First day of class

School

Today I went to my first class here at C of C, Philosophy of Race and Racism. Unsurprisingly, the class is taught by one of the black professors, Dr. Anthony Williams, and he's a really cool guy with a smooth Detroit accent and a good sense of humor. To my relief, he has high expectations but next to nothing in the way of rules; no strictly mandatory attendance, flexible deadlines, but still lots of assignments (we're expected to write at least thirteen papers this semester, between one and twelve pages depending on the topic). One thing that does worry me a mite is that there are four required books for this class, but my broke self should be able to afford them just fine online, seeing that they're just regular books I could find at Books-a-Million, not expensive textbooks. The cost of buying so many books aside, I look forward to reading from so many different perspectives.

Unfortunately, this was my only class for Tuesday, so to balance my schedule I went to the Addlestone Library and read the American Philosophical Quarterly (Vol. 47, No. 1, if you care). There was this absurd article about First Person Privilege that argued that there is nothing that can be felt by a person that cannot be observed by someone else, and that first and third person perspectives are essentially the same. Or at least that's what I got out of it, honestly I didn't follow the author's logic too carefully, it seemed to take particularly irrelevant issues far more seriously than need be. The thought and devotion that goes into the craft of arguing for or against the metaphysical absurdity of part-time zombies is baffling, but it's all still great fun and I'll probably be spending the rest of the week making up an absurdist argument against (or rather, to annoy) the entire field of epistemology.

Work

Good news, Harris Teeter might hire me to work in the deli at night. There's definitely an opening and I seem to be the only person to specifically inquire. I'll go and follow up whenever I have the chance, which will probably take a while. My schedule is pretty packed until Thursday, and even then I have a bit of stuff going on.

I did rather want to work in a hotel, but honestly the sandwich making skills I can learn in a deli probably totally trump whatever professional connections I could make in a hotel. Not to mention deli slicers, which are the culinary equivalent of table saws, which are awesome.

Life

I've pretty much covered everything  for today. Alex lent me his noir novel, Lucky at Cards by Lawrence Block. I haven't even started it yet though because I fell asleep shortly after he handed it to me. I needed the sleep so I've no regrets.

Alex and I are having a party on Saturday, mostly for everyone to meet new friends and introduce their friends to their friends friends and all that social networking stuff. I'll try to invite one or two of my classmates, assuming I'm lucky enough to even get in a conversation with anybody in the first place. I'll do fine, I'll make friends and I'll do well here.

More stuff got done

 Work

No news here; my intention to go out shoving applications and résumés down people's throats was thwarted my a sudden downpour of rain after my morning appointments. Some ancient flood god has it out for me. I'll just have to be even more persistent next week.


School

I talked to the Philosophy department head, Todd Grantham, and we just talked for a couple minutes to see who my adviser should be and he told me a bit about the Philosophy club, which sounds worth getting involved in if nothing more pressing gets in the way (here's still hoping I actually get involved in the campus TV station).


Life

I went out in the rain to buy some milk, and managed to get to East Bay and follow it the wrong way all the way to Calhoun instead of Harris Teeter. No regrets though, because I did find some new stores I haven't noticed before and I stumbled into a beautiful neighborhood. I ended up buying a somewhat expensive tin of loose leaf Earl Grey. The price for luxury, however, sometimes is worth it. When I got home, wet and tired, I had the best cup of tea I've had in a long time.

Alex and I haven't played Starcraft in a while because his work schedule is leaving him too tired lately. It's just as well, this gives me more opportunities to practice and actually beat him. Which I don't. Instead I'm drawing comics and pictures of RVs in space.

So, not much going on today. Maybe I'll accomplish something worthwhile tomorrow. Or maybe I'll just clean.

Yesteday was skipped because I slept through most of it

School

Whenever I finally got the energy to drag myself out of my room and get out, I dropped by my adviser to inquire about a north campus class that she found on my schedule. We got it squared away and replaced with a three hour night class. I've only had good experiences with those, so hopefully I can look forward to more.

I also finally officially declared my major later in the day. With any luck, my upcoming advising session will get me into some more interesting courses I wasn't allowed to take before. I was a bit hot and tired when I filled out the Major Declaration form, and I think I may have rambled a bit much on the questionnaire (and made some direct slams at George Lucas).


Work

Things are less than hopeful in this department, at least immediately. I did not receive a call from Barnes and Noble and when I dropped by they were terribly busy so I simply gave them my schedule and left. I planned to drop back by later but by the time I made my résumé dropping rounds I was dripping with sweat and had spilled Gatorade on myself.

But I did indeed go out into the world with my résumé, boldly (or at least I'd like to imagine so) presenting myself to a bunch of hotels. The response wasn't encouraging, but I'm hopeful. I don't think I can very much afford not to, otherwise the stress would be awful.



Life

My day started out feeling awful for lack of sleep and evolved to feeling awful from too much heat and finally into feeling awful from too much sugar. For some reason I was inclined to drink lots of orange soda today and I definitely crashed pretty hard. Out of laziness I spent much of the afternoon playing Immortal Defense, which has the dual qualities of being very zen and very nerve wracking. It's really a straightforward tower defense game but the graphics and story transcend the gameplay an make it something unique. I'm looking forward to playing their next game when it comes out.

Also, just to feel productive, I published one of my old draft posts on my other blog, All But Wasted. I have a lot of old junk to post, hopefully I'll get around to it all. Some of it doesn't even need to really be edited (assuming I keep my current standards of quality).

