...like a child with nothing to lose but my mind.

The Beautiful Game

2006-06-05T01:00:00.000-04:00

I've not written here in a while, but I thought I'd plug the upcoming World Cup. I've fallen in love with soccer at its highest levels because there's so much passion, and the game is truly wonderful to watch. The creativity of the best players is simply astounding, and the American side has a shot to do something amazing starting June 12 at noon, with their match against the Czech Republic. Soccer has been decried as a sissy sport for years, but there's more contact in a match of soccer than a season of baseball. The athletes are in incredible shape. The sport doesn't have the same respect level of the triumvirate of American sports here, but there's a reason the rest of the world loves the game. As such, I'm encouraging you to watch the Yanks take on the world starting in 7 days. You won't be disappointed.

Czech Republic-Mon, June 12-Noon-ESPN2
Italy-Sat, June 17-2:30-ABC
Ghana-Thu, June 22-10am-ESPN

An Awesome Commercial

2006-06-05T00:50:00.000-04:00

Saw this on TV, and it gave me the chills:

An amazing commercial from Gatorade:

Election night mayhem

2006-05-03T00:54:00.000-04:00

Today's been great fun seeing that I had the opportunity to have my picture taken with the First Lady. That makes three out of four members of the First Family, though I imagine getting a picture with President Bush will pose a much greater challenge.

Anyway, the Primaries were today, and I (idiotically) passed up on an opportunity to go to Ken Blackwell's celebration party. Ted Strickland vs. Ken Blackwell for the governorship of Ohio. Each has their own advantages, as the conservative base of the Republican party now have a candidate they can really work for, though Blackwell's going to have to work his ass off to stay clear of the mess that Bob Taft has created. Which is where Strickland's opportunity really arises. Blackwell, being the first black gubernatorial candidate in Ohio's history, could cut into parts of the Democratic base, but the current adminstration has done a lot to turn moderates into Dems. Should be craziness.

(There was a comment in error about the North Canton School levy failing. A check of the BOE website showed it carrying by roughly 7 points.)

Randomness

2006-05-01T16:11:00.000-04:00

Well, plenty's been happening the last few days. My beloved Green Bay Packers got AJ Hawk, which is amazing, and also managed to get 13 picks overall, Brett Favre to return, and signed Charles Woodsen, moves that I'm more skeptical about. I managed to work Chuck Norris and roundhouse kicking into a response for an essay, and was lauded for the example and recieved an A. Saturday was spent campaigning in Findlay for Steve Buehrer and Ken Blackwell. And last but not least, tomorrow I've managed to get free admission to a $250 a plate luncheon featuring the First Lady, Laura Bush. Been interesting, but I rather like it that way.

It's a shame really

2006-04-25T20:05:00.000-04:00

Well, they released the results of the USG election last night, and it looks like pretty much a worst case scenario for the much maligned organization which is supposed to help students out. As was pretty much inevitable, the Results Coalition gained about 75% of the Senate, however, the Fournikate ticket won the presidency. It appears as though the inability to spread the word far and near that they weren't disqualified really hurt the Knapp/Gent team.

This is the worst case scenario because of the enmity that exists between a good number of the Knapp/Gent people (who will dominate the Senate) and the Fournikates, who have already been promised most every executive position. And you thought USG was irrelevant now. At least if Kreiner had won, there wouldn't have been imbeciles on a power trip running things. The results bear out the idea that Kreiner/Rosentraub, even with a Lantern endorsement, were totally incapable of winning the election, because they simply didn't have the number of supporters. Fournier won because Knapp/Gent were screwed over again and again, and the sensible voters were divided up between the K/G and Kreiner. Though luck for Dave, having been runner up in two consecutive elections. Should be interesting to see if he'll get involved again this year (or if Fournier will let him in any case.) Maybe they'll all prove me wrong, but I'm less than optimistic. Likely USG becomes even more a waste of our student activity fee than normal.

Also, props to Andy Beppler for working his ass off trying to help Knapp/Gent in a somewhat misguided failed bit to win a North Campus senate seat.

2006-04-24T04:35:00.000-04:00

More proof that M*ch*gan still sucks.

Peter Jackson+Star Trek=Brilliant

2006-04-22T23:09:00.000-04:00

So I'm sitting in my room, and Tim randomly comes down. He's like "I just heard some interesting news, and I wanted to see your face when you found out." Turns out that Peter Jackson is going to direct the next Star Trek movie. My face instantly transformed into a gigantic smile. I can't help but anticipate the result when the guy who brilliantly adapted my favorite books gets his hands on my favorite sci-fi property.

Unusually Shitty Government

2006-04-21T00:34:00.000-04:00

Well, as some may know, I managed to get fairly heavily involved in one of the campaigns for the presidency of USG, backing a former classmate by the name of Dave Knapp. The general consensus around campus is that USG is inept, clueless, and for most purposes worthless, though I believe that Dave is the sort of guy who could actually change some of that. The election cycle has only served to satisfy the cynic, as Knapp/Gent got DQ'd twice over a quibble in an interpretation of the rules, Fournikate (incompetent even by USG standards) is now being busted for numerous violations, and the most amazing part is that nobody really has to play by the rules anyways, as Judicial Affairs is standing by to overturn any disqualification. Adding to the drama is the manner in which the release of the results keeps getting pushed back. It'll be interesting to see how it all turns out, but if Chuck Norris to win with the write in vote, even that wouldn't surprise me.

Check out The Sentinel's USG Watch blog here, if you feel an odd compunction to read more. The comment wars in particular tend to be amusing.

UPDATE: The Judicial Panel of USG decided to mandate that the entire Results Coalition and Students First Slates must spend a minimum of two hours cleaning up trash of campus. Way to go USG. It almost seems anti-climactic.

What up, foo?

2006-04-19T23:39:00.000-04:00

Being a college Republican can make for some interesting times. It can lead you to weird stalkerish type experience, assorted covert ops, and Q and A sessions with Congressmen. Today I ran into the first and third options, with less than satisfactory results. First off, the chick was obviously crazy, and I was somewhat weirded out by the whole "I'll see you tonight, through your window" comment. However, that was no excuse for the tragedy of me not adding her number to the list of cute girls I've not got the balls to call that occupies my cell phone.

Secondly, Representative Pat Tiberi is a patronizing son of a bitch. I asked him if he what he thought should be done to counter the insane deficit spending that our government is addicted to, and he countered with a banal 15 minute lecture on the origins of the deficit and basic stuff like entitlements (a word he somehow didn't use.) Instead of answering my question, he talked to one of the more informed audiences he's apt to encounter campaigning as though we were completely unfamiliar with the basics of deficit spending. After somehow bringing social security (which any idiot with a paycheck can obviously see is separate from the federal government's budget) into his "answer," he finished off his comments by looking me in the eye, and encouraging us all not to be cynical. I guess they really don't know how to answer questions.

Talk about surprised...

2006-02-25T14:50:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting around down the hall, just chilling and wasting time, when I decide to turn my cell phone on and check to see if I've gotten any messages (because I left my charger at home and my battery was almost dead.) I saw that I'd gotten three messages from Ryan Shepler (a friend from home who goes to OSU) and wondered what was up. I decided to go down to my room to see if I'd missed some ims or something, and when I open my door, I see Ryan and Travis (friend who's going to Thailand for 2 years soon) sitting in my common room. Anyways, happy day, and now OSU's destroying that school from up north, so life's good.

The best part of waking up....

2006-02-24T16:18:00.000-05:00

...Is Folger's in my cup. Seiously. My budding coffee addiction recieved a huge shot in teh arm when I bought a small coffee maker for my dorm room the other day. Chemical dependence...didn't the 70s teach us that's what college is all about? The one problem is that I'm still trying to find a suitable travel coffee mug to take the caffienated goodness to class with me, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Cheers.

Politics test

2006-02-22T23:33:00.000-05:00

Well, sorta random, but last night I was browsing the web, and found a link to some sort of Politics Test and decided to take it. Shockingly enough, while I popped up as both a social and economic conservative, I was actually pretty close to being a centrist. Here's the results.

You are a
Social Conservative
(33% permissive)

and an...
Economic Conservative
(68% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Republican

Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Winter games

2006-02-20T22:52:00.000-05:00

You know, I was watching the Olympics, and really enjoying most of it because of the warm fuzzy patriotic feelings it instills, and because the athletes are mostly hard core badasses. I mean, i think of my experiences ice skating, and am in awe of the hockey players and figure skaters. Triple sal-cow, meet failed tries to hockey stop. My one skiing excursion was great fun, and those I was with said I wasn't bad, but I can't imagine going 85 mph on skis, or flying 120 meters through the air, and all that other insane stuff they do.

However, what I don't enjoy are the shitty filler sports. I mean, ice dancing. I had it on for 5 minutes, and heard Dick Button say that the couple was unique because there were no ugly moments during their move and then rave about the extension. Yes, she had great legs, but how in the hell is this anything besides a way for NBC to work in another figure skatingish event to pad ratings? Next thing you know, ballroom dancing is going to be an Olympic sport. NBC's gonna be like, crap 'Dancing with the stars' is stealing market share, and then force the IOC to include ballroom dancing.

