The Erupting Debate Which Killed Fae

So some randoms news for you all. First off, Mt. Saint Helens keys off on the debate later tonight by stirring up the west coast. I guess mother nature isn't satisfied with driving all Floridians out of Florida she seems to be trying to drive more Americans from their homes. Will it help make the elections saner? One can only pray. Maybe it can be debate hot seat on St. Helens :D
I watched Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 last night. Very good stuff, each movie had its strongpoints although I think overall I preffered 1. Some of the blood spraying could be scaled back and the whole hospital scene (you know which one) probably didn't need to be included. Anyhow glad I got a chance to watch them.
Finally, check out the Fae who are the latest Exalted hardcover. Def. the prettiest cover yet. I am excited although I'll prolly get it right after I get home. I'd give you a close up but the ISH cyber cafe computers are being crappy so maybe when I am back in our room. Anyhow, that is all. I wish I could see SNL's version of the debate!

Avoiding Karaoke

Yea, that's what I'm doing. Not really up for a re-hash of "I got you babe". I did my hard time already. Prolly will go, everyone else seems to be heading in that direction from our group, rather find the Canadian girls (cause they're cute and quiet!!) even tho I can't remember their names. Called Claudia Clare and they don't even have a Clare in their group, that had to go over well. Oy. Anywho, we seem to get louder and more insensitive to the people around us as we go. I was hoping as a group that this trip would be fairly strong proof that Americans usually aren't that loud, rude, arrogant, or whatever most of the time. We seem to be doing the opposite. Granting even I've said dumb things a couple times, there are days I seem incapable of saying smart things, alas now Europeans (and Canadians) have to put up with it. Poor them. At least I know why the continent hates us so much, we get real breakfasts not a single roll and some random spread. They could just ask and we'd airlife over a couple thousand Egg McMuffins a day. Or better yet their McDonalds on every other corner could make them for them!
Right. So a couple things to get noted, both AmbrosiaSW and White Wolf have gotten new webboards as of late. I haven't hit Ambrosia's in awhile due mainly to growing out of that type of group except at random bored moments (such as late) but their olds boards were always impressive and these new ones are quite good as well. WW has slowly been ironing the bugs out of their boards considering how major an upgrade they have made. I am happy with both although I don't have much to say or read on either these days.
Fair Folk will reportedly come out a whopping 328 pages in length second only to the core book for Exalted. No wonder ProductionBrian had all but dissapeared.
BTW I was going to try and upload some pictures to the blog which happily support such things these days but it requires a program to do that directly and I can't do that on John's comp. John has about half the group's pictures so he has a nice collection to work with posting wise. I may try and dump them onto my old geocities page and link from there. Kinda depends on how motivated I am.
I have picked up 4 or 5 books now for Jovian Chronicles so I have some side reading to do since I have pretty much finished all the books I brought barring the 9/11 Commission Report which I have gotten bogged down in just about halfway thru. JC is a pretty interesting concept but I am frustrated you need SilCore rulebook to know the system or use OGL D20 which is hardly supported outside of the core sourcebook. It also needs a decent spell check run and slightly better layout in regards to combat stats for ships and exos (ie mecha). It's impossible to figure out how many exos the ships carry! I guess I am rather spoiled by WW's fantastic editing and art departments although this is mainly ProductionBrian. However it's an interesting setting as I said and very cool mecha. Gundams in space which observe the laws of physics! Kinda annoying to have to explain it to each and every other person in our group when I am reading one of the books in class. It's so incredibly hard for people to grasp for whatever reason not using a computer or anything! But I did figure out why I enjoy RPGs so much even if I don't get to play them, it gives my, at times, over-active imagination a new world to play in so it's kinda like a new jungle gym for it to swing around on.
Speaking of gaming I did find a group that plays here, they actually meet literally right next to ISH at a pub called The Green Man. So I am in a d20 Modern game with a bunch of Brits. The GM, Rob, is hilarious. It'd take too long to explain but his accent really helps.
Is there anything else I can ramble about now I wonder? I think I am gonna go over to the ISH pub, where karaoke is at, around 10 and just slip quietly in for a bit. I should go see if Lindsay wants to go but she was complaining about a headache so I don't want to pester her. I am so indecisive when it comes to the opposite sex :/
I adjusted my post times to GMT-Greenwich time so I think it now now on London time but not quite postive, see when I went to post tonight it said I started at 8:05 PM which isn't exactly right, I was sprawled out on my bed, in the dark, listening to my iPod at the moment. Maybe some more fiddling will be involved.
Tommorow we go to the Globe theatre to see "Much Ado About Nothing". We're going as groundlings so it better not be raining or super chilly or I'm gonna be pretty darned unhappy. Standing for 2-3 hours in cold wet conditions are not on my top list of things to do in London. Boo! Plus it's a long walk back too. I should note I am holding off on using the Tube here as long as possible because it's far better exercise to walk places here and I'll always have enough time to get anywhere in Central London on foot so I can save money and be in better shape! However when we are told we have to be out at a tour at the Globe 3 1/2 hours prior to our performance it's rather annoying especially when we just found out we're standing! (Yea I am complaining for no reason at this point, if it was really bad I could take the Tube. I'll live, I am just venting a tiny bit.)
I have succeeded in beating Mindsweeper 3 times in my life now. The things you do when trying not to type papers. As for taking so long in my life to beat Mindsweeper I will remind you I prefer Macs and the school computers only have Hearts. So that is my excuse, got it? :P
I've learned the basic rules to cricket too. I can't bowl (pitch) because they do it crazy but I could do the rest. It's crazy to watch. I got to see an ametuer match at Lord's Cricket Statium and also got to see the home of the English cricket team who upset the Aussies (alas not there so no live game) whilst I was on the tour. Four fours and they were up 85-1 with only 14 overs! Anyhow you all must cheer for the English going into the world championship versus West Indies. Not sure who's favored but if the English do as well as they did Tuesday they've got it in the bag! BTW if you are wondering they won 262-4 (England) 258-9 (Australia). The number after the dash is a bad thing. I have still not found out if the term "wicked googly" relates at all to cricket.
Right, this must be incredibly long but I don't care much at the moment. I needed a good ramble here and I won't be getting out to Regent's Park anytime soon to write in my journal in the rain (because it always mists/drizzles when I go there to write but I have a good hiding place) so needed an outvent. Whee, rambling, it's not an art, it's a freaking professional sport!

