Tuesday 4 February 2014

Captain's (B)log: 4th February


The last two days have been almost entirely uneventful, actually. Aside from patenting a new indoors sport (banana standoffs, see above) that's not so much sweeping across Utica as limping across a small corner of it, the past two days have been an exercise in how much I can possibly nap in a forty-eight hour period between shifts of study. Which hasn't been very unpleasant.
    I did have a pretty awkward moment the other day, though. I was booking a room in the college library for the student literary journal, of which I was elected editor-in-chief for the year when I slid out of the first meeting for a bathroom break. Anyway, the poor lady at the library information centre had lost her voice, yet was striving to communicate with students anyway by way of fierce little whispers and hand gestures. I didn't realise I had begun to whisper back at her in that same way until about fifteen seconds after I'd softly wished her a good day and waltzed nonchalantly out the building. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd put the hit out on me by now.

Monday 3 February 2014

Captain's (B)log: 2nd February

Sat down with a group of students to watch the Superbowl today. People tell me that the Superbowl is a big deal but, alas, my knowledge of (American) football is only a bit more comprehensive than my knowledge of basketball. I know that for basketball, the aim is to shoot a ball at a hoop, I know for that football, the job of one one team is to get the ball across a field angry obstacles and the job of the other team is to take on the role of said angry obstacles. Still, it was an enjoyable time, even if I - pretty skilfully, I'd say - managed to avoid gleaning any sporting intellect at any point across the four hour time frame.

Saturday 1 February 2014

Captain's (B)log: 1st February

Had a rather pleasant day today. And, judging how that first sentence went, one straight from an Enid Blyton novel. I spent the first hour or two of the early afternoon - often referred to as 'morning' by students - chatting with some friends gearing up to play some variant of Dungeons and Dragons. I have, incidentally, discovered I'm only a little less clumsy living out an imaginary life than my actual one - the whole idea of Dungeons and Dragons is based around the idea that a team of players can act out in their minds anything they can conceive of, but I always seem to be five fictitious miles away from any action and cowering from anything more fear-inducing than a particularly toothy gerbil.
        Later, I wandered down to an art exhibition put on by UC and for which I'll have to write about for the college paper, and after that wandered down to a Lebanese restaurant with some of my fellow international students.
        I spent the remainder of the day seeing if I could take artsy shots with my camera-phone, but packed it in after realising with some dismay I'd skipped so far into pretentiousness I'd need some rations and a serious rope ladder to get back out again.