...life of a jayhawk

THE REACTOR

2009-09-09T14:39:00.001-07:00

Folks, this blog will no longer be operational. I've moved on to http://the-reactor.blogspot.com.

Please go there for all your Caleb Sommerville needs.

My Fun Break

2009-01-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

Well, most of it was fun, anyways.
We started out the break on December 19th by driving out to Amanda's parents' house in Phillipsburg, KS. We basically hung out for a week. It was awesome. We made sugar cookies, decorated them, went shopping in Kearney, NE (such fun!), and watched a bunch of movies. Unfortunately, I spent the entire week with my heart in my throat and worrying.
I was waiting for the right time to ask Amanda's dad for her hand in marriage.
Every night before and after dinner I was nervous out of my mind. Finally, Dec. 24, the night before we left, at 11:45pm, I asked. He was literally on his way to his bed, and it was literally the LAST POSSIBLE SECOND.
Anyways, he said yes.
The next day, Christmas Day, was the big day.
Amanda and I started driving from Phillipsburg to Cedar Rapids, IA, where my grandparents live. It was about a 9 hour drive, so we packed a picnic with leftovers. When we hit the west end of Lincoln, NE, I told Amanda that I was hungry and we needed to stop. Believe me, I was anything but hungry.
After we realized that the place we had stopped at, the Git n' Split, wasn't exactly the most scenic location for a Christmas Day picnic. We kept driving through Lincoln, and ended up stopping between Lincoln and Omaha.
Ashland, NE. Remember that town.
We got off the exit and took a frontage road to an antique mall/warehouse/barn thingy. It was up on a hill and would have provided a nice view of...Nebraska. Yeah, it had just snowed so it was actually kinda pretty.
On our way up the frontage road, we noticed that the road was basically one large sheet of ice. After we slid to a stop, we decided that was the perfect place for a picnic.
I got out the CD I had made Amanda for Christmas, with 10 of our favorite songs. Track 1. Track 2. Track 3. Track 4.
Everytime the track number got bigger, my heart rate grew along with it.
Track 5. Track 6. Track 7.
I was trying to eat a ham sandwich, but after about half of it, I felt like I needed to puke.
Track 8. Track 9.
Deep breath....
Track 10. "The Best Thing" by Relient K. Our favorite song.
Little did she know.
I had downloaded a audio editing program called "Audacity" and played around with it. Then, I usefully used it to record an extra verse on the end of the song.
The last few words?
"Will you marry me?"
Amanda said yes, and that was pretty much the best Christmas ever.
Check out facebook for pictures of the place as well as the ring.
After Christmases in both grandparents' houses in Iowa, we headed back up to Hutch. We did more hanging out, visited the Addington's, opened presents, got a GPS system, and on the 7th, got my wisdom teeth out.
Ouch.
The actual surgery was fine, and so was the rest of the day. I was on some painkillers and slept a lot. The next morning, yesterday, I took a pill with codine in it.
Whoops.
I spent the rest of the day extremely nauseous, eventually puking twice and falling asleep late with a massive headache.
Today, I woke up feeling okay. Still feeling mostly okay. Teeth hurt but now I'm too paranoid to take another painkiller.
Sounds like a fun break, huh? Actually, it has been. These past few days have been the only exception to an otherwise awesome break.
After all, I am engaged!

My Profession

2008-11-23T14:33:00.000-08:00

Here we are, as my dad likes to say. I have a few weeks left in this, my final fall semester of school.
EVER.
I've posted the entirety of my Kansan.com blog posts up until today, and I'll post the last few as I write them.
I've learned a lot through this blog. I've learned that people won't like you if you're vocal. I comment quite a bit throughout the Kansan.com site, people regularly attack me and other columnists for their ideas.
(That's different from this, which is a bunch of people rightly attacking an idiot columnist for having no point to his column, and the columnist thinking he's all that.)
I think I've chosen the right profession, since God has guided me thus far, but good night is it going to be an experience. As I look back on my four years here, and long for the 300-level days of writing 4 articles per semester instead of 4 per week, I realize that the Journalism school's purpose is to thicken your skin.
After taking minor hits from professors, I got used to the idea that I was going to be criticized for the rest of my life.
And now, after working for two papers, writing a blog, criticizing other people's work (hopefully) civily, I know I can take it.
Thanks be to God for getting me ready.
Now I just have to find a job to practice it in. Anyone have any offers?

Kansan Blog #10

2008-11-23T14:32:00.000-08:00

Boy did this one really tick someone off. Crazy Kanye fans.
Kanye West's latest single, "Heartless," currently occupies the number 4 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
Does that mean that everyone likes him?
Oh no, not by a longshot.
AP put out an article a few days ago in which Kanye claimed to be this generation's Michael Jordan.
The article cited a few more bombastic statements in the interview, but this shall be the main one I focus on.
Michael Jordan was the guy when my generation was growing up. Everyone knew him. Even me, a kid who didn't care about sports and sat on the bench during 3rd grade soccer (yes, I really was that bad) knew who Michael Jordan was and admired him. Don't even ask me how many times I've seen Space Jam. Jordan was an icon of a now-bygone age, when the NBA was awesome and the Bulls reigned over all sports. Jordan was a wholesome role-model that all the kids wanted to be. Jordan was, in short, someone that everyone liked.
Not so with Kanye.
Sure, the first time I heard "Jesus Walks" I thought it was pretty catchy. And "Stronger" got me hooked on the original artist Daft Punk.
But once I started hearing about Kanye on the news, I realized what a pompous, over-confident, whiny brat he really is. In the AP article, he is quoted as saying, "I realize that my place and position in history is that I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice."
I must stop him and say:
Excuse me, Mr. West.
You are NOT the voice of my generation. You are NOT the voice of this decade. If anything, the musical geniuses of this century are U2 or Radiohead or Coldplay. Not some whiny music-stealing (refer back to Daft Punk) punk who has christened himself the "voice of this generation."
The flaw in comparing himself to Michael Jordan is that everyone liked him. You couldn't go up to someone, even if they were a diehard anti-Bulls fan (couldn't think of any other team that was good back then), they wouldn't hate Jordan.
Not so with Kanye. Some people don't like his music (including me). Some people don't like his attitude (including me).
You wouldn't see Jordan getting arrested at nightclubs in Europe for causing disturbances.
You wouldn't see Jordan having a fit because he didn't win an award.
You wouldn't see Jordan interrupting the opposing team's victory speech with a 3-year-old style tantrum, claiming that he should have won.
Kanye's done all of these.
In short, Kanye, you're not a role model. You're a horrible person. You're egotistical, you steal other people's work, you whine when you don't get what you want, and you're severely disturbed if you think that you're the "voice of this generation."
Excuse me, Mr. West. I'll let you know when I want a pompous airbag like you representing me. Until then, shut up and quit whining.

Discussion

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BigBD

22 November 2008

at 9:31 p.m.

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I am not a fan of Kanye's attitude at all. I agree he can talk like an idiot. HOWEVER, how are you going to attack West for sampling? EVERYONE in music does it. I'm sure some of your favorite artists sir have done the same, heck they probably re-recorded a song and called it their own. Radiohead the voice of our generation? Yeah right...They aren't THAT POPULAR. Where on earth would you get that from? Coldplay, maybe. U2 was the generation before you, but you're one of those people who thinks their cool because they like older music which is stupid in intself. And you probably didn't know who Daft Punk was before Kanye's song.
I also don't like how you make things up. kanye didn't get arrested in a night club. He got arrested recently at his hotel after a pap harassed him. You're telling me you wouldn't freak out of a camera man continually invaded your space after you asked him to stop nicely. YOU WOULD.
And I am the biggest Jordan fan in the world. I lived in Chicago during the Bulls glory years. Jordan cussed at players, refs and all of that — but I still admire him. He's the greatest. And what are you talking about? There were plenty of players/people who didn't like Jordan. Talk to a Suns fan...they hate Jordan. Jazz fans? Just the same.
Ignorance is annoying. You wrote this because you hate rap music. Fine. But how about you criticize other genres of music for negative image? Whitney Houston was a coke head, you're not writing about that. Country singers have been arrested. Punk singers have been arrested, caught with drugs, etc. I'm starting to think you insult Kanye because of his skin color and I'd hate that to be the case.
Oh and here's a thought, why don't you insult P. Diddy if anyone for stealing music? every song he has is a sample. But you know what? Samples are better than what some of your favorite artists do - just redo a song and call it their own.
You're insulting this generation by calling Radiohead or U2 the voice of our generation. Face it, Hip-Hop is our voice. Some of the most well liked musicians by KU students are hip-hop artists, Jay-Z, Eminem, Kanye West. As far as voicing his opinion, he needs to learn how to shut up. However, he was right about the MTV awards two years ago - Kanye had THREE OF THE BIGGEST SONGS out at the time and Britney Spears who hadn't done crap at the time was given the first performance of the night. And she did terrible. Grammy? Kanye should have won best album for "Late Registration" just like Eminem should have won for "The Marshall Mathers LP." These were undeniable album but because they were rap, were not rewarded. Herby Handcock's album didn't deserve the win and I have that album. Ray Charles was the award because he recently passed away.

BigBD

22 November 2008

at 9:31 p.m.

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(Continued)...Excuse me Mr. Sommerville, I'd like you to not MAKE THINGS UP, make your opinion the voice of our generation when clearly you don't know much about our generation and whine because you don't like hip-hop music..
The Kansan probably won't post this because they don't like Kanye either. Ridiculous. He's a jerk I'll give you that, but if you deny him as one of the best artists of our generation you're not someone who truly appreciates music.
-A KU student

csommerville

23 November 2008

at 2:41 p.m.

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Wow, I don't even know where to begin.
Sampling was just one of the examples I thought of. I actually like hip-hop music, I read an article on West being arrested at a night club (while doing research for this blog post, I don't really keep up with celebrity news ever), those bands I listed are simply the most popular bands of the time that are the most musically talented, and accusing me of attacking West because he's black is BEYOND ridiculous. We are living in the 21st century. Where do you get off accusing me of such childish and 19th century behavior?
I don't like West because he self-appointed himself the voice of my generation, and is extremely vocal about how incredible he is. I don't like that. I don't like his tantrums either. THAT is why I wrote this blog post, not because I was trying to force everyone to like other bands. I live with a guy who hates Coldplay AND Kanye West. It's an opinion post, and I made my opinion clear.
You accuse me of making stuff up, sir, yet you have plenty of fiction in your lengthy post.
Better luck next time accusing me of all sorts of outrageous junk.

csommerville

23 November 2008

at 2:41 p.m.

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Also, http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/kanye-west-arrested-after-u-k-nightclub-1003891821.story

Kansan Blog #9 (No Letter Jackets)

2008-11-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

Well KU Freshmen, you're almost done with your first semester here. Congratulations to those who are doing well, and better luck next time for those who have discovered you actually have to study in college.
I know you've been through tens of hours of orientation, everything from learning how to open those ridiculous dorm mailboxes (seriously, did any of you have a locker at any point in your life?), to what the best shortcut to get to Budig is.
You missed out on one thing, though.
HIGH SCHOOL IS NOW OVER.
I don't care if you went to some high school in southern Minnesota that had a graduating class of 250 (cough, me) or Blue Valley North with a graduating class with 6 million or something. You are now at KU, you are now a Jayhawk. Leave your "Class of 2008" t-shirts at home, and please don't wear them anymore.
This especially applies to letter jackets. I've been noticing the disturbing trend of freshmen (or even sophomores! no more Bond themed "007" shirts, PLEASE) lately, and it needs to stop.
You are Jayhawks now, dang it! Wear some Jayhawk pride, or at the very least, a generic Columbia or North Face coat. Letter Jackets are done once you walk across that stage at age 18. No more. Seriously.
By continuing to wear those jackets, not only do you look like a giant tool, but it shows how lazy you are. Just buy a new jacket! Sure letter jackets are warm, but come on! Get mom and dad to buy you a nice ski coat and the problem's solved.
Grow up, freshmen. If you want the rest of the university to take you seriously, stop claiming that you basically still belong in high school.
Besides, we see enough letter jackets when tours are going on.

Discussion

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mdent05

12 November 2008

at 10:18 p.m.

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Caleb, I would agree that high school letter jackets should never be worn at a college campus under any circumstance. But you go over the line when saying no one should wear high school t-shirts. We're college kids. We're supposed to save money in any way. If the shirt fits, I say wear it. I'll admit. I still have about three or four high school shirts I still wear. And I honestly still like the way they look. But I do understand your point.

key_stroke

18 November 2008

at 10:48 p.m.

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Gosh, and you're worried about Ben Cohen's column being "print-worthy"? Hm...

csommerville

19 November 2008

at 7:28 p.m.

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Are you serious? This is a blog, sir. Never goes to print, and my opinion is clearly stated.
Better luck next time.

Kansan Blog #8 (Day After The Election)

2008-11-23T14:29:00.000-08:00

I woke up in the usual manner today. I worked a late shift until three a.m. and so I slept until about 10:30. I woke up, stumbled out into our living room, and turned on the T.V.
And guess what?
The world hadn't ended. The world hadn't been magically solved of all its problems, either.
Aside from the women on *shudder* The View, who were gushing and practically crying on network television, the world was moving forward. Cartoons were on, infomercials hawked their useless wares, and CNN was running the morning news gambit.
The world lives on.
Last night, we elected Sen. Barack Obama to be our 44thh president. This morning, we still live in America.
That will never change.
Facebook went crazy last night around 11:00p.m. when Sen. Obama was finally confirmed as the winner. Cries of disappointment and of horribly misspelled ecstasy echoed up and down the News Feed.
I got fed up after about three seconds.
I quickly changed my status to:
"Caleb Sommerville says chill out, America. http://www.kansan.com/blogs/reactor/2008/oct/05/unite/."
That link is, of course, a link to my October 5th blog on moving forward with ourselves after the election is over.
It still stands today.

I also wrote a quick note on my profile:

"Oh boy, here it comes. Cue the gloating, cue the whining, cue the doomsday marches.
Two words, America:
CHILL OUT.
Yes, Obama will be our next president. Yes, I do think we should not have elected him. But guess what? The people have spoken, and so be it. Stop the whining, stop the gloating. Take your McCain stickers off your cars; take your Obama signs out of your yard.
The election is done, our country will continue on, and above all:
God is still in control.
Daniel 2:21 says:
"He changes times and seasons; He sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning."
HE set Obama to be president. And HE will decide when he will not be. We needn't worry ourselves about the terrible or mind-blowingly amazing things that will happen to our country.
Obama's the president. Get behind him, support him, and shut up."

In other words, Move, America. Quit whining, quit gloating. It won't do us a dang bit of good. True, I don't like Obama and I don't think he'll be a good president, but guess what?
He's MY president.
I am a citizen of the United States, and we, as a country, elected him.
He's the people's president.
He's (or at least, will be in a few months) our leader. Stop complaining and leaving your McCain/Palin '08 and Ron Paul (seriously?) stickers on your car and start over.
Support Obama. He needs all the help he can get.

Discussion

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str1d3r

5 November 2008

at 4:13 p.m.

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eh, i'm gonna keep gloating a while. this is a pretty big deal, and it's not just another rich white man getting elected. this is someone who the people actually believe in, and has the potential to right a LOT of wrongs made over the past few years (and not just bush, and not just republicans).

csommerville

5 November 2008

at 4:57 p.m.

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Hey, guess what, everyone believes in who they vote for. This isn't anything new. It's another rich half-white guy getting elected, and gloating serves NO purpose but to simply divide the country even more.
Just move on with your life.

orangehead_83

5 November 2008

at 5:04 p.m.

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Thank you Caleb for writing this!!! I completely agree that we need to move on without whining and gloating!

elaineKsu

5 November 2008

at 5:16 p.m.

