Then I got to the Maths Building and took notes for Analysis and Functional Programming. Fun.
Normally, Tuesdays are sprint days for me, but I have the very great blessing of not having Dr. Spivey this week. I only have seven tutorials with him this term, but there are eight weeks in the term, so this week is my week off from Functional Programming homework! Woohoo! Of course, there's always Analysis, Linear Algebra, and Probability homework.
I was coming back from the Computer Science Building when a woman asked me for money. For once, I happened to have some money on me, so I gave her a little. Then she begged me to go to a shop with her and buy her a sandwich or something. I was in a rush to get back to do homework, so I sort of shrugged her off.
Going back to college, I felt really guilty. And I wondered why I felt guilty. How was it different from the times I didn't give to other people in the streets who asked for money? The answer, of course, was that for once, I had actually stopped to talk to the woman, and it made her real. And because I knew that, for once, I didn't actually have anything to do at the moment and I had an opportunity to actually help someone. In light of a recent decision I made to help a friend, I remembered the verse in the Bible about how "whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." Well, those words were basically a departmental memo from my boss, so I followed through. I went out to a nearby cafe and bought the woman a panini and a blueberry muffin. By the time I got back to where she'd been a few minutes previously, though, she had left. I ate the food so it didn't go to waste. I'm not entirely sure what to make of the whole experience, but I'll see what I'll do going forward.
Oxford's just got so many homeless people. Apparently, there's always been a huge gap between the people who go to school here and the people who actually live here in terms of social and economic levels. It's said to be the third-poorest city of Britain. Which, actually, doesn't seem to come anywhere near to the levels described by Charles Dickens, but that was, in fairness, a hundred years ago. And I'm sure Oliver Twist would've gotten adopted if he'd lived nowadays. I mean, c'mon; the kid was pretty cute. He's got a wee hat. I just wish there was something we could do. A friend of mine told me about a project to help the homeless that she's participating in; I think I might come with her.
In other news, it's Guy Fawkes Night tonight. For those of you who don't know, there were some people who committed treason against the British Empire a century or two ago by trying to blow up the British Parliament with a load of gunpowder they stashed beneath the Parliament building (around where Big Ben and Westminster Bridge are, across the Thames from the London Eye). Every year, the British celebrate how the gunpowder plot was foiled. I thought there was an effigy involved, convinced even, but a fellow tenor from the Oriel Chapel Choir told me that "that's an American thing," burning effigies of people. I don't think so. I don't think we invented it. And I definitely know there are some Latin American traditions that involve burning effigies, because I have a distinct memory of seeing a Michael Jackson effigy being burned onscreen in a video describing some Latin American holiday in Señor Tompkins's class during sophomore year. Good times, man. Good times...
By the way, I may have lost my hat somewhere. I don't know where, because I know I had it last night, and I can't see where I would have left it, but either I put it somewhere really random in my room or I just left it somewhere and it's not coming back. If I can't find it soon, I'm going to send it off with dignity.
For the first time ever, I won a game of Mafia for the first time ever during "Mandatory Fun" time, as we're calling it now, after OCU. It's nothing like Cutthroat Mafia, but nothing is. Wouldn't Cutthroat Mafia be just AMAZING at Oxford, though? [If you've played Cutthroat Mafia before, you get 20 JP; if you've won, you get 30 JP] Oriel Christian Union is as fun, engaging, informative, and thought-provoking as it's always been for me. If you don't already go, I recommend it. If you're also a Christian of any associated denomination, then I triply recommend it. Awesome community. We're going through the Book of John at the moment, looking at it passage by passage. There's so much more there than I'd ever thought.
Michael, one of the two leaders of OCU, keeps telling me I should do my blog as a narrated audio track, recording the words I write with my voice, and posting the audio file on SoundCloud, so that he can simply listen to my blog while he's brushing his teeth or making waffles or something. Here's the deal: if I get ten people tell me they'd listen to my blog if I made it available like that, then I'll do it. It can't be that much work. I'll just write every blog and then record me saying the words, basically. You know what, if I get five people say they'd listen to my blog as an audio file, I'll do it. Message me and let me know, please.
Thanks for being such great sports and reading my blog! If you've read every other blog post before I made this post, go ahead and give yourself a slap on the back and 80 JP! Well done, indeed! I feel very supported by all the feedback I've received; thank you so much, it truly means a lot!!
Merry Guy Fawkes Day,
John Khouri, Quite-a-Guy
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