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.