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macduff125
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Country: United States
State: Illinois
Metro: Champaign-Urbana
Birthday: 12/5/1983
Gender: Female
Interests: farting around on the computer,
reading,
chatting with friends, procrastinating,
singing until I burst,
Michigan football,
Women's Glee Club :)
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
10/29/2003
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| After over a year's absence from Xanga, Madam Palin has enraged me enough for me to start blogging on this momentous election.
Anyone who knows me knows I've always been a Democrat. But I'm going to try to go beyond a party definition and define who I am as a voter based on my value system. The tone of last week's Republican convention has fired me up to do what I can to get Obama elected.
The last few elections ticked me off since the discussion centered around a purported values system that governs why so many Republicans vote with the Bible in hand and on issues that I believe violate the sanctity of the separation of church and state. I was so pleased, prior to last week, that we actually had an election on our hands that was about the issues and not emotional abortion, gays, and guns. But leave it to the RNC to focus on fear-mongering and rallying a far right religious base to completely ignore how their party has screwed up the last 8 years. I was disappointed and not surprised to hear little discussion about the actual issues of this election: the economy, Afghanistan, healthcare, and education.
We can't let this election be about "babies, guns, and Jesus, hot damn" as Limbaugh so eloquently put it, but instead about the economy, healthcare, and foreign relations. It's time for us to regain our respect abroad and take care of our people at home. I hope my blogging will give me the outlet I need to express how my vote is based on a values system and a sense for the common good. (with occasional jabs at Caribou Barbie--more on that later...)
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| Latest Kathleen updates:
After 9 years, my lower permanent retainer decided to break while I was brushing my teeth over break. Luckily I was home so Dr. Johnson could take it out. That means this is the first time something orthodontic hasn't been glued in my mouth since 1993. That's 14 years, friends, I had braces. Now I'm still wearing my removable retainers as I really don't want braces again, but I have noticed my jaws have moved so my bite isn't perfect any more so it's not out of the picture.
I've been vegetarian this whole time I've been in Champaign. It hasn't been bad at all. Mom was super accommodating at home too. The environmental impact of farm animals is just too great and we can sustain ourselves off of much less land if we eat only grains and veggies. Consider it. It's really pretty easy.
I'm now President of the Student Planning Organization (SPO). So now I'll be busy busy busy with that all the time. Yay for being involved.
I am extremely obsessed (still) with Lois and Clark but the Office is now my latest TV craze and it makes more sense since there are new episodes. I absolutely think that John Krasinski is the kind of man I want to marry.
I posted pictures on webshots under michigankathleen of my trip to Vegas and the Grand Canyon that my family went on over break. We had a good time. I must say the Grand Canyon was a nice breather from the busy-ness of Vegas. It was good to see though. We saw Love (the new Cirque du Soleil Beatles show) which has made me fall in love all over again with the Beatles.
I must get to work entering data now. I'm an RA for my housing professor. No more TAing. I think this has the potential to evolve into a longterm association with her--across the summer and multiple semesters if I like the projects she's working on. One's in Chicago and the other New Orleans--both on housing, so I think I'll be interested. I love urban planning. | | |
| People often ask what urban planning is. I often say SimCity for the ease of a loose example.
What planning is, taken from my teacher's powerpoint today:
1. A focus on improving human settlements, emphasizing processes of physical development and its influence on social
and economic characteristics, and problem-solving in urban areas.
2. A focus on interconnectionsamong distinct community facets, including linkages among physical, economic, natural,
and social dimensions; between public and private enterprises, and among various economic sectors.
3. A focus on the future and pathways for change over time,including affirming community goals, forecasting
feasible paths, and developing paths to achieve desired futures.
4. A focus on identification of the diversity of needsin human settlements, guided by concern for public
well-being, targeting needs of all segments in the population, and developing rationales for equitable
distribution of community benefits.
5. A focus on open participation in decision making, including use of tools to encourage citizen
participation, stakeholder representation, negotiations and dispute resolution, and communication of
technical facts in lay terms.
