todaisymonday

A new post, though weighing heavily on my mind (as these important matters do), has elluded my every attempt at creation. there seems to be so much going on that i can't bring any sort of coherence to the chaos of thoughts that need to be organized and broadcast to my few but faithful readers. i just need to transform these explosions into words. its therapy and fullfilling for myself, as well as hopefully informative or at the very least (or the very most) entertaining for the reader. so begins my short rant on life in leeds; perspective from ryan.

Second semester classes began last week, Shakespeare, history of modern philosophy and philosophy of language. i'm reading othello and Leibniz and can not yet explain philosophy of language. its difficult and somewhat embarrassing not being able to describe, beyond reiterating the title, a course one is currently enrolled in. "well you see, its the philosophy of language, so you know language and the philosophy and study of it and um...well i'll tell you in a few weeks." after all thats why i'm taking the course. and hopefully i'll soon be able to explain more, or possibly not. The other main second semester difficulty i have encountered is that of sarcasm. meeting new people and getting to know those whom i informally and shortly met in the first semester the question of sarcastic etiquette has been prominent. i've just recently come to understand, through some awkward moments, that not everyone i meet has the same inherit sarcasm which i believe i demonstrate a bit too freely at times. i merely mention this as a warning to those yet ignorant of this problem. it seems that sarcasm can be misunderstood, misinterpreted and misconstrued as offensive. bluntly, strangers may find their sarcastic acquaintence obnoxious, cynical, complaining, depressing and even to be a terrible person. i have discovered the importance, in the occurance of cringing faces or casting remarks, to highlight the previous statement as a joke, or plainly, sarcasm. in the interest of humanity as a whole, you have now been notified of this phenomenon.

Here on the island of England, I have found the amount of time i spend sitting in cafe's drinking coffee with a book, newspaper, or pad and pen on the table in front of me to be quite wonderful. the life of a student isnt' so terrible. The newspaper generally confronts me with a number of conflicting and entertaining thoughts which i too rarely ever carry beyond the close of those smudgy gray pages, but some do deserve mentioning. the worlds pending doom is a general topic in the news. global warming and waste alongside britains prisions overflowing and violence in lebanon, violence everywhere. however there are articles which inspire hope. Barack Obama http://www.barackobama.com/ has announced he will run for president of the United States, and my mother sent me an email about a book called, "The Last Messages", published in Finland, which is written entirely in text messages and i think it sounds fantastic and i learned about the life of Jean-Francois Deniau, although it was his obituary, he sounded like a neat guy. I began these newspaper mumblings however, to discuss my thoughts on the feverish upcoming presidential election, a topic which has been highlighted quite often in the english news. Although my intentions and subject of contempt may be all too clear, i will attempt to harness my argument into a universal code which i believe should be an ideal embraced by all who plan to connect themselves in any which way with electing/promoting/judging, of any human being.
My proposal is a simple one: Evalute your subject upon the basis of their particular personal character, but most importantly the ideas they express which stem from this. It is abhorent to think that illogical marketing of race, gender, lineage and other such necessary conditions of life should hold any prevelance over the mind of the person who stands before you. Allowing this marketing to sway a decision, be it to the negative, or just as bad, towards the positive, is illogical, unnecessary, and ignorant. I say, let ideas govern our decision making, let positive empirical evidence of these ideas functioning and in practice govern our decision making. Do not let the person stand before their ideas. ignore everything but ideas and practice. simply. my thoughts in universal language.


-the tale of plastic pete-

Winter months marked
by banners in the trees
windy weather gladly proclaims
from tops of bare brown branches
our desolate earthly disease
plastic tangled between sticks
where summer months
sprout bright green leaves
we hang our trash
in modern martyr fashion
to flutter in the breeze.

january retrospect

The sirens that have been wailing all night and into the day, the 92 mph (maybe kilometers, but real fast) winds, and a bit of a cold make today a fine day to stay indoors. its half past three and already the sun has begun its descent; unless of course i'm mistaken and the darkened dismal color of the sky is only an effect of intense cloud cover and strong bellowing gales. my Exams are finished. I now have until monday to contemplate my own thoughts, a majorty of which, by now are all tied up and tangled with thoughts from lectures so the two are at times indistinguishable. For better or for worse. my first semester in England has officially come to an end, christmas and new years passed. january is nearly over already. students that were only here for the semester look forward to home and are sad to leave. others look forward to a new semester, and I, to warmer weather as well.

In the midst of studying for my epistemology exam, justfied true beliefs, gettier paradoxes, contextualism and more of the same, i began to enjoy myself and even took a moment to write a short essay I have entitled, 'Why I Like School'. Its silly and deceptive and very honest and exagerated and entirely true.

Why I Like School...

My experience as a student has shown me that as the semester progresses so does the confusion. Books pile higher in haphazard pyramids, no longer time, or just a lack of desire, to put them neatly lined up back on the shelf. Papers become crumpled between books and margins are scribbled full of thoughts on lectures and mostly thoughts far from lectures. All semester you read and study and discuss and generally become terribly confused and frustrated. There are those rare moments of inter-semester epiphany and joy, but it gets better than that. The enjoyment truly comes at the end when studying for finals and you look back at the blazed trail of confusion and fashion it all together into comprehensible personal understanding. You look back at W.H. Auden and realize the poet you didnt' enjoy at all during the business of seminar is fantastic. And maybe, when its all said and done you forget some of the facts and theories and key historic figures who made little impact anyway. However, if all goes well, you carry away some new ideas and you've formed a center of understanding from which you can continue onwards. And this is wonderful.

When I discover where we go from there i'll be on to something.