Birds in Hand Home Previous Entry Next Entry . . January 11, 2005 . Shocking quote of the day: "What are you going to do - try to catch a ghost expelling gas?" My mom, in asking why I wanted a parabolic microphone. . I completely forgot to mention how the parabolic microphone - oh, excuse me, the "Amplified Nature Listening and Digital Recording Device" - worked. I've had fun just trying to listen to the cats and birds with it. I listened to one of the black cats (the triplets) walk through the yard night before last. It sounded as if he were mumbling to himself. Yesterday, the birds seemed offended that I would try to listen in on their conversations and got quiet. Still, I could hear them rubbing the branches as they cleaned their beaks and the sound of their wings as they flew away. I still haven't figured out where that car horn was. It sounded fairly distant, even through the microphone. . It has a scope on it as well. I could clearly see in the tops of the trees as well as great detail of the birds sitting in the nearby trees. I saw male and female cardinals, a little yellow breasted bird I am thinking is some kind of finch as well as several birds I first thought were robins. They are colored somewhat like robins - except the red is on the sides, rather on the breast and they have white bellies. They are actually smaller than robins and have black beaks like a finch. . .

They keep talking on TV about the upcoming Iraqi elections. I don't know what to think about them, except that President Bush seems to have forgotten (or never studied) his Aristotle. The U.S. just marched right into Iraq and pushed democracy on these people. Now, don't get me wrong - there are some very good things about democracy. However, Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.E.) wrote that unless a people were used to self - rule, a democracy would be impossible because it involves the will of the people - not the will of the person in charge. I guess we'll see what happens after the elections. Still, I think we're already seeing a bit of it. Too many people are trying to take control of the situation, using the methods they know best. Speaking of -acracies, I had to deal with the bureacracy of financial aid today. I had called on the fourth to check the status of it and was told, "yes, everything is clear and waiting for you on the first day of class!" only to get a letter last Saturday informing me that everything had been cancelled because I was over the limit for credit hours. So I call to see what is going on. Financial Aid has no record whatsoever of the override request I put in the first week of December and if the fees (all $1,094 and some odd change) isn't paid by the thirteenth, I can say bye-bye to my classes. The woman who told me everything was hunky-dory had been looking at last spring's info. Joy. Next, I call Student Services, where I am automatically given the speech, "If you want to appeal the decision to cancel your financial aid..." I finally make it clear that I am checking on the status of my request because Financial Aid has no record of it and therefore, no hold on my classes. Once I give the lady my info, she tells me, "We don't agree with that because when we sent the list for non-purges to them, you were on it." Fun o' fun. The good thing? She says, "I'll take care of it" - and she did. When I called back this afternoon to verify the hold, I was back in the race. So things were looking up after all. Well, this wasn't the most thrilling of entries but I'm tired. I'm going to bed, y'all. Sleep well. Page and graphics Copyright 2004 D. Firewolf