Sabotage?!?

Today I'm at work at the dental school. It's New Years eve, so there aren't any students around, no patients, and no emergency sorts of concerns. So, this means that I've been working on routine maintenance projects around the school, changing filters, checking abrasive wheels, whatever, as well as cleaning up my workspace and trying to catch up on anything I've missed over the past few months. This means alot of wandering through completely empty areas in the school, and a lot of searching for stuff that actually needs repair.

I managed to find some things that were surprisingly in desperate need of repair, a grinding wheel that students use to trim excess crap off of models of jaws and teeth. The wheel itself, which is made of some kind of stone with a sandpapery exterior was missing 1 of the screws that ought to connect it to the machine itself, so it was slowly breaking apart. Also, one of the other screws was not in properly, partway into it's socket and lying at about a 45 degree angle, probably not helping at all.

The damage to the grinding wheel itself was catastrophic, and I fear that if it had been used for anymore than another week, it would have broken apart mid use, sending bits of sharp stone flying through the air like shrapnel, taking out unprotected eyes, potentially slicing open exposed arteries and sending brilliantly red blood spraying (arterial bleed) onto the eggshell white walls of the student support lab. I would have been to blame, and fired/sued.

I replaced the wheel, made sure the new screws were set properly, so it's not a problem per se anymore, but I wonder how it happened in the first place. Last week when I checked the machine it was in perfect working order, nothing out of place aside from a little bit of accumulated wax on the wheel. A screw like the ones we use to hold the wheels in place is meant to not come off easily, so I can't imagine it would have simply come out on it's own.

I worry that someone might have removed it maliciously. Or foolishly. But I can't imagine anyone taking that machine apart who didn't have a working knowledge of it. I don't know if I should tell my boss that the screw was missing, as I worry she'll blame it on my incompetence somehow. So, what should I do?

Song of the day: "Wink"- Daniel Licht

Bhutto

I read an AP article today about Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. She was killed, assassinated, in a suicide attack at a campaign rally. It was a hideous, cowardly attack that shows the failure of manhood in a way.

When we men don't understand or accept something, we want to destroy it. The first female prime minister of any country in such a patriarchal world is bound to rile people up, and make old men feel powerless, emasculated.

The thing that makes me feel better about it, from the perspective of a man shamed by other men, is that many of those who were closest to her, and her biggest supporters were men. These are the kind of people who upon hearing of her death, started breaking windows, destroying cars and clashing with members of other political parties.

The willingness to go to anti-social, irrational lengths for something a person believes in is something I like in all people, I just wish there were certain limits to it.

Well, politics is not something I plan on talking about too much anymore.

Assessment

I'm looking at my grades from the semester. I don't have all of them yet, but so far, so good. I have B+ in languages of the world and Beginning Hindi, which came as some surprise, as I thought I was getting a regular to low B in Hindi before the final, and fucked up the final. It was probably my worst post-final exam experience ever, leading to my first post-exam breakdown.


My hectic schedule did cost me slightly in my grades, since I completely forgot to do one of the assignments for my simple linguistic analysis course and ended up losing about 10% of my grade for it, bringing me to a C+ in a very easy course. If I hadn't forgotten that assignment, I imagine I would have gotten a B+ or A- in a course I never showed up to, which would have been pretty great.

Now I just have to wait on my biotechnology and conversation analysis grades.


Oh, and merry christmas/boxing day.

Song of The Day: "The First Noel"

Happy Holiday

That's what I say to people, or I say "You too," depending on the situation.

I got to push my moms car out of deep snow in the alley, eat Nachos Navidad, talk to relatives on the phone, and eat anything I wanted.

Also I wrapped many presents.

I'm tiredish.

Snowed in not Snowden

I came to Duluth Friday night to see my family for an extended holiday time. As of yet I've basically done nothing. I've lazed around the house, slept past noon, eaten, not exercised, read on wikipedia, watched Total Recall (thanks to Joey,) and generally been useless. I intended to go christmas shopping today, but the blizzardish conditions prevented that, so instead I watched TV shows about dogs with my parents.

I learned that Dogs are exceptionally intelligent when it comes to dealing with humans, possibly better at reading us than any other non-human species, as a result of millenia of eugenics which have produced such different creatures as the pug and the great dane, both the same species technically.

I'm still looking to my future Nachos Navidad from Taco Johns

song of the day: Save me- Xiu Xiu

A Research Proposal

I've been on and off working on a Research proposal since I got up this morning. That means I've barely been out of my room. I haven't left the house, and my hands kind of hurt from the poor ergonomics of my wrists resting on the hard wood of my desk.

The research proposal is about the word "Biotechnology" .

It's due tommorow, and I have some 8 pages of it written. I don't have a particular goal in writing it, no point to prove or anything. Because of that, I'm writing in an aimless, horrid style that makes me want to vomit. Basically what I'm doing is writing a paper describing a much better paper that I would write if I had the time.

"I would look for instances of the phrase "Zymotechnology" in the NYT archives, + biology + microbiology".

It continues like this for page upon humorless page.

I have eye strain.

I'm going to finish it at work tommorow.

Can't do anymore tonight, so I might as well eat something.

Perhaps something spicy with rice or noodles.

We will see, we will see.

