Name: Jon
Year: Junior
Hometown: Flagstaff, Arizona
Major: English
I’d rather have a box of chocolates.
May 5, 2008
I was on a panel this week for a group of fifth graders who were visiting campus. In our talking points, we had the note “think back to when you were a fifth grader.” So I’m trying to remember what was on my mind at that age and realized that college was pretty far from it. I was mostly concerned with 1. fear of middle school, 2. fear of looking stupid in front of girls, and 3. long division. It didn’t really seem so long ago and, to be honest, my primary concerns now are pretty similar. That is: 1. fear of middle schoolers, 2. fear of looking stupid in front of girls, and 3. my inability to do long division.
I realized the other day that I have forgotten how to do long division. Now, in the English major at Hamline University, there isn’t often a lot of call for long division but it would be nice to know I could do it if I needed to.
A friend of mine told me this week that life is like a roll of toilet paper. At first, it goes really slowly but speeds up the closer you get to the end. It made sense to me as I thought about that gap between the person I am now and the fifth grader I was.
From the Field
April 24, 2008
One thing I really miss about elementary school is going on field trips. Even when it was something mundane, getting on the bus and going somewhere “in the field” was always the high point of the month. We don’t really get field trips anymore but I had something close today. For my conservation biology class, we have to do research at the Minnesota Zoo in order to determine how to improve in situ conditions for animals. It was pretty cool. I forgot how much I enjoy zoos. I mean, where else am I going to see a tiger up close and tell the story in one piece? I know this is cliché, but my favorite exhibit was probably the monkeys. There’s this weird fascination I have with watching what is basically a tiny, furry human swinging around on trees and looking back at me like it has some weird fascination with this giant, clothed monkey staring at it. We had a moment.
Dead Men Don’t Bake Bundts.
April 20, 2008
This has nothing to do with college but I might be regressing. I turned twenty-two this weekend and had assumed that I would celebrate it by perusing Reader’s Digest, listening to boring music, and enjoying talk radio. Instead, we took another stab at the grill (in spite of the weather) and one of my friends baked me a cake that looked like Lego blocks. Now, before all my fans rush out to send me baked goods, I want to mention that I don’t actually care for cake but this one was different since it was in the shape of one of my great passions... and birthday cake always tastes better than regular cake.
I registered for my second to last semester at Hamline this morning. It’s strange to think about how fast these last three years have gone. It feels like just yesterday I was walking around all wide-eyed and full of wonder that I might someday be calling this place home. With my recent haircut, I’m feeling even more like I did that first fall here. Awwww. I went all sentimental. Don’t worry. I’ll be back to normal next week.
5 Days, 5 Events
April 13, 2008
This last week might have been the busiest week I have had since I’ve been here that didn’t involve moving to or from school. As I’ve probably mentioned in previous blogs, April is Asian Heritage Month at Hamline and I am the president of the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC). This week saw both our keynote speaker and our Dance & Drum Festival-- our two largest events. The keynote was, thankfully, co-organized with Students for Free Tibet so there was relatively little I needed to do for that event. It went well. Dr. Lonsang Sangay, a researcher from Harvard, came in to talk about the history of Tibet and China and what this history means for the future. It ended with some excellent Tibetan food and conversation with Dr. Sangay.
The Dance & Drum Festival, a few days later, was all APAC. We brought in four dance groups to perform in the music hall on campus for whoever wanted to show up. Sounds easy enough, right? This was probably one of the most stressful experiences ever. I’m not good with logistics so I spent most of Thursday feeling like I was flying by the seat of my pants. Oh, yeah, I also had a test the day before the Dance & Drum Festival and the morning of. When the dust settled, it was a good event and now we’re on the downhill slope of Asian Heritage Month.
Also contributing to the hump that was this week: The Fusion movie night, an Admissions Office Bake-off, and a HAISS trip to a pow-wow. Should we briefly list them?
Fusion movie night: Fusion is the group for multiracial and transracial adopted students. I’m vice-president of this group. We watched the movie Catfish In Black Bean Sauce, a movie about some adopted people who find their biological mother and the effects it has on the family, followed by a discussion. Since the president had another event she needed to be at, I led the discussion.
