I woke up the next morning at about 10:30 and hung around not really doing anything until Lauren came over at 2:30 or so. When she showed up, I knew something was wrong, and apparently lottery didn't end up very well for her, so we ended up going to the bookstore to hang out and feel better about things. We ended up sitting in the travel section for a while, looking at books of places we could only dream about going. I think she felt better afterwords, so that was good. When we got back, my aunt and uncle from Virginia Beach called and asked if I had eaten dinner yet, which I had not, so I got to eat at the Blue Talon Bistro, one of the fancy dining establishments in Colonial Williamsburg that college students normally can't afford. I had awesome rotisserie chicken and sorbet for dessert, so definitely a good time. After that was the Wilco concert, which was absolutely incredible. I'd had A Ghost is Born for a while, but had only listened through it maybe twice or so. The show definitely made me want to get more of their stuff, so I'll have to buy Yankee Hotel Foxtrot at some point, since according to my favorite overly pretentious music site it's incredible. After the concert, I caught up with Lauren and she came back to watch The Philadelphia Story with Ryan and Laura, but we all fell asleep like 10 minutes in, and Lauren ended up spending the night which was nice.

Today was rather uneventful; read the petitions at church, ate brunch, checked out all our rooms for next year. Lauren seemed to be okay with her room when we went and visited, so that's good. It's definitely not the most ideal place, but it's close to the Caf (the nice dining hall) and the Rec Center, and I'm probably a five minute walk at most, and it's no more than ten minutes from the farthest academic buildings. Our room looks to be pretty nice; we didn't actually get to see it, but the building itself is really nice, and there's an attic lounge, so that's really cool. After that I fell asleep at Lauren's (I should really learn to not be so tired all the time.) I came back and was trying to fix Ryan's website, which didn't end up so well. And then we had dinner with the Barrett girls (they had made pasta, tomatoes with parmesean, bought bread ends from the Cheese Shop, and had angel food cake with Cool Whip and strawberries so it was definitely a feast.) After that I came back and fixed Ryan's website some more, and then called my parents to check in and headed back over to Barrett for about 45 minutes. Now I'm here, and I should really go to sleep. So I think I will.

Only five days of classes, five exams, and a lab presentation stand in my way of being home. Beach this weekend should be a lot of fun.

I'm also a little more relaxed about my biology grade. She posted the clicker points and I currently have 72 but really should have 100 so I'll get that fixed, and that brings my percentage to a 66%. Which assuming I get an 80% in lab and an 80% on the midterm and final nets me a 73% for the class, whcih is normally a C-, but depending on how she grades the class (she adjusts it to make the average a B-) I have a pretty good shot at a better grade. Hopefully that'll work out. I'm glad I took this class, but it's been a lot of stress.

All my other grades are up in the air. Philosophy is a solid B, maybe a B+. Same with econ, both depending on how I do on the final. Math I'm hoping to pull a B, B+ would be nice, B- would be okay. Japanese should be an A unless I'm forgetting something in my grade. Assuming the lowest grades (A, B, B, B, C) I would get a 2.93. However, if I manage to luck out in all of my classes, that could be as high as a 3.35 (A, B+, B+, B+, B) Really, a 3.0 would be nice. Oh GPA, how you don't really matter.

And for those of you that don't know, my schedule next semester is looking like awesome. I'm taking Elementary Analysis, Applied Statistics, and Advanced Linear Algebra (woo 3 math classes) Ethics, Japanese, and Intro to Accounting. Hopefully this will not kill me. If it does, I'll probably drop ethics first. We'll see though. Still trying to figure out study abroad and what not.

Anyway, I said I was going to sleep a couple minutes ago. Goodnight.

We'd never been to the beach when it was like that. Usually it's windy, so the water's choppy and it's somewhat uncomfortable to stand on the shore while the wind constantly whips at your face. This is one of those nights that makes you think though. I thought about the fact that I only have ten days of class left. 6 classes each of biology, economics, and Japanese. 4 classes of math and philosophy. Two bio labs. One bio discussion. Pretty soon, I'll be a sophomore in college. My mind kept whirling around about where I'd be in four years, what I'd be doing, and of course what car I'd be driving. But then I stopped and smelled the proverbial roses. Because as they say:

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

This didn't really serve any point other than a grossly literary explanation of my night last night. Oh well.

