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The holidays are a great excuse to be lazy. I don't feel like doing any work at all. My paper is coming along really slowly. I'm about to start my 4th page. Thankfully, it only has to be 5 pages long, and even then, I think I might end up writing a little more. Damn. Who knows. Maybe I can finish this shit tonight so I can start on my other paper tomorrow. The internet is the biggest distraction out there. Went on a hott date with myself to the movies last night since Ann Arbor looked like a desolate scene from 28 Days Later. Yeah. Anyways, saw this movie Sideways...directed by Alexander Payne who directed Election and About Schmidt. Man, what a great movie. It's about these two best friends who go to wine country in central California. One of the guys is getting married and so they basically wanna get a little loose and shit before the guy loses his best friend to the dark side of marriage. Yeah. It's just such a cool movie because it feels so real. None of the characters are glamorous. They don't feel fake. They could be your neighbors or something and well, even if they do something bad, which they do, in the end theyre humans and you understand why they do the things they do. Just a great movie. Highly recommend it. I hate the word judicial activism. Judges are only "activist" if you don't agree with what they're ruling. That's the way I see it. Theyre changing...or preserving something that you don't like. So, peeps wanna break apart the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. There are two reasons for this. Obviously, the judicial activism part is being covered up by the fact that this court sees way too many cases. There would be two reasons then. The main reason is they want to dilute the power of this court because it's "too out of the mainstream." Of course, they can always say in the end that it's about creating more courts because this court sees too many cases, which is understandable. Do it for that reason. Not because you don't agree with the court's rulings. Lets go and split up whatever circuit court is in Texas. It probably sees almost as many cases. But hey it won't be touched. Oh my god. Hooking up. This is new? Hooking up is as old as time itself. I dont get why people are so fucking shocked at what the youth of today are doing. Seriously. The sixties happened. The fifties. The forties. You name the decade and people were hooking up. I really hope I don't end up like this in twenty years when I have kids...acting all shocked and shit with what the kids are doing. Tomorrow. More work of course. Same for the rest of the weekend. I want some more snow. That's all for now.
Current Mood: lazy Current Music: Blackstreet - No Diggity
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I guess I should write in here just to get my creative juices flowing. Seriously. I am the king of procrastination. Should I even go to bed tonight? I seriously am considering pulling an all-nighter...or at least going to bed at like 5 or 6am. Who knows. I just have so much fucking work and since I'm wasiting so much time, I just have to find more time. lame. So it's Thanksgiving. Second turkey-free thanksgiving in a row. Last year it was left-over Chinese food. Seriously. Yeah. This day is all about being thankful for what you have, and of course, being surrounded by the friends and family that you love. Since this whole friends and family thing is lacking this year, I'm definitely thankful for my thanksgiving bounty of ramen noodles, meijer chicken, lawry's marinade, coke, and of course, the champagne of beers, miller high life. I don't mind being alone during the holidays. It's actually sort of peaceful. You dont have all the commotion and shit that comes with meeting the extended family. None of this "so what are you going to do when you graduate?" crap. I hate that. Sometimes, surrounding yourselves with family members, or friends and their family members, is just a way to be bothered by these annoying questions that you don't even want to answer because youre either terrified of the future, or you just don't know what the hell you're going to do with your life. I endured that a few years ago when I went to some distant family friends home... Now don't get me wrong. It's great having company, but I don't think I need to be interviewed. That's what I felt. Or maybe I was meeting the parents of like a girlfriend or something...and they were just grilling me with questions. Thanksgiving is also a time to surround yourselves with different people from all walks of life. That's what my mom says. It's true. It isn't only about being thankful for the things that you have, but also, for sharing and experiencing different cultures. It's about different people sitting at one table and sharing their lives. I guess that was the case with the pilgrims and Native Americans. Of course, a few years later, there werent any Native Americans. But yeah. It snowed yesterday in the late afternoon. I went crazy. It's these first few days of snow that I love. Snow sucks I guess when you have to live through it, but I don't consider myself to be living here in Michigan. I don't drive here and nor do I have to deal with shoveling my driveway. But yeah, can't wait for some more snow so I can go crazy like a kid. I lived a childhood deprived from snowball fights, snowmen, and snow angels. I need to make up for it this winter. I think I will go see a movie in a bit. Can't think. Too distracted from nothingness. Maybe Starbucks is open or something. You can always count on them, but I kinda doubt they will be. Plus, I've made a committment to never set foot in another Starbucks again. So yeah. Anyways, a happy thanksgiving to everyone out there. Be thankful for everything, even the annoying great aunt who pinches your cheek and gives you lame presents. Eat lots of turkey for me.
