wildyams

Well I tried fucking with my PC some more, and now its basically dead (I couldn't get into it at all though, so I didn't screw it up worse today). I can't boot to Windows from the hard drive, I can't boot there from the CD Rom, and I can't boot there from the floppy. I would just run FDisk on it and start with a fresh install, except I actually have something on there that I want: all of my phone numbers and addresses for everyone are on that computer (I'm a fucking idiot for that, I know). Looks like I'm gonna probably be taking my computer to Dave's at some point here, and I'm thinking I may end up having to just pop the HD out and copy my numbers and addresses out if I can. If I can't then I'm really gonna be fucked. I don't have any of that shit written down anywhere :(

I saw "8 Mile" last night for the first time, and wanted to give a review on it. First off, I watched it for free so that idiot Eminem didn't get a dime from me, and second this was before my whole fiasco with my PC lol. I tried to go into watching the movie without my huge anti-bias for Eminem or Brittany Murphy (who I dislike quite a bit as well, she just rubs me the wrong way). I think that when the movie started, I still had a lot of that bias against Eminem, but I honestly don't think it affected what I thought of the movie. I like the director, Curtis Hanson, so I had that going for me, and that is the only reason I wanted to see the movie really, cause I could honestly care less if Eminem did turn out to be an incredible actor or something. He could be an incredible rapper for all I know, I don't listen to his stuff cause I hate his schtick, his persona that he puts out there, like he's this bad boy and "edgy" or whatever, when really he's a corporate suck-ass just like every other pop-star (I don't like Blink 182 or idiots like that for the same reason). Ok, now enough of my intellectual baggage that I carried into the movie, here's the review:

The movie was not bad. It wasn't great, but it was not horrible dreck either. Its a story about a white kid from a poor trailer park in Detroit who works in a factory that makes auto parts or something, and who is a member of a group that is trying to get any kind of recognition or a contract as a rapping group. While the rest of his group (and really anyone who knows him very well) seems to acknowledge that he is the most talented rapper in the group, Rabbit (Eminem's character) has a big fear of rejection, and feels additional pressure for being white in what is predominantantly a black world (the hip hop underground of Detroit). The movie begins with a big failure on Rabbit's part, and follows him through the next week as things happen that make him go back and succeed in the end where he had previously failed. The acting is pretty decent (except for the guy who played Cheddar Bob, yikes), and the story wasn't too bad. The directing was good, as I would have expected, and the film had a nice look to it. People say that Eminem was essentially playing himself, so that couldn't have been much of a stretch, but I will give him credit and say that his character in the film seems to be quite unlike the act he puts on for the public in real life: Rabbit had a very small ego, was a rather shy and humble person, while Eminem of course is a loudmouth, braggart, blowhard asshole who is all about hyping himself up. The film was enjoyable, but it was certainly not the kind of movie that was going to win any Oscars.

Now for my main complaint: was I the only one who noticed that this movie was basically a rip-off of "Flashdance"? "Coyote Ugly" was also a rip-off of "Flashdance", although it wasn't nearly as good as "8 Mile" was. "Flashdance", for those who've never seen it, is about a girl who has natural talent as a dancer, and who loves to dance, but who works by day in a steel mill as a welder to make ends meet. She wants to try out for this famous dance troupe, but when she shows up to apply, she leaves without filling out an application or auditioning because she is too afraid to be rejected. Her fear comes from knowing that if she is rejected, she only has her life as a welder to look forward to, and that is a grim thought for her. She gets involved with the boss at work who is a great guy and who pushes her to get an audition, but when he goes and gets her the audition without telling her, she gets angry at him and severs her ties with him. But then she sees the light, goes to the audition and it goes great, so she goes back to the guy and its a happy ending. "8 Mile" mirrors this almost exactly. We have a kid with a natural talent for rapping, and who loves to do it, but who makes ends meet working in an auto plant. He goes to battle and prove his rapping prowess, but he chickens out at the last minute because he is afraid of being laughed at and rejected. And his rejection comes from knowing that if he's not good enough, then he has a life of working extra shifts in an auto plant and living with his mother and sister in a trailer park to look forward to. But luckily he has a friend who pushes him to return and to battle again to show everyone how good he is. But when the friend signs him up to battle without telling him, Rabbit severs ties with the friend. But then he sees the light and goes to the battle and succeeds and becomes friends with the guy again and its a happy ending.

