Respite

I needed to take a couple of days to decompress and reorganize my thoughts following Lent.  I had thought for a while that I might journal for msyelf, but I can't find any of the empty journals I usually keep on hand and I hate using notebooks for that purpose.  So, instead I decided I might try to post more on a regular basis.  I may even beat Angela into posting more until she has her baby.  I have lost my leverage over her, however, aside from the shame of not posting.  SHAME!

Okay, okay, I said I was done on the whole confession topic, but I lied.  So sue me!  I tend to come back to things over and over again.  I apparently have "Context" as a top strength which means I think a lot about the past and apply it to the present.  I digress, however!  So, while I was confessing, I was told about a book to read that would help to put some things into perspective.  I couldn't find it at the library, so I ended up buying a copy (it was less than $20, so it wasn't a bad deal).  After reading a bit of the first chapter and paging through it, I can definitely say I wish I had had this book whe I started dating.  I don't really know I would have listened to it at the time, or if I even would have read it, but it already seems like it's a pretty level headed response to the 'dating scene' in modern days.  Before I go about recommending it, I intend to put it on my reading list and finish it at a later point in time.  Stay tuned!

Shallow But Deep

I woke up in one of my 'weird' moods today.  I never know whether to attribute these moods to depression or not.  I don't feel sad in particular, but I definitely feel like something is a little 'off'.

For instance, the world just seems a little less sane today.  It feels like so many people are talking about insignificant things.  I'm not the least among them, I realize.  This whole post is about my perception on things, and really that's kind of trivial as well.  Today it just seems more evident to me.  I found myself on facebook looking at posts and wondering "Why am I even here?"

It's not just "the problem of facebook", though.  The whole focus of everything just seems wrong.  I wish I could put my finger on it.

Topic Fail

Kris and I are failing at picking topics.  For some reason (maybe because I barely open my computer) I keep missing her.  We have not been communicating very well lately. 

Speaking of communication, I have realized recently that my subconscious is sabotaging my sleep.  These are the events as they happened exactly in order:

Me: *talking in my sleep* its so hot.  Baby, take my blanket.

John: *takes away my blanket*

Me: *wakes up shivering, looks around for my blanket* where's my blanket?

At this point John has no idea that I was asleep just moments ago so he hands me a sheet thinking I want a different blanket than the one I just had.  I get frustrated and say "no, my blanket" and he literally hands me every blanket except the one I want.  I can't understand why he's not giving me the one I just had because I just had it when I went to sleep and it couldn't possibly have gotten that far away from me.  Eventually I get the correct blanket back and fall asleep while John is left to process what the hell just happened.  We figured it out in the morning when he explained to me that I had asked him to take it away from me.  I guess I'm a very convincing sleep talker. 

I used to think it was cool that I talked in my sleep.  Now I'm not so sure. 

My New Glasses

It's funny when I was a kid, I was really glad I didn't need glasses cause I didn't want to look dorky and now that I'm an adult, I'm excited about getting glasses cause they make me look smart.  I'm hoping they'll make me feel smarter too... or at least make my professors feel like I'm smarter cause only smart people wear glasses.  No one else in the world wears glasses, only smart people.  It's because their brains are so overloaded with genius, their eyes can't be bothered to work correctly.  It's the same reason geniuses are extremely messy.  When you're busy solving the worlds problems, who has time to pick up dirty clothes?  And it works out great cause I could just take my glasses off and not see the mess. 

My eyes are still adjusting to being able to see correctly.  I can see things more clearly but my head feels a little dizzy with the adjustment.  They said it would take about a week to get used to them. 

Speaking of which, there's a cruel poster inside of IHOP.  Right after we picked up the glasses, we went to IHOP for breakfast and there's a poster inside of three coffee cups, all of which are painted to look blurry.  It's like they want people to think they're going blind. 

Anyway, here's a picture so you can recognize me with my glasses on. 

Me becoming smarter

Names

Today I decided to start working on a short story.  Now I'm hung up on names.  Name hunting has always been the hardest part of story telling for me.  I want the name to be unique but not so unique that people look at it and go "ew".  Its also nice if it has that special meaning that fits the character just right.  In this case, I'm trying to name two brothers so I also have to keep in mind that the same person would have named them both so I couldn't name one of them Mike and the other Agathangelos.  Unless of course I had the mom die in childbirth and the crazy cape wearing uncle had to name him.  That's a whole story I don't even have time to write about. 

Maybe I'll go play Diablo instead. 

The Dark Knight Rises

Every year that a Batman movie graces my life is a good year.  In 2005, I was learning to become an adult.  In 2008, I was in the midst of college and having great adventures at my first year in Sequoia (one of which was driving 2 hours to see Dark Knight in a midnight showing with seven fellow employees).  This year I married my soul mate.  All good things.

