During the Mikey and Missi vs. Meredith and Kevin game of Beiruit, something told Amanda to pick that moment to go upstairs to turn the music off. Shortly thereafter something told me to go figure out what had happened to Dave, JJ, and the Merry Men. As we came down the stairs (I had been unsuccessful in my quest, as I later learned the Merry Men took Dave and JJ to 'storm the castle' on the Persson steps"), we saw four campus safety officers, the HR on duty, and the director of Res Life come walking through our hallway.

Our house is in big trouble now.

Courses registered:

GEOG 499: Honors
GEOG 332: International Environmental Policy
RELG 318: Native American Religions
SPAN 354: Latin American Literature

For once I agree with the Republicans and President Bush. Federalizing airport security seems too big a step. Maybe it's just because I can't see the hijackings on September 11 as being some huge failure of airport security, given that the weapons in question were pocketknives and box cutters. You could conceal a blade that would be just as effective inside a metal pen. Or learn some martial arts, so you don't even need a weapon to threaten people.

If you want to live in a free society, you run the risk of occasionally getting burned.

I hate abdicating responsibility. But last night I had to.

When the new Brunching board started up, nobody even questioned that I should be made an admin again, now that we weren't subject to the wrath of Pahl. It was really weird at first, because I felt like I was suddenly off the hook for all the inflammatory things I said on the old board. I didn't complain, though, because (if only for selfish control-freak reasons) I like being an administrator there. I like feeling that I have the power and responsibility to make sure things run smoothly. But last night, I realised I was spending too much time on the board that I should have spent working on school things. I decided I wouldn't be able to give the board my full attention again until after Thanksgiving, when my two seminar papers will be turned in. I'm sure you're all laughing at the concept of a geography/anthropology major being swamped with work, and there isn't really a good reason I shouldn't be able to do it all with time to spare. But I'm still failing at time management.

So last night I posted that I was going to have to take a month-long hiatus. And that meant that I had to permanently step down from being an administrator. I don't like the fact that when I come back in December I'll be an SMU, but it would be dishonest of me to think I could leave and then be fully reinstated when I come back.

I just got a very vehement email from my SOAN advisor, who is leading the Moscow study group. She forwarded us an editorial from the NY Times about how Bush's Texas buddies are getting the best deal from the "stimulus package" going through Congress. At the top of it she wrote this diatribe about how idiotic the war in Afghanistan is. At the end she insinuated that the point of this war is to get access to the oil reserves in the Caspian Sea basin. I personally think she's being a little too cynical, but it fits the kind of things she said last year when I had her in class. She really likes to mention the fact that Bush's grandfather Prescott suported the Nazis.

My post about the Post editorial got screwed up, so that it merged with the next post down and I couldn't get to the edit link to fix it. I got all worked up, and wound up viewing source on the lower Blogger window, stealing the address of that edit link, and typing it directly into the address bar. Then Amanda pointed out the "enter safe mode" link, whose alt tag says "If you accidentally type some bad HTML that renders the edit link for that post unreachable, click here." D'oh.

An open message to all people I might ever talk to about my Anthropology honors project:

I've already talked to Jordan Kerber about it!

It's really frustrating when anyone I try to ask about archaeology on Oneida sites just refers me to Prof. Kerber. I know he's the expert. He was the first person I talked to. Now I'm looking for some non-Keber perspectives. I don't want the subtitle of my paper to be "What Jordan Told Me."

More proof that my future lies in journalism: I was reading this editorial, and I started thinking, "you know, this feels more like a commentary or signed opinion column than an editorial." (Yes, there are subtle stylistic differences. The one that got me here was that editorials tend to be less conversational and personal.)

Maybe it's a sign that I should be going into journalism instead of geography that, when I was looking through the Guide to Programs in Geography in the United States and Canada I was more bothered by the poor formatting of the chart than I was by the lack of schools with a specialty in cultural ecology or Australia/Oceania.

Emerging Corpses A Dilemma For Inuit
All I can say is, Elena darn well better put this in World & Nation this week...

I have to stop looking at this page so I can get some work done.

Crap.

My anthropology seminar paper depended on interviewing people from the Oneida Nation and local archaeologists. The archaeologists are working out fine. I finally got a hold of the Oneida Nation today. They gave me the runaround for a bit, and finally Mark Emmery told me they don't do interviews for students. So half of my paper suddenly disappeared.

I should have majored in Chemistry. Sulfuric acid never refuses to talk to you.

A few I forgot:

Students Take Lord's Name In Vain, doo-dah, doo-dah
Coach Vaughn Loses Will To Live, oh doo-dah day

We Went To The Metrodome, doo-dah, doo-dah
Didn't Get Stuff For My Dad, oh doo-dah day.

Bible Was In Sinhalese, doo-dah, doo-dah
Kokopelli On A Stick, oh doo-dah day

Yes, Denver and Detroit are different places, hard as it is for my brain to accept that.

The Pep Band trip to the University of Minnesota
In convenient "Camptown Races" format:

Had A Knife In My Backpack, doo-dah, doo-dah.
Plane Staff Confiscated It, oh doo-dah day.

Colgate Beaten Shamefully, doo-dah, doo-dah
Raiders Shut Out Twice On Road, oh doo-dah day.

Minnesota Crowd Was Lame, doo-dah, doo-dah
But They Can Spell Their State's Name, oh doo-dah day.

Gopher Band Was Really Big, doo-dah, doo-dah
One Whole Bus Of Alto Sax, oh doo-dah day

Cannon Man Announced The Score, doo-dah, doo-dah
A Chair Was Reserved For Him, oh doo-dah day.

Pie Shop Claimed The World's Best Pies, doo-dah, doo-dah
And I Think That They Were Right, oh doo-dah day.

Had To Eat At Burger King, doo-dah, doo-dah.
Only Got One Onion Ring, oh doo-dah day.