Pickles, the drummer, doodleee doodleee doodlee doo

A couple additional notes:

-Mark Hamill contributes voices on Metalocolypse.
-My favorite characters in Ultimate Alliance are Deadpool (favoritest comic character ever), Blade, Human Torch and Thor.

I'm reading Runaways right now since there have been three new volumes since I last picked up the series and my brother lent them to me. It's a fun read despite the fact that it is meant for teenagers or even younger. There is something really innocent about the book but at the same time Vaughan just writes kids really well. Hard to imagine that it's written by the same guy who does Ex Machina and Y: The Last Man.

Might be the last I-Bar Thursday for a while tonight. Say a prayer for the death of an era.

I have an idea for an article I want to write. It may be posted here soon. I will post another article I wrote a while back for my other (now dead, you can pray for that too while your at it, Captain Praysalot) website on here sometime next week. In English, that's called foreshadowing. It's done to build suspense and sometimes to just serve as filler and stretch out the length of a tretise because the author ran out of ideas but wants to seem smarter so he will elaborate on subjects that really don't need any more explanation. He may also start using excessively elaborate diction like zaftig and fecundate, as in "All my female friends are totally zaftig and I would totally fecundate every last one of them."

Of cartoons and video games.

I spent the past week with my brother and sister-in-law. While at their house I played a lot of a video game and watched a lot of a cartoon. A quick review of both with a review of myself secretly included as subtext starts now. (p.s. For those that don't care, you can skip the reviews and read more about nothing since your time is so f*****g important.)

Marvel Ultimate Alliance
For those of you that were not aware, I was as a child and still am a comic book fan. I don't make weekly trips to the comic store and talk industry with like minded folks on a sweat stained couch, but I do read and respect the genre as literature. This video game allows you to play as a team of comic heroes from the Marvel Universe. It's a lot of fun and pretty close to the game that comic book fans have been anticipating for some time now.

Metalacolypse
The new cartoon from Brendon Small is awesome. It is about the world's greatest metal band. The show is especially amusing for people who know anything about the hardcore and metal scenes but I hope it's funny to those who are not as well. For the record, Brendon Small does the shows music as well and is incredibly talented.

If you caught Studio 60 on Monday you missed a bit I thought of in college captured by Aaron Sorkin. At some point in the show there was a semantic argument about the word "semantics." I came up with that idea sometime sophomore or junior year. Very surreal.

I watched football on Thanksgiving but not a single game on the weekend. Missed Notre Dame/USC. Missed the Bears. Missed Monday night too. I guess I'm not from the midwest anymore. Sometimes I really do think that we are perceived that way in NY and LA. "Darn tractor broke down halfway back from market; almost missed kickoff."

Had a good time back home in Milwaukee off of my brother's couch. We went out on a pub crawl on North Ave. Megan you will be happy to hear I wore my wedding shirt with a pink sport coat and black pants. I was turning heads and stopping traffic. You go me!

Happy Thanksgiving!!11

Hey little girl is your daddy home
Did he go away and leaveyou all alone
I got a bad desire
I'm onfire
Tell me now baby is he good to you
Can he doto you the things that I do
I can take youhigher
I'm on fire
Sometimes it's like someone took a knife baby edgy and dull
and cut a six-inchvalleythrough the middle of my soul
At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet and a freight trainrunning through themiddle of my head
Only you can coolmy desire
I'm on fire

Happy Holiday's y'all.

Being in Wisconsin reminds me of the things I'm thankful for in Chicago (p.s. and marty, megan, and martha davis abroad).

You see, this is what great teams do...

I haven't posted in a while, because honestly I don't have too much going on. Is this what happens when you start working a normal job?

Didn't do much this weekend. I watched a lot of football (College and NFL) and was reminded of how much I hate sports announcing. That's not really fair though, I just hate a majority of national broadcasters. When they are bad (Tim McCarver) they ruin games, when they are great (Bob Uecker) they are a reason to listen.

