The Internet is Dangerous at 1:37 in the Morning

Case in point.... surf long enough without direction and you find stuff like this.

Holding Pattern

Other possible titles for this post included "Throwing a Bone"...

As pointed out by The Last Angry Man, I haven't written in a few weeks. Given that the last few posts indicated a momentum of sorts with all sorts of big things happening, it's been tough to think of anything worth blogging about as life has more or less leveled out in the last few weeks. Nothing bad has happened, but also nothing as noteworthy as recent occurrences has happened either. In short, I am in a bit of a holding pattern.

The week leading up to Spring Break just dragged on with the promise of a week off on the horizon. We all thought Spring Break would give us a chance to recharge and revitalize for the back-half of the semester, but instead we all came back just as unmotivated as before. We've all got a trip to Mexico and the excitement of a summer internship elsewhere to look forward to, and our patience for the routine has grown thin.

Intertwined with the increasing malaise for the weekly happenings on campus was the even more distracting series of romantic misadventures I was engaged with between here and Lansing. With the flirtatious phone calls and innuendo driven text messages that would lead to our rendezvous in Lansing, it was fun while it lasted.

I'm referring to it in the past tense because it could not make the transition between flirtation and substance. Though I never sought a label or a quantification beyond the simple fact that we had a good time together, it was nonetheless a doomed proposition from the start. After a recent breakup she was in no place to get involved with anyone new, and yet when I entered the picture she briefly thought that she could be. In the end her doubts got the better of her, and so here I stand.

While I am undoubtedly disappointed that things didn't work out, I am also able to take some positive things from the experience. A few months ago I wrote about my own self-doubts and self-assessment, questioning myself and my own perceptions of identity. I wondered about the changes I have been through, and the lasting impact of so many demons that I felt had found their way into my thoughts, feelings, and actions.

And I now feel like I've finally exorcised the last vestiges of those demons. The self-doubt and questions have been, at least in some way, answered and I feel more like the version of myself that I like than I have in years. In some ways it feels like a pendulum coming to rest in the middle - the extremes of nice, neutral, not wanting to offend undergraduate Brad and angry, bitter, cynical, quick to enrage post-college Brad finally finding balance with each other.

Towards the end of my college career and in my attempts at entering the real world, I was just the victim of a cumulative series of disappointments, frustrations, and unfortunate circumstances. As I saw others around me successfully moving ahead without such trouble, I began to don the defensive armors of cynicism, anger, hostility, and distance as a means to protect myself from the damage likely to be caused by all those disappointments.

It's only since coming back to college and the subsequent success I've enjoyed here that I have felt comfortable in shedding that armor. As good things have happened I have slowly removed the plates and shields I felt necessary to face things. What has helped more than anything is the closeness that has occurred in my cohort. While earlier in the year I felt like an outsider, over the last few months I have let them get closer to me, and in turn they have brought me in closer.

The last piece of the puzzle is the girl from Lansing. Even though I tried not to let myself get too close because of the ever present suspicion that things would never work, she was nonetheless able to get close enough to strip the last remnants of my armor away. The fact that things did not work out is, in the end, not as important as the fact that for the first time in a long time I thought - even briefly - that things could work out. And I think it's that feeling, that admission, that hope that I haven't felt the courage to believe in so long, that has finally brought a restoration of confidence and esteem.

Kind of a Nerd

So, should I end up going back to school once again in the future for a doctorate, I have come up with the title of my dissertation.

You're Not Special: How Parents, Schools and Society Have Emotionally, Intellectually, and Socially Stunted the Millenial Generation

The thing is, when I was first getting the notion that I may be going back to graduate school last spring, the prospect of writing a thesis daunted me. I always hated the idea of doing research, and just could not imagine myself being able to write something on the scale necessary for a master's thesis. And yet now I find myself eager to start working on it.

As I've written about before, my brain has been jump started since rejoining the college environment. For every paper I've written I've struggled to keep myself under page limits, rather than the fear I had of needing to stretch and reach for things. When page limits were more flexible, I found myself writing 8 pages for a 3-5 paged paper, and 18 pages for my 10-12 page final paper last semester in my theory class. If I can write an 18 page paper over a weekend without even conducting any research and only making minimal reference to established theories and literature, an entire semester to write a 30+ page thesis doesn't seem nearly as frightening as it did a year ago.

