if I, writing as fast as I do, couldn't write a decent test in the period, the rest of the class's tests couldn't have been any better. Hopefully, my teacher will be reasonable enough not to give us all bad grades because the period was too short and his questions were (ridiculously) general.
I won't go in to any more specifics, because I guess that would be cheating or something, I think. Not that I think anyone reading this will be taking that test in the near future, but the last thing I need is to be kicked out of school for not being careful. Let's just leave it at this: how specific and insightful can you be about a story/book if you have ten minutes to write by hand about it?
Keep in mind, I'm completely insane when it comes to anxiety about test results. Until I get these two papers and one test back, I'll be freaking out twenty-four-seven. Which is funny, because usually I have nothing to worry about. I'm even more frantic right now because I also am still waiting on a major quiz score from two weeks ago. I must say, I like multiple choice tests; you get the results back much faster.
Good news, though, is that the baseball playoffs have started. Even if my beloved Braves booted their chances to get in for the second year in a row due to a terrible bullpen and mediocre starting pitching, I still get excited when the second season starts. And I must say, Beckett was ridiculous for the BoSox last night. I hate the Sox, but I love great pitching. It'll be interesting to see what Dice-K has in game two. If he pitches like he did in the first half of the season and not like he did in the second half, the Sox'll be hard to beat. Tonight'll be great, though, to see Sabathia go up against that Yankees lineup. OK, I'll let ya'll go now. Go Titans. If we can't beat Atlanta this weekend, then we should be kicked out of the NFL.
Well, at least I'm finally done with the bulk of my work for the week. In the last two and a half weeks I've had four tests and two papers. As I said earlier, midterm is a terrible time of year. On the bright side, the last of those tests and papers was yesterday, so now I'm pretty much smooth sailing until the end of the semester, which will be even more cluttered, of course.
I must say, the test yesterday was surprisingly difficult. Well, I guess difficult's not really the right word. I knew the material and could answer any of the questions with my eyes closed. Well, as long as someone read the questions to me, that is. The problem was, we were expected to write two essays in fifty minutes. This is why I think it's ridiculous to have tests in English courses. Really English courses should be all paper-based. It's impossible to write two decent, insightful papers about five authors in fifty minutes. It simply cannot be done. I write ridiculously fast (and this is not idle boasting, I always finish tests early) and I found myself struggling to squeeze in a second essay. So, of course, my first essay was good but overly general, and my second essay was crap. Fortunately, I'm my worst critic, so there's still a chance that I'll get a good grade. In English courses, I always get better grades than I would give myself. So I've got my fingers crossed. My hope hinges on the fact that if I, writing as fast as I do, couldn't write a decent test in the period, the rest of the class's tests couldn't have been any better. Hopefully, my teacher will be reasonable enough not to give us all bad grades because the period was too short and his questions were (ridiculously) general.
I won't go in to any more specifics, because I guess that would be cheating or something, I think. Not that I think anyone reading this will be taking that test in the near future, but the last thing I need is to be kicked out of school for not being careful. Let's just leave it at this: how specific and insightful can you be about a story/book if you have ten minutes to write by hand about it?
Keep in mind, I'm completely insane when it comes to anxiety about test results. Until I get these two papers and one test back, I'll be freaking out twenty-four-seven. Which is funny, because usually I have nothing to worry about. I'm even more frantic right now because I also am still waiting on a major quiz score from two weeks ago. I must say, I like multiple choice tests; you get the results back much faster.
Good news, though, is that the baseball playoffs have started. Even if my beloved Braves booted their chances to get in for the second year in a row due to a terrible bullpen and mediocre starting pitching, I still get excited when the second season starts. And I must say, Beckett was ridiculous for the BoSox last night. I hate the Sox, but I love great pitching. It'll be interesting to see what Dice-K has in game two. If he pitches like he did in the first half of the season and not like he did in the second half, the Sox'll be hard to beat. Tonight'll be great, though, to see Sabathia go up against that Yankees lineup. OK, I'll let ya'll go now. Go Titans. If we can't beat Atlanta this weekend, then we should be kicked out of the NFL.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
A Frustrating Weekend
Wow, isn't the weekend supposed to be an opportunity to relax and recharge your batteries? To get ready for the coming week? Yeah, that didn't happen this past weekend. At all. As I mentioned in my last post, I had two essays due yesterday and I have a test tomorrow. One of the problems with college, and in my experience this isn't at all specific to UM, as I had the same problem at Wesleyan and my friends at other schools have complained of the same thing, is that all of the major work is clustered around midterm and end-of-term. So you end up with week after week with no significant tests or papers, and then you have fifteen in two weeks. An exaggeration, of course, but you know what I mean.
