Judgment

Now, typically I don't get religious in my posts because I don't feel it is necessary to advertise my beliefs. I believe in tolerance. I let you believe what you will and try to respect you for that. In turn I hope to learn more about what you believe so I may confirm or add to my own beliefs. I don't want to be shut out to ideas because I may have been told to. On that note, it happened again. It happened at Thanksgiving and one holiday later it happened one more time. On Christmas, I'm not sure how, but my family went off on homosexuals again. It's very disconcerting to hear their hateful and un-Christian remarks. It drives me nuts when people claim Christianity but listen to very little of it. I must admit, I said nothing to them, partially because of my voice, but mainly because I didn't want to make an issue. My mom, though, seems to share my mentality which helped restore my views of the obedient Christian.

First of all, we are to reserve our judgment. Matthew 7:1-2 NIV says: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." I love the Message Remix which translates the Scripture into contemporary English. Matthew 7:1-5 in it says: "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticise their faults--unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing the holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor."

They would argue how they must be sinners. I would counter that all of us are no different. Romans 3:23 NIV says: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." More importantly, I was always taught to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 18:19, Mark 12:31). How is loving your neighbor the same as condemning them for something they have no control over and how God made them? In fact, we, as Christians, are not to lash out, but to turn the other cheek when we are attacked (Matthew 5:39 NIV) or as the Message Remix puts it: "'Don't hit back at all.' If someone strikes you, stand there and take it." Ah, the fundamentals of tolerance. Similar to love the sinner, hate the sin. You don't have to like what other people do but that shouldn't stop you from loving and supporting them in whatever they choose to do. I just hope my family realizes this before their private opinions may turn into public, and life-damaging remarks.

Do I hate them for this? No, As much as it disturbs me, I must try to help them see the truth. No matter how I feel, one strong Christian value is that of forgiveness. We are to "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." (Ephesians 4:32 NIV). Sorry to get all spiritual on everyone, but, as I said, it bothers me when Christians, the people who should be the most loving people you will meet, can act with such hatred.

Holiday Awards

OK, I'm going to go over the presents in a fun way.

Most surprised reaction: Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows for PS2. I got this from my mom's side aunt and I was totally not expecting this. They have never picked up PS2 games before and it is very appreciated.

Least surprised reaction: a brown light-weight coat. I opened this and I was taken back. I already have my brown corduroy coat which I like and this just seemed so similar. I'm sure I find a good use for it though.

Most consistent: iTunes gift cards. I love these things and I got two of them.

Most practical: I got a bunch of long-sleeved shirts and nifty ties with black pants for when I can go back to work.

Least practical: Call of Duty 3 for Wii. I love it and I can't wait, but I don't have the system yet.

Neatest gift: a long black wool coat with scarf and leather gloves. So cool.

Belated gift: Nintendo Wii, when I get one, it counts as a Christmas gift.

Funniest gift: a pillow that says "Be Nice or Go Away."

Unfortunate gift: Call of Duty 3 for PS2. I just got the Wii one earlier in the day and my aunt picked it up. I felt bad but I know I could exchange it for Zelda or something.

Gift you wouldn't expect me to love: CD-Rs. I have none of these at all which is surprising.

Gift I wish I got: an electric razor. Mine has its sideburn razor broken so they get long until I go home and nix it.

Still Wii-less

This is a late post but I find myself with time now. On December 17, I heard that there would be another shipment of Wiis in. Toys R Us would get 7, Target would get a bunch, Best Buy would get some, and Wal-Mart would get some. So I woke up at 4:00 am to get to Wal-Mart in case they sold them at 5 instead of 8 like they did in Norfolk. When I arrived in Fremont, they said weren't getting any in so, not to waste time, I went to Omaha's Wal-Mart and they didn't have any. I was wondering if they were lying in order to prevent a line, but wondering wasn't going to get me one. It was about 5 and I went to Target to see if there was a line. There was, and there were tents. They opened at 8 and I was #37. It was very cold (possibly explaining my sickness) and I had some conversations with the people there. After 45 minutes the Target people came out and said there were only 15 Wiis and 8 PS3s. So I was out of there and went back to Wal-Mart. More people were there expecting Wii and they said they didn't have anybody. They sent someone back to make sure and they said they had none. So I went home to sleep.

I was working in the lobby with a teller that was hired when I left for college, Laura. She's fun. She likes sci-fi stuff so I had stuff to talk to her about. She saw Eragon and said they left a bunch of stuff out of the book. She and her husband were also looking for a Wii. She said he was 4th in line at Gamestop for 5 Wiis and had to leave to go to work. He was offered $100 for his spot. During the week, my brother said that my sister-in-law, Jordan, was at Wal-Mart and they announced over the speakers that there were 3 Wiis that just came in. My brother was so mad she didn't stop and pick one up. I didn't mind. The next day Laura said her friend was at another Wal-Mart with the same announcement and picked one up right away. So she got to play one. I was at Best Buy and there was a bunch of PS3s just sitting there with a worker watching them. He said the Wii was all sold out. I did get Call of Duty 3 for Wii so no I have a game and a controller with nunchuk, but no Wii. Hopefully once the holiday hype dies down, I'll be able to pick one up conveniently.

Es muy inferma

I was coughing lightly throughout last week, but on Saturday it began to escalate. We went to see Casino Royale and I was coughing fairly regularly. We got ice cream afterwards and the cod didn't help. My voice lost itself on Christmas Eve and I blacked out on Christmas Day. My voice was gone the following day. Every time I talked, it triggered a coughing outbreak. So I took work off. It didn't get better so I went to the doctor yesterday. I hadn't been there since 1991 when I got my stitches out. The worst thing is both of my parents don't remember me having stitches. That's very depressing. It's weird though, because there's very few headaches, no body pains, minor nasal problems, no stomach problems other than my coughs periodically triggering my gag reflex. It's all throat and chest. So the doctor said I have a form of bronchitis and gave me a prescription for a couple of syrups. One tastes fine but the other has a nice kick. My voice sounds horrible and I try to shut up for most of the day to relax my vocal cords. I hope I get better by the weekend because my cousin's wedding is on the 30th and Daniele is having a New Year's party and I want to go. Until then I'm very contagious and catching up on my relaxation.

The Silver Surfer

Almost There...

Well, I'm so close to being done I could taste it, if it was possible to taste the future. My Ethics and Values final went well. I got the poster project done and the self-assessment done for my education classes. I took the Ancient World test and made history of it. I've got my 15-20 page paper almost done. I just need to proofread for grammatical errors. Then it's under Dr. Taber's door following my Anthropology final at 10:30 and I'm outta here.

I've got a list of games to rent for PS2 and I hope to find the Wii over break. I've also got American Gods to read for Sci-Fi Club. I'm not working too much so I hope to have time for stuff.

I found about a class I want to take. It's the History and Geography of Greece, in Greece. It's from May 21-June 5 and it costs $2500. I'll see what I can scrounge.

Your 1996 Theme Song Is: 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins

Shakedown 1979 Cool kids never have the time On a live wire right up off the street You and I should meet

What's Your 1996 Theme Song?

Boggle Challenge: 11 words

At the bottom of the window it says there are only 11 words possible in this Boggle grid. My question is: Can you find them? I only found 6 in the three minutes but I'll give you a few days. Good luck:

If you don't know how to play you basically form words that touch horizontally, vertically, or diagonally without reusing letters.

Wii-less

I heard that Wal-Mart would be selling Wiis at 8:00am today so I called them up on Monday to confirm. I asked if they would be available at midnight and they said 8:00am. Someone on Amazon claimed that there is a lock on the Wii so they cannot be sold until 8:00am. So I slept early and woke up to get there at about 7:15. There was no line. I thought it was weird so I got my stuff and listened around. They said that people were waiting at 5 and the Wiis were all claimed. I was thinking it was a ruse to prevent a rush on the systems so I paid for my stuff and waited around the electronics. They kept saying the same thing so I gave up.