And what's more, I find that I clearly don't hate research as much as I thought I did. While clearly it would not be my first choice of weekend activities to pour over journal articles and write a research paper, I have nonetheless found a certain level of enjoyment from the process of writing such papers. When it all comes down to it, it's just like constructing an argument... something we all know I love to do. You have to seek out those whose views are similar to your own, find evidence to support your point, construct a logical framework through which to express your idea, respond to the likely criticisms and challenges to your position, and wrap it all up with a conclusion that removes any doubts of the persuasiveness of your reasoning. Sure you've got to do some actual research with numbers and figures that lend quantifiable support to your claims, but really that's just the necessary evil of the scientific method.

And then you just sit back and wait for the ignorant masses to condemn your ideas....

The Golden Age of Brad

So, there is one of two possibilities. Either 1) Karma is finally repaying me for all the crap I've been through in the last few years, or 2) This is just the good that's happening before a huge storm of bad. Either way, the last two weeks at least have been, as the Captain put it, The Golden Age of Brad as a result of my returning to college for graduate school.

It all started last Tuesday when my top choice school offered me the summer internship I had applied for there. Saturday night there was a girl involved, and I'll leave it at that...

And then yesterday was the annual 1st Year Graduate Student Case Study Competition. Basically, we were put into pairs and at noon on Thursday given a case study that involved a hypothetical situation or crisis to be resolved at a fictional college. We had until the next day to put together a presentation utilizing relevant theory and practices for how we would respond to the situation in the case study. My partner and I worked on our presentation for about 5 hours on Thursday, and were surprised at how quickly we were able to pull it together. We met again yesterday in the early afternoon to go through things one more time and get the final presentation ready, and by the time we presented at 3:00 were supremely confident in the product we had put together.

And we were confident for good reason... we ended up winning the competition, which included a $250 prize for each of us to be used for professional development (which works for me since I'm spending like $500 to attend a conference in Orlando this spring).

So as I began this post... either things are truly looking up, or this is all just the calm before the storm...

Hooking Myself Up

As John "Hannibal" Smith would say... "I love it when a plan comes together."

On Tuesday I was awoken by cell phone, and I picked it up in time to receive a summer internship offer from my #1 choice school. After a week of scouring the internship listings and contacting schools to set up interviews, two weeks of phone interviews, and week of waiting for the "official" date and time offers could be made, I am all set. I will be spending my summer at Binghamton University in New York state, training and supervising their summer orientation leaders. Rock.

Yesterday I went to the international student and study abroad office for their passport fair, getting myself hooked up for my trip to Mexico this spring. It took about an hour worth of waiting in lines and filling out forms, but I got it all taken care of in a one-shot deal, which would not have happened if I had to go get pictures taken, and then go to the post office, and make sure I had everything done correctly. I guess we'll see in 8-10 weeks if the study abroad office dotted all their "i"s and crossed all their "t"s.

Right now I am in the process of applying for professional development funds for my conference trip to Orlando in April. I've also got to get home and do my taxes so that I can apply for financial aid again, which will include a $500 grant for my trip to Mexico. There are two academic case study competitions going on next week with monetary prizes, so hopefully I can put all this graduate schooling to good work for some more immediate gain...

All in all, things are coming up Brad.

The Blunken Drog Entry

Sitting on the floor of The Captain’s new apartment in Hot-Lanta, we’re coming to you live and direct. As the title of this post alludes to, we’ve since finished a case of beer while sitting on the floor of his as yet unfurnished apartment. The furniture is supposed to arrive on Tuesday. Just like the medical staff, tractor beam, and photon torpedoes. For those of you not catching the reference, just move on.

Right now it’s “cold” in Atlanta, which means like 45 degrees. In Grand Rapids, GVSU shut down all activities and programs for the day since the entire campus and surrounding area is in a state of emergency given the blizzard that is occurring around them. I wonder if I’ll be able to get home tomorrow or not…

The Captain’s move to Atlanta brings up a lot of memories for me related to the tremendous failure that was the North Carolina experience. Successful only in so much as it pushed me forward into my current state of being in graduate school, the point of the affair was to reinforce the inherent difficulty involved in moving cross-country for a job you’re not entirely sure of. To quote a Panic! at the Dicso song, “It’s not so pleasant and it’s not so conventional, it sure as Hell ain’t normal but we deal, we deal”, one has to try to roll with the punches that life throws at you.

