The war between my major and minor




People often don't get it when I tell them what I'm studying, especially my fellow students in either field. The attractive, well-dressed PR kids minoring in hospitality can't fathom a world of public communication beyond press releases and promo events. These are the fun-loving types who want to be publicists with a client list of celebrities miles long. These are the skinny-jean-wearing boys and girls who want to write for a fashion magazine. These are the douchebags who want to work in the "music industry", or worse yet, the "record industry."



Except for the last, I really really love my shallow(er) classmates. They are so much fun and they have the best accessories! They tell me about the awesome new tapas bar I need to try, and that Salon Red's new Candler Park location has just opened around the corner from its old location. They love my hair! They want to know where I got my shoes! They want to friend me on facebook! Omigod we just have so much fun we can hardly stand it!!



They don't even know how to react when I tell them my interests lie in political communication, and that, come graduation, I want to move to Washington, DC or New York, where all the political action is.
B

"Wow...I'm not really into politics. It's really cool that you are, though."



Then there are the political science nerds. There are more heterosexual men here than in PR lalaland, but their fashion sense and/or social skills always seem to be lacking. The women are generally bland looks-wise, with the exception of a few stray Russians tarted up like airport hotel call-girls.



The pace is slower in the political science circle, the vibrancy and energy of PR replaced with the laconic narcolepsy of political theory and poor fashion sense. Sometimes I wonder if anyone besides myself and the blowhard 19-year-old who has read (too much) Noam Chomsky and WANTS EVERYONE TO KNOW IT has a pulse.



The Polisci nerds are completely bewildered by the PR major taking upper-level courses in Comparative Politics and Public Administration. What is she doing here? is a look I tend to get at the start of every term. They soon realize I mean business, though, when I make one of the highest grades on the first test. That's when they start to try and figure me out.



The problem is most of these kids are distrustful of THE MEDIA or anything having to do with THE MEDIA. They like to blame everything that is wrong in our political system on THE MEDIA. They are disgusted by how much THE MEDIA is involved in electoral politics. They hate that THE MEDIA doesn't have enough international news coverage. They despise THE MEDIA for putting "Britney and K-Fed Split" on the front page of CNN.com. They think PR is all SPIN and the douchebags in THE MEDIA are just the messengers of PR SPIN.



Or something along those lines. Anyway, the point is there seems to be this huge disconnect, at least at my school, between those who study and analyze policy, and those who publicize and interpret (for the public) policy. It's kind of disheartening. I find myself constantly explaining why I'm studying what I am, and if I can get people to shut up and listen for a minute, it actually makes a whole hell of a lot of sense to them.



(But, just between you and me, if I were to throw a party I'd invite the PR people over the polisci people any day.)

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The Great Movie Paradox, Part Deux: It's zombie apocalypse. Now what?



Bonnie and Bonnie's Rob had me over for dinner and to watch Shaun of the Dead tonight. The best part was when Bonnie's Rob paused the movie to say, "It's the zombie apocalypse--right now. Where do we go to hole up?" The three of us riffed for a good ten minutes about safe places and good people to grab as we run for the hills/bunker/artist loft (Good: nearby neighbors who own samurai swords. Bad: those who've already been turned into zombies.) Bonnie finally had to tell Bonnie's Rob and me to shut up and turn the movie back on. Who knew planning a zombie apocalypse escape plan could be so absorbing? I think this is the new "You're stranded on a desert island..." speculative game. Because, really, the chances of a zombie apocalypse are way better.

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Correction




In the Wednesday, January 24, 2007 post "title", CV was quoted as saying "Like he had band practice an hour before class kind of dirty." CV actually said, "Like he'd been rocking out an hour before class kind of dirty." The editors regret this error.

The Great Movie Paradox




Several (by several I mean nearly all) of my friends have expressed extreme dismay at my lack of movie viewing in the past year. Once upon a time, when I first was dating my ex, I went to the movies ALLTHETIME because it was free, and I got a little thrill at sticking it to the man or whatever by watching movies for free, drinking slurpees for free, putting my feet up on the seats and sprawling out because I was the only one in the theatre, etc etc. I also got to see quite a few movies before their official release dates, which I would then lord over my less privileged friends. ("What do you mean you haven't seen Spider-Man yet? Oh, I forgot it doesn't come out till Friday.")



After a couple of years of this, the thrill long past gone, I rarely went to the movies unless it was something I just HAD to see, or it was a special screening of a foreign film at the High. After having sat through bad movie after bad movie, I could tell you what was coming long before it ever happened on screen. I began to realize that every bad, or even mediocre, movie watched was 90-120+ minutes of my life that I could never have back. On the other hand, watching a movie on the big screen (and granted, I had become extremely spoiled at this point in time because I could very nearly always finangle my own private, or near private screening) is the only way to really enjoy a movie.



And so came the Great Movie Paradox: I want to watch a movie on the big screen, but I will not go see an unviewed movie at the movie theatre for fear that it will suck and I'll have wasted precious minutes of my life on major suckage. However, I won't watch a movie once it's out on DVD., because I only want to see movies on the big screen. The third factor in all this is that I really like movies. So while I really like movies, and love movies on the big screen, I refuse to go to the movies, or watch movies on DVD. (That last sentence was the distillation of the paradox, in case you were confused. A paradox, by the way, is a contradictory statement that nonetheless may very well be true, or one exhibiting contradictory aspects. Taureminis are known for being great personifiers of the paradox.)



I am certain I am not alone in my Great Movie Paradox. There must be other Great Movie Paradox believers out there! I'd bet my life on it.

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This is just a courtesy post. A courtesy post is a post whose sole purpose is existing as a post. In other words, this is a post of little or no substance.






Thank you, and goodnight.

Food is good






Tapas with someone I know well, three people I know mostly casually, and two people I knew not at all. Delightful! Drinks afterwards was fun too.






I have so many wonderful thoughts swirling around in my head. I think best when I'm busy. (Thank goodness I've been busy!)





Oh yeah, and this post counts as my Thursday post since I'm writing this just before bed.

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title




In one of my classes, I recognized my professor from his internet dating profile. I thought he looked like a pompous, insecure prick on his profile and guess what? In person, he's a pompous, insecure prick. Long-winded, too. An hour and fifteen minute long monologue every class. Absolutely no interaction with us students.



Thankfully, I was able to spend most of class today making eyes at the cutie across the room. I described him to CV yesterday as not conventionally cute, but hott in that Jack White kind of way. Slightly dirty looking, but not a I-forgot-to-shower-for-3-days dirty.



"Oh, I get it," CV said. "Like he had band practice an hour before class kind of dirty."



Exactly.



Also in that class is the hottie with the lip ring who's a member of my semester-long group project group. Swoon! I don't care that he's, like, 19 and from Alabama, dude is hott.



And I have a new gay boyfriend in one of my journalism classes. We had to interview each other today for a profile writing excercise. We got to find out all sorts of fun things about each other, like that he's a Virgo and I'm high-strung. It was lots of fun.

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