I had an interesting dream last night. For some reason I returned to Selma and decided to spend the night in my childhood church. When I woke that morning from my position on a couch in the foyer, I found the carpet covered with snow; it had been blown in by virtue of the fact that the glass doors in front of the church were partially broken. I was delighted that it was snowing, so I went outside (in a t-shirt, gym shorts, and no shoes, I might add). This being a dream, I wasn't cold or anything. Once I got outside, though, I felt the sun come out from behind a cloud. I could hear the snow melting. I turned around and watched as an inch or so of snow melted away, leaving behind dead grass.
Now that the snow was gone, I went back inside and sat down. Then to my horror I spotted the church's pastor and his extended family driving up -- his oldest son, his oldest daughter and her husband, his youngest daughter, and some other people. I wasn't supposed to be in the church, given that I'm no longer a member of it and indeed am quite the heathen, so I was at a loss as to how to explain myself. I went outside to greet them (since hiding would've been futile). I explained that the back door was open and I spent the night on the couch.
He pointed out that his office door was open, and I said I hadn't unlocked it. This much is true: no one has keys to his office, even the janitor. I've been in there before, though: there's not much to it. A desk, a computer, a few bookshelves, lots of pictures and certificates. I don't think he believed me, but I don't especially care. I greeted one of the people outside, who I then recognized as an old youth group leader. I greeted him again with more enthusiasm after I recognized him. Since they had shown up, I decided to clear out: the church building feels rather like home to me, even after my year of estrangment, but I didn't want to be there when their church service started.
For some reason I had moved a television set and a stereo into the assembly area. They'd call it a sanctuary, but I reserve that term for other places. As I was moving my stuff into my car, I stopped to watch a stream beside the church. Normally dry, or at the best boggish, all of the melting snow from a field behind the church had resulted in a babbling brook. I stood and appreciated it a while, noting that now spring had arrived and everything was amazingly green. Then I left.
Conclusions:
- I still dislike my childhood pastor for reasons too complicated to go into. I have my own opinions regarding him, and they're well-formed, I think.
- Maybe the winter/spring thing means that...my life in the church was cold and dead and my life after I've left it is vibrant and healthy?
I'm not much for Freud. Real conclusions: I still think that man is an obnoxious ass, a vile boor, and so on. Also, spring follows winter and melting snow does result in runoff streams. So...my dreams are scientifically literate. Huzzah.
ngment, but
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Gubernatorial
"John McCain has been running this campaign based on 'we're at war, it's a dangerous world out there, the Democrats don't get that it's a dangerous world...I, John McCain, am the only one standing between the bloodthirsty Al-Quedas and you. But if I die, this stewardess can handle it." - Bill Maher
Current Music: "Working Class Hero", John Lennon
I had an odd dream last night. I was at my childhood church for some unfathomable reason. The last time I was there, the preacher kept screaming about the dangers of secularism and humanism and that sort of thing. Hearing him mentioning humanism was a reminder of the tyranny that my parents live under; they're so possessed with fear that I am going to Hell that they have to divulge their great shame to their pastor: their son, named after a martyr and an well-behaved youth all throughout high school, is now as much of a sinner as one can get: he's a skeptic. He thinks he's better than going to church. This news has somehow drifted to the extended family so that whenever we met for a someone's birthday, I am informed that I have merely subscribed to the fad of not going to church. This manages to be both annoying and amusing.
The last time I visited my childhood church -- Mother's Day -- the preacher screamed (Pentecostalism is a branch of Christianity thoroughly wrapped up in emotionalism so that nothing, not even sermons on the most hum-drum of topics, can be delivered without excessive screaming. ) about humanism and secularism and godless colleges, and that sort of thing. He kept going on and on and on and I got bored, so I started provoking him by winking at him whenever he'd look at me. I also started giving him visual feedback -- like when he said "YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO SHEEP WHO FOLLOW THEIR SHEPHERD?" I made a "knife across the throat" gesture and made a little sound to indicate that good sheep who follow their shepherd turn into...well, shepherd's pie. Mutton. Tasty lambchops. Best case scenario, they get fleeced for a few years until their fleece-producing abilities start to wear out, at which point they're turned into tasty tasty lampchops.
Looking back now, I can see that I was being an ass, but I don't really regret it. I eventually grew bored. I mention all of this because of the dream. In the dream I was at church with a book -- Foundation's Edge, probably -- and the pastor was screaming along the same lines as in that sermon. This time, though, I wasn't paying any attention. I was listening placidly and occasionally stealing a glance at my book to read it. Then he started screaming about humanism, sensualism, and somethingelse-a-ism. There were three of us sitting there on my pew -- myself, the pastor's daughter, and a young woman who is married to the assistant pastor. I was guilty of humanism, his daughter was guilty of sensualism (?), and the ymwimttap was guilty of the something else-a-ism. While they were sitting there feeling ashamed of themselves for their apparant sins, I was simply sitting and watching with confused amusement. Then he scowled at me, wrote out a formal request that I get the hell out of his church, and handed it to me. IN my dream-world this constituted a "Get Out Or I Will Call the Cops" measure, so I left, protesting that I hadn't done anything and that this entire thing was irrational.
