I'm Looking For the BEDA Authority

I've been wondering if it's allowed/if it counts to have a post on another blog. My sport's blog, which is linked at the top of the page, is seldom used, but I've been wanting to write some posts about amateurism and the NCAA. Those would naturally go there rather than here, but I don't know if that would count towards my 30 day goal.

The sky was beautifully ominous when I woke up this morning. I really like thunderstorms. So waking up, hearing thunder, and seeing the dark sky makes me happy. There's been a few Thunderstorms roll through today. None of them were particularly great or strong, but still rain beating against the window and thunder in the distance is awesome.

The thing is, I used to be absolutely terrified of thunderstorms when I was younger. I mean, run to my Mom and cry scared. Just the forecast of severe storms would make me super anxious*. I think that was probably what got me interested in the weather. Now, I know so much about storms and Tornadoes. Understanding was at least part of the way I was able to over come that fear.

Tonight is dedicated to the Basketball National Championship game and rationalizing why I haven't the readings I need to do for class tomorrow. I feel way too typical.

Tomorrow, expect a post of decent length and slightly less rambling nature. It'll be the return of Gaming Tuesday.

Thanks for reading

-Michael

*The type of anxious that I know experience before a social gathering with unfamiliar people.

Tattoos

I'll share something I've never told anyone before. I really don't like Tattoos. I mean it makes me feel horribly closed-minded. I just don't find them cool, appealing or attractive at all. It's not a moralist thing either*. It's just something about tattoos that I really don't like.

It's not exactly absolute. I can get over little tattoos on a girl's wrist or ankle. Anything bigger than that and I just can't. If I were to use the classic 1-10 scale for attractiveness a large tattoo is probably -1 point in my eyes.

It's weird. I like to consider myself progressive. In this area I feel like such a conservative grandpa though. If someone says out loud that they want a 'tattoo,' I cringe**. I wouldn't ever tell anyone not to do it if that' what they really wanted.

I don't really have any theories on where this distaste for tattoos comes from though. I don't ever remember this idea being put into my head by my parents. I haven't had any terrible experiences with a person that has tattoos.

I don't know. Maybe I'm some sort of naturalist who just thinks human skin is beautiful and shouldn't be messed with. I don't think that's really me though. Skin is nice and all. I mean my bones and organs aren't all exposed and stuff, but sill I think it's probably for the best that we keep most of it covered most of the time.

While were here, I suppose I should touch on piercings as well. I'm fine with most piercings. In fact I find some of them cute(i.e. noise piercings.) Some of the more bizarre do gross me out though. Like the ones that go through the middle of the nose.

Questions for the day: Do you find tattoos attractive/just like them? Are there things you dislike that make you feel closed-minded?

There you have it. Day 3 and you're already getting random ass confessions.

And now I feel terribly judgmental. And on that bombshell...

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael
*I don't think that's the first time I've used that rationalization on this blog.
**Particularly if it's a girl. I don't like tattoos on guys either, but since I don't find them attractive it brings about indifference.

Boring...

It's been a long time since I've told you anything that's has been going on in my life. The reason for that is pretty simple. There hasn't been anything worthy of note going on in my life. I mean unless you consider playing video games and sometimes doing well at them worthy. Or possible spending way too much time on Tumblr.

Let's go back to the five weeks or so where I thought I had pinkeye in late January/early February. I probably did have pinkeye, but after some reverse diagnosis I'm not sure what to think about that episode. I've never had allergic reactions in my eyes before. Still, my eyes are definitely irritated and red frequently and if it were still an infection I would be a corpse in the ground.

That's pretty much the only story I have from taking off Winter Quarter. The only thing of any note is that I completed my reread of all the Harry Potters. I've started on the Hunger Games, but that may take a while since my hunch is that pretty much all the reading I do for the next eleven weeks will be for school.

Spring Quarter started this week. I'm only going two days a week this quarter, which is the first time I've managed to pull off that feat of scheduling this my first quarter. The three classes I'm taking are Humanities 152- American Civilization since 1877, Sociology 202- Social Problems, and Humanities 245- American Art and Music since 1945.

