Yo ho ho!

Well, I'm taking some time off for the holidays. Likely won't be updating until the new years, but you never know. Hope everyone who cruises through this blog has a safe and happy holidays, especially those of you living outside the contiguous 48. On a good note, the wife got a job two days after graduating. I'm so proud of her! Well, that means money will actually be coming our way again, so we might start travelling and visiting people we haven't seen in a while. Depends on if food is involved.

And so it was...

I know, a day late. Again. Sorry, it's the week before finals, and I've been BUSY! Aside from the blitz writing for my creative writing studio, I also had to prepare a presentation for yesterday. The beauty of it all is I just have to write two papers, take one comprehensive final, and then I'm on my merry way. Weee!

Next week, more witty ramblings once my brain isn't fried.

Vindication!

So, through the hard work of... well, work. We (my boss, really) have discovered that crapulent is indeed a word.... albeit a slightly archaic one that doesn't mean what I said it does.

It comes from crapulence (real word):
1. Sickness caused by excessive eating or drinking. 2. Excessive indulgence; intemperance.
Adjective form - crapulent.

However, they do say that it is based off of latin, so therefore, sticking the latin base -ulent (which means full of) on the modern meaning of crap... you get full of crap, or crapulent. Mine's better.

See for yourself, the American Heritage dictionary.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/73/C0727300.html

Language lesson over... for today.

Shameless

So, I know it's Saturday. Long story short: at the library, delegated work, had some time to kill, blogged. I also know I didn't blog on Thursday, that's kind of related to why I'm at the library today. Lots and lots of work to get done for finals. I only have one test (yeah!), but have three papers to write (boo). You know, yesterday I had some great piece of wisdom to impart to my loyal readers, but I forgot. Oh well, the pains of not having internet access at home. Maybe if I remember I'll post it.

Send money.

Mine goes to 11!

So I didn't promise a Thanksgiving blog. Here it isn't. I think a lot when I'm traveling. Mainly because people don't want to listen to me talk. Can't blame them. Anywho, I was thinking of the debates (you know the one where the smart guy did well), and I remember mentioning to Kim that when people want to be believed they talk louder, particularly when their bases are weak. I noted that El Presidente was doing just that. Does that mean it worked to fool the entire nation? If so, I'm going to talk louder for the rest of my life.

All right, I'm going to try and stop my political ranting, but I probably won't. Such is life. Turkey Day was good, and I hope everyone else had a good one as well. Let me be one of the first to wish everyone a happy holiday season. I hope that you all get what you want and have a joyous season.

Captain's Blog: Stardate.... hmm, maybe I should have thought harder about this title

So it's thursday! I know you loyal blobservers (see the last posting for a translation of that word) have been waiting with bated breath to see what I post this week. Well, lets start with an amusing tale of life at the U of I. Today was the big test in my Word Power class... okay, not the big test, but I really wanted to do well on it. So I've spent most of yesterday and today studying. I bounced around from computer lab to computer lab... I'm on my third right now. Boy, these things get packed around the end of the semester. You'd think people want to write papers, or something.

I'm proud to say I'm all signed up for next semester. Yup. Yup. I actually got into some of the classes I need to graduate (you know, with a degree). Making progress... just a few years later. That's pretty much my world: school and more school. Except when I'm home. Then it's my wife and cat. But usually school.

This week's suggestion from the wife: Skipping posts and reading a blog is counter-intuitive, in that you have to scroll down to read chronologically. Think about that. There should be a button that re-sorts it so that the newest thing is at the bottom so you can read it just like any other news page. I don't have the mad internet skills to do anything about it.

I think I've rambled on enough. More next week. Oh, wait, thanksgiving. We'll see.

**Friday 1:30pm update: That test I was studying for. Studying works! I improved my score by over 10 points (and on 40 point tests, that's huge!)

Wives say the darndest things.

So, the astute blobserver (that blog and observer conveniently smashed into one word) will notice that I'm updating on a tuesday instead of thursday. Yes, I still plan to blog on Thursday. I've made a promise to my loyal fan, and I'm going to stick with it.

I'm actually sitting at my work computer doing this. Needed a break from captioning, which is staring/typing at text on the screen. Note to self: blogging isn't that much of a break for my eyes. Oh well. But I do get to take the headphones off so my neck doesn't hurt as much. That's good. I'd tell you what I do at work, but I promise you'd fall asleep. Just trust me when I say that I'm making the world a better place. If something terrible ever happens to you, you'd believe me.

Kim said an interesting/amusing thing the other day. She thought I should have a physical archive of my blogs and that I should publish them. Now, admittedly I don't think my blog ranks up there with higher literary caliber, but on the flip side, I've seen more worthless stuff printed. Disclaimer: If you're reading this in my blog book, guess it's not so worthless after all and thanks for supporting my family.

