The end of a very crazy week. It's 4am, and I really should be in bed. The promised update will have to wait for the weekend.
It you have a moment, though, check out this Wes Clark ad for Rock the Vote. The end is pretty funny.
And if you've become an election junkie like me, you'll want to peruse the American Research Group website.
Current mood: Optimistic. And very sleepy.
Current songs: Chance Thomas, "Silmarian Meanderings" and Alessandro Scarlatti, "O magnum mysterium." No, I don't expect anyone else to have heard those before... :-)
Saturday, January 31, 2004
Friday, January 30, 2004
Monday, January 26, 2004
Sunday, January 25, 2004
I really wish I could have made it up to NH this weekend, especially since there isn't much to do around here this weekend. Yes, I need to get healthy, catch up on sleep, clean my room, prepare for classes, do some reading, and apply for jobs...but I don't feel like doing any of those right now (except for the sleep part). And, yes, the conference next week will be a huge opportunity for networking and possible job contacts.
Anyway. Today was another recovery day -- sleeping, eating, and cleaning. Tomorrow I'm going to start back into the student routine -- do some reading for biostatistics, finish a problem set, and apply for a few jobs. Or so I hope. I'm starting to remember the craziness of last term and recognize the many things that I have to do in the next few weeks. It's not overwhelming yet, but I expect the job search to dominate much of my time this quarter, and job searches are never easy. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
In other non-exciting news, I think I've finally found a way to block the cold drafts of air that keep my room so cold. You see, I have an air conditioner unit in one of my windows, and since the seal with the window isn't perfect, my room is often cold. After a few attempts, I think I've found a combination of platic wrap, plastic bags, cardboard, and duct tape that will block the air. I'll know tomorrow...when it's really cold outside, I usually wake up in the morning and find that my room has dropped 10-15 degrees overnight. (shudder) It's not pleasant.
I think I'm going to end up taking an elective this term, which means that my formerly class-free Wednesdays will now have a class, although supposedly it's not especially challening. I still have Mondays free, which helps a lot. :-)
Current Mood: Contemplative, a little anxious, not quite nostalgic.
Current Songs: Enya, "Day Without Rain" & Evanescence, "Anywhere"
Anyway. Today was another recovery day -- sleeping, eating, and cleaning. Tomorrow I'm going to start back into the student routine -- do some reading for biostatistics, finish a problem set, and apply for a few jobs. Or so I hope. I'm starting to remember the craziness of last term and recognize the many things that I have to do in the next few weeks. It's not overwhelming yet, but I expect the job search to dominate much of my time this quarter, and job searches are never easy. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
In other non-exciting news, I think I've finally found a way to block the cold drafts of air that keep my room so cold. You see, I have an air conditioner unit in one of my windows, and since the seal with the window isn't perfect, my room is often cold. After a few attempts, I think I've found a combination of platic wrap, plastic bags, cardboard, and duct tape that will block the air. I'll know tomorrow...when it's really cold outside, I usually wake up in the morning and find that my room has dropped 10-15 degrees overnight. (shudder) It's not pleasant.
I think I'm going to end up taking an elective this term, which means that my formerly class-free Wednesdays will now have a class, although supposedly it's not especially challening. I still have Mondays free, which helps a lot. :-)
Current Mood: Contemplative, a little anxious, not quite nostalgic.
Current Songs: Enya, "Day Without Rain" & Evanescence, "Anywhere"
Saturday, January 24, 2004
I'm interested to see that the opposition to the "No Child Left Behind Act" continues to grow and gain media coverage. On Friday, the Republican-controlled Virginia legislature overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Congress to exempt the state from provisions in the act.
The Washington Post article states, "By a vote of 98 to 1, the House passed a resolution calling on Congress to exempt states like Virginia from the program's requirements. The law "represents the most sweeping intrusions into state and local control of education in the history of the United States," the resolution says, and will cost "literally millions of dollars that Virginia does not have."
The federal law aims to improve the performance of students, teachers and schools with yearly tests and serious penalties for failure. In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, Bush said that "the No Child Left Behind Act is opening the door of opportunity to all of America's children."
Officials in other states also have complained about the effects of the act, signed into law in 2002. But Friday's action in the Virginia House represents one of the strongest formal criticisms to date from a legislative chamber controlled by the president's own party.
