Random Wednesday- Which of you Elves Gabbed?

Merry Christmas!

-Michael

Random Wednesday- Christmas{ish}

Finals are over! I took my last two finals today. I think both went pretty well. Now comes the period where I compulsively check Blackboard way too frequently to see if scores have been posted yet:

"Michael, it's 2 in the morning. She's not going to post the score tonight."

"Maybe she went out to a bar and will post when she gets home."

"It's Wednesday. She didn't go out and even if she did she wouldn't be grading papers there, now would she?"

"She could have gone to a special bar where all the teachers go to grade things."

"And where's that?"

"You know at that corner where those roads meet. Hold on let me check Blackboard again."

"Go to bed, Michael."

"In a minute, I need to check another class."

Anyway here are somethings that are sort of Christmas-like, but not exactly. They just remind me of this time of year.









Well, I need to go check Blackboard. Goodnight.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael

Random Wednesday- 5AG

I've never been through a grown-up break up before. I think how I've been feeling since Kristina announced the de facto end of Five Awesome Girls on Monday is the way it would feel. It's weird how much of a ritual* their videos became in my daily life. It is probably pretty weird to think of it that way.

I'm a pretty cold** or stoic*** person, but I definitely got choked up at this announcement. In fact, I actually almost lost it when Kayley posted this just a little after the 5AG announcement. Monday really made me realize how much I identify with the community. So, it was definitely saddening to know that a big part of that was going away, but it also was nice to have that realization. 5AG was my introduction to a brand new world that I didn't even know existed a year ago. That is now a world that I can't imagine my life without. Nerdfighters are just awesome.

The 5AGs a probably one of the biggest reasons that this blog exists. Prior to this one, I had started several blogs that I just quit on. I got tired of posting things that I know no one would read. I wanted something that would gain me attention. The 5AGs and a few other influences made me realize that it shouldn't be about that. You shouldn't seek fame, but rather try to have fun through the mediums of the internet. If viewers come, then that's awesome, but it should still be about having fun for yourself. The only way ensure failure is to worry too much about mass appeal.

I don't want it to seem like I'm angry about this. I'm so very appreciative of 5AG. I don't think they could ever understand how much Five Awesome Girls has meant to me. It saddens me, but I can understand and respect their decision. It isn't really over anyway. The videos will still be there and it's not like Kristina, Lauren, Kayley, Hayley and Liane are going to drop off the face of the planet :)

Still, I can't help being a little heart-broken though. But of course today is still awesome.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael
*Ritual is definitely the proper word
**If you are describing it as a character flaw
***If you are describing it as an attribute

Random Wednesday- International You Day

Someday, I'll actually put more into a Random Wednesday post again. To tide you over here's a random thought: Nothing is more annoying than having your pick fall into the sound hole*.

"International You Day" by No Use For A Name is song I've been particularly fond of lately. I can't believe I've never how much a sweet love song it is before recently. Punk Rock will do that to you, I guess. Check out the Acoustic version; I think it's amazing.







Thanks for reading.

-Michael
*That's what she said

Random Wednesday- Unless It's Kicks

Random Wednesday- "wrong for the next war"

"Although the French did not yet know it, the slaughter at Morhange snuffed out the bright flame of the doctrine of the offensive. It died on a field in Lorraine where at the end of the day nothing was visible but corpses strewn in rows and sprawled in the awkward attitudes of sudden death as if the place had been swept by a malignant hurricane. It was one of those lessons, a survivor realized afterward, "by which God teaches the law to kings." The power of the defense that was to transform the initial war of movement into a four-year war of position and eat up a generation of European lives revealed itself at Morhange. Foch, the spiritual father of Plan 17, the man who taught, "There is only one way of defending ourselves-- to attack as soon as we are ready," was there to see and experience it. For four more years of relentless, merciless, useless killing the belligerents beat their heads against it. In the end it was Foch who presided over victory. By then the lesson learned proved wrong for the next war." -The Guns of August

I read this paragraph on Monday and thought it was brilliant. This is such a good book. It's dry and all about military tactics, but really it is about so much more than that. I really think anyone who get elected to public office should have to read The Guns of August

The post I'll being doing tomorrow will be about the stupidity of WWI, Armistice/Veteran's Day and how perhaps we should observe that day differently.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael

Savannah Smiles

I'm totally lacking ideas today. I can't even say I'm debating between two post ideas, I just don't have any good ones. My day was pretty lame. I went to the one class I have on Friday's, took a quiz, and then played video games when I got home.

