There's a Reason. . .

. . . for the title of this blog.

For example, I've been playing around with iron-on transfers lately. With t-shirts for $2.50 at Michael's and transfer paper a buck a pop, I can't afford not to!

Wait, yes I can. But it is fun. I have a workout shirt in the works for my mom (I'm thinking Rosie the Riveter), and I made one for myself last night. It is, in fact, a comic book shirt. Specifically, this image:


Also last night, I decided to rent a movie. We had just sent Strays back to Blockbuster (Vin Diesel, I love you only slightly less than I would love that two hours of my life back), and so I actually had to go to the movie-rentery. There I discovered that I've seen all the comedies that are any good from the Comedy section, and couldn't decide on an action movie.

Instead, I rented the Wii game Okami. While I do take issue with a few things, such as the incredibly long cut-scenes and the fact that your character is given an annoying little Navi-like fairy, the game is very interesting to play. The idea for the game is fantastic:

Unique to Ōkami is the Celestial Brush. Players can bring the game to a pause and call up a canvas, where the player can draw onto the screen, either using the left analog stick on the PlayStation 2's Dual Shock controller, or pointing with the Wii Remote.^[19] This feature is used in combat, puzzles, and as general gameplay.^[20] For example, the player can create strong wind by drawing a loop, cut enemies by drawing a line through them, or create bridges by painting one, amongst many other abilities. These techniques are learned through the course of the game by completing constellations to release the Celestial Brush gods (inspired by the Chinese zodiac) from their hiding spots.^[21]

Goodwill 50th Anniversary Party

Here are the photos from the Goodwill party! There was food (free hamburgers, whoo) on the first floor, as well as a balloon artist.


Top floor held all the cover bands and dancing space :-D

In honor of the event, I showed up wearing a purse, top, skirt, and sandals that I bought at the Goodwill on North Lamar. I think the whole outfit only cost me $27.

Mom and Dad, of course, had to one-up me by being better dressed.



Everyone seemed to be having a good time, even the woman who had to dress as a witch to promote the Ghoulwill Ball (someone please buy me an $85 ticket?).

The cover bands were both fantastic. Of course, I was a bit partial to the group that played '80s songs [Radiostar] over the one that played '70s songs [Memphis Train Revue]. Now I will shamelessly plug for both groups and recommend them for your next event.





I had lots of fun, and everyone seemed completely exhausted by the end of the evening. There were certainly plenty of couples who, to use the modern "slang," decided to "cut a rug."

$610

I owe my previous apartment company $610, because I accidentally sublet to a psycho who left the place a mess. No, literally.

I'd be upset about the cost, except the total actual repair cost was apparently almost $3,000 - baseboards were pulled up, walls had to be totally repainted, etc. Six blinds had to be replaced, too, which is basically every set of blinds in the apartment. Oh, and he skipped out on rent for the last month too. Of course he did.

Work is finished for the evening; I need a drink.

Playing God

If there were subheadings on Blogger, I totally would have written "playing??" But there aren't, so I didn't.

So! I downloaded a demo of the creature creator from the upcoming game Spore. I've spent a little time playing around with the demo, and all I can say is I. Must. Have. This. Game.

I made this little fella earlier today:

Everything is wrong with this

Today's "commentoon" from Women's eNews was a rather unpleasant surprise (click to enlarge):
1) I think this makes dangerously light of Roe v. Wade and illegal abortions, especially since they really were disgusting and harmful. Poor taste there.

2) The cartoon really does contradict itself. Hillary supporters all have only one issue on the brain (choice, presumably, judging by the hanger), and they're so angry that they're going to vote for someone who is not pro-choice? Um. No?

3) Yes, yes, we know already. All Clinton supporters are angry middle-class middle-aged white women with bad haircuts and poor fashion sense. (we'll just ignore all the college students and seniors and minorities who made up her base, oh yes)

This cartoon gets an E, for Epic Fail.

You're Invited!

Goodwill's having a party and I, for one, will be there at least part of the evening :-D.

