Still on a stick

2004-04-30T12:13:00.000-04:00

It's a beautiful day, I'm stuck in my cubicle, and the other fun intern already left for the weekend. But I'm happy, because graduation is in 16 days, and while I don't yet have a job, I can keep this one as long as I want, and eventually people who like Africa will give me one. Because I am great, or because I will hound them so much that they will simply give in, either way I'm going to get one.

2004-04-02T09:47:00.000-05:00

Things standing between me and graduation

*Paper comparing black-white interactions on prime time TV to black-black interactions on UPN (and watching 15 hours of sitcoms for said paper)
*Paper on the worldwide significance of kente cloth and potential policies to protect its indigenous creators
*Paper on theories explaining the percentage of women in African legislatures, also statistical analysis for said paper
*Paper on differences in partisanship between the House and Senate
*15 minute presentation in Russian on some random topic
*Group presentation for women and democracy on targeting women voters in presidential elections
*1 Russian test, 1 Women and Democracy Test.
*Legislative Politics final, Russian final, Race, Media, and Politics final

*Nationals
*Debate banquet

Other things I should do: Find a job, go to a dentist before I lose my insurance, sell my computer to the highest bidder, wqrk as many hours as is humanly possible at NLC so as to graduate with at least $1500 to my name, convince my parents to have a graduation party for me and Robert so that I can add to that amount.

2004-03-31T10:51:00.000-05:00

I have a few things to say.

First, GROUP PROJECTS SUCK.
I don't believe a word of that nonsense about learning to work in groups. Working on a group project for a class has absolutely nothing in common with working with a group in a situation of employment. For one thing, the people who are getting paid to work in a group are CHOSEN to be there by someone else in the business/organization. Unlike in a classroom, where a professor has very little control over who is enrolled, these individuals were hired in part for their ability to properly work with the other employees. Moreover they don't have to find time to meet, because they can do it during the work-day. In an academic setting, group members also have jobs, extracurricular/volunteer activities, and other courses that interfere with scheduling meeting times. But the worst thing about group projects is that the stupidity of one individual can result in the downfall of everyone else, but since the professor sees none of the behind the scenes work (unlike in an office) everyone is blamed for the failure of the project.

Also have I mentioned that people are dumb and I hate them? The older I become the more I lose tolerance for people who have no reason for their stupidity besides the fact that they just lack common sense and the ability to process information in a logical manner. But more than I hate them, I hate the fact that they are still able to get jobs and go to good schools and make lots of money because their parents are loaded. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hate GW :) When exactly is graduation, and can I just hibernate in my apartment until then?

However what I do like is the inordinately large group of people that is trying to help me find a job. Basically everyone I know over the age of 25 is actively trying to find me employment. This is excellent.

2004-02-13T16:23:00.000-05:00

states i have been to, note the entire left half of the country is missing.

create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

countries i have been to

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

countries i want to have visited by the time i'm forty.

(i don't want to go to russia that badly, but six semesters of the horrid language should be put to use at some point.)

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

2004-01-30T11:59:00.000-05:00

The past few days I've been thinking a lot about money, more specifically the lack of it. I've never been really poor, and I've never had to worry about where my next meal was coming from or how to feed my babies, primarily because I have no babies. But I also cannot recall any time since I was 14 that I haven't been worried about money.

The strange thing is, in the end it always works out. I've never missed a credit card payment or a phone bill. I've never been late in paying rent nor have I once asked my parents or anyone else for money. Moreover I know how to get the money I need, I know that I am capable of working three jobs in excess of 90 hours a week if necessary, because I've done it, and it worked.

But on days like today, or any other day when I'm considering whether buying a new pair of running shoes is worth the resulting stress over making $7.97 last until the next payday I wonder what it would be like to not have to worry about money. At least not to excess. And while I think it would be great, I'm not sure that it's possible, short of being a millionaire. I've met very few people who don't worry about money, or mortgage payments, tuition costs, or credit card debt. Maybe this is just a symptom of living in a society where everyone is living at least a bit beyond their means, and people put more thought into their carb consumption than their debt accumulation. And while that's unfortunate, I can see where they're coming from. If you are never going to have the money that you need to care for your family or meet the societal expectation placed upon you by your job or your neighborhood then what exactly are you supposed to do?

The more I think about it the more I realize that my worries about money are anything but temporary. It's doubtful that at any point in the next ten years I won't spend every day being stressed about money, particularly if I actually do what I want and go to grad school. President Bush's extra 64 cents each month are certainly appreciated but they aren't going to pay for cars, loans, and rent. They may buy me a Tootsie Pop, if it's still possible to purchase them individually. I don't really have a way to conclude this blog because I don't have a conclusion. Money governs people's lives, and it makes them unhappy, and that sucks but short of leaving the money economy (which I'm not endorsing) there's not so much that can be done. Maybe I should just go to law school, become filthy rich and forget about it.

2003-12-10T19:40:00.000-05:00

BOOKS

As a kid I had an overactive library card. I read anything and everything, and it managed to get me in trouble (reading under the blankets with a flashlight, checking out books from the adult section that my mom didn't think a nine year old should read, reading instead of paying attention in school).

As I got older I read less, not because I wanted to, but because I was always too busy. Yesterday I went to a bookstore and realized that I cannot wait for this semester to be over so that I can read what I want, when I want, rather than constantly trying to keep up with thousands of pages of anthropology crap.

This Christmas I'm going to be spending a LOT of time flying, in addition to 9 days in Florida with the terrific combination of my parents, my brothers, my grandmother (the cool one), my aunt and uncle, and two cousins that I haven't seen since I was 15. In order to maintain my sanity I need books to read, lots and lots of books.

Yesterday I bought four books, but they're fiction which means I will read them all in a day. In the past I used to refuse to buy fiction, because I would read it too quickly and felt that it was therefore a poor investment; but I am so sick of reading law review articles about intellectual property that I don't think I could handle anything remotely academic.

The books I bought are:
A House for Mr. Biswas by V S Naipaul
Notes from the Hyenas Belly by Nega Mezlekia
The Cave by Jose Saramago
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

So all of you who have been bitching at me to blog--HELP!! I need more things to read. I'll take ANY suggestions except of course "A Seperate Peace" that book was God-awful.

2003-08-01T10:49:00.000-04:00

things

Number one: I never update this anymore, maybe when I get my piece of crap computer back I will...or not.

Number two: It is August. July happened at some point, but it kind of seems like it should still be June. HOWEVER, August is good because it means: moving back into DC and no longer taking the increasingly crappy orange line every day, school which means I will be working 20 hours a week instead of 40, and the approaching end of another baseball season in which the Cubs who were the talk of MLB in April reached mediocrity by the All-Star break and will be solidly out of contention by mid-August. Not that a fall and winter of the Bears and Bulls should be all that much better but at least they tend to suck for the entire season rather than only the important parts.

