Hello. Welcome to my website. It started while I was in Europe for a semester, and I've kept it up since then. I'm now at the University of Chicago Law School, living in Hyde Park, and the story continues. If you want to say hi or visit me, email cfloyd at uchicago dot edu.
"Life is nothing if not the sum of your anecdotes." -Scotty The Body, on storytelling "But it ain't that bad, man. Just figure out the system before the system figures out you." -T. Matthew Smith, on the 1L year "The beer just doesn't taste as good when you're not drinking it with your buddies." -Anon., on being away from good friends "Somebody has to pay the rent around here. Why the hell not us?" -Cotton, on studying for exams
2/28/2003
OK. I'm here, alive and well. Just a little tired from the travels. My room is double occupancy, and my roommate's name is Mirza. He's Bosnian. My internet doesn't work yet, so he's letting me use his computer. If I'm a little slow answering emails and posting for the next few days, that's why. I have tons to tell, but I'll get to all of it. Right now I have to figure out how to call home. Get this...It's easier here to post to a damn internet site than it is to find a phone that dials out. I suppose everything will take a little adjustment. Plenty more coming.
2/28/2003 04:39:00 AM
2/24/2003
Man, there's a lot to do to get ready. But it's interesting how enthusiastic people in general are about the prospect of extended travel. From the postman to the pharmacist to the Sprint helper person, everybody gets excited when I tell them I'm leaving. Oh wait. Maybe that's not so cool. Never mind.
2/24/2003 09:44:00 PM
2/21/2003
Thanks Jeff Huston, Justin Lantz, Kay Smith, Steph Floyd and Russell Griffin for music and book suggestions. I will certainly follow your advice. And much love to Deano, the man who accompanied me to the Deli last Monday to see an outstanding Travis-Stoney show.
I am chilling in Tulsa right now at my parents house, and my plane leaves from Tulsa International on Wednesday evening. If you want to get ahold of me before I go, call my home at 918 742-4998 or my cell at 405 204-6343. And folks in Norman: I'll be in for the day on Monday with Mr. Donohew, so we can do lunch or dinner or something.
2/21/2003 02:44:00 PM
2/20/2003
Since commenting works again, I thought I'd ask for advice, specifically on the subject of road music. Of course, I won't be on the road per se, but I'll be in the air on on rail a lot, and I want to carry good tunes for the ride. So click on the comments link below and let me know a good band/album/song for traveling. Or suggest a book.
2/20/2003 11:41:00 AM
Looks like the commenting service is down. I hope to get it back up ASAP, but I may have to switch services. Until then, just email me.
2/19/2003
Hello folks. No doubt this is the first post many of you have read. Welcome! I'll keep this site at least as long as I'm abroad, and hopefully longer. Feel free to visit as often as you think about me, and peruse my daily entries. You'll see them archived to your left. I will include my thoughts, adventures, pictures, and any other random things I come across. Please post a comment, or email me directly. Happy viewing!
2/19/2003 08:01:00 PM
I'm packing up my things. Trying to decide what comes with me. Also getting rid of stuff it's time to get rid of. Leaving can be sad.
2/19/2003 09:12:00 AM
2/18/2003
By the way, Ted Downing, Jennifer Gadd and I play our last open-mic night tonight at Brothers Pub and Eatery. Stop on by--I'm not certain when we go on, but if you get there by 10pm you won't miss us. And if you hang around later we'll go on again (and you can buy me a going-away drink).
2/18/2003 05:06:00 PM
Stoney LaRue and Travis Linville, Monday nights, at the Deli on Campus Corner: truly outstanding. I went last night to get a final taste of "Red Dirt" music before I leave town. Yeah, the Deli is a dive. What of it? The charm of that place is in its run-down nature. The beer is cheap, the ceiling's hazy, and the crowd is a happy mix of college-town types. The best part is that folks aren't there to be seen. They're there to see the music. And the music is great.
I was sitting, loving life, listening to the crowd sing along with a Waylon Jennings cover, and I thought of the Kurt Vonnegut speech I saw last Wednesday at Oklahoma City University. Vonnegut talked about his uncle, who once stopped everything at a family gathering to ask, "How great is this?" The point he made was that we are often unaware of the joyful moments in life until they are past. At the Deli last night, I made an effort in the middle of my happiness to think, "How great is this!" It made the moment that much better.