And then I woke up. My Fridays are completely bereft of responsibilities, so after I went to breakfast, I decided to go to the library and read a little. I read from from various papers by Karl Marx and understood little. In The German Ideology I think he was saying that human beings have to have a dogma or a set of unquestionable ideas to live under, or else our entire intellectual world will fall in upon itself. He called out freethinkers in particular. I don't agree. After that I read a little about Zeno, the father of Stoicism. I wasn't in the library long, and after I left I realized that today was a gorgeous day; the wind was blowing, the temperature wasn't unbearable, and the sky was pretty. Realising that I couldn't just spend the day indoors, I spent from then until lunch sitting under a tree reading Foundation and Empire.
It was a lovely morning. The tree I like to sit under is perfect for either sitting against or laying back against, and whenever I tired of reading I'd lean back and look up into the tree at the passing clouds above. Someone asked me if I thought I was Woodsworth. It was all quite perfect, and I was relucant to leave. When the sun's position made reading uncomfortable, I went to the library again and read from American Heritage, then got online in the library until the lunch-time crowd thinned out. After that I went to the Records Office to check on my job application.
English History:
- This week had repeat lectures for me on Feudalism and Peasant Life in the Medieval Era. I heard this in Medieval History.
Human Geography:
- We learned about classes and were informed about the "Social Register". Most of the class was offended by the idea that there was a book of rich prats that listed where their yachts were mored and that admittance to this book of people was chosen by a snobbish few. We spent Wednesday talking about the upper class and their institutions -- boarding schools, private colleges, social clubs, etc. My professor said that 50% of all admittances into places like Harvard are reserved for people whose ancestors went there.
European History:
- We learned about Italian and German reunification. I'm more interested in Weimar Germany and Germany post-Reunification. The Imperial Germany that was ruled by the Prussian aristocracy has quickly lost its appeal.
German 201:
- Our teacher returned and I'm suddenly enthusiastic about German again. We've had fun both class sessions so far. Yesterday we interviewed four German exchange students, one of whom sits in front of me in English class. I'm forever trying to see if she takes her notes in German or English. I'm betting English and could ask her, but I like trying to find out even though I'm not liable to.
Sex and Gender:
- We moved on to horticultural societies, or those that engage in simplistic farming. Very interesting stuff.
Current Music: "Working Class Hero", John Lennon
I had an odd dream last night. I was at my childhood church for some unfathomable reason. The last time I was there, the preacher kept screaming about the dangers of secularism and humanism and that sort of thing. Hearing him mentioning humanism was a reminder of the tyranny that my parents live under; they're so possessed with fear that I am going to Hell that they have to divulge their great shame to their pastor: their son, named after a martyr and an well-behaved youth all throughout high school, is now as much of a sinner as one can get: he's a skeptic. He thinks he's better than going to church. This news has somehow drifted to the extended family so that whenever we met for a someone's birthday, I am informed that I have merely subscribed to the fad of not going to church. This manages to be both annoying and amusing.
The last time I visited my childhood church -- Mother's Day -- the preacher screamed (Pentecostalism is a branch of Christianity thoroughly wrapped up in emotionalism so that nothing, not even sermons on the most hum-drum of topics, can be delivered without excessive screaming. ) about humanism and secularism and godless colleges, and that sort of thing. He kept going on and on and on and I got bored, so I started provoking him by winking at him whenever he'd look at me. I also started giving him visual feedback -- like when he said "YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO SHEEP WHO FOLLOW THEIR SHEPHERD?" I made a "knife across the throat" gesture and made a little sound to indicate that good sheep who follow their shepherd turn into...well, shepherd's pie. Mutton. Tasty lambchops. Best case scenario, they get fleeced for a few years until their fleece-producing abilities start to wear out, at which point they're turned into tasty tasty lampchops.
Looking back now, I can see that I was being an ass, but I don't really regret it. I eventually grew bored. I mention all of this because of the dream. In the dream I was at church with a book -- Foundation's Edge, probably -- and the pastor was screaming along the same lines as in that sermon. This time, though, I wasn't paying any attention. I was listening placidly and occasionally stealing a glance at my book to read it. Then he started screaming about humanism, sensualism, and somethingelse-a-ism. There were three of us sitting there on my pew -- myself, the pastor's daughter, and a young woman who is married to the assistant pastor. I was guilty of humanism, his daughter was guilty of sensualism (?), and the ymwimttap was guilty of the something else-a-ism. While they were sitting there feeling ashamed of themselves for their apparant sins, I was simply sitting and watching with confused amusement. Then he scowled at me, wrote out a formal request that I get the hell out of his church, and handed it to me. IN my dream-world this constituted a "Get Out Or I Will Call the Cops" measure, so I left, protesting that I hadn't done anything and that this entire thing was irrational.
