How Stereotypes are formed?

Being from the south and coming to a northern school I am very aware of both the redneck community, and the stereotypes that a person that is not part of that community get when they come to Vermont. First of all let me explain that Atlanta is not part of the stereotypical community in the south that parades around with confederate flags, does snuff, and shoots squirrels off of there front porch(even though I would not mind doing that...squirrels suck). Atlanta is a huge city composed of "city-folk," just understand that.
The instance that I saw the other night at U-mall was both really funny and also enlightening to how some of the ideas people in the north form the ideas they do about people in the south. First of all where would you expect a group of rednecks to walk out of at a mall? They walked out of the Apple bee's, of all places these southern folk could of walked out of they chose the most stereotypical location. Also at the time it was snowing outside so when this southern family walked out of the Apple bee's they immediately started yelling very loudly,"Oh My God! It Is Snowing Outside." All of which is said in a very heavy southern accent. It is fine to yell about the snow, it is ridiculous that it is snowing right now. The thing that got to me was when this family kept on screaming about things that were not necessary, in fact I don't even know what they were screaming about because it was so uselessly loud. Everybody that was outside was starring at them and then the family said,"It's okay were from the south." That is the statement that really got me, I am not like that and I am from the south, but now a few of the people that were watching this situation will have the idea that most people from the south yell for no reason and have heavy accents. I do not have or do either of these things.
My heritage is southern, but in reality I am not a deep southern boy that has lived on a farm his whole life. I live in a massive city, that is very liberal and not in touch with there southern heritage. I am not disregarding my roots but I am also not part of the stereotypical apple bee's eating, Camo wearing farm boys that a lot of people seem to think that people from the south are.

Meet the lucky ones...bleh

Watching Meet the Lucky ones for a second time did not enhance much other then make me more mad . I disliked Stella even more for falling for such a creeper. Although There were only two things that noticed that were minutely different then when I watched this story in order.
The first thing that I noticed which probably has almost no significance is that Bill's pill subscription was able to be viewed in every episode. My guess to why the author of this story did this is to make sure that the reader understood that Bill had high blood pressure. I think I did not notice this because, I understood it the first time so the point of letting the audience read the prescription is unclear.
The second thing that watching Meet The lucky Ones again might of done for me is give me a clear since of how the family was related. Instead of watching them from left to right I watched each episode based on who was mentioned in the previous episode. That way I would see who was related to who more quickly. The First time I watched Meet the Lucky Ones I thought that Sharon was Stella's daughter, I did figure out that was wrong through watching Meet The Lucky Ones in an order that made since.
Maybe it is just because I am not very observant, but I really did not get much out of watching the episodes again. I found out one relatively important thing and one thing that did not matter at all to the story.

Meet the Lucky Ones... Again!

Okay, so after rewatching "Meet the Lucky Ones" for a second time and in a different order than I watched it the first time, I got absolutely no better understanding than if I had watched them again in the same order. The fragmented stories certainly had more nuance the second time because I already had a vague idea of what was going on in a general sense. I really don't think that watching them in order this time (as I watched them in a random order last time) enhanced anything. I am still not sure why Alice does her laundry in the driveway. I still don't know why Frank is such a miserly asshole. I still don't understand how Sharon giving her mom the car that she and Frank bought her makes her feel any better, as she is giving her the means to abandon her family. I still don't understand why Alice eats her damned ice cream cone so slowly that the ground gets more of it than she does. I still don't know to which side of the family Estelle belongs, nor why she has decided to compile a bucket list.

There are stil many unanswered questions, but I definitely got a better understanding of the semi-intelligible things in the story. I understood the family dynamics better, wasn't confused when Alan seemed to hit on the same woman twice (mother and daughter, duh!!), I picked more up on how much of an asshole Frank is.

The real question, though, is why a Danish exchange student has two coconut-whatevers. There are no coconuts in Denmark. Also: why don't they tie into the story at all? They are on center stage on the welcome screen before you select an episode...

WHY?!?!

Also: How is this a commercial? They never once try to convince you to do anything, let alone buy a car. They mostly try to convince you to try to kill yourself when you see Alan and kill others when you see Frank.