Another sport I take issue with is skeleton. I believe I read that there are about 100 skeletoners in the whole country. This should be on America's funniest home videos or ebaum's, not the Olympic games. The whole purpose of the event would seem to be answering the question, "how many broken bones does it take to create compelling tv?" According the the Torino website, the sport rewards "those guided by courage and the most advanced aerodynamic materials." If all it take are advanced materials and courage to win medals, where can I sign up?

Anyways, I'm going to go back to watching curling now. Everyone needs some more of the Johnson sisters in their lives.

Being an atheist is easier

2006-02-17T02:05:00.000-05:00

Tonight I got into an interesting conversation with one of my friends, and I realized something, something truly fascinating and very important. First off, please everybody don't start hating me because of this. It's not intended to be offensive or to horrifically damage relationships. If you disagree with me, I'm not going to burn down your embassy, and this by no means means that I hate you. At all. Anyways, to the point. Religions by their very nature are mutually exclusive...if you truly believe that everything about yours is correct, by default you believe that those who don't agree with you are going to Hell, or at least aren't going to heaven if you religion doesn't have a Hell. That's it, end of story, bottom line. Now, that shouldn't stop one from one religion from interacting with people from other religions, but there also must be certain lines one must draw, if they truly believe what they claim to believe. If you're Protestant, and you're passionate about being such, then you likely think that anyone who's not has missed the boat. Maybe you think Buddhism is crazy, the Mohammed was out in left field, that Joseph Smith is nuts, that the two millennia of dogma that separate Catholicism from Protestantism doesn't make sense or that that Jesus Christ was a deluded egomaniac.

The second point to remember is that I can't think of a large-scale religion that places emphasis on anything other than love. By this I mean that there's nothing at all wrong, odd or strange about having close relationships with people of differing faiths. Christ was a Jew, and yet he was more than willing to help out the Samaritans. Perhaps my two best friends...one is Mormon, one is Catholic. Hating someone for what they believe is against the teachings of most religions, and mine is no exception. Keeping an open mind, and listening to criticisms of your faith will compel you to evaluate why you believe something, and either make your faith stronger, or cause you to reevaluate whether or not you should hold whatever your belief is as a conviction. Such is true for any opinion one holds.

The way in which religion leaves little room for grays is fascinating; wars have been fought over the differences between religions. Maybe C.S. Lewis's concept of heaven in "The Chronicles of Narnia" where Aslan, the god figure, is indeed the god of both religions, and any that follow their religion with pure heart, dedication, and conviction will get into Heaven. Maybe religion is all just a bullshit excuse so that the billions of the world will have a sense of purpose to their life. In 50-60 (hopefully) I'll probably find all that out.

Perhaps I'd never date a Catholic (or Jewish, or Jehovah's Witness) girl, but that stems from the fact that I can't see myself marrying a girl of another religion, and I don't want to take the chance that I'd fall in love. Spending my life with someone where that is an issue...well, I have a hunch that if there is a God, and he has a plan for me...well, that's probably not in the cards.

Anyhoo, comments as always welcome, I'm gonna go to bed now.

Spider

2006-02-16T16:54:00.000-05:00

Life's kinda like spider solitaire. You can do the best with what you've got to work with, but ultimately, you're gonna have to hit 'deal'. Maybe you get lucky, maybe it all gets fucked up, but you really don't know what you're going to get next, because that's up to someone else to control.

State of DisUnion

2006-01-31T22:22:00.000-05:00

Well, the State of the Union is tonight, so I decided to take a break from my midterm and record my reactions. I’m going to just write them, and then post them. Hope you enjoy…

9:00-Laura Bush walks in. Damn, those people will clap for anything. I think that if they pulled an ape out of someone’s ass, all the politicians would stand and clap. Of course, that would have meant that someone in Washington wasn’t full of shit, but rather monkey…

9:01-Yay for Justices Roberts and now Alito

9:03-I have to wonder how is it that so many extremely egotistical people can handle sitting so closely together. I mean, seriously, maybe they could all just earmark some money to expand the house chamber.

9:05-Well, the crazy bitch Sheehan managed to get herself kicked out of the chamber. This not being a Bush rally, we couldn’t search her first for signs before she came in. The funniest thing about her for me is that she’s really just a caricature for the Democrats. No doubt there’s been less than smooth sailing with the Republicans, but the Dems have been so out of touch lately, that they’ve been unable to gain ground without overblown scandals (i.e. Abramoff).

9:08-Dubya has entered the building, not that you can see him, thanks to the numerous photographers. This is the closest Howard Dean will ever have gotten to the presidency.

9:12-Cheney and Hastert look like two heart attacks, waiting to happen, sitting there next to each other.

9:12-Coretta Scott King, nice play for black voters.

9:13-Well, we’re strong, and everyone needs to get along. Sounds a lot like Clinton, minus the pot.

9:15-Americans are badasses. We’ve done such a good job handling Palestine, we should just keep going? Democracy and Freedom do generally make us safer, but Hamas has proved that there are instances where it doesn’t promote peace for all.

9:17-Please say China, please say China….how else do we get half the world’s citizenry without democracy? Piss-ant countries like Iran, North Korea, and Syria are dangerous, but small. China is dangerous and big! I’m sure even Bush can get that.

9:18-I loved the cut to the Arab guy during the bit on how radical Islam is bad and how dedicated we are.

9:19-I bet that if Cindy Sheehan had made it in, they’d cut to her right now. She’s probably burning a flag to commemorate the strength of America to help others out. We don’t give up y’all. Duh.

9:21-Iraq, blah blah blah, Iraq, blah blah blah. We’re kicking ass there too. Actually, it’s not all that bad, and I’m as confident as Bush is that we will succeed in setting up a functioning democracy there, even if the Democrats appear a bit reticent to agree with me.

9:23-Ouch, you just got bitch slapped, Democrats. He was being so nice there, and then boom, we need constructive criticism, not defeatism.

9:25-Stand behind the military…Which money and power hungry congressman isn’t going to stand up for that?

9:26-Seargent Dan Clay. His letter expresses A. why we have soldiers, and B. why they’re proud to be serving our country. Cindy Sheehan…let me guess you missed that one because they were carting your ass off to jail.

9:29-Yay! More freedom for everyone! I think we should just let the Israelis take over the Middle East. No worrying about Iran or Syria or Palestine. Just some old-fashioned ass kicking. And then some fallout over what is currently Israel after the Iranians blew them all up.

9:32-I think that we could make the world a better place if some Africans decided to hire a lobbyist.

9:34-Remind me why the Dems aren’t standing for the Patriot Act? Oh yeah that’s right, they like terrorists and dead Americans. If the Patriot Act was such a heinous wrong, then why didn’t the Supreme Court slap it down? It pisses me off when people play politics with life and death.

9:37-And now for the job creation numbers, which in all fairness are impressive, though not even Bush is trying to say that there’s a silver lining there.

9:38-Uhh, Dubya. Mexicans don’t vote. Please tell me you know this.

9:40-Ok, we all want the permanent tax cuts, but fair’s fair, you also need to pimp fiscal responsibility.

9:41-Umm yes, but $14 billion is really chump change. We should be cutting a hell of a lot more than that.

9:42-LINE ITEM VETO!!!! I want to stand and cheer. I’m really that excited. I mean, I wrote a paper on why we need it. Not that anyone’s going anywhere with that.

9:43-Uhh, George, that’s embarrassing. And Dems, that’s even more embarrassing. Nicely played Dubya. Not that touching the third rail is really ever a good idea, but I’m glad he put the impetus on everyone. Even though that means no-one has to take the blame.

9:44-George Bush, Milton Freidman hates you right now.

9:45-I guess he does realize that Mexicans don’t vote. Border Security is gigantic for the Southwest. Very gigantic. Like, Colossal.

9:47-Medical Liability reform. You like that Bill Frist, don’t you?

9:49-Thank God, nuclear energy. That’s really the only way we can break our coal addiction. Ethanol…umm, this is the State of the Union, not the Iowa Caucus. We need to not be dependent on Middle Eastern oil. You know, we could try opening ANWR; it’s not as thought the 3 caribou vote. Studies have actually shown the pipeline in Alaska increased the concentrations of wildlife.

9:52-Education. Expanding AP math and science programs is a great idea. However, few kids will actually want to keep going with them in college unless there’s financial incentive.

9:53-You’re streets are safer, blah, blah, blah. More kids are using condoms, blah, blah, blah. Nobody really thinks that there’s been an improvement in national character. If anything it tends the opposite direction.

9:55-I love our new justices. Now Bader-Ginsberg, Souter and Stevens just need to die or something. Quite retirement would be ideal, I think. Preferably within the next 3 or 4 months.

9:57-No stem cell research. Cancer patients are busting out voodoo dolls of you right now, Mr. President. They’re using their LiveSTRONG bracelets to strangle you in absentia. That and their needles for their chemo.

9:59-Oh please, everyone in America has equality under the law, if they want it. They just need to stop fucking up their lives and blaming other people.

10:01-Don’t we give more money to AIDS every year? It’s like Hollywood. Oh can’t think of a good movie idea? Let’s make another sequel! Like a sequel, can’t we just spend more money on AIDS without using as a publicity pub and speech filler?

10:03-Well, it’s going to be another long year. And something tells me that unlike 2002 we’re going to have a hell of a time holding on to our substantial majorities. Forget gaining seats. Right now, I’m just hoping we can make it through midterms without losing any seats. Bottom line, there were a couple of interesting ideas, but the reality here is that I’m once again left wandering why I actually watch the State of the Union address. It’s pretty much the same thing every year. A lot of hoo-rah about foreign policy and then a bunch of random stuff about domestic policy.

