Friday, August 29, 2008

V: Wherein the final day of orientation is discussed.

Hello!

The damn Obama speech caused me to again abandon my idea of an earlier bedtime, as I really wanted to stay up and watch it. I thought it was pretty great, and I think it should do a lot for him. There is one thing that kinda bums me out, even though I pretty much knew it was an inevitability. Gone is the talk earlier in his campaign about putting aside all this head-butting, partisan junk. Although I think he did try to appeal to both parties, it kinda bums me out that he had to get down and dirty like all the rest of them, because his distatste for that is what really drew me to him in the first place. Of course I still like him best, but it still is somewhat depressing.

Also! Hello to Claire and Evelyn! I am glad some non-family folks are reading this, and the stalking is quite flattering. I miss you and all the others very much. Steer them this way if they enjoy reading about my problems.

Anways, today was my favorite of the orientation days, starting off on a good note when the folder that I lost with all my important information was returned to me. Other exemplery points of the day occured when the school's head conselor tricked us all into dancing around to various different kind of musics. He made up a very convincing and elaborate study about how certain different genres could sync with your body's rythmn and make for better studying. It was very funny, as he made us all get up and sway to the music, and told us what it meant about our future at college. Another cool thing was this speaker who actually came from Montclair state's office for non-violence and tolerence. He had a whole program about the power of words, and we discussed the origins and implications of them, and what we can do to change them. It was pretty intense and he didn't pull any punches, and everyone wound up getting into it.

On the way home, a man honked his horn for a whole 15 seconds without pause. That may not sound like much, but try counting to 15, while imagining a blaring, yet somehow soothing horn blasting down on some poor sap in a van. I actually heard harmonics after a while. It was pretty fun. It also was yet another reminder to me about just how angry some people are, and how much they must suffer on account of being so high strung.

In other news, I dunno what I'm going to do with my weekend, as I still don't know people too well, and I can't just go out with my room mate, as that is Peter. Maybe I'll try to find some of my other friends in the city or go to that Rumi poetry reading. Whatever. This is getting long, so I'm off to WoW! (no Claire, haven't met any yet, sadly.)

-Emerson

PS- I know you've all heard about those wild college parties, but what the really crazy-go-nuts party guys do on Friday nights is watch Mythbusters while eating Nutella on bread with Coca Cola.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

IV: Wherin orientation is discussed, as is walking.

Hello!

I have found walking in Manhattan a very fine, even spiritual, art which requires as much faith as it does skill. You just have to walk forward and have faith that the cars approaching you will stop, but you must show no fear, lest they seize their opportunity. Just keep on walking. Also I have found rush-hour on the subway a great place to meditate on the delusions of ego and the unity of life, as everyone is pretty well unified, as in right back to back to some crazy Russians. Please note, I am mostly being silly.

Anyway, I forgot to write about the very first day of orientation yesterday, but to be honest there wasn't a terrible amount of things going on. Most of the day involved sitting and listening to people talk, then standing uncomfortably on line for near an hour. Not to say that I hated it, but mostly we just hung out. Today was a bit more active. After listening to some motivational speaker guy (Bleh. Well, at least he was kinda funny), we split into groups and went to presentations on clubs and tech and all that stuff. Here I had my first real acquaintance with another student when I started conversing with a Bio major named Bridget, from Philly. I also met another girl named Elise, who is Undecided and from California. They both were very nice, so I stuck with them the rest of the day and met a Dance major named Danny. I do wonder, however, after orientation if I will still see them much around, as they all have classes very different from mine. I hope so. At lunch, our group ate together, and our leader had us play this group building game which, I must say, was quite different form the silly ones I am accustomed to playing. It invloved a boat which could only fit ten people, and our smaller groups had to choose from fourteen people who lived and who died. Very bizarre. We took a fat guy, reasoning that if we had to resort to cannibalism, he would feed everyone. Then we discussed the reasoning for our choices as a larger group, which led to much disagreement and arguing. The purpose of the whole thing was to introduce the many different viewpoints of other people, and to be respectful of them.

After sitting through (viz: sleeping through) the rest of the day, I decided to walk down to MoMa to check out the Dali exhibit there. I really enjoyed myself, and it was full of wonderfully bizzare and disturbing films, prints, and paintings. I left feeling slightly dizzy, and on the walk to the subway I began to look at things in more surrealistic ways, which I suppose was the whole point of the thing. It was a similar feeling I had while looking at the paintings themselves. As soon as I tried to focus on them or think analytically I found myself completely backwards, so it was interesting attempting to view the exhibits on a subconscious level, without thinking. Anyone who wants to go, I'll be glad to go again.

