Short update

I need to see Hotel Rwanda sometime. On a totally off-hand note: wish I had seen this prior to going to London. Woulda loved to hunt for those places.

London Underground Fun

Ok all you London peoples, here's a song for you. It's rather strong language so if you are sensitive to that for some reason then don't listen to this. Or if you do then don't complain to me!! Anywho... LINK!.

Got a deeper post coming. Might actually appear prior to this tho, see what happens for saved posts.

Thoughts

So I am reading the book on Rwanda (see below post for the very long title). It's rather depressing on multiple levels. Primarily of course is the fact that this was allowed to happen. It, of course, is not the first time this has happened since the Second World War and it certainly won't be the last but it's rather discouraging. I remember walking through Dachua and seeing the promises erected there to "Never Again" let this happen. Well it happened again. Not only that but countries were well aware of that on so many levels. The Clinton Administration specifically avoided doing anything about it. They even went as far as stalling attempts in the UN and then wrangled over money that's right money while thousands perished. I say thousands because by that time they had already probably hit a million deaths that's how successful America was stalling things. We weren't the only low-life's allowing this to happen though. The French, unwilling to be knocked out of the competition for most thoughtless country actually aided militarily (including sending in troops!) to the Rwandan Hutu Power government. They actually helped the people comitting genocide! If this had been inadvertent it might be considered okay on the extent that they were duped. However, the French government was fully aware and quelled opposition at home who questioned what they were doing. Sheesh, maybe the reason the US and France hate each other is they are so alike it scares them. That's an angle I haven't thought about much myself.

The UN was completely impotent. If anything has come about with this Iraq war mess it further shows that the UN is possibly one of the most useless aparatus to ever exist. Simply put it only seems to succeed on rare ocassions and it drops the ball on big ones. Usually a lot of people suffer, not just those the UN was trying to save but peacekeeper's and other UN personnel as well. The UN needs to be either re-thunk or abandoned. (Yes I meant to type re-thunk.)

The other thing for me which rather affects is the actions of a lot of church leaders in these massacares. It is disturbing at how many Pastors/Reverends/whatevers betray their Tutsi Congregation members to Hutu mobs. It reminds me that there are many problems within the Church here on Earth. It's frankly depressing because I put a lot of faith in the various Pastors I've had/have and other leaders in the groups I am involved with and it scares me to think that so many people who had similiar faith were so massively betrayed. Still a lot of problems with the Church folk but God still loves us. Far more then we deserve at times tis true. There are stories which exemplify true Christians at the same time here though so it shows that it's by no means all bad. Truly those people display all that is to be Christian. Some of these people basically held back (and died for it) huge groups of armed militiamen out for murder. To die in the middle of a genocide unnamed and forgotten for others (including many strangers) just seems to be about the max you can do.

That last thing turned into a ramble, maybe I'll edit later. This book is deep though and I recommend everyone pick it up and read it. A whole new sad world will be laid out for you.

Some Changes And Some Neglection

First off, I failed to get to my secondary SALT update. I intend to do that soon tho just need to take some time to think about it. Having gotten the NWN expansions and SW: Galactic Battlegrounds this week has also sapped up my meager amount of free time to a large extent as well. At least I am done with Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World but now I am on Philip Gourevitch's We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families. That's a mouthful isn't it? Anyhow it's on the Rwanda genocide. A good read so far. Not exactly fun read tho. I've found that sitting down and reading about thing's really opens up a whole new aspect to conflicts. Certainly I know a ton more about The Troubles in Northern Ireland now that I did all that reading on the IRA.

I updated my lengthy list of blogs and journals. Some got moved around. Mainly my roommate egged me on. It helped tho that my weekend got all shuffled around due to the LAN party changing nights. Not all bad tho got to see Leah, Lindsey, Molly, and met David (Leah's bro) instead. Incidentally my roommate's new blog is up there. Since it's new it's still on the active list but we'll see. I was also keyed in that my old roommate Kyle has a blog out there. Put that up but it's been awhile since he's added anything so can't say if he's still using it. Blogs are funny like that; sometimes people will just stop writing or will update sporadically so you never know when one dies or not. Hence the quiet blogs section. I do intend to overview all the extensive blogs and journals I have out there. Maybe I should remove some, I don't know. I've been told it's a nice addition and I've been (jokingly?) mocked about it.