That bugged me a bit because they never told me to get there earlier and I was under the impression that they couldn't be sold until 8. I think what happened was somebody got impatient and tried ringing them up to prove a point on the electronics registers. The Amazon guy said that the electronics and jewelry departments don't have the lock for some reason. They saw they would work and sold what they had. So when I hear about the next shipment, I'll just be more vigilant.

Review of "Casino Royale"

It seems like forever since Die Another Day where Pierce Brosnan was able to somehow manage to escape from a burning-but-not-yet-exploded airplane in a helicopter with Halle Berry in tow. Well, we have a new Bond and you don't piss him off. Focusing on the 00 agent's early years, Casino Royale is a very welcome return to what seems to be classic James Bond. When the movie started I almost freaked out because there was no gun barrel intro, but rest assured, it's only delayed. The opening credits are fantastic by the way. And Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" is way too catchy. It's a shame the only way to obtain it is through semi-legal means.

The plot is solid with very few unbelievabilities. There is little focus on gadgets as evidenced by the lack of Q and no watch lasers. At one point he even, God forbid, drives a Ford. The film was co-produced by Columbia thus connecting it to Sony explaining the multitude of Sony-branded products throughout the movie. I almost expected him to whip out a PS3 in his off time. But, no this is a darker movie. The villain, Le Chiffre, is very cool, very calm and sophisticated...in the first part of the movie. I feel the casino scenes show some 21st Century influence with the use of Texas Hold 'Em Poker as the game of choice but it helps you connect more. M is also much more determined in this movie, for lack of a better word. Bottom line: If you're a Bond fan, and action fan, or just like great movies, go see this film. This or Happy Feet...whatever.

My rating: 009.5 out of 10
DVD-worthy: I will most likely own this as soon as possible, if I can wait until March 27th.

Where Have I Been?

OK, recap. This could get as long as a Jodie post but I feel the need to catch up on what's been going on.

Game Day and V for Vendetta
On November 4 the Sci-Fi Club had our Game Day. It was a lot of fun. I rented LEGO Star Wars II and DDR Extreme 2. I also played some Risk and we watched a bunch of movies. We had a good turnout but they kicked us out at 9. We're going to do it again for our Christmas Party and we'll ask to stay longer like at WillyCon. The next day we played V for Vendetta for the campus in Ramsey. There was some confusion about whether or not it was public and if it was illegal. We decided it is illegal but no one cares. We had a decent turnout but it gave us ideas for other movies. I then played LEGO Star Wars II and beat the first one.

My Brother's Wedding
Last weekend my brother got married. I guess they both got really sick with the flu before the wedding. I got down to Beatrice in record time and we went to the rehearsal. It went well and then we had the prenup at Valentino's. My cousin brought up Guitar Hero and I watched him play it. I went over to Wal-Mart at about 11:00pm and was really tempted to get it.

The next day I helped set up the video for the reception. We wanted to get it connected to the overhead speakers without putting a microphone next to the speaker. I went over to RadioShack and picked up a microphone extension cord and a minijack adapter. It worked well. The Holiday Inn lady didn't even know that was possible. The tuxedos were nice but very restricting. I drove over to the church outside of Plymouth for the pictures. They had good weather so some were taken outside. The wedding went well. They had trouble getting a CD to play so me and her brother Caleb went over to look at it when they fixed it. So we had to run back downstairs to get back in our cubby at the front. It was a really neat wedding. The flowers had some sort of fruit in them and a feather. They also threw lavender at the couple as left left the church. Her family is so crafty. After the ceremony I was to take my cousins, the guest book attendants to the reception. I went to my car and found out I locked myself out. Stupid Wayne habits! My spare was also inside because I didn't want bulky pockets during the wedding. My uncle, my dad, and I worked on getting in but those Pontiacs are built air tight. So we left it and went to the reception. The food was fantastic and the video worked well. I basically winged my speech off the top of my head. But people liked it. That made me fell good considering this senior in college can be a total idiot at times. My uncle manages Sid Dillon in Fremont and he had them make up a key. We had another spare at home so we decided that I would ride back with my uncle to Fremont, stay the night, and drive back with him to unlock the car.

We got the car open and drove back to the hotel to load up my stuff. I felt so bad and my confidence was shot so that was fun. I helped my parents load up and they gave me gasoline and I began my 3 hour drive to Wayne. I stopped at home to get some things and let the animals in. I got back here at a reasonable time but I enjoyed the wedding for the most part. I'm so excited now.

Last Night
Yesterday Rachel, Steph, Faye, Daniele and I went into Norfolk for stuff and things. I guess the comic book store is gone now so we went to Target. I picked up The DaVinci Code on DVD along with Batman Begins UNO. We then went to Sonic to confuse the carhop. After the food we went to Hastings where I got a used copy of V for Vendetta. We then went to Wal-Mart and I picked up an external hard drive. My current one had only 2 GB out of 120 GB. So now this gynormous one is for videos only. I like it.

Haunted House

I am so loving the haunted house. We had basically no paying customers for scout night on Thursday but we totally made up for it on Friday. They were lined up and groups were being sent in constantly. I felt bad for the workers who never got their break so we took five minutes and I ran in pizzas for the workers and got whatever they wanted. I felt like a waiter. It was vigorous for all but it was so worth it in the long run. We also had a huge turnout for workers which really helped out. We had a decent night last night. People had time to come out to eat and scared a good number of people. Today was awesome. We didn't have as good of a turnout but everyone had a great time socializing. We were about to close up but another group came with 10 minutes to spare. I don't know why but we had so much fun with them. We scared the crap out of them and everyone was just spinning. I envy those who couldn't make it because it was a blast. Luckily, we still have tomorrow and Halloween!

Neologisms in Papers

I'm writing my Anthropology paper and I keep making up words that Microsoft Word doesn't recognize. They include:

• gravitic: relating to gravity. "This causes a gravitic problem."
• civilizational: of a civilization. "a civilizational breakdown" (recognized by Webster)
  
• naturality: relating to nature. "realize the naturality of the situation" (recognized by Webster)

I don't know where "gravitic" came from, most likely Star Trek.

Finally, Some Good Customer Service

My iPod has been goofy for quite a while. I just never cared. In about February or March it started doing this thing where after a while, the volume would no longer respond. The bar would move but there was no change. I had to reset the thing to get volume control. I tried searching Apple for the reason but all I got was angry Europeans whining about how they can't make the volume louder because of restrictions there. I hoped a future update would correct this. Nope. In fact the 1.2 update made it slightly worse. The volume thing was gone, but now it would freeze if it stayed idle most of the time. It would also play like 20 seconds of a video. So I deal with that for a while but it frustrated me on the Duluth trip because it would freeze and drain the battery. Sometimes it would shut down properly, otherwise it was a guess. It would even freeze in the dock.

I noticed the Apple Store opened in Village Pointe in Omaha a few weeks ago so I thought that perhaps they can service it without having to send it in to Apple. I brought it in and the took a look at it. They listened to it and tweaked it a little. Luckily it was frozen when I brought it in so they knew what I was talking about. I'm glad I remembered to bring the Best Buy receipt because that helped immensely. After a while they went into the back and gave me a new iPod of the same model! I was thrilled. The new iPods scratch like a son of a gun so I am going to be smart about this one. I used the first one as a testing ground so now I have a case to care for the iPod. I'm just so happy to have great customer service after the Cingular debacles.

Duluth and North Shore

On Friday I had to wake up and go on the Explorer's Club trip to Duluth. I brought a nice supply of reading material for the trip plus the great and powerful iPod to solve boredom problems. We went to Interstate State Park in Wisconsin after heading through Minneapolis to see the St. Croix River that serves as a border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. I'm so glad we went in autumn because it was beautiful. We lost a couple of guys but huzzah, they were found. We also formed a grudge against Wisconsin due to the lack of open visitors centers. We headed up to Duluth and ate a Fitger's Brewhouse but first we wandered through stores. There was a Benneton. Eww...Benneton! Tee food was good and I tried new things. I didn't know what alfalfa sprouts were (sadly) but they had no taste and they were good. I also figured out what chutney was. The other table gave us their excess appetizers so Rhea began to break the two pieces of pita bread so that everyone could have some. She was almost like Jesus! We then went to our Motel 6 which was interestingly dumpy. I got basically no sleep the first night because I'm weird but it didn't matter.

