Rain On A Saturday?
I thought there was some sort of unwritten rule about that being an impossible occurence in Santa Barbara. Alas, we are apparently not immune. Today's song plug goes to Sheryl Crow, and the song she performed both at the 9/21/01 Tribute to America concert, and this year's MTV VMA's. It's called "Safe and Sound" and it's been on repetition in my playlist for a while. I tend to put the latest 6 or so songs I've downloaded into the bottom of the playlist, and repeat them til I get bored, by which time I've usually downloaded something new and can bump out the oldest one. This one really displays her vocal talent, quite fun to pretend like I'm capable of singing along. :)
Also have a movie review, last night I finally watched Memento. Luckily even though various plot elements had been blown for me in advance, it ended up not being as detrimental as I thought originally. The plot was carefully contrived, and the way the movie plays out is unlike any other I've seen. Going to go with 5 M's out of 7 here, only because of the amount of thinking that's required. You have to really be paying attention, and remembering how things went earlier in the movie, in order to understand the entire plot as a whole as it all comes together towards the end. The idea of having no short term memory seems to me a worse sentence than being deaf or blind. I would rather be either of the latter, than be incapable of remembering the people who are close to me.
Might actually FINALLY see Signs over the next couple of days, it's playing downtown still and I don't have any real plans.
Friday, September 27, 2002
The First Friday...
You can probably guess what that means around here. Having fun, in just aboute very sense of the word. Unfortunately, being stupid is also synonomous when it comes to most of the freshmen here. There's only really one aspect I dislike about the beginning of each year. I love meeting people, love moving in, love arranging the room, and all this. The only annoying thing is the way you have to basically start from square one when it comes to telling people about yourself. Barely anyone actually knows you, and even when it's people you knew before, that can sometimes cause problems.
Case in point, the infamous "alcohol" topic. It doesn't require a brain surgeon to figure out my opinion on the subject. However in this type of atmosphere, I tend to really be low key about it. Last night the guy in the single down the hall comes in and offers me a drink, and I say something along the lines of "no thanks, early class in the morning" or "I'm more of a weekend kind of guy." Not lying, telling the truth, but out of context. That's sort of the way it's been for the last few years, I never really feel the need to be vocal about my distaste for the beverage. And generally, people offer, I decline, and it goes from there. Then there's unfortunately the situations where that's not the end of it. There's prodding, pressuring, questioning, and eventually I have to be more terse about my opinions on the subject, to prevent that kind of embarrassment from happening again. Sadly, this isn't always a good thing. The most annoying aspect of it is actually when I'm with friends who are aware of my opinion, mixed with friends or acquaintances who are not. At times, the friends I've confided in on the subject feel the need to answer the question of whether or not I'll be drinking for me, and it generally comes off as condescending or ridiculing. This is why I tend to try to avoid such situations by not being so vocal about it. Just because I have a certain opinion, doesn't mean I'm going to force it down everyone else's throat. But when a friend of mine makes a big deal out of it, that's basically what it comes off as. People see me in a negative light, because I'm "raining on their parade" so to speak, even though I didn't personally say anything.
It really doesn't matter how often you tell your friends that your reasons are personal and that you'd rather they keep them to themselves, they'll still leap at the chance to answer the question before you do, pleased that they already know the answer. For some reason they're generally clueless as to the discomfort they cause. I consider myself a grown adult, perfectly capable of handling the usual alcohol related situations on my own terms. It really ticks me off when the scale gets tilted further against me by friends of mine who think they're being helpful and clever, when really they're just making me wish they hadn't been told, either.
Eventually word gets around. Luckily it's generally not when I'm present. Kind of like me and the typical explosion that happens the first time someone brings a lit cigarette into my room, and gets ousted in the most rude manner possible. Word travels, people get the idea, life is more relaxed the rest of the year.
I'm just whining, I'll deal with this type of stuff every time I move in the future, it's just one of the negative aspects I'd rather do without.
You can probably guess what that means around here. Having fun, in just aboute very sense of the word. Unfortunately, being stupid is also synonomous when it comes to most of the freshmen here. There's only really one aspect I dislike about the beginning of each year. I love meeting people, love moving in, love arranging the room, and all this. The only annoying thing is the way you have to basically start from square one when it comes to telling people about yourself. Barely anyone actually knows you, and even when it's people you knew before, that can sometimes cause problems.