Current Mood: thoughtful Current Music: Norah Jones - One Flight Down
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Went to BW's with Train. They just opened today. It's nice there. Tons of TVs. I'd go there more, but it's expensive...and so are the drinks. This one drink I had was quite possibly the weakest drink of all time. It tasted like a soda with a shot of vodka. Lame. At least the bar tender was hot. She gave us free sprite!!! oh yeah! Today was too unproductive. Went to the fishbowl. I have two papers to write for Thanksgiving...and it would be a good idea to get through half of another one. Haha. I love it how I sound so idealistic with my stupid work plans. Whatever. I will have to spend seriously every night in the computer lab or something just do all my work. work work work. but at least i do have fun in between. I did buy my ticket home. Leaving on the 16th. Crap. I just realized that I do have like two papers due around that time. Need to buy my ticket to the Rose Bowl. Last night was good. Friend had a party. There were Brazilians there. Good times. Actually spoke Portuguese to someone who wasnt my family for once... Left after a while and then walked over to someone else's house...Brian's friend. Watched most of Goodfellas with her and her like high school friend or something. I want to see that movie again when I'm not drunk. Also, hearing girls complain about their boyfriends gets annoying. I thought I'd throw that in. Desperate Housewives was good. Go watch it. Here is a good article on its awesomeness. Not a good weekend for sports. Aside from that tragic game from yesterday, my Palmeiras lost. Warriors and Niners raped. Pistons get raped by Indy. At least all those bitches got suspended. Watched Alfie a few days ago. It was ok. Philosophical playboy kinda story. Jude Law is awesome. I register tomorrow. I bet the computer system will be chaos. It always is on the first day of registration. I still cant get over the fact that this semester has evaporated. Fastest semester ever. And I just know that my last one here at Michigan will go by in a flash. The best moments in our lives always do.
Current Mood: okay Current Music: Junior Mafia - I Need You Tonight
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So, Michigan lost. Deep down inside, I kind of knew it would happen. We lost badly. Worst game I've seen out of us in a while. Violated. At least in the Rose Bowl against USC, we were raped by a good team. But on the plus side, we still get to go to the Rose Bowl. Some thoughts on the OSU experience. Went with Dave and his WOLV-TV crew. It was good times before the game. Interviewed some Hairless Nuts, because that's what Buckeyes are. I was not given much shit during the game. I wore a Michigan hoody, cap, and of course, the CLAW! The fans there were a bunch of pussies. Sorry. They only heckled me, and even then, the only ones who really did it were 10 year olds. 10 YEAR OLDS with megaphones!!! Come on now Fuckeyes! Of course, after the game there was more heckling, but I still knew we could go to the Rose Bowl. In response to people who called us overrated, I told them that they were Not Rated at all. So fuck you. And then for them saying we were going to the Capitol One Bowl. Yeah. Fuck you. IOWA!!! Went to see some sweatshop thing yesterday. I was the only friend of Bekki's who showed up. I'm awesome. I actually could understand everything the guy was saying in Spanish. Scary. Anyways, last night was good. We had some females over and watched Elf. That movie is great. Played bored games too. Seriously. Haha. And tonight, who knows. Fiesta somewhere. And tomorrow, yeah. A whole lot of essay writing. Yeah. I gotta start these papers so I can have at least enjoy a day off or something on Thanksgiving. I'm thinking about going to Meijer and getting myself some turkey cold cuts...powdered mash potatoes, yeah. Something like that.
