20050425

that's weird

spontaneous combustion is one thing, but spontaneously exploding? apparently that's what's happening to a bunch of toads in germany. now if only all the other frogs in europe would start exploding, the world would be a much nicer place. that seems unlikely, but i can dream, can't i?

h/t the rott

20050422

the die has been cast

well, its official now: i'm graduating this year. it seems like people are normally excited about graduating early, but i'm actually kind of bummed. most of my friends are graduating next year, and it would've been fun to walk with them. and to have an extra year to figure out what i'm going to do with my life. and to finish up the 9 freaking credits i still need for the poli sci major. but oh well. i may have no clue what's going on in my life, but as long as God does, everything is ok.

happy birthday!

to a cool girl and a good friend, emily.

20050419

i like being able to edit pictures

i'm still not up to photoshop yet, but my camera came with some decent software. for example, here is me, frozen in carbonite. or embossed, or something:

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

one of these days i need to learn how to host my own pictures, so i don't have to worry about max filesize and stuff.

news from iraq

this is so much easier when somebody else does all the work. like in this case. thank you powerline, for working hard so that i don't have to.

20050418

i hate my life

it is now nearly midnight, and i just got back from the library, where, with the exception of a short break to get some food, i spent the last 6 and a half hours. i was working on my brief for law & society when i got to library. i'm still working on my brief. my partner and i have different ideas of what research is, so splicing the part that he did into what i've got is going to be a little tricky. i can't blame him too much though... he still put quite a bit of work into this, and the class isn't even in his major. anyways, the brief is due at 8:00 tomorrow morning, which means i need to get back to typing.

i'll leave you with the following statement, to balance out the hatred expressed in the title: i love caffeine.

--update--
it is approximately 2:49 in the morning. my brief is finished, and i no longer hate life. although i'm sure that i'll be hating it again when i have to get up at 7:15. oh well.

20050417

because really, i should be doing homework

so instead, i'll take a quiz. darn you emily. and darn my procrastinatory tendencies.



Your Linguistic Profile:



70% General American English

15% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

5% Midwestern

5% Yankee


20050415

hmm...

its been an interesting sort of day. i got my IPE midterm back... i had been really worried about it. but i rocked it hardcore. on a 4.0 scale, i got a 4.3. i also got my digital camera in today, which will be fun to play with. i'll try and get some pics up before the weekend is over.

on the other hand, it looks like i'm going to be getting squat for financial aid next year. i'm going to try and do some tweaking with stuff, maybe switching one of my classes from upper- to lower-division so i don't have enough crap to finish the first degree. we'll have to see how that goes.

20050414

bummer

well, i didn't get the RA job that i applied for. it's kind of a bummer, but i wasn't really expecting to get hired, so its not a huge letdown. it just means i need to look that much harder for the money i'll need to stick around at college.

anyways, time to finish rewriting a paper. and then run. because lets face it, i am a glutton for punishment.

20050412

curiouser and curiouser

this morning, i found out that one of my professors reads, or at least has read, my blog. i'm not entirely sure how he found it. i completely forgot to ask, because i was tired and had just finished a test. hopefully i'll remember to ask him later this week. if inquiring minds are as curious(er) about this as i am, i'll update once i find out.

20050411

hooray for the left coast!

wait, that's a lie. especially considering some of the crap the 9th circuit court of appeals has been churning out of late. if i were feeling more energetic, i would go out and find more examples, but i have a test to study for and a schedule to plan, so you can go look for yourself if you feel so inclined.

on that note, life is incredibly stressful right now. i'm still waiting on my financial aid information to decide if i can stick around for part or all of next year... since there's only about 5 weeks left till graduation, i'm starting to freak out a bit. on a semi-related note, the college opened up the resident assistant applications again... apparently they didn't get enough qualified applicants after the first go. i figured what the heck, that will take care of room and board if i get hired, and it'll be a good experience. so i'm working on the application for that now. basically, i have a bunch of crap i need to get done between now and may 15th. wish me luck.