As a qualifier for anyone who is confused by this post, I’m coming to you thanks to the grateful sponsorship of a case of Ice House beer, which is almost twice the alcohol content of a normal beer.

These things are all true…

As an aside… you know what you get when you buy a folding chair from Target for $20? You get $20 worth of promise that said product is designed to support a 200+ pound individual. I’m not so confident in this lounge chair’s ability to meet the strict quality control standards of The Captain and myself.

I’m almost out of battery power, so I’ll end this post and retire for the evening on the $6 inflatable pool mattress I bought at Meijer before the trip down.

Making a Difference

I had something nearly akin to an epiphany today, and I wanted to try and write out my thoughts and feelings on the matter before I lost the initial rush of it all. So, as I assume many of my posts are, it's more for my benefit and posterity than your interest. Though I do appreciate any who still haunt these pages, and welcome your comments.

What led to this epiphany were the recent goings on in my position as a graduate assistant in the last week. I am currently in the process of scheduling interviews with potential internship host sites for the summer, and at the same time I've made some inquiries as to my options as far as graduate positions for next year. Though I was initially disappointed by the fact that no opportunities exist for me to transfer into an advising setting, I now feel a certain sense of rededication to my position within housing. And since the majority of paid internships for the summer are within housing, it all has come together.

What brought about the true insight and inspiration, though, was a meeting I had originally hoped I didn't have to go to this morning. All of the Living Center Directors and graduate students got together in a conference room at 8:00 this morning and tried to place both the new and returning Resident Advisors into staff teams for next fall. The meeting was scheduled to go until noon, and the idea of a four hour meeting this morning held absolutely no appeal to me.

One of the themes that came up during the course of the meeting, and has been articulated on many other occasions by many other people, is the difficulty in both finding and retaining quality male candidates for RA positions. We've had to fire a few so far this year, many others are not returning, and the number of new qualified males is nowhere near enough to make up for these two things.

As it stands right now, I may be the only returning male graduate student to housing next year. And either because of, or in spite of this fact, I had the idea to try and change the pattern and cycle that has become a perennial problem.

I've talked with a few of the living center directors and one of the assistant housing directors about my idea, and all have been supportive of any effort I am willing to put forth in order to identify and hopefully change the problems we've had in finding and holding on to qualified male staff members. This may give me the opportunity to do training, advising, mentoring, and all sorts of other means of involvement that I have been missing sometimes in my position this year.

The issues our department is facing are just smaller examples of a phenomenon that affects the entire field of student affairs from student staff all the way up to professional staff, and as a result it may provide a foundation for my thesis project.

Who knows what I'll be able to do, and what results it may have, but right now this idea feels like the kind of project and commitment that I have been envious of in watching some other grad students in the program. It's something I have a vested interest in, something I believe I have the skills and background for, and something that I hope I will be proud to have been responsible for.

True Colors

During our staff training today we took a personality assessment known as the "True Colors" test. It is based on the Myers-Briggs typology which defines 16 different personality types, and Myers-Briggs is itself based on the theories of Carl Jung. There are 4 different colors - Green, Blue, Orange, and Gold - each color representing a different combination of personality traits, interests, preferences, and values. No one color is better than another, and everyone has their own spectrum of which colors are brightest and palest, indicating which types more or less define them.

Green was my brightest color, closely followed by gold. Orange was my palest color, and Blue ended up in the middle. Here's a description of each:


Green expresses itself psychologically as human will in operation: as persistence and determination. Green is an expression of firmness and consistency. Its strength can lead to a resistance to change if it is not proven that the change will work or is warranted. Those with Green as a Primary Color value their intellect and capabilities above all else. Comfort in these areas creates a sense of personal security and self-esteem.

Green characteristics seek to increase the certainty of their own values through being assertive and requiring differences from others in intellectual areas. They are rarely settled in their countenance, since they depend upon information rather than feelings to create a sense of well-being. Green expresses the grounding of theory and data in its practical applications and creative constructs.


Gold is the body's natural perceptions. It represents a need to be responsible, to fulfill duties and obligations, to organize and structure our life and that of others. Those with Gold as a Primary Color value being practical and sensible. They believe that people should earn their way in life through work and service to others.