End Transmission.

Personal Understanding

The Understanding entries, to me, speak of someone who made a mistake that really wasn't their fault and then coming to own the finality of their decision without owning that it really wasn't their fault. When Ben Peek turned the car away from the truck to make it so that he wouldn't be hit, he wasn't actively trying to kill Geraldine Lee. He just jerked the wheel where he felt he would be safest, as any human would.

That he thought "fuck you" is irrelevant as even he doesn't specify what he was "fuck you"-ing. The survival instinct saved him, but he holds it against himself. In the picture of the eyes, his eyes reflect the full realization that he killed Geraldine, whom he loved, and that she would never be coming back. The understanding was false, though, in that it did not take into account that he really didn't plan on her death. Turning the wheel so that she was hit was the best option, really, when one considers that as both the side of the car with the wheel and the side of the road people drive on is backward, him turning the wheel as he did would have him moving empirically away from the oncoming truck. Thus it is plausible that he was just trying to get the entire car away from the truck.

On an unrelated note, the Personal Diary Entries were a good insight into Ben Peek's thoughts about Geraldine and life in general. The only personal diary entry that wasn't written on Oct. 12, Ben's birthday, was written shortly before Geraldine was killed. Ben had gotten a book deal and was happy and he and Geraldine were going out to celebrate. Then they somehow became pissed at each other and were driving home angry. Geraldine and her unborn baby were both killed in the crash (actually revealed in "X is where you sign your name"). Ben goes througha deep depression on his birthday, where he doesn't feel his life matters.

That's important.

The fact that he feels guilt and remorse on the day he is officially one year older is important because the guilt most likely stems from the thought that he will continue to get older but Geraldine will not. This guilt is compounded by the fact that he only sees himself as respsonsible for the accident.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. You may disagree. I may not care. That sounds harsh. I do care, really. But just a little. Don't take it personally. I never go back on an idea once I have ideated it. Forget that noise.

Finally, and on a happier note:



That only gets funny after a few minutes.

I don't understand

First of all if any one reads this post please understand that I am really not sure what Ben Peeks Understanding entries are meant to do. From what I gathered in the two understanding entries/pictures is that even though G's death hurts and depresses him Ben Peek he has to understand that G is gone.
I think that the second understanding post is what really helped me figure out what I thought the meaning of The two understanding posts were. It shows Ben Peek looking over after waking up and seeing that G is not there. The picture shows that G's spot is imprinted on the bed next to Peek. I think the eyes in the first entry represent his look of sadness and understanding that he is expressing in the second entry on understanding. It is doubtful that after G has been gone for so long that there is still an obvious imprint of her presence still on the bed, but the picture is meant to help the reader understand what Ben Peek is feeling. I think that the first entry of the picture of the eyes is purely a connection to the second entry, just more intimate.
I think that using a picture like Peek does in the two understanding entries can truly help the reader grasp his feelings, and also visualize what the characters look like. With out a picture the whole message the Peek is presenting could be presented too directly. Finally if I analyzed this at all correctly then the two pictures are used simply to help the reader understands Peeks thoughts.

Lord of the Skim

Okay, so this weekend I had to take an online reading quiz for Racial and Ethnic Geographies in the United States. That's GEOG 060, if you were wondering. I have had to do several, and they are always 2 weeks apart. Due to the midterm, though, we had one moved and one other was devoted entirely to a book we were to have read, "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin (a decent book, I might add).

Well, due to one thing or another, I had somehow gotten 3 weeks behind on readings. The fact that I have a ridiculous English teacher who assigns books all willy-nilly didn't help at all, let me add.

In any event, I digress (what's new?). I had to catch up on 3 weeks' worth of readings and take the quiz this morning in anticipation of class tomorrow at 9 a.m. (Fleming 101 if you are interested in sitting in). I read all of the readings but the last (it was 15 pages long and I'd been reading for a VERY long time).

I scored a 90. Nice!

Moral of the story: It's alright to slack, as long as you are an excellent skimmer.

