!!!

One of my books for spring semester is "Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants." I pay 27,000 dollars a year to go to school and study the history of getting high in my Western Civ class? This is bullshit!

T-Freud and Counting...

Four days of class left... Three nights of work... Too much free time... One reading assignment. T-4 and counting. Friday night I fly out of here; once again, my freedom will be to short and sweet. We are reading a book on Freud and Lewis right now. Its out last book before the creative presentations and final exam, and it put me asleep four times in two pages last night. I admit, I may have been slightly exhausted from snowboarding, but the writing couldn't even excite me to finish the reading assignment, which was less than 100 pages. Tonight, the last 200 pages will be a real challenge. I doubt I will read them.

Freud may have been a great guy. He also may have been a complete blockhead. I don't know enough about him to make a definitive decision for myself. All I can postulate is that he severely limited himself by being an atheist, and by placing such importance on the relationship he had with his family.

Lewis may have been a great guy. He may have been a complete blockhead. From the time I've spent on him, and the number of his works I have read (most recently especially) I think I know enough about him to postulate the former and discredit the latter statements. However, I can do this kind of inference, this kind of logical analysis on my own, without the help of a book based on a PBS Special, written about Freud (which sells) that only postulates without attempting to make a differentiation between right and wrong, good and evil, and better or worse.

As soon as Freud is removed from my life, things may improve. Or I may suffer as my friendship with Kristin is ruined over ideological principals. I just cannot explain why I don't go to services in 'churches' that don't believe in God without becoming very flustered, accusatory, and reactionary.

Its 19 degrees outside...

I found the sidewalk on campus that they didn't plow,I have 96 pages to read for class tomorrow, the caf closes down all the good food to early, its four tiring flights of stairs down to the laundry room, and Emily has a loud voice that carries through the heater too well from Nicole's room. Its in front of Olin. The sidewalk -that hasn't been plowed. Why do I keep making friend with people that have been in mental hosptals?

Let It Snow!

Friday, Mother Nature dumped 5+ inches of snow on the upper Midwest. Ah, a snowstorm! FINALLY! It's the middle of January, and the first snowstorm of the year has been long overdue. Classes weren't cancelled, of course, because classes are never cancelled when all of the students live walking, trudging, traying, or blundering distance away. What's a little bit of snow? Well, it got Physical Plant off their lazy bumms and for once, I think they plowed every road and sidewalk on campus... Not just the ones people never use. Of course, on the second day, who would think of plowing again? No one... The parking lots are still a mess. In order to prove that they were doing something productive, the Physical Plant people, in their Carhart overalls and choppers loaded dump trucks with the snow from the numerous 10 foot high drifts created the previous day and removed it to an undisclosed location.

With all the beautiful powder, I took the liberty of going snowboarding. Though the hill wasn't very big, (it DEFINITELY wasn't a mountain!) it was bigger than a glorified garbage dump. But then, I've only seen one real garbage dump before. $52 secured a rental board and a lift ticket for me. *I couldn't even get a lift ticket for that price in Colorado right now!* And that's all there is to say about it. I went snowboarding in Minnesota. I got bored after 2 1/2 hours, I went down every run on the hill at least twice, beating the chairlift down every time, and by the time I was done, I could not feel my rear hindquarters. The snow pants I borrowed from a very kind person were too small, and I could not get them buttoned, but they kept falling down, and the sweatpants I was wearing kept falling down too. So, when I got in the shower, my cold and clammy bumm turned bright red and started tingling. TMI? hehe! I wasn't wearing goggles today, which is nice. No goggles burn. My pink and ruddy cheeks don't really hint at sunglasses tan.

Tomorrow, the outdoor amusement while the snow lasts is to borrow a cafeteria tray and go sliding down the hill. The fun part is trying to stop before you hit State Highway 169. Sometimes trays don't obey stop signs.

Commander Keen and the Invasion of My Computer!

Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons came out in 1990 from Apogee software. It was a big hit, leading to the development of six more Commander Keen games. When I was little, my sister's best friend's dad had the fourth one on his computer, and if I was lucky enough to be there when my mom stayed to talk at their house for a few hours, I sometimes got to play Keen. It burned in my memory forever.

Yesterday, I began pondering my loneliness and boredom. C.S. Lewis may be one of my highly esteemed authors, but after this month-long class I am taking on his works, I find I am burning out. I decided I needed a diversion. Since I didn't have a console handy (I am more of a console than a PC gamer) I looked around online. AND I found Keen, as a free download, at DOS games archive. Hooray!

