My Results on the "Impossibly High Standards Test!"

Way Too Good Wowsa! You scored 74%!

Woah. Your feet don't even touch the ground, do they? I'm trying to think of funny things to say, but frankly, I'm pretty intimidated right now. Jesus.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender : You scored higher than 86% on superiority

Link: The Impossibly High Standards Test written by blcfilms on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

One month to go (with bonus NYT snippets)
The semester is drawing to a close. One more paper to touch up and turn in before The Game and Thanksgiving break. Then a week of relaxation, festive food, and preparing for another paper with museum visits. The last week of classes follows, ushering in the most beloved and dreaded time of all, Reading Week. A finished paper, a take-home final, a dance competition and a Christmas pageant later, the exam week attacks in full force. But I will be ready. In 33 days the fall term will be over and I'll be snug in my bed, with visions of Christmas and stuff in my head.

Here are some tasty morsels from the Times.

-An optimistic profile of the women of Air America, Randi Rhodes and Rachel Maddow.

-Paul McCartney, who my mother and I have decided should be the first cloned human, sang to the space station crew, marking the first time live music has been broadcasted into space.

-Finally, an interesting article on the history of controversy behind Narnia and the implications for the upcoming film series. I'll write more about this later I think.

Then and now...
By the way, as I was writing the last entry, Bob Dylan's song "Masters of War" came on and it reminded me so much of the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz brigade that I just had to post it. Dylan was a prophet.

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain.

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins.

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead.

At last we will have revenge.
And I mean that in the nicest, most forgiving, peace-loving, democratic way. Kind of.

Election day was kind of like a party for the left. And the middle, for that matter. And really for the country, because its clear NOBODY likes what's happening in Washington.

There were too many Democratic victories to really discuss, but since I'm partial to my home state of California, I'll take a moment to revel in the public's repudiation of the Governator's ballot measures. Arnold probably thought a "special election" would be a good idea, since that's how he ended up in office in the first place. WRONG! I must say, I'm still flabbergasted that he's our governor. You would think that after Ronald Reagan Californians would have learned their lesson regarding movie stars. But alas, I forget that most people are terribly stupid.

Although...I have to say this election has restored a teeny bit of my faith in democracy. Another sign of hope: in Dover County, PA, all eight Intelligent Design proponents on the school board that caused so much trouble last year got voted out of office. YAY!!!! Stupid people are going away! Even the stupid people are voting against the stupid people. It's too bad we don't have a chance to depose Bush in 2006, but the Congressional races are looking more and more promising. Poor Bush. I actually am starting to feel sorry for him now. I mean, has a single good thing happened in the twelve months since he was reinstalled (no I will not say reelected, that's a joke)? Even his own stupid people are starting to doubt him. I think Bush's existence itself disproves Intelligent Design.

Here's to Dems, Cali, and real freedom.

Proof of intelligent design!
This just in:

"Samuel Alito" is an anagram of "I am a sellout."

(Courtesy of The New Yorker.)

Nostalgia!
Now Playing: Radio Panamericana (Con Todo!) - I thought I never wanted to listen to this again!
Luis Jaime Castillo was in a BBC interview about the Moche! This was just after I did a presentation about my summer to the arch-studs majors, who were jealous. I miss San Jose de Moro. Judging by other students' summers, I really lucked out. Now I'm reconsidering doing my senior essay there...I loved that place.

Geek note: Oddly enough, the BBCprogram was narrated by Bernard Hill, otherwise known as King Theoden from LOTR. Go figure.

Scary things
I should be talking about "Scooter" Libby and Sam Alito, but I find that my patience for the real world is rapidly decreasing. I will say this: Bush is hoping to use the liberal ire against "Scalito" to distract from the troubles atthe White House. I would not be surprised if Rove gets off free from this, which would be a real missed opportunity. Ah well. Things will change eventually. Eventually.

But really, who wants to talk about these people? Everybody else's blog has got them covered. Instead, I'm going to fall back once again on that pseudo-real-world-realm, entertainment. Mel Gibson (who judging from the picture has decided to be Saddam Hussein for Halloween) is making a movie about the collapse of Classic Maya civilization.

Am I the only one both thrilled and terrified by this? Having studied the Maya this year, I would absolutely love to see an interpretation of this amazing world onscreen. However, the interpretation of Mr. The Passion is not exactly what I would choose. The fact that it's titled Apocalypto does not help much. "A lot of it, storywise, I just made up," he said, "and then, oddly, when I checked it out with historians and archeologists and so forth, it's not that far [off]." Really? Not that far off? Well it's good you're here to educate the masses, Mel.

Now that Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination, what will become of the Queen of Cronyism? Will she live forever in history books as a marker of Bush's rapidly vanishing power? Or will she fade into oblivion? Whatever happens, we can always read her blog.

Bad days: a vast right-wing conspiracy
Clearly somebody doesn't want me to be the Arbiter Of All Things. Yesterday I arbited my iPod to turn on, and it wouldn't. It died. "Live, iPod, live," I arbited, but it insisted on dying. However, I was surprisingly calm, which I attribute to my WF training. A year ago my reaction to this loss might have ranged between, say, crying, and hurling the iPod against the wall and crying. Yesterday, though, I merely uttered a few nasty words and shrugged my shoulders. All things must pass. Low and behold, a glimmer of maturity emerged!

Realizing that I was mostly unfazed by the death of the iPod, whoever is after my title pulled a far worse trick on me today. Today I arbited myself to finish my history test, and I didn't. Instead I came down with incapacitating chills and passed out in the middle of the exam.

Fever + hypoglycemia + dehydration = being hooked up to oxygen, a vitals monitor, an IV, and an EKG. And getting to eat really concentrated glucose out of a tube. I got to ride in an ambulance with really friendly parametics. They even made me laugh and got my lips to stop being blue. I definitely didn't need as much care as I got at the hospital (mostly in electrode form), but I must have been unconscious for at least 5 minutes. I hate being attached to machines because I feel like I'm going to forget about it and pull something down/out by accident when I move. I felt like a marionette all tangled up.

So I guess I'm now Arbiter Of All Things Save iPods And History Exams. And I have a fever and an incomplete midterm. And no iPod. It's turning out to be a fun week.

As usual, I blame global warming.

Great Minds...
The ever insightful Matthew Yglesias made this point about Wilma coverage before I could. Reading about the plight of the tourists in Mexico affected me the same way it did him.

Hm...this guy is young and brilliant. I should drop him an IM sometime. He's a Harvard grad and could probably use a little WF, but other than that he's as an appealing American prospect as any.