Did I miss anything? just because it's a classic.

Did I Miss Anything
by Tom Wayman

Question frequently asked by
students after missing a class

Nothing. When we realized you weren't here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 per cent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I'm about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 per cent

Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose

Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
a shaft of light descended and an angel
r other heavenly being appeared
and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
to attain divine wisdom in this life and
the hereafter
This is the last time the class will meet
before we disperse to bring this good nnews to all people
on earth

Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?

Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human existence
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder.
This is not the only place such an opportunity has been
gathered

but it was one place

And you weren't here.  ¶   1 comments

  blah There's an amusing flame war going on at slashdot over Google's decision to filter services for Chinese citizens. clicky.
I'd offer insight if I had any.
In other news, I got mistook for a professor today. I think it was the look of fatigue, but a peer blamed the wrinkled dress shirt and trenchcoat.  ¶   0 comments

  Nooma I went to Wednesday Night Church for the first time in a while. Turns out they've started this new study, made by a michigan preacher named Rob Bell. The video series can be ordered from www.nooma.com. There's decent little clips there too.
Tonights lesson was a new angle for me. It was all about how, as Christians, we exist in the time between the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life (the Tree of Genesis and the one of Revelation). A lot of moral responsibility type stuff, with some great quotes I wish I could throw at you. Bell's got that fast-talking, try-to-sound-savvy approach that I generally dislike in wanna-be-Gen-X preachers, but his insight actually makes it believeable.
I'm snatching the video from Charlie in a couple of weeks, then hopefully I'll be able to give you more. Also, as a tidbit, the background really, REALLY looks like the parking lot behind the Methodist publishing house's warehouse parking lot (I think it's lot C if you work there). I'm gonna have to swing by and check, if I get really bored next time I'm in town.  ¶   2 comments

  Pressure I just got back from Early English Literature, my second class w/Dr. Ed. this year. It's intimidating, especially with a few grad students in there, but not insurmountable. I'm presenting on the Literary Context of Beowulf in three weeks. I think it's "the literary context of...". It's that, or "the literary interpretation of..." (as in, the directions different translations have interpreted the original). I probably need to check on that.
RCA got rolling with a sleepy crowd. We only had thirteen of our twenty-four total officers, but it turns out that about that many are being replaced anyway. yay new blood, but, crap, the old ones knew what was going on already. Annoying graduates and overachievers. Worried about the rest of ya'll :/.
We have a conference coming up in a couple of weeks that's going to take me up to Louisville (I hope I spelled it right). I'm looking forward to it (you may remember how hyped I was after my last conference), but I have to dance at it. In front of people.
Quit laughing.
I won't be alone, thank god. But our deligation has to do some kind of broadway-esque dance number. I'm not really sure on the details yet. I'll find out tomorrow, though. That's practice time.
And no, I'm not webcasting it.
Ever.  ¶   0 comments

  Flash games! I'm an online game junkie. I don't mean games like World of Warcraft or Everquest. I don't have the patience for those. I mean little games like Nanaca crash. Games are available now in Flash, Shockwave, DHTML, and Javascript and everything else, and there's never a shortage of fun 2d action for the 10 minute break between classes. The trick is finding them all. And while some sites like New Grounds have enough updates to keep me busy, their user reviews are usually somewhat...lacking.
Enter Jay Is Games. This blog is dedicated to reviewing all those exciting new (and free) games I love to play. With a top 20 each year, and 5 new games reviewed a week, I have found myself a massive library of time wasters.
Now if I can just find the time to play them all!  ¶   0 comments

  Something new every day. Los told me today he wanted a Luther burger. He answered my concerned confusion with a wiki link: the Luther burger. Ew.
Another reason to wonder about the guys who write The Boondocks.  ¶   0 comments

  The Broncos should hire some schoolgirls... ...because then their defense might be better.
I'm going back to reading Beowulf. At least Grendal was putting up a fight.  ¶   0 comments