And then I woke up. My Fridays are completely bereft of responsibilities, so after I went to breakfast, I decided to go to the library and read a little. I read from from various papers by Karl Marx and understood little. In The German Ideology I think he was saying that human beings have to have a dogma or a set of unquestionable ideas to live under, or else our entire intellectual world will fall in upon itself. He called out freethinkers in particular. I don't agree. After that I read a little about Zeno, the father of Stoicism. I wasn't in the library long, and after I left I realized that today was a gorgeous day; the wind was blowing, the temperature wasn't unbearable, and the sky was pretty. Realising that I couldn't just spend the day indoors, I spent from then until lunch sitting under a tree reading Foundation and Empire.
It was a lovely morning. The tree I like to sit under is perfect for either sitting against or laying back against, and whenever I tired of reading I'd lean back and look up into the tree at the passing clouds above. Someone asked me if I thought I was Woodsworth. It was all quite perfect, and I was relucant to leave. When the sun's position made reading uncomfortable, I went to the library again and read from American Heritage, then got online in the library until the lunch-time crowd thinned out. After that I went to the Records Office to check on my job application.
English History:
- This week had repeat lectures for me on Feudalism and Peasant Life in the Medieval Era. I heard this in Medieval History.
Human Geography:
- We learned about classes and were informed about the "Social Register". Most of the class was offended by the idea that there was a book of rich prats that listed where their yachts were mored and that admittance to this book of people was chosen by a snobbish few. We spent Wednesday talking about the upper class and their institutions -- boarding schools, private colleges, social clubs, etc. My professor said that 50% of all admittances into places like Harvard are reserved for people whose ancestors went there.
European History:
- We learned about Italian and German reunification. I'm more interested in Weimar Germany and Germany post-Reunification. The Imperial Germany that was ruled by the Prussian aristocracy has quickly lost its appeal.
German 201:
- Our teacher returned and I'm suddenly enthusiastic about German again. We've had fun both class sessions so far. Yesterday we interviewed four German exchange students, one of whom sits in front of me in English class. I'm forever trying to see if she takes her notes in German or English. I'm betting English and could ask her, but I like trying to find out even though I'm not liable to.
Sex and Gender:
- We moved on to horticultural societies, or those that engage in simplistic farming. Very interesting stuff.
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Antelope Graze
Current Music: "I'm Into Something Good", Herman's Hermits
I spent last week recovering from a cold -- a cold that now appears to be over. Well, thank Olympus for small favors. Actually, the cold lasted two weeks so I probably don't have anything to thank the Olympians for. Nothing really went on last wee.
German 201:
- Nothing happened in this class as my teacher was off cavorting in Las Vegas. She's returned this week, though, so I actually have to go to class. Boo.
English History I:
- Last week William of Normandy landed at Hastings in 1066. Yay Normans.
Human Geography:
- We started talking about religion in the United States. My instructor postulated something I've heard before -- that the United States' lack of an official state church keeps the various denominations vying for souls/tithes, and as a result Americans are more religious than western Europeans, who have state churches that everyone belongs to but that no one believes in.
European History Since 1815:
- Last week we were sorted into six groups, one for each major country we'll be studying. Our groups will present reports on our countries at various intervals throughout the week, and our first report was this past week. I was sorted into the Italian group. I learned about an interesting liberal democratic terrorist group called the Carbonari in the course of my research.
Sex, Gender, and Culture:
- This is still my most interesting class. This week we discussed sex/gender roles among foraging groups.
I didn't do anything during the weekend except watch Planet Earth DVDs, read, and make paper out of fallen tree limbs. I'm kidding about one of those.
I spent last week recovering from a cold -- a cold that now appears to be over. Well, thank Olympus for small favors. Actually, the cold lasted two weeks so I probably don't have anything to thank the Olympians for. Nothing really went on last wee.
German 201:
- Nothing happened in this class as my teacher was off cavorting in Las Vegas. She's returned this week, though, so I actually have to go to class. Boo.
English History I:
- Last week William of Normandy landed at Hastings in 1066. Yay Normans.
Human Geography:
- We started talking about religion in the United States. My instructor postulated something I've heard before -- that the United States' lack of an official state church keeps the various denominations vying for souls/tithes, and as a result Americans are more religious than western Europeans, who have state churches that everyone belongs to but that no one believes in.
European History Since 1815:
- Last week we were sorted into six groups, one for each major country we'll be studying. Our groups will present reports on our countries at various intervals throughout the week, and our first report was this past week. I was sorted into the Italian group. I learned about an interesting liberal democratic terrorist group called the Carbonari in the course of my research.
Sex, Gender, and Culture:
- This is still my most interesting class. This week we discussed sex/gender roles among foraging groups.
I didn't do anything during the weekend except watch Planet Earth DVDs, read, and make paper out of fallen tree limbs. I'm kidding about one of those.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
A little morning psychosis....
Arise you workers from your slumber!
All you wage-slaves, everyone.
The Revolution comes like thunder,
And the age of hypocrisy is done.
Turn off their televised illusion
Stand up and look them in the eyes.
Declare your mental liberation;
Shake off the dust, and claim the prize.
So comrades, come rally.
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale unites the human race.
I had a weird night and a weird day. I had a series of dreams, all uncomfortable.
