San Antonio In Real Life

Germanfest 06-17-2011

2011-07-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

If you've ever been in the mood for lederhosen and accordion styled music, then the Garden Concert at Beethoven Maennerchor would have been the place for you. A lot of people forget that San Antonio has a lengthy German history, with many settlers making their homes in this region and throughout Texas. The Garden Concert aimed to bring a little touch of Germany to the lives of San Antonians.

Beethoven Maennerchor has what it calls its "Club Room", where you can buy a number of different types of German beers and wines. These include:

Becks (on tap and in bottles)
Bitburger (on tap and in bottles)
Paulaner Hefe-Weizen (bottles)
Pilsner Urquell (on tap and in bottles)
Spaten (on tap)
St. Pauli (bottles)

They also have a number of German wines (Are those very popular?)
The Garden Concert took place outside the club room in the garden and patio region, which allowed for a big crowd. Food like Reuben with sauerkraut, Bratwurst with sauerkraut, and sauerkraut alone (notice a trend here?) was served up alongside pitchers of German brew.

The hall itself was fairly large and, even though you occasionally rubbed shoulders with people, it was spacious enough for everyone. Various vendors were selling food and beer of course, but they were also selling a couple of different souvenirs. Novelty hats, shirts, and other typical fair goods.

However, it wouldn't be a German festival without a little music and dancing. There were German singers, brass bands and a whole patriotic tribute in music. There was also some polka going on and a little bit of the Chicken Dance. I think I can be excused for having skipped on some of these latter festivities.

And how can I talk about German music without letting you listen to some?

The Beethoven Club Room is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 4 P.M. until midnight.
Beethoven Mennerchor
422 Pereida St.
San Antonio, TX 78210
(210) 222-1521

Or for more information, go to their website at http://www.beethovenmaennerchor.com. The Garden Festival was a ton of fun and gav epeople a chance to experience a little bit of a different culture for a day. Located in the Southtown arts area, around the King Williams District, Beethoven Mennerchor is surrounded by some of San Antonio's oldest buildings and is near to the new Liberty Bar, the Guenther House and the Blue Star Arts Complex. Give it a shot if you're looking for something to break up your Friday night monotony. With all that said, let me leave you with the one song that defined the night: Drink!

I'm Back

2011-06-12T00:22:00.001-07:00

I'm back, thanks to iPad. Let's blog.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Professor Layton and the Diabolica Box

2009-10-11T22:59:00.000-07:00

What: Nintendo DS Game
Where: Anywhere you are, bud
The Bottom Line: This game is amazing.

About a year ago, a brilliant and amazing game called "Professor Layton and the Curious Village" hit the Nintendo DS. A puzzle book masquerading under a mystery story, the game instantly won some high praise and devout followers. In Japan the series is up to four games, has spawned a manga series and now an anime movie. I assure you, I would like nothing less than to see the same here in the United States.

The series follows archaeologist and brilliant investigator Professor Hershel Layton and his sidekick, the spirited cockney child Luke Triton. Their first gaming adventure, in "The Curious Village" exposed us to a mysterious and intriguing town separated from the world. Plowing through its mysteries required the player to solve increasingly difficult riddles and puzzles. Its sequel, "The Diabolical Box", follows the same pattern. This time, though, several locations are visited, including a trip on a ritzy dining train seemingly inspired by The Orient Express. This would not be too out of step given that Layton is of the odd investigator mold, much like Hercule Poirot.

"The Diabolical Box" opens on a murder scene requiring solving, a case that will send Layton on the Molentary Express in pursuit of the suspected murder weapon, a box known as the Elysian Box. It is said that the box would kill any who opened it and, given that the victim was Layton's mentor, it seems fitting he would head out to solve the crime. Along the way a host of intriguing characters will be met, questions posed and mind bendingly ridiculous puzzles posed.

If you don't enjoy vulgarity skip the next image, but I feel compelled to pose it because it so accurately sums up just how interactions in this game occur:

Essentially, all conversations in these games devolve into this. To get anything done, a puzzle must be solved. Need a clue? Solve this puzzle first. Want to buy some meat to feed the dog whose blocking the path to the back of the town where you must hunt for 15 pieces of a scattered pictured that you need in order to solve a lingering mystery of the town? Solve a different puzzle first. The entire gameplay is based around puzzle solving, and it is delicious and entertaining. The joy one feels at the solution is grand.

Add to this great mechanic an amazing art style, both in character design as well as settings, and throw in more animated cutscenes than what we had in the first, and the list of improvements grows. Further, the music is better, retaining a charming European feel that matches its characters. The inventory box is expanded with more side games to waste time on when the main puzzles get too grinding, and the plot is as ridiculously over-the-top as the first. On the entertainment level, I was racing to beat this game because it had me every bit as enthralled as the first.

The conclusion is touching as well, and I was left with few complaints. Sure, you can argue against the nature of some of the puzzles, and there are some lingering plot holes you can debate on once the story wraps up. Still, this is an inherently different type of game with a charm all its own, and I heartily recommend it.

8.5/10

http://sairl.blogspot.com

Mama Mia!

2009-10-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

What: Mama Mia!
Where: The Majestic Theater
When: October 2nd, 2009

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Mama Mia! for the first time, either in movie or on stage. I wasn't sure what to expect, though from the images on promotional posters I gathered it had something to do with marriage. I knew it had something to do with Greek culture or setting as well, though I wasn't sure how. Overall, I had little idea what to expect stepping through the doors of the Majestic Theater yesterday night.

Let me say that I cannot believe what a treat that Mama Mia! was. Everything in the video posted above is true; these songs are outlandish performances, based on the music of late 70's superpop group, ABBA. This is the style of the jukebox musical, a musical written to previously popular music, and Mama Mia! does not disappoint. From what I've seen of its performance on other stages, the Majestic's performance did not compromise much or fall short. The largest shortcoming, production wise, was that the water level did not drop on the dock in the final scene. I'm fairly sure that nobody will care.

Otherwise, it is a simple two-set musical that relies heavily on its music and performance rather than its environment. The stage setting is rotated between outdoor and indoor of the same taverna, and props are inserted at various moments to further the illusion of either being in a cozy hotel, or outside on the beaches near Greece. It is all done very effectively, but really, the focus of the audience will be on the flashy lighting, the over-the-top performances of the actors, and of course on the robust catalog of ABBA.

As I understand it is not uncommon for the audience to sing aloud to the songs, and though I did not experience that in last night's production that is not a fault of the performers. They were bold, outlandish and positively adorable. Their singing was crisp and clear, and transitions between scenes were smooth and without pause. Scenes would cause one to burst with laughter; one particular scene, my favorite, was of the two central lovers, Sophie and Sky. The two are pulled apart by Sky's male buddies, who tromp out onstage with exaggerated steps, in swimshorts and with snorkels about their heads to the tune of "Lay All Your Love On Me". This moment was met with laughter, and well deserved.

