Episode 6: Return of the Journal

2007-07-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

I swear later today I'll actually say whats been going on.... but for now... choc update.

Nestle Milkybar (Full of pure milk goodness): Simple white chocolate, but it was good. Simple, but a solid 4.

Cadbury Curly Wurly (Dairy Milk chocolate with a caramel centre): This was odd... if you can imagine a flattened double helix of chocolate coated caramel, you'd get this. Not all that much there, and I think its probably better when the caramel is a bit warmer, but I'd give it a 3.

Cadbury Chomp (Wafer Biscuit and caramel coated with compounded chocolate): I'm not sure what that discription means, exactly, but it was sorta like a twix with less caramel, I guess. Again, had it been a bit warmer so the caramel was softer, I think it would've been a bit better. A 4.

Nestle Chockito (Choc coated caramel fudge with crunchy rice crisps): This was pretty good, really. Its been over a week since I had it so details are scarce, but I enjoyed it a fair bit. I'd give it a 5.

Cadbury Black Forest (milk chocolate with cherry flavoured jellies and biscuit pieces: This is the first 'block' I've tried rather than a bar or soemthing.... and it was fairly good. The jellies are a little too chewy though. A 3.

Bounty: Don't have the wrapper still on this one.. but its basically coconut covered with chocolate. Not a chocolate fan, so I'd give it a 2.

Maltesers (Crisp malt centres covered with smooth milk chocolate): These are basically whoppers. As I like whoppers as well, I give it a 4.

Cadbury Twirl (Swirls and curls of milk chocolate): Sort of like the Flake that I reviewed earlier... basically just chocolate with air in it. I give it a 3.

Cadbury Rocky Road (milk chocolate with marshmallows, cherry flavoured jellies, peanuts & coconut): I've never seen coconut as part of 'rocky road' before but it is here, though i've not noticed the taste, which is good. With the marshmallow, it puts it as better than the black forest, so i give it a 4.

Cadbury TimeOut (wafer fingers with a cadbury flake centre covered in milk chocolate): This thing is actually really good. Something about the wafers with the flake, but I can't figure out what it is about it that makes that combo as good as it tastes. I give it a 5.

Mars (soft nougat and creamy caramel covered in thick milk chocolate): I have no idea why it is I've really never seen a Mars bar in the states even though so many other Mars products are present.... but here mars bars are easy to come by. Don't know why they're not more common... they're pretty much 3 muskateers plus caramel. I give it a 4.

Nestle Aero (smooth milk chocolate with a peppermint flavoured confetionery centre): The centre is very odd as it looks rather like a sponge and is full of air, hense the name. Not being a fan of peppermint in chocolate for anything other than an afterdinner mint, I give it a 2.

2007-07-01T05:09:00.001-07:00

All right, quick actual update to cover things done and the like...
Just going over the highlights since I've been here.

Went on an official brushwalk out into the brush to see some aboriginal rock carvings

Went on a walking ghost tour of the rocks in Sydney. About half the group was Americans.

Went to the Comedy Roadshow, mix of Aussie and non-Aussie comedians.

Drove. There will be more on that later.

Heading to Tasmania tomorrow and will be back in a week. And then I'll go for a more thorough bit of events.

2007-06-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

More sweet reviews
Schweppes Traditionals Red Cream Soda: Cream soda, but red. This is apparently cream soda's natural colour here, which is a bit odd, but the soda itself was just as good as cream soda I'm used to. 5.

Cadbury Picnic (A unique combination of peanuts, wafer, caramel, & rice crisps covered in delicious milk chocolate): This is pretty much... all that tossed together and covered in chocolate as their description sounds. Its also really, really good. 5.

Nestle Kit Kat Honeycomb (Shattered honeycomb in smooth milk chocolate over a wafer finger): This one was a bit odd, basically take a big kit kat and add in honeycomb. Not terribly strong, I felt. 3.

Cadbury Flake Luxery (Crumbly milk chocolate Flake covered in milk chocolate): Flake is this common ingredient here.... it didn't strike me as particularly good, just sort of interesting. 3.

Nestle Smarties (Delicious milk chocolate in a crisp shell): Sort of like M&Ms and not at all like the smarties I know, they're somewhat mediocre. Good, but basic since its really just chocolate. 3.

Cadbury Cherry Ripe (Ripe Juicy Cherries and coconut in old gold rich dark chocolate): Better than most with coconut just since I don't like that, but like cherries, its still not something I'm fond of. 2.

Arnott's Tim Tam Caramel: Tim tams are on the highest order of perfection as far as cookies go, but the caramel, I felt, hurt it. In part because cold caramel is too hard when eating.... so I actually will give it a 3.

Nestle Milo: Not sure what its going for, as its odd texturewise, and is fairly basic. 2.

Whittaker's Original Peanut Slab Milk Chocolate Bar: Exactly what it sounds like. Good though. 4.

I also have had a Cadbury Twirl and a Cadbury TimeOut but I can't recall which was which... so i'll have to try those two again later. One of them I really liked though.

2007-06-26T03:43:00.001-07:00

Alright... first new post... not the what I've been up to one, but still with some merit... its the "what chocolate have I tried" post. Things like this will, theoretically, continue, but everything has to start somewhere. On a 1 to 5 scale.

Nestle Polly Waffle (Choc-coated marshmallow filled wafer): Little odd as its a cylinder rather than a flatted shape..... and rather than marshmallow proper, its more of a marshmallow cream. Which I like anyway... so.... I'd give it a 4.

Fry's Turkish Delight: Some sort of fruitlike thing, I think... coated in chocolate. Not really all that good. 1.

Cadbury Boost (Smooth textured chocolate flavoured centre with crunchy biscuit pieces surrounded in caramel, all covered in milk chocolate): It was sort of like a twix, although not as good. I'd give it a 3.

Nestle Violet Crumble (Delicious shattering choc coated honeycomb): Weird because honeycomb is this odd texture I'm not used too... which makes it a bit strange to get used to, but tastes good though. 4.

2007-06-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

Dateline: Somewhere else over the Pacific Ocean, 6:05 Pacific Time. Day 0.

Well somewhere new over the Pacific again. Just finished up a provided for snack, was waiting a bit till I knew that I could have electronics. Current movie is Bridge to Terabithia, though the earlier bit made like no sense, thanks to the hearing cutting out. So I've now watched like half of the movie, give or take, and heard like a fifth of it.
Was on the ground in Hawaii for a good... 45 minutes as the plane refueled. I'll say one thing, it was actually impressive to see the islands. At nigth like this...you can really see the outlines of all the islands as you fly in and it just leaves me wondering what it would be like to come in during daylight hours, or otherwise be able to see it all better. I also liked that on the way out, I could actually see the big dipper low on the horizons... I coulnt' make out where Polaris was though to see if it was noticibly lower.

The movie itself...Oddly intriguing. Kinda wish I hadn't missed all that dialogue earlier to know just what happened early on. I've already listened to Land Down Under once, though, cuz you have to listen to that at least once on a flight to Australia. Now though, with a good... 8 hours left of the flight, I think its time for me to get my MP3 player set up with a song playlist cuz otherwise the random songs thing is pulling up stuff that I otherwise am not one to listen to. So I may as well.
And then it is onward into unconciousness.

2007-06-17T01:05:00.000-07:00

Dateline: Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, 1:05 Pacific Time. Day 0.

Well, it is most interesting how the day has progressed from smooth sailing to the realm of what next?

Of course, perhaps the most fun moment of the day was parking in my driveway and watching as the Chupathingie lost much of the coolant of the radiator. nothing big, just an improperly tightened radiator cap, but still not the best of things to watch.

From getting to the airport on, things have just gotten more and more interesting. Firstly I do like that LAX is always so seure. No real baggage checks.

Then was the moment where I realised that I, being the savvy traeler I am, that the converter I need was left in the... in something in my room. Its in there somewhere... which is the problem.

Then there was getting through security, which took just a few minutes. Though as I was gathering up my things security yelled out for no one to move, and about 4 of them went running off elsewhere. Of course, they didn't do a good job of explaining the situation, and trying to get out a Kleenex is, apparently, not an appropriate action. Still, pretty odd moment. Apparently something with "coins" that I overheard.

Then discovered that the last couple of flights, they've had to not let people board because they couldn't have that much weight on the plane. This time, though, they instead have added a stop over in Hawaii for us to refuel, which will add somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour.

Then a passanger was unfound... no idea what happened there, but I assume thats whose seat I am in now. I was goign to be between the aisle and the window, but on a full plane, I ended up being next to an empty window seat so I moved over and can now have my backpack downhere. Score for that one. Though I could've gone with the aisle seat being mine instead. of all the flights and whatnot I've had, the guy there is the most unfriendly. I haven't even heard him talk, I don't think. So not rude, just most people are a bit more open. He's just been reading. To each his own.
Anyway, due to these delays we're now upt to about an hour and a half late. And compared to Qantas United is a real letdown. Only one screen to watch for the whole section to watch the movie and no comedy audio.

So I'm much of the way now through "The Painted Veil", with Ed Norton and someone else. And a whole mess of Chinese. Basic point, Norton and this woman marry and then go to China and theres cholera. So, the cholera is interesting. Two best moments of the movie, thus far, was me not paying attention to the video bit cuz I was gonna get my meal, and all I hear is "Is it as big as you were expecting it?" right around the whole getting married thing. And then the line "It would be madness" because, well, how can I NOT like any line that makes me think, "It would be SPARTA!" I can't believe that I've gotten all caught up in that one.
Anyway, this movie started off all annoying... Norton being an overly timid character, and the woman being a two-timing whore, and so then Norton's character develops a whole second maniacal character. I think like half his movies do that. And now she's taking off clothes... but thats not the point I'm making right now. So anyway, at that point, I wasn't particularly intrigued, but its subsequently gotten a lot more interesting. Characters have gotten deeper, and I'm also just really interested about what they're gonna do about the cholera. Its supposed to be an emotional movie with all that caring and stuff, and here I am wondering about the cholera. I'm not very good at these movies, am I? Anyway, its back when England still controlled China and the like, so the other interesting element is the Chinese wanting to kill the British. What is also weird is all these Chinese that are, like, student-aged just standing around doing nothing but whining about the government. So that has been going on for a couple hundred years now. And not the cool "hey look at me, i'm in front of a tank", just the same old "imperialist pig" lines. I want to protest a government for not being imperalist ENOUGH.
Ok, this is also now the second movie with Ed Norton that has a whole freaking section of movie about irrigation. How many movies cn one realistically do that have irrigation at all? Its impressive, but like, weird.
Does this count as liveblogging the movie given that I'm not going to be posting it directly like at all?
Oh, and Juicyfruit is now colouring itself all yellow rather than its oldcolour. Totally unneeded and a bit off.

Chinese with cholera totally look like zombies and act like zombies. Ergo, cholera turns the chinese into zombies. We must test this further. Bryan, I'm looking at you. Or at least toward the end of the plane. I'm sure its close enough. Choloric chines mob, run for your lives! I'm pretty sure Ed'll be dead soon. mother Superior is supposed to be head of French nuns... she's totally American. The rest don't even speak english really, but she has not accent. And its now time for the inevitable in this movie, so I'm off with the palm pilot and on with the watching of the movie.

Movie over and a couple of unrelated thoughts... First of all, the map showing how far we've gone only shows one mainland city, Fresno. What the heck. Second it only shows one city thing for Hawaii. And its some weird one. I'm also getting annoyed that the ETA for Hawaii is given in that time zone but they dont' say what time it is now or what time zone Hawaii is. Way to be useful. Also of note... when we left LA we had headwinds of around 90km/hr. Now they're down to about 10. So that should bode well for speeding things up. Lots of time to make up. And now, to give this other movie a go... "Wild Hogs". It doesn't look 'good', but then again, I was surprised by Without a Paddle and surprised by Phone Booth. And now the audio doesn't work either. Goodie.
So I brought it up... They had this problem on the way out as well. Thank you for that one United.
Apparently, it gets better. But we'll see how this goes.

Best lines: "You go out there, you're the sheriff"
"Yeah, of a town of like 500 people. I got my certification off the interent. For arms training they just told us to play Doom."

2006-11-29T01:32:00.000-08:00

Well... having had a lapse of posting, its best to first cover that i've been busy and this hasn't been a priority. Rather than cover what I've been busy with... I figure I'll opt for what will be keeping me busy in the future instead.

This week is being particularly difficult, starting off with that things that were supposed to happen over the weekend didn't, since I was sick. So now, I've got two homework assignments for solid state to get done and one for thermo, as well as my drama class' assignments which are late since I was sick for the duration of them being due. The benefits of when a teacher gives online assignments for less than a week, I feel.
I also have taking planetarium tickets on Friday night, which will keep me busy then, but at least the lecture then will be about Pluto's demotion, which is something I'm looking forward to learning more on.
Then Saturday will be my physics GRE which I know I'm not going to be ready for because of all the study time I've lost so far. I'll have to give it my best shot, but I don't feel optomistic. From there, I'm heading straight to the UCLA vs USC football game, which ought to be one heck of a game, hopefully. And at least I'll then be home moderately early that evening as its a 1:30 game.
Sunday, I've got to work early so that I can then be off work for the handful of physics people I could get to go to Griffith get there at like 4:30 on Sunday. That should, at least, be fun.

Next week, the 9th will be busy with A New Hope showing at the Aero, and I intend to go... plus work, as always, keeps me busy on the weekends. LAFF has their holiday party then as well, but I'm not sure if I can go to that.

More long term...on the Friday of the week after next... which I think makes it the 15th, Sam will arrive, and stuff will change gears. Work will be less frequent then, though I'll still have finals to get through. The first few weeks of her being here will be more low key relaxing, in general, but then we're traveling to the east coast starting early January. It'll mean being gone for a little over 2 weeks, but will also mean spending time in San Francisco, Chicago, Virginia/D.C., and New York. It'll be pretty interesting, especially as I've not been anywhere outside California, really, and we'll be travelling through a lot of states. January looks like it'll be full of adventure. More snow than I ever see normally, I think. Plus, I think with the stress of school and work now... some traveling could do me good.

So there covers the next month and a half or so of things that are going to keep me busy, but at least it'll be an enjoyable sort of busy for much of it.

2006-11-01T01:57:00.000-08:00

Too busy to blog much, but here is some election stuff:

A large summary of the elections, and who I believe should win, as well as what propositions I feel should win. It is a long read at over 3,000 words, so you are warned in that regard. In addition, it is valuable to remember my own perspective, which is someone that is socially liberal, fiscally conservative, but also feels that government should be fiscally conservative as a priority, because its easier to elect fiscally conservative candidates and ensure that social liberties are preserved than it is to elect socially liberal candidates and ensure that fiscal matters are maintained. I do, however, view the Libertarian Party as a solution to that paradox, however, but I do not choose candidates based on party alone and as such will not pick a candidate that I can’t find a platform for. This is especially relevant in regards to third-party candidates in small races.

Candidates:
Governor
Phil Angelides has shown, with his weak campaigns attacking such things as Schwarzeneggar for being in the same party as Bush as having very little in the way of platform, and ideas such as suing the federal government for the national guard being in Iraq are wastes of money that won’t accomplish anything. He certainly doesn’t deserve to be governor by any measure. Schwarzeneggar, on the other hand, has abandoned the fiscal conservatism that led to his being elected with hopes of the state budget being fixed, and has proven at times dangerously weak on issues of illegal immigration.
Of the third party candidates, Art Olivier has shown desire to control illegal immigration and also get the budget under control. Personally, I do also align myself often with the Libertarian party.
For Governor, I endorse Art Olivier of the Libertarian party.

Lieutenant Governor
The race for Lieutenant Governor I view as mainly between the Republican and Democratic candidates, however I do side with McClintock (Republican) because he has prioritized the fiscal security of the state at the top of his list, and would be a force for smaller government. While I have disagreements on a social level with him, it is much easier to change the social restrictions of government regulation when those in government disagree than it is to change fiscal policy.
For Lieutenant Governor, I endorse Tom McClintock of the Republican Party.

Secretary of State
The statement by Debra Bowen (Democrat) in the voter guide is to me, distasteful, because rather than call for solutions it relies on fear mongering based on Florida and Ohio while either ignoring or unaware of why something like Florida ALREADY can’t happen here. Bruce McPherson (Republican), while a suitable candidate, is not the best one out there, and has further called into question his judgment as it relates to the Tan Nguyen letter has made me further question if he should be secretary of state. I do, however, agree with much both Forrest Hill (Green) and Gail Lightfoot (Libertarian) have stated as priorities. I do slightly lean in favor of Gail Lightfoot between the two; however, my main factor that pushes me the rest of the way to picking Lightfoot is her desire to add a ‘None of the Above’ option as well as wanting to generally increase diversity of political parties.
For Secretary of State, I endorse Gail Lightfoot of the Libertarian Party

Controller
I find controller to be a very simple vote for Donna Tello (Libertarian) as she has priorities of auditing the state government wherever necessary to cut costs and waste while looking for help from state employees to know where to start. She additionally has strong views of setting up budgetary guidelines of 2, 4, and 10 years which would help the state have budgets prepared by the deadline with greater frequency and aid in long term planning.
For Controller, I endorse Donna Tello of the Libertarian Party.

Treasurer
I’ll be honest… I know I picked this for a reason, but I can’t remember why, and am not going to go back and figure out why… but this one narrowly beats out Marian Smithson (Libertarian). I think it was the idea to sell state bonds to Californians more easily, and opposing most bonds that led to me siding with Claude Parrish (Republican).
For Treasurer, I endorse Claude Parrish of the Republican Party.

Attorney General
First of all, this is a race where I am first and foremost of the view that Jerry Brown should not, under any circumstances, be attorney general. My main reasoning here is that he, as governor, appointed a judge that reduced the sentence of death on the man that killed my mom’s cousin to life with the possibility of parole. It is unconfirmed, to my knowledge, if he’s since been released or not. I do, however, agree that personal responsibility and an individual’s privacy are both key, and that does lead to my support of Kenneth Weissman.
For Attorney General, I endorse Kenneth Weissman of the Libertarian Party.

Insurance Commissioner
For insurance commissioner, the Republican candidate Steve Poizner has listed priorities of cracking down on insurance companies taking away insurance or raising the costs for those that have to file claims, prosecution of those that make fraudulent claims and raise the cost for all, and removing uninsured drivers from the road. In contrast, the Democrat Cruz Bustamonte is a career politician that has taken significant donations from the insurance companies and has been reduced to commercials that he’d be a good candidate because he lost weight.
For Insurance Commissioner, I endorse Steve Poizner of the Republican Party.

State Board of Equalization (District 2)
Lacking any information on the Libertarian candidate, and not picking a candidate based on party affiliation only, has limited who I will pick.
For State Board of Equalization, I pick Bill Leonard of the Republican Party.

U.S. Senate
I have significant disagreements with how Feinstein and Boxer have represented California, and as such, I do hope that Feinstein loses her election, although I do not expect this to happen.
For U.S. Senate, I endorse Richard Mountjoy of the Republican Party.

U.S. House of Representatives
In CA 25, my district, I endorse Buck McKeon of the Republican Party as he has voted well on illegal immigration, a key issue, in my opinion, and there is a need for those that will stay strong on that issue.
Additional candidates I support in other districts:
CA 26 – Cynthia Matthews (Democrat)
CA 35 – Paul Ireland (Libertarian)
CA 43 – Scott Folkens (Republican)
CA 47 – Tan Nguyen (Republican)
CA 50 – Brian Bilbray (Republican)

State Assembly (38th)
For the 38th district of the State Assembly, I’ve picked Cameron Smyth of the Republican Party.

Propositions:

Proposition 1A
Proposition 1A aims to prevent, or at least, further restrict, the ability of the California government to divert money from taxes on gas away from the transportation funds that it is intended to go to. California's transportation infrastructure is in need of repair, and many freeways are outdated and unable to serve the large numbers that travel them each day, as I'm sure we are ALL aware of. While critics say that passing Prop 1A will move the priorities of California away from education by making the roads the top priority, all this does is make sure that money that should be going to roads goes where it is supposed to go, and is a small portion of the annual budget of California (only a few billion out of over 100 billion a year budget).
Better roads will save people time, allow for a better flow of traffic, and cut down on pollution by reducing the time commuters spend stuck in traffic.
On Proposition 1A, I say vote "Yes"

Proposition 1B
Proposition 1B is titled as being for highway safety, traffic reduction, air quality, and port security. However, the price tag for such a bond is nearly $40 billion between the initial 20 billion and the amount that will have to be paid in interest. While some elements that this bond would go to are key infrastructure, specifically the six and a half billion that would go to reducing congestion and increasing capacity on the roads, that does not in itself justify the entire investment. While a much smaller bond measure might be feasible and a good idea if it limited itself to a few key priorities, it isn't a good idea to incur this much debt now, as it will greatly diminish our ability to continue to invest in our infrastructure in the future as much of the money will continue to go to paying off this bond measure as it will be nearly 20 billion in interest alone.
On Proposition 1B, I say vote "No"

Proposition 1C
Proposition 1C claims that by borrowing almost 3 billion dollars in bonds, and uses the claim of building shelters to try to convince voters. However, of the 2.85 billion dollars to be borrowed, only 100 million of it will go to homeless shelters and housing projects for homeless youths. By comparison, that’s half of what the proposition puts aside for parks, something that not only takes up space, but also raises housing prices, which is exactly what this proposition says it intends to fix. A large portion of this money, however, goes to developers rather than to helping people find homes or building shelters. For example, 850 million in grants that will go toward urban development. Additionally, that there will be an additional 3 billion dollars in interest costs, this proposition would be, in effect, removing additional money that could be used in the future to help people without incurring debt, and this would be very different if this was the state choosing to spend a surplus to help people. While helping people with home ownership is acceptable for consideration when money is left over in the budget, its reckless for the state to incur debt to help a select few buy homes.
On Proposition 1C, I say vote "No"

Proposition 1D
Proposition 1D is 10 billion dollars in additional spending on the school system of California. While the educational system is a key priority, this is not only too sweeping, but also fiscally irresponsible. Firstly, 3 billion of it is going to cope with overcrowded schools, a patch for not dealing with the current problems being caused by illegal immigration. Second, this will hurt education and the state in the long run as this will require an additional 10 billion dollars in interest payments. We can't afford that large of an increase in our debt, and the money would be much better spent as a portion of the annual budget for the next several years than if it were to be a bond where interest would have to be paid.
On Proposition 1D, I say vote "No"

Proposition 1E
Unlike Proposition 84, which used flood control as part of its sell to push for greater conservation efforts, 1E is entirely money that will go to flood control. Of the 4 billion dollars that it would use, 3 billion go to Central Valley flood control system repairs and improvements and Delta levee repairs and maintenance, half a billion to flood control outside the central valley, and 300 million to stormwater flood management. While bond spending is never a preferential way of paying a cost, this addition to flood control is very direct, does exactly what is advertised, and flood control is a key part of state infrastructure that should have been prioritized more prior to this proposition, but will at least be taken care of with 1E.
On Proposition 1E, I say vote "Yes"

Proposition 83
Proposition 83 will expand the definition of a sexually violent predator, prohibit sex offenders from living within 2000 feet of a park or school, and require global GPS monitoring of felony registered sex offenders. While some portions of proposition 83 are good, such as making sure that sex offenders have to serve their full term and can’t get out early, that doesn’t mean one can ignore the bad portions of this proposition. The main issues are that the definition of sex offender is very broad, and isn’t simply limited to active sexual predators. Additionally, while there are some people that restrictions like 2000 feet from a park or school or GPS monitoring would be good, it isn’t a solution to all sex offenders. More important to realize is that a large portion of sex offenders that do victimize children, victimize children that they have access to already, they don’t go looking for them. This doesn’t include those that aren’t even sex offenders against children. In the end, this is taking a solution that would work for a subset of sex offenders and trying to apply it to the majority of sex offenders, and that isn’t practical or efficient.
On Proposition 83, I say vote "No"

Proposition 84
Proposition 84 gives top billing to water quality, safety, and supply, however large amounts of money that would come from bonds would be going toward what would seem to be maintenance costs of general conservation rather than creating sufficient water supplies and ensuring their quality. Of the 5 billion in bonds, most of it would go to conservation projects. While conservation is important, it is not a cause necessary of a bond measure, and again, it would be fiscally irresponsible to pay 5 billion more in interest to spend this money now. While water supply would be critical infrastructure that might necessitate bonds, conservation isn't, and it would be of better value to put money toward conservation from a surplus than to further deficit spending for the sake of conservation of the environment.
On Proposition 84, I say vote "No"

