December 2003 Archives

So I've been really out of it this week due to sickness, and it shows. I've been forgetting stuff left and right. Sunday night Heidi IMs me and asks me if I got my Comparative Politics paper done with, because it was due Monday. I completely forgot about it. Monday Gil come over and asks for help with her Samurai Japan take home final, the one thats due Tuesday. I thought it was due Thursday. Then later Tuesday, a girl from my Political Though class asks me if I've done the take home final for that class yet because its due Wednesday. I thought it was due on Thursday also. Wow, if it wasn't for the kindness of strangers, I would have been screwed.

So it looks as if my blog has had over 1100 hits! Go blog go! I don't really know who's actually reading my blog, but it would be interesting to find out. (Hint hint, post a comment, anything). Speaking of work on my blog, I've yet to put photos up of this winter wonderland that is Gustavus right now. I've been buys, or just avoiding my work. Also, I don't know if my blog will be up over break. Apparently RES Life here on campus won't let me leave one thing plugged on over break. Just one thing! Arggggg! They're so mean! But in good news I was able to get e-mail working, for most of the people on SeeNoEvil.org. The only problem is the four of us who probably use it the most can't get e-mail working. I'm working on it.

So we went and saw the Return of the King tonight, and man did it rock. Well, it could have also been the fact that even though we got there 45 minutes ahead of time, the only spots we could find were in the second row. My neck still hurts from it. That and my butt. The movie was 200 minutes long! That and an annoying 10 minutes of commercials (not previews, those came after) before the show started! If I wanted to watch commercials, i'd have stayed home and watched TV! But anyhow, the movie so rocked, the special effects were awesome, the battles amazing, and the story was... well. Just plain super fly! I'll have to go see it again at home, with my Dad. He needs to see it. The only thing that would have made it better, was if my bladder was about three times larger. I usually never have to go to the bathroom during a movie, but but I had to during this movie.

I'm heading home tomorrow, sometime in the afternoon. My final gets over at 3, but I suspect it will take me far less time. It started snowing again, so I don't know how fast I'll be able to drive back. That and I take forever to pack. Oh well, happy holidays if I don't get to blog while I'm home.

So I spent all last night watching movies and drinking a lot of sprite. Yes, Sprite. Not Water. I don't like to drink water, especially Saint Peter water which is bound to give me colon cancer or something. I like my colon, and I think it likes me. So I'd hate to give it cancer. Gee, I don't need anything else wrong withe me at this point.

So the first movie I watched last night was The Eye. Its a Chinese film which tells the strange tail of a blind girl who gets a cornea transplant, and when she can see again, she starts seeing dead people. In my opinion, it was a much more suspenseful and scary film then the Sixth Sense was. It was quite good. Quite frankly I would love to watch more Asian films, or foreign films in general, but they're hard to find in video rental stores, and I don't have the money to be spending on random foreign films.

The second films I watched was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which made me feel like I was on drugs. Well, I am on drugs, but I mean the illegal kind of drugs. It was a very weird story by Terry Gilliam, which stared Johnny Depp, who spent the majority of the movie doing drugs and seeing weird things. I don't really get what was going on in the film, or what the point was, or even if there was a point about the entire thing. All I know is that I'm completely lost, and completely out of it. Luckily Tina Erickson, Lindsay Fox, and Katie Groves were here watching it with me, or else I probably would have gone insane. Which is a distinct possibility at any given point.

Today I went to Mankato with Zach and Stef for some quick shopping. We went to Arbies for lunch, and to the mall, which was completely swamped with people. I felt like I was in some consumerism nightmare. the lines were so long, and the people were everywhere. EVERYWHERE! Arrrrrg! Zach had to pick up some new underwear, and I made an impulse buy and got the Clerks Animated DVD, only because it was on super sale. The entire trip Zach was playing with his newest iPod accessory, the iTrip. He's been impressed with mine, and figured he needed one for his car. He eventually got it working, after much trial and error. He wants me to put a bunch of music on his iPod, because "You have good taste in music with lyrics." Meaning my taste in non-lyric music is bad. Damn you Zach, damn you to hell! I've still not got my own iPod back in order (after it decided to erase itself one day). So much music, so little time.

Anyhow, I think I'm going to watch the Clerks DVD I got, and drink a lot more sprite. I may get around to putting up some photos tonight, but I keep running into the problem of my photo library being too big. I've got about 1600 photos in there, and I don't think Apple ever intended for iphoto to handle more then 500. So iPhoto runs very slowly, even with 1.5 gigs of RAM. Oh well, I have nothing else to do.

