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Mar. 4th, 2007 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phthalombrageYesterday was a weird game of Scrabble. Brian came in second. If Scrabble didn't have all those little point multipliers, Jim should win every time... he's had the most schooling and has been around longest, so he probably knows the most playable words. But he came in third.
See, his Scrabble strategy is to play three-to-four-letter words as much as possible, with occasional additions of two-letter-words. Any longer words are a rarity, unless he makes a word already on the board plural. Still, he got the highest-scoring word in the game with a double letter score v, triple word score vent. Mine is to think of cool words... but I had practically all vowels throughout the entire game. I generally put down about five letters per turn, but when they're all worth one point... I was out in seven turns, with a score of like 225. Dead in the water (lol, we watched Poseidon too). Josh won, yay!
To a certain extent, I hate online classes. Not that I've ever taken any...
But I like books, the refreshing tangibility and solidness of the printed page in contrast to the flickering fluorescence of the electron-streams firing constantly inside a computer monitor.
I like books other students have touched, finding their notes inscribed inside, seeing their names registered in the front, a roster of survivors, a good luck charm when they are familiar.
I like the smell of paper, whether new and fresh from the presses, or aged, with the grandmotherly smell of dusty dying roses.
I like writing on paper, the ever-changing form of my handwriting, the freedom to draw pictures in the margins, the sound and feel of a pencil scraping or a pen gliding (until it dies) across the sheets, an individualism you don't get simply punching keys.
I like being unreliant on spell check.
I like being within fifty feet of people who are teaching my class, watching them work unedited, confirming that they are real, being recognized by them outside their classrooms.
I like knowing who else is in a room with me: certainty. Then I won't screw up if the class ever comes up in conversation.
I like knowing when other people are asking questions so I don't feel retarded when I have one.
I like having to listen... not being distracted by the perennial availability of email and games and other things to do.
I like having things scheduled automatically so I have to get them done. Procrastinating is fun and all, but...
Trying not to sound like a 58-year-old with dichotomous hair colors:
I do appreciate online posting of class materials, but I prefer for this to be a supplement... actually going to class is better, in my opinion. I love the internet. I like stealth and invisibility and sleeping in and the ability to catch up in a class at odd hours, but if it weren't for school, I'd probably become a total recluse and I can't afford to do that in college. Too young. People need to be around other real people and become acquainted, if not friends, so they don't let their crazy parents and own crazy ideas corrupt their minds, making them useless. Who else would eat a jar of unpreserved four-month-old raw meat but an uneducated man in the country with no neighbors? Only people with no friends refuse to wash their hands after slaughtering their own dinner, then eat it raw. Sometimes people really do need other people... we had these people once who found Will forms on the internet... the front page said "Last Will and Testamant"... You are not a lawyer, sir. Thank you for coming to us and please use real lawyers for your future legal needs. Otherwise, you will be screwed and/or everyone will think you are an idiot after you die. Have a Nice Day.
Yesterday Geena had us run the beginnings of our dance (it's "empowering" Madonna music: I’ll be the garden, you’ll be the snake, all of my fruit is yours to take) a couple times, then told us to all lay down on the floor in a circle, heads facing inward. We obliged, and listened to her silly new age meditation script as Indian (bindi-wearing type) music plays. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth... pretend a ribbon of colored light... it can be any color... enters your body and every place it touches relaxes... it enters your toes... feel your toes relax... it goes up through your ankles they sink into the earth (she said earth really greenly and new agely)... bring the attention to your calves... become aware that you have knees... relax them, they work hard... the knee bone's connected to the THIGH BONE! etc.
Then we have a sort of partner massage/ back cracking thing. Awkward. Everyone was tight, but I had had acro... We had done partner cartwheels, and every time I went upside down, both of my hips popped... So I was pretty loose. We're supposed to work out any knots or "cracklies", but I honestly can't tell. I'm not cracked out (enough, lol) to be a masseuse. Plus Danielle was wearing a T-shirt over a leotard over a sportsbra, so I dunno if finding tight places was even within the realm of possiblity. She came around and pushed on everyone's back, then poked in hard with her thumbs on either side of the spine. I felt my internal organs squishing around and part of the cartilage in my ribcage flatten out against the ground. We sat up and she pulled our trapezius (think that may be the only one she knows by name?) muscles off the bone (squeezing the toxins out...), then told us to relax as she put her entire body weight down on her shoulders. I could feel my neck separating from my body. She talked about how man... our middle finger is like... connected to a rib. How people don't move from the joints because arm muscles go through our backs, but most people think it's just an arm and they force movement. Maegan said a judge had written on her solo score sheet that she forced movement... Geena said everyone has their own perception of movement, and that she moves like that too because she's an earth sign. Earth signs have skeletal movement... and my joints do not hyperextend or dislocate, I just have lots of cellular fluid in my joints and move cellularly, flowy ...Okay. Then we flip over and knead the backs of each other's legs. Most people have ticklish calves. I do not, and am glad because I hate being tickled. So I come away from the experience with glitter stuck to my face (from the floor) and a mildly dislocated shoulder.
My dad has crutches out and a back brace thing and can't really move, but I don't know what happened to him cos I'm never really home. He hasn't been at work all weekend, so the phone's been ringing a lot and he's been saying fuck everything shit everything and struggling in his constipated spastic way to function normally. He unplugged all the cords in the surge protector, getting down painfully onto the floor... when all he needed to do was flip the switch. Then he complained when he tried to answer the phone because some asshole had unplugged it. Guess who that asshole was? Yep. Same power strip. When he's out of earshot I need to find out what's up.
