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May 10, 2006
Okay, I'm done with the berries background now. Too irritating to look at every day. Course, this blue is rather underwhelming.
Today I assigned Lenin - and didn't discuss it at all. You know why? I didn't read it! Which I think is quite funny. Of course, they don't know that. We'll discuss it next week during the debate between fascism and communism. :D I just love making students argue for things they don't believe in. They're much more likely to learn something that way.
I'm still amazed at how lousy their midterms were. Class average - 46.5/60. I curved it to a 46.5/57 which is still lousy, but slightly less painful for both of us. I also gave a gimme quiz so more people would be getting at least some points on the quizzes. I shudder to consider how many student problems I would have to deal with AFTER I graduate if I have to give out too many C's or D's. And this quarter, it's probably going to happen. Maybe it's just Kimball, but these kids don't care AT ALL.
Their papers aren't any better. And I have to read them as though I actually care about their academic progress, when they most certainly don't. woe is me...
On a more positive note, I have only one more section left for week 6! Then there are only four weeks left! yay! *does a little dance*
May 9, 2006
So today, the sun looked brighter, the air more pure, my outlook on life rather bright. There's plenty to be feeling yucky about, I though, but hey! I'm almost done with school and I'm at the beginning of a relationship - that time when everything seems so hopeful and you haven't yet realized how annoying they are when the brush their teeth or floss that stupid way - again. But anyway, I was having a really lovely day. Then I got a phone call from my mom - my grandfather is in the hospital. He's had congestive heart failure for a couple of years and he also has cancer. Doesn't rain, but it pours. It's a good thing I'm not suspicious or I'd think that another one of my family members was going to end up in the hospital by the end of the year.
So, needless to say, my day was shot. Tomorrow, after a good night's sleep, I'll be happy and chipper again. It takes so much energy to be depressed, I just find it easier to find things fun and interesting. Plus, depressed people are NOT fun to be around. I wouldn't even be able to stand myself were I depressed on a regular basis.
Yet again - summer, no worries, less and less time before I leave for Austria - that's what I'm looking at. :D
That and not sucking it up on my thesis defense Friday.
May 8, 2006
Well, I turned in my thesis to my committee. The earth didn't shake, mountains didn't move, but I feel better. Of course, I still have that last, pesky little requirement left to remove my last incomplete to finish too, plus all the boning up I'll have to do to prepare for the defense. I'm sure I'll get asked a couple of questions that I won't be able to answer. I don't think in historical theory very well on my feet.
I'm not sure what I'll do with myself this summer. I mean, I won't have the spectre of WORK hanging over my head at all times. I'll be able to do stuff for fun and not feel guilty. What a terribly odd concept. Not as though I do all that much work anyway, but I always *feel* guilty that I'm not working. It will be a wonderful change of pace to just go off to the dunes for a weekend and have fun and not have a care in the world other than paying bills.
I like Elizabeth's comparison of finishing a thesis to glacial erratics. I suppose I feel like that - I've been in school my whole life - I'm not sure I know how to live life as a real person. :) Now that I'm almost ready to "face life" with my education in hand, I'm not sure how exactly that education prepared me for where I'm going except that it certainly put me in a much different place than when I started. Let's see - the Rachel plan for life in 1999 (freshman year in college/junior year in high school) - get a degree in English and teach high school. Clearly, the plan has changed. :) For the better! No public high school teaching for me, thank you very much.
I just hope I like what's coming next. I know what being a student is like. I'm not sure about much else.
Should be a fun trip, though. I think I'll go sky-diving this summer. :)
May 6, 2006
Congratulations to three of my colleagues who have all worked harder than I have, and most certainly deserve their status as "Master of History" T-shirt wearers. :) I also hope to wear said shirt, but one never knows, does one? One of my committee members could decide that I've been wasting my time here, and I need to pay summer tuition. *sigh* I'm feeling very pessimistic about this whole thing. I really just want to put this whole big mess behind me - graduate school at this time in my life was a big mistake, but I've been working at it long enough and hard enough (for me) that I don't want to screw up now. Besides, my mom already booked a cabin-thingy so she could watch me graduate. She'd be mad if she had to cancel.
I think I'll pass - but probably just barely, like everything else I've done here. I think that's the best indication of what a terribly poor idea it was to go for a Master's in history - I don't like it! I enjoy reading books, I enjoy history. I do NOT enjoy being a history grad student. Maybe I just don't want to be a student anymore. In any case, I really hope I can get into the Foreign Service. I'll be able to make good money, do something fun and interesting, and I may never have to go back to school again unless I really want to (and the Foreign Service pays for it anyway).
I finally have my cell phone again! It busted last week (thanks to being dropped multiple times, by myself, my cat and by Henri) and I have been cell-phone-less for over a week. I felt like I lost a limb. Interesting how dependent one gets on one's cell phone. I think I would be fine without it if I didn't have a job that required me to be "flexible" at all times. Plus, I refuse to wear a watch, so while my cell phone was on the fritz, I also had no timepiece. Read E. P. Thompson on the formation of the sense of time in the modern world - so true. I got rid of my watch because I felt tied down to it, but I still have to make sure I catch the bus in the morning so that I make it on time to my 10am class.
We're all stuck in the cage - and there's no way out unless you want to live like that wacko I heard about who moved to Central America so he could live off the land in the rainforest there. I found myself wondering if that's even legal. Then realized that's what THEY wanted me to think. ;)
It will be WONDERFUL to get out of here.
April 29, 2006
I have detected a pattern in my blog updates for the past month. When I feel somewhat confident about my thesis, I take the time to write a blog. When I don't, I'm too busy freaking out to make an entry. At least - that's my current theory.
Enterprise (the last incarnation of the Star Trek franchise) wasn't all that bad of a show. It only lasted three seasons on UPN, but I think it's actually rather good, for a bad knock-off. Nothing can beat the original or next generation, but this one isn't so bad as far as really terribly sci-fi shows go.
For once, I'm actually enjoying the coming of the sun. Usually, I get annoyed because it means months and months of warm to hot weather, which I detest. I especially detest the heat headaches, sunburns, and sweating that occurs. But for some reason, I was happy when the sun came out this week. It might have something to do with the fact that if it's sunny, that means I'm almost done with school. hmm... I'll have to consider this for a while - I've hated the sun for so long, with very few exceptions, that actually being happy for a week of sun is just too odd to think about. :)
April 14, 2006
You know... people can be really weird. I think the most fascinating person in the world to meet would be a normal person, because I haven't ever yet met one. I've met completely insipid people lacking any neurotransmitters. I've met very interesting people who have developed entirely too many neurotransmitters. But I've never met anyone who could be described as completely "normal." It would be a truly novel experience.
