Friday the ... 19th

So yesterday I fell out of a bus (read post from yesterday) and I felt fine. Today is another story. First of all, my ankle hurts really badly. I have a bruise on one arm the size of a golf ball. My wrist hurts and the right side of my right leg hurts too. And for some reason, the left side of my face hurts (I didn't think my face was involved in this mess).

I don't feel great either. I think I'm getting ill. I have nausea, headache, lightheadedness and I'm tired (but that is a normal every day thing since I don't sleep well here). Oh, and my stomach hurts. The only thing I could manage to eat today were some pretzels, anything else seemed repulsive.

At least it's Friday.

Favourite word of the day: flummoxed

"a series of unfortunate events"

Today has been really really really bad.

I don't even know where to start. How about the beginning? I hear it's a good place to start.

I went to my first class and couldn't focus at all. I would just start to stare off into space. Just like I did before writing this post. I drew more today than I actually learned. I do have to say my manga people are looking better.

I took the bus to my second class and slid out of the bus. Yes. I slid out of the bus. On my ass. And my my leg ended up all twisted somehow. I can't go a week without falling or sliding down the steps on the bus. But the thing was was that the bus stopped on a hill and the bus driver took his foot off the break and the bus went forward (down the hill) just as my right foot was attempting to land. He hit the break and the bus went backwards and my boot slipped off the edge and ... you get what happened.

Then I got an email about meeting with a potential voice actor for a radio drama. The host of the show said I had to work everything out with the candidate. That's fine. But what do you want me to do? Record the guy auditioning? With what? Oh, yes, that's right. I would need to record the audition with borrowed equipment from the library and then email him the file. I have never recorded anything in my life except a Calculus III class using voice memo on my iPhone. And I don't ever go into the library. (I went last week but I couldn't find the books - I just found the newspaper/magazine thingy where you put the slides in and see the pages on a computer like thingy). So, I am useless to this part of the radio drama production. And I couldn't make a poster for it because I don't know how to use InDesign. (what have I learned that is actually useful? I don't know...)

Then I had computer science workshop. That didn't go so well. We had a quiz. My mind went blank and you can probably see what happened. I know it was supposed to be simple, but it ended up a total mess.  I had to write the code for a pentagon using a for loop. The for loop was the issue (now I am thinking about pentagrams...I know that the only connection between pentagon and pentagram in the five part)

And then the bus schedule changes at five so I walked back to my dorm. Nothing bad happened then at least. Well, that's all for Ari's unfortunate adventures and injuries portion of today's The Spout post. I hope your day went better or at least you got a laugh at all of the above. If not, that really sucks.

PictureOfTheDay

She tried to bite my face off once. 

In memory of Molly

<3

+ insert thought bubble here

Here are my positive thoughts for the day:

1: I'm alive

2: Fall break begins at 11:35am (a full 90 hours of no classes, but the professors were still kind enough to assign homework assignments - isn't that nice)

3: I get to see my animals today

4: The weather is pretty good

5: I walked across the street without be run over

Note to reader who said I was mean: there is no meanness in this post.

PicOfTheDay and Extra Stuff That's Annoying

Are you... lookin at me???

So here at GaTech everyone is required to take a computer science class. I chose to take CS 1315 - Introduction To Computational Media (whatever that is...) because it's CS for non-CS, math or engineering majors. Every week we get a problem set (a special word for CS homework) and I just really look forward to it (one eyebrow raised, much like the alpaca pictured above)...

I go to the TA hours every week and since I've been going my experiences are getting worse and worse. One thing I really loathe about going is that one TA (the same one every week) asks me if "Do you love doing the homework? Isn't it fun?" I respond the same way, honestly, "No." And sometimes I add, "No. I don't find it fun." And then she looks at me like I'm nuts. I can't decide if the look is because I respond honestly or if she can't imagine someone not having fun doing the homework. 

Anyways, I went to the open hours yesterday at 11am. I was there till 1:30pm. I wasted two and half hours and then some guy had the nerve to yell "Bye!" (in a disgustingly happy, jovial sort of way) as if I was in my usual super bubbly, happy-go-lucky mood (pfft), when I decided to quietly leave with an expression of pure anger (no I didn't bare my teeth like my chihuahua). I was in no mood to respond, so I didn't, and when I walked out of the room and looked back, everyone was staring at me. Anyone who knows anything about visually assessing a human being to see what type of mood they are in would know I did not want to speak to anyone. So then I was really pissed. 

