"When God made you, He wrote His first suicide note"

Is it 9:30 PM already? Jeez. D:

Stuff that's been going on:

--I'm still awfully tired and sleep-deprived, and having a 5-7 page paper for AFP due Tuesday (which means I have to go over readings I haven't looked over and plan it out), a response paper for AFP due later that day (which means I actually have to do reading), a 3-page research methods paper for the seminar due Monday (which is for the big 25-pager due next month and actually involves me doing research), and GIS work (which is just starting to get more difficult -- nothing I can't handle, but it's still awfully time-consuming) doesn't help at all.  And I didn't do anything today because I'm so drained.  Health has to come first, after all.  But not when I have so much stuff to do that it's impossible for me to wing it.  UGH.  X_X

--Went to a lecture with Stephen Walt on Tuesday; he writes a blog for Foreign Policy and is a fairly well-known professor at Harvard.  It was on Obama's foreign policy during the first year of his presidency and how it was doing, and while I appreciated some of the conclusions he made (namely, that his administration has a hard time punishing those who break compromises and agreements, that Obama seems more focused on domestic issues right now [and rightfully so, I think], and that if his domestic initiatives don't work out between now and 2012 he needs a big breakthrough on the foreign policy front [which isn't likely to happen anytime soon] lest he becomes at risk for losing), honestly most of the stuff he talked about I already learned about from
ontd_political.  His bits about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how a two-state solution will probably never happen (and that, as Ehud Barak warned, Israel is in danger of becoming an apartheid state and a pariah), and that the climate change issue is the world's biggest collective action problem (and that the administration is doing a lot and working really hard on the issue even though it looks like it isn't, especially with what happened at Copenhagen) were pretty insightful, though.  Still, it was somewhat pretty depressing; I knew when I voted for Obama that not a lot of change would happen, but to see his administration continue most of Bush's foreign policy is pretty disheartening.  :/

--Went to Verbal Onslaught last night, which is a slam poetry open-mic night at 51 Main (the college-owned hangout in town, even though it's open to the public) held once a month.  I think it was the second or third one I've been to; since 51 Main is in town I don't go out of my way to go down there too often, but I thought a change of pace would do me good.  Some of the people who performed were really good (like one very angry gay dude who had some kick-ass poetic rants on Proposition 8 and laughable "miracle cures" for AIDS), but some of them........really weren't.  It was a mixed bag, and some people definitely had that self-absorption common in college-age slam poets, but otherwise I enjoyed myself.  They also had Aja Monet, a pretty famous slam poet originally from Brooklyn but now living in Chicago, perform as well, and she was absolutely AMAZING; she had a great rapport with the audience, and a lot of her poetry and some other things she said were really beautiful, moving, and thought-provoking.  Wanna see what I mean?  Read this.  And this.  Both of those were absolutely wonderful, and it was great to hear them performed.  :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

--Quote of the day:

"When I give food the the poor, they call me a saint.  When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." -- Dom Hélder Câmara

More info about Câmara here and here.

I plan on doing a links post sometime soon, just because I have way too many tabs open and I need to clear them out.  :PPPP