Switching blogs

I like blogspot, sure, but I am using wordpress for my journalism class and thus it has become the primary blog. Check it out. http://paulrolfe.wordpress.com/

It looks more professional maybe?

At least I don't have a kid

My current reporting project is on student parents at MU. A recent survey, 2006 I think, found that 75% of student parents had a GPA of 3.5 or higher. And a lot of them are graduate students, which I think says even more. Grad school is hard.

So, what's the correlation? Having a child makes you smarter? No. In fact, I might even say having a child in college makes you dumb. I say that because it adds so much more work, more costs, takes away time and friends, making life extremely stressful. But these people are staying strong.

In talking to them, I found that although I am right about how much busier and more difficult life is, they seem to have it figured out. They have their priorities straight. Other college students go out and party, they put off doing work, and their work suffers for it. They do that because they can, but as a parent there is no putting homework off. If they find a moment where they aren't sleeping, playing with their kid, eating, or going to school, they are doing homework.

So who am I to complain about getting up at 8am for class three days a week. Who cares if I have to stay up a little later and submit homework before deadline? I am living the life: going to school, relaxing, and doing essentially anything I want.

So next time you feel busy just remind yourself that you don't have to take care of a child. And if you do have to take care of a child, remind yourself that kids are awesome and that you rock. Maybe that will help...

Nervous to be back

I apologize to everyone who I have been with since I got back that has asked about Argentina. I don't know what to tell you. Everyone wants to know my favorite part, the adventures I had, what my internship was like, and so on. And I have nothing to say still. I knew I wouldn't and I do not.

Here is the truth. I was just living there for three months. I didn't have huge adventures or do anything crazy. I didn't get a whole lot from my internship. I didn't have a favorite part. I enjoyed myself and lived like someone else for a summer. How do I explain this, without making it boring and miserable and brief? Because my description cannot be brief. People expect five minute stories about the things I did, I need to wow them with my South American journeys, I need to make this epic for them.

Here's my plan: brainstorm two good stories to tell. Sea Salt and the action at La Boca.

And say this: It was an experience I needed. I found my passion for planet earth, was able to live in someone else's shoes, and speak Spanish the whole time. I don't have concrete lessons to give you, it will have to suffice to say that I grew.

On my internship: I didn't do anything journalistic at all. I did some editing and studied the art of event highlights videos. More importantly, at Greenpeace I learned that for all of the problems there are we can actually do something. Before this I had always felt the worlds problems were beyond fixing, people just don't care enough. But now I see that they can care, if they know, and then we can do something. I feel like I'm being very idealistic sometimes when I talk like that, so I still have that hopeless part of me apparently. Yet I have the desire to make changes now. I am starting to see things differently I think.

Is that sufficient?
Too vague.
Perfect.

Whispering harms vocal chords more than yelling

My heart beats so hard it shakes my whole body when I lay on my stomach. I wonder why it beats so strongly, obviously for me, but now I just feel like I'm being full of myself.

I can't tell if I'm tired. I think I'm just tired of thinking about the task of writing the paper which is due in the coming days. Perhaps it would be a bit easier if I didn't think about it so much. My 7th grade english teacher said that even though you aren't consciously thinking of something it is still back there somewhere "incubating". I'm going to allow this paper to incubate the rest of tonight. I had it on the front burners all day so far. That prompted a page of worthless crap, a headache, and a feeling of worthlessness. Needless to say, one of my better days?

Here are some things I was writing earlier, that I enjoyed:

I miss old friends. What would happen if I tried to connect to them? Could I? Am I interesting enough to make it worth their time? Probably. I just don't know in what way.

To Español:
I love you. Let me hold you. Let's be alone together. We can make out all day.

"I whispered sweet nothings into sweet nothings."
-Paul Rolfe

Córdoba, the Oviedo of Argentina

I should preface this with the following statement. I went to Oviedo, Spain for a month last summer and I loved it. I shall list off some similarities I noticed between Córdoba, Argentina and Oviedo, Spain.

The club we went to was small and you could actually dance, and it rocked. Just like Oviedo.
You can walk everywhere if need be, or you can take a taxi when in a rush. Just like Oviedo.
Córdoba is full of college students. Just like Oviedo.
The center of town was a big Cathedral where everyone met. Just like Oviedo.
I loved it there. Just like Oviedo.

I wonder if I took any pictures that capture it. I will see.

Argentina and Me

I got off the plane, I got on the plane. The brief eternity in the middle was enjoyable

These two first months have gone by fast, in the sense that they are over and I am now in the present. Everything seems fast after its over. And I still have four more long yet brief weeks left. If you know what I mean.

