Only 30% Fucked

Not going to write much. Still lots of studying to do. Plus my brain is in no shape to take on the task of writing more than two good paragraphs. Considering that my grade for this class is based on the performance of others, and considering that the only bases I have to compare myself to my classmates are the means and standard deviations of the scores from each of our three midterms, I honestly can't say what I'm going to end up with with any degree of certainty, particularly if I don't know what the final will yet be like.

However, I know how to at least attempt 7 of the 10 problems that will likely show up. Which ain't bad. If I work hard, I might be able to add another type or two to my repetoire. But my brain is seizing up in protest, and my eyes sting from lack of sleep despite waking up in the afternoon for the past two days. I'll be riding back to Katy with John and Jenny, but I probably won't be very good company, passed out in the back and drooling.

But anyway, I have about 80 minutes to go before I have to start walking. Exam preparation could certainly have been better, but knowing me it could certainly have been worse too. Stupid class-skipping stupidness.

The road to serfdom is paved with good intentions

But that has absolutely nothing to do with why I'm here. Two things:

One more grade has been reported, and it is with great pleasure that I present it.

Globalization: A

It's lovely how classes can have such succinct names, yes? After checking Blackboard to see how I did and to see just where I fell on the grading scale, I calculated a 90.25% average, with 90% being the minimum for an A. Holy shit do I love cutting it close. I did get a bit more hopeful after I turned in the final exam when the professor thanked me for the second time in two days for my participation in the classroom. And thank God I participated, because that got me three extra credit points at the end that squirted me into w00t.

However, my final final is tomorrow. And I haven't studied contrary to plans, contrary to needs. It's Differential Equations, and the class is a bit of a motherfucker. I have no idea what I'm going to do in the intervening twelve hours between the present and my final, except that there will probably be very little sleeping. I may come by beforehand to give you an update as to the prognosis, but I will say right now that the final grade probability distribution breaks down like this:

A: 20%
B: 70%
C: 10%

And since I have been playing a lot of poker recently (profiting approximately $40 after playing in approximately 40 sit-n-go tournaments), I like to think of these percentages in their poker equivalents. So, the chances of me getting an A are about the same as catching a flush on the river if I have four of a suit on the turn. The chances of me getting a B are about the same as pocket kings beating AK off-suit before any cards are shown. The chances of me getting a C are about the same as QJ off-suit beating pocket queens.

Thinking of this does not help at all. Unless the situation is guaranteed to be 100% solid in poker I always have that feeling of apprehension especially since I've seen all of the unlikely events happen, sometimes to me. Poker gives you really weird feelings toward probability.

So we'll see what I do to make some of those percentages go up and down. ('Cause I know you're interested.)

In other news, Izmir hosted the latest protests against Islam in Turkish government. Over one million turned out, but at least a lot of them seem as hostile to military coups as they are to political Islam. This is good. I just hope that they don't start tacking back towards the military if the elections don't go their way, particularly since the polls suggest that the moderately Islamist AK Party will win the elections again.

Also, I'd like to ask the Turkish military to please be more reconciliatory towards the Kurds, both within Turkey and without. I'd be particularly devastated if you decided to take action without approval from your masters in the government.

Bol sans, Türkiye.

She kisses like a Missus

Though she curses like a Miss.

Good evening, friends, copains and enemigos. I realize I've been remiss in failing to review the last album by The Ericked Codies. I'm not going to do it here either, but I'll say this much: it's awesome. Easily my favorite recording by the self-styled brothers o' awesome. We get a much fuller range of Eric's (well, I think Eric's) production skills and lyricism, and we get a much more vivid look at Cody outside of his instrumentals. A lot of soul went into this mega-album, and it shines through brightly. If there is one criticism I have, it's that Eric seems to have mostly abandoned his ventures into rap, which provided a fun contrast throughout much of The Ericked Codies' debut album. All criticism notwithstanding, however, I recommend this album to everyone who ever liked music.