Anyhow that's the news for now.

The Force Is With Me

I got Death Star. Until Seth takes it away. Hence I propose we gang up on him.

The Great Links Explanation (Part 1 of Many)

I just realized I never wrapped up my SALT review. I should do that soon. This week I will set a goal for.

Well I am gonna start out with my actual non-blog links. These are probably self-explanatory but might as well explain why they're there.

First one simple point with every link on my blog. They are there so to some extent anywhere in the world I am I can have some of my favorite sites easily accessed. It's my homepage to a large extent and I use it as such. Granted the content is for the readers and the links are too but the links serve the self-serving purpose of aiding me as well.

Without further ado:

First off Google News. This is how I keep in touch with what's going on in the world. In general I don't pay any attention to local/state news and I don't get a newspaper or have time to watch tv news so it keeps me informed. It also uses 4k+ sources so I get a wide array of opinions.

White-Wolf Forums: This is actually just there for the Exalted forums but initially it was easier to link to the overall forum page rather then the Exalted one. I am too lazy to change it. If you've read this for any period of time you'll know I'm an Exalted fan boy so this link should make perfect sense.

APOD (ie Astronomy Picture of the Day): Just cool pictures of the frontiers of technology. A new one every day. Also keeps me informed on any big happenings in that area of interest. I've seen Mars and Titan through there.

Red vs. Blue: Very humorous web series. Worth your time to check out although 56k dial-ups will not be able to enjoy very well. If you've played Halo you'd prolly get a laugh. Even if you haven't you might anyways.

Sci-Fi Wire: Sci-Fi channel's news service. Essentially a less efficient sort of Google News (although it's been around much longer) it keeps me abreast with news relating to science fiction and fantasy. Easier then tracking those rumors and stories across the web.

MAHQ (Mecha Anime Headquarters): Basically a Gundam heavy site which houses stats for nearly every Gundam vehicle it also keeps me up to date with the mecha related anime world to an extent. Mostly for my occasional Gundam fix.

So that's the links. Primarily for keeping me in touch with the rest of the world. Blogs both active and quiet soon to come.

Working again

Well I am back on the job for my only night shift. It cuts Chi Alpha short which is frankly dissapointing. I don't get to talk much with my friends there then :( However hopefully next year I can move upwards or at least push my night shift to a better night (Monday!). My first shift was quite easy until the end when my replacement didn't come. I could not contact the higher ups so I was left in the lurch. Now it woulda been slightly less steessful if I had noted somewhere my class started at 1:35 NOT 1 but alas I did not so when I finally left I believed I was a whopping 20 minutes late. I thought I handled the situation about right for not remembering what I had to do, in fact I am pretty sure I was supposed to try and contact my bosses and not abandon my post if all possible. In the end my directly above me chain in the command (don't ask why I don't contact him, things are sort of compartmentalized) said not to worry about it. It would help if I didn't worry about such things but I do and frankly I don't think initially I am very good at any job I do. It takes me a few shifts to get used to things before I start running pretty smoothly and even then a new problem can throw me for a fairly significant loop. I don't think I handle change all that well. I just try and roll with it and kind of bump along. The next couple shifts should be uneventful and then hopefully the class we have will actually give me some useful info. Such as switching toner cartridges and submitting work orders, so on and so forth. It's not like they are hard things but it helps to see it done or try it out before you have to do it with people watching who think you know exactly what you're doing. Or maybe they don't but it feels that way to me and it's my impression we're supposed to handle all that competently which I feel I could do better if I had just a touch more training. Anywho...

Sometime soon I am gonna give a run down on all the blogs and journals I have links to in case anyone is curious how they got there. That will have to compete with the fact I have finally gotten the two Neverwinter Nights expansions and will be playing them often. Additionally Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds is enroute and I have been warned that Seth's got Death Star and I need to practice alot. Fun stuff eh?

Good news is I should be able to get much homework done during these initial lab periods so this way I can relax and keep up with school without sacrificing sleep.

