Update, A survey and a rant
Apr. 5th, 2002 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hkellickWow, three days since I last posted. There must be something wrong!
Well.. no.. not really. Mostly I'm just a busy busy person.
I've been (no surprise given the test is on the 20th) mostly doing studying. I finished studying Dynamics (woo! fun! .. not) two days ago and started, yesterday, on something a little easier, Fluid Mechanics (if I don't ace the Fluid Mechanics sectionh, you have my permission to kill me because THIS is the stuff I know (for the most part) like the back of my hand.)
Hopefully finish Fluid Mechanics today, go and start something else tommorow...
Life? Who needs a life? Well, I do for one...
Hopefully tonite or tommorow night I'll just go and do something.. midnight bowling or a movie or something. I need to get out and relax.
So... did I tell you the new stories in the life of Josh?
Apparently Josh is getting a car.
Oh no, my friends, it's much better than that.
Josh is getting a NEW car. A Kia. Dad is paying for it.
Read this again... Dad is putting approximtely $7-8 THOUSAND DOLLARS DOWN on a new Car for Josh.
Also, apparently Dad is giving MARC money to put a security deposit down on a new apartment.
It's a pity I don't have anything I need. Well... I do, but I can and would PREFER to pay for them all.
Ah well.
It occurs to me that while part of me is in total shock that dad is going to spend so much money on Josh, I'm not really jealous. Angry, I think, because of all the time I DID need stuff and dad didn't come through, but...
If I didn't have my little (well.. not so little) Sable, I'd probably be raging with jealousy. As it is, I'm quite happy with my Mercury, so it's all good.
Anyways, Josh NEEDS a car to go to university. Especially since he's talking of going to Niagara Community College for a year or two and then maybe SUNY Fredonia.
I don't believe how bloody stupid I am. Instead of writing LJ, I should be at the library, but since I didn't bring the stuff I need, I'll have to come in tommorow and do it. Bugger.
I saw this on a few LJs. I like the idea so.. here I go! :)
20 years ago I...
... thought Sesame Street and The Electric Company and The Disney Channel were so cool.
... spent most of my time wrapped up in various fantasy worlds of my own.
... lived in a house easily twice the size of where I live now.
... thought Star Trek was for real and wouldn't believe my mom when she tried to tell me to the contrary.
... spent the majority of my free time at Brompton Day Care Center with kids my age or at the Jewish Center learning crafts and how to swim.
15 years ago I...
... was being spoiled rotten by my father who gave me everything I thought I'd ever want
... was learning the intricacies of BASIC and LOGO programming.
... planned to be a paleontologist when I grew up.
... was learning how to row and swim at Camp Centerland.
... spent all my free time with my parent's jewish friends' sons and daughters
10 years ago I...
... hated my father and was annoyed with my mother.
... figured I'd be a computer programmer when I grew up (since there wasn't much a call for paleontologists)
... thought rap artists like Young MC and M.C. Hammer were awesome.
... decided to take part in "Hebrew High", a past-bar mitzva Jewish Education
... spent most of my time with a small select group of friends from my temple, my high school and my mom's friends.
5 years ago I...
... disliked my father and hated my stepmother.
... was an aerospace engineering student
... rediscovered 80s music
... became Wiccan
... helped found ChaoticMUX and spent most of my free time there.
2 years ago I...
... still disliked my father and hated my stepmother
... was a civil engineering student planning to get into the new environmental engineering program
... was dating Medwyn.
... discovered the joy of Napster.
... was getting flustered with the state of ChaoticMUX, "today"
1 year ago I...
... watched the world completely change (and yet not) and realized I was hideously uninformed and chose to fix that.
... got a car! Finally!
... tried to ride the Viper (coaster at Six Flags Darien Lake) and was so crammed in that I spent the entire ride looking constipated.
... discovered Cake.
... volunteered as President of the University of Buffalo Environmental Engineering and Science Council
Yesterday I...
... studied for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.
... worked on my Thesis Project.
... watched Josh get a permit.
... had a very pleasant dinner with my grandmother and mother
... did 30 mintues of jogging and 30 minutes of work on the elliptical.
... weighed (an average of) 246 lbs.
Somehow that really DOES seem to put my life into some sort of perspective.
Oh, come now. Y'all knew this was going to happen eventually.
Israel. Ah... Israel.
I feel like I'm watching a bad war movie. This can't be real.. the countries involved CAN'T be this bleeding stupid, right?
But Stupidity DOES seem to breed on a National level.
Watching the Israelis enter and repossess cities in the West Bank I have to wonder what's going through their mind? Anger, obviously. I don't blame them. After years of not being able to go to school or to the mall or to get pizza without having to worry about terrorists coming in and killing you or someone you love? I'd be angry too.