It was great movie.  I left fully satisfied and excited.  It was no Dark Knight though.  I couldn't believe that this movie would surpass that level of cinematic awesomeness... and it didn't. You just can't beat the deranged anarchy of the Joker.  I'm actually really glad they didn't try.  This was different than the Dark Knight.  It had its own feel.  I hate when sequels just try to copy paste the successful part of a movie and change the details.  For instance, I heard they tried to replicate Willem Dafoe's character in Boondock Saints 2 but with a female and it just didn't work.  I'll never see it because everyone I know says its awful and I don't want to tarnish my memory of the first one. 

I also hate it when they make the same jokes in sequels.  Take Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrows obsession with rum was only vaguely funny by the end of the first movie.  When he mentioned rum in the second one, I cringed.  Sure maybe I watched the first one too many times but so did everyone else and that joke was dead.  Now I can't even find rum funny anymore cause it just makes me think of Jerry Bruckheimer beating a dead horse. 

My point is this: yes the Dark Knight Rises was a bit slow, but I appreciated that it was its own movie and that it didn't try to bank on Heath Ledgers awesomeness.  One of the unexpected highlights of the movie for me was Cillian Murphy.  His scene made me laugh. 

On a related note, my parents came by for lunch the other day and gave us the Batman comic that just so happened to be the one the movies are based on.  I guess they found it in my brothers things while cleaning the garage and just knew where it should belong.  I've started reading it and its pretty good.  The only other comic I've ever read is the graphic novel Watchmen.  The style of internal dialogue in Batman reminds of Rorschach's journal.  I don't know if this is a regular comic book thing or not. 

On an unrelated note, Olive is at the vets office getting fixed right now.  This means I will be entertained later on by a drunk acting kitty.  Good. Times.

Olive giving me 'I'm too cute for surgery' eyes

Home Coming

I loved California.

I adored the mountains of Canada.

But there is nothing quite like flying back into Chicago at day break.

The Devil

So I guess there's no official topic for this week because Kris didn't pick one but she told me to blog about Diablo 3.  She can't blog about it because she doesn't have it cause her computer isn't awesome.  Mine isn't either but luckily John's computer is so I just steal it from him and play on his account. 

However, I'm not going to subject you to actual game-play talk because I'm not a gamer so the only thing I would really say is "I get to shot things and then pick up gold" and that would be the end of my blog.  Instead I'm going to talk about non-game play, as in when I'm trying to play the game and then suddenly I find myself not playing the game. 

How is this possible?  John's computer kept over heating.  There I was playing the game for only the second time ever and I was in the middle of some field killing things or picking up loot or something and suddenly THERE WAS NO GAME!  Its like Johns computer suddenly decided it didn't want me to play anymore.  It was like "you don't know how to touch me like John does, why don't you go back to typing on your inferior little laptop" and then it tossed its hair at me like a snotty little girl (cause his computer is totally a jealous female).  Then I was like "AT LEAST MY SHITTY LITTLE LAPTOP DOESN'T SHUT DOWN ON ME WHILE I'M WRITING MY BLOG!!!"  and then I bitch slapped the computer and we haven't talked since. 

Just kidding.  I totally fired the computer right back up and tried to play the game again but she was STILL having none of that so it shut down on me again.  She's such a bitch.  She must have been on her period.  Not to worry though, John now has a giant fan pointing directly into the interior of the computer so it doesn't overheat again.  So, I've had many chances to play the game and right now I'm even 2 whole levels above John!  That's wont last long though.  As I'm writing this, he's wandering through a dungeon killing things. 

And that is the joy of playing Diablo 3.  John and I fight over the one computer that runs the game and I get a taste of what it feels like to be on the other side of video game playing when I'm the one who wants to play and John is whining at me in the background to get off the computer... the only difference being he wants me off so he can play, not so he can spend time with me. 

Defying the Odds

So I got together with a couple of friends tonight and we decided to pick up some campy horror movies to make fun of and freak out to.  We rented "The Innkeepers", something about a derranged mortician, and "Don't be Afraid of the Dark".  With a movie about a haunted house, a movie about a derranged mortician, and a movie that looked like it was supposed to be about a haunted house, there wasn't a lot of room for error regarding campy horror flicks.  And yet, somehow, we defied the odds and none of the movies were particularly campy.  "The Innkeepers" was actually very well done, except the ending was weak and the storyline could have been built up more.  As far as acting and dialogue went, it was actually really good, though.  The mortician movie was basically a crappy Life Time movie which we shall never discuss again.  "Don't be Afraid of the Dark" turned out to not be a ghost horror movie at all, rather it was a dark fairy tale kind of vibe with not as much horror as one would like.  Although there were some intense moments which was pretty good and the child actor was really amazing.