Admissions Office Bake-off: A few weeks ago, I challenged my boss to a bake-off. Wednesday (the same night as the movie night) was the day of truth. Other staff at the Admissions House ended up joining in and we ended up with a delightful spread of wonderful baked goods. I made a cheesecake to face off against Caitlin’s pear tart, Naomi’s bundt cake, Kelly’s cookies, and David’s truffles (which, I feel compelled to mention, though delicious, were not baked). I think David and I ended up calling it a draw but it’s safe to say we crushed everyone else.
HAISS pow-wow: HAISS (Hamline American Indian Student Society) took a group of students, myself included, to a local pow-wow on Friday. It was a successful event and incredibly enjoyable-- mostly because I didn’t have to do anything but participate.
his might be my longest blog. Fitting, since this was a long week.
All Up In Yr Grill
April 6, 2008
Minnesota weather is weird. It snowed last weekend and then the sun came out, melted the snow, and stayed around for a while while we were all inside in class. Today (Sunday, when I’m writing this), it’s raining again and I heard a rumor about snow. I think it was just a rumor. Yesterday was beautiful, though, and my housemates and I took full advantage of it. See, I recently became the proud owner of a $10 grill ($9.92 at Wal-Mart. Am I allowed to advertise? Because I am), a bag of charcoal, and a container of lighter fluid.
Now, readers, I want to note that my housemates and I are responsible adults who took all necessary safety precautions when lighting and operating the grill. Do not use fire unless properly supervised by a responsible adult.
Wanting to take advantage of the warm weather, we had some of our friends over and sat around grilling burgers and bratwurst. Since we know a lot of people on campus, as people walked by, our little group grew gradually. I suppose we should have had a sing-along.
Bragging: we lacked seasoned salt so I improvised with some black pepper, garlic salt, chili powder, and cumin. It turned out pretty well.
This week will be busy (expect blog coverage in the next few days) so I’m glad I started it off with a barbecue with friends.
Montage Month
This week has gone really fast. Whenever I get really busy like this, I imagine myself living in one of those montages they show in movies. Thing is, I feel like I need to have learned something by the end. Like, my week goes really fast and my head is spinning but, at the end, I’m able to pull a truck through snow or dismantle an atomic bomb. Wait, wasn’t that the name of the last U2 album? I’m not a U2 fan.
As we leave March behind, we find our brave blogger gearing up for Asian Heritage Month. We’ve got five events planned. I’m hoping everything goes smoothly. We’ll see. Expect frazzled blogs about things not going smoothly. I’m hoping hilarity will often ensue.
Midterms!
So, for those of you wondering where I disappeared to, I decided to do really well on my midterms. We’ll see if my professors shared my decision. As I think I’ve mentioned in a past blog or two, this semester has seen me in my first natural science class at Hamline. So far, I think I’ve been doing pretty darn well. In fact, I thought briefly about changing my major from English to Conservation Biology. By “briefly” I mean about a minute. Oh, how I love the English language.
The last week of school before Spring Break was really busy. In addition to studying for three tests and writing a paper on parallelism in the book of Jeremiah, I’ve also been doing my best to plan events for Asian Heritage Month in April. I managed to reduce my heartrate here and there with an occasional cooking endeavor which not only helped me relax but helped me not to, you know, starve to death. Feed your tummy as well as your mind!!
Sweaters and Toys
This year has been the first year that I have spent Spring Break here at Hamline instead of going home to sunny Arizona. Part of this is because, for the last two years, I’ve had braces and have had to return a few times during the year so my orthodontist could tighten things and make me hate my teeth just a little. Now that I’m braces-free, I can do whatever I want! Well, not really. A lot of people on campus went home but my housemates were around all week and I had two new Star Wars Lego sets to keep me busy. I realized that my room has become a time machine. You enter and you are transported back to the world of a younger Jon. There is a trampoline by the door and Legos and Star Wars action figures scattered around. As you walk through the piles of laundry laying around, you have to be careful not to step on Nerf guns and drawings of robots. That has been the beauty of the break for me. No homework and plenty of free time for me to revert to a younger version of myself.
