I finally stumbled into my advisor's office today in order to hold myself accountable for laziness. Evidently he thought I was still on vacation .. which I was, "from a certain point of view." [1]
I haven't spent any substantial amounts of time doing any mathematics and specifically, I can't remember the last full day I spent either at the office or at some table, reasoning and computing away. Then again, I find that summertime urges me to work in short but frequent blocks of time. An 8-hour day is impossible to implement with my (lack of) behavioral discipline.
But I digress.
Late last week I had set a few goals and they remain the same. Now I have a tentative timeline, that is: a means to measure how much time I have left to work before my next advisor meeting, which also induces a working barometer for my work ethic and how often I should "crack the whip," so to speak.
In greater brevity [2], now that I know how long I must toil, I can toil to my heart's content!
This viewpoint, of course, has strange philosophical tendencies: it could mean that, were I a Christian, my version of Hell would be partially Kafka-esque, and kin to the Trial in fact. It would involve some sort of uncertain perpetuity and torment ever unpredictable, and it would probably involve being swarmed by starving, sharp-toothed rats ..
.. but this little mania forms a tale for another blog and another day. Today I am content with my academic progress, and let's leave it at that!
[1] One of these days I have to reduce my nerdy habits. In particular, I should refrain from inserting Star Wars movie quotes to real-life conversations!
The specific quote comes from the beginning of Return of the Jedi. It is after Yoda dies and becomes one with the Force, and while Luke has a talk with Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi about Vader vs. Anakin Skywalker.
[2] That sounds suspiciously like an oxymoron to me: "greater brevity." Thoughts, anyone?
2 comments:
There are those who subscribe to the "fire without light, endless weeping and gnashing of teeth" version of hell and others who subscribe to the "private version" where for all eternity, one suffers through personally horrifying situations. In your case, it could be having to teach pre-calculus to freshmen at 7am every day, followed by a rigorous morning (sorry, pre-afternoon) routine of seminars and meetings..... and there's no coffee or caffeine source anywhere to be found! (bwah, ha ha)
in greater brevity, rats schmatz.
Zounds! You do have a point there, but from your scenario I envision more frustration than anguish.
Hell is suffering, and I envision suffering as causing more anguish than frustration, if only because:
1. Frustration implies that your circumstance is wrong and it can be made right; for example, I should be able to sleep through the morning if I want.
If Hell is indeed the will of the Christian God and you are in Hell, then there is no ideological room for that: you can't be "unjustly imprisoned" in Hell.
2. Anguish, on the other hand, is purely a response to suffering. It doesn't imply any philosophical assessment of your surroundings, other than there is something which causes you suffering.
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