More like Nerdular Nerdence

So I've become something of an Elitist in recent years. I joined the V-Dub club (not literally... I just get to be one of those people who talks about how inferior American cars are because I own a VW...), I'm fairly picky when it comes to music, I'm definitely picky when it comes to movies, and, of course, Microsoft is total crap now that I've owned a Mac.

That said, MS is developing this pretty freakin' cool computer called Surface. I'll link the videos below. While most of the technology is already here (live 3D maps from Google, touch screen in everything from Palms and phones to the DS, and wireless data transfer via Bluetooth) combining everything this thing can do has to take massive amounts of RAM. Like 15 GB (note: I'm talking about memory, not hard drive space... don't mean to treat someone who knew what I was talking about like an idiot, but a lot of people get that mixed up...). Anyway, I think this is a pretty cool concept. Seems to me the step taken after this will be holograms. Yeah...

This one is a commercial made by MS.

Supposedly this technology has been around for a year or so. This video was made by a NYU student. The difference is that MS made relevant applications, while the student made more of a concept video. Still cool. (I know it says it's made by Apple, but the poster of that video is wrong. Even disregarding my source that it's not Apple, Apple's name would be all over this, just like MS did.

Concerning random little tidbits about Spirituality (and nerdy Sci-fi)

So first of all, the new Modest Mouse album is amazing!

Also, Virgin records is WAY too expensive. I've wanted the CD for a while, and Arynn and her sister and sister's friend were down at 16th street, so I bought it, but it was 18$!! I know that's kind of standard for a CD, but considering it takes them like 4 dollars to make the CD, that is just too much money.

K, so this is really nerdy, but I have to throw it out: So for a little while now I've gone through 1st and 2nd Sam, and 1st and 2nd Kings. You probably already know this, but the main premise of these books is the kingship of Israel/ Judah/ Egypt/ a bunch of other places. Basically, when a new King is introduced, one of two sentences is written. Either : "He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord" or "He did what was right in the sight of the Lord." Basically, one of these descendants would either walk in the way of the other evil kings and do things like build up an alter to other gods, (the ones whom many of his descendants worshiped) or worship somewhere other than the temple- basically just forget that God delivered them out of Egypt; or he would tear down the alters etc that his descendants built. One of these gods was named Baal.


I also started watching Stargate because my roommate has most of the seasons. In the show the bad guys (Goa'uld) have enslaved all these other planets by posing as gods, and it turns out that a lot of our mythology was influenced by these bad guys. So there's a guy named Ramses who enslaved ancient Egypt. It's kind of neat how they answer these questions... which don't need answering... but still. Anyway, one of the Goa'uld is named Ba'al. I don't know much about Egyptian culture, but there are Goa'uld named Ra and such- guys I do know of, but I didn't know that Ba'al was real. Just a neat/ nerdy little historical fact for ya there. :-)

(I've been dealing with a lot of my replacements for God lately, and I read this verse and it hit me pretty hard. Just thought I'd share.)

How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.
-1Kings 18:21

Knights of Columbus that hurt!!

Arynn and I went canoing today. And fishing. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures.




This picture doesn't have anything to do with canoing. That's at Robbie's place (that's the sexy hunk of a man in the back ground there). It's a really cool looking picture because I was throwing my phone in the air and Arynn caught it on "film" if you will. Yeah.

Concerning good dates:

So, I pretty much had an amazing time. Jess (the girl I went on a date with) is one of the most interesting people I've ever met. And again, just have to throw this out: she's really cute. :-) More than likely I've already given everyone who reads this details about the night, but I just have to post. I had a really good night, and there's definitely gonna be a 2nd date... once she gets back from her cruise to freakin' Alaska! So jealous.

Now, I'm gonna take a nap before I go out to eat w/ my dad and sisters.

PS (I wanted to make this my subject, but I think it'll be better as text):
Michael: I want you to think long and hard
Dwight: That's what she said
Michael: Don't you dare!
I always laugh when I watch that. It's a good chuckle.

Are you listening?