To be brief in summarizing the story, Sophie is about to marry Sky but would like to be walked down the aisle by her father, whom she does not know. Having scoured her mother's diaries, she has narrowed it down to three men, all of whom she has invited to the island. Over the course of the next few days, the plot will revolve around her determining which is her father, of how to deal with her different view of marriage which her mother takes issue with, and of her mother's own issues with commitment that must be dealt with by the musical's end.

It's lovely and energetic, and was a welcome break from the sometimes far too heavy drama of Wicked, a musical that, while enjoyable, takes itself far too seriously at times. Mama Mia! makes for a perfect date night to be sure, one that will provide smiles all around. It has my heartiest recommendation, and I salute the cast of performers who brought on a dazzling display this past Friday evening.

Now gentle readers, I leave you with a video clip of my favorite scene in the musical, as portrayed in the recent movie adaptation. Take a moment to enjoy "Lay All Your Love On Me":

http://sairl.blogspot.com

Remember When You Could Go To The Moon, In Nothing Less Than A Hot Air Baloon?

2009-09-21T21:43:00.001-07:00

Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight Tonight

I was thinking of dreams today. The dreams we have, the dreams we've had, and how they get sacrificed along the way. Just, a lot of times we have these ideals that get pushed aside as we get older. The pain keeps growing as we age, the heartaches and the scars accumulate, and somewhere along the line we're no longer children. We no longer believe in the dreams. Just like we did with Santa Claus, we sort of just put the dreams aside.

I mean, all life is is a limited biological constraint which at some point will end. Love is just a complex interaction of chemicals. Hurt comes more often than joy, and people are, essentially, more interested in themselves than anyone else. Why should we dream when that's our lot in life? When our existence is so fleeting and so painful? Why not simply pursue our basest desires, earn all the money we can and indulge on sex and money? After all, there's nothing worth dreaming of.

I just can't accept that. I've gotten harsher with age, less optimistic... but I don't like it. I can accept being tempered, accept the wisdom, but I still want the dream. I still want to believe that God does the miraculous, and that love conquers all, that people can be good to each other for selfless reasons, and that amazing and mindblowing things are still possible. There are still heroes, even if we know heroes are flawed. I want to believe there is still something amazing and pure and mysterious about life.

It's been almost a year now since I tripped into a relationship that was breathtaking and painful. It burned bright for a very short time and then burned out as quickly. It was the first Christian girl I'd ever dated and I thought, naively, this is exactly what God wants. This must be. I'm doing everything I should be, being a good person, pursuing Him, trying to be honest in my doings. I'm trying, why shouldn't I find a perfect love? And for all of the short and twisting and tumultuous time that it existed, I thought, if I could make it work, I'd be the happiest man on earth.

It didn't work. So, what became of the dream? What became of the vision, of the thought that blazingly powerful and amazing things do happen, and that you do find people who like to sip on life's cup as much as you do? As suddenly as it had sprung to life it was gone. All the faith, all the hope and all the love, drawn away like the tide. As much as it had been there one moment, it was then gone, and it was more than a breakup. It was the death of a dream.

Like all the other deaths suffered as we age and suffer and limp towards the ends of our all too brief existences. It was death, like the death suffered when I was cheated on, when I was made an outcast from my own friends, when I was alone with nobody to help hold me up in this town. It was death like all the betrayals, all the friends who'd walked away, it was death just like all the other pains and sufferings, only it was so sharp and deep it kept me limping for over half a year.

It was the death of dreaming. And what is a man who does not dream?

The name of this entry concerns a video by the Smashing Pumpkins in which a couple travel to the moon on a steam powered dirigible. Once there they tackle the local moon men the flee to the seas, where ocean men attack them. They are soon delivered by Neptune, and find safety, the loving couple safe.

It's such a crazy expression of what I feel. Once upon time people had all sorts of crazy ideas about the way this world would unfold and how to travel. They thought monsters lived in the sea, that Santa dwelt in the North Pole and that God literally resided in the clouds above. These fantastic stories, as ridiculous as they are, were born of the human mind's inclination to the imaginative.

It's the imagination that I thrive on. I feed on it, consume it, and produce it. It's why I'm a writer, why I still love Disney movies and cartoons, and why I love kids. Somewhere along the way we sacrifice our innocence for wisdom, without really embracing both. I pursue the feats of my imagination because I still love to dream, and because I still believe in things greater than myself. I do still believe in a good God, I do still believe in true love and I do believe that there are people who are selfless and noble, even if flawed.

I want to be noble and selfless, I try to be, because people need to see that. I try to be loving when it's hard, because other people are suffering. I want to stand up for something that's good and pure, and believe in the things that other people put aside as they grow up. I'd rather be a child before God than a man alone. It's hard to embrace the realities of this world while retaining the optimistic hope that is possible in Christ, but it's there, and sometimes the glimmer of it grows into a bright glow that comforts me.

I've realized I'm angry at nobody now. It took me a long time to forgive churches, took me a lot to receive people on their own merits, and took a long time before I was able to trust people when they said they cared. I still stumble concerning these things, but for the most part I feel like I've grown, with the pessimism I'd put on over the last few years falling aside. I'd like to thank everyone who has been there for me, and to say I'll always try to be there for you.

In closing... keep dreaming. :)

http://sairl.blogspot.com

Game Night: Cowboys Versus Giants

2009-09-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

The Dallas Cowboys have been a real mystery to me the last few years. They've had the talent to go deep but have never really put it to use. I've been waiting for them to make the Superbowl for a while year, but every year they seem to have a brain fart. They're a good team, just not always a smart or disciplined team. The departure of T.O., it was hoped, would help settle them. Unfortunately, early on in this game it's hard to see whether they've really become more disciplined.

A single quarter in with a few minutes left, Tony Romo threw an interception. Okay, it happens, and the Giants go up 10-7. Fine. Immediately after receiving the ball on a kick return, the fumble it just yards from the goal line. They make a stand but the Giants are still in great position to make a field goal, which they do. In the span of two minutes they go up 13-7.

It's just one of those things that makes you question how much metal these guys really have. Nevermind, it's not even an issue of their metal. They plain don't have luck on their side. Tony Romo pitched a bullet to Jason Whitman that he lost control of. It fell to the ground, bounced up off his heel and into the hands of a nearby defender. The Giants got back on offense and Manning tossed it into the endzone. The receiver fumbled it as he fell onto his back. It flew wildly in the air then came to a rest somewhere between his hand and his thigh.

For all that, the Cowboys trailed only three points going into the half. Also, apparently the wackiness goes two ways. The Giants missed an easy 29-yard field goal early in the third.

Alright, now the third quarter? The third quarter is good. The running game has really exploded between Jones and Barber. Even with Tony Romo doing his best to throw the ball into the hands of the defenders, the Cowboys are really getting it done on the ground. Funny how things change so quickly though. Down three, the Cowboys are at least in position to tie it up. I don't want a tie though. Who wants a tie? I want a win, not a tie. ROMO TOOK IT IN HIMSELF. Amazing! Third down and goal, Tony Romo receives the ball and doesn't bother passing it anywhere. With four receivers running their routes, Romo goes straight up the middle for the touchdown. Fantastic. 24-20, Dallas, 3:30 left in the third.

