I feel the best I've felt about my history class in weeks. Months. Really since I started. Maybe I'm not kicking butt, but I am most definatetly on top of things. We had an essay test today, over a book I'd read hardly any of, but I read and skimmed the most pertinent parts, and I walked out of the classroom feeling genuinely good about it. The last few tests (wait, I mean ALL of them) I've felt like I really sucked it up, but I ended up with A-'s. I really think I slammed this one. It was even fairly well-organized. We shall see how it turns out.
Morning reading: Whopper of the Week, featuring an outright lie from Rumsfeld that represents all that is wrong with the current administration and how they cleverly duped us into an immoral war. Nothing like Slate to get a person filled with rage before breakfast. Also, and less controversially, there's an informative article about weighting of polls that was news to me. Now, sadly, I must leave the internet and do my Spanish homework.
Good news--no, I'd even say great news--the deadline on my paper has been extended to next Friday (a week and a half from now). HUGE sigh of relief. Now I don't have to fail the essay test tomorrow and can actually do the reading for it. This is good. Now I have to go back upstairs and rescue my Gobstoppers from Sarah. She was going to "watch" them for me while I went to the library to do more research for this confounded paper. But now I'm going to do other schoolwork, and save the library for tomorrow, or at least later tonight. It's open until 11, which is almost as late as anyone would reasonably want to use it. It would be slightly more useful if it were open til midnight, but maybe that's just an indication that my nerdiness is growing. We didn't think it was possible.
Surprisingly, I was rather productive last night, so that's how I justify the lost half hour on the computer that's occurring now. There's just too much great news out there for me to keep away! Those I'm featuring include a William Saletan update on the candidates, and if you have to ask which candidates, clearly you haven't been paying attention lately here. (It's subtitled "The Democrats Turn Left", which I love both for its rhetorical genius and the implications that my beloved Dems are rediscovering their backbones.) Also a week-old piece on Howard Dean and how he's becoming a viable candidate. But the most intriguing and sure-to-be controversial piece of the day is a Billings Gazette article that discusses the assertation by a scientist that chimps ought to be classified in the same genus as humans, since they are so similar to us. I'm not at all sure how I feel about that, but it's definately an interesting thought.
Well, I realized earlier it's been several days since I've written here, but I actually have very little to say. All the things I previewed in the last post happened (except the rock climbing was just my family, not the whole crew). It was fun. I got essentially no homework done, which is a problem. It puts me very behind in all my classes except Spanish. And today I got sunburnt from less than an hour outside, my sandals gave me blisters, and it was about a zillion degrees in my afternoon classrooms. But by far the worst news today is that the research paper for my history class that I thought I had until the end of finals week to do (that would be almost three weeks) is instead due next Tuesday, in one week. I'm seriously freaking out over this, especially since with the camping trip this weekend, I won't have much time to work on it this weekend. So don't be surprised if you don't hear much from me in the near future, though it's true that I often end up on the computer when I should be hard at work, as you all probably know by now.
I HATE BEING SICK!!! I skipped all my classes today and slept. I did write an essay and renew my library books, but that was the extent of my productivity. Yesterday my only productivity was doing three loads of laundry. I have the brain capacity of a slug. I need to get better.
I work tomorrow and Saturday, a total of 16 hours. Not looking forward to that. I think I'll go home for Sunday and Monday. Sunday I can chill out and work on schoolwork, and Monday the venture crew is going rock climbing, which excites me. I really should go to camp and volunteer...but I don't want to.
Sarah cut her hair today! It's really cute, and a lot shorter than I thought she'd get. That's four of us in two weeks who've hacked off large quantities of hair. Oh, and my mom just sent me hair clips in the mail...a few days late, I'm afraid. But I definately appreciate the thought.
Fact of the day: President Clinton was impeached, but not convicted. Why? Because the impeachment charges didn't include his perjury in the Paula Jones case, the only crime it was proven he did commit. Some speculate it was overlooked because Republicans got overexcited at the beginning of the impeachment process, and didn't pay attention to all their options. I think it's great. Well, maybe not great, but certainly funny.
I'm getting burnout from school. It's really getting overwhelming. Everyone keeps saying, "oh, it's only a few more weeks." Four weeks is an eternity. I don't know how I'll make it.
