Recycling

I used to feel bad because I never recycled. Now I recycle and I feel bad because I do. Somewhere over the past couple months I seem to have developed a distaste for the whole concept. I guess not really the concept itself, but sort of what goes along with it. I will throw it out in short because I don't feel like typing:

I have to pay to recycle. I also have to clean and separate everything.
I don't have a problem with the later, but why do I have to pay when I am essentially giving someone resources? Is it more expensive to have paper recycled than to cut down some tree and make it? I should have to pay for garbage pick-up and I should get paid for recycling. I assume the recycling industry is getting paid to pick it up and paid to get rid of it. On to the consumer side of things. I hate it when products are advertised as "made from recycled material" and then they're just as expensive or even more expensive than the regular product. They are trying to guilt-trip people into buying their product, all the while they are simply getting a huge deal on the manufacturing end. Now when I recycle instead of feeling all righteous like usual, I just feel like I am being suckered into some assembly line without even knowing it.

For the record, I still recycle, I am just not very enthusiastic about it. I am that way about a lot of things.

And Century college has free printer use. They just got a new one, it prints really fast. I wish they had one with the option of punching holes in it for the binder. That would save me about 10 seconds a day and I would probably be more enthusiastic about printing.

Naptime.
Mark

The Leg Bounce

It's cold here. And I have been very busy but things should cool down pretty soon...unless I get a job. I've noticed that I have been a little more irritable as of late, I attribute it to being extra busy, but that is probably not the case. It may be the cold. If someone else is irritable I just assume it's because they have a rotten personality.

This morning in A&P lecture the guy two seats down kept doing the leg bounce thing. I am sure there is a name for this, when you sit there and use your calf muscle to bounce your leg up and down really fast. It was shaking the entire table. My seat is connected to the table, thus I was shaking too. After about 20 minutes of leg bounciness I tapped him on the shoulder and let him know that he was shaking the whole table. He apologized and then he stopped. He proceeded to tell me how tired he was - apparently that has some connection to the leg bounce. Five minutes later it started again, but it stopped, then it started again and stopped. It went on like this for the rest of lecture. I kind of felt bad because I assumed that every time he realized he was doing it he felt kind of bad. I wanted to ask the physiology instructor why this kid kept shaking my chair.

This is the first lecture hall class I have had in a few years. I remember what I hate about them (besides the leg bouncers). I find it annoying that all the kids start sitting at the outside of the row and then work their way in. Then the people who show up 5 minutes before class (me) have to squeeze past all these fat kids with their coats and backpacks on the chairs while they try and scoot in and give me that disgusted "why didn't you show up 20 minutes ago" look. Then I give them my disgusted "why don't you mind your own business and scoot in or I'll hit your head with my butt as I pass by" look. Then of course other kids show up 10 minutes into class and have to crawl over all these people. It reminds me of getting off an airplane which I was planning on writing a blog about while I sat there on my way back from N.O. thinking about how the airplane exit has to be one of the most inefficient things ever. But then we just have to wait for our baggage so it doesn't really matter. I imagine that my next flight anywhere will be followed by a long rant.

New Orleans

Well I have spent the past month gutting houses/sitting around here in New Orleans. I've met a lot of really cool people...even if some have annoyed the crap out of me. So some thoughts on post-Katrina N.O. Well they kind of depend on my mood, so here goes:

Good Mood
It's awesome to have a chance to help out people who really need it. Out of the 15 or so houses that I've worked on I've only had the opportunity to meet/work with 3 of the homeowners. They were all really grateful and definitely in need of some help. One disabled veteran, one older lady and... ok, only two. The other family I met was while I was delivering Christmas presents to their house. They are the grandparents but are taking care of the 3 kids because their daughter is "on drugs." The grandfather was on disability and he also just broke his hand. The baby has sickle cell anemia and the only money they get is from the grandfather's disability money. The grandmother was also sent to the hospital after she was trampled in the Superdome.

