Made it Back ... But Got a Ticket

Advertising got all finished up, so I hopped in the car and went off. Its a pretty long drive down to KC and then all the way over to Salina. Now, I generally like to make good time and tend to let's say test the limits of the, uh, speed limits. Often I'm pretty good at noticing the fine folks in blue as they are carrying out their duties, but it just gets so damn dark 'round this time of year. He was following behind for probabally about three miles. I actually remember seeing these headlights in my rear mirror and thinking this guy was a complete jackass for tailgating me so closely.

Then to top it off I make the naive, dumbass mistake of pulling off onto the left shoulder. It was a three lane road with a bunch off traffic in both lanes to my right and I didn't realize it was that big of deal. Apparent it is very big deal. He was pretty pissed. I guess that that is supposed to be the most dangerous place on the highway to be, second only probabally stopping in the middle of the road or something.

I tell you what that will take the wind out of your sail real quick. I didn't even want to keep driving. You just get real paranoid and drop to granny speeds. O well, such is the life. Couldn't really expect to be getting away with that forever.

AMA Luncheon and Speaker - Brett Trout

Today the Des Moines AMA chapter hosted a luncheon featuring Brett Trout, a well-established patent attorney of the area, to speak on "The Legal Pitfalls of Social Media." They held at the Des Moines Golf & Country Club.

Let me start by prefacing that the facilities they are absolutly amazing. You reach the gates by passing through these large wrought-iron and brick pillared gates and take this long winding drive taking you through the beautifully landscaped and vast golf course. The club house is lavished in sophisticated decadence with a wealth of dark rich wood and elegant dim lighting. I mean, and this I found a bit too excessive a luxury, in the bathroom instead of paper towels there are shelves of properly folded cloth towels just for drying your hands.

Although, I will say with some home town pride, the Country Club pool I lifeguarded at back in here in Salina is leaps and bounds better. We have a 30' slide that twists and turns in thrilling spirals. They have a 5' tube slide with a 30 degree angle. Honestly the public pool here is probabally better.



But anyway, to the talk. Brett Trout is a just a fascinating guy. Not only is he the most recognizable patent attorney, if not just attorney period, within Iowa, the guy also speed races motorcycles and trains for MMA fights. That's awesome. That's living man right there man.

He explained alot of the legal issues companies come across when dealing with social medias such as twitter, blogs, facebook, etc.; issues such as plagarism, copyright infringement, slander, liable. Listening to it I am afraid to say that in all technicality I myself may be in violation of some of these issues. However, as he pointed out, legal recourse requires material harms have occured to the plaintiff, and in truth I have not put any strain on or taken away from any party in my actions. There are far bigger fish to fry as it were.

Anway if this is a matter that interest you, I know Brett would love it if you shot him a twitter or checked out his website.

www.bretttrout.com
twitter.com/BrettTrout

I'm DONE!!! (practically)

That's it. I'm all done. Well for the most part anyway. There's no more tests. I basically just have to show up tomorrow for Advertising and just stand there. Then I hope in the car and am gone. Ah dude, I can't even tell yah, man. I complete unburdened by any obligations or approaching deadlines; just free.

I've been spending most of time up in the reading room at the library forcing to memory through mind numbing, painfully deadening repetition of reading and rereading of facts and theories that I have lost any trace of enthusiasm for. Tonight I can just relax. I have this pile of books on my desk I'd been meaning to read that have just been piling up. I can read what I want at the pace I want. I can just lie in bed listening to music. Hell, I might go out and build a freakin' snowman or something.

Jethro's Wing Eating Champion!!!

I am the Jethro's BBQ - Wing Eating Champion!!!, for at least the basketball game's halftime event today. 10 wings in 30 seconds! Pretty good for a guy who wrestled 119 in highschool. The thing is though, Blake, the owner, who really is just an awesome guy if you ever get to meet him, really wanted people to eat the wing with the super hot sauce one them, so, while I was going at it, he kind of said to the group that more points would be award to whoever ate the most hot wings (not actually true but whatever). I then proceed to just devour the basket with all the hot wings, and, here's the thing, you don't really notice how hot those are when you're eating them so fast, but, once you stop, you just start BURNING. My mouth and the area around it were just on fire. Blake came up to congratulate me and award me the gift certificate, but I was in too much pain. I had to get to a water fountain; I need milk.

JETHRO'S BBQ

Finals

All right so the end of the semester is finally here and of course with that are the finals, which is kind of why I've been a little inconsistent in these posts for this month. So okay, just to give you an idea, last week I was going to have STAT 072 on wednesday but then there was the, as the National Weather Service puts it, "epic" snowstorm and class was cancelled; it just wasn't an option - so much snow. So now that is Monday even though the Professor has already gone off for vacation and is just going to have a proxy administor the exam. It's not really a test to worry about. You get to do all the equations through these programs on excel, so you're just basically plugging in numbers and recording the answers.

Marketing 101 was Thursday, which I completely overstudied for. I mean the test was hard, but I really just crammed to the point of overkill, and there was alot it just didn't ask about I thought would be there. Not the worst thing in the world to do, but not the best use of time.

Tuesday I have Blaw in the morning, which will be tough, but at least I have a good idea of the specifics to study, unlike freakin' Geography. The Geography is over Russia, South America, and Australia, because that's a combination that goes perfectly together. You got to know culture, agriculture, economy, physiography, climatology, and then just where basic shit is, and then above all you have to explain how all those things correlate and affect one another.

So ready for break

Boo Boo

*All right so a couple of weekends ago, a buddy of my found out about this traveling circus in the area. We got in the car and he drove me to this po-dunk in the middle of gawd-damn-no-where Iowa about 15 miles out of town. It was completely sketchy; straight up nomadic carny people. The ringmaster, or whatever, was this midget who I'm pretty sure was using coke or something. Anyway the reason we had gone there was they had this thing were you could box a kangaroo, and, if you lasted 5 minutes with the thing, you won $500.

First off let me say for anyone who has never been up close on a kangaroo, they are surprising tall. This wasn't too excellant of a discovery as I'm a pretty short guy to begin with, but actually did pretty well against him for the first minute or so. You know, I mean, a kangaroo can't really do combinations or anything or throw a hook or a upper-cut; they're basically like one of those boxing nun puppets with their punches. However, no one ever told me they could KICK! Apparentally I missed that day in second grade as everyone else I've told this story already knew that. I did not. The fella leans back and knocks me square on the head with his right foot. I black-out and wake up in the hospital with nine stiches in my head.

Thank God my buddy got me out of there and to the hospital before the those circus freaks started going threw my pockets. They're out now - took them out myself with some nail-clippers and some tweezers; suprising easy - and the cuts actually healed up pretty nicely.


