Confessions of a Middle Aged College Student
Hello! I’m back! The cough hung on for bloody weeks, but it’s gone at last…along with my cigarettes. I’m wearing the patch so as not to go on a killing spree, but bloody ‘ell. I do like smoking, I know it’s horrible for me, but I like it. :(
So here I am in wild n’ wolly North Carolina, as I slowly learn to say “Nah-o”, I’ll fill in you quickly on my life since we last spoke. I left L.A. and drove up to northern AZ with a car with a backseat full of cats. “Yreow, Yroew, Yreow, Yreow” for 300 hundred miles until three of them calmed down. Then it was “yreow……yreow……yreow” for the rest of the drive. I wish I had had some deep and meaningful musings about leaving L.A. for good, but frankly it was 4 am, I was exhausted and sick as a dog. I spent the Holiday with my folks, flat on my back coughing and sneezing and snurggling up a storm. Got well enough to enjoy the actual holiday and grab all the fur kids and hop on a plane for Raleigh. From Raleigh, I got my car back and drove into town.
That is, after spending an hour trying to get one…just one…of my cats into her carrier. One room hotel room. One bed. One entire hour…and multiple scratches.
On the drive in, I realized what is must be like to have a sullen teenager.
“I love you all, but I’m really pissed off at someone right now….
“RrrrrrrrOWrrOWrrrrrr” Translation: “I hate you too!”
But they have settled in quite nicely. It took them a couple days to come out of the bathroom, and a few more days to move away from wherever I am, but they’ve gotten used to it. Though one of them is finding the weirdest places to hang out. I have a corner computer desk with a CD rack beneath the monitor riser…and she’s snoozing behind it.
Rutger? Oh, he was a trooper through the entire thing. I fretted over his flying for the first time…do dogs have ears that pop like ours? But he fell asleep before take off and slept through both flights. He LOVES North Carolina. There’s a big field next to our Apartment building and he can run in the fresh air (while mommy keep a whether eye out for the larger large raptors she spotted on one of her walks). He’s so damn cute when he runs, one of my new neighbors, a guy mind you, said “Oh my gawd, he’s exploding with cuteness…”.
Of course, I got sick again as soon as I hit town, so settling in has been a slow process. But school is wonderful, fantastic, I love it. Class pickings were slim, but I got some good ones. I am taking a history of North Carolina course. I live here now, I might as well get to know the joint. :) And, as a matter of fact, I’m volunteering in the Archeology lab a couple hours a week.
Sorting dirt. Boo Yah!
Actually, I am excited about sorting dirt, which means I’m in the right place doing the right thing. And it’s not dirt per se, it’s just odd jumbled of stuff to sort out bone fragments, pottery fragments, charcoal (you won’t believe how much archeologists salivate over charcoal…it’s what most commonly used for radio carbon dating.) and the like. Nifty!
Of course, round about finals time, I will probably not be so enthusiastic, but right now I’m lovin’ it. Humongous amount and reading and all. Some of my classes are lower division classes to wrap up my General Ed requirements, so I’m sitting next to 19 and 20 year olds, which can be weird. They complain, complain, complain and if they are not complaining about school to each other, they are complaining about their personal drama’s over the cel that is glued to their head. (Good Lord, did I sounded like that? Yeah, I did.), yet I’m happy as a pig in mud.
There’s a part of me that wishes that I had followed the straight and narrow and done the straight to college deal, I mean I’ll get my bachelors degree when I’m 37, my Masters when I’m 39 and so on, but it’s really a small part. I couldn’t have appreciated this nearly as much in my 20’s as I do now. I’m learning, about stuff I love from people who are experts in the field who love it too. I mean, hell. I have a tin ear yet I’m really enjoying the World Music humanities course because the Professor loves the subject so much that he makes the “Seven Components of Melody” completely engaging.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he hot. In fact, four out of five of my Professors qualify as hot. Hot and geeky, but hot all the same. That is a perk of upper level academia I did not expect.
Anyway, so here I am, still a couple boxes scattered about, spending the weekend catching up on studying and catching up with you all.
So, let the ranting begin….
So Get On With Already Scott…
Bin Laden offers truce to the U.S.
