Woo hOO!!
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
08:04 p.m.
The excitement builds as 12:00 PM tomorrow draws near. That is the hour in which I become free for the next two weeks. I have been waiting for this day to come for a long time and I can't wait to get back home and see everyone. I don't really see the point in even being there at all tomorrow, aside from the fact that I need to pick up my leave paperwork, but whatever. This Christmas break is going to be awesome. I have so much that I want to do, but I have a feeling that I won't get to it all. At least I'll be busy. One thing I have my heart set on for sure is going out to New Salem Sue, the giant cow in, of all places, New Salem. Must get pictures of me milking it. I also want to make a trip up to the cemetary at some point for some photo ops. I can't wait to be home!!
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Woo hOO!!
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
08:04 p.m.
The excitement builds as 12:00 PM tomorrow draws near. That is the hour in which I become free for the next two weeks. I have been waiting for this day to come for a long time and I can't wait to get back home and see everyone. I don't really see the point in even being there at all tomorrow, aside from the fact that I need to pick up my leave paperwork, but whatever. This Christmas break is going to be awesome. I have so much that I want to do, but I have a feeling that I won't get to it all. At least I'll be busy. One thing I have my heart set on for sure is going out to New Salem Sue, the giant cow in, of all places, New Salem. Must get pictures of me milking it. I also want to make a trip up to the cemetary at some point for some photo ops. I can't wait to be home!!
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Saddam
Friday, November 14, 2003
03:17 p.m.
They caught Saddam Hussein today. This can be taken as both good and bad news. Good in the sense that they caught him and don't have to look dumb for not finding him like was the case with Ossama Bin Laden./ Bad in the sense that you know anti coalition attacks are going to increase in volume. With that I sarcastically present the most intelligent quote of the day: "We got him."
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What is the Right to Vote?
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
08:07 p.m.
I finally bought a printer for the computer tonight. Just got it set up a minute ago. It will be nice to have. So, in the news as of late have been reports that non-citizens may be given the right to vote. First off, here is one of those articles. Now, to quote from the article:
In the study, titled "Political Apartheid in California: Consequences of Excluding a Growing Noncitizen Population," author Joaquin Avila argued that democratic goals are not served when noncitizens make up 19 percent of the state's adult population and majorities in 12 cities. "It's really a harbinger of things to come, and, unless we start to address this issue, we're going to have a political apartheid in California," said Avila.
My question is: How can our country remain "democratic" (and I use the term loosely) if we allow NON-citizens to vote? If these people want the privilage to vote in our country, they should have to go through the same process as any one else that immigrates here. We don't let Saddam Hussein vote here. Or Tony Blair. Or any other non-citizens, because this is OUR country, not theirs. The 26th Amendment in our Constitution says: "The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age."
"The right of citizens of the United States..." Are they forgetting that our country has laws. Some we like. Some we don't, but we follow them for the most part because it is our duty as citizens. The study also said that there are 85 cities in the state of California with a non-citizen population of more than 25%. One-third of the population of the second largest city in our country, Los Angeles, is non-citizen. One-third! Okay I admit that some of them have made it to this country legally and just have not made it through the citizenship process yet, but why is nobody questioning the fact that there are so many illegal aliens in this state? Let me rephrase that: Why does it seem like nothing is being done about the illegal aliens? Some may also ask how we can let them take our jobs away from us. The answer to both of those questions is quite simple: They work the jobs that noone wants. They work the fields and the minimum wage fast food jobs.They don't complain about having to work hard, and therefore are somewhat useful to us.And they do work hard. So why then if they can have so much motivation for working, don't they have the motivation to apply for citizenship? I do not know the answer to this. I only know one thing, and that is if we grant non-citizens the privilege to vote in this country we will be one step closer to losing it.
Return to topChristmas Shopping
Monday, December 8, 2003
08:56 p.m.
Christmas Shopping sucks. Plain and simple. It's hard to come up with something to buy everyone, and then even harder to come up with the cash. I miss the good old days when I was little (last year) and you could buy your mom and grandma whatever (a magnet that says "I love you" or a random candle with something you carved into it {a self-portrait}) and they would think it was cute (really dumb, but they'd humor you). What happened to the days of going to the mall to visit Santa (drunk convict that hates you {but at least he gave you a candy cane})and Putting out cookies (that you snuck out and ate before Santa {your parents} could get to them?) I always thought the milk (egg nog and rum) tasted kinda funny. Then I realize that these times will be relived in two weeks.
