Far and Near
New York = Soon! Not that I have seriously loyal followers that are dying to see these pictures, lol. But here's a sneak peak I suppose:
Weird statue adjacent to World Trade Center site.
Whatever they are trying to sell, their message is interesting.
Me and Sarah atop the Empire State Building!
So I'm going to rant about some current events, large scale and local.
Firstly, yay! Thursday - 04/08/2010 (today) - is a don't-wear-shoes day. There is a popular Facebook event on the U of A's campus promoting not wearing shoes all day to spread word of the plight faced by millions of children every day, the infections, diseases, and dangers of being raised in poverty without shoes. "Always having to focus on your step, rather than other things." I'm totally participating in this, and think it's a good idea! But at the same time, spreading the word of causes and contributing to them are two different things. Next time you or I go shoe shopping, perhaps we'll check out: "Tom's Shoes" - where each pair of shoes you buy sends a free pair to helpless children somewhere.
Second, a gay student in Tennessee was sent home for wearing a T-shirt that said "I Love Lady Gay Gay." (News Link) Lady Gaga later tweeted about him, "It reminds me of my commitment + love for u, and the deep unconditional devotion I feel to write music that will liberate you from prejudice. Thank u for wearing your tee-shirt proud at school, you make me so proud, at the monsterball, you are an inspiration to us all. I love you." (later) "Been in the studio for days and hours of record after record, and when I hear that a little monster was discriminated against* BY TEACHERS" Personally, I think the shirts kinda ugly and boring. And I don't really get the direct connection between Lady Gaga and Gay-Gay. Whatever, but I don't think the kid should've been sent home.
In Virginia, the dumb Republican Governor declared this (?) month "Confederate History Month." As a History major, and someone who will one day be a degree holding-historian, why on Earth does that sound like a good idea? Any better than a Nazi History Month? You lost, you were wrong, history has decided -- Get Over it. Newspeeps are all abuzz in particular because it made no mention of Slavery in the proclamation. (News Link)
Finally, although I don't believe anyone that reads this lives on campus at the U of A: the Air Conditioning will NOT be turned on anytime soon, in particular the April 15th date has no basis in fact or policy. Sarah Ritz is all over Facebook trying to debunk those rumors, and as far as I've seen in the past 3 years of being here - no form of Student protest is going to convince them otherwise. The whole campus (sans computer labs) runs on the same heating/cooling system. It costs thousands to switch over, so obviously they only do it twice a year. To prevent the pipes from freezing, they put off the AC switch till the last minute - often til the last week or later of classes.
Remarkable fact: Looking over the ASG transition binder (being the incoming College of Education Senator), I found that students at Miami (of Ohio) University charges students a $861.51 "Student Activity" fee (what funds student orgs.) Of this, 1.50% actually goes to the student organizations. By comparison, Western Michigan University charges 21$ a year, and 90% of it does. Ohio State is 60$ a year, and 12.75% does. I can't find UA's numbers... yet.
Awesome Link of the Day: My Ed Planning teacher's beard is on the internet. (See Here!!!) I won't use names or steal pictures in case he traces it back here, not that I've ever spoken bad of him cause he's so awesome and jolly -- just covering my bases.
Song of the Day: "Baby, It's Fact" by Hellogoodbye. No particular reason. Woah now, the music video is straaaaange. Well, by that I mean it's actually very average. Lady Gaga has completely redone the strange-video scale. Woah man, I dunno if I can handle how nerdy the Hellogoodbye guy looks.
Weird statue adjacent to World Trade Center site.
Whatever they are trying to sell, their message is interesting.
Me and Sarah atop the Empire State Building!So I'm going to rant about some current events, large scale and local.
Firstly, yay! Thursday - 04/08/2010 (today) - is a don't-wear-shoes day. There is a popular Facebook event on the U of A's campus promoting not wearing shoes all day to spread word of the plight faced by millions of children every day, the infections, diseases, and dangers of being raised in poverty without shoes. "Always having to focus on your step, rather than other things." I'm totally participating in this, and think it's a good idea! But at the same time, spreading the word of causes and contributing to them are two different things. Next time you or I go shoe shopping, perhaps we'll check out: "Tom's Shoes" - where each pair of shoes you buy sends a free pair to helpless children somewhere.
Second, a gay student in Tennessee was sent home for wearing a T-shirt that said "I Love Lady Gay Gay." (News Link) Lady Gaga later tweeted about him, "It reminds me of my commitment + love for u, and the deep unconditional devotion I feel to write music that will liberate you from prejudice. Thank u for wearing your tee-shirt proud at school, you make me so proud, at the monsterball, you are an inspiration to us all. I love you." (later) "Been in the studio for days and hours of record after record, and when I hear that a little monster was discriminated against* BY TEACHERS" Personally, I think the shirts kinda ugly and boring. And I don't really get the direct connection between Lady Gaga and Gay-Gay. Whatever, but I don't think the kid should've been sent home.In Virginia, the dumb Republican Governor declared this (?) month "Confederate History Month." As a History major, and someone who will one day be a degree holding-historian, why on Earth does that sound like a good idea? Any better than a Nazi History Month? You lost, you were wrong, history has decided -- Get Over it. Newspeeps are all abuzz in particular because it made no mention of Slavery in the proclamation. (News Link)
Finally, although I don't believe anyone that reads this lives on campus at the U of A: the Air Conditioning will NOT be turned on anytime soon, in particular the April 15th date has no basis in fact or policy. Sarah Ritz is all over Facebook trying to debunk those rumors, and as far as I've seen in the past 3 years of being here - no form of Student protest is going to convince them otherwise. The whole campus (sans computer labs) runs on the same heating/cooling system. It costs thousands to switch over, so obviously they only do it twice a year. To prevent the pipes from freezing, they put off the AC switch till the last minute - often til the last week or later of classes.
Remarkable fact: Looking over the ASG transition binder (being the incoming College of Education Senator), I found that students at Miami (of Ohio) University charges students a $861.51 "Student Activity" fee (what funds student orgs.) Of this, 1.50% actually goes to the student organizations. By comparison, Western Michigan University charges 21$ a year, and 90% of it does. Ohio State is 60$ a year, and 12.75% does. I can't find UA's numbers... yet.
Awesome Link of the Day: My Ed Planning teacher's beard is on the internet. (See Here!!!) I won't use names or steal pictures in case he traces it back here, not that I've ever spoken bad of him cause he's so awesome and jolly -- just covering my bases.
Song of the Day: "Baby, It's Fact" by Hellogoodbye. No particular reason. Woah now, the music video is straaaaange. Well, by that I mean it's actually very average. Lady Gaga has completely redone the strange-video scale. Woah man, I dunno if I can handle how nerdy the Hellogoodbye guy looks.
Comments
Yay for being a senator! (Did I know that already? I can't remember.)