Filed under: austin
“how many of you have seen this movie?” aked my “Literature and the Computer Programmer” teacher before starting WarGames on the dvd player. i raised my hand, along with one other person.
he dimmed the lights, and we watched select bits and pieces, talking about how programmers are represented. he pointed out that this movie was shot in 1983, well before ally sheedy appeared in Breakfast Club. apparently he got very little response, because he said, “…which if you haven’t seen…you fail the class.”
i was the only one who laughed.
“was there anyone here that was alive in 1983? am i the only one?” i raised my hand just enough for him to see.
after class, while i was packing up my things, the teacher for the next class came in and asked him how it had gone. “matt here was the only one alive,” he said. the guy looked at me.
“well, it’s a great movie,” i replied. i remember seeing it in the theater…”
“you saw it in the theater?” said my teacher quietly. “wow.”
while i’m at it. (it is saturday, after all, so homework can wait a leeeettle bit.)
ACL was here. it was this big coachella-type thing. i thought it was no big thing since i had never heard of it before. turns out, it’s only existed for the last five years. that’s why i had never heard of it when i lived here. so it was a big deal. i missed out.
well, now i know.
but i did pick up some shows–table scraps. bands that wanted to play more than the half hour they got amidst a thousand other bands.
the shins played stubb’s, and they were great. i mean, their music is great. thir presentation is just standard rock concert far–colored lights and…well, that’s it, more or less. the only other remarkable thing about them was how unremarkable they look. now having seen their faces for what i believe is the first time in my life, i would still not be able to recognize them if they walked riught up to me. they just looked like…regualr dudes. no army hats or t shirts and no beards (i was SURE they would all have beards). oh, and that they curse a bit, and their onstage banter is obnoxious and kinda fun (one guy even did a little freestyle rap.) but when the music is good, the show is always solid. so i won’t complain.
tv on the radio played emo’s, which is small, so that was a good venue. it rained, though, so we mostly hid on the covered bleachers, which were a little far away. but they sounded good, and…well, same deak, i suppose. good music equals solid show, but nothing to make the live aspect really cool. (would it kill bands to have a couple of good unexpected covers ready?) but overall solid musicians playing good music is not a bad thing.
but the real thing to talk about–i mean, no surprise if you have ever read my blog before, but the damn polyphonic spree blew me away…AGAIN!
ditching their robes for black army fatigues (their upcoming cd is titled “the fragile army”) and belting out their amazing, bombastic, happy songs with the charisma that only tim delaughter seems to possess, as well as covering tripping daisy and nirvana (the drummer crowd-surfed, which i guess is ok even this late in life since it was, after all, a nirvana song), the spree came out and made everyone smile from the inside out. you can’t keep from dancing, and b (“i think that was the best show i have ever seen in my life”) was as impressed as i had hoped she would be (there’s always the chance that i’ve over-hyped them).
once again, i can tell you all that the spree will make a believer out of you, if you just give them half a chance. music still has power. and they’ve got the proof.
hey there. been a while hope all’s well.
me, i’ve been in school. which is less homework than i remember but a hell of a lot more reading than i remember too. the good news is that with more specialized, upper level classes in subject i actually am interested in, the reading ain’t so bad.
there’s just a lot of it.
here’s things about school:
it’s been so long, i forgot the writing format. i’m sitting here single-spacing like an idiot, writing twice as much as everyone else. luckily, i noticed this before a real live honest-to-goodness paper was due (that’s next week). so i don’t have to write as much. down side: that’s even harder. i’m having trouble saying everything i want single-spaced.
good to know my social skills haven’t really changed. i still sit in each classroom waiting for the teacher to start. sometimes you can hear a pin drop. (i mean a pen.) no one talks. and me–the guy way older than everyone else, who should not be threatened or care what everyone else thinks about me, cause these aren’t my peers, i’m just here for an education–me? i sit quitely and do sudoku in the student paper.
is this weird? i think to myself “i think i would like that guy. he seems cool. i wonder if it would be weird if i asked him if he wanted to hang out”–about the teachers. (the young ones that are actually about my age.)
there’s these two big black girls–identical twins–that always wear matching outfits. always. and they’re always together. what’s the point of that? so no one can EVER tell the difference? you can’t even run around impersonating each other if you’re always together! it’s weird. and i see them everywhere.