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State of the Union
Thursday, December 4, 2003
09:31 p.m.
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Screaming "We will kill the French!" thousands of protesters mobbed a French military base Wednesday.
This makes my day, in particular, the part that says, "We will kill the French!" Stupid French!! But I digress... Not that I want anyone to die, but man, I do despise the french. I have nothing more to say on that. A friend of my wife's had this article on his blog. It's odd to think what it would be like if this article were the case. A military government taking place of our "democracy" is a very real possibility if the United States was attacked and mass casualties resulted. And from there we would continue along the cycle that most large world powers follow. If you were to look at all of the major powers from history you can trace their progress in a cycle that goes from oppression to freedom and on through about five other steps before returning back to the beginning. The average age of these countries, when they collapsed, was about 200 years. The US is how old? It is 227 years old. And when I looked at all of the steps of the countries I figured that we were somewhere between the last two steps right before total collapse. So with that all said, it is easy to see that we are not exactly heading in the right direction.
Return to topGoodnight!
Monday, December 1, 2003
10:27 p.m.
There is no real point to this entry. With that said, Goodnight!
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Iraq
Sunday, November 30, 2003
10:22 p.m.
Could somebody answer a question for me? Okay, so we go over to Iraq and invade them, with at least semi- decent intentions. Some of them don't like this too much, because, honestly, it's their country, so they start shooting at our troops. Now how do they all of a sudden become terrorists? They are just trying to protect what they see as theirs. Why is the media calling them terrorists? It is a war like situation over there (I say war "like" because no formal declaration of war was ever set forth). Now whether anyone likes it or not, some Iraqis were going to fight back, and everyone knew this. So, once again, why are they terrorists? Are they shooting at us? Yes. Do we shoot back? Yes. So why then, why don't we get the label as terrorists? Because they have a much different label for us: The Great Satan. Don't get me wrong. I support all the troops over there and hope that they all return safely, but I do not support the way the American media is portraying everything on that side of the ocean. Freedom of the press? Hardly. And on another side note: Bush's visit to Iraq this holiday weekend was a great idea, but what other motives did he have?
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Thanksgiving Weekend Boredom
Saturday, November 29, 2003
06:50 p.m.
So, Thanksgiving was pretty fun. We went down to Nicole's aunt and uncle's place in Huntington Beach which is on the south side of LA. We ate, drank, and were merry. Today was square dance day. I celebrated that. Right. Except by celebrating I really mean not celebrating. Anyway, I'm really bored right now. Nobody really reads this. Why do I put the time into it? I really haven't figured that out yet, but here I am still typing. Oh well I'm gonna stop.....now!
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Insert Title Here
Saturday, November 22, 2003
04:03 p.m.
I'm really bored right now. "How bored?" you ask. I just spent ten minutes staring at this: Monkey Simulator. Ever heard the saying, "If you have enough monkeys banging randomly on typewriters, they will eventually type the works of William Shakespeare?" This site is doing a simulation of that. My record is 8 letters. I was also reading this article about some young kids that were put in front of some video games from when I was a kid and before and they recorded their reactions. For the most part they thought that the games sucked. See what happens when kids get spoiled? So anyway, We're going to the Carmel Symphony tonight. Should be alright. Never made it to Battle of the Bands. Just hung out at home instead. And a side note: If you are interested in economics or government or just need something to fill time, then click on my Bulid a Nation link to the left. It's like a game where you set up a nation, based on your political ideas. Each day you get an issue sent to you and you must choose to side with one of the viewpoints on the issue, or ignore it until it goes away. All of your choices will affect your country. It's kind of neat. If you decide to do it, I set up a region into which you can move your country. All new nations start in the pacific, but you can move it to wherever you want after that. The name of my region is Nodak. Do it.
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Chipotle
Friday, November 21, 2003
05:50 p.m.
So, I'm going to Monterey's version of Battle of the Bands tonight. It should be alright, considering most bands out here are better than the bands in North Dakota, save for maybe one certain band I know of...I ate at Chipotle for lunch today. This is one food chain that I actually wish was everywhere. If you've never eaten there or even heard of it you're missing out. It's like Subway, except they make gigantic burittos. It is quite awesome. even the website is pretty cool. Anyway, the Simpson's are on now. Gotta go!