Dream 1:
- My German teacher returned from her two-week vacation with a surprise exam for us; turns out we were supposed to have self-taught ourselves a third of the course while she was away. I was reduced to tears and ran from the room.
Dream 2:
- Al Pacino was chasing Angelina Jolie because she was evil. He was also evil, but fighting on the good side for whatever reason. The only scene I remember is when Pacino is chasing Jolie through a massive swamp with obstacles built into it. Pacino was able to kill her, but then the screen reset and I was trying to get to her before Pacino did. So there I was, swimming in a swamp with a shotgun that looked plastic, anticipating when she would surface for air. There was platform in the water and she pulled herself up on that, but I was already there. I tried to shoot her, but I had forgotten to set the gun, because I'm not a gun person. She called out for her killer dog to come get me, and then I was able to shoot her. Because I am not a gun person, my little plastic gun just went "Click" and her head flopped over. She was "dead".
Then I had to shoot her killer dog, which was really incompetent. It was slow, and it had lost its teeth. Still, it was supposed to get me, so I "shot it" with my plastic shotgun as well. Then my thoughts turned to Al Pacino, who was surely going to kill me for getting to his mark before he did. Fortunately, Pacino had turned into Patrick Stewart dressed like Picard from First Contact, and he congratulated me on bringing her to justice.
Dream 3:
- For some reason I snuck my parents' chihuahua Charlie into my dorm room. I realized in the dream that this was a really bad idea, because that chihuahua hates being alone and will howl at the door if he thinks he's been deserted. Someone would definitely hear. In the dream, I was outside with some friends watching a soccer game and we saw the police escorting someone out of the building, and someone said "Is that Karl Marx?". For some reason I was under the impression that the dog had a human form and that his name in human form was Karl Marx. I really don't understand this part of the dream.
I left the game in a panic to see if they had gotten Charlie/Marx, but they hadn't. He was hiding, only now he looked like Charles Darwin. I knew I had to get him to safety, so we left. I apparantly had a sportscar. We eventually wrecked -- or rather, the car was run off the road and upside down. Then, as if I was living in the world of Grand Theft Auto, the car exploded. I think it killed Charlie/Marx/Darwin. To make matters worse, my schoolbooks had been in the car when it went up in a fireball. All I was left with was a DVD on the genetics of sex.
=======
After that strange series of dreams, I was in a strange mood this morning. I felt paranoid, as if I had done something wrong. I was also very tired, which is not surprising given my activities while I was sleeping. Swimming through a swamp with a shotgun is tiring work, you know. There were a number of instances this morning that made me paranoid:
- when I was crossing the street, a car had to stop and wait for me because my legs accidently moved an inch, thus giving him a reason to think that I was going to try to walk across the street. Rather than playing the "You move - I move" game, he stopped and waited while I walked across.
- when I went to breakfast, the machine checks our mealcards was malfunctioning, and I started thinking I had been removed.
- when I was getting my food, the cafeteria lady told me to stop pointing to things and start talking to her, because I often complement my requests with hand gestures. This morning my requests must've been too quiet.
- when I was walking to my table with my food, a piece of bacon fell off of my plate. I felt bad about this for some reason. It's not as if I wanted the bacon, it just seemed a crime to let food randomly fall from my table. What, was I incapable of walking from point A to point B without losing things?
Very strange. After eating and reading a Carl Sagan biography, though, I felt much better. OFf to class now.
All you wage-slaves, everyone.
The Revolution comes like thunder,
And the age of hypocrisy is done.
Turn off their televised illusion
Stand up and look them in the eyes.
Declare your mental liberation;
Shake off the dust, and claim the prize.
So comrades, come rally.
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale unites the human race.
I had a weird night and a weird day. I had a series of dreams, all uncomfortable.
Dream 1:
- My German teacher returned from her two-week vacation with a surprise exam for us; turns out we were supposed to have self-taught ourselves a third of the course while she was away. I was reduced to tears and ran from the room.
Dream 2:
- Al Pacino was chasing Angelina Jolie because she was evil. He was also evil, but fighting on the good side for whatever reason. The only scene I remember is when Pacino is chasing Jolie through a massive swamp with obstacles built into it. Pacino was able to kill her, but then the screen reset and I was trying to get to her before Pacino did. So there I was, swimming in a swamp with a shotgun that looked plastic, anticipating when she would surface for air. There was platform in the water and she pulled herself up on that, but I was already there. I tried to shoot her, but I had forgotten to set the gun, because I'm not a gun person. She called out for her killer dog to come get me, and then I was able to shoot her. Because I am not a gun person, my little plastic gun just went "Click" and her head flopped over. She was "dead".
Then I had to shoot her killer dog, which was really incompetent. It was slow, and it had lost its teeth. Still, it was supposed to get me, so I "shot it" with my plastic shotgun as well. Then my thoughts turned to Al Pacino, who was surely going to kill me for getting to his mark before he did. Fortunately, Pacino had turned into Patrick Stewart dressed like Picard from First Contact, and he congratulated me on bringing her to justice.