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Well put. Sure, I don't agree with everything Obama says, but my faith is not in a man who calls himself the president of a nation. My faith is in the One who created the nations. We cannot expect a president to be the Messiah or the anti-Christ. A wise friend said: "we can celebrate, or we can mourn.
But we better not become resigned. It’s we who can change things. Make a difference in the lives of the poor. Give care to the uncared-for. Make a commitment to peace. Live sustainable lifestyles.
It’s that truth that I’m banking on.
Four years of committed Christian living — peacemaking, loving, and neighboring — I’d vote for that." Thanks for your thoughts, Caleb. Right on.

pgriffith

5 November 2008

at 5:27 p.m.

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I'm with you 100% Caleb. It might be easier for me to say it's time to move on, but it needs to happen. We are in the midst of costly war and economic crisis, and Mr. Obama can't fix it all by his own self. Cooperation is needed to help the nation move forward, and those who said around 11:00 last night the likes of, "what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger. But I'm pretty sure this is going to kill us!" or "congratulations America...we are officially f*cked," need to get over it. By the same token the person above who said he or she will gloat about this, you are worth less than worthless. Enjoy that your man won, but what will gloating and taunting the other side do? Give you two minutes of lowly, hollow satisfaction while you berate someone who is already upset? Grow up.

tejiri18

6 November 2008

at 9:10 a.m.

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Caleb..this is Faith fyi...I see where you are coming from however if you dont realize it this is a very big moment in history...the 1st african american president...this is something people thought could never be...our parents and grandparents lived in a time when they had no rights whatsoever and now they are at a time when there is actually a black leader...do you think they will rejoice for a few seconds and then just move ahead...this marks history...realize that african americans can now tell their kids they can be whatever they want to be and have a Profound and significant example...but my anger stemmed from the fact that ppl were up and writing racist and ignorant comments...is that really necessary? having a black man as president is a problem for them???then they have no idea of the grounds that this country was founded on...i could go on for days about the stupidity I've seen...but i'll stop for now but you never answered my question...why shouldnt we have elected Obama and why should we have elected mccain?? The people chose Obama becasue they didnt want the same thing theyve had for the last 8 years so why would you vote mccain(I realize mccain isnt bush but you gotta admit his views are pretty much the same :)

tejiri18

6 November 2008

at 9:11 a.m.

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And Elaine...your first line was so serious...." Sure, I don't agree with everything Obama says, but my faith is not in a man who calls himself the president of a nation. My faith is in the One who created the nations"

You better speak!!!

csommerville

6 November 2008

at 4:03 p.m.

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My answer to your question is located in detail in my previous blog post, "My Formal (Un)Endorsement."
That outlines the reasons I didn't like Obama. Don't have much of a choice, now.
And I never belittled the significance of having an African-American as president. What I am speaking out against is people who feel the need to either praise Obama as the single greatest thing to ever happen to this country (he has yet to serve) or to demonize him as the single worst thing to ever happen to this country (again, he has yet to serve). At this point, we don't know what he's going to do, and gloating/whining about it will only serve to divide our country further. We need to stand behind him as our country's leader.

Kansan Blog #7

2008-11-23T14:28:00.000-08:00

T minus five days. On Tuesday we will all be glued to our TVs and computers, waiting anxiously (or not) to see who the next president of the United States will be. Around 35 percent of big newspapers all over the nation are endorsing candidates, telling readers why one should be voted for rather than the other.
Due to the nature of this election and the candidates, I feel it is my responsibility to write this, my first unendorsement for Senator Barack Obama.
Don’t get me wrong, I know who I’m voting for. But since everyone else is saying why one candidate is better than the other, some alternative voices should be heard.
I remember sitting in the dentist office waiting room a few years ago and seeing a cover article on Obama. It featured him looking majestically off into the distance while wearing a purple tie, the symbol of him bringing the red and blue together; of reaching across the aisle. I remember reading the article and thinking that this guy seemed too good to be true.
For the past few months, Senator Obama has been assaulting the airwaves with talk of “change” and how much we need “change” and how he’s going to “change” our government. Our government does indeed need change, there’s no doubt of that, but talking and doing are separate things.
When the economy went down the tubes, Senator John McCain suggested canceling the debate in favor of going back to Washington to help iron things out. Obama wouldn’t have it, and called the move purely political. McCain eventually caved, but his intentions were good. He had actually wanted to work on change, instead of just talking about it.
The fact is, Obama may have a lot of great-sounding ideas.
In fact, he promised to get us out of Iraq in the first few months of his term. No one could argue with that.
Then, according to the U.S. News and World Report, it morphed into the at least the first year. Now, he’s sitting at “appraising the situation.” Which means we could still be there indefinitely, the same view as McCain.
Is that change? If he’s changed his view on change, will his change indeed really be changing anything?
Figures on how much various programs will cost have normally favored Obama, but even in the New York Times editorial endorsing Obama, those figures can vary to favor either candidate. The Tax Policy Center estimated that the McCain health care plan would cost $1.3 trillion over 10 years, and the Obama plan $1.6 trillion. Using different and unstated assumptions, the Lewin Group estimated that the McCain plan would cost $2.05 trillion over 10 years and $1.17 trillion for Obama's plan.
Will Obama’s change be worth it if it ends up costing a lot more than we thought because of a numbers glitch?
There are simply too many questions left unanswered. And there is no perfect candidate this time around. Even the University Daily Kansan, a paper run by students, who are considered across the country to prefer Obama, admitted that the editorial board “went through some difficulty” deciding which candidate to endorse (they eventually endorsed Obama).
This isn’t saying vote for McCain. His Vice President choice was poor, some of his policies are flawed, and he’s not perfect. Neither is Ralph Nader or any other candidate.
This unendorsement is simply saying that falling for the frenzy over Obama and believing unconditionally in an amorphous “change” is not something to base a serious election on.

Discussion

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mothersson2002

29 October 2008

at 11:54 p.m.

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Ralph has never backed down from his principles.
That's the reality.

31 October 2008

at 2:28 a.m.

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Exactly what I've been thinking. Good article.

oliveira

3 November 2008

at 1:50 p.m.

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Yes, never mind that McCain's call to pausing the campaign was a pathetic attempt to politicize the situation in order to favor his campaign. Especially since the Obama campaign contacted McCain's earlier that morning to try to find out something they could jointly do, and McCain simply ignored it and tried to play the gotcha card. Thankfully it seems that most people saw right through it. Good intentions... whatever. And we saw how much leadership skills he has... he couldn't even unite his party.

csommerville

3 November 2008

at 7:08 p.m.

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And I guess, by that logic, that Obama's move to "discontinue" his campaign to go be with his grandma was merely a political move, right?

csommerville

3 November 2008

at 7:09 p.m.

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Also, you missed the rest of the points. This wasn't an endorsement of McCain. This in an unendorsement of Obama, based on his actions.

oliveira

3 November 2008

at 7:15 p.m.

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Actually no. Considering his grandmother just died and she was in her final days I find it hard to categorize it as a political move. He did not pressure the other campaign to do anything, he didn't even make a big deal about it. McCain on the other hand made a sleaze ball move that would make Karl Rove proud.

Kansan Blog #6

2008-11-23T14:25:00.000-08:00

Please Watch The Video First.

Intimidated?

On August 21st the Kansan ran a story about the KUPD going "green" by buying three Segway scooters and an unspecified amount of E-85 patrol cars.
Where oh where do I begin?
First of all, as seen by the video above, riding a Segway is not exactly the most normal thing. Secondly, it is nowhere NEAR intimidating. Police are supposed to have a PRESENCE wherever they go, to deter thieves and all that jazz. They're SUPPOSED to be intimidating, to make you feel scared if you're up to no good, and safe and secure if you're just an average Joe (no debate jokes please).
Riding a Segway makes police officers a laughingstock on campus. I can't tell you how many times me or my friends have seen a Segway cop scoot past and we've had to restrain our laughter until he's whirred out of range.
Is this the image they're trying to get across? That they have $15,000 dollars to burn and have nothing better to spend on? What about normal bikes? What about just walking? What about finding something else to spend that outrageous amount of money on?
I want to know what the thought process behind this was. Rolling around campus at a maximum of 12.5 miles per hour is not exactly the thin blue line personified. Besides, all you have to do to get away from a Segway cop is...um...run. Up a hill.
Or find some stairs. Which, at KU is not exactly a hard thing to do.
On a much smaller campus, sans hills and stairs, I could see Segway cops being an option.
This, in my opinion, is indicative of a larger problem at KU.
KU has an unnatural obsession with "going green." Trays at Mrs. E's are gone, normal police cars and bikes (and legs; they don't run off fossil fuels) are gone, a random rain garden is being put in north of the Rec Center, and the list goes on.
By indulging this obsession, the KUPD has made fools of themselves, and has wasted money for the sake of looking greener than the next Big 12 school.
Knock it off, KU. You don't need to make uninformed rash decisions to try to make yourselves look better in the college rankings.
Once students actually get here, they won't care about diversity figures or how much money on gas the E-85 cars and Segways save. They will care about getting a quality education and being protected by a competent and well-trained police force.
I don't want Gob Bluth protecting my campus.

If you don't understand that, click here.

Discussion

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pgriffith

19 October 2008

at 7:48 p.m.

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It does seem like a waste of money and an attempt to appear like a better place rather than actually becoming a better place. I want to know what the officers think about this. They can't be too excited about riding these things. These things look funny thus it'll make anyone on it look funny. I can't wait to see it.

simm115

22 October 2008

at 12:52 a.m.

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I have to say that I think segways are hilarious, in that ridiculous, could never ride on one seriously kind of way. If i had a segway, I would want all my friends to have one so that we could play segway tag. Imagine it...segway tag. Genius. They look like they should be in the circus, not available to the general public. I'm sure segways are already dong their part in contributing to American's obesity problem.

Kansan Blog #5

2008-11-23T14:23:00.000-08:00

I must credit the inspiration for this blog post to John Allen of Christ Community Church.

Ah, bumper stickers. Sometimes they're funny, sometimes they're offensive, and sometimes you just don't get them at all.
But what do they mean this election season?
It's simple: they let the world know what your affiliation is. You wouldn't dare go out in public without letting everyone know exactly where you stand, right? You display that puppy proudly, leaving no room for possible stereotypes at all.
But come November, what do you do with quite permanent stickers that don't really apply at all?
Just in case the other guy is elected, you leave the sticker on your bumper.
If things go south and the president turns out to be a total !@#$^#%$#@, you have that sticker as a backup, saying that you're not responsible for what's happening in Washington.
And that's a problem.
We as Americans are so used to getting everything we as individuals want and not nearly as much used to caring about America as a singular unit. Sure the Constitution gives us the right to petition, the right to be nasty towards the government, but at what cost?
We're supposed to be the United States of America (emphasis added). If all we care about is getting our favorite in the White House or making sure everyone knows we didn't vote for the guy in there currently (you all do know that in April of 2009, everyone's gonna hate the president no matter who he is, right?), then where is the United? Are we just the States of America Who Occasionally Agree But Don't Really Like To Admit It?
The point of this election is not to have the United States of Obama vs. the United States of McCain. The point of this election is to elect as a country he who we think as a country will lead us the best. Yes, we'll disagree and vote for one or the other, but come November, a change should happen.
Don't leave your McCain sticker on if Obama gets elected.
Don't leave your Obama sticker on if McCain gets elected.
When the smoke clears in November, he will be OUR president. We need to stand behind him, recognize him as our choice as a country, and move forward.
We are a democracy for a reason. Let's keep the United in United States.
Discussion

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pantheon
6 October 2008
at 11:42 a.m.
Suggest removal

No. If one is elected over the other, I want you to look at percentages. That percent that voted for the loser? They voted for the loser. That's what they wanted. When the results are announced, you may feel a disturbance in the Force, as though many voices cried out and were suddenly silenced. That's American democracy. That's unity through faith, and strength through unity. If two people say something and you believe something else, shut up. If you're ready to shut up, that's fine. Some of us, though, are people. And you can pry our guns from our cold dead fingers.

fchambers
5 November 2008
at 9:08 a.m.
Suggest removal

I understand that its important that we rally 'round the president -I wrote a similar article in 2004 after Bush beat Kerry. But that does not make it any easier to accept the decision that was made. I think people just need a few weeks to recover. Its like a breakup. It takes 6 months to get over someone you have been dating a year, and a day for every month after that you year were dating. Some of us have been "dating" our candidates since 2006.

csommerville
5 November 2008
at 11:23 a.m.
Suggest removal

Holy crap no. This is an ELECTION. We haven't been "dating" candidates, and good grief, if we have, then there's some problems there. Time to recover? That's also known as being a poor sport and making sure that everyone knows you weren't responsible for the man elected.
This isn't a breakup, this isn't a relationship. Grow up, realize that you can't change (no pun intended) what happened last night, and get on with your life.

Kansan Blog #4

2008-11-23T14:21:00.000-08:00

Please Watch The Video First.

You remember those guys at JibJab, right? They made what quite possibly gave rise to the genre of YouTube videos four years ago when they published "This Land," a video making fun of Bush and Kerry.
The operative word here is "both."
"It's Time for some Campaignin'" is so great because it does just that. It makes fun of both candidates while still getting across some of their main campaign ideals.
Alright, it does it with McCain in a tank and Obama on a rainbow unicorn, but the point still stands.
Why can't we just make fun of everybody?
"The Daily Show" routinely makes fun of politics, but leans a little far left. Bill O' Reilly makes of the politics, and leans a little far right. JibJab has stumbled across the goldmine of comedy:
Making fun of both sides!
If you truly want to be respected by both sides, you must be able to work both sides and appeal to everyone. I love watching the Daily Show, but sometimes it just makes my skin crawl.
I personally like Glenn Beck, although sometimes he blows things way out of proportion.
I have yet to see, besides JibJab, anyone able to make fun of both sides and not have a "bias."
On a side note, even though this video was indeed making fun of both sides, isn't it ironic, the portrayal of both candidates?
Obama is a fruity skipping guy who rides a unicorn over a rainbow and sings about nothing but change.
McCain is a wizened, hardened, tank-riding old guy.
But what does he sing about?
Stopping the jihad.
Hmm. Obama sings about ambiguous change, and McCain sings about actually doing something specific. Could all this tomfoolery possibly have a nugget of truth in it?
Just a side note.
If we can't have humor in this election, or even in our everyday life, then how can we even survive?
Humor is vital to our everyday lives. We must be able to find humor in everyday things, even something as mundane as the elections.
Discussion

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cbeattie
1 October 2008
at 8:55 p.m.
Suggest removal

We're nearly a month away from the election, and I can honestly say I'm not positive who I'm voting for. If I don't know soon, I probably should refrain from even voting. The reason's simple: Both candidates make me laugh, usually a "this guy might be our President?" half-hearted chuckle. I doubt few honest people can say they believe in and support every policy of their favored candidate. It's not realistic. So I agree, Mr. Sommerville, instead of brutally bashing others' political opinions to hide their own ambiguity, everyone needs to relax. And have a good laugh.

pgriffith
2 October 2008
at 6:34 p.m.
Suggest removal

Our campaign system is so ridiculous from how long it is to how it's covered. Every day or so you can find something worth mocking. Either a candidate will say something funny or some media outlet will cover a speech or development in some hilarious, over-the-top fashion. It may be serious business deciding the "leader of the free world," but it's more pertinent that we all have fun with it.

Kansan Blog Entry #3

2008-10-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

Please watch the video first.

