It must be spring quarter

Monday, April 4, 2005 » school update

So today in Japanese art history I was supposed to be discussing some slides with my partner-of-the-day, but we had run out of things to talk about so we mostly just observed the human catastrophe sitting in front of us. This guy and his cohort had been drawing my attention since the beginning of class, when he returned to his desk from the front of the room with a bewildered expression on his face. He turned to his friend and half-whispered, "Dude, everyone's turning in written shit," referring to the reading response due today. (Minigripes about this professor's weird journaling and partner discussion practices located here.) He then plopped down in his seat, donned a ridiculous grin, and slowly doubled over in silent laughter. Dude #2 murmured several sentences, each of which caused dude #1 to lean forward several inches further in hysteria.

The room then darkened and the projection screen began to extend down from the ceiling. Dude #1 turned completely around and looked at me with a crazed expression. He offered me a series of questions: "Are we going to watch a movie now??" Then, "Are you ready for this??" Then, "Are you ready for this??" He whipped back around to murmur to his friend.

"That guy is really drunk," my discussion partner whispered. "And it's 9:30 in the morning, on a Monday."

The rest of the lecture passed without any more pop quizzes from the dude, probably because he was too busy trying to snap surreptitious photos of the professor with his camera phone. (wtf) Then, a slide of the walkway leading up to a Buddhist temple entrance popped up on the screen. Dude turned to his friend and excitedly whispered, "Killbill!" All one word, just like that. His hand shot up enthusiastically and I braced for what I knew was coming as the professor called on him.

"So, uh..." he started. "I know the film Killbill is sort of unrelated, but, uhm... Is it possible that it could have, um, any effect on architecture, you know?"

The class sat in stunned silence. Even the professor paused for a second before responding.

"That, uh... That's something you could discuss with your partner, although it's completely irrelevant."

At the end of the period, I overheard the dude complaining to his friend about the class being "total third grade stupid bullshit." I wonder if he'll be back on Wednesday.