Dream 3:
- For some reason I snuck my parents' chihuahua Charlie into my dorm room. I realized in the dream that this was a really bad idea, because that chihuahua hates being alone and will howl at the door if he thinks he's been deserted. Someone would definitely hear. In the dream, I was outside with some friends watching a soccer game and we saw the police escorting someone out of the building, and someone said "Is that Karl Marx?". For some reason I was under the impression that the dog had a human form and that his name in human form was Karl Marx. I really don't understand this part of the dream.
I left the game in a panic to see if they had gotten Charlie/Marx, but they hadn't. He was hiding, only now he looked like Charles Darwin. I knew I had to get him to safety, so we left. I apparantly had a sportscar. We eventually wrecked -- or rather, the car was run off the road and upside down. Then, as if I was living in the world of Grand Theft Auto, the car exploded. I think it killed Charlie/Marx/Darwin. To make matters worse, my schoolbooks had been in the car when it went up in a fireball. All I was left with was a DVD on the genetics of sex.
=======
After that strange series of dreams, I was in a strange mood this morning. I felt paranoid, as if I had done something wrong. I was also very tired, which is not surprising given my activities while I was sleeping. Swimming through a swamp with a shotgun is tiring work, you know. There were a number of instances this morning that made me paranoid:
- when I was crossing the street, a car had to stop and wait for me because my legs accidently moved an inch, thus giving him a reason to think that I was going to try to walk across the street. Rather than playing the "You move - I move" game, he stopped and waited while I walked across.
- when I went to breakfast, the machine checks our mealcards was malfunctioning, and I started thinking I had been removed.
- when I was getting my food, the cafeteria lady told me to stop pointing to things and start talking to her, because I often complement my requests with hand gestures. This morning my requests must've been too quiet.
- when I was walking to my table with my food, a piece of bacon fell off of my plate. I felt bad about this for some reason. It's not as if I wanted the bacon, it just seemed a crime to let food randomly fall from my table. What, was I incapable of walking from point A to point B without losing things?
Very strange. After eating and reading a Carl Sagan biography, though, I felt much better. OFf to class now.
Monday, September 08, 2008
Golden Ticket
I never thought my life could be...
Anything but catasophe..
But suddenly I begin to see..
A bit of good luck for me.
'Cause I've a golden ticket...
I've got a golden twinkle in my eye...
It's Monday, and although people are whining about how they hate Mondays, I'm a good mood. A great one, even. There's no real reason why, but I scarcely need one. The weekend was fairly uneventful. I had planned on doing something productive, but I didn't. Imagine that! I can't actually think of what I WAS doing during the weekend, outside of reading a biography of Carl Saga and binging on The Office and Monty Python's Flying Circus. That would explain my utter lack of productivity.
Yesterday I met a grotesque little animal I named "Mr. Grotesque". Mr. Grotesque is a spider, although he's not any ordinary kind of spider. While other spiders are basically a little orb with eight legs, this guy was built like a tank. I would expect to find him in Shredder's Technodrome. If I wanted to built a very large robot that terrorized people with its looks, I would build this guy. Intrigued by the thing, I stopped to look at it. It didn't look very much like a spider, but there it was sitting in the middle of this web.
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/images/g_cancriformis.jpg
That is not the spider I saw, but it's similar. One half of it was like that -- but the spikes were black. The other half of the spider was rather dull black. Anyway, from the side the thing looked amazing, like some mechanical horror. I spent a good bit of yesterday staring at the thing. Occassionally the wind would blow and the Mr. Grotesque would go right back to building his web. Most of the webs he built were triangles. I got to see some little bugs all wrapped up in the spider's silk, but sadly didn't see any of them actually fly in. One of my friends took a picture of the little beastie. If he uploads it, I will share it (with his permission).
On a minor note, this morning I used a brochure a friend sent me as a bookmark. The brochure is a map of "Cape Disapointment" in Oregon. Imagined interview with whoever named that:
Me: So, er, why'd you name the place "Cape Disapointment"?
Director: Well, you know, every summer we get this great horde of surbanites who want to experience the 'great outdoors'. Well, what they find is that the great outdoors is full of skunks and bugs and rocks in the ground that annoy you when you're trying to sleep. They've a tendency to complain. So we named the place that way to ward off those people. If anyone complains about their experience, we say "Well, we warned you!".
Lastly, last night I watched Dogma for the first time. I saw a scene from it on YouTube that intrigued me, so I decided to take a look. I was sold on the idea when I saw that Alan Rickman was in it. The film is about two fallen angels named Bartleby and Loki who want to go home. They were banished from Heaven after Bartleby convinced the death angel Loki to resign his post as Genocidal Maniac. God, angry at not having been given a proper two weeks' notice, expelled them both to Earth. Why is it we get all that guy's rejects? Why does he send ALL of his fallen angels here? Why not Mars?
Well, these two guys -- played by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon -- find a way to get themselves forgiven and back home. The problem is that if they exploit this loophole, existence will cease to exist, because all of it is built on the assumption that God is infallible -- and if they prove that he isn't, well. God can't do anything to stop these two because he's tied up, so his angels and a human servant are trying to stop the two angels before they muck everything up. Satan is also trying to stop the two, because in spite of the whole "In Hell" thing, he still fancies getting out and taking on a being of infinite power and infinite knowledge and winning. This guy isn't all that bright, clearly, but then again he used to be God's chief worshipper, so there you are.
