As you said yourself there ARE some types of mathematics employed by, paraphrasing here, SMART people that do employ 0. So you eat it. Additionally, I enjoyed watching you spend about an hour searching Wikipedia for "Division," "zero," and "irrational numbers." I'm only sorry I couldn't keep you going for longer. However, I just looked up Highlander and the word "sucks" was in the first sentence of the entry. You fail!

Damn, yeah, congratulations, homie. Wish I were there to celebrate. I shall drink the first bottle of Double Bastard Ale I see to your good luck in the future, man. Probably won't see you until next Christmas, though. Kinda sucks.

To TIMMMAAYYYY!!! RRAAARRRGGHH!!!

Congratulations, Timmy my boy.  It was a long haul, but you've graduated, and I'm quite proud for you.  Drop me a line some time, we'll go get shitty drunk!

So on May 28th I'm finally going to don another cap and gown and receive a diplama from Southern Connecticut State University, home of the most respected of all nocturnal birds, the Owls.

My question is when you bastards on the left coast are going to come back here to help me celebrate this momentous occaison by getting sloppy drunk.  Let me know.

Happy birthday.  I'm just getting home from work - around 6, there was this company-organized get-together at a local place.  Very entertaining, got to meet some new people, all cool, very eager, drank some beer (a number of pints of Guinness), just hung out.  It was very good in most ways - slightly, what, Office Space, I guess - but I was with the top people in the company, not just carping with the other plebians.  The company has a surfeit of hot well-fed smart wealthy spoiled girls, Asian, Jewish, very attractive.  It's a good job, I should work harder.

Things, are, eh, here.  I still feel slightly as if I'm in suspended animation.  Ah, one thing:  THE RED SOX ARE IN THE FUCKING PLAYOFFS!  Read that again.  THE...RED...SOX...ARE...IN...THE...FUCKING...PLAYOFFS!!!!  4 long years, and we're back, baby, we're fucking back.  Very exciting.  I think I will have developed a saucer-sized ulcer by the time the first playoff game comes round on Tuesday.

I can see that I'll feel good, better, soon, but I haven't felt that way, yet.  Ah, me.  Fuck it.

Stone

These are my dutch notes

Rotterdam 27 1469 volgens sommigen 1466-1468, Basel 12 juli 1536

de geleerdstehumanist van zijn tijd, geboren uit de onwettige verbintenis van  een priester Gerard en een zekere Margaretha, werd genoemd naar de heilige Erasmus, of Herasmus, een van veertien noodhelpers.  In 1496 nam hij zelf de naam Desiderius erbij aan.  Met zijn Moeder woonde hij in Gouda en Deventer, in welke plaatsen hij nar school ging.  Hij was een bevrijding voor hem toen hij, na zijn priesterwijding, het kloosterleven kon vaarwelzeggen om in de functie van secretaris de bisschop van Kamerijk op diens reizen te vergezellen.

Hij kreeg verlof in Parijs te studeren.  En reis naar Engeland 1499 bracht hem in anrakking met geleerden als de kanselier Thomas More en de graecus John Colet.

IN 1500 publiceerde hij de Adagia, een verzemeling Latijnse spreekwoorden waarmee hij terstond naam namkte.  maar bovenal zijn belangstelling voor het Nieuwe Testament en de kerkvaders werd gewekt.  Nu ontwikkelde jih zijn bijbels-humanistische theologie, de philosophia christiana: een enigszins rationalistische en moralistische opvatting van het christendom, wwarbij weinig waarde gehecht wordt aan domatische leerstukken en kerkelijke ceremonies en waarbij Christus niet in de eerste plaats als de verzoener, maar als de coelestis doctor word gezien.

Encihridion militis christiani geeft blijk van deze inzichten.

Laus stultitiae of Moriae encomium, eenn satire op maatschappelijke en kerkelijke misstanden en domheden, die hem een grote faam bezorgde.

Novum instrumentum omne, waardoor hij de Griekse tekst van het Nieuwe Testament algemeen toegankelijk maakte.  

Hij was in Leuven van 1517 tot 1521.  Maar toen hij daar van ketterse ideen verdacht werd - hoewel hij zich van Luther, wiens kritiek op de kerk hij kon waarderen, distantieerde omdat die hem te onbesuisd optrad - week hij uit naar Basel.  Inmiddels was Erasmus' geleerdheid alom beroemd geworden, zodat men van alle kanten naar zijn gunst dong.

