The ending *tears shed*

Its been a while since I have made a blog entry, but with such a hectic end to this already chaotic semester I couldn't find the time. This blog has come close to 800 views and it wouldn't be anything without people reading it so I thank you. As for the stuff you want to read and laugh at... back to Harbor College.

Well the last month or so has been pretty jam packed with essays and tests coming at me but it wasn't too bad. Why? Quite simply put, I have no life outside of going to school and exercising I guess that's what happens when you go to a JC. Somehow, I managed to get myself to the last week of school sitting in a nice position to pass all my classes and get myself to Cal State San Marcos. Everything leading up to this week was pretty standard there was the girl who dyed her hair a different color each week (pink, purple, lighter pink and finally dark pink), the clan of rolly backpacks, the fashions you'll later see sported by Victoria Secret Models and yes the simplicity of school.

5/29/12 : The 29th of May had finally arrived, it was going to be my most difficult final and one that I had spent many hours studying for. Philosophy as you can tell is not my cup of tea and I have no interest in it... kinda like the WNBA. Now thinking of it this philosophy class and the WNBA have many similarities, lets see here: boring, not many people care about either as in WNBA never sell out and are never on tv and no one is dumb enough to major in philosophy, if there was a lockout in the WNBA or if philosophers stopped caring about the world, no one would really be upset. Ok back to the final, the final was supposed to consist of 20 vocab words worth 3 points each, 60 points, then an in class essay worth 100 points and 10 multiple choice questions. Those vocab words were very easy to remember and I was anticipating a simple 60 points coming my way. The only thing that worried me was the in class essay which we had to write based off memory so I typed up an essay and, yes, memorized it.

So I roll into class and cram a little. 8 am comes and the professor, who closely resembles the winnebago man if you are familiar with him, comes into class in a piss poor mood. Why is he in a bad mood you may ask? Well it turns out he left the vocab test at home, however he thought he simply misplaced somewhere on campus. So he, like the amateur and ignorant fool he is, passed out the rest of the test and essay when he went to his car and office to hunt down the missing test. So obviously the students including myself, no did not cheat, just simply used our resources to complete the test. He eventually came back and told us how lucky we were. I got out of there in a half hour and hope I never have to take have to take a philosophy class again and never have to see that ungrateful, mean, grumpy old man who calls himself a professor. Oh and I got a B, so to answer the philosophers questions, I'm pretty sure there is a God. And only at harbor would a professor forget 1/3 of the final.... classic.

5/30/12 : Wednesday wasn't that grand so ill sum it up quickly. Didn't have to take my theatre final as I had a 103% making me exempt. Math final was slightly difficult but I managed it with a little help from my trusty _____ ______. You can fill in the blanks. English was decent we wrote an essay and I just rambled on, and I'll admit I had checked out by the time I got to that class.

Well that's it folks, its been a good ride and I have enjoyed blogging and letting you hear about my experiences. And remember if you ever have to go to a JC like harbor, if I survived a year then you can too.

Chapter 9: Week 11

Wednesday 4/25/12 : Wednesday started fantastically well as I was able to sleep in till 9 which was great. Not having to go to theatre and put up with all that nonsense in there can make any day good. Math class was pretty pointless I grasped the new section with ease and got out of class 10 minutes early. While walking to my car I walked past the culinary arts school and an African American woman had just left the building and was walking in front of me. Without knowing I or anyone else was behind her she started saying stuff fairly loud. The rest goes as follows... "I THOUGHT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO RAIN!!" as soon as I heard this I began to chuckle and sped up and got right next to her and said, "yeah they lied it's not raining" and her response was "YEAH I AINT TRIPPIN I KNEW THEY SAID THAT!" and without her being able to see the grin on my face at how funny she sounded I responded by saying, "yeah it's really hot today." I thought the conversation would be over but the best was yet to come... her response was "YEAH I GOT THESE THICK GYM SOCKS ON! AH MAN!" she babbled on some more but I couldn't make out what she said and I distanced myself from her. This outrageous lady and her funny lines brightened my day and I went to English in a good mood.