Current Mood: relieved Current Music: Queen Latifah - California Dreamin'
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So Brazil lost today to Ecuador. Shameful. Whatever. Pissed me off a bit, but I'll recover. Class was fine. Still thinking about my doggy. I just have to write the introduction for my advocacy paper. It will end up being 8 pages long. Maybe I'll conduct some interviews after. Then write my brief analysis of a few of the questions tomorrow for my history paper. I think my schedule is pretty much finalized. I register on Monday. Unfortunately, I have class everyday so that's a first in ages. I guess on the plus side is that on Tuesday, I practically don't have class. My first class would be at 6pm. And Friday, I'd get out early and also only have one class. Here's the deal. Bible class with Williams because he is awesome. European Foreign policy and Transatlantic Relations. Political Modeling. Yeah, this particular class I don't really want to take, but it's an alternative to Stats. I heard it was cool. If I do take this class, this means that I have to take another political science course, which happens to be the European foreign policy one. And lastly, Brazilian modernism and architecture...a latin american studies course. So yeah. Not that bad of a schedule. One week till Thanksgiving. Thank goodness. I have to work on three papers. Yeah. That does suck, but hey. I need to finish two pretty much...and get well into another one. Then two more papers after that. Ugh. It was cool talking to my mom yesterday for my paper. Basically, after living here for more than half her life, she does not consider herself really American and has no desire to become a citizen. I think my mom made some good points actually. At least they made sense. When you become a citizen, basically you have to acknowledge that your old country is inferior in some way to the new one. Maybe inferiority isnt even the right word. I think it's more a preference. You prefer one over the other. Your new country over your old one. If I'm a Yankees fan and I move to Boston, am I gonna like the Sox all of a sudden? Or maybe 20 years later. That's something else my mom said. But to be honest, the most convincing thing my mother said was this. If an American were to move anywhere in the world...move to Brazil maybe...or Germany or even Zimbabwe, would he naturalize? I highly doubt it. And so yeah, my mom, despite the fact that she's been here for 24 years, she doesnt want to be a citizen. I thought that was interesting. Anyways, back to work.
Current Mood: weird
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So. My dog died. Yeah. My mom called me up to tell me. I'm sad. I guess it really wasn't a surprise. He was like 13 years old or something. He was in pretty bad shape. Totally deaf. Not very active anymore. He was a Scottish Terrier so yeah, he was totally obsessed with chasing down squirrels in the backyard. I know he had a good time. Or backyard was a goldmine for the squirrels because we had an almond tree. Boca would go insane. In his younger days, he'd run back and forth along the fence...chasing the squirrels. It was really funny to see him try to surround a tree when a squirrel was perchd on it. He'd look up and start whimpering in frustration because he couldnt catch the squirrel. Yeah. He didnt do any of that this summer. He just wallowed in the shade. I guess my dog was more than just a dog. He was a memory. The last remnant of my deceased uncle. Sure that sounds kinda weird, ub tlike the dog was his...and when my uncle became sick, he shipped the dog from like Phoenix for him to live with us...and there he stayed, past my uncle's death until now...some eight years later. I mean, if you think about it, we really do underestimate how much we care about our pets. At least I did. I guess I was never really attached to my dog mainly because we didnt raise him or anything, but at the same time, I still feel kinda empty. I won't find Boca in the garage or in the backyard. I did watch The Incredibles today so yeah, that cheered me up a bit. It's a good movie. Anyways, that's all I guess. I've made progress in my advocacy paper. Maybe I can finish it by tonight. And yeah...conduct some damn interviews too. Well, back to work... All dogs go to heaven...