In the first of Descartes’ Meditations, the Meditator rejects what the senses tell her, even under ideal conditions, on the grounds that she might be dreaming. She states that “my evening slumber persuades me of such ordinary things as these: that I am here, clothed in my dressing gown, seated next to the fireplace – when in fact I am lying undressed in bed!” (AW 28) This is the possibility of universal dreaming; that everything that we recollect has been a dream, and that we cannot distinguish between what we experience when we are awake and when we are asleep. The Painter’s Analogy fits in to this conclusion by stating that what we dream is based upon the things that we see while we are awake. Furthermore, the Analogy states that things we think about that do not exist are simply created by building on pre-existing things, and we are unable to create in our minds something that is completely unreal.
The Dream Argument seems to be most simply restated as follows: we have no real way of knowing whether we are awake or asleep. The aforementioned quote by the Meditator implies that the dream world is so similar to the real world that we can easily remember events from either as having really happened. Continuing along this path, we arrive at a point that I consider to be somewhat difficult to grasp: the fact that these worlds may in fact be completely reversed. That is, the world that we perceive as the dream world may in fact be the real world, and vice versa. This argument runs in to a problem, however, when we consider our earlier problem of distinguishing between the two worlds. If we truly cannot distinguish between the two, how can we argue that the two are reversed? This is of little concern, because the argument seems to state that it is possible that dreaming is universal. If this is true, then we can accept that everything is a dream, and there is no need to distinguish between the two worlds. In support of this argument, the Meditator states, “As I consider these matters more carefully, I see so plainly that there are no definitive signs by which to distinguish being awake from being asleep.” (AW 28) This explicit statement by the Meditator directly supports the conclusion that the reason why we struggle to find a difference between the dream world and real world is that there is none.
There are two possible conclusions to be reached from the Dream Argument. The first is the universal possibility of dreaming. This argument is made as follows: first, the Meditator assumes that when she is dreaming, she has similar experiences to those when she is awake; she then thinks that she is awake and is having a waking experience; it then follows that she might be dreaming now; and if she is dreaming now, then her present sensory experiences are not veridical. The second conclusion, which I have chosen, is the possibility of universal dreaming. This conclusion follows closely to the previous conclusion, but has a different conclusion from the first two premises. In the possibility of universal dreaming conclusion, instead of thinking that she might be dreaming, the Meditator adds an extra step, stating that she must always be dreaming. From this step, she then follows that she must be dreaming now, which leads to the same end result as the universal possibility of dreaming. The real difference between these two conclusions is rather simple. While both of them state that it is possible that she is dreaming at any point in time, there is only one conclusion, the possibility of universal dreaming, that states that dreaming is taking place all the time. This constant dreaming forms the basis of the argument that there is no distinction between the real world and the dream world, since if there is a constant state of dreaming, there will be no difference between the two worlds.
After stating the Dream Argument, the Meditator moves on and offers the Painter’s Analogy. The Meditator states that what we see while we are asleep are “like painted images, which could only have been produced in the likeness of true things, and that therefore at least these general things – eyes, head, hands, and the whole body – are not imaginary things, but are true and exist.” (AW 28) This supports the conclusion of the possibility of universal dreaming, since if what we dream is modeled after what we see in real life, then we might have no way of knowing what the difference is. Furthermore, the Analogy goes on to state, “For indeed when painters themselves wish to represent sirens and satyrs by means of especially bizarre forms, they surely cannot assign to them utterly new natures. Rather, they simply fuse together the members of various animals.” (AW 28) This conclusion, while somewhat extraneous to the conclusion of the possibility of universal dreaming, brings up an interesting point. It argues that we cannot have any ideas that we have completely imagined. Everything that we think of in our minds is actually the product of a multitude of different objects, brought together in our minds to create something new. The best way to tie this in to the conclusion of the possibility of universal dreaming is to think that this creation of new ideas requires our mind to be dreaming, in the sense of suspending sensory input and instead relying solely upon what we already have in mind to create the unique object. This argument may run in to a problem, however, when we consider that if we are always dreaming, and have always been dreaming, then how have we been able to gather the ideas in our head that are necessary for the fusion of new things? The answer is simple: while conventional wisdom may tell us that we must use our senses to perceive things, the Meditator’s rejection of the senses as deceiving provides us with an easy way around this. Instead of having to gain ideas by using our senses, we can think that there is some external force that is responsible for putting these ideas in our minds.
After reading Meditation I, I think that the Meditator supports the possibility of universal dreaming. The Dream Argument seems to support the idea that we cannot distinguish between the real world and the dream world quite easily, and it follows that if we cannot do this, then it is possible that there is no difference. This possibility of universal dreaming differs from the universal possibility of dreaming in that while both state that the Meditator may be dreaming at the present time, thereby making her experiences non-veridical, the possibility of universal dreaming takes it a step further and supposes that every experience has been a dream. This is logical, because deciding when your experiences changed to dreams from waking experiences seems nearly impossible, so by accepting that all of our experiences ever have been dreams, we avoid this problem. Finally, the Painter’s Analogy works in by supporting the idea that none of our ideas are completely unique, and that since what we see in our dreams is based on what we see when we are awake, then we are hard pressed to determine the difference between the two worlds.