Of note: my housemate has this fabulous sweater that looks really good on me. It’s one of those tight girly sweaters and has white and pink stripes. I have my issues with that whole “real men wear pink” fad from a few years ago but this might be my new color.
Start Your Skillets!
Last night, my housemate and I participated in a cook-off against our next door neighbors, the residents of the Spanish House. The rules were pretty simple: we had three hours to complete an appetizer, a entrée, and a dessert. Three of our friends acted as judges and gave scores based on taste, meal cohesion, and presentation. The weird thing was that, even though we kept our meals secret, we ended up cooking very similar things. Great minds think alike?
My team ended up losing which I think is contestable because our dishes were better plated and, I think, classier:
Spanish House:
Appetizer: Stuffed mushrooms
Entrée: Pork ribs (in an amazing apple cider-based marinade) with homemade coleslaw
Dessert: Chocolate soufflé with (store-bought) ice cream and walnuts
Pan-Asian House:
Appetizer: Stuffed mushrooms
Entrée: Pork chops sautéed in a cranberry and orange sauce with garlic mashed potatoes and lemon roasted asparagus.
Dessert: French chocolate almond torte garnished with frozen raspberries.
I want to mention that the torte, one of my signature desserts, has no flour in it. Instead, there are 11 ounces of almonds, a lot of chocolate, six eggs, and two sticks of butter. I am confident I took years off of the judges’ lives last night. Delicious, delicious years.
Daily Craftwork.
February 17, 2008
Even though exciting things happen to me basically every day (I’m like a superhero), I usually craft my days around one or two specific events. For instance, I’ll have a test to take on Wednesday or Thursday is the day we get our quizzes back in Biology so the cute girl who sits in front of me will make eye contact when she passes mine back. Anyway, last Monday I had three events to craft my day around:
1. My first test of the semester in my Logic class.
2. My first day of my internship with Seward Inc.
3. Going to the Cat Power concert.
Any of these three things are more than worthy of having a day planned around them but I was lucky enough to have all three packed into one. To be honest, though, the Cat Power concert was the high point. The test went pretty well, as did the internship (despite being 20 minutes late after getting lost in Minneapolis), but Cat Power was a near-religious experience. Chan Marshall sang for almost two hours which seemed like a special treat since she is notoriously moody and has a history of ending shows very early and storming off stage. Not this time. A huge set and an encore later, my concert-buddy and I were on cloud nine. I think that’s the good cloud-- isn’t it the one Mick Jagger is always singing about people getting off of?
Be My Chalky Little Heart
February 10, 2008
All you well-informed prospective students out there probably know this already but, in case anyone doesn’t, it’s encouraged that students complete one or two internships while at Hamline. Tomorrow I’ll be starting my first internship. It’s with a computer company that is developing a program to teach little kids how to read through stories. They recruited some English/Creative Writing majors to write for them. Should be pretty cool. I think we’re working from a list of vocab words. Tomorrow is the orientation meeting where I’ll meet the four other interns and, I’m guessing, we’ll talk about what exactly we need to be writing about.
A few hours after this meeting, I’ll be milling around First Ave watching Cat Power and probably moping a little-- Cat Power isn’t really happy music. I’ll probably end up wishing I’ve had more heartbreak in my life so that I can better relate to the music. This will get me all fired up for Valentine’s Day. Since I don’t have a sweetheart this year, I’ll be reading poetry at a campus open mic event. Okay, so my lack of a sweetheart isn’t the only reason I’ll be reading poetry.
February 2, 2008
Think back to third grade. The first day back to school after a long summer. You’ve conquered second grade and now you’re ready to take on new challenges. At the end of the day, you’re wondering how you’ll manage a whole year of this. It was nice to see your friends and all but the day seemed so long. There was no time for a nap or hours of sitting around watching cartoons. You begin to wonder if running away to join the circus isn’t such a bad idea. Jump forward to, I don’t know, the middle of September and the fall days fly past. You feel silly for ever thinking this would be too much.