*Except for the nine stiches and how I took them out, ABSOLUTELY nothing about this story is true. It was purely for entertainment purposes. I just really enjoy telling it and find it far more interesting than having a construction accident. I just prefer the idea of a world where you can throw caution to the wind one Friday afternoon and take off to go fight a Kangroo.

One Wristband

I have had this white One wristband on my arm for like 5 years now, and then like a week ago the thing snaps. It had snort of splitting around the curve of the O for a while now I guess. I feel really weird now without it. I can still feel it on my arm but it's not there. This is probabally the closest I'll ever being to understanding an amputee.

I should probabally explain what One is. One is is a grassroots campaign and advocacy organization backed by more than 2 million people who are committed to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African policy makers and activists. It's a really excellant cause for people who are really in need.

I really to go get a new one. I'm starting to freak out a little bit without it.

So Much Snow

So, after a few very curious days that made it seems as though winter would be skipped all together and we'd head straight for Spring, we just NAILED here in Des Moines with a solid 24 hours of just straight snow flurries. We got like 2 feet, conservatively! The campus is completely covered. They had to shut down classes yesterday at 3:00 pm and all of today. Which is nice but I was supposed to have some finals today. It's not like those just go away. No there reschedule it screwing up my plans for getting out of here and on break.

It would of been better if we could of gone and played outside but it is just so freakin' heavy. It is just hammering us. It's like Winter is trying to make up for lost time or something. It's suppose to be better tomorrow, which will be good. Only wish I had all of my snow gear - snowpants, gloves, head-warm-thingies. You can only make snowballs with your bare hands for so long.

Spent about an hour clearing the snow away from car and making sure it get out of it's parking spot. Some of these cars you can't even see anymore; they're just covered in mounds of snow. This Nissan's got a lot better traction than the Ranger but it's so low to the growd I had to stop and clear the snow out from under it that had built up.

So much snow. I think we're might be pretty well covered for the rest of the year.

We Lost!!!

NOOOOOOOOO! ... damit. Gawd that was a tough lose. We had 'em. Only three minutes left. Yeah, the ball was on KU's 3-yard line but it wasn't like we hadn't been able to move it down the field throughout the game. Two incomplete passes. Then Reesing tries to run it up the middle; just dumb. Missouri gets a safety. Then Mizzo of course brings it into field goal range wins by 2 freakin' points. If they hadn't even moved the ball, just even made it to 4th down and punted it. The game would have tied and we could of whooped their ass in over time. DAMIT!

Thanksgiving

Well the great feast has come and gone with all the works. We packed the house with 26 people: aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, neighbors and friends. My Aunt Deirdre and little cousin Lily along with Big Mommy and Big Daddy Daw stayed with us. We headed out the door about 6 in the morning to meet all the guys for the hunt at Bayard's, the truck-stop diner just outside of town with just the best pie you've ever had. We drove around and marched through plowed milo fields for about 5 hours. Got plenty of shots off and feathers flying, but those stupid birds didn't seem to realize they were dead and kept flying.

Got back and Mom was finishing up the second of two of the best cooked turkeys you ever tasted. Perfectly tender and moist; not a bit of dry. Big Mommy brought the blue berry pie and Aunt Betsy brought the pumpkin. No way you could chose just one. You had to have a slice of both. Nanny's potatoes were those perfectly whisked kind with no lumps; just melts in your mouth. A feast!

Of course what is also so great about Thanksgiving is all the bizarre traditions that have become attached with it. Family and football are no longer enough. Even the parades with all the larger than life inflated icons have in some houses been replaced by the Westminster Kennel Dog Show (the miniature pincher won). FX put Home Alone 1 on a constant loop, which is not a bad thing. I love that movie. You don't get that quality of mischief anymore in kids movies. Then ofcourse there is the annual presidental honor bestowed on a some "lucky" turkey who is "pardoned" from this year's great Turkey slaughter and gets to go to Disney Land, because you know the aspirations of a turkey are not too far off from that of a 5 year old. This year Obama pardoned two turkeys in case the first "can't fulfill his responsibilities." The hell does that mean!?!? In case the first just becomes so delicious looking that we have to ignore a constitutional mandate and eat the poor bastard.

The Winter Has Not Been Bad (Knock on Wood)

I don't hate winter or snow or even icy roads. I love snow. I like way it falls and just covers everything in this brilliant white. I like playing in it sledding, snowball fighting, building crap. But there are some times when it just makes it a huge pain in the ass just go anywhere. I not talking about the danger of fishtailing on the ice, that actually can be kind of fun. No it's someday's you just really hate going outside because the freakin' god awful wind just cuts through you. It's harsh and brutal and you have to 10 minutes zip and lacing up with layers on layers of clothes and gloves and boots and you're still cold. You loose your ability to move freely. The whole thing is so damn inconvenient you can't just act on a whim or go outside just for the sake of enjoying what's out there. You're trapped in your home. When you do go out, you hunch your shoulders over, tuck your chin in and just bitterly march to where you have to go. There is no meandering or stopping to look at something that may have caught your eye. You just do what you have to and you do it really pissed off.

But that hasn't happened so far. We're coming on December in a week or so and I can walk around in a t-shirt and shorts. I would like it if snowed. I really hate a christmas without snow. As I said it's the wind that pisses me off. I suppose I should have gotten used to it in Kansas, but I just can't stand it. It shoves it in your face like its taughting you. Snow however, even a really cold snow, is not a problem. Hell, it's exhilarating feeling that cold; there's a freshness to the air like a mint gum. Perhaps I'm being a little too demanding of mother nature, but they have been plenty of those perfect days in the past. It can't be too unreasonable to expect again.

Movie: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fans of Wes Anderson may not recognize his newest film especially in way this first trailer presents it. You'll notice it doesn't even mention his name. According to the New Yorker this first official trailer was designed to attract mothers unfamilar with the whole artsy movie scene. A kind of bait-n-switch situation. This way they'll feel comfortable bringing their kids, who are to some degree one of the main target markets of this film, to see what they see as just a silly talking animal flick. And if the kids get a little culture and decent story exposure, then who'd of predicted it.

The second trailer (below) is the official pitch to Wes Anderson's traditional crowd of fans. It is a certainally a new approach by Anderson branching out into the use of animation, but, if you give it a real look, it is easy to recognize the Anderson's unique use of lighting, color, music, cast, and of course wardrobe that has come to define the brilliance of his work and spurred a new genre of hipster film making.