Also: this is a video called "Driving on Salvia" and it is hilarious. Don't be appalled when you see it. They had no intention of driving. Note the duct tape over the ignition.



Quite droll!

The Worst Building On Campus

Yesterday when waking out of the horror show that is the Billings Lecture Hall Basement, I asked myself, what is the worst overall building on campus? The logical answer was under my feet but I decided to think a little more. Perhaps it was the nondescript Rowell with its cramped boxes that serve as excuses for lecture halls. Unfortunately my train of thought was abruptly cut short as I walked back to Athletic Campus. The answer of course, was right in front of me.

As I rounded the corner, I glimpsed a mammoth and hulking geometric shape that could probably best be descriped as a some sort of rhombus or trapezoid plopped in between the life science building and Cook Commons. This building is of course the Angell Lecture Hall. I'm not quite sure what the architect was thinking and/or what he was experimenting with when he had the great idea of inundating an otherwise gorgeous section of campus with possibly one of the worst examples of architecture that Vermont has witnessed this past century, making most of the residence halls look like contemporary masterpieces of building design. He successfully integrated the worst elements of early seventies/late sixties design with a experimental Geometry survey gone horribly wrong. 

The next time you're walking out of Cook or anywhere else in the area, take a moment to visualize that area without that geometrical abomination that is Angell. You will be surprised at how temporarily euphoric you feel upon visualizing this blissful state. Unfortunately, you will soon return to the painful reality that Angell is still there and is probably not going anywhere fast.

Ben Peek and the Letter "C"

I will post what I wrote in class in response to the question: Which entry in "Twenty Six Lies/One Truth" have you enjoyed the most so far? I think we may be the only blog group where every member chose the same entry or entries. I chose the entire "C" chapter in general with some emphasis on the seventh entry.

My favorite entry/chapter was definitely the "C" chapter. This is by no means based upon the sheer profanity or the shock factor. I actually found his argument about why the "C-word" is considered so offensive in our society, where as other words are seen as less offensive when they actually might be just as, if not more, profane or demeaning. Speaking from personal experience, I have never used the "C-word" in the presence of a woman, However, I have seen other males do so to disastrous effect. Adversely I've never took much offense to something like "dickhead" which is pretty much a masculine equivilent, so I see his point.

I especially enjoyed the passage from the seventh entry where he argues that females should be offended by the offensiveness of the word, and that some feminists have already made this point. His justification is as follows "If someone was to tell me that my cock was considered the physical manifestation of the foulest word in the English language. I'd be pretty fucking pissed off" I think he makes a pretty good case.

On another note, the eight entry in that chapter is a little bit suspect on a couple of different levels.

The great escape

I am usually not a fan of writing about "what happened to me this weekend," but this is one of the few times that I believe it is a worthy event for such an entry. To introduce the situation I went home this weekend and got trapped in a very unfortunate situation.
While in Atlanta I was visiting one of my friends at her house around two in the morning. She is still a high school student, and is forced to sneak out after twelve. So in other words I was not supposed to be in her house at two in the morning, so as we were leaving her mom woke up, which is usually not a big deal. The problem is that this time when she woke up she immediately went to the kitchen and set the alarm, forcing me to find a new route out of the house(which requires no doors and most of the windows are off limits). We frantically searched for a way for me to exit the stronghold that I was trapped in. There was only one window that was able to be opened in the whole house, that was in a rather extreme spot.
The window is located on a very steep incline on the roof which is around twenty feet off the ground. I climbed out shaking, and I realized that the only way that could get down is to get to a lower part on the roof. This required me to clear a five foot gap between one part of the roof to the other. Once I did that my escape was far from over, I still needed to find a way to climb off of the roof, which was still around fifteen feet off the ground. I experimented with hanging off the gutter and climbing down(the gutter almost fell off), also I tried to use the tips of my fingers to scale the bricks of the house down(once again I failed). Finally I realized that the only way to get to the ground and finally escape was to dive into a tree about five feet off the roof. I dove off the roof grappling the tree any way I could and slid to the ground(note that I had to do all of this in my socks because NO ONE can where shoes in the house).
After I reached a safe spot on the ground I immediately realized that having the alarm set on the house is much more dangerous then just not setting it. Really my friends mother is causing much more danger to what ever misdeeds the five girls in the house could be doing if they just snuck out the front door.

