Sunday, April 02, 2006
Attention: New Site
PS - Maari... I am sorry I missed you. I must talk to you soon. I hope I have your email still... miss you so much! : )
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Wine 'em, dine 'em, 86 'em...
Bad slogan for a trucker hat, but a GREAT slogan for my pharmacology test. I got an 86... woo hoo! I know it has been a long time since I updated my site, and it will be a while longer before I do anything too lengthy... so here is a pic to tide you over. Enter the shrine of PSP! Favorite UMDs include XMen Legends 2, Taiko no Tatsujin Portable, Akira, and Spongebob Squarepants Season One Vol. 1. Master Shake says you're a retard.
Horns up.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
I'll make mincemeat out of that beat mouse.
The Revolution has begun! All my digital products are belong to Doom.
MMM Food was good, King Gheedorah was a lot of fun, and Madvillain was incredible... but NOTHING can even come close to touching DangerDoom. If you love underground rap, hip hop in general, The Brak Show, or Aqua Teen Hunger Force you need to hear this CD! www.adultswim.com for 2 free MP3's from the album or go to www.dangerdoom.com for the official scoop on the CD.
C'mon, buy it. You can always buy the new Ashlee Simpson next week.
By the way... the Bubblegoose has broke 10,000 views! We broke 10,000 page views a while back, but the visits is where the sugar is. What that boils down to is that 10,000 times people have come to my site to 1) see if I updated, 2) see if I posted a new picture, 3) see if I am still alive, 4) to meet their 30 second Blogexplosion quota, or 5) to read what I have to say. I think its like 1:200 who read my stuff. That's okay, though, because it is still more than were listening to me in real life... ha ha. Also, 1:200 of my posts are worth reading, so it all has a cosmic harmony to it in the end. Thanks for dropping by Earthlings! We Antheans love when random attention is paid to our opinions and whinings.
[horns up]
Friday, October 07, 2005
Ramblings from the man who fell to Earth
To the left you will see a picture of my niece... check out how she is nursing that bottle of root beer. I can honestly say, that addiction to root beer was probably my fault. Having root beer and corn dogs are one of our special uncle-niece fun activities. That and arguing. Anyway, I have a feeling by looking at this picture that you'd lose your arm if you tried to get that root beer away from her.
Well, what a long, long week it has been. I was at school at 2:30 AM not once, but twice this week. The other days I was here around 5 AM, so sleep is a luxury item lately. I took a Med Chem test yesterday, hoping for it to be my comeback test... some of it still needs to be hand graded, but at best I have a 77 %. The best bet is that my score will be in the high 60's. Not a great "comeback," but I am not going to flame out over it like I did last week.
The news today had a little thing about President George W. Bush's approval rating dropping to 37%. Wow. He's getting marks worse than me. A comedian on the radio said, "if you get a 37% on a test at school, they put a helmet on you." That is about right. I have a nice Creighton blue one that keeps me safe when I get off the short bus.
Its funny to me how the rap on Republicans is that they are never happy, even when they are in power. I used to think that was just a slander tactic, but you can really see it now. The party has imploded, and they will have to really get it sorted out if they hope to win the next election. If God wants a Republican theocracy so badly, why are they such a mess?
Speaking of God, I had an amusing thought the other day. I was wondering how God looks down on us, and how disappointed he is at times. But then I read an article about EA's game The Sims 2 for the Sony PSP. I love games like that, most of all Animal Crossing. I remembered how fun it is to watch your pretend creations interact and accomplish various tasks. Invariably the characters will take you by surprise, develop a personality, and even defy you. I think God probably sees us a lot like we see The Sims. He probably does get some enjoyment watching me, doing oddball things, finding pleasure in simple things and really working hard to figure the harder things of our universe out. He probably feels bad for me when I struggle so much in school, and gets a little angry when I defy him. But in the end, I think he's had some fun watching me roam about the Midwest, playing the misunderstood philosopher.
EA was on the Bubblegoose radar this month... the other time was concerning the PSP version of Madden. Rich and I were pretty excited for it to come out, because we'd be able to play over the internet against each other. Not to mention that the game was going to be chock full of everything we love about football videogames. One of the things I miss most in life is hanging out with Rich, but the PSP's wireless functions theoretically allow us to play games together. That is yet to happen. The reason is that neither of us bought Madden. There are pages and pages of reports of it not working. even single player will freeze in the franchise mode, causing your PSP to crash. The online feature works for a very low percentage of the users, and the experience is enjoyable for even fewer. It is slow, laggy, tends to drop out of the game or freeze up... and remember, that is for those who manage to connect. EA issued a small "oops" letter to people who bought it, but I think it is way too little to late. Besides, their big "helpful hint" was to not use the roster download feature to help reduce bugs... the roster download feature is one of the many things that make Madden so appealing to buy in the first place! Yikes. Not too good of a showing for EA, who had all the time in the world to work out bugs, and who owns exclusive rights to NFL games...