For the last week of the quarter, I'm having my students debate environmentalism vs. globalized economic interests. These interests can be large corporations or governments, depending on the point one wanted to make. For example, one could argue that the large dams on the Columbia River helped destroy wildlife and completely changed the ecology of the river, permanently destroying an ecosystem that had existed since Lake Missoula cut the Gorge into Washington state. Or, you could conversely argue that had the dams not been built, the power that fueled the United States' rearmament program in WWII would have been much slower and quite probably much less successful, thereby allowing Hitler valuable time and opportunity to ravage more of Europe. I'm hoping to get economy-minded conservationists on one side, and die-hard commie liberal preservationists on the other side. Should be pretty fun - it's my last section for the forseeable future, so I'm pretty dang excited about that part.
I'm pleased with the current direction of my thesis, since I'm actually getting it done, but I am annoyed at how completely lacking my connections between my two visitations are. It seems that, as the result of the "Reforming" of Catholic Styria that was witnessed by the commission during 1528 was the precipitous decline in revenues noted by the commission during 1544-45. But that's a really stupid obvious causal link. Okay, they're not acting like Catholics anymore, they're acting like Protestants. Of course the priest isn't going to get paid for the same number of functions (new word today: Versehgaenge - it means the official functions associated with the Church, as opposed to municipal authorities. shoot me now...). There was a severe drop-off in the number of masses said for the dead, for example, as Protestant theology taught that such things were unnecessary and a waste of money. But I guess my problem is - and has always been - that I don't quite see how what I'm doing really says anything all that different. I mean, there isn't much in English about Austria, but what there is makes the same point, generally, that I'm making. Perhaps I should just content myself with being one of the few people in the US who have actually bothered to try to decipher early sixteenth century German.
Or I can just whine about my thesis for a while....
April 13, 2006
I'm going to Austria! I only had to wait for two weeks for an opening, so that's just wonderful. :) I'm going to St. Poelten and Purkersdorf, both in Niederoesterreich, about a 35-40 minute train ride from Vienna. I am so excited right now, it's not even funny. I finally have something to plan for next year, instead of just blathering on about what I'd like to do or not do.
This means I really have to finish my thesis now. :) Good thing this happened now - it'll be easier to focus on finishing now that I know what I will be doing in five months. Whee! I'm finally going back! Okay, I'll stop doing the dorky chair-dancing now.
One thing I will miss is public television. I do enjoy the variety of shows OPB offers to the public. Tonight there's a show on NOVA about supertwisters which is pretty nifty.
By this time next year, I will finally be fluent in German. Probably some wonky upper Austrian accent, but German fluency nonetheless.
*Big, goofy grin*
April 12, 2006 (2)
This quarter, I'm taking a course wherein I am required to read the Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzberg. Is life grand, or what?
By the way, make sure you pay your bills before you leave for a country that controls the internet. I had to pay my credit card late because of good old Myanmar, and now there's a late fee on my account. Such is life.
Word to the wise - Incompletes SUCK! You are never free of their cold, clammy grasp... at least, until you finally finish that paper that you ought to have turned in last quarter...
Now - back to thesis writing...
April 12, 2006
Okay, so I've been told I'm doing a crap job of updating my blog, and I would have to agree, considering that it's been three weeks since I last updated.
The totalitarian dictatorship was interesting. To say the least. I think the oddest part about it was simply learning to expect that nothing will work. And when I say nothing, I do mean nothing. At Yangon International Airport, the former capital (as in the capital until a few months ago), the toilets don't work, and there isn't any toilet paper to be had even if they did work. Thus, if you need to relieve yourself at the airport, the toilets function as outhouses that look like toilets. At least in an outhouse you can't see anything nasty even if you can smell it. Well, I supposed if you looked you could. But these toilets... there was no getting around the fact that there was a lot of nasty in them. This one example is, I think, paradigmatic of the entire country.
Most of the vehicles are also at least twenty and thirty years old. You know someone is REALLY wealthy when they have a car - ANY car - from later than 1990. There were a number of taxis I rode in where there was no padding on the doors or there was duct tape holding parts of the vehicle together. Usually, you just kept your mouth shut, didn't watch as the taxi driver violated MANY rules of the road, and breathed slowly and deeply. Taxi drivers - all drivers - throughout the parts of Thailand and Myanmar that I saw do not respect road rules. Lines appear to mean either a) drive between the lines; or b) drive directly on top of the line. You can see the inherent contradiction in this system. Also, if a driver thinks they have time to pass on a solid yellow line, they will.
I think the best part of visiting Myanmar was seeing the history there. It's not as though any of us spend much time thinking about the importance of Burmese (or other Myanmar minorities) civilization - because there isn't much improtance to us. Well, it's the largest stronghold of Theraveda Buddhism in SE Asia. But that's really not all that important, in a geo-political sense. So, seeing the temples and pagodas, walking through the archways (in bare feet!! AHHH! Can you say ringworm??) was really very cool.
You know what's sad? I knew I was definitely heading back into the USA when I got on the airplane from Tokyo to Seatac. All of the stewardesses were old, aged-looking, and rude. One even threatened to ask the captain to stop the plane if people kept standing up in their seats while we were taxi-ing off the runway. Seriously, who does she think she is? All of the stewardesses on the couple of Asian airlines I flew on were young, pretty, and extremely polite.
On a different note, I took the US Foreign Service Written Examination on Saturday. It took 5.5 hours. Rather a long test. My head was very tired after that, especially since I still wasn't entirely over my jet lag at this point. I'm not sure if I can still use it as an excuse, but I am more tired in the afternoons than I used to be, and I'm generally awake in the mornings and evenings, which corresponds with the time change. Anyway, I have to wait until late July this year to find out if I passed the exam. If I did, then I get to go in for two full days of oral assessment. :) Isn't that exciting? It's worth it, though, if I can do it. Not only do they offer a great benefits package, but you get paid to learn languages and study the history of other countries. Exactly what I'm doing now, but I'm putting myself in debt for this. I like the getting paid part much better.
March 20, 2006
While studying for a test today, I came across a rather lovely quote by Vaclav Havel, in his essay "Power of the Powerless." I think the reason I enjoy Havel so much is that while he recognizes that there is a structure in which every human in the industrial must now fit into, simply by virtue of being born, he is also ultimately optimistic about the ability of humanity to resist the effects of that structure and change it. In this, he is as insightful as Michel Foucault, but far more instructive in that he does merely stop at describing the structure, he offers a way out. Here's an awesome quote.