Anderson is known for he's collaborations with Luke Wilson beginning with the both men's first film Bottle Rocket and with Bill Murray, who first appeared in Anderson's second film Rushmore for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and has subsequently appeared in everyone one of Anderson's following films. Anderson is considered the quintessential film maker for the hipster culture. In he way the Martin Scorsesse introduced Hollywood to a world of old school New Yorkerism with its rich blend of crime and high society and Quentin Tarantino ushered in the popularizing of shockingly excessive violence and high intensity thrills through his unique ordering of a stories chapters, Wes Anderson opened the world to this beautifully artistic and unpreteniously sophisticated culture of eccentric, unresting intellectuals unfitting for the main stream with such excellance and perfection that it is a feat unmatched by the many who have tried.

Movie: The Road

The writings of Cormac McCarthy are just amazing - dark, raw, and intensly rugged focusing around a spartan endurement in a world of hardship. Those who have seen the movie interruptation of his No Country for Old Men have idea of McCarthy's worlds. The men are heros of modest aspiration and yet extraordinary under the circumstances. The desire elevate their families and themselves out of current toil and harsh lives to slightly improved state of modest comfort and peace is not uncommon to us all, but, when you consider the trials these men face, these dreams become terrifyingly fantasitc and unattainable. The level of unapologetic violence and complete disregard for humanity is staggering.

The idea of this post-apocalyptic journey to utopia is not new to our culture: Mad Max, Waterworld, I Am Legend. This is different though. There is pragmatism to it. A harsh reality that is unavoidable and a horrifying look at the ease at which man turns to violence and completely abandons all sense of morality. There are no CG mutants or ridiculous outfit and mohawk combinations. The people are completely normal. This realness of the situation adds to the drama of the film and the audiences horror.

Best Pick-Me-Up Song

As the Youtube description puts it "This version kicks ass!" It's one of those songs were you just fill up with this joy. You can't stop smiling and just have to start grooving to it. Plus, and this may be a little childish, I just think it's funnier than hell when she says "boobies." It's kind of a silly taboo word to begin with and she just say it with pride that it makes me giggle a little bit

Movie: A Serious Man

First off it's a Coen brother movie. The sheer artistry of these guy's work has just been staggerin. The worlds these two brother are familiar yet remarkably unique, richness and pecular nature of their character make them so personally special to the audience that the view is faced with a sense of intrigue and unquenchable interest in them.

But then there have been occasions where the Coens have delivered films with a kind of half-felt toss out. Movies like Burn After Reading, they seem to lack a substance. They have feeling about them that they are kind of side projects for the Coen brothers done on a whim without the zest and zeal that goes into their more acclaimed work. They are still certainally worth are consideration, but it as though they were intended to never reach any level of prestige or receive overwhelming applause but to just fill time until their next No Country for Old Men or Big Lebowski.

I am concerned this is the case with the brother's new film A Serious Man. It is the story of the stereotypical passive, proper, Jewish, urban male as his life begins to turn against him and he is faced with his inability to act proactively or stand up for himself in the slightest fashion. The inability of the hero to achieve or overcome and his preferrance to resigning to his challenges leaves the audience frustrated and ultimately disconnected.

Movie: Nine

First off Daniel Day-Lewis is just brilliant. The guys is probabally the most dedicated method actor around today (maybe Christian Bale). He is absolutely transformative.

You know watching this trailer reminds me of world I had lost sight of. A world free of mediocrity and of the ordinary. Everything is just so extravegantly brilliant. Everything. The lighting, the lay of rooms, even the most common elements of life have this intriguing aesthetic quality to them. And the people ooze with talent. It is not forced or in anyway unnatural. It is who they are. There is an overwhelming beauty to their entire existence. The way they walk, the way they move, the way they smoke a cigarette, how they hold themselves in moments of inactivity. It's a beauty derived from a freedom; their freedom to act to express themselves in their brilliance with all of its eccentricities. I do miss it.

Finally Got My Computer Back

My wireless just crapped out on me one day. So after a brief panic attack I brought it to the IT guys who said they'd have to keep it there for a few days. I know it's pretty naive to think that I could just bring it to them all freaked out and they could just be like "O not a problem" click,click,click,click,click "There you go, problem solved" instead of "Well that's not supposed to happen." "DUH! That's not supposed to happen. That's why I brought it to you dammit." I know that's not fair of me, but I can't help getting a little frustrated. Apparently my email account had been sending out a bunch of spam so Drake shut it down. So the guys had to reinable it and run a bunch of virus scans. Anyway I finally got it back. You just become so relient on these things.

Knights of Colombus

A few other students here at Drake and I are working to start a Knights of Colombus council here at Drake. Knights of Colombus is a nationally recognized brotherhood of Catholic gentlemen dedicated to the service of their communities and founded upon the principles of Charity, Unity, Patriotism, and Fraternity. It was originally started by the Venerable Father Michael J. McGivney for the purpose of establishing a life insurance policy for Irish widows. It has been consistently been ranked among the top insurance providers in North America, which is really a great selling point I guess for young, healthy, unmarried, college students but there you have it. The Order is an excellant organization and does alot of good for their communities. If you would be interested or know any Catholic gentlemen who would, please let me. You can email me at jmh054@drake.edu.

Cartoon's Today Suck

Now I'm sure alot of people going to look at this and think, 'why is Quint still watching cartoons.' You know what don't worry about it, forget you man. Cartoons are awesome, or at least they used to be. Maybe this is just the complaint of a little boy, but they have seriously changed. When I was a little kid cartoons were crude and delighted in the gross and unclean. Nickelodeon's logo was splattern of some kind of slime. It had a running theme of random gush of slime and the "sliming" of people. We had cartoons like Ren and Stimpy with intensely grotesque closeups, Rocko's Modern Life where Hefer would vomit up an internal organ, Aww Real Monster with Krum holding his eyeballs in his hands and an embrace of poor personal hygene. Now everything has become so clean and filtered with error. It is condescending to the children. The cartoons of my youth trusted us to be exposed to world of deviant behavior and socially unacceptable practices. Cartoon writers were like older boys who exposed us to that secret underground world of boyhood that would be inappropriate for our parents to have taught us about. This indecency was depicted in a way that did not leave you feeling unnerved. It actually comforted you to see this comical revelry in the filth and unpretentious. It was a relaxed yet imaginative attitude without requirement and a freedom of expression and ideas. They actually have show now about a bunch of d-bag teenagers in mall and all their whiny insignificant problems.

This new pattern is true for both the content of the cartoons as well as the quality of their artwork. With the advance of technology we have lost the artist's hand. Those imperfection and fluidity are what give the work a humanity, an existence. Now it's all computer animation and that 3D crap. You lose the unique quality and style of the artist. This is what makes cartoons special and individually significant.

