Unbelievable

Some of you may have already read about the recent incest case in Austria, but for those of you who haven't, here's the link for the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/world/europe/29austria.html?scp=2&sq=Austria+incest&st=nyt

I am shocked that this has happened. How can a father go through with something like this? To completely ruin his daughter's life (not to mention the lives of all her children and his wife) in such an appalling way? Can anyone reading this article even fathom the idea of locking up an 18-year-old girl for 24 YEARS and having 7 children with her? Because I can't. It makes every part of me ache, honestly.

To me, this case reveals a glimmer of the extent to which a human psyche can become fucked up. And who's to say that there aren't other cases like this out there (and even worse, perhaps, though it's hard to imagine having it any worse)?

Thank God we as humans have societal standards, and a means to punish these perverts.

-Crito

Rich Horowitz is a god...and so is William Booth!

So I went in to the Office of Res. Life in the hopes of getting some advice on my housing situation. After all the talking, sending of forms, yada-yada-yada, I still had no roommate! I took refuge in Rich's spacious office, on his slightly squishy couch, as he went through my draw number and the possibilities for rooms (I am a lazy bastard with all of that, by the way). And wouldn't you know it, my draw number is just good enough to grant me a single next year! Woot! The big deal for me is not that I won't have a roommate and rather an entire room to myself (although that is still frickin' awesome); but rather that I just no longer have to worry, after having worried and not done much about it all. Life's sweet during those moments when you don't have to take responsibility for your lack of care about pressing things. But let's not count those chickens just yet...

On a side note, I also walked to the Salvation Army thrift store further down on Main towards Downtown. I have to say that they do a great job accommodating all of those in need. William Booth, the founder of Salvation Army, is a good guy in my opinion. Care to counter?

-Crito

Vassar Food Celebs

I know that a lot of people welcome Wednesday's Chili Day, but I'm curious: does anyone feel passionate about Saturday's Spaghetti and Meatballs special? If you haven't tried it, I strongly suggest that you do. Now even I admit that S&M (no pun intended) is no match for a warm plate of rice smothered in chili and with cornbread; but this may change if people give S&M a chance!

-Crito

Phew...Finally

I'm sure that many folks reading this will know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that it feel fucking GREAT to have just finished and submitted an intense paper. Because this one is supposedly the final official paper for the class, the kick-ass feeling is heightened, too!

Also, does anyone ever feel really eloquent immediately after this? I feel like I could whip Shakespeare BIGTIME right now...I'd school him in that iambic pentameter like mad yo! Shiiiiiiaat!

No, not really.

-Crito

Nonsensical advertisements...grrrr >:(

So today, I stopped by the retreat around noon to pick up lunch. I decided to sit down and actually eat there instead of rushing out with my food. What did I find at my table? Of course, one of those advertisements. This one was for the "Civil Rights and Clean Elections Dinner and Discussion" event, happening today actually. I read the statistics listed on top - about how 51% of Americans thought in 2008 that racial minorities have too little influence on policy in Washington, and about how in 2004 G.W. Bush raised 91.7% of his campaign $ from predominantly non-hispanic white zip codes.

So, I get the intended point of these blurbs: to show how there are issues with racial representation and campaign bucks in elections. But something is wrong with those statistics: maybe, just maybe, Bush gathered most of his money from white zip codes because he was conservative, not because he had something against minorities. From what I remember from Gov. Pol., most conservatives are white and most minorities are Democrats (or rather liberals; I somewhat doubt that Democrat and liberal can be assumed the same nowadays). That statistic has anything to do with civil rights and little influence.

On the issue of money, I'm not quite sure how reasonable it is to say that $ in campaigns is an evil thing (because that's what the blurbs imply). There are quite enough restrictions on campaign donations and funding already, and I'm not sure it's ethical to have more.

-Crito

Energy Use

I recently read in the Misc that all of the dorms except for Main are competing during the month of April for the bragging rights on being the greenest dorm in Vassar. In the article, it was mentioned that Vassar spends somewhere in the neighborhood of $16,000 every month in energy costs to keep the dorms up and running. There was also a dorm-by-dorm breakdown in energy use as a factor of the fraction of the 16K going towards the dorm's upkeep. Overall, the article meant to raise concerns about how 16K is a hefty amount for VC to drop every month.

Here's what I think: 16K/month is basically nothing in energy costs. Honestly, when you think about how many people live in each dorm, a fee of 1-2K per dorm is pocket change. In my high school, for example, power costs reached a regular of $3,000 A DAY on the cold winter days (and that's just for a high school). That's not to say that we shouldn't strive to be as efficient with our energy use as possible. It's just that the figures provided don't seem that shocking.

I also don't like the whole idea of cutting down in energy use so that Vassar doesn't have to spend that much money. No offense Vassar College, but you're swimming in pools of cash and you know it. I don't really care about how much of your endowment you give up on energy. I care about efficiency. You evidently don't, keeping the lights on constantly in the most unnecessary places (like inside some of the class buildings in the middle of the night), letting the tray collector run on auto for the entire day, etc.

