Silly Mizzou!

My apologies, everyone. It has come to my attention that my previous post was chock full of punctuation errors, due largely to my terrible, terrible formatting. Oh well. If I were not being lazy right now, I'd go back and fix it. Now, on to other business.

Last month, the Missouri Information Analysis Center released a report on how to identify domestic terrorists involved in militia movements. The report contained a controversial passage that stated that such people usually identify with third party political candidates, and mentioned Libertarian Bob Barr, Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, and Republican Ron Paul.

Obviously, many libertarian-minded people took offense with being lumped in with the Tim McVeighs of the world. The whole thing caused a bit of an uproar among conservative commentators, and after pressure from the public and Missouri state officials, the report was recently retracted, with apologies issued to the candidates mentioned.

I mention this, obviously, for its ridiculousness and for the fact that I'm a little insulted (only a little though). I also mention it for the fact that a staff member of the Campaign for Liberty, the organization that grew out of the Ron Paul campaign, was recently detained at security checkpoint for carrying a large amount of cash. He had the cash because he was returning from an event they had where merchandise was sold and donations were accepted. They wanted to know why he had the cash, and he was reluctant to tell them. The key to all this is that he was flying out of St. Louis, MISSOURI. The great thing is that the sly little fellow covertly recorded the entire confrontation with his cell phone.

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

Honestly, I don't think any of them handled the situation all that well. I can understand Mr. Bierfeldt's hesitation to reveal his employment, and I can understand the cops' frustration with the situation, but seriously, you've got to let people know their rights. This reminds me of Alex's traffic stop. But that's a story for another day, from somebody else!

Seriously though, Missouri:
...and, I just checked, still not a terrorist!

Tragedy and the Inexplicably Offensive

I ran across something odd the other day when I was wikipediaing (if we can google, can we wikipedia? It's such an awkward verb, isn't it? something for the linguists in the audience to ponder).

Think back to the week following September 12, 2001. The country was in mourning, and transportation and economy had ground to a halt, thanks to a combination of fear and shock. Most of us were getting back in the swing of things, but the attacks had touched all aspects of life, even pop culture. Not only did we have to endure countless country tribute songs, and ditties about killing Osama, we had to deal with controversy and censorship. There was a techno-pop band named "I am the World Trade Center" who suddenly started getting bad reviews, and were forced to shorten the moniker to "I am the World". Hard rockers "Anthrax" refused to change their name, though apparently one member joked that he was stocking up on Cipro to "avoid an ironic death." And perhaps most strangely, a memo ciruculated the stations of radio giant Clear Channel with a list of songs that were "lyrically questionable," and were suggested not to be played.

A look at the list shows over 150 songs, many of which make sense, though I'm not a fan of censorship. I could see why people might find them offensive or unsettling. There are songs that reference plane crashes (such as AC/DC's "Shot Down in Flames", and Alanis Morissettte's "Ironic"), songs about suicide (Filter's "Hey Man, Nice Shot", Ozzy Osbourne's "Suicide Solution", System of a Down's "Chop Suey", Third Eye Blind's "Jumper"), songs with violent lyrics (AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Alien Ant Farm's "Smooth Criminal", though curiously, not the original by Michael Jackson, Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife", Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff", Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust", Saliva's "Click Click Boom") and songs about death, either directly or indirectly (Buddy Holly and the Crickets' "That'll be the Day", Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heavan's Door", and the Guns and Roses cover, Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky", Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young", Kansas's "Dust in the Wind", Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", J Frank Wilson's "Last Kiss"). Then there are the ones that have little or no offensive content, but somehow reference flying or planes (Foo Fighters' "Learn to Fly", Lenny Kravits's "Fly Away", Sugar Ray's "Fly", Peter, Paul and Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane, Elton John's "Benny and the Jets", Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Aeroplane"), and songs that reference New York (AC/DC's "Safe in New York City", The Ad Libs "The Boy from New York City", Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York", which was apparently one New York station's most requested songs that week). Then, there are some songs that seem to be there for no reason other than that they have revolutionary lyrics (Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", The Clash's "Rock the Casbah", Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe", John Lennon's "Imagine", Don McLean's "American Pie", Nena's "99 Luftballons", Peter Paul and Mary's "Blowin' in the Wind", U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

