Category: Uncategorized

I meant to make this post shortly after JP bit the big one, but kept slacking. Perhaps now, the new pope will serve to underscore my point.

I saw alot of villification of JP. My understanding is that he’s presided over one of the most significant liberalizations of the church of its entire existence. No, it’s not passing out condoms with the wafers, but the mass isn’t being held in latin either. [edit: pointed out that this happened before jp2. I neither knew, nor, honestly, really cared.] Gallileo is no longer a heretic. But most importantly, the dude is dead. Bitching about his hatred of homos, his attitude towards women, and his thoughts on birth control misses the point.

Look at the institution. Villification of homos, inequality across sexes, aversion to birth control, these are all part of what Catholicism stands for. If you want to blame the pope for that, go right ahead. I’ll call you short sighted. You’ll miss the fact that the next pope is going to be largely the same in all those wonderful traits as this one. In fact, perusing my subscriptions, it sounds like he’s worse.

The Catholic Church no longer appeals to the wealthy, by and large. The citizens of our economic superpowers have generally consigned Catholicism to the dustbin of history. The citizens of many developing nations have not. The more regressive the pope, the less he’ll be listened to in the superpower nations, but the same likely will not hold true for South and Central America.

I forsee a continuation of a decline in the Catholic Church. I think it has the option of quietly, gradually fading, or noisily alienating the world, with a consequently abrupt decline. I hope it opts for the former, but I suppose time will tell.

In response to ‘s question in my interview me post:

Say you *did* end up joining the Peace Corps…where would you like to go, and what would you hope to be doing?

That is an interesting question. When I think about the Peace Corps, I primarily think about what I’d get out of it: Foreign Language fluency, experiences I might not otherwise have, an enforced slowdown on many parts of my life.

But what I would hope to put into it is a trickier thing. I’m a good teacher (it’s the work I’ve most enjoyed in the past, too, but that’s a different question). I could teach math and basic science, economics, other debatably useful things in a subsistence agricultural economy. I could do some manual labor, though probably no more than a native. In terms of where their needs are, I feel I am poorly matched.

My economic development prof (with much real world experience) suggests that what’s needed most in developing nations is a) human capital development, particularly the sorts of institutional arrangements whereby one is individually rewarded for doing a good job (yay, capitalism), and education; and b) agricultural development, so that they produce food more efficiently, thereby freeing up labor for other activities.

I’m not sure my current skillset (heavily focused in abstract knowledge) would be greatly helpful, so your question, which I’d been asking myself before you ever asked it, is another big stumbling block for me actually signing on.

In terms of where I’d want to go? Africa or South America is where I’d see myself going. After 2 years, I’m sure I’d experience a change in my current comparative lack of attraction to Latinos or Blacks, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. I don’t suspect that most of the places I’d be going would be homo hospitable. I don’t suspect they’d be vegan hospitable. I also have fears for my recently discovered medical condition, and possible relapses requiring surgery. And going to the HIV entrenched subsaharan africa would likely put San Fran as “ground zero” for AIDS in a very different perspective. Having only slightly more global awareness than the average American, my expectations for Latin America v Subsaharan Africa are not well differentiated in my mind, let alone significant distinctions between the countries that the peace corps would consider sending anyone let. (Somehow, I doubt Rwanada is going tc be getting many peace corps people).

In response to ‘s question in my interview me post:

Why did you start you LJ? How did you find out about LiveJournal? Who was your first LJ friend?

Unsurprisingly, these questions all tie together. It all started for me, with my officemate at the time, . I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but I started reading her journal. She offered me a creation code, but I declined. I casually read her journal for months. Then, late in my relationship with Mark, while I had many ideas roiling around in my head, I asked her if her offer was still good. I signed on to livejournal in 2002. She was also the first person to make my subscriptions.

I mostly started with my CMU friends, but rapidly branched out to others. A couple months after starting my journal, I made the trek down to DC where I met (virtualexile at the time), , , , , and a couple other gentlemen. They were the first people I met first on livejournal and then later met in real life. It didn’t take me long to start recruiting either. , , and all got codes from me (I traveled across two states to evangelize, though as I recall, it was who did all the driving. =)

Chilling on livejournal this morning. A trip to the lounge where I saw a bit of buggy* for the first time ever. Walked by as they were setting up for the mobot competition+. Saying hi to all sorts of people in computing services**, looking at the relocations and the departures. Browsed through the booths*+. Played a round of Tichu+* where bbailey and I barely pulled a surprise upset on and (at least, I think those were the teams (surprise because I started off with a tichu that I was totally incapable of pulling off, our hand scores monotonically increased for the first 3 or 4 hands). I then filed my CA taxes, and realized that since I expected a refund from MN all was cool on that front. And if not, it’s only a 4% penalty.

