Random Musings

... and how does that make you feel?

2010-05-17T22:33:00.003-04:00

Over the past couple of days, I've been the unfortunate recipient of two different types of destructive behavior. You should recognize both, because they are tragically common. The first was an old lady who seemed determined to be in a bad mood and to take it out on someone else. The second was a group of immature (college? high school?) boys yelling insults out their car window as they drove past. I group these together because they both raise the same question in my mind: does that kind of behavior actually make you feel better? You've definitely made someone else feel worse, but do you walk (or drive) away feeling better about yourself, or satisfied that you've accomplished anything? I can't imagine you do.

For example, the old woman was a passenger on my bus. After I took a turn at a speed she judged to be too fast, she spent over a minute of her time in condescending castigation of my driving. When she finished, I could only apologize for her discomfort, and we went on our separate ways. What bothered me wasn't the fact that she didn't like the way I drove, but the way she told me about it. She didn't just want me to drive more safely next time, she wanted me to feel stupid about what I did. And then, when all was said and done, what had she accomplished? She was still mad at me, and now I was mad at her. Net loss, in my opinion.

Example #2: I was sitting outside an ice cream store with a couple of my friends, one table away from a group of mildly obnoxious guys. We all got up to leave at approximately the same time, and while we were standing at our cars, they drove by with their windows rolled down, yelling obscenities and insults at us. This kind of behavior is even more confusing. What can they possibly hope to accomplish in a two-second verbal attack? Are they so full of hateful energy that they simply cannot contain it? Is this assault a release valve that has some positive effect I don't understand? As far as I could tell, all they did was make me fume.

I can come up with only two explanations for this kind of behavior. Maybe there are some people in the world who enjoy causing others pain. I think it's despicable, and I am sorry that I seem to encounter them on such a frequent basis, but each experience had a drastically negative effect on the rest of my day. Alternatively, maybe they are under the self-delusion that this kind of behavior will make them feel better. Maybe they think that discontent is a finite substance that they can exorcise from themselves by passing on to someone else.

I have news for them. Anger and frustration and negativity are infinitely renewable, because they require so little effort to spread from one person to another. But they do not disappear from one person because he has managed to sow the seeds of discord in another. The only way to stop the spread is for one person to have the energy and the maturity to break the chain. Quell the urge to spread the hatred. And even when someone has tried to ruin your day, find the strength to be kind to someone else.

Summer is Exciting Again

2010-05-15T22:48:00.000-04:00

After spending an entire winter break applying to internships, and most of a spring semester waiting for a response, it eventually dawned on me that I would not be spending the summer in Washington, D.C. Five internship applications, three rejections, and two offices who never bothered to get back to me at all. Oh, and I was passed over for two job promotions as well. Pretty disappointing.

But, lo and behold, a reason to believe in the old adage: "Whenever one door closes, another one opens." Or, "Everything happens for a reason." Or even, "Seek and ye shall find." Take your pick. Regardless, I was determined to do something fun this summer. Bus driving is a job, and not a bad one, but it's not something to get me excited for three months straight. And while economics classes are important, and they'll keep me busy, they definitely don't fulfill the "something fun" requirement. So I returned to my old fallback: ASL.

Let me tell you a little bit about Laurie Shaffer. UVA employs a couple of interpreters as full-time staff members, and they do all the in-classroom interpreting for Deaf students, interpret major events like commencement and graduation, and serve other miscellaneous functions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities in and around UVA. Laurie is one of those interpreters, but she is also a self-described "interpreter educator," whose goal is to create more and better interpreters to serve the Deaf community. I e-mailed her to request that she let me watch her interpret some classes this summer, hoping that some exposure—any exposure—to ASL would be good for me. Her response to me was better than I could have expected.

She has offered to talk to me about ethical requirements, tell me about education and certification requirements, and to observe and personally evaluate my interpreting skills, so that I can target my weak spots. From a request to sit quietly in the back of a classroom while she does what she does anyway, I suddenly landed an excited, energetic, and HIGHLY qualified professional who has been generous enough to donate her time to my improvement. I can't wait for this summer.

My Annual Update

2010-01-12T21:35:00.004-05:00

It seems that this blog is here to torment me. It hangs around, periodically resurfacing in my mind (mostly when it attracts spam advertisements in the comments), reminding me of things I've wanted to do and haven't. Blogging is probably the least of them, but somehow it's a link to all the things I've planned out for myself over the past year or two and never saw through to fruition.

But who am I to question this blog's purpose? Maybe, if I keep posting my hopes and ambitions on a public page for the world to see, I'll be shamed into actually accomplishing one of them. Maybe one of you, fair readers, will poke and prod me until I do it. So here goes.

I'm applying to internships for the summer. White House is my first choice, and I'm closest to finishing it. I requested my recommendations ahead of time, I updated my resume weeks ago, and I started working on essays right after Christmas. And with only two essays, I should be finished and ready to submit by now, right? Nope. One essay still left. Apparently a month-long break isn't the most motivating situation in which to write an essay.
Other internships include Senator Webb, Senator Warner, Congressman Perriello, Congressman Scott, and Congressman Lewis (D-GA). Also, the Center for American Progress. They're in varying stages of completion, but due dates are still a fair distance away.
I want to learn Taekwondo this semester. So far I've found a Charlottesville TKD school that I have no way of getting to without a car, an AFC class that conflicts with other semester-long plans I've already made, and the UVA TKD club. I'll start with the club and hope that it's more motivating in the long run than swim club was. This is more like a sub-goal beneath my greater quest to work out on a regular basis while at school.
Continue building the relationship between Shakespeare on the Lawn (the student-run theatre group at UVA, for which I serve as publicity chairman) and Live Arts (a community theatre in Cville), and rebuilding SOTL's public image in general.
Develop a character I can be proud of. Since MLWGS, I've never been entirely pleased with my dramatic work. Between me, Matt, and the rest of the Persephone cast this semester, I hope that Goal #5 works out.

A New Direction

2008-12-25T11:53:00.003-05:00

First, here's a shout-out to my friend of ... how long? Has it really been twelve years? Hard to believe that anything in my short life has been constant for twelve years, but I guess it has. I just saw Quinn Wilson yesterday, and he's doing alright for himself. A freshman in college, he already owns his own business (three years running)—http://crystalfallsproductions.com/ if you're interested—and attends many of his school's entrepreneurial conferences ... as a speaker. He's been awarded the McKelvey Entrepreneurial Scholarship (http://www.mckelveyfoundation.org/entrepreneurial/), and in his spare time he represents his school as a Student Senator, performs stand-up comedy routines, and takes paid gigs as a jazz drummer.

That's a pretty impressive list of accomplishments for one so young (especially the business), and it deserves congratulations. It also made me feel pretty under-accomplished for most of yesterday.

Today, I'll look at it from a different perspective. It's Christmas Day, so I'm in pretty good mood (I just found out I'll be spending the first three weeks of June in Siena, Italy!), which might have something to do with my new outlook, but at any rate, here it is: Quinn already knows what he wants to do with his life. More power to him. Just because I haven't decided yet doesn't mean I've missed an opportunity. I'm at a liberal arts school precisely because I haven't figured it out yet -- if I knew what I wanted, I would never have chosen UVA.

I do know that I'm looking for a leadership position during my time at college. Experience with leading and organizing is essential in the business world, and I know I have the skills, but I've never made the opportunity to utilize them. I've been thinking for several months now that I need to find a cause. I need to find something that's important to me and do something about it ... not so much to put it on my resumé as to validate something within myself.

To be honest, I've been feeling a little inadequate ever since I came to college. UVA's a great school because it gives its students opportunities, but we have to take those opportunities and do something with them. I need to prove to myself that I'm not just one of the 13,000 undergrads at UVA, but that I can take my skills above and beyond, that I can do something special. During high school, getting good grades and building a social life was enough for me, but it's not anymore. Maybe I've gotten more ambitious, or maybe I've just gotten bored. Either way, it's time for a change.

The Perils of Efficiency

2008-12-19T17:25:00.005-05:00

I love living in the West End of Henrico County, especially when Dec. 1 rolls around. It's wonderful to drive around my quiet little neighborhood, knowing that just 2 miles from my house, cars are backing up Interstate 64, trying to get to the ever-expanding Short Pump metropolis. I'm just far enough away that the traffic doesn't affect me, but close enough that I can easily hop on Broad Street and drive out to do some shopping of my own.

I try not to actually do that. It's tiring. It's hard. It takes up gas and time and can even be a little dangerous -- when holiday stress combines with traffic, you've got a good formula for road rage. Fortunately, I live in the West End of Henrico County in the twenty-first century. That means Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, eBay.com ... all at my disposal, ready to be shopped from the comfort of my own desk chair. I can pay someone else to sit at stop lights and dodge around cars, then put the package at my front door.

The biggest struggle with online shopping is the question of WHEN? There's something to be said for walking into a store and walking out with gift in hand. Ordering online introduces an element of uncertainty, but Amazon.com (and others) do their best to alleviate your woes. They usually do a pretty good job, but I have a bone to pick with them this year.

I ordered my girlfriend a Bonsai Tree for Christmas. The problem with live plants is that you can't order them ahead of time and box them up until Christmas. I had to time my order pretty exactly to ensure that it arrived by Christmas, but not too early. Imagine my surprise when I checked the website Dec. 16 and received a warning that unless I paid for Two-Day shipping (an extra $26), my gift would not arrive until after December 25. Crap. I'm leaving Dec. 26, so there's no way I'm having it delivered to my house to sit outside for three days -- better ship it directly to her door. I'll have to forego wrapping paper, but I'm sure she'll understand.

Two days later, I get a phone call. "Doc? Why do I have a box sitting on my front porch that says 'Live Plant'?" Crap again. There goes my surprise.

I feel pretty grinchy complaining when Amazon.com ships my gifts too early, but it certainly posed a problem this year. I ended up driving over to her house that day and telling her to go ahead and open it, and just consider it an early present. A whole week early. I hadn't even wrapped my other presents yet, and there she was opening hers already. She ended up loving it, but I've lost some trust in the online marketplace.

Matthew Shepard, WBC, and The Power of Love

2008-11-14T11:52:00.007-05:00

Normally I'd start this post by apologizing for taking so long to get back to blogging. Lear ended weeks ago, so I really should have been back on the blog front a long time back.

But I'm not sorry. My eight-week hiatus will only draw more attention to this post, and I want as many people to read it as possible. Even if you are only a casual follower of this blog, please make an effort to share this post, because I want everyone to know about last Friday.

First of all, let me explain the poster picture. The Laramie Project is a play created by (as you can see) Moisés Kaufman to commemorate the death of Matthew Shepard, the homosexual victim of a hate crime. This play is a tribute to the love he gave and received during his lifetime, immortalized in the interviews with his friends, family, and acquaintances shortly after his death. On Friday, Nov. 14, the UVA Queer and Allied Activism group (QuAA) presented this play as the final official act of Proud to be Out week. Publicizing this play more than a week in advance got plenty of attention, and not just from the University community.

Westboro Baptist Church is an organization comprising some of the most hateful, intolerant people in America. They are not affiliated with any recognized church or Christian group. Instead, they are officially recognized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Their biggest claims to fame are a fiery message of damnation towards homosexuality and any perceived actions in America that promote it, and their protests of soldiers' funerals across the country. For more information, please visit their Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church), as they receive money for every visit to their website (http://www.godhatesfags.com/).

Early last week, someone from the UVA administration informed QuAA it was on the WBC picket schedule. Almost immediately, Laramie Project projected attendance skyrocketed. QuAA planned a counter-protest in which anyone from the University could show up an hour early for the show (the same time WBC planned to arrive) wearing a black t-shirt and help to line the walkway leading up to the UVA Chapel. This human wall would serve as a physical barrier to protect attendees, but it would also be a powerful message of love, tolerance, and acceptance. We would shut out all the hate preached by WBC, proving that our values are stronger than theirs.

They never showed. It didn't matter. Five hundred UVA students stood outside the Chapel in the cold for an hour, holding candles, and even participating in a rendition of the Good Ol' Song. I'm so proud to be a member of this community. When the doors to the show finally opened, the Chapel reached fire code capacity before accepting even half the supporters, and a few even stayed after the show started on the off-chance that people would leave and they would be allowed in late.

To WBC: We win. Our message was the more powerful for your absence. We came together to celebrate our love for our friends and neighbors, regardless of their sexual orientation. I'm sorry you weren't there to see it, but your absence proves that you never really were the main attraction. We had a higher calling, and you were hardly even missed.

Apologies!

2008-09-26T11:14:00.002-04:00

I'm sure you've noticed that all has been quiet on the Blogger front this week, and I want to apologize. My original goal of posting every day has long since been abandoned, for two reasons. I don't have the time, but more importantly, I don't have the substance. There's no reason for me to post just to put something online. I'd prefer to post more substance less often, in the hopes that people will pay attention to what I have to say.

Nevertheless, it's been a full week since I posted anything, and I don't pretend that my last post took much time or effort. I therefore apologize if anyone has had a lack of interesting reading this week, and pledge to remedy that in the near future.

Why have I been so lax in keeping you updated? Because this week (since 12am Sunday), my teachers have expected me to read a total of 302 pages and complete a 75-minute Computer Science quiz outside of class. This has also been off-book week for Lear, so I've been doing my best to memorize my 300 lines (approximately ... 395 in the unabridged version, minus director's cuts). It's been busy.

But stay tuned! I have an interesting post coming up that I think many of you will enjoy. I'm hoping to have it up by the end of the weekend, but it's going to take a little bit of research to do it justice.

Happy Friday!

SkypeMe!

2008-09-19T11:48:00.008-04:00

I'm always looking for cool new applications and gadgets for my computer, especially when they're free. I was sitting in my dorm room yesterday when my roommate's computer started ringing. I looked around, but it wasn't his cell phone, nor our room phone (which is sitting on his desk, but has yet to do anything). His computer was ringing. Sure enough, when he clicked the pop-up window, a voice emerged through his tinny laptop speakers.

My roommate then proceeded to have a full-fledged telephone conversation at a much higher quality than any cell phone service I've ever used. I was intrigued.

The service is called "Skype," a free Internet-based telephone service that works directly through your computer's built-in microphone and speakers, so there's no need to buy a physical telephone handset. If you don't have the built-in equipment, you can buy a headset directly from Skype.com, or practically any electronics store. This is actually Skype's recommended configuration, as it dramatically improves sound quality and reduces feedback. Furthermore, the use of an Internet connection instead of a physical phone line means that it costs the same to call across the room or across the world ... nothing at all.

I currently have four friends on my Skype buddy list, one of whom is my roommate. Needless to say, it hasn't been incredibly helpful yet ... but I downloaded it less than 24 hours ago. I have made one phone call to a friend across Grounds, and I have a favorable report. Double-clicked his name, connected without a hitch, had a crystal-clear conversation, and hung up. Adding a Skype buddy is easy if you know your friend's e-mail address, full name, or Skype screen name. Incidentally, mine is docmcconl, so look me up.

I use a Macbook Pro, which has iChat installed, so in some ways Skype will be redundant. iChat and Skype both have text-, voice-, and video-chat capabilities, but iChat is notoriously finicky when trying to connect to other IM programs (Yahoo, AIM, etc.). For those of my friends who do not have iChat, I hope Skype will be a good alternative ... as long as I can find some people for my buddy list.

Look me up! Doc McConnell or docmcconl.

Doc McConnell, Storyteller Extraordinaire

2008-09-15T17:11:00.003-04:00

I recently received a comment on my February 26 post that has prompted me to dedicate this blog post to Ernest "Doc" McConnell, Tennessee's first Storytelling Laureate Nominee.

Doc passed away on Aug. 16, 2008, and a quick Google search will show anyone that he was well-respected and loved in his community. His traveling Old Time Medicine Show completed 30 seasons all over the United States, and was "guaranteed to bring a laugh to most, and at least a smile to all the rest" (http://www.tales-tonics.com/).

I never had the pleasure of meeting the man, but I became aware of him through Google. Searching my name brought up his website first, which, as you can see from my Feb. 26 post, led to some confusion. When Doc's daughter commented on that post two days ago, I searched for some more information about him, and found some strange coincidences. First, he was preceded in death by his first wife, Virginia McConnell. For those of you who don't know, that's my mom's name. He also has a niece currently living in Richmond, VA. Maybe we're related ...

