That's debatable...

What if the first question in the debate was "Which kind of bear is best?" That would be great. Of course, the only answer would be "false, black bear." That would determine the presidency. There, done. *wipes hands*

Anyhow, this may be a sign of adulthood (or nerdiness), but I'm actually pretty interested in the debate this evening. I've watched many in the past, but they never had the same hook for me. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the Sox are losing again so I have to avoid that channel no matter what!

So here are my humble musings on what I've seen so far:

NAIVETE-- This might just be my personality, but if someone called me naive or inexperienced this many times, I would be naively punching them in the face. Seriously, disagree with each other, but that tactic (yes I know the difference between tactic and strategy) is tiiiiirrrred.

SOMETHING IN YOUR EYE-- Apparently, Jim Lehrer asked this secret question as a precursor to the debate--"Mr. McCain, as president, how many times do you think you could blink in one minute?" McCain then proceeded to break his own personal record a number of times.

BAM! ZING! P.O.W!-- I gotta give props to McCain for only mentioning this once that I can recall. Obviously, the guy deserves our respect for his service, and I'm glad he focused (mostly) on the issues.

NOBAMA-- I think it's important to remember that in reality, these guys are going to get a ton of help from their advisers. That being said, I was surprised how well Obama knew his stuff. Obviously, he's a smart guy, but McCain really does have a huge amount of experience over Obama. However, I felt like his 30+ years experience didn't really show themselves as much as they could/should have.

HUH?-- Did I hear this correctly? McCain said something about North Koreans being on average 3 inches taller than South Koreans? What? I mean, me and the people that read this blog are brilliant, so we can clearly make the connection of average Korean height to possible presidency, but what about Joey Bagodonuts on the street? Is he going to be able to connect
those dots?

UN(es)-- Where were the questions about current video game consoles, games, sales, and brand allegiance? I suppose in order to win, they would both have to back the Wii. But what if Obama gave out his Gamertag, and McCain pulled up his sleeve and showed off his FFVII tatoo? Would a president who games be respected by anyone? I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I don't like it.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT-- Those of you who know me, know that I love trivia of all sorts. I have an affinity (and a knack if I must say so) for remembering things that nobody should (or does) care about. However, I think I must Palin comparison (sorry!) to these two candidates. I'm sure there's some buzzkill online right now listing all of their errors but I think it's still pretty amazing the kind of statistics and facts they can pull out of their biznass.


WRAP-UP-- My opinion was unchanged. I think it was kind of a draw, but how do you objectively grade these things anyway? Oh, here's how: McCain-- B, Obama-- B+. I give Obama a slight edge for his words on foreign policy which McCain call naive, and I call different from the status quo-- something we may need.

Hey...

Okay, so I haven't written here in 9 months-- what could have happened in that amount of time? Well, this blog is going to change a bit. I've started to enjoy writing more just as an outlet for schtuff. I didn't say it's improved, so don't expect much- I just like it more. So, I guess I will actually just be talking about anything that strikes me.

Also, Concordia University's lack of quality professors has inspired me, nay, forced me to write.

You're visiting your great grandmother. It's her birthday, and a few of the family have gathered

to visit. She begins to regale you with tales from the olden days. Oh, she repeats herself a few dozen times, mistaking names and places the third and fourth times through; but... she's earnest and excited to be talking to somebody, anybody. Sometimes she's looking into your eyes, sometimes into the eyes of friends and family members past.

Now, put your great grandmother in front of a classroom and you can picture my last four Tuesday nights. What's that? Hyperbole you say? I wish I could agree. Fortunately, our class knows how to entertain itself by this point.

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A word about baseball- Yes, I'm jealous. Is THAT what you wanna hear Cubs fans? I wish my team had a larger following. I wish my team had a sweet neighborhood where the game is as fun in the bars as in the park. I wish my team were national darlings instead of the dark horse.

However, I will STILL take the White Sox every day and twice on Sunday. To you, Guillen is a nut job. To me, he's an eccentric genius. To you, Pierzynski is a dirty player. To me, he is a heads-up baseball player. Okay, we can both agree he's kind of a jerk personally. The point is, please don't tell me the Cubs are better, because I will never believe it. Just as you will not believe the Sox are better.

Here's the problem, since there are more of you (and plenty that come out of the woodwork when the Cubs are actually playing well), I never hear the end of it. From now on, include baseball allegiances along with religion and politics as items that are off the table in polite small talk.

Lost Season 4 (i think?) opener Recap

Car chase in La. A vintage early 70's camaro being chased by cops. Now it's on a TV newscast in an apartment. Someone in the apartment is watching and making a screwdriver. It's Jack. He sees the TV report and when they mention the make and model of the car, he says "damn it!"

Cut back to the chase. The car crashes, cops get out and surround it. Slowly coming out... it's Hurley!!! They slam him up against the wall and he screams, "Stop, don't you know who I am? I'm one of the Oceanic 6."

Commercial time commentary-- Oceanic 6? I guess this means that only 6 of those folks get off the island, and we already know Jack, Kate, and Hurley are 3 of them, right?

