Thank you for the Grand Canyon, and good luck with the Apocalypse.

Ah, the knee jerk reaction.
I just read an article that says that there is a movement in DC to try and start mining 5 miles outside of the grand canyon for uranium. Specifically it is talking about how McCain supports Bush's plan and that "The Bureau of Land Management has published a proposed rule which rejects the House Natural Resources Emergency House Resolution enacted in June that bans uranium mining and exploration near the Grand Canyon National Park."
But it is ok. This can not possibly pass while Bush is still in Office.

Any one want to take a quick road trip out to the Grand Canyon this January?

The older generation are leading this country to galloping ruin!

I'm shocked, Appalled, and horrified.
And I wish i was joking.
I just read a story about a group of children being gassed with what seems like Mace because they were Muslim. If this had happened in any other country, it would have received International press and there would be a serious search going on to find out who did this. Or if it had been Christian children in a Muslim country, or any country for that matter it would be international news. But instead it barely makes the local news.
What the fuck?
Yesterday, I went to the Baltimore Book fair and hear the author of How does it feel to be the problem?. Just hearing parts of the stories he's recounted in his book was amazing. I'm horrified at some of the knee jerk reactions that occurred and continue to occur in this country against this one group of people. It's not like they are the only ones with fundamentalists. It's not like there aren't Christian fundamentalists who wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who didn't agree with them. Fortunately I don't have any examples.
But why isn't this being covered?

What we've got here is failure to communicate

So...
Grad school is kicking my butt.
I feel like I'm always playing catch up and that everyone else gets it. I think I'm just out of practice. But I have this fear that I'm not supposed to be doing this.
But I think that the week that I manage to get all of my reading done and significant portion of my paper done, everything will magically fall into place. Everything will be fine.
Since I just got a flash back to college, I think it will.
Thank you, dear void, for listening to my rant.
And if you get a change to see Burn After Reading, and are huge Cohen Brothers fan, then by all means go. If you are not a big fan, or just really liked O brother where art thou, Run for the proverbial hills. That is all.
Good night.

I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!

I think I accidentally sold my soul to Google.
I realized yesterday that I rarely leave a Google Owned website anymore. I blog on Blogger, Read News on Google News and Reader, Check my mail on Gmail. So Thank God for Facebook!
On the Other hand, I am well informed.
Like, I know that American is planning on putting wireless on their airplanes by the middle of next year, Steve Jobs apologized for Screwing up the release of Mobile Me, and that the Still President is in S Korea.
My grasp of World events is more detailed and broader than that, but Google has made me late for work.

Yes, politics is the cause of the world's problems.

This is a bit sensationalistic, but I am also a bit insulted. I was listening to the radio when I heard an interview with Cindy McCain. And it was light fluff, about how she and her son race cars and stuff like that. Then she was asked about John commuting back and forth to Phoenix on the weekends and how they thought that was more natural environment to raise children than DC. That is what she said that has me a bit putout. DC is not a natural place to raise children.
I'm sorry, but I have friends, quiet a few in fact, who were raised in and around DC. I was raised within an hour's drive, within a half hour if you drive fast enough. Was it the East Coast sensibility she dislikes or the fact that most of my friends turned out to be liberal?
I admit, this is a bit ridiculous to have a problem with. I'm sure she meant...Phoenix is her home and it's where she was more comfortable. But there are significantly better ways to put that.

That was the Pope? That old fella living in the art gallery?

On Thursday I went to see the Pope, with 30,000 of my closest friends. It was insane how many people where there. But that is to be expected.
I managed to get a ticket through a member of NPM, where I work. Tom Stayle (I think that's how his name is spelled) was in charge of the music for the mass. So the people in the office, my mom and me where sitting with the choir, right behind the multi-cultural choir, so we could hear the music great, which was pretty great.
The mass it's self was pretty standard. Which was what the planners were going for.
Pope came in, there was a mass, pope left. Not that I was underwhelmed or anything. Far from it. I like him better now.
But the most notable event of the day came after the mass on the way back to the Metro.
Some "Christians" decided that it would be fun to protest. I've heard of this shit happening, but I've never actually seen it. I'm not sure what they were hoping to achieve, but I'm sure they failed massively. Especially with all the people they were protesting forming their own sort of counter protest with singing and arguing. Imagine a river of people singing psalms in English and Spanish. Kinda hard to hear people yelling at you over that.
But I'm sure I made a couple of priests laugh. When they where yelling at us that the Catholic Church preached fornication, I responded, "We are!?! Yes!" I figure the best way to ignore bull headed stupidity is to laugh at it and move on. Especially when they are so sure they're right, they aren't going to listen to you.
But the pope was nice.

Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.

Today I went to the Walters for a exhibit on maps. All kinds of maps. Some really old maps, from the crusades, from Ancient China, Rome, maps that where used to explain that the earth was indeed round. There were several interesting ones. I liked one that was used as directions for how to get to Palestine on a pilgrimage in the middle ages. But it was not written for those who were actually going. Instead it was written for those on a meditative pilgrimage, to imagine the way there, or something like that. There was another map that showed how the earth was created by the rainbow snake, if you are from Australian native. Then there was an incredibly detailed painting of a dutch city. There was so much detail that you could see the shadows of passing clouds. On the wall past that was the second aerial photograph ever taken. the first, sadly, has been lost to the ash and dust of time.
But what i really liked was the companion exhibit. The Walters worked with Johns Hopkins and NASA to get a selection of pictures taken from the Hubble. Some where pictures i've seen before, but they still amaze me. One (above)was a picture taken of deep space where nearly every point of light is not a star but a galaxy. If you look at it, you can see all these different kinds, most of them swirling, but some of them more irregulars, simply because were seeing them as they form. They're so far away that it's more like looking back at the beginning of time or the universe. Ok, maybe not that dramatic, but close.
So today I also got into the Grad school of my choice. Kinda. I have been excepted to the program and recommended for acceptance to the Grad school, so it's not official, just pretty much guaranteed. Provided that I didn't lie on my application, which I didn't.
So yay for me. Next September I (hopefully) shall be attending UMBC's Public History Program, emphasizing museum studies. It's odd knowing what I shall be doing for the next year or two.
Next Thursday, I also know what I'll be doing. I'm going to see the pope. He's visiting DC and NY and I get to go the mass at the Nationals stadium. It should be interesting.