Assortedness

+ A song:
If you're a fat guy and you know it, wear a Hawaiian shirt.
If you're a fat guy and you know it, wear a Hawaiian shirt.
If you're a fat guy and you know it,
Then your fashion sense will show it.
If you're a fat guy and you know it, wear a Hawaiian shirt.

+A beacon of light shines through:
This morning I received back the first official paper I've written in 15 months. I was awarded an "A." Now this tidbit of news will certainly be received by many of my friends and family as ho-hum, status quo trivia. But for me, even though the paper was only a 3-page critical reflection, it's my first legitimate scrap of proof that I can still succeed in academia even after a year away and a considerable boost in what's expected of me.

+A cover of caligation settles overhead:
For the first time in my experience of higher education, I find myself basically at odds with one of my professors. There is no personal animosity involved but it is becoming increasingly evident to me that an intellectual/ideological antagonism is in play. Anderson graduates, imagine Willard Reed; now replace his religious skepticism with a full-blown condescending attitude towards theologians. Candler graduates, imagine David Pacini; now intensify his penchant for self-indulgent monologue with a deep apathy for whether anyone ever understands a single point of his opinion on the course materials. After you've done that, recall Pacini's regular claims that "Pretty much everyone else but me misinterprets the thinker(s) we're reading in this course" and supplement it with the claim, "And you, the student, are almost certainly going to leave this course not understanding them correctly either."

For all their quirks and presuppositions, Reed and Pacini repeatedly demonstrated to me that they were willing to help me develop my own thoughts/position, and regularly proved to me that they were not in the business of forging clones of themselves. Six weeks into this quarter, I'm largely certain that I could not attribute these qualities to the professor leading my Nietzsche seminar. I don't think this guy's out to get me, but I do get the sense that, in his mind, I've been pigeon-holed into a category of thinkers he's less than amicable toward. I'm not giving up and I'm not going to validate his stereotypes of theologians by becoming overly contentious and defensive in class. But I have started entertaining thoughts like, "If I can get out of the Nietzsche seminar with at least a "C," and earn an "A" in my other class, then I'll still have the "B" average I need to retain my scholarship."

+An arduous process concludes:
A week ago Wednesday (October 10th), I finally received my Stafford loan funds. It took three, pain-in-my-ass months to secure that money. Now that I have it, I'm too damn busy with school to spend it on what I need to most (couch, bed frame, new tennis shoes). I couldn't have waited much longer. The day the money was deposited, the combined balance of my checking and my savings accounts was just under $150.

+A hilarious film discovered:
About ten days ago, I bought "Knocked Up" without having seen it but confident that I would find it funny. Little did I know at the time of purchase that I would be laughing uproariously within the first 10 seconds of my initial viewing. Not since (probably) my freshman year of college had I re-watched a movie the very next day after first seeing it. I did exactly that with "Knocked Up."

+A hero "resigns":
One of my personal heroes, Mixed Martial Arts legend Randy "The Natural" Couture has "resigned" from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Not only did he abdicate his Heavweight Title, but he's also renounced his duties as a color commentator and ambassador for the company. If you want to hear a solid report on Randy's reasons for resigning, see this article:

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=9455

If you want to read UFC President Dana White's "candid" response, read this one:

http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=8241