Its been two weeks since my tests and I have, I think, finally gotten used to having free time that I dont have to feel guilty about. So I started reading NY Times, and quickly, as usual, became very depressed.

For almost a month, my news consumption had hit an all time low. I looked at the NY Times main page, scanned for what I thought was the most important/interesting and that was about it. I was feeling rather bad about being so uninformed, but I needed to study.

Sidebar
Caltech is a perfect place to study because you are surrounded by people who will always be 10x smarter than you on their worst day. This motivated me, since most of the people I smiled at while walking on campus, refused to return the sentiment. "Im smart dammit!" I wanted to scream, but would then return to my room and attempt to relearn 4 years of college biology and hang my head in despair.

Warm fuzzy CSET studying trivia: I had been studying some chemistry and came across the work of Robert Millikan, who found the charge of an electron from oil droplets suspended between two electrodes (WTF?!, I know). I then went on tour of Caltech and what do we come across? A bust of Robert fuckin Millikan, who was once president of Caltech. <3

Oh, one more Caltech warm fuzzy. SoCal just happened to have an earthquake, a rather large one, and who was everyone looking to for info? Caltech.

Anyways, back to depressing news. So today, I finally got back into the routine of reading the news, and I just became increasingly upset at what I was reading, beating myself up that I cannot change the world tomorrow. How long can I take these beatings? I dont know. What I do know is that it is rather unhealthy and cant possible be helping me fight my issue with chronic stress. So....just to included everyone in on the fun, here are two articles that make me want to jump out a window.

'The Jungle', Again
The Biggest Issue

(Yes, I realize they are op-ed's but that doesnt mean they still dont piss me off)

Besides all that, Im well, and excited to return back to my life in a little over a week, with some new exciting/terrifying additions. : )

P.S. I now have a facebook and it has (of course) become an addiction

All grown up....

The Chatterbox a cool place to hang out

So my friend's bar is in the newspaper today and I cant help but be proud. Having been a patron since the beginning, I have many fond (and not so fond) memories of this place, so Im happy that it has grown to be successful. Plus, it has Negro Modelo...my favorite beer, thanks Ralph.



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Now playing: The Twilight Sad - Mapped By What Surrounded Them
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OOOOOHHHHHGGGHHHHHH!

Cheney’s Office and the Course of Climate Policy

The White House, in 2004 and 2008, has said that any presidential administration has every right to adjust or shape information flowing through the government agencies it manages. A central defender of the Bush administration’s vetting of last fall’s testimony on climate and health was John H. Marburger III, the president’s science adviser. In my 2004 story, displaying his usual candor, Dr. Marburger justified administration actions of this sort this way:

“So there’s always going to be a tilt in an administration like this one to a certain set of actions that you take to achieve some policy objective,” he said. “In general, science may give you some limits and tell you some boundary conditions on that set of actions, but it really doesn’t tell you what to do.”

There's a lot of shit going on today...
6 Die in Attact on U.S. Post in Turkey
Iran Reports Missile Test in Show of Force
Senate Backs Wiretap Bill to Shield Phone Companies (this one breaks my heart)



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NatalieDee

So today I find out about Obama's stance on late term abortion and what he thinks are good enough reasons for it. Now, Obama is starting to piss me off. I know he can't please everyone, and Im ok with that, but when men start talking about what they think validates an abortion, i get a little nutty. Especially when its to pander to the pro-lifers, who don't give a shit about life once that baby is born to a mother who is either too poor, young, abused, scared or all of the above.

You know how you reduce abortion? EDUCATION and access to REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE. Yup, all that abstinence training is a bunch of bull shit. You can't have our teens watching/listening oversexed media and then think they'll wait till marriage before getting down. Does nobody in Washington remember how they felt at 16?! And for the rest of us, we all know our lives change at the drop of a hat, no matter how much we prepare and plan. Why do we have to keep trying to win those voters when they'll never accept anything but making abortion illegal?

There is no way Ill vote for McCain, but that Obama magnet I have on my car is starting to bother me.


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Whew!!
So I have internet, but now I just dont have any time. I am coming up on my second week of being an RA at Caltech and Im exhausted. Its non stop entertaining and although I enjoy my residents and the activities, I really miss doing absolutely nothing. In the past couple days Ive spent the day at the beach in Santa Monica, watched fireworks in Pasadena, been to Hollywood and Universal Studios Citywalk. Im burnt crispy and my feet hurt. Today is the Getty. To top it all off, im studying for my CSET on the 19th. Ugh.

Being at Caltech has been pretty amazing, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think Id be living on this campus. Just being in close proximity to great science research makes me giddy. The people I work with have become great friends and we spent last night eating ridiculously amazing scones ( on of my bosses is going to school to be a baker) and laughing so much my stomach hurt. Im tired but blissfully happy.


