Archive for June, 2007
Saturday, June 30th, 2007
Aside from smiling, this was about his only expression.
Robby was always Robby. I don’t think anyone ever called him Robert as long as I knew him. He was someone that joined the fencing club after I did but seemed like he’d always been there. He fenced right handed until he spontaneously injured his hand, after which he switched to left-handed fencing. His major was in English and he did stuff in music as well. Marching band and such. I never actually saw him play his instrument because I attended neither football games or university concerts.
I don’t remember much of what he ever said, though we talked a lot. Rather, when I think of Robby I recall a plethora of his subtle idle movements. He had a deepish voice but a high-pitched laugh. When he laughed a lot he lowered his head and pressed his thumb and middle finger against his eyes. When he wanted to emphasize something that he was talking about he would hold out his hands palm-down and shake them at the important part.
He didn’t have a lot of facial expressions. Most of his reactions were based on changes in the volume of his voice. He somehow looked angry when he ate food. He had a long tuft of hair growing beneath his lower lip, which he would stick in his mouth to kind of chew on when he was listening, resting, or otherwise not speaking.
He lived in Lake Jackson. He explained that the actual lake was private property, and I told him that we should rally a liberation force to free Lake Jackson. After he graduated his phone answering message said something along the lines of, “Hi, this is Robert Metettal. Please hire me.” I probably spelled his last name wrong, but that’s how it was pronounced. I don’t know if anyone ever hired him.
Category: People I Know
Friday, June 29th, 2007
[Note: Have somewhere to be tonight so not much time for posting. Here is a...slightly exaggerated entry for Clint that I made last weekend. I'll probably revise it later.]
Clint dressed up as Popeye during A-kon 14. Funny story, actually.
Clint pouts when he doesn’t get what he wants. And he wants everything, so he pouts all the time. Sometimes he feels sorry for me and lets me hang out with him, but he frequently looks at the clock and sighs deeply the entire time.
He once won my dignity from me during a game of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. He said he made it put on a dress and cook him breakfast every day. I finally managed to get it back from him over a game of Lumines some time later. That day was the most angry I’ve ever seen him. He even hit himself.
When we were roommates he worked in an ice cream shop. When I’d ask for him to bring me home ice cream he’d just spit in my face and stomp off. The only nice thing he’s ever said to me was, “I’d pick you in a fighting game.” I offended him once and my punishment was having to play through the entirety of Trio the Punch.
I try to stay in touch with him but he prefers his Executive friends over me. Despite that I kind of look up to him because he writes well and is good at fighting games.
Category: People I Know
Thursday, June 28th, 2007
Yet he’s about as Mexican as Colonel Sanders.
The other members of The Hub knew Gabe as well. Gabe had problems. The first little scheme of his that I learned about involved his creating a counterfeit UH parking decal. He was busted fairly quickly, receiving a ticket for his troubles. We imagined him rubbing his fingers together, sprinkling glitter over a crude cutout in order to simulate the real parking decal sheen. Rubbing one’s fingers together became a reference to Gabe and he acquired the nickname Glitterboy.
Poor workmanship was his staple. He was a Graphics major, and everything he turned in was at least a week late and looked as though it had been thrown together a few minutes before class. In some cases it actually had. He repeatedly tried to get into Graphics Block, the upper-level courses that required portfolio submission. He might have some kind of record for consecutive failures.
He ruined the driveway of The Hub by spray painting one of his cutouts and forgetting to put something under it. He stole an entire shelf from the Psychology building once. Not limited to big things, he also filched smaller objects, like trays from Burger King. I don’t even know why. Just to.
I went to work in the printmaking lab one night and found him and a few others there. I knew it was trouble because the front door was propped open with a case of beer. By the time I left he had constructed a beer can bong and was using the lab’s ventilation fan to hide the odor. That was about the last time I saw him, fortunately.
Category: People I Know
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007
She worked a lot, unfortunately.
One day I was out with some photo majors doing gallery hopping and we ended up at a Diedrich’s Coffee. The girl behind the counter had a black baseball cap with a piece of black fabric safety pinned to the front. I asked about the patch and she moved it aside to reveal that the cap actually read “#1 DAD.” “It was the only black cap I could find,” she explained. “But I’m not a dad,” she said, then covered her face. “And I’m not #1.” My first thought was I have to know this person!
I went back later solely to talk to her and did end up becoming acquainted with her. She got the job at Diedrich’s because she once went in to nurse a hangover and was told by the manager, “you’re a lot of fun; you should work here!” She was very busy in a not-good way. The first voicemail she left for me summed it up fairly: “I’m at work. This is Ruth. All I do is work. Working is my life. Computers. Bye!” She was fun to be around but an exceedingly difficult person to locate at any given time.
She “inherited” some fencing stuff from an ENRON exec who lived across the street and gave her all his gear when his wife left him. She used it to terrorize the cat. Her family’s cat was named Axis. “As in Axis of Evil,” she said. They once set up one of those barrel-topped cat food dispensers. The cat went to the device and started eating. And ate and ate. Then it threw up and fell asleep. Some time later it woke up, ate its vomit, and started eating food again. The family realized quickly that the cat just wasn’t ready for modern technology.
Before heading out of state a couple of years ago I told her I’d call when I got back into Texas. I forgot. A year later I decided to try. We missed each other and only managed to leave a voice message. This May I decided to try again on the two year mark. I’ve talked to her no more than a few minutes at a time, which has been just enough to learn that she’s somehow more busy working than before. Last week her phone said it was disconnected. I hope she’s OK.
Category: People I Know
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007
I always feel as though I forgot something important.
I’ve known at least four Matts in the past six or so years. I knew Matt Broussard through Percy. He was a painting major, who once painted the critique room a bright color as a class project. Painting majors could do just about anything, from sewing to sculpting. Some of them actually painted. He spent a fair amount of time woodworking, and often spoke of wanting to become a crafter of fine guitars.
Matt really liked guitars and the music they produced. He had a wide range of knowledge about rockers both English and Japanese, and devoted plenty of effort to perfecting the art of rocking. While almost anyone could learn how to play the guitar, it takes a special type to really know how to rock. He was the lead guitarist of a small unnamed garage-based band. His brother took up bass.
He grew up playing games and that was our primary common ground. He was the first person I met that pronounced SNES as one word. He seemed mildly excited about almost everything, and he spoke with enthusiasm on things that he knew about. He was quieter when unfamiliar with something, but he was willing to listen to just about anything. Despite that, things that were lent to him as a suggestion or recommendation typically went untouched.
Matt went to Dallas to get married but did not come back. His wife was largely uninterested in his guitar playing and at times discouraged it. As a result it’s hard to guess at the fate of his talents since moving away. Maybe I’ll hear him jam again some day. The soul of a real rocker never really fades; it just patiently takes a nap in the back seat when the road hits a long straightaway.
Category: People I Know