On Being a Television Addict November 29, 2007
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , add a commenti’ll admit: television is probably the least stimulating way to waste time, save for taking a nap. and yet, i am addicted. why?
i’ve struggled with this so-called-problem for quite a while now. there’s something so very pathetic when aids comes up in a discussion [okay, it was a sex discussion, welcome to college] and the first thing that comes to mind is “one time on csi, they proved who murdered some chick via the strain of hiv in his system matching the strain in hers.” it’s like this ALL THE TIME. the slightest detail relates to csi, or law and order, or grey’s anatomy or — really, i could go on forever.
really, despite the general mindlessness associated with television, i think it serves a real purpose, even to me as a “writer” [which some people, for some really silly reason, assume means “pompous intellectual.”] really, it takes a lot, with action and dialogue and the lack of both, to get you to care about a character — which is what i am essentially trying to do.
so maybe watching tv isn’t as intellectually stimulating as, say, absorbing some melville or joyce. but really, with such entertaining and well-crafted shows, why not watch?
plus, nothing beats that moment when someone asks “what was the first name of the captain on law & order?” while working on their crossword puzzle, and in less than a second, you reply “anita.”
On Not Losing Katie Oh November 18, 2007
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , add a commentthe thing that most people seem to worry about most in college is change, which simply baffles me, as that seems to be the point of these few years where we get to be both little kids and adults at the same time. i can’t even begin to count the number of times “nevar change!” was scribbled in my yearbook this year. well, i left the yearbook at home, so i definitely can’t, but i’m willing to bet it was a lot.
what’s funny is that i left the place where i Was that girl who everyone remembered due to my general outgoing attitude and sassy remarks and moved to a place where i am just another outgoing girl with generic sassy remarks. it’s almost masochistic, because now i’ve been forced to do the one thing that i both accept and resent: change itself.
i’ve changed in that i can no longer just make friends via other friends — i actually have to approach people. call people! if you know me, you know how rarely i call. it’s a katie oh thing. i hate talking on the phones. if you want to text, i am down, but i never call. but it’s change! good change. to be able to have to use a phone.
personality-wise, i’ve changed very little since, say, sophomore year of high-school. i’m pretty low-bullshit, high-honesty-telling, maximum-sass. if nothing else, this has leant me to being a pretty valued friend to a lot of people, or so i’ve been led to believe. looks-wise, well, i don’t even want to count how many pounds i’ve gained and lost in the past three years. it’s insane. but i still dress pretty much the same. actually, i have a picture for you all! this is pretty much how i would dress every day if i was given the chance.
yes, those tights are silver and shiny. it’s basically amazing. if they were not $40 a pair, i would own at least three pairs by now. they are fantastic and surprisingly warm. also, i do not have a huge white stain on my shirt; our mirror has part of a sticker still stuck to it.
uh, in short, i am lusting after shiny silver tights and working on accepting change. and now i have to actually go work on my 1200 word term paper instead of fooling around on here. ;]
Escapism November 15, 2007
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i had to open with a lolcat. i know my family is probably going “wtf?” at it, but i just thought it was so, so appropriate.
i had an interesting conversation with adrian and gillian today about pratt and schools in general. so many kids from our program are transferring or dropping out. out of a program of forty-ish freshmen, two have already filled out the paperwork to drop. it’s interesting to me. i didn’t really research writing programs, or even good ones — rather, i applied to two schools in nyc with writing programs and pretty websites, and a too-big state school that wouldn’t offer me half the opportunities. it’s weird to me that people are not satisfied with this program (which, despite some lackluster faculty, is pretty fantastic, i think) and that people had a greater expectation for their money. personally, i’d rather spend the $40,000 a year for professors who knew my name in two weeks and offer individual help than $20,000 a year on a state school where i would be an ID number and a face in a lecture of 200 students.
all of this, of course, is generally irrelevant. what i did realize, after a waltz in the rain back to pantas, is that i am paying part of that $40,000 to escape. escape the state of michigan, escape the small-town state of mind, escape the people i’d come to know. and, really, if my education is worth the same after graduating from pratt as it would be after graduation from a state school, then, fine. so be it. really, i have no qualms emptying my bank account if it means that i am somewhere where i am happy.
i think that is where so many people get caught up and turned against going out of state for school. it’s so much more money, it’s so far away — but what you’re paying for is the escape and the chance to make something of yourself. it sounds petty, and it’s certainly a generalization that i have many, many exceptions to, but i’ve come to respect the people who go out-of-state a touch more than the people who stay in. there’s something about leaving your comfort zone that shows a strength that you can’t find in someone who only went to ann arbor.
i am so, so happy here.
And so it begins… November 13, 2007
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that’s the face i made when i realized that i was embarking on a purely self-promotional endeavor. oh jeez.
welcome to the launch of katieoh.com. this has been a long time in the making, i wager — ever since the days of me having websites on geocities.com, when they were still free. i wrote stupid little stories and put them on the internet.
the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.
welcome.