Tag Archives: school

Sanity, Work, and Me.

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I did a lot of virtual running today. Money issues have been pressing over the past few days, really made manifest by the current frustrations in collecting the funds for the upcoming semester of school. There were several emails batted back and forth trying to confirm little details and to get the process under way, a process further delayed by the fact that tuition apparently went up this semester, a notice of which I have not yet received, due to the additional time it takes from mail forwarding.

Then came the calls, contacting the bursar, confirming that yes, the tuition DID in fact rise. Then getting back to the Bank to let them know that yes, it did in fact go up (they refused to do any of the running around on this, even after receiving an official bill from the school and then being confused by the information therein). I am not happy with the bank, and I’m less happy with my aunt, who acts as trustee to the account (if you’re reading this, sorry, but it’s the truth: this sort of bullshit pisses me off).

I’ve been contemplating graduate work after getting my Bachelors. Really, the thing that has been holding me back the most is that I’m not sure if I want to have to deal with fighting for every penny out of a fund explicitly created for my education. I do not feel that the intentions of my grandmother when she created the trust are being upheld. Unfortunately, I am unsure what, if anything, I can do to correct that.
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The Update of Quasi-Doom

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Ahoy there, mateys, it be “Talk like a Pirate Day!” (Arrr).

Relax, I’m not going to do an entire freakin’ post in “piratespeak”. That would be akin to the deliciously evil torture of writing in l33t, and I’m just not that mean. It’s been a while since I updated, so I DO expect this to be a fairly lengthy post, so you are hereby forewarned.

It has been nine (9) days since I last posted, and I think it would behoove me to explain what I’ve been doing. I think the best way I can sum it up would be this: go read my essay. Though it is now done (I mailed it around 2:30pm yesterday), there was a LOT of final preparations that took up the past week. This would include: finishing the last few chapters, and making requested/suggested revisions to the rest of the essay, doing a final self-crit, and printing it out. The essay is 49 pages, with bib it becomes 51. NOT included in that PDF is the other 50 pages (table of contents, cover sheet, testimonials, and examples). This is partially because for formatting reasons I did them as two separate files, and partially because I’m not making the area I submitted available to the public (I chose Senex Operis because it is relatively short at around 40 rooms, and has the most real-world research in it, as all the gladiators in the area are accurately depicted from their historical counterparts).
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General Foo Strikes Again

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Today was much less zombie-like than yesterday, and I can’t explain why. It just was. I came downstairs, put on some jazz, and checked my email, where I finally received 1) more than 2 pieces of email, and 2) a response from Jody, the head of the EXCEL program at Union Institute and University, reviewing my EXCEL essay thus far. I got a very favorable response, though there was an overwhelming request for more personal examples of what I was talking about. This is difficult for me, as I find it hard to write both personally and what I deem “professionally”. I’ll just have to do what I can, though. It’s due the 22nd, which means it needs to be in the mail by the 19th, which means I need to be done by the 18th. 17 days from now, essentially. This shouldn’t be too hard, though. I don’t have that much more to do.

In other news, I had a meeting with some folks from PA today, concerning working with them to bring UberCon to the Seattle area. This went over VERY favorably, and I’m back to being excited about the prospect of organizing the convention again. I need to send them some information, but that’s mostly information I need to confirm with Kevin, first (such as any changes made to the sponsorship forms, et cetera). I can’t talk too much about it yet, but it’s definitely a “Yay” situation.