In other news, it appears -- shockingly -- that we still can't find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Richard Stevenson wrote in Friday's NY Times, " David Kay, who led the American effort to find banned weapons in Iraq, said Friday after stepping down from his post that he has concluded that Iraq had no stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons at the start of the war last year.
In an interview with Reuters, Dr. Kay said he now thought that Iraq had illicit weapons at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, but that the subsequent combination of United Nations inspections and Iraq's own decisions "got rid of them."
Asked directly if he was saying that Iraq did not have any large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the country, Dr. Kay replied, according to a transcript of the taped interview made public by Reuters, "That is correct."
It's snowing in Baltimore again. In the last month and a half, I've only been in a non-snowy environment for a handful of days. Weird. After the negative temperatues in NH, though, today's high of 30 sounds pleasant. Oh, yeah. For those of you who don't know, I was quoted in a Dallas Morning News article about my experiences doing outdoor visibility work for the Clark campaign when it -40F or so.
My plans for the weekend? The basics: get healthy again, start eating on a regular schedule, catch up on sleep, start reading for classes, and get ready for the NHPC next week.
Current Mood: Calm
Current Song: Norah Jones, "Come Away With Me"
The Washington Post article states, "By a vote of 98 to 1, the House passed a resolution calling on Congress to exempt states like Virginia from the program's requirements. The law "represents the most sweeping intrusions into state and local control of education in the history of the United States," the resolution says, and will cost "literally millions of dollars that Virginia does not have."
The federal law aims to improve the performance of students, teachers and schools with yearly tests and serious penalties for failure. In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, Bush said that "the No Child Left Behind Act is opening the door of opportunity to all of America's children."
Officials in other states also have complained about the effects of the act, signed into law in 2002. But Friday's action in the Virginia House represents one of the strongest formal criticisms to date from a legislative chamber controlled by the president's own party.
In other news, it appears -- shockingly -- that we still can't find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Richard Stevenson wrote in Friday's NY Times, " David Kay, who led the American effort to find banned weapons in Iraq, said Friday after stepping down from his post that he has concluded that Iraq had no stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons at the start of the war last year.
In an interview with Reuters, Dr. Kay said he now thought that Iraq had illicit weapons at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, but that the subsequent combination of United Nations inspections and Iraq's own decisions "got rid of them."
Asked directly if he was saying that Iraq did not have any large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the country, Dr. Kay replied, according to a transcript of the taped interview made public by Reuters, "That is correct."
It's snowing in Baltimore again. In the last month and a half, I've only been in a non-snowy environment for a handful of days. Weird. After the negative temperatues in NH, though, today's high of 30 sounds pleasant. Oh, yeah. For those of you who don't know, I was quoted in a Dallas Morning News article about my experiences doing outdoor visibility work for the Clark campaign when it -40F or so.
My plans for the weekend? The basics: get healthy again, start eating on a regular schedule, catch up on sleep, start reading for classes, and get ready for the NHPC next week.
Current Mood: Calm
Current Song: Norah Jones, "Come Away With Me"
Friday, January 23, 2004
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
relaxtion. finally.
Back to the real world. Classes, my friends at Hopkins, and my apartment. And a real bed.
Thursdays are going to be pretty nasty this term. I decided to drop my "Terrorism and Public Health" elective that was on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but I'm still going to have classes from 10am to 8pm on Thursday. Ugh. I didn't plan ahead today, so I got caught eating M&Ms for dinner since I couldn't get home until late-ish.
I decided that it wasn't a good idea to go back up to New Hampshire. I would really love to go, but I would need to travel for ~10-12 hours from Manchester to Washington, D.C. through the early morning of 1/28. And since I'm already sleep deprived from my time in NH earlier this week, I could use a few days to recover. I'll probably drive to Wilmington, Delaware the following weekend to work on the Clark campaign there.
I'm still reflecting on the campaign experience. It still feels like a dream...the whole experience was so short and concentrated that I could have easily imagined it during a night of sleep. Except now I'm emailing and IMing the folks who I met during that weekend! It will be especially odd when I catch up with Atin, one of the NH volunteers who is an undergrad at Hopkins.
Thinking about the campaign also makes me sad in a way. I wish I had the time to spend another week at the campaign. And it can be upsetting to meet really neat people and spend a few really intense day with them -- and then never see them again? It's not necessarily going to be that way, especially with the ease of electronic communication, but it's still a possibility.