So "8 Mile" wasn't bad, but it was a rip-off of "Flashdance", and really if you're going to rip-off a movie, aren't there better movies to rip-off? Hopefully we'll soon be seeing Eminem in movies like "Cradle 2 The Grave" or whatever and teamed up with Jackie Chan so that we'll know his career is on the way out, and then we can be rid of him. But he sidestepped that kind of crap by making this movie, although I wonder how many more "8 Mile"s there are out there for him.

"Sometimes these setbacks are just what we need to take a big leap forward, right Kent?" - Chris Knight (who is as brilliant now as he ever was)

So my PC totally became FUBAR on me the other day, as I've documented here. I was worried I'd lose all my addresses and whatnot, so I took my PC to Dave's house. Dave told me I could take the hard drive out, load it on a Mac and copy what I needed, so we did that, then just nuked the drive and installed Windows 2000 on it. We had some problems though, and we discovered that the issue was that I had a 256 meg RAM chip which was bad, so I took it out (and Dave gave me a 128 chip to go with my 128 chip, cause Dave said he didn't need it, thanks Dave!), and then Windows 2000 loaded fine on my PC. It must be that the RAM chip is why I couldn't load XP on my PC, so today I tried to install XP over the 2000 install, and presto it worked great! So now I've got XP on my PC, Jaguar on my Mac, and two monitors hoooked up to each computer, so I got everything I wanted, and I didn't have to upgrade either computer to do it! I did get a CD burner and a bigger hard drive for my Mac, but that's just to store all my music. Anyway, I couldn't be happier right now with my computers :-)

Ok, so that's the great part. The not-so-great part is that I'm sick. Evidently I caught what was going around at work, and it had me in bed all day (I got up at about 6:30 but haven't ventured further than my living room and I'm all bundled up). I guess the only good thing about being sick now is that I don't have anything going on at work tomorrow, so if I don't feel any better in the morning, I will actually be able to use a sick day while sick instead of having to go in while being sick cause I have two much to do to skip a day. Anyway, all things being equal, I would prefer that I'm healthy and do get to go in. I hate being sick. I had to cancel hanging out with my sister today because she could tell from talking to me that I wasn't probably well enough to go out. Well I'll be back in bed shortly I'm sure, and hopefully I'll be able to sleep well tonight.

There are garbage trucks outside right now picking up trash and making a lot of noise.

Just FYI, I haven't gone to work at all this week cause I've been sick. As a result, I haven't done anything at all, so I haven't been blogging. I haven't left my house at all since Saturday when I went to Dave's house.
Anyway, just thought I'd blog an entry to let people know that in addition to the Lakers winning tonight, Kobe Bryant set another NBA record by being the first player to score 10,000 points before turning 25 (which of course makes him the youngest to ever do it). Not only that, but tonight's game was really a fantastic win, with the Lakers getting the victory on a last second shot by Big Game Rob Horry that was very reminiscent of Game 4 in last year's Western Conference Finals against the Sucktown Queens.

I'm coughing myself to death over here! I couldn't sleep AGAIN last night because I was coughing so much, and today I've been taking cough drops all day and I'm still coughing. I went in to work today anyway though, although I would really have preferred to have just been healthy, but oh well. Work was pretty hectic, catching up on everything, but I managed. Anyway, I'm gonna go hack up something.

