Too much hiatus, too much time without change. There is far more to worry about than $85.

( “Private” )

The pigeons are still leaning around the eaves, so I suppose it hasn’t gotten quite as cold as it could be. It’s rather difficult trying to tell when the interior of the apartment somehow has stabilized at a temperature more suitable for growing tropical orchids and bromeliads-except that there’s no relative humidity. Everything is dry and teeming ( Read more... )

It’s interesting how much a well-timed phone call can accomplish. If plans for the dojo work out accordingly, it seems as though we’ll be able to hold lessons in the Community Center downtown so long as we’re willing to hold self-defense workshops on a weekly basis for those interested. As self defense often rests largely upon the individual’s ( Read more... )

Rain blurs lines, distorts atmospheric perspective, washes away. It’s also always been a time for meditative reflection, if only because it often prevents most other outdoor activities, like birding, or attempting to stay dry. After much thinking, I’ve come to the conclusion that this might very well be the time to “wipe clean” the dojo and start ( Read more... )

Ino, if I’m actually to participate in this event of yours, I’m going to require more specific information: for example, when and where you think you’re holding it. I imagine others might find that pertinent data as well. Some people do still mark their calendars, you know, and most in this building do work for a living and thus may need to ask for ( Read more... )

Without education, without the vaguest spark of curiosity, computers would not exist, vaccines would lay untested, and the vast undeveloped quadrants of the globe would remain unexplored. Learning, garnering knowledge from any source possible, enables a society to propel itself into the great beyond-the leading countries in the world are those in ( Read more... )

As almost sociologist, I often play the accredited voyeur, watching and simultaneously passing judgment without falling under the same scrutiny myself. I enjoy that distance, and I don’t particularly care for this…journal network, this explosion of communication that extends beyond our apartment walls. But as I’m a part of this particular ( Read more... )

The wide room and mirrors do little to alleviate the heat at the dojo: the wood floors are warm, the mats seemingly sticky. Add a few sets of bodies yawning into katas, and the uncomfortable level rises tenfold. Yes, Tenten, upon closer inspection it does indeed look as though you've KO'd the AC, but to be fair, it looked like it was on its way out ( Read more... )

I dislike hiatus--limbo, lacuna, interlude; whatever it must be called. Unfilled spaces of unknowing. It’s less the realization that I’m not sure what comes next, and more the thought of not doing anything remotely productive that bothers me. That I wrote a microstructures thesis in Sociology means little to the vast majority of prospective ( Read more... )

The graduation ceremony seems so unnecessary--why can’t we just receive our diplomas from the registrar’s office and be done with it? As though the Dean from the Humanities department, reading and mispronouncing my name off a placard, is supposed to be inspiring and revelatory... I don’t need some frolicking beneath a tent in stupid costumes in ( Read more... )