horrid weather, so not much motivation to venture outside....would rather stay in here toasty warm and snug like a pea. that means work though.
oh well.
k.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
rather
horrid weather, so not much motivation to venture outside....would rather stay in here toasty warm and snug like a pea. that means work though.
oh well.
k.
saturday evening
different than usual...three graphic novels and the last episode of s&tc (first time viewing, somehow missed it before*)
satisfactory. i must say, grudgingly, that carrie bradshaw redeemed herself in my eyes in that single episode. btw, i knew a straight, intelligent man once who was as addicted to that show as i;-P
how's your weekend going?
k.
*i've heard a retelling of the last three episodes done by a friend a long time ago, very well done. so well, in fact, that i'm not sure which version i like better;0)))
Friday, May 26, 2006
after
dealing with goverment institutions all morning i wish i had huge fangs so i could hurt them REALLY BADLY!!! tear their limbs from their bodies, one by one....GGGGRRRRRRRRRR!!!
this ep-ed
appeared in the new york times a couple of days ago...i wonder what you think...
May 23, 2006 Op-Ed Columnist
The Drumroll, Please
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
In March I opened a "win a trip" contest, offering to take a university student with me on a rough reporting trip to a neglected area in Africa. Some 3,800 applications poured in, accompanied by boxes of supplementary materials, ranging from senior theses to nude photos.
After weeks of sifting through the applications, I finally have a winner. She is Casey Parks of Jackson, Miss. — an aspiring journalist who has never traveled abroad. We'll get her a passport and a bunch of vaccinations — ah, the glamour of overseas travel — and start planning our trip.
Casey, who turned 23 on Friday, attended Millsaps College in Jackson and is now a graduate student in journalism at the University ofMissouri. She has won a string of awards for her essays and other writing. In her essay, Casey wrote about growing up poor:
"I saw my mother skip meals. I saw my father pawn everything he loved. I saw our cars repossessed. I never saw France or London." (The essays by Casey and a dozen finalists are posted at nytimes.com/winatrip.) "I so desperately want to leave this country and know more," she wrote. Now she'll have the chance.
We'll most likely start in Equatorial Guinea, bounce over to Cameroon and travel through a jungle with Pygmy villages to end up in the Central African Republic — one of the most neglected countries in the world. We'll visit schools, clinics and aid programs, probably traveling in September for 10 days. Casey will write a blog about it for nytimes.com and will also do a video blog for MTV-U.
But the point of this contest wasn't to give one lucky student the chance to get malaria and hookworms. It's to try to stir up a broader interest in the developing world among young people. One of our country's basic strategic weaknesses is that Americans don't understand the rest of the world. We got in trouble in Vietnam and again in Iraq partly because we couldn't put ourselves in other people's shoes and appreciate their nationalism.
According to Foreign Policy magazine, 92 percent of U.S. college students don't take a foreign language class. Goucher College in Baltimore bills itself as the first American college to require all students to study abroad, and the rest should follow that example.
So for all the rest of you who applied for my contest, see if you can't work out your own trips. Or take a year off before heading to college or into a job. You'll have to pay for your travel, but you can often find "hotels" for $5 a night per person in countries like India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Morocco, Bolivia and Peru — and in rural areas, people may invite you to stay free in their huts. To get around, you can jump on local buses.
Is it safe? Not entirely, for the developing world has more than its share of pickpockets, drunken soldiers, scorpions, thugs, diseases, parasites and other risks.
Twenty-two years ago, as a backpacking student, I traveled with a vivacious young American woman who, like me, was living in Cairo. She got off my train in northern Sudan; that evening, the truck she had hitched a ride in hit another truck. Maybe if there had been an ambulance or a doctor nearby, she could have been saved. Instead, she bled to death.
So, yes, be aware of the risks, travel with a buddy or two, and carry an international cellphone. But remember that young Aussies, Kiwis andEuropeans take such a year of travel all the time — women included —and usually come through not only intact, but also with a much richer understanding of how most of humanity lives.
There are also terrific service options. Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistanianti-rape activist I've often written about, told me she would welcome American volunteers to teach English in the schools she has started. You would have to commit to staying six weeks or more, but would get free housing in her village. You can apply by contacting www.4anaa.org.
Then there's New Light, a terrific anti-trafficking organization inCalcutta. Urmi Basu, who runs it, said she would welcome American volunteers to teach English classes to the children of prostitutes. You would have to stay at least six weeks and budget $15 a day for food and lodging; for more information go to www.uddami.org/newlight.
In the 21st century, you can't call yourself educated if you don'tunderstand how the other half lives — and you don't get that understanding in a classroom. So do something about your educational shortcomings: fly to Bangkok.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
May 23, 2006 Op-Ed Columnist
The Drumroll, Please
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
In March I opened a "win a trip" contest, offering to take a university student with me on a rough reporting trip to a neglected area in Africa. Some 3,800 applications poured in, accompanied by boxes of supplementary materials, ranging from senior theses to nude photos.
After weeks of sifting through the applications, I finally have a winner. She is Casey Parks of Jackson, Miss. — an aspiring journalist who has never traveled abroad. We'll get her a passport and a bunch of vaccinations — ah, the glamour of overseas travel — and start planning our trip.
Casey, who turned 23 on Friday, attended Millsaps College in Jackson and is now a graduate student in journalism at the University ofMissouri. She has won a string of awards for her essays and other writing. In her essay, Casey wrote about growing up poor:
"I saw my mother skip meals. I saw my father pawn everything he loved. I saw our cars repossessed. I never saw France or London." (The essays by Casey and a dozen finalists are posted at nytimes.com/winatrip.) "I so desperately want to leave this country and know more," she wrote. Now she'll have the chance.
