Posters

I can't stand computer classes. People think that because I'm a Linux user and run a server and design web sites I must love my computer science courses, but they never realize how boring I find it. Consider the situation: I spend most of my spare time learning what makes computers tick. I've been doing it since I was twelve. I have an innate knack for learning about computers. Not to be arrogant about it, but hardly any of my professors can teach my anything new.

Being an upperclassman didn't make it any better. If anything, my comp sci classes that year were worse than they had been before. It was more advanced material, but the professors seemed to think of that as a reason to slow down the class and spend more time on every little detail. And they were now actually forcing us to use Windows XP. Pathetic.

I got through the first one of the year without dying of boredom, though. And when I came out...

"Hey Brian! Where have you been all day? Are you ready to put up some posters?"

"Sarah! Posters? Wha-- Oh, those posters? You got them printed already?"

"Yep. I've got connections." She winked and flashed a grin at me. It wasn't the sort of expression I would expect of Sarah, but the gesture was natural enough. Maybe she wasn't as serious about everything as she seemed.

She was serious about the posters, though. They were red, so bright they looked fluorescent, and carried the slogan "Question the Classroom!" with "We should not be subjected to bias in our education" as the tagline. I pulled one off the top of her pile and noticed even smaller text in one corner. It said that meetings would be held every Monday starting at 8:00. When I asked Sarah, who was searching intently through her backpack, why the group would need to meet she said "To organize protest tactics, of course. Do you have any duct tape? Or masking tape, maybe? I forgot to get some from the campus store on the way over."

"Sure, up in my dorm room," I said. Of course I had duct tape.

Sarah chatted blithely all the way across the quad and into the lobby of my dorm. I tried to pay attention, but my mind was wandering. I mostly just nodded and kept a relevant facial expression until we got to my building.

"That's funny," she said, "I was just here yesterday and somebody asked me to dinner. The editor of the school paper, no less! The one you did that interview with yesterday. Mike something, isn't it?"

I nearly tripped over my own feet. "Mike asked you out?!"

"Yeah. Why? Do you know him well?"

"Umm... He's been my roommate for a few years now. I just... Well... He..."

"You don't think he and I are suited for each other?"

Not like I had a better answer. "Well... Not really, no."

"I guess we'll be finding out, won't we? He seems pretty nice. Cute, in a nerdy sort of way."

My mouth, which had been open wider than a network without a firewall, went through a series of recovery maneuvers to regain its normal position. So Mike had asked her out. That explained his sudden curiosity about Sarah's personal life, and probably also the warnings he had given me. The guy called me his friend. What a traitor. A backstabber. And whatever else he might be, Mike was not nerdy. But if she liked nerds... The little voice in the back of my head told me not to get my hopes up.

It was just my luck that Mike didn't have a class when we went up to the room. "Hey Brian. Oh, and hello sweetheart. How are you this afternoon?"

Sarah, to my greatest anguish, gave him a little peck on the cheek as she walked by. I was very tempted to crack his user account on the school network and leave him an unpleasant welcome message, but it would be too obvious.

"So Sarah," he said, "what are you doing following geekboy around?"

"He offered to help me put up posters too!"

I couldn't believe my ears. "'Too?' You mean Mike volunteered to come?"

Mike didn't reply, he was too busy looking smug with his arm around Sarah's waist. Sarah spoke for him. "Of course he did! This'll be perfect - my roommate's coming, it'll be almost like a double date! You don't have a girlfriend, do you Brian? I'm sure you and Emily will get along well. She's a computer person too."

I groaned under my breath. I hate being matched up with other "computer people." Either they're gamers or they want to impress you with their pitiful knowledge of HTML.

Mike finally decided to grace us with his presence in the conversation. "So, why'd you come up here, anyway? I thought the plan was to meet down in the quad."

"Duct tape." I didn't trust myself to say anything more. I always find it hard to control my mouth when people are being smug. I kept searching through my dresser for the roll of tape.

"Really? I thought you might be coming up to check our fortune for the evening!" He didn't bother waiting for Sarah to ask, and said, "Brian has a program on his computer that can tell fortunes. Quite incredible. Would you care to demonstrate, Brian?"

Mike would pay for this. I would have to come up with something clever, something he would never expect. For Sarah's benefit, though, I put on a pleasant face. "Sure," I said, turning around and throwing the duct tape at his head. "Catch." Ok, maybe not such a pleasant face. Mike caught. I pulled up a terminal window on the computer and ran Fortune. "Hey, this one is kinda interesting. Almost relevant."

Sarah peered over my shoulder. "What does it say?"

"Abandon the search for truth; settle for a good fantasy."

---

That was a fun one to write! Much more so than the last one, which was thoroughly boring. All it did was set up for this entry and rant a little about terminology.

If you're wondering what happened to the whole questioning thing, fear not! It shall return soon. As fun as it can be to write, I don't want everything to be about the social tension between the characters. It's an overused topic, in my opinion.

If you're hoping for some fast-paced action scenes... Well, you'll probably have to wait a few months. Sorry.

And if you're waiting for me to be on time with updates... I'll work on that. Most of my time is spent either doing homework or procrastinating on homework. So... The more fun I have writing this the more it will fall into the "procrastinating on homework" category and the more likely it will be on time. I think. Considering the fun I had with this entry, you can expect to see the next entry (which I also expect to have fun with) right on time. I hope.

Anyway, have a nice week!

Edit: Just fixed a typo. Must finish writing posts sooner so I can edit them before putting them up.

Another edit: I went through the post and found a bunch of things that really needed fixing. They are fixed, though they don't really change the plot. I'm starting the next installment now so maybe there will be time to edit before Saturday.