All things squared away

School

Today I payed my first of four school payments, which started out with a moderately exciting trip to my local bank branch for the first time (where I learned that Chatterjee is an Indian name). The cashier's office was, unsurprisingly, somewhat packed, but the line moved pretty quickly and my stay was short. All matters financial are at present squared away.


Work


Although I still don't have a job, aside from the imminent possibility of some work at Barnes and Noble, I have reached a substantial checkpoint: I have officially written my resume, immortalized in .pdf format to perfectly preserve its carefully picked font selection.



Life


Not too much going on, just catching up on reading. Alex and I had some creative epiphanies and have gotten some work done on our project, and I've grown to be annoyed with all Greek philosophers and their obnoxious sense of perfection.

A sweaty day indeed

School

Nothing of note has been afoot, but allegedly all my financial matters are in order. No way to tell for sure except to wait for something catastrophic to happen.


Work

Job hunting went off to a bad start when I misremembered my directions and ended up walking all the way down to the aquarium. Sweating like a horse and unwilling to brave the outdoor public water fountains, I wandered, dazed from dehydration, into a few private docks until I nearly walked into the side of a moving truck, which sobered me up just enough to get oriented. My bearings in order, I stumbled home and downed a half-gallon of water.

But the day was not a complete loss. Shortly after I got back and started reading Hark, a Vagrant, my roommate, who will henceforth be known as Alex, asked me to go with him to pick up a package I ordered. I have my packages delivered to his P.O. box because at the present I don't trust my neighborhood completely enough to let anything more than bills and greeting cards be delivered to my door (the dented, stripped frame of a bicycle locked to my fire stairs serves as a permanent warning to all who get a little too trusting). While we were out, we dropped by the financial assistance office for Alex to deal with his own loan troubles, and while I was in the area, I decided to drop in Barnes & Noble to follow up on my application. The tall, friendly gent at the front desk said he'd review my application and, four minutes later, told me I can probably start working on Thursday. It's just a rush job, and there's next to no chance I'll be staying on board longer than a couple weeks, but a couple weeks will tide me over until my bills and other dangerous things start coming in, and I'll have time to get a real steady job that accommodates for my student schedule.


Life

Remember that package I said I ordered? It was an HDMI cable so that I can hook my computer up to my TV. Once we got home, Alex and I pulled up YouTube on the big screen and watched Sex Bomb.

Again with the loans

School

Today I woke up late after a truly epic Starcraft match the night before and after having my daily oatmeal and shower, headed off to the Financial Assistance office. Student loans have been an ongoing issue at this school, thanks to some unnecessary red tape this school wraps around its process. Rather than determine my loan qualifications from the get-go, the school checks my qualifications one at a time, leaving me with a two or three day wait between every checkpoint, between which they determine if I applied for loans, then how much loans I want, then whether or not I qualify for the loans I asked for, and then once again if I don't qualify for those loans, how much of the loans that I do qualify for I actually want. And then apparently there's another behind-the-scenes investigation where they totally ignore everything we talked about and invent new, totally unrelated values and tell me to suck it.

So today when I discovered that my loans no longer covered tuition, needless to say I was a little frustrated, but like the responsible person I am I went to the Treasurer's office to set up a payment plan. Tuition is due on the 15th of this month, and if I don't pay my classes will be dropped. Being a little short on cash, and with multiple bills coming up, I assumed that if I got on a payment plan it would postpone my bills long enough for my bank account to fatten up a bit. As it turns out, the first payment is due on the 15th of this month, which means that I'm still left scraping the barrel until I have a steady job, only 75% less than I would be if I didn't set up a payment plan.

Work

Still unemployed, thanks for asking. A résumé is a tricky thing to write when your combined work experience is as unfocused and patchy as mine, but I'm applying wherever I go until I have one I like. With any luck, a hotel will hire me and let me work a night shift.

Life

After clearing away all things school, I went on a hunt. A friend recommended an obscure little place called Hope and Union, a local coffee shop hidden in an unassuming house in a mostly residential area up the northern part of St. Phillip Street. From the street, the only identifying marker is a very plain sign reading "COFFEE", and on the door, in a small, lowercase Garamond style font, read "hope and union". Like most businesses around here, it's set in a slightly modified Charleston house, so entering was a little intimidating; I felt as if I was walking in uninvited in someone's home while they were having their afternoon cup of coffee. My presence was unusual, but not unwelcome. Everyone seemed to know each other and acted like a real person you'd want to know. Usually when I go in a small business like this I feel like a complete outsider, and I get the sense that the service is just an annoying duty that comes with getting to hang out with their friends all day. But then, most independent coffee shops I've been to are run by hipster 20-somethings with fake dreadlocks and tattoos of assorted pagan symbols, and find ways to smoke weed in the back undetected. Hope and Union, on the other hand, was run by a clean-cut man probably in his mid to late thirties, and when I went in he was talking to cop about funny calls he took on his patrols. While I was waiting for my cup of coffee to be hand-prepared on the spot (not poured from a carafe or squirted from one of those coffee jug things they use now), I got to hear a hilarious story about a man in his thirties driving to Myrtle Beach with his girlfriend, who stopped right on the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge and called the police because he was too terrified to cross.

Even with the homey atmosphere and distinct lack of indie pettiness, the place is pricier than it's worth. By Charleston standards it's not extravagant, but for a poor student from Aiken, $6.75 is beyond my morning coffee and croissant budget, and I'll probably stick with oatmeal and tea. Still, next time I want to impress my friends and look like an informed local, I know where to go.