I am very sorry for his family's loss, and I wish him peace as he takes his traveling medicine show to his newest audience.

Short Post

2008-09-08T00:51:00.003-04:00

I'll be playing Edgar, and I'm absolutely thrilled with the part. We had our first read-through tonight. Went well, but the play has a LOT going on. It's going to take some work to figure out who the different characters are, because there are a lot of decisions to make about how our own personalities will affect our staging of this production.

Also, because we had our first rehearsal, it's time to start trying to balance drama and homework again. That's why this post is so late, and why it's so short. I'm going to bed -- stay tuned for more details.

That's Edgar on the bottom left, practically naked and covered in blue paint. Photo courtesy of http://www.mckellen.com/images/3506.jpg

King Lear

2008-09-04T10:34:00.002-04:00

In sixth grade, I chose not to become involved in the Moody Middle School drama program. I missed out on friendships and opportunities that I regretted for the next two years. In ninth grade, I made a similar choice to focus on schoolwork rather than jump into drama immediately. For the next three years of high school, I regretted that choice.

I've known since sophomore year of high school that I would not make the same mistake again in college, and so I have already auditioned for the fall performance of King Lear by the student-led group "Shakespeare on the Lawn" or "SotL." Auditions were last night, and I performed Hamlet's "too, too sullied flesh" monologue from Act I, Scene 2. I also read monologues from three Lear characters: Edmund, Edgar, and the Fool. I am thrilled to be returning tonight for callbacks, during which I will get to play onstage! That is, there will be interactions onstage, which are always more fun than one-character tirades about the unfairness of the world. If I get a part, performances will be Oct. 23-25.

So, if I do get a part, what will I be doing? What is King Lear really about? Who are Edmund, Edgar, and the Fool? Fortunately for you, I've done research! I haven't actually read the play yet (shh!), but it's on my to-do list.

The play begins as the King decides to divide up his kingdom among his three daughters -- Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. Goneril and Regan launch into effusive (and dishonest) speeches about their overwhelming love for their father, eventually convincing the King to disown his youngest and divide the kingdom between them. Their true feelings emerge soon after, when they banish their father into a raging storm. Soon, the two sisters turn their jealousy against each other in a fight over a man named Edmund, and engage the army that Cordelia has brought to bear on them to restore Lear to his throne.

Meanwhile, there are other sibling conflicts. Edmund (bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester) convinces his father to banish his legitmate half-brother, Edgar. In a fun display of the power of karma, the Earl is blinded shortly thereafter, and thrown into the storm. Edgar, who has been masquerading as a lunatic since his exile, stumbles across his father and agrees to lead him to Dover.

The excitement comes to a peak in Dover, wherein Edgar saves his father's life, Lear and Cordelia reunite, and the armies of Britain (controlled by Goneril and Regan) and France (controlled by Cordelia and her husband, the King of France) clash in a massive battle. France loses, and Edmund orders Cordelia and Lear's executions.

In true form to Shakespeare's tragedies, people start dropping like flies. Edgar mortally wounds Edmund, Goneril (who has already poisoned Regan) commits suicide, and Edmund pardons Cordelia and Lear just moments too late. Cordelia has already been hanged, and Lear follows her in death shortly thereafter. Oh, and just to throw another death in the mix, Lear kills the servant who hanged Cordelia.

I should reveal that because I haven't read the play yet, that entire synopsis came from a Wikipedia article, and I'm not sure how complete or how accurate it is. If I notice any glaring errors, be assured that I will come back to correct them. Now ... how will SotL spin this seemingly classic Shakespearean struggle for power? We're going to set it in a modern-day business setting, of course! Lear will be the powerful corporate executive and his daughters greedy capitalists. Except Cordelia ... I suppose that continuing the analogy would make her the idealistic socialist?

Bristol Palin is Pregnant

2008-09-01T18:38:00.002-04:00

I have a decidedly liberal slant to the stories I post here on my blog. This is not, however, going to be a post to bash Gov. Palin or her daughter. Instead, I want to share a quotation from Sen. Obama, pulled directly from a story on Politico. That story can be found in its entirety at this address: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13050.html

Obama's Statement:

"I have said before, and I will repeat again: People's families are off-limits ... And people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18, and how a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn’t be a topic of our politics."

I applaud Obama for refusing opportunity after opportunity to sling mud at his opponents throughout this campaign. Now, after McCain has picked a candidate in large part to appeal to his religious constituency (many of whom oppose premarital sex), Obama has been handed another attack platform on a silver platter. Instead of seizing the moment and targeting the Palin family for "immorality" or any number of other attacks, he has pushed the issue aside. He is absolutely correct in saying that the candidates' families are off-limits.

Bravo, Obama.

Ceeeeeelebrate Good Times, Come On!

2008-08-30T12:56:00.004-04:00

I'm a small blogger, one read mostly by my friends and acquaintances, and so I don't usually get to break the big stories. I'm usually following the true self-styled journalists by 12 hours or so. I have no staff, no budget, and little time to devote to breaking news. However, I believe that I am the first to announce a story that should have been plastered all over the headlines of the New York Times and the Washington Post ... McCain has conceded! America will have a black man as President!

Fine, so he hasn't actually dropped out of the race, but he has handed the office over to Obama. Picking Palin was political suicide ... let's examine the choice. First, who is this little-known woman whom McCain suddenly believes is qualified to occupy the highest political office in the country? Keep in mind that the Vice-President must, by definition, be qualified to take over if the President is unable to perform his duties.

Sarah Palin has been the governor of Alaska since December of 2006. Born in 1964, she is now 44 years old (28 years younger than John McCain). Her platform is firmly conservative. Among other issues, she strongly opposes abortion and supports oil drilling in Alaska (in her words: using "revenues generated from the state’s natural resources."). Most importantly, she has no experience working in government on the national level.

So why is she a good choice for Senator McCain?

She is female. McCain hopes that she will attract many of the voters disenfranchised by Obama's nomination.
She is conservative. McCain has been widely criticised by conservatives (and widely acclaimed by independents and liberals) for some of his political views. McCain hopes that her anti-abortion views will appeal to the religious Republican vote.
She reinforces McCain's identity as strong-willed and determined. He has promised not to give in to political interest groups or allow "entrenched bureaucracies" to delay his policies. She has a history of the same philosophy. Upon entering office, she cut ties between the gubernatorial office and oil companies, and has since increased taxes on oil company profits.

Hm. Not bad. So there are a couple good ideas ... why is everyone saying she's such a bad choice?

She's female. Does McCain really think that just by picking a woman, he can steal all of Clinton's supporters? Isn't it a little shallow to assume that women in America will vote for him simply because he has another woman on the ticket? Didn't he consider the fact that Hillary's supporters might have supported her because of her political views instead of her gender? No chance she'll win those votes -- she opposes same sex marriage, opposes abortion, and is a lifelong member of the National Rifle Association.
She has no national experience, either executive or legislative. Conservative ideals are all well and good, but she has never had any experience in putting them into practice. One of McCain's biggest arguments against Obama was his lack of policy experience: 4 years, compared to McCain's 26). Palin has zero.
She doesn't have any foreign policy experience, either. In 2007, she flew to Kuwait to visit some members of the Alaska National Guard. Before she left, she had to apply for a passport. Let's hope nothing happens to the 72-year-old skin cancer survivor who wants the Oval Office, because I sure don't want HER to take over.
He doesn't even know Palin. It was a snap decision. They met for the first time in February, at a National Governors Association Meeting. They next spoke by phone last Sunday, at which time he suggested the vice presidency for the very first time.
Her conservative views will not complement McCain's; they will contradict them. For example, Palin (the great supporter of Alaskan oil drilling rights) does not believe that global warming is a man-made occurence. Not radical enough for you? How about this ... she supports the teaching of intelligent design in schools, alongside evolution.

McCain has effectively dropped out of the race, and I want to be the first to congratulate Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States of America.

First Week of Classes

2008-08-29T09:52:00.003-04:00

So I'm sure many of my loyal followers are wondering ... where are the posts? The first, second, and third days of classes have gone by and there are NO random musings? Well, friends, that just isn't so. You should give me more credit. Of COURSE I have irreverent comments to make about my classes! I've just been a little busy trying to get into the college routine, and I haven't made the time to get on and let you all know how things are going. Allow me to fix that now ...

I have an awesome schedule. I haven't had my hardest day yet (Monday), so I'll reserve judgment about whether it's "perfect" or not, but so far I really can't find anything to complain about. Tuesday, I had my first class on "The CIA: Myths and Realities." It's supposed to be two and a half hours (once a week), but the professor spent about and hour and a half showing us how much we don't know about the CIA, and how much we're going to learn, and then let us go early. Professor Haines was chief historian of the CIA for six years, so he knows his stuff ... but I'm sensing some personality conflicts coming up. I expect that his extensive background with the organization will leave him singing its praises, and I don't necessarily agree with everything that the CIA does. However, I am keeping an open mind, and I am never one to run from a good debate. I can't wait to learn more about it. His assigned reading for the class so far consists of one 600-page book -- and it's "optional, but strongly recommended." Right. It's "optional" in the same sense that the extra essay on the Harvard application is "optional." I can't wait for the actual required reading ...

Then I had a nice long break until my 3:30 "Conversational ASL" class, which is going to be fantastic. Despite my last four years of ASL instruction, I was a little apprehensive about going to a class full of 3rd and 4th years, but I'm going to be just fine. I've discovered that once you're sitting in a classroom, no one cares about how old you are. That may be a theme for the rest of my life ... after turning 18, I'm an adult, no matter how old I am. Anyway, the professor is clear, laid back, very willing to answer questions, and eager to structure his class to help the students. Greg doesn't have a clear agenda in class -- in fact, our first homework assignment is to come up with a syllabus. He just wants to make us better signers, so he's willing to focus on whatever we want to learn. Most exciting thing about this class? A visit from the students at VSDB (Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind) later in the semester. I can't wait :)

My Wednesday classes were just as good. At 12:00, I went to my first Mass Media & American Politics class, which is ENORMOUS. It's really popular, really hard to get into, and really good. The lecture consisted mostly of what we will be learning later on, and here are a few excerpts ... Media Ownership, Bias and Objectivity, Scandals: Old and New, Media and Elections (I wonder why this particular semester is so popular? Hmm ... ), Political Advertising ... the list goes on. The lectures are going to be amazing. The teacher is eloquent, intelligent, and excited about teaching. I haven't met my TA yet, because my discussion period for this week was canceled, but I can't wait for my first discussion next Friday -- I think the readings for this class are going to be fascinating.

Finally, I went to my Computer Science class. Imagine, if you will, a boy brought up in a family with a history of working in auto repair shops. From the time he could hold a wrench, his father took him into the shop and taught him all about cars. By the time he was 10, he could make a car from a few rubber bands and paperclips, and it would get better gas mileage than the average Prius. By the time he was 18, he had taken over the family business, and gained enough customers to keep him busy until retirement. Now fast-forward about 30 years ... the boy is a genius at building and repairing automobiles, but he never learned very many other life skills. Now instead of working in an auto-repair shop, pretend he works as a professor of Computer Science at the University of Virginia. Don't get me wrong, I think Marty is brilliant ... but he obviously has a specific area of expertise. We're going to be learning Java and MatLab (which I'm told is helpful to engineering students?), and potentially touching on a few other languages along the way. I'm just excited that Marty's not a repeat of sophomore year, during which my teacher came to half of the classes hung over, and didn't show up to the other half at all.

Classes are great, and I LOVE having several hours in the middle of every day (2.5 hours at a minimum between classes) to read and work on homework -- that's my most productive time of day, and it frees up my evenings for relaxation. The other thing that's going to be really nice all year is the dining hall. I just upgraded my plan for "Unlimited" visits to the dining hall, so UVA won't know what hit them. Now, I just have to make time for some extracurriculars ... I hear auditions for King Lear are on Wednesday.

Different Voices, Common Threads, and Grounds for Discussion

2008-08-25T23:10:00.004-04:00

Kudos to the University for their extremely well-planned program on diversity this afternoon! I had a certain expectation for the obligatory program on "loving each other for our differences," and this blew it out of the water. The 30 minute walks to and from the JPJ arena were unfortunate, especially because the 3,299 other students walking at the exact same time slowed us down a bit, but the presentation was worth it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the student panel. About seven students stood in front of the entire class of 2012 to discuss what set them apart from their peers. They were gay, low-income, Latino, multiracial, transgender, a victim of dwarfism, and a Sikh. I apologize if I skipped over any of the students. If I did, it was not because they were unimpressive. In fact, everyone was a very powerful speaker, and I admire them for their bravery -- not only speaking to the incoming class, but for developing the self-confidence to achieve their obvious success at the University.

One student told a particularly heart-wrenching story about his 18-year-long identity crisis. For as long as he could remember, he had known that despite his physical characteristics, he was not a girl. He went through extensive ridicule and self-doubt, not to mention years of therapy, until he arrived at UVA. Not until he entered the University's community of acceptance and support did he finally find affirmation of his true identity. During his first-year hall meeting, he came out to his RA and his peers. Instead of the jibes and taunts he expected, he found notes commending him for his bravery and offering words of sympathy and love. After two years in this community, he found the courage to surgically remove his girl's chest and to take testosterone shots, in order to develop the male secondary sex characteristics.

This student, however, was just one part of a very powerful presentation that brought many of the audience members to tears. After a brief speech by the Dean of Students (also quite good), we had a short break while we transitioned from "Different Voices, Common Threads" to "Grounds for Discussion."

"Grounds" consisted of a number of skits portraying the issues that we will encounter as students at UVA. One warned us about creating an overwhelming schedule, including classes, extracurriculars, parties, and sports. Others touched on topics such as roommate disagreements, alcohol abuse, and sexual predators. The skits unfortunately diluted the overall message of the event -- their weak humor and sheer number quickly tired the audience. Some were quite good, but they were unfortunately few in number.

I felt the presentation was quite effective overall, especially when coupled with discussions in the residence hall meetings later in the evening. Every university requires its students and staff to be "tolerant" and "accepting," but I am beginning to believe that UVA is a step above the average university. I think that everyone here takes these topics quite seriously, and the personal testimonies that we heard today have convinced me that UVA is different. I'm proud to be joining the community.

Move-In Day

2008-08-23T20:50:00.002-04:00

C'est ma vie. From 9:00am until 4:00pm today, I did nothing but run tech help for the entire dorm. That's my job as the Webb SC, and I have hopefully just completed my hardest day of work for the entire year. I'll be posting my "office hours" soon, so that the rest of my dorm knows when they can come and find me to ask me computer questions, but more likely, I'll just be an all-purpose go-to guy.

So actually, today's work wasn't that bad. I thought that I would be dealing with a whole lot of hard computer problems, but I was able to fix most of them. More importantly, however, I got to meet a bunch of people while I was helping them out. Running the Network Setup Tool that they gave us took some time, and while my dorm-mate and I were sitting in front of an hourglass icon, we could either stare blankly at the screen or make conversation with each other. Most of the time, I chose conversation.

After I got off work, we had a "dorm dinner" and a meeting with our residential advisor. Anytime there's free food involved, I give the event an A+, and the meeting was okay too -- mostly policy. "Don't drink in the dorms." That kind of thing. That was followed by a very bizarre program in the football stadium, during which about three or four different people spoke into a microphone that seemed to be designed to make them harder to hear, not easier. But I forgive UVA for the program, because it was followed by lots of free food (good food -- we're talking caramel apples and popcorn) and free socialization time. That, in turn, was followed by a killer dance party right by my dorm.

So today was filled, as expected, almost exclusively with meeting new people. Unfortunately, I fell into the "clique trap" this evening, when I ran into a bunch of people I know from Richmond (mostly from Maggie Walker, actually). I had a great time with them and all, but it's hard to meet new people when you're insulated by old friends. That's alright, though, because today was absolutely amazing. I'm so thrilled to have people here on grounds with me, because it means college can actually start. We have two more days of socialization and acclimating before classes start on Tuesday, and I plan to use them to their fullest.

On tomorrow's agenda: the first weekly meeting of the Brunch Club at O'Hill. 10am.

My "Free Day"

2008-08-22T23:20:00.003-04:00

I woke up this morning with very limited responsibilities. I knew that I was supposed to show up at an interview some time between 10 and 2, and that was pretty much it. And yet ...