This last week was our first (half) week back to school. We only had three days of classes but I was worn out by the weekend. Part of that is because I have morning classes that interfere with my sleeping in but I think that, after a month off, I’m also just out of practice when it comes to focusing on tasks that need to get done. See, I complain about three days seeming long now but, in a week or two, I’m going to be blogging about wondering where the week went.
My classes look pretty cool. As I mentioned earlier, I’m taking a natural science class for the first time since I’ve been here. It doesn’t look nearly as scary as I thought it would be.
Also of note: my roommate moved out which means that I have space for a (small) trampoline in my room.
January 27, 2008
Well, as we near the end of J-term, I am looking forward to returning to school. As much as I enjoy having a month to relax and spend time with my family, a little part of me sort of wishes they would assign me essays about classic literature. What I can’t say I’m looking forward to is the weather. Having spent this month in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest, I’ve gotten used to slightly warmer climates. Now, Flagstaff is at 7000ft so it’s not like I have a tan or anything but I have enjoyed basking in non-negative temperatures. Oh well. Complaining about the weather won’t make it warmer.
Classes begin on Wednesday. Registration was so long ago (November) that I forgot what I was taking. I looked on the website last night and now I’m feeling pretty excited about my course load. I’m finally taking a science class so expect entries about this weird concept of “the science lab.”
A Brick In The Foot Is Worth At Least Half A Semester’s Worth Of Work, Right?
January 14, 2008
I feel like there’s an old saying or proverb or something that goes “you learn more at home than you do at school.” Is that a real saying? Maybe it is and it’s from way back when farmers ruled the world. One of those weird agricultural holdovers like “A tractor jump-started is worth two in the bush” or “Scarecrows stare because they have straw in their heads.” Are those real? They sound real to me-- and I spent three years of high school in Idaho where about 90% of the world’s seed corn is grown. Okay, believe it or not, this began with a direction.
I’m currently in Tigard, Oregon visiting my mom. In between learning new baking techniques and listening to stories about a young Jon, I made it out to the garage and found my giant rubbermaid container of Legos. It has been a long time since I was a serious collector of Legos (although I did recently spend fifty dollars on The Imperial Landing Craft set) so the bricks in the container are mostly from sets that are around ten to fifteen years old. Now you’re getting a story:
For Christmas of 1993, my grandma (who made a habit of spoiling me rotten) gave me the “Ice Planet 2002 Deep Freeze Defender.” For those of you not in the know, this was the biggest Ice Planet 2002 spaceship available. It also was one of two Ice Planet 2002 sets that included the fabled “ice planet babe” Lego person head. Nerds out there, you know what I’m talking about. Oh, I was excited. I spent what felt like hours assembling the spaceship and, upon completion, brought it proudly out to show my family... and promptly tripped over something and dropped it. My little heart broken, I never put it back together. Well, some fifteen years later, I downloaded the directions from a Lego enthusiast website and spent four hours of my Saturday rebuilding it. Oh, it was glorious.
Not satiated, I downloaded more directions and rebuilt the Spyrius Robo-Guardian (essentially a giant robot) as well. For whatever reason, the parts were harder to find this time around and I never did find the connector piece for its hand. So, using creative skills I’m sure can only come from a liberal arts education, I improvised and replaced the hand with a giant laser cannon which I feel is much cooler than the hand could ever be.
So, what am I getting at? I’m thinking that “Building things with Legos” really ought to be a viable major and courses should be offered at universities. I’ll be writing to the dean of students at Hamline to negotiate the kind of credit I’ll be getting for my accomplishments this J-term... right after I finish building this other spaceship.
Prosper.
December 30, 2007
I like to think I was lucky, growing up, that my parents didn’t really mind what grades I got in school as long as I tried my hardest. This impressed in me the idea that grades are just an institution and the only person I really need to prove anything to is myself. This self-esteem-booting approach worked wonderfully until around seventh grade, when I received my first D. Then it became apparent that I was not above this human institution. Now, I’m not going to lie, I’m not a straight A student-- especially when it comes to math and science but I feel like I do pretty well. What I’m getting at is that I wasn’t too worried about seeing my grades beyond not wanting anything too low. I was expecting magic-- in fact, I was expecting a few Cs and possibly a D since my classes were pretty challenging this semester. And what did I get? Two As and two Bs. Next semester will see me venturing outside my major and into the natural sciences so we’ll see how that goes but I’m going in feeling confident.