Gold reflects a need to belong through carrying a share of the load in all areas of living. It represents stability, maintenance of the culture and the organization, efficiency, and dependability. It embraces the concepts of home and family with fierce loyalty and faithfulness.


Blue represents calm. Contemplation of this color pacifies the central nervous system. It creates physiological tranquility and psychological contentment. Those with Blue as a Primary Color value balance and harmony. They prefer lives free from tension... settled, united, and secure.

Blue represents loyalty and a sense of belonging, and yet, when friends are involved, a vulnerability. Blue corresponds to depth in feeling and a relaxed sensitivity. It is characterized by empathy, aesthetic experiences, and reflective awareness.


Orange represents energy, consuming physiological potency, power, and strength. Orange is the expression of vital force, of nervous and glandular activity. Thus, it has the meaning of desire and all forms of appetite and craving. Those with Orange as a Primary Color feel the will to achieve results, to win, to be successful. They desire all things that offer intense living and full experience.

Orange generates an impulse toward active doing: sport, struggle, competition and enterprising productivity. In temporal terms, Orange is the present.

Sound pretty accurate to you?

You can take an abbreviated version of the test online here.

Memory

Memory is a tricky thing.

As great an ability as I think I have to remember things and keep track of stuff in my head, just like everyone else my memory has its flaws and its limits. There is a great deal that I have forgotten or gotten mixed up over the intervening years, but in no regard is memory more uncertain than in remembering yourself at certain points in your life.

Whether or not anyone still reads these diatribes is only a very small part of why I write this - it's as much for myself and my own posterity as it is for any casual reader to indulge their curiosity.

I've spent more time than usual in the last few weeks of break thinking about the past, and more importantly trying to compare it to the present. I'm at no great turning point in my life - I'm actually more content with where I am now than I have been in quite some time - but nevertheless one's thoughts invariably turn toward the future. And one cannot look to the future without taking a moment to recount the past and the course that has led one to the present.

The question on my mind is one of identity. I've never been one to suffer from identity crises and feel the overwhelming urge to reinvent myself, but at the same time I find the line that I trace back to my sense of self is a bit fuzzy in places. People who have gotten to know me since I graduated from college have described me as a smart ass who likes to make his opinion known, a bitter cynic, anal retentive who doesn't know how to be casual and relax, and I'm sure other descriptors that may be even less kind.

I looked back at my high school yearbook and read the notes of people who talked about how I was such a nice, honest, caring, funny guy who was such a great listener. I was humble and lovable, always there to be counted on, selfless and open.

What changed?

I know I've wrestled with my own demons of anger and hopelessness in the last few years, but what other demons have I allowed to win in their battles with my better angels? Did I let the weight of the world crush my hope and idealism? Did I get tired of being the nice guy who finished last in the hopes that a little darkness and self interest would yield greater rewards? Have I turned to the Dark Side?

And yet in the last few days as my own perceptions of myself have been unclear, there have been those who have seen me as I once saw myself and reminded me of that part of me. Have I simply become more guarded, put up greater defenses as a result of the pain that openness brought? Have my anger, my arrogance, my pride all been an act to ward off those who may find my vulnerabilities and weaknesses?

Where do I go from here?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

It's Official - I Can Never Leave College Again

I have one more class tonight during which I have to watch the last group presentation, and then I have a take-home exam to drop off for another class, but for all intents and purposes I am done for the semester. Granted, the last few weeks have been busy both for classes and for my assistantship (job), but busy in a good way. While I don't like being busy any more than anyone else, I nonetheless can see in myself the rush I get when faced with things to get done. And thus far, my efforts have all been duly rewarded.

A major change since this time last year.

Last November through March was the lowest point I have ever been in my life. I worked my ass off trying to do my job, and the harder I worked the harder I fell when that work did not yield any more positive results. I would drag myself out of bed every morning, suffer through another futile day of trying to educate children who would fit better in a prison than a school, and then come home and lie on the couch from about 5:00 - 10:00 before pushing myself to try and develop another lesson plan. I went to see a counselor about it, and the basic analysis we came up with was that I hated my job and my situation, and that I wouldn't be happy until I could change those things.

I can't argue with him. Thanks, doc.

