Chapter 24

I wonder what Pattinson would think if he found out that vampires are real. What would Tom think? Maybe we could be friends.

“Hi, would you like one?” I asked Tom as I handed him my Icebreaker’s Sour tin.

“Sure, thanks,” he replied, taking it.

“You’re welcome. So what do you think about this class?”

“It’s interesting. I can’t believe the professor wrote the book though.” He said as he passed the tin back.

“I know right. But I thought this was going to be a math class with equations and stuff not verbal or even written arguments.”

“Not liking the tests every Thursday either. I mean, does he honestly think we will learn this stuff that quickly?”

“My guess is that he does. But hey, maybe it will be easier than we think.”

“Maybe.”

He took out his laptop and so did I. I was surfing the interweb and he was playing a game, Dungeons and Dragons.

Mr. Tomlinsky thinks we're taking notes on these. How funny. Can he really be that naïve? Well he is sixty-two, doesn’t look like he knows too much about computers except Microsoft Word. The things students can get away with when their professors don’t have a clue.

“Logic is the study of whether or not attempts at proof are successful.” Mr. Tomlinsky went on.

This class might be interesting, but it is still boring. Time to surf brain waves, not just the net. I want to know what everyone else thinks of this class.

Huh. Stacy is thinking about her boyfriend Noah. She is trying to figure out where he is taking her tonight. He told her it was going to be a surprise and she would never guess. She is too distracted to pay attention today.

Wow! David is actually paying attention. Proof, sometimes we need to offer it, sometimes we don’t. In his case he should probably always offer proof. Nerd.

Well, Muhammad is worthy of note. He wants to be a doctor. Maybe he has some classes with Ben.

Jeff is thinking about Suzanna. Yeah, I’m just going to stay out of his head. I have to admit though, he is very detail oriented.

Suzanna is thinking about Tom. I’ll have to watch out for her. It would seem I have some competition.

Awe! Isn’t that sweet. Little Julie likes our professor. Too bad he’s happily married and not the cheating type.

Stephen, Stephen, Stephen. Staring off into space are we. Dreams of working at NASA. That will never happen, unless he starts paying more attention and works harder.

Oh! Here’s something interesting. Matt is paying attention and thinking about me. Fat chance buddy. At least he’s a multi-tasker. He must have ADD. Wow his thoughts are changing quickly seems he only spends a few seconds on each thought and doesn’t fully think any of them. Well, he’s confusing. Next.

Alice is thinking about Chris, not surprising since Chris is thinking of her too.

And lastly, Tom, his thoughts are on the game.

I am not liking Suzanna’s thoughts. She is focusing too much on Tom. Fantasizing. I wish she would stop. I would put my own thoughts in her head, but that might freak her out. Not to mention I’d be lectured later. She’s already being possessive of him. I am starting to hate her.

Strix, stop. You’re going too far. Ben interrupted me.

You and your visions. Fine. I interjected. Hey, this class is boring, do you wanna get some people together tonight. You know a party or something. I feel like getting toasted.

Strix, we have other stuff we have to do, not to mention early classes.

I thought you might say that. But you know we can ditch.

It’s the first week of school, the most important week, hellooo.

Fine, how ‘bout just you and me then, a couple of drinks.

Alright, but home before two a.m. okay.

Fine with me.

You should be paying attention to your class and let me do the same.

Later then.

“An argument has two parts. The statement for which proof is offered and the statements offered as proof,” Tomlinsky explained. “The statements offered as proof are called premises. The statement for which proof is offered is called the conclusion.”

Wow, that was hard to figure out. I thought sarcastically. And apparently I’m not the only one thinking this. Not surprising.

“In everyday English, the conclusion is the last thing said. In logic however, the conclusion is what the person offering an argument is trying to prove. It can appear at the beginning, middle, or end.”

Is he for real? I sometimes start with the conclusion. Does that mean all my arguments are logical? I had to suppress a laugh at this thought.

“Abortion is murder. Mr. Charles, is that an assertion or an argument?”

“Assertion?”

“You seem unsure, Mr. Charles. Why is it an assertion?”

“Because there is no proof, nothing to support it?”

“Ms. Wells, why is ‘Abortion is murder.’ an assertion?”

“Because no proof is offered we would have to decide whether to accept it or not based on the person stating it.”

“Excellent. Mr. Charles you should be more confident in your answers and pay attention. To make this an argument we could say something like murder is the killing of an innocent human being. A fetus is an innocent human being. Therefore abortion is murder. Yes, Ms. Barnett?”

“I would have to disagree with that. Murder isn’t just the killing of innocent human beings. Murder is the unjustified killing of any person innocent or not. Plus I don’t really think a fetus counts as human, until it is born it’s just a bunch of cells working together to create a human.”

“So are you for abortion then?”

“No, I don’t have an opinion either way. I feel that a woman has the right to do with her body what she pleases. And as long as it doesn’t directly affect my life, I don’t care what she does. But I am prepared to argue for either side.”

“Alright. But do you see how it is an argument?”

“Yeah. It’s not a very good one, but sure.”

“Okay. Ms. Farnsworth, Is this an assertion or an argument? Buffalo weather is changeable. Baltimore is hot in the summer. Chicago is colder than Buffalo in the winter, with temperatures more than twenty degrees colder. Buffalo gets more snow than Chicago. However, Boston gets more snow than Buffalo.”

“It’s an assertion because it talks about other cities but doesn’t actually give proof that the weather in Buffalo is changeable.”

“That’s correct. “ I had to tune him out for a minute or I was going to go nuts, this was worse than sitting in… well I don’t know, but it was boring me to death, if I could die.

I guess I will just have to block everything out. I’ll just get on Facebook and Twitter and update them, maybe play some games, like Age of Empires or Age of Mythology. That should keep me occupied for the duration of the class. I thought this class would be more interesting, I guess I was wrong.