I have just returned from Pittsburgh where I spent the weekend with Gen and her family. It was a pretty good time; much food was eaten, many shuttlecocks were lost in a tree, political talk was avoided, and the passive voice was generally over-used. It really was kind of scary whenever anyone started saying anything remotely political, though, because Gen's entire family, and everyone attached enough to it to be invited to this cook-out that happened, is incredibly right-wing. I don't really know enough about anything to really defend anything, so I just kind of sat silently while my left-friends were shamelessly bashed about. It wasn't even usually some sort of issue being tossed around, just a lot of insulting things flung to the left. Meh. I guess Gen probably feels the same way here a lot of the time. Still, I had a lot of fun throwing darts, losing at pool, entertaining small children, and playing with Gen's father's guitars. I also took home a lot of cookies of assorted type and flavor.
I have been cast in a show, the auditions for which both Nathan and Jonah chickened out. I have a tiny role, "Concierge" and male understudy. The second part worries me some what, since there are nine male roles, and this may mean I need to learn all of them in case any one male drops out or gets sick, or possibly gets hit by a meteor. I'm not terribly worried, since I generally know the entire show halfway through rehearsals no matter what I'm doing for it, but it will be nice to know exactly what "male understudy" entails when I get to the read-through tonight. For all I know, there could be a special performance in which I do all the male parts by myself while the female understudy plays all the female parts with me, which could be kind of fun, but I'd like to be ready for it all the same.
I feel as though there could be something else for me to share, but I can't think of what it could be. It's entirely possible that it's D&D related, but most of you only kind of care about that, so I'll let it pass.
All's well that ends well, unless you ask my door, I suppose.
29 August 2008
In which Jane Eyre is interpreted wrong
I had some class schedule issues. Classes were rescheduled, waitlisted, shuffled around and now I have way more syllabi than I need. But the final result is that "Contemporary Dance History" has been replaced with "The Bronte Sisters".
So I've been reading Jane Eyre. And I came across some amusing images. Basically, what it comes down to is that 1. its really funny to take language that is clearly meant in a figurative sense and instead take it literally and 2. sometimes the meaning of a word changes over time and hilarity ensues as a result. Example of the first:
"During the intervening period I had no time to nurse chimeras; and I believe I was as active and gay as anybody—Adèle excepted. "
For some reason I had this immediate image of Jane actually nursing a chimera - that is to say, tending to a three headed mythological creature. And that's not the most disturbing meaning of the word nursing I could have chosen...
Example of the second: "I regarded her, of course, with special interest. First, I wished to see whether her appearance accorded with Mrs. Fairfax’s description; secondly, whether it at all resembled the fancy miniature I had painted of her; and thirdly—it will out!— whether it were such as I should fancy likely to suit Mr. Rochester’s taste."
Now I know want "painting a miniature" means in nineteenth century terms, but my mind instantly jumped to D & D Miniatures - Jane sitting at her hobby table, painting a little hard plastic Blanche Ingram on a little round base. Maybe setting it up next to her Space Marines.
That silliness aside, I'm really enjoying Jane Eyre, even if songs from the Musical keep popping into my head every chapter. I do wish I had a little more time to read it, though. Chunks of reading this large makes what might be an enjoyable experience into a chore.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
So I've been reading Jane Eyre. And I came across some amusing images. Basically, what it comes down to is that 1. its really funny to take language that is clearly meant in a figurative sense and instead take it literally and 2. sometimes the meaning of a word changes over time and hilarity ensues as a result. Example of the first:
"During the intervening period I had no time to nurse chimeras; and I believe I was as active and gay as anybody—Adèle excepted. "
For some reason I had this immediate image of Jane actually nursing a chimera - that is to say, tending to a three headed mythological creature. And that's not the most disturbing meaning of the word nursing I could have chosen...
Example of the second: "I regarded her, of course, with special interest. First, I wished to see whether her appearance accorded with Mrs. Fairfax’s description; secondly, whether it at all resembled the fancy miniature I had painted of her; and thirdly—it will out!— whether it were such as I should fancy likely to suit Mr. Rochester’s taste."
