. . . . . entries for 26.10.10 . . . . .
Hypothesis 1: Under "normal" conditions, people do not consider humans who are not yet born, and will not be born for some time, to be complete moral persons in need of the same protections as currently living humans.
Hypothesis 2: Under certain conditions, most people can be influenced to consider future humans to be complete moral persons.
Hypothesis 3: Politicians are more resistant than the general population to appeals that portray future humans as complete moral persons, no matter what the conditions.
How's that for political psychology? (Sorry, politics major shrugging off my enthusiasm for his thesis topic just made me a little bitter.)
. . . . . entries for 25.10.10 . . . . .
I'm on break after my propaganda midterm, and, well, that could have gone better but probably also could have gone worse.
Geez, body, I wish you'd stop being sick already. I have midterms and stuff.
. . . . . entries for 24.10.10 . . . . .
Positive response from prospective advisor = HAPPY DANCE!
I appear to be getting better before I'm getting focused, which on the one hand is not bad, but on the other hand is not good.
. . . . . entries for 22.10.10 . . . . .
Ay ay ay, I have got to get better and focused, but focused first, because that I have more control over.
. . . . . entries for 21.10.10 . . . . .
Holy congested everything, batman!
. . . . . entries for 19.10.10 . . . . .
Har har, I just noticed something. What is odd about this image?
maybe they will carry me on through?
maybe they will carry me to you?
listening to Lira Yin on a nonstop loooooooooooooop
okay so that's an exaggeration, but still!
If there really were some kind of higher power who created us humans for a special purpose, I think what it has wanted us to understand it to say is this:
"Look at all this! Look at everything!
Look!
Look!
Look closely!"
- and before the end of us, for the past century or so, in metaphysical tears it has changed its tune to -
"Now look at what you've done!"
. . . . . entries for 17.10.10 . . . . .
I would like to point out that I have chopped the lyrics from the sidebar and it is still routinely really awkwardly long. Ho hum.
I don't know whether I want to apply for the NSF fellowship. At all.
Arguments in favor:
-Getting money, broadly construed.
-Getting more influence over the contents of my research.
-Getting prestige.
Arguments against:
-Spending more time constructing another application.
-Being put in a position, in grad school, of having to devote all my time to research instead of taking on a teaching assistantship.
Meh.
. . . . . entries for 13.10.10 . . . . .
I wonder if the crises of others find me at personally inopportune moments on purpose, and if so, I wonder if that's good or bad of them.
Well, in any case. I didn't get done what I had hoped to, and it's late, and I have to be up reasonably early. I always like to think it's worth it. I know, at least once, it has been so far beyond worth it that it has stayed with me as one of the most important things I've ever done.
But I'll write it down here: STOP DOING THAT FOR A FEW WEEKS AND FOCUS ON YOURSELF, THE SELF THAT GRADUATES IN MAY
you have freakin' applications to write
hrgl
. . . . . entries for 12.10.10 . . . . .
I don't wanna.
. . . . . entries for 7.10.10 . . . . .
What the heck, my advisor. Not again.
. . . . . entries for 6.10.10 . . . . .
In related news, this past week seems to have gone by stupidly fast. I'd better slow it down so I have time to study for my exam on Saturday.
And in related related news, I'd better make that dry run to the testing site. Tomorrow, I think.
My reading for social psych - about Yasser Arafat's not-totally-intractable stance on Israel and negotiating peace, as determined from interviews with a social psychologist - is reminding me of mortality and all the dread that comes with it, when it applies to good or at least complete people. Arafat has been dead for six years, and now Hamas governs Palestine. Complete people may comprise Hamas, but the organization itself seems twisted into an animal thing, neither behaving humanely nor beholding its opponents as human. And organizations don't die the way individual leaders do.
Arafat, did you leave enough of yourself with your people? And were you right to believe that Israel could act according to its own will, its own "self-interest rightly understood," and muscle out from under the American thumb to be, itself, complete and humane?
I want to have hope for that hopeless place. It's not where hell belongs.
. . . . . entries for 5.10.10 . . . . .
A song that probs can't not be on my life soundtrack. I kinda wish our friend PJ were more of a livewire performer. xD
. . . . . entries for 4.10.10 . . . . .
So I thought my cough was better for the first hour or so of seminar, then I started getting irresistible coughing fits of the kind I am truly unfamiliar with since I have not had a cold in years. Had to leave the room and seriously freak out coughing in the bathroom, and in the process I feel like I pulled a muscle in my throat, which doesn't even sound possible.
Whooping cough would be perhaps one of the worst things that could happen to me. Please oh please let this just be an abysmally bad cold, or even the flu. Just not the freaking thing I'm not vaccinated against.
. . . . . entries for 3.10.10 . . . . .
When I see a critter of some kind who's being silly (i.e., a squirrel eating a donut) or putting itself in danger (i.e., a frog or praying mantis sitting in the middle of a road), I instantly feel affection for it and want it to be okay and sometimes will chase it or pick it up and move it into a safer place.
Walking back from brunch today, I had a sort of similar sensation, but not with critters. There were two students, a guy and a girl, walking toward center campus. They were close together, but not speaking, not holding hands. A kind of weighty silence surrounded them. I sort of remember the guy looking at the girl with concern, but who knows - I might've just invented the image. But she looked down and away, and they seemed chilled by the fall air, and separate if together.
I think you only know this when you see it if you, at one time or another, have been in it.
Whoever you two are: I hope you're okay.
. . . . . entries for 2.10.10 . . . . .
I have had a cold for the past few days. I haven't had a cold in years.
. . . . . entries for 1.10.10 . . . . .
I don't think I have the heart to put this on facebook or text people with it, given the evening's circumstances, but white rabbit anyway. Someone, somewhere.
I think both the spirit and the flesh are doing pretty poorly tonight, unfortunately.
fmInflamedMucuousMembranesandCalcIncompetentL
come home?
.:people:.
{ting}
she looks like the real thing
{mari}
out and about
[kelsey]
THIS IS AMERICA
{yianni}
stop being depressed
{alisa}
other
[shannon]
close and far
{frank}
islands where no islands should go
[cassie]
eating knowledge
{colin}
my dm
[emily]
shoulder to the wheel
[brian]
nostalgic for fantasy
[nicole]
industry insider
{elle}
angry enviro
[matt]
never heard of miyazaki
[pirate dan]
are you reading this?
[olga]
distracted
[messiah dan]
messiah/believer
{max}
approach focus
[natalie]
wait a minute
[susan]
solitude
{greg}
manbeargreg
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.:skin:.
turtles! turtles! by araglas
(heavily modified by yours truly)