The End is Here

I have been nowhere near blogging since Friday because of finals week and making preparations for my final paper presentation, which is today. However, yesterday I had an enjoyable experience of returning my books for this semester...all 27 of them.

I will return to finish what I started: the 40 Class Breakdown.

Last of the Lit. Surveys

English 2435 - Literature in English III - An English Lit. class with Professor Torry is where it's at. I enjoy watching other students reactions to his method of teaching. You see, when Torry wants an answer he'll just keep asking you until he gets one. He doesn't care so much if the answer is correct, he just wants you to engage him in his classroom. Many students choose not to, thus, they don't take anymore classes with him. Well, I speak up, whether I am right or wrong, I always have a good time in a class that Torry is teaching. He is not only knowledgeable, but freaking hilarious. The guy has these random, unrehearsed impersonations of politicians, or characters we come across in the readings that are priceless. I wish he were coming to London, so I could have one more semester of class from him. He also gives a good lecture on that crackpipe, Lacan.

English Lit. II : Sacrfices

Unfortunately, blogs will most likely be rare the next week.

English 2430 - Literature in English II - Inevitably, college doesn't allow enough time for things you want to do, and things you have to do. Sacrifices must be made. One sacrifice I made along the way was to not read Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables. This is the first thing that popped into my head when I thought about this course. I don't think there are any funny stories hidden in this class memory. Sorry about that. However, I did first learn about the London semester in this course and that proved to be my most valuable lesson. It's sad that nothing in the readings struck me in a way that I can be energized about right this moment. I apologize for this classes inability to truly move me to create a tasty morsel of bloggerdom for you.

The count is on: one more paper, one more revision of a paper, two more finals, and one more presentation.

Another English Course

First a quick interlude...

...I would like you to know that I rode my bike to class today when it was -17 F with the wind chill. For all of my international fans, that is -27 C. Now back to our regular programming...

English 2425 - Literature in English I - This was the first of three English literature surveys that are required for English majors. All of the surveys have been entertaining classes, but I didn't like all the literature we read. The most boring story was Beowulf. The most boring play was The Tempest. Finally, the most boring poem was anything by John Donne. There was this day in class in which we were asked to act out a scene from The Tempest. When it was my group's turn to get up on the stage I was excited. I thought I was going to be all right in my role, but after watching a few more people play the same character I realized that I had not done a good job at all. This exercise wasn't graded at all, it was simply for fun, but I know I am a better actor than my performance showed and every time I think of the class I want to do it over again for that one measly scene from The Tempest.

One English Class - Starring Herb and Lenny

New blog template. What do you think?

English 2050 - Creative Writing: Fiction - I could write a blog on this class and the material I wrote during it. I took this class last year, my fourth year at UW, and it was my first venture into creative writing. All the students were required to keep a journal and respond to short stories we read in class, or to our own writing quandaries. I wrote about whatever was in my mind when I sat down to write. Many of the journal entries have made it onto this blog. I spent a lot of time writing about my roommates and gave them surnames. This was my first experience living with people outside of my family so, naturally, I had a lot on my mind regarding the living situation. I will end this blog with an entry from the journal I have been writing about. This entry has never made it onto the blog. And for those of you that knew who my roommates were last year you will just have to guess who is who. If you have heard me talk about last year at all I think you might be able to pin these fellas down. My professor read every one of these entries.

11 October 2004

Herb and I were getting ready for school this morning. (That makes us sound like we are twelve again.) I was standing out in the hallway brushing my teeth when I heard a familiar rattle coming from Lenny's room. I stepped closer to the door, aware that my shadow from underneath the door might give away my presence on the other side...I didn't care. Again, the rattle sound, but this time it was rhythmic. A high chirp with a metal ping at the end came from the other side of the door with an occasional yelp from Lenny's girl. I wasn't really that shocked, because I know Lenny very well, but this was new to me--sex in the morning, at 8:40, when Lenny's girl has class in twenty minutes?

I turned up the hallway and strode out into the kitchen and gave Herb a muffled, "they are doing it," while trying not to spit toothpaste everywhere.

Herb walked down the hallway to the second door on the left. The rhythm seeped through the door and Herb just shook his head.

We finished prepping for our bicycle ride to campus. While walking toward the door I sent an expecting glance to Herb. I knew we weren't making it out the door in silence. My glance let Herb know he was up first.

"By Fuckers!" Herb yelled.

I gave a slight giggle and thought to myself about what Herb yelled, it was literally true, he didn't mean it as an insult and neither would I. It was just too darn accurate. It was my turn now and I thought of saying have a good day at first, but I needed a sexual twist with a little bit of dirty.

"Have a good hump."

The Next Two

Economics 1000 - Global Economic Issues - I met Molly in this class. We became pretty good friends. Her friendship was particularly important to me because she was my first friend in college that wasn't on the swim team.

Economics 1020 - Microeconomics - This class was taught by a respectable professor who seemed really nice. The course played a role in what was to be my worst collegiate academic effort. It was not hard, but most classes are when you do not study your notes, or even take notes for that matter. I don't think I read the book either. Whenever I see the professor around campus I secretly wish I could take the class again and prove to him that I am a good student. In a class as big as it was, I hope he doesn't recognize me and remember my final grade and think he failed me. I definitely failed myself in that class.

The 40-Course Breakdown

Before I start blogging about each and every class let me do the breakdown of my college career excluding the four classes I am taking in London next semester.

I am going to give the number of courses taken in each department to get this party started.

Accounting - One
African-American Studies - One
Anthropology - One
Biological Sciences - One
Communication and Journalism - One
Computer Science - Two
Economics - Two
English - Fifteen
Geology - One
History - One
Languages - Four
Math - One
P.E. - Two
Philosophy - One
Religious Studies - One
Sociology - Three
Theatre - One
University Studies - One

A great friend of mine always used to tell me I should have been a statistics major because he discovered before I did, my fascination with breaking things down like so.

Believe It Or Not

I am going to graduate in May. This blog might have come in May, rather than in the last few weeks of this semester, but it did so because these are my last weeks in Laramie as a University of Wyoming student. I feel that I am graduating in three weeks because I am leaving the institution that I have been a part of for nine semesters. I remember all this talk about high school being the greatest years of your life...wrong. College has straight up dominated the high school years in any way imaginable. The four and a half years I have spent here have fostered a personal, academic, social, and spiritual growth for me that couldn't have been achieved without having this experience. This is not to say that I couldn't grow in those areas without this experience, but to emphasize the important role Wyoming, UW, and the friends therein have played in my life.

As of December 16, 2005, I will have completed 40 courses at this university. The knowledge I have gained from these courses is varied in levels of importance, but I can say that every course has provided a memorable story, experience, or lesson that I can take away from my college experience, other than the material presented to me by my many different professors. In my next few entries I am going to attempt to list all 40 of those courses along with that story, experience, or lesson. I am looking forward to writing those blogs already. However, some things call me away from my computer, and they are my 38th and 39th courses taken at UDUB.

G-Unit is on Percocet

Thanksgiving break was enjoyable due to the following reasons, but not limited to solely these: I dropped my pants while longboarding Wednesday night during the tour de Fort Collins, I got to run with Kyle, slept in every morning, had many conversations with my Dad who is on Valium and Percocet, ate a Big City Burrito, watched CU lose (I hate everything about CU), I got to sing Laffy Taffy and while I was doing that I realized what a superb achievement in music that song really is, I didn't watch any news on TV, I ate many great meals due to Chris's invaluable cooking expertise, I got talked into going to Get Rich Or Die Tryin' (the movie itself wasn't that good...not surprising...I just thought it was simultaneously impressive and sad that I got talked into going), played Yahtzee....and lost...twice, washed my poor salt riddled car, ate a pumpkin pie, and made it safely back to Laramie on U.S. 287 in a bit of a snow storm.

Cheney vs. Reid

Avoiding the political turmoil is nearly impossible in this country. It wouldn't help if you chose not to watch TV, surf the net, or read the newspaper.

