Oxford 08: A Short Break
Yesterday, I was getting really frustrated. I was trying to read Aristotle's Physics and was getting nowhere because I was tired and having trouble concentrating. So Joannie said I ought to take a break and try and tackle the work the next day. I was loath to accept the advice at first, but another hour of relative unproductivity finally convinced me that I wasn't going to get anywhere in my then-current state.
So I went back to my flat and took a two-hour nap. I got up, made dinner, and then BJ and Nate came over and announced that they were going to see the new Wallace and Gromit picture (The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) at the cinema. That was an enjoyable and pleasant experience (though, for those looking for movie appraisals, I will say that I think Dreamworks definitely left its mark on W&G).
I then returned to my flat and watched episodes from the sixth season of the Simpsons on DVD, compliments of the good man, BJ.
I first came to appreciate the Simpsons when I saw the episode where Lisa Simpson poses as a college student. One night, she and her intellectual college friends go to the Cafe Kafka for a poetry reading; on the walls of the cafe are posters of cartoon cockroachs. One would only recognize the literary reference if he or she had ever read Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. The short story is about a man who wakes up one morning to find that he has been transformed into a cockroach. So, I realized, there was something of subtlelty and culture to be found in the Simpsons, apart from the more overt, blatant, and occasionally crude humor.
I now have another reason to appreciate the Simpsons: a little thing I call "a random reference to pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." I learned many, many years ago that this was the longest word in the English language (according to the Guinness Book of World Records and the Oxford English Dictionary). It is an obscure fact that I have retained up to the present. One would have no idea what Grandpa Simpson was saying if one were not acquainted with that word and that particular useless fact. Charming.
As an homage to Wallace and Gromit, I also ate crackers and Wensleydale cheese, which is a very good cheese, in fact. I drank tea and relaxed and it was an altogether thoroughly enjoyable evening.
It's good to take a break every now and then. I'll get cracking on that paper now.
So I went back to my flat and took a two-hour nap. I got up, made dinner, and then BJ and Nate came over and announced that they were going to see the new Wallace and Gromit picture (The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) at the cinema. That was an enjoyable and pleasant experience (though, for those looking for movie appraisals, I will say that I think Dreamworks definitely left its mark on W&G).
I then returned to my flat and watched episodes from the sixth season of the Simpsons on DVD, compliments of the good man, BJ.
I first came to appreciate the Simpsons when I saw the episode where Lisa Simpson poses as a college student. One night, she and her intellectual college friends go to the Cafe Kafka for a poetry reading; on the walls of the cafe are posters of cartoon cockroachs. One would only recognize the literary reference if he or she had ever read Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. The short story is about a man who wakes up one morning to find that he has been transformed into a cockroach. So, I realized, there was something of subtlelty and culture to be found in the Simpsons, apart from the more overt, blatant, and occasionally crude humor.
I now have another reason to appreciate the Simpsons: a little thing I call "a random reference to pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." I learned many, many years ago that this was the longest word in the English language (according to the Guinness Book of World Records and the Oxford English Dictionary). It is an obscure fact that I have retained up to the present. One would have no idea what Grandpa Simpson was saying if one were not acquainted with that word and that particular useless fact. Charming.
As an homage to Wallace and Gromit, I also ate crackers and Wensleydale cheese, which is a very good cheese, in fact. I drank tea and relaxed and it was an altogether thoroughly enjoyable evening.
It's good to take a break every now and then. I'll get cracking on that paper now.
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 1:17 AM
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