EX Class Day 2: Short Days and Boring Protagonists

Wednesday was fairly uneventful.  As I entered class, I had just come from sitting in Coor's Computing Commons for about 2 hours, and I was dying for something to do.  Of course, when I entered class and sat down, I didn't realize that I would be there for only a total of maybe 30 minutes.  We got together in our groups, and my first thought was, "What should these people call me?"  When I looked at the list of people in the class, I noticed that there were at least 4 other people with the name "Benjamin", the same name as mine.  So in a split second decision, I chose to have my fellow classmates call me "Artie".  That means that when they see the name of this blog, they'll instantly link it to me because no one else in the class has the same name as me.  I also have always wanted someone to call me Artie in a real life setting.  So two birds with one stone there.

My group seemed nice enough, and we exchanged nervous pleasantries as we introduced ourselves.  I must admit that even now I have a hard time remembering any of the names of the people in my group.  But of course I only spoke for them for less time than an average bus ride.  So as we shuffled along to stand in line to get our photo taken, I began to try and figure out exactly what I wanted to be for my group.  Was I going to be the joker that gave everyone the energy to push through the tough assignments?  Was I the guy who was going to buckle down and do the work, or was I the guy who was going to sit back and do nothing. Figuring that doing nothing would get me an F in the class, I figured that trying to help the group with whatever needed to be done seemed like the best option.  So that's what I plan to do.

For the reading assigned to our group, I'm starting at the beginning of the book, The Stranger, and I find myself feeling rather annoyed by the main character.  While I have very little idea where he is from and what language he is speaking in the books initial translation, I imagine him as a stereotypical French man.  And I don't want people thinking I believe this stereotype is true, indeed my views are far from it, but I can't help but see him this way.  He seems very disinterested with everything, and I see him standing over his mother's coffin, cigarette in hand, and having a very boring facial expression.  It annoys me that this character can seem so unlikable, and yet we are supposed to care for him.

Overall, Wednesday's class was short, and I got very little from it unfortunatley.  And due to a scheduling error on my part, I had 4 hours to wait around before my next class, leading me to sit at the MU and watch "Days of Our Lives", which suprisingly I got even less from.

Simply,

Ben "Artie" Belisle