Sep 25, 2010

Life in Dorm 17

The following are a collection of photographs from the last 3 weeks. (I did promise they would come!)

Frog Olympics. Black Team came in 2nd Place!


Niagara Falls. Six of Eight sitting on the really big chair.

Beth and I thought we were pretty cool, being all Royal Mountie and Moose-like.




The next two photographs were done by Maryanne Farrow. She is a Redeemer Alumnist and good friends with Amanda. Paired with fun outfits and sunshine, they turned out quite lovely.


These girls are wonderful, beautiful; created in the image of God.

Word of the Day: apparition

Quote of the Day: Today's quote is the sound of the raindrops, finally.

Sep 21, 2010

Public Service Announcements

Introducing something new.

Or, someone new.

Someones new?

I think. Can someone be made plural?

Hmm,

Anyways.

Two of the girls in my dorm have started a blog! I feel compelled to announce them over my own blog, and so, I send you their way! Take a glance, stay awhile. They are friendly people, I guarantee it! (They also smell pretty good, but that really isn't relevant to their writing, thoughts, and posts.)

Introducing Meredeth!
and
Introducing Emily!

In other news,

The first Crown Issue of the season has made it to stands! I encourage passers-by to click on over to The Crown's website for a look into what made headlines this month. The Crown has had a change over of staff; a new EIC, Managing Editor, Digital Editor and Copy Editor. It is an exciting year. Volume 28 has sit 'news-stands' now!

I also picked up a cold. I haven't been sick all summer, but now, the first day of Autumn, and low and behold - Headcold!

Erica has made it safely to France; she got her Student Visa the day she was supposed to leave. So, she has made it safe and sound. Her musings can be found here.

I will post photographs later. There are many of those to come!

Word of the Day: Advil

Quote of the Day: "Every time I turn around, I'm afraid someone is going to throw a spitball at me." Dr. Bertone



Sep 14, 2010

The Socrates and Plato Predicament

Warning: There is an excellent chance you won't understand what this blog post is about, and if you don't, that is because my brain functions oddly, not because you are unintelligent.

Except you, Craig.

: )


This is Socrates. Socrates is the first known philosopher. He is a man of great intelligence. In my mind, until today, he was a real person, a human being who lived, breathed, thought, and had his philosophy written down by Plato. I accepted this, I didn't question it...

Last year I had a really bad philosophy professor. I would have appreciated coming out of that class with a mid understanding of what different philophers talk about. I mean, I paid him money to teach me, and he didn't. Capitalism in education failed me... anyways...

Then, today, Dr Faber, my English Prof who is teaching the course on Literary Theory, started the course off with two writings of Plato. For those of you who are not familiar with Plato, The Republic (one of his most well known works) is a dialogue between Socrates (who was Plato's teacher) and other various characters. The Republic is an analogy of the perfect society. Plato talks about many things. Mostly just ideals about how his republic would be (or Socrates' republic... it gets muddled there in my head.) including how he feels about poets. To Plato, the poet is an imitator, and the imitator takes the focus away from the Forms, because we humans are dumb and don't understand anything. And, because we humans are not philosopher-kings, we don't have a direct link to the Forms and therefore can't be trusted with imitations because we're just that stupid.

And then it occurred to me.

What if Socrates is nothing more than a figment of Plato's imagination? He was a character in an analogical writing to make a point.. After all, we don't have any writings that are specifically Socrates'. All his ideas are portrayed through other philosophers of later times, and his cause of death was this: he was killed because he was accused of corrupting the youth with ideas...

However, the most evidence we have on his life is through Plato...

And another thing, Socrates (through Plato) was super against written word (not to mention mass production) because we mere humans would focus on the word, therefore being corrupted and led far away from the Forms. Which would likely mean that, and I'm just throwing this out there, that Socrates would not have appreciated Plato publishing his thoughts and ideas about Life, the Universe, and Everything.

And if that's not enough, Rene Magritte taunts you with his 'pipe'.

Yay literary theory!

And for your viewing enjoyment...





Word of the Day: encomium (means speech or writing that praises someone formally)

Quote of the Day: "I'm reading Plato! That used to be, 'I'm eating Playdo!' " -Aaron Vedder

Sep 10, 2010

The Beginning and the Looming Sleep Cloud

Remember how I complained that I was bored?

Remember when I said that I was looking forward to my brain having something useful to think about?

Well, school started.

Last week was RA/HA training. This is one of the most intense weeks of the year. It is when all the RAs and HAs get fed with mountains of information on how to save lives, invest in the dorm spiritually, use a fire extinguisher, and deal with any up and coming problems that may arise during the year. Its all fine and dandy, until you are so overwhelmed by seeing all your friends that you have missed so much over the course of the summer, that it cuts so far into your hours of sleep that you suffer near exhaustion by the end of the week.

And then you move the girls in and realize that you have become old and incapable of keeping up with 18 year olds and their fast paced, witty, conversations.

And then you start with the classes, and the homework starts to pile on. And then you realize that there is no way to have sleep come back to you, even though you wish for it so dearly, and it hangs above you like a looming storm cloud that only wants to lightening but never rain.

Okay, its a bit of an exaggeration.

But seriously, I have done over 40 pages of reading this morning, and I have another 300 pages to do before tonight is over.

The semester begins.

OH! The final Marineland commerical count was 95.

Word of the Day: Cabbage

Quote of the Day: "My initials are MVP...I think that pretty much makes me awesome!" Meghan VanPelt