19 October 2005
The top shelf of my bookcase has plenty of wonderful novels I have never finished. But I can't read them now. I'm a slave to my professors until the semester ends. I have a mid-term or project of some kind due every week until the end of the break. I suppose that's alright. If I weren't this busy, I would complain about being bored.
We conducted a simulation in Conflict Resolution today. I seem to have gained a reputation as the eccentric who runs about negotiating a few relevant people, undertaking initiatives without the consent or even knowledge of the other members of my "government." Once a representative of my constituents approached our group.
"There is nothing in the instructions stipulating that we are a democratic government," I told him bluntly. "So as far as I'm concerned, we don't have to listen to a bloody thing you say."
I didn't want my hands tied by domestic constraints. He said nothing to me, but began directing his grievances to other members of the government.
I then undertook bilateral negotiations on my own with other heads of state. I reached a tenative deal with them and later informed the other members of my group that I had done all their work.
Here's my newest article.
12 October 2005
Taking history tests at the upper levels is always a careful balancing act of time and detail. You can never have too much information in your essays, but with limited time, it seems the main challenge is deciding what to leave out.
"Are you going to throw us out of here at 10:50?" asked one of my classmates as he frantically tried to finish his test in time.
"Yeah," said Professor Lewis with characteristic bluntness, not even smiling or allowing a hint of sympathy. And if you don't like it, go to hell, the look on his face seemed to be saying. Such reactions are not uncommon from the retired army major, and rarely fail to evoke eruptions of laughter from the class. This time was no exception.
I didn't sleep last night, but I did have roughly three liters of coke. I wrote more or less exactly the essays I'd planned to write. But I don't know if I had it all right.
My test was on Korea.
MacArthur. 38th parallel. Inchon. Pusan perimeter. Limited war. "Areas and means of our choosing." Eighth Army. Omar Bradley. Kim Il Sung. Dean Acheson's defense perimeter. Kennan. X Corps. 2nd ID. Matthew Ridgway. Containment. NKPA. CCF. Truman Doctrine. Credibility.
My head is going to explode.
It's the grueling midterm period, when all priorities except grades get shelved, on hold until further notice.
But it's my last semester. I only need to take nine credits in the spring.
gypsieeater95: so you're downloading anime illegally off some website?
CaptainKIL: it's just a website your brother showed me!
CaptainKIL: so yes...yes I am.
I'm quickly becoming attached to Full Metal Alchemist. It's become like an after school cartoon, the kind I used to watch in elementary school. I download a new episode every day and watch it when I get home before falling asleep.
Click to be Like Mike.
A lot of jouranlists have written a lot of nonsense about China in the last six months, myself included. This piece stands above the fray.
04 October 2005
Any talk of progress in Iraq should be ignored, by Adam Silva
I'm not afraid to say I don't know whether Iraq is even salvageable at this point, but it's clear it won't be if we follow the path we are currently on.
It's time the American people demanded a comprehensive change of strategy. And the burden is not on we who opposed the war to figure out how to get us out of this ridiculous and unnecessary mess, but on those who got us in it in the first place
But I digress.
Besides, I'm sure Paul Armstrong's next column will tell us how everything is actually just fine and dandy.
Darn right.
Actually my next column is on ID theory, posted below. I expected they would run it Tuesday, but I suppose it wouldn't make much sense to put it right next to Adam's.
03 October 2005
The fundamental problem with recent popular debate over intelligent design theory is that it is anything but intelligent.
It is apparent that the theory has received anything but a fair hearing from its opponents in the mainstream media, many of whom are obviously animated with the same religious fervor that they so indignantly claim to see in their opponents.
I am not a scientist and lack the tools to evaluate ID Theory on scientific grounds. Nonetheless, I've read most of William Dembski's seminal book, Intelligent Design. It's heady stuff. Laymen and those, such as myself, who rarely deal in the hard sciences will not find it easy to grasp.
And this is precisely the point: it's heady scientific stuff. It's even boring. If this were the vain, unscientific, mass appeal to revive popular theories of creation as its opponent depict it, one would expect something better tailored to reach mass audiences.
The problem is that popular charges leveled against ID theory -- that it is not science, but rather "stealth creationism" with the potential to trample the line between church and state -- are baseless slander in the crudest of forms. ID theory's opponents can continue to mindlessly repeat that ID theory is not science enough times to make Dr. Goebbels proud. But how revealing! It shows their weakness, their fear, and their apparent inability to deal with the theory on its own scientific terms.
