WOW. It's Actually Happening.

I've spent the last few months of my life living in the cave that is Wilson 2w, the microfilm room in Western Washington University's library. Full of primary source documents and the means to access them, it lacks a reliable internet connection and any computers that can be used to figure out what's going on outside of my little history bubble. A shortage of time forced me to forgo my daily edition of the New York Times. All this to say, I have no idea what's going on in this world. As I get back in the loop, I grow increasingly more frustrated with the times of the day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/business/31auto.html?_r=1&hp

This article really got me fired up. For years, we've mostly clung to the capitalist market. Competition is good. It keeps prices somewhat low, and keeps the manufacturers responsible for the quality of goods. When a company can no longer remain competitive, it dies off, and makes room for others to enter the market. However, if this last step fails to occur, the system is shaken up and no longer ceases to function as it should.

However, this last step is precisely what is NOT being allowed to happen. The Obama administration is continuing to prop up dying businesses. That's not what fired me up about this article though. The source of this proverbial "riled-up-ness" is this: Obama is quoted as saying that leadership from Washington is what caused the current failure of the American auto industry.

Here's the deal: The American auto industry shouldn't need the leadership of the American government. What it does need is the ability to DIE. I love my Chevy to death, and I really hope that the Feds will allow me to continue driving it in spite of it's emissions problems, but I would rather see GM die than give it more money so that the CEO can keep their summer home. People buy more foreign cars anyway. Cause' they're better.

I'll try to keep more on top of this thing this quarter, as I document the downfall of the American economy. Clinch your buttocks folks: we're going socialist.

It's Almost Over

It's Dead Week. Thursday thereof, to be exact. 12:57 PM to be precise.

I am taking a break from final revisions on my History 499 paper. It's the capstone of the history program, so I had to take it, and by the time I was done I have almost 19 pages of double spaced text. That's not including the two that I decided were crap and deleted. At least it didn't come down to a frantic rush for more evidence and information.

I have knots all through by back and neck, including a weird spot in my upper arm that I THINK is a knot, but I'm "knot" sure. HAHA. My hands hurt from the routes I've been trying at the gym to get in shape for our prospective trip to Smith Rock. I'm feeling stronger than I ever have, which is awesome. My fingers are also starting to need the support of climbing tape. It's moments like this one that I remember that I'll feel the abuse I'm giving myself when I'm older.

I've been fairly productive the last few days. I finally cleaned the mold off of our bathroom ceiling, bleaching spots on my sweatshirt in the process. I'm learning new ways to cook Ramen due to my recent fascination with Thai food. I actually bought chicken at the store last night in preparation for Finals Week! Wow. Moving on up. I've been eating a lot of oranges and apples, I now own milk and butter, and I'm starting to hardboil eggs again. I'm constantly hungry these days, and I kinda wish I wasn't; life'd be cheaper.

Yesterday, I found out that I got an 89 on a test that I was sure I'd bombed. It was an amazingly pleasant surprise.

I have just decided that my paper is good enough. Which means I'm going bouldering. That's climbing without a rope and only about 6 ft off the ground. It's hard and painful, but not particularly scary.

Climbing tape is my friend.

HOLY CRAP FREAKING OUT

So there's this paper. And this paper is analytical as all get-out, and right now I'm on page 13. I need to be through page 15 by Monday, and the more I get down, the better off I am. yeah I know, doing pretty well as far as time goes. the only thing is that I freaking hate this right now. I'm tired of THIS. Stupid freaking history papers that make no sense to the broad understanding of things in general. It is said that people should eat more when they're stressed. I'm eating less. Yes, sleeping more, which is good. All I know is that I have been sitting in this chair looking at this freaking computer screen since 1:30 this afternoon with two one-hour breaks, and all I have to show for it is two lousy double space pages of crap that I am going to spend my Sunday revising only to have it torn up in class on Thursday, in which my prof will tell me to delete the whole thing and start over.

What the heck.

GR.

Why do I do this? Every night I see the same librarian that I have seen every week night since midterms of last quarter, and every night she smiles at me and says "See you tomorrow." History is my life, and I've spent the last three days in a row, which happen to have been perfect climbing weather, hammering crap out on a keyboard.

I can't wait until this is over.

I'm probably better right now than I think I am, I am just super upset at my inability to pick the common themes out of these six speeches.

