I wanna talk about techno.
I'm going to attempt to relive my experiences so far and so few with MEDMA that have brought me to the cusp of a potentially life-altering opportunity. I joined initially upon hearing about the trips, the parties, and the free mixes that came with being a due-paid member, which I now am. And of course, the free DJ lessons. Last weekend I went to one of those things and vaguely learned how to beatmatch, which is really all the work that a DJ ever does it seems besides selecting sets (which for us usually done beforehand) and hunting down new tracks on the internet.
Literally while I was out word came of an event that is very near and dear to the hearts of the members of 6th floor Douglas in Bursley Hall: the empty quad at the end of the hall has been approved for us to use it however we like. What exactly would we like? The members who were in on the planning process for the club had such fantastic if impractical ideas such as a pool or a lounge. Since these ideas are lame they took it over to 6th Bartlett (the female counterpart to 6th Douglas) and almost unanimously received feedback such as "nightclub" "stripper poles" and "glass cases". At which point our penises got the better of us and we decided to do exactly that.
I was still in transit on the bus back to north when the guy who was spearheading the whole operation started talking to my roommate about the plans, who happened to bring up the fact that I was both in MEDMA and that I had downloaded over 24 hours of electronic dance music from their mix series website. When I walked in they asked me about MEDMA (since I am the only person in it in our hall) so I obviously let them know that I was taking free DJ lessons at down on central. He replied that he had already invested in soundproofing materials for the entire room.
Suddenly I am the official DJ of a makeshift nightclub on the west side of Bursley.
So if you happen to be reading this, here is my plea: give me music. I am not that huge into electronic dance music nor have I ever had any interest in the factioning of music into highly obscure genres, which is a must, apparently, for members of MEDMA. I need private lessons so that I can actually be competent. I need to know where I can find affordable equipment. Come on, internet, don't let me down!
October 10, 2010
September 23, 2010
More and more
For the sole sake of putting a downer on what should be joyful, there seems to be a sort of pattern going on with me and new experiences. It seems like the more I am exposed to the less I know what I am as a person. I realize that that is completely up to my own making but I'm not really sure at all what to do with the reins that have been handed to me. Life may be a sandbox, but it's full of quicksand when you don't have the sort of self-assured attitude to tell you that you know what you're actually doing, where you're going in life, etc.
I'm really sick of being down. At this point I have absolutely no reason to be and the only thing I can attribute my ongoing depression to is "wiring loose inside my head" which is what most people will concede for the sole purpose of getting access to medication. Well, they're right. If I'm given all these opportunities to enjoy myself and I worry about whether enjoying myself is even the best option, then I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Fuck it all, because I'm going to pull a junior year and overextend myself. If I didn't feel good about sacrificing all of my free time during those times, I felt welcomed at the very least, and came out of it with some pretty strong ties that lasted a while at least. After I was done with it all - both insanely hard high school classes and a 24/7 commitment to music - I felt better than I'd ever felt in my entire life. I felt connected. Supported. Precisely at the beginning of the posts that are still available to read here. If I fuck up, that's okay. I keep telling myself that I don't have much of an ego so that I don't let it get damaged, but the truth is that I need some fucking self-respect to get anywhere in life and if I sacrifice that at the expense of disappointment then there is no point in living. So no more self-pity. I guess that I'm learning to succeed in that regard.
The original intent of this post was to describe some of the activities I've done since getting on campus but not being around people that I can talk to about anything has made me pretty introspective which as you can see is not often good. But the whole thing about ego was motivated by something that is only semi-related. The first tale of college begins in the Union on an otherwise mundane Wednesday. (See what I did there?) I was auditioning for this percussion ensemble called "Groove" which is basically alternative, high energy drumming on uncommon and unconventional instruments in the same niche as the incredible "Stomp" show. Spoiler alert! I didn't make the cut. But I think I just barely missed it, in a rare streak of optimism. Anyway, the thing lasted three hours (it was the second of two mass group auditions of about thirty people each) and consisted of three parts: a drumming audition (nailed it), a stomping audition (did not nail it, this is probably what killed me), and a special talent audition (I read poetry. I got one of the best crowd responses, which felt good.)