Colloquia vielen bij velen in de smaak.

Luther daarentegen in zijn heftige wederwoord De servo arbitrio voor de absolute afhankelijkheid van Gods werkzaamheid en genade. 

de Reformatie zag hij meer en meer als eene revolutionaire beweging.  

Hij pleitte voor verdraagzaamheid binnen de ongedeelde kerk door de controversen in leer en ceremonien achter te stelen bij de humanitas christiana, een eenvoudige, bijbelse vroomheid en hoge moraal

Erasmus had een sterk individualistisch karakter.  Moeilijkheden ontweek hij zoveel mogelijk, waardoor hij soms nietgeheel vrij bleef van de schijn van oprechtheid.  ZIjn zuivere levenswandel en wetenschappelijke waarheidszin staan echter buiten twijfel.  Door zijn filologische arbeid heeft hij ook voor de reformatiee, hoewel hij zich van haar afkeerde, grote betekenis gehad, wat de studie van het Nieuwe Testament en van de kerkvaders betreft.  Hij trachtte humanisme en christendom tot een synthese te brengen en heeft deze zienswijze uit gewerkt voor de opvoeding, het onderwijs en de staatkunde.  Reeds in zijn eigen tijd was zijn invloed aanzielijk op spiritualistisch gezinden in vele kerken en stromingen.  Die invloed heeft zich voortgezet in het arminianisme van de 17de, in de Aufklarung van de 18de en in het vrijzinnig protestantisme van de 19de eeuw en is tot in onze dagen onmiskenbaar.

was true huh? whatever, you don't know me and you are VERY IMMATURE. At least Lio Convoy can act like a mature adult, UNLIKE you. You are a petty like boy and I'm going to see to it that you have to take down what you wrote about me. Ever heard of slander? Think you can afford a lawsuit? We shall see. - e-mail received this morning

So, she's fucked in the head...and she's an idiot. Public schools ought to instate some sort of semester-long Tort law required curriculum, to be taught during middle school. Anyone ever have anyone tell them in middle school that they were going to be sued for slander? Middle school? I think a majority of people stop doing that after middle school, but, nonetheless, people ought to be instructed on what you can and can't sue people for.

One of the things you couldn't sue som...wait, gah, I've been overcome by the stupidity of this woman, I don't think I can go on.

Okay, here, how's this. Not only do I mean all of the stuff I said in that deleted post, but now I mean it WITH THREE TIMES AS MUCH SEVERITY! I'm really in trouble, now, if I couldn't afford a lawsuit before, how am I going to be able to afford a super-super-amazing-lawsuit now? Woe is me.

This is the first time Insult's actually deserved its name in a long time, eh?

Stone

So, summer's begun - I'm having a great time so far. Excellent change of pace from school and all that.

I've just recently moved into a new house, happened during the spring semester, and it's been a real step up from the old one I was in. Nice neighborhood, nice look, I like it. Changes my entire mood, living in a house I like.

Got a job at the deli in a local food market today. I used to work there, a few years ago, back in high school, so it feels strangely reductive to be taking a job there now. I've taken the job so I can finance other work-activities in my life, so I'm fine with it, in a sense.

So I don't forget to mention this: Lio, Toole Street (right near my house), a GMC Blazer, wheels in good condition, might be good, I dunno. Worth checking out, though, at least, in your price range.

Poor insult, dying off every summer. I probably won't post again until the fall.

Stone

Well, here's a pic of Lio's graduation at PSU! Don't he look happy?

So I started on my Womens Studies paper tonight. I didn't want to do it, but it was just one of those things that started to write itself, like an insult post. So, I decided to post it. It's about gender biases in our educational system. Enjoy.

When I was a child, I would attend elementary school daily. Everyday Id sit there, and be puzzled. Why werent there any teachers like me? Was it not ok for boys to be teachers? Where were the male teachers in early elementary school?

Growing up in this highly politically correct time I am part of a powerful but much resented demographic. I am a Caucasian male, the only social group its still ok to poke fun at, dislike, or hate just because. Due to this fact, I do not recognize hidden curriculums or micro inequalities as affecting me. Im not saying they dont exist. However, if they do, I wouldnt notice them, because they all, supposedly, benefit me. I never participated in (or even cared about) school sports, so I never experienced the differences in financial backing. I dont remember teachers saying You cant do that because you are a girl to any of the girls in the class. All in all, I can remember no instances of schools subjecting anyone to the horrors of oppression or pushing morally questionable agendas.

