This weekend I learned that having someone read to you for seven hours is an extremely engaging and rewarding experience, especially when you're in a theater full of people, and the thing being read to you is The Great Gatsby.

And while buying school supplies I was walking through Staples with an Englishman, who pointed at a tape dispenser and exclaimed "oh look, Sellotape!" I stared at him for a moment and then realized: THAT'S WHY SHE CALLED IT SPELLOTAPE!!! Good one, JK!

I am wondering how I can arrange it so that every weekend is as awesome as this one.

Today I learned that cool institutions will sometimes let you do cool stuff for them if you just ask. :)

I'm adding another category to my What I Learned In School Today posts. Inspired by Project Zero's cheesy-but-surprisingly-effective See Think Wonder thought routines, I will also, when applicable, list something I am wondering about.

I am wondering about the orchestra pit. Specifically, about the point in architectural history when theaters first started concealing the orchestra in a pit (this was with Wagner's Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which is something I learned yesterday). I'd never really thought before about what a huge innovation the concealed orchestra is. Would we have ever gotten modern musical theater without it?

Today I learned academic things! I had the first meeting of my class at the design school, which is on the history of immersive entertainment spaces - aka the history of awesome. We were discussing various attributes of immersive experiences, including artificial synesthesia, loss of boundaries between self and context or others, and cognitive overload.

Also on the list was the loss of agency. I argued that this attribute should be more accurately listed as just a change in one's level of personal agency, not necessarily a loss, because some immersive experiences (I specifically named Sleep No More and the holodeck) are characterized by extremely high levels of agency within a narrative space. The professor pointed out that what I identified is really just the flip side of the same coin - in order to have the illusion of agency, the designer must have an incredibly high level of control over all the elements. The greater the illusion of agency, the less agency the individual actually has.

This blew my mind, a little.

Today I learned that lady-senators have absolutely no decency when it comes to choosing the color of their lady-suits. The only rule necessary for the State of the Union drinking game is "drink every time some lady's lady-suit makes you cringe with its yellowness."

Today I learned that it was Australia Day. That's about it, I reckon.

Today I learned how to use Constant Contact and Google AdWords. I also learned that Big Brother is watching like whoa. Did you realize that they know whether you click on the links in an email??

What I learned in, err, life today:

I can make two dozen delicious blintzes for about two dollars. Also, wrapping an old Christmas tree in pink sheeting is difficult, and Hecate's ring is not in the lockbox that Duncan puts in the second Mrs. DeWinter's suite.

Not you, Weinbl.

My adviser told me I couldn't take his limited-enrollment studio unless I agreed to not dominate the conversation and let the other kids try to answer questions even if I know the answer. How do you respond to that?? Hold on while I go look up the answer in my diary from middle school. Jeez...

I told him to give me a cue when I should back off. I'm imagining a variation on Jim Marvin's hand-wave of "More alto! More alto! More alto! Not you, Weinbl."*

But if nothing else, I can always find a way to blame Ben. To wit:

Me: so my program has this required session tomorrow on how to play well with others.
Ben: is there a follow up session called "what to do when you discover the others are idiots"?

This is the source of all my problems. File under: What I'll Learn Tomorrow.


*using my fas surname as a super-sneaky pseudonym for the googlebot

What I Learned In School Today:

The plural of planetarium is planetaria. The plural of stadium is stadia. The plural of penis is penes.

What I Learned In School Today

This semester, I am going to write down one thing that I learned every day. I'll do it here, so that we can all learn together. Yay learning.

Today I learned that the Graduate School of Design is way cooler than the Graduate School of Education, and has far more interesting classes and far more attractive (and plentiful) men. I also learned that chocolate-covered Goldfish are awesome.


. . . I am hoping that once classes start, I'll be learning things slightly more academic. But I won't hold my breath.

Micro-travelblogging

Traveling alone and domestically is a perfect opportunity to get hit by a bus while texting a tweet. I'm in Los Angeles for the first time, for truly no good reason, and I've been keeping a running commentary via Twitter. Sporadically updated to here, for those who don't do the twitter thing, is my mini trip told through mini comments.


There is a totally steampunk dude waiting for my flight. Goggles and all. He is kinda cute in that Probably Crazy way.

Perhaps Goggle Guy is flying the plane! That would explain it. Ill know if instead of boarding a 747 they have us board a red dog house.

I only just realized that even though its warm in LA, it is still technically winter and therefore will get dark early. D'oh!

Chasing the sun across the Rockies. :-D

Los Angeles is surrounded by mountains! Who knew?

Ohhhh thats why they call it The Valley. I am a moron.

You can see the Hollywood sign as you fly in! Until you fly under the smog cover anyway.

Just passed an office for Animal Dermatology. Wow LA.

So far, LA bears a striking resemblance to Long Island...

Unimpressed with Santa Monica. Looks like Sheepshead Bay. And the fog is giving me triangle hair.

Day 2

Worst. Pedestrian. City. Ever.

Vitamin D is AWESOME.

Visited the Huntington gardens with a friend I haven't seen in six years. Lovely afternoon! ...now what?

There are pricklies in my finger. This is what I get for feeling up the cacti. This, and a Darwin Award.

Been wandering Pasadena for twenty minutes and still have not found any Mexican take-out. This IS California, right?

