Day Eight - 08/27/09

I got to bed really late last night so this morning, when I had to wake up at 8 o'clock, I was quite unhappy. I went off to IML 140 which stands for Institute for Media Literacy. It was a really interesting class, only 9-10 people if that and we pretty much are determining our own syllabus. The teacher didn't make a syllabus because she wanted us to determine it for ourselves depending on what we wanted to study. This is both cool and a little shady. I don't know how cool this class will be, but we established that we want to do some production so at least I'll be able to shoot something this semester.

Off to philosophy where my professor babbled on about the Mesopotamians for an hour. Both of my philosophy courses are starting with science rather than philosophy because I guess ancient science was philosophy. I'm really hoping that we'll get into more discussion about topics later rather than history.

Had lunch with Katrina. It is so nice having her here. I was opposed to the thought of having someone from my high school come with me to college at first. But now I'm so glad she came. Any time either of us are feeling lonely (which happens about three times a day for each of us) we text each other and ask if we want to have lunch or hang out. She's such a great girl and her and I are very similar but still get along really well. Its nice having someone who knows me really well because no one else here does.

After lunch I headed over to Casper's class! Casper has a reputation on campus as one of the most eccentric and interesting professors to learn from. Once he learns your name, he never forgets it, or the first thing you said in his class. I was told to not even raise my hand unless I have complete certainty in the answer I was about to give.

He was given a full two minute introduction and then everyone applauded as he came down the steps to the front of the auditorium. He is probably 70 years old (at least the parts of him that aren't COMPLETELY plastic) but looks like he could be 45. He talks with a lion's roar of a voice and then switches, quite abruptly, to a light whisper. Its a performance. He has cues for video clips to be shown and all his TA's are pretty much his bitches. He has a powerful presence. He asked a question "Has anyone here heard of the play 'Our Town?'" A boy raised his had in the back of the class and Casper ran over to him. He had him stand up and asked him what the play was about. "um...well...there's a girl..." "EMILY...yes go on..." Casper interrupts. "And it's like..." "A woman is either pregnant or she's not! Nothing is like anything it IS something. What IS Our Town about?" "Well..." "OUT LOUD" "Its about this girl who dies and it shows..." "I'm not asking what it shows. I'm asking what its about. Lets go back to basics. What happens in the play!?" This goes on for a full four minutes. The poor kid, who either had no idea what he was talking about or was just so intimidated by the situation that his mind turned to mush, was eventually told that he and Casper were "obviously not talking about the same play." He was asked to sit down and everyone in the room became quite solemn and quiet. I've never been fully immobilized by a teacher's lectures and I've never been fully intimidated by anyone like I was today. It is going to be an interesting semester.

I was so tired after class (after a two hour lecture we had to watch "Singin' in the Rain" which was actually quite good surprisingly) that I went home (I love/hate that I'm starting to call my stale little half of a dorm room home) and slept for a good five hours. There were some frat events tonight for rush week that were tonight that I was really planning on going to but I guess my body thought sleep was more important. I woke up as Brett was going to sleep. I hope at some point he opens up and hangs with me, or at least hangs with someone. He goes to bed at midnight every night while everything is still going on. I hope that changes.