It's better by far to get paid  

I've been having a hard time motivating myself to write lately... the news is all depressing, terrorist attacks all over the map, and the Bush people looking less and less earnest every day on Iraq. Plus I'm a little burnt out I think - yes the opera experience was terrifically energizing, but by comparison blogging about current events is almost a chore. I'm having the same difficulty with schoolwork. Regression analysis? Who needs it! Instead I've been listening to Liz Phair, trying to tune out the quibbling on my latest group project, and basically in denial about the fact that my summer plans fell through while I was distracted.

As far as this blog goes, I don't intend to turn it into some kind of melancholy journal, but I think I do want to try and widen the focus a little bit. When I started doing this, I was thinking in terms of a tight political/economic focus... after all, here I was studying policy, drinking down everything I could find about world events in the leadup to the war... the blogosphere seemed, well, pleasantly atmospheric. Not so now, at least for me. The political discussion is all stale, so factionalized and emphatic. Debating postwar Iraq policy feels pointless in the current political atmosphere, and discussing the Democratic primary is a tragic waste of breath.

Anyway... I don't guess this rant is particularly helpful or interesting to anybody so I'll desist for the moment. I'll try be back soon with a post on the abortive/unrealized Hart campaign, and maybe something about the Matrices?