Home for the Holidays

I'm back in Rabun for the holidays. The main reason I never get to post is because I'm never home! That and I have no desire to sit in front of a computer on my break and type about stuff that isn't really that interesting...I did go to the Mall of Georgia 3 days before Christmas! That was fun. I'm heading to Jacksonville and Orlando this weekend for New Year's, more on that later.

Dunham Plumbing Service ( A Sole Proprietorship)

Here we go again. You know why I think bad things happen to me all the time? Because I take them well, like water off of a duck's back...potato water. So I'm cleaning up my apartment yesterday before some friends come over. I'm washing the dishes and I notice the water is draining very slowly. Kind of strange, but whatever. I turn the garbage disposal on to hopefully get rid of whatever is clogging the drain, but instead of unclogging it, it makes this really cool whirpool...a whirlpool that isn't draining. I look under the sink (like I can see anything) and its right about then that the drain pipe explodes. But its not just water everywhere, oh no! The night before I had cooked a few potatos to go with my meal, and stupid me sliced them in the sink, thinking the disposal would easily take care of the skins...apparently not. So I have dirty water with potato skins everywhere and the water is pouring onto my kitchen floor. After 4 towels get most of the water off of the ground, I focus on getting the rest out from under the sink. An hour later, all is complete and I go to fix the sink. Well, the compression fitting has just flat worn out. Won't go backk all the way on, so now there's a big bucket under the sink and I'm praying for the best, and it'll go unfixed because I'm leaving to go home tomorrow. Ahh, can't wait for Christmas Break!

I figured it out!

What makes informercials so damn interesting to watch? Is it the information they're giving? Not really, I don't really care to know how to bake a frozen dog in less than 3 minutes (just joking animal rights people out there....it takes at least 7). Is it the people selling them? Aside from Mr. Ron Popeil (The Godfather), nobody really is that famous on these shows. No, you know what it really is that forces us to watch infomercials? The fact that its a 2 hour commercial. Americans by nature usually hate commercials (except for us broadcast media folk...that's what pays the bills). But if something is disguised as something other than a commercial, you might flip to it, and then THEY HAVE YOU! Why you ask? Because there are NO COMMERCIALS! YOU'RE WATCHING THE COMMERCIAL!!! You can't change the channel at the commercial, because it isn't coming up. And just when your brain starts thinking its time for a commercial, THEY KNOCK THE PRICE DOWN ANOTHER THIRTY BUCKS!!! I'M MISSING COMMERCIALS AND I'M SAVING MONEY! If you'll excuse me, I'm getting a credit card, calling toll free, buying everything I see tonight, and making 32 easy payments of $799.99.

Fight Fire with Fire

It's 4:40 AM on the east coast as I sit watching CNN andFox News. I stayed up to see if Stanley "Tookie" Williams would be granted clemency by the "governator" in light of the possibility of new witnesses. The stay was not granted and the great state of California, usually a beacon to the world when it comes to civil liberties, killed the 12th person since the state reinstated the death penalty in the 70s. First, let's get one thing clear. Stanley Williams was found guilty of his crimes against 4 individuals in the late 70s. We can't argue that. What we can argue is how it can be legal for a government to kill an individual. Several European countries have no dealth penalty, and crime is not a huge problem. The dealth penalty is not a deterrent, and I believe the justice system's main job, aside from "justice" is to act as a deterrent to prevent people from committing crimes. So why use something that is obviously not working? Not to mention the fact that there are some executed who may have been innocent. What happens when someone is executed, only to be found innocent shortly thereafter? Can we hold the government accountable for murder?

Might I also note that I switched over to Fox to get their opinion, not the news, fox gives opinions. And right after on CNN the Warden who has been involved with other executions, even though his first in California, said that a "glare" that Williams gave the media was nothing that seemed to be intimidating, only to those not used to the prison system and death row; I flipover to Fox, and one of their reporters says "Call it what you want, it was clearly a look to intimidate us. This was definitely a pre-meditated thing, you can't deny that" Thanks Fox...thanks for being fair and balanced, like always!