Who needs friends? Who needs homework? OR papers? Or books? Or walleyball, even? I've got DOS games, Keen especially, at my beck and call. Once I accustom myself to the not-so-great graphics (i.e. once I stop getting motion sickness from looking at them) I will have paradise here. Well, not so much. But anyways.

Commander Keen and the "Beef-with-Bean" Rocket, here I come!

Love: Its one of those things...

Love. People in it say it cannot be explained. People who have never experienced it say it doesn't exist. Philosophers and writers analyze it. What is it with this human emotion that so captivates the only species that can feel it?

My answer:

It cannot be explained and should be left alone!

I know that others beg to differ. Plato's Symposium is a philosophical and highly acclaimed examination of this topic. Lewis' The Four Loves attempts to boil love down to something that anyone and everyone can understand. I have suffered through both of these works this semester, and I can authoritatively say that both miss their mark. Having experienced love is required for an accurate dissertation, but having been in love adds a certain taint or bias to the writing, and thus, both writers lose something in the transition of ideas between writer and reader.

Besides, Love is one of those things that is different for everyone person and in every locale. Love is art at arts finest form. Since art is not anything like science, you cannot effectively classify, analyze, and break it down according to the scientific method, nor can you quantitatively categorize it.

SO don't even try. It’s an act as cowardly, stupid, and blind as giving me clothes or stationary for Christmas and using a gift bag!

Damned by Excellence

The later you start you education at a private school, the harder it is. Some people put their kids in private schools right from elementary schools. Others wait until high school, and yet others don’t start considering private schools until college. *There are some people who don't even look at private schools throughout their entire life, but they are not the subject of this dissertation.* The difference between private and public schools is great. Though public schools are apt to have stronger curricula in the maths and sciences, private schools more often better prepare student for the rigors of the liberal arts or college education. On the college level, once again there is a difference. Those who note it most are the students coming in from public schools. Readjusting to a new way of life dissimilar to their old school's methods of training, these students often complain that classes are hard, the expectations are great, and that they have to work and study very hard. This is often frustrating to those students who come into a private college after years of private schooling and find these "challenging and demanding" classes to be easy review. It is not fair to the students who have been better prepared to be held back by their less-prepared compatriots. Yet it is also unfair to the poorly prepared students to deny them entry or give them special consideration while they struggle to catch up with their peers. Or is it? In "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" C.S. Lewis talks about the spirit of democracy and the I’m as good as you ideology.
“In that promising land the spirit of I’m as good as you has already begun something more than a generally social influence. It begins to work itself into their educational system...The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be “undemocratic.”" Is this to be the way we suppress individuals? I am saddened. At dinner tonight, a few of my friends were talking. "I hope the required curriculum classes we have this semester won't be as hard as the ones we had last semester." "Wait a minute guys!" I interjected. "Last semester's classes weren't hard. They were depressingly easy. I had so much free time. After studying all that stuff years ago, the hardest thing for me last semester was to not fall asleep in class!" “ Well that’s nice that you've studied it already!" was the retort I got. Turns out that everyone else at the table had always attended public schools, one even came from a Math/Science magnet school. Is it fair that I am to be held back while the others work to catch up to my level? Is it fair that some of them, who are obviously smarter and harder workers than me, have received such a poor preparation for college? Is it fair of the college to admit such a disparity of intellects in the first place? I dunno. I'll just do my work and get my grades, and hope to high heaven that my friends catch up and that we stop reviewing high school soon.

National Somethingorother Whathaveyou

It's National Vocation Awareness Week. I found out in Church today. It seems to be a trend, using National ____ Day as your starting point; anyone can promote anything during a certain timeframe. Soon there won't be any free days, weeks, or months left on the calendar. After all, there already is:

National Hispanic-American Heritage Month (September)
National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month (September)
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October)
National Auto Battery Safety Month (October)
National American Indian Heritage Month (November)
National Adoption Awareness Month (November)
National Safe Toys and Gifts Month (December)
National Drunk and Drugged Driving (3D) Prevention Month (December)
National Birth Defects Prevention Month (January)
National Volunteer Blood Donor Month (January)
National African-American Heritage Month (February)
National Wise Mental Health Consumer Month (February)
National Women's History Month (March)
National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month (March)
National Candlelight Vigil for Eating Disorders Awareness Month (April)
National Child Abuse Prevention Month (April)
National Asian-American Heritage Month (May)
National Military Appreciation Month (May 2005)

To top it all off, we've got:

National Auto Battery Safety Month (October)
National Hand Washing Awareness Week (December)
National Diet Resolution Week (1st week Jan.)
National Correct Posture Month (May)
National IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) Month (May)
World Breastfeeding Week (August)
International Housekeepers Week (September)
National Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day (3rd Tuesday in Sept.)