I'm getting packed for my trip to the totalitarian dictatorship. :) Should be fantastic!
March 18, 2006
Today has been lovely thus far. I woke up late, worked out, finally mailed back some packages (it's been a couple of months...), and arranged transport to the airport on Wednesday. Still don't know how I'll get back, but I figure I have all day to get from Seattle to Portland, there are three trains, so I'm bound to make one of them. $27 for a train ticket or $400 more on a plane ticket...let me think about that for a moment...I can't wait to go back to Europe, I can walk or take public transport wherever I want to go. It will be wonderful.
Speaking of, I'm about dying from suspense. I know I'm highly likely to get the Fulbright to Austria, but I really just want to hear back from them so that I know for certain. Then I can make all the decisions that have to be made, buying the ticket, arranging for a storage space, and just being able to plan for something specific. I think it would help me focus more, too. It's still hard to make myself care about a lot of the work I'm supposed to do, especially the work that takes the most effort. It's easy to teach, most of that is just taking care of the easy, mindless tasks like entering grades or responding to emails. The hard part is reading my source documents and trying to find something intelligent to say about them. Here's to sounding intelligent! *chink*
If I make it into the Foreign Service, I think it will be a very good thing. I can travel, learn languages, live outside the US and get paid well to do it. The only problem of course, is that I don't think much of US Foreign Policy. But, one nice thing about being a history major is that I look at things in a rather relativistic fashion. Of all hegemonial powers the world has ever seen, is working for this one so bad? Comparatively, no. Taken on a case-by-case basis, one could only wish that those in power in the White House would follow Google's maxim: "Don't be evil."
March 16, 2006
All hail to drunken musings. The world would be a better place if people were able to be as open and friendly as they are with a drink under their belt on a regular basis. But alas... sometimes, the world would just be a little too hot to handle if that were the case.
So, we're having a problem with LifeTeen band - one of the songs we sing, "Days of Elijah" is apparently too remeniscent of the Jehovah's Witnesses, so there were some complaints. So, Billie decided to change the words to "my Jesus" from "Jehovah" since they both have three syllables, but unfortunately that came out sounding like "be-Jesus" so we had to nix that. Now there's a big furor over exactly what we're going to sing, or if we'll sing the song again at all. Oh, the trials and tribulations of church choirs. Chris suggested that if I don't make it to Austria or the Foreign Service thing doesn't work out, I could always try to make it as a Christian rock star.
But I don't think the Christian music establishment lets Catholics become Christian rock stars.
Oh, and guess what? The tritium leakers are being sued by the state of Illinois! YES!!!
And if you have ever wondered where 'three sheets to the wind' came from.
March 13, 2006
Thursday night I had a lovely time with Jeff, Elizabeth, Camille and Matt, then later Austin and Mina. We had some awesome pizza, then went to Lucky's for pool and then to 80's night. The whole thing was a great stress release.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize I'd have a reaction to Red Bull and vodka. So, I woke up around four in the morning with this horrible pain in my chest, and I tried to make it go away by breathing deeply, all that sort of thing, but I wasn't successful. Anyway, I finally decided after two hours that since I didn't know why the pain was there and it wasn't going away that I needed to go to the hospital. Turns out I had 'acute gastritis' which in layman's term is freaking bad heartburn. Of all the stupid things. The ER doctor said that it was pretty common.
So then I felt even dumber. Chris had to come pick me up at seven in the morning. Second unfortunate thing - I have bad reactions to pain meds like Vicodin and Percoset. Anyone remember last year's 614 presentations? I don't understand why doctors still give those things out without asking about reactions when so many people are made nauseous by that family of pain meds.
But - I still had a great time, and if I had it to do over again, I'd still go out. And personally - I wish there were more 80's nights. Nothing worse than going out and hearing nothing but stupid rap songs where you know the 'singers' are making millions of dollars for rhyming crass words together. Since Michael Jackson is so much better... You know what? Disco!!
March 9, 2006
Why, why, why did I tell my students they have to talk to me? I've seen nearly two-thirds of them now in office hours. It's fine if it's over the whole quarter, but unfortunately they all came in the last two weeks. I wouldn't have had to tell them they needed to do so now if they'd come in earlier to talk about their papers. I've decided that organization in papers is just as important as the argument, so I gave low grades to students who organized poorly even if they had a decent argument. So, I'm getting a lot of students coming in, wanting to work harder on the next paper. I think the running percentage total in Blackboard is scaring them. I have four, count them, FOUR, A's of any kind in BOTH my classes. It is a sweet, sweet, feeling. Of course, it'll be a pretty bell curve when I finish entering grades, but they don't know that.
Camille says they're probably afraid of me. Whee! I have established authority! *does a little dance* It really is an odd feeling to be the youngest grad student and know full well that many of your students are either your age, or possibly even older. But they don't have to know that.
I bought my first mocha in months today - I've been drinking skinny lattes since last fall. I'd forgotten just how lovely a fattening coffee drink can truly be. All hail the mighty coffee....
March 7, 2006
Tonight was the first Praise Team meeting. I think the piano playing part is going to kick my butt for awhile. I haven't played seriously since high school, so I think it'll take a while to get back into the swing of backing up a group. Speaking of music, I've been listening to my dad's old tapes that he made back in the early nineties (two gospel albums, before he started pastoring a church), and they're quite good. Rather raw, the first one anyway, but that's to be expected. Anyway, his voice and style are very Lynyrd Skynyrd'ish, but with bluegrass-y backgrounds. Can't quite describe. He had so many influences that his music doesn't easily fit into a pigeonhole. My mom's singing voice has improved considerably since the production of the albums. I have to respect the fact that my dad wrote and performed all the music on both tapes. He was very talented.
So, academia - I have two months left before my thesis defense, meaning that I have a month and a half to produce a thesis for my committee members to rip to shreds, especially Lisa. Ah well...fun. Right now, I have lots of notes, but not a thing written on the Visitation of 1528, which is not good. Since I need a real draft of my thesis to give to my advisor before Spring break. I'll do it, but the relative quality of my production is yet to be determined.
You know, some of this stuff he wrote is really good easy listening music. Nice light drums in the background, mostly guitar instrumentals, with some piano, but mostly guitar, and this nice country-rock voice. Good background music to write a review of a book on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Whee!
