Electra's Web: School

school

Make sure to let me know what you think when you get a chance. If you want to know more about me and school, you can check out my anti-university housing page at CollegePark 1300 (11/7/98 - removed this link. i no longer maintain collegepark 1300)

March 20, 1997
OK, so I sent out my applications for grad school two or three months ago. I kind of did it half assed at the last minute cause I had planned on waiting for a year or two before going to grad school, but decided I should apply and keep my options open. So I did. And now I've gotten two rejection letters. So now I'm worried that I won't get to go to grad school cause now I really want to go instead of working full time, but I have two more schools to hear from so I guess I'll just wait, and chew the hell out of my fingers in the meantime. Jack loves when I do that.

December 27, 1996
About a week and a half ago, the fire alarm went off in my on campus apartment building. I was tired all day long - not sleeping enough and working way too hard right after finals were over, and I went to bed at 12 so I could get up at 7 and start all over again. The fire alarm went off at 1 in the morning. I didn't even hear it - my roommate had to come wake me up. And it's loud, too, and the loud siren/alarm sound is accompanied by strobe lights that flash in small, strategically placed fire alarm boxes placed along the ceiling of our floor. I was so disoriented - I almost forgot to put pants on before we went downstairs. We live on the 15th floor, so had to climb all the way down the stairs. There was a small cluster of people on the other side of the street since all the smart ones left campus for the Christmas break. It was freezing and we were there forever. We finally get back up about 45 minutes later to find out that some asshole had burnt some toast. What the hell - no one should be making toast at 1 in the morning.

December 17, 1996
The semester is finally over - one more left before I graduate - yeah!! I took my computerized GRE last Friday, and had my last class for the semester later that day. It was great. I'm really excited about next semester. I'm stressed now about work and finishing up my graduate school applications - these applications are a killer - they take so long to fill out, and it's going to cost me almost $200 to apply to 4 schools. I wasn't going to apply - I was planning on working full time for a year or two, but I decided at the last minute that I would apply. I want to leave my options open, and see where I'll get accepted, too. I don't know if I could turn down Iowa, though, if I got accepted (Iowa's got the nation's best Creative Writing program - they came out with the very first writing program in the 40's). T.C. Boyle came out of Iowa, so did my Intro to Fiction teacher last spring, Susan Chehak. I think my writing's matured a lot this semester, and I've written a few stories that I'm really fond of. When I get one published, I'll post it on my site so you guys can see.

November 6, 1996
In four weeks this semester is over - I can't wait. I'm now anxiously (very anxiously) waiting to see if I get into the advanced fiction class for next semester. Prof. Boyle taught this semester's advanced fiction class, and Prof. Latiolais will teach next semester's because Prof. Boyle isn't going to be here (don't ask me where he's going cause I don't know) so I've been chewing furiously at my hands for a week now waiting for the list to come up. It was supposed to be up on Friday last week, but I checked yesterday and it's still not up. I'm so afraid that I won't be on it. God, wouldn't it be terribly embarassing to go from advanced fiction back to intermediate fiction? I hope that's not going to happen. I'm doing alright in my other classes, except that I'm getting reamed in my photography class. I've been doing great - getting A's on most of my stuff (it's photography, for god's sake) but she's really strict on absences and only allows 3 and I've had 5 (it's a 3 hour long class - I can't sit still for 3 long hours) and screwed up one of my assignments (because I missed the lecture about it with one of my absences) so I'm practically failing the stupid class. Don't get me wrong - I love the class, I just wish the teacher wasn't so anal. I spend tons of time (and I mean tons) in the photo lab outside of class time, you'd think that that would make up at least a little for the absences, right? Now I have to redo the assignment and make sure I don't miss any more classes. Woohoo.

September 16, 1996
I got into the advanced fiction class - woohoo! I have so much crap to do - it's the 3rd week of school and I'm already behind.

August 27, 1996
School starts tomorrow (actually I don't actually start til Thursday cause I don't have classes on Wednesday). I just got a call yesterday saying that I was the first alternate for the advanced fiction writing class!!! I'm so excited! Woohoo! You have to submit a story to get accepted for the class, the professor reads your story and basically accepts you or doesn't accept you based on how good your story is. I wanted to submit a story but was afraid I'd get rejected so I waited til the very last minute and turned it in the last day submissions were taken and woohoo, if anyone drops the class, I'm in. I'm so excited. This is kind of a big deal, because it's really competive and you're totally judged on one piece of writing. I'm totally excited, can't wait to go to the first class!