First sidewalk star I see, as I step off the bus, is Gloria Swanson. How appropriate. I can go home now I guess.

Hollywood Blvd makes Disney MGM Studios seem exciting.

Just bought shoes at Frederick's of Hollywood. I'm doin' it wrong.

Is there a Raymond Chandler museum in LA? Prob not, same dumb way New Orleans has nothing for Tennessee Williams.

There is an 800 number you can call to ask an operator how to get somewhere on public trans. Why don't we have that?

Saturday

In the hostel courtyard, two french girls are enthusiastically video chatting with friends and a puppy in Paris. This is like a commercial for The Future.

En route to the Getty. The bus infrastructure here is actually fantastic. They just need to make a schematic map and provide free transfers.

LA women make me feel ugly, but I am receiving a higher than usual rate of compliments from strangers. Culture? Or Blonde-in-Japan effect?

I get inappropriately emotional when i visit museums alone. I just welled up at a photograph of workers erecting Eiffel's tower.

Also if you have never looked closely at Dorothea Lange's Migrant Worker, you should.

Just ran into someone from Uchoir. World = ridic.

Went to the Magic Castle. And guess what guys?? MAGIC IS REAL.

Sunday

DISNEYLAND DISNEYLAND DISNEYLAND DISNEYLAND

Monday

Disneyland recap: DISNEYLAND IS AMAZING. Sure, it's more cramped than DisneyWorld, but the Indiana Jones ride makes my life. <3>

More importantly, how do you get to be an Imagineer? Do you have to already be one of those other things that end with "-gineer"?

All the birds sing words and the flowers croon!

Tuesday

I have 14 hours left in Los Angeles. What should I do? Because hanging around Chris's apartment is looking tempting...

At the Getty Villa, where they are so flummoxed to have a pedestrian visitor that the parking attendant had to call security to check what to do about me.

I am not so much hiking as i am clambering. Or perhaps "aerobic trespassing."

Using a display laptop in Office Max like a homeless person.

This In 'n' Out thing really is pretty okay.

Chronicle of a Thanksgiving

-----

[Jenny points at a large piece of driftwood on the beach - it is a good six feet tall]

Jenny - What's that?
Mom & Dad - [simultaneous] Pizza box.

-----

[we are staying in an A-frame house. Jenny got the loft, which has five twin beds in a row]

Jenny - How come you all get bedrooms, while I have to sleep in the Tenement Museum?
Me - It's a hard knock life.

-----

[Jenny is studying abroad in Bulgaria in the spring]

Me - Are you taking Bulgarian?
Jenny - You think SUNY New Paltz offers Bulgarian? No one offers Bulgarian. Even Harvard doesn't offer Bulgarian.
Me - I bet they do.
Jenny - I bet they don't.
Me - Five dollars says Harvard offers Bulgarian.
Jenny - You're on.

[ten minutes later, from the other room]

Jenny - Son of a... There's a goddamn Bulgarian dance team!

-----

Jenny - I accidentally said one of our strange family expressions to a stranger yesterday.
Us - Uh oh.
Jenny - I told a lady in the restroom that she's a better man than I, Gunga Din. She left muttering to herself "Gunga Din?" This was at the therapist's office, by the way.

-----

Mom - I see, said the hammer.

----

Jenny - I told JRB about the time you played Mama Rose when you were 8. He said that he was writing a himself note to call Arthur Laurents tomorrow and tell him.
Me - That's awesome! I have to tell Ben.
Jenny - He'll just be pissed that Arthur Laurents knows who you are and not him.
Daddy - Not if Arthur Laurents sues you for performing Gypsy without the rights...

-----

And a re-post of the classic, from Thanksgiving 2006:

Mom: The Salvation Army is coming at noon to take the sofas.
Me: What?
Mom: The sofas in the living room. They smell like the dog, it's time to
get rid of them. So the Salvation Army's going to come get them.
Me: But... we have 14 people coming for Thanksgiving tomorrow...
Mom: Right. Can't have them sitting on smelly couches.
Me: So instead they'll stand?
Mom: We have folding chairs.

- one hour later -

Salvation Army guy: The big sofa is too stained, sorry.
Me: Mom, why don't you give them twenty bucks and ask them to carry the
sofa outside so the city can come take it?
Mom: I don't want a sofa on the front lawn when we have people coming.

- two hours later -

Me: Mom, what are you doing with the sofa?
Mom: I changed my mind.
Me: We'll never get it through the door ourselves.
Mom: Your father will be home in an hour.

- one hour later -

Dad: #$^$%&@#$%@!

- one hour later -

Dad: Wait, tilt it towards me... no tilt the top... now pull the bottom
left towards you...
Me: We're gonna die.

(Jenny: Keep it down, I'm sleeping.
Mom: It's four in the afternoon!
Me: We're gonna die.)

- one hour later -

Dad: Maybe if we saw the legs off...

- one hour later -

Buttons: ::finally notices we're taking his sofa::
Buttons: ::freaks out::
Buttons: ::goes back to sleep::

- finally -

Mom: We did it! The couch is gone!
::everyone does the "Friends" couch pile-on::

- later -

Neighbor: Do you guys know there's a couch on your lawn?