RNC Days 2 and 3 Tomorrow
No time to write about them tonight. Need sleep. Goodnight.
RNC Day 1: Slowly We Start
The Republican National Convention day one was somewhat disappointing to me. It just seemed to start and move very slowly and in a disorderly fashion. The Democratic Convention 2004's first day was a lot more organized. Day one was saved by John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, part of the RNC's “showcase of moderates,” but two people should not have to carry the whole program to the extent that they did.
John McCain is a likable guy and it was good to see him getting the spotlight for awhile. His speech came across as sincere and, unlike many more partisan politicians, McCain can pull off a call for bipartisan unity without seeming like a hypocrite (I'd add that being politically partisan and being firm on your values aren't the same thing). I particularly liked his comment,I don't doubt the sincerity of my Democratic friends. And they should not doubt ours.His speech was eloquent and well thought out. The most noticeable part, I'd suggest, though, was not really his speech per se, but the booing directed to Michael Moore (who is present at the RNC) when McCain quipped:
It was between war and a graver threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents.It took a long time after that comment for the crowd to calm down, and for good reason. Michael Moore is a fruitcake. And I do mean that with all the due respect I can possibly afford him. I'd love to see how Moore spins that in his RNC “coverage” in USAToday (fair and balanced, I'm sure).
And certainly not a disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves… (Emphasis mine)
Rudy offered a good speech as well. Much of it had similar content, only with a bit more humor and less eloquence. His speech, like McCain's is worth listening to at GOPConvention.com if you haven't already heard it. On the other hand, be warned that it is a lengthy speech — a bit too long in my opinion. Overall, however, it was good and again supported the idea of unity while respectfully disagreeing. He emphasized the need for the war on terrorism as well, just like McCain did. Of course, all of this was done with the New Yorkian attitude and style that makes Giuliani who he is.
Overall, I'd say the Dems outdid the pachyderms on the first night in style, but not content. Tomorrow, I shall aim to provide some remarks on RNC Day 2, including the Governator's speech.
Answering with Class
Well, Christopher beat me to the punch — I was planning to post about my schedule this fall, but he asked before I posted.
To answer the first question Christopher posed, I am taking the classes at Lindenwood. I doubt most of you have heard of it, but it is located in the middle of St. Charles, Missouri. It started its “life” as the first all girls college west of the Mississippi in the 1820's but went co-ed several decades ago and has expanded with multiple campuses, graduate programs and accelerated courses.
Now, about what I am taking this semester (in chronological order of the times I take them):
Brit Lit I: This class works its way from the middle ages to somewhere after the Renaissance. We've started out with some works of the Old English/Anglo-Saxon period. This includes poems such as the Reed, the Wanderer and the Wife's Lament. We also examined the finest case of Anglo-Saxon epic poetry, Beowulf (using the translation from Seamus Heaney). Next, we will be moving on to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. I've never been able to get that excited about Chaucer, but I am hoping maybe this professor will be able to sell me on Jeffrey. This is one of two required classes of Brit Lit for the English major.
Philosophy of Religion: What could be better than spending a semester analytically studying the philosophy of Religion? I can't think of much. Anything that includes Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, and the like is bound to be interesting. Best of all, this class features the professor who gets my vote for the best professor around, bar none — Dr. Alan Meyers. This class fulfills one of the needed 300 level classes of the Religion major.
Modern Poetry: This class seems to have promise. We'll spend the semester studying the great poets of the twentieth century, with some detours into the great poets of the last few hundred years as well. It is lead by another excellent professor, Dr. George Hickenlooper.
World Lit II: This isn't exactly one of the courses I'd hand pick, but its required, so that's that. Unlike other World Lit II sections, this one is going to focus a lot on eastern cultures and — since the professor has a degree in religion and philosophy — also focus on the religious aspects of the works. The literature is suppose to be from the Renaissance and onward. Some of the western works included are Hamlet and one of my personal favorites, Voltaire's Candide.
Renaissance Literature of England: If the name doesn't explain what this course is about, I'm not sure what I can say that will. Like Brit Lit and World Lit II, it will have some Shakespeare along with other greats of the Renaissance period in Britain. The professor is Dr. Ann Canale, who is an English professor, but does a lot of courses on mythology and legends of different cultures.
Classy Business
This was a busy, busy week. It takes a few weeks to arrange work so that I can accomplish it effectively while also taking a full-time load of classes (for those tuning into asisaid since last May: why am I taking classes?). Fortunately, my clients did not have too many problems this week, so that made everything a bit easier than it would have been otherwise.
The good is that the courses all look interesting. The bad news was that this week was one of the warmest of the summer and not all of the classrooms have a/c (chalk that up to nearly one hundred year old buildings). Going from an air conditioned room into one that is “enjoying” a 110 degree (F) heat index isn't much fun (that's 43 degrees celsius for my non-American friends). The actual temperature was hovering around 95 degrees for several days, but that was compounded by ninety something percent humidity each day. Yes, that's the weather Missouri is infamous for — and for good reason!
Today, I am sore. My uncle, who lived with my grandmother for most of his life has bought a condo now that my grandmother is in a nursing home, and I spent the day at the condo helping clean things up and with various other tasks needed to get the place ready for him to move in. He just closed on the place yesterday. It's a nice place — it was a display home when the complex was first built, so it has a lot of neat options that normally wouldn't be on a home in his price range.
Hopefully he can move in next weekend — I know he's looking forward to having “his own place.”
Another Busy Day
Sorry to be so scarce lately. I'm hoping to have time to respond to comments and post a meaningful blog entry tomorrow. We'll see if that happens… tomorrow.
QOTW #14: Olympics
Have you been watching the Olympics? Do you think it has been a good one? What is your favorite part?
The Olympics have been pretty good so far, I think. I'm always sad to see the gymnastics portion of it end — that's probably my favorite part of the Summer Games. I'm much more of a Winter Games person, myself, I guess. I'd comment more, but I really should call it a night. Maybe tomorrow…
Question For You, The Reader
I have a question for you, the readers of asisaid. Starting last week, I restarted ChristianSource's Bible Study. We are going through the book of Hosea at the moment. The way it works is that I post a link to that week's Bible reading (one chapter) and a few questions which I cannot promise will be particularly profound or anything like that. It also comes with the encouragement for participants to add their own questions to the discussion
Ok, so here is the question: would anyone not presently interested in being on CS be interested in participating? If so, let me know, and maybe I'll start posting the study here too.
I'm Back
I went down to Branson (although I never went into the main part of town except on the way home) for the better part of three days, arriving home late last night. It was a good — albeit short — respite from everyday commotion. I'll have to post some more about that later, right now I'm catching up on e-mail and everything else that happened while I was gone.
