wen2li3

I'm finally beginning to recover from my illness. Flu, round two is over. I still have some issues with my voice and throat but they're clearing up.

I had a genuine party this past Sunday night. Fourteen people from around Jinzhou showed up. Dinner, music, beer and wine. We had some Chinese university students, African students, a few English teachers and a German teacher! There aren't many of us foreigners here but it's certainly a diverse crowd.

What do you want to know about one of the biggest unknown Chinese cities in northern China? Send me some questions and I'll try to answer them.

I enjoy my high school classes a great deal because the students feel like real kids, albeit, sleep deprived, ignorant Chinese kids. I'm talking with a student now on QQ about his grandparents' farm in the countryside. He tells me they grow corn and vegetables.

Today, Thursday, I go back to the high school for my regular four classes. Yesterday's classes formerly belonged to one of my fellow teachers, Sarah. I'll be teaching numbers, counting and some math in English today. Yesterday was consumed by questions for me, which is great because it ate up the whole class and I didn't have to do my boring lesson on clothes and fashion.

The odor in my kitchen is still there... though subsiding as I use the kitchen more often. On the food and beverage front I've made some headway. Last night on my way home, I bought a bottle of 2002 Great Wall "Dry Red Wine" - not spectacular but palatable. I'll be buying one every so often.

Yesterday the cleaners were closed! One of my two regular cleaners wasn't open on Wednesday morning at 10AM! She has my two best white shirts. Hopefully she'll be there today. I hope she's not sick.

This is my last day of vacation. Here in China, autumn festival is wrapping up. Last week was the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Aside from the fireworks in the morning I hear every other day and all the little Chinese flags the political organizers convinced people to put up, Liaoning seems surprisingly subdued for such a milestone.

Originally I had planned to go to Beijing for the celebration but decided against it. The authorities set up road blocks weeks in advance of the event hundreds of kilometers in every direction. There were even patrols up here between the sea and Jinzhou. Instead, I've stayed in Jinzhou and taken two day trips to nearby sites - requisite visits to Chinese temples and somewhat interesting land formations.

The Great Wall at Shanhai is interesting because tunnels through a mountain have been preserved. Some attempt to convey what life was like on the wall is made through the use of bronze statues of soldiers and scenes in the little rooms off the sides of the tunnel made from ancient looking wood and implements. Overall, it felt like a tourist trap. There's nothing to see in China it seems, without payment of an entrance fee.

Yesterday I visited Bijiashan with my new flat mate, Margo. It's a mountain in the sea connected to land by a tidal land bridge. It was high tide at the time but the landscape is interesting. Of course, there were more touts than tourists but we made it to the top, got some good photos and scrammed. I got some good photos including one of a guy who had obviously been in a lot of photos, holding up a crab for me.

I've just about made it to single digits playing go. I'll try in earnest this next week to find a proper place to play in Jinzhou. I hope there's no fee.

It's been sunny and warm in the afternoon this past week, cool in the evening. Perfect weather. The sunset coming home yesterday was a good one. The haze around the city tends to do that.

Tomorrow will be like a Saturday at work, which means six classes, back to back beginning at 8:30 in the morning.

More soon.

I have yet to run across him. There has got to be someone nearby who appreciates quality over appearance. If you have seen my flickr posts, you see how elaborate the front gate of my apartment complex is. There is a crew responsible for replanting the grass every year and the statues out front have got to be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Nobody is responsible for the upkeep of the buildings themselves. My air conditioner is in the basement, which makes it useless, at cooling the place or keeping moisture from destroying the walls, not to mention growing mold and mildew. I have a king size bed but only enough room to walk around it, forget a desk in the bedroom, I have to move my fan to get around it.

On a brighter note, My kids are dumbfoundingly cute, usually very witty and always waiting with a smile. I'm finally beginning to learn all my students names, tough because I have close to 100. At some points that will jump to as many as 2 or 300. I've taken over classes from a long-time teacher and most people's favorite person at the school, which has left me with big shoes to fill. I was initially put off by how little effort is put into actually teaching English here. The parents send their kids here as a status symbol, the kids just want to have fun and the teachers all want to go home. The trick is to strike a good balance and see what comes of it. There are a few students who are very bright and looking to USE English and not just learn it for the exams.

Unfortunately, I've gotten into some bad habits and have not yet learned many of the street names I should eventually know. I've also neglected learning Chinese. I get lots of pointers from our assistants but I'll need to get in a routine of studying at home for sure. Calligraphy and painting has gone on hold too until I can get this air conditioner thing worked out. My working space is in the basement (along with the kitchen) and it's too musty to use for long.

Tomorrow is my biggest day teaching yet - six full classes, so I ought to hit the sack. Do let me know what's going on at home! It is only $0.02 per minute for you to call me on my mobile.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wen2li3

I've got one! Nokia's most inexpensive phone is pretty decent. I've charged it once this week and it's still at 75% battery life. I don't know why engineers and salespeople thought it would be a good idea to introduce color LCD screens to 'dumb phones'. This one is much like my old Motorola flip phone that had more battery life than any of my American phones since.

http://conversations.nokia.com/2008/11/04/nokia-1202-cheapest-phone-ever/

I wish I knew more about the riots in China. Hu Jintao has returned home to deal with civil unrest but being in Beijing does not afford me a position of privilege with regard to information.

I'm H1N1 Free! Tomorrow I'm off to Jinzhou.

I've noticed the sun for the first time this morning in Beijing! Up until now, the sky has been perfectly white. I caught a glimpse of blue early this morning. It's beginning to revert to smog now.

I'm currently awaiting instructions as to how I might be tested for the flu. Since I displayed some symptoms on Tuesday, I am required to get checked out before traveling north. I'm told that the PRC has shut down whole schools permanently that have been infected or careless with preventive measures. The pressure is on.

First order of business as soon as I can roam freely? Find a tea house with a go club.

The good news is that I've got WUNC streaming strong. I still have no access to various other sites and have not yet come across a proxy that works.

Does anyone know a place to get biscuits in Beijing? There's got to be one.

So, I didn't post yesterday because I was feeling ill. These 24 hour fevers seem to come in pairs for me - I had the same thing a few weeks ago. My quarantine will last a couple extra days as a result. Also, I've been confined to my apartment, making for a rather uneventful experience.

Apparently, Twitter is either swamped because so many people in Asia are trying to log on or the PRC has blocked my access. I can't visit Facebook either. Normally, this would not be a problem. As it is though, I only have my guide for company and it's a struggle to get through a short conversation with him.

We've been working on trying to identify our location on Google Maps so that I can pass it along. Thus far, we've been unsuccessful. McDonald's delivers in China! Go figure.

Send me your thoughts.

Cheers!

Apparently, Blogger, Google's weblog service is rife with dissident or profanity as the People's Republic of China has decided to block access. I'm going to have enough trouble posting videos without access to YouTube. I hadn't taken the time to learn other video services. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. I will be writing in multiple blogs in hopes that redundancy will ensure I have uninterrupted posting. Also, I look forward to focusing on different aspects of my experience in China over the next year.

The Western expatriate community in China is an eclectic bunch to say the least. Even before I boarded my Air China flight to Beijing, I had met a musician and freelance translator, who left his job in the 80's at an almond processing plant (he studied biochemistry), and a mother and professor at Peking University, School of Mathematical Sciences. Joe, the musician, is one of those types to leave it all out there on the table, sometimes to the discomfort of those nearby. He had a great story about looking into having an operation performed on his leg in China though, which was instructive. Sharon, Beijing resident of almost three years volunteered that she hadn't yet learned a lick of Chinese, relying on her fluent daughter and generous students for help. I can't say I would do any better in her situation.

I was surprised to learn, upon being greeted at the airport, that my guide, a young guy calling himself Peter, had never been to Beijing himself, having grown up not five hours away by train in Liaoning Province. Though he can read signs and get along far better with Beijingers, he seems less sure of himself in the hyper-urban landscape than I feel. Travel has a way of toughening the soles of one's feet, so to speak. He is very helpful and generous, no less. I'll be working with him a bit in Jinzhou as well.