I do have one memory of how my upbringing in school affected my gender identity though, and that is the lack of male teachers in younger grades. You see, its a horrible travesty, and quite illegal, to look at a job and say Its not ok for a woman to do this job. But when we see a male teacher teaching kindergarten, people turn there nose up. A man working with children so young? Many people would find that idea preposterous, questioning the mans intentions. Automatically many would believe the man to be some kind of pedophile. That still happens to this day. But, since this discrimination happens to males its a-ok in everybodys opinion.

When I was a boy of about 5 or 6, I thought that teaching was a girls job, and that men went out and did business or were doctors and lawyers. I knew there were girls that did boy jobs but careers were clearly delineated. I didnt realize that this really affected me in any particular way, but I would have liked to see some male role models early in my education. Not that Im complaining about my male role models, my father was an educated man, a lawyer, with enough knowledge of pop culture to not make him boring. However, not every child is as fortunate to have such a good role model. What about children who dont have a father, or one that mistreats them? I think that if I did have any male teachers it would have given a wider range to base my opinions of how a male should act. It would have been nice to see some people more like me teaching.

If things were this delineated when I was growing up, I can only imagine what they must have been like for my father. At least by the time I was in 4th grade I was starting to see male teachers. Ill bet back in the 50s, when my father was growing up I cant imagine that there would be many male teachers at all. This was also before the time of the Civil Rights movement. Im sure he was subjected to all kinds of stereotypes of what women should be, and what men should be. Even though I may have had things delineated for me as far as gender roles, Im sure they were set in stone for him.

I do not know how education will affect children being born now. We are starting to see more men teaching in the younger grades. Still not nearly as equal as it should be, but change takes time. It is my fear, however, that in later grades, when I truly became comfortable with my gender identity, that young men of tomorrow will be faced with an environment of fear and mistrust. Why would such a thing happen? Ever since the shootings at Columbine, schools have been ferocious in security measures. I think that it will some day get so bad that schools will use gender based profiling to weed out dangerous and aggressive young men. This will only lead boys into feeling that they are feared and untrustworthy, which will instill either low self-confidence or great anger. High school is a difficult time for young men. They do get aggressive, they do get angry. Its a difficult time in their lives, so much is changing, and those feelings are perfectly normal. These policies would make them feel like they are being punished and stigmatized for growing up.

Now that I think about it, the educational system is quite gender biased. But I believe that it goes both ways. Women are not given a fair shake; that much is not in dispute. But, men are not untouched by gender biases either.

Dude, you're nuts. Running the class I'm in right now and all. I highly agree with the experiment, but I don't know about the other thing. This basic Dell keyboard they've got here in MO 8 sucks royal cock. Later.

Hoooo boy, Do I have the worst case of senioritis or what? I have no motivation to do anything... I even dropped out of my D&D games, I'm so lazy. I don't want to go to class... I don't want to do anything. It's like I'm so close to the end. I just want nothing more than to leave. Not to mention that thanks to the gay Diversity Credits I have to take make it so that 3 out of my 5 classes are horse shit that I'm never gonna use.

I've been working a lot though... Unfortunately since we're on a two week schedule I don't get paid until next friday at the earliest. Ah well, at least I'll have some dough to spend when I'm at home. I've also been working on loosing some weight recently, I' gained about 40 lbs. back by the end of break. I've lost 20 in the last two weeks. My goal is to be down to 200 lbs. by graduation. Some seem to think this would be too thin for me(I'm told I start to look sickly at 236), but I'd like to be thin at some point.

In other news of the weird, I found out that my freshman year roommate, who I thought had left Penn State is now back at Skook, rooming with my sopomore year roommate... odd stuff. Oh well, Oz is on... I must go.

AH yes....the wonderful class of Computer Science 101, Introduction to Computers. And no, its not, Hello Mr. Computer, what is your name? Its the grueling process of getting up in the morning to attend a class that could very easily be taught over the internet...but then, I suppose the people who would take this class seriously don't know what an internet is, or where you ever begin shopping for one. "Can you get those at Wal-Mart?" I heard one woman asking her fat and old counterpart, "Cause they have EVERYTHING at that store. Maybe I'll check the sunday paper again for some coupons, maybe they have a cheap one on sale I can use."

So it's that time of year again, the constant battle between work, school and sleep. Who will win? Sleep, of course. That's sort of a stupid question.

