Crazyness

Too many classes. Ugh.

Between writing papers and girlfriend maintenence, i've been incomunicado with the world.

But with a break coming in after finals, I'll be able to post more often. Really.

Things to post:

Dating strategy
Zeroplus language
National referendum (needs researching)
National Coalition Party platform

And whatever the heck I feel like.





Lurker
(needs an underground city. Best of both worlds)

At War

My father is now in the Middle East, about to begin his year long tour in Iraq.

The war has suddenly become very personal.

This is hard for me. Conceptually, I understand the why we are there and pretty much agree with the whole policy. But I want my father back. Now.

Part of me wanted to injure him so he wouldn't have to go. Part of me wanted to sign up and go with him. If I thought that taking up arms and hunting down terrorists was the most expedient use of my time, I'd be over there in a heartbeat.

I already know I'll end up there sooner or later. After I graduate, I'm going to work to make the world a better place, and G-d knows that Iraq needs all the help it can get.

Ugh, this is frustrating. My Dad, father of 5 and in his 40's is over there and me, I'm still stuck in school.

It shoulda been me.

Actually, it still might....




Lurker

Solution to illegal imigration...?

Zany way to 'solve' illegal imigration problem, combining many of my ideas.

Step 1: find the most defensable line possible way down south in mexico, likely past the edge of the baja.

2: Buy land from Mexico. Billions of dollars. But try to do it in such a way as the money is not wasted on corruption. Enriching the population decreases the economic pressures to go north. And people further south may be satisfied with the alternative of a spanish speaking moderately wealthy nation as opposed to english speaking US.

3. Start building a massive, state of the art wall from coast to coast. Nothing gets thru here without permision. Totally sealable.

4. Carve out new states. Here's the deal: anyone inside the boundry becomes a US citizen, just like in the olden days. Subtext: all illegals should head south into new state areas to recieve benifits of citizenship. Additional insentitve would be to eliminate insentives to remain non-citizens.

5. Massive immigration reform, making it immensly easier to enter country/and or become a citizen. People given id when entering country so they are easily found if they become a problem. We want more people to join our culture and spread our ideals. let them come.

6. With new states, we get more senators, and political power moves further south in the house of reps. Illegals are reduced to a non-issue, because of the massive amnisty, ease of legal entry, impracticality of illegal entry, and so forth. With no illegal human traficing, trafficing of other bad things (drugs, WMD's, etc) is much harder to hide. And the tax base is hugely grown as there are many more people and basically no untaxed labor.

7. Precident set for further expansion of the US. Potential regions for statehood have modern day examples of how to join the USA if they are so inclined.



Now, to spread this idea to others...



Lurker
(Worried for Paris)

Where were we...?

Sorry for the month long absence. Too much school, new girlfriend, moving.... life got in the way...

Now, where were we? Eh, I guess I'll just do some comic reviews. I'll wait for the proposed constitutional amendments next time.


She-Hulk #1 Fun issue, definately stay with it till they hit #100 (in about three issues, long story).

HoM #8 Aftermath issue. By itself, good. Profound changes. Way too long storyline though. Whole thing coulda been done in four issues. Grr.

BP #9 Entertaintin, I guess. Still sort of eh. Not pulling my hair out anymore.

MTU #14 Spider-Man and Invincible. This issue blew me away. Excellent insight, characterization, dialogue. Drat, no way I can drop this series now, especially with Darkhawk, Speedball, and Gravity showing up for the next arc...

Young Avengers #8 Cool. Mention of Josiah X (thought he was forgotten). New Vision has imprints of Iron Lad? Add another personality to the heap. The more I read about Vision, the more he looks like a spy for Immortus all along. It would explain some things...

I guess thats everything for now.



Lurker
(Procrastinating)

Comic book reviews!

Lousy subscriptions. I give up. The $ saved isn't worth the hassle.

So, I gave in and swooped up issues I should've already gotten (plus new stuff):


New Avengers 9, 10: Sentry! Yay! Quite good, if a bit decompressed. Not sure how it jives the the LS though....