  We the people of Murray State University.... For those of you that may not know / remember, I'm doing this crazy little job at Murray State called Residential College President. You see, MSU's too good for dorms. We're the Public Ivy University (characterized by all the red brick and ivy everywhere). This slogan, coming on the heels of "Persist, there's no ¢ in quitting", is actually an improvement. Anyway, however you want to address it, the Residential Colleges at Murray are something you don't find at any other public university. We have live-in faculty and staff (ideally, there's space for them, anyway), RC identity (which is nice PR for telling commuters "You're assigned to Clark College"), loads of activities, and Tenured faculty serving as College Heads.
In short, it's the Harry Potter system. I go to school in a double-Hogwarts (we have 8 colleges) with less wizards.
Anyway, I have to go through that big long explination to explain why I'm doing this crazy job. You see, the RCA President sits on the Student Government executive board. Student Government was there first. It's older, bigger, has TONS more money, and generally is content to leave RCA alone if RCA leaves them alone. Oh, we'll work together on big stuff, but we'd both rather not have to worry about what the other one is doing day to day.
I sat on the Senate, what might be considered the most executive branch of our SGA, if we ever got to divvying up branches, for 3 years before taking the job as RCA president. I was always involved in my Residential College as well, but never really looked directly at RCA. When I did, I ran on a massive reform platform.
Now I'm halfway through and have done next to nothing.
So now, finally, we're rounding the curve where you find out the point of this little narrative.
The top thing I told myself I wanted to accomplish this year was a complete and total re-drafting of the RCA constitution. The current document is -no joke- two articles shy of the US Constitution and, if bound similarly, would probably be about the same size. It's all written with the right ideas at heart, but sometimes they're phrased terribly. Others are redundant. And there's no by-laws, everything's just stuffed into this massive document.
Anyway, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I strapped myself in and marked up EVERY little error. First I did it grammatically, then structurally, now my executive board (the RCA one, not the SGA one) and I are beginning the process of looking at it ideologically. We're picking out stuff for reform, and really trying to decide why we do what we do where. It's tough. RCA's had an identity crisis since day one. We don't know if we're a programming body (one that focuses on developing Residential College events), a legistlative body, or a mix of both. I'm beginning to look at us as an advocacy group. Sure, the Senate represents a cross section of every major and everybody and blablabla. 1/4 of them live on campus right now. There's less than 5 non-Greeks (and I'm not going to touch greek / non-greek relations w/a 10 foot pole). And the Senate, like I said earlier, is an older organization. They're set in stone on a lot of things. RCA's not. We're Housing Employees (at least 1/2 of us are), and we're working daily with our Residential Colleges to keep this crazy system rolling. I can't tell you how many people I've explained the residential college system to. I can tell you that every year Clark sees more people trying to get involved with it. RCA's a confederacy. We're 8 presidents, each with our own agendas, and each with our own pair of aids. We come together to do things together and to figure out what'll best benefit us. Our previous president considered the Residential Colleges the identifying factor of MSU. Well, we're going to keep it that way.
Anyway, we're a unique bunch in the RCA. And, in drafting this, I'm trying to capture that. I spent a month on the preamble. Then I left it at home in Nashville (go figure). But it's great, and it captures everything RCA is. Now I'm getting ready to present it. Im' starting off a long road of legislation, but by the end of it I know at least 22 people who will have no doubt in their minds what it means to be part of the Residential Colleges at Murray State.
I'm re-typing things this afternoon. I'll keep you updated, because I know some of you are part of this whole fiasco. If you're not, don't worry, I'll put RCA in the title and you can know to skip it.
It's good to be back.  ¶   0 comments

  Help! The governments big bad clones are going to come and take me away because I've got the stupid gene! yeah. First Honors Seminar in Science class. It wasn't quite that bad, but it was close. After the teacher announced that this "discussion seminar" would consist of us running our yaps about stuff we know nothing about until we got a clue via dumb-luck and hopefully hold on to it until the god-knows-what'll-be-on-it-exam.
Sometimes I hate the honors program.
I'd probably better quit talking about it, though, because I know you're out there reading. <_< >_> >_<
just had to vent.

On a lighter note, I realized that being a writer might be one of the most powerful jobs there is. Every 5 minutes people brought up something they saw or read. Almost the entire perception of science in that class comes from science fiction.
mwwwhaha.  ¶   0 comments

  Typing in Class I brought my palm pilot to class today. Unlike lil Dell, my laptop, taking notes on the palm pilot seems socially acceptable. With Lil Dell, the professor always seemed to suspect me of surfing the internet, playing games, or otherwise wasting time. He'd glance over often and huff and so on. With the palm pilot, I guess it's not an issue.
I suspect that people intimidated by technology find its small size less fearsome.
Anyway, my wireless keyboard was definitely worth the purchase. Now I have to get a sturdy case so I don't destroy my palm pilot between classes.
Shakespeare's going to be fun, even if it is at 8AM. I'm reading 13 plays, starting with the comedies. Two papers, three tests, the usual. I'm looking forward to it.
Time to do the gov't stuff. I've got a month of changes to catch up on.  ¶   0 comments

