Backz0r

Yeah I got in yesterday around 4:30PM. Not bad for leaving Raleigh at 9:00AM. Heh, my dad was flying. Anyway, vacation was alright. It was relaxing, but that's about it for the good things. My family and I were all together inside a condo for a week, and really it wasn't good. They insisted on the typical protectiveness that they always do when I'm with them. I swear, when are they going to let me go do things by myself WITHOUT bitching me out about them first? "Mom, nothing personal, but I WANT TO GET AWAY FROM YOU!" Jeeeeez...

Anyway, yeah my parents were pretty much at my throat the whole time, but you can't say it wasn't expected. I mean, I went to the beach with my parents the summer after I graduated from high school. WTF? Blah whatever.

So we get back to Raleigh where friends of the family live on Friday night and I check my work email, and there's a message from my boss saying that I should be at work (Monday) and that I was scheduled for Mon, Tues, and Fri of that week. It was the big schpeel about how I was scheduled and didn't call off and I'll get disciplinary action for it and what not. I'm like wtf? I requested off for those 10 days way back in June and I find out today that they misread the paper. Gonna smack them, I swear.

Well I spent tonight mapping out bus schedules to and from Oakland as that may be my only mode of transportation down there some days. Joy. Tomorrow I resume the slave labor: Mon 12-5, Tues 11-10, Wed 5-8, Fri 10-5, Sat 10-10, Sun 10-5. Wish me some fricking luck.

Oh and I got an email from my Aunt who lives in Cincinatti today. She apparently wants to take me to NYC the weekend of the 12th. That's gonna make my bosses real happy... I'm already taking off the 9th and the 10th for my trip to Sandusky (which will rock hard ass) in addition to having made my boss pissy with the NC trip. Ah well, they'll have to suck it up. I'm just hoping to God I can get coverage for those days on such short notice. 10-7 is a hard shift to give away, heh...

Typical Updates and Upcoming Abscence

There's nothing to really update I suppose. I've worked every day since last Friday all day, every day. It really wasn't pretty, but I managed to get through it.

As I said nothing really to update. Yesterday Bush announced his nominee for the United States Supreme Court: The Honorable John Roberts. He's a conservative, albeit more moderate than his other picks. He shouldn't be too bad of a guy, I don't think, for what Bush could have picked. The only problem I see with it is his strictly pro-life viewpoint. I don't see him going and making the US a theocracy, which I guess is a step in the plus direction (or I should say NOT a step in the negative direction). We'll have to see how it plays out, as both Democrats and Republicans are rather in agreement with this guy as of now.

Let's see, more personal. I'm leaving for the beach early Friday morning and not getting back until Sun. July 31st. It should be a good time, as I need the relaxation, even if it is with my family. Then, it's 99% finalized, two friends and I are heading up to Sandusky, OH on Aug 9th. What's in Sandusky, you ask? Why, Cedar Point is! Heh, yeah but that should be awesome. What could be better than spending quality time with your best friends before you leave for college? Nothing I don't think. I'm hoping that goes off without a hitch, as I'm going to be needing all the stress relief I can get with college JUST on the horizon.

Speaking of which, Aug 24th begins the orientation process. First day of classes is the 29th. :\ It's hard to believe that in a LITTLE OVER A MONTH, I will be in college. Ah well, I'm hoping to God I can survive (both mentally and socially, heh). Meh, I'm excited and worried.

Oh well. Oh and I got a 4 on the AP Euro test! :D I'm happy as it was pretty tough. That's an easy 4 credits right there.

Anyway, I will probably not be posting until I get back in 2 weeks. So until then, mes amis!

Edit: So it looks like gay marriage may, afterall, become a possibility during Bush's term.

Facebook is Godly

Sign up if you haven't done so already. It is the GOD-SEND for all sane college / college-bound people. It's nuts who you can meet on there. Hell, a random search yielded a girl I haven't seen / talked to in EIGHT YEARS! As in, from my old old elementary school. And it rocks so hard.

