The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera Web browser

I'm a seriously hopeless romantic.

Liberty Heights is quite good. While I didn't enjoy some of the mature themes, I could understand that it was an accurate portrayal of life for the characters in the movie. It's an intellectual movie; on the level of Good Will Hunting, Dead Poets Society, and movies of that ilk. It's dark--it really makes you think and feel--but it's funny and entertaining at the same time. Very good.

10 Things I Hate About You is another good one. It's the whole Taming of the Shrew, Kiss Me Kate theme, though set in the present. As with the former, I could have done without some of the mature themes. Sometimes these themes add to the movie and make it more realistic. Other times, they just make me wonder how accurate they really are and what kind of message young viewers are getting. But I digress.

I like movies where people fall in love. I know those emotions. I miss those emotions. Memories flood back; I remember what it was like to kiss and to hold someone and know they wanted to be held and loved. I walked outside after the latter movie and just wanted to cuddle with someone I loved in the Dell. Sometimes I just have to remind myself that it's not my time yet and that my day will come. Whomever I end up with, she's got a whole lotta lovin' coming her way....

What is wrong with people? It's so horribly sad to walk through the halls of my dorm and around my campus listening to the dreams and aspirations of my fellow students. Any one want to guess what the top ambitions of most students are? To drink and to have sex. I wonder if they don't know that there is so much more to life than these two things. I wonder if they really understand true joy and fulfillment. I wonder if they'll make it out of college and through their 20's alive....

For Creative Writing today, he read Ann Beattie's short story, A Vintage Thunderbird. While I enjoyed her writing style, the story was very sad and disturbing. It seemed full of shallow and hollow individuals who participated in casual sex and longed for more out of life, but seemed oblivious as to how to obtain it. At one point, a pregnant, married woman offers sex to a friend who had a bad phone conversation with a woman he barely knew. Is this really how people live?

I'm very sorry if this offends someone, but I just don't understand that type of lifestyle. It seems so empty. I wish these people could see what they're missing: being able to count your lovers on one hand and looking forward to something else besides getting wasted. It just seems like a lousy way to go through life.

This year is looking pretty good. I'm pulling 18 credit hours, but only 15 of them should be real work. My classes this semester are:

• Technical Writing (minor elective)
• Introduction to Creative Writing (minor requirement)
• Programming Languages (major requirement)
• OpenGL Game Programming (major elective)
• Intermediate Spanish (gen. ed. requirement)
• Health / Gym (gen. ed. requirement)
• Handbell choir (half a credit, for fun)
• Voice Lessons (half a credit, also for fun)

On top of all that, I'll be involved in several extra-curricular activities: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (I co-lead a Small Group), Movie Club, Hall Council, and Web Site Design (work study position). I'm currently considering a position with SGA Senate, as well. It should be a full fun year.

This past couple of days have been pretty crazy. I've been helping a lot of new students to setup their computers on the network here at school, so I've barely had time to do the stuff that I've wanted to do. Sometimes it's really frustrating doing this, especially when I get incredibly stressed out, like I did yesterday.

There was just so much going on yesterday, it was simply overwhelming. One of my friends got a virus, so I spent a good amount of my afternoon trying to help her clean it off. The network at school wasn't running at all, so I had all kinds of people calling me about that. I've sort of become the student representative of ITR: when someone has a problem, they contact me first.

Today was much better, though. I spent a couple of hours working on computer issues (including some I'm having with my system) and got a lot of stuff worked out. Of course, I haven't done any homework for my classes tomorrow, but that is beside the point. My friend whom I helped with the virus yesterday was extremely thankful--I don't know how many times she thanked me.

Some people always ask why I don't want money for the service I do. It occurs to me to charge money only because other people mention it. I enjoy helping others; I like to see people smile. When I help someone with computer problems, they're so happy that it works, it just really makes my day (not to mention theirs!). It's also a really cool way of meeting people. I'm also serving others, which is a great thing for my faith. In other words, it's an all-around cool experience for everyone involved.