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 2002.12.08 EPISODE 12, in which we've only just begun to see the ugliness start
e're getting down to it now. One more week of classes, then exam week, then the semester's officially in the books. This means, of course, that it's time to get those big group projects done. We locked down the social network project on Friday night, deciding that we'd analyze what data we had and leave the rest for next semester's continuation. I did my last official interview on Monday, of yet another group with very few organizational ties, but I'm still trying to chase down some people that've been giving me the run around for interviews next week. We won't be able to use the data in our presentation on Tuesday but I'll get credit for it and it'll be one less thing the group has to do in the spring. Meanwhile, the 20-minute final presentation for 658 is also on Tuesday. We've altered our hypotheses and focal data points a million times in the past week or so, so it'll be interesting to see how this comes out. We're using different methods of analysis than the other groups, so hopefully that'll buy us some bonus points that we can spend on potential confusion during the presentation. Tomorrow I'll be nailing down the methods section and figuring out how best to define our variables without just reading what's on the Powerpoint slide. After Tuesday, it's a nice, slow slide to the end of the semester. I've got to do a short paper for 970 describing how my interviews fit into the overall network data and there's a 658 exam on Friday of exam week. With the end of the semester approaching, it's the end of the season for free rock shows at the Union. Friday brought a solo set from David Singer (of David Singer & the Sweet Science), some thrash-mo from the French Toast (featuring Jerry Busher, shadow member of Fugazi) and a technical difficulty-plagued set from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. None of it was terribly inspiring, though I might have bought the French Toast's CD if I'd had $7 on me. Instead, I wound up leaving a couple songs into the Leo material, when I realized that I didn't need to sit around and wait for a band I don't really care about to fix their equipment. Saturday I had to hit Best Buy to get some CD-R's. I didn't want to go then but, see, Best Buy had sent me 10% off coupons that were only good this weekend. So when I got there, the checkout line literally extended halfway to the back of the store. It was ridiculous. Huge sections of the CD, DVD and video game sections had been wiped out. People had more crap culture than they could carry -- it only worsened the headache I'd woken up with. Instead of going to campus that night to see the Owls and Euphone, I found myself passed out early in the evening, trying to sleep my head into rightness. I'm pretty sure I don't actually like the Owls -- I tend to confuse them with Owen, which features the same primary member, is on the same label and released its debut around the same time -- but it's the principle of the thing. Lack of sleep and crass capitalism shouldn't keep me from rocking out. Aaron Veenstra is the managing editor of Etc. House Productions and a Master's student in Journalism at the University of Wisconsin. |
