The More Things Change...

End of the Semester...

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 21:54:22 GMT

So I've spent all weekend writing papers and doing extra credit and I still feel like I haven't made my work load for the week any less. I still need to start my 7 - 10 page paper for Arab-Israeli politics (due tuesday), I plan to write something about Palestine but I'm not exactly sure what (still)!

Once that paper is out of the way I have to prepare for moot court in constitutional law on Wednesday, it was supposed to be tomorrow but she pushed it back till wednesday so she could finnish her lecture on Downes v. Bidwell (not that I'm complaining).

Once moot court is over I still have to write the paper for constitutional law and the take home final. I'm dreading the paper more than I'm dreading the paper way more than the final because I really have no idea what she wants. The final isn't due till Wednesday the 12th and I can turn in the paper whenever as long as it's in before the Supreme court decides the case I'm covering but I already know I'm going to get a C+ in there no matter what I do so I don't really have any motivation for doing anything as of yet.

Meanwhile I have to prepare for my final in Political thought, which will hopefully be open book but probably not open note, and my final in American government (the only one I'm not dreading). Only downside is that they're back to back on Thursday the 13th, so I have like a half an hour to review for the second one.

Oh yeah and this Tuesday is my final (she calls it a second midterm, but it's really a final) for Politics of Literature.

Here goes nothing...

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:36:38 GMT

I Can't Decide - Scissor Sisters (sped up... think chipmunks)...

Mental image: The Master, on speed, hopping around the Valiant! Funniest thing ever!

Shopping...

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:41:15 GMT

Why don't stores carry actual movies anymore?

I stopped at Best Buy on the way home from school figuring I could pick up all 5 of the movies I planned to watch for extra credit in Politics of literature and I wound up with only one of them!!!

They carry some of the most obscure horror movie titles I know, but they don't have Gosford Park, Gattaca, or classics like A Man For All Seasons or To Kill a Mockingbird.

What is the world comming to?

I'm going to have to stop at Borders and/or Suncoast on the way home on Monday now just to see if I can get the other movies there.

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:26:27 GMT

To be, or not to be: that is the angel_de_mort.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

Figures right?

Wekend To Do List...

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:21:42 GMT

1) Write paper for Political Thought on either Machiaelli on advisors from The Prince or Plato on women from The Republic

2) Read The Other Side of Silence in it's entirety and answer discussion question #4 for group presentation on tuesday in Politics of Literature

3) Read and highlight all 3 cases to be covered in Constitutional law on Monday

4) Check the Blog for the simulation in Arab Israeli politics and research more about Jordan's position

5) Review book's 7 & 8 in Aristotle's Politics and read assigned passages in Augustine's Political Writings

6) Choose topic for Politics of Literature Paper on Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day

7) Start researching for Constitutional Law paper and Arab Israeli paper

I'm thinking I'll get at least #'s 1,2, 3, 4, and maybe if I'm lucky part of 5 done before the weekend's over...

if nothing else I absolutely have to get #'s 1 and 2 done

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:52:51 GMT

Test in Constitutional Law Tomorrow...

must study!!!!

Wish me luck!

School Stuff

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 23:08:25 GMT

My Political thought professor sent us a list of possible paper topics today and for some reason I find myself leaning towards the topic that has to do with women... again.

Since I started at UD I've written two papers entire papers on women's role in politics, by choice, and again I find myself seriously considering writing another one, only this time it'll be about Plato's Republic on Women.

None of the other topics seem all that interesting to me, especially since the paper's due like right after we get back from thanksgiving break.

Unless I come up with a different idea for a paper topic by Monday it's probably the topic I'll end up writing.

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:15:32 GMT

Suprisingly today has been a rather good day, considering how my Monday's usually are...

of course I have a test in constitutional law on friday to look forward to, or dread depending on how I want to look at it...

School Stuff

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:47:44 GMT

Ok so we're 2 days behind in constitutional law but I've already gone ahead and breifed the cases up to what's being covered on the next test, now all I have to do is actually read the cases in their entirety... so much fun.

As for the rest of my classes I have to start reading Aristotle's Politics for Political Thought, finish reading Inside Hamas for Arab Israeli Politics, research Jordan's position on the Arab Israeli conflict for the simulation, prepare for the midterm in Politics of Literature which as far as I know is on The Handmaids Tale, The Kiss of the Spider Woman and The House of the Spirits but not The Remains of the Day which according to the sylabus I should be half done with by Tuesday despite the fact that we're no where near done with our discussion of The House of the Spirits and I should also be reading my text book for American Government but I already know that's not going to happen.

Um... I think that's it, but then again I could be wrong...

painting...

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:21:36 GMT

Click here to create your own painting.

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:23:04 GMT

I love Torchwood, and YouTube for this clip...

