Two weekend lists

Friday Night: List of songs I performed at Karaoke night for the Downtown Labor Center staff (for Susan's last day on the job).

1. I can't freaking remember. Some song I did not choose, but jumped up and sang.
2. Queen's - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
3. Los Del Rio - "Macarena"(duet with Liz)
4. Outkast - "Hey Ya!"
5. Nas - "I Can"
6. Usher - "Caught Up"
7. Black Eyed Peas - "My Humps" (duet with Liz)
8. The Mamas and the Papas - "California Dreamin'"

Saturday Morning: List of books I gave Facundo for his philosophical explorations in the coming school year, his second at UCSD studying computer science, arranged by date of publication.

1. Machiavelli, "The Prince"
2. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "The Social Contract"
3. Karl Marx, "The Communist Manifesto"
4. Friedrich Nietzsche, "On The Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo"
5. Albert Camus, "The Rebel"
6. Noam Chomsky, "Government in the Future"
7. Paulo Freire, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"
8. Jared Diamond, "Guns, Germs, and Steel"
9. George Lakoff, "Whose Freedom?"

Friday night

I am not good at remembering the things I said I would write about whenever I got in front of the computer. Also, I find myself as a multiple personality writer with regards to what goes on this space, and others.

Finished first week. Public allies retreat. Two busy work days. Lots of public transportation.

Currently reading... Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders by Jason L. Riley. Libertarianism, eh?

There are places I remember

Last day of summer

I am remodeling what will now be my room, and making the rest of the family adapt to my wishes. Sophia landed a TV/DVD player combo as well. The living room now hosts a computer that adds to the clutter. My new bookshelf, a craigslist purchase that looks brand-new thanks to a two-day varnish inspiration, has sections on religion and philosophy, as well as a giant stuffed ant looking over the bed and out the window.

Not much else is familiar to me right now. I am not leaving to Argentina anymore, and thus cancelled some visits, scratched some plans, and stopped logging on to couchsurfing, where those who agreed to host me will have to wait. My cancellation was short and generic, nothing like the introductory emails that feigned the right amount of pioneering excitement.

I feel like I am personally regressing, yet moving forward in life. But I have more time to do the things I want to do. Hopefully that time availability will still be matched with energy by the time routine kicks in. Exciting three days ahead at the Public Allies retreat, followed by a banquet on Thursday, one of many union events to come in the next 10 months.

Today I shed two tears while watching Inside 9/11 on NatGeoTV. I can only do that when it's impersonal.

Conversation on the RNC

Courtney: so...cindy mccain, sarah palin or michelle obama?
me: i had a dream
Courtney: as a MILF
all 3?
me: that i was dancing cumbias with michelle obama
with barack taking pictures
Courtney: haha
me: but since its barack
i couldnt do that
so, palin
she looks like a freak
this is what i would do to her:
first, she reads the bill of rights
Courtney: omg
me: then, i dress as a vietnamese prison guard
and she is a fighter pilot
Courtney: omg
me: ok?
ok, im done
haha
Courtney: ok good
me: my own thoughts were starting to disturb me
Courtney: yeh, me too.
me: i am turning more republican by the second
Courtney: lol
sometimes i feel bad for him that he can lift his arms
me: i know
but thats good cuz he gets to always underhug
which is the best way to hug
girls get away with it most of the time
Courtney: lol
do you think about this?
me: you gotta think about the things you gotta think about

Disturbing thought of the week

Question:

What impact, if any, do you think my moving back home and staying up late has on my parents' sex life? Dad is 49 and mom is 45. It's supposed to be great times for them, right, with the Viagra and whatnot?

I am launching a full investigation on this issue. Results to come at a later date.

Edit: this question was not supposed to have any type of Oedipean implications. The inquiry is based on the proximity between the rooms in our household, difference in sleeping patterns, and such considerations.

Thoughts

Lately I have been, once again, changing my course. This time I want to go to law school.

I fear grad school in political theory will leave me restless, and I am figuring out that philosophy itself is something I like to do in my free time, not as a career.

Plus, I kinda-sorta figured out that academia is a little bit like this and often times students are like that.

Welcome September

I visited New Orleans for the first time in March of this year. I abandoned the Clinton Global Initiative Conference for some time, looking to mesh with the locals and share their stories. After learning how to eat crawfish with a bartending fratboy in Bourbon Street, I ended up sharing drinks with two Marrero-based cab drivers in the Harrah's Casino. They cussed out at the crime rates, and talked about their plans. Their lives, like everyone else's there, were changing and moving on up.

"I am going back to school at the community college and taking some hotel management classes."

"My wife and I gon' take a trip soon, wanna see the Niagara Falls."

But their dream-sharing was different from mine. They were not presented, like the elite college-aged world changers at the conference I was ditching, with a world of opportunities and empowerment. Their optimism was different in that they had nowhere to move but up. An innocent optimism of sorts.

It reminded me of my brother and I, alternating between couches at the Sumac living room for a few adolescent years. It's still blurry when I think about it. But we had nowhere to move but up and that we did, somewhat. This time more people are okay, and Gustav seemed to have been no Katrina. But the more things change the more they stay the same. They knew it, too.

"Man, you've been talking about that damn Niagara trip forever now. Can't see the day you go to fuckin' Niagara"

"Well, I don't think you ever setting foot in a college again, bitch."