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1. I discovered something very interesting today. Presumably owing to my recent experiences with “altered states of mind,” I am now more keenly aware of the way I feel or my state of mind. What brought on this realization was the way I felt after draining a double espresso this morning. Although I’ve done this numerous times before, I noticed today the way that the sudden rush of caffeine made me feel– I could sense that the caffeine put me in an altered state of mind. It felt as though the neurons in by brain were firing just a little faster, and even when I wasn’t thinking about anything it seemed that my mind was trying to race. I couldn’t concentrate as well as I normally do. This feeling wore off after about 20 minutes. The point of all this is that my self-awareness has been increased and I am now more aware of being sober because I’ve been not sober.

2. I watched Roger & Me today in my film class. I’ve come to a conclusion: I really like Michael Moore. I’ve heard him criticized for various reasons, but for me it comes down to this: he’s someone who sees things in the world around him that suck, and he tries to make it a little better. I think that’s commendable. Some people don’t like his methods of going about it. Fine. At least he’s doing something. I don’t think I’ve ever met a naysayer who has done anything positive or constructive for the world around him/her.

Roger & Me (4/5 stars) was a typical Moore film, wrought with sardonic humor, interesting facts, and (of course) lots of Moore’s voiceover. It chronicles the economic impact of General Motor’s decision to relocate many of their major production plants from Moore’s home town, Flint Michigan, to Mexico. The film also makes commentary on the place and responsibilities of a the idea of a corporation in regards to communities and society as a whole. If one enjoys Moore’s other works, one is sure to like Roger & Me. Likewise, if Fahrenheit 9/11 failed to endear itself to you, Roger & Me is likely to fail as well.

3. There was definitely a third subject for me to write about, but for the life of me I can’t remember it. I was amazingly tired this evening, and ended up sleeping in several interesting places in the Quad dining room for almost 6 hours. Maybe this whole “sleeping-every-now-and-then” thing is catching up. Lord only knows.

4. It’s come to my attention that Blog! looks really bad in Internet Explorer. For those who still haven’t converted to Firefox I’m attempting to fix things for IE users. For the best viewing experience, however, I recommend Firefox.

5. Is it Saturday night yet??

Excerpt from an interesting article on medical marijuana:

The Bush administration argues that Congress has found no accepted medical use of marijuana and needs to be able to eradicate drug trafficking and its social harms.

Eradicate drug trafficking? Social harms? Let’s break this up.

1. Eradicate drug trafficking. On face, it’s not at all a bad idea. Drug trafficing typically is associated with organized crime, which certainly is not a positive or contributing branch of society. Mark Thornton, a professor of economics at Auburn University writes “National prohibition of alcohol (1920-33)–the ‘noble experiment’–was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. The results of that experiment clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts. The evidence affirms sound economic theory, which predicts that prohibition of mutually beneficial exchanges is doomed to failure.” He continues that ” although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition, it subsequently increased. Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; crime increased and became ‘organized’; the court and prison systems were stretched to the breaking point; and corruption of public officials was rampant. No measurable gains were made in productivity or reduced absenteeism. Prohibition removed a significant source of tax revenue and greatly increased government spending. It led many drinkers to switch to opium, marijuana, patent medicines, cocaine, and other dangerous substances that they would have been unlikely to encounter in the absence of Prohibition” (source).

There’s nothing I could say to state my point better.

2. Social harms. Aside from the obviously harms associated with the active prohibition of marijuana (thriving organized crime, overcrowded prisons, etc) what exactly are these social harms that the Bush administration is referring to? And isn’t the administration headed by a man who, when put to direct questioning, can only tell the American people that he hasn’t used cocaine (never mind marijuana– he doesn’t even bother to deny using that) for at least seven years? A man who was described by Newsweek as seeming “to have majored in beer drinking at the Deke House” for his college years? (The very same man who now travels the country lecturing students on staying celibate, sober and drug free.) Is that the kind of social harm that our government is trying to protect us from? Being forced to admit that our president used and enjoyed the very drugs that he’s now adamantly fighting against? Obviously he turned out alright (or completely wrong, depending on how you look at it).

Regardless, I’m just blown away by the hypocrisy and frightening puritanicalism that’s demonstrated by the Bush administration with regards to marijuana laws.

I just finished watching the recently remastered and released Star Wars episodes IV, V and VI back to back with my roommates. Go us! The LOTR marathon (extended director’s cuts, of course) in January is going to be insanity. 12 hours of LORT. I just hope I have someone to cuddle with. =)

So here’s the deal. I want to go see The Nutcracker performed on the 3rd of December, but I’m not going to go alone. My goal is to get a date for it. Doing so should be a reasonable goal. We’ll see how things go.

“I’m sick of following my dreams, man. I’m just going to ask them where they’re going, and hook up with them later.” -Mitch Hedberg

***

From Friday night (I didn’t have internet so I couldn’t post it):

Ah. 5:52 AM. And I still haven’t gone to bed. From Thursday. Hell yeah!

