Phew!

I finally finished April and it was a non-stop roller coaster ride, let me tell you.  I have not been that busy in a long time.  And not “bad” busy… this was more of a “good” busy.  Multiple theatre projects, several papers due and never enough time to even unpack from moving at the end of March.

In any case, now that a good chunk of all that is out the way, it’s time to celebrate the onslaught of May, isn’t it?  That means finals (which start on Thursday – yikes!), my birthday (I can’t believe I’ll be years old… where does the time go?!!) and some more unpacking and organizing and getting ready for summer school.

Dang… I can’t escape the black hole of higher education.  But do I want to?

This is a test of yet another blogging widget I found for my iBook. This one’s from Google itself (bless their widgety souls) and I think it’s a good one for me to use, since it’s their stuff and all.

I’ve been thinking about changing the title of my blog. “Musings” sounds too damn touchy-feely and the rest comes off as false modesty, doesn’t it? More to come soon…

We’re covering light and its properties in my astronomy class today. If nothing else, I’m glad I took this class to shake the rust off my algebra skills. The semester has been going well so far. It’s been a challenge to keep up at times, but that’s the way college should be.

So it seems that I have stepped up to the big time this term. That’s right… I’ve upgraded to Arizona State, deemed a top party school by Playboy magazine (which, I swear, I read only for the articles). We’re about three weeks into the semester here and I just had my first exam today, as I mentioned in my previous post from earlier. It was a pretty easy test for my Survey of Musical Theatre class. All multiple-choice, pretty simple, done in about 15 minutes.

There’s been a lot of writing and reading for my classes, which shouldn’t surprise me since I’m in upper-division classes now. I am glad I switched jobs to accomodate all the study time I’ll need. But enough about me… let’s talk about me. (Kidding)

My brother and his wife are expecting their first hellsp– er, wonderful child into the world in a few weeks. That’s a good thing for them. It definitely made hanging out during this past football season poignant for him and me since we probably will be severly limiting our chill time together. That’s all right. I am happy for them and I’m glad he’s in a place where he is content with his life.

My stepdad (Herr Uber-cyclist) is training himself up for the Ride Across America. I’m not sure which organization it’s with, but I guess it’s some 3K mile bike trip from the West to East Coasts that’ll take most of the summer. I think that’ll be a lot of fun for him. At least, I hope so.

Yikes! I can’t I didn’t post a damn thing over the holidays. That’ll teach me to keep a blog. But waaaay too much has been happening lately: Switched schools, changed jobs, looking for a new place to live, loaded down with homework…

Okay, I know… “cry me a river,” right? Fair enough. Hopefully, I can give more fluid details a little later on today, but I’ve got an exam to get to.

I didn’t realize how much of a pain editing the ID3 tags of my MP3 collection was actually going to be. Thank goodness for the folks at MusicBrainz. Their Tagger software is helping me make progress. I’m doing that on my Windows machine so that I can read them better on my iPod. And in the meantime, I’m doing some laundry in prep for my road trip tomorrow. At this rate, I’ll be done in time to get… oh, about 30 minutes of sleep sometime in the wee hours. :-p

On to other subjects…

In my English class this morning, my group had to present our basic evidence for our upcoming debates after the holiday. Our topic that we chose is the problem of the concept of “Intelligent Design” being that in science classes at public schools. I am on the team arguing against ID and I’m pretty sure we’ll have a more solid argument. While I think the concept could pretty much be a given, it’s really more of a philosophical question than something that can be illustrated with the scientific process. To me, science classes have always been more about learning how to look at the world and ask questions about how things work. Science is a process as well as the body of information born of that process. It’s possible that Intelligent Design could actually be a plausible theory, but the way it is presented by its proponents, their way is the only way. And I’ve noticed that it has been fundamentalist Christians that are visibly pushing this as their way to get Creationism back into public schooling. Why have no other faiths stepped up for this? I’d be surprised to see a rabbi or a mullah bring this up as a good thing.

