Back to School - Week One

Man, school is bitch slapping me all over campus. It’s been a long time since I’ve been a full-time student, not since spring of 1999 and as such, I’m in classes with a bunch of freshman and sophomores. In fact, I have never felt as old as during introductions of one class where the 20 year old girl next to me said “wow” when I told her I was 27. My friends all got a big kick out of that. Then yesterday I heard one of the younger ones ask his friend “dude, where did you get those kicks?” What the fuck are kicks I thought to myself. Oh right, shoes. Fortunately, Seattle U does have a little sanctuary that I can escape to and feel a little less out of place while studying. SU has collegiums, these sort of, home away from home locations for non-traditional commuter students like myself. They are pretty nice, comfortable, and stocked with honor bar food. Hopefully this will help get this quarter with it’s lower level pre-reqs out of the way for me so I can start studying things that are more interesting to me.

Of course it was

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.
To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14868608/

Atop the Hancock Tower

Still in Chicago. Today Pat and I walked the Magnificent Mile and went to the top of the John Hancock tower. Below is the view looking north. A bit hazy today, but still a really neat view.

The Bean

This weekend I'm visiting my friend Pat in Chicago. Today we went down to Millennium Park. One of the attractions there is the bean (at least I think it's called the bean). Anyway. It's pretty cool. It's this giant, well bean, that has a mirrored surface. We took some pictures in front of it with it reflecting the Chicago skyline. The last picture is pretty cool since it shows the flash from Pat's camera from far away. Oh and today is seven weeks since the jaw surgery. It's not the closest picture, but for anyone who is interested in my healing progress, I'm not horribly disfigured and am almost completely healed.