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 ...
December 01, 2011 - 10:24 a.m.
I have things to do. I have to write. Make me write now. Good job. I'm writing.
Know how I was leaving early for school yesterday? I didn't. I was on time of course but not early and I didn't grade that quiz that needs grading. Now I have a calculus 2 test to grade. I talked to one of my students that missed class last week and got the notes on my going over the last test from students that were there. This test was exactly the same test with just different numbers. The students didn't even bother to copy the solutions to all the problems. She had to go to three students to get them all and they didn't even bother to write the entire solutions to the ones they did. I'm scared to look at the results of this test. The one good thing is that they did it fast. They did it in an hour instead of the two I gave the first time around. Of course they were almost all short answer questions, you just have to know the formula and do no work. I made a huge point of telling them that I don't want them to do work and just know that the intergral of eax+b is eax+b/a + C. So of course someone asked if they had to show the work. I think they fill their heads with the minutiae of grading to distract themselves from not knowing the material.
I stayed late after class to talk to that one student and even then didn't head straight home. I stopped at the holiday market in Columbus circle. I ended up eating half my dinner there. They had some great looking Sausages and another stand had fancy German style pretzels. I ended up buying my favorite chocolate truffles but my friend wasn't there. I asked the guy at the stand about him and he said he's just supervising this year going from market to market. I told the guy there to say hi for me. I bet my friend, no I never remember his name, figures out who I am. I said I'm the one everyone thinks is a shill because I tell everyone around how great the chocolate is.
When I got home it was late and I once again made the frozen mashed potatoes from Trader Joe's. I can see that's going to become a staple. They are so good and fast and easy to make. I of course added garlic and this time I also added some pepper jack cheese. It was yummy.
I have a list of things to write about but I have a curmudgeon duty to perform today. There are times that I have something to say that I suspect other people agree with but don't want to voice. This is one of them.
Today is World's AIDS Day. What's the point? Is there any disease other than cancer that people are more aware of? Yes AIDS is a terrible thing. Having a day about it doesn't make it less terrible. No one is going to say; "There's a disease called AIDS that kills lots of people? I didn't know that!" The same thing goes for cancer of course. There are plenty of diseases and problems that people don't know about. Those are the ones that need awareness days. About 2 million people die from AIDS per year. Four to six million die from diarrheal diseases. When's the last time you heard about that? I always give President Carter for working on the worm diseases, another major killer in the third world that is considered just a nuisance in America.
The WFUV Question of the Day was songs for World AIDS day. I prefaced my suggestions, Dan Berns's A Cure For AIDS and Lou Reed's Halloween Parade with "Does any disease other than cancer need a day for boosting awareness less than AIDS? Ask people to name a deadly disease and those two will come in one, two every time." The reply I got back is: "Are you joking?! AIDS doesn't deserve an awareness day?" It isn't a matter of deserving. It's a matter of need. We are already aware of AIDS. We are aware of cancer. We're aware of heart disease. Nobody is for these things. Saying you are against them is pretty much just saying that you exist.
I write this with some trepidation. There is a reason that other people won't voice this. I am imagining the responses about how terrible AIDS is and the people that have died and how much it affects them. But that is actually the point. You are aware. You don't need to be told about it. I'm not minimizing the problem. What I don't want to do is upset people. I want to let the people who feel like I do know that they are not alone.
OK enough curmudgeonation. Today I have to clean and do laundry then go to the Christopher Street Coffeehouse to see Sloan Wainwright and Carolann Solebello tonight. Am I going to see you there?
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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Horvendile December 01, 2011
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