Anyway, nothing really new I suppose. I wish I could bring myself to get into this Karl Rove scandal, but he's a little twat so I don't bother. I'm sure it's bad on the administration, but I really just don't care enough.

Let's see. Tuesday I found out that my supervisor is like the best person in the world. She sat me down and we worked all the problems (there was a major investigation going on against me) out together, off the record, and it was wonderful because before that, I saw her as a complete, strict authority figure and found out that she's probably the nicest person I've ever met at work; mostly because she took time out of HER day to make me feel better. Ah I love people.

I'm kinda pissed off that I can't see Anna before she leaves for Oregon. That makes me real sad. Just the distance factor we have working against us NOW makes it nearly impossible to do anything. Oh well, I'll still have a pen pal that we can write kinky, badly written french to each other. That shall be fun.

Tomorrow I work all day and then Saturday I start work at 7AM and end at 7PM. That should be a fucking TREAT! Sunday is all day again too. I'm not sure about my schedule for next week because Thursday will be my last day here before leaving for NC for 10 days. Part of me is ecstatic about it, yet the other part of me wants freedom from my parents. It makes me sad that I'm probably not going to be able to go on a sr. trip with my friends this year. We were tossing around the idea of Cedar Point, but as far as I know, it was just an idea.

Ah well.

Fear mongering?

Before reading this post, read this. Essentially, there's very credible evidence that Al Qaida has nuclear weapons inside the United States and ready to strike major cities at a moment's notice. Granted, it's from one source and can't exactly be considered fact or anything in that regard, but it's very probable.

The only blame I'm placing here on the administration is indeed their lack of wanting to seal the Mexico-US border. They've cracked down a bit, but it's very possible and very likely that enemies could sneak across bombs and other WMD-type devices undetected. We're said to be fighting terrorists abroad, but what's the use if terrorists are able to simply walk into the country? And, okay maybe not the only blame, but maybe they should start looking for bin Laden again, don't ya think? ;)

Anyhow, on the politics forum I frequent, there are a bunch of hypothetical threads about this. "What would happen as a result of a terrorist network detonating nukes in the US?" Just judging from 9/11, where a thousand or so were killed, patriotsm soared. Bush was at near 100% approval rating, everyone was looking for retaliation, etc. etc. If an entire city or cities are destroyed with the projected "4 million dead", I truly and honestly believe that a large majority of US citizens will immediately give up all freedom to the state while Bush (or whoever the president is as the time) is granted emergency dictatorial power. Since a terrorist organization rather than a sovereign country was responsible for this, we'd most likely wage full scale war against Iran, Pakistan, and Syria. The Middle East, with the exception of the Saudi Kingdom, would be levelled. On the home front, our economy would collapse, the world market would collapse, arrests would be made at whim, and most of all, Muslims would be persecuted and most likely executed without a care. Utter chaos would insue with another approximately 1 million dying as a result of our own government's will to stay in power.

In the following months, civil arrests will lessen, the economy would begin to stimulate again, and the US would resume its place in the world, albeit significantly looked down upon based upon recent attrocities to its own civilians. The newly formed European State will take charge as the forerunner of world politics, while the US remains almost wholly in isolation. The US will not, however, succomb to changing its domestic policy as the position of president will remain the sole absolute leader of the country. The US will then continue growing and spreading its influence and domestic policy among other countries until its empire encompasses that of 1/4 of the entire world. The colonies made will eventually rebel leading to more and more of a tightening grip by the centralized federal government until finally, 250 or so years after the empire reached its apex, it will crumble from the inside.

A lot of that was taken and combined from previous imperial histories, though quite honestly, I will not be surprised if that is the path the US will eventaully take. Every civilization will collapse. All it takes is a chain of events and some costly mistakes. It's really funny what stuff you can learn from history.