Current Mood: sad
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Yeah. I should work on my productivity. I've been here in the computer lab for a long time and well, I havent really completed a lot my work. I just get so distracted from my work. Seriously. Anything can distract me. I have a paper due on Thursday and another one due on Friday. It shouldnt be that hard to start and finish them, but like I just need to have some motivation. I hope to finish this damn advocacy paper by like Tuesday. Then maybe I can finish my short history paper by Friday. I still need to interview people, so yeah, I'll have to do that this week. I hope to have interviewed like 5 people. Damn! So lazy. Anyways, this was a pretty good weekend. Busy and fun...not in the academic sense of course. Friday was a bit low key, again. Some guy was hiding in this huge pile of leaves. I wanted to jump in them because why the hell not. He then jumped out from the pile and scared the crap out of me. haha. good times. I didnt really hear Brian warning me about the guy. Yesterday was great. Last home football game as an undergrad. We crushed Northwestern 42-20. It was a great game. The weather was perfect. Sunny clear blue skies...not too cold. The first half was boring, but the second half was exciting. Lots of scoring. The halftime show was cool. The band played the beatles. To make the day even better, Wisconsin lost to State, so yeah...we are pretty close to the Rose Bowl now. Of course, there is that matter of OSU next week. We have to play them still. Going to that game. Last one of the regular season. Went to Tommy and Greg's house to watch it. There were drunk parents there too. haha. that was funny. It was parents weekend so like they bought us food and sake for sake bombing. Good stuff. Then went to Rose's room mates bday party. Yeah. I was out of the house for like fifteen hours. That was too long, but whatever. Party was fun. Natural light and jello shots. My niners lost today. Man, we suck. We're gonna have a top 3 pick and I know we're gonna trade it away. Pistons lost too. At least my Palmeiras won. So yeah, that makes up for it I guess. I'm not sure if I want to leave the Fishbowl. I've been here forever, but I really should do some work...at least. Then again, I'm kinda drained. Haha. The endless struggle. In other news, Ol Dirty Bastard died. That's too bad. I don't like this talk of Governator becoming president. There are ads in California now asking for an amendment to the constitution. I dunno, I'm just uncomfortable with a foreigner being president. For some reason, I just think there is a difference between someone who was born here and one who was not. I'd feel the same way if I was born in another country and moved here. Yes. It's that time to start looking at where to go for Spring Break. I'm not a fan of going to these crowded places. I dunno. No Cancun. No Cabo. No Florida. I want to go to Europe again. Not Paris again. Looked at some tickets today. Dublin is cheap. Amsterdam sort of. Rome too. Who knows. That's all.
Current Mood: hungry Current Music: U2 - origin of the species
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A recurring theme in my life is laziness. That's the truth. At least I sort of started my paper. Shouldnt be too hard to churn out about 7 pages. It's due on Thursday, but I'm gonna set a goal to at least get a good start on two papers by Monday. Yes. Yes I will. It's ignorant stuff like this that pisses me off. Our word? Man. Again, I don't really know where to begin. I think back again to the Shakespeare quote about roses and no matter the word for rose, they will always smell as sweet. Same thing. Hey, at least this kid is trying. There was a gay rights march yesterday through Ann Arbor. I walked by it coming back from Champion House. Why exactly were they protesting here? --in liberal Ann Arbor. Seriously. You don't need to preach to the choir. Go to Alabama or something. Haha. Here are some more thoughts on some CDs. U2's new album, the atomic bomb one, whatever it's called...it's pretty good. Finally a good CD has been released, compared to the crap that Eminem and Snoop have put out. Los Lonely Boys, some rock group from Texas, are also good, although there CD is a few months old. Their shit kinda reminds me of Santana. And Queen Latifah's new album is great. It's a jazz album and I guess she was influenced by her work in Chicago or something. I'm a fan of jazz and well, I liked some of the songs. Still havent listened to most of it yet. She does a cover of one of my fave songs of all time, "Lush Life," which was made famous by Hartman and Coltrane. Last night was chill. Watched FSU, sadly, come back. Then went to the bar with roommates to watch the Pistons...lose. Oh well. It happens. So, as expected, Scott Peterson was found guilty of killing his hot wife and her fetus. No surprise, and although I do think he killed her, I guess I'm just troubled that all the evidence was circumstantial. No weapon. No idea how she died. No idea where. I mean, a lot of the stuff was just suspicious. I mean, Scott was fleeing, perhaps to Mexico, with tons of cash and like dyed hair and stuff. It was just weird. I guess if your gut tells you it was him, but there was no real evidence, is your gut's intuition enough? Apparently it is. It also bothers me that the media became obsessed over this case. It was all because they were an attractive couple. Put two ugly people there and yeah, I doubt we'd hear much about the case. So it's Friday. Yeah. Game tomorrow...and tonight is the last night of partying for us before a home game. Sadness. I'll recover, but it is a weird thought.
