Fencing and Butler

2002-11-12 / 11:09 p.m.

As of today, "The College" (as it is affectionately called by Brian) is one step closer to having a fencing club/team. I was informally nominated by the coach to get the ball rolling, and to find out what it would take to get a club started up. I am so excited about the prospect. I've never not hated a sport before, much less liked one enough to be on a team. So, yeah, I'm psyched...but still, I'm trying not to get too amped because there's still some doubt in my mind as to if it will be able to get off the ground. I'm going to do everyhting I can, but schools are so stingy with funding...who knows.

Being on any sort of sports team would be like poetic justice for me. I never got to do this stuff as a kid...first because my family was didn't have the money and we lived too far outside of any major towns. I desprately wanted to ice skate, I was also a fan of soccer, and --believe it or not--running. ::gasp:: so anyway, we moved a few times, and accumulated a little more money...but by then, everyone else my age was already into things, and it was hard to be a beginner in anything. Plus, I was kinda' fat and way out of shape...so that woudldn't have worked. So that's my sob story...oh so sad, eh? But now, instead of expensive therapyI can just get this fencing team rolling. That's the ticket.

In other news, I played with Googlefight.com for about 7 minutes at work today....and the verdict is in. "Cheese" kicks "crackers" ass

Postmodern political theory continues to be one of the most unique thing I've ever tried to learn. It often leaves me with a sense of confusion, depression, or a dropped jaw. Today, we discuss Judith Butler...in the best nutshell I can construct, Butler says that gender is totally socially constructed, and that the grouping of people into one of two classifications is inadequate. There's no real "gender", and furthermore, the idea should be separate from the biological classification of "sex" (biology is bunk anyway, it's too socially influenced, but that's another can of worms). If we could get beyond this mindset, we might discover that there are 5, 10, 20, whatever number of different genders. But, and here lies the fatal catch, because we're in this society full of socially constructed gender roles, we can't ever change it, so we should deal with it by having our own personal gender revolutions, and express our dissatisfaction through "artful parody" of tradicional gender...ie: as I told my friend Will tonight, he should paint his nails in an act of artful parody. Obviously, this isn't all of Butler...but isn't that pretty different than anything else you've ever learned? No, I don't agree with Butler for god's sake--her disregard for science goes too far for sure. Because we only had to spend 20 minutes on it, I thought it was interesting--anymore, and I might have gotten a little bit discontent, more than a half hour of that would be a little much...

Okay guys, I put up a counter, and a message board today. Please, use the board. My last board was pathetic. PATHETIC! As for the counter, it's a little sad too...just because my old counter was just a few weeks from hitting 5,000, and I was looking forward to celebrating that.

But that's all. I'm going to study for my Donne/Spencer quiz tomorrow, and finish reading the newest issue of The Onion, as it looks pretty promising this week. Love, me.