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!