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Strange days indeed
Nov. 3rd, 2002 05:47 pmI just hung up on Bill Clinton. Well, on a recording of Bill Clinton. I hung up on a recording of Governor Davis' wife yesterday, and the answering machine took a third call. I'm going to be very glad when this election is over. Yes, I know that Tuesday's the election, and yes, I'm going to vote. Stop calling -;)
Well, this hectic week is almost over. I was in class Monday and Tuesday. Monday through Wednesday, I met my mom after work. We had dinner and went to my place to visit with the cats. Harlee and Nima were dubious about my mom the whole time, but warmed up a little. When my mom left, she put her hand in front of their noses and said, "Smell this! Remember the smell!" We'll see if that worked the next time -;)
Thursday, Erik and I had the meeting in court. We had to wait a little while for our turn, but it took just a couple of minutes when we were talking to the judge. She asked if there was any areas of dispute, and we said, "No". She said if we needed any help from the court, and we said, "No." She said "Then you're on your way," and we left.
Then I drove my mom up to Berkeley, where she was attending a conference. After we got there, we wandered around the campus for a while. Then we went to see Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore's new movie. It's interesting and thought provoking. In it, he poses the question of why people in the U.S. are so violent. He showed some statistics for the number of gun deaths in a year. Several countries--Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Canada--had between 150 - 300 gun deaths per year. The U.S. had 11000+. (It just occurred to me that a fairer measure would have been gun deaths per 100,000 or 1,000,000 population. I'd like to see that statistic.) He thought that the difference might be because other countries have fewer guns. However, Canada has a high rate of gun ownership and the lowest rate of gun deaths. He also looked at Windsor, Ontario, which in some ways is a suburb of Detroit, and found that it had one gun death in the last three years--and that was instigated by someone from Detroit. He thought that maybe violent movies and video games might be a reason for the difference, but the most violent video games come from Japan. Then he thought that maybe the U.S. media might be a reason. The U.S. television media certainly plays to people's fears, and he thought that media from other countries did not do so as much, but it's tough to quantify. He had no definitive answers, but some interesting questions. My mom and I wound up discussing it for quite some time.
I left Berkeley around midnight and got home quite late.
Now I've been trying to catch up at work. I worked a little yesterday, and need to do so some more tonight.
To my amazement, Harlee and Random have been napping in Random's cat carrier. Harlee loves it! It's larger than hers, and she has plenty of room to roll around in it. Go figure.
Well, this hectic week is almost over. I was in class Monday and Tuesday. Monday through Wednesday, I met my mom after work. We had dinner and went to my place to visit with the cats. Harlee and Nima were dubious about my mom the whole time, but warmed up a little. When my mom left, she put her hand in front of their noses and said, "Smell this! Remember the smell!" We'll see if that worked the next time -;)
Thursday, Erik and I had the meeting in court. We had to wait a little while for our turn, but it took just a couple of minutes when we were talking to the judge. She asked if there was any areas of dispute, and we said, "No". She said if we needed any help from the court, and we said, "No." She said "Then you're on your way," and we left.
Then I drove my mom up to Berkeley, where she was attending a conference. After we got there, we wandered around the campus for a while. Then we went to see Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore's new movie. It's interesting and thought provoking. In it, he poses the question of why people in the U.S. are so violent. He showed some statistics for the number of gun deaths in a year. Several countries--Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Canada--had between 150 - 300 gun deaths per year. The U.S. had 11000+. (It just occurred to me that a fairer measure would have been gun deaths per 100,000 or 1,000,000 population. I'd like to see that statistic.) He thought that the difference might be because other countries have fewer guns. However, Canada has a high rate of gun ownership and the lowest rate of gun deaths. He also looked at Windsor, Ontario, which in some ways is a suburb of Detroit, and found that it had one gun death in the last three years--and that was instigated by someone from Detroit. He thought that maybe violent movies and video games might be a reason for the difference, but the most violent video games come from Japan. Then he thought that maybe the U.S. media might be a reason. The U.S. television media certainly plays to people's fears, and he thought that media from other countries did not do so as much, but it's tough to quantify. He had no definitive answers, but some interesting questions. My mom and I wound up discussing it for quite some time.
I left Berkeley around midnight and got home quite late.
Now I've been trying to catch up at work. I worked a little yesterday, and need to do so some more tonight.
To my amazement, Harlee and Random have been napping in Random's cat carrier. Harlee loves it! It's larger than hers, and she has plenty of room to roll around in it. Go figure.
