I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
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.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
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 ...
February 11, 2012 - 10:19 a.m.
Why was I just now looking for something to do rather than write? Oh right, I'm a procrastinator. You're probably just an amateurcrastinator.
I was promised that I'd have my computer at school working by yesterday. If you think I did you probably believe in Romney's budget. I got to the office, it isn't my office, it's just a corner of the department office, The computer was still not connected. Not only that but the admin wasn't in so I couldn't find out what's going on. I tried several other computers there to see if I could at least get my class roster downloaded from the school website and redo my work and make an attendance sheet and at least a something to record the class's quiz grades on. None of them would do that simple thing. I'll have to try it here from home and if I get it working email it to myself I've been trying to avoid duplicating my setup work but it isn't fair to the class to not return their quizzes. Of course the full time professors have their problems too. One of my former officemates had to come down from the sixth floor to the fourth floor to pick up what he printed out. He was jealous of how much space I have. They have three people crammed into a tiny office. He said I was strong when I told him that I'm on strike that I won't do anything for administration till I get my computer working.
Something nice actually happened with one of my students. After class one of them came up after class with a question. It was one of the problems I skipped on the homework. I told him that he should have asked in class. I asked the class if anyone wanted me to go over it and I didn't see anyone raise their hand and nobody said anything. He said that he did and I didn't call on him. The way the classroom is designed I can only see from a third to half the room at a time. I was looking in the other direction when he raised his hand. That wasn't the nice part. The nice part was that he actually wanted to see how to do it. He cared. What was also nice was that he couldn't believe that nobody else asked to see it. He thought it doubtful that everyone else knew how to do it. I felt it doubtful that they did the problem. It was simple but it involved fractions. I skipped it because it was time consuming but not particularly useful for teaching the topic, parallel and perpendicular lines. After I explained everything and told him how happy it made me that he cared enough to ask me about it after class he told me what I good teacher I was. That was nice too.
After school I came straight back to Queens but not home. I stopped at Aldi's a supermarket, I have to switch to the local train to get there. I forgot what I was doing and didn't get off at Roosevelt Ave like I should have. I was distracted because that was where I was able to get a seat. So I went to the next express stop and went back. That wasn't the worst thing, it meant I ended up on the right side of Queens Blvd, a hard street to cross.
The bus ride back from the store was hell. It was super crowded. We were soon passed by the next bus which was empty. If I had known that I would never had gotten on. I was carrying my usual NERFA bag and two canvas shopping bags of groceries.
I did a first for dinner tonight. My sisters are not going to believe this. You might not either but then when I add a little more you'll understand. For the first time I made myself soup. Now yes back in college I made a Seder and made chicken soup but that was different. That was for other people, not me. I made my mother soup too. This was just for me to eat. I never order soup. I will only have a little chicken broth to be polite at someone's homes and I stopped doing that. So why did I make myself soup. Because I saw this recipe online, Bacon and Potato Soup. It was listed as a main course but I had it in lieu of a potato. One of the reasons I don't like soup is that it's a mélange and there is usually something in it I don't like. Here are the ingrediants
This had several things; onions, carrots, and celery. When I cook for myself I can make substitutions. I got rid of all those things and added garlic. I didn't have any cayenne pepper in the house so I used Cajun seasoning and also removed the salt. I just noticed that I used way too much Cajun. When I scaled it down from six servings to do the website couldn't hand the fraction and I thought it meant 1 tsp. It should have been 1/18 of a tsp, pretty much a dash. Of course it also replaced the salt but that's still way to too much.
I messed some things up. I over cooked the bacon because I was cubing the potato while it was cooking. I never cubed a potato before and it took longer than I thought. I also sautéed the garlic too long. So it came out a disaster? No! It wonderful. Of course the flavor was dominated by the Cajun.
I often write about cooking and I realized last night that the person who taught me the most important thing about cooking is my brother-in-law Mike. Mike never actually taught me to cook anything. I'm not sure if we've ever talked about cooking. So how did that happen? He taught me the most important thing about doing repairs and it's the same thing. Don't be afraid to try. You have to trust your judgment and intelligence and just try things then learn from your mistakes. That's a great lesson for doing anything. Of course when doing repairs you have to have basic notions of safety and a notion of what's going on. A friend of mine broke two computers trying to install something simple because he thought he could put it someplace other than where the instructions said it goes and fried the motherboard. Yes I said two computers. When he replaced the first one, on the warranty, he didn't tell them what he did, he did exactly the same thing again. He missed the "learn from your mistakes" part. But I don't let that stop me from trying because I have a good idea of what's going on and where there's a margin for error. Look at the mistake I made on the Cajun and it still came out good. I will be making this again. I bought some beef stock for another kind of soup but I might try it in this one first. I bet it works.
OK let's see how well you know me. What else am I considering adding to the soup. I'll give you a hint, it isn't chocolate. That's right, peanut butter!
Wow I wrote over 1200 words today without ever getting to the kind of thing I usually write as my main thesis. The cooking is usually just a bonus.
Tonight I'm off to see Paul Sachs and Laura Dunn. I'll try and eat early enough so I can cook at home before I go. The show is up in Washington Heights so it will be a bit of a pain to get to. Google maps says I can do it in 1 hour and 7 minutes. I'll let you know how it goes.
Now I'm off to make breakfast and I finished this fairly early, 10:18.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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Horvendile February 11, 2012
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