In our most recent political quarrel we have the Vice President Dick Cheney lashing out at the popular rhetoric that President Bush and his administration lied to the nation about the real reason the U.S. went to war in Iraq. Cheney called the Democrat's argument "dishonest and reprehensible." I feel partially misled by the "intelligence" that supported the case for a war against Iraq, but I don't see the value in attacking the President and his administration while the war is still going on. I really do believe the attacks on the President distract him and his administration away from Iraq, than it does anything else.

Senator Harry Reid has accused Cheney of "playing politics like he's in the middle of a presidential campaign." I love it. When the President is getting bashed it seems like it's expected of his administration that they not defend their decisions. As soon as somebody does, they get grilled and accused of not paying attention to what really matters: the war in Iraq. Another quote from Reid, "I would urge the members of the Bush administration to stop trying to resurrect their political standing by lashing out at their critics. Instead, they need to focus on the job at hand, giving our troops a strategy for success in Iraq." Reid fails to recognize that Cheney was just simply responding to his critics as he has a right to do. His words were not harsher than the words of other politicians criticizing the President's decision to go to war.

Like Senator Reid said, Cheney is "playing politics", but so is Reid. Although by definition a politician's task is to not to "play politics", that is exactly what being a politician is these days.

The Pink Locker Room

Sportscenter, my favorite show, was kind enough to enlighten us about the University of Iowa's pink, visiting locker room in their stadium. The mental effect on the visiting team that is desired may not always be achieved, but over the years coaches have spent hours masking over everything pink in the locker room. Not all teams mask over the pink, some coaches let their players see the pink. All the players interviewed last night on Sportscenter were not offended by the pink. Most said things like, "I think it's a good idea", "Why not try to play mental games with your opponents?"

Nevertheless, we have gay and lesbian rights activists saying that the use of pink is trying to present women or gays in an inferior position to the young, strapping football players. What it boils down to is this: the people that are protesting the pink locker room are afraid of being offended, or they are afraid of the pink locker room offending someone else. And since something might be offensive, even if it is a long-standing tradition, it's no good and must be stopped immediately before some 300-lb-lineman breaks down in the locker room and cries for his mom because the pink makes him feel inferior. And as far as associating pink with women with weaker football players...I'm okay with that. You're lying to yourself if you think a team of women could go out onto the football field and play a tougher, better, and stronger game against a team of men, and beat them. The tradition is for the guys that don't care about offending their opponent a little, not for the activists and law professors that see something wrong with it.

Music Department

Collin took this picture of his guitar. I think it's a good picture so I put it up here, but it made me think about my musical talent...

If you just laughed, you know me well. I love music. Music enerqizes and excites me in ways nothing else can sometimes, it's awesome. However, I don't know anything about reading or writing music, nor have I ever desired to know about these things. Sometimes you just know where you have been given talent. Sometimes it takes a venture into the unknown to discover that you have no talent in that area, but I don't need to do that with music. I sure enjoy it, and listen to it a lot, but deep down inside I know I was never meant to be involved in the music department. I'm okay with that.

The Way of the Jersey-Chaser

You may find this a bit crude, but speaking bluntly is necessary. Here we go. While I sit at tables on Tuesday and Thursday nights I see a lot of people. The majority of the patrons fall into two categories: football players, or the jersey-chasers, which happen to be the dirtiest, easiest looking girls you could ever imagine.

It's no big mystery why the football players are there, it's a requirement for 99% of them to be vastly inferior in intelligence to the average college student. The jersey-chasers are their exact match on the female spectrum of intelligence--dumb as hell. I suspect that you could pick one person from each group and they could tell you of twenty people in the other group that they have slept with. So, the jersey-chasers aren't the only hos at study tables, there is the man-whore as well.

I just wanted to share this with you because no matter how much I am exposed to either group, I will never understand what is going on in their head. What do they think there existence is for? They really aren't stupid people either, they just don't have any wisdom or traditional values. I will be biased here and say traditional values are better than their values, unless you value syphilis, gonorrhea, genital herpes, sores, and warts.

Surprise!

I feel I have sinned by going this long without blogging.

In a recent conversation with a friend I verbalized what I have been feeling for some time now, that I am undecided as to what I should do when I graduate because I lack direction.

Google Earth is a really cool program. You should go download it.

Ezra Pound's Cantos are painful and not entertaining at all to read. I called him something bad in my notes, but I can't recall the exact expletive. In Canto I, Pound basically celebrates himself and places himself in a long tradition of great writers to bring the ancient, profound voices to the modern generations that have lost the desire and will to progress because of World War I. Fascinating. Couldn't he have done that without being so arrogant?

After four straight conference loses, the Western Thunder Marching Band is once again the pride of War Memorial Stadium in Laramie, Wyoming, not Cowboy Football. They are just playing horribly. I am foregoing the last home game this Saturday. Last year must have been a fluke or something...

Star Wars Bliss

I had to put this up because it's one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Is that sad? You might think so, but the Star Wars experience will never die for this nerd.

It's Showtime

Hollywood is in a slump. I can't believe how much crap comes out of that city in any given year, but specifically this year. It seems that I have been waiting around since I saw Batman Begins for another good movie. Here we are entering into the holiday season and there should be buckets of movies that I am dying to see...this is not the case.

I just can't get with Potter and his schoolboys. A History of Violence was just awful. What was up with the sex scene on the stairs? My girlfriend was laughing uncontrollably in the theatre when she leaned over to talk to me during this scene, "I am so embarrassed that I brought Angela (her younger sister) to see this." A quick story about my senior seminar class yesterday. My professor asked us if we had seen A History of Violence yet. I quickly shouted out a loud, "don't!" before anyone had time to answer. She then proceeded to tell us that it was a great movie and that we should go see it. That is fine, everyone is entitled to their own movie opinions, but I felt a bit bad about bashing the movie she was about to sell to us.

WeatherMan looks promising to me, but other than that the only movie that I have been honestly looking forward to is The Chronicles of Narnia. The movie was filmed in New Zealand, and it's using WETA Workshop for special effects and imagery, it's adapted from C.S. Lewis's (who is a stud, even though I recently heard he smoked close to 50 cigarretes a day) great books, and it has Aslan in it, who is essentially Jesus kicking some major ass....how can this movie not be good?

The O'Reilly Factor

I don't like everything Bill O'Reilly has to say, but I am generally intrigued by his awesome ability to be a jackass to anyone when his beliefs are challenged. So, I really do watch his show when I can, this happens about once a week, because I like it.

Tonight he made a good point about the NYCLU challenging the searching of bags and items prior to subway use in NYC. Many people have protested the searches, saying they are a violation of privacy. You know if someone has something to hide from a cop, they should be busted. What is the big deal with a cop looking through your bag and making sure you aren't going to kill a bunch of people? It's pathetic if you think that is a violation of your rights. What Bill pointed out is the fact that all bags are subject to search at the NYCLU upon entering or exiting the building. That is classic.

Nothing Important Here

The amount of blogs I have been putting up is just pathetic. I am sorry to disappoint the five people that come here....no wait, strike that, that might be generous, let us make it three.

Like I alluded to last week, I am busy once again with crap to do in my last six weeks of classes here...I think it's six.

I thought I would think of something to write really quick before I get in bed and read until I pass out, but I guess not. This is quite unfortunate. Hopefully, I will have some much better material when I work my way through the seemingly endless stack of books in front of me.

Good News & Bad News For The Wal-Mart Hater

Good news...Wal-Mart's stock is down 13% this year.

Bad news...The average Wal-Mart employee makes less than $19,000 a year.

Bad news...Wal-Mart has 3,000 factories in China. The employees in these factories probably make 33 cents an hour. China passed a labor law, I think in 2002, that would establish a national minimum wage, but that hasn't been initiated yet.

Bad news...If any factory employees in China ask for a higher wage they are more often than not fired because the employer has a line of a million at the application door.