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Updates
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
05:34 p.m.
So, I pretty much destroyed the old formatting for this blog trying to get a template set up for amber's blog. So now there is this. I kinda like the whole black and white thing, though I'm sure it will change sometime in the not so distant future. So Nicole and I went to Matrix Revolutions last night. I thought it was pretty good. Definitely better than the second one. Good action sequences, even though there was one scene where it was completely obvious that they were hanging from ropes, but pretty cool none the less. I left happy. I kinda wish the ending had been a little different though, but I'll get into that sometime after people have seen the movie.
Anyway not much else going on other than the Hebrew. That's going alright, even though the teacher and most of the other students drive on my nerves. There are only three people in that class that don't bother me. Pretty pathetic that our class can barely get along if you ask me, but whatever.
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Vegas Baby!
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
04:44 p.m.
So Las Vegas was really cool. We made the approx. 550 mile drive in about 7 hours. We got to the House of Blues relatively early so we were one person away from the rail, right at the center of the stage. The first two opening sets were really good (Planes Mistaken for Stars and Hopesfall) and Vendetta Red wasn't that bad but the lead singer was dancin' kinda funny. The Ataris were awesome. The only thing that sucked at all was the fact that we were surrounded by a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds who had to be the most annoying people on the face of the planet. One of them was jumping up and down behind me and ramming her elbow into my shoulder every time. I leaned back into her once while she was jumping and made her fall over. That was pretty cool. After that we went to our hotel, the Stratosphere Tower, which happens to be the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. On top they have a roller coaster and a ride called the Big Shot which is like a bungee cord but backwards. You get strapped in then they shoot you up the antenna thing on top of the tower and you freefall about 3/4 of the way back down then they shoot you up again a few more times. It was really cool because it was midnight when we did that ride and we were facing the strip. It was an awesome rush. I had such an awesome time there, but not nearly long enough...
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Just bitching...
Friday, November 7, 2003
07:37 p.m.
Am I the only one who thinks that the whole Jessica Lynch thing has been way overhyped, overdrawn, and overly dumb? Good for her that she made it through her injuries, but what about the people that actually went in there and dragged her broken ass out of Iraq. What about the rest of her sorry ass division or brigade or whatever the hell it was that was dumb enough to get lost? Sure she's been through a lot, but what about every other soldier, marine, and sailor over there right now, that isn't going to have the opportunity to be with his or her family for the holidays? At least she will be here with a lot of extra money, I'm assuming, from her biography that will be hitting the shelves soon in a store near you. Maybe, and it's a big maybe, she deserved her fifteen minutes of fame, but this is ridiculous. The story was started as something to boost American morale state-side, and it has failed miserably. It's time to move on....
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Klondike
Thursday, November 6, 2003
06:56 p.m.
What would you do for a Klondike bar? Remember the old comercials? So what would you do? Personally I wouldn't do shit for an overly small square of ice cream. What's the point really? I mean seriously, a Klondike bar? What ever happened to them? You never see comercials anymore, and do you know why? The answer my friends is that, like myself, most people realized that it is ridiculously dumb to quack like a duck just for a small piece of ice cream. Of course, after all this talk about ice cream, I know there is that one question burning in the back of your mind. Why the hell is talking, or even thinking about old, or not so old, comercial jingles? Well, frankly, I'm not quite sure myself. Maybe it's the nostalgia or the lack of any real substance to talk about. Wow. Is my life that meaningless that all I can talk about is ice cream? Well, no, but pretty damn close. I just made chocolate chip cookies. Was I hungry? No. Do I really need them? Well, if three pounds of Halloween candy isn't enough, then yes. Yes I do. Well, this just in: Today is "Marooned without a Compass Day" So get on out and find an island to get marooned on. And no cheating. Leave the compass at home. Islands may be hard to come by if you live in a small town, but do your best, and try not to get hit by cars. If you do get hit by a car make sure to sue for every penny you can get because hey, you were celebrating a national holiday, gosh darn it!! I'm sorry I had to use such foul language there, but the thought just upsets me something fierce!
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Rain and Stuff
Tuesday, November 4, 2003
07:19 p.m.
So it finally rained in Montereey earlier this week. First time there has been real rain since April. I kinda miss the stuff. Well not really. I miss thunderstorms, and we haven't had on of those since a week before Thanksgiving last year. Thanksgiving is coming up now. November will be nice as far as class goes. We have two four day weekends coming up. One of which I will be using to go with my wife to an Ataris concert in Las Vegas. It's going to be awesome. Then a few short days after that we will be going up to Santa Cruz for a Less Than Jake concert. Rufio will also be playing with them. Nicole says Rufio is pretty good so I'm looking forward to seeing both concerts. I hope nothing happens like the last time we attempted to go to a concert. Our car broke down on the way to see the White Stripes. Class was really dull today. This whole week or so has been. We haven't been getting too much more anything. We've just been pounding in all the old stuff. Very boring. But hey, only six and a half more months of it. Nicole showed me THIS. It is quite humorous, but takes a little bit to load so be patient. Amber finally knows now that her child will be a boy. That is so awesome, especially since it is being partially named after me! She said that it is supposed to be due in the beginning of March. Isn't 2004 a leap year? What if she gives birth on the 29th? It will be one of those freak children that always get all the crap for not having a birthday every year, and when he is 16 people will be like, "You're only four." Or maybe I'm just dumb. Anyway that is all for this installment of "I'm really bored"
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Halloween
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
08:59 p.m.
Halloween is coming again. I know. Shocking isn't it? I just realized today that this will now be my second Halloween in Monterey. And what great surprises are in store for me this year? Not much, probably. Can't really afford to do anything, even drive. Pathetic, huh? I have most everything paid for me, and I'm still more broke than a large portion of the transients in Santa Cruz. Maybe I could go be one of them. I could be like their king or something, because I'd have more money than them all. Yes, a whopping 4 dollars! Wait, minus the loan that I have out, I guess I'm actually at negative 1000 dollars. Awesome... So anyway, Halloween. I miss the days of old (yesterday) when I'd go and knock on the neighbors' doors for candy(money). Seriously though, free candy. I mean, whoever thought that up could quite possibly be my hero. But then again, there is also November 1st. My biggest shopping day of the year. "Isn't that supposed to be the day after Thanksgiving?" you ask. Well, not if you want the cheapest candy of the year. Last year I bought over 20 pounds of candy, and actually carried it up the cursed Franklin hill, which in the end was worth it. Completely off subject, but it's nice to know that I am getting paid in exactly 24 hours. But to get there I must sit through another long day of Hebrew class. Many things I could say about that but I'm won't. No point anymore. Not worth it.
comments about Halloween? Send them to me. Now.
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Rich
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
01:33 p.m.
This is just a shout out to my good friend Rich!
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Protestors
Sunday, October 26, 2003
10:20 a.m.
Hello again. Here I am again, home alone on a beautiful day. But hey, shit happens. So, I was reading about the anti-Iraq-involvement protests that they did yesterday. Frankly, I don't get it. Why do these people think they, by wasting their day standing around, can do anything. People protest everything these days, and therefore have lost any leverage they had in their cause. Protests worked well in the 60's, because it was a relatively new concept, and they didn't go around complaining about every little thing they didn't like. Plus the ignorance of the people protesting astounds me. Check out this video clip from albinoblacksheep.com. And also Part 2 of it. This guy went out and interviewed many people who were protesting the war back in like March. It is quite humorous to see the response of many of them when confronted with many questions concerning the war. On the flip side of the coin however is this clip from The Daily Show. I enjoyed this one thoroughly. So yeah, many people may not want us to be in Iraq, but we are there now. We shouldn't be protesting and complaining about it. We should show support for the troops that are over there now. Many of them likewise, do not really want to be there, but they are doing their jobs, and putting their lives on the line every day.
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Cake
Saturday, October 25, 2003
07:25 p.m.
This is the beginning of something wonderful. And by wonderful, I really mean crapp...er...ful. I think. So if anyone actually sees this, I will be surprised.Enough of this rambling though. I just made a cake. Chocolate. MMM....cghocolate. I like cake a lot. Have you ever wondered what it means to have your cake and eat it too? I mean seriously, if I have some cake, I'm gonna eat it. And that's not just because I am fat. Who would ever just have cake? Noone. People like cake and it is human nature to eat the cake. Now, not everyone will eat the whole cake in one sitting like I would, but the concept of a cake is indeed, to eat it. So there you have it. And the verdict from the jury: They like cake too...
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