Why do we fight wars?

Okay, so I am going to warn you that this post is like a 3rd grade throwback to ending world violence and promoting love and eternal happiness. So forgive me as I am about to be very ignorant and probably too optimist. But I do want to explore war and why we fight it. 

I am a pacifist. So in my ideal world there would be no war or fighting and we would deal with our differences through “other” wars such as boycotting products or refusing to recognize a state acting inappropriately. Now I know there’s war- there has been since the two cavemen fought over the last morsel of food and there will probably be war forever. But why? I mean, think about it. If the theory that everything comes down to economics (a theory that I believe is 99% true for everything- with some rare exceptions), war makes no sense unless it is to get land and raw materials. For example, it would be economically beneficial (but really cruel) of the US to take over a Middle Eastern country for its oil. In that case, I don’t agree with war but I feel the motive makes sense for the selfish nation. But other wars cost billions of dollars and lives for what? The Vietnam War and War in Iraq anger me for 2 reasons relating to this: first of all, our innocent soldiers just doing their job are getting flack for the unpopular war (thankfully this was a more Vietnam thing than an Iraq thing) and as cities such as Providence have to turn away homeless people because of lack of beds in shelters, don’t you think the billions of dollars should go to that? I mean, think of what even $1 billion pumped into cities (divided of course) and how we can achieve some of our longer term goals for reducing crime, ending homelessness, and making life better. 

But I don’t want to lecture on the war. If you go to Brown and are reading this you probably know more about the conflicts than I do, but I just wanted to make a general point. Sure it may be 3rd grade, but I sometimes think that a life filled with everyone thinking like a 3rd grader may actually be better in the end...

The Brown budget and the economy as a whole

So Brown just came out with its corporation report today and I was surprisingly pleased. Brown, as in every school, has been hurt by the economy. Overall, I’ve had problems with Brown has dealt with it though. I am an optimist and though I understand the economy is bad, I also believe in focusing on the good (such as the $1.4 billion campaign being 19 months ahead) and discussing the bad in a more positive light (for example, isn’t it good if we can save $30 million by eliminating no positions but eliminating unneeded waste?). I felt that the weekly Brown e-mails were too depressing and really brought the school down. A simple read from them made Brown look like it was surviving by a hair. Sure, it lost tons of money. And Brown’s need-blind admissions, while vital and an amazing attribute, probably cost the school more money than its need-aware peers. But lets also look at the facts. Brown’s endowment is $2.8 billion. Though its not close to Harvard’s $25 billion, it is also much higher than many school’s $500 million. And the e-mails often failed to recognize one thing: the economy is largely cyclic and though it is vital to cut costs, drastic measures are not the way to go. I remember one particular e-mail where Brown seriously considered cutting sports teams. Now, I’m not into sports. But I understand their importance and, to be honest, I don’t know if I could go to Brown if it didn’t have that traditional sports aspect to it...it’d feel too “cheap” for me. 

The report that came out today pleased me. Financial aid was increased in both undergrad and med school, all construction is on target, and sports have stayed. Though the corporation falled back onto one of its biggest weakness in not telling every detail of how we saved money, the fact is that Brown managed to not do anything drastic. Ruth Simmons, our amazing president, has been getting lots of flack recently due to her ties with Golman Sachs (she recently resigned) and the university’s hidden investments, but I feel she did rise to the occasion to recognize that Brown is, at its heart, here for us. Sure, life would probably be easier to say “to save money we’re not being need-blind anymore and only admitting those who can pay themselves”. And, just from living here, I can tell you that most likely Brown could fill classes that way. But we’re here to learn, and learning involves living with all different people from different races, economic classes, and backgrounds. So I commend them on that. 

My big complaint is the graduate school stipend. The stipend, at $19,000, will be increased to $19,500. Now I would love to get $500, but in the long run, what does $500 extra on such a small salary really do? I may be wrong, but think of working in a job that 500 people have and you got a $1,000 raise from $23,000 to $24,000. It’s nice, but will it really help pay bills in the long run? Not really. And the effects are devastating. About 20-22 employees could have been hired if salaries remained at $23,000. I don’t know about you, but if I was given the option to take a $1000 raise or save my friend’s job, I’d easily decline the raise. If you are going to increase graduate stipends, invest in a signifigant change like making it $25000, not a mere $500 more. That was my big complaint. 

