A few gems from today...

The following are journal entries from my students.
The assignment was to imagine you met an alien...

"Yesterday at midnight I met scary alien. I afraid of alien because alien face dirty. Alien say at me "What's your name?" I don't answer. I hit alien of the head. Alien the die. I'm very happy. I keep the peace."

"Hi alien, nice to meet you. You are very thin. My friend is very fat. You are very fun. Your face why? You ride UFO, but we ride bike. You and I very different. You look so monster. Alien is very angry. Alien says hey, you and I fight? OK I say.... I win. Alien good bye. Alien ride UFO and go to a space."

The above is from a comparison between the US and Canada,
located in one of my textbooks:
"And Canada doesn't start wars like America does, either."

Two more videos from my time in Russia

The Cathedrals of Vladimir (if you can't see the video, click here.)

Pei Pivo! ("Drink Beer!")
If you can't see the video, click here.
It's a shame YouTube lowers video quality,
as this one in particular is *much* clearer in the original. Ahh well.

I'll probably make some videos like this about Korea once I've left.

In which I disagree with my buddy Chris

My friend Chris was one of the people who commented on my previous post concerning Ayn Rand. I spent a good portion of my time at work today discussing Chris's comment with Gwen, and after mulling it over with her for a while, I decided to respond to it in its own post. Because I know half of you won't bother to search up his comment on your own, so I've copied it for you below:

I am perfectly fine with people living on charity. If buisnesses refuse to pay adequate wages while benifiting from tax breaks and a regressive tax system, while the majority of new improvements and developments come from sales taxes which are hardest on the poorest of Americans, I am perfectly fine with people living on charity. As Melissa would say, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free. Why work for a company that cares nothing for you and pays you subsistence standard wages, when you can more than subsist on welfare, become a sofa Diva, and get a check sent to you every month. Hell enjoy sex in what ever fashion you want, pop out a few kids, and let the good times roll. I know that sounds a little socalist of me, but haveing seen the social fabric in France and participated within their family unit, its incredible to say the least. In Claire family, we eat every meal together, the parents have time to spend with their children and do, and there seems to be very few social anxiety disorders. I am all about time over money, and if charities or the government can help you achieve that form of lifestyle through higher taxes then I am all for it. Of course, I also believe that it can stifle productivity and drive, and if there is only one truth in this world, French people do not like to work. Well, Claire is a little different, but her buisness is a little different. With that said, French people travel a great deal on their pittance of wages which is more than I can say for Americans. Oh well, there is more to read. And yes, Jane, I do not belueve that Rand would care for your lifestyle, but at least you are following what makes you happy. I used to share an office with a guy who loved both Ayn Rand and Thomas Jefferson and had pictures of both of them posted all over the walls, it was a misserable experience to say the least. Oh well, hope that everything is allright. Christopher.

Oh my. Chris, I'm definitely going to have to disagree with you here. You know that I very much value time over money; however, I don't expect anyone - not my parents, not you, not the US government - to be responsible for funding my free time. I am planning to be unemployed from August 2007 through roughly January 2008, and I will fund this fantastic stretch of free time with money saved from my current salary. I cannot imagine deciding to take six months off from working, simply expecting that someone (or some government entity) would support me.

Certainly there are plenty of cases where individuals merit receiving support in lieu of earning an income via employment; however, simply *wanting* to be provided for should never qualify a person for aid.

What if the masses really were to follow your advice? What if everyone were to cease working and instead spend their days waiting for that government check to arrive? Were that to occur, not only would the government lack the funds to support this massive welfare state (or the people to administer it!), but there would be no domestically produced goods whatsoever. I mean, how could there be, if no people were working? Even if the government resorted to printing plenty of money to distribute to the masses, such currency would be incredibly devalued; it would be devalued to such an extent that it would be useless in international trade. Your state would collapse and your people would starve.

Of course, that is an extreme example; there is no way that the entire population of the United States would simply decide to stop working and seek welfare benefits.

Like I said above, there are certainly cases where people merit government and/or charity support. However, with the exception of those disabled to the extent that self-sufficiency is impossible, I do not believe that any welfare should be long-term or permanent. I personaly believe that the US welfare system needs a major overhaul in order to prevent capable individuals from becoming, as Chris put it, a sofa diva, sitting on the couch, living off the government dime.

As to whether or not Ayn Rand would approve of my lifestyle... well, some of her main tenets, as presented in We The Living, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are as follows:

~Don't live your life pandering to the expectations of others

~Don't sacrifice your beliefs or morals for either money or social standing

~Be self sufficient

Hmmmm....

Atlas Shrugged

This month I’ve been reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. It was definitely a daunting task; not only is the book 1074 pages long, but I swear it was printed in size 8 font. I’ve been squinting my way through the thing for the past few weeks, and I finally succeeded in finishing it late last night. I had previously read, enjoyed and reviewed two other of Rand’s books: We The Living (review) and The Fountainhead (review). The discussions I had with my coworkers and the comments that appeared in my blog following my review of The Fountainhead prompted me to read Atlas Shrugged. Of course, I was able to read The Fountainhead while in Russia because we had it in the library at my school. Not having access to Atlas Shrugged at the time, I decided that it would be one of the books filling the huge box of reading materials I shipped to Korea. I must admit that I picked it up several times… only to put it down and select something lighter (both physically and conceptually; this isn’t one of those books that you can hold with one hand).