That's pretty much the shortest version of the story possible. But the thing is that when I found out I did not make the cut, I felt surprisingly bad. Like I was worried at first that it was because I was being a sore loser, and there have been a small case of that going on. Basically, I was worried that I was upset by the fact that not making the cut reflected poorly on my skills as a percussionist (even though they didn't - stomping just isn't part of my "move set" I guess). But then I realized that, at that point in time, the three hours I spent auditioning were the best three hours I spent on campus. This was the closest thing to companionship I've had, and if you have read any other post here, you can probably guess that that's one of the most critical contributors to my general happiness. There was one point where the entire audition just devolved into a giant circle of people making beats with their feet and their hands while we circulated in and out dancing, yelling, stomping, clapping, and generally going wild. That is the sort of family I wanted out of drum corps (and the one that I got out of marching band, thankfully, and I have become so very appreciative of the time I spent in band since moving to Ann Arbor). And so the feeling that I got upon finding out that I did not make it was not actually feeling sorry for myself, it was jealousy. Being at the audition made me realize that I wanted to spend my time on campus with all those people. It's sort of like getting turned down for a job that you want because you'd actually be happy doing it, not for the usual superficial monetary reasons. I'm over it though. If I didn't make it (and I realize this is cocky) then it's not as if very many others from the group made it in. I guess it was just more of a one-time gathering of people who are incredibly cool.
I might as well go over the special talent section of the audition, because it featured some of the most ridiculous acts you've ever seen in your life. There was a kid (named Tobias of all things) who was somehow insanely good with a yo-yo, a guy who turned off the lights and pretended to be the guy from relaxation tapes while we all had our eyes closed, and in the meantime kept inserting weird Batman references into the thing before starting to scream and then we realized that he had changed into a Batman costume and it was the coolest thing ever, freestyle rapping, a duet cover of "Fuck You" by Cee-Lo Green played on a ukulele, a grad student who demonstrated her ability to B.S. by presenting some other student's powerpoint presentation on nuclear energy without any knowledge of the subject or ever having previously seen the slides, and this is a really long sentence, and stand-up comedy, and a Flight of the Conchords cover, and Bhangra dancing, and stupid human body tricks, and original songs, and way too many other things.
The next notable activity involved an impromptu swarming of my room by some kids in the hall who wanted to play frisbee. I joined just for a few minutes, and we went down to the North Campus Diag because Bursley was too much on a hill. Then after about ten minutes we were asked by three other students if we wanted to go play ultimate frisbee in the reflecting pool. I didn't know there was a reflecting pool at Michigan. This is it:
So we got wet. We played well into the dark when the frisbee became completely impossible to see. At that point though it was too hard to play ultimate and so we started playing 500, which is much better suited for darkness since not being able to see makes the scramble much more frantic. This, ladies and gentlemen, was more fun than Groove. Good thing, too, because there was no snag to all the fun we had.
Classes are getting harder. Chemistry is the easiest by far because I already understand everything that is being taught while other kids are more confused than they've probably ever been in their lives. Again, this is me attempting to be cocky. Calculus is, as expected, quite difficult. I'm struggling to keep up with some of the stuff that goes on even in class, and it's all because I'm rusty. That gap year did not bode well for me as far as remembering how to integrate goes. So I'm not doing well. But I'm seeking help. Engineering is my favorite class right now, because the professor is quite well-spoken and makes sense of all the aspects of code that I could not wrap my head around in my sophomore year. Learning that certain parts of a code are not just formalities really helps one understand the process of creating and deconstructing algorithms in code much easier. A story about this class: I understand where the name "Trance music" gets its name. I turned it on in iTunes, switched over to Linux (yep, I'm one of those guys now) and started to code. An hour and a half later I finished my entire program in an out-of-character period of being incredibly focused on what I was doing (i.e. trance). And I managed to not pick up my phone when somebody called, nor respond to any of the IMs that were sent to me. Cool story, bro.