The last cartoon I have seen that captures the aspects of the past and strongly recommend is an Adult Swim show, Robot Jail. It is somewhat crudely drawn and extraordinally imaginative. Every episode ends with a epic blood bath battle of some of the most insanely bizarre deaths.

Kansas in Fall

All right, I'm not going to try an act like Kansas is this year-round beautiful spectacular because frankly (and specifically in the West) it can be quite dull especially in the winter when the sky is white and the ground is white and except for the occasional crack of black from some lone, barren tree some parts (again mostly the in the West) are just these desolate blanks.

But Kansas in Fall is absolutely perfect. I mean this is stuff they make oil paintings of; this is what they put on the cover of chalk pastel box to show just how beautiful a masterpiece you too can create with the company's product.

Every color radiates and yet none of them are entirely pure. Instead what you have are areas of orange in all of its tones and inflections in a beautiful medly enriching its quality and the same is true for the greens and the reds and the purples and the complex autumn browns. Each one brilliantly standing forth.

We're you to drive through the area you would see these far outstreching hills not too high so as to obstruct and limit your view but with just the appropriate incline to allow for you that the vast richness of the land should be laid out in its most before your eyes. Open spaces of either green grassy fields blurred slightly with small compliments of yellow or harvested fields now warmed and darkened into an unexplainable orange-brown with hints of purple like the copper of a penny are divided by thick tree lines where the leaves have turned for the most part to a vibrant yellow-gold brushing against the pure blue of the sky alive in its color with layers of small yet morphing white clouds.

I don't have any pictures of this and it really sucks. I had lost my last camera over the same and we've gotten a new one but it did not come with a memory card and that is something I keep forgeting to go out and get. But really the pictures wouldn't matter. This is something you have to go and see even if you just driving through.

Partisanship - The Failure of Democracy

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rape-Nuts
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Now I'm sure a lot of you have already seen this clip the other but I just really think it is important. Now I'm not taking sides as to Democrat or Republican, but will take the side of good logic and decent morality. This is just disgusting. A girl was raped and these senators are going to stand in opposition to actions that would provide her justice. The party line is not the end all to be all. When I hear them speak listing their reasons for opposition, I am appalled by their total disregard and lack of humanity. Politics needs to be more to these people than just a game with two teams childishly competing. The decisions of these men and women have an actually affect on the lives of millions of individuals, and they need to keep that in mind.

Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

I have been putting off writing about this one partially because of midterms but also just because I'm just not sure how I feel about this one. I am fully behind the guy and what he is doing. You know he took on a situation with a good number of bad problems. We got two extremely unpopular wars with depleted military resources, intense economic devastation, dramatically rising health care costs, environmental issues and global warming. And he is guy who is actually looking for a solution to these problems and willing to consult with the top people in those fields. But he hasn't actually done anything yet. I mean yeah he's working on it yeah but hasn't quite accomplished any of those things. It's hard work and going to take some time; I'm not taking it for granted. He just hasn't done anything yet. The whole thing seems premature.

And well I guess some of the people on the Nobel Prize Committee are with me. According to an article in the Times today 5 of the committee members were noted as express some doubt in the election of Obama. Inger-Marie Ytterhorn expressed a concern that with 9 months into the presidency it was a little too early to award Obama. Agot Vale was quoted as saying that the decision would create "a debate, especially concerning the war in Afghanistan which she herself found problematic."

Movie: The Invention of Lying

You know normally I highlight these movies before they come out, and I didn't do that for this one because I thought it looked kind of cheesy and a one joke premise. I'm sorry to say I once again grossly underestimated Ricky Gervais.

This movie is excellant. Not only is it funny it also takes alot deep look at the ethicacy of twisting the truth. It is not only that the hypothetical society doesn't lie; they must also tell the absolute truth. That means everything. Reality is forced upon everyone in its full force with no filtering. It is shockingly blunt. And it's not like you can call a guy an asshole or dick for what he said because he's just telling the truth which is just what everyone does. It is not malicious or anything.

Which kind of comes to the driving question of the film: is the factual reality really the best. Now of course the truth is often held a moral supreme. I am outraged and deeply hurt when I am lyed to. A lie often leaves people confused, unsure of what to rely upon, and ultimately deeply cynical. Realty is considered dependable and comprehensive.

Then there are also so many aspects of life that almost require, well I won't say lying, but a twisting of the truth. So much of the beauty of life is based on perception and pursuit of possibility. I mean, if accept the world at its surface reality, there is just so much we lose. We lose any kind of tactful conversation. We lose imagination and creative vision. We lose hope. This is one of main themes. Should man accept the circumstance of his life as given to him, or should he make ever effort in striving for a greater existence. If we accept the world as it is in its truth we lose sight of all of its fantastic potential.

I'm not trying to just to lying as a whole nor is the film. Certainly those lies told with full comprehension that are false and have no hope of becoming true are cruel and deeply immoral. But there are those times that reality is to some degree pushed aside to allow of realization of possibility and potential. It is this hope that supercede any injury caused from straying from the truth.

One final thought on the movie and this is just a stupid film nerd thing, but, if anyone is familiar with Laura Mulvey's feminist theory of male gaze, this is a prime example. The roles (not necessarially their characters) of the leading male and female roles are textbook. Ricky Gervais is the one who take action and control of the world while Jennifer Garner is the object of contest and is predominately concerned with preserving and maintaining her beauty. I mean if the genders were reversed with a short, stub-nosed woman after a beautiful man the movie would have never been made. Again just dumb film theory.

Movie: Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

They're coming out with a sequel. Part of me is really pumped! Boondock Saints was such an excellant film, but that is also part of the problem. Boondock Saints is a cult classic. Can you really make a sequel to a cult classic. I mean what if they made a Big Lebowski II. That would be an awful idea. I don't know I'm really mixed on this one. Troy Duffy is still the writer and director, and from what I understand the reason for the time gap has to litagation issues. Also it looks like Norman Reedus finally managed to pull off an Irish accent in this movie.

Weightlifting Psychology

A good majority of time is spent moving heavy objects transporting them from A to B. In that time you begin to think about the motivation behind this seemingly pointless activity. It is an interesting mentality. You have two of the great human themes: man vs. machine and man vs. self. There is also got to be something a little off with us though.

Now there are of course the blantantly obvious pyschological issues associated with weightlifting: the sadomasicisitic thrill of intentionally inflicting that level of pain on one's self; the clear obsession with size both of the lifter and of the lifted weight and the accompanying napleon complex; and the issue lifters have of never being satisfied or happy with themselves because they are often in actuality trying to compensate for issues with who they are as a person.