Proposition 85
Proposition 85 requires, with exceptions, a 48 hour waiting period to allow for the notification of a minor's parents before an abortion. In a situation where someone under 18 can't choose to get a tattoo or piercing themselves, and even a 17 year old requires parental permission to miss school, it is ridiculous that they can get an abortion without so much as parents knowing. The counterargument is that it endangers the health of the girl, and that some have home lives where they can't talk to their parents. While I personally question if those opposed to proposition 85 have exaggerated how frequent that may be, that is still a moot point. Proposition 85 also makes exceptions to parental notification, such as if the girl's health is in danger, or would be put in danger, and allows for a system through the courts that requires a ruling within 3 days on if parental notification can be waived. Also, a minor that is emancipated does not need parental notification. While records are kept by the court, they do not contain identifying information. There is also nothing that means that the parents can STOP the abortion, merely that they are to be notified. A woman's right to choose is not infringed upon, and parents do have a right to know when their children are going to undergo a major medical procedure while they are still under their care.
On Proposition 85, I say vote "Yes"

Proposition 86
Proposition 86, the tax on cigarettes raising the cost of one pack by $2.60 equates to using government legislation to control behavior. While it has been marketed as anti-smoking, the only element that is at all anti-smoking is the more than 300% increase in taxes on cigarettes. Of the money taken in, only about 10% is going to be spent on things related to tobacco use. The largest amounts of money are going to hospitals and child health care costs. First and foremost, the trouble of those that don't pay for medical care should not be placed as a burden to smokers by way of a very large increase in taxes. Second, this fails to address that one factor that has led to the burden on many hospitals is low-income illegal immigrants who have families that aren't able to pay for health care costs. To simply tax another group to pay for these costs doesn't fix anything, and just allows the problem to worsen. In short, to use public sentiment against smoking to try to justify an outrageous tax against smokers to try to patch an entirely unrelated problem in our healthcare system is unethical and a dangerous use of government trying to legislate behavior, while also giving large amounts of money to hospitals, HMOs, and doctors.
On Proposition 86, I say vote "No"

Proposition 87
Proposition 87, in an attempt to reduce dependency on foreign oil and provide cheaper fuel alternatives, or at least, in claiming to do so, will in fact do the exact opposite. The idea that making oil drilled in California more expensive via taxes will lead to a diminished dependence on foreign oil ignores that by basic economics, making oil more expensive in California will also make it more cost-effective to simply obtain oil from foreign sources. Additionally, increasing these taxes will raise gas prices in California, again due to simple economics. There is no valid way to make sure that oil companies don't 'pass the cost to consumers' and it is naive, at best, to believe that there is some way for government to make sure that that doesn't happen. While alternative energy sources are important, hurting the economy by increasing our dependence on foreign oil and forcing an increase in gasoline prices does not help alternative energy possibilities.
On Proposition 87, I say vote "No"

Proposition 88
Proposition 88 imposes a $50 parcel tax on all landowners in California to put toward education (with some exceptions on landowners). While proponents claim that it allows for local control of money for classrooms, the money is distributed as a bureaucracy sees fit, not simply all money flowing to the local respective districts. It also uses the example of teachers having to pay for classroom costs out of their own pocket as evidence of the necessity of proposition 88, however there is little indication of how the 100 million it provides in instructional costs is expected to go toward helping teachers, as proponents also make the case that that money is needed first to go toward textbook costs. Additionally, the largest share of the expected 470 million dollars is the 175 million that would go toward reduced class sizes. However, reduced class size does not go toward helping students. One of the greatest dangers to students is the lack of qualified skilled teachers, and rather than trying to improve the quality of teachers, simply adding teachers will just mean more people teaching that have no place in a classroom, and that is money that could be much better applied to costs like textbooks, which proposition 88 relegates to second priority with only about half the money of what would go to reducing classroom numbers. While the California educational system needs help, this won't help it.
On Proposition 88, I say vote "No"

Proposition 89
Proposition 89 would create an optional system in which a candidate's campaign would be funded by the people of California rather than their backers. The claim is that by creating a more restrictive system, one can remove the influence of big lobbyists. However, the proposition fails to actually fix anything, other than removing the difficulty politicians may face when it comes to fundraising. Firstly, the money would come from corporate tax increases, which hurt the economy, and even if taxes on corporations were to be increased, this is not the best use of that money. Second, the design of the proposition gives the largest benefit to Republican and Democrat candidates, partially shutting out third parties and enforcing the political status quo as a two-party system. It won't fix the problems caused by lobbyists and special interest groups, but will hurt the California economy.
On Proposition 89, I say vote "No"

Proposition 90
Proposition 90 is a direct move against eminent domain as it has been put in use in other parts of the U.S. With proposition 90, eminent domain would be restricted to taking land for the public good, to lease to a private entity for the sake of a public good (such as toll roads), to correct a specific public nuisance, or in response to a declared state of emergency. Specifically prohibited would be for the transfer to private use, to address a general public nuisance, such as a generally run-down area, and to promote development. These would fix the most egregious uses of eminent domain, as has been seen in cases like in Kelo v. City of New London, and ensure that the rights of property owners remain intact and politicians and local governments can't take those rights in order to court new developments or favor corporations.
On Proposition 90, I say vote "Yes"

2006-09-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well, this hasn't been updated in a while, so I'll jump a bit to this week rather than try to catch up.
First of all... in theory I'll blog about the November elections. In theory.

Wednesday proved to be a very long day for me. First of all, I've started working at Griffith Observatory. Since I don't know what all I can say on that, I'll go minimal route. The observatory is awesome and I can't wait for it to be open. I'm looking forward to it being completed so that I can check out more of the place, and I recommend everyone to check it out once it opens later this year.
As for my feelings on the job itself.... Dr. Krupp and a member of FOTO really got me looking forward to working there as a guide. There's just an energy about the place that is really motivating. The subject matter is great, and its such cool stuff. Even the stuff that isn't new, like the Tesla coil, which is just classic. No idea when I start, but I'm looking forward to it none the less.

Later Wednesday was also my chance at Jeopardy!. They've been doing trials online, and so I gave a shot at the college try-outs. No idea how I did, but I felt fairly good with it. Of course, they won't tell me how I did... but with luck I'll hear from them in the next month. I'm not holding out hope though, since I figure they must've gotten so many people trying out. But one can dream.

Today was my first real act as President of SPS, so that was interesting. First meeting of the year, and we did manage to get some new people to show up at least for one meeting, now its just seeing if they return. Also got what was to be expected, which was a lot of ideas that have come up before without a commitment to action behind them. Still though, I aim to try my best to make this a good year for SPS.

There was an awesome fire on the way home today though. Not awesome in how it took an hour 20 to get home, but it was cool to look at. Its right on the northern edge of Newhall Pass... more on the 5 side definitly, but I could see flame on a ridge from the 14. There's been a fair bit of burning in Santa Clarita the last month or so. Such is summer. Or fall. Or whatever.

And finally... I've embarked on my most recent grand plan that will never get finished. In order to compete better on Yahoo! sports' pick 'em for college football, I'm trying to determine some mathamatical model to do that better, since I have to worry about spreads and not just who wins outright. I doubt I'll come up with anything, but its something to do.

2006-08-01T00:35:00.000-07:00

first, two articles worth mentioning....

US Marine
This surprised me, as i found this on the first page of Yahoo. In short, its about a marine in Iraq, and in it, he discusses how he rationalises that he is killing people. To quote the article,

Insurgents "have killed good Marines I've served with. That's how I sleep at night," he says. "Though I've killed over 20 people, how many lives would those 20 people have taken?"

Its a rationale that doesn't get enough attention, and I'm impressed an article that didn't try to pigeonhole him for shoting insurgents ended up on Yahoo!'s front page.

Australian Breasts

WOMEN'S breasts are getting bigger. Figures released today reveal the average Australian bra cup size has risen from a 12B in 2000 to a 14C this year, with 41 per cent of women now wearing at least a D cup.

South Australian women share third spot with West Australian women on the breast size rankings, with an average cup size of 14C.

New South Wales, the ACT and the Northern Territory lead the nation, with the most common bra size a 14D.

Tasmania's average cup size is 16C while, at the smaller end, Victoria and Queensland share an average bust size of 12C.

The breast-size snapshot comes from sales figures compiled and analysed by major bra manufacturer Fayreform, which supplies giant retailers such as Myer and David Jones plus boutique stores across the country.

Bra fitting expert Carol Rashleigh said evidence indicated the nation's bust size was on a gradual, yet constant, increase.

In short, Australia rocks. If only more places were seeing this sort of current development. I, of course, intend to verify the article next time I'm there.

And now for something a tad bit more substantial....I intend to argue that the most important year for nerds was 1977.
Anyone that knows me knows that the first thing I will, of course, list is that 1977 was the release of Star Wars, which has had major effects on pop culture, and nerd culture both, however, 1977 had far more going for it than just that.

For space, 1977 was both the year of the testing of the first shuttle, and also when both voyager I and II were launched. The shuttle testing was a big step toward the shuttle missions that have continued to today, and the Voyager missions have allowed us to probe into the distant reaches of our solar system as they continue to keep in contact with earth, even as they approach the edge of what we would even call the solar system, far beyond the orbit of Pluto.
It was also the year that SETI recieved the "WOW" signal, a unique signal that came in while searching for indications of extraterrestrial life and got its name from the note that one of the volunteers made next to the signal.

For medicine, 1977 was when scientists declared the war on small pox over, as the last reported case in the wild occured in Somalia. The first disease that medical science was able to eradicate.

For technology, Ninetendo ventured into its first console, with Color TV Game 6, which was basicly 6 versions of Pong. 1977 was also the release of the popular Apple II, a microcomputer, helped push computers forward.

Finally, space gained a prominant new role at Disneyland with the opening of Space Mountain, increasing the attention that children would give to space.

Be it entertainment, science, or technology, 1977 was the high point for across the board key advancements.

2006-07-14T02:18:00.000-07:00

well... i figured i'd put up an entry by grabbing some news and throwing my 2 cents at it

World's Largest Photo

About 30 people showed up Wednesday to see the fuzzy, 28-by-108 foot black-and-white image taken by six photographers from the nonprofit Legacy Project. The photo, taken Saturday, shows the control towers, palm trees and a portable toilet.

First off, I can't believe that they'd run this story without a picture of the photo in question. To me that just seems obvious to have. Beyond that, this just seems utterly awesome. I like that they've gone back to an old-fashioned way of taking pictures. Especially since, in today's world, people are always focused on digital everything, and sometimes older methods are just fine. Photography is the key example, since film allows for so much in photography, and digital has completely overran it. Sure, digital has its uses, but so does film, and film has so much more quality to it, too.

Early election polling

The AP-Ipsos survey asked 789 registered voters if the election for the House were held today, would they vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate in their district. Democrats were favored 51 percent to 40 percent.

Not surprisingly, 81 percent of self-described liberals said they would vote for the Democrat. Among moderates, though, 56 percent backed a Democrat in their district and almost a quarter of conservatives — 24 percent — said they will vote Democratic.

Well, first of all, when we're looking at hundreds of districts... less than 800 people doesn't sound like that thorough a survey. I mean, thats basicly less than 2 people per district, so I don't think theres much to go on. Plus, I don't think its as much of a landslide as the article makes it out to be.
Granted, Bush is really doing badly, and this'll definitly be a tough election, but that alone doesn't mean the Democrats will benefit. Bad Republican image doesn't mean the image of Democrats isn't plenty tarnished itself. Also, it comes down to who will view Congress and Bush as seperate and who won't. Plenty of people unhappy with Bush may still back Republican candidates for congress. Also, it'll be interesting to see what happens as far as the influence of the illegal immigration issue. If that continues to effect things as much as it did in San Diego's special elections, it will be a big boost for conservatives nationwide. Granted, there's plenty of Republicans that won't benefit from illegal immigration being an issue because they're open border, but you'd be hard pressed to find districts where the democrat is more in favour of cracking down on illegal immigration than the republican is.

Corporations Embracing YouTube

Moonves marveled when Hurley informed him that YouTube's steadily expanding audience is now watching about 100 million videos per day. He asked how YouTube might be able to direct more traffic to Web sites owned by CBS. The meeting ended with Moonves concluding that CBS should start posting daily snippets of its programming on YouTube.

This is really interesting stuff to read about, especially given how major entertainment companies have treated other things online, like P2P filesharing. There are more limits with YouTube to prevent it becoming that, of course, but YouTube does have a lot of potential. Heck, its getting there already with movie trailers being put on it. If companies choose to work with YouTube, and are able to do so without destroying it, then I think it will definitly be a good sign for future innovations on the net.

Dinosaur National Monument Closed

Mary Risser, superintendent of the Dinosaur National Monument, said the building "will remain closed indefinitely until significant life, health and safety issues are addressed."

Not much to say on that, other than its sad and a shame, and i'm disappointed now that I never got a chance to visit it the rare trips to Utah that I've had.

Israel vs Lebanon
The whole Israel vs Lebanon thing is very concerning... much as I can see exactly why Israel would take action against Hezbollah, I'm not sure how much responsibility Lebanon really has. Attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon is one thing, but attacks against Lebanon in general? I'd hold Syria far more responsible, given Syria's recent history of treating Lebanon as an arm of itself, nearly, to help antagonise Israel. Its getting messy, but it feels more like the people of Lebanon, for the most part, are stuck in the middle between Syria antagonising Israel and Israel defending itself. Just hope Iran doesn't feel neccessary to get involved.

and finally:
Police give fashion advice

Women going on boozy nights out have been warned by police to "wear nice pants" in case they fall down drunk in the street.
...
"If you fall over or pass out, remember your skirt or dress may ride up," the magazine says. "You could show off more than you intended -- for all our sakes, please make sure you're wearing nice pants and that you've recently had a wax."

And once again, there go cops ruining everyone's fun.

2006-07-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

For the sake of putting something here...
well, nothing going on other than my house getting AC, meaning I'm up early to sit around as stuff gets installed.
Though, things are about to get moving, starting with Pirates tonight, and again tomorrow night

so now, to fill space... a post on patriotism:
In my view patriotism is, in essense, taking pride in who you are. Just as there are people that take pride in race, religion or gender, nationality is a defining characteristic of who we are as well. If I was born in a different country, I wouldn't be who I am now. My environment does play a key role in shaping who I am, and who doesn't want to have pride in themselves?
For many countries, ethnicity and nationality overlap greatly... and so ethnic pride and patriotism can be the same. For some countries, the US and Australia come to mind offhand, one of the defining traits is that there is so much immigration from around the world that there isn't just one ethnic group. This is also since these are younger countries.

Because there is that element of immigration, most Americans do remember their heritage, and for example, I will say that I've an Irish and Swedish heritage, but I'm an American first and foremost.

I don't think there is anything wrong with being patriotic. I am proud to be an American. I'm proud of many of the ideals that I associate with America. Freedom, opportunity, hope. Now, I'd never say that America is outright the best country on the planet, per se, but I do believe that America is a better country than the lions share of nations. Of course my ideals play a part in this, but when you look at many other countries out there... I don't see how it is an issue.

I also don't think that that is a uniquely American attitude. Beyond people I know that have come here from other countries, my only international travel has been 2 months living in Australia. Every Australian I talked to was proud of Australia. I heard a lot about how great this was or that was. I saw world-famous locations that weren't world famous. But its being proud of who you are. I would expect an Australian to be proud to be Australian just like I'm proud to be an American. It's like playing on a team. You're always gonna like your team most.
However, even with that, it doesn't mean I have an issue with every other country. I could very well live in Australia. I love the country. Heck, I'm having trouble waiting till Sunday when I get some Australian food. But even if I was living in Australia, I would still be an American, just an American living in Australia, because its America that I feel closest to, ideologically.
Then again, I also know my ancestory, when they came to America, gave up their prior nationalities because they wanted to be Americans. There was something about being an American that they believed in. They learned English and assimilated. The cultural heritage wasn't forgotten, they just became Americans as well.

So I guess my in short sum-up of that is...Patriotism, when not blinding, is just a natural pride in a group one belongs to.

2006-05-15T03:05:00.000-07:00

its 3 am, i have part of a take-home final to start and finish, and things are going nowhere. i've got other stuff i'll try to rant about later... but for now, this.
i'm losing it again, and i'm very displeased. at this point i'm not sure what its being caused by.... being taunted by that which i want and can never have again on a nearly constant basis now, and that is being something that is getting more and more painful to deal with, or that my mental well-being is so tied to the functionality of my computers that when one of them dies, for good dies, i can't hold on.
i'm not sure what it is, but its very inconvienient. i'm really not sure what to do, in so much as that, on what hand I have a lot that I need to get done, what with finals approaching and things liek that. ON the other hand, I feel like I'm going crazy. I mean, I do know there's something wrong with me, I just... I don't know what to do to cope with it.
I hate this feeling where what faces me is things that I don't want to deal with and what I want is things that I can't have. This feeling that I'm never good enough to be happy or satisfied with life. This overwhelming feeling of utter failure. Its bad enough to go through the mindset, but whats most frustrating is the perminant effects it has. I can't focus on work I need to do because I'm in the middle of a nervous breakdown. And I don't know if I should fight my way through a nervous break down for two weeks till I'm done with everything or just let myself snap, and then hope I can piece myself back together quickly enough to not be totally destroyed by it.

Hate not feeling like I really have anywhere to turn when this happens. That if i talk to anyone about it, I'd feel guilty. Even If i were to actually talk to anyone about it, which I'm not sure I could do in the first place.

2006-04-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a while, thanks to all sorts of stuff going awry, so lets go for a month recap....
a week before the end of March, someone broke into my car, stole my mp3 player, a gas mileage book, and my speeding ticket that i got in January (which will no doubt be a future issue to rant about)
so, i've had probably around $350 worth of costs related getting back on track from that now. which has been plesant and fun.

karl and i camped out at caltech on tuesday of last week to get tickets to see stephen hawking, who again was very very interesting. this time he was talking about how time can have a beginning, and he had some very good points on it. which of course he would, cuz he's freaking stephen hawking.

the past week has been spring break.... but it has been far busier than i'm used to. last weekend, was first a housewarming party for bryan and nate on saturday, then sunday was a physics thing..mostly drinking, but i still showed up. social hanger-on that i am. monday....i can't remember...i think i did something. tuesday, i went to go get a copy of my ticket that had been stolen....so that was fun to have to drive out to pasadena and back. tuesday was a city election to vote in. wednesday, tom and i went to disneyland for about 6 hours...spent most of the time in DCA to avoid the more crowded areas, like Disneyland proper. the pins are becoming too much of a thing with me. Today, didn't really do much of anything till this evening, when I went out to dinner with Sita, who's up here for spring break. and then now, i'm putting off working on an application to Griffith Observatory that my mom has done an excellent job in convincing me to stop trying for it. Granted, that wasn't the intent.

Of late, i've been falling downward into what I'd consider another bout of depression, i think. most prominant is that i don't really know why i'm bothering with what i'm doing because i lack that feeling of direction with my life. i don't know where i'm going, or what i'll do careerwise. i still don't feel like i should be trying to get internships because i don't feel qualified enough, based on both classes taken and grades. which isn't to say the grades are outright bad... just that i don't feel like i deserve to be doing anything yet. on top of that, i've got issues from my past coming back to me again. things that i've tried to get over and can't. some of them are emotional issues that i can't shake. more concerning is that my stresses are coming back. i don't think i've felt tensions this strong since high school, and it has me concerned a bit. i really don't want to fall back into the rhythm of nervous breakdowns and the like i had back then.
i'm not entirly sure why that all is coming back, either. i think a big part is my mom trying to reassert control on my life again with the griffith application and stuff, but that doesn't explain it all away. i speculate that the key issue is that its from basicly, not having the same interpersonal interactions i'd had going. socially speaking, i've not had all that much going on up here the last while, plus the line stuff has been dwindling more and more, plus online stuff has been either quiet or painful, mostly, plus i'm still an outsider at school. generally speaking, i know that its my own fault that i'm not the sort of person people prefer to have around. or in some cases outright revile. i just can't force myself to be someone i'm not and be ok with it, the side effect being that i'm just really not around people much. which, i guess is a part of who i am as well. still, its not without its drawbacks in that social situations are helpful from time to time. granted, that also assumes taht i can do so sans paranoia, which is also on the rise. the whole matter has just added to make teh whole thing fun. Man I hate spring. Stuff always goes wrong in it.

2006-03-19T18:52:00.000-08:00

sum up of a week and then some, cuz i've been lazy and nothing has happened

main things....VH1 has really caused me to lose faith in them with what they did last week...they did a show called I love Toys and named the #1 toy as the hula hoop. In no way is this a "number one" toy. It had its run, but to have that beat out such things as Legos is horrendously innaccurate. Really shakes one's faith in their listings.

some bits of movie talk....
saw V for Vendetta last night, and it was awesome. It really is a movie about freedom, and remembering what it is, and how its important to stand up for it. Now, I know everyone is going to be talking about Bush in this context, but I also don't buy that, if for no other reason than that I was in Hollywood a few hours before seeing the movie where much of the area was massivly disrupted by an anti-war protest. In V for Vendetta, you couldn't speak out...definitly not so in the U.S. today. We just have to make sure it stays that way.

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter is my most recent purchase. I'd say anyone should give it a watch...i'm not gonna try to sum it up, so i'm just gonna use the following keywords: Jesus Christ, Vampires, Lesbians, Dance numbers, Mexican wrestling. You can't go wrong with that mix.

And now, i'm going back to dealing with having no coke

2006-03-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe by Martin Rees (179 pages) As a nerd, any book about numbers is gonna score big points with me, but this does so, espicially because it looks at the numbers that, well, shape the universe. This was a book that hooked me because what it really is is a sampling of cosmology and what properties define our universe, and how changing basic ratios would effect the universe as a whole. Rees writes this more for the average reader, so I found myself wanting more of the physics and numbers at points, but considering this was written for the general audiance, I was very impressed by how well he looks at the basics of the universe and how he explains them clearly but also includes plenty of detail to at least partially satisfy the nerdier reader. Its really the sort of book anyone could read and have their view of the universe totally spun around and given greater clarity.

So, Saturday was a busy day for me. Started off by heading for Disneyland, picking up Jessica and Val showing up later. The important part was two rides on pirates before it closed (today, i believe). The ride is now being redesigned somewhat to be more based on the upcoming movie and will open for that. Personally, I think tis a bit of a mistake. Ok, a giant mistake, but anyway, least i rode it more.
Then, off to Santa Monica for a showing of Young Frankenstein that had Teri Garr, the actress that played the lab assistant, there. Which was awesome, both to see that in a theatre with an audiance, and she was hilarious, so overall a good day.

2006-02-28T01:44:00.000-08:00

ok, book time, firstly,

The Death of Free Speech: How Our Broken National Dialogue Has Killed the Truth and Divided America by John Ziegler (236 pages) John Ziegler already is one of the awesome hosts on KFI AM 640, 7 - 10 PM, Monday through Friday, and he's talked a fair amount about this book for a while, so I'd been looking forward to reading it. I'm definitly not disappointed.
Generally a Libertarian point of view, Ziegler looks at how free speech, saying what you want to say, is in many cases becoming socially unacceptable and the effects that this is having and will have. Its really disturbing, to me, to consider all the wyas in which things are considered unacceptable....the idea that potential offensiveness can get someone in trouble even if the truth is on their side....like the trouble the word niggardly has caused, for example.
More troublesome is how the gov't is beginning to get more and more involved in the matters of free speech and just what is acceptable and what isn't. There is a real danger to free speech generally, and recent things like the Muhammad cartoons have brought even more attention to that, and given that situation, this book becomes even more relevant and even more worthy of reading.
>Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocracy by Pete Schweizer (219 pages) Now, this is a book that I started reading expecting it to be a heavily biased viewpoint, but I thought it would just be interesting to read still. given that, I was surprised and very impressed with the attitude that Schweizer took, in that simply argueing that the left are hypocrites isn't the best of arguements because hypocrites exist across the political spectrum. However, I thought it was very well done how he seperated out how, when people on the right are hypocrticial, they do so in a way that harms themselves, such as Rush with his medication, and aruging that when hypocracy happens on the left, its to the person's benefit. That is to say....when the right deviate from how they say to live morally, they're hurt, but when the left deviates from how they say to live, they do significantly better, calling into question the ideals that they try to push on others as far as things like taxes, investing, education, affirmative action, and the environment go. The book looks at a handful of prominant people on the left, from politicans like the Clintons, Nancy Palosi, and Ted Kennedy, to prominant voices like Michael Moore, Al Franken, and Noam Chomsky, and looks at how they've ignored their own views and benefitted greatly by doing so.
Still biased to some extent, but thats to be expected in something like this. There still is, though, a great deal of info that is extremely insightful.