I woke up at 8:30, grabbed some breakfast on the way to the Central Grounds parking garage, and met Alison there about 9:15. Together, we went looking for Dawson's Row (a well-hidden line of houses holding, among other things, the ASL office), and managed to find it in about 30 minutes. We interviewed (separately) from 9:50-11:10 ... yes, it was a long time. Then, we walked back to Alderman dorms, so that Alison could see a properly decorated dorm. Shortly thereafter, we headed down toward the dining hall for some lunch.

Lunch didn't take very long, so we had plenty of time to explore the library system in Alderman and Clemons libraries, right near the dining hall. At least, that's what we thought. Turns out that the Alderman library is divided into about ten different floors, and even though they have an unlimited number system at their command, the administrators have chosen to designate floors as "1," "1M," "2," "2M," etc. Go figure. The library also has "new" and "old" stacks, each of which has a dedicated elevator. The catch? Three floors in "old" and one in "new" are inaccessible by elevator. No, I don't know why. So after spending nearly twenty minutes just trying to locate the books in this labyrinthine construction, we promptly got lost in the "PT-PZ" section, among rows and rows of German literature.

We staggered back up to level 4 (or was it 4M?) for some air, and decided we would henceforth do our Alderman library searches online. Not, however, daunted in our pursuit of knowledge, we trudged over to the Clemons library hoping to see a book or journal -- or even a magazine -- something written in good old American English. We were pleased to find the "New Books" section (Released more recently than 1950? It's like a real library!), but spent far more time browsing the Robertson Media Center, full of modern DVDs. I can understand a potential academic interest in West Wing, but really ... why stock your shelves with the old TV series Thundercats?

After our library extravaganza, Alison returned to Richmond and I wandered back to my dorm room for a bit, before meeting an upperclassman at the AFC to check out some gently used books for a course I'm taking this semester. Looks like I won't be buying them, but I decided to use my trip to the AFC wisely and go for a swim. No such luck -- the pool wouldn't open for another hour and a half. But loath to waste time, I dropped off my stuff in the dorm, grabbed some dinner, and was back at the AFC by 7:00. I swam for about 35-40 minutes, just doing an easy mile this evening, and learned that swimming on a full stomach is a very bad idea.

Back in my dorm by 8:30, I wasn't finished yet! I finished two online courses, one designed to instruct me about the evils of alcohol, and the other to educate me as an IT professional on computer security. Passed both, and ... I suppose they were helpful. They meant well, anyway.

So, what do I get to check off my to-do list for today? Breakfast, ASL interview, exploring campus, lunch, my first taste of the UVA library system, shopping for books, dinner, a 1650m swim workout, AlcoholWise, ITC Security Training, and ... did I mention? I placed into ASL 301: Conversational ASL. So, I also get to check off on "creating the perfect first-semester schedule."

Not bad for a day off.

First Day

2008-08-20T20:29:00.005-04:00

(other images on Facebook)

So guess what? I'm a real college student now. I've moved in and I'm sitting at my desk right now! I have a fan going in the corner (because of course there's no air conditioning), and my minifridge is cooling a bottle of water just for me. My roommate (Kiran Moghe, in case you didn't know) hasn't gotten here yet, because I'm here a few days early for Computer Advisor/Student Consultant training. He, along with the rest of the University community, shows up on Saturday.

My blog is now devoted to the goings-on of this new, green, untested, novice college student. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. They think I'm ready to live on my own? Nothing to report so far -- today was supposed to be training for my job as a Computer Advisor, but they had to go through a bunch of legally-mandated Human Resources junk. I filled out three tax forms incorrectly before I got it right, and then I realized that they needed a copy of my passport. That's at home -- whoops! Then, after that fiasco finally came to a close, they put us through a lecture on harassment and discrimination. It wasn't that bad, especially since they finished the lecture an hour early, at 4 instead of 5.

That gave me the opportunity to browse through the University bookstore for a few minutes before I started to die of hunger. I feel a blog post coming up in the future, devoted to either the bookstore, the library, or both. I feel like I could spend a lot of time in there ...

For now, I'm going to try and make up for my four hours of sleep last night. Did I mention? I finished packing at 1am (thanks to Alison, or I never would have finished), went to bed at 2am, and was up at 6 to leave at 8 this morning. Needless to say, I'm a little tired. I may not have devoted quite the attention that the HR lecture deserved, but I'll get some sleep and do better tomorrow.

By the way, my aol e-mail (DocMcConL@aol.com) is still active, and I am now reachable at mpm2j@virginia.edu as well.

Last Day

2008-08-19T02:10:00.003-04:00

I had my last day of work today -- I got off at 4:00 and spent about twenty minutes saying goodbye to my friends. It was easy at first. Not until I started saying "see you next summer" did I realize how much my life is about to change. At first, it was just little things. I realized I won't be around to see my younger friends start their senior years of high school. I won't be able to catch up with my friends over dinner or meet them for a movie halfway through the school year. I won't be there to help clean up on the last day that the pool is open ...

One thought led to another, and suddenly "college" was a big deal. In about 24 hours, I'm moving out of the house in which I have lived my entire life. I'm moving away from my parents, my friends, and all four of my schools thus far. I'm going to have to learn how to live on my own. And the part that scares me the most is that it's permanent. I can always come back and visit, but I'll be an outsider for the rest of my life. I won't really be living in Richmond anymore -- I'll be living in Charlottesville and just be visiting for a few days, a month, or maybe a whole summer.

Of course I'm excited about college, but this is a big change, and it didn't fully hit me until this afternoon. I'm being uprooted and forced to finally grow up. As soon as I move into my dorm room, it's all on me. It'll be my schedule, my priorities, my life, with no one and nothing to interfere with the way I want to live it. Sure, I've been making decisions for years, but I've always had my parents, my sister, and my friends to offer help and advice. As soon as I move out of the house, the equation changes. It's just me.

It wasn't just my last day of work today. It was the last day of the first 18 years of my life, and tomorrow, everything changes. I'll be honest. I'm a little scared.

Obama Series, Pt. 1: Health Care

2008-08-11T09:45:00.002-04:00

I'm very sorry for keeping everyone waiting so long for this. I really have wanted to start this series for a long time, but for some reason, I keep finding other things to keep me busy. Like I said last time, I'm knee-deep in books, because the Kindle has really spurred my interest in reading again. I've also been working a lot recently. Fortunately, I have a day off, so let's begin this series with ... HEALTH CARE!

I would like to remind everyone that a detailed discussion of all of Obama's political policies can be found on his website and in his Blueprint for Change (pdf), the document I am primarily using for these posts.
His full plan on health care is here: Obama's Plan for a Healthy America (pdf)

Obama's plan in short:

"If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less. If you are one of the 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance, you will have it after this plan becomes law."

Why, Mr. Obama, what a good idea! What else did you have in mind? Let's see ...

Key Point #1: Health insurance will no longer be tied exclusively to the employer. This has a couple of benefits. Right now, the self-employed, or those employed by small businesses, must depend on their spouses for health insurance. If the self-employed worker has no spouse, the spouse is unemployed, or the spouse works for another small business, that family could be denied health insurance entirely. Under Obama's plan, the government, instead of a private employer, would cover the cost of a health insurance plan (as it does for members of Congress). Thus, even the self-employed could afford quality medical care. Also, this plan would free workers who feel tied to a certain job due to health benefits. No longer -- the American worker can still afford insurance for himself and his family even while changing careers.

Key Point #2: The National Health Insurance Exchange (for my purposes, NIHE). The citizens of this county are firm believes that free-market forces and competition between service providers ensures the best possible end product for the consumer. Therefore, many will want to continue receiving health care from private companies. To ensure that these companies provide equitable services, the NIHE will regulate them. Among other duties, the NIHE will require the private insurance companies to issue fair, stable premiums independent of an applicant's existing medical conditions. The NIHE will also examine the differences between different private insurance plans and make these differences available to the public.

Key Point #3: Mandatory coverage of children. This one is self-explanatory. It will be a legal requirement to protect children with a proper health care plan, similar to providing them with a proper education. The specifics will be left up to the parents and the enforcement up to the individual states, but the federal government will mandate protection for minors.

Of course, there's more to it than this, but as I said, these blog posts will just be an overview, hitting the most important points.

Now, ideally I would give you an in-depth analysis of my own opinions on the subject, the subtle flaws in Obama's argument, and how I believe he could improve his plan. Unfortunately, health care is not one of my areas of expertise, as it doesn't get as much media coverage as, for example, the Iraq war. I haven't studied it in detail, and I don't fully understand the mechanisms that are running in the background when I go to the doctor's office. I am trying to educate myself more fully about all of his political views, but a brief distillation of the facts he presents is all I can give you on health care.

One fact I'd like to leave you with, though ... the Iraq war will end up costing the United States at least $3 trillion (Washington Post article supporting my claim). Slightly less than half of that -- $1.2 trillion -- "would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives (New York Times article)." And that's just the beginning. Then there would be money left over for the war on poverty, for education, and for national security. So before you say that America would never be able to afford Obama's plan, be aware of the fact that we're paying for a whole lot more.

Did you like this post? Want to see more? Or were you bored to death, and you want me to never post about politics again? Let me know with a comment!

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder (Vincent Bugliosi)

2008-08-06T23:47:00.002-04:00

I know I promised everyone a political blog series, and I promise I'm still planning to do that. I'm just a little distracted right now by my new graduation/birthday gift, the Amazon Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/kindle/) and a book I've been reading over the past week or so called (see the title of this post) The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi (http://www.prosecutionofbush.com/). For those of you who don't know, Bugliosi is the man who prosecuted Charles Manson in 1970 and later wrote a book about it, entitled Helter Skelter.

So. Why am I writing about this book, when really you're interested in the political issues bearing down on us in the next general election? Two reasons. First of all, the election is months away. Chill. Secondly, this is a very.important.book. I picked it up because I was interested in knowing more about the war. I know that Bush has a reputation for being the worst president this country has ever had, but I wanted to know why. What about the Iraq war makes it so terrible? What specific things has he done to "screw it up" and why do we blame him for it? This book had all the answers I could have hoped for and more. It unearthed actions by Bush and his administration that made me physically sick to my stomach. Our government is being run by evil, malicious, hateful, selfish people, and we have responded not with impeachment, or imprisonment, or prosecution, but by re-electing them in 2004 and continuing to blindly follow their lead as they drive us farther and farther into the deepest foreign policy disaster in American history.

I wish I hadn't already returned this book to the library, because I'd like to look up some specific numbers to show you how horribly Bush has treated the soldiers that he led into Iraq. I'll have to settle for a few examples of what makes the Iraq war bad. First, let's examine three of Bush's claims about the war:

Saddam has weapons of mass destruction and is an imminent threat to America.
The people of Iraq are being oppressed by Saddam Hussein, so America has a responsibility to liberate them.
Invading Iraq will be a crushing blow in the war on terror.

Now the realities:

When Bush announced to Congress and the American people for the first time that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat, and well before he announced that America would invade Iraq, he had intelligence from sixteen different national intelligence agencies assuring him that Hussein was NOT a threat and there were NO plans to attack America. In fact, those agencies reported that invading Iraq would make Hussein MORE likely to attack on American soil. So thank you Mr. President for making us less safe.
The free people if Iraq lived happily in a society that accepted different races, treated both sexes equally, extended equal rights to homosexuals, and encouraged rigorous academics until Bush sent his soldiers in to destroy their country. They are now stricken by religious violence and citizens are afraid to leave their homes for fear of suicide bombers. Good job "stabilizing" the country, Mr. President.
Saddam had no relationship to 9/11, the attack that (according to Bush) prompted our invasion of Iraq. Bush knew this PRIOR to the invasion. Osama bin Laden had a very strong relationship to 9/11. Bush also knew this. A logical conclusion would be to take every available American soldier, hunt down bin Laden, and ensure that the 3,000 victims of 9/11 were avenged by bringing bin Laden back for trial and punishment. Bush's conclusion was to promise the American people justice and unswerving commitment to finding bin Laden, then to deplete the troops in Afghanistan (where bin Laden was known to be hiding) to deploy them in Iraq. In fact, Bush KNEW where bin Laden was in December of 2001, and by refusing to deploy the necessary troops, allowed him to escape. Thanks for keeping your promises, Mr. President.

My meager post doesn't do justice to Mr. Bugliosi's book, and I highly recommend it to anyone wishing to learn more about the Bush administration, the Iraq war, or the war on terror. I would caution you to take the book with a grain of salt -- the author very obviously has an agenda, and presents a highly one-sided view of the issues. However, he also condenses volumes of hard, undebatable facts into his 250-page book. My biggest complaint about Bugliosi's writing is his informal approach. Talking to a jury, his primary occupation, requires a certain level of familiarity and conversational style. Writing a book, his secondary occupation, should require a more formal, academic style. Bugliosi fails to make this transition, relying heavily on contractions, colloquialisms, and rhetorical questions that damage his credibility as a serious author and weaken his otherwise airtight arguments. Nevertheless, I highly recommend the book.

A Return to the Political Sphere

2008-07-29T00:16:00.003-04:00

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted, but I have a couple of important things to tell you now. First of all, and less important, my birthday was last Saturday. I'm 18! Before you ask, no I haven't gone out and committed any previously-illegal acts. They're still on my to-do list.

For now, however, you will have to content yourself with a new blogging plan. It has come to my attention that the biggest argument against Senator Obama for president (at least among the Democratic party) is that "he doesn't stand for anything." Or, put differently, he's all talk and no message. It's all well and good to talk about "change" and "hope" and blah, blah, blah, demagogue, blah, JFK, blah, blah.

However.

A quick visit to Obama's website (http://www.barackobama.com/) will show you that he has, in fact, laid out some very definite policies. For example, his 64-page "Blueprint for Change" (downloadable here) is filled with specific ideas and plans about how to approach the biggest issues in America today. He discusses lobbying, health care, the economy, education, immigration, and civil rights, among others.

Over the next few days (or maybe weeks, depending on how often I update), I am going to give all of you, my readers, an overview of his policies. I want to educate you, especially those among you who believe that Obama stands for nothing in particular, and myself, so that I may more intelligently converse about this election as it progresses. I have not yet decided whether this discussion will focus solely on Senator Obama, or whether my posts will compare and contrast Obama's policies with Senator McCain's. Probably, the format will vary from issue to issue. However, don't think that my posts will just be a rehash of the information Obama has posted on his website. I plan to put my own political spin on them, evaluating how well I think Obama has upheld his supposed platform so far, how much I agree with his ideas, or whether the issue is important in today's society. I'll still be plenty opinionated -- don't worry.

It's been a while since my blog has ventured into the political realm, mostly because I have allowed myself to become lazy. I stopped following the race, I stopped paying attention to the candidates, and I have paid for it by completely losing track of the changing political atmosphere. This blog series is one step toward becoming involved in politics again. I don't think I'll be able to get away with not knowing what's going on once I start my political science classes this fall, so I'd like to get back into it now, rather than try and catch up with everyone at the beginning of the semester.

Just a reminder to readers out there: this is a public blog because I want to hear back from you. If you see me post something you like, please send me a comment to let me know. If I'm completely wrong or way off on something, I need to know that, too. I don't have an editor look over my work before I publish it, so I have to trust the denizens of the Internet to keep me accountable. Talk to me.

Summer Orientation (pt. 2)

2008-07-22T13:18:00.003-04:00

Well, this morning was rough. I did wake up on time, but that's when things stopped going my way. First of all, I would like to offer a piece of advice: If you are a potential employer, scheduling interviews with students, I would like to recommend that you tell the students when you spontaneously decide to change the interview location. Second, I would like to recommend that you schedule interviews with students ONLY IF you need to ask questions. An interview is supposed to be part of the application process, by which you are able to determine certain qualities about the students ... intelligence, eloquence, people skills, etc. If you have nothing to ask, but instead want to tell the students about the job for which they are applying, try one of these options:

E-mailing the applicants. If we're applying for a technical support job, I'm fairly certain that we are qualified to check our e-mail. This lets you tell everyone at the same time, and we don't have to worry about scheduling conflicts.
Calling the applicants. This is another great way to get that human touch into the interview, but it allows us to work around each other's schedules.

