An Audacious Evening

So we pulled landscaping duty yesterday and tried to finish off our trench system which is nearly complete and we finished clearing the next far end small future spare bedroom for roof work. We hope to start and if all goes well perhaps have a new roof on it by the end of next week. We’ll see. We are raising the walls a bit so Brian and I will get to practice stone masonry (another skill I lack). Currently this room’s doorway/wall height is about the size of a hobbit and the roofline is about 2 feet below the rest of the house’s roofline so we’re going to raise it. No brainer.

I got fantastic news yesterday that I am getting an amazing visit from one Californian I particularly admire which pretty much, makes my life right now. I only have to wait 2 months. Boy oh boy I am not sure I can.

Brian called the Justice Department after talking with the Garda station regarding visas and our status in the country. It is unbelievable how uncooperative both institutions were. Brian was pulling teeth just to get out of the Garda officer that it was impossible to stay 3 months (our passports have already been stamped for 3 months). Then when talking with the Justice Department we were told that we either had to have student visas or work visas but that there was no way to extend a tourist visa (our current visa). Brian and I have a sneaking suspicion (several months worth of contrary evidentiary research) that what they are telling us is a) false b) not the whole story or c) a fantastical creation of their own ennui-filled minds. So great, we’re going to have to fight the country on a technicality of their own law? Ugh. We’ll see what happens.

I had a great chat yesterday with a friend about how both our lives are about 120% different from just a few months ago and that somehow it hasn’t rocked our boats as much as we would expect. I’m suspicious of my cool calm demeanor…especially when you consider the fact that neither of us are anywhere near qualified to be doing what our lives now demand of us. And yet, no worries. Hmmmm….

Ok and before I get into the story that gave the title of this post and really probably the title of our endeavor/house. Audacity. I will go on a short maybe rant. My mother sent me a few magazines purportedly “to remind us of why we left the US”. Well on opening the box to find Maxim magazine Brian and I thought, well this is a dirty trick. Sending us a magazine like Maxim to two guys living by themselves for weeks and weeks reminding us of all the beautiful women we left behind in the States was anything but helpful. But because I actually do enjoy the writing in Maxim (I get it for the articles!) I read the magazine. Normally, it’s bitingly sarcastic style is pleasing to me and although it’s a mass audience mainstream magazine for mainly I’d say “douche” guys it has enough tiny liberal concessions to make it tolerable for me. Anyway, all of this is somewhat beside the point. The rant starts on an article entitled “No More Education”, now mind you, I am completely aware that I am a whiny liberal academic, now responding to a stupid article in a mainstream men’s magazine on a …wait for it…blog. But, hey, they’re printing a half-baked article in a magazine…the medium doesn’t have that much more integrity I’d say. The only reason I feel I need to address it is not because I can’t take a joke poking fun at my own existence (certainly not) but that it subtly reinforces a value system that I find disastrous for our country. I mean, Brian and I were sort of talking about this while I was reading the article and he was reading Korten’s “When Corporations Rule the World” (and don’t give me that you’re a sensationalist bullshit, it’s not a fucking conspiracy, it’s there in publicly available records and statistics done by the very people in power, companies and government etc, it’s not liberal propaganda, try to see past the indoctrinating marketing budgets of multi-billion dollar companies. Damn) That was a side rant. But the first side point of this tangent was that Brian and I were talking and we think America/Americans need a huge wake up call (in more ways than one) but living abroad sorta as an American I believe it is more than obvious that there is a general consensus of looking down and ?pitying? America more than idolizing. We have fallen people, America is not that great nation it was of yesteryear, let’s do something about it, please? And it doesn’t involve tightening moral commandments, as a hint. (but it’s also strange because American culture is still being emulated. It’s complicated and nowhere near healthy if you ask me).

Alright but the main rant was in regards to this article. To give you an idea of the tone and direction of this article I will briefly quote the introductory paragraph, this comes from Maxim’s September 2007 issue and the article can be found on page 95.

“You know who you are. You’re the twenty- and thirty- somethings who refuse to grow up and get a job. You’re the research assistants, TAs, philosophy master’s candidates, and other lifelong academics who hide behind syllabi and term papers, hoping real life won’t notice you. You’re the aged book-slinging zombies mindlessly shuffling through the ivy-strewn graveyards of your glory days. To all you professional Peter Pans out there: We’re calling your bullshit. You’re officially on notice.”

