Fewer Posts Here:
A Few More There
the IR/PS student blog

I've started my new life as a grad student and student blogger. If you're curious about life at the school of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UCSD, skip on over to irpsstudent.blogspot.com. I can't promise that I personally will make regular posts, but there are already five of us blogging, so you we should be able to provide a pretty rich view of our experiences here.

Here's what quantitative methods looked like...for 4.5 hours a day, five days a week. I'm glad that's over. (I passed the test...ah) Now for econ prep, which starts today. It's strange to be tired before the quarter has even officially started.

How to Fold a Shirt
This Blew my Freaking Mind!
Yahoo! Video

...now back to studying...

Jane Goodall, Al Gore, and speaking out
whether the truth is inconvenient or not

This morning at 6:30 am PST, I got a little closer to one of my childhood heroes. I interviewed Jane Goodall. The interview should be published by the magazines I write for sometime in October. I can only hope that I too someday will be as fearless, honest, and diligent as Dr. Jane.

Last night I saw "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's modern-day teach-in. I highly recommend you go out and see it. I admire Gore's persistence in dealing with climate change. I regret ever believing that Gore and Bush's faith in our economic system meant they were equally out of touch with important earth and civil rights issues. While I would rather neither of them occupy the White House, the differences between our two year 2000 candidates have never been more clear. If you can't see the movie, at least check out the website and see what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. I agree with Gore when he says that climate change is not so much a political issue but a moral one. Saving the earth is one the defining issues of our times. We all have choices. We can all make a difference.

Find your heroes. Walk in their footprints. Emulate them until you surpass them.

Miracle Cures and Saint Didacus of Alcala,
or, the conquistador's boat and San Diego's name
La Jolla, Ca

St. Didacus, from the Catholic Encyclopedia Online. Or read the wikipedia article, which has conflicting info on the date of St. Diego's feast.

St. Didacus

[Spanish = San Diego.]

Lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor, date of birth uncertain; died at Alcalá, Spain, 12 Nov., 1463.

He was born of poor parents who placed him under the direction of a hermit living in the neighborhood of San Nicolas del Puerto, his native town. Feeling himself called to the religious life, he applied for admission to the Franciscan Order at the convent of Arizafa and was received as a lay brother. In 1445 he was chosen guardian of the Franciscan community on the Canary Island of Fortaventura; and though it was an exception to the ordinary rules for a lay brother to be made superior, his great zeal, prudence, and sanctity fully justified his choice by the religious of
Castile. He remained superior at Fortaventura until 1449 when he was recalled to Spain, whence he went to Rome to be present at the canonization of St. Bernardine of Siena in 1450. At Rome he fulfilled the humble office of infirmarian in the convent of Ara Coeli; and his biographers record the miraculous cure of many whom he attended, through his pious intercession. He was finally recalled to Spain and was sent by his superiors to Alcalá where he spent the remaining years of his life in penance, solitude, and the delights of contemplation. St. Didacus was canonized by Sixtus V in 1588. His feast is kept in the order on the twelfth of November.
-----------------------------

As my friend wrote, "So... St. Didacus is a saint who had miraculous powers over illnesses... What a blessing you would come to his town to find a cure of your own :)"

But actually, a Spanish conquistador gave San Diego its name, which was also the name of his boat.

Blog Descriptions:
Out with the in with the...

Old: You may have followed along on your narrator's eight months in S/SE Asia, 13 months in the Middle Kingdom, or five months of Pan-American overland wandering, but you ain't read nothing till you read about a summer of environmental education in Shanghai with the Jane Goodall Foundation...and then...grad school!

New: You may have followed along on your narrator's eight months in S/SE Asia, 15 months in the Middle Kingdom, or five months of Pan-American overland wandering, but you ain't read nothing till you read about...grad school. Actually, you won't read much about grad school because, well, it's grad school. Expect occasional updates from around Southern California.

Eyes: Better, but
Sense of Digital Self gets the Death Rattle
in Southern California

Cornea specialists at UCSD's Shiley Eye Clinic confirmed that after 2.5 weeks in Shanghai, my eye condition, if initially totally misdiagnosed, occasionally improperly treated, never fully tested, and potentially threatened by steroid injections, was "not as bad as I imagined it could have been." If you're looking at that photo on the above left and you don't see anything, that's the same way my eye looks. So don't you be worrying about your narrator.

Apparently my keratitis (cornea infection) has retreated, while the stromal keratitis (on the inner layer of my cornea) can be described as "atypical" "weird" "club-like" "ghostly" and "should go away with steroid drops." (which I've started dropping). This "ghostly club," unfortunately, is right in front of my pupil, which explains why the vision in my right eye has been blurry. Already the blurs are starting to improve, which is good because the doctor says anything not cleared up after the steroids reduce the swelling will be permanent. Puke.

Hard Drive Crash: Record of Digital Self Destroyed

Though my old digital archive (ie laptop) survived a five-month trip through the Americas in a converted backgammon case, the flight from Shanghai to LA was simply too much for my new IBM Thinkpad X60. After two days of not booting, I took the young thing in for her diagnosis. We took out the hard drive. There was something clanking around in there.

Yeah, my hard drive is under warranty, but data recovery (costly, not 100% effective) is not. Perhaps this is so long to my scattered personal narratives, starts of stories, photos (only those not uploaded to flickr), videos, edited and unedited podcasts, and the rest of the distractions a grad student doesn't need. Still, I wish I'd uploaded just a few more things to the net, or gotten my DVD burner running, or had time to buy an external hard drive.

On the bright side, my laptop will come back running just as fast as it was when I bought it. It's a shame that after a month of use, it was already starting to slow.

Shanghai Fantasy/
Shanghai Nightmare
From Get Rich to Shikumen Living
Shanghai to LA

Two Nights in an Old Shanghai Fantasy

Much to my glee, I moved off the get rich route to a little hovel just two skips from People's Square (and a short walk to my office). To put it another way, I left a two-bedroom unit with two gay Chinese roommates (and our very cute dog) to a one bedroom apartment with three gay Chinese roommates. We wash and cook in shared rooms down the hall. We take turns doing chores. I wake at 6. One of them is just getting home about that time.

I stepped out my front door this morning to the Shanghai Art Museum and women dancing with drums and batons in front of Haagen-dazs. Our world never fails to surprise me.

Then I went to the Shanghai Antique Market. Three floors. 90% fake. A good place to "get your face sharpened" (get ripped off).


Two Weeks in an old Shanghai Nightmare

Then I went to the doctor (about the 8th time this week) to look at my eye, which is affected by stromal keratitis. (If you're brave, click here to see a graphic pic of what my eye looked on day two of the pink eye infection in Anhui). This has kept me from tasks like updating the blog, working, and having too detailed a social life.

I look fine now to the naked eye, but conflicting doctor reports, treatment methods, and general feeling of ill ease mean I'm coming back home. Thanks to JAL, I was able to move my August 17th flight up to tomorrow morning, complete with vegetarian meals.

I don't like leaving this. But I also don't want to go blind. And I can't stare at this screen any longer.

But you can. Take a look at these pretty pictures.