Monday, April 29, 2002

19:55: My sister is a blogger--runs in the genes?

Saturday, April 27, 2002

15:55: For many years I sat without much of a position on the Israeli/Palestinian issue. Certainly, the word "terrorist" is likely to evoke feelings of christmases spent in the dark thanks to Shining Path and the explosion of buildings next to friends' houses in Lima, not to mention friends' parents held as hostages of Maoists. However, (and without apologizing for the actions of two terrorist groups in Peru) while their methods were despicable, they had a point of some sort in a society where economic inequities are maintained through methods that classical Marxists would describe as textbook cases.

To what extent are people under an unsurmountable amount of oppression expected to just grin and bear it and try to function within the system? I'm afraid the question is never answered--one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.

Do self-exploding Palestinians seeking to make a political point through carnage in public spaces discount the validity of their people's suffering?
Are Israeli occupation and destruction (can we call it anything else) of a refugee camp, with the intent of basic destruction, justified in the name of protecting their people from carnage in public spaces?

Israel, I'm afraid, and for this last point, has stepped over the bounds of what inspires empathy and into the realm of indignation. Bulldozing people's houses while they're still inside, regardless of how many claims one can make of it being a "hothouse" for terrorists, is inhuman, inhumane, and a violation of just about every principle on the treatment of potential prisoners or war criminals.

I'm always weary of those who self-proclaim to be on the side or righteousness...

15:37: The baseboards-o-shame have been painted in colors that match the correct walls. This is good. I still owe the world photographs.

Not so good is my current perspective re: the business proposition I've been engaged in for the last month. Questions regarding ownership, stake and decisionmaking have been raised (mostly by me) and while I don't anticipate that the discussion will be ugly, I do imagine that it'll require my best efforts at self-restraint from saying potentially hurtful things without intention.

K----- will most likely be leaving town in about a month and a half. That will probably suck in ways that bring no reward. I've become fairly attached to the big oaf... never in 100 congressional elections would I have predicted that I'd start getting tingly when hearing the word "dawg", in any context or under any circumstances.

Tuesday, April 16, 2002

22:58: It is amazing what being overwhelmed with critical life issues can do to my creativity. I tell my friend Mark that I feel, lately, as if we switched roles and he took my easygoing persona and replaced it with his previously stressed and overwhelmed one. Weeks spent working on too much, outlets STILL haven't been replaced, the boxes STILL haven't been unpacked (or baseboards repainted)... I did hang the blinds up after one night of good nooky with K---- (he's probably still not too comfy with me talking about him in real terms)(not that there's bad nooky with K----), when it just was plain embarassing... glad the neighbors didn't call the morality police.

I haven't stressed this much about classwork in years, I haven't felt like such an idiot in discussion sections in equally as long, and I haven't been this irresponsible about schoolwork since the days of first grade when I stashed the purple alcohol-smelling dittos at the deep end of my desk because I didn't want to do my math homework. And it's been ok... It's amazing what worrying about life-determining things such as the ability to get a paycheck next month will do to one's perspective.