One Paper down

I think Im dont with one of the papers that wouldn't die. If I am done with it I am going to be pretty damn happy about it. Now I only need to get two more papers done and I can concentrate on this semester's work. Ha Ha Ha.

Yes Men

I saw the movie-documentary "Yes Men" last night. It was pretty funny. Maybe it was more funny to me because I am taking an International Trade Law class that could easily be called WTO Law instead. In my class none of the problems that the Yes Men documentary explores are even mentioned. They are (at least for me) a huge elephant in the room that everyone avoids. The whole class is taught from the perspective that 'trade is good.' So of course we don't talk about the actual problems trade is causing. instead we focus on how to remove all barriers to trade. It is funny (well more sad) how the law school pretends it is liberal but all it does is further the interests of capital. Sure it is pro gay rights and pro women's rights and pro racial equality but in the end all they are fighting for is a world where the only means if oppression is economic. Thus it is fine if you are oppressed for being poor. Then you deserve it but it is not OK to be oppressed because you are a lesbian black woman. I just don't see the difference. If you are oppressed then something is wrong. I guess it is some weird remnant of the protestant work(camp) ethic. If you have wealth well then you are industrious a virtuous and will be saved. What a line of crock. If you have wealth 99% of the time it just means you were born into a situation that permitted your wealth acquisition.

Trust

How do you negotiate with someone who is unwilling to trust other persons? It is practically impossible in my experience. One of the big problems is that anything you do will be read the wrong way. If you give them a compliment you are trying to predispose them to be favorable to you. If you say something nasty you are trying to get them worked up so they make a mistake. If you tell them your basic needs they think you are taking them for a ride and won't meet them. In a way the more mistrustful they are the more you have to lie to them to get what you need. But of course once you ge to what you need they feel vindicated in not trusting you in the first place. It is really a sick mindset. It is sad.

Creating and destroying

I am reading a book about a book. I disagree with a lot of the conclusions of the book about a book. I have to write paper about the book that is not about a book. Even though I have plenty of comments and complaints about the book about a book every time I think about the book I have to write on nothing comes to mind. It is much easier to criticize someone else's work than it is to come up with your own. Reminds me of the screech owl in the Rambler essays.

The FLU

I have the flu. the flu! argh! sick twice in as many weeks. this sucks. I have to start eating better and exercising more. It is pretty amazing how you just pay for what you do to your body. You can escape being an ass and all sorts of things (ethically), but eat poorly and you pay the price.

Time management

Everything pretty much always takes me a lot longer to do than I think it will. It is a huge problem really. I can never get papers done at the rate I think I can. I can never get all the reading done by when I think it will be done. I wish I were better at measuring time and at determining the length of a task. Anyone out there willing to help out? Any general advice?

Too much studying rots your brain

I have been sitting for the entire day reading Fear and Trembling. It's gotten to the point where I feel like saying "Who cares? Abraham is a jerk." Seriously though, I remember one time in college I had to write three papers (each about twenty pages long) in about three days. One was about Buddhist metaphysics, another about Nietzsche's ethics, and the last one was about Derrida's notion of the impossibility of giving a gift. I managed to get them all done and even sleep eight hours each night. However, my brain was totally warped. Every problem I ran into I tried to solve as if it were a philosophical problem. I even had a moment where I tried to analyze the process of opening the door. It took me like a week to get back to normal. Imagine what the first year of law school must do to your brain.