Persopolis and stuff.

I've been meaning to write for quite a while now, but you all know what February's like. Just this long stretch of time between the one-day holiday lump (most of which aren't celebrated here at Pomona) and the providence of Spring Break. Midterms come thundering in much too quickly, skies get cloudy, and the dining hall starts serving the same thing every week. Glorious February. It's all good though.

First off, everything's really starting to come together in Environmental Ethics. We've stopped going so deep into individual theories of preservation and are now moving into comparing them in their arguments and weaknesses, which I like much, MUCH better. When I see all of the different ideas laid out against each other, I can start to piece together the bigger arguments and notice possibilities in them. This interconnectivity and variance of ideas is what made last semester's philosophy so interesting, and I'm glad we're moving in that direction now. But this is my problem too. I have to find the middle ground between being sufficiently specialized to get a job and staying general enough to not hate said job. Still, I trust things will turn out alright. I'm not too worried.

Spanish is rolling along as it always does. It is nice to be able to understand more and figure out how to translate, and the Spanish language lunches at Oldenbourg's dining room are actually pretty interesting. It really makes you think about what you say when you can only say so much, and thinking of roundabout ways to say something is fun in a challenging way, like a puzzle. Or like Taboo.

We're just wrapping up Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates in History of Ethics. I have a big paper about Aristotle's virtuous ideals due soon, and I'll have to brush up a bit before then. His major idea lies in moderation, modified by the situation. For example, temperance is a virtue, but it lies in the middle of overindulgence and insensitivity (for lack of a better word. Prudishness, maybe?) To be balanced and virtuous, he says that one needs to know both how and when to enjoy oneself as well as one's limits both in respect to oneself and others. So, cutting yourself off from all pleasure completely can be just as dangerous as overindulging. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, then he throws a random wrench in at the end of the story by asserting that the capacity for theoretical contemplation is the greatest virtue of all. In other words, being able to think philosophically and converse with others is best.
Yeah, it's good to have, but really, better than having courage? Temperance? Kindness? Wisdom? I dunno about that...

In sociology we're getting into theories of self, like how how one's own perceptions and surroundings affects his or her 'self' both personally and to others. In other words: how we try to fit in (or not), where and with whom, and how this changes us. Generally, everyone has several 'selves' depending on the situation, like work self, home self, husband/wife self, friend self, stranger self, etc., which we develop throughout our lives and draw upon whenever the situation calls for it. This really calls into question what one's 'real' self is, the one that we differentiate all the others from. Self-perceptions are often those that are furthest from the truth, and acting the same around every single person we meet or know is impossible. Oh, wait, not quite. Jesus seemed to do it pretty well, as far as I can see.

But yeah, now about the title of this blog. I just saw Persepolis for the first time at the college theater, and I really enjoyed it. I was going to go alone but some friends told me they were going to see it too, so we all went together and had a great time. I though about writing a quick plot for whoever hasn't seen it, but there was no way to really summarize it. The life of a native-born Iranian woman during Iran's turbulent 80's and 90's? That doesn't say much, but it's the closest I'm going to get without giving away too many details. It's animated, but not cartoonish by a long shot, and mostly in black and white. The version I saw was in French with subtitles, but the subtitle work was excellent. I don't know if there are any dubbed versions. In any case, go see it. It's excellent.

Speaking of animated, I've been drawing a lot lately too. Mostly it's just cartoon characters from pictures and stills, or abstract stuff. I'd be proud to say I've never traced if it wasn't so painfully obvious looking at some of them. But hey, I'm just beginning. It's a good way to relax a bit between classes, and it's satisfying to look at the good drawings I've done, few as they are. Heh! Maybe it's just from not having anything to write about, but it's still fun. Here's one of my best.
Just for reference his name is Invader Zim, from the show of the same name.

Here's the model first, and then my drawing.



















© Jhonen Vasquez

He's thinking, "Why is my head so big?!"

Whoa! A post written some time before 12:00 AM! That's almost a minority these days. =)
Talk to you all later.