6. A focus on linking knowledge and collective action, recognizing that planning is fundamentally an
interdisciplinary activity that also seeks to bridge academic knowledge and professional practice. | | |
| It's been 15 weeks since I've been to Oshkosh. I think that's the longest I've been gone. And even then, in August i was there for like, a day before I headed back to AA to move. So add another 6 weeks on top of that when i was in hell in Madison plus 2 more for when i was in AA in june. So basically, i haven't been home since May. Essentially 6 months separated from my house, my hot tub, my couch, my puppy, Mom's cooking. I guess this is what the rest of my life will look like. Oshkosh is my former home. I'm going home for the holidays, but that's it. Weird.
I've pretty much decided that when I'm fully employed in a semi-permanent place of residence in a year and a half that I'm getting a puppy. i miss my Casey-dog so much. I can't believe she's 7 already. boo-boo
um i'm sick of researching and I want to go home and eat mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie and hug my parents and rub my casey's soft white belly and lie on the couch with the girls. I think it's this time of year when I'll be sad living by myself. I'm going to have to throw a Bridget Jonesesque birthday dinner minus the blue soup.
No class Monday and Tuesday. Picking up the baby sister in Madison on my way home. Writing papers all week. Then 2 more weeks of hell. Home December 15, probably. That's what starting in the middle of August gets me. A really long christmas break. Potential Arizona/Las Vegas/Pasadena trip with the fam. i also want to go to michigan, we'll see...
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| I'm wrapping up my second full month in Champaign but it seems like
I've been here forever! I've really established a routine and feel
right at home here. The weather is cooling off similarly to how it
would in Wisconsin or Michigan, but I am anticipating much less snow
and much more wind.
I've been quite busy since the last time I updated. I
travelled to Ann Arbor to see Michigan thrash Wisconsin. I got to
spend time with Aunt Lynn and Uncle Jerry, my parents, my friend Emily
from Glee Club, my friend Steve from architecture, and my friends at
Wesley. I crammed a lot into 3 short days! It was great to be back
in town, singing with Glee Club before the football game, catching up
with my friends, and being a wolverine! Not that I'm not one here in
Illinois, but I'm definitely a rarity! My friends here laugh when I
have to schedule things around the Michigan football games and at my
appropriately decorated Michigan bathroom. It's nothing like our
bathroom at home, but they seem to think it's over the top! I'm sad
that Michigan decided to be so good the year I left. I'm jealous too
of my parents and their season tickets. Maybe a bowl trip is in
order. After all, I do have about a month off for Christmas...
I was very lucky to have my two marvelous sisters to visit me last
weekend. My choir was in the production of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
It was quite the little extravaganza. It's not quite a musical but
not quite a church service. There were over 300 people on stage: our
choir, the orchestra, 6 modern dancers, 25 soloists, 1 celebrant, and
a children's choir. Think West Side Story meets Jesus Christ
Superstar, meets Godspell, meets a Catholic liturgical Mass. It was
odd, but Briar, Bridget and 2 of my friends here got to see it and
enjoyed it! It was tons of practicing for me that week, so I'm glad
to have that out of the way! Briar and Bridget got to spend a little
time with me--it's never enough--I showed them around campus, we were
silly, and Dr. Duffy took us out to a nice fondue restaurant. I miss
them a lot, but am planning to visit Madison for Bridget's concert in
a couple weeks.
I went on 2 separate trips to East St. Louis, IL for the class I'm
helping teach. I got to drive a 15 passenger van (very reminiscent of
my summer job) and a Ford Excursion which is the ultimate soccer mom
truck. I was in charge of a couple of the groups in my class each
time. We got to see all there is to see of ESL, which isn't much.
It's very depressing like the run-down parts of Detroit. We did some
volunteer work at a thrift store that really needed a fix-me-up. We
stayed over night, and one trip, my co-TA and I travelled across the
river to St. Louis, so I got to see the arch and very little of that
city. I'll need to go back sometime to see more.
Classes are progressing pretty smoothly. I still really love this
program. I think I'm going to run for a position in our student
group: Student Planning Organization. I'll be writing a paper for my
housing class on fusing affordable housing with New Urbanism. I'm
working on another for my history class about the tenements and the
public housing of the 20th century. I'm very excited to learn more
about how we've housed the poor and try to come up with some miracle
solution to fix it all. I'm still very idealistic in my career goals.
Maybe once I'm working I'll realize that fixing these cities'
problems is out of my grasp, but for now I'd like to think that I can
play a part in helping. | | |
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