AVP-R

Shocking. Absolutely shocking. They got it right. After the original Alien vs Predator movie, I had to wonder if they could ever take either franchise and bring them back from the deep grave that their shitty movie had dug. It was so bad that even when the red (R rated) preview for AVP Requiem came out, I still had doubts. Though everything I read said that this new movie was basically an apology for the last one, I had to wonder unfavorably about this new upcoming movie. When I went to see the movie, I was skeptical but hopeful.

The hour and a half blood-bath that followed left me giggling. So many horrible things happened to people who both did and did not deserve the ungodly deaths they received were so worth the wait. There was no cheesy predator/human team up, the aliens didn't not use everyone (and I mean everyone) to their advantage, and everyone we wanted to survive most definitely had a low percentage chance of living to the end of the movie. People were killed by all sides and were often just caught in the crossfire of the battling races. No quarter was offered or received. The over all human survivor ratio for the entire movie must have been 5000 to 1. They even got the sound effects effects right by ignoring the more recent movies and going straight to Predator and Aliens for the noises we all expected. It was glorious.

Now don't go thinking this movie is a cinematic masterpiece, because it most assuredly is not. However, if you liked the Predator movies, liked Aliens (and possibly Alien), and you like me enjoy a story wherein people drop like flies in ways that make chills go up your spine, then this movie is definitely a very run ride.

I hate Christmas

I don't feel like being a maudlin idiot here, so I'll keep this brief. I hate Christmas. Not for what Christmas is, but for what it once was. I hate the memories this fucking season dredges up. I hide from them, I see my friends, I see my family, I do everything I can. But alone I can't ignore them. I remember a time when I was happy, when Christmas filled me with that sappy annoying joy that everyone is supposed to feel. Sometimes I feel I'll never get that back and that is what I hate. I am tired of feeling alone. I know I have my friends; I've regained dearly missed friendships, made new ones, even rekindled slightly tarnished friendships. I have more friends now than I have ever had in my life. But I'm still lonely, and when I'm alone, like the end of this fucking holiday night, I can't escape my own head.

Merry Christmas to me.

Don't mind me, I'm sure I'll be back to normal, as normal as I ever am anyway, soon as this holiday shit goes away. But if you see me, and you think of it, I wouldn't turn down a hug.

why I love being a computer programmer

Finding comments like this makes my day:

/*****************************************************************************
 You are entering the forbidden zone!!! This is the driver assignment logic.
 God help you if you must change something down here!!!!
 hahahahahahaha   ahahahhahahaha    hahahahhaha    sorry.
*****************************************************************************/

The testing constant...

Being punched in the face.

Yes, that's right, every single Kung Fu test that I can remember has involved me being punched in the face. This time arount it wasn't quite as dramatic as the large black eye I ended up with, but my buddy the Afro Samurai punched me in the mouth and split my lip, so the tradition continues.

This test was the test I had been dreading taking for months. Rather than the normal very challenging test, this was the normal challenging test plus a marathon of doing almost every other form I knew. That's a whole lot of work. However, I'm fairly certain I passed and more than that did well on the test. I even got told that one of my forms was just shy of perfect, which was quite the honor.

This is not to say that I wasn't exhausted very quickly, which I was. Part of the problem was my thinking that the test was closer to 6 than to 6:30, so when I showed up a little before 6 I had some time to kill, and all I could think of to do was prepare for the test. There went some of my carefully horded energy. Of course a lot of energy was wasted all day as I sat and dreaded this fucking test.

Honestly, the test didn't turn out so bad. Bits I was expecting to be much harder, turned out to be easier since I really did train for this test hard. Not as much as I would have liked, but still enough to survive everything up to the sparring and everything. I find out if I passed... I dunno, sometime. If I went to the graduation thingy on Friday I would find out then, but I already have other Xmas-y plans so I can't make that. So whenever it is the new semester starts, I guess I'll find out if I got a new sash or whatever.

I will miss my red sash though. Blue is nice, but it'll never be as badass as the red sash on the black uniform.

Holeeee shit.

THIS IS AWESOME!. A well choreographed fight scene for some kind of tournament or something. I dunno. It's just bad ass.

How many five year olds could I take in a fight?

33

Are you up to the challenge?

The Left Eye of Nathargo

Partially Clips is quickly becoming one of my favorite comics...

Here's one example.

Possibly the funniest single comic I have ever read.

ROFL. Seriously, I laughed so hard I cried and gave myself the hiccups.

Moisture farmers?!?

This would be the first step down that path...

We have a winner!

The LG XV6800. That's right I already bought a new phone. I think out loud (so to speak, or not) on this blog, and normally when I post it helps me work through whatever issues I'm having so that I can take ACTION and do something. So I got me a new phone! It fits almost every single need I want with only a few issues. I thought an issue was when the phone was off that the alarms failed to actually alarm, but that was only because I had plugged my new phone into the computer. Doing that apparently turns off the alarms because, in theory, the alarms are appearing on my computer instead, so the phone itself need not make noise. That I can forgive. After figuring that out, I tested and confirmed that the alarms are fine.

