A break from the normal serious entries...

So graduation seems to be upon us... yes, I am finally going to graduate. I feel like Jeremy Piven from the movie "PCU" he was in college for like 9 years. I am currently going through the motions to ensure that I walk in the spring commencement.

Here's something retarded for all (3) of my readers to ponder. Acepting your money for what the CUNY system calls "tuition" for services that are never rendered. Mostly because more than 80% of the classes are taught by "adjuncts". Adjunct here is another word for grad-school student. It seems to avert some costs the university has made it mandatory that some grad-school students of CUNY programs teach at the undergraduate level. For instance, I had a "teacher" that was younger than me during my summer 2003. Now when I say younger I'm referring to the fact that he still had not reached puberty yet.

Then there's the class where the "teacher" doesn't even know how to use the software for the course. I actually know more about the class than he does in certain instances. And more often than not he'll ask me a question about the assignments. The class has started just asking me questions directly or for an explanation of the topic at hand. One student has even "tried" to complement my by stating that the school should pay me.

So back to the topic, it seems I have to "apply" for graduation. Doesn't this seem agregiously odd to you as well? What do they think I was doing for the duration of my stay at school? Isn't my curriculum a testimony to graduation. So the purpose has been explained to me somewhat. The process goes as this.

I submit my graduation audit to office of my major. They verify that I have successfully completed all requirements for said major. They then submit my audit to the Office of Registrar, where they also check to verify that I have met all my GER (General Education Requirements) aka Core Requirements, and finally to ensure that I have completed the magic number of 120 credits in doing so. If all is acceptable they all sign off on the audit and I am allowed to graduate.

So here's something that is a bit of a touchy subject to me... Apparently, my school is too good to accept military experience as college credit. All the other senior colleges of the university accept military as some sort of college credit. I don't see why my school or how my school is "too good" to accept it. I don't care what course the credit is accepted as, just so long as it helps the cause of getting me to the magic number of 120.

Since I can see the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel", I've begun thinking about what I will do with all of my new found time. Tell you the truth, I feel "institutionalized" (from the movie Shawshank Redemption- if you haven't seen the movie, crawl out from your rock and rent/order the movie) like I wouldn't know what to do with myself and will find a way to get sent back to some institution of sorts. But that would mean more studying and exams and papers and crap of that sort which at this point in time I can whole-heartedly say.... NEVER AGAIN!!! But who knows what the future lies for me.

So thats me, and the happenings of my little life. In the words of Nick Professional Sports Guy

Good Night and help control the idiot population... have you stupid friends spayed or neutered.

Am I paranoid?...

So I've never considered myself to be a paranoid person. I've always thought of myself to be proactive in securing my safety and that of my loved ones. Now this may seem at a topical level to be a means of justifying what some would call "paranoia". But I see it as me refusing by all means possible to decrease the likelihood of my becoming a "victim". Now when I say victim, it is loosely meant to hold the description of anyone that has be taken advantage of. It doesn't mean actual physical harm.

Now, if you've read any of my other entries on this blog it may seem a bit out of character for me to write on this topic. But this rare occasion of my more serious side is the result of two occurences.

Firstly, I have a neighbor in my building of Egyptian decent. Now, that doesn't seem to odd, downright common these days. I mean, I myself, am an Asian man living in the state of NY in the United States... so no biggie thus far. Well, a couple months ago, this "neighbor" up and just disappears for about a month with his family(wife and three kids). Now nobody would've really noticed or cared for that matter because frankly, we have more important things to concern our lives with than that of the travel habits of other tenants in the building. Now the reason this came to light is because a strange red-ish color began to stain my ceiling in the bathroom. So like most people I assumed it was a leak of sorts and more than likely originating from the tenant above me. I proceeded in telling the super of this problem and he addressed it accordingly only to find out that the tenant above me too had the same red-ish discolored ceiling in his bathroom as well. Now this where you all should be going..."hmmmmm seems odd".

So accordingly, the super went to the next apartment above. Low and behold it is the apartment where the Egyptian man and his family reside. Now I've never had a real problem with this man or his family. They really kept to themselves and never really bothered or imposed on anyone.

But to no avail is the super able to gain communication with the family, let alone access to the apartment to see if the "stain" also plagued this unit. It was at this time that the super and thru the complaint of several tenants on the floor did a foul smell become the second issue at hand. It seems that a rather pungent and offensive odor was eminating from this apartment. And still yet to no avail was anyone able to gain access or find these people. I mean how could anyone, they were in Egypt, supposedly, visiting a sick relative. (i'll explain later how I know this)

Anyway, the landlord was notified and the police were summoned to help open the apartment so it would be official and all and not breaking and entering. Well, thankfully, the odor was just food that had gone bad, and the stain was nowhere to be found.

Now that all the ground work has been layed out, this is where it gets weird. The apartment was very mess, disheveled at that. Like the tenants were in an extreme rush to get out of there. Initially this seems consistent with going to visit a sick relative. But the man returns without his family. Its been several months and the rest of the family has still yet to return.

Recently, said man has gained several more "guests" that seem to be staying with him. Thus far I have seen about 4-5 men of the same ethnicity staying with him. They all travel at weird hours like they don't have jobs and just kinda come and go without any real schedule. And the man kinda has this ritual of staying in his car after he parks it in the garage for an additional 10mins or so before going upstairs to his apt.

Even more suspect, is that this group of men while speaking in their native tongue always seem to feel the need to stop communicating to each other when there are others no in this circle in the immediate area. They stop mid-sentence wherever they are if another soul walks up. Even more recently, said man has changed his physical appearance somewhat, he shaved his mustache and his hair seems shorter than normal.

And at just around the same time his entourage showed up, the word "Egypt" seems to be getting carved into every possible wall and door around the building. Odd I ask, or coincidence?...

Well needless to say, at this point I'm quite resolute in being as situationally aware as possible. Who knows what lurks in the future of weird occurences...

Part II to come... stay tuned kiddies for it gets better.