Author: Heather Meadows

I finished my topic and bibliography thingy and printed it out by 9:35. Class started at 9:30. Good thing she doesn’t take attendance! Going to drop it off now, and then Dotty and I are going out for breakfast. :D

I have become rather apathetic towards school. It’s not the same kind of apathetic that I usually feel at this time of the semester; typically I’m looking forward to new classes and a new schedule, but now I’m looking forward to graduation…and so these two niggling classes that remain seem even more inconsequential. I’m honestly interested in them, but at the same time I could care less. It’s really odd. I just hope I manage to get a 4.0 this semester, as that would bump my cumulative GPA into cum laude range. I’m expecting As in both classes, but if I don’t watch it, I might mess up.

I have a paper topic and preliminary bibliography due tomorrow for a paper that should actually be pretty fun to do. I’m going to be comparing two stage/movie productions of Shakespeare plays. That really sounds neat and intriguing! But when you set that alongside the fact that I’m going to be moving and getting married and getting my first “real” job and starting my new life, it just sort of seems lackluster. When it comes down to it, I’d rather be surfing the ‘Net looking for possible wedding sites (as I’ve been doing during work all week) or packing up my stuff for the move (as I’ve been doing with my time at home, other than sleeping and the AMRN of course). And so I haven’t picked my specific topic, and I haven’t found any sources yet. And I don’t really care. I’m going to get up and do it in the morning before class, and if I have to I’ll just skip the class and hand it in later…it’s due by 2 pm, so I’m not really worried about it. I also have some minor things to get out of the way for my writing class, but the workload is really light this week (probably since everyone has been freaking out lately), so I’m not worried about that either. I’m just hoping I’m not “not worrying” too much, because I’d seriously love to graduate cum laude. For a long time I didn’t think it would be possible. I may receive some departmental honors, but for my overall GPA to also have honors attached to it is quite an accomplishment, given how much of a slacker I was in the beginning.

So I will get my work done and try not to slack off too much…but there are so many things I would rather be doing. There is so much packing left to be done. I’ve bagged up all the clothes I don’t plan on wearing between now and January, so that’s an accomplishment, and I’ve also boxed up about half of the books I keep in my room and most of the collectibles/decorations. That was a fair amount to accomplish today, but I feel like there’s so much left to do. I hope I get it done quickly so I’ll have time to do fun things during the holidays, like bake cookies :) I love baking!

I broke my diet quite a bit this week, so I’m starting over. I’m trying not to stress too much about it. Things will be cool; I just need to show a little restraint, and make sure there is food around that I can eat.

I recently downloaded an enormous amount of Initial D mp3s from some Chinese website that shut down before I was completely finished leeching. They are awesome. A few of them, though, have skips and errors, and this is annoying. I need to go ahead and label the ones that have messups so I can look into replacing them somehow (or at least so I know what I’m getting into when I play them).

Regardless, I sent some of my favorites to Sean, and he really likes them too :) I’m hoping we’ll watch Initial D together when I visit him (I’m leaving on Friday! Wh00t!), but he has his heart set on watching RahXephon first. I don’t have anything against RahXephon, and I do want to watch it, but for some reason when people want me to do stuff I get all obstinate about doing it and start doing other stuff first. So I’ve put off RahXephon until this trip, and we’ll watch it together during the time we’re not running around Augusta looking for a place to live. Should be fun.

My anime collection continues to grow, but I haven’t updated my list lately. I have actually stopped downloading for the remainder of the year, excepting files hosted by Fumei Anime, because every time I start burning to DVD in earnest, my computer decides to blue screen, sometimes just once and sometimes several times. A blue screen in Windows 2000 is nothing to sneeze at, since they’re nigh impossible to achieve. (But you know me–I’m so special, I can do anything.) Once I’ve moved to Georgia, Sean is going to install my new, larger hard drive, and he is also going to fix the burning problem. That will be quite a relief; I’m never quite comfortable when my computer isn’t working properly. (As my mom says, it’s like the feeling you get when one of your kids is sick. Although I guess you don’t really “use” children the same way you use your computer…and besides, I don’t have kids, so how would I know how that feels?)

