Tuesday, July 03, 2007

I'm playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure!

At work today, I wound up on the phone with a man stationed in Iraq, a site manager (whatever that may be). I never know what to say when hanging up with someone in that position. "Good luck" seems a little tacky, you know? So I just opt for my usual, just ignore this extra information altogether. They were about eight hours ahead of us. I think I ended up telling him to have a good evening twice. The hell am I supposed to say?



(How I often feel when having to deal with reality. We like Butters.)

I finished a book last week, Religious Literacy, the author of whom appeared not too long ago on The Daily Show. I thought, that's a book for me! Eh, not really. The first half was more about why our country is so ignorant about the history and essential backgrounds of the world's religions. It was vaguely interesting, it's just that I don't really care why. I mostly wanted the second half, which goes into the basic essentials of the major religions, things of which I know almost nothing, including Christianity. It was informative but I've already forgotten it all. Oh well. (It was in dictionary format, not too much in context usage, really...)

Then I attempted Paul Krugman's book The Great Unraveling, which made me feel like a moron. (Surprisingly, I found a clip of Mr. Krugman on The Colbert Report and he seemed very out of his element and not the least bit enjoying himself. Bizarre.)

I love Krugman's op-ed columns I've read in the New York Times, but he's first and foremost an economist. This book was full of his essays and columns, but well, this was a book for someone who knew at least something about economics. It was a little bit like reading a book written entirely in Japanese; I just didn't have a chance. At least with Japanese I wouldn't feel like I was supposed to understand. I gave it about a fourth of the way in before saying fuck it.

*sits on sofa with fried pickles and chooses to watch Sex and the City*

4 comments:

SkylersDad said...

Excellent examples of why I only read pop-up books. Sooo much easier...

Ellen Aim said...

I am so going to email Paul Krugman and suggest he do his next economics book in a pop-up theme. I'd buy it.

MacGuffin said...

Butters is my fav South Park character. Since you like heavy reading try The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Shaped Our World Views by Richard Tarnas. It reads rather briskly for the weighty subject matter. It covers the historic, complex interplay between the major religious, philosophical, and scientific theories and movements from antiquity to modern times in Western thought. It's been some years since I read it but I highly highly recommend it.

Ellen Aim said...

Butters is totally the best.

Thanks, I will look that up and give it a read, sounds like the sort of thing I've been looking for actually.

(But first I'm going to re-read the 6th HP cause I need a COOKIE dammit).