"Depositing it at the casino again?" "It's alot more fun than the bank"
A collection of small ancedotes to help start the TU schoolyear off right:
Allison enrolled in a english and a spanish class this semester. We are watching lots of movies in spanish now as a result. I figure I can quote rocky and hard target pretty well, so I can translate the parts that she misses. For her english class, she is reading Ann Coulter and Al Franken for alittle 'friendly' comparison. I, therefore, had to shell out $14.00 american to franken, at 11.95 to coulter. This makes my skin crawl. I decided that since my money had gone toward this noble project, I should also partake of their wisdom. Ann is in essence Sean hannity with boobs; that is to say ultra-conservative, witty, and devilishly cutting. Her book is delivered in a polished format that looks at liberal media bias in all sectors, even discussing its attempted invasion of talk radio. It is fair to say that it is not altogether satisfying, but good points are made more often than not, and when taken with the appropriate dose of salt, worth reading. Franken is Michael Moore minus 3 chins. Franken's book is similarly styled and modeled on Coulter's and Goldberg's books, of course with opposite agenda. It focuses on direct attack of the affore mentioned texts, president bush, republicans in general. He spends a significant amount of paper attempting to discredit coulter. Having read all the Coulter sections that he has attacked thus far in his text (I'm about a third through franken) most of his attacks are placed on minor points in her argument. Its sort of like getting points off a math test because you didn't use an equal sign in your answer. It shoulda been there, but its no big deal. Otherwise, franken is typically himself, and has some good and oft enteratining observations, if incorrect analyses. My major complaint isn't with either of those though, it rests firmly on the fact that coulter's book is just so much more remarkably well written, and covers a much broader spectrum. However, I fear for poor allison, because any attempt to point out the good parts in coulter or the bad in franken may meet with some, shall we say, resistance with the local population.
School starts monday. I set up my email account. It's neat to have berkeley at the end of your name. I have never seen so much paperwork for an email address. There are approximately forty pages of agreements, and use standards, and policies that you have to scroll past to sign up for the account. when its finally all arranged, you get a copy of the material sent to your email in 3 concise packets from the webmistress. That's right, webmistress. Monday I have to be there "bright and early" (9am, ouch) to begin my intensive "how to abuse freshmen" training. Should be fun. Friday we have our first ChemKeg party. It used to be held outside on the commons by the Cal Library, but The Man apparently broke that up. They fight on to return to public drunkenness, and in the meantime they go to the on-campus bar.
Yay for Gradschool.