Pointless Man

Jesus said something to the effect that he spoke in parables so those with ears for such stories might hear him and those without would confounded. Jesus was a clever sod, and nobody ever accused him of being humble, but he was fairly straightforward in this answer. He spoke in interesting stories and metaphors to bar people from following him when they might otherwise do so. In light of Christian doctrine, I suppose this is a bit cruel, especially when Jesus goes on about how bad it will be come judgment for those who saw him and didn't convert, but it could also be argued to be just--and I suppose this would be a defense of some nimble minded Christians. Anyway, this all occurred to me earlier this evening when talking with my dad about not getting through to people on deep subjects, especially in writing. I'm not going to place myself up there with Jesus or Nietzsche in terms of dialectical strength or right to weep at misinterpretation (the poor bastards). Not at all. I...

Done with Japanese for now, and glad of it.

My Japanese class is now in its eighth week, so there's tomorrow, and then two more weeks after that. Today, I've got an essay to write, this weekend I'll be studying for a test on Monday, and then the week after that I'll have a 4 minute presentation and another test covering three chapters. But no final. So. Soon. Soon, I will be free. Yes, free to look for a job, which I desperately want. I went to pains to keep next quarter's classes to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This should give me more than enough flexibility to be able to study and work part time. If this quarter is any indication, being this busy will keep me reeling onward somehow, which I guess is actually how I weaved my way through much of middle school and high school, so, hey. Sounds like a plan. There's an old Japanese expression for extemporaneous writing which basically translates to following the pen. If I can be about as passive as all that without feeling too removed from the situation...

While ranting about the Japanese writing system, I noted that the language and its modes of conveyance had been used to keep class and sex structures in place. Today, while studying for one of my kanji quizzes, I noticed that the character for samatage or 'obstacle' is a single kanji containing the pictograms (radicals) for 'woman' and something along the lines of 'strong' or 'arm'. This cannot be said dryly enough: What a surprise.