I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t watch it. I was in class for Short Story studies. But from what I’ve read on the net, and what I know of the candidates, I am going to re-enact it for you with my two hands.

Left hand of course represents John Kerry, and Right hand represents GW.

Left hand: Buzz word buzz word buzz word

Right hand: Bzus Word? Buzz word! Blahedy bhad blah!

Left hand: I don’t know what you’re talking about!

Right hand: I know how to lead!

Left hand: Seriously, we’re ambidextrous! Neither of us is fit to lead!

Right hand: Ambidetraxiouser? Whatever. I don’t flip flop!

Left hand: Shut up! Just because you can’t put on the shoes!

(at this point my hands go for each other’s…well, throats, and proceed to beat the living crap out of each other. Right hand wins, and smacks the left hand around like a little bitch.)

And that’s how the debates went. Again…this is a website translation of the real debates and in no terms does it show what really occurred…except for the buzz words part. And the screwing up of the words. And the fact that both of my hands are more intelligent and useful than either of the candidates running.

This summer, I constantly berated those I visited if they brought me to a used bookstore, esp. a bookstore that had a brilliant display and collection of mythology books. Well, I’m happy to say that going to school at Pacifica will more than satisfy my need for mythological stories.

There are so many freaking books that I want to check out, and not just for classes either…my brain is about to burst because of the possibilities of them all. I’m very very happy here.

The classes were excellent, the first class dealing with the historical study of myth. We spent the day talking about Jung, Campbell, Levi-Strauss, and a few others like Harrison. It was a really good time, very informative. I could have used more examples, but that will come next session when we deal with Freud in that class.

Tuesday we dealt with the Hindu mythic tradition. Man, that rocked. It was a great experience to have the books that were assigned to us read, and then have so much EXTRA information tossed at us to reinforce the readings and give us a broad view of the basics. Next time we are delving more into the epics, and that’s going to be really stupendous.

Today was the only class that I didn’t enjoy as much as the others. I had spent the extra time reading the chapters in the book that were not assigned, and it turns out that she basically covered those chapters today in class. I was a bit bored, but she had some very good example exercises that she gave us that really helped illustrate personal myths and the effects on people’s lives.

As well, I’ve gotta give a shout out to a few of the people in my class. John(who was my roommate), Craig, and Dan were pretty damned cool. A plus is that they are all republicans. The really funny part of this is that each of us had one of the same singular worries when getting to this school:

We were all afraid we’d be the only conservative persons on campus.

Thank God though that there are some people who aren’t so horribly hippy-ish that offer a nice backdrop of common sense. There are some really hippy-ish characters here, but I can deal with them all right, though they do make the classes kind of difficult because of their incessant talking up on points that don’t really concern ANYTHING to do with the lecture. But ’s ok, ’s all right.

I really enjoy Pacifica, which is a good thing, as I’ll be spending the fortune that I make in the next 15 years on paying for my 3 years here, and I’ll be out here once a month for the next three years.

Woohoo! Graduate Classes out here are so much better than BSU, and I’m insanely glad of it. I now have a real school to look forward to once a month.

First class went awesome. More blog later. Around 7 or so minnesota time. Now time for second class.

yay!

btw, the weather out here is fantastic.

really is bad, unless you are having breakfast. They can’t ruin that, thankfully. My flight went well, and right now I am sitting in the library at Pacifica playing on the laptop before the orientation session.

Also, yesterday my brother and I went to see Shaun of the Dead.

Absolutely hilarious. I never actually thought I’d see someone make fun of zombie movies so well. Of course, it is british so I shouldn’t be surprised. Good times.

Wheeee!

Mythology!!!

Sitting in Minneapolis International Airport, ready to fly out to LA for some classes at Pacifica. Wheee, and I can’t wait!

Mythological studies, here I come.

I hate people who don’t need to be here, but show up nonetheless.

does anyone want to go to Perkins? Or another fine restaurant for iced cream/appetizers?

Perhaps a group of us could go.

Let me know by 9, or gimme a call. If I have not heard from anyone, I’m going to start drinking alone.

Perhaps a movie at my place or some such? I’m open to suggestions.

I’ve got bubba ho-tep…bruce campbell as elvis….

So, today, I was going to massively overhaul Froyd.net, but instead got involved with reading stuff for my mythological studies course at Pacifica, there was more than I thought left, and baking bread.

In breaks, I’m checking prices at Northwest airlines, and trying to book my next flight. The amount they are charging is goddamned ridiculous.

Just for those of us in Bemidji, its an extra $200 to fly our asses out of here, to anywhere. That means $200 from here to Minneapolis. It’s freaking unbelievable.

I mean, I know Bemidji sucks, but do you have to gouge those of us who run away from it so much?

And didn’t our government bail the bastard airlines out of trouble a couple of years ago? They seem to have the memory of GW Bush. Both the airlines and the president forget what is good for the country is good for them.

I shall destroy them.

I believe that philosophy students do me good. I myself do not enjoy philosophy and have at times been known to refer to it as a ‘false religion’ or ‘thought processes for people who can’t think for themselves’.