New Avengers 11: Ronin! A new, mystery avenger. Is it Daredevil? I'm guessing its Wolverine...

Young Avengers 6: Gosh, its been too long since I read 5. Ends about like I expected. Not sure if I like the name Stature though...

Young Avengers 7: Well, here it is folks, the comics industry first teenage gay couple. Wait till the press hears about this!

Sentry #1 of 8: Yes! This is what I've waited years for! God-like superhero thats just barely sane.

New Warriors #4 of 6: Good characterization. The newwest Warrior has a fun attitude.

Black Pather #8: This has got to be the worst editted book I've ever read. I have no idea how this book fits into the Marvel Universe. There's no conistancy. With Priest there were always more layers and subtext woven into the story than any comic I've seen since. But Hudlin references things that can't possibly have happened, or the timeline is totaly out of whack! Grr...

Defenders #3 of 5: Dripping with sarcasm and pithy remarks. Still not quite what I want from a Defenders comic though...



Lurker
(Poker Night is every Sunday after 6:30!)

Strange lights over Arizona

My sibling called me this evening and asked if there was supposed to be a comet out tonight.

She and many other dezinens of Phoenix saw some sort of lit up clouds over the western horizon for a good ten minutes at least. Looks like an odd shape.

Acording to the news it was a sattelite launch, to study atmospheric phenomenon. Huh.

I'll post more when I learn more.



Lurker
(Charcoal should join the Runaways!)

Water, water everywhere

Ceres, a minor planet in the asteroid belt, may have more freshwater than Earth...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9247925/
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050907_ceres_planet.html

This is so cool. If true, this would definately be a MAJOR destination for future space exploration. Large amounts of water in a low gravity-well is a great pit stop.

Also, Ceres is the only planetoid I know of that was given full planet status only to lose it later.

For those of you keeping track, here what I consider to be the planets of the Sol system:

Object

System

Radius km

Sid. Period

Sem-Maj. Axis

Eccentricity

Ang. Diam. arcsecs

Gas Giants (not shown)

EARTH	Sun	6371.00 ±0.01	365.256363	1.00000102	0.01670863	-	-
VENUS	Sun	6051.84 ±0.01	224.700800	0.72332982	0.00677192	9.56	65.43
MARS	Sun	3389.92 ±0.04	686.979853	1.52367934	0.09340065	3.48	25.64
GANYMEDE	Jupiter	2631.2 ±1.7	7.154553	1070400	0.0011	1.12	1.85
TITAN	Saturn	2575 ±2	15.945446	1221803	0.0291	0.64	0.89
MERCURY	Sun	2439.7 ±1.0	87.969256	0.38709831	0.20563175	4.53	13.03
CALLISTO	Jupiter	2410.3 ±1.5	16.689018	1882700	0.0074	1.02	1.70
IO	Jupiter	1821.3 ±0.2	1.769138	421800	0.0041	0.78	1.28
LUNA	Earth	1737.5 ±0.1	27.321662	384404.377	0.05554553	1766.39	1974.39
EUROPA	Jupiter	1560.8 ±0.5	3.551181	671100	0.0094	0.66	1.10
2003UB313	Sun	~ 1430 ?	556.5	67.659	0.442	0.04	0.11
TRITON	Neptune	1353.4 ±0.9	5.87685	354759	0.00002	0.12	0.13
PLUTO	Sun	1164 ±22.9	247.92065	39.48168677	0.24880766	0.06	0.11
2005FY9	Sun	~ 900 ?	309.4	45.740	0.155	0.05	0.07
2003VB12	Sun	~ 875	11274.8	502.807	0.849	0.00	0.03
TITANIA	Uranus	788.9 ±1.8	8.705867	436298	0.0014	0.10	0.13
RHEA	Saturn	764 ±4	4.517503	527367	0.0003	0.19	0.26
OBERON	Uranus	761.4 ±2.6	13.463234	583519	0.0016	0.10	0.12
2004DW	Sun	~ 759	247.8	39.453	0.218	0.04	0.07
2003EL61	Sun	~ 750 ?	285.4	43.344	0.189	0.04	0.06
IAPETUS	Saturn	718 ±8	79.330954	3561850	0.0283	0.18	0.25
2002LM60	Sun	630 ±95	286.9	43.502	0.035	0.04	0.04
CHARON	Pluto	621 ±20.6	6.38725	19636	0.0002	0.03	0.06
2002TC302	Sun	~ 602	409.4	55.139	0.293	0.02	0.04
UMBRIEL	Uranus	584.7 ±2.8	4.144176	265998	0.0039	0.08	0.09
ARIEL	Uranus	578.9 ±0.6	2.520379	190945	0.0012	0.08	0.09
DIONE	Saturn	559 ±5	2.736916	377654	0.0022	0.14	0.19
TETHYS	Saturn	529.8 ±1.5	1.887803	294992	0.0001	0.13	0.18
1996TL66	Sun	~ 479	757.3	83.085	0.578	0.01	0.04
CERES	Sun	475.5 ±3.9	1680.71	2.766412164	0.07911582	0.32	0.86