Behind this scheme is another fallen angel named Azrael, who tried to play both sides and wound up in Hell with Satan. He wants to terminate all of existence because life in Hell isn't pleasant.
The film was funny, although not as irreverent as I'd been led to believe. It ended like a Joan of Arc episode. While the film did entertain me, it mostly reminded me one of one of the biggest reasons I couldn't take religion seriously: it was such a story. God creates everything; his angels rebel against him, so he creates humanity and gives us a choice. The fallen angels make us fall out of spite, and now Satan and God vie for our souls.
See? Christian mythology takes humanity WAY too seriously. The same is true of Jewish mythology and so on.
Anything but catasophe..
But suddenly I begin to see..
A bit of good luck for me.
'Cause I've a golden ticket...
I've got a golden twinkle in my eye...
It's Monday, and although people are whining about how they hate Mondays, I'm a good mood. A great one, even. There's no real reason why, but I scarcely need one. The weekend was fairly uneventful. I had planned on doing something productive, but I didn't. Imagine that! I can't actually think of what I WAS doing during the weekend, outside of reading a biography of Carl Saga and binging on The Office and Monty Python's Flying Circus. That would explain my utter lack of productivity.
Yesterday I met a grotesque little animal I named "Mr. Grotesque". Mr. Grotesque is a spider, although he's not any ordinary kind of spider. While other spiders are basically a little orb with eight legs, this guy was built like a tank. I would expect to find him in Shredder's Technodrome. If I wanted to built a very large robot that terrorized people with its looks, I would build this guy. Intrigued by the thing, I stopped to look at it. It didn't look very much like a spider, but there it was sitting in the middle of this web.
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/images/g_cancriformis.jpg
That is not the spider I saw, but it's similar. One half of it was like that -- but the spikes were black. The other half of the spider was rather dull black. Anyway, from the side the thing looked amazing, like some mechanical horror. I spent a good bit of yesterday staring at the thing. Occassionally the wind would blow and the Mr. Grotesque would go right back to building his web. Most of the webs he built were triangles. I got to see some little bugs all wrapped up in the spider's silk, but sadly didn't see any of them actually fly in. One of my friends took a picture of the little beastie. If he uploads it, I will share it (with his permission).
On a minor note, this morning I used a brochure a friend sent me as a bookmark. The brochure is a map of "Cape Disapointment" in Oregon. Imagined interview with whoever named that:
Me: So, er, why'd you name the place "Cape Disapointment"?
Director: Well, you know, every summer we get this great horde of surbanites who want to experience the 'great outdoors'. Well, what they find is that the great outdoors is full of skunks and bugs and rocks in the ground that annoy you when you're trying to sleep. They've a tendency to complain. So we named the place that way to ward off those people. If anyone complains about their experience, we say "Well, we warned you!".
Lastly, last night I watched Dogma for the first time. I saw a scene from it on YouTube that intrigued me, so I decided to take a look. I was sold on the idea when I saw that Alan Rickman was in it. The film is about two fallen angels named Bartleby and Loki who want to go home. They were banished from Heaven after Bartleby convinced the death angel Loki to resign his post as Genocidal Maniac. God, angry at not having been given a proper two weeks' notice, expelled them both to Earth. Why is it we get all that guy's rejects? Why does he send ALL of his fallen angels here? Why not Mars?
Well, these two guys -- played by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon -- find a way to get themselves forgiven and back home. The problem is that if they exploit this loophole, existence will cease to exist, because all of it is built on the assumption that God is infallible -- and if they prove that he isn't, well. God can't do anything to stop these two because he's tied up, so his angels and a human servant are trying to stop the two angels before they muck everything up. Satan is also trying to stop the two, because in spite of the whole "In Hell" thing, he still fancies getting out and taking on a being of infinite power and infinite knowledge and winning. This guy isn't all that bright, clearly, but then again he used to be God's chief worshipper, so there you are.
Behind this scheme is another fallen angel named Azrael, who tried to play both sides and wound up in Hell with Satan. He wants to terminate all of existence because life in Hell isn't pleasant.
The film was funny, although not as irreverent as I'd been led to believe. It ended like a Joan of Arc episode. While the film did entertain me, it mostly reminded me one of one of the biggest reasons I couldn't take religion seriously: it was such a story. God creates everything; his angels rebel against him, so he creates humanity and gives us a choice. The fallen angels make us fall out of spite, and now Satan and God vie for our souls.
See? Christian mythology takes humanity WAY too seriously. The same is true of Jewish mythology and so on.
Friday, September 05, 2008
Morning reflections
Current Music: "Listen, People", Herman's Hermits
My father, looking at a map: Now where is Rising Sun?
Me: It's a house in New Orleans.
Last night, as I sat on my bed watching Scrubs and chuckling with merriment, I heard a knock on the door. The shirt I wasn't wearing wasn't really fit to be seen by anyone else -- it was one of my ratty undershirts I only wear in my room -- so I said "One moment" and quickly started to change shirts. As I did so, a lilting female voice said "May we come in?"
