The Calm After The Storm

Well, I survived finals week. It was a long tiring week and the decompression is in full swing. Needless to say, my brain is tired. It wasn't too rough, I mean I don't want to do it again until I have to or anything like that, but hey, it could have been a lot worse.

Monday's Geography exam was incredibly easy. I didn't even study for it. After all, I needed at least a 68 to maintain an A in that class, and I'd probably wind up with another 94 on my test. Exam started at 7, I was home BEFORE 8 o'clock. Keep in mind the campus is about 30 minutes from my house.

Tuesday... Government. Holy crap, where do I begin. I studied my face off for this exam and by the time I got to class to wait for the exam, I didn't even want to open my notes I had read them so much. As I'm sitting, I made small talk with my Air Force friend and one of the other people in my class. We were sitting there and I hear this statement from the table around the corner, where a few of my classmates were sitting.

"You know what?... F##K THIS! I'm just going to drop this class."

I came real close to calling this idiot out, but a random girl studying at another table set this guy straight for me. "You can't drop this class."

Dude: "Yeah I can, someone told me so."
Girl: "Who told you that?"
Dude: "Someone at the admissions office, they said I can drop until the last day."
Girl: "Well, I work in the advising office and the last day to drop and not receive an F was over a month ago. Whoever told you that LIED and if you decide you're going to drop this class you're going to get an F and have to re-take it."
Dude: "Oh... S##t." **pages turning**

One of the girls that the dude was sitting with just flat out said, "Forget it, I'm leaving" and WALKED OUT. I think I need to mention that the dude in question here is the musclehead guy that I think I described in my first post about my Government class, and the girl that walked out is one of the bitchy girls that sat near the front on the other side of the room from me.

The test was standard Dr. Government where we had to just write down, word for word, what he had us write in our notes. As much as I loved his passion for what he was teaching, I hated his method. I didn't learn much of anything in that class and what I did memorize, I've already forgotten and it's only a few days later. Test was hard, but I did well.

English final wasn't bad either. I had my notes and prepared for it a few nights ahead of time. We had to write a three page paper, HAND WRITE, in class, analyzing three poems using three different lenses. This was probably the thing about this class that I enjoyed the most, and I'm glad that final wound up being this particular subject. It's fun to see what you can turn a poem about something random, like a tree, and make it be about sex or two different classes of people fighting or something strange like that. After the final, I felt confident in my paper, and I also felt a really dull throb and cramping in my hand. After all is said and done, I enjoyed this class the most out of all of them.

THURSDAY. FINAL FINAL! Here it was... we had to listen to five pieces of music, identify the title, go on to name the composer, time period, genre and any other info to prove our point. Then we had to select two of those to write a short essay about. I wrote about a page and a half and it really hurt to write ANYTHING after that, my hand was killing me. It's Saturday morning now and my hand still hurts. I'm not incredibly confident in my essay, it was totally not my best work, neither was my essay that I had to turn in in this class about the last concert I went to. I think I lost my motivation in this class a few weeks back. It really started to suck there for a while.

So, I took Friday off of work. Slept in. Made myself a badass breakfast and had the house to myself for a while. I broke out the ol' Nintendo and jammed some Mario 3 and hung out on the couch with the dog for most of the day. It was incredible to sit and do nothing, not have to study, not have to go to work, not have to write an essay or do anything at all. Today, will be more of the same. I'm really looking for my time off over Christmas and New Year's.

I'll post more once I have my final grades for the semester. Have a great weekend!

The New Normal

So, life is crazy sometimes. For me, right now at least, that's ALL the time. Last week and weekend was hectic so I got a bit behind. Had some crazyness at work, Saturday I had the little one all day by myself (totally don't mind, she's awesome) and I was up way early... and by that I mean I didn't really go to bed Saturday night because I was smoking a brisket for my birthday bbq. So, here's what I need to catch up on.