And in response to what I mentioned at the beginning of this post about having no idea what I'm doing or if I have any sort of direction in what random activities I select in college, I've joined the College of Engineering's literary magazine (which is all about the fact that its an unusual combination of disciplines). I mostly joined it because it's called "Blueprint" which is the best name ever. Also, I'm attempting to get involved with the Michigan Electronic Dance Music Association (MEDMA). They are one of the most prominent student organizations on campus, and as a result they are often the ones responsible for the music at the larger frat parties and most campus events. Sometimes they make limo trips to Detroit to spin at nightclubs too. The wristband that you get from being a due paid member gets you into any frat party being DJ'd by MEDMA, front of the line, no questions asked. Which is one of the bigger perks. Also you can get free DJing lessons, which is cool. My friend who shall be known as Mario Kart Kid brought up his incredibly cool program that he has used to make amazing teknobeetz with the intention of joining forces with me to create even more amazing teknobeetz and getting word out about it through MEDMA. Also, they host music swaps every so often (which is enough reason to join, if you ask me). I've also been presented with the option of joining NorthCoast Academy Percussion Ensemble... more on that later.
I'm really sick of being down. At this point I have absolutely no reason to be and the only thing I can attribute my ongoing depression to is "wiring loose inside my head" which is what most people will concede for the sole purpose of getting access to medication. Well, they're right. If I'm given all these opportunities to enjoy myself and I worry about whether enjoying myself is even the best option, then I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Fuck it all, because I'm going to pull a junior year and overextend myself. If I didn't feel good about sacrificing all of my free time during those times, I felt welcomed at the very least, and came out of it with some pretty strong ties that lasted a while at least. After I was done with it all - both insanely hard high school classes and a 24/7 commitment to music - I felt better than I'd ever felt in my entire life. I felt connected. Supported. Precisely at the beginning of the posts that are still available to read here. If I fuck up, that's okay. I keep telling myself that I don't have much of an ego so that I don't let it get damaged, but the truth is that I need some fucking self-respect to get anywhere in life and if I sacrifice that at the expense of disappointment then there is no point in living. So no more self-pity. I guess that I'm learning to succeed in that regard.
The original intent of this post was to describe some of the activities I've done since getting on campus but not being around people that I can talk to about anything has made me pretty introspective which as you can see is not often good. But the whole thing about ego was motivated by something that is only semi-related. The first tale of college begins in the Union on an otherwise mundane Wednesday. (See what I did there?) I was auditioning for this percussion ensemble called "Groove" which is basically alternative, high energy drumming on uncommon and unconventional instruments in the same niche as the incredible "Stomp" show. Spoiler alert! I didn't make the cut. But I think I just barely missed it, in a rare streak of optimism. Anyway, the thing lasted three hours (it was the second of two mass group auditions of about thirty people each) and consisted of three parts: a drumming audition (nailed it), a stomping audition (did not nail it, this is probably what killed me), and a special talent audition (I read poetry. I got one of the best crowd responses, which felt good.)
That's pretty much the shortest version of the story possible. But the thing is that when I found out I did not make the cut, I felt surprisingly bad. Like I was worried at first that it was because I was being a sore loser, and there have been a small case of that going on. Basically, I was worried that I was upset by the fact that not making the cut reflected poorly on my skills as a percussionist (even though they didn't - stomping just isn't part of my "move set" I guess). But then I realized that, at that point in time, the three hours I spent auditioning were the best three hours I spent on campus. This was the closest thing to companionship I've had, and if you have read any other post here, you can probably guess that that's one of the most critical contributors to my general happiness. There was one point where the entire audition just devolved into a giant circle of people making beats with their feet and their hands while we circulated in and out dancing, yelling, stomping, clapping, and generally going wild. That is the sort of family I wanted out of drum corps (and the one that I got out of marching band, thankfully, and I have become so very appreciative of the time I spent in band since moving to Ann Arbor). And so the feeling that I got upon finding out that I did not make it was not actually feeling sorry for myself, it was jealousy. Being at the audition made me realize that I wanted to spend my time on campus with all those people. It's sort of like getting turned down for a job that you want because you'd actually be happy doing it, not for the usual superficial monetary reasons. I'm over it though. If I didn't make it (and I realize this is cocky) then it's not as if very many others from the group made it in. I guess it was just more of a one-time gathering of people who are incredibly cool.
I might as well go over the special talent section of the audition, because it featured some of the most ridiculous acts you've ever seen in your life. There was a kid (named Tobias of all things) who was somehow insanely good with a yo-yo, a guy who turned off the lights and pretended to be the guy from relaxation tapes while we all had our eyes closed, and in the meantime kept inserting weird Batman references into the thing before starting to scream and then we realized that he had changed into a Batman costume and it was the coolest thing ever, freestyle rapping, a duet cover of "Fuck You" by Cee-Lo Green played on a ukulele, a grad student who demonstrated her ability to B.S. by presenting some other student's powerpoint presentation on nuclear energy without any knowledge of the subject or ever having previously seen the slides, and this is a really long sentence, and stand-up comedy, and a Flight of the Conchords cover, and Bhangra dancing, and stupid human body tricks, and original songs, and way too many other things.