So here's my morning. My interview and class registration times are both 10:00am, so I plan to run into the interview, finish it up quickly, and get over to registration on the double. At 10:17am, a very friendly face popped her head into the meeting room to let me know that Mr. Litchfield was actually conducting interviews down the hall. Twenty-five minutes later, I and three other students walked out of an interview during which I had dominated the conversation (among the students) with a full two spoken sentences. Not that Mr. Litchfield wasn't giving us important information ... he just didn't need us in the room to do it.

Now 45 minutes late for my class registration, I show up at Bryan Hall with my five ideal courses (see my previous post). American Political Traditions is full. No big deal -- I have alternates. I get into Intro to Computer Science -- excellent! I even get the CIA Seminar -- also very exciting! Now the bad news starts. I can't register for Acting I because it involves an audition process or Conversational ASL because it requires instructor permission. Okay ... time to hit the alternate list.

We proceed to discover the following classes are full: Modern Masterpieces, Modern American Authors, Fiction Writing, Public Opinion & Political Behavior, Separation of Powers, and Civil Rights. Shoot. Now I'm out of alternates. How about Philosophy 100? Not full, but it would be difficult to take those classes at the exact same time as my CIA Seminar. How about some other philosophy classes? Full, full, scheduling conflict, full, boring, and full. After repeated, frustrating searches, we FINALLY found a couple of classes that would fit into my schedule -- Econ 201 and a seminar on the Soviet Union. So, here's how it stands:

Monday:

Rise & Fall of the Soviet Union (9-11:30)

Mass Media and American Politics -- Lecture (12-12:50)

Intro to Computer Science -- Lecture (2-2:50)

Tuesday:

Principles of Economics -- Discussion (8:30-9:20)

The CIA: Myths and Realities (9:30-12)

Principles of Economics -- Lecture (12:30-1:45)

Wednesday:

Mass Media and American Politics -- Lecture (12-12:50)

Intro to Computer Science -- Lecture (2-2:50)

Thursday:

Principles of Economics -- Lecture (12:30-1:45)

Friday:

Intro to computer Science -- Lab (10-11:15)

Mass Media and American Politics -- Discussion (12-12:50)

Intro to Computer Science -- Lecture (2-2:50)

Wow. Rough schedule. I'm (mostly) happy with the topics, but we'll hopefully be doing some rearranging to see if we can fix those terrible Tuesday and Friday schedules. Stay tuned!

Summer Orientation

2008-07-21T20:31:00.006-04:00

I'm a Wahoo! Just finished all the required activities on my first day of summer orientation, and I'm about to head over to the Aquatics and Fitness Center (AFC in Wahoo-lingo) for apparently a rocking party. With free pizza and a 150-person hot tub. I'm stoked.

So we spent most of today hearing about UVA traditions and history and the Honor System, which you know just grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. However, putting together a tentative course schedule for next year was pretty fun, since as an Echols scholar I'm probably going to get most of my first choices. Here's what I'm hoping for tomorrow ...

Monday:

American Political Traditions (9-9:50am)

Intro to Computer Science -- Lecture (2-2:50pm)

Tuesday:

The CIA: Myths and Realities (9:30am-12pm)

Acting I (2-3:15pm)

Conversational ASL (3:30-4:45pm)

Wednesday:

American Political Traditions (9-9:50am)

Intro to Computer Science -- Lecture (2-2:50pm)

Thursday:

Acting I (2-3:15pm)

Conversational ASL (3:30-4:45pm)

Friday:

American Political Traditions (9-9:50am)

Intro to Computer Science -- Lab (10-10:50am)

Intro to Computer Science -- Lecture (2-2:50pm)

I'm also interviewing for a job as a Student Computer Consultant tomorrow, so I'll let you know how both of those go!

Friendship

2008-07-18T23:00:00.001-04:00

No pictures or exclamation points in this post -- sorry. A conversation this afternoon made me pensive. Without attempting to sound too melodramatic, I started pondering the nature of "friendship."

I have three tiers of friendship: acquaintance, friend, and best friend. Because of my intensive school schedule for the past four years, I have had a rather limited social life, which has kept my group of friends rather bottom-heavy. My outgoing nature tends to win me many acquaintances, but my inability to get together with people on a regular basis prevents most of them from advancing to the friend or best friend level. Among my best friends, I value intelligence, maturity, selflessness, and a sense of humor. I can talk to my best friends about topics ranging from the absolutely trivial (the latest YouTube video) to the most important aspects of my life (love, death, and the massive change about to take place at the end of August). My best friends can always make me laugh, and I can do the same in return. I value my friends because they give me companionship and challenge me, and they value me because I do the same for them. A successful friendship is like a successful tug-of-war -- it requires equal effort on both sides.

During a tug-of-war, if one side exerts far more effort than the other, then the whole situation falls apart. In a friendship, the two parties must evaluate who is at fault -- perhaps Person A is taking the friendship to a level at which Person B feels uncomfortable, or perhaps Person B is just letting go of the rope. My advice? Examine the relationship. See if you can step back and understand both sides of the issue. Is B trying to end the friendship, or is B just trying to coast on A's effort? If it's the latter, then the two parties need to repair the problem or the friendship is destined to fail.

Friends are supposed to be supportive of each other and care about each other. That means a mutual effort. To all the As out there: don't let yourself be trapped in a destructive relationship. Fix it, end it, or at least find a healthy relationship before you become dependent on an unhealthy one. Find someone who is willing to put as much effort into it as you are. There is no reason for you to tear yourself apart trying to force recognition or admiration or affection out of a B. If you have tried to repair the relationship and you're still the only one holding the rope, then do yourself a favor and find someone who respects you. The fierce loyalty that you have displayed in a dead-end friendship will serve you better in a healthy, supportive relationship somewhere else. Above all, if you are stuck with a B, don't think that's all there is. There is something better out there, and you deserve it.

Forgive me if this post seems unrelated to my usual posts. It was important to me to write this. Most of my posts are for you, my readers, but this one was for me.

Lion King in DC

2008-07-17T20:44:00.005-04:00

Saturday, July 12 may go down as one of the best days of my entire summer! Keep in mind, however, that I haven't had my 18th birthday yet.

Itinerary for the day: wake up at 5, leave for DC at 6, visit the Newseum (http://www.newseum.org/), eat lunch and see the Lion King at the Kennedy Center, eat dinner at Buca di Beppo (http://www.bucadibeppo.com/), then come home by 11. Of course, we were in a city, so we parked the car at the beginning of the day and rode the Metro from Point A to Point B (then to Point C, then D, then back to B for a little while, then a quick jog over to E, then back to A ... )

The most important thing I have to say about the whole day is that public transportation is AMAZING, and DC does it really well. We parked the car in a parking deck as soon as we got into the city. For only $7.80 per person, we then had access to the entire city without using a single gallon of gasoline. AND we didn't have to find a parking space anywhere. If I grow up and live in a city, it is the responsibility of my readers to remind me of this blog post and the importance of good public transit.

So that was a minor political statement, but more importantly, the day's major attractions were awesome! The Newseum is one of the coolest museums I have ever seen. It probably helps that it was completely interactive, with a touch screen computer in almost every exhibit, but the information was awesome as well. They had an exhibit dedicated to all of the Sep. 11 attacks ... my favorite picture here:

They also had a timeline of history in the making, with the front pages from historical newspapers like the first edition of Garrison's Liberator. Tons of other cool exhibits, as well. I'm planning on going back, and I highly recommend it to anyone the next time they're in DC.

Then there was the main attraction ... The Lion King. So any Broadway musical is going to be amazing, but throw in a plot line that we all grew up on, and it's a guaranteed hit. The costumes were more elaborate than I thought possible, the acting was good, and the musical talent was unbelievable. Listen for the a capella parts, especially right after intermission. Really, though, I would go back for a silent show just to see the costumes again. Check them out: http://disney.go.com/theatre/thelionking/#/video/lk-sneakpeek/.

OH MY GOD THEN THERE WAS BUCA. I know that the day was really supposed to be all about the Lion King, but dear sweet lord in Heaven that is an amazing restaurant. And as much as I loved the show, that dinner really made my evening. Not only did we have the best chicken dish on the planet (Chicken Marsala), we also had some of the best pasta I've ever tasted. Called gnocchi. Try it some time.

Then came the best part. We were going to order dessert (their famous chocolate cake, covered in the best chocolate sauce known to mankind), and instead of bringing out a huge piece of chocolate cake, they bring out a huge piece of chocolate cake AND a candelabra. And THEN the entire restaurant starts singing happy birthday, including the many jovial people at the bar! And THEN I get an Apple gift card from Jessi and Joey. This is what I looked like:

Thank you again for a wonderful birthday dinner! I love that restaurant, and I love my friends.

One Metro ride later, we were on the way home down I-95, and (surprise!) there was an accident. It's never a good thing when you see a sign that says "delays for 25 miles" and "all lanes blocked -- use alternate route." Nevertheless, we made it home, and I finally got to go to bed.

Back to the daily grind now, but that Saturday was a wonderful break. If anyone else happens to see the Lion King (or has seen it in the past), comments about what you thought?

2008-07-07T17:11:00.002-04:00

Please check out my new blog at http://docmcconnell.com/home/Blog/Blog.html

I promise that if you're currently following this one, I will keep updating it! Please check out the new one for now, and the full details will be revealed in an upcoming post.

Blogging at the Speed of Light

2008-07-06T17:09:00.003-04:00

Sign me up as a FiOS salesman because I'm hooked for life. EVERYONE needs this service. First of all, let me apologize for not posting for far too long. In my defense, it's not my fault. Let's examine what happened bit by bit ...

On June 14, I left for a week to go to the beach. While I had Internet access and technically could have posted, I chose not to take time away from the sun and sand to sit in front of a computer screen. I hope you will all forgive me for assuming that I would be able to post again when I returned home. On Wednesday, I got a call from my family saying that Internet access was out and that they were having trouble getting hooked back up again. I promised that if they were still having trouble by the time I got home, I would see if I could fix it.

I arrived home Saturday, three full days after they first lost Internet. I checked all the usual problems, but I couldn't get us connected again, so I gave our ISP a call. AOL was supremely unhelpful, and I talked to them over the course of three consecutive days. The low point of my discussions with technical support was when a technician told us that we were experiencing a temporary DSL outage in my area and that it would be restored soon. Initially, that seemed to make sense, as we lost Internet about the same time we lost power. When the deadline he gave me came and went, however, I realized that I had fallen for a blatant lie.

I called the following day and talked to a number of technicians in various areas of the AOL service. Finally, someone gave me a straight answer -- AOL no longer provides high-speed Internet service. In fact, they stopped providing it a while ago, but they're still disconnecting customers area by area. We received NO advance warning of this fact. We thought it was a hardware failure on our part, but no ... AOL decided to cut off our service without telling us. We were furious, and we called to cancel our remaining dial-up connection immediately.

Over the next three days, we wobbled back and forth between Comcast high-speed Cable Internet and Verizon FiOS (fiber-optic service). Here's how we made our decision ... FiOS is faster, cheaper, and better. It delivers more information faster, which means a better HDTV picture, clearer phone service, and UNBELIEVABLY fast Internet. I can load whole television shows from hulu.com without lag ... over my wireless connection! It's almost a shame I don't illegally download movies, because according to the Speakeasy Speed Test (http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/), I'm downloading at 14,265 kbps right now. Your typical DVD (not Blu-Ray) holds about 8.5GB of data, which would take just under ten minutes to download on this connection. The desktop is on a wired connection, which is even faster -- probably around 20,000 kbps (about seven minutes).

Other good things about FiOS? It's a dedicated line, which means we have a certain amount of bandwidth to use as we choose. A digital cable line (like Comcast) has a certain amount of bandwidth shared throughout an area. So if we had a neighbor who downloaded illegal movies, our bandwidth would decrease during his downloads, and our Internet would slow down. Less important, but still worth noting, is that our telephone line is now a VoIP line, which means it uses our Internet connection instead of copper wire. That means that long-distance calls are essentially identical to local calls, and therefore free. As an added bonus, Verizon throws in free Caller ID.

Of course, if AOL had spontaneously decided to restart our service, I would probably still be raving about having Internet. The fact that FiOS is fast is less important right now than the fact that my computer connects to the Internet at all. Two weeks is WAY too long to go without e-mail and a browser. However, I have a feeling that the longer we keep it, the more I'm going to appreciate it. Check it out at http://verizon.net/fios/

The only problem now is that I'm about to leave for college ...

Summer!

2008-06-10T21:23:00.003-04:00

Hi again. Thank you to anyone who is still reading this blog occasionally -- I recently talked to a couple of people who specifically asked me to post again. Little did I know I actually had a following! You all could comment once in a while ...

I am returning after a much-needed hiatus. The end of senior year nearly killed me, but somehow I made it through. I am pleased to announce that for the first time since the summer of 2004 (just before my freshman year) I am completely free of high school responsibilities. I am almost certain that I had at least one assignment hanging over my head at any given moment for four full years, from my very first freshman year summer reading books to my Senior Showcase presentation last week.

Now that I have finally reached the summer for which I waited so long ... I'm back to blogging. I have a little time to myself now, so I'll be sharing some of my free hours with you, my loyal readers. Of course, "time to myself" is relative. At least during the summer, I get to pick the things that will be taking up my time -- this summer, lifeguarding and swim coaching. Let me tell you about my summer schedule ...

I'll pick up my lifeguarding schedule tomorrow and immediately start figuring out which of my shifts conflict with swim team and which do not. Most days I will be able to attend either the morning or the afternoon swim practice, which will allow me to continue coaching the 4-6 year olds, and maybe even getting in some practice myself. More practically, however, this means that I could conceivably attend my swim practice at 8am, coach 9-10am, take a few hours off, then be back to lifeguard 3-9pm. I'll be spending quite a few hours at the pool this summer, I'm sure ...

In those rare hours when I'm not working, I doubt I'll be sitting on the couch watching TV. Dungeons & Dragons Edition 4.0 just came out a few days ago, and most of my DnD friends have already read the entire Player's Handbook. I don't even have a copy yet! I'm way behind, so I'll be spending some time catching up and playing with a couple of different groups.

I had a great senior year, but I'm also really glad to be finished. With the summer schedule I plan to keep, I'm sure that Move-In Saturday on August 23 will be here before I realize it. I'll keep you updated! Thanks for reading!

Les Misérables

2008-04-20T15:50:00.003-04:00

Congratulations to the entire cast and crew of Les Misérables at Maggie Walker! It was a phenomenal performance and unquestionably the best musical the Governor's School has ever seen.

Particular congratulations to the following:

-- Gavroche (Brian Walter): You blew me away. I cannot think of another middle-schooler who could have risen to the challenge of playing any part in a high school production of Les Misérables, much less one with a solo and a death scene. Your singing was wonderful, but I was astonished by your stage presence and characterization. My expectations started high, and your performance FAR exceeded them. You have a career ahead of you in acting, and I eagerly anticipate your future achievements.

-- Éponine and Mаrius (Adrianna Foster and Michael Hoke): Éponine's death in Marius' arms is the most emotional moment of the play, and your duet moved me to the brink of tears three nights in a row. If I had paid for a ticket and only seen this scene, it would have been money well spent. Bravo.

I don't have enough room in a single post to compliment all the things I enjoyed about this musical. The vocal talent at this school astonished me. In addition to several well-played name roles, the ensemble was overflowing with talented voices, apparent in the (too few) solo parts throughout the show. But a musical isn't just about the singing, and the ensemble came alive through the acting in "Lovely Ladies" and "Red and Black." For some mistreated and malnourished factory workers, you girls certainly have some personality.

Also, I feel this way about every single show, but ... costuming outdid themselves. The costumes looked absolutely professional, and I know exactly how tight a budget they were on. Outstanding among them were Monsieur et Madame Thénardier's costumes during the wedding and the whores on the docks. I especially liked the hats, which were absolutely hideous.

Finally, I've never seen a set as impressive as this one. Maggie Walker is blessed with some angels of carpentry, because two moving platforms and that level of detail to every corner of the stage paint is beyond the range of any high school performance I have ever seen. If I didn't know better, I'd say we borrowed them from a professional.

I can't get over how good you all were. I saw the show three times, and I'd see it three more. I'm sorry I wasn't part of the performance, but I'm so proud of all my friends that your excitement is enough for me. What a heck of a show to go out on. Good work.