I was expecting the knock on the door to be an RA, passing out something. The female voices had to be outside someone else's door -- there's no reason I can conceive of that I would have females outside of my door. I put on a new shirt, and opened the door to find three female freshmen -- who were all probably a foot shorter than me -- staring at me.
"Hi!" one said. They all went around and introduced themselves. The one in the middle was someone I had seen before, and she was looking uncomfortable. One of the girls took the lead and said "Did we just see you a few minutes ago?". Clever words failing me, I merely shook my head and said no. The girl who was taking the lead -- Cecilia or Celie, I think her name was -- asked me how I was, and I said I was fine. I asked them how they were -- I have no idea what's going on here -- and they were fine, although the girl in the middle was still looking uncomfortable. Celie said that they were just going around saying hello to people, which strikes me as being a pleasant thing for them to be doing. I certainly like encountering friendly people, although the "WTF?" factor was mitigating the pleasant effects having a conversation.
I said "I'm just watching Scrubs,". The conversation wasn't going anywhere, so we bid one another a good night and moved on. I returned to Scrubs. I have no idea what that was about. I don't know anyone who want to play a trick on me. "Hey, go knock on that guy's door and see what he makes of being greeted by you!". I don't think they were lost, because my name is on the door. So I'm going to assume they were either looking for someone or were actually going around greeting random people.
This is as surreal as my life gets -- this, and spotting Hanes underwear in the middle of the dining room floor.
My father, looking at a map: Now where is Rising Sun?
Me: It's a house in New Orleans.
Last night, as I sat on my bed watching Scrubs and chuckling with merriment, I heard a knock on the door. The shirt I wasn't wearing wasn't really fit to be seen by anyone else -- it was one of my ratty undershirts I only wear in my room -- so I said "One moment" and quickly started to change shirts. As I did so, a lilting female voice said "May we come in?"
I was expecting the knock on the door to be an RA, passing out something. The female voices had to be outside someone else's door -- there's no reason I can conceive of that I would have females outside of my door. I put on a new shirt, and opened the door to find three female freshmen -- who were all probably a foot shorter than me -- staring at me.
"Hi!" one said. They all went around and introduced themselves. The one in the middle was someone I had seen before, and she was looking uncomfortable. One of the girls took the lead and said "Did we just see you a few minutes ago?". Clever words failing me, I merely shook my head and said no. The girl who was taking the lead -- Cecilia or Celie, I think her name was -- asked me how I was, and I said I was fine. I asked them how they were -- I have no idea what's going on here -- and they were fine, although the girl in the middle was still looking uncomfortable. Celie said that they were just going around saying hello to people, which strikes me as being a pleasant thing for them to be doing. I certainly like encountering friendly people, although the "WTF?" factor was mitigating the pleasant effects having a conversation.
I said "I'm just watching Scrubs,". The conversation wasn't going anywhere, so we bid one another a good night and moved on. I returned to Scrubs. I have no idea what that was about. I don't know anyone who want to play a trick on me. "Hey, go knock on that guy's door and see what he makes of being greeted by you!". I don't think they were lost, because my name is on the door. So I'm going to assume they were either looking for someone or were actually going around greeting random people.
This is as surreal as my life gets -- this, and spotting Hanes underwear in the middle of the dining room floor.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
2nd Week
My second week back at Montevallo is nearly over. As far as classes go, it's completely over: none of mine meet on Fridays.
Human Geography:
- This class hasn't really taken off yet. Our first lectures have been on population, and they're the same basic lectures as last year, when I took World Regional Geography. It's not too bad sitting through the same lectures again, although I do manage to look like a pompous know-it-all even though I'm not saying anything.
Dr. Higley: Does anyone know how Norway can afford to be that generous? (Pointing at me) I know you know, but does anyone else?
Everyone Else: *stares at me*
I'm sure things will get more interesting once we move on to the actual meat of the class.
English History from the Roman Conquest to Elizabeth I:
- So far, nothing I don't know because I've read a lot about early British history. We've made it to the Viking invasions. My professor looks the part for this class; he's short and muscular, and has a shaven bald head with the exception of a goatee. He could play the part of a Saxon hacking some poor Celt apart or ripping nearly-raw lamb meat off of a bone with his teeth.
German 201:
- No activity in this class, as my professor is in Las Vegas with family from Austria. It's nice to know that her family's impressions of America will consist of a small college town and Las Vegas.
European History Since 1815:
- My sole night class. I'm taking this for a few reasons. I enjoy the professor's style; I like the subject; and I'm interested in learning more about Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. During the semester we're going to be doing group presentations, with each group talking about a particular country. We did a lottery tonight to see who was going to be in which group. There were six choices -- the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Russia. I was hoping to be sorted into either the U.K. group or the Italian group. I'm fairly well-versed in German history at this point, and I'm growing weary of the "You study German history and aren't religious, so you must be a NAZI!" spiel I have to endure every time the subject comes up. It's sad that a nation with centuries of rich history is judged by twelve years -- even if they were a dramatic twelve years.