Here's the deal. I'm in Buenos Aires and I am working at a pointless internship and taking pointless classes. But the most important part of what I just said is that I am in Buenos Aires. Just being away gives a whole new perspective and way of life. It's something I am finding very hard to express. When someone asks me what I did here and what my favorite part was. What do I say? Being there?

I got a sense of what life is like in another place. And I have traveled places before, lots of places really and nothing has been as different as this. Living for three months in a giant south american city has been eye opening really. I have found my passion for planet earth and found motivation to do something. I can understand another way of life and I also really think I am supposed to do something important. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

However, I will inevitably get the question, "What was your favorite part?"
I will have to come up with a response by the end of this trip.

I also say "I" a lot.

It's been 11 days

You may have heard by now, I am Greenpeace Campus Coordinator at Mizzou for Climate Change. I started by contacting pre-existing groups on campus, namely Sustain Mizzou, to offer a partnership. Also I predict I could use some help from them getting Greenpeace a foothold on campus. Especially as far as registering with ORG and stuff. I don't even know if I'm supposed to do that.

Watchtvsitcoms is amazing. I am currently watching Quantum of Solace. Sure I have to load it for 20 minutes to watch 5, and sure it sometimes just stops loading, but it is still free movies and tv shows. That's all I need. That and a more varied diet.

My pee smells funny. All these empanadas and ham and cheese medialunas are creating a stench in my system. Also I haven't been exercising as much. An overall health breakdown, something that doesn't concern me too much. I'm still young and fit.

In conclusion. I am glad I will be doing things next semester. Other possible hobbies might include LOST club, boardgames club, and continuing volleyball (?). I have become a green-environment-efficient-energy nut, and sorry if I begin informing the whole world all about it. They just gots to know.

Note to self: Next time I want to talk about my Argentina experience in specific a little more.

I say for you be wrong with making dirty everywhere

I wish I was better at sentences that had terrible grammar, yet made sense. And also made my belly bounce with laughter.

The rumors are true, I applied to be a Greenpeace organizer for Mizzou as we do not have one. I don't know how their application process works exactly. It seemed very informal and almost as if no one would ever actually look at it. And I am also very under qualified. Honestly. On the other hand I would be pretty good at it, I really don't do anything else.

I watched some interesting videos on TED yesterday. My faves include the biosphere 2, mindboggling science, and global priorities. All very future-science-world problems oriented. In biosphere 2, Jane Poynter says that concrete absorbed a crap ton of their oxygen in the biosphere and my immediate reaction was, concrete is the devil. But it probably doesn't work how I'm imagining it does.

Che and a radio show

The empanadas de carne from the place by Lo's are indeed fantastic. And I skipped work today. I'm such a bad ass. (He was not.)

Sometimes I get the Arrested Development narrator in my head.

I just watched Motorcycle Diaries too. I liked it. I can relate to it a lot right now. Because it is essentially about how this road trip made Ernesto Guevara into Che. Simply being outside of your own little world does give you so much more to take in. And it does change you.

I am currently listening to the Zeitgeist radio show. And I am somewhat frustrated with Jacque, the Venus Project founder. I like some but not all of his ideas. And his contradictions are making me question the validity of this idea. He has said things like people will not have opinions, they will have facts. But then later he said that if you disagree with someone then you have the tools to solve that problem. If there are no opinions, there are no disagreements. Hm?

"You are only as free as your purchasing power allows you to be."
-I did like that quote.

The transition involves a movie, it sounds fun. There is a lot of infrastructure work going into this movement at the moment, and I realize I can't truly contribute to it directly. But I can work on myself. And maybe that will rub off onto others. I don't know. So that means going back to working on my own concepts. It's difficult to accept a world in which people are just going to be good because they were raised to be good.

What will happen to our current culture, our current media. Put it all in museums and not show it to our children? Probably a good idea. That is very far into the future. As have been all of my thoughts now. I wonder how we apply this way of thinking to our world now? Can we? Do I have to just go along with everything now and pretend it's all good until it fails? I wonder.

I got shit to do though. Bye.

What am I up to?

It's interesting being abroad for me because I somehow feel more connected to things that are going on around the world and frankly, it is depressing. And what's worse is that people just accept it. I don't mean to belittle everyone who complains about things and yet is enamored with the monetary system and the way things are, but there is a way to fix everything. You just have to accept change. A big change.