Case in point, the infamous "alcohol" topic. It doesn't require a brain surgeon to figure out my opinion on the subject. However in this type of atmosphere, I tend to really be low key about it. Last night the guy in the single down the hall comes in and offers me a drink, and I say something along the lines of "no thanks, early class in the morning" or "I'm more of a weekend kind of guy." Not lying, telling the truth, but out of context. That's sort of the way it's been for the last few years, I never really feel the need to be vocal about my distaste for the beverage. And generally, people offer, I decline, and it goes from there. Then there's unfortunately the situations where that's not the end of it. There's prodding, pressuring, questioning, and eventually I have to be more terse about my opinions on the subject, to prevent that kind of embarrassment from happening again. Sadly, this isn't always a good thing. The most annoying aspect of it is actually when I'm with friends who are aware of my opinion, mixed with friends or acquaintances who are not. At times, the friends I've confided in on the subject feel the need to answer the question of whether or not I'll be drinking for me, and it generally comes off as condescending or ridiculing. This is why I tend to try to avoid such situations by not being so vocal about it. Just because I have a certain opinion, doesn't mean I'm going to force it down everyone else's throat. But when a friend of mine makes a big deal out of it, that's basically what it comes off as. People see me in a negative light, because I'm "raining on their parade" so to speak, even though I didn't personally say anything.
It really doesn't matter how often you tell your friends that your reasons are personal and that you'd rather they keep them to themselves, they'll still leap at the chance to answer the question before you do, pleased that they already know the answer. For some reason they're generally clueless as to the discomfort they cause. I consider myself a grown adult, perfectly capable of handling the usual alcohol related situations on my own terms. It really ticks me off when the scale gets tilted further against me by friends of mine who think they're being helpful and clever, when really they're just making me wish they hadn't been told, either.
Eventually word gets around. Luckily it's generally not when I'm present. Kind of like me and the typical explosion that happens the first time someone brings a lit cigarette into my room, and gets ousted in the most rude manner possible. Word travels, people get the idea, life is more relaxed the rest of the year.
I'm just whining, I'll deal with this type of stuff every time I move in the future, it's just one of the negative aspects I'd rather do without.
Reason Number 673 Why It Sucks To Be A Freshman...
As I sit here checking my e-mail before I head off to the reccen, I hear in the distance a really annoying fire alarm from the freshmen quad. There's one thing I won't miss about being in the freshman dorms. That's twice in three days for them. Luckily this year they're all on a separate thingy, so just because the freshmen are stupid doesn't mean I'll get woken up. Hooray.
As I sit here checking my e-mail before I head off to the reccen, I hear in the distance a really annoying fire alarm from the freshmen quad. There's one thing I won't miss about being in the freshman dorms. That's twice in three days for them. Luckily this year they're all on a separate thingy, so just because the freshmen are stupid doesn't mean I'll get woken up. Hooray.
Thursday, September 26, 2002
Mah First Day of Skew.
Classes today officially started at 3:30, and were done by 5... Yep, only one class Tuesday and Thursday. The excellent thing about the Writing 109EC class I'm taking is I appear to have randomly selected the one section where the only required textbook is 19.95, when all the others combined multiple textbooks that cost up to $100 and beyond. Also the prof seems very cool, will probably make his way into the top five of my favorite profs overall list. Who knows though, it's still early. Apparently the main project in that class will be a "Business Plan" which I probably don't need to explain. Luckily it's in groups of five, so everything is split up and it shouldn't be that gigantic a task. The groups are going to be arbitrarily chosen on Tuesday, so my usual strategy of sitting next to someone who looks smart probably won't work. :) Also since that's the main assignment that means there's no final, which means I won't have one on the last Saturday as was scheduled. Unfortunately, I still probably have a final in my Income Tax class on the Monday following, which is the very last day for finals. Nothing like staying longer than EVERYONE and still not being done while everyone else parties that weekend. Gr. Maybe the prof will move it up, they sometimes do.