As usual, all is quiet in the heartland. No promises yet if I'll update on Turkey Day... although a nice thanksgiving blog might be worthwhile. It'd be even better with cranberry sauce and those little snack pickles. You know what I'm talking about.

*Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the web page. There's a rock there. True story.

It's Blog-tastic.

So, it's Thursday. Another one of my witless entries into the world of blogifying. Yes, I just made up a word. Speaking of which, it's a rather fun hobby. Take for instance the word crapulent. It means full of crap. Really. And its much more sophisticated sounding than "full of crap." Try it out. I guarantee you'll love it*.

I was also thinking between classes (all classes should be in the same room, or at least the same building so I wouldn't have this much time to think). Anywho, back to the thought: what if we used blog the way that they used to use smurf. Blog-tastic. Bloggy. Blog-a-rific. Congratu-fricken-lations. Okay, that last one doesn't work. I'm sure it will catch on... or become real annoying real fast. Either way.

That's about it from the U of I. Things have settled down since the end of the world, I mean, election.

Tune in next week. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.
I mean, same blog-time, same blog-channel.

Maybe it's not such a good idea.


*Guarantee of love not valid in lower 48 states or Hawaii. So, Lucas, go nuts.
(Feel blogified yet?)

People read this crap?

Okay, I admit... the title's some of my self-depricating humor that works so well for Conan O'Brien. (and for you funny people out there, that's self-depricating NOT self-defecating. That's just nasty). So, thanks in no small part to my new and improved blog-o-matic, I've discovered that people actually read this. I guess that means that I should be a little more responsible in my posting. You know, common good and all that. Maybe not. We'll see.

I apologize for changing my picture... the old link broke. Hopefully, this one should last longer, as its a slightly more trustworthy site. As for a quick explanation of the new and improved trackback feature... basically it searches for links to my blog content (although why anyone would blog to my mindless drivel, I'll never know) and alerts me to such alien invasions. That's it for now. I'll entertain you all on Thursday. Promise.

Shout out

This one's for Justin.



Okay. I found it funny too. You got me.

*In all fairness, this is Britain's equivalent to the National Enquirer.

(2:36 update) I changed the look of my blog. Newer fancier stuff has come out since I created my blog. I figured a slight nautical look would be appropriate, and since I'm the kind of guy who jumps on new things while they're still shiny... Regardless, email me and let me know what you think of the new look. (and be aware that if I get three people giving me comments about it, I'll consider that a majority. Or as Bush calls it, a mandate.) You might also notice my fun with profiling, and my posting name. Bwa ha ha.

Choosing a title is hard!

Wow, that's really the lazy way to get out of giving this a title isn't it. I should be ashamed, but I figure no one's reading this anyways. Anywho, it's Thursday, so time for my weekly update.

I'm sure you may have guessed by now that I'm not thrilled with the results of the election. Darn rural voters (I know Justin has more choice words for them). Maybe in the future, Democrats should reach out to them and try to win every state, not just a few like the chess game that played out on Tuesday. I mean, so many other races could have been much closer if they hadn't gone to the "battleground" game. A lot of returns I saw were for 55/45 splits, or at worst 60/40. (That doesn't count DC, which gave me the laugh of the night with the 90/10 split for Kerry). Regardless, even if Kerry had won, it would still have been a very red map. If that doesn't tell you that there's a problem in the democratic strategy, nothing will.

Of course, for me, I'm just pissed off because the American electorate just re-elected hate. I didn't see one positive ad come from the Bush ticket (and even worse stuff vicariously). Honestly, America, how can you subscribe to this hateful politics. I mean, at least Chuck Grassley (who kicked ass, and took names), commended his opponent on running a positive, issues-based campaign. More of that please.

I don't care if he's a liberal or a conservative. No one I know falls straight under that category. Heck, my old minister is a die-hard conservative, but tries to run a very liberal church. Think about that. I don't honestly care about abortion in the grand scheme of things. If lady down the street wants to have one, good for her. I care about whether or not my family is going to have to support my parents (or her parents) because Social Security sucks. I'm very concerned at the moment about insurance (not exactly well kept secret, we're don't have medical insurance right now). I'm concerned about the cost of education, considering I've had the fun of watching my tuition grow exponentially since I started (way back in '97). Issues. Is that too much to ask.

Vote for me in 2016 (I'll be 37 and legally old enough).

End of rant.

