Surreptitious Opinionation

There are a few reasons.

1. I want to know everything, or at least the absolute limits of what I can know.
2. I refuse to take as many units as I took this semester. I need more not-class-or-classwork time.
3. I am definitely taking gymnastics and I’m iffy on self defense.
4. Some of the classes are only offered once every other year.
5. I want to take intro dance (but it’s 3 units)
6. I’m still determining what I want to do with my life, and the related question of which program I want to pursue.
   1. I have like 3 prerequisites to go before I’m totally done with my MPP requirements
   2. MURP stuff ties in beautifully with the research I’m doing now, but will commit me to its pre-reqs for the next year and a half, much of which I am indifferent to.
   3. Energy policy, under the Science, Technology, and Enviromental Policy program sounds killer. Though the department itself seems skeletal, and the program scattered (it seems their point man for that degree option left last year).

At this point, I think the MSTEP program, concentrating on Energy Policy may well be what I get into. Maybe with a double MS in Civ E. It would allow me to delay decision on many things like what I want to do when I grow up, while enjoying the benefits of being in school. Additionally, it would be what I want to do, I see it being mega important in society over the next decade or two (see my earlier speculations re: oil), and the erratic program nature would free me a bit from the local bureaucracy, encouraging/allowing the part of me that brings order to things to emerge and take a more active role.

Ponderponderponder.

courtesy sixpack6_t9:

If we accept that what is commonly termed “the slut phase” is the gay equivalent of courtship, the description below may apply (albeit, a relatively low intensity courtship in my case). Also, I’m exit-happy. When the time comes to fish or cut bait, 9 times out of 10, I will cut bait. It even fits to the degree that the bit of my heart that I use as bait goes with the would be significant other. I only want the fish that want to be caught. And I do need to work on my conflict management skills. But the biggest problem for me is that it rarely makes it to that point. Attraction/Avoidance bind, maybe.

Somewhat accurate romance quiz

When you live life by coming up with thousands of possible branches on your personal decision tree, planning the possibilities, as it were, one inevitably wonders what might have happened had you taken that other option here or there.

I was terribly unassertive in my high school and early college days. Towards the end of high school, I said once to my older sister that I was thinking of maybe taking my time about going to college. An extra year to do what I wasn’t quite certain. I think I was saying something about letting the financial aid offers roll in (Ha!). Liz was not much impressed by this plan, though I wasn’t convinced. And Mom talked to me within the following couple of days, assuring me of the urgency of not delaying on this one. How it would do anything but help me get financial aid, and how this was a crucial step in becoming a better, happier person. Of course, a year and a half later, I temporarily psuedo-dropped out. And when I got back in pushed myself through on sheer willpower over boredom. Trying to focus attention on academic topics of marginal interest to me, when personal issues seemed so much more relevant.

And it occurred to me that college played a major role in shaping the new me. Zephyr and graffiti, and geeks. Steve, and Josh, and much later, Mark. What if I had stayed in ohio for an extra year, waited on college. Developed my own independent identity first. What then? How different would I be?

And what if instead of going to the elitist private university, I’d gone to the populist, public university’s elitist honor’s college, and gotten a full ride out of the deal?

Those are the two big whatifs that caught my attention this evening. Would have made a big difference, I’m pretty sure. The me-that-never-was. How can one have wistful nostalgia for that which never happened?

There are two particular recommendations that made to me years ago when I asked for some good sci-fi authors whose work I would not have read, which have been most pleasing to me. And both author’s last names begin with “Bu” =)

Bujold, Lois McMaster and Butler, Octavia in particular.

a bit of Bujold

In response to request, posted as a comment to one of my entries.

The simple answer is that debt’s bad because, much like a credit card, you have to pay it off sooner or later. The cute part of this is that the government can legally mint more bills to pay it back. That causes some serious inflationary concerns, though. Generally, it’s only worth it if you are spending the money on something that will pay off to a greater degree than the interest you have to pay.

taking it a little deeper, deconstructing the problem

Here’s one of my recent class assignments, basically on what I want to be when I grow up:

a little light bullshit

Okay, so we suspect that most people won’t accept banning people from voting if they can’t explain the concepts and ramifications of deficit spending. We also think that requiring someone to take a quiz on who holds what position is politically untenable.

So that leaves education as the ethical alternative. How do we effectively educate voters?

Got my bike back from the hub yesterday evening. Replacing the entire drive train (and the tires) has made my bike so rocking. A few seconds after I started pedaling, I actually exclaimed “Baby, your action’s so smooth!” I don’t think there were any pedestrians nearby.

And the gearing now goes much higher. It was a complete Zoom! experience. The midtown greenway no longer has signs up at 5th that say “don’t go here” Unfortunately, it’s raining today.

With regard to the last two entries…

While the country may be more polarized than it’s been in my lifetime, but I don’t need to go much earlier to find far greater polarization. Riots in berkeley where the national guard was called out occurred in the 60’s. I definitely don’t need to go back to the civil war.

I still believe in Jefferson’s quote: “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”

I was in a dark mood earlier, to put it mildly.

Spider Jerusalem, the protagonist of Transmetropolitan, has an interesting perspective on voting. This is another one unsuitable for all those teeny-tots reading my livejournal. But there are a couple of points where I disagree with him.

In general, I’m fine with whores, sinners, and freaks, most of them at least have some humility or alot of pragmatism. It’s self-righteous authoritarian majorities who wish to reshape the world into some autocratically constructed, idealized image that worry me, particularly because autocratically constructed images are rarely implementable.

You have to page down a bit to get to the cartoon. But once you see the guy with the tattooed bald head, jacket, and no shirt, you’ve got it. http://edge.cow-dog.net/archives/2004/10/12/on-voting-and-elections-in-general/

That’s pretty much what the election results felt like to alot of us. Probably the most polarizing election of my lifetime. And they haven’t been getting any more uniting as time goes by. I really hope my misgivings are wrong.