A Bizarre Yesterday

During Thanksgiving break I got to sleep in. Because of that, my body realized how much sleep it misses because of my wee swimming hobby. This week has been rough, I feel like I'm always behind, and my body feels like some careless giant smashed it with a sledge hammer.

Yesterday all of this caught up to me in discrete mathematics. I fell asleep while taking notes, resulting in a huge ink puddle/blob on my paper (I'm not going to talk about the drool). I only woke up when someone's cell phone clattered onto the floor loudly. I awoke with a start, and realized I was going to be late to weights (I leave this class early so I can make it to weights).

You know that strange point of no return? The one that if you push past it, you get delirious and loony? I hit that in the middle of workout in the pool. We were doing our power circuit, a circuit that takes place in two pools. I was in the dive tank and I discovered some goggles. They were huge, ridiculous, and reminded me of the ones I wore as a kid. I put them on.

That's when it all started. I continued to work my butt off, but that didn't stop me of making impressions of little kids wiping their nose, and giggling. I talked with my group trying to figure out the silliest way to intimidate your opponents. They really liked two: One where I wore the little kid goggles, ears flapping out of my cap, and I roared while flexing (think of the x-man, Wolverine), then giggle and wipe my nose. The second, same appearance, but instead, acting like the cute little dinosaur in Jurassic Park. The one that invades the jeep, then turns into this monster with the hissing and strange flap that makes it look bigger.

I was triple-dog-dared to do it to Greg. Who can pass that up? I was loony and stupid enough to do it. I said, "Hey Greg, what do you think of my new stretching routine before my race?" Then I roared at him. He laughed so hard, he almost couldn't stand up...

Then I got to go to class again til 7. Ran to the store afterward to get milk. As I was leaving the store, a little girl pointed at me and shrilly screamed "IT'S SANTA!" I was wearing my U letterman jacket and a white scarf. Dang. I was hoping my beard wouldn't give me away.

I got home, and what should I find? Mom had come and made dinner! So all I had to do was eat, then I was well on my way to that heavenly place called dreams and sleep.

The thing is, I have had discussions with friends about this...

Here is a listing for a class offered at the U next spring:

3900 Star Trek, the Quest to be Human (3) Cross listed as CLCS 3810. Prerequisite: 2000 level requirements. Fulfills Humanities Exploration.
This course will give students the intellectual experience of grappling with the complex question of what it means to be human in the context of pop culture phenomenon that is Star Trek: The Next Generation. The course will be highly interdisciplinary and involve study of wide range of subjects-including child development and attachment theory, psychoanalysis, neuroscience, creativity and the fine arts, disability studies and prosthetics, and cyborg theory-in order to explore the nature of love and loss, empathy and anxiety, and whether one is born human or becomes human.


I'll bet they'll talk quite a bit about Data in that class. Is he considered human? He seems to have the natural curiosity of a human, always wondering what it would be like to be human...

By the way...

I forgot to mention one thing in my last entry: We swimmers go through a training phase here at the U, fondly called "Peak Week." We subject ourselves to be on call 24/7 for eight days. We have to be within a 15 minute radius of the pool. Not only do we have to workout, but we also have to do additional activities, such as making a skit-on video, and it has to have a lamp in all the scenes, and you must represent every team in the conference. Or you have to make a calendar featuring members from your team. Or you have to play "night games" for three hours, roaming all over campus at midnight. Or you have to do a picture scavenger hunt. Or you have to do an amazing race. Or you have to to "the gauntlet." Or watch Back to the Future 1, 2, and 3, and know it by heart. Not only know the movie and the storylines, but know the background signs, like "Western Auto Stores," or how much the gas cost in 1955. The list goes on and on. But guess what? We, the Junior Class, known as "The Juniors 9," or "JRS9," won the entire competition overall. Yes, us. Our reward? Oversized wide t-shirts that aren't long enough. But that doesn't matter. We got a prize, and it is awesome. Not only does it say "U swim & dive," but on the back of the shirt it has some Michael Jackson lyrics (We did the "Thriller" dance for our skit, and the Juniors 9 sounds an awful lot like "the Jackson 5.") that we used throughout the week for our cheers and whatnot. We just got the shirts this week. Peak week was almost a month ago. Awesome, awesome.

November already?

The "Juniors 9" (Trying to be like the "Jackson 5"). This was our team for "Peak Week," which takes place during fall break. We're on call 24/7 for swim practice, since NCAA rules don't apply. A very hard week.