The part that interested me the most was the energy policy. We have an oil addiction. That’s why we care so much about making inroads with democracy in the last area of the world still filled with monarchies and theocracies. If the US doesn’t need oil from the Middle East, that completely changes the geopolitical landscape in the world.

Anyway, I’ve got a midterm to study for, and have wasted too much time on this already. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Abortion is Terrible

2006-01-23T21:35:00.000-05:00

I saw posted the other day an ad for a dinner being thrown by Planned Parenthood to celebrate the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (which is today). Seriously, they're having a birthday bash glorifying a Supreme Court decision that has stopped millions of birthdays from ever been celebrated. We don't hold celebrations commemorating the beginning of Jeffery Dahmer's killing spree, so why would anyone hold one for the biggest legalized killing spree in the history of our country? Abortion is obviously a touchy subject, but when broken down, is simply one person taking time to plan out and execute the death of another person, which sounds scarily like 1st-degree murder. I recognize that there are concerns in certain cases about the health of the mother and about the issues like rape and incest, but primarily abortion is used as retroactive birth control. There are a number of effective methods for birth control, but the bottom line is that you can't have a kid unless you have sex.

This is America, the land of opportunity, and it's a travesty that we the people are allowed to cut off the most basic opportunity a person can have, the opportunity to live and see what we can make of our lives. I'm most certainly pro-choice, I'm an advocate of people having the right to choose whether or not they have sex, and then living with the consequences.

The truth...on 60 Minutes?

2006-01-21T16:31:00.000-05:00

I got this in an e-mail from my brother; supposedly Andry Rooney said it on "60 Minutes" a few weeks back. Some of it's a bit crazy, but generally it's awesome, in my opinion...

"I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens...Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE?

I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.

I have the right "NOT" to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the Law of Probability.

I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!

My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you wer e born in to come over and disrespect ours.

I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry a-- if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines.

I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.

We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.

I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.

I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them.

I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building.

It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say "NO!"

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!

I am sick of "Political Correctness." I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa; so how can they be "African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else

And if you don't like my point of view, tough..."

Preach it, brother Andy.

I love movies!

2006-01-17T00:15:00.000-05:00

Not gonna lie, I love long weekends. Plenty of time to not do homework and all sorts of other fun stuff, such as watching lots of movies. This weekend I saw Crash (excellent, if a bit strange), 40-year old virgin (hilarious), Interstate 60 (fairly good, even though you've never heard of it), Syriana (very good), I, Robot (very enjoyable) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (well, if you know me, you know how much I love them all.)

One thing that I've been noticing is that it seems that movies are getting more and more preachy lately. Maybe it's just a winter movie phenomenon, but out right now are three movies trying very hard to make a statement. There's Brokeback Mountain (which I won't ever see), there's Syriana (which kept trying to make you feel bad for the foolish Arabs, but being an American, they failed miserably), and Munich (which I understand is Spielburg's $70 million vengeance is bad speech. Crash very much pushed the topic of racism in America, which is a problem that has never gone away, and shows no signs of doing so. There's definitly something to be said for the light-hearted movies like I Robot and 40-year old virgin with one linear plot and no overarching statement on how bad America or our society is.

Neglected

2006-01-08T18:38:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, though I'm going to try and keep this up to date more often. Fall quarter was great fun; the Buckeyes kicked ass (though not as much as hoped) and life's been going well. Winter break took a bit of a down tick, as there was an unexpected to Arizona, to lay my grandfather to rest. His death was not unexpected, and fortunately we were able to take a trip out last February to say goodbye. Good man, who's now in a better place. It's was also nice when we got home, because all my friends were finally back from school and so I got to spend some time with some cool people, two of whom are going to shortly be gone on a more permanent basis. Travis is set to go to Thailand on his Mormon mission (boo hiss) and Steve's off again to basic, to be followed eventually by Iraq, flying Army Air.

Now I'm back at school, and life is settling back to normal, though I'm sadly not doing band this quarter. Stu and I need to find a couple more people to live with us for next year, and there's other various work to be done relating to school next year. I guess there's really not much else to be said for now, but I'll be sure to put something up the next time I feel so inspired.

Musings on Me

2005-09-05T01:01:00.000-04:00

Things I've figured out this summer (that I'm going to try to remedy.)

1. You find out who your friends really are. They care about your life.

2. I'm entirely too dependent on IM. I've used it as a crutch way too much, and I can see all too clearly how that crutch has hindered me. (Especially during one particularly clumsily handled incident last spring (yes, I’m stupid sometimes (My apologies, to whom...well, you know who you are)))

3. I need to get more involved in things at school.

4. I'm a hypocrite, as I try to tell everyone, "don't say you're sorry, just make it better," and yet I end up doing the same dumb thing again and again sometimes.

5. I need to be a better listener. I really care what other people have to say, I'm just want to know some things sometimes....I need to learn to go more for the grunts and nods, and then save the questions...maybe even not to satiate my curiosity sometimes.

6. I really should try to be less sarcastic sometimes.

7. I need to spend less time thinking about my life, and more time living it.

Enough is enough

2005-08-17T21:41:00.000-04:00

Well, it's certainly been long enough since the last time I posted, but recently I noticed something truly disturbing. It's this phenomenon of the rubber wristband. I mean seriously, LIVESTRONG is a great idea; whether or not you like Lance Armstrong, there's no denying that he's inspired cancer patients to keep fighting, and millions of people to go out and live life. The money from the proceeds go to cancer research. Can you say brilliant? The trend has spread like lightning, with bands for basically every disease there is, sports teams, (my beloved Buckeyes have two out at last check) and even one I saw recently for the Democratic Party. If you support something, there's a band for you!

The same cannot be said about a band I saw a couple of my friends (who are whiter than my ass) wearing the other day. Their first mistake was dropping "fity" buck to go to a 50 cent, Ludacris (LUDA!!!)(<-wtf?), lil' jon (is that a woman's name, "lil?"), and somebody else concert (btw I too become a famous rapper if I dyed my skin with some La Choy soy sauce and forgot basic spelling and grammar.) I'm amazed they're not dead right now. My amazement was compounded by the gray wristband they were wearing that stated Reebok's new slogan "I am who I am" and an even more prominent "RBK" and Reebok sign. Wearing "I am who I am" on something given to you at an arena sized concert for black people....that's sort of like telling the world that you're so confused as to who you are that you are who Reebok and Clear Channel say you are. (insert anguished yell.)

When we made fun of them at an IHOP the other night, they were like, "So what? A lot of people wearing LIVESTRONG wristbands are just doing it because everyone else is." And we were like, "You idiots! Yep, some people who wear the bands are posers, while everyone else wears them because they have a great message, plus the money goes to cancer research." I mean, seriously, LIVESTRONG wasn't made to pimp a shoe company by turning hordes of lemmings into walking billboards. At the worst it's getting lemmings to pimp cancer awareness, which really isn't such a bad thing.

Basically, anyone who wears one of these “I’m what everyone else is” bands should be forced to wear a pink t-shirt that has "I AM CLUELESS!" in huge black lettering. Maybe it's harsh, but I think it would make this world a better place, which is what it's really all about. (Except for thinkBLUE, which is retarded, please don't tell me it caused you to stop being depressed because you hate President Bush.)

Anyways, thanks for reading. Rant over.

A Summation

2005-06-08T00:27:00.000-04:00

I've been mulling about what to write this blog on for a while, because I wanted it to be substantial. Not just a random bitch or observation, but something real. As I was walking here to the west end of the now fenceless Oval, in front of the Library, to study, I realized that what I had to write about was what I've learned about Life, the Universe, and Everything over this last year (sorry, it's not 42.)

1. Life is gray. I was raised to think of this world in terms of black and white, wrong and right. Something I've come to realize is that while there are such things as rights and wrongs, there aren't nearly as many of them as my parents (read mom) would seem to believe possible. Alcohol in and of itself isn't all that bad of a thing, though it can and often is abused. Premarital sex isn't the worst thing ever, though it's still never really wise. Homosexuality is a sin, but it's not all that a person is. One must look past a person's faults to see who they really are, which is a concept that Christians often pay lip-service to and then completely ignore when push comes to shove. It's not politically correct to judge others, but anyone who claims not to is either a liar or not worth listening to......

2. What I'm looking for in a woman. I want a woman who's as smart as I can be, who's nice, funny, doesn't drink, and has lots of self-respect. I want a girl who thinks highly enough of herself to take care of her body, and who doesn't feel an overriding need to dress like a whore. And last, but not least, I want a girl who wants me, but not because she needs me. A woman who wants me to become a part of her life, but not because she always has to have someone there. I guess that goes under self-esteem, but so be it. I've found a couple girls over this last year who seem good, but I keep getting hung up on that last part. Damn girls always seem to be taken attached to someone else. Such is my life. I have my standards and have enough respect for myself not to compromise them, just because it'd be easy.

3. Weird is good. Moving Kyle's life (worldly possessions) to another room while he was on the phone was good. The obscene backdrops=good, in an odd sort of way. Jeff Berling. The Oval right now looks kind of weird without fences, but who's complaining? Britney Spears and Ace of Base at 1 in the morning (ok, maybe not so good Robbie.) Ellis Robinson. Yeah, right. Taping a dental dam to Bryce's keyboard? Basically the best thing the Chad has ever done. Some people trying the Long Walk at 10:30 at night, and then inviting me? WTF? (Just happened) Anyways, weird is good.

