The Hot Seat

Good Tidings! (for...many...)

2007-12-24T10:55:00.001-06:00

Yeah Yeah make jokes. It's my bloggy and I'll post when I want to.

In any case I've always frown upon pessimism especially from my Christians and Adventist co-religionists.

I often think the criticism of evangelical Christianity is overblown but one criticism hits home quite nicely.

A apocalyptic viewpoint in the world can sap one's passion for civic engagement.

Some call this being so heavenly minded that one is no earthly good.

Well, booyah! (That's the safety word, ifn' you hear it again, send help)

Both violent crime and property crime have declined dramatically since 1973. New York City will probably notch up less than 500 murders this year, the lowest since the early 1960s (the figure for 1990 was 2,262). Teenagers are cleaning up their act. Teenage drug use has fallen by 23% overall since the 1990s, and by 50% for LSD and ecstasy. Teens are drinking less, smoking less, having sex less and dropping out of school less. The birth rate for 15-19-year-olds has fallen by 35% since 1991. At 10%, the high-school drop-out rate is at a 30-year low.

Welfare reform is working. The welfare caseload has dropped by 60% since 1994. A series of social evils—overall poverty, child poverty, child hunger—have all decreased. Employment figures for single mothers have surged. The number of abortions fell from over 1.6m in 1990 to fewer than 1.3m this year. The divorce rate is at its lowest level since 1970. Education scores are up.

Things are not all hunky-dory. The violent crime rate has ticked upward in the past couple of years. Illegitimacy is at an all-time high. But this is a very different world from the 1970s, when America's leading cultural indicators all started to point towards Gomorrah. American civil society, aided by sensible social policies, is gradually repairing the damage of the past few decades.
Link

From an Economist article.

That is to say people can make a difference and on a large scale no less.

So...

...what's our excuse now?

Breaking News: We are All Talentless Hacks

2007-08-08T21:58:00.000-05:00

I've always said that pretty much anyone can succeed at any academic subject. That there aren't "math people" just people who learned how to do math.

As a tutor it was generally assumed this is because that my job. Slather on the cheap comforting platitudes you nerd! :P

It's time for another turnea "I-told-you-so"

Courtesy of the Freakonomics blog: (cool book, read it).

Their work, compiled in the "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance," a 900-page academic book that will be published next month, makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.
Ericsson's research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't "good" at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better.

Link

Sweet validation...

Book Recomendation

2007-07-31T09:45:00.000-05:00

As you might have guessed, my breakdown of the "war over culture" as opposed to the "culture war" will be a gradual affair.

In the mean time, I'll plug an excellent book I read recently.

But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle
Is one of those books you hope everyone gets to read because it will save hours of frustration when discussing the nature and legacy of the Civil Rights Movement.

It is an entirely unflinching look and the personalities, plans, and divisions on both sides of the struggle told from the vantage point of the "Johannesburg of America". As a local is was an bonus to here about the history neighborhoods and buildings that I've walked and lived in.

The specific scope also brings the occasionally esoteric dialog on Civil Rights into a more earthy and ultimately more interesting paradigm.

It's really a book about the people whose names we all know and we get to her everyone's story as it pertains to the issue.

Fred Shuttlesworth
Bull Connor
Art Hanes
Albert Boutwell
Martin Luther King Jr.
Ralph Abernathy

We've heard their names (except maybe Art and Albert, they were the mayors... both of them... at the same time...that's discussed too) , but if you want to know a little better what they actually did and who they were, find this book in your local library or even better buy it. it is extensively researched and impeccably sourced and it could take time to root around in the background if you so choose.

The Culture Wars- Post One

2007-06-06T12:44:00.000-05:00

It has taken a number of things to bring us to this point.

The rail and the airplane eased travel for persons of all economic classes.

The decline in racism and colonialism gave people around the world hope for ruling their own destiny.

The gentrification of the "first-world" and corresponding needs for labor and retirement support.

All have played their part in forcing the confrontation which, I believe will form one the the primary issues of domestic policy for the entire first world.

I speak of the so called culture wars: conflicts played out in the United States by concerns over Blacks and Hispanics and in Europe by Muslims of varying ethnic backgrounds.

All are based on an old misunderstanding which we are just now beginning to unravel.

Many have been led to believe that nations are founded on and inseparable from their cultures.

This is a tragic error in reasoning.

Nations are primarily a function of geography though historical conflicts also play a part. By nature they are political constructs formed when a group seeks to exercise control over a region.

