Random Sunday

• Yesterday The Miami Herald ran an interesting and disturbing story - accessible by clicking here - about the rather generous amount of time off that Governor Crist has taken during his mediocre governorship, even as Florida arguably faces its worse housing market since the 1920's crash and as unemployment hovers well above 10% statewide. The thought that Governor Crist could be taking a well-above average amount of vacation time as millions of Floridians cry themselves to sleep at night, not sure how in hell they are going to pay the rent and feed their kids, makes me nothing less than red hot with rage and also beaming with pride that I voted for Jim Davis in 2006. Though I've known that I won't be voting for Mr. Crist in 2010 for some time now, this latest revelation only further harms my increasingly negative view of this highly expedient man, as recently as a year ago one of the only Republicans nationwide of whom I held a mostly favorable opinion. There can be little doubt that Governor Crist has been a colossal failure of a leader - in insurance, taxation, education, the state economy in general - and consequently, a recent poll has shown his approval rating below 50% for the first time. To be fair, it is true that he has one year left in office. The idealist might envision him ramping up his efforts to show bold leadership for our troubled state over the next year, but realism and the last three years would suggest that Florida - as it faces a near-existential crisis - will be "guided" by an absentee governor, a man far more focused on his Senatorial campaign than the job that voters elected him to in 2006 (and narrowly at that, as he only got 52% of the vote.) And even when Crist has tried to act as a leader, he seems only capable of gauging public opinion and blindly implementing policy based on the mob of the majority (though of course, like most Republicans he shares the unyielding fetish of ever-lower taxes, social services and balanced budgets be damned.) The most amusing (and oh-so-damningly hypocritical) thing about Governor Crist's record of chronic absenteeism is the fact that his campaign lambasted challenger Jim Davis for the same shortcomings during the 2006 campaign - remember those empty chair ads? Here's one Floridian who will find great joy in voting for any moderate or liberal Democrat who runs against Crist, more than likely Kendrick Meek.

• Fall has arrived in full blast here in Southwestern Pennsylvania! Though I had to abort my planned Vermont road trip due to inclement weather in Upstate New York, I am hardly being denied the pleasures of viewing Fall foliage, as Pittsburgh is not in the least disappointing me in that regard. I'll take some pics and post both to Facebook and here by the end of the week. (As nice as Fall colors are, a nice dose of realism is needed though; there are but a prelude to 6 months of barren, denuded landscapes, and I would never trade in my year-round summer weather for colors on a tree - no thanks!)

• I think I might have a knack for project management! Seeing as I would like to be a consulting partner someday (in the distant future), I suppose that's a great thing. I've had three distinct experiences as a project manager - my 3-month intern project while at ExxonMobil; various self-directed projects while working in the Heinz Alumni Relations office; and now, the Steel Industry Heritage IT assessment project that I'm leading for my Management Consulting class - and all of them have gone quite well. I enjoy the planning aspects, being able to work with various stakeholders, the politics involved, and the ability to accomplish quite innovative tasks under constraints and pressure. Will these skills transfer to my career at KPMG? I can only hope so, but time will tell...check back with me in the year 2015 for a more concrete answer there!

• Pandora is incredible, and you should set up an account there if you have not already (I am strongly considering upgrading to the premium account for $36 annually.) In fact, there was just a very interesting article in the New York Times magazine about this innovative Web 2.0 service, which is set to make a profit for the first time this year (you can read the article here.) Within the last month, Pandora has introduced me to two new artists whom I now adore - Matt Wertz and Owl City. Also, in addition to his great music, Matt Wertz is incredibly hot. One of the sexiest men I've seen recently. If you need proof, just click here. Mmmmmmmmm (since I'm almost always the youngest in any social circle, some folks recently have accused me of being ageist in my selection of men - that is an atrocious lie, and Matt Wertz is one thirty-something who quite easily discredits it!)
  

• At the beginning of this semester - after I recommenced blogging here at the end of my summer break - I wrote that I would accept nothing less than an awesome final semester at Carnegie Mellon. With six weeks left, I think it is safe to say "mission accomplished" in that regard. My grades are higher than ever, my social and party life has reached undergrad levels, and I enjoy all of my classes (even Object-Oriented Analysis and Design, a software design course that I would not have taken were it not required, promises next-to-no coding and should be semi-interesting.) This semester has been every bit as enjoyable as any of my semeters at UF, and it has yet again forced me to reconsider my entire perspective on change. Near the end of the semester I'll be blogging here one last time on the delicate subject of change, near the end of the semester.

• I found a really good interview online of Carl Hiaasen - accessible by clicking here. Hiaasen is a UF alumnus and a native South Floridian - born and raised in Plantation - and he is also my favorite editorialist (if you're curious, others on my list of favorites include Leonard Pitts, also of The Miami Herald; Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Bill Maxwell of the St. Pete Times; and the dynamic trio of Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, and Thomas Friedman from the New York Times.) Hiaasen is a best known as a (semi-) fiction writer, however, and I'm finally starting to dab into his fiction works - namely, I've just ordered "Tourist Season" and "Sick Puppy" from Amazon (along with a collection of hundreds of his editorials) and I can't wait to read both. If you're not familiar with Hiaasen, his claim-to-fame is his acerbic, sarcastic, humorous writing style through which he depicts events in Florida's development - typically greed, incompetence, outrageous behavior, and scams that defy belief - that are normal in the Sunshine State, but would seem like alien behavior elsewhere (I once remember reading about a Miamian calling 911 because a local Burger King was out of ketchup - and not in a facetious jest either...these are distinctly Florida things.) If you are a Floridian, particularly a South Floridian, I'd highly recommend becoming a regular follower of Hiaasen's Miami Herald column - I've read it religiously since I was a teenager.

• And as a last note, an update on my continuing issues with (those of my own) race. This semester has been yet another abject failure in that regard, and I'm essentially at the point of throwing in the towel. I'm 22, will soon have a Master's degree, and I still do not have a single Black friend in my inner circle of my 50 or so closest friends. I've never as much as made out with a Black person, never been to a club or entertainment venue where a majority of the patrons are Black, religiously avoid participating in groups like the Black Graduate Student Organization, and am, quite frankly, quite a bit awkward when placed in situations where most of the people around me are Black. The only Black people with whom I interact on a regular basis are my family members. But I am not a racist. If I have arrived at any one conclusion in my process of introspection on my thorny relationship with African American culture this semester, that would be it. There are extremely few Americans who have circles of friends as diverse as mine, and I am damn proud of that fact. South Florida is my adopted region largely because it is wildly diverse. I have attended a Jewish Passover seder, a Ramadan Iftar, a Chinese moon festival, a traditional Vietnamese dance festival (one of my favorite local restaurants while in Gainesville was a Vietnamese place), the Calle Ocho festival in Miami, and, yes, plenty of Appalachian-related things in Kentucky (just ask about those, you might be amused!) I am not a racist. I may be young, still in the process of discovering myself, and not sure of the answers as to why there remains a vast chasm between myself and the Black community - my own community - but I am absolutely certain that racism is not the reason. I'm not sure where to go from here, though. One thing that I will be doing is posing this situation to my grandmother and the aunt to whom I'm the closest when I visit them over the Thanksgiving break. Since my mom's death, those two have become by far the Black people to whom I'm the closest in this world, almost like odd surrogate parents. I love them both dearly, and they're both far older, more experienced, and wiser than me in their perspectives. I don't expect them to necessarily have an easy-to-implement answer for me, but I do think they'll have some advice for how I might proceed...or so I hope!