Midterm-Time

I'm sort of tired of school right now. My body hurts, I'm sleepy, I'm hungry, and my life won't slow down until Saturday evening, when it takes a hiatus for the Sabbath. School work resumes Monday morning, with a heinus outline and introduction for my senior paper due the next day, and a midterm the day after that in a class for which I have done none of the reading. Oh, life. I wonder what it will be like when I finally decide that I'm educated enough.

I'm attempting to keep stress levels down by doing some climbing, eating, and sleeping, the former and the latter of which may be significantly cut back once the work loads get thicker. I only have five weeks left in this quarter! RIdiculous.

I'm about to call it a "secondary source only" reading night. Which is exciting, because I don't have to have my brain on 110 percent.

I'm doing OK. I promise. I will likely be writing even less, since my computer took a dump about 3 weeks ago. Campus computers are cool, but they take all the mobility out of things like this. And when going to Seattle means tracking down someone else's computer to use.

LOL

I looked at my last post date and laughed out loud. I haven't posted anything in almost a month, and people have probably stopped looking to see what's new.

Well, here's what I'm up to.

I'm beginning week 4 of 10 of the quarter. Which is really cool and really sad at the same time, because it means that I have seven weeks left to rock the socks off of my senior history paper. I still feel like I have so much to do and so little time in which to do it, considering that I have another upper division history course I'm taking, the reading of which I have completely neglected, and a GUR geology class, which is really just making me paranoid about the massive earthquake and tsunami that're supposed to hit the Pacific Northwest soon. I mostly laugh through that one though. It's sorta fun to sit in the back and laugh at freshmen that still haven't figured out how college works.

I'm climbing stuff pretty much every chance I get. I hate being at the rock wall at the gym, mainly because I'm tired of climbing inside no higher than 8 feet off the ground. I got to lead a few routes outside, and I'm really excited for the spring and summer when climbing outside will be the rule, rather than the exception. I screwed up my arm today, which is no fun, but it's part of the price you pay to climb stuff.

My hair is getting really long. I wear it up most of the time now, as long as I'm not walking to class in the frigidly cold Bellingham winter. I've heard from several people that this has been one of Bellingham's coldest winters in a long time. I'm running three layers these days: t-shirt, hoody, and my big, insulated snowboard jacket.

And Chacos with socks.

Yew Nears

I'm really terrible at making New Years' Resolutions. To me, it simply does not make sense to decide on one specific day to undertake the undoing of a habit simply because of the date. It seems to me that if one truly desired change in their life, they wouldn't wait for one specific date to change it. 

I used to try to resolve to do things based upon the year, but I would quickly fall off the wagon about a month or two into my resolution, which I suppose is a testament to my horrendous self-discipline. 

So. I begin this year recognizing the many blessings that God has given me. I also acknowledge that I am definitely imperfect. Thus, I will continue to work on the things in my life that I know need to be worked on. 

I spent my first moments of 2009 playing music with the high school band at Glenwood Community Church. I led camp songs and worship on an acoustic guitar, then filled in for a missing electric guitar player last minute. Having never heard or played several of the songs before, in addition to no prior rehearsal and a really terrible monitor mix, I stumbled through the best I could, but it was really rad to begin the new year doing the three of things I love to do the most; playing music, worshiping God, and talking to the high schoolers whom I spent most of my summer.   

I head back up to Bellingham on Saturday. While I have a lot of friends in Vancouver, I'll definitely be glad to get back up there and started on history stuff again. I'm attempting to take a photography class to break up the analytical nature of my quarter. So hopefully that works out somewhat. 

Breaktime

I'm currently sitting in my parent's kitchen with a cup of coffee using a computer with a reliable internet connection. There's snow everywhere in Vancouver. Not as much as in Bellingham, but it's more of a pain in the butt here. In Bellingham, I could walk everywhere and rely on mass transit to get me places in the freezingly-frigid cold. Here, stuff is a ways out. I'm decided to hole up today, if I don't go snowboarding at a local park. Which I really want to do.

Driving home last night, I got a little overzealous trying to drift a corner on my truck and slammed into a curb. Now, my headlights don't work reliably, but my brights do. Which makes sense, but I really don't want to trace the wire back to find out where the connection is bad. And I really don't want to take it someplace. Yeah, sort of in a pickle. So now I can only drive in the daytime until I get it fixed. We'll see what happens; maybe it'll fix itself.