you can tell that I am an EngLit geek because I get excited about alliteration.

the beads on my new bracelet are like ugly maltesers - a crisp outer shell with a filling of ugly purple plasticine

(on Joyce)
what do you witness when you walk into a pub - a working class, Irish pub? You get hit by a wall of sound. Everyone's really drunk and... Irish.

"I have this disease late at night, involving alcohol and the telephone."

'People living at the seashore grow so accustomed to the murmur of the waves that they never hear it. By the the same token, we scarcely ever hear the words which we utter... We look at each other, but we do not see each other anymore. Our perception of the world has withered away; what has remained is mere recognition.'
-Victor Skhlovskij

there's a reason I am here and not there and the reason is me.
there's a reason I am here and not there and the reason is that here is here and there is all the way over there.
there's a reason I am here and not there and the reason is that there is different from here.
there's a reason I am here and not there and the reason is that

I wonder if everyone feels as hypocritical as I feel sitting talking about
[the poor / the drought in Africa / that guy with the drug problem who doesn't have a home.]

in the end I know that I don't want to
[give away my money / go to Africa and build a well / let that guy stay in our house so he can murder us all in our sleep.]
in the end I know that makes me a hypocrite.
in the end I can't help but wonder if everyone else knows?

chauvinism - "it's good because it's mine."

i want to ask the tutors "do you work here because you love the ethos of the place? or do you love the it here because you work here?"
i want to ask the students "why don't you go to lectures if you love the college? are you really here because it's so unique and special?"

is this cynicism?

'there [are] more books about books than on any other subject; we do nothing but write glosses on one another'

there's a reason I'm here and not there even if it's completely arbitary/random such as post and results and my skiving shame which means I'd have to hide in my room
there's a reason I'm here and not there and it might well be that here is not there
there's a reason I'm here and not there so please don't collapse the difference

Tutor: [sounding slightly hysterical] You wake up and the world is full of THINGS!

I think maybe that what I am getting out of class might be different from what is intended. They probably didn't plan for it to be solely an opportunity to stare at hot tutors and write down amusing quotes.