Shameless Plug

For all you Northeastern types: I'll be in a passion play tomorrow (Monday) at 11:35 at Centennial Commons. PLEASE show up and give us your support; we need all we can get. Also, pray against rain! We need as little as we can get.

And to all my loyal readers: Sorry for the slow updating, but I was away for the past day-and-a-half, and I'll be leaving Tuesday at 5:00 am for about 5 days to participate in the National University Model Arab League, hosted by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations and Georgetown U. He is risen!

Apples & Raisin Cakes

Apples and raisin cakes to my friend Julie, whose blog has been very touching of late. Strictly speaking, guys don't like to hear about how wonderful other guys are, but we do like to find out that girls aren't always as gloriously independent as they sometimes let on. In Birdseed's case, it's mostly touching because I am proud to consider her a friend.

I think I'll use this "Apples and Raisin Cakes" thing more often... I like it. Song of Songs 2:5.

Interesting Quote
This was the quote-line on a forwarded email... very interesting, I must say. Also, since when are anarchists the "left"? Anarchy and socialism weren't in bed together last I heard.

"Ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."

Open War

Ariel Sharon has declared Yasr Arafat an enemy of the State of Israel. The Gaza Strip has been cordoned into thirds, and Ramallah is under siege. Arafat is still alive, but says he'll die before being taken prisoner. 20,000 Israeli reservists have been called up, and Sharon is warning that the operation could take a while. Apparently Sharon thinks he's going to kill or capture every single terrorist. A year ago that might have been accomplished by rounding up all males over 10 years old. Now? Females too. Today a teenage girl blew herself into eternity in a Jewish supermarket.

I have no idea what will happen. Certainly a short-term escalation; no doubt about that. However, in the long term my imagination fails me. It could be the same way the last 18 months have been; Palestine could become an effective police state, with the Palestinians so beaten that they dare not fight back. It could lead to a collapse of the Israeli government and another attempt at peace. It could lead to foreign action: already 600 pro-Palestinian foreigners, including the French farmers' union leader, José Bové, arrived in Ramallah to offer themselves as human shields for Palestinians. "We are going to stay here in Ramallah in particular to provide the Palestinians with protection," Mr. Bové said (NYTimes). It could lead to open war between Israel and her neighbors. I honestly don't know, but it's not a joyful anticipation.

A while ago, a nonviolent Jewish rebel made no attempt to prevent His own arrest. He was executed by an unpopular occupying regime in cooperation with the local elites and a bribed mob. He slowly died, between two criminals. His death and resurrection have brought eternal hope to people of all races ever since.
On the same day 2,000 years later, a violent Arab rebel blew herself up in resistance to an unpopular occupying regime. She died suddenly, between two innocent shoppers. All her death has brought is despair and pain.

Farewell
To Meredith. Apparently she has a life or something.

Just The Facts

The Arab League Summit is under way in Beirut. However, the three Arab leaders who recognize the State of Israel - Hosni Mubarak, Abdullah II, and Yasr Arafat - were not in attendance, for a number of real and perceived reasons. The remaining leaders created a resolution: Lebanon, the host country, said the Arab leaders had taken a unified stand in endorsing the final resolution. A so-called Beirut Declaration was read out by Lebanon's culture minister, Ghassan Salameh. According to the NYTimes, "Syria hailed the proposal on Wednesday, but demanded that Arab states sever any current ties with Israel, and Lebanon tried to prevent Mr. Arafat from delivering a speech via satellite. Mr. Arafat, who stayed away for fear that Israel would not allow his return, resorted to Al Jazeera's television network and delivered his speech anyway. He said all Palestinians welcomed the Saudi proposal and expressed the hope that it would lead to resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Interesting politics at work here, but it's anybody's guess as to who's pulling what strings and what the real motives are.

Not surprisingly, the Arab League's "Today" page doesn't have anything relevent; in fact, it hasn't been updated since September 19th!

On the ground, things got ugly last night as Passover began. As I'm sure you all have heard, a suicide bomber made it past security into a Netanya hotel with some very powerful explosives. Twenty Passover celebrants were murdered, and 64 others were still hospitalized as of Thursday evening in Israel. The bomber had been on the wanted list in Israel for 4 years, and Israel had received numerous warnings about him. Source: Ha'aretzdaily.com.

Not surprisingly, Arafat knows this could be the very end for him, so serious is this latest attack. AP reports that he's scrambling. Apparently the events of the last few days made him decide to be "ready to implement an immediate, unconditional cease-fire with Israel and ... he... informed a U.S. envoy of his decision." Timely.

The very latest? Three Israeli settlers have been killed by a gunmen in Elon Moreh, near Nablus. As of twenty minutes ago, the gunman was holed up in the house, but two civilians are still upstairs, so they can't just blow it up.

Joyful Easter Weekend!