I was watching this show on the History Channel called Star Trek Tech and a college professor wrote a proposal and got funding to build a Holodeck. Now, being halfway through my junior year, it’s too late for me so I want all you students reading this blog (yes, both of you) to think really seriously about majoring in Physics and continuing this sort of research. Come on. We all know how cool that would be.
Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun...
December 22, 2007
The picture above is of a Jucy Lucy cheeseburger from Matt’s Bar in Minneapolis. Now, coming from the Southwest, I’ve heard of some strange things (like dry rivers, Jumping Cholla Cacti, Gila Monsters) but it wasn’t until I came to the Midwest that a friend of mine introduced me to the concept of a burger that is filled with cheese. Apparently, there are four places in the Twin Cities that claim to have created this masterpiece of cholesterol and this friend of mine, a much bigger man than I, had this plan to try all four of them in one night. Being six feet tall and about 140lbs, I was opposed to this idea since twenty-one seems like far too young an age to have a heart attack. So it was agreed that we would try just one of them in one night-- spread the whole thing out.
Now, even though it’s called Matt’s Bar, it was clear when we walked in that the primary drawing force of the establishment was the food. We ordered our mission-- or our food, whatever you want to call it-- and tore into it with gusto. When the waitress brought it to us, she told us we had to let it sit for a few minutes so that we wouldn’t get a scalding blast of molten cheese on our tongues (I’m pretty sure Matt’s takes no responsibility for third degree cheese burns). After blasting through my Jucy Lucy, I realized that it wasn’t nearly as filling as I thought it would be-- that is to say, I was able to stand up and walk around without my hear feeling like it was going to explode. Then I uttered what may have been the dumbest words of my life:
“That wasn’t too bad. I could totally do another one of those.”
So it was down the road to the 5-8 Club for round two of our judgement. It was after we had ordered but before we had received our food that I realized that Jucy Lucy #1 had indeed filled me up and a second burger really did not sound appealing. Digest faster!” I yelled at my stomach but to no avail. So, did I do the smart thing and box it up for later? Sure didn’t. I spent the rest of the night laying in bed feeling a lot like Jabba the Hutt. Return Of The Jedi Jabba, not the special edition one that moves around.
So, readers, take my advice: don’t overeat to prove your masculinity; it can only end with you feeling like a Star Wars character.
Oh yeah: so far, Matt’s has the better burger.
Five Is The Number That I Dreamed About.
December 9, 2008
As I near the end of my first semester of my junior year, I’m realizing how much I’ve grown when it comes to time management. Now, I am by no means perfect in this department but I feel like I’ve come a long way from my all-nighters of high school and freshman year. Right now, I have one essay to write and I’m (eagerly) anticipating two take-home tests in Linguistics and Anthropology. The Anthropology test will have two short essay questions. As an aspiring writer, I like to hide out in essay questions where I can explain myself as opposed to a simple. concrete check mark next to a T or an F. Usually my reasoning for choosing “F” makes sense but, without being able to explain it, I end up with wrong answers. It took me a few tries to get my driver’s license. I guess what I’m getting at here is that writing a is a valuable skill that everyone should try to get better at because it usually makes you sound smarter.
A Blog About The Weather
December 3, 2008
Never Doubt Devout Weather Channel Viewers. On Thursday, a friend of mine told me there was a storm advisory in effect for Saturday. I looked up at the cold but clear sky and hoped that she would think I was shivering instead of shrugging her off. During a late night walk on Friday night, I looked up at the overcast sky and allowed myself to consider the possibility of snowfall but decided that a "storm advisory" was definitely an exaggeration.
When I awoke on Saturday, it became apparent that the weather (a force in this world I’m beginning to believe is sentient, has a sick sense of humor, and has it out for me) had gotten the best of me. Since I have yet to build a weather-control machine fit for a Bond movie, all I can do is sit indoors drinking tea and watching the snow gradually busy the campus.
I did make a brief trek outside to catch a picture of my Old Main, my favorite building on campus, dressed for the winter.
