The Voyage of Captain Obvious

On grad school and listlessness

2008-04-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling exceedingly without direction as of late. I have my projects that I work on, and I have my grading and teaching and whatnot, but increasingly, it feels kind of without purpose. I really just want to be done, but it seems like I'm just running on a treadmill, and that stupid light at the end of the tunnel never gets closer.

I just wish I knew the set of things that I had to do to be done with this stupid degree. And I wish I knew what to do once I have it.

This is why we can't have a democracy

2008-04-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

This is the dumbest thing I've ever read. I know it's trite to point shit like this out. But 'we don't know him'? Seriously?

Can we save this shit for stories about Katie Holmes? Please?

Mynamar

2007-09-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

this is why I was leery of Bush using 'the spread of democracy' as a reason to invade Iraq. It was enraging hearing Bush talk in absolute terms about justifying an invasion of Iraq, but never once saying why he was not invading any of a myraid of other nations in order to 'spread democracy.' As an added bonus, the Myanmar government is directly making an assault on freedom of religion:

Some of the monks reportedly carried small banners that summarized the grievances of the public: “Sufficiency in food, clothing and shelter, national reconciliation, freedom for all political prisoners.”

Wouldn't it be nice to have a moral voice to add to theirs?

My rant against the MPAA

2007-09-20T13:01:00.001-07:00

I don't think that the MPAA reflect community values. It tells the masses what is offensive. It creates a set of standards that we expect. The MPAA allows us to know that if we see a nipple during the superbowl, that we should be shocked. When I have seen similar things happen in my life, I have seen maybe some embarassment, maybe some giggling. Never have I seen rage. But the MPAA tells us that nipples are for adults only and therefore, they are bad.*

But it sets a horrible set of standards that are applied with almost no consistency and with almost no attention given to anything logical. The MPAA allows almost any content, so long as you don't use one of George Carlin's seven words to describe that content, or show any nudity. Violence is much, much, much more acceptable than sex, which in turn isn't as bad as female nudity, which is much more acceptable than male nudity. Gay male sex is a horrendous nightmare of disaster. Gay female sex is slightly more acceptable than male nudity.

None of it makes any sense. I would much rateher one of my young nephews accidentally sees a couple having sex than I would that they accidentally witness a murder. I think most people agree with me on that. The MPAA apparently thinks the exact opposite.

That being said, I think that "what about the children!?" is an epithet used most often by the intellectually lazy.

*I realize that the superbowl is a TV incident, but it is the ame general idea, and TV is supervised by a similar, and in fact, tighter, regulatory system ocensorship.

This is the most absurd thing I've ever read

2007-09-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

MSN Encarta: Does the Reverse Glass Ceiling Exist?

In fact, the idea of the glass ceiling is such a phenomenon that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) formed a "Glass Ceiling" commission in 1991. But what about the men who succeed in what tend to be female-dominated careers, including nursing, travel, marketing, and childcare? Is there such a thing as a reverse glass ceiling for men?

Are you fucking kidding me? See, gals, everything's ok! You might not be able to get that management position, but just remember the poor men that are having trouble rising to be the day manager at KinderCare!! Read the whole article. It is an astounding combination of stereotypes, anecdotal evidence, and an inidcaiton that there is in fact no "reverse glass ceiling" in nursing. At one point, the author even says "his may set off your stereotype alarm, but even Kaiser [female counselor to men in female-dominated fields] admits that men tend to be more logical, rather than emotional, thinkers."

But that doesn't even compare to this golden gem:

he admits that in the PR industry, clients often prefer to work with a woman. "People like to talk to women on the phone--men can sometimes be harsh," he says. "Women can be more fun. They have a much softer way of being more forgiving and open."

So, if my clients are sexist jerks, I should just hire a bunch of party girls to cater to their obnoxious sexism. It's just more fun! And this in no way limits the ability of these women to advance in their careers in the pr industry. They certainly won't be impeded from advancing beyond their fun position to upper management, right? I should just stop reading this crap.

Take an effing stand, dems!

2007-07-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

So, apparently, the the Democrats have given up on passing any sort of standards on the nation's voting systems before 2008, thanks to concerns from state and local officials that they won't be able to implement serious reforms before then.

Why is it that the Democrats are unwilling to institute even those reforms that prevent them from getting screwed in elections? Why won't they even fight for empowering individuals, even when it is in their own self interest?

"When I chose to live, there was no joy, it was just a line I crossed"

2007-07-12T23:44:00.000-07:00

I'm not one that traditionally deals with alone time very well. I can be a pretty social person, and I really need to be around other people in order to feel actualized.

But perhaps my latest spate of time with myself has been somewhat good for me. It's given me some time to think about the last year and a half and what it's done to and for me. I'm not really sure that I'm in a better place now than I was back then, but I'm certainly sure that I've at least had some time to think about myself and my place in the world, and more importantly, what I want out of love and life. I've realized, more than ever, that I have a personality type that isn't compatible with everything, and that I et myself up for a lot of the victimization that I bitch about constantly (though I rarely phrase it in terms of victimization).

