Norman Wanman

Entering in the year 2009 as a Spring Semester International Transfer Student, Norman will not be using a conventional method to tell you more about him and his major. Work is work, the Internet is the Internet.

= Essentials =

Classes and Co-curricular
As you can observe, I do not have Division I. I transferred here and therefore, I picked eight classes (5 for Schools Distribution Requirement and 3 Electives) out of the 20 classes I did (TWO years of thinking) and therefore, I move straight into Division II.

Div II
Still in the midst of finding and making my committee, these are the courses I have done so far. Note that this part was updated on the 6th February 2009.

And was there any progress? Yes, there was. I filed my Division II on Hampshire Halloween 2009 (30th Oct 2009). The title of my Division II is entitled, "'Recolonizing' the Post-Colonial World". Its main focus is on racial or religious majorities "recolonizing" their countries just like their former colonizers and how the minorities in these countries adapt in a hostile and imbalanced sociopolitical environment.

Division II Committee Chair: Carollee Bengelsdorf

Division II Committee Member: Susan Darlington

Classes Taken on Spring 2009
Modern Islamic Politics and Its Discontent (Berna Turam)

New Class of Racisms (Wilson Valentín-Escobar and Falguni A. Sheth)

The Culture(s) of U.S. Foreign Policy (Margaret Cerullo and Carollee Bengelsdorf)

Classes Taken on Fall 2009
Intro to Japanese @ Amherst College (Ikumi Kayama 嘉山郁美)

Seminar in International Politics: Conflict and Cooperation in Asia @ Smith College (Dennis Yasutomo)

Science in the Islamic World: From Almagest to the Islamic Bomb (Salman Hameed)

Classes Taken on Spring 2010
Building Survival Skills in Japanese @ Amherst College (Ikumi Kayama 嘉山郁美)

Islamism [and/as a Political Philosophy] (Sayres Rudy)

East Asian Security @ Amherst College (Jonathan T. Chow)

Religion and Violence in South Asia (Vishnupad)

Clubs Joined on Spring 2009
Member - Asian Media

Member - Excalibur

Member - FISH

Member - PASA

Member - Folk Music Collective (FMC)

Spring 2009
Merrill B312: Small room resembling a prison cottage, Merrill B312 was my humble abode for the first semester of my Hampshire College stay. It was messy but containable, the room next door creaked of hormones while the air filled with the smell of America. It is either freedom, popcorn burns or ganja. Anyway you look at it, this single was close to SAGA and anything close to SAGA in the middle of winter was heaven.

Fall 2009 - Spring 2010
Greenwich Mod 34, Donut 5: Greenwich 34 (2009-2010) is known among its circle of visitors as the following: "The Super Smash Brothers Mod", "The Asian Wok Mod", "The Mess Mod", "Mod á Franzia", "Rule 34 Mod", "Fail Pass Mod" or "The Most Politically Incorrect Mod on Hampshire College circa 2009 AD". Greenwich 34 has four residents and an wintern. Paul Sawaya, the wiz of computers. Benjamin Beach, the local dissenter and exposer of bullshit. Nathaniel Gentile, the philosopher. Lindsay Barbieri, the wild woods baker/astronomer. Norman Wanman, me, the cook and the spewer of words of wisdom (depending on what is the definition of 'wisdom')

Fall 2010 - Spring 2011
Due to family problems and illness, I am in Malaysia.

About Where He Came From
He enjoys telling people that he comes from Malaysia, a country that is as similar to the United States except that they don't have four seasons, they love Kanye West (Norman hates Kanye) and that his government is perhaps the dumbest government ever founded on the face of the Earth.

