Pseudophedrine Update

I have a cold. I was worried that it was strep, but a day after the sore throat the snot kicked in and verified that it was just a routine case of the sniffles. This is day three of the maximum recommended dose of pseudophedrine, the day at which cognitive functions start shutting down and nothing sounds like very much fun. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that the first meeting of the latest radical leftism seminar is this afternoon, keeping me on campus until after 6:30pm.

I suppose this would be a natural segue into a comment on the current occupation of the grad commons by a pack of disaffected students (and, supposedly, staff / faculty, although I haven't heard anything to verify that.) They sent out a manifesto this morning that was reasonably well written, the occasional lapse into hyperbole and potty-mouthed nonsense notwithstanding. I actually find myself sympathizing with them a bit more; their means are confused, their goals ambiguous, but the point of the manifesto was that you got to start somewhere, and they're right that the situation, particularly in California, is untenable. Their biggest problem is that they're so used to steaming in the same teapot, hanging out with other fidgety radicals, that they have no way to reach out to the mainstream of the student / grad student / everyone else community. They forget that they're extremists, and they suck at building real dialogue.

Besides all that, I'm still busy staving off a complete emotional freak-out while I try to apply for jobs and figure out the next 1 - 45 years of my life. The house-sitting is still fun, although I would like to go on the record to the effect that I hate watering plants.

Next time on KFR: it turns out that there are still ska bands that A. exist and B. are great.