Number three Webmail is going to be down for three whole days. Every GW student I know checks their email AT LEAST once every 30 minutes. Withdrawal anyone? I'm going to have nightmares about that time in Jan/Feb when it was down for almost 2 weeks. Considering the volume of Dean e-mails I've been getting lately I am almost afraid to see how many I'll have when I haven't checked once in three days. Horrors. I really can't imagine working in an office, without computers/email/internet access. How did people in the 70s get things done? Multitasking is wonderful.

Number four I now own a planner. I don't know what I ever did without one. I have Dean meetings or events every night next week, and I imagine the volume of work is only going to increase in the next few months. But he's going to win, so yay.

Number five This has all been very boring. I apologize, my job is boring and I'm avoiding it.

2003-07-02T15:17:00.000-04:00

Today has been inordinately crappy considering it's my second day at work for the week, and tomorrow will be the last. Largely this is due to incredibly retarded people who think that they are my boss, well ok just one person. But she is so exceptionally retarded that I frequently forget that she is just one person and not an entire network of inept overbearing people. Anyhow I am currently doing a project that happens to be her responsibility, as far as I can tell this is because she is lazy, and it's a really tedious thing to do. What she failed to inform me though was that it all needed to be done before the end of the fiscal year (ie June 30) or the budget for it would be lost. Granted she didn't entirely fail to inform, she just happened to do so around noon today. Oops, now my boss' boss is mad at me because I haven't finished something that wasn't my responsibility in the first place. Augh. However the crappiness has led me to several important revelations:

1) I have only 36 more days at this job. EVER.
2)I need a job where I can be the boss or at least have autonomy, cuz I ain't so good at dealing with really really dumb people who like to micromanage.
3) this goes along with #2--I need to go to grad school so that I can get a decent job that isn't crappy.
4) beer is soon, and it is good.

ok i think that's enough bitchin for the moment...

2003-06-26T14:41:00.000-04:00

Did ya miss me?
I know I know it's been almost a month. Sorry, I write abstracts forty hours a week so I'm not always compelled to come home and write more. The same goes for people I haven't emailed in forever :)

ANYWAAAAAAYS...Last night I ran for the first time in a month. I could blame my sedentary-ness on the rain, but really I was kind of lazy. It was so great though, I didn't feel horribly out of shape, and when then sun went down it was actually kind of pleasant. Running has got to be one of the most therepeutic things you can do, maybe because no one can hunt you down and bother you, unless you run with your cell phone, but who the hell does that? The only thing I dislike about running is the prospect of being Chandrified, now lest Lindsay fear I'm about to go off on some tangent like a certain person whose blog she detests, something I'm not particularly concerned about. I mean yeah due to a unforunate chromosonal ideosyncrasy I am naturally smaller and in many cases physically weaker than half the population, but I'm not currently sleeping with a Congressman (or even suspected of such as far as I know) so I don't really think the good people of Arlington are out to get me at 9 pm on a Wednesday night. Ha. Could be wrong I guess.

In other news the metro fares are increasing very very soon. I already spend $3 a day just going to and from work, so I'm not really looking forward to that.

Speaking of work did you know that the mayor of Las Cruces, NM has no door on his office? I bet you didn't. I bet very few people know that, mainly because it's a rather pointless fact, but that's what my job is all about. However Greensboro, NC does amazing things with their public housing that really every city ought to subscribe to. Hehe I've become an urban policy dork yet.

Oh and 4 out of 5 priests say my mom can go to my cousin's wedding despite the fact that she is living in sin. Good to know since she also happens to be her goddaughter. No really she asked 5 priests; 4 said it was ok, the other said there's no way those two should be getting married in a church. I heart the church, no, no I don't.

Shit I haven't said anything about Africa, oh well maybe tomorrow...

2003-05-29T16:55:00.000-04:00

Do you ever have one of those days when you wake up in the morning and think, "I used to live in Ghana? What the hell?" Yeah today would definately be one of those days.

2003-05-28T10:59:00.000-04:00

"The Koran's good verses are like the food an assassin adds to poison to disguise a deadly taste," writes Don Richardson, a well-known missionary who worked in Muslim countries, in "Secrets of the Koran" (Regal Books, 2003). "Better to find the same food, sans poison, in the Bible." This month, he is scheduled to speak on Islam at churches in five American cities.

I don't understand these people. Unfortunately, I'm related to a lot of them...

2003-05-12T09:44:00.000-04:00

The Rwandan genocide was nearly 9 years ago. After the event occured people accross the world were horrified, and questioned why the west didn't act. In the following years the information came out that the Clinton administration knew what was going on, yet they did nothing while 850,000 people were killed mostly will machetes and farm implements in 90 days. The State Department forbid its employees from using the word genocide so that the US wouldn't be compelled to act under international law. And in the light of the disasterous American intervention in Somalia three years prior, intervention would have probably been hugely unpopular with the American people. Yet when President Clinron visited Africa in 1998, he made a point of stopping in Rwanda and delivering what many people took to be an apology. saying "We in the United States and the world community did not do as much as we could have and should have done to try to limit what occurred in Rwanda in 1994, the international community, together with nations in Africa, must bear its share of responsibility for this tragedy." One of the biggest failures of the international community came after the genocide, when thousands of aid workers poured into the region to care for the refugees. Alongside the genuine refugees were members of the Hutu interahawme militias which used the camps as cover while they continued their violence at night. These militias aided in the rebel attacks on the government of the DRC and played a significant role in that country's war.

Now the war in the DRC has supposedly ended, the Rwandan and Ugandan governments have pulled out their troops leaving a power vacuum in the east of the huge country, thousands of miles from the capital. In the area around Bunia live two groups of people the Lendu and the Hema, the Lendu number about 700,000 and live primarily from the crops that they raise, the Hema number about 150,000 and rely on cattle raising. Both groups speak a similar language and inter-marriage is common...sound familiar? But moreso, the Hema had been favored for positions in the Ugandan military while they were occupying the region. This treatment angered the Lendu majority. Now that the army has left, ethnic violence has broken out, with many Hema fleeing into Uganda. What makes the situation more dangerous is that the Hema identify themselves with the Rwandan Tutsis and the Lendu with the Hutus . While the killings were taking place while the army was present, its sudden departure has left absolutely no one to prevent further killing. The United Nations has 675 troops there, but the DRC is rather large, and they have been unable to stop the violence.

I think the parallels between the situation in the eastern DRC and Rwanda are striking, and even href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/05/11/congo.killings/index.html">CNN has been reporting on the problem. Yet just like just like in 1994 the public awareness of the problem is nonexistent. The general view is that those Africans are always killing eachother and there are primordial tribam enmities that cause these problems. The media perpetuates these stereotypes by talking of "tribal killings" without giving the necessary background. The Hutu and the Tutsi were not historical enemies, and likewise the Hema the Lendu lived together in peace until one group received favorable treatment.