See, his Scrabble strategy is to play three-to-four-letter words as much as possible, with occasional additions of two-letter-words. Any longer words are a rarity, unless he makes a word already on the board plural. Still, he got the highest-scoring word in the game with a double letter score v, triple word score vent. Mine is to think of cool words... but I had practically all vowels throughout the entire game. I generally put down about five letters per turn, but when they're all worth one point... I was out in seven turns, with a score of like 225. Dead in the water (lol, we watched Poseidon too). Josh won, yay!
To a certain extent, I hate online classes. Not that I've ever taken any...
But I like books, the refreshing tangibility and solidness of the printed page in contrast to the flickering fluorescence of the electron-streams firing constantly inside a computer monitor.
I like books other students have touched, finding their notes inscribed inside, seeing their names registered in the front, a roster of survivors, a good luck charm when they are familiar.
I like the smell of paper, whether new and fresh from the presses, or aged, with the grandmotherly smell of dusty dying roses.
I like writing on paper, the ever-changing form of my handwriting, the freedom to draw pictures in the margins, the sound and feel of a pencil scraping or a pen gliding (until it dies) across the sheets, an individualism you don't get simply punching keys.
I like being unreliant on spell check.
I like being within fifty feet of people who are teaching my class, watching them work unedited, confirming that they are real, being recognized by them outside their classrooms.
I like knowing who else is in a room with me: certainty. Then I won't screw up if the class ever comes up in conversation.
I like knowing when other people are asking questions so I don't feel retarded when I have one.
I like having to listen... not being distracted by the perennial availability of email and games and other things to do.
I like having things scheduled automatically so I have to get them done. Procrastinating is fun and all, but...
Trying not to sound like a 58-year-old with dichotomous hair colors:
I do appreciate online posting of class materials, but I prefer for this to be a supplement... actually going to class is better, in my opinion. I love the internet. I like stealth and invisibility and sleeping in and the ability to catch up in a class at odd hours, but if it weren't for school, I'd probably become a total recluse and I can't afford to do that in college. Too young. People need to be around other real people and become acquainted, if not friends, so they don't let their crazy parents and own crazy ideas corrupt their minds, making them useless. Who else would eat a jar of unpreserved four-month-old raw meat but an uneducated man in the country with no neighbors? Only people with no friends refuse to wash their hands after slaughtering their own dinner, then eat it raw. Sometimes people really do need other people... we had these people once who found Will forms on the internet... the front page said "Last Will and Testamant"... You are not a lawyer, sir. Thank you for coming to us and please use real lawyers for your future legal needs. Otherwise, you will be screwed and/or everyone will think you are an idiot after you die. Have a Nice Day.
Yesterday Geena had us run the beginnings of our dance (it's "empowering" Madonna music: I’ll be the garden, you’ll be the snake, all of my fruit is yours to take) a couple times, then told us to all lay down on the floor in a circle, heads facing inward. We obliged, and listened to her silly new age meditation script as Indian (bindi-wearing type) music plays. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth... pretend a ribbon of colored light... it can be any color... enters your body and every place it touches relaxes... it enters your toes... feel your toes relax... it goes up through your ankles they sink into the earth (she said earth really greenly and new agely)... bring the attention to your calves... become aware that you have knees... relax them, they work hard... the knee bone's connected to the THIGH BONE! etc.
Then we have a sort of partner massage/ back cracking thing. Awkward. Everyone was tight, but I had had acro... We had done partner cartwheels, and every time I went upside down, both of my hips popped... So I was pretty loose. We're supposed to work out any knots or "cracklies", but I honestly can't tell. I'm not cracked out (enough, lol) to be a masseuse. Plus Danielle was wearing a T-shirt over a leotard over a sportsbra, so I dunno if finding tight places was even within the realm of possiblity. She came around and pushed on everyone's back, then poked in hard with her thumbs on either side of the spine. I felt my internal organs squishing around and part of the cartilage in my ribcage flatten out against the ground. We sat up and she pulled our trapezius (think that may be the only one she knows by name?) muscles off the bone (squeezing the toxins out...), then told us to relax as she put her entire body weight down on her shoulders. I could feel my neck separating from my body. She talked about how man... our middle finger is like... connected to a rib. How people don't move from the joints because arm muscles go through our backs, but most people think it's just an arm and they force movement. Maegan said a judge had written on her solo score sheet that she forced movement... Geena said everyone has their own perception of movement, and that she moves like that too because she's an earth sign. Earth signs have skeletal movement... and my joints do not hyperextend or dislocate, I just have lots of cellular fluid in my joints and move cellularly, flowy ...Okay. Then we flip over and knead the backs of each other's legs. Most people have ticklish calves. I do not, and am glad because I hate being tickled. So I come away from the experience with glitter stuck to my face (from the floor) and a mildly dislocated shoulder.
My dad has crutches out and a back brace thing and can't really move, but I don't know what happened to him cos I'm never really home. He hasn't been at work all weekend, so the phone's been ringing a lot and he's been saying fuck everything shit everything and struggling in his constipated spastic way to function normally. He unplugged all the cords in the surge protector, getting down painfully onto the floor... when all he needed to do was flip the switch. Then he complained when he tried to answer the phone because some asshole had unplugged it. Guess who that asshole was? Yep. Same power strip. When he's out of earshot I need to find out what's up.