Often, in a particular region a culture will spring up and indeed cultures are often tied to the land.

But a land may be host to many different cultures, often in the same nation and no contradiction is inherent in this.

The recognition of a multicultural nation disturbs many. Too often the politics of nationhood gets tangled in ethnicity when a majority group seeks to claim dominion over an entire nation despite the presence of minorities.

The Han Chinese are a good example. China was once (and in some ways still is) an ethnically diverse territory.

The Yao. The Manchus. The Uighur. The Zhuang. Dozens of different peoples populated this corner of the world. However during imperial time the Han Chinese did what ethnic groups often did until the age of colonialism finally died.

Expansion and Assimilation once went hand in hand.

Today expansion is dying. The United Nations charter was first and foremost a rebuke of expansionism and empire building.

Assimilation, another holdover from that more primitive time continues to pose a threat to liberty.

The west has a choice to make now as to what is more important, our values or the ethnic nature of our countries...
more later.

Swiss Minaret Ban

2007-06-01T13:12:00.000-05:00

We often fail to consider the importance of Western philosophy to our daily lives. For those of us that live in countries where we are free to say, do, and vote as we please it forms the essential fabric of our daily lives. Human rights are the single greatest achievement of Western thought, but implementing is a hard battle that is far from over.

The chief enemies have been power struggles and intolerance. Both are well represented in this latest story.

Members of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, currently the largest party in the Swiss parliament, have launched a campaign to have the building of minarets banned.
They claim the minaret is not necessary for worship, but is rather a symbol of Islamic law, and as such incompatible with Switzerland's legal system.
Link

Now this is a clear violation of the Freedom of Religion as described in the European Convention on Human Rights, but after France got away with its headscarf ban, and it the crossfire caught yarmulkes and turbans as well it stands to reason that the neutered court in Strasbourg may actually let this continue.

I for one am rather tired of seeing xenophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry destroy our most important values, all so a few politicians can score brownie points.

Some feel we should simply wink at this is the face of greater atrocities occurring in the Islamic world, but no amount of wrongdoing on their part will excuse trashing our own civilization.

I'll be back with more on some of the route causes of this type of behavior.

Once more from the Top

2007-05-21T19:09:00.000-05:00

I know it will be hard to drag my old readers back after such a period of absence...

So I think I'll use this time for a bit if shameless self-promotion while no one's around to see.

Celebrating a sweet sixteen finish in the 2007 Honda All-Star Campus Challenge is my school Oakwood College.

Honda bought out an add in USA today with shots of all the players.

I'm the pretty one. (Mr. Turner if your judgment on the matter varies).

USA Today Ad (PDF)

I'm up! I'm up!

2006-05-20T12:18:00.000-05:00

Wowzers, were have I been? (The question on everyone's mind).

Well after promising to take it easier this semester I promptly turned around to drown myself i(very rewarding labor).

I've have been so busy I can't really get it across to you just yet as my dazed little brain is still a little confused (help me out here, what month is it?).

That's not the half of it. That guy, you know the one who says "It's better to have loved and lost" etc. etc.

Sooo not getting a Christmas card...

I learned that the radio airwaves are a publicly owned torture device made to repeat a certain girl's name over and over in songs until certain drivers become distracted.

That distracted drivers may drive 80 mph in a seventy zone in Cullman.

That the Highway Patrol thinks very little of these driving habits.

That one who has never received a ticket for anything before has a tendency to get nervous forget a law enforcement official has simply gone to his vehicle to write a ticket and drive away.

That this results in another ticket.

That I really need to get a summer job fast.

That young relations are likely to engage in tossing rocks.

That when they are doing this within arm range of your car trouble is bound to occur.

That I can get a rear windshield replaced for $235 and odd cents.

That I really should looking for that job.

That my computer decides to break at the most annoying times.

That my little sister's computer will have to do.

Life -1 Turnea-0

...on the upside grades look pretty durn good this semester.

Anywhoo, I'm back.

A golden month for justice?

2006-04-06T14:29:00.000-05:00

..as some already know the ex-president of Liberia Charles Taylor has, after about a day on the run, been captured as is awaiting his war crimes trial. Likely to be held in the Hague.

This, at the behest of the new Liberian government, marks the prosecution of one of the most notorious accused war criminals of the modern era.

The news is also in that another may soon join him.

