Category: Uncategorized

public policy party

Went out for some drinks with my fellow polwonks in the making. I think a highlight of amusement for me was when one of the second years said he was the official slacker for the mpp program. Doing the minimum to scrape by, never reading, etc. And when asked how he did it, he said “It’s easy when you’re smart, I have an IQ of 150, and you can bullshit.” I was so proud of myself for not saying something to the effect of “150? Oh, how darling, you must be quite precocious.” I was so tempted. The straight chicks dig the idea of a gay swim team. That amuses me somehow. And everyone asking “do you guys really swim?” also amuses me. Maybe at some point that’ll get on my nerves, but not at present.

It’s tempting to say something like “No, actually, we just sit in a hot tub and suck one another off,” just to see how they’d react, but instead I brag for ‘s near olympic trial qualifying time. Athleticism by association. =)

people are weird.

morning

Been feeling a little isolated today. The culmination of 2 group projects due next week? You’d think groupwork would make me feel _less_ isolated. Sadly, for my policy analysis paper, I feel totally behind in my research. And my stakeholder id & analysis paper, or at least my portion of it, feels rather cobbled together. I feel like I’m a disappointment to my teams. I could see how that would be isolating.

Maybe going on the bus instead of biking into school would have helped with feeling isolated. (too late for that now. if I want to get in before noon, it’s bike). I also spent this morning fixing my cranky laptop display. It seems none of the screws ancoring the panel to the back cover were in place. No wonder the squeezing action of the back cover and the panel wasn’t keeping the connection tight. Yay for fiddling with electronics in my underwear. Also biking is going to suck. Somehow, while working my upper body, I messed up my right hamstring a bit. *sigh*

Ah well, off to school.

ciao.

An idea for an event

I want to show the Stewart on Crossfire thing to everyone at the Humphrey. So, I had the idea of commandeering a classroom, using the AV equipment, and putting it up on screen. Then I had the idea of having people talk about the role of media in the political process afterwards: what it can be, what it should be, and what it is. An interesting sidenote would be to see how many people started talking over one another in the process.

I’m going to propose it to our student org for the humphrey and see how well it is received.

phrases to make a grown me cry

from www.electoral-vote.com:

Are the voters stupid? It is not considered politically correct to point out that an awful lot of voters don’t have a clue what they are talking about. A recent poll from Middle Tennessee State University sheds some light on the subject. For example, when asked which candidate wants to roll back the tax cuts for people making over $200,000 a year, a quarter thought it was Bush and a quarter didn’t know. And it goes down hill from there. When asked which candidate supports specific positions on various issues, the results were no better than chance. While this poll was in Tennessee, I strongly suspect a similar poll in other states would get similar results. I find it dismaying that many people will vote for Bush because they want to tax the rich (which he opposes) or vote for Kerry because they want school vouchers for religious schools (which he opposes).

Bay area trip info

Fri, Nov. 12, 2004
Sun Country
Departure: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota at 8:30 PM
Arrival: San Francisco, California at 10:35 PM
Flight SY397 (4hr 5m) Coach Class, Boeing 737-800

Sun, Nov. 14, 2004
Sun Country
Departure: San Francisco, California at 11:35 PM
Arrival: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota at 5:00 AM
Flight SY398 (3hr 25m) Coach Class, Boeing 737-800

Playing the martyr is not recommended

So, at the beginning of the semester, I went up after class to my professors for stats and econ. I asked them if I could waive the class. They asked me about my coursework. I told them. They both said I could take another course if I liked, in a different department that would fulfill the same requirement, but I could not waive the course. I felt like I was caving in when I said “that’s okay, I’ll stay in this one.”

If I’m going to be covering fundamentally the same already-known information, I’d rather do it with classmates I know. This isn’t helping my classmates, and it isn’t helping me, really. So, today I got the first test back from my econ prof. On the first half, which was true or false with explanations, I was told that my explanations lacked depth and I lost points. I lost no points on the second half which was dealing with the exact concepts that she graded me as having ignored on the first half, in greater depth and specificity.

I went up to her after class and expressed my frustration. She said I should have opted into a different class. This reminds me a great deal of exit, voice & loyalty (still halfway through the book). Initially, I chose loyalty, while she recommended exit (to a course of dubious distinction relative to the one I’m taking). Eventually, I gave voice, and she reminded me that I’d chosen loyalty when exit was an option.

Nobody walked away from that conversation satisfied. Both she and my TA recommended that I just stop coming to class save for tests. So she’s not even pretending that she has something of value to teach me in this course. And yet the bureaucracy (value-non-neutral) cannot bend. Following the rules is more important than not wasting my time. I certainly see ‘s lack of fondness for higher education at the moment.

I know the profs here have some experience, knowledge, and understanding which I would find valuable to attain. I wish I felt that were happening in all my classes, and for that matter, that it were happening efficiently and effectively in any of them. But either way, I’ll get a pretty piece of paper to hang on my cubicle wall at some point, and a network of friends and acquaintances in high places.