holding steady.™

first of all, let me take the opportunity to pose the following query:

to UF and its office of “orientation/preview/whatever-the-hell-it’s-called”:
how is it that it occurred to you guys to tell people all about the football team, and who Urban Meyer is/was, and who Timmy Tebow is/was, but you guys didn’t think it would be important to mention ANY of the cool work that’s done by your (i imagine) neighboring office, the office of multicultural and diversity affairs?

it’s pretty appalling that graduate students aren’t recruited more heavily to participate in some of the things these folks have going on. it’s also a shame that the only way i could find out was to actually go into the IBC (that’s the institute of black culture, one of those buildings next to chipotle that no one seems to know about) and pester a really great work-study into giving me a tour. that actually was followed up by a visit to the LGBT office, courtesy of that same work-study student.

all of that took me half an hour. i won’t even get into how, at a school this big, that should have taken all day. i will say that half an hour of effort, and i feel like my entire world has just opened up.

i just may end up liking it here after all…

i started up again at the beginning of the month with a cool little ditty that i was calling “the moveable feast.” inspired by nicholas feltron’s annual reports, i’ve been keeping track of some of the things in my world.

at the end of each month, i’m coming up with some interesting stats.

for example, did you know that the average of the daily highs and lows for gainesville in january was 62/37ºF?

i just ordered my moo cards. i’m going to be more serious about my photography as of whenever they get here.

i’ve got two jobs lined up this year so far, and this is before the cards even get here. I even had to turn down a job last week, because i wasn’t going to be able to make the time.

things are happening. this is exciting.

(inspired pretty directly by kitsune noir’s music monday feature) here’s what i’ve been listening to this week:

i made this killer playlist a while back (i tend to do that when i have periods with a lot of work coming up), and let me tell you how LOUSY it is with songs by radiohead, moby and daft punk. i think i included each artist’s full catalogue, and i have to say, it’s been a productive few days.

i was in a really somber, sing-a-song-of-sixpence-and-heartbreak mood last week…and i suppose, if i’m honest, for like two years. ryan adams is an old stand-by, as far as male vocalists who manage to really convey haunting emotional trauma even while singing about prostitutes go.

listening to the roots actually came about because i was going through my pictures the other day, and saw a bunch of my shots from langerado (2008), where those guys performed one of the best live sets i’ve ever seen. one group that i still haven’t gotten to see live is tegan and sara. they’re coming into my area of the state pretty soon, but school and work are probably going to take precedence.

if you ever lived somewhere with routinely dreary weather, then you can understand why jack johnson consistently has a high play count for me. it’s not actually that depressing here, but we’ve been having a lot of overcast cold snaps in the past couple of months, including a nasty one this week. in fact, listening to local natives is a pretty good work-around for that as well. i had never heard of them before about two weeks ago, and gorilla manor is an out-of-control-good album, with tons of eccentric beats and jam-tastic vocals.

[cautionary tip: careful with listening to the album while parked at the scanner in the library. you may accidentally start singing along, and this will attract stares.]

1. there’s a lot of emailing that happens. a lot. it’s really easy to get drama started via email. it’s happened at least 3 times in the past five months.
2. college students NEVER visit during your office hours, unless it’s to get something out of you. i can appreciate that, having been a college student like seven minutes ago. but it’s really dreary to sit in a room for two hours, when you know that the chances of you interacting with another human being are slim.
3. ultimately, you go to grad school to improve the speed with which you can violate copyright protections. for proof, all one would need to do is go to the copying/scanning section in any university library. there will be at least one kid who is making copies/scanning with a look of trepidation across their face, like they’re worried Prentice Hall/Cambridge University Press cops are about to jump out from behind something and arrest them (these kids are undergrads). there will also be at least one person who is committing a variant on intellectual property infringement with a tired, somewhat dazed look on their face, but at an incredible speed. these are my people, these are grad students.

