Memorial weekend

Just a quick update. The packing is going alright. I was lucky enough to get quite a few boxes from Target and Walmart (mostly Target) so we should be alright as far as that goes. I think the most difficult task coming up will be to take apart the sofa-bed in the living room, so if you have any incite on taking those things apart please let me know. Hopefully that'll make moving that couch down the stairs a whole lot easier.

Other than that there really isn't much going on. We spent our last lazy day in Florida (Sunday) at Ft. Desoto Beach with some friends, which as quite enjoyable. Thank God for shade and a strong breeze!! Those two things turned a scorching hot sauna into a very pleasant and enjoyable afternoon. We even splurged and rented some kayaks so we could paddle around the mangrove inlets for an hour. It was really pretty but we didn't get to see any manatees or dolphins, which was a little disappointing, but oh well.

Saturday we went to see "The Da Vinci Code". I'm not sure if I liked it or not. I really liked the book but I feel like the movie just didn't explain things as thoroughly as I had hoped. I really wondered how they were going to reveal all of the intricate details that are presented in the book. Turns out that they didn't reveal many of the details at all. The result was that scenes in the movie kind of jumped around and nothing really meshed together the way I thought it should have. I think that if I had not read the book and went to see the movie I would have walked out of the theatre really confused and disappointed. I'll probably wait till it comes out on DVD and see it again. I spent so much time during the movie comparing different scenes to the book that I may have missed some important details that would make the movie better.

Oh yeah, on the topic of movies, we watched "Brokeback Mountain" this weekend. It was on our Netflix list of movies to see and I reluctantly agreed to watch when Melissa put it in. My first reaction at the end of the movie was: "This crap won awards? For what?". This movie was absolutely terrible!!!!! So what if these two guys had a love affair? The only thing I got from this movie is that both of those men ended up ruining the lives of their wives and children. How is that a love story? Why should that be praised with awards and media coverage? I'll give you the answer: because it showed (very briefly) the two guys starting to go at it. I guess it's the first mainstream movie to do that and to focus on the relationship of two men.

Now let me get one thing straight: I don't think there's anything wrong with being gay. I don't think it's a disease or disorder or anything like that. But quite frankly, if I were gay, I'd be pissed that the first movie that focuses on homosexuality is about two families that are torn apart by lies, deception, cheating, and homewrecking. I guess I just don't get it. Unfortunately, the situation the movie depicts may be the reality in that part of the country during that time period (and maybe even today), which is sad. Having said that, I just don't think that story should be made into a movie, and that this movie certainly does not deserve the awards it's gotten.

Only criminals and vandals play miniature golf

http://www.tbo.com/pasco/MGBCVM2JJNE.html

I can't make this stuff up. GET ME AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE!!!!!

Hey there

I've been neglecting this blog for a while, so I think it's time to put a stop to that. Here's some highlights of the last week or so:

-The biggest highlight of the last week is my dramatic turtle rescue. I was driving to the mailbox on my way out for the day and I drove by what looked to be an upside down turtle. After putting my outgoing mail in the mailbox I walked over and sure enough a poor turtle (about 10 inches in diameter) is lying on his back next to the curb with his little head and arms and legs tucked in his shell. So, being the nice guy that I am I pick up the turtle, turn it right side up and walk it over to a picnic area at the front of my apartment complex with a little pond. Unfortunately, as I was walking him over to the pond, the a clear liquid began streaming out the back of the turtle's shell. I tried to convince myself that there was just extra water trapped in it's shell, but I knew better than that. I was being peed on by the very turtle I was rescuing. So much for gratitude!!! Anyway, hopefully the turtle is still ok and basking in the pond. Needless to say I had to go back to my apartment and wash my peed on jeans and spray Lysol over everything I touched.

-Last Sunday (the 14th) we finally made it to Disney World's Magic Kingdom. I have to admit it was a lot of fun. It's quite a bit different than I imagined and Melissa and I both had a great time. That's the last park we needed to visit before moving back up north, and it was definitely one of the best parks I've been to.

-A few political notes for you: One thing I haven't heard anything about on network news is the idea of "internet neutrality". It's something we all need to know about. For those of you who don't know: telecommunications companies want to charge companies based on how fast the company wants it's website to viewable to the public via the internet. What that boils down to is that companies who pay telecommunications providers (cable companies) will have websites that are fast really fast to load on your screen, while smaller companies and individuals (like this blog) who don't pay cable companies will have their websites load very slowly, taking minutes instead of seconds. So you could be using the same computer and different sites would load based solely on cable company profits. This issue is only starting to be discussed in public, but have been in Congress for some time and may make it into a bill in the near future.

My goal is to keep everyone and every site on the internet on equal footing. If that effort fails, we risk losing all the opportunities the internet has afforded individuals and businesses of all sizes in terms of sales, availability of information, and expanded individual expression, among others.

That's all for now, I'll try and update this more often this week. I must go and find boxes for the upcoming move (June 5th!!).

What a weekend.....

Why hello there. It's been quite a weekend. To start things off, I graduated on Saturday. The ceremony was reasonably interesting, but I'm really disappointed there was no keynote address. Normally, universities go out and get some politician or educator or someone of importance to give a speech to graduates encouraging them to take their initiative into the workforce and do something positive (or something to that effect, it's all crap anyway--how's that for positive?). Unfortunately USF doesn't believe in sending its graduates off with a bang. Maybe there was a speaker for the undergrads, I don't know, but I'm still disappointed.

The rest of the weekend went really well. Sunday we went to Seaworld, which was friggin awesome. I've been looking forward to going there since we moved down here two years ago. Pictures of graduation and the park can be seen by clicking on the title to this entry or the link at the end. I won't discuss it fully, because you can just look at the pictures. I think we're going to Disney World this weekend. I'm not too excited about it, mainly because it's costing an arm and a leg, but it's something we have to do while it's still only an hour away. That's our mentality recently, since we're gonna be moving soon we had better do all those things we'll wish we should have done after we've moved back.

I really think that's it for now. There hasn't been any interesting news stories that have peaked my interest recently. I can't wait till Dateline tonight. They recently did one of those "Internet Predator" shows in Ft. Meyers and I'm anxious to see what happened, like we don't already know. For those of you who don't know, Florida has one of the highest percentages of registered sex offenders in the nation. So needless to say it'll be interesting to see what comes out of the woodwork. Till next time....

http://community.webshots.com/user/mwise00

I'm a saaaaaaad Panda

This is the kind of thing that just depresses me. The link below describes this geography test that was administered to 18-24 year old people and asked the simple question: where is Iraq? Are you frickin kidding me?! A part of me died today when I learned about this. The sad thing is that at least half of the 66% of these people probably couldn't find America on a world map.

Now I'd love to sit here and tell you all about how the No Child Left Behind Act is responsible for this, but truth be told it's not. Most of these people were either out of high school or about to be when that program started, which I think was in 2001.

The sad thing is I bet at least 70% of those people asked could name every American Idol winner. What's even more sad is that since so much attention is being focused on foreign policy these days, all domestic needs, such as education, are just not being attended to. Dumb citizens are a result.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/05/02/geog.test/index.html

Colbert hosts white house correspondents dinner

Just a quick plug for my main man, Stephen Colbert. I may not have cable anymore but I still try to keep up with him when I can. Here's a video of his speech to the press corps. The funniest thing is that no one laughs at most of his jokes. I read a few articles about the reaction to his speech and all of them described the President as "unamused" and that he and Laura weren't the least bit happy at the end. I wonder why? Follow the link below to see the video:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/35669/