I finally kicked myself into gear and began reading Atlas Shrugged a few weeks ago. I admit that it was difficult to get into at first. The first two-hundred pages of the book are *very* similar to The Fountainhead. True, the characters had different names and worked in different industries, but I found very little difference. I considered putting it down; why should I squint my way through over 1000 pages of size 8 font if it’s the same story told with different characters? Luckily, it didn’t quite turn out that way. Around two hundred pages in, the book finally began to evolve past the themes presented in The Fountainhead, and actually got quite interesting, and stayed that way until its conclusion (well, except for Galt’s speech, which I felt really could have been substantially shorter). As with my little post on The Fountainhead, I’m not going to give you an in-depth analysis or blow-by blow account of the book; there are plenty of those out there for you to read if you’re interested. Or you could simply read the book for yourself.

I don’t agree with everything that Rand says, but over the course of reading her works, I have found that I agree with a lot that she has to say. I have been told that Ayn Rand would not support my hermit lifestyle because I am not being a productive capitalist. I do rather beg to differ. Look at the oath which the protagonists must take when they join with John Galt:

“I swear – by my life and my love of it – that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask any other to live for mine.”

The heart of my personal philosophy has a lot to do with living my life the way *I* choose, the way I want, and supporting myself, instead of doing the sorts of things that are expected of me and living my life the way most Americans do – shackled to insurmountable debts.

To my good friend (he knows who he is) who believes that leading an altruistic life is the only way to be happy, and who told me that if I read Atlas Shrugged, I would cease to agree with Rand and start to agree with him… Well, I don’t.

I definitely enjoyed this book, even though I wish that Rand could have shortened it by a couple hundred pages. Like I stated above, I don’t agree with everything that Rand has to say. For instance, I do believe in the existence of nonprofit and charity organizations; however, I also feel that very few people have the right to subsist solely on charity. Also, I find Rand’s portrayal of sex (in all of her books) to be disturbingly violent. I agree with her that sex should be celebrated – and that a person should only engage in sexual acts with those who hold the same values he or she possesses. But why do her descriptions of sex often border on rape? That disturbs me. But other than that… I found myself nodding in agreement throughout most of the book. So go get yourself a copy and let me know what you think.

When Mia met Songi

Gwen and Samson are going out of town for the weekend, so I'm pet-sitting Songi, their Yorkie. Mia was definitely freaked out by Songi's arrival, and immediately fluffed up to several times her size, although she's gotten used to her already. They're currently curled up within two feet of each other, each facing the opposite way, pretending the other simply isn't here.

Songi's hardly scary!

Reminiscing...

These are my photos, by the way :-)
(Also, if you're having trouble viewing the above video, CLICK HERE.)

We discussed MP3 players in one of my classes today.

Mine looked just like the one in the book!

Waiting to hear from me? Don't hold your breath.

This is a public service announcement. Are you waiting to hear from me? Have you sent me an email but received no reply? Did you message me on MySpace but got no answer? Are you still waiting for me to reply to your comment on my blog? Let your breath out people. See, even though my addiction to the internet continues unabated, my previous willingness to reply ASAP to any online message seems to have vanished. There are currently 73 unanswered messages sitting in my inbox. There are only 18 in my MySpace inbox, but most people actually email me directly (for all the good that's doing them). I would like to blame this on my busy schedule, but as my schedule only got busy 13 days ago and my oldest unanswered message dates from September... well, you do the math. Please, don't take this personally. I do intend to reply to all of these messages. Or at least the ones which are still relevant by the time I get off my ass and do this. I am not ignoring you. There are only a very, very few to whom I always reply; to the rest of you: my response will come eventually.

Of all the luck...

Last year, my native-Floridian ass was living in Russia. Now, don't get me wrong, I *loved* the time I spent there. I would have loved to have gone back for another tour of duty at the American Home, but obviously I didn't. One of the main things holding me back (well, aside from the "salary") was the weather. See, last winter was one of the coldest Russia had seen in decades - even the Russians were complaining about the cold. I didn't think I could do that to myself again. Wouldn't you know this winter is the warmest EVER recorded in Russia! NPR has the story (be sure to listen!).

PS - This week's topic at BlogSupergroup is Fear...

Not my day.

I am a sleep addict. If I don't set an alarm, I will sleep for twelve straight hours, if not more. Usually I set my alarm on the weekends, just so as not to sleep away my free time. I didn't do that this weekend, feeling that after a full week of waking up ass early for 12 hour workdays, I'd reward myself with (as Moosh put it) a 48 hour coma. You'd think that after such a restful weekend (and after going to bed before eleven) I wouldn't have had any trouble waking up this morning. I remember both (yes, I said both) of my alarms going off... I remember hitting snooze (I am incapable of waking up without first hitting snooze repeatedly) - and after that I remember nothing but a warm, blissful dreamworld, followed by the shrill ringing of the telephone. It was Gwen calling to see where I was, as it was 9:25, and my first class was set to start in five minutes. Fifteen minutes later I was standing in front of my first class, no makeup, no deoderant, hair uncombed, no breakfast, no caffeine.... Ugh. What a way to start the week.