Archive for November, 2004
Just Breathe
Tuesday, November 30th, 2004I’m so overwhelmed. I feel like I cannot breathe through the fog of activity. It’s 3 AM. I have so much homework yet to do and I am behind on so much more due immediately. I feel my inspiration for projects that I really feel passionate about is going to kill me unless I free it. Sometimes I don’t want college. Sometimes I feel that my greater purpose is hindered by very expensive busy work that I bought myself into.
And I don’t ever want to see the sun rise over Boston’s skyline.
Thanks
Thursday, November 25th, 2004Where do I begin?
Life in America is amazing. Regardless of my constantly tight financial resources, extremist Muslims who hate America’s values, and the political crazies who constantly berate my intelligence because I disagree with them, I thank God every day for the blessing of living in the land of the free and home of the brave. I am thankful that there are still brave people in America. I am thankful that although the country is not perfect, it is still the beacon of hope for those with purpose to collide with destiny.
I am thankful for all the lessons that I have learned because life was not handed to me on a platinum platter.
I am thankful for my family. Although I’m away from all of them and practically not reachable from 8 AM to 11 PM, I think about them constantly — especially my siblings.
I am thankful for all of the friends that have been as close as family. Whether in Lynchburg or San Diego or Boston, so many people have made my nomadic life a continually amazing experience.
I am thankful for Emerson College. This is the most liberating, creative, and professional environment that I have ever encountered. The friendships and opportunities here are worth far more than the tuition. (But don’t get me wrong, the tuition is high enough!)
I am thankful for the one who can always make me smile.
Thank God for having so much to be thankful for.
Target Wake Up Call
Wednesday, November 24th, 2004Wake up in time for Target’s after Thanksgiving sale!
Target’s marketing is *genius*.
jetBlue versus Song
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004Having now flown both jetBlue and Song recently, I offer my preferences from the experiences.
- Song’s website is much nicer and uses JSP instead of ASP.
- Song’s iPod + iTunes promotion was hott.
- Both airlines’ prices are nearly identical.
- jetBlue’s flight attendants are kewler and nicer.
- Song’s various pre-recorded safety instruction announcements are more entertaining.
- jetBlue’s free snacks are better tasting and healthier.
- Song offers the nifty SkyMall catalog. jetBlue offers inflight yoga instructions.
- jetBlue offers 36 channels of television, the most important being FOX News Channel and Discovery.
Song does not.(Update: Song now carries FNC and Discovery.) - The most annoying thing about flying Song is that when anyone touches his/her call button, the audible ping is heard over the television system’s audio. This is particularly annoying when the call button is used frequently — and it is used frequently because the flight attendants actually care. The frequent television audio interruptions just because gramps has too many questions is annoying.
NCSL
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004I’m an official Certified National Student Leader. More details soon…
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Tuesday, November 16th, 2004Why did the chicken cross the road? I am working on a school project and I need some creative responses. “Because she wanted to get to the other side” and other dead-end answers need not to be stated.
Sophomores Honors take on NYC
Sunday, November 14th, 2004I traveled to New York City with my sophomore honors class (well, the remaining who didn’t go to Castle Well) this past weekend. On Friday, the group traveled to the Bronx Zoo. With the lovely pouring rain and cold winds, our group essentially had the zoo to ourselves. The weather did not keep the animals from coming out to play. The tigers and bears were playing in the puddles and quite entertaining. What I could not get over is the fact that we were watching wild animals in the Bronx. This oddity was then reinforced when Professor (I forget her name) (yes, Emerson College has a National Geographic Explorer on staff — look for her on the cover in about eight issues) spoke while the class completed its gorilla observation assignment. I have a difficult time keeping animals in captivity for any reason other than assisting the species in survival.
Saturday the group went to the American Museum of Natural History. I don’t mind keeping fossils in captivity. The dinosaur displays were neat, but one can only take so much. The human evolution floor (the focus of the trip) was well designed, but reinforced many unfounded generalizations about human evolution. The dioramas with soft tissue and cultural situations of hominids are completely speculative (just like all dinosaurs were varying shades of green). The planetarium was super nifty because the seats rumbled like a Disney ride. Just don’t be like Mia and touch the Ancient Eqgyptian caske unless you like being yelled at.
