| "The thing about being irresponsible is it's only cute till you are about twenty-two or so, then it becomes a liability. One day you wake up under a pizza box, the television blaring in your bedroom, the laundry piled up over what might be a bedside table, and you ask yourself, 'How did my life get like this? Why don't people like me? Didn't I have a cat and what is that smell?'"- Donald Miller, To Own a Dragon (p. 112)
I am irresponsible.
This candid confession should come as a surprise to absolutely no one. I am, after all, a twenty-one year old male. In general, twentysomethings are not considered to be the most responsible bunch. And on a personal level, I consider myself somewhat jovial in nature, which oftentimes gives people the impression that I am little more than a layabout who takes little seriously.
And, I suppose I'm coming to the realization that that's not necessarily an untrue assumption. I don't quantify this by silly things like my deep love for comic books or video games, but rather by how the things I don't take seriously adversely affect my life.
The passage I quoted above, as noted, comes from Donald Miller's To Own a Dragon. I snagged a copy of the book off the shelf to read on my break at work tonight, and randomly opened to a chapter entitled "Making Decisions: How to Stay Out of Prison." To my surprise and despite the fact that I've read through the book before, I found myself reading into an essay which spoke frankly to my own situation, and I couldn't help but be confronted with a problem that can have devestating consequences if I don't start taking it seriously.
I am irresponsible. This fact is not so shocking given my age. After all, your twenties are supposed to be the age when you act a little crazy, a little immature, before you sort of "straighten out" into your thirties. However, it seems to me that my own particular brand of immaturity is of a slightly more self-destructive brand than most people experience at my age - for one thing, I am outrageously bad with handling my finances. I am more in debt than I should be at my age. This is not something that is unmanageable, even for a community college student with a part-time job or two, such as myself. However, I consistently find that instead of taking the high road and spending money wisely, I will spend my funds on things that are instantly gratifying but do little to ensure my financial well-being into my future. I have a blindness to the broader picture but can clearly make out the short-term; I am sabotaging my future for the sake of my personal satisfaction in the here and now. This is something that has always been in the back of my head, but it's never something that I've taken very seriously.
In the chapter I previously quoted, Miller writes about how, when you get right down to it, the directions life takes isn't determined by the family he was born into or the neighborhood his parents lived in; instead, it is dictated by the choices we make. Miller contends that there are many people out there who simply never learned to make good choices. However, this is not some trait that is determined by a random genetic lottery, but something that can be learned. I feel that this, at the core, is my problem - I have a certain blindness to "good" decisions. I often fail to think things through, which of course dooms my decisions to failure before I make them.
So, I suppose this is something of a declaration. From this moment on, I'm making a consious decision to make better decisions in my life, specifically when it comes to financial decisions. Simply put, it's time to grow up a bit.
Here goes nothin'.
-M | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment   |
| An announcement, of sorts. Attention, one and all.
I have discovered something glorious.
I want this--
 --to be my wedding cake.
That is all.
Shamelessly stolen from Kotaku
-M | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Rules:
1. If you would like to play, comment with an "Interview me!" (or something along those lines)
2. I will ask you five questions.
3. You will answer those five questions in your journal along with posting these instructions.
1. Where can you see yourself in 20 years?
Hm, that's a tough one. In twenty years I'll just be entering my forties, so I guess I'd like to say that I hope to have settled down with a wonderful and beautiful young woman I happen to know, with a couple of kids. Not necessarily a huge important life - not necessarily an enourmous house or a lot of money (though I dare say they'd be nice to have), perhaps enough to get by comfortably without much worry. As far as employment, I suppose I'd like to be doing something creative in regards to writing: whether that be journalism or some kind of book writing (comics or novels pop to mind), I'm not picky.
2. What is your most prized possession?
Hrm. Well, I like many of the things that I have, which I suppose is why I still have them. I suppose my most prized possessions are hte ones that carry the fondest memory - an inflatable Spider-Man wearing a Bibleman cape, for instance, or perhaps a miniature plastic Pokemon figurine. Or maybe it's the cheap, plastic Batman mask that came from a bin in Wal-Mart or the sword that rests next to one of my shelf. It's hard to say.
3. If you could be any superhero, who would you be and why?
This question is always misleading - the first instinct one has is to choose his favorite superhero, not the one he'd most like to be. That said, the first one that pops to my head is Spider-Man, and although he has some great powers, I find that they lack a certain amount of practicality. That said, my next thought goes to Kal-El of Krypton, known to some as Clark Kent or Superman, because I would then find myself nigh unbeatable. However, it then creeps into my head that Clark Kent is perhaps one of the lonliest creatures in the universe, and the vast power he wields has a seductive nature to it that lesser men like myself might succumb to. It might seem like a simple question, but as with many, it becomes far more complicated and philosophical if only you read into it deeply enough.
