Get to the Point

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stoutsrideon.blogspot.com

The Infinite Wisdom of Gordy Hall.

There is a sculpture in Gordy hall--a red electric board that churns out words and phrases day in and day out, in at least a half-dozen languages. This year I have taken to using the sculpture as my daily fortune cookie: the first sentence I read from that board in a language I can understand (English, French, or very simple Italian) I consider my fortune for the day. It's like my very favorite building has a voice, and it's speaking to me and telling me important things. This infinite wisdom must be shared with the world, or at the very least people who read my blog. So I'm going to start writing them down. Thus far I've only written down the three:

"Le potentiel n'est rien qu'a sa realization." (Potential means nothing until it has been realized)
"Taking a strong stance publicizes the opposite viewpoint."

And today's,

"Men don't control you anymore."

It seriously does read like a fortune cookie, doesn't it?!

More to follow. Not sure whether I'll put them in this entry or make new entries every once in a while, but make of it what you will.

Semi-relatedly, I think I'm finally loopy enough from all the hours I've spent in there to think that my building is talking to me...

Story of my LIFE...

Otherwise entitled: "As if I needed another reason to despise them."

Okay, so mainly I'm disappointed that I FINALLY put my foot down on something and now it's come back to bite me. Let me sum up, since there's a scheduled blogspot outage in half an hour. Apparently that's the hazard of blogging at two in the morning after your homework's done.

We've had this psycholinguistics assignment for a week, right? Right. And we HAVE to do it in groups because for some reason Professor Bond just lo-OVES forcing me to share my work with classmates. So it's me and Jon and Jordan, which is fine, and then she sticks this other girl in our group that none of us know. We get our data, split up the work, exchange email addresses and get on with our lives.

Deadline starts approaching, Jon and Jordan send me their sections...still no word from this girl. I wrote my sections and put the paper together at 5:00 this evening, and still no idea if she was even out there. So I'm like "Alright, I've got a TON of other homework to do tonight. I want this thing done and I don't care if I have to write it to get it done," and I write her sections for her. Then I get to thinking...

You know what, a fat lot of good SHE did us. I'm not even going to put her name on the paper--she has literally contributed NOTHING at this point.

So I print the paper out, mainly as a momento of me FINALLY standing up and not letting myself get walked on. Without her name on it. Then I email it to the guys and say "Hey, I wrote her sections for her and if I don't hear from her by 11:00 tonight she's off the paper."

Being good and wanting to give her a chance, I email her too. "Hey, it's your group member here. I finished and printed the paper, but if you can send me your section by 11:00 tonight when I shut off my computer, I'll put your version in instead and put your name on it. You should know, unless I hear from you I'm not putting your name on this paper. Hope to hear from you,* Grace."

(*lie, but a polite lie, I guess...)

I celebrate. I prance around and congratulate myself. I DESERVED to say that! This girl's had a week to do this DINKY little section of the paper and she blew it, and I've given her a completely fair five-hour deadline. I'm not going to put someone else's name on my work, and I'm simultaneously being fair and sending out one last ultimatum.

I ended up staying up past 11, but that's not the point. SHE MISSED THE DEADLINE. That's what makes me so angry. She MISSED IT fair and square. I check my email at 11:15--nothing. Then I do my syntax homework. Check again. Nothing. Do my translation homework, and check my email at 1:15 AM, a clear two hours after her last chance to get her name on the paper. And she has the nerve to send me this email full of scathing and excuses.

"Sorry, I was in Alden this whole time working on another project. And I WAS in class today so why didn't you say anything then? and I'm sorry I didn't get this in sooner you just didn't give me much to work with. Guess I missed your 'deadline,' I sure hope you check your email in the morning. Do with this paragraph what you will."

She sent it to me in a file format I cannot open. Annoyance to insult.

All of this and I'm supposed to what...work with her? Believe that she was working on a group project for SIX HOURS until 1:00 in the morning and even didn't have time to shoot me an email saying "I got your email and it might be later than 11, but I'll have it"? No attempt to work with me whatsoever, me finally having the guts to demand what's fair for myself, and this is what I get?