I still have yet to be able to find the time to leave that doesn't result in my being super early or a little late. I mean just a few minutes difference in departure time can equal a lot of time in traffic. I really would rather not be 45 minutes early to my 8:30 class, but certainly don't want to walk in late either.

My professors this quarter seem to be alright. My American Civ Professor seems like he's going to be a bit anal (retentive.) I don't think it'll be too bad though. My Soc professor is pretty cool. Another redeeming quality for both of them is that they seem to keep the class for most of the scheduled time. That may seem like something that shouldn't be praised, but going to a commuter school where parking is a nightmare(enough so that leaving for a bit is a terrible idea) creates hours to kill where I end up looking like a loser/creeper.

I haven't really had the bat-shit insane, quite stereotypical college professor yet. That brings us to my Humanities 245 professor. He is definitely unique. Starting off, he's going to go backwards on the timeline. Giving us an excersize to draw the person sitting next to us with our left hand without looking. The capper though is showing us video of a photo session that was just a mass of naked people.

I don't mean to imply that I think it's bad. I think I'll enjoy this class if I can avoid failing it. I mean I don't personally have that huge of a beef with most of convention, but I suppose avoiding it at all costs can't be that bad either. I certainly will confess that I've never been so uncomfortable in a college classroom before though.

That's about it. That's 2 for 2 so far this BEDA.

Thanks for reading and please comment(especially if you have post ideas.)

-Michael

Born Elsewhere the Definitive Argument

I had a dream last night that made it so clear to me that the President wasn't really born in this country. It all came together in my head. I know I've been dismissive of this idea in the past. Often claiming the 'birthers' argument is filled with logical fallacies and just plain lunacy.

You see, it's so obvious that Obama was born in Kenya. I can't believe I couldn't see it before. I can't believe I though all the evidence was crazy or just made up. More so, It's so clear that Obama's Mother knew for certain that her son would grow up to be President of the United States though. She faked birth announcements in Hawaii. Then the crazy leftist Hawaiian government went along with the plan. I mean they didn't really make a birth certificate, but claim to have it 'on file' along with everyone's who was born there.

Hawaii shouldn't even be a part of the Union if you ask me. They want to keep their own language and culture. Who do they think they are? Give those volcanic islands back to the savages and just subjugate them.

Then, even if you accept that absurd notion that Obama was born in the U.S., he was obviously naturalized in Indonesia. An American would never spend anytime living in Indonesia unless they absolutely had to, even a child. I mean, what a hell hole!

Finally here is the ultimate proof.







I hope you guys were able to figure this one out, but APRIL FOOLS!

Obama was definitely born in this country and anyone who believes other wise is an idiot or an ideologue exploiting idiots. Also, I'm happy to have Hawaii as part of Union.

So, I'm back from an unannounced and unintended hiatus. Since April begins with the letter A, it also means that it's BEDA.

Thanks for reading.

-Michael

P.S. I'm very sorry to anyone who actually clicked that link.

Gaming Tuesday- Bad Blogger is Bad

Wow Guys, it's been a while. There's nothing exciting to tell you about either. I've just been lazy. I'm just hoping to make this post long enough/decent enough to warrant posting.

I've spent most of the fighting the urge to go get Homefront. I mean IGN only gave it a 7.0 rating. The campaign is super short, which is really the main reason I'd be buying the game. It's some sort of combination of CoD fatigue and an itch to have something new to play. And then there's the brilliant premise. Still it would be 60 dollars for something that I'm not really sure about. It would be worth it if I trusted that the multiplayer would be lasting fun, but I doubt it really is. It happens over and over again where a new game comes along and everyone plays for a few weeks and then it's back to Call of Duty.

I think I'll wait and buy Homefront and Medal of Honor together once they both get cheap and save the money for L.A. Noire and Mortal Kombat

L.A. Noire is a game that really intrigues me. I've never really got into games like that where your character is the good guy. It is a Rockstar game, so it'll be well done.

