Well, I found out today that I have been admitted to the Philosophy undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Fah-reak-in' A! I'm so excited and relieved--relieved that my search for a degree program has finally ended. Thanks to everyone that proofread my writings and gave me feedback! You're all awesome...and I'll be utilizing your services for my graded papers in the near future. I start this summer!
I finally got around to making out a budget. I even put it in Microsoft Excel--how serious am I about budgeting? Yeah, I would say pretty serious....I'm getting ready to mail off my opening deposit check to open my savings account. New York, New York, here I come...hopefully...some day...soon...
Today's my first day of my Mission Qualification Training. Which means I'm finally getting down to business here with my short-term AF career. More than half way through my enlistment term. Yeah, about that....hmmm....not much else to say there...
I also wanted to make a quick mention about the V Tech shooting. I have an old friend who is a student there, and I was very relieved to know that she is ok. It's bizarre because I've been thinking about tragedies that have occurred in my lifetime (the Challenger explosion of '86, the Oklahoma bombing, Columbine, 9-11, etc., and now V Tech) and the fact that I just can't grasp the full reality of them. That may not make much sense, and I won't dwell too much on it here, but for me it ties closely with my efforts to understand religious faith. In any case, I think the only thing I can do is to keep the victims of whatever tragedies I know of in my thoughts, and to count among my blessings the fact that I have so far only been a distant witness of such events...
SOAPBOX WARNING
Last week there was a very unfortunate accident involving a pit bull last week at a local Petco or something or other. Basically, a full-grown pit bull and a 2 month old golden retriever were each left at a Petco (or whatever) for grooming by their respective owners. Somehow, while the golden retriever pup was loose, the pit bull got out and killed the pup. Of course, the news was all over that. As the days went by, the story of what actually happened came to light. The pit bull did in fact kill the puppy, but not quite as savagely as it sounded at first. The video of the pit in captivity at the humane society showed a very happy dog, with a wagging tail and a friendly facial expression, and it kept looking up at the camera man as though it just wanted to be petted. The workers at the humane society stated that the dog 'appeared to be well cared-for and loved by its owner'. When the investigation was done, the owner was not cited and Petco is now under investigation for failing to keep the pit bull penned up. Basically, when it was able to get out, it approached the puppy and grabbed it by the neck playfully (a couple of witnesses were quoted in the news as saying 'it appeared the pit was trying to play'), but due to the fact that pit bulls have very strong jaws, and that the puppy was only 2 months old, the pit's act of playfulness ended up seriously hurting the pup, and it died an hour later. I feel for the owners of the puppy, but the fact is that this was not at all a pit bull temperment issue. It was an issue of the professionalism of Petco (or whoever it was) and their failure to keep the puppy protected from other full-grown dogs. I hate to beat a dead horse, but I will anyway. I was raised with a dog in the house--always. Collectively, we've owned several collies, a St. Bernard, a Blue Healer, a Cocker Spaniel, a Pomeranian, three full-blood Rottweilers, two Rottweiler mixes, a miniature Schnauzer, a terrier mix, a Greyhound, a Chihuahua, a Pit Bull, a Jack-Russel Terrier, and a Lab-Akita mix. The only problem dogs were the Jack-Russel Terrier, the terrier mix, and one of the Rottie mixes (she had Chow and German Shephard in here as well). And even with these 'problem dogs', in the right home they would have thrived, and often did after getting a new home. All I'm saying is, don't blame the breed.
END OF SOAPBOX
It's kind of ironic that I bought a Nintendo Wii, and now all I play on it is old school NES game that I downloaded from their online store. Kid Icarus, Gradius, Super Mario World....good stuff. Takes me back....I want to buy the new Super Paper Mario game for the Wii. It's getting great reviews, but I got other stuff going on so it would be kind of a waste. I will, however, buy the new Metroid Prime on the Wii when it comes out, supposedly this summer.
For the first time in years, I turned Mtv on while I was getting dressed in the morning and a video by Amy Winehouse came on called 'You Know I'm No Good'. I'd never heard of her before, but I liked the song and her voice immediately. Very soulful and kind of gritty. Then, I heard it again on some tv show later that week. I may have to sample some of her other stuff. I've also been listening to Fall Out Boy's newest cd, Infinity On High, or something like that. I like a lot of the songs on there. I actually really like the first one, Thriller--I love when you a put a cd on and the first song is a good one. Anyway, I looked up a live version on Youtube, and the band prefaced the performance by saying the song was about how useless the Internet is. What? The lyrics don't seem to say anything like that. By the intro to the song on the album, and the lyrics throughout, I thought it was about the fact that they 'made it' in the music business. Whatever. This is why I think that musicians should just shut up and play and sing. When they step out of that safety zone, they sound like idiots. "The (After) Life of the Party" is really good, too. The background instrument during the verses (whatever it is) sounds awesome and really defines the song, for me anyway.
In the past few weeks, I've seen some good movies. I saw Grindhouse, which I actually liked a lot. I think I like it more the more I think about it. The first movie was just a mindless gore flick. Not a big fan of gore, but it's well shot with a campy humor. So I liked it. The second movie was, in my opinion, the best. Great character developent, and it cracked me up towards the end. I also saw Shooter, with Mark Wahlberg. I also liked this one, but I did kinda think of it as a bad Bourne Identity rip off.
It was suggested to me recently that I should exchange my 'Freakin' A!' tagline with 'Rock 'N' Roll!'. I think I'll work on that...but it has to come naturally. For a long time before, it was 'Hell's Yeah!', and I've only recently changed it to 'Freakin A!', relatively speaking. But I'll see what I can do...
Fin
Listening to: Infinity On High by Fall Out Boy
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