A place to put memes

An open plea, asking for assistance. It's an English essay assignment - something you'll  likely know that I have problems with. The book is Hamlet, something I'm sure most of you have read.

Here's the prompt:

The principal directive of essay $5 is to analyze Hamlet and make it relevant to today. There are several ways to do this:
1. Preferred: Analysis of main theme or complementary themes in the play, and how they are relevant to this time in history. This is sort of a compare and contrast. Example: the store of revenge in hamlet is similar to the Rawanda Genocide in which Hutu murdered 800,000 Tutsi over a 100 day period.

2. Analysis of the character of Hamlet (or Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Horatio or Ophelia) with all of its conflicts, inconsistencies, defects, and deficits an dhow somebody today or recently seems to mirror those traits or the final devastating outcome.

3. Analysis of the plot and storyline, and how something or someone significant would seem to follow it. This is tricky, there are not too many situations similar to this story.

//
I have nowhere to begin - even my own parents said they were lost, and that this is a horrible horrific prompt for Hamlet. Who in our time relates to Hamlet? - a person who's Father is killed by his Uncle (who then marries his mother), a girlfriend who he then spurns, and then kills herself.
And so I ask, help - where do I begin?

Everyone is coming back from school, old friends becoming new again. Every conversation starts with the same question: "So what have you been up to?" - I'd been lothe to answer that question - because nothing has fully concluded, but then again, I hope these things won't. So, what have I been up to?
I'm currently doing to school, studying Economics, I'm on the Speech and Debate team, and I'm running for California State University Student Trustee.

School:
I'm doing well in all my classes, even English which is mind boggling to me. I think I've finally taken to heart that you can't imagine how an essay will turn out before you start writing it. It's kind of like sculpture, with your own feces. Modern art at it's best.
School future: Next semester I'll be taking 19 units (Gulp!). I'll be taking Calculus for Math Majors, Economics based Statistics, Economics of Globalization, the History of Economic Thought, Intro to International Relations Theory, and a workshop in Forensics (which is my debate team's class meeting). The IR looks out of place for a reason - my school requires upper division General Education classes, otherwise known as Segment III. The segment that I've chosen is America and World Affairs, which is mostly IR classes. I need 9 units of those classes, and because of this I'm going to Minor in International Relations (Woo!). Why 19 units? I took 14 units this semester, and was in debate, and I still feel as though I have time on my hands (not working helps). If I'm going to be throwing myself into school, I want to throw myself in completely, not have time to surface and look around, to comprehend other parts of my life that may distract me. I want to throw myself in like my Sister does, and emerge victorious, as she does.

Speech and Debate team:
My partner Jackrabbit and I have been doing very well at this completely new format of debate. Berkeley tournament we didn't break, but earned speaker awards, Santa Rosa we went 7-0, took First Place, and I got 3rd speaker. Our coaches moved us up to Junior Varsity division, and we had a tournament at Diablo Valley College, where we went 0-6, losing every round - but strangely enough, I managed to get First Place speaker award. From what my coaches tell me, that's extraordinarily rare (woo!). Debate is something that I've needed for a long time - and it's putting a lot of things in perspective. Now I can see when I'm getting into a debate that will turn to argument, and I've learned to temper my wit, at least a little. The team environment is having a large effect on me also. Not since I did acting with Vector have I felt such a large sense of camaraderie. The people on our team are incredible, diverse, smart, and witty, and it's a source of pride to be working with them.
Debate Future: Well, I'm going to try to win some JV rounds next semester at the Berkeley tournament!

CSU Student Trustee:
"Student Trustees serve as the voice of approximately 405,000 students who attend the 23 campuses that make up the CSU system. The Board of Trustees is the highest policymaking body for the system. As such it establishes policies on student fees, admissions criteria, remedial education, technology, financial aid, student housing and parking, and numerous other areas that directly impact students. Serving as a Student Trustee presents a unique opportunity to shape higher education policy for one of the largest systems of higher education in the world; it is the highest and most powerful office a student can hold within the CSU.