Now I know want "painting a miniature" means in nineteenth century terms, but my mind instantly jumped to D & D Miniatures - Jane sitting at her hobby table, painting a little hard plastic Blanche Ingram on a little round base. Maybe setting it up next to her Space Marines.
That silliness aside, I'm really enjoying Jane Eyre, even if songs from the Musical keep popping into my head every chapter. I do wish I had a little more time to read it, though. Chunks of reading this large makes what might be an enjoyable experience into a chore.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
In which Jonah uses poetry to avoid work
At The College of Wooster, all English Majors are automatically part of an English Majors' club called the Avant Gardeners. (get it? I love puns). I was picked randomly as Avant Gardener of the week, and I wanted to share with all of you my bio, which is rather silly.
So in lieu of a second legitimate post for the month of August, presenting my bio for Avant Gardener of the week (you might want to skim this first):
Jonah Comstock is a pretty cool guy,
Double majoring in English and Philosophy.
He has some insane ideas
of becoming a journalist.
Double majoring in English and Philosophy?
That’s probably not the best way
of becoming a journalist.
But it seemed more fun than a state school.
That’s probably not the best way
to introduce Jonah Comstock,
but it seemed more fun than a state school
on a Friday night!
To introduce Jonah Comstock,
A pantoum seems more appropriate.
On a Friday night,
Jonah can often be found at Common Grounds.
A pantoum seems more appropriate
because Jonah is a fairly silly person.
Jonah can often be found at Common Grounds
which, by the way, is awesome.
Because Jonah is a fairly silly person,
Jonah Comstock is a pretty cool guy,
which, by the way, is awesome.
He has some insane ideas.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
So in lieu of a second legitimate post for the month of August, presenting my bio for Avant Gardener of the week (you might want to skim this first):
Jonah Comstock is a pretty cool guy,
Double majoring in English and Philosophy.
He has some insane ideas
of becoming a journalist.
Double majoring in English and Philosophy?
That’s probably not the best way
of becoming a journalist.
But it seemed more fun than a state school.
That’s probably not the best way
to introduce Jonah Comstock,
but it seemed more fun than a state school
on a Friday night!
To introduce Jonah Comstock,
A pantoum seems more appropriate.
On a Friday night,
Jonah can often be found at Common Grounds.
A pantoum seems more appropriate
because Jonah is a fairly silly person.
Jonah can often be found at Common Grounds
which, by the way, is awesome.
Because Jonah is a fairly silly person,
Jonah Comstock is a pretty cool guy,
which, by the way, is awesome.
He has some insane ideas.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
It's not enough to bash in heads; you've got to bash in minds.
"Dr. Horrible" counts as a movie, right?
Well, both of my computers have been more or less broken for the past week. My laptop being the "more broken," as it turns out it needs a new hard drive. My desktop just needed a new wireless adaptor. Which I got last night just as Best Buy was closing. And lo, internet returned, and instant messaging was plentiful, and emails were answered in a timely manner, and there was much rejoicing throughout the land, amen.
It's really surprising how simply being without the internet can make you feel so much more cut off from everything in a new place than you would otherwise feel. I missed everybody so much.
Had I not been without internet at home, these are some of the blog entries you might have seen:
"Well, I suck considerably more than everyone else in my orientation, but my ethics assignment kicks ass and now everybody wants to use it. So, yay!"
"I RODE THE BUS I AM AWESOME!" (I really wanted to do an entry that said just that.)
"I really, really don't think I can teach. And I have been sucked into a marathon of 'Murder, She Wrote.' Jessica Fletcher is having trouble teaching, too. Primarily because she's also having to solve a murder, though. I don't think I'll have to solve a murder."
But I'm sure what you all really want to know about is my first day of teaching. Well. Have I got a story for you!
So, I noticed the day before I was supposed to teach for the first time that both of my classrooms weren't listed online. You see, I'm supposed to teach in a computer classroom in the English Building on Mondays and in a traditional classroom (well, except that it has no clock and a skeleton in the corner, whom I have mentally named Chuck) in the Speech and Hearing Sciences Building (or Secret Hall Somewhere, as I called it before anyone could figure out what SHS stood for). But my computer classroom wasn't online. So, even though I didn't have anything until 1:00 that day, I got to campus at about 10 to try to get this sorted out. The woman in charge of such things told me she would fix it and that I should just go to the SHS classroom for that day. Fortunately, I had backup computer-free plans for class. I spend the rest of the day hanging around, making copies, going to my Old French class (which was great, although I now understand the anger my Old English class felt toward me for already knowing German), going to lunch with the medievalists.
