Again with the Education!

I've come to realize that, with my own specialized (i.e. psychotically dysfunctional) upbringing, brilliantly fractured mind, and random collection of facts, I may not look at things the same way as other people. Or, at least, differently.

Take this book cover, for example:

My thoughts were, in this order:

1. Pass the A1! This juicy morsel warrants better than mere ketchup!

2. That's probably a Jersey calf. What's a Jersey calf doing in this picture? I guess it could represent veal, but if that's not it's future, then it should be an Angus. Or Hereford. If you were going to put a picture of a calf on the cover of a book about food, wouldn't you want one of the proper breed? Is this just a statement about eating veal? I mean, it's not even the right subcategory--it's a dairy breed calf, for cryin' out loud!

3. Are Jersey calves cuter than Angus or Hereford calves, and is that why it's picture is on the cover?

4. That's an awfully clean plate for that calf to be standing on.

5. Mousaieff? Is that a middle name, a last name, or a I-hate-my-child-and-want-him-to-suffer-in-grade-school name?

6. When Elephants Weep? Never heard of it. Is that when the raindrops get really big?

Now, I've never read this book. Probably never will. But I'll remember it as the book with the (probably) wrong breed of calf on its cover.

Damn education!

P.S. If any of you have read either of these two books, feel free to educate me about them.

Links to Amazon: 
The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food
When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals

The Downside of Education

I have nearly survived my second day of school, and I am reveling in the new knowledge gained--I can now find the true dip of any roadcut I happen across. Of course, I live in Hawaii, and such few roadcuts as there are happen to normally be overgrown with ninety thousand different plants, thus obscuring the rock which is probably just basalt in any case.

And therein lies the problem.

Who (besides me and other geology majors) care about the dip and strike of formations? It's not good party talk fodder (unless among fellow geologists) and when you mention it to other people, their eyes are bound to glaze over by the time you get to "roadcut" out of their brain's self-defense system activating. Especially if you've attempted to talk geology more than once to them already.

While other people admire the sunset for it's sparkly colors, I also think about the proton-proton chain and nuclear fusion and the inevitable expansion of our sun in 5 billion year's time, by which date humanity will either have been wiped out or have gotten off the planet. While other people see a stark landscape of jagged lava rock, I see basalt and olivine and sulphuric deposits

That's the thing about education--the more of it you get, the less you are like other people. A person who's wandered the seven seas will be different than the person who has never been more than sixty miles from home. A person who has sat through a single class of any topic will be different from the person who never had a class of that topic.

I'm fairly certain that changing isn't a bad thing. But I find myself having to think about my words so that I can arrange them to match the corresponding level of knowledge of the person listening. If I don't I'll have to repeat myself anyways when they go, "Huhwhat?"

The sun just shines, mkay?