In other news:
- Work is going really well. 21 hours a week is my average for the summer, which equals a niceish paycheck.

- Just got in issue #3 of 2000AD from ebay this morning. D.R. & Quinch is quickly becoming one of my favorite comics.

- Marlowe taught himself a new trick. It involves somehow getting onto the top shelf in the closet, and then meowing piteously because he can't get back down. Rinse, wash, repeat.

- Kung Fu Panda is worth a watch. Things to Come, on the other hand, is a bit less entertaining.

- One semester left! One semester left!

Dr. McNinja

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is also lots of fun. "Current Story" will take you to a story arc involving Dracula's moon base (yes, yes it does), but the story makes more sense if you visit the archives first.

There's also a store. I think these shirts would look very good on ... well, me ;-).

College students . . .

. . . don't do Saturday morning cartoons.

We do webcomics.

To wit:
- I like this entire comic, but Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Mummy's Curse is just fantastic.
- Bite Me is an old favorite, now finally up as free archives
- And, by the same author, Family Man, which is still running.

The best part is you can learn things by reading all three, especially the notes on Family Man.

Wedding Photos!

Jennifer and Chase's wedding was Friday night.


It was a very nice day outside, and I think I cleaned up well ;-):



I didn't know many of the people there, but we did run into Holliway:



The ceremony was really beautiful, as was the reception:

Random other updates

Since I never update this thing, and clearly people are very interested.

Currently listening to Pandora online:
- Here Comes the Sun (Live), George Harrison
- This Modern Love, Bloc Party
- Send me on My Way, Rusted Root
- The Weight, The Band

Currently reading:
- just finished Sarah (it was actually fairly interesting, but mostly it was free)
- working on book 7 of the Dresden Files
- rereading the Judge Child Quest cycle of Judge Dredd comics
- as soon as I get it back from Justin's mom, I'll be reading In the Time of the Butterflies

Plans for the evening:
- stop working at 9:30
- go to the fitness center
- have a glass of amaretto water
- read

Plans for the week:
- haircut tomorrow
- J/C's wedding Friday evening
- Work most of the day Saturday, maybe tutoring Al (?)

Two posts in one day? Surely she hath gone mad.

I just realized I never updated with Scarby Round Two: Son of Scarby photos.

Because I love you all so very much, here they be. As always, click for the slightly larger versions.


I went dressed as someone who couldn't be arsed to buy a "real" costume:


Al went as a Time Traveler (of course):


"We're bringin' sexy back. Waaaaaay back."


The traditional four-armed mating dance of the nerds:


She's looking at me this way in most of the photos. I wonder why . . .


Really, if you don't understand this next picture, you're just not cool enough to be on my blog. Or, perhaps, you're just not a nerd fighter (either way, how sad for you):


Three of the people refused to call me "the Merchant of Death" all day.


Craftsman at work, carving limestone:


First act of the day, a pyro-juggler. Whose first trick involved neither pyro nor juggling:


And then, he added juggling:

This is possibly one of my favorite visual gags:

And, finally, fire:


He eventually set his own nipple on fire. Yes, on purpose:


We made a stop at Zilch, of course, to hear all about Jomeo and Ruliet's pamily falace. And man, you haven't enjoyed Zilch until you've been called out for laughing too much. Good times:


All together, now: "awwwwwww."

Towards the end of the day, my brother and I signed an historic accord:

I believe I traded him the hat for Carly:

Being Nice: Does it Work?

A month ago, the Financial Aid department royally messed up my aid award. Basically, because my "permanent" and "school" addresses are the same (you know, because I live in an apartment in town?), the school decided that I live at home with my parents and get lots of money from them.

The exact. same. mistake. they made this time last year. Except, last year it took less than a week to completely resolve the issue.

Today marked the one-month anniversary of my first call to the finaid office. All I needed to do, they said, was email a copy of my lease. So I did.

And waited. And waited. And waited.