Just a quick weekend recap for you. Its quick cause there isn't much to say. Friday I was supposed to go to Dave's house for a party, but he had to call off the party, and I wasn't that disappointed because I was feeling pretty sick on Friday and just wanted to come home and go to bed, and that's basically what I did. I slept most of Saturday, got up for a bit and just watched some TV and played online a bit, then went back to bed. I slept most of today as well, then got up this afternoon and went and met Rebecca (my sister) and we had dinner then went for a drive and had a good talk. And that was my whole weekend. I just wanted to try to get over this damn cold (which is still nagging me a bit, but I'm definitely beginning to get over it). So anyway there you go, not too exciting huh? lol

From Kablarians.com:

"The name of Will creates a very passive, easy-going, friendly nature. You love people and desire to get along with everyone you meet. Your desire for sociability and the pleasant things in life makes you too easily influenced through your associations. You have imagination and many ideas but you lack the drive or initiative to put these into effect. It is difficult for you to say "no" and mean it or to carry through with any commitments you have made. This name makes you too lackadaisical. The influence of this name is to lack practicality, system and order, organizing ability, astuteness, and the ability to make decisions and act upon them. Due to procrastination you have many unfulfilled desires. You often lean upon the strength of those around you for guidance. You appreciate the finer things in life such as good clothes, pleasant surroundings, and friendly companions. You find it difficult to tolerate circumstances that are not up to your particular standards. The physical weakness created by this name affects the fluid functions of the body.

While the first name of Will has some constructive qualities, it has characteristics that undermine your long-term happiness and success in life. "

I think that all that stuff about procrastinating and most of what it said was correct. However, I don't really think I'm a guy that appreciates things like good clothes (I do like pleasant surroundings though), and I'm definitely not someone that loves people as a general rule, although I would definitely prefer to get along with everyone I meet than make enemies with them (who wouldn't?) Check your own name, its kinda fun :-)

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my good friend Jon (aka The Bomb), whom I've known since I was 18 and still a Freshman (or 'First-Year' as we at my politically correct college called it) in college. Many more, Jon, here's to you :-)

Ok, I got sick last Sunday (the second) and I'm still sick! Granted I'm not deathly sick, but I've still definitely got some symptoms, and I'm still taking medication. Add to this, the Lakers have now lost two games in the last two nights, and both were embarrassing (one to the lowly, lowly Bulls, and tonight to the Pistons by 23 points).

Work hasn't been too horrible lately, but there has been enough between my projects and other stuff to keep me busy pretty much all the time. On top of that, everyone at work seems to be getting sick (no, I was not the first one to get it, so don't blame me), so that means fewer people to do all the work. But like I said, its not too bad... yet.

Anyway, I'm beat, and I took some NyQuil a couple hours back and its kicking in, so I'm off to bed. Laettner :-)

I'm up early cause I gotta go into work early today, so its a good thing I was in bed early last night. Makes this getting up early stuff a lot easier. Anyway, it didn't take long, apparently, for someone to decide that RFID chips being put in products didn't have to only be used in the stores to track inventory. Now Benetton clothes manufacturer has decided they will sew the computer chips (that are about the size of a grain of sand) into all their clothes and have the chips monitor the clothes throughout their lifetime (in other words, after consumers buy them, take them home and wear them around). Benetton claims this will cut costs by making it easier to take inventory and prevent theft, but obviously its a huge invasion of privacy. Really, who wants to be tracked because of some microchip that's embedded in their clothes? Sounds like Will Smith's predicament in "Enemy of the State" for crying out loud!

I found this article on Fark, and thought it was so funny I was literally crying:

AUBURN, Mass. (AP) An Auburn man's phone bill has followed him to his grave. A local cemetery received a phone bill last week for David Towles at his correct address Hillside Cemetery, Evergreen Section, Auburn, Mass. 01501. Towles was buried there in December 1997, after dying at age 60. Cemetery Superintendent Wayne Bloomquist says he was surprised to see the Sprint bill for 12 cents, including 10 cents for a call placed on Feb. 16, five years after Towles died. ''Our clients here don't usually get mail,'' he told the Auburn News. ''I wondered if maybe we should start putting mailboxes on the monuments.'' A call to Sprint's automated service on March 6 showed that charges on the unpaid account had inflated Towles' bill to $3.95. Later, a live Sprint customer service agent said: ''That does not match the information we have. We have that account number listed as a canceled account.'' She could not explain how the bill had come to be addressed to the correct section of the cemetery plot. The bill was turned over to interim Town Clerk Ellen Gaboury, who said she would hold on to it for a while. ''I'll have to,'' she said. ''Mr. Towles' credit could be affected if it remains unpaid.''