Burrito from the restaurant formerly known as pollo rey. Wedged on a lounge couch, wedged between the marvelous and the admirable , browsing the web at random, and surfing conversations. After showcasing ‘s icons, while pulling up ‘s for ‘s enjoyment, managed to pull my attention off the lcd (quite the accomplishment on her part) and to the ex of mine (and her former TA) who was grabbing a beverage from the dispenser in the room. I then managed to grab his attention, garnering a look of much startlement, and a lengthy conversation ensued. It reminded me of why we had dated, which is always nice, though I would not go back, even if that were an option, which it’s not, so all is well.

Chatted and hung out further in the lounge, then back up to my host house++ for dinner with my little sister who footed the bill at a snazzy new asian place. Then back to her place, with a brief detour back to the host house, where I saw a game of Puerto Rico being played, of which, much to my wistful dismay, I was unable to partake. Instead, I got my butt soundly kicked in a game of Scrabble with Jane while her husband Joe was doing the armor-smithing quest for his high level WoW paladin. Mom and Dad called to wish me a happy birthday.

Then back to the host house, where I subbed in for a game of tichu, and played a couple hands of mu before the others headed off to poker at shadyhouse (another nearby geek domicile). This has been one of my better birthdays over the past several years.

* buggy is one of the spring carnival traditions at cmu. Basically a buggy is a tiny, light, aerodynamic, low to the ground wheeled thingy that people build for a race (also called buggy) in which big men push the buggy after small women get into it to pilot it. The men stop pushing once gravity takes over. The women pilot around a small course with tight turns next to campus.
+ the mobot competition is a contest to build a robot which can navigate some painted lines on a sidewalk, including a couple of slopes, branching paths, and a loop. It took a while for a successful one to be built, and now it’s a race. Another signature spring carnival event.
** computing services is my former employer, a significant non-academic department of cmu.
*+ booths are the final signature tradition of cmu’s spring carnival. Basically most of the frats, and several other student organizations are given a theme, and they build small structures, which should be somehow related that theme. Booths are judged in various categories including adherence to the theme, and creativity.
+* tichu is a card game vaguely similar to Euchre or Bridge, but more interesting than the former (don’t know bridge).
++ my host house is the chateau d’ bbailey, chris, and , though soon it will be passing out of our known circle of friends and into the hands of pitt students. I lived here a couple of summers, once in ’99, and then in ’00. My computer lived in the basement (and I spent enormous amounts of time here) from the time I moved back to pgh from chicago until I left for the bay area. The coffeetable, one recliner, and a rug were all owned by me immediately prior to taking up residence here. I’ll be sad to see it go, but nothing lasts forever.

The past few times I’ve flown out of the minneapolis airport, it’s been impossible to shut CNN out in the waiting areas. And it’s like I’m watching subtly different variations on the same theme. “Murder and danger to your children, stay tuned for more updates.” And of course, these are unusual or extreme cases in far away places. But I can see how people who turned to CNN for their news could easily turn into shutins afraid of the outside world. I especially loved how the kid who wasn’t allowed to go out, and was being teased by kids at home and online has his suicide attributed to The Internet. Not because he had no life, nothing to do, and nothing to put perspective or meaning in his life. No, it was The Internet. A prime news competitor for television (and to my mind, flat out superior), isn’t that an amazing coincidence. Cherrypicking your stories anyone?

I have not forgotten the questions post, I’ll get right on that, after I finish my taxes. =)

Yay, landed safely in pittsburgh, staying until monday. Who wants some love?

$938, damn, now that’s a refund

I guess it pays to have your per hour cut in half halfway through the year, and then to have your hours cut in half again 3 months later, then throw tuition on top of it. Or maybe it really just sucks. =)

Also, efile makes a funny:

Please correct the following error(s)

You must be a resident of California during the entire year of 2004.