Read some Hamlet in class on Wednesday in English. I really hate... HATE reading Shakespeare. I understand the man was brilliant, and there is a reason we are still studying his work today. I get it. Reading his work however, is incredibly hard for me. I just can't seem to wrap my brain around what is going on. Even with the study guide and the online help that Mr. English turned the class onto, it's hard for me to really "get it". I've got a paper due on Hamlet two weeks after this class took place, so we'll see how that goes. We wound up watching what would be the first act of the play on the Mel Gibson movie version of Hamlet in class that night.

Thursday's music class was boring once again. I think we had like five people including myself? I don't know how we are still having class every week. I have a concert report due AND my "listening" journal due on the following Thursday and I need to play catch up, bigtime! Hopefully I can get this all done by this week's class. Looks like some late nights for me.

Had my test in my Geography class last night in... Geography class. We took the test, and watched a movie about Australia while he graded the test. The movie is called "Rabbit Proof Fence" if you're interested in watching the MOST DEPRESSING MOVIE EVER. Got my test back and got a 94. Same grade as last time... waiting to find out if there is a curve for this test or not. So, I'm still kicking ass in that class. That rhymed. Unintentional.

Government is tonight. I'm getting increasingly annoyed with that class, so we'll see how it goes.

Odds and Ends

A few more miscellaneous things I didn't mention in my "catching up" post.

One of the requirements in my music class is that we have to go and see a concert, and write a report about it. Well, two concerts, actually, but one of them is due at the end of October. Our teacher has been good of letting us know when there is one coming up that we can attend for free, the problem with that is, that they're mostly during the week. That really doesn't work for me as I work every day and I have class mon-thu.

I emailed him asking him if there was anything he knew about that was during the weekend, and I didn't mind paying for admission. We get to class that week and he said he had gotten my email and had a solution. He offered to go to a local high school THAT NIGHT for a concert, but the whole class had to agree to go. They did, we went.

It was a local HS orchestra, and they were really good. The sound coming off of the stage for the amount of musicians on stage, was HUGE. I was very impressed. Afterward we went into the orchestra hall to discuss the music, and to hopefully talk to some of the students that played.

So, we talk to someone who played each of the different instruments, and the string bass player... was definitely my favorite. Mr. Music asked the kid what his favorite piece was, what his instrument was, was there anything special about it... blablabla. Then it came to what was awesome about this kid. Keep in mind he's talking to a man that has a masters degree in music education...

Mr. Music asked him what his plans for college were, and if he wanted to get some sort of music degree and keep playing. The kid very matter-of-factly replied with "Well, I enjoy playing, but I don't think I'll get a music degree. Music majors don't get good jobs or have careers."

The room got real quiet, real quick. Then it was followed by the sound my laughter. I pretty much lost my shit when he said that. Mr. Music, who has a pretty quick wit, said "Yeah, and what am I? Chopped liver?" He understood what the kid was saying, but he could have said it better.

Another thing that made me shake my damn head...

So, my two siblings are significantly older than I am. They went through this same college system before moving on to a larger university about twenty years ago. Keep in mind, they're older than I am, and I graduated high school in 2001. What I learned from my brother, is that both he and my sister had Dr. Government in the early 90's. THE SAME Dr. Government.

So, my brother wanted me to ask him a question about a female country singer that he was in love with. I asked him after my test a couple of weeks ago, and he laughed when I told him my siblings had him about twenty years ago. So, the following week, someone asked me what made Dr. Government laugh.

I explained to them the whole story and one girl said "Wow, I wasn't even born yet."

To which I replied, "Good for you, man!" My veteran buddy thought that was funny.

So, that's not the only time that happened to me that week. The very next night in English, Mr. English the movie buff mentioned that on that very day, the movie "The Princess Bride" turned 25 years old. The girl next to me said "Wow, I wasn't even born yet."

Being the idiot that I am, I said "I was born the year E.T. came out." and she JUST HAD TO ASK... "When was that?"

I said "1982.", knowing full well I was not going to be happy with what she said next:

"Wow, that's pretty old."

I was left speechless. Mr. English just shook his head.

*sigh.* Damn kids...

Music: Is this thing on?

