hey wait a minute, You guys are Zombies!!! AAAAAH!!!

Well, there's a couple of different things I could write about that I did this weekend, but you all get to hear about another cartoon instead. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is about two kids who win the eternal friendship of the grim reaper by beating him in a game of limbo. (judging by the picture, I bet you can't guess why) This show might sound like a goth show, but it's actually really really funny.

This show is funny for a few reasons. First, it's really really stupid, which always makes a show funnier. It also parodies many other shows, movies, books, etc. and the characters are hilarious.

Parodies in billy and mandy run from harry potter (nigel planter) to the power puff girls, but it doesn't only rely on parodies for it's content. It's also got all kinds of great content of it's own in every episode.

The Characters in this show are great. Mandy is evil and never smiles, Grim, for all his association of death, really seems to just be a nice guy, and billy's happily oblivious to pretty much everything.

Overall, this show is just really funny. go watch it right now.

keane

As the title of my blog suggests, I really like keane. why is this? not only because they rock. well, yes it is, but, since I feel this strange obligation to describe it in more detail, here we go:

First off, Keane is a British band, and, as I'm sure we all know, any band from the UK is bound to be good. As an example, we'll just look at a few UK bands. The Beatles, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, that one guy who sings that one song that's on the top of those one charts, I think his name's James Blunt. And of course, Keane. While this last one is obviously the best, the other ones on that list are all good too.

Second, keane is a unique type of band, as in "no-guitar", instead they have a keyboard, drums, and vocals. They're also very talented, obviously having the ability and drive to write incredible lyrics, and that guy can sing. Don't believe me? Go listen to it yourself right here. I think a couple of those don't work though. Well, I think that pretty much sums it up with the example there. Keane rocks.

what's 2+7?

Well, this weekend I've had to write a ten page paper about my personal family history as it relates to the history of the United States. Until this experience, I was under the impression that writing ten pages about one topic was incredibly difficult. It's a good feeling to prove yourself right every once in a while.

There's several reasons why this was a hard assignment. First and foremost, it was ten pages, which, in case anybody has any false impressions about the length of ten pages, is not short. Second, it required research into family history, U.S. history, AND writing skills. and third, I am wiped out. Ten pages is a long way. Thank you for your time.

Chicks dig giant robots.

Megas XLR. Best. Show. Ever. Well, I should explain a little bit about this show. It's about this guy named Coop who somehow manages to buy a robot from the future from a junkyard for 2 bucks. After doing some touchups, like replacing the missing head with a 1972 Plymouth Barracuda and... well... touching it up all around, he goes around with his loser friend jamie, and kiva, who's from the future, in his giant robot and beats up a bunch of bad guys. mostly some aliens bent on taking over the earth, called the glorft.


So why is this show so cool? It's hilarious, it's full of cultural references, parodies, subtle humor, and satire.

It's Hilarious. Plain and simple. I mean, just look at the theme song!

Living here in Jersey

Fighting villains from afar

You gotta find first gear

In your giant robot car

You dig giant robots

I dig giant robots

We dig giant robots

Chicks dig giant robots

Nice!

No explanation needed.
Also, In every episode they blow up the entirety of jersey city, and yet, come next episode, it's always back again.

It's chock full of cultural references. In every episode they blow up some sort of POPTV (spoof of MTV) billboard, sign, building, blimp, pretty much anything. After a little background research, I found out that this is because MTV cancelled the first show that these same people made. This is their way of venting their anger. nice. They also make fun of everything from the DMV to Slurpees to fake cheese nachos.

It has lots of parodies too. The very concept of the show is a huge parody of giant robot cartoons, and they steal lots of the exact moves from gundam and the such. They even Parody Strong Bad in one episode, using the signature "Double Deuce". One of the best examples of parodies in this cartoon is the episode "ultra chicks" where the whole thing is one big jab at sailor moon. I can tell that and I've never even watched sailor moon! There's also a couple of episodes making fun of power rangers, which I can relate to. hehe, first grade, power rangers, good times.

The show is also just full of subtle humour. There's always little signs in the background which say funny little things, and whenever you see coop reaching down to press one of the seemingly limitless buttons on the control panel, there's a new convenient label on some button or meter that quickly flashes past. some of these are as follows:

Missles

More Missles

'ALL the Missles!