I suppose that, in the end, I might end up choosing Peter Parker after all. Despite his somewhat impractical powers and the untold stress of his personal and professional lives, he is the kind of man I'd like to be at his very core.
4. What is your favorite food?
Honestly? Most anything that's edible and tastes delicious.
5. What was your favorite childhood tv show?
Childhood? I suppose it means by what you define as childhood. My adolescent years saw me, at times, nearly centering my life around Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I daresay it has shaped both who I am and what I am interested in. However, earlier years saw me latched to things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and He-Man, which I suppose were just as influential.
I've been interviewed twice! Yes, twice! These questions come straight from Josh, while the ones above are from Cheryl -
1.) If you could play any instrument what would you pick, and why?
Hm, good question. Probably some sort of guitar, because that seems to be the one that gets you the most "cool."
2.) If you could remake any movie what would you and why?
Hrm...well, I think I'd remake a bad film that had a lot of good potential as opposed to a classic film to "reimagine it" (ugh). So really, from there the possibilities are endless - you could remake Gigli as an action drama, you could remake Hulk or Elektra with a decent script, you could remake Predator 2 as a buddy cop comedy (because you know it was dying to be). I imagine it would be an entirely painful process, because instead of recreating a film I knew and loved from my childhood, I would be retooling an utter pile of dreck into something watchable, which I imagine requires a certain bit of self-flaggellation.
3.) If you could have a pool or jacuzzi which would you choose?
A pool, I think. Jacuzzis are nice, but a pool is more communal. With a pool I could invite anyone and everyone over for grills and pool parties and whatnot; with a jacuzzi, the options are far more limited (and there's a whole air of sexual tension that seems to get tacked on as soon as people think the word 'jacuzzi'). I wouldn't mind a jacuzzi at all, no sir, but I think I would rather have the pool first.
4.) The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?
While I'm not terribly familiar with either band's work, I would have to say The Beatles, simply because I downright enjoy what stuff I've heard of them better.
5.) Gladiator or 300?
Would you believe that, to this day, I have yet to see Gladiator? That said, I imagine I must say 300 by default.
-M | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| "Sex God" by Rob Bell is pretty much one of the best books about the Christian perspective of sex (or at least what the Christian perspective of sex SHOULD be) that I've ever read.
If you're a Christian and you've ever had sex or if you plan on ever having sex - heck, even if NONE of those things actually apply to you - I would highly recommend you read the book as soon as possible.
That is all.
-M | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I put up a new blog post today, regarding some...interesting goings-on within the comic book industry - specifically Marvel Comics - that has a lot of people on the internet all aflutter.
I was going to post it here, but some of the images and material contained within aren't safe for work or "all-ages" viewing, and for some reason I couldn't get the cut-link to work here (which is weird considering it worked well enough on the LJ community I posted it to).
Anyway, I'm just going to put up links to the other places where the entry is located. They're all the same, so pick your poison and enjoy. Any and all feedback is appreciated.
MySpace!
LiveJournal!
Blogspot!
Enjoy.
-M | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 
It's no secret to anyone that I've discussed it with that I've been utterly unhappy with the latest season of 24.
The pacing was sloppier than usual, the story arcs phased in and out of relevance as if the entire writing staff came down with a severe case of ADD, and nine out of ten character moments rang entirely hollow.
So naturally, I wasn't really expecting much going in to last night's blowout of a finale - after all, just two weeks prior we had been treated to perhaps one of the worst episodes of the season.
As the first episode passed and we reached the halfway mark, I found little to alleviate my fears. And then something beautiful happened.
The final episode of the season was amazing.
It wasn't the action or the various ka-booms. Granted, the action pieces were very well done and I enjoyed them, but when that oil rig blew, I still wasn't all that engaged. It was good eye candy, but not much else.
It was when all of that was over that the real magic happened.
The last twenty minutes of the episode delivered on so many levels, emotionally, that I was honestly floored. It's not simply that this episode offered character development and analysis that I've been craving all season; it may be safe to say that I've been craving this level of depth for the entire run of the series.
We don't often get to dig deep into Jack Bauer's psyche. Often, the severity of the plot dictates that Jack constantly be in a "work now, deal with shit later" mode. That's probably very realistic for what people like this have to actually do in order to effectively accomplish their jobs, but on dramatised television where you have a character getting off a plane from a Chinese torture camp and jumping right in to the action with no ill signs of his imprisonment, it feels a little unrealistic.
Jack's scene with James Heller was, simply put, beautiful. In those ten or so minutes, we saw the extent of the damage that his time in China - nay, his entire lifestyle - had done to him emotionally and psychologically. Jack was well overdue for an emotional breakdown/epiphany, and while I wish that we had gotten a few more looks at the cracks in Jack's armor throughout this season, I have to swallow my pride and say that the folks in the writer's room pulled off the payoff beautifully and proved to everyone that they've still got it, and they know how to use it when they want to.