It makes me kind of sad that I won't be able to go to the Deli for a long time. It also makes me sad that I won't be able to get happy through the familiar means I've come across in Norman, OK. But then I think back to my philosophy teacher Paul Dykes. He used to tell a story of a letter from a student that ended with, "It just keeps getting better." Hopefully that is true. I'll miss my Norman friends and places. But I'm sure life will just keep getting better.
2/18/2003 04:40:00 PM
2/17/2003
Okay. I know I went on a mini-rant about Iraq yesterday. Dan, thanks for the feedback. That Barcelona march must have been amazing. Nonetheless, I remain pro-democracy, even if others think that Iraqi society, and the Middle East in general, isn't ready for it and we have no right to install a new government. It seems to me that war, or the imminent and serious threat thereof, is the only way to dislodge Hussein and his inhumane regime and introduce a just democracy. If you'd like to dispute me, please comment or email. I very well may be wrong, and I'd love to talk about it. Let's just keep things civil.
There. That's the last I'll say for a while about my opinion, unless it changes. The opinions of others I encounter during the next few months, however, are fair game. I will attempt to report in an objective manner on what people think, because that will be an important facet of my travel experience.
2/17/2003 01:27:00 PM
2/16/2003 This is an interesting NYT article. I respect the principles of antiwar protesters, but I still think they are wrong. And to suggest that the demonstrations show a split between "ruler and ruled"--well screw that. I am led. I am not ruled. We elect leaders to do the right thing, not pander to a crowd. And although the antiwar crowd is a sizable one, it does not make up the whole of the American viewpoint by a longshot. Also, this is a good response to the moral posturing of antiwar demonstrators:
"A great moral choice has been put before us by the people on the march yesterday," John Reid, the Labor Party chairman, said on a Sunday morning talk show. "Let's face that moral choice. It is not a choice between peace and war. It is a choice between doing something and not doing anything.
"If you take the view that we should not do anything, you too have a moral responsibility, because by doing that you are sustaining the status quo under which there are people being murdered, tortured and dying and starving."
Beautiful--straight from the mouth of Cicero. Let us liberate the Iraqi people. If we permit the crime of Saddam Hussein's rule to continue, it is as though we ourselves perpetrate this crime.
Some would suggest that this website will be a distraction that keeps me from fully immersing in the Europe experience (Mr. Donohew, I'm looking in your direction). They say that the laptop will weigh me down, and I should learn to sit in a European internet cafe. To that, I say "bah!". We live in a globally connected world and I see no reason to disconnect while I'm in a different part of it. Would the critics suggest I also leave my razor at home, to lighten the load and encourage a road-weary look? No, I think I'll go ahead and live in the 21st century.
2/15/2003 11:36:00 AM
2/14/2003
My office friends at Gable and Gotwals just threw me a cookie-cake going away party. It was very nice. I feel loved. I've always wondered about the "cookie-cake," though. I mean, it seems unique and festive, but also somewhat sinister. At first glance it appears simply to be a benevolent combination of two tasty treats. But then one must wonder, does the cookie-cake conspire to supplant both the cookie and the cake? I mean, look at what the Super Wal-Marts have done to regular discount stores and regular grocery stores. That is clearly not benevolent. Of course, the Super Wal-Mart will never fully replace either of it's predecessors, and so I suppose we will always be fortunate enough to choose between the cookie, the cake, and the cookie-cake. By the way, thank you Gable and Gotwals OKC for a great work environment. All the best.
2/14/2003 12:55:00 PM
2/13/2003
This is a post for Justin, who I assume will be visiting this site shortly to inspect. Hi, Justin.
2/13/2003 09:02:00 AM
2/04/2003
22 days to departure. It seems like it's time to ruminate, but I don't have any deep observations. I'm just trying to get my shit together. That's enough to worry about without being concerned about the effect of impending international perspective on my worldview. But soon...
2/04/2003 12:25:00 PM
