Working on Baudrillard for final precis. Can't wait to be done this shite. Feel the need to watch a really entertaining movie or, bar that, some kid falling off the jungle-gym or something. Nothing rocks my world more than annoying, bratty kids having accidents.
Got back to my excercise routine today- 80 obliques, 100 normal sit-ups, 20 "legs up" sit-ups, and 20 push-ups (but 15 of them were "women's push-ups"- we're more top-heavy than you bastards, it's harder! Fuck off!) Feels good to be making an effort. I'll get to the gym at some point before I graduate, dammit!
Back to Baudrillard.... we're reading some of his texts on the "hyperreal," and I'm starting to think that's exactly what the current Gulf War is (Baud. actually wrote a book called "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place," about the 1990s war.) Hyperreality is when you have a representation with no original. And the representation can create the reality. Like in "Wag The Dog" (which I never saw, but want to, and which was in fact based on the first Gulf War)- they created a war to help a presidential campaign, and fed it to The People through TV feed and composited pics. Just like this war- both sides are saying they've made progress and they're winning. Like they're both saying they control Baghdad Airport.
Denying that U.S. troops are occupying Baghdad's airport, al-Sahaf said, "The enemy was destroyed and retreated." He said U.S. forces got close enough to the airport to make it look as if they were there but that reports of U.S. troops in the area were nothing more than "propaganda."
Arg. It's all a load of crap. Everyone's lying.
9:11pm
Had a very tactful email from Wayne, thanking me for sending him the class notes he missed, and politely ignoring the "I had a weird dream about you" comment. Ah, Wayne.... how predictable. :) But still nice. On the same topic, had a dream about Mike the night before last, which had a very sad, regretful tone to it- he told me (or possibly told a friend of mine, I'm not too sure) that he wanted to get back together with me, and I thought about all the pro's and con's, and very carefully (but regretfully) explained to him exactly why I didn't want to get back together with him. I'm surprised I dreamt that -- besides the whole "work vs. family" thing, and also the smoking, and methods of child-rearing... we weren't that different, and had a pretty good thing going. It was the one relationship where situation, not personality, ended it. Everyone said [says?] that we complemented each other well. But R and I balance each other well, and that's what I need- someone to bring me down to earth, stabilize me, calm me. I have never felt 100% safe, but I do with R. There are some things about Mike that I miss- that memory of looking over his shoulder, out of the window in Tartu, when he called me "his honeybunch" (I was shocked- he was never usually effusive or "cute" like that, didn't use terms of endearment like that, usually just the generic and initially mildly offensive 'babe'.) The way he could surprise you be being mushy inside when he broadcast toughness. That was cool. But like I was explaining to Michelle [discussing Scott], you can miss who he WAS as much as you want- he isn't that person anymore, and neither are you. So miss away in peace, cherish the memory, because that person will never come back, so you're not in any danger of falling back into old patterns.
I was proud of myself that I'd turned Mike down, in my dream. I wouldn't have expected myself to, in a dream. I wouldn't have in reality, up until May 9, 2001.
Readin' Baudrillard, "Simulation and the Hyperreal"
Listenin' to Microwave (AND I have sound-proof ear-phones on)
Thinkin' about finishing this shite
Most recently I was 
