June 29, 2002

Ten things...

There are three video tapes in the Duty lounge currently: a blank one, which I fear to put into the VCR for the horrors it may contain, "Rush Hour," a pretty darn good action flick that I've seen on the USA network (or TBS, or TNT or TCM or some basic cable station) sixty times already.

That left "Ten Things I Hate About You" for tonight.

I had only seen it once or twice, and remembered it to be a pretty decent movie: it has the "chick flick" going for it, but being based on Shakespeare, it had some appeal to me: how to adapt the Bard for today. Same goes for the "innane pre-teen movie" stigma attached to it. It's actually a pretty decent film: the story moves quickly, the characters are pretty well fleshed out, and Julia Stiles...

It also has that "everything in love works out for the best" theme running through it. A guy can only hope...

I'm driving home tomorrow as soon as 6am rolls by for a week of relaxation. As much as I love La Salle, I need a break from it's idiosyncrarsies and foibles for a week. CHC/Hoyt's/Baltimore/Random People: if you see this, drop me an email or call me.

Anyhow, there are 350 teenagers around LSU North Halls tonight, and I'm on duty. Instead of 3 floors in 1 building for rounds, there are now 12 floors for rounds in 4 buildings. *sigh* It's quiet though...the only thing I've heard all night is my movie.

UPDATE: 30 Seconds Later...(really!)
*sigh*

Even as I hit "Publish," the kids decided to start screwing around...knocking on my door and running...

6am can never come fast enough.

Posted by Matthew at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)

June 25, 2002

Stranger in a Strange Land No More

My main personal purpose for staying in Philadelphia this summer had been to FINALLY get to know the lay of the land: figure out where things are (supermarkets, RiteAids, Ritas, restaurants, diners, friend's houses, etc.) Until May, I had no idea how large this city is.

I don't claim to have it all figured out just yet, but its becoming clearer. I can get from La Salle to a bunch of nifty (yes, nifty) places in a pretty direct route. Each weekend, it seems, I learn another street: tonight, another route to get on the Boulevard, yesterday how to get to a diner in the NorthEast, and so on... having people around with no cars has helped immensly - running errands with them, no matter how inane (bank, food/drug store, home) has at least provided me some local color to places they know. Whenever I can, I try and get the " 'So and So'" Reality Tour" - you know: home, elementary and high school, church, favorite restaurant, summer jobs, etc. Usually people are more than happy to be able to talk about themselves for ten to twenty minutes while I get lost in their memories - and I enjoy just hearing someone's story, on their home turf, where they're able to make appropriate illustrations:


  • "See that Rita's over there? I broke up with my boyfriend there in 9th grade."

  • "That's my best friend's house! We grew up from kindergarten to high school together!"

  • "That house over there is haunted! I swear!"

(a request: if this sounds cool, let me know and we'll do your reality tour sometime. Offer void where prohibited; one coupon per customer, your mileage may vary.)

So yeah. It really sucks that I've let some of this stuff wait until my junior year to get figured out, but you live and you learn.

Tomorrow marks the halfway point for Day One. At lunch, it will be official. Kind of sad, really - the kids have been great. (why I call them the kids is a mystery; they're barely 2 years younger than I am, if that!) Its been an interesting ride.

Posted by Matthew at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2002

got evil?

Your Public Service Announcement for today: Go here first, so you know what to purchase from here.

Posted by Matthew at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2002

And the well sprung forth...

After a drought of over a month, I've begun working again: working on my screenplay, "Hitting on McQueen." Bill Wine gave the first 33 pages an A+. Another bit of the story was revealed to me today, and its getting put on paper. I'm on duty in Katherine's - I have the time, and the means (for some reason, I like this computer a lot better for writing, perhaps theres less crap on it to get distracted with.)

I was Host of the Day on Thursday again. Thats twice in the six Day Ones. I'm ecstatic; thats two HoDo wins, and two DoDo wins too. (DoDo = winning of the cheer.)

Other than that, I almost spent a lot of money online tonight buying a new digital camera. I finally decided to wait another couple of days to see if the desire is real. It is a lot of money - but kinda expendible: I'm owed just enough to cover the camera for some work I did in the theater, and since I have my day job (and am doing 40 hours a week there) the theater money would be icing on the cake and should be spent friviously. If I could just convince my parents of that...

Anyhow, I'm back to my draft now.

Currently Listening to: The Newsies Soundtrack

Posted by Matthew at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2002

"I gotta see about a girl..."

(the quote is from Good Will Hunting)

I've been exhausted lately. Day One begins at 7:30AM (!) which has been a shock for me: shocking in that its earlier than I've gotten up for work in the past, and also shocking how well I've met the challenge. I'm out there and ready to be witty with the students and parents on the Union Patio by 8:00AM:


  • "This is your course catalog. There are many others like it, but this one is yours. Don't lose it; we keep extras at the end of an obstacle course, and they're close to impossible to get new ones."