Holy Roman Dating System! It's Thursday

So, I've mentioned before my continuing move to the dark side that is Mac over PC. Well, the more I work with it, the more I like it. Admittedly, I'm spoiled here at work with the uber-powerful G5, but its a good experience. I know what the system can handle (and frankly, I've gotten nowhere near that). I'm sneaking some knowledge of some of the applications besides Final Cut Pro and begin to understand the usefulness of the interoperability of them.

Enough Mac raving, as usual the U of I campus remains relatively quiet (if you consider all 8 million political rallies taking place here). Speaking of which, vote. But don't just do it because its the hip thing to do. Vote because you've done some research and actually know what/who you're voting for. Anyone with 1/8th sense probably has figured out (thanks in no small part to the fact that one of the only links on my blog is to Justin's blog) that I'm leaning just ever so slightly toward Kerry. But you know what, make your own decision. I have my reasons which I'm happy to share with anyone foolish enough to ask, but they're my reasons and I can't honestly say they work for everyone.

This is my "I'm sorry" blog

You know, I have to stop writing my entire blogs in the title. I mean, what's the point of saying it in the body, if I already said it in the title. If you haven't noticed (and I wouldn't blame you... I mean, I only check my own blog once a month to see if I've said anything new, and I haven't) I didn't update on Thursday as promised. I suck. I know.

Well, as is the status quo up here, nothing real new to report. Aside from the fact that its freaking amazing outside. Seventy degrees right before Halloween. I mean, let's bottle this up and pull it out in January.

For school/computer related issues: I did figure out how to save to the server. Bwa, ha, ha. Bill Gates loses again. I don't care what his charisma is. I'm kicking his ass. (for explanation of that joke, search the onion online. Lucas understands). In other computer news, I got Kim into Civilization III. I'm so evil.

Oh, and if you're reading this, you're capable of emailing me. I'm lonely, or at least my e-mailbox (is that what it's called?) is, and wouldn't mind hearing from people from time to time. Thanks.

(I promise. Thursday. New witless blabbing)

Can I say bon-diggity dancer again?

So, a new week, a new post. First, my rant vs. windows. I come in to do extra work to get ahead in my class. You know, gots to be the hero and all that. And of course, I'm working on a Mac. I'm a convert, what can I say. Anywho, so I save the project file to the server, thinking (and this is my exact thought) "I'll just render this tomorrow in class. And since this is a public system I don't want to leave my files on it." "Crap. I'll miss the bus if I don't hurry up." So, I don't check to make sure everything is groovy. Well, apparently its a windows server and it threw away the associative information that told the mac that it was a project file. So yeah, long story even longer: an hour and a half of work - in the crapper. No heroness for me.

Although, in windows defense... I recently (read - last night) migrated my system to my other hard drive. Total reformat. Total reinstall. And, so far as I can tell, it went marvelously. Except that windows threw out (expectedly) the registration info, so that's a minor pain in the ass of calling them up again.

I notice I'm mildly swearing more in today's post. I apologize to the weak of heart.

That's about it from the U of I. Next week - bratwurst.

I'm a bon-diggity dancer

Okay, I'm really not. I stole that line from Ron Stoppable, of Kim Possible fame. But its just so fun to say. Say it out loud. Say it to a loved one. Say it to a stranger on the street. I guarantee it will at least provoke strange looks. I suppose in a pinch you could say it to yourself in the mirror, but that would definitely be weird.

So, as usual not much to report from the U of I. For the record, I'm not wearing my ISU jacket on campus because I don't have the balls. I figure next semester (after taking over a department or two) I'll have the clout to not worry horribly about being mauled, that and I'll have a posse by then.

In my usual crazy manner I'm considering doubling up this major thing. Cinema is cool and all, but I know what life was like for Kim when she did nothing but her major classes. I think that would drive me too crazy, so I figure if I divide my time between two majors, I can kick some serious ass. That and as I joked last night, between Cinema being a non-food producing job and Journalism and Mass Communications (my current other choice) also being a non-food producing job, I figure two halves equal a full plate of food. Well, it makes sense in my head at least. That's about it from here. Hopefully my loyal fans will keep reading (though, here's my official disclaimer, I intend to update about once a week, so don't hold your breath).