Taught yet another friend how to play racquetball tonight, that probably puts me over the dozen mark. She was actually better than most, caught onto the rules very easily and made contact most of the time. Believe me, I've taught some pretty uncoordinated people how to play. Not like I'm giving them horribly difficult shots to hit, but they seem to have more fun laughing at themselves when they miss than anything else. :) Between that and teaching various people how to swim over the last few years, I figure I've done my part to further humanity at UCSB athletically. ;)
Was actually having a really good day coming out of Writing having found out it will be a pretty cool class, and then I came upon my bike on which the front tire had entirely deflated. Found out later after walking it all the way to the A.S. Bike Shop from Phelps that the tube had blown, so that costs me four bucks, a pair of greasy hands, and fifteen minutes or so of grunt work. Luckily it had happened to me once before, so I have the process down pat now. Anyone need tube repairs, I'm your guy!
Now to bed, trying to stick closer to the 11pm to 7am sleeping schedule, although I'm sure the 11pm concept will slide now and then. I know I know, I'm a loser, I should be out partying, etc etc etc. Alas, no pain, no gain.
Classes today officially started at 3:30, and were done by 5... Yep, only one class Tuesday and Thursday. The excellent thing about the Writing 109EC class I'm taking is I appear to have randomly selected the one section where the only required textbook is 19.95, when all the others combined multiple textbooks that cost up to $100 and beyond. Also the prof seems very cool, will probably make his way into the top five of my favorite profs overall list. Who knows though, it's still early. Apparently the main project in that class will be a "Business Plan" which I probably don't need to explain. Luckily it's in groups of five, so everything is split up and it shouldn't be that gigantic a task. The groups are going to be arbitrarily chosen on Tuesday, so my usual strategy of sitting next to someone who looks smart probably won't work. :) Also since that's the main assignment that means there's no final, which means I won't have one on the last Saturday as was scheduled. Unfortunately, I still probably have a final in my Income Tax class on the Monday following, which is the very last day for finals. Nothing like staying longer than EVERYONE and still not being done while everyone else parties that weekend. Gr. Maybe the prof will move it up, they sometimes do.
Taught yet another friend how to play racquetball tonight, that probably puts me over the dozen mark. She was actually better than most, caught onto the rules very easily and made contact most of the time. Believe me, I've taught some pretty uncoordinated people how to play. Not like I'm giving them horribly difficult shots to hit, but they seem to have more fun laughing at themselves when they miss than anything else. :) Between that and teaching various people how to swim over the last few years, I figure I've done my part to further humanity at UCSB athletically. ;)
Was actually having a really good day coming out of Writing having found out it will be a pretty cool class, and then I came upon my bike on which the front tire had entirely deflated. Found out later after walking it all the way to the A.S. Bike Shop from Phelps that the tube had blown, so that costs me four bucks, a pair of greasy hands, and fifteen minutes or so of grunt work. Luckily it had happened to me once before, so I have the process down pat now. Anyone need tube repairs, I'm your guy!
Now to bed, trying to stick closer to the 11pm to 7am sleeping schedule, although I'm sure the 11pm concept will slide now and then. I know I know, I'm a loser, I should be out partying, etc etc etc. Alas, no pain, no gain.
Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Back On Schedule...
Hopped on out of bed around 7am this mornin, started into a routine... Hit up the RecCen for some non contact elliptical trainer action thanks to my shin splints which I'll probably have to stick with for the first month, then did some pool work, and amazingly enough even beforehand wasn't as heavy as I thought I might be after these first few days of sitting around. The plan is even though I don't have early classes Tuesday or Thursday to have exercised and eaten breakfast every day as if I had class at 9, which I acutally do Monday Wednesday and Friday. Tomorrow though it's just a Writing class at 3:30, so won't feel like school has really started til the end of Friday most likely. Even then maybe not, since my longest class is two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I'll still have yet to see how that one goes.
It would appear I'm going totally against the grain of my personality and am actually volunteering for a leadership position in the house... My new buddy who lives above me asked me to run with her for co-pres and I figure what the hey, it's about time I got some resume material in the leadership column. I figure I can handle a couple of meetings a week, and being more important than usual when it comes to the house hierarchy. Now is when everyone I know should be pointing out that the only reason they think I'm volunteering is because there are females involved. Not like denying it will change your minds anyway. Hmph.
