Gregory Arthur's Journal

12:02AM

Which Recurring Kevin Smith Character Are You?</b></a> Take the test here

2:47PM

AssyrianPi: I broke my cell phone
Jen: how'd you pull that off>??
AssyrianPi: It just stopped working
Jen: uh oh
Jen: That's not cool.
Jen: Did you call your dadyet?
AssyrianPi: ....
AssyrianPi: Did I call my dad to tell him my phone was broken?
Jen: ...
Jen: oh.
Jen: I didn'tthink of that.

7:55PM - Splinter

I've decided to have a second journal, since it seems that I use this one for two very different purposes.

Starting soon, this journal will become "friends only" - that is to say, if you are not on my friends list, you will not be able to see shit.

If you are not already on my "friends" list, please e-mail me at arthurg@umd.edu to get on it - otherwise, stop coming here.

The new journal will be writing about political things, and the news, etc... and is located at http://www.livejournal.com/~prima_facie

This one will be personal shit, until a totally new one is created, and then this will be phased out (but this will be the only place to find where that IS). So that's how it is.

5:31PM - Ways you can tell "democracy" does not describe your country...

Note: All of these apply to the USA

1) When China starts taking after your example in silenting dissenters
2) When Henry Kissinger starts saying that maybe you're getting too militant
3) When Canada starts speaking out against you
4) When you start wars by saying "Well, they haven't conclusively proven they are not a threat," despite a country's total disarmament, constant surveilance of them, and utter poverty.

9:25PM

What revolution are You?
Made by altern_active

8:04PM

Test

1:26PM - And the ARI goes completely insane.

The Forgotten Heros of 9/11

I love when they write articles which are just total nonsequiters. "You know what we should celebrate this Valentine's day? The businessman. St. Patrick's day? The businessman. May day? You guessed it - businessman."

This is an especially great one. Here's a historical question you might want to ask yourself - "Why does the Middle East tend to hate us?"

And then, "What have US business interests, especially petrochemical firms, done to/for most Middle Eastern societies?"

Then you might want to see what we should REALLY do with businessmen on 9/11.

9:49PM - My Journal, college edition (#1)

Since school just started up again, and a whole ton of people who haven't spoken to me in a year or more have begun IMing me as they arrive for their freshman year, I've spent a lot of time just talking about college for the past week. Actually, I don't know that I've talked about anything else. As a result, I've decided to write about a few things - today, it's going to be CORE curriculum.

(Note for those of you who are in a "liberal arts" school - "CORE" = Your entire undergraduate education.)

I'm all for an education where you are required to at least get a minnimum of experience in fields outside the one you foolishly think you're going to major in right off. One of the most important things it does is make it so, your Junior year when you decide that Bioengineering really isn't as much fun as that Bio class in high school, you don't have to repeat the entire process.It's not just for your own benefit, either - it also keeps departments like "English" around.

The problem is that having a core set of classes, when you translate it through a horrible, bureaucratic institution like a modern university, totally loses it's original purpose. Becuase we have to be "equal", they offer " Dinosaurs: A Natural History." to satisfy "physical science," the requirement they have at my school ostensibly to familiarize students with analytic thinking in the real world. For "Math or Formal reasoning" we have "Maps and Map Use." Of course, the 'liberal' side of things is just as bad with classes like "Shakespere for nonmajors" and "Introduction to the Novel."

It's gotten to where the CORE is a minor annoyance in the persuit of a degree in your field - a person simply does not learn the skills which the CORE was created to give them by taking a class whose sole activity is looking at pictures of stars, and using a telescope once or twice.

Of course, maybe I'm just bitter about having to take Art History.

5:05PM

Maryland: Day One

All I have to say is - I have my work cut out for me.

Not becuase of my classes so much (though they will certainly contribute) as much as becuase of the walks. See, Colorado was pretty big - it was a 30,000 person campus - but my classes were mostly concentrated in the Engineering center, and the occaisional jaunt out to the quad. Maryland is much bigger - I have a 20 minute walk from my parking garage to my first class, a 10 minute walk from my first to second, and another 20 minutes back to the garage. Normally, this would be okay, except that it's hot. Real hot. I spent the weekend in Philadelphia, where it was 60ish. I like 60ish. 90's with 85% humidity is worse.

