I swear I don't make these up.

Work was a bit slow in the afternoon so I caught up on a few boring but necessary chores. I cleaned out my files, throwing out all airline communiques dated 2000 and prior. That freed up a lot of space. Then I tried to finish up a long, difficult honeymoon booking (South America, not Italy, for a change) but couldn't get back to the client in time to clinch the deal. I have enjoyed putting it together since it's half of what I want to do with my next visit to South America (the Chilean and Argentinian half). But it's not easy to get it all organized since one doesn't visit the Peruvian Amazon, Machu Picchu, Tierra del Fuego, and Patagonia without running into major logistical obstacles including weather, flight patterns, and transportation. By the time they're done they will have traveled by jet, prop plane, expedition cruise ship, motorboat, dugout canoe, and train. Cool, huh?

Tonight I threw caution aside and decided to be tremendously participatory in class. I'm not going to get an A unless I show off, so the hell with it. I did try to keep the rampaging under control, and sometimes mouthed the answer to my professor in an attempt to let someone else answer but still letting him know I knew the right answer. I rock on fallacies and argument identification. Modus Tollens, anyone? Speaking of that, when we got to Denying the Antecedent I suddenly blurted out, "But this is math!" The professor thought that was pretty funny. And it is math, it's just like algebra. Dang. I cannot escape it.

As we were walking out of class the professor said to me matter of factly, "You have a very good brain." I was utterly shocked. I don't think anyone's ever said that to me before. I'm so happy. He went on to say he was pleased with my participation, and strongly implied it would make the difference with my grade. I told him I had been holding back because I had a tendency to dominate class discussions but I'd given up on being cautious. If other people don't speak up immediately then I'm going to jump in. He said not to worry about it. We parted on very good terms.

For the first time this term I came home and did homework the same night of class. I wanted to buzz through the appropriate Logicworks exercise while all the terms were still fresh in my head. I did okay, but I pretty much suck on the logic software. I think my overall grade for the exercises is a 78, but it doesn't matter, he isn't grading those. What I hate about it is the smart ass answers. Last night, when I put in an answer I truly believed was correct its response was, "Don't guess." Nice! Sometimes it says, "It could hardly be anything else." Just my luck to get software with an attitude.

You know, I think I'm going to come home after work tomorrow instead of working out. I can go for a long walk around the neighborhood and get that cardio workout in without having to dink around with train schedules and so forth. I'm prone to the fallacy of the false dilemma, thinking I have only two choices, work out at the gym or revert to utter flabbiness instantly. Forget it, I do have a third choice. See how useful this critical thinking class is turning out to be?

Maybe I should suggest it to my boss' client.

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