So after feeling like shit for two days I finally got into Campus Health services today, only to find out that they think I have the flu. Oh no, it couldn't be a simple sinus infection, it has to be the flu. Just to be sure, they had to do a swab of my sinuses. Yeah, nothing like having a long Q-tip shoved up my nose. Man, that sucked. But now I have some medication in case it is a sinus infection (and also to prevent bacterial infection). Drugs are bad, mmmmkay.

But in consolation of my being sick it was nice to know people care. I took a nap, and came back to find 6 people (and one porn ad) had sent me IMs expressing there heartfelt sympathy for my sickness. Everyone seems to care when your away message is "The flu sucks." I hope I can get better for Sunday... I really want to see Bubba Ho-Tep with the guys. Seeing I was too sick to go on Thursday, and Friday night is gaming night for them, and Saturday is 'All Day Anime Day' for them. damn them and their relentless anime and gaming lust!

So had I gone to all my classes today, it would have been my last day of classes. I didn't miss anything, except writing teacher evaluation, to which I would only have positive things to say. This means that all next week would be... Finals Week! I have two take home finals due Wednesday and my only real final us on Thursday. Which means that I'll have to stick around here till Thursday. but its all cool. The Return of the King opens next Wednesday, so we can all go to it. From what I've heard its going to be 200 minutes long! Lord knows how long the extended edition will end up being. But this also means that come next november when the extended edition comes out, we're going to have to have a marathon of extended editions, which will probably end up being around 12 to 13 hours long. Crazyness.

Sadness fills my heart because I was too sick to play in my string jury. I felt it was better not to infect the string faculty as opposed to them evaluating me, and apparently they did too. Uuuggggg. I only hope that I don't infect any of my roomies, that would suck. Seriously, thats my biggest fear. Oooo look at the time. I've got to be taking some drugs. Drugs, a movie, and a limitless supply of sprite and oatmeal. I think I'm set for the weekend. Its times like this that I'm glad I do history and political science stuff, and don't have to drain my brian over physics or hard core science. That would be killer.

Though this sick time does provide me with an opportunity to label all my photos and stick my winter photos online. I amy do that after a nap or two. Peace out.

Yes, my 15 page paper is so damn dull. Marx and Feminism. So dull. Really. I'm just about done, and I wonder if it'll put my professor to sleep.

I'm still kinda sick, but feeling better. A bit better, but I'm still going through tissues like theres no tomorrow. Anyhow, I'm just procrastinating, so i thought I'd write a quick blog.

We couldn't go see Bubba Ho-Tep tonight because of my illness. I went to get some medication and picked up Brotherhood of the Wolf, which we watched while I ate large amounts of tomato soup. I think we may go tomorrow night. Its probably best because I also have to finish this paper.

I should go do that before my head explodes!

So it kept on snowing, all day and all night. Yes, we've been having lots of snow around here. The nice kind of snow, the kind thats all powdery and dry, so it looks cool, and people can't make it into snowballs. Believe me, they've tried. It started snowing Monday night, and then continued through all of Tuesday. I think we got somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8 inches here at GAC. My parents got some snow also in Sioux Falls, but lets not talk about that. But, what is important is that I got out and took some photos today! I always hate it when I wait to take some photos of campus, and then I wait too long and all the snow gets all dirty or melts away. Thats what happened last year, not that we got much snow to begin with. I took about 70 photos, of which I'll probably put the top thirty on my webpage this weekend. I really need to go through all my photos and label them, but only this weekend, I need to finish this big ass paper I'm in the middle of writing. Anyhow I thought it would be nice to stick up one photo of campus covered in snow, so here it is. Just click on the thumbnail in the top right and you'll get a nice big photo of Old Main and the GAC Sign.

In other news I'm sorta sick. Nothing too bad, just a runny a runny nose sinus thing. I'm going to get some more rest tonight and finish up the other half of my paper this evening (being Thursday). I'm really looking forward to going home over Christmas, and possibly doing some house hunting in Rochester. Sure, I'll never really live there, but I mean, I should let them know how I feel. Also I can get some much needed rest before the China trip I'm doing over J-Term. Ahhh... 18 days in China. Be sure to look for photos, with the help of Zach's laptop and an active internet connection we should be able to post photos every few days on the webpage. Damn its going to be fun, and I know i'll be taking at least 100 photos a day while we're there.