The next notable activity involved an impromptu swarming of my room by some kids in the hall who wanted to play frisbee. I joined just for a few minutes, and we went down to the North Campus Diag because Bursley was too much on a hill. Then after about ten minutes we were asked by three other students if we wanted to go play ultimate frisbee in the reflecting pool. I didn't know there was a reflecting pool at Michigan. This is it:
So we got wet. We played well into the dark when the frisbee became completely impossible to see. At that point though it was too hard to play ultimate and so we started playing 500, which is much better suited for darkness since not being able to see makes the scramble much more frantic. This, ladies and gentlemen, was more fun than Groove. Good thing, too, because there was no snag to all the fun we had.
Classes are getting harder. Chemistry is the easiest by far because I already understand everything that is being taught while other kids are more confused than they've probably ever been in their lives. Again, this is me attempting to be cocky. Calculus is, as expected, quite difficult. I'm struggling to keep up with some of the stuff that goes on even in class, and it's all because I'm rusty. That gap year did not bode well for me as far as remembering how to integrate goes. So I'm not doing well. But I'm seeking help. Engineering is my favorite class right now, because the professor is quite well-spoken and makes sense of all the aspects of code that I could not wrap my head around in my sophomore year. Learning that certain parts of a code are not just formalities really helps one understand the process of creating and deconstructing algorithms in code much easier. A story about this class: I understand where the name "Trance music" gets its name. I turned it on in iTunes, switched over to Linux (yep, I'm one of those guys now) and started to code. An hour and a half later I finished my entire program in an out-of-character period of being incredibly focused on what I was doing (i.e. trance). And I managed to not pick up my phone when somebody called, nor respond to any of the IMs that were sent to me. Cool story, bro.
And in response to what I mentioned at the beginning of this post about having no idea what I'm doing or if I have any sort of direction in what random activities I select in college, I've joined the College of Engineering's literary magazine (which is all about the fact that its an unusual combination of disciplines). I mostly joined it because it's called "Blueprint" which is the best name ever. Also, I'm attempting to get involved with the Michigan Electronic Dance Music Association (MEDMA). They are one of the most prominent student organizations on campus, and as a result they are often the ones responsible for the music at the larger frat parties and most campus events. Sometimes they make limo trips to Detroit to spin at nightclubs too. The wristband that you get from being a due paid member gets you into any frat party being DJ'd by MEDMA, front of the line, no questions asked. Which is one of the bigger perks. Also you can get free DJing lessons, which is cool. My friend who shall be known as Mario Kart Kid brought up his incredibly cool program that he has used to make amazing teknobeetz with the intention of joining forces with me to create even more amazing teknobeetz and getting word out about it through MEDMA. Also, they host music swaps every so often (which is enough reason to join, if you ask me). I've also been presented with the option of joining NorthCoast Academy Percussion Ensemble... more on that later.
September 11, 2010
College
It begins.
Being the pessimist that I am, I'll begin with some of things that I was promised by the University of Michigan that I never actually received:
Expectations met:
Being the pessimist that I am, I'll begin with some of things that I was promised by the University of Michigan that I never actually received:
- Reasonably small classes. I knew they would be big, since this is a huge University, but I was told that in spite of this the classes weren't obnoxiously large. For some perspective, my Engineering 101 course contains anywhere from 150-200 people and my organic chemistry class has well over 300, and its in the largest lecture hall on campus. The only class where size control is evident is Calculus II, where there are about 35 students. Good job.
- Communal bathrooms - that is, communal bathrooms with soap.
- Fast, reliable bus service - my previous experiences at the University of Michigan were at Campus Day when I was still on the fence about attending here vs. the Colorado School of Mines and Summer Orientation. In both cases, (even when campus day occurred during the spring term) the free bus system - in particular the route between the central campus (where most everything important is) and north campus (where I live) - took about five minutes with absolutely no wait time between buses. I learned the hard way that this is only the case during the middle of the day on weekdays when classes are in session. And by "the hard way" I mean that I waited for two hours to catch a bus from central to north on my very first day on campus. Granted, that was my own fault.*
Expectations met:
- Food. It's not very good, but not intolerable. And Bursley's dining hall is pretty cool. And sitting in this dining hall also made me appreciate morning classes a lot more for reasons that must not be shared as publicly as on a blog. Contact me privately if you want to hear this tale.