I just heard Phillip Seymour Hoffman interviewed on Fresh Air and was introduced to a new concept - the distinction between impersonating and acting. I am not familiar with the actual Truman Capote but Hoffman claims not to do a very good impersonation of him. It's hard to believe, given the extraordinary performance. He focused on acting the part, creating genuine motivation and realistic embellishments, mimicry might stifle. Gross asked if it was a challenge playing a real person, someone many will have remembered. Nope. Hoffman is a master of subtlety. Apparently, mimicry isn't a rich part of the experience.

I suppose the distinction is something like the difference between realism and impressionism or surrealism in art - the artist's imperfect representation of the subject is really what draws us closer.

"Capote" solidified Hoffman's position as one of his generation's greatest actors." -http://manhattan.about.com/od/famousnewyorkers/p/philipseymourho.htm

I want to see 'Doubt' soon.

So, I never really returned to LiveJornal. Sorry if you were looking forward to reading about my thoughts and doings.

Recently, I've been working to help develop WiserEarth, an online community conceived by the Natural Capital Institute. NCI was founded by Author and Sustainability specialist, Paul Hawken.

Check it out if you have a few minutes!

Folks, I'm coming back (not that I was ever here with much presence). I've decided to keep a series of daily blogs and decide which service is best based on my experience. Also, I'll be trying to develop an ability to code-switch in my writing.

In speach, as the term is most commonly used to my knowledge, code-switing refers to the act of consciously or unconsciously adjusting speach to fit expectations. For example, members of the African American community might make dramatically different word choices in the presence of whites or various authority figures because their most common language is looked down upon as inferior by the public.

I would like to be able to appeal to a variety of audiences in my blogging and, by keeping a number of them, learn to adapt my rhetoric based on reader response and how I feel about how each string is going.

2005.10.25

Check out the DTH article on the proposed resolution for a constitutional convention, slated to be revised tonight in R&J.

I hope that the special election can be moved entirely to the November 1 election. This would provide the greatest legitimacy to the results, both because it will be a high turnout and because attention has been brought to the issue of elections through the DTH mainly.

This Wednesday night I start serving up the margaritas at Cosmic. You ought to come try one sometime. They're made with fresh fruit and we have a collection of the finnest tequilas available.

Looks like I'll be working for two hours Halloween... bummer.

No costume so far. I'll keep you updated.

Currently reading:
The Sources of Normativity
Christine M. Korsgaard

Studying:
Ancient Greece (for a quiz at noon)



2005.10.19

Fall break is here.

Why don't we just give the Attorney General, Student Body President and Speaker of Congress Full scholarships and the rest of the elected and maybe a few non-elected folks free room and board (similar stipends for graduate students)? I think that would attract the highest quality people to fill the positions. I also don't think that this would be objectionable given the rational for athletic scholarships and other awards. It would mean that all of student government would take about as much money to run as the Asian Studies Department (a handful of professors and staff members that serves a few thousand students per year).

I may start working tomorrow as a bartender at Cosmic Cantina. Come by and see me if you get a chance. Saturday's I believe there will be some great margarita specials.

Who's in town for fall break? I suspect you will all be leaving for home or vacation destinations. Some unfortunate few I know will be studying.

Google rocks my world. I'm not so sure about Wikipedia. The problem of legitimacy on the internet isn't totally addressed by it's system.



2005.10.17

If you want my opinion on the stipends debate, here it is. We're talking about nothing. The amounts of money and effects we are spending so much time agonizing over are really not that important. The stipends officials recieve are at most an amount equal to 15-20% of what they spend each year getting an education at UNC. For some this may be a considerable amount of money but for most, not. I think that the effect on the student body would be minimal if stipends were eliminated and thus the effect of stipends being in place isn't all that great.

The wealthy who are interested in being elected to top posts in student government can't be doing it for the money and the poor aren't getting much for their investment in the system (if the wealthy are doing it for the money then there are eager replacements at least close to as qualified). In the grand scheme of things GPA and other such factors mean a lot more in terms of economic goods to graduates than the amount of money they recieve in stipends. Those who are involved in student government at these high levels (Attorney General, Speaker of Congress, Student Body Officials) are doing it either for the resume points or for their own satisfaction and education.

The Carolina financial aid system makes it possible for anyone who wants to go to school here who does not have dependents (and probably many who do) to do so while being involved in extra-curricular activities. Debt incurred by students is manageable. In my estimation, there is no financial NEED on the part of those who wish to be involved in student government to be compensated for their time with stipends.

This is however an incentive. To this extent stipends are important for bringing quality folks into the system. The current incentives are very low. The very top officials get only relatively small amounts of money for their work (125-300$ per month). I make that much working part-time at Pita Pit, a much easier job than being SBP, Speaker or AG (or for that matter, being an active member of Student Congress, which I have been at times though not as much lately). If perhaps the SBP and other officials were awarded full scholarships or perhaps free room and board the incentives would actually exist to bring in the highest quality of candidates for the offices.





2005.10.14

Is it possible to flirt with an unavailable or otherwise unatainable girl without making the relationsip awkward? I've found that it is difficult. Most often it seems that girls will just avoid talking altogether if they aren't single or don't have interest in me.

Philosophy again...

I view my education as the process of leaving behind false memories caused by 'lies in words' as Plato would articulate the cause. The stated goal of the education system however is to instill in us truth, that is, bring to us something we don't already know. I think we already have the capacity to know all that we will ever need to know and should worry less about having positive accounts of the world than consciously ignoring the positive accounts known to be fallacious.

An example of this is the intelligent design debate. Intelligent design rests on invalid arguments. These arguments are basically 'lies in words' - myths told to cause uneducated masses to arrive at what teachers and leaders know to be the truth because of their higher capacity for understanding. The truths of which I write are moral truths - facts of life that can be arrived at by more sophisticated economic and moral argumentation.

To the extent that students are capable of understanding the true justification for the conclusions of 'lies in words' they ought to be told so. I don't think this happens often enough.

I think a medical practice closely resembles this practice of lying to another's benefit and so I wish to draw an analogy. The chronically ill (especially on a battlefield), those who are not expected to recover well, it is said, are best left alone to die naturally. The dumb-witted are also though not to be educated but left alone to fend for themselves. To educate such people is like the admistration of medicine to the dying. It will alieviate their pains but would be more productive applied to patients who can fully recover. Education is best spent on those who will progress. But as we have discovered through medical science, those once thought to be unable to recover sometimes do. In the same way, the dull-witted (or seemingly so) may improve markedly with education.

I like to think of two different kinds of education, one of the sort I described as making 'lies in words' - convincing people of facts in whatever way is necessary (even if this means making invalid or unsound arguments with true conclusions). The other kind of education is more akin to a sort of discourse in which the reasoning of the wiser in a process of education is open to the student.

One sort of education is like the administration of morphine to the sick while the other is like the sort of medical attention the wealthiest of the wealthy get today (Magic Johnson?).



2005.10.13

Thanks to Ginny Franks I am able to provide you information on a piece of legislation I recently sponsored in Student Congress. I plan to be in the Student Government office on the 18th. I hope that you all will be.

----
YOU can help Seth rescue our dignity in one week - on Oct. 18. Call Capitol Hill on Oct.18 on the budget reconciliation (which Student Congress took up in September)!

I'm asking you to MAKE PLANS NOW to spend 5 minutes in the Student Government office on Oct. 18 before you go on fall break. A national organization is monitoring our calls for us, and UNC gets a point for every call (you can call twice -- to UNC's legislators and to your hometown legislators) made from the StudGov office. Ask Seth which phone is going to be the designated phone.

The call script is attached. To get to your legislators, call 1-800-574-4243.

It's about more than school pride - it's about saving money for students and showing legislators we care. Oh, and beating State.

Student Congress took a stand, now make something happen.

