And then somehow it was Thursday

[bironic]

Yeah, so I dropped that theory course. Yikes. I'm down to the recommended load now of one elective instead of three, and it's already more manageable.

Classes have been going for a little more than a week, and I'm really enjoying them. Something about having worked for a few years focuses your goals and helps you appreciate why you're here and what you want to get out of it. It's not just work, it's work with a purpose you care about. And my classmates and I all like each other (so far). Plus, this place is kind of amazing in itself. (Tuesday I met someone who builds social robots. Tonight I met a professor working on quantum calculators.)

Minor annoyances center on noise levels in my apartment and include my next-door neighbor, the desk-drummer; my upstairs neighbor, who sounds like an elephant when s/he walks around and makes my ceiling lights rattle; and the fact that I'm over the piano room, so almost every day it's the same parts of the same pieces screwed up in the same places. Oh, well; that's what my little nighttime white-noise fan is for.

.

I had this dream last night that I was watching the House premiere, and I was going to post about it, but I had to, like, do my work and go to class and stuff, and now I can't remember most of it except for how Wilson was lying naked in a lounge chair and House was swimming in his pool (and how the H/W fans were going to be all over that), and Cuddy'd had a baby that may or may not have been House's and the baby was sick, and House authorized a CT scan for it, which he hadn't allowed before when things were less dire. I'm sure there was more to it, but pfffft, it's gone.

I blame daasgrrl. You will know why soon.

Today I learned that one of my classmates is also a House fan. Score. Makes up for how I just dropped that lit class. It was sooooo sloooooow, and the level of discussion was a joke. "Why don't you just keep talking about House with your friends?" asked my sister when I complained about it. She had a point.

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Saturday evening I had the extraordinary pleasure of meeting ignazwisdom for dinner and a movie. Never mind the cloying humidity and intermittent downpours of Hanna's remnants—it was a great time. Turns out she is as exceedingly awesome in person as she is online, in some expected and some new ways. Fun and very easy to talk to and we had some stuff in common I hadn't known about. I'm very happy to have her in the area, and I'm not just saying that because she's got a bigger TV than I do and likes House.

After curry we went to see Iron Man in a lecture hall on campus. Both of us had managed to miss it when it came out. They'd hooked up the room with a popcorn machine and soda fridge and everything, and there were some families in the crowd, and they showed previews for upcoming screenings. Latest observed quirk of MIT culture: Whenever the preview slide would say something like "Next Saturday and Sunday," the audience would yell, "Next Saturday and Sunday—in stereo…!" I wonder where that comes from.

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Iron Man: Not all it was cracked up to be, but still fun. I was afraid when they showed Tony Stark as a POW in Afghanistan in the trailer that the movie would turn out to be an unsubtle message about the war on terror—and it did, so that was disappointing. I prefer my messages to be metaphorical. Superheroes are set up to be metaphorical. Oh well. I was not comfortable with the villains being of an ethnicity that is being villainized in real life right now. I also wasn't a big fan of how the central theme seemed to be weapons escalation and cessation thereof. Lots of violence in a way I found more troublesome than in other violent action movies. I didn't buy Stark's sudden change of heart, mostly because I didn't buy that he'd never thought about the consequences of his work in all the years he'd been doing it, so it was hard to go along with the plot afterwards.

I did like that Tony was one of those superheroes who don't have superpowers of their own but instead rely on technology. Adds a sweet extra layer of tension over everything—what happens when their equipment fails (so to speak) and they're ordinary mortals again in an exceedingly dangerous situation? I liked when we got to see the strain all this civilian-saving, soldier-rescuing and villain-killing put on Tony and Tony's heart.

I liked the Zelenka-esque assistant in the cave as well, and of course the robot in Tony's lab. (They make robots approaching that here! I met someone Tuesday who built one!) And hey, now I know what Tony/Pepper means.

Also: Why didn't Stark just rip out Obie's power source when Obie had him in his grip so close to his chest?

.

Okay, back to work. It took five days to post this.

Comments

[roga.livejournal.com]

Whether you intend to read Iron Man fic or not, you should really read The Kids Aren't All Right by samdonne. It's a Vanity Fair profile (fic, but you wouldn't know it) about Tony Stark, and it's got incredible insights into his character ad politics and the world - I recced it a few weeks ago more eloquently, but it's really one of those wow-fics, in my opinion. Plus, multimedia!

Happy you are having fun at school, I'd comment more but MUST STUDY.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that not-fic sounds great. Maybe this weekend.

STUDY STUDY! Then tell me again how awesome the Greece trip will be.

[thedeadparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeahhhh, theory courses are like that. For some classes, you just have to get through the first few weeks and then it's awesome, but frequently it's just not worth it.

