Do I Need a Protractor For This Class?

I started another semester of school today, and it's the first time I've taken a non-night class in, oh, probably a decade. (I'm hoping to prolong my college career to so many years that I can say during my graduation, "When I started college, we actually had to attend classes, in classrooms, instead of the direct to brain download courses they have nowadays!") One of the benefits of taking night classes at San Francisco State is many older students tend to take those course since they've usually got full-time day jobs, so I never really felt that out of place; there was always someone else my age or older in the class. But today? Hoo boy. I was definitely the oldest person there, and I wouldn't be surprised if the professor is younger than me (but I sure hope not).

That said, I'm pretty happy with the class so far, which is called "Critical Study of Popular Culture." That basically means we'll be examining the popularity of the "Chocolate Rain" and "High School Musical" using Marxist and feminist theories. And I love crap like that.

Speaking of feminism, when the teacher brought it up, he asked how many people in the class considered themselves feminists, and out of about 100 people, five people raised their hands (one of them was me). Now, I would expect that kind of reaction from an introductory class full of freshman who think feminism is all about militant lesbians who want to castrate all men, but this is an upper division class. These people have had at least two years of college studies behind them--two years of SAN FRANCISCO college studies. And they're still afraid of the term "feminism"? My hopes for the future of womankind have dwindled considerably.

The only thing that raised my spirits a bit was going into the campus bookstore and finding a whole stack of Pee-Chees for sale! Alas, they weren't the classic peachy color; instead they had them in blue, pink, and green. And the graphics are different. But there's still a guy on the back cover with a basketball in his hands, perfect for rendering into a human head, if I only had the talent to draw that. Instead I'll just be adding the usual afros, black-eyes, and track marks to the Pee-Chee's exceedingly cheery athletes.

Further Proof That I Can't Draw

In high school, I think during my sophmore year, I took a Creative Writing class, and one of the assignments was to make a comic strip. I didn't have any drawing ability (and still don't), so the assignment took me for a loop. I thought about just cutting out images from magazines and turning that into a comic, but I of course waited until the last minute to do the thing and didn't have time to search through a bunch a magazines and come up with some kind story. So, instead, I found some pictures of Prince, drew some stick figures, and made a comic out of an absurd poem a friend and I had written. Click on the image above for a larger view.

I think it's almost brilliant in its stupidity. And the teacher must have felt the same way. B+!

I Don't Think I'll Be Using This When I Start My Night Class at the End of the Month

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Junior High Pee-Chee - Front
Originally uploaded by Rain Rain Rain

But it would be kind of funny if I did.

A few months back, the topic of Pee-Chee folders came up, and I promised to scan an old one I still had around. Here it is! Buried in some boxes somewhere I think I still have some others. One of these days I'll dig them up, too...

You can see the back of the folder here. Or click on the photo to go to its Flickr page and click on "All Sizes" to view a larger image.