I had a rough morning today. First, I didn't get in until 2 and didn't get to bed until 3. But of course, I didn't get to sleep until 4ish. Now, since it was Thursday, I had to get up at 8:30, so you can see why this would be a problem. The icing to the cake though was that my roommate put his alarm on snooze at least 10 times. So that kept me up for god knows how long. Needless to say, I slept in. I skipped my first class, Existentialism (my favorite class), but still attended my second class, Great Texts. I could have slept through Great Texts. Since it was such a rough morning, I ended up rolling into class just a bit late. But that didn't matter...AT ALL. We did not discuss the book I had failed to read. Instead, the entire class was devoted to explaining how women were different from men and how modernity makes everything sucky. Honestly.

Why is it that I hate that class at this point? Because my professor has the disturbing ability to ascend his soapbox every class. I wonder if it was less pronounced last semester, or if I just ignored it because I thought he was a very intelligent man. Either way, I can't wait for the end of this semester, and the end of my communication with him.

On another rantish point, I got into an argument/discussion with the other roommate over a groups means and goals. I hate when people say "They're getting you to talk about it, you're engaged in a dialogue on the subject, therefore they have achieved their goal." No, they haven't.

Case in point, I was discussing with my roommate why RANK (Raising Awareness in North Korea) decided to hold a worship service instead of something that would be actually effective (my thought). My roommate said that the worshipping and prayer would raise awareness, but I countered that they could do something that was actually effective, and did more than send up good vibes to God, like a money drive, volunteering to raise money, or something of that sort which would allow them toraise awareness and actually do something about it. My roommate then countered saying that they were trying to engage people in the idea of North Korea, which, by having this discussion, we were doing, therefore, they have achieved their goal.

No. What we were discussing was the methods they are using to engage their audience; an actual discussion of North Korea's human rights violations was never actually discussed. Therefore, their goal was not acomplished in us discussing them. Therefore, I submit that we can take this case and generalize it to a certain point and say that simply because a group has caused a discussion, it does not mean that the group has actually achieved its goals.