BACKGROUND: In October 2005, Congress will consider a Budget Reconciliation bill that will be extremely detrimental to the future of higher education. The bill will institute significant cuts to federal loan programs that will end up costing students thousands of dollars!!! House Resolution 609 outlines many of the cuts that will be a part of Budget Reconciliation. Use the script below to call your Members of Congress and tell them not to turn their backs on students!



HOW TO CALL: Dial 1-800-574-4243 to be connected to your Members of Congress.



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SCRIPT: Hello Congressperson ______. My name is ______. I am a student at (name your University) and a voter in your district. I am calling you today in conjunction with the United States Student Association’s National Call-In Day to urge you to vote against Budget Reconciliation and House Resolution 609. I oppose Budget Reconciliation because the proposed $9 billion cut to student loan programs will devastate college students. I oppose H.R. 609 because it includes these cuts and will make college less affordable for students. Together, these bills will dramatically limit access to higher education. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your support.

If your Representative is already a supporter, ask her/him to urge their colleagues to be supporters as well.



SENATE SCRIPT: Hello Senator ______. My name is ______. I am a student at (name your University) and a voter in your district. I am calling you today in conjunction with the United States Student Association’s National Call-In Day to urge you to vote against Budget Reconciliation. I oppose Budget Reconciliation because the proposed $7 billion cut to student loan programs should be redirected to critical financial aid programs. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your support.

If your Senator is already a supporter, ask her/him to urge their colleagues to be supporters as well.
----



2005.10.09

Forgive me for yet again returning to philosophy in my blog. I realize that for most of you who might read it these are the less interesting tidbits of my life. I want to ponder a fact that seems true to me after a few minutes of reflection this afternoon. This is most directly an excersize in condensing my own thoughts but some may find it useful to read as well.

The most difficult of tasks in this world is convincing a person that you do not want one thing or another. How do you date and have relations with a girl without her beleiving that this is why you go about courting her in the first place (that is without making future commitments). It's even more difficult to convince everyone about you that you actually desire nothing at all (to develope a reputation for absolute benevolence). To do so would be to live in suspended animation (asceticism perhaps but I don't think this would achieve the end to which one has a reputation most effectively). Actions are taken by most people to be grabs at objects of desire or random. I aspire to be random in this sense - actions devoid of desire. I would however like to be myself and only myself.

I don't want to be more than I am nor anything in particular. I am however, a man of a certain kind and will forever exist in one sense or another. After I die, I believe that what most people speak of as the soul will remain and continue to live. It will live I think to the extent that it continues to evolve and affect the doings of people. To this extent perhaps it is impossible to convince anyone that I have come to the conclusion that I 'want' nothing at all because it would mean imposition. Conventional desires seem rather to be necessary impositions rather than unrealistic aspirations. I feel that to want something is to desire that which is impossible to bring about. I don't think it is a feasible goal to bring about the impossible. It is obviously and rationally possible to bring about the feasible goals one sets.

I came accross this all while considering how it is that we might discourage the wrong people from taking political office above us. For that matter, to discourage anyone from doing anything that exhibits least their tendency to be what they must. The people we want ruling us are those who will take least from us and give us the most that can be offered. Interestingly, in a global sense and in consideration of the passage of time, these are the most successful rulers. The people who end up in office most often though are the ones who desire the most for themselves and care least for the margins of society, often the majority of people (I need not explain this point, being an illustration myself in the eyes of some).

The people we want to 'rule' us are the ones who have only disincentives to do so but, despite difficulties, persist in directing others to the benefit of all. What this means is that in terms of their personal and professional lives, disincentives exist. To the extent that the leader places his interests in the interests of his subjects, there are incentives. The only real 'benefit' I can see is convincing people to be who they are and nothing else. When people aim at the impossible, inefficiency and unhappiness result. The best leaders are then those who desire only the best through some political mechanism for their subjects.

This all is not to say that aspirations are not beneficial. They are indeed the root of much progress and happiness. Aspirations though are usually, for an individual, to be who he or she thinks is his or her 'true' self else they are a desire to further one component of the self at the expense of the rest. To the extent that a person is properly educated, his or her perception of his or her true self is what most closely resebles just that.

Our society teaches that we should be more than we 'are'. We should aspire to 'higher' being. This aims at something good but misleads more than guides. By ascribing to this regard for aspiration people lose track of balance as the only source of progress. The balance of which I speak is the idea that certain things are only valuable when coupled with other things. Money has no value without the humanity behind it and humanity, in a narrow sense, has no value without money or the ideal. The ideal has no value without both of these. More clearly, health has no value without wealth, love or knowledge and these have no value without health (or simply life).

In an unrelated note, I think I have realized that there is no ultimate goal to education beyond the reconciliation of all conflicts. The loss of conflict would mean the end of desire and thus the end of meaningful life. To that extent, our education should only procede at a certain pace such that upon death, our minds are free of desire and we pass from consciousness without pain.



2005.10.07

Tonight I'm planning to see Nanci Griffith with Tift Merritt in concert at Memorial Hall. Wade got tickets and invited me to go with him. The show starts at 8 so I should be back at Spencer around 10.

I have to decide before monday whether I can do an honors thesis or not.

The French are awesome people. That's all I can say about that.

My History of Economics Doctrines test score was less than rewarding. I've got to work on that. My Ancient History test didn't go so well either. Let's hope this is not a trend.



2005.09.29

I made an interesting discovery today... I realized the simplest solution to a problem is to stop calling it a problem. This may sound either self-evident or like some sort of equivication. I think it has some meaning though. What it means to me is that there really is no such thing as a 'problem' and what we have are preferences and circumstances. When we call a circumstance a problem, what we are really saying is that I want to change this or that.

So that we don't go crazy nihilistic here, let me say there is more to the line of reasoning. There is something important about our desires, namely, that they are ours. We feel them and to this extent, they ought to drive our decision-making. In the most direct sense, we ought to simply live according to our passion. Where it runs up against the passions of others, it's not necessarily valuable, in my estimation, to ask whether it is the right thing to do, morally speaking.

In life we are motivated by three things I think and they synthesize all the other factors we percieve to motivate us. The three are necessity, opportunity and reflection. Necessity is the sort of desires we have arising from instinct and the things we must do according to the laws of physics. Oportunity is the sort of desires we have arising from our ability to maximize fulfilment of the first sort of desires. Reflection is the sort of desires we have that balance the others and is the affects of ideas on us.

To the extent that these desires should drive our actions, they should also drive appropriate actions. What I mean by this is that we should not reflect on how best to catch ourselves when we fall for in the time it takes we will have already broken our nose on the pavement. Obviously we should allow our instincts to throw our hands in fron of us. In the same vien, we should not let our drive to have wild steamy sex on a daily basis, or perhaps even more often, drive our selection of a mate. More is needed to make this sort of decision and it is our knowledge of oportunity. Another way to put this is to call it the desire for delayed gratification where the delay results in greater overall happiness.

We also would not want to let our hedonistic drives or utility maximizing tendencies drive our reflection on who we want to be. Reason ought to dictate to what extend we act on our more basic desires if we are to be the people we decide we want to be.

What this means for me at the moment is that I will stress less about what I ought to be doing because I think I've done enough of that. At this point I need to do more of what who I am now wants to do. Perhaps I've extended beyond the range of useful reflection 'till I incorporate more to reflect on in my life.

It's a very important thing I must say to meet new people only when you've prepared yourself to extend friendship to them. It's also important not to learn more than you can make use of. Suprisingly, it's also critically important to be only as healthy as being healthy is worth to your soul. So, what it sounds like is I've just applied a utility maximizing function to the self. Pretty cool I think.

On another interesting note: the easiest way to justify an opinion is to say that it is yours. This means that the opinion is the product of your experience and makeup. If the inquirer wants to know more, he or she needs simply to know you better!



2005.09.28

Tell me what you think of my opinion of the bathroom door locks in Spencer Residence Hall.

Why should one write anything that's been written before? It seems to me we should avoid doing such and this would mean that today, since there is so much reading available to us, we ought not to write all that much.