-Crito

Springtime and Running

So on Sunday afternoon, I decided to go out for a run. Because this winter's been mostly chilly (but not nearly snowy enough, which is a different story), I always went to Walker for workouts until Sunday. If you recall, Sunday weather was warm, sunny, and just windy enough to be pleasant. I ran out to the farm and went past the fence marking the end of the far reaches of the field, seeing what I could find. After a slight uphill area, I began to descend and, as it turned out, descended into my childhood for a brief instant. It's a wonder how open fields, the wind rustling through the trees, and a gravel road can make a day! The only thing missing, to my slight regret, was the sound of the waves crashing at the Finnish Gulf, leading the wind on and on in its frenzy. This happy sort of nostalgia came and gradually disappeared.

On a different note, I discovered that Vassar actually has some sweet hiking trails in the reservation area! For those of you who are runners or just enjoy a jog every now and then, I highly recommend exploring there.

Crito

A Drug For Indecision - Yay or Nay?

I am just about to finish reading a book called "Indecision," by Benjamin Kunkel. It's about this guy named Dwight who has a serious problem with indecision, to the point where he sometimes has to flip a coin in order to make up his mind about something. Having gone through his life so far without hope for finding a cure, Dwight suddenly hears from one of his friends that a new drug called Abulinix, which supposedly cures indecision, is being tested. The bulk of the story thereafter is about Dwight trying the drug and suddenly (and very much on a hunch) pursuing a jungle escapade to Ecuador's jungles with a Belgian girl named Brigid. Basically, it's a very funny book, and a good treadmill read, so to speak.

My question, however, is this: Is it acceptable to treat a characteristic such as indecision as outside of someone's control and potential improvement (through conscious and painstaking effort, nevertheless), and should one settle for a drug to do the job and create a more artificial and ephemeral sense of being able to decide?

Another question that I have is whether people consider the picking of a "correct" choice in practically any decision vital to the coming of an eventually positive outcome? That is, how truly important are the major decisions that we make, when looked at not just in retrospect but also at that time?

Some food for thought...

Crito

I Suck At Breaks, But That Will All Change...

You know, after spending a week with my family in St. Martin / St. Maarten (yes, it has two names, since it is a joint province of France and the Netherlands), I noticed that I've been too pushy with my parents and especially with my little brother. I can't explain it, but I somehow manage to act riled up during breaks rather than take a break, and end up taking all of that tension out on my family. It's not that I physically hurt them; no, I could never bring myself to that. What I do, though, is make biting, cynical, and sometimes humiliating remarks. At the same time though, a part of me ends up feeling more relaxed after all, once I unload all of that onto the people closest to me; so it's not one of those cases where I act on my anger but it gets me nowhere (because it does).

I feel really bad now that I noticed, especially about what I've said to my brother. Just today, I hammered on and on, jamming my cynicism into the 8-year-old's mind, almost robbing him of his childhood wonder. And now I think about all the worry I've instilled in him. For example, we had quite a lengthy conversation about God and religious belief, and I kept plowing at his innocent inquiry with my atheism. It's a good thing we didn't start talking about Santa Claus because I would've demolished that myth for him for sure.

But I've resolved to calm down this week, to not be as assertive and just blatantly annoying. Ahh, I feel better already...

Crito

Lonely Nights at the Mug

I had a kick-ass time at the FlyPeople Mug Night last night. While I was there, however, I noticed that an awful lot of girls were dancing solo by the walls, waiting for someone to approach them. And no one did! It made me think, either I'm just beginning to notice the effects of a skewed gender ratio or for some reason a large portion of the guys just didn't bother going to dance. I put more stake into the latter explanation, and therefore pose these questions for the guys reading this: Where were you? What were you doing that was so important that you left a bunch of girls waiting in anticipation, only to be left disappointed?

Crito

Those Mental Mentalists

So I went to the "Evasons" mentalist show yesterday, held at UPCDC. I didn't get a good impression at first: I mean, they were supposed to start at 8pm and instead started at 8:30, and while they were getting ready, they played all of the latest hits (I had no issue with the songs themselves, but Soulja Boy, Nelly Furtado, and Brittney Spears made it even harder to suspend my disbelief). But when the whole thing started...holy shit! They stopped people's watches and rewinded them to different times, guessed ridiculously large numbers, touched people through contact with other audiences, etc. And it seemed so legit, like there is no explanation other than they had ESP. Even though I still remain skeptical, I give them huge props for pulling that off.

Good stage presence!
-Crito

Bloodey Hell....

Greetings!

I am Crito from Lathrop House, and I just learned to tell time this afternoon!

Confined to a block,
I ponder the open space,
Dreading its coldness.

BTW I am not emo, and here is proof of it: :-/--> :-) --> 8-P