  Say it Ain't So! I don't keep up well with hollywood. I didn't even know about the golden globe stuff. It's on the TV, which in our room is used for video games. And Lost. But that's about all. Even our Anime fix is done over the net.
Anyway, this may be old news. I don't know. My pre-coffee brain is a little fuzzy. But , if the pics are right, apparently Nickelodeon Studios is no more.
There goes another childhood dream :(.
http://nickstudios.ytmnd.com/  ¶   0 comments

  8 AM Classes SUCK That is all.  ¶   0 comments

  Another Survey yanked from 'Ran stolen from a friend's blog:

1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before? Read Manga. Lots of Manga.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Kept some (pray daily), failed others (read bible daily, finish draft of novel), and, yeah, so you can tell this is an old survey, yes, I did make new ones for '06.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No, but the clock's ticking for a couple of 'em.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Not particularly, no.

5. What countries did you visit? None, that was all '04. I'd love to again.

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005? A plan for grad school.

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Oh, jeeze, so many. First thought: Los's graduation (May 15), because it hit me for the first time how fast life's going by and how fast things change.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Tie between RCA President and getting the Vandy internship.

9. What was your biggest failure? NaNoWriMo.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Lots of illness. a couple of stupid cuts that left scars.

11. What was the best thing you bought? My suit.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Behavior? uhmmm... I feel like my relationship w/Tiff grew deeper. I celebrate that every day (except the ones I spend in the doghouse).

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Several people, including myself.

14. Where did most of your money go? Books.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? ....SAACURH

16. What song will always remind you of 2005? Tristan's anime soundtrack, especially Angela.

17. Compared to this time last year, you are: Still w/Tiff, slightly higher GPA, more involved in school, older, more worried about the future, preppier (*shudder*), better at Old English and German.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Studying.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Gaming.
20. How will you be spending Christmas? crap, this is late. did that already. yay family.
what happened to 21?
22. Did you fall in love in 2005? All over again. <3 :)

23. How many one-night stands? None. O.O

24. What was your favorite TV program? LOST

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I don't think so. I actually mended more bridges than I burned, I hope.
26. What was the best book you read? another hard question. Asimov's Foundation Trilogy was pretty good. So was Kite Runner. I read a LOT, so different ones stand out for different reasons.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Nightwish.

28. What did you want and get? To spend more time with my family and JA. To be back on the same continent.

30. What was your favorite film of this year? Serenity

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 22. Actually ON my birthday I went to Paducah for a steak dinner w/my awesome girlfriend. I also bought the previously mentioned suit. Later that weekend I went home for winter break and celebrated w/all my family.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? accomplishing more of the goals set for RCA.
33. Describe your fashion sense in 2005. Preppier. Lots of dress shirts worn so sloppy Mom would have gone into fits. Nearly tragic-emo hair. Ties every week day all summer.

34. What kept you sane? Tiffany and coffee.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Nicole Kidman :)

36. What political issue stirred you the most? Some of the local Tenncare mess. Oil from Alaska. Then the stuff that's becoming the usual: war, money, and stupidity.

37. Who did you miss? High School friends.

38. Who was the best new person you met? So many! ALL OF RCA! (except the ones I knew already)
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005: Lead by trusting others to do what they do best.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: I suck at finding song lyrics... uhmm...

I know I’m not the one you thought you knew back in high school
Never going, ever showing up when we had to.
Is it attention that we crave don’t tell us to behave,
I’m sick of always hearing act your age.

I don’t want to waste my time
Become aother casualty of society.
I’ll never fall in line
Become another victim of your conformity
And back down.

what can I say? it's my inner angst screaming against my outer shell. Nature vs Demeanor, right Tristan?  ¶   0 comments

  MLK Day (or "How my old roommate guilted me into making a post") Carlos, my former roommate, gave me a good reminder earlier. See, I had these articles to write, so I posted an away message announcing that I was working. Not my wisest move.
I got these IMs from him while I was away...

"Three-quarters of those surveyed say there has been significant progress on achieving King's dream. But only 66 percent of blacks felt that way."

"For a big portion of the African-Americans, there's not better education," said David Bositis, an analyst of black issues for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "There have been some gains made, but it's uneven. A lot of whites basically say: 'The civil rights movement has been done. I don't want to hear about it anymore.'"

"Only 23 percent of respondents say they will do anything to commemorate the national holiday that took effect in 1986 after a lengthy campaign in Congress to honor King. A solid majority of blacks, 60 percent, say they will get involved in holiday activities"

"All 50 states gradually recognized a King holiday. But only one-third of businesses offer a paid holiday, according to the Bureau of National Affairs."