Lots and Lots o' Cuntries

Yes. I do like the portmanteau of "cunt" and "entries."

Ben Peek likes the infamous "c word," and so it is in this spirit that I will only be slightly squeamish about using the word cunt in this entry. Test the waters with it. Write a loveletter about it. Whatever.

Okay, so here is what I wrote on that scrapule of paper in class:

My favorite entry in Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth was the entire Cunt chapter. All of the entries had the same title, so I cannot easily distinguish one from another, but here is a summarizing rundown of the damned thing: Man likes word, "cunt;" man has students use word; man uses as insult; man uses as term of endearment; man has homosexual acquaintance who pretended to have a cunt for online sex channel; man goes into in-depth etymological discussion of cunt; man admits he is fascinated with word cunt; man doesn't like word slurry (nasty); man talks about puissance of cunt in other countries; cuntcuntcunt"

Then when I went back and looked, I was pretty much right, give or take some details. Those were irrelevant. Well, not really irrelevant, but less stand-outish. I really wrote as much. But is isn't droll. So I won't share it. How much more cuntries do you really want to hear about, anyway?

That about wraps it up. Just one last thing for you:



Fun, neh?

Tales about Tales

So last night some friends and I decided that there could be nothing better than staying in and watching the original Tales from the Crypt movie. I have seen it several times, and Amelia had heard of it, but Matt, Pat, Casey, Chris and Hannah were entirely in the dark about it.

Many people have seen the series or the other movies. Those that have remember the Cryptkeeper looking something like this:



Yeah, he looks like a champion. He is.

The old Cryptkeeper is more flesh-oriented. He is similarly a badass, but more humanly so. He tends to look more like this:



Despite an entire lack of illegal substance, this movie was damn good. I have seen it quite a bit recently and have to say that without Amelia and Hannah to set the mood, the movie would not have been scary. There was a scene where a homicidal maniac dressed as Santa reached through a grate to grab at a woman. It has reflex-action and a little jumping potential, but by and large it isn't scary. Hannah screamed. Amelia, who was reaching for the popcorn that Hannah was holding, screamed because Hannah screamed. I was sitting close to Amelia. When she screamed, that caused me to start and nearly fall out of my chair, as well as sacaring Chris. Casey admits he jumped as well.

That was the first of the five stories in the anthology. That scream set the mood and the movie, featuring zombies, wishes gone awry and killer animals/blind people, creeped everyone out to greater or lesser extent.

Anyway, the moral of the story: If watching a vaguely scary/creepy old horror anthology, bringg a few jumpy girls. They know how to set the tone.

Ben Peek entry

My favorite Ben Peek entry of course, was in chapter c. The reason I chose this entry is because it makes a good point in a clever funny way. The entry that I chose is the one where Ben Peek points out that it should be offending to women since the foulest word in English refers to female genitals.
Number one I agree with the point that it is offending or at least should be to women that Cunt is the worst word in the English dictionary. I loved the example when Peek imagines how he would feel if Cock was the worst word in the English dictionary. Using that example helps the male reader get a grasp on Peeks reasoning.
The second thing that I liked about this entry is that it is about the word Cunt. I have always thought that it is really offending, but never new why it should be so offending. Peek cleverly pointed out the real reason why cunt should be offending. Also I thought that this entry expressed Ben Peeks voice well. Overall I really liked chapter C. I am not sure if it is because I think the word Cunt is funny or if it is because of Ben Peeks thoughts on the word. Which ever it is section C is defiantly my favorite section.

