Archive for the ‘People I Know’ Category
Thursday, July 12th, 2007
Clint actually came up with that description.
Chason was in my Photo Block group. I had seen him a couple of times before, in the anime club early on and around the art building, though didn’t really know him. His early work in Block was a bit bizarre, becoming almost entirely pornography by the end of the first semester. After that phase he became more interested in the synthetic, especially in regards to the modern cyborg and robot stuff.
We had overlapping interests in types of humor and games, which tended to serve as the basis for most conversations. He kind of waddled when he walked, he was outspoken about very political topics, and he had an oddly broad range of knowledge on real world events. He went to a small bar downtown often enough that at one point his face was supposed to be added to the wall mural at the entrance.
He had a smug smile that he used a lot, and he didn’t seem like the type that ever got very outwardly angry at anything. Vocal, but not angry. He got tired of Houston and moved out to sunny California for a better job and locale. It’s nicer there, I hear.
Category: People I Know
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007
Typical look: clean shaven, muscle shirt, nice slacks.
Greg fenced foil and epee, though he seemed more like a saberist. There were many Matts and many Gregs in the club, so distinctions were a necessity. Greg Kruger was simply referred as “Violent Greg.” It was very fitting.
He had a powerful build on account of working out a lot. He studied some form of Engineering. He came from an all-male Catholic school and was usually very tidy and well dressed. While I can’t make a lot of judgments about that background, seeing as I have no experience with private schools, I think that his social skills were a bit outside everyone else. Not better or worse, just somewhere different.
He had a wide grin that he used often when talking. It was kind of like the shady used car salesman, with a touch of the creepy side. He lost track of his own strength sometimes. While not really striking people out of overt rage, his normal temperament was one of casual violence. Fencing him was a bit scary, as he could make pretty powerful jabs or swings. He had a sort of superhero getup for tournaments, complete with bright blue tights under his knickers, a blue belt, and red joint braces.
He only actually came close to killing someone twice, and I think it was the same person both times. For the first near-casualty, Greg had his arm pulled firmly against someone’s neck before I calmly pointed out, “Hey, I don’t think he can breathe.” Crisis averted! At least he listened to reason. He was one of the people that I completely lost touch with the moment I stopped attending team practices. I hope he hasn’t killed anyone.
Category: People I Know
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
Sunrise, blue sky, dusk.
I spent a year following my acquisition of a Photography degree taking English classes. Creative Writing, specifically. During what became my last semester at UH I took a Folklore class. About halfway through the semester I looked across the room and noticed someone that I hadn’t noticed before. I thought to myself, “I should talk to that person.” I didn’t know why. But I’ve met some very interesting people by subconsciously singling them out from a crowd, so I went with it.
She turned out to be a memorable person. Friendly, talkative, and occasionally a bit coarse. “Peppery” was about the best word I could devise to describe her personality. It mostly seemed defensive. What she mentioned about her circle of friends made it seem that some of her more free-thinking notions were a bit discouraged.
She introduced me to swimming as exercise, and we usually went to the huge pool at the UH Wellness Center twice a week. We ate pizza under a tree once. She gave me a ride somewhere and when she started the car the radio was playing some classical music. She quickly turned it off and said “Don’t judge me!” She said that about a number of things that I never had the chance to react to.
Our folklore professor, Ms. Winniford, had difficulty getting around and Anna volunteered to give the woman a ride home most days after class. The ride back to UH was a brief chance to talk. Anna even bought a purse for Ms. Winniford at the end of the semester, on account of the instructor’s old purse having a broken strap.
When I first became very ill last Summer, prior to being officially diagnosed, Anna came over a couple of times just to cook or help me get somewhere. About the time I moved out of that apartment she went to Louisiana on an archeology trip. Following that, I only heard from her a couple of times. Once she was in New York, and very busy doing things. The last, she sounded very tired and distracted, and said that she would call me back some time. I’ve had a lot of stories end that way.
Category: People I Know
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
Well, she really did.
Tessa was in my Photo Block courses. She said everything with alacrity or subtle enthusiasm. It was certainly encouraging to talk to her due to her sprightly outlook on things. I don’t think that I ever saw her angry.
She seemed at home in the digital lab. Her attire was most frequently warmups and a plain t-shirt, with a sweatshirt tied around her waist. She brewed tea most days, sometimes picking pleasant-smelling flavors, such as peach.
Her conversations were usually with a couple of others, Jason and Leeah, and I occasionally joined in. I read her manner of speaking as being cautious and elusive. It always seemed as though she didn’t say everything she thought, out of fear of it sounding naive or uninformed.
She once gave me a ride back to campus from a gallery the class was visiting. I had been around that group of classmates for about a year and a half at that point. During the trip she said, “You know, Santos…we don’t really know anything about you.” She was the first of many that, within a span of a few weeks(and despite not knowing one another), started to come forward and call to my attention the notion that I never actually revealed anything about myself. Or dodged more than I addressed.
I hadn’t noticed up until so many pointed it out. I don’t know if I’m any better about it now. This project might prove useful in regards to that. I occasionally hear from Tessa via e-mail, though her replies at times take weeks or months. It’s difficult to keep up with people that only exist as text.
Category: People I Know
Monday, July 2nd, 2007
He tends to look more relaxed than he actually is.
Jonathan was in Junior Photography Block the year that I was in Senior Block. At that time I only talked to him briefly, just enough to see what he was doing and occasionally show him what I was working on. He worked a lot on Flash-based things, creating projects that had a fair helping of the conceptual side. Some were animations that he was drawing, some were primarily code-based interactive pieces, and then there were the random experiments like a poorly-drawn piece called HOT TRUXX. Complete with spinning wheels and randomly-generated *vroom* and honking sounds.
He was a very animated speaker, using elaborate hand gestures and wide nods of his head in order to get a point across. His eyes didn’t express much, and overall he appeared to be calm. He wasn’t, really. He was kind of nervous most of the time, as though he’d just come off of his fourteenth cup of coffee.
He had a very loud laugh, a pierced tongue, and a very subtle effeminate air to his mannerisms. He was outspoken about everything, to the extent that he seemed confrontational at times. If someone made the kind of comment that caused others to cringe and shake their heads Jon would waste no time calling out the speaker and demanding an apology, or at least pointing out his disapproval.
He lives way out on the western end of Houston, employed at the University of Houston. He participates in a regular Dungeons & Dragons group, and as far as I can tell spends every other moment of his time playing World of Warcraft. It happens.
Category: People I Know