So here's what it comes down to. With about nine minutes left in the game, the Giants kick a field goal that puts them up 27-20. This is the last real chance the Cowboys are going to get to score another touchdown. Fortunately, they get it entirely off the running drive. I'm not sure what's been up with Romo but for every good thing he did he matched it with something awful. Two long drives put the Cowboys up, but they're not able to prevent a Giants' field goal. With 13 seconds left and the Giants at the Cowboys' 23, the score is 31-30, Cowboys. Manning pushes it in to the 20, and it leaves the Giants with four seconds left, and the chance to win by field goal.

Cowboys lose, 33-31

Dallas Cowboys, this one's for you:

Paranormal Night

2009-09-18T20:45:00.001-07:00

Every Friday night I take some time out of my day to indulge my favorite hobby: Watching ghost hunters. These usually take the forms of Most Haunted, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal State and obviously, Ghost Hunters. I thought tonight I'd take a moment tonight to talk about these groups and the different approaches they take, including some of the most common criticisms that are leveled at them. I won't be taking into consideration the most common criticism: That these groups are pseudoscience and that none of their methods are actually proven. I'm not sure how you'd prove a ghost, but these are amateurs tracking unusual phenomenon, and that gains my interest. I can say that, from my own ghost hunts and from seeing enough of these shows, I'm fairly sure "something" is happening.

My first tackle is Most Haunted, which will probably take my heaviest lashing. Tonight they are investigating West Virginia Penitentiary. I remember my first encounter with Most Haunted. It was my introduction to haunting shows, and I thought it was the bread on my butter. If television had anything worth offering to my highly refined senses, surely this was it. Within the first few minutes of it I was exposed to a television turning itself on and people screaming in panic.

Only... the screaming never stopped.

Sometimes, in the quiet of the night, I can hear them, their shrill voices echoing in my mind. Ah, Yvette Fielding, the host of the show, is at least as capable as the harpies of Greek nightmare in her capability to pierce the heart's of men. Hell, she'd give Fay Wray a run for her money for the title of Scream Queen. Seriously, just check this clip out:

Do you think that if you're trying to increase the respectability of a field already considered shenanigans and pseudoscience, that this is the image you want to portray? In the first place, they use psychics, which... I'm conflicted about. I don't mind so much if the 'evidence' the psychics come up with can be independently verified, which it is portrayed as being from time to time. The psychic will give their impressions and you will inevitably have an outside correspondent confirm about 80% of what was said. In trying to push this further towards credibility though, you have to consider repeatability and reliability, which you will never have in a psychic. It's the same reason that personal accounts are worthless since, how do you independently verify the majority of them?

I wouldn't have a problem with it if the rest of the show indulged in something approaching professionalism, but people are screaming and running left and right. They jump when they see 'orbs' on camera... which can be just about anything from insects to dust? So all in all, I'm entertained by Most Haunted, but not too terribly impressed. Hard to be when the cast is doing their best impression of the Blair Witch Project, complete with grainy hand cams.

Most Haunted usually starts off my night, just setting a mood. After the unceasing screams of Yvette Fielding, we move onto the far more stalwart Ryan Buell. By stalwart, I mean the guy is a statue. While there's a lot on Paranormal State that I consider to be fake, there are few things on television as genuine as this guy's fear of the camera. Listening to him is a sure fire cure to the insomnia that has you watching this show at midnight.

I jest. Or, not really. Moving on though, watching the show makes you wonder which part of it is documentary. If Most Haunted veers towards unclean and almost amateur (outside their introductory segments), then Paranormal State is entirely too polished to take seriously. Scenes are a little too dramatic, almost as if they've been staged. Which according to some, everything is. My big problem with the show is that the actual evidence they catch is scanty. When it is caught, you're not given a direct feed of the evidence. It's through another camera or over someone's should, as if this is all going on live.

Because even the evidence is presented through a filter, and combined with the highly polished scene setups, it makes you suspicious. Beyond that, their resident psychic, Chip Coffee, is never wrong. By the way, who names their child "Chip Coffe"? That's asking for them to be beaten up in elementary school. Coffee most likely developed his psychic talent as a way to tell when he was going to get jumped.

In between days of filming, Buell does these little "Director's Logs" that couldn't sound more fake or pre-written. In combination with everything else, and given the fact we can't seem to generate solid evidence on a show relying too much on psychics, it falls more into the dramatainment genre for me. Watch this clip and then you tell me: Documentary, or Entertainment?

Once those two shows are over we get onto the good part of my night. Ghost Adventures is always a nice break from the saturation we get of psychics in the previous shows. The cast may participate in rituals at times, but they don't rely heavily on psychics to determine their cases or present evidence. That said, Zak Bagans is generally regarded as the douche of all ghost hunters.

Where'd they get the guy? The local frat party? I'm not sure his douchery comes across entirely, but when you've got teenybopper tribute videos to you on Youtube, it's hard to take you seriously as an investigator. Ghost Adventures suffers some of the follies of its predecessors. It avoids being overly polished by restricting its filming to three people, which cuts down on production or evidence being filtered. Speaking of, there is a fairly regular amount of evidence presented, from movement to EVPs. Sometimes though, they get into a Most Haunted frame of mind and begin screaming like little girls. For a man with the build of a lightweight boxer, his ballerina-like behaviors aren't entirely flattering.

Still, they do capture good stuff. They don't polish up the show too much, and I get the impression that, besides the narrative, their actual in-camera statements are all them. If not, somebody get Bagans a new writer, because at the poker game of public speaking he's coming up douches wild.

All that said, let's get down to the big boys. Ghost Hunters wasn't the original ghost hunting show, but I'm fairly confident in saying it's the largest, most famous at this point,and the most prestigious. They've had a number of gaffes, detractors and claims of falsified evidence in their time. Still, I think that's almost unavoidable given the sheer body of evidence they've produced in their years on screen. Nowhere else have I seen such a consistent display of moving objects, opening doors, Class-A EVPs and on-camera apparitions.

TAPS was a investigative body led by Jay and Grant that transitioned to television over the Sci-Fi Network. Its origins were as a rough reality show, and over time it's become more polished, though I'm not sure that's for better or worse. Some parts are obviously (in my opinion) staged. For instance, it's hard to believe that cameras are always present,just at the right time when a phone call comes in alerting the duo to a new case. It's a little too frequent, and I refuse to believe TAPS cameras follow them from plumbing job to plumbing job, waiting for their case manager to call in with a new assignment. So there's some stuff that's obviously just set up.

The actual content of the investigations is far less polished than Paranormal State (a good thing). You see through the hand cams as you do with Most Haunted and Ghost Adventures. However, a big difference is that in Ghost Hunters, people don't go screaming and running when something happens. It has happened on occasion (leading to the famous quote "Dude, Run!") but overall, the group approaches things very professionally. Jay is especially notorious for having almost a non-reaction to paranormal activity. Knocking? He goes in its direction. Glasses exploding? He calmly explains it to the camera. Hell, at one point he gets ghostly scratches on the leg and doesn't bother to concern himself with it for a few minutes.

