had breakfast with denise and sara this morning. they called around 8 and I met them over there (at the brickhouse, of course). good to see them. they're a bit jetlagged and culture shocked, although I'm not sure they noticed. it's really overwhelming to come back and suddenly be in the midst of this world... everything considered, they handled it really well. breakfast was nice and quiet, then we went down to the beach. sarah came and met us and we sat at the juice place on westminster, and ran into more and more people; that's when it started to get socially intense. denise did mention it was a bit much, afterwards. I enjoyed it, although when others are overwhelmed you kinda just have to realize that they're too preoccupied to really pay attention to everything (me), so I just sorta sat back and watched it all.

it's been a pretty quiet week. sunday evening I went to dinner with aliza__ over at her place. after dinner we took photos of each other wearing her underwear and a dog mask. that was fun. monday we went to dinner again, this time to a mexican place on pico... lara's(?). tuesday, tim had plans (oh he's back from guatemala and had a great time bytheway), so we didn't go to figure drawing. I just stayed home and fiddled around making an ostrich rider image (see above, if you didn't figure that one out) on the computer and then reading. yesterday, terrell called to ask if we could put the show off two weeks because he has some people who want to rent his space for all of january. I agreed, and so the show is now rescheduled for feb 11th. went to taco night at don antonio's with michelle and jordana, jordana paid for us as a cmas present, which was very nice of her. michelle had a flat tire, so we put her spare on before driving home. I'm gonna take her to the airport today at five, and then maybe go over to a gathering at kimmi's with school people.

I wrote that letter to the LA Times that I posted here the other day. then yesterday, I wrote another, in appreciation for an article by Tom Hayden called The myth of the super-predator, maybe I'll start writing the LA Times more often... we all need a hobby, right? anyway, here it is:

Thank you Tom Hayden for pointing out that societal factors play a role in
propelling inner-city youth to commit violent crimes. We cannot stop violent
crime until we take steps to understand what factors lead criminals to commit
it. The continued punishment of criminals through incarceration and execution
simply exacerbates the problem while ignoring the cause. Our prisons must focus
on rehabilitation, our schools and communities must focus on prevention, and our
government must work to alleviate the factors that lead our citizens to commit
these desperate and tragic acts of violence and outrage.

Blaming the
criminal for the crime is like blaming the sneeze for the cold. As long as we
continue focusing on the blaming of individuals for societal problems, we will
continue living in a world with violent crime and terrorism. As long as we try
to solve crimes with punishment and execution, and as long as we try to solve
terrorism with assassination and war, we will continue living in an endless
cycle of violence. I thank the LA Times for publishing Mr. Hayden's article and
also for publishing the Tookie Williams timeline (Chronology: The Life of
Stanley Tookie Williams, Dec. 13), the print version of which included a photo
of a ten year old Tookie. Anybody who saw that photo had to consider how
differently things might have turned out for that little boy, had circumstances
been different.

So the thing about writing letter to the editor, one of the things anyway, is that they're supposed to be only 250 words long. so, after writing the really long one I posted the other day, I did my best to shorten it. I was pretty unsuccesful i suppose, but it was good practice. I'll keep workin' on it. here's the shorter one:

I just wrote and sent off a rather lengthy response to Niall Ferguson’s op-ed
piece that appears in today’s (12/12/05) LA Times. Not being familiar with
the preferred limitations on letters to the Times, I didn’t know that the
preferred length is 250 words or less, until I was about to email it (geez, I’m
already at 58!). That first letter went into what was probably longwinded
and unnecessary detail chronicling the inaccuracies, misrepresentations,
fabrications and general failings of Professsor Ferguson’s critique of Harold
Pinter’s Nobel acceptance Speech (91 words, whew!).

I went
back and reread and reread again and then double checked both Pinter’s and
Ferguson’s statements. I did my best to be fair to Ferguson and give him
the doubt’s benefit, but again and again I found him to be twisting words,
taking quotes out of context, and inventing statements and viewpoints, which he
then inaccurately attributed to Pinter. I found this to be horribly
ironic, considering that Pinter’s message was a plea for our “determination, as
citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies.” And
there he was, being misrepresented in an LA Times op-ed piece (195,
uhoh).

Ferguson focuses on Pinter’s examples rather than his
thesis, and at that, he misstates Pinter’s points. He neglects the parts
of Pinter’s speech, that don’t readily support his critique and he alters
Pinter’s statements to suit his needs. In a 250 word letter, there is not
space enough to expose Ferguson as a fraud, but I urge everybody to read
Pinter’s speech, and Ferguson’s response to it, and then question the slippery
nature of Truth and the frightening potential of misinformation. Both are
available online; Pinter at http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture.html
and Ferguson at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ferguson12dec12,0,3865802.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
(darn! 289).