Constitutional Law

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:07:25 GMT

I have a test in constitutional law tomorrow that I hate to say I am completely dreading inspite of the fact that she gave us the questions she might ask and is just going to pick one of them for us to write about.

Well wish me luck... because I think I'm going to need it.

{runs away to study...)

Torchwood

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 19:39:22 GMT

I completely loved last night's Torchwood,it's such an awesome show I can't wait till next week's episode. I really hope it sticks around for a long time, I don't think you can ever get enough of Capt'n Jack!

Doctor Who on friday was great too, a double dose of Jack not to mention David Tennant is so hot!

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:39:48 GMT

On tonight's season permiere of America's Next Top Model there was a girl from Cerritos in the top 33...

I told Karen that the girl wasn't going to make it into the house and I was right. She looked like a deer in headlights in her pictures and in her interview she wasn't all that memorable...

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:35:30 GMT

I really hate when class feels like a waste of time... my parents don't pay all that money in tuition for nothing.

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:29:24 GMT

So tomorrow's my second "official" (as in we're actually discussing things) day of constitutional law and I'm completely dreading it, I completely feel like I'm in over my head and it's only day 2

and I want to go to law school after this...

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 02:03:28 GMT

So my schedule isn't as bad as I thought it would be:

MWF : Constitutional Law & Political Thought 1 (get home around 2)

TR : Politics of Literature, American Government and Arab Israeli Politics (get home around 3)

Schedule not so bad, the amount of reading I'm going to need to do killer!

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 01:56:26 GMT

I go back to school tomorrow...

go me!

Yeah, I'm actually looking forward to it, I got my hair cut today and everything!

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:35:34 GMT

I've got a week left till I go back to school, I've officially done nothing all summer!

What a waste!

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:03:55 GMT

See what happens when I'm borred? I find things like this online... enjoy!

The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord

1. My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones.

2. My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.

3. My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.

4. Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

5. The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness.

6. I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

7. When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No." and shoot him. No, on second thought I'll shoot him then say "No."

8. After I kidnap the beautiful princess, we will be married immediately in a quiet civil ceremony, not a lavish spectacle in three weeks' time during which the final phase of my plan will be carried out.

9. I will not include a self-destruct mechanism unless absolutely necessary. If it is necessary, it will not be a large red button labelled "Danger: Do Not Push". The big red button marked "Do Not Push" will instead trigger a spray of bullets on anyone stupid enough to disregard it. Similarly, the ON/OFF switch will not clearly be labelled as such.

10. I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.

11. I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.

12. One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

13. All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.

14. The hero is not entitled to a last kiss, a last cigarette, or any other form of last request.

15. I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.

16. I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."

17. When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.

18. I will not have a son. Although his laughably under-planned attempt to usurp power would easily fail, it would provide a fatal distraction at a crucial point in time.

19. I will not have a daughter. She would be as beautiful as she was evil, but one look at the hero's rugged countenance and she'd betray her own father.

20. Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly.

21. I will hire a talented fashion designer to create original uniforms for my Legions of Terror, as opposed to some cheap knock-offs that make them look like Nazi stormtroopers, Roman footsoldiers, or savage Mongol hordes. All were eventually defeated and I want my troops to have a more positive mind-set.

22. No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.

23. I will keep a special cache of low-tech weapons and train my troops in their use. That way -- even if the heroes manage to neutralize my power generator and/or render the standard-issue energy weapons useless -- my troops will not be overrun by a handful of savages armed with spears and rocks.

24. I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!" (After that, death is usually instantaneous.)

25. No matter how well it would perform, I will never construct any sort of machinery which is completely indestructible except for one small and virtually inaccessible vulnerable spot.

26. No matter how attractive certain members of the rebellion are, there is probably someone just as attractive who is not desperate to kill me. Therefore, I will think twice before ordering a prisoner sent to my bedchamber.

27. I will never build only one of anything important. All important systems will have redundant control panels and power supplies. For the same reason I will always carry at least two fully loaded weapons at all times.

28. My pet monster will be kept in a secure cage from which it cannot escape and into which I could not accidentally stumble.

29. I will dress in bright and cheery colors, and so throw my enemies into confusion.

30. All bumbling conjurers, clumsy squires, no-talent bards, and cowardly thieves in the land will be preemptively put to death. My foes will surely give up and abandon their quest if they have no source of comic relief.

31. All naive, busty tavern wenches in my realm will be replaced with surly, world-weary waitresses who will provide no unexpected reinforcement and/or romantic subplot for the hero or his sidekick.

32. I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad news just to illustrate how evil I really am. Good messengers are hard to come by.

33. I won't require high-ranking female members of my organization to wear a stainless-steel bustier. Morale is better with a more casual dress-code. Similarly, outfits made entirely from black leather will be reserved for formal occasions.

