way more fun than it should be

kitten cannon

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

starving kids?

earlier today, forrest sent me a link to an article that said malnutrition among iraqi children had increased since the US-led coalition forces invaded in 2003, from around 4% to nearly 8%; so it sounds like it doubled. but let's see what another source has to say, shall we? according to the chicago media watch,

The UNICEF-supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2000 has shown that 30% of children under-five suffer from chronic malnutrition. Voices members have photos and slides taken on the December trip documenting children in hospitals and elementary schools.

last i checked, 8% was a lot lower than 30%. but maybe somebody changed the rules, or switched to the metric system or something while i wasn't looking.

h/t the rott


--update--
read this, including the comments. its fairly informative.

who knew?

apparently, canada had tanks at some point: between 1941 and 1944, they sent 1,400 to help russia fight the germans.

say goodbye to wet feet

my new shoes are finally here. they're replacing my old pair of danner boots, which lasted about 2 years. they finally got a crack in the sole, which meant that any time the ground was wet, my feet got soaked. which really sucked. but the new ones a) don't have a crack in the sole, and b) are lined with gore-tex, so they basically rule. that is all.

oooh, pretty...

just make sure you go to the bathroom first; it was so good, i almost peed my pants.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

if this is any indication of what the movie is going to be like, i completely forgive george lucas for episodes I and II.

--update--
i want one of these, too. so if you have an extra $1000 laying around and can't decide what to do with it, feel free to spend it on me.

the actual important thing today

happy Easter all. hope your weekend was as relaxing as mine. just rememeber what the holiday is really about.

(hint: it has nothing to do with chocolate, rabbits, or eggs. or ham, even.)

hooray!

we can only hope.

great song, crap lyrics

"hell bent" by kenna is a pretty sweet song, at least as far as sound goes. but then i looked at the lyrics, and half of them make no sense. i hate when that happens.

i'm bored, and i don't know html.

the people i was hanging out with earlier decided to go out drinking; and since i'm still not 21 (93 days left...), i'm stuck here at school. maybe i'll get some homework done, but probably not. anyways, here's a list of the blogs i read on at least a semi-regular basis; may they keep you more entertained than i am at this point.

in no particular order:
Wizbang
Powerline
The Rott
Rachel Lucas
Emily
Red
Protein Wisdom
Tongue Tied
MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
and, believe it or not, American Bodhisattva (good to keep an eye on the other side, eh forrest?)

enjoy. i'm gonna go do laundry or something.

unrelated topics

for things that look good for America, there's the news; for everything else, there's reuters. because of course, it couldn't all be good news, now could it?

in a totally unrelated note, i bring you the wonders of communism:
"The question of giult or innocence was to be predetermined by a preliminary inquiry, as a rule conducted by the police. In the same year [1934], a decree on 'counterrevolution and high treason' provided for collective family responsibility in cases of flight by military personnel abroad. Severe penalties were established for failing to inform the authorities about an act of treason, whether actually committed ore merely contemplated. A decree of April 7, 1935, extended capital punishment down to twelve-year-olds."

(source: Dziewanowski, M.K. Russia in the Twentieth Century, sixth edition. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2003. p. 186-187.)

ummm... duh?

men and women are different.