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5 . 2 9 . 0 0 Been home for about a week, but it feels like almost a month. comforting how home "home" really is. maybe i'm bound to hawaii a lot more then i thought i was. get used to the humidity, water that doesn't taste like chalk, and of course all the pretty wahine on the beaches and more locals than haoles. I think maybe the knowing that somewhere theres some katsucurry for sale and that aloha attire and khakis is considered formal wear sets me at home again. Went to Kam graduation last night to see my cousin graduate, it brings back memories standing in blaisdell arean smelling the thousands of leis, bright colors, the joyous cries of family and friends congratulating the recent High school graduates. I was looking around at the people and I really started feeling a little old. Dr. Chun gave a nice speech about plumerias in a basket. I wonder if he wrote it himself. I got this email from some cross cultural program in Okinawa, they have language and cultural intensive training in Naha, apparently they only require 3rd grade language competency and a desire in foreign relations. Might look into it for an after-grad break for the summer, or for a year. The year 2000 is also the 100th anniversary of okinawans in Hawaii. "Uchinanchu" I think its called or something like that. Apparently residents of Okinawa enjoy the highest life expectancy in the entire world. I thought I should end this entry on the fact that its been a whole year since i started this little venture of an online journal, and surprisingly i've kept up with it for a full 365 1/4. now I have to figure out how I'm going to name the files for the next year. shouldn't be too hard, but it takes a little bit of brain power and common sense. then again maybe i'll stop here. i think one year of my life in a public light is enough. perhaps. 5 . 2 3 . 0 0 Home in the islands and its straight to work as usual. Started working on my summer internship, it is for sure a place where I will learn a whole lot about my major field and quick. Its a state job, so i don't start until 10:30, and this week since i only need 30 hours/week for my requirements with the CJ program in Madison, i have thursday and friday off. Today I attended a meeting with the program heads of several different inmate services in terms of policy planning. Specifically we're dealing with the recent Veto in the legislature by Cayetano regarding the contract on the Big island that fell through, right now the occupancy rate at on oahu is close to 300%. Overall i'm looking forward to this summer so far, the people working there are real honest and frank, no frills about the bullshit you have to deal with working in a state job, dealing with the beraucratic red tape and funding problems, constantly under public scrutiny. also I've been forced to question a lot of the theories and concepts that I've learned in the classroom, in terms of their validity in practice rather then on multiple choice exams. My practicum for this summer will be dealing with the overcrowding of the prisons in Hawaii due to mismanagement of funds and resources at the departmental level in hopes of rewriting state policy to save the taxpayers money as well as improve the retraining/rehabilitation of sex offenders in this system. I'm also finding a ton of data for my senior thesis in the fall regarding prison populations. By far the most rewarding thing about this job so far is seeing the actual application of all this psych/soc/stat training that i've begun to write off as useless BS, social services, politcial policy and programming is determined by quantitative sociological and statistical analysis of human data....this I can hack. Grades are coming in through the EASI, at least my Cumulative GPA went up. a little. better than going down. Went to Player's club last night with Dork and met up with some of her friends, haven't seen her in a while, it was cool. local style I guess. Tonight Kaneshiro Grandma turned 81, we went to Kincaids in Ward Warehouse. 5 . 1 8 . 0 0 In the Mad City until Saturday, had the whole week to finish up some webwork, aasu work, hawaii club work, etc etc, pack, put stuff into storage, pound and chill out. Pau with finals, and i honestly dont know how well i did. least to say its been a very soul-searching semester, eventful and meaningful to say the least. I just don't dig this "trial by fire" thing. story of my life. I have to seriously think about continuing this med track, its not looking like its worth my time, honestly my interests at the moment are not studying formulas and theories, the hard sciences seem a little too mechanical and artificial for me to be leading towards a profession that is supposed to be dealing with the health and well being of people. We'll see. The psycho kitty, the quirkster and i have gotten jobs with APAC for the fall, it should be interesting what kind of change we'll be having on the forming of the council. with a new dean of students, the possibilities look good. The PARADOX spring 2000 issue came out, i just finished the online version this evening. not too bad. Getting stuff packed and ready for storage is a real hassle, for some reason i don't recall having half as much shit when i first came up here. its the packrat in me. I think i have to devote a day or two to packing alone. 