March 21, 2005
Conference Preparation
There's a conference at my school this week on "New Europe and New Russia," for international young researchers. I'm giving a presentation on Tuesday about the changing role of NATO. Not my favorite sphere, but tangentially related to it. I'm leaning towards giving an exposition on the organization's role in the War on Terrorism, with a substantial section dedicated to the damaged transatlantic relationship. I'm also going to float the idea of Israel joining up.
While not entirely topical, this article about our relentless drive for "stability" changed my thinking on some things, and is a pretty good attempt at taking down the commonly held idea that stability should be a primary goal of our foreign policy.
I was told today that this is the coldest March in 30 years, Global Warming my arse! I'm still waiting for the "out like a lamb." Sunday was relatively sunny, considering the weather for this past week, and I decided to venture out and buy a new printer cartridge. On my way, I took two pictures of the courtyard that I walk through on my way to the bus stop:
This guy was drunk (it was about 2pm ... nothing out of the norm about that), and I didn't intend for him to be in the picture. But to me it seems to emphasize a certain sense of isolation, he seems lost. Perhaps asking himself the question, "How did I get here?" And if you look hard enough, you can see that he's in the middle of an intersection of two paths. Perhaps he's trying to decide between a PhD and a law degree... Or maybe that's just a little too much projection on my part ;) By the way, the building with the bluish-green trim is a school.
Here's the completion of the square. I continue off to the right to get to the bus stop. I live in a building like the long one in the background.
Posted by Owen at March 21, 2005 09:45 PM | TrackBack