Hulu

Did everyone but me realize that Hulu.com offers movies? I realized this today, and I think it's great. They don't offer the newest movies, but some of them aren't too old, and oh yes, they're free. Kinda. You have to watch advertisements. But not many, especially compared to normal television. Redbox is cheap, but free is even cheaper.

So I've been thinking that if I were to buy a new desktop computer anytime soon (read: after law school), I'd want one with a high power video card, capable of outputting a hi-def signal to my TV, so I can find movies like these on the internet for free (or TV shows) and watch them on my TV.

Fun in Lubbock

My week was a roller coaster ride. Some good, some bad. In keeping with my new attempts at optimism, here are the good things:

1) I finished my paper. 28 pages on Government sponsored incentives for renewable energy, or efficient energy products.

2) This morning before church I went on a walk-about at the Lubbock Lake Landmark. It was a little noisier than I had hoped, but it was nice to get out and go for a walk. For those of you curious, I came across some tumbleweed - it really does exist.

3) My nephew (with my sister & brother-in-law) came over for a bit tonight. I don't have a lot of toys for a 2 1/2 year old. He played with my bean bag chair, my ab-roller, a headlamp, and then I gave him my harmonica, which he loved!
Here some pictures of him. Ladies, marry me and you could get one of these for your very own!


Yes, I did clean the slobber out of the harmonica when he was done. Yes, there was a lot.

Funny stuff

So I'm almost done with this monster paper I've been spending my time on, listening to Maggie Walters, but I came across some funny stuff today and wanted to share. Specifically, I got thinking about how awhile ago there was this website where you could see how you would fare against a bunch of 5 year olds. (31).

Well, I looked up the webdesigner, and it turns out he's done a bunch of really cool graphics for stuff, some of which I felt like sharing...

How to turn your car into an unstoppable murder machine - in 8 easy steps!
Reasons to grow a Giant Beard
How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you.
The History of How to Impress a Girl

Why so pessimistic?

So I was reflecting upon my life, and subsequently my blog, and I feel like I've been in a pessimistic rut. And that needs to change. First of all, we all know that the world is changing at a crazy pace right now, and there's lots of bad stuff going on, and there's going to be some hard times ahead. So its easy and perhaps weak that I've been focusing on that stuff. And B) Life is good.

(side note - I really think that's why Obama won the election: because everyone knows its bad, but he presented Hope and Change, two things we all want. I hope he brings those qualities back to not only the White House, but America.)

Anyway, so now I'm trying to be more optimistic, and I thought I'd point out some good things that have been going on in my life.

• Saw Quantum of Solice, the new Bond flick. Best movie I've seen in months.
• My friend Jennifer Jackson, whom I met at Law School, was baptized
• I'm the Gospel Principles teacher, and I love it
• I got the new Gears of War video game, and it's awesome
• I'm almost done with my papers for the semester
• I really like the TV show Burn Notice (you can find it on Hulu)
• I think Maggie Walters' music is incredible. She's kinda along the same lines as Ingrid Michaelson.
• It's finally getting cold in Lubbock, and I love the biting cold in my lungs in the morning. It makes me happy.
  

Following the Prophets

So there's been all sorts of crazy reactions in California to the Prop. 8 vote, which passed, thereby defining marriage to be between a woman and a man only, i.e., no homosexual marriages. People, who claim to want tolerance, are rioting & complaining because they lost the election. My buddy Tyler wrote an excellent post on his blog about Prop. 8.

But what I want to point out is this: That those Latter-day Saints (Mormons) who disagree with Prop. 8 need to get their head checked. Or maybe their faith checked. Because they are directly disagreeing with the church's stance on what marriage is.

Here some quick points...

1. The Prophets have declared marriage between Man & Woman essential to God's plan.
2. The Church pressed for the passage of Prop. 8.
3. Members of the Church, prior to being able to enter temples, are asked the question "Do you support, affiliate with, or agree with any group or individual whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?" Guess what? Gay marriage is against church teachings. If you are LDS and think it should be otherwise, go tell your bishop you disagree with church policy and give him your temple recommend.
4. As was pointed out to me earlier today, this has all been discussed before. Elder Maxwell, in 1978, gave this devotional at BYU. Read & Re-read Paragraphs 3-6

Now, some people might call me a bigot or whatnot after this. That's actually not true at all. I don't really see any problem with equality regardless of sexuality, but I propose that it can be done in a common law fashion, just as if a hetero-sexual couple doesn't marry, yet can qualify for marital benefits.

Regardless of that, this post was pretty much just directed to those LDS who think they can respectfully disagree on this topic. So sorry, you can't.

Everyone deserves $$$

This article asks, where do we stop with bailouts? My answer: we shouldn't! Everyone deserves for the government to pay for their failing businesses. Isn't that what the pursuit of happiness is all about? I mean, just because your business sucks and people don't want to buy your product, that isn't your fault. It's probably Bush's fault, I mean, if we want to be honest about it.

For example: The automobile industry. Just because they continue to build automobiles that run off hyper-compressed ancient vegetation (fossil fuels) that get the same mile-per-gallon as cars built 20 years ago, and don't even provide factory radios with an mp3 audio jacks, we should keep buying lots of cars. And it's Bush's fault we're not.

Luckily, Obama, savior of American values, is here. If I had my way, the Federal Government would provide money to all the failing Circuit City's, Starbucks, automobile companies, mortgage companies, people who made poor decisions on their mortgages in the first place, Wall Street financial companies, Old People, Israel & Palestine, and Africa (just because they're poor). Oh, and art majors that make $20k a year. Because they're poor too. It's not their fault that artists get paid squat. It's Bush's fault.

*You probably shouldn't take anything written here seriously. It's meant to be sarcastic.

Treated like crap

So every once in awhile, we all get treated like crap. Most of the time we just take it on the chin, we roll with it. After all, we don't want to be the one treating someone else like crap.

Well, last night someone said something to me that kinda bothered me, but then this morning I woke up pissed off that someone had said that to me. I'm all for being nice and easy to get along with, but frankly, I think too often I just get pushed around by people that have absolutely no business pushing.

The new plan: Take it on the chin once. 1 time. 2nd time, ask them to adjust their tone, and make sure they understand I don't appreciate being spoken to that way. 3rd time, inform them of what a frickin' retard they are, how their mom is a frickin' retard for raising them that way, and tell them they probably shouldn't treat people that way. A 4th time would be bad.