News from the Front....

If there is anything cooler than sitting on a bench next to a fountain on UGA's North Campus and surfing the web and checking e-mail and all of that, I haven't yet discovered it. And blogging about it, no less! Isn't technology amazing when it works properly?

It's back to school day today. In order to graduate this December, I have to get into a French class that is full at the moment. I've already talked to my advisor about it, and apparently if the class stays full, the only thing I can do is try to convince the professor to take on one more. Hopefully said professor, or, more likely, said graduate student, will be a reasonable human being. If not, I may have to extend the tour de UGA another extra semester...for one lousy class. I would be in Athens anyway, applying for grad school and the like, but it would be highly preferable to get it done as soon as possible. May the gods of graduation shine upon me.

Chris was in town this week, hanging out for a few days. Our difference in priorities is staggering, given the fact that we were brought into this world by the same two people. I'm a philosophy major. He's a business major. He nears the point of obsession when it comes to grades. I have trouble seeing the point of such things. He wants to make loads of money in the hotel world. I want to write and have people read--and possibly make loads of money in the process. Admittedly, mine is a considerably higher-risk venture than his. To say that he likes to party would be a bit of an understatement. I like to drink my Jack Daniel's with relatively little fanfare and play trivial pursuit. And he is my favorite person on this earth to spend time with.

Speaking of trivial pursuits, Chris would say that of a philosophy degree. I wouldn't really argue with him very much, though I do maintain that everyone in college should be required to take at least one or two philosophy classes. More than knowing or identifying with any particular philosophers or their positions, philosophy has taught me how to find the holes in any argument and, more importantly, find and correct the inconsistencies in my own. So far as I can tell, there is not a single more critical ability to possess, and it is applicable in every avenue of life. We all have opinions--it is those people who are best able to articulate and defend those opinions who rise to the top of any given field. Its not just knowing the facts--its the synthesis of thought, idea, and application that matters.

It is hot and humid and there is no wind in Athens, today. Across the field from me, someone is smoking and you can see their exhaust hanging in the air--they exhale, the smoke tries to make its way through the muck for a few feet and gives up. If it doesn't get any better, we will all be swimming through the blue-gray cancer. They've kicked the smokers out of the bars and restaurants, but at least there are fans in there.

I've said this before, but now that I am back on a regular school schedule I should be updating this thing on a much more frequent basis, and hopefully not at four in the morning like last year. For now it is off to class, to get a syllabus and a first-day-of-class speech from some professor or another.

Talk to you soon.