I'm taking this English poetry course, which I thought would be the one to make me want to take my own life aroud mid-terms. But, I think I'm going to be wrong. The professor is awesome...he reminds me of Lio before the Great Thinning. He's really tall and has a stomach on him, but he also wears these gigantic rings. He came into class yesterday morning wearing a flannel shirt, untucked, sweat pants and a pair of Airwalks. He also acts like Lio too...like maybe he's his long lost uncle or something. He makes inappropriate jokes, then grins the same way Lio does...its goddam uncanny, but nevertheless comforting, in a weird way. Also, on an interesting sidenote, part of the required 'reading' is Monty Python's The Meaning of life, as well as Monty Python and The Search for the Holy Grail. Thanks, Professor Lio.

Ok, so I'm sitting in my Religious Studies class the other day, and in walks this girl. My eyes bulge... My jaw drops to the floor... I look like a cartoon. As it turns out this girl looks EXACTLY like the Kim, the ex-girlfriend formerly known as DemonQueen. If you told me these two women were sisters (possibly twins) I would have no problem believing you. So, in a typical Pavlovian response, I start drooling... then I start trying to formulate my strategy of approach. End of class comes... I stair down at her bag for some reason... posted all over it are buttons... Rainbows, pink triangles.... I think you get the picture... This girl don't dig on sausage. HEHEH... man....

I fucking hate my writing professor. I had a conference with him at 9:30 this morning. On a normal Tuesday, I don't have to be on campus until 1:00. It was aggrivating enough that I had to get up so much earlier and go to campus just for a stupid meeting that can absolutely be done over the phone or through email. Whatever, he's an old fuck, so I went to the stupid meeting -- clear across campus. The bus was 13 minutes late. They run every 15 minutes. It's fucking useless beyond belief for the bus to be 13 minutes late. Whatever, I still made it with time to spare. I get up to his office and the old fuck is out sick. I made a trip to campus for nothing. I could have been in bed still nice and asleep. He fucking has an email list, is it so much to ask to email people so they don't waste their time? Just a little email to say "Hi, I'm an old fuck and sick AGAIN. I'm not going to be there, so don't waste your time coming to campus just to see my ugly face." He could give the list to one of the math department secretaries and ask her to write an email. Something, anything, so I don't waste my time. But no, he's an inconsiderate old bastard. When I'm going to miss the meeting, I have the decency to call him and it isn't even an inconvenience to him if I don't show. He'd have been sitting in his office anyhow. I wasted an hour of my time going back and forth to his fucking office for NOTHING! Old fucking bastard. I hate everyone, especially Fogarty. Bah!

1212 out.

Man, school sucks. Last week, I had 2 exams, this week I had 2 exams and a presentation. Next week, THREE papers, one of which has to interview a business man about his experiences... that would be great if I could get him on the phone, I've been trying to call him all week but the mother fucker's never around... I only get his answering machine. I hate projects that rely on someone else to get done. FUCK... and on top of all this wonderfulness, I decide to take a night off for the first time in weeks, to go see Shallow Hal, and Red calls up yelling at me because she thinks I'm ditching her. I HATE EVERYTHING!

So I had two exams last week. I don't know if I wrote about that or just meant to write about it. I don't know if anyone reads my posts anyway, so no one knows and I can't remember. Oh well. Anyway, I got them back yesterday. I got an A on my number theory, but it wasn't as good an A as I had hoped so I was disappointed. It was an A though, so I shouldn't be of course. Then I got an AB (A- or B+) on my abstract algebra exam. I thought I did better. I hate classes where you think you know what you're doing and you really believe it's right and then it isn't. Like usually I get things wrong on exams because I either make a stupid mistake that I immediately understand what I did wrong when I get the exam back, or I just don't know something and I leave it blank or mostly blank. This was not the case. I actually thought I did really well, answered all the graded questions completely and I thought I really knew what I was talking about. Then as we're going over it, I realized I didn't know it nearly as well as I thought. Who knew that an automorphism has to map the identity to the identity? I guess it makes sense. Oh well, an AB isn't bad and I think it was above the class average which is always nice.

I have an exam on Thursday. I'm going to go in and bend over so I can get fucking right up the ass. I've read all of what we've covered and I've been doing the homework mostly on time. I've gone to every lecture and I'm still confused. It's so frustrating. I don't know when the last time I read all of a text book was and this semester I've read all of each one of them (by all I mean up to the point we're at). I noticed that it helps. But in geometry it doesn't help enough.

