"You Look Stunned"

"Sorry, I'm super drowsy and it's making me have a weird look."
-An exchange between my Great Texts professor and myself

I love how vague medicine warnings are. "If sore throat is severe, persists for more than two days, and is accompanied by fever, headache, rash, nausea, or vomiting, consult a doctor immediately."

First, what is severe? Is it "Timmy doesn't want to go to school today" severe or "Oh dear God, I can't even swallow my spit" severe? And is there a middle ground of severe? I mean is there a "God it's burning!" severe, or a "Ugh" severe? This is the type of language that plagues doctors with useless patients exhibiting symptoms of not a serious illness, but of being a hypochondriac.

Secondly, don't sore throats persist for an entire cold? Maybe it's just me, but I know that I'm getting sick when I wake up with a sore throat, and I know I'm better when my sore throat goes away. Have I been ignoring serious illness these past years?

Fever? Really? I think that's just a cold. I don't think it really needs to be seen by a doctor.

And the others are just strange. Admittedly, those things could all happen in conjunction with a sore throat to be symptoms of a larger problem, but it seems like they just strung along some ailments. Seriously, any of those things could just pop up.

Except vomiting. You should probably see a doctor if you're vomiting.

Dr. Wallstreet or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Recession

Today, I was glad to hear that Congress voted against the bailout bill. Even with the additions of oversight and the restriction of the "golden parachutes", the bailout bill was not what was needed. But what is needed? What times loom ahead of us? The buyout, though disturbingly broad, would have bought the troubled assets of the companies that had recklessly loaned money it didn't have. This would have hopefully stabilized our market in the next coming years.

But the problem with the plan was that the Treasury would have taken controlling interest of those companies. This is socialism. Many are against it on that principle. What would have been more disturbing is if Paulson got his way, the Treasury would have had complete immunity and no oversight in the controlling of the companies. That is not what we need, and the bailout was, thankfully, doomed from the start.

But what can we expect out of the market in the next coming months, even the next coming years? Will it stabilize itself? Of course, that's how the business cycle works. But how long will that take? Politicians cannot wait for the business cycle to correct itself, it goes against their wish to be reelected. But even if they did let the cycle run its course, how long would these bank failures and mergers and buyouts go on? What would happen to all these businesses who are buying up its weaker competitors? Will this current market downfall lead us to monopolies? Slate is already weary of Bank of America's large presence on the market.

As a bit of disclosure, my bank, Washington Mutual, has already gone under and was recently bought by JP Morgan. Fortunately I only had about 4 bucks in my account so I had no real incentive to mad dash and take out my money. Though, it is interesting since my branch was right across the street from a Chase bank, which WaMu will now become. What's going to happen now?

First it was the Airline companies laying off empolyees, then it was car companies. Now it's finally hit the white collar workers in banks and real estate. Where is our economy going? We must remember that this current crisis is almost exactly the same circumstances that precipitated the Great Depression. Instead of buying stocks on credit and then defaulting on them, this time we were buying homes. In the Great Depression, we were bailed out. But what will happen this time?

My purpose for this post is not to scare anyone. I do not want to be a demagogue and tell everyone that the sky is falling. I simply would like to think about the reprecussions of not passing the bailout plan. Although I was, and still am, I simply wonder how the market is going to play out in the upcoming months maybe years. The Great Depression was eventually fought off by World War II, but that was a different time. Today's America is populated by different people. What will bring us out of this slump?

Coming back to bite you in the butt

I've been wondering lately what the effect of the internet is going to have on this generation when it becomes old enough to run for president. It's going to happen. Someone in the internet generation is going to run. It's inevitable. And not just the internet generation. The ubiquitous internet generation. Some people were in their teens as the internet just hit the scene. They remember dial-up (I remember dial-up also, so do most of the people my age and about two years younger). But people in their early 20s and late teens have grown up with the internet becoming a large presence in lives. We had myspaces, we have facebooks, we've done the whole IRC, we've joined online communities, and most of all, a lot of us have blogged. What our teachers (at least mine) in high school told us, be careful what you put online. It's there forever!

And that's the problem. 20, 30, 40 years from now, when we've matured and left the online communities, abandoned our blogs, and gone to whatever is going to replace the internet, that information will still be floating there. Will dirty campaigns be waged on what you said in your blog? We give interesting glimpses into our lives through these things. There are politicians out there with skeletons in their closests, but they could possibly pay someone off to keep that a secret. But what about people who have blogged those skeletons? It's not going to be so easy to cover that up.

Also, our generation knows how to use the internet much better than the politicians (at the risk of too easy a target, McCain can't even use the internet). How will politicians of our generation use the internet, instead of just leaving it to their campaign people?

