a mug or a sidewalk or a person or a poem or some cherries

"The difference is that our whole LIVES are different now, well, can be different now with this theoretical knowledge. It's actually the most applicable, practical thing - just a matter of how much you want to apply it. For example, how is this mug now an actant in relation to me? What kind of action is its presence making possible, in conjunction with me, or in conjunction with the table it's sitting on, or the coffee it holds (or doesn't)? Or this sidewalk we're walking on. I mean it's making all the difference in the world! Why else would I be walking on this particular patch of the Earth if not for the sidewalk?"

ahahahahaahahahaha etc.

ACTOR-NETWORK THEORY

the title is kind of misleading cause it still seems confusing to me

but it's narrated by a very cute-sounding Dutch boy-genius

WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MODERN

FLAT ONTOLOGY

,not flat stanley

These are the things we learned today in that space-and-a-wall. Just wanted to document the academic mind-explode goings-on of the early semester.

This semester, I hope to:

• become more organized in my speech, to practice better explaining my thoughts without excessive use of non-words and "I just thought that was really interesting" as filler utterance.
• get used to environments in which I am surrounded by people infinitely smarter than I am but realize the limitations of that state of awe-struckness. That not everyone is an expert at everything, and to take the opportunity of being out of my element as an experience to grow from, not one in which I pretend to know more than I do or end up missing opportunities to contribute for fear of looking stupid. To learn from others without judgment or fruitless jealousy.
• remember lots of details and names of theories and well-understood concepts in my brain so that I have a stock of things to coherently share with others once I'm done with the semester - not just vague recollections of being mind-blown all the time.
• always and mindfully give people good gifts, not necessarily in birthday-present format.
• make sense of Latourian Litanies; make use of theories in productive and satisfying applications to real life outside of the brain.

Dear God, please help me to survive to thrive this semester.