(Your College or University Here)

You know what I've realized for not the first time? I love Georgia Southern. Absolutely love it. I can deal with the stigma of it's being a "party school", however most people don't know about a huge fund-raising campaign to help Georgia Southern University become one of the top comprehensive universities in the country, something not even UGA or Georgia Tech can say (especially since Tech is a technical institute...kind of hard to be comprehensive when your focus of study is in your name). I have great pride in my school, and not just in sports. I wear my GSU T-shirt or hat with pride wherever I go, and I love driving through Athens with a GSU sticker on my car, only to watch as a brick flies through my windshield. Ok, that actually didn't happen. Wouldn't it be a great story if it did though? I know we're a small school by UGA's standards, but we're rising fast academically, and for that I would gladly trade in the 14 or 15 thousand students that seperates us.

Click on ads, so I can make Google money!

I added ads to my site to learn more about internet advertising, as well as to see if I can make any money. As of now I have 16 cents...that's cool. I think I'll actually start posting more often, since I've invested this much time in it...even though I don't have anthything to talk about. I've noticed that it scans the page and then posts an ad according to what your interests are. I.E., I posted something about Disc Golf, and the first ad was about Disc Golf baskets. So I wonder if I type "Pet Supplies" a lot if it'll put up a pet supplies ad? Well, thanks for the supports and don't forget, Pet supplies, pet supplies, pet supplies!

Lonely, I'm so lonely...

So here I am alone on a Sunday night...My roommate went to Miami on Thursday, and will undoubtedly be there until right before Christmas. I have to say, aside from the absolute sheer boredom, living alone isn't that bad. That is of course nothing against my roommate, but I could definitely live comfortabaly by myself after I graduate. I've also learned a lot about myself, its interesting to see what happens when one-half of the population of the apartment leaves...I've learned this: I'm messy. Until today, the dishes just sat in the sink, I haven't vacuumed and there are empty beer bottles everywhere. I'm sure tomorrow or even later tonight I'll clean everything out of boredom. I would be less bored if more of my friends were in town, but it is Christmas Break so I can't blame them. If one thing, I am really looking forward to going home, moreso than usual.

Hail to thee dear RCHS

I've noticed over the past couple of years more and more the pride I've taken in my high school. Like everything else it seems, the current state of the high school is focusing less on education and more on school spirit. Don't get me wrong, school spirit is great, I have just as much as the next guy, but what's the sense in being proud of your school if there's nothing left to be proud of?

Though small, when I attended Rabun County High School it had the second ranked English/ Language Arts Department in the entire state, including private schools. Having been removed (that was passive voice by the way, sorry Mrs. Cheek) from the system for only three years, I am amazed at how poor everyone's grammar is down here. Its absolutely atrocious! And the thing is, when I correct them, I'm the one who's out of place! It is an absolute shame that we live in a country that almost prides itself on being dumb. This is of course reflected by our current White House Administration. Being smart, well traveled and culturally sensitive has taken a backseat to some bastardization of nationalism wherein if you even mention something wrong with the president you are being anti-patriotic. You know what's being anti-patriotic? Being elected President of a country that is respected by most of the world (at least economically), pissing it all away and then setting such a bad example at both home and abroad that nobody in their right mind would consider us an example of democracy or any other such governmental philosophy.

Isn't it funny how this post started out on education, and ended in a political rant? You can't tell me there aren't parallels between our current education mentality and our Presiden't mentality.

Accident Prone

So, my ever-so-quickly growing list of injuries has just gotten another tally mark. Last night (or rather this morning...2:00AM) I had some friends over, some beer was consumed and we decided a game of Risk was in order. No harm, no foul....My friend Will went into our kitchen where there were some cookies that a friend of mine baked (when we made a beer run, she decided she wanted to bake cookies) and asked if I wanted the last one. I said "sure, toss it to me". It was at that time that Will mustered up all of his strength, and released a cookie frisbee-style that would have holed out in a disc golf par 4 (shout out to A-Train). He didn't mean to sling it that hard, but it was flying so fast that my hand couldn't catch up with the cookie, and all 2 oz. of Nestle Tollhouse's finest slammed into my mouth. It felt like it was kind of swelling up, and that's when I did the obligatory swipe across my mouth that usually results in 98% of the time being nothing...this time the 2% prevailed and I saw a streak of red across my hand...bad times. I wasted those 11 lines to tell you this...I GOT MY LIP BUSTED BY A COOKIE!!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME? First I get knocked down by a friend and sprain my MCL, then my nextdoor neighbor punched me in the face (she's still crazy) and just last night I get beat up by a cookie. The common denominator in all of this is that alcohol is always involved (like usual) but that sad thing is that it's always done by someone else who's had too much to drink! I don't know, maybe the moral of this story is that I need to get new friends.