The Rest

...and YA literature and the Myth of the Intelligent Machine (I'm still working on evidence to disprove the myth of the intelligent human).  Costumes-wise, there were some great ones even beyond the standard Klingons, Trekkers, fairies, and creepy goth kids (although some of those weren't costumes).  I saw Rorschach, Frankenberry, bodypaint where there should have been shirts, and dozens of various Doctors Who.  While hanging around my booth, Preston and I joked around the first day, the second I was situated next to a photographer barking images of scantily clad women, which drew attention even more than the Dr. Fear and Count Gregore across the way.  A lunar colonization society had a table a few down, and I was well impressed with the plausibility and investment returns of their plans.  Very cool.

When it was all over, it was long past time for a big night's sleep.  Monday was busy doing a dozen errands and writing up comic scripts for the rest of the summer.  It was productive indeed, the first in a long time like that.  But, interruptions are always nice, such as Chinese buffets and birthday cake ice cream.

Currently In Cold Blood By Truman Capote see related

Leg One Complete

It seems this is the Summer of Travels.  Last summer was the Summer of America, and the summer before the Summer of Jeff (which went not as badly as the Summer of George, since he had physical therapy while I only had lecturer orientation).

Almost immediately after handing in final grades, I took to the road and just kept driving west until I hit ocean.  Maybe it was stress or sleeplessness or who-knows-what, but I felt I had to get away.  In brief, my journey:

• The Farm:  drove north to home, getting a good meal and a quiet night's rest.  City life is too noisy.
  
• Denver:  on my first drive-through, seemed like an endless string of liquor stores and pawn shops.  Fortunately, I stayed a couple of days to see the UDenver campus, plenty of city parks, the Molly Brown house (though she never went by "Molly"), and the awesome Art Museum.
  
• Northwestern Colorado was awesome.  Sometimes, I was literally the only human being for miles in any direction.  Utah gives me the heebiejeebies.
  
• I was in busy traffic from the time I got to Reno to the time I left California.  The West Coast has way too many cars to be so pro-environment.
  
• Hung out with J and Carisa for a week, seeing Stanford Campus and lots of sights in San Francisco, all the while eating a delicious variety of foods.  One day, I walked about 16 miles across hills and Golden Gate Park until I put my hand in the cold Pacific.
  
• I saw far too many hoboes.  And too many of those demanded money be given to them.
  
• Las Vegas wasn't impressive, other than the night lighting and the volcano show at the Mirage.  The Hoover Dam, however, was spectacular.
  
• The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is cooler than the south.
  
• Roswell, New Mexico, is an amazing place.  Small town feeling (oddly similar to Enid), ample museums (one featuring Robert Goddard's workshop), and aliens seem to pop up every which way.
  
• Even Lawton, Oklahoma, has a nice sushi place.
  
• Along the way, I read a pile of comic books and listened to audiobooks:  Lewis Black's Me of Little Faith (interesting introspection, much of which I didn't agree, but provoked good thinking; wide topics; and plenty of jokes, provided you like his style...  "I refuse to consider seriously anything that Tom Cruise believes in"), Beowulf (a long overdue classic; good phrasings in the 1920s translation of compound words, and plenty of fighting), and In Cold Blood (the tale of robbery and murder of a farming family in cold blood, written by Truman Capote, and, though repetitious in parts and meandering, definitely had great senses of description and personality... plus, the guy who did the reading had goofy voices for each of the characters!).

Not a bad way to spend the first weeks of summer.  When I got back, it was time for SoonerCon, and I got to be a guest again.  The panels were fun, chatting about making up religions and

Currently TMNT By Patrick Stewart, Mako, Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laurence Fishburne see related

It's over, and it begins...

Wednesday was the final Final.  Just another turn-in, but the deadline needed to be met.  Once the final paper came in, I sat in my office until the early evening grading.  Grading and grading and grading until it was done, and I was finished.  Ah, it felt good.

Then the complaints of the semester grades started pouring in.  I agree you shouldn't have made a B; you shouldn't have turned in bad papers all semester and tried to patch everything together in the last two weeks.  You tried really hard... since the fifth of May.

I treated Thursday as an experimental "Day Off", not doing anything of too great merit.  It seems those days are good for purchases, but little else, so I don't think they're for me.  Instead, I'm going to watch more cartoons.  Anyway, John and I hit the Diner again (mmmmmm!), soaked up some Harvey Birdman, and I bought me a new digital camera, as my old one is approaching six years old.  The newbie is five times more powerful and much more pocketable.

When the sun set, I figured my day off needed to end, so I went to campus and cleaned out my office.  They're making us move out, so all that work stealing a desk may be for naught.  Eh, maybe I'll end up with something even better.  I also sorted through the semester's worth of papers that I'd stacked rather than filed.  Filing until one in the morning is strangely satisfying.  It makes my OCD tingle.

Even more satisfying was finishing up Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.  By the end, they were throwing galaxies at each other.  Whole galaxies!  Now that's a mecha.  Even beyond the fight scenes (which my comp couldn't even run, just froze, so I had to resort to streaming online), the show made me think about sheer human will.  If you really, truly set yourself to something, something beyond all else, just how much you can accomplish.  Further, the enemies brought up good points.  Peace vs. growth is a major question.  Growth is harder, but easiest is rarely best.

Friday I had one last meeting for Freshman Seminars, and then the semester was over.  As with my tradition since 2002, I listened to Alice Cooper's "School's Out for Summer" on repeat and decompressed.  Good times.  I watched the season finales of Earl and Office, and Spring was officially done for me.  Time for summer, time for a change, so I'm out of here.  First up, road trip to California.  Next up, sci-fi con and history lessons.  Then, a few months in Europe.  Can't argue with that.

So, last night was a good late night hanging out in Norman for the final bit in a while.  We ate at Cheddar's (remarkably inexpensive, but best of all was the vertically rotating ceiling fan), goofed around the Triangle House, and watched the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.  It was very cool, even though they made April anorexic.  Mako was and is awesome.

Now, time to hit the road.

Currently Willow (Special Edition) By Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Warwick Davis, Jean Marsh, Patricia Hayes see related

I Keep Bumping into Things

I think I'll blame that on sleeplessness.  8 AM finals will do that.

Once again, I awoke to he rain and thunder.  So much of a good thing is an amazing thing.  I dragged myself to campus through the pelting rain in time to meet students for another stack of papers.  Three quarters of the way through English classes, and Comics wrapped up today.  We did a final showing of each others' materials, each gathering more laughs and gasps than the last.  What a crazy bunch.  I recapped what we'd learned over the semester, which seems like a massive block of information looking back.  Plus, there was pizza and veggies from the leftovers of the class fund, garnered by my previously as soon as I'd had my mid-morning nap to make up for a late night of Willow and too much thinking.  Running errands in a car seems so foreign since I've been doing so many of them on foot on campus for years.  What a strange life other people must lead.

Y'know, there's not much better than going back to sleep after a bowlful of Cap'n Crunch on a drizzly morning.

Currently Kirby's Adventure By Nintendo see related

A Day of Smells

Another good morning to wake up to the sound of pouring rain and sometimes a rumble of thunder.  Rainy days are too good for sleeping; it's all you want to do.  Especially since the outside is gradually shifting from "fresh dew" smell to "mushroom-filled fish tank".

For lunch, Preston and I dropped by the Diner on main street in Norman.  Oh.  Man.  It was good.  From first walking in, the powerful aroma of a diner with a grill you can see punched me pleasantly in the face.  We sat at the counter on stools and watched our food being made, soaking up all the fried we could.  I had an impeccable root bear and a Southside Burger, which was covered in ham, American cheese, and barbecue sauce.  Once again, I'm glad not to be kosher Jewish.

I hosted two finals, all just picking up papers.  We had half a dozen in one class and just one in another; all the others had turned theirs in early.  Between them, I sat in my office smelling of recirculated air and old wood.

Preston's place had a strange sense of bubblegum about it.  A good odor for an evening of video games and cartoons.

The day ended on the couch, grading into the wee hours.  Brandon cooked eggs and toast, and once again the apartment smells like a decent place to live.