I’m looking forward to going to sleep. Sleep is a great way of avoiding problems. I’ll go to sleep tonight completely ignoring the fact that that bibliography is due tomorrow. Procrastination is so much easier when you can explain it away with excuses like “Well, I have to sleep sometime, you know.”

I can’t wait until Friday!

It’s funny because it’s true…

I think directors should only revise their works later on as long as the original version that everyone fell in love with to begin with is still available. But hey, that’s just me…what do I know?

As for Episode II, I’ve told a few people my theory about Anakin and Padme. Basically, I am convinced that they are not in love at all. Anakin is looking for someone to replace his mother, and Padme is looking for a life. Since the Anakin one is pretty obvious to anyone, I’ll only go into more detail on the Padme issue.

In the Episode II novel it’s even more painfully obvious than in the movie that Padme has been dedicated to politics and working for others so much that she has practically no personality, and certainly no life. She gets all weepy when she takes care of her sister’s children, wishing she had a family of her own, something of her own. Anakin, a rebellious (and, frankly, hot) young Jedi is the perfect way for her to break out of her good girl mold. Unfortunately, she’s been suppressing herself for so long that when she finally starts to break free, she goes overboard with her emotions. It’s because she’s so ecstatic about having a little danger in her life that she is able to ignore–or even think she can somehow cure!–Anakin’s violent tendencies. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if their relationship follows a standard spousal abuse pattern.

And so I have no problem with the stilted love scenes, because I feel they perfectly demonstrated that what Anakin and Padme have is certainly not love.

This is not to say that I will be happy to watch Padme spiral deeper and deeper into the role of the abused wife. That will be depressing. But it will fit. It will explain everything.

I just hope George’s neck doesn’t speak up and talk him out of it…

日本語が上手に成りたいですよ！

I love this Blogger thing…it makes posting so easy…

Well, the financial troubles I was talking about before are much less of an issue now. Here is how it happened, and why ultimately I was higher than a kite yesterday:

I was hanging out with my mom, waiting for my latest short story to print out fifteen times, and we started discussing how in God’s green Earth I was going to get all my stuff to Georgia. Out of the blue, I asked her, “Would you come with me? I’d love it if you helped me set up my new home.”

She seemed very flattered, and said in a stern-ish voice, “Well, I didn’t want to visit you until you were married.” She refused to visit AJ and Faye when they were living together, and she won’t go to Ben’s apartment now either. I’m not sure what this accomplished in either case, although it’s true that AJ is married now and Ben is planning on getting married. Still, it seems like a vain attempt to allow us to live in sin by pretending not to condone it. It’s just weird. I was wondering if she would pull the same thing with me, and apparently that was on her mind as well. “But I don’t know, things are pretty slow around here at that time of year. I think I could do it.”

One of my goals in life has always been to make Mom happy. I don’t think this is particularly unhealthy, although I do think it’s important for me to weigh the issues before making a choice instead of just going along with whatever Mom wants. So I considered for a moment, and then said, “Well, what if you and I went down there with all my stuff and then Sean and I got married real quick? And you and Cheryl could be witnesses.”

“That could work,” Mom said.

For a spur of the moment idea, it really got me thinking. Everything would work out perfectly that way. We could have a small, intimate ceremony that didn’t cost much, and then I could get on his insurance right away, and the name change would go into effect before I had to get my new drivers license, so I wouldn’t have to get two to keep it current, and we would be married right away so I would (once again, ha!) be the kid that “did it right” (I am so competitive with my brothers!), and we could just send out marriage announcements to people, and gifts could arrive well before the honeymoon which is more logical anyway, and we’d have time to save up for the honeymoon…really, the plus sides of this are staggering, and it’s amazing I didn’t think of it before. I guess this is what you call “thinking outside the box” or a “paradigm shift”, because I was trapped in financial woes when I believed that my wedding had to be in March and had to have 75 guests and had to have a lovely reception with cake and catered food, and now I feel so light and free and happy!