The two Student Trustees sitting on the 25-member Board are each appointed by the Governor to a two-year team. Their appointments are staggered, and only the Student Trustee serving in his or her second year has a vote" ~California State Student Association

When I first registered with San Francisco State University I attended a Associated Student government meeting, to see if I could get involved at all. There weren't any positions available, but a few days later Krupa Kothari, the Freshman Representative of AS recognized me from the meeting, and asked if I was interested in being Student Trustee. I thought she was talking about Student Trustee of San Francisco State.
I prepared an essay, filled out forms and questionnaires as to my eligibility, and had a quick five minute interview with the President of CSSA. Later, they asked me to fly down to Los Angeles to be interviewed in front of a board of student body Presidents. The trip was a success, and I had great fun in the interview, and later that day I heard the good news that I was being recommended to the Governor's office.
The Governor will receive three candidates, ranked by CSSA. CSSA does not disclose what rankings each candidate received. From what I hear the Governor's office will be conducting interviews, and decide in January. I'm eagerly looking forward to it, but there's little I can do until then, other than read as much about the board as I can find.

This is really cute - This website lets you rank the simple pleasures in life.
http://bestthing.info/
I.E.:
Which is better?
Making a sad person smile OR Making up a new word?

A heartwarming time waster.

On the other hand of hard politics, Fareed Zakaria shows a beautiful smackdown to Norman Podhoretz on the subject of wheither or not to bomb Iran, or let it get the bomb.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec07/iran_10-29.html
Watch the video.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/nc40204628.php

Earthquake DetailsMagnitude 5.6
Date-Time Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 03:04:54 UTC
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 08:04:54 PM at epicenter
Location 37.432°N, 121.776°W
Depth 9.2 km (5.7 miles)
Region SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
Distances 8 km (5 miles) NNE (31°) from Alum Rock, CA
11 km (7 miles) E (91°) from Milpitas, CA
15 km (9 miles) NE (45°) from San Jose City Hall, CA
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.1 km (0.1 miles); depth +/- 0.4 km (0.2 miles)
Parameters Nst=250, Nph=250, Dmin=3 km, Rmss=0.07 sec, Gp= 32°,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=3
Source California Integrated Seismic Net:
USGS Caltech CGS UCB UCSD UNR
Event ID nc40204628

Can anyone help me with this? I can't figure out out, and I'm reaching the end of my leash. What on earth is stopping me from burning in iTunes? Are there any other applications that are free that I can use to burn with that aren't complete pieces of crap?

I know LJ is a weird place to turn to, but I don't have a tech support forum.

Here's the diagnostic of iTunes after the cut.

My goodness, a whole lot has happened. Lets do this in reverse.
I got netflix! Yay! Netflix means lots of war movies, and movies about big space ships, and explosions. Lots of explosions. First movie: Resevoir Dogs.
My motherboard died. Kapoot. Hard drives spin, but no beep, no post, no video. So, I shelled out for a MSI P6N SLI PLATINUM Lets hope that will remove all my woes.
I got a new apartment, that's pretty big. But I think everybody already knows about that via facebook.

Looking for a job, but having difficulties in that I need to work part time, and for a place that doesn't horribly suck. Those two are rarely compatible. That, and I don't have many references or know good places to work in the city. That and summer school is about to start. I have no idea how I'm going to afford anything. Lets hope I don't live off my savings. Still, that IS what the savings are for. Meh, it's a debate in my head.

Because of the no job situation, I'm finding myself waking up at 8am, then sleeping again until 12. Not good for the psyche. I am going out a lot though, just later in the day. Carrie Kelman is back in town (YEAH!) and we spent a lovely day in Golden Gate park, walking through botanical gardens, and the japanese tea gardens. Soon everyone else will start flowing back into the bay, and parties and festivities will be abound.

There is always an open invitation to anyone - give me a call and we'll trek through the city. There are so many things to see and do (crawl through china town looking for fireworks and butterfly knives, crawl though huge weird parks, go on pub crawls, go on club crawls etc.) Crawling is not optional.

Just a quick reminder...
Battle of the Bands at COM today from 6-8 or something like that. In the Cafeteria, BIG BIG event, some REALLY big bands. Come!!

I have a friend of the family who needs a CSS/HTML programmer. They need a smallish website built for their company, along with occasional (probably once or twice a month) updates.

