Wherein I go for a bike ride and discover that people are dumb, even in grad school

Not much of note has happened this week.  I felt a lot more on top of my schedule and the flow of things, although having a Monday schedule on Tuesday didn't help me out any - Mondays and Wednesdays are long, for me.  Having them back-to-back was rough, although after that my week might as well have been over.

This morning I decided to use the break between two storm fronts we were supposed to get (and did, good job weatherpeople) to get some exercise and test how feasible it would be for me to ride my bike to school.  Google says it's 12.3 miles, so I picked a point a little over 6 miles along the way and rode to it.  The round trip would have taken me an hour if I hadn't stopped for groceries on the way home, and I don't feel like total ass so I think it will be a thing that I will do, time and weather permitting.  Then I ate scrambled eggs on toast with mayo and mustard.  So that's a thing you needed to know.

OK, now to probably the only notable thing that happened this week and part 2 of my title.  I have to give a presentation (with a partner) on wednesday on some piece of info (article, radio broadcast, cartoon... whatever) that illustrates a 'definition duality' from the dumb book that my instructor wrote for the (increasingly frustrating) class.  I picked this girl to work with, we'll call her flower necklace, because the instructor suggested we pair up with someone who isn't in the same program and she's nutrition or ag business or something and we've been working on stuff for another class together.  She seems nice if type A and not especially bright which is an odd combination, to me.  Anyway, the thing that jumped out at me right away was a 'definition duality' called "Rationalism vs. Rationalization" which points up the difference between logical thought and trying to twist information to fit your preconceived notions. Now, the prof. told us to "have some fun" with this assignment, and I immediately thought of one of my favorite standup comedy bits.  Watch this video, it's an excerpt of the longer bit, edited for content (swears).

Alright, so, I took ten minutes or whatever and edited the audio for that, and thought about it for a bit, and then I sent it to my partner to see what she thought.  The next day, I got this response:

I listened to the clip you sent me and if it's alright with you, I'd like to keep searching. Religion isn't an easy topic to discuss and I'd prefer to go for something slightly less controversial. We can discuss it more tomorrow. I hope you had a great weekend!

Peace,

(flower necklace)

I talked to flower necklace on the phone tonight, about work for another class, and when we were done reviewing, she brought it up again.  I told her I didn't want to do something she wasn't into and it was fine with me if we picked something else.  I guess she was digging for an apology, because she reiterated her reasoning and then, all in a rush kinda, said "and personally it goes against everything I was brought up to believe ok bye"

WTF.  I don't... You are getting a goddamn masters degree in some kind of science from a public university.  Not Bob Jones.  Not an MA in theology or some shit.  The class we are presenting to has, like, 12 people in it, all but maybe one of whom are doing SCIENCE! for their theses.  This is not a problem.  Except, apparently, for flower necklace.  Something is seriously wrong with the world.