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The last graduation ceremony was today, and I got through it, and finally officially tossed my tassel over to the other side. There were pictures and cheesy biscuits and food and such. I suspect that last night's escapade was that I got drunk, and then I got sick. Once the alcohol had worn off sufficiently, the upset stomach virus kicked in. For the rebellion's troublesome nature, I also scrubbed the receptacle of their violence. But by refusing to antagonize the mob further, things quieted down and I was able to get through the rest of the day without incident - I was able to eat at lunch and feel fine.
So, yes, officially, I am now Sir Silver Adept, Knight-Bachelor of Arts, Medieval and Early Modern Studies. (Well, I was yesterday, but I wanted to wait until all the commencements were over.) It's an electric sort of feeling, hee, hee. I have somehow managed to inspire a bit of jealousy in my sister - I had the cool graduation ceremony all to myself, with Ralph Williams dropping by (I didn't know he was going to be there), and "Bo" Schembechler, one of the football coaches of legend here, was given an honorary Doctor of Laws and spoke a bit to the class.
Our commencement speaker did quite well. For a greybeard, he was able to make his speech relevant to our generation. He coined us the first of the Net Generation and talked about what we could do and what we needed to remember how to do in our new world. He also managed to make himself relevant to the student body when it was said that he was strongly involved in bringing about the first spell-checking software while he was at Xerox. That brought a bit of a chant from the students. Our representative speaker was fairly good as well, talking about the sounds of our experience at the University. All in all, a decent ceremony.
After that, and lunch with the family, I met up with a group of furs and went putt-putting in Ypsilanti. I did reasonably well, considering that I haven't played a round of anything golf-like in at least a year. This is the same group, with a few members changed, that I went bowling with beforehand.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
blacktigr was in attendance, and was very helpful in making sure I didn't wallflower. Even so, I was having fun talking with girtygrin and the people in our group of five. I only took maximum strokes on 1 of the thirty-six holes I played, and managed to post a few holes-in-one along the way. After the golfing, we retired to girtygrin's apartment, where some of us played poker (surprisingly, I came in second at the table) and then blackjack. Then, with an itching to use his new grill, girtygrin made steaks after a meat run and somehow, I managed to end up with one. Mmmmmmm - that's the best steak I've had in a really long time. Compliments to the chef and his equipment.
blacktigr also suckered me into coming back for the next one, whenever that may be, and this time, instead of her paying for some part of my experience, I'm paying for hers. A fair enough trade, and like I said, insidious means of making sure I come back for another round. It'll cost more than three coppers, I'm sure, but it should definitely be worthwhile. The group's really rather friendly, and my anxiety is lessened the more I hang out with them. There's still an anxiety, but I'll get to that later, as it would really disrupt my narrative flow. Gir even hopped into his fursuit and lounged around as people were playing GT4. Finally, the principal actors said they were going to bed, and the rest of us cleared out. All in all, a rather fun time. And now I've got another couple of people actively working towards making me less shy. The more people working on my corruption, the better.
Strange how in the last year, or even in the last couple of months, I feel like my character has changed more than in all the time before it. New situations, new people, new ideas. Could be also that I don't have a thesis chaining me to my computer day in and day out. Either way, malo san maka. Malo, malo, malo san maka. And there's been a lot of little changes all the way there - I'm probably not as sheltered as I was when I graduated high school (and I was probably even more sheltered when I began that). Disruptive influences and all that. I think I'm changing for the better, which is something I wasn't sure of before, both that I was changing (and wanted to), and that it was change in a positive direction. Exposure to this University and the people in it, students, faculty, staff, friends and such has irrevocably altered me in some fundamental ways. National events have also wrought change in me, from a respectful America The Beautiful, with hats removed, on the field of Michigan Stadium, to a friend engaging in an ultimate act of trust and telling me that he was gay, to admiring the life of a religiously committed man up front... and admiring the life of a marcher who has the marking of being the first openly gay member of the marching band and our chapter of the Fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi. Surprise at the results of the first Presidential election I participated in, and fury at the passage of an amendment designed to forever discriminate against people like the above people. Even now, the worry over another amendment designed to end racial preferences, and whether or not it too will pass because of the short-sightedness of the majority. From morning conversations with an avowed revolutionary socialist to discussions, in class and elsewhere, in person and over digital media, about the roles of religious thought in both government and private practices. Questions of supporting and defending viewpoints, worries as to whether commitment to a cause requires being at all the demonstrations. The power of command and the support of a staff dedicated to messing with high school minds, as well as the frustration at not being able to implement the plan that I felt would have been most beneficial to those minds. The passing of both a President and a Pope. A new era dawns upon us all, for those of us stepping out into the world at large, for those of us hiding for another couple years to get another degree, for those that have already been out in the real world and experience it daily. There are fragments of memory that will stay, and there are objects that will be enshrined as reminders of what happened. From the foundation that we have built, let us raise the structures of a new society, one that pursues the dreams of eutopia. May the gods and goddesses look upon our work and lend their assistance to its construction. May it be razed to the ground if it is incomplete, and built again with the knowledge gained from failure. "We must become the change we wish to effect on the world"; may we never falter in our striving for the highest.