March 6, 2006
Well, today is the one month mark. It's kind of interesting to read stuff about grief and mourning because it doesn't really matter. Every person has to deal with things differently. The last time I saw my dad he wasn't really there with us anyway. He tried to be, but he was very sick. I think what matters the most at this point, in terms of the grieving process, is simply that I know I won't ever see him again. And that reality is what makes day to day issues difficult to cope with.
I think only a person who has lost someone very close to them to death can truly understand - someone moving away, divorce, estrangement, those things are difficult, but the finality that death brings is unique. No matter what you do, you don't know if you'll ever see them again. Some people have a strong enough faith that they know in their hearts they will. My mom is convinced she will.
I'm not so sure. I guess I try to believe, because it's damned depressing not to, but I've never been fully convinced I'm right. What if all that happens when we die is that we decompose? After a long while nowadays, of course, since everyone's embalmed. Or perhaps you get yourself cremated.
In any case, what if this is all there is? How would we live life differently if it were? Or would we? I don't know if I'll ever see my dad again. I hope so. But I don't know, and that's a very unsettling feeling.
March 4, 2006
For once in my life, I am actually curious to see who wins the Oscars this year. It seems that "Crash" might actually provide a bit of a challenge for "Brokeback Mountain." I can't imagine that picture not getting Best Picture, but racial tension in LA is almost as hot button as gay love. Well maybe not quite. But pretty close! I read an editorial yesterday joking that the best way to get onto the Oscar short list is to have a gay theme and do it well ("Brokeback Mountain", "Transamerica", and "Capote" have all gotten nominations). I think the key is "do it well." All too easy for something like that to become preachy, or just plain campy. But from what I saw of "Brokeback Mountain" and the reviews I've read of the other two, they've done a pretty good job.
I was just poking around on Yahoo! news because I ought to be working on my thesis, and I came across an interesting article. In Illinois (which apparently has the same nuclear capacity as all of Great Britain), a number of plants have had long term tritium leakage. Now, for those of you who don't know what tritium is, it's a radioactive byproduct of the fission process. It looks like water, acts like water, but it's chemical composition is not H2O but H3O. It's actually very fun to play with in Chemistry labs. Unfortunately for the citizens of northern Illinois there was a 3 billion gallon spill of tritium in 1996, and on and off leakages since then. Now - the reason tritium is fun to play with in labs is because H3O is unstable - basic chemistry, the valence electrons don't like that setup, they would prefer to be at H2O, good normal water. So, when you expose H3O to air - you get free radicals! Otherwise known as random atoms popping off of larger molecules because the original molecule was unstable. Why should we care, you might ask? Because all of this tritium LOOKS like, and ACTS like water, and was IN the water supply! So, you drink it, thinking your water is fine (since the NRC, or Nuclear Regularory Commission, told them it was fine), and your kids, or you, get cancer. Free radicals (caused by many things, tritium being not at all common, usually it's from microwaving unsafe products) destroy biological tissue at the molecular level, causing, you guessed it, cancer. And where is our government in all of this? Telling the good citizens of Illinois that their water is perfectly safe, and failing to notify them of this incredible spill ten years too late. Rat bastards.
You may have asked yourself during that idiotic speech by Bush (I know, that doesn't narrow it down much) about going to Mars by 2020 and building a base on the Moon, why is he bothering with this? Well, he, of all people, ought to know just exactly how well we are shoving our planet into the toilet absolutely as fast as we possibly can. Generally in the name of the economy of course. And I understand that people need jobs. But I also understand that their grandchildren will live in a world very different than our own - and not in a good way. Even if we act now, much of the damage done to the planet already is semi-permanent, meaning that it will take centuries to recover. Since presidents aren't elected for long a period of time, they don't really care about what happens outside of their bid for reelection, and business owners certainly don't care because there won't be an appreciable change before they die, so why should they care?
What really burns me up is when people laugh at so-called "tree-huggers." It's not about hugging trees anymore, it's about making sure there's even a planet left to live in for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The polar ice caps are supposed to melt entirely during the summer by the end of this century. If I'm lucky (depending on how you define lucky), that will be in MY lifetime - not some undefined future epoch, but quite possibly during my life, I will see the results of the profligate waste of resources humans have made in the past two centuries.
Here's the moral of the story, ladies and gentlemen: check and see if your city has a water report on hand. Thankfully, in Eugene, the water is excellent. Would that the rest of the country - and world - could say the same.
Oh, and it's not just ingesting tritium - if you bathe in it or cook with it or wash your dishes with it - same dif, except it works faster if you ingest it.
March 2, 2006
I went to an awesome talk on the US Foreign Service today. Apparently, they pay for you to go to school while you're in the service too! You have to commit for a certain period of time for the money, but it's all paid for. Housing is paid for, utilities are paid for, travel and moving expenses are paid for. If I can pass the tests...I think this could be a real career. I could still do everything I care about and want to do, with a job that I would like, in places I like, and not have to spend more than 2-4 years in one place. Anyway, I would find that a very rewarding career path, I think. And, like the military, they force you out after 27 years so you can have two careers if you want.
I'm very pleased for my two fellow history pals - Elizabeth got smashing drunk, and Chris got a lovely fellowship to Santa Cruz. :) Now, if all of us should be so lucky in the coming weeks... :)
February 28, 2006
Chris is lucky to have already heard back about what he's doing next year. I have to wait until at least April to find out about either Austria or Hungary. Well, there's a small chance I'll hear in mid-March, but I'm not holding my breath. If I do get to go to Austria, they have an optional extension for two years if you get good reviews. :) Whee! Money to go to Austria, research, teach, go hiking, maybe even learn to ski - I really think I have the right idea here. :)
On a sadder note - I had a student who placed Austria in North Africa and Sardinia in the middle of Russia. Oh, sad sad day that students take map quizzes.... I gave half points for those who placed London in Ireland or Wales, because at least it's the right country. I can just see poor Irish and Welsh nationalists (and Londoners, too, I'm sure!) shaking their heads in horror and disbelief. Good ole Americans.....
February 27, 2006
For some reason, I just got a craving for one of my favorite dishes, honey-lemon rock cornish hens. You bake them in a honey lemon barbecue sauce for about 35 minutes or so, and you have a lovely dinner. It's actually quite easy to eat a whole one, but it makes you feel like a big pig. Course, I haven't made it in a couple of years - maybe that's why I'm craving it now. Anyway, it's fantastic with some yummy scalloped potatoes and buttered green beans.