I'm beat from being out late last night for Jon's belated birthday celebration (pics will surely be forthcoming at some point here), so I'm gonna be heading off to bed soon, but I wanted to post a link to a fucking hilarious website that my co-worker Josh sent me (and others) at work today. At first glance that may look like many other pages out there, stuff like PsychoExGirlfriend.com, or whatever, but its much funnier. The site is essentially a list of things that this British guy, Mil, argues about with his German girlfriend, Margaret. But it is so hilariously written that trust me, it is definitely worth checking out. Its extremely lengthy, I have only gotten maybe halfway through it, but trust me, its pretty much all worth reading. Here's a an excerpt for you since it will make this entry look more like I typed a lot when in fact I just copied and pasted:

"When Margret used to go shopping and she'd see, for example, a pair of jeans in a department store, do you know what she used to do? Try them on. I think you're all with me here, but just for anyone who's joined us late, I don't mean she'd go to the changing rooms and try them on. That would be a preposterous idea wouldn't it? No, she'd just get undressed there in the middle of the sales floor to try them on. It took me some considerable time to persuade her that this wasn't normal behaviour in Britain, despite what she might have seen on Benny Hill. Even then, she only stopped - amid much eye-rolling and, 'You and your silly social conventions,' head shaking - to humour me. It rubs a tiny circle from the misted-up window through which you can view the tormented, horizonless landscape that is My World to mention that I'd entirely forgotten about all this until someone sent me a email yesterday that accidentally exhumed the memory. With Margret this kind of thing just gets drowned out by the general noise. I wouldn't be surprised if, a few months from now, I'm here writing, 'Ahhh - that reminds me of Margret's role in the John Lennon shooting...'"

ìWhen the chosen people grew too strong, the rightful cause at length became the wrong.î - John Dryden

TENN. SENATE ACTS AGAINST PORN IN CARS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Porn and driving don't mix - at least not in Tennessee.

The state Senate has voted unanimously to ban X-rated videos from cars and other vehicles if the television screens can be seen from the street.

Senator Mark Norris filed the legislation after getting a complaint from a constituent. The man said his daughters could see a sex tape being played in a van stopped at a red light. Many vehicles now have the option of being equipped with video players.

But the measure wouldn't outlaw all mobile red light districts. Porn fans could still watch sex tapes if their car windows are tinted or covered by shades.

This is a story about four people: EVERYBODY, SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, and NOBODY. There was an important job to be done and EVERYBODY was sure that SOMEBODY would do it. ANYBODY could have done it, but NOBODY did it. SOMEBODY got angry about that, because it was EVERYBODY's job. EVERYBODY thought ANYBODY could do it, but NOBODY realized that EVERYBODY wouldn't do it. It ended up that EVERYBODY blamed SOMEBODY when NOBODY did what ANYBODY could have done. .... Of all the choices for President, who is perfect? ....NOBODY.... Who lowered the taxes? ....NOBODY.... Who lowered the gas prices? ....NOBODY.... Who brought peace to our times? ....NOBODY.... Who balanced the budget? ....NOBODY.... Who lives forever and works for nothing? ....NOBODY.... Who stopped censorship on the net? ....NOBODY.... Who loves you when you're down and out? ....NOBODY.... Who bakes apple pie better than Mom? ....NOBODY.... and NOBODY will continue to do these things until SOMEBODY takes the responsibility to get the job done!

