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9 . 2 8 . 9 9 So its been almost a month back in the madtowne, time has been flying by, just like summer did back when I started this little online journal. I'm wondering what the response is out there in cyberspace if there is any? I'd like to hear. I had a wild wild wild weekend..... Badgers played Michigan this past saturday, I didn't get to go because I sold my ticket last minute for $95!!! I didn't have to think about the decision to go for very long.....watch the game? get $95? Michigan? $95? I ended up watching the game at Bob's house with a whole bunch of random people that joined the party from the street. There was a 3 story beer bong, from which sombody's mom (she looked about 60) took a full hit. There were also a ton of michigan fans for us to throw shit at and yell obscenities to. Too bad we still lost. The directed study at the Merit house is going well, I'm getting 1 advanced 699 Soc research credit for the seminar, we've been meeting once a week with Dr. Elder discussing current and social events from a cross-cultural and international perspective. This past session we discussed Gay & Lesbian teenagers that are kicked out of their homes by their parents. These next couple of weeks will be my first test of my 18 credit schedule on my sanity, as I have a shitload of projects and midterms all smashed together. Hopefully I'll be able to get my stats and soc projects out of the way so I can focus on Organic. So far actually I am enjoying the deamon course of the sciences, Its kinda trippy to play with the model set and figure out 'boat' and 'chair' forms of cyclohexane to lookit bond strains and all that crap. I guess I'll be getting either an attitude readjustment, or affirmation pretty soon. Wish me luck.....If I ever make it to San Fran after all this, look me up.....alohas... 9 . 2 1 . 9 9 I'm using up the blank sheets in my planner that I have designated for the month of September since I seem to have misplaced the normal filler set. For this reason I am sort of longing for October, just so I'll have more paper space per day to get organized with. Football this saturday was an eye-opener, simple put, the Badgers lost to just about the worst team in the NCAA Div IA. Talk about your upsets. I almost sold my Michigan ticket for this upcoming aturday, but I had a change of heart and decided to stay a little loyal, and go. Hopefully the bad loss will motivate the team for some Wolverine blood. Plus my buddies from Freshman year are throwing a little pre-game thing, so I should go. I saw that movie "Clay Pigeons" this past weekend with the Nice Girl. Its a pretty twisted movie, I liked it a lot. Its a good rental, I say. I'm surprised it didn't get as much rave reviews when it was in the theaters, in fact I don't even remember it being in the theaters. I'm having a lot of fun cooking, all the interesting dishes my mom used to make all this time are coming back to mind, and I've been doing a little bit of experimenting. Mostly curry, stir fry, garlic soup, Spam musubi, Loco Moco, all that good stuff. Tomarrow the village is having a potluck, if I have the time for it, I'm making chicken adobo. yum yum. Today in class I heard the term of "Linguistic Condom" meaning the (" ") used in literature as a sort of metaphoric sheath used for protection and lubrication of certain words and ideas that carry certain overtones. Prof Layoun never ceases to amaze me with some of these ideas and comments. We're reading a sci-fi book called the "Martian Time-slip" which totally reminds me of that Ray Bradbury book I read back in 8th grade. Tonight I went to a pre-screening of "American Beauty" starring Kevin Spacey, and Annette Bening. It was really twisted and I really liked it. I think this was the national screening debut. There was a lot of deep symbolism and disturbing thoughts contrasted with some beautiful lines and imagery. Theres this one scene with a plastic bag floating in a wind-circle which is pretty trippy, as well as the role of the red rose petals. It brings to mind the thought of routine, everyday life, and the effects of personal worth, outlook, and perception on the quality of our time spent here in the mortal world, and how empty or how full it can be. Its also pretty twisted and funny, did I mention that enough? 9 . 1 5 . 9 9 Went to Chicago this past weekend with Steve and a bunch of friends. 7 to be exact. The ride down was cool, interesting conversation and groovy music. I never realized how many farms and pastures there are between Madison and Miwaukee, let alone between Madison and Chicago. Steve, Seiko, Steph and Chie went to the Alanis/Tori concert, so myself, Serena and Amy hit the town. We went to the Art museum on Michigan Ave (I know, I know, 'which one?') It was the one with all the paintings by famous artists that I won't list since I'm not too keen on the spelling. All I know is that it was the "Fruit Guy" (Cezanne?), the "Haystack Guy" (Monet?), "Dot Guy" (Seurat?), and the "Cut off ear guy" (Van Gogh?). heh. I'm no art major. Frank Loyd Wright had a bunch of things too, in the Architecture dept. We only had a couple of hours, so we didn't get to see the entire place. One of the neat exhibits was the miniature room wing, although I spent most of the time