But there remain three philosophy students who do me good. Shane Wahl, David Hanson, and Kamran Swanson. All three of whom, at any time, will give it to me straight and not sugar coat the truth, or whatever it seems that I need to hear.

Shane Wahl, perhaps the very antithesis of my existence, one who believes almost completely opposite as I do on every issue, is nevertheless someone that I respect and enjoy the company of. If I were to be stuck somewhere for eternity, I’d truly love to have his presence there to argue with.

Dave Hanson, a good true friend, one whom in the last 9 years that I have known him has proved time and again, that regardless of the often incongruous arguments he concocts is one person who can hold his end of the conversation, and can offer advice more worthy than offered at delphi.

Kamran Swanson, for being, hands down, the best roomie that I have ever had. Never once has he complained about the cat’s litter box or the amount of dishes that need to be done. Plus he got my cat out of the tree.

Just to wind up this incredibly sappy and silly post, without these three philosophy students, I’d probably lead a normal life, if that were at all possible. Thanks to these three for keeping it real.

Note to self: Drinking beer makes one sentimental, stop drinking so much of it.

When there’s nothing in the house except a block of tofu, and sliced american cheese for snacks what do you do?

Incorrect answer: Cover the tofu in the cheese and nuke it, then eat it.

Correct Answer: Starve to death.

Trust me…the first choice just makes the cheese taste bad.

I’m a little nervous, as the MAC computers always toss something out to irritate me, but all in all I know what I’m doing.

Hopefully.

I’m relatively certain it won’t be as bad as I think it will be, but that remains to be seen.

Thank God it has stopped raining. Also thankful that the back doesn’t hurt as bad any more, I can actually sit up for limited periods of time now.

Yay me. So I finished the Atreides missions in Emperor: Battle For Dune today. I’ve gone through all missions for each of the three houses: Ordos, Harknonnen and Atreides. In comparison to say, Warcraft 3, 2 or 1, and Starcraft, I’d have to say this ranks equally if not better.

It is along the same lines as the command and conquer games, made by the same developer(westwood), but I’ve not played those. What makes these Dune games more engrossing than the others of the same genre is that it is fairly short. Usually there are about 8 to 9 missions per house, varying of course on the route you take to overthrow the capitol of the other houses. There are movies interspersed, and it is just a well done game.

It doesn’t drag on, and there are enough different things per mission that make them fun to play. You can never conquer one mission exactly how you conquered another. You have to use different combos of your weapons to win.

I like the game. Now back to homework, I suppose.

hurts like a bitch. A bitch who’s been completely attacked by the pack, driven out and freezing to death in the cold cold siberian winter.

Now that you’ve got that horrible image in your mind, that’s what my back is doing to me today. I’ve been ingesting some flexiril to deal with the problem, but all that is doing is making me sleepy. That sucks.

So I’m going to grab the Xbox, go to blockbuster, rent some movies and games, stop at leuken’s and pick up some supper, and just camp out at the rent’s house tonight, reclined completely horizontal on one of their lazyboys.

Cause this pain ain’t letting up as much as I’d hoped, I even had to call in sick this afternoon for the two hours that I was supposed to be there.

THis afternoon, after the aforementioned rock piles, I practiced kumdo. I have a scene in my book coming up where there is a fight scene, and nothing quite puts my mind on tactics of small group skirmishes like practicing with my swords.

So I spent roughly 40 minutes practicing what I knew and could remember, seeing as how I had taken about 2 months off I was a bit confused on some parts but I finished them ok. At the last I was going to do 50 Pa-Ron-Mari’s(warm up head striking drills) in order to finish it off decently.

I was 20 into them, and twisting and striking on the 21st, my muscles in the mid of my back were pulled. It was goddamned pure agony.

It is still tough to breathe, it hurts that badly. I imagine the pain will last about 3 or 4 days, as the pulled muscles in my back usually take that long to rehabilitate.

It hurts like hell…on the plus side, I know exactly how one of the characters is going to be suffering in the end of the combat.

I spent the afternoon climbing the rock piles scattered around my parents fields.

Nothing brings back memories like walking over the places where as a child you had many adventures, and still seeing the same rocks there, welcoming as ever, if you can keep your balance on the shifting smaller stones. If you can, then perching atop the ancient boulders is your well earned reward, viewing the sea of grass around you, I easily remembered what it was like as a child with this entire view surrounding me and allowing me to become whatever I dreamed.

They were like old friends, these rocks. The same ones I sat on, still large boulders, as if my age and size growing meant nothing to them, they still welcomed me to sit on them. Some people fear stone because of its unchanging quality, I welcome it. And the stone welcomed me back, allowing me to take off my shirt and sandals and warm/cool my feet on their surfaces as they made ready for me to sit thronelike in the center of the pile.

These piles were old when I was young, I would guess about 50 years then, and nothing has changed in the ensuing 20 years, except the rocks are even more welcoming, having a soft layer of lichen covering all of them, comfortable for walking barefoot and to recline on, if you could find a relatively flat spot.

Nowadays, I imagine social services would take any parent away that allowed their children to play on such piles, but those piles are where I learned my sense of balance, and practiced my sense of imagination. I would gladly let any children of mine play on these piles. And when I have kids, they will.