The next day we went to the Aerial Lift Bridge and saw Lake Superior meet the St. Louis River. We then went up to Two Harbors and ate brunch. Then we went to Gooseberry Falls State Park. That was really neat. It reminded me of Sioux Falls as there were really no rules about where you could wander. Steph, Heidi, and I went down to the Lake Superior shore which was neat and hurried back so Dr. Bertolas wouldn't leave us. I also squished a couple of pennies and got a patch. Neat! We then drove up to Split Rock Lighthouse. We watched a film on the lighthouse and watched them really accentuate the need for the lighthouse.The lighthouse was nifty and the view was spectacular. I squished another penny and then we went up to Palisade cliff edge which scared Dr. Bertolas into believed everyone would die. After that it was a trip up to Tettagouche State Park to see Shovel Point and more of Lake Superior. I have to say, that although breathtaking, you get really tired of seeing trees and water out of one side of the car. It was a really peaceful day but you just wish the Great Lake would do something great. Anyways, we went over to Northern Lights Roadhouse to eat. I tried Walleye, Elk, and Caribou. Not to shabby. We then stopped for pie on the way back. When we got back to Duluth, we went aimlessly up to Enger Tower to get a view of the whole city. I finally got a shot of the Aerial Lift Bridge at night after several attempts with my camera.

At the motel, two of my roommates never came back and I wish I used the other bed because no one else was. We checked out of the motel one hour early and drove down to the Twin Cities. We stopped at Tobie's to get the world's best frickin' donuts ever! We then went to the Mall of America. Ahh, memories. I'd hoped we'd get to wander for another hour because we were kicking time's butt on the way there but no such luck. I was pissed because when we got there at 10, none of the stores were open! Aah! But we were lucky: Spider-Man was making a stop at the time we were there on the day we were there. We saw him run, run, run over to his podium which was hilarious. We wasted an hour with very little to do except smash pennies and then we went to Barnes and Noble when it opened. They no longer sell the Onion in print there. What a bummer! Then we high-tailed it to the game store where I bought some miniatures and over to the LEGO store where I picked up some LEGO Batman magnets. We then had to get food because it was our lunch stop so we went to McDonald's without a dollar menu and walked back. I had hoped we'd gain an hour for when it was not open, but with everyone back already Dr. B was not about to let us go back in. Such a shame because I wanted to go back. On the way back I discovered exactly how magnetic the LEGOs were. Let's just say they don't clump together in a nice way. We got back super early on a good note and I'd love to go back sometime.


The St. Croix River on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin


The Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth, Minnesota


Gooseberry Falls State Park


Lake Superior from Split Rock Lighthouse


Split Rock Lighthouse


Tettagouche State Park


Aerial Lift Bridge with a barge on Lake Superior at night from Enger Tower


Spider-Man running through the Mall of America

How White and Nerdy Are You?

Constitutional Conundrum

In Sci-Fi club, we have several amendments to our constitution based on simple clean up and making sure we cover our bases. One of the amendments has a provision that basically would allow the President to "appoint, remove, or replace a committee chair upon the advice of the committee, executive board, or club." The current constitution just says the President simply appoints. The Executive board then logically inferred that the power to replace and remove is also the President's handled in the same matter. So, if the President can pick someone on a whim, the President can remove someone on a whim. That's just irresponisble, hence the amendment making advice necessary before taking any action. The President needs the whole story. This is a way of protecting committee chairs from a President removing someone that the officer doesn't like.

At the meeting, we had a guest speaker from MENC to talk about joining Haunted House and if I had known, I would've had him go first instead of amendment talk. It was brought up first that the word "advice" should be changed to "approval." I stated that it is inefficient to have to vote on every committee chair's appointment and that it should be a quick executive action. We are not a communist society and that's why we have elected officials. They are the ones to do the jobs that don't require full democratic action. The other officers all have jobs that require no club approval to do, removing any power from an officer weakens the club as a whole. Then we discussed changing "or" to "and" but that would mean I would have to involve the entire club each time on what may be a private matter that affect a person's duties. Also, the power to appoint/remove/replace should be uniform in action so whatever steps it takes to remove need to be the same steps to appoint, which is an incredibly simple matter. Basically after all of this certain members probably scared off the MENC guy basically telling that club that we are too complicated an hung up on the difference between "and" and "or". That irritated Ron because MENC is actually willing to help this year and we may have shooed them off or made them hate us again.

Eventually they voted on an amendment proposal that reads: "To appoint, remove, or replace a committee chair upon the examination of the parties involved in the situation in the presence of the advisor if the advisor is available." First of all, that is not constitutionally appropriate language so I have to correct that. The constitution must have appropriate, logical language to prevent potential ambiguity. It would be irresponsible of me to submit an amendment that would flaw the constitution grammatically. The clause "in the situation" was removed by me because it is redundant. Who else would be in the situation? Then the phrase "in the presence of the advisor if the advisor is available" is contradictory because it basically means the advisor is not required granting executive discretion on whether or not an advisor should be present. We can't remove "if the advisor is available" because it was agreed that this should be a speedy decision. So, therefore, if the advisor is not required, it doesn't need enumeration. Then the question was: What is the difference between "the parties involved" and the groups previously listed? Who else would be in the involved parties that wasn't listed? I know they said that this should be a club decision, but when it involves the "parties involved," how does the club get involved? Now I have to figure out what the difference between "advice" and "examination" is. Am I supposed to give tests? What else do I get from an examination other than the advice I need to carry out the decision? I am going to add "concurring advice" to show that the advice I receive must agree with the decision but other than that the amendment will read the same way. I need to talk to Ron about how to accomplish this but honestly, I don't see the difference between the amendments.

Giggle Fit

Last night, it was way too late and we were way too caffeinated. I was playing LEGO Star Wars and Steph and Book Lady are in my room watching and of course, everything is hilarious on that game. We discovered that you can push the second player off an edge and that's funny. Then I noticed that never finished my grape Crush. So I drank it and it's warm and I said it tasted like Dimetapp. We we start laughing and my curious nature in me goes to Google to search for Dimetapp. The website makes me laugh, Steph makes me laugh, and Book Lady's passed out. I tried to stop laughing but "the Steph" finds that funny and laughs harder making me laugh again. I feel like I had Joker gas or something. So finally I sit on my stomach on my futon because it hurts less that way and laughingly tell her we need to get you back to your room so we can both stop laughing. So we giggle all the way down the hall as everything is hilarious. Soon after the tremors stop. Moral of the story: Always find time for a good laugh once in a while!

The Son becomes the Father, and the Father becomes the Son

It's becoming rarer and rarer to have a day go by without seeing the Superman shield. When walking to class you see the thing on at least one person's shirt. Even I have a shirt and a Christopher Reeve dog tag sporting the shield on my bag. Steph and I both came up with a Morey Hall shirt with the shield at the same time (creepy). I saw one over the summer that was on pink with the word "bitch" on it. I'm still not sure what that has to do with the character. It's so neat to see such an iconic character permeate into mainstream culture so easily.

Now I'm not necessarily the biggest Superman fan. Personally, he's kind of a prude. He seems so one-dimensional at times. He's not like the Marvel heroes with their problems or even Batman with his tormented past. He's got it easy. He has almost every neat power that you could think of. You can't kill him by sheer force. His greatest nemesis is a regular human holding a rock. I guess it's just the ideals that he stands for that makes him great. He is a representation of what it means to live life t the fullest, untouchable and without a worry in the world. It's also the thought of knowing that no matter how crappy the situation can get, Superman will pull through every time.

In Superman: Birthright, now the official origin story of Superman, the S-Shield is symbolic of Krypton and means "hope." It's on about everything and is almost like a family crest of the House of El as seem in the movies. That must be what people want: hope. That, or air which is what the modified symbol means in Smallville. Either way, it's a neat symbol that needs no explanation that anyone, whether a fan or a person who's never touched a comic can wear. Swell.