But there are also some less obvious ones that I have begun to notice. First off there is the constant preoocupation with "getting it up". Nearly every if not all weight exercises involve getting an object up. I often find myself on a obnoxious day of fatigue lay on the bench doing a press thinking to myself, 'I just can't get it up today." And of course I begin laughing which only makes it harder to lift. Even if your doing a cable pressdown or a lateral pulldown through a series of cables and pulleys you are still working to lift a weight up.

Then there is psychologic effect of the actual motion of the exercise. Lifters are constantly pushing working to push things away from themselves only to have them return. The things they pull towards them quickly retreat. The things in a lifter's life that he longs to escape only come to him with out relief. That which he strains to bring close to him, he can never trust to stay.

Uganda Trip 2010 Session

This video was put together by one of the students who traveled to Uganda with me this last summer. Jesse is a jouralism major and as you can see very talent in what he does. Anyway I just want to get this video up to show what an amazing experience the trip is. It is definetly something I recommend you at the very least look into. There are several information sessions coming up in these coming months that can give you plenty of detail on the whole thing. If you have the slightest interest I strongly recommend you get in touch with Prof. Tom Root, Prof. Jimmy Senteza, Prof. Debra Bishop, or Prof. Glen McKnight.

tom.root@drake.edu

jimmy.senteza@drake.edu

deb.bishop@drake.edu

glen.mcknight@drake.edu

Movie: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

Again I do not read, much to my chagrin. But this book has been recommended to me on several occasion as something I would get a kick out of. And now they're making it into an effortless movie watching experience. Hollywood makes my life so much easier. If you like to live vicariously or this has any resemblence of your weekend's and even maybe weekdays this would be an amazing movie to go see.

Spike's Army

For all you sports fans, Spike's Army dogtags are a must have. This award system is amazing. All Drake student's are eligible. For the simple cost of 10 bucks you stand to receive a giganten ton awesome free prizes for every Drake game. You already get into the games for nothing why not collect on some goodies while your there.

This is all the amazing stuff you have the chance to get. Each game is 100 points. Read all the way to the end. It's just insane stuff.

100 Points

- Spike's Army T-Shirt courtesy of Drake Diner

300 Points

- Free Refillable Soda Cup from Planet Sub

600 Points

- Free Six Inch Sub from Planet Sub

- Free Breadsticks courtesy of Papa John's

- Free 12 oz. Coffee or $1 Off purchase at Starbuck's - West Village

1000 Points

- $10 Gift Certificate to Drake Diner

1500 Points

- Free Six Inch Combo or Footlong Sub from Planet Sub

2500 Points

-12 pack of Coke

- Prize courtesy of Dave's Barbershop (limit 50)

3500 Points

- adidas Clothing Piece courtesy of Drake Athletics

- $50 in Bulldog Bucks for 2010-11 School Year from Sodexo (1 winner)

5000 Points

- 6 tickets to a 2010 I Cubs game of your choice (3 Winners)

- Free Party Sub from Planet Sub, feeds 12-15 People (2 winners)

- 12 Free Pizzas from Papa John's

SPIKE'S ARMY

Movie: The Men Who Stare at Goats

This was originally a really great book. I have not actually read it (mostly because I'm at like a 3rd grade reading level), but all my literary friends who have read it have nothing but the best to say about it. The whole premise is just so absolutely fantastical and unbelievable it is almost laughable in an unnerving way; a feeling that is only magnified by the fact that all of it is true. Now I don't how much creative license the movie may take but I do now that the book is the factual report of an investigative journalist and the government actually did have program to train men to kill goats with their minds. I strongly recommend both the book and the movie.

Kanye Just Needs to Keep His Mouth Shut

Seriously I don't care how drunk he was or what the heck was going on with him coming up, cutting off Taylor Swift in the middle of here acceptance speech and insulting her by say she did deserve it is unexcusable. Taylor Swift is way too hot to be treated that way.

(Little sidenote: I haven't done anything at all to confirm this but all my friends back home say Taylor Swift has enrolled at KU. So jealous. One guy told me he's going to stop going to class and just start stalking her. She's just beautiful)

Anyway Kanye's an ahole. Honestly dude. It's just pathetic. Yeah the stuff he said back during Katrina had a little bit of truth and a similar maybe less extreme sentiment needed to be expressed, but now this whole speaking his mind thing he does is just reveal what little mind, not to mention tact, he really has.

Geography Sucks

I hate geography soooo much! They made google earth for a reason. The teacher's a nice enough guy in all but he just has no business teaching. I think part of it is that english isn't he's first language and I mean he can speak it really well but he just doesn't understand what he's students need. Like a cultural thing. But I mean we have a map quiz Wednesday. The study guide has six pages of 15 locations each of European cities, mountains, seas, straits, rivers. The test is going have 20 points on the map of Europe and we have to write from memory what they are.

A. We haven't talked about Europe at all. Absolutely nothing. We've spent these first three weeks talking about the introductory chapter - learning about the idea of a region and different kinds of scales on a map and how a map works. The kind of stuff that makes slam your head into your over and over again until you lose consciousness.

Second off I can't spell as I'm sure you've noticed from reading this blog. I can't even spell simple American words how am I going to spell crazy eastern European words. There is this one country in Iceland (which I know is not in eastern Europe) called Raykjavik. The hell is that!?1? I can't pronounce that. I had to look at it four times just to write correctly there.

Idk only one semester, right?

Liam Lynch on Acid

This is exactly why you should never do acid. It's so much better to record people who do tripping out and post it on YouTube so everyone can laugh about it.

Liam Lynch did that "United States of Whatever" song and anyway he's like tripping on acid in a closet and Dan Deacon another really cool artist like recorded him and made this trippy video.

I just thought the whole thing was hilarious and everyone needed to see this.

ONE

Anyone who's seen me has probally noticed the white wrist band I always got on. The organization it represents is ONE, a world hunger effort. The group is really excellant and offers alot of opportunities to get involved abroad or even domestically.

It is really an excellant cause. There is no reason for anyone to hungry with all we have acheived and advanced. And yet millions do every day. Its just not okay.

ONE

Movie: The Informant

This is actually really interesting because when I saw the trailer the premise sounded really familiar and then I remembered that This American Life had done a story on this guy. It is one of my favorite episodes. The whole story is just really interesting. It looks like the movie makes him out to be a little more of a goofball than they did in the radio show but I guess that makes for a better movie. Anyway looks quality. I urge you to check out both of these.
This American Life

Teddy's Passing

Senator Ted Kennedy died today, and he will be greatly missed. He was the last of a era, of a embodiment of hope and inspiration in a time of hardship and dispair. None can deny the man immense dedication to this nation and his tireless efforts to advanced the lives of our less fortunate with nearly half a century of public service. He was a great man and today is one for morning.