The rest of the crew varies in their tolerance of their setting but generally do not run or scream. They stick to their guns, and that's good for paranormal investigations as a whole. It's just professional. They take a wide range of equipment that's fairly standard in the field these days, from voice recorders to infrared cameras and FLIR heat vision cameras. Ghost Adventures is most closely related to Ghost Hunters, which is probably why Ghost Adventures is my second favorite show. Still, Ghost Hunters has the years under its belt and the strong evidence.

It also, notably, does not always have evidence. That's a good thing, because if you're finding evidence at every site you go to, it's reason to think some stuff is being faked to keep ratings up. There's been a lot of speculation on faking going on since season one, with a lot of hypothesizing but no evidence. In general I take the two at their word, along with their crew. I have to, this is television. Until scientists investigate, this is as close as we'll come. Anyway, here's my parting clip for you from Ghost Hunters.

Ghost Hunters video evidence from multiple episodes
Uploaded by Zagreb_City_Boys. - Discover the latest sports and extreme videos.

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4643653628621229709&postID=8532252218691763764

http://sairl.blogspot.com

This World is Crazy

2009-09-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

Up first is your horrifying news of the day: New Bride Impaled by Tree Trunk. Check the Vid:

Yeah I mean, I'm sure this sort of stuff happens all the time. Your parents spend your entire youth warning you to drive carefully and that anything could happen at anytime. You said yeah, sure, you worry too much. Then one day you're driving along and then BOOM! Tree branch through the neck. It's a regular Romeo and Juliet tale. What bride doesn't expect a disaster to happen that will ruin their wedding day? So you finally get through it, only to have something like this happen on your honeymoon.

Anyway, Time's got an interesting article up right now about whether or not Glenn Beck is bad for America. You can catch it here but I'm sure you probably already know what I think.

Here is one of his direct quotes:
"Let me tell you something. I believe that if it were up to you or me, just regular schmoes in America, the Freedom Tower would have been done years ago. And it wouldn't have been the Freedom Tower; it would have been the Freedom Towers — because we would've built both of these towers back the way they were before! Except we would've built them stronger! We would've built them in a way that they would've resisted attack. And you know what? My guess is they would've been 25 stories taller, with a big, fat 'Come and Try That Again' sign on top. We would've built it with our bare hands if we had to, because that's what Americans do. When we fail, when we face a crisis, we pull ourselves up and make things better. I believe the only reason we haven't built it isn't because of Americans. It's because we're being held back. And who is holding us back? Politicians. Special-interest groups. Political correctness. You name it — everybody but you."

Look. This guy is an actor, pure and simple. John Stewart does more real reporting than Glenn Beck does, and Stewart's on the internet. Anybody that needs to prey on the fear of citizens in order to garner a following has no scruples.I'm not saying he doesn't occasionally report facts; In fact, I'm rather glad about the whole ACORN situation. I may not like his motives, but I like the truth, and the truth was that a few people at ACORN had to get fired.

It's when he tilts off into his "I'm scared" rants. He invokes fear as a tool to prey on the weak and vulnerable. With a record high in unemployment, don't you think people are looking for answers anywhere they can find them? Guess what, Glenn Beck proposes that he has them. That's right America, you're being preyed upon by a relentless Socialist government. The reason Obama did social work was to build up a public army that rivals the national military. Obama was really born in Kenya, and he wants to brainwash your children into becoming Communists.

That's what this is all about.

Or not. What's easier to believe, that you have an American in office who is struggling to enact policy like every other president before him, or that he's part of a massive conspiracy intent on bringing America to its knees under a Communist takeover? Are we really so naive to think that's even within the president's power? This whole argument concerning Socialism is even more confusing as we conflate economic systems and political systems. Can Democracy or a Republic exist where Socialism does? Can we integrate Socialist elements? Do you even know how much of America's system is already socialized? Your Medicair is subsidized, your schools are free, your mail is national. Even programs that are privatized now may have begun at some point as a government run program, which does not immediately equate to Communism.

I usually like to post funny stuff, but the fact that we have no critical thinking skills in this country is scary. If you believe Glenn Beck, fine, as long as you've researched other sources besides the ones that are going to confirm your opinion. Take the time to get to the root of the issues, and question everything, especially the words of those ranting on television because their livelihood depends on ratings.

I've got a blog about development on the east side of San Antonio coming up tomorrow. If you're interested at all in the welfare of the poor, you might want to check it out.

http://sairl.blogspot.com

The Ridiculousness of Grad School

2009-09-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

I want it to be understood as I write this that I completely understand why there is such a tremendous workload in grad school. I mean, people at this level are attempting to push into a whole new level of their education and likely their career. So, I get it. You don't have to convince me. That doesn't mean I don't get a right to complain though.

A book a week is tough. Two books a week is tougher. Do that for fifteen weeks, throw in a weekly paper for one class, three major papers, and all sorts of other assigned work, and it becomes a chore. It's not even educational; you're basically bum rushing the material in the hope that you'll get it all completed by the next week. The thing is, who are these professors gearing these assignments for? Think about the average person going to grad school. Usually, they're in some work setting full time.

So in addition to getting the unholy level of reading assignments you've got to cope with work, not to mention life in general. It doesn't help if a professor assigns you reading material that can only be accessed from the university library; that's an almost criminal faux pas. When you have to drive 25 minutes just to read a book to write a paper, it's enough to make one mad. I don't mean crazy mad, I mean go and beat things out of sheer frustration mad. Then again, that might just be the same thing as crazy mad.

Look, I'm going to buckle down and kick this thing in the cans. There's no doubt about that. I just feel as if some of these professors don't really know what they're doing; my professor for late 19th century European Topics basically keeps asking us to read about the same two men over and over in different books. As much as I like Disraeli and Gladstone, I would like to touch on something else. Who cares what I want though, you've already got my money.

I've got something a little more lighthearted and funny coming your way. Not much though. The new Senate Bill for health care just came out; boy if that thing isn't a failure.

See you tomorrow everyone.

SAMURAI SWORD KILLING!!!

2009-09-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

HOLY HELL how could I go to sleep without posting this?

" (CNN) -- A Johns Hopkins University student killed an apparent burglar with a samurai sword after discovering the man in his garage, police said Tuesday.

Baltimore, Maryland, police received a phone call shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday about a suspicious person, and an off-duty officer arrived at the scene with campus security, city police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

When authorities arrived, they heard calls for help and for police, he said. They discovered a suspected burglar with a severed left hand and severe lacerations to his upper body, Guglielmi said.

The suspect died at the scene, he said.

The man had entered a home where several Johns Hopkins students lived, Guglielmi said. Four students, one armed with a samurai sword, had confronted the suspect in the garage.

The man "lunged" at the students, and the student with the sword defended himself, severing the man's left hand and cutting his upper body, Guglielmi said.

