Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 11:00 to 11:50 AM, I sit in Room 220 of Quinnipiac University’s College of Liberal Arts, Building 1 and endure the most painfully boring 50 minutes of my day. The class is Media Law, featuring such enthralling material as “actual malice,” “previous restraint,” and “qualified immunity.” The professor is Grace Levine, who speaks with the pace of Bill Lumbergh and the personality of Al Gore. Thus, I often find myself sitting in the back row wondering how in the world I can make this class be somewhat interesting, or at the very least, pass more quickly. Often I bring my computer and surf the internet to pass the time while casually keeping an ear tuned into the conversation of the class. So, with the computer already there, I figure why not keep a running diary of the events. Here it is, Monday, November 13, 2006 in Media Law:
10:55 AM: Computer is up and running, internet is functional, all seems well and good. Time to give the e-mail a quick check before class starts.
10:58: Not much of interest there. Tuesday’s “Tailgate Madness” meeting can’t be held in Athletics and needs alternate site, and a couple news alerts from various places. Morning e-mails are so boring. Nothing of consequence ever happens until at least noon.
10:59: Normal pre-class bitching about Professor Levine taking place. Plenty of people upset with their grade on the last test, the timing of the next test, and the general boredom and sheer pointlessness of the class. All this comes to a sudden stop at…
11:00: In walks Professor Levine. There’s a big downer to the day.
11:01: The class tries unsuccessfully to get Friday’s test moved to the Monday after Thanksgiving. Levine’s only reason for not moving it is that our class’ schedule is “packed.” However, it seems to me that we spend a great deal of time doing pretty much nothing. I would argue this point, but I think I’d rather get the test out of the way on Friday. No sense having a test to worry about over Thanksgiving break.
11:04: The climate in this classroom simply is not conducive to learning. It’s always 10 degrees warmer in Room 220 than it is in the rest of the building. Makes me want to curl up and go to sleep in an already boring class. Add in the lack of sleep this weekend, and less than five minutes into class I’m ready to rest my head up against the wall (big plus to the back row seat) and nod off. I’ll fight through it though.
11:07: Current events alert! Levine’s got a newspaper clipping and is telling us that some university (University of Alabama, I think, wasn’t really paying attention at the start) is suing a painter for using the school’s colors in an artistic rendering of one of the school’s football games. This is actually a semi-interesting topic. How much more uptight can college athletics get about copyright infringement? Across the internet, the NCAA is constantly cracking down on people using institutional logos without consent, regardless of whether the user is seeking to gain any benefit through it. But, trying to sue over the use of the colors? Please. I hope Quinnipiac doesn’t sue me for using blue and gold text in the header of this blog. “The NCAA 1906-2006: Exploiting the Student-Athlete for 100 Years.”
11:15: As per usual, the discussion of this issue has gone on entirely too long. Eight minutes later, and we’re still on the same issue, but now she’s applying it to all sorts of other situations and circumstances which have absolutely no bearing on the issue we began with. In some twisted way, we’ve gone from a university suing an artist, to Tiger Woods, to Penn State alumni, and on to how consenting to publication affects a libel case. Somehow, in her head, the transition from one to the other made sense. Of course, this is the same class which spent darned near two weeks on the syllabus, so nothing is really surprising anymore.
11:20: The issue finally deteriorates into 35 seperate side conversations taken place as everyone realizes that Levine has no idea where she’s going with this…
11:21: Levine brings order back my making the switch to… media members riding along with police officers. It’s a good thing nobody’s riding along with this class. They’d be getting carsick from all the sudden and rapid changes in direction.
11:22: Minor and welcome distraction from the issues at hand, as a classmate comes in on crutches. Never good to have injuries, but anything that takes attention away from the front of the room and stops the mind-numbing for even a few seconds is a plus. Thanks for taking one for the team.
11:25: A quick check of The Hartford Courant reveals that Connecticut is among thetop 15 states in the union in drunken-driving fatalaties (ugggh), Yale is being sued (always a plus), and if you’re not satisfied with real life, you can always make a fake one. The fact that this last one is leading to $600,000 of real money being spent in a day is more than a little bit disturbing. To each is own, I guess.
11:31: Back to class, and we’ve got our first awkward silence of the day. Levine asks a question… and nobody answers. This happens at least once per class, and is a source of great amusement for me. I laugh quietly to myself while Levine searches the room for anybody to throw her a bone. Aly saves the day by saying something that gets her to move on.
11:35: I first notice that the words “qualified immunity” have been written up on the white board with a red marker. I wonder how long they’ve been up there, and if I should be paying more attention in case there’s some sort of explanation as to why they’re up there. In the end, I decide I’ll just pick it up on my own from the book before Friday’s test. I probably wouldn’t get much out of Levine’s explanation of it anyway. Our textbook makes much more sense than she does.
11:40: Pop culture alert! Apparently we’re comparing “Cops” to some show which creeps around trying to find people cheating on their spouses. I’ve never seen, nor heard of this show, but it sounds like it could very well be entertaining television. Probably a little low-brow, but entertaining nontheless. For the record, the two shows were being compared on grounds of invasion of privacy.
11:42: We’re on the home stretch now. Less than 10 minutes remaining. That is, unless Levine rambles on past the scheduled 11:50 conclusion of class (which is an entirely too common occurance).
11:45: Awkward silence Number Two. This one doesn’t last very long. Levine realize she isn’t going to get a response rather quickly and just plows on to the next part of the subject matter. Kind of like a pitcher who guts it out and plows through one more inning because there’s just nobody left in the bullpen (only Levine doesn’t have nearly as much heart as the pitcher, nor will endear herself to the fanbase for her display).
11:48: Everyone’s starting to get a little antsy. Notebooks are going away. Jackets are being put on. Feet are being shuffled. The end is near.
11:50: Ooooh. An Elian Gonzalez reference. There’s a blast from the past. No idea where that came from or what relevence it has, but the name caught my ear.
11:51: Kobs calls me and makes my cell phone just about rattle off the desk (where it had been so I could use the clock to mark the times for this blog). Not a great job, Kobs. At the same time, Aly asks a question which draws class out more. I’m going to kill her after class.
11:53: Freedom! She’s done! Time to click “publish” on this blog entry and go get lunch. Enjoy the random news links.
***************************************************
A few links I found interesting over the past few days:
Man’s World War II Dog Tags Find Their Way Home 60 Years Later – Pretty neat Veterans Day article from the Hartford Courant. A New Britain man lost is Army-issued dog tags during World War II, and they were finally returned to him this week.
Judge Declares a Burrito is Not a Sandwich – Good to see our courts are being tied up with such imporant matters. Panera Bread Co. sued a Worcester, Mass. mall for violations of the “sandwich-exclusivity” clause in their contract after a mexican grill opened in the same mall. Needless to say, Panera lost the case.
Get the Internet in Your Car – Very expensive, but very, very cool technology.
Navy Called in to Free World War II Aircraft Carrier From Mud – Another Veterans Day piece, this one from MSNBC.com. A World War II aircraft carrier which currently serves as a museum in Manhattan was being moved to drydock for maintenance and upkeep. However, after being towed 16 feet by civilian barges, the carrier’s propellers got stuck in the mud. The Navy has been called in for a $3 million extrication project.
1 Comment
November 23, 2006 at 10:55 am
Pingback:
[...] More on Second Life – In this post, I referenced this story about the internet community Second Life. Here’s a more in-depth look at it. Both very interesting and more than a little weird at the same time. [...]