More bad news...My hometown of Longmont is not only going to have one super Wal-Mart soon, but two...wonderful. Now watch as the old school Wal-Mart building is abandoned. No one will buy it because it's just so stinking ugly and most likely, Wal-Mart hasn't kept it clean or as operable as it should be. Case in point, the Laramie Wal-Mart that was emptied when the supercenter opened here before I came to school. It's this ugly, dilapidated, rotting building on the edge of town as you drive in from the freeway. How about Wal-Mart takes one of their millions and bulldozes that crap down and build a park with a nice green field. The park would be close enough to the supercenter to launch flaming turds from a three-man balloon-launcher onto the roof of the new Wal-Mart.

Good news...you don't have to shop at Wal-Mart. Find local stores, or other chains that are significantly lower on the food chain than the giant that is rotting our country from the inside out and give them your money.

Bill Read Dracula

Swoopes announced she likes women. Did this come as a shock to anyone? I'm expecting the whole slew of WNBA players to follow suit now.

How cool was the World Series? I watch seven or fewer baseball games a year in the World Series. Last year it was Boston's turn and this year, the White Sox. I met Bill tonight. Bill has been a White Sox fan for 55 years. He grew up in Northern Illinois and at age ten he had to decide which Chicago team to pick. Bill, I know you aren't reading this, but you picked the right one. Bill also noticed I was reading Dracula. He told me about the time he spent living in Romania. He said one evening he bought a hard-cover Dracula because he thought it would be a good first time to read the book. He brought it back to his residence and opened the window. Bill ended up not setting Dracula down until he was finished with it. He read through the night. How cool is that? I myself am enjoying the book a lot, but I do wish I only had one night to read it in Transylvania with my window open to the moonlit sky.

This October has been the warmest of the five I have spent in Laramie. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 63. That is unheard of! I mean it's freaking almost November and we are in the 60s....what the hell is going on? I am sure enjoying it. I had a pleasant realization while biking to class today, that given my time away for Thanksgiving, I have at most 7 more weeks of Laramie winter in my life...except that is until I come back the first week of May for graduation, but this is great. It should be winter right now, but it isn't. I know it is going to change from one day to the next and I won't see the 60s for the rest of the semester, but I am loving it up while it lasts.

I Want a Black, Bulletproof Suburban

Andy Rooney is definitely one of the most arrogant punks around but I still watch the last 5 minutes of 60 Minutes in hope of hearing the occasional intelligent comment from him.

I can't promise a daily blog anymore, at least for the rest of the semester. I will be happy with writing one every other day. The extreme business that I spoke of last week might just be the beginning of a very taxing end to the semester.

I think everyone should read this. It's an account of an army reservist being called to duty. I found it when I was browsing through some internet sites this morning. http://www.slate.com/id/2128621/entry/2128622/

Seeing Bush Sr. yesterday was awesome. He talked about working with Clinton and had some good things to say about ole' Bill. That was good to hear. He mentioned how people in his camp are chiding him for working with Bill. Likewise, he said people in Bill's camp are asking him why he is working with the enemy. Bush Sr. then went on to say that conservative, liberal, republican, and democrat doesn't mean anything to them in this venture. All that matters is that they are helping people affected by the tsunamis of 2004, hurricanes, and other disasters. It takes a lot for these guys to throw politics out the window and I am glad when it happens.

I got stopped on a sidewalk afterwards by a cop. He stopped me right by the driveway coming out of the arena. In a moment Bush Sr. and the Secret Service pulled out right in front of me. Bush Sr. looked at me and waved, and I waved back. This is sort of a silly thing to be excited about, but he was 5 feet in front of me and I thought it was COOL...okay? Plus, the Secret Service guys stand and act in real life exactly as they do in the movies...well done Hollywood.

Ditching Class

I thought I was going to have narrowed down some interesting topic to voice my opinion on, but I haven't yet. It has been a couple of days since the last post and I am due to write something.

George H.W. Bush is coming to town tomorrow and I am going to a public discussion to see him. I am pretty stoked about it. I have never seen a President or a President of the past in person. I have to miss a class to go, but I am allowed two unexcused absenses. I haven't missed one class, and I won't miss another after this one. I began every sentence with "I" except for the first sentence.

My roommate goes to church with me now. However, I don't really know how to ask him about his faith. The situation is a blessed one, but also an unfortunate one because you don't simply know Jesus by going to church. You know Him through the experiences and relationships you encounter away from church that make the truth, that you hear in church, true.

Episode III comes out a week from tomorrow on DVD. YEAH!!! I love the prequels. I will say, none of them are as strong as the original trilogy...perhaps Revenge of the Sith, but that doesn't make them unworthy of the Star Wars name for me. Anyway, the missing link in the Star Wars DVD Saga is just around the corner and I am giddy about it.

I am GLAD Bush won!

Just some thoughts about what I have seen in the news lately.

Saddam shouldn't have a trial. I heard his niece or something like that said he was an "honorable" man. What a joke. I am waiting around for someone to knock him off. That probably won't happen, but I can hope.

I am sick of hearing about Harriet Miers. President Bush appointed her...let us just wait and see what happens instead of the same old routine of digging up the past.

Bird Flu. Gosh, the media is having a heyday with this one. I understand the threat, but good Lord the media exaggerates at every possible turn. It's going to mutate and kill millions across the globe. I'll believe it when I see it, and then and only then will I eat my words, and then maybe I won't because I could be dead.

And not really in the news, but movies have really sucked lately. I am not excited about any movie in October or November. The next big release that is worth anything is the Chronicles of Narnia series.

PC

I spend too much of my life being politically correct. I hate the idea of being politically correct. Life is opinionated, opinions offend, life is offensive. What I value and what I think shouldn't be hidden, and I find that I have hidden a lot of myself in fear of being judged, or in fear of a conversation that will turn into an argument. More often than not, I hide my beliefs from people I am friends with. This is very unfortunate. So, there will be more of the silly hidden stuff coming out in blogs to come.

The other night, I was browsing over a table of papers that had academic tips on them. I picked up a bookmark that had some "How to Keep Calm During Tests" tips on them. The second one on the list is, Admit to yourself, "I will not know all of the answers." I burst out laughing in a study hall that is supposed to be quiet and that I am supposed to be watching over. I can see the concept behind this tip, but couldn't the authors have worded it in a different way. This phrase makes the possibility of acing a test an impossibility. Given the location of these test-taking tips--in a study hall for student-athletes that haven't been able to get out of study hall because their gpa is not above the 2.5 or 3.0 mark--an ace on a test is most definitely an impossibility at this stage in their academic career. Further on down the list one more tip made me laugh. If you notice you are not thinking well, relax yourself physically during the exam. I immediately thought of someone feeling themselves up, or adjusting themselves and I laughed once again.

Nothing

This is the busiest week of my semester...Well, I hope it is. So, there isn't going to be much time to write any blogs for a few days. I am sad about this, but they will return in due time.

The Connection isn't Down

My faith makes me aware of sin like nothing else could in my life. Sometimes it almost feels like a curse, the awareness of sin, but I know it's helpful. I certainly don't know everytime I sin, but I know afterwards and I know it as I sin too sometimes.

I observe someone's actions. What they are doing is absolutely horrible and destructive to their well-being, no matter what they believe. In my eyes, what they are doing is wrong. If I did the same thing, I would know right away it wasn't beneficial to myself or anyone involved. However, whether they believe what I do or not, if they do this enough they will eventually see the bad in it. The first time it will feel like the smallest of splinters in their skin. It will grow more each time they do it. The knowledge of knowing this "bad" inside them will eventually be so great they will turn away from it and spend their mental capacity thinking about things that will not allude to the darkness within them. However, the darkness keeps growing even then if they do not change their ways. When it's close to enveloping them in a dark cloud, they see the difference between good and bad. That knowledge was always there. It was implanted in them from the beginning and it often takes this cycle to become enlightened if you will. I have taken a few of these cycles myself, but after they are all done I look back in amazement at my stubborness and God's great calling for us all. This is one of His most powerful ways to speak to us. We think we aren't listening to Him, but you can't cut the connection like a telephone line. Did you think you could, cut the connection between the created and the Creator? If there is any hint of a "yes", He is coming for you.