The button you should have pushed five minutes ago.

Five minutes till the end of the show.

Big Red Button of Irony

The Same Button He Just Barely Pressed

Bet You Can't Guess What This Button Does

Hurt the Good Guys- I mean, Don't Hurt the Good Guys

Heater:

Warm - Hot - DANG!

In conclusion. Megas is the best show ever created, and you should go watch it, and write hundreds of angry letters to cartoon network telling them to put it back on the air. right now.

<- And that's coop.

opinionable.

So what is it that causes some of us to have really strong opinions about some things, and others to not care at all? Or to care very strongly about certain things and not give a second thought to other things? I bring this up not out of desperation for something to write about for once, but because I seem to be that last type. I find that sometimes I'll care deeply about something completely stupid and irrelevant, like, say, the color of an ipod, and I couldn't care less whether or not there was a giant earthquake about to- in the words of billy- "destroy us all!"

For example, I care deeply about whether or not somebody likes Megas XLR (chicks dig giant robots!), devotedly about the type of computer they prefer, and may just kill them depending on their views on Intelligent Design. At the same time though, I find myself not noticing things like global warming, yawning when people talk about gas prices, and retreating into my own little world as soon as someone mentions Lost.

So why is this? It's mostly driven by straight pure wonderful selfishness. Megas XLR is the greatest show in the world. I like it, so should all of you! Macs are the best computers ever, and windows is only still around because the general populous follow the crowd like sheep.
And if I ever hear anyone I know say that Intelligent design should be taught in schools, I really might just kill you. Personally, I believe in almost all of evolution, maybe not exactly how it's taught, but most of the basics you just can't argue with. The people who seem to be so intent on pushing this "intelligent design" issue so far are morons who still live with their moms and need to get a life. or two.

Those last three issues though? They don't apply to me, so I couldn't care less! global warming sure isn't affecting me, leave it alone! I don't pay for my own gas, so why should I care? and lost? well, does it matter?

Basically I guess everybody has strong views about some things that I don't care about, and may not care whether or not they took my favorite show off of cartoon network.

Another one of my strong views is that everybody should have the same opinions as me.

Haiku

well, I was going to write a haiku, but it just didn't work out that way. I mean, I'm all set to write a japanese poem, but then I think, "wait, I don't know HOW to write a haiku!" and of course I'm too lazy to open a new internet window and find out. I find that happens a lot, I get myself already to do something, and get all excited about it- only to find that I'm actually much too lazy to do it. why does this happen?

And while I'm answering this question, why do I always have to ask why in these blogs? it can only be found that my english teacher requires that we cannot make a simple statement, but have to analyse the statement- cut it into little pieces until the once beautiful, innocent thought, flying free in the wind, is cut into much smaller pieces and lays in helpless tatters on the ground, fluttering around blown by every gust that slashes across its remains.

A thought free, aloft
Shattered on the ground hopes- lost
thinks of wasted thought

Seems I lost my train of thought on that one, but- I'm too lazy to find it again.

BYUMUN and power beans

well, yesterday I went to BYUMUN (that's BYU MUN, for those of you who don't speak stupid acronym) and did nothing all day but laugh. yeah, it rocked.

so I guess you might wonder about my sanity. ha, as though you didn't already. but it was very interesting how this all worked out. during our lunch break, me doug and zac got a whole pizza each, hehe, and after eating them, we went to the byu bookstore to buy candy. While buying the bulk skittles and mike & ike combination, we noticed little bags of something called sport beans, (which we somehow ended up calling power beans, I don't know why), and they were only 79 cents so me and doug each bought a pack. After that we went and bought powerade and, now being 15 minutes late for committee, "hurried" back. well, it all went either up or downhill from there, depending on your perspective, if you were me doug or zac, it was about the funniest thing that ever happened, but if you were, say, katrina stoddard, you might have more of a "You didn't get more power beans did you?" or "NO more beans for you!" kind of attitude. hahaha. well, needless to say, we laughed for an hour and a half straight, about pretty much anything that happened.