Expecting to get our essays back graded... finally... I sat in down in class and waited anxiously. He started class by saying, "I have some good news and bad news, which do you want first?" We all answered bad news and he told us he had yet to finish grading our essays (we turned in the essays March 28th). Now because he felt bad for us not getting our essays back on time, he then said we did not have time to take our midterm. This whole school year, I've had a grand total of ONE midterm. However, this gets better. Not only were we not going to have a midterm, he was going to give everyone 100% on it which counts for 5% of our entire grade. This is totally unheard of and I was stoked. 

Thursday 4/26/12 : Thursdays are always pretty lame, usually because I wake up at 6:30 to go to the weight room and then have philosophy immediately after. Well weight room was once again canceled and I got to school at the regular time of 7:45. Walking to philosophy I was lucky enough to be behind a group of three people. Yes... that girl is wearing overalls. I had no idea people still wore those, let alone in college. It seems like every week there is some new fashion statement and I highly doubt anything tops this. But yeah, the overalls, backpack on one shoulder, slip on vans and light blue socks is pretty sexy... unfortunately I did not get her number but who knows maybe next time! 

Chapter 8: Week 9

Wednesday 4/11/12 : The week started off well, probably due to the extra Monday we had off. It is quite amazing how much better the week is when you don't have school on Monday. I urge you guys just take one Monday off and you will notice a difference. Well Wednesday started and I went to theatre to deal with el gordo himself (the theatre teacher). We had a quiz on Oedipus which was a complete joke because I had already read it in high school so that was an easy 25 out of 25. I did not pay attention the rest of class because it is a waste of time.
Before I move on to my next class let me tell you about a new way I have come up with of entertaining myself. I time myself to and from school. Please do not assume that I am breaking a large amount of traffic codes because I am a good kid I would never do such a thing. Well anyways it gives me a reason to go to school because it becomes fun trying to beat previous "course records". I set a new course record right off the bat Wednesday with a time of 7:07.6 going to school... not too shabby. Leaving theatre I timed it perfectly and made it home in an amazing 7:01.7... if soccer doesn't work out look for me in NASCAR.
Math has been pretty boring lately as we have been learning Matrices, which are a huge pain the butt. We received our tests from the previous section and I am happy to say I am sitting nicely with an 88% in the class. Sometimes I worry about that class because the teacher is really bad and puts questions on the test that we have never seen before... oh well that's Harbor for you.
Already in a good mood thanks to that nice grade report I asked myself could my day get any better? Well at English we were bound to get our essays back and I was kind of nervous about my grade. Low and behold, we did not get our essays back because our teacher had strep throat all spring break so he never got around to grading them. Before class started a counselor came in and began talking to us about some silly fair he was putting on. Little did he know he had already talked to our class about the same thing but he went on anyways. This guy is a total goon and overly enthusiastic. There's that old saying, "take a chill pill"... well maybe he should take one. Half way through his presentation he asked if anyone had heard him speak because he has been to a lot of classes and our teacher responded saying, "yeah man you've already done this in here". This was really funny and he was totally embarrassed and I actually got the conversation on tape (just the sound).

Thursday 4/12/12 : I went to Philosophy at 8 am. I was so anxious to see what I got on my test, because I was pretty sure I got a perfect score or something close to it. Why am I so confident? Well the teacher accidentally posted the first 29 answers online so all I had to find out were the remaining 11 questions... pretty easy. Well I ended up getting a perfect score which brought my lowly average of 71% in the class to a 78% which is a really nice cushion to have. When I arrived in class however I noticed a girl with a lovely and trendy, if you will, fashion statement. Now Harbor has had some good fashion statements but I don't think anything tops this... Here we go

This African American female in my philosophy class was wearing large gold earrings that took up much of her ear lobe. She also had a nice nose piercing, one of those little hoops a la Michael Jordan. Attached to the earring was a gold chain.............. which was also attached to the nose ring so the chain dangled and times and then when in a seated position it would hang across her face. Why would someone wear that? I have no clue but it was the icing on the cake of another great week at Harbor College..... I believe in miracles where you from you sexy thing sexy thing you.....