Bad Mood
It has been 17 months or so since Katrina. Why haven't these people gutted their houses yet? Sure, there are disabled and elderly. But that can't be all of N.O. This place is a dump. It looks like the flood waters went down a month ago. I read a newspaper from about 6 months after the hurricane and it said that about %25 of the gutting was done by undocumented workers. Another huge portion seems to come from out of town volunteers. Apparently the actual residents are busy doing drugs and shooting each other. I think a good portion of the people here have become dependent on aid - or even the hope of it. People are constantly coming by the office here asking for stuff. Basically every business here is hiring. Why don't they just get a job and then pay for some people to do their stuff. If someone without citizenship or the ability to speak English can come over here and make a $100 a day then why can't this city's residents? I think my bitterness about the whole thing comes from putting myself in their shoes. I can't convince myself that if my family were living here we would have done anything other than just wait until the house dries up and then gut it ourselves. I think an able-bodied family of 4 could take care of their house in ten days or so...depending on the size and how much crap they have. The city has been taking care of everyone's garbage, but this service will apparently be ending soon. All people have to do is drag it out of their house and dump it on the street. Easy. People need to suck it up. They always use this term in sports but sadly it doesn't get much use in real life. Maybe if my family had lived here we all would have just sat on the steps of businesses that were hiring and asked for handouts from customers. People seem to have this mentality that since they didn't cause the hurricane, why should they have to clean up its mess?

So on a bit of a tangent, I couldn't care less about the whole Mex border/immigration issue. But a lot of people do. I think a good solution would be a trade-off. Instead of spending the whole time trying to keep Latinos out, we should just have a special road where kids serve lemonade and a big "WELCOME" sign hangs over everything. Then the Latinos can just get some documents and lemonade and come in. The big "BIENVENIDOS" sign, which would be facing the other direction but in roughly the same spot would welcome all of Mexico's new citizens (they can have lemonade too). Then we will get buses and load up all the bums and people who've proven that they just can't make it in such a capitalistic environment. Basically what I am trying to say is that the undocumented workers here are doing a zillion times more work than the actual residents of N.O. I guess what really irks me is just that so many people seem to be sitting around waiting for some charity to rescue them when they are completely capable of taking care of themselves...including their fam and home. House gutting is not something that requires a degree of any kind...a hammer and a broom will get you a long way. And yes, I am living in a charity so if there are some hard-working residents...I didn't have the chance to see them!

I have had a ton of random N.O. related blogs in my head but typing this up is just making me angry so I am going to stop now. I hope you all had a good Christmas.

Model minority

A 2005 Princeton study showed Asians (not whites) bear nearly 80% of the cost of affirmative action in college admissions. Nearly four out of every five spots given to blacks and Hispanics in an affirmative-action regime would go to Asians in a purely merit-based system.

The Minnesota Vikings

I think if they could somehow convince the NFL to count field goals as 4 points they would have a much better chance of winning. I guess 5 points would be even better.

Also, I really enjoy pizza rolls. I bought them at the discount store. They look/taste really unhealthy. They're awesome.

Collecting coins

Why would someone pay $10 for a nickel? It doesn't make sense.

Randoms

I no longer associate cuteness with anything gothic. This is because I walk by them a few times a day. It was cute the first couple times...but seriously, how much Magic can be played before they realize that they are playing Magic? Of course I make such outlandish statements without ever having indulged in it myself. I don't know exactly why I don't like it or anything associated with it, but that's just how it is.

So here are a few random things:
I read that in N. Korea, to save electricity, the stoplights were replaced with traffic officers (is there a better term for these people?). They all happen to be hot females. I'm moving to North Korea!!!

Also, the N. and S. Korea border is the most heavily militarized in the world. This doesn't suprise me or probably anyone else. I just didn't know it.

So I'm in the process of reading a book on N.K., 2 on Rwanda, and one sort of guide/read along thing to the Old Test. I think this is all because I have a chem exam on Monday that will determine my future.

I found out the other day that my ice scraper scrapes off about a 1/2 inch strip of ice. This would be fine if the scraper were 1/2 inches wide, but as it turns out, it's like 5.

I have a pair of pants that are static free until I go into the college. I don't know the science behind this, all I know is it kind of sucks.

Sitting next to me is the DVD "how to lose a guy in 10 days." I've never seen it and probably won't watch it. I think if I ever had to lose a guy, 10 days would be way too long.

I don't know what I am doing for Christmas vac. I am not going to Hawaii due to financial reasons. Does anyone want a guest at their house?