This would have been frustrating enough of a weekend, but that's not all. Starting Saturday night and lasting through yesterday, the weather has been real ugly here. I'm sure that people used to Miami, who have lived through hurricanes and all that, weren't impressed by the weather at all, but I'm not used to it, so sue me. Saturday night the storm was loud enough that I couldn't sleep much at all. And then Monday, when I was trying to put finishing touches on my work, the power goes out. Then comes back on about five minutes later, then goes out for another two minutes, then comes on for another two minutes, then goes off for an hour. Fun. Oh well, I'm done with the papers now, so I can relax a little bit. Well, not that much, because now I just have to stress about what my grades will be. My first two papers in a year and a half plus, so I'm not entirely sure I still have it. We'll see. And then, my parents are coming to town this weekend. No offense to my parents, but it just means I have to clean up my apartment this week, and I'll actually have to do things this weekend instead of what I really want to do, which is just crash and not speak to anyone or do anything from 5:00 on Friday until 9:00 Monday morning. Once again, oh well.
This would have been frustrating enough of a weekend, but that's not all. Starting Saturday night and lasting through yesterday, the weather has been real ugly here. I'm sure that people used to Miami, who have lived through hurricanes and all that, weren't impressed by the weather at all, but I'm not used to it, so sue me. Saturday night the storm was loud enough that I couldn't sleep much at all. And then Monday, when I was trying to put finishing touches on my work, the power goes out. Then comes back on about five minutes later, then goes out for another two minutes, then comes on for another two minutes, then goes off for an hour. Fun. Oh well, I'm done with the papers now, so I can relax a little bit. Well, not that much, because now I just have to stress about what my grades will be. My first two papers in a year and a half plus, so I'm not entirely sure I still have it. We'll see. And then, my parents are coming to town this weekend. No offense to my parents, but it just means I have to clean up my apartment this week, and I'll actually have to do things this weekend instead of what I really want to do, which is just crash and not speak to anyone or do anything from 5:00 on Friday until 9:00 Monday morning. Once again, oh well.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Destino 2008
Hello again. Another week is coming to an end (finally) and I thought I should update before I drop off the map for the weekend. I have two papers due on Monday and a test on Wednesday, so I'll be flying under the radar for a few days.
First off, I thought I'd write something about an interesting discussion we had in my English class today. I know an interesting class discussion sounds like an oxymoron, but it does happen every once in a while. Our current topic in this class (World Literary Masterpieces) is Jean Renoir's 1937 film The Grand Illusion. While I'm not entirely sure how this qualifies as a literary masterpiece, it is a truly amazing film by one of the most important filmmakers in history. If you've never heard of Renoir (son of the famous artist), his film Les Règles du Jeu is often listed as the second-greatest film of all-time, after Citizen Kane. I have never had the pleasure of seeing it all the way through, so I can't say for sure. So, today we were discussing The Grand Illusion and, as is often the case when discussing a movie in a literature course, we had one of the more energized discussions I have experienced thus far at UM. Everybody seemed to have a very specific opinion of what is going on in the film, and all of these opinions were strikingly different. Of course, I have my own opinion and generally think everyone else was laughably wrong. But that's just the way I am. I do think that a lot of people in the class missed the irony inherent in the film entirely.
You know, I find it extremely distressing every time I watch a movie dealing with the absurdity of war these days. Considering our current dilemma in this country, it's a little bit frustrating to watch a movie indicting a meaningless war (World War I). Have we learned nothing?
