Sunday, October 26, 2008

Decisions have been made...

...and even if they're just contingent decisions, it still feels good.

Here's the deal: If I haven't heard from Peace Corps by the middle of December, I am taking off.

Not in December-- in the middle of February/beginning of March. I should have about $5000 saved up by then. I'll get a free plane ticket to Israel and spend 10 days with my room and board paid for. And then... then I go where the world takes me.

I'll have a few possibilities lined up. Probably I'll arrange an English teaching job maybe 6 months in the future, probably in Asia, and travel overland in 6 months to wherever I have the job. I'll probably sign up for the WWOOF network and work on an organic farm in exchange for room and board. I'll carry a copy of my college diploma so that I can get slightly better jobs, even if I probably can't get a visa while I'm in country.


Now, this doesn't actually mean that I'll definitely be leaving the country in February/March. If the Peace Corps sends me an invite for April or May, then I'll stick around until my departure date and do Peace Corps as planned. So I can't tell anyone with complete confidence just when I'll be leaving. I won't be able to tell you until (a) Peace Corps sends me an invitation (or a denial of medical clearance), or (b) the deadline for a refund of my Birthright deposit passes so I'll be going on that trip.

So as I said: a contingent decision. But a decision nonetheless. I am ready to get out of here, and live the life I've wanted for so long.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Between McCain's attacks about funding a $3 million scientific project on grizzly bears, and now attacks about funding a $3 million planetarium projector (or, as McCain would say, "overhead projector"), he's coming off as extremely anti-science and research.

I mean, for one thing, in political and academic terms, $3 million grants? Are nothing. We're giving a $700 billion bailout to banks and corporations, and he's quibbling over $3 million on research and education?

Really?

I admit. I'm biased, both in the fact that I already support Obama, and that academia and research are more important to me than to the average voter. But here's the thing: I was open to a McCain presidency. Ask my friends who knew me a few years ago, before Obama really came out as a prime candidate, around 2004 or 2005. I (though I shudder to think of it now) thought McCain was not a bad choice.

Don't get me wrong. I am thrilled that during the first presidential election in which I am allowed to vote, I am able to vote for a candidate, rather than merely against one. But it would have been nice to be only voting for a candidate, and not revile the opponent. A tall order? Perhaps. But even with with his changes to policy and beliefs to suit his campaign, it could have been in order until he chose Palin as his VP and came across, to me, as extremely anti-science and anti-education. Those things make me shudder to think of him in the White House. He sounds like he'd like to cut every piece of government grant funding that isn't directly related to something "useful" (like military or, so he claims, and I would be much happier if I believed, alternative energy*). Shudder. Shudder.


*Not that funding the latter would be bad in the slightest, in fact, emphatically to the contrary. The problem is that I don't believe him, and, further, that it is not the only thing that should be funded.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Observation

If you asked a variety of people on the street which one company of the S&P's 500 Stock Index went up Monday, I think a good third of them would be able to answer correctly.

And 99.99% of them would have learned it from the Colbert Report.


Anyone agree? Disagree?