Hum dumb dumb dumb. Working today is totally lame but thankfully the afternoon has been quiet. Wintersun, as always, is great to listen to in the winter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDcPt-hvkPo

I hope we can go to Germany/Europe this upcoming Fall. I hope I can take Finish in the evenings this upcoming year, that would be great.

Back in black

I awoke this morning to the sound of Hannah getting ready for work. She asked me if the cat was in the shoe organizer. I said it might be behind it...not in it...this cat isn't that small.

We took in the cat from Hannah's boss last night for 10 days. It's name is sunshine but that name doesn't do it justice. It should have been named Nocturnal Racket. The cat was scared and hid behind our mirror most of yesterday evening. It finally came out sometime last night only to meow for attention. I'm a light sleeper so I awake at the first meow. This gives me violent thoughts....not because I'm a violent person but there's something especially jolting about a foreign cat in my space waking me up at all hours during the night. In the back of my mind I know that I'm in it's mercy no matter how much bigger I am because I'm such a light sleeper.

I was woken up a few more times during the night. I think the cat was jumping from high places onto the floor because I'd awake hearing the sound of something making our wooden floor creak as if a person were walking in our house only the see a fur ball scurrying off.

I wanted to come to a coffee shop this morning to write, just as I am doing now. However due to unforeseen circumstances I had to take Hannah to work at 7:30 down in Kent so I was up earlier that anticipated. Currently I'm at Solstice writing but i'm ohh-so tired and I haven't been eating good so I feel like junk...time for cheesy eggs and ketchup I think. :)

The decison

Just reading my own blog makes me hungry. I really love it, when I cook myself 6 eggs, then half way through I throw in a handful of cheddar cheese. After the eggs are done cooking I slide them onto a plate and apply a nice sized squeeze of ketchup. Mmm, my mouth is watering.

Winter quarter is over with, my grades were pretty good, however a strange thing happened.

The class I hated the most, I did quite well in. The class that I didn't like very much because of the work load and usually the content, I did the best in. The class that I enjoyed the most, I did the worst in. I think this happened because I didn't have the book for the class and I thought that because I knew most of it already, I would hardly read the old-revision text book that I had for the class. The tests for that class were brutal. The questions were all multiple-choice, with many questions having 2 good options. This winter quarter was however a fun quarter that I look back on with smiles... expect for finals week.

So I really need to decide which language to take in the fall quarter.

I need to take a non-indo-european language, so no French, Spanish, Hindi, or Swedish...you might get the idea :)

There is one obverse choice that would expose me to a language with the most speakers: Arabic. However I'm not that interested in it. I'd like to visit the homes of the languages that I learn about and most of the Arabic speaking countries aren't on my travel list.

I would like to learn Hebrew, it is a Semitic language just like Arabic and it interests me. I'd love to visit Israel and I'm interested in reading the Old Testament in Hebrew. I know that just one year of a language won't prepare me for the latter but it would at least open the doors of possibility.

The other language that I want to take, more so than Hebrew, is Finnish. I've been to Finland before and I loved it. I'd love to return, and I'd love to go hiking in Finland. I know I could do that without learning the language but for some reason, from my limited exposure of Finnish culture, learning Finnish intrigues me.

What my debate comes down to is practicality vs. the level of interest that I have. I'm interested in both but more so in Finnish, at least at the moment. Another factor in learning a language is use. I know that the situations for using either of them are limited in Seattle however I imagine that Hebrew might be more

I have to take whatever language I pick for a year because of my degree requirements. Whichever language I pick, I'm sure it'll be fun.

Heat

I figured out what was overheating my computer, and specifically my video card. My side panel!
If I just take off my side panel, the video card never get above 110c. When it gets past 123c is when things get bad.

Literature

As my German Lit class is coming to an end, I now have the time to reflect on what a whole year of reading Literature has done for me. Also I have had some time to collect my thoughts on the subject.

What these classes have done for me, is given me insight into the interesting world of modern German Literature (modern as 1700s and on), not to say that a book from the 1700s is very modern. The printing press really enabled the masses to read and authors to... well become authors en-masse, but it seems overtly presumptuous to say that Literature began in the 1700s while I enjoy reading much from earlier periods.

Anyways, the world of German Lit is a rich world that contains some of the towers of European culture yet with many falsely high towers. Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Storm, and Mann..etc are all towers of German culture. Other authors are like a tower that is high, yet its base is cheaply made, rotten and doomed to fall. I won't go into naming these authors as I'm sure my list would be woefully inadequate.

As I was talking with a friend, he made me realize what had bothered me so much in the back of my head about some books. Some books are wrote to be written. The goal is to state events as if they had happened, that is their ultimate extent. There is no point, no goal, no lesson, no reason other than that someone with some talent put words on paper and you read it.

I can't help but feel like I'm being shat on when I read some books. If a bird were to poop on my face, I couldn't deny the fact that the poop existed, that it has form, texture, smell and body. It certainly was thrown upon my face with authority and "authenticity". Yet do the aforementioned facts give me a good reason to enjoy or like this poop? Should I not wipe it off of my face quickly, hoping that is never happens again. Shaking my fist at the bird in rage but perhaps also smiling a little for the simple fact that the bird got a lucky shot and I was the unknowing victim.
This is like reading some books. I'm not going to name any but I can't help but realized the similarities between several of the books I've read and this act of being shat upon. Yes the author wrote a story, it exists. Yes the book imparts specific feelings and imagery, it has texture and form. Is there any meaning in the book? Perhaps, does this meaning merit investigation? Possibly. Does this investigation profit, reward, enrich, entertain, or educate me in any way? No. Is the subject matter in this book disgusting, pointless, meaningless, and depraved? Yes. Yet you read through the whole thing, ending up with nothing but some words to talk about, that leave you feeling rather dirty and needing to take a mental shower.

Some lit is cool however. Just not all of it.

W00t First post

This is totally my first post. I just finished some delicious cheesy eggs and ketchup. Mmm. It could have used some Tabasco. I have a lot of homework to do.