3:30 rolls around and I've suited up, I'm wearing my big-girl shoes, I'm ready to walk in to my class right on time. Only when I do, there's nobody in there but two old ladies and a note on the board saying that my class has been moved to the room it was originally supposed to be in. So I run (in heels) down the block to the English building, to the computer room. But there's nobody in there, either, except some confused professor who thought he was supposed to have class there also. I then run to the office of the Woman in Charge of Such Things, gasping, "I don't know where my class is! I don't know where to go!" She told me to go back to the SHS room, wait about fifteen minutes, and if nobody showed up, to just go home. I ran back down the block again. These were seven of the most stressful minutes of my life. I kept thinking, "SERIOUSLY? IS THIS SERIOUSLY HAPPENING ON MY FIRST DAY OF TEACHING EVER?"
I got back to the SHS room, and there were people in it. I burst in the room: "Is this [my class name]? Section [my section number]?" They nod. "YES. Okay. I was going to wear the jacket and look all professional for you guys, but I've just run between two buildings twice. Welcome to [my class]." It was... quite an entrance. And the rest of the time I was all sweaty and gross. But... nothing terrible happened. Whatever catastrophe I was trying to mentally prepare myself for all week never came. It was not great, but okay. I ended up taking the class on a field trip down the block to my office at the end of class to show them where it is. For the first day of school, they were all right, even though I was all frazzled and didn't really know what to "teach" them since it was the intro day. I was all torn between being too informal and treating them like they were stupid. But I made it through.
I have determined that my relationship with my students is not going to be a symbiotic one. It is going to be an epic struggle. And I want to WIN. I by God want to make the little bastards learn something. I've taken to calling them The Little Buggers or The Little Bastards in my head, even though this is totally unmerited as many of them are bigger than I am, and the majority are probably of legitimate birth. And, you know, they're not a bad class. They participate. There's a slight problem in that they're all business-major kids, and a lot of them are frat boys and such-- the kind of people I really couldn't stand in undergrad, and it's hard to shake the feeling that they're all secretly laughing at me behind my back because of this. But I definitely have one thing up on them: I possess the grade book.
But Wednesday's class went much better. Despite the face that I almost missed it AGAIN, though not by such a narrow margin, because I'd taken my laptop to the repair place and the website LIED about the bus schedule. But I made it back with about a half hour of leeway. I made sure that I had time-consuming activities, including one that involved writing, and I had a long lecture, and I was super-organized. So, it worked. I felt really good about Wednesday's class. And that night I got the internet back.
It was a good day.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
Well, both of my computers have been more or less broken for the past week. My laptop being the "more broken," as it turns out it needs a new hard drive. My desktop just needed a new wireless adaptor. Which I got last night just as Best Buy was closing. And lo, internet returned, and instant messaging was plentiful, and emails were answered in a timely manner, and there was much rejoicing throughout the land, amen.
It's really surprising how simply being without the internet can make you feel so much more cut off from everything in a new place than you would otherwise feel. I missed everybody so much.
Had I not been without internet at home, these are some of the blog entries you might have seen:
"Well, I suck considerably more than everyone else in my orientation, but my ethics assignment kicks ass and now everybody wants to use it. So, yay!"
"I RODE THE BUS I AM AWESOME!" (I really wanted to do an entry that said just that.)
"I really, really don't think I can teach. And I have been sucked into a marathon of 'Murder, She Wrote.' Jessica Fletcher is having trouble teaching, too. Primarily because she's also having to solve a murder, though. I don't think I'll have to solve a murder."
But I'm sure what you all really want to know about is my first day of teaching. Well. Have I got a story for you!