"Happy" just seemed too trite, even if it does flow better.
My personal experience of Easter this year, like last, is in performing a passion play to the music of Carman's "This Blood". We're expanding our horizons this year, performing at NU's Centennial Commons on Monday at 11:45, and on the 15th and 16th at the Boston Marathon and B.C.'s Jesus Week, respectively. For a less personalized commemoration of the Lord's death and resurrection, the original text is put up every day on Ian's Messy Desk to correspond with the correct day of the week.

God bless, and may He reveal to you how great a gift He gave almost two millenia ago, for there is indeed no greater love than when someone lays down their life for their friends.

Worth Every Penny

AP's Jimmy Golen reports that "Eighty seats priced at $200 have been added in front of the former front row next to each dugout" at Fenway park. Now, $200 may seem like a lot for a baseball game. However, anybody who can visualize where those seats will be in Fenway is drooling as we speak. You literally could not get closer to the players without being in the dugout! For $200, you can hear the players talking, the manager yelling at the umpire, and you might even get to chat with somebody if you arrive early enough. I thought Fenway was intimate already... and now this... next they're going to be selling seats in the locker room!

Cairo Reporter: Terrorists in the CIA

This didn't actually happen in Cairo, I just heard about it there. One of the just-graduated UNA members was on study-abroad in Bethlehem last year, where he boarded with a member of Fatah, which is quite broad-based, so that's not uncommon. Our friend, the white American student, was introduced to the head of the Bethlehem chapter of Fatah by his roommate. The leader asked half-jokingly if "Joe" wanted to join Fatah. "Joe" half-jokingly agreed. What rank would he like? Oh, Colonel would be great.

As we speak, Joe is being evaluated by the FBI for a position with the CIA. During the interview, the normally perfunctory "Do you or have you ever belonged to a terrorist organization?" generated a "No...well actually...". I'm sure the FBI is quite amused, and I personally would love to see this official Fatah Colonel's card. I'm not using Joe's real name, since Israel might assassinate him if they knew, just like they assassinated the leader who gave him the card. OK, it's not the same, but I wouldn't carry the thing through customs in Tel Aviv!

Cairo Reporter: Chutzpah

To bring up my friend Dan again, he impressed me a number of times with his self-confident chutzpah. In particular, he got a room key to someone else's room in the Marriot. No, not Dick Cheney's room, our own room, where Dan was staying, but illegally. The method? Walk up to the counter, ask for the key. They ask if the room's under your name. You say, "it should be. Dan Quintal, Northeastern University." Apparently, NU was written somewhere in the reservation, because Dan's NUID earned us a pair of keys. Of course, these are the same people who gave away the Big Dick's room number, which says something... I'm not sure what, but it says something.

Grades, etc.

Grades are in. Better than I expected: I earned - and I mean earned - one A out of my two classes with Sir Oscar the Lone Crusader Against Grade Inflation. However, it still lowered my GPA, but not by much. I did better than I anticipated in Sir Oscar's classes and in Jewish Religion in Culture, and as expected elsewhere. So I'm satisfied, but I'm hoping for some easy A's this quarter to push my GPA up before I leave school for 9 months. No, I'm not planning on getting pregnant (though one of my friends suggested that recently), but I am planning on spending the summer taking American University in Beirut's intensive Arabic course, and then working as a paid Press Intern for the U.S. Peace Corps in D.C. for six months. That'll take me from this June to this time next year. Scary? Uh-huh.

As if that weren't enough, we're very close to moving. We've signed a purchase-and-sale agreement on 31 Bates Rd, and we're close to a similar agreement on a large condo on Pleasant St. in Brookline. I'm looking forward to moving: I like change, and it'll take me closer to school, friends, and church, as well as the rest of the city.

Cairo Reporter: Another One Bites the Dust

Our first full day certainly was full. We went to the pyramids... by camel. Now, I'd never had the desire to place my body at risk on top of what is essentially an ugly horse with a hunchback and big feet. However, it turned out to be quite fun, especially after the 10-year-old guide gave me the reins and whipped the camel a little to get it moving. It's painful to trot on a camel when you only have one functional stirrup: the basic body rhythm is thud-thud-thud. Graceful? Forget it. But my camel was pretty good, if a little tired, and we generally lead the pack. Now, I mentioned the 10-year-old guides, right? Well, everyone in Egypt expects baksheesh (tips). Sometimes there's someone in the bathroom who hands you a paper towel to dry your hands... and they expect baksheesh. And these "guides" were no exception - we had paid their adult bosses, who really did give us a tour, but the kids rely on tips for pay. So we agreed amongst ourselves to pool our tips and give the kids all the same amount. For most of us, this arrangement worked just fine. However, Dan's guide, let's call him Muhammed, wasn't excited about socialism, and kept pulling Dan's camel to the side and asking for extra pay. When Dan refused, Muhammed would slow down, leaving Dan at the end of the pack and quite annoyed. When the rest of us were allowed to control our own camels and trot, Muhammed tried to extort baksheesh from Dan before he would give Dan the reins. The adult guide yelled back at Mo, telling him to ante up the reins. Since he had no choice, Muhammed gave Dan the reins, and like the other kids gave the camel a little flogging to make it trot. However, Muhammed flogged the camel in a particularly tender part of its anatomy, causing it to jump forward with a start and take off at top camel speed. The guides all stood and laughed as we stared in horror at Dan's camel running off into the Sahara! He was hanging on for dear life, but like me he lacked a stirrup. The camel reached a downslope, and Dan forgot to or was unable to (he claims) lean back. The next instant, he was sprawling facefirst on the gritty sand of the Sahara! We rushed over, helped him up, and washed his eyes out, and the guides caught and calmed the camel. They brought the camel over, forced it to kneel down, and motioned for Dan to remount. However, for some reason, Dan chose to walk the rest of the way home.

