Crash time

Of the many things that have changed for me at Chapel Hill, my sleeping pattern is one of the most affecting. There are a few reasons why I think my sleeping pattern got out of whack. One reason is because of the sleeping patterns of my suite-mates. Either they don't like to sleep much, or they are doing there homework at later times. Because a couple of them are pledging to fraternities, they have to study after they finish with their commitments. This has led me to do my homework later and later. This is beneficial to me in a way because I capitalize on my late night study sessions while I also do work at other times. The earliest I need to wake up is at 10:00 a.m., so I still have more time to sleep that others in the suite. 

         But recently, I've started to notice a negative effect carrying over to the next day. On some nights where I don't get the best sleep, or if I was up real late, I've felt like I can't get out of bed in the morning. But, when it gets back to 11:00-12:00 and I feel like I need a little catch- up on sleep, I just can't make myself doze off. It is quite frustrating and is even harder when my suite- mates are playing Super Smash  Brothers.

         Therefore, I sometimes drink coffee when I rise to give me the added boost. Coffee is a great thing. However, like many of us have seen on the 5-Hour Energy commercials, coffee makes you crash. This has often been the case when I have a cup in the morning and I feel alert and tentative in Astronomy. Then, I get to Philosophy and my eyelids feel heavy. This might be because of coffee crash, but I’ve often considered whether it has more to do with Philosophy class itself. I believe this because I do not crash in English class, which comes a couple of hours after I start class on MWF. Sometimes, everything that I have done all week and the sleep I have missed hits me all at once and I have one big crash in which I doze for hours.

criticism of Israel/ anti-semitism?

Being Sunday afternoon, more like morning for me, you would think that I would rather use 300 words about something trivial and easy to confront. This is not the case this Sunday. Because I want to speak my mind and express myself politically, I will speak about one of the more pressing issues affecting the world today. I now look at the US and where we find ourselves among other nations. Much of our policy in the last thirty years or so has been focused on Southwest and Central Asia. We continually look to these areas and we accuse many of their governments of humanitarian rights abuses. Generally, these accusations are mostly directed at anti-US political groups such as Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Justice and Development Party of Turkey, Hamas, etc. However, our government rarely acknowledges abuses done by our allies, namely Israel. 

Much of our concern with Israel deals with trying to protect its sovereignty and maintain them as an ally in our war on terror. Our government continually bickers with countries such as Iran, Syria, and Egypt to recognize Israel's place in the Middle East and we wonder at why these countries cannot accept this reasonable proposal. At the same time, we reject their demands to create a state for Palestinians. These people have been driven from desirable lands, fenced in (or out), and now could lose even this unfavorable status if it were not for their allies, Syria, Iran, etc. Now why can't we accept a two- state agreement? Media has brought us to think that the issue is too complicated and delicate, that the Palestinian side wants more than they have and that the sovereignty of Israel will still not be accepted. This is not true. In 1989, the United Nations consisted of 154 member nations that decided on this issue. It called for these things: 1-Israel's withdrawal from territories occupied since 1967, 2-cancellation of measures to annex these territories, 3- placement of these territories under jurisdiction of the UN, temporarily, 4-solution to Palestinian refugee problem, 5-freedom of Palestinians to worship at their holy places in Palestine, 6-Security Council arrangements for security for all states in the region (including palestine). The world, or 151 nations of the world agreed to this settlement that recognized the state of Palestine as well as Israel. The dissenting three were the countries Israel, the United States, and Dominica. Because the United States is on the Security Council, any result was blocked. Now there are 191 member states of the UN and the consensus on this issue has remained stable. Whenever this issue is addressed, there again is the world voting for the settlement, and always the same dissenting against it. Since 1989, the additions to the dissenting side are the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu, and Palau. This stance that we have taken speaks for itself. 

Before I go further on this issue, I would like to address a specific question that myself and many others have pondered, and I would like your comments on this. Is criticism of Israel anti-semitic? When I discuss this question among friends and peers, they often try to accuse me of such a thing. I have no problem with the Jewish religion or the people that practice it. I am directing my criticism at a political and national entity. Let me end this post with another question. If I criticize or attack the American/ European genocide of Native-Americans and the takeover of their lands, am I being Anti-American? Anti-European? Anti-Christian?

discussion on profanity

During class on Friday, we decided as a class whether or not profanity would be allowed on our blog posts. Personally, I don't think there was enough deliberation on this issue. It was obvious to us that profanity might be considered offensive depending on the degree of the words used and if it is directed at certain individuals. While improperly used profanity can be of great offense to people, used properly explicit words can express strong emotion and ideas in an effective way. While any profanity, used in ones own words and opinions, in high school was strictly frowned upon, we have moved into the world of college education. If everyone in the class is 18, then that would make us all adults. Most people in class, or at least enough to carry effect, voted that profanity could be offensive to peoples' blogs. This offense would be very disrespectful to people's ideas, which goes against our golden rule. Personally, I have no problem with people using profanity to comment on my blog if it is used in proper context. 

I think there is a time and place for everything, and profanity especially has a time and place to be used. For one thing, you are quite a pottymouth to be using it in regular speech without provocation or appropriate emotion. Curse words carry strong meaning and power in speech or writing, but if you take away the meaning, then they are just offensive words that are not to be used lightly. Second, the way that a profane word is directed would greatly offend me. If I said that I am against the Iraq war because I believe that it is neo-imperialism and somebody said, "f*** you we're in Iraq for national security," I'd be real pissed. If somebody disagreed and said, "no we're protecting our f***ing country," I would disagree but I would feel where their emotional comment was coming from. In this way, the curse word is elaborating on the importance of protecting ourselves and how much we love our country. In the forbidden sense of using the word, the person is directly insulting me. Another wrong way to use profanity in our class is to use it directed at somebody's ideas. Personally, I don't mind if you use profanity on my blog as long as you follow the class rules: don't disrespect, be serious, etc.

Surfing

Right now, it is Saturday afternoon and I am trying to get my homework done so I can prepare for what is at hand. As many of you may know, Tropical Storm Hanna is bearing down on our beloved state of North Carolina. Now is a time for waiting. As I look out the window, the sun is shining very bright on Ocracoke Island. This is strange because we are experiencing the tail end of a major storm and experiencing 40+ mph winds. 

I continue to watch the flags, waiting for the much anticipated wind switch. As the storm moves by, we stop experiencing the southeasterly blow and the wind begins a steady shift westward. Hopefully, the wind will soon be blowing the desired northwest causing the waves to clean up and organize. I looked at the surf this morning. It was a tad bit out of control breaking on the fourth sand bar out and maxing at fifteen feet. These are not quite the desired conditions.  The surf forecast looks golden. Today is a day of waiting, with the possibility of a wicked evening session, but tomorrow is looking great. At approximately 8:00 p.m. the wind will shift around to the northwest, blowing towards the incoming surf. This will sculpt the waves into desirable form and will reduce them to a more manageable size. Hopefully, when I wake up tomorrow morning I will experience six to eight foot, head high to three foot overhead, waves with good conditions. I'm stoked.

I must pick out my best choice from my arsenal of surfboards, also known as a quiver. My choices include my 6'2" Aloha (great if you don't want to break your board), 5'10" Kechele quad-fin, 6'0" Kechele thruster, 5'10" WRV potato chip (potato chip means very thin), or my 6'0" 7S superfish. Overall, I think it makes most sense to use either my 5'10" quad or the 6'2" Aloha if it is too big. The superfish is a good choice but the other two are dinged so I will use the Aloha or quad.