Home

Yea, right now I'm a little homesick. It's tuesday night and no Chi Alpha and no mario kart. Frankly tho I miss everyone tho right now, somehow I just feel very alone in this city of 16 million in my group of 29. Kind of silly isn't it? Anyhow I am thinking of you folks back home and seriously wishing I could be there.


Wholly unrelated here but I need to link it for myself later. Not exactly pleasant either but worth a look. However this is not for the weak hearted.

Thames Festival

John got his laptop working in the room with internet so now heh I guess I can be on more which is prolly a bad thing. I don't intend to be on much tho but it is nice to be able to check things. NFL scores at my fingertips! w00t!
Anyhow instead of going to the sports bar to watch the Packers lose to the Bears (but how about them Lions, I guess whilst the Dolphins suck I can cheer for them) I went down to the Thames festival with John, Filteau, and Beth (who got to be doted on by 3 guys but hey she's got John so us others are redundant). It was great, we heard a little live reggae by the Top Cats, I think was what they were called, watched a huge parade where the different elements basically competed to be loudest, and then watched fireworks on the Thames river. Very cool. Ton of walking but I don't mind, I've decided to try and not use the Tube much this semester and instead walk it.
I have found a decent tasting alcohol called Strongbow. It's kind of a cider I guess so that is why I think I enjoy it, it doesn't taste like alcohol. Dun worry I am not becoming a drunk or anything.
BTW you all missed my single and hopefully only kareoke performance. Too bad (or good?) for you. I however was forced :P