On the plus side, Rachel and I managed to track down Ed, a long-lost friend. Hopefully this time we stay in touch.
The cold is not leaving. The sore throat is really getting rather painful at times, specifically right when I get up and any time I haven't recently taken Ibuprofen. And I've gone through one and a half packages of cough drops (don't worry, I mean the small tubes with 10 cough drops.) I'm sleeping nine hours a night (sometimes as many as ten with naps) and I still can't make it go away. I'm spent. But I have only one class tomorrow, so I'll be able to relax a little. And there's the possibility of a nap, which is always a good thing.
Update on the Democratic presidential candidates in Slate today. Brilliant argument from Al Sharpton that despite Bush's cutting taxes, he's actually raising them because state and local governments still have to fund services but won't be getting as much revenue from federal income tax(especially inheritance and dividend income tax, i.e. from the wealthy), and thus will have to raise sales taxes and other regressive forms of tax. Thus working class Americans will bear more tax burden proportionately. So, Sharpton concludes, Bush isn't cutting taxes, he's shifting them. It's not 100 percent accurate, since technically Bush has no control over state and local taxes, but he has put state governments in a tight spot with his tax cuts. If it catches on with the public, it's an idea that could put Bush out of office. And it won't have to be by Sharpton either, which is a relief, as several other candidates took up his argument and ran with it.
Carol Moseley-Braun is really starting to irritate me. Of course, I want a woman president as much as anybody (I'm still peeved that my dad voted for Reagan over the Mondale/Ferrarro ticket in 1984.) But I don't want her to be elected because she's a woman, I want her to be the best candidate. Moseley-Braun has stopped even pretending to have a platform. At this same town hall debate, she said that the thing that sets her apart from the candidates "is really the most obvious: I am a woman, and we do things differently. Women focus in on the harmony and security of the whole community." While it may be true that women operate differently than men, the difference is percieved as an obstacle, not as an aid, and this won't help her. Moreover, she's an embarrassment to my sex and my party by running without a program. Shame on you, Carol Moseley-Braun. I guess we must wait another four years, and then pretend to like Hilary Clinton.
And, to compensate for the highly liberal bent of this post, I give you a link to a conservative blog with a great name: The Hedgehog Report. Why it's calling itself the Hedgehog Report is beyond me, but I'm amused by it at any rate. This guy is more conservative than I am liberal, but he's very well-informed, so he gets points.
Hmmm...it's been 36 hours since my last post, and I'm not sure I have anything interesting to add. I did go see the school production of The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams's mostly autobiographical play. It was really good. REALLY good. The acting was great, and the play was well-directed. Because I'm not seeming to have much to say, here's a couple quotes from the play for y'all:
"The future becomes the present, the present the past, and the past turns to everlasting regret if you don't plan for it."
"Blue is wrong for roses." "Yes, but it's right for you."
I took a two-hour nap today, trying to fight off the cold Sarah gave me. My sore throat fluctuates in severity, but I finally gave in and bought more cough drops (I now have four varieties...this should be troubling, but I find it entertaining.) And now I'm considering going to bed even though it's not yet 11. Since the sun and heat will wake me at 7:30 anyways, it's not such a terrible idea. But alas, I must get some more work done first. Tomorrow should be a very full day.
Still exhausted. But in a good way, more or less. Ran the COPE course all day Saturday. I belayed for three hours straight, and spent a fair portion of that time six inches off the ground, being held down by a rather large scout holding the back of my harness. It was fun. But even though belaying was the only remotely strenuous thing I did, my muscles are so sore. It seems being tensed up for three hours can work a person's muscles. Long-term though, it's a good thing, because I need to get into shape before camp. Saturday morning I ran initiative games and trust exercises for a really great group of teenagers and adults. We even did a trust fall, but the highest platform we had was less than three feet off the ground (it was a log), so it was a little off. The high course went well. It hailed for about ten minutes, but other than that the weather was pretty decent except for being ridiculously cold for May. (It snowed in the mountains this weekend. We were in the foothills. Do the math.)
As it turns out, the reason Jorj was so late in picking me up is that he fell asleep. He'd been up all night studying and then sat down this afternoon and slept for four hours. I was strangely impressed.