I am skeptical for what the future holds for Jack Bauer and company, but with the way the year closed out I am hopeful. Where just days ago I was ready to walk away completely, now I'm ready to see what Day 7 has to offer. Here's hoping Cochran and Surnow don't let me down.
-M | | comments: Leave a comment |
| One of my favorite comic blogs in the blogosphere is Legion of Doom. The guys that make up the "legion" always have something interesting to say, and it's always a good read.
Every Saturday they run a feature called "Books of Doom," in which all four of the guys take one book that came out that week and do a sort of roundtable review.
This week they decided to introduce a new element to this feature - namely, to have a guest blogger join them in their review.
I am humbled and honored to say that this week, they asked me to be that guest blogger. Definitely check it out, if you're so inclined.
And while you're at it, don't forget to keep up with my own comic blog, Another Damn Comic Blog, which I update sporadically.
Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
-M | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So I've been thinking a bit about toilets lately.
Wait, where are you going? Come back, I'm serious.
No, really though. I think I may have had an epiphany or something.
I believe that automatic flush toilets pose a very serious threat to our society.
"What?!" you say. "Impossible! They're just toilets! And besides, they're so darn convenient!"
Ah, yes, convenient they are. And therein lies the problem, my friends.
In recent years, it seems that automatic bathroom fixtures - hand dryers, sinks, and especially toilets - have become more and more commonplace in public restrooms. No longer do we have to turn and touch that potentially deadly handle after we've answered nature's call.
But along with this rising trend of automatic flush toilets, I seem to notice that many public restrooms with manual flush toilets are neglected - people who use them neglect to flush them.
Is it possible that the glorious technology that is the automatic flush toilet has made us lazy enough to forget to do so manually when necessary? It seems that way.
Now, this begs the age-old question - the chicken or the egg?
Was the rise in automatic flush toilets in public restrooms a byproduct of a mass movement of non-flushitude, or is the trend of placing them in public restrooms resulting in rampant forgetfulness on the part of bathroom patrons who are forced to use manual flush toilets?
I'd like to know. Seriously.
That's all for today, kids. And remember to flush, okay?
Please?
-M | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| I'm not much of an outdoorsy person. At least not in the sense that my first thought on a nice day is to take a hike or get people together to play football or something. I like such things, but it's not my hobby. I'm not unwilling, but I don't usually set out to do something like that and I'm usually not the one to suggest it to a group.
That said, when I do find myself outdoors - more specifically, less the suburban setting of my home and more "nature-y" settings - I often recognize and acknowledge the simple yet elegant beauty of nature itself. I wouldn't say I'm in awe of it, but I can recognize it.
A weird thing happened to me yesterday, though. A bunch of us got together for lunch at Lung Fung, and afterwards someone suggested Ultimate Frisbee at Spenser Park.
When we got there, I found myself laying on my back on a small hill while everyone else threw the Frisbee around. I'm not sure how long I was there - sometime between twenty minutes and three hours, I lost track of the time - but while I was laying there I simply stared at the sky.
The thing about this is there was nothing to distract me. It was late enough so that the sun wasn't in my field of vision, but early enough that the sky was still as blue as it gets. It was cloudless in Belvidere, and not a semblance of man's technological prowess - say an airplane - passed through my field of vision. It was just me and the sky.
That doesn't happen with me very often. At once, the sky felt as though it was right on top of me - like up-close and personal, "why were you checking out my girlfriend" kind of on top of me - and yet it felt a million miles away. Although I was aware of the Frisbee antics taking place around me, it was like I wasn't really there. It was just me and the blue sky. It was, simply put, beautiful.
It was an interesting experience. And as I lie there and pondered the experience that I was, erm, experiencing, my mind couldn't help but be reminded of God. God is at once a Caring Father and Wholly Other. You can feel closer to God than you have anyone in your life and yet at the same time feel as though He couldn't be farther away.
I think we often take for granted the simple beauty and wonder of things around us. This isn't just nature, but also people and relationships and even God. We get so caught up in the horrors that this world is capable of producing and all of the other stuff that we've got going on that we fail to take notice of our surroundings.
It was a strange experience. I don't usually say or post things like this because it always feels contrived or lame to me, but I felt compelled to share this one.
So, yeah. Story = shared.
-M | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| I've been talking about so much comic book stuff on my various blogs lately (mostly my MySpace), I figured I'd go all the way and make a blog specifically for my comic book musings, because it seems to be all the rage these days.
I'll probably still post the same stuff here and at my MySpace for the most part, but this is a place where I can get a little bit more in-depth ("geeky," if you will) and collect all of my comic book stuff exclusively.