After watching that video, what is your initial reaction?
Are you in agreement? Are you incensed?
Or here's a better question:
Have you even heard of this incident before now?
Here's the background for those of you who can't view the video above.
McCain was talking about constitutionalism regarding the (in)famous Roe v. Wade case passed down in 1973, and saying that he would appoint Justices to the Supreme Court that would interpret the Constitution "the way our founding fathers envision for them to do."
Sounds like a normal Republican response. Yay. But then Goldberg comes out of LEFT field with this question:
"Should I worry about being a slave, being returned to a slave?"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that correctly. She asked if she should be worried about slavery returning to the United States.
Apparently she's never heard of the 13th, 14th, or 15th Amendments, ratified in 1865, 1868, and 1870 respectively, that guarantee African-Americans rights they did not have before those Amendments.
So apparently Goldberg thinks that the Amendments to the Constitution are really just suggestions, and don't really count as actual parts of the Constitution.
That is incredibly ignorant and insensitive. That question shows just how much ignorance regarding politics has sprung up in our country, and how little is being done to stop it. When I checked on this video at 5:30p.m., September 23rd, 2008, it had 42,595 views. That is an incredibly SMALL number compared to an interview Charlie Gibson had with Sarah Palin one day earlier, which now has 257,559 views.
What's going on here?
Goldberg asked what may be one of the stupidest and most offensive questions in this political season, and no one talked about it. I actually found out about it through conservative pundit Glenn Beck, who posted a transcript of his radio show here.
How is it that this went completely under the radar? Why are we letting people like Goldberg ask supposedly serious questions to the candidates? Why aren't people fighting BACK, and asking good questions, and telling ignoramuses like Goldberg to let us big boys do the talking?
This is a problem in our society today, and we need to start being INFORMED about our political decisions, and not just saying "poignant" and "scathing" questions to get a rise out of people.
And so, Ms. Goldberg, if you ever read this, please, PLEASE take a 10th grade civics class again before you try to get involved with politics.

Discussion

All comments are moderated by Kansan.com staff. For our full user policy, click here.

slamb

23 September 2008

at 11:43 p.m.

Suggest removal

I'm amazed the situation came about to begin with. How can people boil a Supreme Court nomination down to one issue? These people have unrestrained power to overturn any law, and we're ignoring everything in favor of turning it into an abortion-only issue? Much as I hate to say it, McCain was absolutely, 100% right in saying that it can't be a one-issue deal. I've never heard truer words come out of his mouth.

Not that I'm surprised that Goldberg would say something like that. She thrives on saying stupid, offensive things, then acting like she's the cleverest person on earth for saying it. She talks about being a slave all the damn time, too, even though she oddly never mentions what she was doing during the Civil War...Oh, right, she's never been a slave. I wonder sometimes whether her ancestors are offended that she pretends that she went through the same things they did.

noirbear

24 September 2008

at 12:35 a.m.

Suggest removal

I was watching this show and a I have to disagree with you. He said he wanted people who interpeted the constitution the way the founding fathers meant it. At that time slavery was common place. It is a legitimate question that he never actually answered. He acknowledged that the question was asked, he even acknowledged her concern behind the question, but he never answered it. There are those ( and I am not accusing McCain of being one) who would love to see slavery reintroduced in this country and every person of color should probably be asking that question.
Sorry not a ignorant question from this side of the fence.

csommerville

24 September 2008

at 7:12 p.m.

Suggest removal

You made the same mistake that Goldberg did. The Amendments ARE the Constitution, and whatever they change becomes a part of the Constitution.
And show me one person who would "love to see slavary reintroduced in this country."
I highly doubt you'd find anyone.

slamb

25 September 2008

at 1:55 a.m.

Suggest removal

noirbear, you'll notice that he tries to say something about four times after Whoopie does her thing, but she and Walters interrupt him. Also, most of the founding fathers at the Constitutional Convention were against slavery, and it was proposed that it be outlawed from the start. The Southern states threatened to secede, so they caved, but it's still written as an outstanding issue that needed to be dealt with, not a Constitutional institution.

Besides, to accuse somebody of that when you know full well that's not what he meant is just malicious. I'm not going to ask you if your "side of the fence" is for King George and the royalists, or for the Articles of Confederation, because I know that's not what you meant. It'd be the same kind of stupid question, for just the same rhetorical purpose: to make you look terrible by pretending I think you're saying something that I know you aren't.

Kansan Blog Entry #2

2008-09-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

This was my Kansan.com blog entry from two weeks ago. Enjoy.
"The GOP is disgusting."
"If you vote for this guy [Obama] you are an uninformed political idiot and an intellectually lazy moron period."
These are just some of the statements flying around these days. The election, which is supposed to be the shining moment of American Democracy, has become a time for people to hate each other and become extremely polarized.
America is supposed to be a place of harmony and democracy and of people working together. With each election, it seems like people hate each other more and more.
In an article in the Washington Post from March of 2006, a study was done to test American's "vitriol" that "accompanies party politics."
"These data show that on balance, Democrats' and Republicans' evaluations of a president of the other party have steadily soured," authors Shanto Iyengar and Richard Morin said.
And that was two YEARS ago. Imagine if they did the same study today. The study was related to how people affiliated with either party ranked the incumbent president, and the study showed that people are moving more and more towards the extremes (i.e. "strongly approve" or "strongly disapprove").
It's time, to borrow a superbuzzword from this election, to have some change.
How about we DON'T yell at each other about how the other side is stupid?
How about we DON'T tell each other to "go back to school?"
How about we DON'T base our votes simply on who Oprah says is awesome?
How about we DO research the issues?
How about we DO have civil discussion with our opposites and see their point of view?
That is what is supposed to make America so great; this melting pot of ideas.
As I've heard recently, but I forget where, America is supposed to be a melting pot, but it's more like a pot with a whole lot of ingredients that hasn't melted yet.
Get a fire lit under our butts and let's actually work together to choose he who is best for our country.
I know who I'm voting for, but I'm not about to yell at the other side for not agreeing with me.
Chill Out, everyone.

Oh.

2008-09-14T15:17:00.002-07:00

I do have a blog. Totally forgot about that. Whoops.
Anyways....I'm now a senior at KU, still in journalism, and still on course to graduate (we'll find out for sure on Thursday).
I'm taking an opinion writing class now, and I have to a Kansan.com blog with it. I'll post the entries here as well, so everyone can read them twice.
Woo.
Here it goes:

"Welcome to the Reactor. I am a conservative in a liberal land, a Republican where Republicans fear to tread. In this blog I will present a conservative reaction to the events in our world.
Ahh, election season. That magical time of every four years when people hate other people for no apparent reason at all and the media tries to play the middle of the field.
Believe me, I'm the last person who would want to criticize the media. I am part of the media and I hate it when the media is accused of spinning everything and just out to screw with us. People with no experience in the field assume they know everything about how the news process works and attack it for being one-sided.
Usually I disagree with them.
Now that I'm watching the current election coverage, I begin to see what those angry people are talking about.
The news seems to be hailing one particular candidate as the savior of our country, able to magically fix all the wrongs in this world. The news seems to be tilted towards covering everything that candidate does and only a little of what the other one does.
When I did I normal Google search for McCain, 86,600,000 hits came up. When I did the same one for Obama, 161,000,000 hits came up. Maybe he's just more popular.
But when I did a Google News search, 351,174 for McCain and 380,343 for Obama came up.
30,000 hits is nothing, right?
On CNN.com, 15,700,000 popped up for McCain and 27,000,000 appeared for Obama.
Hmm. 11 million hit difference now.
This may seem like a simple fluke, but in reality, it is a sign of something more. The media is obviously leaning towards Obama as a favorite. The coverage of him and his campaign coverage is more prominent, and has been going on for far longer than the coverage of Republican hopefuls before McCain stepped up.
Every time you turn on the TV it's talking more and more about how awesome Obama is and how he's going to single-handedly save America. I was listening to the radio, and on a commercial for some Rock The Vote thing (a decidedly BIPARTISAN thing, mind you), they used a clip from an Obama speech. The clip? Something along the lines of this:
"And in November, the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot!" *big cheer*
Don't even get me started on the ridiculousness of that statement. That's a whole other blog entry. The fact is, the media is all but ENDORSING Barack Obama. Sure newspapers do it all the time, but what happens if CNN, FOX, MSNBC, heck, even the BBC endorses a candidate?
In other words, the media's credibility is going severely downhill. If a network endorses a candidate, which I don't see as too far away at this point, then where will people get their balanced viewpoints? I realize they don't exist from any one source, but a conglomeration of unaffiliated sources provide the American people with the big picture. With the way the media is heading this election, what is the big picture?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who watches the Watchmen?"

And I did my job, which was mainly to get people to think about the issues. I don't care if they think I'm right, cuz this is Lawrence and I know they don't.
Here's the comments I received:
"

adoherty

10 September 2008

at 4:18 p.m.

Suggest removal

¨Every time you turn on the TV it's talking more and more about how awesome Obama is and how he's going to single-handedly save America. How is it logical to say that every time you turn on the TV, someone is talking about how awesome Obama is? This is a weak assertion, unless you have watched all television programming since Barack announced his canidancy. Obviously, you imply that you have. Further, by cherry picking statistics from one source (CNN, google does not publish it´s own media) you seek to associate all media with a possible CNN bias, and then march out the old, trite liberal media bias argument. Arguing the media is purely liberally biased becomes silly the second you remember that Fox News was the number one rated cable news broadcaster in 2007. Setting up a false argument that all bias is liberal, you only distract from the fact that bias in general has reared it´s head in ugly, new ways in the 21st century. This is the issue that truly needs to be addressed. -Alex Dohety

csommerville

10 September 2008

at 7:33 p.m.

Suggest removal

Alrighty then.
FOXnews: 16,700 for Obama and 12,600 for McCain
MSNBC: 573,000 for Obama and 466,000 for McCain
CBS: 6,686 for Obama and 4,762 for McCain
ABC: 1,274 for Obama and 906 for McCain
NPR: 6,933 for Obama and 6,839 for McCain
NYTimes: 2,680,000 for Obama and 1,800,000 for McCain
Try it yourself.

hermeschick

11 September 2008

at 12:15 a.m.

Suggest removal

But you're assuming that any hit is a "good" hit. How many of those hits link to NEGATIVE coverage? Just because News Site A has more Obama hits than McCain hits doesn't mean that all of those Obama hits are positive coverage. Personally I think the "liberal media" is a myth. This same media is fawning over Sarah Palin, letting her lie through her teeth with zero accountability, and is perfectly fine with the fact that she's hiding out from the press. People also tend to forget that corporations — you think they're "liberal"? — own the media outlets. Viacom, Time Warner, GE, Rupert Murdoch, Disney, etc. are the de facto owners of most major news outlets, including Fox, Time, Newsweek, ABC, CNN, CBS and NBC.

Abita

11 September 2008

at 8:23 a.m.

Suggest removal

I'm betting that in a year news outlets will begin chiding themselves for their lopsided coverage of this election. (Not unlike they did for their lopsided coverage at the beginning of the war.) I'm a graduate of KU's J-school and follow several news outlets very closely. There is definitely more good coverage of Obama. McCain story headlines often have a negative word in them even if they story is positive. (Not much the writer can do about that.) You're right though, Palin is getting favorable coverage too. I don't think it is as much a grand conspiracy to elect Obama or glorify Palin rather that they are younger, appeal to more viewers/readers and are sexier news choices. But, that only explains the numbers not the content. I think many people blow the influence of the network out of proportion. A vast majority of journalists are completely free to write on whatever they want (I would be interested in seeing how papers are assigning the election beats though). The problem is that many of those journalists are pro-Obama. News papers have also taken more of an advocacy turn in the past few years. This could be a symptom of that as well. Bottom line: We are witnessing some very poor news coverage.

tsmith

11 September 2008

at 8:32 p.m.

Suggest removal

What about the fact that Obama was part of a much longer contest to win his candidacy? There was a time this year where the stories were about Clinton and Obama nonstop and McCain was almost forgotten for a while. I'm pretty sure that skews the results a bit. I wonder how many times Hillary shows up in the respective media archives.

BlackMage8472

12 September 2008

at 12:33 a.m.

Suggest removal

I have 100 pennies, you have 50 nickels, therefore I'm a richer man than you. 100 is greater than 50. Same basic argument you're making. How many articles are pro, how many are neutral, and how many are negative for each candidate? Research that, because otherwise you're making sensational statements with the idea of correlation equals causation. Consider the elongated battle between Hillary and Obama (the only really serious candidates, even since day 1 everyone knew one of them would be the democrat of choice) versus the relatively short battle between multiple Republicans. Consider also the exact same claim was made in 1999 by Bush's supporters, yet a later study determined the percentage of positive media for Bush was substantially greater than the positive media for McCain. In conclusion, you're twisting the data.

BlackMage8472

12 September 2008

at 12:34 a.m.

Suggest removal

I meant Gore, not McCain in my next to last sentance."

Fun fun fun.
But like I said, it's my job to stir the pot, so to speak, and to get people to sit up and take notice of the world around them.
Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to actually, you know, WRITE in this blog now.

Smells like a new blog

2007-12-20T17:14:00.000-08:00

New Blog smell isn't exactly a new car smell or something equally noticeable, but it's still new.
It's been awhile since I've been on the ol' bloggy, so I decided to update my tens of readers before I left on my highfalutin (or however you spell that) vacation.
My family and I leave for Hawaii tomorrow (an 8.5 hour flight from Minneapolis to Honolulu) to go on an island cruise! We're stopping at all the main islands, and I have no idea right now how many there actually are, but there's a bunch. We're going on the cruise with my mom's extended family, so my aunts and uncles and one set of grandparents and all those type people. All in all we'll add up to 23 people.
Now, I've never been on a cruise, so I have no idea what to expect. We may be doing the shuffleboard-Vegas-show-old-people-Branson-on-a-boat type things (I hope not), or we may just hang around the pool-within-the-bigger-pool-known-as-the-ocean until we're sunburnt and fat on free cruise food. I don't know yet. I do know that we'll be doing all the touristy type stuff like this shop and that volcano park, but I don't know exactly what each off-boat excursion will entail.
I do know one thing about the trip: I have about a 1000-1500 limit on the pictures I can take, and I plan on getting as close to that as humanly possible. That very well may be filling up my already almost-full hard drive.

In other news, I'm home! I've finished my first semester of my junior year at KU, and hopefully only have 3 more to go, barring any unforeseen catastrophe. Next semester I'll be taking the last of my non-journalism classes. I will also be working for the student paper as a reporter for a class, so I can get experience and class credit, all in one. I'll also be taking some other classes, but I can't remember them at all right now. I'll check on that once I get back to Lawrence sometime in January.
Ah, to be a young, carefree college kid. (insert scoff here)

For those tens of you that read my blog but don't know my mother, she has also started a blog (in an effort to become hip and cool and cool and hip and all up ons) called Just Enough Light. You should all check it out.

----------------
Now playing: Hans Zimmer - Hunger
via FoxyTunes

New Photo Site!

2007-09-10T13:19:00.001-07:00

Since Google is taking over the world, I decided to help them out. I'm now using Picasa Web Albums to post my pictures online instead of Photobucket. It's a lot easier, and it's integrated with Picasa.
I've just put a bunch up from this past year, and a bunch from Navigator events. Enjoy!

One Free Night A Week.

