my second home

So this is where I spend 5+ hours a week. Emphasis added on the +. Welcome to the grad lounge for the Broadcast and Electronic Communications Dept at SF State. Those of you in UC and private universities (or any school in Canada) go ahead and laugh because I did when I first walked in here. This "lounge" is where I run my office hours and a writing lab for students who need help with their writing assignments.

Anyways, as you can see this place is a total shithole and not only is it a shithole, it is a shithole located in the bowels of the creative arts building which is about 50 years old and the subject of many lawsuits pertaining to handicap access or so I hear from a senior faculty member. I just worry the whole building will crumble as soon as the next earthquake strikes.

The floor is cement but partially covered with a really old and grotesque rug. We've also got a second perhaps dirtier rug rolled up and leaning against the wall by the door. It's probably been there for a decade or three waiting to be adopted. We've got 4 old Macs, 3 of them work most of the time but can only run a really old version of Netscape. I think we had more powerful computers at Simon Fraser in 1994 when I was doing my BA. The printer in our lounge never has ink and the lamps sitting on the monitors were donated by a fellow grad student and are for "mood lighting"...what kind of mood I don't know.

We have a bar fridge that is so filthy no one uses it. But it does the job of holding up the coffee maker and coffee that, well, no one uses either. But we do have a TV, VCR and stereo. I don't think the latter is functional but the TV works after you give it a good thud with a closed fist. Oh and we also have a great little microwave that takes a VERY long time to heat up anything probably because the door doesn't seal shut and most of the radiation is actually cooking the students in the room. The rolling chair is my favorite but one of the wheels comes off and I've nearly fallen to the floor on more than one occasion. Oh and lest we not forget the art on the walls that some student must've stolen from Motel 6 in 1972 or so.

So yeah, this is probably the dumpiest grad lounge in this country but I have to say I have a lot of fun in here. The door has a code to keep out those pesky undergrads and grad students frequently come in to nap, check email between classes, or hold their own TA office hours. That means there's a lot of traffic in here and a lot of time to spend with each other gossiping, commiserating, planning parties, sharing advice, generally shooting the shit, and, near semester's end, pulling out hair and panicking. A lot of memories were made here and when I graduate in a semester (or thereabouts), I'm really going to miss this shithole.