What makes that OK?

So, I have this teacher. A teacher who works hard, is always well prepared, and is enthusiastic about his subject almost to the point of over-enthusiasm.
And then there are these students. Students who may or may not do the readings and are obviously not invested in the class. And what do they do? They sit in the classroom and for the majority of the class time proceed to make faces at the rest of the class in order to make it BLINDINGLY obvious that they think the professor is an idiot. Well, to those people, I have only this to say:

You clearly do not deserve the effort that he is putting into this class to at least TRY and make it interesting. Yes, the subject matter is boring, but that's a curriculum fault. It's a requirement for your major, so SUCK IT UP and stop acting like you have better places to be. At that time, odds are you really don't. If you stopped looking for the slightest faults in every word of every sentence you may actually find yourself ::gasp:: learning something! What a novel idea, right?

I'll never understand how people can do that. Yes, I've had some teachers in my life that I definitely did not agree with. I even had some teachers that I thought perhaps should not be teaching. But, they are STILL your teacher, and with that title comes respect. Respect that means they should not get up in front of the classroom and have to worry about who is making snide remarks and annoyed faces during class.

That's my rant. I'll edit it when I stop being so mad.

So, Semester 2 may officially kill me. There's no volleyball, so you'd think that I would have oodles of spare time that I can use to study and do homework, but really all it amounts to is that I have more time to procrastinate. This blog, along with my new addiction to Twitter and my constant Facebook-love are enabling that procrastination... But oh well! I know I can buckle down when I need to (read as: tonight and tomorrow I need to actually do work ).

Also, rumor has it that David Plouffe is coming to Goucher. I REALLY hope that's true; I was excited to see Ron Paul but I'm more pumped for Plouffe.

In other news, the New York Rangers fired Tom Renney! I'm sad to see him (and Perry Pearn) go, because I had met Renney and told him my whole family's obsession with the team as well as the origins of my brother Mark's name. (Named after Mark Messier, post-Stanley Cup in '94) At the same time, the Rangers have been very lethargic and seemingly unhappy about playing recently, with 10 losses in 12 games, and maybe, hopefully, this change will be good for them!
http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=268362

Alright, I got proposals to write and pages to read. Adios!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Being at school, it never really hit me that there was only about a week until Christmas. I left a cold and dreary Goucher with no real signs that the holidays were approaching to come home; I pulled up to a house decked out in lights, with the Christmas tree visible through the upstairs windows. Wreaths and garlands adorn doorways and banisters, the nativity scene by the staircase is sans baby Jesus for a few more days, and the little light up village glows peacefully from its place in the dining room. All of these sights reinforce the fact that Christmas is almost upon us- but one thing that really brings it home for me is the way the house smells. The pine scent from the tree spreads through the house and as soon as you enter the door you're well aware of what time of year it is.

So, our stockings have been hung and the little mechanical carolers are swaying away. I have yet to do ANY Christmas shopping, but hopefully that will change soon. It was supposed to change today, but Mother Nature decided it was going to remind me of the season again and dump over a half a foot of snow on us.


I hope everyone has a joyous holiday season, I know Hanukkah starts at sunset on the 21st... oh hey, it's Friday today, so that means I owe all my favorite Jews a big Shabbat Shalom!


Happy Holidays! I'm off to revise the Story of Christmas and edit the cast list.

It's the least/most wonderful time of the year...

So winter break is almost upon us, but before we all get over a month to chill and not worry about papers and tests and homework we have... well, what I can only describe as the point in the semester when I have an incredibly strong urge to burn down the library. Goucher's campus has a lot more zombies now than during HvZ. But I don't have to worry about getting pegged by Nerf guns.

Before our actual finals we have the distinct pleasure of an epic week wherein multiple papers and projects are due. Papers and projects that I, being the expert procrastinator that I am, have managed to put off.

It's all my own fault. But I still like to bitch about it.

Also, if only I could delegate this Christmas Pageant to a younger cousin... hmm.... Maybe it's time to leave the directing to the 15 year olds. I can't believe we still do this thing.



On a happier note- one week 'til home! As much as I love the Gooch, there's something about Jersey that I miss. And there's also Christmas, and Advent calendars, and family parties. And driving to NY to see all my cousins. And my friends, and my parents, and my brothers! Sweeeeet.

