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.