Episode 6: Return of the Journal

So far, $45 million has been raised in the U.S. for responce to Katrina, though the amount of support from other countries has been very weak, imo, as one opinion from US Today also says. Primarily its been just comments on condolences, though I've found a news story that Venezuela has offered humanitarian aid, Saudi Arabia will try to increase production to control oil prices, and Canada is ready to help where needed. A site thats keeping track of all donations both foreign and domestic is also listing Israel as having offered any support it can give.
The donation effort seems to be going really well online, and I've been keeping track of the hurricane on Michelle Malkin's blog to see much of the newest stuff (i'm on her blog for mentioning KFI's drive tomorrow) and Instapundit, who I don't normally frequent, has a ton of charities listed.
One of the stories that caught me off guard today was that there are 20 oil rigs in the gulf that are now missing, and theres a fire burning where one used to be. Basicly, its one of the things that hasn't even been close to a priority as finding survivors and rescuing the stranded has been the number one priority.

Of course, we don't have a monopoly on loss of life it seems. Somewhere around 800 are dead in Iraq when claims of a suicide bomber triggered a panic on a bridge during a religious procession, with people falling from the bridge into the Tigris or being trampled. Its just....well, horrific. I'm not going to criticise the support and aid that that seems to have generated from the world community because thats something definitly that should be a concern and responded to, but I wish that more of the attitude was showing up in regard to the damage in the wake of Katrina.

Well....its amazing how much can change in just one day. From yesterday at this time, New Orleans looked like it had been amazingly lucky in withstanding the hurricane and would have only minimal damage compared to what was predicted. Then... well, then everything went far worse than I'd expected. Somewhere this morning the levees gave way and water started rushing into New Orleans incredibly fast, at points at a rate of an inch every 5 minutes. In other words, a foot an hour. The water is still expected to rise several more feet and already 80% of New Orleans is flooded and apparently statements as to how long it will take to drain the city are saying it could take as many as 4 months just to do that. Mississippi's coast is absolutly devestated with large areas flattened and pretty much....nothing really left. Not sure how Alabama's coast did, and the storm is still doing damage and flooding as it works its way north. The scale of this is just...unbeliveable.
Wikipedia has pretty extensive coverage of all this as I've found that to be a pretty good way of seeing all the current news put together in one spot. They've got one entry for Hurricane Katrina and a second one specifically on how New Orleans has been effected by Katrina. There's also been lots of news coverage, of course, including of widespread looting in New Orleans and how bodies are being ignored still in the race to find those stranded by rising water.
What I found particularly interesting is that New Orleans' traditional media (newspapers and television news) has been using blogs to get news out since they've all been evacutated from New Orleans and their buildings. Its good that they've adapted that well, and its an intersting thing to have traditional media make such good use of something that has been considered to be a 'threat' to it now. Though I do wish the story had given more attention to those blogs not run by the media that have been following this all as well... but thats asking a bit much, probably.
One of the noticble effects of the hurricane here, though, has been that gas prices are on the rise now, and fast. They were predicting this before the hurricane hit, but I think the flooding of New Orleans triggered it. Gas hadn't gone up at all at the 76 on Nordhoff as of yesterday afternoon when it was at 2.69. It was up to 2.75 by the time I went to school late this morning, and was up to 2.81 by the time I went home. This is for the "cheap" gas, too. With 16-17% of oil refining going on in Louisiana alone, Katrina will definitly effect production numbers.

Anyway, on to things not hurricane related....
The Cassini mission has discovered a strange hot spot on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons that normally doesn't matter. Now whats wierd about it is that Enceladus is a very small moon so there shouldn't be any activity within it that would create heat, as would be expected with a larger moon, and more bizarre, the hot spot is located in one of the polar regions. The scientists don't even have much in the way of guesses as to whats causing this. My money is on secret alien base.

College dorms are apparently getting larger beds which to me just seems dangerous. Or that might just be jealousy. Anyway, while the headline seems sensational, whole thing just comes down to a different standard of living apparently, as more students haven't had to share rooms in the past (they better just be the only children in that catagory) or have been allowed bigger beds growing up. So the colleges are having to adjust to keep up with that. I sort of doubt people were neccessarily happy with the size of dorm rooms prior though.