20050409

JUST TO BE DIFFERENT

NORMALLY, I DO MY POSTS IN ALL LOWER CASE LETTERS. I'M NOT SURE WHY. I'M BORED RIGHT NOW, AND I DON'T WANT TO GO TO BED, SO I DECIDED TO TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT AND POST IN ALL CAPS. IT LOOKS PRETTY CRAPPY THOUGH, SO I THINK I'LL GO BACK TO LOWERCASE.

MAYBE I ACTUALLY HAD TOO MUCH CAFFEINE LAST NIGHT...

testing... i seem to do that a lot

but the real question is this: does red's under-construction site update automatically? we're about to find out.

--update--
it doesn't look like it, but i'm not sure how long something like that would take.

--update 2--
i was wrong, it does automatically update. unless he was just sitting at his computer, waiting for me to post again. however, i find this rather unlikely, so for now, i'm going to assume its automatic.

20050408

my brain hurts

i actually gave up on writing my paper at 2 this morning and went to bed. physically, i was still fairly hyper from all the caffeine, but my brain was really starting to hate life at that point. so i got up at about 7:30 this morning, and typed through my first two classes. went to class with my paper, the prof checked to make sure we had all done them, and then we did peer editing. which is kind of helpful, but i would much rather have had the prof look at my paper. but then again, this is the same prof who decided to spend a month in the middle of the semester in costa rica. true, he was helping out with the study tour down there, but it sucked for all of his students still here.

on that note, here's some fun stuff:

apparently, i'm not cut out for academia.
the wild west? (h/t emily)
and just because i love it, the immigration game

i need more caffeine. i'm off.

20050407

my own hero

today, i single handedly saved bawls. sort of. well, ok, not really. but i did convince the manager of the shell station up the street not to discontinue it. i think the fact that i bought six bottles of it might have had something to do with his decision, but i could be wrong.

over the next several days--or maybe even just tonight--those bottles will be put to good use. as we speak, i am preparing to start typing a 10-page paper that's due... tomorrow.

later.

20050405

testing...

i decided to try one of these out, because i was bored and really didn't want to do my work for international political economy.

Would you like me to do a post based on reader input?

if you answered yes, leave your suggestion(s) in the comments. after a few days or a week or so, i'll throw those up as options, and readers (all 4 of you) can vote on what you want me to write about.

20050404

thought of the day

[Pv(Q*A)] * ~[(PvQ)*(PvA)] is only true when A is false and P and Q are both true. crazy, eh?

--update--
also, please note the following:
~[Pv(QvA) v [~(~PvQ)v(~PvA)] is only false when A is false, and both P and Q are true.

sharing the addiction

wow. i've really appreciated all the comments i've gotten on my post about the gay march in jerusalem, and i hope they keep on coming. but for now, i feel the need to share my other love, star wars, in the form of 3 new teaser trailers. thanks to the friends i've never actually met for putting up the links:

#1
#2
#3

enjoy. and keep commenting.

20050402

well now there's a crazy thought

more guns, less crime. which is really what myself and many republicans/conservatives have been arguing for quite some time. and probably some libertarians, too.

20050401

coming together

christians, jews, and muslims have finally found something they can agree on: opposition to homosexuality. from an article in yesterday's new york times (free registration required):

International gay leaders are planning a 10-day WorldPride festival and parade in Jerusalem in August, saying they want to make a statement about tolerance and diversity in the Holy City, home to three great religious traditions.

Now major leaders of the three faiths - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - are making a rare show of unity to try to stop the festival. They say the event would desecrate the city and convey the erroneous impression that homosexuality is acceptable.

"They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable," Shlomo Amar, Israel's Sephardic chief rabbi, said yesterday at a news conference in Jerusalem attended by Israel's two chief rabbis, the patriarchs of the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches, and three senior Muslim prayer leaders. "It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it."


and, of course, my favorite quote: "This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land." --Rabbi Yehuda Levin, Rabbinical Alliance of America

our good friends God and Paul also weigh in on the matter:

"Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. ... Everyone who does any of these detestable things--such persons must be cut off from their people." --God, in Leviticus 18:22, 29 (NIV)

"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders... will inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NIV)