Slow goes the road…

So, another day turns to a week, and I turn to stone… Basically.
But I push on just the same.

I like tall trees

Nice

AMH 1020 Student,
Since MCC has not yet been able to obtain another master tape with a good audio track, we have been unable to reproduce the tapes which you need to view to answer the telecourse lesson one questions. Therefore, the telecourse lesson questions for Part One do not have to be submitted at Exam One but may be submitted with those telecourse lesson questions from Part Two at the time of Exam 2. This will allow everyone enough time to do the video homework. If you have rented tapes/dvds from the production company, you can still submit lesson one questions at either Exam 1 or 2. Dr. Smallwood.

Please note: Most written communications to or from Manatee Community College employees are public records, available to the public and media upon request.

solar system…

Aristotle: (Sun is fiery ball that moves around Earth)
Claudius Ptolemy: (Sun, stars, planets move around Earth in circles, using epicycles)
Copernicus: (Sun-centered (heliocentric) solar system)

… and that begins what may, or may not be, a complete embarrassment… I have my homework complete (almost) and I’m hopefully going to be ready for my presentation on Monday night. I’ve been putting a good amount of time into researching the models of these three gentlemen… I need to have a clear understanding so by Monday night it at least seems like I know what I’m talking about.

More later.

Where?

Where does the time go? In fact, where did it go? It’s happened so fast, I forgot to pay close attention to it while it was going on… and now here I am, doing whatever it is I do… Turning one page, while looking for another… Typing one sentence, while remembering another. It’s been so long, but it’s only just begun… and that’s the nature of whatever it is I am thinking about at whatever time I happen to be thinking about it.

Today I sat in a rather hot library and searched for answers to questions I don’t really care to know… I have no choice but to know them… And throughout it all, I know there’s this presentation looming over my shoulder, waiting for me to pay attention to it… To figure it out… to time it perfectly and make it fit neatly into whatever round hole it’s assigned. I know it’s something I have to do, but that’s just it, I have to do it.

And today, this email arrived fashionably in my inbox:

AMH 1020 Distance Learning Class,
A problem has developed regarding the video tapes for Transforming America. The master copy does not reproduce the audio on our copies, and we have requested another master tape to make copies for the library. These should be ready for your use by end of next week. If you have already checked-out any tapes, please return them to the library. Dr. Smallwood.

I have a tape that I must return. I have a VCR I must connect to my television. I have high definition TV to watch. I have about 10 episodes of “Mysteries of the Bible” on the DVR (great show). I have time backing up on me, and me backing up on time.

Now it’s time.

Reading…

I’m doing a lot of reading lately, and I hope that somehow I’m retaining some of the information. I’m finding it a lot harder to get into the groove of school than I thought… I find myself trying to get organized more so than doing the actual work. I hope this phase passes.

Tonight is my first piano class… I’m not hoping for miracles, but I am excited about learning new things… Ater that, more reading, probably in the school library…

Nope…

A follow up to the recording of the course videos for AMH 1020 on Comcast Overpriced Cable TV. I don’t see these things on when the instructor told us they’d be on. I can’t find them anywhere. Figures. So, I’ll have to try to go back and check out the tapes again some time. I think they’re supposed to have copies that stay in the library, so maybe after work (after my piano class) I’ll stop by the library and watch a video. (I just remembered, my VCR isn’t even hooked up currently…)

Maybe I don’t even need the videos at all, though I do think we have to do homework (and turn it in for a grade) answering questions from the videos.

Sigh.

U-Bet

“I drink chocolate milk”

Saturday the 14th.

It’s getting late.

old books

While looking through some old books the other day, I found this written on a piece of paper dubbing as a bookmark (actually the back of an old Tepado flyer)… It’s in someone elses’s handwriting:

you love me
you love me so much it hurts you
it hurts you to love me
you love me (so much)
you need me
you need me to love you
you need me (you love me)

I have only a vague recollection of those words (maybe a rejected Tepado song?)… I have a feeling the future holds a lot more instances like this…

Friday the 13th

The Final Chapter was always my favorite Friday the 13th movie. Being that today is Friday the 13th, I searched the TV listings to see which movies are playing tonight, and it appears as though that great channel Spike TV is living up to its manhood by showing Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood tonight. I know I’ve seen this one, but I don’t think watching it again is something I’m going to do. Jason Takes Manhattan is one of the F13 movies I’ve never been able to sit all the way through. It’s just so horrible.

So, what will I do tonight? More of the same. More nothing. Start looking over my Astronomy work, History work, maybe some X Files, some piano, some laundry…

Enjoy.