I have had a cough for about 2 weeks now. I've decided that it comes and goes with change in elevation. This may sound retarded, but it seems to get better or worse when I go upstairs/downstairs, with no correlation between one or the other.

The 95 Camry

Over the first 5 tanks of gas, my little beast averaged 30.5mpg. Not bad. I see a lot of new cars that apparently average 29. I credit my lack of a best friend, children and girlfriend for producing such efficient fuel consumption. For those of you who want to increase your fuel efficiency, I recommend lightening the load a little. I don't mean get a divorce or give your kids up for adoption, I just mean leave them at home.

Sorry

I have this counter thing on my blog. It records how many people come to my site. You probably knew that. If someone stumbles on my blog via google or something, it also records the search words. This is the part I like....or at least it can be interesting. My counterpage thingy only saves everything for like a month, and then it deletes them all which is annoying. So for the random people from Google, here are a few search tips:

Use these things ""
It appears that most of the people who drift upon my site do so while searching for adult entertainment. Imagine their disappointment. This is a result of them typing in something like "japanese toes" or "all about ass" only without the quotation marks. To be honest, I don't recall ever typing the word ass in my blog until 5 seconds ago. I probably misspelled bass or mass...which brings me to the next part.

The other randoms are usually people who search for something and then spell it wrong. This is the second most popular set of visitors. Ok, I can't spell. Sorry. But that's no excuse for your spelling.

So for those of you that might happen to stumble on this blog by accident: I'm sorry this is not a porn site and/or that you can't spell. But this doesn't mean we can't be friends. My name is Mark and I currently have no best friend or passion in life. But I am conveniently located just off of 694 and 35W.

Also, I've been having trouble coming up with a halloween costume. I found one today and then I put it back and decided on a much cooler one. I would have been mildly offended by it 5 years ago but now I think it's funny and I can wear it all week

Important things in life

I've learned two things about myself in the past couple weeks.

1. I don't seem to be passionate about anything.
2. I don't have a best friend.

I don't think either of these are good things.

A funny story for Chris

In Japan there was this group of 5 boys. They were wild, out of control...or depending on how you look at it, they were just normal 10 year old boys whose parents tried to get rid of their energy by dropping them off for English lessons. They had two teachers before me, but these teachers were unable to get a grip on the class so they were turned over to the teacher of all teachers aka me.

Too lazy and unconcerned to try and make them learn English I let them just run around and do whatever they wanted. However, I did regulate their chaos. For those of you who don't know what K1 is, it is the Japanese kickboxing org. The goal of these young men appeared to be to emulate their heroes of K1. My job was pretty simple in theory, but with the language aspect it got a little harder. No strikes to the groin and no tag-teaming were really my only rules. After they got this down (which I guess they never really did) my only job was to stand in the middle before they started and signal them to begin by dropping my hand and yelling "FIGHT!"

Headshot, bodyshot, combo, nice shot and fight were the only words they learned. But I like to think they learned so much more. Discipline, respect, honor. These are all very valuable in Japanese culture. They also learned to never give up. This was evident in the fact that the larger kid, Kazuki, won every time. But the challengers kept coming.

I would have owned them, even all at once. They all knew that.

Goth kids are cute

Century College has a lot of goth kids. I'm not sure if they were just invisible on the U campus or if they were just overshadowed by all the hippy posers. Maybe something in their goth mentality keeps them out of the big universities. These kids may be goth posers but I am not sure as I don't know them and I don't know the true def. of a goth kid. But they look like what I assume are goth kids. I am used to seeing goth kids sit alone in their self-imposed alienated state. Never talking to anyone, never smiling, and never seeming to care about anything except writing on their black clothes with black pens.

They congregate in one of the student lounge-type areas and no one else seems to want to venture in there. They don't seem to have the whole Columbine mentality that one would assume (or that dude in Canada that went crazy). It's interesting to see them interact together since usually you don't ever see them interact with anyone at all. There is always one group playing Magic (the card game), the otherday I saw them playin with plastic light sabers. They seem to have fun talkin really loud and tryin to stand out in the crowd...kinda like normal kids but just gothier. As I was standing on the floor above them looking down I couldn't help but smile. Just seeing how these guys interact with one another as opposed to with "normal" people just brought a smile to my face. The only way I could think of describing them at that moment was "cute."