Arrival

London. Finally.
Somehow by hook or by crook or by a fairly absurb amount of incredibly dumb luck I have made it here. Can't say a whole lot about the city itself yet, as I haven't really gotten a chance to explore alas. This due mainly to the fact we stumbled into London late last night due to two simaltaneous flats on our coach right off the Calais-Dover ferry. So while we did see it rain several times already within the 18 or so hours we've actually been here, noone as far as I know has actually gotten a chance to explore the city. I, myself, am hunting for a bookstore, a grocery/convience store, and a gaming place of some sort so that I can maybe get something in whilst away from GASP. I have got quite a bit of time tho so I am not massively rushed. The best thing I have to admit was to be able to unpack all the way and enjoy the view from our very spacious room, with balcony, into Regents Park. Never thought I'd get a room with a nice view of the greenery but can't complain I guess.
Classes have already started today and my first half of the week (Monday/Tuesday) are light but Wed/Thurs are packed for me. Lots of history though so I am hoping I will enjoy this semester. Speaking of history, Normandy was by far my favorite part of the trip. We stayed at a small village college Benerie s/mer (that's nowhere near correctly spelled) right on Juno beach. Literally it has the first house liberated by sea-born Canadian forces. In general I just enjoyed being in a small local place rather then the hustle and bustle of huge cities which was where we mostly were. Reality is that I think I am a small town person and the 12 million odds Frenchmen of Paris have the same big city attitudes of New Yorkers, etc to foreigners and strangers, ie they aren't usually that polite.
Visiting the sites in Normandy was very impressive. I have to say that going to the Omaha beach cemetary for Americans nearly broke me down. The little white crosses just go on and on and on. Most of those men buried there were my age or younger. A number of them had no identification, their crosses reading (this isn't an exact quote sorry) "This honored comrade's indentity rests only with God". A very sobering expierence.
I wished we could have spent more time there but alas only a day and a half on the coast. Never got to St. Lo or any of the places I would have wanted to putter about. I did get to see the Aure River which looks frustratingly hard to cross even though it appears to be 10% water 90% mud. The vertical drop is a problem tho.
So anyhow I am in London now, getting settled in and then I'll try and write a little more. Internet is fairly cheap here (£10 for 6 hours which is approx $20 US I'll admit but that is not bad for England believe it or not) so I may write with a decent regularity if time permits.

Paris...

Well I am currently hiding out at the FIAP (sp?) in Paris. I have managed to avoid any major diplomatic incidents so far. I visited Napoleon today and got to see the French musee d'le armee. Frankly I want to head to Normandy but most of the rest of the group is thrilled with this city. The metro is nice but people need to take baths cause apparently people stink massively here. This is blog is coming courtesy of Andy's laptop. So go check his site out or something. Also I have the LJ from Casey another member on this trip. So you can get another opinion of this jaunt. Going to keep this short cause I want to get some sleep before we head to Versaille, looks more and more like I will have fairly easy web access this trip just not sure about Gmail unless Andy gets internet with his laptop.

Lost I Was

Yea so yesterday I managed to get lost by myself in Venice. Italians need cities which have normal streets and no canals! Thankfully, by the grace of God, I managed to end up where I wanted to go. I say by the grace of God cause I sure didn't cause myself to get there. Anyhow I am not enjoying Italy as much as Austria or Germany, it's just not as well managed here in all respects and things are rather ragged not even around the edges but even in the center! So if planning to go to Europe stay in the nice cool north!
So Apple released iMac G5s those punks! I want one! And they did it in Paris a week too early! Boo! Another reason to hate the French (sorry Nathan). Two days and then Switzerland and someplace I'll rather enjoy. I have to admit tho I am excited for Normandy as well not so much Paris tho. Big cities are kinda meh at the moment (London will be different however).
Lesse anything else to talk about whilst I kill time waiting for the girls to get done (since this place denies both Gmail and UWSP mail, try turning ActiveX on when the controls are in Italian! Or switching Languages!). Hoping that I can get Gmail to work in London if not I may have to hold out hope that anyone who'd e-mail me with it checks the blog and uses my UWSP e-mail which has to work in London.
Good news for Teng, I am a lighter-weight then he is. It only took 3 glasses of wine to give me a buzz. Wasn't trying too or anything so it was a major surprise. I didn't like the feeling either so I am seriously surprised that people do this and worse to themselves. Dumb. I found a white wine which isn't completely disgusting so finally have something I can drink with other people and not hate it.
I am gonna head out now supper soon. See ya.