Norfolk vs. Sioux City

I love Sioux City. I used to go to Norfolk for everything until Sioux City came into view. Recently though, I've been finding out that Norfolk just disappoints me often. All it has going for it is Hastings, Sonic, and a closer Wal-Mart. Hastings is a big guess as to whether they have anything. If they do have it, it will cost you at least a testicle to purchase it. We midnight run to that Wal-Mart because it is closer but other than that, I find myself rarely in Norfolk.

Sioux City has ACME, which is awesome, and Rainbow which has the things ACME might not have. They also have the Dowry which is so unique for the area. They have a good mall with a Hot Topic, Spencers, and Barnes and Noble. They have Chick-fil-A! And recently, they have Best Buy and Old Navy. It's only tacking on another 10 minutes to get there and the road does get curvy, but I end up there more than Norfolk. And now that South Sioux has a super Wal-Mart on the way to ACME, I'm more appreciative. And most of this is in Iowa, too, which is amazing that I like going there for some reason.

And at times, Sioux City even makes Omaha cry all the way home to its mother. This weekend, I wanted to pick up Superman: Birthright while I was in Omaha. I went to PhantaC just to hope they had it. I went to Dragon's Lair with no luck, and also Barnes and Noble. Nothing! I was too lazy/tired/weak/stubborn to go into Krypton which probably had it but it was on the wrong side of town. I figured at least one of these places would have it since both ACME and Barnes and Noble in Sioux City had it. Of course, Norfolk's selection is pitiful, unless you want just Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 11 or Ultimate X-Men Vol. 8 with nothing else. Sioux City is also the place where you could go just to see on the small chance they may have a Smallville Clark "super-angst" Kent action figure and be able to find one at both ACME and Rainbow for cheaper than online. What a world!

Terminator TV

ComingSoon! reports that "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" has been given the go-ahead to make a pilot. The show will tell the story of Sarah and her son John after Terminator 2 while they are on the run. On the run from what? In the crappy Terminator 3, John just lives "off the grid" and wasn't expecting anything else from the future until it arrived. They must be running from the law for blowing up Cyberdyne or something. Oh well, it seems interesting so we'll just see how it turns out.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, You are from Krypton

We've been watching way too much Smallville. I am so surprised by Faye's reaction to it all. She really gets into it. She talks to them and then flips them off when they don't cooperate. It's fun watching the first season again because it's been under a month. We've also adapted lines from "The Juggernaut Bitch" towards Clark. "Are you shooting bullets at me? You must not know who I am. I'm Superman, bitch! You're weapons don't affect me." They also want some red K even though they've never actually seen the effects yet, they know what it does. Luckily you can Lana's kryptonite necklaces at www.replicaprops.com. We've also adopted a new axiom: Whatever doesn't kill you gives you superpowers. Oh well, I'm excited for Season 5 on DVD in a couple of weeks along with the new season after that!

Your Taste in Music:

90's Rock: Highest Influence 90's Alternative: High Influence Adult Alternative: High Influence Alternative Rock: High Influence 80's Alternative: Medium Influence

How's Your Taste in Music?

Juggernaut?

Well, I'm all moved in. I like being on the first floor for once. It makes moving and odd trips to my car a snap. I am going to miss going to the basement without going through the lobby, but now I'll get to know the desk workers better. The Organizations Fair went well I'd say. We raffled off some random stuff we found at Wal-Mart including a Marvel coloring book, some Krazy Kryptonite, and Marvel POGs. I brought up my Atari 2600 for some retro gaming fun. Today we went over to Movie Gallery and I rented V for Vendetta and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows so we'll see how that goes. I'm all excited to get another year off the ground.

The Star Trek XI Teaser Poster

The Dark Knight

Well, the next Batman movie isn't called "Batman Continues" or...um "Batman Returns". It's "The Dark Knight". That's a nice nifty title. It looks like they're doing away with any "Batman Does-Something" convention of titles. I wonder what Bryan Singer's going to do... They also announced that Heath Ledger would be playing the Joker. Now that's interesting. He has the world's largest smile so I can somewhat see it, but I mainly can't. I'm looking forward to being surprised on that one.

July is not so boring

I finished with X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse a couple of weeks ago and I really liked it. The story is better in the first one but the second one moves through the game much smoother. It remembers your stats even when you start a new story so you do simply replay and re-level up over and over again. I picked up LEGO Star Wars as a party game. It's so stupid that it's fun. I want to get Gauntlet next ('bout time). That or a DDR or some sort. I've also been buying the seasons of Smallville to watch now that they're on sale because of the new movie. I miss watching a TV show nonstop in order thanks to DVD. All those times with Nip/Tuck...aah. I want to watch those again once I'm caught up.

It's weird, but I think I'm at a point when I'm done buying HeroClix. I have all or most of the pieces I want. There's just a few left and I can upgrade some of the ones I have but I find myself buying only a few at a time. It's kinda nice because Star Wars Miniatures really has no end because you can have multiple pieces of the same figure in play. You can only have one Gambit! It makes room for me to get Munchkin already. PhantaC Comics now has the resurgence of Marvel POGs. I though those would die, but never fear, the POGs are here. I'm also finished with the Ultimates and Ultimate Galactus for now until the new ones are out. Ultimate Spider-Man is also getting interesting in the new issues.

Despite all this spending, I'm really doing better in comparison to last summer. I was even shopping for MacBooks. I'm not sure if I want one or not because my laptop is fine, but Macs are cool. I just don't know if you can view the Windows partition in OS X or not. I think I would want to share my iTunes between the Windows and OS X partitions but if they can't see each other, that kinda craps on my dreams. I just want to try one out to see how it works. Oh well.

Superreview of "Superman Returns"

No midnight show for this one. People work, I guess. I saw this in Norfolk with Rachel and Jodie and I liked this movie. It's got a lot of connections with the first two, especially the first. It also retcons III and IV into nothingness which is another plus. It also includes some dialogue and homages to tie in its vague history. Basically Superman leaves in search for Krypton for 5 years and now, he's back! But does the world still need the Man of Steel?

Brandon Routh does a good job as a Christopher Reeve impersonater but is also a good actor as well. Jodie complained that there was too much of him in the movie but I reminded her that it was called "Superman Returns." Kate Bosworth does a good Lois as well. One thing I liked was the scarcity of kryptonite in the movie compared to other incarnations where there's a glowing, humming ball of the stuff everywhere. The plot was neat and Kevin Spacey was an awesome Lex Luthor. He puts to rest a lot of the quirkiness of Gene Hackman from the first two by making him bitter for what Superman did to him. So now he's pissed and bald. One thing that bothered me about Superman as a character was that he was too overpowered and his arch-nemesis was an ordinary man with a special rock. Ooh! Kevin Spacey actually provides a threat to Superman that is worthy of his attention.

After the movie, we called up Matt and Will to get their takes and I tried to get a hold of Heath who is a huge Superman fan with no avail. When we went to ACME, the owners said that they went to the Des Moines screening that Brandon Routh went to. They said he's really nice and still down to earth so there's hope that he won't become a jerk. Overall, most people liked the movie with only minor complaints. Rachel commented that there's a lot of unanswered questions that hopefully they'll field in the sequel: "Superman Stays." No, not really. I made that up.

My superreview: 9-9.5 out of 10- It's just thuper!
DVD-worthy: I will probably go midnight run to pick this up and I hope it doesn't take too long to be released. I think they're also re-releasing the originals in nice super editions along side with it. I need to see it again because that frickin' John Williams score has been playing in my head for the past few days. Just ask Rachel, she had to deal with me.

Back, Superman, back! I have kryptonite!