2007-09-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hence the lack of blog posts. Monday I lead a Bible Study, Tuesday I have leadership team for Navs, Wednesday I have music practice for Nav Night, Thursday I have Nav Night, and Friday night I am free (hear that, ladies? Hehe). That....and I really haven't made time for it.
*Ashamed Face*
Life has been going good here at KU. It's much easier to get into the swing of things once you've already done it twice. Classes are going good for the most part. My Western Civ class is a LOT of reading (including some wonderful *snore* Plato), but kinda interesting. My Political Theory class....well....let's just say that no other human should have to take a class from this goofball. He's a big fancy-schmancy pants from Rutgers who's "used to 90 minute classes" and "can't repeat sentences. I don't have a replay button." He thinks he's all that and a can of worms, so when he lectures, it's just a bunch of big words and ramblings to make himself sound smart. He actually lectures straight out of the text (with a few pointless long ramblings), so I know what he's trying to talk about. He actually used the word pejorative about 4 times the first class period. My photojournalism class is going really well. The prof is the photo editor at the KC Star, so he really knows his stuff. He's funny, he's informative, and he actually helps all of us figure out our cameras. For instance, he taught us how to take pictures in Manual with no flash, just by adjusting the aperture and shutter speed according to what the light meter says. If that made sense to you, mad props. If it didn't, don't worry. It didn't until two weeks ago for me. My child psych class is really interesting, and I am looking forward to learning lotsa stuff to help me parent, if/when that ever happens. I also get to sit next to a girl from Navs who's a lot of fun to talk to during class. She already took a developmental psych class last year, so she usually spends the time studying for other classes. She's fun, though. I'm also taking an editing class that has so far been a bunch of practice. Which is good, because I can already see a difference in my editing capabilities.
Aside from classes and my full night schedule....hmmm. My roommates and I all pitched in 5 bucks a month and got Netflix, which has been a lot of fun. We all have a list of movies that we've never seen and want to, and now we can! For a heckuva lot cheaper than Hasting's or Blockbuster.
I've done worship once so far at Christ Community, and it was Maggie's inaugural worship experience there. She did well. I'm up next week, too.
And now, as I am sitting in the Budig computer lab listening to "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney and the Wings, sipping my Full Throttle Unnecessarily Large Energy Drink, I must leave again. Western Civ beckons to me from Wescoe 3140. Weee.

Here's a great video of one my new favorite artists, Damien Rice. The song is called "Volcano."

Back in the Saddle again...kind of

2007-08-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back in Lawrence now. Have been since Monday, but just haven't gotten around to blogging yet.
I left Hutchinson after church on the 12th, and after Maggie's (my newest guitar) worship team debut, and drove 4 hours to Ames, Iowa, where I have family. They weren't actually there, but I was able to use their house to sleep in, which was very nice. They actually had a plaster tree built into the side of the wall. (see picture)
yeah. Don't really know what the point of that was.
Anyways...after a night there, I drove the remaining 4 hours to Lawrence. Driving for the most part went okay...it just got really tiring really fast. I had my iPod hooked up to an FM transmitter so I could listen to it on my stereo. The only big cities I had to drive through were Des Moines and KC, and both weren't too bad. Lawrence traffic was, and is, by far the worst. Most major roads are four lane, and a huge percentage of the drivers are college students.
Which, by stereotype, aren't exactly the best drivers (I'm only guilty sometimes).
Classes started on Thursday, but I've only had one. The two others I have scheduled are discussion sections for lectures I haven't had yet. The one I did have was Child Psych, which looks very interesting.
Other than that one class (busy, I know), I've been running errands, buying cables to get various electronics in the room working, eating at Sonic again (for the first time in a long time today! Yummmm!), and seeing old buddies. I'm actually going to "The Bourne Ultimatum" again tonight with some of them. Wooohoo!
The room's pretty nice. I'm on the sixth floor in something called the Jayhawker Towers now, or just the Towers. They used to be private apartments, but the university bought them a while back and now they're university-operated apartments. We have a very small kitchen, and a pretty good-sized living room. I like it.
My window I'm right next to right now is a little creepy...There's four Towers (A-D), and they all face a central courtyard. My window faces the courtyard, and therefore looks into a buncha other rooms, too. That's why they have blinds.
Well....that's about it for the Lawrence news. Be sure to check back for more excitement!

PHOTO BONUS:

The New Hairstyle!

My Summer (sans 3M and pre KU)

2007-08-02T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well, since the last post was a feature on where most of my summer has been taking place, here's what I'm doing when I'm not at 3M. Only a few more days up in the FWOM* until I go back to Lawrence!

On the weekends, I've been hanging out with my friend Jeremy a bunch. We usually just watch movies and talk (or rather, he talks and I listen) and take the occasional road trip (we went to St. Cloud so I could help him buy a camera. Since I'm like a camera expert or something). We've been friends since halfway through 9th grade, or the beginning of 10th grade...but that's besides the point. We've been friends for a long time.

During the week, I usually meet with my pastor Dan Moose (yes, funny name I know). We're going through the book of Nehemiah so I can begin to grow as a spiritual leader. I'm really excited about what I've learned, and I know that God will present multiple opportunities to test it out. Nehemiah was the governor of Judah right after the Jews got out of exile, and he took it upon himself to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

I'm also a part of the Joshua Team next year at KU which is a leadership training thingymabob for Navs. I'm pumped to see what God has planned.

I've also made a new friend! Zach Meyer is the new youth leader at our church who also works at HTI, or as he calls it, "The Company." He's [age], and a lot of fun to hang around with. Not to mention he actually gets and laughs at most of my jokes. I think there's probably 4 or 5 people in the world who do that. My sister and dad just look at me funny most of the time. Shoutout to Mom for thinking I'm funny!

I am now the proud owner of my fourth guitar! I bought an acoustic-electric Martin DCX1E about a month ago, and it rocks! I keep it next to my bed just in case inspiration strikes suddenly, which it often does. I've been playing a lot of bluesy-jazz-make-it-up-as-I-go stuff, as well as some Damien Rice.

When I went to St. Cloud with Jeremy, I also bought a new external flash for my Olympus E-330. I got drafted to take photos at a friend's wedding this fall, so I figured I might as well be all fancy and whatnot.

I've seen a few good flicks this summer as well. "The Bourne Ultimatum" was absolutely incredible. It was better than the first two, crisp, gritty, and full of fight scences and car chases that made you go "Ooooo! That had to hurt!" Plus, it has the ominous-sounding line "Activate the asset."

Creeeepy.

I also saw the third Shrek movie (snore, with a few funny parts thrown in) and the third Pirates movie, "At World's End." I thought it was a good ending to the series (although they did leave it open for more...oh Disney), with a lot of great action and hilarious Captain Jack moments.

Overall, this summer was a lot of fun, despite the work that sucked my life up. I'll miss everyone back in Hutch this school year, especially my awesome family.

I love you guys! Thanks for being a great family to come home to.

*Frozen Wastelands Of Minnesota. Applies 9-10 months out of the year.

The Story of The Temp, Mr. Guy Who Talks Like Dan Akroyd, Mr. Oops, and Mr. Mumbles

2007-08-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well....this isn't really going to be an actual STORY. Sorry. Those are just the people that I've spent a majority of the summer with at 3M. Since I haven't written in the ol' blog lately, I thought I'd liven things up a bit with a different kind of post.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm The Temp. I'm one of 4 in my area of 3M (HPT Converting for those 2.5 of you who speak 3Mese), and we basically get the shaft while on our short stays here. Oh well. We do need money, right? Anyways, I'm going to be done being The Temp on the 10th, which means (hopefully) eight more days of work, counting this one. Whew.

Now on to the other characters. Mr. Guy Who Talks Like Dan Akroyd (let's call him Mr. Gwtlda) is somehow the self-appointed leader of the bunch. And seriously, he sounds almost exactly like Dan Akroyd in The Blues Brothers.
"You want I should clean the dead bugs off your windshield?"
Yup.

Mr. Oops is the nicest of the bunch. He has a daughter that just graduated, and he works really hard, but sometimes he just makes mistakes that make ya wonder where his mind was. Mr. Gwtlda gets very angry at Mr. Oops sometimes.

Mr. Mumbles is my favorite to work with. He doesn't get all pissy like Mr. Gwtlda, and he doesn't make big mistakes like Mr. Oops. He's been here for something like 17 years, knows exactly what he's doing, and is pleasant to talk to when he isn't being a creepy old pervert (Mr. Mumbles and Mr. Gwtlda share this affinty). The only problem is that about 50% of the time, I have no clue what the heck he's saying. Oh well. He thinks he's funny.

And there you have it. Of course, we have many supporting characters, like Creepy Old Ladies 1-7, Mrs. Extremely Loud Cackle, Sarge the Supervisor, and the list continues. I will definitely (read=not definitely) miss it here.
The money has been good, and will be good, considering I'll be driving in Lawrence this school year, and gas tends to cost money.
Unless you've got extra arms and legs to give to the employees at Holiday. I don't know if they actually take them, though.
Might be something to try later...*strokes chin*

Gettin POLITICAL all up in dis

2007-06-08T22:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, political ghetto-speak. It should be used more often.

Anywho...here I am at the last break of yet another 8-hour stint at the 3M. Decided to get a little political in this post, seeing as a few things have been brought to my attention.

Which brings me to my first point: there are some things that are brought to my attention that I really don't feel like having to pay attention to. In other words, I don't stinking care.

Case in point: the whole stupid Paris Hilton thing.

Facts?

-drove drunk.

-got arrested(or whatever it is they do to celebrities....foam handcuffs?).

-got license suspended.

-drove twice while license suspended(took legal advice from her publicist).

-got sentenced to serve 45 days in jail.

-served three, and then was released to "house arrest" (meaning: "You're in trouble...Go to your private Disneyland RIGHT NOW!").

-judge got mad and made her serve the whole sentence.

-Paris started to scream and cry.

My take?

Holy crap, people. Worldwide, people who got arrested for driving with a suspended license are all asking their TVs the same thing:

"Where's my small army of paparazzi and helicopters?!?"

She should just have to serve her sentence just like any other bum who drove drunk and then on a suspended license. No whining, no "medical condition." Besides, I wasn't ever aware that whining and complaining qualified as medical.

The other thing that was brought to my attention was a response to an article I wrote in the Leader. First off, it wasn't an opinion piece. It wasn't really even me. It was simply a reaction piece of business owners on a smoking ban that just went into effect here in Hutch. The ban applies to all public places and requires that smokers must stand at least 15 feet away from entrances, lest they face a $300 fine and a petty misdemeanor charge. Anyways...this person started the email saying that there were things about liberty that I "did not learn in school." This person then went on to say that whenever the state is used to accomplish a goal, it is considered force. This person then gives the example of property tax, and says that if you don't pay it, you will eventually be killed.
Not really, though. The person said that if you don't follow the law, you will eventually be killed, but that argument was juxtaposed with the property tax example, making it rather interesting.
The person then goes on to give this account:

"Think about the smoking ban for instance, we have now given the police
the power to throw someone in jail because they smoked a cigarette in
their own property. If this person refuses to stop smoking the police
will eventually have to remove him or her from THEIR property. This
does not sound like the land of the free to me."

Alrighty then, let's get started.

First of all, what didn't I learn about liberty? I, unlike this person, have lived in a country with significantly less liberty than America (Singapore, for three years, cuz my Dad works for 3M). I know about liberty. I couldn't be prouder to be an American, and I thank God on an almost daily basis that He has given me the great privilege to live and serve Him in this great country. The Singaporean government works extremely well, with crime being lower than low, and most street being clean. Sure, you can't sell/buy gum there, sure, the newspaper is probably regulated a little bit, and sure, you get deported for possession of pot and executed for possession of cocaine and heroin. But those freedoms were sacrificed by the Singapore people, and their country is and has been a rising star in the global economic and social sense. I'm not saying we should start offing coke fiends right and left, but some "freedoms" may have to be sacrificed to have true, protected liberty.

Secondly, when the "State" causes something to happen, (now read this carefully), it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. What is a government for, if not to do things in the best interest of itself and it's people? Since when is using force a bad thing? If it weren't for force, the Israelites would have been wiped out by it's many enemies in Biblical times, Germany would have stomped all over the world (and then would have most likely pulled a "Fall of the Roman Empire" Part II), and a drug dealer who pulled a gun on a cop would still be in the streets killing people with guns and drugs instead of dead or in jail. Force may be unpleasant at times, (Iraq, anyone?) but it is completely and utterly necessary.

Thirdly, the property tax example was flawed. This person based it on religious principles, which property tax has nothing at all to do with. Property tax is where cities get a lot of their money, and without that money, sewers, streets, lightpoles, and even water systems would not get maintained.

Fourthly (is that even a word?), this person got the smoking ban totally and utterly wrong. It is illegal to smoke in restaurants, bars, clubs, bowling alleys, newspapers, salons, theaters, and any other public building. If someone owns a property like those and smokes on it, they face the same fine and petty misdemeanor charge that any other person would get. To say that a person can be forcibly removed from their living room for lighting up is completely ludicrous. That isn't even remotely enforceable. A person can smoke on private property, no problem.

Which brings me to my last point here on this rant: The smoking ban is a good thing. Don't you dare give me the whole slippery slope theory, saying that next we can't smoke on private property, and then cigarettes will be totally illegal (my response to that by the way: so?). The slippery slope theory is ridiculous. Think I'm wrong? Show me one example of the slippery slope theory being proved, and I might reconsider.
Anyways, banning smoking is a wonderful idea. Sure, the three bars in town may lose a little bit of their Friday night farmer regulars, but those numbers will be made up by the families who can now enjoy a smoke-free, choke-free dinner.

To wrap things up, the law is a necessary thing. Without it, we'd have anarchy and total chaos. Sure, people would be "free to do what they want," but at what cost? If Hannibal Lecter were free to do whatever the heck he felt like, he'd gorge himself on human livers.

Some freedoms must be sacrificed in order to obtain a truly free and secure society.

The Work Blog

2007-06-07T15:51:00.001-07:00

Yes, that's about all I've been doing this summer so far. I'm actually writing this post while on breaks at 3M.

For those of you not in the know (the tens of people who probably read this), I am interning at the Hutchinson Leader for the first four weeks from 8am until noon. I have a week left on that. It has been an awesome experience. I'm working for a real life newpaper! Sure, my workload may be somewhat lesser than the other reporters there, but I still do a buncha stuff. I've proofread, ran errands, snapped hundreds of pics (a lot of which will be up here when my computer's back in commission, see below*), and of course written a buncha stories. I'll post those all up here when I'm done there, too. This has really taught me what it's like to work for a real paper (writing 3 opinion articles really doesn't count that much), and it'll look great on the resume.

On the not so much fun end of things, I'm also working fulltime at the 3M plant here (for those 2 of you who have been living in a cave, 3M makes Scotch tape, Post-its, etc.) from 3pm until 11pm. For some reason, they call that the "afternoon" shift, but it basically eats up your entire life.
At least I still have Saturdays.
I'll describe what I do in tomorrow's post.

*Computer Note: A week before finals were done, I accidentally downloaded a virus which promptly froze my computer and didn't let it boot. I sat on it for a week (figurtively, not literally), and then brought it home and promptly did nothing. Work, you see, kills time like no other. Finally, at the beginning of this week (it seems oh so very long ago...), I took it to a business computer place here in town. They worked on it a few days and then called me last night to let me know they were having troubles burning the 30 GIGABITES of data to DVDs. Allow me to explain. I have 10 gigs of music, yes. But not 20 gigs of Word documents and pictures. That is an exhorbitant amount. I had put about 15-20 gigs worth of movies onto my hard drive to put on my iPod, and forgot to tell the guys to disregard them. Oops. So I went to Target today, bought a 320gig hard drive, and dropped it off at the place. Hopefully, I will have a blank computer tomorrow, so I reinstall the OS, scoot all my documents and pics over to my laptop, and be back in action!
Also, we now have WiFi in our house, so I can BLOG FROM MY BEDROOM!
HOLY CRAP!
hehe.

Well, I have about 10 minutes left in this break. Then it's back to work for another hour, then it's TV for 30-40 minutes, then it's sleep till 7am.

Thank God I don't really have a social life.

Kansan Article #3: The Pointlessness of Flyers

2007-04-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Here's my last published article for this year, folks! Enjoy!

Fliers are as much a part of campus life as cramming for tests and 3 a.m. fire alarms. When they’re pinned up on bulletin boards or featured on Web sites, they don’t really cause a problem. It is only when they are passed out to students on campus that there are problems.

Some students just ignore the fliers and walk past the advertisers, often creating awkward situations for both parties. Some take them only to throw them away shortly thereafter. Campus is littered daily with discarded fliers and inserts and someone has to pick them all up.

Doug Riat, University of Kansas Facilities Operations Director, said that fliers are a hassle for his crews to pick up every day. Advertising inserts in the Kansan are to blame as well. His employees have a daily routine of picking up fliers and Kansan inserts, which he says are mainly dropped by students on accident, flying out of the paper when it’s picked up.