Now we have a president who claims we need to free people from oppressive regimes, I would imagine that would include regimes that allow or are inacapable of stopping genocide in their countries. Certainly the US isn't going to intervene in the DRC, I doubt we have the necessary background knowledge to not create an even larger problem, but that doesn't mean we should ignore it either. If the US government had jammed the radio signals of the Hutu government in 1994 the messages ordering the largely rural population to massacre their neighbors would have been lost. The genocide may not have been stopped, but it certainly would have been slowed to the point that new ideas for solving the problem could have been implemented. Likewise there are probably actions that the international community can and should take to stop the violence in eastern Congo, just as they would if the Danes started massacring the Germans with machetes. To start governments could tell their people that it actually is taking place, and dispell the mistaken belief that those silly tribal Africans are uncivilized and are constantly killing each other.

2003-05-06T10:59:00.000-04:00

Last night was weird. I think I slept like 30 minutes before I woke up because of this horrible dream that replayed two really awful things that I saw in Ghana that I hadn't even thought about in months. Then of course I couldn't go back to sleep because every time I closed my eyes I saw people who were on fire and for some reason I really just wanted to go outside and take a walk but it was 50 degrees and raining so I decided that might not be the greatest idea. I did end up getting a lot of work done by 5 am when I finally was able to go back to sleep, but it was just really really odd and now I'm tired and confused about what day/time it is, but I have 2 finals today so I'd better wake up.

2003-05-02T16:49:00.000-04:00

Today while attempting not to work on a take-home final I read about the passage of this bill in the House yesterday. The United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 ( H.R.1298) fulfills the promise President Bush made in his State of the Union Address to give $15 billion to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. The resolution passed 375 to 41 with 19 abstentions. Obviously I wanted to see who would vote against this legislation, and I discovered that 40 Republicans and 1 Democrat voted against the bill. The lone Democrat was Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi's 4th District. Intrigued, I called his office to ask why he voted against HR 1298. The staffer who answered told me that "Congressman Taylor votes no on every foreign aid bill, and has for the past 13 years." Which is kind of wierd, so I googled him and came up with the following:

Congressman Taylor has been awarded the Herbert H. Bateman Award from the American Shipbuilding Association (ASA) for outstanding leadership in the promotion of a strong U.S. shipbuilding industrial base. That doesn't necessarily make him not a Democrat, particularly as his district includes Biloxi, nonetheless his website states that his primary goal in Congress is ensuring the military defense of the country.

The next result was: Congressman Taylor has received an overall grade of A+ for his efforts to reduce immigration (including in the specific categories of reducing amnesties and reducing the lotteries) from the Americans for better Immigration, which describes itself as "a non-profit, non-partisan organization which lobbies Congress for reductions in immigration numbers" and explains that "ABI believes the problem with immigration today is not the individual immigrant but the numbers. "Better" immigration is lower immigration".

Taylor has spoken out against closing military bases: Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi said, ``I'm going to vote against it, but I'm afraid a lot of people will vote for it, and I think it's misguided.'' Perhaps most important is the toll on patriotism when communities lose the ``place where they took their kids on the Fourth of July,'' Taylor said. ``When those bases closed, those communities got betrayed, and in my opinion, they shrunk the constituency in this democracy for a strong national defense,'' he said.

Taylor was among the few Dems in the House to not vote for Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker, was one of four Dems to vote for Clinton's impeachment, and it has been rumored that had Trent Lott left the Senate after his scandal earlier this year that Taylor would have switched parties to gain the Republican nomination for the seat.

Taylor isn't the only white southern Democrat like this. You have to wonder, if the Democrats can't get a majority even with people like this in their ranks just how strong is the party? Why does the party even bother to support these candidates who they know are solidly conservative, particularly when they can't be counted on to vote with the party often if at all? Maybe Howard Dean is right when he says "We need a backbone transplant for the Democratic party and Congress."

2003-04-29T12:31:00.000-04:00

While it's definately encouraging and even suprising to see President Bush address the issue of conflict diamonds, the Kimberly Process has so many flaws and loopholes that it isn't likely to work. Sure the paperwork may be hard to forge, but near every country that produces "blood diamonds" are countries who lack diamonds, and therefore lack wealth and thus will be willing to take the risk of claiming the diamonds are theirs for a cut of the profit. Every year millions of dollars worth of diamonds are certified as having been mined in Senegal. But Senegal has NO diamond deposits to speak of. The diamonds actually are from Sierra Leone.

2003-04-25T12:02:00.000-04:00

Also this is rather distressing. When I was in Ghana, the state department had a warning against travelling to the north of the country, but of course we all did anyways. We didn't go to Yendi, since that was where the center of the violence had been, but we did spend a significant amount of time in the Northern Region as well as the northern half of the Volta Region, and everything seemed to be perfectly normal. We certainly read about cheiftancy disputes fairly regularly, but it just seemed like a normal part of traditional politics. Still, after the chief was killed in Yendi, the government constantly talked about solving the problem, but they never really settled upon a course of action. With an election approaching next year, this isn't exactly what they need.

2003-04-25T11:53:00.000-04:00

So I may have a minor obsession with malaria...

So I think this is really interesting. But it's probably not really.

2003-04-22T19:19:00.000-04:00

Independence as a bad thing

My brother is a bright kid. As a junior he's ranked 3rd out of 798 people in his high school class. For whatever reason despite being very smart he´s decided he wants to study broadcast communication--which is fine--and become a radio commentator for Major League Baseball. Not a television commentator, because he's not a former player, just on the radio. And that's fine too. What's not fine is that despite the fact that he's a really smart kid my parents will not let him go to school far away. He says he want to go to Boston or NY, my mom says nope, "how about University of Northern Iowa." And with all due respect to the lovely town of Cedar Falls, that sucks. But what sucks more is that the fact that my brothers are both going to get stuck going to college in the middle of a cornfield is my fault. When I was applying to colleges my parents told me I could go anywhere besides NY and CA. My mom, who knows no one who's gone to college except her husband, had no idea what was going on. My dad probably had some idea what was going on, but had been unemployed for a year and a half, so he was kind of preoccupied. I certainly had no idea what was going on because I didn't know anyone who had gone to college so I was like "hey this school wants to give me lots of money, I'm going to go there." My parents just sort of agreed because they had no idea what was going on. Since then they have learned that if you let your kid move far away, they will a) never come back b) up and move to africa c) renounce your religion and d) become un-republican. Obviously if you are a pious pro-life activist who literally lives in the backyard of the house you grew up in you may see this as a problem. And granted the fact that in the past year I have been home for less than 10 days is kind of bad, but still. My dad went to school in Cedar Rapids so certainly he should know the horrors of college in rural Iowa.

2003-04-18T10:59:00.000-04:00

Katie Bieda is stuck in a cornfield. But that's why I love her. Yeah DeKalb!!

