Month: October 2008

A More Perfect Union

I had to read this for my class today, even though I had seen at least excerpts of it when he originally gave it. Watching the video just does not compare to reading the actual speech. I’m convinced that children across our nation will be reading this speech for years to come.  It openly made me cry.

I heart my class- “Freedom of American Thought and Pop Culture”. It’s so timely to be studying these topics at a highly political university like George Washington, during an election.  I feel like I’ve gained an understanding I never would have had otherwise.

I made the mistake of reading the Obama speech first though, and now I have to move on to a McCain speech before class. Poor guy.

No “soup” for me. :-(

Yesterday Jon and I decided to watch a movie.. Shocking on a Saturday night right? Well… except for the fact that since the proliferation of cell phones in modern society, I refuse to see movies in public on Friday or Saturday nights.  I’ve had too many experiences with A-holes getting cell phone calls and answering them to believe that there’s any humanity left in the world- at least on these particular nights. (I’ve even experienced some jerk getting a NEXTEL page in the theatre and ANSWERING it on a TWO WAY DURING the movie!!! Ugh).

Anyway, on this particular night Jon and I realized that we had forgotten to return our Netflix movies in a timely manner. We have become addicted to “Dexter” and have unfortunately just completed the last episode on DVD. So we decided to head to our local Blockbuster which is literally a 10 minute bike ride.  Once we turned into the parking lot, we first passed a Target- totally normal, and then a “Linens n’ Things”- which had a barrage of “Going out of Business” signs hung throughout its entire area.  I didn’t really think anything about it until….

We pull up outside the Blockbuster, and head inside without thinking twice. Once through the first doors, however, we were presented with a hand, Sharpie marker written sign that said:

 

NOT OPEN FOR RENTING MOVIES DUE TO STORE CLOSING

WE ARE ONLY OPEN FOR BUYING MOVIES!

Jon and I looked around in confusion, as we had just been there a few days ago and didn’t notice any indication of trouble, and proceeded inside.  

All of the rental shelves inside were blocked off in yellow caution tape! And were virtually empty! We turned to the counter and there were two young men hastily putting DVD’s into a box. I asked them “Are you guys going out of business?” and one of the boys responded solemnly, “Blockbuster is still in business, but we just closed”.  They seemed so sad that I just said, “Oh, okay. Well… I just returned a movie and it’s in your box…”. And we walked out empty handed.  We then went to the next nearest Blockbuster, according to Google Maps… only to find no trace… and then finally found one that actually existed a little farther. Not only am I devastated that the convenience of my neighborhood is being compromised by this stupid financial crisis, I am……  well…. okay…. mostly I’m just annoyed that the convenience of my neighborhood is being compromised by this financial crisis. 

On another note, Jon and I went to a liquor store and bought two bottles of Champagne and had a really fun, lazy Sunday.  I can’t believe the weekend is already over….  I also can’t believe that MSU choked so badly! But really… who cares as long as they wallop Michigan next week?

 

P.S.

I’m drunk.

Crying over consumed milk.

This whole melamine in the milk scandal in China makes me think of The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair.  What a haunting work!  There is a moment in the book when the main character is contemplating the state of the company “town” (it was actually a section of Chicago) in which they lived.  The stores in their neighborhood were owned by the company as well, and he was trying to reconcile himself with purchasing the milk that had a “blueish tinge” to it for his new baby boy.  He knew that they were adding something to the milk to cut their costs, but he couldn’t complain without fear of losing the job he desperately needed, and they didn’t pay him enough to buy it anywhere else.  

Is this book the modern day reality of life in China?  Is there no accountability?  Or is the situation so bad for the milk farmers too that they feel in order to survive they simply have to make the milk go farther and are compelled to disregard the risk?  I just can’t believe that it would be the farmers, and not the distribution companies that would be able to dilute the milk on such a large scale. Corporate greed sucks. That’s the end all truth of modern society.