I don't know how anything is going to change, all I know is that the internet generation is going to have some big differences between them and politicians of today.

Watching the Debate!

McCain just mispronounced Ahmedinejad's name. Not that it is super important and that he's incompetent because of it, but I just thought it was funny. Nobody can really pronounce his name anyways.

I'm liking the debate. Obama is having a pretty good showing. He's correcting McCain when he's "distorting" facts, and he's holding his own in an area where McCain has more experience. They spoke on the bailout, and tax issues and I thought that Obama won out on that one. McCain is using a lot of ethos for the war in Iraq.

*Disclaimer* I am an Obama supporter.

McCain is doing a very good job at keeping Obama on his toes. His rhetoric is pretty tricky when he's describing Obama's plans. Which is good for his side, and Obama is having a hard time fixing the misconceptions McCain is bringing up because McCain is putting a lot of the distortions at the very end of the subject, when the moderator is trying to change the subject.

In other news, I'm not sure if I said this, but I'm deputized now! I can register voters now. Total number of registered voters = 0. Sadness. But I got some friends who need to register, so onward ho!

I had a conversation on the electoral college with my roommate. I wrote a research paper on it last semester, so I think my plan is pretty solid. Oh well, back to watching the debate!

Lots of homework today. Fell a bit behind yesterday because I thought I had nothing.

But, TV on the Radio's new album came out yesterday. What canI say other than it's an eargasmic bible of sonic amazingness. It's quite spectacular. I've listened to their previous album so many times since it came out and it's still fresh. This one I know is going to do the same.

Looking forward to the new Nightwatchman album coming out next week and the TVOTR concert on the 30th of October.

Spanish and Baylor

Last night and today I was thinking about my Spanish class here at Baylor. And I realized that I am actually teaching myself Spanish. I say this because I am required to read through the text and then I'm expected to know the material well enough for a quiz the next day. My professor doesn't go through the text and teach us the conjugations of verbs; she simply comes to class expecting us to know them. So, my question is why am I paying to take a class in which I'm teaching myself the material. Admittedly, I am expected to come into each one of my other classes having read over the material, but at least we discuss the texts or we're actually taught pertinent information to understanding the text.

What do we do in Spanish class? Busy work. Pointless busy work.

Is it too much to ask that I go to class and I'm actually taught? Seriously. I'm in a university for a reason. To learn. Not teach. If I were here to teach, I'd be getting paid and I'd have to wear slacks and a tie. I'd also have to drink coffee ALL the time and grade papers.

But I'm not getting paid so I shouldn't have to teach myself!

Anyways, in happier news, I really like Baylor Democrats. I'm going to start volunteering a lot with them. There's some sort of prize for the person with the most hours of service, but that's not really my motivation.

Tomorrow: I'm getting deputized! I had kinda of a problem today when I temporarily lost my wallet. I found it behind my computer...5 hours later. So that was fun.

Also, I went to Frankly Speaking today. It was kool. We talked about Men, Masculinity, and the Media. Which was just us saying that the media and society in general puts stereotypes and pressures on men. It's nothing new. But I'm excited because next week they'll be talking about creating a "Safe Place" or "Safe Haven" for GBLT! SO exciting! I really hope they do create a group like that. It'd be nice to see Baylor doing something good for once.

For Your Consideration

I wrote this a week or two ago.


Movie Review of Into the Wild. Spoilers follow. Beware!


I recently saw the movie Into the Wild (actually I saw it last night). Let me first start this by saying that Into the Wild was a good movie. The acting was well done, the cinematography was quite stunning, the themes were wholesome without being overbearing over forced. Overall the movie was good. The one huge and glaring flaw of the movie was Chris "Alexander Supertramp" McCandless. This is of course the main character and the character with whom you're supposed to connect with. His attempt to get away from the ills of the world and society, we've experienced the urge to do just the same. He's special because he actually does it. Through him we're supposed to see our own cowardice to become free like him.

It'd be much easier to connect with this character if he wasn't such a selfish, arrogant punk. The first time we see him converse with his family he's belittling their attempts to give him a graduation present. This graduation present being a new car. He sits at dinner and patronizes his family's generosity. Sure, their into material pleasures of which he has no need since he, of course, is no longer of the man made world, but his complete rudeness at his parents attempt at being nice are just sickening. Some may say, he's just being honest, he doesn't want their material pleasures, but there is a difference between being honest and being tactful. He could have said ""Thanks but no thanks mom and dad. I'm just fine with my Datsun, and I think that a new car would just be an attempt at flashy materialism of which I don't want to be a part." But no, his response is "Things, things, things, things!" Thank you philosophical Hulk. That was very poetic.