I hate how crime dramas always try to show the worst parts of human nature. I wish there were more messages of love and hope in the world - doesn't it say something weird about us as a society that CSI and American Idol are the top TV shows? The primary attraction of CSI is the gore and the tortuous story lines; the primary attraction of American Idol is laughing at the terrible people who try out. Okay, so later on it's because you're rooting for your favorite (I only started watching last year, and my favorite got voted off halfway through - most annoying), but then there's those people who kept Scott Savol on. Weirdos.
I watched Brokeback Mountain recently. Very well-done movie. I saw an blurb today about a reviewer who called Jake Gyllenhaal's character Jack Twist a predator. I guess I can see where he's coming from, since Jack seemed to initiate and maintain a lot of the contact throughout the relationship, but I guess I just didn't see that at the beginning, the point at which, I would assume, being a predator mattered most. Anyway, it was an interesting thought. I find it interesting how the understanding of sodomy as an expression of power and the denigration of males based upon sexually submissiveness is still alive in our society, but only in our prison systems. I read a book a few weeks ago for a history course, and the term "ragr" was used in old Icelandic to refer to a man who was sodomized by another man. It was one of three terms for which a man could be attacked and killed legally for using. Sodomy in that context was a threat to society as a whole. According to the author, men who were called "ragr" were considered powerless weaklings. Anyone recall halfway into "He's a Lumberjack" by Monty Python? "wears women's clothing" and so on? The Mounties singing backup call him a fairy and nearly start to walk away. It's funny, but it's still interesting how notions of effeminacy and submission are still so alien to the idea of "manhood" and the construction of that gender identity.
I'm curious to see where this new trend of society-wide homosexual acceptance will lead. I don't believe such unions between people have ever existed as they do now. Just because you have sex with someone doesn't mean that you want to try to commit to them for the rest of your life, and I think that's the shift we're now seeing: it's not enough to be tolerated anymore, members of the gay community want societal acceptance. And that's new. And interesting.
I also find it interesting that the protesters who came to Ellensburg my second year there to protest a play with a gay theme (I think it might have been about Matthew Shepard, but I really don't remember, and I hope I spelled his name right) also thought it was appropriate to picket St. Andrew's Catholic Church. Since the Church and gays have so much ideological common ground....
freaking Kansas WASPs....
February 26, 2006
OPB is playing Monty Python's Personal Best tonight. Sweet!
Okay, so my last poem was really stupid, and kinda depressing. This is is also depressing, so you're forewarned. However, I did try to make it a little less stupid. Here goes:
sweet pretty things
sweet pretty words mean so much
love with such a full heart
dancing on the air with every step
every day with you, never apart
tell me that you love me
don't hold back anymore
love glitters like a new snowflake
everything worth dying for
why do you evade me now?
what happened to what we had?
how could you throw it away?
broken, crying, empty, sad
sweet pretty words mean so little
hollow heart devoid of meaning
feel like i'm running through water
every day without you, always leaving
February 25, 2006
You know what's really lame? Being sick. I've been up for less than eight hours today and I'm completely exhausted. I wish there were happy pills that one could take without having the unhappy side effects. Or the nagging feeling that taking happy pills doesn't quite line up with your life ethos. I buy recycled tissue, eco-friendly laundry detergent, I recycle everything I can recycle, I eat 90% organic food, and what's not organic is locally grown or made, and yet I still take nasty pills that make my stomach lining bleed. So sometimes, I guess being completely exhausted after being up for one-third of a day is worth it so as not to have unpleasant images in my head of damaged stomach lining. Then again...
Bode Miller is such a jerk. And I mean that in the traditional way - someone who talks big and doesn't do a damn thing to show for it. The Olympics deserve respect, and he's treated the whole experience like a giant party. What a loser - it's embarrassing that someone so talented would be such a weenie when it comes down to it. Plus, he's exactly the kind of American that made me consider stitching a Canadian flag onto my travel bag when I was in Europe.
Does anyone know what the point of a four-man bobsleigh competition is? Why are there four guys? Only one can drive, and I understand that you could go faster, but wouldn't that be accomplished just fine with two guys? I feel kind of sorry for the other three dudes anyway, because the commentators only talk about the driver anyway.
In any case, I will be sad at the beginning of next week when icky-scary-weird combover Donald Trump is on NBC instead of world-class athetes. Even if I will never understand their need to race down or across icy surfaces at insane speeds, I can respect the skill and determination it takes to actually do it.
Feburary 24, 2006
I'm watching the Olympic Skating Gala on NBC, and Evgeny Plushenko just skated. I now know why he won gold a full 27 points ahead of his nearest competition. He is AMAZING. I don't just mean a little amazing, I mean A LOT amazing. I always watch the figure skating during the Olympics, and I usually try to catch the yearly championships as well. I really know nothing about it, but I do love to watch. Plushenko is the most riveting performer I've ever watched. I guess he really deserved his gold... :)
February 23, 2006 (2)
Just a side note - since I wrote about abortion, I now have abortion ads on the Yahoo! sidebar on my weblog. Ain't that a kick in the head?
February 23, 2006
Today at lunch with Camille and Jeff, the subject of abortion came up, because South Dakota is banning almost all forms of abortion. I think we ended up with a few main points:
1) Defining when a fetus is a "baby" is problematic, because the definition isn't static. For example, prior to scientific advances of the twentieth century, it was understood that a baby's soul entered its body when the mother felt a "quickening" or the baby kick.
2) Quite often, access to an abortion is most difficult for poor women. However, I would like to see numbers on who exactly ends up getting an abortion. It seems as though rich white women are the ones who can afford it and often have the most to lose by having a child unplanned.
3) It's safer for women to have access to legal abortion with qualified doctors than the alternative. Because we're such cheerful people, we assume that there will always be women who want abortions for one reason or another, and thus, access to abortions should be safe for women.
I'm afraid I'm often conflicted on this issue. I would never, for any reason (this includes the oft-cited "rape" reason for abortion), get an abortion. I have too much respect for the principle of "every person has the right to life in all forms" to disavow my own belief system in such an egregious way. Besides, babies are so sweet and precious. There's no way I could go through with willfully destroying that baby's possibility to live. There are clear-cut cases where, if the mother's life is endangered, abortion is a necessity (for example, fallopian tube pregnancy, which can't be carried to term anyway). I am very much against abortion based on birth defect, because I think it's not up to us to decide who is allowed to live and who is not. It smacks too much of Nazi ideas about the deformed or the mentally retarded. We can't condemn them for treating people with birth defects as subhuman if we do the same thing ourselves.
