(no subject)

I gave to http://www.redcross.org AND I question long-term investment in coastal areas with federally subsidized insurance. Both sides have points and I don't think it's fair to ignore either side. I do think that low-key conversations and analyses aside, now is the time to help.

It's never a good idea to yell or use the word "fuck" in an argument. It's rarely a good idea to debate a point during an emotional crisis. Hollering about NOLA, either saying blame the victims or damn you for questioning the city's plight is not going to do a thing but divide people. I think this is the time for repairing the immediate damage - save lives, donate if possible. Only later, when it is time for cleanup, should the debates really rage about the feasibility of parts of the city. It's not a bad idea to acknowledge that both sides have valid points, ranging from it's a bad idea to build in a disaster prone area to noting this scope of disaster has not occurred there before so it wasn't predictable.

I think there are interesting points though, my political favorite being that the budget has been cut from dyke dike repair to fund the war in Iraq. People blame that on Bush, and while I'm not a Bush fan I have to note that the budget is a congress thing (and it's all on credit as of late). I am very interested in the environmental views of the subject - for there are many reasons this flood was so bad, from the removal of the wetlands that used to absorb floods to the deluge of silt caused by (development?). I've head the "common knowledge" about global warming and floods isn't accurate.

This morning I got up in my air-conditioned house, used the running water, cooked my breakfast with the electric toaster, ate while watching the tv, put on clean clothes, packed my lunch, and walked to the underground metro near my house. And was thankful.

I'm also glad I didn't buy a new car, glad I have a 4 cyl stick-shift honda, glad I chose to live w/n walking distance of a metro and biking distance of the city, glad I can metro or bike to school and work if need be...I can live w/o a car so long as the city still has food, water, and hopefully elec.

(no subject)

Shit and damn. I just found out the crappy litigation and dispute resolution theory course I have was just cut out of the regulatory track today, 2 weeks into the semester. Fuck. Me. Ten minutes after that I found out that my grade in that summer course, the one with 200 pages of reading per week, that I killed myself to do the paper on time when no one else did, revising over and over per the prof's input...I only got a B . My GPA remains stuck at 3.20 - virtually no change. That's a plain B , and I'm still not in the top 25% of the class. All that time for nothing, again.

I put in more time than any of my peers, and yet my rewards are constantly mediocre. My best efforts lead to mediocrity. For fuck's sake, it's discouraging. I'm lucky so few others are trying.