I haven't felt this empowered and alive since I left Ann Arbor 3 years ago. I thought maybe it was just associated with U of M and my positions there, but I feel the same sense of purpose and drive now that I did there. I actually enjoyed writing 18 pages for an 8-12 page final paper because once I started on it I was "in the zone". I enjoyed getting through a whole list of responsibilities in my office last week. For both my efforts, I got a 100% for the semester in that class, and a great evaluation from my supervisor.

Living back in Holland two years ago, I thought I was losing my mental sharpness. I felt like Charlie Gordon from Flowers for Algernon, knowing that he was regressing to his previously feeble intellect but unable to stop it. Being back in college, I feel like my mind is working at a million miles an hour. I feel like I'm mentally back at full strength again, and sometimes even stronger. It may just be feeding a sense of ego and vanity, but when 30 graduate students look to you during class for an answer or explanation, it tends to promote a sense of pride in one's intellectual abilities.

One year ago I didn't think things could get much worse, and right now things just keep getting better. I booked a flight down to Orlando for a conference this spring, and I'm working on applications to study abroad in Mexico this summer and then spend 6-8 weeks somewhere else on an internship. There's a good chance I could 4.0 my first semester of graduate school.

Much better than writing lesson plans for juvenile delinquents.

The Post-Season

You have to give Lloyd Carr a lot of credit. He's not whining (unlike certain other coaches in the nation). He's not politicking. He hasn't made that face that makes you think he's about ready to kill someone (you know what face I mean). But even though he's not saying it, a lot of other people out there are...

Once again, Michigan Football got screwed.

For your viewing pleasure, go check out these two links. The first was referenced by The Last Angry Man, and comes from ESPN. The second is from a blog I was introduced to that has the most comprehensive (albeit fantastically biased) commentary on all University of Michigan sports.

I don't necessarily think that the national championship should have been a rematch between OSU and U of M... but at the same time I don't think any team but Michigan deserves the #2 spot in the country. The National Championship game was already played, the national rankings have already been decided. What will happen on New Year's Day is nothing but a thinly veiled love fest that the rest of the nation will hold for teams that live in states where the sun shines.

Make no mistake, I hate The Ohio State University, its Buckeyes, and everything that comes out of Ohio. But at the same time, I want to see them crush Florida in a way that no amount of humiliation in the whole of human history has ever been witness to. I want OSU to run up the score to the point that there aren't enough lightbulbs left in the scoreboard to keep track of it all. I want to see the coaches, players, and fans of Florida reduced to nothing but broken, sniffling, and crying little girls.

At the same time, I hope the University of Southern California Trojans live up to the historical namesake of their mascot - their city destroyed, men slaughtered en masse, women and children sold into slavery. In the wilderness of Alaska and Canada, wolverines jump out of trees and maul grizzly bears to death. Wolverines are no larger than other mammals such as badgers, weasels, and beavers - they're just vicious little bastards who know how to kill. I hope to watch the same thing happen in Pasadena.

Go Blue.

Holiday Travels - Addendum

In hopes to rectify the oversight in my account, let me add a brief comment on the subject of the post-moving truck unloading feast at the Texas Roadhouse right down the road from the Captain's new apartment.

We got to the restaurant about halfway through the first quarter of the Michigan/ Ohio State football game and got seats at the bar. Not only did this allow for a better view of the TVs, but we were also fortunate enough to get the attractive bartender (whom the Captain was more intrigued with) and the equally attractive bartending trainee (who more captured my interest) as our servers. We then proceeded to order way too much food at the Captain's insistence as repayment for our services in moving that day.

For future reference, a blooming onion (or whatever name the particular establishment wishes to impart upon such an item) is never so big as when the rest of your party isn't interested in having any. Every time I've ever ordered one in the past it was gone in like 5 minutes, devoured by a group of 6 or more. But when you're staring at it alone, that's a big plate of fried onion.

Holiday Travels

So before they become too far gone I need to recount my travels over the last few weeks before embarking again on a trip to Chicago this weekend with the family.

Two weeks ago I was just trying to make it through two paper deadlines and in to the weekend for my brother's birthday celebration in Chi-Town. I finished the papers and left that Friday morning for the Windy City, eager for a change of scenery and a hearkening back to the party days of undergrad. The trip delivered on both accounts.