http://www.tenspheres.com/tools/largestlist.htm

Huh, 2003UB313 is the so-called tenth planet. I don't remember there being so many big sun-orbiting bodies though...



Lurker
(Listening to Coast to Coast AM)

Katrina

I'm not sure how I feel about the fallout from Hurricane Katrina. I think either that it hasn't sunk in yet, or maybe I'm numb to it. I dunno. I haven't really seen much news about it since I've been busy all week with school.

The US has lost cities before, but its been about a hundred years since the last I think. And those were from earthquakes and/or fires. It'll be interesting how people will rebuild, assuming they do.

The lawlessnes in the city shouldn't really surprise people. I'm just surprised it isn't worse. And it'll stay this bad until things get back to normal, whatever that new normal may be.

Hopefully this'll wake people up as to how powerful and undpredictable mother nature can be. Levies are dangerous. When they go the floods are fast and deep, and the remnants of the levies slow the drainage. Maybe now Louisiana will cut their losses and allow the Mississippi to change channels away from the city.


See, isn't this more fun? Well, not the hurricane, but the shift in format away from my boring life to relevant subject matters? Comment away!



Lurker
(Way too much reading this semester)

Now, the real fun begins....

...I should be able to post more regularly to this website (hopefully daily) now that school has begun. That is, of course, if I finish scheduling my classes. One of the classes I was supposed to take just happens to be on a different campus. Wish I'd noticed that when I signed up for it. So, I've got to replace it with something quick, because I need to take 18 credit-hours this and next semester or I don't graduate in May.

But other than that, my life has been relatively stress free. I worked my last day at the shipping company friday the week before last. Work was way too far from my new place, required me to get up at 3 in the morning, and probibly wasn't the healthiest for me either. Now I can sleep in. Yay!

That weekend I took a trip south to see most of my old friends. They seemed to have split up into many circles in my absense. All seemed to be doing quite well. Didn't get to see everybody though. Ah well, its probibly for the best.

Next I took a trip to Vegas to see even more friends. That was fun too. I ordered a borg sphere at quarks bar (10 oz of who knows what) and saw the Borg 4D experience. And I astounded my friends one morning when I had 5 plates of food at a breakfast buffet. Didn't make it very far afterwards tho.

So that's my life thus far. Boy this blogging thing is harder than I thought. I haven't even posted my insights on world politics yet, not to mention my reform agenda. And of course, there's that language I'm working on, my magical studies, progress playing Morrowind, plus all the astrophysics and other neat things I'm interested in. Ah, well... I've got all the time in the world...




Lurker
(Pondering an Avengers book with Babylon 5 style politics)

This weeks comics reviews

There's something odd about that title.... Anyway...


Runaways #6. This series is easily becoming my favorite comic book. Great characterization, obscure characters, and Darkhawk!!! Yes, he's back in this issue, with a vengence!

