Tuesday, September 27, 2011

First day Fall Semester, FRCC

Intro to Lit, Fall Semester. First class tonight, 10 week session. Some interesting students. Jessica from Canada who legally had her last name changed to Sideways. Her desert-island book is ISO (IN Search Of): The art of Dating, Relationships & Sex For The Discerning Lesbian. This lead to a conversation about dating services, and then opposites attracting. Jessica said she wouldn't date her opposite... a self-hating Republican. I asked her if she would date an other-loving Republican and she said no.

Then there was Butch, the bus-driver. His desert-island book is any Stars Wars fan fiction. He also doesn't watch movies, only ballets. He likes how ballets have no words and therefore the interpretation is up to you. We briefly discussed the idea of a ballet based on Star Wars and he said he would never leave the theater.

Other memorable desert-sland books were Flowers In the Attic, Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club", Anne Rice's Jesus books, "any redemption book", Mahabarata and Lord Of The Flies.

At the end of the class I handed out their first assigment, translating a Mallarme poem. I told them it was a notoriously difficult poem to translate and we were diving in the deep end. But I let them know I had faith they could do it. Jessica Sideways says "Then you don't think we can do it, because faith is a lack of logical evidence." She had me there. I could only reply with, "then I have to say I don't think you will be able to logically do this." That effectively stumped her up for long enough to move the conversation to the next topic, which was goodnight.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

today

Yoga this morning at D Note with Jeremy and I playing bhajans. Good to look out and see Monica, Maryn and Marley in Sivasana.

Then Harvest Fest w/ Maryn and the big slide.

Next Costco. I love the food samples. This morning a full lunch, clam chowder, Indian lentils, strawberry yogurt, Tang, Smoothie, Mahi Mahi, Honey crusted chicken, Veggie sausage on a roll, peanut butter chocolate.

I love that Cosco employs so many older ladies to give out samples.

I love the dance of the heavy carts in a busy Cosco. You have to think physics so you can keep the cart going through crowd without losing momentum. It is a tricky game.

Then home and lunch and The U.S. Open. Serena Williams versus Siosur. Serena lost a point because of a late grunt rule. She was so angry that she came back and began to dominate Siosur. She took her anger and used it as fuel. Gotta wonder about the healthiness of that. Wouldn't it encourage more anger?

I find myself getting emotional during sports, especially women's sports. Strange.

Friday, September 2, 2011

points

New Life As Video Game Strategy

you spend points when you power up (get high)
you save points when you power down (refrain)
trick is to make them work for each other,
spend points on worthy occasions, for best bang,
like a friend coming over, a dance, a poem.
Save points (refrain) for extra bang when you spend.
As an added bonus you get a new clarity of mind
when you save. Plus beautiful dreams.

Yesterday I saved and though it cost me
a flashing moment of frustration, it gained
me the following dream: I was teaching HS,
taking over for a fellow teacher who was leaving.

The teacher had assigned a massive project
to brilliant hardworking students. They handed
into me their gargantuan piles of work and I knew
it would take me weeks to get through. But I
didn't care. I was excited. The kids had obviously
put the best of themselves in the projects. One
kid even had bloody cuts on his back. Several

were in bands. That was a dream worth saving
for. The saving also gave me extra points to spend
this morning, which I traded in to hang out with
Alejandro. For this extra saving I got several rewards:

I thought of an opera that I want to write with Alejandro,
called "Space Warriors" about a future in which robots and
men have colonized separate planets to keep the peace between
them. A robot invades the human planet to spy,
casing the planet. Meanwhile he falls in love with a woman.
This interrupts the peace between the two planets, escalating
into an all out space war between robots and humans.

I was also rewarded with this post. Next I will clean
and pack for our trip to L.A. which will be extra fun.
Finally I will dance and work up a sweat. Then I will
go back to saving!
--

it might even be possible to save for your entire life and spend it all on death.

lies

better start looking at the truth

cause there's a bigger bang a comin