Wednesday

Had my first class yesterday.  "The Global Conversation."  It's essentially a pretty broad look at how capitalistic, consumer behavior (see USA) is fucking up EVERYTHING.  I wish I could go into it thinking "I'm going to take what these folks have to say with a grain of salt," but at this point, it's pretty difficult to not believe that there's a whole lot of truth to just how irresponsible we've been living.

I was supposed to have another class ("Irish Folklore and Heritage Studies") in the evening, but another student and I showed up, and no one was there.  Was it because we simply don't have class this week?  Was it rescheduled or moved to another room?  Is there any way I'm going to figure this out?  I have no clue.  Ireland is cool, but this university has some major organizational issues.

Didn't have class today, so I decided to walk around the city, get lost, have a couple of pints, and write some letters.  Whether or not these goals are to be considered lofty or lowly is beside the point; it was a total success.  There are a few very pretty sights in Derry, but primarily, it is a grey, dirty, and worn down town.  It's had the shit kicked out of it since damn near the beginning of time by everybody and itself, and you can feel it in the walls, breathe it in, and see it in the cigarette butts on the ground.  It's overwhelming and beautiful.

The new OCMS album came out yesterday, and I've been listening to it a lot.  I can understand complaints about it not being the same raucous OCMS of the past, but my personal opinion is that it's perhaps not a huge step forward, but rather a broadening of their skills.  It's a bit of a downer, but I'd like to look at it as maybe some kind of bittersweet epiphany of a hangover after the hard, HARD night of drinking that was OCMS and Big Iron World.  I'm curious as to what the rest of you folks think about this.