Greetings from Italia

Hi all, they have internet cafes in abundance here so I am actually writing sooner then I thought. Sadly this place keeps me from getting into Gmail or UWSP mail (if I messed around with it I prolly could get into UWSP but Gmail hates the browser). Also forgive the weird puncuation at times, the keyboards are designed for Italian and as such have many keys which I don't use and some special characters which for the life of me I cannot access and use. However this is better then the German keyboards!
Anyhow it's been a lot of fun over here thus far. A little crowded sleeping quarters, especially in Salzburg (wait til ya see the bunks) but here in Venice we got a 3 star hotel so it's wonderful. BTW we're 7 hours ahead so while this will show up at 5 pm Wisconsin time it's actually midnight here.
So let's see, what to mention. Well I've had a few drinks. In fact I can say I've drank at the premire biergarten in the world. Still don't like the taste of alcohol but I am getting used to it enough that I can eat a meal with it. No way are you gonna get me drunk tho. They do actually really good over here (ok quit saying duh :P)
I am not sure which place I like the most so far, Munich is practically perfection when you look at the people and the cars (we love Smart cars, they are great, incidently the farther south we go the worse conditions the cars get, they'll be camels eventually I guess). Venice here gets tops for housing but I haven't gotten to the main city yet we are in a ghetto suburb of Venice called Mastro(sp?). 5 of us went out and played Bingo tonight, it was a blast especially since we don't know a whit of Italian between the 5 of us so we got to learn Italian numbers as we played. Almost won twice too.
Got to be in the largest castle in the world, def. gonna use that for gaming expierence later so realistic role-playing to some extent from me :D The churches here are huge and mostly Catholic, in Salburg there are 46 churches and only one is not Catholic, the bells are incredibly loud on the hours, but I think all the people who had to build them woulda preferred that money was spent on them rather then on giant ornate churches capable of holding 10k plus people within them. In Munich I got a kick out of the fact that Rome sent the remains of a dead saint to one of the churches, hey I always wanted a dead body as a reward for being faithful! They are really pretty tho and it's awe inspiring to walk through them so I'll bow to the fact that making the common man feel small they do a great job at it.
I think that is all for now, there is so much more to tell but I am all hot and sweaty cause Italy is hot and humid (unlike say Munich which is cool already) so I'd like the opportunity to shower and Chris and I lucked out and got seperate beds cause Jeff wants to sleep on the roof so I am gonna absorb a few hours of sleep.
Oh yeah guys you want to go abroad via UWSP. There are just 8 men and 21 women so the odds are in our favor and some of them are really really (really!!) hot. Yea I went over for the scenery. BTW one is from UWEC so that makes two girls I know there who are pretty good looking!
Dang there was one last thing I was gonna say but I forgot now, I'll remember as soon as I get up to go pay. But Chris is here so I shouldn't make him wait either. Miss all of you, on one hand it feels like we've been here weeks already and on the other just a few days, very strange. Heh these are all gonna be like open letters sort of from now on, fun fun. Anyhow I am out!
From Venice, Italy.

Departure

Is 17 hours away. As promised once in London I'll try and update this semi-regularily so anyone who has any interest can keep track of me and hopefully organize a Marines backed rescue whence I get into trouble. :D
Thanks to Dani for some nice Naruto music to take me out on. Hopefully the iPod hold up for 3 more months. Anyhow I shall miss everyone and Point most especially but this is something I've wanted to do for awhile so here I go on the biggest journey of my life (at least I don't have to drive, the poor truck gets a break)!
That all said and done I must be going and sleeping now. See everyone in 3 months or so. I'd love an e-mail and have a snail mail addy if you really prefer that (have to request that tho :P ). Miss you all!

