patchmonkey.net

New School University Commencement: “Last week, a family friend of an accused American guard in Iraq recited the atrocities inflicted by our enemies on Americans, and asked: ‘Must we be held to a different standard?’ My answer is YES. Not only because others expect it. WE must hold ourselves to a different standard. Not only because God demands it, but because it serves our security.”

Historians vs. George W. Bush

My assessment is that George W. Bush?s record on running up debt to burden our children is the worst since Ronald Reagan; his record on government surveillance of citizens is the worst since Richard Nixon; his record on foreign-military policy has gotten us into the worst foreign mess we?ve been in since Lyndon Johnson sank us into Vietnam; his economic record is the worst since Herbert Hoover; his record of tax favoritism for the rich is the worst since Calvin Coolidge; his record of trampling on civil liberties is the worst since Woodrow Wilson. How far back in our history would we need to go to find a presidency as disastrous for this country as that of George W. Bush has been thus far? My own vote went to the administration of James Buchanan, who warmed the president?s chair while the union disintegrated in 1860-61.

Get Me Rewrite!

Stories make the world go around. So how come liberals can?t tell one?

So, it’s been one of those down times again.

And I have a sinking feeling that the number of people who check this page has once again dropped off signifigantly…Yeah, just checked the stats, it’s down a bit.

It’s my fault, I know. There’s not really any compelling interest to keep people here. I don’t have a camera on my mobile phone, so there’s no real way to “moblog”. I’m just working for my dad, and I’m not really writing lately, so there’s nothing there.

Being in college was really good for my website - I kept it coming out, I suppose. I really haven’t been able to keep my eye on this as much as I want.

Really, what am I going to write about? Something like “Today, I woke up. Then I ate. Then I worked. Then I went to the gym, then I ate some more, and now I’m sitting here and then soon going to bed.” Isn’t that dumb? But that’s what a lot of people use this for.

I keep trying to put out more of Getting Home Wednesday, or write my comic’s script, or even do something exciting, but it’s not very much so in my life at the moment. I could say something about how bad Bush is, but there’s plenty of that out there, and I’m not really saying anything new at this point. I could always post my economic stimulus plan or something, but it’s sort of secret at the moment.

I’m not sure. I keep having this feeling that I should be more exciting, but that this is an off year. A year to rest. Maybe what I need is to start carrying around my camera with me. I hate saying “Oh, that would be a great picture.” I really should keep it on me at all times. That might help liven things up.

So might doing 20 hours of homework a night. Law school should prove interesting also.

I keep having a craving to experience more things. I need to get out of this place, for real. I need to explore. I’m halfway tempted to snag a GPS unit and, at the very least, begin Geocaching or something. I want to go back to Japan. I want to go to Europe. I want to see more things and then write about them!

I need more money, just like everyone else.

Re:Blame Public Education (not funding) (Score:5, Insightful)
by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 03, @12:37PM (#9041608)
I did my highschool and undergrad in India. Back there, the people who were respected were not the jocks or the cool guys, but the smart ones and the toppers.

People looked upto the guy who went to science fairs and won prizes, and the guy who could solve differential equations by graphs.

Coolness was not a factor - how geniune a person you were and how smart a person you were was what mattered. Social life was not a function of how well you pretended or how well you could throw a ball - it was a function of who you were as a person.

Geek and nerd were used as complimentary terms - the smart ones were called “genes” or “genies”, a friendly term respecting their intelligence and skills.

I come here and notice that being smart or good is being made fun of - this, despite the fact that I’m in one of the US’s top engineering schools. The ones with the social life are the ones who show off or the ones who throw ball. Even here, being really smart or nerdy is looked down. People do not respect the need for some of us to be introverted and reclusive, and people are branded as obnoxious or stereotyped as nerds or geeks, most often in a derogatory manner.

Am I bitter? Absolutely.

I come from an environment where both my parents went to grad school, half the people in my family are PhDs and my uncle is a quantum physicist at CERN. When I was in middle and high school, I wanted to be a physicist or a mathematician. Social life was not an issue, it was always a given.

I thought that the US would be a haven for scientists and engineers, but I come here and see that except for some people in the academia, people do not really respect science. People like to use the work that scientists do, but do not like them - the populace is either scared or jealous of really smart people.

The haven that is equal for all that America once was is gone - today, all that I see is people who are scared of most foreigners, and people who discrimate against the very smart ones in your own country.

People like Jack Valenti are willing to sacrifice the rights of the smartest of America for the profits of a few. People want to justify that not going to school and getting experience is somehow better than people who work their asses through grad school. Money is your new God and Television is all that America seeks.

The guy who used to sit next to me in class and had won International Math and Physics Olympiad championships got a fellowship at CMU, but dropped out because his research needed defence approval. He is now in Tel Aviv working on the same stuff, with no hassles whatsoever.

As I write this, I see an ad on TV advertising for ITT Technical Institute saying how they will change your life, and saying how a career in IT will get you the hot babes and the cool cars. Is that why you want to do science? I wanted to do science because I loved science. I wanted to do science because since childhood, I enjoyed doing it. I did not do it because I wanted the cool cars or the hot babes (although, I did know that I will have a better salary than most and that did help a little).

If you want to set your system straight, look at the problems. Make sure the next generation knows that science and engineering saves lives and improves our quality of living. Throwing a ball does not matter, its not going to pay your bills when you are 40 and has no more entertainment value than a clown. Actors and entertainment artists are given importance. I do not see people going to Orchestras, I see people flocking to Britney Spears.

I grew up in an environment where USSR was India’s friend, and had Russian comics. Misha was a popular one, and all the kids in my generation wanted to be like Yuri Gargarin. We all wanted to be as smart as Einstein. Kids wrote essays about winning the Nobel Prize. We grew up in an environment where our parents and teachers helped us make Tesla coils in our middle school, so that they can demonstrate the effects of electricity.

My school library was full of books written by Asimov and Clarke, and we grew up aspiring to be pioneers in science and technology.

I thought the US would be like this, but after coming here, its been a disappointment. I’m just very sad, because given your resources and your intelligentsia, you could be so much more.

You have some of the world’s brightest, and smartest. You have resources which the rest of the world would die for. You have the means, but you are simply not using them.

Do not let your leaders bring down the innovators in your country, please. The fact that I feel so much for this nation is why I’m typing such a long rant, depite everything you have the power to move people. But if you do not act in time, it will be your downfall.

~m

I often forget to pick up salad dressing as I leave the Wawa with a salad. It’s just something that doesn’t run across my mind as I’m heading to work, for some reason.

And the clerk never points it out. I never get “Hey, don’t forget the dressing!”, which is what I really need some mornings.

So I’ve become creative in using things around the office to “make” salad dressing. Here are some of my decisions, good and bad:

Mustard: Okay, but honey mustard is better.
BBQ Sauce: Excellent on salads and on chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A.
Duck Sauce: Not so great.

So, the site’s been down for a few days while a scenario played out - apparently my old host “took the money and ran”, so to speak, so another hosting provider quickly took over and helped get everything up and running.

But then it took so long, so I just switched to another webhost with excellent reviews and better pricing.

But we’re back, and good to go, as far as I can tell!

Also, I got invited to try out Gmail, from Google. As near as I can tell, it’s kind of neat, although I could see why it’s scary to a lot of people. I’m a little scared, but I’m not using it for anything personal right now, so it’s fine.