I'm wiped. Totally. The whole past two day experience of orientation meets career development meets meeting new people has been so tiring. I'm actually excited to get home, do some laundry, start the dishwasher and chill with one of my 300 channels. Crazy, eh?People here are nice, but it's so hard to be social when you're tired! At camp, yes, social happens ALL THE TIME, but then again, camp is like my family, and I don't really care if I fall asleep in conversation with them or just plain stop making sense (ha ha, which I do all the time anyway). I'm supposed to be making new friends, but I haven't really made new friends outside of church or camp since the beginning of college. In short, kind of weird, very taxing.

Reflections on this ICANN business

ICANN is an organization that the U.S. Government created to privatize and internationalize the distribution of internet domains.  Originally, this duty fell to the Department of Commerce, but, because of something called a “White Paper,” they wanted it to become a global organization to reflect the international nature of the internet.  ICANN developed an organizational structure (board, president, funding, etc) and spawned some watchdog groups.  The board invited people who had concern about ICANN’s operating procedures to join so that ICANN would not become brutally monopolistic.  Very little drama ensued: some non-roman alphabet using nations had concern about the language bias in domain names, some nations had concern that it was still US-centric, and some Americans thought it was worthless to let other countries be in charge of domain name distribution.  Many oversight groups were created to make sure ICANN was being fair and the board specifically is comprised of representatives from many nations.

Basically, the US tried to move the assignment of internet domains to a not-as-US-centric  organization.  A valiant goal, and well played, also.  The group was inclusive of everyone, even dissenters, and tried to make it all fair.  As the internet is something used internationally as an integral part of culture and commerce, an international organization to distribute something as important to its function is a great idea.  To assuage the complaints, the organization should make itself as transparent as possible, and ensure fairness by continuing to broaden its scope and include as many interested and committed parties as possible without compromising the initial structure.  

It’s interesting to see the US soft power infiltrating things I don’t really think about, like how I bought my domain name.  The fact that even the smell of McDonalds spreads the American power center deters me from thinking about the less obvious but nevertheless important expressions of power and noting that the country is actively working towards globalization.  Now, is it globalization on American terms, or internationalizing the assignment process on the world’s terms?  This seems to be the problem that everyone needs to reconcile.

Basically, DC is making me crazy to do stuff. On my agenda (besides school and getting a job and stuff) are a marathon in February (ha ha, we’ll see how long that one lasts) (ahh! 27 miles!), and learning to crochet a throw for my couch. My book is on hold, but I’m all ready to read and learn and school and stuff. And play with animals…I haven’t quite figured out where I will get to play with them, but I’m sure I can con someone into letting me walk their pet or let me take riding lessons or something. So yeah, I’m antsy. Thought I’d share.

The Day I agreed with Bush.

I think it's really great that the President has finally acknowledged that people are affected by wars. Death is kind of a big deal. However, I was suprised, upon hearing his attempt to rationalize continuing the war, that I agreed with him. Finishing what we started, though trite and most likely still a bloody goal, is why I haven't petitioned to pull troops out of Iraq. The worst thing we could do after puttting the poor country through our mayhem would be to leave them cold. We've already given them homework, something I didn't know the world could levy on a country. I'm sure some teachers are laughing at the many extensions: the many "We're almost done, just a few more days, please." Bush is working on getting his approval polls up, yes, but I'm glad his speechwriter found some wisdom for him to impart. Even if the war was a mistake and a horrible reputation-wrecker, leaving it now would leave the world angry and a country in more turmoil than it's already in. If we're going to pull out anytime soon, we need to make sure that we clean up our mess, at the very least.

Won't the midterm elections be fun now? The drama screams 1958.

Last day of Camp (August 5, 2005)

The idea of tomorrow soon becoming yesterday certainly puts a myriad of things in perspective. Who you spend your time with means nothing. What you put your effort becomes trivial. Priorities become minutiae as time condenses.

Conversely, the idea of God’s time or nature’s time expands time. Things last as long as they are supposed to. The past and the future are considerations but not the root or the goal of the present. What you do has effects and history. Suddenly everything that exists has purpose.

Much as emphasis is placed on the future and study is based in the past, the present too has a focus. Living in the moment encourages not thoughtlessness but dismissal of all that has come before and all that will eventually be. Nothing has consequence and nothing has reason.

Perhaps living in time as it happens is the ideal. Acknowledging that everything has a beginning and an end makes the horrible more bearable and removes the instinct to anticipate the ending of good things. Waiting, either for something to begin or for something to end wastes the beginning and ending of those things coming before or after. Without this seemingly necessary waiting time, how much more could everything be appreciated?

Applied to day to day chores, this gives queuing reason and acknowledges it as a process, not as a frozen state. Applied to people, it equalizes importance and influence and denies any one person the ability to destroy. It seems that the corollary should imply that one person is also denied the possibility of creating or of causing great joy. However, I prefer to think of joy not as an event but as a continual state that we step in and out of like a stream. Thus, unlike destruction and desolation, it has no real beginning or end so it cannot be limited by the actions of people.