4. (Looks like the Long Walk foursome made it.) (No thanks to the group playing in the sprinklers.) Where was I?

5. Anyways, for my 4th and final real point, what it is to be a Buckeye. In the off chance you're still reading. It's not about classes. It's not (all) about alcohol. It's not even strictly defined by football (though we all definitely don't give a damn for the whole state of M*ch*gan.) Being a Buckeye is about late night doings. It's about crazy traditions like jumping into Mirror Lake. It's about spending time with people you care about. It's about meeting new people. But mostly it's about growing to your potential. Becoming tough like a buckeye, but not so tough you can't feel. Figuring out what sort of person you'll be, and then becoming all you can be. It's not always easy, and some people won't make it, but we'll all be better people for the doing.

Have I got it all figured out? Hell no. I'm still growing, figuring out who I am, and who I'll become. But I have grown. And that's more important than anything else I've learned in any classroom this year.

How Firm thy Friendship.....

2005-06-01T23:33:00.000-04:00

I've found myself talking to a lot of my friends here at OSU about why it is that we came here, and why we love OSU. So, I figured I'd put together list of the reasons we came here, and why we love it here.

1. The Swagger. Today Bryce said something about how the attitude of this university sells itself. We are The Ohio State University, and we're damn proud of that. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone here who doesn't think Ohio State is the best public school in Ohio, and in it's sheer depth and quality of offerings rivals any school in the country. We can't help looking down at those from other public schools in the state, because we are The Ohio State University, and you can go to hell for all we care if you don't love us.

2. The Buckeye Spirit. I've always been amazed at how many people from other schools don't love their schools. What ulitimately sold me on this place was that it seemed that all the students loved their school. We may be arrogant, but if you're here, you're family. It's almost chic at some schools to be indifferent to the school, with some kids going home practially every weekend. On the campus tour, it just felt like everyone was happy to be here.

3. The Midwest. Ohio State is a campus full of native Ohioans, born and raised in the Midwest. We're nice to other people. We hold doors for others, and believe in things like hospitality and manners (mostly). So many schools are rude, either from the coasts or trying to imitate that air of detatchment and indifference. I'd say most of the people here are proud to be Midwesterners, and if nothing else have that general attitude.

4. The Best Damn Team in the Land. Jim Tressel's famous homage to the marching band after winning the national championship a couple years back sums up how we think of our athletically inclined Buckeyes. True, football is dominant here. Ohio Stadium is a college football shrine, there's nothing like an afternoon at the Shoe, beating the shit out of a team full of rodents from some shit-hole of a school north of here. We love all our sports teams though, success is expected, excellence respected. Sports have an odd way of enhancing the sense of community the unites us.

5. The Academics. We have so many majors even Van Wilder wouldn't have had a prayer of sampling half of them. Add to that that many of those programs are good. The breadth of what this school has to offer is something that draws people here, myself included.

But anyways,
Oh come let's sing Ohio's praise
And songs to Alma Mater raise
While our hearts rebounding thrill
With joy which death alone can still
Summer's heat or winter's cold
The seasons pass the years will roll
Time and change will surely show
How firm thy friendship ... OHIO!

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

2005-05-31T12:18:00.000-04:00

At last, I'm finally hitting the home stretch of my first year here at OSU. It's been a crazy year, and this week promises to be loaded up with an insane amount of work I typically have left until the last minute to finish. This year I've made friends, seen relationships bloom, seen them tailspin into disaster, done some dumb things, some smart things, and laughed at the dumb things that others have done. I was at the game against M*ch*g*n, and felt the rush of being part of 104,000 insane OSU partisans, as well as all the tradition behind that experience. I've toyed with writing a novel. I got drunk. (once). I've managed to lose sleep over girls even when I knew it was to no avail. I've felt jubilant. I've felt like crying. Maybe I seem numb sometimes, but maybe that's because I hate having other people see what goes on behind these hazel eyes (I’ll admit to enjoying some songs by the only not-worthless American Idol, Kelly Clarkson.) Soon I'll leave this place, my new home, for a few months and return back to my old home, to live with my old friends and my family. And through-out this roller coaster, I've learned that it's ok to feel, and it's ok to be felt. I've realized that for good or ill, life goes on. And that's good.

What's so great about country roads?

2005-05-22T16:50:00.000-04:00

What would possess anyone to write a song glorifying West Virgina? This weekend I spent my Friday and Saturday on a trip with the Athletic Band to Buckhannon West Virginia to their precious little Strawberry Festival. We had to march two parades, and then do our field show on some crappy field in front of a few spectators that were likely all related. (Ok, so maybe we're a bit spoiled here at OSU, with our lovely turf practice field, but still, even my high school was so much nicer.) I suppose it wasn't horrible, because it was a nice change of pace for a couple days, but still, quite a drag.

Anyways, this got me thinking about just why it is the band even went on such a bullshit trip. In my opinion, there are really only three reasons why any Ohio State band should leave Columbus. 1. Follow and support athletics. Marching band follows the football team, the A-band follows other tournament teams. 2. It'll be fun for the band memebers. Our trip earlier this quarter to Cedar Point is an example of such a trip. And last but not least, 3. Exposure and publicity. For better or worse, the band programs are another way to advertise OSU. The marching band carefully picks a high school band show every year to go to advertise the band and boost recruitment. Last year the athletic band had a trip to the Indianapolis 500 to march in their parade and at the racetrack. Those band shows will have 10000 or so people watching at least, the Indy 500, i think I heard 100s of thousands. Either way, lots of exposure.

Leaving me clueless to why we went to Buckhannon. Athletics weren't involved. Nobody wanted to be there, with even the directors cracking on the place. And the exposure was truly minimal. We were smack-dab in the middle of Mountaineer country, with half the guys wearing Mountaineers swag, and the other half in camo or NASCAR stuff. And it wasn't all that big. I dunno, maybe OSU will get a couple students interested in us out of this trip, and maybe some hillbilly will travel 4 hours each way for summer sessions to join the marching band. But odds are, it was just a waste of a weekend.

Such is life.

A lovely little rant

2005-05-17T12:28:00.000-04:00

I am annoyed by immature people who can't handle taking responsibility for their problems. Who know what they really have to do, but instead of doing it bitch about how awful everything in their life is. I'm sick of immature little brats who think that it's humorous to play petty games out of spite, in some perverse attempt to get the upper hand. When a relationship has devolved to the state where it consists of each side vainly trying to get the upper hand, it's obvious that both sides are losers. And for any relationship involving frequent separation to ever have a prayer of working, both sides not only have to be totally committed to it on a platonic level, they also have to be mature both as a couple and as individuals. And when pettyness takes over a relationship, there's no doubt in my mind that said relationship is doomed.

They only way for wounds to heal is if they aren't reopened everyday. Having the fortitude not to scratch the scab is half the battle.

And for a bit of a side note....have you ever tried tried hitting the "next blog" button at the top right of the screen? Tried it the other day, and within the first 6 or so hits I got a blog in Portugese, one from a dude in Kenya, another from India, and a rather more detailed accounting of some gay man's sexual history than I really needed. Try it. "Odds are, you'll have fun"? (And no, I don't buy Ohio Lottery Instant losers)

Isn't it amazing....

2005-05-12T22:37:00.000-04:00

....how one event, mostly out of sight and mind for over 3 and a half years, can still provoke an overwhealming emotional response? For the upcoming University bands concert, there's going to be a number of fun, or happy, or sad songs by John Waters' band, and then a peppy little number by our group. And then it hits like a freight train. We were working on our second piece, a haunting 17-minute long Requiem to those who died in 9/11, when Milt decided to ram home the significance of this by reading us the lyrics to the third stanza of the closer, the splendid Carmen Dragon arrangement of "America the Beautiful:"

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

I don't think that Katharine Lee Bates could ever have imagined how powerful her lyrics would be nearly 110 years later. Dan Rather was right, we'll never again be able to look at that stanza the same way we used to. If nothing else, those human tears made those alabaster cities gleam all the more brilliantly. They hurt us, but they made us stronger. And hearing those lyrics connected with the piece we're doing before it brings all those emotions from that day back like a runaway freight train. So maybe I'm a little bit sappy, and maybe I'm patriotic, but I know that the images from that day will never leave my mind. And there's no reason that they should.

(Shameless plug) OSU University Bands Concert. 8:00PM Thursday May 19th. Weigel Auditorium. The O.C. can be taped or tivoed or whatever. Admission's like 4 bucks or something. Do it.

