Easter is coming...you know what that means....

Well, besides the infinitely important death and resurrection of Christ, it means Cadbury's Mini-Eggs season, which reminds me of England, my second home I never seem to be able to visit (Click the link, it's a Cadbury's Chocolate Game).

Things have been stressful recently, and once again I've found myself with an upset stomach because of it. Thank the Lord for TUMS. As of this writing, I am 2/3 through my mid-term exams and papers, with one remaining test on Thursday.

Though I feel there is too much emphasis placed on the humanities and too little effort put towards productive activities and learning actual skills, I have learned a few things in psychology—this wisdom I will impart on my few readers.

Sleep is essential. For someone my age, 8 hours per night is the minimum requirement for us to perform our best. In combatting disease, discouraging depression, and enhancing performance in all areas including creativity, sleep is extremely important. It also encourages neural development and helps store memories.

Also, excessive alcohol usage is just plain bad—and that's not my conservative Baptist background talking. Everywhere I look there is study after study that confirms my suspicion that foreign substances that alter one's body in some way, is just not a good idea. Alcohol usage has been shown to decrease neural redevelopment in the brain, causing brain shrinkage, destroy taste buds on the tongue, and contribute to depression, among a host of other things.

Also, it's really easy to damage your hearing. Anything louder than the sound of an approaching subway should be avoided, because it causes permanent damage that will be sorely missed when we're old people. Ok, some people already think I am but who cares--I'll be healthy, wealthy, and wise when they're old, deaf and depressed.

As seen in the Baylor Lariat, 02/17/2006:

by JONATHAN LUDWIG, columnist

"Get your (derrière) to Mars!" says Douglas Quaid in Total Recall. Pretending to be interested in my psychology course, I was suddenly hit—wham!—by a rogue idea: I seriously want to go to Mars.

Roadtrips, studying abroad, expeditions to North and South Poles -- they all have something in common: our innate, spatial-pioneering instinct -- that is, an instinct to go and to see. Physically move to a place one has never been, as Star Trek's Captain Picard would say, "To boldly go where no one has gone before." But during the last 20 years, that collective, burning desire to explore the depths of space has crash-landed into the endless study of humanity.

Sure, one could argue that discovering has many strands, such as pioneering in medicine, psychology or any of the humanities. But all these issues have one thing in common: people. Where did the Isaac Newtons go? The Ernest Shackletons and the Ferdinand Magellans? These historical greats and their relative contemporaries broke with centuries of stagnant, often circular thinking and began exploring the world.

"But-but-I'm a Christopher Columbus in...sociology." Right. Now the humanities are mildly entertaining, and as a political science major, I know them to be important. But honestly, how much cooler would it be to be the first person to walk on Mars? To explain the rift between the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics? To invent a craft that will take us to new solar systems? The technological and philosophic implications of such feats would again shake the foundations of humankind.

Still, there are practical reasons for regaining that respect and wonder we have of the world around (and beyond) us.

As we should all be aware, Americans are failing at an alarming rate in the supremely important areas of math and science—the foundations of exploring beyond Earth and our solar system. But this simple fact is far from benign. Expertise in math and science drives innovation, which is essential for an expanding economy and retaining our high standard of living.

"Why is it," asked Craig Barret, chairman and CEO of Intel Corp., "when over the past decade we've seen the most exciting technology innovations in history with personal computing, the rise of the Internet, wireless computing, smart phones, digital cameras and much more, that our children aren't interested in pursuing science and technology as a career?"

Of course, there are many answers to this question, such as dismal standards and abysmal spending in math and science education, as well as low federal support for research and development.

But all this circles right back to us. Is the public just not into science anymore? Hardly. Whenever some aeronautic, astronautic or stellar event takes place, the stories are always near the top of the news headlines. Why? Because people still think the events are incredible.

Steve Fosset made the longest nonstop flight in aviation history Sunday at 26,389 miles. NASA easily captures headlines with its golf cart-sized rovers Opportunity and Spirit, which continue exploring the red planet two years past their planned expiration.

