PiscesGrl

1 year and 4 classes down

Well, once I hand in my final paper for my Leadership class and my final for my Budgeting class.  This semester went fast.

I'm actually all done with classes...we've done the evaluations, and my teacher cancelled our class next Wednesday.  Works out well, because I now have no reading to worry about.   But, man, do I hate my paper right now.  I have 1 of 8 pages typed up, and it'll type easily...it's really getting the motivation to sit down and do it with the weather we're having. 

And then comes my Washington DC class, which I just got the bill for...yay...lol.  Which is another paper.  Oye. 

At least then, I'll have 5 classes done (4 of the required and 1 elective), and I've already signed up for my Fall classes.   I had tried to sign up for 2 1.5 credit classes for Summer 2, but the computer wouldn't let me, and then I kept forgetting to call admissions.  Meh...not really concerned.  I figure, I'll be done in 3.5 years at this rate...hopefully we'll have more Summer classes next year.

Oye, lagtime

Phew...this semester is quickly coming to a close.  I have a paper due in about a week and a half, and I have a final due one week after that.  At least I have some time to space it out.

I cancelled my gym membership because I hadn't been going, so I think I might try out the Suffolk gym...good, bad?  Times not to go?

And, between all of the reading for school, and my paper, and the final...it' s going to get crazy.  We had a guest speaker in my Monday class from SomerStat - it's  a program in Somerville that basically quantifies the work of all of the city's departments, i.e. how much does it cost for the police to respond to a call.  It's working really well over there, and Boston is considering putting in some of the components (i.e. a 311 hotline for all calls that aren't emergencies).  Should be interesting. 

BTW - MTV, thank you for making me feel old...Real World had their 20th anniversary show this past week.  Unbelievable.  I watched it from San Francisco through probably Chicago (or Las Vegas...which one came last?).  I guess the show (according to Bill Simmons - The Sports Guy) was a trainwreck that you just couldn't turn away from...he's seen every season, so I don't feel so bad (he's like 37!).  But really, thanks...now I feel old.

This has been a rough week, and there's very little to report.  I went away for the weekend with my mom, and, upon our return, we found out a close family friend had died.  Between that, working on the campaign, and just generally reading for classes, nothing truly interesting has happened.

We had a discussion in class about "Good to Great" by Jim Collins and how it can apply to our own organizations.  The first step is probably the hardest, because you have to make sure the main people in the organization get their egos out of the way.  Without that, there's no real chance for change.  And change for the sake of change is a bad idea.  I can see some things (i.e. the flywheel) that I'm doing currently, especially with a phoning project I'm working on.  But it's very hard to implement organization wide change when you only work for one agent.  If something works, everyone wants to get involved, but no one will jump on board if major changes need to be made.

Oye, is it spring yet??

I feel like this semester just barely started, yet one of my professors reminded me that we only have 5 classes left.  Wow.  I think I looked at her like she had 4 heads, but then I went to my planner and looked...lo and behold - 5 classes - and that's when I realized all of my Saturdays are spoken for in April.  Oye. 

Anyway, we were discussing voters' rights and the civil rights movement in Selma, Alabama in class on Monday.  It's interesting to read about Martin Luther King and realize, even though he was assassinated in 1968, his teaching still live on.  After "Bloody Sunday", King was planning to march all the way to Montgomery, Alabama to protest the treatment of blacks in the South, particularly in Selma, where blacks were subjected to tests and inane questions before being allowed to register to vote.  If they got the question wrong (such as "how many bubbles are in a bar of soap?"), they were not able to register. 

Law enforcement officials deemed the march to Montgomery to be illegal, but King refused to cancel the march.  King was persuaded by a town official to march, instead, to the scene of "Bloody Sunday" and no farther.  So, he marched to the bridge in question, prayed, and turned around.  Befor turning around, however, he looked up and realized all of the state troopers blocking his path up the highway to Montgomery had parted.  He decided to ignore his want to march further, knowing that's what the troopers wanted; if he broke the law, they could have arrested the entire group.  This just proves that, sometimes, it's what you DON"T do that matters.  As King said, "The vote is not the ball game, but it gets you inside the ballpark."  If he had broken the law, he would have negated all of the gains he realized by bring the nations attention to Selma.  Then, it would have been all for naught.

