Calculus III- this class is winding down, however there is only one actual day left, and he still has a bit to lecture on. Not only that, the professor also is planning a quiz on the last day. That’s right, you heard me, the last day. How bad is that? This course is getting poor reviews from me, rest assured. In fact, I think that all of my classes this semester will be getting bad reviews. This has been an unnecessarily bad semester, due to disorganized professors.
Modern Optics I & II- the final lecture was today, and tomorrow will be a quick review of what to expect on the final. This is probably the hardest course I have taken to date. This is good, but this professor also has a home work assignment due on the day of the final. Classes are over mind you, and we still have home work. B.S. I say! B.S.! but there is nothing to be done about that now. Just complain later. Other complaints fall on deaf ears.
Lab for PS & E II- done. That’s the last of it. Just a quiet exit.
Now for other things. The term “burned out” fails to describe my current state of being. I am in great need of a break. And thank you to From Russia with Love and my parents who in recent days have had to put up with my ornery attitude and lack of energy, and also show me never ending support no matter how grumpy and tired and brain fried I may be. After finals my attitude will improve (hopefully, unless it dwindles more under the thought of a new semester a couple of weeks over the horizon) and we can all enjoy the holidays. Right after finals I am going on a company trip to San Francisco where I will meet up with my Aunt L. and also get pampered Ritz-Carlton style (I say style, because those hotels are nothing but and this entire trip is comped!). From Russia with Love will not be able to join me unfortunately be cause it is technically a “work trip” and she is no longer employed there. I will have enough fun for the both of us Hon, I promise!
Movies:
I went to No Country for Old Men. This movie was fantastic to say the least. And for every one that is going to see this movie and has not yet, the following may contain spoilers. Fist off, one of the fundamental things about westerns is the lawlessness and the gun slinging “wild wild west” type of setting they are all in is an essential part of this movie. I need to state the obvious because of the creative genius that this movie takes with it. In western movies the hero, usually a sheriff or marshal or some sort of law man, is fighting the people who are the “lawless” and “wild” terrorizing the innocent, but at the same time when he brings order he is also bringing about the end of his “era” to say. Moreover he is creating his own obsolescence, driving this “era” into the modern and civilized where his type of justice is no longer needed, instead you have courts and trials and not shootouts for example. All of this is important in understanding Tommy Lee Jones’ character. The movie sort of starts of on that kind of a note with the narrator, a friendlier and better time having past. Tommy Lee Jones’ character is a sheriff in 1980 Texas on the trail of a man who stumbled across a large amount of money in the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad in the desert, and also the killer after him trying to reclaim the money, and all sorts of moral ambiguity follow. The flexibility of morals, or just the definition of what is right and wrong, are in stark contrast to Jones’ character. His past time of good and bad being in black and white are gone, and the man he is trying to protect (Moss) is motivated only by greed, or is it a finders keepers type of idea he has? Or is it wrong to steal from bad people? Either way, he is a sort of protagonist in the story that we are rooting for (sort of), even though having essentially stolen the money from dangerous people and therefore his morality is also blurred (or is it? when and from who, is stealing acceptable?) . The killer also inhabits his own morality and code of ethics, which makes sense only to him in his crazy mind, and you finally have a comparison between “crazy” and “normal” ethics, and the blurred lines in between. The sheriff (Jones) is the only one with a traditional sense of good and bad, and is merely an observer of the events that unfold, and how he finally realizes that he is now “obsolete”. There is also the power struggle of the “hunter” and the “hunted” that goes on interchangeably with all of the characters in the film, and you are wondering the whole time who will come out on top? And to me, the final realization is that you are now wondering (in Jones’ character’s shoes): with people being as bad as they are, does it matter?That will do it for me tonight folks. I must now retreat to books and study for my quiz tomorrow. The last day of class. Ugh.
T
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