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08.30.02 >1847 Hmmm - which Americans did you talk to, exactly? What got me was this part: Sixty-three percent rated the job the American educational system does in teaching students about First Amendment freedoms as either "fair" or "poor." Five percent rated the educational system's job in this area as excellent.Not that American teachers or professors are 100% objective, but who else do they expect to teach kids these things? 08.28.02 >1117 Probably the most embarrassing moment from yesterday was being made to stand in front of my entire College & Career group and treated to a deliberately off-tune rendition of "Happy Birthday." Otherwise, the day was pretty good! Bought my books, hung out with Murm and discussed our options for getting furniture for our new digs, went out to lunch, then came home via BART. Things seem surreal at the moment - there's too much going on all at once, so to jump from one environment to a completely different one has me blinking and wishing summer had just started all over again. On second thought, maybe it's a good thing summer's over! - - An excerpt from this interesting article that a friend sent me: George W. Bush had a rare opportunity after 11 September. He could have attempted to reverse the most toxic tide in the Western world: the sappy multiculturalism that insists all cultures are equally valid, even as they’re trying to kill us. He could have argued that Western self-loathing is a psychosis we can no longer afford. He could have told the teachers’ unions that there was more to the second world war than the internment of Japanese-Americans, and it’s time they started teaching it to our children. A couple of days after 11 September, I wrote in these pages, ‘Those Western nations who spent last week in Durban finessing and nuancing evil should understand now that what is at stake is whether the world’s future will belong to liberal democracy and the rule of law, or to darker forces.’ But a year later, after a brief hiccup, the Western elites have resumed finessing and nuancing evil all the more enthusiastically, and the ‘compassionate conservative’ shows no stomach for a fight at least as important as any on the battlefield. The Islamists are militarily weak but culturally secure. A year on, the West is just the opposite. There’s more than one way to lose a war.Diversity is championed to a large degree on American soil, but I wonder how often that's led us to turn a blind eye on diversity's nemesis, which hasn't been abolished simply because "minorities" seem to have more civil liberties than they did fifty years ago. That nemesis is Ignorance - misplaced, misused and twisted in meaning and rhetoric, and it's still alive and kicking. 08.26.02 >1300 Operation TIPS was started in January of this year in response to 9/11. Earlier this afternoon a friend forwarded an article to me that made me grimace in disgust (read : "grimace" means "negative reaction" in general, not that I actually grimaced). What I find amazing is the great lengths our government will go to to incite more fear and paranoia among its citizens. Yeah, don't leave the job to Al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden - we seem to do more damage to ourselves than they ever could. 08.25.02 >2355 BTW, I fergot to mention - Black Hawk Down on DVD totally ROCKS! Okie, back to your regularly scheduled dream session... >2325 Lots of stuff going on this week. Where do I even start? Need to re-pack everything o' mine and get ready to move into our apartment next Saturday. I came home tonight and found that my parents had bought me and Murm some new hardware already! (Desk, sound system, TV, sheesh...) It's not that I'm ungrateful, I just feel kinda bad inna way - I understand that my folks want us to get settled in proper like, but I would've rather tried t' earn all of it by myself, y'know? Ah, well - I'm still young, I've still got lots to learn about finances, anyway. Fer instance, how to pay off a 5-figure school debt. But through God all things are possible, eh? Tuesday is B-Day (I went over that birthday thing already), and Wednesday, school starts. Until we move in Saturday, I'm going to have to figure out what my commuting arrangements are and all that other fun stuff. Yay. And then there're the self-imposed deadlines for some PH-related writings that I'd like to meet. It's strange (in a good way, certainly) - the HI trip gave me all the encouragement I needed to take a little vacation from PH. Posting has been light, and now I'm focused on what's more important - in real life and at my favorite writing site. It's all, well, gravy! Okay, enough rambling for the evening - y'all have a g'night! 08.23.02 >1817 What a bunch of greedy losers. 08.22.02 >2248
(Fine, let's just say I'm in denial about this whole birthday thing, shall we? Now leave me alone!) So thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you! Well, thank you again, that is! Ach, heck with it - I'm floored and you guys are too koo-el. Let's just leave it at that, okay? >0956 I'm still gloating. Why? you ask. What's up your sleeve this time? Let it be known that my parents, who did not like Lord of the Rings and even told me when I first purchased the video that I couldn't watch it until they were asleep, have given into the Dark Side (oh, sorry, wrong universe) and have watched the film for themselves over the past few days. Sometimes I amaze even myself. Hehe... 08.21.02 >1043 I've been such a klutz this morning. I made the mistake of intervening in a short battle between the coffeemaker and the sink and got coffee grounds splattered all over my shirt. Well, okay, I suppose a water-spotted shirt could always start a new fashion trend around the office... (read: slob alert) While still trying to mop up that mess, I try my hand at making some homemade mocha and soon have coffee all over the counter. I can't win. C'mon, fingers and brain, work with me here! |