Still, just as they probably have no idea why anyone would want to wear jeans and a t-shirt, I have no idea why anyone would want to look like a depressed vampire...and then go to college.

Water Fountains

I imagine somewhere every institution keeps a record of how many water fountains they have in their building. I'm sure they feel great about themselves when they sit back and think "wow, we have a lot of water fountains, all spewing cold water to the masses." But how many of these really function? I remember the water fountain in the library at UMD gave me a huge shock whenever I touched the button, and if I somehow bypassed it I would receive it on my lips. Anyway, the inspiration from this blog comes from Century College with its pathetic excuses for "bubblers." They spit out water like a half inch. It's really depressing. And then of course you feel like a retard when you push the button, your head goes half way down with that "I'm about to quench my thirst" smile....then you bail out like a wussy. It's not that I'm a priss or anything, but there is no way my mouth is going to make it's little kissy face that close to a germ covered rusty ol' spigot. I mean this is America. I'm sure somewhere we have budgeted for some group whose job it is to go around and make sure all fountains are up to par. I think to feel comfortable drinking, I am going to need at least 2 inches. That's not asking a lot. What is the proper emo way to manipulate typing to show that we are frustrated? uhhhhhh *(frown)*

Judge Mark

While my grandpa was giving me the walking tour through the nursing home I became kind of depressed. It was just all of these old people sitting in beds watching court TV. That of course made me think of the purpose of my existence...as well as the purpose for all these old people. Maybe the purpose of my existence is to entertain old people at the hospital, but if that were the case, what would the purpose of all the old people be? Just an outlet for me to fulfill my purpose? I don't think so. I decided that whatever my purpose is, it must be something that I can work toward/fulfill throughout my entire life. If the last 2 years of my life consist of liquid meals and Judge Judy, someone please end them prematurely. That is why I am excited to be entering a career that I can continue until I die. While most people seem to use work as a means to retirement, I feel like I am looking forward to work as some sort of purpose. I don't think I will want to retire. I want to work. But is it that simple? I doubt it.

To lighten it up a bit, here are some funny things my grandpa said:

They need a pistol range in here (talkin about how boring the place is).

They never think of anyone except themselves, they don't seem to realize that someone is going to have to come clean up their mess (talking about people who commit suicide by throwing themselves in front of a train).

I think if I had to choose between having a prosthetic arm or leg, I'd chose a leg, but whoever really has a choice?

Finally

Well, after 2 minutes of guessing my password, I've finally got it. Except I don't know what I wanted to blog about anymore. Well, I can only imagine it was something really cool. Oh well.

Mark news:
He is breezin through 3 classes at Century College.
He is looking for something to do on Fridays because he quit school on that day.
He is the proud owner of a 95 Camry with 165k miles and a rattle in the back (kind of like a rattle snake but less cool and maybe more dangerous).
He is disturbed by the amount of $ he spends on food each week.
He is practicin BJJ on T and Th every week.
He is on a comp with a not so sensitive G key, he doesn't type things like "breezin" and "practicin" to be cool
He is gettin annoyed with his third person typing.
I am blogging about nothing at 915pm on a saturday, I'm so cool.
I think that's really all the Mark news, not that it would really matter if there is some news I am forgetting. I may play disc golf tmrw with some old Duluth friends. There.

"CNN Exclusive: Lawyer says suspects upset"

I originally was going to post a blog about how stupid the title of this headline was (of course without even reading the body), but then I found States auction airport contraband.

It seems like a pretty typical story, except for: Most of the contraband merchandise is knives, nail clippers and cuticle scissors that were forbidden as carry-on items following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. But there's also Wiffle Ball bats...and a couple of chain saws.

How does someone try and explain that he didn't know he couldn't bring a chainsaw in his carry-on? And how does the security guy try and explain the dangers of having a Wiffle Ball bat on a plane?

The 3 R's

Since I am back in the 1st world I decided to update my Ipod and throw on some new music. The 3 R's by Jack Johnson is one of the catchiest songs I've heard in awhile, and it's funny. Jack Johnson is pretty popular, but he is 10x as popular in Hawaii (he is from there). So when I was there he was played a lot and I became a fan. So hearing this guy singing "reduce reuse recycle" is just great, and it will be stuck in your head for a day. Anyway, it's from the soundtrack for Curious George. I asked my aunt Sue if she had seen the movie and our conversation went something like this:

S: No I haven't, but I wanted to. I think he has fetal alcohol syndrome. He is very impulsive and never thinks of the consequences, so he's always getting into trouble...also, he is a little hyperactive. Did you read the books when you were a kid?