Oh, poetic? That's another issue for me. In an attempt to bond with him, hippie lady Jan asks him a question to which he responds "I'll paraphrase Thoreau." Thank you, Supertramp. You're quite familiar with poets from long ago and can quote them at will. You are obviously better than the other people who are giving you your food. He could truly care less about the people around them, using them for shelter and food and nothing else.

Oh, sure, he does gain friendships with these people, but it seems that they're more invested in the relationship than he is. He befriends a 16 year old girl who falls in love with him (and at one point bluntly shows him that she wants to have sex with him) and leaves with little more than a hug and the advice that if she wants something in life to "reach out and grab it." I'm sorry Supertramp, but I'm pretty sure she wants you in her life. And why can't you stay there and be the friend that she needs (did I mention he met her in a hippie camp in which there seems to be no one else her age?). Oh, it's because you want to go be by yourself in Alaska.

Alaska. He leaves these people in his life, because he wants to be alone in Alaska. He leaves people who have invested their money, their advice, their love, and their time in him, so he can go be in Alaska. "Alaska, Alaska!"

Oh, hippie lady Jan, you try to be the mother figure he needs, since his mom and dad often had violent fights that were played out in front of Supertramp and his sister. Oh, wait, he has a sister? You wouldn't think so by the selfishness that he displays throughout the movie. But yes, he leaves his sister, who has had to deal with the same violent turbulence that he had to go through at home, with the parents he hates. But of course he writes this sister, who has gone through hell and back not only with the mom and dad but the fact that her brother has gone missing. Oh, he doesn't write his sister? He leaves for two years without so much as a good bye or a "hey I'm going to find myself by being dirt poor." But he does write a guy he knew for a couple months who went to jail. So let me get this straight, he writes to a man he worked for for a couple of months, but he doesn't write to his sister, who he's known for 15 years?

Oh, sure, the movie gives his sister a voice-over explaining that she understands that him not calling or writing is just him escaping not just the family but society. But the fact remains that he left a young girl with a family who he himself hated and doesn't even seem repentent about it.

But in the end, after living in Alaska by himself for over 8 weeks, he goes back home to a family torn with grief, apologizes, and finds all the friends he made over the years he's been a hobo and lives a great life as an author, his first book being about his adventures. Wait, no, he ends up dying alone in the Alaskan wilderness. And what does he do before he dies? Realizes he should be with people, quotes a poem and the kicks the bucket. Quotes a poem.

Even at death's door, he's pretentious.

Happiness is new crap

Not really. But kind of.

Yesterday, I bought the first two seasons of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. I happen to be in love with this show and I was amazed to find it. Best Buy and Circuit City didn't have them which made me sad, but Hastings did, so all is good.

And today on a whim, my roommate and I went to the bookstore on campus (I will have a rant about them soon) and I ended up getting Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs and Barack Obama's Dreams of My Fathers. I'm in the middle of a whole bunch of books, so I'm not sure when I'm actually going to get a chance to read them. I hope to read Obama's book before the election though.

Speaking of elections, I'm getting excited! First debagte is this week. I must admit I'm looking forward to seeing Joe Biden verbally assault Sarah Palin with words. Obama is ahead in the polls, and I need to get deputized to register voters. I might do that tomorrow.

I'm disturbed by how easily I'm convinced to not do my homework. Any type of distraction is welcomed by me. Currently, I'm supposed to be writing an essay, but no. I'm here typing away at some banal story of my past days. Soon though, my blogs will be interesting...one day.

Oh My! First blog!

What do you do in the first blog? Do you introduce yourself? Do you tell a witty anecdote? DO you just start off like your audience has known you their whole lives? I wouldn't know. The last time I did one of these things, I was 14, 15? I am 18 now. Is wouldn't spelled wrong? Firefox says so.

Anyways, the whole creation of a blog thing is a very complicated endeavor. You have to come up with a title for the blog and in that instant you have to decide whether you want to make a reference or if you want to be original. I chose a reference, because I can't be original on the spot. But there are so many references and it's hard to choose what you want to put as the title. You don't want to seem pretentious, but you also don't want to come off trite. I'll leave it up to you if I succeeded to find some middle ground.

Then you have to come up with an address. That was simpler for me. It's a phrase used in The Trial by Kafka. The character, Josef K., actually has an album of city sights with him when he goes to meet a client. I liked the sound of it, so there you go.

Also, the aesthetics in choosing a layout are just mind boggling.

Anyways, I guess I'll do basic intro. I'm a Political Science and Philosophy major at Baylor University. That seems like an adequate amount of introduction. So yay!

First post complete.