Creative Blog Title

I sometimes have the tendency of putting my much self-appreciated sarcasm into questions in which it shouldn't exist.

I just saw Elizabethtown. It was a bit of a letdown. The movie had some good scenes, but a movie isn't good just because part of it is good, it's good because the whole darn thing is great. So...it wasn't a good movie. Kirsten Dunst is better in Spiderman movies. Orlando Bloom will always be best as Legolas.

UW vs. UNM tomorrow in the homecoming game. You only wish you were here for it.

Unfair and Unbalanced

It's a habit of many to put FOX NEWS in the spotlight when talking about the biased media. FOX NEWS is obviously the most popular news service to mention. In class when you do mention it, you get an agreeable nod from nearly every professor across America. I am not denying that FOX NEWS is a right-wing media service, but why is that not okay? It's okay to have the left-wing NY Times, or the Chicago Tribune, or CNN, but shame on the people who think they can creat a right-wing news service! Ha, what a joke. Human emotion is unavoidable and in the line of work that these people do it's impossible for their work to be finished without them putting some personal attachment to it. No media reports the news without their opinions attached to it, no matter how subtle or obvious they might be.

The River

XXX is a bad movie. Vin Diesel's performance as Caparzo, in Saving Private Ryan, will always be his best acting, and certainly the best movie he has ever been involved with.

In a literature survey this week, a professor said something that I took to heart. Having been through 4 years of English classes now, I find this to be very true. "Executives don't care about the river. They live in the city, far away from the river. Keep this in mind English majors, they don't care about us." This arose from reading W.H. Auden's poem, "In Memory of W.B. Yeats". The river carries the eternal wisdom inherent in some poetry far, but it doesn't reach into the city. The city is not aesthetically concerned with life. Even if the river did reach into the city, the "executives" there wouldn't have the eyes to see it.

Now, a not so serious quote from another English professor. "It's quite a relief to have a class where everybody can write, so at the end of the semester I am going to have you all bronzed." The professor of my 18th century literature class said this one day after handing back a batch of papers.

In the midst of my busy schedule today I took time out to repair a Nintendo 64 controller of mine. The "A" button was sticking on occasion. I think many years ago I had spilled a portion of a drink on the controller. Soon after that I bought more controllers anyways and then I could always pick the newest controller for my playing pleasure. However, today I took pity on those friends of mine that have had the inestimable pleasure of having the "A" button stick on them and I labored over the little gray controller for a half an hour. It was necessary though. The N64 has provided fun for years and it will continue to do so. The system simply has some of the best multiplayer games that will ever exist.

Ludacris in 2 Fast 2 Furious...............ghetto.

V for Victory

I become overwhelmed with adrenaline. It's suffocating me to the point I begin to doubt myself. I shake the doubt away, calling it "absurd" in my head. After all the early morning practices and weight sessions; after hundreds of miles in the pool; after tapering; after shaving; after everything doubt can still creep into my mind. This is amazing to me, but doubt isn't the overwhelming feeling. I look to my left and look to my right and I respect my opponents, but I think nothing of them at the same time. Who is to say I can't beat them? I believe I want this more than them. Whatever they plan on doing, I don't plan on doing. I plan on doing more. I want more of them than they think they are going to allow. I will take it. I will snatch it up in their defeat and pride myself in my accomplishments. I will be at the top of my game for a second, but it will last an eternity and it will never be forgotten. I desire to win the race again, and once you taste victory everything is so bland.

So Much For That

I have this cool service provided by StatCounter that counts the number of hits on my website. It's free and they provide the user with a lot of useful information regarding when people visit the user's website. I know when you come here and from where you are coming from. I think it's a bit creepy, but very cool. I know your Internet provider too, and most of the time what browser you are using. So...in regards to the last post. I thought maybe someone would leave a comment as to why they keep coming here...what keeps you coming back, if anything at all? Well, I had a decent amount of hits today, but no one left a comment. I thought I would get at least one. Oh well, that is why I put up the Why? post to begin with. If you can't leave an answer, I would still like to thank anyone who comes here. Having visitors isn't the reason I started this, but they are certainly welcome. The blog keeps me writing in a very easy and comfortable way in the middle of a crazy workload and I love this thing.

Why?

You have enough time to come here, so leave a comment and tell me why you come here?

The Occupation of My Time

I haven't put much up recently. The workload is really bogging me down. So, in my lapse of reading and writing, I thought I would show you what is keeping me from writing something a little more entertaining than this:

“Culture, Ideology, Interpellation” – John Fiske

After reading a few paragraphs of Fiske, I was reminded of the class discussion on Marxism. Marx didn’t factor in race and gender, but Fiske emphasizes the importance of those factors, like the class did, in uncovering the ideologies found in any culture.

Fiske’s argument that “Consciousness is never the product of truth or reality but rather of culture, society, and history” (1269), is intriguing because it posits that there is no reality. Reality is presented to us, or given to us through the ideology we adopt unconsciously. In this reality, we find the idea of consciousness and think it into existence in our mind. The human mind presents itself as a quandary of problems in this argument. The mind invents ways to control others in the form of an ideological apparatus, this apparatus, described by Fiske, is TV. Indeed the creation of an apparatus and its language that has such a powerful influence over humans takes a lot of intelligence, but this intelligence also values the minds of those that it wishes to control or subdue. The ideology recognizes the mind’s capacity for imagination, and turns that capacity upon itself so the mind imagines a real world.

Fiske argues that these ISAs (ideological state apparatuses) don’t favor any social class or group. The ISA looks at the whole social structure and seeks to suffocate every demographic to implant a morality. The ideology is found in the omnipresent apparatuses of a society.

Fiske’s interpretation of the language used on TV was interesting. I didn’t think his ideas were so far-fetched that I couldn’t buy into them. I loved his analysis of the repetitive “heart” metaphor. “The repeated use of the “heart” metaphor not only makes “America” into a living, breathing body (like the one “we” inhabit), but it constructs the unions as a potentially lethal disease, if not a stiletto-wielding assassin!” (1272) For Fiske, the repetitive terms used over time in this medium establish in us the idealistic image of ourselves that some of us have become accustomed to force upon others.

These are my reading notes for an English class.

Sporty Weekend

It's a big weekend here in Laramie. For the first time in 5 years I will be able to watch the Pentathlon. The Pentathlon was the worst swimming event all season long. It didn't help that it is the first meet of the year. Seen as how I could only swim Freestyle and Backstroke, I didn't enjoy it much. In fact, only a couple of people enjoy it every year. These people are the IM'ers, their specialty being the medley of strokes. I did enjoy rallying on these people in freestyle though, that was certainly one pleasure taken from the annual pentathlon. However, the 100 butterfly often overshadowed that experience if it came after the freestyle. In butterfly, one is supposed to bring both arms to the front, above the water, for the stroke recovery. This was no problem for me for about 85 yards, but the last 15 were very ugly, so ugly that you just couldn't call it butterfly. It will be so comforting watching the five swims today that I don't have to do.

The Cowboys play the Horned Frogs from TCU on Saturday. This is a huge game, for first place in the MWC. I am pretty stoked about it because I get to be on the field. The last three years I was always on the field because I ran the down marker, but that job is only for current athletes. Anyway, my roommate has a job on the field on Saturday and I am going to keep him company. He mans the instant replay headset for the referees.

Two big sporting events are essential to this weekend being great. UW isn't a Notre Dame or Texas, but we are D-I, and I am thankful for that. You know why, because everything else just doesn't measure up.

A Falling Marble

I don't know what I am going to do when I graduate. All I know is that, and the fact that I am not alone. I want to do this, or I want to do that. It all begins with I want. Each class I take pushes me closer to the edge, but not the edge of misery, but the edge of the unknown.