I think what annoys me most about abortion is that there are other options. I think most women who desire an abortion because they couldn't support their child, or because they don't want a chid, would be willing to adopt that child out if they knew more about the process. It's a win-win situation: the mother doesn't have to worry about the imposition a child would cause; a childless couple gets the child they want; the child gets to live. It is surprising to me that this option is not explored more often, especially by women who don't want their child because they couldn't afford to support it. I am curious about one thing - I heard that in European abortion clinics, there are often warnings that abortion could possibly lead to breast cancer. I find this to be intuitive - the body's hormones going crazy preparing for a child, then being shut off mid-cycle, that must do something odd to the body - but I would like to see hard, scientific evidence, perhaps statistics (which I doubt are available) to prove or disprove this theory. I think women would be more concerned about making such a choice if they believed it could eventually lead to such serious problems later in life.
Regardless, the Republican party is certainly not the protector of helpless children, and the Democrat party is certainly not the champion of women's rights. They merely pay lip service to whichever idea they think will garner them the most votes. It's certainly not worthwhile to vote for Georgie if you're anti-abortion - would you rather people died in the womb, or by bombs in Iraq?
February 21, 2006
My cat likes sleeping on one of the paper bags I left on the floor in my kitchen for future recycling disposal. How weird.
I will miss the Olympics when they're over - so fascinating, and it must be very exciting actually to be one of the athletes that are there. It will be even more exciting in four years when they're in Vancouver and it will be possible to drive there to actually see some of the competition for real - well, I dunno if I could afford to see an actual competition by then, but a practice, surely. Anyway, seeing the Olympics wouldn't entail buying a plane ticket to Italy, so that's good. :) I like Shani Davis, the long track speed skater. He's such a punk that he's hard not to like, but I also like Chad Hedrick - mainly because he's cute. But the plucked eyebrow look kind of detracts from his appearance. Best looking speed skater - Enrico Fabris, the Italian who won the 1,500m speed skating race today. None of the ice skaters count, because they're probably all gay. You don't hear about many gay Italians, so I figure I'm safe with this dude.
Monique went out on a blind date tonight. hehe....that's so cute. I'm curious to see how it went. I certainly wouldn't be brave enough to tackle a blind date. geez... that could have all the makings of a very, short and uncomfortable evening if you're unlucky - and it's more probable that you'll be unlucky in a blind date than lucky, I think.
February 20, 2006 (2)
Today is such a red-letter day that I am going to have TWO, count them, TWO blog entries today. Wow. I'm feeling better already, aren't you?
Poem:
Iran's getting nuclear weapons,
Learning India and Pakistan's lessons,
Our planet will be destroyed by 2050
I'll be kicking it at sixty
Hopefully, I'm wrong about it
Maybe Georgie will have a nervous fit
(after Cheney kicks the bucket)
And we'll all have a party for it.
But, hey, who cares about that?
We've got cheese whiz and McDonald's fat!
Let's all have some french fry parties
And buy Chinese-made goodies!
That is, if we live to enjoy it.
Have a happy, happy, happy day, guys!!
February 20, 2006
Coffee in the morning...whooda thunk? It actually works! I feel awake in the morning for the first time in a very long while. The sad thing about this is that I bought the coffee maker more than two months ago, and this is the first time I've actually bothered to use it. I'm beginning to think I'm more like my grandfather than I realized. When he died, we found THREE George Foreman grills in his trailer. THREE. They weren't even very different - I mean, you could have the regular size Foreman grill, and maybe the one with a bun warmer, and then another one (there've got to be more than just that), and that would sort of make sense in a weird way, but these were all the same kind. I have movies I've never watched, and bought simply because I heard they were good. Same thing with books. The bad thing is, I really don't have the money to be doing such silly stuff. ah, well. Such is life. At least I have an eclectic collection of movies. :) So anyways, the coffee maker!! It's from Gevalia Kaffee, and it has a timer! I know, most nice ones do, but I'VE never had a coffeemaker with a timer before. I set it for this morning, and ta-da! There was my coffee waiting for me when I got up. How awesome is that? So awesome there aren't even words.
February 19, 2006
Ice dancing?? WTF??? I have always enjoyed ice skating and dancing separately, but whoever came up with ice dancing has a cart with a few bricks short of a load for a brain. ICE DANCING??? I'd rather watch curling.
Or not. Curling is...indescribable.
On a better note, at least these ice dancing people look like they're actually having fun on the ice as opposed to ice skaters who often feel just a like they're made of wood.
My students are by turns disappointing and by turns quite impressive. After talking to Becky last week, I am now completely convinced that I am NOT asking too much of them. Little whiners. Apparently, hardly anyone uses the five paragraph format anymore because it's too formulaic. Precisely! Then the dingleheads only have to worry about content, not format. But no....they can't even manage that. Seriously...my IQ drops every time I have to grade these things. Camille will back me up on that one. :)
I have discovered I don't hate praise songs as much as I used to. Tonight, I even signed up to audition for the church choir. Should be interesting - they want me to play piano, for heaven's sake. I just don't know if I'm a good enough player to handle church music. The guy they have now is really very good, somewhat Bruce Hornsby-ish, and I KNOW I can't pull that off. I guess we'll see if I crash and burn with my National Anthem audition.
February 7, 2006
Word Document
February 4, 2006
I love cable connections! I haven't had access to internet this fast since the last time I used my parents' cable. :) Takes about three minutes for my wussy modem connection to load PageBuilder, and it took all of five seconds just now. Awesomeness...
I signed up for the Sonoma Diet today - whee! Some of the recipes look really yummy. That's the main reason I signed up. I'm looking for recipes that I don't have to feel guilty about making. Regular cookbooks are not overweight-people friendly. So, I'm going shopping tomorrow, and I'm forcing my mom and brother to go along with it. Feta cheese and olive oil, here I come! I'm not really looking forward to the eggplant, but I figure I may as well try it out.
David's heading back from St. Louis on Monday and I'll pick him up then. It'll be good to see him again. I had a grand ole time proof-reading a paper for him. It's rather fun to use the proverbial red ink on a sibling. Much more satisfying that way.
Best songs in the world are on "O Brother, Where Art Thou." Check it out.
February 3, 2006
To anyone out there who actually cares about themselves and their personal future: the world in which we all live is toxic. No matter how well you try to live, or how well you try to eat, if you live long enough and don't die of something accidentally, you will get cancer. You're lucky if you get certain kinds, like breast cancer or colon cancer, or skin cancer, most of which are survivable if you go to the doctor often enough. If you are one of the unlucky ones who get lung cancer, or renal cell carcinoma (kidneys), or pancreatic cancer, your chances of survival are less than 5%. Not as if it matters all that much since everyone dies anyway, but it's certainly something to keep in mind. Never waste any moment you have with the ones you love and who love you. If you do, you'll kick yourself for it until you get some sort of nasty cancer from too much processed food and polluted air and water yourself. There's too much to live for to waste it on trivial crap.
