Nov 20 2006

Neglect

Sorry I haven’t written much in the ol’ Z-Issue lately. I’ve been really busy with schoolwork and other things. I’ll try to bring you quickly up to date on everything that’s going on.

First, with regards to the car, I found out that my navigation won’t work again unless I get a speed pulse generator hooked up. That’s interesting because it will calculate my speed at the wheels, and any time I make a change (tire change or rotation), I’ll have to use my magic wand to remagnetize and calibrate the speed pulse generator. I’m also taking the car tomorrow to have it DYNO tuned, have the gauge cluster put in, have my other gauges hooked up, and hopefully have the bumper replaced. Once all that is done, things should be looking pretty good.

Second, I still have a huge amount of homework to get done before the end of the semester. I have a few projects left; a study on elementary teachers, an original book for kiddy lit, a couple papers for adolescent psych, and my research paper about the children’s literature conference. I already have a topic for my original book–I just have to sit down and actually work on it. I have about four weeks left to get everything done.

Third, I have a bunch of other unrelated things to get done. I have a couple computers that I still need to fix. I also am working on making the ultimate study course for college entrance exams (okay, maybe it isn’t the ultimate, but I hope it will be pretty good). 🙂

I’ll try to keep you posted as time goes on.

|:| Zach |:|

Nov 16 2006

Poor Evelyn, Poor World

My wonderful Adolescent Psychology professor was in quite a funk today. She came in and yelled at us because she found out that a student had been plagiarizing all of her papers. I can understand Evelyn’s pain as that is the bane of any professor’s existence. To make matters worse, she was really upset about the participation in book discussions being so low. She actually said “if you aren’t planning on participating, just don’t show up!”

She was so flustered that she was actually shaking. After class, I headed to her office and we chatted for a while. We talked about the political issues that were swimming in my head last night. She confirmed my beliefs that the intent of laws has shifted from protecting people to relentlessly crucifying people for acting in supposedly “criminal” ways. That type of paradigm shift shows the completely lack of understanding of the human psyche and mind. Legitimate law is rooted in some type of empirical evidence; illegitimate law (like many that have recently been put into place) is rooted in nothing more than a maniacal politican’s “gut feeling.”

As if unethical law-making wasn’t demoralising enough, the masses (especially under a conservative régime) simply digest what they are handed. People are so apathetic that they don’t even look up issues on their own, but rather kick back and read what the newspaper has to say (that is, if they are even literate).

It seems like academic integrity is no longer a big concern for students either. I may be in a philosophical rut of bitterness right now, but am I really to blame for that? Maybe partly so.

|:| Zach |:|

Nov 15 2006

The opposite of love…

Tonight is simply one of those nights where I am overly frustrated with the state of the world and society at large. Injustice runs rampant and nobody seems to take an active approach to correct the problem. Those people that could potentially make a difference are too unethical and apathetic to do so, and those who strive and hope for a better world aren’t in a position to accomplish anything. I, unfortunately, fall somewhere between those two extremes. I’m not particularly in a place to evoke change, but I also don’t unrealistically believe that things will improve.

Elie Wiesel said that “the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” I believe that I have reached that point. I don’t hate the world in which I live, but rather I’m indifferently sitting back, watching the hope and my personal reveries drip slowly out of my ear.

That is all… or at least all I’m going to share with you.

|:| Zach |:|