gliding - part ii

[... continued]

thursday:

eating grapefruit near a netbook is a mistake.

the day began chilling with wr and reading an informative introduction to beowulf; icg's back on campus and we happened to be sitting in her building. yay for awkwardness! wr was asked about music by some girl who ended up with a short list from me of must-listen-to's. one of the items on the list is lihi sagi. she's gonna be good ;)

i arrived at the conclusion, during our first class, that the introduction wasn't actually necessary - although there's no such thing as a waste. the first reading was performed by an american girl... beowulf with an american accent is unkind. i took the second, and felt far more comfortable than i had three days before. soon i should be breathing comfortably :P

i had a couple of questions after class, and bore witness to stg being unkind to the kindess of lecturers by asking trivialities that he didn't know what to do with. i tried to help out, then took her aside and told her to annoy me with the silly stuff and save the big ones for the instructors. i hope she wasn't offended, but i'm uncomfortable with her making herself look foolish even though i know it's her first week in academia.

i had lunch with one of the guys from the rollerblading group (canadian munchkin - cm) and then parked myself on the grass to read hiawatha. it's the same meter as cream - the tale of brave ulysses and so i cannot read it without (in my head) singing it to that tune...

pg surprised me and sat down with me for a few minutes - she was in a weird way. we ran into her brother on the way to class, but whatever that weirdness was still manifesting and the whole encounter was awkward.

---i've been made fun of for carrying around the metal cup i bought in india.
"what, are you still backpacking?"
the reason i replaced it on my bag is that wr gave me a heads-up at the beginning of the week: it has now proved to be an invaluable addition to my gear! i can now obtain decent coffee for one shekel, *and* i'm not damaging the environment by discarding disposables.

---the discussion on portraits and exprasis was most enlightening. in particular, i have discovered that i'm spot on for the course although i'd been feeling as confused as everyone else. i *like* knowing what's going on, i *like* seeing my questions causing other people to go "hmmmm...." :)

our last class for the week was a lot of fun! i had our lecturer laughing out loud when i described the american attitude to the native americans as akin to having confused the order of "rape, plunder, pillage" - you don't want to set fire to the house with the loot still inside it (he says, tactfully).

one of the girls i'd been speaking to on monday didn't seem too impressed with the class, and i asked what was up... she claimed to have thoroughly enjoyed it, and i claimed to lack a sense of irony. i wonder if she was offended?

the kit kat catastrophe: on my way out, desperate for chocolate, and the sneaky machine pushed the bar *just* onto the edge. there's a sliding mechanism to ensure that one can't tip the machine. this happened outside of the company's telephone support hours.

the pile-on for the bus reminded me of my favourite army line... although at least there were no fists involved. i squatted in a corner and read my magazine until getting to my stop, bought wine gums (wine gums! in israel! w00t!!!) and walked to the clinic.

it took a while to get in to see the ophthalmologist, but she was very efficient. apparently all my eye trouble can be blamed on allergies. we shall see.

a quick pre-wall nap turned into a little death; i was hopelessly bombed. around midnight i was visited by an angel, who had vanished by the time i woke up this morning. maybe i'd only dreamed that.

now to meet with a potential employer.

i'm REALLY happy with how this first week went! here's to a weekend of preparing for the next one ^_^

gliding - part i

[post divided retroactively]

today being friday bears witness to the fluid, exaggerated nature of the last two days. i've just woken up - as usual more for some misguided biological principle than for having acquired enough sleep - to perform a review of the whirlwind's beginning before venturing to tidy up the next seven days.

---tuesday night: return to the group was strange and wonderful. there was a lot more talking than blading, which was only to be expected, but the route was fun and the chatter almost entirely pleasant. the only thing that wasn't pleasant involved one of the girls: a couple of us were talking to her when her contact slipped. she disappeared, we carried on talking, and only later discovered that it had torn, and that she'd almost been left behind.

i felt like a real heel.

by the time we'd completed the run i had to desperately drink a coke to prevent myself from passing out.

i had lots of material to catch up with before wednesday's classes - pg came over to finish watching the 60's, i cracked open a beer once we'd both settled in to our respective positions in the lounge and we ended up going to bed around 4am, both still with slightly moist cheeks from the movie. i've seen it a couple of times now, and so can be touched even with my back turned.

aside from the movie in the background, i'd spent the three hours unhappily discovering that the primary text with its insipid, awkward construction was nothing more than a long vent against a previous claim. i'm still not sure what the point being made was.

---wednesday:

it's not easy getting out of bed early when you're lying next to someone who you know is going to sleep late.

it's been a heatwave week, and the crowded bus was even hotter than the air outside. all of us clambered out of the sardine can sweaty and uncomfortable to drag heels up the steps to the university. first class with the professor? after the morning's ugly readings? great.

i kept a seat for stg - who arrived seconds before we began and aggravated the ta (the ta's own fault, though - she put her gear on the seat next to me when i wasn't looking). score one negative mark. stg then informed me that she'd sent a whiny email to the ta concerning the quantity of prep-work: score two. this ain't your animation campus kansas anymore, sweety.

and then she left class early, to the professor's ire and agitation. it was suggested that names will now be taken before *and* after class. jeez. and score three.

the next class was much more fun - totally my style. we argued plato's allegory of the cave; not a lot of people seemed to be getting what was going on. i, personally, now consider myself an "anti-plato" in that i agree with the allegory, only i understand that it is not the thoughts that come first. those initial thoughts are derived from our physical sensory input. the fact that we have absolutely no way to consider that input in a meaningful manner doesn't detract from their reality.

i didn't have much time to talk with pg before she had to get to class and i to meet for cheap lunch with comixer (the mongoose's real best friend) and lawn arguments with both him and eidetic concerning the nature of scientific thought.