While I'm on a slightly political subject, let's move on before I get too worked up, and talk about my actual topic for this post. Earlier this month, UM hosted the first-ever Spanish-language Democratic Presidential debate. Sponsored by Univision, the debate was conducted in Spanish (except of course for the candidates' responses) and addressed issues important to the Hispanic community. All of the major Democratic candidates other than Joe Biden took part in the debate.
On the morning of the debate, I got a phone call. As a member of the UM Young Democrats, I had signed up to volunteer with the events surrounding the debate. As I am a staunch Barack Obama supporter, I volunteered for his pre-debate rally. In reality, what this consisted of was standing on the side of US1 from 2:30 to 6:30 waving signs and cheering at passing cars. Great weather, too: at the beginning it rained for about an hour, and then was unbearably hot for the rest of the day. The funniest part of the day for me was that about four different police officers stopped me while I was walking from my apartment to the rally to check my UM ID. Also, apparently there are only two songs used in the Obama campaign. Four hours of two songs on repeat almost turned me into Jack Torrance. To be frank, two hours of the rally was really fun. Unfortunately, there were still two hours to go. Finally, after four hours, the moment we were all waiting for came. Senator Obama stopped by on his way to the debate. He shook everyone's hand, took a couple of pictures and said a few words, and then he was off. I must say, the man is even more commanding and charismatic in person than he is on TV. I wish I thought he could win. It won't stop me from supporting him, though.
Afterward, I led the Obama supporters back to the University Center for the debate watch party. As in all of the debates to this point, the frontrunners (Clinton, Obama, and Edwards) were so scared of losing supporters that they said nothing of substance, and generally Kucinich, Gravel, Richardson and Dodd mopped the floor with them. Will this affect the race at all? No. Considering that I am sure no one was watching the debate, no one noticed. Those of us who did watch the debate are mostly interested enough that we have already picked a candidate. Maybe I'm just a cynic, but the whole elective system is sick in my opinion, and I don't know how it could be fixed.
See? It is possible to express political opinions and still stay on a topic relevant to prospective transfers. In the end, I really do feel blessed to be at a school where an event as important and historic (at least in theory) as this could take place. Sure, Columbia had Ahmadinejad, and I would love to have been there. But at least at UM we didn't jeer and insult our guests. Until next time...
First off, I thought I'd write something about an interesting discussion we had in my English class today. I know an interesting class discussion sounds like an oxymoron, but it does happen every once in a while. Our current topic in this class (World Literary Masterpieces) is Jean Renoir's 1937 film The Grand Illusion. While I'm not entirely sure how this qualifies as a literary masterpiece, it is a truly amazing film by one of the most important filmmakers in history. If you've never heard of Renoir (son of the famous artist), his film Les Règles du Jeu is often listed as the second-greatest film of all-time, after Citizen Kane. I have never had the pleasure of seeing it all the way through, so I can't say for sure. So, today we were discussing The Grand Illusion and, as is often the case when discussing a movie in a literature course, we had one of the more energized discussions I have experienced thus far at UM. Everybody seemed to have a very specific opinion of what is going on in the film, and all of these opinions were strikingly different. Of course, I have my own opinion and generally think everyone else was laughably wrong. But that's just the way I am. I do think that a lot of people in the class missed the irony inherent in the film entirely.
You know, I find it extremely distressing every time I watch a movie dealing with the absurdity of war these days. Considering our current dilemma in this country, it's a little bit frustrating to watch a movie indicting a meaningless war (World War I). Have we learned nothing?
While I'm on a slightly political subject, let's move on before I get too worked up, and talk about my actual topic for this post. Earlier this month, UM hosted the first-ever Spanish-language Democratic Presidential debate. Sponsored by Univision, the debate was conducted in Spanish (except of course for the candidates' responses) and addressed issues important to the Hispanic community. All of the major Democratic candidates other than Joe Biden took part in the debate.
