Well I haven’t been up to a whole lot the last few days. Tuesday I went to Christian Union as usual, this week it was a study of Jude. Right before it was time to come back for the evening stuff though, I had a coughing fit and re-ignited my sharp chest pain, which had been mostly non-existent for a couple days.
Wednesday was alright, I made it through most of the day and was actually feeling pretty good (my chest was feeling much better), until about an hour before bed I all of a sudden couldn’t stop coughing, which caused another flare-up of my chest pain. Argh! This time it didn’t totally go away after a night’s sleep, but at least it hasn’t been as bad today as it was late last night.
There was a staff strike here at Monash today. My Weather & Climate class at 9am was cancelled (Simon told us on Wednesday that it’d be pointless to try to get to uni in the morning), but in true physics form Fluid Mechanics was still on at 10am. I don’t think I’ve ever had a physics class cancelled for any reason, either at Gustavus or Monash. Not snow, September 11th, sicknesses or even strikes can stop the unstoppable force known as physics. Sigh. Apparently Monash is the protest capital of Australian universities, there’s been one or two student protests already this semester. Last semester there was a rather violent protest, in which some students staged a hostile takeover of the administration offices. Police were called in to that one, and some students were arrested and are being charged for assaulting police. The fact that the students are being charged is what’s caused the student protests this semester. That and Australian students are so used to having uni be free (the gov’t paid 100% of everyone’s university fees not all that many years ago) that they’re screaming bloody murder at even very small increases in fees that they have to pay now. Today’s staff strikes were due to their perception that they’re getting the shaft on wages. All of the activists, students and staff, always have flyers up calling Monash “Australia’s Meanest University.” Whatever. I just totally avoid the protests or activist gatherings, I wanna stay as far away from trouble as possible. The only real complaint that I have with Monash so far would be how they deal with technology, e.g. the internet and printing on campus. I’m getting absolutely screwed in those areas.
Tonight after a run to Kmart and Cole’s to pick up some cough drops, and Advil for my cough/chest and muffins for brekkies this weekend, I got everything packed up and ready to go for my four-day camping trip to Wilson’s Prom. And I must say I’m pleasantly surprised at the weight of my pack, it’s several pounds lighter than the one I took to the Grampians a month ago. Even though I’m not 100% with my cough or whatever, I’m still really looking forward to go. I don’t wanna miss out on seeing the Prom, and I’m tired of being cooped up on this campus for so long because I’ve been sick, I just wanna go somewhere and see something new, get out a bit. And maybe getting some exercise (by hiking around with a moderately heavy backpack) for four days will help me get rid of my illness. Sitting around doing nothing for three weeks sure hasn’t done much to get rid of it.
With the recent rash of hurricanes hitting the coastal U.S., some people have been wondering if there’s a connection with global warming. The answer is most definitely no, as hurricanes have been on the decline since the 1940s. CBS is at long last starting to say that they might be having doubts about the undoubtedly forged documents they aired on “60 Minutes” a week ago. They wanted so badly for the documents to be true so that they could nail Dubya, that they ignored the red flags that were all over the document screaming that they were forgeries. They’ve quite blatantly been in the tank for Kerry since last fall, they haven’t done a good job of hiding it. Not that I really trusted CBS much anyway, but now their credibility level has sunk to a new low. And attention all Packer fans: did you know that the Packers actually play at Lambert Field? Well, they do, at least according to John Kerry.
Well, I should finish a couple things up and then head to bed. I’ll be back Monday night!