Regardless, it boggles my mind how we could somehow be 0 in 3 for choosing campy horror movies.  I think we're losing out touch.  Normally we try to rent quality movies and get the campy ones...there must be some kind of reverse logic going on here.

Intermission

Angela and I are busy this week, so we didn't come up with a weekly topic.  In fact, Angela probably won't be posting at all.  Also she missed last week's topic.  Lame!

I saw this in my backyard a few months ago:

Majestic hawk is hungry.

El Burro

Cinco de Mayo, a traditional Mexican-American celebration, is being celebrated today.  According to the internets, it is not the celebration of the Mexican Independence day (which is apparently September 16th).  What is Cinco de Mayo then?  I have done some personal research and I can say from experience that Cinco de Mayo centers around the scrifice of the painted burro.

The burro is tied to a rope which is thrown over a tree and hauled high into the air, making it difficult for the creature to escape its fate.

The burro is swung upon its rope to disorient the creature while a group of people surround the burro.

The people are blindfolded one by one, reminiscent of the executioners of old, and given a stick to beat the burro with.

If the rope doesn't hold the burro, it must be restrung and the ritual begins again.

But even so, sometimes the burro wins.

Another person will come and take the place of the burro beater.  They too will be blindfolded, the burro will be swung, and they will take a wack at it with their stick.

Trophies are made out of the pieces of burro they manage to dislodge.

The innards of the burro will be consumed or given to children to play with.

The ritual of the burro sacrifice is a time honored tradition of Cinco de Mayo.  It must occur year after year in order to secure a favorable harvest in the coming fall.  I highly recommend everyone go out into the world and purchase the sacrifical burro today so that we might have a bountiful harvest this year.  Also it's fun to beat things with sticks!

Some Kind of Irony?

So as I was reading Angela's post, I noticed a link in her blog.  At first I thought she posted a link to the website she was talking about, so I didn't click on it.  Then I scrolled down a little too far and missed the end of her post, only to discover that there is also a link in my post.  Now, I did not blog a link in my blog.  I am assuming Angela did not go in to change my blog.  I am also assuming Angela did not intentionally blog a link in her blog because the link does not go to the website she's discussing.  No, no.

The links go to advertisments.

Am I the only one seeing this?

Maybe it's because we picked the advertisement topic this week, but I've been noticing ads a lot more lately.  For instance, today while I was on facebook, I suddenly realized I'd been seeing ads posted on my facebook page.  I did not link these adds to my facebook.  I don't want them there.  I don't want people thinking I endorse these products.  In fact, facebook is telling people that I endorse these products.  Why else would it be linked to my facebook page?  People link the things they like to facebook.  That is a whole new level of invasiveness and guile.  I don't anyone reading my facebook page to click to these products.  I do not endorse them.

Now blogspot is linking links in my blogs?  Again, I don't want anyone reading them or clicking on them and thinking that I endorse these products.  And then what happens when I actually do link something?  Will people assume it is an ad and not click the link?  This is a problem.  This is a problem that may result in buying our own section of the internet to avoid future incidences.

Edit:  Now that I've gone back, I see that they are orange links that keep changing places in our posts, so I'm not sure what they will be when anyone else clicks on them.  I have yet to determine whether this is an I.E. phenomenon or whether this happens on Firefox as well.

Edit II:  FAIL!  So spyware had been downloaded onto my computer which was giving me extra ads.  They are gone from the blog...but facebook is still a quandry.  I can only include that, yes...this is some kind of irony.

A Quick Aside

This is for my own mental stability and is not part of our weekly topics.

Grading notes.  I have never in my life encountered this particular line of bullshit before, even though I have run into others who have experienced it.  Let's be real teachers:  students take notes or don't take notes for their own benefit.  If something isn't going to benefit them, they don't need to note it.  If a class has no further use for a student when it's done, then the chore of writing additional notes and printing them out so that you can be sure that students are taking notes and printing them out only succeeds in wasting paper and irritating students.  Not all students need to take notes because some have the capacity to remember things on their own.

Just because a student is taking notes:
A) doesn't mean they are actually paying attention to what they are taking notes on.
B) doesn't mean they will ever actually use these notes

I was regoriously taking notes for this class I'm in because it's part of a grade, but the book is irritating because it has no relevance for me and the subject matter is boring and repetative.  I swear, I have only read two chapters so far and from the beginning to the middle of the book, the author has said nothing new.  From the notes I took on chapter 1, I have added nothing new.  And yet, if I don't take these notes, my grades suffer.  Not to mention I have no desire to teach this subject or this grade level.  My conclusion:  These notes are taking HOURS to write, I remember nothing from the text when I'm done, I'm bored and irritated because this isn't my subject or grade level, and I am basically wasting my time so that the instructor can pretend like she's teaching me something.  What a waste of money, time, and mental energy.