"May you go with the grace of God my friends!" -Wolfwood

(complimentary Trigun quote, my second favorite quote of all time :D)

This One's For Brent...

Also called the making Christianity seem like a "hokey religion" entry (I'm watching SW: A New Hope guess which part I just saw...).

Anyhow hokey part number one: I was down visiting Jessie in the Dells, I guess that'd be the Vegas of Wisconsin. Anyhow we're walking downtown, the sidewalks are just packed as usual. We're having a grand ol' time checking out shops and talking and basically being like everyone else. Then there's shouting from across the street, enough to get everyone's attention. It's all there, men with blank unfriendly expressions, the tacky sign, the starched shirts. Yup you guessed it, those annoying preacher type folks who have to go out and convert people by letting them know in the most vocal, annoying fashion that they are sinners and going to Hell. (On a side note, I am a sinner but I'm not going to Hell, it's personally a little insulting when they basically lop everyone together cause we are out enjoying time with friends, etc!) Now my point is, while the entire downtown was fairly packed with people somehow these four guys had managed to create a bubble 30+ feet wide on their side of the street nearly devoid of anyone. How many people do you think they converted that night? If you guessed 0 or less then you've prolly hit the nail square on the head. Yea anyhow I thought of Brent and Lars almost immediately when I saw that and how much they suggest that this doesn't usually work and that it rather backfires.

Number two hokiness thing: online ordination. While this can't be a new concept at all, I just heard about it tonight when I happened to turn on Channel 10 NBC local news. Ok, I can go to one of these sites and fill out some basic personal data and become the Reverend Beeks, Apostle Beeks, Bishop Beeks, and more! This just boggles the mind on how much this cheapens the whole idea of having an ordained church leader. Of course I shouldn't be surprised of course, in America we want to do everything easy, fast, and cheap. Plus being clergy has lots of side benefits and exploitation of such things is a very common thing. Alas it's frustrating people would do that to Christianity. Then again like I said, it's not new.

That's my rant for now. 2 days til I'm out of here!

Home Stretch

So we had frost tonight, so close to snow it's rather scary. I'll end up not noticing any change in temp when I go to Europe (where that seems to be roughly the average temperature, just 70/40 for temps).

Things are packed now for the most part. Everything seems to fit so yay for that and it doesn't weigh very much at all. Now I just need to sit around and be nervous, oh joy. Finished Eva's Death & Rebirth, talk about a clip movie. Love the classical music in the background tho.

Discovered that my iPod's total battery life is now down to roughly 4 hours which sucks, have to conserve it on the flight over to Germany. Blah. If I had confirmed this earlier I might have gotten a replacement iPod or replaced the battery. My question is why Apple didn't switch it when I sent it in when it was under warranty? Frustrates me some but I'll hope that I can keep 4 hours thru this fall and then think about options come this spring. Apple get better iPod batteries! (I am now part of that vocal mass.)

That's all for now.

End Run

So last overnight was today. It dragged, rather unintentionally, I tried to work hard but well I guess it's my end of the summer slide, besides John got lazy too (yes I am partially blaming him :D ) so when ya got someone to chat with you don't work as hard. But I am done til Decemember and then hopefully forever shortly after that. Who knows tho maybe the 'Ko will be better come then anyhow.

Maybe it's cause I have been up since 11:08 AM yesterday (the 18th I think that'd make it) but I feel really out of whack today. Granting I got nothing done at home minus a few errands I ran right after work. I didn't work on the paper I should work on or pack any. I finished Macross Plus went for a fantastic hour twenty minute walk down past Thompson's. It's funny how just a short walk can really take you to a place which seems to be a thousand miles from civilization. Some of the views remind me of when I was out west and wandering about the foothills/mountains of the great national parks.

I finally asked the cute girl at work if she wanted to do something, she said yes but I haven't been able to get in touch with her since. I figure she musta not wanted to say no around other people or was too nice to tell me to my face (or the much more likely thing, I screwed up somewhere in the calling part and she changed her mind, always count on me screwing up ya know) but well I guess I am happy I managed to actually ask her, not exactly something I commonly do as anyone who knows me knows. That sounds nice and redundant eh?