Fliers are useless. Handing someone a piece of paper on campus creates the same effect as tossing a bunch on the ground. Sure people have a Constitutional right to free speech — which is why you’re reading this right now. People also have a right and a duty to help keep our environment clean.

If you want people to actually read your ads and not just litter, then post a few on bulletin boards next to the other things that students are selling. When students want a cheap car or stereo or want to know about upcoming events, they look at the bulletin boards. If you really want to advertise something, put it in the classifieds.

Even consider Facebook fliers, eBay, Cars.com, Craig’s List, and the myriad advertising Web sites out there. The people who visit these Web sites are looking for something specific, so they really care about what you’re selling.

The sheer amount of traffic generated by those websites is amazing. According to statbrain.com, Facebook gets around 4.5 million hits per day, Cars.com gets 1.5 million, Craig’s List gets 5.6 million, and eBay gets a jaw-dropping 8.6 million.

The litter and annoyance created by fliers isn’t worth the possible effect of changing someone’s thinking. Especially when there are such great online opportunities.

But inevitably, fliers will continue to litter our campus. When someone hands you a flier, don’t just throw it on the ground. Consider reading the flier and then throw it away in a nearby trash can or recycling bin. Don’t use the excuse that you couldn’t find one. Trash cans on this campus are as innumerable as filled parking spaces. You’ll save the maintenance crews a lot of work by just recycling the fliers, or better yet, by not handing any out at all. Go for eBay.

Photo #29

2007-04-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

The weird snakey bridge thing at Millenium Park in Chicago.

Kansan Article #2: The Stupidness of Celebrity Worship

2007-04-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Here's my second article published in the UDK. My third one got bumped from this Friday's paper, so it will be up on here next week sometime. Enjoy!

I know everyone’s sick of hearing about Anna Nicole Smith and her babies and her old dead husbands. I roll my eyes and growl at Court TV and CNN whenever her name pops up. Forgive me if I’m adding to the noise.

I hope my noise is different sounding.

Some students are obsessed with other people’s lives. These kinds of students (who love the gossip magazines and things like that) aren’t satisfied with just living his/her own life and being concerned with actual people and events that affect the world. Instead, our society is obsessed with knowing what kind of purse so-and-so has. Real life is taking a back seat to fantasy.

Sure, watching the “E!” channel and picking up the gossip rags in the grocery store checkout line may seem harmless, but it hides something deeper, something darker. Because these “celebrity-chasing” students don’t care about their own lives, they are causing two terrible things to happen.

First, they are forcing the journalism world to cover worthless stories like what party Kanye West attended. Journalists are supposed to seek the truth and report it. Celebrity-chasers are forcing journalists to seek out information about celebrities that very well may be true, but not important in the least bit. The important truth is things like the genocide going on in Darfur and what the city council decided at its last meeting. The important truth is things like why China wants to get rid of Starbucks and why John Doe opened up that new deli down the street. The important truth is not what kind of shampoo Jessica Simpson uses.

Secondly, celebrity-chasers are forcing themselves to disconnect with the very world they live in. The AP wire on any given day has three or four headlines about problems in the Middle-East and other news, and then is filled with stories of this party and that DUI. Celebrity-chasers, by being interested in every little thing that celebrities do, are making themselves dumber. These students don’t pay attention to the real news, the news that actually affects the way they live. They live a fantasy life vicariously. They live their lives through the lives of celebrities.

Students need to wake up. We shouldn’t care about the mundane details of people we’ll never meet. We need to care about the events that affect our world. We need to pay attention to what businesses are doing well, what the situation in Iraq is like, and what we as citizens can do about the problems in our world. Sure, those famous people provide us with entertainment, but that’s what iTunes and the movie theaters are for. Let’s not let celebrities distract us from the importance of living in this crazy world.

Instead of watching Laguna Beach and E! in all your free time, watch CNN in the mornings to get the headlines. As you go to lunch or class, pick up the Kansan or one of the four free papers available for students (The New York Times, The Kansas City Star, The Lawrence Journal-World, and USA Today). If we start getting connected to the world, we will know more about our surroundings and therefore be able to affect the world around us for the better.

Photo #28

2007-04-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

Part of the Chicago Skyline via the Bean

Kansan Article #1: The Snootiness Of Apple

2007-04-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

First in a series of my three articles published in the University Daily Kansan:

If people from the 1950s saw a picture of a modern-day crowd, they would wonder why so many people had pieces of white spaghetti hanging out of their ears. If a modern-day person told them that it was a device for listening to days of music made by a company named after a fruit, the people would most likely think the modern person was insane. Apple has infiltrated our society with the Mac, the iPod, and now even the iPhone. Apple also has a reputation for being the snooty members of the technology world, with its iPod-only music format and its fancy Apple-exclusive stores. When all other big companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Panasonic unveil new electronic gadgets at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Apple has Macworld in San Francisco, its own conference for all things Apple, and incidentally held at the same exact time.

Since Apple has gone from computers to music to phones, and since it has quite the ego, it’s only a matter of time before the company starts branching out. Here are some products to expect in the next few years.

The iPillow! It comes in six different colors, all bearing the Apple logo in the center. It also, of course, works with your iPod so you can listen to music as you sleep. It will also work with your iPhone, so you don’t have to even move to be awakened by the phone. Since it is an Apple product, and since Apple is notorious for having its products only work with other Apple products, it won’t work with Microsoft-related positions like sleeping on your back or stomach. You will have to sleep in the Apple-copyrighted/protected position on your side. One night’s sleep will only cost 99 cents.

Next up is the iLaundrybasket. It has the standard sleek white and silver finish, with the Apple logo on the bottom, of course. The regular version will hold about 700 socks, but if you buy the bigger version, it can hold up to 10,000 socks. It also works with your iPod and iPhone, of course, so you can listen to music and take phone calls as you are carrying your laundry. It will not be compatible with any clothes bought at Wal-Mart, Target, any thrift stores, or Old Navy, however. After all, it is an Apple product. It has to look good.

The iBookbag is next. The six different colors are standard, of course. The standard version will hold about 1000 books, and the expanded version will hold up to 20000. But the bag will only carry Apple-endorsed books designed on Apple computers and written by iPod or iPhone-owning professors and professionals. The bag will come with wireless headphones (white, of course) and a microphone, so you can talk to people on the iPhone discreetly while looking like a crazy person to the rest of the world. But of course, since it’s Apple, it would be cool. Not crazy.

On the smaller end of the scale is the amazing iPencil. The pencil will only come in the classic white and silver finish and will have a writing life of up to one month for consistent users. The iPencil will only write on the also up-and-coming iPaper (available only at Apple stores) which will only cost 99 cents per sheet.

These products might be a little hard to find in stores. If Apple wants to continue its amazing sales, it will probably have to end up embracing the other members of the technology world. They will have to go to the same conferences (gasp!) and even make their products compatible with other brands of electronics. In fact, Apple’s computers now run Microsoft Office software, so it is only a matter of time before Apple has to come down from its pedestal to mingle with the commoners in the other aspects of the technology world. The only problem is that Apple is far too snooty to mingle unless money is on the line.

A flicker of light at the end? Or just my head...

2007-04-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

I've been noticing that things are maybe....just maybe...winding down here. I am getting more and more papers and projects that are due in the next few weeks, which in turn will spill out into finals.
Almost halfway done! Woo!
I'm going to turn in my final Kansan piece tomorrow. Once that gets published on Friday, I'll be putting all three of them (I know, big number) up on here for you all to read.
I also just bought some groceries tonight. Twas a glorious occasion. Soup in a can, peanut butter and jelly ingredients, crackers, and the ever-craved OJ. I shall eat well and not be mooching off my roomies for a while.
For those of you who don't know, I'll be living in the sort-of apartments on campus next year called the Towers. I just know I'll be in Tower C, and I know one of the three other guys from Navs. That's about all I know for now.
----------------------------
Moving on to some current events stuff:
I was watching something on the ABC podcast, and someone was interviewing somebody else about the VTech shooting yesterday. Whoever was asking the questions was asking, in a very accusatory tone, why campus wasn't locked down and why there was so little security around the campus.
Allow me to answer.
It's a campus. If you put a wall and metal detectors around a campus, it become a prison or something. A campus is supposed to be open. That's one of the main reasons I didn't go to the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. That campus is not open at all.
As for the lockdown thing...good grief people. It's a college campus, not a high school (which they still have problems "locking down.") These news idiots filling the day with the same loop of information cuz they can't find any more available news ot report need to stop and think about the questions they're asking.
Alrighty. That's just my two cents.
Back to the fun fun polysci paper due on thursday. If you all want to know, it's about what the United States role should be in internati----
...................................................................
And everyone fell asleep.

What a week....

2007-04-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

It seems like everything is due this week and next week. I had a journalism project due on Friday, which I barely finished on time. I also had an opinion piece due for the Kansan, which I finished a half-hour past deadline (my editor said it was okay. whew!) I had to read a really interesting book called "With The Old Breed" by a guy named E.B. Sledge. It's a memoir of a guy who fought in WWII in the Pacific. It was really interesting, but the fact that I had to read it so fast made it somewhat less enjoyable.
For next week, I have story proposals for my final journalism project, a newsroom shift (where I have to go either film or audio tape something for TV/radio stations on campus), a book report, and a polysci paper due.
I think it'll let up for a while after next thursday, thankfully.
A few more weeks and it'll all be over.

Photo #27

2007-04-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

Chicago and the Bean

Enrolled!

2007-04-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

I have enrolled for the fifth time here at KU, and for the first time without Russian. Time certainly flies when you grow up.
Here's what I'm taking:
Multimedia Editing: no idea what this is. I was supposed to take it with my multimedia reporting this semester, but it interfered with Russian.

Photojournalism: I wanted to take it this year, but Russian interfered.

Intro to Political Theory: Sounds boring, I know. I think it looks kinda interesting, and then I'll be done with all my Polysci courses.

Western Civ: A class that basically every student has to take at KU. Heard it's easy, heard it's hard. Guess I'll find out soon enough!

Child Psychology: so I can have some semblance of a clue when/if I have kids.

I'm also technically enrolled in an internship class, even though the internship is for the first four weeks of the summer and then I'm done.

Photo #26

2007-04-07T18:53:00.000-07:00

My Family via The Bean in Millennium Park!

Yeah.

2007-04-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

I realize it's been...well...forever. It's been a crazy busy couple of months. I won't go into full details, but I had plenty of things distracting me from the ol' blog.
But now, hopefully, I'm back!

Let's see...what have you all missed....

I bought a brand-new camera with some Christmas money! It's an Olympus E-330, and it's pretty sweet. It's a digital SLR, which means it has every feature a 35mm film camera has, and then some. I can change the lenses on it and all that kind of stuff. When my family and I went to Chicago for spring break, it got quite a testing. I took around 300 pictures with it...yikes! It is a lot of fun to play with.

I turned 20 on March 26th! I am now no longer a teenager! For the first time in a while, my birthday didn't actually fall on spring break week, so my family and I celebrated my birthday in Minnesota a few days before. I got some awesome gifts, including a wireless remote for my camera, some great CDs, and a card to join the Apple cult (in other words, an iPod).

School's been amazingly busy. I'm in my last semester of Russian, so things are finally winding down for that. The journalism class I'm taking is an unbelievable amount of work. I have had to 4 or 5 big stories (which is always more work than it sounds like). The links to all those can be found down below, along with some pictures and other fun stuff.

Well...I will definitely be trying to keep up with this thing now that someone has requested it (mom).
_____________________________________
Here's some links:
My J415 work: http://reporting.journalism.ku.edu/spring07/kuhr-volek/caleb_sommerville/
1st set of Chicago Pictures: http://ku.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2126984&l=f219d&id=16822725
2nd set of Chicago Pictures: http://ku.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2127958&l=c4b5c&id=16822725
First Pictures with new camera: http://ku.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121264&l=ee3e8&id=16822725
ManMaker Conference Pictures: http://ku.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123278&id=16822725
Trash Smash (a game at ManMaker) Pictures: http://ku.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123282&id=16822725

Photo #25

2007-01-18T19:40:00.000-08:00

Megan playing the piano.

Christmas Break

2007-01-17T16:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long between posts, folks. I guess doing nothing all break really sucked up a lot of my time.
Not.
Well, I'm back in Lawrence after a wonderful Christmas break from school. I spent all but three days of it in Minnesota (those three were spent with extended families in Iowa), and I had a blast!
I really didn't do a whole lot over break, but I will attempt to find some things of note.
My mother purchased a brand-new sewing machine over break, so that was her new toy to play with, and she even got to fix a mysterious hole in my dress shirt.
I received my first suit for Christmas and went up to St. Cloud to pick one out and get it fitted and all that jazz. Kayla came up with us to give her opinion and to spend time with my scary family. I then wore the suit on a date with Kayla to Pizza Hut to celebrate our 4th year together. Our anniversary is actually February 14th, but because I'm going to KU and she's going to UND up in Grand Forks, North Dakota, that makes things a tad difficult to arrange.
I also received a Chia Pet from my parents (since my sister has been whining about her deprived childhood of zero pets), which I actually began to work on today. It's actually a complicated process for such a....strange thing.
Kayla gave me a book called "Comes A Horseman" by one Robert Liparulo. It's the same kind of style as Ted Dekker or Frank Peretti, which we both really like. The book was very strange. Strange on a level with Dekker's and Peretti's collaboration, titled "House." Both are very strange and make you really think about spiritual and even ethical topics. Liparulo's book delves into the coming of the Antichrist and what circumstances could surround that event in the future. I would highly recommend both.
I came back to Lawrence a few days early to attend various meetings concerning my new job as a guest columnist with the newspaper on campus, the University Daily Kansan. So far, I am only going to printed for sure twice, once in March and once in April. But, since the job description mentioned something about filling in when another column can't run, I might be able to get printed a few more times. Who knows? I already have one piece written up for them: a satire piece against Apple Inc. I pointed out their incredible snootyness (sp?) and made up a few new products for them, like the iPillow, the iPencil, and of course, the iLaundrybasket. If it gets printed, I will be sure to let you all know via blog.
Well, I believe that catches us up to today. If I forget anything, please don't hesitate to add!
Sorry about the gap!

Annoucement

2006-12-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

Last post was my first Kansan article....but not my last!! I just received word this morning that I got an opinion columnist position at the University Daily Kansan, effective next semester!!!
I will try to post links to the stories on this blog and the actual stories on the optometrist.
I'm hittin the big time!

I'm Published!

2006-12-07T08:49:00.001-08:00

My first article in the Kansan was published today! http://www.kansan.com/stories/2006/dec/07/holidays/
It's an article about non-Christmas holidays celebrated around campus.
Enjoy!

November Rewind

2006-12-01T11:31:00.000-08:00

Looks like I didn't mind the gap. Sorry for the nopost November, everyone. Stuff has gotten a little crazy with finals and breaks and whatnot down here.
So, to make it up, we'll have November Rewind:
The first weekend of November, I got to go home to see my sister in "Kiss Me, Kate." But I already wrote about all that, so moving on!

I had two weeks of classes in between that and Thanksgiving. They didn't exactly fly by, but they didn't go slow either. It might have just been normal time, or something weird like that. Not much exciting happened in those two weeks.