Cedar Point is good

2005-05-08T19:13:00.000-04:00

Saturday....probably the only time i've ever woken up at about 3 and the day turned out well. Went to cedar point, played some songs, then basically hit every decent ride in the park (no kristen, the lines weren't horrible). Top Thrill is still such a rush. I was reminded about how much I hate standing still and playing in the sun. In black shoes. I really don't give a damn for the whole state of...well...it's north of here. Millenium Force is just an unreal ride. Never not ride the Raptor in the front. I honestly don't think I've ever had fun on a boat ride before (OH-IO). Jon Waters' (Aband director) car being immobilized is funny, but it's even more so funny at midnight after a really long day. Having us sing "We don't give a damn" at the very end of our concert on the midway was touché. I hate that state up north. Our 5 person sax section has diversity. Katie's the token girl (BOX!!!!), Akria the token minority (can you say "the Jap"), Chris the token fag, with Brian (catholic) and me (protestant) standing up for the average white guy. <--I'm probably not allowed to say that. We were complimented for our perfect attendance this quarter. We're basically unreal. They should've painted the magnum red, that orange is hideous. But not as bad as the Iron Dragon. Well, that's pretty much that. Stay classy folks, and if you don't hate that certain unmentionable state...go kill yourself or something. Au revoir.

Life can be a bitch. Fuck it.

2005-04-29T01:05:00.000-04:00

When will I ever learn? Why is it that even though I know how it's going to end, I still must keep going on in futility. My life is like a freight train, I can always see in advance that the train will derail, but try as I may, I can't stop it. I feel like I subject my soul time and again to abject humiliation, which ends up all the worse when I actually knew all along what the result would be. I'm at the point of not even bothering to take risks, no matter how slight. That certainally makes a hell of a lot more sense then doing this to myself. Hope is such a fragile thing...I'm amazed at times I even allow myself to feel it because I know it's just gonna be dumped in my face. I feel cursed, I have the sort of temperament that lends itself to me go crazy over people, and the mind to make sure that all along I know that there's always something wrong. I guess my "heart" (whatever the hell that is) likes to contemplate how it could work out right, but I just know better. Maybe there's someone else, be it an ex they're not over or just another guy in general. Maybe it's a problem of distance. I don't know, but when put together it just sucks.

In summation, I hearby solemnly swear to never take risks, and to not allow myself to ever even think of a girl who isn't already completely taken by me, and who fails to meet every little detail of what I consider my dream girl. Maybe I'll be single forever, but somehow it seems better than the alternative, which is ceaseless disappointment. Yes, I'll again fall prey to those lovely romantic cliches, because I really don't want to be lonely. But I'll still get fucked. Pretty much the story of my life.

Oh, and a bit of an addendum. The worst thing is quite possibly ending up in last place to someone who's not there, who won't be there, and worst of all, isn't as much a person any more as an idealized version of that person. Someone who was there, but isn't. I'd like to think that certain people would be able to learn and not do the same damn thing again and again, though I guess it's not mine to judge.

Some Rants on the World today

2005-04-21T10:34:00.000-04:00

First off, from the perspective of someone who's not Catholic, I think that Benedict XVI was an excellent choice for the Papacy. I think it showed great wisdom on the part of the Cardinals to choose a Pope that was Conservative, and already knew the ropes. John Paul II left some awfully big shoes to fill, and I think that they were looking not for the next John Paul, but rather for an all around nice guy who knew how to get stuff done. You never want to be the guy to replace a legend. I think that the next Pope however will be more controversial. They figured that Benedict wouldn't last too long, but would go long enough that ideally the next "visionary" would be freed from John Paul's shadow. Could a hispanic Pope be forthcoming?

Anyways, OSU is retarded. We have a worthless school paper and school government, skyrocketing tuition, but worst of all....THE DAMN OVAL IS STILL CLOSED!!!!! Sorry, pet peeve there. I also think it's funny that the vast majority of students here are stunned when they hear the librarie is to be renovated, because they've never made it off the first floor. And as much as I love OSU football, it's pretty insane that we have like 65 thousand people show up to watch a scrimmage.

Ah yes....to my last point.... Rain sucks. No getting around that. But it's tolerable, sans wind. To me rain's not such a big issue, it's wind. Stiff winds make it impossible to not get wet, get your umbrella destroyed, etc. plus they just tear through you. Ok, i'm done, Cheers.

I'm back

2005-04-21T10:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I'll be honest, I've been remiss in not doing one of this in basically forever. So for the few of you who read it, here we go again. Life of late has been fairly peachy. The flowers are blooming, the trees are budding, the grass is green, birds chirping, and of course, there's the other even better scenery. Heck, even the smell is wonderful (though it's playing hell with my allergies, something i've never really gotten before). Classes are going decently, and if they'd only open up the Oval, spring would really be here in all it's myriad glories.

Life's been rather busy of late, with "studying" and lots of time spent in band. Fortunatly the Spring Game's this Saturday, so life there should shortly get much easier. I was thinking the other day....life will never go as good as you think it should, because you think that everyone would be happier if your perfect little view of the world was as it really was. It's probably for best that it's not as such, but still....there's always something, no matter how you're feeling. Well, that's about all I've got. Stay classy, and please don't worship Satan (a "pleasant" little issue recently called to my attention).

Random stuff

2005-03-20T15:47:00.000-05:00

The NCAA tournament is great fun. The basketball is just so much more passionate than the NBA. You get the feeling the players actually care about what it is they are doing out there. I'll be glad to be back to my ESPN at school, so I can actually watch the Buckeyes, who embarrassed Holy Cross by 41 points in the first round of the Lady’s tournament.

In other news, I've actually had a fairly boring break thus far, which was pretty much what I'd anticipated. Made some progress in actually putting together a plot and some characters for my novel. I even came up with names and a general meeting methodology for the two main characters (that should make someone happy). Next comes figuring out the guts of the plot, and setting up some little subplots that weave in and out of the twisty main one.

I think the reason why clichés are so popular is because they express an idea everyone would really like to experience, be it love at first sight or rags to riches.

Anyways, that's about all I've got, except, oh yeah, my parents suck horribly, I can't wait until I'm actually able to move out for good, and be completely independent of their monetary support, and the strings attached to it.

I'm a failure at life

2005-03-16T19:20:00.000-05:00

Not a big deal really, I just watched all three Harry Potter movies in the span of less than a day, and that includes sleeping. I'd have to say the third was definitely the best, though I may be a bit biased, since that was probably my favorite of the books as well. Oh yeah, and I've got a chem final tomorrow. Oh well, back to studying, though the upside is that it's almost over, and then I get to go home tomorrow. Knowing myself, I'll probably end up playing too many videogames tonight, but such is life.

My Weekend

2005-03-13T14:07:00.000-05:00

Been quite the weekend thus far (ummm...yay?) Went to the hockey game Friday with the K's and company, which the Buckeyes won (Go Bucks!), and then came back, and studied. And played NCAA. And studied. Saturday I woke up late, got some gross food, and came back and tried to study for most of the rest of the day. Then took the random walk down to Mirror Lake, late at night. Sure, it was cold, but campus looks so nice at at night. Somethin about the way the lights are just makes it picturesque, maybe it's just because you can't see the construction.

Then comes today (Sunday), which has turned out to be quite interesting. Decided, hey, I guess I'll go back to King Avenue again and see more about the church, and realized that hey, as conservative as the place seems on the surface, it's really ridiculously liberal, and the only "gay friendly" church I've ever been to. I think that if I'd told everyone at the dinner afterwards that I'd voted for Issue 1, they'd probably have lynched me. Really, it's an oxymoron of a church. But, yeah, umm, good times, not sure I'll ever go back there. I don't really think I've ever felt that uncomfortable since arriving in Columbus, I think at least half the people there must have thought I was gay.

And, for a last final little note, one that I'd like to think is rather obvious to most of you. Being as this is my blog, I actually DO have the right to put anything up here that I so choose. If you don't like it, fine, you're even allowed to say as much, and I might even change things, but mincing words is not something I'm usually a big fan of. Basically, if you don't like it, there's no one forcing you to read this. When I post up here, I usually have a certain audience in mind, sometimes it's one person, sometimes it anyone who clicks the link. And when I post about what happens in my life, and what I'm thinking, I may not tell all (got a private blog for that), but I'm not going to be anything less than honest. I will write about what happens in my life, because what happens in my life is my business, and it's what's important to me. So there's that.

Life can suck

2005-03-10T20:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, so basically this whole weekend is going to have to be spent studying, so that I can actually get decent grades in all my classes. Chem can wait until after monday though, since the exam's not until thursday afternoon, the first two are on monday. And Kyle's stupid girlfriend is coming down tomorrow. I wish she'd just disappear, Kyle'd be better for it. The upside is that they'll be gone for most of the night. But still, this weekend will probably suck, in a general sense, because studying sucks.

Plus, I'm actually thinking about doing something abosolutely insane, like trying to write a long work of fiction. I'm insane, I know. I won't really think much about that until break starts though. I'll just be glad when this quarter is over, it's been from Hell class wise.

The Devil's Own course is almost done

2005-03-09T00:47:00.000-05:00

Chemistry sucks, which is why I'm not ever going to take another Chemistry course. :) Allow my to extend my rather insincere sympathies to anyone who still has to take chem.

Letting go

2005-03-07T19:48:00.000-05:00

Was talking to Kristen last night, and after a bit of thought, arrived at the conclusion that there are three sorts of changes, the good, the bad, and the necessary ones (which can be either). Sometimes changes that seem good aren't, while others end up being diamonds in the rough, you just have to roll with it until you find the good. My philosophy is generally to do the best you can with the important changes, and not to fret too much over the little ones.