Not to mention that one TA said "You're really close. I know you can figure it now!"

Well, actually, you told me the wrong thing - so thanks.

I spent another two hours fixing what the TA had me do and finishing the rest. Damn you turtle graphics - you suck!

exams that are nonsensical

I had a personality theory exam today and let me tell you something - it was ludicrous. Before I begin to tell you all about the 'test,' I want to start off by saying that I read all four chapter's twice, reviewed my notes at least ten times, read the four power points twice (about 50 slides each) and reviewed the study guide twice (which was inconveniently posted at 7:01am this morning, two days after the ph.d student professor said it was to be posted).

The test consisted of 65 multiple choice (nonsensical) questions. What should have been simple questions were written superfluously and therefore confusing. Two of the questions were repeated twice, one question's answer choices contained no answer, and the analogy questions were unanswerable because there was no real analogy. Out of the 65 questions, I marked 15 as being iffy. 15! That is ridiculous - it's just absurd! The test was poorly written and I am about 110% sure that whoever wrote it didn't read it.

Since today is 10/11/12 and everyone is saying it's lucky, I should be getting at least a B depending on the amount of luck I receive from the Luck Fairy. Maybe I should leave a full pair of dentures under my pillow - is that enough teeth for the Tooth Fairy to put a good word in for me?

ridiculousness

I woke up to an email this morning from the hall RA - which is usually a bad thing. The RA is threatening to charge everyone on the floor with a fine (of fifty bucks!!!!) due to 'vandalism,' if it happens again. Some stupid person wrote 'alcohol is awesome' and drew 'male body part's' on the bulletin board paper that has facts about alcohol pasted on it. No one reads the bulletin board (but no one should be drawing or writing on it I agree), but to punish the entire hall for one person's behavior (probably due to alcohol in the first place) - now that is nuts and it's socialism.

And I didn't get much sleep.


*sigh*

Again, no sleep...

I was super excited about the radio show last night and when I tried to go to sleep, I had a difficult time. I finally fell asleep an hour and half later. In the middle of my slumber, I woke to the sounds of 'this is an emergency alert' at four freakin thirty in the morning. I stumbled my way outside and down six flights of steps and then waited for forty-five minutes in the cold, frigid temperature (well, it wasn't frigid, but it was cold).

We finally were allowed to go back into the building - some real emergency I tell you, the maintenance guy with a cart of soda just strolled in (just twenty minutes after we were told we had to exit the building) while we waited for the 'police and firefighters' to 'search' the building. Unbelievable. Why don't they just tell you to leave the doors unlocked during the day and that they are going to check to see if you have any prohibited good in your apartment....pft

It took me another hour to fall back asleep and now I'm sitting here writing this as my eyelids droop and I am accidentally erasing everything I've typed (it's good to have control-z).

I'll write more later when I can spell correctly with out spell check.

Another thing that really annoys me is the bus schedule after 5.

SciFiLab Radio Show

Hello World!

Today was the launch of the new 'rebooted' Science Fiction Laboratory Radio Show ( SciFiLab) on GaTech WREK Atlanta 91.1 FM! I was on air for just about 12 seconds (yay me). Everyone was great and the interview with David Benedict from the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company was enlightening - especially since we are in the beginning of getting a radio drama written.

You too can listen in every Thursday night, 7:00pm to 8:00pm to the SciFiLab program Online or using the GaTech App or if you live in the area! You can like us on Facebook or more importantly, FOLLOW SciFiLab on Twitter!

Next week the theme is robots. Oooohhhhhh. I believe R2D2 is going to be discussed and then in the future, the themes will be cyborgs (I've already got my example picked out, Ironman) and zombies.

Most Amazing Essay Written As Part of An Exam

I promised the world, a few posts back, that I would post my Intro to STAC essay when I got it back. Well, I got it back. To give you the idea of the prompt, it's something like this:

"A producer wants to finance a suspense/action/horror film and must choose a concept A or B. Your job is to recommend A or B. Explain why your choice would make a better film. Include a general storyline." I chose A: The world is being overrun by self-propelled, self-directed machines - robots. They are fast, strong and violent. They reproduce by scavenging materials from the world around them and building more versions of themselves."