Okay, I promise this will be the most “numbered” article for a while! I not only find Brown’s financial health interesting, but also important. I love this school and it has given me so many good things I only want the best for it...

RIP Parvati or Randy???

SPOILER WARNING 

SPOILER WARNING

Ok, I warned you! So I didn't get to see Survivor at the normal time last night due to this odd french food thing I went to with my friend Caroline and roommate (the lovely Allan). But I did see it at 12:32 am E time. And I was a bit surprised to be honest.

I have to give it to Parvati- she's a brilliant player. This is the 3rd season she's been doing the same strategy and she is clearly showing it always work (as Randy does state very intuitively, its worked since the cavemen days). But I am surprised that these all-stars of the all-stars are still falling for it...I mean this is her third season! Parvati I love you and all, but I think you’d even admit you are a huge threat and they were stupid as hell not to get rid of you. I mean, what the hell will Randy do in the end, win it all? I doubt it.

So the evil producers threw me off again...I have no idea who’s leaving next, but I think if its the villians, Coach is going. If its the Heroes, James is finally going...We’ll see though.

And in continuing with the snubs of this season, I’m going to choose a villian who should be here...Either Laura from Samoa or (even better yet) Corrine from Gabon, who gave the infamous speech to Sugar about her dead mother and asked Susie to get her vocal cords removed...yikes!!!

Top 10 most culturally significant films from 2000-2009

10. Avatar (2009)- I’m going to say it and I really don’t care what you think: “Avatar” was one of the most overrated films of all time. With a cliched, boring script and a cheesy at best screenplay, “Avatar”’s only saving grace is that it was revolutionary, and gave us some fancy new words (like Navi and Pandora). Most critics would put this at number 1 or 2...I’m keeping it at 10 because I couldn’t stand the film. 

9. Superbad (2007)- One of the funniest films of all time, “Superbad” is not a wonderful film, but succeeds by making us laugh. And it was the rage at the time and still the classic stoner comedy. A great film I recommend for all. 

8. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)- I have never seen this film (!!!). But I included it on my list because even as someone who has never seen it, I have heard so much about it...

7. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)- The indie genre of film has existed for some time (around the early 2000’s as studios started taking it seriously). But this comedy was the first film to be both financially and critically successful. It started the “wildcard” trend at the Academy Awards, where a non-traditional film (like 2007’s “Juno”) slipped into the Best Picture category. But mostly it made us laugh...a lot. 

6. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003): It was long (3 hours, 20 minutes). It had at least 6 endings. And it broke so many cinema laws I can’t begin to count. Yet it was a masterpiece of a film, and cemented the trilogy as one of the greatest cinematic feats in human history. 

5. Batman Begins (2005)- Though its sequel “The Dark Knight” may be the more commercially and critically successful film, “Batman Begins” re-invented the definition of a reboot to near-dead franchises. The film was long, full of philosophical action, and dramatic, but it was ultimately one of the best films of 2005 and led to a number of remakes in the comic book industry. 

4. The Passion of the Christ (2004)- No film has ever captivated the world and caused world-wide debate. Was it anti-semetic? Was it anti-Catholic? Was it Mel Gibson pushing the boundaries? No one really knows (well, we kind of know the first one now). But the important thing about “Passion” is its ability to be the first religious based film (not even in English) to be a top grosser at the box office. Clearly people liked the film or were at least intrigued by it, to the tune of $455 million. 

3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)- I could go on and on about the cultural influences “Harry Potter” has given us (including a classmate of mine), but it is clear that this film began the multi-billion dollar franchise in the right way. Though it may be considered one of the weaker of the films in future years, “Harry Potter” not only gave us new actors (and rebooted the careers of old ones), but it also gave us magic in the cinema. 

2. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)- The feel good film of the year, “Slumdog Millionaire” will arguably be one of the more controversial film in a few years due to its romanticized cliched views of Indian slum life as well as the commercialization of poor, real-life poor actors. Nevertheless, no other film has brought a genre (in this case Bollywood) to American popular culture to the extent “Slumdog” did. Proof: just look at the Pussycat Doll’s rendition of Jai Ho, the Oscar winning song. 

1. Mean Girls (2004)- with a witty, undeniably quotable script, this Lindsay Lohan film (her best performance to date) gave us the scene stealer Rachel McAdams, the term “fetch”, and Glen Coco, to name a few. More importantly, “Mean Girls” was the first film of the internet generation to expose the hells- and sheer survival nature of high school hell. Both hilarious and brilliant, “Mean Girls” was ranked 8th best film of 2004 for me. 

