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1 2 . 3 0 . 0 7 Strange dreams, a recurring one no doubt, it comes in pieces, all of them have a sense of urgency and loss. There are two that stick out, one is I'm riding a subway train and I discover that one of the passengers has left a whole stack of partially used fare cards behind in a seat. I don't know who this person is, but I am left on the train counting a whole stack of paper train currency, wondering what the right thing to do is. I dont' know whose these belong to, so there isn't much a point in reporting them as missing, worse yet, If I give it to a station employee there is a chance that they'll just pocket it. While I'm sitting there counting the cards, 3 secret police officers get on board and two of them recognize me, and all three take a seat next to me. The agent that sits next to me is very friendly as I am introduced by my other friends. I notice that the other passengers visibly tense about these three, and are looking away from our small group, and are avoiding eye contact with us. We kid around, talk about the weather, and the local sports teams. I have to notice that the agent next to me is carrying a very lethal looking submachine gun, semi-concealed. He offers it to me to take a closer look - the gun is an impressive work of mechanized technology. Weird things are that the sights are below the muzzle, and the clip is very small and compact. It feels very light but sturdy in my hand. At that time I kind of have an "aha" moment that I'm not in DC anymore, I'm not even in the present time either. I don't recall how this dream ends. 1 2 . 2 9 . 0 7 With a hard fought victory in the meadowlands, the Patriots go 16-0 in an amazing season with a number of dominating victories along with a few close come from behind games. I had a feeling that they would be in good shape to make a playoff run, but to get the top seed and home field advantage through the playoffs and to cap off an undefeated season was pretty unexpected, at least to me. New England players now hold a bunch of league records, in addition to the first undefeated regular season since 1972, records for total points scored, passing and receiving touchdowns in a regular season. The downside is that after watching such a dominating regular season anything short of a trip to Glendale would be a letdown. I'm hoping that there are at least 2-3 more wins for the Pats this year. We'll see if they can keep it up in a couple weeks. With all this success comes the animosity from fans from the other 31 pro teams. It's been interesting to listen and read all of the trash talking and hate going around about officiating, coaching personalities, and even how the entire season is a joke because of videotaping of an opposing signals at the beginning of the season. Thinking about all of the animosity building towards one football team or another brings to mind cult sociology, as Durkheim described them. People in society have a tendency to rally around a symbol of unity, social identity. In ancient societies it was a totem that the village warriors rallied around in a bubbling effervescence of village pride and celebration of identity. Sports matches between rival villages were often used as a violent, but non-lethal alternative to war. The identifying power that the totem has in society creates a whole sub-culture of village warriors, the fan base which in the frenzy of effervescence, sometimes get caught up in the fray. Go to a single Big Ten school football game with 80,000+ people in the stands, and just experience the sheer energy of the crowd through the highs and lows of the game. The traditional cheers, and chants serve as celebration of collective identity, a sea of school colors all give a sense of unity. Likewise when the brave (or foolish) fan from the visiting team invades the student section of the home team, he is literally attacked, for the most part with verbal taunts and gestures, usually it's in all good fun. However I have heard of games where paper cups full of piss are flung around at a particular school, in retribution for the visiting team allegedly running up the score. For many fans, its not just a game, but a matter of personal pride and identity. There is also a clip going around the internet of a mob of the losing schools' fans bombarding a smaller group of visiting fans with beer bottles. In the world of college football, fierce debate has gone on about how to crown a national champion, which is currently done by a weekly ranking poll of various teams. In order to break into the upper echelon of post season bowls, a team has to impress the poll voters in that they are worthy enough of a shot at the title, or at the least to compete with the traditionally elite. Some of this all takes an interesting but ridiculous tone as to the symbolism of what a big name, prime time, nationally televised game really means. UH-UGA quickly becomes WAC vs. SEC, non-BCS vs. BCS, Hawaii (the state) vs. Georgia (the state). Even the local news coverage takes on an interesting tone of referring fans as now cultural representatives to the host city. Every day for the past few weeks the Honolulu advertiser does a story about the cross cultural ties between Hawaii and New Orleans, or how UH fans are partying it up in the French Quarter, buying stuff and helping to contribute to the local community still recovering from hurricane Katrina. The dedicated Warrior football fans become ambassadors of Hawaii to the mainland. The other aspect of modern day totemism that I would be interested in how Durkheim would've analyzed in is how sports fans have put up fan blogs and discussion forums on the various articles floating around on the internet. For every celebrated match up, both team's fans are quick to boast about their respective team's strengths, the abilities of its star players, coaching staff, and go on to predict the outcome of the football game. There is usually a bit of comment about each team's past laurels, from the current season as well as past seasons, all evidence on the superiority of one's team. One of the forums I browsed through recently had some interesting turns, as the debate on the final football score in the sugar bowl went from discussing football to discussing the quality of public education at the UH-Manoa vs. the UGA. Another one went into the greater debate on what it means to be a local (Hawaiian) vs. a mainland Wannabee local. This is an ongoing debate that revolves around Hawaii's star quarterback and his troubled past before he came to Hawaii. 