2003-04-16T17:09:00.000-04:00

So I haven't paid that much attention to Iraq lately since I've had massive amounts of work to do. But I think our government is brilliant. We say we have to have a war because Saddam has WMD. The UN says not so fast...so we let them in. They don't find anything, and claim it will take a really long time to look everywhere. We say fuck you and start a war. We win and start looking, but all we can come up with is some pesticides on some farms. Now we say two things: It's going to take a long time to look everywhere, and those crazy looters who we couldn't control may have stolen them in which case we won't find them anyways. So now we have an out in case we don't find anything, but it also gives us an excuse to scare the crap out of countries like Syria where people fleeing Iraq went. So we get to win our war and start another, all without really proving anything, but sounding very indignant in the process.

Also though, what the hell happened to Saddam? For a military of unparalleled power we sure can't seem to ever get the guy that we want. I would assume that if he really is as evil as we make him out to be we would want to get him tried for war crimes or something. Nope, you don't even hear about him anymore. Oh and what was that other guy's name? Osama? Didn't this all start because we wanted to get him? And why is the Taliban having this resurgance in Afghanistan? Maybe because we never found their leader either. It probably doesn't help that the collective length of the American public's memory is 1.2 seconds.

And another sign that crazy Christian fundementalists have too much power: Franklin Graham is going to lead Good Friday prayers at the Pentagon. The man called Islam evil! He also runs a humanitarian relief agency called Samaritan's Purse, that is working in Iraq. The organization claims to provide spiritual and physical aid, which as far as I can tell means conversion and food. Is there a problem when the only organization that can feed you/provide you with credit/care for your sick child is preaching to you and may stop aiding you if you don't at least nominally accept their religion? Even if you already have one of your own? Well yeah. And when they go into countries like Uganda that have been struggling for a decade to keep their AIDS infection rate below 10 percent and they say that the solution is not education about transmission, and availability of drugs but rather: "Pray like you have no other solution, work like you have no other solution, and God will bless the combination," completely ignoring the success that other programs have had it's not only irresponsible development policy, but it's also something that could directly cause the deaths of thousands of their converts, something that you'd imagine "Christianity" would be against.

2003-04-16T12:00:00.000-04:00

The Mighty Susquehannaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Well I guess that's the end of that tradition. Much as I had a great time debating with Aaron this weekend, I'm mostly just glad that it's done. It's not that I hate debate, but dealing with the beauracracy, politics, incompetance, and general insanity of it is horrible. Sure I could come back next year and recruit novices like crazy, and run the team, and run a tournament; and while it would be a lot of work, I don't think it could be any worse than my year of a thousand donuts; if it weren't for one very big problem. Unfortunately that problem isn't going to go away, and it's going to undermine everything I try to do. I do feel kind of bad letting the team just die, but at this point it probably should be put out of its misery anyways. Also, I'm excited about having REAL weekends.

Oh and John Agozzino: I'm sorry that this is about debate and not about closets. I guess I'm just not domestic enough. Hell I know I'm not domestic enough, you've seen the state of our room.

2003-04-08T22:38:00.000-04:00

This is unbelievable. 3.3 million people die, and no one notices. One blond girl in Utah gets kidnapped and they cancel prime time programming. In the meanwhile, in a continent's largest country FIFTY PERCENT of children under 5 die before the age of 2 and no American can even find it on a map. It's like the entire city of Los Angeles disappeared. I know that Africa is far away. I know that Americans are ridiculously ignorant about things like...countries that aren't America, but jesus christ. There's a lot of reasons that we should care about Africa, and it's not crazy liberal bullshit either. There are genuine foreign policy concerns to having a continent with 40 million orphans.

2003-04-07T19:31:00.000-04:00

ANGER (that isn't about Africa I promise)

No it's not about Africa. It's about the fact that I spent last year working my ass off so that people could go to tournaments. I had 3600 fucking Krispy Kreme donuts in my room. It smelled like donuts for a month. I made an ass of myself in front of large portions of the SA and GW's financial offices so that we could send 16 people to a tournament and they wouldn't have to pay a cent. And I really didn't have such high expectations for these people. I told them. They got pissed. But I was right. That's really all I have to say. Vindication just isn't that fun when you end up getting screwed anyways.

2003-04-02T13:17:00.000-05:00

I don't think I'm ever leaving my room again...

JAgozzino2: I am an equal opportunity employer of the places in your dorm
JAgozzino2: No discrimmination here, nosireeeeeeee
cheezwheel3: so long as you don't use affirmative action in my bed
JAgozzino2: Lindsay won't allow me to
JAgozzino2: the thought has crossed my mind
cheezwheel3: oh dear god
cheezwheel3: before you so much as touch my bed you better go to your place first
cheezwheel3: not that you will ever be allowed to touch my bed
JAgozzino2: But its like the only place in your room we haven' hooked up
JAgozzino2: it sits there
JAgozzino2: mocking me
cheezwheel3: um
cheezwheel3: well maybe I WILL SIT THERE MOCKING YOU
cheezwheel3: and then you won't be able to hook up at all :-)
JAgozzino2: I'm quite resiliant in that department
JAgozzino2: I can make out under any circumstances
JAgozzino2: bombs falling ....... nooooooooooo problem
cheezwheel3: this is most certainly true
cheezwheel3: in fact you should move to iraq
cheezwheel3: you could provide inspiration to millions of suffering people

2003-04-01T23:00:00.000-05:00

So so funny. I swear I don't just think it's funny because it's about Swaziland. Even Lindsay thinks it's hilarious, and she doesn't know where Swaziland is.

2003-04-01T21:13:00.000-05:00

Apparently I am too mean. I will amend my previous statement to include the following: I love fluffy little kittens and pink sparkles and boxes of feelings and and and... shit I can't come up with anything else.
Ha ha ha ha ha.

2003-03-31T23:01:00.000-05:00

I saw Amandla tonight, it is an absolutely amazing movie. A lot of times I'm convinced that there is just no solution to a lot of problems. Particularly in the first month or so that I was back in DC I was so upset, because all I saw was what seemed to be horribly self-absorbed people who didn't give a damn about what was happening anywhere but in their own retarded lives and I just couldn't reconcile that with all of the things that I had been seeing on a daily basis for the past five months. Movies like this remind me that there are incredible people in the world, like Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, and every man, woman, and child who danced and sang in the face of tanks, machine guns, and tear gas; who have the dedication and the courage to change things. The fact that amazing people like that exist almost makes up for the fact that most people are disgustingly ignorant, or just don't care. Except it doesn't. I want to smack most people. Goodnight.

2003-03-27T16:44:00.000-05:00

I've decided that it is extremely difficult to be both good at "office" and good at "class" at the same time. I spend 20 hours a week writing technical abstracts of articles from urban planning journals and municipal newsletters. The things I read and write about are fairly interesting, and everyone here seems to be pleased with my work. I'm good at silly office things like joking with the people in the cubicles around me, keeping my coworkers happy by helping them out when I have a spare minute and all the other silly office things you have to do. And overall I enjoy it.