At first I thought I felt bad for her, felt bad for the way I said it, but for once I feel like I deserve to be ticked off at this girl. I almost hit the 'reply' button and then stopped myself. No way, Grace, you told her you wouldn't touch your email after 11, so don't you let her call your bluff. Instead I vent to my blog, because I'm starting to wonder whether venting into cyberspace might make me less likely to vent in person. I know I get annoyed with stuff easily, but DARN IT THIS ONE IS REALLY FAIR!

Have you guessed it yet? Have you guessed that one detail that just takes the cake?

Oh yeah. Her major--definitely HSLS.

My Daily Fortune Cookie

"Le potentiel n'est rien qu'a sa realization." --Gordy Hall

It's not the ride, it's the crew...

Yeah, I'm consistently one of those kids who makes it to finals week, and everyone's asking "What are your plans for spring break? Going anywhere? What are you doing?" and I'm always answering "Eh...I dunno." That's never troubled me...I mean, for crying out loud I'm a full-time college student with a part-time job. What time I don't spend in a classroom or at the dining hall is generally spent in language labs, and libraries, and in front of my laptop while I write four different papers at once until the obscenely early hours of the next morning, before I catch four quick hours of sleep and start all over again. For me, a week where I have NOTHING planned IS a vacation.

But that's only the broad introduction for the real point of this post.

The title of the post is admittedly Cedar Point related. I'm trying not to talk about it too much, because I'm afraid I'll make people sick of it. I think I may have inadvertently done that already, although you guys have to understand that this is major jumping in the pond stuff, which I've been thinking about a lot since, for the next few months, I'll be able to say "A year ago from this moment, I was in France." As I try to remind myself whenever I click over to the blog for a quick post, life is a pond. Just because I'm home doesn't mean I'm done jumping in.

Grr...the title. I've been sidetracked again. Anyway, titles. I was browsing around the employee forums and came across a couple people who were discussing which ride was the best to work on, and one of them said something like "Well it's really not the ride you're working, it's the crew you're working with. The right people can make anything fun."

I think it's a great theme for this spring break.

See, when I get back to classes and work I know the drill, now everyone's going to ask me what I did. The answer is that I hiked with my family for an afternoon, bought a new coat, watched a couple movies, did laundry and, by way of having done all this with people I care about, I am willing to bet that I had just as much fun as you.

It made me so happy to be able to spend time with my best friend this week. This past quarter was really rough for me, especially where scheduling was concerned. And then this week we got to ride bikes, hang out at the dog park, and then spend pretty much all of Thursday together.

We bought books, visited a car dealership, took a walk around Wal*Mart, went to Petland and the dollar store and had a fast food dinner and walked around the mall for an hour.

Some people took expensive trips to exotic places over break, but let me tell you that I'll take Thursday with Sam over all of that any day of the week. Spring break doesn't have to be about plans--it can just be strolling around town with your best friend talking. With the right people beside you, you make your own fun.

So what were my plans? I didn't have any.

But we discussed the texture of lint brushes, and chased down the one used copy of Sam's BIOS book in all of Athens. We joked about buying a paddleboat, and read the names off of wooden leaves. We walked from photo to photo in the Market on State, and Sam won three presidential coins. We bought textbooks and coffee, and a wristwatch and questionable fake cologne, and roast beef sandwiches. And I had more fun doing all of that than I've had in a long time.

Sometimes it's hard because my schedule takes up so much of my life, and any of us can say the same. Finding the free time where it can mesh isn't easy to begin with. You find a lunch hour, and then lose that lunch hour, and then make a new one when you're not meeting with a group during that time or anything.

And when you've got a friend who you love like a sister, who you consider part of your family, you leave those lunch hours wishing you could just ditch all your classes and walk around the mall talking about which boys we had crushes on in fourth grade. Especially when being best friends has become something natural and effortless. Sometimes you get angry that you've got classes and work and obligations to fulfill, because it's being with your friend that makes you happy.

And then you have to make everything you can out of those rainy Thursdays in Wal*Mart, have to make that your way of restating all the old unspoken tenets of the BFF code.

You are family to me. I will always be there for you. Being your friend means the world to me. I'm not always great at showing it, but please don't forget it.

