Brian's World

Parent Weekend Problems [PWP]

Yesterday was a terrible day. I don’t like to complain 24/7 in all of my blogs but I apologize. You should not read this if you are not in the mood to hear me complain about lots of things in a very vague way. I don’t like pointing fingers so I throw darts with my eyes closed… at least thats the illusion I shall try to create.

This weekend was “Parents Weekend”, which is RPI’s attempt at convincing parents to continue spending a large amount of money to send their children there. It works well, you “have fun” with your parents for the weekend, RPI charges a little less, and then your parents pay semester 2’s bill. Smart plan. My parents didn’t arrive until Saturday morning, so we got together ~10:00am, went on a duck tour of troy/albany until 2:30pm. It was nice, I learned a few things, most of which I’ve already forgotten. My parents got to see my room, which was very very awkward. Typical of my parents to make formal introductions to my roommate, and have everyone gang up on me that my sweatshirt was too small. They didn’t comment on my room setup or anything which I found odd, but whatever. Mom of course gave me a “goodie” bag. Goodie is in quotes because only 4/9 of the snacks inside are things I would consider eating. You would think after 18 years she would have noticed I have never ever ever touched a Cheeto. I have five items to give away, if you would like one of multiple of them please let me know ASAP. They are as follows:

1. Twix Bar, 2.o oz
2. 3 Musketeers Bar, 2.3 oz
3. Bag of Cheetos, 1.0 oz
4. Bag of Red Doritos, 1.0 oz
5. Bag of Blue Doritos, 1.0 oz

So yea, let me know if you would like any of that and I can make it happen.

The Hockey Game was also Saturday night, which I volunteered to help out filming with. My parents had tickets to the game so they went, but ditched me leaving 5 minutes early (RPI won in some form of overtime). They said goodbye over the phone, not planning to stop by on Sunday morning (they were staying overnight in a hotel).

Filming presented several interesting situations, most of which did little to boost my low mood. But I guess I learned a few things, sure it wasn’t super helpful PHP functions or anything of the sort, but I believe learning anything is good. The more we learn the more we can think, at least thats my philosophy. I will never decline data, regardless of if I dislike the outcome of processing that data. With an large amount of data, and an large ability to process that data, we can accurately predict everything ever.

Sorry, I drifted off topic as usual. I’m not sure how I want to approach this without being blunt, something I’m not a fan of doing. I guess its safe to say this isn’t a one time incident, I’ve been noticing these issues for a little while… and Saturday I guess I finally had enough data to reach some conclusions; or at least thats how it seems to me. I’ve never been a huge fan of sports, they don’t excite me a lot, I don’t watch much sports or play any, but I recognize them as one of the staple productions of RPI TV. As an RPI TV member I help out with productions, and most of the time I have a moderately pleasant time doing so.

I volunteer for one main reason, to help out. I don’t volunteer to stand there, I don’t volunteer to get in for free, I don’t volunteer to take up space; and I try my hardest to put forth as much effort as possible. If there is one way to upset me, its to prevent me from putting forth my best effort and attempts to help out. You’re correct, I haven’t been filming sport productions since last year, but if you feel playing the numbers game is the way to base comparisons I’m moderately confident I’ve filmed more than most people (based on the weekly Senate meetings). You would be wrong to assume that I have memorized the setup for sporting events, but you would be also wrong to assume that since I don’t have the setup memorized I’m incapable of helping in it. I think it comes down to an issue of equality possible, yes all members are equal, but some members seem to be treated more equal than others.

Ok, all Animal Farm jokes aside I might have a point. We’ll see where it goes, I’m frustrated at the fact that things seem to repeat themselves in the long (not endless) loop where we repeat ourselves every time. Change is good sometimes, not essential, nor does change have to be a large alteration. Lately productions have been good, I won’t lie… the graphics used for sports are 87% cool, but I’m interested in seeing if we can make things better. Ya know what.. there is a chance that changing things will make everything worse, but thats a chance I’m comfortable taking. I’m not working for ESPN, I’m a student involved in a group. If we can’t find ourselves flexible enough to manage the overhead associated with change who can?

Don’t read this and think I am calling for some type of revolution or coup d’etat; I’m interested in little changes. Small steps can go a big way to making things better, and I think RPI TV is at the point where large steps might be difficult to make, but small ones are certainly a possibility.

I dislike not being allowed to think, no Charlie, I’m not pulling this on you. [Charlie told us we were not allowed to think this weekend, he would do that all for us.. but I don’t want people to assume I am referencing him even though he conveniently said that]. I enjoy the ability to move my arms left, right, up, and down at my own free will. They might not always move in the way they are expected to, or wanted to move in, but hey, they will move, and I will try my best to move then in what I think is the right direction. I have a different philosophy here than most directors I know. But this is a subject for a complete other blog, I wouldn’t want to throw all my cards on the table at once. Feel free to ask if you please, as always.

I’m debating my involvement in future sporting productions, but I know people will correlate this with my involvement in the club, a very incorrect correlation. No one gives credit to the Senate meetings, ok that was a lie.. few people give credit to the Senate meetings. Personally I give more credit to the Senate, mainly because I have an issue supporting large men who get paid to exercise and hit each other and then get to go partying afterwards. I would much rather support some people engaging, in somewhat intelligent debate, given the Senate is pretty unintelligent sometimes. I feel the need to be involved, and from a human resources view we don’t always have spare people on hand, so I would much rather be there and help then have a production go roughly.

I have reinvigorated my thoughts of a weekly news show, nothing fancy, just news. With the right approach maybe college students could be trained to care. I know, this production will be down near the Senate meetings on a list of shows with validity, but thats not my problem. I’m going to start aggregating RSS feeds, let the news come to me.

For some reason I was lonely today, Sunday, morning when I woke up. I felt unsatisfied that my parents were in the area but not super willing to see me. Who knows what is going wrong, maybe its the whole Dad-semi retiring thing that is messing things up, or mom turning 55? on Wednesday. Wow, I can’t remember how old I am. Hrm, this isn’t good. Whew, Myspace to save the day. But yea, I felt lonely.

I did get a lot of work done on Katie’s video for college, its pretty awsome. I’m excited to show it to her, I hope she likes it.

I should be heading to bed soon, class tomorrow.

Goodnight moon, sleep tight.