Trying to get caught up on my posts here, so hopefully I can get all of these done while I'm at work... "working". Shh, don't tell the bossman.

So Thursday's music class rolls around. I walk in, sit down and there is music playing. Mr. Music is sitting listening, not saying anything. This sort of surprises me as he is usually very social. So, I get my book and notebook out and just wait for class to start. Time for class rolls around and he turns off the music.

He begins, "I'm at sort of a crossroads as to what I'm going to do here, and I guess I'll have an answer for this once we are done here tonight. I need to figure out what I'm going to do about last week's homework assignment. Only one person in class did it."

That one person was yours truly. I sort of inadvertently let out a chuckle and said, "Really?! Wow."

He gave the standard nice guy "Don't mistake my kindness for weakness" comment and started teaching. This is yet another class where it feels like nobody gives a crap. It's an easy A that requires very little work. Why are people not even trying? Nobody participates or seems to take notes or anything. One kid walked into class almost AN HOUR LATE with no materials. Not even a freaking pen. Seriously?

He wound up taking pitty on everyone. The homework he was talking about is an online quiz that goes alone with the chapter in the book. It's incredibly easy and like 10 questions. He can sort of "turn on and turn off" the quizzes online. What he also does, is allow you to take it twice and he'll average the grades and for crying out loud YOU CAN USE YOUR BOOK. The questions are in ORDER with the chapter! IT'S AN EASY GRADE and people aren't doing it! He gave them one attempt at the overdue quizzes and had until midnight the following day to finish them.

I have no sympathy for people who fail this class.

Music: Damn Kids And Their Music

Get home from work Thursday and check the mail, and to my surprise... my music appreciation book and cd's FINALLY came in the mail! Still unsure if my class is cancelled, though. Jump on my school email, and sure enough, it's on. Hooray!

Head up to campus #3 and walk into class, got there RIGHT at 6pm, and was a little surprised to only see three other students in my classroom. The three idiots behind me didn't show up, only their buddy on the back row. I'm going to sound like a total old man here, but how do you expect to pass your class if you don't show up? Seriously.

So, class starts. We start talking about music, which, I suppose is to be expected in this class. He explains things like tempo, rhythm, tone, etc. He goes on to talk about how scales work and things like that. I knew these things having been in band and playing music for years as a kid. He started to talk about syncopation (which, if you don't know, is what happens when you don't play a note on a downbeat, so if it's not on 1,2,3 or 4 but in between, it's syncopated. Got it? Good.) and he asks if anyone can think of an instance in a song of syncopation. He looks at me and says, "What about you, you play drums, can you think of anything, maybe from your personal library of music?"

"Well, pretty much anything by Rush would have something. You could play anything that Neil Peart does with the Buddy Rich Orchestra as well." I had him look up one of the Buddy Rich tribute concerts with Neil and he showed a clip from you tube of them playing "Cotton Tail" (Check it out, it's great.)

So he points out a few things and we listen for a minute or two. He then asks the class if anyone knows who Neil Peart is. Silence.

He asks if any of them know who Rush is. Once again, silence. This is one of those instances where I'm not really surprised, but I'm disappointed. Mr. Music, being the guy that he is, felt it necessary to educate the class on who Rush is, and I'm glad he did. He pulled up the video for "Tom Sawyer" and let it play through. Nobody knew who they were.

I'll bet if he played a Travis Barker video they would know who he was. Damn kids and their music...

We started to get into the music that we are going to be listening to in class and he played a Gregorian chant that just made me feel like I was at church. He explained some of the history behind it and we took some more notes. Not too much else to class that night. We have a little bit of homework on what we went over in class, but it's nothing I can't knock out pretty easily. Pretty good end to another week of school. Looking forward to the rest of this class.

Thursday Night: Music Appriciation

This class is an hour earlier than the others and at a campus in an area I'm not incredibly familiar with. Given the 6 o'clock start time and this being Houston, I leave my house at about 5:15 for a destination that Google Maps tells me is only 20 minutes away. Hey, in this town, you account for traffic at all times.