in the 20th century art section. We also got to see Steve's hometowne, which was a nice little area actually. It kind of reminded me of the suburbs in California, and in Washington, which kind of paints the assumption that the suburbs carry some kind of similarity on a national level. We all took a walk to blockbuster, and got a walking tour off the neighborhood, which is still being developed apparently. It was kind of neat to see the glow of the city lights in the distance over the horizon that light up the sky and cast shadows over these huge ass humming power-line thingies. I decided to drop the psych 449 Animal behavior banking on the fact that my Emotions class I took over the summer will fill the same requirement as the Animal. If not, I can always take it later I suppose. Instead I'm taking another Comp Lit class with Professor Layoun, she uses very interesting course material, like in the course I took last fall in Comics, pop culture and History. The class I'm taking this semester is on Science Fiction. Today there is a staged campus walk-out at 12:30 proposed by many of the student organizations in response to the increase in tuition here at UW-Madison (9% instate, 12.6% Out of state). We're all supposed to walk out of class in protest and go to Library mall for speeches and petition signing. Funny me, I don't have a 12:05 today, and I'll probably be down on state buying my comp lit books. I hope its a big rally. It would be a great feeling for my cynical generation too get some sort of a student-influenced response by the higher-ups through active participation in a fundamental principle of the democracy that we all have been socialized to more or less believe in. There is something screwy about the world we live in where decent Health care and higher education is more of a luxury than a societal right. 9 . 8 . 9 9 Two days of classes, and an eventful weekend back in Madison. Friday I hung out with Jase for a bit, he came in from the Twin Cities at 5:45 AM and crashed out on our floor. Got to see the bud monkey today also, he gave me a couple issues of the 'Daily Illini', I guess its supposed to be good reading. Got to see Zach's place, its a hike, but its pretty decent, better than their old place. I watched Brittany Spears dance around on MTV and ate a whole bag full of carrots. Saturday the football game was pretty fun, we took a whole bunch of the international residents there, and sneaked them into the student section. For most of them it was their first American football game. I think they liked the cheers, especially the ones with the swearing. It was a blowout, 49-7 at the half. Murray State is actually a IAA school, I don't really see the point of us playing them since we're ranked top 10 this year. But it was fun anyway. I played the 4th wheel on Sunday going to Milwaukee with two of the Japanese girls on my floor and one of their boyfriends. It was pretty neat, but I noticed that Milwaukee is pretty dead even downtown. We went to a bunch of malls and to the South Side a little bit. Afterward we went to a Jazz festival on the lake which had some cool live bands playing with good horns and lots of good food. I've finalized my schedule more or less, 18 credits, hope I can manage it. I'm loading with the Soc courses, 530 Social Psych, 357 Methods, and 301 Stats. I also got 449 Animal Behavior, and Organic Chemistry. Clap for Credit music 114, and 699 Soc research with the Global Village. The community here is very positive, if I haven't said that before, yesterday we had a BBQ in our courtyard with pretty much the entire village, I helped out with the cooking with some chopsticks. Then we played some ultimate frisbee in the parking lot. 9 . 1 . 9 9 School starts tomarrow. I've been back in Madison for about 2 days, and its been a very busy 48 indeed. The room is a little smaller than expected, but both Steve and I are making do with what we got, and getting settled in. Meeting a lot of people all over the place, from diverse backgrounds and different walks of life. This community here shows much more potential than both the BLC and CRC combined. I'm thinking it has something to do with the size--26 people are easier to connect than 780. The temps are nice so far, cool evenings, moderate days, hopefully the weather will last for a while. Theres heavy construction going on outside my window that starts at 7AM as an early wakeup call courtesy of UW. Our shower has no wall, just a raised bar of metal, this room was designed for handicap access I'm thinking, my only complaint is that we only have on full closet between the two of us. which when I think about it, isn't that bad really. I got most of my stuff settled, I have to get my rice cooker and some used books to get a refund, as well as some little office/desk supplies. otherwise, I'm set for the semester. I think there is something about living in an apartment versus a dormroom, something about having a kitchen and a bathroom helps with the feelings of independence. The people in the village are very friendly and open, some of the nicest people I've meet in my college years. I hope that they live up to their first impressions. It is a sobering realization that I am a Junior now, scratch, Senior now, I'm asking myself where all the time went. And year 3 begins.... |
