September 2008


Lucky

I worked from about 11 to 5 this afternoon. Dad took me straight to campus this afternoon instead of catching the shuttle. Before class this evening I went to room 202 in Newcomb where my Thursday night class is. I left my sunglasses there last week and I tried a few times to try and collect them but the room is kept lock. Someone was there this evening and luckily my sunglasses were still right where I left them. The man there suggested I buy a lottery ticket… perhaps good advice.There were four people in tonight’s advertising class, five after 7:30. There was a quiz on chapter four and a lecture about consumer behavior, as well as a series of anecdotes from the professor. Class was dismissed shortly before eight if I remember correctly. Dad picked me up after class.

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Weekend + Monday

Friday and the weekend were not particularly interesting. On Saturday I fool with the lawnmower a bit as it wasn’t starting. Replacing the spark plug didn’t work. It may be a timing issue.In Louisiana politics class this evening, the professor discussed chapters two and three from the “Carnival” book. I’d read chapter two on the way to class this afternoon so I was reasonably familiar with what was covered. Class was dismissed at seven and Dad picked me up a little while after that. We had to stop at the west bank office on the way. We didn’t get home until 8.

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First CR Meeting

I worked from 12 to 4:30 this afternoon but didn’t have a great deal to do. Tonight’s finance class was about different types of companies and federal income tax. I left at the break to go to the first meeting of the Tulane college republicans. Although I have class in the middle of their meetings and couldn’t expect to attend regularly, I did want to go tonight to see Anh Cao, the first Vietnamese refugee to run for congress and the only republican running for Bill Jefferson’s congressional seat in district 2. To be honest, the first thing I noticed about this guy is his short stature. He seems rather gentile and soft spoken considering his background. For the most part he talked about the McCain-Palin ticket and not so much about himself and his own campaign.After the meeting ended at about 8:45 I walked across Freret and I was going to call a cab but there was already one there waiting for a fare.

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Newcomb 123

Attendance at tonight’s advertising class was painfully sparse. Only two other students showed up for the lecture on whatever it was. There was another room change and the class has been moved to Newcomb. After class I walked over to the LBC and called a cab. I saw Ireal while I was waiting. A very familiar cab driver, Elliot, was the one that picked me up. Later this evening I watched a movie and talked on the phone before bed.

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The First Day of Fall

The cool weather we’ve enjoyed over the last few days is continuing as fall begins. I don’t remember anything from work this today. This evening’s Louisiana politics was about modern Louisiana governors including Huey Long, who the professor talked about at some length. There was still a lot of overlap from my Louisiana history class last semester so I couldn’t really convince myself to take notes.

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Tulane vs. ULM

By and large the weekend was pretty quiet. I did get out of the house on Saturday. Dad and I went to the Superdome to see Tulane’s football team play the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Attendance was pretty dismal today, looked like about 5,000. Apparently there was an impressive turnout for the first home game but that was a tough loss that no doubt quelled curiosity new fans might have had. Unlike most of the games I saw last season, Tulane looked pretty good today. They scored two unanswered touchdowns in the first quarter. Going into the 4th quarter the score was 17-3. Both teams scored once in the fourth for a final of 24-10.I was at home all day Sunday. I played Spore for the first time today and like a lot of people, was rather disappointed with the game. The gameplay is a bit too tedious and rudimentary, but the creature creator is very entertaining.

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Ballroom is Back

I worked from 10:30 to 4:30. I did have some patient reports to proofread but I spend a lot of time working on an assignment for my online journalism class. I started working on it a few days ago. I was having trouble thinking up what to write. The assignment called for me to write a story about myself and I ended up copping out and quoted myself in order to make it work.After I got off the campus shuttle, I stopped at the bookstore and finally bought a small binder to keep my class handouts. This evening’s class was about various news websites. We looked at a variety of online news outlets and a couple of partisan blogs. We discussed the appeal, appearance and content of the various sites.Class was dismissed at about 7:30 so I still had plenty of time before ballroom dancing this evening. With the time to spare I finished the journalism homework, answering questions about one of the news websites. Having already done a similar assignment for my advertising class, it didn’t take very long.As mentioned, Tulane ballroom dancing was back up and running this evening. The turnout was amazing, about 80 people showed up. The Riverside room where we hold lessons was pretty cramped but it worked out all right. If we were to have a crowd that big every week, we’d want a bigger space. The first dance style of the semester is salsa. We went over the basic step and a few other moves this evening. Tammy, the instructor, stared explaining a more complicated move near the end of the session that I didn’t get at all. After it ended at 10, I stuck around for a few minutes. Most of the people who came tonight signed waiver forms which certainly bodes well for attendance next week. I caught a cab home after I left.

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A League of Ordinary Gentlemen

On the way to work this morning, which took longer than usual due to road work, we saw one of the red Canal Street streetcars being tested. It looks like they are on track to start returning on October.Although I didn’t have much to do at work this afternoon, it became rather annoying after two as we are busy on Wednesdays and things get noisy and cramped. I had Dad bring me to an earlier shuttle so I could take care of something before class but that never ended up happening. I have to get a club sport pass for ballroom this semester the club president hasn’t filed the appropriate paperwork yet.This evening’s finance class was about banks, financial intermediaries and interest rates. Either I haven’t been paying attention or attendance was up considerably from last week. Class was dismissed somewhat mercifully at 8:00. Mom and Dad were at an open house at Andrew school down Freret this evening so Dad was able to pick up up again this evening. While I waited I got something to eat at the LBC. Later this evening, I finished watching A League of Ordinary Gentlemen.