Gah... This is so short and not really worth posting, but

-Michael

Today's Supreme Court Decision

The Rational mind is disgusted by what the Westboro Baptist Church does at the funeral's of U.S. soldiers. It seems rather obvious that they shouldn't be allowed to do that. It is really awful. Today's Supreme Court Decision may seem unfair and revolting. However it is absolutely necessary to protect our civil rights.

It may seem to be rational, in this one case, to prohibit the hateful demonstrations. It may seem that those demonstrators don't deserve the right to free speech. Government cannot act in the way normal people do. It cannot think. It cannot differentiate between types of unpopular speech. There is no room for nuance in the government.

Had the ruling today gone against the Westboro Baptist Church it may have felt nice to know that these bigoted morons would no longer be able to have these hateful protests. However, it would've created a major loop hole in our constitutional law that would eventually be exploited by a malevolent group in government to suppress all speech they deem 'unpopular.'

I believe the constitution's main aim is to prevent tyranny. There are things that are allowed or required by it that seem unfair. Hate speech is allowed. Tasteless demonstrations can take place. A criminal is allowed to face their accuser in court. It just seems unjust that these are the requirements of liberty. It may seem that there needs to be a 'sometimes' in these rules.

Our system of government cannot work if 'sometimes' rules are allowed. The rules have to absolute even if it causes some tragic cases, because the alternative is much more tragic.

Thanks for reading and please comment

-Michael

Gaming Tuesday- Red Ring of Death Edition

My XBox 360 broke on Sunday. It wasn't the 3 light ring of death, but just a single light with the error E73. From what I can discern that is a hardware error that has something to do with the Ethernet port. Basically I have a broken XBox that's out of warranty. I suppose I should count myself lucky that it was only 360 number two and that it lasted 3 years given the horrendous failure rate.

My new XBox 360 is on the way though. I was really hesitant to go for a used or refurbished Arcade system though. Depending on the production date/whether or not Microsoft has fixed the soldering, there is a likelihood of failure. I decided instead to get the new XBox 360 "slim" with the 250 GB hard drive. It's supposed to be here between tomorrow and Friday.

I still not sure what to do with the old system though. If I were to sell it as is I can get about $30 for it. If I were to repair it I could sell it for about $70 or maybe $80 with the repair costing about $40. So, there's not much money to be made there.

I'm really thinking about getting it repaired and finding a charity to give it to. The problem is I don't know of a charity that would want a used console. If any of you know of a a place I could donate it to, please let me know in the comments.

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Homefront

It is really impossible to look at any FPS game, especially one that is in a modern setting and not compare it Call of Duty. Therefore basically every FPS I look at seems sluggish and, well, fake. The bits of gameplay I've seen from Homefront are no exception. The graphics aren't quite as good and it seems more choppy than Call of Duty.

It's probably not fair to use Call of Duty as a standard probably isn't fair, but it is inevitable. It really turns into more of question of whether or not a game can offer me something different enough from CoD to be worth it. For example, I didn't think Medal of Honor offered anything that I wouldn't get if I just waited for Black Ops, so I didn't get it.

Homefront is definitely offering something different. It offers a brilliant premise that certainly intrigues me. Still if I only bought games based on interesting premises, I wouldn't be worried about my XBox having the Red Ring of Death, because it would've been tossed out the window long ago, because this game exists.

It's also easy to fall into the trap of great story= shit game. The previews I have read for Homefront seem to indicate that there are some mechanical issues with the game, but they could be resolved. My decision about whether or not I will be getting this game will come down to the Demo. If plays well, not necessarily as well as Call of Duty, but avoids truly game breaking issues, I will be getting it.

As for multiplayer, meh. That looks like that may suck pretty hardcore. It does look very objective based which is a plus. However, 32 people in a game and abundance of vehicles could make it just awful. At least it will have dedicated servers for consoles.

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That's all for this week.

Thanks for reading and please comment.

-Michael