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 Posted January 25th, 2008 at 3:35AM
Can we not start speculating that the combatants in current global wars struggle less against each other and more with Uncle Vitoria’s legacy; one side needing acknowledgment and tribute for having shouldered the heavy and noble burden of teaching and the other side insisting on co-presence at all costs.
– Naeem Inayatullah, Present Dangers
I re-awoke after little sleep, powered on the laptop and tried to write some fiction. I’ve never seriously attempted fiction, and if I was going to seriously start, I should have done so in college. Courses on writing fiction would only go so far – most successful authors probably never enjoyed such benefit – but it couldn’t have hurt.
After about 500 words, I realized it was drivel and hit the big red button.
Last year I took a course with a professor in the politics department at Ithaca College. He had an unpronounceable foreign name with a reputation of being an oddball. The course was on the global political economy of oil. It was classified as an international relations course, which at the time I thought I needed to fulfill my politics requirement. Within a few weeks he had scorched my initial paper and advised me to drop the class if I had no reason to be there. It was probably the best class I ever took.
Naeem’s web presence is lacking, but I’d recommend reading Present Dangers. I re-read it tonight (this morning) and understood it for the first time. It’s a collection of personal experiences culminating into an understanding of our current global conflicts.
By the end of the course Naeem had given me high praise as a writer and thinker. I don’t know if the praise was earned. I don’t know what I’m doing.
It’s best to hide your intentions and contain your criticism if you value your chances.
Every human interaction is a charade. The reason I can’t find employment is because I’m uninterested in feigning interest in people or work I find uninteresting. I must become a better actor.
Posted July 31st, 2007 at 11:53PM
I recently got an issue of Fuse in the mail. It was the second issue of the glossy colorful publication that’s essentially promotional material for Ithaca College. But who cares considering they offered money to reprint an article I had already written for the IC View (where I interned last spring).
If you get a chance, pick up a copy of the magazine. My article on Second Life was the cover story and the spread is very sharp! Only one mistake on the copy too.
And if you can, check the latest issue and the next two of IC View, for more goodness written by yours truly. (I can’t seem to find a website for the view, since it changed names.)
Posted July 28th, 2007 at 8:31PM
Busy month, this weekend is my first one without a race. Just before the first event, I also picked up a used set of Hankook Ventus RS2s, one of the better autox tires out there. After figuring out tire pressures, these things are a huge improvement on my daily drivers. They should last the rest of the season too. And then it’s on to r-compounds next year.
July 8th I drove down to Connecticut to drive with a local club. Went down primarily to mix it up with some other MINIs, which was a blast comparing times and watching them. Turn out was decent, and in SM I took 4th place out of 8. Another MINI was 2nd. Our times were comparable, neck and neck most of the day, but I was cone happy. At the end of the day, I was 4/10ths of a second off of him. I believe my car is better set up handling-wise, but he has the power. Another day!
July 15th and I was at my home SCCA region, MoHud. Here I eventually placed 5th out of a large class of 14. The cars ahead of me were all regulars, and I solidly beat a few others who are making it to a lot of the events. I feel as if I can gain another position, but then I’m SOL until I get a lot better, give the car some more kick, and buy some r-compounds.
July 22nd was back to Ithaca College! Glen region was hosting an event on-campus and I just had to make it to this one. It was a lot of fun being back in Ithaca. My mother and I made it a weekend, but didn’t get to do a whole lot. Ate some decent food. Brought the dog and he behaved wonderfully. Glen is a small region and not super-competitive, which explains why I placed 1st out of 2 entrees in SM. I beat a Chevy Silverado.  Regardless, I’ll take the win. Looking at raw scores, I was also 5th fastest out of a field of 30 (excluding the karts)! Beating me were two Miatas, a Corrado, and an M3. Not bad company, eh? I felt very good about this event, even though I coned my fastest runs. I’m getting used to the sticky tires and can’t wait till the next round.
Posted May 11th, 2007 at 2:16PM
Today is the last day of final’s week. I had no exams, but half a dozen papers and miscellaneous obligations. Today I e-mailed out the last one of them. Barring any surprisingly negative grades, it looks as if I have graduated college.
Gee wiz. I feel like I should do some lengthy, reflective entry. About the good times and the bad times. The fun days and the not-so-fun.
But I’m not going to. Instead, I’m going to go outside and enjoy the weather. If you really want to hear me ramble, hit a random page in the archives, wanker!