But doing technical writing 20 hours a week leaves me with very little motivation to be good at school. I realized this when I was writing my Pakistan paper earlier this week. First of all I was writing it not as a cohesive paper, but as little chunks of abstracts that summarized various things without making arguements. It took a lot of effort to break out of that style. But on top of that I just really didn't have any motivation to work on it. I wasn't getting paid to do it. Paychecks are far more concrete than an intangible thing like a GPA that won't matter five years from now anyhow. I just don't see the point in going to class so that I can suck up to a professor by saying things that are retarded but make them happy. I guess there's an inherant value to learning, but if its something you don't like learning and really don't care to learn about then how much utility does it actually have. I'm sorry, but the intricacies of German foreign policy in the 1930s REALLY don't interest me at all.

And its funny that I feel this way because I used to be so passionate about learning about ANYTHING. I used to be the kid who checked out 20 books from the library at a time. Hell, my mother had to yell at the librarian to tell them not to let me check out anymore books about refugees. When people in my family told me I wouldn't do well in college, because "our family just isn't cut out for things like that," I laughed at them, but really sometimes I think they're right. Maybe its because college was never a certainty for me and I never knew many people who had degrees, but it doesn't always seem so important to me. While last semester was definately the best thing I've ever done, I think it also taught that there's things that are so much more important to me than school and grades, which in the long run is good, but in the short run is bad. Also the fact that I did not ever study or do schoolwork in Ghana has made me ridiculously unprepared for the massive amount of work I have due this semester.

I realize I'm being ridiculous, I'm not dumb, I'm not incapable, I'm just incredibly unmotivated, although that's probly a lot worse. And yeah I realize that I'm being a whiny idiot, and that I have opportunities that 99 % of the world doesn't, and even 99% of my family doesn't, and there's lots of starving babies in Africa....but whatever. I'm just a little overwhelmed and stressed out at the moment. So to conclude, I HATE GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS I HATE GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS I HATE GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS.

That is all, I will regain my sanity on the 26th of April.

2003-03-24T00:37:00.000-05:00

So Nigeria is going INSANE. I can't wait for their elections, because I am the world's biggest Africa dork (well ok I don't know any other ones so I may not actually be the biggest) but anyways, that's not the reason I'm blogging.

I'm blogging because I am incoherant

In a shitty end to what was otherwise a good spring break I am attempting to write a 20 page paper while on a lot of medicine. I wrote 10 pages, deleted 8, wrote 7 then deleted 4. I'm fairly certain that whatever actually remains is no better than what I deleted, but it would have been sad to delete it all. I want my head to clear, but that would mean it's time to take more medicine I guess. This is also the start of my month of evil papers. By the 20th of April I will have written 65-80 pages. That's obnoxious, I really should have dropped this stupid South Asia seminar class when I got the syllabus and realized that I would have to write three 20 page papers, but noooo I'm stupid. That's all I have to say. I apologize to the three people who read this (hi katie bieda!!) that this is not coherant, yet not incoherant enough to really be amusing.

2003-03-18T16:30:00.000-05:00

Andrea is angry that I don't blog more. I say if you write for 8 hours a day for your job you might not want to write anymore. But I fear for my life, so here's some of the fun things I did today:

San Clemente reduced energy consumption by 15 percent through various capital improvement projects. Energy saving projects included conservative use of office lights and computers, closing facility doors, optimizing sensor usage for internal lighting, the use of high-demand equipment only during "off-peak" times, and changing all city traffic signal lights from incandescent lights to LEDs. The city also has a energy reduction policy and procedure document, which outlines energy efficiency measures to be taken in various facilities. Suggestions include the appointment of an "Energy Coordinator" to report communicate with the state, use of the Energy Star online performance rating system to evaluate the energy performance of buildings, and the establishment of required minimum or maximum temperature levels for city buildings.

Gresham's Department of Environmental Services' Gresham Resource Efficiency Assistance to Businesses (GREAT Businesses) program helps local firms identify easy and affordable ways to conserve water, reduce waste and minimize stormwater impacts on local waterways. A program coordinator visits a business and evaluates existing water conservation and waste and stormwater management practices. The coordinator then recommends changes with emphasis on simple or low-cost options. Follow-up visits monitor the progress of the recommended actions and identify businesses that excel in conserving natural resources and protecting creeks and wetlands. All businesses recieve free assistance, and special attention is paid to automobile dealers or repair shops and hotel and restaurants.

Lubbock provides a $40 monthly stipend to bilingual non-civil service employees who pass an oral fluency test in Spanish. Approximately 29 percent of Lubbock's population is Hispanic. In order for city departments to perform everyday tasks it is necessary for them to interact with non-English speakers. Having bilingual employees also helps the city improve its relationship with the community. Seventy-four employees receive the bilingual stipend.

The Santa Fe Springs Library and Cultural Services Division provides far more to the community than books. Its programs provide the community with education, entertainment, and access to technology. The city's Public Art Ordinance of 1991 established a fund to expose children to the arts, after music, art, and theater were cut from public schools. The Library and Cultural Services Division distributes this fund to schools and cultural organizations to support trips to museums, and classroom materials. The Library and Cultural Services Division also created an eight-acre historical park that portrays the history of California including the original Native American residents. The Library and Cultural Services Division also administers the Heritage Artwork in Public Places Program which enhances the city's landscapes with art that reflects the culture of its residents. The program includes a sculpture garden and outdoor gallery exhibits. The Library and Cultural Services Division uses a grant from the California Library Services and Construction Act to promote literacy among English-speaking adults. Literacy programs include a reading lab, a writing class, book discussions, and tutoring in a women's shelter and a women's prison. To entice residents to learn about the histories and literatures of different cultures the Library and Cultural Services Division provides live entertainment one night a month in its gourmet espresso bar. Events have included discussions with authors, ethnic music, and Polynesian dancing. Finally, the Library and Cultural Services Division promotes access to technology for senior citizens and low-income residents in its three technology centers throughout the city. The Library and Cultural Services Division's programs were awarded The Helen Putnam Award for Excellence by the California League of Cities.

Cheyenne uses a pavement management system (PMS) to assist with scheduling and tracking street maintenance and repairs. The goal of the program is to extend the lives of local roads by repairing and maintaining them before they need to be rebuilt completely. Cheyenne's PMS software records roadway conditios, assists with scheduling, and tracks maintenance work. The software allows city employees to prioritize the sections of roadway which most urgently need work, without completely neglecting other sections.

Hull reduces its dependency on outside power vendors by generating three percent of its electricity with a 660-kilowatt wind turbine. The unit has three 90-doot blades that rest on a 150-foot tower. The Hull Municipal Light Plant (MLP) stopped billing the town for electricity for streetlights and traffic signals because the turbine produces enough power to power them. This saves the town $55,000 per year. Hull estimates that the turbine will have produced enough power to offset the cost of its purchase and installation in seven years or less.

Garden Grove uses their existing traffic signal infrastructure to monitor traffic. Traditionally, cities use pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camers for closed circuit television monitoring, but this requires the use of fiber-optic cable. Garden Grove could not afford to rewire their system, instead they used dome camera technology which provides rapid, precise movement, and discreet monitoring. The dome cameras can be wired directly into the city's existing traffic signal interconnects. The use of dome cameras and existing infrastructure costs 3 times less than the conventional PTZ cameras.