The best I got is that I've been trying to figure out how to play this song on the Guitar today. It's kind of tricky. It's not even that complex, I just can't quite put it all together yet.

I also realized today how close Black Ops is to being out. It's been a future, going to happen thing for so long now, but it's only a few days away. It's not even that I can't wait. I've been excited about it for quite a long time now, but I've always tried to keep expectations in check. In the back of my mind there has always been a voice about how fucking awesome it is going to be though.

Seriously, I don't have anything else to share right now.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael

Random Wednesday- No Politics

Considering the past few posts have been heavy in political jargon and tomorrow's will be as well. So, the goal of this post is to break up that monotony. Of, course making a point of avoiding politics is in it's own way an acknowledgment of politics.

I got my Mythology midterm back today and did pretty well. I got an A 93/100. You almos always kind of know whether or not you did good an a test when you turn it in. Still, considering this was the first big thing my Professor has graded, you never know how tough she will be. Especially since the essay was 50% of the grade and a picky professor could really fuck you on that. As I expected she wasn't a ridiculous grader and she was definitely a fair grader. I got a 43 of 50 on the essay portion.

This week has brought two updates that I think are trying to blind me. The new XBox Live Dashboard's text is small, but totally forgivable, because I have ESPN 3 on my XBox now! Also Facebook has decided that squinting is the new cool. It looks like they've reduced the text side of the feed to 6. Maybe 8. Just way to small.

Something kept me up really late last night. So for the first time this quarter I skipped my 8am Biology class. Next week may be even worse though. I'm going to a concert on Tuesday night. I may not be getting home until well after midnight. So, I may be skipping again. It's ok, because that class is terrible. The other students are cool though. Just such terribly boring material and annoying professor.

My project for this week before Black Ops comes out, is to finally beat World at War on Veteran Difficulty. I'm advancing slowly, one checkpoint at a time. I'm almost done with the second to the last level.

I'm terribly boring.

Thanks for reading

-Michael

Random Wednesday-Shake It Out

-Michael

My Favorite Person in the World

My big sister's birthday is today! She's awesome.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

-Michael

Random Wednesday

This turns me in to a roflcopter every time.



-Michael

Random Wednesday- Colt McCoy is no Charlie Frye.

I mean that as sleight to Colt McCoy. Also kind of a sleight to Charlie Frye. Just more so as a sleight to Colt McCoy. You know what? I mean it as sleight to both of them. I'll put it this way:

Charlie Frye was almost decent. I don't see near the promise in Colt McCoy that I saw in Charlie Frye. I mean McCoy could shock me and prove to be good, but as I've stated earlier he reminds me too much of Brady Quinn.

I'm kind of ragging on him and he hasn't even played a game yet, but man he's going to be thrown into the fire quickly. I personally would start Ratliff and let him be the one who gets killed. Leave McCoy on the sideline and see if he develops into something better than the QB at Texas who never threw the ball much further than 5 yards down field.

The Browns also did something today that sincerely pissed me off. The traded Jerome Harrison for Mike Bell. It was basically a gift for the Eagles. I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of trading Harrison. He is probably disgruntled due to Hillis getting virtually all the carries. It's just, why for Mike Bell? I'll take any draft pick over another Denver-system Runningback. Not to mention Mike Bell is probably the worst of the bunch. I seriously think Heckert wanted to give a present to his former team. If you want to get rid of a player... just get me a fucking draft pick ok.

There you go. Basically a special edition Browns' Monday, only I think it is more disjointed and rambling, so I think it qualifies as random.

Thanks for reading and please donate to help sick kids(only two more days!)

-Michael

P.S. Someone remind me to switch back to the old editor.

Random Wednesday- (Political Ads) With Avengene

Geez, I don't know about where you live, but it's barely into October and political ads dominate my TV. I know my market has two competitive* House races, a competitive* Senate, every State-level statewide position is being held, various competitive races for the state legislature and some local races. It just seems like every commercial is a political ad.

The Republicans in my area of using their little children in their ads. I find that ridiculous. The there is this one where Mike DeWine's** grown daughter is talking about how great her dad is like she is some how impartial.

Another big thing they're doing this year is talking about how they voted to cut their own pay or will cut their pay once elected. That's totally ridiculous. Congress always raises its own pay. Only those in competitive races say 'they voted to cut pay,' which doesn't matter because virtually no congressional seats are competitive, so the vote is always overwhelmingly for pay raises.