On the morning of the debate, I got a phone call. As a member of the UM Young Democrats, I had signed up to volunteer with the events surrounding the debate. As I am a staunch Barack Obama supporter, I volunteered for his pre-debate rally. In reality, what this consisted of was standing on the side of US1 from 2:30 to 6:30 waving signs and cheering at passing cars. Great weather, too: at the beginning it rained for about an hour, and then was unbearably hot for the rest of the day. The funniest part of the day for me was that about four different police officers stopped me while I was walking from my apartment to the rally to check my UM ID. Also, apparently there are only two songs used in the Obama campaign. Four hours of two songs on repeat almost turned me into Jack Torrance. To be frank, two hours of the rally was really fun. Unfortunately, there were still two hours to go. Finally, after four hours, the moment we were all waiting for came. Senator Obama stopped by on his way to the debate. He shook everyone's hand, took a couple of pictures and said a few words, and then he was off. I must say, the man is even more commanding and charismatic in person than he is on TV. I wish I thought he could win. It won't stop me from supporting him, though.
Afterward, I led the Obama supporters back to the University Center for the debate watch party. As in all of the debates to this point, the frontrunners (Clinton, Obama, and Edwards) were so scared of losing supporters that they said nothing of substance, and generally Kucinich, Gravel, Richardson and Dodd mopped the floor with them. Will this affect the race at all? No. Considering that I am sure no one was watching the debate, no one noticed. Those of us who did watch the debate are mostly interested enough that we have already picked a candidate. Maybe I'm just a cynic, but the whole elective system is sick in my opinion, and I don't know how it could be fixed.
See? It is possible to express political opinions and still stay on a topic relevant to prospective transfers. In the end, I really do feel blessed to be at a school where an event as important and historic (at least in theory) as this could take place. Sure, Columbia had Ahmadinejad, and I would love to have been there. But at least at UM we didn't jeer and insult our guests. Until next time...
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Table Scraps--Or Selecting Classes During Orientation
OK, let's continue the story of my first weeks at UM. Hopefully soon I'll have ya'll caught up so I can actually talk about things currently happening in my life. At least those things that relate to being a transfer at UM. I wouldn't want you to know all my secrets.
Another problem about choosing UM as late in the process as I did is that it makes registering for classes significantly more of a chore than it should be. You see, most UM students, or at least seemingly everyone other than myself, has a schedule by the time they get here. OK, that's not true, I think I met five other transfers who didn't. Still, it's uncommon. The problem here is that the majority of classes were already full when I registered. Hence the title of this post. When you're not left with a whole lot of options, you can't really be choosy about your schedule. You have to take what you can get, when you can get it. I was, however, actually quite fortunate in getting a pretty decent schedule. I really had two goals in finding classes. First, having been out of school for a year and a half, I did not want to load myself down with many difficult classes. Second, having spent the beginning of my college career at a school with no core curriculum, I wanted to fulfill as many gen-ed requirements as possible. I think I accomplished both things surprisingly well. So, for a quick overview of my schedule:
Theater 101 (MWF 9:05-9:55)--This is kind of a general history of theater type course. I'll admit, having a lecture course at 9:05 in the morning can be difficult. Thus far I haven't fallen asleep in class, but I wouldn't count it out for the rest of the semester. Fortunately, the topic is pretty interesting.
Intro to Religion (MWF 11:15-12:05)--Once again, kind of a general overview of religious studies. This is an interesting course as four different professors teach different portions of the semester. So far the lectures have been very interesting. I have my fingers crossed for the rest of the semester.
Intro to Astronomy(Tu-Th 9:30-10:45) Okay, now this is the real killer on my schedule. I am not a science person at all. I needed two Natural Science courses, and this is the first. For someone with little to no interest in science, an all-lecture intro-astronomy course for 75 minutes first thing in the morning is...well, deadly. Fortunately, as far as science goes, astronomy is more interesting than some. So far I have been able to stay awake, barely.
World Literary Masterpieces (MWF 1:25-2:15) Now into the part of my schedule I enjoy, my English classes. So far in this course we've read Graffigny's Letters to a Peruvian Woman, Balzac, Pushkin, Gogol and Lu Hsun. While these have not been some of my favorite literary works of my lit-studying career, the discussions have been very interesting.
Literature of the Americas (Tu-Th 2:00-3:15) This course kind of works in the opposite way. I have really enjoyed what I've read in this class (Octavia Butler's Kindred, Maryse Condé's I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, and Rosario Ferré's The Youngest Doll), but the discussion is not quite as stimulating.