So a couple things. First: I'm very happy to have my friends from Texas back. This is going to be a good summer. I helped them unpack today, and my muscles hurt. Luckily I'm working out more, so soon they won't. :-)

Second, a quick note on the NHL: Sad the Sabres lost, but happy the Ducks beat the Wings. My prediction for the finals: Ducks in 7. Let's keep the Cup out of Canada!! :-)

Third: I've tried to keep this on the DL because I don't want it to get all hyped up and made more than it is, but I know someone's going to yell at me for not telling them when they find out, so this way, I'll just tell them it's their own fault for not reading my blog. :-) Anyway, here's the dealio: I've got a date on Friday. I don't think anything will come from it, because she's way outgoing, and likes to do crazy things like base jumping and and such. I actually can't remember everything she's done/ wants to do, but it's crazy stuff like bungee jumping and the like. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do that stuff, but it's not really a part of my personality. I'm a mellow person, and doing something like that would be a high light of my life. But yeah, I'm way happy to get out in the dating world again. And she's pretty cute, which is definitely a plus. :-) So, wish me luck with that. I'll probably update later.

PS this is going to be a crazy week. Not only do I have my first real date since like October of last year, but my sister is graduating this weekend, so my dad and grandparents are coming out, which means lunch in some mountain town, and yeah, lots of graduation stuff. I'll be happy when I can just focus on moving out. :-)

I loled

So, Arynn lead me to this, and it was really funny, so I thought I'd share. PS, W00T for 50 posts in like 3 months. I'm amazing.

Twinkies are gross

So I'm pretty sure there are four things that would survive a nuclear devastation: Cock Roaches, Twinkies, Cher, and Nokia phones. Those things are butt ugly, but they last forever. Because of the former, I've never considered owning one. Until now...
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/10/08/nokias-aeon-full-surface-screen-cellphone-concept/

Do you know who I am?

So I'm listening to Rome, and he has a clip from a couple years ago when he interviewed Evel Knievel. He's talking about some insane jump he did once, and Rome asks him

"What did you think your chances of survival were?"

"50/50"

"You were thinking your chances of survival were 50/50. Why did you do that jump? What was the point?"

"Do you know who I am?"

That's a legacy. I thought that was really cool. Had to post it.

It was a good day

So definitely got the best GPA I've ever had... in College or HS. What's my amazing secret? (Besides having all Bible classes... that I was interested in... and at least partially getting my priorities in line...) I actually worked my ass off.

So what did we learn this semester? Definitely don't let anyone talk you into missing the first day of class, because you'll feel lost the first 5 weeks of class. I'm really happy.

Oh, and just have to throw this out to those whom I haven't mentioned this to... remember that paper I was working on for Prophets that was about 7 pages too short (8 1/2 pages when it was supposed to be 15) and 4 days late... even though I got an extension...? Yeah, well got an A on it! Ames said he liked my idea a lot. So, points for Chris. :-) This was a good semester.

That's. Retarded.

Pretty much why Motorola is the worst cell phone manufacturer out there, and why every phone they create (yes, even the oh so crappy, yet oh so popular RAZR) is a total piece of shit. Long live American manufacturing.

Since Motorola needs to get back on the profit wagon, apparently the second largest mobile phone maker in the world believes cultural novelty may be the answer. Moto has just patented the "Smellophone" that packs a scent pouch which releases olfactory goodness when talking. The mobile's battery is put to good use powering the phone and heating the scent pack as well, so we're wondering what kind of standby time reduction we can expect once we have our handsour name) includes this: "Some cellular telephone users are the same individuals who enjoy having plug-in scent units located around their homes, and may miss not having a nice smelling fragrance while they are on the go." Awesome. noses on one of these beauties. The patent references a "Communication device having a scent release feature and method thereof." We can't wait to get our mitts on one of these and rate with our noses, but until then, we love Motorola's cheeky patent app. The colorful language for the MOTOSNIFR (our name) includes this: "Some cellular telephone users are the same individuals who enjoy having plug-in scent units located around their homes, and may miss not having a nice smelling fragrance while they are on the go." Awesome.

Changin' it up

I'm making a change to my predictions: Anaheim in 6. Don't care if I'm wrong, they've got amazing defense, and are really physical. They'll beat Detroit. They'll do it. :-)

-SIGH-

My paper's done, and I'm officially on Summer Break. Peeps from Texas, Tim's wedding, Summer Classes, Moving and then Oregon, here I come!!

