Annie's Anecdotes: "Packing: A Haiku

Packity pack pack
Why do I have so much stuff?
Packity pack pack"

Antiwar Fervor Fills the Streets:

"The demonstration drew grandmothers in wheelchairs and babies in strollers, military veterans in fatigues and protest veterans in tie-dye. It was the first time in a decade that protest groups had a permit to march in front of the executive mansion, and, even though President Bush was not there, the setting seemed to electrify the crowd."

I was there. I went with my friend Jan ("yawn"). I got up at 4:00 AM to catch the 5:15 bus and we got back to town around 10:45 PM, so it made for a long day. Was glad to see Chuck, who I worked with at NicaNet and my friend Meredith, who, until recently lived with my cousin Lisa. Hope to get up there again soon. Brought my digital camera and took pictures, but I can't find the cable, so it might be a while before I'm able to post any of them.

In other news, I just applied for an opening at the Daily Tar Heel, left from when they fired Jillian Bandes (see previous posts). I typed up one of my columns from when I wrote for the Collegian at Willamette and submitted it. I'm not holding my breath. I'll add it to the writing section when I get the chance.

The Observer | International | Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina: "
It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico."

Running the microwave, Forman Grill, electric steamer, and lights on the same circuit (at the same time) tripped the breaker. What a surprise. Now I have to wait for the landlords to flip it back.

Kurt Vonnegut's List (that he didn't have time to read on the Daily Show):

"LIBERAL CRAP I NEVER WANT TO HEAR AGAIN

Give us this day our daily bread. Oh sure.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those wh trespass against us.
Nobody better trespass against me. I'll tell you that.

Blessed are the meek.

Blessed are the merciful. You mean we can't use torture?

Blessed are the peacemakers. Jane Fonda?

Love your enemies - Arabs?

Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. The hell I can't! Look at the Reverand Pat Robertson. And He is as happy as a pig in s**t."

So, Mom, how about using that in a sermon?

Storm Survivors Told To 'Expose Themselves' - Yahoo! News UK: "A group of female hurricane survivors were told to show their breasts if they wanted to be rescued, a British holidaymaker has revealed.Ged Scott watched as American rescuers turned their boat around and sped off when the the women refused."

Six new smallworld stories. Some better than others. I'm going to add a link to the site to the sidebar.

AnnCoulter.com:

"In what is always the first step to ending up on the bestsellers list, the writer, Jillian Bandes, has been fired from the Daily Tarheel."

Regarding the piece on racial profiling.

The Daily Tar Heel - Opinion Editor justifies firing of Tuesday columnist:
"Might as well get to the point: I fired Jillian Bandes yesterday.

And not because I thought she was a racist or an idiot. She is, in fact, neither — and even if she were, I wouldn’t have fired her for those reasons.

I fired her because she strung together quotes out of context. She took sources’ words out of context. She misled those sources when she conducted interviews.

In other words, she conducted journalistic malpractice, and that’s simply not something I, or The Daily Tar Heel, will tolerate."

Russell Bither-Terry

I put up a simple school site. Not much there besides my class schedule and a picture of me with scruffy facial hair on a hammock in Guatemala.

I read this in the student paper while waiting for the bus this morning.

The Daily Tar Heel - It’s sad, but racial profiling is necessary for our safety:

"I want all Arabs to be stripped naked and cavity-searched if they get within 100 yards of an airport.
I don’t care if they’re being inconvenienced. I don’t care if it seems as though their rights are being violated.
I care about my life. I care about the lives of my family and friends."

Didn't take me long to find religion here in NC. I recently joined the Cult of the White Earbud. I understand Annie joined it a day or two before me. (which is to say we both just got iPods). It's crazy how many members we have at UNC. I hear Duke is worse because last year all the freshmen got free iPods and this year they can get them if they take a class that makes use of it (a novel idea). So, I'm listening to it as I sit on Denise's couch and write this post on her laptop while she talks to a friend. Sounds like she just finished so I should go. Reflections on my first two weeks of grad school some other time, perhaps. Suffice it to say that they'll be keeping me busy. Thoughts on the iPod, too.

BBC | Why does the US need our money?:

"US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said 'no offers of assistance will be refused''."

Except that, U.S. gives Cuba cold shoulder over aid offer...

So shocked that someone in the White House would lie.

OK, back to reading.

Annie's Anecdotes

Hey, my sister has a blog. It's also hosted on bither-terry.org, so now we're actually an organization of Bither-Terrys. I'll add her to the sidebar and to the site's top page this weekend. My Scopes and Methods class has 200 pages of reading for the first class (Wed. night from 7-10 PM). I'm about half way through it.

Things have been busy since classes started. Two were actually canceled because of a conference, so it'll get busier this week. Here's my week in review with some high points.

Sunday (8/28): Had dinner with Linda and David Brown (Bea Lingenfelter's sister and brother-in-law. I stayed with them when I visited UNC in March.).

Monday: Department Orientation.

Tuesday: First class (Stats at 9:30). Got my loan check. Opened account with the State Employees Credit Union (I hate banks). Have had to use cash until my card arrives this week. When shopping for a bike. Didn't have enough money. Put it on layaway.

Wednesday: First math class (at 8:30). Went to the lecture for the class I'm grading for. Went back to credit union for more cash. Bought the bike with a rack and baskets-type-things for groceries.

Thursday: Stats. Got yet more cash (my liberal estimates kept not being enough). Bought 3 of the ten books for Scopes and Methods (over $100 for the three). Had dinner with Denise and her friends. Looked like an idiot for not realizing how bad things were in New Orleans.

Friday: Saw new chiropractor to follow up on accident treatment. Went grocery shopping on my bike. Had a birthday party, which was fun.

Saturday: Went canoeing with Denise and my European friends. Denise had to meet her parents, but I stayed. We cooked burritoes and talked for hours.

Why New Orleans is in Deep Water by Molly Ivins.