September 29, 2009

Still Around

I'm actually looking into another layout update. Things have been crazy and my computer went kaputz and now I'm on a new one. :( I want the semester to slow down...

September 02, 2009

Furlough

So I've been away for much longer than I ever wanted to be from this. There technically hasn't been a reason for that, I'll admit. Sure, I could say that "real life" has played a role, but that shouldn't stop me from completely abandoning it.

Here's the brief update. Job situation nearly went completely haywire, but that's sort of back on track. I found out on the first day I was heading back to college that our site was going under. Needless to say, stress ensued. Went to college for the first two days and did HW across the next week. Got a call about four days after initial job issue. They've got something for me in Baltimore in about 3 weeks. In the mean time, I'm on what I like to call the "poor mans vacation".

That all said and done, I've been having some pretty lucid dreams. They've typically been about old friends coming to visit my new life. True enough, some of them were people I still talk to, but there were a few others where people I'd never met, yet spoke to like I'd known them for years came around. Locations varied from my bedroom to a cabin on the edge of the woods with a large field out the front through a small stand of trees.

The cabin one really was surprising though. The cabin was empty of people save me and one other person and she spent most of her time making food at a wood stove. I remember spending most of my time in a clean white sheeted bed, fully dressed, but not really going anywhere and watching out the window next door as the sun was nearly directly overhead with the leaves occasionally blocking the sunlight. They would move and I'd put my hand up with a finger extended so I could stare at the trees and the streams of light filtering through the upper branches of the tree. I could describe more, but I think I'm going to save that for myself.

All those dreams have had very personal meanings and I don't know exactly how to describe them in a way that I'd be satisfied with.

I've had some story ideas lately, but I have this strange emotional attachment to the characters that I've created. Strange as it may sound, it's true. Because I inherently "know" the characters in my story and how they'd react to any situation as well as empathizing with them to grab that particular feeling, it's uncomfortable to try to write the situation and conflict I've mentally presented to the character. It also makes me think I'm just a little crazy to view it that way.

My history professor apparently enjoys me being in her class. I'm constantly starting crap, but in a good way. Anytime she asks a question, I get looked at for the answer and, most of the time, end of providing it. Luckily there's at least one or two others in the class who are pretty good about answering questions specific to the coursework. Whenever we get a hypothetical question though, I seem to be the go-to person. Even during the chapter presentation being given by the other student responsible for the chapter, the one who tried to get the class involved kept coming back to me for the answers. It also opened up the class to more debate on hypothetical situations.

The prof was asking if we believed that slavery would've ended without the Civil War. Once again, eye contact. Crap. "Well, it's hard to really answer that question. For one, there's an old quote. 'War doesn't determine who's right, only who's left'. That being the case there's a good chance that plenty of things that might've happened without the war never were given a chance and that leaves a massive what-if situation. Things like Lincoln assassination may not have happened since tensions between the North and South may not have run so hot at the time." Reasons like that, etc etc.

She was also making commentary about firearms being shipped across the border to Mexico from the US. I bit my tongue, but made it clear I had a discrepancy with the statement. After class, we started talking about it due to my "possibility of becoming a police officer". I needed an out!

Twice now, I've left that class talking to my professor. She said she was going to try to find a copy of the program she watched on it. I'm halfway tempted to write a brief essay on it, but then I'd be, as Katie put it, "A massive suck-up." She also talked a bit about me being a history teacher of some kind since I mentioned the police officer thing. She also asked about what chapter I'd pulled for the chapter presentation. One of them is the Cold War. When I recalled that I had some old East German gear and the like, she got excited and I suddenly realized my mistake... Now she wants me to bring in some of this gear as part of my presentation. Haaaaa. This ought to be good.

Criminology is tonight in a couple hours. I need to print out that stuff, so until next time, A farewell is necessary before we can meet again, and meeting again, after moments or a lifetime is certain for those who are friends.