Day 321: The Ferris Wheel of Life

 

November 17th, 2011Life is much like a ferris wheel, spinning round and round, up and down, until you ultimately die. I went to Vietnamese class in the morning, and then EHS to work. After those short mini-adventures, I hung out at Geetha’s place for a bit before going home. At home I cooked some delicious rice and eggs (the third day in a row I didn’t spend any money!). I went to campus meeting up with Geetha at the shuttle stop, as we ultimately journeyyed ourselves towards Marshallpalooza on Marshall field. It was a highly overrated event, but we got free kettle corn and churros, as well as drinks and things/people to laugh at. We went on a ferris wheel, the first one I’ve ever been on (as pictured above). I was extremely scared and kept shaking on the ride. SHRUG. We went to OVT afterwards so Geetha could get some dinner (I helped her finish). We then proceeded seperate ways as she went to R.A. Duty and I went to Geisel. After an hour of studying the Sims, I proceeded to Youth for Ron Paul’s meeting, where we engaged in several miniature, yet entertaining debates. After the meeting, Elizabeth, Paul, Phil, Cody, & Nandu all stayed and talked for roughly an hour and a half (about various political and not so political topics). We finally dispersed around 1030, when I finally decided to go to Geisel yet again. Afterwards, I attempted an all nighter at the video editing rooms in the Communications building. I lasted till 5 AM, ultimately going to Price Center to sleep. Paranoid, I crashed Geetha’s place at 6:30 am to ultimately call it a night…./day….

Queen Mary I, the monarch of England and Ireland since 1553, dies and is succeeded by her 25-year-old half-sister, Elizabeth. The two half-sisters, both daughters of King Henry VIII, had a stormy relationship during Mary’s five-year reign. Mary, who was brought up as a Catholic, enacted pro-Catholic legislation and made efforts to restore the pope to supremacy in England. A Protestant rebellion ensued, and Queen Mary imprisoned Elizabeth, a Protestant, in the Tower of London on suspicion of complicity. After Mary’s death, Elizabeth survived several Catholic plots against her; though her ascension was greeted with approval by most of England’s lords, who were largely Protestant and hoped for greater religious tolerance under a Protestant queen. Under the early guidance of Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, Elizabeth repealed Mary’s pro-Catholic legislation, established a permanent Protestant Church of England, and encouraged the Calvinist reformers in Scotland. AHHHH HISTORY. So exciting!

Faced with the unsettling news that Congress is still somehow more popular than Fidel Castro, a bipartisan group of representatives began an effort to rectify the situation by holding hearings on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would punish companies for posting pirated content online and prove that censoring the Internet isn’t just for authoritarian communist states anymore. But a few Members of Congress think shutting down all access to a domain because a user uploaded copyrighted material to a website is going just a little bit too far… And Pelosi is far from the only member of Congress opposed to the legislation. On Tuesday, ten members of Congress signed a “dear colleague” letter expressing concerns with the bill. The signers were nine Democrats plus Rep Ron Paul (R-TX), a libertarian-leaning candidate for the GOP presidential nomination. THANK GOODNNESS.

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