RyanHarne.com

Setting up a course schedule is exciting. It contains the potential of a million Wonka bars but just as much uncertainty. This upcoming semester was nice to put together. Nice in the way that large bears are nice when viewed from a safe distance.

It started out with the classes I was sure of needing. This spring will focus on my Industrial Design courses so I can chip away at the requirements there, but I am also taking some ME courses so as to fill up the credit hours. Unfortunately, ID courses are now offered in great quantities as I am used to. Even more unfortunate, I’ve reached the point in ME where I have one or two class-time options for my courses. So let’s take a look at what evolved.

First, we have the schedule. This is an example week of the classes. Don’cha love the two three-hour classes. And especially the three hour class that begins 10 minutes after an 8am. So, after the initial frustrations of this line-up, the outlook gets somewhat hazy.

Naturally, there is some disorder developing as I try to adjust to long evening classes, particularly the one ending at about 10pm. It’s going to be tough enough waking up for an 8am after a 10pm, but that’s not even considering homework loads and the job.

Eventually, my semester comes down to perseverance. I’m looking forward to a different schedule - notice how the Tues & Thurs 7am workouts are no longer a possibility - and would agree that I need a change of regimented routine. Or, I think I just don’t need a routine. Habit is a great deadener, you know.

I can live on 4 cups of coffee, one muffin, some vegetarian Mexican food, and 90 minutes of exercise. In between, I can discourse with a few friends, perform all of my course assignments, and let the Internet give me my daily news. As a bonus, I can use my possessed knowledge as a powerful tool to hold over people who don’t currently know what I know. Unfortunately, my tool weakens every time I share my math genius with others. As compensation for my diminishing power, I am paid a wage. Every person gets smarter, I get dumber, but they give me peanuts to satiate my appetite.

Before I commit my night to statistics, and by commit I mean “entirely enslave my flesh to the chains of probability distributions and p-value extravaganzas”, I would like to say a few words.

First, the on-campus coffee shop place, that I mentioned earlier for crudely refering to iced lattes as “phrappucinos”, does not have coffee. They close at midnight every day and at 10:20pm this evening, nope, we just don’t have any coffee. Delightful. Plus, their bread bowls for soup were moldy. Fantastique!

Second, my spring semester schedule looks like this: PUNCH, KNIFE, STABSTABSTAB, collapppssseeeeee. Once I finalize it this week, I will post a synopsis of the “balance” I’ll be maintaining in the coming months. No kidding, I have early morning classes and late night classes, every morning and night. For some reason, none of my courses are offered in the afternoon. Granted I am also committing myself to the “madness called the Industrial Design minor”. It will be worth it.

Third. After my soup minus the bread bowl, I got back in line for some hot chocolate. The guy in front of me ordered some; the machine wasn’t working. The server then proceeded to open the hot chocolate machine and, alas, I should have averted my eyes. Hot chocolate innards were everywhere; these are the types of scenarios you try to avoid while gracefully flipping channels and blindly assume you’ll never get caught with a glimpse of open heart surgery. I vacated my spot in line quite abruptly.

Everyone has a bootleg of X&Y. Of the many, many iTunes shared libraries I have access to daily, not one of them had a full-quality rip of the CD; with the file-sharing community having an overwhelming amount of low bitrate versions of the album, I can only assume all of these people got theirs from the public pool. Shame. Shame really. And I now know why.

So I got myself a copy. A legitimate copy. It’s amazing. This album is fantastic. I rarely listen to albums straight through, but I tried shuffling the songs and it wasn’t working for me. Shuffling X&Y is like reading the Bill of Rights in no particular order. There is a clear continuity that makes the album far more than the sum of the parts.

I love “Fix You”. I got the live version from the iTMS from a short-release EP that sent all profits to Katrina relief. For some reason I can’t find that EP anymore, at all; it has totally disappeared from the music store. Which is a shame too.

But all I had to say was that I can’t stop listening to this album. Right now, it is so lyrically relevant.

It’s all in the packaging. Or presentation. It would depend upon the use of the phrase, but both will work well within my elaboration.

A friend of mine actually goes to the on-campus coffee/ice cream shop for frequent drinks called “phrappucinos”. Naturally, I was expecting something eerily similar to the Starbucks equivalent, but upon my visit I came upon an interesting scenario. “So, what exactly is this phrappucino I hear so much about?”

“Ok, a phrappucino is espresso, whole milk, ice and whatever flavor you’d like - the list of flavors is right over there,” and then she points to a stand immediately to my left. “Well, can I get it with non-fat milk?” “Oh, I can make you an iced latte if you like…” conversation continues etc etc.

So a phrappucino, that which apparently deserves a title of its precious own, is just an iced latte with whole milk. A startling revelation. It would seem that the pomp of ordering a “phrappucino” is solely in the name, perhaps exuding the yuppie-status of a Starbucks order in the center of campus (which will eventually become a consummate reality, trust me). Just like buying a Mercedes is no more than a bunch of grease, steel, aluminum, and plastic. Or buying a Ford is no more than buying a bunch of plastic.

Or buying an iPod is no more than a few resistors, a touch-sensitive dial, and warm fuzzies. The drink isn’t that bad. Whole milk is a whole new world for me. Literally.

I… educated myself tonight and wish to share the knowledge with those who may benefit from their gleaning.

Never try to simultaneously brush your teeth and put on a tight t-shirt. You will A) end up with a toothbrush down your throat or B) be caught with a t-shirt half on your body and half wrapped around a toothbrush at which time you will race around the room absurdly and trip over the largest of objects present. Worse even, you might feel like the first person to make this unfortunate mistake and feel obligated to tell the Internet for posterity.