Last weekend I went up to Wayne to go see Rachel. I brought her up some tamales, empanadas, and Mexican pop. I also brought up my toys with the new additions of the Green Goblin, Kevin Spacey, and Superman. On Saturday we went into Norfolk. We went to Hastings where I got a couple HeroClix boosters and then to the theatre to see Superman Returns with Jodie. After that we went to Wal-Mart to waste time before the fireworks. I picked up some Krazy Kryptonite to keep Superman at bay and to keep me entertained. I also picked up Futurama Volume 2 for cheap. The fireworks were neat and once they were done it started to rain. We waited forever to get out of the parking lot and then went back to Wayne.

On Sunday we went to Sioux City and stopped at ACME, of course. We then went to Rainbow but they were closed. Chick-Fil-A was also closed. What is it with Sunday? We wandered the mall and found Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean Monopoly at Barnes & Noble. After that we went to Best Buy and I got X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse which I am currently playing. After that I went home and relaxed. All in all it was a fun time and it got me all excited to go back in August!


You'd think Superman would win, but Batman's got kryptonite!

Spider-Man 3 Teaser Trailer

OK wow! The trailer was released today and it is really nice. Like the one for Spider-Man 2 they don't give you just crappy shots just to tease, but they give you enough to want to make it be May 4th already. Check it out:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/spider-man_3/

June is so Boring

Yes, I have the Internet. Yes, I view this site on a fairly regular basis. So why are there no updates? Basically because so little happens outside of work. Let's see..

The comic book store in Fremont closed so now I have to go into Omaha to get my fix. There's a new store in Omaha that I try to give my business to called PhantaC Comics. He's basically selling his personal collection along with any new things he gets so he has a lot of HeroClix. I went to the free Bright Eyes concert where I realized I'm not young anymore. It started to pour and was relentless and everyone's excited and having fun and I'm thinking, "Is anyone else wet because I am wet?" So Daniele and I went back to Jodie's car to dry off. The concert was good, I just don't find much fun in being totally soaked.

I am planning on being up in Wayne this weekend. I have to work a lot this week to do it but it's worth it. Because Superman Returns premieres on a Tuesday night I probably won't be seeing it at midnight so I'll see if I can get to it up in Sioux City or something. I picked up X-Men Legends and have been playing that for a few weeks. It's fun but I just gotta beat this thing. I am so ready to go back up to college. I have so many ideas for this semester that I really want to get started.

Midnight Review of "X-Men: The Last Stand"

Josh and I planned on seeing this a few weeks ago and Matt and Jen were gathering a group as well. We caught up with them at Barnes & Noble and Will and I geeked out on comic stuff. We then went in and I played some of the clips on my iPod as we waited. Now, to the movie.

The movie revolves around the development of a cure for mutation that threatens mutant existence. Magneto and his followers believe it is an attack on the mutant community. We also see the return of Jean Grey as the incredibly powerful Phoenix. One thing that got to me was the explanation of the Phoenix for the movie continuity. Although I prefer their reasoning for movie audiences than the comic one, it made Professor X seem like a jerk. Others didn't like the "Serenity factor" that if you see the movie, you'll know what I'm referring to.

Personally, I liked the movie. I really enjoyed it and it was visually neat. Josh very rarely likes many movies so I don't take his interpretations very seriously. Listening to him complain on the way home I could tell he was reaching for reason to hate it. Everyone except me and one other guy felt disappointed but it was what I expected. I knew it would feel different because of the change of direction. As for the other two movies, the third one felt slightly betrayed. In a small nitpick, the first two started with a narration by Xavier followed by a CGI opening sequence. The third one has no narration and begins with chronological flashbacks before giving the credits.

On the whole, I enjoyed this movie and I would see it again. To those who didn't like it, I asked, "Which is better: X3 or Fantastic 4?" It was very hard for some to answer. I liked the movie because of the explosion of evil in this. Finally a relentless Magneto and Brotherhood! Some complained that they didn't develop the new characters because some don't really need or require an advanced backstory. Also they complained that Rogue was useless, but she was already in X2. I do like what they did with the characters because they don't have hundreds of movies to evolve characters slowly. Also, the franchise is still open and I encourage people to stay after the credits when you see this movie.

My review: 8.5 out of 10- Although others felt disappointed, I didn't give it unreal expectations.
DVD-worthy: Yes, I will probably do a midnight run to get this movie.

Your IQ Is 120

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Looks like I went up from last time.

It's Electric! 

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Ethics: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

You Passed 8th Grade Geography

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Geography?

Free Comic Book Day

Today was Free Comic Book Day. I went over to Krypton because they had Sarah Douglas, the actress who played Ursa in Superman II. I didn't get in line but she seemed really nice. There were so many nerds in costume, especially Jedi and stormtroopers. I was there for a while and then I went to Dragon's Lair in Millard. Not only were they giving out the standard free books, but they were also giving away other free ones. There was a good amount of Ultimate Spider-Man and X-Men but I am done with the series. I picked up a few good ones and then went to see what the other Dragon's Lair had. I picked up a few more and then I maxed out on comics. That's good. Now I have to read!

Finals Bi-Polar

All this week I wish I had another week. It's weird what college does to a person. It's the only time when you don't look forward to summer for some reason. Having nothing to do isn't great, it's boring. Before my World Civ test today I totally wanted another week. After the test, my hand hurt and I was so ready to go home. I have finals bi-polar or something. Oh well, I'm excited to go home and take it easy for a couple days until I start work on Monday.

My US & Canada test was good and for Urban Geography we watched Falling Down. Good movie. The World Civ test went well and I think I did good on it. I got my Con Law take home final done (finally) today and I think/hope I did well. I gave Dr. Slaymaker my paper because he wanted to use it as an example. He said I got a B in the class. That makes me happy considering how my first test went.

Well, to everyone up at Wayne, see you in 3 months!

I hate you, Kenny

So it turns out they're going to release the Star Wars films on DVD again as individual two-disc editions with both the 2004 special editions and the original unaltered theatrical editions as bonus material. Thank you so much, Lucasfilm, for having us buy a trilogy DVD pack when you plan on releasing them again and again. They'll be out only from September 12 to December 31 so it looks like I'll be buying that, again. Why? Because I'm insane. Plus, it never hurts to have more than one copy of Star Wars. Believe me, I will now have 3 after this.

The Week of Film Clips

Wow, new footage was released for 3 of the summer's hot movies:

X-Men: The Last Stand - Wolverine vs. Sentinel clip
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Trailer
Superman Returns - Full Trailer

Review of "Crash"

We had to pick a movie to watch for Urban Geography. Tough homework. We picked Crash because it was the closest thing we could think of that would show city dynamics. This movie is a very powerful film. I don't think it was a good as previous Oscar winners but it is still very well told. The cast is huge so you can't really focus on one character because everything comes full circle. The movie is basically on racism in Los Angeles. It shows different people in different situations and how they react to the situations. It illustrates the snap judgments and tensions we all experience at some point. It shows you that sometimes those feelings are justified but most of the time people call a situation totally false.

I really enjoyed this film and I recommend watching it at least once. I also not recommending watching the menu for more that 15 seconds because the looping music doesn't last very long and, on its own, it very annoying. Just ask my class and the Class Evaluator who had to listen to it for about 10 minutes. Honestly though, watch this movie, it is very eye-opening.

My rating: 9.5 out of 10
DVD-worthy: At this point, with all the hype, it's most likely expensive but I probably will own this movie.

I actually knew the answers

I am such a slacker. I really should blog more. It's not that I don't care, it's just that nothing seems to happen. Today we had no Bertolas class but if we went to the Undergraduate Research Celebration, we would get the questions for the final on Hawaii. It started at about 2:00 and I showed up at 2:30ish and there's most of my class looking bored. I sat next to Dan and he told me he had been sitting there since it started and that he had ice cream, saw the posters, and watched the movie twice waiting for Dr. Bertolas. I waited for a while and then Cara called him. He was at his office so she told him to get here because we're waiting. He tells her that the questions are already there. So everyone scatters like a scavenger hunt looking for this paper. We find it and leave. Too funny.

