DONE

Wooh! I've graduated! Today I was able to sleep all the way to 9:48! Yeah! At which point the fucking ruckus out my window woke me up. Some kind of renovation being done at the neighbors. Damn it. They had to do it on a Saturday.

So let me tell you about

FRIDAY

As I said, the other days of the past week weren't as memorable as last week's. This was because we basically took up a lot of cases in class, which meant a lot more readings. So I couldn't post practically the whole week.

Anyway, the last day, there was a bit of a boo-boo because the Program Assistant (Cecile's assistant, basically) forgot to photocopy one of the readings we needed. None of the students had a copy, but Cecile and Prof. Morato did. When Morato found out, we could see that he was quietly pissed, but didn't really want to show it since we're not exactly "regular" students, this being only a 2-week course and all. Apparently, he can be pretty vicious to his regular graduate students. Anyway, HE WALKED OUT. So that was the first kind of "serious" moment of the seminar. To help fix things, Cecile juggled the schedule.

We later ended up in this really high-tech room. Every seat had a computer, and there were microphones beside the seats so that everyone in the class could hear what you had to say. The "blackboard" was a projection screen that was touch-sensitive. Astig. So Prof. Morato would "write" on the screen, and it would be seen on our screens, I guess, except that most of them weren't turned on. He'd press a button on the screen to clear it, but the previous filled-up screen would be saved somewhere in case students wanted to photocopy it. Or he could go back to any of the previous screens if he wished. He could change colors pa, and use clip art, etc. He could move elements just by using his hands.

Naturally, after the class when everyone left, I played with it. I went online by using the touch-screen, saw some porn at huge sizes, and pretended to be John Anderton from Minority Report scrubbing some images. Yes, I am shallow.

Text from Quark: haha i'm sitting beside alex knox.
Me: Who's alex knox?
Quark: si robert wuhl.

So I check it out online and Quark's sitting beside actor Robert Wuhl, who played Alex Knox in the first Batman. Later:

Me: haha astig! where are you ba?
Quark: watching the gotham awards

Again, later:

Quark: pare i'm 5 feet away from julianne moore
Me: oh you fucking bastard

Another text, this time from Criselle: "Hi ramon, i'm reading your blog-- primarily bec i found out i was in it."

The very last class was called Serendipity Walk, which was really just sharing. The idea behind the Serendipity Walk is, you take a problem that's been bugging you, put it in the back of your mind, and slowly, the universe will provide the answer. It's all very spiritual and hunky-dory, but you can't say this hasn't happened to you before. Something or someone in your environment, not necessarily related to you or your problem, will present the solution, or lead you to thinking about the solution, a kind of "eureka" moment.

But what it became was the purgation of emotions. Like in retreats, where people go to the center of the room and pour their hearts out. Quite emotional. Someone confessed to how drug use nearly derailed the early years of his career. One confessed how she'd been raised to do things a certain way, and was only now exploring the possibilities of doing things the way she wants them to. One woman came to the full conclusion that she wanted to be a writer. Another talked about how she felt so bad about choosing a career in the arts, because the arts don't pay well, and she needed to support her parents. I'm sure a lot of people I know can relate to this. Many were in tears, and so were we, the classmates.

After, we had our graduation. It was just a small ceremony in the Zen Garden (next time I'm with any of you near AIM, remind me to take you there). We had a surprise for everyone, though. We got each of the teachers two gifts: a laser pointer for their left brain, and a potted plant for their right.

Then each of us gave Cecile a rose, so she had a bouquet at the end of it. Then cocktails and some food, during which we announced the mailing list for the class, which I made, and our contribution to the MAP fund, around 35,000 bucks. The MAP fund is for scholars, those who normally can't afford to take the program, but really want to, or need to, or should.

Neva attended the graduation, as did my mom and sister. So she got to meet some of the people I've been talking about these past two weeks. Then I went home, and slept the fitful sleep of the tired and weary.

Today is

SATURDAY

I woke up and my butt cheeks were aching. Maybe you didn't need to know that. I have no idea why. Maybe I was exercising in my dream. Doing butt squeezes and clenches. My lower back kind of aches too. Neva was making fun of how Stephen Hawking speaks. That's bad karma, but she wouldn't listen.

Hope I can watch In the Mood later, despite no one wanting to watch it with us. I'll blog more later.

I've got lots of notes of things to blog about, just never had the time to write them down.