Current Mood: blah Current Music: Skee Lo - I Wish
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To compliment my productivity yesterday, today, I'm doing nothing. I havent even read for my class tomorrow. Uh-oh. Maybe I'll do it in a bit. Or maybe in class tomorrow. I actually should probably read some of it yeah. Seriously, there are weird people towards the late hours over in the computer lab. Weird people. And they're still there at like 5am. I often like writing about some of things that are horribly wrong in this country. These usually don't involve crime and the economy or whatever...but funny and stupid things. I wrote about obese people and how they need to be rescued from their apartments by firemen on cranes. That's just wrong. 1000 lbs. Anyways, here is an excerpt from a letter to the editor from some paper in what I really hope is rural Pennsylvania. Imagine if it came from a city. The letter is titled "Jesus speaks through the Republicans." The Democrats will not be able to win elections until they renounce their sinful ways and stop encouraging abortions, gayness, and trying to take away our guns.I don't even know where to begin...which is I why I won't even bother. These people actually voted! He can't even write too. The reader responses to this letter are pretty funny too. This picture bothers me too. Filled with irony. A rosary dangling from the barrel of a gun. I think back to City of God when everyone is praying Our Father...so they can massacre the rival gang. Who's righteous in the end? And here's a funny one. Where are your manners, rhino? Banging your ho rhino in front of your kid. Nature calls, I guess. As I look back on this semester, well, it's almost gone. Seriously. This is when I get all introspective I guess. I've been here for more than two months and yeah, well, we have just over a month left. Then, that very last semester of my undergraduate career here at Michigan comes by. Yeah. It's just a frightening thought I guess. Tomorrow is the last day of the week. Finally!
Current Mood: lazy Current Music: Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Cheek To Cheek
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I guess sometimes it's best not to think about the avalanche of work that awaits you. Seriously, I just get shudders when I think about the papers. I think this semester was a mistake in at least the fact that my workload was just so unbalanced. I seriously had nothing at all to do for the first two months of this semester. It was really on the easy side. And now, well, I guess you could say I'm behind even. This all means that Thanksgiving break will be used for work. My mom isnt coming anymore and I really don't plan on going anywhere anyways, so yeah. Once again, a work-filled vacation. Whatever. Thanksgiving never really was that important to me. I'm thankful enough for things. I've been looking at classes for next semester. I only have one required class to take, and that will be Statistics. Fun. I get to brush off those math cobwebs in my brain. Seriously. Can I even add anymore? I need it for my poli sci major. The rest of my classes can be anything really. I'm looking at a religion class on the Bible. Now, to be honest, I don't really care for the Bible too much. Dont tell Jebus. But it's with Mr Ralph Williams, only the most awesome professor of all time. So yeah, I have to take it. The third class I'm considering taking is a class on Brazilian modernist architecture. It's just another opportunity to learn about Brazil so I'm down. Still looking for another class. Maybe a history class. Who knows. I really hate it when people disrespect a host. I guess what I mean is if you're a guest in another country, you fucking obey the rules and dont be a dick. Case in point was that American dude who like did some shit in Singapore. Too bad. You get cained. The end. We may think it's crazy shit, but hey, whatever. Now we have these radical Muslims in Holland and they killed van Gogh's like distant nephew...the film maker dude. You're a guest in Holland...deal with the criticism of your religion. I guess they're not used to it in their country. Freedom of speech. Whatever, that's a narrow perspective, but I can only assume that there was a good reason for them to go to the Netherlands. Problems in their own countries, who knows. Anyways, now it's chaos and we have the Dutch going all crazy and burning down mosques and then radical Muslims are burning churches. Seriously. Sometimes religion really does bother me. All this shit. I'm really glad we don't have Halo 2 here in the apartment...yet. Seriously. GTA San Andreas and Halo 2 would make all of us fail the rest of the semester. haha. It's getting pretty cold right now. Not sure how much longer this weather is gonna last. I want some snow...at least! If it's gonna be freezing cold, let me at least make a snowman or something.
