The Myth & The Majesty

Dostoevsky is hard going. The career fair is over. I still have a few interviews ahead of me (thank goodness), but the shmoozy part has passed. Career fair time cracks me up. Never have I seen so many people look so drastically uncomfortable. It starts with the suits ... There's an interesting reaction when a bunch of engineering students -- those who are pursuing a profession that often involves steel-toed boots and a hard hat -- those who frequently come from a moderately blue-collar upbringing -- those who are not necessarily the most outgoing, social types -- are dressed up and made to talk to strangers. In all honesty, it's fun to watch. When there are as many companies around as there were this week, the interview process gets interesting as well. I wonder what company the poor man doing interviews under the stairs worked for ... I know I felt bad for the students being questioned in such a public area. How awkward. In any case, life goes on. Life now includes a continued...

Something needs to change. I used to be able to sleep. It wasn't an issue. Now ... well, now it takes a lot longer for me to feel tired enough to even try, a long time to actually fall asleep, and very little to wake up. It's been a long couple of weeks. The truth is that I've gotten into some bad habits. Late-night activity (like going to Perkins last night at midnight, or eating fiber twigs about an hour ago) just encourages the problem. I don't fully understand why I do this to myself -- after all, it's all voluntary anyway -- but I seem to be having issues saying no. Honestly, I don't want to say no. The end is getting closer, and it's starting to feel more realistic. I'm starting to realize that I won't have a whole lot more time to see my friends, at least not as easily as I do now. That thought makes me sad, and much more intentional; I'm staying out later and spending more time doing random things than I used to. Threats of joining the ou...

I am not a daily blogger. There's one thing I've learned in the last week. I don't have the constant flow of ideas to pull off daily blogging. Plain and simple. I've also learned the value of answering machines. Yes, they are irritating, but eventually you WILL hear from that person! At least, that's how it's worked so far. I knew the LG coordinator position would be a lot of work (duh -- the phone calls alone are time-consuming and frustrating), but I didn't expect it to consume almost all of my waking thoughts. There's some speculation as to why it works that way. I suppose it's helped by the fact that LG is easy to think about; it's all happening soon and it's much more concrete than the things in life that aren't going well (or at all). For instance, I am a slacker and I still don't have a job lined up for after graduation. The problem there is that A) graduation is still 3 months away, and B) the career fair (that wonderful event...

I'm not sure what's going on with Facebook, but it's chopping up my posts in weird ways. If you're reading this from there, you should click on "View Original Post" so you can actually read the whole thing. Okay. Now that I'm done with THAT ... I'm realizing the value of a busy day. Sure, I'm not getting bored, but I need to remember to STOP saying, "Nah, I don't have much going on." It turned into a tagline, and now it's really, really not true. I shouldn't complain. I infinitely prefer this to boredom. Boredom is a true waste of life. Spent today talking to secretaries and voicemails (again) and it's getting more than just a little frustrating ... Egads. I'm also realizing the magical aspects of technology, namely the cell phone. Some may argue (right, Matt?), but cell phones are pretty awesome. They let me talk to no less than eight different answering machines from the comfort of my own grassy patch in the quad, a...

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood ... It is gorgeous out there, which is what made it possible for me to walk downtown for lunch today. Happy day ... I love B&L. Good stuff, and about 20 minutes of leisurely walking from campus. At some point, it occurred to me that I was walking down there alone (something you only do in daylight) and that fact almost made me sad. I mean, I was eating lunch alone again, as I do about half the time. Then, I realized that I was okay with it and that most of my friends were in class anyway -- and they probably wouldn't want to walk that far. No, they would opt for the Shack, where convenience makes up for bad food. The prospect of a (few hours old) bagel in lieu of Miner's Shack food was far too promising; loneliness subsided. Now, I'm trying to fend off panic while working on IV stuff -- egads. It's not been a promising afternoon. I'm not very happy about that fact. Mostly I'm just sick of leaving messages...

It's odd. I don't have any more homework I can do tonight, I can't contact large group speakers this late, and I have no desire to bake something since I wouldn't be done till at least 1AM ... so here I sit, writing in my blog while watching a movie and eating Swiss cheese. Not sure what the cheese has to do with it, but there you have it. My former routine is no more. I have yet to be at school past 6:00 to work on homework and I haven't been in a computer lab before 9AM. It's crazy; after four years of steadily increasing time at school, I don't know what to do with myself. It's not that I don't have enough to stay busy, either, but I'm a little more restricted to regular business hours. I suppose that's something I should get used to, hmm? In theory, this shift should leave more time for other things, like this blog. I wonder if I have the capabilities to be a daily blogger?

I was at school at 7AM that day. Early, hmm? It was a black day -- as defined by the school, designating the day in our block scheduling that contained Student Responsibility Block, a school-wide study hall -- so we were there shortly after sunrise for marching band. In any case, I was there at 7AM. Nothing had happened yet, and we were all in blissful ignorance for the majority of the events. Even latecomers got to school before anything had happened. During first block, I was in the band room for vocal music, the only room in the school NOT equipped with a television. At that point, most of the events had yet to unfold, so there were few trickles of information from those who had listened to the radio on their way to school. For 45 minutes more, I still had no idea that there was anything of consequence going on in the world. At break, my friend Dani and I dropped in on O (our band director) to borrow his tape player. He was hunched over his desk, listening intently to the radi...

Envy is an odd thing. You can't envy something you never really thought about. For instance, the tablet PC program here at Tech; I've never had one, and I personally think the program is a bit dumb. However, I'm a little jealous of the people who have the tablets and can use them during class. There are those things you wouldn't have envied in a past life, either. I did not have a cell phone in high school, and I was never really sorry I didn't. Five years (ish) later, my cell phone isn't working properly and I'm losing my mind. On a different note ... wait, I had something ... ARGH! Where did my attention span go? Why can't I focus? What's going on? Oh yeah. Never mind. On a different note, the mini-feed on Facebook is really weirding me out, and I hope it changes soon. Facebook, for those that aren't familiar, is an online college community that, in itself, is actually kind of cool. Good way to catch up with people you used to know, a...

Life at Tech is in full swing again, the weekend was awesome, and tomorrow is the first large group meeting for IV. I'm a little stressed, but otherwise great. Again, I had such great intentions for writing, but now that I'm in front of a computer, I have blogger's block. Stupid blank screen and its stupid expectations ... Let's see -- what's in the news? There's the death of Steve Irwin, a whole different kind of celebrity for my generation ... Sad. And odd. The man wrestled alligators and played with terrifically venomous snakes. Where does he die? In the ocean, thanks to a sting ray. Crazy. There's the first photo of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' kid. The picture on Yahoo! News (of the Vanity Fair cover) comes with the caption, "The Taliban are on the move again in Afghanistan. And, in other news, Suri Cruise has two eyes, a nose and a full head of hair." I got a kick out of that. Not that we seem to be celebrity obsessed or anythi...