Serbia has pledged to hand over war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic to the tribunal in The Hague this month, the chief prosecutor's office says.
The assurance follows the arrests of several relatives of the former Bosnian Serb army leader on Wednesday.
The BBC's Matt Prodger in Belgrade says it is the strongest commitment the Serbian authorities have yet given to international prosecutors.
Ratko Mladic is wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Link

Both of these men, if reports are to be believed, committed monstrous acts on a scale that those of us who live in peace may never understand.

...it would be a heck of a month (after the slow days we've had recently) if these two find themselves whisked away to the Netherlands for an extended stay.

In any case, its also National Poetry Month... I'll find a way to mark that soon enough.

2006-03-24T18:06:00.000-06:00

profile pic
Well, that's me doing my level best to look serious. I finally got bored enough to tamper with my profile, so for everyone who was wondering (ha) that's what I look like.

I think I hear paint drying next door, gonna catch a piece of that action, later.

...and speaking of dogs.

2006-03-21T11:27:00.000-06:00

A high-pitched "dog whistle" device is to be used by police in north
Staffordshire to stop groups of nuisance youths hanging around shops.
The
Mosquito sends out a pulsing 80-decibel frequency noise which can usually only
be heard by teenagers and those in their early 20s.[...]

Det Insp Davies stressed the device, which is protected from vandals by a
metal cage, did not cause pain and had been vetted for any health and safety
implications.
"The noise can normally only be heard by those between 12 and
22 and it makes the listener feel uncomfortable.

Looks like my reign of terror is drawing to a close.

Okay seriously, am I the only one who thinks this is more than a little creepy?

"Let no dog bark!"

2006-03-18T10:25:00.000-06:00

Okay, is it just me or did time take on the consistency of cold molasses for the past couple weeks? I mean seriously I think the government has finally found a way to shut all the bloggers up.

Give them nothing to talk about....

So should we break out the champagne and declare victory against incompetence or wonder what exactly they're up to that their not telling us about?

Things are happening outside the States, of course, huge protests in France over new labor laws, Milosevic kicking the bucket, Liberia finally demanding Taylor gets his...

All well and good, but not enough to make eke time out of my busy (and frankly confusing, I'll post separately on that soon) day.

If this keeps up I'll have to regale you all with stories on my oh-so-interesting life.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Break Update

2006-03-03T19:14:00.000-06:00

For anyone wondering where I've been... two words: Spring Break.

Yes, I am well aware it is still winter. Yet this week was Oakwood College's official Spring Break.

Someone in the administration thought it would be a good gag I guess. Well jokes on them, we had a high of 77 yesterday. It's cooler today but sunny and pleasant.

It's been a wonderful break, which is likely why I didn't post during it, having far too much fun.

Back to work on Monday, I should have something more to gripe about shortly thereafter.

...and I hope you read the Letter as your reading assignment over the break. I'm thinking of provoking a contemporary look at the King philosophy and how very different it is from current American feeling.

I can't help but be reminded of Malcolm X when I here much of the rhetoric in the country surrounding the War on Terrorism.

Not necessarily a bad thing, I just wonder if any has noticed the striking similarities.

Letter from Birmingham Jail II

2006-02-13T19:08:00.000-06:00

Here's our next quotation from King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

" I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "An Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this 'hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation."

Cheney's Collateral Damage

2006-02-12T15:54:00.000-06:00

When I first read this I laughed.

I ought to be ashamed of myself.

The US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has accidentally shot and injured a man
during a quail hunting trip in Texas. [...]Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong said
Mr Whittington, 78, had been taken to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital where was
said to be "alert and doing fine".
According to a spokeswoman, Mr Cheney
spent Sunday afternoon at the hospital.
Link

So will Human Right's Watch add that to the toll of injured civilians or what?

Letter from Birmingham Jail

2006-02-11T14:20:00.000-06:00

I was going to add my own commentary but I don't think it's necessary just yet.

Quoting from Marin Luther King Jr. and his "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fan in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality.

I urge you to consider the difference in the two types of peace King references here. There are as meaningful now as they were then.

AD Radio Open Lines

2006-02-07T12:18:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is AD Radio's first normal session, check out the snazzy new link in the sidebar.

They're also holding an equipment fundraiser with the goal of making the show more awesome than it already is.

Anyone can call in on any issue they want to discuss and of course anyone can leave money. If I can find a place to make a call. (I own a cell phone but quiet is hard to come by in a college dorm) you can count on me doing both.

We Have Arrived

2006-02-02T19:13:00.000-06:00

Shock for me today. This blog, for what I think is the first time has been linked to by someone who I don't think I know in any capacity.

AD, College, old high school buddy, nope. I think someone actually found something I had to say here interesting enough to add as link without the benefit of knowledge of my AD ranting.