Not So Hippie Any More

On Monday night I was nuzzled in between two six foot five skin heads covered in fake blood and other bodily fluids that I do not need to name. Where did I find this odd scenario? No where else but the Gwar concert. This theatrical and "hard core" show features the band Gwar (outer space beings that come to take over the world through heavy metal music), numerous thrash dancers, skin heads, an imitated slaughter of all the presidential candidates(plus Hilary), and of course being sprayed with many alien fluids.
I had no idea what to expect at this head banging, blood spraying concert. In the very beginning of the show I was thrown into a mosh pit where I was introduced to thrash dancing, which is absolutely the dumbest type of dance I have ever seen. Thrash dancing involves flailing every limb of your body in any place you like, with complete disregard to the people around you. One of the thrash dancers in this pit kept dancing in front of me almost knocking me out multiple times. I ended up having to plant a firm kick to his spine to make him stop freaking out in front of me. After the thrash dancing incident the concert was actually quite entertaining. When the band came out, they introduced the idea that the alien band was running for president, and they were going to have to kill the entire audience.
After Gwar informed the audience that the band is running for president, they brought out dummies of all the political candidates(excluding Ralph Nader which is relevant since he is excluded from all debates) and either cut their head off spraying red water all over the crowd, or did something a bit more gruesome in Hilary's case. Those were not the only fake murders of the show, Gwar also murdered multiple other persona's such as a skin head and a hippie. At this point in the show I was covered in red from head to toe in the very front row squeezed between two huge skin heads. By the end of the show I was so hot I was begging for more fake murders so that I could cool off with the cool fluids(never thought that I would say that sentence).

My wish was granted when the lead singer eject fake heroin into his penis, which then started spraying cold green water all over the crowd. Really the water was mainly sprayed on me because I was in the very front and the singer did not make an attempt to spray it all over the crowd...So I was being hit directly by the green stream for around five minutes. Even though this concert sounds disgusting, it was quite an experience and I had an amazing time seeing the insanity of a Gwar concert.

I don't like Sociology

First of all if you are a sociology major then don't read this post or judge me by it. Maybe I hate sociology so much because it is just an intro level class and all of those suck. I don't think that is the case, mainly because I think I am getting the general idea of what I believe sociology is. Sociology is the science of putting names to things that you either already know or you (or at least I) don't care about. Sociology is a nightmare class that is as broad as the mass media. THE MASS MEDIA!
In this class we learn things like the news creates symbols not reality. Wow.. thank you for making a simple idea sound so complicated. The news creates ideas by covering something a certain way, obviously it can not create reality because it is only showing reality. I took notes on what a "public sphere" is and how it work. A "public Sphere" is really a large scale debate for a community where people get together and talk about problems in that community... or a completely worthless term. This term "public sphere" really is putting a name to something that I do not need a name for and I already know what the idea is.
This sociology of the mass media has taught me one very important thing that I will use for the rest of my college experience. I will never take another sociology course no matter what it takes. This class is miserable either because I am to stupid or I really just do not care about the large assortment of useless terms that are being forced into my mind. Who knows though, maybe later in the year sociology and I will some how bond and I will fall in love, maybe major in it... Which is as likely as me growing wings, and even if I did grow those wings as a sociology major I would most fly to hell.

Alice in Italy

Alright. First of all, enough with the Wonderland crap. Alice here, Alice there. Lewis Carroll turns in his grave. Not really, though (Interestingly enough, he died just two weeks before turning 66).

Okay, but now I must actually post something about Inanimate Alice. I really did not like the first one. The interactive elements in the China episode left a lot to be desired. Namely, interactivity.

The second one, then, is my favorite. The interactive nature really shone through and I was part of the story (the bike took me ages to finish because I just kept clicking on the back tire and expected it to solve itself...) and felt involved. Much more so than in the first.

This story, in Italy (as I am sure you know) was cool because essentially we have a kid in Italy specifically to ski/snowboard and then, somehow, forgets to go to ski school. That seems odd considering that was all that the kid had on her agenda that day and she was supposedly REALLY looking forward to it. (As an aside, the ski lifts were closed that day. How was ski school supposed to work?) It's good that I think logical flaws add character to a work. Really.

In any event, this child's parents are gone for the day and, scared, Alice the 10-year-old decides that there is no one better to call than her tutor in Saudi Arabia. Because she will be able to do a lot.