Police did not release the name of the suspect, who Guglielmi said had a long criminal history, or that of the student.

Police questioned the three witnesses, Guglielmi said, and released them. It was not immediately clear whether all four students lived at the house, he said.

Authorities are determining whether the student will face criminal charges, Guglielmi said.

Burglars had taken two laptops and a Sony PlayStation from the students' home Monday, Guglielmi said.

The burglary suspect had been released from prison Saturday, Guglielmi said."

I mean I cannot count how many times I've fascinated about being the savior of men; armed with my living sword, the Green Destiny, I would fend off evil and save the righteous from the wicked. In a garage somewhere in Baltimore, one young man has lived my dream.

I've posted the news blurb in its entirety but you can get the original here. I mean come on, it's not like every day you're going to get a web address that included the title "Samurai Sword Killing". Now this kid just needs to learn how to harness the spirits of the wind and dance upon the trees.

See you tomorrow universe!

http://sairl.blogspot.com

Blogworthy Mentions

2009-09-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

Wow what a busy few days in the world of meaningless reading. Of the four things that stuck out in today's headlines, only one has any real worth and that's only because of its consequences. Here were my four picks of the day:

Patrick Swayze Dies
Jessica Simpson's Dog Snatched by Coyote
Kate Gosselin has Meltdown Over the Weekend
Boy with Bad Report Card Makes Up Kidnapping Story

If you picked up the Patrick Swayze story as the only one having meaning, you're correct. It's not so much that he's dead as much as it is we can expect his fearful return from the afterlife. He's done it once before people, don't doubt his power to do it again. The second time he may come back as a zombie. Think I'm crazy? Then you don't remember when he did this:

If you're not understanding the video's relevance, then you're not understanding Patrick Swayze's rather impressive powers. Strong in life, invincible in death, Swayze is a stalking terminator without any of the weakness. His powers in the movie begin small, such as scaring cats in order to do his bidding (though his formidable Beastmaster powers are already amazing). Beyond that, he is invulnerable to all things now in his second life, able to pass through walls and seek his victims without mercy. By the end of the movie he's breaking glass, scaring men into their suicides, and generally weakening the wills of such powerful men as Chuck Norris and Rambo.

Do you see the situation that is now upon the world? Swayze undoubtedly shall ride in upon one of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse come 2012.

But hey, until then we've got other things to ridicule right? What about Jessica Simpson's dog? I mean, how was she to know that coyotes would pose a threat to her little pup? Oh right, anybody who bothered to research where they were living. Coyotes are on par with Dingos in terms of what they'll hunt and snatch, and Dingos are know for taking babies, so I doubt the Coyote had a moral issue with taking a Maltese. However, in a humorous turn of events, Simpson has put up posters for anyone with clues as to the whereabouts of her dog. I've got an answer for you Jessica: Inside a Coyote's stomach.

Turning our eyes to people who've gotten what they deserved, Kate Gosselin apparently had a recent meltdown over the loss of her husband. Hey Kate, you've been acting like you don't care for about a year now, don't start pretending now. I do find it a bit funny that the confession came amid discussions of other, more star worthy characters such as Madonna and Kanye West. I mean, what's a girl like Gosselin to do? Of course, play the sympathy card. Only way she could have gotten the camera back on her at that point.

And to wrap things up, there was a story this morning about a young boy who apparently feared showing his bad report card to his parents so much, that he up and told the police he'd been kidnapped. Yup, seems that this boy's parents were Beelzebub and Mephistopheles, and struck such dire fear into the kid that a bad report card to his parents was considered a worse situation than lying to the police. Crazy thing this world. Apparently the cops got suspicious when the boy couldn't get his backpack out, but had the time to grab his musical interest. With parents who reign from the Seventh Circle of Hell, he'd better have grabbed that thing. Instruments cost money, and daddy Satan won't tolerate going a few hundred dollars in the hole.

I've got some tech stuff to talk about tomorrow! Facebook, Facebook Lite and all sorts of other stuff. For now though, off to a grad class. Tweet you later Universe.

American Kids Aren't Good Enough (And Neither Are British!)

2009-09-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

So apparently Elton John was rejected after his bid to adopt a kid from the Ukraine. I use the term bid because adoption for celebrities is sort of like shopping. Why get something from the flea market when you can go to a fashionable boutique? I mean, who wants a boring old American or British orphan when you can get yourself a souped up model from Malawi or the Ukraine? Then you can show it off to all your friends.

Seriously though, why are celebrities obsessed with foreign born orphans? It's almost like they look around and go.... "Hmm, nope. Too American... Too British..." *snaps fingers* "Aha! I'll get myself a fancy one from overseas!" Why settle? I mean, orphans in America are living in the lap of luxury, daily tended to for all their needs by a cadre of stern but well meaning nuns. I mean, that's what we saw in the movies right? Surely it must be real.

Oh, what's that you say? The movies are telling us something different these days? That U.S. orphanages produce children like this?

HOLY HELL!
No wonder the likes of Elton John, Madonna, Ewan McGregor, Meg Ryan and Angelina Jolie are shopping overseas. Because we take children and make them into demonized hellions. Who wouldn't be looking to adopt from the depths of the heart of Africa, when any child you adopt here in the states is just going to end up trying to seduce your spouse and stab you with a knife?

Really though, Hollywierd isn't really being altruistic. I'm sure there are a few good hearts out there, but when it comes right down to it, these people are playing keeping up with the Joneses. In this case though, they've replaced the Lamborghini with a human life, and that's some pretty high stakes. And unlike a car, you can't just replace the parts or take it back if something goes wrong. I mean, this is something you're going to have to build up over decades. However, if you do botch this up badly, you can always just marry your adopted daughter. Sorta like this guy:

http://sairl.blogspot.com

The Great Depression

2009-09-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

It's funny to watch a special on the Great Depression. Apparently the public persecuted Herbert Hoover for letting the market heal itself; which is the exact opposite of how the public persecuted Obama for taking too much action. I'm fairly sure that at the end of the day, the lesson I've learned is that nobody is ever happy with anything. For everyone you make happy, you piss someone else off.

How do I know this? Take Joe Wilson, the senator who shouted out during Obama's speech on medical care. In the aftermath, his Democratic opponent was able to raise a million dollars on the anti-Wilson sentiment. Wilson himself raised exactly the same though! Which really goes to show that even classlessness is celebrated by roughly half the U.S. population. Hell, if someone slaps a kid that's not his in public, half of the population would say the kid deserved it.

Or last night, when Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift, I'm sure there were some people out there who said "Good! She's an awful musician." Which may or may not be accurate, but that's not the point. The point is that you can't please everyone, and sometimes you just have to stick to your guns. That's why I don't necessarily care that there's so much rancor over the health debate. I mean, if Obama had done the opposite, there'd be just as many people pissed off.

Look, here's the deal. 20% of America does not have health insurance, and that's not just because they're lazy. It's also because a ton of them are working class or contract workers. There's another 20-30% that are underinsured. Let's not even get into the details of how HMOs actively attempt to screw you out of your insurance by trying to track down preexisting conditions. I mean really, losing your health coverage in the face of an $8,000 bill because of one incident of yeast infection?

