We don't want freedom; we don't want justice.

The final yesterday went relaively smoothly, with the notable exception of a student asking me for an incomplete after he took the final. I mean, I mean, these students, man. They'll kiss every conceivable body part, they're willing to degrade and debase themselves, totally give up their dignity, self-respect, etc. It appears the only thing they're unwilling to do is go to office hours or study. I tell ya', kids these days.

After the final, I graded a few and then decided to treat myself to a novel at the local bookstore to tide me over until school starts, and I have to get back to being productive. So I went to the Bookstar, but nothing jumped out at me. I had no direction whatsoever. At various points, I had in my hand:
Ender's Game
Neuromancer
Bleak House
Hard Times
Brave New World
If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a 'B' Movie Actor
Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way

I eventually decided on Deliverance by James Dickey, which is quite interesting, but a little wordy for my tastes. I like novelists to give me the straight dope, rather than dancing around the issue by shoving in a lot of atmosphere, and all that. After I bought the novel, I headed off to karaoke night at the bowling alley with Math Rock and a few of the Turtle's neighbors. It was fun. MR did splendid renditions of "Just What I Needed" and "Sweet Caroline", and I brought the house down with "Proud Mary" and "Purple Rain". I had "Killer Queen" queued up, but we left before it came back around. Man, that place is crowded on Saturday nights. Oh, and by the way, does anyone else notice the huge variability in the quality of karaoke backing tracks? My track for "Proud Mary" was a total embarassment! I didn't even have the intro part where Tina Turner talks over the music: "We're gonna do it nice...and rough..." The horn parts, if you can call them that, were early MIDI at best, and the backing vocals were all female, without the characteristic Ike Turner bass. Also, the lyrics were screwed up. Rather than "pumped a lot of 'tane down in New Orleans" (you know, like "octane", i.e., gas), it said "pumped a lot of pane down in New Orleans." What the hell does that mean?

I'm grading now, which is going ok. I had a scare: I couldn't find a student's final, which would have been an unmitigated disaster, but it turns out it was just misplaced. Whew. Big wheel keep on turnin'.