So big round of applause for The Anteater for recognizing quality. I shall respond by returning the great linking favor and most likely posting more on the issue we seem to share in common.

Life is good.

America's Debate Radio Premier

2006-01-30T10:29:00.000-06:00

Every so often I take time in this blog to remind people who think they are interested in the decisions of their government or other powerful organization and the effects on the world around them that if they are not members of America's Debate their hope for fulfillment is forever out of reach.

It is a rather pathetic existence akin to Sisyphus hauling a rock of reason and genuine concern for his fellow man only to have the irresistible pull of moronic flame-driven third-rate forums drag any poignant revelation back down into the depths of irrelevance.

I, however, have no pity for the average suffering reader. Membership is free and easy.

Take hold of your future, lost one! Walk in the light!

Ahem....

...but for those for whom debate is either inaccessible or insufficient the administrators in their grand wisdom have a new treat.

Behold: America's Debate Radio

A live internet-radio call in show to debut directly following tomorrow's State of the Union Address.

The prescribed course of action is obvious.

(For the dim among thee)

You will listen.

Call me MISTER Rackham

2006-01-29T18:02:00.000-06:00

My pirate name is:

Morty Rackham

You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Oh yeah, I'm just that cool.

Man... I really ought to do some homework or something.

How Weird Are You?

2006-01-27T18:06:00.000-06:00

I try and honor requests, just for cosmic brownie points or something.

More likely, I've got nothing better to do, so if someone comes up with something, I'm game.

This might be a tough one as its about that subject more difficult than all others: Myself.

I try not to talk about myself too much and when I do I usually regret it as I consider my own little personal struggles pretty boring.

That said let's see what my iron sieve of a memory has got for us today.

I've been tagged to give five weird habits I have... I don't know that I have that many. Weird is less a set of actions for me than a state of being.

Here's What I Got:
1. I run. Not necessarily outdoors or for any lengthy period of time. I may be wandering around in my Pj's at one in the morning ready to call it a day and suddenly the urge to run comes over me. So I sprint the three feet to the door (it's a dorm room<--- oxymoron). I usually feel a little better then, until tomorrow when the 36-inch dash begins again.

2. I tell jokes to myself and generally daydream an awful lot. This results in my bursting into spontaneous chuckles for no apparent reason. When this happens don't be alarmed. I'm not insane (in any dangerous way), I've just made some corny joke in my head that I think is funny, it'll pass. If I'm nervous I'll also mutter my thoughts, mostly I think I like to hear the sound of my own voice at those moments, lets me know I'm still with me.

3. I sleep with a fan on, sometimes full blast, in the middle of winter and any other time. If it's cold I'll turn it away from myself, but it must be on in order for my brain to be assured that it is sleep time and the day is over. That's my ritual and I'm sticking with it.

4. I scan rooms I'm in almost constantly, looking from place to place. Unless I judge something worthy of my full visual attention I turn to get a better look at the majority of things that wander into my peripheral vision. I don't look at people when they talk to me unless I'm purposely trying to be reassuring. I can listen with my ears and talk with my mouth. To me eyes aren't an essential part of conversation. If they are few people in a room I look at every person who enters briefly. Not looking for anyone persay just keeping my beady eyes on my surroundings.

5. Phones make me uncomfortable for some reason. Even if someone calls who I actually want to talk to, I'm always hesitant to pick the things up. It's a little better once its against my ear and out of sight, but looking at a ringing phone always make me a bit uneasy. As a result I very rarely call anyone just to chat. Essential messages and then put the devil machine down. Same thing with IM. I think I just don't like the idea of real-time communication that doesn't involve actually being near the person your communicated with.

As I alluded to earlier I don't need to see them, as long as I know they're actually, you know, "there".

That's usually as weird as I get, though I can't make any promises as stranger things have been know to happen.

Five folks to bug now... and ask to similarly list five weird habits. The AD'er have almost been used up, fortunately I have other people to annoy.

1. CJ (My Roomate)
2. Tim (whose link I need to update, I'll just e-mail this post to him)
3. Eeyore
I'll come up with to more later, the wanderlust has come over me once more.

War News Radio

2006-01-25T14:28:00.000-06:00

Heard about this project on NPR. Turns out some college students run a radio program where they call up Iraqis via telephone and discuss with them issues of the day.

I haven't gotten a chance to vet it, but the coverage sounds promising.