First Day of Work

And so far it's been pretty easy. Then again I've only been here for 30 minutes. To tell truth I really don't have much of an idea what to do. Hopefully this is the norm (everyone says it is but I worry, prolly rather pointlessly) for the semester. It's kind of funny because at the moment I don't really have any homework I need to do so I am rather bored. And I am just enough nervous about first day of work that I can't really focus in on my book. Granted it would help if the book moved a little faster. Robert Jordan can really drag things out at times.

Apartment life has been pretty good thus far, need to actually probably cook some food at some point. I have been surviving off soup and sandwhiches plus so fruits and veggies on the side but aside from nuking the soup (that's microwaving if you're not familiar) I haven't actually cooked anything. Have to motivate myself to do that work. Plus I should just make up a bunch of sandwhiches and put them in the freezer. That way I won't raid them early.

Chi Alpha tonight. First night of that although I have spent a lot of time with Lars, Brent, Seth, and Squirrel in the past week or so. I am looking forward to that tho even if I have to work right after it. My work schedule is kind of crazy so that'll take some getting used to.

I can't believe how packed the lab is. It's only the second day of classes. Can people have this much homework already? I think a bunch of people are printing out notes for classes. Have to keep an eye on the paper situation. Haven't a clue where they keep toner at the moment so I'll just have to pray it doesn't run out until after class Friday (when I presume they'll go over such things). It's rather surprising how little they explained going in. They tell you what you're duties are but don't really give anything beyond that. I guess after the 'Ko I figured they'd show me to some extent just to make sure you got it right the first time. After that it'd be up to you. At this point if something comes up I'll just have to intuit it (scary thought there) and hope I get it right. So for the sake of all the people in the lab and myself let's hope nothing happens eh?

Last note, people keep saying I have British accent moments. Really? Just about everything I say I thought I said the same way as prior to leaving. Wonder if the Brits really did leave something with me...

Wha?!?!

So as some of you have heard we've had toilet problems here. They are (probably) no more as after the maintenance guys failed to find anything I discovered a (I kid you not) screwdriver, bathtub drain plug, and other metallic bits and pieces in the drain. No wonder it was plugged and how the hell did the maintanence fools not find it? Anyhow...

A Picture From The Past

LastNight, originally uploaded by mirv120.

Just seeing if this works. If it does then you are looking at a scene from our last night in London...

Pointless In Point

That seems redundant but I am finally back in Point. Took awhile to get internet up and the toilet is giving troubles (they fixed it this morning and now it doesn't work again). Anyhow I am back although off-campus now in the Village. Have a cell phone now too so theoretically I shouldn't be too out of touch. That's all for now tho.

SALT (Part 1)

Ok here are my first thoughts on SALT. First of all, please check out the official blog for Earl Creps who was the primary speaker at SALT. Also see the eightstar collective for Brent's initial take on things. Finally so I don't forget, not SALT related barring me finding out about it there is Lars' new prayer blog. Hopefully it'll be a little more active then his first run! Everyone go and support him. Yes that means pray for him. Hence prayer blog.

Ok, if I had been able to blog real-time whilst I was there this would have been an interesting see-saw of reactions. While I was there I was overwhelmed. I mean massively overwhelmed. They didn't pull punches or play with kid gloves and so the stuff they said was deep, give me a point where God is involved that isn't, powerful, and well over-whelming. There are times that I just wanted to pull away and think. If anything that's kind of the one thing, for me, that SALT lacked. The message was great tho. If anything it really puts into perspective that you're never done growing in Christ. I remember getting hit by this kind of feeling right after I joined up with Chi Alpha, kind of a point where suddenly the placid idleness is shattered into realization that you've still got a ways to go. Now I hope I wasn't in a state of placid idleness prior to SALT but I do think I had settled into something of a lull. I was, and still am, striving to become a better Christian it's just that I got a little direction and lots to think about.

It gave me lots of things to ask Lars (and Brent and Seth and who knows who else). It got me motivated to push a little harder. I hope that lasts for awhile. Much as I may hate to admit it this feeling of confusion usually turns out to feel good because as I try to sort out the answers and comprehend God. When I get that drive to learn more it re-invigorates me.

Anyhow, you're probably wondering if there's a conclusion or anything like that. My conclusion is: I think it was a good weekend. But we'll see what really results from all this.

More later I think...

