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Today is Pungenday, day 51 in the season of The Aftermath, 3167.

It is mid-50s and sunny here, and I have yet to have to dig out my coat from the closet this year. I might not mind a litle bit of snow, but not when it was in the mid-70s two days ago. It makes realizing it's almost Christmas kind of weird, but not weird enough that I feel compelled to go someplace colder. =)

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I wish that I had more of a problem believing this.

Be prepared to weep as you read Non Campus Mentis: World History According to College Students, a horrifically hilarious compendium of actual North American college student essays. Learn about the victims of the Black Death (who "grew boobs on their necks"), the Automaton Empire, Martin Luther King's famous "If I Had a Hammer" speech, the Iran Hostess Crisis, Zorroastrologism (the "duelist" religion "founded by Zorro"), and Joan of Ark, Noah's wife, at rest on Mt. Arafat. Meet Dim El Sum of Korea, the Vestigal Virgins, "dedicated to burning the internal flame," and Hitler, who "shot himself in the bonker." Did you know a position as "lady-in-mating helped a young girl's chances for a marriage," and "the assignation of Archduke Ferdman gave sweet relief to mounting tensions," or that "the major cause of the Civil War is when slavery spread its ugly testicles across the West"?

Chris and I were just talking last night about learning history, and how it is much more interesting when it's not just rote memorization of dates but instead looking at why things happened rather than just when. It came up in discussion of how some things are easier for me to learn than others; for example languages and history came pretty easy for me, but math above algebra and chemistry were a lot of work for what I thought was very little reward. I did well in Bio I & II (although I'd be happier without dissection), geology was fun, and I managed to never actually take physics so I can't say that all science was difficult for me to learn. I suspect that physics would've been in general a real PITA for me. Higher math, however, was a real chore. Chris is the opposite, he enjoys math and engineering and physics and the like, while not being terribly engaged by liberal arts-type stuff. It was an interesting discussion on learning styles and how we seem to pick up entirely different things more easily than the other.