Anyways, I worked the past two days. Only one more workday left. I think I smell bad and I finally bought something for Lo because she never told me what she wanted. So I get it out of the way. Seth had a very exciting day I guess. Being invited to do this theatre thing and all. I wish I could do it. I love improv, but it seems I will be using my excellent ability to think on my feet for other endeavors. Maybe I should aim more for public speaking and stuff. I will have to do it to get the word about the future out to people.

On the Venus Project website it says they are trying to make a feature film about society as they see it in the future. I wish I could help with that too. I just feel quite useless right now. I am not doing improv, making movies, or writing. I suck.

I need to do something. A common theme in my life. So I shall make a resolution, as is customary when I feel I am a lazy sack of poo poo. My resolution: Write a short story about the transition to a new society following one man. I think that would be fun.

Also when I get back to the states I need to start a group of some sort. I might seek out the local Greenpeace coalition somehow. I like them. I need to brainstorm what I can do. I'll do that tonight with Lo.

And now. I will cease to type.

My New Vision

I have to say that I actually have a goal for my future and the future of all. And it will sound crazy to most people, so I have not made any attempt to let people know this blog is here yet, because I am still forming my view of this future. It is called the Venus Project, I was introduced to it by a documentary called Zeitgeist. I feel somewhat naive for even considering this way of thinking, but it makes more sense than society now. I just need to more clearly form my opinions and my answers to my own doubts.

So, what is this new vision? It is one without the monetary system. A system that just leads to perpetuating scarcity and human deprivation. There must always be losers in this system driven by greed. It is said to promote development and give people incentive. I used to agree with this, if there is no need for money, why would people do anything? The answer, I think, is that we misjudge human behavior. In a world where the earth's resources are seen as the common heritage of all earth's people, behavior will be different.

There are numerous flaws in the current system that make sustainability impossible as population grows and resources run out. The answer is a resource based economy run with efficient use of technology. The Venus Project already has plans for cities and the technology already exists. The issue comes in with how society reacts in this new world. That's what I am trying to imagine. How do we even transfer to this? Very broad questions that I have no haste to answer. Mostly because I can't do anything now. But I am thinking about it.

Here I will briefly address a few things I am thinking of right now. I don't want to address everything here. It would take forever. This will be a continuing piece.

Incentives? If money is one's only incentive I would not trust anything that happens. A doctor who only works for money and not science and bettering society does not sound like a good doctor to me. If the auto-industry is based on making money, why would they not sell cars that fails after so many miles or years? Well they essentially do, because the technology exists to make cars that don't use fuel and require little to maintenance. So how can you say that money is a good incentive? I would even go so far as to say the best things in this world have come from those not interested in making a buck. Think of great composers, think Da Vinci, think Darwin, think Wright brothers, think Tesla. Great things come from people who see the inherent good of progress, not from money.

Laws? We create laws to create a shunt for the flaws in our society. People steal because money has made them greedy or they need food to eat. So we make a law that says, don't. The question is can we outgrow the need for someone to make rules for us? Because natural law is the only law that truly matters. If there is something that people do that hurts or endangers the rest of society, you simply make it impossible. Example: speeding. Use technology to prevent it, magnets in roads, sensors in cars, and other solutions are available. Example: Murder. It would most likely not occur once we eliminate the things that create envy, greed, and competition. There would simply be no need for murder or violence. However, this is not a Utopian society, just one that allows growth and participation by all. But human behavior would be such that violence is an obsolete practice.

I don't feel like diving in anymore. Other topics I'd like to dive into later: What would people do? What do I mean by different societal values? Why can't we fix things with the current system?

In the meantime, let's look at the things people are trying now. Something interesting me is the "Green Wars". The race between nations to become most energy efficient. I really hope this develops into a phenomenon. I do root for the current society, but I know in the end it will fail. But I will encourage it while it exists. And when it falls, I want to be ready with the solution. Chao.

Getting Started

I will be making a more regular attempt at blogging. I am quite certain I am the only one reading this, but nonetheless I would like the knowledge that someone else could be reading it. It will be nice to be in public.

Currently I am trying to make a photo album online so that people from home who don't have facebook can see my pictures. Mainly just my mom I guess. I was going to use Picasa, but they don't have an uploading app for iPhoto. There is some experimenting to be done.

In other news, I had a good time in San Antonio de Areco on Saturday. Wonderful to be out of the city. And when I got back I finished Arrested Development off. The perfect weekend, no?

And I just learned of a mexican place fairly close. Fabrica de Tacos on Gorriti and Armenia(?). I shall test it out soon.

And as this is the beginning of a new string of posts. I would like to end by saying, "Something inspiring."