So, I noticed the day before I was supposed to teach for the first time that both of my classrooms weren't listed online. You see, I'm supposed to teach in a computer classroom in the English Building on Mondays and in a traditional classroom (well, except that it has no clock and a skeleton in the corner, whom I have mentally named Chuck) in the Speech and Hearing Sciences Building (or Secret Hall Somewhere, as I called it before anyone could figure out what SHS stood for). But my computer classroom wasn't online. So, even though I didn't have anything until 1:00 that day, I got to campus at about 10 to try to get this sorted out. The woman in charge of such things told me she would fix it and that I should just go to the SHS classroom for that day. Fortunately, I had backup computer-free plans for class. I spend the rest of the day hanging around, making copies, going to my Old French class (which was great, although I now understand the anger my Old English class felt toward me for already knowing German), going to lunch with the medievalists.
3:30 rolls around and I've suited up, I'm wearing my big-girl shoes, I'm ready to walk in to my class right on time. Only when I do, there's nobody in there but two old ladies and a note on the board saying that my class has been moved to the room it was originally supposed to be in. So I run (in heels) down the block to the English building, to the computer room. But there's nobody in there, either, except some confused professor who thought he was supposed to have class there also. I then run to the office of the Woman in Charge of Such Things, gasping, "I don't know where my class is! I don't know where to go!" She told me to go back to the SHS room, wait about fifteen minutes, and if nobody showed up, to just go home. I ran back down the block again. These were seven of the most stressful minutes of my life. I kept thinking, "SERIOUSLY? IS THIS SERIOUSLY HAPPENING ON MY FIRST DAY OF TEACHING EVER?"
I got back to the SHS room, and there were people in it. I burst in the room: "Is this [my class name]? Section [my section number]?" They nod. "YES. Okay. I was going to wear the jacket and look all professional for you guys, but I've just run between two buildings twice. Welcome to [my class]." It was... quite an entrance. And the rest of the time I was all sweaty and gross. But... nothing terrible happened. Whatever catastrophe I was trying to mentally prepare myself for all week never came. It was not great, but okay. I ended up taking the class on a field trip down the block to my office at the end of class to show them where it is. For the first day of school, they were all right, even though I was all frazzled and didn't really know what to "teach" them since it was the intro day. I was all torn between being too informal and treating them like they were stupid. But I made it through.
I have determined that my relationship with my students is not going to be a symbiotic one. It is going to be an epic struggle. And I want to WIN. I by God want to make the little bastards learn something. I've taken to calling them The Little Buggers or The Little Bastards in my head, even though this is totally unmerited as many of them are bigger than I am, and the majority are probably of legitimate birth. And, you know, they're not a bad class. They participate. There's a slight problem in that they're all business-major kids, and a lot of them are frat boys and such-- the kind of people I really couldn't stand in undergrad, and it's hard to shake the feeling that they're all secretly laughing at me behind my back because of this. But I definitely have one thing up on them: I possess the grade book.
But Wednesday's class went much better. Despite the face that I almost missed it AGAIN, though not by such a narrow margin, because I'd taken my laptop to the repair place and the website LIED about the bus schedule. But I made it back with about a half hour of leeway. I made sure that I had time-consuming activities, including one that involved writing, and I had a long lecture, and I was super-organized. So, it worked. I felt really good about Wednesday's class. And that night I got the internet back.
It was a good day.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
27 August 2008
The title creature in "A One-Eyed, One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater" is...
A one-eyed, one-horned purple creature that flies and eats people | 1 (11%) |
An otherwise undescribed creature that eats one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people | 1 (11%) |
A one-eyed, one-horned creature that eats flying purple people | 2 (22%) |
Marten | 5 (55%) |
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
25 August 2008
In which Nathan hopes it will all work out.
This month went by really fast. If I's realized it was so late, I probably would have posted earlier. A lot has happened, though. Some of it interesting, most of it not so much.
I'm working on this whole KCACTF design competition thing still. Until this morning I was going to do an environmentalist Dr. Faustus, but now it looks like I might do Faustus with robots instead. Unless my professors are all "robots? really?" in which case I might go back, or try and mix the two. But I think I like the robot idea a lot. It's a much better metaphor for Faustus's bargain and the loss of his soul, though I'm not sure I like the moral as much. I'm kind of pro-computers, and I'm afraid this will come off as "COMPUTERS ARE EVIL". We'll have to see.