Cairo Reporter: Disclosed Location

It pays to have attractive and flirtatious girls in one's group overseas. Aside from the obvious benefits, you might just discover Dick Cheney's undisclosed location! As you know, he was on a Middle East tour last week, and when I arrived in Cairo on the 13th, those who were already there informed us that Dick Cheney was in the Marriot, where our group was headquartered! This was no secret: the place was infested with secret servicemen, and there was added security, etc. Anyway, the girls became friends with one of the hotel staff, Khaled, and I think one or two of them jokingly agreed to marry him, or something like that. For his part, Khaled disclosed the undisclosable: Dick Cheney's room number: 1118. If I disappear tomorrow, y'all know why.

I'm Back

I'm alive, I think, but I've only slept 3 hours out of the past 42, so you just have to wait for a details. It was a good trip, though.

Oh - I'm disappointed with my friends who didn't put up a single blog entry between them while I was gone. Props to J-Bird for keepin' it real among the newbies. That said, I do miss these folks, and I'm looking forward to the beginning of the new quarter, just 4 days away. I need sleep really badly...

Welcome to Cairo!

As I prepare my ears for this familiar phrase, blogging is not exactly the first thing on my mind. I'll be away from home and blog (are they really different?) from tomorrow until the 23rd of March, a Saturday. I'll be participating in the third annual (I think) Arab League Model United Nations hosted by Cairo University in Giza. That's not really the point of the trip, though, and we're encouraged to skip parts of the week-long model for more relevent experiences, like going back to my old haunts in Trash City and the Sisters of Charity orphanage. I'm really psyched - I haven't been out of the Anglophone sphere for two years and a day exactly, and it seems like forever and nothing at the same time (I have poor depth perception when looking at the past).

If any of you are of the mind, here are a few specific prayer requests while I'm gone:

Safety for myself and the dozen or so other NU students I'll be travelling with.

An opportunity to explain the gospel to my host family/student and any others the Lord has planned.

The truly Christlike ministry of the Sisters of Charity in lower Muqattam, aka "Trash City", where they fulfill vows to not live at a higher standard than those around them.

My friends, who must remain nameless for security purposes, who have Christian unity and the foundation of a neighborhood Christian school as life goals, respectively.

My deep thanks to all those who do find the time to pray. It's not really a battleground; it's enemy territory with a few hidden partisans holed up in the depths of Africa's largest city.

Love to tout mes amis, leave a comment and have a rockin' spring break!

-- Salim

For Chris' Benefit
My friend Dan has this quote, which happens to be a Northeastern original, up as his AIM profile:

"I applied for a gun permit in case I'm ever given the choice of hanging out in Braintree or shooting myself in the face."
-Eddie the Goth

Better

I like this tactic better than assassinations. Granted it's humiliating, but I respect the right of states to arrest suspected criminals, and though the sovereign status of Palestine is unclear, Israel is definitely the occupying power so it has a right to keep the peace in accordance with the Geneva Convention and other international law. However, in general Israel has run roughshod over Geneva, so this might have to be classified in the "too little, too late" category unless it marks a real change in policy towards lawfulness on the part of the Israeli army. From the article, though it of course has an Israeli bias, it seems that the Palestinians killed were armed, so I have no more sympathy for them than I do for Israeli soldiers who are killed - it's a war, people. But 14 is relatively low given the thousands who have been arrested without anything worse than humiliation and dehydration (hey, you gotta start somewhere) over the past few days.