I hope you all heed my advice and take care of your schedules as early as possible. If you can't, I hope you are as lucky as I have been. Until next time...
Another problem about choosing UM as late in the process as I did is that it makes registering for classes significantly more of a chore than it should be. You see, most UM students, or at least seemingly everyone other than myself, has a schedule by the time they get here. OK, that's not true, I think I met five other transfers who didn't. Still, it's uncommon. The problem here is that the majority of classes were already full when I registered. Hence the title of this post. When you're not left with a whole lot of options, you can't really be choosy about your schedule. You have to take what you can get, when you can get it. I was, however, actually quite fortunate in getting a pretty decent schedule. I really had two goals in finding classes. First, having been out of school for a year and a half, I did not want to load myself down with many difficult classes. Second, having spent the beginning of my college career at a school with no core curriculum, I wanted to fulfill as many gen-ed requirements as possible. I think I accomplished both things surprisingly well. So, for a quick overview of my schedule:
Theater 101 (MWF 9:05-9:55)--This is kind of a general history of theater type course. I'll admit, having a lecture course at 9:05 in the morning can be difficult. Thus far I haven't fallen asleep in class, but I wouldn't count it out for the rest of the semester. Fortunately, the topic is pretty interesting.
Intro to Religion (MWF 11:15-12:05)--Once again, kind of a general overview of religious studies. This is an interesting course as four different professors teach different portions of the semester. So far the lectures have been very interesting. I have my fingers crossed for the rest of the semester.
Intro to Astronomy(Tu-Th 9:30-10:45) Okay, now this is the real killer on my schedule. I am not a science person at all. I needed two Natural Science courses, and this is the first. For someone with little to no interest in science, an all-lecture intro-astronomy course for 75 minutes first thing in the morning is...well, deadly. Fortunately, as far as science goes, astronomy is more interesting than some. So far I have been able to stay awake, barely.
World Literary Masterpieces (MWF 1:25-2:15) Now into the part of my schedule I enjoy, my English classes. So far in this course we've read Graffigny's Letters to a Peruvian Woman, Balzac, Pushkin, Gogol and Lu Hsun. While these have not been some of my favorite literary works of my lit-studying career, the discussions have been very interesting.
Literature of the Americas (Tu-Th 2:00-3:15) This course kind of works in the opposite way. I have really enjoyed what I've read in this class (Octavia Butler's Kindred, Maryse Condé's I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, and Rosario Ferré's The Youngest Doll), but the discussion is not quite as stimulating.
I hope you all heed my advice and take care of your schedules as early as possible. If you can't, I hope you are as lucky as I have been. Until next time...
Friday, September 21, 2007
How I Almost Lost My Mind (Or How I Got Here Part 2)
Do you want to hear a great way to drive yourself over the deep end? Do you want to be completely stressed and freaked out by the college experience long before your first test or even your first class? Do you want to go a good week without getting more than four hours of sleep? Well, then I have got the best advice you could possibly ask for.
Welcome back, welcome back. I promised at the end of my last post that I would finish the story of the odyssey that culminated in my winding up at UM, and every now and then I like to keep my word. I learned one very important thing this past August. If you want to experience all of the fun I described in that first paragraph and more, choose a college a week before orientation starts. Try it, it's fun. It'll drive your parents crazy, surprise the hell out of everyone around you and make your life intolerably difficult for a week or so.
OK, so if you haven't detected the sarcasm thus far, let me spell it out for you. Whatever you do, even if you take no other advice from this blog whatsoever, remember this. Please, make your college decision long ahead of time. Believe me, it's in your best interest. Whether or not you know this yet, there are a LOT of things that need to be done before you move to Miami or wherever else you choose, and a week really isn't enough time to do them all.