There also has been some passively racist ads in the race for Treasurer.

Loads of other super negative ads too.

Here's my summary of the different party's angles.

Republicans: Big government, incumbents, wasteful spending, stimulus bad/didn't create jobs***, private sector good

Democrats: Republicans like free trade, free trade bad/job killing, George W. Bush.

Thanks for reading. I can't wait for it to come to an end.

-Michael
*Competitive is being generous. The Democrats are going to get murked this election. I think the Republicans may run the table here.
**What an asshole
***That is so amazingly bullshit though. The stimulus has created tons of jobs. Things would be much worse without it.

Stuxnet Worm

Has anyone heard of this new crazy super virus*?

It is so well-designed that it certainly had to have been designed by a government. It is able to attack previously unknown security flaws simultaneously and is able to lay dormant in a network until the hole presents itself. The idea behind this virus isn't the typical virus(you know fucking up your computer and stealing data.) This virus is about getting itself into the secure networks of industry and take control of industrial equipment. This could cause havoc with things like an electrical grid, nuclear power plant, refineries, etc.

This virus has first presented itself at a nuclear facility in Iran. The majority of this viruses infections have been in Iran. So, let's talk the geopolitics of this virus.

Since this virus was undoubtedly created by a government, there are really 3 candidates. In order they are Israel, the United States, and the United Kingdom. These are nations who are not particularly friendly to Iran and staunchly opposed to Iranian Nuclear development. Also, these are 3 nations with intelligence agencies capable of pulling such an attack.

Israel is the obvious candidate. They hate Iran and wouldn't hesitate to strike if they feared Iran was close to getting a nuclear weapon. They do know that an actual military attack would cause an all out war and could potentially lose them some the United State's support, but using cyber warfare is covert and provides plausible deniability. If they can cause chaos in Iran's nuclear program without firing a shot, they won't have to attack Iran.

The United States isn't much of a fan of Iran either, but the United State's is afraid of a potential military strike of Iran by Israel. That would put the United States in a very tough position. There is the general United States policy that supports Israel no matter what, but if they attacked Iran any U.S. support of Israel in that attack would cause virtually every country in the Middle East to turn entirely hostile to the U.S. Again removing Iran's nuclear program without military involvement would be ideal.

Well, the British could do it, but I don't see the motive. The best I can come up with is the British have a traditional role of peace keeper and a computer virus to end Iran's nuclear program could prevent a potential all out war in the Middle East.

Is this a new era of Tech warfare? Instead of bombardment of a country's infrastructure, it could be crippled by a virus. I mean this is so new, it isn't clear whether or not a cyber attack will classify as an attack of warfare. Even if it was, as I stated before there is plausible deniability.

Kind of scary this world we live in**.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*The link is to an article not the virus itself. Not clearly stating that can lead to awkward exchanges on twitter with Tara of Zaxy.
**It is also totally awesome

Random Wednesday

I'll do an actual post tomorrow. I'm so tired, but I refused to take a nap or drink an energy drink or something with caffeine, so hopefully I'll be asleep early enough to get all the sleep I need for my 6:30 rise tomorrow.

-Michael

P.S. I fucking hate spectator delays. I had to be 5 minutes late because every asshole on I-70 had to stop and look at a broken down COTA bus.

Colbert Before Congress

Testifying before congress is pretty awesome, and is kind of unprecedented. I mean Elmo has testified before congress, but I don't know of any person* who went before congress in character. It was pretty funny though. Not only was his testimony funny, but the fact that most of the people were to pretentious to laugh made it even funnier. If you watch, it looks like there are kids in the back laughing and some of the staffers behind the congress people were laughing and that's it.



Colbert is hilarious in character and is an effective parody of the blowhards of the right, but here he is pretty awesome just being Stephen Colbert.

Thanks for looking and please comment.

-Michael
Song of the Day: The Royal We- Silversun Pickups

*Not red furry monster.

Random Wednesday- Cribs- Minecraft

What's up MTV? Hey, yo, I'm meeting you by the Respawn point to show ya'll my place. As you can already see it's the most baller place around and I ain't even done wit it yet.



Yo, this is my front door. You see I got the wood door with the stone all round. There's that tight little pyramid above the door with the torch on top. You, that lets the monsters know I ain't messin around yo. I don't play that shit.



