going home in a week... (less than!!!)

i got the last bit of visa related paperwork done today. so, in theory, my visit should go smoothly as far as visa related issues are concerned. of course, experience has taught me that theory and reality may be distinct, especially when any disparity between the two is painful to oneself. (Apart from the principle of uncertainty the only other principle/theory I believe in is Murphy's Law.)

I've been watching Koppel's The Republic of Capitalism on Discovery. The intricacy of the machinations of Life flummox me. I doubt that there will ever come a time when a theory will be developed that correctly models our world and has any predictive value. Our world has an incredibly rich and largely indecipherable history that would be crucial to the formulation of any theory aspiring to understand the Universe. Not only that, but it is impossible to achieve the individual-level resolution that would be required. The past is irretrievable and the present is quickly turning into that irretrievable past.

Time is a true bitch. You get older and don't even realize it. You let your ambitions and dreams stagnate while you get caught up in the minutiae of life. You miss the big picture that you cling to so desperately. It makes a fool of you and subjects you to watching your parents age. There are few things that I can imagine being more painful. Probably watching your own child's health suffer. I don't have first hand experience in that department, but I miss Vinnie terribly and so I think I have some understanding of what people go through.

I'm dealing with my thesis. I'll be frank, working with my boss is taxing my patience to the utmost. This is pretty bad. But, there is the eternal adage that comes to my aid - "this too shall pass." Boy, I can hardly wait!

I've been re-evaluating my goals. I think I want to become a professor who inspires students to consider teaching. However, I will settle for a teacher who is fair and capable of adequately teaching the material at hand. Also, I want my research to somehow connect with the energy crisis facing the world. My other thought is that I could use my sabbaticals to spread education in remoter pockets of the world. I am definitely against evangelical approaches to "modern" education, so I hope that it would be a quid pro quo sort of deal where I would learn a lot and impart some useful modern world skills.

gtg..