Friday night was spent at a local bar in Lincoln Park where $15 got us an unlimited tab for 3 hours. I'm not much of a fan of the well drinks and domestic beers, but as it wasn't my party I wasn't going to complain. I had a few drinks, ate free pizza, and was glad to be around a livelier crowd than my graduate program cohort has been as of late. The fact that the lot of them were recent or soon to be MSU alums won't be held against them - they're still good people most of the time.

Feeling bad for not being able to offer me more than the floor the last time I stayed with him, my brother reserved the aero bed in his apartment for me, thus guaranteeing me a relatively comfortable sleep by the time we finally came back to his apartment. Seeing as we ended up with about 10 people crammed in there for the night, I made sure to claim that aero bed the minute I walked in the door.

When Saturday morning came I couldn't get out of that apartment and away from some of my brother's more annoying friends. As divine providence would have it, one of my brother's friends remembered mention of a diner down the street, so four of us set out in search of breakfast.

I have talked about this diner now for two weeks. We walked in just as a booth was clearing, and things just went up from there. The busboy and waitress cleared the table right off and got us drinks within like two minutes. The coffee was fantastic and if you took your eyes off the mug for even an instant it would be refilled by the time you looked back. The waitress took our order and brought our food out just as quickly, and it was outstanding. The fact that it was all cheaper than a comparable meal at Denny's only sweetened the deal, though I would have paid double for such a perfect dining experience.

From now on whenever I visit my brother, breakfast, lunch, or dinner we are going there.

After breakfast I packed up and headed for the suburbs in an attempt to whittle away at the debt I owe the Captain for all his assistance in moving. I got to Lizle just as he and some coworkers were starting to load the truck, and did as best I could to lend a hand in loading the moving truck. It was either that, or just carve out a kidney as repayment to the Captain.

The rest of Saturday was spent moving the Captain into his new apartment across town and helping him get things squared away. I left Sunday morning knowing I had another paper waiting for me back in Allendale.

Getting through Monday and Tuesday last week after taking my own mini-vacation was brutal. On the one hand I felt reenergized and uplifted by getting away for the weekend, but at the same time knowing that a meeting and two classes were all that stood in the way of Thanksgiving break made those days seem unreasonably long.

Thanksgiving Break was, however, fairly uneventful. Only being half and hour from home makes going home a lot less of a trip than driving 3 hours from Ann Arbor, certainly less taxing than coming back from North Carolina. I spent the break seeing family, doing a bit of shopping, eating a lot, and just like every Thanksgiving in recent memory unable to stop thinking about the due dates and deadlines that remain before the end of the semester and a real break.

And now just as I was two weeks ago, I am trying to finish a paper that is due next Monday before leaving for Chicago for the weekend. This will be different from my brother's birthday celebration, as this trip is the annual family Chicago experience with my mom's siblings and their families. Aside from the benefit of my parents paying for meals, this will be my first journey to Chicago via Amtrak. And really, this will be the first time I've been on a train in close to 15 years.

I'm Sorry, This is Just Awesome...

The opening titles and theme song to Casino Royale.

Bond. James Bond.

Bond is back.

Before coming down to Chi-Town for the weekend (more on that later), I went and saw a midnight screening of Casino Royale Thursday night.

Fantastic.

I admit to a lot of trepidation over the new Bond. I really liked Brosnan as 007, but I could also see the weakness in the stories he was a part of. I advocated that Brosnan could have done at least one more picture, but it makes perfect sense now that in order to bring the franchise back to reality and changing directions, a new actor would be needed. I really didn't like Daniel Craig when I heard the initial casting announcement, but after having seen him in action I can say that I was wrong.

Casino Royale, with Craig's depiction of 007, represents everything good about what a covert agent in the 21st century war on terror should be. Without giving away too much of the plot, there were all of the necessary little things to make it a Bond movie without all the gimmicks and cliches that sometimes run the risk of taking away from the believability of the movie. There was action, intrigue, sex, and suspense without the cheesy gadgets and easily escapable traps.

The new 007 is a bad ass. From the opening sequence until the last frame of the movie, there is no doubt that 007 is a world level professional killer. He's not killing guys with his watch or dropping them in a pit of mutated sea bass - he's taking them down with his bare hands and a bullet to the head. And really, a Walther pistol is the only gadget he needs.