Oh well, to bed with me. Hopefully something interesting will happen to me soon so I can rant and rave about it. Well, hopefully after I'm done writing another seven pages of my paper. Goodnight everyone.

Former Governor and now U.S. Representative Bill Janklow was found guilty on all four counts today. He's going to be sentenced on January 20th, which is also the same day he's resigning from office. I can't day I ever liked the guy, because I didn't. I really disliked him. The only time I ever actually saw him in person was at Boy's State, where he belittled everyone he talked to. There was a question and answer session during which he sounded like he was lecturing us all on why we were such idiots. It was horrible. To show you have stupid he is, besides all the shit he tried to pull at trial, during the months before the trial he had his aids in Washington run background checks on people who wrote editorials criticizing him in local newspapers. So so stupid. Anyhow, read the CNN article on it. Lets hope he goes away for 10 years.

So this morning I was greeted with a very kind gift. My big ass paper which was going to be due on Tuesday, has been moved back to Friday. I guess this means I can actually sleep now. As opposed to my idea of staying up for about 20 hours strait. Which would have happened. I was such a mess last night. I had three Pib Extra's in about an hour, and my body doesn't take too well to that amount of caffeine. My hands were shaking badly. So note to self, do paper during the day, forget about caffeine.

So my school e-mail account has been spam free for over two years now. Sadly my AIM account is not doing so well. Nothing like spam instant messages for porn all day long. Its super annoying, and I don't know why I'm getting them. Come on now, I'm hooked up to a college network, i don't need outside porn! (Just kidding)

So the only thing more annoying then spam would be the new "Don't Pirate Movies" commercials at the beginning of films. Over break my Dad and I went to see two movies, both of which we had to sit and watch some guy talk about why we shouldn't pirate movies, because if we do he'll lose his job. This is how I see it happening:

Some guy: Hello, my name is Joe and I paint sets. See, I make movies and I love it. Pirating moves takes money away from me and my family. Sure, it probably doesn't matter that I'm a union worker that gets paid no matter how the movie turns out, and sure, it probably doesn't matter that this production company spent 25 million bucks on some guy who can't act and only spent $10 on a really bad script. But of you pirate movies, you're going to hell. Forever. That and I'm probably getting paid to do this.

See the only movies I pirate are the ones I'd never rent or see in theaters, so they're not losing out on me. plus come on now, there have been some really bad movies out in the past year, and I have to wonder if the people in Hollywood haven't got their heads up their asses. I love movies, which is why i own a massive DVD collection, but its about time hollywood stopped trying to spend millions on bad acting and started spending more on good scripts.

Speaking of movies I'm going to watch a movie for my samurai Japan class tonight. I'm thinking of it as a break form my research paper. I should really try and make some headway before it, which is why i should start doing it... now.

Then again, some children don't. C in CC is over with now, and my weekend has been completely wasted. I did manage to get two papers done this weekend, and research for the big one thats due on... Tuesday. Don't expect to see much of me Monday, because I'll be doing my paper. Actually my finals shouldn't be too tough, its just these next couple of days and the large number of papers that i've been doing. Well, that and C in CC.

I didn't take any pictures of C in CC. I figured I have enough pictures of my friends on their Tuxes for a while. I'll take some later, probably of Zach doing some very silly and embarrassing things.

Steve and I are going to go see Bobba Ho-tep this Thursday. I've been waiting a long time to see this flick, which should rock. I love Bruce Campbell, and can't wait to see this film. This will be the high point of my week. Oh wait... or will it be the Return of the King? Another good flick.... hmmm.... so many movies.

So anyhow I should start going over these books I got today, finding the info I need. Wish me luck everyone, wish me luck. I'll need it. That and caffeine. Mmmmmm.....

So yeah, I gotta love this place. Snow, and gray skies. In class today Professor Leitch had to explain to the Japanese girl in our class why people sleep so much around here in winter. You know, because its so dark and gray outside, and it helps people's natural winter depression. I know how that is, because I so dislike winter. I dislike the lack of sunshine. See, I'm like superman, I get all my power from sunlight and sprite. Without the sun I'm about as powerful as Pee-wee Herman.