Friday night we arrived at camp to find out that we weren't really running the event as a whole, just the course on Saturday. So we went to town and watched Matrix: Reloaded. I enjoyed it surprisingly a lot. Now I want to watch the first one again, and actually pay attention this time.
As it turns out, teriyaki is a local thing. (Or I should say, a West coast thing.) Rachel informed me they don't have teriyaki places in Kentucky. This makes good logical sense, since Seattle has a much higher proportion of Asian immigrants than small-town Kentucky, I'm sure, but here there are so many teriyaki places we take them for granted. (There are two within a block of campus. It's not a large campus.) To see her sadness over the lack of teriyaki, check out her blog, which may be a silly thing to suggest, since she and I decided we're both pretty much the only ones who read each other's blogs.
Well, right about now I should be on my way to camp to run the COPE course, but Jorj is late. Or to be more specific, he never said when exactly he'd be coming, so I thought he'd be here to pick me up an hour ago or more, and he isn't, and I haven't heard back from him when he's coming. Silly boys. They never know how to plan ahead properly.
It's definately far too cold for May, I think. It's pushing 50 right now. Come on! We'd been having weeks of 70 degree weather, and now the weather report calls for showers, maybe even thunderstorms (and we can't run the course if there's lightning.) My toes say: too cold! too cold!! I've been wearing my new flip-flops quite a lot lately.
While looking for more information about the democratic presidential candidates, I ran across this Slate article from 2000 about whether a non-Protestant could be elected president. The short version is that if the right Jewish or Catholic candidate came along, they'd have a fair shot, but Muslims, Mormons, and atheists need not apply. There are some fascinating points--such as that Americans would rather have a gay president than an atheist one.
And now I'm going to see if I can track down my long johns. Rachel borrowed them a couple weeks ago, and I haven't seen them since. They would be nice for this weekend, which looks to be rather chilly and wet. Hope you all have a great weekend, and those of you who are here, have fun at Quadstock!
Is it bedtime yet? I'm thoroughly exhausted. I had five and a half hours of class, two hours of studying, a two-hour-long date auction for charity (more about that later), plus went grocery shopping. I'm rather surprised I haven't collapsed in a heap yet.
So about the auction. It benefited Calcutta Club, which is a program that helps SU students travel to India to work with Mother Theresa's Sisters of Charity. They charged $2 to get in, and we figure there were at least 250 people in attendence, so that's $500 on admission alone. They auctioned 16 students, getting anywhere from $55 to $500 for each of them. They must have done very well. It was so much fun, and even though I couldn't keep up in the bidding it was still great. Unfortunately, it was about a zillion degrees in there, and nobody would turn on air conditioning or open a door. We left exhausted but happy.
And now, my bed is calling. Definately time for sleep.
And yes, again. Why quit when you're on a roll? New statistics show that less than half of Americans (48%) want Bush re-elected (YAY!!!) However, only 32% could name a Democratic candidate. (For the source of the statistics, click here) Less than a third of Americans even know one person who's running!! This is pathetic. I myself can name several. John Kerry, John Edwards, Howard Dean, Gephardt, Lieberman, Carol Mosely-Braun, Rev. Al Sharpton. That's eight, and I think there are nine, officially. If I can name nearly all of them, why can't normal people name one or two? Just goes to show I'm smarter than the average bear.
OK, I realize this will be the third post of the day, and it's still fairly early, but I had to post this article. It's the history of a cursed artifact, a piece of rabbit fur brought to the top of Everest by Jon Krakauer despite its known snowstorm-summoning abilities. Great article. If that doesn't hold your attention, try the political compass test, which very accurately places you politically amongst current political figures I'm very near to the Dalai Lama, which I think is awesome.
Aww...as it turns out you can't post pictures on the free version of Blogger. I'd have to upgrade, and spend actual money here, which we all know is not going to happen. So just trust that it's cute, and most of you will see it soon or have already seen it.
It's done! My hair is officially short! It's really cute, though not quite so curly as I thought it would get. Lindz says it makes me look 10 years older. I don't know about that, but it definately looks good. It's chin length with some shorter layers and waves that do whatever they want to. It's long enough in the front to tuck behind my ears, which is a plus.