{Insert Subject Here}

Well it's been an interesting however many days. Wednesday me, mike (x2), and greg went to Kennywood for the day. We all had a blast, but figured it gets old and lame after so many years upon years of going, heh. But that's okay. Around 8:30 we went to Haley's house and watched Airplane. Funny movie. :)

Thursday I did a whole lot of nothing. Friday we went out and got a bunch of DVDs for our trip to NC and I managed to figure out a way to stream video from one computer to another (useful for linking 2 laptops in the car on the way down, one without a dvd player :) ). And then Haley had his party at 5. I had a great time. We all sat around and BS-ed for about 4 hours while Haley and a few daring participants played in the pool. It was too cold.. :\ Anyway, then we started to watch the South Park movie. That's some funny shit. And then I had to go home at 11 because, yes, rub it in more, I'm not 18 yet. Stupid curfew.

Then I got home and talked to Emily for a little while. Then Jess invited me to her party today after I said hi to her online. So today I went to work, which was a BUGGER because it was 10-7 and we were so short today it wasn't even funny. And, of course, today decides to be one of the most crowded days ever in that place. So I worked my ass off for 9 hours straight with a crappy break that was split up between two half-hours (because we couldn't afford to keep people off the floor for more than 1/2 hour at a time). Then on my way home I stopped at Jess' party, said hi to a few people, then, since she was opening presents and stuff (and I felt awkward there) and I didn't tell my parents I'd be stopping over after work, I went home. It was nice to see her and her family again as I miss them all very much.

Well tomorrow begins a hard week. Working 7 hours tomorrow, OFF MONDAY (rox), Tuesday 7, Wed 7, OFF THURS (rox x2), Fri 6, Sat 9. Yeeeeah...

Later kiddos.

Yeah, another daily update

Meh, I'm bored so why not blog, eh? Let's make it political because I have a lot of stuff that I want to try to organize.

I'll start off with the Supreme Court Eminant Domain Ruling (New London v. United States). This I have mixed feelings about. It's clearly a case that, without delving deeper into it, on the surface looks like the government is able to seize any land at any time for any reason they see fit. Now, very loosely, that is correct. However, before this ruling, local governments were still able to seize any property they wished at any time. Any private property, before you own it, must go through some kind of governmental process before it is approved. A deed, for example, is simply a contract between you and a local government. If we didn't have this (extreme example coming..) you could literally say that your house or your property was henceforth not recognized by the government and therefore secede from the United States. There needs to be some kind of order and this case merely reinforced this principle. Before you sit there and think communism, look at the fact of the matter: This law existed way before this S.C. decision was made and no one had any trouble with it. On the flip side of the coin, however, this decision did allow governments to seize property and turn around and sell it to private enterprises. THIS was the part I didn't like. Now granted, this was also in place, but the ruling still stood as constitutional.

Well while we're on the topic of Supreme Court, let's talk about the Retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor. She was a moderate conservative who was appointed by Ronald Reagan and was often the swing vote in large cases involving women's rights, namely abortion. With O'Connor now out, Bush is free to select anyone to replace her. Of course, he's going to want to pick someone who supports his own policies, and thusly it'll most likely be a hugely conservative Christian. A lot of pro-choice supporters find this to be a large slam as Roe v. Wade will most likely be brought back up again. Though, surprisingly, a recent poll showed that overturning Roe had a very small following in the court, with 6-3 in favor of keeping it. With O'Connor gone, though, it could dwindle down to a 5-4 in keeping it the way it is, though we all know Rhenquist is about to go as well. Still, many cases revisted in the Supreme Court often maintain their rulings as very rarely do they want to challenge laws already in place. Even if Roe is revisited, I don't think we have very much to worry about in regards to it being overturned. HOWEVER, with at least two new C.C.'s on the court, we can be sure to see a lot of church influence in the coming generation. I will not hesitate to speak my voice if something drastic happens due to a conservative controlled presidency, congress, and supreme court. (There were rumors of abolishing the two-term limit of the presidency, and such). Though we all have to remember, the Supreme Court is a "neutral" party and it has the sole responsibility of interpreting the Constitution. It does not make laws and has no power whatsoever, without a case in front of it, to change the way the government operates. There was an article I read about how the court changes you. If you're a justice on it, regardless of your affiliation going in, the influence of the people and the institution itself oftentimes change your mindset. You're there to be a neutral, mediating party and nothing more. That mindset changes you.