I’m at a lan right now, and we’re in the process of distributing UT2004, leading to a lengthy break while we wait for ~4gb of data to be copied from machine to machine. Tonight has been so much fun. I’ve met a number of really fun guys, and the games have been all sorts of wild. And I’m going on two days without going to bed, making this the longest stretch I’ve ever gone without sleep. It’s not bad. Not bad at all. It’s going to hit me hard, though. Along similar lines, I need to be up in time to pick Jenny up from the airport by 4:00PM today.

As I write this, I’m listening to the Goo Goo Dolls (I still find their music to be overwhelmingly beautiful) and enjoying a moment of serenity and repose. It’s cold outside; it snowed on and off yesterday afternoon. This weekend is expected to be especially cold, which I’m looking forward to, so long as the roads are clear and dry by Wednesday. This is wonderful. I need more mountain dew.

***

So now it’s Sunday. I didn’t get out of bed until around 3:00, which I’m rather proud of myself for. Last night, after picking Jenny up from the airport and dinner with her I went back to my dorm. I went and played pool and saw Without A Paddle with a few people from my Quad. Without A Paddle (1.5/5 stars) was as bad as it looked. To it’s credit, it wasn’t worse than it looked, but it certainly wasn’t any better. When a 100″ fall from the top of a waterfall fails to generate more than a few half-hearted laughs and the plotline is largely driven by two grossly over-stereotyped backwoods hill-billies, it’s amazing that I laughed at all.

Tonight was great. It started by watching a movie called Monsoon Wedding with my T&C class across campus. The movie itself was the chronicle of an upper-class(or upper-caste, in the case) Indian (dots) wedding. The wedding and its traditions were as beautiful as the film’s direction and cinematography, creating a wonderful experience for me, as the viewer.

Walking out from the film, I was greeted with two inches of fresh snow (it was cold, but certainly not even hinting of snow when I walked to the movie). The snow was coming down in what’s perhaps the largest flakes I’ve ever seen: overwhelmingly beautiful and serene. Back at the Quad, however, things certainly weren’t peaceful. During the next hour or so, I participated in a massive snowball fight. There were 20-30 people involved making for good times.

When I eventually tired of the snowball fight, I went inside, changed into the pajama pants and a hoodie, and made coffee & cookies, which I enjoyed while watching The Big Lebowski. I haven’t yet formed an opinion as to the movie, other than to say that it had some very humorous parts.

With The Big Lebowski finished, I started into Heist (4/5 stars), the quintessential heist movie. Although there was nothing outstandingly unique or original about it, Heist was entertaining from start to finish with no shortage of plot twists and turns to keep the viewer on one’s toes. Great performances by Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito added character and flavor; the ending, in my estimation, was just about perfect. Overall, the movie was clever and well executed, and well worth the watch.

It is now 2:49AM, and I have homework to be doing. But it’s Thursday night, which means that I’m not going to bed. I have a paper to write, and some French homework to do (not to mention some chem catchup so I don’t fail the next test).

(Magritte’s The Lovers II)

…
The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights
Her stove, and lays out food in tins.
Out of the window perilously spread
Her drying combinations touched by the sun’s last rays,
On the divan are piled (at night by her bed)
Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays.
I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs
Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest–
I too awaited the expected guest.
He, the young man carbuncular, arrives,
A small house agent’s clerk, with one bold stare,
One of the low on whom assurance sits
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.
The time is now propitious, as he guesses,
The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,
Endeavors to engage her in caresses
Which still are unreproved, if undesired.
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
Exploring hands encounter no defense;
His vanity requires no response,
And makes a welcome of indifference.
(And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
Enacted on this same divan or bed;
I who have sat by Thebes below the wall
And walked among the lowest of the dead.)
Bestows one final patronizing kiss,
And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit…
(Excerpt from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land)

Heh. I suck. I just typed this post, and due to a slight error in my code, it went floating off to cyberspace. *tsk* Regardless…

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the Blog! interface has significantly changed. You will need to log in again using the “log in” link on the navigation bar. There’s a few changes you should be aware of:

1. Time Zones. Comments and posts (hopefully) will now be adjusted to match your time zone. To change your time zone, click on the “Update Account” link in the upper right hand corner.

2. Quick Login. Quick Login can be use to log in without going to the separate log in page. Be aware, however, that as a security precaution using “Quick Login” does not set a cookie and so you will be logged out as soon as you close your browser. To remain logged in, us the “log in” link on the navigation bar.

I believe that’s it for right now. Everything else should pretty much be the same. I appreciate everyone’s contributions and suggestions. There’re still a lot of bugs to be worked out, but in the mean time things should be useable.

I went to an interesting session tonight on “how to survive police encounters” with content provided by the ACLU. Here’s a few of the interesting ideas and things I learned:

Link to an early beta of Blog 3.0:
Blog beta

It should make it easier to read things, at the very least.

As a brief distraction from my homework:

William Butler Yeats is generally considered to be the greatest 20th century poet of the English language. I find it humorous, then, that during one of the last letters he wrote, after receiving an operation (at age 69) to increase sexual potency, he told his friend that

I shall be a sinful man to the end, and think upon my deathbed of all the nights I wasted in my youth. ~W.B. Yeats

Yeah. How ’bout that.