Back in Wichita!

Back in Wichita!

Hey all,

Writing a quick post to announce the reopening of my main blog!

After our London trip and the dismal failure of our London blog I figured it was time to fire this one back up since the beginning of the school year is on the horizon.

Today I officially moved out of my Dad's house for the last time. The next time I have to move off campus it will be to move in with my wife! I'm really excited. I'm pretty sure my dad doesn't feel the same way and I have to admit itt is a bit melancholy but that's ok.

We got back from London 6 days ago and I am really glad to be back. Summer band starts tomorrow morning and I have a Kappa Kappa Psi meeting here in a little bit so that's why I'm cutting this short.

Watch this space for more info. I'll be talking about the new drumline, marching season, classes, and generally whatever is going on in my life at the time.

As always feel free to leave some comments if you have any follow-up questions or whatever.

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London Blog

London Blog

Hey gang,

I won't be posting on this blog for the next few weeks because Lauryn and I have made a joint blog for our Study Abroad trip in London.

You can check it out at http://laurynandsteven.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

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Spirit Days

Spirit Days

Oh man....

I have a love/hate relationship with this 3-part festival that is MSU Spirit Days.

For those unaware Spirit Days is basically the same thing as orientation for incoming freshman. There are cheesy activities and you get to spend the night on campus the 1st night and then hear from different lecturers (Financial Aid, Registrar, Career Management, etc) before checking out the different student organizations and finally seeing your advisor and registering for classes.

As an Honors Program student and the HP Student Assistant I don't have to but it is strongly encouraged that I come to campus at 7:30 am the 2nd day of Spirit Days for the Honors Program Breakfast where we serve little pastries and drinks to students/parents and answer any questions they have about our program.

This is all well and good except for the fact that I then have nothing to do until the organization fair at noon. Therefore I sat here in the food court for a few hours watching Hulu and different people walk by for a while.

After the fair I'm going to go to work and listen to 3 interviews for the person that is going to become my new boss. Whoopee.

Don't get me wrong as someone who went through spirit days I thought it was really good and I was glad to get the opportunity to experience the campus before I moved in. It isn't so fun for the students who now have to run around and cater to these new freshmen.

That is my little rant of the morning.

On a positive note, it rained this morning and should do so again this afternoon. That's always nice.

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Review: Transformers

Review: Transformers

So we went and saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

I can essentially wrap this review up in 1 word -- AWESOME!!

But because you have taken your time to check this entry out I figure you deserve a longer entry, so I will provide a somewhat longer review.

I will start by talking about the things I liked about the movie, and move on to those things I didn't like as much.

I definately liked all the cooperation with the US military. There was so much military tech in that movie that made me have guy/geek moments of nodding and going "oh yeah!" The graphics gurus in that movie did a lot of amazing things with the levels of detail in the various destruction scenes during the movie, complete with people clinging to and falling out/off of things. Amazing.

There were a whole lot of little comedic gems throughout that made my day too. Rainn Wilson, the autobot twins, the now burned into my mind Sector 7 banana hammock, all stuff that broke up the stop and go story.

I didn't like the fact --spoiler alert-- that the Audi A6 died so quickly. I would have liked looking at that car a lot more throughout the movie. --end spoiler alert--

I know there are more that I think I caught but I did for certain catch a continuity error my first time seeing this movie. When Sam is at the party towards the first of the movie and he gets a drink from the bar while he is talking to Alice his drink is full in the first shot, nearly empty in the 2nd when he turns around, and full again in the 3rd. Later in the movie Sam hurts his hand and in the next shot there is magically a bandage that appears on it.

Imdb has a LOT more errors that I didn't catch (but I applaud those that did so early into the release).

While I am a fan of Megan Fox (much to my fiancee's dismay) it was pointed out to me by one of the people we were with last night that every time Megan runs anywhere in that movie she has to be led by the arm by some guy, either Sam or Josh.

And for that matter I don't really get the whole need for the Baywatch run style where everything is slow and dramatic and baywatch-y. I swear I could hear "I'll be there" in the background a couple times. Sure I understand that there is a need for the slow motion because of all the stuff going on in the background but geez.