The man who loves himself above all else in the world is he who I would most like to befriend for he will show the greatest kindness to me and to all he knows. I know this to be true because those who do otherwise are shunned and called failures.

After reading Books One and Two of Republic, it seems evident to me that pure justice and injustice are one and the same in a person or a city. Each leads to the same outcome and arrive through similar paths. What would be a more fitting punishment to the person you hate most than to mingle your genes with his or hers so that these might be diluted and bettered by yours?

If the ignorant are those you despise, then is not the best way of destroying that which you hate education? And is the best way of relieving persons of hate itself through acts of kindness? Is not the best way to deal with a snooty prep declining the temptation to follow in the footsteps of others admiring and complimenting his or her ways? It is in fact only in this way that popularity is checked.



2005.09.17

I've finally decided on an honors thesis topic. I want to put forward a materialist conception of the soul and treat some of the implications of living without appeals to intrinsic value.

I had an awesome gathering in the room last night. To all of you who missed it, better luck next time. Oh, and there will be a next time for sure.

I have officially discoverd VH1. It will be my new background.

Do you need a great photo for winter holiday cards? I'm your man - no charge for shoot, cost of supplies for prints.

Be Happy!



2005.09.15

I've given up on being a vegetarian. I'm afraid the costs outweigh the benefits. I do however plan to and advocate eating less meat all around. I was able to communicate this fairly well in class today, in which we discussed James Rachels' argument for vegetarianism in light of a New York Times article written by one of my favorite guys, Michael Pollan.



2005.09.14

Woa I have a lot of catching up to do. It'll have to wait until after class. I have History of Economic Doctrines with Ralph Burns. I wouldn't want to miss that. I don't mean to sound sarcastic. It really is a great class to sit through. Ralph, he likes us to use his first name, is a semi-retired professor of economics and has a way of catching my attention.



2005.08.28

Last night we celebrated Chris' 21st birthday. Started with Goodfellas, which was virtually empty, moved on to Pantana Bob's after being rejected from Goldies (he turned 21 at midnight). We ended the night back at Linda's and walked back to our kick ass room in Spencer.

We've set up the room very differently from last year. I have a bar set up between our cooking area and the futon under my bed, which I've turned so the head is against a wall and the foot extends out into the room. We have a lot more floor space with this arrangement and hopefully dancing room.

I've finished half of bartending school and will finish sometime in early September.

I was just in New Orleans a few days ago and tonight it might get demolished by a giant hurricane. I wish I had taken some pictures.



2005.07.24

Happiness is not having to make decisions. I don't believe suffering comes from physical hardship or depravity so much as it comes from an inability to act in some unknown way that is the right way.



2005.07.21

Quote of the day:
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. -Benjamin Franklin

I think this famous saying encapsulates the notion that to be in keeping with nature is to present one's self with the capacity to capture all that is valuable. Specifically Franklin probably was saying that the man who respects the rythms of nature will be most adept at making use of what he cannot change to engender change that he desires. I should go to sleep now I guess...

I may have totalled my car the night before last so I'll be doing a lot less driving in the coming weeks. I'm in the market for a new car now.

My grandmother's doing alright in the hospital. She can't do much moving around but she's talkative and looking pretty good.

Currently Reading:
Emile by Rousseau



2005.07.18

My aunt just called me and left a message that my grandmother fell and broke her hip, which is quite a problem because she hasn't been very strong lately. I may have to spend the week in Raleigh.



2005.07.15

Birthday party tonight, tomorrow, who knows?





2005.07.14

Are we the same people on IM? It seems to me there should be a disclaimer on everyone's profile that says, comments made here may or may not reflect the opinion or character of the owner of this screen-name. Procede with caution.

I've kept a vegetarian diet for a day now. We'll see how long this lasts.

So, apparently it is not acceptable to miss a lunch date. I thought extenuating circumstances would be enough but seems not. I'm really sorry for standing you up!

If you haven't met my summer roommate, Drew, you're missing out. Stop by the room sometime to check his skills on the guitar. He also is the reason I did alright in Java - good teacher.

I have been convinced that I should become a vegetarian by this article by Mylan Engel Jr. I've been convinced before but not as strongly as now. I resolve to figure out how to eat all that I need without meat (I'll eat it from time to time now of course but much less).



2005.07.11

TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW AND GO TO SLEEP UNLESS YOU ARE GENERATING ENOUGH GOOD TO BALANCE THE ACRES OF FOOD YOU'RE USING. I just read that the average American uses as much energy per day as a sperm whale. Sperm whales eat tons of sea life every day and are warm-blooded in a cold environment. We're throwing away LIFE!

You can find me on campus if you want to talk. I'm shutting off my computer now.



2005.07.10

At the moment, I can think of only three kinds of value that are distinct from all others. These are moral value, economic value and academic value. It seems that these are the only sorts of value that can motivate action. I challenge you to think of another and pose to me how it is distinct from the three I have laid out. I also challenge you to explain how one of these sorts of value is really the same as the other two.



2005.07.08

I think I ought to spend more time each day writing. I find it quite thereputic. I've started a 'history' page. Please take what's there right now with a grain of salt. I'm not a great pleasure writer. I'm workin' on that. I'm starting to write about everything I can remember from my childhood and up to more recently that I wouldn't put here.

Get this, my best friend in Asheville has a fiance and her last name is Riley, Shannon Riley... kinda funny... small world.

Thank you Ginny for correcting me. The second group requesting money was Tamasha and not CHispA. I saw an email with a CHispA request and believed that it was the email announcing the last meeting but it was an earlier meeting.

I'm in the process of planning a road trip to Chicago that will pass through Philadelphia before classes start for the fall. Anyone done something similar and have suggestions?

Tonight I'm going to see War of the Worlds. By all accounts it a magnificent movie.

currently listening to:
Cells by The Servant
This track was used in the trailer for Sin City

currently drinking:
Hot and Sour Soup from China House

Currently reading:
"What has Posterity Ever Done for Me" by Robert Heilbroner
Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application
Louis P. Pojman



2005.07.07

Please write Chapel Hill, Orange County and Chatham Co. officials and ask them to keep Wal-Mart from opening another Super Center on 15-501 between Chapel Hill and Pittsboro. There are plans in the works to do just that. Read about it in the DTH here.

Is the plight of the ignorant a helpless one? Could it be that those who are not well liked and unknowledgable incapable of growing in light of the fact their ideas are undesireable? I have come to realize that there is a tenuous thread that connects people together into working relationships and it's a messy business to repair loss of trust and overcome impatience.

The most important thing to remember I think is to realize that everything is personal but that personal attacks do not necessarily represent ill-will. Rather than acting as if civility is an artificial phenomenon designed to allow competitors to work together we should treat civility as a reminder that we are not actually competing.

I believe that all conflict is actually just disagreement and when two parties disagree the right course is to reconcile this disagreement or agree to put off reconciliation until a time when it is possible. When delay is not possible, people should acknowledge that conflict need not continue indefinitely or escalate.

I think I have a natural tendency to place myself in relationships with an assumption that either I or the other party is teacher or student. I procede to try to impress what I know to the other and accept what fills gaps in my knowledge from what he or she conveys to me. This doesn't work though in real relationships because we have value attatched to being right and therefore fight attempts to correct our thinking rather than embrace them.

The course of action then should be to embrace a more broad attitude toward relationships or to let go of my egoist tendencies that muck up the more noble aspects of my character.



2005.07.06

I write about this with some risk of retribution from the leadership of Congress but I thought I should share this with whoever takes the time to read my blog. Recently there was a summer Congress meeting in which two student groups, Carolina Week and Tamasha were given money. Carolina Week planned to spend the money sending two students on a reporting trip to South America and the money for Tamasha needed funds for activities this summer and general supplies.

I posted this information with a bit more detail to the Congress homepage with no indication of support or criticism of our actions. This evening I realized that the information I had posted had been removed. Later I discovered that the Speaker Pro Tempore of Congress had asked the Finance Committee Chairwoman to remove the information because it "was content we didn't want on either the index or old content pages. [P]utting that much information about a group that we funded travel... is going to bring a lot of questions and angry student groups who are denied funding for their international (or even domestic) travel. [the speaker pro tem] said to take it down."