1 2 . 2 3 . 0 7 Went up to NYC this weekend for a short day trip. Kind of a last minute whim, reminded me a lot of the random trips I used to take to various cities. This time was another experience in itself. Running around Times Square with all of the last minute Xmas shoppers was pretty crazy, it was so crowded I felt like I was at a carnival in the middle of a city. For the most part it was a bit of sensory overload, granted it was a busy time of year, I couldn't help but think that that it is this crowded all the time. Even early in the morning the streets were relatively busy, people walking to work, or bums hanging out in the street. One observation on the differences between NYC and DC is that there is no spare change to be found on the ground. Either the bums or the street cleaners probably take care of any money dropped and pick it up. Overall I have to say that the city reminds me most like Tokyo, except its a lot more tense, and dirty. There is also a certain swagger of confidence of people walking around, a sense of purpose maybe, its hard to tell if its just the "city face" or "game face" that people put on in big cities, or whether it is a true confidence. Or maybe its just something else. More than a few times I got stopped in the street by another tourist asking me for directions to which I responded by pulling out my map and pointing them in the right direction. 1 2 . 1 6 . 0 7 Survived another round of finals (3 this time), and with one more small paper or so, am just about wrapping up my 5th semester or so of night school (6th if you count summer school). As always I'm not sure how I did, but I think the difference with this semester and those past is that I've definitely gotten to a point that I can honestly say that regardless of the paper grade, I know that I've learned a bit more about the law. Also this time around, although just as hectic and stressful, I think I'm getting better and better at coping with the demands. I attribute it partly to a lot of B vitamins, taking a break here and there to watch a football game, and surprisingly, getting more sleep than usual. After parking myself at various coffee shops for hours on end, lugging heavy casebooks for almost 2 weeks non-stop, I could feel my physical health start to take a hit. I'm a little amazed that I didn't come down with the flu or something after shocking my immune system. One of my study breaks was watching the DVD edition of Superbad. I thought it was good, high school coming of age story, in many ways more chaotic, vulgar and more believable than other similar themed movies that have come out in the recent years. The kids are so obsessed with getting laid and confused about how to interact with the opposite sex that it lends a sense of reality and makes for a stupid but realistic story. A fake HI state driver's license got some air time which was hilarious as well. The other study break was watching New England beat Pittsburgh in a pretty hyped up battle between two AFC division leaders. This time the Pats were able to regroup after a couple of close games against Philly and Baltimore and delivered a pretty solid win against a very good Steeler team. Still hoping that the tune up will continue on for the next couple games, and more importantly, carry over into January. Meanwhile on the NFC side, I'm rooting for Green Bay, I think there is a decent chance that one if not both teams will be in place to make a run at the playoffs. It would be really great if by chance both somehow end up in Glendale in about a month from now. In other news, there's an internet tea party today, as in the 234th anniversary of the one thrown by a bunch of feisty free thinkers once upon a time. I caught a documentary on PBS the other night about the last day-long money drive, the one that broke all kinds of records for one-day fund raisers. I've been tracking the tally from early this morning, as of 8:41am its roughly at $1,350,000 and climbing at a rate of $180K per hour. It looks like regardless of the total, at the current rate Ron Paul should be sitting on another big chunk of change with Iowa coming up in 18 days. 1 2 . 5 . 0 7 First snowfall of the year in the district, and I'm in full study mode for this next round of finals. Got a paper out of the way a couple of weeks ago, then its two big staple exams, and then I have a 4 day break before the last elective course is up. After that its another smaller paper, and some administrative matters which would wrap up the semester. Its crazy enough that I planned ahead to take some annual leave this week, ironically it ended up that my job had a crunch this week as well. Crazy to think how busy life gets right around the holidays, when most people are thinking about winter vacations and shopping for Xmas presents. I'm usually camped out in coffee shops and libraries. I suppose its been like that for almost a collective decade now. Its become second nature really, the one year when I didn't have to go anywhere or study anything I felt kind of lazy. Pleasant distractions/breaks from studying has been the ongoing successes of my college and pro football teams. Hawaii went undefeated in the regular season and is set up to go to the Sugar Bowl to face Georgia, who had case to be playing for a national title. Wisconsin is on its way to the Outback Bowl to face Tennessee. On the pro side Green Bay lost a battle with Dallas, but is still in the hunt for the NFC playoffs at 10-2. Finally New England has had a couple of close games but is still undefeated at 12-0. I suspect that the rest of the games will be tough, even the winless Miami and almost Winless New York. Everyone is saying how Pittsburgh will be the hardest game, and it should be a cakewalk after that I'm not so sure, after seeing how the Baltimore and Philly brought their A game on to face the Pats. Its a strange feeling really, being in a bar and hearing just about everyone cheer against your team, even though they aren't Baltimore fans. One thing for certain, its looking like both pro teams will be in the playoffs, and both college teams are in New Year's day bowls - which makes for good football distractions for the winter, and the first month or so of the next semester. |