the · only · girl · member · of · an · all · boys · club

i didn't pay much attention to the Virginia tech shooting. as far as i am concerned, he shouldn't have been allowed to own a gun and its the state of Virginia's fault, and the NRA fault for not enforcing and passing tougher gun laws.
really, there are crazy people and its sad that our society isn't working harder to take care of those people.
however, the real thing to take away from this was said on Science Friday on April 20th:

"seeing the effects on families and getting some idea what its like when you have a massacre like this and it makes one feel about what people in Baghdad must be going through. It happens everyday, everyday on a larger scale. They must be going through some sort of hell there."

maybe we should work on that problem as well as the domestic issue.

On the Climate Change Beat, Doubt Gives Way to Certainty

Some experts believe that no matter what humans do to try to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, a doubling is all but inevitable by 2100. In this view, the urgent task ahead is to keep them from rising even higher.

If the concentrations were to triple, and even if they just double, there is no telling at this point what the world will really be like as a result, except to speculate that on balance, most of its inhabitants probably won’t like it much. If James E. Hansen, one of the bolder climate scientists of the last two decades, is right, they will be living on a different planet.

It has been pointed out many times, including by me, that we are engaged in a titanic global experiment. The further it proceeds, the clearer the picture should become. At age 71, I’m unlikely to be around when it resolves to everyone’s satisfaction — or dissatisfaction. Many of you may be, and a lot of your descendants undoubtedly will be.

Good luck to you and to them.
- William K. Stevens

i feel like we are all starting to stand closer together. first, this could be explained by our need for community in the strange continent. we need to be americans together against the czech. but as i start to hear german, italian, french, russian, being spoken on the streets i know that there are many here. there are even other Americans eager to say hello in coffee shops and book stores. people not from english speaking countries want to practice the language and therefore start asking questions without proper introduction. but the impulse to stand together is different. the intimacy first associated with common nationality is now one of sincere friendship. i like you not just because we are both american but because we are friends.
in short, she standing so close to me is a welcome sign.

Dear Mommy,
Yeah, it is snowing. Last night when we went out the the lounge the first inches were sticking to the quiet streets. It is a nice cover for all the dirt and dog droppings on the road. All day today it continued to fall creating a thick blanket over cars and the castle. I took a tour of the castle this evening with my architecture professor. Prague looks gorgeous in snow.
About the airport; i met a man from St. Louis in a coffee shop who got stuck here but he didn't mind so much. The trams are still running and I could always use the subway if the snow is too heavy.
Jan Urban is teaching The Culture of Dissent: The Art of Defeat. Today we started the class by analyzing a quote "Wart is the majority lifestyle. Dissent is fun but you have to pay the price." He asked us what was the strongest emotion and we answered love for the first time since 9/11. I likes being that voice. Next there was a pop quiz with nine quotes we had to attribute to George Washington, George Bush, Adolf Hitler, Karl Marx, and Martin Luther King Jr.. After we answered them all he told us that every quote was by Hitler. The point is that he is challenging us, or as he calls it, manipulating us to think differently. We are going to learn what exactly is wrong in the world and how to fight it. I feel like forwarding everything I learn to Matt Boyer because this is really what he should be doing.
Tonight I caught a discussion at a coffee shop by Ex-pats here in Czech republic talking about Communism vs. Consumerism and the last American election. The meeting was organized by a local paper who offers internships to NYU students. It was nine men talking around me and i felt myself understanding everything they said, and having new thoughts becuase of it. And my class with Urban early was directly related. This is such an amazing environment and I am learning.
After that great meeting I came home to all my friends who had made dinner for us all. We had stirfry last night and tonight it was baked potatoes.
I don't remember much of Buffy till I rewatch it and then it all comes back.
Love,
Kathryn

because of the length of time between recent entries i'm contemplating dismantling my journal. or maybe my recent emotional debacle is caused my this lack of oconstuctive outlet.
my grades are falling and therefore i shall decrease my hours at work. one of my eight professors and ta's this semester is without an accent. i have got to sleep more.
and that's the news.
HAPPY ELECTION DAY!

i look really cute today. because i don't have to work today the pressure of the uniform is off.
last night was awful due to the extensive procrastinated homework all due today but i got all of it done save problem three on the macro work. i can't calculate the price of croissants in terms of gold. oh no!
Foley is a jerkface. i hope this gets us the house.

last night at half past ten i ventured out into time square to while away the time between Amy getting the check and her meeting me to travel to Astoria for a post-grad party. on 42nd a tall arab man mentioned:
"you look very pretty. you have a nice shape."
i smiled and looked flattered but quickly walked ahead and ducked into the closest starbucks. paying for the tall coffee was more difficult than i thought, counting out change and all, so a man offered to pay for me with dollar bills. i folded under the pressure and pulled out my own bills. later, waiting for the coffee to be brewed, i realized that the complimentary arab and mister money bags were one in the same. so we struck up a conversation. i was right and he was from Jordan. his immediate response to "my boyfriend is learning arabic" was "is he in the army?". obviously you only learn arabic to kill them but we're not jewish.
sorry. i'm not trying to be Mel Hezbollah Gibson. damn that was funny.
after that man i somehow got stuck talking to the man selling the early edition of the new york times. Amy saved me and we were off.
Astoria is cute. the party was great, all the classic hip hop music that no one listens to regularly. plenty of beer. Amy and i spent most of the evening talking on the terrace. i really enjoyed it.
upon leaving Amy and i decided to brown bag a couple of UFO beers and so we ran over to the super market and found appropriately sized coffee bags to hide the bottles. i ended up opening them on the platform with my keys and cutting my finger. there's still blood on the dorm key but it's okay. it too us ages to get down to china town but we ate the best greasy chinese. i collapsed into bed at 5:30. thank you AMY!!!

the day that started 25 hours ago was awesome. Steven, Amos and i met at the MET and wandered through our favorite exhibits, mostly getting lost. getting lost is why i go to museums. the modern galleries had several paintings with women having purple thighs. it was awesome. i truly believe the three of us should move into the frank lloyd wright room and just never leave. actually, a main point of me going was to buy and umbrella which i did: beautiful wisteria tiffany glass print. since i'm eating pizza again we had the famous giant slices uptown and went over to Amos' for the night. his place is to die for. the man who owns the space is out for the week so we lived in the living room and dinned in the dining room like it was our own. i miss couches. we danced, sang, watched videos, drank. it was amazing. and in the morning we did the same. the only problem was that my phone died and i couldn't talk to my boy enough. i'm missing him but the two other boys kinda made up for it.
no.
tonight i'm going to astoria for a grown-up party. if i don't come back to manhattan tomorrow call my parents and send the search party to queens. ahhhh....

talk is cheap, especially cell phone talk unless you are talking to a parent of four teenagers who use up all his business minuets. but essentially we can talk endlessly to friends, family, coworkers. however, i believe that there is human need for written communication. we like e-mail and texting because it allows us to put our words into a more constructed framework rather than a run on sentence strung together by twenty-five 'likes'. texting gives space to a conversation.