Urg.

Back from vacay. I think I'm sick. Physically. Among other various descriptions. I have pictures. None are uploaded. I feel way too beaten down right now to do anything about it. Post cards will not be sent out - couldn't get any. I'm so sorry. Don't be mad. Not right now. I slept for 17 hours last night, and I still feel like crap. That's all for now.

Early morning typos and a barrel full of monkeys

Hanging out in Cali and enjoying the sea breezes! says:
so random q
Steph says:
answer
Hanging out in Cali and enjoying the sea breezes! says:
you're gonna hate the q
Steph says:
lol
Steph says:
shoot
Hanging out in Cali and enjoying the sea breezes! says:
bant
Hanging out in Cali and enjoying the sea breezes! says:
...
Hanging out in Cali and enjoying the sea breezes! says:
well THAT didn't work
Steph says:
lmao
Steph says:
nice effort though :P
Hanging out in Cali and enjoying the sea breezes! says:
it was a misfire
Steph says:
hahahah!



Alright, so, this is why I don't get up early. ;) I make odd typos. That turn out pretty darn funny. I got up at 6 local time (9 normal time) after going to bed last night at 11 local time (2am EST). Woke up wide and awake, showered, came to the lobby for free wireless, talked to Steph and Cris.... and now simply exhausted. Go figure. It's only 8:30 at the moment anways. And I haven't gone to see my aunt and uncle yet. >.<>

The weather is still beautiful in sunny CA. And I hope you all have a lovely day as well!

California : Day 1

Ugh. Been a lonnnnng day. Went to bed around 1 am last night. Was up at 5 to go to the airport. Needless to say those four hours were not peaceful, so they don't constitute as real sleep. Been 'up' ever since 5am. I didn't even fall asleep in the plane. You'd better be proud of me.

We flew over the Grand Canyon. Below are the pics of the very beginning (or end) of it -- the main part was on the other side of the silly plane. But still cool. And other plane pictures are included. Then is a pic of my hotel room. We're kinda in a extended living type hotel room, so I'm kinda in a loft, and my parents have a room below me which is on the 'first' floor. We have a small kitchen, two bedrooms, two showers, two sinks etc. It's niiiice. Went on a walk today. Tons of fun. Got mom a flower while I was out... with the one dollar bill I had. That's all I brought. >.< Okay. So. Pictures. Me slaphappy. Me say no more. ;)

Grand Canyon

Somewhere in Cali














My room (loft part visible, outside the window is the pool and busy busy busy street, beside me (on right) are the stairs, and behind me are the showers/sinks/etc.)

POSTSCRIPT:

Okay. Sorry. Had to add this. *I* found it amusing. Perhaps it has to be in context. Even if it does, and no one finds it funny, tough. ;)

EXCERPT:

"Well, that's as good a reason as any." But that was an answer for Face. Castin might have volunteered for this duty without a blemish on his record, but there was still a possibility of volatility there. Now, he had to wonder if Dia and Shalla were also carrying around emotional demolition charges just waiting to go off.

"Pirates," Piggy said, interrupting. The Gamorrean settled into a stuffed chair situated between Janson's sofa and the bar, near Donos and Castin.

"Pirates to you, too," Phanan said. "Is that a new greeting? Something Gamorrean? 'Scabrous pirates to you this morning.' "

" 'And bleeding pirates to you.' " Face gave his wingman a formal bow.

From: STAR WARS: X-WING: IRON FIST by Aaron Allston

Hey there!

I am SO sorry I haven't written. Not that more than two of you, ie, not that anyone but Leigh and Steph, read this. Ah well, they haven't been around much either it seems.

I'm going to California tomorrow morning, so I'll be on during the evenings... MAYBE. Don't count on me being around for the next two weeks. I'll be in Cali from the 18th to the 26th. If anyone in the US (well, if Mike) needs to call me, you're welcome to. If not, email me. ;)

Took the GRE yesterday. Ugggh didn't do very good. I'm really really unhappy about that. But I should have official scores after I get home from vacay.

(I want some more orange juice. bleh.)

I'm currently packing up and watching Star Wars Ep 3. I watched all the old trilogy over the last few days.