Tomorrow is my first official day as a Teaching Apprentice. I've already met my students though, and they seem like a pretty cool bunch. Except one who's a lunatic. I'm a little worried about her. She's trying to double major in Archeology and Neuroscience. And she can talk continuously for an entire twenty minute advising session, thereby preventing the person who was supposed to be advising from getting a word in edgewise. We're gonna have to work on that in class discussions. Fortunately I don't have to lead a discussion for a few weeks. I'm really concerned about the concept of me as a teacher. I'm not responsible or organized enough. Hopefully it'll work out.
I think that's my mantra for pretty much this entire year. Hopefully it'll work out. Every new responsibility I've taken on that I'm afraid of screwing up, every shifting social situation, every change in my relationship to the world, I can just add that phrase on to the end and it sums up my feelings on the matter. Either I'll come out of this year a much better prepared and well-rounded person, or I'll burn out, drop out of school, and become a homeless drug addict.
Speaking of drug addicts, I'm very excited about living in the chem free program. The first few days of living here have been really nice, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all these really cool people even better. I feel like the whole house thing is part of the college experience I've been missing out on living in dorms all the time. Though I'm sure I'll miss the social scene of the dorms a little. It'll work out though. Otherwise, there's always drugs.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
I'm working on this whole KCACTF design competition thing still. Until this morning I was going to do an environmentalist Dr. Faustus, but now it looks like I might do Faustus with robots instead. Unless my professors are all "robots? really?" in which case I might go back, or try and mix the two. But I think I like the robot idea a lot. It's a much better metaphor for Faustus's bargain and the loss of his soul, though I'm not sure I like the moral as much. I'm kind of pro-computers, and I'm afraid this will come off as "COMPUTERS ARE EVIL". We'll have to see.
Tomorrow is my first official day as a Teaching Apprentice. I've already met my students though, and they seem like a pretty cool bunch. Except one who's a lunatic. I'm a little worried about her. She's trying to double major in Archeology and Neuroscience. And she can talk continuously for an entire twenty minute advising session, thereby preventing the person who was supposed to be advising from getting a word in edgewise. We're gonna have to work on that in class discussions. Fortunately I don't have to lead a discussion for a few weeks. I'm really concerned about the concept of me as a teacher. I'm not responsible or organized enough. Hopefully it'll work out.
I think that's my mantra for pretty much this entire year. Hopefully it'll work out. Every new responsibility I've taken on that I'm afraid of screwing up, every shifting social situation, every change in my relationship to the world, I can just add that phrase on to the end and it sums up my feelings on the matter. Either I'll come out of this year a much better prepared and well-rounded person, or I'll burn out, drop out of school, and become a homeless drug addict.
Speaking of drug addicts, I'm very excited about living in the chem free program. The first few days of living here have been really nice, and I'm looking forward to getting to know all these really cool people even better. I feel like the whole house thing is part of the college experience I've been missing out on living in dorms all the time. Though I'm sure I'll miss the social scene of the dorms a little. It'll work out though. Otherwise, there's always drugs.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
21 August 2008
"Well, I fear things I don't understand." "What? Why?" "I Don't KNOW!"
So I went home then came back home again, and I suppose I should tell you about the intervening events. Time spent in Indy had variable productivity. I basically started lazily moving things out of my room, throwing lots of old stuff away, packing other things into boxes, and generally getting ready for the point in the coming years at which I will no longer be coming back there to live. There was a garage sale involved wherein I made a small bit of cash and accidentally sold a bunch of books which may or may not be worth hundreds of dollars for $15. My justification: the guy was really annoying and that's the price of making it someone else's problem. I decided that making it someone else's problem was the purpose of having a garage sale anyway. Any money made is merely a bonus on top of whatever space you cleared out and however many things about which you need no longer worry, and spending it on explosives to use on whatever you didn't sell would be completely justified.
Another thing I did with my time is a handful of D&D. GenCon was fairly successful for me, I managed to sell my magic and pokemon cards and the remainder of my warhammer models. Thank you, Nathan, for your assistance in these transactions. I also ran an adventure with a bunch of people completely new to D&D, and they all seemed to enjoy it, so I'm rather proud of my ability to assemble an adventure. Jonah and I just purchased a bunch of miniatures this morning to add to the mini's we had Nate get for us at GenCon. Just a moment ago I was pondering about why the warforged(who bears an uncanny resemblance to Dr. Doom) is wearing pants. He's basically a robot, why does he wear pants? I guess it's kind of like the Discworld golem Gladys wearing a dress, despite not technically even having a gender.
