Between 8 and 9pm tonight as I was entering the parking lot adjacent to Pete’s Pizza & Wings, a large SUV was exiting from the one-way entrace. I was in the middle of the street completing my turn. As I slowly backed up, foot on the brake, I lightly tapped the right front bumper of a smaller car behind me with the left rear bumper of my car. The SUV exited, I parked, and the guy I hit collected my license and insurance information. I got a bit of paint of my bumper, and he got a bit of a scratch on his. Jeremy dissuaded me from taking pictures of the damage — he thought it best not to upset the guy. I was a bit confused about not having any kind of insurance card, but only the information listed on my registration. The guy didn’t like that I had a California drivers license, and insisted that you can’t register a car in MA with a license from CA. Apparently he’s wrong. 🙂 The collission occured at maybe 3 miles per hour, and neither the other driver nor his female passenger seemed to be or in any way indicated that they were injured. Jeremy and I got our food and the rest of the night was pretty good. Here’s hoping I don’t get a $500 bill in the mail for the tiny bit of scratching I inflicted. Eh, sometimes it just isn’t your day. It could have been worse. Luckily, it was not. Wish the guy would have honked or backed up or something. Oh well.

Pondering…if students know that they can come to the Student Union with complaints about things like broken toilets when facilities/res life is giving them the runaround, is that a good thing? If we are effective, yes. If we are inundated with complaints that really aren’t directly related to what we’re doing, then no. And if we’re ineffective, then they just have one more group to complain about. Hmm.

I am an honest person. It is very difficult for me to lie openly, and I attempt to never do so. I try my best never to be duplicitous and to make my honest feelings known on all matters, or, if I do not wish to make my feelings known, to simply not speak, or refuse to answer. I make it pretty clear to people whether I like them or not. I try to avoid people I dislike and to stay in the company of those whom I like. I try always to answer questions honestly. Generally, I do a pretty good job of it.

I’ve noticed lately that I will speak mistruths when I make it clear, through my actions, that I am joking or that I am lying. I don’t really like that I’ve been seeing myself do this from time to time, it really goes against my policy of complete honesty. I need to attempt to stop when I see myself doing this.

There is one person in particular who has a very open and well-known disdain for me who insists on pretending to be nice when he needs things from me. It annoys me to no end — we both know that he hates me, and it’s really stupid for him to pretend to be nice and then walk out the door and start shouting obscenities about me. I just don’t get why he acts that way.

There have been two occasions in the last week or so where administrators have said things to me that I know to be completely untrue. Their demeanor while putting forth these lies was almost exactly the same as their demeanor at other times. This worries me greatly. It is pretty darn obvious if I’m telling a lie, on the few occasions that I do. To realize that people I talk to every day are so adept at lying really throws me for a loop — I don’t really know if what they’ve told me in the past has been the complete honest truth.

Everyone embellishes, everyone tells half-truths, everyone distorts things slightly. I strive to be as honest a person as possible. While other students might go to professors and attempt to get grades changed on things like papers (and often succeed), I don’t do so because it just doesn’t feel right to me. While people make excuses for missing class, be they legitimate or not, I generally don’t, because I don’t think they’re honest — if I wanted to get to the class enough, I would have, and if I had another priority that made the class secondary, then I really don’t have the right to make excuses. And when I tell people my opinions, I tell them my true opinions, not the ones I think they’re going to like.

I’m beginning to feel that my honesty puts me at a distinct disadvantage to other people. I think that bothers me, but I’m not sure. Should it?

I’m pretty amazed with the result of the Hutton Report. At the same time, I wouldn’t be suprised if most people who read this haven’t a clue what that is. Alas, American focus. I don’t really feel like taking the time at this juncture to delve into the many facets of the fascinating and disturbing chain of events surrounding a BBC report about a British intelligence dossier, the suicide of the source for said report, the incredible public debate about the whole mess, and the eventual quasi-resolution, today, with the release of a 700-odd page report by an investigator who exonerates almost completely 10 Downing Street and places a heap of blame right on the doorstep of the BBC. And now the head of the Beeb has fallen on his sword. But will one resignation be enough?

You won’t hear it on the US nightly news. Here is a report on the report (IHT), some other coverage (Al Jazeera), a political analysis (Guardian), and some angry opinion (Telegraph). What surprises me the most is the amount of respect all sides place in Hutton. I don’t know the story on this guy or really much at all about the process of the inquiry and how the British treat their judiciary, but I’m amazed at how muted the criticism is of a report that came out much more one-sided then anyone expected.

Why is this especially bad? The BBC is quite possibly the best source of journalism on Earth. And in 2006, it’s charter is up for renewal. And there are not a few people who would really like to see that organization given it’s due (what said due is is left as an exercise for the reader). Looks like they now have more ammo then they ever dreamed of for this upcoming fight. And does is surprise anyone that Rupert Murdoch (owner of the Sky network, among other media holdings in Britain) is helping lead the charge?