Then I got to go home for Thanksgiving!!! My dad came down that Tuesday after my math class, and we drove the long haul back to Hutch (thanks for driving a buttload, dad!). We got back, I danced with my sister in the hallway for awhile (it was late), and then went to bed.
Wednesday I pretty much just sat around. Kayla came back Wednesday night, so I hung out there and did a puzzle with her and her family (don't ask). Thursday we had another family from church come over for Thanksgiving Dinner, which featured my mother's magnificent turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, pumpkin pie, butterhorn rolls (kinda like crossaints, but much better), and a bunch of other stuff I probably forgot. It was delicious. Friday was another sitting around day. I went over to Kayla's again and she stole a bunch of my music I had on my computer (song count now at 2018) with my permission.
Saturday I went with Kayla to her dad's brother's house for Thanksgiving with them (thanks again for inviting me, Lahrs!) It was my first time meeting the extended family all together like that. Kinda scary, but they're a lot of fun. We played two or three board games and got pretty competitive.
Sunday, I went to church and then flew back to Lawrence.
This week has been kind of exciting. On Tuesday, I wore shorts. On Wednesday and Thursday, we had a large ice storm and then some snow (i'm sitting in the computer lab in my stocking cap on and my winter coat behind me). I even had to break out the ninja mask yesterday.
Dumb Kansas weather. Can't make up it's mind.
I also decided to write for the Kansan! They've asked me once before to write for them, but I turned them down. This time, I had a buttload to do (and still have that buttload), but I decided to go for it. I'm writing about non-Christmas holidays that students celebrate. If it's online, and I think it will be, I'll post a link to it.
Well, I think that about does it. Sorry again about the gap.

Photo #24

2006-11-08T16:42:00.000-08:00

KU Campus from the top of Daisy Hill.
Also, check out the optometrist election special!

Musical

2006-11-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

My sister is a STAR! An angry one, at that.
I saw my sister in our high school's production of "Kiss Me, Kate" this past weekend. She was the Kate of the title, so my parents were nice enough to fly me home for the weekend to see her (I also got to see Kayla!).
"Kiss Me, Kate" is a play within a play. The plot follows a group of actors performing Shakespeare's "The Taming Of The Shrew," and there are scenes from both "worlds." It's a little complicated, but quite entertaining. Megan played Kate, who is quite angry and yells a lot throughout the three-hour show. She also sang a hilarious song entitled "I Hate Men," which a few people have decided will be shown at her wedding dinner. Hehe. She was amazing, and sang louder and more intensly than I have ever seen. And got in way more fights.
It was a lot of fun being home this weekend. This was the first time I got to go back this year. Now I have two weeks until thanksgiving break, and then another two weeks before Christmas break. Yay!

KC Weekend pictures up!

2006-10-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

I know it was like a month ago, but i finally have the pictures from the family weekend in Kansas City. They can be found at my Photobucket account.

Chill out!

2006-10-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

At least that's what the weather is finally deciding to sort of do, lately. It is Kansas, and as a member of my church here put it, that means that "one day it's summer and the next it's winter."
Not much has been going on here in Kansas. There's a few midterm-type things left, and it's 11 days (seven hours, five minutes) until I get to go home for my sister's musical. I didn't have either journalism class this morning, and my psych lecture was canceled (hence me updating my blog right now).
I had a worship team picnic on Saturday, during which we also listened to the KU/Baylor game. Yuck. This is the fourth game in a row that we have lost in the fourth quarter. Argh. We can't seem to be able to hold a lead. In the first half, we held them at 35-17 or something like that, and then they beat us 36-35 in the last few minutes. Also, in the last minute, everything wrong that possible could go wrong did. Interception? Check. Sack? Check. Dropped pass? Check. Incomplete pass? Check. The list goes on. I think that KU should just not come on the field the first half. Let the other team score a few times, and then come out for the second half and play that like the first half. Argh.
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I updated The Optometrist today, also. "Football dad pulls gun on coach to get son in game." Good stuff.

Photo #23

2006-10-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

The Kansas City Skyline at night.

Fall Break is done. Boo Mondays.

2006-10-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Fall break is finally over. After a wonderful four-day weekend of doing absolutely nothing, I must sadly get off my butt and do stuff.
Dang.
I did watch a buttload of movies this weekend, though. Loren has quite a collection.
Today looks like a standard Monday. Rainyish (misting/spitting/whatever you want to call it), hard to get out of bed, gray, etc. But this Monday was somewhat better, thanks to the results of the Russian test I took the Wednesday before Fall Break! I got a 84%! I got a B!
*dances a Russian jig*
This is quite a large improvement over my first test in there.
Maybe Mondays aren't so bad after all!

The Bubble Monster Strikes Again!

2006-10-08T16:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, the Bubble Monster (tm) has struck again. Even though they've "fixed" it twice, it's apparently still active. Kendal came out from his room while I was on my computer and noticed it had erupted again. It wasn't a very big eruption, nothing like the first one, but this is after they've "fixed" it twice! Last time they "fixed" it, there was 6 people in and out of our room trying to "fix" it.
So if this is the 7th time, how many more times is it gonna take for them to actually fix it? Last time they had people down in the boiler room knocking around, people crowded around the sink, etc.
Ah, college.
EDIT: The Bubble Monster (tm) struck again around midnight. The count is up to 8.

Photo #22

2006-10-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

Old Faithful!

Photo #21

2006-10-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

Cool Waterfall in Yellowstone.

Livin' the fantasy life.

2006-10-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, my aunt and uncle celebrated their 30th anniversery by inviting the whole family to Kansas City for a weekend at the Hyatt, free of charge to us! Acutally, my aunt didn't have anything to do with it, she was clueless. My very creative and resourceful uncle set it all up without her ever knowing. I will attempt to post some pictures of the weekend on photobucket, if it feels like cooperating. I had a lot of fun with my family, and it was great to see my mom and dad again. Especially since she brought apples from the local orchard in Minnesota and her famous blonde brownies.
They're going fast.
Nothing else has been going on down here. The weather has been outrageously warm for October, but I'm sounding like an old person. Fall break is coming up next week, which means everyone else in my room gets to go home except me.
Maybe I'll actually write more in my blog! Gasp!
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Remember to keep checking "the optometrist" for more news analysis of the day!

Oooo!

2006-09-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

If you're noticing a change, then congrats. You pick up on things fast. "Life of a Jayhawk," as well as "The Optometrist" have undergone facelifts! Blogger, the Google company that hosts my blogs, recently redid their software, so here's the results! Everything should be the same, but if you have any questions about the new format, let me know!

The Black Hole of September

2006-09-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, where does the time go? Sorry about the outage.
Life goes on here in Kansas. I've been posting a lot on my second blog, "The Optometrist." You can find that link over there on the right-hand side of your screen. Stuff's been happening the world that's more exciting than my life, apparently.
I've had two tests so far, one in psychology (easy) and one in russian (hehehe...nervous laugh). I have a test in geology on Wednesday night (Argh!) when I already was going to skip my scheduled Bible study for Navs music practice. Talk about bad timing.
Speaking of geology:
The lecture is fine. Straightforward, easy, notes typed out for you already when you come in. Pretty much the epitome of a slacker class. To fufill the lab requirement, though, I had to take the optional lab which bumped my time in geology up to 5 credit hours. Yuck. The lab is terrible. The T.A. is brand-spanking new to the whole newfangled "teaching" thing and hasn't a clue what he's doing. And he smells like glue. I've identified probably over 30 rocks and minerals in that class so far.
And to what avail? To satisfy my one lab science requirement for the j-school. Argh!
On the other hand, my journalism class is going quite well. The lecture is at 8 in the morning, which puts a damper on things, but the lab is later, and more one-on-one, hands-on style. I haven't gotten to write any hard-hitting investigative pieces yet, but they will come. Hopefully.
Other than classes, life goes as usual. I'm still playing my guitar for Navs and my church, and hopefully will be playing my saxophone for some instrumental thing my church may or may not be doing.
I will get to go home in early November, thanks to the amazing skills of my sister! She recently aquired the lead in the high school version of "Kiss Me, Kate." She's Kate, obviously. My parents are flying me home that weekend on frequent flyer miles (thank you, Singapore) to see her! And I get to come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas to boot. Yay!
I think that's about it for the update. I'll try to be more regular.
Read "The Optometrist" for a different view of the world around you!

An Odd (un)Labor Day weekend

2006-09-04T18:17:00.000-07:00

It most certainly was an Unlabor Day weekend. I did the exact opposite of what the title assumes.
Ha!
Anyways, it was a weird one, to say the least. Saturday passed without incident. Loren and Stefan were home and Kendal was hanging out with friends from elsewhere most of the weekend. Sunday came around, and I was not able to find a ride to church. Turns out most of the Navs people that go to my church were on a Navs leadership retreat thingymabob. So, in lieu of the real church building, I downloaded a podcast of a sermon from August 13th. Yay technology! I had my own little church right here in my dorm room. Then the Mittelbergs (my aunt Beth, uncle Mark, and weird cousin Julia) called me up to invite me to dinner! The parents were in KC visiting Julia, who works in Olathe. So we went to Molly McGee's on Iowa St. here in Lawrence. Really really good buffalo wings. We stayed the entire duration of Ms. Congeniality on TBS (they had a buncha TVs there).
After dinner, it was just relaxation time. I talked to my family, finished up some journalism hw, etc. Around 11:30, I glanced at a headline about Steve Irwin's death (link to my blog entry)
and wrote in my blog about it before CNN even had it on it's ticker! It certainly was shocking news.
Today's been a boring Unlabor Day. Did a bunch of reading, started the Navs bible study, and watched "Pirates of the Caribbean."
Unlabor Day indeed.

Photo #20

2006-09-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

A ravine on the top of Storm Castle Peak.

Photo #19

2006-09-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

View from halfway up Storm Castle Peak in Montana.

New blog!

2006-08-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right, I have two now. This will be my primary personal blog, relating events happening to me and stories and whatnot. My other blog, just started today, is called "The Optometrist." Why the funky title? It will be my goal to help readers better see the world. I will take news stories from the world and then comment on them. Simple enough.
Well, tell me what you think, and be sure to Comment!

New linxx and KS update

2006-08-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

If you look over on the right-hand bar, the one that says something about "hot linxx," you'll notice two new ones; one for Christ Community Church (CCC) here in Lawrence and one for Hutch E-Free in Hutchinson. If you want to know more about my beliefs (you could just ask me) or about the churches I attend, click away.
Now for the update. Not much is happening here, besides the weather. I think it's been raining for about a day straight, and shows no signs of stopping. I'm sorry to all those who live in Seattle. I can only imagine. I played my guitar for worship today at CCC for the first time this year. Felt good to be back in the saddle, as it were. And I got some free Dunn Brothers coffee from the worship pastor. And a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. Yum Yum.

That's about it from the great state of Kansas. Be sure to check out the new linxx and leave plenty of comments!

Photo #18

2006-08-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

Buffalo in the trees at Yellowstone.

Photo #17

2006-08-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

Crazy contrasts in Yellowstone.

Photo #16

2006-08-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

A river near an entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Welcome New Readers!

2006-08-22T15:22:00.001-07:00

As if facebook.com (a college networking site; think a more sophisicated myspace) didn't provide enough connectivity, now my blog will be published on my facebook profile! Those not in college or high school will continue to have to read my blog here, but those on facebook will be able to read all about me in one place! Exciting, isn't it?

Summer Addendum/First Week Back/One Year Blogaversary

2006-08-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

There's one thing I forgot to add to my post about the summer that I must add at the request of my mother. When we were shopping in Bozeman, my sister and my mom saw some guy shaking hands with some other guy saying "Nice to meet you!" or something like that. They both thought that was kinda weird, but then the guy turned around and said "I just met the Fonz!" Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my mother and sister met the man who met the Fonz, aka Henry Winkler. My sister tried to get a picture of him, and ended up getting the back of his head.
Oh well.
I've had "one week" here at KU. Classes started on Thursday, and I've had four out of five of my classes. I had just Math 111 (probability and statistics) on Thursday, and Russian 212 (a continuation of last year), Geology 101 (yup, that's what it is), and Psychology 104 (yup, that's what that is, too). So far, so good. I have Journalism 301, a continuation of my hopefully increasing number of journalism courses. Since that is my major and everything.

And now for a big annoucement...MY BLOG IS ONE YEAR OLD!
Yes, one year ago today, I started "Life as a Jayhawk" to keep my homies apprised of any breaking details. Let's have a look back, shall we?
On Friday, August 19th, 2005, I wrote:
"Two days of classes done. Russian looks fun...except for the annoying TA. She doesn't really know what she's doing...she just kinda wings it it seems like. She goes way to fast when teaching us pronouncation, but we catch up. J-101 seems fun; the prof is a goofball. Yay! Speech looks okay...it's a grad student so he's pretty laid back so far. English looks just like A.P. English except with a lot fewer papers.
Hallelujah.
How are things on the social end? Non-existant. I haven't really done anything with anybody yet. I'm hoping the Navs thing on Sunday will solve that.
That's all for now."
Ah, to be a freshman. No wait. That's not nostalgic. I didn't like KU for a while. Nevermind.
Anyways, Happy Birthday Blog!

Summer Summary

2006-08-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

Catchy, isn't it? Well, it has been a great summer. I got to make a lot of money at 3M (wheee) and have fun times with my friends and family.
Last week my family and I were in Montana on our family vacation. (The pictures are up on my photobucket account, you can find the link on the right side of your screen.) It was basically like Colorado, except not. That's really the only way I can explain it, unfortunately. We rented a cabin halfway between Bozeman and Big Sky in the Gallatin National Forest. It was great fun. We did some hiking, some whitewater rafting (Megan fell out once...oops!), some shopping, and even some horseback riding. I took probably around 200 pictures there, so I was pretty busy with that. While we were there, I read the combined effort of Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti, House, in less than 9 hours. Yes, it's that good.
After we got back on Saturday, it was super-fast-packing-time for me, since I left two days later. I packed for a while that night, went to Kayla's house for awhile, and packed some more. On Sunday, my youth group went to ValleyFair, an amusement park in Shakopee, Minnesota. It was loads of fun, except for the whole getting really wet on water rides thing. That, not so much.
And most importantly, behind getting to spend a whole day with Kayla (YAY!), we recieved a new motto in life: "Don't Poke The Bear."
Explanation: We rode one of the old wooden rollercoasters there called "Excalibur." It was kind of out of the way, in the back of the park, so not many people were there. The operator who has to give that mundane safety talk (arms and legs inside at all times, etc.) decided to be a little more wacky with his speech. This is a quote from Kayla's facebook profile:
"Will the next victims please step forward, fasten your seatbelts and pull down your lap bar. If you don't have a lap bar, that's to bad. Just hang on tight. There will be absolutely no laughing, screaming or having fun on this ride. If you do, you might wake the bear. If you do wake the bear, we ask that you do not feed the bear, do not poke the bear, and do not look directly at the bear. If the bear begins to charge, we suggest that you stop, drop, and roll."
Yeah. Don't Poke The Bear!!!

Filler

2006-08-14T22:44:00.000-07:00

That's all this is. After a great end of the summer and a great week in Montana with my folks, I'm finally back (yay?) in Lawrence for my Sophomore year here at KU. Tomorrow I'll be regaling you all with vacation stories, explaining why we all should not poke the bear, and what I left behind in Hutch.
Tune in tomorrow!

The Summer Is Slowing

2006-07-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

...as well as not getting any cooler. It's been in the 90s here for the past week or so. Yuck.
Well, sorry I haven't written on here at all this month. There really hasn't been anything that exciting going on around here.
I lead the youth group on Wednesday for the first time! I'm gonna talk about college life (and hopefully not scare them too much, ;) ). Should be exciting!
I recieved my first mp3 player today! I know, I'm a little behind the curve. I didn't get one of those fancy-schmancy iPods, though. I just bought a Creative MuVo TX FM.
Translation?
It's an mp3 player that has a radio, and can plug directly into the USB port on the computer. It's basically a jumpdrive with buttons and a screen. I'm listening to it now, and I am quite impressed. I bought the 512mb model, and I fit around 150 songs on it. I don't need an iPod that carries around all my music. I can delete and move stuff around pretty easily.
Not much else is going on around here, but my dear mother wanted a new post.

Photo #15

2006-07-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

Two Generations of Our Defenders

Superman and Journalism, all in one great movie!

