new in verbal

December 02, 2003 by Eric Richardson

So my paper's now done, and The Counter-Cultural Voice of Cinema is now posted in verbal intercourse. Now to print it and head to class, where tonight we're watching The French Connection.

work work work

December 02, 2003 by Eric Richardson

I've written a little over three pages of the paper I mentioned yesterday. I feel like I'm wandering a bit, but on the whole I'm pretty satisfied with how things are going. I headed back to that same room in Doheny to write today, and I really was productive, so I think there might be something to a place like that improving my ability to work. After the class I'm in right now I've got four hours before the class in which the paper is due, so time shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Part of my challenge next semester is to completely overhaul how I do schoolwork. I'm not a good student. I hate taking notes. I have an issue with doing reading, going to class, etc. But I've got three semesters left in which I need to bear down and make use of the advantages available to me. For instance, since I got my laptop I've been trying to figure out how to better take notes. Right now I'm using a program called hnb, which I like but which isn't perfect. I think best in outline format, so an outliner like hnb definitely works best for me. I love being able to export these outlines to HTML, which I can then access easily peruse later. The interface has some things I don't like, but it's the best I've seen for Linux for now.

crunch time...

December 01, 2003 by Eric Richardson

This is the part of the year where all of a sudden the bad choices you've made to put things off come back to haunt you. One more week of classes, then finals, then a break and a chance to start things fresh all over again. I changed the site look to add a little color. I think the grey reflected my general dislike of doing any work. I'm not saying my website colors influence my mood, but you've got to try whatever's there.

I'm sitting in USC's Doheny Library right now, in a high-ceilinged room that to me looks like the very picture of what an old library should be. This part of Doheny is grand and ornate. I'm here in the hopes that it inspires great work out of me. I love the quiet and the scale of everything.

Tonight I need to write a paper on how the counter-culture of the 60s and 70s influenced the films Five Easy Pieces, Day of the Dolphin, Midnight Cowboy, and Dr. Strangelove. I've got a bit of outlined notes, but in the next 21 hours those need to turn into six pages that really engage the films. My goal would be to get a full outline and a couple pages written tonight, and then to write the rest tomorrow in between classes. We'll see how that works out for me.

new in verbal

November 20, 2003 by Eric Richardson

I just put up a couple new things in verbal intercourse. It's two seperate works, but they're actually tied together. For what's basically a debate class, I had to give a speech proposing policy change, so I wrote one defending the public domain. I also had to write a rebuttal paper, which felt pretty wrong.

stuck in a quandry

November 17, 2003 by Eric Richardson

I feel bad when I let the days go by without posting something here, but too often I don't feel I have the energy or insight to be interesting. How weird is it that I first posted here on November 30, 1998? I'm under two weeks away from my "blog" (I still hate that word) being five years old. whois says I registered my domain on April 9, 1998, and even before that my site existed at Gospelcom. And yet I still don't feel like my site actually contains much that's useful.

With all that said, let's recap my weekend. Thursday, I made it back to the Hotel Cafe to catch PENNY. They were great as usual. I've talked about them before, and I don't really have a whole lot new to say. They're taking some time off for the next six weeks or so to focus on putting out a new album, which I'm excited for. Next up after PENNY was Jim Bianco. I wasn't really quite sure what to expect when he started. In fact, I really don't know what to call his music. Just check out his site. Two or three songs before the end of his set, Jim broke a string and set the acoustic aside, letting the upright bass and electric lead the rest of the way. Something about that made the version of "Two Birds" that he did at the end incredible. I plan to head back to the Hotel this Thursday to see him again.

Friday night I made one of my rare treks up to the valley, where Lee Beth Kilgore was having a bit of a get-together to celebrate fall (and pumpkins). I went knowing no one but her, and came away not only knowing new people, but also getting into a few conversations that proved pretty educational. For instance, Murray Williams brought homebrewed mead. Until I tried it, I thought I had never before encountered mead -- aside from something alcoholic and old-timey, I really couldn't have even told you what it was -- but the taste reminds me a lot of a random drink a resturant owner brought to our table in Italy (I went to Italy for dinner during Spring Break, but that's a different story). So now I'm not so sure.

Saturday night Kathy, D4, and I went out to see Master and Commander. I thought it was decent -- I wasn't bored but it wasn't great. As we went to leave, someone nearby remarked, "Another movie that would have been better with Mel Gibson in it." I just thought that was funny.

Sunday I spent a good bit of the day out on the water at Lake Elsinore (about an hour away from USC). I'm a little sore from that but that's all part of the game. Two weeks ago a friend from UCSB took this picture of me doing my flip off of the wakeskate, so I think it's pretty cool. My objective off the wakeskate is simply to go big, forget the board, and get air. The picture does seem to show good form, I would think...