Now...Jennie has said these will be better read here...so, i put them here...give them a try people
http://kevan.org/johari?name=Lowbacca

http://kevan.org/nohari?name=Lowbacca

School stuff - hitting that run-down point atm, but I think that was very much tied to other stuff going on, not just school. Tests are going alright this time, and hopfully they will be going back on the up-and-up soon. I'm working hard to reestablish my commitment to school, and it seems to be going alright thus far. Its a new start for that all. Plus I'm understanding things and just...feel a tad more alive with my classes.

Anyway, the other big thing of now is Chris leaving for the Navy tomorrow....and so, i present the following:

The Vegas Odds On Chris's Service in the Navy

1:5 Accidentally fired out of a torpedo tube
1:8 Court marshalled for leading mutiny after 6 days of sub sandwiches in gally
1:13 Disappears on shore leave, sold into slave trade. In San Diego.
1:20 Critically fails saving throw while saluting superior officer and is knocked unconcious for three weeks
1:42 Accidentally fires a nuke into Eastern Europe. No one really cares.
1:54 Becomes king after France surrenders to him
1:69 Becomes a queen after surrenders to getting frenched by bunkmate
1:97 Saves submarine crew after accident damages steering, limiting movement to left or right, but not up, down, or back in time
1:412 A freak nuclear accident melds his glasses and face, giving him high powered and x-ray vision. However, he wastes it staring into girls' showers.
1:3720 In critical battle in Persian Gulf, Chris successfully navigates a mine field before entire sub is swallowed by a giant slug.

2006-02-04T02:39:00.000-08:00

I'll try to talk about school and world events in next post...but first, to get some reviews taken care of.

White Death by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos (419 pages) Going back months to when I read this one, I unfortunitly don't remember anything terribly specific. Unlike I believe all the books I've talked about prior, this one focuses not on Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino, his usual heroes, but another pair in NUMA, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala. One of the impressive things, though, is that they are written, still, as two seperate characters, its not just Dirk and Al with new names. Theres a new dynamic and everything. Of course, you still have the crazy plot to destroy some part of the earth and NUMA coming to the rescue, but it just wouldn't be a Cussler book without it.
Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler (485 pages) The Odyssey has always intrigued me, so the stuff this book did was just amazing. Completely rewriting the historical context of the Odyssey as told by Home and relocating it from Greece to Northern Europe and the Celts replacing the Greeks and Trojans is yet another one of these cases where I can't help but wonder just how much is fact, how much is theory, and how much is fiction. Cussler always manages to mix these elements together in a perfect blend that just astounds me. The number of times where it looks like all is lost in this book is higher than probably just about any book I've read, and what makes it so much more interesting is taht beyond Dirk and Al, the usual pai in Cussler's books, this one throws Dirk's children Dirk and Summer into the mix, leading to going back and forth from one pair to the other as a myriad of different plot threads are slowly woven together into one large central story. Its tough to say, but I think this one might well be my favourite of Cussler's I've read thus far.

2006-01-22T18:11:00.000-08:00

alright, here goes at posting again, cuz i was doing good for a while....
first though, more books to cover:

Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler (531 pages) So far, this is probably the most emotional of Clive Cussler's books that I've read, but since that's in the ending, I'll not touch that. As far as comparison with the rest of his books go, this was the one that was perhaps the most impressive mix of things ever, throwing transportation, oil conspiracies, Vikings, and the Nautilus all together. I don't know how he does it, but he does. The eerie part is that it does have a feature on oil price conspiracies and the like, which sounds frighteningly like it could be going on right now, even though it is a 5 year old book. Still though, its an awesome read, which is really exactly what I'd expect from Clive Cussler.
Sacred Number : The Secret Qualities of Quantities by Miranda Lundy (46 pages) Having read this, and quickly, I'm not entirely sure of the point of this book. It really is just a collection of things that are different numbers....6 sides on snowflake, 8 legs on a spider, etc. There's very little talk of any real meaning of it, and it sounds as a mix of just listing numbers, and making things up to make it seem like there is a meaning where there isn't. If it was a longer read, I'd be annoyed.
The Math Instinct: Why You're a mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs) by Keith Devlin (264 pages) This is probably one of the most interesting non-fiction books I've read in a long while. Part of being a nerd requires me to know a bit of where math shows up in nature, but I still learned so much from this book. It started off with looking at animals that have learned how to do various mathematics, such as how dogs can do a calculus operation, and how ants use very precise deductive reckoning to know where they are. Then there are cases where nature takes advantage of math, like how animals get stripes or spots and numbers in plants. Finally, and the part taht was most interesting, to me, was looking at how we as people have developed math, and how people learn math, both on their own, and in school, and comparing the two. Of course, this is probably of more interest to me given I tutor, but it was still so very interesting. I recommend this to anyone, even if you're not a nerd. Perhaps especially if you're not. It changes how you'd think about math.

Been cleaning my room of late, and when I'm done it might finally be the push I need to get things done that I wnat to. My biggest goal, meaning it probably won't happen, is to go through all my star wars stuff, catagorise it all, and create a part of my site dedicated to all that, with pics of everything. It'll certainly be easier that way, but I'm not sure if i've got the energy to do so. At least my room will be clean, though. Should be just a couple more days. And i'm finding all sorts of cool things in the process that have been missing. So thats good too.

2005-11-12T19:59:00.000-08:00

well....too much has happened over the last week to go into much of it...so i'll just go with a couple things...

firstly, california has avoided the challenge of trying to work hard to fix the state in the voting in the special election on tuesday. all no's, even on the things that really didn't have a downside. 75, saying that unions couldn't take money from their members without asking for political contributions, 76 would've meant the state couldn't spend more than it had, and 77 would redistrict. i fear the state can only get worse for the next while.

second, UCLA just won their game against Arizona State at the Rose Bowl with a final score of 45-35. This game was just insane.
Now, it was nice to see a change in UCLA's playing to start off early with two touchdowns, giving UCLA early game control. This was going to be a hard game anyway, since UCLA has had a playing style that really relies on capitalising on the 4th quarter game, and thats risky against an opponent like ASU, considering that ASU is 3rd in the nation for total offense. This was going to be dangerous since UCLA's defense has been netoriously inconsistant and is now ranked 96 out of 117. That really doesn't bode well, normally. Instead, there was a quick start, and while the defence did falter and definitly needs work on making the tackles, they also put plenty of pressure on ASU.

The UCLA offense, though, played an amazing game, with Drew Olsen throwing for 510 yards, and Mercedes Lewis, well, being Mercedes Lewis. Personally, I'd have like to have seen Olsen be allowed to throw one play at the end for 5 yards to set the one game record for a UCLA quarterback. Lewis was also absolutly amazing, and he made catches I didn't even think were humanly possible.
The great thing about the UCLA offense, though, is that so many people catch the ball and make good plays. I mean, 9 players were on the receiving end of passes for UCLA, and 4 of them caught touchdown passes. The ball is so well spread out that its very difficult to just pick one player and shut them down. Also, Olsen was getting plenty of time to find the right person to hit, thanks to the offensive line, and I think it shows in that he had a completion rate over 80%. This offense really is just getting stronger and stronger. With a good day for the defense, they can be unstoppable.

The other angle here is this is EXACTLY how they should be going into the game against USC in two weeks. Last week, the strategy of coming back at the end didn't work and UCLA lost against Arizona...a team they should've definitly beat. That there is the wake-up call that they have to take an early lead. This game they get the momentum, they score early on, and they never let ASU lead the game. The Bruins can see that that strategy works, and that is the exact way they need to play to be able to beat USC. They can do it, so long as the defense can play consistantly, the offense keeps playing like they have been, and they start the game ready, instead of waiting until half-time to start playing for real.

2005-11-09T02:54:00.000-08:00

well...it looks like all the propositions have gone down in defeat today. or well, yesterday. i'm rather bummed about this.
I mean, 74-77 all made good sense, but it looksl ike the power of advertising has beaten them. Oh well, common sense loses again. I'll bemoan the fate of california more later.

2005-11-02T00:54:00.000-08:00

well, i've lapsed over the last few weeks as i've spread myself thin.... but the basic rundown....went to tatooine (death valley) and had a blast....then with line people there's been magic mountain, mouse adventure (finishing second), halloween party, the dvd line, and assorted other stuff. then some school, and of course the weekly bowling.

the car has died, and been reborn anew with new parts, and that cost plenty. i'm at a point now though where i'm just wearing down, and thats being problematic. i think i've entered the point where i'm beginning to feel like i'm less of a part of the group i am in (this time the line) than i try to think i am, and that i'm somewhat out of place. never know what to make of such things but these things tend to have truth in em. probably doesn't help that i'm in an upswing of stress at home, as i'm working so much that i'm home very little, and what tme i'm home for, i'm getting lectured at for assorted things.

i also need to get a review for the last book i read, valhalla rising, written up. and just really, theres a lot i either need or want to do. i think i'm beginning to again wish that i was at a point where i didn't have the element of school that is it taking up free time... sometimes i'd rather have the grind of a job but then know there's offtime at some point than have school, plus work, plus school work.

anyway, this should, in theory, make it back into routine of what i do. heh, said like people read it still.

2005-10-10T01:06:00.000-07:00

well, back home now after keeping myself psycho busy the last while with a mix of work, watching the first season of Lost, and spending the weekend in tatooine. i've got a lot to catch up on.... sometimes it really feels like my life is moving faster than i can handle and I end up not knowing whats going on with it. Good times. Or not.
Anyway, a lot to catch up on at a future point.

2005-09-14T01:46:00.000-07:00

First, a quick bit of interesting news.....
The number of old Japanese people is on the rise as a big chunk is now aged over 100. I think they've managed to hack life. But anyway, this does bring up the interesting question of how retirement should work and all, since when it first started, people would live only a little bit after retiring. These, though, are people that are now 35 years past retirement age as it is in the U.S.. It'll really shake up who needs to be paying taxes and all.

And PETA says black people are like animals again. They're pushing their whole thing of animals are really the same as people again, and because they've got a display of pictures of african-americans being tortured or killed next to pictures of animals being killed, there are now groups calling them racists for it. I find some pleasure in watching as PETA gets stuck in this interesting mess. I don't think they're racist, per se, just that they have dumb ideas when one considers the lengths they go to and are also inconsiderate. Seriously, their whole thing of trying to make animals on the same level as people just makes me want to eat more meat. I'm all for, you know, preventing cruelty to animals but this is ridiculous.

Finally the next few days should get busy...bowling league tomorrow, then movie screening, then anotehr football game saturday. tomorrow i'll also put an update of the last few days. including the dreaded story: "Chupathingie in danger!?"

2005-09-11T04:00:00.000-07:00

Well, today was UCLA's first homegame, and there will be pictures to come, but first a game coverage.

Last season the Bruins defence worried me because, while the offense was good at having strong plays, and the defence as well, there was a distinct lack of consistancy. On offence the gameplan was much more to get a big breakaway than to be able to consistently move the ball down the field, and so if that one chance didn't cut it, there was a lot of trouble involved in trying to still get a first down. As for defense, every few plays there was a critical missed tackle that would lead to losing a good ten yards or so and the defensive line just wasn't consistant enough to shut down another team's offense effectivly.

Today they were up against the Rice Owls, and while their stats aren't that impressive on the whole, the notable thing is that they led the nation in rushing yards last year, with an average of over 300. However, UCLA held them to under 200 yards from rushing, and only about 60 yeards from receiving.
UCLA started the game off right with a quick drive for a touchdown, followed by two more during the first quarter before Rice picked up one late in the first quarter.
While the defense had me worried for the first half of the first quarter with last year's pattern of missed tackles in place, they quickly got their game together and proved to be a very effective obsticle against Rice's offensive line. The Bruin offense, on the other hand, seems to have really developed since last year, and it was very reassuring to see UCLA going with what was a healthy mix of passing and rushing, and to see a consistancy in gaining yards each play rather than just waiting for the one big play. Rice isn't the strongest defense, but the Bruin focus seems to be much better places this season.

The beginning of the second quarter the Bruins just blew away the Owls with 3 touchdowns in the first 3 minutes of the quarter. They each picked up a touchdown during the rest of the second quarter and UCLA entered halftime leading Rice 49-14. The offense was playing a very solid game to keep moving forward and the defense was incredible at putting pressure on the quarterback and getting some very solid hits on him as well. Always good to shake up the quarterback.

After half time the momentum slowed considerably, and in fact there was only two touchdowns on the Bruins side of the scoreboard during the 4th quarter that made up all the scoring. Rice also scored in the 3rd quarter to get a finishing score of 63-21. Of course, what has to be kept in mind is that after half-time, UCLA was playing much of its second string and so many of its strong players weren't in much or at all. They still played a strong game, but they do need a bit more work as Rice made much more progress during the second half from missed tackles and the like. Stuff to work on, but I'd much rather have the second string be working on that than the first string.

On a related note, they've now added instant replays into the refing, and so if there is significant reason to do so, the refs can look at a replay and if there is clear support, reverse calls. Basicly, now they have 2 chances to make the same bad call.
Anyway, I think everyone is still getting used to being able to do that, and the extra delays during the first quarter from that led to the first quarter, 15 minutes of game time, lasting an hour.

technorati tags: Football, NCAA, UCLA

2005-09-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

Ever read one of those stories that seems to twist facts around to try to make some point? Ok, I know that covers really all media, but here's one particularly about the lack of affirmative action at schools like Berkeley.
It seems that blacks are a minority at Berkeley. Ok, now first of all, this is a irrelevant headline as there really isn't anything newsworthy about that. Now, what they are trying to discuss is that blacks are an underrepresented group at berkeley. Now, what IS true is that of Berkeley's incoming class of approximately 4000, only 129 are black, or about 3.2% of the students. Now, contrast this with California's population of 6.7% black, according to The 200 U.S. Census. Now, we can see that, yes, there is a bit of a discrepency here, though first I would like to see the percentages based on the ages appropriate for college, say, 17 to 25 would be a fair range to get an idea.
Anyway, they go on to discuss hispanic percentages as well:

About 11 percent of the 4,000-student class will be Hispanic — well out of step with a state where Hispanics make up about 30 percent of the population.

Again, according to the census, Hispanics would be 32.4% of California. Now, what is misleading is the initial focus on minorities that are underrepresented because that is language designed to make it seem as though the reason taht they are at lower percentages is because they belong to minorities, plain and simple. However, what is perhaps more noteworthy is the percentage of Asian-Americans that are in Berkeley's incoming class. The incoming percentage will be about 47% of the class. Now, this is for a group that is only 10.9% of the state, and 11.2% if we include Hawaiian and Pacific Islander to that catagory to be on the safe side.

The article had this regarding the numbers for Asian-Americans:

[Berkeley Chancellor Robert] Birgeneau says "we all should be extraordinarily proud of" that achievement, but the success needs to spread to other groups.

My question for Birgeneau is how exactly do you spread out this success to other groups? Or perhaps more pertinent is how do you define other groups? To me, he seems to be talking strictly about other minorities. If this is the case, just how do you spread out success on the same scale? While Hispanics and blacks in the incoming class are both about half of what percentages would indicate they should be to be representative of the population, Asians are overrepresented by a factor of more than 4. In other words, if all minorities had similar numbers, then minorities would be a bit over 200% of the incoming class. In other words, this doesn't work.
The issue here is this attitude that there must be gains for all minorities without realising where those gains would come from, specifically, a decrease in the white population at Berkeley. However, if you assume that Blacks, hispanics, and asians were the ONLY minorities at Berkeley, the highest percentage of white students you get is 39%. This in a state where they make up 59.5% of the state's population, or 46.7% (not including those of Hispanic/Latino origin), though I'm not sure which of those numbers more accurately corresponds to how Berkeley classifies "white". However, with either number, we can then see that white students are also being underrepresented at Berkeley, although while Blacks and Hispanics are at about 50% of what would be expected, whites are between 83% and 65% of what would be representative of the population.

Now, why do these percentages matter? The allegations that somehow the system is culterally biased to benefit white students, be it intentionally or unintentionally, do not seem to fit the numbers. If white students are suppoed to be benefiting at the expense of minorities, then why are Asian students the only group overrepresented? The cause here is not skin colour, its something that obviously many Asian students have been able to capitalise on to make themselves more desirable for enrollment than other applicants, not on a group level, but individually. I do trust that they are fully earning their way into Berkeley and deserve their spots, but I also feel that this fully shows that concepts like Proposition 209 did what it was supposed to and allowed students to earn their way in through a fair system.

The problem arises with statements like the following

UC schools promise an excellent education and "it's simply impossible to provide that excellence if the student body is so lacking in diversity that graduates are unprepared to lead in a diverse world," said Christopher Edley, dean of UC Berkeley's Boalt law school, where nine black students are expected in the incoming class of 268.

Again, there's no mention that they are also lacking a student body reflective of the real world, if their numbers are similar to Berkeley's, due to a lack of WHITE students. Of course, to suggest that they need a program to ensure enough white students were admitted would be considered racist by many and would be outright attacked.
Further, the choice of words seems almost loaded, as is in the description of:

For James Marshall, 25, being one of about a half-dozen blacks enrolled at Berkeley's Haas School of Business in 2002 was "quite intimidating."

If the numbers for Haas School of Business are in keeping in pattern with those of Boalt and Berkeley undergraduates, using the term "a half-dozen" is misleading, because saying "a dozen" would have the same connotation of a small group, but would be, in fact, proportional to the California population. Similarly, Boalt would, in fact, be just slightly above representing the California population properly for black students if it had 18 out of the 268, a number that still can seem small when not in the proper perspective.

The problem here stems from a misconstrued definition of what "diversity" means when applied to a population. While there are positive elements to diversity, it will become detrimental if it's diverse on a level that is not reflective of the general population. To try to increase minority enrollment substantially, and in turn decreasing the enrollment of white students destroys another part of that diversity just as much as if any other group was artifically increased in number to push another group out. If thats who gets in, then so be it, but if you set out to create that proper mix of diversity one of the first acts one would have to do is to cut the percentage of Asian-Americans that are being enrolled by 75-80%. Thats not fair to students that EARNED their right to be there. Second is that diversity isn't skin colour, and it is disheartening that we live in a society that so often forgets that. Ideologies and economic backgrounds are both more important than skin colour, but rarely does a college campus work to have representative amounts of Republicans, and the idea of economic background is used to prop up affirmative action policies but is rarely suggested in place of race-based programs.

In short, colleges are never going to be perfectly representative. Statistically, thats highly unlikly, and that is if it was by random chance and not effected by characteristics of groups such as the strong work ethic that many Asian-Americans brought with them to the U.S. in recent immigration. What matters shouldn't be what the percentages are for skin tones, but that the admissions procedure isn't based on overtly biased procedures, that all prospective students would be admitted if their scores were sufficient, and that the student body is then made up of the best students that the applications pool had to offer, no matter what race they are, either individually, or what the final percentages end up to be. To say otherwise is to try to turn back time to a period where people WERE judged based soley or mostly on the colour of their skin, and that would be a disservice to all students.

Technorati tags:
Politics, Affirmative Action

2005-09-09T02:07:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't make it two weeks into the semister without missing a class.

I ended up not going to school today because my back was killing me. I'm not sure what I did to it, but as of heading for bed last night it was sore. Waking up this morning, breathing and sitting up hurt. So I went back to bed...few more hours of lying down plus some advil seems to have done the trick. Still a little sore, but nothing big.

I at least was productive today in that the chupathingie now has fresh transmission fluid and I've repaired a problem with a wire leading to the spark plugs that has been sparking. Hopfully means that I'll be running better now, and gas milage will do better, and thats always good.

Busy next couple days as on top of schol tomorrow, I'll have work both between classes as well as probably after them. Then Saturday will most likly feature more work, plus I'll be going to the UCLA game Saturday night for the start of the season. At least taht should give me something to talk about.

2005-09-08T00:36:00.000-07:00

I really should get around to putting podcast and updated blog links in here, but thats been losing out as i'm, you know, lazy and stuff. Nonetheless, it is kept in mind. I think school and work are taking up waht energy I'd otherwise muster for that. Which isn't altogether bad, as my tutoring schedule has now reached 8 hours a week with one more possibly tomorrow, plus I want to call one family that I have routinely to see how they are doing with hopes of possible continuation, maybe, and then I think I need to get flyers out to Valencia and West Ranch tomorrow, as they are still early enough in the school year that it'll help. I want, Ideally, 12 hours a week if I can, and if I'm not doing the Star Wars bowling on Wednesdays, then 15 hours instead.

Monday was out at Larry's birthday party as a fun line event that nearly led to tragedy. Somehow someone threw the macaroni and cheese thing at me...which I suppose I brought upon myself. Anyway, larry nearly WENT AND MADE some on the spot, except that it led to a debate on what form of preperation the first macaroni and cheese I have should be in. Anyway, I'm also now on a team for MouseAdventure at Disneyland in October. Basically its puzzles and stuff and scavenger hunt type elements all within the park. It sounds like a lot of fun, and should be pretty challenging. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm getting myself into, but it ought to be memorable.

I actually did go to one of the lectures today at CSUN, on Ultra-Compact Blue Dwarf Galaxies. Basic rundown is theres a handful of very small galaxies that appear to be entirly blue with no signs of more mature stars and very low amounts of elements heavier than helium. Basicly, it doesn't make sense...and seemed to indicate that they were galaxies that had only relativly recently formed. However, what the imaging from Hubble has shown is that there are older, evolved stars, they're just outshown by the newer and brighter stars. More interesting, though, is there are signs that most, if not all, of these galaxies were formed by smaller clusters of stars colliding, including one that Hubble actually was able to seperate out into two clusters very close to one another rather than one single galaxy. So basicly, they're small galaxies forming by groups of stars colliding. Whats so neat about them is how this apparently triggers a burst of star formation within them, hense them seeming to be entirely blue stars.
The main question that I do still raise around it, though, is how the explanation for the lack of metals accounts for the ability to form new stars. Now, the reasoning behind no metals being present, even though supernovae have gone off, is that when the supernovae went off, all their material left the star clusters at a speed greater than the escape veolcity. My question, then, is that if thats what happened to it, why didn't this blow out any remaining Helium and Hydrogen within the cluster? Instead, when the clusters collided, this created shock waves that condensed the Helium and Hydrogen enough to trigger star formation, but to me, there seems to be a lack of a source for those stray gases if the supernovae part is true as well.
Anyway, I think Dr. Corbin (speaker from Arizona State University for the lecture) was pretty accurate in that this'll depend primarily on if they are able to find more of these blue dwarf galaxies than the 10 that had been studied. I still find it very wierd to think that, in the entire visible universe, they're only aware of 10 of these things so far. With the numbers of galaxies out there, it truely makes them rare objects thus far.

Finally, football season kicks off this weekend and so I've got to figure out if I'm going to the UCLA football game Saturday....I think I am, but I also feel like i'm forgetting something. Maybe I'm just paranoid as usual.

And now for soemthign completely different; news:
Germany's next election looks like it could lead to a political shift to the right, which seems to largly be from economic issues with the current leadership. Of course, what I think is interesting about it is the changes their election process is undergoing.

If the methods employed - campaign theme songs, bus tours throughout the country, even call centers - look familiar, it's because they are. In shaping their candidates and messages, the parties are increasingly borrowing methods fashioned and perfected in the United States, say former media advisors and analysts.

Now, offhand I'd be a little worried just since, well, I don't think our elections give us the best of choices, but then again, Germany is parliamentary, so that might balance out that feature, as then you're picking a party rather than a candidate. Also, to some extent, at least this increases interaction with voters...though that being more things like the bus tours and such.

"You could call it Americanization, but you could also call it a modernization," says Mr. Radunski. "If there's television, then you should use it."

The other interesting point is that Germany has been critical of the U.S. and a more conservative government might lead to better interaction between them and us. Would be nice to have one of the main countries of criticism backing us up on stuff a bit more. Now just to switch the governments of France and Russia...hmmmm... how hard could a coup be? Especially in those two regime-abandoning countries.

