AgPerson

I went into this semester expecting to have the best schedule in the world — internship Mon and Wed, classes on Tues, Thurs and Fri off (or, rather, used for things like publishing a newspaper and doing homework and hanging out with important people). Instead, due to various circumstances, I’m stuck with something that is far from ideal, and I don’t really see much hope of making it better.

Internship will be Wed/Thurs, with classes at various random times on Mon/Tue/Fri. Hoot production will be hard because we do it on Wed/Thurs, after my internship and, on Weds, in the middle of my internship class. Going to the gym is going to pose quite a challenge due to my days being pretty full, since 6pm is about peak time around there, and they really need a lot more machines. And already I’m getting scheduled into or invited to lots of meetings. I’m finding myself blocking out times that I thought I had but now realize are not safe unless I have something in there in CorporateTime so that I don’t get pulled into things. This shared calendar is a curse!

Igor and my dream of an alternative community newspaper on the Brandeis campus has been realized with the publication of the first issue of The Brandeis Hoot. Our eight page black and white tabloid newspaper came out a little late but none the worse for wear. Lately, the Justice has had a somewhat dwindling news section. We covered a lot of interesting stuff, and when they published a few days later they covered some of the same stuff, in addition to some other things that we did not. You can read the Hoot online at thehoot.net.

While the Justice seems to think that everything we write and every comment we make is a direct jab at them, we’re just trying to put out a good newspaper and cover things of interest to the Brandeis community. I’m being completely sincere when I say that neither Igor nor I want the downfall of the Justice, all joking aside, and we are happy they exist on campus to provide an important student voice. We just want them to get better, and we want to offer student choices. Both goals appear to be happening, so we’re in a good place.

That said, we had a week to start up a newspaper, and it was quite a challenge. Igor, who reluctantly finally took the title of Editor-In-Chief at my urging, did far more work than I. But I did a pretty good amount of work myself, and making a paper, especially from scratch, especially in only a week, especially with no design, no set team, no systems and processes, and the occasional crashed hard drive, is no easy task. Our first issue, which was supposed to come out last Friday, came out instead on Monday. Now we have a short week, a late start, and we have to do it all over again in terms of actually creating proper libraries and such for publishing, and it will be quite the challenge to get out another quality newspaper on deadline.

We need a larger, competent staff. We’re getting there. But it is hard to train new people when you also have to actually get a paper out. Luckily, there are a lot of people willing to help, and some of them even have some good experience that they’re bringing to the table. With any luck, this week will not turn out to be a complete disaster. Also, its pretty darn cool to see something that just a few months ago was a silly idea actually out, in print. We did it! We published a newspaper!

Tonight we went to a housewarming party at the home of some family friends. They’ve actually lived in the house for something like two years, but in that time they’ve transformed it from a slightly oversized house into a massively oversized house compared to the size of lot it sits on, abutting (and providing nice views of) the neighbors’ houses no more then thirty feet away. Personally, if I was building a multi-million dollar mansion, I would try to get some room between myself and the other houses, and put in some nice gardens, or something. But then, I’m not building a multi-million dollar house, so I guess it doesn’t much matter what I think.

At said party I was accosted by a nice woman who wanted me to date her daughter, for some reason. The conversation went something like this:

Her: What year are you in college?
Me: I’m a senior.
Her: Do you have a girlfriend?
Me: Um…yes.
Her: Oh, that’s too bad, you should date my daughter.
Me: I’m pretty happy where I am.
Her: Well, have you seen my daughter?
Me: (not comprehending) I don’t think so…
Me: Oh. Um. Yeah, well, I’m dating a nice Jewish girl. Have to preserve the bloodline and all.
Her: She’s a very strong Christian. She might convert you.
Me: (starts edging away)

At a later point, as we were just approaching the exit, my mother exchanged a few words with a woman who had recently seen Oliver at the Performing Arts Center, which my mom had just seen as well. It was great, says mom. Well, says the other woman, I liked it, but it wasn’t the best I’ve seen. How so, asks mom. Bad idea. Apparently, the two ways in which it was bad are, as follows:

• The orchestra was only five pieces, so the rest of the music was synthesized (or possibly pre-recorded?). This is a valid complaint, but I’m not sure its a massive one.
• One of the ensemble members, a no-name orphan or something, who is twelve years old, has listed in her credits that she played “Lillie” in Annie. The two problems with this are that the character’s name is spelled “Lily” and for a twelve year old to have played the part apparently means that it must have been at a school or community production, not a professional one, and so it should not have been listed in the program.

The fact that a little girl tried to inflate her bio is apparently enough to ruin a play for this woman.

Something written in the program is what made the show sub-par.

And my mom, attempting to keep up the conversation, was somehow able to elicit from this woman the same statement, about the music and the little girl, four separate times. I was tugging on her arm desperately, trying to get her to stop talking to this woman, who obviously had some “repeat” button somewhere that she was accidentally holding down. Finally we disengaged from conversation and were able to make our way to the exit.

Those were the two highlights of the party that I feel comfortable writing about on my blog. Oh, also, I got to play with a cat that looked like a smaller version of Sammy with shorter, less shed-able hair. He was cute, and he was named Scooby Doo, which, ironically, reminded me of Buffy and the Scooby Gang. I think I’m going to name my cat (which I’m hoping to get after college) Willow, if its a girl. If its a boy, maybe Rupert. Dunno. Needs to be something nick-name-able, so Xander doesn’t really work. Suggestions? 😛