I ran back and asked Sean about it, and he said, “Sure. I have no problem with that.” I was so elated! I started bouncing off the walls, and I got my homework done early, and I ran around talking to everyone. I told Ben about the plans and said that it would be great if he could come too…we’re still not sure who would stay at home with the dogs, but that’s a relatively minor issue given all the money we’re going to save and all the good things that are coming from this. I will miss whoever doesn’t get to come, though :/

But I don’t know, I’m too happy to be worried about that. That is pretty selfish, but hey, with all the angst I’ve had lately worrying about how the hell I was going to pay for the wedding I’d promised everyone, I deserve a little relief! Really, I do! ;>

Man, I am so excited!

And next Friday I will be going to see Sean! Yes, Thanksgiving break will finally be here soon, and I’m taking the first part of the week off so I can go be with him and find an apartment and search for a place to hold the little wedding. If we don’t find a place, the courthouse is fine with me. (You know, some of the prettiest buildings I’ve ever seen are funeral homes. That’s so unfair!)

So soon I will be a college graduate with a silver (well, white gold) ring on my finger. MAN! And I’ll be living in another state, and I’ll have a job…it’s crazy! But so exciting!

Life rocks :D

A lot has been going on with me lately, not the least of which is the constant worry about finances that has pretty much fucked up my opinions about everything else. RPGs? Pointless. School? Boring. Family? Well, they’re okay when they’re not being annoying. But of course, the worst of it is reacting in irritation to Sean. We had another one of our non-fights last night–they’re fights, but in the end we both start to realize that we’re arguing the exact same position. And so we took some time to recover from that and reaffirm some of our goals, and it was really refreshing to just let the emotions out. The worry is still there, but some of the pent-up frustration has been released, and that’s good, at least. It is important, however, to keep that historical background in mind as I move on to my next topic, which is slackass webcomics.

I went to MegaTokyo today, only to see a DPD. Okay. This I don’t get. The dude loses his job and promptly writes a dissertation about how now he has all the time in the world to devote to the strip, and so he won’t ever miss another one…and what does he do but be late with the first strip after that, and not even have one for the next deadline? Mr. Gallagher seriously has some time management issues. Oh, certainly, he’s not on par with Mr. Fire, but I find the constant promise-breaking extremely annoying. If these people want to make a living doing their comics, they need to get off their asses and actually provide the product. I’m not paying you for your (debatably) pretty site design, or your extremely long-winded rants about your life, and I might not buy your graphic novel, especially if I don’t think there will be any decent content in it. I am willing to subscribe to webcomics I love, and that’s why I pay for Keenspot PREMIUM and Sluggy, but I am getting tired of webcomics whose authors/artists continually bitch and moan about how they want to make money but can’t, and post these whines in lieu of a strip. People who aren’t trying to make a living at it can miss an update. That’s fine. But people who claim that they want to do this for a vocation need to RTFM. The last time I checked, people don’t just go outside and throw cash into the air and then walk back into their houses. We usually like to get something in exchange. Maybe it would be easier for people to understand if I explained that it works like the barter system. You give something, you get something. Is that clear enough for you?

Grah. At least I’m not alone in my frustrations.

On a side note, because of the DPD I decided to go read the MT archives, and I was intrigued to discover that the beginning of the comic is radically different, and far funnier, than the comic is now. Largo also actually seems to be a person instead of two-dimensional comic relief. It really underscores the fact that the comic is now “online manga” and it’s all about Piro and his Love Hina-esque relationships.

I still don’t like Mr. Gallagher’s art.

[19:55:22] <COSLeia> o the misery of life

[19:55:28] <COSLeia> now, having thusly heated my dinner

[19:55:36] <COSLeia> yea, now must I wait for it to cool

[19:55:39] <COSLeia> o misery, misery

[19:55:57] <COSLeia> o sweet anticipation

[19:56:09] <COSLeia> o misery, o sweet miserable anticipation

[19:56:10] <COSLeia> yea

I literally had to remind myself to close my mouth during that race. Twice!