As I detailed in post numero uno, I pretty much put everything in my college application process off until the very last minute. So, in the end, I made my decision to come to UM on August 9th. Transfer orientation started on August 17th. Now, you might think, eight days is all sorts of time. OK, well factor in a day before orientation (at least) to set up your living space. That leaves seven days. Now, just for the sake of argument, we'll use my case and add two days to drive to Miami. That leaves five days. Now, two of those days are Saturday and Sunday, and it's virtually impossible to do anything involving business on those two days. So let's just say we'll spend those two days packing. That leaves three days to find somewhere to live, get your car serviced (we wouldn't want to have it break down on the way, would we?), get your medical forms signed by your doctor, and...well I really don't remember what else; I've tried to block those days out. Just take my word for it. It's not...enough...time. Well, obviously, I'm here, so it's enough time. But it's not enough time to get things done, sleep, and keep your sanity. Oh, and did I mention that August 9th is my birthday? What a fun way to spend a birthday.
Alright. Deep breath. Let's assume that, as I did, you survived this ordeal and made it down here to Coral Gables. Wow, thank God that's over. Now we can relax, right? Of course not! There's more stuff to do once you get here than there was before you left. Odds are your apartment's unfurnished. If you drove a Volvo sedan to college, as I did, that means you have to buy all of the furniture here. And put it together. If you've never had the opportunity to put together cheaply made Target furniture for a day or two, you haven't lived. Nothing's cut right, holes don't line up, parts are missing, and the instructions are printed so poorly that you can't read them. And, of course, you're going on very little sleep, which always makes these types of things easier. Grocery trips, other shopping trips, unpacking, and whatever else you think needs to be done before school starts will, I repeat, will take at least twice as long as you expect. Once again, give yourself more time than you think you need. If you take this advice, you'll thank me for it later.
But overall, don't worry too much. I've painted a pretty grim picture here, I'll admit, but even if you fall into the worst-case-scenario here and end up with as little time as I had, you still have a chance of survival. I mean, I got through it. My apartment is pretty decently set up, my mother and I didn't have any significant fights while she was here, and I didn't develop crippling alcoholism in the process. I already had that. You know, runs in the family, what can I do? And the best part about it is that after all of this trouble, school seems easy by comparison. I have to two English papers due on the same Monday? Well, I'd take four on the same day before I relived that week in August.
Brevity, once again, is not my strength. I'm afraid this is going to be a pattern. I'll sign off for now. I'm going to see Eastern Promises tonight, and that should be fun. If it's anywhere near as good as A History of Violence it's a definite must-see. I'll let ya'll know when I write next week. Peace.
Welcome back, welcome back. I promised at the end of my last post that I would finish the story of the odyssey that culminated in my winding up at UM, and every now and then I like to keep my word. I learned one very important thing this past August. If you want to experience all of the fun I described in that first paragraph and more, choose a college a week before orientation starts. Try it, it's fun. It'll drive your parents crazy, surprise the hell out of everyone around you and make your life intolerably difficult for a week or so.
OK, so if you haven't detected the sarcasm thus far, let me spell it out for you. Whatever you do, even if you take no other advice from this blog whatsoever, remember this. Please, make your college decision long ahead of time. Believe me, it's in your best interest. Whether or not you know this yet, there are a LOT of things that need to be done before you move to Miami or wherever else you choose, and a week really isn't enough time to do them all.
As I detailed in post numero uno, I pretty much put everything in my college application process off until the very last minute. So, in the end, I made my decision to come to UM on August 9th. Transfer orientation started on August 17th. Now, you might think, eight days is all sorts of time. OK, well factor in a day before orientation (at least) to set up your living space. That leaves seven days. Now, just for the sake of argument, we'll use my case and add two days to drive to Miami. That leaves five days. Now, two of those days are Saturday and Sunday, and it's virtually impossible to do anything involving business on those two days. So let's just say we'll spend those two days packing. That leaves three days to find somewhere to live, get your car serviced (we wouldn't want to have it break down on the way, would we?), get your medical forms signed by your doctor, and...well I really don't remember what else; I've tried to block those days out. Just take my word for it. It's not...enough...time. Well, obviously, I'm here, so it's enough time. But it's not enough time to get things done, sleep, and keep your sanity. Oh, and did I mention that August 9th is my birthday? What a fun way to spend a birthday.
