May there be dancing in the street and the playing of tubas or other more Nordic instruments, for after an epic struggle spanning 2 months I have finished reading Søren Kierkegaard's legendary and awesomely boring beast, Either/Or. I feel I should give a review, or at least drop a turd to signify the completion of my digestive process. Thus, sort of in the style of the original:

The book is prolix. Horribly prolix. And prolix. Quite wordy too. Also lacking in terseness, conciseness and concision. Despite its prolixity, it contains some interesting ideas. And many wholly superfluous words, paragraphs, chapters, and other grammatical units. Though somewhat repetitious and badly-paragraphed, it offers an interesting critique of the sort of aesthetic life that was so popular with Goethe's characters and various other reprobates. Rather than living for the instant in pursuit of sensation and encountering history only in the melancholic remembrance of a reflection on first love, Kierkegaard (or possibly the Judge, one of the faux-authors of a part of the book, for none of it may be Kierkegaard's opinion, and it is carefully pretended that the various manuscripts which make up Either/Or were found in random locations like chests, desks, trunks, the backs of taxicabs, and on eBay, and written by at least 4 different people), or, as I said, somebody suggests that we should continually repent and embrace God, build our lives out of a series of decisions (particularly of the "either/or" type), get a job (since we should strive towards the universal, which means doing what everyone else does), do our duty (which is "our duty", and thus essentially particular to us, and therefore cannot be generally theorised about), and get married and subjugate women whilst claiming that in a sense we are subjugated to them (notwithstanding a fierce antipathy to the emancipation of womankind). Possibly The Big K didn't mean all of this. Possibly he was more interested in the bit that suggested we should rejoice in the fact that we are always wrong in the face of God, because when we are wrong and confronted by someone we don't like who's shouting "I'm right! You're wrong!" we are unhappy; but when we quarrel over a friend's action, we always hope we are mistaken about the friend's action and we would be happy to be proven wrong; and a fortiori when with God we will pretty well have to assume God is right and we are wrong, which is good, because it means we love God. Although I'm willing to argue the position that Kierkegaard believed (a) all of the above (b) none of the above (c) that all of the above are valid positions and you should simply choose one and follow it through (d) something about graves, shadows, and Mozart. In conclusion, owing to the large number of words even in the lightly-abridged Penguin Classics version [...] it is fair to say that an Either/Or For Beginners with lots of strip cartoons would be both aesthetically and ethically better, and arguably religiously better too. Although personally I don't rule out embracing a mysticism that is totally at odds with the ethical philosophy of the Judge and the aesthetic philosophy that is described in far too much detail by A and Johannes (assuming they're not the same people) in the oh so very very prolix and not unwordy early part of the book. But aside from all the words, it's really very interesting. Definitely one for the shipwrecked among us.

Damn, that paragraph was far too short.

On my first week of Grove City. Now, Everyone (ok a handful of people) has been asking me, “Nocte! HOW HAS YOUR FIRST WEEK OF REAL tm COLLEGE BEEN?!?1?11!?!” Well you know what? You’re in luck. That is what this ENTIRE DAYLOG is about! WHOO.

College. First off, the dorms. I live in Mary Ethel Pew this semester, not to be confused with the MUCH bigger Mary Anderson Pew. MEP as it is lovingly referred to as, is a L shaped three floor dorm that holds about 125 girls, it was built in the mid 80’s and is one of the newer dorms on campus. I live in a double with one other girl. And right across from my room is the laundry room and bathroom! I live near the mailboxes too, which is kind of nice, though I haven’t gotten any mail yet. The bathroom is pretty nice, I share three showers with the hall, which has about roughly 22 girls. Not crowded at all. Seriously. Though, it’s odd. The school supplies us with ½ ply toilet paper, and no soap or paper towels. This isn’t a huge deal, everyone just keeps washcloths in their bathroom tote (which stay in the bathroom), and dries their hands off on that. Works well. Lastly, there is the issue of “boys in the dorm”, I’ll start off by saying simply, there aren’t any. None of them live within 1000 feet of here! Hehe. It’s pretty nice. Most of the boys dorms are on the other side of campus. So, how do you see your boyfriend? Well, I don’t have one *giggles*. But seriously, boys are allowed in the girls dorms on Friday night between 7pm and 12:45am, and Saturday and Sunday between 1pm and 5pm. Likewise girls are allowed in boys dorms from 7pm to 12:45am on Saturdays.

Food and water. Always important. First off, the water here is really nasty. It tastes fine if it is cold, but when you aren’t paying attention, it switches to swamp water. As for the food, it isn’t so bad. The dining halls are in MAP and Harker (a boy’s dorm on the other side of the campus), but you can eat in either. The hours are a little screwy. Like Lunch is over at 1:45 on weekdays, but on weekends MAP isn’t open, and lunch ends at 1pm at Harker. I didn’t know that, so I’m going without until they reopen at 4:30. UGH! And then dinner is over at 6:45. WHO EATS THAT EARLY? Seriously! Old people! THAT’S WHO! *growl* So did I mention that the water here is nasty? And tastes like what you’d expect Lake Erie water to taste like based on the name. But seriously, Grove City water is much much worse. But I hear you get use to it. Mmm.