Then, we move into the realm of the ridiculous. First, there are the songs with the mistaken lyrics (Drowning Pool's "Bodies", which is about mosh pits, The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which is about drugs, Boston's "Smokin'", which is also about drugs, The Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me", which is about a girl, Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire", which is about also about a girl). Then, there are songs which I can't figure out why they're there at all (Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World", because positive thinking is bad, I guess, The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian", because Egypt is a Muslim country I guess, The Beatles' "Ticket to Ride", because the ticket might be for a plane, maybe, Neil Diamond's "America", because we wouldn't want to sing about how awesome America is, Ricky Nelson's "Travelin' Man", because I heard the hijackers were all man whores, Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss him Goodbye", because I'm thinking they watched that funeral scene from Remember the Titans a few too many times).

My personal favorite, though is "All songs by Rage Against the Machine". I mean, yeah, it's Rage, but that's just ridiculous. Thankfully, this didn't last long, and was not manditory. I just found it interesting.

I dedicate this post to Tom Morello's distortion pedal, and all of its warbly noises that were temporarily not banned.

I STILL love you, Alex!

He he he..."How can I buy something before I've arrived? Your speech is constructed on paradoxes!"

You're It!

Instead of going to sleep, I spent the past hour-ish finishing the tags on all my posts. I finally made it to the end of the archive. So, now you can read all the posts about Music, the man, or OU. Maybe you want to read about Football...well, it's over there. Perhaps you want easy access to every last episode of R.O.P.D.R.P.W. It's over there too! Maybe you want to relive the harrowing saga of The Clunker? Well, what are you waiting for!? Get to clicking! Clickity-CLICKITY!!! -------------------------->>

Tycho Seems to Have Figured it Out

To quote from Wednesday's Penny Arcade Newspost:

...when people pre-order Haze from EB Games in Canada, and then trade it back within a week, they'll be refunded the entire purchase price of the game - in store credit. It seems nonsensical at first, but that transformation of your money into the tokenized, internal currency is the key. They're virtually guaranteed to sell that traded in copy - only a week old - at their typical grasping rate. Even if the game isn't traded in, they still secured a preorder, one of each store's rated metrics. That game will now travel through the company's intestinal tract, sold and resold, until the disc is too scored to play - at this point, they will offer to sell you a Game Doctor scratch repair kit. Their deepest fear - what literally keeps them up at night - is that you won't trade your games in. They appear to have cracked the code.

It's another sleazy-sounding money making scheme from Gamestop (which owns EB, of course), but this time, at least they're doing the customer a favor at the same time. Despite the fact that they're basically the drug dealers of the electronic entertainment field, I still feel okay going there, because one of my dearest friends is a manager, and I like to support my friends. It's kinda like my thing about not going to Walmart before 10PM.

Don't worry, I still love you, Alex.

Evidence...

...that Dick Cheney is (was) a smart man, and that power corrupts.

Not Important

If you didn't know, Albertson's recently had a fire sale on grocery stores in Oklahoma; Homeland got the Norman locations. Since Homeland (where the carrots are) does not have a contract with Starbucks, my former place of employment will be no more...probably already is.

Anywhom, all this has me thinking about a few people, who I will likely never see again, with whom I had a casual, friendly, if conditional rapport. What has, and will become of Jake, Tania, Joy, the old guy with the Terrible Herb's cup, Jim, the Senator... hell, even wacky Jan and her traveling zoo... it's not really that important, but these were people who I basically got to know in one way or another over three years, and I wonder about them sometimes. Oh well. I guess this is just one of those things I'll have to accept and move on. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happens again. It's a big world out there, full of opportunity, and people who don't care. Ah, but I feel rambley now... anyway, like I said, not really important.