You know those marble mazes? You drop the marble in the top and it can take innumerable paths to the same end. Well, I feel like the marble. I can't predict the future, but I know there are unseen obstacles that will send me in a different direction then I ever thought I was going. That is the nature of things. I might as well blindfold myself, grab God's hand, and go along for the ride because He is the only guidance I have.

Who am I to say what I will do? God knows it...I know that much. He doesn't change His mind. It was set a long time ago and the faith God gives us in this life offers peace like nothing else. I realize I might make this sound like an easy conclusion to come to, but it took the feeling of misdirection to bring me to some semblance of direction. Since I am human, I am bound to forget this at some point, but not for long...not for long.

Baywatch: New Orleans

I have one more picture that was sent to me after Hurricane Katrina. This is of David Hasselhoff touring the gulf region after the storm.

The Aftermath

Leave it up to our society to make a joke of absolutely everything. This is hilarious. The caption reads, "President Bush and his father tour New Orleans following Hurrican Katrina."

I have another picture similar to this one that I will put up later, but it's Wednesday and I have class from 2:10 to 6. More later.

Simulacra

I noticed when I first saw The Matrix that the book Neo hides his discs and money in is Simulacra and Simulations, by Jean Baudrillard. At the time I had no idea who Baudrillard was, or what Simulacra and Simulations is about. I recently had to read it for a class and I loved it because it has in its theory a plot outline of The Matrix.

When Morpheus says, "Welcome, to the desert of the real", it comes straight from Baudrillard's theory that reality is interspersed here and there. He calls it, "The desert of the real itself." Baudrillard is obsessed with the manifestation of the real, so much that his world is a cyclical system of reality that imitates, repeats, and reiterates everything so much that it's hard to tell when reality comes around, or if there ever was a reality to begin with. The false reality is given to us in "matrices" through a "perfect machine" designed to blindfold us to the truth...that there is no truth. Anyway, for anyone who is interested in The Matrix, you should read this, maybe you already have, and I am way behind here...oh well. I enjoyed writing this.

It's worth reading alone for his description of Disneyland. "It is meant to be an infantile world, in order to make us believe that the adults are elsewhere, in the "real" world, and to conceal the fact that real childishness is everywhere, particularly among those adults who go there to act the child in order to foster illusions of their real childishness." He also says this, "Moreover, Disneyland is not the only one. Enchanted Village, Magic Mountain, Marine World: Los Angeles is encircled by these "imaginary stations" which feed reality, reality-energy, to a town whose mystery is precisely that it is nothing more than a network of endless, unreal circulation: a town of fabulous proportions, but without space or dimensions."

I'm not saying I buy into this stuff. There are certainly absurdities to be found in Baudrillard, but it's interesting simply because it explains The Matrix better than anything else I have encountered.

Giddiness Achieved

I am going to be in London for my last semester of undergraduate studies. A lot of things had to happen in order to make this a possibility, and the fact that they did is a huge relief after a long time spent hoping that this would become a reality. Woohoo! So giddy!

On another note, Hamlet isn't that bad, but King Lear sucks. I don't care if it's Shakespeare...I just don't like it. This reminds me that a favorite pastime of mine is to criticize the canon of English literature. Sure, all the stuff is influential and important to the development of English literature and the language, but some of it is just horrible. Beowulf is awful. The obsession with that text never ceases to amaze me. You know they are making a movie of it? I pray that it is nothing like Beowulf, then and only then, will it have a chance of being entertaining.

My criticisms of the English canon will have to stop now because I have to go to an English Lit. class. Ha! There may be more dislike directed toward the canon, but that isn't a guarantee.

Meet the Parents

This weekend is a real life "Meet the Parents" scenario for Kate and Bryce. A football game between UNLV and UW is bringing both sets of parents together for the first time. This is a bit delayed, seen as how Kate and Bryce have been together for nearly two and a half years, but I suppose they are blessed to have parents that want to meet their daughter's boyfriend, or their son's girlfriend.

It's funny, but Kate and Bryce want them to become close and keep in touch, but whether or not that happens their love will still be. Bryce's parents already see Kate's parents as a blessing because bad parents couldn't raise such an amazing girl. The author would agree, even through his slightly skewed perspective he can see that these two were made for each other.

The Fatted Burrito

Big City Burrito introduced me to the big voluptuous burritos that I have come to desire and love so much. At the time, Chipotle, was a little known burrito joint that was starting in Denver. I wasn't introduced to one of these beautiful 22 oz. burritos until 1999, when I moved to Longmont. The third Chipotle had recently opened there. Though the Chipotle burrito is different than the BCB, they are both delectable and tantalizing to the tastebuds. I have enjoyed many of these burritos over the years and parting with the weekly, and sometimes daily intake of them when I left Colorado was sorrowful.

Laramie, not being a big town, was unsurprisingly void of any burrito joint when I came here in 2001. However disappointing this was, I recognized that the burritos I left behind would be that much better when I returned to them. This was very much the truth. The aura from these burrito joints called me hither as soon as I would return to Colorado, even if it was for a day.

Then it happened. My sophomore year, Fat Burrito came to town. I took the opportunity to indulge in one of my favorite traditions, and hoped that it could live on through this Wyoming extension of a fantastical food-fantasy. I was wrong. The place was awful. A tremendous amount of gas lurched from my body for the next few days. Each unfortunate odor reminding me of my shattered hope. On top of that, Fat Burrito was handing out fliers that advertised them as being "bigger and better than the 'city". As you can imagine, this didn't quench my dislike for them. I vowed never to return.

Over the next three years I had heard "fat burrito" in the air; in other conversations. It still occupied the darkest and most disdainful corners of my mind. People close to me began to speak of it as though it had a promising return to burrito excellence in store. I took it as a grain of salt, but the grains began piling up with the good reviews of burritoful experiences. The pile of salt was much too high to ignore.

Again, I broke the threshold of Fat Burrito. An improvement had been made. The ingredients were digestible and somewhat tasty, though still bland in comparison to the long-standing tradition of BCB, and the young stardom of Chipotle. The burrito is certainly as big at Fat Burrito, but not as heavy. The density of the tin-foil clouds in my dreams is much greater. I left Fat Burrito willing to return again, but the time between visits will certainly be the determining factor in how good this place really becomes. There only need be a few hours between visits to BCB or Chipotle for me to be craving their goodness again. It has been 8 days since my return trip to Fat Burrito, and it doesn't lure me to it's tortillas quite yet. I hope in my absence from Fat Burrito that they continue to improve. That I might return and find a burrito as good as BCB or Chipotle is still fantasy.

Picture New Orleans

I don't know how many of you saw this picture during all the Katrina coverage, but it got my attention perhaps more than others. In a situation, previously unknown to most Americans, and especially to the rest of the world, Americans were pushed to the edge of civility and beyond it. The most basic need, survival, was everyone's obsession. Prior to Katrina, I think that most Americans had only seen this desperation enacted on a stage or in a movie, and for a week it was real news. I don't have any point to make, mostly I wanted to put this picture up here so people could see it if they hadn't already. There were thousands of images coming out of this disaster, but this is profoundly honest humanity, and that is hard to find.

The War on Terror

Saddam Hussein is a bad man. I'm glad he is out of power. There was a time shortly after his fall that the Iraqis were happy with our presence, but that time has passed. The Iraqis now see a new evil, or terror if you will, that has been ushered in by our enduring presence in the region. Much of the violence that continues killing Iraqis and U.S. soldiers and workers exists because the U.S.A. is now viewed, because of it's prolonged existence, as the nation that invaded Iraq, not liberated it. It's not an easy situation that this country finds itself in. If it was a no-brainer, I have faith that the problem would have been resolved by now, but I would like to see the U.S. leave Iraq. The country has there own long-standing problems of Islamic sects conflicting with one another. Our presence is now compounding those problems, and they have a better chance of residing with our departure.