The Wrath of Roast Beef

So, the excitement in Iowa City is that its homecoming. Woo. (Note the lack of exclamation mark.) I don't know why, but I've never been super excited about it. I mean, I was more excited about UNI's homecoming last year than I am about Iowa's this year. There was one good thing to come out of it so far. Nicholas Meyer (most likely known to readers of this blog from his directorial work on Star Treks 2 and 6) is a guest on campus. So, last night, in true uber-nerd fashion, I attended a screening of Star Trek II, which he spoke after (for the record there's a Star Trek VI screening Saturday, so maybe I'll blog next week about that). It was a fun and interesting experience, considering I can't remember seeing Star Trek II on the big screen, so this is the closest I've come, at least until I build my home theater later in life. I did realize the importance of non-reverberating walls (honestly, who designs these rooms). And the importance of black levels in projectors (I'm sure that the one they used is not actually designed for movies, but presentations). But the commentary afterward was fun. One of the more memorable lines is when Meyer said he put the slate at the front of Star Trek II (which reads "In the 23rd century") for his father, so that "He would know what the fuck was going on." (I think that was one of two swear words last night.) The questions were all over the place, from directorial style, to working with composers, to various trivia related to the movie. Tomorrow, I'm heading to a workshop/seminar he's doing on adapting your own work to film (if only I had my own work to adapt).

That's about it. I think this may rank as my longest blog ever. You can thank Nicholas Meyer for that. Although, I reserve the right to write a longer one about the Star Trek VI experience.

Blahbitty blah fricken blah

So, all 2 of you who read this. Thanks. Regardless, I'm sure both of you have noticed I'm getting a bit lax in my blog duties. Sorry, I don't waste half the day in the computer lab anymore. Plus, without computer access at home, I can only blog at the lab - therefore, I don't blog as often. (for the record, today I finished a test early and have some time to kill. I decided it would be fun to blog for my devotees)

The other sad fact is there isn't much to blog about. There is, at this very moment, some kind of hate rally going on up on the Pentacrest (see the UI website if you don't know where that is). Seemed like something about hating gays. Thankfully, there wasn't a large crowd, or tear gas, or even a brawl gay vs. (um) gay-hater (?). What do I mean thankfully, at least that would have been exciting, if preventing me from getting to my test.

That's about it from the center of the universe (okay, so its a little to the left of center). I'll post more when interesting things happen.

Don't hold your breath.

(note: Kim just turned 22.)

What the? Who the?

So, week one of my new and improved job is going well. Okay, I don't REALLY know that it's new and improved. But you know what, I like it thus far. I mean, come on, I get to work with literally the most powerful computer Apple makes (and depending on who you ask that's the most powerful personal computer on the planet). Unfortunately, so far that uber-computer has been used for nothing more than capturing film. But soon I'll be able to actually use it to do things. On a related note, imagine your desk. Now imagine one just like it immediately behind you, so close that you can't turn around without some gymnastic skill. That's where I work.

Well, the big Iowa/ISU game is this weekend. I was happy to find a lone ISU banner in Coralville last night while Kim and I went for our evening walk (we're trying to be responsible and healthy and stuff). I wanted to go over and knock on the door and tell the owner that at least one person in Coralville supported them. I didn't.

By the way, a shout out to Justin, keep the faith man. Sounds like things are going well. I'll have to come up and check on you here soon (by soon, I mean November).

Um, Its Friday. That's Important

So, my loyal fan(s). Today marks the end of another great week here at the U of I. Woo-freaking-hoo. Seriously, things are going well, as I'm sure you can divine from my other posts. You know, when I was walking to the library earlier, I'm sure I had something good to say. Now I forgot it. Crap.

I have my job interview later today. I'll probably be real lazy and leave you all in suspense over the extended weekend and not blog how it goes until monday. Yeah, hate me later. Oh, in political news. If you didn't see John Kerry on the Daily Show, head on over to their website and check it out. You might get a smidge of why I'd vote for the guy.

Related to the Daily Show, ABC's Nightline had Jon Stewart on as an analyst the other day. As usual he was actually thoughtful and called it like he saw it. He said that the media in this election hasn't been paying attention to the platforms of the candidate or even the truth in their messages, but more along the lines of who's playing the better game. Good stuff, wonder if its archived on the web somewhere.

That's it. Go do something important. I dare you.

**2pm Update: I got the job! And it looks like its going to rule!**

(Whatever Latin is for Month)-sary

So, here it is. The big one month mark. (Well, kept secret, I didn't realize it until Kim said it on the way out the door, but I'm sure I would have realized at some point). Regardless, I'm sure you're all wondering how one month of marriage feels, and I've got to say it feels pretty good. Admittedly, we're both crazy busy with school and, well, school. We're still finding our rhythm during the week, but for the most part things are going well with an improving future outlook.

Because Ninja Burger is funny.



Learn your Ninja Clan at the
Ninja Burger website.

Kamatari Kiyokawa-san

School Daze

As promised, I'm blogging from class. Though, not technically, as class hasn't started yet. Think about the silliness of it, I'm writing this through a mac keyboard on WinXP (although if I felt so inclined, I'd be using OSX instead, but the prof said that we'd more likely be using windows). Maybe later in the semester when I'm feeling bolder, I'll actually blog during classtime.

This should prove how exciting my life is.

