scottsimpson.net

So I have a few minutes here to tell you more about Oxford. I’m staying in an area called Jericho, north of the city center. I’m on Walton Well Road, a little tiny street lined with Indian restaurants and the like. I plan to try one of them eventually; I’m told they have excellent curry. The house is kind of old (much like other things in England) but it’s comfortable. The previous students here left some food, so I’ve been snacking on the granny smith apples they left for us.

Showering is evidently fairly new here… there’s a box thing in the bathroom with a button next to it. The button is labeled ’start/stop’. It’s built for much smaller people I assume. Or claustrophiles. The floor is sheet metal, and I feel like I’m going to fall through it.

Today for breakfast, Tommy and I went to the little French place across from the OSAP office. I bought a croissant, and the lady asked if I wanted anything else. “A Snapple,” I said, holding up my bottle of flavored iced tea. She handed me an apple in a bag. I took it anyway, it was only about 20 pence. I gave it to Josh, who got up late and thereby missed breakfast.

The weather has been lightly rainy, which is apparently pretty nice by Oxford standards. We toured the colleges last evening between showers. It’s fascinating to see the great old buildings and hear about why they were established. It’s said that Oxford was founded in 1090 after a bunch of Englishmen fled Paris when the Pope decreed that it was legal to kill an Englishman on sight. The first college was built around 1300. A few decades later, New College, the school which we’re part of, was built. New. 1370. Go figure.

We went to the Turf pub last night, for a round of fish & chips and political discussion. The pub was established in the 1500s and has catered to students ever since. I believe it’s owned by St. John’s college, so they keep the money around. I think Magdalen college owns another of the pubs. Seems like a great policy to me. There’s a way to fix the state budget deficit.

I have no idea what time it is on the west coast, but almost no one is online. It’s so strange.

Today’s lectures were about Life at Oxford, Oxford Customs and British Traditions, Class in Britain, and European Security. They were very interesting and fun. I’ll try to mirror my journals here as soon as I get around to writing them.

I’ve been taking a few pictures, which I plan to put on a DVD when I get back. If I have time.

Ten hours of sleep is wonderful for rejuvinating you after ten hours in an airplane. After finding a Starbucks with Tommy, we went to get our photos taken at Snappy Snaps. I now have an Oxford student ID. Yay, go me.

After that, we took a walking tour of Oxford, seeing many of the colleges and historical sites. Evidently All Souls college is so wealthy that they don’t have students. They parade around the green every hundred years with a duck on their head. They do research. Never start doing research or that might happen to you.

I believe this evening we’re going to the Purple Turtle, the Oxford Union pub.

Hello. I made it to London finally. And after an interesting little mixup with the buses at Heathrow, I made it to Oxford. The keyboard on the computer here is somewhat tough to type on, and I’m getting pretty tired, so more detailed updates will have to wait. Also, it’s dark and I can’t take pictures.

Thursday was invented by mean people. It’s almost the end, but not really. It’s not even a very special day… Monday’s the first day, Tuesday’s almost to the middle, and Friday’s the end… leaving Thursday kind of just hanging there. This particular Thursday is especially nasty as I have four finals (Anthropology, Geography, Political Science, and Globalization) today. Two down, two to go. Afterward, I get to pack to move home for a week and then to flit off to England for two weeks for a 3-unit class, followed by a prompt return to school. I have seven days of break. SEVEN! That’s a good movie, by the way… Kevin Spacey is just waaay too good at playing crazy people (Kaiser Soze, K-PAX, Sin-guy, American Beauty guy, etc.)

Speaking of crazy, Naj quoted me. It’s really cool to be quoted. You should try it sometime. Naj said:

Scott finally threw up (and I dont mean to compare his work to oral regurgitation) a new blog / article. Just some of his random ravings, not terribly unlike mine, with the exception that his writing is eight and a half times better than mine, but no where neaaaar as seexy. (the writing, not me). riiiiiiiggght.

Anyways, just a quick quote:
Screw you, food-scanner-person. I?m not standing in front of the barber shop, asking people not to go in because my tuition went up again. There?s this thing called cost of living, and it tends to increase. Deal with it. I know a great place you can get a helmet.

Well, ok, I said half of that, but typing it is like saying it to someone else, so since he typed it, he technically *said* it to the web-log-reading-community at large. Or at small, whatever size it is. Link to me, and I may link to you. I need blog-friends. The 88×31 image is to the right, feel free to steal it and tell me about it. No stealing without telling. That’s just stealing.

Anyway, the time comes for me to take a final on India and a number of other countries. Thailand rocks.

Song of the day: DJ John Digweed - Heaven Scent (Bedrock Mix) … it’s a good song, ok?

I realized last evening, while munching on my delicious barbecue chicken from L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, that everything I dislike about the American ethos was summed up in two groups that were operating near me. To my right, at a set of Starbucks tables loosely cobbled together to accommodate a group of about ten people, were those sort of people who couldn?t seem to manage to keep their voices down or their opinions to themselves. This isn?t necessarily bad, but in this case it was. But that?s beside the point. As I mentally eased into their strident conversation, it became clear to me that these people, while they were discussing travel, had never actually traveled. The fat man with the bad moustache (Never! Never! No one looks good with a moustache!) was opining to his clan that when he and the lieutenant flew down to Fort Worth that one time, it was a [x] long flight and they should have got a [x] meal, [x]. Later it was noted that they flew Southwest, and I wanted to get up and smack the man with a glove or something. Aspect of the American ethos I dislike #1: expecting to be served.