Whoa, now that was a pontification. I guess I really am proud of myself, even if this isn't the degree that I intend to build my profession from. Who knew I could spout that much air (those in the back raising their hands and giggling will stay after class)?
Switching gears, there's also that anxiety that I mentioned beforehand. I think I've isolated the problem - this may be a repeat, patience is requested. It may be anxiety from feeling somehow out of place, a hu-mon amongst furs. Which is relatively true - I explained the situation at the putt-putt - I'm human, but I think I Bonded a dragon somewhere along the way. But both times that I've been out with the fur group, he's been absent. This would be out-of-character for him to absent himself so. But I don't feel his presence internalized to the point where it would be him talking rather than me. Perhaps he does slip inside for a bit and give me some wings and a tail in my astral signature. That might explain why I can't locate him as the separate entity that he usually is. However, I suspect that if he really were lending his energy signature to me, I would feel it. I don't.
This may be proving a point, namely that one need not be a fur to hang out with them. That would be more in character for the Muse, and especially if he sees it as a good opportunity for social growth for me. He'll hang me out to dry and take the other guys out with him. Where normally, even in crowds, I can chat up the inner voices, they aren't there, either, or they're hiding. It's a frigging conspiracy, I tell you. All'a my Bonds mask themselves when I'm with that group, so I'm winging it out there by myself. I suspect a bit of pointing and laughing going on backstage, but they seem content to let me do all this without them.
Related and not, I think that if I were to do anything serious regarding cosplay or fursuited-related, shoulder wings would have to be a necessity. I can see dragon's wings and tail or butterfly wings or dragonfly wings, or angelic wings, were I doing human things. Something about the wings is appealing. That's probably something I should look into some symbolism of and see if it's a craving for something I'm lacking. Put it on the to-do list or something. Along with finding a job - got turned down for the pool guard position. And sleep, which is the really good thing, since I sat down to start this entry nearly and hour ago. So many thoughts spilling forth from my head, not all of them making sense, not all of them coming immediately to light. Perhaps at some point those ideas will effect change in the world.
So, yes, officially, I am now Sir Silver Adept, Knight-Bachelor of Arts, Medieval and Early Modern Studies. (Well, I was yesterday, but I wanted to wait until all the commencements were over.) It's an electric sort of feeling, hee, hee. I have somehow managed to inspire a bit of jealousy in my sister - I had the cool graduation ceremony all to myself, with Ralph Williams dropping by (I didn't know he was going to be there), and "Bo" Schembechler, one of the football coaches of legend here, was given an honorary Doctor of Laws and spoke a bit to the class.
Our commencement speaker did quite well. For a greybeard, he was able to make his speech relevant to our generation. He coined us the first of the Net Generation and talked about what we could do and what we needed to remember how to do in our new world. He also managed to make himself relevant to the student body when it was said that he was strongly involved in bringing about the first spell-checking software while he was at Xerox. That brought a bit of a chant from the students. Our representative speaker was fairly good as well, talking about the sounds of our experience at the University. All in all, a decent ceremony.
After that, and lunch with the family, I met up with a group of furs and went putt-putting in Ypsilanti. I did reasonably well, considering that I haven't played a round of anything golf-like in at least a year. This is the same group, with a few members changed, that I went bowling with beforehand.