Crap, I used the witty one yesterday

So, today is going well. I was originally going to blog from my Multimedia Politics class, but I don't know how well that would work. If I can, there will be an entry from there later. Speaking of that class, I have to continue to rave about the fact that the computer I use in that class is, how do you say.... FREAKIN' AWESOME. Imagine a suped-up PC. Imagine a suped-up Mac. Now, imagine that they're both connected to the same mouse, keyboard, and monitor and I can just flip between them depending on if I like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates better at the moment.

Oh! You'll notice I've added comments to my page. This is to facilitate the one or two of you who read this to actually say things back at me. Of course, I could just ignore it, but whatcha gonna due? (I know its do, not due, but I was on a phonetic roll). I suppose if you're feeling really witty, you could post the secret code word in monday's post in its comment section, then hold it against me when I don't give you a cookie the next time I see you.

Well, that's about it. Except, in the spirit of embarassment, here's Justin's picture from the Iowa State website (Sorry, Justin. It's public domain). He's a TA. Poor freshmen.

Fortune favors someone, I'm not sure who at the moment

So, I know that I haven't updated this in a while. And I'd like to thank the three of you left who actually read this. If you use the secret code word of: Flux Capacitor, I'll give you a cookie*

It's been a crazy day (and for the record, I will argue that the craziness started around 9 last night). First day of school. I feel all academic and stuff, though I did manage to sleep through my first class here. Well, that's not happening again. A lot on my mind, not the least of which is why haven't I gotten an email from the job I applied for. Its editing and other related stuff. Come on!

Oh well, hope things are going well for everyone else. Those of you in school: Good Luck. Those of you not in school: Um, something witty.

*Cookie disclaimer, I have to actually have a cookie on me in order to give it away. Plan accordingly. Offer void outside the 48 contiguous states. Sorry, Lucas.

One of THOSE weekends

Interestingly, I mean the title as a positive thing. This is turning into possibly one of those life altering weekends. I'll see how it pans out before I put all my chips in one corner for now.

Starting to approach crazy time with the wedding. I'm a little worried about it, but when has anything I really wanted not worked out. My mind is going a mile a minute, and I don't know when/if I'll ever get it figured out. Hopefully, soon. But, it does help keep me for obsessing and worrying about the wedding and other troubles in the world.

Hope things are going well for everyone else. I'm honestly not even sure who reads this anymore, its almost like TV, you don't know the ratings. But, I'm sure my month dry spell doesn't help the ratings. I mean, who likes re-runs. Hopefully, I'll start to get a bit better about it now that I know where I can access computers until we get the internet up and running at the apartment.

The Cubs win the pennant!

Well, the University of Iowa accepted me. (evil laughter) I don't have the official letter yet, but I should soon, considering the website they gave me to check on such things said so. Regardless, since we're packing things up for the move, this may be my last post for a little while (at least until I either get internet in Coralville, or figure out where the labs are on campus).

Here's an open invitation to those who wish to stop by the new place, since it should be MUCH more convienient than up here in Waterloo (although this is a shout-out to Lucas who did in fact try to stop by when I wasn't here). Regardless, look for fun to abound in Coralville... or something, considering I'll be working really hard on a degree.

Om!

Yes, om. Not um. So, Friday I took a trip with the religions class to the Islamic Center here in town. Interesting to watch. I'm not coverting any time soon, but some interesting things to think about. Honestly, I'd probably be more likely to go the route of Eastern religions than Islam, but I'm not going anywhere.

The people we talked with dispelled a LOT of the misconceptions about Muslims. What I found the most interesting was that the Qu'ran espoused peace. When I, of course being the trouble maker, asked why then do most mid-eastern countries have monarchies or dictatorships, the people we were talking with answered, probably rightly, that there's political manuvering behind the scenes. The more interesting response related to that was that they believed that Saddam was recieving what he had deserved.

We also talked about the peace that the book teaches for all religions. I know its not obvious with as crazy as some places around the world are, but it was an interesting discussion. (Basically, Islam teaches that they should be respectful to Jews and Christians). Of course, I suppose for that to work, everyone would have to be respectful, and we know that doesn't happen.

I did have an interesting thought on the way to work (from the Islamic Center). What if Jesus didn't want to be venerated. I mean, accepting that he is the Son of God, didn't he still teach that we should worship God, not him. I could be wrong, I'm really fuzzier on the new testament than I should be. I'm just saying maybe Christians are just a little off, in that they seem to focus on Jesus when maybe they should be focusing on the message from Jesus.

That's it. Religion class over. If you made it this far, you got an A.

Hell must have frozen over.