Chapter 7: Week 8 halfway through second semester

Monday 3/26/12 : Started the week with little motivation. Why? Because Thursday would be the last day before spring break. So I went to theatre and all we did was watch a movie called A Raisin In the Sun. I don't know about you but I had never heard of it, probably because it was a play and also wasn't good. Walking back to my car after that class I ran into something I have yet to seen at Harbor College.

Yes, that is a gang of rolly back packs. And yes indeed they are rolling deep... no pun intended. The rolly backpack is by far my favorite thing about Harbor and to see them migrating in threes was really classic. I also like how they are rolling in a v kind of like one of my favorite movies the Mighty Ducks.

Wednesday and Thursday 3/28, 3/29 : Wednesday didn't really have anything going on besides turning in my first essay for English. It was also the teacher's birthday so he was being really cool. Let me remind you as long as you turn in the essay the day it is due, you can rewrite it until you get an A. Since it was his birthday and we turned in the essay he let us out 20 minutes into class and I was really happy. 

I set my alarm for 6:30 am to get to weight lifting at 7 am. I woke up and rolled over and looked at my phone to see a text saying weight lifting was canceled. So far so good I got an extra half hour of sleep which felt like about 2 minutes... hate that. Well on I went to school and was not looking forward to Philosophy. The class was totally empty as it was the day before Spring break. "Mr. Novak" began class by mentioning he accidentally posted the answers to the test online and that a few students were fortunate to see that and will obviously do well on the test. In this class every test we have is a take home exam but they are still really difficult so I was really bummed I didn't see the answers posted and kept kicking myself for that. The class went by and again I didn't learn anything but he did promise those who came, which was about 15 of us, would get extra credit on the next test. On my way out I took the same route to my car and was walking next to a kid in the class. We had a friendly conversation and I asked him about the test and low and behold he was one of the students who got the answers and had the pages printed in his binder. He let me take pictures of the exam and to say that I was stoked would be an understatement. Take that "Mr. Novak"!  

This day was already great and I could honestly say it was the best day I've had this semester. But could it get better, or would Harbor let me down like always? I journeyed to my math class and guess what? The teacher had lost her voice so the class was going to be a complete joke. She struggled explaining the curriculum as her voice was more quiet than a whisper. She didn't assign an in class assignment and I couldn't have drawn up a better way to start Spring break. 

The first half of this semester has been quite eventful and I'm sure I'll have more to write about when I return from Spring break. Thanks for reading the blog, really appreciate it. 

Chapter 6: Week 7

Monday 3/19/12 : I woke up not necessarily looking forward to another week at harbor... but who could blame me right? As I walked to class with my friend Brian, we were saying how great it would be if the theatre teacher didn't show up. So when we got to class our hopes of that happening looked like they were going to come true as I didn't see a man wearing a very feminine pink polo with a pot belly... yes that's his style. Well he didn't show and I was out of there in a record 8 minutes so I drove on home and took a nap which later would turn out to be incredibly helpful. Usually when I go back to school for my third class of the day, English at 2:20, I am completely drained and want to sleep. However for the first time all semester I felt rejuvenated and it was incredible how quickly class went by. To be honest I don't know if it was because I was having a good time on instagram (@zmirons9) or I was wide awake. Monday was pretty solid and the week was looking promising.

Wednesday 3/21/12 : Again I woke up hoping the theatre teacher wouldn't show up, but of course he did. In this class there are plenty of obnoxious students whose only goals in life seem to be trying to impress the teacher by analyzing simple, irrelevant plays that a kid in the 6th grade would have little difficultly doing. To your right you will see one of those kids that annoy me all day long. If you can't see, yes he is wearing a childish panda beanie with ears that come down to his waist. AND and classy leather jacket... quite the combo if I do say so myself. Now I didn't have any experience in project runway, but I know that's not a great outfit.
Skipping over my math class because I don't like to write about that, because it bores me. As I was leaving school after math I took an alternate route going home because they were doing construction on my normal route. So I flew down Anaheim and as soon as I passed Normandie I looked to my right and saw a Mexican male walking his dogs. He was wearing a classic gray tank top which made his pecs look like breasts and had long hair. I did a double take and noticed he was carrying something in his hand. What could it be? Don't bother guessing because you would never come up with the right answer. Yes, he was carrying a trumpet... yeah a trumpet. This was arguably the most random thing I have seen in my life and was really bummed that I couldn't take a picture. So after my hour and a half long break at home I drove back over to Harbor College. I pulled into the parking lot and got a spot in the shade. I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed the sheriff talking and about to arrest someone. Now who could be getting arrested on campus? YES SIR! The dog walking, trumpet playing, Mexican male!!! I couldn't believe my eyes! I was so shocked that I encountered him again.