I have a big problem with my prerequisites. This class is way heavy into linear algebra. I passed linear algebra with a B (that I hardly deserved). All we did was row-reduction. That was fine with me because I've never needed lienar algebra. Then I get to geometry and I'm fucking lost. I can follow the book and the notes right up to the linear algebra. Then I get lost trying to find eigenvalues and eigenvectors so I can translate axes and blah blah blah. It's, again, quite frustrating.

The pregresitration guide for the spring was put up yesterday and being the dork that I am, looking at it was one of the first things I did when I got up. I also looked at my degree audit. There's a little thing that says how many credits I have to finish and it says 65. I have 3 semesters left and I'm no math major here by 65/3 is 21.67. That's two 22 credit semesters and a 21 credit one. What the fuck? And that's just gen eds and classes to finish my major. I also have STEP requirements that aren't even on there. I'm going to be here fucking forever. Then I realized that that number doesn't include the credits I'm doing right now and the ones that I have an incomplete in (from this summer). That brings it down to 50. And that's like 3 17 credit semesters. Then I also found out that I'll be done with my major and gen eds in less than 50 credits, actually only 30 or 33, so The other 20 can be used for STEP so I will get out of here at the end of next year as planned. Thank God. It was so stressful and disappointing to think I'd be here for another year.

I have 6 gen ends left to take, 18 credits. That's an entire semester of gen eds left to do. Bah. Anyone take any good gen eds? I need everything but a PS, a BS, and R1 and R2 of course. I need history, literature, arts, interdiciplinary, and diversity. BAH. I don't want to be a well rounded person!

I want to learn Spanish.

I don't think proper is a bad thing, but for our age, I don't think it's necessarily a good thing either. I don't know too many guys that are proper, but if I had to pick any, it would probably be Pappy. Take it to mean something close to old. Then it's an insult.

1212 Out.

Hey folks... What up?

Well, Just talked to the parents... and I will be coming home for thanksgiving. The parents are coming to get me. One thing is, on the way up, my mom doesn't want to come here alone. I would appreciate it greatly if one of you could make the trip to state college with her. It'd probably be on the the monday before thanksgiving and involves no driving for you guys, just a long 6 hour trip that leaves connecticut at 2AM monday morning. Anybody want to take me up on this?

Well folks... thanks to my dirty fucking cock of a marketing professor, I cannot come home for Halloween. It seems that he has scheduled an exam for the very day I would have to skip classes in order to go home. Fucker. This of course means that our Halloween party is off... man, I hate this fucking school.

I just have to remember that every exam I take moves me one step closer to getting out of this shit hole and back home. I ask that everyone's thoughts and prayers be with me since I really need to do well on this exam. I got a 45 on the last one.

I've never been close to anyone that's died yet, it's a shame about Aedan, though, dying relatively young. He was a very nice guy, doesn't really make a difference, but he was very nice. No real personal connection, though. 250 people, 2 known deaths in what, 4 years? That's not that bad, is it?

School is good - my new roommate is kind of a jackass. I think I've told many of you all the currently accumulated stories. Big collection of stuff. He's wealthy (parent-bought new BMW 528i), but seems to think he isn't. He's wealthy and has shitty taste. He's somehow from Miami, NY, and Los Angeles, all at the same time. Um, he loves to 'party', but doesn't seem to be very good at it. He has particular days for each of his muscle groups, so, he'll talk to friends and say things like "time to blow out my lats today" and like, make his friends compliment his back muscles (he's not ripped at all as far as I can see, just has that weird "tanned guy who goes to gym" look). He looks like he's short, even if he actually isn't. He uses the word "dummy" (yes) directly to friends a lot ("hey, you dummy, get over here"). Actually, he's just a general asshole to his friends.

I've been reading PG Wodehouse...the most inane subjects, but it's pleasant and funny. The books are collections of short stories about this happy, rich, stupid guy and his butler. It's a good change from the stuff I usually inflict upon myself.

Someone in a room about two doors away is playing "Music" again, that shit song by Eric Sermon. So, it's Sermon from EPMD, the hook is taken from Martin Gaye outtakes, and I think the beat is from a Martin Gaye song. EPMD and Martin Gaye, and somehow the song is still complete shit. The bass just radiates through...I've heard it tens of times this week.

Stone