Now the caveat: If Israel just arrests all these men, detains say half of them, lets the others go, and continues as it was before the arrests, it will have created - and freed - a few thousand hardened enemies of Israel. Forcing a defenseless man to leave his home shames him in front of his family and community, forcing him to stand for hours in the Israeli sun shames him in front of his now-enemies, subsequently releasing him gives him the pride of being right, and all that adds up to one new racist. Any of these guys who didn't hate Israel or Jews before most likely does now, so if Israel doesn't start showing some serious desire for peace it will be in trouble. As much as it flies in the face of civil rights, I also think sending those ruled innocent back to their homes is a mistake. Either throw a lot of money at them, move them and their families to somewhere far away, or keep them in jail (the easiest, but least legal option) where they can't take revenge on Israel for being unjustly imprisoned. Oxymoronic? Yes. But I think peace comes first. I'm rambling now, so I'll shut up...

Celibataire? C'est liberte!

My very own French pun/aphorism. Anyway, I'm done with French, and I really don't speak much, but I can understand the rudiments, I can read basic stuff, but it wasn't a "travel" type course so I didn't learn your classic phrasebook "Ou est la toilette"s. Anyway, that was the easiest final I ever took. I'm not saying I got 100 on it (though with the extra credit I may come close), but it was just plain easy. It took a whopping 40 minutes for me and most of my class, out of the scheduled 2 hours. But the thing is, even the ones you get wrong are easy - and it's such a low-stress experience that compared Macro and M&B it was relaxation therapy!

Celibataire? C'est liberte!

My very own French pun/aphorism. Anyway, I'm done with French, and I really don't speak much, but I can understand the rudiments, I can read basic stuff, but it wasn't a "travel" type course so I didn't learn your classic phrasebook "Ou est la toilette"s. Anyway, that was the easiest final I ever took. I'm not saying I got 100 on it (though with the extra credit I may come close), but it was just plain easy. It took a whopping 40 minutes for me and most of my class, out of the scheduled 2 hours. But the thing is, even the ones you get wrong are easy - and it's such a low-stress experience that compared Macro and M&B it was relaxation therapy!

Celibataire? C'est liberte!

My very own French pun/aphorism. Anyway, I'm done with French, and I really don't speak much, but I can understand the rudiments, I can read basic stuff, but it wasn't a "travel" type course so I didn't learn your classic phrasebook "Ou est la toilette"s. Anyway, that was the easiest final I ever took. I'm not saying I got 100 on it (though with the extra credit I may come close), but it was just plain easy. It took a whopping 40 minutes for me and most of my class, out of the scheduled 2 hours. But the thing is, even the ones you get wrong are easy - and it's such a low-stress experience that compared Macro and M&B it was relaxation therapy!

They Finally Managed to Get One

The Red Sox helm was handed over this morning to Grady Little, who was the Sox bench coach from 97 to 99 under Jimy, and most recently the Cleveland bench coach.

It's good to hear Larry Luchino say that "the reaction in the clubhouse was jubilant... It was in small part relief, but in large part attributable to Grady Little." If this works out the way they planned it, it'll have the positives associated with those winning years under Jimy, and not the negatives associated with his personality. If the Red Sox don't make the playoffs this year it'll be because of injuries. With the core of proven players they have, I don't think anyone in the Central is going to have a better record, and only Seattle in the West, so they should lock up the Wild Card if not the EAST because this year the Yankees SUCK!

On a personal note, I just got done with Macro Theory and Money 'n' Banking... 3 and a half straight hours of arm-cramping finals. I remember how to work a GDP-deflator (to account for the inflation rate), though I didn't have to do that on the test. The difference is, now I know how to do a GPA-deflator as well, in 2 easy steps:
1 -- Find a class taught by Sir Oscar, the Lone Crusader Against Grade Inflation.
2 -- Click "Enroll".

I went through that process twice this quarter, and I'll be paying for it when grades come in. OK, I don't think I did that bad on the tests, but last time I thought I did well I got a 65. But I definitely did better on the M&B one than my average, since I studied for that almost exclusively out of all my classes. And I almost definitely hurt my average in Macro, but that was good to begin with, so I could still do OK, though an A in either class would really surprise me.

I Wish We Had This Problem

People in Zimbabwe are so desperate to vote they've been in line for two full days, and there are still people waiting! This occured in cities, where the government has least support and eliminated a number of polling stations in hopes of preventing democracy from running its due course. However, so far autocratic President Mugabe has abided by rule of law generally, appealing to overturn the judge's decision instead of just ignoring it. Law is truly the key to order.

The Point of No Return

At the end of studying for finals, one reaches the point of no return. You walk into that room, and all the time you wasted writing clever blog entries (the time spent writing lame ones doesn't count) weighs upon your mind, and you are measured, and you are generally found wanting. Your last remaining hope? The sliding scale of justice. In Macro Theory and Money 'n' Banking, 80% is an A; on this I place my hope. It is T-12 for my date with destiny at the office of Sir Oscar, the Lone Crusader Against Grade Inflation. Bid me well, and Godspeed, and may my mind not falter, nor my pen not run out of ink, nor my wrist cramp under the pressure of back-to-back-to-back 2 hour exams!