I had my World Lit final today rather than Friday, nice. I was so mad at myself for not knowing #10 on the last test but I redeemed myself by having notes on every question and I was able to write on everyone with detail. I also wasn't the first one done so I knew I wrote more that others in the class. I may reward myself by going to Norfolk and buying Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 13 early and getting my Wal-Mart supplies since Wayne has none of it here.

Another new MSN...in a way

I've been seeing the advertisement at the bottom of MSN for too long..."Download the new Windows Live Messenger Beta Now!" I decided to try it. I knew that there's been some talk about Windows Live and what it's about and it seems that it will be a part in replacing MSN with Windows Live. There's very little differences aesthetically. I've also confirmed my feelings on what Microsoft wants you to do with their program. Basically, in the newest release, they added the Personal Message space that is really easy to edit and change. They assume that people would do what they want...Use the main blank for a name and put the stupid quote in the Personal Message blank. But people don't get it. They still use quotes, 2 quotes, for one person. OK? Personally, I like to know who the person is in my messenger list. I don't want to have to get through the dumb quote just to find the email address, who sometimes I can't even remember from that. Now I admit I do have a quote, and they are stupid, but I want people to know that that is me right away so they know who they can avoid talking to via MSN. Well, in this new beta, they give you the opportunity to change someone's name on your end. This means that if your friend Jimmy's name is some really long, really stupid quote, you can right click on Jimmy and make the messenger call him "Jimmy" as a nickname (finally!). This has been a feature in Messenger Plus for a long time and now it's official. However, the new nickname replaces the main blank, meaning you will only see the quote in the Personal Message blank. They really want you to use a name. I like this because people can rename my name to however they know me. The Jimmy group can rename me to that, the Kevin group can change it to Kevin. That way no one would think that Kevin/Jimmy is two people sharing one MSN.

Long story short...download the new Messenger and try it out for yourself.

Too Many Comics

Today we went off to Omaha for a Comic Book Convention to see what they had. We picked up Angie in Norfolk first and we were off. We found the convention and it was neat. It was basically a large WillyCon vendors area but with a lot of crap in it. I wanted the next Ultimate Spider-Man volumes but they had none of them. There was a good amount Ultimate X-Men, though. They had Amazing Spider-Man #36 which is the 9/11 reaction black issue for $35.00. I thought that was too much and I wouldn't keep it in perfect mint condition so I declined. I did pick up Marvel Zombies which is hilarious. Everyone came out with purchases.

We then went to Dragon's Lair to see the selection. Steph toyed around with purchasing Munchkin, 1602, or Maus. She decided to wait. I picked up volumes 8 and 9 which made Book Lady giddy. We then went out eat at Biaggi's. I had to tell Daniele, the driver, 5 times to turn right onto Dodge. Frickin' A! Biaggi's was awesome, as always. We then went to Krypton to see the selection. They had a Green Goblin from the movie! It was out of packaging too so it was cheap. I'm excited. Steph picked up action figures as well and got 1602. We then went to Dave & Buster's to see the arcade. We then returned to Wayne to read the multitudes of comics.

The Da Vinci Dream

Last Friday, I had a strange dream. Not only is it strange because I actually remember it, but it was epic. I dreamed that there was a group of us in Paris. I figure it's because I read The Da Vinci Code not too long ago. We decided to go to the Louvre. It's basically me, Daniele, Steve, and Jodie for some reason. We getting our tickets to go in and we see the Inverted Pyramid. Bear in mind, I have neither been to the Louvre nor Paris in my life so my brain is in overtime. They see the pyramid and decide it would be funny to take a picture of it because of the novel. So they stand in front of something, but instead they're in front of some other display next to some Dutch people. I get them over to the correct area with the pyramid and after trying to get my battery-hogging camera to take the picture we walk off. I stop to check that no one actually stood in front of the pyramid.

We go up to the first floor and everyone scatters. So I wander for a while, find a map, and meet up with Daniele at the staircase. She's watching the other people's stuff and I wonder when they're getting back because I want to see the Mona Lisa on the second floor (I know it's there because I now have a map!). She says, "There's more!" as she stands next to the giant staircase. I say, "Of course," she starts running up the stairs. I remind her that she's watching people's stuff so she comes down and a few seconds later they how up. For some reason, I'm really apprehensive about walking across balconies, stairs, catwalks, etc. So walking up these stairs is freaking me out because I don't want to trip or drop something over the banister. We see the Mona Lisa and start walking around. Somehow the Louvre has a Lincoln section because I remember seeing a door and saying, "Oh, that's the State Library. We've already been there," recalling spring break.

I then walk upstairs to the third floor and for some reason, there's a ton of books as if the Louvre has books now. I'm looking at books and there's this statue of Leonardo Da Vinci. The statue says to me, "You want the gold?" I say, "What gold?" and he tells me to follow some guy in the distance. He instructs me to grab one of the brown books and follow him. I pick up a book with a wooden cover and strange, red and black text in it that is unreadable (You can't read in a dream anyway). I follow him back down to the lobby level, freaking out down each stair. There's a not-so-secret passageway right off the lobby that the guy disappears into. It's very dark and shadowy in there. The others find me somehow and Sam winds up in the shadows. We find the gold behind a door. It's basically a bunch of coins, chains, crowns, and other treasure classics. So Sam takes a wheelbarrow and drives all this gold out of the passageway into the lobby with us following him. He walks past the ticket clerks as they give odd looks at the sight and we get outside. Suddenly a guard starts running after us and, for the one logical moment, as Sam takes off running with the gold in tow, we all freeze and ignore him as the guard slips past us. I wake up. I said it was epic.

Holy crap! They shot him!

Well I was fairly productive over the weekend. I got a job at the bank I always work at. This time I'm a teller at the downtown branch. It's a little nice because it's full-time and from May to the end of July so I have August to prepare myself for college mode. Now let's see if I can manage to squeeze in some midnight showings this year...

On one hand, I'm really glad I have a job. On another I wish I was moving to Omaha or Lincoln to work because I would like to be on my own. It's just not cost-effective at the moment. Well, one less stress in my life.

I got a haul from the weekend. I got so much money to buy more Ultimate Spider-Man volumes. Apparently, Book Lady went up to my room before I got back wanting #5. I surprised her by not only bringing #5, but #6 as well. She may have joygasmed.

My room is much smaller now it seems. I took some stuff home. I don't miss any of it but it reminds me that all things end, well at least for 3 months. I never thought I'd be at a point where I'd rather be at school than out for summer. It's a good thing I'm going into teaching!

When I was at Wal-Mart, I saw they had Superman Returns action figures. They had every concievable Superman, but where was the pussy Lex Luthor? Who is he supposed to fight? I just found out the other day that they did make a Green Goblin from the first Spider-Man movie. I would love to find that nice and cheap. It would be neat if they released a line based on Ultimate Spider-Man.

A few days ago I was playing Star Trek: Armada and I was getting upset at getting owned too easily. I basically pulled a Brenner and chucked my mouse. It got jammed. I opened it up and cleaned the gunk out and fixed the problem. After doing that, I realized I actually improved the thing. My scrolly thing no longer clicks and scrolls much smoother. Cosmic.

Registration

I forgot to say...I got all nice and registered on Monday. Apparently I ended last semester with 91 credits so I'm technically a senior. Cool! It's a little disconcerting knowing that it took me 5 semesters to get to seniority, and it will take another 5 to attain a degree. What can you do? As a senior I had no difficulty getting into classes. I'm taking:

MWF 10:00 am - Intro to Anthropology with Ellis
MWF 11:00 am - Child Growth and Development with Dinsmore
MWF 1:00 pm - The Ancient World with Taber
MW 2:00 pm - Human Relations with Dinsmore
TR 2:00 pm - Ethics and Values with Slaymaker

My Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to rock. I won't even need an alarm. I kinda wish I could take 18 hours again but it's hard to find good classes that aren't MWF 10:00 am. On the other hand, being so busy with 18 hours makes my grades drop a little and with the presidency keeping me occupied, I could afford a break. Dinsmore is really going to get tired of me after a while. I'm also looking forward to Taber's Ancient World because I like his classes and a lot of people are going to be in it. In a way I wish I could take more Leeper or Bertolas classes but I don't need anymore. I think the Political Science classes are starting to get to smart for me anyways but I still wouldn't mind another Bertolas class. Well he won't miss me because I'll still be in Explorers Club.

