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3 . 3 1 . 0 3 A whirlwind of a weekend, a g/f come and gone. Jess's intro to Madison was pretty eventful in all honestly I felt like it was spring break for real. Aside from an individual 48-hour project (which I didn't do as well as I should have) on of all things Snomobiles and Yellowstone and some assignments I really didn't get jack shit done all week. Aside from learning how to play Euchre, of course. Ended up missing the entire Madison Film Festival as well. Ended up watching After Life and Night at the Roxbury instead. damn blockbuster got the best of me in late fines as well. I did however get to hit the new Majestic Nightclub by the capital, what was once the rustic old movie theatre with the same name. It was pretty interesting how they changed the setup to convert it into a club, although they weren't playing my taste in music. Saturday evening we spent with Joe and Liz from Lafollette, Joe is an ex-pat from small kid time thinking about going back to Hawaii one of these days. Probably sooner than I will, at this rate. Afterwards we swung by Peggy Choy's house for dinner and ended up staying a bit longer. Peggy's husband is a music professor that studied Sanshin in Hawaii back in the 70s. He has a huge collection of Uchina music. small world. On a side note I got an interview with the GAO, a bit of a surprise being that I applied back in December for a summer internship. I was checking my voicemail on the way to Kettl's lecture on "Team Bush" which was pretty insightful in itself. Before we headed out for Dinner we hung out at the Fluno center for a bit with the faculty and staff of Lafollette. I was a little underdressed but it was ok. Now its survival week with assignments and papers that were put off for a little too long - partly my fault, but partly inevitable given the circumstances. wonder where that grindstone went. 3 . 2 0 . 0 3 War has begun in the middle east. What will come of it remains to be determined. For now, its bombs away, praise the lord and pass the ammunition. Had a busy day today, earlier this morning I got a phone call from a friend who got detained by the government, not for any just cause, but rather a routine check that went arwy due to a computer database error. Realization how different the world has become post 9-11, especially with the fact of racial profiling. Trying to explain to another friend the realities of unrestricted government power has the possibilities of misuse. Against those of us who don't look "American", and who may never will. Earlier today I met with the Legislative council with my 869 group. Coming to terms with citizen privacy and legislation while bombs were falling on a country thousands of miles away. An impromptu peace rally at the capitol had a decent showing. A familiar teacher came up and spoke about perspectives, the reality of a world that we live in due to the decisions of the few. A voice of strength, compassion for humanity and courage. the rest of the speakers kind of sucked, in my honest opinion. it was kind of cold too. I have been troubled in my dreams lately, listening to news of war, news of casualities, of collateral damage, arrogant rhetoric of liberating a dehumanized people whom most Americans don't understand or care about. oxy-moranic ideology and political neo-religious soapboxes, opinion polls and a sort of manifest destiny of finite resources and empty truths. I wonder if this is what my country has succumbed to, a society that values material goods and images of wealth in the same light as principled freedoms. A consumer culture so unwilling to change its habits even to save a human life. For a country that claims to be god-fearing and lead by a president who is guided with a moral compass, I ask if the higher power has abandoned the flock? or has his flock decided that not to listen anymore? 3 . 1 7 . 0 3 Dogs of war are looming. within 48 hours to be precise. Watched the address from the Rathskellar at the memorial Union, semi-large turnout considering it being spring break and all. Even with the magnitude of the onset of war, there were a couple instances in the 15 minute ultimatum that evoked laughter. I'm sure the Iraqi military will honor our commander in chief's request to leave those oil wells alone. I stuggle to see the logic, first we bomb the hell out of a country and a people, then use their oil to rebuild their country? Shit, what civilian population WOULDNT want this? questionable, and a little disturbing. a friend mentioned in conversation today about the Republican party being more up front on their agenda as opposed to the Dems, in some ways I do agree, but in others I don't. Something shady about the powerful and self-rightious. I refuse to believe that our leaders, let alone the average American gives a shit about Iraqi independence. Even some of our allies are raising interesting questions. I don't quite know what to think, recalling the 1st gulf war about 12 years ago brings back memories of confusion, fear of misery and destruction misguidedly blamed on a faceless, demonized, non-christian people thousands of miles away. So dehumanized were they that most of us were only exposed to the fancy black and white video footage of "smart-bombs". another oxymoron for humanity. If one thing is true that I've learned about the American way of life (at least for some people), is that we really don't give a shit about anybody but ourselves. That including our own countrymen who may hold a different perspective or opinion than the norm. It has been said that he who lashes out in anger is in his own personal hell of fear. We must be pretty scared nowadays, or at least the powers to be are. Bring on the Shock and Awe. Auwe. 3 . 1 5 . 0 3 Spring break has officially started, and I'm stuck in Madison for the duration. Was greeted by 50 degree weather and the lovely folks at the weather channel inform me that we can expect to see high 60s by the end of the week. I'm on the terrace right now, procastinating again. This wireless connection is pretty neat, I'm working on my paper while watching the lake melt. Some things I'll never get used to. Had a pretty fun time on wed, happy hour with Lafollette econometrics class. lucky to be around so many good people in the program. Katie mentioned that the environment of the school may be considered a bit unusual for many other grad programs. Started at the Rat and ended up at BW3s, listening to Darrell's music on the jukebox until bar time. Spent some time last week looking at alternative media sites on the internet. If there is one piece of technology that people of my generation don't totally utilize it is the availability of information and perspectives out there in electronic form. Eric had an observation a bit back over a beer, he was saying that our generation is subject to information overload - perhaps to the point of apathy. Finished reading "Fast Food Nation" when I was under the weather with the flu, I'll admit that it had an impact in how I view much of the fast food industry - a little bit of disturbing information tipped the scales. Wonder why there isn't much of a plce for this sort of muckracking anymore. apathy again, or maybe just stupidity. Hope to get a lot done this weekend, void of many distractions. the warm weather is definitely a plus. 3 . 1 0 . 0 3 First/Second week of march and I'm procastinating. Well, not entirely I got a case of some nasty bad flu that put me out of commission all last week, so in a sense I'm just behind due to natural causes. its just that things always seem to pile up during the spring semester, especially right before spring break. guess thats what the break is for. catch-up week. No real plans for the week, aside from going up to the Twin Cities for a weekend with Tristan. that is of course if I figure out this Problem set #3 by friday morning. will see about that. Otherwise I have a pretty busy break set up for myself, I want to at least get one of the research papers finished so I won't have to worry about it after. Its definitely do-able. Jess is coming up in about two weeks, hope she's ready for the cold weather. Lucky for me the my practitioner series interview got pushed back to April, so theres one less thing to worry about. War in Iraq anyday now. what a waste of money. not to mention human capital. Protests and protests - the refugee camp outside memorial is gone now, guess even fugees get evicted from time to time. It still amazes me how callous some people can be, I guess the dehumanization of the enemy isn't just a 1940s thing. I think if I was more ambitious I might research some comparisons of Japanese Nationalism at the turn of the century and this new breed of US nationalism we see more and more of today. a little worried how history tends to repeat itself. And people don't care to learn the lessons of history. |