well, the subtle has now become overt. in an annoucement today, microsoft officially purchased a university program and its curriculum hiding any thought that freedom from corporatism in the academic sphere exists. in giving $2.3 million to the university, microsoft altered university curriculum and insured that their product will become the software of necessity in uw's classrooms. i am disgusted and revolted at this invasion of pure academic space.

while some may contend that this is good for the university as it brings in money to utilize a superior software product, i will simply suggest that the university had no plans of alterting its curriculum until this donation carrot was waved before its face. there has been corporate involvement in the academic sphere for quite some time but this crosses the lines from funding university priorities to designating priorities for the university.

i do not believe this decision would have been made if jim kalbfleisch was still vp academic and provost and i do not think this reflects the real will of the total university. i hope students protest this and i hope that the university is disgraced for capitulating to the corporation and selling academic freedom.

it was a "special" day at work today. not really a major occasion just lots of laughs and giggles between andrea and i and one of our co-workers...

in other news, i am now the proud owner of my first two text books for my studies at oxford. for the low price of only $85 (plus the $20 iRewards card from chapters) i now posess The Welfare State Reader and Dismantling the Welfare State? only two of the 14 books i'm supposed to read this summer!

do you ever have those days when you wonder if you've made a horrible mistake and you're not really sure you're ready or qualified for what's ahead of you? i continue to console myself with thinking that i'll love it when i'm there and that i shouldn't be so scared, but every once in awhile i just wonder if i'm completely mad...

i found a quote yesterday in an old journal about madness yesterday that at least turned my thoughts elsewhere (although equally made me unsettled because i'm pretty sure i'm not of "the loftiest intelligence":
"Men have called me mad but the question is not yet settled whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence, whether much that is glorious, whether all that is profound does not spring from disease of thought, from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect."

who knows? all i know is that oxford is both terrifying and exciting at the same time.