Good News/Bad News

This cliche bears repeating.
The good thing about Spring Training is that the games don't count. The bad thing about Spring Training is that the games don't count. The bad news for me is that I'm going to miss 12 days of Spring Training overseas -- I leave for Cairo in 47.5 hours! The good news for me is that I'm going to miss 12 days of Spring Training overseas -- I leave for Cairo in 47.49 hours!

The World Doesn't Hate You

We're just really obnoxious here sometimes.

Response to Comment

David posted a quite intelligent comment to the post below labeled "Lamentations." I'll respond to it out here because it's a lot neater than trying to do that in a comment form, and I don't necessarily think comment-blogging is the greatest way to go about life.

how the heck is a peacekeeping force going to stop Palestinians from blowing themselves up and killing Isrealies? If it were accepted by both sides it could carry out punitive actions without escalating the violence. I'm not saying it'll stop crime, which includes the occasional low-scale bombing, but it might stop the open war and high-scale, high-tech bombings which have happened increasingly in the past month or two. A peacekeeping force would take Israeli soldiers out of high-profile checkpoints where they are targets, and would be a source of fairly unbiased information on the situation on the ground.

Also, you should know that peacekeeping forces "technically" are not suppossed to get involved in problems within a states soveriegn territory. That's not true. It is only supposed to get involved if Israel permits that, but the Occupied Territories have never been claimed as sovereign territory by Israel anyway, though it's not as if the UN is going to launch a war against Israel. But the idea is to get both sides' approval. Remember, except for the Occupied Territories and Western Sahara, just about every square inch of land on earth is recognized as someone's sovereign territory, so peacekeeping are allowed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to enter sovereign territory, even against the will of the sovereign, though that is rarely constructive.

Until Palestine becomes a recognized state, I doubt the UN will ever send a peacekeeping force in. Almost certainly the UN will deploy observers at least to ensure the transition to a Palestinian state when one is created. I just wonder if that will ever happen in the absence of peacekeepers or something.

Arafat and Sharon are directly to blame for most of this mess... Neither of these men are interested in peace. The sooner they get thrown out of power the better, although there doesn't seem to be any other Palestians who want peace to take Arafat's spot. Well, they're not interested in peace, but I wonder who would be better than Arafat? Marwan Barghouti, a charismatic young Fatah leader who seems to have the popularity to take over when Arafat dies, is associated with the belligerent factions of the PLO, including the now-infamous Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. I think ousting Arafat before there's someone else to take his place would be a mistake. Israel, on the other hand, has a number of more peaceful leaders, and even Netanyahu would be an improvement over Sharon simply because he knows how to speak without making people hate him (and he doesn't own the biggest piece of land in Gaza).

I'll let you have the last word Dave, because you say it better than I could:
What a mess.

Sports Stars

I'm really disappointed at the behavior of big-name sports stars these days. I mean really, can they at least tell the truth about all their pecadilloes and such? First, Manny Ramirez shows up late to camp, then he says he doesn't know. Puh-leeze. And now Paul Pierce is the lover of one of my friends, and he won't admit it! At a press conference yesterday he denied that his lover is a college freshman, even though we all know she would never lie about something this serious! The way power goes to these guys' heads is just disgusting!

Props to Catholic Memorial Good luck in the FleetCenter on Tuesday! The Patriots won, so can you guys! If they win Tuesday they're almost a lock to beat the Western Mass champion for the state Division II title. And I hope Steve has a chance to play - props to the injured benchwarming git.

Lamentations

Where have all the flowers gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the flowers gone,
Long time ago,
Where have all the flowers gone,
Gone to young girls every one.
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the young girls gone,
Long time ago,
Where have all the young girls gone,
Gone to young men every one.
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the young men gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the young men gone,
Long time ago,
Where have all the young men gone,
Gone to soldiers every one.
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the soldiers gone,
Long time ago,
Where have all the soldiers gone,
Gone to graveyards every one.
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the graveyards gone,
Long time ago,
Where have all the graveyards gone,
Gone to flowers every one.
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the flowers gone,
Long time passing,
Where have all the flowers gone,
Long time ago,
Where have all the flowers gone,
Gone to young girls every one.
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

This rendition of "When Will They Ever Learn?" is dedicated to the 14 who died in suicide attacks today. At what point do we interfere in this civil war? India seems to have gotten their own bloody religious skirmish under control in less than a week. Israel? Not a chance. Arafat and Sharon both demand that the other take the first step to peace. Too bad there isn't a real man in the house. Or the White House? Can we send peacekeepers or SOMETHING? Heck, I'd volunteer to go. We're blowing up caves in Afghanistan still while our ally Israel is in the midst of a bloody civil war! I don't know what to write anymore... it's all too overwhelming. I don't even want to go there at this point, which I did up till a few months ago. It's just too violent now, and I feel like I'd be contributing to the problem by bringing another live body into a situation where it seems peace will only be attained when the citizens of both sides have gone to graveyards, every one. When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?