Elections

Yesterday I was elected Sci-Fi Club President which is exciting. I know a lot of people wanted me to be the next president. I also have a great officer team for next year as well. I'm excited to see what will happen and I look forward to leading the club.

Today we had ACM elections and honestly, I'm glad I didn't win. This semester I have been running low on time constantly and I basically fail at being the Secretary. Also, I'm no longer in the major and I feel that the majors should be the ones taking initiative.

Tomorrow I have no class so I may sneak into Sioux City and get the next Ultimate Spider-Man volume before the Haunted House brainstorming session at 6:00pm in the gag.

A neat idea

A few minutes ago, Book Lady, Steph, and I were talking about an idea the campus could do to make a small amount of money. Charge students for storage space over the summer. It would be neat if the college would let you keep your stuff in your room, especially in Morey which isn't used over the summer, for like $50 so you wouldn't have to take it home. They probably would deny access to your items until the dorms reopen in the fall and they would have to clear it to make sure there is no pest control issues but I think it's neat but that they'd never do it. Oh well, one can dream.

A light heart carries you through all the hard times.

Yesterday Steph, Book Lady, and I went into Sioux City because I wanted to get Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 3. We spent a good while there and then we went over to Rainbow Sportcards. This was recommended by Heath and it's a neat place that's not very far from ACME as well. They have a nice selection of comics and they sell some as complete sets. They also have a ton of action figures from everything. It was very random to see everything there. It does smell like cigarette smoke but it's still a neat place. I have found out that only ACME has all volumes of Ultimate Spider-Man up here so that's all I can go to. After we came back we went to Magic Wok to eat something besides Gag food. It's been a while since I've been there. Well, I have a small amont of homework to do so I should get to it...

WillyCon VIII: Sunday

Today, I woke up to get to the con again! We were watching the last episode of Enterprise and discussing it today. We had more technical problems... The room had no DVD player. The DVD player in the atrium had no remote to select the episode. The speakers in the room with Curt's borrowed DVD player were too quiet. So we got it set up in the atrium. It went well. People would stop and see Riker and Troi and watch for a while. We then watched some movies. I got Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 2 from ACME and a double roller from Sci-Fi Kingdom. I went to Mike Marek's panel about Sci-Fi on TV and he was right about a lot but then it got into which Treks were better and it just sounded like originalists vs. new shows and I don't see a difference personally. I watched Spider-Man 2 for a while then. I went to Steph and Jodie's Firefly/Serenity panel which went very well. I hope they do it or another one similar again next year. Then the con wrapped up and now I'm blogging.

WillyCon VIII: Saturday

Yesterday I worked the registration desk most of the day to see what happens. Heath arrived and soon it was our panel. It went well despite taking 20 minutes to get technology to work. First we had no wireless receiver for the mouse and keyboard. We stole a keyboard and mouse from the lab but the mouse had no ball. We soon found one and we were ready. We showed the trailers and images and a lot of people commented. I think Heath enjoyed the discussion so that was good. I will definitely do that panel again next year either with movies or with comics alone. I hope Heath can help too because he is very good. We'll see what happens. The Star Wars panel went well. Jenn was kinda quiet and attendance was a little low. Matt, Jen, Norby, and Will basically randomly discussed things. I don't blame Jenn for being quiet. It was a very Expanded Universe heavy panel and I don't think I will do it next year unless there is a lot more information on the TV shows next year. Jenn stormed out later and Steph kinda made it worse. She felt that she was useless and that she should quit but she calmed down. There were some problems earlier and this just compounded it. After that I bought Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 from ACME. I read that during the art auction and I got in the mood to dress as Wonka. Steph and I won best Eye Candy so we each got $15. After that Steph, Greg, Shawn, and Angie played Munchkin. Greg won easily and at one point got 17 treasures. We watched some RPGs then left. I was really food-deprived so I bought some vending food. I love a Saturday Con!

WillyCon VIII: Friday

On Friday I spent most of the day at the registration desk signing up people for the Halo Tournament. We got a good amount of players and everything went well. Dan got everything set up in the lower level and I think a lot of the club was surprised and happy to see such a turnout for a WillyCon event. There were a lot of games and a lot of Capture the Flag teams. Daniele won newbie followed by Angie and Book Lady. Jason won Legendary which was cool. Jason's team of him, Demon, Hinkel, and Mole won CTF. During the large intermediate matches it got down to Mark, Brenner, a Wayne High student, and Hinkel. The match was for 50 but at first they thought it was to 25 so when they got to 25 there was a tie for 3rd but it was set up for 50. As the game went on Brenner slipped to 4th. He slammed his controller to the ground and walked off. I felt bad but there was nothing I could do. After it ended I cleaned up and went back to the dorm. I couldn't get to sleep until 5 am because my legs were freaking out. All in all, a good day.

Your Quirk Factor: 52%

You're a pretty quirky person, but you're just normal enough to hide it. Congratulations - you've fooled other people into thinking you're just like them!

How Quirky Are You?

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Explorers Club Trip

Today, the Explorers Club went to Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota. We had to meet at 8:00am and the drive was a while so I brought The Da Vinci Code I bought on spring break to read. There's a lot of homework I should read, but this is a day off. I got halfway through on the way up so that was great timing. The monument is really neat. Its nifty to see what they can turn a rock into. I picked up a pendant out of the pipestone. The quarry was very neat and a great expression of nature.

We ate a Lange's Cafe, a local joint. It was really good food. On the way back we stopped at Sioux Falls to see the Sioux Falls. Those were really neat. The city basically made it into a park and you could easily jump in if you wanted to die. There are all these rocks everywhere and it was really neat. On the way back I finished the novel. It's a very good work of fiction. I highly recommend it. I can't wait to see the movie! Also, just to give some props... If you like going on field trips you should join Explorers Club. That's all they do!

I hate restructuring!

Next year, Morey Hall will change floors. Currently 1st and basement are girls and 2nd and 3rd are guys. It will be now basement, 2nd, and 1st south will be girls and 3rd and 1st north will be guys. I thought this would be a little nice to be on the ground floor but now I'm starting to hate this. I figured the guys on my floor would like the ground floor and having more girls around so I went to ask them where they're moving to and they said they're going off campus. I'm not sure now who all is moving as well and who's staying. If that is the case, I'm in the position I was in last semester. Where should I go now? I like Morey and the girls are fun but they're not my neighbors. I'm thinking about Pile but I'm not sure I would like it there or not. I don't think I would like Neihardt also so I'm not sure. I may just move to 1st and see who else goes there but I like certainty. It bugs me because the guys wouldn't be moving at all if it wasn't for restructuring and I wouldn't be in this mess. I don't need anymore stress!

I figured it's all because Anderson is going co-ed so now they move guys from Morey to Anderson and women from Anderson to Morey.

UPDATE: It's about 12:00 AM and I still feel like crap because I'm not sure where I'm going to live next year. So basically I'm looking for pros vs. cons on Morey and Pile...

Morey:
Pro = Parking lot behind it is convienient
Pro = I'm familiar with it
Con = All (or most) of my neighbors are moving away
Con = I'm going to miss my room
Pro = 1st is closer to the ground floor
Con = I will know no one on this new floor

Pile:
Pro = I know a number of people there
Con = How many of those people are moving?
Pro = 24-hour visitation
Con = Unfamiliar
Pro = Center of campus
Con = Will I get visitors?