So why did these little jelly beans make us so hyper? well, the jelly belly company might make up something about containing special elecrolytes and such, but the ingredients went something along the lines of "contains: sugar, and less than 2% of the following..." hahaha. So mostly I think it was more the fact that we wanted to be hyper. Our committee was boring like all get out, and it was the only way out! so, walking out of byumun, I'm sure everybody else in the room was ready to slap some straight jackets on us and lock us in a padded room. but we had fun.

mutual hate

After reading the title, probably everybody I know thinks this blog just might be about themselves. well get over yourselves, cause it's not. So what is it about? well, see if you can figure it out.

A few days ago I was driving to a certain friend's house, who for some reason lives ridiculously far away. While I didn't get lost this time, I did get stuck at every single light on state street on the way there. This wouldn't seem that odd until you take into account that I know perfectly well how often the lights on statestreet turn red from when you try to cross it on another street: precisely never. So what would cause the planets to align in such a way that I would get stuck at every one of the five lights I went through, all in a row, on a street that the lights are green for ten minutes straight, and only stay red for approx. five seconds? who knows?

well, I have my theories: traffic hates me, other cars hate me, some guy who switches the lights sees my car coming and it looks the same as his mother-in-law's, I send off a negative karma to lights that makes them hate me. The list goes on and on.
All I can say is that I increasingly have this feeling that someone or something is out to get me.

hm, well now I really don't know what the title of this blog meant, so if anybody can tell, I'd be happy for the help.

they said it couldn't be done.

well, my ipod nano now officially plays more little arcade games, doom 1, and videos. and maybe gameboy games too, I'm not so sure about that one. well, you might wonder how I got my ipod to do all this great stuff, unless of course I already told you, but we'll ignore that for now. By installing a hack/alternate operating system called ipod linux, you can put all these cool things and more on your ipod, pretty much turning it into a little computer. so why would you want to do this?

one reason is that it makes my ipod a lot more fun, if I feel like it, I can play doom on my ipod, or watch little movies (which are actually really good quality for such a tiny screen), or I can always switch back to the regular old ipod interface, which, being made by mac, is pretty much perfect, and listen to music.

A really good reason not to install this operating system though, is that it's really hard to install, It took me about two hours and a lot of hesitance to do it. So if you're lazy, or don't understand computers very much, you might end up breaking your ipod. which probably isn't the best thing to do to it in most cases.

Overall though, I think this is an improvement, because, as I'm sure some old greek philosopher might have said if he had thought of it or known what it meant, "two operating systems are better than one!"

alien hominid

well, I think I'll just join the club here with doug and eric and write a blog about alien hominid. hehehe.

well, alien hominid is this game, see, well, probably not, I've hardly even played the real game, because we went and played a minigame that was kind of an extra (for about four hours straight...) The minigame is four player, and it's kind of a cross between N and loderunner, and if you don't know what either of those are, go tell someone who cares. well, this game was fun for a lot of reasons, it was a fun idea, you can work together or kill each other (hehe), and it's darn addicting.

The basic idea of this game is that you have to jump on all the bad guys, and then make your way to the exit without dying. This concept is simple, but the levels can get pretty complicated with things like breaking blocks, traps, boats and boulders you can move around. Add to this the strange and impulsive drive to spontaneously betray your teammates (ask danny and doug about a certain level with boats and boulders on top of breaking blocks, hehehe), and one heck of a catchy background song, and you've got yourself a pretty fun game.

well basically, I think I'm just a sucker for stick-figure games and a catchy theme song, but this minigame is really fun, and if the minigame is this fun, maybe we should go and try playing the actual game sometime!

overcomplicated!

WHEN I heard the learn'd astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

-Walt Whitman

I really like this poem, or prose, whatever you call it, because it really makes a statement of how we always make everything too specific or complicated. It seems like we always have to ask questions (or, in the case of students, answer them) and come up with long complicated explanations of everything. can we not just accept things how they are? I would go into further detail about this and really analyze it, but that seems to defeat my purpose.

why yes, this IS a larger font than the one below.

well, once again, I sit here trying to think of something good to write about. hm. I think I'll write about... um... the... uh... relevance of... midieval- er- testing... techniq- nevermind, I'll analyze Dance Dance Revolution.

so, there's this game, it's called dance dance revolution, or ddr, as us nerdy types like to call it. the basic concept of this game is pretty simple, but not simple enough to explain in this blog, so we'll just say you play with your feet on a dance pad instead of on a controller with your fingers. if you can't figure it out past that, then you'll just have to deal with it, or ask somebody who's more prone to explaining this type of thing.