Speaking of NFL, I had better send Rich my picks this week. See you all again real soon.
Horns up.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
So long and thanks for all the fish (A Pharmacological Nightmare)
Actually Friday was a miserable day. The preface reads as follows: Carl Smith is already very tired, of questionable temperament, and has a deadly serious desire not to become just another overstimulated, overweight, overindulged, overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, undersexed middle class white male. Just watching TV anymore pisses me off. The world has become an ugly place, and my own country seems to be at the head of that ugliness. The ignorance, the superstition, the crass commercialism, the self-serving posturing of the "news," and the never ending parade of antisense. So as you can tell, I have my share of unstable footing to start with...
So then I studied 10 days straight for a test... and I knew the material pretty well. Well enough to study with my peers and occasionally explain a misunderstanding... able to apply the "why things happen" rather than just regurgitate the "what happens." The class was pharmacology, and it was over every drug in the following classes:
1. antineoplastics (cancer drugs)
2. antivirals (HIV, influenza)
3. antigout
4. NSAIDS
So, as you can imagine, the scope of the material was pretty meaty. I had cut out all of my frivolous time-wasting hobbies (ignoring my poor, poor PSP), watched only one or two hours of TV, and even gave up one of my favorite pastimes... sleep. I was at school by 5 AM, up nights until 11 PM.
I took the test. I felt uneasy about it, but confident in my answers. I slowed down, and looked over the whole test a second time... something I rarely do. The test was 33 questions, and all multiple choice. So each question was worth quite a lot. I managed to get my answers sorted out, and then I pressed "submit." My score was a 45%. That is probably THE WORST grade I have ever received... and the consensus in the hallway afterwards was that it was also the worst in the class. Then I had to hang around for a mandatory meeting about the school's new stricter educational requirements. Yay.
I don't really know what to do. I did everything right. I have cut back on my working hours, Sandy has been helping me a lot around the house, and I have been better about staying up with the studies. And I get a 45%. And I felt like I knew it. And my friends all got scores between the 60's and 90's.
So... he is Carl, desperate to make up some lost confidence. I have studied all day today. I got up at 9 AM, and if you ignore a few short distractions, studied clear up until 9 PM. 12 hours. So we'll see how my 2 tests go THIS week...
I am also now in the awkward position to seek help. Not tutoring... but study help. I need to convince the educational guru at school to evaluate my testing style and maybe make paper copies of the tests available to me. We'll see where that goes. I don;t even know where to start. I am too impatient and prideful to sit through "coping with your testing anxiety" classes, full of breathing exercises and study tips. Yet I probably need it. The time issue will get sticky too, as I have stretched everything as thin as it will go. I have sorely neglected my personal fun time lately, and likewise cut back on time for Sandy. The next few weeks will be a bumpy ride, I just hope I can build up some ego before fall break...
So to help juggle mental health with educational proficiency, I am slowly reading a novel I have picked up. It is "The Man Who Fell to Earth" by Walter Tevis. It is about, among many things, a burnt-out Iowa University organic chemistry professor, and an "alien" (metaphorical or not, you be the judge) who slowly assimilates and is crushed under modern materialistic society. Here is a quote I lifted that feels a lot like I have in the last 24 hours...
"And, suddenly, looking again at his room... he felt disgusted, weary of this cheap and alien place, this loud, throaty, rootless, and sensual culture, this aggregate of clever, itchy, self-absorbed apes - vulgar, uncaring, while their culture was, like London Bridge and all bridges, falling down, falling down."
So see ya, TTFN, さようなら, adios... hopefully the blog and myself will be back to full strength in the near future. Hopefully by Tuesday or Thursday, as I have tests both days... and since there are tests, that means there are chances for me to prove I am not a flippin' retard that shouldn't be in a doctorate program.
And thanks to my friends who sort of kept me up. Some specific thanks to Katie for the hug (sort of stupid how something so silly works better than alcohol... I mean drugs... I mean...) To Kaylee for being a total silly goose in the 4 minutes I got to talk to her. To my penpals and classmates that showed empathy and then did a good job pretending nothing had happened. And for the sushi, Minh. That really hit the spot, and was a highlight in this otherwise cruddy weekend.
Horns up.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Worldwide from the river to Lakeside...
1. The Caves of Hell
I have been watching through the entire run of Mystery Science Theater. I am on show number 109 (that is, the 9th show of the first official season). I have seen many of the episodes from all seasons before, but watching them in order is a lot of fun. You see the evolution of the timing, inside jokes, and the writing. Even the format of the show and personalities of the characters change over time. Yes, I put a lot of thought into this show, even though it is invisible to all but the most ravenous of us anti-nerds.
You know what an anti-nerd is, right? Aware of nerd culture and nerd mythology, but not part of it… yet our behaviors and obsessions (no matter how intelligent and edgy) can likewise be seen as nerdy by popular, mainstream culture? Basically we are self-loathing nerds, okay? We know enough about Xena to mock her fans, but know too much about her for the common man to call us brother/sister. This is the burden of the MSTie.
