Script Tease

My days aren't filled with as much mystery as one might imagine. During the week I have little time to socialize and more or less stick to my books and hobbies as a source of entertainment and gratification. What exactly do I do with my time? Well, a variety of things which I'll map out.

Mondays and Wednesdays are perhaps the busiest days of the week. I have two classes in the morning and come back to my room at about 12:30 and eat lunch. From that point on if I am insanely tired I nap, but more often than not read non-stop until literature club which begins at 5:30. Then I have my class which goes till 8 pm and the rest of the evening is either spent working on projects or reading until 11 pm.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are more relaxed but still packed with a bit of stuff to do. I attend two of my favorite classes this semester: Rhetoric in Contemporary Politics and Shakespeare. I get out at 12:30 and continue to read most of the afternoon away. Lately it's been a play, a few five page essays, a 400 page book, 100 pages of textbook reading and usually juggling two papers every single week. I have waited patiently for the pace to slow down a little, but the work is demanding and hasn't let up at all. I have an eight page paper on Japan's electoral system due this week along with a six page analysis of Joe Haldeman's The Forever War and a short story by Sprague De Camp. I sort of forget about how much work I actually have due, which is why I shuddered when I realized that I should probably work on both of these today.

The free time that I have is spent playing competitively with my Counter Strike clan which has successfully made the play offs and will be going against a pretty difficult team in the first bracket. We should be able to beat them with a bit of practice. As I posted earlier I am also writing a guide on weight loss and how the strategies I used to lose those extra pounds. This project will be worked on for a couple hours everyday in an attempt to get it finished as soon as possible. My mentors however, suggested that I sell at least one copy before writing the guide so that we know whether it is marketable or not, but I have confidence that at least a few people will buy the guide and then we will be able to garner testimonies from customers about their success (and if there are failures, hopefully we can help them turn that around).

I also have been accepted by the Rogue Threat team which means i'll be writing dialogue here and there. This will most likely be a little more relaxed considering it takes a lot longer to code than to come up with competent dialogue. Lucky me...longer deadlines.

These are some of the larger projects I'm working on...as for free time...I have my Ps2 in my room with khatamari Damacy and the Digital Devil Saga, but they are collecting dust. I can't wait until this summer. I'll finally be able to finish these games. I also read a bit on the side...I'm re-reading Machiavelli because I find it interesting. I try to think of my occupational goals (speech writer) as something that will bring about some form of good, but the more I study rhetoric the more I realize that, as Orson Wells put it, it is merely a tool used to justify the unjustifiable, to beautify the incorrigible, and ultimately manipulate. It shouldn't work like this and Well's clearly wishes it wasn't so, but while he believes this trend in political rhetoric can be reversed, I see such a reversal as highly improbable because if such techniques work for a politician, why would he abandon them? This is where many person's moral framework break down and I feel like I would be responsible for their illegitimate success. It makes me feel dirty, in a way. But who can determine what is legitimate or illegitimate, real or unreal when people sit idle and allow immorality to become the norm in our political system. It is beyond me. Better to fall into the flow than ride against it I suppose. I was never much of a pioneer anyway.

So after that tangent...

My professor in shakespeare recommended that I apply for a job at the writing center so at 6 pm I will be heading to an informational session...lots of paperwork to submit for the job, but it pays well (11$/hr) and it could be enjoyable. Then I'm providing a private lesson for an hour to a person who purchased our counter strike guide. I should really map out what I'm going to be discussing...

Anyway, the weekends are filled with friends on friday night, work on saturday day, friends on saturday evening and a bit of relaxing and doing nothing on Sundays until I get back to my room and start working on whatever I need to get done. Usually I work on papers Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

This may sound arrogant (and by no means is it intended to be), but most of the socializing I do is with some of the grad. students I've had as professors because, to be frank, a lot of people are idiots. It would be different if anyone had a real interest in what we talk about when reading a piece of literature, but many are content with fantasizing about that high-paying job after college, attending law school, or going for their doctorate immediately after their undergraduate degree, which I think is implausible and most likely improbable. While “idiot” is a subjective term I think many people can understand what I mean. The frightening part is I can see the very people I talk about nodding their heads to that comment. “Idiot” and “stupid” encompasses a lot of variety, including academic idiots, life idiots, social idiots…the bastions of stupidity are about us in full force. Even I become an idiot every now and then, but it seems like many people cannot stop and see that within themselves. I’m not saying that idiotic behavior is solely immature behavior because I enjoy taking part in odd, silly, and crazy acts here and there – but when it dominates your life there is a problem. But the fundamental difference between the idiot and the non-idiotic is in their effort to understand, better themselves, and strive for self-actualization.

I like talking about what I read. I enjoy thinking about the questions there will never be answers for in the history of existence. I enjoy talking about issues which may be dark or depressing, but also enjoy a good comedy and the unacknowledged beauty that life throws our way every day. You get out into the real world and realize that a majority of people don't think which is why you have such an easy way with people's minds when it comes to politics: it is also why there is so much strife and corruption about in Congress by both Democrats and Republicans. This isn't depressing news, it's the facts of life. Why worry about that which will remain unchanged because people turn a blind eye to it? Simply go about your life doing the best you can and what you enjoy. Enjoy it. Love it. Cherish it. This most precious of gifts is limited by time and circumstance.

It is incredibly unfortunate that we live in a time and place where, if given the free time, a majority of people have no clue what to do with it. I feel no shame in the vanities I indulge in when I have free time but lately I haven’t exactly had the opportunity to partake in some of the more mindless ones. Those are always the most enjoyable because instead of thinking you simply take in the holistic glory of the moment.

Oh well. I'm tired. Maybe I'll sleep before I begin reading Fool's War and working on some shakespeare.

Later folks.