I've read a few articles saying that Casino Royale is "not your father's Bond". I grew up watching Connery, Moore, and Dalton, so I can definitely agree. For what was more or less an origin story with a rougher, dirtier, grittier 007, none of the other actors would have seemed right. But by the end of the movie, you could see Daniel Craig start to become smoother and more suave while still being capable of cold, detached, ruthless efficiency.

If he can keep brining what he brought to Casino Royale, Daniel Craig now has my vote for more Bond movies.

Cancel The Simpsons

Make no mistake - I love The Simpsons for all the years of memorable quotes and innumerable good times. But at the same time, all good things must come to an end. And as with many things in this world, it is far often better to go out in a blaze of glory rather than fade away as a shadow of one's former greatness.

A few years ago, one could tell that the writing staff of The Simpsons had started phoning it in and the series had become derivative. Even worse, as I have described before, the show became a parody of itself. Instead of being the relevant, poignant example of an animated series that defied expectations, it just tried to mooch off of all the success that its imitators had enjoyed. Family Guy was never anything more than a Simpsons rip off that tried to distance itself from its source material by being more offensive, shocking, and unpredictable. Family Guy is a rip-off of The Simpsons, and when The Simpsons tried to make itself more like Family Guy... well, a copy of a copy is never as sharp as the original.

And now The Simpsons has sunk to a new low.

Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) is now trying to be just as much of a bleeding heart commie as Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy). Every episode I've seen of the repeats of last season leading up to the new episodes, and the two new episodes thus far, have been chock full of asinine liberal commentary.

It isn't smart. It isn't hip. It's the same tired jokes that every other voicebox in Hollywood has already made 10 times before.

There's nothing left to copy. Nothing else to imitate and mooch off of to attract the next generation of viewers. Just limp along until the movie is released next summer, and let that be the end of it.

Try to go out with some dignity.

It's Time to Put Up or Shut Up

So the Democrats have regained control of congress for the first time in 12 years.

After 12 years in the minority, and 6 years spent whining and complaining about how they don't like what's going on, now is their chance to do something.

I honestly and genuinely hope that the next two years can be a time of progress and real accomplishment in addressing the issues that face our great nation. At face value I have no quarrel with the Democratic Party, but I take great issues to the sections of the party that have embraced a sense of radical liberalism. Just as the Republican party made efforts to purge itself of a lot of the extreme right in 1994, I hope the Democrats can distance themselves from the radical left.

I really want to take Nancy Pelosi at her word that the newly elected majority won't be out for vengeance and personal pettiness, but I still have to admit to having a very hard time trusting her. She's going to have to prove that she's not as crazy as many of her comments over the last few years would lead many of us to believe she is.

I can't really say I disagree with a lot of the proposed ideas that the Democrats have right now...

Pelosi has already outlined a “First Hundred Hours” agenda.

The plan includes promises to reform lobbying, enact the recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 commission, raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, cut the interest rate on student loans in half, streamline MedicareÂ’s prescription drug program and expand federal funding for stem cell research.

She said she wants to work with Bush on a "new direction" on Iraq.

I'm just wondering why we haven't heard any of this over the last 6 years. Ever since the 2000 election the only thing I've heard from Democrats is that they would always do the opposite of whatever President Bush did. That's not a platform or policy, that's just petty partisanship. So where have they been hiding this laundry list of goals for Congressional control?

Please Democrats, prove me wrong. Prove to me that you really did have some ideas of your own. Prove to me that things will be better under your guidance. Prove to me that you're not as crazy as you have often looked.

You've got what you asked for. Now put up or shut up.

A Geeky Tangent

I know, two posts in one day...

I'm going to take a minute here to indulge my inner fan-boy. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, or even heard about it, the Original Star Trek episodes are being aired with remastered sound and special effects. You'll have to check your local listings... I don't even know what time it's one because I just let TiVo take care of it for me.

At the risk of sounding cliche, this process really is bringing the original Star Trek to a whole new generation. I grew up watching the reruns in the days before Star Trek the Next Generation was around, and even though my dad picked up the entire series on Collector's Edition VHS I still feel like I'm rediscovering the original series for the first time.

The producers aren't remastering the episodes in order - they're just taking it an episode at a time and for right now seem to focusing on the most popular episodes. So far I've seen "Balance of Terror", "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Arena", and "The Trouble with Tribbles". Arguably some of the best episodes of the entire series, and next week's episode is "Mirror, Mirror", another classic.

