sweet home cincinnati

ahh, so good to be home. red river gorge was great, except that the x-box didn't really work with their crappy tv and vcr, but that's okay. now i'm back, so i'm just gonna relax, get some skyline, and play all the knights of the old republic my little heart desires.

d'oh! i finally wrote a letter to burkee,but i missed the mailman. you guys had better start writing to him, i'm sure he'd like to get some letters.

yeah, so i'm getting my hair cut finally, because jess wants me to get it shorter before her prom next week. the catch is that i think for some reason i'm going to cut it myself, so we'll see how this turns out.

terrorists 1, intelligence 0

in more news of political gloom and doom, it seems Spain must have hired Bill Clinton as their new foreign policy advisor. following terrorist attacks on multiple Spanish trains that killed over 200, Spain's new socialist government (joining the ranks of France and Germany among Europe's near-commie governments) has decided to pull its troops out of Iraq. apparently they have the same brilliant strategy Clinton did following the multitude of foreign policy blunders that were so popular during his presidency: when the going gets tough, run away and hide. this is why people need to stop being so ignorant and learn history. Osama frickin' bin Laden himself has cited Clinton's cowardly "do nothing" and "run away and hide" responses to terrorist attacks on civilian and military targets (first WTC bombing, Somalia, embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, attack on the USS Cole, what else am i forgetting?) as one of the primary motivations behind the Sept. 11 attacks, because al-Qaeda believed Bush would sit back and do nothing, just like Clinton did so many times. apparently Spain's new extremely left-wing government is too ignorant of the past to realize they're probably only making their problems worse by setting themselves up for a bigger, more devastating attack later on.

is there anybody out there?

welp, it's about 3 am. looks like i'm pretty much the only sucker still up. stupid research papers and take-home exams. especially the exam. i really wish i'd paid attention in jewish history now. oh well, at least i just need to finish up my closing paragraph in my research paper. my back is hurting like a mother from sitting in this stupid chair in front of this stupid screen for so long. looks like i'm gonna be sleeping all day monday...

meat is murder

ladies and gentlemen, we should all listen to the brilliant people of PETA and boycott The Passion. No, PETA isn't trying to befriend the Jews, they probably care less about the Holocaust than they do McDonald's. according to them, we should all boycott this movie not because of off-base charges of anti-semitism, but because Mel Gibson owns a beef cattle ranch. apparently they think that if Gibson wants people to contemplate the death of an innocent Jesus for our sins, he should show mercy on his cows. and those marketing geniuses are spearheading their campaign with great gimmicks like a ten-foot Jesus holding a salad and pamphlets discussing "Christianity and Vegitarianism". wow, has animal rights ever looked this pathetic?

so remember, the next time you're at Burger King, ask yourself, What Would Jesus Do?

the man who sold the world

so i got this little link from Rob, from some magazine article claiming that Kurt Cobain wanted to quit Nirvana and join Hole. personally, i am skeptical of this article, for a number of reasons. first of all, i should point out that i'm a pretty firm believer that he was murdered, and it was not a suicide. i have my reasons, most of which are based on more concrete evidence than the simple fact that i despise Courtney Love with every bone in my body. it's not that i completely rule out the possibility that he killed himself, i just think a lot of the evidence points it out as doubtful. at the very least, there is evidence showing that his death should be reinvestigated, but this isn't the time for my murder-conspiracy soapbox. so back to the article.

i'll admit that there's plenty of evidence showing that Kurt was tired and frustrated with Nirvana near the end of his life, and speculated about breaking up the band. in fact, i think that if you objectively read his "suicide" note, and disregard the few lines that actually mention suicide (that several of the world's leading handwriting experts have concluded is not his handwriting), it doesn't read anything like a suicide not, but actually a retirement note. but once again, i'm getting off topic. anyway, this interview supposedly took place eight months before his death, so it happened before many of the well-documented domestic problems between Kurt and Courtney. in fact, many of the people closest to them claim that Kurt was likely seeking a divorce at the time he died (which since they had a prenuptial agreement leads us back to the whole motive for murder), it's unlikely that had he lived and broken up Nirvana, he would have gone on to join Hole. secondly, this article goes on to make it out like he was dead set on joining Hole, but it then goes on to quote him saying how he'd like to have an acoustic career, like Johnny Cash. last time i checked, Hole and Johnny Cash were completely different, musically. so i'd say more than likely, this magazine is taking a few comments made by Kurt, ripping them horribly out of context, and then twisting them around just to try and get a shocking article out of it. i think it all comes down to a shameless publicity stunt. wait a minute, shameless publicity stunt? sounds like Courtney Love's entire life...