Since the Lakers and Queens are playing on Thursday, I thought it appropriate to throw a little shit talking up here, so check it out:

Did you know if you go to Google and type in "turkeyglue" it asks "Did you mean 'turkoglu'?" lol Now I think that shit is funny (Turkoglu, by the way, is the last name of one of the players for the Suckramento Queens, and his name is frequently mis-pronounced "turkey glue" when people wanna make fun of him). See for yourself.

The Lakers lost last night to the Queens from Suck-town, but its a game they should have (and could have) won. They started off slow, got down by 15 points, and then basically dominated the game from that point up until the last 4 minutes or so, when they basically stopped playing for some reason. Phil Jackson after the game said the Lakers have no reason to be afraid of the Queens, and said their bench was a bunch of whiners lol. Personally, I'm hoping LA gets to play the Queens in the First Round of the playoffs. That way the Queens can be eliminated early for maximum humiliation.

Tonight after work I'm going to the Laker game against the Celtics with my Dad, who was generous enough to get some tickets a while back. My Dad grew up on the East coast as a Celtics fan, so he'll be rooting against my beloved Lakers, but I am confident that the Lakers will pull out the win.

Not much else going on, just been watching the war along with everyone else, I suppose. Maybe this weekend I'll write up some thoughts about it, I don't know. I've been talking about it a lot with people here at work, as I'm sure everyone has. I don't want to get into it all now though. Its Friday, I'd rather focus on happier things :-)

According to this article in PC Magazine, Apple may be switching to Intel chips in the next year or so. Check it out:

"The story starts with January's Intel sales conference. The surprise keynote speaker was Steve Jobs. And then, in the front row of Steve Jobs's keynote address at the last Macworld Expo were top Intel executives. Shortly thereafter, Pixar announced that it would become an Intel shop."

A couple disappointing realizations today concerning The Oscars. First I learned that Michael Moore's film "Bowling for Columbine" is evidently a bunch of lies and distortions of the truth. I guess maybe Michael Moore's statement "we live in fictitious times," could also be applied to his film last year.

Anyway, then I did some of my own research and found out something rather interesting and, I think disturbing about the Oscars: the double standard by which actors and actresses are judged. This has been painfully obvious for a long time, of course, so don't think I just now realized that there's a double standard for men and women in movies (like everything else I'm sure). But I've been watching the Oscars for the last couple years just appalled at some of the winners in the Actress categories. Gwyneth Paltrow winning an Oscar was bad enough, but when Julia Roberts beat out Ellen Burstyn a couple years ago, it couldn't have been more obvious that the Oscars are no longer about giving the award to the best performance by an Actress, or even to the most talented actress. No, instead they're about giving the award to the most marketable actress. The actor categories may have their problems too, but as far as I can tell its not like that for the men. And it seems like its getting worse, too, as you could tell by this year's list of women nominated for Best Actress, with all the nominees being these young, attractive women who haven't really had many of what I would consider very impressive performances in their careers (maybe a few here and there, but overall not really). Anyway, I decided to compare the ages of all the winners of Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress over the last decade or so (I started with 1991 actually), and look what I found:

The average age of the winners of Best Actress since 1991 is 34.4 years old.
The average age of the winners of Best Supporting Actress since 1991 is 35.4 years old.
The average age of the winners of Best Actor since 1991 is 42.9 years old.
The average age of the winners of Best Supporting Actor since 1991 is 52.1 years old.

The combined average age of all the winners of the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards since 1991 is 34.9 years old.
The combined average age of all the winners of the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor awards since 1991 is 47.5 years old.

Think about those last two numbers. That's 48 award winners total (24 men and 24 women), and there's almost a 13 year age difference between the sexes. I thought that was pretty telling myself.

But maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Alfred Hitchcock never got a Best Director Oscar. "Citizen Kane" didn't win Best Picture. The Oscars have made blunders in the past and have always been at the very least suspicious of selling tickets and not awarding those who are deserving. Whatever though, there's probably better things to worry about I'm sure.