Ok that’s pretty fun, Brian and I had a good chuckle over the accuracy of such a statement. And yes, we know who we are. The problem with the article however, is that there are two main points made after this rant. The first being that the only quoted “professional” they use to support their point is a writer (hah.) who helps people deal with debt. In this sense, the argument unfolds mainly on financial grounds. Getting a master’s or PhD doesn’t give you much return on investment. This argument, is sometimes untrue (in the case of many programs funding the student to get their advanced degree, so you actually aren’t paying for and it gives you the income increase anyway) and reinforces the desired object/value as monetary wealth. Why pursue something in life that won’t make you any money? Wow. Missing the point, of life I’d say. But tacked on to the end of this argument is a dig claiming that staying in academia is equivalent to “treading water in a pool of perpetual adolescence” and “avoiding adulthood”. As if there was no growth in an individual outside of financial growth, or movement up a corporate ladder. (and it hasn’t escaped me that the author of this article, ah, that’s right, probably has a liberal arts degree, say in journalism, media studies, communication, or god forbid ENGLISH!)

The second argument is worse. Starting with the paragraph header “Be a Man!” (I won’t go into gender issues with that one, I hope we can all recognize it as pigeon-holing individual existences into a cookie-cutter model being defined by, yes partly this douche men’s magazine. Great. Moving on. Within the second half of the article contains a small selection of argument. One says that we needn’t learn anything from professors because all we need to learn is contained in life’s little experiences (the example that is given is in essence a dead-end job that has left many Americans feeling empty and depressed, good on ya there) The second call is that everyone else has determined our life to have been wasted and that women aren’t impressed if you can quote Chaucer….I beg to differ. And finally, the last dig is that we are unemployable. Must I address this? Unemployable in which manner? In a high-paying job that will help us pay off our student debt? Maybe, but if your education was funded by the institution and you graduate with a terminal degree from a prestigious institution. I argue that we are anything but unemployable. In fact, since reading and writing are such rare skill sets in America today, I would say we should be in high demand. That is, if our priorities and values were not getting to the bottom of the toilet as quickly as possible. And that’s just the first article.

The second article was a future of medicine update. This is just one of those scary articles that makes me question what sort of idea of society we have guiding the collective mindset on research. The new drugs that we can expect within a 20 years time (some sooner than others) are:

1. Propranolol--originally to treat high blood pressure, now has been found to reduce the intensity of stressful memories in PTSD patients. "While the pill doesn't erase bad memories, it allows users to experience them with some numbness, almost as a bystander." This seems like a horrible solution. PTSD (this is my personal opinion) I feel is one of those a) over diagnosed 'disorders' or b) a modern system of an exacerbating lifestyle. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, as a disorder (as opposed to a disease) necessarily has a higher degree of subjectivity, I think, to it. Prescribing a drug that numbs you emotionally doesn't seem to be the right solution for this day and age, where that is exactly the 'symptom' of our modern malaise. Yeah, right, like we need help feeling more alienated from our own lives. What kind of society is this leading to? A better one where people aren't stressed? That's the positive light, but instead of reducing stress inducing situations, instead of tackling the problems source, we instead are going to create a drug that isolates people from that bad icky stuff in life: suffering. Do we really want a painless life? I don't. Pain free does not equal happy.

2. Armodafinil--can keep users awake for 48 hours with almost no dip in brainpower and increased memory and cognitive skills. Right, because we need to be able to work more, sleep less, induce more stress, so we can take propranolol. The moral end of human existence after all, is....efficiency, in this hustle and bustle world of ours. Armodafinil? No thank you. I'd prefer to rest my body when my body needs rest. What a wacky, backwards, so ancient and primitive concept. Moderation. Hmm.

3. Crofelemer--reduces the severity of all symptoms associated with irritable bowels. Allegedly, 20 percent of Americans suffer from irritable bowels, they argue that many don't report that they do. Now, in the modern American lifestyle, why do you think so many people suffer from irritable bowels? Well, what causes irritable bowels? Often a diet high in fat and sugar can lead to excess bloating and gas, and stress can lead to ulcers and irritated bowels...but, if I can take a drug that reduces my stress and a drug that eases my irritable bowels, then I can keep eating my McDonald's! Yay. Or you could eat healthy food and not need any drugs. This band-aid approach to our medical problems is astounding. And in addition, that these medicines are being highlighted all in the same spot, where it is plain to see how they interact and reinforce each other's problems! Amazing...I think maybe there is subtly at work here in Maxim magazine. Or am I reading too much into it? But by all means let's spend millions nay billions of dollars on drugs that allow us to maintain a lifestyle and societal order that is overwhelmingly a non-sustainable suicide track.