拓美はすごい！！

Initial D is one of the most exciting things I’ve ever watched. I can’t believe I deleted the episodes Hai gave me before! このヘザーは馬鹿だよ！

In writing class yesterday, we workshopped a story by Matt Steele called “The Programmer Goes Back to Work”. It was written in a trance-y, dream-like prose, wherein the programmer shapes his own reality through programming languages, but ultimately fails to build the world he wants to live in. Dotty suggested that Matt delve into this theme more, perhaps having the programmer discover an equation that defines the world. Across the room, Holly and Shelley suddenly began thinking of the movie Pi (although I personally found that idea reminiscent of the end of the novel Contact).

“I just like the part where he drills holes in his head whenever he gets migraines, because that’s really what you feel like doing,” Shelley said.

“I thought that was a dream,” piped up someone else.

“Yeah, he didn’t really do that, that’s impossible,” Shelley responded, “but it’s just such a real image to me.”

I hadn’t seen the movie, but I put in my own two cents anyway. “Egon Spengler tried to drill holes in his head.”

There was a long pause, and finally Shelley started to say, “Who’s that–”

“In Ghostbusters.”

I finally retreated, beaten back by the blank stares of my classmates. Honestly, what is the world coming to when people haven’t seen Ghostbusters?

I’m working on my short story. The revision is due today.

It’s about a girl who struggles with her weight problem. The story really hits too close to home, though writing it has been illuminating and gave me the strength to begin my diet in the first place. Unfortunately, writing it now is just making me hungry :P I’ve had my “shake for breakfast”, and it’ll be awhile before it’s time for my “shake for lunch”, but maybe in an hour or so I can let myself have one of those snack bars. They’re pretty good. I’ll try to eat it slowly. I don’t feel like I’m making any real progress, but I have to keep trying. Maybe it’s just going slow.

Sean remarked to me last night that quoting a huge chat log on my journal doesn’t really do much for him. I suppose that makes sense. I’m just so uncertain about my feelings concerning politics and war that I’d rather people see my stream of consciousness than a well-written essay that might be, well, wrong. But of course, now that I’ve identified this weakness, I’m going to have to face it eventually.

I’m also going to have to face Milla Frank. She, too, is a character with weight problems who hits too close to home, though she has mostly overcome her overeating habit. Lately I’ve had trouble writing for her, or doing anything with her really. Getting inside her head depresses me, but it would be unrealistic to make her suddenly happy. I was reading the text for my writing class and it asked if I was avoiding confrontation: “Did another character conveniently knock on the door?”

I was flabbergasted, and then I started laughing out loud, because that is exactly what I did here to avoid the situation. If any of you out there are writers, you’d do well to pick up Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway, because it is so good at identifying and explaining common problems writers have. Really, I wish I’d had this book when I first started doing writing workshops; I feel like it’s only now that I’m actually starting to learn anything about writing.

Part of that, though, is due to my excellent instructor, Kim Edwards. She’s a published writer, as were the rest of my writing instructors, but she is also a teacher, and I think that makes a difference. Along with her husband, the director of UK’s TESL program (I had his classes last year), she traveled around Asia teaching English as a second language. I think that experience has helped her to deal with lots of problems that my other writing instructors tended to ignore–if they could even see them at all. She’s very good at helping us to understand writing, and that’s important. My other workshops weren’t a challenge for me; this one is. I want to do my best work for her.

And so here I am working on my story revision. Even wanting to do my best hasn’t forced me to completely curb my procrastinator’s soul. The revision, along with a group of exercises and some reader responses, is due in five hours.

このヘザーは頑張りますよ！

Kevin suggested this awhile back and I just had to make it. I still laugh out loud whenever I look at it. Good ol’ Admiral Ackbar.

Connor spent the night last night, so he was here when I got home from work this morning. He’s dressed in one of my dad’s blue long john tops, and looks absolutely adorable. Pictures cannot accurately portray this, but they can try:

I made a website for Connor once, but it is like two years old now. I really need to get that place updated. Of course, I also need to revamp the GP4 website, so meh. Getting my homework done on time is enough of an achievement for this week, I think.

Speaking of which, I really need to do that. I may take a nap first, since I don’t think I got enough sleep last night.

I’m really anal about timestamps, aren’t I?

Some clarifications:

When I said that the characters’ names in the Initial D manga from Tokyopop were “translated wrong“, I didn’t mean “incorrectly”. I meant that Tokyopop purposefully used names that were not the characters’ names. “Translated” was a poor term to use.

