Chuck Taylors and The Pillows

More Changes

I've made even more changes to my site. I took off my poll and counter from bravenet. I found out that they gave all you nice people pop-ups. As an internet savvy user, I know that pop-ups are really annoying. Sorry about this you guys, I really had no clue I was doing this to you. But, since most of you are bloggers yourselves, you may know some really great free counters and polls that don't give people pop-ups. Thanks for any suggestions. Later Days.

What Christmas Should Be

No, I'm not going to tell you all my bubbly optimistic point of view of how much better the world would be if we all loved each other on Christmas (that comes later), I'm reviewing Hilary Duff's Christmas CD, "Santa Claus Lane." It really isn't fair to say whether something is good or bad when its about Christmas, everyone has their own point of view of how a carol should be sung, but I can say that listening to Hilary's sweet voice can really put the Christmas spirit in you. Her Christmas songs go from traditional to pop to rock to, believe it or not, R & B. Surprisingly, she's not terrible at R & B when done right either. I've never been a big fan of rap, but lil' Romeo doesn't do a bad song with Hilary in "Tell Me A Story." She is really good at that underlying female voice in a rap song. I enjoyed her version of "Sleigh Ride" better then any other version I've ever heard, and to hear a rockin' form of "Wonderful Christmastime" is pretty cool. The only conclusion I really made from this album, which is Hilary's first album ever, is that her voice is perfect for Christmas songs. Scrooges will become Santas after listening to this, I'd bet my ad profits on it. If you're looking to get you're early Christmas Groove on, this is for you. Later Days.

Happy Holidays, early

That's right, I gave you a couple of changes to this blog for the holidays. Is there any better webmaster then me, probably, but I am kinda happy of myself. First off, I've given in to my poor college kid stereotype and put ads on here. Sorry if they annoy anyone, but I would like some extra money. And, seriously, if you click on a few ads from time to time, this blog can only get better. I know this is getting a little better with the country mouse with money becomes a poor city mouse scenario, but think of all the city life experiences I could have with money, also, I would love to actually deliver you guys with a better site to read my blog at. I love blogger, it has a good community, but (since it is free and all) there aren't that many options for someone like me who would love to go crazy with the creative. Don't be afraid to help me out with this, I like money, I know, I'm shallow, but I've accepted it and it would be best for all of you to do the same. The other thing I've added is a link to Sarah Lane's Blog. The truth is I read her blog next to everyday and was lying to myself that I read it because her boyfriend is one of my idols (Kevin Rose). Go read her blog, she's smart and pretty, you'll like her. Anyway, I don't want to take up any more of your valuable time during the holiday season, so commence with the ad-clicking, later days.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week is here. All of you did know Thanksgiving was a week long celebration, didn't you? It was started by the pilgrims and Indians in desperate times. The tradition for Thanksgiving is you eat a piece of the Thanksgiving Turkey everyday of Thanksgiving. I know what you're thinking, doesn't the turkey get nasty by the end of the week, and yes, it does, but that's how the pilgrims would of wanted it. Let me take this excerpt from, "Terry's Messed Up Mind" to demonstrate why this is so:

Squanto: You need to eat your week old turkey, John Smith.
John Smith: I ain't eatin' no week old turkey, its nasty.
Squanto: You listen here, you little son of a pilgrim, you're eatin' your week old turkey, I know its nasty, but if you don't, you gonna die.
[John Smith walks away, towards the turkey]
Squanto: That's what I thought!

And that's the story of Thanksgiving. All kidding aside, Thanksgiving is a great time of year. I can get together with my family, and for a college student whose eaten nothing but cafeteria food for a long time, eating a big meal involving turkey is like Christmas. To let you guys know, I may or may not be blogging over the holiday. Of course you can come check and read this awesome post over and over again, but then my brilliance may get annoying, I know, I live with this genius inside of me everyday. I'm just telling you so I don't look like a bad blogger who has abandoned his baby. But anyway, all of you have a great Thanksgiving week, and save that last piece of the Thanksgiving turkey for me, I love it when the bugs are crawling on it.

disclaimer: Sorry to anyone I may of offended, I'm happy Thanksgiving is a non-religious holiday, which cuts the offended numbers in half. Also, there is no book entitled, "Terry's Messed Up Mind," but if there are any publishers out there, I wouldn't mind having a book deal. Oh, and since I forgot to say it up there, Later Days.