I got there at about 5:35. Found my building, and found my classroom but didn't go inside. I heard a loud voice from inside the room, but figured it was someone from the previous class. There's no way a professor is THAT early. I went and bought a soda and returned to the classroom. Sure enough, there was my teacher and one other student.

This guy is probably around 50 or 55 and a rather large human being. Super nice though, he greeted me and gave me a syllabus on my way to my usual seat. Second row, against the wall. "You have an assignment on the board here, please answer these questions." He points to the other guy in class who is sitting on the other side of the room. "And NO cheating!"

Har har, he's here all night, folks!

The assignment was as follows:

Write down the following:
Name?
What you do in the world? (job, otherwise)
Family?
Course of study?
Musical ability, if any
What type of music you enjoy
Why are you taking music appriciation

I was expecting that in my English class. Even as a warm up writing exercise or something, but not in here. I guess this furthers my thought that I really have no idea of what to expect in this class.

I wrote down my answers and waited for the class to come in. There are nine of us. NINE. I hope this class isn't cancelled next week. I believe we need twelve to have a class. So behind me are three kids, fresh out of high school two guys and a girl. Behind them is another guy who is friends with the first three. Other side is the guy  who beat me to class, a Hispanic guy, probably the only other guy older than me in the class and an Asian kid  in the back row. Including me that's eight. Someone didn't show up. I have the feeling this class is going to be cancelled.

The teacher introduces himself. He's from Georgia, has a masters in music education. He has taught high school choirs, middle school choirs, back to high school, but currently teaches music class in elementary school. He sings in local choruses and at the opera. He also plays piano, trombone, guitar, string bass and tuba. Ok, so I guess he's legit.
We go around and share our answers to the assignment on the board. The kid behind me says he's a rapper. HA! Ok, Slim Shady, just because you have a rhyming dictionary and a sense of rhythm, doesn't make you a rapper. You're a snotty little white kid who grew up in a well off planned community. Get over yourself!

Going around the room the Asian kid says that he's a rapper too and that he's the founder of his own label! What the hell? Neither one of them accepted the teachers request to rap for us. I won't believe their rapping ability until I see it. Er... hear it.

All of the four kids behind me have "attempted" to play an instrument and gave up after a very short period of time. Wow, good for you guys! All of those "damn kids" I was worried about having class with all turned out to be in one class. This could be interesting to say the least.



The guy who beat me to class is a vet as well. He was injured in Iraq and was medically discharged. Now he's a CO at one of the prisons in Huntsville which isn't too far away. Hats off to you, sir. Not a job I could do.

We had a break before we went over the syllabus and I got to talking to the teacher. Turns out he knows all of the band directors I had in high school. In fact, one of them did his taxes last year and they're pretty good buddies. Weird.

It seems that this class is more involved than I thought it would be. I have music that I have to listen to every week and write down my thoughts. Then take notes while we talk about it in class, then write a final entry about what my thoughts were on it. I have two of these a week. PLUS I have to attend two concerts. The Rush concert I hope to go to in December doesn't count. Dammit.

I was a bit worried coming into this class. I was worried I was going to have some pompous old fart teacher who took it waaay to seriously. This guy is cool. He said the only way you fail this class is if you don't try. Pretty sure I'll do ok in here too.

Since you're all wondering, and even if you're not, here are the answers to my questions:

Name: [student]
What do you do in the world? I work full time [at my job] and I am enrolled in school full time.
Family? I am happily married and have a 6 month old little girl
Course of study? Right now, Associates of Applied Science, major to follow
Musical ability, if any: I started playing drums when I was little, joined band in 6th grade and did percussion until 11th. I quit band when it stopped being fun.
What type of music you enjoy: Pretty much anything. I'm a hard rock/classic rock/metal kind of guy, but I appreciate any kind of music that has talented musicians playing it.
Why are you taking music appreciation: I needed an art credit. Since regular art bores me, and I don't get it most of the time I decided this class was a better fit for me. I get music.