blacktigr was in attendance, and was very helpful in making sure I didn't wallflower. Even so, I was having fun talking with girtygrin and the people in our group of five. I only took maximum strokes on 1 of the thirty-six holes I played, and managed to post a few holes-in-one along the way. After the golfing, we retired to girtygrin's apartment, where some of us played poker (surprisingly, I came in second at the table) and then blackjack. Then, with an itching to use his new grill, girtygrin made steaks after a meat run and somehow, I managed to end up with one. Mmmmmmm - that's the best steak I've had in a really long time. Compliments to the chef and his equipment. blacktigr also suckered me into coming back for the next one, whenever that may be, and this time, instead of her paying for some part of my experience, I'm paying for hers. A fair enough trade, and like I said, insidious means of making sure I come back for another round. It'll cost more than three coppers, I'm sure, but it should definitely be worthwhile. The group's really rather friendly, and my anxiety is lessened the more I hang out with them. There's still an anxiety, but I'll get to that later, as it would really disrupt my narrative flow. Gir even hopped into his fursuit and lounged around as people were playing GT4. Finally, the principal actors said they were going to bed, and the rest of us cleared out. All in all, a rather fun time. And now I've got another couple of people actively working towards making me less shy. The more people working on my corruption, the better.Strange how in the last year, or even in the last couple of months, I feel like my character has changed more than in all the time before it. New situations, new people, new ideas. Could be also that I don't have a thesis chaining me to my computer day in and day out. Either way, malo san maka. Malo, malo, malo san maka. And there's been a lot of little changes all the way there - I'm probably not as sheltered as I was when I graduated high school (and I was probably even more sheltered when I began that). Disruptive influences and all that. I think I'm changing for the better, which is something I wasn't sure of before, both that I was changing (and wanted to), and that it was change in a positive direction. Exposure to this University and the people in it, students, faculty, staff, friends and such has irrevocably altered me in some fundamental ways. National events have also wrought change in me, from a respectful America The Beautiful, with hats removed, on the field of Michigan Stadium, to a friend engaging in an ultimate act of trust and telling me that he was gay, to admiring the life of a religiously committed man up front... and admiring the life of a marcher who has the marking of being the first openly gay member of the marching band and our chapter of the Fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi. Surprise at the results of the first Presidential election I participated in, and fury at the passage of an amendment designed to forever discriminate against people like the above people. Even now, the worry over another amendment designed to end racial preferences, and whether or not it too will pass because of the short-sightedness of the majority. From morning conversations with an avowed revolutionary socialist to discussions, in class and elsewhere, in person and over digital media, about the roles of religious thought in both government and private practices. Questions of supporting and defending viewpoints, worries as to whether commitment to a cause requires being at all the demonstrations. The power of command and the support of a staff dedicated to messing with high school minds, as well as the frustration at not being able to implement the plan that I felt would have been most beneficial to those minds. The passing of both a President and a Pope. A new era dawns upon us all, for those of us stepping out into the world at large, for those of us hiding for another couple years to get another degree, for those that have already been out in the real world and experience it daily. There are fragments of memory that will stay, and there are objects that will be enshrined as reminders of what happened. From the foundation that we have built, let us raise the structures of a new society, one that pursues the dreams of eutopia. May the gods and goddesses look upon our work and lend their assistance to its construction. May it be razed to the ground if it is incomplete, and built again with the knowledge gained from failure. "We must become the change we wish to effect on the world"; may we never falter in our striving for the highest.
Whoa, now that was a pontification. I guess I really am proud of myself, even if this isn't the degree that I intend to build my profession from. Who knew I could spout that much air (those in the back raising their hands and giggling will stay after class)?
Switching gears, there's also that anxiety that I mentioned beforehand. I think I've isolated the problem - this may be a repeat, patience is requested. It may be anxiety from feeling somehow out of place, a hu-mon amongst furs. Which is relatively true - I explained the situation at the putt-putt - I'm human, but I think I Bonded a dragon somewhere along the way. But both times that I've been out with the fur group, he's been absent. This would be out-of-character for him to absent himself so. But I don't feel his presence internalized to the point where it would be him talking rather than me. Perhaps he does slip inside for a bit and give me some wings and a tail in my astral signature. That might explain why I can't locate him as the separate entity that he usually is. However, I suspect that if he really were lending his energy signature to me, I would feel it. I don't.
This may be proving a point, namely that one need not be a fur to hang out with them. That would be more in character for the Muse, and especially if he sees it as a good opportunity for social growth for me. He'll hang me out to dry and take the other guys out with him. Where normally, even in crowds, I can chat up the inner voices, they aren't there, either, or they're hiding. It's a frigging conspiracy, I tell you. All'a my Bonds mask themselves when I'm with that group, so I'm winging it out there by myself. I suspect a bit of pointing and laughing going on backstage, but they seem content to let me do all this without them.
Related and not, I think that if I were to do anything serious regarding cosplay or fursuited-related, shoulder wings would have to be a necessity. I can see dragon's wings and tail or butterfly wings or dragonfly wings, or angelic wings, were I doing human things. Something about the wings is appealing. That's probably something I should look into some symbolism of and see if it's a craving for something I'm lacking. Put it on the to-do list or something. Along with finding a job - got turned down for the pool guard position. And sleep, which is the really good thing, since I sat down to start this entry nearly and hour ago. So many thoughts spilling forth from my head, not all of them making sense, not all of them coming immediately to light. Perhaps at some point those ideas will effect change in the world.
