Musings

I'm up absurdly late, again, tonight. I have too many things I want to do and too little time to do them in. But that's okay, because sleep isn't an important activity. It merely facilitates the ability to do things. Other than that, it's useless. In other news, the Esperanto club is "all go", starting in two weeks, at lunch, en la klaso de Fraŭlino Kvitka. I'm sort of on the fence between making it a thing where people teach themselves the language and use the Vilsonesperantistsocieto as a place to practice speaking, or making it a class-like setting where I teach people. I'm kind of leaning toward the latter, because I think that that would be more fun for me, and because people would be guaranteed to learn something then. Anyway, that's a done deal thanks to Ms. Kvitka's being a very nice person.

Speaking of "anyway", today I really embarassed myself today by saying "anyways" instead of the proper "anyway" after I lamented the dropping of the use of "whom" in modern speech. I'm resolving never to say "anyways" again, because it really is a crude bastardization of the word "anyway", perhaps more so than "who" is of "whom". Maybe I should stop using "anyway" all together. At least I'm not one of those people who says "more better", or worst of all, "more funner". Some people quite regularly feel over-zealous in their usage of the superlative.

The campus clean up is tomorrow, and because I'm alleged to be a good citizen, I'm going. It should be fun.

We're reading 1984 in English! Dystopian novels really are superb. So far it measures up to such others as Brave New World (Tengo una pasión por este libro!), and Animal Farm (of which I read several pages of an Esperanto translation). I think someone could make an incredible dystopian novel of present society. From Bushism, to the pathetic inability for society to find morality except in religion, to the general stupidification of society into automatons that live for momentary, temporal pleasure; its like Brave New World realized, except for there isn't the totalitarianism (that point could be debated: we have a form of joint government and corporate totalitarianism, in my opinion). A lot (I think 99.999%, and 99.9999999% of my peers) of people would disagree with me here, but mark my words, social and historical progress isn't necessarily human progress. It could be "counter-progress".

I also feel it necessary to become very angry over the current prevalence of "reality TV" (this is giant media-concocted lie: reality TV more unrealistic than bad sitcoms (which included 99% of sitcoms). I think its a feel-good mechanism to make people think that they're watching sophistocated "realistic" television, and this would make sense considering the consolidation of media companies to include news, reality TV, and normal TV shows). Not only is it the most brain-dead form of entertainment, but it is not realistic. Here, let me cite a show entitled "Fear Factor". On "Fear Factor", contestants compete for cash by doing gruesome feats, such as eating raw pig entrails, being covered in dangerous and/or large and generally despised insects, or performing feats which test fears of heights. One cannot blame the producers for making this show. The creators are merely following an idea in a respectable capitalistic fashion. Capitalism ain't great, but it's the best there is, so that's perfectly fine. The viewers are the true guilty ones. What kind of doped-up maniac would voluntarily watch such a show as "Fear Factor"? Apparently quite a few. People somehow live quite happily off this rampant "bread and circus" entertainment void. It amazes me.

More for next time: California recall race reaches new heights of absurdity! Republican frontrunner is wee bit of a sexual predator, and is favored to win by some!! Sound familiar? Late 1990s, president.... argghhh!!