Well, that’s the end of that wonderful dream of not missing any classes. A radio, an alarm clock, and a 500 watt halogen light on a digital timer didn’t do the trick, and I just slept through Spanish.

Sigh. Is there really any more point in trying?

Meredith Glansberg’s excellent year in review is worth reading in it’s entirety, and since registration for the Justice web site is annoying and unnecessary, I’m reproducing the article here in the hope that it’ll get just a little bit wider distribution. Amazing that in the end, incidents that seemed to last forever and involve us so completely become mere sentences in the march of time.
Continue reading “Brandeis Year In Review”

A close friend of someone I know at Brandeis recently died, which caused me to pause and reflect on life and her struggle with a rare form of cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma. I never knew Liddy, but she shared her experiences on the web, and I had glanced at the site a few times. Now I’ve read through much of it, have learned a lot about suffering, a lot about the human spirit, and way too much about cancer.

1/15/04: Liddy took her final steps on her journey with Ewing’s sarcoma today at 11:15 AM. No more pain. No more labored breathing. No more trembling hands and wobbliness. No more auras. She is at rest and at peace.

A few days ago President Bush announced a new initiative to send Americans to Mars, a mission that will end up costing anywhere from 500 billion to over 1 trillion dollars. I very much believe in our future in space and the wonders of what we can achieve. But perhaps that money could be best spent, at present, in another, more noble and more immediate cause: the eradication of cancer, a terrible, terrible, and mostly human-created disease.

What a strange feeling. I was just entering my credit card info to submit my Georgtown summer program information when I realized that an aspect of my application was now incorrect — I am no longer a student “in good standing.” In fact, I am now on academic probation. I feel like that’s not going to help my chances much. I’m one of over 1800 people applying for 200 spots, and I’m in bad academic standing. Wonderful.

I’m very happy with my wonderful new 15″ Aluminum PowerBook. It’s double the speed of my last one, at 1.25Ghz, has a much-needed larger hard drive (80GB), and a DVD burner. Has the same 512MB as my last one and an AirPort card, although this one is “Extreme”, so it can use 802.11g access points. So when I work in Web Services, at least, I’ll get very high speeds. 😉 A lot of design flaws have been corrected since the TiBook. The new case is a lot more solid and, so far, hasn’t gotten any scratches. The very cool backlit keyboard is wonderful in the dark. The LCD is springy so that, even when closed, it doesn’t come in contact with the keyboard, and, thus, doesn’t get dirty.

Now, the problems. The battery looked a lot smaller then the old one, and it turns out it is — max advertised battery life is 4.5 hours instead of 5.5, and while I was able to get up to 4 hours on my old ‘Book, this new one hasn’t give me over 3 so far. The big test will be on the plane, when I have it in ultra power-saving mode, with brightness way down, screen effects turned off, etc. We’ll see. Secondly, because of the aforementioned springy screen, the ‘Book really isn’t meant to be held in any position other then normal upright, with two hands. I can’t really grab it with one hand and walk around, I don’t think. I’m still trying to figure this one out.

I’m gonna grab a 3-year AppleCare warranty for my ‘Book as soon as I get a chance — it is highly worth it, since my poor old TiBook decided to die after 18 months and the repiar costs are very, very high when you need a new logic board or display.

All in all, I’m very happy with this wonderful new tool, and I can’t wait to accessorize with a nice, padded backpack. One thing I don’t want to buy is a second battery at $129, but unfortunately I may have to do that at some point. Before I do so, I’m gonna see how this one holds up in normal school usage conditions.

Hmm. It doesn’t feel like a new year. Perhaps because my transformation began a few weeks early.

As soon as I leave town to head back to Brandeis, demolition begins for our little home remodel. I haven’t seen the plans and don’t actually know what is going to change, but one major part of it is re-apportioning my room. End result: all of my things need to be moved out. Right now I’m focusing on my collected papers of the last nine years.

It’s painful. Every new paper I overturn brings back memories, of my first two years of college, of high school, of middle school. I’d love to keep everything, and preserve it forever both in paper and online, but apparently I’m not allowed to do that, so most of it gets trashed. I’m setting aside things to scan in, assuming the scanner downstairs works, works well, and works quickly — it’s a fair amount of papers. Things I think I’m gonna keep: essays and essay prompts, exams, high school writing portfolios. Things that get dumped: all my homework, as fascinating as it is to look back at all the things I’ve studied (and mostly forgotten), and to remember people I’ve shared my life with, if only briefly, in classes.

It’s funny, because when I went to college I decided to treat it as a clean slate, a chance to start over, a tabula rasa, if you will. And in the process, as was somewhat my intention, I forgot about the drudgery and pain and silliness and stupidity of my high school years. But in the process, I forgot about the many good things about high school as well. Sifting through these relics of my life causes me to remember…and throwing them away ensures that I will, again, forget. And the memory will be harder to retrieve without these guideposts to show me the way.

Sad.