John borrowed me Neo Genesis Evangelion (whole series runs plus Eva's End and Death & Rebirth) and Macross Plus. I've now watched everything but most of Death & Rebirth. Eva is ok. I prefer more a straight up giant mechanical suit combat as evidenced by Gundam (ie MAHQ) and my recent interest in the Jovian Chronicles, etc. It is fairly good until the last two episodes and Eva's End. Then well they go do a David Brin and kinda of go all deep philosphical and shoot so far from what the rest of show was it's practically unrelated. I'm sorry, you don't watch the first 24 episodes to have two totally different format episodes wrap things up in a most confusing manner. It took me a good couple hours of random discussion to sort things out. Maybe Death & Rebirth will help too. Macross Plus was ok, rather short since it's just a 4 episode OVA, and it probably would have helped for me to see Macross (ie Robotech some of you might know it as) first. All in all not too bad but neither Eva nor Macross really were a big hit for me.

So let's see, I am doing a nice long entry here, what else to add, sleepiness makes me talk-er-typeative. Visiting Jessie tomorrow, yay! Think the hardest thing about this fall is no real major contact with my friends stateside, I doubt they will have much chance to write, everyone has crazy schedules as it is. Luckily it seems like our London group is doing pretty good communicating already so hopefully everyone'll get along real well, heh we'd better or it's gonne be a long 3 first weeks not to mention 3 additional months.

Right, well this helped wake me up some more which is a good thing, need to hold on until suppertime :D Hope it was an enjoyable if me-esque read.

Lost

Well since Blogger did some cosmetic upgrading so I did some too. Anyhow just shifted some blogs around which seem neglected by their authors. This time next week I will probably be over Iceland. It's hard to believe that I am getting so close to the departure. Still so much to do!

Winter in August

Well all the books I've ordered have finally arrived. The irony is I have to wait on reading them or risk not having anything to read this fall. I do get to peruse Monsters of Faerun and Savant and Sorcerer at least cause those sure aren't coming over! I also got to read John Keegan's The Iraq War a very British outlook on the war and an interesting take on the war by one of the most reknowned military historians out there. Also managed to get out to see the Village. It was good although I preffered Signs I think.

It's unbelievably cold outside lately. Today I left work in a 47 degree mist. Frankly my random predictions of snow may come true at this rate. Snow in August, who'd a thunk it? We really are a frozen wasteland. Speaking of which I'll be visiting said center of wasteland tomorrow, yay I get to eat Marvin's again aside from doing some checking up on my trip info (which the stupid IP people have been slow on sending) and applying for an absentee ballot.

Shopko work continues to suck, at least I get to work with good people which helps. They transferred in a new manager, a younger cute one. :D However that doesn't matter so much as if she actually does work. She seems new so should be interesting to see. Anyhow I've found a cute girl at the 'Ko already although not sure she likes me (and ha, that's all you get).

John finally got his Demon game off the ground last night. I rather enjoyed my character, first one I played fairly easily and true to what I intended. Irony being that it's for a Demon game although perhaps I am just learning to building a character. John is a good ST too. Anyhow this is inspiration to get my act together and run an Exalted game whence I return from Europe.

That's all for now.

Politics, Shopko, and Whatever Else

Yea, I haven't written in awhile. To the 0-1 readers who actually check this more then to just humor me, sorry! Work's been hell and I just finished night 5 of 5. They wanted me in tonight but then I'd be 7 in a row cause although I don't work tonight I do work Saturday and that'd be just a little too much, however I'll cover that later. Basic explanation from all of that was the when I was online I simply didn't feel like writing even if I had stuff to write about. :/