- My dorm room. I'm pretty sure it's actually smaller than most on campus even though I was told it was one of the larger dorms. Having one of the only dorms with wi-fi in my room, though, is a huge plus. I'll refrain from judging my roommate here, but let's just say that I'm talking about him in the right section. He seems like a cool guy but I don't think we're going to be bffs.
- Partying. Let's face it, I've never thought that partying would be that fun. Now that I've officially taken the plunge and "lived it up" at a few frats, I see that I was right. Throw in a guy who keeps trying to pick a fight with me and the fact that men sometimes very publicly take advantage of drunk women at these things, and you've got a nervous freshman too uncomfortable for alcohol to fix. Cue trek back up North.
- Classes. I've been told over and over again that college courses (in particular Calc II and Organic) are horribly difficult. However, organic chemistry thus far is so damn easy that I'm struggling to stay awake. Right now we are reviewing general chemistry. Keep in mind that I took three years of high school chemistry, including a semester of high school organic chemistry. Unfortunately, though, I'm aware the pace will pick up greatly. Also, Calculus is a lot easier than I expected - more than a year after having last looked at anything that even remotely related to calculus, I have a better understanding of the lectures thus far than a fair amount of my classmates. Also also, Engineering 101 deals a lot with C++ which I have experience with. However, I never learned it well enough for this experience to be as beneficial as my other two courses.
- Football. Lately all I've heard about Michigan football is that we haven't been that good. Also, my seats are in the 92nd row of the student section. Nonetheless, I can see the action on the field perfectly well from there, and our latest victory over U Conn proves to me that we have got some game. Let's see how we stack up against Notre Dame tomorrow... My only complaint is that the marching band is too far away to judge accurately. (The sights/sound do not line up at all due to the proximity problem, which makes judging the precision of their music/marching a lot more difficult.)
- Transportation. See earlier rant.
- Social life. I don't want to talk about it, really, but for this past week I've spoken about 1/3 of what I normally would. I'm really, really fucking lonely. And it's making me painstakingly aware of the fact that I probably have a mood or personality disorder. And it's making me even more afraid that it's getting worse, whatever it is.
August 21, 2010
The two weeks in which plants vanished, Pt. 3
So I end up in Vegas. To be honest, I wish the memories here were still fresh, because a lot of the time there was a lot of conflicting thoughts on the subject. I'm opposed to the city on principle, seeing as how they've pretty much annihilated the aquifer underneath the city in the span of a few years, and yet they continue to waste tremendous amounts of water. Pretty soon they'll need to completely truck all their water in, or they'll build a massive pipeline and get all their water from some poor other state. The city of Las Vegas is just a giant waste. I guess that's why they call it Sin City. Oh well. I know some cool people from here, so I guess it's not all that bad.
Anyway, my first observation of the place, as unbelievable as it seems, is that it's hot. Very hot. Being outside was pretty difficult task. Also, a less noted observation is that it smells really bad. The city smells awful. Outside it literally smells like garbage and semen. Inside any given casino there is a ton of cigarette smoke poorly masked by even more perfume. Also, I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter about the trip, because I'm not. It's just the casinos that I have a beef with. You see, I can't gamble, because I'm not 21. I begrudgingly accepted this long before coming. However, I also discovered that you can't even stand around in a casino if you aren't 21. You literally have to keep walking around. I couldn't even watch my parents gamble. Which meant that I got to spend some quality time in... malls. And sometimes the hotel room. Not fun. Another complaint: everybody on the Strip is really creepy. From the dudes advertising their peep shows or whatever-things that dealt with boobs flicking their cards at you, to 6'7" black men walking around dressed up as Wonder Woman, Vegas is... uncomfortable.
That pretty much covers it for the shit stuff. I saw two shows, one of which was Cirque du Soleil - essentially a bunch of gymnasts on crack, which was spectacular - and the other Penn & Teller, a duo of comedy magicians. Who were crazy and a little demented, but also spectacular. One of their tricks involved revealing how the sawing-a-woman-in-half trick worked, only to accidentally send the blade through the exposed midsection and send blood and guts flying everywhere. I think that pretty much sums it up.