It's ridiculous that there are promotions and incentives given out as a reward for those agents who turn down the most people. It needs to stop, and it seems we're finally coming near to a compromise bill. The Senate Finance Committee should be unveiling theirs sometime this week.
Read about it here.

But on another note, seriously America: Stop buying some of the bogus things you're being told about your health care. End of life counseling is not euthanasia. It's actually pretty smart, in light of how complicated decisions about your final hours can be. If your two daughters are arguing about whether to pull the plug or not, it can be cleared up with just some forethought. And also America, I agree we need a check on the system so that those in the health care system are legal citizens. That's not synonymous with Democrats wanting to give free care to even illegals.

One last thing to ponder about. The health care industry has spent so much on lobbying the government over the past few months that the amount of money could have insured the entire gap of people without coverage. I mean, just take a look at this quote from the Examiner: "In the Bronx, New York, an advertised town hall meeting was transformed a into one-on-one meetings where Representative Joseph Crowley (D) spoke against single-payer and refused to commit to supporting a public option. Crowley received $5,000 in contributions from Pfizer, Abbott
Technologies, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield (Wellpoint)."
Read the whole article here.

Look, all I'm saying is, don't think the push against reform is just a grassroots movement. These guys are in it for the money, and they'll spend as much as they can to make sure they have to give you as little as possible once this bill gets out. What we need is a real bill that will help us all, because wouldn't you want to have coverage if something like this happened to your daughter?

http://sairl.blogspot.com

More On That Kanye Guy

2009-09-14T04:02:00.000-07:00

So this morning it seems Twitter is down. I'm not so sure I'm surprised. It's either maintenance, or a horde of people tweeting how much they hate Kanye West. If you didn't catch the previous blog, I wrote a bit about how Kanye, who is getting progressively crazier, stormed the stage during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech. He basically had to make it known that Beyonce deserved the award. Here's a working video, which I was only able to find this morning:

MTV Shows

So a few updates on went down last night. Apparently, after Kanye got off stage, celebrities around him began something of a harassment campaign that eventually provoked security to surround the area. Eventually, one of the big boys at MTV had to come and ask Kanye altogether, which was what they should have done immediately. During presentations for videos, Kanye's video and name were both loudly booed. Finally, when Beyonce received an award for video of the year, she invited Taylor up to finish her acceptance speech.

Meanwhile, people who couldn't be bothered to verbalize their responses were busy tweeting them. (Just kidding kids, I was tweeting my response too :D.) Seriously though, apparently there was a fair amount of celebrity tweet backlash as people roundly criticized Kanye West for his interruption. Much like Senator Joe Wilson who interrupted Obama, Kanye has now become the newest member of the internet meme hall of fame. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I present to you now, a mash-up of Kanye West's interruption and the Obama interruption. Take a moment and laugh:

Anyway, that's the morning roundup. Have a good morning everyone and we'll see what the day brings.

http://sairl.blogspot.com

One More Reason To Hate Kanye West

2009-09-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure I got the whole "creepy, weirdo nutjob" vibe from Kanye West when I first started seeing him come into the public eye. A little intense sometimes, sure, but he's a performing artist. You're supposed to have some fire in your belly. There's a big difference between fire in the belly, though, and outright crazy.

For the last few years we've been treated to a host of crazy Kanye West related incidents. From saying George Bush hates black people, to interrupting music award shows to say how he should have won in a particular category, Kanye had been demonstrating an increasingly interesting set of behavior patterns that most psychologists would love to observe, if Kanye were in a padded room with cuffs on his wrists.

Now, though, it seems the celebrated artist has taken to fighting on the behalf of others. At the MTV Video Music Awards it seems that Kanye thought it was his responsibility to interrupt the proceedings and let everyone know who should have really won. As it stands, Taylor Swift took home the trophy, but not before Kanye butted in with his version of responsible citizenship. After some belligerent rantings about how Beyonce's video was superior, the camera cut away and we're now left with yet another feather in Kanye's crazy cap.

Somebody needs to cue up a video of Kanye being taken off stage and cut it to a video of Keyboard Cat playing him off. If you don't think Kanye's crazy by this point, your definition of sanity may need some revision. For those of you who missed the clip, grab it before MTV's gestapo tears it off of Youtube.

http://sairl.blogspot.com

Updated: The original video was taken down. Let's try a second one.
Another Update: This is the third attempt at getting a video up!

MTV Shows

Madam Butterfly... from the Future.

2009-09-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

Madam Butterfly
Review Posted 09/13/09

With a friend of mine, the esteemed Kelsi Kay Johnson, performing in this year's production of Madam Butterfly, it was almost a no-brainer that I would be attending the beginning of the opera season. Before I begin my review I feel a little background information is in order.

Madam Butterfly is the most performed Opera in the United State and is one of the most common operas in the world. That is not to say it is the best, simply that its elements are appealing and the cost of production is within scale that almost any opera company can produce it. It is a good opera, though its original production was met with disastrous reviews due to the lack of rehearsal and short time to its debut. Written by Giacomo Puccini and originally premiering at the world renowned La Scala of Milan, it is of the Italian opera manner and was revised five times before achieving its "standard" revision - the most performed globally - in 1907.

(This synopsis is drawn from the "standard" version. Spoilers included.)
The original story is simple enough, and is set in Nagasaki, Japan circa 1904. It concerns B.F. Pinkerton, an American naval officer who is near to marrying Butterfly, a local Japanese woman. The first act plays through to the marriage and contrasts the views of Pinkerton and Butterfly. While Pinkerton comes off as infatuated with Butterfly, he is also generally portrayed as irresponsible, and a near philanderer who is mainly concerned with moving from woman to woman as he travels the world. Butterfly, though, finds herself thoroughly in love. This is an immediate break in perception of this relationship, as Pinkerton earlier says that his actions will likely have no long lasting repercussions, or heart break, for Butterfly. Even if he does hurt her, she'll move on.

The second act opens on Butterfly three years later, Pinkerton long gone, and she awaiting his return still from his journeys overseas. Though it is implied to Butterfly that Pinkerton has sent word he will not return, she refuses to accept the notion, insisting she'd rather be dead than to live through that. We are exposed to a child, the son of Pinkerton and Butterfly, a twist in the story as Pinkerton did not know he had a son by her. As the act proceeds, a ship sails into harbor, Pinkerton's old vessel, and Butterfly immediately begins to prepare, thinking he will come see her. She falls asleep with her son and awaits out the night.

The final act finds Pinkerton arriving with his new wife, visiting upon Butterfly's home. It is his intention to take his son, for his wife to care for. Among other things, Pinkerton finds that the house is still identical to the way it was three years prior, with all his gifts and pictures still on display. She has not forgotten him and moved on, as he'd casually said she would when he'd first been on the verge of marriage. Realizing this he flees the house, unable to confront her. When the events unfold and Butterfly realizes she will have to give up her son, she isolates herself and makes a final prayer to her ancestors. Taking her father's knife, she kills herself, to the sound of Pinkerton screaming for her from outside.
(End Synopsis.)