Love's Labours Lost

I will take a break from my studying to transcribe a tragic tale of romance... oh wait, I haven't even started studying yet...

One of my friends, let's call him "Z", goes to a Christian college, and is himself a devout and devoted believer. He's never had a girlfriend, to my knowledge, but it's not for lack of trying.

All you college guys know how it is - you try and make sure you sit near the girl you best like in each class, and there's nobody more disappointed than the 5 guys who get assigned to a study group together. I've had classmates ask to be switched out of a group because it's all-male. Also, I was considered lucky this quarter - I was in 2 groups, in both of which I was the only guy. But I digress. So anyway, Z is sitting next to the girl who has caught his eye, and is fortunate enough to be assigned to a study group with her! He immediately takes charge, collecting from each group member the times they can and can't meet. He schedules the first meeting for a time when all the group members have class, except for himself and Her!! They find (to her surprise, if not his) that they are the only ones at the meeting, so they do their studying and whatever, but I suspect that Z did not have his mind on the work. He got her phone number, for study purposes, of course, and called her later that night.

She didn't answer the phone, so Z left a message. He informed her that so-and-so was having a campfire that night, and that he was going, and was wondering if she was planning to. I guess he must have had conscience pangs, or something told him that wasn't quite right. So he called her back, and left another message. "What I meant to say was, I'd like to invite you to the campfire." That still wasn't good enough, Z's panicking mind decided, so he called and left a third message, this time saying, "What I really mean is, I want you to go to the campfire with me."

So, Z goes to this campfire. And he's standing towards the back, glancing around for her every 8 or 9 seconds, though it feels like a lifetime. It starts, and she's not there. Glance. Glance. She's 15 minutes late now! Glance. Maybe she's not coming. Glance. Now she's half an hour late. Glance. There's still hope, she can't not come at all. Glance. Glance. It's over. Glance. Glance. Still not here.

Z goes back to his dorm, but decides that though he may have lost that battle but he hasn't lost the war! Women like to be pursued, that's right. Z won't give up now. Maybe she just had too much homework. Hey, his motives were pure, he wasn't hitting on her, just honestly trying to start a relationship. Monday in class she doesn't sit next to him. Another battle lost. That afternoon, after standing in front of the mirror, turning over every possible scenario in his mind, and chewing his nails down to the bone, he steels himself up to go to her room. Trying desperately to keep his famous cool, or at least the appearance of it, he climbs the stairs and starts down the hall to her dorm. As he passes the common room he thinks that he caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye. Stopping uncertainly, he doubles back, trying to seem nonchalant as he looks into the common room. She's in there. On the couch. Making out with her boyfriend.

Credit where credit is due.

Heroes This is why I think sports figures are truly the nation's best role models.

Colin Powell, Ph.D.

His quote speaks for itself
"Prime Minister Sharon has to take a hard look at his policies to see whether they will work...If you declare war on the Palestinians and think you can solve the problem by seeing how many Palestinians can be killed -- I don't know that leads us anywhere.''

And a few other quotes from the article:
"They must first be hit hard ... so that they understand terrorism will achieve nothing...Only after they are beaten will we be able to hold talks, and I want a peace deal'' --Ariel Sharon
"The leaders of the two sides must ask themselves where the current escalating cycle of violence, reprisal and revenge is leading" --Kofi Annan

Deodorant:	$3
Hummus for potluck:	$6
Drycleaning a suit:	$10
Two new wiper blades plus labor:	$80
Not having to hit your parents up for the cash:	Priceless.

Tea and Sympathy

To Mute Troubadour, whose church, in his own words, just shot itself. It saddens me greatly, but I cease to be surprised at the verbal violence that can go on inside the body of Christ. As a boy, my father was first an elder, than the pastoring elder of the small, non-denominational fellowship in which I grew up. As the church shrunk due to general lethargy and attrition, parishioners became bitter, and pastors are usually the first to be seen with a bulls-eye painted on their back. My father was no exception, and as the church groaned at its latter end, he was ripped up and down for offenses real and imagined by church members and ex-members. The member who hosted the meetings - which had been intended to air out the problems and save the church - regretted afterward that the two meetings had even been allowed to take place in his living room. I was too young to go, but I remember my parents coming home late at night: my mother crying and my father absolutely silent. From her account years later, he was similarly silent at the meetings, saying nothing at all in his own defense.

A number of people were completely in denial about the 18-year old church ending and wanted it to continue. Even after all the vitriol, my father offered to remain with the church for another six months in an advisory role to anyone who wanted to step into the pastorship. Nobody did.