I agree that SOMETHING must be done about these terrorists. People SHOULD be allowed to live their lives in relative peace. I agree I also have no idea what can be.
We were so close, a couple years back, to achieving a sort of peace. Israel was willing to give back everything but Jerusalem and there was discussion of making Jerusalem a third-party state... neither Israeli or Palestinian so that both would have access to it.
Then Arafat walked away and called an Intifadah. (sp?)
Why is it, I have to wonder, that the U.N. is so swift to action against Israel being in the West Bank, but has been unwilling/unable to get any sort of action against the Palestinians before this. I'd have strongly suggested the U.N. have acted swiftly after the Passover bombing.. before Israel did... but... it wasn't too be.
It fuels the fire in me that the U.N. is, more or less, a useless thing.
This fire started after 9/11. It should be the U.N. in Afghanistan and elseplace stopping terrorism, but it isn't. It's a GLOBAL problem and the globe seems to agree, but it's the US stopping terrorism.
It's like... US keeps threatning to invade Iraq because Iraq probably IS holding terrorists, but there's also the fact that the U.N. could and SHOULD be trying to get into Iraq. But they aren't.
They're too busy yelling at Israel.
I don't, personally, condone what Israel is doing in the West Bank. I think it's stupid and pointless. I don't think they're accomplishing anything, except for adding to the feeling of anti-semitism all too prevalent in the West Bank. This will lead to more idiots putting more bombs on themselved and heading into more malls and busses and pizza restaurants.
So where does it end?
DOES It end?
To be honest, I foresee no peace in Israel. None.
Actually, I think Israel is in a no-win situation.
If Israel DOES back out of these West Bank cities, then they'll remain a breeding ground for Anti-Israeli feelings and for the same terrorism problems in their own cities. And they'll have achieved, I suspect, nothing but breeding the hate.
If Israel expels the Palestinians, then the world eye will probably turn against Israel and there will, I suspect, be war in the Middle East. Or even if there isn't actual shooting, surrounding countries will take their tanks out to threaten Israel and Israel will threaten back and something will inevitably happen and there'll be war.
Not only that, but the countries around Israel have, as yet, been willing to help the Palestinians in any real way whatsoever. They haven't offered food or homes or any like.
To be honest, I suspect countries like Syria and Egypt and Jordan allow the conflict to occur because it suits them. It somehow helps them to let the Palestinians suffer as such.
*shakes his head*
Well, that's all the ranting I have in me for now.
Well.. no.. not really. Mostly I'm just a busy busy person.
I've been (no surprise given the test is on the 20th) mostly doing studying. I finished studying Dynamics (woo! fun! .. not) two days ago and started, yesterday, on something a little easier, Fluid Mechanics (if I don't ace the Fluid Mechanics sectionh, you have my permission to kill me because THIS is the stuff I know (for the most part) like the back of my hand.)
Hopefully finish Fluid Mechanics today, go and start something else tommorow...
Life? Who needs a life? Well, I do for one...
Hopefully tonite or tommorow night I'll just go and do something.. midnight bowling or a movie or something. I need to get out and relax.
So... did I tell you the new stories in the life of Josh?
Apparently Josh is getting a car.
Oh no, my friends, it's much better than that.
Josh is getting a NEW car. A Kia. Dad is paying for it.
Read this again... Dad is putting approximtely $7-8 THOUSAND DOLLARS DOWN on a new Car for Josh.
Also, apparently Dad is giving MARC money to put a security deposit down on a new apartment.
It's a pity I don't have anything I need. Well... I do, but I can and would PREFER to pay for them all.
Ah well.
It occurs to me that while part of me is in total shock that dad is going to spend so much money on Josh, I'm not really jealous. Angry, I think, because of all the time I DID need stuff and dad didn't come through, but...
If I didn't have my little (well.. not so little) Sable, I'd probably be raging with jealousy. As it is, I'm quite happy with my Mercury, so it's all good.
Anyways, Josh NEEDS a car to go to university. Especially since he's talking of going to Niagara Community College for a year or two and then maybe SUNY Fredonia.
I don't believe how bloody stupid I am. Instead of writing LJ, I should be at the library, but since I didn't bring the stuff I need, I'll have to come in tommorow and do it. Bugger.
I saw this on a few LJs. I like the idea so.. here I go! :)
20 years ago I...
... thought Sesame Street and The Electric Company and The Disney Channel were so cool.
... spent most of my time wrapped up in various fantasy worlds of my own.
... lived in a house easily twice the size of where I live now.
... thought Star Trek was for real and wouldn't believe my mom when she tried to tell me to the contrary.
... spent the majority of my free time at Brompton Day Care Center with kids my age or at the Jewish Center learning crafts and how to swim.
15 years ago I...