I would not say President Bush is a war monger, but he and the USA have overstayed their "welcome", although labeled as we are, the invading nation, we can't have a welcome and it is becoming harder and harder to remember the time when a welcome was ever a possibility. There will always be those that oppose the USA and its policies. Staying in one nation long enough isn't going to change that.

The nation's focus for the last month has been on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, but in the time between those hurricanes, 40 more US Soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq. I don't want to be comfortably writing on this blog a year from now while American men and women my age, and people of Iraqi descent, are being killed thousands of miles away in a war that lost its welcome a long time ago.

Wyoming is so Uncivilized

What is with people thinking Wyoming is behind everyone else? I decided to go to UW on a whim, but some people I knew simply couldn't put that behind them. They have these ideas about Wyoming: that it is uncivilized, that it hasn't seen the same "progress" that the rest of the country has been blessed with. Another favorite of mine, things can't be good in Wyoming, and UW is so rural that certainly you can't get an education there that is on par with other major universities throughout the country--this is absurd. Along with that, lets throw in the fact that UW is the cheapest or one of the cheapest universities in the nation. Therefore, many people think that it can't provide opportunities or an equal education than a school that costs four times as much. It doesn't really matter where you go, education is what you make of it. If you don't care about education you aren't going to get an education. Also, because we don't have the latest and greatest strip malls and shops, life here must really be a downer.

I know people are entitled to their own opinions. I myself have named off a couple places on this blog that I wouldn't like to live, but that is because I have lived there, or spent an extended amount of time there. I guess what bothers me the most about Wyoming is when I run into people that act like they know everything about this place. More often than not, this knowledge they claim to have is based on absolutely nothing. Wyoming is to them, a place where life isn't as fun, people aren't as fortunate, and where "progress" hasn't been made because it isn't filled to the brim with people. I can tolerate those opinions if someone has lived here, but if you have only driven through this state or spent one night in it, then you are lying to yourself if you think this way.

A Family Feud

Before I was born, in the time of leisure suits and big hair, my family was on Family Feud. The team that won two shows and lost a third was composed of my parents, my mom's parents, and one of my mom's sisters.

The tape of the show is hilarious. The questions, some of them, are so easy. The host...Richard something I believe, was so old. He had nothing but gray hairs on his head. His age only became bothersome when he puts his dirty lips on every woman on the show every time they are about to talk or answer a question. I just couldn't have handled it if I was on the show and this man was kissing my wife every five minutes. Feud would be too nice of a term.

Back to the tape. The jokes Rich made were so bad. The same jokes today couldn't get a grunt out of the audience. The commercial breaks are glorious; they last for about a minute.

I don't know if the Feud is still on. Something makes me think it is. Does Al from Home Improvement host it? I don't care who hosts it, I just hope they don't molest every woman on camera.

Quotes of the Week

I would like to share with you some of my favorite Dean quotes. These lines speak for themselves.

"This is the most I've aten in a while."
"Have they tooken those down yet?"
"I got my sound surround set up."
"Do you want to borrow my girls gone wild videos?"
"Do you want to borrow my Jerry Springer unleashed video?"

For those of you who know the man, these can be funny. For those of you that don't, these quotes should encourage you to stay in school, and if at all possible, go to college. Goodnight!

A Not So Recent Observation

Look at this photograph
Everytime I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red
And what the hell is on Joey's head

I heard this song on the radio the other day and nearly spit my soda all over the windshield when I heard the lyrics. I thought for a moment...the voice sounds familiar...and the lyrics are atrocious. Could it be them? No...well, maybe. Let us listen some more.

Remember the old arcade
Blew every dollar that we ever made
The cops hated us hangin' out
They say somebody went and burned it down

Ah, yes. To write worse lyrics than these should be something to pride yourself in. My doubt was no more. This is Nickelback, and they suck.

6000 Meters to Go

I found this in a journal of mine. I wrote it last fall during my last year as a student-athlete at UW. Swimming was an amazing experience and I wouldn't trade the 4 years I swam for UW for anything, but as you can tell from this, it was often frustrating.

21.November.2004

The time is approaching that most students will leave Laramie asap for Thanksgiving break. I suffer during this time because I have to stay around until practice is over on Wednesday. It's so easy to become depressed when you are walking to Corbett and there is no one in sight. Laramie is dead, especially the campus.

I wonder why am I still here? I need a break...a vacation. I don't want to do this. Can we just fall asleep on the pool deck? Isn't it time to go? My life would be easier and better if I wasn't here right now. Look at that bastard packing his car, about ready to go home for a nice long Thanksgiving break.

I can make it. Two more hours and I am home free. Maybe practice will be extremely easy...doubt it. I can't wait for Christmas break. Three more weeks of school, but I have to swim as well. This will make you stronger, Bryce. Don't succumb to the pressure and temptation to quit. Don't do it. You will be thankful in the end. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger....

I am thankful.

Just Too Sweeeeeet!

I used to eat, live, and sleep WCW and WWF wrestling. I was a freshman and sophomore in high school. My next door neighbor and best friend at the time, Trey, loved it too. We would watch 3 hours of wrestling on TV every Monday night; changing channels between WCW Monday Nitro and the WWF's Monday Night Raw.

We knew all the wrestlers, all the moves, and all the rivalries. Stacks of floppy discs next to our computers housed the wrestling theme song to every wrestler we had ever heard of. The cartridge in the Nintendo 64 was WCW vs. nWo: Revenge. Wrestling mottos and slogans were often stretched across our chests on our favorite t-shirts. We made mental notes and strategies on how to perform every move we saw on TV. We both had a trampoline and the moves we saw were constantly practiced. My trampoline saw most of the action because it was close to a brick pillar that we could substitute for jumping off the turnbuckles of a ring. A lot of the maneuvers were risky, even for a trampoline, so we practiced them as much as possible. We did hope to wrestle for a career, but like so many other passions when you are young, this one came and went.

The biggest reason for the abandonment of wrestling by the two of us was our change of interest. Trey started to develop a passion for music that still exists today and, I predict, will continue to dominated his life for as long as he lives. I moved away and thus, was disconnected...somewhat, from the only person I knew who shared my love for pro-wrestling. Sure, other people watch the stuff, but they didn't know it like Trey and I did for those years. For me, the time and energy I had invested in pro-wrestling dissolved into other pre-existing interests of mine. Wrestling was left in the dust. It became another childhood memory that I locked away in my brain to gather dust until it would randomly be thrown into my thoughts today. I do respect the people who choose that for a career. Yes, you may say it is fake, and yes, a lot of it is fake, but the the work that goes into it is very real and demanding. And some of the hits those guys and girls take, simply to entertain the audience, are really painful. So, I respect it, but don't live and die with this macho soap opera anymore, and never will again.

Kick the Bucket

A quote from a student in class today regarding the afterlife, "It's a coping mechanism to believe that life goes on after death. I mean, none of us are actually going to know until we kick the bucket."

I would like to dispel the notion that this is true. Obviously, some people do feel this way and they will all the way up to their death. However, Jesus has provided a way out from this thinking and if you know Him you can say you know where you are going, and you can say I know there is an afterlife. This isn't complex, and it isn't profound, but I get all happy thinking about it so, I had to write a little something.

The 2 Worst Yearbook Quotes

Case #1: Always reach for the moon, and if you miss you might just catch a star.

If there ever was a combination of words to spring me off my arse right now and cause me to do all my work for the rest of the semester in the next week, this would be far from it. I wonder, how do you catch a star when you reach for the moon? It is possible that the person who constructed this poor excuse for a sentence didn't actually realize the moon was much, much closer to Earth than the stars. And why the heck would you pride yourself in catching a star, when in fact you were aiming for the moon. You were way off target to begin with. We must also address the fact that "star" is a horribly generic metaphor for an unexpected prize, a blessing in disguise, a great and more worthy goal, or achievement, etc.

Case #2: Live in the moment.