And when I said that older students probably need bilingual instruction, I was referring to those students who came to the US during or after puberty and who didn’t speak English fluently when they arrived. Students who arrived as young children can pick up English fairly easily during their formative years, and should need little to no instruction in their native tongue as they grow older–for the purposes of understanding, anyway. I do feel that a person’s native tongue is special and important, and there should be community outreach or some sort of system in place to enable them to keep their fluency in that language. However, this should not be the responsibility of the public school system, which has a hard enough time teaching native speakers of English how to read.

A chat log, wherein I prove that I do some of my best thinking “aloud”, and that my political opinions are highly influenced by those of Steven Den Beste:

[05:47:25] <Forte_Gospel> and how are things with you heather?

[05:49:34] <COSLeia> not bad

[05:49:42] <COSLeia> the Republicans have control of Congress again

[05:50:05] <Forte_Gospel> such is the fate of the world I guess

[05:50:36] <COSLeia> lol

[05:50:40] <COSLeia> well, I don’t know what that means

[05:50:49] <COSLeia> I don’t have a problem with Republicans

[05:50:54] <COSLeia> it might be easier for Bush to get things done now

[05:50:55] <Forte_Gospel> ah

[05:51:01] <COSLeia> we’ll see

[05:51:03] <Forte_Gospel> hopefully

[05:51:36] <COSLeia> it’s been said that the balance of power between the two parties is what keeps the nation in a nice middle stance

[05:51:47] <COSLeia> but I don’t know that we should be in a middle stance all the time

[05:51:51] <COSLeia> during peacetime, sure

[05:52:00] <COSLeia> but when there are issues to be resolved we probably need to just go one way or the other

[05:52:09] <COSLeia> but I don’t know a lot about history or politics

[05:52:15] <COSLeia> so I’m leery of making a judgment

[05:52:28] <Forte_Gospel> I don’t think the Democrats have the spine to defend our country

[05:52:41] <COSLeia> http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/KY00senate.html

[05:52:48] <COSLeia> doesn’t McConnell look like Steve Forbes? hehe

[05:53:06] <COSLeia> and yeah, I guess you could put it that way…I think the difference is patriotism

[05:53:25] <COSLeia> I think Democrats try to make everything equal and please everyone, which is impossible

[05:53:27] <Forte_Gospel> excellent point

[05:53:41] <COSLeia> and they end up trying to please Europe, or China, or whoever instead of US interests

[05:53:55] <COSLeia> of course denbeste.nu has some interesting articles on the subject

[05:54:06] <Forte_Gospel> I see

[05:54:18] <COSLeia> some people think patriotism is a dirty word

[05:54:25] <COSLeia> and some people think it’s the only way to be

[05:54:41] <COSLeia> I am patriotic in the sense that I LOVE THE USA and I think it’s fabulous all the things we have and can do

[05:55:08] <Forte_Gospel> The way I see it is that our nation’s needs should come first instead of being placed on the backburner

[05:55:09] <COSLeia> I’m not patriotic in the sense that I think everything we do is right, though, and I think that part of what makes the US great is the fact that the power comes from the people…and we have the right and responsibility to question our government

[05:55:23] * COSLeia nods

[05:55:56] <Forte_Gospel> and it seems George W has that same idea in his head

[05:55:59] <COSLeia> I don’t think we’re responsible to take care of everyone else…we’re just responsible to try not to hurt them, I think

[05:56:00] <snipes> what if you need something you don’t have?