So yeah, I made a blogspot for the hell of it:
http://anotherdamncomicblog.blogspot.com/
-M | | comments: Leave a comment |
| It appears that Joss Whedon is gearing up to continue the story of Angel in the same way he's currently continuing that of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - that is, in comic book form.
This bit of info comes from the IDW panel at Wizard World Los Angeles this weekend. IDW has been the publisher for Angel comics since summer of 2005. CBR reported on the panel:
The first announcements were projects in the Buffyverse, including "Spike: Shadow Puppets," written by Lynch and drawn by Franco Urru. Ryall said, "I talked to Joss, and he said, 'I am talking to Bryan Lynch about doing a season six [for 'Angel,' picking up where the show left off]. He really got the humor and the rhythms, and I thought if they could do the story, why wouldn't they?'" Ryall confirmed that a new "Angel" comic would in fact continue the story from the television show, be in canon and be co-written by Whedon. Stay tuned to CBR News for an interview with Lynch.
CBR also provided some art for the upcoming "Spike: Shadow Puppets" mini-series. The mini-series apparently takes it's cues from the Season 5 episode Smile Time...
 Interesting news...I'll be following this one closely - at least the first bit of news. I'm not yet sold on this "Shadow Puppets" thing, because the whole puppet angle was kind of worn out by the end of the episode it's aping (Smile Time, in which Angel is turned into a puppet. It's better than it sounds). Normally I'm down with the IDW Angel books, but so far this one leaves me cold, I'm afraid to say.
Thoughts, anyone?
-M | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So, something I wrote was tapped to be a "Guest Column" over at Scott Tipton's Comics 101, and it just went live.
Needless to say, I am filled with all kinds of giggly fanboy glee.
Take a look if you feel so inclined - and I'd love to hear feedback. Good, bad, indifferent, whatever. Lemme know what you think.
-glee-
-M | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| If you've been anywhere on the internet since yesterday - that is, any kind of credible news site - you've likely heard the news or at least seen the headline:
As of Captain America #25, which released yesterday, Steve Rogers - better known as Captain America - is dead.
Cap takes one in the gut. Image courtesy of CBR.
I'm not really going to get into it too much, since it's been discussed and dissected ad infinitum on the comic book blogosphere already, but I will say this.
It upsets me that Marvel resorts to stunts like this to give their latest big event (Civil War, this time) some semblance of relevance and depth.
As opposed to actual relevance and depth, Marvel instead offers up Cap as a martyr for their Bold New Direction: "See, guys? It's relevant! This changes everything! The Marvel Universe will never be the same!"
All of this stuff with Civil War - especially considering issue #7 and the events that've taken place since - have made me a sad panda.
I don't mind changing up the status quo, but is it too much to ask that the stories have some kind of respect for the characters, and maybe - get this - a little bit of fun?
Sigh. I feel like the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. Fat, angry, and jaded.
-M | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Gather 'round, gentle readers, as I recount an epic tale of mystery, romance, and excitement that is sure to keep you entertained for moments - possibly even entire minutes - to come.
'Twas a blustery weekend in the month of February (this past weekend, to be precise). Chris Lee of the Valley Forge and myself - along with some other colleagues - spent the weekend at the newspaper office, as we are known to do from time to time, hard at work putting together the latest (possibly greatest) issue of the Valley Forge.
As was mentioned, it was a fairly blustery weekend - lots of wind, freezing rain, and bunches and bunches of snow. While oftentimes during these production weekends we make periodical trips out into the heart of Rockford for food and the like, this particular weekend we opted instead to stay inside the relative safety of the barn which houses our offices and ordered out when the need to eat arose.
And that was all fine and good. Like a well-oiled machine, we were able to get the issue completed in record time. After pulling a (mostly) all-nighter on Sunday, I was definitely looking forward to the prospect of ditching my afternoon class and sleeping away Monday afternoon.
But alas, as is so often the case, things rarely go as planned.
I managed to keep myself consious long enough to make it to my earlier classes. I happened to notice that my car (and Chris' as well) had accumulated a fair amount of snow, but given the weather of the weekend (re: blustery) it didn't seem too terribly suspicious at the time. So along my merry way I went, none the wiser of the troubles about to befall me.
Later that afternoon, after Chris and I had wrapped up some last-minute editorial duties, we embarked to our vehicles to get ourselves out of the snow that we'd accumulated throughout the weekend - Chris also informing to me in passing that he'd called public safety that morning and whoever was on the line assured us we'd get some kind of assistance from them if necessary.
To our unpleasant suprise, however, we found that we'd not just been snowed in over the past weekend.
No, my dear friends, we'd been plowed in. By a snow plow. Both of us.