Ooh, Sarah and I picked out our room for next year. It's her old room, which I love. Unfortunately, we do have to empty it out before summer; can't use it as storage, even though they aren't housing people here over the summer.
My heart goes out to Rachel, who got her wisdom teeth pulled today. She reported beforehand that she was stocked up on lime Jell-O and tapes of The Muppet Show, so it should all be fine.
For several hours yesterday and today I tried to study. Really, I meant to. But Hegel, though genius, is almost completely unintelligible. (My prof says Hegel's much easier to understand in German but doesn't translate well. But then he wrote his dissertation on Hegel.) After two hours of deconstructing it, I understand the article well enough to read it.
Sarah and her father are partly to blame for my distraction. We spent probably an hour and a half online posing "Sir" riddles. (Have you heard about the Jewish knight with the long tape measure? Oh yes, I've met Sir Veyor!) It was great fun, probably the most intellectual fun I've had in weeks. But it did mean I didn't do any of my homework.
And this morning it was the sunlight that thwarted my ambition to study. It was gorgeous out, so Mia and I went out to study in the Quad. You can guess how efficient I was. But hopefully I'll get slightly tan before Kentucky. (I discovered today just how blindingly white my legs are. I'm not exaggerating either--It's truly disturbing.)
Tomorrow might be haircut day! My history prof got a haircut, and she looks a lot younger. It's really becoming on her. I have high hopes for mine.
Ugh, what a long weekend it's been! On Friday my dad came over for lunch because he was working at his office in Bellevue (as opposed to the office in our basement) and I enticed him with promises of yummy food. The clam linguine was grand, as usual. Friday was also "Pirate Day" at the soup kitchen, thanks to Sam. We wore eye patches and asked each other if we'd heard about the latest pirate movie (it's rated "ARRR!"). We made tofu curry soup, which was as ridiculous as it sounds. It gets points for creativity, though. After the soup kitchen, I packed all my dirty clothes (and there were a lot of them!) and got a ride back to my folks' house from my boss. Funny thing, though; after getting home, I didn't see any of my family for 24 hours. I went out with my high school buds Friday night and then worked all day Saturday.
Saturday night we watched The Truth About Charlie, a remake of Charade. It was actually pretty good, and makes me want to watch the original with Audrey Hepburn.
Sunday I got up bright and early (pre-8 AM, can you believe it?) but after breakfast went back to bed. I slept gloriously. I got to do some shopping with my mom, and bought two tank tops, two pairs of flip-flops, and a summer bag, plus the new Five Iron Frenzy CD for my brother, who just turned 16 (so old!)
And the Survivor...how do I even start? We had a grand party at my house for the viewing of the final episode involving salmon dip, deviled eggs, and rhubarb crisp. I was totally blindsided by Jenna's winning immunity in the last challenge. That threw everything. But even when that happened, I didn't think she had a snowball's chance in hell of winning the final vote. I figured she'd get two or three votes (Heidi, Alex, Deanna?) but no more. And six to one in her favor! That was just plain ridiculous. She stole it from Rob. I'm sad he didn't win. It would have been a victory for wisecracking nerds everywhere. Jeff Probst called him "the smartest person ever on Survivor not to win the million." In other words, only Richard Hatch was smarter. I buy it.
At last the paper is over, as is the history essay test. I didn't finish the reading, and I intentionally answered one of the questions in relation to the chapter I didn't read. I did finish the paper, more or less. It's finished, and turned in, but not quite so long or as good as I might have hoped.
The hair craze goes on. I wished today that I'd had a polaroid camera to take pictures of some girls' hair so I'd have pictures to show the stylist when I go in to have it cut. Sarah says I don't have a face like Meg Ryan, so her hairstyles won't work on me. I'm seeking a second opinion.
The second-to-last episode of Survivor was today. My boy Rob is still doing really well, and it looks to me like there's no way he can lose. He got rid of Heidi, who was his biggest threat, and unless he fails to get rid of Butch, or people hold grudges from when Rob broke his promises and alliances, he's pretty much guaranteed to win. If I were one of them, I'd give him credit for having connived his way through, fooling everyone. It remains to be seen what they'll think, but I don't have to wait long--just until Sunday!! I'm having a Survivor party with the fam, so that'll be lots of fun.
