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Oh yeah everyone who was involved... way to go on the HERE exhibit at the University's Art Gallery.
Big thanks to Katy for everything!
Oh yeah, the laminates I ordered for the show just arrived two days ago. I gave them the photos over two and a half weeks ago. Whatever... I brought stuff I had hanging in my apartment... here's me, a cup of tea, a poppy, and some of my stuff.
There are a few updates to photos... the best of which can be found on the main site...
But here are the photos from Europe via... since apparently the blog hasn't been updated with photos since Moab... I really need to switch over to Flickr soon and just create a photostream link straight from the main JohannKwan.com site.
I have this exercise where I write a short story I keep saying I'm working on, and have been for years and years... but that's not really true in a sense. The story is just for me, because it changes every time I write it. It's simply a place where I go sometimes to think about things... the scene is simple... it's me, wrapped in nothing but my coat against the morning air, sitting on some girl's porch, smoking (smoking is a wonderful literary device... the actions therein can be used to pace the narrative) and thinking through faults and my thoughts on returning inside.
Sometimes I welcome the words of love that flow when I walk inside... sometimes I don't, and I (or my protagonist, if you prefer) does things even I, with my disdain for morals and societal standards concerning intimacy... find reprehensible.
I don't even need to write it most of the time, though it helps when I do. Just visiting this place lets me think. I just spent a good half hour there.
Well that's about it for that thought.
Other thoughts: Protestant conservatism amuses me, dancing is fun, if there's one thing I don't want to do is jump into 'love' prematurely and stupidly, and there is a moth in here... despite the cold... Oddly enough. Now it's dead.
There are a lot of things I miss. I miss lying on the lap of a friend without it having to mean anything but spending time together. I miss reading together with people. I miss massages, I miss snuggling that didn't have sexual connotations. I miss being able to share a bed with someone without thinking about sex. I miss frank and open debates about politics with an informed member of the 'other side'. I miss friends gone forever but on the other hand think it's a rather selfish thought. I miss driving. I miss lying in a car watching the stars go by. I miss the beach. I miss the ocean. I miss spontaneous creative passions that don't just get confined to a black notebook and lost to the infinite void of the internet. I miss my cousins. I miss film. I miss a life I could have had rather than the one I have now, as stupid as it sounds and as ridiculous wishing that I was someone else is. I miss having a shot at Ivy League schools. I miss the world before the Bush administration. I miss having forests to run around in that actually felt like they were forests. I miss my bike.
I'll end that there.
Now that there's a new president-elect in the States... I do think it's about time to reanalyze the Afghanistan-Iraq situation. I could go on forever about this, but just a quick summation of my thoughts:
The US has won Iraq in a sense. The state is now stable enough that with minimal logistic support it won't collapse in on itself. I'm not saying that attacks on civilians won't continue... they will, and that may take quite a while before it dies down to reasonable levels... but it's solid enough that they can contemplate pulling out of Iraq in a reasonable and gradual manner.
Afghanistan, where we've got plenty of troops (as Canadians) is a hole. One that, if American assets from Iraq are properly relocated, we can reasonably expect a decent outcome in... well quite some time, to be honest, but an outcome where the state won't collapse in on itself and we'll have further problems down the line.
The last thing we should do is pull out of Afghanistan in a hurry. The Yanks can probably (and should) pull out of Iraq within the next few years... but Afghanistan ... well, now that we're there, we can't reasonably leave it in a mess without expecting it to be very very costly to us down the line... maybe in a way we can't afford to pay.
What to do, what to do.
I've been trying to put this one off for a while... but I may have ended up losing a friend tonight.
But what can I do? Where does one go from a night that you can't even remember but to return to the status quo? It's not like I can say, "oh yes, let's be a couple" or somesuch because of a night like that... nor can I even provide significant insight. But when other person doesn't like to make decisions, get out there and actually say what they mean... where am I to go from there?
Crap.
Also: This is the first time a gaggle of drunken girls has shown up at my door. Usually it's just one. that was an odd moment.
Damn you Obama, why did your win have to be so humongous and historic?
Let me get this out of the way first: WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOO!!!!
Now that that's over with, let me say a few things. Whatever your political views, America has every reason to be proud today. It's finally time again to say, "Yes, I'm proud to be an American."
Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, this election has brought back a little of the America we used to admire. The Wall Street Journal is putting voter turnout at 62.5%, which is absurdly high for the U.S. And most people voted whatever way they did because they wanted someone they thought would fix the economy. Most people stopped voting out of terror and fear... I mean, that's a staggering achievement. People actually looked at the issues!
However you slice it, this was one hell of an election.
Way to go America, way to go.