First Days of Class

Well just finished day one about to have day two get under way. I'm sitting outside Olmstead right now even though since don't have class until 2 this day I should be back at Ross sleep for a few more hours. Its just campus is so nice during the warm seasons. There is just an amazing amount of green grass and flowers and trees and awesome. And you really have to enjoy it while you can because it gets so cold here in the winter. It's like two different campuses. Of course all the Minnesota kids just think I'm being a pansy.

Anyway the other day wasn't anything tough it just wasn't all the engaging. I mean except for Advertising Principles (which sounds really cool actually and I think will be alot of fun) I had Statistics and Geography. Both of which, while fine subjects, I'm sorry to are not what holds my attention very well. I don't know numbers and arbitrary lines on the ground just don't do for me. Needless to say I'm going to either have to catch up on my sleep before those days or invest in some serious Red Bull.

Today I have Business Law and Marketing Intro. Business Law I guess is all dependent on what teacher you have. Unfortunately I cannot remember who I have or how to figure out who I have, so whatever just go to the firing line blind I guess. I haven't heard anything about Marketing. I don't think it should be too bad though. Ought to be a pretty good year all in all.

Hubs

Okay Hubble Cafeteria may not be the best but its a ton better than the cans of cold chili and nutrigrain bars I've been living off of for the past couple days. So finally the place is open, but when I get there the place is swarming Freshman with their PMAC's. Ahh it was crazy. It looked like they even had extra tables and those were filled. The place was packed with this huge spiralling line leading out of it.

So we said alright we'll come back in like a half hour. When we came back yes the place was cleared. But nearly all of the food was gone. I don't want to be mean because I'm sure people thought the same of me during welcome weekend but they're like locust. They just desimated the place.

BACK AT DRAKE !!!!

I'm back. I actually got back sunday but haven't been able to get a chance to get on and blog about it. There has just been so much going on. I'm staying with three other guys in a quad at Ross (which is the dorm off campus and is also like the best as sketchy as is), and we all brought too much crap. I got to figure a way to get my futon and some other stuff I had in storage over the summer back home.

O that's one freshman should know. If you live far away from the University get like one of those storage units you can put all of your winter crap and stuff you not gonna need back home over the summer.

Man its great seeing everyone. Ofcourse not everyones here yet so its still a little having the place emptier than normal but everywhere you look I see an old friend I haven't seen for a long time. It's a great feeling.

Ah I'm just really tired we've been hauling stuff around all day. Me and my bud got stuck with the small room so we had to spend a good couple hours feng shui-ing all the furniture to make it tolerable. That was a pain. It's good now though. I think we got it set up pretty well.

Anyway its just nice to be back. Got a week til school starts to just chill and relax with friends. Good stuff

Movie: Taking Woodstock

First off if you honestly do not recognize Demetri Martin you're crazy. He's freakin' hilarious. Freakin' witty, alright. Okay so comedian who's had success with standup and tv try's to make a jump to movie, know what you're thinking it could go very very badly; especially with a premise that could end up with like some stupid stoner film. BUT! look at the end who they list as director. Ang freakin' Lee. Guy directed Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon!, Ride with the Devil. I mean come on. How is this not just going to be awesome.

Car + Tree Limb

So two prefaces before I begin.

First, like 6 days ago I get a new car. A white Nissan Sentra 2007. Absolutely excellant handle and sooo fast. The pickup is just amazing. Now we kept my black truck also because its been a great deal of help to Dad in hauling wood and the mower and other things around, so the drive is filled up with the pickup and my brother's car on the side and Dad and Mom's car in the garage. So I park across the street in the neighbor's driveway because their selling the house and don't live there.

Second the other morning we had this massive thunderstorm. I mean it came down HARD. I was lifeguarding at the pool and no kids were there but once the lightning started off in the distance I sent the other guards home while I closed up the pool. Five minutes later it starts pouring sheets of rain and the wind is just blowing like crazy. I had driven the truck that day because I had load a tube in the back to go tubing down the river after work with some friends (obviously that didn't pan out). So I've finished everything and I run to pickup and by the time I get there I am soaked, I am completely drenched. It is like I had just jumped in the water. The drive home was interesting. Like rafting down a river. Christ there was so much water in the street.

Anyway the meat of the story. My mom, bless her, thought it would be best to move the Nissan to our side of the street. Unfortantely she park it near a tree that had a giant limb (it stretched across the length of our driveway) that fell week to wind. It comes down on the back of the Nissan and slides off but still leaves like 5 dents, cracks the left tail light, and chips the paints in a couple spots. So as a result its a toss up (really all on the parts guy) on whether I'll be getting back to Drake Sunday or Tuesday. I'm just a little pissed about being set back. I kind of be willing to go up fixed car or not. I mean doesn't look that bad. Whatever here's hoping everything goes right.

Movie: Cold Souls

This should be a pretty funny one; dark, but funny I think. Paul Giamatti plays "Paul Giamatti" a kind of composition of all of his characters with all their morbid, depressing crankiness. He has his soul removed by this new fancy company that does that so that he can be unburdened and better understand a character he is doing on Broadway. Kind of one of the funny things is that this depressing gray man's soul is the size of what everyone describes as a chicka pea.

It is a great premise. Taking something so valuable and precise and reducing it down to something commercial and tangible like a tonsil or cellulite. It totally gives a knew spin on the whole concept of a soul.

Bill's Back to Save the Day

Okay so as I'm sure you know these two Asian-American lady reporters were arrested in North Korea on bullshit charges and sentenced to like 12 years of hard labor. So we got two of our own being held by that crazy midget as sort of hostages really. It is seemingly hopeless. I mean we're dealing with a nut job while military is already stretched to a breaking point what with all the action in the middle east.

Clinton flies in does some schmoozing and BOOM! girls hop on a flight home. You know for as much crap as Clinton gets for getting the quickies in the oval office, you cannot deny him that he is just an amazingly charasmatic person and outstanding speaking. The gets amounts in the 7 figure range for doing one speech. Yes he is a little permiscuous, but I got to be if you ever met him he just be the warmest most affable person you have ever met. He'd make himself your new best friend. Just amazing stuff.

Movie: Hump Day

Yes this one is a little weird. In fact I only heard about it today driving back from KC listening to this movie critics talk show on their NPR and they just had great things to say about it. It's absolutely hilarious. It's completely organic.

I guess the festival that the guys are making the film for in the movie is a real festival. It started in 2005 in Seattle and its like the sundance of porn (wikipedia: HUMP!)