Sing Your Heart Out.
December 2, 2008
Now, I don’t like giving people advice since all I really know is what has worked for me in my own life but this is some universal advice that everyone should carry with them always: When going somewhere where there will be karaoke, always be sure you have someone with you who knows all of the words to Paradise By The Dashboard Light. Yeah. The Meatloaf song. I spent the better part of Friday night in the student center at the MISA (Multicultural and International Student Affairs) Karaoke Night.
Karaoke and I have an interesting relationship in that none of the bands I listen to most often are ever offered and I rarely know any of the contemporary hits well enough to be comfortable singing them in front of people so I usually end up being the guy belting out hits from the 80s or mid 90s that everyone knows-- not that there’s anything wrong with that; I’m slowly getting better at the falsetto part in Truly Madly Deeply. In spite of my lack of knowledge of most songs, the mob mentality eventually took over and I ended up singing five songs over the course of the night. The notable performances were a raucous rendition of YMCA and an energetic (if not perfectly on-pitch), all male performance of Wannabe. Fun as these were, I would like to develop an "indie-rock karaoke machine" so I could belt out an atrocious attempt at Belle & Sebastian’s Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie instead of an atrocious attempt at a song I’m just not emotionally invested in.
Giving Thanks.
November 25, 2008
This year is the second year in a row that I have not done the traditional turkey thing for Thanksgiving. Even though, growing up, it was a hallmark of the holiday season for our family, I’ve enjoyed branching out from the conventional foods of the Pilgrims. In fact, when I grow up and have a family of my own, I’ll likely try to forge a tradition of things like Ghormeh Sabzi (an Iranian dish with meat, potatoes, and various herbs served over rice) or Pho (a spicy Vietnamese noodle dish) at holidays either instead of or in addition to large, mostly flightless birds.
Since I didn’t go home for Thanksgiving, my housemate and I threw a potluck for our friends on campus who were around. Now, much as a bunch of college students away from home trying to make a Thanksgiving meal together sounds like a sitcomic recipe for disastrous hilarity, things went pretty smoothly. Nothing got burned, scorched, or undercooked and there were no socially awkward misunderstandings compounded by a lack of communication-- in other words, we had an enjoyable evening together that would have made an incredibly boring episode of Friends.
Never Eat The Halibut In Arizona.
November 18, 2007
I attended the Hmong New Year celebration this weekend. To maintain that “too cool for this” persona I love, I’ll say “it was because, as vice-president of the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC), I needed to help set up and show support” but I’ll let you in on a little secret: I really enjoy going to events like this and this one was the high point of my week.
The whole thing revolves around a dinner with speakers and, this year, a series of student-written monologues that explored the duality of identity many Hmong students experience. I went with Ben, my roommate from last year, and Teng, the president of APAC. We decided to show our support in style by wearing suits and somehow, even though we didn’t talk to each other before we met up before the event, all ended up wearing pink and lavender ties. It was a little weird.
After that, Ben and I wandered around the mall in our suits, looking oh-so cool. Whenever this happens, and it happens a lot, we’re always tempted to act like detectives and pull people aside and show them fake badges and a picture of some random person and say “have you see this man?” The whole “impersonating a police officer being illegal” thing has and will keep us from ever doing it.
Find Of The Week: I found season one of The Muppet Show in DVD this week-- for 20% off! I grew up watching reruns of the Muppets on Nickelodeon... which might explain my often non-normative social interaction... and haven’t seen the show in years. Now I can watch it whenever I want. I see this as one of life’s little victories.
You Are A Runner & I Am My Father's Son.
November 11, 2007
When I was nine or ten years old, my dad and I set out to have some father-son bonding time in the form of a trip to Colonial Williamsburg. In my younger days, I was far more interested in Colonial American History than I can say I am now so it was a thrill to walk around fields where people died as reenactors walked around acting perplexed when we told them we “came forth from Arizona.” Our favorite part of the trip was an audience participation play about a witch trial. The play followed the (true?) story of a woman in the area who had been accused of witchery with the audience as the jury. She made a good case about, you know, not being a witch but both dad and I decided to play it safe and go ahead and send her to the stake.