This week, I was reminded that it's not about where you go, or what you're doing. The company makes all the difference. The simplest of things can make the biggest difference in a life when you realize that friendship made them beautiful. Watching the stars at 2 in the morning. Getting caught in a thunderstorm between the corn and the soybeans. Standing in line for a midnight movie. Digging a moat around the tent. Spending those times with my best friend, all of those became stories, and about a hundred others besides. Twelve-year-old bikinis. Pushy the horse, and vending machine bouncy-balls. Shoeboxes full of Crayolas. Unicycling in Walter Hall. Red figure kraters. Guess Who.

Hmm...if I don't stop myself now I'm just going to be listing for the rest of the night. I suppose I've made my point. If you're the one person I know reads this blog, that paragraph probably made complete sense to you. If you're not, the point is that the right friendship can make all of those things significant.

An adventure isn't always something you plan, an adventure is something two people go out and create.

What did YOU learn this spring break?

My day in a nutshell

Because I'm too tired to delve into much more detail than that...

1) Woo, I finished my French paper 24 hours ahead of the deadline!
2) YES, the assistant manager of ride operations at Cedar Point wants to schedule a phone interview with me!
3) CRUD, I'm TERRIBLE on the phone!
4) Alriiiight, last shift at work is done.
5) Cool, I got my grade back on my French presentation of doom and she called it "stunning!"
6) Hmm, I should obsessively google tips on phone interviews, and commonly asked phone interview questions, because I'm a little nervous about this.
7) Studystudystudy. Must study.
8) Fun! Spent time on the green with Sam and the doxies.
9) Studystudystudy. Must study MORE!
10) Haha, I am CPR certified as a professional rescuer for the next year. Now if you choke, I can save you without you being able to sue me for it.
11) Must write linguistics paper...
12) w00t, finished linguistics paper!
13) Oops, my psychology final is in twelve hours and I have spent so much time getting all my papers done that I haven't studied as much as I usually do
14) Studystudystudy
15) Hmm...you know what, I'd rather update my blog. I have done so much work today I deserve a fifteen-step list to procrastinate with.

Grr...in 48 measley hours I will have no obligations to Ohio University, my grades will be out of my hands, the interview done, and hopefully get in some Spring Break time.

More detailed accounts of pond-jumping to follow, pending completion of finals week. Time for step 16) studying seizure disorders, Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia, schizophrenia and the like.

-G

Spring Quarter

So I've just registered for my spring quarter classes and here's the breakdown.

12 hours of linguistics
4 hours of translation
4 hours of French

In other words...

20 hours total
ALL of them in Gordy Hall.

How awesome is THAT?

On the plus side, I'll be getting rid of my Junior Composition requirement (thank you translation!) and a couple of classes out of my linguistics core.

I'll just keep telling myself that as I'm in Gordy from 10 to 7 two days a week.

Les Poissons...

Happy 200th birthday to Charles Darwin!



(and, by extension, to Grandpa Larry's famous Darwin fish.)

January 20th, 2009

Today I skipped Psychology and headed to the 2nd floor of Baker instead to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama. It seemed like a fair reason to miss an hour of lecture. I mean...I can't remember the last time that a review of Chapter Four: Psychopharmacology constituted history in the making. We gathered in the theater where they'd turned on CNN--I even got a front row seat. As people filed in, we formed a crowd of young and old, men and women, and easily a dozen different nationalities that was every photography student's dream. They moved through the crowd and snapped frames by the dozen for potential projects--this diverse crowd sitting in a room together, brought together by hope and change.

Together, this crowd of strangers and I celebrated the common bonds that had brought us here. We applauded politely for Bill Clinton, turned to our neighbors to remark on how adorable the Obama daughters were, muttered amongst ourselves upon George Bush's entrance, and when the president-elect's name was announced, the room erupted. Our applause blended into the audio from DC and again I felt like part of something bigger than just me, or even just Ohio--but at the same time something of which I was an integral part. Together, all of us in that room had helped bring about history, and joyously we watched the fruit of our unity.

