RyanHarne.com

It wasn’t a Volkswagen Beetle, but it was still a tiny Nissan that got me back to my room from the Emporium. While the subject makes an allusion to a Simpson’s episode reminescent to Pulp Fiction, my driver tonight didn’t have as much of a difficulty dealing with his transportation. I was fortunate enough to have a co-worker drop me off on campus rather than having me wait for a bus 30 minutes into the future, assumably.

The scenario was interesting. A six-foot many-inches Brazilian math-majoring student in a tiny, ancient Nissan vehicle trying to peer through the icy windshield. As he turned to check for traffic while changing lanes, his neck and head seemed a wrecking ball that I had to avoid for my own health. Before stepping out of the car, we formally introduced ourselves and his handshake seemed a mixture of sincere companionship and a forceful maneuver pressuring me out of his Nissan.

When life gets basic, it’s easy to assume nothing is going on. However, as per usual, the first week of the semester can bring many new beginnings. This spring semester has begun somewhat slowly or.. modestly. But I have greater plans. Maybe the softer start is a better layer for springboarding.

I was sitting in my Industrial Design Technology class today, the professor was wrapping up. I had chosen an unfortunate rear seat in the classroom space since I arrived only 7 minutes prior to take-off, and by then the closer spots were rather cramped. My eyes remained rather squinted throughout the entirety of the talk. (I use “talk” pointedly instead of “lecture”).

As the professor began his closing statements, I noticed I was having a hard time seeing him. He was talking about that being about it for the class and was mentioning, in brief, what would be spoken of in the coming week. The more he spoke the less I could grasp of what he was saying because everything around me began to jumble and fragment and collapse.

Then I realized the predicament. The students were getting up and making chatter and not paying attention to him. And this is frustratingly foreign to me. As one student stood up to put on a coat, another would stand up and look around, another would turn to his/her peer and speak, another would… and so on.

I know I am not the only engineering major in that class, but this behavoir baffles me. I’m still deciding whether I’m at odds with or in love with this difference sphere of the intellect. But, it is ridiculously exciting and I’m sticking with it.

Tonight, I sat in on a lecture by Bill Moggridge, co-founder of IDEO. The last time I heard a satisfying British accent was my latest viewing of About A Boy, so I had an extra aural aesthetic pleasure during this speech. He had much to say, many IDEO projects to present and promote, but little to mention that wouldn’t be available for reading, hearing, or viewing online. But then again, with one click I can watch a Steve Jobs speech, the presidential inauguration address, or listen to East African radio.

However, the idea of having guest speakers is to have guests, and to marvel at the fact that they have already succeeded while we only lust for such a portfolio. Moggridge is a great person, at least from an audience member’s perspective, and has a founded grasp of the many-faceted handle of design. I made an acronym to remind myself of the tiers of design he felt necessary of division currently. APPSAE. And that was (recalling with my unfortunate sense of memory): Anthropological, Physiological, Psychological, Sociological, Anthropology, Ecology. Dealing from left to right, or bottom to top, Anthropological deals with the sizes of design; Physiological deals with the body and design; Psychological deals with the mind and design; Sociological deals with community and design; Anthropology deals with the larger community and design (something more similar to the e-community, or world community); Ecology deals with our physical world (earth) and design. Obviously, as you can tell, this division was the most important part of the speech for me, since I was able to actually recall each of those pieces without having taken a note. (However, I will add that if anyone has an audio/video recording of the speech, I would really appreciate the file).

So I had a good time tonight listening to an Industrial Design course without having to pay a dime, or at least the entirety of important parts of an “Industrial Design Techniques” course. At first I was wondering why this event was not advertised campuswide; once I arrived, and realized that the lecture was required for a few class sections, I then stopped wondering because the hall began to fill to limit. My happenstance of discovering the lecture was when I randomly waltzed through Cowgill today looking for Erin, but saw a few fliers for the speech. I’m glad I went waltzing.

Anyways, he had much to say, and I’m still digesting the greater part of it. I’m glad my semester schedule actually allowed some free time for me to be available for a good lecturer. I’ve missed too many big names in the past and this semester should be different, I’m hoping.

The Spring Semester 2006 Extravaganza has begun, and luckily starring the easiest academic day of my week. I expect this spring to be far more a cruise than anything I’ve encountered thus far, but the contrast will be pleasant. However, my adjustment to the other, more slacking side of academia has been an uncomfortable fit. The only relief I had from my 9-hour break today was when I finished The Story of B and held back the mental fireworks I contained. The Quinn books are very impressive.

I was told that it was difficult to find a balance between too busy and too bored. But I just can’t help to think that there is some other ground to this. A duality of bored and busy doesn’t make sense; I have a feeling there is a triad, a third form that is missing.

There’s always something missing.

But until I find it, I will enjoy this photo that reminds me of a Honda Element advertisement.

Edit: I think I found a better setup for the state that one could move around in during the semester. I’ve removed labels like “I’ve been here” or “end of last semester” or “me during finals week” for professional reasons (although, everyone knows the truly brilliant err on the side of madness).

I need to commemorate the occasion, somehow, someway. Maybe I can get a cast statuette of an apron. That would be splendid. Possibly a leaden muffin/paperweight, with accompanying certificate of authenticity.

As of yesterday evening, I am an honorary employee of Bollo’s. More of a title than anything else, really; but it makes me even more at home behind the gigantic, warped front window. The same kind of warm fuzzies you might experience were you promoted to Product Engineer II from Product Engineer I - just evidence of societal nomenclature, but, boy, it sure does make you smile more (at least for the first few days).

Once again, I find myself sitting in the place I practically live at. There is a table beside me currently occupied by two older men. One sits very tensely and speaks with a brisk velocity, often repeating syllables or words several times, Porky the Pig-esque. The other somewhat slouches, takes a lot of the blows of his companion’s thoughts and pronouncements and returns with simple, elegantly relaxed mumbles.

I’m taking my last moments of unplanned time to get some more pleasure reading done. Tomorrow begins the great semester along with its spears and daggers and eminence and satisfaction. The past few days I’ve come across an endless assortment of those I spent much of my fall semester with - what could be a better way to prepare myself for certain slaughter than to reunite with those also putting their head under the guillotine? Unfortunately, several of them will be doing it for the last time, as spring commencement likely will pull them in another direction.

But for now, I’ll wind up and ready for what may come.

When daylight savings time moved the hour last fall, a whole new schedule of light in my room at VT took place. I would get bright rays at times of the day they weren’t expected. And then there was the glare. Glare like you can not imagine. It would last for about 15 minutes around 4:15, I suppose, and bug the patience out of me. Well, it’s back this semester, and in full force. Phoebus must have decided to unleash his worst this semester; I have been blinded for the past hour as the rays of the sun continue to sneak past and stealthy evade any landmark in their path towards my face.

It’s frustrating, but almost a laughable joke the celestial heavens have decided to play on me for a while. But I did solve a frustrating occurrence that happened since I’ve been importing all of my old data onto this new internal hard drive. Some email messages weren’t being accepted, and blah blah, I figured out a back door way to get them back into Mail. Clever, clever.

I can’t even think, that sun is so bright. And, lucky for my long-term planning abilities, I have my LCD facing the window, so I am only able to assume my typing here is correct.

I’ll get you, Phoebus! I’ll get you on the first Sunday in April!