So I'm back at school. The room isn't a total disaster, but it could certainly use work when I feel motivated to organize it. I really like the general set-up I worked out for it, but there are alternate versions that we may have to fall back on. We'll have to see how we live. Common Grounds itself needs a lot of work before it can officially open tomorrow night, but it's nothing that can't be done in the time we've got.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
Another thing I did with my time is a handful of D&D. GenCon was fairly successful for me, I managed to sell my magic and pokemon cards and the remainder of my warhammer models. Thank you, Nathan, for your assistance in these transactions. I also ran an adventure with a bunch of people completely new to D&D, and they all seemed to enjoy it, so I'm rather proud of my ability to assemble an adventure. Jonah and I just purchased a bunch of miniatures this morning to add to the mini's we had Nate get for us at GenCon. Just a moment ago I was pondering about why the warforged(who bears an uncanny resemblance to Dr. Doom) is wearing pants. He's basically a robot, why does he wear pants? I guess it's kind of like the Discworld golem Gladys wearing a dress, despite not technically even having a gender.
So I'm back at school. The room isn't a total disaster, but it could certainly use work when I feel motivated to organize it. I really like the general set-up I worked out for it, but there are alternate versions that we may have to fall back on. We'll have to see how we live. Common Grounds itself needs a lot of work before it can officially open tomorrow night, but it's nothing that can't be done in the time we've got.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
The title creature in "A One-Eyed, One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater" is...
A one-eyed, one-horned purple creature that flies and eats people | 1 (11%) |
An otherwise undescribed creature that eats one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people | 1 (11%) |
A one-eyed, one-horned creature that eats flying purple people | 2 (22%) |
Marten | 5 (55%) |
In which our hero makes a concerted effort not to stress out
I think I might be doing too much. I often think that, but then find myself with plenty of time to relax and veg, so then I decide I wasn't really doing too much. But this year, I don't know. I'm already a rank leader in band, managing editor for the Voice, and student coordinator for Common Grounds. In a week I'll be auditioning for "A Flea in Her Ear," (which by the way, I'm finding myself pronouncing "afleenereer" as if it were all one word), and Monday classes start, including Junior I.S. Then there's the a cappella groups. Oh, and work. And I need to learn to drive. And I really shouldn't stop writing. Or arranging.
And what makes this different from previous years is that a lot of these things aren't things I have to be at, like band, they're things I have to be doing and working on all the time - common grounds, Voice, and I.S., especially. And the problem with those commitments that aren't attached to a time frame is that they make you feel like you have no free time - as long as there's anything to do, any time you spend not doing it feels like borrowed time. It's a recipe for stress.
So I'm trying to do an attitude adjustment. I'm going to be very Zen about all this stuff. Instead of "OMG I need to get all this done by tomorrow!" it'll be like, "I'll just do these things until they're done, and if I need a break I'll take one, and if stuff isn't in on time, people will just have to deal." If that doesn't work, I'll develop some kind of harmful addiction instead. Maybe drugs of some kind.
Anyway, so far things have been good. I've been back nearly a week and, while I've had a pretty limited amount of free time, I'm feeling pretty good and I think I pretty well have a handle on things. We'll see how things go from here. If any of you have a harmful addiction you'd like me to bear in mind, I promise I'll consider it.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
And what makes this different from previous years is that a lot of these things aren't things I have to be at, like band, they're things I have to be doing and working on all the time - common grounds, Voice, and I.S., especially. And the problem with those commitments that aren't attached to a time frame is that they make you feel like you have no free time - as long as there's anything to do, any time you spend not doing it feels like borrowed time. It's a recipe for stress.
So I'm trying to do an attitude adjustment. I'm going to be very Zen about all this stuff. Instead of "OMG I need to get all this done by tomorrow!" it'll be like, "I'll just do these things until they're done, and if I need a break I'll take one, and if stuff isn't in on time, people will just have to deal." If that doesn't work, I'll develop some kind of harmful addiction instead. Maybe drugs of some kind.
