One of these creatures is dead. Just watched the premiere of the office, and I want to document to the world my powers of intuition by predicting the future.
So first off-- SPOILER ALERT.
In the first episode of the season Angela's cat "Sprinkles" dies, and it later comes to light that Dwight is responsible for the death. Naturally, Angela is mad at Dwight...
Now for the BOLD prediction:
Angela will start dating the annoying Cornellian Andy.
"Sometimes it’s just about the music of a conversation."
My old college buddy, and fellow blogger, Marsh is in town this weekend to visit his girlfriend. At my suggestion, and over his girlfriend's objection, we went to see Horatio Sanz do improv at a local theater...
Ouch. Way to make me look like an idiot, Horatio. I have never gone to a humor show that I thought was absolutely horrible until last night. At frequent intervals I was actually compelled to heckle the performers.
I suspect with a high level of confidence that Horatio and his friends got wasted before they went on stage. Half of what they said made no sense, most sentences contained ridiculously long awkward pauses, and the performers consistently talked over one another.
The only semi-entertaining part was that I got to yell my favorite improv activity suggestion: "COCKFIGHTING!"
Never see Horatio Sanz perform. And yet somehow I feel relatively confident that none of you would have seen him perform had I said nothing at all..
Ever since I started blogging on a whim, it has annoyed me that "The New Sun" doesn't google at number one. Sometimes it doesn't even "google" on page 1. This disturbs my fragile ego.
Perhaps this serves me right for stealing the name of a semi-famous science fiction trilogy (written by Gene Wolfe-- highly recommended. The series begins with "The Shadow of the Torturer." To date, I have never seen any other book or movie where the hero's occupation is torture.)
Anyhow... getting to my point. I am thinking about changing the name of the blog. In fact, I plan to just go ahead and do it. Naturally, this will change the web address, so there will be some minor inconvenience to you, the reader.
A couple of you posed thoughtful comments on my Ahmandinejad post. It seems that the university of Columbia rose to the occasion and put the President of Iran in his place. I think Columbia should be commended for its excellent handling of the controversial event. My concern was that they wouldn't challenge the President of Iran sufficiently, and in that regard I was quite mistaken.
I do wonder if the media backlash against the President of Columbia prompted him to rise to the occasion. Whatever the cause, he deserves praise....
Also-- did you see Ahmadinejad in the UN the next day? Man he was pissed...
If you watch the news you probably know that the President of Iran Mahmouhd Ahmadinejad is in NYC today to attend a UN conference. While he was in town, Columbia University thought it would be a good opportunity to snag a world leader to engage with students as a guest speaker. While on the surface, this may seem like a reasonable exchange of ideas-- it is not.
A political figure like Ahmadinejad is a incredibly divisive figure; he is a hate-monger whose ideas should not be invited to permeate our academic institutions unchallenged. By inviting him to speak at Columbia, we give his ideas more merit than they deserve. It is on par with inviting the leader of the Klu Klux Klan to share his ideas on the Aryan nation. His intentions are bad. His information is slanted. And worse still, his engagement with students is likely to gain him a modicum of support. State leaders are invariably charming and masters of information. Ahmadinejad will present himself as a moderate Islamic Leader, and some students will buy it.
An informative debate is only beneficial when the players involved respect the basic rule that they are not going to alter facts-- they use the facts to make subjective opinions and inferences. Political warfare, which Ahmadinejad is currently engaged in, does not respect this rule. Therefore, Ahmadinejad is not going to be engaged in a constructive dialog with students, it will merely be political theater. Columbia has a responsibility to moderate the lecture, and to contrast his words against his prior statements. (EDIT)
If a student leaves the lecture saying "He doesn't seem like that bad of a guy..." then Columbia has done a great disservice to its students. Ahmadinejad deserves to be challenged at every turn for his government's actions, inflammatory statements, and personal conduct.
In the last year alone, he has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and all its people. He has repeatedly denied the existence of the Holocaust. His government continues to sponsor terrorism both against our soldiers in Iraq, and against Israel. More troubling is that Iran continues to pursue nuclear weapons.
Ahmadinejad: Destruction of Israel
When the leader of a country calls for the destruction of another country and is currently seeking the capability to bring about such destruction-- we should take notice. Iran is a strategic enemy of the United States-- their leaders seek to undermine our mission in the Middle East through any means necessary. Ahmadinejad is venturing to the United States to engage in information warfare. Columbia University needs to challenge Ahmadinejad at every turn for his conduct. Ahmadinejad is a radical leader whose words may bring about Word War III. Columbia students have a large responsibltiy before them.
Arr Maties. T'was talk like 'e pirate day today, ye rapscallions. I hope ye all seized the opportunity to bust out some "arrs" and some pirate-themed jokes. Like, per se, if ye coworker was wearing a preppy sweater, ye could say "nice arrrrgyle sweater, wench."
I did, fer certain. No foolins, I did.
Then me great parrot swooped down in a swoop of bright primary colors and attacked a man's eye for lookin' at me funny. Har har har. Now that was FUNNY.
