The Iranian Election

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted but this a major thing.

I have no standing to speak about this other then as an interested observer. I’m not Iranian don’t know anyone who is. I think it’s pretty obvious that the thing was rigged and it’s probably going to devolve into civil war. I hope not but that seems likely. I support those of you protesting. There are no words for you bravery and resolve.

I love that a well placed riot can change the world.

What The Hell Is Wrong With Him?

The Pope is in Africa right now, or going to Africa, it’s not clear which at the moment. There is nothing wrong with that what so ever. What is wrong were the comments he apparently made about the African AIDS epidemic.

The Pope seems to believe that condoms would not solve or improve the crisis but in fact, “it increases the problem.” WTF? I’m not an expert on Africa by any means but even I know that the AIDS/HIV problem is massive. There has been controversy in the past about how Catholic officials (I want to say Bishops but I don’t know) have discouraged condoms and actively tried to prevent their use/distribution. The article states, quite correctly in my opinion, that the Pope has put dogma before lives.

The article in question (available here) is full of facts and figures.

It also spends time talking about Ratzinger (spelling?) is believed to be out touch and isolated in light of his recent un-excommunication of a holocaust denying Bishop. He doesn’t agree with that assessment obviously. Oh well, what can the world really expect from a former member of the Hitler Youth?

Today is St. Patrick’s Day and now I have a second reason to drink – forgetting this idiot and his criminal negligence.

Travelin’ Man

On Friday, after 4 hours of sleep (thanx Watchmen), I drove back up to Northern Virginia. I’m only going to be up here until Monday. Then I’m driving to upstate New York to help my grandparents get settled into their new assisted living community. One day while I’m there, I’m gonna drive over to Boston to visit my cousin and probably do alot of drinking. That should be fun. Then I go back to NY for another day, then a day driving back to NOVA, then a day driving back to Blacksburg, then work. Fun, fun, fun.

I’m probably going to put 1500 miles on my car this week. I’ve already almost got 300 for the first leg of the excursion. I don’t know, maybe I’ll try to find something neat to check out along the way. I’f I have some cash, maybe I’ll hit a club or something.

The only good thing about driving that much alone is that I’ll be able to sing along with my MP3 player. I sound terrible.

I’ve Watched The Watchmen

I just got back from a midnight showing. It was good but not great. The ending was out of wack and lacking the impact of the original. Squid would have been better. Rorschach and Manhattan were superb but Dan was cheesy. Ozy felt creepy and more disconnected then Manhatten.

Worth watching but maybe not twice.

Busy, Busy

I’ve been meaning to write something the past couple of days but it’s been crazy busy. I’ve had 2 essays and 2 tests this week on top of all my usual crap. On of them was on The True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun. It was an interesting and entertaining novella but I just couldn’t care enough about the essay to make it all that good. The second was about explicit memory for my psych recitation. The paper was only worth 5 points and I think I did a fairly good job on it. At least a job woth 5 points.

On Tuesday I wore the armor to World Regions. It got a great reaction. People keptasking to take their pictures with me and I got called up on stage. The audience was full of camera phones and digital cameras. Who takes a digital camera to a lecture? Anyway, by the end of the lecture, the armor was killing me. The crotch on the abdominal plate was killing my pelvis, my shoulder was on fire, the helmet was driving the nose piece of my glasses into my sinuses, and the straps that keep the sleeves from moving were cutting into the skin between my thumb and index finger. I thought the lecture was only going to be 50 minutes so I was pretty happy when it was almost over but then he kept going for another 25 minutes. I wanted to put myself out of my misery.

Yesterday, I ran some errands and did some shopping. I was only going to look for a snack cause I’m going back up to NOVA tomorrow but I ended up buying a ton of junk food. Ice cream, Cadbury cream eggs (delicious), danish, these pre-mixed root beer float drinks (alright but not as good as the real thing). I also ran into Michelle, a girl from work at the store and gave her a ride home. We used to work together all the time but now she hardly works and they are all different days from me. She had actually called in sick that day which I thought was kind of disappointing but it’s par the course for her.

I was thinking about it recently and all my posts (when I do) have been me whining about stuff in my life. There is very little socially relevant stuff or news commentary. I want to try to add more of that type of material to future posts. I’ll probably just start posting whenever I find myself yelling at a news article or something.

Some Doubts

We ended up getting between 4 and 5 inches of snow last night. They cancelled my morning Civil War class and my evening film screening. That just left a 50 minute class around noon. I should have used that time to take care of the papers that I need to write this week but I didn’t. I did finish the novella that one is based on so at least that got done.

The story in question is The True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun for my Modern Chinese history course. It’s a pretty short story and the translation is full of hilariously modern terms like “shitty” and “sluts”. It’s alittle more blue then I expected.

Tomorrow is the day that I wear the armor to that class. I’m pretty nervous about it and have some doubts. I don’t doubt wearing the armor in public, I’m just afraid I’m gonna freeze my balls off. With all the snow out there, it’s gonna be cold and slippery and I’m kinda concerned. I wasn’t planning on a long troop but it may get unpleasant. I might try to wear my coat over the armor for the walk up. I would move it to Thursday except I’ve got so much stuff to do that day and the next week is Spring Break. I’ll probably just suck it up and go.

