Fantasies

A couple of years ago, when I knew I was going home to WV for Christmas instead of to Texas, the thought that got me through finals week was lying on the couch in front of the fireplace, watching hour after hour of lame movies. This time around, the single-minded thought getting me through this exam is a bubble bath, a glass of wine, and maybe a little Sinatra. That, and the thought of being interesting again. Good grief, the only thing I seem capable of talking about lately is this damn exam. I'm boring to myself! Forty two and half more hours...or less, if I finish and hand it in Sunday night...

Wore my "My bush is pro-choice" shirt tonight. That was fun. If you're jealous, go here and buy one of your very own.

Further procrastination

(though I have managed to write 2.5 single-spaced pages!)

go here and check out the rotten ‘Drug Provision’ in the Higher Education Act. I'm just guessing, but I figure a lot of folks reading this think it's wrong to deny a student any federal financial assistance (including loans and work-study) as punishment for a first time drug offense, including marijuana. So go tell Congress to change it.

Tired and Frustrated

An all too often occurrence these days. I'm beginning to think that these exams, rather than testing our statistical knowledge, are actually an endurance test. For how many days can you stay wound this tightly without completely losing your mind? I fear I am rapidly approaching my limit. I can feel my brain ceasing to function, reading the same paragraph over and over again without it making any sense and making no headway on this problem I'm not sure how to solve. Sure, you think. It's 6 pm. A totally acceptable time to hit a wall and take a break. But this is after my extra long 2.5 hour "lunch" break and far too many smaller breaks throughout the day reading blogs and news sites and just basically slacking off. The truth is, I've lost the ability to work for more than an hour or two at a time. Which would be ok of those hours were split by lots of brief, 15-20 minute breaks. But they aren't. I put in an hour or two in the morning. Break for way too long for lunch. Work another couple of hours in the afternoon. Break for way too long for dinner. Then half-assedly work another couple at night, stay up way too late anyway, and start over again the next morning. And that ain't going to cut it. Ok, enough bitching. Nose, meet grindstone.

Get Your War On

Because Amelia keeps reminding me how funny and satisfying it is. Some choice quotes:

"WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL READING US? DOES JUDITH MILLER HAVE TO KILL YOU HERSELF?" (in reference to what the NYT headline should be)

"You know what woke me up at three in the morning last night? Rumsfeld, Feith, and Perle are more incompetent than they are evil. How the hell is that possible?"

"I'd learn more about the future of Iraq if I read a Golden Book Encyclopedia upside-down in the dark."
"Ooh - if you do that, will you look up the entry for "Ignore?" I want to know if it still has the picture of Sudan."

And at the bottom it says there's a new GYWO on every Rolling Stone magazine. Way to go Rolling Stone.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

(and for once, that doesn't refer to anything related to school or exams)
Go read this Times article and then proceed to be terrified of just how power hungry this administration is and the magnitude of their lack of respect for everything America stands for. As usual, atrios has more, including an excellent excerpt from a WaPo article. Bottom line - this administration, specifically, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft, though in all likelihood, Cheney and Bush too, believe the President is above the law. Once again, I am inclined to suggest that many of our top officials go re-take a ninth grade civics class. Checks and balances? They exist for a reason! Neither the president, nor anyone in his administration, gets to decide that various laws and signed treaties, specifically ones that apply to war crimes are inapplicable during times of war! During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Ashcroft "...said several times that critics consistently failed to take into account that the United States was at war." That is not an excuse! The test of democracy, and all the wonderful, terrible, bureaucratic nonsense that comes along with it, is not how it hums along during times of peace and prosperity but how it works during the tough times, during the times of impossible decisions, during war time. Moral high ground aside, as Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. states, "There's a reason why we sign these treaties: to protect my son in the military. That's why we have these treaties, so when Americans are captured they are not tortured. That's the reason in case anybody forgets it." What the hell sort of example are we setting in the international community? Oh yeah, the same crappy one we've been setting for years and years.

ech. I've known for a long time that I'm a terrible judge of character (hence the reason I frequently weigh my friends' opinions of people more heavily than my own) but I like to think that I have fairly good taste when it comes to the people that I actually choose to date (we're not talking about all the weirdos for whom I appear to be a magnet). But I'm beginning to think maybe that's not really true...sigh. Short version - I'm trying very hard to talk myself out of liking someone who I really shouldn't be interested in. Actual story to follow sometime later...maybe. For now, I've already taken way too long of a break from my exam. Oh, and Sid, in case you're wondering, this particular musing isn't really related to the previous post...which isn't really much of a story, more of a recognition of a pattern.

"You're sad, and you're angry, and you're not warm."

Why do I keep meeting people about whom this statement is true?