And of course, the article that states the obvious, that some video games are physically demanding. I just love how this is news....I mean, DDR has been out for how long? And it was some time before that that those sorts of games started showing up in arcades. Still though, the tone of the journalist that wrote this one did give me the impression that he was more in touch with reality than those that blame games for all problems with kids. Most specifically, I enjoyed this line:

Every article about America's obesity epidemic seems to mention video games. That's not surprising, considering that video games have been blamed for juvenile delinquency, low SAT scores, teenage promiscuity, high gasoline prices and just about every other problem facing the nation.

If there are games out there that are leading to teenage promiscuity, I'm obviously playing the wrong video games.

2005-09-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

My grandfather worked for JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and in 1958/1959 he was working in New Orleans. My grandma recently dropped off some maps and stuff of where they lived because of Hurricane Katrina, and so I decided to find where they lived... so my mom lived roughly in the green circle here:

2005-09-04T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well, first things first, comments regarding Katrina. To the rest of the world, my bad. Or well, not so much that I was in error as that I think there has been slow responces by really everyone on this, from city on up, and so while international aid was slow to start, theres more and more of it now, from a lot of countries that i'm impressed with, too. There's been a lot of small countries trying to help best they can, and I think the most impressive one is Sri Lanka, which no doubt is still hurting from the tsunami, giving $25,000 worth of aid. Wikipedia has a list of foreign aid and a partial listing is also at Chuck Simmon's blog, where theres also listings of corporations donations.
On top of international aid, more states are helping by taking in refugees, though Texas still is doing the brunt of the work with a quarter of a million of them. While some are the bordering states, like Texas, Tenessee, and Georgia, others are as far away as Utah, Michigan, and New York. Its an impressive effort thats been covered in an article from the AP put up at Yahoo!.
A frightening thought though is that some black members of Congress are calling the term "refugee" racist, as discussed by Michelle Malkin. To make this claim is absolutly rediculous. Firstly, theres not a race connotation, secondly, how is the WORD racist? At best, the use of it is, but to say someone is a refugee isn't racist because the word doesn't have any sort of racial connotation or denotation. In what world does Refugee=black? Second, as Malkin points out, its been used for many hurricanes. The race card is being played so much during this hurricane I'm wondering now if theres ANY other cards in the deck anymore.

An uplifting note, sort of, is that some still in New Orleans are forming groups to subsist while things get sorted out, primarily in the areas that are above water. They're groups that have formed to take care of each other and survive, rather than just giving into looting and violence. One of the groups was described: "The tribe, whose members included a doctor, a merchant and a store clerk, improvised survival tactics." A little civilisation in an uncivilised city.

Now then, on the "what the heck I've been up to" front...
A general rule to keep in mind is that one should never try to have a group of students take a test on a friday afternoon that leads into a vacation weekend. Moreso when scores don't effect anything. There was a 65 question multiple choice test for physics majors on Friday. I had not a calculator, and that wasn't terribly helpful. I ended up being the second one done, in just under an hour...the first person done was done in 5 minutes because he didn't feel like bothering with it...and oh how tempting that was.

Yesterday was seeing John Williams at the Hollywood bowl with the line, and it was fun. I felt particularly classy as I'd had classical music playing on my mp3 player for much of the time. Anyway, the concert itself had a program that left a bit disappointed, because so much of the music that they had listed was not what I'd assosciate with John Williams. Close Encounters and Star Wars, mainly. Though the encores (all 4 of them) really filled out the night, as that included Yoda's theme, Indiana Jones, the main theme, and E.T.. Things that are more in association with John WIlliams, imo. Also it was rather neat to note that at the high point during the Star Wars music there were, on my count, 50-60 lightsabres in the bowl...and that wasn't our doing. This includes 4 master replicas (yes, i can identify those across a crowded bowl) and 2 guys that went running around the bowl with lightsabres. It had a lot more life to it...not disruptive...just, you could tell that it was music that really had an effect on people.

And this brings things up to today, where I am still weighing whether or not its worth bothering to get dinner. Cuz its too much of a hassle and too much money. Apathy, laziness, and cheapness...i got it all...lol. But yeah, this is what happens when I'm one who eats, predominantly, just on social occasions.

2005-08-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-31T02:22:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-29T23:44:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-29T01:19:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-27T22:40:00.000-07:00

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!!

2005-08-27T00:49:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-24T20:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

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

2005-08-21T02:57:00.000-07:00

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%

2005-08-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-20T01:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-16T01:34:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-11T01:55:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-08-01T01:45:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-07-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

Saw Fantastic Four last night....mixed reviews...I didn't think, so it worked. I mean, it was good in the sense of it was a fun movie to watch, but not like it was terribly high quality on any higher levels. Worth seeing once, though, definitly. Though the science elements.... yeah, that was just painful. And then finished that off with 10 packs of sugar. Woot.

100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken is #37) by Bernard Goldberg (305 pages) Now, I bought this yesterday and just jumped into it. Goldberg was someone that first came to my attention when I read Bias, which he wrote based on how the media has a bias as he experienced while working on CBS with the infamous Dan Rather. It came out back before the whole "Memogate" thing went down.
This time, though, he went just at what is messing up America. Or rather, who. In all, he had a list of 100 people he chose to put at fault. Now some of them were there for things they specifically have done, others were symbolic of whole groups of people that are being detrimental. There were a few common themes though. The first was personal responsibility, which meant those that perpetutate a victim mentality, like extreme feminists and trial lawyers, who create an atmosphere where people aren't taking responsibility for their own problems. Second, people that are working to destroy standards and consideration. Basicly all those people that are putting filth on the air and not willing to count it as filth...yeah, they can say it, doesn't mean they should. Tied with this are the number of people that are condescending about their viewpoints....which managed to net maybe half of Hollywood, who consider them experts on stuff because they're famous. And finally, hypocracy, on oh so many levels. Of course, there's a few other people on there for more unique reasons.
It was something that I really couldn't put down, since I just HAD to know who'd be #1, and all the positions in between. It had an air of thrill about it, actually. Which made it all the more enjoyable. Definitly worth the read. Read Bias too.

Now then, on to the rest of the day's preperations, as I've got a job interview and a couple hours of work tomorrow, then I leave for comic-con for a week.

2005-07-07T17:16:00.000-07:00

Some group has struck in London now. Things like this just make me hope more and more that we can get a unified front against terrorism, with the number one cost being stopping all this.
What amazes me is how groups try attacks like this when all is ever does is unify a people. After Pearl Harbor, a japanese admiral said they had awoken a sleeping giant or dragon (yeah, i forgot it exactly). On 9/11, Islamic fundamentalists awoke the U.S. again. Now, it looks like the same has happened in London. One of the news stories had an interview that showed this attitude:

Computer technician Matt Carter, 25, said he was struck by how the attacks had united Londoners.
"It's amazing how people have stuck together. I've seen total strangers hugging each other and people coming out into the street with free cups of tea," he said.
"We can't let the terrorists defeat us. We've got to show them they will never win."

Terrorism isn't the ideology of those who are already winning, its the ideology of those in danger of losing. Outnumbered and outgunned, this is all thats left. Whats more, attacks like this one are indiscriminant attacks against a way of life, not a party or political figure, and that is the real key to understanding the warped mentality of those that would do this. Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, had an amazing speech that he'd given as a responce that not only talks about how London was able to respond to this as well as it has, but also about the mentality of terrorists and why they will lose:

I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever.
That isn’t an ideology, it isn’t even a perverted faith - it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners. They seek to turn Londoners against each other. I said yesterday to the International Olympic Committee, that the city of London is the greatest in the world, because everybody lives side by side in harmony. Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I’m proud to be the mayor of that city.

While it is possible this is the IRA or some other group that isn't an islamic fundamentalist group, if it is the latter, then they have to realise that you can't attack freedom like this. A free society may have its rifts, but like a family that may fight amungst themselves, they unify against an outside element. If they attack London or New York for being a free place, they didn't attack just London and New York. They attacked Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Los Angeles, Seoul, Berlin, Rome, and every other city, large or small, that makes up one of the now many free nations of the world. An attack against freedom is an attack against all of us. And when you attack one of us just for being free, then you have to answer to all free nations and peoples. And now, you have a lot more to answer for.

2005-07-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

Well, its been busy of late. The 4th of July turned out to be awesome one, as I showed up at Matt and Val's with 80 hot dogs...got to love cheap prices at Vons. We went up to the roof of Val's family's house to watch fireworks and that was the coolest 4th of july thing ever. I mean, its one thing to just be watching a fireworks show or two, but its another thing altogether to be surrounded by fireworks. We even had fireworks being launched from just at the intersection below the house. It was so utterly cool. Also watched Shaun of the Dead, and I can't believe I hadn't seen this yet. I also didn't realise that it had Black Books people in it. That is just a sign of quality.
Also spent the day working down at Paul's Garden, which is in horrible condition because the school is horrible and has neglected it yet again. We're more or less scrapping the garden area and just putting something up at the front of the school they'll have to take care of. Got to do what you've got to do, but its a sad state of things.

Theres a good essay that I read called Why Nerds are Unpopular and it did a good job of it. I mean, not being popular was really unfun, but he is right.... learning won out over being popular. It was really insightful and I really wish that I'd read it several years ago than now. And it totally points out that schools aren't just useless, they are detrimental to most students. They so are.
Also, just finished a book i've been working on:

The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman (469 pages) Thomas Friedman has an amazing way of showing different views of the world, and he totally made me look at globalisation far differently from how I had been looking at it. Friedman sorts through all the forces that are rapidly shrinking the world and are quite radically changing how countries interact and business is done. I don't think I ever really thought about just how much the world is changing thanks to things like the internet, but this really emphaised it. Also, he makes some exceptional points about outsourcing, and how business adapts to changes, and what the ultimate consequences are. He really turns globalisation into a process that is resource-based, not country or class based. Plus, I never really thought of how this really is a race to the top, not the bottom. It makes the whole process seem much more positive.
Finally, as I've always found him able to do, it still provides a very thorough perspective of the Arab world, and where the problems lie with that region of the world, and the difficulties that that culture will have to overcome. Its a bit of a long read, but it puts a really interesting spin about a lot of things. Sort of book that really can change how you view the world, and global interaction.

2005-06-28T01:07:00.000-07:00

"You've seen Star Wars how many times?!"

Thats right, the key question to a Star Wars fan is how many times you've seen the movies....I have no clue with most of them, but I do intend to keep it fully documented as to how many times I watch Episode III, and even with who, so here goes:

#1 5/19/2005 - 12:00 AM
Arclight Cineramadome
w/(to be completed)

#2 5/19/2005 - 7:00 PM
Westwood Village
w/ (to be completed)

#3 5/25/2005 - 9:45 PM
AMC at Downtown Disney
w/ Sarah

#4 6/5/2005 - 4:05 PM
Sherman Oaks Galleria
w/ Bryan, Emily, Scott, LAFF

#5 6/5/2005 - 8:10 PM
Vineland Drive-in
w/ Jessica, James, Matt W, Val, Karl, Bryan, Nathan, Cela (to be completed, i think)

#6 6/12/2005 - 3:45 PM
Vista
w/ Bryan, Andrew, Emily, Laura, Rose, Matt W, Val, Ric, Lisa, Stef, Amanda

#7 6/12/2005 - 8:10 PM
Vineland Drive-in
w/ Bryan, Emily, Laura, Rose, Karl, Nathan, Jeff, Corey, Paul, Amy, Matt G, Cela, Zoe, Andrew

#8 6/19/2005 - 2:15 PM
Valencia Grand Palace
w/ Bryan

#9 6/23/2005 - 7:10 PM
Arclight Cineramadome
w/ Matt G., Rich, Bryan, Juan, Vyolet, Paul, Nathan, Emily, Andrew, Karl, Amy, Cela

2005-06-28T00:44:00.000-07:00

So, worth covering Saturday now...
Went down to disneyland to show support for the idea of having star wars weekends, like they do at disneyworld. there was a big group pic set up by the organisers which can be seen at DisneylandStarWars.com. Over 100 people were there, but unfortunitly Chris and Ti, and Scott were the only ones from the line to show up, that I saw. Also recognised one guy thats an imperial officer from the 501st that was involved in the death march for Episode III, so that was cool as well. I give them big props for the added photoshopping to get rid of the extra passers by that were in that picture beforehand.
Went on Star Tours and Thunder Mountain with Chris and Ti, then met up with Matt and Val and went over to DCA with them....went on Grizzly, which I will always regret now...plus Buzz Lightyear and Haunted Mansion. So on the whole, a fair bit of riding considering I didn't get there till after 3. Traffic was very not cool. Anyway, then called Jackie and went and had dinner with her at Denny's, then finally left down there like 12:30. My accomplishment for the day? 25 packs of sugar. Booyah.

2005-06-25T02:02:00.000-07:00

In theory, the concept of advertising is to get people to like your product so much that they want to buy it, thereby increasing sales. Which is why this just doesn't make sense. As the article says:

Unwanted software slithered into Patti McMann's home computer over the Internet and unleashed an annoying barrage of pop-up ads that sometimes flashed on her screen faster than she could close them.
Annoying, for sure. But the last straw came a year ago when the pop-ups began plugging such household names as J.C. Penney Co. and Capital One Financial Corp., companies McMann expected to know better.

In my view, pop-up ads are one of those things taht will not raise interest in a product people already are probably familiar with, and you're just going to get people annoyed with you. Further, the justification of using spyware is the equivalent of saying taht its justified to wiretap so you know what customers are talking about to better help them. If you FORCE ads like this, you're not going to win, especially when you do something that is very near to a virus and is a common tactic you share with porn sites. Ok, with that last bit....you might win over a few people.

The World Trade Center memorial is becoming, big surprise, a political fiasco. So basicly, the musuem that is put there is being called the International Freedom Center museum, and the plans of the museum to be about things like segregation and the Holocaust is worrying the families of people that died in 9/11 that view this all as becoming some anti-American thing. Outright, I think that the museum is a bad idea.
Now, first of all, I don't think there should be ANY musuem at ground zero. The best way to counter an attempt to destroy the economical force of New York would be to rebuild the area and have it stay a center for commerce. I'm not saying forget 9/11, you can certainly incorporate a memorial there, of course. But its not the right spot to put a musuem.
Second of all, if you WERE to put a museum there, it should be STRICTLY about 9/11. Not that the otehr things aren't important, but theres a place and time for all things. When you start to go down a path that leads to the philosophy that 9/11 was justified, that directly attacks any nearby memorial, and its the equivalent of putting a museum at a concentration camp about the good things that the Nazi regime did. You seriously can't justify a terrorist attack that kills thousands anymore than you can justify the holocaust. The scales are different, the acts are just as inexcusible.

And finally, public tv and radio is getting threatened with debate over political biases. The basic question being if the gov't should be supporting media that seems to have a bias. Now, considering there is a lot of good coming out of PBS, and it seems to, imo, stay out of political matters for the most part, I think cutting its funding its a big mistake. NPR...well, thats a lot more political, so they're in a bit more hot water. Of course, if there is a bias, I expect that the Democrats will of course join the Republicans criticising this because as we all know, the Democrats are worried any time the government might be in any way endorsing a viewpoint. For example, that the gov't can no longer allow the boy scouts onto military bases because of christian values that the scouts have, and the BSA view toward homosexuality. So logically, the Dems should be strong critics of any bias that PBS and NPR would have that is being supported by gov't funds. I mean, it would be entirly unlike them to be hypocritcal.

2005-06-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

well, linging up is far more addicting than i'd thought. Batman Begins was a movie that had a trailer that did not interest me in any way. Not being that much of a batman fan in general was probably an element... but still, in no way seemed worth seeing.
however, i still lined up for 24 hours for the movie outside the chinese because, well, why not. the line had one big problem. well, two. number one, too few people showed up late, and number two, we were next to michael jackson's star. i hate him with an unrivaled hatred now just because i had to put up with his 'fans' that are all crazy.
in no way related to crazy is the fact that for this all I was up for 43 hours straight, since i watched over the line through the night and all, plus drove Cela home after the movie. Long time with no sleep.

anyway, so i've now seen a movie at the chinese, and really, it wasn't the awe inspiring experience that people acted like it was. its not my favourite interior of a theatre, that'd probably be the el cap now. but what did get me was when i'd left for the bathroom during the movie and then came back. being at the very back of that theatre looking at a giant screen with somewhere over 1000 people in between me and it was an amazing sight to see. Between that, and Rik's comments about how you've got to think about the history and how many celebs have been in that theatre, thats what, to me, added the magic. Not the look of the place. I think, for that moment of awe to happen, I should've had someone save me a seat and gone in once it was full. That'd have done it.

2005-06-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4494071.stm
So the bbc does still have it up. which rocks

i will also add that seeing episode 3 on a drive-in is absolutly awesome. i did it last sunday with the line after bryan and i had crashed a la fan force viewing earlier in the day, and can't wait to see it at the drive-in again this sunday.

2005-06-05T02:05:00.000-07:00

A blog begins anew -
ok, so a lot has happened since I last posted here. I know that I've gone through a lot of changes though and that walls I had have come down. Like about bacon on sandwiches.

I waited for 513 hours of Episode 3, and it was awesome. I'll post more after having seen it two more times tomorrow. Or well, later today, technically. I'll also discuss things from the line a bit probably. I think the BBC blog is down now.

I feel in many ways very different from who I was in, say, March. Not that I've changed myself, per se, just that how I interat with people has. I've met a ton of great people and its really been taking my first step into a larger world. So this'll also mean that now rather than weekly whining, I'll have, stuff to talk about. So that'll be good. And of course, as i'll be taking pictures of my sw stuff over next week, those pics'll get uploaded then shown here. cuz that rocks.

anyway..blog on!

2005-04-03T01:44:00.000-08:00

some strange note from earlier in the week....i got in trouble, more or less, cuz i sort of mentioned to my mom how i felt about school cuz she was pestering me to answer. that being that its a waste and meaningless and such and that i'm not accomplishing anything now. the irony of this, or rather, the fitting proof, ofo this is that all of an hour earlier i'd taken a test that said i was nihlistic, and believe in nothing.

saw sin city last night with a group....large amount of people i don't know, but the movie was good. its an adaptation of a graphic novel, and they really went to some long lengths to try to recreate the look of something done in ink, and as predominantly black and white with some added colour. i was really impressed and so in that regard, it was cinematically very well done.
the dialogue had a really interesting attitude to it to, and some of the lines were just...awesome. plus some of the scenes just.......well, i'll just say that it was a movie i found very easy to get into.
the fact that there was a great deal of partially naked or scantily clad women plays no role in why this movie was awesome, but i will recommend this to any and all. check it out.

after the movie, went to saugus cafe with chris, his sister, and jeremy. good dialogue for a while before i had to get home....and then things went downhill so fast. i was home for just a little while before i started feeling really sick. side effect of this was that i really didn't feel like sleeping. odd restlessness about me....net result was that i went to sleep at 5:30 after it had started getting light out. bad move on my part.
woke up this morning and firstly, the star wars line was out cuz i was sick, ended up having to cancel on the observing at mt wilson as well, since i didn't think i'd fare well up a windy road in the middle of the night where its cold and i was sick. though they might've been canceled on account of cloud cover...don't know yet.

tomorrow though i plan to head down to the line for a bit and start logging hours, so that ought to be fun. bryan's been down there since yesterday and they've now got net up and stuff. i'll have to get lots of hours logged between now and when episode 3 releases. i want to be as close to the front as possible.

i still need a way to develop better.....no make that just develop peopel skills. as at present my skills consist of taking a situation and screwing it up. i mean, i do that well, but ideally i'd like to handle these things better.

2005-04-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

Well, heres the book review mentioned below:

Silent Bob Speaks The collected works of Kevin Smith (325 pages)This book is a collection of things Kevin Smith has written in a great number of places, magazines, online, etc. His writing is just hilarious, and he's got a great sense of humour. More than that, though, some of these really made good points. The part that had most meaning for me, though, was an article called "Defending the Faith," which is about Star Wars fans and what its like now with the prequels. Now what was so impressive about this was that I've had mixed feelings toward the new movies in that they have flaws. However, what Kevin Smith said about this really struck home with me. He presents some angles about it that I'd never really seen before, as well as I think very aptly comparing it to a car crash...you know whats gonna happen in the end....so you just watch things fall apart. I guess one could say that it very well strengthened my OWN faith in the prequels, and for that I thank him. Anyone that has liked ANYTHING he's read should really check this out, its great. PLus its unintentionally funny or ironic or something how much he praises Jennifer Lopez's acting and all when she was cut down to just 10 minutes in the movie.

2005-04-01T19:09:00.000-08:00

alright, late update cuz the last week has been busy

last saturday i drove down to pick up tickets for vulgarthon at jay and silent bob's secret stash in westwood. this is always bad cuz this is just the sort of place im gonna spend lots of money from. i just had to pick them up, but i ended up buying clerks 10th anniversary and silent bob speaks, kevin smith's book which will be discussed more in post two. 60 bucks gone cuz i have no impulse control.
that night, went with bryan down to santa monica for an RotS line thing where they filmed interviews with us, plus i got to meet with some of the other people. i'm thoroughly coninced this will rock. line starts tomorrow!

monday was vulgarthon and was absolutly awesome.
got there and jason mewes and kevin smith were putting wristbands on everyone coming in, so that was a cool start.
first movie up was "Big Helium Dog" which had Kevin in it as a cameo, and...well, this was a weird movie. there was a lot of comic narration in there, so that was interesting, but its like....it looks at the filming of the 'movie' plus the movie itself in some wierd mix. it was really funny, but that was sort of it. as one of the questions in the q & a said "thanks for not having a plot" so that sorta sets up the level of it all. still though, i enjoyed it.
second up was jeff anderson's (randal of clerks) film "now you know". basicly, its about a mix of relationships and comedy....like, comedy going on outside of the romantic stuff....basicly it'd appeal to anyone. it was really good and enjoyable and i'll have to track it out in the future. one of those bittersweet things though, almost. but such is how it goes with me and movies. recommend it to all. between this and the q & a, this has also reaffirmed why jeff anderson just seems so cool. he's really quite a lot like randal.
then they showed a trailer for evening with kevin smith 2, and that rocked. looks like london and...some other country i forgot. but anyway it was hilarious and will definitly be bought asap.
after lunch we watched chasing amy....which was of course nothing new, then it was the Q&A for chasing amy 10th anniversary DVD. i'm still bitter that i didn't get to ask a question cuz things were disorganised and a whole lot of people asked these horrid questions. you know..."how do you feel" over and over again. the whole cast was there though, so that was really awesome. as an interesting side note, last question was a guy proposing to his girlfriend, which was darn gutsy.
then was the full version of jerseygirl at 2 hours 25 minutes. good lord lopez lived wayyyy too long. an extra half hour. though the one thing that was good about this version was the sweeny todd prominance that shows up later makes a whole lot of sense with the early stuff. i think i was the only person in the room that was actually hungry during the parts about meat pies getting made out of murder victims. but oh well.
finally was "Oh what a lovely tea party", a documentary that was about jay and silent bob strike back. left halfway through to get home though as this was somewhere after midnight. we were running...oh....hour and a half behind.

overall comments though, it is just so awesome how many times star wars got referenced during q &a's. pics to come later.

other big thing of the week was laying out the elementary school newspaper that i work with. pushed up to 8 pages this time, i started it late wednesday night and finished up around 5 on thursday. should've happened faster, but its still getting tricky to fit 4 articles on one page in a visually appealing fashion. so much easier to do 2 or 3 per page. important thing though is its done. and since it gets printed at the signal, apparently there are good comments about how well done it is. so go me. (and yes, they know that its not being laid out by elementary school students)

final thing to add in here is that i've now created a little quiz thing for me, located here:
http://lowbacca1977.friendtest.com See how you do! It'll be up prob till next weekend.