No problem, just give me a little time machine, and the power to change the goldman school’s decision…. *sigh*

posted an interesting reference to http://www.atwoodkansas.com/ [edit, the site appears to have been reclaimed by the city in question, what I first saw on the site is below, and can be found at http://www.dansworld.net/]

Basically, it’s the story of a homo who did tried to bring atwood into the information age, then said ‘fuck it, let the tumbleweeds have this podunk wasteland’.

pre-removal site content under cut, sorry, lost the formatting, can’t help it

Sometime around 5:30a I wandered out to the couch and went back to sleep. This means that I missed my 6:15a alarm, and didn’t get up until about 7:30. Gymnastics starts at 8, and is at least 45 minutes from home. &@#$@!!! So, I got there at about 8:35. Just in time to walk in on the class doing back tucks. I spent like a minute, maybe a minute and a half warming up, then went straight into back tucks. First with a belt and rope held by the instructor, then with my classmates spotting me. And I did better than several of them (yay!) but, of course, nowhere near the point where I’d be comfortable doing it unspotted. Dave, the tall guy, accidentally smacked me in the head while I was spotting him, and left a little scratch like a half inch from my eye, courtesy my glasses. Shower at the rec center, then off to my less physical classes.

Creating good work was neat, we talked about readings I’d actually done for once, and the way that corporate tax incentives represent the robbery of local governments by corporate interests, and possible reforms to that system.

I grab a minute with the only MSTEP prof to get some advice on courses to take, then register for several classes for the fall. Science & Technology, Media & Policy, Environmental/Resource Policy, Intro to Dance, and I have to get a permission thingie out of some geography prof to get into an environmental policy course, that has no clear connection to geography in the syllabus, and seems to be much more about tracking legislation.

I finished up my “mangle html so as to add an additional, proprietary layer of obnoxious complexity so that you can have your retarded new web system” script. I even had it fix some of the errors in the original html. And the goddamn website to upload into the stinking pile of crap system with which I’m supposed to work is so goddamn slow I can’t do anything. I want to go beat the people who decided to push this pustulent pile of a crap, with their own server. Then install an apache webserver with ssh so I can scp my files onto it, and walk the fuck away.

I had lunch with , but I was too cranked to enjoy it (and I subjected poor James to a bad restaurant, because I was still in grr I hate coding mindframe combined with anxiety over the meeting I was skipping). I skip my bi-weekly project RAs status meeting for the 3rd or 4th time running. I go to economic development, spend most of the class browsing a WoW website and downloading readings. Afterwards, I talk with Marit, our administrative assistant specializing in event planning briefly, before heading across the mississippi to talk to the people who gave me the access to drop T&LU officially, because they didn’t. I get there 10 minutes too late. Grr.

I go to get a haircut, ask for “a high & tight” and the stylist has no idea what that is. so, I say “a 2 on top, and extremely short on the sides & back”. He asks me if I’m joining the military. I give an amused no. I think I offended his artistic senisibilities, but he did a good job nonetheless. Combined with my recent remebrance of razor ownership, the change in my appearance over the past couple weeks is quite dramatic. Totally unshaven, shaggy headed to clean shaven w/high & tight. Shower at the rec center (it’d be nice if I used it to work out) noted that I passed the 160lb mark. I’m getting hefty. Hrm. I really doubt the wait gain is proportionately composed of muscle, gymnastics and walking are my only forms of exercise at present, well, that and carrying around an enormous weight in the form of my backpack around with me everywhere I go.

Back to the Humphrey for the Gay Marriage Amendment Forum. Serious kudos to Jordan, our new, straight, white, male diversity chair for pushing this thing. I was the first person to ask a question of the panel. Before and after I had a good opportunity to talk with (State) Senator Dibble. We discussed running technique, and he invited me to join him for some lap swimming at some point, as well as to pick his brain on energy policy. He rocks, I need to make the time to actually get to know him. I also talked with the policy director of OutFront Minnesota. I want to work for them, for the summer, but I really want to work in energy and environmental concerns professionally. Bethany gave Kirsten and myself a ride back to Uptown, on which trip I talked Bethany into enthusiasm for the role of political leader for QGPA. It wasn’t hard, it was more a recognition of the match between her interests and the needs of the organization.

Bean burritos with guacamole (made with fresh ingredients). Now an “early” bed time, so I can get up tomorrow morning before class to do the homework prior to seeing the butt doc.

See, my life is so boring, now where the fuck is the pause button?

This is not because I don’t have posts in reserve (oh lordy do I), but because it’s a short and easy post to make, and will allow you to remove some of the spin from my journal by asking me the things I’ll never bring up. So ask me your questions, and I’ll tell you no lies.