Productive

Today was a very productive day, so productive that I am still doing work. I am just taking a break to keep in touch with you all. I woke up a bit late in the morning did a few errands enjoyed brunch and went straight to the journalism department at Cardiff University to get some print out done from the New York Times and the Washington Post, which are the two newspapers I am doing my discourse analysis for my dissertation. I had to print out articles from LexisNexis because it is not free directly form the newspapers’ websites. I also e-mailed a few people I would like to interview for my dissertation.

I e-mailed Alexander Cockburn he is the co-editor of Counterpunch, the online newsletter described as "America's Best Political Newsletter". Mr Cockburn e-mailed me back within the hour and told me to call him anytime to discuss the issue of U.S. media reporting on U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan. Since I am taking a break tomorrow to enjoy the beautiful weather at the beach, I will give him a call on Thursday.

I e-mailed this organisation called Afghanistan Peace Organization, which is located in California, hopefully someone e-mails me back. It would be great to speak to people from Afghanistan to get their opinions about how the U.S. media reports on Afghan issues from the past 30 years.

This is what I enjoy most about my dissertation, the people I speak to and the varied opinions they have. What I love most is to pick someone's brain and discuss an issue, especially political issues.

I will focus on asking Mr Cockburn questions regarding the topics: Journalists involvement in the balancing act of being critical or patriotic of American foreign policy; Media blurring of U.S. foreign policy in Afghan history; Have Americans received the whole story about Afghanistan over the past 30 years?; and plenty more issues.

One of the articles for my dissertations will be titled, From heroes to terrorists: why were the villains of the War on Terror, the heroes in the 80s? All three article titles for my dissertation are in the form of questions, so I can stay focus and answer the question. According to my supervisor Gary Merrill, that is my problem, my focus is everywhere-I am trying to dip my finger in everything, which is true. However, I can't help it; this dissertation is fascinating to me.

So back to my productive day, which I should remind you is not over yet. After printing out and e-mailing, I went to dinner at my friend’s house; they are Polish, Kasia, Justyna and Diana. They have such a beautiful house and the rooms are small and comfortable. I brought Spanish Rosé, which I disliked and triple chocolate ice cream. I also brought goodies form Victoria Secret for Kasia and Diana. I recently came back from the states and they asked me to get them a few things at Victoria Secret, but by the time I got to Victoria Secret the semi-annual sale was over and the things they wanted were too expensive so I brought them Victoria Secret's Secret Crush Body Lotion. It has such a beautiful scent. They liked it, which was good.

Justyna made a delicious dish of spinach, chicken and mozzarella cheese. I really enjoyed it. I had polish soup and cheese on toast (that was oddly good). Diana, her sister and her sister's friend are going to the beach tomorrow, so I will tag along with them. According to BBC, the weather will be 30C, which is 83F and sunny- so that is beautiful beach weather.

So now I am going to read the printout from the newspapers and also from Counterpunch, since tomorrow will be a very unproductive day because I will be baking in the sun evening out my tan. Tomorrow morning I am thinking of going from I nice run around Bute Park before going to the beach that would be good, that will tire me out for the rest of the day and I can have a nice nap on the beach and also enjoy reading my novel from Eric Jerome Dickey Liar’s Game. I pick up two of his books from the airport coming back to Cardiff for the plane and bus ride.

Well, back to work for me, talk to you all later.

DaMak