Now wasn't that deep and philosophically insightful? Yeah... didn't think so.

T-Minus 4 hours and 36 minutes.

END OF LINE.

I haven't eaten lunch, but I'm not really too hungry. I'll probably just have some goldfish or something. And currently I am off to take a shower, since I missed out on that earlier.

Ryan and I rearranged our room, and the pictures that I had taken previously are now out of date. I'll put some pictures up later though, I promise.

Friday will almost certainly be better. Just a philosophy paper standing in the way of an absolutely fantastic time. Well, other homework too, but that'll be pretty easy.

END OF LINE.

I also caved last night and bought the 20th Anniversary Game Boy Micro (the gold and red one.) It's pretty incredible and will be handy to transport around to class and other placesi n case i have a few minutes here and there.

Today's looking like lots of videogames, some computer fixing for my dad, and that's about it. Glad work is over; it was nice to naturally wake up and not have to be some place at 7:30 in the morning. Though that's what school's gonna be like next semester. Oh well.

Podcast is looking like a possibility. I'll have to see whether I really want to do it or not. I'm still unsure of what to do, but it could be a variety show, because I'm full of that.

Work today was eh. Lifting 75 lb TVs all day isn't my idea of fun, but it's not too difficult, just tiring on the back. But we were working at a compartively fast pace, so we can take long breaks and it's okay apparently. We will be doing the same thing tomorrow and in to Thursday, and so I'm definitely looking forward to Thursday. Only three more days of work, and then I'll be rolling in the dough somewhat.

Macworld announcements were also interesting. The MacBook looks awesome, I wish I had one. I question their naming scheme. I watched the end of the keynote to see Jobs demo the new iMac and MacBook Pro. He says that they're done with Power and want Mac in the names of their products, but I don't know what they'll call the PowerMac. The MacMac? BigMac? (Might be copyrighted) Simply Macintosh Pro? I also guess the iBook will stay the iBook based on the fact that iMac stayed the iMac, but then why go through the trouble of MacBook Pro? Maybe the iBook will change to MacBook Home or something in that vein. I am somewhat confused. Coolest innovation is the magnetic power adapter. That's one thing I wish I had. Though I like the green/amber ring of light on my power adapter and it doesn't seem that the new connecter has this.

Tomorrow's looking pretty chill. Work and then word on the street is George might be going to Jeremy's so I might head over there for a bit. Power Stone 2 is probably a much more exciting game with more than 2 people.

In unrelated news, I got new shoes which are just like my old ones but different colors. They're comfortable. I also got my bio book in the mail today, so I am set for school in terms of textbooks.

Beat Beast's Castle in Kingdom Hearts II, which was exciting. The cooperation attacks are nice, and together with Drive Mode make it seem almost unfair because you can just really beat up on people, but I wasn't the one who designed the game. On to the Land of Dragons, which will be rather simple since the enemies are supposed to be weaker than they were in Beast's Castle (and those enemies were pretty wimpy.)

For now I am out. I keep needing to do things about this website, but I'm sure they'll get figured out at some point. Maybe a podcast would be interesting, but I have no idea what to do it on, and I'm not nearly funny enough to have things to talk about that would interest people. Leave me ideas.