I don't know about you but I feel it should not be the prerogative of the Speaker Pro Tempore of Congress to censor factual information on the Congress website. If we do not post information of this kind to our site or pass it along in any other meaningful way, how are students going to gauge how effectively we are using their money?

Clearly it is not in the interest of students to have a biased expose on all the actions of Congress but a factual account should always be desirable whether or not it brings heat to particular members of the body or to the body as a whole.



2005.07.05

A relationship seems to me to be simply the mingling of two people's concerns and activities such that the broadest number of each party's desires are fulfilled (ie the greatest amount of moral virtue is achieved). What this mean for dating, I can't say.

People who think they are or take pride in being immoral are fooling themselves into thinking they're badass when really they're just being antisocial. Theoretically, we can all benefit from being moral in every sense and with every action. The concept of morality however must be understood to be dynamic. That is, morality is not static (unchanging).

I do not believe that anything can be valuable in and of itself. That is to say, absent of desire for a thing, it cannot contain value.

In Re: so people aren't valuable?: Since we fear our own ignorance, we assume the value of other persons so that we ourselves never fall victim to killing for the sake of relieving society of a burden and also to protect unknown goods that might arise from (short term) undesirable things/persons. It's also nice to have undesirable people to praise desirable projects/people (ie we have a desire to be admired and this should be considered along with other desires resulting in various forms of value). In short, we construct our own value or, if you will, God does this for us.

Morality is non-static and it is also not universal in general (though it is possible for morality to become universal). A universal moral code is one which arranges people in such a way that the greatest number of human desires are fulfilled. Because people are not homogenous, this means that the arrangement of people in a situation of universal moral rule would not place them in similar circumstances necessarily.

In the above statements I neither adopt Utilitarianism nor a Kantian view of morality. I see both as compatible with my expressed view to at least some degree but concerned with a more narrow scope. In addition, my aim is not to describe how society ought to be arranged but rather how individuals ought to decide when making decisions.

Currently reading:
"Why Abortion is Wrong" by Don Marquis



2005.07.04

Is 'value' not solely a result of human desire? Can you think of a sort of value that is not artificial? I ask this question in an attempt to resolve the question 'what is moral value?'

It is my inclination at present to believe that there is no such thing as value beyond that which is provided by a context. Moral value then is value assigned to things in the context of a world containing intelligent human life. We then, I conclude, may not appeal to any sort of universal value or moral principle less it be acknowledged as a construct of our social life as human beings.

I just got back in town from Asheville. If you haven't seen it already, visit this site to learn about an up and coming metal group in Asheville:

http://www.aloneatlastrocks.com

This evening I spent at the Barbers' during a great cook out with twenty best friends.

At the moment I'm writing a philosophy paper on abortion, specifically, a reaction to an argument put forth by moral philosopher Don Marquis.

Word of the day:
Casuistry
Noun

1. Argumentation that is specious or excessively subtle and intended to be misleading.

2. Moral philosophy based on the application of general ethical principles to resolve moral dilemmas.

I ran accross this word in a paper attempting to establish the immorality of abortion by Don Marquis.



2005.06.26

Friday night after the problematic Congress meeting, I was privileged to see a whole bunch of old faces at Anisa's birthday party for Daneen and Calabria. Unfortunately for me names did not come to me as often as I would have liked.

How is one to put up with an obnoxious hallmate who asks for money to score weed, pesters incessantly about nothing and proceeds to borrow a shot glass he then breaks? I'll let you know how that goes.

Thu, Jun. 16th, 2005, 11:40 am
[i]the_walloper: The Culture of Life
Via This Modern World comes this article:

In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Ga. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The agency had issued no public announcement of the session -- only private invitations to 52 attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the World Health Organization in Geneva, and representatives of every major vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur. All of the scientific data under discussion, CDC officials repeatedly reminded the participants, was strictly "embargoed." There would be no making photocopies of documents, no taking papers with them when they left.

The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young children. According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children. "I was actually stunned by what I saw," Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood, citing the staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism. Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.

Even for scientists and doctors accustomed to confronting issues of life and death, the findings were frightening. "You can play with this all you want," Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the group. The results "are statistically significant." Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado whose grandson had been born early on the morning of the meeting's first day, was even more alarmed. "My gut feeling?" he said. "Forgive this personal comment -- I do not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on."

But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data. According to transcripts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, many at the meeting were concerned about how the damaging revelations about thimerosal would affect the vaccine industry's bottom line.

[...]

In fact, the government has proved to be far more adept at handling the damage than at protecting children's health. The CDC paid the Institute of Medicine to conduct a new study to whitewash the risks of thimerosal, ordering researchers to "rule out" the chemical's link to autism. It withheld Verstraeten's findings, even though they had been slated for immediate publication, and told other scientists that his original data had been "lost" and could not be replicated. And to thwart the Freedom of Information Act, it handed its giant database of vaccine records over to a private company, declaring it off-limits to researchers. By the time Verstraeten finally published his study in 2003, he had gone to work for GlaxoSmithKline and reworked his data to bury the link between thimerosal and autism.

Now, we might expect to hear outraged cries from the religious right about the poisoning of little babies. I predict we'll hear none, though: such is the consequence of the religious right's alliance with Big Business.

Incidentally, the same alliance prevents the religious right from discussing the economic reasons behind the breakdown of the family, such as longer working hours for fewer wages.
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Wed, Jun. 15th, 2005, 09:24 pm
[i]duckofprey:

i'd like to state for the record that "strap-on" spelled backwards is "no parts."

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Visit this website and look at testimony in the Democratic congressional meeting (last Thursday) on the Downing Street Memo and Iraq and tell me Bush didn't lie.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org

Clinton lied about getting head from an intern... If bush lied to justify war (a war Congress would not have voted to support otherwise) that cost nearly two thousand American lives, should we not Impeach him?

I posted a brainstormed list of premises and conclusions connected to an argument I might turn into a thesis at some point it has come to my attention that I shouldn't have done that. Mainly Ginny Franks mentioned that it looked unprofessional and half baked but I tend to agree with her, so I took it down. I do believe that it is something worth working on though. She has mentioned to me that she passed it along to some 'philosophy friends' who commented on it. If you are one of those folks, please do not judge the work or me based on that .txt file.

In other news...

Tom finally is back from China. We had lunch today and realized we still can't speak Chinese to one another only this time he probably knows more than I. I'm disappointed that he didn't start everyone calling the lady who runs the convenience store outside the school in Beijing Squirrel Lady. We called her that when we were there (don't ask me why) but that was so much more fun than 'xiao mai bu' lady.

Last night I hung out with my RA Lauren, which was fun except for the masses of stoned people leaving the party we thought we might spend some time at. Threat of police visitation is really a bummer for stoners I see. I didn't realize until Tom pointed this out to me that having an RA of the opposite sex is a rare event at UNC.

I was recently inspired to compile a comparison of two individuals at UNC who have helped to shape who I am today. They are as polar opposite as is possible at one school and share a common first name in pronunciation and their last names are similar (Whipple is a really cool last name I must say).

Chris Whipple vs. Kris Wampler
A Side-by-side Comparison

These are both male human and Americans. They also happen to be students at UNC though this seems like it ought to be an uncommon event.

Kris is from Charlotte and Chris is from New Orleans. They are both southern I suppose. Kris has the tenacity of a northerner however and Chris is your typically laid back southerner.

Both individuals are decidedly Christian. Chris is your typical Catholic. He breaks the rules provided by his faith on a regular basis but is alright with God because of marvel that is Confession. Kris on the other hand doesn't neatly fit into any particular sect of Christianity. He marches to his own tune so to speak and he does so rather strictly and wishes the same of all those he meets.

Both Chris and Kris are pro-life. Kris however, is pro-life for political reasons (the unborn fetus has a right to life) whereas Chris is pro-life for 'moral' reasons.