i’m a liberal:

because i believe that fair (not free) trade is necessary, as “little people” deserve to make some money, too

because i don’t mind paying more money in taxes if it means someone won’t go hungry tonight

because the tendency of some to abuse a welfare state and the opportunities it affords isn’t a good enough reason to not take care of people who genuinely need the help of their government

because a democratic government belongs to everyone

because the march of history has made frequent casualties of the members of minority groups and extending equitable opportunity is one way of correcting this (and it is something that needs to be corrected)

because humanity is not more adept at judging itself than God, and we mustn’t seek to limit the personal choices people can make for themselves^[1]

because the goals of a free society should not include provisions to criminalize action in the absence of very compelling evidence of its harm to any of the members of its people (e.g. murder and theft, being things that NO ONE wants to have happen to them), but instead should act to preserve what freedoms do exist; in other words, “you don’t need a reason to make something legal, you need a reason to make some illegal”)

because i believe in pluralism and the existence of more than one opinion

and

because i really don’t think that my personal religious faith is applicable (legally, politically or even morally) to anyone else except me.

also, i happen to find much modern conservatism ^[2] in practice to be akin to dark-age-fascism (since apparently, i’m a big communist…news to me). i still haven’t decided if it’s worse to be a conservative and not know why, or to be a conservative and know exactly why. the jury is still out in my mind, but either way, we probably won’t be friends .

(this was kind of the answer i gave when recently asked whether or not i could ever date a conservative. the answer is “unlikely,” if it wasn’t clear.)

[1] though religion should stay the hell out of politics, if everyone is going to treat the discourse on what government should and shouldn’t do as though that section of the first amendment on “free exercise” isn’t there, and that our Judeo-Christian foundations are to be heavily relied upon, then let’s do that in the context of the way it was written. if God can allow for free will, who the hell are we to limit that? (also, see the next point)

[2] conservatism, in my interpretation, requires an acknowledgment of a superior opinion or perspective and tends to ignore dissent; is often so focused on establishing “freedom of opportunity” that it tramples the non-majoritarian actors in a society and in practice is neither equal nor fair; and ascribes a questionable type of morality to the application of and political decision related to domestic and (if possible, more frighteningly) foreign policy. this is a minimal delve into all that conservatism is, but we really don’t have that kind of time.
also, these are often the people who deify ayn rand…which…no.

all this non-updated blog business is starting to make me feel really guilty.

it’s ok though, because i have *nearly* survived this semester. nearly…

grizzly bear, “little brother (electric version)“

kings of convenience, “peacetime resistance“

1. yogurt isn’t as bad as it is that first time.
2. falling in love feels like the most intense thing you will ever experience. it is…but then, it isn’t.
3. spending the extra cash to not compromise (but instead get what you really want) is worth it about 75% of the time.
4. you can never really get tired of Mexican food.
5. learning how to cook is the most valuable skill you can reasonably expect to learn.
6. there is no such thing as having too many books, or too fast of an internet connection.
7. it’s a good thing to cry during the movie.
8. you can always be just a little more organized.
9. there is totally such a thing as “too much [insert substance here].” that being said, there are a very small number of occasions when it is best to turn to drugs or alcohol instead of really dealing with an issue.
10. six hours is not a full night of sleep.
11. being afraid to open up is just as bad as being entirely too open.
12. older women are better, always.
13. when moving to a new city, finding a place that serves (and delivers!) your favorite comfort food will stave off your homesickness for a while.
14. there does come an age when you are too old for a futon.
15. being nervous, and having a fear of public speaking, is all about your state of mind. it’s totally within your control. UPDATE: so are the munchies.
16. you never get exactly what you want, and the earlier in your life that you realize this, all the better.
17. the anticipation of leisure when you’ve been working is a strong motivator.
18. when you move into a new place, the first thing you should do is locate the circuit breaker. the second thing is to check the water pressure.
19. it’s worth the snobby hipster points you accumulate for going out and getting yourself 1) a french press coffee maker and 2) a good record player.
20. little gestures go a long way. taking the time to handwrite a note conveying gratitude is the kind of thing people aren’t likely to soon forget.
21. if you’ve read a particularly good book, you’ll find it useful to recommend it to a friend (so now you have someone to gush to).
22. you can feel “too old” or “too young” at almost any age. qualifiers are a part of life, & without them, we’re all just waiting on a feeling.