Something happened to me this weekend. My mind rebelled against school. Or my body, or both. I didn't do anywork at all compared to my normal hours and hours of reading and writng. On Friday I watched a Project Runway marathon for way to many hours. Yesterday I went to Niagara Falls with my cousin and her boyfriend. Today I feeling anxious, knowing that I didn't do the work I should have done for tomorrow's classes. Everytime I pick up a book I can't concentrate. I know that this is all created...I think I decided on Thursday night that I wouldn't be doing any work this weekend and I am sitting in that decision right now. There is some strange feeling of liberation however...since school started I have been dedicated. always doing all the readings, all the work, spending my weekends and free time immersed in school work, and now this. I can't say if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Next week Felly and I are attempting a trip to New Paltz...I have basically 2 weeks until hell descends upon me...hell being final papers due...3 20 pages papers in a matter of 4 days. I should be preparing for this. Getting my research together, working on outlines, blahdee blah. I can't quite come to grips with the fact that the first semester is almost over. This is a constant problem for me...recognizing that reality is right now, not some far off place that I can't point to.

so I have definetly become one of those people who reads other people's journals, but never writes one of my own. It's true, I do read, or at least skim the site everyday or everyother, but I never sign in...ah well.

Today was my scariest driving day in Buffalo, and I have an inkling that I haven't seen shit. I was literally at a dead stop on 33 because there was a truck that had gone over the railing and looked like it was dangling, but it was not, over I-90. The bizarro snow/sleet balls that were pelting my car made switching lanes rather dangerous and gasp! there is some accumulation on the sides of the roads tonight.

So uh, I have 5 weeks of class left That means 5 weeks till ALL my finals are due! holy effin shit. that amounds to about 60 pages I have to write on top of two "creative" projects that are also due. Isn't procrastination a wonderful thing!

I have an urge to post, but I don't really have anything to post about. I could talk about Planet in Peril or the California Fires or the party on Saturday. I could talk about the cat on my lap who just jumped in front of my monitor, blocking my view. I could talk about the weather. But, I think I am going to talk about dancing.

I have always loved to dance. I remember when I was young, grade school, middle school...my female cousins and I would put on shows. I would choreograph and then we would perform for the family. In middle school I would go to "activity nights" (they were dances and there was also volley ball or a movie) and I would get down to the Macarena and the Electric Slide. In highschool I kinda stopped...I was too cool for school dances and too busy getting stoned to care. In college I got back into it a little, but it was only encouraged by drunkeness. Dancing sober was out of the question. Now, I am sooo happy to be dancing again. I forgot that I could actually do it. I do have rythym. My musical past has given me the knowledge of counting and keeping the beat.

But the greatest thing, I think, is a kind of communication with the body. A kind feeling empowered with using the body to create. And feeling my body move and be moved. I don't hurt today, and many of you remember Felly and I's constant bitching after the first few weeks of class about the pain. Today I feel tired, maybe sore, but it is good. I am aware of my body rather than just floating around in it unnoticed. I was never one to excercise...and although I certainly am "excercsing" now, it doesn't feel like that. It feels like fun. I look forward to class, look forward to learning something new each time. Look forward to rockin out.

So yeah. I like dancing. And shit...who cares if you are good or not really? It isn't about that at all. I think in many ways it is similiar to music, the universal language. People have been dancing for...shit, I don't know how long...a long ass time I would presume. If you can get someone to dance, you can have a good time with anybody.

So, in conclusion, if you want to be inspired, come to the Battle on Saturday...and if not, I hope to see you all at Halloween party later that evening!

<object width="425" height="366"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KmsOIjzQ1V8&rel=1&border=0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KmsOIjzQ1V8&rel=1&border=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="366"></embed></object>

Ok so, this guy, uh "James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in the unravelling of DNA" ( ) has basically said that africans are not as intelligent as white westerners because of genes.
My first instinct is to say, of course they are not as smart because WE have denied them the ability to learn, exploited them, colonized them, enslaved them, and continue to do so. My next argument being that "intelligence" is relative. We as white americans have been trained to think in certain ways that is quite distinct from many cultures and this could easily be reflected in how we measure our intelligence vs. other culture's.
I thought Ok, maybe this guy did some "testing" and maybe his tests show some kind of difference, but as I kept reading, more and more information about this guy is revealed and not only is he racist asshole, he is also homophobic and mysogynistic. IE:

"In 1997, he told a British newspaper that a woman should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests could determine it would be homosexual. He later insisted he was talking about a "hypothetical" choice which could never be applied. He has also suggested a link between skin colour and sex drive, positing the theory that black people have higher libidos, and argued in favour of genetic screening and engineering on the basis that " stupidity" could one day be cured. He has claimed that beauty could be genetically manufactured, saying: "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would great."

There are toooo many connections here. Doesn't he know that "libido's" of black women and men have been used as a TOOL agaist them for hundreds of years? Does he have any idea that this kind of bullshit has allowed white men and black men to rape black women with the excuse that they are much more sexual than white women? Doesn't he know that the "black male rapist" was just another way to keep black men as predators to be feared? If this guy is so smart maybe he should know when to keep his goddam thoughts to himself.
And one more thing. I am always always always weary of science. Sometimes I really do think we are sticking our dirty little noses where they don't belong and that we are doing something terribly terribly wrong. What would happen if we made "all girls pretty"? What the fuck would that solve? And what would happen if we were able to screen out stupidity? It sounds more and more like a SciFi remake of the Holocaust to me. It makes me sick to my stomach that we are messing with nature's (god of you want) plan of who are are and what we are going to be.

On that note, don't forget about CNN's special report: PLANET IN PERIL premieres Oct. 23 & 24 at 8pm on CNN and stars 3 of my most favoritist men, Anderson Copper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Jeff Corwin from Animal Planet.