For 5 years we "sojourned", never committing to a church, though I personally got involved in two churches much more than my family. One of those churches split 2 years ago in what was essentially a power-play by one of the pastors to oust the other. My family joined the newly split off church, which has been really blessed and a lot more humble these past 2 years, since they really felt they could relate. However, I don't know if my father will ever be willing to become involved in more than Sunday services in any church, let alone take a leadership role, after being suffering the worst personal assault of his life at the hands of people in whom he had invested 10 years of his life. I don't blame him.

All that to say, my sympathy and prayers go out to the Broken-Hearted Troubadour. And yes, Doug, God's heart breaks too.

It's the Hypocrisy, Stupid

I didn't make that title up, but I think it's appropriate. Bush just approved tariffs on steel imports. I wouldn't have a problem with that if it weren't for the "free trade" slogans the White House always tosses around when laying guilt trips on other countries. OK, granted it was a compromise, and yes it's unrealistic to think the U.S. is ready for free trade just now. But then why do we have to be so arrogantly demanding in our relations with other countries??

I wish George W. Bush would take a lesson from George W. Bush. In the second debate he posited that America needs to be more humble. That campaign splinter (it wasn't really a plank) needs to make a major comeback!

Search and Destroy

Apparently someone is considering going to Gordon and really doing their homework. Either that or someone from Gordon is checking to see if their roommate has a 24-hour streaming webcam from the shower. Or someone just has way too much time on their hands. Anyway, someone reached this site because it's the #11 result at Google for "Gordon College"+nude. Yeah.

And it's the only result for "Salim Furth" + nude. Just watch those hits pour in!

That's What Friends Are For

I'm very jealous of David growing up... I never had this kind of friends. And I never learned to be fascetious, either!

btw, there are links on the left side of his blog, you just can't see them until they're visited. I think it's kind of cool, actually, in the best traditions of Blind Man's Bluff.

Helvetica Confederating

The Helvetican Confederation voted to join the United Nations! Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Direct democracy rocks my world! More later; class now.

SOLD

Forty-five groups of people came to our open house today! According to our realtor, who is practically glowing, that's extraordinary. We're asking half a million; hopefully a bidding war will ensue! Remind me to take a picture of the house while the "For Sale" sign is up!

Later... We sold it. A realtor came over with a bid she'd been holding since Thursday night which was just above our asking price. The prospective buyers have two very young children, and a large extended family from Ireland who come over and stay, so they need a big place. Now the hunt in Brookline for suitable housing is in high gear. I'm still holding onto hope that we'll find something for just about our selling price so my Dad can buy another apartment for my friends and I... my dreamhouse. Anyway, the implications of going under agreement tonight is that just 5 days after going on the market we can stop uber-cleaning our house. My bed and bureau can go back where they're comfortable and the morning sun's not in my eyes, and I can leave the clothes on the floor again. Best of all, my Mom is under a lot less stress.

I Want To Be In America!!

An Americentric view of the world. Via Chris. While I'm at it, Chris also plugged my name into the Gangsta-Name Generator and got "Excessive Dominator" as the result.... hmmm.

And Your Point Is...?

Why did you do it? Honestly, what joy did you get out of killing nine people, including a baby girl, as they came out of their place of worship? Is Ariel Sharon your hero? Do you believe you're going to paradise? Don't you know that ultra-Orthodox aren't even Zionist, for crying out loud? Do you think you're helping Palestinian statehood? Do you have some kind of vendetta against peace? Don't you understand cause and effect, as in "I-kill-you-your-cousin-kills-my-cousin-till-there's-noone-left"? What the heck?!

I call suicide bombings in Israel senseless violence. There are two "legitimate" reasons to commit a suicide bombing, and that's being very liberal to begin with:
1 - To assassinate an enemy leader. That's a crime, but not a senseless crime or a crime against humanity.
2 - To bring attention to an unknown cause. This one is much more controversial, but in revolutionary circles is an acceptable tactic, especially if the bombing destroys property but not people, like firebombings against McDonalds' in France.

Hey moron, this latest idiocy doesn't fit either category. The world is well aware of your cause, and you're just hurting it now. Can't you learn from the Jewish race how to be a victim? The international community LOVES victims! We'll give you a state, honest, just stop killing people! And if you blew up Sharon with yourself, that I could understand. Of course, it's not at all the Christlike thing to do, but it is exactly what Sharon - who has assassinated 100+ Palestinian threats in sometimes-surgical strikes - deserves. But standing outside a Yeshiva after Sabbath... have you no conscience? Are you so racist that you can't see a baby, only an enemy? I wish I could say there was hope for your soul, but you truly earned your place in Hell, my fellow sinner.

Welcome Birdhead!

Props to my friend Julie, aka J-Bird aka Birdhead, who is now online at http://www.livejournal.com/users/jaybrd14. I don't know where the nickname originated, but it's propogated by the fact that her roommate is also Julie. I lobbied for "Birdseed" as a nickname, but she didn't bite.

