Oh wow! What a great lecturer today in SLE! Unfortunately, he no longer teaches SLE but is instead a guidance counselor at a private High School in San Francisco. But what an awesome storyteller. Mommy, that's what I want to be when�I grow up! Currently, my mind is absolutely cluttered. Definitely has not been defragmented and probably won't be for awhile. I can never express things or write things for that matter, in a sequential manner. I don't seem to eat meals in appropriate order either. Given an entree, a dessert, and an appetizer, I may very well eat the entree first, then the dessert, then the appetizer.

I also write things starting in the middle. Let me back up.

Once upon a time, in a far away land....

I woke up. And I finished reading Rousseau's Social Contract. That is a most exciting event! I have been intrigued with the Social Contract ever since my 10th grade AP European History teacher Mr. Welch introduced the idea. It made all the difference. I was not in his class because someone forced me too. I CHOSE to sit there for 90 minutes everyday to absorb stories about the Magna Carta, King Henry VIII's six wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived), the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the European Union. I CHOSE to attend High School, although I could have, and once seriously considered, dropped out.

What's more, the Social Contract is much more than I ever thought. It addresses many issues that Aristotle's Politics brings up. Amazing! Utterly amazing! And Rousseau presents it with such humility. He also interjects some humor, intentional or not.

Unfortunately, Kant's Prolegomena to All Future Metaphysics is much harder to comprehend. And it was written to make his Critique of Pure Reason more accessible! Thank goodness for SparkNotes!

And, I got to Economics EARLY! I believe about half the class shows up late. That is very unfortunate - Gavin Wright is a very nice professor and somewhat entertaining. However, he admits that he is not up there with Johnson yet in terms of entertainment level.

Then, a very nice transition to Mandarin class during Lunch. I attended a talk�entitled How Economic Policy Restructuring Has Affected Urban Workers in China. It was ok. The lecturer was a 1996 Stanford graduate (PhD I think) who is now an Associate Prof at the University of Michigan. Highlights were the Jasmine Tea and the Marie Calendar cookies

Chinese class - very fun! I wish I could spend more time on it but other classes demand attention.

Then an expose of my hidden life during dinner. Although it might have been disappointing since I didn't have any ultra-sketchy story to tell.