Today marks my renewed fight against the LaRouche Youth Movement thats so often on campus, and is more or less preaching the views of Lyndon H LaRouche. Apparently he's served prison time and everything. Anyway, I've apparently been messing with forces far more psycho than I thought and members have actually been deprogrammed in the past before and all.
Nonetheless, I feel I made some good points, though I intend to read the info I was given and put together a countering of it, but first a rundown of the arguement. They had some sign about how Schwartzeneggar was a Nazi for some proposition. So I decided to ask which one it is. Short of it is that Schwarteneggar will be able to cut things from the budget if revenues aren't going to be enough for the budget. How that makes him a dictator I'm not quite sure. Anyway, they quickly were arguing that they should get rid of all the highways and instead have magnetic levitation trains. Now, aside from that not seeming like the best of ideas where you have earthquakes, this is also completely unrealistic given the distribution of population in the Los Angeles region. I mean, that they can go 250 mph really is useless for stops every few miles, and other areas with trainbased mass transit (mainly like subways) are places like San Fransisco and New York, where you have small densly populated areas. I mean...San Fransisco is on a small little peninsula. Much easier to have useful public transportation there. Solution? Apparently to destroy southern california and rebuild it with a better plan. Now thats an outright abuse of government power.
I found it very disappointing the grasp of economics they seemed to have, as they completely ignored WHY gas is going up in price and blamed it on inflation. Simple answer? LACK OF SUPPLY! Real estate is also a bubble about to burst. They misrepresented the job situation, and I particularly liked the comparisons to Germany before World War II. Completely ignoring the whole Treaty of Versailles which is the whole reason Germany was so ready for the whole "Hitler" phase it went through.
My favourite moment was probably when I cut off a comment that was attempted about Bush not knowing the constitution as evidenced in the debates and I was able to shoot back with Kerry doing the same thing. Small victory to get them to call both candidates dumb, but I'll take it. I think on the whole it always throws them off when I know enough offhand on this stuff to counter them sufficiently. It is fun though... even if they aren't logical. No practical knowledge of economics.
The creepy part was being invited on some seminar thing in Santa Barbara this weekend. I will not be going anywhere...but still...just wierd. I don't like the recruity feel that has. But anyway, more on the pamphlets I was given in next few days when I get the chance to work through them.

Well, the hurricane could have gone better but at least it missed New Orleans, so the city fared far better than had been expected when it looked like Katrina would hit it directly. As far as human life goes, this is very very lucky. Also reports that the oil drilling and such going on in the gulf suffered minimal damage and should be alright. Also good. In many ways much of the area really dodged the bullet on this one.

Tom got this on myspace the other day:

Dont Buy gas on September 3rd!!!!
Boycotting the gas company will decrease the price dramatically. Ive checked into it and if over half the US didnt buy gas for 1 day, the gas companys would be close to bankrupcy!!! So Lets show them how to lower gas prices. So repost this to all your friends. We have to get the word out. Its NATIONAL DONT BUY GAS DAY!!!
So repost it!!!

This is what we in the know call STUPID! Or well, I'm being harsh. Considering the source, this is more what we would call ignorance and foolishness rather than stupidity. Now, lets evaluate how this would work. The idea here is to hurt the gas companies to somehow lower prices. Now, the only things that would lower gas prices is to either lower demand or increase supply. Now, increasing supply would involve building more refineries which, while something we are in dire need of, isn't going to happen any time soon. So the only other thing to do is lower demand. However, the key to lowering demand isn't to not buy gas on a particular day, its to DRIVE LESS. IF you do this boycott, are the gas companies going to see any decrease in business? No. They may see a dip on the day in question, but that'll be balanced out by all the people that instead buy gas right before it, or one of the days after it. You're still buying gas from them...they're not losing anything. This is one of those "solutions" to a problem that really isn't any solution at all.

Crawford has been busy the last weekend, and I've been searching around to find out what all happened, especially on the pro-troops side. Now, there is already some stuff that got put up at MooreWatch, some pictures of the counterprotesting and the crosses and the latest of Casey's mother's shameless photo ops. With Al Sharpton no less. Anyway, I finally found what I was after in stumbling across Ankarlo.net They've also got a conversation with someone thats been in Camp Casey to see whats on the inside of that, but they also had pictures of some of the counterprotesting. Hopfully more will be hitting the net soon.

Well, in less than 8 hours I'll be back at northridge as the new semister kicks off. I'll be posting my class schedule on here tomorrow, or well, later today. Whatever.
I'm looking at a relativly workable schedule...not out as eary as I'd like... but I at least have some late starts, so its not that bad. Still though, I wish they'd just put everything on 3 days of the week or so, to give me a day off. But the physics department has yet to do that.

CNN has a report on Katrina about just how devistating it hitting New Orleans could be. This is going to be a very tough next few days for the city, as there is talk of whether or not the Superdome, which might be housing thousands of refugees from the low city, will be able to withstand a hurricane of this strength.
And theres things I'd not even thought to consider but are mentioned in that article, like the following:

"So, imagine you're the poor person who decides not to evacuate: Your house will disintegrate around you. The best you'll be able to do is hang on to a light pole, and while you're hanging on, the fire ants from all the mounds -- of which there is two per yard on average -- will clamber up that same pole. And, eventually, the fire ants will win."

Add in that there might well be a national impact. Michelle Malkin mentioned that Hugh Hewitt's blog is discussing the possibility of $4 a gallon for gas. Apparently, 16% of the U.S.'s fuel is being refined in Louisiana, and with everything already being pretty much at capacity, anything disrupting production will cut back in supply and push prices even higher.
Dark times lie ahead.

From Apple Geeks here is this absolutly awesome ebay auction, its a vending machine that has Star Wars on it on eBay! I so need this.

The BBC is proving that its getting with the times and is taking the threat of the internet directly.