Lastly I'd like to talk about the mainstream media. Anymore who can you trust? I recently read a very large post in regards to how the U.S. media is anymore and it astounded me. On one hand you have CNN and its "let's bombard you with way more celebrity gossip than anyone can ever care about." On the other you have Fox News where partisan idiots demand biased coverage that make them feel smart. But you know what? They're not going to change because they're getting exactly what they want: Ratings and money. That's all media outlets are out for nowadays. Why do you think they've been covering this damned Natalie Holoway story for THREE WEEKS NOW? Okay, she's dead. Get over it. But ya know, every newscast now has at least one 10 minute segment on her life and her family and how Aruba is safe and blah blah, go SHOVE IT! There are kidnappings every day and you don't see them reported on the news. You just see a smart, young, beautiful, (rich) girl being plastered on our TV's everywhere! It makes me sick. When people are dying in Iraq (or, I'm sorry, "making progress") and large government decisions are being made, we have this kind of shit.

But I blame people. People don't want in-depth, complex stories, because it makes them feel dumb. A survey was made a while back and it was something like 79% of Americans could not find the country Iraq on a map and the same amount did not know where the "Middle East" was refering to. That disgusts me. How can you be so ignorant and unknowledgable in the face of a war that we're currently fighting? 9/11 occurred, people became suddenly patriotic (rightfully so, I suppose), they streamed to Bush for his guidance and realized that we're at war with terrorists. 1/2 of them could probably not DEFINE terrorists except by saying "Arab" and "Islam." "We're in Iraq fighting terrorists" is enough for most people. But hey, they're sure up on the latest happenings! We all know what Scientology is thanks to Tom Cruise. We all know that there is such a place as Aruba, thanks to Natalie Holoway. And we all know that there really is a legal system in the United States thanks to Michael Jackson. Sigh.

But meh, I guess it explains why Bush's ratings are falling. It's typical, really. People are just flat-out losing attention. Why care about that when "I wanna be a Hilton" is just picking up? Obviously we, as Americans, are very good at prioritizing. Just tonight, with these huge rainstorms passing through. Every local news channel from 4 til 7 were covering BREAKING NEWS of these storms! It's RAIN! But ya know, the world has to stop, and we all have to be told not to drive fast or through water. Though, obviously more people watch this during these "BREAKING NEWS" times than anything else. More people watching = more money. That's what it is, anymore. That's what it is.

Apparently in Europe there are a variety of news channels to pick from. BBC, CNN International, Al Jazeera, and probably local channels as well. They broadcast news. They broadcast what happens in the WORLD. You can argue all you want about the liberal bias or the conservative bias or whateverthefuck bias; American news blows. Once people stop being so incredibly dumb, we'll begin to see the demise of CNN as a tabloid show and of Fox News as the $2 slut of the GOP.

And I know no one reads this, but if someone does, try the US Citizenship Test. It won't prove my point, because people that read blogs are at least semi-competent [ :) ], but know that most US Citizens FAIL this test.

"Happy" 4th of July

Wouldn't call it happy, by any means. Fourth of July, this one in particular, brings back happy, yet ultimately sad memories from last year. I won't go into it, just the fact that I wish it was last year. Meh whatever.

I worked today and people don't truly respect the meaning of holidays. It's not "line up at the door at the science center at 10:00 AM." Fuck people I swear. Everyone acts like they're fricking entitled to something. Screw it all.

No fireworks or anything for me this year, even though they definitely could've cheered me up, heh. Ah well. I'll just lull in my life of SportsWorks, AIM, and WWE Wrestling.

