Just the other day, I mentioned that I had begun reading George Orwell’s 1984. Self-fulfilling prophecy in mind, I found it interesting that today I read this article on Fox News. Particularly, I love the argument made at the end of the article by Yale Kamisar…you know the argument that the government ends by saying "it’s in your own best interest" or that increased invasions of privacy will"make things more safe." Frankly, I’m sick of all of the safety talk. Every day, I hear people bickering about how the government should take more steps to ensure American’s safety. I’ll say this much for that argument: I feel pretty safe here when I read about the car bombs and suicide flunkies that are scarring the face of the Middle East right now. The fact that I get to walk to school every morning, by myself, feeling not the slightest bit harassed is comfort enough for me. Perhaps this is blasphemy, but 2,400 people is drop in the bucket compared to the ongoing atrocities that the majority of the world’s inhabitants must endure every day.
I realize that America has many vulnerabilities that should be fixed. One namely, is our borders. I am a proponent of immigration, yes; however, I am NOT a proponent of the current flood of illegals coming into this country. I don’t care WHY they are coming. "Send me your poor, your tired, your…blah blah blah blah"; an antiquated statement from a time with antiquated needs. Oh yeah…and don’t try and argue to me that this country "needs" immigrants. While it is true that we need the additional labor they bring, we don’t need the social problems plagues that accompany their arrivals. Does everyone have a right to live in this country? NO! Should everyone have an equal opportunity to come to this country? Yes, so long as there is a demonstrated need that can be met by that person’s inhabitance. Furthermore, while I’m on this rant, I don’t want to hear that we should respect other cultures by being forced to utilize their language. What about the respect for our culture? I argue that respect to our way of life does not exist. I argue that because of the fact the many rampant abuses that are being committed by those whom this country is standing to help. On a final note of our borders, if people are that concerned about their safety, they should petition the government to close the largest threat to that safety. Do we honestly believe that ONLY disadvantaged latinos are coming across those borders? I should hope not. Of course, we all know that so long as the bourgeoisie are allowed to exploit the fruits of our Southern neighbors, this problem will not likely be remedied.
I’ve been putting a lot of work into school lately and I guess it has paid off. I got a 98% on my first biology exam and today I got a 94% on my first social work exam today. Actually, I must admit that I’m a little angered by my result, I should have done better. I know that sounds horribly "perfectionist" of me, but with as much work as I’ve been putting in, I feel as if I should have done much better.
I started reading George Orwell’s 1984 recently. I don’t know where I’m finding the time considering the amount of reading that I’m putting into my regular class homework. I guess what it all comes down to is the fact that when I get home from school at night, I just hate to sit down in front of the TV and waste the night away. With reading, I actually feel as if I’ve accomplished something whereas television just makes me feel lazy. I doubt I’ll finish the book in anything but record time (yeah…right), but it’s the experience that counts. Isn’t it?
We’re going to my parent’s house this weekend to watch conference. We’ll see how it goes. I really like having plans on the weekend, it gives me something to look forward to on the weekend, it really makes the week go so much faster. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to it.
The baby was being so cute tonight. She had her little truck out and had put it in front of the fish tank so that she could look in. She was standing at the tank looking at the fish. She would point to them, look to me, and I would give her the sign for “fish.” She was being so funny and in a fit of excitement, kicked the truck from under herself and fell on the ground. I’m not sure when she hit her nose, but she did and it started bleeding. My gosh! I almost started bawling. I hurt my child by letting her be unsafe. Everyone always says that you need to let children be children and that they will get hurt. I guess I just don’t ever want to see me darling daughter get hurt. She’s on her way to being a toddler (OK…she is), but I still think of her as my baby. It’s horrible I know, but I just don’t want anything bad to happen to her. I know that EVERY other parent in the world has said that, but oh well…I’m saying it too.
I’ve been putting a lot of time into school and things have been rough, but it’s been good. I’m learning a lot and getting some interesting perspectives on things that I had never thought of before. I have determined though that there are some crackers in the Social Work arena. One girl in my 1010 class is the typical “i’m-taking-social-work-at-college-’cuase-it’s-cheaper-than-therapy” cases. I know that I shouldn’t judge, but from the answers that she gives in class, I can see that her perspective is about as far in front of her as her nose. Frankly, I think she’s got issues.
Speaking of people in my SW 1010 class, I met a new guy by the name of Chauncy. He’s cool. He’s a black kid and I introduced myself to him on the second day of class. He’s really quiet and seems to be very cool. He came up to me the day after I introduced myself to him and pound-dogged me. I was a little surprised, but he’s really interesting; I think I’ll have to get to know him a little better.
Didn’t do a thing yesterday. Stayed inside and just watched TV ALL day; really. It rained a little yesterday, and is actually raining quite a bit of and on today. Weekends just take on a new meaning when you put in 12+ hour days during the week. I sleep in quite a bit longer on Saturday and Sunday and just don’t have the energy to do much of anything all day. I did change the air filter in the car today and was going to do the oil, but the rain is not allowing that. I actually did get around to cleaning the fish tank for the first time in a few months and new pump I got to do the cleaning works very well. It’s basically a modified water bed pump that hooks up to the sink and creates a vacuum to suck all of the waste out of the rocks. Reverse a few knobs and it in turn fills the tank. I actually cleaned the whole thing today in the time that it usually takes me to just empty the tank. Amazing.
I’ve been doing my homework on Friday nights so that I can relax on Sunday instead of stressing about what I have to do for Monday. I’m usually done by 8:00 or so and then Corinne and I have the rest of the night to relax together. It’s not been easy to stay dedicated, but it has been worth it. I have my first test in Biology coming up this week. I’m a little nervous about how things are going to go. All I know is that I’m putting in the work and I know that I’ll do well.
Well, it’s official, school is under way and things are beginning to settle down. The last two weeks have been a bit hectic and frankly, I’m glad they’re over; very glad. I’m falling back into "school mode" very easily and I’m very committed to it this year.
We spent they day at my parent’s house yesterday. Corinne and my Mother canned peaches while I worked on their computer. My brother had installed BearShare on the computer and it was doing a GREAT job of completely screwing the machine up. Frankly, I’m working on my mother in trying to get her converted to a Macintosh. Now that the new iMac models are out, I think that a lot of people should switch. I mean, there’s barely anything that you can do with a PC that you can’t do with a Mac (except for gaming of course) and the compact design of the new iMacs is just simply amazing. Add to that a G5 processor and many people won’t be buying new computers for about six years. Actually, I think that 6 years is how old my parents computer is; it’s time for an upgrade.