My first topic relates to the visit of Vice President Cheney to our locale yesterday. Frankly I could care less myself, it's a private rally, invite only and that's all and good for me, however apparently the Kerry campaign has decided to have protestors at every local rally (I'd imagine though that this is not a Wisconsin phenomena but a national one) for Bush Cheney. Because the two rallys we've had have been invite only none of them have been able to get in, police and Secret Service stop them, and suddenly they are claiming this is a violation of their right to free speech. As if whereever Bush and Cheney go they should be allowed to trail behind protesting. Now maybe I missed the point but if it's invite only and it's on private property (or if it's on public property and the local government has sanctioned it as a private event, ie when you have a fest you can keep people out who don't pay admission, etc) how the heck is it a violation of your First Ammendment rights? I mean if I have a private party at my place is there a violation of your free speech when I don't invite you? Especially if I know the only reason you want to come is to cause trouble and disrupt my fun? If you said yes, I'm coming over to your next party with the entire TKE frat boy club (drunk as usual). Frankly what disturbs me more is that the KerryEdwards campaign organizes this! It's petty, it's low, and it shows a total lack of respect to Americans because they are already attempting to exploit our most sacred laws for their own political gain!

Next hit, somewhat related. The Anybody But Bush crowd (hereafter referred to ABB(s) because I don't feel like typing that out. Ok, your motto has to be the stupidest thing on the planet. Are you saying if Osama Bin Laden somehow got in the election versus Bush you'd vote for him over Bush? How about Ioseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler? Or maybe my computer, my iPod, or the chair which I'm curled up in right now? Or a pet rock? I could go on, but suspect you get the point. It just seems to me that it's a very close minded outlook. Do I have a point here beyond that? Not really, except open your minds up a little. The two canidates messages are identical and although their methods may vary just enough so they can say "I'm different from him, my way is better!" it should be noted that both parties really don't get anything done and if you could convince Americans to mess with pollsters you could get them to say some very stupid things to "win" voters so they can get into office and pay back their corporate sponsors.

Yes, I'm ticked off at politicians and their parties who are effectively in complete control of the US government. That's right, the Republican and Democratic parties own and run the United States of America. They do not serve anyone other then themselves and their sponsors who have managed to evade every control on their dumping of cold hard cash in and call it "free speech" where money is speech and the free-est people are those who have the most money. So much for land of the equality, eh? Oh well, in America where the dollar is god it shouldn't surprise those of us who have less money that we are simply just the newest serfs.

Speaking of serfdom, Shopko certainly has made me feel like one. This has been the longest, crappiest week of work in my history at Shopko. I have worked something like 14 days straight and felt better then I do now. Frankly going in is something I dread and everyday I feel less and like a person or an employee and more and more like an expendable peon. I know work is not supposed to be super fun especially high school/college short term jobs but things have taken such a downturn this past week that I am wondering if they job I have been at wondering if I can last even those next two weeks. And that's with full knowledge that I have 3 days off for sure during that time. (I am still cursing they schedule right around my day off to visit Lars and Point tho, especially since they switched the schedule around so I will work Friday at midnight when I think it's obvious if you have been out of town the entire day you will not want to work at midnight when you get back, dangit! That will be a long day but I'm still heading your way Lars so tell Jaybez she's got another toy to play with for a few hours!) Frustratingly though even as our store makes changes that are supposed to help nothing really seems to change much and the problems that the overnight staff sees aren't fixed, worse we continue to be blamed for them even when we haven't done anything wrong! Yea, I am just a little stressed.

Final notes: Katy you must go to Marvin's prior to leaving Point. You prolly won't but let it be said "I told you so!". :D Ok so I love the place, sue me. Anyhow I am gonna go do some random stuff to keep me awake so tomorrow I get my check, cash it, and maybe visit a cute girl all in one trip and be awake enough to enjoy it. I should stop typing now before I say anything stupid from tiredness!

In Brief

First off, some Exalted news, the cover for the Houses of the Bull God (coming October) has been released. This covers Harborhead and the Cult of Ahlat (aka the Bull God). That's all, was gonna write something but don't feel like finishing it yet so maybe later (or more then likely not at all).