Me: Yeah, when I was really little.

S: I used to read them to the kids. He was always getting into trouble and then his dad would always come get him out of it and he never faced any consequences for his actions. That's why I stopped.

Me: Oh.

S: You know who else has fetal alcohol syndrome? That fish from that movie, not the Little Mermaid. Miriam, what's that fishes name?

Miriam: From A Shark's Tale? Finding Nemo?

S: Yes Finding Nemo, the blue fish

Miriam: Dora

S: Totally fetal alcohol. Never thinking about anything, very impulsive.

THE END

In other Ipod news, I put on the James Blunt CD. I haven't listened to it and I am going to predict suckiness. But it has sentimental value because when I was in Guatemala the neighbor girl would play that "you're beautiful" (?) song every night three times in a row and she would sing with it really loud right before she went to bed. It was awesome. Until I saw the video I always thought the singer was a woman.

This is Mark, reporting live from my chair

I should probably just stop reading it. These are the headlines as of...well whenever this blog was published (note the image experts, haha):

Mel Gibson formally charged with DUI | Video
TIME.com: Image experts offer Gibson advice
Sister says Castro getting better | TIME.com
Tourists evacuate from Chris' path | Path
Kids collect the bombs meant to kill them
Accused Marine sues war foe Murtha
Sports world burned by heat wave | Video
Heat kills pregnant mom at baseball game
Copter pilot allegedly lands in road for Tommy Lee
Tiny drug dog sniffs out big career
'Survivor' continues tour of U.S. prisons
Elvis' teddy destroyed by angry guard dog

Tangent.

Against my best interest I decided I had to read that last story, hence the link (although the title says it all). The dog was described as having gone beserk. This is stupid. For those of you who may be appalled by the outrageous and destructive actions of Barney, let me explain something. Dogs need to be taken care of. This means they need exercise. Sometimes when a dog (especially a Doberman) sits inside all day and does nothing, its energy becomes too much for it to contain and it must go berserk (kind of like me). My dog does this sometimes. It sprints back and forth through the house slipping and sliding, jumping over chairs. So if your dog is going berserk, it means you need to take it for a jog.

I guess Barney destroyed this collection worth about $900,000. That is also just stupid. Either the bears are old pieces of junk that nobody wants to play with anymore meaning they are worth whatever they could be sold for as pillows....or they have infinite worth due to their cuddliness (kind of like me).

Tangent.

I start school in 3 weeks. I have no job and nothing to do. I am going to try my best to occupy my time in some sort of constructive manner. So if you have any ideas let me know. Hippies are by definition lazy, I am not a hippy, therefore I should not be lazy....ok, that doesn't really work, but I still hate hippies, in a loving sort of way.

TCF

I've slowly been trying to straighten out my bank account with TCF. I've been working at it for about 10 days now. The problem was finally located. Apparently, because I previously had a checking account with TCF my SS# was still in the system and screwing everything up. Of course they could have just left my account open, not stolen my $4 and we both would have saved a lot of time. I have been trying to set up my online banking this whole time. About 10 phone calls and 2 hours on hold in total. The most annoying thing is that every time they put me on hold they repeat this commercial over and over again about how online banking is fast, easy and convenient. I am on hold right now.

Now they said everything is ok. They've said this before.

Crisis followup

Well, I just finished my last blog about 30 seconds ago. Read that one before you read this one...because this is chapter 2.

So I wrote my last blog about crisis experts. I published it, and then I clicked on my counter. Sure enough, 30 seconds earlier I had a visitor, we will just call him IP host3.fema.gov.

I'll be honest, this kind of scared me. I didn't really mean to rip on FEMA, I was actually ripping on CNN for their stupid news stories that aren't really news. The fear only lasted a second before it turned into amazement. Wow, FEMA really is fast, what are all these people talking about. Then, after a little investigating my amazement turned into disappointment. Mr. FEMA had actually visited my site while browsing through the blogs with the "next blog" button at the top right of your screen. How ironic though eh? eh?