you do realize it is your own failed policies that created the problem in the first place...right?

Every time someone has the audacity, no, animal-level ignorance, to mention "September 11th" and something about national security in the same sentence, it makes me think of this quote from Edward Norton's character in the movie 25th Hour:

"Fuck the uptown brothers. They never pass the ball, they don't want to play defense, they take five steps on every lay-up to the hoop. And then they want to turn around and blame everything on the white man. Slavery ended one hundred and thirty seven years ago. Move the fuck on!"

That is what I feel like saying to anyone still blabbering on about Sept. 11 like it made the world suddenly so much less secure-- "move the fuck on!" Everybody on this (sort of still) green earth needs a copy of "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. If there is one thing you read this winter, make it that book. I think if our society took mathematics more seriously, we'd be a much different country, in a good way. But that's another ramble for another day I guess...

one of these is not like the other...

Sometimes when I really try to understand racial tensions in this country, and I mean really understand, like on a micro level, I try to imagine how must feel to be the only black person in a room full of white people. Probably somewhat intimidating, probably somewhat jarring. Luckily I do not have to try too hard to understand this feeling--I've gotten pretty used to it myself.

Right now I am the only lady in a lecture room full of a couple dozen people. Really, gals? Am I the only one who finds conservation laws of nonlinear PDEs to be interesting?!

Oh yey! Another lady came in late! Talk is starting...got to go...

my kind of comic...

...is one that requires footnotes.

samantha and the ring

In "Sex and the City", the movie, there is a small storyline regarding Samantha and a diamond-encrusted ring being sold at auction. She decides to compete in the bidding for the ring, saying, "I work hard, I deserve this." To the external viewer, such a purchase may seem superficial or frivolous. But to Samantha, buying herself that ring was a symbol of her independence, earned by her hard work at her job. She does not need a man to buy her things, she is a completely self-sufficient unit.

I have just bought myself the world's most beautiful coat. (And as opposed to Samantha's ring, it set me back less than $300.) And to me, this is more than just a proper investment in light of the impending cold weather; this is a symbol of my independence. I did not have to rely on my folks for money, like when I was in college; I splurged my very own hard-earned money on a new winter coat. October just so happens to be a three-paycheck month, so I am left with a little more extra money than usually budgeted for--so I went for it and bought the coat of my dreams.

I wonder if the intoxicating allure of buying myself lovely things completely from my own finances will prevent me from going to grad school. (If you want to see the coat, follow this link. The coat is shown in "Look 4".) On the other hand, maybe this year in a 'real' job will make me all-the-happier about going to grad school, if it results in some savings of my own allowing me to live less poor-student-y later...