One of the things you notice immediately in these classes v. my old school is formality. My teachers are no longer "Ziad" or "Dan", but rather "Professor Darden" and "Doctor Bendetto". The buildings are carefully made to be imitations of of imitations of English schools - the campus is beautiful, but for me there was an uneasiness about the facade of the whole thing. It made me feel much more as though I was at a university, even though I miss the more homely feeling of the narrow, concrete corridors at my old school.

12:53AM

I start school tomorrow, which should be accompanied by much fanfare.

In the mean time, it has been brought to my attention that Jon has started updating his journal again. I implore anyone who sees this page to read every word this guy writes. I've never even met him, but he's changed the way I think about a lot of things, even if indirectly.

That's all I have for now, besides to note that George W. Bush has announced he thinks the Office of Homeland Securty (Which technically doesn't exist yet) should actively prohibit it's employees to unionize. And here I thought we'd evolved since Hoover.

4:29PM

Blackboard bungle

Throughout the entire article is the implicit idea that, first, an entire group is responsible for the 9/11 attacks and second, that schools are wrong for not indoctrinating our children against those groups.

Do we no longer believe in "innocent before proven guilty"? That phrase is so often assumed by a generation of people brought up on Mickey Mouse to be some aribrary law, not telling of any conviction we hold, or sense of justice. The fact of the matter is - either we believe in the principle that a person's life is valuable, until they can prove otherwise - or we can do away with this moron idea that we're a 'free country'.

The article says, "The schools have been very reluctant to back anything that smacks of patriotism or any endorsement of our common civic culture. " as if 'patriotism' includes hating a group for the color of their skin, for the geographical boundaries in which they are located, or for their religion. As if our common civic culture is one of hatemongering without justification, and one of horrible bigotry.

The article says, "This is a museum-quality example of NEA culture: Don't actually teach anything, certainly nothing about American traditions and values" as if 'teaching something' involves rote recitation of government-issued, sterile bromides. As if 'American tradition and values' is the wanton military culture which seems to have arisen in the past half-century.

There's a cute irony in an author condemning a scholastic organization for not teaching American history and values, while he apparently has not read things like "the constitution" or "the federalist papers" - obvious places to start if you want to question American political beliefs.

So, as I say - heaven forbid we actually adhere to the beliefs the author believes we should be fighting for.

9:55PM

In response to my last post, someone said something I was kinda hoping the three of you who read my journal might avoid - that is, "I want to help people get a hand up in society."

That phrase curls my skin. Not so much because of the sentiment - it's good that people want to help each other (though disturbing that it's come to where wanting a better world for your kids to grow up in is somehow an extraordinary trait) but the key is the underlying assumption that "getting ahead" means "getting ahead in the current societal structure". That's the unfortunate part - that there's somehow a notion that it's the people's fault that they're where they are - that if they had a little more education, or a little more drive, they could make it.

The simple fact is - it's an inherant part of the society we're in, with our governmental and economic structure, that you're going to have a large, exploited working class. You will have people who count as "unskilled labor" (I love the conceit in that term.) and who get the proverbial shaft, becuase they rely on the company for food and shelter, and there's always someone willing to take whatever scraps are thrown to them.

You cannot "help" people, in general, while accepting the current system. Everyone agrees this system does not work, except those few who are benefitting hugely from this corrupt symbiosis of government and business. Democracy at it's finest.

8:45PM

The following is a partial transcript (irrelevant points removed) of a conversation between Jen and I. It was re: Courses she's taking this semester at an expensive, elite, New England all-girl's school.