i’m working out now. like, exercising. yeah, i know. me. scrawny man extrordinaire (i prefer the term “wiry,” or “lanky” if you please), finally trying to do something about it. it seems that somehow my class schedule got so wacked that i have three hours to kill on campus M/W/F. so i go use their workout facilities. i mean, hey, why not? they’re free (or $4,000 a semester, however you want to look at it). i can run three miles in thirty minutes, and pull down fifty pounds on the nautilis machines. bad ass, huh?
but sometimes i step off the belt part of the treadmill and go flying off. it’s embrassing, suddenly flying off a stationary object. (no more watching “law and order” while i run. which is a shame. that’s a good show.)
changing in the gym the other day, i was blocking this asian dude’s locker. i scooted over and said “sorry” and he said, “thank god it’s friday.” which it seems to me is just as easy to NOT say if you really honest-to-god can’t think of anything to say to a stranger. so i responded over-enthusiastically with “i know, right?! i mean, yeah! tell me about it!” or something like that. and it was STILL the end of the conversation. so save your TGIF’S if you don’t know the guy, is my advice to you, reader.
mowed my lawn the other day. was excited by how nice it looked. what a lame-o i am. a homeowner.
lately, there have been quite a few popping noises in our neighborhood. and it’s weird to me that we don’t duck from the windows every time. but we don’t. hell, we don’t even pause the tivo. fearless? or dumb? ah, it probably just some car backfiring. right?
UT is the number one party school, apparently. (“i can’t come to this friday-at-three class,” said a girl next to me yesterday. “i would much rather be drunk at cain and abel’s!” [at three. on a friday. can you imagine her weekend? i can't. {news flash--i'm old.}]). and number one in online gaming. and number seven in football. and…number…something…in women’s volleyball, i think. lots of stuff. it’s a good school. too bad i don’t care about any of that.
which brings me to my most amazing fact.
everyone in college is stupid. i mean, not stupid. but they’re eighteen. and they can’t write worth a crap. or think worth a crap. of listen worth a crap. i’m coming back in thinking i don’t know anything, and finding out i’m like ten times ahead of the curve. (God bless that curve!) hopefully that will carry me through.
at least until i find where all the cool parties are!
woo!
Filed under: random
on the way home from school (it still seems weird to say that) i heard a story on npr about new evidence that neaderthals lived a couple of thousand years longer than previously thought.
the whole time, everyone pronounced it like “neanderTALLS.” without the th.
did i miss a memo?
Filed under: austin
so school has started.
yessir, i’m punching the keys on a UT computer right this very second. weird. there’s computers everywhere. for anyone to use. for free. and wireless in the air around me for anyone who wants to BYOC. it’s just so…modern.
i guess i should have known:
–two months ago, when i came in to set up my classes, i asked the advisor for the “Big Book of All the Classes There Are.” she smiled and shook her head. “it’s all online,” she said. i told her of course it is, but it would be easier to just have the book to look through. “they don’t print them,” she said. “they’re only online.”
oh. um…ok.
–a month later, i wanted to buy my parking permit. i drove down to the parking garage where the office was. it was hot. it was confusing. it took a lot of time. i was frustrated. i got to the window, and the attendant asked me which pass i wanted. i didn’t remember. she told me she was out of passes anyway. but i could buy them online.
so i went home, bought one, and it came in the mail two days later. easy.
–a week ago, i wanted to buy my textbooks. i looked online to find out where i should go to buy them. it was not something i was looking forward to. i remembered crushing crowds, some books being sold out, a helpful, stressed guy who knew what classes needed what book. (i remembered even being that guy–it was a work/study job i had had early in my college career.) on the computer screen, i saw the addresses to all the co-ops. beside them, i saw a button that said “buy online.” i clicked, and picked up books the next day.
–yesterday, the teacher of my Literature and the Computer Programmer class told us our homework would be all online–contributing to a private wiki, uploading assignments, etc.
yep. it’s a lot different from the university i attended ten years ago.
not that i’m exactly the same, either. this time around, i find myself watching the teachers, thinking about if they’re nervous, how long they’ve been working there, if they had to beat out a lot of other people. what their resume looks like. whether they hate us, if they enjoy the spotlight; relating more to them than the students. (hell, my LCP teacher actually is about my age [and kind of reminds me of ghost frog].)
so i guess it shouldn’t surprise me that suddenly the world of higher education is like something from a sci-fi novel (some of which i will be reading for aforementioned class).
i just haven’t figured out where to check out the jet packs yet.
