Friday, July 18, 2003

So?
I was wondering why it was such a big deal to me to find out the name of the Tarzan actor I liked when I was little. I realised, it was a souvenir of a golden age. When I was seven or eight or however old I was, and digging those movies because a good-lookin' guy was running around in a loin-cloth, I didn't know the word for what I was. I also didn't know there was a stigma attached to it, and so I enjoyed looking at Mike Henry with a freedom from angst or guilt that became rare as I got older.
I've come a long way, baby, but I'm not at the level of the lack of self-consciousness I was at when I watched Tarzan on Sunday afternoons. Maybe part of that is just being an adult.

Thursday, July 17, 2003

Oh, by the way . . .
The actor Mike Henry mentioned below does voices on "The Family Guy."

Tarzan of the Internet
Yesterday afternoon I meant to research vapour lock on the internet. My car apparently has this, it turns out. Instead, I ran a search on Tarzan books and memoribilia at Ebay.
Now when I was little a local station showed a Tarzan movie every Sunday afternoon. I loved it (don't think too hard about it). This station not only showed the ones with Johnny Weismuller, but also ones from after WWII with other guys playing lead. In later years I would think back about who my favourite Tarzan had been. For a while, I thought it was Gordon Scott, but then I saw a Gordon Scott Tarzan movie a few years back, and it wasn't like I remembered. I was more than a little disappointed.
Then yesterday at Ebay I came across the auction of a movie still photo from a film named "Tarzan and the Great River"(1967). Tarzan was played by a guy named Mike Henry. How could I have forgotten about Mike Henry? Remembering about him led to the memory of a movie named "Tarzan and the Jungle Boy"(1968) which was my favourite Tarzan movie with Henry (and I know). If I remember correctly (I could be wrong - it's been a long time) Henry didn't talk like a caveman. Gordon Scott definitely talks like a caveman.
I did a search on Henry and found out some other people had fond memories of him as well, as evidenced by the sites here and here.

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

Say . . .
That professor I met with on Friday wrote the freakin' program description. Why didn't he tell me about this TERI place then? He knew about it.
Hmmmm . . .

Easy, Easy . . . .
Last night I found the description of the post-bacc program I want to go into. I re-read the part of about tuition and fees. The professor in charge of the program said he thought the program description mentioned that there was no federal financial aid available. I didn't remember reading that, and I have a pretty good memory.
Sure enough, the document doesn't specifically say there is no federal aid available. In fact, it says that some students may qualify for low-interest loans.
I have been having spells of very negative feelings towards that professor, with his verbose unhelpfulness. I felt like writing to the woman in the financial aid office who had written to me that students in the post-bacc program aren't enrolled in enough credit hours to qualify for federal aid. I felt like quoting the program description to her, and saying, "What about that, huh? I was misled! I cry foul!"
Of course, my only motivation for doing this was to attempt to cause trouble for the professor.
And then it occurred to me that perhaps there are other sources for aid besides the federal government.
I called the financial aid office and just spoke to whoever answered the phone, keeping my head down, you see. I was told I can apply for a private loan from an organisation named TERI. The young woman I spoke to gave me their phone number and website URL.
I've checked out the website. I can apply either on-line or over the phone. I'll probably do it on-line to prevent being overheard (cubica suck). I need some information from papers I have at home first. So, that's on the agenda for tomorrow.
I'm not terribly hopeful. My old undergraduate loans officially have the status of "default" even though I've been making payments for years, and my credit history in general sucks.
So if this doesn't pan out, it's off to the English department, to discuss the possiblity of a nice English/Classics interdisciplinary master's.

Tuesday, July 15, 2003

Thoughts
Now I'm considering things like getting in a master's program in English and taking the post-bacc classes as electives. But I don't even know if people in master's programs get electives.

Monday, July 14, 2003

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
This Burt Baccarach song, as performed by the White Stripes, is becoming a theme for this summer. I just don't know what I'm going to do.
I woke up this morning at one-thirty and my power was out. I stumbled out of bed and found a candle and my little battery-powered radio. I sat up for a little while listening to the BBC on UNC's radio station. I guess I thought it might tell me why my power was out, but I don't know why I thought the BBC would be interested in power outages here. I wasn't really awake.