More than anything, though, it's time that I stopped treating the outside world with the gentle, subtle tone that I wish that it would direct toward me. Obviously, the learning curve on the other side of that equation is too steep, and it just leaves me frustrated and lost.

I don't know where I'd be without my music, though.

Hahahahahaha

2007-06-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the border fence will shut out a bunch of American shit on the border. This understandably has Americans who live on the border truly pissed off.

Thankfully, border security is doing nothing about it. Ah, this fence is better conceived every day.

Hey asshole,

2007-04-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

"He gave them for free what we took torture to avoid saying"

What the fuck would you call My Lai, if not a war crime?

I'm not a superfan by any means

2007-04-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

But I have to respect Alyssa Milano for standing up for herself like this. It's good to call out the gawkers on their own terms.

And now for one of my pet peeves.

2007-04-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

ONe of the things that drives me most crazy about the way that the mainstream media phrases everything is their overuse of the world 'tragedy.' Tragedy, if you look it up in the dictionary, is primarily a literary form--it is a form of drama in which a seemingly strong lead character is destroyed by some sort of hidden (or not so hidden) flaw. Tragic heroes are ones like Oedipus or Hamlet--they have some problem, not directly visible at first, that destroys them. This creates obvious dramatic tension that is heavily dependent on irony.

That is why I am driven absolutely batshit crazy when every fucking newsanchor in the world decides to use 'tragic' as a blanket term whenever even the most minor negative thing happens. Very few things in the real world are actually 'tragic', yet I have to constantly hear how every fucking event from Hurricane Katrina, to the September 11 attacks to these Virginia Tech attacks are 'tragic.'

And ironically, the one major news event that is truly tragic is never described as such. That would be the collapse of the Bush Presidency--his supposed strength in 2002, his aggressive support for invading Iraq and his "strong" anti-terror credentials is the very issue that has pushed his approval ratings into the high thirties or the low twenties. Yet I hear noone describe this collapse as 'tragic.'

That word has no meaning any more. I wish people would stop using it.

Jackassery

2007-04-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hey, Powerline idiots, if you are going to criticize the times for it's alleged bias, perhaps you shouldn't focus your rants at their fucking opinions section, and instead focus on their news section. You know, the one without the explicit bias.

Also, David Brooks exits.

Because I'm a little bit frustrated with the world...

2007-03-19T11:49:00.001-07:00

Enjoy the GLORY!

Hey computer scientists!

2007-03-11T16:55:00.000-07:00

I love your piece of software. It is very gracious of you to have it available as freeware or as shareware. I like that you are willing to provide this as a public service. Open source is a great movement.

That being said, when I first download a piece of software, my first goal is not to learn how to use the fucking software. It is not to find out the history of the software, and it is especially not to find out the list of features/updates that have been done to the software since the last date. These items are not documentation. Labeling them as such actually makes it more difficult to find the actual documentation (if it exists), and frustrates your users to no end. Rather than writing the above items, it would better serve everyone's time if you would just sit and write down a sheet that tells the user, in plain English, how to use the fucking program. Is that so hard? Why is all documentation centered around updates? Am I missing something?

AAAAAHHHH

2007-03-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

Bush and Condoleezza Rice, apparently don't think that the Congress has the authority to defund the war. (Link via MyDD).

Now, I've always found the constitutionality of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 something more than interesting--the constitution is crazy vague on what the fuck was meant by having the right to issue a 'declaration of war' reserved to the Congress, but also giving the President full authority as Commander in Chief, which, nominally, would include the ability to deploy troops when needed. The overlap of authority is fairly evident here, and it is unclear exactly how it should be resolved. Hence why I think it was a good idea that Congress was willing to sit down and make an explicit set of guidelines under which the President could wage war.

If the President really intends on ignoring the instructions of Congress to end the war, however, then this whole system is thrown into disarray. If Congress passes some sort of resolution that has actual teeth in it (something that I somewhat doubt), and Bush ignores it, then we will be faced with a Constitutional crisis not seen since Nixon used the FBI to harass his enemies. I'm afraid for this country. I have a feeling that something really, really bad is about to happen, and that there is really nothing that anyone can do about it.

But I guess it's just a feeling for now.

President 2008

2007-03-04T13:28:00.000-08:00

I am torn on who to support or what to believe for the 2008 Presidential election. Gen Xers have been burned by the Democrats over and over and over and over. Through my whole memory, you have either had the corrupt inarticulate foils to the conservative nutjobs of the 80s, the too-centrist to understand what they stand for Clinton Democrats of the 90s, or, the absolute worst, the craven cowards of the first half of the aughts.

2006, supposedly was a corner-turning moment--the Democrats ran on an anti-war platform, and dammit, they won! They beat incumbents from Rhode Island to Virginia to Montana. They took back both houses of Congress. Aside from Joe Lieberman winning, the news in November 2006 was sparkling.