Anyway, it was also odd that when you are solving the bike puzzle you are told "You can't have any supper until you've solved my puzzle." To whom was that directed? I would easily have had supper without finishing the puzzle. It was for her dad, but she can't really tell her dad when he can / cannot have dinner, either. She's cheeky.

Anyway, it was fun and the abrupt ending which showed Alice as exactly as paranoid as the people in the beginning who called her paranoid was awesome.

That last bit was hard to understand, even for me. Sorry.

Anyway. I am done.

Oh! Here is an amusing video, courtesy of YouTube. The funny bit is the host's reaction to the event. Enjoy! I do. Often.

Why Alice's Soundtrack Kicked Ass

Honestly I wasn't a huge fan of this whole Alice business, it seemed like one of Steve's adventures gone very wrong (See "The Adventure of Steve" for reference) with some scarring childhood expieriences and a lot of death thrown in.. What really caught my attention was the fusion of two very different musical genres as the soundtrack. 

 

Lets be honest, how many of us have actually dabbled in ElectronOpera (Yeah, thats a real genre name, No I didn't make it up). I admire explorations in music, especially when people are combining elements of music that we don't usually see together. Example: "Contradanza", everybody's favorite juxtaposition of classical violin with techno. It was just pointed out in class that this ElectronOpera bears a resemblance to the "Diva Dance" in "The Fifth Element" (you may or may not think this movie is complete trash, if anything else, its damn entertaining). 

They should release a compilation of this stuff on iTunes. I wouldn't buy it. Some people might though. Apparently people buy the High School Music soundtracks, so as far as I'm concerned, pretty much anything can sell.

favorite inanimate Alice

My favorite inanimate Alice was definitely the one when the family was in Moscow. I thought that this story was the best because of the plot twists that actually seemed to mean something, not like some of the other episodes. Also I really like the doll finding game.
The reason that I say the plot twists in this one were better, is because something horrific actually did happen to the family. I don't mean that I just hate Alice and her family, I just wanted something to actually happen, instead of almost happening. In most of the other episodes before this one something would almost happen but then it would be resolved. In Moscow how ever the family actually was forced to move away from Moscow, and change their life style completely.
The second thing that I really liked about the Moscow episode was the option to play the catching Russian doll game. Not only did it make me interested and enthralled in finding all of the dolls, but if you did not find them then you as the viewer would influence the story. In a way the doll game gave the viewer a since of control in the story. Also I thought that it was a cool way to relate to why Alice's player was so important to her. The player helped Alice not focus on all of the bad things going on around her by tuning into the player and tuning out the world. In a way the Doll game helped the viewer see how Alice used the player, by forcing the reader to play a game that was on the player as a side note to the story. I really have no idea if that is what the writer of this story was trying to accomplish with the doll game, but that is what I gathered.
I thought that inanimate Alice was done well in the since that it did leave you hanging on what the family will do next. Also it left the viewer wanting to know more about the family back ground and personal information. I could really relate and feel what Alice was thinking and feeling through the way the story was told.

Digital Story: Finally

I hate technology. Although I got through actually making this thing all right. It has taken me the past two days to finally figure out how to get this final version up. On another note if you could not watch this.....yeah......... that'd be great..........mmmkay

Oh, and by the way

Most of you seemed confused about 5 minutes ago (i.e. 3:59 p.m. EDT) when I assaulted Parent about our subtitle/tagline.

I said "No. It was definitely "'The truth shall make you flee!' by Terry Pratchett. And on day two you were like, 'I like that. I like Terry Pratchett.' And then I was like, 'Good. You don't have to die. I have since changed that opinion."

Not whatever ~reparent thought I said. But I don't repeat myself normally. I just smile like a creeper until people laugh and change the topic.

Um, that's really all that I have to say.

All This Fuggin' Musical Chairs

Alright. I am not an unreasonable person. That's a lie. I am rather unreasonable. But it's also irrelevant. I am not here to talk about my reasonableness. I am here to talk about the seat changes in English.

You probably aren't very irked by them at all. I am. I have sat at good ol' laptop 20 for the majority of the semester. The one a row behind it didn't work for me, so on day two I moved to laptop twenty (codename Harriet. Not Tubman) and it was like a match made in heaven. She and I got along so well. As with all good things, though, Professor Parent crushed my blossoming relationship.