Leitch also told us how a lot of what we 'recycle' is never recycled. He was at the recycling center in Mankato, and they were burning all the stuff they got. What happens to our trash is that when it goes to the recycling center is that a lot of times everything is burned. See when the market is bad for recycling goods, its a lot cheaper and easier to burn it for electricity. This is the recycling world's dirty little secret. How bad is that? Oh, and all the stuff we throw away on campus gets re-sorted in Mankato. So it doesn't really matter if I stick my Sprite bottle in the trash or in the recycling bin, because it all gets re-sorted anyways. Ha on YOU!

So, this anime Wonderful Days is cooler then I ever thought. It came out in Korea in July, and John downloaded the Korean trailer, which I hadn't seen before, and its making me want to watch it even more. Heres the Korean teaser trailer which is in Windows Media format, and then theres the big ass English trailer which is in Quicktime format. Watch them, they are very cool. I'm drooling right now even.

(UPDATE: Links above no longer work, but I've posted this youtube video)

Oh well, C in CC calls. I'll be sure to take some pictures this weekend.

Ok, its not that I hate snow, I just dislike living in it. Its currently snowing outside, quiet heavily. It looks quite nice actually, but in all reality its going to get very cold now. Plus Gustavus sits on top of a hill, and its always windy. So nothing like having to deal with gusting wind every day, and freezing my balls off. Yes, I said balls. Get over it.

So I'm done with one paper, and I'm going to do another one tonight. That leave me this weekend to do the big research paper, as long as C in CC doesn't kill me. Which it just may do. I've been tempted to have someone hurt me just so I could get out of it. I know, that would be extreme, but these are extreme times, and they call for extreme measures.

I like tomato soup. A lot. I bought several cans and stuck them in my room for safe keeping the other day. I also bought some cheese, because I so do love having some cheese with my tomato soup, and as always I make sure to put lots of crackers in it. Its been a rather refreshing taste form the usual caf food. Good stuff indeed.

So I actually try to get to bed at a reasonable time last night, but there were a lot of really loud people in our section. Actually, to make things worse more then half the section was in bed, and the people out there were still keeping up a racket. This is rather bothering, because I do enjoy having people in the section, but not when we have like 6 or 7 non-section people here causing problems. Even Jared, who lives at the end of the hall, couldn't go to bed until they all left. I think next time this happen I'm going to yell at someone.

I found a really cool looking anime, thats being made in Korea. Who knew the Koreans had any animation skills. Wonderful Days appears to be an interesting cyber punk type movie that combines CGI animation with regular cell animation. I love that effect. I stuck the high resolution trailer on our webserver if anyone wishes to see it, otherwise it will probably take an hour to get it off of theirs. Its in quicktime format, but if you don't have it you should. Just download it from Apple for free. I so need to get some more anime, or a new powerbook.

Oh, what do I want for X-Mas? I hope you're looking at this Mom.

1) Extended Edition of The Two Towers on DVD.
2) Indiana Jones Box Set on DVD, Widescreen!
3) The Graduate DVD
4) The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack
5) The book Robota
6) Brotherhood of the Wolf DVD
7) Family Guy Season 3 DVD Box Set
8) Gift cards to Best Buy or Barnes and Noble are always nice.
9) Any poster from Despair.com, because, well, they're funny as sin.
10) A 1.25 ghz Powerbook G4, 80 GIG HD, 1 GIG RAM, Airport Card, and Base Station.

Those are in no particular order. I included links where you can buy them on Amazon.com, because I doubt some of them can be found in Sioux Falls very easily. Robota and the Nightmare Before X-Mas soundtrack will probably be impossible to find in Sioux Falls for sure.

I should return to my work and get this other paper done tonight. I usually don't drink caffeine, ever. But tonight I got some Pibb Ultra, and I'm feeling it. Gooooo Homework! Hmm.... caffeine high....

If anyone wishes to buy me something, go for it.

So Bush apparently wants to send the us back to the moon. Like we don't have enough problems at home, now he's trying to distract us by trying to send us to the moon.

Bush: Look American public! Its the moon! Its big and shinny! Oooooo!

So I once again would like to state that I want a laptop so I can go to the Library and do my homework. Seriously, I need too get out of the section, because right now there is like about 7 people hanging out in the section, and I'm easily distracted. By everything. Ooooo look, the moon!

Jared apparently thinks more people love his blog then mine! How bad of him! Its quite apparently everyone love me more then him! I mean, he has turned evil! I mean, look at the goat!

Arggg.... so much work to get done, and I'm so sleepy. I think I'm going to go to bed.