Abyssal Suicide Bomber

Before the FBI swarms in, this title is related to Exalted. The title however is a perfect description. Please pull out your Exalted: The Abyssals class and turn to page 227-8. Please note the Labyrinth Circle Spell: Spiteful Passing. Now although it takes a turn of concentration (ie turn delay before the spell happens) it deals possibly the most bang for the buck for a very dedicated Deathlord. Consider, Abyssal shards are re-usable. When one Deathknight dies the Deathlord gets its core essence back. It may be draining and take considerable effort for the Deathlord to create a new Deathknight but think of the advantages. A Circle of Solars has just romped through the Deathlord's plans and are coming his way with a way to kill him. Along they way the capture his last wayword Abyssal servant. The guy has decent permanent Essence but no traning whatsoever. He is nowhere near capable to fighting the harderened Solars. They decide to question him however to learn what the Deathlord has planned to stop them. During this moment surrounded by the enemies of his lord the Abyssal concentrates, his Essence pool is at or near full so assuming an Essence 5 Abyssal he can give upwards of 70L damage (soakable only by natural soak) to everyone around him. How many beings can soak that? Not many, it's instant death. Now think about this, one death for 5, a dozen, more? The trick is high Stamina, high Essence Abyssal and that's about it.

Now I need to get ready to go out and hang with Jon so that's all for now. Just fun thing to think about if you are ever in an Exalted game I run :D But wait, Solars don't know about that spell! Hehehe, evil grin.

One local complaint: how the heck can our local schools get 3 days off already this year for weather? That's akin to the total we had in high school and fast approaching the high school/middle school total. What kinda wusses are they?

Future's Past

So today was the last day at the 'Ko. Possibly forever depending on if I can find an internship this summer (which in truth is unlikely but who knows). Regardless it is going to be the last time I work at the 'Ko here. Next time will be in Point and hopefully it's not so bad there. It's been 3 and a half years since I started working there. Nearly every one of my peers is gone. I think just Mary remains otherwise none of the part timers (and she's prolly a full-timer now come to think of it) remain. I've lost track of most of them unsurprisingly, granting I only tried to keep in touch with a few. Most of the lifer's are still there but many have been driven away. Some of my favorite managers have gone their ways as well. It's a different 'Ko now and not really a better one to tell truth.

For those (-1) readers from the London group if you were in Fred's class your papers should be showing up soon. With all my thinking of the past I thought back some on London too (it helped that I was talking about it with Mary too) and realized I'm gonna really really miss walking in Regent's Park. I think more then anything that was home and some of my best memories were there. It was my escape and I shall miss it.

You Windows slobs need to go check out Apple. We'll see how this venture works out I guess.

Burnout was something of a dissapointment. Guess the PS2 version I'd played was Burnout 2 (since 3 just came out I believe). I have a racing game now tho more serious then Mario Kart. Not knocking Mario Kart tho, it is the best racing game ever. But maybe I will enjoy it more when I am less dissapointed.

To anyone who's e-mailed me in the past week or so, I'll try and get to replying today before I crash but if not sometime before I leave for SALT. I am pretty excited about SALT, lot's of Chi Alpha people will be there, a much bigger reunion then when I was at Chi Alpha before finals (owing to Tuesday nights being tough schedule time I guess). Can't wait! Yay for seeing friends!

Pointless Moves Back

Well not completely yet but starting to move into the apartment and pretty excited about it. Another big move on Tuesday plus gonna travel back to Port Edwards and get some Twism stuff as well. Then I get to work (and stay awake after that to re-adjust the schedule). Tuesday will be long but worth it to have most of the big stuff moved in. Barring the electronics but maybe I can fit that into my CRV and do a run or certainly next week. After SALT. Much excitement this week anyhow.

Good day today anyhow. Felt like I achieved a lot and got an outside assesment by Dad that the apartment was very nice. Plus I finally got all my grades in and I got all As or A-s, I think that might be the first time ever. I'll go check now and add in whether it was later. Basically it ends a good semester. I am hoping people'll get together again or at least we'll run into each other at times. Guess that's silly since we almost all go the same bloody place.

Well let's say a boo to the Jets for beating those Chargers. Guess I am switching to the Steelers for my Superbowl win. With maybe the stumble into the playoffs Vikings playing them because that'd be a story to tell ya know?