5 . 1 2 . 0 0 8 days from home. this year went by so fast. I'm noticing that my journal is coming to a year in upkeep. Didn't think it would go this far honestly. I'm officially done with 15 of my 18 credits this semester, i'm wondering if it was a wise idea to go fo the full load after all. I was reading up on my Orgo last night and starting to realize that if I don't do well in this class it won't be because of ignorance or inability to comprehend, but rather due to circumstance of an interesting and eventful semester. I'm housesitting for Chris, catsitting too. I kinda feel sorry for her cat 'Baker', I'd hate to be in an apartment my whole life knowing only the white walls, brown carpet and old tiles. He's pretty timid, but friendly. It's good to have a place to crash instead of walking back to the Village from the library at 3am. Had some major ass dejavu on my way back home this morning, something along the lines of glancing at the ground and noting my step with my bag on my back. Detailed in my mind. wondering if its a sign or something. will see. Summer is looking pretty good, I have a criminal justice internship set up, planning on taking some MCAT/LSAT/GRE prep courses, lots of people are visiting, or planning on visiting, and theres always pottzy and my 9-0. Might be a last dance at home for a while too, I plan on enjoying it. The semester is coming to an end, you can see and feel it on campus, everyone is kind of in a finals mode, starting to pack the libraries, computer labs, etc etc. There never seems to be a drought of broken glass and puke on the sidewalk though. And not to mention that it is muggy as hell right now, minus trade winds. 5 . 8 . 0 0 So I have an early finals week, as it turns out, my social work class got its final cancelled, and with 3 in class, I have only an organic chem final on sunday. School is going by so fast its not even funny. I had my last Organic Lab today, chances are it'll be my last science lab period, unless i decide to continue with psych 454 next semester, but I'm not expecting it to be nearly like chemistry. Have a bunch of catching up to do as far as events....AASU auction last last friday went pretty well, Hawaii club made about $80 for a very good honoraria, not to mention a bunch of laughs. we went to the concourse hotel afterwards since we were all dressed up anyway. Last saturday's lantern festival went good, we danced at the end of the performances, I think people liked us. got to make a lantern and float it on lake mendota. Kind of a summing up of this semester in a sense, the conclusion of and of involvement with some student organizations. sometimes i wonder if its all worth it. I'm sure it is, it just doesn't feel like it. For some reason i'm not really looking forward on going home. its not like theres anything I'm avoiding, but the journey home just seems a little long and tedious right now. maybe i'm just getting old. Saw gladiator this weekend too, I was pretty impressed overall, although there were some holes in the plot and script, i have to agree. of course movies are really enhanced by the company that you see them in. made it that much more memorable. 5 . 3 . 0 0 Another week, another set of assignments with finals looming. pretty shitty feeling especially since i'm not prepared for any of them at this point in time. at least its getting warmer now, temps up to the mid 70s, just like what the summer weather is more like towards the ends of the season. Got my flight back home for the 20th, minus delays i should be back sometime saturday evening, or sunday morning ready to start up the summer internship. Got a nice fat "C" on my psych exam, I guess it means that I can't counsel for shit. funny how they seem to be lining out the door to hear some hapless advice from another confused college student who likes to coin the term 'anomie' because it pertains to his own life so much. This whole grade thing is getting on my nerves, frustration is becoming more then a sappy excuse for a mediocre academic showing. I'm writing a paper on the biography of charles bukowski, a contemporary writer who was known for his ability to churn out prose and poetry dripping with booze and cynicism. I'm supposed to psychoanalyze his ass and comment on how shitty his childhood was. and believe me it sucked big donkey nads. just what I need to get my mind off of other things. Don't worry about me, I'm fine. much better than saturday night. I'd like to attribute it to helpful conversation and the ducks on lake mendota at 6AM, but I don't know anymore. point is that I'm still standing. maybe i should thank bukowski, at least he found a way to be true to himself even while enslaved to the bottle and a perversely accurate perception of reality. Those ducks really looked happy in the water. |