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Introduction to Advertising

The Zune 3.0 Software/Firmware update was released today and I got it all installed this morning before leaving for work. It was a smooth process and adds a lot of interesting new features like browsing the Zune marketplace wirelessly on the device and support for games.I don’t remember much of anything from work this afternoon. I caught the 4:40 shuttle to campus. Tonight was my first class for Introduction to Advertising. I dropped a Photoshop class last week and this is the replacement. I had to call the professor, Richard Reso, prior to the class as they had been dropped from their room assignment and I had not heard about the new one.Although apparently eight including myself are registered for the class, there were only three fellow students present. I recognized two of them from classes gone by. Tonight’s lecture was about some of the reasons advertising exists and the cultural and economic climate that allows it to be fruitful. The lecture wasn’t boring but it was a bit longer than it needed to be with a substantial quantity of personal anecdotes worked in. Such tangents are forgivable in the case of this class as all of us are bombarded by advertisements daily so nobody is a stranger to it.Class was dismissed at 8:15. Dad was hanging around to pick me up. Later this evening I started watching a movie before Krystle called.

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Grazed by Ike

This weekend was rather uneventful for me as I didn’t go anywhere outside of work on Friday and church. I watched a number of movies over the weekend and reinstalled Windows on my desktop to solve a nagging problem that a repair install a number of weeks ago did not permanently fix.I was at the office from about one to 4:30 this afternoon. I didn’t have that much to do but I did get some reports in the mail.This evening’s Louisiana Politics class was largely about the history of the state of Louisiana. Having taken a Louisiana History class last semester and a Colonial Louisiana History class the term before that, I didn’t bother to pay that much attention. Class was dismissed at 7:30. I sat in the LBC for a few minutes. An old coworker from the bookstore, Sharon, was there and we spoke for a few minutes while I waited for my ride.Later this evening after I got home I watched 10 Items or Less, an awesome little movie with Morgan Freeman.

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The Greenberg Rule

The weather was more that somewhat windy this morning. We will probably be getting some nasty weather from of the outer bands of Hurricane Ike which is currently on track to hit Houston. Dad and I got to the office for 11 this morning. At 12:30, we lost power for exactly one hour. There were no patients in the office so it wasn’t a big deal.This evening’s Online Journalism class was about differences between print and online journalism. Basically there is an even bigger emphasis on saying more with fewer words. Class ended around 7:30 and I got a ride home not long after that.

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The Balance Sheet

Dad mentioned the washing machine wasn’t working this morning, although the electrical outlet is good. I did not have a great deal of work to do at the office this afternoon, but I did get some reports ready to go out.Dad took me down Canal Street to catch the 4:10 shuttle this afternoon. I went to the bookstore when I got to campus with the intention of buying a small binder to hold some handouts for class. As is frequently the case, there was a long line that I did not need to be in badly enough. I sat in the LBC dining room for a little while with my laptop for a little while before class this evening.Tonight’s introductory finance class covered the basics of the balance sheet and investments and loans such as T-Bills, stocks and bonds. I was having a hard time paying attention so I’ll probably be reading the chapters a couple times this week. After class, Dad picked me up in front of the LBC. Apparently he was still in the neighborhood. When I got home this evening I read a reply e-mail from the professor of an advertising class I’ll be signing up for in lieu of the Photoshop class. The e-mail included the first assignment, a short critique of MSNBC.com that I took care of this evening. Later on I talked to Krystle and watched most of the movie 10, which is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.

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Digital Design I

I had a few things in storage that I got back last night, one of them being a hard drive that belongs in my desktop PC. With that back at home I was able to put my computer back together this morning before work. I didn’t get it hooked up until this evening though.After work this afternoon, Dad drove me out to Tulane’s Elmwood campus in Harahan. I signed up for a class called, Digital Design I, essentially an introduction to Adobe Photoshop. I have wanted to take a class like this for a couple years but it is only offered at the distant Elmwood campus which presents a significant inconvenience to me. With the increased likelihood that I’ll be driving soon I decided to sign up anyway.The class takes place in a small G5 Mac lab. There were 14 other students registered for the class. When the class finally got started, the professor, Martin Straka, went over the syllabus and what the class entails. The first lesson was today as well, in which the instructor went over some basic functions in Photoshop. Although I have nearly no experience working with Photoshop, I really didn’t learn anything new today. Based on the syllabus, it doesn’t look I’d learn much of anything through the whole semester. I could probably learn anything I don’t already know with some tutorials on the Internet. During the break I glanced at the textbook for the class which pretty much confirmed my thinking on this. Although the class offers an easy A and probably some fun projects, it’s just not worth going out to Harahan and back once a week. Perhaps next semester I will sign up for Digital Design II, which would be more challenging.

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Back to Business

After a weekend of watching TV, putting things back where they belong and clearing a few downed branches from the lawn, it was back to work… pretty much. Dad and I went to the mid city office this morning but we weren’t actually open so the only real work was putting things back together like the computers and EMS machines.Dad dropped me downtown to take the 4:40 shuttle to campus for class this evening. Tonight was the first session of Louisiana Political Culture, which is essentially a class covering Louisiana Politics of the 20th century. There was no lecture this evening, just an introduction to the course and the writing assignments. The professor was a bit hard to peg but this class should be alright.

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