“White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected the truce offer. "We do not negotiate with terrorists, we put them out of business," he said. "The terrorists started this war, and the president made it clear that we will end it at a time and place of our choosing. We continue to pursue all those who seek to do harm to the American people, and to bring them to justice."
Well? You think you could actually pen that in your schedule for sometime this year?
While this does prove that Mission Completely Fucked Up has been successful in becoming a terrorist magnet, drawing their attention away from the U.S. itself, the fact the bin Laden is still running around really pisses me off!
And it’s not just him. “An analysis of the Justice Department's own list of terrorism prosecutions by The Washington Post shows that 39 people -- not 200, as officials have implied -- were convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security.”
So not only are we not going after terrorists enough, what we are doing is completely half assed.
Oh wait, but we caught a bunch of terrorists just today…
Yeah, that really makes me feel safe.
Terrorist organizations are not states, hence the reason that I do support the White House telling bin Laden to go shove it up his backside. States have a right to declare war, individuals do not. A state that attacks the U.S. is at war with us. An individual who does so is common criminal. So why are we wasting time attacking states rather than sending out the hounds? The big mean ones. Terrorists have no boundaries, no capitals, no homes. There is no such thing as a terrorist country. They are not tied to a country but a cause which they tie up in their handkerchiefs of self-righteousness, hang from pole of zealotry, and carry it right along with them. Hence the reason that invading a country in order to eradicate them doesn’t work. As some of us learned in Afghanistan, they just pack up and move….and then send support for the residents of the occupied country to fight the occupying armies while they are free to weave their nefarious schemes. More so because their enemies focus and resources are tied up trying to maintain order in the country they invaded.
And don’t give me that “Democratic nations don’t support terrorism” bull crap when the U.S. itself has supported terrorists. Iran-Contra anyone? How about that coup of Chile a while back? And those are not isolated incidents.
A terrorist organization is not a body, but a tumor. And you don’t excise a tumor with a club. You use a scalpel, radiation, chemo therapy and a hell of a lot of know-how. So lets find our asses with both hands, try and scrape up any good will for us in the international intelligence and law enforcement community that may still exist as shaving in the corners of the carpet and dust bunnies under the couch and go after this thug already.
On a Sad Note...
R.I.P. Wilson Pickett.
I wish I could find a Mustang Sally audio file to post…:(
Talk to you all soon!
So here I am in wild n’ wolly North Carolina, as I slowly learn to say “Nah-o”, I’ll fill in you quickly on my life since we last spoke. I left L.A. and drove up to northern AZ with a car with a backseat full of cats. “Yreow, Yroew, Yreow, Yreow” for 300 hundred miles until three of them calmed down. Then it was “yreow……yreow……yreow” for the rest of the drive. I wish I had had some deep and meaningful musings about leaving L.A. for good, but frankly it was 4 am, I was exhausted and sick as a dog. I spent the Holiday with my folks, flat on my back coughing and sneezing and snurggling up a storm. Got well enough to enjoy the actual holiday and grab all the fur kids and hop on a plane for Raleigh. From Raleigh, I got my car back and drove into town.
That is, after spending an hour trying to get one…just one…of my cats into her carrier. One room hotel room. One bed. One entire hour…and multiple scratches.
On the drive in, I realized what is must be like to have a sullen teenager.
“I love you all, but I’m really pissed off at someone right now….
“RrrrrrrrOWrrOWrrrrrr” Translation: “I hate you too!”
But they have settled in quite nicely. It took them a couple days to come out of the bathroom, and a few more days to move away from wherever I am, but they’ve gotten used to it. Though one of them is finding the weirdest places to hang out. I have a corner computer desk with a CD rack beneath the monitor riser…and she’s snoozing behind it.
Rutger? Oh, he was a trooper through the entire thing. I fretted over his flying for the first time…do dogs have ears that pop like ours? But he fell asleep before take off and slept through both flights. He LOVES North Carolina. There’s a big field next to our Apartment building and he can run in the fresh air (while mommy keep a whether eye out for the larger large raptors she spotted on one of her walks). He’s so damn cute when he runs, one of my new neighbors, a guy mind you, said “Oh my gawd, he’s exploding with cuteness…”.