Posted December 5th, 2006 at 9:18PM
…But some are definitely worse than others.
I think I’m sick. I still have half a dozen papers floating over my head. It’s way too hot here. I’m tired. My cord of wood still hasn’t arrived. I could continue this forever. But instead, I’ll do that update that I’ve been meaning to do.
• Several weeks ago, for Thanksgiving break, I once again went to the SOA protest in Georgia. It was an alright time, but I think I’m completely past enjoying protests and actions of that sort. They don’t do it for me anymore, and they’re ineffectual.
• Some Ithacan reporter asked me a few questions yesterday. He was funny, a much worse interviewer than I. I’m getting better though, all of my interviews this semester have been quite easy and laidback.
• While I was down south, I visited a friend in Atlanta, and we went to a sports bar called The Dumpster. Enough information, right? The place was hilarious, everyone drank too much, it was a fun time. I met my friend’s new roommate, who’s into scooters. He goes to scooter rallies. Seriously, no one can bust my (or anyone elses) balls for going to MINI events ever again.
• I also ran the Tail of the Dragon twice. If this doesn’t make sense to you, that’s probably a good thing. For the people who do understand what this means. Well, that’s even better. For more information on Route-129, visit the “official” site. Also, check out my video that I made. I uploaded it onto YouTube, so check it out. I have no idea why, but I’m not able to insert YouTube videos into this blog like you see everywhere else. Something isn’t set up correctly.
• My cord of wood that I ordered more than a month ago is still not in my driveway or stacked neatly on my deck. First I was scheduled to get it the Wednesday of spring break. Then it was the Wednesday after that. Then it was this past Sunday. I get a time of delivery, I tell them where I live and directions, and then Sunday about noon I get a message saying that someone is in the hospital after an accident with a splitter and they won’t be able to deliver it today. Maybe tomorrow. (Today. It didn’t happen.) I’ll have to call them again tomorrow. I just want my wood. They better knock $20 off of the cost.
• Oh, and I put my snow tires on yesterday since it snowed an inch overnight. The MINI handles completely different, and I love the black rim look. I’ll have to take some pictures soon. They’re just steelies, but still. The car is slightly higher, it looks ready to rally!
That’s all. I’m now going to leave the Pub, go back to my apartment, and try to do some work before passing out. I hope I don’t have anything stronger than a cold. But it’s probably something like mono or bird flu. I’ve been exhausted for probably a week now. Bleh.
Posted November 8th, 2006 at 1:48PM
As far as my general requirements go, I still need one “artsy” class. So I’m looking through the art history courses being offered this spring. And nothing really appeals to me.
Then I remember! I’ve been trying to get into a printmaking class for the past four years, but they only offer 3-4 spots for nonmajors. But with “107+ credits,” I’m registering pretty early this time around. I check, and there are two seats available! I look at the time that it’s offered, and it conflicts with a writing course that I’m already registered for and need to take.
Gah!!
Posted August 30th, 2006 at 11:50AM
… in the Ithaca College library, using my laptop and schmoozing off of their free wireless internet. I decided to upload the photos I took of my new apartment, and make a brief post on this blog.
I open up iPhoto, and – surprise! – it says that there’s no library, that I need to either find one or create one. Whoops! My collection of pictures for the program was one of the first things to go last night, when I deleted a bunch of stuff, trying to free up some hard drive space (I need an external drive for archiving some of this shit). The PowerBook has a 60GB drive (that for some reason only says 55.77GB), and last night I was bottoming out at ~200MB. After purging a lot of junk, I’m now back to 5.02GB of free space. But I should have left my iPhoto library.
So now I’ll have to go back and re-shoot everything (big deal). There will be a post about my apartment in a few days, which is exciting for everyone, I’m sure.
In other news, today is Wednesday, which means the first day of classes. I only had two today, but it was quite enough. German 201 at 10am, and then Grants, Proposals, & Reports at 11am. German is going to be arduous. The prof will be speaking in German the entire time, which oddly enough is more than I got in German class in Germany. The Grants is a writing class focused on writing – you guessed it – grant proposals asking for money. I imagine it will help when I’m in the streets panhandling. From first impressions, the writing will be tedious, there are too many students in the class, and the professor tries entirely too hard.
Perhaps my other four classes won’t be as bad. Pff.
When’s the next break?
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