I'm ready to peace out. I don't recognize what sleep is anymore.
I leave you with this.
A beautiful, beautiful man. And though Richter will always be the epitome of a Rangers goalie, Lundqvist is closing the gap between 1 and 2. You just gotta win us a Cup, Henrik!

No kidding with the change...

Volleyball's over. Well, not entirely (we have 6 practices left with coach) BUT we have no more games and are no longer allowed to use the court. It's a strange feeling to know that something that has consumed my life the first half of this semester is done. What to do with all this spare time? I could... sleep more. Read more. Or maybe do my homework without getting motion sickness from a bus! The options are nearly endless.

I just need to make sure I don't spend all that extra time on Facebook. or on here. The internet is a dangerous place for people prone to procrastination, such as myself.


That's all I got for now, unless I want to rant for a million years about how the season ended.
Which no one wants to hear, and I don't think I want anyone to hear. Ergh.



AND THE RANGERS LOST. GOSH DARN-IT.

Change I Do Believe In.

"They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change things yourself." -Andy Warhol

The man who has inspired a nation and the people who voted for him now have the responsibility to work as hard as they can to bring immense change to this nation, for the better.

Yes we can.

I spent the day watching CNN, taking in results from the first town to report in the United States, little Dixville Notch which chose a Democratic candidate for the first time since 1968, to the announcement that Obama was the presumptive President-Elect. My roommate and I had devised our own little activity to keep us even more engaged and excited than we already are. As I sit here I can look over at the map we colored in, state by state, and smile. That map, and the results it shows, make me so excited for the future of this nation.

Yes we can, and yes we did.

It gives me a sense of pride to know that the first election I was able to participate in was such a monumental one. The first black president ever. Some of the biggest voter turnouts in a long time. An election that made young people like myself so excited about its outcome that we cheered for the outcome of Pennsylvania as if our favorite team had just won the Stanley Cup.

This is a moment I will never forget. As the final result sunk in, we could hear yelling filtering through the open window. It was much of the population of Goucher having an impromptu party on the residential quad, elated about the news they had just received and shouting it as loud as they could. Chants of "O-ba-ma", "Yes We Can" and "USA" rattled off the buildings that surrounded us, hugs were given out like candy, and the smile could not be wiped of my face.

We moved into the Gopher Hole to hear Obama speak, a speech that moved many (admittedly, myself included) to tears. He promised to not only be the president of that percentage of the nation that elected him, and vowed that even if not everyone would not put their vote behind him, he would always listen to their voice. In a line he has used before Obama said that we are not "red states and blue states, but the United States of America."


So I'm in an immensely good mood right now; I'm holding onto hope that Prop 8 will not pass, though many of the other bans on gay marriage seem to have passed, unfortunately.

Get a good night's sleep, everyone, we now count down eagerly to January!

Food for thought.

I got a very interesting e-mail from my mother the other day which made me think even harder about some things, namely, this election. Oh, I'm still positive that Obama is the man for the job, but the e-mail brought about some interesting points that I had never thought of (and in some cases, didn't know existed). Here it is:

Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin; what if things were switched around?.....think about it.

Would the country's collective point of view be different? Could racism be the culprit?

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.

There are some facts about McCain in there that I had heard nothing about, such as the fact that he was part of the Keating Five scandal (which I had to research to learn about) or the fact that his wife was formerly addicted to pain killers. The Obamas were so thoroughly vetted that I guess I just assumed that the McCains had all of their dirty laundry aired out as well. Maybe because the controversy surrounding these things was older, people didn't bring them up because it was rehashing issues that had already been discussed? If that was the case, I don't think that logic is completely sound, when these issues may also not be remembered by the common voter who is trying to make an informed decision.



On a completely separate note, the Rangers' organization is mourning the loss of one of their own, Alexei Cherepanov. The 19 year old was the Rangers' first draft pick in the 2007 draft and was playing in the Russian KHL this year. From what I've managed to gather, Cherepanov was playing in a game when he collided with Jaromir Jagr, his teammate. Cherepanov made his way back to the bench where he collapsed and his heart stopped. After he was moved to a hospital in Moscow doctors attempted to revive him, but he was later declared dead.
The fact that a young, fit man can die so suddenly is scary to think about- Cherepanov was only a few months older than I am. My prayers go out to his family and friends.


Questions are also being asked now as to why there was no defibrillator on hand. In the case of Jiri Fisher, a defibrillator is credited with saving his life.


Homework time is now upon me; I have an hour before I need to be on the bus to CND for tonight's game! Night.