Doomsday Post.

A scene from class last Monday: Senior Seminar for Environmental Studies Concentration

[scene: class of ten senior concentrators and about eight prospective students – why they chose to attend a three hour class for seniors is beyond me – discussing the week’s readings on philosophy and spirituality in relation to environmental ethics. It is about one hour into the discussion.]

Professor: …so I have been having this debate with my wife for a little while now, maybe I’ll share it with the class. I have this thought that when I grow old and senial, I should be taken to a place with a large population of carnivores and left there.
Seniors: [silence]
Prospective Frosh: [mild terror]
Senior #1: Like in a coliseum?
Senior #2: Umm. Wouldn’t that hurt?
Prof: Ya…but, it’s too late for me to go down swinging in battle, and it’s probably the next most heroic way to go down. I would rather feed a pack of wolves than a bunch of microbes. At least this way I’d go through a couple more levels of the food chain.
Senior #2: But you can still feel pain!
Prof: [shrugs]
Prospective Frosh: [thinking about Amherst].

Incidentally, this was the same class that gave me the headache a couple posts ago. The dialogue above was one of the few parts of the discussion that I actually understood…if only because I sort of agree with my prof. Although, I’d rather not be fed alive to wild animals…I’m more of a shallow-grave-in-the-woods (post-death) type of person.

That was morbid. Sorry.

My “Kill Bill” DVD came today. While I lack the time to actually watch it, I did watch the first scene (which I had missed when I saw it originally), which contained a vital piece of information. Let’s see how long I can hold off of watching the whole thing…

Did you notice that since Schwarzenegger (or however you spell his name) became the governor of California we had fire, ice storms, mudslides, floods, and now this? Someone is pissed…or trying to keep me out of Cali…or at least Los Angeles.

Overall, this post was a downer. But here’s something I just found that is somewhat uplifting…I know Jamie will appreciate it since he’s critical of the illegal (although environment preserving!) nature of mp3s, and so addicted to music. Incidentally, I also found out that in order to be a “carbon-neutral” citizen, I just need to plant 30 trees! I have racked up nine so far…although seven of those were TreePeople trees where I had other people helping me so I guess all of those should just count as two trees. Still…I’m on my way. [Points green thumb] Are you? [/end lecture].