Currently listening to: Of Montreal – For Our Elegant Caste

It’s a Winter Wonderland

It’s snowing! Since last night, it’s been snowing on and off, usually pretty heavily. We’ve had more accumulation in the last 24 hours then the rest of the year combined. I love it when it’s like this. The overcast, cloudy weather with the white snow slowly falling is beautiful.

Last night after work the majority of the pizza shop crew when out to Hokie House, one of the local bars. It was fun. The last time we did this, a couple of weeks ago, I had 4 BIG Guinness’ and 2 Irish Car Bombs. I don’t remember most of that evening so I when much easier last night. I ended the night sober and happy. I didn’t have as much fun as I seemed to last time but it was a nice time out. I also really suck at pool.

Work sucked ass tonight. I wrote last time or the time before that I might be getting promoted soon but that looking pretty unlikely. Turns out, at least one of the people responsible for that doesn’t want to nominate me because I’ll only be there for one semester next year. I really just don’t fucking care anymore. Every day I go in feeling great and happy and by the end of 4 hours, I’m feeling stabby. That place is slowly consuming my soul and I hate it. All I ever do anymore is complain about that place.

Nothing Major

Nothing really important or especially exciting happened today. Class was dull as always. I bought a concert ticket for a Decemberists show in Richmond in June. I was torn between that one and a TV on the Radio concert they were having a few days later. The first one was alittle more expensive but I like the band more and the show was on a Friday night (better for driving). The latter was cheaper and on a worse night but probably would have been a better show.

Work stunk. Nothing else to add on that.

I got my VA tax refund today. I filed a couple of weeks ago and they’ve already given me my money. That’s service.

Told You All I Was Forgetful

It’s been well over a semester since I’ve last posted anything on this blog. I guess I didn’t post something one night and it just kept on snowballing. I guess I should just update on some of the big stuff that’s happened since August:

• I bought a Stormtrooper costume. I got it last October for Halloween and have worn it around campus and to class a couple of time. I generally get a pretty good reaction.  I’ve been invited to appear at classes by name and I’ve been stopped by police for wearing a helmet. That cop was a dick.
  

  I Look Badass

• I went on a couple of dates with a beautiful, thick redhead named Sara. She kinda ditched me and I never got the sex. That really bummed me out but I got over it.
• Work still sucks. I steal TONS of stuff from them on a nightly basis. Ironically, I may soon be promoted. We’ve got alot of new people and several hotties.
• I did well in my fall classes. There wasn’t anything special about them except I wrote my final 15-page term paper for my senior research seminar in 5 hours after forgetting the deadline and procrastinating. It’s since been nominated for an award
• This semester, I’m taking 18 credit hours and working 4 nights a week. That’s a crazy busy schedule. I’m gonna have keep it up if I want to graduate in the fall.
• Christmas was good. I got a first run series of the Watchmen from my sister, some history stuff, gift cards, and a ton of car stuff. I avoided family strife by spending the last two weeks of break here in Blacksburg, alone in my apartment. I didn’t speak to anyone for 2 weeks and it was the best break I’ve ever had.

There was a ton of smaller stuff that happened but those are the things I can think of right now. I wonder if I’ll post tomorrow.

Forgetful

I haven’t posted anything new in a couple of days. I don’t write anything one night and before I know it, it’s a repeating thing. That’s why I tried to write something everyday, even if it’s on paper.

Since, my last post, I’ve restarted work. It began with an all day training session which was the standard allergy/sexual harassment/teamwork speeches. It was alot of fun because I got to see and hang out with so many of the guys from last year. It really reminded me why I enjoyed working there. That feeling was quickly destroyed the next day by the first day of actual in-shop work. We got hammered by the new freshmen. They are experienced enough to know we sell pizza but not enough to know the ordering procedure. We also got slowed down by new touch-pad registers. Since they are so new, we aren’t as well-versed in using them. There is one button that will cause them to crash. That will probably get hit accidentally on a regular basis.

It’s been nice having the new place. I met my neighbor for the first time a couple of days ago (I can’t remember when) and she was pretty hot. Unfortunately, she has an odd ethnic kind of name that slipped by me immediately. I want to say it’s Diem or something like that. She’s not the only girl I’ve seen around campus. The number of hot freshmen girls is crazy. I don’t know what the hell happened. It’s like the campus has turned into abercombie & fitch/southern California beach. So many hot girls walking around in skimpy clothing. It has been the main subject of conversation among the guys at work. I can’t wait for the first day of classes tomorrow to see what I’m going to end up looking at this semester.

I only have one class tomorrow and it’s one of the two that I need to force-add. It is Hist 3524 – European Military History to 1789. It sounds like a real grabber of a subject. A semester of the Crusades! Yay! I’m only really interested in the class because I’ve had the professor before and it meets a graduation requirement. I’ll probably enjoy it though. I just wish I had a 1000 level class so I can associate with some of the freshmen. I say that but I’m still the same introverted wreck I’ve always been. Hopefully, soon I will work up the stones to visit the counselling center and maybe make some progress.

For now, I’m looking forward to a day of classes and serving pizza.