| (no subject) |
[Apr. 28th, 2005|01:56 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  curses! | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Chopin -- "Minute" waltz | ] |
I detest maths. There is so little beauty in the stark finality of numbers. Where is poetry in long division? What is the good of being able to figure out the volume of the resultant figure if one revolved the line x=y around the x-axis? WHAT is the damn purpose of studying this if I can't understand one bloody bit of it?
In a fit of ire with my textbook for being incomprehensible, I tore out several offending pages. As you can imagine, this hardly helped matters, and now I cannot figure out how the amputated bits are to be arranged, especially since they may as well be written in Sanskrit for all the sense they make to me. Would that I had signed up for another year of Greek instead of this infernal calculus!
I am rather forcibly reminded of the incident with reading some of the works of those blasted Americans. I had to pay quite a hefty fine and serve a couple of detentions for seizing Madam Truffard's textbook and purging it of the diseased pages that contained Letters from an American Farmer. Upstart, no-good, insufferable colonists.
It did feel extremely good while I was ripping apart the text, I assure you, though the satisfaction began to be overtaken by consideration of the consequences after the twentieth page. Father will be most displeased if he finds out I've defaced another costly textbook. It's not as though we have a great deal of money to cover these books the first time around, let alone a second copy. I shall have to strive to put it back together. I don't have much to work with to repair it, simply sellotape (hmmm... dubious), determination (negligible) and patience (hah!). I have a long night ahead of me. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Apr. 26th, 2005|11:29 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  thoughtful | ] |
I must continually remind myself that education is of vital importance. If I do not educate myself, where can I go in the world? The most basic things would confound me; no person of note would wish to spend their time or breath speaking to me. I simply think of all the useful time I would be wasting staring in slack-jawed ignorance and wonder at some rudimentary concept or contraption and I find the fortitude to continue going to high school.
It is so ridiculous, you know, to spend your days getting 'educated' surrounded by such incomprehensible social mess. Oh, there are good men and women here, and those friends I have I cherish. Society is the spice of life, isn't it? (It may have been "variety," but I haven't got my Bartlett's at hand. And what does accuracy matter anyway?) Good society, that is, and I don't mean "good" in terms of breeding or wealth (Lord knows I have little enough of either those or hypocrisy to affect such airs) but of mind and character. So few here care to use the resources at their fingertips; if they have no desire to use the materials of education here to their advantage, or should they be so sadly simple-minded as to be incapable of utilizing them, then how can they fritter away the experiences at this most vital time to form a good character? I know I pass up plenty of opportunities myself, but I am always on the watch for improvement. Somewhere in this tangled mass of dithering profligates and utterly abominable 'teachers,' I search for some true worth. It is there; buried deeply, the diamond in the rough, in my friends and my books.
I believe that a more accurate and common quote is that "brevity is the soul of wit." Well, I never claimed to be witty. Probably someone out there also said "these kinds of pretentious ramblings will never get you anywhere, Samuel." I believe that was my father. He's a smart man, but sometimes I believe he may be insane. These ramblings are precisely what I need to purge the cancer of discontent from my spirit and return to my studies.
Your humble servant,
The RAMBLER |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
samuel_johnson's journal