Jen: 266. Schools in American Cities
This course examines issues, challenges and possibilities of urban education in contemporary America. We use as critical lenses issues of race, class and culture; urban learners, teachers and school systems; and restructuring and reform. While we look at urban education nationally over several decades, we use Philadelphia as a focal ?case? that students investigate through documents and school placements. Enrollment is limited to 25 with priority given to students pursuing certification or the minor in Educational Studies, and to majors in Sociology and the Growth and Structure of Cities. (Cohen, Division I)

assyrianpi:You get to work in a Philadelphia school?

assyrianpi:Hahahahahah

assyrianpi: You know what? I can see the faculty discussing that one

assyrianpi: "Hey. I bet you $20 I can get girls to COMPETE to go into situations that every rational person goes out of their way to avoid, and I bet you in the mean time I can get free labor out of it!"

assyrianpi: "no! We have a school of intelligent young women. No way they'd go for it. You're on"

assyrianpi: Student: "So... you want me to go into one of the worst, crime ridden cities in the country... you want me to routinely go there during the twilight hours... you want me to dress nicely and walk around... annnd, why?"

assyrianpi: Faculty: "It's experience. You have to actually DO things to learn them"

assyrianpi: Student: "...why can't I do it outside of a warzone?"

assyrianpi: Faculty: "Diversity"

assyrianpi: Talk about taking advantage of sheltered girls.

assyrianpi: Shit, you'd go to most people and say "Hey, we want you to take a non-required course where you go into the DC public school system."

assyrianpi: "Nigga, are you fucking kidding?"

assyrianpi: I can just see the next step

assyrianpi: "Cities 221: Walking in traffic.

To adequately get a feel for the rush of the street, and the urban element in cities, this course will allow girls to walk in the streets during rush hour. Topics include road rage, traffic lights, and Ambulence efficency. Limited to 10 people"

assyrianpi: And the sad part is

assyrianpi: Girls would go nuts over it. They'd write these huge essays where they talk about experiences they had as a kid in rural areas, and how this would be a growth experience forthem.

assyrianpi: Thesis' called "Pavement v. Dirt roads - better traction worth the landing?"

assyrianpi: And "The imprint of the Mercedees emblem in my liver a good symbol of industrial/corporate America"

I'm a huge advocate of "going into your community" and trying to fix things, but the above is not this. It does, in my mind, two things - one, it belittles people who do it and dedicate their lives to it, and two, it makes poor and depleated urban areas just another lab exercize.

The audacity it must take to set up a program where, once a week for a few months, a person goes into a poor area and sort of "learns how the other half lives" or, less euphemistically, "slums it" - well, it's beyond me. It is programs like these which characterize most of the rich's attitude towards the poor - people who view the horrible economic situation in our country as an opportunity to advance their political career, or with a bit of empty rhetoric, their lives within the academic community. They write papers like "Motivating the poor to succeed" and the like. Maybe they even make a book out of it. And then, to go a step further and take sheltered girls (And oh my god are they) and send them into this situation so you don't even have to DO anything (not that it prevents them from taking credit for it) is, for want of a better word, ill.

The souls of those few (See also: the Democratic party) aside, the worst part of these programs is that they reduce the living, breathing life of urban America into a cute little thing for spoiled girls to chat about at the country club over iced tea. So they can say they "understand". And that they're really glad they made "a difference". It's like an amusement park for people with nothing better to do - meanwhile, thirty million Americans have to actually experience it every day.

Overbearing social condescension, table for two. o_O

4:52PM

3:41PM

dq blizzard (featuring h.bullit)
lyrics by c.ward
music by j. fewell

yer rapper:he's whack dude, does he even try?
can he do what mine do? think you should say buh-bye.

get up on the mike like a five on a fifty.
quickly avoid the hickeys of the bucktoothed bitties.
fake timberlake just to be by britney.
smoke that pipe with witney, shoot that blow with iggy.
l.i.b, n.y.c and all places in between,
you could call me a mint cuz I make the green.
i make the scene. i make believe that you all was naked,
so i wouldn't have to fake it, just copy and paste it,
like adobe photoshop, red foreman in robocop,
i get up on the mike and you know i won't fuckin stop.
it's like the props of carrot top, or yellow stains in my socks.
you acting like you hip? yer all hepped up on hopps.
so just do the body rock, cuz the beat just be so bumpin,.
let's get our groove on before our carriage is a pumpkin,
before they outlaw fuckin, not bad for a drunken munchkin.
my name is mc chris welcome to my lyric luncheon.

word up, word up, word up, word up and you know.

chrous
name's mc, my band's the lee majors
put us on the bill, and boy ya hit paydirt
when i'm on the mike, girlies wanna flizzirt
but i tell'm chill like a dq blizzard

half corn beef and cabbage, half fred savage.
the better than average rapper with the have to have it habit.
heir apperants on my carrot like they was jessica rabbit,
like fake wood paneling on the side of stationwagons.
fraggle rock on the box, fruit loops on my chin,
wonderin if I'm ever really gonna fit in,
or be a son of a bitch with a gut and some tits
or a roaming casanova with my dick in a (censored.)
I'll be back in a bit, I gotta floss my johnson,
make that cream for the state wisconsin.
you say all of my shit is complete nonsense,
fuck my cd and the shitty ass contents.
bullshit, my shit's the bomb.
siamese twins want menage a trois.
robot bitches want their backs massaged.
they may not be real but them tits is large.