The picture is kind of hard to see but the guy on the left with the breasts is him. And you can faintly see the trumpet on the hood of the car. Well whatever he did, whether that be sound pollution or animal cruelty (thanks Erin) the cops were not happy with him. A few minutes passed and I guess he talked his way out of the situation and was off walking his dogs again and playing a beautiful tune on his trumpet. I dedicate this post to you Trumpet man, until next time my friend... keep up the good work.

Chapter 5: Week 5

Monday 3/5/12 : Woke up at that sweet time of 7 am on the button, showered and went to the borefest called Theatre. From the boring redundant lectures to the lack of leg room, I can't decide what my favorite aspect of the class is! Anyways we watched a performance on video from the Reduced Shakespeare Company and I played Scramble with Friends for a majority of the class. The video consisted of every play by Shakespeare condensed into 90 minutes or something like that. It had as many cheesy jokes as rolly backpacks seen at Harbor College... yeah a ton. Being told that we had a quiz next class on "An enemy of the people" by Henrik Ibsen, I thought it would be a good idea to get the book. Na I'll pick it up later, I am going to go home and relax. The rest of the day went by smoothly and I eventually purchased the book for a mere $7.56, yes a total waste I might add.

Tuesday 3/6/12 : There is now a better way to start off your mornings... no not a hearty breakfast, but an hour and a half long philosophy class. If you didn't catch on that last sentence was oozing with sarcasm. We turned in our take home test which was pretty difficult to be honest and some of the students got harassed because they got the wrong scantron... classic. That class went by, like always, I learned nothing but enjoyed some of the sarcastic comments from the kids sitting near me. I left class in a hurry to get to my car because I wanted to get home and relax again. On my way to the car I encounter some trendy... not not rolly back packs... but uggs.

Now these caught my attention. I mean the purple is great, but they also have some glitter and the metallic appearance. For the ladies out there reading this, I urge you to invest in a pair I promise you'll get a lot of attention and they go well with basically anything. Another great fashion statement.... HARBOR COLLEGE SWAG!

Wednesday 3/7/12 : Started the morning off with a test in theatre on the awful play called "an enemy of the people" as previously mentioned above. Easily got a perfect score by using sparknotes to find out who the characters were. Sparknotes were about as clutch as me whipping out my phone and snapping pictures of the rolly backpacks and cute uggs. Anyways that class tugged along and he posted our grades. Looking for my grade through the swarm of people, I came to find that I had 369 points out of a possible 370. Now let me fast forward to after school when I told Julie, my mom, about this. After stating the amount of points I had, she asked, "is that an A?" Really? Come on J, what a classic moment.

In math we have continued to go over stuff that I learned way back in Ms. Stengel's Algebra 2 class sophomore year. I sit in that class and it's literally silent, and when she asks questions no one says a thing. So I kind of got fed up with it and have started to show off my intelligence and answer every question while everyone sits in awe at how I came up with such a simple answer. For example, we went over completing the square, one of my favorite things in math due to its simplicity and no offense to others but they just sit there and don't have a clue to what is going on. No wonder why I qualified for any math class offered at Harbor College.

Basically English was as classic as ever with "Mr. Harrington" rambling on about how school is pointless and I love every bit of it. Two quotes from the class by "Mr. Harrington" that I am still laughing about. "If a marathon of cribs comes on, I will sit there all day and watch. I also have seen every episode of Jersey Shore... I just really love those shows, they interest me." "People want nationwide health care, do you really want the people who run the DMV to run our health care?" The first quote is just classic of who this teacher is and the second one is right on the money. I'll keep politics out of this but he is totally right.