34. I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.

35. I will not grow a goatee. In the old days they made you look diabolic. Now they just make you look like a disaffected member of Generation X.

36. I will not imprison members of the same party in the same cell block, let alone the same cell. If they are important prisoners, I will keep the only key to the cell door on my person instead of handing out copies to every bottom-rung guard in the prison.

37. If my trusted lieutenant tells me my Legions of Terror are losing a battle, I will believe him. After all, he's my trusted lieutenant.

38. If an enemy I have just killed has a younger sibling or offspring anywhere, I will find them and have them killed immediately, instead of waiting for them to grow up harboring feelings of vengeance towards me in my old age.

39. If I absolutely must ride into battle, I will certainly not ride at the forefront of my Legions of Terror, nor will I seek out my opposite number among his army.

40. I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.

41. Once my power is secure, I will destroy all those pesky time-travel devices.

42. When I capture the hero, I will make sure I also get his dog, monkey, ferret, or whatever sickeningly cute little animal capable of untying ropes and filching keys happens to follow him around.

43. I will maintain a healthy amount of skepticism when I capture the beautiful rebel and she claims she is attracted to my power and good looks and will gladly betray her companions if I just let her in on my plans.

44. I will only employ bounty hunters who work for money. Those who work for the pleasure of the hunt tend to do dumb things like even the odds to give the other guy a sporting chance.

45. I will make sure I have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what in my organization. For example, if my general screws up I will not draw my weapon, point it at him, say "And here is the price for failure," then suddenly turn and kill some random underling.

46. If an advisor says to me "My liege, he is but one man. What can one man possibly do?", I will reply "This." and kill the advisor.

47. If I learn that a callow youth has begun a quest to destroy me, I will slay him while he is still a callow youth instead of waiting for him to mature.

48. I will treat any beast which I control through magic or technology with respect and kindness. Thus if the control is ever broken, it will not immediately come after me for revenge.

49. If I learn the whereabouts of the one artifact which can destroy me, I will not send all my troops out to seize it. Instead I will send them out to seize something else and quietly put a Want-Ad in the local paper.

50. My main computers will have their own special operating system that will be completely incompatible with standard IBM and Macintosh powerbooks.

51. If one of my dungeon guards begins expressing concern over the conditions in the beautiful princess' cell, I will immediately transfer him to a less people-oriented position.

52. I will hire a team of board-certified architects and surveyors to examine my castle and inform me of any secret passages and abandoned tunnels that I might not know about.

53. If the beautiful princess that I capture says "I'll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!", I will say "Oh well" and kill her.

54. I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being then attempt to double-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.

55. The deformed mutants and odd-ball psychotics will have their place in my Legions of Terror. However before I send them out on important covert missions that require tact and subtlety, I will first see if there is anyone else equally qualified who would attract less attention.

56. My Legions of Terror will be trained in basic marksmanship. Any who cannot learn to hit a man-sized target at 10 meters will be used for target practice.

57. Before employing any captured artifacts or machinery, I will carefully read the owner's manual.

58. If it becomes necessary to escape, I will never stop to pose dramatically and toss off a one-liner.

59. I will never build a sentient computer smarter than I am.

60. My five-year-old child advisor will also be asked to decipher any code I am thinking of using. If he breaks the code in under 30 seconds, it will not be used. Note: this also applies to passwords.

61. If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?", I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.

62. I will design fortress hallways with no alcoves or protruding structural supports which intruders could use for cover in a firefight.

63. Bulk trash will be disposed of in incinerators, not compactors. And they will be kept hot, with none of that nonsense about flames going through accessible tunnels at predictable intervals.

64. I will see a competent psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits which could prove to be a disadvantage.

65. If I must have computer systems with publically available terminals, the maps they display of my complex will have a room clearly marked as the Main Control Room. That room will be the Execution Chamber. The actual main control room will be marked as Sewage Overflow Containment.

66. My security keypad will actually be a fingerprint scanner. Anyone who watches someone press a sequence of buttons or dusts the pad for fingerprints then subsequently tries to enter by repeating that sequence will trigger the alarm system.

67. No matter how many shorts we have in the system, my guards will be instructed to treat every surveillance camera malfunction as a full-scale emergency.

68. I will spare someone who saved my life sometime in the past. This is only reasonable as it encourages others to do so. However, the offer is good one time only. If they want me to spare them again, they'd better save my life again.

69. All midwives will be banned from the realm. All babies will be delivered at state-approved hospitals. Orphans will be placed in foster-homes, not abandoned in the woods to be raised by creatures of the wild.

70. When my guards split up to search for intruders, they will always travel in groups of at least two. They will be trained so that if one of them disappears mysteriously while on patrol, the other will immediately initiate an alert and call for backup, instead of quizzically peering around a corner.