But I have a devil’s advocate question for you… in MST3K’s relentless parade of bad 1950’s B-movies, there seem to be a lot of common themes. One such theme is the “cave.” Caves are spooky, full of danger. Monsters freely inhabit caves, revelations that threaten man are hidden in caves, and evil geniuses use caves to plot against goodness in secret… you see the pattern? Caves seem to be on the list of primal fears somewhere below snakes, but above STDs (no one seems too scared of these anymore, do they?).
Here is my question; why are we afraid of caves? Why are they so easily used to conjure fear and foreboding? Why aren’t the heroes tucked away in caves and the monsters confined to wrought iron towers? The only hero that ever truly utilized a cave was Batman, and he is in all actuality an anti-hero… whoops, slipped into my anti-nerd costume there. I think I have an answer, let me just toss this out for you. No, I am not going to suggest that our fear of caves has some Freudian mother-loving vaginal symbolism… I’m going to suggest something more provocative than that.
Maybe we fear that when we look in a cave, it won’t be empty, but instead inhabited by the bones of a long dead Nazarene. Or not. Maybe it is just the prospect of spiderwebs in your face or bats in your hair. Or that Freud vagina thing. Your choice.
2. Spelling “team “ T-I-E-M
Man, I finally get to watch a football game (took until week 3 for THAT to happen). I was in luck, because it also happened to be my beloved Broncos… who, until tonight, I was really worried about. Did they look good or what? Well, other than their secondary. A little soft, if you ask me. A W is a W, right? We needed this to reset the division to square one.
You know how they always say “there’s no ‘I’ in team?” Well, I’ve never liked that oversimplified garbage. Look at the tape of last nights Denver-Kansas City Monday Night Football game. Just before the 4th quarter’s 2 minute warning, Kansas City scored a touchdown. It was a lazy, poor-placed pass to the left… the receiver had to leap at an awkward angle to catch it. The Bronco assigned to this receiver made a half-attempt to knock the receiver off-balance, and also made a lethargic attempt at a strip. Then he gave up. Stopped. Planted both feet, dropped his shoulders, and looked away. And the receiver ran. By the time it registered that the ball was caught, it was too late… it was a KC touchdown. Sometimes there is an “I” in team. One man can ruin it for dozens of others, and hundreds of fans. Never forget that.
There needs to be a universal understanding that folk sayings and proverbs are not ‘truth’ because they sound good or fit some metaphysical ideal. There should always be room for personal accountability, blame, and punishment. I think if you look at the shortcomings of education, professional ethics, and our legal system, you will see roots deeply planted into this culture of clever quips, unscientific wisdom, and hollow philosophy.
3. The Race Was On
One last thing. I just thought this was funny. This weekend in Illinois, a marathon was run. The course traveled through the city, which most do… only there was a lack of coordination somewhere, as 2 freight trains crossed the tracks mid-event. This means all those over achievers that use such competitions to give their pitiful lives meaning had to stop running and stand idly by. This was hilarious to a fat, slow, non-competitive man like myself. Nothing beats seeing yuppies in short-shorts and headbands standing with their hands on their hips, almost crying at the sign of a train. Some, in defiance of the unwelcome cessation of kinesis, ran in small circles (or in place). Sad. The train stopped you from running an unnatural distance in an unnaturally short amount of time. This is what the rest of us call “divine intervention.”
But then again, the “rest of us” sat on our butts, alone, eating Ruffles, watching reruns of a 1990’s show where a dorky comedian and his puppets pretend to be trapped in outer space, mocking movies we wouldn’t normally dare sit and watch on our own (that would be a waste of time wouldn’t it?). Did I mention that I am 230 pounds?! I may not be the best source for common sense related to physical activity…
Horns up.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Your grind and my grind ain't the same, dog.
Anyway, since I last spoke with you all, a lot has happened. I got a new car (2004 Nissan Sentra), my niece learned to tie by herself (it was a big deal), I have become hopelessly addicted to Taiko no Tatsujin on PS2 and PSP, and a US city has been obiliterated by a hurricaine (and there may be more mayhem yet in store thanks to Rita).
Under the Patriot Act (which was relayed to GW Bush in the Appalachians in the form of stone tablets), the attack on New Orleans pretty much makes God a terrorist. So if you are in church some Sunday and hear jets... I'd climb under a pew fast! Actually, under W, we wouldn;t go after God... we'd use it as an excuse to invade Valhalla.
I have no idea how to sort out my endless supply of quips, opinions, and needless net pollution and manage to keep this short. And I so wanted to catch up with you all on what was new in my life. So I asked ("axed") my friend GeeZee da King of Monsta's to write a rap about my life in the last month... GeeZee is part of the Blue Asia/Soong Yi Dien Clique you may be familiar with if you are a long time Bubblegoose follower. Anyway, on with the show. Dog.