The Bostonian Abroad

I hate the library. Needed some books today for upcoming projects where the due date looms ever larger, so I traipse on in to pick up those books that I had already found on the computerized database so lovingly provided by the techno-wizzards of our esteemed third-tier institution. Upon my arrival to the appropriate floor, ( kept at a book-preserving, chilly -3 degrees) I cannot find the book I am seeking. Every other manner of book along the lines of my subject matter (i.e., Hindi) is easily found, but my particular book is nowhere to be seen. I check the print-out once more to see if I mis-read the thing. Nope. It has not already been taken out. Just not here. I am 0 for 1. Next, I trek on up to the 5th floor to get another book which is in a "special" section. This section is for the "rare" and "valuable" books, somehow all concerend with only the Pacific. Why books on this area of the world should be treated differently from say, South Am...

People are just dumb. Who cares where whoever was born? Ain't we all human in the end? So you were born a Hawaiian/something else, so what? "Oh, I'm poor because my native Pacific culture isn't being respected!" "Baloney". What of those non-Waianae-born Hawaiians from Hawaii Kai? They have no trouble "adapting" to the "dominant ideology" of the dreaded Haole. (And just who is this anyway? Me? But I am the result of 800 long years of English oppression of my ancestral home island of Eire! Surely I, an oppressed Irishman whose native language was murdered, whose native culture was crushed out of existence, whose religion was made anathema, whose ethnic identity, for what it is, is continually ridiculed and insulted, and whose native island is still, to this very day, divided by a foreign power, can't be included in this group!) It isn't so much a culture stomping on the neck of another culture, as it is a higher class...

First, An Observation On Options: I don't like fancy options like power windows or cruise control. I think they are nice and all, but not for a vehicle I own. If I am driving a rental car, then, I always take advantage of the extra features it may have, but in the long run, I don't want to have to go through the pain in the ass it is going to be when these things break down and start costing me time, money and agravation. Besides, what the heck is wrong with rolling the damned windows down yourself? Since when have we become so lazy as to balk at the mere thought of reaching over and working for some ventilation. And do I really need to save the muscle strain of pressing a gas pedal? I suppose if I lived on the mainland and drove for fifteen hour stretches, I might come to need that little added bonus, but on this tiny island, a fifteen hour trip would take me around the entire area two or three times, most of it sitting still in traffic, where cruise control would...