We can thank the Victorians for this one. Why say live in the moment? Isn't that what I am doing as I type this. You waste more of your "moment" saying this phrase than the original construction of the phrase would oblige you to do. Sure, this one does make a good point that someone shouldn't live in the moment pretending it is the past, nor should they focus too much on the future. However, so many people still prance around proclaiming this as their mantra for their life--this is somebody's sacred scripture...sad. So, today, live in the moment folks. Whatever the past has taught you, forget it. It doesn't apply to now, so why use it. And whatever is in your future, don't think about it. Now is the only time that can get you anywhere, not 5 days ago, and certainly not 5 minutes from now.

BCB

I don't know what to write now, but I was thinking of Big City Burrito. If you have never been there, I am sorry. I wish I could utter these words....

Super on white with cheese, rice, black beans, carnitas, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole.

I can utter those words right now, but a BCB burrito doesn't manifest itself in front of me. Sad, oh so sad.

Big City Burrito in Fort Collins, CO. Check it out!

Stream of Bryce

"President Bush doesn't care about black people." That is absurd. If the other guy won in November the same exact disaster would have occurred. The conditions would be the same too. It's a disaster because you cannot prepare for it. No matter what storm a country prepares for there will always be one out there that does away with any good strategy we might have had to save people. One thing would be different though if the other guy was in office, the rapper who uttered this on national television wouldn't have said that. He is just hopping on the bandwagon, by blaming Bush for things that are beyond his control. Yes, he is the President. No, he isn't God. I think it's clear that the response could have been faster, but only if we had envisioned a storm like this in the first place. You simply cannot be prepared for everything nature throws at you, no country is that capable. For what it is worth, Bush did apologize for all the faults in the government response, and unlike the dude on TV implied, Bush didn't sit back in his chair and not worry about saving Hurricane Katrina victims because most of them were black.

Now, on to more important matters. Have you ever had a dill pickle with a nice cold glass of milk? What? You haven't? Get off your butt and do it!

3.August.2005

10 piece chicken mcnugget. Empty San Diego airport. Megan and Colton driving off into the SoCal abyss. Another goodbye. When will I see them again? December...I think. A new orange shirt. I wish Kate could have been here. Spring Break could've been a blast out here. It was still fun. Erik at the airport...or someone else? Nah, definitely Erik. They say you are only crazy if you talk to yourself and answer back. I just did. So many stories at airports. People are on vacation; going home; running away; going to a funeral; going to a wedding; investigating a potential job, "No, we didn't like it" or "Oh, it's perfect."

San Diego hills plus the fellas and a longboard wouldn't be good. I could be conservative and safe in my judgments, but I would worry about them. If St.Vrain road yields 40 mph speeds, then I wouldn't be surprised to see 55+ on some hills out here. Cellphones. Everyone has them accept me. Inevitably, I will get one when I am out on my own, it will make me feel independent for a fleeting morment before I remind myself to not let it make me dependent on it. (12.September.2005 - I have a cell phone now. I was unexpectedly added to my girl's family plan. It's cheap for me.)

No one, no matter how much they hate it, is invulnerable to pop culture. There are those affected at different levels. I believe myself to be at the lower end or the bottom of the scale in which the top would include those highly affected and suffocated by pop culture. A girl in front of me is reading Rolling Stone magazine. She sparked that thought? Actually, it was probably the magazine doing the thinking for her.

Flight is delayed an hour and a half now. Going to call Erik and let him know. One good thing...I won't be working tomorrow with such a late arrival in Denver.

1.August.2005

Today was a busy, but relaxed day. I caught up on sleep from two nights ago and slept until 11. Megan and I began the day by organizing her classroom. She is excited to begin teaching and I am happy for her. I am skeptical of their future in California. I don't trust this place. Naturally, I am afraid of the crowd out here. I don't know why. Chicago is huge, but I am comfortable in the crowds there. I want the best for Megan and Colton and I just have a tough time believing California holds the best life for them. Is SoCal worth all the pains? You know where I stand.

Megan and I ventured down the 5 to La Jolla, a small beach community. It reminded me a little of Manhatten Beach. I like Manhatten more due to the sense of seclusion it gives me even though it is surrounded by city.

I spoke with Kate. I wish she was out here with me, but I know she needs the time at home with her family. It would be fun to be in SoCall with her to see what she thinks of it. I would love to get her take on things. Her heart is, and always will be with Chicago, in terms of big cities. She would never like it more out here. I would go as far to say that she would never live here or be that willing to try it out. That is fine with me!

Erik is watching the house while Mom and Dad are gone. They came home for a bit yesterday and found that he was sleeping in my bed still. I told him he could while I was away. I have enjoyed my time here and I am terribly excited for two more days, but I also look forward to the next three weeks at home with the guys before we all go back to college. I hope that time spawns blessed conversation, memories, closeness, and fellowship. I pray so.

SoCal 2

31.July.2005

I am still feeling the effects from not sleeping Friday night. Tomorrow will provide a chance for me to sleep in and do some catch up in that department.

Harking back to an idea I threw out in the last entry, the desire to not live in California ever again is still present in me. It took me two hours to be turned-off with the sights in some of suburban San Diego. Many new commercial and residential developments are across the street from run-down, dumpy-looking homes that still run for $400,000. Southern California remains in an endless state of expansion and construction. I wonder, when does the "settling in" go on?

Colton is a working man (always has been), and when he is away from the office there seems to be someone from the company around. I have a lot of appreciation for what he is doing and how he puts in so many hours to excel at work, thus improving Colton and Megan's situation out there.

Today, Megan and I watched two of Colton's flag-football games. The team finished 1-1 today. A trip to In and Out followed. It was tasty, but not amazing. The idea of all fast food joints is better than the post-consumption feeling from a Double-Double, fries, and a shake. We went to the beach afterwards--Colton worked. A burrito for dinner from one of Colton's favorite places and a conversation with my beautiful Kate capped off the night. The evening of mischief has caught up to me now and I leave this entry as I left the last, tired!

SoCal Revisited

*I have been meaning to put more stuff up here from the summer, so here it is.*

5:51 am, Saturday, 30.July.2005

Late night tonight. I'm going on 1.5 hours of sleep after a long day of work, play, and mischief. Erik, Kyle, and Chris woke me up at 3 am. They were certainly not deprived of an adrenaline that could have only come from almost being busted so I listened to their story. I knew before I layed down for a nap they were going to hit golf balls into a public pool late at night. Simply put, they saw someone and they decided to book it. I am proud of those boys and their running amuck.

I am being honest when I say that running in that situation was a good choice. The surrounding homes are heavily forrested and the yards are fenced in. The fellas are in great shape and could outrun 90% of people in a flat out sprint. If I wasn't confined to my duties at home last night, packing, laundry, and tying some last minute things up, I could have been with them. I would have ran too. If I got caught after running, running would be my first regret, but we (guys) love breaking rules. This is an acceptable idea with a limit. Tonight's incident falls within the boundaries for me.

I am typically not a great plane-sleeper, but I need an hour and a half on this flight, without it, I will barely function today. I am terribly excited to see Megan and Colton...and the beach. The taste of SoCal may be sweet at first, but I expect it to lose its taste fast. In the summer of 2002, I had a realization--that after desiring SoCal since my family moved away in 1988, I no longer wanted to return to my home in this part of the country. From that moment on I have been content with the thought of never moving back there. Week long stints are nice, but during this trip I only expect my preferences to be found concrete once again. I board soon and should try to get drowsy--it shouldn't be hard.

What was that?

I was watching a rerun of Charlie Rose on PBS the other day. His guest happened to be a famous rapper. This rapper will not fail to tell you that Jesus Christ is his personal Lord and Savior, which is great. However, he was asked about Christianity as a whole and if he subscribes to Christian belief. I had to refrain from throwing myself out my window when he started talking about the idea that Christians believe anyone who doesn't believe what they do go to hell. That is a touchy subject, but he went on to say that little kids and babies go to hell if they die without being a Christian. I just wanted to send my condolences to anyone that was watching this. Please excuse these words as truth, they are not. Lastly, I want to thank the rapper for scaring more people away from Christianity with one false statement than any person not in the spotlight could do there whole life.