I’m a little frustrated with my content right now. Nothing wrong with blogging, I suppose, but I just feel like I should have more content that is relevant to more than just people who know me. More essays, reviews, and art. That said, I just picked up criticalgames.com, which will be a site dedicated to discussion of games as a serious medium for creative expression.
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MORE Musings of a Frantic Mind

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Let me ‘splain to you… no, it is too much. Let me sum up:

I spent a good portion of the day at my parents’ house, doing odd things, like running antenna cable through my father’s car (he’s installing a two way radio… we’re all ham radio operators, you see). Before that, however, I was on the Penny Arcade forums, where there was a poll going on as to whether or not the art forum should try to find non-nude anatomy references to post for exercises. I think the notion is absurd (and upon checking the poll again now that it is completed, apparently the rest of the forumers agree). I recall reading in (I believe) one of A.D. Coleman’s essays a recounting of a story about Toulouse Lautrec at a gallery opening. A dame came up to him outraged at a painting of a woman undressing with a man looking on. She called it pornography and filth. He turned to her and said “The woman is not undressing, she is dressing, and that man is her husband, and I’d appreciate it if you would stop looking at my painting.”

Alas, the entire story is paraphrased horribly, as I have not been able to locate it again. I’ll go back and edit it if I discover the actual story again.
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Hanover, Pretty Red Dress

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Let me explain to you something about the past few days:

For the past several months, I’ve been feeling very rushed, very stressed. This is partially because I took more onto my plate than I’d ever had before, and I felt a bit overwhelmed. Finally, after easily six months, things have started to fall away as “done.” The past two weeks I started to feel a bit more like I was in control of my life again.

The downside of this is that the feeling is starting to have lasting effects, namely killing my motivation but good. Today, I sat around reading manga online until 3 in the afternoon, before finally showering off (and I’d felt the need for it since the previous night). Mickey and I then got up and picked up some boxes to pack some of our more moisture sensitive materials in (like books). While out and about (not in a boat), we got a call from my parents, who wanted to see my blue hair. So we went to dinner with them, over at Lui Lui’s…

Which gets us to the red dress mentioned in the title of this entry. There was a tent sale, you see, in the parking lot of the restaurant, which we meandered through after eating. Mickey managed to find a really nifty red dress that she really likes (and is now wearing), for about 50% off. There is a certain humor to seeing my wife (whom I am constantly looking toward to get permission to spend money) reverse the roles and look at me for the approving nod on the purchase.
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General Update

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I’m currently at my school residency (I attend Vermont College, which is part of Union Institute and University), which I’ll hopefully find time to write about in the not too distant future, as it is definitely worth of comment. I just wanted to post a quick update as to what’s going on and all.

Some interesting links:
Stealing Andy: this is an interesting band out of Rochester, NY, that has an interesting sound to it. Eric Cox, the lead singer/guitarist is a classmate of mine. He happened to bring some demo cds with him to residency, and I’m pleased with what I hear.
Vermont College: Nice school, with a focus on LEARNING, not grades. Non-traditional, but that’s a good thing. (Again, I’ll write more on it later.)
MindFlight: I’ve had this site listed in my links for ages… it is the fledgling brainchild of a friend of mine. If you have some writing that you’d like to get online, head over there. I’m finally writing a blurb about it because he finally has something on the main page.

Okay, enough for now, more later! (And if you visit, post a comment!)

New Graphics Card!

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I installed my new graphics card into my desktop today. Installed Warcraft III, and the Jedi Knight II demo, both of which play superbly. In another few moments, I’ll have a conference call concerning UberCon, so I’m really just killing time until then. (YES, I am sitting in Dirt looking like a dork with a headset, but c’est la vie: there is reasonable reception here, and I haven’t had a chance to turn my long distance back on.)
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Graduation

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Not mine, of course. I’m just here as a witness, a guest (and as a photographer). It is interesting watching how different people prepare for graduation. Some women dress up in flowing gowns (quite attractively, in fact). A few graduates roam in and out of the hall, getting their beloved ones situated in their allotted seats. It’s all pretty strange, a strange tension/untension. People are tense, but happy, and refuse to admit to the tension they hold. It’s not like there are any real surprises anywhere in here. The people will sit up on the stage and, one by one, be called upon, and given a diploma signifying… well, nothing. Signifying whatever that graduate WANTS it to signify. We are all simply here on our own agendas, in whatever fashion they are.
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