Of course, at the age of nine or ten (even later when I was, like, twelve), I was blissfully unaware of the very real terror the women accused of witchcraft faced. Occasionally, I still feel a little guilty about sending that actress to her fiery, imagined grave.
This last weekend was Parent’s Weekend at Hamline, an event my parents and I haven’t participated in the last two years mostly because Arizona is a pretty long way from Minnesota and I’m independent enough that I don’t need them with me all the time. This year, though, my dad and step-mother flew out for the weekend to see what I’m doing with myself out here. They seemed to approve. I realized that the best way to get complimented professors and friends is to introduce them to my parents.
Ex.
Jon: These are my parents.
Professor/Friend: Oh, nice to meet you. Jon is a way-awesome guy.
I suppose some of them might have just been being polite but I choose to believe them and bask in my awesomousity.
Random Song That Was Stuck In My Head Of The Week: Times Like These by The Foo Fighters. I haven’t listened to The Foo Fighters in years but then, today, it came to my mind and stayed there for a good two hours until I heard Wannabe by The Spice Girls from a passing car and now that’s stuck in my head.
Given The Choice, I’ll Take Mogwai Over Four Tet.
November 4, 2007
When I first came to Hamline, our orientation student leader told us that a good number of organizations to get involved with is two so we wouldn’t get overwhelmed with school work and extracurriculars. I took this to heart and got involved with the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) and The Fulcrum, Hamline’s student run art and literary magazine. In my third year now, I am vice president of APAC and involved with four other organizations as well as having a campus job. Never having been all that involved in anything in high school (besides some musicals I don’t like to talk about but which will likely be the subject of a future blog), it occurred to me the other day how much being “away at college” has caused me to grow as a person.
I bring this up because I 1). want to advertise how awesome I am and 2). was reflecting on how cool I think it is that student org involvement can create and nurture really lasting friendships. This weekend I had the opportunity to assist the Hamline African Student Association with their biggest event of the year. All student-facilitated, it consisted of a dinner, a dance and drum show, and a dance. Now, when I say “dinner,” I mean more of a feast-- and I don’t throw “feast” around lightly-- of different kinds of food that reflected not only the plurality of African cultures but also how cross-cultural the act of eating can be. It was a well put together event and I’m happy to have been involved. It was a good end to a long, post-midterm week.
Movie Recommendation Of The Week: Bamboozled. I saw this movie a while ago but I recently rewatched it and it remains a darkly humorous satire of entertainment and the society it serves. This might just be the English major in me talking, but, since I’ve taken Literary Theory and Criticism, I’ve enjoyed movies a lot more since I can identify the constructs present in them.
Warp 2
October 29, 2007
In between studying for finals (my linguistics test was especially brutal) and writing a paper for my Religion course, I managed to make a Halloween costume this week. I am going to be Mr. Sulu from Star Trek: The Original Series. Being an easily scared child, I’ve never been that into Halloween but, since I’ve been at college, I’ve started to enjoy it a lot more. There’s a certain creativity that comes from throwing a bunch of young people into one place at one time that seems pretty unique. Highlights from the past years have been members of Team Zissou from The Life Aquatic, Yoshimi and the Pink Robots from the Flaming Lips album, the Hamline English department, and the central buildings of the Hamline campus.
October 14, 2007
As conducive as it is to meeting people and making friends, I learned early on that dorm life isn’t always the best environment in which to read British Literature. As such, I became something of a fixture in the quiet study area of the third floor of the library. I use “fixture” lightly since that implies people knew I was there. There were other regulars but we never really conversed-- that’s not what we were there to do.
I bring this up because, living in a theme house this year, I thought the problem of finding quiet, distraction-free study space would disappear. By and large, it has but I still face distractions from my Linguistics homework-- I mean, honestly, who can turn down an invitation to bake cookies? So, even though I have a whole house at my disposal this year, chances are, I’ll still be a frequent visitor to the third floor of Bush Library, which I’m fine with. It just means I’ll have to bake soft cookies. If I were the librarian, I wouldn’t let kids like me eat in the Library since crumbs + Hemingway is an equation in which everyone loses. Okay, so I actually enjoy some occasional Hemingway. Hills Like White Elephants is everything a good short story ought to be and everything a bad one ought to strive for. I digress. I’m wondering now if they scotch-guard all of the books to protect against spills or people like me drooling the really old books and the history contained within them. For my next blog, I’ll try to find an answer to that question.