At 7 pm I went back to Harbor College to see a play for a theatre assignment. First of all I'll start by saying I was really annoyed that it interfered with me watching the clippers game which is far more important. Anyways I knew this would be a waste of my time but it will get that assignment taken care of. So it was called the "Lively art" or something, I don't really know but it started off and I knew it wasn't going to be anything special. I had my phone by my side checking the clippers game a la ESPN commercials where the guy at dinner checks the game instead of paying attention to his girlfriend, but in my case the girlfriend was this garbage play. So there was something like 12 separate performances and some of it was a little funny but overall it was average at best. The last scene was completely outrageous with people from the crowd emerging to sing some Indian tribal song. So mesmerized, I wanted to get up and sing myself and if the theatre teacher wasn't the director I honestly might have.

Thursday (3/8/12) : Thursday was just like all the other Thursday's. Attended philosophy class, everyone got destroyed by the first test, including myself but I managed to squeak out a C. Math was pointless  yet again and I did the same thing as Wed. When I came home from my lovely beach run, might I add that it was an absolute gorgeous day, I checked my email to come across probably the most prestigious award I've ever won.

WOW, I qualified for the Dean's Honor list!!!!! After reading the email a second time, I noticed that you can take 6 units and qualify. Uhhh two classes, are you serious? That is probably the easiest thing ever. I am truly humbled by this award and will probably celebrate by eating at chilis with my gift card. What a way to end my day, man oh man still can't get over how great that is! 

The incoveniences of Harbor College

This section will be a list of all the irritating things about the school and how it is run:

1. Transcripts: I needed an official transcript to send to a school for soccer. I went to the admissions office to see how I could get my Fall transcript so they had me fill out this card. I was very confused because the people at Harbor College are often as helpful as those employees of the DMV. So I asked a few questions and could tell the lady was kind of irritated so I walked away and filled out the card. I opted for the 3 dollar transcript for obvious reasons and gave the woman the card containing the information. She said I would get my transcript in a week and it would be mailed to my house.... why? I was too frustrated to even care so I said that was fine, but then she said I couldn't get my transcript because I hadn't paid my SPRING tuition yet.... what kind of stupid rule is that?!? What does the spring tuition have anything to do with getting a Fall transcript????

The following week after I paid my Spring tuition, I went back to get my transcript... again I filled out the card, this time opting for the 10 dollar one I could pick up right then and there. However that wasn't the case. I had to take some paper to the cashiers office which is a decent enough walk from the admissions office. Pay for the transcript there, wait in that lame line, then go back to get my transcript. Surely there is a better and more efficient way of doing that, but nope this is Harbor College.

2. Buying books: Since I don't walk around with hundreds of dollars in cash, I buy my books with a check. Every time you buy one of these overpriced books from the classy bookstore with a check, you must have a meaningless printout of your classes. Why? I don't really know but that is just another stupid rule they have implemented to frustrate the students. And every time I go to buy a book, I always seem to forget about the printout and then they send me to the cashiers office just like the transcripts and have me get a printout which costs a dollar (if you didn't figure out the philosophy problem this is where the missing dollar went... to harbor college).

3. The ease of communicating with Harbor College Employees: I call Harbor College, the DMV of colleges. Everyone that works in the front offices seems to be super grumpy and having a really bad day. However on rare occasions you encounter a compassionate being there to help you out. The ratio of unkind to kind employees is approximately 7:1. Just like the DMV, the employees want nothing to do with you, but yet it's their job? Maybe you should work some place where you don't have to deal with communicating and helping others... just a suggestion.

Chapter 4: Week 3 and some serious fashion statements

Day 1 (2/21) : Day 1 was very pleasant and "Mr. Novak" was back in class today, however this time he was much more kind. Did he take off last class to get a massage to relieve stress? I think so and I'll stick by that assumption. Well philosophy was as pointless as ever because we have been going over the first 15 pages in the book for the third straight week now. When we aren't talking about foolish philosophers from way back in the day we are looking at riddles. The one we got last class was as follows: Three guests check into a hotel room. The clerk says the bill is $30, so each guest pays $10. Later the clerk realizes the bill should only be $25. To rectify this, he gives the bellhop $5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room, the bellhop realizes that he cannot divide the money equally. As the guests didn't know the total of the revised bill, the bellhop decides to just give each guest $1 and keep $2 for himself. Now that each of the guests has been given $1 back, each has paid $9, bringing the total paid to $27. The bellhop has $2. If the guests originally handed over $30, what happened to the remaining $1?
That problem is far less complicated than it seems and you could solve it by doing simple math. If you get the answer quickly, I applaud you because I didn't quite understand it at first.