Under the outline he presented, Thompson said the player would let Web users download original BBC radio and television programming from its Web site for as long as seven days after it originally aired.

Now, what I'd like to see is that this get done by letting you download for free but keeping the advertising in there, but never know how this'll go. The BBC usually is pretty good about this stuff. I like thta the BBC does take a really good attitude to the net, and I like already how they keep all their archieves up and available to everyone, unlike the press in the U.S. that makes you pay for anything older than a week or two. Video would be extremely difficult to keep up for an extended period of time... but a week is a pretty good margin and I think I'm definitly going to have to keep an eye on this as it'd be great to be downloading BBC.

A couple days ago I'd read on MooreWatch that there were protests against the war being held outside of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which is where many wounded are being treated when they come back to the U.S. from overseas. You can read about it or watch a video on it by a thing called the Cybercast News Service, which I've not heard of before, but you can check it out here.
Now, my own personal opinion on this is that this is a horribly tasteless and inappropriate thing to do. A protest is supposed to be somewhere that things can be changed by. The press hadn't been giving this much coverage, and its not getting to the public through big visbility, so its not helping to change the views of the public. And policy makers aren't seeing this on a routine basis. The only group that is seeing these protestors much are the wounded soldiers themselves. In that sense, this is a protest not in the name of wounded soldiers, but of the wounded soldiers. The best comparison of this I've read was what JimK said at Moorewatch, including the following:

It’s so very supportive to rip open wounds and pour salt on them like that. I often show rape porn on giant outdoor screens just outside group counselling sessions for rape victims. It’s my way of protesting rapists. Sometimes I like to put Bailey’s in the coffee at AA meetings too. Oh, and pictures of dead children on billboards outside the Chidren’s Hostpitals. After all, the evil medical establishment is killing kids and what better way to protest that than to stick those images in the faces of the parents coming and going.

This is exactly right. Whoever has to see a protest most is the group targeted by it. There is no other group but the wounded being targeted here, and to be reminding the soldiers of their friends that died at the same time they were wounded shows absolutly no respect for the troops or consideration for what they are going through. These people are supposed to SUPPORT the troops? Groups like Code Pink have absolutly NO claim to that now. And the anti-war protester taht said, "Maybe there is a better place to have a protest. I am not sure," just showcase either ignorance for reality or a complete lack of compassion for the troops.
And the viewpoint of the wounded soldiers being treated? Here's what the article contained from Kevin Pannell, who lost both his legs in Iraq:

"You know that 95 percent of the guys in the hospital bed lost guys whenever they got hurt and survivors' guilt is the worst thing you can deal with," Pannell said, adding that other veterans recovering from wounds at Walter Reed share his resentment for the anti-war protesters.

Anyway, now that news got out on this, even in relativly liberal D.C. a larger group has now started to come out to counter the protests outside Walter Reed to support and thank the troops. There are pictures and sum-ups of it at two blogs: Cam Edwards and The Gunn Nutt. Saw both of those blogs linked to via Michelle Malkin's blog.

Also Malkin linked to writing coming from Iraq by Michael Yon and this gives an amazingly well written account of whats going on Iraq from a perspective with the troops, with pictures too. This also isn't the same war the media is showing. Really a must read.

About a year ago there was the hostage situation in Russia where Chechnyan terrorists took over a thousand hostages when they seized control of a school while parents were visiting the school. Now, there is a rule about hostages in Russia... when there is a hostage situation, the Russian authorities WILL kill more of the hostages than the hostage-takers. This was the case, for example, when terrorists with the same group took over a theatre in Moscow and in an attempt to free the hostages many were killed by the gas that the Russians used to kill the terrorists as well. Now, with the school, the question was, "How did the Russians do it?" An answer may seem to be on its way because the residents of where the whole thing happened are now questioning if Russian forces had fired some pretty hardcore stuff at the school WHILE hostages were alive, possibly even triggering the fire that led to the deaths of many of the hostages. Now, one of the weapons involved here is a rocket-fired flamethrower projectile. What does this do? Well, it does the following:

Thermobaric flamethrowers immediately combust the oxygen in a room and ignite a 1,470-degree flash that chars everything in its path and creates a vacuum-induced blast wave that ruptures lungs and eardrums, causes hemorrhages in livers and spleens and yanks out the eyes of anyone caught within a 2,800-square-foot range.

We're apparently using these things in fighting like in Afghanistan...which just rocks.

As a side note, a farmer in Texas is claiming he caught a chupacabra. I'm rather disappointed that they don't already have pics of what he supposedly caught, but hopfully those'll hit the media soon. Well, those or an elaborate story about how the thing escaped. Free the Chupacabra!!

Well, the past two days have been two more days of work, so that kept me busy. So much time out to Thousand Oaks area, which is a good hour drive every time. Overall though, my first experience at a school more or less on my own actually did go fairly well.