But what happened then? The Democrats took power, and they pushed through Nanci Pelosi's first 100 hours agenda. And then, Harry Reid failed to even get a vote on a nonbinding resolution against Bush's war escalation. The entire democratic party is terrified about standing up to Joe Lieberman on the war--amending schedules of meetings so that Joseph will feel comfortable attending Democratic luncheons. No one is talking about Russ Feingold's or John Murtha's resolutions on ending war funding.

And then you have your 2008 Presidential candidates. In this context of Gen X Democrats having endured endless promises to the base (most painfully, Clinton's promise of allowing gays in the military and of universal health care) from candidates who have pretended to be our people. So, colour me less than overjoyed when Hillary Clinton promises to have universal health care by the end of her second term. Colour me skeptical when John Edwards, with a minimum of experience in national office, and a relatively conservative voting record while in office, says that he has now seen the light on the war and is a vociferous proponent of health care. And really, forgive me when Barack Obama alternates between arguing against an imaginary "far left" that apparently consists of the Weathermen and the SLA and a vaguely defined 'Politics of Hope' couched in religious terms, all the while avoiding content. His primary argument seems to be that people on goddamn facebook love him.

And beyond this field, who is there? Bill Richardson, yet another Clintonista? Al Gore? Al fucking Gore? The guy behind the 2000 campaign is the one that's going to save the left, if he contradicts everything that he's been saying and spontaneously decides to run? Really?

I don't know what my point is, exactly, except that I'm kinda cynical these days. There doesn't even seem to be a Bill Bradley to support this time around. I'm probably going to support Obama, who at least hasn't disappointed me with a horrible vote in the past, and find a few Senate primary candidates that I like. Then I can blandly support the Democrat in the general.

Yay life.

So... is grad school ever going to end?

2007-03-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

I am about to finish a paper that I've been working on for over six months. I've been trying to present results on this for a while, but the presentation keeps on getting pushed back. On one level, I just want to finish all of this nonsense and forget that it ever happened. On another level, I almost feel that there is no point to it: I feel like grad school is just going to continue forever, and that I'm going to finally get my degree when I'm fifty, go do five years of postdoc, and finally reach tenure at seventy five, and retire five years later, at which point I will immediately die.

Obviously, this discourages me from doing anything, which continues the horrible, horrible cycle.

My students are already terrifyingly young.

I've got nothing to say but...

2007-03-01T17:35:00.000-08:00

word.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Dying?

2007-02-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

Our new democratic House is now considering a bill introduced by Marty Meehan to repeal don't ask, don't tell. This can only be good. Perhaps this is a sign that the Democrats are ready to move beyond the triangulating Clinton model of government. Perhaps. Next step: abolish all of our outmoded 19^th century laws.

Guess who I don't like

2007-02-23T08:14:00.000-08:00

Joe Lieberman, that's who. I still can't believe that the Senate majority rests on his shoulders, and that he can just keep the entire Senate captive with his vote.

I don't like him

In case you were wondering about my opinion on the issue

2007-02-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

I have a message. See if you can interpret it. The answer to the puzzle is below.

Ithnkthtbblclltrlsmsttlndcmpltttrbllsht
vnfthrwsnsngltbltfrmwhchwgtthntrldtstmntwrtngnddlnggthtcntnsnvwlsspcsrpncttnsdffclttntrprt

Did you understand what I wrote here? Scroll down to find the truth, and what I think of those who would mindlessly condemn someone to hell using words written in a language which they do not understand.

I think that biblical literalism is total and complete bullshit. Even if there was one single tablet from which we get the entire old testament, writing in a dead language that contains no vowels, spaces, or punctuation is difficult to interpret!

Extremely, extremely problematic.

2007-02-20T08:59:00.000-08:00

The D.C. court of appeals has voted to suspend habeus corpus for the Guantanamo detainees. This is a really bad idea for the following reasons:

The decision is based upon the 2006 Military Commissions Act which authorizes these indefinite detentions. But, these detentions happened before 2006. The U.S. Constitution explicitly forbids ex post facto laws. Applying a 2006 law to prevent the trial of people captured in 2002 is about as ex post facto as you can possibly get

Even if this isn't the case, the U.S. Constitution guarantees habeus corpus (the right to a hearing/trial) in all cases, except wartime.

There is no declaration of war. It is not wartime until there is actually a motherfucking declaration of war.

Thus, the 2006 Military Commissions Act is unconstitutional, and should be overturned

What the fuck has happened to my country? Holding people indefinitely without charges is the type of thing that was once labeled as one of the atrocities that the states were fighting against.

Ugh.

Pretty interesting interview with John Kerry

2006-10-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

Bob Woodward interviewed John Kerry. The interview is up in the the Washington Post. I really don't get how anyone can defend Bush at this point.

Double posting.

2006-09-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

And, this September 11^th, I would say something, but Keith Olbermann says it far better than I ever could. Watch that video. It is spectacular.

The first thing in a while that made me proud of my motherfucking institution.

2006-09-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

here ya go. Think about it.