The rest of the day was just like any other normal day, everything went according to plan I took my math test, ran a snake at practice and then scrimmaged.... classic Barlow.


I did encounter something that made me reminisce about my elementary school days... no not a child playing with other children, no not a pb&j sandwich (although I even had those in my lunch in high school), BUT THE CLASSIC ROLLY BACKPACK....

Here are two pictures of the rolly backpack being used by those adult students I've previously mentioned. Now the one on the left is just brilliant. It is being used by a 60 year old woman (or so) but is it really a rolly backpack.... NO! It is actually a lovely multicolor suitcase... true innovation on her part, well done. Now the one on the right is also great but for a different reason. She's matching so well! You got the nice red sweatsuit going with the rolly backpack... honestly I can't think of anything better than that. This week was pretty ordinary, but as they say "quality over quantity".

Chapter 3: My birthday, Week 2

Saturday and Sunday 2/11, 2/12: Saturday I slept in which was much needed and ended my night by treating myself to some panda express. Knowing my birthday was soon I was hoping that my fortune had something nice written. I cracked open the cookie and this is what it said:

Could it be that the "refreshing change in my future" was to get in a new English class and out of my old one?!?! I kept a hold of that and pinned it on the refrigerator.
 With my birthday being the 13th, all of Sunday I could only think about getting my name drawn out of the hat on Monday. I am not joking when I say all I wanted for my birthday was the add slip to "Mr. Harrington's" class. I would have gladly traded any gift I received for the add slip.

Day 1, Week 2. (2/13 my birthday) : I woke up really tired due to the lack of sleep I got the night before. I couldn't stop thinking about that darn English class. I hardly noticed the tp job my sister did or the signs posted on my door. I rolled into the shower and was off to school. I finished my first two classes for the day and went home to get some food then go back to school for math class. When I was getting back in my car I noticed I had the fall parking pass for Harbor instead of the Spring one posted on my windshield. Was today my lucky day? I didn't get a ticket now the only thing I need is the add slip. Math class was pretty standard, we went over factoring and I paid little attention and went back home. Now was the defining moment would I get in or would I have to endure peer edit groups and tons of drafts? I pulled into the parking lot, parked in the same spot I did the previous two times I came to the class. Yes this was the first time I was being superstitious and what the heck it was worth a shot. I got into the class and there were still 15 kids trying to add! "Mr Harrington" announced there were only 4 spots available. My heart was in my mouth as he began to draw names out of a hat. He went over to a student and asked him to draw a name, I was sitting diagonally behind him when he drew the first name......................

Uhhhh *looking at the name* Zack Irons. I gave a fist pump and announced that it was my birthday. I would say that is some good birthday karma! No more Nazi general, no more peer editing, no more drafts, no more of her stupid class! I turned the add slip in and was on my way, I gotta say today was a good day... and my best birthday so far.

Thursday (2/16) : I will skip to this day because the two days prior were sub par and not worth my time. The day started off with me deciding to go to the weight room for soccer at 7 am. From the weight room I went to "Mr. Novak's" philosophy class. Of course I was not looking forward to the class and as soon as I walked in the room I realized he wasn't in there. It was about 7 minutes to 8 am and usually he has been there for a half hour. Maybe he was in his office and would show up any minute. The clock kept ticking away and most of the students stared at it hoping he wouldn't show. Now it was past 8 am so he was LATE! Yes the guy who talked about how rude it was to be late and even asked us if we would be annoyed if he showed up late saying he wouldn't do that. Well students from the class rolled into class late anticipating verbal abuse from "Mr. Novak". But every time they looked towards his desk there was a huge sigh of relief because he wasn't there. Now it was 10 past 8 and people were starting to talk loads of garbage about the teacher including myself. "You should plan for traffic, traffic isn't an excuse to be late" I heard one kid say. Another one mocked how he said "If you're a minute late, you're absent". This brought a nice vibe into the classroom. A couple more minutes go by and eventually he doesn't show up to the pleasure of everyone in the class. We all leave and the day was off to a fantastic start.........................