(damn) word up, word up, word up, word up and you know.

3:12AM

I can be so elloquent when explaining Stokes' theorem or digressing upon international economics but when it comes to so simple and so powerful an idea as the degree to which I care about her, I become a complete bumbling idiot. Someone once said "love makes poets out of every man" but it seems that in the presence of something so great as love, even the most silver-tongued poets are left with nothing but hollow images and insufficent metaphors.

For the bredth of our relationship, we've had our insecurities, our bad times, and our abysmal times, but in the end there is always the simple fact that I must come back to - I have never had so strong a passion about anything as I do about her. To say that I love her is almost a tautology - it is so much a part of who I am, and what shapes my actions, that there is no "I" without it.

For months, I tried to extinguish a flame becuase I feared it might burn me, but in the past week or so I've found out the precice degree to which it is futile to try and fight the only part of me which lends towards inspiration. I stopped a tree from smoldering while the heat of a hundred thousand suns wafted over from behind me - my attempts to ignore it doing nothing to calm the inferno.

I've even resorted to the fire metaphor. Full circle, I suppose.

Not to "bore" you with what to most of you will appear a typical, naive teenage post about an ordinary relationship - but once and for all, I am able to sit back at the end of the day and know that I've found my happiness. And no matter what, I will carry this feeling forward through whatever life offers - and I am invincible.

8:21PM

Normally, I hate CNN but...

My favorite quote:

The administration said last week it is appealing a surprising loss before a secretive court that handles government requests to spy on people inside the United States. The spy court, formed in 1978, issued its first-ever ruling against the government. Then, for the first time, it allowed the ruling to become public.

2:13AM

6:03PM

Note: the use of "Libertarian" in the following paragraphs refers exclusively to the current Libertarian party, and the chief Libertarian "intellectuals" of the day.

Libertarianism is one of those things which sounds really, really good on the surface. "Do whatever you want with your own body and property, while not harming others." That's basically individual rights wrapped up into one sentence, and I wholeheartedly agree with it... but for some reason the current icons of Libertarianism don't. One of their current pet issues is Bloomberg's smoking bans - saying that you are infringing upon someone's right to destroy their own lungs and health by outlawing smoking in public places. Nigz, please. You cannot say with a straight face that a person has the right to release Botox in a subway car, or nerve toxin in an office building - so what makes cigarettes better? Every study done has indicated that smoking is bad for you. It's gotten to where saying otherwise is just asinine, and should rightly be considered so.

"Libertarians" of now somehow feel that freedom is best protected by getting rid of big, accountable governments and replacing them with big, unaccountable ones. They feel that "give up your life working in subhuman conditions, or give up your life - literally" is somehow a liberated society. They've become the professional justifiers for any misdeed which someone wants to commit - "Oh, well, if the people of El Salvador don't like working in the mines, they can find other jobs. What? The paramilitary groups funded by the US and mining companies strongarmed out the other groups? Well, then they should start up their own mines in competition. Oh, they tried that, and their villiages were burned down? Well, then we can be sure we're getting the best product. Or something."

Somewhere along the way, these 'philosophers' became massive hypocrites.

8:50PM

I'd like to take a moment to be a little bit personal.

I've really prided myself on being independant, and not needing anyone. I've tried to live my life such that, even if people were to leave it, it wouldn't really bother me. I've done a good job. With one exception.

So, I'm dedicating this post to the person who helped me decorate my room, the one who talked to me in the middle of the night when I hadn't had cable installed yet, the person who I don't really want to live without. The love of my life, my Jen.

Don't worry, I'll post about Libertarians (capital L) later.