Did I mention the fact that on Monday we watched Contact by Robert Zemeckis? That was brilliant, haven’t seen it since I was five. I love the reversal to pro-faith, pro-spirituality in the end. The special effects were excellent for the 1990s, I couldn’t believe it! Thoroughly interesting and scientifically realistic throughout, though I did find it extremely implausible that a religious fanatic could make his way through security and blow up the first ‘gateway’. Think about that terrorist, when he said, "Not now, but someday the events that are about to take place will be understood." Wait a minute. Didn’t he blow up that imposter, Tom Skerrit (as Dr. Drumlin)? The guy cheated his way to become the first inter-dimensional voyager… at first denying the fact that SETI was worth anything, then hijacking all of Ellie’s findings for his own gain. His final words to her was that, "The world isn’t fair, and the spoils go to the victor." At least Jodie Foster’s character was moral! Thus, the terrorist might have been divinely inspired to re-align the cosmic order of things and give Ellie that chance to meet the aliens (or were they spiritual beings?), which was clearly pre-destined throughout the film.

Seen the movie, still believe they were just an advanced extra-terrestrial civilization? Taste these quotes: "We didn’t build these wormholes… they were left here by a much older civilization, they were gone when we arrived." "This is how its been done for a billion years." Doesn’t that fit into Mormon, if not Christian cosmology at least a little bit? I liked at the end how Ellie was teaching kids about SETI… I think it is implied that the reason of the whole Contact Event was to build interest in the beyond, for the next generation to capitalize on.

ANYWAY.

Today is Tuesday, now. We wake up at 11:00 again!!!! Can’t find food, can’t find food… pilfer food from dorm-mates. We leave for the OPERS Fall Festival, showcasing all the Leagues, Associations, Clubs, and Groups on Campus. Its out in a huge sunlit field overlooking the entire bay with its verdant blue waters… There are thousands of people, a huge mob, and yet it is very quiet… a lot of strangers, you know? Not too many people laughing or talking obnoxiously or loudly like in high school. I like it. There are ‘green’ trashcans everywhere where you separate recyclables from compost-materials and aluminum. Its clean. I like it. There is a barbecue area where they serve typical cafeteria barbecue and Mountain Dew (which was awesome).

Let me go through a few of these clubs and my reactions:

UCSC Students Against War (www.saw.revolt.org)

Brendon: So you guys are against ‘the War’, right? What sets you apart from everyone else, I mean, isn’t everyone here unanimous that we should get out of Iraq?

UCSCSAW Spokeswoman: Actually, we’re against all war and especially the UC system supporting nuclear armageddon.

Brendon: (That came way out from left field) What?! How in the world does UC Santa Cruz support armageddon. *wonders how in the world anyone could protest against Santa Cruz of all the institutions*

UCSCSAW: The UC System hosts nuclear arms laboratories…

Okay. Fine. So the UC System helps design nuclear arms. Their literature uses emotional appeals to fight against this: 1) The US Government un-ethically mines Uranium in Navajo lands. Wait, isn’t it part of the United States? If not, shouldn’t it start being our territory? I mean, give self-autonomy to the natives, by all means, we did do horrible things to them, but restrict us from utilizing natural resources of vital strategic importance? Keep the Federal government from building a mine and some infrastructure in a desert? Come on. I’m sure they pay the Native Americans for the use of the land. 2) And I quote: ".. nuclear weapons were tested in the Pacific Ocean! From 1946-1958 the US conducted hundreds of tests on the Marshall Islands… thousands of islanders were poisoned and displaced, their ancient homelands destroyed by radioactive fallout." Well, here is the reasoning for that. We were in the Cold War. The Soviet Union under Stalin was repressing civil rights everywhere it could reach through Eastern Europe, allies that we had promised democracy, but Stalin had other motives. They were building nuclear weapons (stolen from our scientific programs by spies and traitors). They were making aggressive gestures. We thought the next war could begin any minute and that the USSR could spread its dictatorship across all of the Old World. So we tested a lot of nukes in order to show the Soviets we would fight back. And you know what? It worked. World War Three never happened. One problem: during that early phase, we didn’t know much about nuclear radioactivity and fallout. Most of those that died were killed by the military’s actions, but people die in wars. Its extremely unfortunate, but they did the best they could, with an interest to preserve freedom and liberty in the entire world and avert a global war that would make World War II into a prelude. I’m not saying what we did was right… but shouldn’t we thank our government for keeping tens of millions alive by doing what they did?

Quantum Jujitsu - Actual performers. These guys were awesome.

Breakdancing - Again, performers and a line for contestants. Cool.

Democrats for Obama - No Republican table. No McCain table. Just an area filled with Obama supporters. If another group was given a voice, I’d be fine with it all, its just that these guys have a political monopoly.

No on Prop 8 - Don’t get me started. So many activists… against who? Where is the opponent? How can you be a revolutionary when you’re surrounded in a society filled with like-minded people? I’ll tell you, you can’t. I’m the revolutionary. And again, where is the Yes on Prop 8 tent? Or the Yes on Prop 8 sticker?

Student Film-makers Association - Awesome. These guys were really fun to talk to. They had a nice camera there… $5000 they said.

The Network - An LGBT club. I was such a gringo, man, I was entranced by their cool logo and just started talking to them. They seemed angry/hurt when I wasn’t interested. Come on! I’m a straight guy! Give me a break, you really think I’m going to be interested in supporting an LGBT club? A straight guy can’t get passionate about that! Same reason why the Womens’ Self-Protection Group ignored me when they were passing out flyers, or when the Latino Club did the same. I can’t get into a club if I’m helping empower a group that doesn’t represent me and my interests. But the Indian Club… that’s different. Those guys are tight, I’d get into that. Festivals, dancing and good food? See, they’ve got something I’m interested in.

The other clubs are hard to remember. Lots of frats, sororities, ethnic clubs, women’s clubs, fringe sport clubs (ultimate frisbee, fencing, archery), socialist parties, etc. etc. Eh.

Funny Story

We met Andrea Sanchez today, and her room-mate. I missed her presence a lot. She has this way of being comedic that I don’t think anyone detects, except for me. Not even she knows she is doing it, I don’t think. Anyway, Connor left his cellphone on the grass. I pick it up. We get separated. I forget that I still had it in my pocket, along with my cellphone. I can’t find or call Connor, so I head for ‘home’. When I get back to the apartment, Connor had apparently gotten there before me (on a bus! I shoulda thought of that) and had biked down to search for his phone. He was gone for a while, poor guy. Then he came back, and asked me to call his phone so someone would pick it up. Of course his cell’s volume is down so I have to stall for half an hour to secretly turn it up. I call his phone once more… and it rings right there in the living room! He was relieved in a big way. We had a good laugh about it.

We watched Training Day that night with our dorm-mates and neighbours. Awesome movie. Those guys deserve Oscars, and America deserves a narcotics agency that actually works. Who Watches the Watchmen, eh?