Wednesday, August 08, 2001

Clarification: Due to a request from my mac-evangelistic friend, I am clearing up that the crappy mac I was using was crappy due to the fact that it was extraordinarily old, and not due to the fact that it was a mac. Wait, this is a lie, I need more than one button, and, I can't stand not being able to use a keyboard shortcut to switch between IE windows, although it turns out that I can by pressing, get this, "command+tilde."

This is not a clarification, this is a mockery. Goodbye.

Monday, August 06, 2001

Ok, so, I’ve got about 40 minutes until it’s 1:00, at which time I think I’m supposed to go meet the TF for my enlightenment course about a topic for my next paper. See, I don’t really have any idea what to write about, so, I’m going to go get help. Of course, I don’t want to show up totally empty handed, and as such, I’m trying to think of some topics that I might be able to refine or build upon in advance of going. Ok…. To begin, I will distract myself and write about yesterday, for a little.

Yesterday was a pretty bad day. One of those days where I felt so incredibly disinclined to do anything, that I didn’t feel like getting out of bed in the morning. I was thinking… “blah… who cares. What difference does it make whether I get up or not? There’s no real consequence except that I don’t study, but the only victim is me. Oh wait, I guess it’s not. I mean, really it is, but indirectly, my parent’s are paying for this… and I sort of doubt that they’re paying for me to sit in bed. Whatever… I’ll get up in a while.” This went on for a while. When I finally did get out of bed, I went and got some lunch, which was pretty crappy, considering it was Sunday, so it was actually “Brunch” which tends to be pretty gross. After brunch, I started doing some work. Lost my intent to do work, wasted some time, hung around… eventually some people from the first floor and one of my roommates asked me if I wanted to go to Fanueil (sp?) Hall and Quincy Market with them, and I was sort of wondering what to do. On the one hand, I was supposed to be doing work, and trying to convince myself to do so, but on the other, I did want to go with them. I ended up not going, because I wanted to do some work, and although I didn’t get much done, I did do some, in that I finished the first 100 flashcards of all the Chinese words/characters I need to know. Only about... 260 left to go. Ack.

Having finished the flash cards, I went back to wasting time and being an unproductive bum. Eventually, I went to dinner w/ a few people (Jared and Naamit, two of the three proctors in the building and a couple people from the first floor), after that most of who went to dinner went to the Summer School talent show, which was pretty impressive. After that, back to the dorm, watch a few minutes of risk, play a few rounds of mafia, and go to sleep, in order to head to breakfast. All in all, it was actually not that unusual of a day, except that in the morning, I felt incredibly apathetic, and that feeling sort of lingered throughout the day.

Today, I still don’t really want to do work, however I’m less opposed today than yesterday. Now, back to thinking of a topic.

Since the last essay we turned in, we’ve read not too much. We’ve read a few things by Rousseau (Discourse on Inequality, bits of the Social Contract, Confessions) and Les Liasons Dangeruses, which I undoubtedly butchered the spelling of without looking here. Also, due for tomorrow is most of Franklin’s Autobiography, but I haven’t read enough of that yet.

I’m really at a loss… actually, I’m feeling inspired to go make some more Chinese flash cards, and so, before I lose said sudden wish to work, I’m going to go.