Anyway, so far things have been good. I've been back nearly a week and, while I've had a pretty limited amount of free time, I'm feeling pretty good and I think I pretty well have a handle on things. We'll see how things go from here. If any of you have a harmful addiction you'd like me to bear in mind, I promise I'll consider it.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
14 August 2008
As a house, Barton Cottage, though small, was comfortable and compact; but as a cottage it was defective...
Well, here I am, all but situated in Illinois. The first day here, Dad, Adam, and Mom helped me unpack, and Mom stayed longer to help clean, because the apartment was dreadfully dirty when we first arrived. It's a little better now, or at least habitable, though it will be quite a while probably before it's really clean. Also, the living room ceiling needs to be repaired. We're supposedly getting internet soon, but for now I'm contenting myself with the local mall, which is about three blocks away and has wireless.
The first couple of days here, my roommate was gone to a wedding, so I was alone with my unpacking. It was really, strangely isolated and lonely, being without internet in a strange new place where I didn't know anybody. I unpacked during those days, mostly. Since then I've been dividing my time between unpacking and organizing and reading up on the class I'm going to teach and how to teach it. I feel a lot better about it now than I did. At least it seems like something I can probably manage now. My first day of orientation is tomorrow. Though I walked to the English building yesterday, it was kind of arduous, so I'm probably going to rely on the bus most of the time in the future. Of course, I'm a little nervous about testing the bus system the first day I have to actually be somewhere. Maybe my roommate will give me a ride.
The day before yesterday I got my keys to the English building and to the floor where my office will be. And I picked a desk. It's sort of like a cubicle. I'm on the same floor as a lot of people I know and like, which makes me pretty happy. Today I set up my school email account.
For most of the day, my roommate tends to be gone on various errands, so I largely have the place to myself. That's pretty nice. Right now I'm listening to songs from "Spring Awakening" in the mall, and since I forgot my headphones, that's probably pretty inappropriate, but I don't care at this point.
Either the day I moved or the day after my granddad fell and broke his hip, so he's been in the hospital having surgeries. I'm worried about him-- he'll be ninety in October-- and it sucks that I can't even visit him right now.
Well, anyway, I hope you guys can come and visit me at some point. Any point, really. In the meantime, enjoy your time with your families and starting school again.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
The first couple of days here, my roommate was gone to a wedding, so I was alone with my unpacking. It was really, strangely isolated and lonely, being without internet in a strange new place where I didn't know anybody. I unpacked during those days, mostly. Since then I've been dividing my time between unpacking and organizing and reading up on the class I'm going to teach and how to teach it. I feel a lot better about it now than I did. At least it seems like something I can probably manage now. My first day of orientation is tomorrow. Though I walked to the English building yesterday, it was kind of arduous, so I'm probably going to rely on the bus most of the time in the future. Of course, I'm a little nervous about testing the bus system the first day I have to actually be somewhere. Maybe my roommate will give me a ride.
The day before yesterday I got my keys to the English building and to the floor where my office will be. And I picked a desk. It's sort of like a cubicle. I'm on the same floor as a lot of people I know and like, which makes me pretty happy. Today I set up my school email account.
For most of the day, my roommate tends to be gone on various errands, so I largely have the place to myself. That's pretty nice. Right now I'm listening to songs from "Spring Awakening" in the mall, and since I forgot my headphones, that's probably pretty inappropriate, but I don't care at this point.
Either the day I moved or the day after my granddad fell and broke his hip, so he's been in the hospital having surgeries. I'm worried about him-- he'll be ninety in October-- and it sucks that I can't even visit him right now.
Well, anyway, I hope you guys can come and visit me at some point. Any point, really. In the meantime, enjoy your time with your families and starting school again.
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
03 August 2008
Warning
A Gun will be fired during this peformance 0 (0%)
A Gnu will be fried during this performance 1 (10%)
Gin will be free during this far up romance 8 (80%)
U ring this guano, prince Fred will be framed 1 (10%)
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
A Gnu will be fried during this performance 1 (10%)
Gin will be free during this far up romance 8 (80%)
U ring this guano, prince Fred will be framed 1 (10%)
Jellybeans are just little nuggets of cynicism.
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