Friday Morning Coming Down
In preparing tomorrow morning's "nenie.net retro day" posting I've been struck by something.
I've been ground down, yo.
Maybe I've mellowed, but I think I've been ground down more than anything else.
What happened to that take no prisoners attitude? What happened to the kid who walked out of the GRE announcing his return to the world, confident that he was going to lay the smack down with impunity?
I'm not entirely sure, but working on the paper of DOOM has caused me to go looking for that kid. He's around here someplace, I just need to run into him and hang out with him for a while; because this hardcore legend has gone softer than Mick Foley in a Viennese Bakery.
So yeah, the paper of DOOM has a complete first draft and today's project is to get a second draft done by dinner so I can spend tonight writing the other paper. Cuz, well, I HAD an outline when working on the paper of DOOM. But in order to get the fucker written, I had to break the outline's spine.
Yeah, I didn't like it anymore than he did.
Now to find my cleanest dirty shirt and eat pizza for breakfast. Must ... get ... hardcore ... must ... returnto ... undergradlevelsof stupidity.
But while I do that, why don't y'all, since it's Friday tell me about how you've changed as you've aged. Have you mellowed? Have you spiced up? No change? Tell me.
My ass is now more of a spread, in the words of the Puerto Rican chica in the new Eve Ensler book/production/whatever she calls those
Pizza for breakfast?
Yes, pizza for breakfast and finding my cleanest dirty shirt.
I figure I'll have dinner for lunch and breakfast for dinner.
It got me through Carleton, it'll get me through this. :)
Ya know, having you tell us how we've changed since undergrad could be a lot more fun and provide quality procrastination during your hardcoreness.
My own personal feelings on my change since undergrad, well that depends, do you mean since I stepped foot on campus or since I graduated? If it's possible, I'd say that I've both mellowed and become stronger/more focused/more driven. Sure, I'm still a slightly derranged neurotic, but at least now I take care of my shit (and when I get enough sleep I still kick ass and take names).
True.
Yeah, change since frosh year is easy, pinpointing the change since graduation is a bit harder.
If anything, Al. (and I'll probably spend a lot more time thinking about this today) You've become a lot more resourceful. You were always able to make something out of less than nothing, but you've become seriously hardcore about getting in where you fit in and making shit work. Honestly, that's what impresses me most about you since we left NFLD. Or, OK, I left NFLD.
;)
Yeah, realizing that you've mellowed kind of sucks, but I'm pretty sure that I (and you Nenie, as well as, Al) could tool & school any previous incarnation of ourselves.
I think the biggest change has been in economy of thought and motion. We used to run around and waste a lot of time, thought, and energy- button-mashing our way through the undergrad years. I think grad school was, is, will be about the the one hit kills.
Quick, clean, efficient.
You're right about the effiency, thing. I'm SO much more efficient here. But, well ... I dunno, there's just something strange about it.
My efficiency is up, but in the last two or so weeks here, the computer in my game seems to have adjusted/gotten a lot smarter. I'm gonna win this round, but it's not gonna be easy.
Amount of sleep: Since graduation, I require more sleep to function and also to ensure that I don't snap at people. How did we all do it in college?
Concept of money: I was a poor undergrad. But it was acceptable to be a poor student. I'm no longer a student, but I'm still poor. But poor-ness feels different when you're making money and when you're expected to pay for things like electricity and such.
Concept of personal space: In college, I would leave my door open. There would be random people in my room. I shared a bathroom in Hill House. No problem. Now? I never keep my apartment door open even when I'm home. I have no real connection to the people who share the building with me besides the person I live with.