Burke, Basketball, Billiards, and Bowling

Today was especially eventful.  First of all, I have decided that today’s lecture about Edmund Burke, the Irish conservative, was one of my favorite lectures we have had so far.  What made it interesting was not simply his philosophy of conservation in a very liberal France after the Revolution, but his similarities and contrasts to other philosophers we have learned about over the course of the three weeks.  His restrictive government similar to St. Augustine, his criticism against John Locke’s idea of Natural Laws and protective government, disagreements with Marie-Olympe de Gouges over the ideals of enlightenment, and critique of liberalism in general, which had only been done by the feminists of the time.  To be honest, I hadn’t read the syllabus and was expecting to be learning about Karl Marx today, but instead this was more of a pleasant surprise.  Tomorrow we will engage the philosophy of Marx.  Throughout this course one thing about me has been changed for sure: the definition of a lecture will never again be associated as boring to me.

During the discussion section we further made comparisons from Burke to all the other philosophers, something that I feel will be especially handy for the Final Exam on Friday.  We shared our ideas regarding the topic as usual before diving into a passage analysis exercise.  We broke for lunch at Trillium before returning to McGraw Hall for the writing workshop. 

In the writing workshop we learned about tips for writing clearly and concisely.  Later we exchanged the second draft of our Plato essays with a partner, mine was Sam, to perform a peer revision exercise.  After the writing workshop we met Mr. Chan-Law and the Hotelies for a group meeting, going over the checkout process on the last day, something that was actually really depressing. 

The afternoon was spent playing sports and relaxing.  First, we met with some of Frank and Eric’s friends from the Hotel School, who are all exchange students from China!  We played basketball with them in the Helen Newman Recreation Center, which was fun and very tiring.  Afterwards I went back to Risley to shower before dinner.

During dinner we watched the MLB All-Star Homerun Derby.  Unfortunately, it has been many years now since a player from the Oakland A’s has been represented in the Homerun Derby, however this year closer Ryan Cook will represent the team in the All-Star Game tomorrow in Kansas City.  After dinner we joined Hannon, from Albany, for pool.  We have all experienced improvement at the billiards table over the three weeks; playing pool with the buddies is one of the things that I am really going to miss.  However, Hannon’s high school is two blocks away from ours and Frank and Eric are about 15 minutes away, so organizing a pool game may be possible after all, it just won’t be the same. 

After pool we received a kind invitation to go bowling with Morgan and Alyssa.  We gladly accepted the offer and headed back to Helen Newman Hall, where they have an underground bowling alley.  I would have loved to have pictures for you all, but unfortunately I had forgot my camera in my room.  We bowled until about half past nine before heading back to Donlon Hall.  I spent some of the evening there before remembering that we had a floor meeting.  Again, the topic of the meeting was in regards to check out unfortunately. Asher and Riley, our Room Community Advisors, have been so nice to us over the three weeks.  I have gotten to know them each a little and always enjoy seeing them around campus; I always forget that they are students too.  Riley is actually only a year older than I am (he skipped a grade), but I always feel that he is at least three years older.  They both have just completed their freshman year at Cornell. 

I spent the rest of the night reading and blogging, preparing for Marx for tomorrow.  Ganeev, from Cincinnati, came to give me a visit, something the two of us have been doing as of recent, just to keep each other company.  He is in Body, Mind, & Health, and has a lot of work as well.  I cannot believe that this is really the last Monday in Ithaca!  Time has flown by so fast!  I soon called it a night after reflecting on an eventful day.