The other group, located behind me and a few storefronts down, was the group of strikers in front of the VONS store. Now, in my opinion, trade unions have seen their day in the sun where they were not only useful, but vital. But that day is over. The original food-scanner-people strike may have had a legitimate purpose, but it quickly lost my support when I started seeing signs that said things like ?VONS Employees on Locked Out? ? if a movement cannot find someone in their ranks that cannot properly use the English language, they lose my support. It?s as simple as that. There are so many simple ways to make that sign work grammatically, it?s not even funny. Anyway, the people were standing in a circle between the two entrances, making no motion to stop people from entering the store. They were listening to a man who looked homeless explain why the corporate structure was out to get them, and how the man (he turns up everywhere, doesn?t he?) could end their careers with a phone call. They were so focused on being scared by a homeless man that they were forgetting to do their jobs of disrupting commerce. I?ve heard that unions pay people when they?re on strike ? does this seem at all odd to you? People generally strike for higher wages, or more bottom-line money in their pocket. These same people pay mandatory dues to trade unions that pay them to not work? If it didn?t have such a big following, I believe that qualifies as an extortion racket. The strikers characterize another portion of the American ethos that I can?t stand ? the idea of making a problem when there doesn?t need to be one. In military settings, it?s called sabre-rattling. Bush calls it pre-emptive striking or something equally inane. It?s patriotic when we do it, but the darkest of evils when someone else does.

In addition to making problems for no reason (the latest strike is over $15/week for health care coverage that was previously paid for by the store and is mostly subsidized by most companies), the strikers in front of VONS apparently were under the impression that they somehow had a right to interfere with other people?s lives. A socialist or a utilitarian would tell us that we should be concerned for the plight of our fellow man (don?t even start ? I?m saying man and I?m not going to be politically correct about it) as in the words of John Donne, ?no Man is an Islande, intire of itself?. But as a Libertarian and a rational person, I reject the idea that because someone is kvetching about having to pay $15 a week to have health insurance, when the vast majority of the health plan is subsidized by the company, that they somehow have a right to interfere with where I shop for what I need to live. Screw you, food-scanner-person. I?m not standing in front of the barber shop, asking people not to go in because my tuition went up again. There?s this thing called cost of living, and it tends to increase. Deal with it. I know a great place you can get a helmet.

I believe it is for many such reasons that citizens of other nations dislike the United States. I have to agree, I see the merit in their claims, all except for a few:

So it’s Friday, and my classes are all officially over. I now look forward to five finals .. one on Tuesday and four on Thursday. Yay.

I fly home on Friday the 19th. I leave for England on the 26th. I return on the 11th. I fly back to San Diego on the 12th. That’s pretty much my break.

I internationalized my phone today, so people can call me when I’m in Europe. Hopefully I’ll be able to communicate with other friends that are going there; we’re trying to set up a New Years in Paris.

Once again, I’m selling a lot of my stuff, so if there’s anyone interested in a palm, a 17″ CRT, a 17″ LCD, a PC, a digital camera, or a cooling fan for fast AMD processors, hit me up. I take PayPal.

Almost done with school… more updates later.

So, today has been an interesting and good one. Throughout the day, a few things stood out that I’d like to share.

Chia Pets are a wonderful way to say “I’d buy you a real present, but I thought you’d like this clay thing with weeds on it instead”

Someone in my end of the hall enjoys shrieking. Either they have some sort of social problem, or there’s a murderer loose and he moves really really slowly.

If I were to apply to SDSU now, I’d be rejected. Surely this trend must end somewhere or kids will eventually need a 5.5 GPA and 1900 on the SAT’s to get into State. Maybe our requirements will overtake the UC system… I’m sure Cal Poly will be happy.

I’m selling my PC… No, I haven’t become a hater nor am I ‘washing my hands’ of the Windows world. I just need cash for my Oxford Adventure. And I’m trying to eliminate excess stuff that has accumulated in my room so I can actually move if I have to.

I finally decided what classes to take. I dropped my Computer Engineering major. I’m pursuing ISCOR (International Security and Conflict Resolution) now, and I’ll add either a Philosophy major or an Info Tech minor later on, depending on my GPA and my ability to cope with classes. All three would be ideal, but unreal. And the irony of dropping a major because you do poorly in the classes is that you have to take the classes again to improve the grade even if you’re not in the major anymore…

I have entirely too many books lined up to read, and I want to get to them all… I need more time in the day. I started going to the gym last night, tonight is an off-night, and tomorrow I go back. I think. I hope. I like it, but I need to make time in my schedule for it. Also, I’m trying to eat more healthily. If you see me eating something bad or drinking soda, please remind me of this.

I think that’s it for the blog tonight… I need to get cracking on redeveloping my webpage.

Laterz.