Current Mood: pensive Current Music: Ice Cube - Down For Whatever
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I was actually productive today. First time in a while. Pretty much done with Suburban Warriors, this book I have to read for my American ID class. I just have one more chapter. I'll do that shit tomorrow...or maybe tonight. Who knows? Anyways, it's a pretty interesting book which looks at the rise of the New Right in the US...starting around 1960. It looked at Orange County and shit. Crazy stuff. Staunch libertarianism and totally religious. Pretty much. As I read the book, I couldn't help but see some parallels then with now. Barry Goldwater was the hero of the the Republicans in the 64 election. They were fed up with the liberal and big government dominance of the Dems. Grassroots mobilization. They fought hard, really hard, and lost to LBJ. Sound familiar? This was John Kerry. That's what I see now. Which is why I think this fear and paranoia by the Dems might work out in their favor when they see that their view of Americanism is threatened by staunch conservatism. That's what put Nixon in office in 68 and Reagan as governor of California. So yeah. I expect things to be pretty interesting in the next few years. 2008. Got my Latin American exam back. B+. Whatever. I thought I wouldve done better, but yeah. I guess this is what happens when you dont touch the books the entire semester. I can still recover. I expect better from myself in a class that is all about my heritage and shit. I love Desperate Housewives. I'm a fan of critiques on suburbia, especially when they're hilarious. Seriously. It's just such a great show. It's like a TV version of American Beauty, only funnier. Plus that Eva chick, whatever her last name, is HOTT. I don't think the government is the place for me to work. I'm just checking things out so yeah. I'm a dual-citizen so I also have a Brazilian passport. I don't think I will be able to get a security clearance to be eligible for the State Dept internship. Well, who knows. I guess it just means I can't be placed in Brazil, which is what I wanted. Oh well. Maybe I can go to somewhere in Europe, which was my second choice. I should write my Latin American paper this week since I don't have any work. I know. Amazing. I'm just trying to ensure that I'm not fucked in a few weeks. That's all really. Well, later.
Current Mood: calm Current Music: Athletic Mic League - People Mover
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I figure I will write here from the Fishbowl just because it gives me yet another chance to continue procrastinating. Here's to procrastinating. This weekend has been pretty low-key. Good times still, but not that much went on. Went to the bar on Friday with Brian... I think I should take a break eventually. Well, I guess I really don't have a choice since I forsee a rough month ahead. Yesterday, my off day when it comes to football, well, let's just say I wasn't really productive. Went to Skeepers with Andy to catch all of the college games. Cal and Oklahoma had to pull their games off. Both were pretty fucking lucky. But hey, I'm a Michigan fan, and we're used to luck. USC was also pretty damn lucky. Stanford was not. Damn. At least Palmeiras and Pistons won. That works. Andy threw some sort of party thing. I'm not really sure what it was actually. But there's was lots of beer and people there. So yeah, whatever. I think one way of getting drunk people's attention when you're walking down the street at night is to carry around a pizza box. Seriously. When I was dressed as Arnold last week, I was surrounded by a large mob of people all wanting Ahnold Handouts. And it was the same yesterday too. haha. Finally went to Meijer so yeah, I do have food at home. I think my mom is coming here for Thanksgiving. That means I need to clean my room...and probably the apartment too. That would be a good idea. I don't really have the desire to write about anything else I guess. So yeah, no politics or anything. Everyone knows how I feel I guess. Man, there's this girl with the best smelling perfume near me.
Current Mood: lethargic
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