THIS SICKENS AND ANGERS ME BEYOND ALL RECKONINGS

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/nyregion/27jail.html?hp

SO APPARENTLY INMATES ARE NOT HUMANS AND THEY DON'T DESERVE THEIR MEDICATION, THEY DON'T DESERVE A DOCTOR TO CHECK UP ON THEM WHEN THEY HAVE HEART ATTACKS, THEY DON'T DESERVE NURSING CARE FOR GIVING BIRTH!!!!! ARRRGHGHGHGHGHGHGGHGHGHG
I HATE ECONOMICS THAT PUSHES PROFITS OVER HUMAN LIFE!!!!!
NO, RATHER THEY APPARENTLY DESERVE TO DIE IN THEIR OWN EXCREMENT AND VOMIT. THE ONLY COMPASSION THEY GET IS FROM THE GUARDS AND THEIR FELLOW INMATES. THEY DIE IN A POOL OF THEIR OWN URINE. WHO HAVE WE BECOME???? ARE WE HUMAN ANYMORE????
I don't think i have ever been so sickened in my life.
I don't know if anybody reads this thing..... please try and make a difference and care. please read this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/nyregion/27jail.html?hp
Please find a way to make a difference.
I am going to prison tomorrow.

This baby makes my water boil!! 

The kettle that won't kill me! 

I got my grades back from France. Figure that I would get a B in Grammar. Curse you French language!! Then I got an A- in teaching for being lazy and not correcting one of my papers. Who knew that a reflection paper would have good grammar requirements. A well, I think I am gonna keep them. It can only help the gpa. What's one B afterall. Nevertheless, I hate french grammar.
 

So I went and listened to Peter Henriot speak last week. He is the author of “Catholic Social Doctrine: our best kept secret”. I own the book, should have brought it along. He was talking about globalization and Africa. Who knew that GMO’s were so awful…. He is now the head of the Jesuit center for theological reflection in Zambia.
 

So I started up at San Quentin yesterday. It is the all male prison on the bay. It is my new Sunday worshiping spot. It was surreal going in there. I walked in, got my ID checked 4 times. Then the sound of the bars closing behind you was like a gunshot. I walk in and there you are in the yard where all the inmates are. I didn’t quite feel comfortable at the chapel at first. I think it was more from being in a new place than being in a prison. Going through the mass was great though. They had a very good choir and it was fun to affirm that I am united with these men in worship, in prayer, in the body of christ. I look forward to next Sunday when I will be able to go back and chat with the guys more.

So a funny story..
I went to prison yesterday. It is one of the new ministries that I am doing here. I am going to be going to San Quentin, an all male prison that is on the bay, every Sunday and that will be my new community. What do I walk out of this prison with but girls email address and plans to hang out in the future. Yeah, walk in to prison with ministry on my mind, walk out with a date. (well I guess I wouldn’t call it a date, but for story purposes it sounds better). She was there doing the same type of thing I was except from a church from San Francisco. Anyways, she is a Francophile. We ended up talking in French for bout 20 mins before the Jesuits pulled me out to go home. I don’t know if I will ever see her again, but still, it makes for a funny story. Leave it to me to go to an all male prison to pick up girls. Who knows if anything will come from it, but still, funny story.
 

This is your lungs on tobacco 

trying to get out of my readings by asphyxiating myself
 

pictures from the melting tea pot incident 

pictures from the melting tea pot incident 

pictures from the melting tea pot incident 

So here is how I almost died today and if not dead, brain damaged. I decided to go put some tea on to boil cause I was so tired and I needed a bit of a pick me up. I then, listening to my new I pod shuffle, laid down on my bed. I quickly fell asleep and woke up to an awful smell and a hazy apartment. Due to my new I pod shuffle, I never heard the kettle. I almost asphyxiated myself and who knows how much brain damage I got from napping through plastic fumes. The apartment still reeks even though I aired it out all evening. Maybe I will go buy some incense when I go to get a new tea pot.
 

My friend mark shared this photo with me. This was taken whil in France. I do love Wallace and grommit 

I went to the ba black catholic parish today. I loved it. There was a gospel choir and everyone got into it. I have never seen so many catholics jiving like that in my life. It was like I was in Sister Act or something. The priest presiding was actually from the south and he was preaching on black history month, more specifically he preached on the song “We Shall Overcome”. I sang this song linked arms with all the people in the congregration. I felt like I could have been Dierdrich Bonhoffer when he visited New York. Next week I start up over at San Quentin doing prison ministry. That will be my Sunday home for the next 3 months. Well anyways. I miss you all.
mike
 

Do the Jesuits know how to party! What a Mardi Gras celebration last night. Here is a pic of a very tired me, just before i go to wash off the face paint. They hired a girl to go and do baloon animals there and then 2 girls to do face painting. They also had an open bar, tons and tons of food and my favorite, Karioke! I mean wow!  

The beautiful mud wallows of the Sir Frances Drake Estuary. Apparently he would have beached in this area to scrape the barnacles off his ship before he sailed across the pacific ocean as a way of avoiding the spanish. He in effect was a british guy who declared his own personal war on the spanish. cool huh? to think, just to avoid getting caught he sailed around the world and made it. what a guy. 

I fianlly got out to go hit up the california nature. It was so cool to be hiking with 4 PHD students who are teaching people at USF and one prof who is a certified genius. What a hike! 

200 pages of reading, twice a week

Blog 02-02-05
Well, it has been a while since I have updated this. I started school on Monday. Did I mention that I only have school two days a week? That’s right 8-12:30 Mondays and Thursdays. Cool huh? Now I just have to make sure that I stay on top of all my work in the mean time. I evenly spaced it out enough. With the exception of yesterday where I had choir and mass for a lot of the day. We had the mass of the holy spirit. It was cool to be able to belt out in some tenor parts. Afterwards we had a big vientemese eat off to celebrate the coming new year. one of the real cool things about the JSTB is how international it is. There are people coming to do there STL and STD (something in latin about getting your standard theology license and doctorate….priest come from all over the world to come to Berkeley to get an std. wow. That is awful) I have been able to converse in French. It has been quite cool. Afterwards I was able to take a bunch of leftovers home. I just have to make sure it is not the only thing I eat. I still have some eggs I have to get into before they go bad and some ham and salami. I defintley had a little too much wine last night. I came back and was barely able to work. It wore off though over a conversation with my parents. Wine really puts ya to sleep though. I was feeling my age more than ever last night. As all of my peers went out to the bars I had to retreat back to my apt. Being young has turned me into such an old gramma. Last week I actually went to bed at 9:30 at one point and then got up at like 5:30 and went grocery shopping at like 7. who am I? well, well, it is not so bad though. I have been able to get my work done. Although I am going to have to start cutting out distractions like keeping my computer going. I have been reading since at least 10 this morning if not earlier. I haven’t left the apt. yet today. I am going to head out now to try and find a cell phone store to change my phone numbers over from my old phone to this one. PS my phone number is the same so call me anytime. Anyways. I am going to get out of this ivory tower of mine to recharge the battery so that I may work well on my next article I have to read tonight.
Ciao

that is an ice cream gallon worth of curry! I love how it matched my tablecloth, I should maybe turn it into a centerpiece. 

my frig. Yes indeed I still do have it. SKILL that is. notice three containers of tupperware.not only did i not cook those but i did not buy them either. Nor did any of my friends. that is straight vietnemese food bummed off the school after we had a big dinner last night. I swear I could be a monk or something with my food scrounging abilities. I do have to give credit where due though. Jill is awesome for ordering so much food. God is awesome for letting it fall into my hands.