Michigan is still the number two team in the country, Ohio State reigns supreme, and everyone else in the Big Ten still hates the shit out of Ohio State and Michigan.

Favre got injured today. It'll be interesting to see what happens come game time next week.

Went to a house party with Ed and Colyn. It was pretty fun and somewhat nostalgic. I realized how my sense of humor has changed when a majority of my comments are met with blank stares from undergrads.

Anyone who gets this next part please leave a comment so that I know to high five you next time we meet:

I get an AIM from some random looking to direct me to a sexchat site.

YYggrrllzzz5115:want to chat with hot sexy girls?
Ragingape:I put on my robe and wizard hat.

Calling all Mathletes.

I read this today and it annoyed me.

We constantly hear about U.S. public school test scores and how we are failing when ranked beside other nations. This is usually to stir up a frenzy for school reform and funding and adoption of new programs.

Within the article it states that this new need for reform comes on the heels of a study that lead to the previous need for reform and how we have to get away from the previous recommendations of the same group.

Let's start assiging blame for this "problem." I can find two sources (which in all honesty is actually the same source):

1) The group doing the report. Obviously you don't know what changes will be effective and what areas of focus are of greatest concern. How about you just let the teachers teach instead of forcing curriculum on them.

2) The system. Not the school system. This system of reporting our scores next to international students. An exerpt from the article:

"...the math skills of children in the United States simply do not measure up: American eighth-graders lag far behind those from Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and elsewhere on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, an international test."

Wow I guess American students are not as intelligent as students from those countries. That can't be it, it must be our methods of teaching. No it's probably a self-esteem issue. Let's change numbers to things that make the kids feel good about themselves.

How about you try being honest in your reporting instead of peddling your snake venom.

Asian students are tested and screened before being allowed into public universities. Only the students who pass the tests go to school. The others are enrolled in public service or industrial programs or cast to the wayside (sweatshops, other horrors). Therefore you are comparing the test scores of all U.S. students (I realize not all children go to school but I'll even grant you that the children in school represent the top 75% of children in the U.S., which I'm sure you'll agree represents a low estimate) to the test scores of the upper margin (I'll even go with the top 50%, a number that is too big) of students from Asian countries. Therefore our average scores are bound to be significantly lower than those of the Asian communities.

Even European school systems do more job tracking and gear students toward desired career paths at an earlier age.

Am I saying change our school system? No, I'm saying educate our public so reports like these have the proper context.

Incidentally, I was not implying that Asian people are not smart. I have nothing but respect for your people and your culture. Please don't kung-fu me.

Borat: A Terrible Movie

Not really, but that title is way funny.

Not to just repeat what Colyn said, but it really wasn't great.

For the most part the segments that were the lamest relied on people's good nature and seemed to mock them for it. Their general attitude was to be polite and friendly and when he would be a jerk they would grin and bear it. You could tell they wanted to say something but they also didn't want to come across as bigots so they restrained.

He also relies on crass humor too much. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by revealing that there is a naked wrestling fight in the movie. Colin got it right when he said "should have been a few minutes at most" but it seemed to stretch for a solid fifteen. Whether this is true or not I am not sure.

There are funny moments. Showing frat boys and rednecks to be who they are around foreigners is amusing. However most of the glowing praise is coming from people who have never seen the show, making the whole gimmick novel to them. It isn't to me, and quite frankly the ten minute segments on the show seemed forced as well.

We went to the movie on Thursday. I worked at a job all week (huh?) for the first time since I was blah blah nostalgia. I get to go to a beautiful office downtown on occasion that amazes me everytime I step in. The accoutrements of our current employer's office are unreal for someone like me who spent his entire adult life in academia. And lower echelon academia for the most part.

Played poker last night. Lost $10 to O'Hollaran (sp?) like usual. I think he only comes back into town to talk us into these games and make us look foolish. He's having a good week.

I hope you actual read this exerpt.