Homework, a necessary evil

I'm sitting here trying to avoid doing my homework for Media Literacy. I don't know why I can't get myself to do it, the homework almost seems fun, but when I call it an essay or homework I find myself pulling away from it. This particular essay is on indecency on the radio, we have topics like this all the time, ya' know, things about TV, radio, movies, the internet, and the like. Why can he not just call it Happy Fun Time Project, it kinda is that. Assignments like this give me an excuse to look up things like Howard Stern without feeling bad. I should be glad he gives us homework like this, but I seem to get further and further away from it. I never can get myself to do this stuff until the day before, am I the only college student who does this, please tell me I'm not. I am glad, however, that I'm not smart enough to ever check the due dates on these assignments. I always just assume it is due the next class, then end up turning them in early. This has been a relief in some ways, and a burden in others. In this class it is okay, these essays don't take up all me time and I can usually get them done in about a hour. In other classes, with big projects, I'll find myself missing the first half of the class it is due in so I can get it done before the end of the day, then I'll show up, 30 minutes late with paper in hand, and at the end the professor says, "Remember to finish that huge project worth half you grade, which I just gave all of you awesome hints on how it ace it, it is due next class." I then discover I'm sad inside, why can't I just check due dates, maybe its because I'll then skip the class it is due in and never be able to turn it in. I'm so stupid, I'm a genius. Take a hint from me, never do your homework until its due, just never check the due date! Later Days

Marshall's Officially Not Going to the Bowl Games, sorta

Yea! I know, I should be supportive of my team, but when them winning too much entails me traveling during my time off for the holidays, I'd prefer them lose. Sorry guys. I really hope I'm not celebrating early however, my band director said the football people said we had a 2% chance of making it even if we win this next game. I'm pretty confident that we won't go, but 2% can mean a lot, also we're depending these figures on jocks. What kind of research goes into determining the possibility of a school going on to play offs, did they just make these numbers up or did they do some digging. As a journalist, I would be ridiculed if I made up figures. If I would be published nationally in something like USA Today and said something like, "Hilary Duff has a 75% chance of being nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role in 'Raise Your Voice,'" my entire credibility would be challenged, not only for making up figures, but my opinion of Hilary Duff isn't shared by the world, maybe someday. . . . .yes, someday. Anyway, why am I even talking about this, I still have one more game to go to even though we probably won't get anything for it. You know what they say, "Win or Lose, its just a game," and either way we're kinda losing, so why not just enjoy myself tomorrow, we've got nothing more to lose. Go Herd!! and Later Days.

Why does vegetarian food have to look so nasty?

vegetarian food, for the most part, tastes pretty good. Not to mention, it saves countless animals in the process if you choose to eat it rather then meat. I have tried my darnest to be as vegetarian as I can without burdening myself and found it would be a lot easier if Sodexho, the group that makes the meals here at Marshall, would make the vegetarian food at least look edible. I admit, it is hard to make a bunch of eggs and vegetables look desirable, but it is possible. My tip for them is too not burn the top vegetables so much, it is not hard to make them look brown, rather then black. For example, my meal today, which you can look at yourself in my moblog, looked really nasty. I think they called it a Quince, but it didn't look good at all, not even a little. It tasted pretty good, I liked it, why did it have to look that way. I can't understand what it is, it is like they are trying to scare the vegetarians away so they no longer have to make this option. Almost everyday on the menu, the vegetarian option is eggplant or rice, I don't like eggplant and rice is okay, but it has no taste. I'm not saying they should go out of their way for the vegetarians, just try a little harder. Is that so much to ask? Later Days.

What Kind of Blogger Am I?

