"sloppy joes aren't fun"
Unwinding tonight, I threw in a Simpsons DVD and came across a quote that made me laugh almost immediately. From the episode "Bart's Inner Child":
Homer: OK, the trampoline was a bad idea. But you know what? At least I'm out there trying new things. If it were up to you, all we'd ever do is work and go to church.
Marge: That's not true.
Homer: Name one thing you've done in the past month that was fun.
Marge: I can name ten things! Uh...I made sloppy Joes!
Homer: Pbbt...That's not fun.
(Quote courtesy www.snpp.com)
I don't know which is funnier - the fact that Marge thought making sloppy Joes was fun, or that Homer didn't! Simpsons comedy at its finest. And just what I needed to relax.
It's been a crazy weekend. New student orientation was Friday and Saturday, and today was the first day of classes. It's difficult not to get a little nostalgaic at this time of year, seeing the new faces and remembering my own first days of finally being on my own at school. By and large, I think things are going well. We had scheduled two orientation sessions with the new students on Saturday, to get them logged into their accounts and get them started with email, that sorta thing. However, we had so many students show up that Paul and I actually led four sessions instead of two! All told, we probably presented to roughly 150 students, out of an entering class of perhaps 350. Not bad.
Friday night Jud Laipply gave his inspriational comedy routine, which I always enjoy watching, even though I've seen it several times now. Jud's main two points for new students are "life is change" and "power of choice". They may seem like obvious and/or cliche concepts, but his presentation is really well done, and it's perfectly appropriate for the students, most of whom will be on their own for the first time. Life is change is self-explanatory, while the "power of choice" bit addresses the privledges of freedom, and the responsibilities that accompany it. A genuinely nice guy with a great message. His website is here: www.colemanproductions.com/laipply.html
Saturday night the Student Activities office hired a company to set up a huge inflatable movie screen in the quad (yes, you read that right!) and we watched Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I personally love the book, but wasn't sure how broad the appeal would be (or how well the book would make the transition to screen). The Movie Club (which I advise) voted for the movie, however, so it was ultimately their choice, not mine. And unfortunately, it seemed like we had a lot of students walk out during the movie - we had perhaps thirty students left by the credits. While I wasn't crazy about the movie, I think the problem was that the movie's appeal was limited, i.e., towards people that appreciate philosophical, English humor in a science-fiction context! I'm all for expanding the students' horizons with independent and foreign titles, but the new student orientation probably isn't the best time to do that (noting that Hitchhiker's was neither independent nor foreign, but limited in appeal nevertheless). We'll have to discuss this at our next meeting. Two of our other choices were Sahara (which I would've voted for) and Kicking and Screaming.
Homer: OK, the trampoline was a bad idea. But you know what? At least I'm out there trying new things. If it were up to you, all we'd ever do is work and go to church.
Marge: That's not true.
Homer: Name one thing you've done in the past month that was fun.
Marge: I can name ten things! Uh...I made sloppy Joes!
Homer: Pbbt...That's not fun.
(Quote courtesy www.snpp.com)
I don't know which is funnier - the fact that Marge thought making sloppy Joes was fun, or that Homer didn't! Simpsons comedy at its finest. And just what I needed to relax.
It's been a crazy weekend. New student orientation was Friday and Saturday, and today was the first day of classes. It's difficult not to get a little nostalgaic at this time of year, seeing the new faces and remembering my own first days of finally being on my own at school. By and large, I think things are going well. We had scheduled two orientation sessions with the new students on Saturday, to get them logged into their accounts and get them started with email, that sorta thing. However, we had so many students show up that Paul and I actually led four sessions instead of two! All told, we probably presented to roughly 150 students, out of an entering class of perhaps 350. Not bad.
Friday night Jud Laipply gave his inspriational comedy routine, which I always enjoy watching, even though I've seen it several times now. Jud's main two points for new students are "life is change" and "power of choice". They may seem like obvious and/or cliche concepts, but his presentation is really well done, and it's perfectly appropriate for the students, most of whom will be on their own for the first time. Life is change is self-explanatory, while the "power of choice" bit addresses the privledges of freedom, and the responsibilities that accompany it. A genuinely nice guy with a great message. His website is here: www.colemanproductions.com/laipply.html
Saturday night the Student Activities office hired a company to set up a huge inflatable movie screen in the quad (yes, you read that right!) and we watched Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I personally love the book, but wasn't sure how broad the appeal would be (or how well the book would make the transition to screen). The Movie Club (which I advise) voted for the movie, however, so it was ultimately their choice, not mine. And unfortunately, it seemed like we had a lot of students walk out during the movie - we had perhaps thirty students left by the credits. While I wasn't crazy about the movie, I think the problem was that the movie's appeal was limited, i.e., towards people that appreciate philosophical, English humor in a science-fiction context! I'm all for expanding the students' horizons with independent and foreign titles, but the new student orientation probably isn't the best time to do that (noting that Hitchhiker's was neither independent nor foreign, but limited in appeal nevertheless). We'll have to discuss this at our next meeting. Two of our other choices were Sahara (which I would've voted for) and Kicking and Screaming.
posted by Mike Willis @ 10:36 PM
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