But unlike the "Greedo shooting first" and "Replacing guns with flashlights and walkie talkies" type fiascos of Star Wars and E.T., those in charge of the Star Trek project aren't doing anything to change the stories or characters. The changes are all visual - updating models with CGI, digitally enhancing the backgrounds, etc. More importantly, the color has been sharpened which gives the episodes a much more modern appearance over the very faded and washed out colors I remember.

And yet even though the episodes only have a few seconds of remastered material, the feeling of watching the episode is one of a totally new experience. Even though I've seen every episode that will be aired, I look forward to finding a new one in my TiVo list every week as if I had never seen it before.

For those of you who have never watched Star Trek before and just can't understand its appeal, I would invite you to check it out now. I can't think of a better way to introduce someone to it.

Hang 'em High

Though I'm still waiting for Kofi Annan, the ACLU, and the worldwide federation of hippies to weigh in on it, the fact remains that justice will be served.

Saddam sentenced to death by hanging

Before any crazy leftists jump in to use this as an opportunity to decry the United States for imposing its morals and values on the rest of the world, let me remind you that we had nothing to do with this trial. If we wanted to execute Saddam ourselves, we could have put a bullet in his head the minute we pulled him out of his spider hole. Instead, we turned him over to his own people to conduct the trial and arrive at the verdict above.

Any arguments about the morality of effectiveness of capital punishment aside, the simple fact is that the man deserves to die. Unlike all the morons who call President Bush and his administration a "fascist regime", I can draw a comparison between Saddam and fascists such as Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco and actually know what I'm talking about. Just like the fascists of the early 20th century, Saddam perpetrated grievous crimes against humanity, and as a result he's getting what's coming to him.

As I said - I can draw a comparison between Saddam and Hitler that actually makes sense. In fact, I did just that more than 4 years ago before the US took action in Iraq.

In his speech before the United Nations, President Bush made the simple truth clear. The Iraqi regime and the danger it poses is precisely the purpose for which the United Nations was created over fifty years ago, learning the lessons of the failure of the League of Nations through its appeasement of Hitler. Following World War I, Germany was forbidden to keep or manufacture weapons for fear of the nation once again becoming hostile. In 1933 Adolf Hitler rose to power through legitimate elections, and in 1936 remilitarized the Rhineland in direct opposition to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Germany annexed Austria and the Sudetanland in 1938, and in March of 1939 Germany declared Czechoslovakia a part of the greater German empire. British Prime Minister Chamberlain supported the policy of appeasing Germany, hoping to keep "Peace in our time." In repayment for the Allies' good faith, Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, and in 1940 the blitzkrieg marched through Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and France.

Now let's do a little compare and contrast for all those who do not believe Saddam Hussein is a threat. In 1979 Hussein rose to power in Iraq, and summarily invaded Iran in a pure act of aggression. The war between the two nations lasted until 1988, killing over two million Iranians and one million Iraqis. In August 1990, Hussein declared Kuwait the 19th province of Iraq and invades the nation, and began launching Scud missiles into Tel Aviv and other parts of Israel. In January and February of 1991 Operation Desert Storm liberated Kuwait and forced Iraq into a series of weapons reductions and no-fly zones which were enforced until 1998. In 1997 Iraq forced the withdrawal of UN weapons inspectors, following years of deceit and evasions of the provisions of the inspection mandates. From 1998 to the present Iraqi air defense has repeatedly fired upon British and United States aircraft in the no fly zones. It is no secret that Iraq has weapons labs and research facilities, but what is unknown is the extent to which these weapons have been developed in the secret and "presidential" sites the UN was barred from inspecting. Those sites allowed to be inspected proved that Iraq has the capabilities for biological and chemical warfare, and they have been trying their damnedest to procure weapons grade uranium for use in nuclear weapons. Hussein has given shelter to al-Qaeda, praised Osama Bin Laden as a hero, and celebrated the terrorist attacks of September 11. Given their track record, to assume that they are not planning or are not even considering an attack upon the United States is a fool's delusion. ~ Written 10/22/2002

Seriously, though, I hope that this can bring closure to the Iraqi people, and help to create the unity that its leaders hope for. Saddam represents everything that is violent, hateful, and partisan about themilitantslitants, and the world can hope that his death will deflate their cause.