The importance of Tuesdays/Thursdays off

So I have no classes Tuesdays or Thursdays. Sounds like a luxury, I know. But in reality, I think it was one of the smartest things I've done here. I was enrolled in 5 classes (for all you non-Brownies, the standard is 4, minimum is 3, and max is 5) for a while, only to drop a (bless him) really really boring class about physics (taught by the undeniably amazing Leon Cooper). I was going to add another class to get back to 5, but realized that having those 2 strategic days off was perfect. I mean, what days can you roll out of bed at 1 pm AND get a shit load of work done? So here is basically the gist of my post...Obviously, if there is a class you love at 9 am on Tuesdays and Thursday, take it. I took a great film class at 9 am last semester on Tues/Thurs and despite that challenge of getting up that early, I don't regret it at all. But unless you are in love with a class, have one shitty day on Mon or Wed or Fri and just relax those days! Okay, this is part of my better your life series by Michael Sean Quinn...hope u enjoyed!

I'm on a roll!!! Now less corny and more strategy about Survivor: H vs. V

*******************SPOILER WARNING         
SPOILER WARNING***********************

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villians is by far the hardest season for me to watch as I grew up idolizing most of the heroes and loving to hate most of the villians (with some exception. Like Danielle why in god's name are you a villian? You seem so nice! And Candace you sound nice but you kinda did a villanous thing when you mutinied so if anything why are you a hero?). Anyway, this season is different in the sense that, unlike previous season, there is never an "easy vote". Survivor typically starts out in the same formula. There is usually a very weak person (generally older...though Marisa from Samoa was very young) that screws up a challenge or is just plain annoying. However, these are the all stars of the all stars...there is no "weak" player and not many historically annoying ones. I usually am like "god get rid of him/her" on the first 2 episodes but the past 2 episodes have been hard as hell! I love Sugar and loved her Gabon gameplay, and she was only eliminated b/c they were desperate. And I hated seeing Stephanie go. But the alternate, Amanda, is also amazing too...It's so hard.

Here are my predictions: From the ads, I think James is going next. Next episode (Thursday at 8!!!!) I believe Heroes will once again lose immunity and will vote James out. I will never judge a contestant on the show as selective editing often characterizes them, but the James-heavy ad makes me think James is the big focus on tomorrow's episode. Who do I want to go? To be honest, Tyson. He was entertaining but he seemed kinda mean to me. He is, of course, on the Villian's tribe and I hope they lose immunity (sorry villians!) as I love it when its even at the merge. But I commend the villians for working their asses off on the challenge.

Also, every weekly pre-survivor prediction will include my snub for this season. And my first is Sierra for the heroes. Not only was she amazingly entertaining, but it would be wonderful to see a Coach-Tyson-Sierra battle...That is good TV! And she seemed so nice! Talk to u later!

My college essay

This is going to sound corny, but I kinda grew up idolizing many of these survivors. I was about 10 or 11 when Jerri was the ultimate bitch of her season (from what I've seen about Jerri, she actually seems to be a very nice woman who was largely misunderstood...or the victim of wonderful editing!!! H vs. V I think shows that more so than Australia and All-Stars did) and when Colby made the disastrous, yet courageous move, to bring Tina with him to the finals. And I could go on and on until Russel Hanz reinvented the villain of his season (last season's wonderful Samoa). And here I have my dirty confession to make:

For my college admissions essay, I decided to write about Survivor. As any close friends can attest, I basically live this show. As weird as it may sound, whenever I'm in a group of 8-10 people, hypothetical alliances come to mind and whenever I'm in a group and am the clear outsider, I think of strategies I could somehow spare elimination. Survivor is kinda like a pothead's pot or cigarette smoker's cigarette...I kinda need it in my life. Anyway, I wrote my college based on Survivor. I am usually judgemental about my work, but it was the best thing I've ever written. I won't share the details here b/c it was a very very very personal essay (more than I want the whole world to know) but it was basically a metaphor of Survivor to my life...it was full of the stages of the game where I described times I thought elimination was eminent only for life (aka my tribe mates) to change direction and save me for one more day. It was largely about not ever knowing what the hell was going on but just surviving one more day until I got to the final 2. In my essay, I ultimately lost the game (though I never distinctly said it)- it was important for me to lose something but still be proud of myself.