Secession

2008-04-08T21:53:00.003-04:00

I'm going to try an exercise. I'm going to write two arguments ... one supporting the southern right to secede just prior to the civil war, and one attacking that point of view. You tell me which is more persuasive.

Secession is a Right
In 1789, the Articles of Confederation gave way to the system of government we know now -- the Constitution of the United States. Thirteen states had decided individually that the new government would better serve their interests and address the failures of the Articles of Confederation. They acknowledged the possibility that the new concentration of power in the federal government could threaten their rights, but the Federalist Papers assured that the explicit enumeration of powers in the Constitution would prevent it from becoming tyrannical.

Only a few decades later, the Southerners had started to chafe under the control of the northern states, who seemed to be gaining political power while the South stood still. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise had assured southerners that they would maintain their way of life ... their slaves were safe throughout the entire southern region. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act ensured that any slaves who escaped into the north would be returned to their home plantations.

Despite these conciliatory decisions, their system of slavery was dying out. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 repealed the Missouri Compromise, the citizens of the north were ignoring the Fugitive Slave Act, and every free state the joined the Union further diluted Southern legislative power. When, in 1860, a publicly anti-slavery Republican took the executive office, the South had had enough.

After violations of legal contracts and constitutional obligations, and governmental determination to NOT protect their fifth amendment property rights (Justice Taney had recently ruled that slavers were, in fact, property), the South called upon the right espoused in the Declaration of Independence -- "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [protecting the people's unalienable rights], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it" -- to secede from the tyrannical northern region.

Secession is a Rebellion
After the Framers of the Constitution released it to the states, the states appointed special delegations of citizens for ratification, rather than allowing their legislatures to make decisions. These delegations were universally more inclusive than the traditional voting pool -- New York, for example, allowed all free white males to vote, rather than just landowners. By allowing the people to vote, the states reinforced that all political power lay with the people, who could choose to delegate it to the federal or state governments as they saw fit.

Ignoring the Fugitive Slave Act was an act of individual citizens, not sanctioned by the government. The federal legislature had passed a law requiring northerners to return southern slaves, and if the northerners refused to follow that law, then the government had still completed its Lockean responsibility of attempting to redress grievances. When the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 overturned the Missouri Compromise, it was because the old laws were out of date. The people demanded a system of popular sovereignty that allowed the inhabitants of each state to determine whether they wanted slaves or not. Because the people had originally formed the government, they should undoubtedly have the power to determine the status of each individual state. Given that fact, what better group of the people to determine that status than the people who live in that state, for they understand the situation and the nuances that might make either slavery or free soil more beneficial.

Furthermore, Lincoln gained the presidency as as direct result of the action of America's elected officials. The citizens had placed their trust in the lawmakers, and they had in turn chosen President Lincoln ... because the South had a voice in that legislature, as well as in the creation of the system that selected the President, how could it complain that electing Lincoln was in any way unfair?

In addition, the act of secession itself is open rebellion. To fail to follow the laws set forth by the government is a crime, and to militarily resist the government is treasonous. As discussed earlier, the Constitution is an enumeration of governmental powers, and secession is understandably absent from the text. Furthermore, the states have no power to create that right for themselves, because they derive their power only from the Constitution. By renouncing that document, they renounce the very source of their power and that which defined them as decision-making bodies in the first place. The individual states never existed as independent, sovereign entities prior to the Constitution, and therefore by separating from the Union, they dissolve into political nonentities.

Finally, the Constitution represented a two-party contract between the people and the federal government. The states were then created as an intermediary body, but for the states to presume to break a contract formed between two other entities is absurd. The people ratified the Constitution through special delegations. The state had no hand in it. Because it did not originally sign the contract, and because the contract does not specifically bestow the power of secession upon it, the state has no justification for its secession. Without a legal justification, taking up arms against the federal government is an act of open rebellion and demands retribution.

Thank God for Ukrop's

2008-04-07T22:52:00.005-04:00

Fortunately, I have never been burdened with the stressful and thoroughly exhausting ordeal of packing up my belongings and leaving my house, only to relocate everything into a new one. Unfortunately, I'm living in what feels like a perpetual in-between stage.

"In-betweens" are always uncomfortable. There's the in-between being asleep and being awake, when you're not quite sure if what you're seeing is really happening. There's the in-between meals, when you're starting to get hungry but you can't justify eating just yet. There's lukewarm bathwater (in-between hot and cold), in-between haircuts, and the in-between seasons when you just can't figure out what to wear!

I'm stuck in an in-between. We've packed up our kitchen for renovation, thrown out most of our food, and are living out of boxes on our living room floor. For breakfast, I dig out a piece of bread, stick it in the toaster, and go in search of some peanut butter. For lunch, I am restricted to cafeteria food. Finally, dinner offers me some relief -- the opportunity for ready-made food from a restaurant or grocery store. Tonight, black bean soup and bread, courtesy of the Ukrop's cafe and bakery.

I'm starting to get just a little edgy, though, to come home and find a pile of boxes where my counter should be, an empty refrigerator, and the maddening absence of a kitchen sink. The bathroom just can't handle our dishwashing demands.

The only thing that keeps me from going crazy is the thought of the last time my house was in ruins ...

When
became .

I'm used to having a place to sit, food to eat, and a way to clean up after myself. Deprived of those benefits and forced to dig for appliances during every meal, I have determined one thing: I am spoiled. I have come to terms with this fact, and I accept it. It doesn't bother me. What does bother me is that I have another week to go before they give me back my kitchen!

College Decisions

2008-03-31T20:45:00.002-04:00

The original plan for this blog was to follow all my college visits and my Random Musings (though the name emerged later) about each campus and program available. It only seems fitting now that I do a post to inform all my followers of the final results and my decision. So, below are all the colleges to which I applied in order of preference and their responses. Obviously, some of those responses are incorrect. :)

Yale University: DENIED
University of Virginia: ACCEPTED
Swarthmore College: WAITLISTED
Princeton University: DENIED
Harvard College: WAITLISTED (what?)
University of Richmond: ACCEPTED
University of Mary Washington: ACCEPTED

All in all, I suppose the college application process was successful. A couple answers that I expected (or at least fervently hoped for), and a couple curveballs. For example ... waitlisted at Harvard? Can you say "out of the blue"?

I wouldn't be unhappy with an acceptance to Yale, but I'm perfectly happy to announce that next year, I will be attending the University of Virginia!

File Backup

2008-03-30T20:32:00.003-04:00

You know what's a lot harder than it should be? Backing up your files. I'm running a Dell Inspiron 1000 from the Dark Ages (summer of 2004, so about 1000 ComputerYears ago) that has only one little hard drive -- 40GB.

This computer has served me well for a long time, and it's time for it to settle down. I'm a little worried it'll decide to retire a few months early though, and I've put a LOT of files on this poor, overworked machine. If it does die on me, I lose EVERYTHING. That is, unless I back it up. The question I'm left with is ... how to back it up with 40 gigs full to bursting and no resources to get a decent storage drive. My best option at this point is the 120GB drive I purchased off Amazon a few months ago, but after hooking it up to my computer for two days, I determined it doesn't have an automatic sleep function, so it's just whirring constantly. That sounds like a great way to burn it out.

This entire post is me wishing that computers came installed with a back-up drive. Sure, the high-end desktop computers have two 1T RAID hard drives, but I'm a high school student on a budget! How hard would it be to put in a small drive in laptops and desktops alike as a standard feature? Not even a whole hard drive -- just some flash memory would be nice! Those with massive photo and music libraries could still purchase external storage, but the kid who just wants to make sure he doesn't lose his senior paper the night before it's due doesn't need to double the capacity of his entire machine.

PS: My next computer is going to be a Macbook Pro (I hope), so Apple -- the burden's on you to crank this out before the end of the summer.

As You Like It

2008-03-29T22:42:00.007-04:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long, but with Spring Break and everything, I've been quite busy. I do have a nice post now, though!

I saw Richmond Shakespeare's As You Like It last night at Second Presbyterian, and ... WOW. Five stars. Six, even. If you're a fan of Shakespeare, or theatre, or comedy, or romance, or life in general, this is a MUST-SEE.

This production is the ten-year anniversary celebration of Richmond Shakespeare's very first play, in which Mr. Grant Mudge played Orlando. Playing Orlando myself in MLWGS's production in 2005, I have a special affinity for this particular play. It's actually kind of amusing ... my favorite two plays at Maggie Walker were arguably his happiest, cutest, most light-hearted production; and Hamlet. You know, the one where everyone dies? But this post isn't about me.

It's about the AMAZING job this wonderful theatre company did with AYLI -- Bravo to director Andrew Hamm and his five-actor cast. The characters were well-developed, the production was replete with comedic moments (from the innocent to the downright bawdy ... just As Shakespeare Liked It), the music was uplifting, and the interactions were absolutely sincere.

It's hard enough to make two characters connect onstage. It's even harder to do so in a five-actor production, in which every actor has to play several characters, and each one has to have a different set of relationships. You also expect to get a little lost with all the hat-switching and voice changes as the actors shift from one role to another. Not so with AYLI ... the actors shifted seamlessly from prop to prop, and the characters appeared when they were needed and then subtly disappeared. In a play where interaction is everything, and even the solitary Jacques engages Orlando in a duel of wits, the onstage chemistry was perfect.

My only regret is that I lost my program, which (along with my own poor memory) prevents me from congratulating all five actors by name. Congratulations to all on your opening performance, and may you all break your legs as the season continues!

Update:
Thanks to Grant Mudge for the information that allows me to give each actor his due congratulations.

Sunny LaRose -- Rosalind and William
Julia Rigby -- Celia and Silvius
Adam Mincks -- Duke Frederick, Touchstone, Phoebe, and Duke Senior
Frank Creasy -- Adam, Jacques, and Charles
Patrick Bromley -- Orlando, Audrey, and Jacques de Boys

Again, you were all absolutely wonderful!

Iraq Policy

2008-03-17T00:29:00.003-04:00

I had a conversation today that made me want to spell out my full argument, once and for all. This isn't a definitive answer to the Iraq problem, but it is one civic-minded student's take on the subject.

America seems to have divided itself into two camps -- the "stay in Iraq" camp and the "get out of Iraq" camp. By nature, a member of one thinks a member of the other is either stupid or cowardly. When John McCain says "one hundred more years!" camp #1 praises him and camp #2 condemns. When Obama says it's time to get out, camp #1 accuses him of "cutting and running," and camp #2 says he's great.

Why does it have to be one or the other? Why do the candidates have to say in or out as a definitive answer to the problem? I don't want either one -- I recognize that the situation is bad in Iraq and we can't just pull out as soon as we elect a new president, but at the same time, the situation isn't getting better. I don't want to see more innocent soldiers and civilians die while our legislature is locked in partisan, self-serving debate.

Won't somebody please lay out a plan for success? President Bush is obviously incompetent -- let's make the most of his last few months and then never put him in charge of so much as a book group discussion (except I think he finished My Pet Goat). I'm looking for a candidate ... any candidate ... to say what SPECIFICALLY they want to achieve in Iraq. If McCain says he'll stay as long as it takes, then I'd like him to mention what the ultimate goal is.

So, let's have a plan with two characteristics:
1. Achievable. This means that we stop asking for a democratic Iraq -- it's not going to happen. We blew it. Find a new goal.
2. Measureable. This means there won't be any argument over whether we've achieved it -- we'll be able to tell one way or the other. Then, once everyone agrees that we've either succeeded or failed, we can plan the next step in the process.

Ideally, Obama would set up that plan, we would achieve it in about a year, and we would get out. I'm an optimist. But more importantly, the American public would understand what we're trying to do in the Middle East ... because as far as I can tell, no one has any idea anymore.

"Have A Great Day"

2008-03-13T21:30:00.004-04:00

I'm on an ASL kick tonight and I found a Facebook group dedicated to ASL/interpreting jokes. If you think this is funny, then you should leave a comment. It's my new favorite sticker and I'm not going to rest until I find one.

The people who leave comments should also check out this video: http://www.joeybaer.com/?p=135. It's in keeping with the theme of my last post (although happier, I promise).

One of these days I'm going to get a decent webcam and post a vLog. You just wait! Maybe when I get my Mac.

R.I.P. Lawrence King

2008-03-12T22:23:00.003-04:00

On February 12, Lawrence "Larry" King, a fifteen-year-old middle schooler in California, was killed for his sexual orientation and gender expression. Larry was shot by a fourteen-year-old classmate whom he had recently asked to be his Valentine.

This is not going to be a political statement, nor an attempt to change your personal beliefs. All I want to say is that 21st-century American news stations should not be reporting events like this. Hate crimes should have died out in the 1960s.

America was founded in part upon religious freedom, or the ability to practice one's own beliefs without persecution. And here we are, creating a society that teaches a middle schooler that violence is a good alternative to homosexuality. I don't discount the negative impact of his family -- a convict for a father and a drug addict for a mother. But the fact is, society has created this belief that being gay is shameful, evil, and wrong, and it destroyed two teenagers' lives.

Even if you don't visit either of the websites I have down below, please take a look at this speech from Ellen Degeneres. It's extremely powerful, and it applies to so much more than just this one event: Lawrence King Tribute

I have one small request. I'm not asking you to change your beliefs or make yourself uncomfortable. Even if it's only for one day ... try to accept the differences of the people around you. A little love goes a long way, and accepting and understanding someone who feels all alone is a very powerful expression of that love. If just one more person had accepted Larry for the loving, caring, beautiful, talented child he was, he would still be with us today.

Mr. and Mrs. King: I am so sorry for your loss, and I hope that this terrible event can bring about positive change in America.
Larry: Rest in peace, and know the nation mourns for you.

Websites:
http://www.rememberinglawrence.org/ (official GLSEN website)
http://www.rememberlarry.com/ (family tribute website)

I Got a Facebook!

2008-03-10T21:29:00.002-04:00

Chandler summed it up pretty well:

glad to see you got sucked into the dark, soulless, devouring, endless pit that is Facebook.

enjoy.

Thanks so much ... you should all come find me on Facebook, though. And I promise that I'll get back to more substantive posts before long. As soon as I'm caught up on sleep.

New Layout

2008-03-09T23:56:00.002-04:00

Just as I was planning to go to bed, I suddenly got a second wind. So, as of about midnight on March 10, you'll notice a completely different layout for my blog, including a new web address. I am no longer hosting on my own site, but have switched over to Blogspot's server, because they give me greater control over my blog.

I was getting a tad annoyed with my old layout -- just wanted to tweak a few things, but rewriting the HTML would have been far too tedious. Anyway, the posts will continue, only they'll be prettier than ever.

Have a good night, everybody.

G.H. Moody Middle School's Aladdin

2008-03-09T23:07:00.003-04:00

A short post to congratulate Moody Middle School on a very successful production of Aladdin. The costumes were great, the acting was quite good, the set looked fantastic, and, of course, the make-up artists stole the show :)

Good job to Vallie and the entire cast and crew. Hope you're all proud of what you accomplished. You should be.

Waterboarding Isn't Torture

2008-03-08T13:11:00.010-05:00

(photo courtesy of http://www.middle-east-online.com/)

Hey, good news! Don't worry! What you see above is a modern-day CIA interrogation technique, but it IS.NOT.TORTURE. Both houses of Congress recently passed a bill that would outlaw its use by the CIA (it is already prohibited in the military), but President Bush vetoed it, assuring us that his administration doesn't torture. Oh, and by the way -- it works! (story here: http://tinyurl.com/3xg3gh)

Yeah, let's get this guy the hell out of office. Waterboarding as an acceptable interrogation method? It's illegal! But don't take my word for it.

Take the word of Mr. Martin Scheinin, "the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism." As a United Nations official, Mr. Scheinin represents 192 countries around the world. He also operates from a precedent ratified over fifty years ago. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, these countries agreed that "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

He published the following in his report on the United States in May, 2007:

Various sources have spoken of such techniques involving physical and psychological means of coercion, including stress positions, extreme temperature changes, sleep deprivation, and "waterboarding" (means by which an interrogated person is made to feel as if they are drowning). With reference to the well-established practice of bodies such as the Human Rights Committee and the Committee Against Torture, the Special Rapporteur concludes that these techniques involve conduct that amounts to a breach of the non-derogable right to be free from torture and any form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

And now the exalted leader of the free world has prevented the U.S. legislature from outlawing this practice. I better hope the CIA doesn't get their hands on me, because I hear President Bush isn't too keen on habeas corpus either.

