...best birthday ever

I. Just moments after turning 24, I found myself in near elation. Before describing the cause, let me explain the surrounding issues. By conservative accounts, I've had something hanging over my head for about 2 years now. It started happily in the September of 2004. After two years it changed residence and focus. After two more, it lost focus altogether. Most recently, it threatened me. And the question was raised: will I have a happy ending or a sad one?

Alright, alright. The epiphany: I'm going to graduate. For the last couple weeks I thought I'd completely fucked myself. However, a few calculations have demonstrated that I almost can't fail! I'm going to fucking graduate. It's been a long time coming and it's finally here. Well, that's an exageration on both accounts. I still could fail - if I don't stay on my shit - and it isn't quite here - in fact, my last exam is just under a month away. But at the very least, my graduation is looking very good at the moment. The best it's looked in about two years now.

II. On a similar note, I met a TM the other day. I'm not sure what school, but I know she's doing her Master's in English. We were drinking with a mutual friend, so conversation was nice and light. I decided to raise the question of late marks. She said that there were no late marks and that late assignments resulted in a zero. I questioned her position. She couldn't get past the fact that they were late. I posited that a better paper deserves a better mark than a worse paper no matter the circumstances, and even reasoned for her on practical terms. She still couldn't get past the fact that they were late and that late papers result in a zero. We bantered for a while - that is, I tried to develop her position for her because she was incapable of doing so herself - before we agreed to disagree - that is, I walked away thinking she's an ignorant cow missing half her brain and incapable of using the other half.

I walked away from that discussion with two conclusions. First, she's an ignorant cow that doesn't deserve her master's. Second, regardless of absolutely everything, that ignorant cow holds all the power in her situation. We need to save education. MIT took the first step. Maybe we'll take the second soon.

III. Happy birthday to me. I've been 24 for one hour and fifty-nine minutes as of thirty seconds ago. What do I want from the following year? Well, I may write a ...goals for 25 post sometime in the coming days, but for now I'll give you some stream-of-conciousness.

• graduate
• quit smoking and start exercising
• begin cooking again and eat healthier
• greatly improve my guitar abilities and repetoire
• get OAC off the ground
• reduce my fears of people and the unknown
• go on some adventures and
• write a book

That's all for now.

Good night and good riddance.