Utopia Chewing on Grass While Studying Social Theory

Not much for excitement today. The fiancee and I spent it mostly shopping for stuff around the house and for the "kids" (Max and Miriya, the kittens). I, however:

+ Updated a couple more addresses,

+ Applied for short term health insurance,

+ Saw some quotes for dental insurance,

+ Re-connected with a property and casualty insurance agent that sounds decent, even if they're working under the assumption that I just won't lower premium and not necessarily a good company,

+ Just sent an e-mail to follow up on some contract work that applied for last week, received a reply but didn't receive another reply from the original follow up on their first reply,

+ Found some more good Internet radio stations over at Live365.com,

+ Discovered a book or two at Amazon.com that could provide me with some good meat for my college project once I can get back to it after getting a good job,

+ Found a couple good articles about grasses and the dietary/health uses for it, especially with cats:
o Arrhenatherum
o Wheat Grass for Cats

+ Learned about a couple social theorists that focused on social movements and IDENTITY, [social] BOUNDARIES and SOCIAL TIES:
o Charles Tilly's Change Theory
o Charle's Tilly at Wikipedia
o Major Works of Charles Tilly
o Sidney Tarrow at Wikipedia

UTOPIA OF DIVERSITY CHECKED

I had something of a wake up call when it comes to the utopian diversity I've felt in Chicago. While reading the job message boards at the Chicago Craigslist, I came across someone's posting about potential discrimination against them as a Jew from someone who might be an Arab at a job interview. Nothing substantiated and I don't know the particular Jewish person, but I guess there's some atmosphere of prejudice, at least in the form of behavior expectation.

Still, it's a step up from Boston somewhat. Different ethnicities have a better chance of running into each other, here in Chicago. Generally more effort has to be put into such diverse exposure in Boston.

TIME FOR BED

A part of me tells me that I've gotten a fair amount done in the last 12 or 13 hours. Another internal voice of mine tells me that I shouldn't put so much faith in one book or one theorist providing me with the answers that I need for my college project.

Oh well, another day has passed and good things have happened. I'm happy enough about that fact.