How fares the Monstro
Oh, I'm doing okay. Let's see. I got a teaching job for over Winter Break. I will be teaching Men and Women in Literature, or is it Man and Woman in Literature. I don't know. In any case it's an internet class, so on top of everything else, I'm trying to figure out how to use the school's internet information supply system known affectionately as Pegasus. I'm thinking of using the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, as the university sort of frowns on Packets, and in any case, my students will actually be from seven or eight different colleges, not necessarilly in the same area, and thus the idea of where to pick up the packet could be somewhat daunting.
I'm going through Doom 3 withdrawells, which is strange because I have yet to play Doom 3. My computer isn't powerful enough, and I simply cannot justify buying a more powerful machine while I am still in debt from the move. So, no Doom 3. However, in anticipation of Doom 3, ID software recently released Doom, Doom 2, and Final Doom on an XP friendly format for $10, which I bought. I will not tell you where for I am still ashamed that my consumerism got the better of me. I also picked up a copy of the newest Tomb Raider for $10. I realize that $20 on video games seems like a lot of money considering the ammount of time that I spend playing video games, but realize that what I actually purchased was the quelling of the desire to purchase Doom 3, $49 for the game, $700-1,000 for the new computer to play it on. Anyways, I don't have the time to play Doom 3. That's what I keep telling myself, over and over again, until the crying stops.
Classes are going okay. My Hawthorne/Melville has gotten significantly better since people in the class started talking. I even got in an argument with some guy over the E word. In one sense, I was very happy to do it, since I can't stand the universe sized brush that big fans of existentialism tend to use to paint the philosophy over everything, and I'm not going to say it's not fun getting into the philisophical dick measuring contest. "Sartre, eh? Well, what about Camus? Uh huh, uh huh... Kierkegaard!" I cannot thank Roger enough in that capacity, because Kierkegaard is to the philosopher's argument what a papery rock would be to Ro Sham Bo. No one's read him. No one can counter him. And when they start talking about their godless universe they have to agree that all their foundations are Christian in argument. Damn you, non-french father of existentialism!
On the other hand, it was just pretty much me and the other guy arguing and the rest of the class looking bored. Here's how to have that argument. Guy 1 brings up existentialism for two reasons. A- he has a point to make related to existentialist thought (big deal). B- he wants to say something that no one else will understand in order to make himself look simultaneously smart and beyond challenge. Guy 2 comes along (me) understands extistentialism and challenges guy 1. Guy 2 does this because A- Guy 1 got it wrong, B- Guy 1 cannot be allowed to gain in stature by spouting pseudo babble gobbely gook, C- Guy 2 will take on heroic stature by making guy 1 look foolish even as he tries to make everyone else look foolish. This, of course, only works if Guy 2 is willing to act like, "well, I wasn't going to go there, but since you did, you might as well get it right." God, I'm so pretentious.
Not much else to report. The death of Maxwell shook us up pretty bad, but I think we've recovered enough to know that we want another cat, and so we're going to get one from a no kill shelter pretty soon. This is, of itself, a moral dilemma. On one hand, you want to support the no kill shelter so that it can continue in its business practice of not killing animals. On the other hand, you know that if you went to a shelter that euthanizes, you are essentially saving an animal's life by bringing them home. That's a hard one to find the middle ground in. Anyway, this Saturday, we should have a cat.
I'm going through Doom 3 withdrawells, which is strange because I have yet to play Doom 3. My computer isn't powerful enough, and I simply cannot justify buying a more powerful machine while I am still in debt from the move. So, no Doom 3. However, in anticipation of Doom 3, ID software recently released Doom, Doom 2, and Final Doom on an XP friendly format for $10, which I bought. I will not tell you where for I am still ashamed that my consumerism got the better of me. I also picked up a copy of the newest Tomb Raider for $10. I realize that $20 on video games seems like a lot of money considering the ammount of time that I spend playing video games, but realize that what I actually purchased was the quelling of the desire to purchase Doom 3, $49 for the game, $700-1,000 for the new computer to play it on. Anyways, I don't have the time to play Doom 3. That's what I keep telling myself, over and over again, until the crying stops.
Classes are going okay. My Hawthorne/Melville has gotten significantly better since people in the class started talking. I even got in an argument with some guy over the E word. In one sense, I was very happy to do it, since I can't stand the universe sized brush that big fans of existentialism tend to use to paint the philosophy over everything, and I'm not going to say it's not fun getting into the philisophical dick measuring contest. "Sartre, eh? Well, what about Camus? Uh huh, uh huh... Kierkegaard!" I cannot thank Roger enough in that capacity, because Kierkegaard is to the philosopher's argument what a papery rock would be to Ro Sham Bo. No one's read him. No one can counter him. And when they start talking about their godless universe they have to agree that all their foundations are Christian in argument. Damn you, non-french father of existentialism!
On the other hand, it was just pretty much me and the other guy arguing and the rest of the class looking bored. Here's how to have that argument. Guy 1 brings up existentialism for two reasons. A- he has a point to make related to existentialist thought (big deal). B- he wants to say something that no one else will understand in order to make himself look simultaneously smart and beyond challenge. Guy 2 comes along (me) understands extistentialism and challenges guy 1. Guy 2 does this because A- Guy 1 got it wrong, B- Guy 1 cannot be allowed to gain in stature by spouting pseudo babble gobbely gook, C- Guy 2 will take on heroic stature by making guy 1 look foolish even as he tries to make everyone else look foolish. This, of course, only works if Guy 2 is willing to act like, "well, I wasn't going to go there, but since you did, you might as well get it right." God, I'm so pretentious.
Not much else to report. The death of Maxwell shook us up pretty bad, but I think we've recovered enough to know that we want another cat, and so we're going to get one from a no kill shelter pretty soon. This is, of itself, a moral dilemma. On one hand, you want to support the no kill shelter so that it can continue in its business practice of not killing animals. On the other hand, you know that if you went to a shelter that euthanizes, you are essentially saving an animal's life by bringing them home. That's a hard one to find the middle ground in. Anyway, this Saturday, we should have a cat.
posted by Monstro D. Whale at
12:34 PM
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