Wit & Whim

"Because," I said, "the free man ought not to learn any study slavishly. Forced labors performed by the body don't make the body any worse, but no forced study abides in a soul." -Plato One word. Communication. Public speech I can do. Memorizing a few dozen terms that I will never seriously use, which no one outside of a business seminar or a com department will use...so, so, stupid. I think I am one of just a couple of people who have done their Arbeitsbuch...me thinks the sharp and sarcastic Frau Schulz will have munitions come Wednesday. I have honestly been contemplating the possibility of shaving myself bald this fall. At current rate I probably have three years or so before my issue necessitates action, but curiosity is eating at me. O-M-G! Like, the Masterpiece Theatre version of Emma is, like, so amazing. It totally deserves the comparisons to P&P '95. Back to eavesdropping.

Why does homework consume so much of my time? It does not help that I let my German Vocab Stagnate during the off-season; that I now find myself scrambling to capture some of those lost idioms. But the real difference comes with Bartky. It would be a lot easier if I did what has been suggested to me by those who have taken this class previously and just breezed through Plato and concentrate on the exams. However, if I took that course--easy though it may be--I would be defeating the whole purpose of taking this class, which is to learn, reason, and read the texts well. If I must go back and read that same page three times, so be it. The point of taking this class is to get a proper foundation for understanding western thought, and one does not get that by breezing through and looking to the exams. So it seems to me that there are two themes in this epic conflict of me versus me. On the one hand, we have the conflict of profit/career versus wisdom. Am I at college for the little docume...

I have read the first assignments for my history class, and I am deeply, truly, disappointed. I love history; it is--and has been--the topic which most captures my imagination. It is a winding, delicate, and striking synthesis of politics, philosophy, and every little thing that has come to define civilization. I love history because I love its constituent parts. I love the moments when things take their place in the order of history, when the chaos fades, receding to reveal the fabric of reason which has ever lain beneath. History has always taken a somewhat considerable part of my reading time. The work of a gifted historian is art. It is a beautiful portrait that conveys thought and emotion, the burning sting of personal disappointment; the staggering enormity of grand empires which slowly grind themselves into the dust, which dust is but the remains of the mighty edifice that was their supposed immortality. No event in history is a matter of black and white. All situations have man...

I think I just met my new favourite professor. Elliot Bartky is awesome. He makes you explain your comments, extensively, makes you own your comments and never shows whether or not he approves. His expression is always one of doubt or skepticism, even when it is about an idea he is presenting. Opinion is not to be seen, and the experience is much better for it. He also has a good sense of humor and an excellent lecture voice, which is bigger for me than you might believe. My new history professor should be okay, though I don't think she would probably appreciate my thoughts on certain subjects, and certainly would not have enjoyed it if I had called her on something she said during class. Oh well, I will hope for the best. Dillman, my communication teacher is one for whom I have hope. She, unlike someone in my last semester, believes that this needs to be a creative exercise with as much freedom as possible to run with our ideas. She will have strict requirements on quality and vo...

Frau Cornelia Schulz ist meine neue Deutschlehrerin. And I think class is going to be a blast. German this semester looks rather like the best half of Doctor Roberts class, with the addition of--at least I think from statements made by Frau Schulz--the better part of her last class. It seems to be a generally fun group, wherein conversation flows in a way it has never done for any of my other classes. I might add that Schulz has many of the desirable people management skills which past professors have lacked. Normally, in my experience, class conversation sort of shrivels and dies the second the professor walks in. She is very good at putting everyone at ease, casual in her air, strict in her expectations. I noticed from comments beforehand that all of her past students adore her, but they also respect her. Good sign. And it is my pleasure to have the company of the same people who sat around me last time. Brian, the honcho of the campus atheists, who now seems to be majoring in 5 subj...

Ah, yes. Computer difficulties already spike my blood pressure, but now they come with these little panels that taunt me. The panels say that they are looking for a solution; I am not deceived. For one thing they never find a solution, usually they make my current situation worse by eating up what little computer function I had left. This is a pretty regular thing, but normally easy to solve. The reason that I mention the above is because I had a new and remarkably destructive Vista error just a few days ago. Said error set to work and corrupted my administrator profile and cut me off from all of my myriad files and web favourites. I spent most of the day muttering dark imprecations against windows and those whose minds devised it. After much impotent wrath had been expended, I decided to set to the problem and see if I could do something. Several hours later I had a new profile and, having saved my papers and other important documents, I set to the recreation of my internet favourites...

Saving a resolution for the new year is a practice with which I do not really hold. If something I need to reform on comes to mind, I act on that knowledge. So my resolution is what it was; enact my resolutions when they come to mind and strive always to be a better son, grandson, brother, and human being in general. I will receive good grades and improve my mind and will love every second of it. The problem with making these new year resolutions can be observed by the rise and ebb of traffic in the YMCA parking lot. They resolve; they tire; they fail. Do not save your resolutions for the new year and do not consider your resolutions only once a year. Each day is a day for new resolve. Do not think about the steps you could take to better yourself, just take them. None of these things are easy and I feel like I seldom succeed. Seldom, though, means that I do succeed in some places. And even in those times where my resolutions fail and my slovenly nature and general difficult maleness ...