So when we last left our hero, I was heading to Florida. Sunny and 75 degrees is my ideal weather and that's exactly what it was the entire time we were down there. We didn't really do too much; a little shopping here, some eating out there, but overall it was just fantastically relaxing. As I explained to people, it was nice that I had such a long break on both sides because this trip used to really consume my winter break, but I didn't feel like I had all these things to do when I came back.

Kingdom Hearts II was here when I got back, so that was fantastic. It's been a little bit more challenging to translate than I had thought (think of Donald and Goofy speaking the language that you've only ever heard very clear pronunciation of and you'll know what I mean) but the game has been awesome. The changes that they've made so far have been great. I'm not very far in the game and it's going to take me a while to beat it, but I think I'm actually really learning some Japanese this way, so I'm down with that.

I've been working at Oakwood again and that's been okay. I'm really bad at working slowly on things and deliberately taking time, which is what Javier wants us to do, so we run out of things to do. Standing around isn't too fun, but it's $9/hr standing around. So it's okay.

Martha had a birthday party yesterday, so it was good to get to see people, but since I haven't been feeling great lately, I was ready to leave around 11, so I did. I came home and went to sleep on my couch and woke up at 10ish this morning so that was good. My day is looking like running to the bank, going to Best Buy for Seinfeld Seasons 4 and 5 (two for one deal!) and then going to church at 6:30. I just gotta double check my financials to make sure I can afford the Seinfeld.

Mario Kart DS Bundle (the red color is pretty sweet)
Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time
Sonic Rush
Who's Next Deluxe Edition
Depeche Mode: The Singles 86->98
An awesome 100% wool sweater
A ticket to see Queen at the MCI Center March 9
Ferrari Book from Hannah
Butterfinger and Reese's Big Cup from Samuel
$5 Giftcard to 7-11 from Matthew
A losing lottery scratcher
Bonsai Tree Magnetic sculpture

I think that's all... we'll be leaving for Florida at about 4:40 which means we'll be leaving home at about 2. JetBlue is the only way to go. Hopefully we don't run into any delays since it's raining here. I don't want to spend my day sitting in an airport.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Today I also went and visited Martha and we resolved issues and things. We decided that it's over for good, which we're both comfortable with and I'm glad that we're not hostile to each other about it. We bought each other Christmas presents; she got me Final Fantasy IV Advance (much appreciated) and a book of Sudoku puzzles, which are also cool. I got her a $50 Victoria's Secret giftcard, which she was impressed about because she didn't think I'd have the nerve to actually walk in the store. I'll admit I was sort of nervous, but it all went over okay. It would've been bad if the cashiers were only wearing lingerie, but they weren't.

I sorted things out with my order from Yesasia, so I should have Kingdom Hearts II when I get back from Florida, so that will be excellent. I think between that and work, my winter break is pretty much set.

In other news, Dad and I are going to the semi-finals and fiinals of the World Baseball Classic in San Diego the 18th and the 20th of March, so that will be awesome. For those of you that don't know, it's like the World Cup, except with Baseball and not. I'm hoping for Japan/United States showdown in the finals, but we'll see.

Tomorrow's Christmas Eve and I think I'll be sleeping in tomorrow morning. I feel ridiculously tired and I have no idea why. Good night!

We then went back to his house and watched Tron, which I had never seen before and liked. It will make for an exciting level in Kingdom Hearts II, that's for sure. I kinda wish I had a lightcycle but oh well.

Speaking of Kingdom Hearts II, it should ship tomorrow, which hopefully means it will be waiting for me when I get back from Florida. That would be really nice, but nothing could ever top the mastery of overnight shipping that was Gran Turismo 4 last year.

Hopefully I'll get some more grades back tomorrow, that'd be good.

In other news, the Senate defeated the ANWR provision in the Defense appropriations bill. So I can think that I actually accomplished something, though I bet both Moran and Warner voted for the bill. Oh well, I can dream, can't I? And I think Ryan would be proud of my action in democracy.

I'm currently trying to set up Mom's XM radio, since she got a new one since the old one was craptastic. Hopefully this one will be less sucky. The concept itself is awesome; the sound quality was just horrendous for some reason.