... was being spoiled rotten by my father who gave me everything I thought I'd ever want
... was learning the intricacies of BASIC and LOGO programming.
... planned to be a paleontologist when I grew up.
... was learning how to row and swim at Camp Centerland.
... spent all my free time with my parent's jewish friends' sons and daughters
10 years ago I...
... hated my father and was annoyed with my mother.
... figured I'd be a computer programmer when I grew up (since there wasn't much a call for paleontologists)
... thought rap artists like Young MC and M.C. Hammer were awesome.
... decided to take part in "Hebrew High", a past-bar mitzva Jewish Education
... spent most of my time with a small select group of friends from my temple, my high school and my mom's friends.
5 years ago I...
... disliked my father and hated my stepmother.
... was an aerospace engineering student
... rediscovered 80s music
... became Wiccan
... helped found ChaoticMUX and spent most of my free time there.
2 years ago I...
... still disliked my father and hated my stepmother
... was a civil engineering student planning to get into the new environmental engineering program
... was dating Medwyn.
... discovered the joy of Napster.
... was getting flustered with the state of ChaoticMUX, "today"
1 year ago I...
... watched the world completely change (and yet not) and realized I was hideously uninformed and chose to fix that.
... got a car! Finally!
... tried to ride the Viper (coaster at Six Flags Darien Lake) and was so crammed in that I spent the entire ride looking constipated.
... discovered Cake.
... volunteered as President of the University of Buffalo Environmental Engineering and Science Council
Yesterday I...
... studied for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.
... worked on my Thesis Project.
... watched Josh get a permit.
... had a very pleasant dinner with my grandmother and mother
... did 30 mintues of jogging and 30 minutes of work on the elliptical.
... weighed (an average of) 246 lbs.
Somehow that really DOES seem to put my life into some sort of perspective.
Oh, come now. Y'all knew this was going to happen eventually.
Israel. Ah... Israel.
I feel like I'm watching a bad war movie. This can't be real.. the countries involved CAN'T be this bleeding stupid, right?
But Stupidity DOES seem to breed on a National level.
Watching the Israelis enter and repossess cities in the West Bank I have to wonder what's going through their mind? Anger, obviously. I don't blame them. After years of not being able to go to school or to the mall or to get pizza without having to worry about terrorists coming in and killing you or someone you love? I'd be angry too.
I agree that SOMETHING must be done about these terrorists. People SHOULD be allowed to live their lives in relative peace. I agree I also have no idea what can be.
We were so close, a couple years back, to achieving a sort of peace. Israel was willing to give back everything but Jerusalem and there was discussion of making Jerusalem a third-party state... neither Israeli or Palestinian so that both would have access to it.
Then Arafat walked away and called an Intifadah. (sp?)
Why is it, I have to wonder, that the U.N. is so swift to action against Israel being in the West Bank, but has been unwilling/unable to get any sort of action against the Palestinians before this. I'd have strongly suggested the U.N. have acted swiftly after the Passover bombing.. before Israel did... but... it wasn't too be.
It fuels the fire in me that the U.N. is, more or less, a useless thing.
This fire started after 9/11. It should be the U.N. in Afghanistan and elseplace stopping terrorism, but it isn't. It's a GLOBAL problem and the globe seems to agree, but it's the US stopping terrorism.
It's like... US keeps threatning to invade Iraq because Iraq probably IS holding terrorists, but there's also the fact that the U.N. could and SHOULD be trying to get into Iraq. But they aren't.
They're too busy yelling at Israel.
I don't, personally, condone what Israel is doing in the West Bank. I think it's stupid and pointless. I don't think they're accomplishing anything, except for adding to the feeling of anti-semitism all too prevalent in the West Bank. This will lead to more idiots putting more bombs on themselved and heading into more malls and busses and pizza restaurants.
So where does it end?
DOES It end?
To be honest, I foresee no peace in Israel. None.
Actually, I think Israel is in a no-win situation.
If Israel DOES back out of these West Bank cities, then they'll remain a breeding ground for Anti-Israeli feelings and for the same terrorism problems in their own cities. And they'll have achieved, I suspect, nothing but breeding the hate.
If Israel expels the Palestinians, then the world eye will probably turn against Israel and there will, I suspect, be war in the Middle East. Or even if there isn't actual shooting, surrounding countries will take their tanks out to threaten Israel and Israel will threaten back and something will inevitably happen and there'll be war.
Not only that, but the countries around Israel have, as yet, been willing to help the Palestinians in any real way whatsoever. They haven't offered food or homes or any like.
To be honest, I suspect countries like Syria and Egypt and Jordan allow the conflict to occur because it suits them. It somehow helps them to let the Palestinians suffer as such.
*shakes his head*
Well, that's all the ranting I have in me for now.