My favorite assignment was on Sunday for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We studied anatomy and human form one part of the assignment. It’s interesting to see how certain things were really tiny in Greek and Roman times and then are more than generous in modern sculpture. As Mia noted, for guys chasing nymphs, they sure don’t look very excited. Moving right along…
The Storm by Pierre-Auguste Cot hit me just like Automedon. The contrasting facial expressions of the young lovers is so openly narrative.
The museums were nifty but I most enjoyed the opportunity to bond with my honors peers. Meaghan and I no longer live in the same dorm and I greatly missed our long exestential conversations. Kalel, Mia, and Jonathan were totally awesome travel and assignment partners.
The hostel was the only bad part of the trip. The rooms reeked and the bathrooms were insanely gross. especially if you didn’t bring shower sandals. especially when you and your buddies buy a child’s poncho and rubberbands to cover your feet when you’re in the shower. We may not have brought innovation to communication or the arts, but we brought it somewhere.
I hope to actually make it to ground zero, FOX News Channel‘s studios, and Apple Store SOHO during my trip to NYC over Christmas break.
Day
Thursday, November 4th, 2004Awake at 8 after four hours of sleep. See Kerry still hasn’t conceded. Waste 15 minutes reading stuff. Shower. Get dressed as planned, realize that my shirt would moire on camera. Change wardrobe. Leave 30 minutes later than planned. Arrive in record 10 minutes to school. Change Emerson Channel tapes. Talk to Sarah about EVVY website, if we ever get our domain. Go to class. Return to DPL because class was cancelled. Go get haircut in unexpected free time. Pass depressed people in Copley Square where the victory party wasn’t. iPod battery dies from lack of charging. Almost accidentally rip off Super Cuts’ cashier. Walk to CVS. Grab Got2BKinky. Wind intense, blows all loose hair trimmings free. Meet cutie for lunch. Bring my own lunch to a food court because I’m poor but smart like that. Cherish the framing of my favorite tree in The Common by the entry gate to City Place. Go to class. Listen to professor make inaccurate claims about my Maya problems. Prepared to leave class annoyed, but learn of Kerry’s concession. Go to EVVY producer meeting. Good times ahead. Fix someone’s Flash problem even though I’m not on duty in the DPL. Get interviewed to pimp Emerson’s new media program for Admissions. Gang up on a liberal who didn’t vote and still thinks he has the right to complain. Go to work. Fall asleep in the middle of a phone interview. Awake to see my fingers still typing… just not the words of the interviewee. Grab a Diet Rock Star from Store 24 on break. Get called by Mark. Get called by Dad. Talk to a chick who is a finalist for The Swan and thinks that she does not already possess everything she needs to be beautiful. Leave work, return to DPL to pick up book I left. Talk to Dad about Thanksgiving plans on the way. Run into cutie in DPL, leave for home, still forgot book. Random chick on the street tells me that I’m hott, tries to get name, but I’m taken and not interested. Get on T with spare change because I don’t have enough money to buy a monthly pass this month. Surrounded by Chinese-Americans speaking Chinese. Crave eggroll. Get off, see moon, almost mistake it for a street lamp. Walk home through the Expo center parking lot with lots of tractor trailers. Followed by security pick-up truck. Look innocent. It works. Come home to see roomie in boxers on couch on cell phone. He shouldn’t be flaunting, but at least he showered. Eat vegan sausage with a glass of white wine. Roomie checks e-mail while I deal with buzz. Cutie IMs me a bedtime story excerpt while we look at the moon from afar and talk about Celine Dion. I abandon homework efforts. Sleep will soon be upon me.
Quote
Monday, November 1st, 2004Just because we work here doesn’t mean we know the software used in the lab.
— The 3D Lab Assistant, job title used superfluously, just before Windows crashed during a render cycle and corrupted my folder of over four hours of Maya renderings. This is why the 3D lab s should be part of the Digital Production Labs and not I.T. The DPL labbies may not be nice, but they are very good at what they do.