This is my crib. This what I see when I come in the front door. Maybe I just got down murking some cows and pigs. Maybe I just got freaky wit a zombie and stole his feather. Or maybe I'm just coming in at nightfall, because I might be totally baller, but wit so many monster at night sometimes even I can get over run.

You, you see those tight ass flame chandeliers. Custom design.



I'll show what it looks like from the backdoor, because you know sometimes when shit gets tight you gotta use the backdoor.



This is one of my side rooms. I craft all sorts of things in here. Like swords to take out my enemies. I also got some pretty baller storage. Two large chest. I can keep anything up in here. There's also a stove for me to cook bacon and smelt minerals. I ain't tryin to brag or nothing, but I make the best bacon around.



Yo, Let me show the rooms that I use to get to my caverns and mine.




These rooms give me access to some baller caverns that I control wit my sword and pickaxe. I'll show you around them later before I kick ya'll out.



Let me show some of the most ballinest structures I've built so far. This is a tall tower I built. It took some time, but it's pretty god damn awesome. I can climb to the top of and watch the sunrise and the monsters burst into flames.



Here's the other tower I built. It ain't as tall as the other one, but is just as baller. You can also see a bit of my pyramid. Let's go take a better look.



Alright, MTV, here's my pyramid from the top of my tallest tower. You also get an awesome view of the other tower. If yall are good and we got time I'll show you up inside that pyramid and the secret entrance to it. Oh yea, take a look at all those sky lights. I keeps it real.



Yo, this is down in one of my caverns. I've mined all sorts of baller things out of this place. Let me show around here a bit. This is the bigger of the two caverns I got and there's some monsters around. So, keep a look out yo.




Yo, you see that monster. Don't worry I straight up pwnd it.



Yo, this is my other cavern. It's not as big as the other one, but I use to mine stuff too. You might be looking up at the secret entrance to the pyramid. Follow me and we'll find out homies.



Alright dudes, here's the inside of the pyramids. It's still pretty new, so it's pretty barren, but I'll make it the most baller place around before long. It'll be straight gangsta.



Yo, we're back in the crib. I hope ya'll enjoyed this tour of my place.



Alright, MTV, ya'll need to get the fudge out. Thanks for coming to my crib, but I got a party starting pretty soon with the farm animals. Maybe I'll let ya'll come back sometime when I got this place in better shape. Look out or you might get molested by the monsters. Peace!

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Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

Song of the Day: Sometime Around Midngiht- Airborne Toxic Event.

Minecraft

I did two things today. Watched college football and played Minecraft.

I haven't gamed on a PC in many years, but I downloaded Minecraft this morning and have had a good time playing it. I've heard Seananners rave about this game and now that tuition is paid, I was finally able to get it. It's a game that just doesn't seem like it would be as much fun as it actually is. It is still in Alpha and has some bugs, but overall is very well done

Sorry that's all I got tonight. There are some games coming to close, so I don't want to focus too much on this post.

-Michael

Tornadoes

Here's something about me. I find weather fascinating. I try to find out about what actually causes the weather. If meteorology were offered at any school near me that would probably be what I would major in. I'm particularly interested in the severe weather and Tornadoes. It's something I consider a hobby and I think I'm somewhat knowledgeable in this area.

Yesterday, there was a severe weather outbreak in my home state of Ohio. Two cells that had Tornado Warnings passed on either side of my specific location. It is now clear that those cells did not produce Tornadoes in my area. These cells merged in Southeast Ohio and produced four confirmed Tornadoes; one South of Nelsonville in Athens County, another in Meigs County and another in Perry County. Three of those are judged to be EF2 and one in Perry County is judged to be an EF1. There are also other Tornadoes yet to be confirmed in Athens County.

Significant damage occurred in The Plains, Ohio and the Eastern part of Athens, Ohio. No tornado has been confirmed in this area by NWS Charleston, but it appears that a Tornado likely caused the damage in this area and that will probably be what their damaged survey will find. My sister and possibly my only reader lives in that area and there was some major damage in her backyard.

Tornado Myths

Myth- Tornadoes can't climb hills, Tornadoes can't cross rivers, Tornadoes can't overcome *insert geographical obstacle here*

Myths about Tornadoes and geography have been around for awhile. They were basically all proven wrong by the Tornado outbreak on April 3-4, 1974. This outbreak was by far the biggest in recorded history. 148 tornadoes occurred in a 24 hour period and 6 of those were F5. Considering F5 tornadoes only occur about once a year that is amazing.

