Returned Thought

Yesterday, I had my Comparative Literature class led by a couple of Chinese grad students as our prof is gone this week. We just so happen to be studying Chinese literature at the time, and yesterday was our chance to go over Li Pai and the Tang dynasty. During their introductory portion the two grad students introduced the Tang dynasty as not only the greatest period of Chinese literary history but also the greatest single literary period in the world.
So is this the truth, or are the Chinese simply taught this from an early age in their country's schools? This is interesting as shit to me. I am apt to go with the latter, but not because I think that any Eurocentric period is any better than the Tang dynasty. I think this simply because I doubt that anyone can claim that any one period is the greatest of all time. Call me wishy-washy or noncommittal, but I just don't think it is so.
Let me know.

Lately I have been having some trouble getting most of my reading done. Not that I am overworked or any such thing (although I am busy, and I like to whine about it), but I am busy with a couple of other books.
Some might remember my slight obsession with Wendell Berry last year...and it's back. I picked up a couple of his books the other day. A collection of his agrarian essays, The Art of the Commonplace, and a collection of his Sabbath poems (you know, written on the Sabbath) that spans from '79 to '97, A Timbered Choir. I haven't gotten into the essays yet, although I have read a few of them before in a different collection. But the books of poems is making me feel all happy overall but sad for the end of the growing season.
I also picked up a farming book by Gene Logsdon, All Flesh Is Grass. This is basically the how-to and why-you-should book of pasture farming. Oodles of useful information and an indictment of our current agricultural system. None of it is too new to me, but it gives more facts to back up the ideas than I previously had, and it has an ungodly amount of logic too.

Okay, back to the schoolwork. Actually, I am going to read some more about sheep farming.

Peace.

Good Times and Great Oldies?

That title makes no sense.

I am supposed to be studying for an English Syntax test, but I haven't even managed to read any of the chapters yet? And I would like to go to bed. The first few chapters were all things that I already knew from a previous grammar course and a language study course, but I wasn't even doing well on the assignments that I didn't know how to do previously. And I am required to get a B in this class, which most people have trouble just passing. Am I just a moron? Probably.

Went up to Lake City for practice today. That is my new place to hang out at on Monday and Wednesday evenings. It's a grand ol' time.

I had something else to say. Damn, I really should write these out when I have the ideas. I'll come back tomorrow and finish this up.

Peace.

Contrary to Popular Belief...

Fighters and other trained athletes don't always need to lift weights. I haven't lifted weights since some time last spring. Apparently I got bigger just from working all summer though. Throwing grown men around at practice probably helped some too. Now that I am back at school, I might need to take it up again. But I will only do squats, cleans, deadlifts, and a couple of explosive lifts.
Hehe, like anyone who reads this cares about weightlifting. Good times.

I picked up two CDs for under $20 yesterday. I felt that shopping was a productive use of my free evening that I happened to come upon. Anyway, I got the Plain White T's cd (not bad, poppy, but not bad), and I stumbled across a best of Jimi Hendrix disc. Normally, I wouldn't purchase such things, but this beast had twenty songs for $10. It has been fabulous to me. I've listened to it 3 times straight through so far.
The rest of my evening was spent collecting llama manure, so that I can make the most fabulous compost around. After dropping that off at the grandparents Clark and feeding my lambs, I was off to Whitewater. My late evening time was wisely wasted up on Inspiration Point reading Midnight's Children and generally being chill. You would have enjoyed it, and you know it.

Fisher is quite the bass player, and Nate isn't too shabby with his guitaring.

Peace.

Respectful Holidays

Umm....I managed to find a receptive audience for a 9-11 joke today. We were supposed to be taking a reading quiz, but I asked if I could just be like everyone else these days and give answer as "9-11" whenever a tough question was asked.
It went over well....in a class of five total people. Maybe I'll not pull it out at hick parties. I hate fighting 300 pound Bobs.

Peace.

Sept. 2, 2006 vs. Chuck Parmalee

(I don't know if anyone who still reads this page cares about my fighting, but I wrote this for a different site, so I might at well post it here.)

I fought last weekend in Sioux Falls for Chris Christianson's Cage Inc. promotion. This was my first fight with this particular promotion, and this was a fight that they had been trying to set up for some time.

Parmalee was 13-2 coming into this fight. We expected him to try and strike fight with me or to attempt to go for an armbar if the fight went to the ground. But he was apparently not fully aware of my wrestling experience, so he seemed to go against the striking in favor of taking me down and going for the submission.

I sprawled and caused him some damage with knees and hammer fists. When I did go to the ground, I was able to sit back and avoid his attempts to control me or work the armbar.
From there, I just worked on my gnp and eventually got side control. After a large number of elbows and punches, he decided that he had had enough. I had thought that the fight would get stopped earlier, but I think the ref was letting ti go because he was a local guy and it was close to the end of the round.
It officially ended with six seconds left in the round. Apparently, I can punch hard enough to hurt people and make them want to stop fighting but not enough to knock them out.

Hopefully, they will invite me back for another fight with this promotion.

Peace.

R.I.P. Steve Irwin

Of course this is one of the few celebrities that would deserve a remembrance on this rarely updated blog (wow, I am full of myself for thinking I decide what anyone deserves).

Anyway, I definitely have a fondness for the man despite his being a show that I didn't regularly watch. My fondness is based purely in his love of animals and his conservation work. And the fact that he appeared to have a real zest for life, even if it did manifest itself in his mind-altering voice.

Peace and Love.