The story is fairly tragic but is also a part of our theatrical culture at this point in history. Well reviewed readers will recognize elements from Madam Chrysanthemum and the same-titled Madam Butterfly. More updated readers will also recognize the plot is echoed in Miss Saigon, a version set to the Vietnam war era.

As presented by the San Antonio Opera, Madam Butterfly is done in the original, two act production style. This is less common than the three act standard version, but is still an accepted version that does not differ too greatly. All the main elements are there without difference, so the choice to use the original version does not affect the play at all, least to the new opera goer who will have little eye for the variations between them. In other words, it's an academic point, nothing a typical audience goer will even notice.

In function, the performance is excellent given the limited space and (assumed) budget of the opera. The presented stage does not differentiate the settings; in other words, the hill upon which the first scene is set is the hill you'll be seeing as the final scene closes. This could cause some confusion to at least a few, as the scenes being portrayed are often speaking of scenes that occur in-doors; there's little to mark that, at least from a distance. It should be noted I sat towards the rear of the lower level, but I don't think that should have made a difference.

At any rate, the set itself is excellent and does convey the hill setting from which Pinkerton makes his observations of the house he is about to buy. The lighting is excellent and the backdrops a changing hue of blues, pinks, reds and deep blues to convey the various times of day. As the background switches to deep blues, small lights sparkle, conveying a feeling of fireflies and then stars. Lighting was excellent and there was little to complain about, as it convey the emotions accurately and without overwhelming the performance.

The costumes, too, were well done. My background in history does not include a specialization in Japanese dress, but if I assume myself to be of the average opera goer's understanding of Japanese culture, then I would venture a guess that the costumes look accurate. They do not look fake or overdone, and the makeup, while sometimes dramatic and striking, is not out of place either. The uniforms used by Pinkerton and other officials all seem well suited, and the near-Shogun appearance of the Bonze, Butterfly's uncle, invokes a feeling of menace.

There is something to the Bonze and the religious element that should be addressed. One element that surely gets overlooked for the far more overt elements of tragedy, is the element of religion. As portrayed in the San Antonio Opera's rendition, the Bonze (to my recollection) is addressed as Bonzo and while he is her uncle, it comes across as a name rather than a title. Bonze refers to a type of monk common to Japan, and he is angry at her for renouncing her religion to join Pinkerton's Christianity.

This religious element plays through to the final moments when she says prayers to her ancestors before committing seppuku (honorable suicide). I'm not so sure this criticism is actually within scope of being addressed by any opera company; or perhaps I simply misunderstood the presentation, as the term Bonze stood out to me as being a title (and I may be wrong in assuming its proper usage). At any rate, it is not a sticking point of any sort, though I would hope the religious points would be received by an audience.

The quality of the singing itself is easily high, as it should be. The emotion conveyed is powerful, and several scenes will stand out to anybody with even a passing knowledge of cultural music. Butterfly and Pinkerton's lengthy scenes of love to close out the first act are renowned. The Humming Chorus sung to close out act two invokes a sense of sleep and dreams; the final scene is strongly delivered as Butterfly's tragic suicide is marked; and of course, unless you've been living under a culture-less rock, you had to have heard "Un Bel Di Vedremo" at least once in your life. If nothing else, than in a Warner Bros. cartoon. They loved opera stuff.

All that said, I had little to complaint about, mostly nit picking really. My largest nit pick was one of setting; the traditional setting for this story was in 1904 Japan; as produced by the San Antonio Opera, it was set "sometime in the future". If you ever watched Family Guy, there's an episode in which Peter Griffin puts on a performance of Anna and the King, only set in a future in which Anna is a destructive robot programmed to kill the King of Siam. It's a bit ridiculous and over the top, but it does address how there's been a minor trend to modernize (at least in setting) some classical performances, such as McBeth.

As quoted by the producers, the reason this version of Butterfly was set in the future was to invoke some sense of wonder. The original Japanese setting was set in an era where the Far East was exotic and full of mystery; a future setting was an attempt to replicate that feeling, since the future can hold anything. However, in execution there's little that truly conveys that modernized feel. Outside of a few costume quibbles, the lyrics as performed convey nothing of a future world, and they shouldn't. That should be left to the settings and costumes, but again, the setting is a rock hill for the entirety of the performance. The costumes certainly did not convey any truly future sense, and so one is left to wonder why the decision was made to move the setting. The entire notion of a future Japan only alters the perception of some scenes if one keeps it in mind and invokes it, since it is never conveyed by the performing company.

With that large gripe out of the way, the performances were all excellent and it made for a wonderful day at the opera. If nothing else, one should have attended since this was directed by the widely heralded John DeLancie. You Star Trek fans will recognize him as the enigmatic character, "Q". DeLanci has a long stage career outside of his Star Trek history, and has updated classic science fiction in modern radio-style dramas, alongside his opera direction. He's truly a talented man and I would say San Antonio was as fortunate to have him as he was to have the wonderfully talented cast of Madam Butterfly.

For those of you who have never heard it, I've included a performance of "Un Bel Di, Vedremo" here at the bottom. It runs about five minutes and is one of the most popularized pieces of opera. Give it a listen, and... See you at the opera!
http://sairl.blogspot.com

Bowling - America's (Mind Boggling) Indulgence

2009-09-13T17:20:00.001-07:00

University Bowl off of I-10 here in San Antonio has probably been around since the Ice Age. I really mean that since the ice rink used to be built right next to it. Now that fantastic place has been replaced by something even more giving and full of old memories: A Goodwill Store.

Anyway, let me roughly tell you what tonight is going to look like in terms of my score. If you're guessing somewhere between 50 to 80 you're probably right since, despite my arm strength and pinpoint accuracy in most things, I have what is probably the worst bowling technique on earth. That unfortunate details is what is going to doom me tonight,a prediction I will be more than happy to verify in a about a half hour.

If the game ends by then. In some cosmic joke of bad choice, we've decided to pile ten players onto a single lane. This means my turn will come around roughly once every half hour or so. This is another problem for people who bowl:you're all substitutes. There's no way you can play as often as you want when you have so many players on a single game.

So essentially you're coming off the bench, every time you play. Which is fine since I'm a sub player at bowling anyway. Oh hey, update? I knocked down seven pins on my first run, which is probably going to be the best you see me do all night.

Which brings me to one of the really irritating things about bowling. In order to get good at anything, you need practice. That one's a given (unless you're Chuck Norris, who was a born killing machine). At any rate, with most sports getting practice in is as easy as finding the equipment and hitting the yard. Football? Go toss that pigskin around. Basketball? There's a court on every urban block in America. The list goes on and on. IF you're in college you get access to tennis courts, lacrosse practice, heck even competetive kickball tournaments are held.