71. If I decide to test a lieutenant's loyalty and see if he/she should be made a trusted lieutenant, I will have a crack squad of marksmen standing by in case the answer is no.

72. If all the heroes are standing together around a strange device and begin to taunt me, I will pull out a conventional weapon instead of using my unstoppable superweapon on them.

73. I will not agree to let the heroes go free if they win a rigged contest, even though my advisors assure me it is impossible for them to win.

74. When I create a multimedia presentation of my plan designed so that my five-year-old advisor can easily understand the details, I will not label the disk "Project Overlord" and leave it lying on top of my desk.

75. I will instruct my Legions of Terror to attack the hero en masse, instead of standing around waiting while members break off and attack one or two at a time.

76. If the hero runs up to my roof, I will not run up after him and struggle with him in an attempt to push him over the edge. I will also not engage him at the edge of a cliff. (In the middle of a rope-bridge over a river of molten lava is not even worth considering.)

77. If I have a fit of temporary insanity and decide to give the hero the chance to reject a job as my trusted lieutentant, I will retain enough sanity to wait until my current trusted lieutenant is out of earshot before making the offer.

78. I will not tell my Legions of Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical."

79. If my doomsday device happens to come with a reverse switch, as soon as it has been employed it will be melted down and made into limited-edition commemorative coins.

80. If my weakest troops fail to eliminate a hero, I will send out my best troops instead of wasting time with progressively stronger ones as he gets closer and closer to my fortress.

81. If I am fighting with the hero atop a moving platform, have disarmed him, and am about to finish him off and he glances behind me and drops flat, I too will drop flat instead of quizzically turning around to find out what he saw.

82. I will not shoot at any of my enemies if they are standing in front of the crucial support beam to a heavy, dangerous, unbalanced structure.

83. If I'm eating dinner with the hero, put poison in his goblet, then have to leave the table for any reason, I will order new drinks for both of us instead of trying to decide whether or not to switch with him.

84. I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of the opposite sex.

85. I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align the 12 Stones of Power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the button."

86. I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.

87. My vats of hazardous chemicals will be covered when not in use. Also, I will not construct walkways above them.

88. If a group of henchmen fail miserably at a task, I will not berate them for incompetence then send the same group out to try the task again.

89. After I captures the hero's superweapon, I will not immediately disband my legions and relax my guard because I believe whoever holds the weapon is unstoppable. After all, the hero held the weapon and I took it from him.

90. I will not design my Main Control Room so that every workstation is facing away from the door.

91. I will not ignore the messenger that stumbles in exhausted and obviously agitated until my personal grooming or current entertainment is finished. It might actually be important.

92. If I ever talk to the hero on the phone, I will not taunt him. Instead I will say this his dogged perseverance has given me new insight on the futility of my evil ways and that if he leaves me alone for a few months of quiet contemplation I will likely return to the path of righteousness. (Heroes are incredibly gullible in this regard.)

93. If I decide to hold a double execution of the hero and an underling who failed or betrayed me, I will see to it that the hero is scheduled to go first.

94. When arresting prisoners, my guards will not allow them to stop and grab a useless trinket of purely sentimental value.

95. My dungeon will have its own qualified medical staff complete with bodyguards. That way if a prisoner becomes sick and his cellmate tells the guard it's an emergency, the guard will fetch a trauma team instead of opening up the cell for a look.

96. My door mechanisms will be designed so that blasting the control panel on the outside seals the door and blasting the control panel on the inside opens the door, not vice versa.

97. My dungeon cells will not be furnished with objects that contain reflective surfaces or anything that can be unravelled.

98. If an attractive young couple enters my realm, I will carefully monitor their activities. If I find they are happy and affectionate, I will ignore them. However if circumstance have forced them together against their will and they spend all their time bickering and criticizing each other except during the intermittent occasions when they are saving each others' lives at which point there are hints of sexual tension, I will immediately order their execution.

99. Any data file of crucial importance will be padded to 1.45Mb in size.

100. Finally, to keep my subjects permanently locked in a mindless trance, I will provide each of them with unlimited internet access.

Bored

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:49:30 GMT

What type of Fae are you?

Harry Potter 7

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:22:14 GMT

So I finished reading Harry Potter 7, I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't finished it though.

Anyone who want's to discuss please comment...

anyone who hasn't finished reading dont read the comments if you don't want it spoiled!

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:47:39 GMT

I got my first 4.0 ever, sure I only took one class during summer session but still!

Harry Potter 5

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:29:16 GMT

Harry Potter Five was the WORST HARRY POTTER film yet!

It was such a waste of money, the book was a thousand times better!!!!

For those of you who still want to see it...

you have been warned!

So I'm 21... so what!

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 19:21:53 GMT

Yeah that's right it's my birthday, and what am i doing today...?

Absolutely nothing!

Did anyone really expect me to do anything!

Didn't think so...