I've decided to post an exerpt from my acknowledgements section of my thesis so that some people might actually read it. The concept of any of you reading my blog and my thesis is impossible to imagine so I thought you deserved to see the important parts.

Personal support was essential for me to be able to continue to perform the research. The following people deserve more accolades than I can possibly give for this: my brother Luke and sister Katie whom I love; Jay, Mike, David, and Andre, my closest friends back home who understood my priorities and remained supportive; Martin, Megan, Colin, Cassie, Jay, Nate, Brian, and any other friends here in Chicago who were there for me week after week; Jay, Tom, and everyone else who helped me when I needed a vacation; Justin Ford who would always provide respite from work and thoughtful conversation; and the entire UIC Funkosaurus Ultimate team for letting me have fun when I most needed it. It is not a stretch to say that without these people the weight of this work may have been too much for me to bear.

My memory is not perfect and my space is not infinite and there are many others who supported me. Any omissions are entirely accidental. I hope those I have neglected to mention understand and recognize my sincerity and gratitude in the following statement: I would also like to thank everyone, everywhere who ever believed in me.

Finally I would like to thank my parents, Keith and Vivian. Their constant support and love for my entire life is what enables me to continue living and learning. They may never read this work and if they do they may never understand a significant portion of it. I just hope they understand how much of this work is because of them.

"This one's for Dale"

I brought UIC Funkosaurus Ultimate to Winona for the Hallowinona Ultimate tourney for the second straight year. The weather was unbeatable for Minnesota in late October (mid 50's) and I had a great time.

We went with a whie trash theme. If you can't see, my shirt says "WINE 'EM DINE 'EM 69 E'EM."

I got wasted and remembered what it was like to be young againg. It was a good time. I also played pretty good Ultimate. In the last two months our hucking game (mine especially but others on the team have been sending discs without fear) has come alive and it really opened up the field for our team. At one point I threw five straight goals.

The Sat. night party was fun in that I got to see Simo's band put on a good set that was only dragged down by an excess of covers. The party was severly dragged down because it was the 18 and over party and that crowd in particular lacked any artistic savvy when it came to deciding costumes and just went for cleavage or cheap pop culture reference laughs. Ugh.

And my car made it back intact again.

More like Swalloween!

Megan attacked my decision of staying in last night and not dressing up for Halloween. She did so indirectly, actually via comment on Martha's blog (which will now be known as Memoirs of a Geisha because I think I'm being cute). Because I take even indirect asides at my character as personal attacks (and this is because I have low self-esteem, and it all flows from my low birth weight or something) I felt obligated to present my waning interest in Halloween.

Our generation is destroying Halloween. We are turning a children's holiday into a global dance party/drunkfest. Not withstanding the present state of women's costumes, my problem with this is simple. Children have so few days of the year that are truly for them as it is that us taking one away should be considered heartless. As it stands, children really only have Christmas that is just theirs. Adults (as in our generation) have New Year's, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day, and every major sporting event (professional included but especially college) as days that we can call our days for fun. This is in addition to the fact that we don't need excuses to party.

Our generation has fresh memories of what it was like to be children and excited for Halloween. I can only imagine that children now will grow up with memories of Halloween being the night the entire hockey team drove into the river. Granted, I think the fact that children now must Trick or Treat during the daytime between designated hours is doing more to ruin the holiday than scores of boisterous twenty-somethings could, I still think we need to do our part to return this holiday to its rightful owner.

I don't look down on those who celebrate. I don't expect anyone to change their life because of something I said. I just want you to think.

Just so I credit the person who originally got me thinking this way, B from P-Boi is the first person I've heard make this argument.

To be honest, it really doesn't bother me as much as I let on. I just saw a lot of the things I don't like about this holiday this year and very little about what makes it actually fun.

Before anyone asks, I did dress up for my Halloween Ultimate tourney. I don't think this makes me a hypocrite as a) the tourney wasn't made for kids b) it took place on Saturday during the day and 3) shut up.