Voting is a Privilege, Not a Right

2008-03-05T20:36:00.007-05:00

Wait ... what? As a citizen of the United States and my state of residence, I have the fundamental right to vote in federal and local elections, right? Isn't that what the 15th, 19th, and 26th Amendments say? This is a democracy, after all!

Well, actually no. First, let's take a look at the text of those amendments you just hypothetically mentioned:

15th: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
19th: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
26th: “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.”

I know, I know -- I'm crazy. It says in all three of those amendments The right of citizens of the United States to vote. ... This only means that the right that citizens of the United States otherwise possess cannot be abridged based on these factors. None of these amendments in themselves actually give you or anyone else the right to vote. That power lies with the state legislatures. In 2000, the Supreme Court of the United States found in Bush v. Gore:

The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States unless and until the state legislature chooses a statewide election as the means to implement its power to appoint members of the electoral college.

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution gives your state absolute power to determine the qualifications of electors within that state. The Virginia legislature, for example, is perfectly within its rights to declare a citizen ineligible to vote as long as that citizen cannot prove a racist, sexist, or ageist motive. For example, our representatives could decide tomorrow to revoke suffrage from everyone with an even-numbered street address. Because that group would include males and females, whites and blacks, and people of all ages, that law would be perfectly constitutional. Maybe this is a widely-known fact, but it left me absolutely shocked. I couldn't believe it when I started to read about it. What's more, ReclaimDemocracy.org asserts that the United States is among only 11 countries out of about 120 constitutional democracies in the world that does not guarantee voting in its constitution.

American government is designed to answer to the people, and the power it holds over them should be strictly controlled. If the states can take away our power to vote, then they can take away our voice. This is un-American, undemocratic, and unacceptable. If you agree, please follow the link below to support this proposed amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing a right to vote.

Endorse the Right to Vote Amendment!

Plagiarist for President! Vote HRC!

2008-03-03T20:14:00.003-05:00

I was officially wrong. I'm just about done with Hillary Clinton and all her efforts to smear Obama, and here's why:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xcR6enqJZJ8 (Clinton 3AM Ad)

I think fearmongering is a despicable strategy. She's trying to convince us that she's the person to protect us by deliberately frightening us now? She hasn't even won the nomination yet ... this isn't even the presidential campaign! What on Earth would she do to maintain the support of the American people once she's in control of the country? Ladies and gentlemen, I present President Bush.

Furthermore (and this is the really funny part), I can't even give her credit for the commercial. Take everything bad about it, and then add the fact that she stole it from a previous presidential campaign! Walter Mondale ran a startlingly similar ad in '84:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fu-2Ew1ijg

I didn't think she could get elected anyway, but this is just ridiculous ... Obama is campaigning for change, and she is campaigning for four more years of the same. I hope she gets destroyed in Ohio and Texas, then drops out. I'm ashamed of her.

Cultural Awareness Tour: Part 3 of 3

2008-03-02T20:53:00.003-05:00

Maggie L. Walker Governor's School
1000 N. Lombardy St.
Richmond, VA
http://www.gsgis.k12.va.us/
Performances Reviewed:
The Game by Louise Bryant
The Zoo Story by Edward Albee
Azure Orbs by Suzanne Vaughan
Long Ago and Far Away by David Ives
This Layman's Overall Rating: 5 Stars

I have to confess that I am not entirely a layman when it comes to stage performances, as long as the characters are speaking and not singing. I've spent some time onstage under excellent directors, so I am slightly more qualified than the average Joe to review a play. Nevertheless, I am not a director, a producer, or a professional actor, so I think this still qualifies as a Layman's Rating.

The evening lasted nearly three hours, all told. Noah Downs' direction of The Game started us off on a happy note (kind of), Thomas Howard's brilliant actors thoroughly depressed the audience during The Zoo Story, Suzanne Vaughan's original play, Azure Orbs, had us laughing the entire time, and Ben Hendren's direction of Long Ago and Far Away confused us.

Don't get me wrong, those were all good things. Each play conveyed a distinct mood, which is a tribute to the four very talented directors. The acting was also fantastic, and we saw the debut of some new actors onto the MLWGS stage, including both of the Gizzi brothers. Both Noah and Thomas' directing work (both directing for the first time!) shows great promise, and I'm sure Maggie Walker has a treat in store next year.

I was particularly impressed by Jimmy Jarvis in The Zoo Story, who played an emotionally disturbed young man trying desperately to connect to another human being before taking his own life. The play consisted mostly of Jimmy's character, Jerry, monologuing about his history with his landlady's dog, though he interacted periodically with Ted Westrick, playing Peter, in the form of short, intense interrogations. I felt that Jimmy did a wonderful job displaying Jerry's emotional range, from hysterics to depression to detached philosophical musings. I have to compliment the director on his choreography of the stage fight, as well. It added authenticity to the performance and made the shock factor at the end believable.

I also have a complement for Miss Vaughan. I was personally invested in her play, and I would like to congratulate her on a job well done. In addition to an inspired and hilarious storyline, she guided her actors to impeccable comedic timing and supported them in their quest to find the balance between their characters and their own personalities. While the characters were obviously created for a fantasy setting, the actors managed to connect with the audience, and I know Suzanne had a hand in that. Last, but not least, Azure Orbs (or Why Teenage Girls Shouldn't Write Fiction) had energetic and creative blocking, which is especially impressive on such a small stage. Good job to everyone.

Unfortunately, I did not review these performances until closing night. However, I can give my readers this piece of advice ... if you ever hear of a performance involving these directors in the future (and it would not surprise me in the least), go see it. No questions, just do it. You'll be happy you did.

Cultural Awareness Tour: Part 2 of 3

2008-03-01T10:29:00.003-05:00

Richmond's Landmark Theatre
6 N Laurel St
Richmond, VA
Tickets: http://www.ticketmaster.ca/venue/8264
Current Show: Eugene Onegin by Aleksandr Pushkin, operatic adaptation by Pyotr Tchaikovsky
This Layman's Rating: 4 Stars

I think the first step in a layman's review of a foreign-language performance would be a pronunciation guide. My knowledge of Russian is quite limited, but with a semester under my belt and 2.5 hours of listening to the opera, I think I can at least handle the title ... Eugene Onegin is not Yoo-Jean Wun-Jin as you might expect, but Yev-GEN-y Awn-YAY-gin. Both Gs are pronounced as hard. Now that you're feeling all Russian and culture-conscious, let's move on to the opera itself.

I think the run time was about 2.5 hours with a 15 minute intermission, but it didn't feel at all too long. Some songs, especially the ones with a lot of repetition, seemed to stretch for most of that 2.5 hours, but the overall production felt well-timed with good pacing. The set was phenomenal for such a minimalistic approach -- a mirrored surface to the left and a four-sided rotating piece on the right that served as all of the buildings in the opera.

I have absolutely NO experience judging opera, but the singing was strong and the music was good, and the performers had strong characterization through the lyrics (especially Monsieur Triquet -- bravo!). My more musically-inclined companion in the seat next to me whispered criticisms of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, but I (as a layman, you may recall) didn't pick up on any of the mistakes.

The storyline traces Onegin's life in high Russian culture, from his patronizing refusal of a countrywoman's love; through his arrogant and unfeeling murder of a longtime friend; to the rejection of his profession of love by that same countrywoman, now a wealthy and respected member of high society. Onegin's decisions during this journey are self-deceived and superficial, which is highlighted by the mirrored set piece. Instead of a true reflection, the mirror is warped and distorted, emulating Onegin's perceptions of the world. During the final scene, when Tatiana rejects him and he finally appreciates his miserable self-imposed fate, the mirror shatters. His reality of self-importance and self-righteousness is gone -- destroyed -- and replaced with the misery that he has inflicted on so many others.

I don't have enough experience to know if my reservations about the performance come from this particular performance, this particular opera, or the genre itself, so I am hesitant to criticize. So, I strongly recommend a trip to the Landmark this weekend. If there are any frequent opera-goers among my readers, I'm curious to hear a more cultured review of the performance.

Tomorrow: This Layman's Rating of four One Act Plays, directed and performed by the students of Maggie L. Walker Governor's School.

Cultural Awareness Tour: Part 1 of 3

2008-02-29T16:23:00.003-05:00

1708 Gallery
319 W. Broad St.
Richmond, VA
http://1708gallery.blogspot.com/
Current Exhibit: "Fanatic," by Jillian McDonald (until March 1)
This Layman's Rating: 3 Stars

Yesterday, I visited 1708 Gallery with my photography class to see Ms. McDonald's handiwork. Weird. Now, I've never professed to be completely in tune with the new and different artistic styles, but ... I don't get it. The exhibit was quite cool, but it left me just a little confused.

Ms. McDonald had two foci within her exhibit. The first was horror as a source of entertainment, and the second was America's obsession with celebrity culture, specifically Billy Bob Thornton. She featured prominently in both parts, transforming holographically into a zombie, overlaid into a horror flick and a Billy Bob movie (or is that redundant?), and both as a vampire and the vampire's victim in an original film.

The exhibit struck me as a satire on American culture. Her digitally-rendered transformation into a zombie juxtaposed with her face covered in Billy Bob tattoos ridiculed both, and left her audience wondering why we as a nation find either entertaining. Through her passionate love scenes with images of Billy Bob shone the humor of her head overlaid onto another actress' body, which made the movie look (even more) ridiculous by comparison.

I enjoyed the exhibit, though had I been a Billy Bob Thornton fan, I might have found it demeaning to be among so many other Americans with the same obsession.

Tomorrow: This Layman's Rating of Tchaikovsky's operatic adaptation of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, performed at Richmond's Landmark Theatre.

This Layman's View of the Arts

2008-02-28T18:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome to my first blog series. Beginning tomorrow, I am going to be reviewing three different aspects of the arts here in Richmond, VA. I am lucky enough to be experiencing 1708 Gallery, Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (adapted to opera by Tchaikovsky), and four One Act stage productions.

Of course, I'm no professional patron of the arts, nor am I particularly experienced in appreciating the subtleties of Russian opera. This series will be my attempt to give you a layman's view of these three events. It seems to me that most people in the city of Richmond who might see these things are approaching them from the same perspective. Unless we have a hidden contingent of photography, opera, and acting fanatics, these events will appeal to me in the same way that they would appeal to you.

So I'm going to give you my uneducated, uncultured view of them as they would appear to someone who just walked in off the street. Which I did.

A New Era of Laziness

2008-02-27T17:20:00.003-05:00

Here's my question of the day ... when did America (or at the very least, the city of Richmond) get THIS lazy? In less than a year, we in America have witnessed the disappearance of the liquid soap dispenser. Congratulations to us ... who knew that the soap dispenser, seemingly so simple, so easy, and so ubiquitous, could quietly pack up its bags and slip out the door? Once inescapable, liquid soap has now gone the way of the HD DVD ... obsolete!

In its place, we find the foam dispenser. Designed to save our chest muscles from squeezing our hands together, our shoulder muscles from rubbing our palms back and forth, and our knuckle joints from all that bending, squeezing, and lathering, the foam dispenser turns your soap into suds before it ever hits your skin!

Truly, we live in the age of efficient hygiene. Now you can get back to your desk a full three seconds faster for having your soap dispenser do all that work for you.

The Storyteller Referred To in Previous Post

2008-02-26T20:02:00.002-05:00

Doc McConnell

So this guy is apparently a hot-shot storyteller, and he's the reason I got an e-mail from a library in Alabama asking if I would perform at their railroad heritage festival, "Williams Station Day." Flattered as I am, I think I'll pass. Thanks, though.

Good News!

2008-02-26T19:42:00.002-05:00

I had a ridiculously good day, despite taking a Russian quiz for which I was nowhere near ready.

First, I got home from school to find a large envelope from the University of Mary Washington in my mailbox. I'm pretty sure you traditionally want small envelopes after taking big tests (like the Bar exam), but apparently you want large envelopes from colleges. Because I was accepted to UMW!! Yeah! I'm officially in college! The fact that I don't really want to go there isn't terribly important for the time being ...

It gets better. I came upstairs to check my e-mail and found one with "Congratulations!" in the subject line. That's always a good sign ... even better when it comes from the University of Richmond! I have now been:

admitted to the University of Richmond
selected as a finalist for the Boatwright Scholarship (full tuition for for years)
offered the Presidential Scholarship ($15,000/year)

Goodbye, long hours of homework! I'm in college!

I have one last important piece of news. I received an e-mail from some library in Alabama who Googled for Doc McConnell the storyteller and found me ... AS THE FIFTH HIT! That's right ... I have achieved a life goal. My website is on Google. :) By far the best news of the day, right?

I Want to Be a Blogger!

2008-02-25T20:22:00.002-05:00

Here's the problem I've discovered as far as blogging is concerned ...

I have to combat my laziness (which prevents me from putting together enough words for a coherent post) with my laziness (which spurs me on to do ANYTHING but homework). Tonight, laziness #2 won out because I just don't feel like doing my biology. So I'll be rambling for a few sentences and then perhaps going to bed early?

So why am I bothering to post now, seeing as I haven't posted (except for earlier today) since last October? Same reason I haven't deleted my blog since then ... I keep thinking I'll get back to it. If I start writing something interesting on a regular basis, maybe a few people will start reading it. Then, maybe they'll share it with their friends. Then, maybe I'll make the Notable Blogs. Maybe posting today will be the first step on the long path to marketing myself to future employers ... you know you want that Doc guy working for you! The whole Internet knows about him!

It might also be a good way to stay in touch with my friends, since I'm still adamantly against getting a Facebook. When I have to change my e-mail address, move away, and start a new life next year, there should be SOME constant. Why shouldn't it be docmcconnell.com/blog?

I'm not promising to blog on a regular basis. I'm not promising to post anything worthwhile. All I'm promising is that the blog will stay up and MAYBE I'll try to keep life interesting here on docmcconnell.com, since God knows I don't have time to do anything to the site itself.

Albert and Victoria Discuss Pride and Prejudice

2008-02-25T20:12:00.003-05:00

If anyone at all is paying attention at this point (and trust me, I understand if you aren't), you should check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDIC4eipKQQ

It's a movie commenting on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice featuring two dogs (Albert and Victoria) as the exclusive actors.

So You Want to Be a Leader?

2007-10-21T11:47:00.000-04:00

Last June, the Maggie Walker faculty presented their annual Book Awards, which are given to students in the school who are distinguished in areas of academic achievement, leadership, and school involvement. Each Book Award is sponsored by a college or university that has specific requirements (for example, outstanding achievement in the field of science or medicine). I was selected to receive an award from the college of William & Mary "for inspirational leadership, outstanding scholarship, and unwavering loyalty to the high school and community."

Included with the certificate was an invitation to William & Mary's Annual Leadership Award Conference, a weekend program for students who have demonstrated similiar qualities at high schools across Virginia. It began this past Friday afternoon and continued with seminars and discussion groups on Saturday morning. Due to my Senior Homecoming, I missed Friday, but went to the Saturday activities.

First of all, I had a great time. I was really impressed with the caliber of the people there -- this was not just a conference for intelligent students, but people with SOCIAL skills. I was impressed by how all of the 256 students there seemed to have not just intelligence but charisma and personality. During seminars, when people contributed to the discussion from the back row, I could hear them at the front! When we were not actively listening to a lecture, I could turn to the person next to me and have a stimulating conversation. The other award recipients did not just have good SAT scores, but could articulate past achievements and future goals. Attending Maggie Walker, a school specifically for students with good SAT scores, has given me an appreciation for just how rare it is to find a collection of students who all have Good Speaking Skills.

The lectures were decent, but the first presenter came late and the second presenters were not very interesting. The discussion groups, led by students at the college, were much better. I went to two sessions led by a W&M senior majoring in drama, focused on discussion of the Fine Arts in the college setting. One thing I noticed during all the activities that while the conference was theoretically geared toward making us better leaders, it actually seemed to be a propaganda opportunity for the college. No arguments here, though -- it didn't actually interfere with my experience, despite the fact that I won't be applying.