There is about one month before my town elects a selectman.  Currently, we have the woman I'm campaigning for, a guy who has absolutely no platform, and a current selectman who has just proposed somehow pulling $1M into our rainy day fund without addressing the fact that health insurance rates go up about 7-10% a year.  It's interesting.  At any rate, our database is up, and I've been working on adding additional information.  We had a bit of an issue with snide emails about the lack of interactiveness, even though we had decided to only have a few people input information to minimize mistakes.  I decided to open the database to the group, however, since I have a master list on my computer.  I'll back it up once a week to minimize the damage if someone deletes it, but I'm not even going to stress. 

Spring break is coming...

But not soon enough.  My mid-term is graded for my Budgeting class, and our professor asked us to give some time to the guy distributing them in our folders.  I figured, okay, right before my Monday class is enough, right?  Nope.  Although I did have a bright yellow notice letting me know about an information meeting for DC and Puerto Rico from last year.  Obviously I've never checked it. 

Our Leadership class yesterday centered around "leadership without authority" - basically being a leader without anyone electing or appointing you (i.e. MLKJr or Ghandi).  It was interesting, because it shows leadership potential can come out of situations.  Not everyone necessarily has the drive toward leadership or shows all of the stereotypical leadership characteristics, but there are situations where leaders are born.  The name Cindy Sheehan came up - her son was killed in Iraq, and she has spent most of the last 3+ years protesting the war.  It's interesting how everyone has a name that comes to mind for such a position. 

On a side note - Hilly and Billy (it's not that I'm a Republican...it's that the Clinton's scare the absolute crap out of me, and also they enrage me to no end...) decided that Obama should be the VP for the Democratic ballot.  A - he's leading.  B - to be VP, you need to be qualified to be president...last time I checked, she said he wasn't qualified...flip-flop much?  And C - HE"S LEADING!

And oye!  The governor of NY prosecutes the "baddies" of Wall Street and prostitution...lo and behold, he's out with a prostitute on Valentine's Day?  Hiya, pot, I'm a kettle and I'm also cast-iron black!!!  Hypocrisy will get you nowhere, especially when  your approval rating is in the 30th percentile.

Midterms, papers, and a marine abusing a puppy on camera??

My midterm is due today for my Budgeting class.  I think I did okay, but I'm not entirely sure what the teacher is looking for.  He said this was a departure from the way he normally ran the class, since he normally had a summary due each week.  I kind of think that would have been better, because at least I'd be able to improve week to week.  Now, I only have the ability to improve on the final, so if I fail this, I'm toast.

I finished my interview for my final paper for my leadership class last Saturday.  I went over a few questions with my teacher on Monday (i.e. how do I determine references, what if the interviewee didn't mention any books specifically on leadership, etc.), and all seems well.  This weekend I'm going to start compiling information and see if there are any holes or questions left from the interview.

And, a couple of days ago a video broke on YouTube showing a marine apparently throwing a live puppy off a cliff.  Before you immediately go into "he should be tortured mode", the marines are investigating.  The name of the alleged perpetrator has been released, though no one will absolutely confirm he is the man on the tape.  Also, the clip is 17 seconds, and there is no indication that it is legitimate or a hoax.  I'm sure the guy had been receiving death threats too, based on the fact that his previously public Bebo profile is now private.

If this is true - IF -he should be stripped of all medals and dishonerable discharged from the marines.  His co-conspirators should also be punished harshly (i.e. the guy that laughed while he was filming).  If this is a hoax, we run into some other serious issues.  Why would you make a video as a hoax showing you throwing a puppy off a cliff and then post it on YouTube?  And how, exactly, did this video end up being spread to the point that CNN and ABC picked the story up in 2 days?  Why wasn't it immediately pulled from YouTube, since it obviously violates their terms of service?  And what kind of person actually creates a hoax like this?

True or not true, the people in the video are disturbed.  As a hoax, just because it becomes a "no animals were harmed in the shooting of this clip" bit doesn't discount that it takes an extremely disturbed person to create such a scenario.  That would be like creating a "murder" but saying it's no big deal because it's just a hoax. 

With the popularity of YouTube and the prevalence of camera phones in our society, I think we all need to look around and determine if it's really that important to become "internet stars" that we need to create videos like this, or the stupid clips that show people being injured during stupid stunts.  Fifteen minutes of fame always comes with a price, and this guy is now known as "the puppy killer" in public opinion.

Blah, midterms...