Ahh yes, Studying. My classes seem to be very nice. It’s cool that I am out by 1pm everyday, and have my afternoons free for studying, and working out. The two things I don’t like are: a) my 8am geology class. It’s … for lack of a better work, stimulating. b) that I cannot have lunch till after 1pm on MWF because of my back to back classes. Other than those two complaints, everything is honky dory.

The perks! Yes yes, you knew this part was coming. Why Grove City. I’ll tell you why. First off, the ratio is 50/50 that’s right boys. Equal opportunity. There are one thousand one hundred and fifty girls out there, go get ‘em! The work out room. There is a fitness center open everyday, where you can do all sorts of things, lift weights, use machines, treadmill, there is also a floating track. There are open hours for the pool, and the racquet ball courts… and A BOWLING ALLEY. Oooo. Laptops. On coming to the school, they give you a lap top. That’s right. And it is yours to keep on graduating full time from the school. =) Small town feel. Who am I kidding, it isn’t small town feel, it is a small town. Heh. The snow. Ahh yes, snow. The white stuff that falls from heaven. And no I didn’t move into the snow belt on purpose. Mandatory Chapel. 16 a semester, really not so bad. I’m getting them done now, before my work load increases. And finally; most importantly, the AWESOME SCHOOL THAT IT REALLY IS! With a 43% acceptance rate against me, it was a challenge to get in, but you know what they say, the bigger the giant the harder they fall (I got on my hands and knees and begged until they let me in). No one can keep The Irrepressible Nocte out when she sets her mind to something!

Well, and it’s only two hours from mommy, good home cooked meals, and free laundry.

There you have it. That’s all. …. What? You want more? *sighs*




Fine. Yes, I have made friends, no, I’m not lonely. I think my roommate will be gone almost every weekend. But I’ve met some really really awesome people, and I think it will be nice to finally settle into a routine.


That’s it! You aren’t getting anymore till you send me a post card. Address is on my homenode. =)

I've been a part of Everything 2 now for, according to the server, roughly 1.1 years.

I'm hardly a prolific noder. My node count sits, after those 1.1 years, at nineteen writeups. Twenty, after this one. Sixteen, if you don't count daylogs. Roughly 1.5 nodes per month.

It was only a few hours ago before I could say that I felt like even a part of the E2 community, much less an important one.

No, no, I'm not here to complain. These trials are behind us now. I just wanted to offer a few thanks.

Thank you, Crowjane for introducing me to E2. I'll never, ever forgive you, but I'll never forget the few good things either. This was one of them.

Thank you, ac_hyper for letting me know that occasionally my words are more than just heard, that sometimes they actually matter.

Thank you, Dreamvirus, for getting my lame humor. :)

But mostly, I would like to thank dem_bones. He and I have conversed several times, and I have to say that there are not many individuals who have gained my respect and trust as quickly as he has. He may very well be the reason that I'm still typing "www.everything2.com" in my address bar whenever I get the chance.

Thanks, dem_bones, for taking the time to let me know that Everything 2 really is a community, and that I am, at least in some small way, a part of it.

Because for a second, I really honestly didn't believe it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some noding to do...

My Cyndi Lauper tickets arrived today. I cannot wait for this concert.

At age 8, this was my first album and my first concert the following year. Although feeling a little old, I'm stoked to be able to share this with my daughter. It will be her first.

I'm thankful to have an 8 1/2 year old girl who doesn't give a rat's ass about Britney Spears or N'Sync. She doesn't feel the need for a boyfriend and doesn't care about wearing the latest fashions. She's such a little individual.

I cannot wait to share this with her. She is truly so unusual.

About a week ago, my God-mother asked me to help her with a children's party that she was having. She owns a business called KraftyKids, where she does kid's parties. So, I said that I would help her, and she told me that she would pick me up on the 23rd.

I spent the night at her house. I helped her finish making the rest of the crafts for the kids to do, until it was time to go to bed. I had to sleep with her 4 year old son, who pissed on me while he was asleep. I was very upset because he didn't have to sleep with me and she knew that he wets the bed.

When we got up the next morning, we had a few errands to run. We went to some craft stores to try and find white buttons. On the way we almost side swiped about 8 cars, being that she can't drive at all. However, we made it home safely. We finished decorating for the party and soon all of the kids came.

Now, the theme for the party was Wild Winter Wonderland, so she thought of the great idea to take shredded paper and put it on the floor of her garage, where she had to party, as snow. The kids started throwing it everywhere, and all over me. It stuck to my clothes and hair.

She told everyone that she ordered a pizza, but somehow it never came, even the Pizza Hut was right down the street. I think that she never ordered it at all.

The kids left, and I finally realised that it was a party for parents who can't control their kids.

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