Clint Eastwood

So, I just finished re-watching 'The Man With No Name' Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) and I have to say, I can't think of a better three movies. I defy anyone to name a better trilogy. Clint Eastwood is so badass in these three films. Although, the most badass is Lee van Cleef in the second film, but overall Clint is so bad it is unbelievable. If you haven't seen these three movies you are missing out. My ex, who was completely into those weird, overlong foreign films actually liked The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (a three hour film about violence in the Old West). I will say that Sergio Leone may be my favorite director of all based on these films. Long, slow, cinematic takes; extreme close-ups; beautiful camera-work; amazing scores. If someone can tell me a trilogy more amazing I will be impressed. (note: original Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Alien, need not apply. While I love those films, these are just above and beyond)

Dreams are weird

So, last night I dreamed that I was being stalked by Bill and Melinda Gates. It was in my neighborhood, right near my apartment and I had to flee to the safety of my apartment because they were coming after me. I wonder what this means.

School

So, things are kind of changing. I am now a paid TA for an intro to philosophy class. I will be showing up to talk to the professor and sit in on the class today to see what it is like. It's exciting that I am moving in this direction so quickly. 

The negative is that I am sick and tired from visiting Marla this last weekend. Labor day is supposed to be restful, but mine consisted of driving 340 miles round trip and hiking 12 miles into the wilderness in the Stanislaus national forest. All the hiking and stress and everything seems to have taken my immune system down a notch because I'm a little bit sick. Which makes me even lazier and I feel less like I want to work. Also, I am now single.

Kant

Yeah, so Kant is back on the bookshelf. I've failed to read the Critique yet again. Oh well. It's kind of hard to do this that no one is bothering reading it. It's like the crazy person that talks to themselves sort of. Only I think their conversations might be more lucid and entertaining than anything I put here.

Oh, just heard a great cd. Spin Magazine presents Purplish Rain. In honor of the 25th anniversary of Purple Rain coming out they got 9 different artists to each do a cover of one of the songs. I think the top three are Mariachi El Bronx's cover of I Would Die 4 U, The Twilight Singers' cover of When Doves Cry and Of Montreal's cover of Computer Blue. But really the whole album is pretty awesome.

Speaking of Mariachi El Bronx, their new album is coming out next Tuesday and from what I've heard it sounds pretty amazing. If you like mariachi music.

San Francisco

So, I am now in San Francisco. I have no job, no home, no friends. It's kind of a weird, lonely feeling. I have no idea what to do with myself other than look for apartments.

Kant

So, I feel like I should inform anyone who reads this crap that I shall be reading Kant's Critique of Pure Reason starting today for some light summer reading. If anyone else is interested let me know and maybe we can start a book club or something silly like that. I hope to finish it before August when I move to San Francisco. Also, if there is anyone I know who reads this crap and would like to hang out before then let me know.

So, I just got back from a quick trip down to Northern California with Marla. For those who don't know, she is doing an Americorp program in the back-country of California helping to maintain trails, so I dropped her off earlier this morning in Auburn, California and then drove pretty much straight back to Seattle, with a quick stop in Portland to say hi to some friends. 

The important (to my future) thing is that we went down and spent a few days in San Francisco where I checked out San Francisco State University and had meetings with professors and grad students. After talking with several people I have decided to accept SFSU and will be studying for an MA in Philosophy for the next two years starting in August. It's weird making that big of a decision. Now I have to figure out what to take with me, what to sell and what to send to my parents house; what to do about housing; and what the hell I want to do with my life and why is it a good idea to be taking out more loans to possibly go into a profession where I might not get a job and even if I do, I probably wont be making any real money for several years after.

Oh well, these are the things we do right? So, on a side note, to any of the very few who read this blog, I will be in Seattle through July 31st, so if you want to hang out, we should.

I've also decided that this blog will feature music, books, other things I am into. Right now I have a couple of things to mention. I have been listening to the new Metallica CD Death Magnetic, and it is amazing. It might just be their best work yet. Better than Kill 'em All, better than S&M, maybe even better than Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets. It easily makes one forget about the musical abortion that was St. Anger. If you are into Metallica and haven't heard Death Magnetic yet, go get you some.

Also, the newest volume of Christian Scholar's review has some good stuff in it. Dr. Patrick McDonald of SPU has a jointly written article titled In Defense of Methodological Naturalism that is a must read and clearly espouses some important information about the necessity of Christians accepting the scientific framework of methodological naturalism. For those that don't know methodological naturalism is the view that science should only concern itself with things which can be researched from a naturalistic standpoint. It makes no comments about what actually composes the world, i.e. supernatural forces in addition to natural phenomena, it only states that when coming up with a scientific theory one should leave out recourse to supernatural phenomena as they are not accessible via the scientific method. There is also a very good book review that asks the question of whether or not a Christian should be a scientific realist. 

I will leave off from these things now and say I hope someone is actually reading this once in a while.

Pars Prima

Ok, so here is my first blog post. I figured I would start one now and hopefully detail my life and my grad school experience. The important information about this is that so far I have been accepted to San Francisco State University, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Texas Tech. So far I am pretty well set on going to San Fran. I don't really know what else to say right now, but hopefully this will get somewhat more interesting.