The only actual issue that I have is that rather than having a simple desktop program that this thing can interface and synch with, it only interfaces with Outlook. I don't have Outlook. Now I have to go get Outlook. Through totally legitimate and legal means. Ahem. Which is a pain in the ass, as I really don't like Outlook, but since I can just (in theory) replace Outlook Express with plain old Outlook on my PC it shouldn't be much of a problem. The actual nice thing about this is that the phone likes to just jam whatever is on the phone into Outlook and any discrepencies are handled on the PC rather than on the phone. That's at least easier than the way Palm does it, so even though I hate Outlook, I at least get some perks.

New phone? Awesome. Synching with Outlook? Annoying but bearable for the perks I do get out of it. Rawk.

V is the man! ... sorta

Violent Acres is one of the best blogs around due to blog posts like this one. I love V.

Nerd sniping

I love XKCD. Comics like THIS make it the best nerd humor I've seen.

I need a new pda phone.

I need a new phone. I need a new Palm. You'd think that combining those two expensive gagets into some kind of über gadget would be simple enough, right? I certainly did. But let's look at my options.

The Apple iPhone. Sleek, stylish, powerful. It is literally a small hand held computer, boasting the functionality of OSX and a host of neat features. It's also an iPod. Problems: I don't like Apple all that much, it's really pricey, I really don't want an iPod, it doesn't have the type of scheduling capabilities I woud like making it not so good for a pda, and who can forget that it's on AT&T. That last part is a particularly big nail in the coffin for this phone. Bottom line: I hate Apple, AT&T's service blows, and it cost a lot for me to not get all the features I want.

Verizon's Voyager, the iPhone kiler. I got to play around with this bad boy, and it boasts many of the same features that make the iPhone tempting, plus several others, improves text messaging and a clamshell keyboard that actually fits my fingers. Problems: it tries too hard to be just like the iPhone rather than trying to improve upon what the iPhone is, it's still incapable of the PDA scheduling I need it for, and it's pricy, though significantly less expensive than the iPhone. Bottom line: insufficient for what I need, even if the keyboard is actually big enough.

The Palm Treo 700wx. This is an actual PDA phone. It has all the functionality of a palm, a keyboard, and is better than the iPhone for what I need. Problems: The keyboard was designed for people no older than ten as my thumbs tend to hit six to eight keys at once no matter how careful I am, again pricy as in as bad as the freaking iPhone. Bottom line: this phone is damn close, but as I can't type on the damn thing and don't feel like dropping that much coin for something that isn't as cool as an iPhone, it's too damn bad.

The LG XV6800. From what I can tell, this phone is damn close to what I want. We get a bad-ass looking phone, a flip out keyboard that is actually large enough for captain Large Thumbs here, and a fully functional Windows Mobile mini computer that should meet my pda needs. Problems: money, as always, is an issue, other people report that Verizon locks some of the best features of this phone so that they cannot be used, and it's a god-damned Windows machine. Bottom line: This may be my next phone, but I'm going to go need to talk to Verizon sales people to make sure that it will do all my pda stuff and, more importantly, be able to absorb my palm into whatever software it is it uses for scheduling and what not.

Now that you see what I've been looking at, do any of you have any suggestions for phones I've neglected? If you're thinking of suggesting a T-Mobile, Cingular(AT&T), or Sprint phone, don't bother. Why? No service, crappy service, and buggy service. In my time with Verizon I can count the times I've lost calls for no apparent reason on one hand. Sprint dropped my calls like daily, and I ain't heard nothing good about T-Mobile, and I know AT&Crappy service sucks.

If you were thinking maybe the Helio phone, you definitely get points.

"under God" gotta go

"I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." George H. W. Bush

Should the two words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance be removed? Yes. Hands down, no questions asked, no debate necessary, yes. Why? Because the implication of that line is that to be a patriot you must believe in god. For those of you that don't know, the words "under God" were not even part of the original Pledge and were added in 1954 by President Eisenhower after he was pressured to add the line by a Catholic group called the Knights of Columbus. If you find this hard to believe, read the Wiki.

Now I could bitch and moan all I like about my opinion of how athiests are certainly capable of being patriots and how we are guaranteed religious freedoms by the Constitution, but I found a story on the Atheist Ethicist site that explains the same situation but from the perspective of race. I found the argument both fair and very compelling, so I share it here in the hopes that more people, religious people specifically, will come to realize that the Pledge should be restored to its former state so that we truly can be one nation, indivisble, with liberty and justice for all. You can read the story for yourself here: More Perspective on the Pledge.

This post may be unpopular, but, as a near atheist, I feel the need to share.