2005-03-26T03:28:00.000-08:00

My esssay on the Terri Schiavo situation. All parts are believed to be factually correct, but if you find any mistakes, please let me know

The media of late has taken focus on a case going on in Florida and turned it into a nation-wide issue, or at the very least, given it nationwide attention. The fate of Terri Schiavo, a woman that has been in a persistent vegetative state for the last 15 years, is now being discussed by pundits, news anchors, politicians, and religious/activist groups. There are three main elements to this case that are important to understanding just what the controversy is based on, and these are the medical, ethical, and legal circumstances that surround this case.
First and foremost is the medical situation. There is a large amount of confusion as to just what happened to Terri Schiavo. In 1990, Terri’s heart stopped due to a deficiency of potassium, one of the dangers associated with anorexia. This deprived Terri’s brain of oxygen long enough that her cerebral cortex was severely damaged and scarred, as CT scans of her brain have shown.
Here the different parts of the brain are very important. The cerebral cortex is the part of the brain where all higher thought functions take place. While localized damage to this part of the brain can be survived to some extent by having other portions of the brain take over tasks of the portion that was damaged, Terri has almost two-thirds of her cerebral cortex damaged. This has left her in what is called a persistent vegetative state, explained more thoroughly later on.
There are a few other medical conditions that are similar enough that Terri Schiavo has been compared to, but are inaccurate comparisons. The first is that it has been confused with other types of comas, where people do sometimes awaken after many years. However, the type of coma where this takes place are those that are in reaction to some sort of blunt head trauma. Only a small portion of the brain may actually be damaged, but the brain as a whole shuts down to protect itself. It may take years before the brain becomes conscious again, but there is no, or very little, physical damage. This is much like a computer that has frozen or been turned off, for example. The second type of coma, however, is caused by a massive loss of oxygen to the brain, such as what happened Terri Schiavo. In these cases, recovery is virtually unheard of, and it is assumed to be a permanent condition after 12 months in case of injury, and 3 months if from illness or heart attack. In fact, there is only one case of someone in a persistent vegetative state regaining consciousness.
Minneapolis police officer David Mack was shot twice in 1979 while on duty. He choked on his own vomit, and this caused him to lose oxygen to his brain and enter a persistent vegetative state. Twenty months later, Mack regained consciousness, something that doctors considered virtually impossible. However, the limit of recovery was that he was able to communicate using nods and an alphabet board, eventually dying a little over five years later. No one else has ever had the same condition and recovered.
Another comparison has been drawn between this and a stroke, and again, the areas of the brain affected are very critical. A double brain stem stroke affects the brain stem, which controls basic functions such as breathing. The cerebral cortex, however, is relatively undamaged, meaning that the person is still able to think, but they may be paralyzed. All the damage is physical, while mental capacity is relatively undamaged. A stroke in one portion of the brain itself also will have only limited effects, and the rest of the brain can still in many cases reprogram itself to take in the tasks of the damaged portion of the brain.
To explain further what a persistent vegetative state is, it can be considered as somewhere between a coma and fully brain-dead. With significant damage to the cerebral cortex, the ability to think and be aware of one’s surroundings is essentially destroyed. The most basic parts of the brain stem, however, are undamaged, allowing the person to perform basic functions, such as breathe and keep the heart beating. Because these lower functions are still intact, the person will still have some random behavior, including making sounds, movements, and going through a regular sleep cycle. While some of these actions do give the appearance of awareness, they are essentially just the body responding to random impulses and not any sign of actual awareness.
An additional charge to her medical condition is that this is not the same as, say, taking someone off a respirator, as this is not life support. However, a feeding tube is supporting her life by allowing her to get nutrients just as much as a respirator allows someone to breathe. She is still on a fashion of life support. Without the tube, her body will face starvation and dehydration over a period of a few weeks. Because she is not aware, however, and is not capable of higher level thought, she would not be able to experience any of the suffering or pain that would go along with her body shutting down from a lack of nutrients and water.

The second element is the ethical circumstances, which can be viewed as two separate issues, the first is the ethics of allowing someone to die, and the second is the specific ethical charges relating to the Terri Schiavo case, and more specifically, the allegations that her husband has faced.
In general, there is an ethical question as to how to treat those that are suffering, or being kept alive by artificial means. The practice of euthanasia has been very controversial, especially between factions that feel that people should have a choice on when to die versus those that believe that life is sacred. The practice of taking someone off of more frequent forms of life support, such as respirators, avoids some controversy, as that death takes only a matter of minutes. However, removing a feeding tube does take longer, and since it is not as quick, is viewed as being a much more agonizing death. An alternative to a long death would be some fashion of euthanasia, however to many that are pro-life, this is viewed as an impossible compromise.
The Schiavo case itself is substantially more complicated, as often the entire family can reach a consensus to end life support. However, Terri’s husband Michael Schiavo has been the one fighting to remove her from life support while her parents and siblings, the Schindlers, have been trying to keep the feeding tube in her. Her husband has argued that he is trying to honor what he says are her wishes, and that she would have not wanted to be kept alive via artificial means for this long. Her parents feel that she would want to stay alive.
This main ethical issue here is that ideally both sides are honestly doing what they believe Terri herself would have wanted and not acting out of any selfish measure. On her parents’ part, they may simply be acting protective over their daughter, even at a point where medically there is no hope for her.
Her husband has been the target of much more intense allegations, including that he is trying to have her feeding tube removed entirely for money, namely the million dollar malpractice suit that was won in Terri’s behalf. However, there is one substantial flaw in trying to make that claim against him. In order to preserve Terri’s life, various groups have offered him millions of dollars if he would simply turn over custody of Terri to her parents, walk away from the situation, and allow Teri to live. That he has continued to argue that she should be removed from life support in spite of the offers he has received is a clear indicator that his motivations are not based on money.

The final issue is the legal circumstances surrounding this case. On the most basic level, as her husband, Michael Schiavo has full legal authority to make decisions on her medical care when she is unable to do. Her being in a persistent vegetative state clearly falls under that classification. Had she a living will, which would state what she would want to happen in case she was relying on some fashion of life support to stay alive, that document would instead dictate her care. However, in the absence of that, it is her husband’s decision what happens. Legally, the parents have no say in the matter.
As her parents did file suit in order to keep the feeding tube in her, the case then went to court. A Florida court used testimony of her medical condition, as well as that of several people that discussed what Terri would have wanted to eventually reach the conclusion that the tube would, in fact, be removed. Her parents appealed, and the entire appeals process was eventually exhausted. Every court that has heard the case has agreed with Michael Schiavo’s right to choose to have the feeding tube removed and that that did seem to be in agreement with what Terri would have wanted as well. This led to the tube being removed on March 18th of this year, the 3rd time that this has happened. The two prior times were followed by additional appeals that got the tube reinserted until courts could hear the case.
Despite this procedure having been in accordance with all Florida state laws, Congress attempted to intervene by getting it an additional hearing on a federal level by passing an emergency bill. It is important to remember that this was an action led by Republicans in Congress, the same party that has traditionally argued for states rights, but have now seized the opportunity to try to make federal law and the federal judicial system trump state law. Of course, on the opposing side Democrats, typically supporters of federal law over the rights of individual states, have also been arguing that Florida law should not be challenged by a federal action. In essence both parties have shifted from their traditional viewpoints in a case that, based on its nature, could become intrinsically linked to the debate surrounding abortion.
Irregardless of political motivations, the action by Congress to subpoena Terri Schiavo (a subpoena means that no one is allowed to interfere with her being able to attend a meeting of Congress, and by extent, argue that the tube could not be removed as it would prevent her from attending) and then to pass a bill to have a federal judge examine a case that had already been through dozens of court cases presided over by several judges is a gross invasion by the federal government. The fact of the matter is that the Terri Schiavo case is a family situation that should not have gone further than the state level. If Congress felt that a change of policy was necessary, then they should have worked, at most, on bills that would change federal law as it relates to such cases. However, they chose instead to pass a bill that dealt with a single case, something that is extremely rare. The court system has done the job that it was designed to do, and it is not the place of Congress try to overrule those decisions in one specific case.
It is also outrageous that some have argued that removing her feeding tube is essentially the same as murder. While one could try to simply argue over the ethics, by simple definition this is not. Were some fashion of euthanasia to be used, then it could very well fall under the definition of murder, albeit one that could also be considered a mercy killing or something of a similar nature with a less coldhearted connotation. However, plain and simple, she is not being killed. She is being allowed to die by a natural means, as had it not been for the feeding tube in the first place she would have died 15 years ago shortly after she first entered the persistent vegetative state.

The condition that has befallen Terri Schiavo is no doubt a heart-breaking one, and is something that has been difficult for all those that were close to her to come to terms with. However, based on the medical circumstances, Terri Schiavo is not a 41-year old in a hospice bed in Florida slowly being killed by an equivalent of state-sanctioned murder. That is simply a shell of a person being allowed to die. Terri Schiavo is, instead, a 26-year old that died under tragic situations in 1990 when she lost oxygen to her brain and anything that defined who she was died then.
That the media has turned this into a national spectacle and politicians from both sides of the aisle have used this to push political agendas is disgraceful. Terri Schiavo deserves to have her wishes respected, to the best that can be managed, and court after court have found that to do so, the feeding tube needs to be removed. She also deserves a dignified death, and not one that has an entire nation watching as she slowly wastes away. Perhaps this is even a situation that will one day make a strong case for euthanasia in some cases so that patients of extremely severe conditions do not die slowly over a period of weeks, even if they are not able to be aware of what their body is going through. That politicians have so quickly discarded the basic tenets of their respective parties is especially unnerving, and the strong links that this puts between many Republican Congressmen and the Religious Right is a disconcerting thought, as policy is being driven by a relative minority of the vote, and a relatively extreme group at that. It is also worth noting that the Senate passed the legislation to have a federal judge examine the case unanimously, I believe, showing no opposition from the Democrats in the Senate. Again, that party has failed to be a sufficient voice of opposition.
Congress, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, and President George W. Bush have all far overstepped the limits on their powers, and that Congress feels it has the right to intrude to decide the life of a particular person in a case like this is a very worrisome thought if the situation were ever to be reversed and they were to feel that someone should be removed from life support, even if the person had made statements to the contrary.
The actions some people have taken to preserve what semblance of a life Terri still retains have also been worthy of concern. One man has been arrested for offering to kill both the presiding judge that allowed the feeding tube to be removed and Michael Schiavo. Another person was arrested for being near the hospice where Terri is presently located with a gun and a plan to “rescue” Terri. Perhaps the worst acts are those of the parents that have used their children to further their ideology. Of the now eight people that have been arrested by police for trespassing while trying to take Terri water, three of them have been children. One ten-year-old boy and two girls, thirteen-year-old twins, have been arrested, and that parents would use their children to make a statement is absolutely repulsive.
Terri Schiavo deserved to have been allowed to die without being placed in the national spotlight, and the right to choose to not be kept on life support should be defended. I wouldn’t want to spend 15 years in a hospital bed as a shell of who I once was with no ability to think and no hope of recovery, to then have my death making national headlines as people who had no knowledge of me argued over me to further their own agendas, turning me into a talking point and not a person. Would you?

2005-03-24T02:14:00.000-08:00

end of the work week and i now have a good few days off. and next week is spring break for the high schools, so i only have school next week. so things seem to be progressing ok, i guess.

i hate feeling homesick. it really hurts my brain because the concept that i can feel that sitting around my house boggles the mind.

i really need something to do in general. rather than just feeling lonely. i mean, i'm not supposed to be lonely. i'm supposed to be a pillar of solitude. or something.
and.... i think that my comments don't work.

2005-03-22T23:12:00.000-08:00

sometimes i find myself regretting that i was too selfish in high school to just give in to when i was suicidal. i find myself looking back and realise that....my high school years were horrible, and yet quite possibly, also the high point of my life. no one told me bout that when i signed on to this gig.

at points it just gets so frustrating knowing that i'm my family's greatest failure and disappointment. its just...well i don't see a reason to put up with it. i mean.... i'm well aware that i'm going nowhere with my life right now, but i really don't feel like having my mom yell at me constantly about that. it really just emphasizes the point that just....i don't think i belong here. i always feel out of place. then again, at this point now, i don't think there is anywhere that i actually WOULD belong, so i'm out of luck there. honestly i think i just have a failure to comprehend life. least, i can't remember making a life decision, or really any decision, and feeling like it was the right one and then not had problems of some fashion arise. its just not worth it. i think i need a coma. a state where i can't keep causing problems for myself like i do.
the closest thing i have to an achievement is that i've alienated virtually every person i've ever known. and even that hasn't really been a thorough job done. though it hits closer to the problem.... that i'm cut off from everyone. i really don't have a group that i can hang out with. my doing, but still, fact remains. at least i got work and school stuff so that my spring break won't be a total waste. at least i'll have money. cuz...thats the only thing in my life i can actually obtain and retain. and money doesn't use me....i use it. so thats a good system.

i really need to step up plans to die in a lightsaber explosion. for a brief two seconds before i'm vaporised, i'll actually be cool.

2005-03-21T01:26:00.000-08:00

time to catch up.
friday i decided that i'd planned to head out to see liz and jason and hang out out there. open invite to people....but no one was available to go out there. so, i left later tahn i'd planned cuz i'd woken up late and didn't get out of here till 2. i made a small detour to csun that added about half an hour on, and then got to fight to get out there. of course, the fact that it was raining the whole time really didn't help. so i didn't get out there till somewhere after 6. which was really not at all how things were supposed to go, cuz i was trying to avoid that traffic, cuz the 210 east of pasadena doesn't move at all, and 10 east isn't much better.
anyway, once i was out there, the main stuff, after political/social topics and general life discussion was magic. good lord the cards hated me. jason plays some very aggressive take control decks, so that was tough to match. of course, the first game, he also totally ignored liz because i was playing my slivers deck and so he was probably right in trying to crush me brutally as quickly as he possibly could. i also just had some bad luck picking decks. i mean, i played my land destruction against a deck that used artifacts for mana, and then i played a creature control deck against a deck that had no creatures. i'm still sort of annoyed that jason saw fit to counter my attempt to kill all three of us at once using biorythm though. that would've been so cool, and that game wasn't going well for anyone.

anyway, saturday was a most meaningful day. as the 2nd anniversary of u.s. troops going into iraq, there were a lot of protests planned. one of which was just down at mcbean and valencia. now, i woke up late, which was bad, but i still got some posterboards, wrote up some signs, and took tom and met chris down there to counter this. not to be "anti-peace" protesters, but just people saying that whats happened in iraq is a good thing. because i think it was. we got down there about a quarter to 5 and theres about 7 or 10 other people on our side....maybe 40 or so "anti-war" on the other corner. we were getting plenty of thumbs up and honks and stuff, so that was a good thing. we even went to another street corner for a second outpost. i started off with a sign that said "Iraqi voters and U.S. soldiers - the real freedom fighters" and then also went and got a second sign that said "except for slavery nazism fascism and communism war has never solved anything". now, whats great about this sign is i had it at a corner where people were having to stop for the intersection, and i could watch everyone reading it as their lips would move and stuff. and a lot of people were supportive. one person even rolled her window down and told me she agreed with everything on my sign. i think there were only 3 negative responces. two people ylled out windows, one person flipped us off. as for who people were honking for....i think that was most revealed when the anti-war people left right at 6, and we were still there, and the amount of honking really didn't go down. proud to be an american. Protest Warrior should have video at what happened at counter protests elsewhere in the nation over the next few days, and those always prove enlightening. I mean, some guy had a sign just here that said "give peace a chance again"... one o my very reasons why peace wasn't really working.

Also had my midterm for geography....out of like....101 i think, i got a 98. so i'm glad about that. i'm pretty sure i'll be setting the curve in that class, or nearly doing so. because of that midterm, though, spring break didn't start till like 3:30 in the morning sunday, cuz thats when i finished taking it. gotta love online tests.

today went to bryan's and saw not only the star wars muppets episode, but also clone wars cartoons. pretty good, on the whole. odd seeing that stuff animated, and i think i just saw how it all needed to be mocking various otehr movies, but still good.

so now i've got a week ahead of me with no classes. i'm not quite sure what's gonna happen during all that time. i think i'm gonna waste it...but then again, i'm wasting my time with classes too. i keep looking at what i'm doing now and feeling like i need to do something productive, and all i'm doing is wasting it with college. i guess i'm wierd in that i'm viewing college as wasting my time and not productive, but i don't think that i look at it as an unique achievement. like, i just see it as something its assumed i'll do. whats more, i think the things i really want to make happen aren't acadmic...they are the things taht i want in my life that i can't force to be there. so everything feels useless because i can't do things towards those goals. i know what i want in life....i'm just not allowed to have it.

2005-03-15T02:21:00.000-08:00

it is a day of celebration.
first and formost, my turn signal is working again and once again, it signals my turns by flashing. this is a good thing.

ive finally reached the rank of battleaxe in gunbound, so this is an achievement. go me. no one cares, but i'm still proud.

thanks to the medication of my dad's recommendation, my cold has been beaten back, and with good timing. my physics test today actually went pretty good. though theres nothing cooler than standing around on campus debating frames of reference and relativistic motion to feel enlightened. i think this has been the branch of physics thats interested me most thusfar. i also think the test actually went alright, so thats good too.

anyone that wants to go on a field trip to colton friday, let me know for info on when it'll be.

also, there will be a protest at the corner of valencia and mcbean saturday about iraq. i intend to counter this as i think removing saddam was a pretty good thing to do. anyone else wants info or to discuss, let me know on this as well.

finally tuesday is international eat an animal for PETA day, to make note of the tactics PETA uses in trying to convince people of their message.

2005-03-14T02:48:00.000-08:00

i face a dilemma. its nearly 3 in the morning, i'm sick, and i have a physics test in the morning. however, lying in bed and feeling sick does not appeal to me either, as i'm not tired, really. just sick. so here i am at this time of the morning reading through bash. because i have nothing else to do. i really should have done work today, but all i did was sit at the computer and either be on aim or play gunbound. which is great in some sense, but still.

see, this is why being sick isn't cool. as though under proper circumstances it would be. the next week is gonna be oh so fun as i try to go through it with a cold. school won't be so bad, i don't think....but work'll take a lot out of me. esp since i predict it to be a busy one. cuz i'm ALWAYS in demand. in some ways at least. or such is what i tell myself. man i'm such a liar.

2005-03-13T02:03:00.000-08:00

Today started off bad. First and foremost, I woke up on the verge of being sick. Sore throat and stuff. So now I must do battle with the dreaded cold.

I got my replacement coke glasses today. Of course, irony being what it is, one of them was broken. So i'm not terribly thrilled about that, but i still got 7 glasses for like 18 bucks. good deal, i say. i figure i'll inform the seller but i'm not going to make a big deal out of it.

Went to chris's tonight to watch love hina with him jason and jeremy. love hina rules, and i definitly need it on dvd. the time will come for that. oh yes, the time will come. such a cool anime.

and now, for no reason, heres a post i made for my geography class in regards to institutionalised rasism.

First of all, many Irish came as indentured servants...and part of that situation meant that they were not allowed to have families until after their service was over. However, masters could add time for any possible infraction. Many died without any family after many years more service than had ever been intended. Not to mention that race is a very subjective thing. The current American standard groups anyone European as white, and anyone African as black and simply uses those labels, but those are subjective both of time and of location. The British especially looked at the Irish as not really being white and of generally being a lesser race. This led to the conflict of Irish independence. My professor for poli sci a year ago had a friend that had moved from brazil to the U.S. In Brazil she was light-skinned enough to be considered 'white', but here she was surpised to find that she wasn't considered white anymore.
If the reason there is an institutionalised racism is caused by slavery, then why isn't the same issue seen everywhere else where slavery has taken place? Its not a purely American device, and many cultures have had something similar. Further, what about the part of the "roots" of the US that is the civil war, where people fought and died, in part, TO end slavery? Thats just as much a part of American history as slavery is, so why doesn't that shape how things are currently structured?
As for an actual existance of an "instatutional racism", I would be very interested to see an arguement for how that actually exists. From what I have seen statistically, racial classification doesn't play nearly as significant a role as economic class does. Why would it matter what race you are if you come from a poor family? Thats disadvantage enough, and I find it very hard to believe that coming from a poor area where there is crime is a situation that only some races can escape. A system that was created to target a specific race wouldn't accomplish anything. I've even read about some studies that I'd have to dig up that have shown that people whose families have immigrated to the U.S. recently from Africa do better than those whose families have been here going back to the time of
slavery. These are people that are the same race, effectivly, as they are all African-American, but my theory on that would be that those coming here more recently have to be able to afford it, and that can be an economic advantage. In other words, the challenges faced are by the poor, not by just a specific targeted race.
I'll make it clear that I'm not saying there's no such thing as racism. That would be something that is a blatant disregard of reality, not simply a question over how to interpret statistics and viewpoints with the question of if there is institutional racism in America. There are people of every race that have racist beliefs, and no group is immune to that. Also, in America's past, it was really only racists that were white that had the ability to affect any change, but that is, still, the past. We are, however, at a point where politics isn't dominated by just one race because of how the public feel. The party structures, on both sides, may still need to adjust, but a 1997 Gallup poll found that 93% of whites would vote for a black president. In 1958, only 35% said they would. To me, thats a rather significant change, and is an indicator of a system that isn't trying to maintain the supremacy of any particular ethnic or racial group.
I think the best statement about how a instatutionalised racism would not function was written by Booker T. Washington in 1901:
"When a Negro girl learns to cook, to wash dishes, to sew, to write a book, or a Negro boy learns to groom horses, or to grow sweet potatoes, or to produce butter, or to be able to practise medicine, as well or better than someone else, they will be rewarded regardless of race or colour. In the long run, the world is going to have the best, and any difference in race, religion, or previous history will not long keep the world from what it wants."

2005-03-12T02:07:00.000-08:00

Ah, now this truely has been a day to be. Bryan and I went and saw the Star Wars trailer on the big screen. Of course, this was not easily done. We bought tickets to Robots on the Imax, went in, and there was no trailer. So right as it was going to start, we went back out, and asked if we could get the tickets changed to a showing that WOULD have the trailer. So we got new tickets for a showing 45 minutes later, went and had fries and chocolate cokes at johnny rocket's with the refund to go from imax to regular screen, then went and saw it. Trailer was totally awesome, and it does inspire hope in me for Ep. 3 when it comes out. Bryan and I left right after the trailer, as we had places to go. I have also decided, I think, that I want to see another movie called like....Madagascar or something....when it comes out. entirely because in the trailer for the movie, it features what i believe are fairy penguins as side characters. and they just rule.

So I had my physics lab today. Which isn't new as i tend to have that every week. What was cool, though, was that the lab involved dry ice. So afterwards, we put a bit of dry ice in my water bottle, tightened it up, and hoped it would explode. It distorted the plastic, but didn't blow. Mainly as it ran out of dry ice. So someone picked it up and tossed it, and as soon as it hit the ground the bottom cracked significantly. A noble end.

Tonight, as there was some midnight thing that would cost money and therefore didn't win points with chris, he came over for a fair number of hours. A quick bit of going through Jackie Kashian's comedy since i got her cd in the mail today, then Red vs Blue season 2 (chris's), which I've seen far more than I realised....then two episodes of Black Books. Chris has agreed that the show is absolutely awesome, so I think we'll end up watching the rest of it at some point. British comedy....such an artform. Honestly, they really should just air it here. That would rule.

2005-03-11T01:26:00.000-08:00

ok, so i got home yesterday just before the mail was delivered and i had to sign for something. turned out to be "Black Books" which is a british show i ordered from Australia. I was surprised that it had beaten "Voices of Iraq" coming here from Texas and came back in to open it when I heard a knock at the door. It was the UPS guy with "Voices of Iraq". The poor thing lost by less than 5 minutes. Such is the fun taht exists within postal racing. Buy two things from different places at same time, see what gets tehre first.
And now, since i've tortured so many people with this already, I present waht was written on the inside of the cover of black books:

This complete box set gathers all nine hundred and fourteen episodes of the acclaimed documentary 'Black Books'. From the moment Ishmael finds the magic fleece in the golden ring we know we are in for a rollercoaster ride of hellz-a-poppin fun. And hey - whats a little breakfast nudity between such spirited protagonists as Dex, Taffy, and Munkle, their trusty chimney sweep / computer genius / psychic.
Throughout their adventures in the parallel universe known as FlinpF-g, we laugh along as their small intestines shrink in the forbidding nitrous atmosphere. Not until King Pizzle unmasks the dread Triton of Ultragong will order be restored to the peaceful peoples of Wilberbilberwer. It's up to Dex, Taffy, Munkle, and YOU... Vote know for your favourite thing and you too, could win a thing.

Its been one of those busy work weeks, but really, so are all my weeks. At least it makes for some good money.

Its looking like tomorrow Bryan and I are gonna go see the Star Wars trailer in the morning, so this ought to be good. I saw the teaser thing on tv tonight and it looks rather promising, so now just to see the trailer on the IMAX. Then leave, as we both have places to go. Sort of a bummer as Robots seems interesting.... but if it gets seen as a group thing, I figure I'll see it. Just priority is seeign the trailer.