Having a manageable courseload, though. That's priceless. :p

And yeah, I loved Iron Man, though your issues with it are totally valid, and the race issues are definitely sketchy. But the last line! The awesome character bits! The DORKINESS ALL OVER THE PLACE. I kind of loved those.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

For some classes, you just have to get through the first few weeks and then it's awesome

No, don't tell me things like this; I'll triple-guess my decision. :D

Having a manageable courseload, though. That's priceless. :p

And good luck with that yourself!

Re: Iron Man. Oh yes, total geek love. Also, robot/Stark FTW. I couldn't believe they went there.

(What was the last line?)

[thedeadparrot.livejournal.com]

"I am Iron Man."

I just love that they decided not to go with the convoluted secret identity schtick, and in such a BAM, IN YOUR FACE sort of way.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, right! I don't know anything about Iron Man except that SGA fusion by sardonicsmiley (and now this movie); was that a total twist from the comics?

[thedeadparrot.livejournal.com]

Currently in comics timeline, he is out as Iron Man, but originally there was some weird twisting of it so that Iron Man was Tony Stark's bodyguard (even though they're pretty much never in the same place at the same time). The movie referenced that a bit, but didn't go there, thank god.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see -- a twist. Blah blah bodyguard, we know where this is going, except NOT! Clark Kent admits he's Superman.

[roga.livejournal.com]

There's also this Rodney/Tony crossover by siriaeve which I haven't read yet, but looks great.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Hard to go wrong with siriaeve. *adds to list*

[zulu.livejournal.com]

Something about having worked for a few years focuses your goals and helps you appreciate why you're here and what you want to get out of it. It's not just work, it's work with a purpose you care about.

This is TRUTH INCARNATE.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I was going to make a joke about it leaping from my computer fully embodied, but it wasn't funny at all. And yet here I am telling you about it.

\o/ for school when we're more self-aware than we were coming straight out of high school.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Wilson was lying naked in a lounge chair and House was swimming in his pool

LOL, Freudian. I can't help thinking the show needs more, um, metaphors like that one though. AND I CAN'T SEE HOW IT'S MY FAULT :)

I was kind of meh on Iron Man, despite the continuing awesomeness of Robert Downey, Jr. It just felt a bit silly to me - I can believe six impossible things before breakfast, but I draw the line at twenty...

I don't know, I went back to uni for about six months (interrupted by moving overseas), and I just kind of found it all highly theoretical and insufficiently practical in comparison to the realities of actually doing a job. Although this was an undergrad degree, so that probably makes a difference. Yours sounds more focused and relevant :)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm sure the nature of the program makes as much or more of a difference than grad/undergrad. I had one liberal arts and one vocational major in undergrad and there was a distinct difference in the nature of what we were learning and how I felt about it there.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

I liked your dream!!!

Still haven't seen Ironman. I'm a DC, not a Marvel, girl!

I *hate hate hate* noise, but at least the noise you hear is people just trying to do their daily work, not music blasting or other unthoughtful cacaphonies.

So far I am enjoying Greek this term but my women's class makes me cringe. I believe in equal rights, natch, but some of the feminist rhetoric is just crazy over the top. I just don't believe that men are that inherently evil. Clueless, maybe, but evil? I dunno.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Eek. Remind me how you ended up teaching that one?

Re: noise, yes, not too bad, though the drumming is more drumming-along-to-music than drumming-fingers-in-thought. Still way better than one year in undergrad when my neighbor would blast Bhangra music at 3 a.m.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

I, er, volunteered :-( I *do* like the topic -- women in antiquity -- even wrote my thesis on it -- but I suppose I have a different perspective, having grown up in a society that supports equality (technically), so I don't read "OMG WOMEN WERE SO OPPRESSED" into everything from antiquity, like some scholars...

I do sympathize -- when I lived in residence it was on the so-called "quiet" floor, which was fine, except the other floors below were not so designated. I knew there was a problem when, upon investigating the source of blaring music one evening, I went down one floor to find that the room directly under mine had a huge poster with "PARTY ANIMAL" taped to the door. :-(

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

Heh. I invite you to come and observe the noise at my apartment. You'll gain new appreciation for your relative quietude!

It was awesome to meet you, and we have to get together again ASAP.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ya. At least the construction here is limited to the daytime.

Next weekend is a long weekend for some reason -- perhaps then we can find an excuse for something.

p.s. I swear I didn't steal your phrasing re: our meeting so much as you stole it from my brain before I'd had a chance to write it down. :D

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

I didn't even notice the phrasing--I don't really think about the things I write so much as I just spit them out onto a keyboard.

Next weekend would be great! Actually, my schedule's pretty free during the week, too, if you have some free time between classes to get a coffee or something.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

This week's been pretty crazy, but the weekend is looking great, and depending on how the weekend goes, next week might be okay too.