I plan on going to bed earlier, as I am exhausted from all this walking, so I am going to play some WoW, hang with PT once he gets home, then hit the sack.

-Emerson

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

III: Where I detail my new Living Quarters.

Hello!

While eating my lunch today, I had a sudden swoop of recognition, namely that I will be attending my new school tomorrow! Wow, very exciting. Mother just left for home after helping me go food shopping and getting slightly off track with me on the subway. At least I know now NOT to get off at 36th Street, and the 6 Downtown looks suspiciously like the 6 Uptown. But at least we got there, and I am super pumped for orientation tomorrow. That is, until I remember and hope beyond hope that there won't be too many silly games tomorrow.

Anyway, my new apartment looks pretty neat, and I know that all the poor fools in the dorms would kill to have such luxurious and wide open quarters. Perhaps I will post pictures if I can figure out how. Pete and I plan to make an attempt to set up his wireless router, although some kind soul does have a linksys network without a password.

I am actually somewhat tired, so I will leave off here as I make a list of what I have to do by tomorrow, and maybe unwind with my Paladin. Mayhaps I will update later with some more meaningful content.

-Emerson

Monday, August 25, 2008

II: Wherein we discuss the sending off.

Hello!

I suppose since it is past 12 that it means it is officially the day that I depart for the city! However I can't sleep just yet as I still have a few knick-knacks to pack up, though I am not sure in what. I feel tempted to call up a few friends to say good-bye, but I dunno if it might wake them. Claire and Trevor said they would stop by in the morning, for which I am very thankful. I can only imagine what it must be like to go off to a college that is actually far away, where I would not be able to visit on weekends. This whole process I never really got much of the leaving syndrome, except of course now that I am writing about it. I even know that I still really live here, at home, and I can visit whenever I like, yet it is still hard to avoid dramatizing the whole experience as a leaving and irrevocable changing. Maybe it is in a way, but not a drastic one by any means, and nor can it be avoided.

I often used to say that change was the only constant, though of course I did not truly embrace the statement, instead merely superficcially recognizing it as a fancy idea. This is not to suggest that now I have come to absolute terms with the truth of this idea, but all the same I haven't found myself panicing about the changes to come. I even find that I have been able to enjoy present moments more in knowing that soon, although things may be silmilar, they never will be quite the same again. Of course, would that I had this all the time rather than just now. It is funny, all this seems to correlate with my recent choices of movies. Last night we watched To Kill a Mockingbird, which in addition to being freaking awesome, seemed very relevent. I have begun to think that as soon as you can see more and more of the themes of growing up, the more you have in fact grown up. I remember reading it in 6th grade, and I don't remember getting a lot of Jem and Scout's struggle with the pains and predjudices of the world as they begin to realize them. I suppose this means I can now yell at kids to get off my lawn and stop instant messaging on their mobile tele-phone boxes.

Good night, I go to pack!

-Emerson

Friday, August 22, 2008

I: Wherein an attempt is made to clarify the purpose!

Hello!

One moment that was quite depressing for me was back in junior high when, as I attempted to keep one of these web log doo-dads, I realized that I had nothing special to write about. Thus it fell be the wayside, and I never attempted again. HOWEVER, I am viewing this thing as perhaps a means of motivation to do things that are worthy of writing about, which is somewhat of a weird motivator. I still am not quite sure about what I shall do. After briefly considering having this be a Warcraft character blog, instead I think I shall make this a notebook of sorts, whether it be for creative writing, neat ideas, observations, or some kind of cool experiment. In fact, I had an idea to note some random person on the subway whilst riding to school, and make a complete backstory for them, maybe weaving them together, or maybe keeping them as isolated stories. It seems kinda ambitious now that I think about it, but what the hell. The only folks who are going to read this are my family, maybe a few friends and myself, so whatever. I really gotta dispense with this whole "writing as if addressing the internet masses" style, it is somewhat stressful.

I am going to go attempt to do my washing, as I am far behind on packing for the Great Lugging, which occurs on Sunday and features me moving in with PT (brother and now room mate). In case it was not clear, I am a college student and decided to take up this blog to chronicle my new lifestyle. We'll see how it goes!

-Daniel Emerson