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few.

Sorry, I couldn't help but post this, it made me kinda proud. Later Days.

Ryan Cabrera

Before I bought this CD, all I really knew about this guy is he is or was or was gonna be Ashlee Simpson's boyfriend. After I bought his debut album, "Take It All Away," I knew he was a really great singer/songwriter who I'm glad to own. I know most of you have read me bragging about how I own CDs where the artists have written 4 or the 13 songs or whatever, but Ryan has written all of the 12 tracks on this CD. It kinda made me feel like I was listening to inferior artists before, then I realized I was referring to Hilary Duff and stopped thinking that way. Seriously though, this guy is really good, his producer is John Rzeznik from the Goo Goo Dolls and you can tell in some songs, especially the song co-written by Rzeznik, "Illusions." Ryan sounds like a Goo Goo Doll in it, almost a little scary how similar they sound when they aim for it. Not all of his songs are Goo Goo Dolly however, he has some pleasantly popy songs, some rockin' songs, and some nice traditional singer/songwriter stuff. I have to say I really enjoyed this CD and would recommend this to everyone. Listen to him fast before he is commercialized, being associated with a Simpson may do that to him. Later Days.

The Incredibles

Recently I saw Disney and Pixar's latest calibration, "The Incredibles." It was really good. Seeing how a superhero ages, grows up, gets married, and has super powered kids was fun. Anyone who enjoys superhero movies will like this one. The voice acting in this movie is amazing and the animation is right on. For the first Pixar movie staring people, they did a great job. I'm really not good at reviewing movies, because I feel I'll give too much away, but tell me what you thought of it. I liked it though, go see it, it is really good, not just for kids. Later Days.

Jesse McCartney: The Best Male Singers in one Young Body

Yesterday I found Jesse McCartney's solo debut in Walmart for almost $9. I'm not stupid and I have been wanting this for a while, so for a price this cheap, how could I pass it up. After I brought it home and listened to it, I wondered how I got it for so cheap. Its kinda cool, like now I have this awesome artist to myself, because apparently it wasn't jumping off the walmart shelves fast enough at the average $13 price tag. Many of you may know him as a cast member of the WB's "Summerland" but I really think his heart is in music. He co-wrote four of the thirteen tracks on "Beautiful Soul" and has a voice like you wouldn't believe. When I listened to this, he sounded like a blend of all of music's greatest male singers of all time. He blended the sounds of Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Craig David, I even think I heard a little Sting and Phil Collins. Many of the songs bring back memories of when I was in middle school listening to late N*Sync, I know you probably think that's a bad thing, but N*Sync got really good around the end of their existence. I couldn't believe someone as young as Jesse McCartney could sound this good, I knew he was pretty good from "A Cinderella Story" soundtrack, but he is beyond good, beyond great, he borders on beyond awesome. I know you guys think I'm being a media clone again, but he is really good. I hat it when people ignore truly great artists just because they are associated with a bigger, maybe more family oriented, companies, like The WB and Disney. This is one of those CDs everyone should buy just to listen to it. If you like the early sounds of Michael, new Justin, a little Usher, and the flow of Craig David, you should really buy this CD. Don't ignore this, you probably can buy it at your local Walmart for just under $9. Later Days.

Tech Support

Do tech support people exist just to make the rest of us feel inferior? I've always considered myself a pretty computer savvy person, I watch TechTV, I know some html, I could install some hardware on my system if I really needed to. So why is it I can't fix my own notebook computer? The problem was simple, I couldn't get on the internet on my account, but it worked fine on the guest account. As all of you know, man can not live with guest account alone, I had to fix this. I did everything I knew to do to quick fix this without seriously messing up my computer. I ran my Anti-Virus, Ad-Aware, I even defraged the thing, nothing helped. I came to the realization I had to look for help. I went to college computer help desk. The guy there fixed it in about a half hour, it turns out it worked perfectly in safe mode and I just needed to update my edition of Ad-Aware. I've decided I hate spyware, I don't mind it if companies want to know where I go on the internet, I just don't like them messing with my surfing time. Do you guys ever feel like something is so impossible until you have give it to somebody else to do and it seems so simple. Let me know, I wanna hear your stories, let me know I'm not the only one out there with these problems. Until my computer breaks down again, Later Days.