Look! Two posts in one day. Yeah, I'm that bored. I should be working on finals stuff, but I have to leave for work in about twenty minutes, so don't really want to get into it just to have to stop. Interesting thing in class on Friday, we're going to a mosque. Should be fascinating. I hope. (For the record, its for Religions of the World, in case you thought it was for economics or something equally weird).

Its kind of funny to watch everyone at work complain about when I'll be gone. I mean, first its become like Cheers where they always call out my name when I walk in the door. Second, I know I'm annoying at work. I like to think funny annoying, but you can't always be sure. They probably just know that I know what I'm doing and are afraid of getting someone incompetent after I leave. Trust me, that happens more than you might think. Moral of the story: Fire incompetent people... or train them properly.

Ah well, at least soon this semester will be done and I can sleep again. At least until I start working again in Iowa City, since I'm sure the schedule there won't be as certain as the one I have now.

mLook, mI'm mMaking mFun mOf mMy mCell mPhone

So, Kim and I have new cell phones. You'll probably receive a call from me in the near future so you can be blessed with my voice presence. As everyone else, its crazy with finals here in Waterloo. (I'm actually blogging as Kim is working on her stuff). If you ever want a laugh, ask me about the crazy setups I tried to get my work done.

Well, that's about it for now. Sorry it wasn't better.

P.S. In the tradition of laughs, ten bucks to the first person who figures out what cell phone service we went with by the title of this post. Email me if you know.

Avast Ye Multi-Classing!

Because the who the heck am I things are that hilarious... and Justin found a good one:

I Am A: Chaotic Good Elf Ranger Paladin
Alignment: Chaotic Good characters are independent types with a strong belief in the value of goodness. They have little use for governments and other forces of order, and will generally do their own things, without heed to such groups.
Race: Elves are the eldest of all races, although they are generally a bit smaller than humans. They are generally well-cultured, artistic, easy-going, and because of their long lives, unconcerned with day-to-day activities that other races frequently concern themselves with. Elves are, effectively, immortal, although they can be killed. After a thousand years or so, they simply pass on to the next plane of existance.
Primary Class: Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.
Secondary Class: Paladins are the Holy Warriors. They have been chosen by a God/dess to be their representative on Earth, and must follow the code of that deity, or risk severe penalties. They tend towards being righteous, but not generally to excess.
Deity: Solonor Thelandria is the Chaotic Good elven god of archery and the hunt. He is also known as the Keen Eye, the Great Archer, and the Forest Hunter. His followers respect nature, and only hunt when needed, but are quick to defend the forest from intruders. Their favorite weapon is the bow, and they tend to be extremely talented with it. Solonor Thelandria's symbol is an arrow with green fletchings.

Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy ofNeppyMan (e-mail)

Try to imagine me in riot gear

So, working at a news organization, I seem to recall hearing something about a riot in Ames. I'm not sure if this is true or not, I'll have to check my sources. Point of irony: I'm posting this three days after the fact.

I'm trying to figure out if my life is getting more complicated or less complicated as I spiral towards (in order): finals, graduating (take I), packing, moving, new job, wedding, new school. Speaking of new job, at the risk of jinxing myself, all is going well in that department. Hopefully I'll have a happy blog to report after this weekend on that front.

As for moving, we're still technically looking for a place. We did find one, but I wasn't blown away by it. The location was primo, but the apartment itself didn't bowl me over. You win some you lose some. Hopefully, this weekend we'll check out another option with the possibility of blowing me away.

One of the directors here is staring at me while I write this. He's creepy.

Over There! Over There! (it's a song)

So, I got to talk to my brother again for the first time in about six months. Its kind of funny, we don't talk for a really long time, and then we talk for an hour when we do. Of course, he was delaying our watching of the Matrix Revolutions, but that's ok. Like I said, hadn't talked to him in six months. Oh, and according to him, if you're looking for a phone deal, sign up with Deutsche Telekom. When I called him the day before he was gaming, and I interrupted. I understood.

So, I'm jealous of him about going to Gen Con. Too bad I'm out of money, something about a wedding. They're expensive! (at least they can be). Note to Kim: Don't take this rant personally, I know we can't go this year.

Good luck to all who read this and are coming up on the end of the semester. I know its a crazy time. Hopefully not so crazy that I can't update this every once in a while. Maybe I'll dedicate this blog to detailing the cat's exploits over the summer. Day 1: He slept. Day 2: He slept. Day 3: He ran around, then slept. Maybe not.

Don't Mess with Arkansas

I'm sure most people have realized that there's no rhyme or reason to my titles for these posts. I really just like the randomness.

I know I haven't updated in a while. Truth be told, things are really busy/boring. I'm sure you wonder just how that is possible. Well, basically its the same old, same old of the moment. 40 hours of work and more school on top of that. Those (understandably) bastards at Iowa haven't accepted me yet. Something about grade point. Jeez, you mess up once.