I took the eyeball from me parrot and placed it on my left hook, and whenever some one said "aye, aye Captain," I would say that's not an "Aye, this in an EYE!" Then we'd laugh our pirate laughs, and dance our pirate jigs. And much drinkin, and pillaging, and triple-homicidin' was done.
Those of you who have met my girlfriend know that she is not quiet. But you may not know that she screams at the slightest provocation. Tonight we watched a movie called Disturbia. Needless to say it is a thriller, but my girlfriend screamed so loud and so frequently that I also started to scream. Soon we were lost in an endless cycle of screaming. I can only guess what the neighbors think.
So, I haven't told you about my stand-up performance yet because it hasn't happened. First-- because I originally thought I was going to an open-mic for comedy, but it turned out to be a very serious poetry reading session.
Second, because the fall-back place canceled its Tuesday Open-mics (the nerve!) So here I am on Thursday, without having performed yet... after a grueling efforts to put together an act.
BoooOooooo.. No excuse of course. I should have just performed at the poetry hour...
Anyone here ever have to tell their bosses that they're tired of working at the company and are going to get a PhD? If you have, I would love to hear your advise on how to do it without sounding like a complete dick. Sure, it's the natural thing to do in my position, at least from my perspective. It's just hard when you were the first employee of the company, the entire group in its first iteration was fired and replaced (excluding me, of course), and you're certain that things won't go so well when you leave.
Also, I'm fairly sure that my boss will rain fire on one departing employee named Marshall -- EACH WEEK!!
I had to tell the founder of my company last night because I need his recommendation. I haven't told my supervisor yet. Not sure I want to bear a full year of being brushed aside (yep, I gave them a years notice... aren't I a good submissive employee?)
P.S. that's not me. But this person is the recipient of a whole lot of lobster-love. a whole lot..
Well, tonight is a big night. I have been working hard on a stand-up act for the last week. Thanks to those of you who have helped me hone my jokes. Your help was invaluable. I will try to record the open-mic session so I can share the experience. I am don't plan to post it on this page, as its distribution is something I want to keep down.
However, I do have a mustache and a cowboy hat to protect my identity. Your votes on the mustache were summarily tallied, and ignored. Why did you all vote "gay-90s"? C'mon!
I am not sure if I am going to use the disguise yet... You be the judge.*
For some reason I want to argue two points that are completely unrelated, and really have no bearing on the world. If anyone wants to play point v. counterpoint here, I encourage it...
First: The bowl is superior to the plate.
I have no idea why we eat off of plates as much as we do. Bowls have walls, so less food is lost to the table, ground, and lap. Bowls can hold liquids, plates cannot. Bowls allow you to stack your food vertically, plates do not (safely).
Second: It's better to take out old library books than buy new ones.
Old library books are full of cool surprises. Sometimes you find love notes that were inadvertently left inside their pages, other times you find random lists of chores-- either way it is interesting. More importantly, old books often contain notes and highlights that tell you exactly where the important passages are. It saves you the effort of having to closely read a text if someone has already highlighted the key passages. Finally, they look more regal. Old hardcover books make you look like a distinguished gentleman, even if you only wear cargo shorts and flip flops. Also, according to a friend, they smell deliciously of sweat. I do not back this particular charge, but nonetheless, he is right about them having their own character and personalities in a way that new books do not.
Going to drop a few blogs today. For instance, I found that The New Sun Blog is featured on Technocrati.com! What is Technocrati? I have no idea, I only googled "The New Sun" and it came up. Just like I google my own name from time to time to see what my brethren are up to... Anyhow, according to Technocrati , this blog is rated 2,585,283. So thank you all for your kind support. People always told me I would never make something out of myself, but now I can point to my blog rank, and show them who the real loser is.
Another interesting stat is that my blog is given an authority level of 2. I have no idea how they determine authority, but I am a bit offended by this low mark. My friend's blog "End the Cola Wars" has an authority of "10." Thus, I am a fifth as authoritative as him, despite my firm belief that I could beat him in a street fight.
Furthermore, I haven't posted the video of my eye getting lasered because the video is a whopping 500 megs and I am working on getting it converted. So you will all have to be patient.
Also-- anyone excited about the free UFC fight on spiketv tonight? Rampage Jackson is defending his belt against... some other guy. I don't really care who, I just like to watch guys punch each other.
My eyes are healing up nicely. I wrote some stand-up with my buddy Kern last night. I thought it was hilarious, but that seems to be subjective.
All the Ghost-authors are truly living up to their reputations-- no posts. Alas, I will get the ball rolling here shortly. I want to post my eye surgery exclusive video! Hooray!
Also, I have to make a small presentation on Federalism for my graduate class next Tuesday. Anyone? Federalism? Care to Wiki that for me?
Can I wing it? It's just Federal Government balancing with State Power right? National and regional interests intersecting in a complex see-saw that confuses normal people?
I survived the surgery! Thank you all for thAt single generous phone call I received, I'm doing ok. I have full video of the surgery for those of you with strong stomaches.
"Sometimes it’s just about the music of a conversation."