And it meant business, apparently, because we're packed in pretty damn tight. And considering the fact that not only was it damn cold that weekend, but also raining, the snow had not only been packed in as tight as possible, it had also frozen.
Chris and I are armed with nothing more than a couple of ice scrapers. It can't be that bad, right? Of course not. So we go to work.
Chris' scraper breaks as soon as he digs in. That should have been an indication of the poo that we were in, but we ignored it. Slowly but surely, we managed to get his windshield uncovered. We then begin to work on the snow surrounding the car itself, and it is at this point that we realize, WTF? This is actually ICE.
I whip out my cell phone to call Public Safety. Might as well make good on the offer, right? So I call. I tell them our situation, tell the woman on the line that it would be sweet if someone could bring us some shovels. The woman on the line says she'll send someone right over. As we wait, we continue to work. By this point we've realized that the plastic scrapers are pretty much useless, and opt instead to simply whack at it with the hard plastic on the opposite end (the brush side). It works better than you'd expect it to.
So we continue to work. Every time a car comes by, we look up to see if it might be an officer come to rescue us. Half an hour later, we're still waiting.
Eventually - maybe forty or forty-five minutes after the initial call - a public safety officer shows up. He pulls around, his window rolled down. We smile at him, happy to see him.
Before we can say a word to him one way or another, he blurts, "I'm not helping you guys with that."
Needless to say, we're slightly dumbfounded. He goes on to say that it's our fault we're in this predicament since we've sleeping on campus all weekend even though it's against the rules. Chris tells him that we have permission to be up there.
"No you don't," he says. Chris rephrases himself, saying that he thought we had permission. "No you don't," he says again, and goes on to say that our continual weekend stays on campus have merely been tolerated, and that his boss is starting to get mighty ornery about it. He goes on to inform us of how arrogant, pretenteous, and offensive it is of us to assume that he's going to hop out of his little Humvee and shovel for us.
We tell him that was not our intention, and that we would be fine with some shovels. Chris also relays the information that whomever he talked to earlier that day told him that Public Safety would be happy to help.
Officer Douchebag laughs. "No, they didn't," he says.
"Yeah, he did," Chris says.
"No he didn't," he repeats. "Who told you that?"
"Whoever was at the desk this morning."
He again goes on to tell us how being plowed in is our fault for staying overnight (despite the fact that welater recalled that we spotted the plow truck on Sunday afternoon) and that we should have been towed since it's policy. Chris and I both try and point out that whether or not we were right in sleeping overnight at the school isn't really the issue at hand, and the fact that our cars are pretty much encased in a foot of solid ice is.
It should be noted that at this point we've been working on Chris' car for a good couple of hours. Mine is untouched.
The officer agrees to call maintenance to ask for some shovels for us. As he does so (and after), we continue to chip away at the ice with our plastic hammers while he watches. Ever see the movie Cool Hand Luke? Or any movie with a chain gang? That's pretty much how it felt - we work all day while bossman watches.
Eventually an RVC maintenance truck shows up. Shovels! We're saved!
A man who can only be described as a Greasemonkey Santa Clause exits the vehicle and struts over to the bed of the truck. "Welp, I can't give you shovels, in case you run off with 'em," he informs us. "I can give you these, though." He then proceeds to drop two buckets in front of us. After which he proceeds to get back into his truck and drive off.
Buckets? WTF?
Not too long after that Officer Douchebag (who I later learned was actually named Derelick) decides it's time for him to depart. Chris and I get back to work.
Try as we might, we cannot manage to clear enough snow to get Chris' car out. We try everything we can - we finally manage to procure some shovels and salt from a maintenance closet in the barn (from Mike Webb, no less) and a sink with some pretty hot water. None of it seems to do a thing, though - at least not in any kind of quick fashion.
Long story - well - less long, we eventually manage to get Chris' car out of his ice trap just as Heather's dad shows up with a whole mess of manly shovels and chains and the like.
Once Heather's dad showed up things went rather quickly for my car. Which doesn't say much, because by the time all was said and done it was 9 p.m. It should be noted we started digging right aroudn 4:45 p.m.
Almost four-and-a-half hours. Seriously?
And Public Safety pretty much just laughed in our face.
This is definitely the abridged version of the story, but alas, it's gone on a bit too long for my liking.
Needless to say, we're pretty pissed with the cops (and maintenance). We get that they don't want us staying overnight, but I don't know - a polite phonecall, maybe? That might've been nice. Instead we get four hours of work just so we can make it home. Bastards.
To be continued.
-M | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Sorry about my last post. I had a burst of unrestrained anger and I had to throw it out there. Needless to say I'm not going to talk about it as it's not really anything having to do with me. So nyah.
YO: I posted a whatever entry on my MySpace blog that I really didn't deem necessary as posting here, too. If you're at all interested you can see it at my MySpace page.
