An observation from a JC Student Lounge

So right now, as I write this, I'm sitting in the JC's student lounge. Prior to this day I had started noticing small things that differentiated JC from a CSU, today was proof of that.

A group of kids, I mean that when I say that, they are fresh from high school they are kids, were playing toss back...or hacky sac with a balloon. This on its own does not bother me, in fact I almost joined in. They were having fun, that's cool some juvenility should happen. Then out of no where (maybe I wasn't paying that close attention) one of the other kids in the room comes over grabs the balloon and yells "I'm putting an end to this!" and popped the balloon. I hate the sound of balloons popping so I jumped a bit.

Let's put this room into perspective, 90% of the people (the ages vary so I'll use a more broad term now) are playing Magic: The Gathering, or something similar (Yu-gi-oh etc). Some are on their computers playing games and listening to music. Most conversations are ones I'm used to, about his anime or this comic book or the last game of Dungeons and Dragons. I can participate in a lot of these conversations. I probably couldn't with the card games (never got into them really), but it isn't the games or the conversations, or even that a group of people will step outside every half hour and smoke for ten minutes (I don't know how many of these people are over 18 (most probably though)). What is important about this group is how they deal with issues, it is how they act about a situation. That is what is different. At the CSU there was juvenility, I won't deny that. In fact I was juvenile at one point, and very good at it thank you very much. Here though there seems to be a disconnect to the fact that they are in college, it is a JC I know, but what they do here is important to their future. Instead is feels like high school has continued. For having been to a 4-year college and then coming to a JC I feel like I went back to high school. I'm glad that I did not start here. I don't think I would have matured the same way.

As a follow up to my "Late Night Thoughts" Post I'll say this. I didn't keep my promise. I made friends. That is part of the reason of why I am in the Student Lounge. One of the guys that I LARP with occasionally is in a class and hangs out here.

OMG Helium! The kids are breathing in the helium from balloons now. I can say I have done this. This may be juvenile behavior, but it is practiced by a lot of people...I don't know why I'm surprised by this roomful of people doing it.

Back on subject. Like I said I didn't keep the, "make no friends" promise. It had to be changed to "make little friends" I have friends in almost every class now. I'm taking 4 classes. My first class of the week is the one with the guy from LARP, after that I have a couple of study partners, one of them I'm friends with. Tuesday and Thursday my first class is the only one I've kept from talking to people in. The second one I have a study group with.

And a guy dressed like the Joker just walked in. Fairly good make-up job too. I know it's the week before Halloween, but isn't that a bit early? Sorry that this post is all over the place this is what happens when I write about a room that I'm currently sitting in *sigh*.
Now I've been told a joke "What's the difference between Heath Ledger and Heath Ledger jokes?...Heath Ledger jokes can get old" *face palm* Ok I'm going to edit this later when I'm not sitting in the room I'm talking about.

Short Story work

Well working on a short story right now. According to a friend I need to work on the connection to the "main" character. I say "main" because I'm not sure if she actually is or not. This story is this odd ball of ideas all rolled up into my mind. I think the editing process is going to take a while. But when I publish it I'll post where it is.

Of course NaNo is coming up too...just a few more days....For that I plan on re-writing a story I wrote in middle school. It has changed a lot since those days so I'm probably not even going to look at the old draft for it. This will be like writing from scratch except for the plot has been in my head for years.

An essay

So I wrote an essay a while back about Octavio Paz and how I thought he was an RPGer. Here is the link to the site that is hosting it. Hope you enjoy it!