Yesterday, I was taking a break from studying, sitting and reading a book at my semi-secret spot near the infamous acid green turtle pond, and some guy comes up to me.
"Hey," he says, "I'm Mike. I'm teaching a journalism class, and I was wondering if you'd let me shoot you." I gave him a look. "I mean, I'm trying to teach my students about different video strategies. Do you mind if I take some video?"
I said okay, and I kept reading my book, as per instruction, while Mike monkeyed around with his video phone. I can only imagine how I looked. My short hair was sticking straight up - I had gelled it earlier, but had been playing with it, so I now looked like a poorly drawn manga character. I was wearing an ironic t-shirt and messed-up Bermuda shorts, and was slightly slouched over my latest used-bookstore pop-psych acquisition. My bare feet were crossed in front of me on the bench, scarlet nail polish chipped and sweaty band-aids falling off. My beat-up pseudo-Vans were on the bench beside me, socks haphazardly tucked inside. I can only imagine I looked like the most awful wanna-be hipster in existence.
Mike started taking video, moving from right in front of me, to behind me, to practically in a tree, to the side, and then took some artsy shots with my shoes in the foreground, and then some looking over my shoulder. I was trying really hard not to giggle, so my face probably looked kinda funny too. He filmed for about 10 minutes, said thank you, then walked away. I can finally say that I have been filmed by a professional, and I'll get my 15 minutes of journalistic fame.
(Side note - the book was Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. The ideas are interesting, but it's somewhat disjointed.)
Other than that exciting adventure, there's not much to report. Midterms are coming up faster than I would like. I'm learning a lot about things that I've never thought about before, like why metals break at 45-degree angles, how to solder, and why plastics in airplane structure are not the best idea. The percentage of females in my classes has dropped from around 20% to around 15%, which was to be expected since the biomedical engineers now have a separate track.
As for this year's Rube Goldberg machine, we're opening and closing an umbrella in a Blazing Saddles-esqe Old West Saloon. We have floors and a wall, and the first step is going to be putting a cowboy hat on a peg in the wall. It's all so exciting. I'm looking forward to see how the rest of it turns out.
I'm doing okay. I'm not dead yet, and the chances of survival look good. I'll keep you posted.
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