Well, DDR is a good game for a lot of reasons. It's really fun, it's got catchy music, and you get exercise from playing it. It's fun because, well, who knows why, but it just is. It seems like a kind of dumb idea, you just press the arrows with you're feet as they come up on the screen, but for some reason it's insanely entertaining, or maybe addicting is a better word, but either way, I like it. It has really catchy music, and a lot of different varieties of it too, so if you feel like dancing to nintendo music then you can do that, or if you want to listen to Japanese pop music then it's got lots of that too. Another thing you get out of playing this game is the exercise. You can only play this game for about ten minutes before you have to sit down and stare at the ceiling in a coma for a while. Well, maybe you could see this as a bad thing, why let your legs get all the exercise and end up with weak fingers? well, if you seem to have that idea stuck in your head for some unfathomable reason, get over it.

well, it was worth a shot.

hm, well, I don't know why I wrote that title, because I can't think of anything that's happened recently to go with it, or anything else connected with it. so if you're trying to figure out why my blog has nothing to do with the title, (or why it does, I don't know yet) then please stop, I don't appreciate you poking into the outer reaches of my brain that I don't understand, I mean, it would hardly be fair if you understood why I wrote that and I didn't, now would it? hm, and now I don't understand that whole paragraph, sooooo.... starting over.

anyway, this is pretty much late because I was in mexico without internet access when it was due, so I'll pretend that I'm writing it from there, and I'll analyze why mexico is a better place to spend christmas break than here, in utah.

well, here I am, in mexico. kinda. well, like I said in paragraph 2... you know, pretending.... just pay attention will you? so, in mexico. me. here. So why is mexico better than the U.S. for christmas? well, there's probably like a billion reasons I could list, but I'll just select a few key ones.

First and best, the climate. mazatlan mexico, located approx. 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the tropic of cancer, is about 76 to 80 degrees fahrenheit during the winter, which, believe me, is awfully nice. You don't have to wear a coat, jacket, or even a long sleeve shirt, (heck, you don't have to wear ANY shirt if you're a redneck) and you'll still be plenty warm. also, it almost never rains, and there's very little wind, making for perfect beach weather, which brings me to my second point, the beach.

While you guys are up in utah scraping the frost off your windshields, It's pretty likely that I'm down here on the beach, which is a lot nicer than those junky crowded california ones, or boogie boarding in the ocean, which is a lot warmer than those junky crowded california ones, and a WHOLE lot warmer than snow. This is nice, mostly, because it's really fun, but also because I'm NOT in utah scraping the frost off my windshield.

Another good thing about mexico is the food, they have really good tacos, churros, and fresh fruit juices, that are all dirt cheap. oh, and no health standards to get in the way of the goodness thereof. ironically, the only place anybody has ever gotten sick from eating there was the mcdonalds.

well, that pretty much sums up the big reasons why christmas break in mexico is better than in utah, so... begone! or, however I get rid of you guys.

[some title thing here]

well, today I was driving from somewhere to somewhere (I forget the specifics) and I looked at my speedometer and lo and behold (gosh, I always wanted to say that) It said I was going 35 on this 25 road from somewhere to somewhere else. And we're talking mph's here, not kmph's. so, naturally, I slowed down to somewhere around 29ish, and then tried to go slower, but I realized that anywhere under 29 drives me somewhere near insane. So why would lower speeds bother me so much?

well, there's several possible reasons for this feeling, maybe I needed to be somewhere, maybe I was running from the police, maybe I was trying to catch up with an old assassination trainer ahead of me, or maybe it was just instinct left over from my former life as a cheetah. At the time, though, none of these seemed to apply. (except for maybe that last one, hoo boy.) soooo... why can't I go slow? the more realistic reasons I can see are that my gas pedal is oversensitive, long straight roads give me no good reason to slow down, and G forces from acceleration feel awfully nice.

well, none of these reasons really seem to quite cover the problem, so I can only conclude that my former life as a cheetah hasn't quite worn off.

by the way, the police won't pull me over unless I'm going like 15 over, so don't bother calling them.