4. Within the coming decade we will have a drug that will be used to treat , get this, drug addicts. Hah. This drug, now keep in mind our memory altering stress drug, disrupts pleasant memories (i.e. memories of getting high) from their locations and context. The supposed thought behind this is that drug highs are so enticing because they happen in friendly pleasant contexts (i.e. with friends, at a party, while you're having a good time). So disrupting those associations should ease drug users off the drugs. Great, so we'll have a drug that dissociates ourselves from our own emotions and then one that disrupts the context of them altogether, but we also have a drug that will keep us awake and INCREASE our memory. That doesn't sound like a recipe for a screwed up person. And don't gimme this, well one person wouldn't take all those drugs. That's not really the point. Using the analogy of society as a person (bwahaha ethics class) our society would be screwed up if some of us were each taking one of these drugs. But the point, is what is behind the thoughts to come up with these drugs. Why aren't we thinking long term and with some level of awareness, ethics and sophistication? Why aren't we integrating health into our lifestyle as opposed to letting it subtly leak in by taking more and more drugs?

5. And finally, the big one. On the distant horizon, we have gene mapping that is "poised to revolutionize medicine". Hard to tell what will happen in the future obviously, but let's look at this potential direction we're moving. Pay close attention. A Google-funded company 23andMe will map customer's DNA for as low as $1000. The thought behind this is personalized drug regimens. Now, what makes me nervous, is that Google, already as the greatest search engine, has records of your searches. In addition, their ad software picks up on the contents of your email (at least those using Google Mail). And to complete the profile on Jane Doe, they now will have a company (in their financial pocket) that has mapped your DNA and knows how and what which drugs will do to you. Conspiracy theorist, liberal sensationalist, doomsday heralder? Maybe I am. But I don't think I have any large bridges to stretch. It's a possible way the future will unfold. All it takes is being a little aware about what's happening in your world and not being happily distracted by a poor performance by Britney Spears, or what flavor of jeans will best express YOU. And all the other bullshit that keeps us mighty busy (aren't we bored a lot?) with our personal lives. You want to clean up the yard (not the local park) install, a jacuzzi, renovate your house, or any number of other private world tasks and to-do's that take up your mental time. If only you had a dose of that Armodifinil...

A Once a Runner quote comes to mind (go figure) and it goes something like this..."And Southeastern University treated this failure in that great old American tradition of ignoring extraordinary amounts of contradictory evidence and proclaiming great success." that's a rough quote by the way. I don't remember that one as well...

I apologize for such a long post but I didn't post yesterday, so there ya go. Happy Friday.

And to move on to a more happy note...Brian and I had an audacious evening. We went to the library late and ended up having to walk home in the dark and it was raining. But we stopped by the grocery store on the way back and picked up a loaf of packaged bread (local) and a fresh loaf from the bakery in addition, to ah! What a great discovery, a package of 6 mini-sized Magnum ice cream bars. Which we of course split up and paid for the ice cream in coins and the rest in bills. We then walked home in the dark, cold, rain eating ice cream bars when we happened upon the filling station that was miraculously open. Brian with a grin, walks in and picks up two Mint Magnums, his hands, already full of little Magnum wrappers. I politely ask for a deck of playing cards, with the half eaten fresh loaf in my hand and the packaged loaf under my arm. The clerk obviously tries desperately to suppress laughter. I can only imagine the sight (maybe if I had that memory distancing drug). So we ate two additional Mint Magnums on the last leg of the journey home, choking down chocolate and ice cream between guffaws. We then proceeded to play two person mushroom (a drinking game) which, as those of you familiar with the game, left not many options for drink assignment. But the up side was that one could not incur additional wrath by ruthless heckling. And so, heckling aplenty.

Then once we had consumed a healthy amount of diet soda, ahem, we proceeded to live Will Leer's Nightmare, that is to say...We had a Disney song sing-a-long. Here, two gentlemen, huddled around a wee stove with a deck of cards strewn about a pile of empty cans and Magnum wrappers, singing, mainly off-key at the top of our lungs, over the howling wind "I can show you the world..." A beautiful sight to behold, let me tell you. My oh my, we are audacious. Happy weekend everyone.