I'm Back!

...and ready for an insanely long catch-up post! Hmmm, lots of things to cover tonight, so bear with me.

If you are likely to get bored, I've split it up into sections so you can skip what you don't care about.

Graduation
Pretty nice ceremony, although it was threatening to really rain throughout most of it. Thankfully, the water held off until the moment we started crossing the field to throw our hats, leaving us with mostly a (very welcomed) cooling breeze. The speeches seemed interesting enough, when I wasn't being distracted by the weather. The whole thing was a little bittersweet though. Sure, graduating high school is an awesome feeling, but I was saying a lot of goodbyes to awesome people I might never see again. This is definitely a major change in my life.

I didn't have a graduation party like some of my friends, but I did have a bunch of relatives come visit. I got some money from everyone, but my grandparents on my mom's side really surprised me. The preface the card by saying "It's for college", then I open it to find $2000! I think... yeah... that's definitely the largest lump of money I've ever received at one time. Now maybe my savings account can actually earn interest at a level measured in dollars.

The Hunt for a Job
After a fruitless attempt at a Best Buy job in late April (I should've known), I also applied to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. (Hey, I already pulled a "Spielberg" by getting rejected by USC's film school, I may as well pull a "Tarantino" as well.) That was about.... 3 weeks ago. Having not heard from them in awhile, I stopped in last week to see if Blockbuster had filled all their openings yet, and was told that they hadn't even started evaluating the applications yet! Jeez, if I had known that they'd take so long I would've waited until after graduation to apply so I could put down more available hours. The "Now Hiring" sign is still up, so obviously they haven't decided yet, but Boston Market is looking better and better...

"Vacation"
..or at least, the closest I'm coming to one this summer. This past weekend I went up to Michigan with my family to visit my dad's parents and see my aunt and uncle from California who didn't come to graduation. While there, I got to see the Nextel Cup Batman Begins 400. (it's a NASCAR race) I'm still not a racing "fan" by any means, but seeing dozens of cars whipping around a two-mile track in 15 seconds was a very different experience to say the least. (as was trying to get out of the parking lot with 100,000 other people...)

College Course Selection
Will already talked about this, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon. Syracuse does their course selection by mail, and I filled out the form before I left for Michigan because it was due while I was gone. As a first-year student in the Film/Drama program, four of my first-semester classes were already locked in; Practices of Academic Writing (meh), Survey of Film History (cool), Introduction to Acting for Non-Majors (ugh), and Introduction to Theater (why was a completed movie not a good enough portfolio for Film/Art, again?)

With those four already picked, I had two slots left for first semester. Unfortunately, even though I'm in the School of Visual and Performing Arts, I can't fill these with studio (art) electives, they have to be academic electives. At Syracuse, apparently academic electives basically means "languages or social sciences". (Or math, but having gotten a four on the AP Calc test I'd have to start at Calc 2, the highest course offered to first-year students. I think I'll pass for now.) I had to pick 3 choices (in order) for each slot. Nothing seemed to jump out at me, but this is what I finally came down to:

Elective A:
1) Logic (listed as a philosophy course - should be interesting)
2) Theories of Knowledge and Reality (possibly a class that gives serious discussion to some of the stuff brushed upon in The Matrix? Who knows?)
3) Political Theory (meh, a political course. I'm interested and opinionated, but not as confrontational as some of my friends... usually.)

Elective B:
1) Anthropology of American Life on Film (Intriguing. It looks at how national cultural values and moods are expressed in the movies it creates. Ties in well with my major. I hope I get this one!)
2) Introductory Music Theory (Eh, I agree music is an important part of filmmaking, so knowing more about it might be nice. Like I said, I really want to get "Anthropology of American Life on Film.)
3) Introduction to Shakespeare (I really hope I get into "Anthropology of American Life on Film!)

For the most part, I wasn't too blown away by the class offerings, so hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised in the fall.

Will's New Car
Will, I hate you...

Although in all fairness, the Powerbook my parents got me for Christmas/Birthday/Graduation cost about as much as a good used car, so it works out. Besides, Syracuse doesn't allow freshmen to keep cars on campus, so I'd have to give it up in two and a half months anyway.


...but I still hate you. ;)