Anyway, it's been a damn long time - too long - since I've written one of these things. I've had some stuff go through my mind now and again that I've thought to myself, "Hm, that'd make a good blog," and they still might at some point in the near future, but for now I'm just going to toss out an update about what's going on with me.
The past couple of weeks, I've been agonizing over whether or not to get a job at NCO. The pay is really amazing, but at the same time I have so many other commitments - family, Heather, school, friends, newspaper, to name a few - that the big conflict has been in wondering whether or not I can continue to juggle all of these things and then throw a full-time job into the mix.
I guess we'll see. I had an interview today and they offered me a job, so I took it. I still don't know if I even want to have anything to do with it, but it was either that or turn it down. I start on the 28th of this month - and I figure (more like hope) that I can just leave and go back to Lemstone if I don't think I can handle it.
Other than that, not much has been going on...I'm enjoying my classes this semester. I think taking fewer classes this time around was a smart move. The few classes I'm in right now are challenging and interesting and I'm liking them.
Things with Heather are going very well, as usual. Our one-year anniversary is tomorrow, and it's really weird to realize that it's been an entire year since I sheepishly asked her to "make it official" on her couch. It feels like a lot shorter than that, and I'm sure it's just because on the whole things have been so amazingly great there.
There's really not much else to say.
Today's been a pretty messed up day all-around, I guess is one thing. Part of me is glad it's almost over.
I guess I'll wrap it up now. Hopefully I'll have another blog in which i wax philosophical soon, but I won't make any promises since every time I do I seem to not update.
Later!
-M
P.S. I've taken up reviewing TV shows at a site called - weirdly enough - TV.com. It's not anything professional or anything, just a little hobby I've taken up in the past week, for some reason. If you're interested at all - or just really bored - you can find my profile here.
/shameless plug | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Three words:
A. Ma. Zing.
I'll get more in-depth when I have a second to sit and write a more in-depth review, hopefully by tomorrow or Wendesday (definitely before they air on Sunday night).
ZOMG.
-M | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| So, I can't really say that yesterday was really that great of a day.
Come with me, gentle readers, and allow me to recount my tale of daring and adventure.
Yesterday morning, I got myself up pretty late - around 10:30 or so. Not too shabby. Bri and Nick (the siblings) are pretty much both in one of those moods where they're jerks to everyone around them for now obvious reason. This was pretty annoying, but it's not too terribly uncommon, so whatever.
I realize, at some point, that payment for Rock Valley is due on Wednesday. Now, I've only just gotten my student loan form, and that takes a couple of weeks to process and I won't even have it turned in until Monday. Even if I go with RVC's payment program, I'd still owe about $330 or so on Wednesday. $330 I don't have.
Naturally, I need some money. My mom is in no position to help me right now, so what's the best way to go? My grandfather.
So, as I'm on my way to work I give him a call, and as humbly as possible I apologize profusely and ask him for money.
The conversation went something like this from that point:
Him: "Well, you already owe me $300." This, of course, is from an earlier semester when something similar happened. And this is despite the fact that when I actually had the money to pay him back with, he told my mom to keep it for bills and not to worry about it.
Me: "Well, I'm pretty sure my mom used that money...I thought you gave it to her."
Him: "Heh. You know, you can also call me when you don't need money, to make sure I'm - you know - alive."
Me: "Well, yeah, I always mean to, and I know that sounds like an excuse, but I always mean to but I've just been so busy this semester..."
Him: "Yeah, I know. But you're not too busy to call when you need money, are you?"
Me: "No, I guess not."
Him: "You know, I don't have all of this money to keep giving you. I'm not getting money from anywhere and if I keep giving it to you I'm not going to be able to survive. I was supposed to be going on vacation in February; I think I'll still be able to go and I'll have to struggle..."
From there it was pretty much more of that - I can't keep giving you money, I'm an old man with no job, and I kept apologizing and telling him how bad I felt that I had to ask. This is something that I can definitely respect, but my grandfather has told me on a number of occasions that if I ever needed money to come to him. And I don't like doing it, but it's not like I just take it and run. I give it back to him, or at least my mother to give to him, every single time.
I must have just gotten him on a bad day, I guess, because this guilt trip is completely unlike him. Anyway, after the conversation I felt pretty shitty regardless.
And then I pulled into work.
There are a couple of ways to get into the Lemstone parking lot - there's a back way and a front way, essentially. I usually take the back way because it's faster and there's generally less traffic.
Since the big snowstorm last week, there's been this big patch of ice and snow around there. Every day I've worked since then I've always driven over it and nothing has happened.
Except for today.
As I'm driving over this patch, I feel this jolt - like if you run over a big rock or something in the road. And then I just stop. My first thought, naturally, is that somehow I've gotten myself stuck in the ice, so I just give it the gas and try and go. That doesn't work, so I go in reverse. Nothing. I try a few more times.