Have at it.
War News Radio

Get Creative

2006-01-22T15:50:00.000-06:00

Late as always I finally took the latest web test that's been making the round, I take it over and over to make sure but the results are pretty consistent, these are the words of the Great Internet Quiz.

Hear Ye!

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative

63%

Existentialist

56%

Fundamentalist

50%

Materialist

44%

Idealist

38%

Postmodernist

31%

Modernist

31%

Romanticist

What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com

Say it with me now.

Oohmmm....

Self-Interested

2006-01-18T17:32:00.000-06:00

I've talked about this briefly on America's Debate, but I don't think I covered here. I try to stay true to the goal that "philosophy is life" so I actually think about such nonsense as will follow in my day to day life.

Up for today Kohlberg's Stages of Morality.

Wikipedia has a great run down for our purposes. I'll quote here:

Level 1 (Pre-Conventional) (up to age 9)

1. Obedience and punishment orientation
2. Self-interest orientation

Level 2 (Conventional) (age nine+ to adolescence)

3. Interpersonal accord and conformity

(a.k.a. The good boy/good girl attitude)

4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation

(a.k.a. Law and order morality)

Level 3 (Post-Conventional)(adulthood)

5. Social contract orientation
6. Universal ethical principles

(a.k.a. Principled conscience)

Since this is largely a political blog, I'll deal with this as it applies to public policy.

Now first thing first, I've been critical of applying human development models to nations and I remain so. I apply this concept not to a "nation" as to the expressed policies of a nation.

Kohlberg meant this concept to apply to people. I am going to use it to apply to ideas. If you think I'm overreaching join the club ;)

I gave that little litany in part to give the reader time to consider. I'd like to think that I, your humble blogger, am so in tune with the human thought process that you have already seen the purpose of my endeavor before I write it explicitly.

All Right... shows what I know....

Public policy in the US and likely much of the rest of the world can still be neatly described by stages of Morality Kohlberg relegated to the thinking of pre-pubescent children.

Specifically stage two:

Stage two espouses the what's in it for me position; right behavior being defined by what is in one's own best interest. Stage two reasoning shows a limited interest in the needs of others, but only to a point where it might further one's own interests, such as "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." Concern for others is not based on loyalty or intrinsic respect in stage two.

This, in fact, with its self-serving logic, is fast becoming an widely accepted position in all morality, though the effects of such incomplete thinking in day-to-day life are so much more immediate and intimate as to relegate this mostly to sociopaths and those on the make.

I, of course, advocate a movement that call upon policymakers to "grow up" so to speak.

Maybe I'll discuss more of that later.

Pat's at it again

2006-01-08T18:05:00.000-06:00

Whenever I am tempted to regain my faith in the intelligence and compassion of the average Joe, I can always count on Pat "the Ayatollah's gots nothin' on me" Robertson.

Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed.

'He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America,''Robertson told viewers of his long-running television show, 'The 700 Club.'
Link

A fellow AD'er by the tag BoF made a funny.

I wonder what transgression Robertson will commit when "god" finally calls for his demise?

Maybe he'll be offed by a falling crate of Bibles.

He ought to have some contact with it before he shuffles off this mortal coil.

Break Time!

2006-01-02T19:14:00.000-06:00

I know I haven't posted to this blog since Thanksgiving break, but in my defense the period surrounding that break has been enormously busy for me.

Succinctly put, this semester, like no other, has really been kicking my butt.

Not to say that I didn't toss my fair share of licks right back, grades look pretty good all in all, enough A's to keep my professors on their toes.

..but the schedule has been murder for a sleep-addict like myself.

I LOVE sleep.

It's one of my favorite times of the day, which is a shame as I am unconscious for most of it. Just the same the spoils of victory in the hard-fought battle to just relax, quit fretting and fall asleep are plenty sweet.

Tutoring has, of course, be a real time-eater this semester, though of all the things that take my time I figure it's the most worthy and rewarding. I am officially overstretched right now though and I need to come up with some better arrangements so that everyone, including my tutees, can have a less stressful time of it.

My normal work hours are not for the introverted, expect a crowd.

..but I love to be making myself useful so I accept it.

Just the same life is good as always, I haven't had a real complaint in some years now.

I’ve been reading plenty over this break, Shake Hands with the Devil by the UN force commander during the unthinkable events of ten years ago is of special notice, read it as soon as possible as it explains so very clearly what was wrong with a world that will watch hundreds of thousands of civilians murdered in cold blood and do nothing.

I’ll be posting with more substance later, just a heads up in case anyone though I was actually thinking of shutting up.

Fat chance of that.