Your Values Profile

Loyalty: You value loyalty a fair amount. You're loyal to your friends... to a point. But if they cross you, you will reconsider your loyalties. Staying true to others is important to you, but you also stay true to yourself. Honesty: You value honesty a fair amount. You're honest when you can be, but you aren't a stickler for it. If a little white lie will make a situation more comfortable, you'll go for it. In the end, you mostly care about "situational integrity." Generosity: You value generosity a fair amount. You are all about giving, as long as there's some give and take. Supportive and kind, you don't mind helping out a friend in need. But you know when you've given too much. You have no problem saying "no"! Humility: You value humility highly. You have the self-confidence to be happy with who you are. And you don't need to seek praise to make yourself feel better. You're very modest, and you're keep the drama factor low. Tolerance: You value tolerance highly. Not only do you enjoy the company of those very different from you... You do all that you can to seek it out interesting and unique friends. You think there are many truths in life, and you're open to many of them.

The Five Factor Values Test

Saturdays go by so fast

Yesterday, Steph, Jenn, Book Lady, Daniele and I went to Sioux City. We went to ACME, of course, and I picked up a comic. We also told them about what's going on at WillyCon so they can prepare. We then went to Sci-Fi Kingdom because they're also going to be up at WillyCon. They're really neat. They have great prices on everything and they are cheaper than anywhere else. They wanted to know if we wanted to play Munchkin. They had never played so I encouraged them to try it. We played for about 3 and a half hours and Jenn won by Divine Intervention. They seemed to have a lot of fun and I was happy. Then we went to McDonalds to eat and Target. I picked up the guide to Ultimate Spider-Man so I can get some of the stuff done that I need help on. We then went to Wal-Mart where I got blue duct tape and a laundry bag because I forgot mine at home. We played with the bouncy balls for a while. On the way home we played "Name That Tune" with my iPod and then Steph and I watched finished Season 3 of Enterprise.

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause. Batman, the Dark Knight 75% James Bond, Agent 007 71% The Amazing Spider-Man 63% Indiana Jones 58% William Wallace 54% The Terminator 54% Neo, the "One" 54% Lara Croft 50% El Zorro 50% Maximus 42% Captain Jack Sparrow 38% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Random Edition

At the gag today they had Superman ice cream. It was yellow, red, and blue ice cream mixed together. It tasted wierd but it was funny.

I think Daniele might be a little addicted to Ultimate Spider-Man. She's good at the combats and even beat Electro faster than I did, but she's not good a direction and movement so the races are difficult. I'm sure she'll get the hang of it.

Book Lady wrote quotes on her cape today. Hilarious!

I was shocked to hear that Isaac Hayes left South Park because of the Scientology episode. It's a shame he can make room to allow parody of his own religion. But at the same time I could see myself in his position, not a Scientologist, but upset that my bosses made fun of something I believed. It's hard to tell when tolerance begins and ends sometimes.

You Are 60% Open Minded

You are a very open minded person, but you're also well grounded. Tolerant and flexible, you appreciate most lifestyles and viewpoints. But you also know where you stand firm, and you can draw that line. You're open to considering every possibility - but in the end, you stand true to yourself.

How Open Minded Are You?

Over with Break

Well break is over now. It did go out with a bang though. I went to Red Lobster today because it's Lobsterfest. I had the Lobster Bisque which is freakin' awesome and the Crab Alfredo. I also had $25 to Best Buy so I picked up Ultimate Spider-Man for $5. It was between that, DDR Extreme 2 (temporarily on sale for $30, I'd rather rent), X-Men Legends II (I'd rather rent), LEGO Star Wars and Episode III game (I can steal Ep3 and I'd rent the LEGO one), Fantastic Four, or a Batman Animated Series set (but then I'd have to buy the others). I finished the story missions after a LOT of cursing. The races are starting to get to me though, but it is fun to terrorize as Venom. I also found out I'm getting around $300 in tax refunds. Please don't tell me that. I know I will spend it! So basically I'm a little ready for classes and excited for the rest of the month.

Comic Store Review

I'm bored and I've got some break left so I will review the area comic book stores. These are the only ones I know of and I have been to so if I missed any, let me know because I'd love to check them out.

ACME Comics and Collectibles
Sioux City's comic book shop is basically the only place to go when I'm in Wayne. Luckily, it has a great and various selection. They have a small amount of archives but a large array of current comics on display. I like how they categorize the comics not just by publisher, but by topic. There's a Spider-Man wall, an X-Men wall, and a Star Wars wall which makes finding things easy. They have a decent supply of gaming supplies also, enough to get what you need. They are also the only place I've seen Dungeons & Dragons Clue. They obviously have a good amount of collectibles including the HeroClix Galactus and a great deal of statuary. Plus, they come to WillyCon so I support them as well. On a nerdy note, I love the double-sided tape they use on their comics. They are the only place to use it instead of simply taping the bag shut. This keeps tape off the comics and prevented the bag from warping. On a bad note, they don't allow you to "feel up" any booster boxes and just hand you one that you're supposed to buy. I don't like this and I am more apt to check boxes for the one that is most likely to have the piece I need then take one at random.

VFG Comics
Fremont's only comic book store is one that you might miss if you didn't know about it. It's a relatively new and small store so I try to hit it first to give them my business. They have a good amount of comics but don't typically subscribe to limited series. For example, they didn't have Books of Doom #4 but they did have Justice #2, both of which I was looking for. A nice convenience is the fact that they bag and board all their comics, including the new releases. Usually I try to get them bagged unless the comic is a cheap-o and when it's automatically in a bag, it helps. They are not a library so don't expect to read anything there. They have little archives but they may surprise you with what they have. They also have gaming supplies and sell a tiny amount of individual miniatures. They're small, but I would love to see them grow. They are also much closer to where I live and if I can find it there, I'd prefer to get it there.

Dragon's Lair Comics
When I first got to this Omaha store, I described it as a mini-WillyCon. Dragon's Lair has the best mix of gaming and comics in Omaha. Also, they have 2 locations, so they have enough storage space for comics that one store can't hold. The big thing I love about them is the huge amount of individual miniatures for all games. They will every once in a while get a super rare gem of a fig that tempts me. They also have a lot of boosters and buy in bulk; both stores do. The Millard store is smaller but has a decent selection and the most miniatures. The Blondo store has more comics and a large amount of miniatures, too. I also noticed the Blondo store has a ton of manga there. Unfortunately, they bag most of their stuff including their trade paperbacks so there's no reading them there. They do leave out the new releases to read though.

Krypton Comics
The big one. This Omaha store has the largest selection of comics in the area. They have so many archives that if they don't have the comic or any of its titles, it must not exist. They also have a ton of action figures. The "Star Wars Wall" as I dub it is the whole back of the store with action figures from all eras. There's also a good amount of Star Wars collectibles there as well. They also have action figures from most of the movies and TV shows that were comic related. They have a limited amount of individual miniatures, though. But their selection is well worth the drive.

Coliseum Gaming & Collectibles
Coliseum is kinda a drive being in La Vista but is an interesting place of note. They have no comics and focus on gaming. For focusing on gaming, they seem to lack in surplus to the likes of Dragon's Lair. It may be because the boosters are bought more frequently there. They also really don't sell individual miniatures. One plus is that they sell food there such as Hot Pockets and whatnot. Hungy Hungry Gamers. They have a ton of tables and usually several different games at once.

Ground Zero Comics
Now, I've only been there once because it's a drive deeper into Omaha for me, so I'm not going to destroy them. They have a good amount of comics and a large amount of games. Not so much in miniatures, but more of Munchkin and Zombies. If I had time and the urge, I would go there again, but usually the other Omaha stores will take care of what I need first.

Trade-A-Tape Comic Center
The Lincoln store was very neat. They had an amount of Comics like Dragon's Lair's Millard location and like ACME, they categorized by hero for some comics. They are basically comic-only and I didn't see any gaming. Their comic selection was good as well but honestly, there was nothing that would make me go to Lincoln rather than Omaha to purchase anything. If I was in Lincoln, that's where I would go and probably wouldn't go to Omaha and if I were to find myself in Lincoln loose again, I would go there again.

Best Comic Quality: ACME Comics and Collectibles
Most Comics: Krypton Comics
Best Gaming Quality: Dragon's Lair Comics
Most Gaming: Coliseum Gaming & Collectibles/Dragon's Lair Comics