I hope my children aren't crackheads.

Irony Alert!

I am in love with Lagomarcino Hall on the ISU campus. More specifically the courtyard that I walk through is BEAUTY, readers. I'm in love with beauty. I encourage an afternoon stroll. Also, I'm big on reading again. Hurrah for books! The irony is, I hurried back to my room to write about going outside. I want to go back outside. I still have classes. Ain't gonna get me down! Although, I really wish Ross 124 had windows.

Who wants to go to Hastings/Hyvee with me later? I need a toothbrush, cheese, and some books.

A Unique Twin

The X-men soundtrack sounds suspiciously like the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack. I CAUGHT THEM! Shenanigans, reader. Fucking shenanigans.



Listen at 45 seconds in to 53 seconds in to how similar it sounds to this clip of Disney's classic masterpiece at 3:49 - 4:07.



Xerox machines. They're all hacks.

Loving Hollywood,

ROTHGAAAAAAAAR

The Best Thing in the Entire World

Breathe it in. This is KOTOR 3, unofficially. It's The Old Republic, the events in which take place about 300 years after KOTOR 2. I am shitting my pants right now, I'm so excited. Unfortunately, no release date has as yet been set. The only failing of this game that I can see, is that it is a MMO, which I find slightly less cool than actual video games. I don't really have any desire to be playing along with nerds halfway around the world. I prefer the nerds in my neighborhood. Those that can come over in the flesh and watch me play. They're the best kind of nerds. But still, when I see this trailer, get this light feeling in my chest, and then I try yet again, to push my desk around with the Force (no such luck...this time).
I could talk shop about this all day. Not really shop, because I don't know anything about computer technical thingamajiggers, but I can give you a complete essay on the history of the Star Wars universe up until that point. Which, I shouldn't have to point out, is the coolest thing you've heard of in the past seven months.
Look at how good it looks! It's not the retarded dungmation that George Lucas ruined the Star Wars movie franchise with. It's Fucking Legitimate. Capitalized. And how 'bout that battle? Epic. That single battle takes precedence over William Wallace, Joan of Arc, Saladin, Basil II Bulgaroctonus, and any other classic campaigns of "real" history. The Bounty Hunter was wearing lip gloss. This is also epic. There is no excuse for not looking your best, even in battle, and even if your face is covered by a helmet.

Things

Two things:

1. "Awry" is the most messed up word. It has cognates in Middle Low German, Greek, Old Frisian, Lithuanian (wtf?), and Proto Indo European. That last one makes sense considering Proto Indo European is the theoretical language that all the previous ones listed are descended from. I say theoretical because it's a made up language. It's one of those things that are decided upon by a bunch of white guys in a room because "hey, why not?" That is not to say there isn't proof. I'm sure there is. It just sounds like it could have been made that way.

Also, it looks funny.

2. I'm really jonesin' to go to a Sigur Ros concert. I rather think I'm going to board the next schooner to Reykjavik and see if they're there. I'm sure Bjork would be happy to give me a ride too. I hope nothing goes awry with this plan.

bye bye.

I've Been Had!

No no no, my eager readers. This is not about me losing my virginity. As if. I took that philosophy test I was dumping on earlier. Of the 15 questions on the study guide, there were three on the test. There were only three questions en totalus on the test. Retarded! I half almost tried to learn all that jazz and you crap all over me by saying it was time poorly spent because you decided to have a 10 point test (you in this sentence refers to my philosophy teacher. I shouldn't have to point this out. Stupid reader. Can't even tell what I'm meaning to say). Bright side: no class on thursday. Great. Now I've got even more free time. It's like getting socks for Christmas. I suppose it's useful, but I can't really appreciate it because its just so ordinary.

Today I went grocery shopping right around five o'clock. Bad decision. Harried parents were all over the place crashing into kiosks, trying to grab all the ingredients for a frozen pizza dinner. I have always maintained that I was raised on frozen pizza. My mom would always get these pizzas from Aldi's that had this orange pizza sauce. Didn't taste anything like a pumpkin. And they were the best.

I've spent most of this night and, indeed, this day trying to learn enough about Descartes and Locke to be able to not only understand them well enough to relate them in an educated way, but also to understand them on a personal level; to find out what I think about their philosophical theories. Inevitably, "trying to learn" degenerated into tasting new tea and eating cheese while reading up on Silvio Berlusconi trying to out-maneuver the legal system (or what passes for the legal system) in Italy. And by the way, parmesan goes with almost no tea whatsoever.

Instead of buckling down and trying to garner the best grade I can from that jumped up 500 dollar waste of an hour and fifteen minutes, I decided that whether I can understand and relate two long dead philosophers' views or not, who gives a shit? I know I can understand them given enough willpower on my part, but I shouldn't need to, even if I want to understand myself or whatever trumped up meaning they're trying shove across. I've come to the conclusion that all philosophers are berks with more time on their hands than me. Who gives two shakes of a rat's tail if Descartes was a substance dualist or if Locke couldn't counter the Division argument for memory as the mechanism for personal identity?

Naturally, this little rant o' mine could be construed as the ramblings of a lazy student who doesn't want to actually try on his homework to get a good grade from the institution. While I am lazy, I've almost never not tried to get a good grade. I can usually be counted on to prioritize my life correctly. I'm making a half conscious decision to go into this test sand blind. But, in the end, I won't care what Descartes or Locke thought. I care what I think. And I think that, when I'm dead, I'll have found out whether there's a mind and body, whether it's memory or an immaterial soul that makes me who I am. I can philosophize all I want when I'm dead. And if I can't, then I think I beat the system.

On a more upbeat note: I found a lovely collection of mythological/fantasy picture books in the Browsing Library at the MU. Pretty exciting. I'm also way into sci-fi. Nerd Alert!