I don't know I'm probably not going to see it in theaters. I would if I were like a movie critic and could just go see any movie wanted all day but whatever. I think it will be interesting.

Movie: The Boat that Rocked

This is what revolution should be. A pure righteous rejection of the anal-retinitive, unnatural, personal restrictivness of the established culture and an embrass of humanistic freedom and joy. No harm is done no effort is made to directly damage. Those upholders of common decency may be offended and aghast but the offense to their delicate sensibilities is subjective and the values that they steam from are archaic and without reason except that is they way it has been.

The movie looks great (Philip Seymour Hoffman is so good). The music sounds excellant and from such a great era for British rock.

August 28th see it damn it

Movie: 500 Days of Summer

I so want to see this but I can not find it anywhere. I so hate this whole "limited release" "select theater" crap. How is it fair to be showing me previews all the freakin time of these great movies and then not let me see them.

This does really look good though. I'm just such a film freak and I can't help shouting about a good movie when I see one. The guy in this does alot of really good stuff. He was originally the youngest on that 3rd Rock from the Sun show where they were aliens or what not (which probabally if I saw it again is not that good of a show), but a really good movie that people should see is Brick. Its like a tribute to those old California detective mysteries except with highschool, which sounds really trashy but they really do an excellant job with it. Alot of just wonderfully bizarre, yet grounded, characters.

Weird Little Thing

So I'm sitting in Cold Stone wondering why I paid so much for something that's giving me brain freeze, and I open this letter from AARP and inside are one of those cards of theirs and a letter telling me how I've qualified for membership. I'm 19 years old. How do I get a membership with the American Association of Retired Persons. Furthermore they got my name wrong. The card is for a "MR QUINT HALL." Now I'm sure most of you don't know this but that ain't my real name. My legal name is James Martin Hall V. Makes me sound fancy and regal but really my families just not that creative when it comes to the name department. We were out hunting one Thanksgiving and I swear there were 4 James, 3 Johns, 2 Kellys and a Wyatt. The nickname "Quint" is due to the fact that all five of those James Martin Hall's have all lived in the same town in the middle of Kansas. You end up running out of nicknames to avoid confusion. So my mother being the very clever woman she is nicknamed me Quint which is Latin for 5 as quintuplets.

Any way I'm pretty tempted about the offer. I get a bunch benefits and special discounts and the idea of retirement does sound nice. I'm just not sure I'm ready to accept myself as such an old fart.

Movie: Wild Things

YES!!!! This book was the best. Oh I hope they do a good job with this. It's such a big part of childhood that it would totally break my heart if they messed with it in some way bad. Although I like to think I can trust Spike Jonze with something like this; he's the guy who produce the Jackass series and I'm sure he can understand the spirit. You know. Back when you knew how to have fun. You didn't need crazy drugs or booze to loosen you up and you didn't worry about being chill or acting cool. You know, you just knew. And you would run. You just run and run and didn't matter what time it was or how far away home was because you didn't need to go home to rest you could just collapse there on the grass and look out at the sky and just think about how big and blue it was. And laugh. Sometimes you wouldn't even know what you were laughing about, but it didn't matter because you just felt so happy that you couldn't contain it anymore. And no one told you to straighten up or calm down or be serious or professional because that's what kids do and what do you care. I really hope they do this well.

Movie: Hurt Locker

I wasn't really all that familiar with the film, but the reviews and accrediations for it were impressive enough to catch my eye. TIME calls it "a near-perfect war film" and New York Times says "ferociously suspenseful." It won Best Film at the Venice Film Festival.

The film what I can see is the high adrenaline, suspense mounting, brilliant stimulation of explosion brought to you through the excellance, beauty, and quality of a work of art. The best part a war for the veiwer is when things go boom. This just cuts out all the in between and takes you right to the mayhem.

The film hits national release July 24th but may still be hard to find. I'm probably going to have to see it in KC or something.

Drake Visit

Finally got a chance to get back to Drake to see everyone and man it was freakin' awesome. The place I stayed at called "The Carter" isn't in the best of condition. Hahaha that's an unstatement (the occasionally dose of asbestos can't be that bad though), but no what made it great was that all my best buds were there.






It was just excellant. Plenty of partying and seeing everyone. We ah didn't do a whole lot during the day except I finally got to see some of the movies I wanted to see, Hangover and Public Enemies.

Hangover was just unbelievably funny. I don't think I could ever dream of ever liven up to all that happened there but I would die a happy man if I woke up with a tiger in the bathroom (the baby I could do without).

Public Enemies also great. Alot of the other people who saw it kind of felt that there was more focus on love story than the shoot-'em-up action they expected. Which has some validity. There is a healthy presense of the love story between Dillinger and Billy Frechette but it's not cheesy and kind of beautiful, so it didn't bother me too much. Beside it is not as though there is any lacking with the action. It may have been the theater's sound system but the gun fire (which there is a lot of) just rattles right through you as though you were during the shooting.

Plus it's a great movie for fans of criminal history. This takes place at the peak of crime, when those boys had the cops out-gunned and out-driven with the invention of the V-8 enginee. The bank didn't have fancy alarm systems so you had a good 4-5 minutes to run through the bank before the first police car showed up on the scene. You also get to see a young J. Edgar Hoover and the birth of the FBI. You thought the crap they pulled at GITMO was bad, just wait to see what they got away with before the idea of government transparency was even thought of.

Frustration with Congress

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barney Frank Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barney Frank Extended Interview Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

This is what I can't stand about congress especially the house. It is backed up with all this political bs and petty bickering between the parties that for any good to get accomplished it is an exhausted process. They just bicker at one another and blame the other party for everything that goes and act as though they are completely innocent to the whole happenings.

Like here Barney Frank if a freakin' liar. Jon is disappointingly timid in the in interview and kind of calls him out on supporting the mortgage bubble, but Frank gets to go off on his whole speech and delude and dodge the question. I mean come on the guy was head of the finance committee while his party was majority in both houses, don't give me a whiny sob story that the whole situation was out of your control. And further more all the legislation he is talking about that deregulated the financial sector that was passed by the republican congress, it was backed, supported, and approved by President Clinton (a democrat).

I'm not saying that one party is more to blame than the other, or even that it is the government to blame. In my opinion all the players are to blame - the government, the people on wall street, the morons who took the loans they knew they could never pay back. So what I wish is that the people with the power to fix the situation would quit all the childish bickering and finger pointing and do their job or get out of office so someone who can will.

Harry Potter Movie

I know this is going to be pretty unpopular for some of you, but the Harry Potter Movies suck. The books are brilliant. Don't get me wrong I am not making any attack on the whole Harry Potter idea, just on the butchered versions of the stories thats' crap wastes film reels of far better potential use.