I bought textbooks and its just further proof that the costs are WAY too high. For 4 books and a software thing...with 3 of the books being used, it cost me $475. That textbooks cost what is over 1/3 of my tuition is absolutly insane. There needs to be something done to make this more affordable in general.
There really is only one cool thing with the books and that is that I have one called "introduction to quantum physics" i believe. like, my book titles are practically jokes. its awesome. this lead to my mom asking me the question "are you actually smart enough to be taking these classes?" I think the sheer existance of such classes causes her some trouble. Anyway, I'll get my schedule up over the weekend.

I'm very worried that the fact that I was able to get gas for under 2.69 a gallon the other day was something that I was happy about. Its just... its not right. We need to invade more countries to get their oil too.

I'm realising that I'm more or less socially on my own as far as things in my general area go. I mean, Bryan really is the only person, as the Star Wars line was the final break between myself and my friends within the valley. Granted, it was building over issues like how I was never invited to stuff ahead of time... but still, its rather dishartening. Moreso as the number of line events is dwindling so while I show up at stuff, theres less stuff to show up at.

Theres also something wrong with me that I just can't sort out. I've had strange pressure with sinuses and stuff but no sign of congestion or anything. Its like... I feel like I'm supposed to be sick but I'm not. It feels very wierd and is not something I'm generally fond of. Hopfully though that'll go away given time. Its been like this at least for the whole week and I can't explain it, nor do I know how to deal with it. So very confused about myself.

A quick apox on work. Today was suppsoed to be the third of three days and things went so not the way they were supposed to...far busier than I wanted to be. at least 3 more discussions in which people thought i was still in high school. go me.

I'm gonna start off by pluging some awesome podcasts worth listening to till i get them up on my site or something. Firstly, I need to plug the IMAO podcast because they're wondering if they should keep doing it or not. THE IMAO podcast is by the same people as the IMAO blog, which is a rightward humuor blog. I enjoy the site, but their weekly podcasts are just genius. Anywhere near the middle politically and you should be able to appreciate this just as far as humour goes since its presented in a manner which makes it clear that these are jokes. Plus some very good returning segments. Personally I'm enjoying the fun facts about the 50 states that they're currently working through. Ninjas, science stuff, all sorts of things. Its just great and comes out every Monday. They're awesome, and its a very well done production.
Check it out at www.imaopodcast.com.

Second main one to plug is the Starkcast, by JimK from Moorewatch, which is fairly funny. It doesn't appeal to me as much as IMAO, as its more of the rant type thing, like many podcasts, and is more free flowing, but its also hilarious. Worth giving it a shot to see if its your cup of tea. Adult language and stuff though.

Some news coverage:
Hawaii has set some price caps on gas to keep its prices within range of the contenental U.S.

The state's Public Utilities Commission said Wednesday that, beginning Sept. 1, wholesalers in Honolulu may not charge more than $2.1578 a gallon for regular unleaded, or about $2.74 a gallon when taxes are included. The commission set the caps, which will fluctuate from week to week, at different levels for other islands.
The law does not establish a cap at the retail level. But if retailers keep their usual 12-cent-per-gallon markup, prices for regular unleaded in Honolulu could in theory rise to about $2.86 per gallon.
On Wednesday, the average retail price of regular unleaded in Honolulu was at a record $2.761, some 15 cents above the nationwide average. Statewide, prices average $2.84, the highest in the nation, according to AAA's Web site.
Prices on Maui have already topped $3 a gallon this week.

Now, I can understand there being issue with the gas prices there, but what I found really interesting here is that the story is acting all shocked about breaking $3. However, we're starting to cross over that mark here as well. The solution isn't to just pass laws that you can't go over a certain amount, convienient as that would be. When the issue is supply, it has to be kept in mind that its not for lack of oil, but lack of gas. If gov't is going to get involved in gas prices much at all, it should be to try to help get refineries built. Help the capitalisitic forces get prices under control, rather than just pass laws to ignore supply and demand. If we effect the price they can charge by just putting a ceiling on it, then the end result will just be that they stop producing as much gas, and that will be a whole WORLD of problems.

The Pentagon is going Star Wars

A U.S. Pentagon invention could make air combat resemble a battle scene from Star Wars, with a laser so small it can fit on a fighter jet, yet powerful enough to knock down an enemy missile in flight.

I give it 5 to 10 years until the story comes out that the Pentagon is building lightsabres. And that will rock. Anyway, the use of lasers like this is one of those things that just shows that scoffing at these sorts of things is foolish. We end up using those concepts in the future, not neccessarily inspired by scifi, but the similarities remain. I mean, A.I. will be right around the corner too, possibly.

Oh my gosh, the media has admitted this

To some relatives of the fallen U.S. soldiers, however, it isn't a tribute to heroes but a political statement by liberal groups with whom they disagree.
Sherry Orlando, a spokeswoman at Fort Campbell, Ky., said she doesn't want her husband, who was killed in Iraq in 2003, to be used "for someone's political agenda."
"Being in the military ... was who he was. It wasn't just a job. He supported what he did and I support that as well," she said.