It's no coincidence that we are drawn to the beautiful sights of the Earth and surrounding universe to know more and to see more. It is part of the human condition to ask questions, to understand and to appreciate-the whole basis of our modern addiction to the Internet. With space as the final frontier, we should extend John F. Kennedy's logic: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

Jonathan Ludwig is a senior political science major from Austin.

Even homeless people deserve the fruits of Jonathanland...

I just gave one of our local homeless men a bag full of 3 aluminum cans. I kind've felt bad for driving by, and then, upon remembering those three cans in the back seat, backing up and giving them to him--like I was handing him my trash or something. He said thanks though. And he appeared to be Native American. This was taken after the fact, but given that I randomly walked outside and took the picture, it illustrates the preponderance of homelessness in Waco, or, especially, on my ally.

A preview of my forthcoming article in the Lariat...

"...But-but-I'm a Christopher Columbus in...sociology." Right. Now, sociology is mildly entertaining, but, honestly, how much cooler would it be to be the first person to walk on Mars? To crack quantum physics? To invent a craft that will take us to new solar systems? Somewhere along the line, we reached that stubborn glass ceiling..."

In other news, I have begun reading one of my favorite books of all time (for class), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein...

When I looked around,
I saw and heard of none like me.
Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth,
from which all men fled,
and whom all men disowned?"

—the monster, Volume I, Chapter V

Forecast: Partly Cloudy

The last few weeks have been like the stock market, as the doldrums of senioritus—among other things—have increasingly fought for control of my time and energy; rest assured, however, I will be graduating on-time in May with a noteworthy grade-point average. Ludacris would be proud.

I should spend more time with my own kind. Since joining Sigma Iota Rho roughly 2 years ago, I have rarely given it much time or thought—regrettfully, no more than an "Oops, I forgot the meeting this week." Though I often slander the Political Science/International Studies Department for its students' (and notably, some of its faculty) pompous ways, I feel most confortable with people who think as they do—big. They think about globalization, economics, cultural movements, large-scale phenomena, and are thankfully quick-witted. This isn't to say that my other friends and acquaintences who reside outside the discipline are slow or, shall I say, retarded. Not in the slightest. But politics attracts the open-minded, the political, the calculating. And for all the negative connotations such a designation might entail, I fit in to the model quite well. Thus, I quite enjoyed our recent group-outing to Yianni's Greek Food restaurant last Thursday.

In other news, Jack Bauer on 24 continues to kick the booties of lame terrorist thugs on Mondays at 8PM. President Logan, in the show, is a complete idiot, but I am convinced his disregard for good advice from Mike Novick and Bill Buchanan will, one day, begin to wane. Walt Cummings should be thrown to wolves, however, and I remain hopeful that Curtis Manning will again snap some bad guy's neck. Note: Agent Pierce is AWESOME and Chloe O'Brian remains oddly attractive to some, probably not including myself.

Meanwhile, floating around in some other area of my mind...

A feel as though a different man (guy?) from the high school graduate I brought to Baylor three and half years ago. I think about the same things really, such as my lack of appeal to Baylor women, but other things, perhaps, that remain implicit in my various musings. I wonder, for example, how it came to pass that I would be forced to reach out, for a second time, to Baylor in order to recoup some friendship losses I suffered, quite unnecessarily, during the early part of my junior year. Now, however, I can say with relative assuredness that the new friendships I have forged under less-intense circumstances will help provide mutual post-graduate security, as I continue my desire to retain and increase my social circumstance.

This is important because it will have made my college experience that much more worthwhile. Sure, there were losses and gaines, but overall, I am more solidified in my Christian beliefs, my political stance, as well as my moral compass. Along the same lines, I have to remember to just laugh and smile instead of focusing on how lame and conceited people are and will forever be. Indeed, you just have to laugh!

Anyway, I need to finish this girly book known as Pride and Prejudice for my British Literature course, and complete a character study for Tuesday. Fun!