We haven't even started packing for the big move to Iowa City. Note to self, maybe we should get on that. Best Buy called me a while ago and asked if I wanted to come for an interview. Of course, they wanted me to come down the weekend that Kim was having her wisdom teeth pulled. Yeah, I didn't make that one. I hope they call me back soon.

Flavour of the Month

For a little laugh, and cause I always like those, I took the flavour test suggested on Lynda's website. If you're curious about that I encourage you to take the link to Justin's site, then the link to Lynda's site, then the link to the test. Enjoy.

Anywho, the test results:
Buzz buzz, I am Coffee flavoured.
I am popular in the workplace, even though I am often bitter. I am energetic to the point of being frenetic; buzz buzz, out of my way. I tend to overwork myself and need periods of recovery time.
(If I was not Coffee, I would be Chocolate.)
I am Chocolate Flavoured.
I am sweet and a little bit naughty. I am one of the few clinically proven aphrodisiacs. Sometimes I can seem a little hard, but show warmth and I soon melt.

Apparently, I'm one of those cafe coffees, you know a chocolate coffee :)

Are those Klingons, or just fuzzy bunnies?

So, I'm proud to say that I'm the proud recipient of an actual A on a test in my Religions class. Trust me, that's something to be proud of. I wish I had some internet avenue to gloat about it.

The wedding plans are, well, going. Kim complained the other night, perhaps rightly so, that I didn't mention her in the blog. So look, I just did :) We have a church, and a pastor (I think, I have to talk to him again), and a reception site, and maybe even some hotels for our out of town guests. I know most of the people reading this won't stay at a hotel, but if you care... um... good.

Still, this semester just seems to keep rolling forward with no possible braking motion in sight. I'm realizing that its getting closer to time to move to the Iowa City area, and there's quite a bit of stuff to get done. We're planning on living in Coralville at the moment, and I really don't foresee that changing. I know some of you might be bummed that we're not living in Solon. Still, the place we're looking at is a pretty primo location (and the price is right).

That's about it from the land of Mark for now. I'm sure as things get crazier I'll forget to update this regularly. You may now laugh at the concept of me updating this regularly.

The Captain is on the Bridge

So, I promised more after mid-terms. Well, all my tests are done, so I suppose I can make time for my loyal readers (all four of you). So, I did the math, both literally and figuratively. For once in my life, I'm getting an A in my math class. Wonder how I'm going to screw that one up :) Unfortunately, my other classes aren't going so hot. I expect a C in religions, unless (please pardon the pun) some miracle happens and my teacher lets me slide with a B. Darn one test that I didn't really study for (fist pumping in air)!!!

Much like my esteemed colleague Justin, I'm trying to iron out some details of my own campaign world. The plan is a horrible mish-mosh of things running around my head and ideas that I'm going to flagrantly rip off from Lord of the Rings. We'll see how that goes. I'm still bouncing around the idea of an oriental campaign. My religions class has only served to increase my desire to do that. Right now the thought in the back of my head is to actually create two totally separate worlds: one 'traditional' medieval fantasy, and one oriental. If there is an interest will help me decide which one will end up being more fleshed out. Knowing me, I'll probably end up stealing ideas from myself. I debated using Rokugan (the setting from the Oriental Adventures book), but it just doesn't grab me, shake me, and say YOU MUST PLAY THIS like the Forgotten Realms does.

Of course, if I had more time, I'd work on these things. Right now I sneak ideas into the back of my notebook during class.... think that affects my religion grade? Nah. Although, having to sit there for an hour does force me to put my ideas on paper, something that I admit I wasn't the best at. I'll bet once I move to Iowa City, particularly over the summer before the wedding, I'll have time to make a good world, a clean world, a good clean world.

So, looking forward to the Rice/Goose invasion. Probably means I should stock up on food.

Um. Yeah. I've been a bit lax in my blogging lately, and I apologize to the four, maybe five, of you who actually check this for something witty from me. Sorry to say this won't be much better. For once in my lackluster college career I actually am getting somewhat bogged down with mid-terms. Oh well, maybe if I survive I'll post something good next week.

The Taming of Smeagol

So, let's start out with my semi-political aspect part of this blog. I was watching c-span last night (part of the fun of basic cable is when that's the most exciting thing on). Anywho, there was this thing by opendebates.org. Don't know much about them other than they think that the "commission on presidential debates" keeps people out of the debates and prevents issues from being raised. Thus turning debates into a giant love fest of "here's where I stand just slightly left to the middle where my opponent stands just slightly right." The problem, no real debate. An interesting, but accurate view. Well, since the world has given me this space to say whatever the heck I want, I'm taking it to bring up a couple of issues that are important to me.

