Jeremy Huddleston

Our internet was down for a while, so this is going to be a rather lengthy post...

So these past few days have been quite... interesting... for me. I, being the complete dunce I am, scheduled two things at the same time on Thursday night, and my attempt to combine the activities failed. I had told Lauren that I wanted to study Astro with her, and I told Sara that I wanted to bake with her, and for the record you can NOT study and bake at the same time. It doesn't work. So Liz and Lauren were studying out in the Ridge dining room while Sara and I were baking in the kitchen. I really enjoy baking. The guy washing dishes had on some classic rock, and I was dancing to the music as I was stirring up the cookie batter. Someone came up to me and said something about mixing work with pleasure, and I simply thought, "what work?" Maybe I should be a chef... no I don't like following orders... I like making what I want to make...

So my 3.5 month stint at ESC ended on Tuesday in a very anti-climatic fashion. I expected all-nighters, confetti, and champagne, but there were none of those... at least not at work. There may have been at the Wrap Party, but I didn't go to that.

I was planning on going with Charlie to the Wrap Party last night, but neither of us really felt up to it. I guess I wanted to avoid it because I didn't really know what to expect of it. I am sad that the project is over, but now I've got to embrace my freedom...

I went to STA Travel yesterday to see what kind of deal I could get on my New Zealand trip, and it looks like round trip will be costing me around $US 1000. Yikes! I was hoping to find something more around $700, but I guess I just have to suck it up. I have until Saturday to find a better deal.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1047761,00.html

A few days ago, I was talking with a dear friend about how her conflict between the culture she grew up in and the culture she is now living in at college... what I didn't realize at the time was that I am experiencing culture shock as well, and I didn't realize this until a conversation I had last night with Marina.

Growing up, I was taught to look compassionately at everyone as a human being... to treat them with respect, dignity, and appreciation. As Marina pointed out, this is in direct conflict with "The Dating Game". While women say they want to be treated with respect, honesty, and compassion, they don't reflect this with their actions. Women go after the players, the ones who yell out comments that I would view as utterly disrespectful, because those are the guys that they notice. Women don't notice and appreciate respect, but they notice and reward disrespect!

Last night, I went for a walk with Lauren and Liz around south side. For the most part, it was relaxing, mind clearing, and a lot of fun. We played, talked, and just let go of our worries, but some how others' worries found us. As we were coming back to Lauren's place, we heard a yell in a near by house. At first, we thought it was some erotic yelp, and I joked to Liz, "I wouldn't mind being over there," but after hearing it a second time, I quickly changed that to, "No, I don't think I would."

I instinctively ran across the street to find out what was happening. Lauren and Liz ran back to Lauren's place to call the cops and told me not to approach the house... I didn't listen to them. There were children crying a bloody cry, and a woman screaming for her husband (?) to leave, "Get the fuck away from me. Get the hell OUT OF HERE!" I walked up to the front door, and as I was about to knock, someone else came up the stairs behind me. I asked him if he knew who lived at the place, and he did. I walked down the steps and let him try to persuade the couple to come down stairs. I wasn't about to leave, but he told me to stay which was at least good to reaffirm that what I was doing was good.

brain->dump();

Null pointer exception thrown...

I was listening to FreshAir today, and the first segment was an interview Salam Pax, the Iraqi blogger/. If you haven't read his blog, I highly suggest it. It provides so much more insight than any western journalist ever could... and now his blog is getting published to bring his message to the technically challenged...

I just sent off an email to someone in which I wrote "What's your magic 8-Ball say?" Now for some reason, after I sent it, I became conscious of something "off" about this line... I was using 'What's' as a contraction for 'What does'. I've noticed others doing it too, so I've started to wonder, "At what point does 'incorrect' language end and 'adaptation' of the language begin?" Surely, any modern language is not the same as it was when it was "created". As an example, we can see the variations in spelling between British and American english for such words as town(e), colo(u)r, d(a)emon, flavo(u)r, etc. Surely these adaptations began as colloquialisms which refused to die in spite of nagging teachers drilling "correctness" into the heads of youth. On Tuesday, my English teacher addressed a specific colloquialism in class, the 'incorrect' use of "that". He placed a series of statements on the board similar to the following:

So... the Supreme Court is going to decide on the legality of the delay of the California Recall election. I think they're decision will force the election to take place as scheduled under the pretense that the delay of an election is undemocratic. Such delays, they will argue, could delay democracy indefinitely to the point where elected officials are not accountable to their constituents. The true motive, however, will be in their desire to avoid setting precedent where elections were concerned. They did this after the 2000 presidential election, and I'm willing to bet the same thing will happen here. Why can't the "highest court in the land" take a stand to support democracy?

Many of my friends are going through really rough times in their lives... this seems to happen a lot in college... and it's interesting to see how different people deal with rough times.

Some people accept the love and support of their friends with open arms because they realize that we're here for them. I think this is probably the most healthy response. Everyone goes through rough times, and once they realize that it's normal and become willing to accept the love and support of your friends, they can begin to heal in a loving supporting environment.

Some people, however, seem to be caught in a cycle where they never fully deal with problems despite the support of their friends. I think I fall into this category to some degree... I listen to what friends have to say, and it usually helps in the moment, but a lot of times, I end up right back where I started from. I think this has frustrated a lot of my friends in the past, and without having gone through therapy, I'd probably be in that same vicious cycle...