Back to show. Hurley's being interrogated. They're showing a convenience store tape of Hurley going crazy and running out of there after seeing SOMETHING in the store. "What did you see in there?" (side note) --The detective is the sniper guy from The Negotiator (Palermo maybe?). Anyway, det. says he knew Ana Lucia, Hurley says he didn't know her.

The detective leaves Hurley alone to watch the tape. On the tv it's a diver underwater coming at the screen, he breaks through the screen, water's pouring into the police dept. The det. comes back in and says, "are you trying to get yourself thrown in the nuthouse, because I can make that happen right now!" Hurley-- "You can, oh thank you, thank you!"

Back to the island- Jack calls Hurley, tells him they're getting rescued. Locke has disappeared after killing the girl with the satellite phone.

Ben tries to convince crazy French lady to take Alex (Ben and Frenchie's daughter) away because he's convinced they people coming to rescue them will kill them.

Cut to Hurley, Bernard, and Jin. Hurley wants to cannonball, so he does. As he's coming out, he's sees Desmond with no Charlie. Desmond tells them the people aren't who they say they are. Hurley is screaming "Where's Charlie!?!?" Desmond tells him, Hurley's in pain.

Back to Jack. The guy on the phone says he needs to change something on the phone to find them, "Put Naomi on" (the girl Locke killed). Jack lies "she's gone for firewood." He looks, and her body is gone. Jack approaches Ben-- all menacingly "where is she?" Ben all coy and cocky "Where's who?"

Commercial time commentary-- so... who wants her body, and how did Ben (tied to a tree) get it moved?

Back to beach with Hurley, Sawyer, Sayid... trying to figure out whether to call Jack with info. Sawyers says yes, Sayid says no, it will give away that they know. Sawyer goes to radio, Hurley grabs it and tosses it into the ocean. Hurley- "we better get going" Sawyer "going where?"

Back to Jack and Danielle, the girl crawled away they figured. Jack splits to track the girl, Kate to lead the rest back to the beach. Ben looks interested on as they hug.

Back to beach, Hurley, Sayid, Juliette, Bernard, Desmond grab guns.

Hurley in the future at the mental institute. He has a visitor, some black guy we've never seen before. He's a lawyer for Oceanic. They feel bad about arrest and incarceration. Wants to give invitation for a better facility. Hurley turns him down, he's suspicious. The guy asks "Are they still alive?" The guy disappears as Hurley yells for help.

Back to island as they trek through the jungle with guns. Sawyer-- "Do you wanna talk about Charlie?" Actually showing some caring?? Hurley falls behind, is searching for everyone else. Appears lost. Oh, ha ha. He stumbles upon Jacob's house, Hurley hears some crazy whispering voices!!! "Uh oh," he says.

Commercial time commentary- I love the crazy Jacob stuff. He's apparently the leader of the others (boss of Ben), but we've never really seen him. Locke heard him say "help me" earlier in season 3, then the house just went crazy like Poltergeist. PS- I really like the song for the new Mac Airbook, but it's starting to wear. It's called "New Soul"-- check it out before you start to hate it form seeing the commercial so many times.

Back to Jack, they girl faked a trail. Jack is with BEn and Danielle (frenchy). Ahh... Ben says Kate took the phone when she hugged Jack.

Cut to Kate, she picks up phone "Who's this? You with Jack? Where's Naomi?" Kate hangs up. Naomi jumps on here from a tree with a knife!!!! Naomi is ticked-- wants the phone, picks up. Guy on phone "What's going on?" Naomi-- "I had an accident, I'm hurt. I hit a tree branch."
Guy-- "we've lost our signal. Can you change the tracking frequency?" She does-- "Clear as a bell, we'll be right there to get you." Naomi- "I'm sorry George, just tell my sister that I love her." She collapses.

Back to Hurley. He goes up to window of Jacob's house, looks in. An eye looks back at him. He runs looking for help, no one's there. He heads back to house chanting, "There's nothign here, nothign here." Oh wait, he falls into pit, Locke is there, "Hello Hugo."

Commercial again??? Some wierd movie called Vantagepoint or something? Has Forrest Whitaker ever looked normal? I like this commerical for the tax refund. Guy eating hot dog-- "buns are an extravagance. I'm trying to save money, bro" as he squirts the ketchup in his mouth. Oh this sucks. There's some sort of "special announcement" from Oceanic Airlines, but we have to watch this crappy new pilot on next called "Eli Stone." Huh, did you know Dennis Miller has a radio show? Yeah, I thought you didn't.

Back to Locke and Hurley. Sitting by fire, Locke being nice-- "Why were you separated form the group? What happened with Charlie in that station?" Locke is playing to Hurley-- "if we can't talk these people out of coming, then Charlie died for nothing." Hurley catches back up with group. Locke shows up a little after. Sayid is pissed, guns get drawn. It's the rest of the group heading back to the beach with Sun leading them. Hugs, etc. Uh-oh, Claire is about to figure out that Charlie is not there. She sees it in Hurley's face as he comes up to tell her. She doesn't believe it (do they ever). Touching moment, a little teary-eyed.