I got my final grade back from last term today, only a mere month after turning in my final (!!!). Somehow I pulled off an A despite not making much sense at all on my final paper. I had received a really high grade on the midterm, and it turns out that was really lucky because my final included a few *choice* comments such as "not really correct" and "does not relate to topic." But an A is an A.
This is going to be a good weekend. I'll finally see "Return of the King." And clean my room. And figure out my finances...it looks like I'll probably need to get another student loan. Ugh. Fortunately it will be for a (relatively) small amount. And I'll sleep. A lot. And go to Costco, develop about 200 photos, and get the basic food supplies for the next month or so. And clean my room again. It needs it.
Tomorrow is Friday. Yay.
Current Mood: Optimistic, high energy.
Current Song: Evanescence, "Away From Me"
relaxtion. finally.
Back to the real world. Classes, my friends at Hopkins, and my apartment. And a real bed.
Thursdays are going to be pretty nasty this term. I decided to drop my "Terrorism and Public Health" elective that was on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but I'm still going to have classes from 10am to 8pm on Thursday. Ugh. I didn't plan ahead today, so I got caught eating M&Ms for dinner since I couldn't get home until late-ish.
I decided that it wasn't a good idea to go back up to New Hampshire. I would really love to go, but I would need to travel for ~10-12 hours from Manchester to Washington, D.C. through the early morning of 1/28. And since I'm already sleep deprived from my time in NH earlier this week, I could use a few days to recover. I'll probably drive to Wilmington, Delaware the following weekend to work on the Clark campaign there.
I'm still reflecting on the campaign experience. It still feels like a dream...the whole experience was so short and concentrated that I could have easily imagined it during a night of sleep. Except now I'm emailing and IMing the folks who I met during that weekend! It will be especially odd when I catch up with Atin, one of the NH volunteers who is an undergrad at Hopkins.
Thinking about the campaign also makes me sad in a way. I wish I had the time to spend another week at the campaign. And it can be upsetting to meet really neat people and spend a few really intense day with them -- and then never see them again? It's not necessarily going to be that way, especially with the ease of electronic communication, but it's still a possibility.
I got my final grade back from last term today, only a mere month after turning in my final (!!!). Somehow I pulled off an A despite not making much sense at all on my final paper. I had received a really high grade on the midterm, and it turns out that was really lucky because my final included a few *choice* comments such as "not really correct" and "does not relate to topic." But an A is an A.
This is going to be a good weekend. I'll finally see "Return of the King." And clean my room. And figure out my finances...it looks like I'll probably need to get another student loan. Ugh. Fortunately it will be for a (relatively) small amount. And I'll sleep. A lot. And go to Costco, develop about 200 photos, and get the basic food supplies for the next month or so. And clean my room again. It needs it.
Tomorrow is Friday. Yay.
Current Mood: Optimistic, high energy.
Current Song: Evanescence, "Away From Me"
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Back to JHSPH. Biostatistics, Environmental Health, and Role of Government II today. Then hopefully catching a showing of "Return of the King," finally...
I'm trying to figure out a way to drive up to Clark campaign in NH for the 1/27 primary...and make it back to DC on 1/28 for the National Health Policy Conference.
I'm trying to figure out a way to drive up to Clark campaign in NH for the 1/27 primary...and make it back to DC on 1/28 for the National Health Policy Conference.
A moment of clarity this is not.
I just finished a long phone call with a friend from Stanford. I tried to describe my experiences of the last week, and I'm pretty sure that I accomplished next to nothing.
I'm going to need some time to figure out exactly how I felt about my time in the Clark campaign. Excited, tired, optimistic, cynical, and more. I feel like I bonded with some of the volunteers the same way that I used to during a summer camp. I was only at the campaign for a week, and only spent a few days with the volunteers whose schedules overlapped mine, but the common purpose of our work really helped unite us.
The campaign office was an odd blend of things...
- Anonymity and personal connections. As i said, i bonded with the volunteers and got to know them far better than I expected. At the same time, though, we were the little people in a office full of giants -- paid staffers, reporters, congressmen, ambassadors, and obviously the candidate himself. Maybe that's one reason why we bonded -- our little micro-community was all we had at some times.
