I can’t believe it. It took me 4 hours to do two english assignments I received on Monday. Damn, I suppose college is kicking in, even though I expected less of a hassle. I woke up at 9, started doing homework at 10, ate brunch from 12 till 1, did homework again from 1 till 3:30. The english class today was better than I thought it would be. Turns out I don’t like the instructor too much, he’s too much of a conservative for me, that has nothing to do with his charismatic personality, though. He says things should be done and it’s not right, but personally speaking, I say don’t even mention things that should be done and crap about society. If you think something should be done, do it. That’s how it works in the Army, and the Army gets things done like cleaning up crap in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Panama and Colombia among others. The subject was about school system in US, and it turned into a slight tangent about society in general. I said that school system works because it is basically a foundation, it was never a tool for people to find and make great use of their creativity. This guy named Noam Chomsky, some intellectual back in the days now teaching in MIT, undermined the process, saying that in order for people to succeed, they need corporations in school, and schools need funding, and so the corporations give schools money, which in turn does not allow people to think outside of the box and demotes one’s ability to think as well as degrading students to nothing more than objects under strict rules and regulations. It was kind of disgusting watching all these people telling me no, that I’m wrong, and all that. People shaking their heads and what not, looking at me in a very nasty way like something’s wrong with me. I would like to acknowledge that I am very fortunate to have been raised in a family where there were opportunities at hand, but my family still makes a less than what the middle middle class people make, so it’s not like we’re all that well off either. But it was great to listen to people agree with me, some of them liked my principle, most of which is the indifferent ‘if you think you can do it you can and you will do it’ train of thought I developed from the Army. Some people didn’t like my ideas all too much, but I have to respect their ideas, they have their own reasons for thinking that way, and it was great to listen to different opinions. Although, I would have to admit, I was extreme at times and I would like to think some people were, too. The discussion was pretty smart, although some people just didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. I liked some liberal people that could go along with ideas and respected everyone else’s opinions. A few people were totally out of the loop, didn’t even say a thing, and even when they tried to, it just sounded kind of stupid. A few people were for this Noam guy, saying that schools don’t work, but some of us came to conclusion that we need to explore our own individuality and have the will to survive out there in the real world without having to be babysitted by school systems that should do more with less. I just didn’t buy the notion that our school system doesn’t work. But man, this one chick and this one dude just didn’t like me at all. She doubted this one experiment I mentioned about how they took some homeless people, gave them money, and basically everything they need to survive, and the vital resources such as counseling and everything, and that 95 percent of the people, no matter what, wanted to return to their life without responsibilities. She doubted it so much, she was asking me well, is this test valid, this and that about mentality, about physical status, about who they chose, was it well thought up, basically. So I told her that it’s people like her that conduct these tests and they’re not stupid or anything. And then she had the heart to tell me that no, not too many people think like me, and it’s quite amazing. At that point, I think she then figured I had already won when she turned that kind of egotistical attention on herself, and she raised her hand less often afterwards. That was awesome, but man, was she aggressive and gruesome. An extreme radical who does nothing but talk without action about what should be done, the kind that pretty much makes me sick. ‘It’s a serious problem!’ Yeah, but what are you doing about it? I mean if she mentioned that some of these problems are there and that there should be some sort of reform and acknowledge the fact that it would be extremely difficult to turn school systems and in turn basically our society inside out, but that reform could be a good thing but it could take a while, I wouldn’t mind, in fact, that’s what I said. But damn, she had to say the government’s not doing anything, blah blah. I guess I just don’t like blaming things on everyone else, and in a way, selfish, since I don’t really do much to change the system that I know I can’t change, mostly since the school system here has done so much for me. So her and her ‘assistants’ were for the whole change for everyone else thing, while I’m saying that there could be reform, but for the majority, it works and it worked for a lot of people I know and for myself, too. Came back home, did nightly stuff. Don’t know if I’m going to go midnight virgil, probably not, since I’m sick of listening to the words September, 11, tragedy, crisis, and war too often put together in the last year. I think I deserve a midnight off from that. But, I did go and look at the Moon and Venus through Berkeley’s telescope up on Campbell Hall. It was amazing… if you’ve never done that before, GO NOW!