The similarities seem to dwindle at this point.

Whipple is my roommate (soon to be) of two years while Wampler is a (soon to be) three year congressional compatriot who I wouldn't live with for more than three days. Kris and I first met in Political Science 41 freshman year. Chris and I met potluck through housing assignment. On an interesting note, I have practically lived with Kris for two and a half days during Annual Budget weekend.

Chris' family is quite wealthy.
Kris' family is quite poor from what I've heard.

Typical accessories for Chris are Mardi-Gras beads and sometimes a French Beret while Kris sports this heavily creased hat with 'Republican Propaganda' emblazon across the front.

Kris is politically active and is a right wing conservative.
Chris is politically apathetic and is a left wing liberal.

Chris is pre-med.
Kris is pre-libertarian.

Chris Whipple is a playa'.
Kris Wampler seems more like a water boy who dispenses conservative ideology.

Chris Whipple is heavier than I am and enjoys outdoor activities.
Kris Wampler is lighter than I am and probably hasn't been in the woods for more time than it took to get back on the highway after a wrong turn.

Chris Whipple is morally challenged.
Kris Wampler challenges common sense.

Whipple's preferred mode of transportation is private plane (his plane to be precise). Wampler prefers traveling by bike.

Kris Wampler abstains from all alcohol.
Chris Whipple avoids whenever possible sobriety.

An argument with Chris tends to end in a rugby tackle.
An argument with Kris tends not to end at all.

I feel privileged to live in a country and attend a school with such diversity. Where would we be without gentlemen like these?

Cheers!

2005.06.10

I talked to my mother for the first time in about a year today. I was using the wrong number to try to call her back after she left me a voicemail a couple weeks ago. She's planning to come and see me the first week of August. She tells me she wants to learn Portuguese and be a missionary in Brazil. Not knowing her, you wouldn't be terribly surprised but this is news to me.

Drew finally set up his keyboard. I played around with it for a little while but I haven't learned a song yet. For the summer, my plan is to try different keys as accompaniments for songs I listen to when I'm not busy doing something else.

Anyone interested in driving up to Asheville next weekend or the weekend after with me?

I havne't watched C-SPAN in days now. It became rather tiresome. I'll go back to it in a few weeks or when I hear they'll finally vote on the nominations.

Who wants to go to DC? I got the best random email yesterday. The gist of the thing was that I have a free flight to Washington DC for the weekend of August 13th to participate in a 'training' to recruit people for CET study abroad programs. I did CET-Beijing but I'm not sure why I was picked out.

drinking:
water

listening to:
Jimi Hendrix



2005.06.04

I just created an anti-Wal-Mart group on Facebook. For more on Wal-Mart, watch the episode of South Park that featured it.

Have you ever noticed that the most level-headed news comes from The Daily Show on Comedy Central? The newsmedia is so sensationalist and sold out to big business they don't take the time to be insightful or even useful. All they're concerned with is viewership and profits. They want to appeal to the lowest possible common denominator of interest and then move on. On an interesting side-note, blogs have been the main topic of discussion in a lot of the newsmedia between breaking bulletins.

Today has been a slow one, punctuated by listening to NPR. There was a program on just a little while ago about God in America. It was quite interesting and I recommend that you check it out. It started out with a woman talking to some Mormons, which led her to question her own Catholic faith. She decided to actually read the bible and discovered some interesting things.

Do you consider yourself a Protestant Christian, Catholic or a Jew? Have you read the Bible through? Do you realize that our popular conception of God and Jesus is not at all what is described by the 'good book'. The 'Prince of Peace' is described often as an egotistical, judgmental and plain psychotic person. This is the conclusion reached in the latest installment of This American Life.

What people don't do often enough is consider what it means to be atheist. We spend a lot of time talking about what it means to 'believe in God' but I've never heard anyone, except for someone in a philosophy class perhaps, describe what it means not to believe in God. What is it that non-believers believe? It is in fact something.

If you've ever heard the argument involving Pascal's wager, you might consider a counter-argument of mine. His runs that because the rewards and punishments involved in believing or not believing in God are infinite in the case that God does exist that, even if we are not certain God exists, we should believe in God.

His argument works if you assume that there are not near-infinite or truly infinite rewards or punishments in life (or after life) in the case that God does not exist. He argues that the pious life leads only to good in the long run but he does not consider that there is an alternative.

My alternative is that everlasting life can really be found in the memories of those who remember you after you die. The pious life most often does not lend itself to such notoriety. Consider for a moment that Jesus was not necessarily pious. At least, perhaps what caused him not to be forgotten was his less pious times in life. Entertain for a second that he did not rise from the dead and that Christianity is a scheme he came up with to allow his name infinite life.

You need not discard a belief in his rising to agree with this idea, but doing so ends the discussion pretty quickly.

more later

peace.

Drinking:
OJ

Listening to:
"Seven Nation Army"
White Stripes
"Fuck Her Gently"
Tenacious D



2005.05.29

So, I've got to say, this art thing just ain't cutting it. I've discovered that I really ought to be singing more and visibly.

This Just In! Live concert in 103 Hinton James North every Saturday night. No invitation needed.

I'm such a deadbeat. I've done nothing this weekend except work on Java Programming and cook/eat.



2005.05.24

Oh lord I've discovered C-SPAN.

We need to keep the President and the Republicans from steamrolling over the minority. I wish that Senate Democrats had stuck to their guns and not made a compromise. Losing the ability to filibuster except in "extreme" cases is only as important as keeping out the folks the filibuster is designed to despense with. I'd say three out of 218 nominees could be considered extreme, considering their views and records (in agreement with a statment made by Senator Feingold today. He said that they probably "did not deserve" to be appointed to lifetime positions.

I would go further to say that all nominees deserve nothing from the Senate. They especially do not "deserve" an "up or down vote." It is an honor to be nominated and it ought to be an honor and not a right to be confirmed. If the compromise had not been made, and we lost the filibuster, the Supreme Court, ultimately, would end up repealing abortion rights and there would be a backlash strong enough to oust the Republicans from office. It may, in the long run, been beneficial to sacrifice the filibuster.

related: statement connected to MoveOn petition on the "Nuclear Option"

I hope Congress passes the stem cell bill. More on this next session (in June, July or August.

My current project is convincing the Department of Housing and Residential Services that it should not justify rules to its customers (residents) by saying that it is Housing rules that... Specifically in an attempt to allow the doors in the new south campus dorms to be made freely swinging doors without automatic closing springs. Last year locks on bathrooms that automatically engaged was a problem.



2005.05.05

Swanky at his best:





2005.04.26

Enough refraining from gossiping about Congress on my blog. You all are a bunch of wet noodles (specifically speaking to those on the R&J committee who didn't say anything tonight at all about redistricting after passing it with approval after a lot of oppostion by two ex-oficio members of the committee, Luke and Kris).

I've been working on redistricting for half a year now and R&J passed it four to two. Congress doesn't decide anything tonight except that it doesn't want that verbose (Valery Tenyotkin, Austin, Gould, Mohanty) a section in the code. Nobody disputed the need for any of the specific sections (again, Kris Gould) and nobody came to me after I specifically asked a number of representatives to come to me before the meeting, including the two in the committee who objected (Julius West and Sarah Benjamin). Kris did however think it appropriate to rewrite my entire bill and present it as an amendment, which had the effect of killing any support other members of congress might have put forward for my version.

The fact is, there are concrete reasons for adding the provisions of my bill to the code and nobody in Congress is willing to take the time to figure out what they are. If we were working from my wording already codified, nobody would question the need for them. People were confused by the fact that I moved the list to Appendix III. I asked that people make an amendment if that was a concern, nobody did but voted for Kris' amendment that did just that. Nobody seemed to believe me when I said that this would have saved us time had something along these lines had passed in the 85th and that if we don't pass something similar, this districting dispute will continue for years to come.

It is clear to me that there is no respect in the body for representatives (Kris Gould) or the code unless it suits the interests of those taking a stance on an issue involving its provisions.