I'm also figuring that I need a hobby or something, as social networks have died and been buried at this point and I need to do something other than sitting at a computer late at night compulsivly playing minesweeper. I mean, I'm getting better and better at it...but thats not normal behaviour.
When I think about it....the last social thing I did do, I think, was going out to see liz like two weeks ago. Aren't I the happening person.

2005-03-09T01:51:00.000-08:00

i really don't understand how i work nearly as well as i'd like to. i think, though, that i'm getting better at specifying the problems that i deal with and why i'm down as much as i am. first of all, it does help when i'm busy with work...so thats a good thing to keep up with and stay distracted by. more with the actual problem itself though....i think its not that i'm lonely, at least, not in the sense that is traditionally meant by it.
if anything its more of an isolation feeling, this also taking priority over me just being frustrated with being discarded, ignored, or patronised. not that i am in need of people in that sense, just that i don't have anywhere to really turn if i needed to. i mean, starting off with that there are very few that i'd really trust anyway, but its that i'm more or less cut off from the sort of communication that i need. but, thats just me being selfish to expect people to make themselves open to communication and stuff like that. they've got not only their own lives, but their own priorities...even were people readily available my issues aren't stuff that i should be bothering other people with. but then, its not getting to bother people like that that distresses me...its just knowing that I really couldn't do that even if i wanted or needed to. i'm just sort of...cut off from everyone. the last few months its probably been even moreso than its been in the past. sorta like someone hanging by a bunch of ropes and one by one the ropes are cut till there are none left, and you're just left to fall on your own. something like that, anyway.

i've determined that a movement needs to be started on the inherent sexism in CSUN not accepting more men as this is blatant discrimination of a minority. Something like 60% of the incoming students at CSUN are female while only 51% of the population is so this is obviously not representative and therefore horrendusly unjust.

I also think that I need to do some heavy econ reading before next tuesday. I've been studying carefully and the LaRoucheians are out there every tuesday, and their main arguments are ones on economic theory, which I'm not very familiar with, the nazism thing that i need to research, and soem george schultz guy that ties it all togetehr and i've never heard of. so i have to get some researching done soon and then defeat them.

I've also come to the conclusion that Fat Albert needs to be re-aired. Not only just because the show ruled, but because it would help so much to have a cartoon like that doing things like saying the cops aren't out to get black kids, or that race shouldn't be an issue (for black or white), and things like that. Man Cosby was great with slipping that stuff into his shows. I've watched 3 of 4 disks now and its great.

2005-03-07T22:45:00.000-08:00

i have a thing to do!
i finally decided to just go for it and have bought tickets to vulgarthon 2005 for March 28th. Its a monday. For those that aren't aware, it'll be a cool Kevin Smith thing that you can read more about the ViewAskew website. If anyone else DOES decide to go, let me know. There's film screenings and Q&A's and all sorts of stuff.

I think I'm Japanese at heart. Apparently, they really don't sleep much. article here. Funny part is that apparently aussies sleep the most. Id believe it.

And now a game time....whats wrong with this statement? Bryan's got it up to 5 errors...but post em in the comments.
"No, I don't think that the Isralis were justified to use military force to annex new land for themselves because Jeruselem is not only a place of importance for their religion, it is a place of importance for the Jewish and Palestinian relgions as well."

2005-03-06T01:20:00.000-08:00

I think tis been a week since I updated....but I only ever really do school and work so its not like anything much has been missed. Or well, last night I did prove how cool I am by helping sita out by picking her and her sister up at the bus stop, driving them somewhere to get flowers, then dropping them off at their house to do something for their mom. On the other side of things, today one of our cool coca-cola glasses was broken...so being the generous person i am, i bought replacements on ebay. i love ebay.

On the mindset level...the more I think about it, the more I realise that who I am isn't based on anything specific, when one thinks about either events or tangable items. I'm not of the physical world, raelly. Not at my core. If anything, I'm one of the realm of ideas and the like. Now, not the sort of crazy artist junk where you're trying to express an emotion as painting or junk like that. I mean more beliefs, and concepts, and such. I'm alive when I'm debating and arguing and trying to convince others, or hear alternative viewpoints, or discussing the pros and cons of an ideology. Its why, for example, I continue to get into debates with the LaRouche people at CSUN even though they're nuts. Its also why I'm really enjoying my geography class where I'm commenting on other people's ideas to a prolific extent. The concepts of discussion and arguementation just connect with me, the same way that listening and playing music does for the musical type of person.

I think its also why I get so frustrated now with things. Its one thing to have someone disagree with you and say "well, you're wrong, and here's why" and stuff like that. I may stick with my opinion still, but theres that dialogue that just, makes things have meaning to me. I just can't stand it now where theres a level of "oh, just ignore what Mike says". There's no discussion or anything, just ignoring. What I say doesn't count because "oh its mike, that doesn't matter". Its not just that its something about me that is why it bugs me, its more because it destroys and eats away at who i am. I AM that dialogue. It almost feels like who I am is being targetted and destroyed with that mindset and that is really disheartening.
Its just one more nail in the coffin for the arguement that I just....shouldn't interact with people on a social level, because that seems to be where it leads....to just discarding me or what I say. Debunk if you want, but don't discard. Social contact is just not something I'm cut out for though, I suppose. It too often seems to put me into this catagory of "well, we may as well just ignore what he says", which you don't get into in other situations where you go in expecting things to be settled via discussion. Maybe that cuts more to my problem...I want to be able to thoroughly discuss things like that, and thats not something that most people want to do, from my experience. Its just not the workings of others. Its like i'm the only one looking this way....everyone else is facing some other goal that I can't see, let alone strive for.
It makes me wonder why I even bother trying to be social in the first place. I try to act like the inevitibility of what'll happen isn't there. Like maybe there will be some nice social setting or environment where I'll just fit in and things'll work and I'll be happy. I mean, I know thats not actually reality, but I let myself forget taht from time to time and I shouldn't. Some people would say thats being depressing or something like that, but its just reality, at the least, reality as it applies to me. And it doesn't bug me. I'm not, in my essence, meant to be around people. I'm an arguementative, selfish, arrogant jerk. I know it. I accept it. So I know my place in things. The only part that is hard is all the repeated drops every time I let my expectations rise above what reality can really hold out for me. Its basicly lying to myself...and even though I know the cost attached, I still do that to myself. I don't know why, but I still do. Some irony, perhaps, that for being someone that values not discarding views offhand, i continue to do just that with my view of reality. I favor instead some idea that things'll work out when everything around me is a clear indicator that that will never happen. But I discard it... I guess I jsut need to realise in my core that if i can't debunk that reality, then I just need to accept it.

2005-03-06T00:53:00.000-08:00

Its book time!
This will be covering what I've read recreationally since February, where my pace has been drasticly slowed down, what with school and all.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out best works of Richard Feynman (257 pages) Feynman is, as i figure no one reading this has heard his name before, a Nobel prize-winning physist. I'd really only heard his name prior in the context of physics texts as apparently his stuff is supposed to be really good for helping one understand physics. When I started in on this, I wasn't really sure what to expect though. The book is a series of lectures and interviews by Feynmen, and they were an awesome read. He has a lot of character, for one thing, and also a very interesting attitude when it comes to science. Plus, he had a great habit of not considering who he was talking to when criticising ideas, even getting in the face of Neils Bohr. Now that is just awesome. I do grant that it can be a tough read for some since you really have to understand physics and such to understand some sections, but since all the pieces really are stand-alone, you can always just skip over the parts where the science is too intense. For my fellow nerds, check this out.
Sahara by Clive Cussler (541 pages) Those of you that have paid attention to my past entries on books have no doubt noticed that I worship the pages this man writes on. Sahara is, without a doubt, no exception. Also, of all the ones I've read, I think this one has tied together the most random strings into one storyline. Some of the elements in this are a Confederate ironclad taht disappeared at the end of the civil war, an australian pilot that disappeared over Africa in the 1930's, nuclear waste, and algae. Yeah, thats scattered. Dirk, as always, rules throughout the story, and the setting for nearly all of this is in Africa, mainly the Niger River. Bit of Nile. Some of the pseudohistory it delves into is absolutly jaw dropping too. I don't think I'd call it his best, per se, but its a read that definitly doesn't leave you disappointed.
Star Wars: Survivor's Quest by Timothy Zahn (460 pages) Zahn is another one of those literary gods to me, especially as this is the man who wrote the first really high quality star wars expanded universe novels of which i've grown so fond. This one especially got to me because it focused on Outbound Flight, a mission launched at the end of the Old Republic to go to a new galaxy, with several prominant Jedi Masters on board, including Jorus C'Boath, a clone of whose played a big role in Zahn's first books. The flight was ambushed by Grand Admiral Thrawn under orders of Palpatine. The book itself is set during the New Republic when the Flight is found again. With representatives of the Empire, Luke and Mara of the Jedi, a phony from the New Republic, the Chiss, and some strange mystery species, theres so many factions going in that the chaos that erupts seems inevitible. Nevertheless, it still ruled so very much. It was worth staying up till 6 or so to read when I read it.
Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich (257 pages) This has given me ideas on what to do for a summer job. Basicly, the book is about a group of MIT students that had refinded the technique of card counting in blackjack to a science, and subtle communication to an art. They made millions in casinos throughout the U.S. with the techniques they developed, and it was all legal because counting cards, while frowned upon by the casinos, is still technically not cheating. The amount of math and planning involved in this is absolutly mind-boggling. And whats most amazing is its a true account. These guys rocked. Definitly worth reading.

2005-02-26T00:37:00.000-08:00

Well, this has just been one of those weeks. The weather has yet to really help matters, either. I think we might now be up to the second wettest season ever...if not, we're darn close to getting there. That we've eben having not only flood warnings and houses falling off hills and stuff but have also had tornado warnings on more tahn one day is, without a doubt, a sign of the apocolypse. Not to mention the wierdness of a tiger roaming socal that was cornered and shot. It spices things up.

Today has been a big day in spending money...mainly in that I had to replace my tires. You see, wednesday i looked at one of my tires and it was low on air...severely....so i drove home, called my dad, and was able to work out a way to get new tires for today through a neighbor of his, workwise. Rather than the estimates I got that were 370 and up, i was able to get tires replaced for $288. Still a lot, but more affordable.
I've also gotten around to the purchases of a few things I'd been meaning to get...Black Books (tv series from England, coming by way of Australia), Voices of Iraq (video cameras were given to hundreds of iraqis), and Michael Moore Hates America (this just rules). So i'll be getting stuff over the next week or two. Fun to that.

I keep feeling guilty now for eating too much...estimating i'm round about at 2 meals a day now.....and it just feels like too much. and unfortunitly, all too often i've got nothing to "do", either in terms of going somewhere, or doing stuff on the computer, so i do make sandwhiches and stuff. The comp stuff is getting frustrating.... I'm used to ebing fairly social on the net, but tahts continually drying up because people just....aren't on, or don't feel like talking to me, or are on but busy. So that doesn't work terribly well. In theory I could get into another game, but I just don't have the energy to do so....prob mostly because it takes such a chunk of time cuz if its something that is beatable, i play till its beaten.
I also could get back to doing webpage work, but I don't know where I want to go with that, and I'm just sort of apathetic...closest I may do is get around to writing some essays for the site....but taht needs the right mood.

I'd go out....but with this rain, I really don't like doing so, for one thing. Also theres just not much to do/go....as in theres nothing to have happen eventwise. Am glad to at least have gotten the Magic going again, to an extent....i've missed that. its like an insane chess game where you pick your own pieces. and good ol' strategy. Certainly better than strat option number 2, which is just playing minesweeper. and thats getting rustrating because i can't beat my times much anymore.

I think I just need something to focus on that I have the ability to care about and not just give up on so quickly....or a lock on the fridge to push out the extra meals.

As a side note i add here rather than scroll back up and integrate it into this, for some reason yesterday two people in seperate incidents hit the gas as i was crossing the street in front of them. I keep thinking that one of these days i'm just gonna get plowed into by a car....and its definitly moving that way. bring it on.

2005-02-21T02:17:00.000-08:00

Well, I decided to do a post more self-indulgant than my already self indulgent posts and go through the coolness of some places that people have gottne to either my blog or website from.
First, the blog has been visited by the following countries in last 100 hits:
42 United States; 23 Australia; 17 - - ; 4 Canada; 3 Germany; 1 Philippines; 1 Singapore; 1 Mexico
Now, my website:
54 United States; 6 Sweden; 6 Canada; 3 New Zealand; 3 United Kingdom; 3 Kyrgyzstan; 2 - - ; 2 Belgium; 2 Malaysia; 2 Ireland; 2 Australia; 1 South Africa
I think the two coolest are Ireland and Kyrgyzstan.

Also, on the 10th, my website had a very strange peak of 63 unique visitors...this up from like, an average of 10 or 20. I have no idea where they came from, or where they went. I'm very, very, very confused.

2005-02-21T01:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm going to gloss over the last week as there's not been too much of note for much of it. That I still remember anyway.
Pretty much just the school/work routine till Friday. Friday evening I went to Chris' and there was much Magic, which I've missed....then Jeremy showed up, there was an episode of Love Hina, then I came home.

Saturday went down to visit Sita. The rain didn't make it all that fun though, and i had a couple minor bits of losing control of the jeep but nothing serious. Just a reminder that I need to get new tires on it soon. Overall though was fun, esp with lunch at subway and dinner at an italian place, followed up by a pretty good concert thing. And its always interesting to talk politics for me...and it was a situation where I had to be able to defend my viewpoints. Also good to get caught up with Sita.

Today I've done virtually nothing...and definitly nothing that I should've been doing. I am, however, still convinced that this house is haunted. As of a few minutes ago, our door to the garage, which had been shut, opened then closed twice. Heavy door too. Soo....thats not the most reassuring of things. I really need to put together the part of my website for this stuff. Either way, its creepy.

In the general realm of things...I'm about to put more flyers out for tutoring as i'm trying to boost those revenues up because, well, I need more money. Not the least of which being for the new and afforementioned tires.

I still wish I could control what I think about and all...just as my thoughts seem to be so contradictory to my wellbeing of late. Dreaming has become especially risky and I'm trying to avoid that one at all costs, which is part of the reason why I hate sleeping so much. I dont like not being able to control things, but it seems I can't control things not only in my dreams but in real life as well. Or well, I can't control things to get what I want out of them. Its frustrating to be in that position, but there's not much I can do I suppose. I'm really too stuborn for my own good.

Other things that aren't for my own good, i've decided that I will try to do the Hollywood lineup for Star Wars because, well, its the only chance i'll get and i'll never live it down from Bryan if i DON'T. so there's my exciting plan for the future. Whats it say about me when the only thing in my life i've got a plan for is seeing star wars? i guess thats just classic me.

2005-02-14T01:49:00.000-08:00

I am, wihtout a doubt, my own worst enemy.

So, last sunday I bought Survior's Quest, a star wars book to be reviewed in my next entry that I'd been waiting to get in paperback for probably just under a year.

Last night, around 2 or so, I go to bed and decide "I know, I'll read for a little bit" and that proved to be a bad idea. you see, with me, when I start reading, I don't stop till I'm done usually unless something forces me to stop. So, I finally realise I have to stop reading and go to bed somewhere around 6:30 this morning. It took me half an hour to get to sleep as the very sun was rising. Never again.
Of course, I also managed to get to get up at 11:30 so that I didn't throw my sleep cycle out of wack by sleeping till like 3 or 4.

I've caught up with all my classes and now I just need to be ready for the fun task of seeing if i can add a statistics class. following that, I'll have an actual and official schedule up here. This'll mean two weeks to make up if I do get in....and put me up to 18 units. I'm insane.

I continue to live in this strange little world in which I can see where I want things to go in all elements of my life, yet find myself fully unable to make that happen. its like being on a ride or something i suppose. or in the backseat of a car. i've got no control.

2005-02-12T23:27:00.000-08:00

Well, lets fast forward through a week...
most of this week has been just school and work in that little routine, but I've been scrambling because I couldn't get into the journalism class I was trying for. So, to get in something, I added a World Geography class Thursday, and got the book Friday. Friday also was about an hour and a half drive to get home. That was fun too.

So, Between yesterday and today I've done all the work for the geography class for the first two weeks, all the reading for my Greek & Roman mythology class for the first two weeks plus next week, and and did all the coding for my C++ class for the upcoming week.

This was all done with the time I had from also having been up till 5 in the morning running scans on my most troublesome computers and doing the reading, then waking up at 2 with a bunch more that had to get done today, mainly the geography stuff that was due today. Which is why getting plan ideas at 2 really wasn't terribly feasible.

And the most fun thing was having to move a filing cabinet full of junk, and do some work on the electrical wiring to get some outlets working. Which they now are. Woot to that.

In other news, well, I'm going more and more psychotic. So hurrah.

2005-02-06T01:23:00.000-08:00

Two days to cover. Double the excitement. I had to drive yesterday to CSUN for a 20 minute long class session. That SO wasn't worth it. Also, the chupathingie has been serviced and is still in good shape. go it.

For those that haven't done so yet and live in california...next friday is the deadline for petitions to prevent illegals from getting driver's licenses in california. If you haven't signed this already, get it at www.saveourlicense.com Go forth people!

Last night went to Chris' for what I was led to beleive would be a gathering of some sort. I was told people were going to be there and all sorts of stuff. I, however, get there right as battlestar gallactica (which'd otherwise really not be something i'd ever watch) is comign on and there is effectivly no one else there. so just watched that with chris, then some halo with him and then his brother....limitations comign from a lack of controllers. I blame the French.

Last night/this morning was really bad in its own right. I got home to find the computers had been shut down on me, even though I'd been signed on to one...and I don't likethat chance someone could've IM'ed me something i might have needed to know about. So instead I read. I lost track of time and actually read till 4:30 when I finished the book, which will be discussed tomorrow. Then it still took me somewhere over an hour to get to sleep...so I was up till somewher after 5:30 in the morning. See, this is why I don't like to read at night. I need something to get me to stop, otherwise I just get lost in reading.

Today the only real thing of note was that, since Andrew and Karl would be around, I figured it'd make for a good time to watch Fahrenhype 9/11. Had Kristal, Jennie, and Bryan come over too for it. Would've liked things to stay more on the "watching" class of things, but that'd be wishing for the impossible. Karl did a very good job of being late though....so instead of starting at 8, things didn't get going till after 8:30. Finally kicked em out round 11.

As an aside, rumors are very strange things. For example, there is this rumor circulating about me: "rumor has it youve lost a ton of weight and look amazing".
Ah, the trickery of rumors.

And now, for some important random comments.

The computer I am presently on does not have notepad.
I have decided that, in responce to people saying that illegal immigrants should be called "undocumented immigrants", i would like to also move that "rape", from now on, be called "sex with misunderstandings" or, in casual settings, "stealing home"
While such an issue seems to be made over breast cancer, it is in fact the third ranking cancer in terms of deaths, behind lung and colon cancer
25% of domestic abuse victims are men, a percentage rarely discussed
While 6 million Jews were killed in the holocaust, estimates say that between 5-8 million non-Jews were also killed, and the first people to end up in concentration camps were Christian Poles. Of course, this in no way means that the genocide agaisnt the Jewish population of Europe wasn't an atrocity
The great wall of China CAN NOT be seen from space
My best minesweeper time in beginner mode is 3 seconds

2005-02-04T01:22:00.000-08:00

Here's where I'd update if I had much of anything interesting to say....but I really don't. Its been a quiet day, really. School was uneventful, though parking is mocking me still. I have yet to park in the parking lot itself. Oh, I did see, though, a motorised wheelchair crossing nordhoff in one of the lanes and going down the street in the second lane. that was odd.

Well, the girl I was tutoring that was accused of cheating has now had the teacher admit that she's got no reason to say she cheated, but I found it funny nonetheless. Nothing like showing up the teachers with my superior skillz.

Went to the bank tonight and oh am I in the money. Well, to be more precise, a bunch of it was christmas money, and money thats come back from CSUN. For some reason, CSUN sent me a check for the parking after I paid for the parking. Now, I'm not complaining, I'm just confused on that one. Anyway, got a little over $600 into the bank tonight, so that'll cover my current Visa bill, and I think replenish the savings account so next week will start going back into checking.

Was also suppsoed to stop by Chris' tonight, but between work and dinner things got late...now I just get to look forward to comign home tomorrow at like 5. Joy.

In other stuff...I've got a facebook account...which is a site that is for people at selected colleges. Check mine out here and add me as a friend if you want.

2005-02-03T01:40:00.000-08:00

people are not online enough, i say this to you all, for i speak the truth.

to cover the day...parking is still horrible at csun. anyone that knows how to get parking at 10 there, let me know.
i finally got journalism officially added as a minor today, and i'm trying to add a visual communication class. it seems really interesting, and hopfully i can get in some how. also, i think i'm gonna have to add one or two online classes to take care of upper division ge's and get my unit count up. either something in geography or philosophy, i think.

big dvd harvest today....got bill and ted's excellent adventure and bogus journey as a late christmas present, and used gift cards to get fawlty towers and fahrenhype 9/11, which i've already watched.
Fahrenhype 9/11 is basically a rebuttal of sorts to Fahrenheit 9/11. The thing that I found interesting about it, though, is that a number of people in it discussed that they'd either voted for clinton or, in some cases, even for gore, so these were not entirly republicans. It was, I would say, a good account of countering some of Fahrenheit's claims, plus it had really powerful comments from one soldier who lost his arms in Iraq and was shown in Fahrenheit 9/11, and also the aunt of a soldier who's funeral was in Fahrenheit 9/11. Both done without permission in Fahrenheit. The other powerful part was the images of soldiers with the Iraqi people....it really gets those patriotic feelings stirring.
On that note, coming up shortly, I'm going to try to go through and quote as many Iraqi blogs as I can find that have comments regarding the elections soon...so that will be interesting to see how they all read....basicly I want to look at them all together, to see a general idea of how the Iraqis feel.

As a more humorous note, I started tutoring yesterday the sister of someone I started tutoring last semister (who got 90% on the final and went from a F to a C) and she had a test today. I found out when I was there tonight that she got 100% on a test today in class and the teacher has actually accused her of cheating on it because of the big jump in score. Apparently she told her teacher that she understands it now because she has a tutor that can explain it so she can get it. I think that bruised some pride on the part of the teacher. heh.
On the note of work, I've actually jumped up to quite the good start for a semister, with about 8 hours this week already, and more next week. If i can get some more clients soon, I cuold be in the $300 a week or more range soon, which'll be really nice since usually I don't get to taht point till the last month.

Coming later...my review of the state of the union address and perhaps more in depth comments on Fahrenhype 9/11.