And the revealations this issue.... Cool! Although the benefactor was a bit of a let down, there is seriously some potential here. Now we just need to have Excelsior get a LS or a regular series....


Marvel Team-Up #11. Darn it, I keep trying to drop this series, but it keeps growing on me. Now they brought in Nova(!) for cripes sakes. Mostly dialoge, but it was spot on.


Hercules #5 of 5. Wow, finaly this Limited Series pays off. Great insight into the character. And a really weird read, considering I just bought Hercules Season 1 of the Kevin Sorbo TV series.


Robert Jordan's New Spring #1. Yes, you read that right. The series without an end is publishing a comic about the begining. Very cool. But for $4 an issue I'm not sure I can afford to read about something I've already read twice (In Legends and the full book version). I'm sure my Dad would love to recieve it from me... Hmm....


Well thats it for the reviews. Unless I review the latest issue I read in Essential X-Men vol.3 that is. Hmm. Anyway, I intend to be irregular about doing these, until the page finds its niche.


Via con pollos!
Lurker (Yes, I know it says "Go with chickens" ....Nevermind....)

Gone

I said goodbye to my father. He's on his way to Iraq.

True, he'll be stationed in the states for a few months before going, but he's still not coming home until 2007.

Frankly, I'm a little worried. Not just for my Dad (he is getting up there in years), but also for the Iraqi people. He and I have run thru some scenarios, and he doesn't play war nicely. His first priority is victory, and politics are close to the bottom. In certain situations, he could very well escalate the war over there. We'll see.


The hardest part about the separation is that he won't be around to teach me Judo. He's been doing the sport for decades (well, so have I, but only half his time) and he knows things I've only begun to grasp. In this area at least, I still need him.


So yeah, expect to hear more about Iraq in the next year or two. Definately.



Lurker
(Love you Dad)

I'm back!!!

I have returned from a very long family reunion camping trip. Three days driving each way. Ugh.

But the vacation was really cool. I got to see folks I hadn't been with for years. Good to see them again.

All the more poinent because my Dad is going to Iraq at the end of the month. He'll be gone for over a year. Actually this trip helped my with that, because it'd been longer than that since I'd seen most everybody there.

My cousin went to Iraq for a year, he was one of the first ones to go in. Had some interesting insight into the whole thing.


Well, thats enough for now. I'm going to be posting more often, and about how I'd make the world more to my likeing.




Tally ho!
Lurker

Summer school sucks

Ugh. What a long month. I've been taking Spanish 202 for a summer session just to get it out of the way. It is less than a hassle than a taking normal class would have been, but man it is still time consuming.


Heads up! On sunday night NASA is going to slam a probe into a comet, and it should be visable to people on the west coast with binoculars or telescopes. I'll have more info when its closer.


Morrowind is addictive and way too huge. I could be playing this one for quite a while....


Found an interesting language system that uses about 120 basic concepts to create just about any word or idea. I'll definately be 'borrowing' at least some of this for ZeroPlus:
http://www.kisa.ca/tokipona/index.html


Saw Bush's speech last night. Fairly effective. I'm not sure what would silence his critics. A timeline perhaps? Spelling out exactly what needs to happen in what order (minus dates) would quell some fears of being stuck forever in Iraq.





Lurker
(I wonder if anyone's actualy been to this blog yet.... I need a counter....)

Moving sucks

Long story short(well, shorter at least): I learned on the 9th of this month that the guy who was buying my house changed his mind and decided not to let us live there. So me and my 2 roommates (one of whom had lived there for only 10 days) had less than a week to move.

Hillarity ensues.

So, I end up moving with one of my roommates to a condo (a rather nice one). I'm still unpacking (good heavens my house was full of miscelanous stuff). Aside from a mysterous maple syrup smell, this place is actually quite ideal for me.



Lurker
(Just got Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. So, you might never see me again. Oh well)

Thunderbolts #9 Swordsman Theory

First off, the last issue was great! R-Man is exploding with potential, and is still by some definitions evil.

Anyway, on to Swordsman....










