I Need A Vacation!!!

God, how I desperately need a vacation right now! It's not just the stress of school that's getting under my nerves; I'm pretty much sick and tired of my surrounding and I just want to get as far away as I can. To a remote island under the sun cuddle up with a good fiction book, preferably finishing up Pramoedya's Buru Quartet.

Okay, first up, cellphones. I'm sick of seeing people who haven't had a clue about cellphone etiquette. Some of the rules are unwritten, like respect for other people's privacy and personal space; some are expressedly written and posted for the consumption of all, like no talking on cellphone in the computer lab or the library. The concept of personal space in the public sphere needs to be radically re-defined, so as to include the pervasive use of cellphones. It's ironic, say, for example, when someone complains about other people standing too close to them on the bus or at the supermarket's checkout counter, but sees nothing wrong with talking loudly on cellphone in the computer lab or at the bus stop. One's personal space should no longer be drawn through physical boundary; as a matter of fact, there are examples of personal space been re-defined to include non-physical annoyances, like the enactment of noise ordinance and such. If playing loud music in the public realm can be regulated, why not apply the same principle to the people who love to yak-yakkety-yak on their cellphones in public? And please, put the cellphone on vibrate if you're in a place that requires total quietness and serenity, like the library or the movies. Trust me, nobody's impressed with your damn ringtones, especially if you use the unbearably annoying ones that came with the phone. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is best appreciated on a killer stereo system than from the tinny-sounding polyphonic phones.

Secondly, it's the sort-of plain and sterile and placid environment I'm in now. Milwaukee, like this guy once told me, is like a middle child; it's still grappling with its sense of self and couldn't really make up its mind of what it wants to be. To put it in the real world context, Milwaukee is stuck in between the hubbub cosmopolitanism of its mature older brother Chicago and the free-spirited hedonism of its younger brother Madison. Milwaukee has an awesome art museum and thriving cultural scene but the general zeitgeist of the city is still in the flux of whether it should fully embrace the worldly cosmopolitanism of its brethren to the south (Chicago) or just simply content of being average, dull, unstimulated in the typical Midwestern sensibility sort-of-way. In a way, I do miss DC quite a bit, mostly due to its vibrant intellectual environment and its cosmopolitan lifestyle. It's fascinating to think about the kinds of people I met in DC and the level of conversation that we engaged in. Granted that DC is a major seat of power,not just in the US but globally too, and of course, smart and worldly people would naturally flock into this town. If I'm not mistaken, Montgomery County, the Maryland suburb that abuts DC, has the highest concentration of people with professional and graduate degrees in the US, including lawyers, doctors, college professors and others. Add several major universities in the area, you have a wellspring of intellectualism and cultural diversity. Though the cultural atmosphere in DC sometimes come off as a bit haughty and pretentious, but overall it's a good place to meet interesting people.

Anyway, I'm finally getting some traction on my research paper and I should be able to wrap up the rough draft tonight or tomorrow night at the latest.

I still cannot wait till the semester is over, so I can start being a beach bum in SE Asia this summer. I can almost smell the whiff of salty ocean air and the allure of the crashing waves along with a good fiction book to read while lounging on the white sandy beach. Also, I plan to backpack across Java from Jakarta to Surabaya and go up to Cambodia to visit the Angkor Wat and possibly Vietnam if I can squeeze the time.