2005-02-02T01:52:00.000-08:00

well, i figured I may as well talk about my classes

my physics class this semister is very odd....mainly in that we've gone from having a nice 5 or 6 people to about 20 or 25. its very disorienting. i want things the way there were. they were better then. at least the same core group is still in it.
i'm really angry with the lab for it though, because its 2 to 5 on fridays...and the only thing i even have on fridays.

i'm taking a greek and roman classics course.... CLAS 315, i think. Oddly, the room number is also 315. Anyways, taking it since I need some upper division GEs....the cool thing about this is that theres no essays or homework or anything. Just a midterm for 40% and a final for 60%. And greek mythology rules and i figure I already know more than average, so its an interesting topic. Hopfully it'll go well.

i have to take a computer class for my major....of course, its C++ which I did at saugus. so hopfully this'll be a nice walk through sort of class that won't eat up too much of my time and i'll get a solid A out of. Theres also all of like....10 people in there, half of whom are physics majors. its kinda eerie cuz of that.

anyway, tomorrow i've got to try to get into a journalism class....so heres hoping that works.

the cool thing about my schedule is that i have no gaps over like 10 minutes in my schedule and the earliest i start is 10. of course, parking is horrible.....i was 20 minutes away today when i parked...down nordoff a block or so...stupid filled parking lots.

i still am frustrated with firstly, insomnia thats getting to me more now that i've been getting kicked off the comp a couple nights and i spend hours not falling asleep in bed, and secondly from this feeling of being stuck. it really feels like all the things i want to have a say in are either things that i can't change, or am having my decisions made for me. parents are frustrating.
i also am doing my normal psychobounce thing where i go between extremely depressed and the desire to do something social but lacking the initiative. i don't know what that means....but maybe its a sign or something.

and in other news, this is awesome: http://www.rockpapersaddam.com/index.html

2005-02-01T01:52:00.000-08:00

Its always important to remember what parents are for...to remind you that no matter what you might sometimes think, you are a failure at even the most simple concepts in life. There's something very frustrating in that my parents feel that all my internet use has to be supervised while I am 19. I don't know what logic it is to say that they can't go to sleep unless I've gone to sleep. There's no degree of freedom there. and when they say there is, its not actually freedom, its that i have the freedom to decide voluntarily to go to bed early rather than wait to be told.
Sure this is a computer in a main part of the house, but when I brought up my having a computer in my room with the net so that I wouldn't disturb anyone, as me staying up till after 4 reading isn't a problem because I'm in my room the arguement was they can't supervise me on the net. I see no reason why they need to, or more importantly, feel they've any reason to. And to bring up that my brother does stuff he shouldn't is also unfair considering he is, at least, still a minor.
Its just always cheery to know your parents think you fail at the ability to live your life. Honestly...the idea of just, giving up on college so I don't have to put up with being in trouble for not waking up earlier than I have to because my mom doesn't know when my classes are, or getting yelled at for not doing homework that I don't need to do is very tempting. I really don't care about the whole "future" junk sometims if it means constantly being demeaned and criticised by my mom especially for everything I've ever done. That everything I've ever done is, one way or another a failure or shortcoming to her is not terribly uplifting.
Nothing is more fun than being an insomniac who not only often can't sleep, but has actually been consistantly YELLED at for it. I used to stay up and read, sometimes till 4 or 5 in the morning..and get in trouble. But as soon as I do that on the computer, its because people online aren't letting me go to sleep and I have to listen to them or something like that. I think I've a better explanation...I'm bad at sleep, I don't like it, and its often hard to get to. I'd much rather relax on the computer and not focus on anything much as I do now than lie in bed staring at the ceiling and not being able to sleep and just thinking about what'll happen when I die like I used to do when I was 7, or thereabouts.

2005-01-31T23:31:00.000-08:00

always interesting to see where these entries go. the last one, for example, is conclusive proof that i'm psychotic to some extent. Its my first day of school and already I don't feel like going back. Now, to clarify...this isn't "i wanna relax, so i don't want to go to class" or anything like that. I mean that I already feel like I've been at school enough to just be through with it.
Much as I like the whole "education" thing...i really lack the motivation at points to care about it. I think it all stems from that I can't imagine having an actual job or anything like that that falls under doing something with one's life, even if it is just working. I think I'm so used to getting into ruts where I don't do much that to do something productive seems foreign beyind the realm of possibility.
I figure there's also something wrong in that I always feel like I've already wasted both the best years of my life and any potential I may have once had to, well, do stuff, but such is life.

On an uplifting type note, the Iraqi elections happened, and thats big. To me, so long as the U.S. is supportive of whoever was elected, this is a justification for removing Saddam and is a marked improvement for the Iraqis. Its just, the sort of stuf you can't just attack and say doesn't mean something. That a country can now vote, and so many were so dedicated to voting, that speaks far louder than anything else the administration or the media or the Bush critics could say on the subject.

2005-01-30T01:10:00.000-08:00

today has proven to be such a perfect example of my failings at life. so much i had meant to do, and nothing got done. i need money in my bank account, so i've some checks and stuff to deposit, and some tutoring calls to make. none of which happened. also need to take the chupathingie in to jiffylube soon and i didn't do that, either. heck, i didn't even get around to going to best buy to use the gift cards i got.

i do, of course blame this all on the fact that i installed jedi academy today, and am now quite a ways into it...i think i might be able to beat it tomorrow. i've got a good routine down, so thats working for me. roll and jab.
on the plus side, i got a cel of animation from ewoks, so that just is outright cool.

i think i need to get myself into a proper rut again...where i'm busy with work to the point that i'm not thinking about feeling out of place socially and that all. i suppose thats why the tutoring is a good job, i don't have time to think while i'm working. honestly, sometimes i just hate thinking. nothing good ever comes of it for me. i just dwell on things and let them eat away at me for long periods of time. i suppose its better when i'm able to not be optomistic, because when i am optomistic, i then crush myself with reality before reality gets the chance to do it. it skips the anticipation part.
the real issue is that i bounce around a lot as to how i can cope with the whole "social misfit" type thing. i try to be realistic enough to never lie to myself about that, like, i could ever come close to the life of the party or anything like that...thats not me, that involves energy. and i'm an edge above over most people in that, yeah i'm a jerk most of the time, but i at least know i'm a jerk or generally...unpersonable. is that a word? and if so, does it mean anything even remotly close to what i just used it for? anyway, i know that i'm not big with redeeming social skills or qualities...i'm just stubborn to the point that i won't change myself jsut to have them. so that leaves me in this nice little spot where i don't belong in social settings and feel guilty trying to intrude on them half the time...but still having the need to have social interaction. one of these annoying things that comes with being a person. i mean, robots don't feel like they NEED to be in contact with other robots at some point, do they? thats it, i'll just upload my conciousness to my computer and hope it all works out. i'll make it work, or die trying.

2005-01-29T01:40:00.000-08:00

sometimes I wonder if I should be proud of my near-perfect record of causing problems for myself.

anyway...
last night i gathered up people for a slurpee run and so people could get their stuff. fun little night in that. also opened my christmas presents, which included the most important thing of all....money.

today was rougher. got up late since i spent much of the morning sick. finally, left a bit befoer 2 to go with bryan down to csun to get books and parking permits. ton of books, but at least they were already gathered and paid for. thank YOU internet.

so...from there it was off to get Liz to this party type thing for her. I'm not fully sure why volunteering to do the drive was the best of ideas. Or well, I suppose it was fairly good plan considering Jennie wouldn't have had the time to get out there, and I knew sorta where I was going. I mean, I'd been out there a few months back, so i vaguely remembered it, but still needed a mapquest thing for the street names and all. from CSUN out to Colton was 85 miles. I remembered that no traffic it took about an hour and a half...so I figured that I could probably get out there in a bit over 2, since I didn't think there'd be much traffic until like 5. Oh how I was wrong. Turned into somewhere around 3 and a half hours to get out there, mostly on the eastbound 210 after passadena and eastbound on the 10. So get out there, eat some cold pizza courtesey of jason. thank god for that. then figured i needed to pick up the pace to get to chris's for the party, which turned out to be 98 miles away. I covered that distance in an hour and 15 minutes. :D So, around 77 or 78 mph. Meant that we got to chris's at 9:15. I pretty much got some coke for a headache, took some advil, and laid down. Though, that did mean I stuck around far longer than I'd planned. Had traffic been better, I was just going to drop Bryan and Liz off at the party and come home to take care of some phone calls, but 9:30 was rather late to be making them so I'd only headed out to try to return one call I'd gotten while I was out. Went home to grab the souvineir box so Liz could get her stuf and came back, then stayed longer than I'd intended, with a fair bit of talking to Chris's brother where it wasn't so loud and chaotic. Then picked a good time to head home around 11.

Important conclusion for the night...i've got to head back out to colton to just hang out there one of these weekends and relax out there.

2005-01-27T18:37:00.000-08:00

well, after much confusion in a range of things, i have now made it back.

first bit of business...sam and i won at trivial pursuit my last night. hurrah to that.

now, on to the flight, the important stuff. first things first, the person at the counter was going to ask if i needed special assistance until he realised I was 19. apparently i had looked rather on the young side. i thought this would be my story of the trip until the second thing happened.

as we all know, i like fire. along these lines, i had gotten some lighters as souveneirs. when i went past security, they didn't have a problem with it. however, when i went to check my luggage, and they asked if i had lighters and i said yes, this turned out to be rather a large problem. add in that i'd just sealed up my suitcases with some ziplock thing and that meant that i couldn't just open it all up. no one at the counters had scissors either, so they had to get someone from security that DID have scissors to come cut it open so i could take the lighters out. i took one with me, the rest are being mailed back.

my flight was also delayed a bit. and by a bit, i mean an hour. apparently the cooling system for the electrical system wasn't working and this had to be fixed before takeoff. it would've been worse, but i had the luxury of having three seats (from the aisle to the window) all to myself. now thats a nice deal. i was spread out and it worked well.
flight itself wasn't so bad....read half a book, played plenty of video games, worked on crosswords, listened to the radio and mp3 player, and watched "without a paddle" which was actually much better than any trailer had ever led me to believe. for starters, it had a plot.

the plane landed a bit over half an hour late, which was then held up first by being told we needed to just taxi around for a while to give another plane time to clear out, then customs taking a while before saying we could get off the plane.

finally though, i made it all the way back to here. odd thing is, though....i'm back in my house...but i don't feel like i'm home.

2005-01-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

i figure that this is getting to the point where i should let people know when i'll be back...so for the general knowledge of everyone, i'm going to be back thursday morning sometime as my flight will be landing at 7.

for some general discussion...sam and i were back in the city today so that i could take care of some last bits of buying things. on the way in though, i noticed something...well...note-worthy. we were outside a 7-11 when i realised that a block a way and fully visible was a second 7-11. you could actually SEE one from the other.

also, i bought 7 aussie lighters. unrelated, i burned my hand.

2005-01-20T20:59:00.000-08:00

well, i said there would be another update, so here we go...
first thing is first, the update on what books i've read, all over the past few days...like 3 or 4.

The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls by Chris Morton and Ceri Louise Thomas (414 pages) A sorta-non-fiction book about crystal skulls that have been found and claimed to be coming from central america, there was a bit of a slide as things went on into the realm of just theory and an absense of fact. Though, I will grant them that there isn't that much scientific fact to go on, as there is very few tests one can run on quartz like these skulls. Also, since I was hoping for more things of a scientific nature, I suppose that puts me a bit biased in my expectations. They do do a very good job, though, of presenting a pieced together view of the skulls based on the beliefs of tribes throughout the Americas, as well as legends elsewhere in the world. Plus, they do bring up Atlantis, and that was equally interesting, to me. Though I do think that they too quickly jump to tying any skull imagery in central american artwork or stories as potentially a link to the skulls.
True Vampires of History by Donald F. Glut (190 pages) Again, a book that went a direction not what I had expected (this is what happens when you buy books from somewhere where they are already sealed), but I still found it really interesting. I was expecting more of historical accounts of people that were vampires in the sense that they drank blood and that all sort of good stuff, and while there are several accounts of that towards the end of the book, much of it is recounting stories of vampires that are the traditional sort of bodies rising from the grave stuff. So, from more of a literature or cultural perspective, it was still really interesting to read. As a cool bonus, the book is a first edition copy from the 70's.
Sex & the Paranormal: Human Sexual Encounters with the Supernatural by Paul Deane (204 pages)Third book that was not really what I had expected of it (see a pattern?) as while I expected more of a look into accounts that would be vivid, like things during the day when people are awake, much of this dealt with encounters, from ghosts to succubi to aliens, that happen when people wake up in bed. Moreso, Deane uses statistics and studies to tie the characteristics of all these phenomena together as well as a single occurance that is, technically, called old-hag attacks. Basicly, its when you wake up in bed paralized, feel pressure on your chest, and that you're not alone. What its interpretted as is then a feature of cultural surroundings. Very insightful. Of course, there was also a lot of discussion about the sexual elements of the witch hunts, phallic worship, and how false memories play into alien abductions and satanic worship. Very insightful, and much more analysis than I had thought it would have. Still though, I found it quite interesting.
Poltergeists & The Paranormal by Dr. Philip Stander & Dr. Paul Schmolling (198 pages) The only one that was really what I thought it would be, this had an interesting comparison between phenomina and possible causes, straddling unknown elements of established science (such as electric fields) and the truely unknown. I also found it interesting that it really tried to steer clear of the idea of poltergeists and, indeed, most spirits, as actual entities from people that used to be alive and really only mentions that for the sake of discussing all possibilities. Overall the attitude is much more that such things are created based off of the energies of people. My only real issue I took with it, and it is a small one, is that while Spiritualism was discussed in the book, the fact that two prominant spiritualists discussed in the book were sort of excused for having at one time said they were frauds, though I would say that distinctly dents the credibility. Granted, there are other spiritualists discussed that were not disproven, but ones that said they were frauds, like the fox sisters, are not terribly reliable, in my opinion. I did, however, find it interesting that the views of both Freud and Jung are discussed quite a bit in this, plus I give them credit for also mentioning the Amazing Randi, who works hard to debunk spiritualists and psychics. I feel most enlightened from this one. Also nice that its view towards parapsychology is much as though it is a real, albiet fledgling, field of study in science. Though, that the two authors are both Doctors sorta explains that viewpoint.

now for our additional segment on "Done Down Under"

While in Victoria, I noticed that AM stations end in really any number, whereas within the U.S., or at least Cali, they all end in zeros.
A Melbourne only thing perhaps, but because of their trams, there are many intersections where you have to be in the leftmost lane to turn right. To americanise this, that would be like having to be in the rightmost lane to turn left at an intersection in the U.S.
While we, i think, just call a shake a milkshake, here there are two varieties; a thickshake like any milkshake i've ever had, and a milkshake, which is thinner in its texture
while there isn't raisin bran, there is saltana bran. apparently, a saltana is like a raisin but not. i don't quite understand the difference and the two cereals seem the same to me

finally, as me being here is always a sign that I end up trying foods that I've never tried prior, a little list of things I've tried here for the first time:

meat pies...these are freaking awesome. a bit smaller in size than a hamburger, they're basicly a pie with meat, and one of the closest things to aussie food. i worship them, nearly.
Indian/Afghani food as a whole
Vietnamese food as a whole
beef and chicken sushi (and the chicken was good)
battered fish
battered and marinated calamari. that will never be eaten again on my part. no.

it is important to note that this means that i've tried food from two countries the U.S. has fought wars in in the last few decades. now I just need to try Iraqi food. any foods that I missed will either be added later either when I remember them or sam tells me i forgot them.

2005-01-20T01:04:00.000-08:00

back from the trip southwestward so its update time!

first of all, i have built a small sparkler bomb. while i have no pictures of it in practice, i will discribe it as a flame about 4 inches high burning for approx 6 seconds as a yellow flame. i took the coating of a sparkler and put it in a film canister lid using a coin to scrape it off. when it was done, only the outer ring of the film canister lid was left as the middle had melted to a rock

now then, as for the trip itself....first stop was wangaratta, which is sort of middle of nowhereish. i had an american pizza. apparently there is such a thing. it was a several hours drive from sydney, and i noticed that a lot of the area was reminiscent of california if you go north just a bit.

the route was basicly towards melbourne, until we turned south about an hour before getting to melbourne to go first to phillip island, home of the fairy penguins to be discussed shortly. in the process we passed some intersting things...such as yea...

...the wine country...

...the asparagus tours...

...the giant worm attraction...

...and a sign that said "caution cemetary ahead" (not pictured. dang it.)
anyway, killed time watching tv in the motel room until it was time to go see the penguins. phillip island is one of the homes of the smallest penguins in the world, called fairy penguins in the past, but they are now called Little penguins. i smell political correctness.
anyway, basicly you wait on the beach either in the grandstands or a special boardwalk that costs more for sunset to approach. we did the latter. shortly after sunset, you begin to see groups of penguins gathering on the water's edge. i could never see them in the water, only after they were out. once there was enough of them, a group of penguins would start to cross the beach, numbering roughly 15 or 20 a group. they'd just walk along a path next to the grass, with some breaking off to head back to their burrows or whatnot. very cool to watch. as an added thing, the penguin chicks could be seen around waiting for their parents to come back with food, and you could actually watch some of them run out and tackle the incoming penguins trying to find a parent to give it food. i kid you not. they were tackling the adults. one of the most hilarious things i've ever watched. sadly, cameras werent allowed so i didn't have mine with me. the even more tragic thing about that is that back in the parking lot there was a penguin walking along that i could have gotten totally awesome pictures of had i had my camera. nevertheless it was very, very cool.

next day we drove up from philip island to melbourne, going to the queen victoria market, which is rather big and what i'd normally call like....a swap meet or something. maybe tad higher class than that. i bought american doughnuts. apparently we have those, too. they have filling and are sort of....elogated with no holes. nevertheless, good. i also did a bit of souvineer shopping. good ol' powerful american dollar. i'll also add that melbourne is crisscrossed with cablecars, which was san fransisco reminiscent. also, there are more parking lots in the traditional so. cal. style of things....so it was oddly familiar in some senses.

went to ripon lea estate (some historical house) because sam's sister wanted to...sorta interesting i suppose. very low door knobs.
went to melbourne's luna park and rode the world's only roller coaster still in use that has a brakeman. what that means is that between the two cars there is a person that stands there and controls the brakes. no straps or anything. not a bad coaster, either. good ol' wooden. i've got film pics, but nothing i can show now.
on monday, went to the Haunted Bookshop, which has this awesome selection of books about all aspects of the paranormal...i got 6 books there totaling $168, and have thusfar read 3, which will be discussed in a future post. very cool place. they have a website, i believe.... www.haunted.something i think. an au or something like that.

that night went to the australian open, which is one of the big tennis events in the tennis world called a grand slam. didn't see any americans play, but did see two matches. first match was 2^nd seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France play Samantha Stosur, an Aussie. This meant that there was a VERY vocal crowd, which made for an interesting experience. before every point you'd hear 3 or 4 people yell "come on sammy" and every couple points this wierd thing where one person would yell "aussie aussie aussie" and then a whole bunch of people all over would yell "oi oi oi". i've been told it came from the olympics somehow. unfortunitly she didn't win, and just got outplayed with too many unforced errors.
second match was 4^th seed Marat Sufin of Russia vs Novak Djokovic of Serbia etc. Djokovic had a style i liked, but he just couldn't hold up to Sufin. You could tell, though, that by the end, the locals were all behind Djokovic. The biggest giveaway of this was that for the first match, everything being yelled was in languages I didn't know, but by about halfway through, a lot of people were yelling, in english, for Djokovic, with Aussie accents.
I also now have a t-shirt (courtesy of Sam) and a keychain from it. good stuff.
bummer part on the tennis was my telephoto was too big to take in, so i was restricted to my digital's zoom for pics...which wasn't all that good.
Mauresmo of France:

Stosur of Australia:

Sufin of Russia:

Djokovic of Serbia, etc:

day after the tennis started off, first, with a visit to the Melbourne museum that has some fancy name that presently eludes me. noteworthy part of this museum, though, was that i got to see the only first generation computer left in the world...feast upon its glory!

as a final snapshot of melbourne, i give you the intersection of Chaucer and Canturbury. My first shot of this failed (a pic while driving by) but as a sign from fate, we happened to stop at a chemist that was at this intersection later, when i got this shot of it.

we drove that day up to ballarat, which had its glory era during the gold rush in the 1850s. at a lake up there i went through a good roll and a half or so with the black swans. they stand out as they have red beaks. they also didn't really react to me getting closer, so i hopfully have some good shots.
spent the night in a house we rented, then the following day went to the museum for the eureka stockade, which is basicly where there was a rebellion on the gold fields...led to some equal rights type voting things or more or less that.

then it was the long drive back to sydney, first passing back into the state of new south wales (melbourne and the other places are in Victoria)

and across the open land, which included passing a large ram that i saw on the trip back from canberra last time....its not nearly as intimidating in the daylight as it was last time at night

i sadly missed my chance to get a picture of a sign for mcdonalds that was the golden arches, followed by the city name of "Yass". i leave it to you the reader to figure out just how that sign read to the casual observer.
finally sun set, and the trip wrapped up getting back into sydney about 10 pm last night

finally, today has been pretty laid back, sam and i went and saw the incredibles with her friend steph, and then its been nothing much at all since. so quite relaxing. tomorrow look for a new update on the books i've read (one involves sex!), as well as a new installment of "Done down under" and some aussie words. plus, i'll add in anything that i somehow forgot in this.

2005-01-11T21:45:00.000-08:00

alright, update time cuz i'm lazy. first thing is what i've been up to....
been to centrepoint tower in sydney, which is 250m above the city and has an awesome view, so lets start with some of my aweseome pics from there.
looking towards the gap, where sydney harbour opens to the pacific.

this is just generally towards where sam lives, somewhere in this pic

the highest in service mailbox in the southern hemisphere!

went to luna park monday, which was awesome...its really small, but was very historic at points. they had some old fun house stuff, and some carnival rides, some pretty new. and they had a wild mouse which i have never been on before, or indeed, even seen. for those that don't know, thats a type of roller coaster. small scale thing though.

went to look at macquarie uni today...not bad campus. they have astrophysics, amazingly.

my dad had surgery the end of last week, so my mom's admitted she brought it up initially as a guilt-based thing. hernia surgery...they think it was 3 this time. i think he's eligible for frequent-flier miles or something now.

i also bought my books online today....$280 for them, and i don't have all of them. that is way way way too much. on top of that, one of my classes is basicly C++ it seems...i already learned that. so...that kinda doesn't seem so bad, actually.

I'mstill disappointed with how little money the U.S. seems to have donated to the tsunami. Here, its well over 100 million, and to give an idea of the rate...there was a 3 hour telecast shown nationally. Or well, about three hours. They raised over $20 million in that time. Putting that in perspective...that is MORE than the population of the whole country. Why can't the U.S. do that?

and now, a little book update:

Saddam Defiant: The Threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Crisis of Global Security by Richard Butler (258 pages) Written by the Australian director of the weapons inspection program in Iraq for 2 years, it basicly chronicles everythign Iraq did to try to keep its weapons and resist the inspectors. It was written in 2000, and i'd say he's got more ties with left-leaning people than right-leaning, so its hard to throw out what he says as biased. Very interesting read.
10 Things Employers want you to learn in college by Bill Coplin (252 pages) So....my mom bought me this for Christmas and I read the whole thing. Having done so, I want my time back. Honestly, total waste for the most part. The big thing is this is a lot more for people that are just going to get some corporate job in a cubicle or office or something. It doens't apply really for more specialised careers, as either physics or journalism would be. Though if you have no idea what you'll do with your life, i suppose its helpful to get you prepared.
Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism by Thomas Friedman (399 pages) Written by the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, this talks a whole lot about the Arab world, both before and especially after 9/11. He actually goes to many of the Arab countries, and its a mix of his columns (about 70% of the book) and then journal entries that go more in depth. I'd go so far as to say that everyone should read this. Absolutly awesome.

and now for another installment of "Done Down Under"!

There is no law that says you have to pull over for emergency vehicles, so police with sirens just sort of try to make their way through traffic.
Times are written in the format 7.15 so there's a period, not a colon.
With dates, the date itself, then the month, is the typical order. ergo, 2 January and not January 2.
Street addresses here start at 1 for every street. So while my house number is 22*** (we all know the rest. if you don't, you're not meant to), here its rarely into the hundreds, and thats down in the city. around here...i don't see more than maybe 30 or 40 really. Don't look much either, but still, the fact remains.

And now shortly I'll be off to Melbourne including getting to see penguins and theAustralianOpen (tennis). Hurrah!

2005-01-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

Ok, if you want to see the recap of what I've been doing, scroll down. Now though is time for when I compare the Australian and American ways of things.

First, I'll go through general differences in how thiings are done here, in a little segment I like to call "Done Down Under"

The obvious one, driving here is on the left and not the right side.
While in california you can make a right turn on a red light, you cannot make the comparable turn (here it'd be a left turn) on a red light. you have to have a green light to turn.
There are no tips. Like, at all. Its just not part of the custom. I tiped a buck fifty on a $40 dollar meal and they yelled thank you out the door as we left.
The smallest bill is $5. Then its just coins. Also, the smallest coin is 5c. They use c and not our fancy thing. But still, theres no equivalent to pennies. Most things are priced accordingly, but if they're not, they round the cost to the nearst 5c increment.
Most restaurants have very limited business hours. Rather than open all day, they're open like....5 to 10 pm or something. Makes it hard to get lunch.
Most businesses are 9 to 5, and in fact, its a big event how on thursdays some stores are open later.
An odd subtlty, wheras I've been used to people walking on the right side of stairs, or the right side of a pathway, here its flipped. Makes sense with the driving thing, but hadn't thought about it prior.

Our second segment features translations of american phrases and words into australian.

American	Australian
Quantas	Qantas
Theaters	Cinemas
Ketchup	Tomato Sauce
Emu (E moo)	Emu (e mew)
Napkin	Serviette
Cookiee	Biscuit
Broken	Stuffed
"How did you do?"	"how did you go?"

