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wNov 16, 2005 | |
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tea is good. my stomach has hated me for the last 3 days or so. For you fools keeping up with Ghost Hunters, I actually updated tonight. Hopefully, regular updates will resume after Thursday's exams for a day or two, and then after Monday's exam into Thanksgiving week, where I'll hopefully have enough time despite working feverishly on papers. AOL Instant Messaging service has pissed me off for the last time and I'm using Trillian. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with Trillian. The skin is ugly, I can't figure out how to turn off the irritating beeping noises, I can't figure out how to see font colors, or how to change mine to my favorite blue color. Also, I don't know what the beeps mean yet, so every time I hear one, I'm checking all of my conversations and scanning the entire buddy list, trying to figure out what the hell happened. So if anyone uses Trillian and wants to give me some pointers, feel free to im me. There's a link to im my AOL s/n on the sidebar, and has been for the last....hell, I don't even know how long. It snowed tonight, starting right before my anime club started. I stood out in it for about 3 minutes, just because I could. The flakes were huge and wet. And so was I, when I came inside (wet, not huge). If you've been following the news, you've probably heard about that kid in Pennsylvania who supposedly shot his 14-year-old girlfriend's parents and kidnapped her? He has a xanga journal: http://www.xanga.com/haydren Weird stuff, yo. She had one too, but it was deactivated at some point today. I was proud of myself for being able to find those. It's so weird to read, though. Most of the comments left on the latest post (nigh on 700) are from teenagers - a lot of whom were his friends, or knew him/her somehow. Reading his xanga is a strange experience. He seems like a normal kid, to me, even down to not realizing that xanga is an obnoxious choice of blogging tool. WEIRD. I don't think I've mentioned the riots in France in here yet, but I did come across an article today (actually, I think it was forwarded to us by my ethnic studies professor) that basically voiced what I think is important about the whole affair, and what happens when a society tries to become "color blind" before first fixing its problems surrounding the illusion of race. "The system is theoretically defensible but ineffective in practice," continues Professor Simon. "Instead of having the positive effects that were hoped for, it has the opposite effect." That supposedly color-blind treatment has not led to equal outcomes is clear from the suburbs where violence exploded two weeks ago: The poorest districts of French cities are overwhelmingly inhabited by North African and black African immigrants and their descendants who complain bitterly about discrimination. "Your name says everything in France," says a young black man in the Paris suburb of Grigny, who gave his name as Billy Fabrice. "If you are called Diallo or Amir, that's all they want to know. If you are called Jean-Pierre, you show up for a job and they take you." ..."In spirit and behavior I am French, but my skin color is black," says Abdelouaye Juye, a retired woodworker who left Senegal 31 years ago. "How can I be asked to integrate into my own country? "What do they mean by integration?" he asks, hitching up his gray jellabah, a dress-like garment. "Putting on a jacket and tie? Conforming with everything my neighbor expects? Do all citizens have to be 100 percent conformist?" ..."Rejection of ethnic separatism must be matched by a recognition of differences," he argued. "France as a society could become a threat to itself unless it manages to combine integration with differences and universalism with individual cultural rights." Entire article here. Lastly, there is this trend that a lot of people have with their blogs. Well, not a lot of people, but just something people have the tendency to do once they get a healthy influx of visitors on their blog/website in general. What is this trend? Making wishlists, usually at amazon.com. Yes, you can make a link (right on your site!) to a list of DVDs, books, and CDs that you want. What happens when you make a wishlist? Do other people buy things for you? Is it just to remind yourself, "Oh yeah, I want to get those things"? Because if making a list like that when you have a steady visitor rate means that people will buy you shit, I would definitely make one. I can't even count how many books I'd like to own. Let alone anime DVDs. Maybe the West Wing DVDs. CDs - lots of those. This beast averages 45 unique visitors per day. You could all chip in, maybe. Maybe I should get one of those PayPal things that say "Donate!" Donate to what?! My general welfare? Donate to buy Jackie manga or used books? Donate to buy Jackie's dinner Saturday night when she eats somewhere on State Street? I thought having Google ads on the sidebar of my blog was cool because I could earn money with it ($50 over the course of about 3 years, at the rate I was going). But then I realized how ugly they were, and that I don't blog for money. If writing in my blog was how I made my living, I could respect that. I can respect The Homeless Guy having a "Make a Donation" button. I can respect that, but beyond that, not so much. I was going to study a lot today, but instead I spent the afternoon comatose on the bed and then restudied what I'd studied yesterday. Maybe a bit before bed. I wish the snow had stuck to the ground. I want to run outside and roll in it or something. Upon studying my notes, I've decided that I write more coherently when I'm half asleep. Not sure why that is, but I guess it's a good skill to have. Maybe my subconscious makes me write more down because it knows I won't actually remember as much. Or something. Current Music: RHYTHM NATION - Hellsing OST scribbled mystickeeper at 1:01 AM  
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