Tuesday Sept. 1

I haven't been able to write much in here for the last few days because I've been so craptacularly busy. Look at me, I'm a big, bad, graduate student now huh? The problem isn't so much school, rather, this job in the policy analysis center. It's a time suck to a degree I wouldn't have imagined before. I basically do nothing of importance for 10 hours a week. There's so much more I could be doing with that time. I keep hoping that eventually they will have me doing something a bit more involved than data entry, but so far, that's the best I've got.

I'm having more school frustrations, but really, it's the same old crap from the same old people. No biggie. Funny how nobody can seem to get a website fully operational when they say they will. But, I do have a new frustration that is quickly making it's way up to the top of my list: parking. In the past, parking was the huge advantage NMSU had over UNM. You could always find a spot in a good area. This year, however, the parking situation has totally turned to shit around here. Some mornings I'm on campus before 8 and I still can't get a desired spot. When I come around noon on work days, forget about it. I might as well bring my hiking boots and tent (if I had those things, that is)!

The problem is that they are letting the school get too big, bigger than it can handle. I was disgusted when I read the reports about dorms being overcrowded. That should NEVER happen. Both dorm population, parking, and school admissions are completely controllable. How about some standards about who gets in here, rather than any shlub who can open the door?

Ah well, I can dream... I've decided that I've wasted way too much energy in my life being frustrated with this stuff. It's exhausting and not worth it anymore.

I meant to comment on Mad Men yesterday. I read an article in the NYT that summarizes where this season is going well. It says:

Is it just me or is “Mad Men” slowly
turning into “The Sopranos”? No, the men and women of Sterling Cooper aren’t
violently offing each other or hanging out in seedy New Jersey strip clubs.
(Though an illicit visit to the office roof was almost made this week.) But
increasingly, Matthew Weiner, a former “Sopranos” producer, and his “Mad Men”
writing staff seem to be so enamored with their characters that they are content
to assemble them in potentially interesting settings, let the cameras linger on
them and hope that an interesting scene emerges.

Basically, there is no arch emerging for this season so far and it's true, there isn't. A few things here and there that may portend to things to come, but so far, nothing is really happening. That was my complaint about season 2 of Burn Notice and Mad Men is doing the same thing. Yeah yeah, I know it's a character driven drama, but comon, it still needs to have some sort of story arch.

More on this later...