The power is back on on campus, Hooray! This means I can blither at the text box on the computer rather than do math. Fun, hm? Yesterday was almost pleasant with it's lack of humidity, I drove home in the evening with the windows down and Modest Mouse playing and the sun getting low enough in the sky to make the hills golden...another hour and they would be purple, and I was struck once again at the curiosity of circumstance...that I would be here now, and this would be my home. Seven years ago I could not even imagine the possiblity, and now I cannot imagine being anywhere else. It's not perfect, no, and sometimes I feel so out of place in it I cannot help but wish it was not so, but I cannot escape it...that this is my home, and that occasionally, beyond all impossibility, it makes me so happy that I could simply burst.
A little while ago I was reading something a friend of mine had written, a short nostalgic bit about his childhood and a dream he had had, and I was startled by it. The image of a browned photograph that he mentioned is burned in my mind. I am afraid I must admit...shamefully...that I had not given him the credit to write such a passage. It makes me very sad, because I always seem to underestimate people, to not give them the credit they deserve... How many times have I done it in the last year alone? I don't even know...I can't know how many people I have written off as being not worth it, or passed over something that could have been good. A conversation worth some time, a friendship worth a little effort, a relationship worth a little patience...for lack of judgement, how many have I missed?
I just got notice that DSC campus will be closed tommorrow because the electricity is out, so that means no work for Paula, which is partially a relief since I haven't been sleeping well recently and wasn't looking forward to sitting in the Math Lab for hours, but also kind of sucks because now I'm out five hours, and this is the last week I'll be working before fall semester starts up next month. And I need that money. I suppose I can make up the hours by staying later the rest of the week. Not that this is terribly interesting, but oh well.
I saw Anchorman with my brother and Kevin and Nathan. It was reasonably entertaining, but not the funniest movie I've ever seen. I do think the big local channel news teams street brawl was friggin hilarious though. And I'm going to be calling my cat Hobo "my little gentlemen" from now on. Maybe it wasn't worth the ticket admission, but it might be worth a rental.
I need a new book, someone buy me a book. I'm almost done with Coming of Age in the Milky Way. Any suggestions?
Well...nothing really of consequence has happened to me recently. I finished some books. That's nice, right? I think campus died this week...strange, because you'd think with finals coming up the week after next that people would be stopping by the math lab everyday, but aside from a few regulars and some people doing their stats things on the computers there hasn't been anyone. Which is tremendously boring, but at least I get to practice my integration. I'm almost all the way through chapter eight in the stupid Anton book. Stupid, smartass calculus book. If it hadn't cost me most of my Hope check I would toss it out the window. I wonder if McKays has any good calculus texts...
Quite possibly the best game invented by man:
http://www.geocities.com/nconner23/bwcards.html
Okay, you have to understand something. If you're going to use the flag as a symbol you should treat it as a symbol. This does not mean leaving it out in the rain. This does not mean displaying it in a gaudy manner. This does not mean draping it about yourself as an article of clothing (for the love of God, people!). I've never quite gotten over the time I saw the flag spread across the stomach of the big inflatable purple ape at that car dealership on Battlefield Parkway... It's a symbol of our country, guys. Please treat it with the respect it deserves.
Here's some highlights of the don'ts of flag etiquette, and you can read the list for yourself at usflag.org.
-The flag should never be dipped to any person or thing. It is flown upside down only as a distress signal.
-The flag should not be used as a drapery, or for covering a speakers desk, draping a platform, or for any decoration in general. Bunting of blue, white and red stripes is available for these purposes. The blue stripe of the bunting should be on the top.
-The flag should never be used for any advertising purpose. It should not be embroidered, printed or otherwise impressed on such articles as cushions, handkerchiefs, napkins, boxes, or anything intended to be discarded after temporary use. Advertising signs should not be attached to the staff or halyard
-The flag should not be used as part of a costume or athletic uniform, except that a flag patch may be used on the uniform of military personnel, fireman, policeman and members of patriotic organizations.
-The flag should never have placed on it, or attached to it, any mark, insignia, letter, word, number, figure, or drawing of any kind.
-The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
-When the flag is lowered, no part of it should touch the ground or any other object; it should be received by waiting hands and arms. To store the flag it should be folded neatly and ceremoniously.
-The flag should be cleaned and mended when necessary.
Read the rest, with the specifics of how to display the flag here.
I ate half of a huge calzone from the Mr T's in Dalton on Tibbs (Go eat there. they just opened, it's cheap, it's good, and they seem like really nice people.) earlier today, and it was big and greasy and packed with sausage, pepperoni and cheese, and probably horrendous for my cholesterol...but it was sooo gooood....
I went and saw Farenheit 9/11 yesterday. I had alot of thoughts about it and I still do, but I don't think all of them can be fully conveyed through a digital meduim, so I'm not going to try. I guess I have some general comments, but I'm not trying to argue here, there's no anger behind any of these words, just a kind of depression... I don't know if I'm going to vote in November. I just really don't...there is no candidate I want to win. I don't want any of those men to be president. It makes me angry because I know that's not the best that generation can turn out. What happened to those good people? Bush to me seems either a good-hearted easily manipulated fool or (as I'm less and less inclined to believe) a liar, but Kerry I don't trust as far as I could throw him (you can just look at him and think "slimeball, slimeball, slimeball"), and I'm scared of where the country will be in four years if either of them are elected. Some of my more liberal friends tell me I should vote for Nader, but as much as I like and respect Nader (and am thankful to him for the seatbelts in my car) he's just not presidential. I figure most good men aren't. I'd vote for Kucinich, but I don't trust anyone who won't eat meat. That's what God invented the canine incisors for, Dennis.
I was fairly surprised by the turnout at the theatre, because it was a Thursday afternoon and I never gave Chattanooga, Tennesee the Michael Moore nod, but of course I saw it more out of curiousity than any feelings of support for Mr Moore (who was great when he did Roger and Me but has now degraded to a machine capable only of progressing his own career and political leanings than anything else), and I guess there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction in the way things are going at the moment....I know I'm not happy how things are turning out. I'm not as liberal as some but more liberal than others (I actually don't like to think of it in terms of "liberal" and "conservative" because I don't agree with either fully), actually the political compass put me in the third quadrant but then again those online things don't mean anything. I don't understand why that should mean I don't absolutely love my country...I mean I love my brother but I'm not proud of him when he drives his car into a tree and snaps the axle. In fact it's my love for this country that makes me so sad, because I never want to live anywhere else...Anyway, that's my ramble for the day...I'm on my way to grab some sushi at Kanpai and see Spiderman with Kevin and Nathan...have a good evening.