What to say? I mean, really, I could run off about a year's worth of blogging material, but I just don't have it in me. U of T was nice enough to throw a barbecue for the 1st years before he kicked me in the testicles. Every day I wake up without a clue as to what I should be doing. All of my high school teachers "prepared" me for this juggernaut by making me spew out endless essays and giving me towers of homework assignments, but sadly there efforts were.. WORTHLESS!!!! WORTHLESS I TELL YOU! I have not been given one little homework assignment consisting of a few questions to do for the next day. Instead, every Monday a U-Haul backs up to my front door and unloads a few skids of books tagged "TO BE READ BY MONDAY." Not that I have a problem with reading, mind you. I just don't like what follows the reading. If someone were to give we a storage space of books and texts and said, "Read these in 4 years and we'll give you a diploma," I would be as happy as a Democrat in Canada. (Is it still ok to make bad politics jokes, or did I miss that swift boat?) But sadly life isn't like that. They insist on this whole "testing" thing and how to "apply" my knowledge.
Stop. I guess I should explain first, what my "field of knowledge" will be by the end of 1st year. I am currently taking:
Introduction to the Irish Language - I felt I should take advantage of the languages at university and decided to pick one that no one will ever question me on.
The Magic of Physics - The "Magic"....."magic." 3 months in, I see no magic. Just people who don't understand what v=d/t means. I would also like to note that this is a science distribution course. In no way am I planning on ruining my life with Physics.
English of our Time - AKA "The Books" - Actually not that bad. The prof reminds me of my favourite high school teacher and we're reading "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" next semester.
A first-year seminar entitled "How to Fall Asleep and Not Feel Guilty" or "Language and Culture" - Brutal. Every week we have a 2 hour discussion where at the end, the prof says, "So that was formalism. Next week we're doing Post-Modernism." I'm sorry but i just find it hard relating the class structure of coffee shops to James Joyce.
And finally, wearing the black trunks, in the "I've been trying to take this class for the last five years" corner, the mother of all let downs:
Introduction to Film Studies - It's nice how the course description talks about watching different genres of film, and I find myself in class learning what a "shot" is. This class does provide a nice highlight to my week, as I get to go to a screening every Wednesday. Sometimes they're good (Totos le Heros, A Man Escaped), and sometimes they suck (I Am Cuba, Short Fuse).
Now that you know what I'm dealing with, you can see how I find it hard to apply my knowledge of Physical Irish Films Based On Culturally Explicit Literature. I feel I should teach that class and have all of my students watch me dance around for an hour each week. I blow off some steam, they all take a nap, it's win-win.
I won't bore you with details and complaints of how work piles up, I stay up late and then procrastinate til the next due date because that's what the voices in my head are for. Instead I'll tell you that, I am in fact still alive. I'm broke, and that I feel like a wanted man 24/7 (I'll probably go into that at some later point). Just know that I will try to produce some more blogs in the near future, but I'm not promising anything. Work, School, Family, My desire to do nothing but sit, and Inklink on Shockwave take priority. If you feel like talking.....and drawing some pretty pictures.....pretty ugly pictures. Stop by Inklink and look me up. My name is (Surprise, Surprise) Phantomhal2.