Wheat Ridge encourages low-income residents to become homeowners. The Wheat Ridge Housing Authority purchases rental units and renovates them. They then sell them as affordable townhouses or condominiums. Units are sold at a base price of $125,000. Applicants must be first-time home buyers, and their annual income must not exceed 80 percent of the median income for the Denver metro region.

The Bennettsville Police Department runs a Crossroads program to offer students an alternative to suspension. Suspension causes students to miss a day of instruction and allows them to spend the time unsupervised. The Crossroads program allows students to remain in their classes, while attending a three hour after-school session for 15 days. The program includes a military style drill, physical fitness training, tutoring, and counseling. The program aims to teach discipline and responsibility, enhance students' self-esteem, and offer them an opportunity to interact with police mentors. Additionally, representatives from several social service agencies evaluate the students to determine the reasons for their misbehavior and to refer them to additional assistance when necessary. This program won a 2002 Achievement Award in Public Safety from the Municipal Association of South Carolina.

Bell Gardens helps its low-income residents go to college through a loan program. The loans are interest-free and may be used to pay the cost of tuition, room and board, books and supplies, transportation costs, and other expenses. Loan recipients must repay the loans within ten years of graduating, and are required to perform 10 hours of community service for every $1000 they borrow. Since 1994 the program has loaned $700,000 to nearly 250 students. The program is funded with interest from an initial $3 million fund.

So ha Andrea! Is that enough blogging for you? Are you bored yet?

2003-03-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Two things.

Why has no one heard of the Grameen Bank? (it's really famous I swear)

And how many times can we attempt to screw with Angola?

When done midterming I will explain.

2003-03-07T12:19:00.000-05:00

This morning someone tried to give me money. They thought I was homeless because I was walking down the street carrying a blanket. But Lindsay explains it all:

HammyGoesToHell: you were thin and had a bag
HammyGoesToHell: so you must be a thin bag lady

2003-03-05T18:27:00.000-05:00

So Brazzaville is the worst city in the world. I was supposed to fly through Brazzaville on my way to South Africa. Unfortunately, Cameroon refused to give me a visa, and I had to buy another ticket. Too bad, I'd like to say I spent a few hours in the worst city in the world. I kind of miss being on a continent where you need to check your flight connections to make sure the airport is still functioning.

Also Brazzaville still has a huge ninja problem, NO ONE believes me when I say this, but there actually are armed ninjas in control of much of the Pool region of Congo (the little one).

The only city in the bottom 5 that I've been to is Ouagadougou, which was 210th. It was actually my favorite city in West Africa. I guess I didn't have to live there, but it really didn't seem all that bad.

2003-03-04T04:44:00.000-05:00

Obligatory nonsensical blog

So it's about 4:30 am, and I've been awake for about 22 hours, I have a midterm in about 3 hours, and another in 13 hours. So obviously its time to be incoherant. What's particularly bad about this is that I have completely forgotten how to study. I really haven't at all int he past 9 or 10 months. The most schoolwork I did last semester was at the school I was teaching at. I have so little motivation to study it'd ridiculous. So I keep drinking cherry coke, because even though I'm not really studying I'm afraid that if I go to sleep I won't wake up in time for the 8 am midterm so I have to stay awake, but I am very very tired and caffienated which results in me doing things like taking a shower at 2:30 and then being afraid of the Washington Monument, because despite the fact that it is looming outside my window every night, tonight it looks particularly scary and the red lights keep blinking and then I almost fall asleep and start checking my email and allafrica.com, because neither of them will be updated at 3 am, but its better than studying for research methods, even though I really should be doing that since I know approximately 12% of the things I should know, but that's ok, because the exam isn't for about 3 more hours, and I'm not going to work tomorrow becaue my bpss skied into a tree and is stuck in Canada, so he won't really know anyways, and besides they'll probly make me work at the conference on Sunday, and that will suck.

2003-03-02T18:34:00.000-05:00

For the most part my family is full of white trash religious fanatics who drive me insane. My grandmother is definately the exception. Her husband died 21 years ago, and instead of becoming an old lady she became the busiest person I know. Some of the things she does are normal old-lady fare: going to the opera and symphony, volunteering with her church, and gardening. But the thing she enjoys the most is travelling. She has been to more countries than anyone I know. When I was a kid I recall her being gone for months out of the year, only to return with a tan and stories about drinking fermented yak milk. She's definately the person who introduced me to the fact that there are more than 3 countries in the world, and encourage me to learn about them. Two years ago she went to Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, and Mongolia. And now she's planning a trip to Madagascar and Antarctica. She usually travels alone, or with a group of people who are 50 years younger than she, and I've never heard her say she's had a bad time. She has often offered to take me to places like China or Argentina if I could get the time off work and school. Oh and she's 81. She's proof that old people don't have to be boring or depressed.

2003-02-28T01:30:00.000-05:00

This is fantastic. Partly because I saw this beer in South Africa and wondered why its slogan is "America's lusty lively beer" since it's brewed in South Africa, and I've never seen it in the US. Also though, South Africa is just a generally screwed up country, and they could probly use something like this.

2003-02-24T22:53:00.000-05:00

Since some people like Carissa take my advice on political candidates without any questions, Dean's entire speech is here.

2003-02-24T22:14:00.000-05:00

Lindsay has been yelling at me to blog all day, and she did buy me beer so I'll see what I can do.

The tournament this weekend was alright. It would have been far better if people who are in positions of authority deigned themselves to show up. For real, if you don't want to even grudgingly do what's asked of you then why are you still involved. It would make everyone's life easier and probably happier if you would quit. Also don't be all enthusiastic about something and then refuse to help because you're not happy with what you're being asked to do. You know, maybe it's because people don't respect you, but if you'd stop whining for a half-second you might see why that is, and holding 27 ballots hostage isn't going to help you very much in the respect category anyways.

While I'm being evil I should probably say that I'm aware that I've been a horrid insensitive bitch lately. I'm hoping this is a temporary "oh shit i went to Ghana, this isn't Ghana, what the fuck is going on" thing rather than a permanent sort of evilness. However Andrea says I am allowed to be an evil insensitive bitch because I have 'perspective.' And yeah most of my friends aren't starving, or infested with Guinea worms, but I don't think thats really a good excuse.

Today is Lindsay´s birthday, she can drink like few people I know, and now it´s LEGAL. I´ve still got 46 more days, but Lindz owes me a lot of beer from the whole Gregg Brazinsky/peanut butter sandwich/malaria incident.

And Howard Dean was here this weekend, but I didn't get to see him because of debate. That man really needs to get some money. Because he says things like this:

"What I want to know is why in the world the Democratic Party leadership is supporting the president's unilateral attack on Iraq …What I want to know is why are Democratic Party leaders supporting tax cuts …What I want to know is why we're fighting in Congress about the patients' bill of rights when the Democratic Party ought to be standing up for health care for every single American man, woman and child in this country …What I want to know is why our folks are voting for the president's No Child Left Behind bill that leaves every child behind, every teacher behind, every school board behind and every property taxpayer behind … (applause) … I'm Howard Dean, and I'm here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party."

