You scored as Existentialist. Existentialism emphasizes human capability. There is no greater power interfering with life and thus it is up to us to make things happen. Sometimes considered a negative and depressing world view, your optimism towards human accomplishment is immense. Man is condemned to be free and must accept the responsibility. Existentialist 88% Modernist 56% Idealist 50% Materialist 44% Postmodernist 19% Romanticist 0% Cultural Creative 0% Fundamentalist 0% What is Your World View? created with QuizFarm.com

hehe existentialist… who knew? man some of these quizes are worse then others…

So last night I had my first brush with political strife.

The story begins at 3:45. I call my mom and find out there are political machinations in the works. My mom just recently got offered a new kind of job last year. She was taken out of the kindergarden class and asked to assist with fighting illiteracy in the schools. Students apparently are having difficulty reading. So last year a grant was written to form a reading first group. She is a part of this group at Henry Elementary School. She spent her whole summer devoted to working on learning the techniques which will assist her in her new role.

This year the program begins and is met with immediate success stories. Apparently they are doing well. The super intendent has put up a motion to involuntarily switch the principles of Erath High School and Henry Elementary School. Involuntarily, meaning against the principle’s will. This is key. The education system has the right to do this with administration officials. Mrs Moss, the principle polietly declined the offer, in which she was told her only choices are move or retire.

So they put the motion up for vote at a school board meeting. After some minor discourse about my diner plans, i find out all this information. Mom tells me she isn’t happy. She was distraught, her major concern was the future of the project. The grant proposal was written by Mrs. Moss, the principle, and Mrs. Moss has also gone through intense training for the unique strain put upon her due to this program. Mom tells me that she wish she could make a stand at the board meeting, but she is concerned she will get to emotional. I offer my services as an individual concerned about right and wrong.

My main concerns with this process is the drive for such an action. Apparently there are no legalistic arguments against the action, but their lack of offering justification for their actions was disturbing. They just simply think it “would be for the best of the community” as a whole. So i go to the meeting.

The meeting begins and this is the first politcal side-show i’ve ever seen. For thirty minutes the wrote routine of call and answer occurs. Apparently one person says, “this motion is put up, all for say yay” and then everyone on the panel says yay, and they move on. It was so robotic. I was dissappointed with the human race. British people know how to hold forums (see house of commons.) Confused for a good portion of the proceedings, i notice they decide to discuss the motion in “executive session”. They leave the court room, and for thirty minutes the room is rumbling with statements of disgust.

Time ticks by.

I tell mom that she needs to speak also. Our only force is going to be numbers. I say i’ll speak first, but she needs to speak next, and we needed more support. Finally after planning out her address so she wouldn’t stumble, the men come out. I hadn’t planned my address. I’m not a good public speaker. They bring the motion to the floor and i raise my hand and am acknowledged. I stand.

“Hello, My concern is….”
council -First tell us who you are. (apparently long haired young concerned individual wasn’t enough)
“oh.. yes.. My name is david bennet, i’m actually a product of this fine school system and soon to be graduate of the university of louisiana at lafayette, in the philosophy degree program… now my concern is justification. I don’t see the need to move someone who wants to remain… Ok let me begin again. I want to know why it is necessary to take someone who is as valuable as Mrs. Moss from her position. She has been instrumental in instituting a program that just got off the ground in Henry elementary, and what is more is that she has developed relationships with all of her fellow teachers and students at this school. My concern is that you are not looking into the negative consequences of this action. Can you please give us justification for making such a drastic change in the system?” I studied under Mrs Moss and know how well she is as a teacher and concerned administrator. I think we deserve some reason for this change.(by the way this is horribly cleaned up, i was stuttering and unlcear through the first 25% and by the end i was pissed at myself for not being clear and concise and planning my statements out beforehand.. I will say this though, i did handle the interruption very well and shot back my name + short historical biography very quickly and precisely. I’m amazed sometimes how i can be smart ass quick, and yet planned and disciplene diction takes almost a day to formulate. I also had a grin when i said, “product of this fine school system.”)

I sit down. Mom stands up. –I can’t remember exactly what she said now, and so i’m not quoting it, but it centered on how instrumental Mrs. Moss is to the program, and how much time Mom devoted to the program. It also stated examples of her success and how pleased apparently national auditors are of their success.

