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I'm sorry, everybody, I know I have a ton of comments to reply to. Not enough sleep last night because of the going-away party for one of our managers. Very quiet party (he himself doesn't drink, so everyone else had one or two early on and then stopped.)
As usual, I spent most of the night listening in on the general discussion, which revolved around bitching about work and gave me a headache.
The highlight of the night for me was a conversation with CeeJay about books and society (not in direct relation to one another, but it segued through his interest in reading personal accounts of war). Of course we started in on The Halfblood Prince (which I haven't read yet, but I've been reading the spoilers on my friends list whenever I see them, because I love spoilering myself on stuff). He'll lend me his copy as soon as Mistress of the Night is done with it. :)
He expended some effort to convince me to read Eragon, (which I had previously derided as sounding like a Tolkien rip-off because of the name). He liked it a lot and thought I would be interested in the development of the writer's ability to write, which was evident over the course of the book. Apparently the guy who wrote it was something like sixteen when he started, and the first two or three chapters are not great - "difficult to get through" - but it gets better. Maybe I'll ask ElvenGirl if I can borrow it, as it was her copy he read.
And from there we wandered through the lackings of Stephen King and CeeJay's interest in reading about war, particularly personal accounts from WWII, and then something he'd either read (or perhaps it was a movie?) about how the current soldiers in Iraq are dealing with being in war. We generally agreed that the trend has been for Americans to get more and more inured to violence and distanced from other people, to the extent that the deaths of others holds very little meaning. He blames technology for the distancing; I blame the media. Of course, me being me, I suggested that a possible solution might be that we kill off one in five Americans so that their friends will have more of a personal relationship to death. :) We have a similarly twisted sense of humor - he was the one who once told me that he was thinking about going back into the army because shooting real people would be more fun than a video game. Sarcasm is the only way I can deal with how incredibly appalled I am by the idiot callousness of people. Or is it just Americans? The only other thing I could think of to say was that if this trend continued I couldn't see much hope for the future. I know that's kind of self-evident and stupid, but I get feeling so bleak sometimes that I can't even put words to it.
Although of course the bit about giving people a more personal relationship to death was inspired by a conversation I overheard on the bus the other day (which I related to Ceejay) where two or three young guys were discussing a bum who had shot himself. The one kid sort of knew the bum, who he said was a cool guy, quiet, who read a lot. He seemed to feel it personally that he hadn't realized how depressed the guy was, and he (the kid) was disturbed by how other people had lain down next to the body and had their friends take pictures. (Um, yeah, how much more evidence of the distancing of people from the reality of death do we need?) But the reaction of the friend he was telling this all too was just the same. "I guess I'm sorry the guy died and all, but I would have laughed." (and later) "You know those slasher movies where people get chopped up? I think when the first splash of blood hit me I'd have a hard time, but once I got over that I could keep stabbing." It was as though he needed to crush out this weakness in his friend - the weakness being his friend's human feeling about a death.
Argh, must run. So much I need to do - I owe email to at least five people. Not going to happen today. Yet again. And here I go feeling guilty about the fact that I didn't send my mother an email two days ago. Yesterday was her birthday. Right? Oh, no, wait, it was even the day before that. Shoot. I suck.
As usual, I spent most of the night listening in on the general discussion, which revolved around bitching about work and gave me a headache.
The highlight of the night for me was a conversation with CeeJay about books and society (not in direct relation to one another, but it segued through his interest in reading personal accounts of war). Of course we started in on The Halfblood Prince (which I haven't read yet, but I've been reading the spoilers on my friends list whenever I see them, because I love spoilering myself on stuff). He'll lend me his copy as soon as Mistress of the Night is done with it. :)
He expended some effort to convince me to read Eragon, (which I had previously derided as sounding like a Tolkien rip-off because of the name). He liked it a lot and thought I would be interested in the development of the writer's ability to write, which was evident over the course of the book. Apparently the guy who wrote it was something like sixteen when he started, and the first two or three chapters are not great - "difficult to get through" - but it gets better. Maybe I'll ask ElvenGirl if I can borrow it, as it was her copy he read.
And from there we wandered through the lackings of Stephen King and CeeJay's interest in reading about war, particularly personal accounts from WWII, and then something he'd either read (or perhaps it was a movie?) about how the current soldiers in Iraq are dealing with being in war. We generally agreed that the trend has been for Americans to get more and more inured to violence and distanced from other people, to the extent that the deaths of others holds very little meaning. He blames technology for the distancing; I blame the media. Of course, me being me, I suggested that a possible solution might be that we kill off one in five Americans so that their friends will have more of a personal relationship to death. :) We have a similarly twisted sense of humor - he was the one who once told me that he was thinking about going back into the army because shooting real people would be more fun than a video game. Sarcasm is the only way I can deal with how incredibly appalled I am by the idiot callousness of people. Or is it just Americans? The only other thing I could think of to say was that if this trend continued I couldn't see much hope for the future. I know that's kind of self-evident and stupid, but I get feeling so bleak sometimes that I can't even put words to it.
Although of course the bit about giving people a more personal relationship to death was inspired by a conversation I overheard on the bus the other day (which I related to Ceejay) where two or three young guys were discussing a bum who had shot himself. The one kid sort of knew the bum, who he said was a cool guy, quiet, who read a lot. He seemed to feel it personally that he hadn't realized how depressed the guy was, and he (the kid) was disturbed by how other people had lain down next to the body and had their friends take pictures. (Um, yeah, how much more evidence of the distancing of people from the reality of death do we need?) But the reaction of the friend he was telling this all too was just the same. "I guess I'm sorry the guy died and all, but I would have laughed." (and later) "You know those slasher movies where people get chopped up? I think when the first splash of blood hit me I'd have a hard time, but once I got over that I could keep stabbing." It was as though he needed to crush out this weakness in his friend - the weakness being his friend's human feeling about a death.
Argh, must run. So much I need to do - I owe email to at least five people. Not going to happen today. Yet again. And here I go feeling guilty about the fact that I didn't send my mother an email two days ago. Yesterday was her birthday. Right? Oh, no, wait, it was even the day before that. Shoot. I suck.
From: (Anonymous)
No, you don't!...suck, that is.
One of my Magpie classes on Tuesday was doing a unit on 'birthday parties' and other ways to celebrate. I asked them what they did on their birthdays, individually. Then let it slip, duh...it's my birthday today. Well, they kept bargeing in on the next 2 classes, bringing little presents,... candy, flowers, a handkerchief. I shoulda known better. Heheheh.
Wednesday, five of my former students prepared a feast, which they modestly called a potluck lunch. But "You come with empty hands," was the order that Jina gave me. We had a wonderful time and sat around talking for at least 3 hours. (they wanted to do it Tuesday, but I have 5 hours of non-stop teaching every Tuesday.)
So I've had a memorable time. And the hollyhocks bloomed 3 weeks earlier than they do in Maine. When I was little, I used to think that the hollyhocks bloomed for my birthday...lol.
Lots of Love,
~ Mom