---what is science? when we talk of the physical realm, we have a method of analysing our observations to extract hypotheses and then testing them to ensure that they are correct. as there is only one physical space with one set of rules, the results of this process can only be correct if they are consistent with everything else we know - or vice versa. [see quantum physics vs theory of general relativity]

as the psychology of a human is inherently contradictory and open to interpretation, no such limitation or measure of accuracy is possible. the method is the same, ie. scientific, but it is possible to determine and prove two contradictory results.

having said that, it is still possible to call "bullshit!" on a piece of literary criticism.

---the debate also touched on the function of a university and the "new model" of it being a place to acquire lists of marks as opposed to an education, but that's a big topic.

i had to leave on an unfinished note - to everyone's dismay, apparently - to get to work. on my way to the office urchin called looking for advice regarding an interesting opportunity: she'll have to pay for it, but i threw her a positive voice because, as i told her, we only live once :)

aspie, the girl i work with who's always giving me shit (but we seem to be friends, it's always fun and awkward to fight with her) was excited and wretched; the only thing i wasn't impressed with was a weird moment when she crossed a line by tapping my head with her shoe. otherwise it was all business as usual :P

i'd intended to catch up on readings during my shift. i got through a bit, but as i was the only agent on duty and the lines rang for most of the two hours i didn't do enough to be satisfied...

...

i was supposed to meet with the director after work but he called to say he couldn't make it - i'm disappointed. then i spoke to a girl who's looking for subjects for a colour interpretation study on campus, and i'll be paid to participate. this is almost like agreeing to medical experiments... i'm not far off, i tell you :P

pg and i took a bus to the barbie, arriving there on time and an hour early (depends on which way you look at it). we went off to find food - i don't know about the quality of the chicken livers i ate, but the meal hit the spot) and talk about the chest-leading scenes from donnie darko: i think i may be on to something.

balabusta surprised me with how good they were, but hatachtonim gave a *real* performance. as usual. they kick ass! and pg appears to have enjoyed it too :))

it being a few hours before a long day we took a taxi home. i was convinced to take part in messing with our driver by the other drivers hanging around; he got really upset at first but then calmed down and was quite amiable on the way home :)

i completed honore de balzac - at the sign of the cat and racket before realizing that i wouldn't be able to continue without sleep.

--- dead sleep ---
[continued...]

it's such a perfect day...

no, really. it was BRILLIANT. i had a quick breakfast and was on my way to the bus when i suddenly realized i didn't have a copy of my timetable - good thing i live right next to the bus stop :)

the bus ride was absorbed by reading and grooving. this last wired is full of interesting things (as usual) but there's something new in the editing: i keep finding myself grinning or laughing; this month has a great sense of irony.

i began the day with wr at gillman, then walked a pensioner to her first class before entering mine. my class was quiet - eerily so - because it was the first university class for most of the people in it. even when i was joined by star trek girl (stg) we felt the need to whisper.

we sat discussing tokyo (she's taking courses in japanese) until our purple wonder waltzed in - i hear her taste has actually improved over the years. the first course, narrative analysis, was fascinating and awkwardly challenging. i spent its entirety competing to be the first to submit the syllabus to the student union - there was a prize involved - by entering it using my phone's numerical keypad. this turned out to be quite complex - two full pages of sources - and i was a little distracted sometimes.

so there's me answering the wrong questions. i was well pleased that my answer proved useful on a different level, though, and i actually got to participate and argue with our professor on the first day :)
i'd heard a lot of things about her that weren't so positive, but now i can judge for myself and i think she's great.

pg was waiting for me outside (same building on sundays) and guided me to my next class. the introduction to literary theory was really cool and not a little mind-bending ^_^

i don't remember ever enjoying a class so much! i have this weird sensation that this is what i was *meant* to be doing.

i met with wr afterwards, then pg joined the two of us and we got our bus passes and student union memberships sorted out. from there i had to skip to work for a meeting with the boss, totally high from the morning's fun ^_^

the meeting was really satisfying, we appear to be on the same page for pretty much everything. i spent an hour or two afterwards getting back into the development side of things (and being informed that i have a shift this week), then returned to campus to pick up pg and drag her along to the galapagos photo exhibit and the poetry reading by keren alkalay-gut. wr joined us at the end, and introduced me to her as a fan (panic ensemble) who'll be taking a class with her in a few hours (w00t!!!).

i was planning on going back to work, but i wound up at pg's place and just didn't feel like it.

on the way to her place, i talked to scrapper. he also had a terrific start to the academic year (he's followed the kid down south), and wanted to let me know about a dream he had that i take as one of the biggest compliments i've ever received:
i swung by to visit you, and walked in to find you naked, hovering in the lotus position about six feet in the air.

damn.

---i had a restless night - not the best way to close such a great day :(