This is a paying job, but I don't have any figures.

Comment or e-mail me for details.

Economist Robert Reich (Secretary of Labor for the Clinton Administration) is speaking at COM, on Friday from 7 to 8pm, in the Oleny Hall (That's room 96).

He's going to be speaking about schools, education and economics.
Read more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich

Google Calendar link:

What's Hot, and What's Not
What does everyone think of this article? It's interesting to listen to my own feelings on Global Warming - I too feel scared about the future, and an essay like this which says "don't worry" is unnerving.... but I trust the Cato institute, and his logic seems sound.

I think I'm making my mother cry with my political beliefs. "Go vote republican" she says. What a knife... Libertiarian isn't republican anyway! *sigh* "We're living in a fascist state! We've lost civil liberties!" - While I don't argue that President Bush is terrible for freedom, I don't believe that we in our every day lives have lost much at all. Has anyone's life significantly changed? Is there anything we can't say?

Watching Children of Men yesterday drove this home. Home, England, is what scares me. I'm sure everyone thought Children of Men was entertainment, but just like a portrait it wasn't too far from England as I know it. Demagogues and populism run wild. It's such a pleasure to live in America, a place where I can feel a future with freedom and security.

In other news, I'm thinking of going to USF, the Jesuit College in the city. I'm also changing my major to Economics, rather than Business. Reason is I've never really tried getting into a better (or at least more expensive) school before. Economics makes more sense if I want to get a MBA (which I do). Problem is that I'll likely have to apply for Spring 08 rather than Fall 07... but it's worth it to have a higher quality of education. Let me know what you think of USF in the comments.

My 3 key is broken. No, not my 3 key, that's fine. My "One" key. The 'one' before to 2. Yes, the one after the weird ~ symbol. That. It's broken.
I press it, "3" comes out. Even if I hold down shift+"ONE"=#, so that would be a layout of `32345... and ~#@#$%....

What the livid deleterious shirking crap is this?# SEE# I cannot even use exclamation marks. No more can I go ROFL3333##### - it simply makes no sense.

I'm on my laptop even, so there is no second keypad. The only possible solution is to turn on keypad numlock and use the strange inset numpad. Except, then that changes half my keyboard into gobbleygook.

Insanity in
5
4
3
2
3
...

Letting Fox in the henhouse

DEMOCRATS are in an uproar over the national party's decision to let Fox News Channel host a presidential debate in Nevada later this year.

( Read more... )

With all this in mind, I would like to offer a modest proposal: the Dems will debate on Fox News, with Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity asking the questions, but the GOP candidates must debate on Comedy Central, with Mr Stewart and Mr Colbert moderating. Now that would get some ratings.

Hell. Yeah.

When I first came to America, I flew Virgin. If you haven't ever flown with them, forsooth, be ashamed. They focus on making the flight BEARABLE. They're coming out with a low cost (think southwest) business called VA, with new SWANKY HOT Airbus A320s geeked out with LINUX CONSOLES. But they aren't going to be approved by the Department of Transportation, due to a silly protectionist law which requires US Air carriers to have 75% US Citizen ownership!
Airoporn:
Information & Petition: http://letvafly.com/
SF Chronicle:

Plus... everyone wants to get inside a virgin.
Tee hee, I said it.

"Our annual survey of emerging ideas considers how nanotechnology will affect commerce, what role hope plays in leadership, and why, in an age that practically enshrines accountability, we need to beware of “accountabalism.”"

Along with:
"Contrary to popular belief, health care costs, broadly defined, are quite probably falling. It is spending that is rising, which is not the same thing at all. The benefits of health care for individuals, society, and the economysuch as getting people back to work fastermore than outweigh its direct costs."
and
"Nokia and a few other companies are exploring them in product development. Nokia starts, say, with a design for a new cell phone, and uses genetic algorithms to evolve the design of the phones antennae within the constraints of the phones form factor and battery power. Genetic algorithms in which solutions are evolved can deliver results superior to those from analytic algorithms in which solutions are designed."
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbrsa/en/issue/0702/article/R0702A.jhtml