Also, I visited Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Zion National Park, and, of course, the Grand Canyon. Describing these won't do them any justice, so I'll upload some pictures of each later. Each was spectacular, although I think the best from a spectator's perspective was Zion National Park. The Grand Canyon is actually not all that pretty (the Colorado River was running completely muddy brown at the time, for example) although it is perhaps the scariest thing you'll ever see in your life standing at the top.
Anyway, my first observation of the place, as unbelievable as it seems, is that it's hot. Very hot. Being outside was pretty difficult task. Also, a less noted observation is that it smells really bad. The city smells awful. Outside it literally smells like garbage and semen. Inside any given casino there is a ton of cigarette smoke poorly masked by even more perfume. Also, I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter about the trip, because I'm not. It's just the casinos that I have a beef with. You see, I can't gamble, because I'm not 21. I begrudgingly accepted this long before coming. However, I also discovered that you can't even stand around in a casino if you aren't 21. You literally have to keep walking around. I couldn't even watch my parents gamble. Which meant that I got to spend some quality time in... malls. And sometimes the hotel room. Not fun. Another complaint: everybody on the Strip is really creepy. From the dudes advertising their peep shows or whatever-things that dealt with boobs flicking their cards at you, to 6'7" black men walking around dressed up as Wonder Woman, Vegas is... uncomfortable.
That pretty much covers it for the shit stuff. I saw two shows, one of which was Cirque du Soleil - essentially a bunch of gymnasts on crack, which was spectacular - and the other Penn & Teller, a duo of comedy magicians. Who were crazy and a little demented, but also spectacular. One of their tricks involved revealing how the sawing-a-woman-in-half trick worked, only to accidentally send the blade through the exposed midsection and send blood and guts flying everywhere. I think that pretty much sums it up.
Also, I visited Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Zion National Park, and, of course, the Grand Canyon. Describing these won't do them any justice, so I'll upload some pictures of each later. Each was spectacular, although I think the best from a spectator's perspective was Zion National Park. The Grand Canyon is actually not all that pretty (the Colorado River was running completely muddy brown at the time, for example) although it is perhaps the scariest thing you'll ever see in your life standing at the top.
August 14, 2010
The two weeks in which plants vanished, Pt. 2
The journey continued with my Summer Orientation at the University of Michigan. An early morning drive from Portage to Ann Arbor lead me to a sub-par continental breakfast in the most maze-like residence hall I've encountered. The thing that was most impressive about the Orientation program was that it was almost completely student-run, aside from a few presentations by campus police where safety was concerned and various professors/spokespersons when we discussed academics.
The first day included a presentation on campus safety and transportation (basically preparing you to go around campus immediately before you did), a short and pretty worthless tour of Central Campus, and some placement exams. I had taken the math exam online earlier - here I took Chemistry and French. I got credit for Chemistry, and managed to get two semesters of French credit (since language isn't a requirement for Engineering students). Anyway, one interesting part of the tour was the beginning of the all-important graduation tradition which involves walking through a fountain in the middle of campus away from the fancy graduate library just so that we can walk through it again upon graduating in the opposite direction - toward the graduate library - to symbolize the fact that we're graduating. Get it? Any U-M students reading this (doubtful), forgive me for being a freshman and finding this interesting.
Later on, we broke up into groups and basically did icebreaker-type things with other freshmen at Orientation. And it was all related to questions we had about college. Which wasn't very interesting at all.
This was followed by a performance by an educational theater troupe on campus that managed to be both entertaining and informative. Bravo, guys! I think I liked it most because it touched only lightly upon the interpersonal issues that get too much attention and focused much more on issues that one may encounter with oneself - that is, discovering what you and I want to study, how to find some sense of purpose in the giant system that is college, and how to use what you learn to find success in life. All thought-provoking shit. Which is exactly what I need to think about. After that they gave us free movie tickets to see either the critical/indie darling Winter's Bone or the cringe-comedy Cyrus, starring Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly. Even though I was more interested in Winter's Bone based on the reviews I'd read, everybody wanted to go see the comedy, so I went to see Cyrus. It was fucking hilarious. But nobody else thought so! The point of the movie was to find humor in situations that are just uncomfortable as fuck rather than the ridiculous dialogue/slapstick that one would expect from a movie with John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill, which I guess a lot of people didn't get. I was seriously busting a gut throughout. My only complaint would be that the ending got way too serious, but I think that that was only because the tension between the two main characters that was the source of all the humor in the movie inevitably had to be resolved. Oh well. Other notable happenings on this day involved a brief walk around campus with my friend who I shall call Obamakid, in which I felt bad after failing to pay a homeless man but giving some kid $2 for bus fare. In my defense, though, the homeless guy was panhandling in a tunnel. That's a place where you don't give people money for fear of getting jumped, regardless of who asks you. Also, that night, I realized that the dorms are holy-shit hot in the summer.