There will be more of both of these segments next time I update, plus there will be the new and exciting additional segment on Aussie roadsigns!

2005-01-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

alright, stuff to update. for new years, sam and i were out at a hillside starting at 5 to get a good spot...then waiting up till first showing at 9, and the second one at 12.

i've used a gift certificate from christmas to buy league of extraordinary gentlemen and shattered glass....as well as buying a clive cussler book to be mentioned later in more detail. its the non-american version too, so everything is in meters and theres a lot more u's in it. i bought jedi academy as well. its the pc version, and it cost me 7.45. thats australian dollars, too. in american, thats...roughly... 6 dollars. this, therefore, is totally awesome.

went to featherdale sunday, which meant that i got to see australian animals, presuming i can't find them for real. already though, i should be able to get real pics of possums at some point (when i have a camera and they are around), fairy penguins if i can steal shots while in melbourne, and with luck, kangaroos. i also finally saw what a wallaroo looks like. for those that don't know, vanilla ice was in the news recently because his wallaroo had gotten loose. i also successfully got my hand stuck in a car chair while it was folding up. ouch.

12 rolls of film went in to be developed today, so in a few hours, i'll have over 250 pictures back, hopfully a few good ones in the lot. i also intend to get hold of a fair number of sparklers, scrape off the coatings, and create some fashion of incindiary device. sam's mom has had me promise not to get myself killed or maimed in the process, as she feels this would relfect poorly on her as far as my parents are concerned.

now, first thing is the list of books i've read since i've been here (including flight):

Deception Point by Dan Brown (558 pages) The fourth of his books (Brown is also the author of the Da Vinci Code), its the last one left for me to read, and its good, but I think his others are stronger. I also felt that this one had to rely too much on U.S. politics and the like, which just...is distastful imo.
Shock Wave by Clive Cussler (537 pages) This is the second of Cussler's books I've read (first being Atlantis Found) and his writing truely does rule. Odd that I brought the books as it features Australia and the islands off it to the east very prominantly and a good half the characters involved were Australians. I didn't realise this when I brought it. Creepy. His books are amazing as they integrate both real legends and stories with fiction with amazing results. Plus, a character named Clive Cussler appears in every one of his books, and its always fun to find that reference. Its rather like how Hitchcock had cameos in his own movies where he'd just pass by.
Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti (211 pages) This was..wierd. Basicly, its about a guy that tracked down someone that has Einstein's brain and chueferred the guy from the east coast to the west, to meet with Einstein's granddaughter. I have no idea if this is real or fictional or what. It had interesting moments...but overall, I think it took itself a bit too seriously and turns too much of it into these great dramatic or psychological things. still though, i figured once i started reading, i had to finish.
The No Spin Zone by Bill O'Reilly (183 pages) First, for the record, I did not seek this book out, its part of a large sum of books I got from Sam's family that I'm trying to work through. It was sort of interesting to read, though I had my disagreements, and a lot of the book is basicly just transcripts of his show he uses to try to illustrate his points. Also, when someone refers to himself as humble that many times, it gets really, really, really, agrevating. There is, however, one quote from an interview with Dan Rather that I found interesting (regarding scandals durning Clinton's presidency):
We're not going to report the news the way a Republican pressure group wants us to report it, any more than we are going to report an unfounded allegations against George W. Bush.

Well well well....I do believe Dan's actions contradicted that now, haven't they?
Inca Gold by Clive Cussler (619 pages) I found this for 5 bucks at a sale here, and so its been the Australian (or possibly British) version of the book. This means a lot of u's, and all the measurments are given first in metres, then in parentheses the equivalent in feet. I've found that to be rather interesting, and probably added a page to the length of the book by the time I'd read through it. Basic story: find the Inca gold before a crime syndicate specializing in artifacts does. This was a totally awesome book to read through, and like Shock Wave I thoroughly recommend it. Cussler might well be my literary god. As I didn't mention it before, all of cussler's stories have the same main character, Dirk Pitt and his sidekick Al Giordino. Again, awesomeness.
The Chaser Annual 2004 (130 pages) So, I think I need to explain what this is...The Chaser is a publication, and also has some tv stuff it does, thats basicly all satirical. A lot of it is Aussie politics and stuff, but of course, quite a bit is American, either directly or indirectly. The copy I got also is signed by three of the guys that work on it, personalised and all, with them knowing that this was for an American. It was a Christmas present from sam's family, and hilarious to read. Great satire, some of which was definitly LOL level.
Bad Astronomy by Philip Plait (262 pages) I just finished this a few minutes ago, and it made for a quick read...summation, its all about incorrect things peopl think about astronomy, example, and very important now, that toilets do not flush different directions north and south of the equator, at the least not because of the Coriolis Effect. That only effects things on very big levels, such as storm systems. So for the last time, stop asking me about that. Oh, and of course, Star Wars got a special mention in the section debunking things that come for movies, mainly for the asteroid field.

2004-12-28T18:47:00.000-08:00

Wel, this hasn't been updated in far too long...but when you've got a lot to say, you end up waiting for the time to do so. Of course, the key thing is that i'm now in australia, but details on that will come later.

To go back around a month ago when I was still in the states and all that stuff and catch up on some of the noteworthy things. First and foremost, I saw a UFO that I've yet to figure out what it could've been. I had just finished tutoring out in castaic when i was walking back to the chupathingie when i saw a blue light moving across the sky. it then broke into 3 lights, all same size, that then faded away. It wasn't terribly bright, and i so far have no idea what it was, but any suggestions are welcome.
Same day was also one of my proudest achievements. My physics professor took the class out to lunch, and i tried for the first time curry. Since I had beef curry with a hamburger patty, i ate the whole patty with chopsticks. Go me. Downside was that I was sick during the test.

On the 4th, UCLA played USC, and they were totally robbed in that game. The calls that came from the refs were absolutly horrible, and I've never seen so many bad calls in one game. Most telling is that USC won that game by a margin of only 5 points, when two of the bad calls were fumbles that were then ruled to have been dead balls, and after each one, USC then scored field goals. Thats 6 points they shouldn't have had when they won by 5. Horrible calling. The only consolation was that, after a powerful first quarter, the end zones, where the SC supporters were, were dead quiet for most of the game. This was supposed to be a blow out, after all.

My last week of work set new standards in how much i can make. Now, my average week, i make between 1 and 2 hundred, maybe slightly higher if its a good week. My last 7 days of work, however, from the 5th to the 12th, netted me approximately $700, excluding the $100 i got for tutoring my cousin for only like an hour, which was chalked up to being a late graduation gift.
I'm still surprised, and sorta scared, that i'm still having some of the parents of kids i tutor suggest that i should teach. i mean, this is an established fact that i should not be teaching, that is simply not my place. but such is how it goes. i suppose this says something about the current school system.

and along that note, with a long day of lay-out, the T.J. Times went to press at 4 pages. This is the previously mentioned paper for the GATE program at santa clarita. the layout itself went pretty quickly, and i think the hardest thing was just that i was having to devise all the standards of the lay-out, and also that i hadn't designed the layout as far as what would go on what page, and there were some serious issues in how that was done by my mom, since i don't think she took into consideration the lengths of stories. if and when i can, i think i'll put the pdf file up.

now then, on to the bigger things, like what the heck am i doing in australia now.
i got in on thursday the 16th, having left on the 14th. the flight was ok, and i think i might've slept for an hour or two, as there is some time i can't account for. I did also read Deception Point by Dan Brown, author of the da vinci code, and i recommend that to everyone. and when i say read, i mean that i read the whole book between take-off and landing.
other things to note....by sheer luck, i got an aisle seat, which i had only for about 4 hours of the flight, if that, as then seats got moved around so that someone could get out easier, as the woman that had the window seat had fainted and been put on oxygen at one point. also interesting...there was a sign saying how you were prohibited from taking any form of household cleaner on board, however you COULD have radioactive material, so long as it was in limited quantities.

having arrived here, the question of course is how is it that both times i've come, Sam is more jetlagged than I am. I don't know how that works that way, but somehow it does. I guess it helps that i'm not on any form of "normal" sleep cycle usually.

of the first few days, much of it was staying around the house, watched some stuff i'd not seen before and will mention more on later, read (again, to be mentioned later), but the first trip out was to the city, and then the barracks. The barracks was where prisoners were kept, back in the ol' penal colony days, and its located in downtown sydney. we then caught a ferry back home.

It was pretty neat to go through, and was, dare i say, educational.
also saw, sort of, hyde park (i think it was called) which is a sydney equivalent of central park, and had a rather...interesting....fountain. can you spot what doesn't seem to belong?

The other wierd thing is that, i'm so used ot seeing squirrels in parks, and well, everywhere...but they don't have them here. its all birds....and not just the crows and pigons and gulls, either.

another thing thats been interesting here is that the weather can so quickly go from being very hot to suddenly cloudy and a storm will break. its such a change from so cal's predictable weather. This pic is from sam's backyard, vertical shot i'm too lazy to fix atm

now, something that does have to be discussed, though, is christmas in australia. firstly, we so totally beat them out when it comes to the level of christmas lights. most houses don't have any, and the streets there that draw people in because of all the lights would be on par with a moderate street in santa clarita. the other thing that has been odd is to see christmas advertised with santa hats and all that, but then have it be for like, pool toys or something. its a neat sort of mix thing going there.
as for the christmas festivities, for christmas eve it was dinner with sam's mother's family, which was the side of the family i saw most last time i was here, and so it was fairly managable. italian place, all good food. i also tried calamari for the first, and last, time. sam also brought up trivia, and so an australians vs americans trivia competition has been discussed a few times involving her family. though, to make sure its not unfair, i've offered to spot them a few points.
christmas day itself was pretty well just laid back and around the house, and i have a whole bunch of stuff to get through as far as reading is concerned. finally, boxing day (the day after christmas and is a holiday here) was with sam's dad's family, which was a much more foreign environment for me. there was one shining point, though, which was when a couple of her cousins were asking me what i'm doing schoolwise....when i said i was majoring in astrophysics with minors in journalism and mathatmatics...they just were stunned for a few moments till they could figure out what to say...something along the lines of "yeah, i think i did that in year 7" (translation: 7th grade)
monday of the week, we went to the rocks, which is the oldest part of sydney. its right next to the harbour bridge, the unknown landmark of sydney, and is moderatly close to the operahouse, both of which i figure i should have pictures of, so here they are:

finally, yesterday was going to see this lord of the rings exhibition, which was absolutly awesome, and i'm sure you'll all be jealous about that. or at least bryan and tim, perchance others. here's what the outside of the exhibition itself looked like, though:

again, totally awesome. rest of the day was going to darling harbour for lunch (possibly my favourite part of sydney, actually) and following sam through a market and then some stores that had assorrted after christmas sales. scary, scary, scary crowds. one building we went down a few floors, walked a little, and when we went up a couple floors and exited, we'd crossed under a street. very disorienting.

anyway, the next segment should have some of my patented australian to american translations, as well as a bit of a recap of what i've read and watched while i've been here. i think this is by far long enough already.

ADDED NOTE: to reach me by email while i'm here, send it to lowbacca1977 at yahoo

2004-11-29T22:57:00.000-08:00

Recap time!

So, starting with wednesday. Wednesday was an odessy of sorts. As always, when its the day before thanksgiving traffic is very, very bad. So I tried my best to get around the bad areas, which were basicly any way that'd help me get home faster. I do, however, have a map chronicling the way to get home.

It was a tormenting journey, but after like two hours, I got home. Of course, it also then needs to be mentioned that one of the things that made traffic worse was that a man had been hit and killed on Boquet, just south of Seco. Half the road was just totally closed and traffic was a mess because of it. I can't recall seeing part of a dead body like that before...but I could see a hand under the sheet. Four or five cars had ran right over the guy.

I also had to go to Chris's rescue, who was stuck over by the mall. I'm not quite sure what caused it, but his key broke. Like, in half. So he couldn't get into his car. It amazed me, really. He managed to catch me just as I'd walked in from tutoring and right before leaving again, so rather than chilling around the house, I went and got him, dropped him off at his house, then went and got him after I'd tutored and took him back to his car so he could then drive it home after he'd found a spare key. One of these hilarious sorts of incidents. The key was soo warped and all.
It has also now been noticed...when playing Cruel Angel's Thesis at half speed, it is impossible to not laugh for more than the first two seconds.

Thursday was thanksgiving at my cousin's house. thought it would go sorta apolitical, but oh was I wrong. My grandmother's brother's wife had brought the petitions from www.saveourlicence.com to try to get signatures. Little did she know that I have the exact same petitions. She was very, very surprised about it all. Now, what got wierd was that she was trying to get my cousin's grandfather to sign...or rather, had asked...and he said no, and they were discussing it all. Now, eventually she left the arguement, came and got me, borrowed me, and then put me into the debate. While I was discussing the initiative, apparently there was talk of how he'd never sign and there was no chance and stuff like that. It was nearly considered a foregone conclusion by those watching. Somewhere after an hour, though, he decided that he would, in fact sign. No one saw that coming. He said that while he disagreed with it, he respected my efforts. I was much surprised, but I also felt accomplished. :D

Saturday was the trip out to Harvey MUDD. Or more precisly, it was the trip to San Fernando to pick someone up, then out to Harvey Mudd. It took 3 hours to get there, which was wayyy too long. Horrible weather for driving, really. So, we got out there and it was like 5. We had planned to be there at like 3. Got food, then went back to Karl's dorm room and played Dead or Alive 3 and Halo. Halo rocks and I was owning. Left there at 8:30...and in backing up, things went terribly awry. Karl thought that a logical thing to do was jump on the front of the chupathingie. This was a most stupid thing. As soon as he jumped on, there was a snap, he jumped off and I turned the engine off immeditly. Avoiding impulses to beat him about the head with a socket wrench, I went out to see what had happened, as he was quite obviously looking down in terror, so I knew he'd broken SOMETHING. Thankfully, all he broke was the plastic that holds the license plate, and only broken it partially. We could not, however, remove the neccessary bolts to just put the license plate safely in the back of the chupathingie, so instead we had to figure out how to get it to stay safely. the combination of tape and string looks like this:

Needless to say, Karl is in trouble. Like, great deals of trouble. You do NOT do this to the Chupathingie. there are limits.
Anyway, returning Chan to her house, I noticed this, and pulled over to take a picture of it.

Now, I"m not sure what the Sugarhouse is, but I find the placing humourous. Ride back Bryan just sorta fell asleep. And it was cold. These are seperate things, however.

Here we are at Monday, and I'm slowly resuming to a normal sleep cycle. Cuz, over thanksgiving weekend, my sleep cycle has been out of sync majorly. And I have trouble getting to sleep. Its cuz my defence mechanism to avoid my mom is to stay in bed. Busy tutoring week ahead of me...and I will add now that I ruled in a gunbound game. I got my 2nd DK today, and had 10 gp and 1232 gold...but one of the guys was an idiot. I mean, i successfully set up my own dk. thats not supposed to happen. we didn't even win. :( Morons.

And I'm now at the point where I'm two weeks from the day I leave. Well, in half an hour or so, then its two weeks from the day I leave. Close enough. It will be relaxing, no doubt. I'm going to enjoy not having to deal with my mom, for one thing...and I'll enjoy being around Sam as well. She's been most supportive when I've needed it, and concerned. It's helped a lot. Not to say that she's the only one, but certainly most frequent and most passionate on it. Its reassuring to have her love behind me, and its part of why I love her, too. Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing new parts of the country with her...I do have fond memories of last time. And this time I'll get to see Melbourne, and possible some of the Australian Open. Not to mention penguins! But that is all stuff that will come in time.

2004-11-28T01:29:00.000-08:00

Its strange how difficult the future can be to predict...how much things change, and more importantly, how much you can misunderstand yourself over a period of time. I suppose in this point, I would do better to write it as how much I specifically misunderstood myself, where I was, and what directions things were going.
The first thing tied in to this is that I ended things with Loren what is now a little while back, and unfortunitly (but not unpredictibly) it has not gone well since then. I'm not going to go into reasons here as I'm not one to put all the personal drama up somewhere public...but it is something that hasn't been at all fun...but then again, its not something that should be fun or easy.

The second is that, post-that began talking with Sam more again...after quite the gap in routine communications. Its also meant things going back into a direction that I had not figured they would at this point, but, its not an unwelcome direction in the least. Or well, I'm watering down words here because I don't want to say to much then have it be eroded away by thigns....but to say it more straightforward...I'm back together with her now, and come this winter, I'll be there for a roughly unknown time. Basicly, to see if things have changed between us or not since I think there has been individual changes since she was last here. The question now is just how the interactiveness will be...if that has changed as well, or if that will be the same. I suppose you could call this a trial period thing...to see if this is something that we'll try anew for, or walk away from. In reality, it could go either way...but I think, from my read of it atm, that it will be the former rather than the latter. This will also mean that, for all intensive purposes, I will be observing Christmas with any fellow Americans some time in the new year.

It is something I'm looking forward to much though. Australia is an amazing place... and I'm going to get to see more of it this time round than I did last time. Not to mention that I'm going to be able to see where things are more with Sam... there is an element of interaction that really only comes with being around one another in person, and I do still have a lot of very fond memories of the last time I was there. I was a different person...or well, I wasn't a different person itself, but a different side of me was brought out. In the immortal words of andrew: "You're walking, you're using public transportation, you're with a girl, and you're happy? who are you and what have you done with Mike?" (the irony that i'm paraphrasing immortal words need not be discussed)

Very few people, I think, walk away from a trip to Australia with the attachment to it that it is the first time they've ever had Chinese food. or Sushi. not to mention all the things about Australia that were new or different. And I know that this time back will be the same, I'm going to see new elements of Australia and the world, but new elements of me as well that aren't noticed much normally. It was one of the rare times in my life in the last few years that I've hit a period of time where I felt truely comfortable with what was going on in my life, those two weeks there. There have been other times since, of course...but they are very few and far between. With luck, when I go back again this time, it will mean that I will again be in that same position of comfort where I feel good with where things are in my life. I think that's how it will be.

2004-11-22T16:54:00.000-08:00

An important thing to read here is a blog entry by the journalist that filmed the wounded Iraqi being killed. Really, anyone thats at all thought about that incident should read this.

Also, there will be a trip out to Harvey Mudd this coming saturday. Anyone that wants to come, please mention here at the forum, as thats an easier way for me to update if anything cahnges and all. seating is limited.

2004-11-20T22:47:00.000-08:00

I really need to get in the habit of getting up at normal times. I woke up at 2 in the afternoon then came out and played gunbound for hours. Such a wasted day in some sense.

And so i'm sitting at the comp on aim, and suddenly theress this rumbling sound. Which confused me. So i hurry off to a door and look out and its raining and hailing. So i'm like...hey this is kinda neat. Then, gears start turning in my head and i realise that the windows of the chupathingie are down. So i grab the keys and sandals and go running out into the hail and rain swatting at it as I hurry to the chupathingie, get in, roll the windows up, then do the same chatoic run back inside. I wish I saw this coming.

I've got a new client in castaic. This will make it fun. Each week, hurring off to castaic to tutor. Oh well, money is still good. Money is always good, really. And so this'll be only one i've got thats precalc.

I'm still hooked on the beatles, which I will add that is fully attributable and blameable on Sam, as she suggested them more, and thats hwy they're on my mp3 player. I think I've listened to elenor rigby alone at least 2 times every day this week. or as bryan pointed out, elenor rugby. That is such a cool song....lady madonna and penny lane too.

I shall aslo include a funny story. Funny to me anyway. So, my brother had a play tonight, and after my mom and brother left, my dad called cuz he decided he would go. So he askes if my mom would have her cell phone, and i said that she wouldn't have it on, but she should have it. I hang up and go back to gunbound then hear a ring tone in the living room. i went in there and i heard it from a bag, so i feel my way around in there and found my mom's cell phone still on in there and just freshly 1 missed call. so i called my dad back and let him knew. when he mentioned to my mom that he tried to call her, she said she lost her phone. when she got home and heard the story on how i found the phone, my mom said "oh...i hadn't thought of that."
Here's her sign.

2004-11-19T23:11:00.000-08:00

Anyone feels like helping me get an iPod, sign up for an offer with this link:
http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=12121142
If i get it, anyone that fullfilled this and wants one of their own can have their link put here. Who knows, might help.

2004-11-19T21:32:00.000-08:00

Clever, Only Not messegeboard

Wednesday was so not cool. So, had to give Bryan a ride home and we went to Shakey's. Up to this point, it was alright. Then I realised I was supposed to start work at 4. I realised this on San Fernando road while driving home at like 3:55. Though, on the freeway George Lucas was in the car behind us. Honest. Bryan will vouch for me on this in the comments section. Or at least, he is expected to. Vouch dang it! Anyways, was 20 minutes late to my first session, 10 minutes late to my second session, and then on time to my third session, or well, half session. Tiring though.

Thursday I was yelled at for a good half hour about how I had to get up or I'd be late. Of course, I got to bryan's just when I said i'd be anyways on my time scale. Though, he sort of overslept, so I was still late to class.

Today was the first day really working with the G.A.T.E. kids at S.C.E. It's going to be interesting to see how this goes...to recap, I'm helping with the G.A.T.E. program because they're going to be doing a school newspaper and since my mom is already volunteering, I was sort of volunteered automatically. Though, I'm actually sort of looking forward to doing it. It'll be interesting to see this develop into a functional paper, and as I always worry, I find myself enjoying dealing with kids. This isn't right, as I'm supposed to hate people in general and especially kids, but I still sort of enjoy it. My mom also had said I was doing a good job explaining things...so that was sort of an odd comment from her. I'll probably post update things as we get further into the paper developing stage. Its interesting though to see that there are some people that've already shown that they can think in terms of layout, so this will be neat.

I've noticed that I've been entering a new phase as far as my interests and tastes and all. They've been really brodening, and I think that this is in major part because I'm no longer an iconoclast on principle. That is to say, I'm not opposing things just because someone else, either an individual person or the masses, like it. Of course, this doesn't mean i'm just buying into everyone else's viewpoints...but things like UCLA football, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys, things that I'd pushed away in the past, I'm now really getting in to. I've been to nearly all the UCLA home games this season, and I've been listening to a lot of both the Beatles and the Beach Boys and quite like it. Of couorse, I'm not just buying into music hype. Example...still think Elvis was a hack. :D

2004-11-16T21:22:00.000-08:00

Good ol' Democrats of California. Its good to know they're diligantly working towards creating a gov't that can track us no matter where we are in the state like something out of 1984.

"Why Mike, how can you say that? The democrats are only concerned with freedom and liberty!" you say? Well, that'd be too predictable with california. So for years the state has relied on the freeway infrastructure to keep thriving. To take care of this, we have a state gas tax to take care of the highways. This money is only supposed to be for the roads, but of course, the government has a nice habit of robbing this account to pay for the stuff they don't have money for, welfare stuff mainly.

Of course, the Democrats have also been pushing more environmentally friendly cars for a while now. You know, good milage, electric cars, hybrids, the whole deal. Finally now, people are really beginning to get these alternative fuel sources cars.

Now, here comes the problem, apparently. More fuel efficient cars means less gas. Less gas means that the gov't gets less money. So, theres an idea floating around thats got support in Sacremento that instead of a gas tax, there will be a tax on how many miles you drive, and possibly even including it to mean you pay more for being on the freeway instead of surface streets and stuff like that.
How could this work, you say? well, there would be monitoring meters on the odometers as well as GPS systems to track where you are. So...anywhere in the state, they'd know you're there. Talk about freedom.

Oh, heres the other fun thing. So, you're having people pay based on how much they drive on California roads and highways. Of course, if this is to get more money...where's the money coming from for all this equiptment? Also, what do you do about when Californians are driving outside the state and the odometer is still running, or tourists that are driving on our roads? anything like this is a mistake, if for no other reason than it would be impossible to implement, completly ignoring the whole "being tracked by the gov't" thing.

2004-11-14T22:27:00.000-08:00

Who really is the most evil candidate for president? This was a debated question leading up to the election. So, I've decided to use the most reliable means to figure this out, which is, of course, looking at vote counts for states and finding which candidate has the most vote counts containing '666'.
So first, the vote counts with 666 in them.

Bush: Arkansas - 566678
Kerry: Colorado - 960666, Connecticut - 647666
Cobb: Montana - 999 (666 but rotated)
and unrelated
Petrouka: Nevada - 1138. woot!

So, remember, numbers don't lie. And apparently Kerry is the most evil candidate.