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Now playing: Sean Lennon - Wasted
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I had to link to this blog entry because I think it kicks ass. I am often thought of as an angry, irrational and hysterical person because of my political views and that usually shuts me up because Im tired of fighting with assholes. Basically it means I need to find some new people to hang out with. Anyways, woot woot!

I decided to dedicate this post to the code words typically attributed to feminists. Of course you cannot point out social injustice without being angry, irrational, and hysterical. All logical people naturally exist as automatons, going through their days parroting the status quo. Only an unbalanced person would even begin to think that the system we live under could possibly be unfair. What do you mean all men operate with gender privilege? In fact even pointing out that calling a feminist angry, irrational, and hysterical is sexist, is enough to further entrench the views of some.

Read more

Holy Crap!

I was so dedicated to blogging that I never thought almost 2 months would go by without posting. Thanks to Peter, I have decided to squeeze in at least an update.

Having a job and no internet made it a little tricky to post. By the time I made it through LA traffic after work to the library, I was exhausted and had barely enough mental energy to check my email. Then I started school again, which means reading the news and my beloved blogs is almost nonexistent. So, what kept me alive when I had nothing to do, is now a guilty pleasure. Even now, I feel I should be doing some hw instead of this.

So, Im way behind in the news and this irritates me. I read maybe a few eye catching articles from the NY Times and then I copy and past some others to a Word document that I hope to get to later in the day. It very rarely happens. Now instead of being depressed because of all the bad news, Im depressed that I dont have the time to read all the bad news.

Things I hate:
buying baby stuff
going "green"- its turned into a fad
"green" commercials
where is Heroes?!
traffic
LA it just too big
straightening my hair
not having time to read

Things I love
Countdown with Keith Olbermann (sp?)
museums
my new bangs
living in LA
H&M
NY Times
Pasadena Central library
high school kids
my Ipod shuffel- thanks Jen!
LA Weekly
talking to Peter

ok, ill try to keep this updated at least every 2 weeks!

1) So, while waiting to cross the street, a truck drove by and the man in the passenger seat yelled out “hey!” So I turned to figure out what he wanted, and the fucker started blowing me kisses. To make matters worse, the truck had a Hillary for President sticker on it. Hypocrite.

2) Today is Earth Day and while I’m all for environmentalism, I’m tired of the “green” bullshit. TV commercials by Clorox and Chevron talk about their “green” products or how they are moving towards a more “green” business. Yeah fucking right. If the gas companies hadn’t hired such ruthless lobbyist to keep America dependent on oil, we most likely would not be in the predicament we’re in ( I just paid $3.83/gal for gas the other day and yes, I felt super guilty). Our scientists and engineers would have long ago thought up cleaner, cheaper and less invasive energy sources. “Green” has now become a marketing ploy to BUY MORE STUFF WE DON’T NEED.

3) On Thursday I have to teach a lesson in front of a class, a principal and the school director. It’s, my second interview for a full time teaching position at a charter school and I am terrified. At the moment, I still have yet to hear what I need to teach and how long it should be. I have major planning, studying and practicing to do and so far have less then 2 days to do it. I’m trying to not get so stressed about it, but I really want this position. What ultimately sold me was that there is tons of open space and the director told me that if wanted, I could turn some of it into a garden. Holy Shit, a dream come true. Wish me luck.

4) Here are two op-ed articles I found that I just could not resist posting. In fact, I think they go hand in hand.

Clueless in America

We don’t hear a great deal about education in the presidential campaign. It’s much too serious a topic to compete with such fun stuff as Hillary tossing back a shot of whiskey, or Barack rolling a gutter ball.

The nation’s future may depend on how well we educate the current and future generations, but (like the renovation of the nation’s infrastructure, or a serious search for better sources of energy) that can wait. At the moment, no one seems to have the will to engage any of the most serious challenges facing the U.S.

An American kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds. That’s more than a million every year, a sign of big trouble for these largely clueless youngsters in an era in which a college education is crucial to maintaining a middle-class quality of life — and for the country as a whole in a world that is becoming more hotly competitive every day.

Still with stupid?

With political discourse reduced to screaming contests and actual news eclipsed by exclusive and shocking footage of celebrities without makeup, we've become not only impatient with but downright opposed to the kinds of ideas that can't be reduced to a line on a screen crawl or a two-sentence blog entry.

What's more, a lot of people who harbor an intolerance for complexity see it not as a character flaw but a cognitive virtue. That's because they've fallen into the trap of believing that complicated ideas ("complicated" now constituting anything that requires reading, watching or listening to in its entirety) are the purview of the "elite."