I just got off the phone with my good friend Steve-o, who was calling me from a chairlift on his way up the mountain to ski (the bastard lol). Last night I went to dinner with The Jigglers and had a good time there. Last Saturday I went out with my friend Chris, and we went to dinner and saw "Dreamcatcher", which was just ok, nothing special, but before it they played one episode of "The Animatrix", which I hadn't heard too much about, and which I didn't even know was going to be shown with it. I thought it was really cool though, the style of the animation was like what you saw in the movie "Final Fantasy", that very realistic computer animation, and the external shots of the ship The Osiris in it, and the planet and whatnot, all looked about as real as those shots did in the movie "The Matrix". So last night when I was at Dave's house and he asked if I'd seen "The Animatrix" I told him about seeing "Flight of the Osiris" before "Dreamcatcher". He got all jealous that I'd seen it, but told me that there were two other episodes online, and that one of them was really cool. So he showed me "The Second Rennaissance Pt. 1" and I thought it was fucking awesome. The second episode they had online was weak, so don't waste your time, but I can't wait for "The Second Rennaissance Pt. 2" which comes out in May, and I saw that all 9 episodes are going to be released on DVD in June, and I'm pretty sure I'll end up getting that. All in all its making me anxious to see "The Matrix Reloaded" when that comes out. Ok, enough of that, back to work :-)

I read this blog entry from a Detroit-area teacher who noticed one of her students (a Middle Eastern one) has suddenly vanished from class without a trace, and apparently he's not the only one. I'll post a little bit of the entry, but really, go read the whole thing if the following bit affects you like it did me, cause trust me, I am more than a little worried when I read stuff like this:

"There were other countries in history where people of certain ethnic groups disappeared without a trace, without protest from those who were once their neighbors.

When more than 70% of Americans feel that only people of certain races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds ought to be allowed access to higher education..."

I'm not anti-war, and I'm not pro-war, cause I don't think its as cut and dry an issue as just being on one side or the other. I support our troops and don't want them to die, but I'm not in favor of anyone killing anyone really (as a human being, how can you be?), although there are things worth fighting for, just as there are things worth dying for and things worth killing for. I think there are good things and bad things about what our government is doing. I think its silly to blindly agree with everything our government does, just like I think its silly to blindly disagree with everything our government does. Its not a black and white issue, its a gray area, as are most things. But I will say this: people should be allowed to voice their opinions and feel secure about believing whatever they want to believe. You shouldn't have to worry that you'll be called a Nazi if you support the war, or a traitor if you don't, and to be honest I seem to see one of those reactions whenever anyone takes a stance on one side or the other. We need to be accepting of each other and of other ideas and opinions, cause if not, what is the point? What are we supposedly fighting for?

Its halftime and the Lakers are up, and man, they should be. Check out Kobe Bryant's first half:

42 points (an all time Laker record for points in a half)
8 for 11 from 3-point range (the all time NBA record for most three pointers in a game is 12, set by Kobe earlier this year)
He had 33 points in one 7 minute stretch in the first half
At one point the score was Kobe 40, the Wizards (their whole team, including Michael Jordan who himself seems on his way to 30+) 41.
Kobe is 14-19 from the field in 24 minutes of play.

Now I don't know about you, but those are some SICK numbers! Kobe's career high in points is 56 (which he scored in only 36 minutes, by the way), and he scored 51 and 52 earlier this year. Here's guessing he gets his career high (only 11 points away), and that he gets 60 tonight. If you're a basketball fan, get to a TV cause this performance is insane!

Well, somewhat hindered by the fact that the Lakers were blowing out the Wizards, Kobe only got 13 second half points on like 1-10 shooting and came up one point shy of his career high. But most importantly the Lakers got the win :-)

I'm not looking forward to going in to work tomorrow. I wish the weekend was longer. I think that not having taken a vacation since 2001 is maybe starting to get to me or something. Anyway, the Lakers got creamed tonight, so the rollercoaster season continues. I think I may go watch a movie or something.