Too bad no one will vote for him because he actually says the things that other Democrats are afraid to say.

2003-02-18T21:33:00.000-05:00

Aiiight BITCHOS. You know who you are. You can stop yelling at me know.

2003-02-10T23:51:00.000-05:00

Being 800 miles away from my mother is so much worse than being 5600 miles away from her. I'm going to get disowned one of these days, and that may not be such a bad thing.

2003-02-05T22:56:00.000-05:00

Cote D'Ivoire is actually pretty big news right now, considering it's in Africa and everything. What's weird is that in almost every story about the protests in Abidjan there is a picture of people with signs in French saying bad things about the French, but 9 times out of 10 there's also a guy with a sign in English asking the United States for help, or holding an American flag. This is weird because the US has a long history of non-intervention in West Africa (considering we haven't helped even our closest African allies there--ie Liberia), and also because I'm not sure what these people are really asking for. Do the people of Cote D'Ivoire really want American soldiers trying to solve their problems? And if they do, what on earth convinced them that that would be a good idea? I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

2003-02-03T23:29:00.000-05:00

I don't understand why we need a space program. I understand why we needed one in the past, I realize that we have learned some cool shit, and that generally space is pretty damn cool. But I don't understand why it is still necessary. Lindsay tells me that if we get rid of it we are screwing ourselves over 50 years from now. But the opportunity cost of space exploration is pretty high. We're screwing ourselves over more when we have children graduate from high school who can't read, when entire cities are turning into vast wastelands, and we are spewing carbon everywhere we go. I admit that if NASA were completely eliminated most of the money probably wouldn't go to solving these problems, but it's frivilous to ignore them in favor of learning about Mars. If we don't kill this planet we won't have to move off of it. If we educate our citizens we will still have fantastic scientific innovations and discoveries, and probably more money to finance their research.

Really the only arguement I buy about the space program is the medical research that's done in space. I don't know a whole lot about it, but it's something about lacking gravity. But if it's that special can't we figure out how to simulate that environment on earth? I mean we sent people to moon--can't we figure out how to kill gravity in a confined space?

It just seems like a big waste of money. Sure wondering about the universe is cool, but I'd rather we feed the 33 million Americans who are clinically malnourished then send a half-dozen people to see it.

2003-01-28T13:21:00.000-05:00

"The first sign of an imminent malaria attack is a feeling of anxiety, which comes on suddenly and for no clear reason. Something has happened to you, something bad. If you believe in spirits, you know what it is: someone has pronounced a curse, and an evil spirit has entered you, disabling you and rooting you to the ground. Hence the dullness, the weakness, the heaviness that comes over you. Everything is irritating. First and foremost, the light; you hate the light. And others are irritating--their loud voices, their revolting smell, their rough touch.

But you don't have a lot of time for these repugnances and loathings. For the attack arrives quickly, sometimes quite abrubtly, with few preliminaries. It is a sudden, violent onset of cold. A polar, arctic cold. Someone has taken you, naked, toasted in the hellish heat of the Sahel and the Sahara, and thrown you straight into the icy highlands of Greenland or Spitsbergen, amid the snows, winds, and blizzards. What a shock! You feel the cold in a split second, a terrifying, piercing, ghastly cold. You begin to tremble, to quake, to thrash about. You immediately recognize however, that this is not a trembling you are familiar with from earlier experiences--say when you caught cold one winter ina a frost; these tremors and colvulsions tossing you around are of a kind that at any moment now will tear you to shreds. Trying to save yourself, you begin to beg for help.

What can bring relief? The only things that really helps is if someone covers you. But not simply throws a blanket or quilt over you. This thing you are being covered with must crush you with its weight, squeeze you, flatten you. You dream of being pulverized. You desperately long for a steamroller to pass over you.

I once had a powerful malaria attack in a poor village, where there weren't any heavy coverings. The villagers placed the lid from some kind of wooden chest on top of me and then patiently sat on it, waiting for the worst tremors to pass. The most wretched are those who have a malaria attack and there is nothing to wrap them in. You can see them by the roadsides, in the bush, or in clay huts, lying semi-comatose on the ground, drenched in sweat, confused, their bodies rent by rythmic waves of malarial convulsions. But even snuggled under a dozen blankets, jackets, and coats, your teeth chatter and you moan with pain, becuase you sense that this cold does not come from without--it's 40 degrees Celsius out there!-- but within, inside you, that those Greenlands and Spitsbergens are in you, that all those floes, sheets, and mountains, of ice are advancing through your veins, muscles, and bones. Perhaps this thought would fill you with fear--were you able to summon the strength to feel anything at all. But the thought occurs jsut as the peak of the attack, after several hours, is gradually subsiding, and you start a helpless descent into a state of extreme exhaustion and weakness.

The malaria attack is not merely painful. but like every pain also a mystical experience. We enter a realm about which a moment ago we knew nothing, though now it turns out that it had existed alongside us all the while, finally capturing and incorporating us: we discover within ourselves icy crevasses, chasms, and abysses, whose presence fills us with suffering and fear. But this moment of discovery, too, passes, the spirits desert us, depart, and disappear, and that which remains, under the mountain of coverings, is truly pitiful."

--Ryszard Kapuscinski in The Shadow of the Sun

Really I am so damn lucky that even though I feel like shit I can afford the medecine to treat myself and am not suffering from malnutrition and schistosomiasis and dozens of other ailments at the same time. In some places one in three children will die of malaria, and it costs many nations billions of dollars in economic productivity since large amounts of their labor force are incapacitated because of recurrent attacks. It baffles me that so few people seem to think this stuff is important.

2003-01-27T22:42:00.000-05:00

So webmail has been down since sometime Friday. I never realized how dependent I am on the internet and particularly email until I couldn't access it. Now I'm going crazy because I have a job interview tomorrow and don't know where or when because the info is in my inbox. I even miss the dozens of flmadc emails. Webmail come back!!!

And if I actually have malaria I am going to blame it on Duke. I think that's perfectly reasonable.

2003-01-26T14:05:00.000-05:00

Wow that sucked.