On a final note, the keynote speaker was very impressive. Harish Rao, CEO of communication technology firm EchoDitto (http://www.echoditto.com/), discussed how his experience at William & Mary prepared him to be a wildly successful leader in the field of business. Now age 28, he has already sold one business and is running a second. The major lesson I got from him was that being a successful leader does not mean relentlessly pursuing a single goal, but requires flexibility and an open mind. He entered college with the intention of being a doctor or a lawyer, graduated with a degree in philosophy, left his job as a day trader, and now works in Information Technology. His next goal? Start a philanthropic organization to improve medical services in India.

So here's what I take away from this conference, combining what I learned from both lectures, my discussion groups, Mr. Rao, and talking with the other students ...

Stay motivated. Always be striving for a goal.
Make sure you enjoy what you're doing. If you're only shooting for a law degree because your parents want you to have it, then you're going to be miserable.
Use the resources available to you, ESPECIALLY your colleages (family, friends, classmates and coworkers).
Always keep an open mind. This means be creative, think critically, and always look for alternatives when following Recommendation #1. If Plan A doesn't work out, you should already have a Plan D.

Senior Portraits

2007-10-17T20:49:00.000-04:00

Today was the day. I finally had my senior portraits taken, weeks and weeks after most of the people at my school. Apparently this was supposed to be a "summer thing," and I missed the boat. Oh well, done now - they turned out pretty well, although the ones in which I'm not smiling are far better than the ones in which I am. I just can't look natural in front of a camera - my mouth is all lopsidey.

BUT, I have some very good "serious" pictures, especially in the studio tux. I get my proofs in about two weeks, and I'll let you know what I'm ordering then. I'll have to make this a quick post, because I've been learning Microsoft Expression Web all afternoon long and haven't touched my homework. No Hamlet practice, so nothing to blog about there.

Before I go, though, I'd just like to say GO CLASS OF '08! Pep rally and field games today, and the senior class dominated. Destroyed the other classes by about 700 points.

Pyrrhus vs. Priam

2007-10-16T22:29:00.000-04:00

So, in my little after-practice sessions with Monsieur le Directeur, we try and really delve into the meaning of the text, and today we focused on the speech in Act II, Scene 2. For those of you who don't know, shame on you. You should have every scene memorized by now! But I'll tell you. That is the scene in which Hamlet and the First Player together conjure a very vivid image of Pyrrhus' slaughter of Priam during the fall of Troy. The reason I'm telling you this is because le Directeur sends us home to journal about our conceptions of the text. I figured since this is, after all, a page of my Random Musings, I'd share thoughts with you (you being whoever happens to be following me right now).

Pyrrhus has searched for old Priam for a long time, and when he finally finds him, Priam is unarmed. Pyrrhus raises his sword, presumably to wound but not kill (after all, the brute is somewhat honorable), and simultaneously sees the city of Troy fall in the distance. Impassioned by the carnage, Pyrrhus instead murders his unarmed captive while Priam's wife, Hecuba, looks on.

So why this particular historical event?

First, let's do the obvious. Hamlet is Pyrrhus, killing Claudius, while Gertrude looks on helplessly. That's boring and I don't like it, so let's move on. What if Pyrrhus is Claudius, killing King Hamlet while Gertrude looks on? Later in the play, our prince questions whether his dear mother was involved in the death or not, knowing that the usurper took the throne by MURDER. Maybe Hecuba's inaction in this scene is the push that gets the ball rolling on that idea?

Also, Priam famously lost a son in Greek mythology, and pleaded with the gods to return his body. If we see Priam as King Hamlet, then this loss of the father-son relationship (though opposite to the true situation) provides an interesting contrast to the "real" (work with me, here) loss. What if this speech about Hamlet/Priam's death is the prince's way of expressing anger with his father for dying -- projecting the King onto this defeated figure.

Of course, there are plenty of other relationships to draw on for this, including King Hamlet's murder of the King of Norway in a recent battle. There are a thousand interpretations, most of which are just to mess with your mind. That's probably why Shakespeare put it in -- because the ultimate motivation for the scene is ambiguous.

Want something to really mess with you? I leave you with this ... imagine the first scenario, in which Prince Hamlet is Pyrrhus, torn between action and inaction. Then, combine it with the second scene, in which King Hamlet is Priam, about to be slain. Put Gertrude in Hecuba's shoes, watching the battle unfold. This is the play from Gertrude's perspective, as she sees Hamlet disgracing his father's memory (symbolically killing his father) by acting improperly at court and accusing the new king of unforgiveable acts.

If you thought THAT was fun, I have an exercise for you -- see if you can throw characters into roles to explain the play from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's POV.

Back from Fall Foliage

2007-10-14T20:37:00.000-04:00

That was successful! I just spent two days in Bedford, PA, at the annual Fall Foliage festival with Nana, an aunt and uncle, and a couple of cousins. My family also took Alison along with us, which was a nice addition to the trip. Thanks to everyone for welcoming her into our family tradition! She had a fantastic time!

I'm surprised at how BIG the festival seems to be getting. The antique car parade has always been a big deal, but I feel like there were more cars than people in Bedford this past weekend! Of course, I'm about to complain about how many of those there were, too. I don't seem to remember the festival being so packed that you had trouble walking from one side of the street to the other, but maybe as I get older, I just take up more room. I guess it's a good thing that the festival is growing, but I kind of wish everyone would stop swarming to Bedford -- that's supposed to be a quiet little town where my Nana lives. No one else. Maybe I'm too young to start being nostalgic, but I miss the tiny little town before they started developing the area, and it got a lot bigger. Leave Bedford alone!

The upshot is that the booths were amazing. Very diverse! I think I managed to cover all four corners of the festival at one time or another this year, and as a result I'm about $20 poorer than when I left. But I don't mind patronizing small mom-and-pop businesses, and that's what all those booths are. It's a good cause, and I got a nice necklace and some delicious homemade fudge out of the deal. Oh, and I'm not complaining about the applie cider, either. :)

Also, I finished my latest photography project, on "Light and Shadow." I hope I got some good pictures, but I'm going to have to develop the roll before I know for sure. I'll look for a way to get any good ones online.

I'm Back!

2007-10-11T21:23:00.000-04:00

Now don't get used to it, because I don't have any idea what kind of frequency I'm going to be coming back to this thing. To be perfectly honest, probably not very much. But I'm in the mood to talk and I have no one to talk to, so I'm going to put up a post for anyone who cares to read.

We're one day away from finishing our sixth week, and school is already overwhelming. I'm getting dozens of pages of English reading, numerous Federalist Papers, and voluminous biology labs. All on top of Hamlet practice 'til 7 every evening (tonight excepted -- I got out at merely 6:15).

And you know what? I'm loving it. I love Senior year, I love all my classes, and I absolutely love this play. So I'm putting up this post mainly to remind myself that I do it for a reason. Despite all the late nights, this work is worth it, because I feel so damn fulfilled when I ACCOMPLISH something. While most people are wasting their high school lives, bored with all their free time, I'm learning and growing and bettering myself. Tonight, the topic is Optimism. Life is good.

Pictures are Up!

2007-08-19T20:14:00.000-04:00

Well, almost. They're uploading now, so they'll be up by the time most of you read this post, probably. They include at least a couple snapshots from almost all the colleges I visited, and some random pictures I took for fun in between.

link here: http://family.webshots.com/album/560354266yYsgIf?vhost=family

Final Rankings

2007-08-17T23:14:00.000-04:00

1. Yale University!!
2. Harvard College
3. Swarthmore College
4. Princeton University
5. University of Virginia
6. University of Richmond

That's still a lot, but at least I was able to cut out a couple. Notice there's no Wharton, no Brown, no Dartmouth. And really #s 2-6 don't matter, because if you refer to my Yale post, there's no question in my mind about where I will be going to college.

A successful, productive week. Glad I did it, but also glad it's over. Now I'm headed back home to get back to lifeguarding and lots of summer homework, but I'm sure going to miss this New England weather. While you Richmonders have been having 100 degree weather, it's been 85 tops up here, and usually cooler. Got down below 70 during the storm last night!

I like this blogging thing, and I'd like to keep doing it, but I promise not to blog mindlessly about my boring day-to-day affairs. Guess you'll just have to hope I find something interesting to write about at home.

Dartmouth College (8/17)

2007-08-17T23:13:00.000-04:00

Info Session: 9:15
Tour: 10:00

This was my last one! A word of advice to all my readers (all, what, three of you?) -- don't visit seven colleges in five days. Don't do it, it's not fun. And especially don't end up ten hours away from home after visiting the last one, because then you sit in the car for hours with nothing to look forward to. And one more thing to remember -- if you're traveling through New York on the way back home, don't drive over the Tappan Zee Bridge. It took us just a little less than two hours to drive ten miles over Tappan Zee this evening, and that was at the end of our day's drive. Now we're just vegging in a hotel room watching an overpriced movie on hotel On-Demand.

That said, Dartmouth was actually pretty good. The campus is beautiful, and I got some semi-decent pictures. Let's start with the information session -- at the beginning of the week, it would have been woefully inadequate. On Friday, twenty minutes of "lecture" was perfect, and the audience knew what they were doing, so the questions fleshed it out some. I like most of their programs, with a specific exception -- the "D Plan."

Created to provide Dartmouth students with a flexibility equaled by few college programs, the D Plan allows students to choose between taking courses and getting off-campus experience on a schedule that fits them. Instead of semesters, the Dartmouth academic calendar is divided into quarters, each roughly corresponding to one of the four seasons. With the exception of the summer quarter following sophomore year, which is a required on-campus quarter, students are free to choose whether to be on campus, on vacation, or studying abroad. I guess this is good, because students can pursue long-term internships to get real-world work experience, but it seems like it would break up the class unity somewhat. If you don't know when your friends are going to be at school, then how will you build the bonds that are supposed to define the college experience? Even more disturbing to me is the same flexibility in the professors' schedules. Having the students randomly moving on and off campus is chaotic but manageable, but never being sure if a certain professor will be teaching during any given quarter? That's a little too free-spirited for me.

The other really unique factor about Dartmouth is their application process. In addition to all the "normal" requirements, they ask for a peer recommendation. It can come from a family member, friend, coworker, or whatever, but the idea is to get a sense of your personality from the people you spend your time with outside the classroom. In order to better gauge whether a given applicant will fit well at Dartmouth, the college likes to have a recommendation from someone the same age as the rest of the applicant's graduating class. So everyone start thinking of good things to say about me, in case I apply here. :-P

Actually, I don't think I'm going to. I started off the post saying how good the tour was, but I may have changed my mind. The more I think about it, the more chaotic Dartmouth feels, with students and teachers leaving campus in no particular pattern. I don't know that that's where I want to go to school. So overall, what have I learned from this week? I like student cohesiveness, because it makes for an active, participatory, fun, and engaging student body. I like access to my professors, and Harvard tops the list on that (five professors teaching one student sounds SO cool). Guaranteed housing for four years isn't REQUIRED, but a high percentage of students living on campus throughout college demonstrates the cohesiveness I'm looking for. I also want a pretty campus, and Yale and Dartmouth win that competition. Check my next post for my final listing ...

Harvard College (8/16)

2007-08-16T23:25:00.000-04:00

Tour: 12:30 and 3:00
Info Session: 2:00

Yeah, this one was good. At least, it was good the second time around -- the first time, we left in the middle of the tour because our tour guide was so bad. Someone really should tell Harvard that they need to put a better face forward, because if it hadn't been the best university in the Western Hemisphere, I probably would have left without a second glance, like I did with Brown. Our guide had no public speaking skills, didn't really know his tour route, and honestly didn't seem all that excited about the college. So we skipped out. Take Two (guide by the name of Walter, a humanities major who was interested in dramatic extracurriculars) was better.

So it seems that Harvard has its reputation for a reason. It wasn't breathtakingly beautiful, like Yale, but some of its buildings certainly had that Ivy League flavor. The building that housed its freshman dining hall also contains the world's largest collection of non-religious stained glass, and the names of Civil War veterans are carved into the walls along both sides. That brings me to a cool Harvard feature, which is freshman-only dining. The way that works is all the freshmen are housed together, around the Harvard Yard (the main center of activity on campus), and they have a single dining hall where they can all go to make friends, get used to the routine, and have the opportunity to learn without being intimidated by the upperclassmen. Not that the upperclassmen seems particularly intimidating to me, but I still like the idea of freshman-only dining. And then, when they do make friends, the freshman have the opportunity to eat in upperclassman dining halls. The upperclassman are still locked out of freshman dining.

Harvard does use a residential college system, but the students aren't placed into houses until the beginning of their sophomore year, at which point they can request their favorite freshmen from the previous year. Same deal goes here as with Yale and Princeton -- fierce loyalty to their own houses (a calculated 96% satisfaction with housing placement among the undergrads) and a social life active enough to replace Greek life (about 10% participate, and they're not officially affiliated with the college).

Now I'll try and stay away from the features that I know all colleges have, and highlight the good things about Harvard academics. They share Yale's Shopping Period, with a slight improvement -- one week instead of two weeks, which minimizes the chaos of having a different set of students in class every day. They also have an addition at the end of each semester, before exams, called Reading Period (about two weeks long, usually). This is a block of time in which classes do not meet and teachers do not assign homework. Students are allowed to use their time as they wish, but Harvard strongly encourages looking over the semester's notes and assigned readings. Also, there are absolutely no caps on class size, which works both ways. If the interest in a single class exceeds expectations, the college just moves to a larger classroom. By the same token, the college will never refuse a student a class that he really wants to take. For example, one student took a seminar in the government concentration and ended up the only one left at the end of Shopping Period. The faculty had planned two professors and three graduate students for the seminar, the Harvard guarantee applied, and the student had a class with a 5:1 faculty to student ratio. Not bad.

One of the things I really like about these Ivy League residential systems is the sense of class unity they foster. The only place I really got that competitive feeling I was worried about was Wharton, and I crossed that off the list early. Everywhere else has a friendly, cooperative atmosphere, where students are a lot more interested in learning than "winning," and everyone's willing to help out a classmate. It's a really nice feeling.

I'm almost finished, and I'm looking forward to the last one. It'll be hard to compare to Yale -- I figured the only thing that'd be able to give it a run for its money would be Harvard, and that didn't quite measure up. There is one thing that it might have that would be a major bonus, which would be slightly more focus on ASL. So far, no college has offered a major in it, and Harvard doesn't even accept ASL credit as fulfillment of its foreign language requirement. I wouldn't want to actually graduate with an ASL degree, but a college with a concentration in ASL would have more to offer, and I would like to continue that aspect of my education after I leave high school. Oh well, guess we'll see.

'Til tomorrow.

Brown University (8/16)

2007-08-16T22:27:00.000-04:00

Tour: 9:00
Info Session: ??:??

For those of you who've been looking for a short post, here it is. We left Brown twenty or thirty minutes into the tour, and didn't bother to find out when the information session was. As a result, we got to Harvard early. Interesting news about that in the next post ...

It's not that Brown was a bad school, it was just ... a little free. As in, full of free spirits ... the kind that do drugs and wear flowers in their hair. I'll stick to a slightly more traditional school, thank you. And that's the most conservative I've been in a long time, I think.

As the nice girl I met on the Harvard tour put it, the students at Brown are "granola people."

Halfway!

2007-08-15T23:15:00.000-04:00

Alright everyone, I'm halfway through the week. Thanks for bearing with me, and I'll try and keep up from here on out. On the other hand, I don't really know what tomorrow looks like after Harvard, and if we get to the room late, I'm not going to promise to stay up late just to get Brown and Harvard done before I go to bed. It'll be up soon enough.

I'm liking the week so far. The driving isn't all that bad, and the information sessions and tours are really informative. The tour guides have been great so far (with a possible exception at Princeton), and all the campuses have been beautiful. I haven't heard what I expected from these colleges, which is actually great if you think about it ... surprises are more interesting than the same old thing over and over again. And even if I'm not weeding out the ones I expected (Swarthmore), at least I'm narrowing down the list (Wharton and Princeton).

Four down: Swarthmore, Wharton, Princeton, Yale
Three to go: Brown, Harvard, Dartmouth

If you have comments, I want to hear them! That's what the nifty little link down at the bottom of each post is for, and I get every comment by e-mail so you can be sure I'll see it. Thanks!