- Inspiration and cynicism. All of the interns will say that the campaign was incredibly inspirational -- the famous visitors, the patriotic spirit and collective goals for Gen. Clark, the incredible speeches, and the overwhelming positive response from many of the voters we contacted. The euphoria was frequent but often short-lived. A small numbers of the paid staff members often made our lives quite difficult, though....micromanaging us, barking orders, and criticizing the very habits that we learned -- like a classic 1990s War on Drugs ad -- by watching them. I refrained from taking any parting shots when I left today...but it was certainly tempting...
I wish I could write more clearly now. I've made a lot of progress in returning to the real world today, but I still have the lingering feeling that I spent the last seven days in a dream. I remember the feel of the whole experience, yet I still have trouble recalling specific experiences. I have nearly 100 photos, though, so those ought to help. I still have to talk about the media, the volunteer house (or, affectionately, the 'crackhouse'), and our thrilling day-to-day tasks.
But now it's time for bed. Tomorrow brings nearly 8 hours of class.
Current Mood: Reflective
Current Song: Moby, "First Cool Hive"
I just finished a long phone call with a friend from Stanford. I tried to describe my experiences of the last week, and I'm pretty sure that I accomplished next to nothing.
I'm going to need some time to figure out exactly how I felt about my time in the Clark campaign. Excited, tired, optimistic, cynical, and more. I feel like I bonded with some of the volunteers the same way that I used to during a summer camp. I was only at the campaign for a week, and only spent a few days with the volunteers whose schedules overlapped mine, but the common purpose of our work really helped unite us.
The campaign office was an odd blend of things...
- Anonymity and personal connections. As i said, i bonded with the volunteers and got to know them far better than I expected. At the same time, though, we were the little people in a office full of giants -- paid staffers, reporters, congressmen, ambassadors, and obviously the candidate himself. Maybe that's one reason why we bonded -- our little micro-community was all we had at some times.
- Inspiration and cynicism. All of the interns will say that the campaign was incredibly inspirational -- the famous visitors, the patriotic spirit and collective goals for Gen. Clark, the incredible speeches, and the overwhelming positive response from many of the voters we contacted. The euphoria was frequent but often short-lived. A small numbers of the paid staff members often made our lives quite difficult, though....micromanaging us, barking orders, and criticizing the very habits that we learned -- like a classic 1990s War on Drugs ad -- by watching them. I refrained from taking any parting shots when I left today...but it was certainly tempting...
I wish I could write more clearly now. I've made a lot of progress in returning to the real world today, but I still have the lingering feeling that I spent the last seven days in a dream. I remember the feel of the whole experience, yet I still have trouble recalling specific experiences. I have nearly 100 photos, though, so those ought to help. I still have to talk about the media, the volunteer house (or, affectionately, the 'crackhouse'), and our thrilling day-to-day tasks.
But now it's time for bed. Tomorrow brings nearly 8 hours of class.
Current Mood: Reflective
Current Song: Moby, "First Cool Hive"
Monday, January 19, 2004
The campaign atmosphere is more rewarding, stimulating, and addictive than I could have possibly ever expectecd. I was supposed to leave this morning, but -- like most volunteers -- I somehow found a way to stay here another few days. And I'm coming back next weekend, too.
People I've met, taken a photo with, or spoken to during the last few days...
Mo Rocca from "The Daily Show" (he was doing a piece for the Today show)
Former Secretary of the Navy John Dalton
Former U.S. Congressman (D-GA) and "Dukes of Hazard" star Ben Jones
Former Secretary of Commerce (and political heavyweight) Mickey Kantor
Filmmaker and author Michael Moore
...and, oh, yeah, General Wesley Clark himself!
People I've met, taken a photo with, or spoken to during the last few days...
Mo Rocca from "The Daily Show" (he was doing a piece for the Today show)
Former Secretary of the Navy John Dalton
Former U.S. Congressman (D-GA) and "Dukes of Hazard" star Ben Jones
Former Secretary of Commerce (and political heavyweight) Mickey Kantor
Filmmaker and author Michael Moore
...and, oh, yeah, General Wesley Clark himself!
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Just got back to Baltimore after a full day of flying. Now I have to repack my clothes into my frame backpack, get a few hours of sleep, and catch the train to New Hampshire to work on the Clark campaign. I'll be back on the 19th.
Thursday, January 08, 2004
Thursday, January 01, 2004
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)