For indeed, ID theory is science. There is simply no escaping its scientific formulation. It is not theology, but rather hard mathematical and biogenetic data and theories of information that underlie the works of Dembski, Michael Behe, and other famous ID proponents. Indeed, the foundational premises of ID theory have become standard usage for forensic scientists, arson and crime investigators, archaeologists, and others.
But the mainstream media's punditocracy is interested in none of this. Accounts of the most basic features of ID theory are usually given the briefest of rhetorical explanations without even a hint of any relevant biogenetic data or even a mention of the informational dynamics that Dembski utilizes as his theoretical foundation. Thus, a complex theory that has filled hundreds of pages of dozens of books is usually explained with a contemptuous one-paragraph caricature followed by so much more rhetorical preaching, explaining that ID theory is really the fig leaf of a religious agenda.
It seems the self-proclaimed saviors of science are too afraid to use science to refute ID theory. They seem to prefer slander and rhetoric. Dembski and Behe have come to meet them in their arena and on their terms, but they have oddly declined the challenge.
Thus, in a twist of poignant irony, those who so bluntly condemn all religion as the great persecutor of science and the roadblock of truth now find themselves vainly attempting to silence the purveyors of bold new scientific theories whom they evidently cannot defeat on scientific grounds. History indeed repeats itself, but the roles are often reversed.
01 October 2005
This week had two objectives:
1)Ace my test
2)Complete all mandatory homework in the other classes
I didn't sleep. I ate little except fast food. I stopped exercising. Caffeine addiction returned with a vengeance. I have fallen far behind in the readings for my other classes. Everything became subordinate to those two objectives. All other elements that provided a measure of healthy stability to my life became expendable.
I lost my books for History of Korea&Vietnam. I didn't have time for that. I tore my room apart looking for them. Failing to find them, I left for Denton angry with my dog frightened and my temper visibly on display as I walked out the door.
Driving down Highway 380 towards Denton, something bashed into my door. The loud crash into my driver's side door stunned me. I thought the door was probably ruined. I recovered quickly and realized what had happened: something hit my door. As to what exactly, I still don't know. I pulled over and briefly surveyed the damage to my door, and then went on my way. I didn't have time to worry about it.
"Did anyone lose their books?" asked my professor at the beginning of class holding up my books. I raised my hand, walked up to him, and took the books off his hands without a word. I'd been trying to cultivate a good impression in his mind. I visited his office the previous week and secured from him a promise to write me a recommendation for Officer Candidate School. I wondered if he would take more notice of my irresponsibility at leaving my books behind or of my apparent dilligence as testified to by the many yellow sticky notes coming out of the books. Most students don't read in that class. It's too much to keep up with. I suspect he knows that.
My sister is traveling. She needs my matress. We have a bed in the guest room, but I don't want to get too far away from where I work. So I've been sleeping on a matress-less bed lately. But I don't mind. No time to worry about it anyway.
I managed to finish my homework assignment that night and even to get a couple hours of sleep before belatedly coming to my senses and to the realization that I had slept for two hours and would be late to class. I hurriedly ran out the door leaving my freshly printed homework on my desk.
I realized this just as my class on Latin American history class was ready to begin. I hurriedly walked out, ran to my car, and found my cell phone.
"Mom!"
"Hi, buddy."
"I need you to e-mail a file to me."
"Okay, hang on."
"It's called 'PSCI 2300' or something like that. It's a Word file. It should be on my desktop."
"Ah! Here it is all printed out right here on your desk."
"THAT'S GREAT, BUT I NEED THE FILE!"
Mom sent me the file.
I then ran back to the computer lab, waited in line for twenty minutes to get a terminal, and printed it out only a few minutes before it was due.
I spent most of my study time on Wednesday trying to recover my previously functioning PC. I downloaded what I thought were PC roms of Final Fantasy VII. Whenever I need to unwind during such high-stress weeks, I do so at my computer where I'm never too far from my work. I unzipped the file and had to spend much of the rest of the night fighting viruses, trojans, and various forms of spyware.
I did some research on Russia and Chechnya for a group project in a class I had the next morning, and then fell asleep for an hour before i had to get up and go to class.
I frantically studied for my test all night of Thursday night and into Friday morning.
I think I did well. I went home.
I had been looking forward to the Red Sox-Yankees game all week. But I fell asleep and missed it.
