Multiple Thoughts

Ok, so today I have a lot to say. So you are forewarned: if you don't feel like listening to me for more than five minutes, get out while you still can. This post is not for the faint of heart.

On the good side: I think I'm finally overcoming my fear of grouped theatre majors (they're quite intimidating in a pack, y'know). I sat at a table of theatre majors and Shannon at lunch, and actually talked some. Only to Kaitlin and Shannon it's true, but I didn't completely retreat into my shell. How cool is that?

See previous rant about deck the halls festivities and you'll be able to reason out my response to the arrival of the actual deck the halls contest. I ranted, raved, and disappeared for about four hours.

A question I've been wrestling with: Why do artists make/not make self-portraits? I heard someone suggest the other day that some artists don't make them out of modesty. But is that right? Do some artists not do self-portraits because they hate themselves? Or they're sick of looking at themselves? Do some artists make self-portraits because they want to gain insight into themselves by describing their physical appearance? Or is it simply lack of other material? Why do I have such an objection to making a self-portrait that bears a physical resemblance to me? I even struggled a good bit with a self-portrait that bore no physical resemblance to me whatsoever. I thought it was an interesting question anyway. And you're getting the abbreviated version of my ponderings you lucky person you. I could go on for hours - I already have, but there is a limit even to the dedicated blog reader's attention span.

In FYS today, Chad, Kayla, Nathan, and Anna did their group presentation about William Carlos Williams. They explicated "The Polar Bear." The second and third lines say "the deep snow/ the male snow" and the group was trying to get at what this parallelism could mean. Particularly at what the adjective "male" implied. They wanted a guy's perspective - so Andrew said, "A burly military guy." They also wanted a girl's perspective - so Lucy volunteered something to the effect of "You think of more power, drive, and a little bit of danger - possibly malicious intent." The guys looked positively taken aback, and the girls started laughing and clapping. It was absolutely hilarious! I don't think Chad (who was asking the questions) quite expected that response. However, I think it was a typical girl-thought about the adjective "male." It's certainly not a perception unique to Lucy, although no one else could have expressed it in quite that way. I'm so sad that it was our last normal class period. I'll miss that class a lot. I love my professor, and there's such a great group of people in that class. A few brilliant people, a few funny people, a few absolutely hilarious people, and a couple eccentric people. Altogether a good group.

Oh, and now for a classic Mackenzie blunder. I somehow managed to lock myself out of my computer last night. It was messing up, so I restarted it, and it gave me this freaky screen about being locked out, I needed to type in my password etc. I didn't even know you could lock the computer, so I was flabbergasted. I typed in every single password I've ever used for anything, and some that I thought sounded sort of likely if I'd been completely high when I originally set the password. Nothing worked. So today I was asking around and trying to find out what the ITS hours were so I could get my computer fixed. Shannon was telling me this story about when she did exactly the same thing, and her mom said "You didn't set a password! All you do is hit enter." Since I didn't exactly remember making a password either, I decided that was worth a try. Eight hours later, when I arrived back in my room after a long day of school-related festivities, I still thought it was worth a try. Guess what? It was worth a try! It worked! No, I hadn't set a password while I was high (Wait - high? I've never been high! I swear!), I didn't forget my password, and I didn't write it down and lose it somehow (Me? Lose important things? Never!). I also managed to fix it without calling in ten people to help me! It was an amazing feeling. So yes, here I am, on my computer again. I got a lot more done without it though.

Quote of the day: "My Mom's Canadian! Thanks a lot!"
- Compliments of Kaitlin, whose mother actually is Canadian.