This weekend has been swell. Friday night after Navs I went to Amigo’s to hang out and talk, and after that went to Varv’s apartment, played Rummy, and we talked for quite a while. It was good times to get away from crowds and get some real conversation going. Not that the other conversations I had in the night weren’t real, but there’s some things you can’t talk about in crowds of ten people who don’t know you.

Saturday = ZOO! Omaha’s The Henry Doorly Zoo, to be precise. My favorite animals were the Polar Bears (in Japanese -> shirokuma), sharks, octopii, and penguins. It’s amazing to watch those animals and think how incredible it is to be separated mere inches from them because of modern technology and ultimately the marvels and wonders of God’s creation. I mean, there’d be nothing to put in the zoo if he didn’t make the animals and no way to hold them in if there wasn’t the technology. I think it would be even more incredible to see some of those animals in the wild. They’d be a lot more fearsome, eh?

Another fun aspect was being there with Jake, Amy Hatcher, April S., and Kanako. Kanako knows Jake and Amy and the other Navs who went to Shizuoka, Japan last summer. Anyway, it was good to spend time with some friends in a different environment than usual and enjoyed speaking a bit of Japanese with Kanako, although I know I could learn more of the language if I tried harder.

Saturday night was Brandon’s birthday. Went to that with Jake and knew many other people there, too. For Brandon’s birthday we made him a 25 song CD. It was Jake’s idea and a good one at that. 11 of the songs on the CD were Copa Cabana.

Today I’ve just done usual Sunday fare — church, ate dinner out at a house, napped, and read various items most of the afternoon. I occassionally find myself with a shortage of real bookmarks due to the amount of books I have being consumed or awaiting consumption at any one time. Today I read parts of The Bible, Wild at Heart, Spiritual Disciplines, The Passion of Christ, and Eyes of Heisenberg (odd sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert — not that good).

This week will be tough for school. I’ve got two midterms on Tuesday, each of which I’m inadequately prepared for. I will study much tomorrow and hope it to be enough. Thursday I have a paper due. But, joy of joys, FREEDOM of sorts comes Friday with the end of the school week and beginning of a Spring Break to be filled with its own busyness and not less requirements than usual, but different. (i.e. I must finally finish my English class. Must.)

Oh, and Phil’s site moved: http://philabowl.f2o.org/ http://thebolls.com/

Categories: Books, Life, Religious
Tags: Amigos, Amy, college, Jake, omaha, Phil, Runny, scifi

Well, another day of class is done. I’ll be more excited to be able once the next six days of class are done because Spring Break is after that. Joy of joys, it’ll be awesome! Except for the fact that I’ve got to work on English, but that’s okay. I want to graduate.

Had my Japanese midterm yesterday. I don’t think I did well. It comes from not studying enough during the semester. I studied a lot the night before, but that’s not enough of you don’t know what you’re doing. We’ll see.

I got a B on the Chinese Politics paper I did a couple weeks ago. I have a feeling this will be a “B” semester overall.

Whelp, that’s all for now.

Categories: Life

John Kerry was asked what his first executive order as president would be. His response: “Reverse the Mexico City policy on the gag rule so that we take a responsible position globally on family planning.”

The Mexico City Policy required “nongovernmental organizations to agree as a condition of their receipt of Federal funds that such organizations would neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations.”

This type of policy is particularly important in terms of US support (or lack of) for the United Nations Population funds which has been accused of working with the Chinese government to coerce abortion.

*My thoughts:*
It’s moral policies like this that ’cause me to dislike Democratic candidates in general. I realize Republicans aren’t always saints either, but this kind of issue stands out. For me the election is about morality at least as much as internal/foreign policy. I don’t agree with everything Bush does, but I agree with him on a majority of moral issues including abortion and the importance of the traditional family. In this case especially, Bush reestablished the Mexico City Policy during his administration and for that I applaud him.

*Outside Sources:*
• Mexico City Policy – Wikipedia

Categories: Politics

“So I was figuring I can’t graduate till August.”
“Uhuh.”
“I was wondering if I could still go through the ceremony in May?”
“No, ‘they’ won’t let you do that.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”

So, no graduation ceremony in May. That means if I want the ceremony (I’m not sure I care, but my parents do), I’ll have to come back and do it in August. Or just be here in August when it happens. This only further complicates my presently unexistant post-graduation direction in life. But if nothing else, I know I’ll be in Nebraska for at least one day of it.

Last week I broke my first dish in dining services. I was grabbing a bowl to put fruit in and holding it between a finger and my thumb. Some female student was looking up at the giant TV acting impressed by something. In the midst of turning my head to look at the screen, the bowl slipped from my fingers. If you’ve ever heard the sound of a porcelain bowl breaking in a cafeteria, you know what I’m talking about. It’s a bit different when it’s you that’s done it. I glanced over at a cafeteria worker and she picked up and took away the broken pieces quickly. Having heard enough broken dishes in my time at school, I moved on and got the rest of my meal.

Categories: Life

Uhoh. Recently, I’ve been playing a lot of Final Fantasy VII, an RPG game by Square. Today, I just found out they’re coming out with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Problem is, I probably can’t play it since it’ll be for Playstation 2. Oh well. I’m busy enough with everything (life + FF7) as it is.

Update: I’m wrong! See the comments for details.

Categories: Good Times