Places He Loves To Go
In Malaysia, he loves to go to the following places:


 * Kuala Lumpur
 * Petronas Twin Towers
 * Kinokuniya (book shop)
 * DaBest (electronic shop)
 * Motorola (the shop where I go to piss off the shopowner by asking, "Do you sell pirated games here?" with the typical response of, "WHY YOU ASK ME THAT?")
 * The Curve (four malls in one location)
 * Cineleisure
 * Gamer's Hideout
 * Cineleisure Cinema
 * Ikano Power Center
 * Pet Safari
 * IT Hypermarket
 * The Curve
 * Border's
 * MPH
 * Georgetown, Penang
 * Air Itam (drain-side assam laksa)
 * Gurney Drive (more drain-side food but it's more of a hawker center)
 * Batu Ferrighi (our version of Waikiki but with smaller and quieter)

Places He Hates To Go
He hates these places:


 * Singapore


 * Singapore


 * the state of Kelantan


 * his uncle's house at Ampang, Kuala Lumpur (reminds me of dump site)
 * Adif's house (you don't know him but he sucks)

Malaysian Culinary Delight
Well, we come to the part about food and here is a list of things he loves to feast on.

Style of Comedy
My style of comedy is topical ranging from politics, virgin perspective of sex and race relations jokes, like most comedians. I also do a lot of pop culture impressions like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Irwin, George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, Woody Allen and Jack Sparrow. These days, I am focusing on "Video Games and Anime" as my new material for my stand-up comedy routine. My progress on it is so far on "Lucky Star and the Randomness of Otaku Life", "Nation Building in Tetris", "Halo and the 10 Year Olds who Kicked My Ass", "MMOs and Sex", "We Don't Need the Stimulus, We Need Obssessive Otakus", "Avatar: The Not Anime Anime" and "Classic Old School Games: Analogy of Drug Problem in 1980s". I also love do that improv.

Writing Outside of the Classroom
I have a very loose way of writing. Well, I call it disassociative because nothing connects. It's always funny that way. I normally write humor stuff and normally, they consist of angry rants about something just completely obscure or out of topic. I have so far maintained the consistency of topic but at this point, writing is a way for destress.

An example of my writing can be seen here: http://www.baka-tv.com

WARNING: The random meter and the geek-nerdosity (it's like viscosity but geekier and nerdier) is over 9000!

Other Writing Projects
I am currently working on six projects other than my website. They have been slow as of late and so progress is questionable:


 * The Onomichi Diaries (romance story of a writer, his relationship with his wife and how he falls in love with a city)
 * Nebulos Adgarin (a fantasy land)
 * Aria (a controversial story of a Malay Muslim breaking racial and religious barriers to become a Chinese opera singer)
 * Choir Trilogy (North Korean choir, Kenyan choir and Harlem choir - what they have in common is a struggle for perfection and to win a competition)
 * Urireul Bora or Our Venerable Leader (a dramedy of about North Korea)
 * Connoiseur (a comedy about a food critic and his assassination)

Nebulos Adgarin
N.A. is a large work about that was originally derived from my stories called "Fragrant Romance" which did not see light. Last time, it only concentrated on the Wellecks continent and the country of Aranea. More specifically, the concentration of the story was the town of Chamomile Gardens. It was originally planned to be about the blossoming romance of a couple of teenagers during the summer months and how one deals with fame after the female protagonist became the next Avatar (human-incarnate goddess) of the land.

However, the convuluted storyline became a hassle and I decided to reach out to stretch the Wellecks universe farther and soon, Esselfer, Bellandria, Sojourne, Eorjen (the pink moon) and Akelspi were born. Nebulos Adgarin was born. And so did my failing drawing skills. Therefore...

Therefore. ..
I am looking for artists, writers or anyone who is interested in creating a fictional universe just for the sake of creating. It stirs your creative wave and it makes you create weird thing. The weirder the better, so long as it does not conflict with the lore. So, please, send me an email to either mailto:aercul@baka-tv.com, mailto:sa.warriors@gmail.com or mailto:nw09@hampshire.edu

Television Shows He Love To Watch and Hope to Work on Some Day

 * The Daily Show
 * The Colbert Report
 * Saturday Night Live
 * The Office
 * Parks and Recreation

Television Shows That He is Awed At As He is a Foreigner

 * The Knife and Gun Show http://www.knifeandgunshow.com/
 * The 700 Club on CBN
 * C-SPAN / BBC Parliament