I glance outside and notice my wheel is turned about as far as it can go. So I straighten out my wheels, without realizing that my steering wheel is telling me that the wheels are already straightened.
Once I do figure this out, I go outside to check it out - and my tire, my whole damn wheel, literally, is hanging on to my car by a thread. It is completely disconnected from the axel. I can see the axel and I can see inside of it.
No good.
I call my mom and we quickly figure out a game plan, getting a tow truck to get my car to a local shop. Then, I go into work (about 45 minutes late despite being right outside the store).
Dealing with cranky customers who want a specific kind of Bible that doesn't actually exist is one thing. I'm used to that, I can deal with it. But then my mom calls me, after having heard from the shop, to tell me how much the costs are.
$622. That's a lot.
So, there goes my money from the Valley Forge. And conversely, there goes my Wii.
I know it's not a big thing, and it's only a little box and in the long run it's really not that important. But truth be told, I'd kind of set my heart on that little game machine, and I was really looking forward to it. And for the time being, that's been ripped away from me (damn, that sounds way too melodramatic for what I'm actually talking about).
Disappointing, to say the least.
So, yeah, not really the best day.
By the time I was out of work, the car was finished. And it's exactly the same as when I left my house this morning. I've still got that little piece of plastic hanging down that scrapes against the road, my car is still making that mildly funny sound it's been making since the snowfall, and I still need an oil change. Essentially, I paid $622 for them to make it exactly like it was yesterday.
Ridiculous. Can't stand it.
After that I went to Heather's sister's house and they made cookies and we all just hung out. That was pretty cool, I have to say. Really, the only part of my day that didn't suck.
Anyway, that's my spiel. Just wanted to get that off my chest and onto the information superhighway. If you're still here, thanks for reading.
-M | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | "Welcome to Paradise" Green Day | | Subject: | It's EXTREME!!! | | Time: | 02:16 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_boy/thoughtful.gif) thoughtful |
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| By now, all of you have probably heard about Derek Shareef, the Rockford man who was arrested today for a plot to set off grenades in CherryVale Mall.
If you haven't, you can check it out here.
Anyway, the big rumor going around is that Shareef was a terrorist. It turns out that he wasn't actually a terrorist...at least, he wasn't involved with any real terrorist groups; he was working alone. He did say he wanted to "commit acts of violent jihad," but he wasn't involved with terrorists.
Anyway, I only just found this out. For most of today I've had nothing to go off of except hearsay about a big terrorist plot and whatnot. All of that got me thinking about fundamentalism and extremism.
Fundamentalism really bothers me. The reason this is is because oftentimes, fundamentalists - especially religious fundamentalists - are the ones out of the lot that are most outspoken, and therefore become the spokesperson (intentionally or not) for that group. When it comes to religion, though, the fundamentalists are usually the people who are the most spiteful and bigoted, putting a negative spin on the rest of the group, most of whom are not spiteful or bigoted.
Fundamentalism is only about a step or two removed from extremism - at least, religious fundamentalism, which seems to always like to focus on the negative, the "us vs. the evil sinners" mentality, an idea that extremists take to a dangerous level.
Extremists are the same way. Islam is not a violent religion. Thanks to a few Muslims with an extreme interpretation of Qu'ran, however, most Westerners, one some level or another, have the misinterpretation that the religion is all about jihad and the destruction of infidels, when that's far from the truth.
The same can be said of Christianity. Christian extremists and fundamentalists yell and preach about the evil of homosexuals and the absolute filth that is everything except for their particular interpretation of Scripture. In the end, it makes it look as though Jesus was all about predjudice and keeping people down, when that's not the case at all.
This kind of extremism - in the cases of both Christianity and Islam, as well as just about any other kind of group - just complicates matters. What is the core of Christianity? According to Jesus, the Son of God, what is THE most important commandment of all?
Love God. Love each other.
The other stuff is important, but as soon as you take it to extremes and make it more important than this central idea of Christianity, you take away what Christianity is supposed to be, and the next thing you know you're picketing across the country with signs that read "God Hates Fags" and spouting evil, venomous bile that is the farthest thing from God-honoring.
I can only imagine that the same is true of Islam. I don't know that the central idea is love, but it CERTAINLY isn't "jihad" or, as someone I know so eloquently (and ignorantly) put it once, "kill your neighbor."
There's really no way to fight it, though, is there? This hateful, vengeful attitude that some of these people seem to posses?
What was that commandment again?
"Love God. Love each other."