"Everyone move somewhere drastically different," the order rang out through the classroom. The tone was leaden, unmoving, cold and callous. All the pleas (I think I was the only plea-er) were for naught. So I moved to the back of the room like some kind of second-class citizen in exile.

It wasn't a happy moment, but after half the class I was getting settled in and happy (ish) with my new place in life. There was the benefit of ~reparent not being able to sneak up behind me unless he can somehow move through walls (which I, oddly, don't doubt). Even so, I missed Harriet. My new laptop (whom I shall call Gertrude) was nice and fairly identical to Harriet (though there was just something special about Harriet) but at the same time, we didn't click. We were just finding our groove when class ended.

Sad face?

I can back to class about 20 minutes ago, and surprise surprise, ~reparent made us move again! To a "dramastically" different spot (Damn you, portmanteaus! Some words don't need to be fused!). Now I am at laptop number 13. How lucky.

I will be level with you. I don't like it. But I did like "The Lazer Collection" on YouTube (Produced by DFear Studios). As well as its sequel. Here is the video. Enjoy. I did.

The Longest Game

This Redsox-Angels game has the lasted the entire damn night. Officially kill any prospect of having a truly productive Sunday night. Needless to say this makes me rather angry with both myself and the Sox for not being able to lock it up. I just now realized that I forgot to email my blog tally earlier in the weekend and am feeling like a major slacker. If they can't close it out tonight then we at least have Lester probably for the next game and he was absolutely dominant in the later innings of the season opener. As I am writing this the Angels have scored a run.............

FML

On another note, my roommate's younger brother was up this weekend. We had a good time.I know that he had a good time, I just hope he can remember some if it and will then apply to UVM Parent's Weekend rocks. Even if your parents don't come. Speaking of which one of my roommates parents decided to come up on Saturday night at around 9 pm. We had to put our closet door back on in a hurry, I think most other college students should know why. 

I guess I didn't completely waste my weekend away, I hiked Camel's Hump on Saturday. It was good hike and the view would have been awesome if the summit wasn't in a rain cloud. Despite that it was still a good hike, I even got to see snow for the first time in a while.

Jesus H, it's almost 1 AM.....time to go

The Good Medicine

This is my completed digital story.

And You Thought Your Life Sucked...

Well, this video has taught me several things. I hate Macintosh computers, and I think that video editing software shouldn't be so ridiculous about importing and exporting things so that things are flattened like when you save a photoshop image and it gets flattened.

Then you go to edit them later and you can't really do a good job.

End.

Oh yeah, I guess I ought to include the video. I will, but I strongly advise you to not watch it or to watch it with your eyes and ears covered. Or kill yourself first. You will probably want to afterward.

In any event, enjoy (?)

Name of the Game: Broomball

Tonight I had my first experience with the UVM exclusive game of Broomball. The team that I am on was formed at a floor meeting by a bunch of freshman who had no idea what the hell it was. This lack of experience was clear during our first exhibition at Gutterson earlier this night. As far as I could tell its pretty much floor/field hockey on ice, this is much more difficult than it sounds

We got to the Gut at around 8:00, led by our fearless leader Ralph, we numbered 8 guys and four girls. This would eventually result in some incongruities in playing time due to the rule in Co-Rec that their must be three of each on the ice at all times. The proceeding two fifteen minute halves were nothing short of painful yet hilarious to watch. The long and short of it is that we lost 2-0 at the hands of a much smaller and mildly more experienced team. It was certainly frustrating as a guy and not being able to play much but I took solace in knowing that no one could really do any better than the other at this stage in our careers.

Despite our brutal opening loss, Broomball was an otherwise enjoyable experience. The brass band in th stands playing fight songs definitely added to the ambience in a half serious way.At the end of this I found my self wondering: Who came up with this idea? My hypothesis is that this sport was founded with the aid of some *ahem* external influences on some creative UVM students from years past. I certainly hope our season picks up after this initial set back.