RHSMUN

This weekend I went to rhsmun, also known as regional high school model united nations, but that's a long name. anyway, it was pretty fun, I mean, when isn't it fun to go and stay in a hotel with your friends for 3 days? the bad part was the actual mun, which usually I like, but this time, it was boring, dumb, and otherwise not cool.

first, it was boring because my committee was really small, there were only like 20 people in the room, and somehow, almost all of them were uptight nerds. especially the guy representing the U.S. you know, fat, short creepy little guy with glasses and a high voice, and took himself way too seriously. well, he was the worst, but most of the other people were bad too. There were a bunch of different ways that they were annoying, the most blatant of them being: first, that they were all too serious, like, as zac put it, they thought they were in the real un or something. Second, that they kept getting off the topic, and not even trying to solve the problems we were supposed to. like during the first topic, which was children in armed conflict, they talked the whole time about how we should educate the children, and then kept going off on tangents about how we should have celebrities come and talk to them! I mean, we're supposed to get them OUT of armed conflict. what are they going to do? "hey, you kids stop killing each other for a minute and come listen to this celebrity!"

Well, it was dumb because not only the delegates (all the kids from the schools) were annoying and dumb, but the chair was a nazi! she wouldn't let us go in the hall during unmoderated caucuses, didn't understand how anything worked, and whenever a caucus was over, she would try to beat the life out of her table with the gavel until eveyone was quiet, and then she'd do it again. After we had finished both topics, she wouldn't let us go, and then took half an hour talking about how laid back she was, and how she didn't bang the gavel hard at all because it was hers and she was afraid of breaking it. yeah right.

well, in addition to this, they took all the good restaurants out of the mall that we ate at most of the time, and joon woo had to leave early. so it doesn't sound like I completely hated the whole thing though, it was pretty fun aside from all that. zac brought his gamecube and we stole some of doug's games to play, and we went to the new mac store (that's right joon) that they just opened in salt lake. that was cool. and I'm done with this post.

all I want for christmas adds up to nothing

so lately my mom's been bugging me to give her a christmas list, but I can't think of anything I really want, well, I can, but it's all either too expensive, or so cheap that I could just go buy it myself. nothing in that great hundred dollarish range. this is really weird. a few years ago my unhesitating, and probaby before-she-even-asked reply would be legos. I didn't even have to think about it. just legos. well, as long as they weren't that boring city kind, nobody likes those. How did I come to this point that I actually have to think about what I want?

One reason for this dilemma is that the pressures of society compel us to move on from playing with toys like legos. These things are denounced as childish and to be put aside after reaching the age of 12, along with pacifiers and wanting those cool little cars that you could actually drive, but could never afford. In addition to this, most toys have ceased to retain their powers of entertainment for teenagers. They just aren't as fun anymore, (maybe) and even if they were, you just don't have as much time to play with them when you're in high school.

So after moving on from toys, mainly I wanted electronics, first palm pilots, because my parents will never let me get a game boy (I'll show them when I'm in college,) Then mp3 players. Well, now I have a pocket pc a digital camera, and an iPod. other than cars and laptops (too expensive) and things like ipod cases (too cheap) what am I supposed to ask for?

well, eventually I ended up asking for either a guitar, which I hardly even play, or iPod speakers, which are slightly more practical, but not much. Really though, I just want legos.

How I Owned Doug at Golf.

So me and Doug and Eric were playing golf a while ago, I think it was on halloween, but I can't remember those kinds of details. Anyway, this was my first time playing golf, I had a very vague understanding of the rules, and I completely owned both of them. and I got a hole it one.☺ well, how did this happen? partially beginner's luck, partially because I might be better at golf then I thoght I was, but mostly because this was all on a gamecube.