That ease of access isn't available for bowling. Most beginners are not going to go out and buy their own ball (and where this would be done I'm not even sure. The bowling alley itself?). So you're required to go to the bowling alley. That's the first disadvantage, since it's usually at least a bit of a drive to get to one, as opposed to just going outside and getting the practice in. The next disadvantage is that you've got to pay someone else, to use their lanes, their bowling balls and their absurdly colored and far too clown-shoes.

Really? To roll this ball down the lane ten times, I've got to drop eight dollars? I can take hundreds of shots at the gym with a basketball, but to get a hundred rolls with a bowling ball I've got to fork over 70 dollars? Which may or may not be why you don't see too many minorities in the competetive bowling leagues. Hispanics, for instnce, typically earn a lower wage than their white counterparts. Where do you think our money is going to go? Not to pay to play a sport like that. We're too busy in sports that are actually considered cool, like boxing, or buying pinatas for our birthday parties.

(Excerpt: I'm Mexican American and well educated. For those of you who can't laugh at humor aimed at racial stereotypes, it must be a hard life.)

Moving on... There's an unusually high propotion of hot girls that inhabit the bowling alley and I'm not quite sure why. It's worse for me since they're all better plays than I am. Makes you feel less like a man when a girl in a tube top is knocking down strikes while you're rocking the gutter. I'm pretty sure that the proportion of women to men here is one of the contributing reasons there are also so many pregnant high schoolers.

Update? One round left and I'm sitting pretty at 58. I hate this game.

This and miniature golf were designed for the sole purpose of emasculating men. Even if you become good at any of those 'sports', nobody will care except the two budies who only enjoy it because they're eyes deep in Budweiser. So while I'm sitting around people breaking a hundred points and considering it an accomplishment, you've got to realize that means you've only scored a third of the possible points you can in Bowling. This isn't a limited phenomenon, either. Most of the people in bowling alleys are tossing these things like they're weapons aimed at the hearts of their enemies. That's why you have ten pound balls bouncing off the lanes.

At any rate, I'm done with my bowling rant and moving on to better things, like eating or listening to music. Oh, and my final score? 75. Take that, Bowling.

Hoarders - An American Triumph

2009-09-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

Today I began to watch a show that, in the span of a half hour, had me completely captivated. Some of you may know of my background in psychology, so it should come as no surprise that I have a love for rather deviant behavior. This takes on a range of interests, from sexual deviancy, to criminal aberration to the simply bizarre. Thus, Hoarders was like sugar to my tongue.

In a nutshell, the premise of Hoarders is that there are individuals in this world who can bring themselves to throw nothing away, and thus fill their house to overflowing with the equivalent of a garbage dump. Naturally, these oddballs must be put to film. From the premise, you may be wondering what joy you could receive from this show, but I assure you, there is a significant amount of shock and humor to be drawn.

The shock is in the sight of what you see filling these people's homes. You may be thinking to yourselves, sure, mountains of newspapers, vacuum cleaners, televisions... who doesn't end up piling up four or ten of these in their closet? It's more than the everyday things that build up, though. In one episode I watched, one particular woman specialized in the hoarding of spoiled food.

Let me clarify that last food. There were strewn pieces of rotted squash, broken and rotted tomatoe, piles of rotted apples, and so on. The interior of the woman's refrigerator had roof iced over with a block of ice so thick it had swallowed the upper levels of food stuffed inside. Furthermore, the interior walls of the fridge had lines of yogurt that were so overdue they had begun to swell from the bacterial cultures inside developing.

They'd begun to overflow as the bacteria had grown and occupied their neighbors, forming large colonies inside. Maybe you've heard the word disgusting used before; that does nothing to describe what was in this house. Let's not even mention the multiple litter boxes filled with cat fesces and the ceiling high piles of paper, or the lines of dead flies that sat upon the blades of the ceiling fan.

I feel slightly queasy even writing about this. At any rate, these individuals are assigned certain dates by which to clean up or risk eviction. To further this end, "professional organizzers" are brought in to help these people cope with their psychologial quirks and slowly move towards a fully cleaning of the house. So one aspect of these experts is to play psychologist, while also instructing in ways to keep a house organized. Some of the people are more resistant than others, and some break down into all out crying fits.

Hold on, food lady just started digging through the pumpkin to harvest seeds before it was thrown away.

....

Okay, back. At any rate, some people are so addicted to hoarding that they essentially choose to retain their junk almost over retaining their obviously horrified families. So far I've yet to see someone outright reject their specialists, but some of these hoarders only give up their filth with the greatest of fights. Still, the interesting aspects of this show go beyond the shock and ridicule. It's genuinely interesting to see people cope with obviously deep rooted psychological issues, dealing with loneliness and denial, that have lead to hoarding.

It's also hilarious to see a professional organizer grimacing as he steps into rotten squash. You can catch Hoarders on A&E, every Monday at 7:00 P.M.

http://sairl.blogspot.com

The Slingshot - Water for a Thirsty World

2009-09-11T21:07:00.001-07:00

I remember when I read about the Segway. If you're not familiar with them, they're the two wheeled electronic scooters yuppies and layabouts use to avoid walking. Just kidding, though honestly, people come across as clowns on them. Anyway, it was touted as being this revolution to travel. I was really anticipating what it would be, as its inventor, Dean Kamen, was touting it in the days before its unveiling. When it came to light, though, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. I had been led to believe it would change the way we live, which it obviously did not.

A few years later, and we have Kamen's new invitation, the Slingshot. If there's ever been a chance at changing life on this planet, Kamen's got the chance. The Segway came across as a rich person's toy to avoid walking. The Slingshot, on the other hand, could change life on Earth. Given the increasing population of the world, it seems natural that drinkable water would grow more scarce over time. Despite the abundance of water around the world, drinkable water is comparatively rare, and nearly a billion people find themselves without access to safe drinking sources. That is where the Slingshot comes in.

It truly will be a revolution if it can ever be mass produced. The device simply purifies water. That is a brief statement with heavy implications. Regardless of how deep the sludge, the Slingshot is capable of extracting pure drinking water from the source. By Kamen's estimates it could produce enough water to provide for 250 people every day. That's off of only one device. The problem, as always, is money. With a price tag of several hundred thousand dollars, the Slingshot isn't exactly cheap, and Kamen is now seeking investors to help drive down the costs. If it ever launches on a mass scale though, it could immediately provide a higher quality of life for then hundreds of millions around the world who lack quality water. Even part of the Western world could benefit, in areas like Texas where water is scarce and droughts put heavy strains on local existence.

Kamen's Segway wasn't exactly what we'd hoped for or expected, but the Slingshot has a genuine chance to provide a new existence for the many people suffering around the world from lack of drinkable water. We can only hope that he gets the support he needs to really get this project off the ground.

http://sairl.blogspot.com

Get Ready!

2009-09-11T19:45:00.001-07:00

I'm excited. I've got myself a new netbook, and a chance at a new social media experience. With my Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube, and Blogger accounts all now literally in front of my eyes, I' excited to begin covering life in San Antonio. I'm not sure what form this will take in the next few months but everywhere I go, I'll have the ability to post about it.