Revenge of the Sith
It was better than episodes I & II, though not by itself worth the additional fucking of my sleep schedule that resulted. Of course, I was led to believe that it was not a midnight showing by a certain someone… *co
I’m not a midnight, opening night showing kind of guy. I prefer to go after the crowds have died down, where if you walk in as the previews are running, you can still find a decent seat. But, I do make exceptions for friends, particularly friends I won’t be seeing for awhile. =)
Anyway, as for the movie. As I said before, it was good. Not great, but good. Fabulous special effects and stunning fight scenes, of course. The most interesting aspect for me was the outlining of the process of transitioning a republic (what the us has, and rome had before it turned to empire) to fascism. Including a couple memorable quotes: spoiler quotes
Protected: My inner body nazi
Yesterday
I started off the day uncertain about my prospects for housing in chicago, and not having uploaded a single file (only fine tuning my little script). We now have maybe 50% of the files on the website, and I have a place to stay in chicago. $475/month plus 1/2 utils, furnished, swank little pad, very close to the kedzie brownline stop (near the end of the line, the brownline runs by my gymnastics location of choice and Whole Foods). Roommate sounds like a decent guy. Rockin’. Now to finish uploading webfoo, finish my paper, clean up the apartment and find a sublessor for my spot. No problem. =)
A Sunday: run, graduation, pie, and gaming
So, yesterday started off early. I went for a run with Scott. Then I headed over to campus to see the class ahead of me graduate and wish my friends good luck with their futures. Then it was grocery shopping with Joe, so we could make burritos, as well as an experimental double layered, tofu based, peanut butter chocolate pie. It came out alright. There are some ways that we thought of to improve it. Joe also pointed out an article from the new york times (mentioned to him by someone at the grocery store) on class in america. An interesting, if hardly in-depth read.
Then it was over to
After my final on saturday, and a bit after graduation, I was working on paperwork. All my tax stuff has been mailed in, albeit a month (or two years and a month, in one case) late. And almost all of my gao paperwork is complete [and mailed]. Now I just need to finish up research assistantship stuff, deal with the subletting situation on both ends (I’m going to try to do a last minute sublet of my spot here, just packing most of my stuff into the closet) and write the final paper. Shouldn’t be too bad.
So much for my high standards of writing
Exams are over. I have one paper left, which is well past due, but the professor for the course is a very giving soul. I actually feel like this morning’s exam, the one I was the most worried about, went the best of all the exams I’ve taken this week. The other two were completely wacked out, but that’s sort of typical for those classes.
I also got back my second paper in the class for which I had the exam this morning. I don’t know how the hell I got a ‘b’ on that. I had no bibliography. I literally ended one paragraph in the middle of a sentence with “1!@#$#T.” (that’s up there with including a intragroup editing comment from a draft of a paper I put into my writing sample for ‘developing your public service career’) There were somewhere between 10 and 20 typos, not including the above (plus a number of things the prof misidentified as a typo), and the structure was a bit off in places. Furthermore, it came off as descriptive rather than evaluative, a flaw I was aware of as I wrote it. It was about 2 parts descriptive to 1 part evaluative.
That having been said, it was a good analysis and critique of a regional economic development organization. If I were to correct the typos, finish the sentence, and reorder the necessary paragraph or 3, I’d be happy to include it in my writing portfolio. This is why people do rough and final drafts instead of writing their papers the night before, or the morning of, as the case may be. Heh.
friday the 13th final
Well, there was a final today, on friday the 13th. The omens were accurate. It was indeed a totally fucked up final. Normally I would attribute my failure to get it to my own hyperconfident oh-please-like-I-need-to-study-for-statistics attitude, but my classmates who have been banging their head against the material all week also regarded this exam as a nonsequitur. *shrug* Incompetent instruction has been a hallmark of my experience at the humphrey. And is part of the reason I’m less than jazzed about next year. Still, being halfway through, and having legitimately learned alot in the process, I’m reluctant to call it quits without getting my MA or MS or something.
Eating my bed
Well, things to do. People to see. Events to go to. Finals to take.
Tonight there’s a farewell party for the second year MURPs. There’s a final tomorrow morning which I need to study for. Tomorrow afternoon, I’ve made a commitment to chocolate and peanut butter pie making. Sunday I’m supposed to go running in the morning with a friend, and two hours later, it’s graduation time for the humphrey. I’d like to attend. Don’t even get me started on paperwork related to taxes and the gao, housing for my move out in about 3 weeks or, for that matter, the webwork I need to complete by monday.
“It’s like we told that young lady, I told her, I said, You’ve made your bed and now you must eat it.“
WoW is on
So, I took the plunge, and got WoW. And I have a dyky lookin’ level 8 gnome mage engineer called gnulica (any intimation of ‘cunnilingus’ you can draw from that name is purely intentional)
Servers so far are
| Server | Character(s) | people to play with |
|---|---|---|
| Proudmoore | Gnulica | Vice & Valour guild (particularly for |
| Kamuul (tauren shaman lvl 6) | vnv | |
| Daggerspine | Kolah (dwarven paladin w/ Princess Leia hairbuns) | |
| Scarlet Crusade (RP server) | tbd horde | CS Lounge folk(?) I am uncertain if this includes anyone I know particularly well, so I’m waiting for confirmation before actually doing this |
| tbd |
Other characters I would like to create include
- night elf druid (totally cliched, I know)
- orc hunter (feral female engineer in loincloth)
- undead priest (I turn myself!)
- human warlock (Hey, I’m a good guy, ignore the gibbering hellspawn)
- troll rogue
- tauren warrior
Any persons wishing to join
A new take on what I’d like to do
I want to help make documentaries. Documentaries that examine the state of the American educational system, and various other public interests. Policy, not politics, oriented documentaries. Look, I don’t think the real problem with the country is a lack of quality research, I think the problem is that nobody knows about the research, and almost nobody understands it outside ‘the ivory tower’/academia. Movies are about as broadly accessible as you can get. Broadcast media is the way to reach the public, because the internet is too echo-chamber-ish, too many opportunities to click away in the middle of a sophisticated message, and the personal approach is hugely expensive in terms of people’s time, well, that and the big screen has persuasive power all unto itself.
I know basically jack and shit about making films, but I’m anything but averse to learning on the job.
I think people care, I just think next to no one has high quality information at their (our) disposal. I’m certainly not claiming to know the right answers, or to have all that high quality information at my fingertips, but if I can find and talk to the people who do, why not share that information broadly? I would necessarily be selecting information, and presenting it with my view, but I would also do my best to be factual/nonpartisan.
Maybe I should get a few years’ practice at the GAO first. =) Still, I’m sure there’s gotta be some amateur film-maker’s club or something in chicago. Probably here too. Hmmmm…. *thoughtful rubbing of chin*