I also took my Discrete Mathematics final today. It wasn't too hard, but there was a question that I apparently completely missed because I wasn't sure what was meant by "elemental argument". So it will be a close call, but I believe I did well on the rest of the test, so I am hopeful, predicting an A with 75% certainty.

In other academic news, two grades have been reported:

Intermediate Microeconomics: A
Economic Statistics: B

Which much relief and glee, this all but guarantees I'll be able to register for Honors Game Theory next semester. Here's to hoping I can pull the last three As out of the fire. My last final is on Tuesday in Differential Equations. The class has kicked my ass, but the professor has provided us with a tremendous boon in telling us the subject of each of the ten questions we'll be seeing, allowing us to concentrate our studying. An excellent result will make an A possible.

Updates will come as more information becomes available. Until then, hasta la byebye, dear hearts.

Fuck Turkish Secularism

My sentiment comes to you at least a week late, but I've been harboring it ever since the fiasco with the Turkish presidency started to unfold. Last week's edition of The Economist featured a large Turkish flag with a reaching hand's silhouette on the cover with the title "The battle for Turkey's soul". The associated article can be found for free through this link. A companion article from the same issue can be found here. For those of you who don't care to read an article or two at this moment (but want to read the disconnected rambling of a non-journalist), let me provide a brief synopsis:

The president of the Republic of Turkey is elected by the Grand National Assembly (Parliament), and he wields moderate power, including the ability to block legislation and appoint the Chief of the General Staff. At present the post is filled by a secularist judge, and many believe that he is the last remaining check on the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), which is moderately Islamist and which many fear would exercise its expanded power to Islamicize the Turkish Republic if the president were one of theirs.

In the history of the Republic, no president has had Islamist roots with the exception of Celal Bayar, who was sentenced to death, which was then commmuted to life imprisonment, and later pardoned, after the first Turkish military coup in 1960 (his prime minister wasn't so lucky--they just hanged him). We see a natural aversion to Islam in Turkish politics partly because of Bayar's party's governance, partly because of Atatürk's secularist vision and the resultant reforms, and partly because the Turks largely adore and trust the military, viewed as the guarantor of stability and prosperity after its four coups since Atatürk's days (in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997)

Why is this relevant? The current president's term is about to expire, and to replace him the AKP had nominated Abdullah Gül, a respected statesman and the current foreign minister. And immediately the secular elites got to protesting. Hundreds of thousands in Ankara, still more in Istanbul, chanted slogans and waved banners demanding a secularist president. Now I love my people, but they can be unconscionably superstitious, reactionary, pig-headed and paranoid if given half a chance. The AKP has shown little if any inclination towards dismantling the secular state and is in fact responsible for a whole slew of reforms that previous governments never quite got around to, prompting the most excited response from the EU that Turkey has ever managed--not that the response was much more than tepid, but it was a significant improvement. In fact, any drifts towards a more religious state have more often been quashed by the EU's stern warnings rather than the secularist president, and if the army decides to intervene again, Turkey can kiss her slim hopes of EU membership goodbye for decades. Already Turks have grown strong feelings of resentment towards the US and the EU for many reasons, and Turkey will be hurt considerably if the US and EU reciprocate (or, in the case of the EU, reciprocate more).

The single opposition party in Parliament with any degree of clout, none other than Atatürk's old Republican People's Party (CHP), has boycotted the balloting for the presidency, preventing Parliament from reaching a quorum and nullifying the vote. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for general elections to be moved forward a few months, to July, in hopes of resolving this situation. And all the while the army sits there and glares threateningly. The army has also made some threats, suggesting that it may have to intervene to protect secularism if it seems that Atatürk's principles are in danger. The AKP government has been surprisingly effective unlike the vast majority of Turkey's previous governments, which have been marred by horrid leadership and pathetic policy; Turkey does not need another coup.