Now, this is all well and good in theory, but in practice, changes are always accompanied by risks. Sometimes, you have to take a risk to accompish a change, other times, the change creates the risk. Taking an example that seems to have popped up far too often in my life, you decide to take the risk of asking out a girl you've really liked for a while, and have a good friendship with, and there will always be a change, either the one you hope for, or the one you dread. Whenever you take a risk, you're going for a change of some sort, whether it's something as mundane as buying a lottery ticket, or as important as taking a job. Sometimes the changes are relatively risk free, like cutting one's hair, but other times, to get that change you've got to take a huge gamble.

My problem in life is that me and my damned big brain don't stop analyzing things, and so end up overanalyzing them. And if my analysis comes up with even one possible flag, I don't take the risk. Really, risks are simply changes that we don't know the outcome of. And not knowing the outcome of something scares the shit out of me....

Damn, I love snow

2005-03-01T17:55:00.000-05:00

First day in March, and we have a legitimate snow storm here in Columbus. Call me insane, but I actually love snow, and cold weather, at least for several months. I feel kindof pathetic, because in the last 24 hours or so, i've watched 13 episodes of "Lost." I'm hopelessly addicted, my Wednesday's are now going to be Lost, then West Wing. Good stuff. Anyways, that's all for now. Cheers.

The trip.

2005-02-20T23:11:00.000-05:00

2-17-05: Today was interesting….We got up, went to Grandparent’s, had breakfast, did some yard work…and then did about nothing for a while. Then it actually did start to get interesting. We decided to go to some mountain park place and go for a hike. It was sad because, Tim went racing off ahead, while I held back to stay with Grandpa. It was sad, because every so often he’d start talking about how he used to be able to keep up, even a few years back, and then about how dreaded even more the idea that in a few years (provided he’s around then), he wouldn’t even be able to climb as much as he could, which was limited.

Then probably the worst part happened. After we’d gone a fair bit, I’d been sticking with him, but he said that I could go on, and that he would head back. So I went up to the top, met up with Tim, and then we came down after taking in the huge sprawl that is the Valley of the Sun. On the way down, we caught up with him, only to see a couple of women helping him out. One said in passing that he had looked like he was going to faint, and on the rest of the way down, he was unsteady, stumbling and just looking out of things.

After getting back, we watched the news together, and then Grandparents, Aunt Nancy, Tim and I went over to J & J’s for some lasagna, which was splendid. Grandparents seem to have deteriorated further; it would seem to chafe much more for Grandpa than Grandma. According to Aunt Jeanie, getting rid of the car last year really hurt him, being a huge blow to his independency. It doesn’t help that Aunt Nancy never has learned to drive (57 and living at home, with no real income).

Tomorrow it looks like we are going to go up Northern Arizona University to pick up Beth-Anne (cousin) in the afternoon, after breakfast (hopefully pancakes) with the grandparents. It’ll be nice to see Beth again, and be interesting to see where she lives.

Well, that’s about it for tonight.

2/18/05: I’d have to say that today was pretty fun, as far as that goes. Tim and I got over to grandparents at about a quarter after 9, and then Grandma made us some great pancakes. Afterwards, we chilled there for a while, then had some bean soup (poor to decent) and then went up to Flagstaff to see Beth.

Northern Arizona University was an interesting university, in that it didn’t feel at all like a university back east would. The way the place was designed, coupled with the landscape made for an esoteric, though not unpleasant mix. Some of the engineering classes were even in temporary pre-fab classrooms.

Anyways, we picked up Beth and her roommate, Ashley, and then went through Sedona and the Red Rocks on the way back, stopping to see the views. It rained….and rained….and rained. We got out at several points, once getting yelled at by a ranger that the park was closed. The rain has been unusually heavy of late, and the water was quite high. After our drive through Sedona, it was the journey back to Phoenix. I felt kind of bad, because Grandpa sat up in the front seat the whole time, staying mostly silent, and occasionally talking to Aunt Jeanie, while we younger folk enjoyed ourselves in the back.

After we got back, we had a dinner with the Grandparents, which was delicious, and played Kings in the Corner. Grandma still does well, when she can see the cards, but was less than stellar, and Grandpa was simply dismal, we had to point things out to both of them all the time, but it ended up that everyone one once, except Grandma, who pulled two off (I pretty much gave her the second).

Tim came up with a great idea for a year and a half from now, before school starts. He thinks we should fly out to Phoenix, meet Beth and maybe a friend or two, and then travel the West, seeing a bunch of national parks, camping everywhere, maybe taking some backpacking excursions, and basically spending a month having a hell of a time exploring, camping and just chilling. It’s something to look into. Tomorrow will likely be dull and boring, but we’ll probably do something or other with Beth which will make things more exciting.

Anyhoo, I’ve got to study and other some such tonight. Two more of these entrys left…… And yeah, the Beatles can be fun.

2/19/05: Well, today was the last day here. It was cloudy most all the day, but the rain mostly stayed away. It was a late breakfast at grandparents, Beth came over for a late lunch, and we all played around with things like the piano and whatnot until Uncle John and Aunt Jeanie came over for dinner. After the turkey dinner, it was a more talk, throwing around a hackeysack, and then some of those stupid little games where there’s some really easy obvious pattern actually going on, but everyone reads into it too much. Good stuff.

We said goodbye to the Grandparents, and I wonder that it might be the last time. It’s sad to say goodbye.

2/20/05: Ahhh… is there any better way to end a trip than sitting in an airport, typing on my laptop, and listening to the Beatles? I think that airports are mostly full of wealthy lemmings. “I don’t know why anyone bothers to wait in line for group A, but we all do it anyways because we’re a bunch of lemming,” said Lisa, an interesting employee for JP Morgan Chase that was also going to Phoenix. Probably the quote of the trip, if for no better reason then that she actually used the word “lemmings” in a sentence. She also had another good one about thinking she could save the world working for 20k a year, and then succumbed and started working for “the Man.” You meet interesting people in airports sometimes. Another guy was bragging during the St. Louis stop that there was some ridiculously hot 30 something that wanted his number for some casual sex when she was in Columbus next, and maybe some threesomes….just crazy. Tim sat next to a 17 year old who’d already graduated high school, started a couple businesses, made fake ids, and was coming home from a trip to Amsterdam, which he didn’t tell his parents about until he got back.

Anyways, said goodbye the aunt, uncle, and cousin, as well as the brother, but all of these were so much easier, because I think that among people under 70 or so, we take it for granted that they’ll be around the next time. Harder is bidding farewell to the Grandparents, as well as Aunt Nancy, who though still only in her late 50s seems frail as well. The difference between her and the rest of my Dad’s siblings is just huge. They kept talking and apologizing for how boring they were. Yeah, they were boring, but we were here to see them, and besides, it’s not usually in good form to constantly point out one’s shortcomings. Grandma’s still fairly sharp in the head, but quite frail physically. Grandpa’s really losing it upstairs, and unlike Grandma, he’s not accustomed or resigned to being frail. He’s cognizant that it’s happening, but his actions try to deny the truth, and he ends up pushing himself way too much.

It was nice being able to have the other part of the family around, because we could retreat over there. They were more like our parents, and Beth being our age was really nice. Return of the Jedi was lovely to watch with surround sound, as was Master and Commander, though I was really pissed with how Lucas messed around with the ending. What’s up with changing both the song, and adding all those extra party scenes? Besides which, it looked kind of like they were doing fireworks in Coruscant, which makes no sense at all, seeing as at that point it would’ve still been the Imperial capital city. Overall, kudos for a job well done. Anyways, I’m guess that’s about all I’ve got to say, so yeah, later….

Umm...Yay for St. Valentines day???

2005-02-14T14:01:00.000-05:00

The romantic in me says it would be great to do things like give flowers, chocolate, teddy bears, etc. and get things like hugs and kisses and every other clichéd cute idea for this day. The pragmatist in me then says, “Josh you’re a perfect 20 for 20 in terms of being single on this clichéd day of love.” Mike, after calling me a genius and generally master of all after being almost perfect in calling how his relationship with Krystal would go (I missed the part where she actually went back to Trey), came to the conclusion that I’m like Hitch, I can easily and accurately analyze most people’s relationships, but am hopeless when it comes to forging one of my own.

Someone made the point that this day can be about lots of different kinds of love (one word, so many meanings), but I happen to be well over 100 miles from anyone I really love in any sense of the term, and from anyone who would requite such love if it was given to them. As the word relates to people, I’m not the sort of person who uses the word “love” lightly. It’s a verb, something often overlooked.

Basically, Valentine’s Day is depressing in general because it makes me start analyzing my life, and everyone around me, and makes me feel even more hopeless. This year’s edition isn’t aided by the fact that it’s likely to continue raining all day, and that after 2 and a half hours of class already, I’ve got a 3 hour chem lab, and a ton of other work left.

Valentine’s Day is the sort of thing that is grand when you’re in on it, and depressing if you’re not. Though misery generally loves company, I genuinely hope you’re Valentine’s day is better than mine, unless you happen to be a nice, intelligent, and slightly sappy girl, who’s not too short, has pretty eyes, a nice smile, and a good deal of self-respect…then my phone number is 614-205-9580 ;)

And the bitch of it is.....

2005-02-10T23:34:00.000-05:00

I talked to Mike today, and found out that, gee big shock here, his manipulative girlfriend would seem to want to be, big shock here, controlling, and for a fairly independent guy like Mike, this just doesn't work. Having her getting mad because his studies are a higher priority than spending every waking moment with her has created a bit of a strain in their relationship. As in it's already crashing and burning. So the final score ends up, much to noone's surprise, Mike:-1 in the good friends department, Krystal: stupid whore. Oh well, such is life, though it seems like just deserts to me, though i'd rather it not happened. So much for the soap opera.