August 8, 1996
I turned in my final, 10 page, complete bullshit, paper a week ago today and I'm done with that stinky class. Hell, even if I get an F on the final, I'll still get a C in the class which is all I need anyway, right? This will be the last update on this page until classes start at USC at the end of August - but then who really reads this page anyway??

July 24, 1996
I got my papers back yesterday. I turned them in last Tuesday. It was 5 weeks into class and I hadn't done any of the reading, and cranked them both out in a matter of 3-4 hours (they were 5-6 page papers). Bullshitted throughout the paper. I was praying for a C - but I got me an A+! Now I really know that my teacher's an idiot.

July 23, 1996
I had to get some boxes so I went to 32 (grocery store across from USC) to the back where I’ve gone before for boxes. There were a bunch of guys back there. I ask one of them for some boxes and he tells me I need to go to the produce section and I can get apple boxes and stuff. So I turn around to walk away and I hear him say, "You’re so pretty." I was a good 5 feet away, and it pissed me off. When you tell someone she’s pretty to her face, then that’s a compliment, but when you wait til I turn my back to say it almost under your breath, but loud enough for me to hear, that gets kind of creepy. The guy was a 30 something, Hispanic guy (it’s not a racial thing, he could have been white, black or asian and I would feel the same) and I got bad vibes from him from the start, and I’ve had this happen before with Hispanic men and I hate it, but when they say things behind my back it’s just easier to ignore it and pretend I didn’t hear, rather than confront them (which I know is a chicken shit thing to do), but what do I do when I’m in the back of the store in a fenced in, stinky area with a bunch of men standing around me? - turn around and call the guy an asshole for telling me I was pretty? No, I rather just feel creepy til I get the fuck out of there.

July 15, 1996
I'm taking a class this summer at OCC (Orange Coast College). I figure since it's only a g.e. it'd be cheaper and easier if I just take it at a jc. I'm taking an Eastern Religions class, and I was all excited about taking it because I find religion to be interesting and I don't know that much about Eastern Religions. The professor seemed pretty cool the first day of class - he was pretty funny and he told us that we'd get to watch a movie in class every day, and not only that, but he'd try to let us out early every day, too. The class only meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 3 hours each day, and I thought that was a great deal. Well, now I'm into the fourth week of class and I can not stand it. The jokes he told us on the first day of class he's still doing four weeks later. We watch a movie every day - and they're really good movies, too, but he talks through the whole goddamn thing and tells you everything that's going to happen before it happens. He also tells us the most stupidest, simplest things - things we can readily pick up from simply watching, but obviously he doesn't think we're smart enough to get them. This has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves in the world. Sometimes I look at him as he's happily chattering away through one of these movies and I want to throw my pencil at it so bad my arm itches. I picture my pencil flying across the room at full speed and lodging deep into the flesh on his forehead. Not only that though, he doesn't really seem to teach us anything either. On Tuesday, July 16, our midterms are due - two papers, so last Thursday we had a review. We talked about stuff he talked about on the first day of class. Then I began to think and realized that he seems to be simply reiterating the same stuff he talked about in the first week of class. I really haven't learned a thing, and I'm really rather bitter about it. Unfortunately, I have to finish this class in order to graduate next year on time. God, I hate him.

July 14, 1996
Last Thursday we watched Roger and Me. Michael Moore made the movie for about $9000 and sold it to Warner Brothers for $3 million!! It's a documentary about the evil Roger Smith and General Motors and the shutting down of the factories and loss of jobs in Flint, Michigan. It doesn't sound like a very good movie, but it was really funny - quite a lesson in humanity. It is just amazing how stupid and oblivious some people can be. It sure made you hate Roger Smith, though. I guess he got fired a couple of years ago - he closed down the factory in Flint and a bunch of others only to open up a bunch of factories in Mexico. Well, they saved money by cutting back on wages and training, but paid for it with a big decrease in quality. So Ford surpassed GM, and Roger Smith got canned.