The reason why I share this is to kinda give a shout out to the 300+ survivors (especially Todd, who not only reminded me so much like myself but played a strategically flawless game...and clearly loved every second of it!) who not only basically got me into Brown (I have to thank Jeff and Mark Burnett too!) but also helped me get through really hard times in my life...anytime I felt down I thought of my dream to be on this show and prove to the many people (including often myself) who thought of me as too "divaish" or weak to be on the show and to maybe impact another fan like the contestants impacted me. So this is a corny post, but I thought it was necessary :)

First blog!

PS. My blogs won't be this long!!! I swear!!! This is a comprehensive introduction to my life, of which I highly recommend you read as I doubt you will understand my other posts without the background info.

Hey everyone, welcome to my first blog and my first post! I thought of ways to make this interesting and have had a few failed attempts at blogs. Do I make it all about Oscars? Survivor? My angry rants on life? My happy rants on life? I honestly had no idea. The fact is that my life is kinda boring. But for the little drama in my life, I hope that many of you readers can relate to me :). I mean, we read memoirs about affairs, drug addiction, sex, or epiphanies about life, and I think many of us (myself included) expects our lives to have that (in the words of the amazing Ms. Travis) "jazzy pizzazzy" ring to it. The fact is that 90% of us are boring, though if I've learned anything from films and reality TV, often the most boring lives are the most fascinating.

Enough of my rant about not being extraordinary! In this blog I hope to just let you know who I am and kinda release the ideas and creative juices that go through me, as well as what I hope the future will be like. Before I go further, let me explain who I am: I'm Mike (or Michael...though Mike is a bit more relaxed for me) and I'm a first year student at Brown. I am currently pre-vet, though the disastrous (56%!!!) result of my bio test has made me think that I may do history instead. And that's it...

My life is basically me trying to learn about myself and others, and try to be happy. I tend to be a planner and my academic plans are constantly changing, but my personal goals aren't changing that much. To be honest, I'm not an academic. I kinda recognize that I'm, at best, on the lower end of the intelligence here at Brown and don't really know why I'm here or how I got here. The friends I have made are enough of a reason to be here and, to be honest, even if I graduate with all C's, I will always be proud of me going to Brown. I don't feel that I should be here, but getting here was a huge accomplishment in my life and if I realize my grades aren't good enough for grad school and I have to follow my secondary plan of being a high school history or bio teacher by getting a masters here, I will have no regrets. I came to Brown a very different person. I believe I was smarter, had a little more motivation, and was excited about learning. Not so much anymore, but I've grown a lot personally, which in my mind is way more important than getting an A. I met great friends, experienced the pain and joy of love, explored the hook up scene only to realize I want to settle down, and have finally come to terms with my sexuality. I came to Brown wanting to leave with a great job with great money- now I want to leave happy. And if that means half the salary, you know what, I really don't care. I try my best and if my best is a C at this school, I can only leave with that knowledge.

My dream since I was 10, and saw the premier episode, has been to be on 'Survivor'. I am facebook friends with many of them and have talked to a few of them, and I honestly get jealous when I see them all hanging out together and having fun and becoming part of this large family. When the amazing Jennifer Lyon, who came 4th on the Palau season died, the support from all seasons cemented that family together, and I want nothing more than to be part of it one day. Though I obviously want to win by a strategic game, my goal is to just get as far as I can and experience that raw nature of challenging your body and mind, meeting new people, and making life long friends. I've been in situations I'd rather not share where I've lived in close contact with various groups of people and I can't stress the connection you get, and it honestly was a wonderful thing. I hope to have a fledging reality TV career (also on my list: The Amazing Race, Big Brother, and like every reality star, a trashy VH1 reality show) in order to gain access to my true passion: film. I am a screenwriter and would love one day to publish them, direct films, and really touch people.

And so this is the biggest dilema in my life. I am at a school where learning is supposed to be enlightening and motivating, but my "academic" dreams are really secondary to my personal dreams. I mean I love teaching and I love animals, but if someone told me I could drop out of Brown tomorrow to do films and be on TV and write books, I fear that I'd do it in a heartbeat. Like, I love the idea of Brown and I love being here, but I sometimes feel like it should be reserved for someone who loves sitting in a classroom and learning, which is not me. I won't ramble more because this is the big topic of my life right now (and a painful topic- it is so hard to force yourself to write a paper you honestly couldn't care less about). But until then...I'll talk to you all later!!!