I know it cliche to attack the movie and rant about how much better the book is but there really is just so much lost.

First off Daniel Radcliffe is a freakin dewb and a horrible, horrible actor. He's one of the those actors that remind you its just a movie and instead of getting into the story for the rest of the film all you can think about is how badly you'd like to punch him in the face but you can't because it's just projected light on a screen which further reminds you it's only a movie. The two who play Ron and Hermione are pretty good but Radcliffe is just awful.

The movies take the stories and cut out the action scenes and string them together in a choppy sequence of nonsequitur tacky cliche blockbuster movie moments crudely into a horrible waste of 2.5 hours. It leaves out the inbetweens; the moments that allow the story to flow for the world to come real in your mind. This is exactly the disgusting effect of the commercialization that is so often ranted against. It takes something beautiful and enriching and makes it cheap and hollow.

Bicycle

My favorite and most effective stress reliever has got to be a good bike ride. Alot of people run, but with running I always feel like what I'm doing is stupid after about 200 yards and just have trouble seeing the point. Plus you feel obligated to keep a steady pass while running; you wouldn't want anyone seeing you sprint for 20 yards, then go into a walk. Whereas with a bike you can just crank it out to your hearts content and then coast off your momentum.

That's the other thing - you go so fast. You can just coast down a hill at top speed and just embarass the cool air across your face and through your hair. You just sit back and soak it in. Then there comes this excitement when you move onto the flat terrain as you just pedal like crazy seeing if you can keep it up.

Sure you'll hit an uphill or slow point every now and again but it's about of the experience. It's a challenge. Man and machine working in unison as you press through the motion is strainuous and forceful yet fluid with the smooth operation of excellant mechanism.

This is also just a perfect time of year for it. The suns out for like every, so almost any time you get the feeling you can head out. I ride along the dike and on one side are all the ticky-tacky, cookie cutter houses but on the other are the wheat fields. They just cut it about a week ago so there are these open spaces of freshly trimmed crop with that rich golden orange harvest color. This is then complimented by the fair blue of the sky divided by the lush green of the tree lines that divide the fields. There's a golf course on my way back so if I'm lucky the sprinkler system will be running and I run out there real quick and get a little cool down before the groundskeeper sees me.

Come back but on some good music, take a shower, and I'm good to go man.

Pat Kuhn Across the US

My good buddy Patrick Kuhn is biking across the United States, and I don't mean motorcycle, I mean actual pedaling. He's already in Massachusetts in an apparently rough biker town, Pittsfield. I always think of the whole biker gang thing as more of a West Coast thing but what the hell do I know. Pat says so I'm going to believe the guy.

Anyway Patrick is a beautiful writer, just stunning use of imagery. The philosophy he may include may not be very appealing to most, but it's the quality of the writing I want you to notice. Not only will he allow you to see the environment, he will allow you to see it with a poetry and elegant poise that I am sure that seeing it in person could never hold a candle to it, the way an excellant photographer captures the world we would never see.

He's going to keep us updated with this twitter site below, and I hope you'll check it out. He'll be seeing some cool stuff.

http://twitter.com/patingrid

4th of July !!!

You got to love the 4th of July. The summer time is at its best. Just the smell of the air. It's filled with the reminents of burned powder from all the fireworks and grilled meats. We had this big get together with all the people in the neighborhood. We had the necessary summer food - fried chicken, watermellon, potatoe salad, homemade cookies. Awesome. They had some games for the kids like leap-frog relays, egg tosses, tricycle races.

Then they had the big show. Gawd it was amazing. They launched them about 80 yards away from where we were sitting, so if you laid back it was right above your head. So intense.

FIREWORKS!!!

Whoooaaaa!!! Time to celebrate this country's independence by blowing up a small piece of it. Fireworks went on sell here the other and I went out and blew $20 bucks on the closest legal equivalents to explosives a person can possess without a permit.

Gawd, 4th of July is a great holiday. The day is so long and the weather is nearly always perfect so there is plenty of time for barbequeing, swimming, games, and just sitting outside and marveling at how beautiful everthing is. I mean part of that is having come back from Africa and just be amazed at how wonderful it is here. The lawns are lush and green, thick pearl clouds spread across just the purest blue sky. Comparatively any problems most of us may be having here are just so insignificant as to back there. There's no worries, man.

Micheal Jackson is Dead

What!?!?! Michael can't die. He made Thriller. It just seems weird that a someone like Michael Jackson, who honestly doesn't really seem like a real person just something to scare children - don't mouth off or we'll send you to Neverland, could die. It's like when Anna Nicole Smith died or like if Mickey Mouse could die.

The whole thing is just really sad. Not that I'm going to be sobbing in mourning or experience a sense of loss. I just feel bad for the guy. I'm mean there are a lot of jokes that I could about the statutory rape with the little boys and the freaky amount of plastic surgery changing him from a black boy to a white women and all that, but now that he's dead it almost seems cruel.

The guy had a really crappy life. The dad of all the family was a real abusive, miserable prick. Michael has been forced into show business since he was like 9. It's not good when so much of your sense of selfworth is based so heavily on the applause and approval of a crowd. It's just way too much pressure. If you watch some of the dance steps his brothers and he had to get down, it is just unfathomable how hard they must have work. All that pressure ontop of all that influx of celebrity and money with no one he could trust or seek guidance from. Of course he got screwed up.

Also I hope Bubbles is okay.

The Official Youtube Jackson Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/michaeljackson?blend=1&ob=4

SC Governor

This South Carolina Governor, Sanford, is just wild, man. First he goes and tells his staff that he's headed off on a hiking trip to the Appalachian Trail. Which is understandable he'd been under a lot of stress. He just had a veto overturned and the court ruled it against him in a matter of $700 million. Guy could use a break. So on the 18th he takes off.

But then he totally goes off the radar. Zero contact. People in the state are freakin' out that he's been in a hiking accident. Until Wednesday when he returns from the airport to report that he had been in Argentia on like a booty call. I mean honestly dude. As a public official you can tone down the crazy eccentricity a little bit.

This whole thing is coming out with in a week or less of Nevada Senator John Ensign admitting to an affair a campaign staffer who is married to one of his former legislative aides. The heck man.

Crazy Signs from Africa

I just got a hoot out of some of the signs we saw down there.





This one, okay, we were moving quickly when we passed and unfortunately this is the best shot I could get, but if you look out the window at the blue sign on the left just above the chair you will see a condom characture doing a little dance. HAHAHA. Its part of fight against AIDs effort which is a serious issue, but that little fellow just cracks me up.