Laputa

Turner Classic Movies is showing Studio Ghibli films every Thursday night during January. I’m really excited about next Thursday’s offering… Whisper of the Heart. They’re showing the new English dub, which I’ve never heard before, and a subtitled version (will be nice to see it with nice subs, and not the booted subs I currently have to deal with)…

Whisper of the Heart is a touching little story about a young girl trying to find her place in the world… and though I’m not now, not have I ever been, a young girl, I feel I somehow relate to the movie, and just find it to be a very nice, sweet story. I’ve watched the movie a number of times, and am looking forward to watching it again.

For now, it’s maybe time to get a little more food in me before I lay me down.

AMH 1020: 011206

The first of five meetings… This class is an A/V course, meaning it doesn’t take place in a classroom, but on a TV, a videocassette, or a DVD. The amount of work seems almost overwhelming, but once I get an understanding of what is required (need to go over the syllabus again) I think I’ll feel a lot more confident about what’s going on.

After the class I went to the library, hoping to check out the first video cassette (yes, it’s a video casette, not a DVD) and (of course) the cassettes were already checked out. The shows are also on TV (channel 20), so I’m hoping to record them, even though they don’t show the episodes quick enough to get through them before the first test.

Homework? Yes, there’s homework in this class… Can’t wait.

Just before the war…

Sitting in a library, waiting for class to begin…Years ago I did this same thing, I feel so much older now. Tonight it’s US History… Years ago it was a US History night class as well… As mentioned before, I quit going, failed, and that’s that. Now it’s 2006, and I have to maintain this energy level in order to see something I started way back in 1993 all the way through. The completion of a task is an important task itself, and it’s bound to be rewarding in a variety of ways. For now, I’ll go to class and see what happens.

outoftouch

“Smoking guns, hot to the touch, would cool down if we didn’t use them so much.”

AMH 1020

The first meeting of my American History class is tonight. 6:00 – 6:53 pm. It’s a video course, so I only have to go to the classroom to take tests. This will be interesting for me because I will have to show a good amount of self discipline to make certain I go over the required material, and know it well enough before the test. Being out of school for 6 years, I have to question my discipline… As I mused in a earlier post, my brain (my self?) isn’t yet assimilated to life in a classroom again… Life under the ruler. Life as a percentage. I’ll get used to it… Quickly, I hope.

I took an American History class many years ago, but stopped going to it, and (as what normally happens when you stop going to a class and never bother to drop said class) and filed… I tried to find another installment of the course (AMH 1010), so I could “get rid” of the F on my transcript… Couldn’t find one that fit my schedule, so here I am with 1020… I’ll try to get an A to help my lovely GPA stay at it’s best.

I find to find an angle in this American History thing that really interests me, that way I can dive into it… Really relish it… This could take a bit of work…

Lost. January 11, 2006

Lost fix.
Fixed.
Now on to next week.

Piano

Last night’s piano class was cancelled… Next Tuesday will be the first class. I play every night in anticipation, eager to learn something new to occupy my time sitting at the keyboard.

Above is a photo I took of my piano recently…

C-Sharp

AST 1002

First night of class was Monday. Second night is two weeks from the first. Third is three.

On the second night of class, I’ll be giving a presentation about the solar system models of Aristotle, Copernicus, and Ptolemy. Do I know anything about these models? Currently, no. I hope to by January 23, which is the date of the next class. Also on this date, I have to have a 1000-1500 word paper turned in. I think I can likely get away with not having the paper complete by said date, since we actually have the entire semester to complete the paper (and give the lecture)…

I’ll start my research into said topics soon… But I don’t think I’m going to find out anything about life on other planets by studying Aristotle’s model of the solar system… This isn’t to say I have a problem studying Aristotle, I did in Philosophy class, and enjoyed it… But that was many years ago, and I was used to thinking in terms of assignment, completion, grade.

More on the presentation later… For now, nothing.

Cheers.

Typing…

Basically I’m just writing a bunch of words to take up space on this screen… It’s not about any particular sort of meaning, it’s about placing the words next to one another in a fashion that somehow seems right at the moment. I have no specific agenda or destination, just putting thee words out there to see how they come out.

Speaking of this… As I type, I’m reminded that I just started school again after a 6 year absense… My brain has been weakening all those years of not using it… This is not to say I haven’t used my brain at all in 6 years, but it is to say I haven’t been graded on how I use my brain in 6 years… (A brief pause as I switch apps and delete the 3 spam messages that came through…)

So I’m forced to think critically about topics I know very little of… Put the thoughts into some form of structure, print that structure out on 8.5×11 24lb bright white, and hand it to a person I know nothing about… This sounds like a good idea to me.

I look forward to sitting in the library and watching video tapes about US history… I look forward to taking practice tests about Astronomy, and gazing up at the night sky… But more than both of those, I look forward to finally finishing what I started, and starting something new.

Something new. An odd concept in a life so full of the same every day.

I’ll try it and see where it takes me.