Day 2 was definitely a bit more interesting for me just because it separated the groups based on the school they were attending within the university, which meant I got to learn about Engineering. The day began in the same fashion as the first, with a presentation that covered the very basics of finding academic success. Basically, an hour and a half of "don't cheat on tests" and "get good sleep". Then, we traveled to the Undergraduate Library and learned about the University's library system, computer services (a presentation which, to my surprise/chagrin, didn't deal with the horrifyingly complex "Wolverine Access", but only with things like wi-fi (which I believe is an unalienable right to all students regardless of location), computer repair, illegal downloading, etc.), and how to get involved with the University's many different student organizations. It would have been more useful if it had helped me learn which ones I ought to join, but alas, it didn't.
The pace of things picked up when we traveled to North Campus for Academic Advising, which thankfully focused on Engineering students. After learning all about engineering on campus (and I'm officially intimidated), I met individually with an academic adviser and learned specifically which courses I'd need to take to meet graduation requirements. The trip involved eating at the dorm which supposedly serves the best food on campus - which I think only owns its title because of the fact that it serves by far the largest amount/variety of food. Qualitatively it's not outstanding.
After this the night was basically my own. Other students involved with Learning Communities got there own private meeting while I reviewed some of the many materials given to me and finished a survey that was essentially just a detailed university census. Then, we went into the basement of the labyrinth-dorm and constructed our schedules. This is what it looks like:
It's a pretty good schedule, I think, save for two things:
After I finished with this, I started showcasing some of the funny videos on my Tumblr feed (which is a joke, by the way, don't even go looking for it) and managed to come up with the winning name for our Orientation group of engineers: "Euclids on the Block". Not even an original name, but awesome. It came from this comic:
After this, I had a conversation with three awesome Asian kids about everything from rock bands to lucid dreaming to literature for several hours. Then I hung out in some kids dorm with a bunch of other kids where we discussed politics, of all things. I thought my mostly-left political views would be embraced on the most liberal non-liberal-arts campus in the state, but I don't really think that that was the case here. Shit, I'm a Commie. Awkward...
Day 3 was literally just waking up, traveling to North Campus, getting my schedule approved, and then going home. Construction was terrible on the way back and I ended up in a massive traffic jam that was caused both by the construction, and people rubbernecking a car crash. Pretty dumb.
Anyway, the University of Michigan contains less trees than the middle of the woods in backwater-town USA from part one. The number of trees is really the only thing linking my various excursions over these two weeks, which is my explanation for the title. Anyway, my last stop in this three-part post is Las Vegas, Nevada, of all places. I'll finish this later.
The first day included a presentation on campus safety and transportation (basically preparing you to go around campus immediately before you did), a short and pretty worthless tour of Central Campus, and some placement exams. I had taken the math exam online earlier - here I took Chemistry and French. I got credit for Chemistry, and managed to get two semesters of French credit (since language isn't a requirement for Engineering students). Anyway, one interesting part of the tour was the beginning of the all-important graduation tradition which involves walking through a fountain in the middle of campus away from the fancy graduate library just so that we can walk through it again upon graduating in the opposite direction - toward the graduate library - to symbolize the fact that we're graduating. Get it? Any U-M students reading this (doubtful), forgive me for being a freshman and finding this interesting.
Later on, we broke up into groups and basically did icebreaker-type things with other freshmen at Orientation. And it was all related to questions we had about college. Which wasn't very interesting at all.