Hopped on out of bed around 7am this mornin, started into a routine... Hit up the RecCen for some non contact elliptical trainer action thanks to my shin splints which I'll probably have to stick with for the first month, then did some pool work, and amazingly enough even beforehand wasn't as heavy as I thought I might be after these first few days of sitting around. The plan is even though I don't have early classes Tuesday or Thursday to have exercised and eaten breakfast every day as if I had class at 9, which I acutally do Monday Wednesday and Friday. Tomorrow though it's just a Writing class at 3:30, so won't feel like school has really started til the end of Friday most likely. Even then maybe not, since my longest class is two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I'll still have yet to see how that one goes.
It would appear I'm going totally against the grain of my personality and am actually volunteering for a leadership position in the house... My new buddy who lives above me asked me to run with her for co-pres and I figure what the hey, it's about time I got some resume material in the leadership column. I figure I can handle a couple of meetings a week, and being more important than usual when it comes to the house hierarchy. Now is when everyone I know should be pointing out that the only reason they think I'm volunteering is because there are females involved. Not like denying it will change your minds anyway. Hmph.
Tuesday, September 24, 2002
Life In Paradise...
Has been relatively boring, actually... Hasn't been a whole lot to blog about, so I haven't been. Just a whole lot of shaking hands, whole lot of "Hi I'm Matt," whole lot of "So where you from?" and all the usual first week of school business. Met some interesting people so far, along with some more people from my building, and everything seems to be smooth sailing. Got my parking permit squared away, so my car's in its rightful place in B2. Also finally picked up my verification of graduation from the Registrar's office, planning to fax that over to the recruiter's office tomorrow at some point, and finally be done with my package. In the meanwhile been pondering how to improve my room, already appears I'll be able to temporarily borrow someone's nice big fridge for the year, which probably won't see tons of use, but at least get some. Trying to decide the best thing to put under my bed, the coolest idea by far is the concept of a futon, but those are pretty expensive. It would be able to be used once I'm in my own place though, so might be a good long term investment.
For those hoping to hear stories about me finding someone "important," all I can say is I've been introduced to just as many girls as I have their boyfriends. Strangely haven't even had anyone catch my eye, even though my window looks out on the main thoroughfare on the way to campus and the dining commons. Ah well, a long year ahead. Besides, barely anyone knows about my movie collection yet! ;)
Has been relatively boring, actually... Hasn't been a whole lot to blog about, so I haven't been. Just a whole lot of shaking hands, whole lot of "Hi I'm Matt," whole lot of "So where you from?" and all the usual first week of school business. Met some interesting people so far, along with some more people from my building, and everything seems to be smooth sailing. Got my parking permit squared away, so my car's in its rightful place in B2. Also finally picked up my verification of graduation from the Registrar's office, planning to fax that over to the recruiter's office tomorrow at some point, and finally be done with my package. In the meanwhile been pondering how to improve my room, already appears I'll be able to temporarily borrow someone's nice big fridge for the year, which probably won't see tons of use, but at least get some. Trying to decide the best thing to put under my bed, the coolest idea by far is the concept of a futon, but those are pretty expensive. It would be able to be used once I'm in my own place though, so might be a good long term investment.
For those hoping to hear stories about me finding someone "important," all I can say is I've been introduced to just as many girls as I have their boyfriends. Strangely haven't even had anyone catch my eye, even though my window looks out on the main thoroughfare on the way to campus and the dining commons. Ah well, a long year ahead. Besides, barely anyone knows about my movie collection yet! ;)
Sunday, September 22, 2002
As I Collapse Into My Comfy Chair...
Ended up staying up until two Friday night getting everything fully unpacked and organized, which made waking up at 7 pretty rough. That and the fact that I hadn't practiced getting down from my bed, and since my obnoxiously loud alarm was going off I was in a bit more of a hurry than I should have been, and that caused some problems. Alas, you live, you learn. Interesting thing about mornings, my window faces east now instead of West, so the sun comes streaming in bright and early. I prefer that actually, I should be up anyway, and that helps. Besides which, as I sit here right next to the window I can literally get a tan without leaving my room. Very cool. I even started working on my bullentin board, so I have actual pictures up, which generally doesn't happen until like 6 months into the year when I finally decide to get my act together.
