Some clarity, thank you sir! / Civil and other wars / Walking / Still winter

Every day we are forced to die to the self we have already achieved. Only by accepting our mortality we can have the courage to change and grow. Karen Armstrong in A short history of Myth

Some clarity, thank you sir!

The committee has convened, pored over my PhD-application, and decided that I am not the type of a person, who should pursue a PhD in MIT. Shit happens. Now I have to activate some other plans.
I will apply to Berkeley and Stanford. And if they agree with MIT, I will try MIT again. Or something. But I will get a PhD in not too distant future. Just wait and see. And then I have still other plans, which are still at infant stage.

Civil and other wars

There are several parties waging several wars in Iraq. Juan Cole provides an excellent summary of current events. They are rather depressing. 60 people were killed on Sunday, 90 on Monday. Not even Mr. Cole can make any sense out it anymore. Some sources claim that the US Army attacked a group of civilians and killed scores of them. This time using machine guns etc, so it is not "collateral damage" as it would be if they would have used missiles. US Army claims that the Iraqis faked the whole event. Nobody knows why they would have done so, and even if they did, who are they. Some news claims that some party in Iraq want the current US ambassador out of country, some claim that the US want the current prime minister to resign. It is very confusing. All we know for sure is that whatever solutions there were last week, they are not there anymore. What a mess.
mMeanwhile, back in US and UK, many commentators are claiming that imperial overreach is accelerating the global decline of America. It may well be. And China is taking over. Maybe Mr. Bush is not on the payroll of oil-companies but of the Chinese government. What a conspiracy that would be!

Walking

Finally, I mustered enough energy to walk back home from the office. It took 1h40min to walk 10 kilometres. Not bad in this rainy and slippery days. In a month, I intend to be able to complete the walk in 1h30min. I hope that this excessive exercising has some positive effects, for I have to sacrifice some of my reading. But I think my walking enthusiasm may not last long.

Still winter

Sometimes it is not that hard to remember that Finland is the far north. Today is one of such days. It was snowing heavily when I walked to the Pasila station. It took 3 minutes longer than usual. I also had to weare gloves, which is really rare and sissy.
Walking about 40 minutes in the morning before work somehow wakes me up. It also gives me good appetite right at lunch time.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs March to June 2006".