Ok just checked, this is by far my best semester, next closest I had one B and a P (which I suppose is an A but not sure how it's recorded really) but that semester was only 3 As, and 1 A-, plus the B and P. Of course 8 credits were A compared to only 7 A credits this semester. But those A-s weigh in a lot too. Anyhow I am happy even if I bored ya about my grades.

I think I'll call this the end now, got a lot of stuff to do tomorrow to pack and such.

Sleep Wanted

I should probably not be posting when I haven't slept in over a day but this could kill some time and keep me awake (as long as I keep getting IMs in the background maybe it will). Anyhow it is kinda depressing lately and not just cause I am messed up because of lack of sleep. For one thing we are taking down our Christmas stuff. That's really no fun at all, Christmas lights and trees and such are just fun to have up. Obviously the season is about much more then that but I gotta say I enjoy the trappings quite a bit and am sad to see them go. Things are just blander and darker til spring rolls around.

Also depressing is the fact that break is mostly over and I have seen really no one (barring my jaunt apartment shopping in Point which was about a month ago) at all. All the people who I am friends with in La Crosse (maybe acquaintances is a better word since it's been prolly half a year minimum since I've seen any of them) are as usual way to busy with hanging out with each other, work, sig others, and whatever as usual. So whilst they can apparently juggle their schedules enough for most people I get dropped out. It steams me somewhat because whenever they are bored they pop online and IM me and complain that they're bored as if I exist to allieviate that. Grr...maybe I am a little more worked up about this right now then usual but hey I try and arrange/offer to hang out with people and visit them and whatnot and sometimes I just wish it'd be reciprocrated. Or that people would just tell me I'm no bloody fun to be around and that they'd like me to bugger the heck off. I realize that when I read this on the flipside it's gonna look like one paragraph hock full of pathetic self-pity. Oh well.

Shopko of course helps to kick morale into high gear. Lesse, I've worked/will work (barring another cancelation) a grand total of 7 days over this nearly 2 month break of which approx. 1 month I've been available to work. Yes, the place which desperately needs to hire more overnight personnel can't give the current ones, I'm not unique in this case, no sir, more then a day or two a week. How the hell can they even call that competent management when they don't give the fulltimers full time hours? We must have dunces in control who make Dilbert's boss look like the shining light of genius. Furthermore the second best manager (that's saying a bloody awful that too) I've ever had at the 'Ko quit. Yea, the higher ups, particularily our gifted "yes man" store manager who seems to be dilbert's boss on good days drove the guy to quit it seems. Isn't that just spiffy? Sheesh nice to know they can keep the talent working there.

N-E-WHO...I think this rant has gone on long enough, time to put it up and show what a total fruit I am. Or total nut. You decide. If ya want I'll key in sometime too (leaning towards fruit at the moment, possibily bannanas to be specific). I do feel a little better now, not much but a little.

Good news: SALT in one week.

RPG News

Ok. Check out White Wolf for news on the next Exalted release: Book of Bone and Ebony. While not my personal favorite to actually play I could use it to throw some "fun" things at my PC's in the theoretical game I am gonna run. Speaking of that: is anyone actually interested in PLAYING? Guess I will find out come the start of school.

Other news: Guardians of the Order (I know I should put their blog up on here at some point) is massively discounting their stuff to get it out. It seems Canadian companies are suffering with the downfall of the US dollar. Even when our economy sucks we can hurt people, scary thought ain't it? Anyhow if you are a Silver Age Sentinels or BESM fan (or anything else GoO) you might want to check out their store which has some massive discounts. Most of it is for bundles of stuff (60 percent off their entire in-print product run, $500 instead of $1200) but also some deals for BESM and Silver Age stuff. Full in print collections of both of these for $100 or less. I am not sure I am gonna get anything, I haven't really played BESM myself although I own the corebook and frankly I don't have that much money to toss around but it's a good deal if you want to get a lot of books all at once.

That's all for now, driving in to work should be interesting tonight.

The 0230 Crunch (Full Circle)

Yes I am still up even tho I am sick. Why, you may ask (or why do I care). Well see I am continuing in my project of the week of updating the parents computer. Tonight's task: downloading 110mb of updates. This took 7 hours. Started at 1900 and ended at 0200. Now the irony is after this I have to probably download something else, install 10.3 and then spend another night doing the same thing (as we are now at 10.3.7 which I just updated my computer this afternoon). Don't forget peripheral updates. Then I have to get their favorite places working and so on and so forth. I'll be here all weeks folks, probably even into the weekend.