  • "Hold on to your meal ticket, because you're going to be seperated into student and parent groups, and you will not see each other again until graduation."

Not my best material, I'll admit, but for 8am, its pretty good. And the delivery will only get more polished as the summer marches forth.

I wound up winning the cheer on Thursday with a brand new cheer we made up based on the Little Teapot Dance. I was christened the "DoDo" - the Duo Of the Day One (2 hosts do the cheer with the students.) I also got the HoDo - Host of the Day One (the person who gives 110%, exudes energy, etc) for Thursday...the first person to win both medals on a single day so far this year. I got to wear them today during Day One...I was so proud.

And then at lunch, I broke one of the medals. It was quickly fixed with masking tape, however.

Got back to my house and realized that I could either go take a nap, or get my energy back up. I made dinner, and talked to Shannon online. I went over to Collingdale to pick her up for some tennis. Unfortunately, the rain came as we got onto I76: the worst rain that I've seen in a long time, visibility was nothing. It was kinda scary: I was doing 20-30mph on I-76, others were doing the same for the most part but there were some idiots still trying to do 50. We got here and watched the first hour of "Waking Ned Divine," which was very funny. Drove her back; got back like 12:30. Finished laundry.

Thats what the quote refers to.

So tired. Slow day of making up medical records for freshmen (i.e. making folders with charts and their medical forms in them) tomorrow; at least it starts at 9AM, and not 7:30.

Posted by Matthew at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2002

The First Day One...

...went extremely well. I keep telling myself that I shouldn't be surprised: we were well trained, the organization was well laid, and precedent from past years said that it would be an excellent day. It wasn't until after the wrap-up meeting, around 4:30, that the feeling of how AWESOME it had gone set into me.

There was no question we couldn't handle: the tough ones were handled with tact and finesse. I had two major points of nervousness going in: academic advising and the cheers.

Academic advising worried me because it was changed from last year: rather than giving the students a schedule completely filled out when they come in, the students were allowed to go through a shortened roster (all the closed classes and upper level courses removed) and allowed to pick classes. Cool idea: letting the student take ownership in their education. (when I came in, my classes were picked for me, and we just talked for a few minutes about them in the academic advising session.) The students had about fifty minutes to go through it, and 99.9% of it was taken care of. This bodes well for the rest of the summer; there are questions that remain about what happens to students doing late Day Ones in July, when FRESHMAN courses are closing.

Last year it was decided that every day would end with the groups competing on stage by doing La Salle cheers: providing a high-energy end for the day. Of course, everyone arrives at Day One by 9am, so people are tired, and most don't completely want to be there: giving up a summer day for COLLEGE. What I found was that once the freshmen realized that they had to do the cheer, they put some effort into it and did a great job. We didn't win, but definitely came a close second.

My group was fantastic; group 2, you rocked the house today. Thanks for such a pleasant experience.

50 down, 850 to go.

Currently Listening to: "Birdhouse in Your Soul," They Might Be Giants.

Posted by Matthew at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2002

17I act like I'm 17.This

17

I act like I'm 17.
This test was brought to you by James - Part of the David and James phenomenon. Take it here.

Posted by Matthew at 07:36 PM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2002

"Thats just what they used to say in the ads..."

The thought occurred to me tonight that I hadn't written anything for quite some time: no journals, no platys, novels, novellas, short stories, or anything.

I need some sort of inspiration; I'm feeling dry. I hate this feeling.

Other than that, my life has been pretty decent lately. The tour of Philadelphia Video for Day One went swimmingly well. I got to stand in front of the Kimmel Center and talk about the Avenue of the Arts. We've been training for Day One on most of the weekdays now: learning about the Core Cirriculum, about the Security and Safety Department, about all kinds of stuff. The excitement is building; the first Day One is next Monday.

I've seen a bunch of people recently too: Margaret, Leo, Aymee, Melissa, Alan, Julie - they dropped by for a confrence at La Salle. I had lunch with Shannon last Friday, and we're going to play tennis...soon. Talked with my friend Brendan last night; Brendan from CHC, who had more artistic visions for CHC-TV than I did, with stranger but more comical results. He got me wishing for my old job again...to be with the same people, doing the same thing, over and over again. Then I realized that I would be doing the same thing over and over again, and thanked God I was still in Philadelphia.

Y'know, that job wouldn't be too bad.

Theres some inspiration there now too, for a play or a book of some sort. Will have to start writing.

Currently Listening to: Urinetown:The Musical

Posted by Matthew at 12:23 AM | Comments (0)