Getting Caught Up

Okay, so...I started writing this post a couple days ago, then got a bit distracted by life. Therefore, let me begin by saying:

GO STEELERS! WOOHOO!!! ONE FOR THE THUMB, MUTHAFUCKAS!!!!

Anyway...

I'm back to blogging. I guess I should fill in the last month or so and explain the direction I want to take the blog in the future. Go to the extended entry for the full story, as it were.

First of all, SIT is going to have a much more personal slant from now on. I'll probably still rant about politics and everything (you'll see why a little later), but as I said before, I feel like two years was long enough for me to write about most of my beliefs, and it seems like a waste of time to keep saying the same things over and over. I'm using my band as a way to get my politics into the public sphere now...or at least I will when someone listens to our demo.

Anyway, I'm writing this post on a brand spankin' new Powerbook:

Yes, I'm aware that my work area is a fire hazard.

My old computer was nice and everything, but it was freakin' huge, and this one is a lot easier to move around. It also has a lot more hard drive space and comes with GarageBand software. Which leads to my next big update:

I'm playing guitar now:

Yep. My parents got me some early birthday presents before I went back to school (by the way, did I mention that my 21st birthday was last Friday? It seems like such a waste...heh...that I don't drink), and along with the computer, I got a freakin' guitar. I was just going to borrow my brother's, but he left it with his ex-girlfriend for some reason, so I guess it was just easier to get a new one.

The guitar itself really isn't anything special (it's basically a cheap imitation Stratocaster), and in typical CD fashion, I managed to break the high E-string while tuning (which means I've been playing a five-string guitar for the past couple weeks), but I am getting better. Check out this recording I made with GarageBand last week:

Guitardemo.mp3

...Yeah. So, now you know why I'm the drummer for Suspended Agitation and not the guitarist. I have been practicing since then, and I've learned to play a few songs very badly and slowly (including two that I wrote a while ago), but it's a slow process. My fingertips hurt.

Anyway, there's really not much more to write about concerning events that took place while I wasn't blogging, but I do want to write about the rather interesting semester I've managed to get myself into. Let's go through the classes individually:

ECN 203: Economic Ideas and Issues: Economics is a bit of a dry subject, but I really need to learn something about this stuff. The professor is...about how you'd expect an economics professor to be. Droning voice, balding, glasses, etc. He looks kind of like the Dad character from "Calvin and Hobbes" with a mustache (observe). He seems pretty sane, although on Friday, he launched into a somewhat random defense of the Soviet Union (based, as usual, on the fact that they had universal healthcare and education) and called Karl Marx "brilliant." He claims he doesn't agree with Marx's conclusions, but that still weirded me out a little.

TRF 521: Dramatic Production: One day a week. Three hours per class. Fun stuff. I've already written a 13 page script, joined a group for a production, and learned how to use Avid. If I go long periods of time without posting, it's probably because I'm out doing something for this class. Hopefully, I'll at least have a 12-15 minute short film to post at the end of the semester. Our script involves deceit, hitchhiking, and architecture. That's all I'll say for now.

PSC 329/HST 341: The Modern Presidency: I'm technically in the history section for this, since the political science section was full, but really, it makes no difference at all, so it counts toward my minor. I have the same professor for this that I had for my history class back in Spring '05 (the one who is a card-carrying member of the ACLU and whose writing guidelines remind students not to use language that "smacks of jingoist nationalism"), and she's being surprisingly unbiased this time around...although she did suggest the other day that Clinton was impeached for "diddling with an intern" (unless that's what they're calling perjury these days). I have a 5-7 page paper on FDR due in a week that I've barely thought about so far. Good times indeed.

PSC 305: Legislative Process and U.S. Congress: Another one for the minor. This class is actually ridiculously boring so far, and most of the information is stuff that I've learned already in other poli-sci classes. Also, the professor cancelled class one day and had to leave early a couple other days, so we're about a week behind the syllabus already. Not much else to report, although when we were discussing the State of the Union address, one student suggested that Republicans are "smoking crack." When asked which Republicans he was referring to, he said "all of them" or something. I love college.

HST 337: World Politics Since 1914: There's so much to say about this class, I hardly know where to begin. In a nutshell, the professor is a cantankerous old man who hates every politician who ever lived. He's the one who subtly endorsed the assassination of President Bush (basically, he mentioned that his niece or some other relative said that someone should "shoot George Bush," and he classified this as a "natural American reaction to incompetence." Oh, and did I mention that most of the class laughed at this? I'm not sure what to think).

Also, he apparently thinks that Ronald Reagan was the second dumbest president of all time (after Warren G. Harding) and that if you believe we're bringing democracy to Iraq, he "has some property in Florida to sell you." In addition, he believes that Americans get concerned about Mexican immigrants and not Canadian immigrants because Canadians "are like us." He also claims that we shouldn't fight wars based on human rights because people don't all have the same rights, only the ones given to them by their government. I assume, therefore, that he's not familiar with (or doesn't agree with) the Declaration of Independence.

I actually wouldn't classify the guy as a liberal, since he also went after John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, but man...so much material.

So, yeah...I'll be writing a lot about him. I'll try to remember specific quotes and blog them after class (his name is Stinchcombe, so these will be known as "Stinchisms"). Look for those on Tuesdays and Thursdays around 11:15 AM.

One non-political quote to start things off: He was talking about tariff barriers the other day, but it came out as "bariff terriers." Bwahaha. Just a note: If you've seen the show "Crank Yankers," imagine Elmer Higgins saying these quotes, because the professor sounds almost exactly like that. Seriously. I might bring my laptop to class one day and try to make an audio recording, but that's only a remote possibility.

Oh, and I also have to write a 15-19 page paper for that class. Yay.

Finally, I've got a mind-numbing amount of reading this semester. Observe:

I'm already a few hundred pages behind on that, so I can't spend a lot of time blogging, but I decided that now that I have things to write about again, why not?

And now, I have to do my economics homework. Later.

UPDATE
Holy crap, I almost forgot something very important! Check out what my grandparents sent me for my birthday:

This photo is dedicated to Army NCO Guy, wherever he is...

Posted by CD on February 6, 2006 12:38 AM | TrackBack
Category: Behind the Scenes | College