Tomorrow I will have to figure out things to buy for my family. They all deserve Christmas presents and so I shall buy them. I will have to figure out what to buy them though.

That's all for now.

Thank you for contacting me regarding oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). I appreciate your remarks and value your input on this important matter.

Nearly 60 percent of the crude oil we use in this country comes from unstable sources in other countries and the percentage is expected to grow with each passing year. This excessive dependence on foreign oil is caused by several factors, but most importantly because domestic production has decreased drastically in recent years. In fact, domestic oil production has fallen 17 percent since 1992. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the ANWR region stretches over 19 million acres, of which only 2,000 would be used for oil exploration. This small portion holds enough oil to boost domestic production by up to 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, which could save over $3 trillion American dollars from going into the pockets of foreign sources each year. As rising gas prices are adversely affecting consumers, manufacturers and farmers, utilizing the resources in the Alaskan region would greatly aid in stabilizing our nation’s energy needs.

Though I share your concerns about the environment and natural habitat, I believe exploration can be conducted in a responsible and environmentally friendly way as today’s technology is less intrusive than ever before. In fact, the federal government invested millions into research of the ecosystem and wildlife of the Arctic. The research reveals that the habitat and environment can be safely maintained if exploration is conducted.

Exploring ANWR will not only move our country towards energy independence, it will create 753,000 jobs in America. It is also worth noting that 19,000 of those jobs will be in Virginia by creating logistical, distributing and technical jobs associated with the oil industry. Every year, our nation loses over a million jobs in the oil industry to other countries. It is estimated that every $1 billion spent to develop domestic resources will create 12,500 jobs. For the sake of our nation’s job security, exploration in the Arctic is an opportunity that should not be taken lightly.

As you may know, the Senate took one step further towards exploration in our own country by defeating an amendment that would have prevented opening the North Slope of Alaska to oil and gas exploration. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives took this amendment off the table in the budget reconciliation process. It is my hope that the House of Representatives will reconsider domestic exploration in the upcoming conference report so that Americans can benefit from the promising resources available in our own country.

Please feel to contact me again about issues important to you. If you would like to receive an e-mail newsletter about my initiatives to improve America, please sign up on my website (). It is an honor to serve you in the United States Senate, and I look forward to working with you to make Virginia and America a better place to live, learn, work and raise a family.

With warm regards, I remain

Sincerely,

Senator George Allen

[Editor's note: I spent all day trying to fix Movable Type, so this actually from yesterday.]

So today was pretty productive, relative to other days that I've had. Woke up at around 11, ate breakfast, took a shower, and then headed over to Jeremy's house. We just played around on the internet, before heading over to my uncle Chris' to seek employment. We'll both be working at Oakwood as warehouse people. It's a decent job, especially since it pays $9/hr. After that we headed back to his house and hung out some more. We then proceeded to take a trip to Chipotle, EB Games, and Toys'R'Us. Chipotle was as good as last time; still don't think it's "legendary" but it's pretty good. EB Games... that stupid Game Boy Micro. It's one of those limited edition things that I'm really bad at resisting. Combine this with the fact that I own every other incarnation of Game Boy and I feel almost obligated to buy it. Resisted... for now. At Toys'R'Us we looked for the iDog that Jeremy wants for Christmas. They had a display version but not one for sale, which made him cry. Well, not really, but he wanted it. We then went back to his house again and tried to play Rez (the psychadelic music shooter game) but no dice because Jeremy's PStwo sucks. So I left and came back and discovered my copy of Rez (which I bought new for $16) had arrived from Hong Kong. So I popped it in and played for a bit, but then I headed over to church for confession. Confession is a rather interesting idea to me, in that I don't really understand why I have to say my sins to some other human when God already knows them and knows that I constantly repent them, but I don't mind too much. The priest I had was a William and Mary alum so he said that I got off easy since I was wearing my sweatshirt. Confession does leave you with a nice clean feeling though, and I think that's nice. Came back and have been on the computer since, setting this up and talking to people.

I also e-mailed both Virginia senators about voting against the newly amended defense spending bill that includes provisions for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Hopefully they actually read my e-mail and take action; it'd be nice to think that I influenced some sort of political decision.

That's all for now.