All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go

     This is actually a response that I had to another blog and its subsequent discussion.  It was going to just be a comment, but as usual, it became something that would be better off left as its own entry with a reference to the original work.  Make sure you read it first (it’s not that long) and also the blog it references (also not very long.  Seriously, what is my problem?) so that what follows makes sense.

     Ugh.  I am so not reading what I think I am reading.  No, I agree that fiction is not inherently “wrong” or “evil”.  However, the problem with fiction is just that.  It’s fiction.  It’s a complete other world, universe, belief system, etc. that does not exist but in the minds of the participants.  If taken too far, this becomes a means of escapism for people, a way to leave and ignore the world as it is in favor of this more pleasing alternative.

Read the rest of this entry »

     I just finished watching “The Village” and is my mind blown.  It’s something I couldn’t start to process until a few minutes after the movie was over.

     The first thing I want to say is that I am deeply impressed by how well the loose ends were tied up.  One of my pet peeves in movies would be when there are gaping plot-holes or inconsistencies with the story or just bad physics.  I know that these are for entertainment purposes, but I think it is better to sacrifice a really intense moment, line, or idea to keep something at least reasonably believable.  But this is me and I seem to annoy most everyone when I mention some of these things.  In all fairness, I can be overly nit-picky and can work on that.

Read the rest of this entry »

     So you know, the IAU decided today to boot Pluto from its standing as a planet.  It is now a dwarf planet, something entirely different.  Thus, the planets are now just Mercury through Uranus.  Pluto, Ceres, and 2003 UB313 are the first dwarf planets in this new categorization.  I am very pleased for an outcome that not only gave us a concrete definition of a planet, but also ejected Pluto from its status as a planet.  In short, I think the IAU General Assembly was a success.

     Just a quick note to let the world know my roommates have arrived.  I no longer have the house to myself, but the new guys seem pretty cool.  They’re a little crazy, but then again, most people are compared to me (this is not to say that I’m “normal”, mind you).

     I’m actually looking forward to the year as I think I’ll get along with them well.  They’re quite friendly, if a little loud as is sometimes common with college males (hence my comment about my normalcy).  A couple of them drink O’Douls, which is a non-alcoholic beer.  That made me do a double-take when I first saw that in the fridge!  I thought the only reason people drank malted barley/hopps was because of the alcohol.  Blech!  Anyway, they’ve opened up to me surprisingly and I’m hoping we’ll have fun.  They brough in a big 29in TV, so video games are almost certainly back in the picture.  Just what I needed…

     On a side note, I’m coming along on my little project.  I’ve decided on a range of temperature devices, all coming from Dallas Semiconductor and I’m learning about wireless emitters.  It looks like I’m going to have to learn assembly.  REAL assembly, not this LC-3 stuff I learned in my EcEn-124 class (though they are similar).  Oh joy…

     Last night while I was trying to fall asleep again, I fell asleep from 6:30pm to 9:30pm and then tried to go back to sleep around 11pm (I was dead tired yesterday), I had an idea for an invention.  I need a few components and I am not certain where to find them, so I thought I might ask for any suggestions for places and/or request my readers keep an eye open and let me know should they come across any of the things on my list.

Read the rest of this entry »

     Before I get started, I want to point out that the entry before this one was posted just last night.  I’d hate for any of you to miss any of my wonderful writing when coming here to get the latest.

     My very excited mother just served us nine pizzas.  Or is it pizzas nine?  This mnemonic has served countless children in their quest to cram more knowledge into their already overflowing minds.  Here, it serves to remind them of the names of the planets and their order by using the first letter of each ordered planet as the start of a word in a sentence.  Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. 

Read the rest of this entry »

     I cleaned carpet today!  For the first time!  I rented a carpet cleaner from Macey’s to perform this much needed task earlier this afternoon.  In case you didn’t have the misfortune to see/experience the carpet in my (old) room, it was nasty unto a great nastiness.  This was largely due to me having not vacuumed (that looks spelled wrong) in aeons.  I am usually a fairly clean person, but I kept finding a million reasons why I should put it off.  For a while, it was because I had my cats, they were going to be evicted, so I might as well wait until they’re gone.  Then it was because I was going to be switching rooms so I might as well wait until I move out and get everything off the floor so I can get everywhere.  Then it was because I was halfway moved and I was too busy to finish moving so I could now vacuum (and clean the carpet).  Wah wah wah wah wah.

     So today, after getting off work a few hours early, I decided to stop my excuses and rented the carpet cleaner.  It’s a nifty little contraption, but of course useless without the cleaning supplies you have to buy with it.  The fee for renting the machine is very reasonably, but it is easily doubled when you add in the carpet shampoo and such.

Read the rest of this entry »

     I admit it, my sense of humor is very random.  I often find things funny just for the sheer absurdity of them.  For example, I was walking into the Creamery on 9th a couple days ago and sitting on the flower bed was: a single shoe.  That’s it!  There was no mate anywhere in sight.  It would seem that someone managed to somehow lose a single shoe and then someone else fount it and put it in a prominent position on the elevated flower beds out front so it would be noticed.  So completely unexpected and out of place was it that I actually burst out laughing right there.  I did feel a little silly about laughing over a shoe, but it’s these simply odd and bizarre moments of life that I love and find humor in.  I truly believe there is humor everywhere if you are only willing to look for it.

     So with my love of these inanities, it shouldn’t be hard to see why I love humorists like Dave Barry.  They take what would ordinarily be a very dull and ordinary event and show a zany side to it.  Either they analyze it in ways that are completely absurd or they point out the already ridiculous assumptions we all make that allow us to take what is really an outrageous situation and accept it like it were nothing.  They have a gift in forcing us to make new, albeit absurd, associations with common, everyday events.  They teach us how to look at life from a different perspective.

Read the rest of this entry »

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is likely to be edited for length within the next day or two) 

mythbust
v. mythbusted, mythbusting, mythbusts
v. intr.

1. The act of debunking myths and false rumors that get passed around as truth or as common knowledge.

     OK, I have a question that I would like you all to answer, in all seriousness. It sounds a bit arrogant and pretentious of me, but I honestly believe(d) that everyone has(had) this capability. Can you tell when someone is telling you something that’s not true? This incorporates when someone is outright lying, but I also mean when someone is telling you something that is not true even though they may believe it is true themselves. Like an urban legend or one of the many incorrect “common-knowledges”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry, but the comic was too large for my setup so I’ll just provide a link to it. So you know, it’s a Dilbert comic.

Also, my cousin in Roy, UT sent me this mass e-mail. Usually I despise them, but this one was actually funny. However, rather than spam you all with it, I’ll just post it here on my blog:

Read the rest of this entry »