The Labeled

I don't have a lot of time right now, but I wanted to share this quick story. One of my classes is called Drama and Religion. As you would infer from the title, the class deals with religious themes found throughout plays, both new and old.

Student introductions followed a quick lecture from the professor. We were asked to give our religious background and our class history, if any, in the Theatre and Religious Studies departments. There were a few students who had no religious background and no previous classes in either department, but most had been raised in a Christian home. I was happy to hear this until I noticed a trend in the responses to the professors questions from some students. Many of them were responding in the following manner.

"I was raised in a very Christian home. I went to youth group, Sunday school, and Church every Sunday. So, I am a Christian, but I am not practicing."

I don't profess to know that much about the religion I follow, but I am pretty sure I know enough to say that you are not a Christian if you are not practicing, and it is the practice of your religion that gives you the title of one of its followers and nothing else. You are not a Christian because your parents are or were. You are not a Christian because it is a way of being brought up. You are a Christian because you practice what was taught to you through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is no gray area. It doesn't work that way. You are, or you are not.

Here's to the Cause

Not all too long ago I was attracted by the yellow "LIVESTRONG" bracelets many people were wearing. If I could wear one and know that the money I spent on it went toward supporting cancer...then heck, why not? I mean, everyone who is wearing a LIVESTRONG bracelet or any other bracelet is wearing it for the cause, right? WRONG. Everyone has got one, be it yellow, pink, red, black, purple, green, or gray. And everyone has got a cause they are supporting. Take a look around. We now have almost every D1 college putting out there own band in school colors. I can't take anyone seriously when they tell me they would be wearing one of these bracelets if no one else was wearing one. When I had my yellow bracelet I couldn't tell you that, so I got rid of it. I have to admit, the biggest reason that the band looked attractive in the first place was the fact that everyone else seemed to have them, especially celebrities. This is simply a trend, people care more about the color of the band on their wrist than the cause they are supporting. Before you go snatch up one of those bracelets tell me that you are not joining the band wagon, tell me that it isn't a trend for the "in" people in society. At first I thought, sporting the LIVESTRONG was a unique fashion statement, but the bare wrist is just so much harder to come by these days and so is originality.

The Dark Ages

I got home tonight and wanted to put an old journal entry up on the blog. My first journal starts in 1998. I flipped through that journal which brings me to 2001. I couldn't narrow the choices of entries down to one. Frankly, I am pretty embarrassed about what I wrote on many occasions.

The Dark Ages arrived with my journey into high school. My journalistic endeavors started at girls and ended at girls. I would give a shallow description of who I thought was going to be my next girlfriend. There are a few girls listed, but I would only classify two of them as girlfriends in high school. There was one that I just kept going back to, it was pathetic. And through my frustrations with that girl, I found the next one in which I was venting to the whole time.

The point of this blog is to not expand on my rough spot with the ladies, but to say that I knew I had to go through all that. The ugly streak followed me into college until my second year. Many questions and answers later, I came out from under the cloud and realized that I shouldn't concern myself with finding the right woman. For a long time I thought it was my job to pursue that dream. It took years for me to realize that God doesn't want it that way. He showed me the love of my life when He thought I was ready. And for a while I thought that "ready" was a state of enlightenment in which I could stay in for the rest of my life -- not having to further my faith.
Indeed, God blessing me with Kate has been a testament to the faith I have in Him, but it will certainly not be the last blessing and it won't be the grand testament of my faith. I aim for that to be an eternal party with Jesus. Holla!

Radio and Wal-Mart

I do value silence for many reasons, but one of them is to get away from the rotting and repetitive cycle of songs, accompanied by horrible comments from DJs, on the radio. I started to wonder the other day after hearing someone call up and request a song...do I know anyone that calls up a radio station and requests a song? No. I don't know anyone. I have never known anyone that has called up a radio station to request a song, something, by the way, that is completely worthless to do. Radio stations have little or no variety these days and so they play back the recording of the request by phone. The caller almost always says, "Can you play (fill in song that they were already going to play within the hour here)?" And the DJ always responds, "I think I can do that." WHAT? Why do they say that...I don't think the requests are flying in and I bet they are required to play requests as long as they are on that radio station's current playlist. I love how the DJ's response makes them sound like it is a task they are going to toil through. What a joke.

The distaste I have with Wal-Mart was expressed on this blog in April...I think. Well, I had to pick something up there for my Mom last week. It was a prescription that was for me actually -- Mom paid for it. Usually, we go through a different pharmacy to get prescriptions, but I had to get it quick and the Doc called it into the pharmacy at Wal-Mart. I hadn't been inside the Longmont Wal-Mart for over two years and what a delight that had been until last week. In those two years I had forgotten the terrible agony I must go through when walking through a Wal-Mart that isn't a Supercenter -- people walk so pathetically slow in this store. The aisles aren't wide enough to make the easy pass, like in the Supercenters. I can crawl faster than the patrons of this store. You could blindfold me and I would make better progress in a Wal-Mart if I could walk my own pace. I don't know why people slow down...I really don't. I am not always in a rush, but I do like walking at the pace at which I am comfortable. Call me cruel, judgmental, or whatever you want, but I know the average walking speed of the average Wal-Mart patron would be greatly increased if that same patron shed on average 20 pounds. If this happened, the Wal-Mart waddle could now be designated as a walk. However, you know how I already feel about this store, and a good fast walk through it isn't going to change a thing.

Book Crossing

I need to apologize to any of my readers and myself for not posting that much at all on here since I have been home. Work and many other things are keeping me busy enough that I rarely find myself in front of my computer to put a new entry up. I am not going to pretend like I can put something up everyday, I just can't do that during the summer. I will do my best. I am still writing, but not everything goes up here to begin with. I also read a lot more in the summer. Being an English major doesn't come without a lot of reading and that ties me down during the school year. Because of this I don't get to do that much free reading of my own.

Anyway, I found a book on a bench near a movie theater the other day. The sticky note on the book said that it was free. Free book...I'm sold. It was a book registered on www.bookcrossing.com and it was released into the wild. You can register your book on this site if it is only gathering dust on your shelves. Once it is registered, bring it to a place you think someone is likely to pick it up and leave it. I found The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. There are many books in front of it that I want to read first so I am going to be letting the book go soon. I thought I would read it, and that is why I picked it up, but after a few days I realized that I won't get to it for a while. I am impressed that such a site exists and encourage you to check it out.

Until next time...cheers.

Lessons learned because of Episode III

Doing 15 hours of anything is tiring, even camping out for a good seat for the midnight showing of the last chapter in the Star Wars saga.

Every second of that 15 hours was worth it because of the community these movies have created. People flock from all corners of our culture to see these films, and as soon as you see them in line you know that you have a strong passionate connection to them.

15 hours in line for a seat was something small to ask for in return to see Episode III. The movie was absolutely amazing, and I say this not for the skeptics, but for the fans of the series that might see this site, because this will put a smile on their face...no words I can write here can adequately describe the effect that this movie has on a fan like me...and the countless others. It truly was a pleasure to see George Lucas' vision come full circle. The pieces of the puzzle have created a masterpiece.

When you have pulled too far into an intersection, look carefully before backing up because you might hit a woman on a bike. She will shriek bloody murder, but survive with only some scrapes.

Running an electric scooter into a curb and going over the handlebars isn't graceful, especially in front of a crowd.

Little kids in amazing Jawa costumes are the hit of the night.

The following of these movies is a religion for some, even me, but I am grateful I have found another.

Cheering during a movie is a lot of fun; it should happen more often.

You can start at ten bucks an hour, handing out free Red Bull.

If you want the best lightsaber replica, go with the Master Replica lightsabers. Incredible!

Despite all the criticism George Lucas has received over the years for the original episodes and the prequels, I, nor anybody else I know, couldn't have done a better job. I will never wish it had been done any different.

I will never forget my Episode III experience, buying tickets, camping out for a seat, cheering, and especially the beautiful story Lucas has finished.