Yale University (8/15)

2007-08-15T22:56:00.000-04:00

Info Session: 9:00
Tour: 10:30

Wow. Really, just ... wow. On the bright side of things, I've found my new home. Downside? I don't get to go for another year. I will be going, in case anyone is at all confused about that fact, so I'll just dispel that myth right now. I'm applying, they're accepting me, and I'm going to Yale University. Too bad we're still looking at colleges for another half a week, right? Oh well, I'll use it to spend time with my family, and I guess I can put up with an information session somewhere else.

You probably won't get quite the effect I'm trying to convey in this post unless I include some photographs, but that would make this take twice as long to get up here and besides the fact that I know that you're all DYING for the latest update (*cough*), I want to get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. So you'll just have to keep an eye on my Webshots -- all the pictures will be going up at once, hopefully some time next week. If I don't get them up there before long, then feel free to send me an e-mail or just leave a comment here reminding me to put it up. So I'll do my best to paint you a little picture. Get a nice, clear picture in your head of the Hogwarts castle ... now imagine me standing in front of it. That's Yale (at least, it is in the fall of '08). Seriously, though, a dining room that looks like the Great Hall, residential colleges housed in castles, and a library designed as a cathedral. Not to mention a whole library full of books that would definitely make the Restricted Section at Hogwarts with Madam Pince in charge (think old ... like Gutenberg bible old).

The information session described Yale as an undergraduate-focused research university, meaning they have the resources of a large research facility with the teaching focus on undergraduate education. Sounds like a good combination to me, especially when I figured out Yale took the whole idea of "liberal arts" more seriously than any other college I've visited so far. They encourage exploration with a feature called "Shopping Period" at the beginning of each semester. When the time comes for students to sign up for classes, they check out any course they want for two weeks, and don't commit to any until Shopping Period is over. It allows students to experience classes they might not enjoy without the burden of committing to it for an entire semester, and potentially interests them in a field they had never considered. With a 7:1 student to faculty ratio, there's plenty of time to discuss specific courses with professors, as well.

Residential life. Think back to Princeton, but instead of six colleges (or as I'm still thinking of them, "Harry Potter houses"), Yale has twelve. And separate housing for freshmen, off in their own quad, called "Old Campus" by all the Yalies. The roommate process is good as well, and Yale has been the only place until now that made having more than one roommate sound like a good thing. Apparently being in a suite with six other students whose interests range from classical music to farming and computer science creates a certain bond and expansion of horizons ... sounds awesome to me. And they allow specific roommate requests for all students after freshmen year, which they could theoretically use to create themed suites (I'm thinking a group of D&D buddies?). Meanwhile, the colleges are just awesome in themselves, each equipped with someone whose job is to spend money on making it fun and a special area to set it apart from the others. One apparently has a sauna, and another has a photography lab ...

And food is an important part of college life, also. I'll keep it short ... Yale was voted #1 by the New York Times for quality of dining hall food. That freshman 15? Not a myth. :-)

Being a Yale student has its perks as well. First, there are the student discounts -- tons of New Haven restaurants view the hungry college kids as great return customers, since they're stuck there for four years and there are only so many restaurants, so they offer very enticing student discounts on food. In addition, professional performances moving between New York and Boston often stop off to take advantage of the amazing performance hall at Yale (which, by the way, contains the world's fifth largest organ). And there are Master's Teas. These are social gatherings in which members of the college which is hosting all congregate around food (free of course) and listen to one of the world's leaders in any given occupation come and chat with students to answer questions and share wisdom. For example, Yale students have spoken face-to-face with Meryl Streep, Jon Bon Jovi, and Kofi Annan, to name a few. If there are "masters" in fields in which students have vested interests, the Master's Teas can be great times to make potentially career-changing friendships.

Okay, I'm done. I tried to shorten this a little, but I'll have to see how it comes out on the actual web page ... hope I'm not rambling on and boring you all, but let's just say Yale was amazing. Number one choice at this point, and if I don't get in, then I've already decided to drop out of school just to work on the custodial staff there. I'm not kidding -- I will go. One more thing, though, that I really thought was cool. When asked if there was a lot of student competition, my tour guide nearly laughed. As soon as students get to the University, they're immersed in an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual support. The only competition is friendly between the colleges (although apparently the intercollegiate intramural sports competitions get pretty fierce), and notes are freely shared to help out anyone who needs it. In fact, it is not uncommon to use the notes from a student who took a certain class in a previous year to help with a particularly difficult topic. Alright, I'm done. Go Yale!

PS: If you aren't convinced yet, check out what I saw written in sidewalk chalk outside the Yale library (in the summer, I might add):

It took 1 Yalie to start this war. How many will it take to end it?

and,

TORTURE! LIES! SURVEILLANCE! IMPEACH GONZALES!

Oh yeah. I want to go.

Princeton University (8/14)

2007-08-15T17:49:00.000-04:00

Info Session: 11:00
Tour: 1:00

This should be the last late one. I’m getting started a little earlier today, so I should have time to finish Princeton and Yale (be prepared for another glowing report, by the way).

I liked Princeton more than Wharton, but these visits are confusing me. I expected to fall in love with the college instantly, and I was kind of disappointed not to, but I’m wondering how much to blame on the school itself, and how much to blame on the tour guide. She was a science major, and I’m sure that we need people in that branch of academia, but it’s definitely not where my interests lie. She sounds like a brilliant science student, and I wish her luck in her many endeavors, but guiding tours should not be one of them. It seems to me that the university would want to find a well-rounded student who has personal experience in a broad variety of campus activities to welcome the diverse groups of prospective undergraduates, but instead, they gave us Jacqui. Her chief interest in college is her scientific research and continuing her studies, which deprives her – and therefore her tours – of the experiences available from the social groups or even other academic programs at Princeton. She could not go beyond the scripted answers in the fields of humanities, languages, or politics, and when asked how students kicked back to relax, she replied, “Our main focus is our work.” Nice girl, but I hope she’s not representative of campus, because it just doesn’t sound like much fun.

However, the pictures were beautiful and hopefully I’ll get the few that I had time to take uploaded to Webshots sometime next week. I won’t take the time to transfer them from my camera now, because I still want to get my Yale post written up.

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Before I go any farther, I'm coming back to this post on the 15th, and I'd like to say welcome to my newest cousin, Tre Hartsell! He was born last night, and from what I hear, everything is going very well. Congratulations Chuck and Mary! I can't wait to meet the new member of the family!

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Back to college. Princeton has good things and bad things, really. The biggest bonus has to be their financial aid policy, which is that the University does not loan students money. Instead, they offer all their aid in grant form, none of which has to be paid back upon graduation. For a few students, the University requires work study programs, but this is an exception to the general practice. In fact, financial aid covers even international travel and joining extracurricular activities such as the Eating Clubs (to be discussed later).

The student-teacher relations sound pretty good -- 4,700 undergraduate students and 2,000 graduate students, so the undergrads definitely get the focus from their professors. All teachers are required to instruct undergraduates, and there are a few researchers on campus from whom the students occasionally get supplementary information and experiences. Most notably, a regular staff member at the University is John Nash, subject of the book and movie, A Beautiful Mind.

There are required courses at Princeton, but the requirements don't seem to be too bad -- they're just to make sure that students don't focus too much on one area and ruin the whole intention of the liberal arts university. There are over thirty majors, so lots of diversity and plenty of room for exploration. I found one fact interesting, however, at a college so well-known for its academic rigor -- double majors are forbidden. The admissions officer attributed this to the fact that a student double-majoring would be required to write two senior theses, which is a path the most intelligent students would shy away from. These senior theses, by the way, sound like a TON of work, but the finished products also sound really impressive. And to help the students get some quality research, Princeton has a six-story library with over 70 miles of bookshelves and maps to help students find their way around.

Now, for the good part -- residential life. I'm just going to briefly say that it is a mark of the times that colleges such as Princeton have started to refer to their residential systems as "Harry Potter housing." There are six residential colleges, each of which (as in the books) houses a roughly equally-sized group of students, which essentially becomes each new undergraduate's family. They eat together, socialize together, and spend time in the college common rooms. In fact, over 90% of the students stay in their colleges for all four years, rather than moving off campus. Which brings us to the Eating Clubs ...

By far the most popular off-campus option, the Eating Clubs are the biggest holdover from the priveleged days before Princeton offered governmentally-funded financial aid. They are exclusive clubs housed in mansions just off the edge of campus, staffed by workers unaffiliated with the college, and home to the highest-quality food available to the undergraduates. Of the ten, five of them select their new membership from the rising Junior class through a random lottery system. The other five are the truly exclusive clubs, only allowing members who obtain recommendations from current members of the college. So it's not what you know anymore, it's who you know. The Eating Clubs just leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth ...

That's the University, folks. Another post that's turned out to be a novel, but if you've stuck with me 'til the end, then I appreciate it. Overall feeling from today? Princeton has the academics, without a doubt, but it seems to be missing the social aspect that makes all the academic work fun. Out of 10, it gets a 6. Not good enough -- Swarthmore still wins out.

Wharton Business School (8/13)

2007-08-14T23:12:00.000-04:00

Info Session: 3:30

Sorry this is a day late. I didn’t want to forgo any more sleep last night (check the timestamp on my last post) so I put this off until today. I figured I was only visiting one school, so I’d have time to write them both up this evening. Hope I didn’t cause anyone undue stress or anxiety during the wait … not that anyone is even following this blog yet, with the exception of my Nana. Love you Nana! Okay, here we go …

Oddly enough, this was the information session I was looking forward to. Even after I liked Swarthmore, I expected it to take second chair to Wharton, the Premiere Ivy League Business School, the Best Undergraduate Business Education in the World, blah, blah, blah. I even had my education at Wharton already planned out – I would take my concentration in Management and design a minor in conjunction with the College of Arts & Sciences to focus on my Information Systems interests. That would take care of the bulk of my requirements, and I would still have free time to take liberal arts courses at the College.

Then I get to the information session, and they essentially tell me that there’s no flexibility. You have something like three courses to play with, and everything else is required for the Bachelor of Science in Economics that Wharton offers. That’s actually pretty fitting – Wharton is full of B.S. Seriously, though, I couldn’t believe how stringently the school defined its students curricula, as if we’ve already decided our life path. We can choose concentrations, but that hardly affects our schedules until we’re Juniors, and even then the bulk of our courses are laid out. I got the feeling that college would still be a time of expansion and exploration, but there’s no time for that at Wharton, not if we want to work for the most successful businesses in America!

That’s the other thing – it’s all about competition …

Step One: Competition with people from all over the world. Frankly, I don’t have a problem with this, because I’m hopefully going to a college with at least a few international students.

Step One Point Five: Some students decide that Wharton alone does not provide the challenge they need from college, and apply to even more prestigious “Joint Degree” programs that increase the course load (and comparably increase bragging rights).

Step Two: From the very first day on campus, students take courses that put some of them in leadership positions. This is not inherently bad, except that it fosters a feeling of superiority in some (the leaders) and inferiority in the rest.

Step Three: Submetriculation. For those students who just can’t imagine taking a few years of their life off from school, Wharton offers an accelerated MBA program that takes only five years, instead of the traditional four undergrad + two grad years. How do students get in? By application of course.

Step Four: For those students who choose not to apply, or the lucky ones who don’t get in, the Wharton experience ends after senior year. At this point, students eager to demonstrate their skills line up for selection by the nation’s Fortune 500s. Sounds great, but the catch? Businesses go down the line – picking student #1, then #2, then #3, and so on. So to make their hard work worth it at the end of the line, Wharton students are, again, encouraged not to work with their classmates, but to use their classmates to their own advantages.

I demonize Wharton now, but I was just very turned off by the cut-throat attitude. Swarthmore built itself on cooperation, and Wharton students are trained to fight for a living. Maybe I’m just an underachiever, but I’d rather have friends in college than rivals.

Swarthmore (8/13)

2007-08-14T01:04:00.000-04:00

Tour: 10:00
Info Session: 11:00

With only 1,450 students, I expected a small, quiet, simple college that lived up to its Quaker roots. I was pleasantly surprised when I found a vibrant atmosphere, a verdant campus, and a vivacious student body highly invested in improving the collegiate experience. The campus was by no means behind the times, including soon-to-be wireless dormitories, cutting-edge performing arts venues, and certified Green buildings (built of recycled materials, focused on saving energy, and displaying windows designed with avian safety in mind). In addition, the cohesiveness of the student body generated a feeling of collaboration that seemed to permeate the countless activities dominating the campus social scene.

The college staff was quite clear that the students were there not to compete with each other, but to help each other learn. There are several systems in place to deemphasize the competitive predisposition with which most students enter campus – most importantly, the school does not calculate GPA or determine class ranking. The faculty and students at Swarthmore believe that an environment driven by students’ desire to “beat” their classmates detracts from the overall learning experience and interest in exploring new subjects. In addition, the four classes during the first semester of freshman year are all graded on a pass/fail basis. This both creates an environment in which the new freshman can ease into college life and instills the value of teamwork early – the student is encouraged to help his classmate, not to compete, because he cannot pass “better” than another freshmen. Though “shadow grades” are awarded to let the students know how their work compares to Swarthmore expectations, the students do not receive official grades on any first-semester courses. Furthermore, the students can take four additional classes after the first semester on a pass/fail basis, to encourage inter-curricular exploration in fields with which the student may not have as much experience or skill.

Despite the easy introduction to Swarthmore, the course requirements are rigorous enough to challenge even the most studious scholars. The biggest change for some would be the lack of grade inflation, a policy (un?)popular enough to sell t-shirts – “Anywhere else I’d have an A.” From the traditional four courses per semester to the more challenging double major or Honors Program requirements, students will find a range of academic options to meet their needs. For advice, they can visit any of their professors, who double as academic advisors, or the upperclassmen in their dorms. This policy reinforces the collaborative feeling yet again by placing incoming freshmen in dormitories with upperclassmen who already know the ropes at Swarthmore and can provide informal academic or social advice from a student’s perspective.

The best part about Swarthmore is the liberal, inclusive feel that truly embraces the Quaker intentions. Swarthmore contains only two fraternities (with about thirty students in each) and no sororities, so the students have a very open relationship which is not dominated by Greek life. The club activities (which are numerous and varied) have two common qualities: all sanctioned activities, including parties, ceremonies, competitions, etc., must be open to the entire campus; and in the spirit of equal opportunity, no clubs may charge money for their activities. Every event, from the drama department’s professional-level live theatre performance to the impromptu dorm-hall get-together, is absolutely free of charge. This encourages students to sample as many activities as they want without the monetary burden, thus expanding their social networks.

Swarthmore sounds like a phenomenal college experience, but of course it has its drawbacks. With such a small student body and only a single college, it does not have the course offerings that a larger institution, such as the University of Pennsylvania, might offer. It tries to cope with this flaw, however, through its Academic Alliances with Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and U-Penn. Students may take courses at any of the other three colleges in the consortium (again, free of charge). The problem here is that both Haverford and B-M are even smaller than Swarthmore, and the University is so far away from the college that transportation requires careful scheduling to avoid missing parts of classes. While Swarthmore provides free transportation between all the colleges of the consortium, the inconvenience of leaving campus would leave me with a strong dislike for the need to travel to complete my course study. The alliance with Haverford and B-M extends to social events as well, and students will regularly travel between the three, looking for the best party at any given moment.

Overall, I got an outstanding feel for Swarthmore, despite its small size. The level of activity the campus seems to have would make the small size seem much bigger, and for those days when I could not stand the college any longer, I could easily use the on-campus train station to catch a ride to nearby Philadelphia. The college reminds me of William & Mary due to its small size and academic focus, but the social life puts the Virginia college to shame. My biggest complaint is the limited course offerings, but the faculty have made it easy to overcome this obstacle as well.

So by visiting such a good school, I seem to have ruined my initial plan. Instead of crossing this college off the list as “too small for me,” I added it to my list of “definitely apply.” This is not the way to narrow down my choices … fortunately, I did not care for Wharton as much as I expected. Stay tuned for that post.

Intro

2007-08-14T00:32:00.000-04:00

Okay, I lied. This turned out not to be a blog about my mentorship experiences, but rather how much fun I'm having visiting colleges. For those of you who don't know me, I'm from central Virginia and headed northwards up the east coast to visit all the Ivies (and Swarthmore College). It's the traditional zillion-college-at-once Junior tour, taken right before school starts up again.

Hope you enjoy some of the things I have to say ...