And I'm getting a headache. Cheerio!

Too too true.

The following hits a litttttle too close to home for me. And as many of you have heard from me, its waaay too true. Miami hates anything that has to do with the military. Idiots. Read on, and you'll see what life holds in store for me. :-P


news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20070607/COL05/706070314/1009/col05

Cincinnati Enquirer

Last Updated: 1:30 pm Thursday, June 7, 2007
Help wanted at Miami - only liberals need apply

Mark Moyar looks like the perfect fit to teach history at Miami University: first in the history department and summa cum laude at Harvard; Ph.D. at Cambridge; speaks French and German; two successful books and a third on the way ...

But wait a minute - what's this on his resume about teaching at the Marine Corps University and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service? And whoa, don't choke on your green tea, but look at the title of his book: "Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965."
Triumph? Vietnam? In the same sentence?

If the faculty search committee at Miami were not too liberal for a "three-strikes" policy, Moyar's conservative history of Vietnam had to be strike three, he believes. He had better academic credentials and recommendations from the best historians, but he was not even granted an interview during the search last year, Moyar said.

"Your qualifications are fine," he was told. But Miami's history department had "its own priorities, its own gaps, its own desires."

Yet among the dozen candidates the faculty chose to interview were two who did not have doctorates, one whose dissertation was on "Race, Identity and Gender in the Panama Canal Zone," and another whose scholarship focused on "American Radio in East Asia."

Moyar wrote to the president of Miami: "Only a person divorced from reality would argue that the history of gender in the Panama Canal Zone or the history of American radio in pre-World War II East Asia are more germane to U.S. foreign policy than my wide-ranging work on the Vietnam War."

Maybe his work on Vietnam was a bit too wide-ranging.

"The only explanation I can find for the search committee's extraordinary decision is that the conclusions of my research are inconsistent with the ideological views of members of the search committee," Moyar wrote.

President James Garland backed the history department. When Garland retired, new President David Hodge told Moyar that Miami promotes "diversity of ideas on campus," but said the faculty had properly picked four candidates to hire, but none accepted. The search was closed. So was the investigation of Moyar's complaint.

It was nothing new to Moyar. He's been rejected by scores of universities, despite his strong credentials. "In this case it was particularly blatant because they ended up not hiring anybody," he said. "They come up with these crazy excuses" for what he calls "flagrant discrimination against conservatives in faculty hiring."

Moyar's research found that among Miami history faculty who declared party affiliation, Democrats outnumbered Republicans 15 to one. My own check of Butler County voter registration shows 13 Democrats and three Republicans in the history department.

"The pool consisted of a good number of well-qualified applicants," said Allen Winkler, who was chairman of the search committee. "In the case of Dr. Moyer, the committee felt that he was more a military historian than a diplomatic historian, the same judgment it made with regard to a number of other outstanding candidates, and it chose to interview the people it felt matched the advertised description of the position best. I cannot comment further, since this is a university personnel matter."

So faculty members decide who teach at public universities - without any accountability or scrutiny?

Miami is a beautiful campus with a reputation for a liberal faculty that annoys moderate and conservative students. The search may have been completely fair and unbiased. But Winkler's recent public radio attack on President Bush doesn't sound that way. He called Iraq "a costly and corrosive war that he (Bush) single-handedly began," and a "quagmire" like "the ill-fated and ill-conceived war in Vietnam."

Moyar's book, called "one of the most important books ever written on the Vietnam War," by Macubin Thomas Owens, professor of national security at the Naval War College, napalms the "quagmire" dogma and shows that even the North Vietnamese thought we were winning.
If Moyar is right, most history professors at most campuses are wrong. Not just about Vietnam - but also wrong about Iraq and other bricks in the ivy-covered walls of liberal conformity.
Maybe that's why they're still fighting the Vietnam War on campus - and conservatives are still not allowed to win.

Thanks!

To Leigh: THANK YOU for spending your entire day you know, calming me down, stopping me from freaking out, listening, being there.... YOU ROCK. And I'm so happy to have you as a friend.

If you weren't listed -- be happy you weren't around when things really weren't going well. :)