game over man, game over!

i've been playing a bunch of different games lately, so i thought i'd just share a little gaming news with you all.

first, we have both good news and bad news. the good news is that rockstar games has announced the next Grand Theft Auto game will be GTA: San Andreas. the current release date is october 2. the bad news is that as of right now, they are releasing it exclusively on playstation 2. in reality, it probably just means that us pc/xbox owners will have to wait about six months later to get our hands on it.

more good news, i got Knights of the Old Republic for my birthday, and i completely repent for not voting for it first round of the title fight. this game is great; i'm not an rpg fan by any means, but this game is sucking me in and not letting go. also, i picked up Unreal 2 a couple weeks ago for a mere $15, and it was money well spent. i'm really liking the single player so far. it's pretty absorbing, and walking around these abandoned bases creates a pretty good feeling of apprehension. i'm kinda surprised how unnerving it is, i don't think i've been this worried about what's going to pop out at me in a game since the sewer level in Half-Life: Opposing Force. also for my birthday i got Civilization 3: Conquests (which is totally going to suck me in when i try it), Splinter Cell, and Project Gotham Racing. i can't wait to try them. speaking of $15 games, i think i'm gonna have to pick up Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. i've been in the mood for a fighting game, and it's received pretty good reviews.

speaking of good reviews, UT 2004 is going to be great. I can't wait to get it. also, Goldeneye 2, anyone? apparently you're playing as a bad guy. it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. and of course, it better be tons of multiplayer fun like the original.

the other bad news is that i can't try them. why? because i have a rediculous amount of homework to do between now and monday. i'm already wasting too much time playing KotOR and Unreal 2. in fact, i need to go do some of that now.

bootcamp burkee responds

i finally received a postcard from burkee today! he talks about bootcamp, and he gave me info to contact him, so i'll share the whole thing with you all as well:

March 4, 2004

Hey Dave, by the time this reaches you it should be our birthday or a little passed. I have been in actual Basic for about a week now. Its tough, but I am dealing. The reception battalion I was at before was boring we were there for about 2 weeks. My address is as follows:

PVT Burkee, Jason
C Co. 1st BN, 50th Inf, RN# 407
Infantry Training Brigade
Fort Benning, GA 31905-4295

It's long but hey... it's a big base. My graduation is in early June. If/when I make it. I'll talk to you later.

Your Friend,
Jason Burkee

P.S. Srry if I spelled your name wrong :/

So that's it. Everyone be sure to send him your greetins and encouragement, I'm sure he could use it. Also, feel free to post his contact info on your own blogs to spread it around.

give it to us, deagol... it's my birthday

that's right, today's the big 1-9. a pretty dull age, except i can serve alcohol at nick & tom's and i'm old enough to be a server there too. oh yeah, and i can legally drink in canada. i'm sure that will come in handy.

more importantly, you may or may not know that today is also jason's birthday. he was supposed to mail me sometime so i could contact him, there, but he hasn't yet. i wanted to send him a card, but i guess i'll have to do that late. if i don't hear from him shortly, i guess i'll ask his family for his contact info. i think it'd be cool to get everyone to sign a card for him and then send it, so let me know if you're interested so i don't forget to have you sign it.

we come to it at last

finally, the LOTR trilogy gets the rewards it has deserved for so long, with Return of the King winning all 11 oscars it was nominated for. all i can say it's about time. i figured the reason neither of the first two won best picture despite being nominated was that they were saving it for ROTK. i'm just glad it didn't screwed. i still think it deserved supporting actor nods, at least for ian mckellen, sean astin, and andy serkis (although serkis really deserved it for two towers). i can see not giving any best actors nominations to them, but i think at least one supporting actor nomination was in order.

also, sean penn is a moron. of course, he's just angry that he can't take any more trips to iraq and make any more pro-saddam propaganda. oh, and what was it with all the 50+ year old actresses wearing slutty dresses (jamie lee curtis, susan sarandon, etc.)? talk about trying to give me nightmares... *shudder*