This is easily one of the most bizarre news stories I've ever read. Its so bizarre it makes me think it must be a prank (not just what is being reported, but the story itself). I guess April Fool's Day is on Tuesday after all. Read the story though, its hilarious if nothing else: 'TIME-TRAVELER' BUSTED FOR INSIDER TRADING

Just this entry then I'm off to bed. Has anyone else heard of the Yellowstone Supervolcano? Evidently its a somewhat recent finding (the last couple years or so), that periodically in the earth's history there are these things called "supervolcanoes" which erupt. The difference between a regular volcano and a supervolcano is that a normal volcano is a buildup of magma (molten rock) which rises in a column and as a result creates a large mountain until it erupts and leaves a large crater at the top of it. Then it goes through the process of depositing more magma in the crater until it erupts again, and they're all on a schedule (Mt. St. Helens, for example, I seem to recall supposedly erupts every 200 years or so). A supervolcano, on the other hand, instead begins developing a large reservoir of magma beneath the surface of the earth, into a large pool, and as a result does not create a large mountain (which is why the discoveries of supervolcanoes is a recent one). The large reservoir covers a much wider area than a column of magma does, so as a result when one of these erupts they erupt with much greater force, and with much greater destructive results than a normal volcano would. The result of a supervolcano (which usually produces a crater, or caldera, of about the size of Rhode Island, apparently) erupting is that it emits enough ash and debris into the atmosphere as to actually block out the sun, maybe even for years at a time. Supposedly some 74,000 years ago one of these blew and very nearly caused the extinction of man as a result of the "nuclear winter" effect of the debris cloud, limiting the world's population to a few thousand people or so. Ok, so anyway, here is the really worrisome part: Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming contains one of these active supervolcanoes, as recent infrared images from space or something showed. This particular supervolcano supposedly goes off every 600,000 years or so (with a force approximately 2,500 times what Mt. St. Helens was), and by all accounts its been about 640,000 years since it last erupted, making it overdue by 40,00 years. Scientists have predicted that it will erupt sometime in the next 100,000 years, so that makes it worrisome on about the level of the earth being hit by a meteor or something. But consider these ominous signs: in the last century the ground in some areas of Yellowstone have risen over 70 centimeters, in 1975 there was a 6.1 earthquake there, and in 1959 there was a 7.5 earthquake there. A little worrisome anyway, something to file away in the back of your mind. I'll leave you with this quote from Bill McGuire, professor of geohazards at University College London: "There's nowhere to hide from the effects of a supervolcano. When one goes off it will be like a nuclear winter without the radiation."

Wanna know how I feel about the war? Well, I'm of two minds about it. On one hand I feel like this, but on the other hand I feel like this. Now, if you happen to read both of those (which I doubt anyone will cause even though they're very interesting, both are rather long), then you might ask, "how can you feel both of those things since they are almost exact opposites?" My answer would be that I can feel both ways because I think both are completely valid viewpoints, even if they are quite different. As I said, the question about the war is not an easy one to answer, and a lot of it has to do with how much faith you have in our government and its intentions. I will say that I am, and traditionally have been, very skeptical (truly cynical and almost without hope, really) about our government's intentions for years and years, regardless of who was president. Maybe its a simplistic view, but I generally think that its all about the money when it comes to our government, and I think all our major politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, are just on the take, whores for big business. But its tough for me, because I think this country was founded on some great principles by people who had great things in mind, and that this country has a truly great history and tradition of fighting for freedom, and I am truly humbled by and thankful for those soldiers who throughout America's history have fought and died to give us all the freedoms we have. Trust me, nobody wants more than I to believe our government is acting in the right, and that the scope of history will look back on what we're doing and show that we were doing the right thing. But as I've said, personally I think our government has not acted that way in a long time, maybe for the whole time I've been alive, so it is tough to have that faith. So because of this, I flip-flop in my beliefs and feelings about what is going on, and I'm sure I'll probably remain ambivalent until more is really known about what our government's intentions are. After all, I don't want to rush headlong all gung-ho into believing something without knowing for sure what's true and what is not. So there you go. That's the long answer. The short answer to how I feel about the war, really is just "I don't know." C'est la vie, I suppose.