Now fast forward to soccer practice at 1 pm. There was a college coach there to watch our practice so a ton of people showed up looking to impress him. Now this coach was from a division three school and I can't say that I was too interested. But anyways many of the other players wanted to put on a show..... including a man in his mid 30s perhaps. Clearly this guy had never played soccer in his life, here is what he was wearing from top to bottom: A black do-rag, dark t-shirt, camouflage cargo shorts... yes camouflage cargo shorts, and knee high socks Josh McRoberts of the Lakers wears. Obviously this guy was past his prime but he gave a solid effort and I respect that.

Week 2 didn't really have anything that compared to how classic the mother and son were but that's life and as Mick Jagger said, "you can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes you might find You get what you need"

Chapter 2: Week 1, Spring Semester

Day 1 (2/6/12) :
         The first day of spring semester was incredibly awful. It was the first day going back to school after a very lengthy winter break which lasted two months. I woke up bright and early at 7 am to get to school at 8 am for my Theatre 100 class. Half asleep I strolled into the the theatre room anticipating a bore fest involving horrendous plays. However as he began to go over the class syllabus he stated that we would write essays... 1 page essays on short films and all topics would be answered with your opinion so there would be no wrong answer. I thought to myself wow what a brilliant way to start off the day.
           Well that luck turned into misfortune as soon as I walked into my English 101 class taught by the lovely (sarcasm) "Ms. Stevens". As soon as she entered the building she demanded that everyone trying to add the class should leave. Greattttt can't wait for a semester with this unkind, strict Nazi. The main focus of her class was writing. However her writing involved a lengthy process of drafts and revisions, meaning there would be 3 drafts per essay and for each draft you would have to bring in 3 copies for group peer editing. Already this was sounding a bit far fetched I mean this is Harbor College not a prestigious 4 year university. Anyways she proceeded with her syllabus and stated that after each revision the essay must be changed by 70%. If my math is correct that would leave 30% of the previous draft, so therefore you would basically write a whole nother essay. No offense to the students at Harbor College, but I don't really trust their judgement of whether my essay is quality or not. I left that class in a pissy mood dreading the fact that I would have to abide by her stupid writing strategy and rolled on over to my math class.
             I patiently waited outside of my math class "people watching". I didn't have too much luck until strangely a woman in her 50's we will say walked towards the classroom door with a kid probably the same age as me by her side. I did a quick double take and couldn't believe my eyes! It was a mom with her son!! This is college not elementary school... now I am almost certain he did not have disabilities as he appeared to be perfectly normal. The mom asked a girl standing near the classroom if it was "Ms. Jones's" class, she didn't know and the mother and son went on their merry way.
           The rest of the day passed with nothing as spectacular or astonishing as the mother and son combo but I did make an attempt to add another English Class (ya you guessed it the good ol 20 students over full capacity). I told myself I would do anything in my power to add this class taught by a teacher with a personality the complete opposite of the Nazi general. I finally came home after being at school from 8am-6pm (breaks in between a few classes) and went to sleep still mesmerized by that mother and son, still can't get over how weird that was.


Day 2 (2/7/12) : I woke up at 6:15 dreading the fact that I had to be at the weight room for soccer. If you were wondering, I am not the least bit a morning person. Well the day actually started off well and I had a good time pumping iron and soon I was off to the marvelous class of philosophy! I walked into the classroom and the first thing I noticed was a 50-60 year old man sitting in the front row (at harbor college, many adults take classes too) and then guessed that he was about the same age as the teacher. Class started a couple minutes after 8 and a grumpy old man started to speak. He laid down the law which was as follows: Being late is incredibly rude, so if you are a minute late to my class you are therefore absent. I only allow 3 absences so be on time!!!! As you could probably guess, I wasn't exactly thrilled with this class so far. "Mr. Novak" continued ranting about things and people looked scared as they should be. Then this eccentric man did something that caught everyone off guard. He put this battery powered cigarette in his mouth and exhaled smoke which he said was water vapor. He continued talking about how awesome that device is and that he doesn't smell like smoke anymore so his wife kisses him... ya too much info my friend. I left that class finally and moved on to math...
                      My math class has a total of 15 students I would say. So far this was one of the highlights of my schedule. We started off by reviewing algebra, no not curriculum from algebra 2 but stuff I think I learned in 7th or 8th grade. Here is my first math assignment

And when I say kids had questions in class the next day, I am being completely serious. So day 2 was pretty successful and a walk in the park except for that philosophy class.