Think about it Julie - if we called you Birdseed we could call your roommate Dogfood!
:-)

The N.U. Shuffle
Northeastern University has one of the worst webpages I've ever been unfortunate enough to depend on! I know it's attractive, but its structure is so typical of the bureaucracy that it represents! It took me a good six clicks to get to the how-to-register-for-classes page, which is as unhelpful as you could imagine. I find it hard to believe they can't let us register online OR in person! You may only register by automated phone system. And I just found out you can only do that from 7:30am to 8:30 pm!!

This is why the school dance is called the "N.U. Shuffle", which involves running from one bureaucratic office to another until you amass enough forms or signatures to drop a class, change your address, or whatever you need to do. It's not exactly romantic, but it's great exercise!

Search and Destroy

I got a hit from someone searching for "singleness+hope+curse" on Google. Hmmm... I guess I am a good result for that search, but I would doubt that this seeker's real Search will be over any time soon!

Thank you sir, may I please have another!!

Talk about asking someone to hit you... I'm delivering a 60-page group project, a short presentation, and taking an early final exam all in one class Monday night. If anybody wants stress, I got extra this weekend! The project has a tendancy to wait until the last minute. OK, so it's us who waits, but that's not much better. So, again I apologize for my silence; this is another reason to leave the competition: now I don't feel I'm losing anything tangible by not blogging intelligently.

Well, I did do a few things. I figured out what was causing the error message; my archive script was not working, so I slashed it. I might try to reinstate it later. I also linked up Chris Bressoud, a fellow believer at Northeastern with an interesting website at audiooutcast.com.

Raves and Rants

Rave: The high-school kids in my committee were awesome! This weekend, FYI, Northeastern hosted some 200 high-schoolers for the Second Annual Northeast Regional High School Model Arab League. It's like an MUN, but for the Arab League. I co-chaired the Council of Interior Ministers. We debated dealing with terrorism, and had a real-life "crisis" when the U.S. announced this morning that the U.S. planned to deploy troops in Yemen! Phil D'Agati (my Sicilian co-chair, of Mafia decent) and I embellished on the facts quite a bit, but it was awesome. We also fudged the vote results to make sure that the Yemeni delegate - who deserved to win an award - did, and we took a vote from the hottest delegate in committee, who was rewarded for her good looks as well as her good speaking.
Rant: OK, the kids were good, but they couldn't give up their American view of terrorism. Real Arab delegates don't admit that there are terrorists operating in their countries. And they certainly don't applaud in plenary session when the speaker condemns Palestinian terrorism. That's not to say they all think it's good (some of them do) or that they're all racist (though some certainly are), but they view the 1,000+ Palestinian deaths (including 20+ during the past two days) as a greater travesty than the 300+ Jewish-Israeli deaths.
Rave: I'm going to D.C. for the top Model Arab League in the U.S.!. I'm going to run for chairman, and they say I'll have a pretty good chance. This should be a lot of fun, and is at a much higher level than what we did this weekend, though the same folks sponsor it.
Rant: Why can't guys think? Every year, they say, Converse College (an old-south girls school in South Carolina) totally dominates the D.C. competition because all the guys at the model fall for them, and they have a very well-oiled political machine, as well as the largest number of delegates. Phil (who is a Ph.D. student) laid the smackdown on them last year, beating a Converse girl in the election for committee chairship, and proceeded to win Best Chair award, though he lost the election for secretary general to a very attractive Converse freshman. This year, both he and I will run for chair, and we have the benefit of being the darlings of the organizers, because she hates Converse too, and we did such an awesome job with this HSMAL.
Rave: The Red Sox have started playing! Duquette is fired! My brother taped some of the game, so I'll add some stuff to the tape (including an intro by our Zebra Finches, Joe and Geri, who are named for the Red Sox radio announcers). I love baseball!
Rant: The New York Yankees. 'Nuff said.

Countdown to What?

Is Ariel Sharon counting down? Is he waiting until he's killed a certain number of Palestinians to stop? Well, if that number was "1,000", he can officially stop. Today (yesterday in Israel), he authorized troops to storm refugee camps!!!! OK, does anybody remember what happened last time Sharon was in control of a refugee camp? Let's just say most Israelis wanted him out, and it was assumed that was the end of his political career. I guess not, but I sure wish his career would end soon.

When he said he didn't like the nickname "the butcher of Beirut", we didn't know he was only referring to the "Beirut" part

SPRRRRRRRRRRRRING TRAINING!

Yes! Spring training games have begun! The Sox got slapped around, but 5 of the 6 hits came from marginal players who have something to prove... hmm. Spring is really on its way... I hope my little brother remembered to record part of the game so I can mail it to my sister in France (she's a diehard fan, like yours truly).

If losing 6-0 to Minnesota is the bad news, firing Dan Duquette is the good news. Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey-hey-hey.... goodbye!