Author: cheerfulchaotic

Over the past 2 days, I’ve seen 3 movies. Two of them are arthousy homo flicks, another is not.

One was bad education by pedro almodovar or something like that. Elaborate, sensual, story. Ambition, blackmail, intrigue, sex, murder, blah, blah, blah. I actually rather enjoyed it, but have no urge to see it again.

Next, I saw the hudsucker proxy. It wasn’t a bad movie. The cynicism towards corporate america was kinda refreshing, though it was very over the top. And the mixing of angelic figures and supernatural events into the story, kinda enh. Mixed review. Still, it gives me hope that people are willing to look critically at the role such structures have taken on in our lives.

The third one was “two brothers [and two others (american title)]” which was apparently produced for $545 canadian, and it kinda shows (I say kinda because I viewed it as a download and the graphical quality blew. Who knows how the original was.) While the acting is sub-par in places, and the visuals left something to be desired, I really liked it. The characters were belivable, and engaging (all 4 of them). It had a very open ending. For an el cheapo film, it really worked for me. I recommend it.

I’m having treacherous thoughts of leaving FFXI and picking up WoW. WoW seems much more plot oriented, and much less tedious. Plus it’s the hot new thing, and it’ll run on my Mac.

The downside would be that the mechanics of the game seem less intriguing, but I think I’m okay with that.

They sent alot of mail to me at my former residence, which I only just got, declaring that I owe them nearly $900 in back taxes, about $550 of which they’re claiming I owed from 2001, a year in which I worked not a day in CA, and lived in chicago, il and pittsburgh, pa.

They’ve also declared their tax estimates “final” and have threatened major fiscal unfriendliness. All with deadlines in the past.

I just got it in the mail today. And now I have all weekend for the potential disastrousness, and their likely bureaucratic stonewalling, to prey on my mind. Just lovely.

Can you guess what these words have in common: mosquitos, protozoan, tropical (by cheerfulchaotic) Go ahead and try. user name: guess:

a tribond-like game rules &scores. by interim32.

Two of the 3 big courses I’m taking this semester are on Economic Development. One is just titled “economic development”. That one has been tremendously educational on a topic I’ve been thinking about for quite some time. Both times that I applied to Berkeley, I wrote on the essay topic relating to removing capital gains taxes, as an “economic stimulus”. I even presented it once to my political economy class, with . As soon as I’d finished my brief presentation, Aaron asked me a question that made no real sense to me then. It was something about using interest rates to control inflation.

I was baffled, grinned, shrugged, and professed ignorance. Professor Fong fielded the question and sorta took over in what turned into a group discussion on a topic unrelated that course, but which seems to be a major topic in this this course. What is the role of the interest rate in inflation. How do we control the value (and exchange rate) of currency? What is inflation? What are the consequences of overvaluing currency? How does it happen? Who benefits and who takes it on the chin? Ditto for undervaluing currency. What is the interaction between the stock of money, the rate of financial transfer, the production of things of value, and prices of those produced goods? What does changing one of those do to the others? What does this tell us about inflation?

It’s crazy stuff. I feel like an ignorant child watching him bat concepts back and forth with some of the other students in the class. Then there’s the occasional one I catch and toss to him. Very educational. I have to admit his sink or swim flatout lecture style is less than enchanting, but he’s teaching such fascinating stuff that he clearly knows like the back of his hand that I’m still enjoying the class … somewhat.

I’m feeling like I should write letters to my former profs (particularly Prof Fong from cmu and Prof Quigley from Berkeley), telling them about my current educational exploits, and thanking them for what they taught me as well as their letters of recommendation. Then I might have to write “thank you”s to Tom and Ro as well 😉

Thanks to , I actually ended up watching the state of the union address, and ranting at about every other sentence out of bush’s mouth. It was entertaining for me, I hoped it “enhanced” his experience. Mostly it wasn’t about how incredibly wrong he was. More the dangerously deceptive simplifications which he promulgates, and frequently innaccurate.

For an example of what I point out, allow me to point out that Bush isn’t protecting straight marriage. While gay marriage is off limits, and homos are still regarded as somehow anathema in society, they’ll continue to fuck up the straight marriages they’ll get into because they can’t accept their own sexuality. Possibly their kids as well, who will learn what marital sanctity and stability mean from their parents. That is a far greater risk to stable, healthy, heterosexual marriages than the possibility that heteros will get seduced into gay marriage.

The real problem comes from what society sees and publishes all over the place, the brief, spectacular marriages and divorces of the people in the public eye. If you want to improve stability of marriages, either make sure that once together, they stay together (because we like abusive couples being forced to stay together) or make it harder for the fickle to get married in the first place (I’m sure a waiting period on marriage would be popular, especially compared to scapegoating). The final alternative is a cultural one, and thus not really within the power of political leadership: take away the splendor of the wedding ceremony. Quit weighing down marriage with impossible expectations of happily ever after. Make it a solemn declaration of mutual responsibility. No drunken bashes afterwards. No strippers at bachelor parties before (do people really do that?) The marriage ceremonies I’ve most admired were ‘s and ‘s and Virginia’s and . They were simple, respectful, and an affirmation of a commitment already demonstrated.

That’s the least in scope of his problems, but it is representative of his methodology. Hurting people and denying them freedom, for short term political gain, and hanging pretty words on it.

Yesterday I gave my presentation (along with a classmate) on the San Francisco school desegregation program, its tie-in to american segregation, desegregation, and resegregation. My professor thought it was good. Certainly a boost to the ego. As has everyone who’s talked to me about it. I’ve developed a new metric for whether one has properly prepared for a presentation as well. If you can think of a few different threads you didn’t pursue because you didn’t have time, then you’ve preparedd adequately.

In particular the ones that I didn’t get into were related to residential preferences, and whether segregated minorities are suffering under an imposed situation or whether segregation is the result of their preferences as well. And if so, what that implies about desegregation. I think it is, and it suggests to me that explicit desegregation programs works on something tangentially related to the problem, and exacerbates the problems of white flight.

It adds a (necessary) dimension of complexity to the problem. Desegregation will never be enough. And, to my mind, it will never be a huge benefit for the cost. The resources that would be applied to such a program can be better applied elsewhere.

A few months ago, I finally got around to reading the book Robert Reich suggested we the audience read at his presentation at UC Berkeley, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. It was a good book, and it certainly added depth to my thoughts on do I stay or no, though it didn’t really change it, or make it easier. While I was checking that out, I figured I’d read something Reich wrote himself, and so it was that I started reading “I’ll be short.”

It’s a great outline of the liberal/democratic philosophy. It does a great job of providing statistics to outline the current problems. It also presents solutions to these problems. I didn’t find his presentation of the solutions to be as compelling as I would have liked, but he was, after all, being short. Each of his proposals could easily have been the subject of many articles examining its effectiveness, which is about what it would have taken for me to give them enthusiastic support. I’d give it a recommendation as an interesting, and engagingly written starting point for people who’d like to go a little deeper on policy issues

Some have pointed out that the presentation of the voting in S Vietnam under US protection/occupation was very similar to the presentation of the voting in Iraq recently. They are definitely comparisons to be made. But I ask you, if Iraqi insurgents are comparable to the Vietcong, who do you compare to China and North Vietnam?

This says something about who I subscribe to