Now they want us to spy on eachother.

Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:53:15 -0500 (CDT)
From: dboren@ou.edu
Subject: Important Message from President Boren
To: donotreply.edu@buchanan.ou.edu

To: All Students

Dear OU Students,

In light of the tragic events that occurred this week at Virginia Tech, I have been reviewing our emergency response plans to ensure that our system is current and effective. Knowing about potentially dangerous behavior is critical to our being able to assess if a threat may be present.

As a student on campus you are in a unique position to notice any unusual or concerning behavior that may pose a threat. Certainly, if you observe any behavior that may constitute a current or imminent threat, immediately contact the University of Oklahoma Police Department
by calling 911.

If you observe unusual behavior that concern you, but does not rise to the level of contacting the police, please discuss your concerns at the earliest possible time with the Vice President for Student Affairs, Clarke Stroud, or the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Susan Sasso. Both can be reached by calling 325-3161. Any information provided will be appropriately reviewed and a report and recommendation on the matter will be made to me. Please be assured that all information will be handled with the utmost sensitivity and discretion and with all due regard for constitutional and legal safeguards.

We appreciate your continued help and support.

Sincerely,

David Boren

How do you like that? I'm not saying we're on 1984's doorstep, and I'm glad they made specific mention of constitutional and legal safeguards. I am saying that the last thing we need right now is to create an environment of fear and suspicion. If every guy walking down the south oval carrying an umbrella warrants a lockdown, and if you don't recognize somebody's yoga mat for what it is, you're supposed to call student affairs, we're going to have a campus full of unnecessarily scared people wasting the university's time. I supposed only time will tell, but I really, really hope this all just blows over.

Grumbledy-gook!

Well, as somebody already mentioned, blogger's all new featury and stuff...well, I got force-upgraded too. Oh well, life, as well as this blog, goes on. Yes. Behold, labels:

It's February 14th

Happy Singles' Awareness/ Couples' Obligation Day!

Stream of Conciousness sort of update post. yeah, that's right, screw the capitalization at the end of this title.

It occurred to me earlier today, there are only two conditions that really ever get me down about the weather: blinding wind, and blistering heat.

Further evidence that I'm living in the wrong state.

Anyway, so, this wind stuff is kinda bumming me out, but it's not too bad when I'm wearing my big coat. Hooray for that.



My girlscout cookies arrived today! To my pleasant surprise, I bought two boxen of thin mints, so they will last more than a week. I'm on a real chocolate kick lately. I'm tearing through my most recent bag of Hershey kisses. Thank God for my ancestry, elsewise I'd be quite the fatty.

Rumor at work is that we might be extending our hours to 8:00 pm in a few weeks. I am not amused. This requires further inquiry and reconnaissance. Big French word!

My processor should be faster so that I can run Medieval: Total War 2. Either that, or my graphics card should be older so I can run Medieval: Total War the original. Stupid technology.

Also, for the time being, I'm not broke anymore. Hooray also for that.

