Reprieve

Update to previous post is that my sabbatical is not yet coming to a screeching halt. Deal fell through. Not going to go into the boring details because they really don't matter in the long run. There are a million myriad reasons and factors that go into any decision about anything. Whether you are consciously aware of or able to influence or even know all those factors is irrelevant. They are there. You influence and control what is within your sphere of impact, past that, there's not a damn thing you can do.

Now I'm in the midst of taking the GRE course I signed up for last year. My first class left me equal parts terrified (I couldn't even remember 2πr!) and confident that it's ¼ what you know and ¾ knowing how to beat the test. Which pisses me off in that there's this monopolistic company with its sycophantic colleges and test preparation companies colluding to create a test that doesn't in any meaningful way predict whether you will be a good graduate student or not. But as I told one of the other class members, I'm giving myself a few days to be pissed off at that before getting over it in time for the next class.

In other ramblings:

• For all those people ranting about honey bee money and the like in the stimulus package and other things that keep you up at night, please note these things are not in the actual stimulus bill, they are what the states are going to use the stimulus money for. Be mad at your governors and state legislators and get your facts straight.
  
• Rush Limbaugh has been and always will be a big fat idiot. Right now he's the natural leader of the Republican Party even if that does mean I have to see his fat face on magazine covers.
  
• There is such a thing as being too true to the original. After watching The Watchmen (which I did enjoy) I have a new appreciation for the Oscar category Best Adapted Screenplay. This screenplay (no offense to original author Alan Moore) could have used a bit more adaptation.
  
• And speaking of comics, no female superhero should wear her hair that long while suited up. It's only a weapon to be used against you. I don't care about the high heels, those can be used as weapons, but all that hair flying around and no one's grabbing it to pull her off balance?
  
• I'm actually looking forward to my math class on Wednesday. I'd like to remember what I actually used to be kind of good at before four years of craptastic math teachers drummed the understanding out of me. My last good math teacher was in my junior year of high school.
  
• I have forgotten how much I really like F. Scott Fitzgerald. Because of the movie, his Jazz Age short stories are back in vogue (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories) and highly enjoyable. Didn't see the movie, but might depending on how I like the short story.
  

Fingers crossed on a new job lead I found Friday. This time I won't jinx it until it's signed, sealed, delivered and I actually start!