"73% of Americans say this should be a national holiday 22% say is shouldn't"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10865903/

and ...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10874753/from/RL.1/

"I'm finished. There you've observed the holiday by learning some interesting info."

Now, Los and I are good friends, and I've certainly never considered myself racist, so this gave me pause. I IMed him, talked, and generally ignored my work for a little while. I'm behind now, but, like Los said, I'm better educated. And it is interesting to think about race relations today.

Now, even though Los isn't my roomie, he's still reminding me that sometimes I should pay a little attention to what's going on around me.
Thanks for the reminder, roomie :).  ¶   1 comments

  What a way to start the day So I was getting up at 9:00... yeah, right. ended up being 10:30. I was going to start on my articles at 9 so I could get them done quickly. Turns out, they're all saved on my jump drive, in Nashville.
That called for coffee. Immediately.
10 minutes later, I notice the huge puddle under my coffee pot. I take a sip of the 1/2 cup that went through. Bad idea. I had quadruple expresso with extra grounds thrown in.
I added water and sugar, then drank it anyway.
This is not looking like a promising way to start the semester.  ¶   0 comments

  Rau Today, rather than taking the time to pack properly, I threw everything together before dashing off downtown. Mom and I went to see the Rau exibit at the TN State Museum. For mom, the chance to see these 95 european paintings was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For me, it was almost as thrilling, but tinged with a little nostalgia. It made me miss the art museums I trudged through weekly in Europe.
Dr. Rau was a rich doctor / art collector whose collection spans across Europe's 15-20th century art. There's a little in the collection for everyone, if you can endure wading through everyone there. It seems like the entire state waited until today, the last day of the exhibit, to come see it. Between the strange BO, the rude people, and the occasional screaming children, the people were almost as interesting as the art. It amused me to watch people pass by a Monet just because there wasn't audio commentary on it. Plug them in and watch them go.
Dance, puppets. Dance!
Poor humor aside, it was a nice afternoon. I found a few new names to look for prints of, and learned a little more of my own style in the process.
Plus, I got to go downtown one last time before disappearing into the country fields of Murray for another semester.  ¶   0 comments

  (|] Krystals WiFi [|) I'm back home now. Got a little bit done, not as much as I would've liked. The 20th Avenue Krystals was the better wifi spot. Downloading from the happy house of lil burgers, I reached about 50kb/s. Centennial Park never got more than 20. The park's connection went out a couple of times too. I guess streching across the entire park was a little more than it could handle.
I'm going to go to the Charlotte Krystals (down between I-40 and the West Nashville Wal-mart) later probably. It's closer to my house. Murphy's Loft and Portland Brew also look inviting.
Of course, I could always try to just work from home, but where's the fun in that?  ¶   1 comments

  Nashville WiFi tour Day 1 Being home is nice and all, but being AT home every day was starting to get old. So me and my dell have set off to greener pastures.
Today, I'm working on my articles in the shade of the parthenon. I couldn't pass up the freakishly spring weather any more. The signal's weak in the two hour parking, but still usable. Users have to provide an email address and skim a user agreement, but then you're on your way. Oh, and they do have filters. No P2P, no naughty sites. That's what the agreement says.
I have 8 articles to finish today, which means I won't be finishing on time, but at least I'll be able to enjoy the scenery while I fail miserably.
Lunch is going to be at the West Nashville Krystals, because they also have WiFi. I was going to have my morning coffee at Portland Brew and work from there for a while, but I slept in and had coffee on the way out the door.
The articles are going fairly well. I'm writing them for a friend, John, who ghost writes for a finance site. Yes, I'm writing finincial advice articles. I find it just as funny as you do. I've botched one or two, but nothing terrible. Mainly, I just have to stay within my word-length and I'm fine.
It's a learning experience, though. If I'm ever going to start my own business, or actually have enough money to dabble in the stock market, at least I'll have a little clue how to do it.
More likely, I'll end up needing to know how to do all this loan and morgage stuff. But hey, I'm learning that too.
I'm tired of sitting in my truck. I'm going to find somewhere in the park to settle. If any of you happen to wander through Centennial Park today, feel free to say hi. I'm the kid in glasses and a Murray State hoodie, happily typing away on a dell laptop.

Oh, and Day 2 won't be tomorrow. Family stuff. I'll probably get around to it some time next week. Maybe.  ¶   0 comments