Three others stood up and gave their speeches, each equally well delivered. Then they respond. At first they were going to just move on and vote, and one of the council members states, “I sense the council isn’t concered with giving them a reason, and i think as a member that they do deserve to hear why it is we are making these changes.” Another member states, “well why don’t you tell them.” Time ticks by and no one speaks. Finally the super-intendant speaks and says, “We feel that her abilities would be best utilized in these circumstances” Now this is key. His eyes are down and to the right, meaning he is lieing. He is staring at the podeum on the floor. This pisses me off. Now i say fuck this official shit, i’m approaching the issue head on.

After his little speal i see no one wants to respond so i do, “So let me see if i understand this correctly, Your argument is that the reason you feel this change is necessary is because it is for the betterment of the community. I’m sorry i have to disagree. I do not see how taking a worker, any employee, from a position they enjoy and placing them in a position they do not want against their wishes has any hope of improving productivity in any business. Statistics have shown that the average worker is a lot more productive in a position they want and enjoy working within. Have you even taken that into consideration? It sounds to me like your response is horribly vague and dodges the issue at hand.”

Moments pass and he responds, “Vague as you call it, it is our statement.” Another council member speaks up, “It sounds to me like you are all concerned about whether or not your going to be liked by the new principle and whether your going to get along. I think these concerns are not relevant.”

My hand fires up again, he acknowledges. “I think you horribly misrepresent and trivialize their concerns, they are concerned-” and i was cut off by a lawyer who said, “We need to move on.” What i was going to finish saying of course was that they were concerned with the success of the students.

But they voted and in robotic fashion decided to pass the resolution. So against two principles will they will be transfered to schools they do not want to teach at. The programs that were instituted in their last schools are left in the air as to who will command them. And yet again i’m concerned as to their underlying reasons.
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pictures and more

Its ok, we got time… there is no need for you to concern yourself about your biological clock.
hehe
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i thought it was funny.

Let me begin by saying this, thank you friends and family for one of the best nights of my life. I have grown quite fond of all of you, and when it comes to moments like this, i feel that those friendships are very worthwhile. Ok enough sappy stuff.

Let me begin by saying this, the movie wasn’t good. I came away thinking that this is probably the best translation of the book for screen, and what came out of it was insanity. There were some really great moments, the description of life and death in a short little quip that was directly from the book, the dolphins in the begining were a very nice touch (not crazy about the theme music but), arthur dent wasn’t horrible but everyone else was, etc. So much of it was made up and not true to the books (not necessarily a bad thing, just different), and there were not as many funny lines as i thought there would be. Half way through the movie your thinking, wtf is this thing, and at the end you are surprised. It is as though they just said, “the end” and cut the film. This is all i want to explain, the rest is just what it is.

So I arrived at the theater early, like usual. Graydon shows up and we talk for a bit, then michael and michelle show up. We continue our discourse and begin walking to the theater and then Lydia shows up. As we are mileing around outside talking we snap a few photos and generally talk about different topics of interest. On the periphery of the conversation is whether or not Dr. Korcz will show up. 7:14 he shows up, and we move into the theater to be joined by HLF (Ron). [insert movie experience]

After it is done, we get up and leave. We all in some way complain about the movie, saying that it wasn’t horrible, but it also wasn’t that good. Then we snap a few more photographs and decide to go to Barnes and Noble. Trey decides he needs to head home, so i drop them off at their car and head to B&N.

Imagine this scene, seven very intellegent individuals sitting around a table on a chilly night. Imagine that four of the seven individuals are parents, five of the individuals are philosophically ‘trained’ (i.e. take that for whatever you will), two are graduating and just concieve of what topics will be generated.

Overall, the conversation was spastic, and very disciplined at times. We get into movies, then move into children’s movies, step into hypnosis, maternity, media’s control of human beliefs -> linguistics, politics, movies again, etc. Rough overview. It got bogged down due to my bringing up of a sore issue, about linguistics. I blame trey. He had me thinking about it from earlier. Anyways it was just a great conversation and very enjoyable.

At one point, Michael, Michelle, and Lydia had to leave in which the rest of us retired to a local pool hall called sticks. This is a key moment. I had forgot how much i love pool over the last few years. I really love the game. There is a fluid in the game. If you can tap into the music that plays, you can lose yourself in the game. Your body takes over control of the stick, and you don’t need consciousness butting in and screwing it up. There can be a detatchment of watching angles, rebounding off of angles. Cause and effect. Life can be boiled down to a game pool.

it is all about definition.