I like to fancy myself a future connoisseur of everything. It started off with video games, the desire to know all the secret hallways and scoring that special power up that made your friends go "Neat!" it changed to computers, where I ended up fixing people's PCs, and giving my friends neat shortcuts and applications to make themselves more (or less, as is frequently the case) productive. Coffee is where I really went nuts (beans?) - Starbucks has a "Coffee Passport" program, where they expect you to have a knowledge of all the types of coffee they sell, their characteristics, such as aroma, body, origin, flavor etc. My teacher, Lee, setup blind coffee tastings, testing my knowledge of one coffee to the next, until I could pick the type of coffee blindfolded. The greatest thing was working with all of the crap that Starbucks has - There are only two or three decent bags, Ethiopia Sidamo, Arabian Mocha Java, and Sumatra. That's my taste, of course.
Then, it was Womens Shoes, working at Nordstrom. Thankfully it was only selling, not buying shoes that I was interested in, but that knowledge split into clothes, where I'm now a fiend for high price underground designer jeans, such as Chip & Pepper.
This is all saying nothing of my extreme and severe obsession with music either. I don't know if you could call my tastes "Underground" (I think that word is overused nowadays - does it mean covert, or unpopular?) with artists like Luke Vibert, Emperor Penguin, & New Young Pony Club. It's gotten to a state where if I meet someone who knows ANY of those bands, then they're instantly going in my phone book.
Now I'm beginning to get into Party Hosting, Cooking, and Economics, I can't wait to see what's next.

Triple post. I guess I'm not sleeping that much tonight... anyway. All must see Reggie Watts, one-man sampling human beatbox. "None of this was manipulated by editing." [Via Kottke.org]

Could a physics major please explain t-symmetry to me?

On another note...(Inane theory alert) Maybe heaven is stored in a white hole.

[wiki]The time reversal of a black hole is a white hole. From the outside they appear similar. While a black hole has a beginning and is inescapable, a white hole has an ending and cannot be entered. The forward light-cones of a white hole are directed outward; and its backward light-cones are directed towards the center.

The event horizon of a black hole may be thought of as a surface moving outward at the local speed of light which is just on the edge between escaping and falling back. The event horizon of a white hole is a surface moving inward at the local speed of light which is just on the edge between being swept outward and succeeding in reaching the center. They are two different kinds of horizons -- the horizon of a white hole is like the horizon of a black hole turned inside-out.[/wiki]

Not to sound like an ad, but here goes...
I found Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade (the version most people who have windows should buy) for $89 (http://www.journeyed.com/itemDetail.asp?ItmNo=99541723) and Office Professional 2007 (Not student/home!) for $85 (http://www.journeyed.com/itemDetail.asp?ItmNo=86661473LARS)

You have to be a student to get those deals, but still, that's an insanely good price. I've already ordered both. While I'm not going to upgrade my desktop to Vista right away, my laptop is already using it, and is doing very well. On the other hand Office 2007 is a bloody godsend, is beautifully designed, and has helped me a lot with my work. I'm installing office RIGHT AWAY.

Who likes punk rock clubs? Because Gravy Train is playing at the Gilman this Friday night. It's all ages, doors at 7:30.

Fashionista 30% Flamboyance, 48% Originality, 64% Deliberateness, 43% Sexiness

[Tasteful Original Deliberate Prissy] One is certain: you have great taste and plenty of ideas. You have clearly defined beliefs about what's good and what's bad in fashion but they are far from banal. Stylish and imaginative, you prefer to inspire admiration than to shock and you mostly succeed. Even if sometimes you'd like to have more courage to put on something absolutely outrageous you do great job in creating a unique look that others look up to. There is a possibility that you work in the fashion industry. If you don't, perhaps you should. The opposite style from yours is Bar Cruiser [Flamboyant Conventional Random Sexy]. All the categories: Librarian Sporty Hottie Office Master Uptown Girl/ Boy Brainy Student Movie Star Fashionista Glamorous Soul Fashion Enemy Bar Cruiser Kid Next Door Sex Bomb Hippie Kid Fashion Rebel Fashion Artist Catwalk God(ess)

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 5% on Flamboyance You scored higher than 50% on Originality You scored higher than 81% on Deliberateness You scored higher than 38% on Sexiness

Link: The Fashion Style Test