Once again, no one cares

Welp, the Semi finals are over. The Ducks won in 5 games (way to suck it up Vancouver) and the Detroit won in 7. So my predictions were pretty close... :-) I was right about the wins anyway... and I got Detroit in 6... I just didn't want to be right.

This is hard to write... I don't think the Ducks will beat Detroit. Trust me when I say, I REALLY want them to, not only because it's Detroit, but because the Ducks have improved incredibly in like 3 years.... but I just don't think they have the experience. The Sharks lost this past series against Detroit, not because of firepower or goal tending, but because they just couldn't pull together as a team. Detroit is by far a veteran team. Anaheim is better team on paper in terms of individual players, but allowing them to all come together... they just need more time to gel as a team. So, I'm making the call... Detroit in 7.

And now that there are only two teams left in the East... I'm calling Buffalo in 5. I'd really like to see Anaheim play Buffalo, so I'm kind of hoping I'm wrong about that series. We'll see how it goes. Once again, if you've read this whole thing without skipping to the end, you truly are my friend. :-)

I'm procrastina-mazing!!!

This is from an article from Cinematical. Thought it was kind of gay, and the movie looks interesting.

The end of the world is near. Well, at least one would think that if they heard that a big company got ticked off because one of their product was used without permission in a film. A company not wanting free advertising -- isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse? Okay, maybe an exception would be made if it was some truly despicable person or scenario that would completely tarnish the image of the product. But it's not. It's Jesus! Oh, yes, Jesus drinks a can of Coke in the desert in a new Italian film, and Coca Cola has taken legal action against the producers.

The feature, Seven Kilometers from Jerusalem, is about a Milanese ad exec who is having a midlife crisis. He makes a pilgrimmage to the Holy Land and ends up running into Jesus. He gives him a ride in his Jeep, and then offers the son of God a Coke. While Jesus is drinking he puns: "My God, what a testimonial!" Well, it seems that Coke doesn't like that very much and have demanded that the scene be cut from the film, because it will give the company a negative image. A Coca Cola Italia spokesperson says: "We are not interested in this kind of product placement." Maybe if he offered Jesus a Coke on the cross, that could be seen in bad taste, but just a simple act of quenching thirst? The legal action has resulted in the film losing its distribution with Mediafilm, who was going to Capitalize on Easter by releasing it this Friday (Good Friday). Now, they're trying to get the soda giant's lawyers to change their minds. Heck, even the church isn't perturbed by this, as reports say that the film was well-received by the Vatican. Well, I guess wonders never cease!

Business Suits are Faggy

So I'm watching this forum thing with Kevin Smith at some school (he did Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob, Dogma, Mall rats... yeah) about this failed Superman movie dealie he was going to write. Pretty funny. Warner Bros has him to go this producer's house, because this is the guy who's financing the movie and he has a lot of (terrible) ideas. John Peters, I believe was his name. So he's saying things like "Do whatever you want with the movie, but I have three things I want in it: First, I don't want the business suit. That's faggy. Second, Superman can't fly (he didn't have a reason for this... just that he didn't want superman to fly...?) and Third, I want a giant spider in the third act." So he's talking about how the movie deal didn't work out because Tim Burton wanted to bring his own writers on, and yeah. So he says "I wasn't really bothered by it, but then a year later, I go to see this new movie that John Peters produced. Wild Wild West." I laughed pretty hard. I'll leave that up in the air. I'm assuming if you saw the movie, you'll get the joke. Think about it for a second. But yeah, just watched that, and had to share.

A BIG BUSHY BEARD!