[05:56:27] <COSLeia> well, imperialism is against the law

[05:57:11] <COSLeia> so if you’re implying that we would invade someone else and take it from them, that’s impossible :>

[05:57:20] <snipes> hehe

[05:57:24] <COSLeia> there are other ways to "invade" people though, I guess

[05:58:10] <COSLeia> anyway…

[05:58:12] <Forte_Gospel> Personally i believe war is wrong, but you can’t argue that it doesn’t help the country at least economics wise

[05:58:28] <COSLeia> well, that’s certainly true, but I would hope that isn’t the reason we’re going to war

[05:58:51] <COSLeia> I would also hope that we’re not going to war just to make Bush look good

[05:58:56] <COSLeia> but I don’t think either of those is the case

[05:59:18] <Forte_Gospel> I think George W has more integrity than that

[05:59:51] <Forte_Gospel> but I will admit that it will probablly get him reelected

[05:59:54] <COSLeia> I think ultimately his goal is to ensure that our way of life endures

[05:59:54] <snipes> I know the news down here is swaying towards he’s after the oil to bypass the arabs

[05:59:54] <snipes> but thats just the news

[05:59:55] <snipes> how much do you beleive

[05:59:57] <COSLeia> I know that sounds cheesy

[06:00:13] <COSLeia> hmm

[06:00:15] <COSLeia> after the oil?

[06:00:18] <COSLeia> how exactly would he do that?

[06:00:23] <COSLeia> again, imperialism is illegal

[06:00:30] <snipes> no idea

[06:00:43] <COSLeia> he can’t annex the middle east

[06:00:55] <COSLeia> he could try to put puppet leaders in place and take over the companies

[06:01:03] <COSLeia> but I don’t think the locals would stand for that

[06:01:04] <COSLeia> nor would Europe

[06:01:52] <snipes> I’m just saying what I see in the news

[06:01:53] <snipes> do I beleive it? dunno, jury is still out

[06:01:56] * COSLeia nods

[06:02:00] <COSLeia> anyway, as to the way of life thing

[06:02:24] <COSLeia> the whole people having the power thing is the primary thing that the government is supposed to protect, when it comes to international relations

[06:02:31] <snipes> the world more like it

[06:02:50] <COSLeia> and so anything that infringes upon the people’s rights as delimited in the constitution will be fought against

[06:03:16] <Forte_Gospel> in the end it comes down to justification

[06:03:23] <snipes> hrm

[06:03:59] <COSLeia> I think the government has an easy time justifying to itself, a bit of a harder time justifying to the US citizens, and a hell of a time justifying to the world

[06:04:05] <COSLeia> because our interests are so different than theirs

[06:04:09] <COSLeia> because of the way governments are set up

[06:04:24] <COSLeia> what’s important to us is not important to other governments

[06:04:29] <COSLeia> etc

[06:04:40] <snipes> so what do you do?

[06:04:53] <snipes> I think the UN was designed to help in those situations wasn’t it?

[06:04:54] <COSLeia> come up with other reasons to justify

[06:04:56] <COSLeia> :>

[06:05:02] <snipes> heh

[06:05:09] <COSLeia> if we say "we’re upholding our Constitution" they call it flag-waving

[06:05:19] <COSLeia> even if they are just as vigilant about their own country’s laws

[06:05:42] <COSLeia> so when people "explain" why we are fighting

Iraq

[06:05:47] <COSLeia> I don’t think they are telling the real reasons

[06:05:52] <COSLeia> they are telling good reasons

[06:05:55] <COSLeia> but those aren’t the only reasons

[06:06:20] <snipes> but are they right?

[06:06:57] <Forte_Gospel> being right is just ones interpitation of one’s opinion

[06:07:02] <snipes> true

[06:07:07] <COSLeia> well, as to ‘right’

[06:07:14] <COSLeia> it’s more a matter of balancing interests

[06:07:42] <COSLeia> I consider it a ‘good’ decision if it helps the US or at least keeps the status quo, with minimal to zero harmful effects to the world

[06:07:50] <COSLeia> but that is really hard to do

[06:08:00] <COSLeia> and nobody can predict the future

[06:08:05] <snipes> yeah

[06:08:17] <COSLeia> I mean, back in the first part of the 20th century people were throwing things away without a care

[06:08:23] <COSLeia> there was this great political cartoon

[06:08:26] <COSLeia> "out of sight, out of mind"

[06:08:30] <COSLeia> and then "out of space, out of time"

[06:08:48] <COSLeia> so it’s like "hmm, duh, we should have known that we were destroying the ecosystem"

[06:09:05] <snipes> we’re an arrogant species :)

[06:09:06] <COSLeia> but I think the fact that we didn’t know that shows that we shouldn’t have…if you know what I mean