2006-07-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

Who could ask for anything more?
I just saw the new "Superman Returns" movie last night. I was going because I had heard many good things about it, and because Kayla was back from vacation (so the movie was infinitely better in that respect as well).
Ah where do I begin? The cast. Every person in this film is perfect. Clark/Superman (played by Iowa native Brandon Routh) handles the goofiness of Clark and the superb confidence of Superman extremely well, so much so that Lois Lane and her beau (Lois played by Kate Bosworth and Richard White, her financee by James Marsden) laugh as Richard notices some slight similarites between Clark Kent and Superman.
Despite being the main characters, they were all outdone by Kevin Spacey as the evil (and quite humorous) Lex Luthor. In the original 1978 Superman film, Luthor was played by Gene Hackman, and Spacey brought back the goofiness/creepyness of the original. Long close-up shots are very well-done, showing the emotions of all the actors at various stages of their emotional roller-coasters in the film.
The CGI effects are incredible, and probably why this film took around 200 million dollars to make. I do believe that is the most expensive movie to date...ever. There was only one shot in the entire 2 1/2 hour movie that I thought looked a little fake. Everything else, the waves, the water, the flying effects of Superman himself, various earthquakes, explosions, everything looked legit and photo-realistic.
The story was also quite imaginative. They didn't quite take the same route as the folks did with Batman Begins, with all the darkness and real-world grit, but they did add some very human (pun intended) qualities to Superman and Metropolis. There were several twists that totally threw me off the loop, as it did for many. There is one major twist, which I will not mention, that no one saw coming. You'll just have to go see it!
And of course, the wonderful Daily Planet. I can only hope I can get a job interviewing Superman once I become a journalist.
That was a joke. Hahahaha! Nevermind.

Photo #14

2006-07-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

The famous "Spoonbridge" in the Twin Cities.

Wait-I have a BLOG? Oh yeah!

2006-06-29T15:24:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I remember this old thing! It's been awhile. And sadly, nothing has really happened that is of note.
I've been doing a steady 40 hours a week at 3M. I've made around 1000 so far, so the money's quite good! I get a four-day weekend because of the 4th, so I guess that's exciting.
I really don't have anything to talk about. Nothing exciting in the news (to me). Well, this was just (another) post to let you all know that I'm still alive.

Oooooops......

2006-06-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

Another week come and gone. Work is getting tougher, but that's how things go. I did training stuff all last week, and this week i started on the machine. I won't describe what I do. It's too boring and technical. It all really depends on who is gone what day. Some days I'll be running the sheeter, some days packing, etc. That's really all that's been going on here...just wanted to update to let you all know i wasn't dead.

One Week Home!

2006-05-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

And it's been a fun week. My dad and I drove all the way home on friday night and got into Hutch around 1:30. On Saturday I went to Kayla's graduation party basically all day. Sunday I played my guitar for church, and we also had a fellowship dinner (or was it a welcome home dinner for me? hmmm...). The rest of this week has been pretty laid back. On monday, i went in to 3M and took various tests for my job which is starting this Tuesday. Last night we had a going-away party/dinner thing for the Davises, which was a lot of fun also.
Overall, it's just good to be home. I start work on Tuesday, and I work 5 days a week, from 7am to 3pm. Shouldn't be too bad. And it pays 9 bucks an hour, so it's really not too bad.
Well, I guess that's about it for this entry. I decided to update since my parents were giving me a hard time about not updating it ("How are we supposed to know what's going on in your life?")
Until next time...!

STAR WARS DELETED SCENE!!!!

2006-05-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

Back in 1977, the first Star Wars film was released. Not included in the original theatrical release or special edition was the famous Biggs and Luke scene. For the nerds, Biggs was the friend Luke saw before the launch of the attack on the Death Star. It was supposed to be in between when the droids escape and when Leia was captured. I agree that it shouldn't have gone there, but now that I have watched it, i think it is excellent and really shows why Luke wanted to leave Tatooine.
I know, I'm a nerd, but this is really exciting for me.
Here's the link on youtube.com. Make sure you have a relativly fast net connection to watch it.

'Tis a good day

2006-05-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day. I completed my last two finals. My history one took all of 8 minutes (it was only 25 multiple choice/true false questions), and my econ took about 30 minutes (40 multiple choice questions). After my history one, I went to the private bookstore here called Jayhawk Bookstore (they are not affilated with the university in any way) to try to sell back the rest of my books. They took the never-used econ one the university wouldn't take back and a bunch of other ones and gave me $100.00 for all of them. I have decided never to deal with the university book stores again.
I have a majority of my stuff packed up and my dad is coming here around 3 or 4 tomorrow to load up all my stuff. I helped Stefan move out all his stuff today too.
One day left!

Said in William Wallace voice "FREEEEEDOMMM!!!"

2006-05-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

Hallelujah! Russian is over! True, I do have another year left, but it's done for this year. WOOHOO! The final was....okay. I memorized a composition thingy for it, so i at least got that part right. Now I just have two more finals tomorrow, which I'm not worried about at all. East Asian History's in the morning, and our prof said it should take about 15 minutes tops. Econ104 is in the afternoon, and that shouldn't be a problem. Easy class. Then, come Friday at 4:00, I'm outta here!
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In related happy news (for me, at least), the controversial film The Da Vinci Code opened today to critics and will open "worldwide" as it's ads say tomorrow to somewhat mixed reviews. On the review site RottenTomatoes.com (here's a link to the Da Vinci reviews), many critics said it was "boring," "too long," and just "overblown." I couldn't be happier. While i may be a hypocrite since i've never actually read the book, I think what Dan Brown (the author) is doing with it is despicable. He claims it's all "based" on fact, but he takes certain "liberties" (including saying the peaceful Catholic group Opus Dei is really a murderous cult, saying Constantine decided what was in the Bible and the deity of Jesus, and that Jesus married Mary Magdelene) to make his story more interesting. Of course, many Christian groups are outraged, and the atheists and other anti-Christian groups are (were) having a wonderful time. It is released tomorrow to the mainstream, so we'll just have to see how it goes.
Here's what i have to say to fellow believers, though. You are not to judge. Only Jesus Christ is the true Judge in our world, and we should not tell other people that they are "going to hell if they watch this film." I really don't have a desire to see it, but one of my friends from Minnesota says he's going to see it to see how he can talk to people about the truth. We should not be "Bible-beaters." People love it when Christians come across as rude and uninformed. We are called to love everyone. Not just believers, not just people receptive to the truth. Everyone. That means, no telling people they're going to hell (who are we to tell people that), no trying to get people to boycott the film, nothing like that. All we need to do is just calmly tell people the truth. If we follow Jesus' example, Dan Brown's discrepencies and fallacies will be brought to light and the lies will fail. If we become violent and yelly (if that's a word), no one will take us seriously.
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Alright, i'm done. Probably one more post in Kansas, and then this summer's entries will be live from Hutchinson, Minnesota!!!

Photo #13

2006-05-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

My old driveway in Columbia, MO

Whoa!

2006-05-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

Ooops....it's been a little while. Actually, there isn't really a whole lot to write about. Classes are over as of Thursday, and my first final is on Wednesday. I do have a few take-home essays to finish, but for the most part, finals shouldn't be that hard. Except of course for Russian. That will be the majority of my studying.
Otherwise, things are winding down. I have about half of my stuff packed away and ready to go. I'm moving my carpet and firdge and other big crap out on monday to a friend's house. Then, next friday, i am officially out of here! Woohoo!
Last night, navs had the last event of the year: the decades dance. Plans apparently fell through or something so we had to have it at someone's house instead of the usual bigger place. It was still fun, though. I didn't dress up, so no pictures. Oh darn.
Um...that's about it for now.

Photo #12

2006-05-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Coffee Company kitchen!

Two items of interest

2006-05-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

...to me, at least.
The first is the conviction (finally) of Zacarias Moussaoui. He's been sentenced to life in prison. Many people believed that he should have been put to death, but I don't think so. Sure, he was quite possibly involved in the 9/11 plot, but he would've used his death sentence to become a martyr among the Muslim extremists (notice I said extremist-I know that not all Muslims are crazy and suicidal). The life sentence was the best thing for him. And his whole deal with "taunting" the court? That's just him understanding the American press. He would've "taunted" the court no matter what the court said. That's just him understanding that whatever he said would be repeated over and over again on the air and in print. It's his last goodbye.
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In other news, the second Lego Star Wars video games is coming out in September! Call me a nerd all you want, but the first one is a lot of fun. They have witty cutscenes, challenging gameplay, and in the second one, customizable characters (Think, Darththreepio, R2bacca). I'm looking forward to it.
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That's it for this fun week in my life. Tune in next week when I'll still probably not be talking about anything!

Photo #11

2006-05-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

Alcatraz Island

Photo #10

2006-05-02T15:25:00.000-07:00

My great-grandmother Thomas' grave. She's who I'm (middle) named for.

Soon

2006-05-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

Things are winding down here. After a lovely (cough) weekend of neverending rain, the third-to-last week of school has begun. Well, actually it's more like the second to last...since next Friday (the 12th) is stop day for classes. But I still have finals the next week so...yeah. I'm still looking for a place to store all my big stuff like the fridge, my huge roll of carpet, my big CD/DVD shelf and some books and stuff I don't need over the summer. No dice yet, though. oh well.
Nothing else really that exciting going on here.

Photo # 9

2006-04-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

A beautiful sight: A Shakespeare's cup filled with Mountian Dew.

A month to go....

2006-04-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

That's right, only 27 days until I go home! Things are supposed to be slowing down here, but alas, no end is in sight (homework wise). I still have to finish another book and a half for english, do a bunch more russian busywork, read a big book for history, and a few papers here and there.
It feels weird to have passed almost a year here. Seems like just yesterday I was posting about how classes looked for the fall semester (here). Crazy how time flies. I am very thankful for all of you who have been praying for me. You really have helped me survive. Who knows, I might even enjoy next year! Hahahaha, just kidding. I enjoyed this year too.

Change of plans.

2006-04-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

Next year's plans went haywire. A lot of the classes and backup classes I wanted to take fell through, so now I'm taking Prob&Stats, Russian, J301, a Psychology class, and Geology. The samurai course apparently wasn't offered, and the polysci one conflicted with my russian class.
It also took me an hour to work through the incredibly annoying and infuriating computer system KU set up for enrollment. Ah, technology.

Various Musings on Various Topics

2006-04-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm back from a fun filled weekend in Columbia. It was a lot of fun to go back and see all the old sights, like our old house, the mall, the church, Shakespeare's, etc. There's pictures of everything up on my photobucket account. The link is in the right-hand column. ("My Pictures")
Now for the various musings.
The trailer for the September 11th movie "United 93" (which I will not post an imDb link to out of decency) has begun showing. Frankly, when I first saw it in the theater before "Inside Man," I was shocked. It's been 5 years. That's like making a Pearl Harbor movie in 1946. Now, I understand that technology is more advanced. They can make movies faster. But why on earth would you make a movie about September 11th??!? Are people that sadistically entertained? Have we run out of ideas in Hollywood to the extent of making entertainment out of disasters? What's next? "Coming in 2008: Hurricane Katrina the Movie." I mean, come on. Don't you think that people are still probably upset about 9/11? For the sake of decency, why would you put out a movie that recounts events disasterous to our nation that affect people very strongly still today because of lost loved ones? They haven't even had ample time to "heal!" There was a theater chain in New York, I believe, that actually pulled the trailer from theaters. I applaud them. No wonder our society is falling to pieces.
Which brings me to my next musing. This morning while flipping through channels, I came across the horrendous "My Super Sweet 16" on MTV (a channel I very rarely watch). Wow. And I thought some people in college where spoiled. The featured brat was a 15-year-old daughter of a car salesman in Beverly Hills. (Speaking of which, remind me never to live anywhere near there. I'm scared that the snobbiness will somehow rub off. Ewww.) I tuned in a little late (oh darn) and discovered the brat trying on dresses. She was going to get three for her party. Why? Just because. "I want to be a star" was the phrase most often uttered in this half-hour. She tried on one that showed a little too much upstairs, if you catch my drift. She "absolutely loved" it, but her mom was concerned, and rightly so. The brat's response? "Well, I like it, and that's all that matters." $500 later, she had a dress and her mom looked like she couldn't do a thing about it (sic). She then went car shopping (apparantly it's just a given that you get whatever car you want on your 16th birthday. Nevermind working for it, nevermind having to start off with a crappy one.). She really wanted a 06 Mitsubishi Eclipse, but her parents wanted her to get something safer like an SUV. So, the giant Yukon or Escalade (I couldn't tell) it was. Later, there was drama as the brat discovered her father, who also had his own job, was not able to find a band for the party. Nevermind a local band, or even a DJ. She wanted someone like Green Day or Haylie Duff. Drama Drama Drama. The party then followed. Oog. She was driven into the party in one dress, changed right after that, and then changed again. GO figure. Add gratuitous shots of various "friends" saying, "THIS PARTY ROCKS! Every other sweet 16 is gonna look pitiful next to this!" etc. The brat's parents then revealed the big surprise: they bought her both the Eclipse and the other SUV. "Something to drive on the weekend," I believe her father said. Then some famous singer I've never heard of popped up. Woohoo.
Wow, where do I start? First of all, I've never seen anyone more spoiled in my life. Two cars at 16? I'm 19 and am still probably 3 or 4 years away from my first car. Second of all, great job with the parenting, morons. She's obivously discovered that she can whine enough and get her way (if I hear "Daddy, daddy, daddy!" one more time I'm going to puke) at an early age. Her parents virtually had no say. The only thing they were good for was paying for it (around $150,000 the brat said). There was absolutely no discipline present. Third of all, why on earth do people feel the need to spend that much money on one, in my opinion, rather insignificant day? Even if the dad did say "You only turn 16 once!" For that matter, we only turn 14 once. And 15. And 17. And 18. And 19. Moron. But I digress. The only day I can think of where that much money is even consdered is perhaps your wedding day, but even 15 grand is pushing it. Aiyoh.
That's it. I'm burnt out on the whole spoiled brat topic. In local news (haha), I enroll in classes tonight! Hopefully, I'll be taking a Prob and Stats class, the next level of Russian, Journalism 301, a international political science course, and a history class about the Samurai.
Fun stuff in Kansas!

Easter Weekend

2006-04-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Sorry for the long break between posts, but...well...I really don't have an excuse. College just has a tendency to suck time away from you.
Not much has happened this week. I just finished my Russian test (yuck) a few minutes ago, so that studying is finally over. My wonderful parents sent me Easter candy and the Narnia DVD. One would think that the movie would suffer on a smaller screen, but it is just as good. Growing up with those books makes the movie (soon to be movies; they are starting production on Prince Caspian) all the more fun. I always thought of Mr. Tumnus as the faltering, nervous faun that James McAvoy portrayed him as. And Lucy was pretty much exactly how I imagined her. I read on the imDb database that when the older actor's swearing got out of hand, Georgie Henley (Lucy) made a "swear bucket" to repremand them. Quite the little actress.
On other notes, I am going to Columbia this weekend! Yep, it's back to my roots (I grew up in Columbia, Missouri) for Easter. Stefan, one of my friends here at KU, is from Columbia, and so I am going home with him for the weekend. Fun Fun Fun!
Stupid-I mean Student-Senate elections are finally over. No more chalking, pamphlets, or "accosting" (i love that word). For anyone that cares, Ignite won.
Woohoo.
That's pretty much it in the world of KU.

