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 ...