Some random thoughts

2005-02-08T17:08:00.000-05:00

Why is it that so much of any person's resources, both time and otherwise, are devoted to making the here and now more bearable? Rarely ever to we even consider later in the day into our thought processes, let alone a few days down the road or the future. The only time anyone actually thinks about what's next is when they're facing a time of change. Once settled in, even things like what to do with one's life come up only on rare occasions. All we think of is making the now better, unless we have a real tangible incentive to consider the future. Would we be better off if we spent less money on the morning coffee, or less time playing games? Sure, but that doesn't even cross our minds, because we're too focused on temporal things.

Perspective is something most everyone lacks, but I think it's a malady that particularly affects Western cultures which are more focused on the now. Go figure.

An interesting couple days

2005-02-08T16:01:00.000-05:00

So, anyways, the Super Bowl sucked. Yeah, it was a pretty good game, but it would've been much better if the Eagles actually knew how to run a hurry up offense. The halftime show was solid though. It was nice to see a real musician out there doing his thing with lots of cool, tasteful, but not overwhelming effects as opposed to having a few "stars" lip sync for a few minutes with in your face effects (and a pasty or two). And what's up with McNabb throwing 3 PICKS!?!?! I also thought that the eagles should've done a real kickoff, instead of the onside one. They'd have had much better field position, so McNabb wouldn't have had to run around in his end zone. Questionable play calling and no sense of urgency cost Philly a shot at the Lombardi Trophy.

Anyways, Monday was interesting too. It's not everyday when you are awakened by a fire alarm that goes off for 25 minutes, and to find that your dorm is flooding (though not my room fortunately). A Hilary Duff song summed it up nicely, "Let the rain fall down, and wake my dreams, let it was away my sanity." It did all of those quite effectively, except that the affected rooms are going to need a lot of work to "come clean." After that, just a crummy day, with that damn song stuck in my head all day and a chem lab in the afternoon.

Oh, and Kyle's g/f dumped him Saturday, but of course, she is now going to want to get back together a little ways down the road. Why can't that just end, for once? I was pleased to find that it could actually be over at last, but no, he's just going to have to keep being played with, until if finally ends for good, and then he'll have to move on then. The sooner the better, in my opinion.

Oh well, that seems to have been my life for the past few days. And according to my sources, Mike and Krystal is just an annoying couple now. Curses, I wouldn't mind seeing that go down in flames as well. Peace out, y'all.

I'm an Intellectual Whore

2005-02-04T01:30:00.000-05:00

Was on IM tonight, and was referred to something called The Ladder Theory. Suffice it to say,the more of this I read, the more I found myself saying, wow, this guy really is on to something here. I don't walk around consciously thinking about which girls I'd most like to have sex with, because for starters, I'm opposed to having sex before marriage. But this guy seems to have taken a lot of things into account here. The way my life is going, I'm doomed to being an Intellectual Whore. I even came to the realization that I have been single for each and every Valentine's Day in my 19 year existence, and that somehow, the longer that string goes, the lonelier I feel on February 14th.

Anyways, otherwise, it's been a good couple days, what with winning the hall pool championship, and rocking an Econ exam. It's just this damn thing is gotten to bugging me again. Oh well, such is my life.

I want a purple finger

2005-02-02T23:10:00.000-05:00

Ok, as Robbie accurately pointed out, State of the Union addresses are filled with lots of inane promises that everyone stands for, and then forgets about. Maybe they have significance to Washington insiders and those who'll benefit from them, but that's about it. Usually these addresses have a few important, relevant points, which will be on the national conscious. As I see it, they are as follows, first the Big things, and then a few issues which I think will get more limited, but real, attention.

Big Things:
1. Social Security: Bush started out by outlining the problems with the system, and then used very conservative numbers to back it up. Those numbers were booed, but that's irrelevant, since whether Bush is off by a decade in when the system runs out of money, the problem still exists. I for one am glad to see that the Republicans are dedicate to reforming the system, though I don't know the best method. I personally don't understand how anyone my age could be opposed to social security reform, something the Dems seem committed to stopping. Difference in opinion is good, but it gets carried away, since the parties overlook the good of the nation in favor of politics.

2. The War on Terror, Acts I, II, III, and IV: As Acts I and II, Afghanistan and Iraq respectively, draw to a positive close, it'll be interesting to see what the next step(s) is. The Democrats are already pushing for a RIF timetable after the success of the Iraqi elections, but there's no way anything like that happens, since no one knows the future, and the Republicans won't agree to something that is silly in the first place that can come and bite them in the ass. The Syria Accountability Act of 2003 doesn't allow for an invasion (I actually read it) but there will be mad pressure on Iran and North Korea, as well as possibly Syria. Rice's first trip as Secretary of State is to Israel, and seeing as pretty much every President since the dawn of time has tried to make something happen there, Bush will probably try as well. Can you say LEGACY?

Lesser Issues
1. The Supreme Court: These guys are really getting old. Rehnquist looked in horrible condition at the Inauguration, and none of the others are getting any younger. It's been a while since an appointment, so it's reasonable to assume one's forthcoming. It occurs to me that the Democrats aren't being a good minority party. Instead of the timeless tradition of "Advise and Consent," it's turned into something more like "Slam and Filibuster." Whenever they do finally get back the White House, they've set a precedent Republican Senators will be more than happy to go along with. The fight over this will be colossal.

2. Education: It'll be interesting to see if more money gets spent on education. Obviously, the more money you spend on education, the better it can get, but that only reaches a limit, as every additional dollar means less and less. To really improve education, you need something more than just cash tied to test scores.

3. Cutting pork, and replacing it with....more entitlements?: Bush said he wants to axe 150 programs not doing anything, and then he wants to lower medical expenses to the public, which means more money to that. Reforming the tax code is also a great idea. Maybe make it something simple like, I don't know, 15% for all Americans, not exceptions, no exemptions, no excuses. That's simple, and fair. Maybe build in a charitable giving exemption, so that charities don't take a hit, but it still would only be taxing the income the people use for their own benefit.

OK, so maybe no one will read this, but I guess I don't care all that much. It helps me to organize my thoughts, if nothing else. And if you did happen to read this, then let me know, because then you're cool (even if you weren't already.) :)

Country music is abysmal

2005-02-02T17:17:00.000-05:00

Ok, so honestly now, does anyone in their right mind like country music? (This being especially applicable for Northerners from urban or suburban areas.) I think country music was invented by Southerners as a way to get back at everyone else in this country for kicking their asses in the Civil War. I can't say I'd be particularly devastated if God smote country music, rap, and metal from the collective awareness of the world as we know it. It would make the world a better place.

In other news, one of my best friends has been acting like a complete imbecile courtesy of his new girlfriend. Once upon a time, there was a smart, courteous, respectful, and loyal guy who we'll call Nice guy A for the time being. Nice guy A's been single for a few months after getting abruptly dumped by his girlfriend of over a year. Anyways, Nice guy A's been going to college locally to save money, and while there, has befriended Nice guy B, and Nice Girl, as well as B's girlfriend, who we'll call Psycho girl.

Nice guy B's been dating Psycho girl for about 16 months, but since she's psycho, she starts getting paranoid about nice guy b's friendship with nice girl. So, she decides to break up with nice guy b. Nice guy A and Nice girl have been working to try and save this relationship, because that's the right thing to do. Unfortunately, this is where things go from bad to worse. See, Psycho girl has been thinking about what comes next. And what comes next is a relationship with Nice guy A (circa 3 days after the breakup).

Predictably, Nice guy B's not just devastated by getting dumped, but now he's understandably unbelievably pissed about the fact that one of his best friends is now dating Psycho girl. So basically, Nice guy A's turned into a callous asshole who's rationalizing his current status like mad, seeing as he's managed to make one of his best friends hate him forever, and also earned the condemnation, though in most cases, not alienation, of a good number of his friends. Nice girl is the only one in this whole situation that still seems totally rational, and it's basically up to her to try to keep things from devolving any further, and to try and nudge nice guy/asshole A and psycho girl away from doing anything stupid (like getting married?).

Now substitute Mike for nice guy A/asshole, Trey for Nice guy B, Jen for Nice girl, and Krystal for Psycho girl. Oh well, there's not much else I can do so I figured I'd add it to my rant. Thankfully Jen seems to me to be the kind of person who is easy to trust, and smart enough to use said trust appropriately. I'm just thinking right now to hope for the best for Mike, and that maybe I shouldn't introduce him to any future girlfriends I might have.

Three cheers for direction....

2005-01-27T23:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I had a revelation today. I'm thinking that I'll go for a B.A. in Political Science, plus a B.S. in Economics. Plus, just to make it interesting, I'm also going to do my best to earn a Washington internship, and graduate by the end of winter quarter 2007, so that I can possibly participate in a Presidential campaign. This will mean 5 20-hour courses, 2 more with 15, lots of work, and academic perfection to get into the Glenn Institute. Plus I'll probably need to join some kind of public service organization to help things out. A Washington internship would be clutch, and I'm shooting for Spring 2006, so I can be on campus for Autumn 2006 and the home game against that school up north. Yeah, maybe I'm psycho, but for the first time in my life, it feels like I actually have a real goal, one I fabricated for myself, one that will hopefully for once in my life drive me to live up to my potential. We'll see how this comes out.

