More stuff finally falling into place:

1.) Math is starting to finally make sense to me. The intensive work I did over the summer has paid off in that I seem to be able to assimilate mathematical concepts better. I'm also finally getting the names of mathematical properties (distributive, commutative, etc.) straight too. Finishing off the remaining tests on Math 112 at the same time I'm working on Math 113 and trying hard to not get too far behind on that seems to work very well. I have scheduled Math 112 tests a week from Monday and two weeks after that. The next two tests will then be taken sometime in late October to the month of November. Hopefully, since I will be knee-deep in Algebraic concepts by then in Math 113, the Algebraic topics in the last two chapters I have to test on in Math 112 will be easier.

2.) I ahould have my financial aid money by the end of the month.

3.) I am now unofficially Dr. Rosow's aide for Education 203. I'm not being paid or anything but hopefully I'll get a glowing letter of recommendation from her by the end of the semester. She suggested I should make an appointment with Dr. Brossman in Academic Counseling so that we could discuss my plans once I finish my BA in Psychology at Woodbury...Doc Rosow believes that I'd make a really good school counselor. She thinks my game is a little weak for actually being a teacher (not hopeless...she just thinks I need to learn more about presenting to and managing groups of people, particularly groups of kids) but she thinks being a school counselor would be something I would have natural aptitude for. I also found out something quite scary from one of the Edu 203 students who's actually working in LA Unified: there is currently a glut of student teachers. Apparently my decision to go into teaching as a profession is a decision a shipload of other people have made too. However, there *is* a shortage of school counselors and related personnel, and this is a shortage not very likely to be remedied in the next few years.

4.) I've finally received a working USB2 card, complete with little power supply to give an extra boost to the USB powering circuitry. I'm going to try it and the CenDyne-badged Lite-On USB2 CD-RW with my ThinkPad sometime this weekend. Burnination on my laptop! W00t! Hopefully the card will be supported under Linux too. I still haven't gotten up the courage to install the HD. That's something I should do, but since I have an already functioning version of Windows 2000 on the ThinkPad trying out the USB2 card should be my first move.

5.) Sometime this weekend I also want to take Richie to see Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence. I don't give a tinker's damn whether it is currently showing as "rotten" at RottenTomatoes.Com, I was absolutely blown away by it when I saw it. It's an evolution far beyond the original movie, with the deep philosophical concepts shown visually most of the time rather than the narrative stopping dead in its tracks like it did in the original GITS movie for expository dialogue.

I finally got to see Belleville Rendezvous, known more commonly here as The Triplets Of Belleville after a run to 20/20 Video in Van Nuys to look for movies I need to watch for Sociology 22. I had to see it on DVD. Richie saw it on a vaguely larger screen, on a plane flying to and from London where Saccharine Trust played at All Tomorrow's Parties this Spring. I want Richie to see the movie in its full glory on a big screen, not just wait for the DVD or try to download an XviD of it. (not that I have ever done anything like that but I know the rip is circulating) Yes, I will be giving Sony Pictures Entertainment, an MPAA signatory, some money. Yes, I normally shy away from MPAA movies because of my disagreements with them. I even try to buy used DVDs to avoid giving the MPAA any money. But this is one hell of an experience. If Innocence is playing anywhere near you, drag your ass to the theatre and SEE IT.

6.) And finally, speaking of the MPAA, the RIAA and people who are thoroughly 0wnz0r3d by them, I am working on an open letter to Congressman Howard Berman, Senator Barbara Boxer and Senator Dianne Feinstein which I will post here when finished. To sum up the message I will be conveying: I do not support what they are doing to the Right of Fair Use, the Right of First Sale, the terms of Copyright and giving special rights to Big Media to control what you do with sold media like DVDs and media devices like Computers. I believe the current rules governing copyright, patents and other intellectual property matters tilt the table too far away from the rights of the user and too far towards the rights of corporate media.

However, to quote Jello Biafra, "We Have A Bigger Problem Now." That problem is President George Walker Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and the neo-Con cabal that is currently running US foreign policy. Failing defeating W at the polls, we need all the Democrats we can get in the House and Senate in order to hamstring the W agenda and perhaps to even look at Impeachment and Removal for willfully misleading the public and Congress into the Iraq War. No less an authority than John Dean believes there is grounds for Impeachment and Removal under this theory, and this and other grounds are enough, according to former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, to charge Bush and his cohorts. The latter link is to sample Articles of Impeachment drawn up by Mr. Clark, Esq. detailing the charges he would bring against them if he had the power to do so.

To accomplish this, the lock the Republicans have on the House needs to be broken, and the Senate needs to continue to be a tossup between Republicans and Democrats. Better still would be a return to Democratic control of both houses of Congress. To that end, I am no longer advocating voting against Berman or either of the two California Senators, in spite of disagreements over IP issues. Hell, I had even taken out the domain geeksversusberman.org to provide those opposed to Berman another venue to campaign against the bastard. However, we don't have that kind of luxury now. While it is not likely that Berman's safe Congressional district, further made safer by gerrymandering, will be up for grabs; the campaign against Senator Barbara Boxer is fizzling like a dud firecracker; and Senator Dianne Feinstein doesn't have to stand for reelection this year, it is still a must that their seats be protected in case of a move to impeach and remove. We need all the Democrats (real ones, not Democrats In Name Only like Zell Miller and Joseph Lieberman) we can get to make this happen, or at least to hamstring a re-elected W enough so that he cannot do any further damage to our country.

Senator Kerry's slow-mo self-destruction is distressing and annoying. It is as if Karl Rove himself picked W's opponent. Face it, four more years might actually happen. I hope that Kerry's reputation as "the Comeback Kid" holds, because four more years of W is pretty damn scary. So scary that I'm going to get a Passport for the first time in my life in case I have to bail on the country I love.

If we can't defeat this slimy, willfully ignorant bastard, we need to make his next four years a living hell. There is no luxury of voting a third party candidate for the next four years. A vote for anything other than a straight Democratic ticket is a vote for George Walker Bush. So I will have to put my parochial, geeky concerns aside for the foreseeable future, and I hope more US Citizens of goodwill do the same. Vote Democrat as if your life and freedom depends on it, because it might.