Dancing "Thriller" during movie trivia practice. (We got the question correct, and had to do a "dance party" while those teams who got the answer wrong had to do a hard set.)

It's November already?! Where did the time go? Wow.

Dad just got his knee surgery yesterday, talked to him on the phone, and it sounded like it went well. I hope to find some time to visit him tonight. He said they took pictures of it on mom's camera. Perhaps I'll take my computer tonight and see if I can upload a couple for the world to see.

Life is going well, and is flying by fast. I've had a couple of good first meets, I'm swimming better than I thought I would.

Nothing new is going on, just being the same old me. Swimming. Schooling. Sleeping. Slurping. Snaffling. Oh, and I learnt the Thriller dance with some of my teammates.

I'm really enjoying my math classes, and a couple of my education classes. The only one I really enjoy out of the three education classes is ELP: education law policy. It's really fascinating to understand just what rights students and teachers give up when they are in the school setting.

It's amazing how out of hand some zero-tolerance policies can get: We talked about a case where a 12-year old girl brought a store-bought cake to class for her birthday. Inside the box was a plastic knife to cut the cake, put there by her mother. The teacher cuts up the cake with the knife, then sends the girl to the principal's office where she was suspended.
Or the time three kindergarteners were playing cops and robbers at recess. They were suspended for three days for pretending to shoot each other.

And I come from a high school where I took a pocket knife on A days for my woods class. (Very handy for getting the slivers out). Sometimes without thinking, I pulled it out during other classes to get one of those stupid slivers out. I was never even warned. I think no one cared. And yet, at a high school close to mine, a student was suspended for having a pocket knife in the glovebox in his car. Very interesting.

Update

Well, nothing truly new is going on...last night I burned brownies and pizza, so I lived off of zucchuni bread Dad left me...

On Monday, I was walking to my class in the institute building, when I almost ran over a bunch of little midgets turning a corner. Embarrassed, I quickly made my way to the main area (between the East and West wings) and sat on a chair and hid behind a newspaper, all the while thinking, "Hey, one of those little kids looked really, really familiar." As I was racking my brain to figure out why, the familiar-looking-kid walked by with his little troupe surrounding him. He glanced at me and smiled and left the building. My slow brain finally made the connection: It was in fact, David Archuleta. Taking a class at Institute. Maybe.

Today he showed up again, so I guess he really is taking a class. Only he hid his little face in a scarf. Apparently he just got his wisdom teeth out (according to Twitter) and still looks like a chipmunk.

The only other thing that's new is that I'm helping an ESL class out at Evergreen Junior High (hey, that's where Emily works!). I was expecting a bunch of spanish-speaking students, but no, most of the students are refugees from the Middle East and Africa. They are actually a lot of fun to interact with and to teach. Some want to learn quickly, while others seem hesitant/shy/rebellious.

Anything else? Oh, I find I'm usually an excellent cook when it comes to crepes, omelettes, wraps, rice pudding, cereal, toast, oatmeal, desserts, and PB&J sandwiches. Anything else will come out black, burnt, and smoky. But I figure that's a good enough staple. What else does a college student wish for?

Well, it has started all over again!

Yes, I'm busy busy busy again. And yet, somehow, I don't mind being crazily busy. I enjoy having almost no time to be lazy. I get more stuff done that way, I suppose. "Official" swim practice doesn't start til the 8th, but we've been practicing every day anyway without the coaches present. Some poor freshman yesterday only ate a granola bar and a sandwich for the entire day. Needless to say, she passed out during our dryland workout. We got a lecture from coach after that practice that we need to eat at least 4-6 meals everyday! I don't mind that rule. I love second breakfast.

Classes so far are going well. I'm supposedly officially a math education major. I'm taking three education classes, and two math classes. The education classes are all right. The only one I really like and feel is truly useful is my "Education Law Policy" class. It talks about the rights of teachers and students under the law, what protections the teachers have, etc. etc. etc. We have to compile a bunch of news articles about education and the law, and it's ridiculous how many people try to sue teachers for this or that. Some are legit, but many are not so much. For one of my other education classes, "Introduction to Multicultural Education" one of the requirements is to volunteer at a school and help out immigrants, refugees, whatnot to learn english, or with their homework. Emily and I have arranged that, so I'll be helping out at Evergreen a few times a week.

So, that will be my life this semester. Math, education, homework, swimming, and volunteering. No time for dating or any of that nonsense. Yay!!!