I do want to say though that, except for some hard-line stances on some points of order, Luke is doing a great job in his postion as presiding officer of the meetings. Also, those placards by Kris Gould are snazzy. Thanks, Kris.

Thank God we are finished with Congress until the fall. If we weren't I would have resigned weeks ago. (we have summer congress but this is a different animal)

I must now do my final project for Chinese Calligraphy.

Peace out.



2005.04.23

Today's been a slow day. I still have not totally recovered from my strep episode last week but I'm continually improving.

I passed up a Widespread Panic Show tonight to get some schoolwork done. My philosophy term paper is due Thursday. I put some effort into it tonight but not much came of it.

I never believe it when there's only a week left but we're at that point again, crunch time. Next wednesday I have a final project due, a paper and a presentation in Chinese 52, Chinese Calligraphy. Two jazz concert reports also. Gah, why deadlines?

I had an idea a little while ago. This summer I ought to go to Chicago. I went at the end of the summer before last with no plan and ended up having a great time - shows, bars, etc. I tried to think of a reason this time to go and the first thing that came to mind was a survey. Why not go from one borough to the next painting a section of the street with appropriate jazz playing in the background? I could put some of my jazz repitoir to use. I know it sounds useless and not particularly original but it would be for myself and would probably make for some good stories. I'd like to get a sense for the place in that sort of way.

Art For SALE! Anyone know someone interested in perchasing or commissioning artwork? Get in touch with me for details.

Peace

Listening to:
"Change"
The White Pony
Deaftones

Drinking:
Red Bull and Fruit Juice
(I don't recommend it)

Was watching:
"The Dirty Dozen"



2005.04.20

Unfortunately I was sick yesterday, leaving me bedridden instead of presenting at the Congress meeting. Things tend to work out for the best however and this will give people a second chance to get in touch with me or answer my questions about redistricting if they so choose.

Now Drinking:
Echinacea Eucalyptus and Mint flavored tea

Now Listening to:
Dizzy Gillespie - "Salt Peanuts"
Charlie Parker - "Ko Ko"
Thelonious Monk - "Round Midnight"
Miles Davis - "Move"



2005.04.17

Tuesday will be redistricting for the third time in Congress. I only hope that it will be recieved with more interest and reasoned debate this time.

I was planning to go to Raleigh today to spend some time with my grandmother and uncle but since Apple Chill was going on just outside my dorm (and all along the streets where I usually catch a bus to my car) I couldn't get over there to Raleigh. Poo on Apple Chill. It did look like a good time though.

This year, rather than just ignore the fact that I owe taxes, like I did last year ($80 in penalties), I filed for an extension. I now have until June to do my taxes. Maybe I'll get around to it by then.

This Thursday I have a quiz in Jazz. Crappin' Jahozafets! jazz pisses me off. The class is so poorly organized. They should set up an iTunes music download package. That way I won't have to click all these random links to play the songs in RealPlayer, which I hate anyway. Also, we'd be able to listen OFF CAMPUS? Novel idea I know, doing homework off campus and durning breaks etc. when you can't stay on campus.

Today was more beautiful than any I can remember in Chapel Hill. The Cherrie Blossoms seem to be at their peak and for the last few Sundays in a row (I think), we've had absolutely superb weather.

Lately I've not kept up with national politics. What's goin' on? You guys, keep me up to date.

I really ought to start my philosophy term paper.

Peace out!



2005.04.16

I spent thursday organizing the Congress offices, which was a task to be sure. Our filing cabinets were not used at all and nothing is in good order but enough about Student Governemnt for a while. There are certainly more interesting things to report.

Last night I saw Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band play in Carrboro. I recommend that all of you listen to at least one of their songs. They're local (Boone) and badass. For those of you on North Campus, you can listen to them through iTunes - James' Music.

http://www.bootyband.com/

My Anthropology paper is finally DONE! We'll see how badly I wrote it shortly. It ended up being 19 pages! Could you even read that much on the Chinese Diaspora in Chicago? The thesis of the paper is that this guy, Adam McKeown was on the mark when he wrote that in order to understand the diasporic Chinese communities around the world, one must see them from an international perspective. It seems intuitively true.

In other news, I haven't heard from my mother in quite some time now. I hope she's getting along alright in Georgia or wherever she is.

My good friend Jonas Griswold in Asheville, NC is a musician. I'm not so much into death metal, which is their thing but it's good material. They have a lot of talent and I would encourage you all to check them out if you're feeling adventurous or if you are a fan of metal.

http://www.purevolume.com/aloneatlastnc

More soon.



2005.03.31

This is a recent series of messages sent to me by our dearly beloved Ginny I thought I ought to respond to since others may have either heard the same or have concerns raised here:

[10:34] Ginny: you make me laugh, but it's unintentionally
[10:34] *** Auto-response sent to Ginny: I am currently away from the computer.
[10:34] G: you totally reframed the issues on your blog to suit your "adrian as best buddy" philosophy
[10:35] G: The role of SBVP is as communicator: that is their JOB, the role of Chief of Staff is to get things done.

[10:36] G: However, Seth was heard threatening to take the process hostage by refusing to select a VP that wasn't Adrian and just keep on sending the list back.
[10:36] G: so in order to have an SBVP congress had to pick Adrian
[10:37] G: you are so far out of the loop that you don't know where the loop is

Whatever this loop is seems to be a ring of gossip that is not a productive component of Student Government but rather attempts by individuals to shape the composition of Student Government to suit their preferences. I do consider Adrian a friend of mine but my support does not derive solely nor originally from this relationship. My support comes mostly out of respect for the rules of the process that have worked for a number of years now and the irrefutable facts of the matter. Reasons to vote down Adrian's nomination are flimsy at best. Like I wrote, the process outlined in the Student Constitution may need to be looked into but I think that most agree with me that Adrian is suited for the job and will take from this experience and increased awareness of his communications with those around him.



2005.03.28

I'm afraid that Silverman's persistant deriding of Congress and student government at large is in at least a small part quite called for. Are we having the right debate? I think not. Are we asking the right questions of ourselves when we decide what problems need to be addressed? No, we are ignorant, power-hungry and inconsiderate. What we really ought to be working towards is an enlargment of the jurisdiction, scope and power of student self-governance at our school and not for ways to streamline the status quo so that we preserve a gleaming image but work with little substance.

We should be thinking of ways to provide more services, better organized outreach, proper coordination with faculty and, most importantly, fostering connections with incoming students and protecting relationships with graduates. In the long run (this may be somewhat controversial) I see our mission as developing student government into the origin of activity at the university, not an endpoint of flows of money and the fingertips of higher powers. We should stirr up some animosity and make use of it but not amongst ourselves.

Now, all this business about not approving the SBP's nomination for SBVP in Congress has really gotten to me. First of all, no rules were broken. Second, Adrian is not objectionable in the eyes of two-thirds of Congress or more I am sure. He should have been confirmed last week and we should have begun discussions on the process.

Seth, he's a great guy but, so I hear, he's been a bit pushy. It is however not contrary to the rules to declare to members of the selection committee his intentions nore is it wrong to advise them in my view. We should perhaps protect the system from this sort of influence in the future but Adrian should not have to worry about it and it is up to the committee members to keep from being manipulated.

Anisa, I love the girl but why such bad timing? This should have been resolved, or she should have tried to resolve this issue of preference for other's opinions over hers long before he came before members of Congress for approval. As Parker pointed out, we are dealing with a guy’s future here and playing with his love for UNC Student Government as a piece in a large political game.

How can we bring professors into an aliance with us to oppose the administrators and politicians who do not fully understand the purpose of education (I'm alluding to problems I have not yet mentioned specifically)? How do we become the lessons that we are supposed to be bringing from academe into the 'real world?' If we can't do it here, where will it happen?

More soon.