Alright. Deep breath. Let's assume that, as I did, you survived this ordeal and made it down here to Coral Gables. Wow, thank God that's over. Now we can relax, right? Of course not! There's more stuff to do once you get here than there was before you left. Odds are your apartment's unfurnished. If you drove a Volvo sedan to college, as I did, that means you have to buy all of the furniture here. And put it together. If you've never had the opportunity to put together cheaply made Target furniture for a day or two, you haven't lived. Nothing's cut right, holes don't line up, parts are missing, and the instructions are printed so poorly that you can't read them. And, of course, you're going on very little sleep, which always makes these types of things easier. Grocery trips, other shopping trips, unpacking, and whatever else you think needs to be done before school starts will, I repeat, will take at least twice as long as you expect. Once again, give yourself more time than you think you need. If you take this advice, you'll thank me for it later.
But overall, don't worry too much. I've painted a pretty grim picture here, I'll admit, but even if you fall into the worst-case-scenario here and end up with as little time as I had, you still have a chance of survival. I mean, I got through it. My apartment is pretty decently set up, my mother and I didn't have any significant fights while she was here, and I didn't develop crippling alcoholism in the process. I already had that. You know, runs in the family, what can I do? And the best part about it is that after all of this trouble, school seems easy by comparison. I have to two English papers due on the same Monday? Well, I'd take four on the same day before I relived that week in August.
Brevity, once again, is not my strength. I'm afraid this is going to be a pattern. I'll sign off for now. I'm going to see Eastern Promises tonight, and that should be fun. If it's anywhere near as good as A History of Violence it's a definite must-see. I'll let ya'll know when I write next week. Peace.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
How I Got Here
Welcome, all, to the first installment of my blog. This is my first ever blog, so please bear with me. Seeing as the subject of this blog is my experience as a transfer student at UM, I thought I ought to start by giving you some idea of how I got here. So, yes, this is the dreaded "life story" post. I'll try not to make it too long or boring.
Well, actually, I don't think it's all that necessary to tell you my whole life story. I think I'll start with the beginning of my college career. That's more the beginning of life events relevant to the topic at hand. I graduated from a high school in Nashville (my hometown) called University School of Nashville in the spring of 2004. It is really impossible to overestimate just how excited I was about going to college. I had lived in Nashville for my entire life up to that point, and I was chomping at the bit to get far, far away. That fall I had applied early decision and been accepted to a small liberal arts school in Middletown, CT called Wesleyan University (no religious affiliation, contrary to the name). Wesleyan had been far and away my first choice, and when I was accepted I was ecstatic. It's funny how life goes; had I gone on to apply regular decision that year, UM was going to be one of my safety schools.
Suffice it to say, my time at Wesleyan was a disaster. I really don't want to get into it too specifically, but I had some "serious personal issues" that led to my not achieving the level of success I expected of myself. After three semesters, in December of 2005, I moved back home to Nashville. I made the key mistake of allowing my parents to convince me to enroll part-time at Vanderbilt. None of my problems had been remedied, and I had no more success than I did at Wesleyan. I dropped out after half a semester. What followed was about eighteen months of full-time work. The kind of work available to a college dropout, of course, is not exactly inspiring. I worked as a barrista at an independent coffee shop for a few months. I liked that alright until I was promoted to assistant manager. I was stressed out all the time and still not making any money. So I left and took a higher-paying, much-lower-stress job temping in the mailroom of a financial company. I was there for almost a year.
Those of you falling asleep, wake up; I'm just getting to the part that may actually interest most of you. In May of this year, something snapped. I was like Peter Finch in Network. I ran to the window and screamed that I was not going to take it anymore. Figuratively, of course. No more full-time menial jobs. I was going back to college.
Like I said before, life is really funny sometimes. In the intervening three years, Miami's profile improved quite a bit, and obviously after my time at Wesleyan my credentials had taken a hit. My old safety school became easily the top school to which I applied. I got into Miami, as well as a few other schools. To be honest with you, at first I put Miami at the bottom of the pile, thinking there was no way I could afford it. Then, one day in July, I received the analysis of my transfer credits. One of the beautiful things about the U is that it accepts a lot more AP credits than a lot of schools. I quickly went from being halfway through my sophomore year to having less than two years worth of hours left to complete. All of a sudden, Miami was affordable.