So I was having a chat with my good friend Andrew last night in the theater before Hot Fuzz started (pretty funny movie... "He had one thing you don't... A BIG BUSHY BEARD!!" but kind of slow when you only got 3 hours of sleep the night before) and he was talking about how he thought Christians and the church in general are really fake. I don't want to go into what we talked about, more about that point. Basically he said Christians are pretty okay with a mediocre faith, and not really growing in that faith. If you've had one discussion about American Christianity with me you'll know I completely agree with that. It's completely self-serving, and put simply it's lazy. Maintaining a relationship with God is really difficult, and honestly I don't think it's honest if you're pursuing your own dreams of self-actualization or whatever. Basically, I don't think it's possible to pursue the American dream before you have genuinely and fully pursued God, and allowed God to change you in the ways you need to be changed. If you do that, and then once you have a nice comfy lifestyle you decide "you know, I need God, I think I'll go pick up a devotional" you've based your life on yourself, and that base has to be stripped if you genuinely want to live that lifestyle.
Anyway, that's not really what I want to talk about. (Disclaimer: I am in no way bashing Andrew and what we talked about. What we talked about kind of shaves to the side of my qualm with myself and others who do this. We good? Good. Now give me five.) I have this amazing ability to feel better about where I am in my walk by looking at someone and saying "well this person is getting drunk and crap when she claims to be a Christian. I may have my issues, but at least I'm not as bad as her." I really don't like a lot of aspects about this country and it's citizens. Again, if you've had one conversation with me about that, you know that. Still, I find myself building myself up by tearing someone else down. I don't see a major difference between that and those assholes who beat their wives/ girlfriends. Or someone very intelligent who bashes people for being "dumb." There is a difference, but they're in the same arena. So, I'm gonna try not to do it anymore.
On a happier note, Spiderman 3 wasn't as bad as everyone said it was. Don't get me wrong, it was much worse than the 2nd one, and I have plenty to complain about. But I went into it having such a low standard for it, that it really surprised me. Tim pretty much already wrote the book on it in his Xenga, so I'm going to add two things to his post: Venom looked retarded. He looked like one of Dwight's bobble heads. And he had no personality. For some reason it left Peter personality in the black suit, but when Brock got it, he's all of a sudden this snarling creature with no personality. I know it plays off of individual personalities, but come on, they were just trying to make it more badass. (By the way, what the heck happened to the man-spider?!? They set it up in the second with him losing his powers, and then all of a sudden there's no problem? Effin' A Cotton.) Second, it would have been great as a TV series, but as a lot of people have said, it was just way too complicated. Every 20 minutes we were supposed to care about some completely new plot development. They introduced these characters and plots, and then barely scratched the surface because they needed to fit in the Sandman's daughter, or Peter/ Maryjane/ Harry, or Peter and Harry, or Brock and Peter and what's her face. But, 24 does that every week. They just give us a week to work it out in our minds. So yeah, I give it a 6. The fight scenes were freakin' cool though. And Harry and Spiderman's workin' together sequence was A-MA-ZA-ZING.
So yeah, that's what's up. I had a really good weekend, and I have to turn in my paper sometime within the next couple days, and I'll be done with school.... then comes summer classes.... then moving out... then peeps from Texas.... then the amazingness that will be Oregon. It's gonna be a good summer.

I'm in!!!

I'M IN!!!! I got an email from John (my advisor) and he said I got accepted. So, I'm going to Oregon next semester. I'm really happy. For serious. Thanks for all your prayers guys! Can't say how happy I am right now. How relieved I am. Yeah.

Grr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ijLulwUTY
So this really reminds me of Fahrenheit 9/11, because he draws pretty sketchy conclusions, but some of the things these assholes say is insane. It's about PETA (People for the ethical treatment of animals) and one of the guys who apparently has been convicted of arson like 12 times, blowing up buildings peta doesn't like, really pissed me off. "I've been arrested 13 times for random acts of kindness and compassion, following in the footsteps of other routine radical lawbreakers like MLK, Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and Jesus." I want to punch this guy in his ignorant, propaganda-spreading bald head. I can't express how much this pisses me off. It's 15 minutes long, but really worth it as far as I'm concerned. Again, not saying Teller has excellent points, but PETA makes a big enough ass of themselves, as usual. I hate PETA.

Procrasti-nation

So I was just leaving Britney a comment, and decided to make that comment a post.... and by the end of this post, you'll understand...
So you know when you're working on a paper or something, and you try to make yourself as comfortable as possible, so you get something to drink, and then you move to the couch, and then you get some pretzels, and then you get your iPod and hook it up to your receiver, but there's something wrong with the entertainment center, so you work on that, then remember that you were hooking up your iPod, then you hear the Mexicans across the street shooting off fireworks (for like the 20th time in the past 5 days) so you have to go look.... then after ALL THAT, you realize that your research thus far is written on the white board... above your desk... in your room.... which is where you came from when you moved to the living room because for some reason it would be easier to study in there... Yeah, DDR is looking really tempting right now. I refuse to accept the fact that I have ADD.