This may sound crazy but.....

2005-01-25T23:44:00.000-05:00

I actually want to go home. This weekend. Now wouldn't even be so bad. I think I need a weekend away from this place, and the chance to see Tim, Mike, and some others (Emily's supposed to be back from Taylor too), and also to relax in my own room. But mostly, it has to do with being able to take a weekend off from the drama that is living with 3 others. The opportunity to be able to be by myself whenever I want to, to listen what I want to, and go where I want to (take the car and do crazy shit with it in the Hoover stadium lot). Driving=fun.

Maybe the worst thing is, it's probably not going to happen. Mom's feeling ill, and what with Tim visiting OU Saturday, dad's not up to big trips three days in a row. Then next week's the Super Bowl, making it more difficult, plus Tim might end up getting his wisdom teeth pulled, which would shoot down all. The weekend after that, Tim is actually coming down here to take the Maximus exam, so I wouldn't want to go home. Then it's the Arizona trip. So yeah, Tim's the only one of the several I want to see, that I will. The worst part is, I actually miss the others. Damnation.

My Super Bowl thoughts

2005-01-25T00:46:00.000-05:00

As crazy as this may sound coming from a native of North-East Ohio, I really was rooting for an all Pennsylvania Super Bowl. I've always been a Packers fan first, though I've been more than willing to support the Browns (and Lord knows they need all the support they can get). Anyways, I've always thought that Mike Vick was overrated, and the Eagles exposed the Falcons. Game 1= good

For some reason, I just hate Bill Belicheck. Maybe I just wish he and Scott Pioli were in Green Bay. But anyways, not only do I despise Belicheck, I'm not exactly fond of Tom Brady either. And what the hell, who doesn't love Rothlisberger? So I was dismayed when the Steelers got clobbered. Must be a hell of a year to be a Boston sports fan. Game 2=bad

For the Super Bowl, how can you possibly pick against the Patriots, especially when Belicheck and staff have two weeks to prepare. Jim Johnson is an amazing defensive mind, but is he as good as Romeo Crennell (who's thankfully going to Cleveland) or Charlie Weis, who he has to beat? This could be the best possible coaching matchup in the NFL, with Andy Reid and Bill Belicheck being two of the best, and the coordinators being top notch as well.

As for the players, well... Tom Brady isn't as talented as McNabb, but he's got that X-factor going for him. If T.O. is up to speed, then it could be trouble, but I'm not optimistic there. The biggest thing Philly needs to do is to attack the Patriots secondary, making heavy use of Brian Westbrook. The Pats need to contain Westbrook, and they can win. New England will try to get Dillon going but even if they can't, it sure is nice having a two-time Super Bowl MVP under center. Should be a hell of a game. My pick is the Pats, by a last minute Adam Vinatieri field goal, though I'll be pulling for the Eagles.

If you're a farmer, and you're reading this, don't kill me.

2005-01-25T00:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, so, anyways, today we were in Econ, and Dr. Parsons got me thinking again about one of my pet peeves, government waste. I've always been a big fan of streamlining government, and axing a bunch of the most egregious pork-barrel legislation, which may be why I chose to write a 10-page paper on why we need a limited Line-Item Veto for Poly Sci last quarter. (If you want to know more, I can send you the paper, or you can look at the Citizens Against Government Waste page, which does a fine job tracking pork.) I happen to be quite the fiscal conservative, not that that will surprise anyone who knows me. Less government=more.

Anyways, back to what probably will piss some people off (like small farmers). First, we'll start off with a basic economics lesson. The higher the selling price of a commodity, the more suppliers will supply, and the more suppliers eventually get into the business of selling said good. However, the higher the price goes, the fewer people will want to buy said commodity. Sometimes, people really need said commodity, so a higher price won't drive many people off, but for other things that aren't needed as much, the quantity demanded will go down drastically with even a small price raise. Left to itself, the market will eventually reach equilibrium, a price at which the quantity supplied is equal to the quantity demanded.

Now to throw some history into the equation. It is a historical fact that for a country to change from being an agrarian society to an industrialized one, innovations must be developed to enhance the efficiency of each farmer so that more people can participate in the new industry, and fewer farmers are needed. It's also been necessary to increase the efficiency of the land used, so that as more space is demanded for other uses, the farms will be able to produce more food on less land. Such advances have happened constantly and dramatically over the years, so obviously, fewer farmers and less land are required to keep the population fed. Then a problem arose, circa 1950. There were simply too many farmers, and as such there was a massive surplus of food, causing prices to keep falling, since people the farmers would rather unload their crops for less than ideal, than not sell them at all. The farmers didn't like the poor feeling, so they complained to their local Congressmen (who liked their jobs as much as the next guy). Congress decided to create a price floor for certain crops, and asked Farmer Joe how long ago he thought he made as much as he needed. Our dear Joe went back to 1918, and so the minimum prices were indexed to those from 1918. They're still there today, adjusted for inflation, of course.

Congress realized that this would create an even larger surplus, so they agreed to actually buy the extra crops, and then pay to put them in silos, where they could rot on government dime. Not only that, they also started paying farmers to let some of their land go unused. If this subsidy sounds a bit nuts, that's because it is. Imagine if GM had a problem moving some of their cars, so they whined to the government, and as a response, the government raised the price of GM cars for us, the consumers, and then said, "GM, you know all those cars you can't sell? What the hell, we'll buy them off of you, and not only that, we'll spend lots of money on land so that we can let them to rust." America would likely get rather irritated by the whole thing.

Between 1995 and 2003, $131 billion was spent on farm subsidies. The vast majority just get minimal payouts, about seven grand over that 9 year period. It's a nice little bit to help out, but nothing to get worked up about. 80% of the subsidy recipients fell into this category, which cost the taxpayers about $18 billion total over the nine years. Yeah, it's a lot of money, but not that much in the big picture.

There are glaring flaws in farm subsidies though. First off 20% of farmers are getting at $113 billion dollars of that money. The top ten percent got over $36,000 a year over those nine years. Not only that, there are a number of farms, particularly in the Great Plains, that get money in disaster aid every year. Common sense would seem to dictate that instead of giving money to these unproductive farms year after year, we could try something radical, like seeing what would happen if the government provided job training for a job where they wouldn't just be contributing to a surplus on the rare occasion they contributed anything at all.

I personally am a fan of drastically scaling back the handouts and letting the markets decide which farms make it and which don't. Yeah, maybe that makes me a cold bastard, but oh well. We'd probably end up paying less for our food, and the government would save lots of money that could go to something that benefits everyone, like, say, education, social security, defense, or even, heaven forbid, tax breaks. Help farmers find new jobs, and even give them training, but honestly, what makes them so much different than the steel worker, whose old job disappeared because the laws of economics were allowed to work?

Excellent site for Farm Subsidy Info

4 MORE YEARS!!!!

2005-01-20T20:58:00.000-05:00

Well, in all honestly, the Inauguration speech was good but far from great. Not exactly moving, and of course, quite vague. I liked the whole bit about freedom though. We'll definitely finish in Iraq, and I wouldn't be all that surprised to see us attempt to liberate another country.

Watching C-SPAN 2, I realized just why it was that the Democrats lost. Their campaign was driven by hate for Bush, not hope for America. Barack Obama was on the right track at their convention, but they party was too blinded by hate and loathing to take hold of the message of hope. Raving moronic lunatics are the heart of the Democratic party, and that's not who anyone with half a mind wants guiding the nation. Pathetic is when you bring out an 11 year-old to say that "Bush is evil", and have an 80-year old women you can't hear being introduced by a guy who's foaming at the mouth. I don't know that there's a better way to turn off the rest of the country.

Perhaps the worst thing for the Democratic party happening now, is that with Howard Dean set to take the reigns of their party, they're going to marginalize themselves even more. I can't say that I'm sad about this, because it makes things easier for us, but it's still sad to see the Dems in decline.

random nonsense

2005-01-11T16:46:00.000-05:00

I was bored today, and the Chad got me thinking about farming subsides. Here's what I came up with over lunch today. First off, they are a complete waste of money. Paying people to leave their fields fallow? Who comes up with this shit? The rationale behind farming subsides is that they help small farmers to stay in business, and it's true, most of them would die off if the subsidies were ended, but that's not the point. The federal budget includes billions of dollars for farmers. Take that out, and then Superfarms would take over, destroying (or more likely, consolidating) smaller farms. Food prices would rise, because once the weaker farms went under, the superfarms would be forced to raise prices to stay in business, but honestly, there's no way that this would adversely effect the economy. The money saved in taxes could go back to the consumers, and overall we'd be spending far less money, since we wouldn't be spending money as a nation for empty fields to sit around. Anyways, if you actually read all that, I'm impressed, and think you're a wonderful person.

2004-12-28T23:28:00.000-05:00

I've got an interesting question for anyone who happens to be reading this post. Why does it seem that parents must always try to be blithering idiots by blithely attempting to enforce their will upon their offspring, who quite often don't happen to give a damn about whatever it is that seems so important at the moment? It's one thing to remind someone that some such or another thing needs doing, and quite another to yell at that person for about half an hour when they are clearly disinclined to do it at said moment, but are amenable to doing it later.