Tedger.com

So everyone reads Family Circus as a kid…. then they grow up and realize that it’s not only not funny… it’s old people humor. It’s basic content is:

1) Kid says/does something 2) Old woman reading goes “oh, like my grandson chuckle chuckle“

Anyways aparently the Ames High news paper ran a parody of it. here it is:

Yeah, my gut hurts too.

Bit of a follow up on my last post. But it looks like Mac OS 10.4 aka Tiger will be out Friday April 29th. w00t!

So if you’re into computers even if you not into Macs, you might know about the upcoming release of Tiger (Mac OS 10.4). And if you know anything about the release of Tiger, it’s riddled with rumors all across the internet. Well The Ames Macintosh Users Group go an e-mail today. The first paragraph reads:

“On Monday April, 18, 2005, representatives from Apple Computer, Inc. will be on campus doing an overview and answering questions about the pending latest operating system, Tiger, due too be release this spring.”

All I have to say is, it’s about time.

So I’m lazy, and even though I don’t have a ton of people that read my blog… I don’t want to have to moderate them, so comments no longer require that you have one previously approved comment for instant commenting. So you lucky few, comment away!

So today I stumbled upon a review of the upcoming Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie. I think that this sentence pretty much sums it up:

“[You] might think that The Phantom Menace was a hopelessly misguided attempt to reinvent a much-loved franchise by people who, though well-intentioned, completely failed to understand what made the original popular - but that’s just peanuts to the Hitchhiker’s movie.”

If there’s anything that can be learned from the Phantom Menace it’s that “Jar Jar makes the ewoks look like f***ing Shaft” (Tim from Spaced)

I can’t say how much this disappoints me. I’m not going to even try to say anything more. Here’s a link to the spoiler free version of the review.

I live in what I would consider a marvel of the modern world. I live on an open free college campus. Ideas flow freely, and more often than elsewhere people are likely to listen. This is not something that is to be taken lightly. There are still many places around the world, were even on the campus of a comparable institution, would such free speech be allowed.

Something inevitable in a environment where free speech is allowed and encouraged is being confronted by other ideas.  Ideas that you might not agree with.  I see this as less as a negative side affect but a positive one.  I'd much rather be put in a situation where my beliefs are strongly challenged and make me reassess them, than a situation where they are rarely challenged.  I think that I am in the minority on this so something that should always be considered when speaking in an open forum like this is the beliefs of others.

Today I was angered beyond a point that I never have been before. 

Today a group of Pro-life advocates were on campus.  Although I didn't agree with them, I respected  their right to voice their opinions even though they don't attend school here.  Over their heads they held banners reading "God Bless America?" with large pictures (these were about 5'x3' banners) of partial birth abortions.  This greatly bothered me, and I was upset that people would be so insensitive to other people.  I've heard of this tactic of using large pictures of partial birth abortions abortions before.  Central to the debate of abortion rights is the question of when does a developing fetus/child become a person? Some may phrase it as when does it become murder?  My thought on the matter is this.  What makes us human?  I think you are far more likely to find an animal rights activist and or vegetarian that is pro-choice than pro-life so I like to phrase it this way: What sets humans apart from animals?

Thought, emotions, and self-consciousness. Those would be my answers.  Now there are animals that exhibit these qualities, but many people (Americans at least) find the idea of killing Dolphins, Chimps and other similar animals especially for consumption just as terrible, so I think that these categories are useable.  Under these categories, I think that a baby killed in a very late term partial birth abortion would be a child (obviously I'm no expert on the situation) and I would never agree to such a situation, without the risk of another life.  

The pictures forced upon me today were of extremely late term abortions that probably already violate <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=26c00c1obfei1?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Partial-Birth+Abortion+Ban+Act&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1&sbid=lc03a"> an existing law.</a>  There are far more issues with abortion that I'm not going to go into but my point is, these pro-life advocates where forcing horrific pictures upon people of things that are already illegal, in order to mislead people and make their argument more viable.  As angered as I was about all of this, I let it slide. Until someone mentioned something I hadn't seen these people doing.

They had children passing out fliers with these images on them. 

I couldn't believe it.  I was livid.  I couldn't think of anything else through all of lunch.  I don't care if you are pro-life, or pro-choice, You DO NOT expose children to such things!  If some image is supposed to be so horrible that you want to rid the world of such things you shouldn't show them to children.  If the image is so terrible that you think it will change adult's minds on a topic you don't show it to children.  Something awful enough to change the mind of an adult could warp the mind of a child.

Pro-life advocates suggest adoption as a replacement to abortion.   I agree it is an alternative (not a replacement mind you) however adoption is also a good chioce for people who wouldn't be able to raise their children well.  Maybe these people should have put kids up for adoption.  

Today I added a section (as you can see in the toolbar) for Other people’s pictures. So if you have any pictures that you would like to share with people I’m more than happy to stick them up here. Just talk to me and I’ll see what we can do.

Today (April 4th) is my brother’s 15th birthday!!! HOORAY!

So I went to Sin City tonight. Completely awesome. At first when I saw the trailer, I couldn’t figure out how they could stick so many big names in one movie. It never really works out. They always butt heads, and everyone wants to be the most important character. Sin City fixes this, quite simply, they are the most important characters…. for their individual story lines. Intertwined in the whole thing is 3 independent story lines. I was quite impressed at how well it worked. The only thing that i didn’t like so much, was the volume of blood. There’s a point where you go from “CRAP! He’s messed up!” and “Damn that’s a lot of pointless blood.” Kill Bill crossed this line, so did Sin City. Even with the extra blood, amazing movie. If you’re in the mood for some shady heroes and some horrific villains, Sin City is the place to be.