[06:09:21] <COSLeia> we can’t always know everything, and we shouldn’t think that we can

[06:09:28] <COSLeia> but that shouldn’t cripple our decision-making

[06:09:38] <COSLeia> we just have to do the best we can, and try to fix any mistakes we might make

[06:09:52] <snipes> live life to the fullest ^^

[06:10:02] <COSLeia> there are still things to be done and problems to be solved, and we can’t do that if we sit on our hands, afraid of messing something up

[06:10:06] <COSLeia> :)

[06:10:22] <COSLeia> anyway, that’s about how I feel, I suppose

[06:10:56] <COSLeia> as for the UN…I am really not sure anymore what its function is

[06:11:17] <COSLeia> I think it would be nice if it were able to juggle all nations’ wants and desires and come up with amicable solutions

[06:11:22] <COSLeia> but I’m not sure that actually happens

Turnout was described as unusually heavy in battleground states. Since 1990, the midterm elections have drawn 33 percent, 37 percent and 33 percent of eligible voters.

And I thought voter turnout for presidential elections was low…

So the Republicans have control of Congress now, again. That’s really all I feel comfortable saying right now. Maybe if 1) I was better with politics; 2) I didn’t have a lot on my mind; 3) I had any idea whatsoever what to say, I would write something. It seems silly to even post when I have nothing to say, but heck, Blogger makes it so easy ;P And I figure I should keep writing as much as I want to. It will help me in the long run.

There’s an interesting bit at the end of that article:

Massachusetts voters chose to make English the language of instruction for all students in public schools, effectively ending decades of bilingual instruction programs for immigrants.

I wonder if that means that the bilingual instruction programs were ineffective or inadequte, or if the immigrants weren’t learning English and therefore weren’t fitting into the community very well, or if everyone in Massachusetts is a member of English First. *shrug* Personally, I like English, and it makes sense to have a language that everyone in the country speaks. I think it would be cool if we all spoke more than one language, but picking the second language would be difficult, since there literally are no other languages with the power and prestige of English. I don’t say that to be boastful; I did nothing to be born a speaker of English. It just happens to be true.

Regardless, I’m not sure that ending bilingual education programs is the answer. I think Massachusetts should have evaluated the system they were using and revised it. Younger students don’t need bilingual education. They can pick up the new language much easier than older students. The older kids, though, probably do need bilingual instruction. It’s harder for them to grasp the nuances of English, and so having things explained to them in a language they can actually speak is extremely helpful. Of course, I think a lot of that instruction should be TESL. I am certainly not advocating that we open schools to teach everything in other languages. While that would be really neat, both for immigrants and for Americans who want to learn another language, it’s really unrealistic. Imagine the cost!

I have many more opinions about language policy than I do about general politics, it would appear…or at least, they are more solid than my other opinions. Perhaps this is because I know a hell of a lot more about language than I do about history or international relations.

Monday’s PA reminds me a lot of this one.

So I’m thinking about my hair. It’s quite an achievement to have hair this long. So I’m wondering if I really should cut it. Maybe I should just get some bangs. But not traditional bangs, because those look doofy. Just shorter hair in the front. Or something. Does anyone have hair styling tips?

I know Sean likes my hair long, so it might be nice to leave it that way. But my family all says they liked my hair chin-length better. Decisions, decisions…

In other news, I was running late this morning and didn’t have time to grab a Slim-Fast for breakfast…and I’m hungry :P I’m thinking about just having a regular breakfast after work and then saving the Slim-Fasts for lunch and dinner. It could work. Of course, that raises the question of where to go and what to eat. I was thinking of the Student Center, but that involves moving my car to the parking structure. I could just stop at McDonald’s on my way home, but that’s not as healthy. There isn’t a huge difference, but there’s enough of one. Sigh.

I’ve got some things on my mind; maybe I’ll write about them a little later.

“Is it safe?

Absolutely. Astroglide‘s water-based, non-toxic formula is completely safe. In fact, Astroglide has been enjoyed, and we do mean enjoyed, for nearly a decade. But that doesn’t mean we’ll ever stop testing it ourselves.”