Yeah, and RIP Mrs. Fisher. :\ That was definitely a huge shocker to find that out tonight...

Sorry, it's been a while.

Mm it has. Sorry for not updating. There are a bunch of personal things happening that I felt really no need to be ranting about.

Anyway, last week was eh. I worked Monday and Wednesday which stunk because those are the days groups come in massive droves. But meh, it's alright. I think I've finally got past the whole caring mind-set which is good. Yesterday we had 6 people running the building the last 4 hours of the day and there are 9 staffed exhibits. Put 2 and 2 together my friend. :) Today was OK. 10-5 is long when you're constantly working, but the day kinda flew by today. I don't know why, honestly. There's just so much fricking political strife going on between departments anymore and, as before, people are just out to screw over as many people as possible. Oh well, don't care.

Let's see, last Sunday Anna, who I met once prior when she was with Lani, came down to the CSC toward the end of the day and she said we should do something. I was cool with it. Nothing better to do. So we go up to Eat n' Park and then we saw Batman Begins again (not as good the 2nd time). By that time it was like 9:00 so I drove her home... but she lives in Mt. Lebanon so it was kinda far. My parents were rather flipping when I got home as I didn't call and tell them I'd be late and such. It sucks, but oh well.

Then Tuesday (Wed.? Yeah I think it was) I was a bitch to Mike and Em. I apologize. The whole thing was over them wanting to go see a movie and me wanting to do something, just not up for spending money on a movie. Idk, I'm not sorry for wanting to save my money for another day, but I am sorry for being an asshole about it. Heh, if you guys read this.

Wednesday (I don't know dates) went over to Dan's. Thursday (Let's just call it "Thursday") Anna called again and we went to go see War of the Worlds. GO SEE IT. It's real good. Tom Cruise is a pansy which is uber, because Tom Cruise ruins movies as a hero. And the date was good... free, which is always good (got free tickets for a theater in Bridgeville. But she lives out there so that's good). She left today for Oregon or whatever and will be gone 'til the end of summer so that makes me sad. :( She's a cool gal.

Um, Friday I don't know. Nothing I don't think. OH, yeah I had a surprise root canal done on Monday. I say surprise because I went to the Dentist for a checkup thing Monday morning, they're like "come back after work and we'll get that [cavity] taken care of." So I go back and they're all "hmm, that's deeper than we thought." ROOT CANAL! Yeah, it wasn't pretty. I was pissed... and in pain. But the pain died by Tuesday which was great.

Anyway, in all hopes that the Mikes and Em decide they still want me part of their group, I got Wednesday off this week and they're planning on doing Kennywood. I <3 Kennywood.. especially with uber people.

Work tomorrow kiddies. All day and probably even the night as the CSC is open before, during, and after the fireworks. Happy 4th of July ya'll, even though I kind of give up on the sanctity (look it up) of America.

Edit: Ahh, I just wanted to tell you all about my fantastic server that I set up without a HITCH. So Monday on my way to the Dentist in the morning, I'm driving up a street by my house and an old Compaq PC is sitting in the trash. I figure, meh, worst that could happen is it couldn't work. So I pick it up. When I get home, I boot it up, it boots fine... but it's spyware infested like mad. So with a quick format + installation of Windows 2000, it's as good as new.

I figured I could use it for at the very least a ventrilo server (since we use ventrilo when we play Guild Wars :) ). Well I set up ventrilo, people can connect to it without a hitch. So I set up Counter-Strike Source server; again, without a hitch. I figure why stop there? So right now on this server that is sitting in the spare bedroom (with NOTHING connected to it but a power cable and a network cable) is a Ventrilo server, CS:S server, HTTP server, FTP server, and a SHOUTcast server! And I can change settings at any time with a nifty program called VNC which let's me, essentailly, operate it as if it were on my desk with my mouse / keyboard and everything. Call me a dork, but can you say you have an Internet "Radio Station" broadcasting your MP3's constantly from your computer for ANYONE in the world to listen to? I think not. :)