This was followed by a performance by an educational theater troupe on campus that managed to be both entertaining and informative. Bravo, guys! I think I liked it most because it touched only lightly upon the interpersonal issues that get too much attention and focused much more on issues that one may encounter with oneself - that is, discovering what you and I want to study, how to find some sense of purpose in the giant system that is college, and how to use what you learn to find success in life. All thought-provoking shit. Which is exactly what I need to think about. After that they gave us free movie tickets to see either the critical/indie darling Winter's Bone or the cringe-comedy Cyrus, starring Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly. Even though I was more interested in Winter's Bone based on the reviews I'd read, everybody wanted to go see the comedy, so I went to see Cyrus. It was fucking hilarious. But nobody else thought so! The point of the movie was to find humor in situations that are just uncomfortable as fuck rather than the ridiculous dialogue/slapstick that one would expect from a movie with John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill, which I guess a lot of people didn't get. I was seriously busting a gut throughout. My only complaint would be that the ending got way too serious, but I think that that was only because the tension between the two main characters that was the source of all the humor in the movie inevitably had to be resolved. Oh well. Other notable happenings on this day involved a brief walk around campus with my friend who I shall call Obamakid, in which I felt bad after failing to pay a homeless man but giving some kid $2 for bus fare. In my defense, though, the homeless guy was panhandling in a tunnel. That's a place where you don't give people money for fear of getting jumped, regardless of who asks you. Also, that night, I realized that the dorms are holy-shit hot in the summer.
Day 2 was definitely a bit more interesting for me just because it separated the groups based on the school they were attending within the university, which meant I got to learn about Engineering. The day began in the same fashion as the first, with a presentation that covered the very basics of finding academic success. Basically, an hour and a half of "don't cheat on tests" and "get good sleep". Then, we traveled to the Undergraduate Library and learned about the University's library system, computer services (a presentation which, to my surprise/chagrin, didn't deal with the horrifyingly complex "Wolverine Access", but only with things like wi-fi (which I believe is an unalienable right to all students regardless of location), computer repair, illegal downloading, etc.), and how to get involved with the University's many different student organizations. It would have been more useful if it had helped me learn which ones I ought to join, but alas, it didn't.
The pace of things picked up when we traveled to North Campus for Academic Advising, which thankfully focused on Engineering students. After learning all about engineering on campus (and I'm officially intimidated), I met individually with an academic adviser and learned specifically which courses I'd need to take to meet graduation requirements. The trip involved eating at the dorm which supposedly serves the best food on campus - which I think only owns its title because of the fact that it serves by far the largest amount/variety of food. Qualitatively it's not outstanding.
After this the night was basically my own. Other students involved with Learning Communities got there own private meeting while I reviewed some of the many materials given to me and finished a survey that was essentially just a detailed university census. Then, we went into the basement of the labyrinth-dorm and constructed our schedules. This is what it looks like:
It's a pretty good schedule, I think, save for two things:
- The Chem 210 discussion section on Monday should be Thursday from noon to one. This is an available section but it was booked at the time. I'll be attending this session anyway, so that I can get three afternoons in a row where I'm completely free after 1.
- I wanted to tack on a first-year seminar just for fun, but since my Orientation was so late in the summer, they were all booked. Which sucked. There was a philosophy course called "The Paradoxes of Time Travel" that was basically meant for me. Alas...
After I finished with this, I started showcasing some of the funny videos on my Tumblr feed (which is a joke, by the way, don't even go looking for it) and managed to come up with the winning name for our Orientation group of engineers: "Euclids on the Block". Not even an original name, but awesome. It came from this comic:
After this, I had a conversation with three awesome Asian kids about everything from rock bands to lucid dreaming to literature for several hours. Then I hung out in some kids dorm with a bunch of other kids where we discussed politics, of all things. I thought my mostly-left political views would be embraced on the most liberal non-liberal-arts campus in the state, but I don't really think that that was the case here. Shit, I'm a Commie. Awkward...
Day 3 was literally just waking up, traveling to North Campus, getting my schedule approved, and then going home. Construction was terrible on the way back and I ended up in a massive traffic jam that was caused both by the construction, and people rubbernecking a car crash. Pretty dumb.
Anyway, the University of Michigan contains less trees than the middle of the woods in backwater-town USA from part one. The number of trees is really the only thing linking my various excursions over these two weeks, which is my explanation for the title. Anyway, my last stop in this three-part post is Las Vegas, Nevada, of all places. I'll finish this later.
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