I've really not seen a story actually focus before on the fact that some military families just may not be happy with having their family members that have been killed in Iraq used to oppose the war. Most of the media coverage is the anti-war family members, but to present only those family members as counting creates a very incorrect view of how military families are viewing the war. Of COURSE you mention those that are anti-war (preferably the ones that AREN'T nuts), but you've also got to look at how many are supportive still and not try to fight that fact just becasuse taht doesn't help say the war is horrible. I also like the particular article for differentiating between Arlington West, which just reminds how many people have died in Iraq, and putting names on crosses and activly using the dead, specific people, for a political purpose. Even Arlington West goes a bit too political, imo, but the whole thing in Crawford is missing the point that it doesn't honour and support the troops to act like they were victims of the U.S. when they volunteered to serve. The only thing they could be victims of is the gunfire of those that are rather opposed to the whole "let Iraqis vote" thing. Let that not be forgotten.

another day of work, and another person thought that i was in high school. or well... this time two girls that had come in argued over whether or not i was in high school. still though... part of me thinks looking young to be a good thing in theory, the other part of me is just annoyed.
i also got through the book i started on at work yesterday right as i finished up today, another gem from Clive Cussler.

• White Death by Clive Cussler (419 pages) Much as I am a fan of Clive Cussler's writing, White Death is the first of his books that I've read that wasn't with Dirk Pitt and his good friend Al Giordino as the two main characters. However, many of the supporting characters are still in the book so it still feels very familiar, just with two new main characters to follow, now Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala. As always, its a very unique mix of history, legend, current science, and theory that is blended into an awesome piece of fiction. Plus, with the presence of Basque seperatists...theres even a political edge to it. Really the sort of thing that I'd go further into, but like so many of Cussler's books, its really of the style that you can only read it for yourself and watch the order in which pieces are revealed and how they fit together. My standard statement when it comes to these books: Cussler rocks.

I continue to work on my grand project, a listing of all the star wars references in web comics. Am I insane to attempt this? most certainly. but its worth the attempt nonetheless. so thusfar, i'm up to 3 webcomics that are star wars based (those are the easy ones cuz i just list the webcomics) and 9 that just have references...i've gone through so many archieves in the last while. i've got one more that autumn has suggested, and then i know somethingpositive had at least a reference or two... then applegeeks or machall might have some too. we'll see. anyway, its my fun little project i got going. until i write some more actual stuff, anyway. but you can check out the star wars stuff here from my website. I intend to do a PvP specific in honour of the panda attack when i can get around to it as well...i've got the list of strips...just have to put em together on a page.

i am still awaiting work really getting going, as while i've got all my RG Productions work, tutoring will be slow to get going, and I've already had one delay to next week, as I had forseen. Hopfully though they can all kick off next week, and an extra 3 or 4 more, if I am lucky. Still hoping I get some of the expected calls from some of the families that I've worked a lot with. New work too...I'll have to try to run fliers by Valencia and West Ranch tomorrow shortly after they get out.

went to disneyland yesterday as the combined lisa's birthday and ric and lisa's engagement party thing, and i've now riden space mountain twice in its new incarnation. now, the first thing isn't the ride itself but i'm going to give disney credit for this:

what you're looking at there is how the handicapped loading works. they will load a train for the handicapped riders off the track so that they can take the time needed to get in, then they will pull an empty train off to put the train with the handicapped guests on to the tracks then switch it back out after. its a really gutsy move to have trains sliding in and out that much like that, but from a ride op perspective, that really speeds things up and makes things easier. They get major credit for planning that and doing it so effectivly.

as for the ride itself, i'm really glad to see that in general the concept of the ride hasn't changed at all. the main changes are that the entry and exit tunnels have a higher quality of display, so it allows for better visual presentation but it isn't drasticly different. theres also something particularly neat when first entering the main area....but not gonna reveal that. ride it and see. i would have liked to see the galaxies still though, but thats the astronomy nerd in me. and of course, the music is very well done...bit partial to the last music, but this was still very good and has the same general feel to it. totally worth a total of like 2:45 worth of waiting to ride it just twice.

on work - thousands oaks is really far away. not as bad as i thought timewise, but worse distancewise, and my roundtrip is like 100 miles. at least theres very little traffic so in the morning its just over an hour a drive and coming home its just under. there is a bit of confusion, though, as the school has someone there to sort of do my job too....but in the end i was doing it most of the time. having fun dealing with the little problems that spring up.

and something is seriously wrong when i'm GLAD that i didn't break 50 filling up my tank today but was only at 49.61

So, theres this thing called "The Gender Genie" that will take a sample of writing and then make a prediction as to the gender of the person who wrote it. I figured why not have it do this for a bunch of things I've written and see what happens...so here goes with what percentage of score was for male:

My personal statement	Words: 767 Female Score: 638 Male Score: 1425 The author is: male!	69.1%
Drug Legalisation	Words: 2067 Female Score: 2393 Male Score: 3411 Rauthor is: male!	58.8%
Abortion	Words: 2134 Female Score: 3008 Male Score: 4555 The author is: male!	60.2%
Bias in the Media	Words: 596 Female Score: 473 Male Score: 1093 The author is: male!	69.8%
Land of the Free Home of the Brave	Words: 471 Female Score: 302 Male Score: 693 The author is: male!	69.6%
Everyday Space Stations	Words: 706 Female Score: 934 Male Score: 1329 The author is: male!	58.7%
Essence of High School	Words: 376 Female Score: 272 Male Score: 727 The author is: male!	72.7%
Israel: A History of Conflict	Words: 1197 Female Score: 915 Male Score: 1583 The author is: male!	63.4%
L.A.X. Lax?	Words: 1079 Female Score: 1031 Male Score: 1760 The author is: male!	63.1%
Terri Schiavo entry	Words: 2667 Female Score: 2924 Male Score: 4456 The author is: male!	60.4%
Full BBC blog	Words: 1645 Female Score: 2014 Male Score: 3642 The author is: male!	64.4%

Nothing quite like spending a Saturday revisiting the past, so to speak.

Had an astronomy picnic thing that I went to for almost 4 hours and it brought back a lot of memories. I've been trying to go to more and more of these things, but this I was especially glad to be at since LaVerne, the club founder, was there, and she's really one of the people that helped raise me within the group. I'm now one of the longest members of the group, having been a member for 14 years, with the group being just as old as I am. Thats a cool thing in its own right. I really have got to get to more of this stuff, plus it can probably lead to some sort of way in to JPL in the future.

This was followed up by another thing of the past, a slurpee run. Granted, I say thing of the past because this was more the old school version. The mud people were in town still and leaving tomorrow (Karl and Andrew) and so with them and Bryan...it just felt like the slurpee runs of old. Noone around here gets it anymore... its not about the slurpee itself and I think Karl was the only one to get one. Its about socialising for a brief period and just generally hanging out. However, being able to 'just hang out' is something I'm really not able to do anymore. Its disappointing in a sense.

Lesson of the day: By law, you can't buy lotto tickets with a credit card or check.

Another week through and another paycheck into my checking account. Getting money is a good feeling, and next week will be even better as I'm now getting tutoring calls for the new semister already, even though it only started this week. I like the quick startup, so thats good. Course, next week I'll also be on my own at Thousand Oaks High School for 3 days of shoots. This is going to be strange, I think. Still though, I suppose i should see it as a vote of confidence that I'm being assigned to be the only person there.

Next week I'll be going back to work with the scroll more. I was in thursday but the computers are junk, so it took almost the whole time to just get things started. Second time round, I'll have to get that sorted out better so we can get on training. I'm looking forward to helping to get the paper focused on being a newspaper again.

I really don't like feelings of isolation and such when they crop up. Now, most people feel that when it is also looking at physically being alone or not. For me, though, its a bit different. I can handle not having other people around me in any fashion of close proximity, that works just fine. Whats tough is when I'm on my own as far as communication goes. I don't like big voids with no one to talk to. Unfortunitly, thats exactly where I am. Between people that won't talk to me, or are too busy, or just aren't online.... theres no one to be able to talk to online anymore. Heck, hardly anyone even knows this exists. Though granted, thats also understandable. Still... I don't like how when I feel like just talking, even about pointless stuff... theres no one around.

The past 24 hours have in many ways been cruel, cruel twists of fate.

Firstly, last night there was a storm rolling through....we could see flashes of lightening, but the bolts itself weren't visible by the time i had a camera ready, and that was just cruel.
Anyway, so the plan was to go to bed at 12:30....thanks to my friend insomnia, i didn't fall asleep till somewhere after 2:30. This is a time noteworthy for two reasons...one, a thunder storm seemed to hit then, rain and all. And two, a related note, we lost power. hurray hurray. So my alarm clcok was all messed up and I needed to be up at 5:15.

Anyway, had one of those mornings where I managed to be DONE with work at like... 10:15 in the morning. Its just not right. Though I made it a point to try Burger King's new chicken fries. They're actually fairly good, and so, i sanction them for the masses. Go forth and consume.

I've watched two DVDs for the day; Monty Python's GRaham Chapman: Looks like a brown trouser job was just hilarious, as I've come to know most things with a Python are. While it certainly helps to know of his work with python, one of the things I actually liked was he took just enough time to make clear his references to monty python sketches and movies, and so while the python fan would enjoy the bits of history, even someone not as familiar with Python can still get it. He was also a very hilarious person. Which shouldn't come as a shock, but this reinforces it, moreso since I've seen very little of him talking in general since most Python talking things have happened after his death.
The second was an example of a good premise gone horribly wrong; Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. Now, had this been about the problems with the media as a whole, it would have been great, and eye opening, and really a cause for evaluation of the media. However, the fact that it is very partisan led to that lofty purpose being destroyed. By all means, Fox has some serious issues with the way it handles the news. The thing is though, all the other networks do it too. The arguement just looks weak and petty when you criticise Fox for, say, bringing up Ted Kennedy's past when other outlets have brought up the past of Republicans when it "wasn't news", like the pats of both Bush and Cheney. And to criticise Fox for trying to make things be opinions so that they can't be proved wrong is just foolish when, firstly, one of the most vocal voices on the left is Michael Moore, who specialises in that, and you have people like Dan Rather arguing that while evidence may be false the underlying point is the same. Had this been a critique of the media, irregardless of political viewpoints, this would've been a must-see for anyone that ever sees the nes. As it is, its just a bunch of petty political attacks, and that is very disheartening.