Drinking:
strong mocha with protein suppliment

Listening to:
Thelonius Monk

Putting off:
writing a paper on the Cantonese of Chicago



2005.03.08

Today I started feeling ill and a muscle in my back just won't uncramp, which isn't good because I've got two papers, each 5-7 pages due tomorrow and Friday and then Spring Break... YEAH!!... wait... not yet.

Tonight I finally got my understanding of the stipends issue hammered out and conveyed to R&J. Basically, we need to make it clear to the student body that there is a disparity between the branches of government with regard to financial compensation of officials and there ought not to be. Whether this means eliminating stipends altogether or allowing stipends to be awarded to leaders of Congress is up to the students but this needs to be decided. It's clearly an issue for the 87th I now see, rather than the 86th but we must keep it in mind.

Cool Beans.

Drinking:
milk-less mocha (with lots of sugar)

Listening to:
"Play" (Moby)
"Hypnotic" (Hypnotic)
"The Complex" (Blue Man Group)

Reading:
Lynn Pan - Sons of the Yellow Emperor
Phil Hellmuth, Jr. - Play Poker Like the Pros
Wing-Tsit Chan - Chinese Philosophy



2005.03.07

It has been suggested to me recently that I might be pushing the issue out of self interest but this is certainly not the case. My position on stipends is not set and I have had no thoughts of recieving them in the process of writing or introducing my legislation. On another note, I would like to know how you all feel about stipends in general.

I WILL NEVER ACCEPT A STIPEND FROM STUDENT GOVERNMENT REGARDLESS WHETHER OTHERS DO OR NOT. My philosophy on the issue is that officials should only take from student government what it takes for them to be more effective leaders of the student body. At present, it's the position of some that money is the best way to enable leaders to properly do their job. Perhaps there is a better way to go about it and then maybe we are not deserving of any sort of compensation. Either way, it's for an informed student body to decide and it's our job to inform the students. That said, I think it's a good idea to bring it up as frequently as is reasonable.

Quote of the day (I think this pretty well sums up yesterday):
[14:09] G: the duke mommas and daddies and hoochie girl friends were escorted out
[14:09] G: and i said "fuck you, fuck you, fuck you" to the guy who called us fuckers
[14:09] G: and the security [guard] said "watch your language"
[14:09] G: and i said "He called us fuckers first 5 minutes ago! I heard him!"

Do you have a blog? Would you like a link up here or will you link mine?

Yesterday I went to Lenoir hoping to play go with some list members but nobody showed up. You guys need to come. I did play online while I waited and won. That was good since I've been losing a lot lately. For more on go, click here to read a book review of The Protracted Game.

So, I said I'd post after my philosophy exam Thursday... I didn't because I had done entirely enough writing last week. Given, I haven't been doing much writing on UNC or all of you fine people but Hobbes has his moments. Today I'll send off some more R&J legislation, perhaps including the stipends bill I submitted and withdrew last meeting.

Saturday night was the Fisk party of the year number three (80's party) and some mellow time at the Carolina Brewery. They have a beer called Alter-Ego, don't ask me. The party at wherehouse seemed to go pretty well though the place cleared out around 2AM (aside from the die-hards and Fisk's penis I hear??).

The Dook Game was of course, yesterday, if you couldn't tell by all the yelling, honking and burning of random stuff. No more need be said. We rule, Dook sucks!

On another note; anyone got a job for me out there? Particularly for this summer I'm hurting for some money.

Also, is anyone in Old East interested in a deal of some sort? My roommate and I are keen on moving in. Let me know.

Today I do taxes, calligraphy and reading for my class on the Chinese Diaspora in the Asia Pacific. My professor in that class has decided to assign two papers in one week. ARG!

Listening to: NPR (WUNC 91.5 FM)
Today's program is on Chinese Art in the 21st century.
http://www.theconnection.org/



2005.03.01

Naps make for strange dreams... today it was following a little Chinese woman through the mountains. She was a guide or something. This was before the long uneventful Congress meeting.

Basically it was 'let's give out some money and talk about Grasso's CAA legislation' night. I was all psyched to give my spiel on districting but time ran out. I don't want this blog to turn into James Riley gossip central or the whine about Congress page so I'll keep these things to a minimum when at all possible.

I have a calligraphy exam tomorrow so I need to work on that right now and in the morning. Look for an update after my philosophy exam Thursday.

Ciao



2005.02.28

Another whack dream I must say. I dreamed that I was playing with some little kids in the street and... well, the rest I ought not go into detail about.

There's not much else to report today. I'm headed to a YD meeting later.

More to come.



2005.02.27

Last night I dreamt about my dad's wrist watch that I ended up with earlier this year. I dreamed that it's face needed to be cleaned or resurfaced (maybe due to water damage, although in reality the watch is in perfect condition). I took it to a jeweler or something and asked him to work on it but he didn't seem to know what he was doing. We had some exchanges and finally he conveyed that it would cost me forty dollars and that he would need to paint the surface of the face. Don't ask me why I had such a ridiculously detailed dream about a problem I don't have. Oh I must say though, this watch is really cool. It's a kinetic watch, which means it has no battery but keeps running if you wear it every day (it winds when moved or shifted).

I'll be studying for jazz class all day today. I've decided to say to hell with the RealPlayer streaming stuff online and just buy all the songs I need to know from the iTunes Music Store. I may end up paying $40 or something for this class but at least I'll have a good jazz collection.

Tommorow I will plan out my strategy to get my plan for redistricting carried out and codified by next major election. I'm fighting an uphill battle here because members of Congress have found the discussion distasteful and are happy with the situation we have currently. I am happy to report though that the Rules and Judiciary Committee met with my ideas favorably. We'll see if, this Tuesday, we can overcome the sort of 'anti-work' ethic that has developed in Congress recently.

By anti-work ethic I mean the Congress' tendency to make decisions without much thought behind their reasons beyond what has happened in the past and whether or not it will make people angry. Members have also become overly concerned with not running over schedule but we spend more time than expected on pieced of legislation in every meeting and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. Debate was stopped during Annual Budget a number of times when our debate had run ten or fifteen minutes over schedule. Let me remind you that we were there for roughly thirty hours that weekend - I needn't say drop in the bucket. Some issues don't come up very often, especially things in annual budget. One think I would have liked to address because I see it as a significant problem is groups requesting money for P & P or something that allows them to turn a large profit to be used at their discretion. The Graduate Law Review is the most notable example of this. They made, I believe four thousand dollars to be used in a way unknown to Congress and will pay none of the money we gave them back as is done with fundraising.

I'm staying away from IM for a while. There is no particular reason for this except that I need to cut out some distractions to get my work done. Peace out for a while.

Note to self: check out the hardship parking application. I may be able to get a spot so that I can get to Raleigh and back in a reasonable amount of time to see my grandmother. Also, to those of you who have expressed concern, my interest in stipends does not originate in the fact that I am interested in a student government leadership position.

'night


2005.02.25

Alright, I'm going to take a stab at this think people call a blog. I'm not much for automatic website generation stuff so I've decided to post it on my school web space. If you want to respond to something I've posted publicly, too bad. I'm not going to subscribe to Xanga or anything like that. Anyhow, down to business.

Let's see... where to begin.

Today my roommate Chris left for TN to play in a Rugby Tournament. Earlier I made myself breakfast but not before splattering a pan full of bacon grease on Chris' clothes and bags he had packed. Fortunately enough, he wasn't pissed and my day proceeded to be enjoyable and lazy. Earlier today, I woke up late (really I mean hit the snooze button far too many times) for my morning class, Chinese Diaspora of the Asia Pacific. My professor asks us to turn in note cards on a sporadic basis and today was on of the days he wanted one. I think I came out with something intelligible, which was impressive to me seeing as I was up 'till about 4 AM last night with Danielle and Chris.

Mainly what we discussed in class was acculturation and assimilation of Chinese immigrants into the societies of Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Java. More on this later but in short, Overseas Chinese tend to cling to their cultural heritage, that of China proper (Confucianism, superstitious religious beliefs etc.) when abroad except when it behooves them to adopt new attitudes and social practices, whether attributed to European colonial influences or social pressure from the locals.

Peace