The basic point I’m trying to make is that ID is an excuse to not think, to not question. It stifles the intellectual discourse which has allowed science to help us make enormous progress towards the extended survival of the species–

I just realized I really digressed from the whole reason I brought this up. Anyway, we got into the debate and when we were done, I was pumped. It was very energizing to me to have a discussion like that. I’ve been missing that in a most of my conversations, even with other Mensans. Maybe I should rectify that… but not this weekend. This weekend, it’s vacation time! Whoo-hoo!!!

School’s headed for this semester’s finish line. And it’s not coming a moment too soon. Between school and work (as I’ve harped before), I am exhausted. In fact, I’m taking a weekend off and roadtripping to L.A. this weekend. I’ve only got two things specifically penciled in this weekend, both on Saturday night.

• Wil Wheaton is performing with his pals at the ACME Comedy Theatre is a best-of show called Now That’s What I Call ACME Volume One. It’s closing night and what better way to start off an evening than with an assload of laughter.

• After that, I’ll probably drop in to catch some live music at a bar. I hear the Osgoods are pretty good.

Other than that, I suppose it’s a bit of a working vacation. As an actor, I will ultimately be moving out here, so these occasional trips are good to get a lay of the land. Maybe I’ll take some photos and post them up here. That’d be something new…

Okay, apparently several posts I made here since the end of October have never made it here. I guess that’s what I get for trusting the machines… :-p

Allow me to attempt to recap for you:

- Still struggling with my life choices (school vs. work, etc)
- Sony BMG is the devil’s tool for the stealth malware on their CDs
- There should be separate races for US President and VP
- And, of course… Ron Silver is the bomb!!

That’s the bulk of it, really. I will definitely try to post more often via the Blogger website.

And to close… Ron Silver is still the bomb!!

Why, oh why, do I not cram for tests?

I’m waiting on my Technical Theatre class. Have a midterm exam today. I’m really not that worried about it… the teacher gave us a peek at the test last week. Lots of fill-in-the-blank questions and some true/false stuff. Thank the various deities of the world that I can handle that stuff. Much better than the evaluative argument paper I have to finish by Thursday. :-p

I love that more hotels have Wi-fi access. It rocks.

I am listening to the strains of fellow Mensans giving a pre-test spiel about the group. It’s National Testing Day today and folks all over the place are gathering to take a test… for fun. Also for the chance to join Mensa — a international societyfor those with high IQs, for those who don’t know — if they do well enough on the test.

I think it’s a good time for a flashback on this. (Insert appropriate visual and sound effects here…)
October 2004
I arrived at the Four Points Sheraton in Phoenix at about 9:45 in the morning for a 10am test on what I heard was called “National Testing Day”. I’d heard about Mensa in the past, but didn’t know much other than it was for really intelligent people. That episode of “The Simpsons” when Lisa joins shed no extra light on the subject… but it still rocked.

It was a mid-sized conference room, one of those modular-style rooms common in every large hotel with a conference center. It turned out to be a pretty full house that day, 30-40 people. I felt like I was going in to take the SAT, only not so much pressure. My nerves kept up until the LocSec (Local Secretary — the guy in charge) introduced himself and started the pre-test spiel. He’d just become a father and had been up for several days straight. His speech was damn funny and showed that there really should be no mystery about these folks — they’re pretty normal. Further evidence was given when they realized they didn’t bring enough pencils for people and were scrambling to find some. Felt like I was watching the Keystone Kops a bit.

Hell, yeah, I’m one of those guys.

After the test, I felt pretty confident I did well. The only drawback is they don’t tell you how well you did. They treat it like a pass/fail thing; either you’re in or not. That’s a fair way to do it, but I wouldn’t have minded knowing.

Well, obviously I got in. Being here a year later (at the exact same hotel) watching even more people come in to try their hand at joining a group of people who have an air of mystery, I feel for them. And for those of you who wonder if you are Mensa material, I have three tips:

1) There a wide range of interesting personalities and attitudes in Mensa. And they can be fun as hell.
2) You are probably far more intelligent than you give yourself credit for.
3) TAKE THE TEST. You really will be no worse off for trying…