Well, just wrapped up a busy week of work, and with the tutoring topping off a little over 40 hours of work during the week, i'm looking at somewhere over $400 for the week. I'm really glad about that since I'm looking at pushing up my savings as much as I can. Never can have too much money on hand.
I'm continuing my push through 50 horror classics, hitting the 21st today, and probably the 22nd later. When I'm all through, I'll be talking about which ones were the best, but so far I'm just pushing onward through.

For the upcoming week I'm gonna have to get prepared for my return to the Saugus journalistic endevour as I will be going back to help train the class on Pagemaker. After years of nothing, the paper seems to now have a vision behind it. I was amazed to find out that Amanda was able to get things together so much that they're putting together the first issue already. Its very impressive. Its going to be great seeing journalism have a rebirth there. For those not in the know....years back in my senior year, I was the voice for the idea that the paper should be on time, journalistic, and focused on serving the students rather than just a pet project of those involved and more of an artistic thing. Or a chick magazine. While I was speaking out on my own, I did gain supporters in the class over time, even leading to a designed layout that ultimately didn't make it in but was an attempt to get some world events in the paper. Anyway, of the couple stronger supporters I had, they either left the class or were also not able to get into a position strong enough to make any significant changes. Amanda, however, has gotten the editor-in-chief position, something I consider a wise choice. And since the instructor won't teach anyone how to lay out, and considering I've had an outstanding offer the last few years taht I'm willing to come back and help, that offer has finally been taken up.

On Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I must say that I'm generally very much impressed. I've always been a fan of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory so naturally I was skeptical about the idea of redoing taht. The two movies really aren't the same, and I think that in general, I still prefer the original, but the new version is definitly worthy of assosciation. I think one of its strong suits is that its a movie that really lets you feel like you can have fun with it once you're into the factory, and I think its very key that the factory have that feel. Really, my main issue with it would just have to be that having all the ompa loomas look exactly the same when its a group of people just felt odd...but other than that it was great.

and reading time...one i forgot to do a while back and one thats been read over a spread out time period:

• Official Price Guide to Star Wars Memorabilia by Jeremy Beckett (223 pages) Now I'm sure the first thought here is that a price guide shouldn't count as reading, or that I'm obviously a nerd for reading lists of prices. Ok, the latter could actually happen, but anyway, to call this a price guide really glosses over what this is and doesn't do it justice. I heard about the book on theforce.net's podcast, and they had an interview with the guys behind it. Rather than just a simple list of prices, the first half of the book is a guide to collecting in general, starting with the most general terms and going into rules, guidelines, definitions, and so on. It was great because there are parts of collecting that I just don't know about, the figures especially. I would, however, have liked to see them talk about the various CCG things to some extent, but still it was very enlightening. And its just boosted my knowledge on stuff too, so thats always the goal here.
  
• Silence at Boalt Hall: The Dismantling of Affirmative Action by Andrea Guerrero (202 pages) If you want to read a book that tries to honestly and fairly present the affirmative action debate and how it effected Boalt Hall and tries to show the mindsets of both viewpoints, do NOT read this book. The claims on the back of the book taht this is journalistic seem to be a joke when you get well over 100 pages into the book to THEN learn that the author wasn't just a student at the time affirmative action ended, she actually helped organise students against it. So not like she's, you know, biased or anything. For a book put out by the University of California Press it does exactly what i'd expect it to do: lean far to the left. Firstly, there is the ever fun inconsistancy that diversity must be respected and mechanisms should be in place to force a diversity of skin colour, something we are told shouldn't matter in most settings, while on the other hand criticising heavily anyone with a differing viewpoint from affirmative action as being somehow backwards or racist. Because, you know, what matters is skin colour, not how you think. The consistant hole of arguing that there are strong economic ties to why minorities can't get in to the more exclusive schools is never fixed by even pretending that you should focus things towards the poor in general rather than minorities, and in fact, that idea was argued against for some reason. I was also never aware that you could argue something was culturally biased becase minorities are worried about having their scores compared to white students. On the whole, the book just seemed to be lacking logic on a routine basis and those gaps really add up by the end of the book. I had hoped to understand the arguement for affirmative action better by reading this but all I've got is MORE confusion on how they can hold such a belief.

ah, nothing doesn't get read
like a blog people think is dead

well, i've been busy working for the first time in a long while. at least, working in a traditional sense with days of work, and schedules and all that. its going pretty well. much of what i'm doing has been computer-based, but even cashiering has been something i've felt really comfortable with, actually. i'm jut in general comfortable with working. and it helps that i'm getting money.