I haven't had a lot to post about this week.  I have a mid-term due on Wednesday, which is ridiculously huge, and it just feels like the rules keep expanding.  And if we spend 15 minutes every class discussing what he wants for the final, I'm going to scream.  This is NOT hard!

Anyway, I scheduled my interview for my Leadership class.  That is Saturday at Noon.  I'm a little nervous, because I know what I want to ask, but I'm just afraid I'm not going to get the answers I need.  Oh well, we work with what we have. 

But, my weekend is shot otherwise.  I have so much work to do on the mid-term, and I have so many other things to do because my birthday was this past Wednesday.  I'll feel better once I have the answers to the mid-term questions typed out, but I think tonight is going to be a late night.  Again. 

It's always good when your train is an hour late...

On time for pick-up and an hour late for arrival.  Awesome. 

Anyway - Is anyone else kind of ready for the nomination conventions to take place?  Every debate I hear sounds exactly the same, short of a new moderator or a new accent.  Obama - not enough experience, Clinton - not enough backbone, McCain - not enough conservatism, Huckabee - not enough votes.  As much as I love politics, I just can't wait for November.  At least then, the negative ads will be done.

I received the notes this week on the questions I submitted for my interview.  The professor thought the questions were good, but she wanted me to add in one or two to tie into our readings.  Good enough.  Now I just need to schedule the interview.

We have a midterm for Budgeting due in 2 weeks.  Oye.  7 questions, a page each for the first 6 and 2 pages for the 7th.  That's alot.  So I'm starting that today.  I figure, if I can get one question done a day, I'll be pretty solid to edit them next weekend.

As far as the selectman's campaign - I'm working on a database for her.  It's huge.  And I have 6K more names to crossreference with that list.  At least the major part is done. 

Ummm...oh, and I think I found the condo I want to buy.  And my boyfriend's parents got a puppy...she apparently thinks I'm a jungle gym. 

I really hope this weekend is relaxing.  After work, I'm off to Maine for a knitting weekend. 

I don't normally rant like this but...

These school/work-place shootings have become stupid and ridiculous.  I mean, why?  Because the shooter was picked on, or didn't get the right gift for Christmas, or just had a fight with a loved one, or didn't have a significant other on Valentine's Day?  Or maybe they stubbed their toe and rage boiled over.   Sure.  Whatever. 

I was picked on in HS...I didn't shoot up my school.  I've been "let go" from jobs...I never shot up my workplace.  I've had issues with the politicians in my town...I haven't walked into my Town Hall or Board of Selectmen meeting to shoot the place up.  And for anyone ANYONE to tell me it's okay to use violence to solve a petty problem, don't even bother.  I don't want to hear your misguided logic.

Yesterday, 2/14/2008, a gunman opened fire in a Northern Illinois University lecture hall, killing 6 (number edited down on 2/15 due to miscommunication re: an injured student's fate who was taken to another county for treatment) people including himself.  You know how the death toll could have been reduced?  If the titling was accurate...it's SUICIDE then MURDER.  No, I'm not joking.  These stupid shootings where the gunman kills him or herself after the fact?  Way harder if the gunman has already killed him or herself. 

In the past week or so alone, we've had the NIU shooting, the City Hall shooting, a CA shooting where a 15-year-old took a bullet to the back of his head from a 14-year-old in a CLASSROOM...

We've also had the murder of Sean Taylor, a shooting in an Omaha mall, a shooting in 2 church-related buildings in Colorado.  There was a school shooting in Cleveland, a random shooting in Wisconsin by a sheriff's deputy, and a shooting in a school in Finland.

Really?  Is this what the 2nd amendment has come to? 

Just a few things pointing to a lack of leadership on Capitol Hill

1.  If you really are outraged by the fact that billions of dollars are being wasted in the federal government, but your House Oversight Committee is spending it's day questioning Roger Clemens an Brian MacNamee about steroid use, why would you then go into a line of questioning about it?  Wouldn't you choose not to join in the spectacle?

2.  It does not show any sort of unbiased nature when you ask (even after attributing it to a colleague) which uniform Clemens will wear in the Hall of Fame.

3.  It does not show any sort of unbiased nature when you raise your voice, calling a witness a drug dealer, even if it is true.  It is an inflaming and abrasive line of questioning.

4.  At no time, after lobbing softballs at Clemens, should you end your line of questioning with "I am sure you are going to heaven". 

4 different Representatives.