Day 3 and 4 (2/8, 2/9) : Due to the small number of things worth writing about for day 3 and 4 I will go ahead and combine it into one post. Nothing exciting happened in theatre class so we will move on to East Germany aka English 101. "Ms. Stevens" rolled into class looking her usual unappealing self, this time with bangs. Now I am not going to say that I am a fashion guru but I do know when someones hair looks hideous (and yes that is my opinion of bangs). She started off class by telling everyone how disrespectful it was to have your backpack on your desk and that no one should ever do it in her class. Clearly I tuned her out because that is just silly advice. Anyways I zoned out all class and dreamed of going back and using ratemyprofessors.com to see which English teacher was quality. Oh another thing that irritated me about this class was that she collected notes you took, since when in college are notes collected and graded? Come on this is just getting out of hand. So I left that class, again in a piss poor mood. Later on I went to that other English class looking to add and of course he said he would draw names out of a hat (there it is again) on Monday.
On to day 4 the only thing that really grinded my gears was when i attempted to get an official transcript from the admissions office. At the admissions office the workers are about as nice as the people who work at my favorite place in the world the DMV. Although you do sometimes get some sweethearts that I would like to thank for being so kind. So the woman had me fill out a card with name address etc. So while she processed my information she told me I couldn't get my fall trascript because I hadn't paid the spring tuition. What kind of rule is that?!? What does spring have anything to do with a transcript from the previous semester? Oh well the weekend had officially started and I got the heck out of Wilmington.

Chapter 1: background info, recapping the first semester

Don’t think of this as a blog, think of this simply as the adventures I go through at the beautiful campus of Los Angeles Harbor College. I will be retelling the things I see, encounter and have to go through daily.

 There’s an old saying about students that attend a Junior College: “There is a reason they are there.”

I’ll begin by saying I came to this wonderful Junior College via Cal State Dominguez Hills. Not in a million years did I think I would be attending Harbor College... but here I am.

 For those unfamiliar with the school, it is located in Wilmington right beside the 110 freeway. Recent construction has improved the campus but the students that go there are as bizarre as before.

 Unfortunately I am just now starting to compile events so we are without most of the history from the previous semester... but here are some of the highlights:

• I arrive on the first day of school with no classes, or a clue to what I am in for. I walk into classes with 20 more students than seats available. Eventually get two add slips and I am up to an incredible 6 units (add slips are given to students looking to add the class because they weren’t enrolled in it previously. The way teachers decide to add people to a class is by drawing names out of a hat... yeah I know real original)
• After enrolling in 15 units (somehow I managed to get 4 classes plus soccer making 5) I settled into my classes. It was quite funny how the classes that previously had 20 students over full capacity dropped to 20 below full capacity. Now what made this happen? Was school too difficult or was it due to financial reasons? I’ll let you decide what financial exactly means if you catch my drift.      
• The commonly used nickname for Harbor College, “Harbor High” soon proved itself due to the simplicity of school. I breezed through the first couple months and then hit an impasse as I became complacent and my grade in health of all classes began to suffer... or did it? As soon as finals rolled around I was sure I would end up with 2 As a B and most likely a C, yes a C, in health. Before I go on, remember at Harbor College, finals are just chapter tests. Anyways, I calculated my grade just as I had done in high school and saw it would be a 78 and had to ace the final to receive a B in Health. The final turned out to be 25 questions and I seemed to do well. Weeks later I went online to look at my grades and low and behold... an A in health. Don’t ask me how that happened I am still wondering too.  

The semester ended with me getting grades I did not expect to earn but oh well that’s what happens. And for those who think this blog is starting slow and might not be eventful, I assure you it will pick up ...