I've been pondering race and racism for the last few days and was ready to post something about it but realized that I just don't have the mental capacity to write coherently about it at the moment. I'm brain fried. This was just the first week of classes so this just doesn't bode well for the rest of the semester. I've spent the entire weekend reading, reading, reading and reading a little more. Now I enjoy reading one hell of a lot. I even enjoy reading some of the textbooks we're assigned sometimes. But wow, this book we're reading for my Mediterranean World class is absolutely excruciating. I think driving rusty nails into my eyeballs would be a bit more enjoyable at this point.

This was my weekend in a nutshell... Friday night after work, I read some. I did get to go out and have sushi with the family though. My niece is doing very well in school (her GPA is better than a 3.0) and I'm very, very proud of her. Saturday morning, I played hoops in the morning (and thankfully managed to avoid major injury) and then parked it at the coffee house and read, read, read some more. I think I nodded off at one point, that's how interesting this stuff is. This morning, I got up, cruised back to the coffee house and read some more. I did get to go to a Super Bowl party where I won some cash in the pools, so that was very cool. But wow... I'm absolutely brain fried right now. And I still have 75 pages more of this drek to slog through. Not to mention one article and two chapters to read for my Israeli/Palestinian Conflict course. Ugh and double ugh. I'm seriously considering chucking it all for a career to McDonald's.

Ordinarily, reading history is something I enjoy quite a bit. Especially if it's something that I've never studied before. I love learning. But the book I'm reading for class right now is by a writer I was exposed to in my Theory class last semester. It's from a historical school of thought called the Annales School that I neither enjoy nor necessarily agree with. This particular historian factors in everything from topography to climate to explain, in this case, the region of the Mediterranean. He goes into the creation of certain mountain ranges and lists, in agonizing detail, goods and commodities from each particular region. I personally feel that this school of thought, or at least this historian, takes too broad of an overview and misses the finer points. He's so focused on the bigger picture, that he's missing the smaller picture. Is topography and climate essential to understanding the Mediterranean region? I personally don't think it's essential. I think that if it's felt to be necessary, environmental historians can do their thing and topographists can do theirs. To understand the Mediterranean region and her people, I don't necessarily think one must take such a broad approach. I personally feel that the history of a region can be well understood by her political, economical and social factors. Does knowing that the Mediterranean gets cold due to Atlantic winds in the winter and hot from the Sarahan winds in the summer help me to understand the political issues of medieval Italy? Not necessarily. Perhaps a look at the physical environment can enhance the bigger picture, but I don't think it's essential to the story.

But then again, perhaps I don't think so because I'm hating the excruciating and agonizing detail of this school of thought. Bleh.

So yeah, time for bed. Hopefully my noodle will feel a little less frazzled in the morning.