Dialogue of the week:
(at Wal-Mart)
Jeni: Does Wal-Mart have a craft section?
Jon: They have a toy section...
Jeni: No! This is just a quick trip!
But it was too late and now I have an awesome new action figure to add to my collection.
"The Horror... The Horror..."
October 7, 2007
I’ve always felt like there’s something particularly defeating about catching a cold during warm weather. Being a fan of cold, dry weather, laying in bed with a fever as the humidity climbs brings nightmarish images of Apocalypse Now! and I usually become convinced that I’m going to die of dysentery. Put the high pitched buzz of a mosquito in my ear and watch me freak out. This is essentially how I’ve spent my weekend. When I came to college, one of my concerns was who would take care of me when I got sick since my mom isn’t here to make me soup and fluff my pillow. While I have yet to have one of my roommates fluff my pillows or make me soup when I’ve been sick (maybe three times since I’ve been at Hamline), I have been pleasantly surprised at how my friends come through for me when I need them. If nothing else, having people who care around is nice and keeps my spirits up. It’s times like this, when I’m sick and my voice is all raspy, that I wish I could play the guitar so I could sing Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door sounding all world-weary and cool.
This probably didn’t help my approaching cold, but on Friday I saw Of Montreal. Since I saw them last spring, it’s pretty clear that they’ve acquired a larger budget for their shows. Their live performances make me think of what David Bowie must have been like before David Bowie had money. Yeah, a crowded concert hall probably isn’t the best place to be if one is feeling the beginnings of a cold but I’m going to take the stance that Of Montreal is medicinal so I’m thinking that I broke even.
I hear some ginger tea and a box of tissues calling my name.
Baking > Monopoly
September 30, 2007
Seems fitting to me that the week leading up to my very first Piper blog was as busy as it was. In Our Bedroom After The War, the new album by Stars was released on Tuesday. A friend and I went to find it but, alas, it has yet to be pressed onto vinyl so I’m going to wait to buy it since it leaked a few months ago so I have the songs on my iPod already. Wednesday saw me riding the bus to Minneapolis with one of my friends to see Metric. I’ve always sort of seen riding the bus as people watching for people with short attention spans since the cast of characters changes pretty frequently. Somewhere among these things and my homework, I managed to find time to bake a cheesecake and a French chocolate almond torte with one of my baking buddies. Both were excellent.
I spent this weekend at Camp Courage for the Student Of Color Retreat. I’ve never really liked cabins or the outdoors but there’s something that appeals to me about sitting around a campfire by a lake telling ghost stories. The Student Of Color Retreat (SOCR), as I have come to understand it, is designed not to segregate students but to provide the time and space for new and returning students of color to develop their community. Most of the students who attended are involved in several other things on campus so, with our busy schedules, it’s helpful to have the time to just sit around a campfire and get to know the other people who have similar life experiences. On the drive back to Hamline, I made the mistake of falling asleep listening to Moon Pix by Cat Power, which made me wake up feeling pretty bleak. It didn’t last too long, though, since, upon our return, we ended up having an impromptu dinner and Monopoly party. The food we made was swell, I lost at Monopoly. Since I’ve been at Hamline, I’ve found that cooking and baking is an awesome stress reliever... Monopoly is not.
Notable encounter of the week: One of my classes got out early so I was sitting in the Giddens Learning Center reading and listening to music when Professor Reynolds came walking down the stairs past me. Now, I have never had a class with Professor Reynolds but he was the first English professor I met when I came to visit Hamline, and he has remembered and talked to me ever since. As he passed, I waved and he asked me what I was listening to on my headphones. I told him it was Broken Social Scene and he said something like, "Hmm, I’ve heard of them but I haven’t heard them. When I get home, I should download some songs," and continued on his way. It made me smile.
