Friday, November 12, 2004

Spending spree

I spent way too much money shopping. My purchases:

Pair of G-series sneakers from Cole-Haan
Pair of jeans from Paper, Denim & Cloth
Half-zip from Banana Republic
French-cuff shirt from BR

and, of course, Halo 2

That said, I'm not too impressed with Halo 2. The physics are really weird. I'm not sure that the model was properly implemented. The FMV had weird renderings that didn't seem complete. Lighting isn't that great, either. However, the action is frenetic and fun. The graphics are far improved.

Working tomorrow. I'm going in to an early shift, and I may pull both shifts. Money is nice.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

I can't believe I forgot to mention it

Arafat is dead. I can honestly say "Thank goodness".

The downslide


It's Thursday, and I have 2 recommendations:

1) Drink Dogfish Head's 90-minute IPA. Best IPA I've ever had. It's expensive (relatively) at $9/4 bottles, but I get the 20% discount for working at the liquor store. Strong hops flavor that is also very rich with barley. Powerful stuff with very little aftertaste.

2) Try Lambic ale. Tasty for someone who wants to have a strongly fruited beer.

I also have a recommendation for those wanting to leave the U.S. because it no longer feels like home:

Please do.

We don't want you. Instead of trying to reform the system, all you can do is give up and run away? That's a great lesson for your kids. To quote The Simpsons: "If at first you don't succeed, don't try." And here's a lesson for you: If you think you have more civil rights in some banana republic in Central America, you're in for a rude surprise. If you think that religion isn't very important to Italy, you haven't realized that a certain figurehead of Roman Catholicism who lives there condones pedophilia, wants to ban abortion, and is as anti-gay as people come. If you think you're having trouble finding a job now, try moving to Germany, where it's twice as hard with an unemployment rate around 9 or 10%. And guess what? It seems as if the Europeans are becoming more and more like Americans in their intolerance of the hate spewed by Islamists. Idiots. We don't need you.

For those who believe that Bush stole the elections again:

Shut up.

You know what Americans hate more than anything else? Whiners. You know who you are. You're the guy or gal who blames everyone else for your failures except for yourself. You're the one who, instead of doing something to change your situation, blame other people for your inability to do so. You're the person who always wants to complain about the injustice of the rules instead of succeeding within them. Do something about it or just shut up.

Ahem.

Other than that, no more advice or recommendations. Today has been a pretty slow day. I hope to catch The OC tonight. I'm pondering purchasing the DVR package from Comcast because I want to make a commitment to get more sleep during the weekdays. I'm hoping that the extra sleep will keep me more alert during the day.

Hey, I didn't realize that I smack when I chew. Huh. I'll have to stop that. It's a bad habit. There's a backstory to all of this. Through a third party, I learned that a coworker of mine thought my habit was annoying. So, instead of stepping up and telling me what I was doing (he apparently thought that I was doing it on purpose), he decided to annoy me by making racist and sexist remarks. This guy is a really hard act to follow. He's easily the biggest fool I've ever met. The problem is that he doesn't know it and thinks he's smarter than everyone else. I mean, hey, I've got a bad habit, but I won't get fired for it. Making racist and sexist remarks will get him fired. That's what I mean by his being an idiot. During the runup to the election, he goes on about how people shouldn't vote if they don't take the time to know the issues. Meanwhile, he's incredibly the most ignorant person in the room. I'm sure he thinks that he's God's gift to Andover.

Rrrrgh. People.


Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Some news

In a bit of good news today, it sounds like the U.S. is committing troops and funds to the Sudan. The U.S. has sent the 322nd Air Expeditionary Group to ferry troops and supplies to the Suday. The U.S. has also earmarked $300 million to the Darfur region. The European Union has contributed $125 million. Gee, who has the moral high ground here? We imperialist thugs or the post-modern saints in Europe? I'm glad that we are finally starting to help there.

To refute lefty rationalizations of why George Bush won the election (read: Christian fundamentalists), it seems that votes from secularists increased by 3 to 4 points where those who attended church regularly increased by only 1. This goes along with more indepth analysis that showed that Bush's victory was more due to other issues than just gay marriage. The left can be heard to scramble for some other explanation other than that they're out of touch with mainstream America.

Oh, and will Yasser Arafat just die already?!?

Ah, well. I had something else, but I forget what it was. Maybe I'll remember soon.

Oh yeah, Halo 2 is out. Booyah!

Monday, November 08, 2004

Oh yeah

My buddy Nate might be applying to the liquor store where I work. It would be so cool if he got the job.

The apologists must be squirming

A study from Alberto Abadie, a researcher at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, finds that terrorism and poverty are not linked. Rather, it correlates in a bell curve to the level of political freedom. In autocratic societies, terrorism is low because of centralized and brutal control of its citizens. In an open, politically free society, terrorism is also low. However, it found that societies that are in between suffer the most terrorism.

It can be safely concluded that terrorism exists to either surpress political freedom or support an autocracy. What's happening in Iraq, what's happening in Afghanistan are terrorists supressing those countries' transitions to democracy and liberty for their peoples. We must not let that happen. We, as Americans, must support democracy and liberty around the world. We must not run from Iraq and Afghanistan. We should support George Bush's vision of the transformative power of libery. Only then can we be safe.

Sick

Has the New York Times finally lost its mind? Maybe it's just me, but it sounds like Dean Murphy is advocating the assassination of George Bush to save the Democratic party and by logical conclusion, America. The NYT is no longer "all the news that's fit to print". It has now morphed into a low-class partisan rag.

Also, yesterday I wrote about how the Europeans were finally waking up to the Islamist threat to the Western world. I guess I was wrong. How is "Thou shalt not kill" offensive? Maybe it is if you're an Islamist that advocates "Thou shalt kill anyone who's not Muslim...and maybe even if they are". And for the authorities to sand-blast it? I guess that Europe is definitely trying to get back to sleep. Sweet dreams, surrender monkeys.

Sunday, November 07, 2004

So tired

The weekend is over, and it feels like I haven't had a weekend. I'm enjoying work, but I hope that my schedule can be a little more flexible. If I can work some weekday nights that would be cool. The Sunday work schedule is great. Kate, a manager there, is a pretty cool girl and with whom it's fun to work. Unfortunately, we had to turn away a homeless guy from buying at the store ever again. He reeked and his stench permeated the store for quite some time after he left.

Other than that, today was an incredible day. The work was pretty light and casual. The weather was unseasonably warm and sunny, which made me long to be outside. Too bad that the rest of the week is projected to be pretty cold.

In today's news, the Marines have started their assault on Fallujah. With any luck, the battle will be relatively easy and short-lived. With more luck, we'll be able to capture and not kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. To kill him will make him a martyr, but to capture him in ignominy will be a great blow to the terrorists. There is no turning back now. The coalition must crush the Fallujan resistance.

Also, it seems that Europeans are finally waking up to the realization that there is no compromising and no surrender to the Islamists that threaten Western culture and values, and to which I say it's about time. The cheese-eating surrender monkeys that are Western Europeans are learning the hard way that their nihilism has given them no mercy from Muslim radicals. The Islamists need very little excuse to strike against anyone. These people are depraved, and there is no solution but to wipe them from the face of the earth and assist Muslim moderates in any way possible. Talking to the Islamists, compromising with them, will offer nothing but a delay of the inevitable.

Just who are the brownshirts?

It seems like the Democrats are the true brownshirts. Isn't it wonderful that those who are supposed to be for civil liberties are the ones surpressing it?