Sex, Gender Roles, and Culture:
- This class is one of the more interesting ones. We have a lot of discussion. For whatever reason, sexes and gender roles have always been interesting to me. Even at an early age, I realized that the "natural, godly" roles that we were supposed to believe in were just cultural constructs, although I wouldn't have called them that. I realized that people were just making this stuff up. It helped that I was really uncomfortable with the idea of lording over someone. In the church I was raised in, there was a hierarchy: God was at the top, and told men what to do. Men told women what to do. Women were supposed to obey their masters -- erm, husbands -- completely, and husbands had some completely patronizing role. (Pun!)
Also, I was intrigued by what "made" sex considering that some people were born who didn't match biological and cultural expectations. In today's lecture we discussed some sex abnormalities -- Turner Syndrome and so on. I have a lecture on the biology of sex, but it's difficult for me to really grasp genetics.
======
I spent Labor Day weekend in Selma with my parents. On Monday I drove back to Montevallo, developing a sore throat on the way. By that evening my throat was quite irritated. I only got four hours of sleep because I was so congested. On Tuesday -- the day I had to cope with four hours of sleep -- classes were hell. My nose was stuffed, my throat hurt every time I swallowed, I kept coughing, sneezing, and sniveling, I was sleepy, my sinuses hurt, and my head hurt. After lectures and lunch, I spent the afternoon in bed trying to find sleep -- but I wasn't all that successful.
Yesterday was much better: my sore throat hardly hurt, I had gotten some rest, I could breath through my nose for the most part, and I didn't have any sinus trouble. It was a good day. Today I'm just having to put up with the sniveling and coughing. I don't know how many napkins I've gone through.
Not having a computer last week has resulted in me discovering Scrubs, which I really like.
And that's about it.
Human Geography:
- This class hasn't really taken off yet. Our first lectures have been on population, and they're the same basic lectures as last year, when I took World Regional Geography. It's not too bad sitting through the same lectures again, although I do manage to look like a pompous know-it-all even though I'm not saying anything.
Dr. Higley: Does anyone know how Norway can afford to be that generous? (Pointing at me) I know you know, but does anyone else?
Everyone Else: *stares at me*
I'm sure things will get more interesting once we move on to the actual meat of the class.
English History from the Roman Conquest to Elizabeth I:
- So far, nothing I don't know because I've read a lot about early British history. We've made it to the Viking invasions. My professor looks the part for this class; he's short and muscular, and has a shaven bald head with the exception of a goatee. He could play the part of a Saxon hacking some poor Celt apart or ripping nearly-raw lamb meat off of a bone with his teeth.
German 201:
- No activity in this class, as my professor is in Las Vegas with family from Austria. It's nice to know that her family's impressions of America will consist of a small college town and Las Vegas.
European History Since 1815:
- My sole night class. I'm taking this for a few reasons. I enjoy the professor's style; I like the subject; and I'm interested in learning more about Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. During the semester we're going to be doing group presentations, with each group talking about a particular country. We did a lottery tonight to see who was going to be in which group. There were six choices -- the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Russia. I was hoping to be sorted into either the U.K. group or the Italian group. I'm fairly well-versed in German history at this point, and I'm growing weary of the "You study German history and aren't religious, so you must be a NAZI!" spiel I have to endure every time the subject comes up. It's sad that a nation with centuries of rich history is judged by twelve years -- even if they were a dramatic twelve years.
Sex, Gender Roles, and Culture:
- This class is one of the more interesting ones. We have a lot of discussion. For whatever reason, sexes and gender roles have always been interesting to me. Even at an early age, I realized that the "natural, godly" roles that we were supposed to believe in were just cultural constructs, although I wouldn't have called them that. I realized that people were just making this stuff up. It helped that I was really uncomfortable with the idea of lording over someone. In the church I was raised in, there was a hierarchy: God was at the top, and told men what to do. Men told women what to do. Women were supposed to obey their masters -- erm, husbands -- completely, and husbands had some completely patronizing role. (Pun!)
Also, I was intrigued by what "made" sex considering that some people were born who didn't match biological and cultural expectations. In today's lecture we discussed some sex abnormalities -- Turner Syndrome and so on. I have a lecture on the biology of sex, but it's difficult for me to really grasp genetics.
======
I spent Labor Day weekend in Selma with my parents. On Monday I drove back to Montevallo, developing a sore throat on the way. By that evening my throat was quite irritated. I only got four hours of sleep because I was so congested. On Tuesday -- the day I had to cope with four hours of sleep -- classes were hell. My nose was stuffed, my throat hurt every time I swallowed, I kept coughing, sneezing, and sniveling, I was sleepy, my sinuses hurt, and my head hurt. After lectures and lunch, I spent the afternoon in bed trying to find sleep -- but I wasn't all that successful.
Yesterday was much better: my sore throat hardly hurt, I had gotten some rest, I could breath through my nose for the most part, and I didn't have any sinus trouble. It was a good day. Today I'm just having to put up with the sniveling and coughing. I don't know how many napkins I've gone through.
Not having a computer last week has resulted in me discovering Scrubs, which I really like.
And that's about it.
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