I must say, from the moment I started to consider UM, the people in admissions were about as helpful as humanly possible. Believe me, no one's threatening me with a pink slip as I type this. I visited in August and absolutely fell in love with the school. After spending a year and a half in Connecticut, the weather alone was enough to sell me, but that wasn't all. The emphasis on diversity, the amazing opportunities in terms of visiting speakers and internships, and the quality of the classes all dazzled me. What finally sold me and made my decision was the excitement surrounding this campus. Visiting Miami was visiting a college on the rise, a college that had made a commitment to improving itself in every possible way. I wanted to be a part of that. The day I got back to Nashville I made my decision.
Hopefully my future posts won't be as massive as this one. However, I am an English major, and brevity is not exactly my strong suit. My next post will detail the difficulty (semi-impossibility?) of making the necessary arrangements when you make a decision less than a week before the school's start date. Adios.
Well, actually, I don't think it's all that necessary to tell you my whole life story. I think I'll start with the beginning of my college career. That's more the beginning of life events relevant to the topic at hand. I graduated from a high school in Nashville (my hometown) called University School of Nashville in the spring of 2004. It is really impossible to overestimate just how excited I was about going to college. I had lived in Nashville for my entire life up to that point, and I was chomping at the bit to get far, far away. That fall I had applied early decision and been accepted to a small liberal arts school in Middletown, CT called Wesleyan University (no religious affiliation, contrary to the name). Wesleyan had been far and away my first choice, and when I was accepted I was ecstatic. It's funny how life goes; had I gone on to apply regular decision that year, UM was going to be one of my safety schools.
Suffice it to say, my time at Wesleyan was a disaster. I really don't want to get into it too specifically, but I had some "serious personal issues" that led to my not achieving the level of success I expected of myself. After three semesters, in December of 2005, I moved back home to Nashville. I made the key mistake of allowing my parents to convince me to enroll part-time at Vanderbilt. None of my problems had been remedied, and I had no more success than I did at Wesleyan. I dropped out after half a semester. What followed was about eighteen months of full-time work. The kind of work available to a college dropout, of course, is not exactly inspiring. I worked as a barrista at an independent coffee shop for a few months. I liked that alright until I was promoted to assistant manager. I was stressed out all the time and still not making any money. So I left and took a higher-paying, much-lower-stress job temping in the mailroom of a financial company. I was there for almost a year.
Those of you falling asleep, wake up; I'm just getting to the part that may actually interest most of you. In May of this year, something snapped. I was like Peter Finch in Network. I ran to the window and screamed that I was not going to take it anymore. Figuratively, of course. No more full-time menial jobs. I was going back to college.
Like I said before, life is really funny sometimes. In the intervening three years, Miami's profile improved quite a bit, and obviously after my time at Wesleyan my credentials had taken a hit. My old safety school became easily the top school to which I applied. I got into Miami, as well as a few other schools. To be honest with you, at first I put Miami at the bottom of the pile, thinking there was no way I could afford it. Then, one day in July, I received the analysis of my transfer credits. One of the beautiful things about the U is that it accepts a lot more AP credits than a lot of schools. I quickly went from being halfway through my sophomore year to having less than two years worth of hours left to complete. All of a sudden, Miami was affordable.
I must say, from the moment I started to consider UM, the people in admissions were about as helpful as humanly possible. Believe me, no one's threatening me with a pink slip as I type this. I visited in August and absolutely fell in love with the school. After spending a year and a half in Connecticut, the weather alone was enough to sell me, but that wasn't all. The emphasis on diversity, the amazing opportunities in terms of visiting speakers and internships, and the quality of the classes all dazzled me. What finally sold me and made my decision was the excitement surrounding this campus. Visiting Miami was visiting a college on the rise, a college that had made a commitment to improving itself in every possible way. I wanted to be a part of that. The day I got back to Nashville I made my decision.
Hopefully my future posts won't be as massive as this one. However, I am an English major, and brevity is not exactly my strong suit. My next post will detail the difficulty (semi-impossibility?) of making the necessary arrangements when you make a decision less than a week before the school's start date. Adios.
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