Some random commentary: finished The Unifying Force which is the last book in the New Jedi Order series. It's strange now that it's done. I read it so piecemeal as it came out I never got a strong sense of things. Just brief memories which sort of interconnect things when they were mentioned. However the concept was good just not my reading pattern. This book actually took me over half a year to read because I started reading it the day I left for England but was halfway through it so I left it here (rather then finish it on the plane and have extra deadweight). Ok, let's see where the galaxy is: Chewie's dead, Anakin (Solo) is dead. Jacen's prolly baddest-ass of all the Jedi. Luke and Mara have a kidlet. The Jedi are going a completely new path then ever before. At minimum a half dozen well known worlds (Ithor, Coruscant, and Yavin 4) have been destroyed or radically altered. New Republic gone. Galatic Alliance in. Imperials = good guys. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. A fair amount of the legends showed up here. A couple died (I forgot Ackbar but he died a non-combat death, ie old age). The galaxy will never be the same as it's been so thoroughly shook up.

Relating to that I have finished watching the Star Wars DVDs with commentary. I can't believe Han Solo killed Ben Burtt! What was he thinking with the movie half done? They're lucky the got sound for the last half of Return of the Jedi!

Twism's in the apartment now. He nicked the master bedroom (with it's own walk-in closet and bathroom). I am a whee bit irked because I did go to the effort of finding the place I guess I think I should get the choice of bedrooms. However I am telling myself it's a minor thing and all that. We have a place and that is good. Exciting times anyhow. I am going to hunt for an office chair tomorrow because I realized I won't have anything to sit on to use my computer. For the moment my computer desk will be a card table but I am expecting my sister to surrender her old unwanted computer desk at some point.

Finals thoughts: Dad finished the bookshelf! Yay I have a place to store my RPG books and the rest of my library now! It is sad, pathetic, and nerdy that I am soooo excited about getting a bookshelf? Oh well, it looks darn cool if I do say so myself.

Anyhow time to say good night. To those who are sick like myself (but no unlike certain people named Leah I didn't get them sick) hope you all feel better soon!

Updating

Yea not in the sense of this ol' blog but rather my parents old iMac. I've been putting on OS X and wow it's a lot of work. Their OS 9 was out of date so OS X couldn't find Classic. When I updated Classic it created a new OS rather then overlapping the old (guess 9.0.4 and 9.2 are further apart then I realized). Can't update to OS 10.3 because firmware needs to be updated. Can't put Safari on cause the OS isn't high enough. Blaargh! Looks like I've got a project all week. My list of things to do is actually kind of large but nothing seems all that pressing at the moment. I should probably write it all down lest I never get any of it done cause it's all stuff where at random times I think "I should do this" and then forget again.

My beloved Miami Dolphins are not the worse team this season! Yes! Anyhow I think the AFC has got Superbowl in the clutch. It's hardly debatable that they have fielded the best teams this year. Look at what we are sending: the Packers and the Vikings and the West will send St. Louis or Seatle or right who cares?

Newtypes

Was shocked to see this maganize at the 'Ko but picked it up as it is the premire anime magazine. I had thought it was just Japanese only but they have an American version for us non-Japanese speaking Yanks. Guess we have taken to anime enough to make it worth their while. Decent magazine, there is a ton more anime then I can even imagine. A lot of it does not even slightly interest me but a couple shows peaked my interest. Not sure if I will ever see them cause you need to spend money to get the DVDs...

Slowly working to unlock the last levels that I have a chance in hell to unlock in Time Splitter's. Of course I fall about 4 hands (yes hands) short of unlocking Chasm. Gonna leave lots of this talented unlocking stuff to Twism who is a master at this, just like about everything he attempts.

Some well wishes to people who are about to travel or other such things. Primarily that'd be Krystal, Leah, and Jessie. Some are Ireland bound and one is going to Utah. Hope both journies are safe. Happy birthday to Colleen who is 21 in two days. Yea to Ryan for being un-single again. Hope it lasts old man :D

I haven't anything else to randomly mention so I'll just end this now. Fun that.