As a general rule, I find John Lennon irritatingly naive and utopian. There were some things that I think he had right though (marrying Yoko was NOT one of them). He always focused on how his music - his greatest asset - could help the world and bring light into the lives of others. Even the silly stunts like calling random people to spread messages of love have a beautiful meaning behind them. Instead of spending all our time railing against "the machine" which will just give you a nasty headache, perhaps we should all simply do our part to make other people smile just a little bit more. Besides, it's about the only real change you can effect in this world - face it, the planet will continue to be flushed down the toilet by large corporate interests and corrupt politicians. We may as well focus on smiling about what we can still smile about until we have to develop ways of colonizing other planets because we've destroyed our own.
Peace, love and happiness, y'all - it really doesn't make the world go round, but it makes it a much more liveable place.
January 28, 2006
This week went by like a blur. Monique is out of town, so I get to spend twice as much time as usual with the boys this week and next week. While I usually enjoy spending time with them, this week was unmitigated torture. For some reason, Albert - who is seven - has decided to reject any and all authority. He refused to say the Pledge at school and got himself in trouble. He started screaming when he didn't get to play a computer game. He yelled about hating his mom. Seriously, I can only take so much of that before I start going a little crazy too. Thankfully, when Henri gets upset, he gets annoying - as in REALLY whiny. That's much easier to deal with than freaking out screaming.
I read a Louis L'Amour book for the first time in a while today. It helps to pass the time at the gym. I just love the good, old-fashioned value system that he operates under. It's like a handbook for understanding the quintessential frontier man and the American ethos based on frontier values. Anyway, it would be fascinating to compare the treatment of the West in the writings of twentieth century author Louis L'Amour as compared to say, Bret Harte, a nineteenth century Western author. Okay, I'll put my nerd hat on now.
Top Ten Reasons why the Late Show with David Letterman is stupid:
10. Wait, is it the late show or the night show? Who really cares?
9. Inane interview questions
8. Man on fire
7, Will it Float
6. Late Show equations
5. David Letterman's (lack of) appeal
4. It's not Conan
3. It's one hour too long every night
2. It makes Leno seem funny
1. Top Ten lists
Conan rocks! (but he's on WAY too late...last time I watched Conan was over Christmas break when I could sleep in until noon....oh, precious days....)
January 21, 2006
Mailing presents is really expensive! It's almost an entire extra present just to mail the darn things. Mike's nieces and nephew all have their birthdays within a month of each other, so that's four presents to shop for at once. Oh, well...it's rather fun deciding whether or not to get the glue together sparkly jewelry or the more educational "Alphabet Food Book.
Being me...a complete nerd...I chose the educational book. :) They'll thank me when they're older. Or maybe not, who knows if I'll be able to keep up with them for that long.
"Keeping up Appearances" is I think one of my favorite British comedies. "If we CAN'T afford a gardener, it's all the more reason to appear as though we CAN afford a gardener." Classic. "Do you think there's life after death?" "I hope so...there's not much before." the best from tonight: "I met a born-again Christian!" "Where?" "In the pub!" "It's musta been 'is night off..." When you say these in your head, you a snooty British accent for the first, a sort of middle class accent for the second, and a full-blown Cockney accent for the third. Have fun with it!
January 20, 2006
The weekend has arrived! How exciting! The weekend, with its myriad charms - reading three books, working on my thesis, and prepping for class next week. I love two days all to myself, just me, no classes, no distractions. Other than the one-eyed monster sucking up electricity in my living room.
So, my legs feel like jelly. I worked out again today, on the assumption that if I did not, my legs would not feel like jelly, they would feel like stiff boards. I prefer jelly to boards. Anytime. I'm going on the Biggest Loser premise - you combine a rigorous workout routine with a good, healthy diet, and results will happen. I doubt if they'll be on the scale of the Biggest Loser - umm...that guy lost 30 pounds in two weeks on the show last week. But, it might start the slimming down to go faster. If I can reach within twenty pounds of my goal weight by Spring Break, I'm buying some new clothes. :) Reward as incentive. Actually, it's kind of nice. I can just work out and let my mind go while I'm there, it helps to do something physical to release the tension of school and family. The two reasons I packed on twenty pounds in the past two years. Hooray for me. Time to get those bad boys off.
And now on a happier note - I found dried figs at Market of Choice! I LOVE dried figs! The best ones were the ones in Austria that were imported from Greece. These aren't that good. But they aren't that nasty, sticky excuse for a fig you normally see in the states. I nearly made myself sick on them tonight.
Reasons to love living in Austria:
* cheap (relatively), high quality mozzarella, brie, havarti, parmesan, swiss, provolone, gruyere...you get the idea
* can travel across Vienna during rush hour in no more than an hour, using public transport
* A half an hour from anywhere in Vienna, and you are in the woods. Real woods. Like Hansel and Gretl
* Water piped in directly from the Carinthian Alps. Need I say more?
* Paprika goat cheese. It's in a class all it's own. Although, herbed goat cheese comes in a close second
* Habsburg stuff EVERYWHERE!!!
* really cool coal grate covers
* Smart cars. Oh yeah... Rock on, dudes!
* H & M
* Many opportunities to exercise like a normal person
* food does not come in stupid, individually sized packages! and if they do, there aren't very many of them
* Marianhilferstrasse
And the number one reason to love living in Austria (and by Austria, I mean Vienna):
*Scheisse auf der Strasse!!! Wien: sauberest Stadt im Europa. Ha! Die Luft, vielleicht. :D
January 19, 2006
Tonight was my first night at "InShape" a local gym. I love the ambience there - very laid back, only a few machines of each type. One of the annoying things about Gold's Gym (other than that they are money grubbers) is how commercial it all seems, with so many different machines and duplicate sets of weights and such. I rather enjoy the sort of "I'm a local business, don't expect much in amenities, but enjoy the service" sort of feeling at this new gym.
I just read a review response by my advisor to Hermann Rebel, a rather odd individual - one of those people who write one very well-received book and don't do much else. Well, this man apparently spends his time writing the occasional scathing review, one of which was directed at my advisor. It was absolutely hilarious reading his response, because David is so laid back and always seems so jolly - he's not always, but he usually seems like it. Well, this review was not laid back or jolly at all. "I consider Rebel's question ahistorical and irrelevant" is one of his comments - this doesn't seem like much, unless you've ever read any academic writing. You NEVER demonstrate your own emotions in these things, and by the end of the article, it was pretty obvious how David felt about Rebel. Plus he called him a shithead. Not in the article, of course. :) Anyway, it gives me hope that all of academia isn't just an insular bubble of relativism.
January 16, 2006
There was actually a party at my apartment complex last night. That would make a grand total of TWO the whole time I've lived here, which is now going on more than 1.5 years. It's actually kind of exciting, when I move out, I'll have lived in the same place, paying my own rent, for more than two years. Anyway, there was screaming and laughter and I couldn't tell where it was coming from. The concept was so novel that I didn't really even get mad about it.
I've been having a running conversation with Mike for the past few days about how the American school system should be restructured. Since he's actually a teacher and has actually taught in public schools, I think he's probably more qualified than I am to talk, but we agree on a surprisingly large number of things. Here's the list:
* Languages taught in high school should be French, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese. Every student should be required to be fluent in Spanish by graduation.
* There needs to be a great deal more focus on specialized courses. Students who want to go into a trade should be able to do so, and students who want to go to college should have a more varied selection of courses, such as economics, business, or actual humanities courses taught like they would be college.
* For art and music students (this is all Mike) there shouldn't be the same math/science reqs. There should be a "Math for Humanities" style course that teaches useful things like investing, balancing a checkbook and basic geometry for home projects.
* There needs to be a system of checks on teachers so that some teachers can get pay raises based on merit. Overall, teachers should get paid more, and administrators (and their buildings) should get paid less.
There are other things too, but these are the biggies. Mike suggested that an Indian language, such as Hindi, also be taught. However, I don't think that's necessary since one of the national langugages of India is English. Thank you, British imperialism! (and now, American imperialism/hegemony)
January 15, 2006
I'm watching the Ewan McGregor Polar Bear special on OPB, and he's going on a sled ride with an actual denizen of Churchill who used to hunt polar bears for meat and fur. Ewan McGregor is all decked out in his cold weather finery, and this guy Peter McDonald is wearing a baseball cap, and two shirts. Amazing. Probably has an ape heart. :D On a lighter note, Ewan McGregor saying "mush" is his silly accent is hilarious!
January 14, 2006
Saturday Night Live is not what it used to be. I just got home from an affentittengeil party at Elizabeth's place, and I turned on the TV for the few minutes I will still be awake before I go to bed, and all there is that's on is SNL. Gone are the days of Eddie Murphy, or even Dana Carvey. Oh, the sad sad world we live in.
So, for a completely different change of pace - it looks like Alito will be confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice. What I find fascinating about this is that when he joins the Court, there will be five Catholics, two Protestants and two Jews. Roman Catholics do comprise the largest portion of Christians in the US (~25%, with Baptists next around 17%), but I don't think those numbers are representative. Perhaps those who voted for Bush based on the judicial appointments will get what they wanted - conservative justices on the court. But then again, there could always be surprises. From what I've seen of them, the two new nominees seem most interested in interpreting the Constitution as carefully as possible, as opposed to the liberal method of a "living document." While there are pros and cons to each method, I tend to prefer the more strict method. I'm not too hot on Supreme Court justices legislating from the bench. But then, I think our entire system of government makes no sense, so....maybe I should just move.
SNL really, really sucks.
January 13, 2006
I am personally of the opinion that John Stossel of 20/20 on ABC is quite obnoxious. But the show often does have a number of interesting topics. Tonight, it was on the state of American education and how American education is terrible and continues to stagnate in its terrible state even as government leaders propose new useless legislation and triple the amount of money spent per student on average in the past twenty years. His proposition was to overhaul the American school system on a European model (specifically Belgium) wherein students are given their tax dollars for education (on average $10,000 per student per year in the US) to choose which school they wish to attend. In this way, schools will have to compete for business, just like anyone else, and this will improve schools.
I'm inclined to believe this, because Europeans are obviously so much better educated than Americans that they must be doing something right. However, teacher unions are much too powerful in this country to allow anything that would threaten their completely secure jobs. After all, would you want to change the status quo if you're an incompetent teacher? Competent teachers work their butts off doing WAY more than they're getting paid for while incompetent teachers put in only the minimum amount of effort required, and they paid exactly the same according to union guidelines. That certainly isn't fair, and certainly doesn't encourage good teachers to put in much effort. It's rather like communist Russia in some ways - everyone has a good job, even a great job, but very few feel the incentive actually to work.
January 12, 2006
Have you ever noticed how much stuff everyone uses and then throws away? Lunches for example - first, we'll do homemade, then fast food. Homemade - say you have a sandwich, there's a baggie. Then if you have fruit or veggies, usually in a smaller plastic baggie. Perhaps a napkin. Then something packaged, like string cheese or yogurt or pudding. Each of them in plastic containers. Fast food - at least twice as much garbage, possibly just as much plastic products, and certainly far more paper waste.
One of my pet peeves - disposable cleaning products. Are people so hygienic-obsessed that they have to use a disposable toilet bowl cleaner? It really isn't going to help decrease the number of germs that are in your bathroom, and if you use them, you get to be part of the waste problem sweeping the nation. I remember someone telling me they'd watched a television program telling them that there's still plenty of space for landfills and there really isn't some sort of serious garbage problem in the US. What is the relevance of that? I'm sure we could fill up most of the state of Nevada with garbage and still have plenty of space left. Is that what we want to be, though? Let's just waste because we can? I like to hope people aren't quite that selfish.
But I'm not holding my breath.
January 11, 2006
Today was the first meeting of our graduate history colloquium, which was spent primarily discussing what we thought about the topics under discussion. :) That was just fine with me. For some reason, wireless only works intermittently in my apartment, and my notes were on my laptop. So - I couldn't quite remember the differences between the articles since I read them all today. I'll be better prepared next week.... :)
After our colloquium, some of us went over to Rennie's and had a rousing discussion about various Native American legal issues. I now realize just exactly how out of my depth I was when I decided to research the Boldt Decision for my Senior project. Just a little more involved than I thought at the time, that's for sure. Sure is a funky situation, though, the legal status of a "domestic dependent nation."
January 9, 2006
Chris has once again proven that his amazing kung fu powers are far beyond the capabilities of this mere mortal. He's already working on the reaction paper for week 2! I haven't even read the articles for week 1! Speaking of...I should probably do that.
Bought my books today. $247. Need I say more? It's a bunch of c