Okay, that stabbing was fake, either a SCREAM-type-I-only-look-like-I'm-hurt or a mindbending vision courtesy of PM's powers. After reading the issue, a question came into my mind: why the hell in issue #1 did Genis fly down, help the T-Bolts, and get knocked into orbit without reacting? It is all a setup. We know PM was behind part of it, I think he was behind all of it. Genis is the Swordsman! It works out so well! You've never seen the two in the same place at the same time!

Either that, or Atlas is the Swordsman, but thats just not as fun.





Lurker
(Pulsar transforms into radiation, and R-Man controls and absorbs radiation, so if they fought...)

Good day to be a warriors fan

There are three, count 'em THREE, NW related comics today!

LAST HERO STANDING LS #2
Both Nova and Speedball make it to the recap page (Nova's on the cover), both are amoung MC2's assembled Avengers, one or both have speaking rolls, and their past membership as Warriors is brought up. With fewer and fewer hero's still standing I expect these two to get more screentime as the series wraps up (Next issue out next week!)


Gravity LS #1
Better than I expected, I must say. Powers not well defined, but are full of potential. I fully expect Black Death to be his roommate. Rage appearence had more oomph than I'm used to. I hope he makes another appearance. Even if not though, I'm buying the rest of the series.


New Warriors LS #1
It works! The art actually works for the story. I'm not totally sold on the whole premise of the series, although it does sorta fit the Warrior agenda. Kinda. I just hope this sells like hotcakes and we get our series back!



Lurker
(Any Spider-Girl readers out there? Does her New Warriors team still exist or was that a one time thing?)

Time well spent

Well, instead of going to california theme parks this weekend, i pretty much stayed home and did nothing. Read that as: waste time on the computer. I discovered that the New Warriors LS is out in stores this Wednesday (YAY!), that there are way too many mods for Baldur's gate ( http://iegmc.mirror.intermedia.com.sg/ ), and that there are more mathematical symbols than I thought, which is going to make ZeroPlus more difficult (perhaps I need to prioritize).

Told you I had diverse interests.

Also, I'm having problems getting my Thief II game to work. I was screwing around with my burner to compile the instalation disc and play disc (and the massive TX2 mod) on one DVD, and now I can't get it to play at all. Finicky system.




Lurker (There, using a portion of one of my zillions of screen names as a signature.)
[Putting off reediting LOTR trilogy to make it more like the books. Meaning half of TTT is toast]

Note to self

Note to self

testing

Second Post! (note to self: need better titles)

I really should be doing homework for summerschool, but this seems less productive.

Now the second post is the vital one. If I start ranting about politics, people will write off the site as purely political. If I work out my frustrations with Wolverine joining the Avengers, I'll be pigeonholed as a comic geek blogger.

So, for purely selfish reasons, I'll post areas that need improvement in my life just as a way of recording them so I'll actually maybe work on them:

Buy and eat vegetables regularly
Record any and all dreams, visions, etc.
Schedule next semester, including new major (I'm dual majoring;)
Find a new job.
Dating would be nice.
Meditate! Work up a routine!
Work on that second degree black belt for Judo. Just a little more....
Get a working copy of ZeroPlus going ( custom language I'm working on)



There we go. Still not confortable posting the more personal stuff, but this is a good start.






(do I need a signature for my own blogsite?)

First Post!

Right then. I've created my blog. Now I just need something insightful to say.

...


um...


...


Hmm... You know, its kind of funny. Fifty years from now, the internet will be absolutely enormous, because anything posted on it can't really be deleted. That is what it was designed for, before it went mainstream. So anything I post here will be available for viewing by posterity, for good or ill.

Perhaps a little background info is in order. I'm about a quarter of a century old, a senior in college, an agnostic (for lack of a better term), non-sexually active, mixed race, American, black belt, news junkie, marvel comics fan, sci-fi/fantasy geek, and spends most of my time reading on the internet or in real life (such as it is).

That said, welcome to my website. I'm not sure what sort of perverse plesure you get out of reading it, but by all means continue. Or not.