Looks like they've got the school year covered! Too bad activism isn't very active when college isn't in session. If you don't believe me, check out the 2005 National Health Observances Calendar or Pam Pohly's Net Guide. Fascinating Stuff!

And in that cold and dark month of February, in which I was born, I am ashamed to admit, the following National SomethingOrOther WhatHaveYou's are observed:

National Girls and Women in Sports Day (First Weds. in Feb.)
National Pride in Food Service Week (1st workweek in Feb.)
National Have-A-Heart Day (Feb 14)
National Condom Day (Feb 14 - Happy Valentine's Day)
National Kids E.N.T. (Ears, Nose, Throat) Month

So, what's on Your birthday?

Nothing to Blog About

This a post to say that I have nothing of substance to post.

Here is an interesting fact about blogging:

Women account for a greater percentage of bloggers than men. Men are also more likely to abandon a blog once it is set up. (Hey Paul, atleast you can blame your failure to blog on a prevailing social current, or something!)

The full(er) story is available from Time Magazine in an article about bloggers.

I'd say something witty here, but I have nothing to say. I'd say something in general, but the words just won't come to mind. That makes it naptime, after which I will continue stockpiling beef jerky and Honey-Roasted Peanuts for the long years ahead. With all the preservatives therin, my stockpile might even survive a nuclear blast, though I most likely won't.

10 Pounds of Sand

Minnesota, that hellish land of ice and snow is 20 inches below the average expected snowfall rate for this time of year. Once it is understood that the 2 inches of snow so far, and the 2 ice storms fail to make up for this deficit, one understands the predicament we find ourselves in. It’s very cold, and not very snowy.

The average temperature at which ice melts is somewhere above freezing- a temperature I don't think we've seen since before Christmas. Therefore, all the ice that fell on New Years is still around. The poor Physical Plant people, among the hideous tasks of having to sink new signposts into the asphalt of the parking lot to replace the ones knocked out by idiots pulling donuts, are literally burying the campus in sand. Heaven forbid a few drunken college students should slip, fall, and hit their poor little heads. *You do have to have insurance to come here!* Of course the sand doesn't stay there, on those innocuously icy footpaths where it is sprinkled, it gets tracked into every building on the feet of people who are too concerned with the cold to scrape off their shoes.

Now to the main point--- I swept almost every bit of brown tile in the athletic center tonight, including the stairs *yes, I remembered to sweep the stairs before I swept the tile underneath!* and created two MONSTROUS piles of sand and dirt in the center of the floor. I swept my beautiful piles into a dustpan like a good little custodian and almost broke my back dumping the damn thing into the trash.

Why don't those idiots at Physical Plant just SHOVEL the snow and ice off the walks instead of putting down so much more sand? Their half-assed efforts using that useless little machine that scrubs and brushes the sidewalks cannot be pardoned. I wanna see them work as hard as me, dammit!

Recess: School's Out?

Not really. I don't get recess anymore and school just started. As a matter of fact, it’s been in session for a whole week (as of class that I will attend at 10:30 this morning...) and, lets just say that I would much rather be at home. Christmas break was WAY WAY WAY too short. I didn't get to see anyone from high school, didn't get to sleep in enough, or get to work enough, or go snowboarding enough... the saga continues.

And now here I am, taking one class that meets for 2 hours every day on C.S. Lewis until the end of January. The guy wrote a lot of books, you know, and we are reading most of them. Free time? What free time? Everyone else may have unlimited time to watch movies, go play walleyball, or make a dent in that keg that was delivered to their room last Sunday, but I will be reading. Right up my alley! *Its also a convenient excuse to get rid of those incredibly social people who keep stopping by -I am either reading or sleeping, and thus never answer my door*

I think I rather like this J-term system. If only it was all the time. I do think I like the block schedule of Colorado College... If you take a science or math course, it will be over soon and thus the torture easily forgotten, and if you have an English class, you can be in heaven for a few blessed weeks. Too bad they don't have a Denver campus! So, now its naptime again. Then I will wake, go to class, read the second half of Perelandra, start reading That Hideous Strength and take another nap, before I play walleyball and then go to work, come back, read some more and take yet another nap.