Paige Feldstein

Created by Oatmeal

Let’s begin by saying that, though I have several decks of tarot cards, I’m not a big believer in the hocus pocus bullshit surrounding their use. These cards do not tell me my future, they do not know my past and present. Their meanings are generally vague and the people who will read them for you know that, molding it around what they can see in you. This I believe, and have pretty much always done so.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I also believe that reading your own tarot cards is a useful skill. Not that it will tell you what you should do or what might happen to you in your future, but that reading the meanings of each card might be a helpful tool in uncovering feelings and thoughts you might not have known you had.

I don’t rely on my cards for decision-making. I think that’s stupid and irresponsible. But I have used them when my life is in check and it seems like there are no good moves left. When I read the vague descriptions of the cards and piece them together in a general hazy meaning, it sometimes sparks something in my mind that makes me more aware of what I’m really thinking about things. Especially if the cards’ meanings and my thoughts on the matter seem to be at odds. That, I think, is more telling than one would expect.

I feel like education is about enrichment. Or at least it’s supposed to be. Instead of feeling enriched at the end of the semester, I just feel drained of everything. Like I’ve died an intellectual death and any good feeling I had in the weeks before finals is gone. I can’t even feel simple relief because the lingering stress infuses my body and my mind for days afterward. Being frought with worry doesn’t just magically disappear. I still have the feeling that I’ve something I need to be doing…even though I know I don’t. Not anymore.

Ugh. There has got to be a better way to learn.

You know, a way that actually involves learning and retaining and feeling good about knowing more than you previously did. There’s got to be a way. Not sure I’ll ever find it, but maybe I could try and create it.

This week is cram week. It’s the magical week during the semester wherein many lie on the verge of a full out panic attack, the work is piled up and the stress is raining down. We go to all our regular classes, then go home and do 80 times more studying than usual. You see fewer frisbees and more books, fewer smiles and more yawns.

I have a better idea.

Classes should have ended last friday. Then, this week (Cram Week) would be entirely designated to studying when you want however much you want and, get this, ACTUALLY SLEEPING.

I think that it would stress me out less if it wasn’t all the things I’m already doing PLUS five thousand other things.

This would revolutionize exam week as we know it. I would be rested instead of sleep deprived. I would feel smart instead of like my head is filled with cotton balls.

Plus, I rarely learn anything in the last week of classes. Does anyone? I go to class and roll my eyes at the hour I just lost. )The exception to this might be my philosophy class because I actually enjoy the class time…but my professor in that class cancels class when we don’t need to be there. ie. this friday).

Professors would have lots of exam-creating/paper grading time too. Or they could hold study sessions that are optional. Or have more office hours to meet with students individually.

This would be better.

“When I got out of college, I thought I was the smartest I would ever be…and now all these years later, I think I was right.”
- Scott Feldstein

“Die Hard is the greatest action movie ever made. There is no denying this fact. It is the father of all action movies. The mother. When action movies wake up in the middle of the night, crying, Die Hard walks across broken glass in its bare feet to give them their bottle.”
- From We All Got It Coming by Joey Comeau.

(Note: if you decide to read We All Got It Coming, you should, but I recommend reading Lockpick Pornography first, as it’s the first book.)

I’ve been messing around with captions a la icanhascheezburger with the feeling of A Softer World.

It’s a start, I guess.

I like to name my stuffed animals after people I learn about in Philosophy class… To date, I have Socrates the bear and Alcibiades the Valentine frog.