So much procrastination, so little time

The semester is winding down, both too quickly and too slowly. Of course, I want May 27th to come as soon as it can, but as far as the workload goes I would rather like having more than a month left. Oh well - the adrenaline rushes should help me overcome motivation issues. I've pretty much been forced to finalize my paper topics. I'm analyzing Kierkegaard in terms of Plantinga's notion of proper function; while Kierkegaard suggests that we take an irrational leap of faith when we come to Christianity, this is actually justified under Plantinga's scheme if the will has been designed in such a way as to precipitate this leap under the right circumstances and thus lead us to truth. This thereby makes an act of the will truth-conducive. I'm also analyzing Buddhism in terms of Plantinga's thought (yay for doubling up research), doing the same thing with Buddhism that Plantinga does with Christianity; that is, if Buddhism were true, what would make it warranted for the believer? I think that it has a lot more issues with this than Christianity does, not the least of which is the fact that it is the impersonal Dharma which determines the universe rather than a personal Creator (the standard objections against naturalistic schemes apply, and except for Pure Land and maybe later Mahayana, there is no recourse to a sensus buddhatis). Time for signing up for classes for next semester is fast approaching. I'm thinking about taking classes on Aquinas, the Trinity, views of the person and survival after death in contemporary Christian philosophy, and a course on analytic philosophy which will focus on modal logic and how it relates to modern arguments in philosophy of religion. I would like to take a course on comparative religion somewhere, but University of Chicago is a distance away and Northwestern still doesn't have the times for most of their graduate courses listed. Which brings me to my next point, I've been thinking about going into comparative religions for my doctoral work. Specifically, Buddhist studies, at least at the time of my Ph.D, though I think that eventual study in traditional religions could be interesting too. Yes, as my beloved has pointed out to me, there is a greater than 0 probability that I will change my mind on this matter, but at any rate if I want any shot at doctoral programs I have to start on the material now (I would get to learn 5 languages - Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Japanese, & Classical Chinese - woo hoo!). I've been able to secure some independent studies for the next school year already, one in Japanese religions with a guy who grew up over there and then returned to there on the mission field for I think 20-30 years (Dr. Netland, who I've also heard studied under John Hick and was considered to be one of his best students, though Netland himself is a solid orthodox evangelical. So I should be able to get a good view on views concerning religious pluralism as well). The other is with Dr. Yandell at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has done some work in Indian Philosophy - I would like to look at Jainism with him, it's such an underrepresented view in religious studies.