Had our house meeting last night, with just about everyone in attendance, which was interesting. Turns out there's a total of 8 people on my floor, that's it. Three doubles, and one other single besides myself. On the 2nd and 3rd floors they have 12, and on the 4th only 8. This totals up to 40, which is interesting since last year just on my floor and the one below it we had 50. Seems like it's going to be a much more optimal setup. I've met 5 of the other 7 guys on my floor so far, and don't forsee any potential problems. Turns out even though the house is almost entirely juniors and seniors, only 3 of us are 21. Two of them being in singles. I'm sure that'll be interesting. My R/A seems cool, first female one I've had, previous 3 years were all male. She's on the first floor as well, but on the other side of the lobby, which requires going through two different interior doors. I'm also nowhere near either staircase and as far away as possible from the elevator, so I figure even though I'm on the first floor I'm not going to see much traffic. The one negative aspect of it is security, if my window is open I can see someone finding it quite easy to get inside if I'm not here. That and even a prank like a water balloon chucked into the screen would nail my monitor and everything else on my desk pretty good. I'm sure in that case there would be consequences for the moron responsible, but to be safe I'll probably keep my window closed and the fan on instead most of the time.
Today the other half of the dorms move in, but all of Manzanita moved in yesterday, so I'm not working or anything. Snagged most of the books I need for school minus one class, which cost a lovely 324 even though it was only like 5 thin books. Gotta love the two $100 ones that look like they were made for 50 cents. Still no bike, but I'll finally be able to move my car once my permit gets here either tomorrow or the next day, since they of course had to mail it to my permanent address after 5 working days, and given we were only allowed to request it 4 days before I came, that didn't work out all that well.
It's really cool that just about everyone I know on campus is in this Quad now, so we're all a hop skip and a jump away from visiting each other. Should be quite the cool year.
Ended up staying up until two Friday night getting everything fully unpacked and organized, which made waking up at 7 pretty rough. That and the fact that I hadn't practiced getting down from my bed, and since my obnoxiously loud alarm was going off I was in a bit more of a hurry than I should have been, and that caused some problems. Alas, you live, you learn. Interesting thing about mornings, my window faces east now instead of West, so the sun comes streaming in bright and early. I prefer that actually, I should be up anyway, and that helps. Besides which, as I sit here right next to the window I can literally get a tan without leaving my room. Very cool. I even started working on my bullentin board, so I have actual pictures up, which generally doesn't happen until like 6 months into the year when I finally decide to get my act together.
Had our house meeting last night, with just about everyone in attendance, which was interesting. Turns out there's a total of 8 people on my floor, that's it. Three doubles, and one other single besides myself. On the 2nd and 3rd floors they have 12, and on the 4th only 8. This totals up to 40, which is interesting since last year just on my floor and the one below it we had 50. Seems like it's going to be a much more optimal setup. I've met 5 of the other 7 guys on my floor so far, and don't forsee any potential problems. Turns out even though the house is almost entirely juniors and seniors, only 3 of us are 21. Two of them being in singles. I'm sure that'll be interesting. My R/A seems cool, first female one I've had, previous 3 years were all male. She's on the first floor as well, but on the other side of the lobby, which requires going through two different interior doors. I'm also nowhere near either staircase and as far away as possible from the elevator, so I figure even though I'm on the first floor I'm not going to see much traffic. The one negative aspect of it is security, if my window is open I can see someone finding it quite easy to get inside if I'm not here. That and even a prank like a water balloon chucked into the screen would nail my monitor and everything else on my desk pretty good. I'm sure in that case there would be consequences for the moron responsible, but to be safe I'll probably keep my window closed and the fan on instead most of the time.
Today the other half of the dorms move in, but all of Manzanita moved in yesterday, so I'm not working or anything. Snagged most of the books I need for school minus one class, which cost a lovely 324 even though it was only like 5 thin books. Gotta love the two $100 ones that look like they were made for 50 cents. Still no bike, but I'll finally be able to move my car once my permit gets here either tomorrow or the next day, since they of course had to mail it to my permanent address after 5 working days, and given we were only allowed to request it 4 days before I came, that didn't work out all that well.
It's really cool that just about everyone I know on campus is in this Quad now, so we're all a hop skip and a jump away from visiting each other. Should be quite the cool year.