2003-01-22T23:02:00.000-05:00

When I was in Wa in northern Ghana in December I went into this kiosk to buy a sachet of soap so I could wash some underwear. The man who sold the soap was very excited to see me and had a long conversation with me, and really he was very nice. But as every single Ghanaian does he asked for my address, and I gave it to him. I had been told that 99 percent of people you give your address too wouldn't actually write you. This guy Master Mohammed Seidu is part of the 1 percent who do. I have recieved 3 letters from him so far, one including a picture. They are sort of hard to understand and I am unsure if he is crazy or illiterate, although I'm sure he could be both. Basically he gives me his address over and over again and asks me to bring him to Washington, marry him, and buy him photographic equiptment. None of that is terribly unusual coming from a Ghanaian man, but then there are random Quran passages stuck in the middle of sentences and lines like this:

"White camel dromiedary. Marijata Sundaita Keta the prince lion and the lion prince of Zafari in Mali Bamako and Timbuktu University. Scientific knowledge philosophy master Mohammed Seidu Weli Kuu-Inaa Bajirle Dabo and Weichau princely lion righteous throne Wechiau and Lassia Tuolu Chiele."

and then:"Historical background Sankofa I am happy first at my kiosk One Love compound eyes desert star signin with right hand. Welcome to Ghana Accra at Takoradi & Sekondi Twin City I ADU Matin work House #10."

So that makes it sound like maybe he is just copying random phrases that he has found somewhere, but then he uses words like 'juncture' in a perfectly normal context, which would mean he is fairly literate. So then maybe he's just crazy, but he seemed perfectly sane when I met him.

Anyhow I think I should write back to him because he is spending a lot of money sending these letters to me, but I don't really want to marry him or get him a visa and I'm not sure exactly what one writes to someone who send them these kinds of letters. Hopefully the hundreds of other people who have my address don't also decide to write to me.

2003-01-22T22:32:00.000-05:00

Has FOX always been this bad? Three new shows that are coming out: Bridezilla, Married by America, and Man vs. Beast. The last is the worst. It apparently is an entire half hour contest to see who can pull an airplane better-- an elephant or 50 LITTLE PEOPLE.

2003-01-22T11:01:00.000-05:00

Bye bye perfect credit. I'll miss you when I have to get loans for grad school.

2003-01-20T22:23:00.000-05:00

The GW bookstore sells some very strange things. This morning I saw a mouse cover. It's a squishy sort of thing that you can put over your computer mouse to make it squishy. Or something like that. This thing costs $7.95. The best part though is that it is shaped like a football complete with laces. It says "GW Colonials." Problem is we don't have a football team, and haven't had one for probably 50 years.

2003-01-20T14:33:00.000-05:00

It really really sucks to be a Liberian refugee. First they fled Liberia, now they are fleeing Cote D'Ivoire except Liberia is kind of still having a war as well.

2003-01-20T01:02:00.000-05:00

Well the two teams I bet on lost, but one of the teams I wanted to win did so I guess it's not so bad. But the Superbowl? Not so good. Sure the Bucs have a phenomenal defense, but their offensive line and offense in general isn't so great. And the Raiders? Don't even get me started.

And when I was a kid I would have cared about this even more. But really I don't care so much anymore. And that's kind of sad because I REALLY used to care about this shit. And I know that this is going to sound really annoying and sappy and like the person that I fucking hate to be, but why the fuck does it matter who wins the Superbowl or who stars in some stupid movie? At the moment there are this many people starving:
Lesotho -- 650,000
Malawi -- 3.3 million
Mozambique -- 590,000
Zambia -- 2.9 million
Swaziland -- 270,000
Zimbabwe -- 6.7 million
Zambia -- 2.9 million
Angola -- 1.9 million
Western Sahel -- 500,000
West Africa -- 791,000
Republic of Congo -- 342,000
Uganda -- 500,000
Sudan -- 2.9 million
Eritrea -- 3.3 million
Ethiopia -- 11 million
Democratic Repulic of Congo -- 1.4 million

Yah. So maybe Ghana turned me into even more of a bleeding heart than I was before, but sorry, I saw people get beaten to death. That sucked. And if anyone had told me that coming back would be this hard I'm pretty sure I never would have left.

And my mother emailed me the final version of her poem. That stupid poem that she has spent the last 9 years of her life perfecting. Oh and she copywrited it and set it to music and got it published. It's from the perspective of a fetus. I find it rather amusing. She also wants me to post it on "prominant student bulletin boards on campus." In the spirit of that, if you'd like a copy, let me know....

And someone I know is having blogger sex. Yeah.

2003-01-17T11:51:00.000-05:00

I promise that if condom lady gives me a job I will call her by her real name.

2003-01-17T09:22:00.000-05:00

I am very very briefly going to stop eating the souls of baby rabbits and say something sappy. I have the greatest friends ever. And I'm not just saying that because I didn't see them for five months.

I thought I was used to this country but I'm not. There are no goats. I miss the little herd that used to run accross campus at exactly 4:46 every afternoon. I didn't think I would miss goats especially after having to eat light goat soup and being pissed on by them.

2003-01-16T23:19:00.000-05:00

Parasite free and proud. AND I drank the tap water. Take that whoever cares!

2003-01-15T22:43:00.000-05:00

So I might be slightly biased, but I don't understand why I am required to take this damn Europe in the 20th Century class. I understand that as an IR major it's important to know the history of diplomacy etc., but I already had to take European history once. If my two concentrations (Africa and International Development) only tangentially involve Europe I don't understand why the history of European diplomacy is so important. Why don't people who have Europe concentrations have to study the history of Asian/Latin American/African foreign relations? Oh and one of the textbooks says that the cultures of China, the Middle East, and India were content to have minor technological advances, while the sophisticated and civilized Europeans demanded culture and rapid advances in all areas of their lives.

Oh and the professor is an 85 year old man who says "This is a classroom not a restaurant," "you cannot pass this class respectably without taking too many notes on all the readings in the library," tried to make Carissa and other people sit on the floor, and is infamous for failing people. Hopefully between Carissa, Lindsay, and Gina someone will be able to convince me to go twice a week.

2003-01-15T18:49:00.000-05:00

Bud Selig wants to award home field advantage in the World Series to the team from the league that won the All-Star Game. That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. No one even won the last one. Sure the way they award it now is almost as arbitrary, but why don't they just give it to the team with the most wins, with a tie-breaker based upon the strength of their schedule or something?

2003-01-15T13:17:00.000-05:00

"That would really turn me on" -Lindsay on hanging a Bob Kerrey for US Senate poster in the closet.

2003-01-14T00:15:00.000-05:00

And my econ textbook cost 29% of the per capita income of Ghana. It's a good thing it's a class in development econ...
I can't get used to American prices.

2003-01-13T23:53:00.000-05:00

My grandmother's speech on Africa:

Africa
Africa to me is Africa
It used to be called darkest Africa
To me it is Africa
It is there
I do not have anything about it
People live there
It is for them
It is Africa
I know that it is there
Africa
It is Africa to me

My aunt:
Welcome back to civilization.
Did you see natives?
Did they have rings in their lips?
Do they have cars in Ghana?
Did you see REAL natives?
You are the African queen.
Do an African dance. No. Do it now!

If one more person welcomes me back to civilization they are going to be missing limbs.

2003-01-10T12:23:00.000-05:00

Speaking of which finding a job sucks, especially in a city where many people my age are willing to work for free.

2003-01-10T12:21:00.000-05:00

I moved for two reasons. One involves my parents. The other involves possible future employment.