been a while. things have happened. bahamas were awesome. for a pictorial account, check the facebook sites of the people who went.
i've basically sold my soul to school for the next 8 years. but it'll be fun because i'll be in new york for most of my 20's, i already know a bunch of people who are here and/or staying here, and i'm sure i'll meet new people. i just said most of 20's.... shiiiit. the next time i'll have to think seriously about what the hell i'm gonna do for the next stage of my life i'll be almost 30 fucking years old. that's very, very old. many things can happen in 8 years. 8 years ago, i wasn't even in high school. 8 years ago i only had 3 siblings, i hadn't the faintest clue what "ultimate frisbee" was, college didn't even register as something to be thought about. 8 years ago, i was a little kid, twelve years old, not even a teenager. my life wasn't in my hands. so now, to think i've signed over the next 8 years is a little weird. my life will be in my hands. since md/phd programs are free and provide a stipend, i won't be relying on my parents for financial support in any way. i'm not sure how big of a change in my life that will constitute. i don't expect it to be drastic. i'll just have to be a little more careful about how i spend my money, something i think i'm pretty good at right now.

in other news.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060120/us_nm/life_university_dc_1

this is absolutely fucking incredible. if the students weren't offered money to do this, i'd be less outraged. but to pay students to identify left-wing professors to a right-wing activist group? this should be illegal, at least within the university. i have trouble thinking of actions that would more obstruct a student's potential to learn from these professors, or more stifle a professor's ability to teach and conduct research.

maybe one reason that the vast majority of academia is non-conservative stems from the fact that conservative ideas SUCK, that they aren't good for the world. academia is a setting in which people can examine ideas, think about them extensively, research them etc... perhaps the fact that persons whose job it is to think and research reject conservatism overwhelmingly these days is not solely due to intellectual ferment or intentional ostracism of conservatives in academic circles.

whew. i construct my sentences too much like latin or greek. sort of. in those language, you can make sentences as long and complicated as you want, with many clauses and subclauses, phrases and subphrases, and it's considered elegant, as long as the sentence is grammatically logical. not so with english. oh well.

this semester looks like it's gonna be a blast. if i can get a job.
- posted by Maxime @ 7:28 PM