October 27, 2009

Kanye + registration LOL

Written on my university's registration webpage:

"Yo, Fall 2009, I'm real happy for you. I'm ma let you finish, but Spring 2010 is the best semester of all time. OF ALL TIME!"

October 20, 2009

Class schedules to be released!

Tomorrow is my favorite day that comes once a semester: new class schedules for the following semester are released! I can't wait! I love browsing the courses that are available to take for the next year, seeing when they're offered, what rooms they'll be in, who's teaching them. I love reading the course descriptions. I love crafting my schedule for the next year and then admiring what it looks like on a calendar.

As a graduate student there are less options for courses that I should take, but it doesn't dampen the feeling. I've been waiting weeks for this day to come. I recall as an undergraduate student, I'd spend a few hours looking at the new courses and making mock schedules. I used to think it'd be cool to offer my love for this day as a service: I'd design other people's course schedules given their needs (since other people seemed to despise making schedules.)

Just hours away now!

October 11, 2009

September 30, 2009

Really Bad Seats

From a concert hall in State College, Pennsylvania.

September 28, 2009

Bomb Threat at my HS Graduation

Our graduation was supposed to be held outside on the football field. But due to rain forecasted for the afternoon, they made the decision to move it inside to the gym. Each student had six tickets. All six were good for the football field, but if it was inside, only two were good for the gym, two were good for a simulcast in the auditorium, and two were worthless for indoors.

Our parents (or whoever had the two tickets) watched us march into the gymnasium, and we took our seats. Our principal then went to the microphone and alerted us that there had been a bomb threat made on the gym. Everyone was told to evacuate and the decision was made to hold the graduation on the football field. It turned out, the day was gorgeous, sun shining, no rain in sight.

We would find out later that the phone call had been made from the payphone in front of the school. So very likely it was an upset grandparent (or whoever didn’t have a ticket to the gym) angry that the didn’t get to watch! Solution: call in a bomb threat!

The graduation itself ended up being a mess. They didn’t have time to put us in the right seats, so they just told us to sit roughly were we were before. I’d say about 50% of us were in the right spot. Kids were all riled up, and were rowdy. 20+ beach balls were blown up and tossed up. Girls tossed their bras. The principal was booed on stage. People talked all through the speeches by the valedictorian and salutatorians (we had two.) Then, because the diplomas had been left inside because of the bomb threat, they had nothing to hand to us on stage when we walked. Due to the rowdy students, the stress of the bomb threat, and people sitting wherever they pleased, the names being called to cross the stage didn’t match up with who was exactly crossing. They started speeding us up to get across to end this mess of a graduation, so when it was my “turn” to cross, they were still on last names to letters before mine! I attempted to wait, and didn’t walk across until it was actually my turn. My two best friends on the other hand took the opportunity to walk up one after the other, since no one was paying attention to the names anyway. At the end, when we were supposed to process out in an orderly fashion, people just got up and walked away.

In the end, I didn’t mind, and my parents didn’t mind as long I was happy. My personality would typically prefer an organized event, but I was not upset. It was rowdy, unruly, and had a bomb threat, but graduation still meant a lot to me, and I still got what I wanted out of it: a good story and (an hour after the event) my diploma.

September 13, 2009

Nerds and girls

I overheard the following at my university's football game last week from an undergraduate fan sitting in front of me:

"I just don't understand girls. Can I trade my girlfriend in for a helicopter?"

I knew coming in that my university is mostly a bunch of nerds...myself included.