*Bonus myth* This outbreak also created a belief that Nuclear tests in the South Pacific provided the energy for this unprecedented outbreak. A Nuclear bomb was set off a few weeks before this outbreak. Following Nuclear weapons tests went off with out causing another super outbreak, so that is largely debunked.

Myth- Hail and Tornadoes always go together

This is actually based on fact. Tornado producing storms often are hail producing storms. The two things do not go together absolutely though.

Myth- The sky changes to weird colors around Tornadoes.

This goes along with the last myth. Often times a green color is reported in the sky around tornadoes. A Tornado doesn't have any magical powers to do this. It is the reflection of Hail, which as stated earlier is frequently associated with Tornadoes.

Myth- Tornadoes don't hit major cities

The idea is that there is a dry heat bubble due to all the concrete and asphalt in big cities. It is true that a major city is hotter than it's outskirts. In reality that only makes thunderstorms stronger. Tornadoes in major metro areas are rare, but that is more because the area of land that major cities occupy is small compared to the area of land of everywhere else. Tornadoes don't discriminate. They come down when conditions within a storm dictate that they can no matter what area they are over. 'Tornado Alley' has major cities, but they are separated by great distances of farmland. If 'Tornado Alley' was in the Northeast Tornadoes hitting big cites would be much more common.

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NWS- The Boy who cried Wolf or just being prudent?

The National Weather Service issues Tornado Warnings for storms that are 'capable' of producing a Tornado according to radar. This has led to many, many false Tornado Warnings. I have been under about 3-4 Tornado Warnings per year for the past several years with no Tornadoes in my area. Does this create an insensitivity to Tornado Warnings in areas that are frequently warned?

Doppler radar technology has improved the ability to detect rotation within a Thunderstorm prior to any Tornadic activity occurring. This has dramatically improved warning times dramatically from the few minutes that there was in 1974 if there was any Warning at all. That is a very good thing and has likely saved many lives.

The problem is that Doppler Radar indicating rotation can mean a Tornado is developing or it can mean nothing. To this point there is no real way to tell the difference. So, solely using radar to indicate possible Tornadoes leads to false Warnings.

It is really a Catch-22 for the National Weather Service. Waiting for a spotter to report a Tornado on the ground likely means a Warning will be too late for people in the path. Issuing Tornado Warnings when nothing comes of it will create a public that will largely ignore the warnings, which is dangerous as well.

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Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

Tea Time

I'm putting on my faux political analyst hat for this post.

Everyone know that the Democrats are in trouble this coming election. Their loses are going to be significant. In my home state of Ohio were looking at basically a clean sweep for the Republicans. The incumbent Governor, Democrat Ted Strickland, is likely to be beat pretty soundly by the Republican challenger*. The senate seat here will also undoubtedly go Republican. The majority of competitive house races will probably go the Republicans way as well. So, giving Ohio as an example, it looks pretty doom and gloom for the Dems right?

The Democrats have a saving grace; counter intuitively to their purpose, it's the Tea Party movement. As unpopular as the Democrats and congress are, the Tea Party is even more hated by the general population and fires up a Liberal base that is otherwise unenthusiastic.

To control the Senate, the Republicans basically have to win every competitive race. Two of those races involve Republican 'tea party' candidates. In Nevada and Delaware**, Tea Party Candidates won the Republican primaries and basically ensured that the Democrats would be able to hold those seats. Holding those two seats will put the Democrats at 51 votes***.

Many more tea party candidates have been nominated for competitive house seats. Again this is basically giving the Democrats victories in districts where the populous is even somewhat moderate.

So, what does this all mean?

I don't think the Democrats will lose either house of Congress. The Democrats will lose a lot of seats, but will be able to hold against more extremist conservative candidates that the Tea Party produces. That will probably be just enough for the Democrats to maintain majorities in both chambers.

To be honest, I don't think the Republicans taking back congress is the best thing for their chances in 2012. If republicans control congress, they also will assume some of the blame. The economy is unlikely to get better anytime soon. If the Republicans control congress, Obama and the Democrats can run against a 'do nothing' congress and that might just be enough for the Democrats to hold.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael

*Even if that challenger is a total asshole, and is running a horrible campaign.
**I can't believe the Republicans in Delaware were dumb enough to nominate Christine O'Donnell. A Republican is going to have a hard enough time winning there with being a wacko conservative that is totally corrupt.
***Assuming Joe *cough* traitor *cough* Liberman doesn't switch caucuses. I don't think I would mind that much though, because he'll vote with the other side anyway.