I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

February 27, 2014 - 4:23 p.m.

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

Before I do anything I have to tell you the essential thing I forgot last entry. I told you that I had a good day but I clearly didn't say everything that made it good. What essential element of a good day did I forget? I told about seeing a great friend, Erika, and hearing great music from Jean Rohe. So what was missing? I know you know me well enough to figure this out. I'll give you one more sentence to think about it. I knew you'd figure it out. Chocolate! After I left Rockwood Music Hall I went to the appropriately named Sugar Caf� for dessert. I usually get something decadent that I eat on the run and always finish before I cross Allen Street to the subway. This time I got something super rich, and it's names says that, Rockefeller. It's chocolate with chocolate and chocolate. The put whipped cream and yes, chocolate syrup on it. It looks like this.


That is not something I can eat o the run. I sat down at a table. I don't think it's possible to eat that and not be happy at least while you are eating it.

How improved is my emotional state? I spent the day at home with my only trip out to do laundry and was still happy most of the day. I still get anxiety but not existential angst. I'll take even paralyzing anxiety over depression and existential angst any day.

We had some excitement in the neighborhood. When I was doing laundry there were at least three police helicopters overhead. I saw the flashing lights of cops a few blocks from the laundry. Cop cars with lights flashing were racing through the streets. I took pictures of the copters.


I asked somebody if they knew what was going on and he told me a cop was shot. He was, right.; Police Officer Is Shot in Legs in Brooklyn. the shooting was less than two blocks from the Laundromat. I guess the manhunt was for the unapprehended second suspect.

For dinner I made what I said I would, blackened chicken and a Hasselback potato. I made them both perfectly. I didn't have anything for dessert so I put my remaining whipped cream in a glass and added chocolate syrup. What can I say? I'm decadent.

Then I watched Galaxy Quest for the first time. Are you shocked? You should be. I am the target audience. I gave it 7 stars out of ten on IMDB which seems about right. It was very good but not quite great. It got the feel of the show in the movie perfectly. Without making any explicit Star Trek references it felt like Star Trek The look of the show down to the Papier M�ch� boulders and the actors careening around the bridge set. I just looked at Tony Shaloub and knew he was the Scotty character. The music could have been written by Alexander Courage. It didn't get the feel of the convention right. Most people are NOT in costume at real conventions. I only went in costume once and I'm insane.

The film it reminded me of most is one of my sentimental favorites My Favorite Year. I gave that one 9 stars. I know it's not a classic but I love it. It is also about an actor not living up to his image but discovering his inner hero. Just thinking of Alan Swann [Peter O'Toole] taking his bow near the end warms my heart. We know actors are not their characters but we wish they were. James Kirk is greater than William Shatner and we know the world would be a better place if he were real.

Today's little victory is that I remembered to make my peanut butter sandwich before I left for school. My failures were multiple. I forgot to send one class a homework assignment and to write a quiz for the other. I made up for it and I'm caught up now. I liked how I taught today and a joke I made. The class didn't appreciate it at all. We are doing decomposition of functions and I said, "Or as I call it rotting flesh mathematics."

During the break I helped a student. That's why I am updating so late. I couldn't finish it then. As so often happens to me she ended up telling me personal things she doesn't tell most people. I have a way of eliciting that. I realized today that even though I think that I have no way of knowing if it happens more to me than to other people. In any event I love helping students one-on-one when they are willing to make an effort and aren't expecting to learn thing by osmosis simply from proximity to me. See sometimes I like my students.

Twice today students asked questions that I had just answered minutes earlier. They clearly weren't listening. In one case I stopped everything and wrote on the board. The right and wrong ways of giving an answer. I wrote "Right" and Wrong" above them. I said, "make sure to write them the correct way. A minute later when we had moved on a student asked, "Is it OK if we write things __________?" The ____________ was of course the way I had just labeled as wrong and warned them to not write things that way. Guess who was looking at his phone when I was talking.

I had a whole philosophical essay planned but now there's no time. I have to go shopping, get the food home then head out to Hill Country Barbecue BK to see Spuyten Duyvil. That pretty much means this is going to be a good day too.


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile February 27, 2014
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