The environment - Okay, we're the country that gave the world the fastest most efficient way to annihilate ourselves and we can't figure out something better than fossil fuels? I keep reading about all these technologies that are 'just around the corner' but they aren't here yet. Anyone mind explaining why? I understand that there is no infrastructure or other problems like that, but remember there was no infrastructure for the highway system and it got built. You'd think if we turned our greatest minds to these problems things could get done.

Space - So God's gift to America, the Space Shuttle, isn't so great. Surprise, it's 30 years old with no replacement in sight. Honestly, el Presidente's speech on the space program failed to inspire me to boldly go. Kinda like the environment, all these technologies are just around the corner but mysteriously don't get funding to get finished (see:scramjet). We managed to break the sound barrier and that's the best our technology can do? I used to think that I'd see warp drive (or its equivalent) in my lifetime. Now I have a hunch that it will be someone other than America who makes that happen.

Education - In my typical blogging shoutout to Justin, ask him about tuition sometime. Seriously, though it seems to me that every year since I left ISU the regents have raised tuition to scare me from coming back. Trickle-down economics at work. Big tax cut -> Less money for federal government to spend more with -> Less money for states (who actually have budget constraints) -> Let's cut schools, no one will notice! Load of crap.

Simple solution. Encourage people to be smart. Then, give them jobs developing renewable resources and parts for the space program. Bam, world peace. Maybe not that simple, but its a start.

It's about time!

Let me start by giving a shout out to my fellow blogger, Justin. For those who care (and probably have read it already anyways), check out his blog. Then send the poor man some cookies, or candy, a candidate he likes, something to brighten his day.

But that's not what this blog is about. Finally I got to do what I love doing! At work! Even for a meager payment! I know most of you didn't see Ann Kerian's sweeps pieces, but secretly behind the scenes I was the editor. I got to use good equipment, not like my crappy equipment at home. And strangely I had fun doing it. What a shock!

The only downer, it took a lot of time! Working my 'regular' 40 hours and school with some editing on the side. Yeah, do the math, last week was really busy. Kim saw a little less of me last week, but she got her reward, didn't she. As a side bonus my loan check for school finally showed up, so I don't have to worry as much about paying the missing third of rent. Well, now for the fun of trying to find a place to live in Iowa City.

Smaug Rules!!!

Okay, so my lovely competition to figure out the last title was a little unfair. It was a bit on the generic end, but it was a chapter title from the Hobbit. Maybe I'll make the next one easier. Or not.

So, as promised, here's the 411 on bridal show excitement. Despite being with my mom, mother in law, maid of honor, and oh yeah the bride, the show was actually better than I thought. I was hoping for screaming brides fighting over stuff, but nothing so cool unfortunately. I did find out about a posh QC place that I didn't know existed. If you'd heard of "Five" before, points to you. The chocolate fondue/fountain was admittedly pretty bad-ass. I could write a whole blog on how cool it was. Of course they had the uber-sized SUVs... not my thing. If I get anything it'll be a traditional limo. Kim ixnayed the disco ball pretty quickly. Sorry to let you disco fools down.

So I hit the bridal show, but am missing the car show. Ah well, life isn't always fair. Did I mention the chocolate fondue/fountain?

By the way, it snowed up here.

Fire and Water

First, this particular blog is dedicated to Justin, who maintains the most active blog out of all of us. Justin, I salute you!

I figured it was time to update, since, um, well, I hadn't in a while. This semester has begun, and as several of those people who stumble across this thing realize I'm still working 40 hours AND going to school. I must be trying to kill myself. Fortunately this semester hasn't been too bad so far. Although, Kim did chastise me for taking the easiest math course I could find. She did want me to get an A, right?

For those of you wacky gamers out there, sneak on over to Wizards.com and check out Eberron. Its the setting that won the competition. Way better than my idea :) Seriously, though, it looks interesting. Related to gaming, I found my copy of the Floating Vagabond. Will I be able to put it to good use in the near future, don't know.

Not much else going on in my life I'm afraid. I might be going to a bridal show this weekend with Kim. Doesn't that sound exciting. I'll have to blog about that afterwards so I can properly scare those who need to be scared.

Unrelated note: Heard from McMark's mom. He's headed over to the world's largest sand trap. Keep him your prayers (or whatever's appropriate for you).

Finally, the title of this blog is special. If you can figure it out, email me (at my AOL account) and tell me. First one to figure it out gets five bucks. (funny laugh: just spell checked, the spell checker does not recognize "blog", and it keeps trying to tell me that "Justin" should be "Justine")