Tech Humor

What's scary is that this is true: Apple Product Cycle

Addendums and Such

Happy birthday to Ryan and my sister, 20 and 24 respectively!
I have this nagging feeling there was something I meant to mention when I blogged today but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. It shall nag me until I fall asleep and then it'd better go away doggone it!
I got some reading for my trip to Europe. Two books: the 9/11 commission report (unless it's utterly huge, that'd be rather ungloss, have to see how big/much it weighs when it arrives) and a book entitled "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda". Not exactly happy reading I'll admit but at the moment current events have rather garnered my attention and I have already read a fair amount on World War II so now I am trying to expand my knowledge base, granting I still have lots of reading to do for that war. I picked up a book on the Germans drive to Moscow and I never did finish even the Pacific half of the Samuel Elliot Morrison 15 volume Two Ocean War series. I also got a book on the 6 Days War between Israel and all her neighbors.
Do I really need to take this much reading along? I dunno, certainly 2-3 books is about what I read in the average semester, maybe a little on the low side but I figure there are times that I will certainly want to escape and read even if this isn't exactly escapism reading.
I got the iPod power adapter world travel plug kits and since they basically are just different pronged plugs for the power adapter Dad and I are trying to figure out if that little gizmo isn't actually smart enough to be convert power from different countries (ie, it figures out which plug is in there and then converts it to the correct type of juice for the iPod to keep it from frying like an egg on the sidewalk in August). Rest assured it's a mystery although I am gonna hit the Apple website and hope to turn something up there.
Well Starcraft is calling out to me, I managed to crush 7 opponents (who thankfully nuke each other as much as me, stupid nukes vaping all my carriers...grr) so I am feeling "lucky". One last night of work from 10-6:30 then starting the midnight to 8 run. I finally met Steve Friday morning because I was running late getting all the pulls done, stupid managers changing how the process is done without asking the people who actually know/do the work! Hopefully I didn't come across as too grouchy ignoring the fact I was (cause of the whole being 15 minutes late for a dumb reason) cause he is the new manager and he definitely is making major changes and the night crew I think is somehow on his bad side already and I'd feel bad if I added to it.
Starcraft...
summons...
now!!!
:D

Our Wonderful Little World

First off, a little show of how the UN inability to react to current crisis situations while millions suffer in Sudan. This is in fact not exactly a new problem just one that has heightened enough to reach the Western Media's ears for once. However it is rather evident to note that the UN has be unable to act at all and even its resolutions are weakened. Hopefully it won't be as bad as Rwanda (however granting the US also dropped the ball, although not nearly as much as it's not mandated by the US) but one never knows. At least Africa is attempting to get it's act together and do something.
Good news for Iraq in the fact that the Saudis appear to be willing organize an Islamic peacekeeping force to aid (and hopefully replace) the belaugered US forces there. Frankly I think getting US forces out will help to some extent to show we are not trying to stomp out Islam, just trying to establish democracy and freedom in the region, even if it means allowing others to do it.

Jovian Chronicles

Well in my random search of the web I've stumbled onto yet another game which looks very interesting. It's called Jovian Chronicles, from a company called Dream Pod 9. Incidentally I actually own a book of theirs, which I got for free sorting for Jason, that converts most of their mechs to d20 system. It looks pretty cool, basically a well integrated story which, as usual, is a big seller for me. Also pretty cool looking mecha which is fun to play with. I happen to run across it on DriveThruRPG when getting their weekly free download (the top levels of a super dungeon, interesting concept, especially for simpleton dungeon crawlers). However it's a well developed line so any purchasing will definitely wait til 2005, have to save up for London, granting I don't think I will spend a whole lot there but no way to read anything on my computer when I am overthere so either way best to wait. Besides patience is a virtue right? I should work on being more virtuous.
Finished Heaven's Reach, it's ending reminded me quite a bit to The Postman in the fact that things got kinda philosphical/metaphysical and in the ends things didn't wrap up as nicely as I'd like, I mean what happens post-Streaker arrival to Earth? Sheesh Earth was about to fall, and what about civilization on Jijo? I guess I'll just have to live with the lack of wrapping up. At least they got the Tytal to talk :D