Its official, my family is moving. My father informed me today that he took a job in Rochester, Minnesota. This is both good and bad for me. Good: It cuts my drive home in half. It also allows my parents to be closer to me. Bad: No more Sioux Falls, and my parents are closer to me. I think this will be good for my parents. Rochester is a very cool town, and there are many new golf courses for my father to play on. He's getting to good at golf for his own good.

I've been spending too much time not doing my homework. Now that i have work to do, everyone needs help with something, or I get distracted by something else around me. Damn you technology! Damn you to hell! Sigh... I think this is yet another good reason for me to get a laptop, so I can go to the library and do work there, instead of in my room, which is right next to the biggest distraction known to man.

Small Rant: I hate when I go to the store to buy or rent a DVD, and there is both a wide screen and a full screen DVD. You can't get both on one DVD anymore, hell no, thats too easy. No you'd have to buy the same movie twice. I accidentally bought the full screen version of X-Men 2 last week, and I had to go back. I hate full screen. Its lame, and it'll not be worth shit once all the TVs change over to high definition. Seriously, if everyone has a wide screen TV, then your wide screen DVDs would be full screen! Hopefully my parents consult me before buying a new TV, I think they've had the same one since 1984 or so.

Anyhow, I should get back to this paper. When I have some time I think I may add a few new features to my webpage. Like a Search function, maybe a nice little Stats thingy like Zach has. I've been getting a lot of views, somewhere of like 30 a day, and I really wonder who the hell is viewing my page. All that really matters is that Jared Lee's webpage doesn't get as many hits. Oh, and Ben actually got around to putting a template on his blog. Go Ben! Now if only i could figure out how to get e-mail working, I'd be happy.

So I talked to our network admin on campus, Dan Oachs, and he was able to open the ports for iChat AV. I even got a chance to use it tonight with Lili Payne up in the cities. This is great, because now I can waste a lot more time talking to people about random stuff, all over the world! Actually, this should come in handy if and when I go over seas because than I can video chat with my buddies back at school and with my parents back home. That is if my parents ever get their new iMac and an iSight. He he he he....

Also, I'm extremely jealous. Lili Payne is now working at the Apple store up in the cities! My dream job come true! Plus she gets a wicked discount there! Argg.... if only i could get her to buy a laptop for me... sigh....

Dave Fowler: No I will not buy www.gac.net for you. You can buy it and I'll host it for you! Go for it! Of which, I need to check on my cash flow and see if I have enough money to buy the OTHER domain I've been wanting. He he he he he. Now all I really need to do is to get e-mail working on the webserver.

Anyhow I should head to bed now. I have a long day of homework ahead of me tomorrow, and more C in CC rehearsal. If only I could stop it!!!! It just won't die.

Hey friends. So I made it back to school ok, I'm alive. thats what counts. I may not be after this week. I have sooo much work to do this week, I may go crazy. I have three papers due right away next week, and another due Wednesday. Not to say anything about the smattering of other work that needs to be done. Oh, did I tell you I'll be busy all week with rehearsals and concerts? I hate Christmas in Christ Chapel. Its going to consume all my time this week, when I really need to be crunching papers. When I'm done I should have produced probably about 35 pages in the next week. KAHN!!! Seriously, I'll be surprised if I'm still alive in a week or so. Someone will probably find me passed out in a gutter with some paper being tightly griped in my lifeless hands.

I just got done doing a presentation on China. My first big hurdle out of the way. Lets see now, whats left to do. A 5 page paper, a 5 page paper, a 4 page paper, and a whole lot of little junk. Oh, and that DAMN CONCERT! at least my presentation went well. Arg.... maybe if I fake my own death.

So if you don't know by now, you should know. I don't like George Bush. I just don't. He's not a good leader, he misleads the people, and he's just an asshole. Seriously. I got forwarded this link to a interesting webpage that thinks the US should stop war mongering, and move on. 87 Billion Dollars could have been spent on something else, like all of our social problems at home! I sometimes wonder if politicians really know whats going on in the world, or if they're too caught up in all the money and power.

Even though I am quite busy, I still am finding a rare moment or two for some joy in this dark world I call life. For those of you who always wished you had a macintosh, heres a site that allows you to see what your webpage would look like if you were looking at it on a Macintosh. It must be hard using a computer that isn't a Macintosh. Very hard. For those of you who still don't know the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow, this site will tell you

Sigh... I should get back to doing my research. Its going to be tough because even though I got a bunch of sleep over break, I'm still very very tired this week.