Ever think working at the United Nations would be glamourous? Well, after days of going nutty trying to put together the reference section of the GEO for Youth Capacity Building Manual (which should have been done before Luis took off for Dubai, leaving unsuspecting lil' me to tie up any loose ends), I can definitely say: It's not!! (At least not all the time…)

All the stupid little bibliographical errors are taking forever to fix, and it’s hard not to get frustrated when omniscient sources like Google and Kakuko continually shrug their shoulders and shake their heads (ok, with Google, that's metaphorical, but you get what I mean...). After 5 years immersed in the world of academic Psychology, you'd think this sort of thing would come easy. But the UN apparently has no official referencing style, and there are inconsistencies even within, not to mention between their own documents. It may also have something to do with the fact that I see very little intrinsic value, either for my own satisfaction or the betterment of the world, in doing this sort of thing. For example, I have conducted seemingly infinite searches in a yet futile attempt to confirm the year in which W.F. Lawrence wrote "A crisis in the making: responses of Amazonian forests to land use and climate change" in Trends in Ecology and Evolution. We had 2000 cited, but internet sources are divided between 1997 and 1998.

Geez, okay, now I'm boring myself. The only reason I'm still here is I want to get this done soon so I can get to Capoeira tomorrow night. First class, last night, went well, over all. Slow start: the instructor shows up over half an hour late and speaks neither English nor French, not to mention - get this -very little Spanish!!) But the moves are cool, the stretches deep, and it could be nice to pick up some Portuguese. So far, there are only two of us in the class, and we’re luckily both beginners. Although I’m sure it will take some effort to get good (or even remember the basic routine), my initial fear has totally dissipated and I’m really looking forward to the process! Therefore, I am totally recommending that Shi (and anyone else who is considering trying Capoeira but is scared/nervous/what have you) just get out there and give it a go!

For a good site explaining the Capoeira basics, see:
http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/usr/h96b/h9650297/capoeira.html