Kerry is such a Good Loser, I Wish I Was

Okay, we all know Bush won and Kerry gave a great speech about the unity of the country. I can't say I disagree with him, but I just hope when we come together, it will be for moral issues. I want to make a plea to all of you out there listening, I want to ask you all to look inside yourselves to find the right answer to these issues. What surprised me more then Bush winning was all the states that pass a ban on gay marriage. I don't know what it is, do people really think that gay people are bad people. If there are any of you out there, please explain this to me. I'm not saying I agree with their lifestyle, but taking their rights away is as bad as not letting blacks or women vote. I know their voice is heard, since they can vote and all, but can we not let them marry each other. Its not like they want permission to rob banks and kill people, they just want to consummate their love, just like just about everybody does. My request from you people here is to send e-mails to your local congress men and women, tell them how unfair this is, tell them this is discrimination, not because I told you to, but because deep down I still believe everyone knows this is right. The other big thing was war. I know that both candidates said they would try to get us out of war, but who wouldn't since we were already there. The problem now is not that we need to get out of war, it's that we are there to begin with. I know that some people did some very bad things to the American people, but haven't we heard since grade school that fighting back is just sinking down to their level. Or at least if we go to war, wouldn't it be good to have the entire UN's support, just a thought. I know that sometimes war is necessary, but was it really necessary this time. I'm not going to answer that with my opinion, I just want you to ask yourself that. Please if you have a different opinion you want heard, or you just think I'm a complete bad loser, comment. I'm not completely closed minded, I might want to hear what you have to say. But really, as naive as this sounds, Can't We All Just Get Along, with morals, not issues or religions, morals. Morals that we all have built into us as humans. Later Days.

Elections

After I've joined Blog Explosion I learned that a ton of blogs concerned the elections and the presidential candidates. I tried to stay away from addressing this issue, so I could be more original, but if I avoid it completely, then I'm not really doing my job as a blogger. If I think about the elections through out the day, I should tell you about my opinion. Since all you know about my political standing is I'm a democrat, I'll proceed to tell you why I support John Kerry in this election. First off, I don't want Bush in office another four years. I, like many other Americans, was very impressed that Bush was there on 9/11 to unite American, but just about all of his speeches are prepared, almost like Bush is only a figure-head. At a time like 9/11 anyone could of united America, we wanted someone to tell us what we were supposed to do, we didn't know. So Bush's prepared speech told us to stand together. When he sent soldiers into Afghanistan, we stood behind him. We knew that terrorists, like Osama Bin Laden, were in Afghanistan. Then Bush decided to send our troops into Iraq, a place where none of the terrorists involved in 9/11 resided. We went to Iraq for no reason, we didn't need to go there, but now that we are, we have to get out. I don't know about you guys, but I'd prefer to have someone else try to get us out. Also, the whole gay marriage issue put me on the democratic side of things. It seems weird to me that Bush talks about how we are guaranteed freedom, but then he says we need a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, thus limiting one culture group's freedom. People say they can't understand Kerry's point of view on this, but it is very similar to my own. As far as my opinion, I've grown up in the Church of Christ and I know that Gay Marriage is not supported by the Bible, but as a country, we don't have the right to take the unity of marriage away from the homosexual community. That is kinda how Kerry feels, just not in so many words. Everything Bush says about gay marriage is based on Church and our country is based on separation of church and state. I know people call Kerry a flip-flop, but most of America was. Everyone who is now against the war was a flip-flop. When Bush talked about how we needed to go to war, he was very convincing. As much as I'm against war, I believed him. Then, when we invaded Iraq, I flip-flopped, I decided we didn't need to go to war if that was where it was leading us. Tell me what you think about all this you guys. I wanna know. Later Days.