If the AKP has a dark side, let them show it like every other governing party does. Turkey is supposed to be a moderately mature and ever-maturing democracy, but its growth will be stifled if the military decides to shield the people from their own will every time they think something is wrong. Turkey will not become fanatical if you permit moderate Islam just as Germany under the Christian Democrats is not fanatical. But if you repeatedly silence the millions of pious Turks, particularly when the government they've chosen is performing admirably, then you will truly need to worry about Islam in Turkey.

Genital warts are disturbing

As are other things caused by various strains of the human papilloma virus. Like cancer. Everywhere.

I took my statistics final yesterday and completely bombed it. I think I'm due for a C in the class now if I don't do something crazy. Like petition to retake the God damn exam. Which I'm doing.

In other news, I need a drink. Now stay tuned for angry Turkish ranting time. (Though it's well possible you're reading this after the rants since the newest posts appear at the top. If you're one of the awesome people who endeavors to read posts in chronological order, give yourself a pat on the back and a cookie.)

Chèvres à l'avant!

I love Danielle.

In other news, I've had the distinct pleasure of relaxing for two days. I am now going to relax for a little more of this one before I work diligently to prepare for my statistics exam. The official tally of my grade tells me that I'll need an 86 on the final to get an A, which is very doable. A similar tally for Discrete Mathematics tells me I'll need either an 85 or an 86. And, judging by how everyone has been performing, an 86 in Differential Equations would probably bump me into the A range.

So now all I have to do is get there. Damn I hate this part.

And I have six hours of labor to do for the co-op before finals finish. As you can guess, I'm fucking stoked. Fucking stoked.

The best part is that after this, my summer vacation will be filled with telling people to save the environment by giving me money and signing petitions. It's for a good cause: trying to get legislation enacted to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and ensure that we are using renewable sources to generate 20% of our energy needs by (I think) 2015. And I'm going to be a field manager! This means that I give some orders to the other people asking for money, and thusly receive slightly more money. I'm hoping to earn a sizeable amount of cash by doing my part to prevent the sweet, sexy momma that is Earth from letting herself go and getting all fat and gross and sweaty and generally unpleasant for human life. I like having money.

I wish I could see my friends instead, though. I miss my friends.

I am gonna make it through this year, if it kills me

That's right. For those who know what the title means, you're anticipating the follow sentence, which I dedicate to those who don't know: I am now the proud owner of my first The Mountain Goats album. Specifically, The Sunset Tree. I also own two The New Pornographers albums. Thank you, Googlezon, for providing this opportunity. Both acquisitions were really long overdue.

You know what else is long overdue?--Well, no. Better: You know what I'm supposed to be working on but am not so that I may blog? No? My economics project! Yes! Also, I was supposed to get The Flaming Lips and Of Montreal before anything else, but Amazon didn't put their stuff on sale.

Don't worry, I won't go on now to bore you with details about my project. I'm much too tired and short on details to do that. Let's just say I'm losing my mind.

And for some unknown reason, I keep thinking of the fragment of a line by the little boy in Angels in the Outfield: "God, if there is a God, [please let the Angels win]." I can't remember exactly what he says, but I'm tempted to offer up such an agnostic's prayer for some undefined desire that I have. Maybe, "God, if there is a God, please deliver me from this work." But I don't think that God, if there is a God, would approve of little men shirking their duties for the sake of avoiding a little pain. I wouldn't really either, but I'm hardly in any condition to plow through. I need to do a better job of taking care of myself and my studies throughout the semester to prevent this sort of predictable, finishing collapse. Every time I drive the battered old van that represents me past the finish line, sometimes with more dents and broken windows and missing doors and leaking carburetors and conflagrant engines than otherwise, but always through. This fact is at once heartening and disspiriting, and I don't know which feeling predominates right now.

Also, I haven't eaten dinner yet. This is because today's cooperative meal was apparently so good that everyone ate all of it before I could get down forty minutes after dinner started. Fuck yes. Now I get to order pizza!

God, if there is a God, please knock some sense back into me. But don't send Eric.