Song of the day :"No Surprises" Radiohead

About Jon Carnes

My name is Jon Carnes, and I live about a mile from lake Calhoun in Uptown, specifically Carag, a neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. My room looks away from the lake, Eastward, directly at the parking lot of an apartment building across the alley. When I approach my room from the hall, it looks like all there is outside is snow, because of the limited viewpoint. There is a garage outside my window, and it's roof is the only thing I can normally see on the way to my room. My room has mostly bare hardwood floors, light decoration, an old wooden desk, a very large and comfortable bed, piles of clothes against the north windows, 3 seperate tall shelf-like receptacles for the keeping of clothes, a bookshelf and yellow-orange walls. I currently keep a space heater in my room, but never when I'm asleep or away from the room.

I'm 22 years old, a student at the University of Minnesota. I'm studying linguistics, and will be graduating in the fall of 2008. I have a liberal bend politically, and am generally open-minded, forgiving and pleasant. I believe in individual decision making, human potential for good and ill, and the importance of enjoyment.

I love my girlfriend of almost a year, Vanessa. We seem to have more in common than I would have ever expected. We enjoy watching things together, playing with her dog, dancing, sleeping, eating, biking, etc. One of our habits is to go to Sawatdee in uptown.

In addition to being a student, I am working 2 jobs, at least until friday. At my first job I come from the depths below the dental school and fix assorted things, I also deal with alot of hazardous materials, furniture moving and the like. My other job, which is nearing it's end, is Survey Interviewing for the School of public health at the U of M. I call people on the phone, convince them to talk to me and then ask them about 9 minutes worth of questions about their healthcare, insurance and such. I don't care for my second job all too much anymore, in fact I utterly hate it, now that it seems all of my work friends have quit.

In the past I've worked at Taco Bell, Falk's Pharmacy, Jubilee foods and Progressive action network. The first thing I learned from these old jobs is that I mostly hate dealing with food, and I can think the most terrible things without saying a thing.

My semester at school is just about over, I only need to write another paper. I've had to write quite a bit this semester, many papers about various things, some of which I don't remember writing. I will have to expand a paper from this semester next year. I studied Hindi this time, but in the past have studied Arabic, French, German and Spanish. I am the best with German. Spanish I'm terrible at.

I really enjoy Thai, Indian, Ethiopian and Vietnamese food. So, I often end up at Sawatdee, or whatever they are calling it now. My favorite dish is Spinach Rama Thai with Mockduck and 4 spiciness. I enjoy drinking dark beer with spicy food, as it acts as a sponge to moderate the spice.

I've seen the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, been all over Nebraska, Minnesota and Kansas, seen most of the American Southeast, been to New York, briefly to Massachusets, Seattle, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.

I have a strong desire to visit Mexico, Vancouver, Egypt, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.

My favorite song is Naive Melody by the Talking Heads. My favorite bands are Xiu Xiu, Radiohead, Interpol, The Talking Heads, Arcade Fire, Sex Pistols, TV on the Radio, Tom Waits , Johnny Cash, etc.

As for books, television and movies, I'm very into Candide, Dexter, Bret Easton Ellis, Lovecraft, etc.

Song of the Day "Naive Melody"-Talking Heads

A Vernacular Shift

From the fall of 2002 until 2006, I wrote a blog called "In The Vernacular," hosted by none other than blogspot. In early winter of 2006, I simply stopped writing. I silenced myself, and gave up on the long chronicle of my emergence from late boyhood into adulthood. This was for the best, as I had for the most part lost steam, and lost the original intent of the site. So, for more than a year I lay dormant, scheming, and working in the shadows, occasionally writing for others and myself, including the beginnings of a novel, many essays , etc. I also achieved milestones such as moving ino a first apartment, traveling through hell, fighting apathy and poor scholastic skills, finding jobs, etc.

I have emerged from the ashes in triumph. My life is still interesting, and I am personally rather happy. I'm finishing up an extremely difficult semester at the University of Minnesota, made difficult due to class choices, and a very heavy work schedule. I've been working 2 jobs along with my regular full time class load, and for the most part I've enjoyed keeping busy. I've managed to make it to the gym regularly, handle my cashflow, keep up an amazing relationship and pursue my hobbies. I've also proved to myself that social anxiety is something I can control with proper application of medication.

Since I last wrote for a general audience, I have become a linguistics major, and a senior in the program. I will be graduating with a BA in linguistics in the fall of 2008, as I watch the fall of the Bush regime. I am actually fairly excited for the upcoming election season, as it will allow me to see the Republican National Convention in St. Paul (bizarre enough) and possibly write about it and interview many people. The RNC interests me because of the simple novelty of seeing the famous and the powerful, a novelty I seem to be easily drawn to, even at it's weakest flickering.

I have discovered alot about the monster inside of me in the past 2 years. For instance, I've discovered that being a vegetarian no longer appeals to me, as I don't feel much sympathy for the suffering animals. I don't seem to have the same sort of gut reactions to immoral or unfair situations anymore. My thoughts about fellow human beings have become significantly less sympathetic, though I still seem loyal and sympathetic to people who interest me or who I consider to be friends. I've stopped being disturbed by the horrors on the news, by the death of the innocent and the suffering of the poor. I still understand that these things suck and that something should be done, but it doesn't make me sad anymore.

Another major change is a lack of belief in inherent improvement. I now believe in change, but have lost my ability to judge it's inherent value. I can change my actions, but it will never make me better than I am now.

I will continue posting thoughts, anectdotes, etc.


Song of the Day: "Roobaroo"- Rang De Basanti OST