Dragon Ass

I have done nothing lately other than eat, sleep, go to work, walk the dog, and read for class. Or write for class. Or attend class. In fact, to be really precise, I breathe, eat, and dream of class at this point.

Meanwhile, Anthony is laughing it up in Norway.

Accounting for nothing

I'm in the middle of my accounting class and am wishing that I bought a much larger Earl Grey tea. I'm also wishing that I was able to sleep much later. Eleven hours of class - in fact, of the same class - in a two-day period is mindblowingly painful.

In other news, I am spending the portion of this weekend that I am not in class in writing my final paper for Public Policy Process. Yes, the rest of my weekend will be devoted to seriously studing the process of passing the 19th constitutional amendment. Good times.

You may now feel deliciously good about your life in comparison to mine.

Absenteeism

You know those resolutions you make at least once a day, every day? Take my resolution not to swear anymore, for example. I wake up in the morning and I tell myself seriously, “Ryan, you are not going to swear today.” And then I trip over one of Anthony’s flip-flops and yell FUCK! loud enough to scare the cat. So dies that resolution. And somehow it becomes F-bomb Friday all over again. (Yes, I called that F-bomb Friday – terminology we started at work when one Friday everyone was letting loose the four-lettered F-bomb for no particular reason. Now it just seems as though F-bomb Friday is every day.)

So, with all this talk of failed resolutions, my resolution to keep up this Blog is another victim of failed-resolutionism. Every morning I tell myself, “I will write more.” Especially after I peruse all my friends’ Blogs and note that they haven’t updated in at least 3 months. And then I remember the internet policy at work (we are allowed personal internet usage for only 9 minutes per hour for an 8-hour day, or 15% of your total work day), or get busy doing something else and…well, nothing. The end of the line is always nothing but an entry that sits on this page for days, weeks, months at a time.

And I know that you guys are sitting out there wondering what it is that I am doing that is so time-consuming that I don’t have the time to write a few lines. To clear that up, my present excitement is as follows:

1. I work 40 hours a week, M-F, 7AM-3:30PM.
2. I attend classes on Tuesday nights until 7:30PM (Public Policy Process), Thursday nights until 10PM (Refugees in Contemporary Society), Friday nights until 9PM, and Saturdays from 9AM-4PM (Public and Nonprofit Accounting and Finance, both Friday & Saturday).
3. I read and I write, so that when I attend one of my aforementioned classes I a) have something intelligent to say, or b) have a homework assignment to submit.
4. I occasionally slack off and watch America’s Next Top Model or Dancing with the Stars (without commercials) on DVR.
5. I also do the requisite dog-walking, selling-of-crappola-on-Craigslist, setting-up-of-the-condo, lunch-making, cleaning, eating, sleeping, yadda, yadda, yadda of daily life.

Now go ahead and try to hold back your enthusiasm for my exciting life.

To be more particular, last night my Refugees class had a field trip to attend a panel discussion on human rights abuses committed by North Korea. There was a Professor Kim there, who had grown up in North Korea. He is second only to the Dalai Lama in the cuteness factor. I seriously contemplated asking him to come home with me to sit in my living room and giggle. It would give the place such atmosphere.

On a more adult note, what is happening in North Korea is serious and nearly impossible to change. The panelists asked us to review the information on this site and become activists for the cause. I am not yet supporting this because I haven’t really reviewed the site, but I thought I would at least present the information for your inspection. The North Korean regime is incredibly insular so it is very difficult to get even basic information about the structure of the country. A large portion of what is known is derived from those refugees who are able to cross the borders. While many of us have seen Team America, that movie doesn’t even begin to touch on the megalomania and barbarism of Kim Jong Il.