Bought a new rig!
Wednesday, January 18, 2006, 05:33 PM - Ham Radio
While visiting friends in California last week, I went to HRO and bought a new radio , a Yaesu vx-6 . Very cool. More, later.



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A new semester
Wednesday, January 18, 2006, 05:30 PM - Russian, Math, Dancing, Academics, Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science
Okay. Now we are in the Spring 2006 semester. I am taking the following classes: Math, Dance (this time, it's more ballroom), Philosophy 101, Philosophy 156 (Reasoning), Sociology 101, Political Science 200. I have decided (for the moment, at least) that Russian has too much emphasis on writing and reading so I am dropping it. While I am still very interested in it, the truth is that I have do be more careful about only taking classes and engaging in activities at which I can do at least decently, if not well and reading and writing is not among them.

The Political Science course has me excited. It is taught by former Senator Fred Harris (OK). It is a big class (70ish people) but he's a great lecturer.

Sociology is being taught by a different TA than was originally planned and we haven't met her yet. That's tomorrow.

Philosophy 156 looks interesting, but I'm a bit worried about getting the materials copied to the computer in time; already we're to read chapter 1 by Monday, and I don't know if I can get it all scanned in time.

Philosophy 101 starts in 30 minutes, so I guess I'd better finish this later. :o)

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A profound discovery
Thursday, December 1, 2005, 12:11 PM - English, Gender Politics
This morning I was reading a story for English 102 about a young girl who must travel to another town for her uncle's imminent demise. He is on his deathbed and among his relatives, he specifically asks for her, a particularly vivacious young women who -in the beginning- notices how her own strength and vitality are powerful enough to transform the dirty looks men give her into wholesome feelings of lust for life.

She encounters her uncle and he asks the priest to perform a "death wedding" of sorts so -he says and the whole family believes- she can inherit all his stuff. But her intuition knows better; she goes through the ritual because it is expected of her. But she dies inside. Then, after everyone has left, in shock she follows orders, sacrificing her youth and innocence to him as he stubbornly refuses to die- he keeps himself alive on his lust for her.

It is precisely this youth and beauty and exhuberance that she looses so he can selfishly keep himself alive a few more years. It is a terrible tradgety. I felt very strongly for her, but -surprisingly- even more strongly I found myself able to imagine his feelings. As though the quest for a more young, beautiful vavacious lover occupying my waking thoughts these past 12 years has been nothing but a blind selfish drive to become young again myself by sacraficing the youth and beauty (and innocence) of some young woman's vavacious lifeforce.

I am ashamed and at the same time, elated that I have finally identified the feelings which have been driving me for so long. Having identified them, I now can decide the proper course of action (mourne them and move on) instead of remaining stuck as I have been for so long. This was the key to a problem I've had for ten or more years. A great weight has been lifted.

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Experimenting with SquirrelMail
Sunday, November 27, 2005, 09:47 AM - Website
We haven't had webmail working for some time so today I've installed SquirrelMail and it seems to be up and running, so please log in and test it if you would be so kind and let me know if or better yet, how well it is working. Thanks!


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Busiest school week so far
Thursday, November 17, 2005, 11:05 AM - Russian, French, English, Journalism, Academics
I spent the weekend (1) Studying for a big Russian test (which ended up happening on Wednesday instead of Monday) (2) Writing a 5 minute persuasive speech for C&J 130 (3) Writing the rough draft of my first big English essay (on Robert Frost; due at the end of the month) and beginning to think about what classes to take next semester. Whew!


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