So we talk for a while and then at midnight, we split for the night. I take Ronnie to his house where he puts up with me ranting about objective/absolute truthes. I rant about how i hate that the primary argument used against absolute truthes, is the argument from ignorance, i.e. objective truthes don’t exist because you can’t give me one. I ranted about how the above example is true due to the nature of our perception. If you want to relegate absolute truth to an external object that is absolutely true no matter what/how human’s percieve then of course there is no evidence for or against. Which means you can’t claim a truth value about the subjectmatter at hand. We can’t say they exist, nor that they don’t exist, because to do so would mean to be able to break beyond the inate human perspective.

What we can do is come up with truthes of probability. It is more then likely true that there is a physical world in which my senses percieve, and that the physical world has color, light, touch, tastes, etc. It is probably true physical laws operate on physical bodies. It is probably true quantity exists. It is probably true that i do in fact exist. It is probably true that there are social laws governing human interactions that can be interpreted down the line as cause/effect which could lead to the perfect moral code.

I am tired. It just hit me. 3:43 A.M. I will borrow trey’s cable to connect my camera to the internet and find a way to upload the pictures i took onto the internet so all can partake.

beautiful night.

This always happens during finals week… I get finished with my hardest final and i’m stuck in a sense of limbo. I study for my other finals but over all i’m kind of in a daze. And like a bulldozer, finals continue on heedless of what they destroy.

I have positive impressions of my progress right now.

I’m reading valis by Philip K. Dick. no impression as of yet.

Horselover fat, aka Ron, can you answer this for me.

Within the book, HLF and the narrator split in the second chapter. In the first there is this allusion to them being the same person. He switches from first to third person through the first chapter, but in the second chapter (or part) he talks about how the narrator ‘does’ things with HLF on a regular basis. Now of course this would appear to be obvious seeing as HLF and the narrator are one, but it appears to be arguing that they are two. I’m confused, but not to terribly.

I’m sure you have seen this, this newly released trailor for star wars episode III…. oh wait… its a music video… hmmm was that music i was supposed to be paying attention to or the dialogue/storyline.

Ok this is the final tally of people going to see the movie Wednesday. The movie begins at 7:20, so be in front of the theater by around 7:00. After the movie, we will probably go somewhere to eat and talk about how good/bad the movie is. The movie itself is around 2 hours long, so be sure to mark your schedule as such.

The theater we will be watching the movie in is called the Grand 16. It is the newest theater in Lafayette, and feature stadium seating (yay). It is located on Johnston street across from Judice Inn hamburger shop. It is what used to be the Superstore.

Any suggestions on where you would enjoy eating at would be appreciated.

Please understand that if you don’t meet up with us by 7:15 outside the grand, we will enter the theater. Afterwards we can attempt to get together. You can contact me on my cell phone, just email me back if you need my cell phone number.

P.S. I’m going to request taking a picture of all of us, and i can e-mail copies to anyone who would like them.

Current list of people who are going:
David – philosophy student graduating.
Wilbur (trey) – Graduate student at UL and David’s Brother.
Amanda – Wilbur’s significant other, long time friend and pretty cool girl.
Michael Snaars – philosophy student graduating, long time friend.
Michelle – Michael Snaar’s Wife
Damon – philosophy club ex-secretary and philosophy student, all around very nice and cool guy.
Dr. Korcz – philosophy department head, professor of philosophy, (titles edited for brevity) and all around very nice and cool guy.
Melissa – Adjunct English Professor, good friend and pretty cool girl.
Graydon – philosophy student, good friend and pretty cool guy.
Ronnie – Student of computer (not cognitive) science, and long time friend and pretty cool guy.

unconfirmed invites
Lydia – ex-philosophy student, good friend, and pretty cool girl. (looks like she probably won’t be there)

looks like a pretty fun night… a lot of interpretations to sift through.

I think i did well on my french final, which is good news… i’m so damn superstitious that i keep telling myself not to say what i just said… but i said it and so its done…

got to watch out what i say so i don’t jinx myself.
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*presses the button on save and ignores the edit button*

I suggest watching the movie. Below is a link to my summary and analysis of the film that i am writing in french. Go watch the movie, its really good.
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