i still feel wierd that really, at this point its the longest period of being social i've ever had in my life. i've had more social events since ROTS came out than i had in the few years leading up to it. I guess...well, this is probably normal for most people, but it isn't normal for me. It's a very foreign feeling, but also comfortable too. I just like that there was such a stereotype that waiting for star wars is such an unsocial thing to do, yet its made me a much more social person. its strange seeing how oneself changes in time, and i guess it still remains to be seen if things change further for me.
one of these late nights now, so i'll rant off more on specific events later.

alright, this is overdue, so lets do some quickie recaps

Comic-Con:
first and foremost was comic-con, which became like, a week-long experience since i had headed down the tuesday before so that i could pick up sarah from LAX and didn't come home till after i'd seen her off just after midnight the following tuesday.
I will make a post of just pictures once i upload those, but first, some of the highlights of the weekend:
Wednesday: for the first time, met Helen and Liz of the line because neither were around for this line and I'd only heard of them by reputation prior. I also discovered then that comic-con would basicly involve running into people the whole time.
Thursday: bought all my exclusives
Friday: Star Wars day, first noted by the unexpected discover that Laura and Rose had come down two days early. The star wars spectacular revealed that I am, in fact, on the dvd for episode III. Man that rocked.
Also had the pleasure of going to set up a campsite on my own, then spending an hour looking for parking and another 30 or 40 walking back to the convention center. I hate San Diego
Saturday: Saw Ray Bradbury in a panel, which rocked. Then saw the masquarade, which rocked. Then fled from a campsite at 1:30 in the morning to take refuge in someone else's hotel room to have a much better environment.
Sunday: I got called a nerd and a geek by the panel of Starship Smackdown, but the Millenium Falcon won so I don't care
later in the night, watched The Phantom of the Opera and The Day After Tomorrow at jackie's
Monday: lounged about at jackie's and watched tv, then it was out to get stuff to help sarah pack, then dinner at black angus, then Jackie and I seeing her off at the airport

Working:
started working two weeks ago on a thursday for the company that does a lot of the school pictures out here. i spent thursday and friday of that week getting trained up on the computers, plus doing more repetitive work, like labels onto mailers and stuff. lots and lots of labels.
the past week was 3 days of training, and then going on shoots thursday and friday. thursday i pretty much just did crowd control all day and kept that sorted out. friday though i got put as a cashier and so i spent most of the day doing that. oh my that was an enjoyable experience. and by enjoyable, i mean not enjoyable.
looking to the next week where i will have shoots on tuesday, thursday and friday. and of course the fun part with all this is that its all insanly, horribly, early. as in, start times varying from 5:45 to 6:30 in the morning. this will be the death of me, most likly.

social stuff:
my god, i can't beleive i can have this as a sufficient catagory
so....two weeks ago thursday i drove down to culver city to see "The Island" with Alyse, Remi, Greg, and a 4th person who i don't actually know of a name for. Anyway, was a pretty good movie overall, but it did run, i think, a bit too long and should've been trimmed down a bit.

the following Saturday was Val's Harry Potter costume birthday party. I was going to play up the muggle angle til genius hit me, and in the end, I ended up going AS "Harry Potter and the half-blood prince". So I was a book. it rocked, costume-wise.


yesterday was the LUN vs LAFF softball game that we won 22-18, even with me being a guaranteed strike out with batting. The key was that Craig was definitly the strongest hitter to come up to bat for either team, and that we were strong enough early on that we had a very large margin for when things got closer. I think that next time we need two pitchers, though, so that alyse isn't so warn out by the end.
Immediately following was a picnic. after the picnic was helping Larry move his store to a new location about a block away. This ended up taking far longer than I'd figured and kept me from getting home till 11 last night.

recnet books:

• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (632 pages) This made for a very intense 7 hours of reading as I devoured it shortly after getting my hands on it. I compared this to basicly being the 'Revenge of the Sith' of Harry Potter as far as its role in the story. Now when I say that, its important to realise how ROTS functioned. Its basic purpose was to see how Anakin became evil and became Vader. In the case of HBP, its a lot of Voldemort's descent into evil and so much of the story is going back to discover Voldemort's past and its only the last part of the book that really becomes a fast moving plot set in the present time frame.
  
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (324 pages) Its very hard to say much about this since Ender's Game really isn't so much plot-driven, even though it has a good plot, as it is driven by the development of Ender, the main character. Plotwise, its basicly about how at a future point, future wars are resting on the shoulders of kids that are being trained specifically to defend the earth from an alien species that has already tried to attack before. Really good, really psychological, but sort of messed up at points.
  
• Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card (467 pages) Written after Ender's Game, its a sequel in a very unusual sense. Rather than being set before or after, its actually set at the same time as Ender's Game, and what seperates the two is that while Ender's Game is about, Ender, Ender's Shadow follows another character, Bean through the same period of time. Its particularly interesting to read the two one after the other close together, because you often read the very same events or conversation, but you get to read two different perspectives and ways of interpretting those events. It is a very unique reading experience, but adds to the strength of both books that they work so well together.