Photo #8

2006-04-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

The Texas Capitol

What a world part II

2006-04-07T13:37:00.000-07:00

I was waiting for my english class to start when I decided to read the New York Times. On the front page, they had a story about the so-called "Gospel of Judas." I took some notes on it, and here is my reaction. This is in order of the article, so it might not make total sense unless you read the article first.
First of all, the document says that Judas was the "favored" disciple. The "best." Hmm. They (scholars) believe it to be a gnostic text. For those of you who don't know, the Gnostics were a cult in the time of the early church. In fact, I've found in my study of 1st John this semester, that the book of 1st John was written to dispell gnostic myths. The gnostics believed that knowledge was the key to heaven. They also believed that all matter was evil; that only the soul was redeemable. In turn, they thought it was perfectly fine for them to drink, have sex with anyone, and all sorts of bad behavior because there was simply nothing they could do about it. Keep that it mind. The document also says that Jesus told Judas to betray him. The scholar's mentality? "The standard gospels either give no motivation for Judas to betray Jesus or attribute it to the pieces of silver or the influence of Satan." Wow. You mean that saying that Satan took over Judas' life and then proceeded to appeal to his greed for money isn't good enough? Now, I'm not one to say what Jesus said or didn't say throughout his life. No one but God can know that. I'm just saying that in my opinion, Jesus wouldn't have had to tell Judas that. Jesus was totally reliant on God. God was/is/is always going to be in control. Also, the document quotes Jesus as saying that Judas will "exceed" the other disciples. Try and figure that one out. Judas commited suicide shortly thereafter Jesus' crucifixion. The article says that the document is probably a Coptic (some language) translation of the original Greek text from around 300 AD. 300. That's more than 250 years later. They also said that the manuscript was formed from over 1000 fragile and brittle fragments. No margin of error, huh? Anyway, here's a part that really confuses me. This thing was actually discovered in the 1970s! It jumped around a little and than sat in a New York City bank safe-deposit box until it was purchased by a collector and then given to some antiquity board to translate more than 30 years later. Wow.
Here is a quote from the document featured in the Times article:
Knowing that Judas was reflecting upon something that was exalted, Jesus said to him,
“Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is
possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal. [36] For someone else will
replace you, in order that the twelve [disciples] may again come to completion with their
god.”
Huh? Jesus never ONCE mentioned in that that He is the way to the kingdom. This seems awfully ambigious, even for Jesus. And what is with the last sentence: "...12 may again come to completion with their god."? Who knows.
The article also said that Jesus shared with Judas alone the "mysteries of the kingdom." This is what I have a real problem with. Jesus did not share with only one person. He died, and therefore shared, for the entire world. Also, there are no mysteries of the kingdom. When he died on the cross he vanquished all the Levitical laws and long lists of the Old Testament. He took the world's sins from all times and paid for them. There is no "holy of holies," no high priest, none of that. Jesus took care of all of that.
Now we get to the actual writing. The scholars said that it was probably a Cainite, another cult member (they didn't go into detail about what the Cainites were, only that they considered Cain and Judas (as well as other "villians") as heroes. Another Hmm.
Next, a scholar named Rev. (ha) Donald Senior said that the document could undermine Christianity if they believe that "early church authorities supressed the free-thinking spiritual gnostics 'for the sake of uniformity and conformity.'" Pardon my French, but B.S. Free-thinking and spiritual is not always a good thing. That's like saying "This is all-natural poison ivy! It must be good since it's all natural!" That statement is just plain drivel.
The last statement in the article said that the Church (the Vatican) is just ignoring this. It's "not on their radar screens." They don't believe that this poses a big enough threat to tell people that it's wrong. We are told to not allow Satan a foothold. If the church does nothing to refute this, that splinter will get in our heads with doubt. We must refute this now.
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Whew! Done with that. Nothing else going on here this week at KU. There's some big casino night in Templin tonight, but it looks pretty lame. Oh, and there's a possibility of a mumps breakout on campus! Exciting! Besides that, life as normal.

What a World...

2006-04-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

...we live in. I found this today on excite.com news. And people say that the world isn't against Christianity.

Boring Week

2006-04-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of posts, but my life hasn't really been that exciting.
I saw "Inside Man" on Saturday after watching Final Four games and playing a game of poker with some Navs guys, which I am actually not very good at. Anyways, the movie was a lot better than some recently. It had a very imaginative plot and incredible characters, but as usual they could've done without the swearing. The Final Four games weren't that exciting.
Today is opening day! The Royals play the Detriot Tigers today at three or so. I'm trying to be optimistic, but I doubt we'll be any good. Oh well. Here's their MLB.com site.
Nothing else really going on here...I'll try to update more often this week.

Texas Trip

2006-03-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

This is take three on this post! Once, i got interuptted, and the next time i tried working on it, my computer froze half way through. This is for real, I promise.
Well, I'm back from yet another Spring Break. Sorry I didn't get any posts from the road up, but you know how it goes. It was a very fun and relaxing week, despite having to go back to school .
And I didn't get any birthday cake. But I can still survive.
To start out with, my parents got into town on Friday night. We left the next morning for Wichita, Kansas, the birthplace of Caleb Sommerville. We also went to my parents old church and ate lunch with some old friends of their's from church too.
We then headed off to Oklahoma City to visit some other old friends. Back when we lived in Columbia, Missouri, our family adopted a college student from MU. He would come over for dinner and we would swordfight with a whiffleball bat and tee. You know, normal stuff. Anyways, he started bringing a girl with him, and they ended up getting married and now have four kids. One of which has out-Star Wars-ed me in his collection. It was quite impressive. After that exhausting visit, we headed down to Austin, Texas.
The first day in Austin was spent primarily shopping. That wasn't so bad, but the fact that I couldn't really buy anything (it was my birthday on the 26th) kind of put a hamper on that. We visited various sightseeing places there, including the impressive Capitol building and Mansfield Dam.
On the way out of Austin, we stopped at LBJ's birthplace farm type thing. It was pretty interesting.
Then it was on to San Antonio. We had a hotel right on the Riverwalk, a historic canal with shops and really good resturants (and expensive; we ended up eating at Joe's Crab Shack, which is still yummy). The Alamo was probably the most interesting thing on the trip. I had no idea there was so much history surrounding that little white church. Mom and I saw an IMAX film about the battle, too. It would've sucked to be a Texan.
On the way back to Lawrence, we stopped in a little town called Lindsborg, Kansas. It's a Swedish community for whatever reason, and has a lot of great little shops and B&Bs.
There. Whew!
That's the vacation stuff. The most fun part was being with my crazy family. Whether it be taking odd and occasionally banned pictures, or just singing nonsensical songs about nothing, we had a lot of fun together.
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Pictures can be found on my photobucket account. The link is the the "linxx" bar on the right side of the screen.

Photo #7

2006-03-17T17:25:00.000-08:00

Damage to Danforth Chapel

Spring Break

2006-03-17T14:37:00.000-08:00

Hello all. Sorry if you couldn't access my blog. Blogger took everything offline because of some server problems, but it should be all fixed now.
Tomorrow I am leaving for Texas with my family for Spring Break. I will definitely have many pictures and stories to post, but I haven't decided if I'm bringing my computer down there, so it may be a week or so until the next post.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Photo #6

2006-03-16T08:15:00.000-08:00

I will be highlighting my favorite aftermath pictures for the next few entries. Devastation in front of Robinson Gym

Life as Normal

2006-03-15T09:07:00.000-08:00

Life has returned to normal here in Lawrence. The storm that whipped through here has now been classified as a "microburst." From all the news releases and stuff, I think that a microburst is a sudden burst of downward air from a thunderstorm. Other than that, i really don't know the technical parts of it. The paper said that the winds produced were about the same as those produced by an F1 tornado. Damage on campus has been estimated at around 6 milllion dollars. Cleanup has been amazing. All that remains to serve as a reminder is the occasional tree branch or workers fixing a roof.
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In other news, it's only a few more days until Spring Break starts! My family and I will be in Texas for a week, so no updates here until I get back. I'll be sure to post a buncha pictures and stories and whatnot.
That's all for now.

STORM

2006-03-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I've survived my first real Kansas storm. Allow me to elaborate.
This morning, I woke up at 8 to take my shower and get ready for church. I was somewhat lazy and slow, which turned out to be a good thing. I looked out the window and noticed that it was pretty darn windy. The sky looked pretty funky, also. I closed my window, and jumped in the shower. As soon as I turned on the water, the power went out. I dried myself off quickly and looked out the window. It sounded like a hurricane was blowing perfectly perpendicular to our building, straight into the windows. My ears went crazy because of the extreme pressure flucuations. The wind was blasting through the seams of the window, and I was getting a little nervous. "Alrighty...the gust should be dying down now..." I thought. But nope, it just kept getting louder. Then the tornado sirens went off. I was still in my towel. I quickly threw on a tshirt and jeans and my sandals and ran into the hall to find Shmuel running down the hall pounding on doors. He confirmed the tornado, and I helped him knock on doors. Half-dressed and half-awake, the residents of Templin stumbled down the stairs. We hung out for probably 20 or 30 minutes, and then went to see if we still had rooms.
Everything on our floor was fine. Then we looked out our windows.
A list of the damages on campus is as follows:
-several broken car windows
-Air-conditioning unit blown OFF OF THE ROOF
-Three totaled cars
-hundreds of downed trees (some two or three feet thick were snapped in half)
-The "K" on the "KU" flag on top of Fraser is missing
-Tar paper and roofing tiles from Fraser, Marvin, Murphy, Snow, Budig, Dyche, The Union, Danforth, Robinson, Stauffer-Flint and probably many more
-downed power lines
-shingle damage
and probably many more I haven't even heard about.
Stefan and I went out to look around campus at around 11:00am (now the news guys are telling everyone "not to sightsee"). We took pieces of roofing tiles from Dyche (the natural history museum), Stauffer-Flint(the journalism building) and several others as souvenirs. We came back to Templin, dropped off our tiles, and went to eat at Mrs. E's. Afterwards, I came back to my room to watch the news, when I saw the next storm. Thankfully it missed us, but we had to go back to the basement for another 20 minutes or so. Hopefully it's all over now. They might cancel class for tomorrow, but we won't know until 8:00pm tonight.
All the pictures of this will be up on my photobucket account. The link is right here.
And such has been my very exciting day!

The Chalk Is Back

2006-03-10T11:18:00.000-08:00

For those of you unfamiliar with the lovely feature of college campuses called chalk, let me fill you in. Sidewalk chalk has made a comeback not only with the 4-7 age range, but also the 18-22 range. Instead of just flyers, which are also quite prevalent here, they chalk the sidewalks and even the sides of buildings in order to draw attention to usually a party ("NEON-Thursday at the Granada" is one I swore I've seen since the first week of school) or some group running for something. Lately (and I'll try to get a picture up of this) there has been an inundation of chalkings advertising something called "Delta Force." Don't ask me what it is, I still don't have a darn clue.
Which brings me to my question. Does all that effort of drawing "Delta Force: Change now!" or "Delta Force: The new pink," (what?) really affect what the students think? Most students don't have a dang clue what the heck Delta Force is, and I doubt many of them really care. If they explained themselves better, perhaps they would have a better chance of doing whatever it is they're trying to do.
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In other news, there isn't any. Well, this morning I heard a buncha sirens across campus, but that's about the extent of my excitement. That, and the orange hightops are back in service after their winter hiatus.

Photo #5

2006-03-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

Old Bikes at ManMaker

Happenings

2006-03-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

I forgot to write about my advising time with some lady from the J-school earlier. She basically mapped out my entire college career in 15 minutes! Now, I probably won't follow it exactly, but it looks like I will probably be done in 4 years. After I fufill all the requirements for a journalism degree, I will still have to take 20-30 more hours. I don't remember the exact number. I am still thinking about a possible minor in something, but I'm still pumped that I will most likely be done in 4.
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Anyone watch the Oscars last night? I watched the last half or so. Mostly because Jon Stewart was hosting, and he's awesome. That stupid Brokeback won a few, including (barf) best soundtrack! My main man John Williams was up for two (Memoirs of a Geisha and Munich) and he didn't win. My heart goes out to you, Johnny. The fact that "Crash" won best picture made me laugh, because everyone was talking about how Brokebackwhatsit was gonna sweep the show. I am glad it didn't, and I shall leave it at that.
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That's all for now.

ManMaker!

2006-03-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

It was a lot of fun! The way everyone was limping back home though, it was more like Old Man maker.
I really learned a lot this weekend. The theme was "A Time for War." And while things like lust were talked about, we went a whole lot deeper. I won't go into details, because I can't really remember what exact points were. The main thing that I learned is that we are in a battle. They used a clip from "The Two Towers" to explain that. Gandalf is explaining to King Theoden that they have to ride out and attack the enemy head on. Theoden is reluctant, and Aragorn says "Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not." We hav eto make this an offensive battle, not a defensive one. We watched several Lord of the Rings clips, and the last one we watched was Theoden's speech to his riders on the fields of the last big battle. I really learned a lot and thank God for that awesome opportunity.
We also had fun. Whether it be trying to light a charcoal fire (as seen on the left) or donning extreme facial hair (as modeled by our fearless leader Matt Podzsus on the right). Now to explain the rather mysterious "Trash Smash." I do not have any pictures yet, but I hope to soon. Here's the setup: There's a big trash can weighted down with several large rocks in the middle of a field. We were split up into teams of 6 or 7 (only 5 per team played at one time) and began the fun. Basically there are two rules. One is try as hard as you can to get the football into the trash can, and the other one is that there are no other rules. Basically you tackle, block, jump, elbow, dive and whatever else you can make your body do in order to either defend the goal or get the ball in. It was quite invigoriating, to say the least. By the end of 5 games, I was spent. I twisted my ankle a little and somehow decided that my right knee was the only thing that could hit the ground first, which it did several times. Other than that, there's a few bruises and arching muscles, but no major injuries.
And now, some more pictures for your enjoyment.

Male Bonding again!

2006-03-03T11:31:00.000-08:00

I'm off for another weekend of fun male bonding in another 2 hours. I doubt there will be any paintballing, but there is something called "Trash Smash" which will the take the place of the violence part. As i said a few days ago, this thing is called "ManMaker," so hopefully i will learn how to be a man.
Or something.
No more pictures until Sunday afternoon probably.

Photo #4

2006-03-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

In The Air

Photo #3

2006-03-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

Ravine near Palm Springs, CA

...life of a jayhawk

THE REACTOR

My Fun Break

My Profession

Kansan Blog #10

Discussion

Kansan Blog #9 (No Letter Jackets)

Discussion

Kansan Blog #8 (Day After The Election)

Discussion

Kansan Blog #7

Discussion

Kansan Blog #6

Discussion

Kansan Blog #5

Kansan Blog #4

Kansan Blog Entry #3

Discussion

Kansan Blog Entry #2

Oh.

Smells like a new blog

New Photo Site!

One Free Night A Week.

Back in the Saddle again...kind of

My Summer (sans 3M and pre KU)

The Story of The Temp, Mr. Guy Who Talks Like Dan Akroyd, Mr. Oops, and Mr. Mumbles

Gettin POLITICAL all up in dis

The Work Blog

Kansan Article #3: The Pointlessness of Flyers

Photo #29

Kansan Article #2: The Stupidness of Celebrity Worship

Photo #28

Kansan Article #1: The Snootiness Of Apple

A flicker of light at the end? Or just my head...

What a week....

Photo #27

Enrolled!

Photo #26

Yeah.

Photo #25

Christmas Break

Annoucement

I'm Published!

November Rewind

Photo #24

Musical

KC Weekend pictures up!

Chill out!

Photo #23

Fall Break is done. Boo Mondays.

The Bubble Monster Strikes Again!

Photo #22

Photo #21

Livin' the fantasy life.

Oooo!

The Black Hole of September

An Odd (un)Labor Day weekend

Photo #20

Photo #19

New blog!

New linxx and KS update

Photo #18

Photo #17

Photo #16

Welcome New Readers!

Summer Addendum/First Week Back/One Year Blogaversary

Summer Summary

Filler

The Summer Is Slowing

Photo #15

Superman and Journalism, all in one great movie!

Photo #14

Wait-I have a BLOG? Oh yeah!

Oooooops......

One Week Home!

STAR WARS DELETED SCENE!!!!

'Tis a good day

*Said in William Wallace voice* "FREEEEEDOMMM!!!"

Photo #13

Whoa!

Said in William Wallace voice "FREEEEEDOMMM!!!"