Of course, I got sick again as soon as I hit town, so settling in has been a slow process. But school is wonderful, fantastic, I love it. Class pickings were slim, but I got some good ones. I am taking a history of North Carolina course. I live here now, I might as well get to know the joint. :) And, as a matter of fact, I’m volunteering in the Archeology lab a couple hours a week.
Sorting dirt. Boo Yah!
Actually, I am excited about sorting dirt, which means I’m in the right place doing the right thing. And it’s not dirt per se, it’s just odd jumbled of stuff to sort out bone fragments, pottery fragments, charcoal (you won’t believe how much archeologists salivate over charcoal…it’s what most commonly used for radio carbon dating.) and the like. Nifty!
Of course, round about finals time, I will probably not be so enthusiastic, but right now I’m lovin’ it. Humongous amount and reading and all. Some of my classes are lower division classes to wrap up my General Ed requirements, so I’m sitting next to 19 and 20 year olds, which can be weird. They complain, complain, complain and if they are not complaining about school to each other, they are complaining about their personal drama’s over the cel that is glued to their head. (Good Lord, did I sounded like that? Yeah, I did.), yet I’m happy as a pig in mud.
There’s a part of me that wishes that I had followed the straight and narrow and done the straight to college deal, I mean I’ll get my bachelors degree when I’m 37, my Masters when I’m 39 and so on, but it’s really a small part. I couldn’t have appreciated this nearly as much in my 20’s as I do now. I’m learning, about stuff I love from people who are experts in the field who love it too. I mean, hell. I have a tin ear yet I’m really enjoying the World Music humanities course because the Professor loves the subject so much that he makes the “Seven Components of Melody” completely engaging.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he hot. In fact, four out of five of my Professors qualify as hot. Hot and geeky, but hot all the same. That is a perk of upper level academia I did not expect.
Anyway, so here I am, still a couple boxes scattered about, spending the weekend catching up on studying and catching up with you all.
So, let the ranting begin….
So Get On With Already Scott…
Bin Laden offers truce to the U.S.
“White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected the truce offer. "We do not negotiate with terrorists, we put them out of business," he said. "The terrorists started this war, and the president made it clear that we will end it at a time and place of our choosing. We continue to pursue all those who seek to do harm to the American people, and to bring them to justice."
Well? You think you could actually pen that in your schedule for sometime this year?
While this does prove that Mission Completely Fucked Up has been successful in becoming a terrorist magnet, drawing their attention away from the U.S. itself, the fact the bin Laden is still running around really pisses me off!
And it’s not just him. “An analysis of the Justice Department's own list of terrorism prosecutions by The Washington Post shows that 39 people -- not 200, as officials have implied -- were convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security.”
So not only are we not going after terrorists enough, what we are doing is completely half assed.
Oh wait, but we caught a bunch of terrorists just today…
Yeah, that really makes me feel safe.
Terrorist organizations are not states, hence the reason that I do support the White House telling bin Laden to go shove it up his backside. States have a right to declare war, individuals do not. A state that attacks the U.S. is at war with us. An individual who does so is common criminal. So why are we wasting time attacking states rather than sending out the hounds? The big mean ones. Terrorists have no boundaries, no capitals, no homes. There is no such thing as a terrorist country. They are not tied to a country but a cause which they tie up in their handkerchiefs of self-righteousness, hang from pole of zealotry, and carry it right along with them. Hence the reason that invading a country in order to eradicate them doesn’t work. As some of us learned in Afghanistan, they just pack up and move….and then send support for the residents of the occupied country to fight the occupying armies while they are free to weave their nefarious schemes. More so because their enemies focus and resources are tied up trying to maintain order in the country they invaded.
And don’t give me that “Democratic nations don’t support terrorism” bull crap when the U.S. itself has supported terrorists. Iran-Contra anyone? How about that coup of Chile a while back? And those are not isolated incidents.
A terrorist organization is not a body, but a tumor. And you don’t excise a tumor with a club. You use a scalpel, radiation, chemo therapy and a hell of a lot of know-how. So lets find our asses with both hands, try and scrape up any good will for us in the international intelligence and law enforcement community that may still exist as shaving in the corners of the carpet and dust bunnies under the couch and go after this thug already.
On a Sad Note...
R.I.P. Wilson Pickett.
I wish I could find a Mustang Sally audio file to post…:(
Talk to you all soon!
posted by KiplingKat | 11:31 PM
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