An exciting, yet blogless, past week

I haven't blogged in so long, I feel a little rusty. And sleepy since I just woke up. All in all, things aren't looking too good for this blog entry.

So I've been busy. Quite busy. My two classes have got me working my poor little fingers to the bone, semi literally. It's been a long time since I've written in any class. I normally type, but you can't really type in a math class, especially not when I have no way of representing subscript and superscript, etc. So I've been writing, and writing really hurts my hand. There's really not a lot I can do about it. Today was especially bad. It even makes me reluctant to type, but that's the least of my problems. I still have to do my homework. I wonder if I can wrap my hand up somehow to make it easier during class.

As for the classes themselves, they're all right. I really can't say I'm thrilled with math 54. It's a bit tedious at times, and moves really fast. By day 3 of class, we've already moved beyond section 1.4. Sigh... I was ahead for such a short time... Oh well. It's not really the sort of class you need to be ahead for. Still, it doesn't do to take it lightly. I think as long as I'm on top of my shit with the homework, things shouldn't be too bad.

Math 113 is a bit of a different story. I much prefer that class. It's like math saves all the interesting stuff until upper division. It's unfortunate because so many people are turned off to math before they get a chance to sink their teeth into anything of interest. Perhaps I'm assuming too much to think everyone would be interested in that sort of stuff, but it really is pretty intriguing. Of course, this comes from someone who likes doing logic problems when she has nothing better to do.

As for other things of note, we had an annoying house meeting yesterday. The topics we talked about have been discussed so much that I'm sick of them, so I'm not going to go into anything more than the barest of details. The big issue of the meeting was how much to charge fish, people illegally living in the house over summer. It's always been $10 a week while both of them are in the room, but this summer it was raised to $24 regardless of whether or not they were both there. Braver, our house manager, did the calculations and discovered that that was how much it cost a member to live here, and so charged them the same about. I don't want to hear the words fixed cost and marginal cost again for a very long time, so I don't want anyone replying with any of that rubbish. I'm sick of the issue. I only bring it up to talk about Matt and what a little bitch he is. He was in rare form this meeting. Jesse (house president) said explicitly that we were going to follow parliamentary procedure very explicitly this meeting (questions get priority, speakers list, no one speaks out of turn, etc.). We had a period for questions near the beginning and he kept making comments. Jesse kept asking, "What's you question Matt?" and trying to get him to shut up, but he absolutely wouldn't stop. He had only the barest of restraint. It was horrible. He made snide comments while Braver was talking and kept interrupting loudly anytime someone talked for over a minute and a half (we set a cap at the beginning of the meeting). Of course he only timed Braver. I remember at one point he had a question and just started speaking and Jesse told him to be quiet. He got irate and started yelling, "No! This is a legitimate question!" Jesse got mad at him and said, "No Matt, other people have been waiting longer and also have a question. They're in line." Then Matt starts to pout and says "But I was in line!" I've never seen a grown man whine so much. It was a bit shocking. (Actually now that I think about it, I have seen someone whine more than that once, and it was directly to me, too. I was running time sensitive experiments for research and he came in late. I told him he had to leave, but he refused. He just kept saying, "Please? Please? Come on! Please?" The guy even got on his knees at one point. I was so weirded out, but there wasn't a lot I could do.)

Matt's behavior was pretty interesting, in its own way. It made me start thinking. I've always thought that it was good for the house that Matt was moving out (and it still is- no change on that stance), but now I'm realizing how good it is for him as well. His attitude at this last meeting probably didn't lose him any friends. Acting like an ass at a meeting just isn't personal enough for that. But it is enough for someone who doesn't know him that well to think they might not want to be friends with this guy or, at the very least, take him seriously (even friends might take him less seriously after that). He didn't lose any friends, but he certainly didn't gain any either. So the next question is why he acted like an unprecedented ass now and not so much at previous meetings. I suppose it's just because he's more comfortable with his situation. It's always nice to feel comfortable where you are, but it can lead itself to alienating behavior sometimes. Matt would never have behaved this poorly during his first week or so in the house. He's gotten relaxed and taken more (and more, and more, and more) liberties as he's done so. Once someone gets relaxed, it's actually a little hard to tense up again. Everything feels so familiar and like it hasn't changed, and if you're as arrogant as Matt, you don't really want to become more timid than you are. If he stayed here in the fall, he would in all likelihood stay the same, but the group of people would totally change, and new people who weren't already his friends would be far less forgiving of such douchery. If he stayed here, he would have far less influence and be far less popular. It would really be bad for him. At CZ where he's moving, he could be king. He's already got a group of friends who used to live at CZ and who can potentially introduce him to other past CZars of a similar mindset. With enough friends behind him, he can do whatever he wants. He'll probably behave a little more at first. He'll be especially well behaved since he'll probably always get his way. He will be one of the first people organized enough to actually do something when he gets to CZ, and once he sets up his foundation, I don't think it's too likely to fall.

Oh well. He'll be out of my hair and my house. He may visit, but his visits are not so abhorrent. Only when he tries to change procedure and house bylaws with nonsensical arguments do I really get pissed off. Well, I also hated his reign as manager, but that won't happen again either. Phew. He's out of here.

I think I'm done writing for now. Bye!