7-14-12

This week was OK. We had a really good professor so class was more fun than with the last professor. This new one went through a lot of material really fast, but he also didn’t expect us to memorize a bunch of specific facts. He just wanted us to get the main ideas and be able to apply them. I love professors like that. Some are all about learning the material and some are all about understanding the material. I think understanding the material is so much more important. If you understand the material, you can often figure things out without having to memorize everything. (Try telling that to a couple people in my genetics class this last semester. I don’t know how much they had to study to memorize everything like they did. I still kicked their asses too. Hence my preference for understanding the material.) The best part about this professor was his voice: he sounded like a cross between Mufasa and the narrator from the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie, the one by Tim Burton. A hint of an accent, but it just served to make him more interesting to listen to rather than making him harder to follow. I really liked him a lot. That doesn’t mean this week was super easy, though. We had two lab reports to write, a term paper, and a test. I think they all went OK (I did end up fighting my computer quite a bit while doing my term paper. Me and my computer don’t get along), but I do have one more lab report to write this weekend before I’m done with them for the class. Then we just have a presentation to give and we’re done. The presentation shouldn’t be too bad. It only has to be 15 minutes on the topic your term paper was over. So basically I have it written and I just need to put some pictures to it and practice. Hopefully I won’t procrastinate as much as I did this week. I was having real motivation problems again. On top of everything I keep thinking I’ve decided to take meds this fall and see if they help, but then next thing I know I’ve decided I don’t want to. Sometimes I’m tempted to not even go back to see Dr. H this fall again, but I’m not sure if I’m going to have to meet with this one bitch from the university, and if I do she’ll probably ask me about it and force me to go if I don’t. It’s not really fair to call her a bitch, since she was just doing her job, but I hate people like her who come off as phony and her job did make my life a pain the last two weeks of spring semester. Oh, well. Problem for future me. We also had a couple mini-lectures again this week. One day was talking about more biology stuff, which I loved. Most of this summer has been more physics related, so it was nice to get more into the area I like. Plus, hearing Dr. P describe cells as shitting and pissing themselves was hilarious. You’d think a guy with a doctorate would be stuffy, but Dr. P is awesome. The rest of the lectures were all about policy, and those were ridiculously boring. One lady had a really dry, cynical sense of humor, which is my favorite kind (maybe tied with dirty), so she was fun to listen to. Her presentation was still boring though. She worked for a government agency and she was kind of rolling her eyes at some of their inefficient ways of doing things the whole time. The rest of the people were sort of with the UN, and I view that whole thing as empty grand gestures made by idealistic morons, so I obviously loved their presentations. Oh, well. We got free pizza before one of them, so I can’t complain.

                So everyone’s getting excited about the program almost being done. It’s been a lot better than most of us expected (mostly because we were expecting a bunch of unbearable nerds. Only a couple of people are like that. I’m kinda a mix between the two. Have I ever mentioned I hate other nerds?), but most of us are still looking forward to going somewhere with a little more freedom I think. We basically only get to do things on the weekend nights, and only then if the TA’s will drive us off-site. They usually will, but we still have to work around their schedule. Yesterday was Friday the Thirteenth. I actually had semi-bad luck yesterday. Big things, like the test, went fine, but it was little things. I forgot things I needed (3 times) and had to run and get them, just little things like that. It all worked out, though, so I can’t complain. I’m still a ridiculously lucky person, and most people could have had things go way worse if they forgot such things. So last night a couple of us (Sar, Jam, Jul, Am, St. T, Sco, Da, Ant) went to the beach. It was only my second time going since I came here. On the way there, a couple of us were talking, and we found out St. T is incredibly innocent. First, he’s a virgin. I don’t really care about that since I am too, but the other guys couldn’t comprehend it (I was smart enough not to tell them I was a virgin. It’s none of their fucking business!). Then, we found out he had never seen porn before even. I can understand seeing it and deciding it’s not a big deal, but when Ant pulled some up on his phone, they couldn’t even get St T to look at it. I do envy St. T in a way, since I wish I didn’t watch porn as much as I do (at school anyway). I’ll try and work on it this fall. Lots of guys watch more porn than I do and are unapologetic about it, but I’m a big fan in moderation. I need to get some moderation in my life in that area. Anyway, then they found out St. T didn’t know women were naked at strip clubs. He thought they were mostly clothed and just pole dancing. I’ve never been to a strip club, but even I knew that. If they don’t get completely naked, they still show quite a bit, and just have skimpy outfits. Then, he was saying he didn’t know what sex was until high school, and mentioned a bunch of other sex things that he was completely innocent about for the longest time. It’s basic biology! It’s something people should know (not the really kinky stuff, but you know what I mean.). St. T doesn’t want to get out and learn more. He would rather just stay in with his anime and his mangas. I kinda feel bad for the kid, but he’s OK with it. Then it turns out he’s somewhat of a germaphobe on top of this. He was freaking out about the sand on the beach getting on his stuff, and didn’t want to put his shirt on later because he felt slightly salty and didn’t want it on his shirt. Facepalm. I’m going on a rant about St. T, and I shouldn’t judge. I’ll stop now. It’s just, some of his things are just completely foreign to me. The rest of the beach was fun. We walked, swam, relaxed. Some of the people played Frisbee and football. Sco, Ant, and Da wore very flamboyant, very tight speedos. They were turning a lot of heads, which was their intention. A little bar/snack-bar thing always has a band in the evenings, so we migrated our way up there later. People were drinking and dancing and taking pictures. The three in the speedos continued to wear only those and were having a lot of women come up and ask for photos and stuff. They were loving it, and it was absolutely hilarious to watch. I don’t think I’m ever going to wear a speedo, but more power to them. I was sitting at the table since I was completely sober and I didn’t want to leave our stuff unattended, but the people came over and made me go join them in dancing. The most surprising person last night was Sar. Most of the time she’s overly industrious and scarily considerate of people (to the point where it’s more uncomfortable than anything). However, she also knows how to party hard! Hell, yeah. I like nerds that work hard but still can have fun. I hate the ones who can’t do anything but school. After the band got done around 10, we decided to head to the hookah bar from last week. The only problem was that I didn’t bring my ID with me since I didn’t want to have it at the beach to be stolen. So I couldn’t get in, and I just rode home with Cor, the TA after we dropped everyone off. It sounds like they had a blast and the speedos came out again it sounds like. I wasn’t really upset that I couldn’t join them. I was being a bit of a downer. I wasn’t really in a depressed mood, but I just was perfectly content to spend last night by myself. I was just happy for some me time. I think that’s underappreciated a lot. That’s pretty much it. Pretty much everyone, even the people who don’t normally come to stuff, is going out to eat tonight, and we leave soon. I should get dressed. Until next time!

*Edit: We went to glow golf with awesome 80's music after supper. Whoot!