We seem to live in a world increasingly devoid of personal contact.

Schools across the country are banning everything from hugging to high fives. An MSNBC article from October had this gem of a quote... '“Would you want your children to be hugging or kissing at school without your knowledge?”' That would be from David Hadley, the principal of some middle school in Texas.

Some administrators are citing "hallway clogs" as the reason to ban hugs, blaming girls for exchanging lots of hugs between classes, and others imply that hugging could lead to something worse. [Well, I suppose that Britney Spears' 16 year-old sister IS pregnant, so maybe they're on to something afterall.]

Spawns of Spears aside, it seems like a lot of us live without any meaningful contact from day to day. Touching isn't allowed, and with sexual harassment suits on the rise, it becomes more of a risk every day to reach out. I read an article once about a male teacher who took his young students into the hallway to help them zip up their jeans after using the bathroom, just in case. We don't trust each other, or can't. Touch has become a taboo thing, an excercise in deviancy practiced in the shadows by child predators and creepy Catholic priests.

No, Gracias.
Nicaragua: Rainforests and Reality
MSU Study Abroad
March 4-12, 2006
Nicaragua crumbles upon you as you first emerge from the fluorescent glow of the airport. A towering, quavering, saturated wall of green. The night air is filled with the rumble of ancient engines, shouting of harried drivers, and the hum of everything out beyond the lights of the airport driveway. A full day of traveling, compounded with the loss of our luggage, made this new country seem altogether too overwhelming for even just one week. Where were we, and how had we ended up here?

Nicaragua, sandwiched in Central America between Honduras and Costa Rica, is a country roughly the size of the state of New York at 129,494 sq. km. The largest of Central American countries, it lays claim to coastal plains on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides, with mountains dotted by volcanoes residing within. Tropical forests fight to retain their ground as people attempt to make livings farming small tracts of land spread throughout remote areas. Nicaragua is a bright, bustling country marred by poverty and political strife. Colonization and occupation, followed by internal strife, corruption, civil war, and finally interference by the United States has left the country economically scarred, though work goes on to reverse that trend.

With only a week’s worth of time to experience such a big and diverse country, the group with whom I was traveling soon realized that we would be attempting to jam two or three days into each precious day we had. The MSU Study Abroad trip for which we had signed ourselves up was named “Rainforests and Reality,” and we left with what must have been wildly differing ideas about what our week would entail. I expected rainforests, of course, but what I really hoped for was a glimpse into a life completely different than my own in most imaginable ways, and some unimaginable. Here I was in yet another country whose language I did not speak— leave it to me to take years of French, and not visit a French-speaking country. I spent a good part of the week worrying that, in a moment of blind panic and reactivity, I would respond to someone’s Spanish inquiry with a rusty response of my own. That never happened, though I thought to myself in French some of the time. Some part of me, the world-conscious part, needed to prove that I did in fact speak a language other than just English. Someday I will.

My story actually began the day before departure.

Consider the YouTube phenomenon: easy access to millions of videos shared by people around the world. If you want to hear a specific song you can find it with a quick search, and usually there are many versions from which to choose. Unknown, unsigned artists can create a huge fanbase by posting performances. People can post parts of their lives or create a personality for the viewing pleasure of thousands of loyal subscribers. The search term "Laughing Baby" turns up 10,200 results. The all-time most watched video is entitled "Evolution of Dance" and has been viewed 65,031,195 times.

These "viral videos" have not only created a culture but garnered fame for their creators. Not only can it be used as a marketing tool [by companies like BlendTec, known for their "Will It Blend?" videos] but it is a place where you can stumble across untold numbers of strange, offbeat things.

I will leave you with an example [which has been viewed more than 350,000 times]:



I really have nothing profound to say about YouTube... I suppose it's profound enough in its own right. I will however post the link to my "favorites" page, for a somewhat filtered example to fit with this post.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_favorites?user=kYels1

old haikus

turn off, alarm, please
I need a few more minutes
late to class again

oatmeal, newspapers
wrapped up in my fleece blanket
breezy sunny day

vegetarian
chili and cheez-its for lunch
way way too much salt

I'm falling asleep—
public bureacracy and
EEP again

and now to Udon
for passionfruit with Heather
then maybe Beaners?

our yard looks so strange
naked, no trees, but trucks stuck
Mother Nature wins

homework and Apple
dinner, study group and bed
uneventful life


Hope the open seas
and sushi are good to you
I miss miss miss you!

I'm taking a Humanities course this semester about Islamic art and culture. Now that there's only a couple weeks left in the semester we have moved from the ancient history of Muslim civilization to present-day. Today in class we watched a film about "Orientalism," or the West's fascination with the Near and Far East. It was inspired by Edward Said, a Palestinian-American professor at Columbia U who wrote the book Orientalism. According to Wikipedia [I know, only so authoritative], he had been under FBI surveillance since 1971, probably until he died in 2003.

Odd how time chances perceptions.