As the opening prayer began, a student in a "Marraige is so gay" t-shirt strode boldly to the screen alongside Reverend Warren's image to hold up his homemade sign: REV WARREN IS A BIGOT! in huge black letters. The photography students and reporters threw themselves to the carpet to capture the moment from all the proper angles. He shook the sign at equivocating intervals, and in the audience we chuckled as the running commentary on CNN showed the words "Rev. Warren's selection has been unpopular with the gay community." More adjustment of camera angles, so that the sign and the headline could appear together in one photo. At one point, one of the children sitting on the floor in front of the screen pointed and exclaimed to her father, "Daddy, look at his sign!" We all laughed as the sign-holder grinned and nodded frantically. The moment the reverend had finished speaking, he put down the sign and went calmly back to his seat, nodding his understanding at the three reporters who pointed insistently to their video cameras, demanding that he answer for his action on-camera after the festivities.

While the quartet performed John Williams' arrangement of Simple Gifts, the clock rolled over to 12:00, and the scroller pointed out that although he had not yet taken his oath, Barack Obama was now officially the president of the United States. Again, we applauded wildly. By the time the quartet had finished and Vice President Biden stepped forward to take his oath, we were on the edges of our seats, more than ready for the oaths to confirm what we already knew: we had a new president.

There was a smattering of laughter at the size of the Lincoln bible, and a confused mutter swept through the crowd at the fumbled oath, but it was high time for another round of cheering as President Obama finished his oath and stepped forward to make his speech. Immediately, the room went silent. There was no more excited muttering, no murmuring commentaries.

I cannot, especially in a blog entry, fully describe what I felt as I watched him address the nation. The sheer history of the moment certainly struck me. Whether or not they voted for Obama, I hope people can recognize and cherish the progress that his election has marked in our history. Maybe the younger crowd has a tougher time realizing that, our walks of life certainly can't be compared to the teary-eyed Reverend Jackson, but I felt proud of my country just for what we had shown by electing our first black president, even if I can only grasp its gravity through the pages of history books.

Of course, it doesn't stop there. There was the ever-present feeling that I was humbled, but important. Sure I was a fraction of a fraction of this victory, but I had a part in it the same as anyone else there, and that felt great.

And on top of all this, watching him made me hopeful. He acknowledged that we are in trying times, and that there's a lot of work to do, but watching him speak I truly believed we could do it. He said that the world is changing, and that we've got to change with it, and there is no better adjective for his words than refreshing. Maybe a part of me is just old enough now to appreciate oration that I dismissed as 'boring' and dozed through when I was my sister's age. More likely, he's a gifted speaker that talks to the people on a level that I deeply respect. This is a man I want to follow. I cannot wait to see what the next four years have in store. Heck, I'm excited just thinking about the first one.

Sure, you're not going to see me falling over myself to buy Obama collectors' plates from the Home Shopping Network, and it might even be cheesy to put my experience and my thoughts down in this blog, but laying all embellishments and pretty words aside, watching this today was incredible. It made me proud of what little part I had in history, it made me happy to be American, it made me hope that maybe under the leadership of this man we can make things brighter than they were.

Nothing in my life has had that kind of power. It was a non-partisan feeling of belonging that kept resonating deep in me as we filed out for light refreshments and inauguration cookies. Half of us ended up sitting back down in the lobby to keep watching as the Bushes boarded their helicopter for the Air Force base, as President Obama signed his cabinet nominations and headed downstairs. In the background, sign-holder was swarmed upon by reporters. The atmosphere outside was lighter, we joked about CNN's apparent obsession with the congressional luncheon menu (mmm, seafood and pheasant!), but at least for me there was still a deep sense of pride and hope. Nobody can take that from me. Nobody can say that on January 20th of 2009, Grace Stout wasn't really and truly proud to be American. I hope I can carry today with me for a good long time, and I'm glad I could share it with my friends and my family.

For the rest of the day I was in and out of inauguration news: watched the president address the luncheon on my way to class, streamed live footage of the parade between classes, scrolled through a slideshow of the AP ball photos, hammered out the finer details of this post. And the whole time, I've kept hold of that feeling of small but definite power. And no matter what this day was to you, that's what it was about to me: I felt like a small but definite something.

I like that feeling.