Think about that a bit. Meditate on it. Put it into practice. Christian, Muslim, atheist, Buddhist, whatever your religious inclination may be, this is not a bad way to live (perhaps just the second part for the atheists). That's really the only way to fight the extremism that pollutes the message of Christ (or Muhammed) and gets in the way of it. There will always be these kinds of people out there. People who hate, who predjudice for no other reason other than personal differences - whether they be religious, ethnic, or personal.
The only way to really do anything is to spread this message of love, and show the world that these people are only a small percentage of our little "clique" (and really, we don't even like them that much; we never invite them to our sleepovers).
I feel I'm getting longwinded here, so I'll just leave it with that commandment again. Think about it.
"Love God. Love each other."
-M | | comments: Leave a comment |
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Yesterday morning, Dave Cockrum passed away.
A lot of you probably don't know who Dave Cockrum is. Well, Dave is sort of a comic book legend. Certainly not on the level of Stan Lee or Jack "the King" Kirby, mind you, but he did help shape one very important part of the Marvel Universe.
Back 1969 or so, Marvel's Uncanny X-Men wasn't doing so well. When an attempted rejuvination of the flailing title failed to yield results, the book ceased publication with #66.
In 1975, Marvel decided to try again. To do this, they hired Len Wein and Dave Cockrum.
Long story short, these two guys co-created characters like Colossus, Storm, and Nightcrawler. These characters, along with Wolverine (who they introduced into the X-Men universe but didn't create) first jumped onto the scene with Giant X-Men #1 (summer 1975, cover pictured below) and have proven to be some of the most popular characters in the entire duration of the characters' existence. These two guys brought the X-Men back to the forefront of the Marvel Universe, and shaped what the book would be for years to come. These characters have since starred in movies, cartoons, and video games, and it arguably never would've been possible without Wein and Cockrum.
Below is the official report from Comic Book Resources.com...
As reported earlier today by Clifford Meth, legendary comic book artist Dave Cockrum passed away this morning due to complications from diabetes. He was 63. Mr. Cockrum was best known for his work on "Legion of Super-Heroes" and "Uncanny X-Men," though his route to comic books wasn't as direct as one might imagine. The artist first spent six years in the United States Navy before finding employment at Warren Publishing. He soon became an assistant to inker Murphy Anderson, which soon brought Dave Cockrum into the orbit of Superboy & The Legion of Superheroes. His work on "Legion" in the seventies, re-designing the costumes and aesthetic of the series, remains a highpoint in the popular superteam's history. Later, teamed with Len Wein and Chris Claremont, the artist redefined the X-Men at Marvel Comics in "Uncanny X-Men" and "Giant Size X-Men." Meth, a close family friend and the man behind the Dave Cockrum tribute book, explained, "There are no details of services at this time. Dave asked to be cremated and his widow Paty is burdened with the news, so well wishers are asked not to call. Email can be sent to magnetorampant@yahoo.com" Comic Book Resources offers its condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Cockrum. Now, Dave Cockrum joins such industry legends as Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, and Jim Aparo in that big Marvel Universe in the sky. You'll be missed, Dave. -M
UPDATE 11/28: Just earlier tonight, Comics 101's Scott Tipton posted a column in memory of Cockrum - an interview from 2003. It's got some of his art and some interesting insight. Take a peek. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Inspired by a LiveJournal post by a good friend of mine, I figured I would post (a little belatedly) some of the things that I'm thankful for. Feel free to comment or add any of yours.
Here goes:
+I am thankful for a God who loves me in spite of myself, in spite of my short-comings, and in spite of the things I've done. Every single day of my life, He helps me get through each day and strengthens me in ways only He will ever know.
+I am thankful for a beautiful, amazing, and caring woman who loves me in spite of myself and in spite of my short-comings. Every day, she helps me in ways she will never know. I am thankful for her as a honest-to-goodness gift from God and, in my eyes, surefire proof of His existence and goodness. I have never cared as deeply for another human being as I do for Heather Morrow.
+I am thankful for a decent roof over my head, plenty of food to eat (even when I think there isn't) and a houseful of trinkets and knick-knacks that I don't really need.
+I am thankful for a mother who is willing to sacrifice her own happiness, security, and sanity for the sake of her children. She'll go to any length to provide at least the basics and still have time to sit and talk with her kids every night.
+I am thankful for a younger brother who looks up to me, so that I am inspired to be a better person if only for his benefit.
+I am thankful for a younger sister who is becoming a woman I can be proud to know, even if I don't always get along with her or am even sure how fond of her I am.
+I am thankful for each and every one of my friends. Each one is a gift from God and each one moves or inspires me in some way as well as just enrich my life in general and make it a heck of a lot more interesting.
+I am thankful to have a job, and to have an opportunity to earn my own money, even though I often take it for granted and misuse the little money I do earn.
+I am thankful for my good health and every day that I have on this earth.
Call me a sap, but I just wanted to share this with everyone.
-M | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
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