Well

..it's done, but far from the semester that i'm the most proud of by any stretch of the imagination.

I can't tell whether American movie is funny or sad. What's the deal with Mike Schank? you just can't make characters like that up...

Gratulerer med dagen Norge!

For the ignorant masses; May 17th is our 4th of July (except we celebrate the Constitution). It's a day of marching bands, egg races, hot dogs and ice cream.

Swedes and GPS

Not surprisingly the Swedes are struggling with these incredibly complicated gadgets, so much so that they now cause 10% of all auto-accidents (btw, article is in Swedish). Here's a little hint to GPS saftey; if there's not a road there, don't turn left.

Speaking of Swedish idiots; this is from a newspaper's questions to the man-in-the-street scenario, the questions are as follows: 1) Do you care if products you buy are made by children? 2) Do you do anything to control whether this in fact is the case? The lady circled answered as follows: 1) Yes, children have no sense of quality, you can tell by the product. 2) No

I think there's a theme going on here... This is just plain dumb.

a political one... (part 2)

[EDIT: I'm realizing that I sound rather grumpy or upset in both of these posts, which I am not at all. this post was a failed attempt at humor, both items below were if not exactly hilarious, at least in my opinion worthy of a half hearted smile]

Please, if you have not already, read the post "a political one...", dated 5/6/08. the following email which I received today, is a prime example of the paranoia and "dooms-day-prophesying" that annoys me so much...

There are less than eight months until the election, an election that
will decide the next President of the United States.

The person elected will be the president of all Americans, not just
the Democrats or the Republicans. To show our solidarity as
Americans, let's all get together and show each other our support
for the candidate of our choice.

It's time that we all came together, Democrats and Republicans
alike.

If you support the policies and character of John McCain, please
drive with your headlights on during the day. If you support Obama
or Hillary, please drive with your headlights off at night.

That this one was the expense of the Dem, is completely arbitrary, there are surely, if not identical, emails circulating which do the same to the Republicans. Here is an example:

So here we are then

so close to being finished, but there's still so much left to do...

watched half of a recording of Austin City Limit's featuring Explosions in the Sky, really liked it, i'd never seen them perform. Been really enjoying that genre of music lately; Ours to Alibi, Mogwai, Dirty Three (a more recent discovery), etc... just something about it that has a certain beauty that's hard to define.

circumcision is a funny word - very difficult to say 10 times fast, and also becomes completely nonsensical...

the new friends suggestion app on facebook causes some rather aquard situations. i don't think that facebook is better for it... do people know you reject their suggestions? Do the one's who are suggested know?

i haven't had dinner today, and it's not looking like i will either...

Snippets from my day...

1. I overslept by over an hour - always a good start to a day.
   
2. I noticed a small crack in my laptop.
3. My prof paid for my lunch.
4. I drank my first V8 Fusion Pomegranate and Blueberry Juice (not bad at all)
5. I listened to many of the the sample songs on the ANTI- website as i finished up a couple of papers (Check especially out Michael Franti, The Promise Ring, Grinderman, Tim Fite, Tricky, Xavier Rudd and of course Man Man and Tom Waits).
6. I wrote a book report on Roy B. Zuck's "Teaching as Jesus Taught".
7. Troy called me about some pretty exciting Tom Waits news, which resulted in #4 above.
8. I was so desperate to procrastinate that had to post a blog post with snippets of my day.
9. I listened to parts of a podcast that must be one of the worst out there called "Hit or Miss", don't even remember downloading it or what i thought looked interesting about it
   
10. By midnight tonight i'll be done with 2 of 5 classes.

a political one...

It's interesting for me as both an outsider and and insider to observe some of the goings on leading up to the election. I struggle with most of what's going on. Conservatives are freaking out because their only "real" option is McCain, who is far from a conservative favorite, liberals on the other hand are worried as they fear that as Obama and Clinton tear each other apart, McCain has time to strengthen his position. As a cynic, I struggle to see how it will make a difference. Granted, the president appoints supreme court justices and his/her stance on the war(s) will impact troop withdrawal, an many other such issues. nonetheless, how much will life change for the average Joe in Greenwood, New York or Memphis? Not much. Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in democracy and voting for the candidate who most closely represents your views. I just cannot see that if a president, prime-minister, or what have you, is elected that you strongly disagree with, warrants some of the doomsday prophecies that are coming out of both camps.

[EDIT: I am sure that I am revealing my ignorance of American politics in the above statements, so for anything erroneous I apologize.]

well then, hopefully that was my one and only political one for the year, i usually don't like to share my political opinions in a public forum, but since i am criticizing both sides, i thought it'd be okay.

on a less serious note, here's another "Cyanide and Happiness" strip: