Anonymous

Last night Anonymous hacked a government website. Www.ussc.gov was hacked for several hours, the home page being replaced with this. Click to read their whole message. I'm sure this will be covered everywhere. I'd like to save their entire message. Viva la liberte. 

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Glasses

It's October here at UoP, and midterms are over for me. I am very happy with my scores so far. Now to keep the energy up for the second half. οἴμοι. Registration for next semester will happen next week. I know what classes I need to take--but at this point, there are so many I want to take that it's hard to narrow it down. I'm fairly certain I will have: Content Engineering, History of the English Language, Meaning of Life, Masterpieces of World Literature, Cross-Cultural Training (study abroad preparation). I would love to add either Greek II or Kung Fu. I'll have to decide about getting an 18+ units petition. I'm not sure I can handle it in addition to work, or if it will cost more. θεωρητιον.

I'm considering going to Florence or Rome, Italy or London or Reading, England for the fall semester next year. Trying to a get a head start on the process, so I've recently begun the application process. All of these locations have classes that will potentially be useful for my career path. Hopefully I will find ways to narrow my options in the next few months.

Lastly, it's been a little difficult to read powerpoint presentations/class notes lately. So I got my eyes check. Sadly the 20/20 vision is no more. >< But, I've always said I liked glasses, so it's going to be fun. I'm farsighted, 20/40 now. I suppose I should have expected it, with the eyes in my family. After wandering around the doctor's office for a while, I settled on some DKNY frames.

I can always change them in a few years.

I certainly am content here. Hopefully I'll be able to do a little more recording along with the living. I don't want to forget any moment of this. Continue reading →

Public higher education on its last breath?

Last year there was a huge uproar at my school and all through the state. The community college system (as well as the UC's and CSU's) took budget cuts of couple million dollars. Of course, the first things to go were teachers, programs--we even lost whole departments at my school. This year it is coming again: another 4 Million needs to be dropped from our budget for this fall.

Now, everyone gets it. Times are hard. However, a lot of the frustration and bad blood between students and directors has been justified. Why? Our administrators are making close to $150,000 a year salary. That's pretty close to the salary of our state governor.

Last year we dropped journalism, anthropology, recording arts and film. Teachers across all subjects were 'let go'. We lost a single dean, and a few administrative employees. And these higher-ups? Took a hit for us of about $1000 dollars from their salary. They now make approximately $149000. All of this, while they are currently constructing a new technology department, a new science building, a new agriculture building, and a new parking lot. (But the about-four-year-old recording and film departments are standing empty.)

I seriously hope I can find some way to afford a private education when I transfer out of here. There are entire groups of students in my classes that had to pick a new major because of all of this--some of them were almost done, too. Priorities definitely need to be reordered around here. Or at least we need to find  budgeters that can actually do their job. Not all of our schools are in this mess. There are some SoCal schools just like mine who have been contacted this year to comment on their budget. They're doing just fine. Even had a surplus. What's wrong CA?

If you want to know specific numbers, here's an article from a newspaper in YCCD district: YCCD bracing for more deep cuts Continue reading →

SOPA and PROTECT IP - Censorship in America

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NDAA 2011

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