Obscene Gestures to You, Frustrating Setbacks

Today, unfortunately, was somewhat frustrating. To start it out, the hot water in my apartment building was shut off, so no shower for me. That brought the time since last shower to an uncomfortable total, but press on I did. So, I got ready and went off to school on my trusty bycicle, which decided to break down when I was almost there. The chain managed to slip off the back gears and then get stuck in between the end of the gear itself and a bolt holding the little bracket thing (technical term, donchaknow) on. I didn't wreck or anything...no worries there. I stopped and surveyed the damage, then tried to fix it, but I just couldn't get the bloody thing loose. So, I took my now grease-stained fingers off to class and by some miracle made it on time. Classes went okay, nothing too terribly exciting to report there. Of course, without my bike, I had to walk the 2.5 miles home. I actually managed to make the trip in a mere 25 minutes...very good time for just a walk, but then again, I was hauling about as much ass as I could. This brings me to a paper I've been procrastinating for a couple of weeks. The other night I found that I didn't have the book I needed for it, so I figured I'd get it today, read it quick then scramble to write the paper, as I've done so many times before. So, I get home and square a few things away, then head to Boomer Books, no luck. I proceed east along the line of Norman textbook stores: Ratcliff's, Sooner, University, all yeilding no results. By this time, I need to grab some lunch and head to Pride rehearsal, so I do just that. Fast forward to after Pride, I head straight to Borders, no luck there, then Barnes and Noble, also nothing. At this point, I'm kind of entering panick mode, but I head home, check the library website...they have a copy, but it's checked out, and what's the due date? Tomorrow...nice little slap in the face there. So, on a whim, I go to the Pioneer Library System website, and lo and behold, the Norman Public Library has a copy! I rush down to that building I haven't entered since I started OU, get myself a shiny new library card (find out I still owe a 70 cent late fee on a book I checked out in 2002, what's up with that?) and grab that book. Crisis Averted! Anyway, I still have to do all the work for the paper, and go get my bike from campus and fix it, but all in all, I managed to emerge from today pretty much unscathed and unphased. So there!

Just in case you were wondering...

...nine hours working alone at a coffee bar (including opening, and the morning rush) with naught but a five minute break is not fun, not for the customers, and certainly not for me. No-sirreeeee....the people incessantly fucking with the schedules at Albertson's to save a few dimes here and there do not make me happy. Why is it that so many big companies have middle managements rife with morons, yet so many seem to stay afloat? They are on my list. What list? I don't know, the unhappy list, or something.


Oh, and also, my clutch. It's on that list too, what with its whole 'not-clutching-anymore' thing.

Seriously, I laughed for like five minutes.

Too bad it isn't supposed to be funny.

The iPod Really is errrrwhere!

I'm not too strongly concerned with the cause, but this amused me too much not to mention. (I know most of you probably already saw this on Rodney's blog, so sorry if that bothers you)

Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Selfish Racists

Surely we all remember those commercials for Trix. The kids that they target can't really understand what they are about. Sure, it's all good cereal fun...there's a cartoon rabbit, there are cartoon kids, and they have a playful back and forth that resembles that of the lucky charms leprechaun.

Kids grow up, though, and learn to understand the fact of the matter: that the Trix commercials are not about fruity goodness in every bite, they are about racism. All that poor rabbit wants is a simple bowl of cereal. The stuff looks good after all, and "the man" has been dangling it above his head for years. Those kids munch on that cereal like there's no tomorrow, smiling and laughing all the way. The rabbit asks for a bowl, and all he gets is "Silly black guy, good education is for kids,"...I mean, "Silly Asian, equal pay is for kids,"...er, "Silly woman, voting is for kids,"...wait, that's "Silly Arab, assumed innocence is for kids"...oh, who can remember these things?

All that cute little rabbit wants is to eat a bowl of cereal with the happy cartoon children. Why can't he? By the simple fact that he's a rabbit. Trix are for kids only because they say Trix are for kids. The sooner the rabbit has a bowl of Trix with the kids, the better chance we'll have of achieving the American Dream to which we aspire.

OMG! My Hip Just Popped Again!

Fuckin' hip. Oh, and btw- I am working on my capitalization, just for those of you who want me to start using capital letters. I went to Jazz in June breifly tonight with my amazing girlfriend. After that, I attended 'game night' with her at a friends house. OMG. Through out the whole thing, all I could think about was how smart and cute, and nice she is. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the beautiful smart ones. She's so sexy too, and she gives amazing backrubs, and neckrubs. She's got a great sense of humor too. The world might not come to an end if she left me, but it would be close. She's just so great I want her to be around all the time, I'm even willing to shave my face for her. Man, is she amazing or what? Well, I've gotta go now, but I just wanted everyone to know how great she is, and how much I enjoy her.