Here is my essay that is 100% original. DO NOT STEAL IT. Even though, I can totally see why you would want to - because it's awesome...and amazing. 

Think “Aliens” meets “I am Legend” meets “I-Robot.” That’s my pitch for a suspense/action/ terrifying horror film. Robots reproducing by scavenging materials, violently attacking everyday people, going to war against our human armies and eventually taking over the world, because after all, they don’t need sleep and food to keep them alive, only humans do.

            While a non-visual source of terror usually does instill more fear within the audience, we humans still have a great aversion and fear about nonhuman beings taking control over our world. We like to fantasize that aliens would ‘come in peace’ and robots would just be servants. But since the birth of the automaton, robots have been the source of inspiration for suspenseful films, novels and play’s, like Rossum’s Universal Robot’s.

            Although a virus infecting the digital network is really non-visual to the audience, it’s also an abstract image that would need to be represented in some visual way and that just wouldn’t appear as visually frightening in any way that an ultra-strong, vicious, unintelligent ‘mechanical beast’ would appear. This is primarily due to the fact that human fears are related to the unknown and to things that look like us, act like us, but would really prefer to kill off the human race instead of living within our world harmoniously.

            To really give the audience a jolt, a great move for such a film would be to take a rather pessimistic outlook on the situation. Humans love when humans conquer other worldly invaders (think ‘Marvel’s The Avenger’s’) and hate when humans appear to be the inferior race. This is precisely why we have more superhero action films than human’s are the losers films. So, the film would end with the entire human population massacred and heartless, fearless robots living all over Earth. That will surely have the audience leaving the theatre without warm fuzzies, and an intense fear toward beings that mimic some of our more negative qualities, physically and mentally. And it may be thought only subconsciously, but even the ruthless robots that dominate the film do share similarities, mentally, with that of psychologically disturbed human beings.

            By taking a wholly negative outlook at robots multiplying by scavenging, an act humans view as barbaric, and destroying humanity, a suspenseful horror film is born. Nothing is more terrifying and worse than seeing your own kind being destroyed.

Why the GaTech STAC major is cool...

You may be thinking, Georgia Tech? Georgia Institute of Technology? has a what major? You may think GaTech in terms of engineering only: #1 for Industrial and Systems Engineering,  #2 for biomedical engineering, blah blah blah. GaTech is one of the TOP 10 public schools in the country. And they have a STAC major. 

When I went to orientation before my first semester here, a librarian asked me what my major was so she could direct me to the correct library for my major. I said "STAC" and she looked at me like "what?" I said "STAC, you know, science, technology and culture?" and then she gave me a blank stare and said "well good luck at Tech."

Before my academic advising, all 200 transfers were placed into a large auditorium and were asked to cheer for their major. There were loud claps and whistles for anything involving engineering, particularly mechanical and electrical. When it came time to "Science, Technology and Culture," guess who was the only one clapping - me - all alone. Everyone laughed, turned around in their seats to see who this one, single person this was. They laughed, smiled and then I heard (sotto voce) "What's that? Science, technology and culture?" As I left to go to my appointment, I announced to the entire auditorium "The major exists. It exists!"

Anyways, back to my main point. So what is the major? It's exactly what it is. It's an integrative major that combines science (2 years of it), technology (everyone at GaTech takes a CS class) and culture. Basically, on a daily basis, I read, think, write (my own stuff and very few actual assignments except two term papers due at the end of the semester), discuss and then I go read some more. If you don't like reading 100+ pages a day, don't go to GaTech for anything. 

I had a test last week that had three essay questions - you pick one. I chose to write what would make a better suspense/action/horror film: scavenging, vicious, super strong robots (that aren't that bright) or a digital worm making technology completely useless. I chose the robots and I intend to put my essay on this blog for everyone to read it. It's kind of brilliant. I got to use 'warm fuzzies,' yes those two words, in my essay for a class at GaTech....I think I may have taken a huge risk by doing this...