So lots of things rattling around in my head this week. To start off with, I distinctly overheard some of my students comment on my “beard” (it’s barely a goatee but definitely visible and I’m still not fully passing). It was unnerving. But I do think they figured out quickly that I know my shit so beard or not they learned lots. This is a concern of mine. I kinda wished the company could keep me on online stuff for a while since that would make it easier to transition but I’ll have quite a few jaunts over to our NYC facility and at some point, will have to address it with them as the physical changes become more and more prominent. In fact, K commented recently about how much facial hair (mostly under my chin and below) is growing. It almost feels like it appeared overnight.

This is one of the bigger challenges to transitioning while on the job, particularly one that has a work visa hanging over. It introduces whole new challenges into the mix. I’d rather wait until I have my green card to change my name but I think I may have to do it in the new year as the changes are coming far faster than I had anticipated. It must be a gene thing that all the guys in my family, particularly on my mom’s side, be hairy everywhere but on top (male-patterned baldness is very evident but it’s ironic how hairy we are everywhere else — go figure, eh?). It isn’t going to stop me from being open about my choices but sometimes you have to know when to wage the battle. This past week was the first time that I felt I was in a hugely conservative room. It was rather surprising but it has to do with the environment I was in (major, major Fortune 500 company that has huge inter-office politics and maintains an “old boys network” it seems).

Anyways, I am glad the week is over and I get a chance to relax some. I’ve been working on a few blogs, writing more to get myself used to writing lots (I want to participate in the “Write a Novel in a Month” contest/writing thingy — it’s good practise and since writing is something I enjoy, it’ll be fun). I’ve been reading and watching the US political system and it’s still an interesting thing. Last night was the debate and I nearly laughed my ass off when I read the following from the NY Times:

But Mr. McCain’s talk of experience too often made him sound like a tinny echo of the 20th century. At one point, he talked about how Ronald Reagan’s “S.D.I.” helped end the cold war.

Bullshit. The Cold War, as someone who lived through it, was ended because communism, specifically USSR communism, ended. It wasn’t fear of SDI but economic woes and a changing climate. Let’s face it: they knew the economy that they had created wasn’t helping, there were more calls by citizens for free votes and they wanted to do what 99% of all people want to do: just live life, raise their family and enjoy it. Is it that hard to imagine? The US does many great things but it isn’t nor has it been the saviour of the rest of the world. If anything, it’s almost like that over-helpful relative that doesn’t know when to stop. Yes, it’s nice to receive that help but sometimes ya gotta let the rest of us do our own thing. I find it rather ironic that the US Republicans discourage big government at home and it’s involvement in day-to-day life of the average citizen but have no qualms of sticking it’s governmental nose into the activities of the day-to-day lives elsewhere.

Kettle meet pot.

Pot meet kettle.

Exciting, no?

They baffle me at times. I just want to shake them and go, “Uh.. hello?? Anyone home?” In my web searching this morning, I bounced around a variety of sites and hit upon “Lipstick of a Wing Nut” from The Nation. They have posted an op-ed piece about 10 questions they’d want to ask Palin. The last one is one I’ve always wanted to ask those that are on the far right. But I have to say, the 10 questions are certainly ones I’d love to hear answers to. Not the fluffy answers that the handlers will have her say but honest, concrete with substance answers. Novel concept I know. I leave you with the questions to ponder. Maybe God will show up and offer His insight one day. Now that’d be neat.

§ Suppose your 14-year-old daughter Willow is brutally raped in her bedroom by an intruder. She becomes pregnant and wants an abortion. Could you tell the parents of America why you think your child and their children should be forced by law to have their rapists’ babies?

§ You say you don’t believe global warming is man-made. Could you tell us what scientists you’ve spoken with or read who have led you to that conclusion? What do you think the 2,500 scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are getting wrong?

§ If you didn’t try to fire Wasilla librarian Mary Ellen Baker over her refusal to consider censoring books, why did you try to fire her?

§ What is the European Union, and how does it function?

§ Forty-seven million Americans lack health insurance. John Goodman, who has advised McCain on healthcare, has proposed redefining them as covered because, he says, anyone can get care at an ER. Do you agree with him?

§ What is the function of the Federal Reserve?

§ Cindy and John McCain say you have experience in foreign affairs because Alaska is next to Russia. When did you last speak with Prime Minister Putin, and what did you talk about?

§ Approximately how old is the earth? Five thousand years? 10,000? 5 billion?

§ You are a big fan of President Bush, so why didn’t you mention him even once in your convention speech?

§ McCain says cutting earmarks and waste will make up for revenues lost by making the tax cuts permanent. Experts say that won’t wash. Balancing the Bush tax cuts plus new ones proposed by McCain would most likely mean cutting Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. Which would you cut?

§ You’re suing the federal government to have polar bears removed from the endangered species list, even as Alaska’s northern coastal ice is melting and falling into the sea. Can you explain the science behind your decision?

§ You’ve suggested that God approves of the Iraq War and the Alaska pipeline. How do you know?