Flash forward to Hurley at mental place. Painting a picture of igloo. Other patient says there's a guy staring at you--- it's Charlie!!!! Oh, it was Charlie that he saw in the convenience store. Charlie says "I am dead, but I'm also here." Hurely- "prove it." He slaps Hurely. Proof positive.
Charlie wants Hurley to do something, and Hurley already knows what it is. Charlie- "They need you, they need you Hugo. You know they need you.

Back to island-- "How did it happen?," asks Claire. "He was trying to help us."

Jack appears with Ben and Danielle and hits Locke from behind, grabbing his gun. Locke- "You're going to shoot me Jack." Click, Click. Locke- "It's not loaded."

Commercial-- okay, not related but wierd. My neighbors appear to be moving out at 9 pm on a Thursday in the freezing cold snowstorm? Ok, maybe it's the repo man, because that huge black dude does not live in that house, and I don't know any movers working at 9 pm.

Locke- "All I have ever done, has been in the best interest of all of us." Locke thinks the people coming to rescue are no good. He's going to the barracks, "come with me if you want to live." Jack's pissed. Hurley makes impassioned plea that Charlie's last act was to warn us, we must listen to him. Hurley "I'm not listening to you (Jack), I'm listening to my friend. I'm listening to Charlie." I love Hurley so much!! You'd hope your friends would listen if you spent your dying breath trying to tell them something!

The group splits up deciding to go with Locke, or stay with Jack. Sawyer is going with Locke. Kate's upset (but in a sexy pouty way). Thunderclap, pouring rain. Locke- "you know where to find us, when you change your mind." Hurley is the last to follow Locke.

Back to Hurley in the future... He's shooting hoops when Jack comes in to see him. Jack looks pretty good, this must be before the whole suicide attempt. Just to let us know this is true, he says "I'm thinking about growing a beard." Hurley-- "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I went with Locke. I should have stayed with you. I don't think we did the right thing. I think he wants us to come back." Jack shouting "We're never going back!" Hurley-- "Never say never, dude."

Back to island, Jack and Kate chatting. Helicopter sounds. Searchlights and a parachuter is out of the copter. Jack and Kate race to get there. Some bearded dude asks "Are you Jack?"

Next week clips: I was going to try recap the preview, but they pretty much showed nada. Ah well.

Heath Ledger

Hey all three of you out there... This is crazy sad news. In the early afternoon yesterday, Heath Ledger was found dead in his NYC apartment. He was a really talented actor, and he was the flippin' Joker.

However, I realized what was really crazy about this whole thing. Heath Ledger was 28 years old. I'm almost there. As selfish as it is, his death really just made me think more about my own. What things would be left undone in my life if I didn't live to see 29? It's fairly morbid, but it is sometimes important to stop and think about what one has and should be thankful for.

My stupidity

Some of you probably know that Aimee got rear-ended last week (and then she got into an accident- ba-dum-ching!). Anyway, we had a rental car for the last week while we were searching for a new car. So, we finally did get Aimee a new car, a black Toyota Corolla- not bad.

Anyway, we're getting ready to return the rental car. Since it was about 2 degrees yesterday, I figure I'd be a nice guy and go start the cars. Well, you might be able to guess what happened next. I start Aimee's car first (cause I'm like that). I start the rental car (a mini-van). Oops, I gotta grab some stuff out of there before we return it. I'll just open the door... locked. Okay, I'll go around to the driver's side.... locked. The side doors... you get the idea. So here we have a running mini-van in our garage, all of the doors are locked with the keys in the ignition. Genius.
We call the rental company-- oh, what's that, you don't have an extra key (WHAT?!) So, they call a locksmith to come out an hour later. Aimee being the nice wife she is talks to the locksmith, saving me the embarassment.

While we were on the phone, I was looking up ways to get into a locked car and found this website. It seems like a place for criminals to hang out and share their trade secrets--creepy. Check it out-- totse.com

1st!!!!111!!!!11 LOLZ

Be kind folks, be kind. This is my first post on this blog, which I'm pretty excited about. I've been reading a lot of blogs lately, and being my arrogant self I figured, "I could do that." So here I am. My hope for this blog is that I touch upon things that I'm interested in, and if you are too, great! So, here we go with the first interesting tidbit:

Graduate school is a joke. For those of you that don't know, I'm currently getting my Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction. I'll be honest, I'm doing it for the bump in my paycheck. However, after the first couple of classes, I was really involved in actual learning-- what a concept, right?

Well, things have changed. Our new professor teaches like a bumblebee on crack. To give an appropriate analogy... Imagine you were on the subway trying to listen to every conversation at the same time, and after 2 minutes or so one of the riders says, "So what are your thoughts?" Our professor has a lot of passion, but can't quite seem to harness her energy.

She hands us a full detailed outline for every session, but when she speaks, it's like there's an exorcism going on-- 5 different voices with 5 different ideas come out of her mouth at the same time! Sometimes I truly cannot figure out what we she wants us to do. I mean, I teach middle school; I constantly have 20 twelve year olds asking me ridiculous questions all at once, but I can't figure out what this lady is talking about!!! Well, only 6 more weeks...