So the actual question I'm addressing here is not "how did I completely own doug at golf" but, why do we sit on the couch in a state of partial coma and play these kinds of things on a gamecube instead of actually doing it? well for some games, like halo and timesplitters, the answer is pretty obvious, A: we don't actually have all those guns and courses to shoot at each other, and B: because dying in real life probably isn't quite as fun as on a gamecube. But golf? All you have to do is get some clubs and drive over to a golf course, I mean, there's at least three around here that I know of. For me, mostly it's because I'm not rich enough to play classy sports like that, but eric and doug both have enough money to do whatever they want! well, actually the point is moot if I talk about them, because they have actually played golf before. So other than money, why would I rather play a sport on nintendo than in real life?

first, because on the nintendo, you're a lot better at whatever sport it is. for instance: where in the actual game, I would probably be lucky and happy to get a hole in 10 shots, on the nintendo, I can get a hole in one, and get mad if I shoot par. weird how that works.

second, I'm lazy. getting up and getting clubs and driving to a golf course is a lot of work! I mean, It's hardly worth it if you have to do all that stuff first! why do that when you could stay where you are, play the same game, and do a lot better at it? don't ask me.

well, I think that pretty much sums it up, while neither of those are really good reasons, they sound that way when you're sitting on a couch in a state of partial coma.

procrastinationalizing

Why do I always put things off? well, to answer this bluntly: because I don't want to do it right now, here, in this moment. well, that would answer it simply, except that I already know perfectly well that I won't want to do it later, because that will be the new now, and applying rule one, I don't want to do it right now. and yet I still put it off because of rule one again. I don't want to do it right now. well, I'm just really confusing myself, so I'm going to move on from this part.

For an example, last night I thought about doing some of my homework so that I wouldn't have so much to do today. seems simple enough. but then I thought, "well, I don't want to do it 'right now', but I'm sure my future-tomorrow self will be happy to do all of it for me." Of course I realized that this was completely stupid, and that if my future-tomorrow self was there to hear me say something like that, he would likely kill or maim me. well then I put it off anyway, and probably thought something along the lines of, "if only my past-yesterday self had done this, then I wouldn't have had this problem right now. This is all his fault, the jerk." but of course, that past-yesterday self didn't want to do it "right now" either, so he laid the load on me, and probably blamed it on the past-day-before-yesterday self, who was the first one to know about it. well, the only real solution to this problem is to get me, my past-yesterday self, and my future-tomorrow self, and everybody in between, take them back in time, and beat up that first guy until he does it for us. the jerk. unfortunately, that's not possible.

Well, that's pretty much the train of thought that piled all of this work on me. (which is now the future-tomorrow guy, who was probably the only one who shouldn't have had to do it, but I'll stay out of all that) aaaaand... I'll finish this later.

Term Two Premiere!

I think all my blogs actually have to be analytical this term. (<-concrete detail) hm. hmhmhm.... this ain't cool. (<-Analysis)

Technically that would work mr. rich, but I'll try to abide by the spirit of the law and actually write something longer than a sentence and two fragments.

er, if I could think of something to write, hold on a minute.


Since time began, males have all wanted the same thing. This is a natural instinct that we are born with, and it continues to drive all of our actions throughout life. Whenever a male has a major decision to make in life, this ultimate goal guides him as he asks himself this question to determine what direction to take: "What choice will bring me closer to achieving that greater enlightened state of owning an actual lightsaber?"

No seriously, maybe it's not a guiding force in everybody's life (we're allowing for the type of people who camp out at theaters that aren't even showing the movie, here), but can any male person honestly say they've never dreamed of having a lightsaber? I certainly can't.

Ultimately, I think this desire for a lightsaber comes from several sources. First, the male's love of technology, whether he knows what it does or not, combined with the elegant grace of a sword (a.k.a. "something that you can break stuff with") makes the possession of the jedi's weapon of choice irresistible to us. Second, they're dang cool! and that's my analysis, because that pretty much sums it up.

It's a Picture

well, I took this picture in color, and then went and edited it into black and while and added the sun there, which actually makes it look a lot better. I find it kinda odd to go and change nature so that it looks better on a computer. "hm, that's pretty good, but the sun should be in the center." The power given to us by technology seems endless, unto the placement of the sun in the sky. Ah, it makes me feel omnipotent.