Definately been watching too much Elimidate lately. It's Masumi's fault. And I've been eating bad food from the cave in an attempt to get more work done here. Clam Linguine tomorrow from my pasta guy!! Should be delicious.
Surprise, surprise, the paper's not done yet. Here's what I have accomplished: listed my objectives in writing the paper, ate twice as many calories as I should eat in a day (not even kidding: Krispy Kremes, the aforementioned ice cream, pasta alfredo, and a Mt. Dew, which I'll need to finish this paper, to name a few), typed the heading and page numbers, looked online for cute new haircuts (a la Meg Ryan), ate a pound of carrots (sadly, I'm not joking), and wrote three sentences of the introduction, only one of which I really like. Somehow I have not yet reached panic mode; although in a lot of ways I'm doing college like my mom did (stressing out and studying), I still can procrastinate like a pro, just like my dad did. And Evan would be proud of what a slacker I'm becoming.
Blame Rachel for the haircut thing. She just hacked her beautiful, very long, blond hair to a chin-length choppy style, which is really cute and fits her so well. And since then the rest of us are thinking a change might do us good. Her roommate also cut off several inches, and Sarah and I are both dreaming of low-maintanence short cuts.
I'll be brief, as I have yet to start the paper I spoke of yesterday. But I had to feature the "What do you think?" column in the Onion, which this week addresses the issue of Iraqi protesters who continue to be killed by Marines, despite the war being over. My favorite response was "Look, nobody said these people would welcome us with open arms. Except Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Fox News..." As for the homework, I have a pint of Dreyers Dreamery NY Cheesecake ice cream in my freezer, which amazingly enough is keeping it frozen. Sadly, my marmalade is now frozen as well, but one has to make sacrifices if one wants ice cream.
ACK! My brain miscalculated and I have a history essay test on Thursday, in addition to the philosophy paper that's due. My brain is overloading and I'm totally going crazy. I even skipped Lindy class tonight to study. That went surprisingly well: I read Spanish poetry with two dictionaries to help me. I got through three poems in half an hour, but I actually understand them. Also made progress on the history reading I'm ridiculously behind on. And now I'm kicking back with Gilmore Girls, my recent addiction. But of course, because I'm me, I'm multitasking. I think I don't know how to relax. Last Friday, Sam from the soup kitchen made multiple cracks about how I'm constantly in a hurry (I retorted that I was merely being efficient. He didn't really buy it.)
We had a great rain and wind storm last night. This morning, though, it's bright and sunny again. Crazy spring weather.
Last night Sarah and I watched Wayne's World, which she had never seen before, and *sob* she didn't like it!!! My world is falling apart. She did find me a Hamlet poster yesterday though, so I think we're ok.
I got up early this morning to finish some reading and was actually relatively efficient. Go me! And now breakfast is calling my name.
It may be procrastination, but I've finally broken down and started my own 'blog. Hopefully I'll rant here and my friends will get to stop telling me to chill out. Yesterday I found out that I missed the first Democratic presidential debate, which was rebroadcast on C-SPAN twice. I missed them both. Today, instead of rebroadcasting it again on a weekday, they're showing six hours of the House of Representatives session. How boring! I have yet to find video of the debates online, but I haven't given up hope.
Today in Slate was an intriguing hypothesis about Bush's new stance on North Korea . Apparently, Bush isn't stupid, he's playing hardball in negotiations. It all looks pretty much the same to me.
Weather today was pretty good; very sunny but a little chilly, with a pleasant breeze. I sat out in the quad and read for an hour before the wind changed and the fountain started spraying me. The reading was for my history class; I still have about 70 pages to read and comment on before tomorrow. I guess after dinner I'm locking myself in the Student Center's quiet study room with a caffeinated beverage.
Today is Cinco de Mayo. I had some rather disappointing fajitas for lunch in the cafeteria's foolish attempt to celebrate international holidays through food. I can't believe I'm looking forward to not eating cafeteria food, as camp food is much worse, and I'll be spending six weeks on that starting shortly after school's out.