In the last month, I've sent three very polite emails and made two or three very polite phone calls. All I wanted to know was if the fax had been received by my finaid counselor. That was it -- a yes or no answer. I got nothing all month but "we're very busy" and "it could take a month! [or more! who knows! not me, I just work here!]."

This afternoon I called, and was slightly less than polite. More of a: "Look, in a whole month, I think someone can give me a yes or no answer."

The moment I stopped being completely nice? Oh, wait, it's "I'll see if she's in" and "she's not working on fall awards yet, but your fax is on her desk."

*facepalm*

On a lighter note. . .

UNIVERSITY HONORS
This status is a result of the grades earned in the SPRING SEMESTER 2008.

COURSE	TITLE	UNIQUE NUMBER	GRADE	CREDIT HOURS	GRADE POINTS
SPN 364L	APPLIED LINGUISTICS	48315	A	3	12.00
RHE 330C	MULTIMEDIA WRITING-W	45160	A	3	12.00
RHE 328	WRITING FOR NONPROFITS-W	45150	B	3	9.00
SPN 325K	INTRO TO SPN AM LIT THRU MOD	48090	A	3	12.00
SPN 352	LIT OF SPAIN OF THREE CULTURES	48295	B	3	9.00

---

TOTALS	HOURS UNDERTAKEN	GPA HOURS	HOURS PASSED	GRADE POINTS	GRADE POINT AVERAGE
SPRING SEMESTER 2008	15	15	15	54.00	3.6000

Bad Move

So, as you may or may not have heard already, NARAL came out yesterday in support of Obama.

And, um, bad job, folks. The fact that I'm not supporting Obama aside, this was a really, terribly, horribly bad move for several reasons:

1. The Democrats are going to have a candidate in three weeks. Why couldn't NARAL have waited three weeks? If they had done so, no one (or at least, far fewer people) would be accusing them of dividing the party and playing favorites. Instead, NARAL would appear to be doing exactly the right thing: throwing their support behind the winner.

2. The Obama/Clinton topic is highly controversial. By not waiting the extra three weeks, all NARAL has done is sow dissent. If you check out the comments over there, you'll see a lot of very angry, very disillusioned, and very hurt people. There's a lot of frustration and name-calling going on, on both sides. Way to unify the party, NARAL.

3. NARAL runs on donations. At least, I assume so, because they always seem to be begging me for money. As a group that runs on donations, this endorsement causes two problems. First, you have people saying, "wait... I give you my hard-earned money, and you can't even check with your base before making an announcement like this?" Then, you have these people thinking, "So, since we live in a capitalist country, and I don't like what you're doing with my money, I guess I'm going to not give you any more money."



In one fell swoop, NARAL has managed to divide the party better than any Republican ever could, anger thousands of people, and lose a lot of funding. And they should have seen it coming.

So if I, with my two semesters as a Government major (before I saw the light) under my belt, could have anticipated these issues, why didn't the people at NARAL do so? There are, realistically, only two explanations. Either NARAL saw this coming and didn't care, or they were too shortsighted to extrapolate the consequences of not waiting three weeks.

Either they're vicious or they're stupid, and either way they're not getting any more of my money.

Mulching Mendicants, Batman!

Mother's Day/Grandpa's Birthday was lots of fun. I'll be posting photos as soon as there are batteries in my digital camera (we, um, needed the batteries to power the emergency flashlight last night).

So, I'll be doing a fuller post about that ... later.

I'm also going to avoid doing a post about NARAL's betrayal endorsement of Obama at the moment. The doctor says I need to watch my blood pressure.

And, with one grade yet to be reported, it's a bit premature to be talking about my grades for the semester.

Um. . .

Oh! I can post about the present dad gave me on the way out of the house Sunday. Every teenaged boys' college students' favorite thing: a box of comic books!

So, yeah, I've been having a lot of fun with that. My Judge Dredd collection has swelled to 70(!), spanning four publishing companies, and I now have 22 Groo comics spanning the years 1982 - 1985 (including, you know, the first ones ever).

I'm also hoping to get through the Spirit comics before the movie comes out :-D