We'll most likely start in Equatorial Guinea, bounce over to Cameroon and travel through a jungle with Pygmy villages to end up in the Central African Republic — one of the most neglected countries in the world. We'll visit schools, clinics and aid programs, probably traveling in September for 10 days. Casey will write a blog about it for nytimes.com and will also do a video blog for MTV-U.
But the point of this contest wasn't to give one lucky student the chance to get malaria and hookworms. It's to try to stir up a broader interest in the developing world among young people. One of our country's basic strategic weaknesses is that Americans don't understand the rest of the world. We got in trouble in Vietnam and again in Iraq partly because we couldn't put ourselves in other people's shoes and appreciate their nationalism.
According to Foreign Policy magazine, 92 percent of U.S. college students don't take a foreign language class. Goucher College in Baltimore bills itself as the first American college to require all students to study abroad, and the rest should follow that example.
So for all the rest of you who applied for my contest, see if you can't work out your own trips. Or take a year off before heading to college or into a job. You'll have to pay for your travel, but you can often find "hotels" for $5 a night per person in countries like India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Morocco, Bolivia and Peru — and in rural areas, people may invite you to stay free in their huts. To get around, you can jump on local buses.
Is it safe? Not entirely, for the developing world has more than its share of pickpockets, drunken soldiers, scorpions, thugs, diseases, parasites and other risks.
Twenty-two years ago, as a backpacking student, I traveled with a vivacious young American woman who, like me, was living in Cairo. She got off my train in northern Sudan; that evening, the truck she had hitched a ride in hit another truck. Maybe if there had been an ambulance or a doctor nearby, she could have been saved. Instead, she bled to death.
So, yes, be aware of the risks, travel with a buddy or two, and carry an international cellphone. But remember that young Aussies, Kiwis andEuropeans take such a year of travel all the time — women included —and usually come through not only intact, but also with a much richer understanding of how most of humanity lives.
There are also terrific service options. Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistanianti-rape activist I've often written about, told me she would welcome American volunteers to teach English in the schools she has started. You would have to commit to staying six weeks or more, but would get free housing in her village. You can apply by contacting www.4anaa.org.
Then there's New Light, a terrific anti-trafficking organization inCalcutta. Urmi Basu, who runs it, said she would welcome American volunteers to teach English classes to the children of prostitutes. You would have to stay at least six weeks and budget $15 a day for food and lodging; for more information go to www.uddami.org/newlight.
In the 21st century, you can't call yourself educated if you don'tunderstand how the other half lives — and you don't get that understanding in a classroom. So do something about your educational shortcomings: fly to Bangkok.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Thursday, May 25, 2006
seen & heard
on my usual trip to the crack joint (now those of you who live in israel, don't you dare to raise an eyebrow) my eye was caught by something white and energetic...
it appeares agriculture students toil in hideaway spots on campus. this one did it all by himself!
he was kinda cute too, for a farmboy. who knew?!Wednesday, May 24, 2006
i think i've droped my hanky...
this is particularly for carrie, nisse, meaghan and meagan! i'm not telling my results untill everyone's done hers...enjoy;-)
k.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
maybe
you know those half-hidden paths that look like there's something terribly exciting waiting for you just beyond the bend...since i was a small child i thought that as long as they are there, and as long as i'd believe in their promise i'll be all right. these days i use them to counteract the "this chapter needs substantial reworking"-in-red-pen-comments every time i send something to my supervisor. they are also great for erradicating feelings of self-pity.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Saturday, May 20, 2006
creamsickle delight
was one of the many groovy things available at the arch. dept annual bbq....thanks dave and leanne!!!
check out flickr on the right for more pics.
k.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
sometimes the third eye is sexy
this is my new baby: nik, the coolpix p4. he's very healthy and social and already ventures on bike rides all over the neighbourhood.
stay tuned for more adventures with k. & nik!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Ms Carrie Ellen Dunn, MA
so carrie has left the nest.she partied hard after all the hard work, and the rest of us did what we could to keep up.
and now she's almost ready to go and change the world.
only some packing and a few goodbyes left to take care of...
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
harrassed
three things cannot be retrieved:
the arrow once sped from the bow
the word spoken in haste
the missed opportunity.
-- ali the lion, caliph of islam
son-in-law of mohammed the prophet
i'm not in a good place right now. extremely freaked out. worried both about self and friends who are facing problems of various kind...so i don't know if there's going to be any posting untill i'm over this hump, out of this hole.
i'm not forgeting about anyone, don't feel insulted if i don't email for a bit.
love,
k.
the arrow once sped from the bow
the word spoken in haste
the missed opportunity.
-- ali the lion, caliph of islam
son-in-law of mohammed the prophet
i'm not in a good place right now. extremely freaked out. worried both about self and friends who are facing problems of various kind...so i don't know if there's going to be any posting untill i'm over this hump, out of this hole.
i'm not forgeting about anyone, don't feel insulted if i don't email for a bit.
love,
k.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
accidentally...
a good find in the main library's new arrivals section today. "virginia woolf. the will to create as a woman" by ruth gruber.
incidently, in 1931, aged 20, gruber was the youngest person ever to receive a doctorate. she met woolf when she was 19... an american of jewish origin ruth was born a year before my grandfather daniel f. and the phd was from the university of cologne...where daniel grew up.
he still lived there at the time when she was doing her research. now his granddaughter, a sworn virginia woolf enthusiast, is looking at the picture of ruth gruber on the back cover of her book.
how's that for a story?
k.
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