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1 1 . 2 5 . 0 2 Turkey day coming up, going to visit Tristan's family and eat some food. Surviving the last round of midterms before finals and needing to buckle down a bit from here on out. Last push of sorts I suppose. met with one of the girls I'm tutoring in Sociology, it was a good experience overall. I hope that I was able to help her, although she didn't really seem to need all that much help. I think her prof was a little harsh on the grading too. Maybe I'll continue on with the program next semester if time permits. Otherwise I got my first choice of communities in my research seminar, a Hmong community in Wausau. something to look forward to in the spring. got to play food critic this weekend for AASP, Khamphian and I went to a thai place on the west side. pretty good. Afterwards we saw a play at Mitchell theater called "the Physicists" bit of cold war drama and interpretation. some of which is relevant to today's current crisis. Got a new phone with Verizon, paid a whopping fee for it too. Its a little too nifty for me really, but I couldn't beat the price honestly. need to figure out how to work some of these features though, and probably need to buy some accessories. Might as well take advantage. 48 hour project coming up next week, should be interesting to say the least. Classes are only for half the week, but I'll be prety busy with catch-up work. its getting colder too. for a moment I forgot what state I was in. 1 1 . 1 9 . 0 2 Got a wireless card for my VIAO, pretty nifty now I can have access in most of the buildings on campus. Of course that leads to some distractions away from getting work done (like now) but I've been noticing that I can't get that much done while I'm at home. Too many distractions like food and TV. I also won't be looking at any explicit content while I'm outside of the privacy of my home. Anyway I'm meeting with one of my sociology students tomorrow, we'll see how good a tutor I am. Should be interesting. Its really kind of a mind trip to think about myself as teaching, although in some ways I think it suits me more than I realize. Working on this Memo for 874, its on the Oregon Benchmarks Program, an attempt at establishing performance measures for state government - it echoes the Kamakani meetings back in Hawaii with PSD. Wonder how that went afterall we have a new regime coming to power. well, back to work, maybe I'll write some more later. ack. 1 1 . 1 8 . 0 2 Thinking about going back to Japan for a visit during winter break. Found a decent flight on JAL, thinking maybe I should grab it while I can? If all works out as planned, I'll be heading down to Okinawa for a visit, even however brief a trip, it be definitely nice. Had a nice chat with Aki on the phone. Really need to get cracking on this paper of mine, so far its coming along a bit slow. post-midterm doldrums I suppose. Will have to see how it all turned out in about a week. Went to the Cardinal two times this week, kind of out of the ordinary for me, haven't been salsa dancing since I was a Junior. Guess I haven't totally forgotten how, but I'm still a novice by far. There was an interesting dance that resembled tahitian moves which I was informed later that it represented a bull in a ring. Almost lost touch of how much fun clubbing can be. too much Oceans I guess. Had an interesting dream as well. Very lucid and very symbolic. Need to look into this one for the characters that have been reappearing. Meanwhile I saw 8 mile, I'm not much of a fan of Eminem and that says what I thought of the movie as well. He does have talent though, my biggest complaint about the movie was that it spent too much time on a sob story as opposed to focusing on his freestyling. Probably should've went to go see Bowling for Columbine instead. Its getting cold now. 1 1 . 1 3 . 0 2 Don't worry baybe cuz I'm right here right here right at home. You're the cutiest thang I ever did see......really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree. lovey lovey lovey dovey all the time, come on baby, I'll show you good time.... been a stressful night, don't mind me. Need to get some shuteye for a stats exam tomarrow and then study for Econ on Thursday. oh and then a memo on a case study due soon as well. Been spending a lot of late nights at perkins it seems like. got an email from Aki, haven't heard from her in a while. miss talking to her in person, used to get into some pretty deep conversations. Meanwhile Hanko is MIA.....busy busy. Thinking about visiting nihon again, Okinawa this time. Will have to see the prices and flights. would be fun if it works out. 1 1 . 1 0 . 0 2 Been having some dreams last night that have been reoccuring, last night was the one where I was at this resturant with a lot of important people, and I was helping collect money for the bill. A different twist is in this one, it had to do with a sort of quilt from tibet or nepal or something that has prophetic powers woven into it, a set of tarot card patterns printed under a sort of blue sealant. I was reliving an old lady's flashback as her boyfriend helping her discover the quilt more than 70 years ago. Anyway back to reality, how about some good movies I've seen recently? Saw Amelie at Union South last night, it was a pretty packed house, this aho guy decided to prop a highchair in the front row blocking everyone's view. Amelie kind of reminded me of Chungking Express, there is a similar commentary about lonely hearts in big cities and the game of love. Learned a bit about fortune telling by physical features, apparently there is a lot of research that has been done on the superstitions. According to one source I'm supposed to have had a healthy childhood (well fed earlobes). Also have a pretty simple hand lines, that is non-conflicted life. sounds pretty true so to speak, but I'm curious for more info. Republicans have taken the senate, now they control all three branches of government. Also the 50th state. Will be interesting to see what is in store for the future of this country, I do agree that in many ways the Dems have lost their voice and identity. 1 1 . 5 . 0 2 Election Day 2002, this time I voted absentee for my home state. Participatory democracy is a principle which I do strongly believe in, especially with the state of the world today. So go VOTE if you haven't already. vote for yourself if you don't know who to vote for. Halloween in Madison got pretty crazy this year. Apparently I missed the tear gas and pepper spray by about 5 minutes walking down state street. Have to think that the lawlessness and craziness is partly due to the times. Too much societal repression and anxiety without the means of letting it out. There is something to a darker side of this generation, an appetite for destruction and a deep resentment for authority figures. then again maybe some people are just fucking idiots. There was no pressing reason to come out in an act of defiance, no war, nor injustice going down, just a drunken mob. There are times when police response is justified, I think this time may be an example. Most of the rioters were probably out of towners, but I still remember seeing students lighting bonfires in the middle of state street and breaking bottles. All of this comes with me doing a follow-up psych experiment from when I was an undergrad. the tests included about an hour of computer tests on cognition and eye movements, as well as a two hour interview on personality and life history. My guess was that it had something to do with substance abuse and psychological health, turns out I was right. Apparently your frontal lobes are still developing during the ages between 18-23, the researcher said that I didn't have the typical damage that some other returning students had shown in their tests. Although I think I spent some time trying to explain that some of my personal beliefs and superstitions were in fact cultural, not psychosis. Traditional western health professions have a very conservative perspective when it comes to the unknowns. Definitely didn't want to skew their data into thinking that I was a schizophrenic just because I don't disbelieve in ghosts, flying saucers, and interpersonal means of communication aside from the 5 senses. Too many yes-no questions. |