All I can really say is I'm looking forward to the sequel and I think that this movie has a higher replay value than the first since there is so much going on in each shot.

I give Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 5 out of 5. I'll remake my review scale pictures later.

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Mission: Pepsi Throwback

Mission: Pepsi Throwback

Ok. I've been trying to figure out what gimmicky little things I can do with this blog and since I haven't gone to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen yet (don't hate me) I can't write my review about it. I don't have the money right now to buy any new games (currently playing Mass Effect Awesome! ) so I can't write any reviews on those, so I will humor and entice you with a cheap mission that I have been on for some time.

That mission is tracking down some Pepsi Throwback. For those of you that don't know Pepsi has released limited editions of Pepsi and Mountain Dew that are sweetened with real sugar (like Dublin Dr. Pepper) like the good ol' days.

Well I have thus far been unsuccessful in my search for these elusive blue cans. Every time I go into a convenience store or pass by the soda aisle of a supermarket I am left downtrodden at the lack of Throwback.

So therefore I figured I would broadcast my mission worldwide through my blog. If any of you can point me in the right direction of where I can procure some of this nectar then I would be most grateful.

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An unusual accosting.

An unusual accosting.

(Author's Note: Let me start by saying that I have been panhandled before. My father has given me the curse of skepticism and while I'm nowhere near as bad as he is I tend to disconnect if I have too many red flags come up with someone.)

So after Heritage worship team practice tonight I came over to Hastings to have some coffee and hang out before Chi Alpha worship team practice. I walked in and looked over the magazine rack for anything interesting and as I walked up I caught the eye of this guy in the next rack. Well as I was standing there he comes around to where I am and asks me "How's it goin? You from here?" I tell him where I'm from and he asks me my name, age, and what church I go to, which I tell him but then he asks "Can I ask you something? Will you pray with me?" Which is honestly something I haven't been asked by a random stranger before. I tell him sure so we go around to the back magazine rack and sit down.

He proceeds to re-ask my name and age and if I'll pray with him (red flag) and then tell me his situation. He tells me how he lives across town and works for almost nothing and has to get rides to work and he lives with a roommate that he has to pay $20 a week in rent to but he can't afford it this week (red flag) and how he's gone to Faith Mission and the Salvation Army and hasn't gotten any help. He then asks me if he can use my cell phone, which is fine (especially since I just enabled the Find my iPhone feature on MobileMe and am not too concerned with it getting stolen) and then offers to put his phone number in and if I will help him out and he will repay me and show me where he lives and everything (red flag). I told him that I couldn't do much more than pray for him so he says that's fine and when I start to bow my head he says that he will do it and so he prays for himself along with me. We stand up and then he goes on probably to find someone else to ask assistance from.

I go get some coffee and sit down to drink it when I hear one of the managers come by and tell the baristas to watch out for the guy that keeps coming in and asking for money and keep him from coming in. One of the cafe managers jokes if he should kick him if he sees him and the store manager rebuffs with "If I had a gun I'd shoot him."

Really?

I understand that panhandlers are annoying and make people feel bad about themselves in order to receive aid (whether they actually need it or not is unknown), but is it necessary to wish such violence on them?

I'll admit I contemplated reporting him to an employee but I didn't thinking that someone who seems to have a relationship with Christ like this man might find someone actually willing to lend him a hand. You might think I have a weakness towards someone playing the "helpless christian" card and maybe that's true, but I so rarely have that card played on me I don't really know how to react to it.

I just think that that wasn't a good impression that the store manager portrayed for the patrons listening in on her conversation, which was a fairly loud one.

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My thoughts on Jon and Kate

My thoughts on Jon and Kate

I figured since everyone else was adding their $0.02 then I would too.

Michael Ian Black put it well when he tweeted "Stop hating: Jon and Kate owe it to humanity to sleep around because they're so (expletive) fertile."

Personally I don't think anyone took it as a surprise that Jon and Kate decided to call it quits. It was kind of inevitable with what the tabloids/media were saying and the way TLC was ramping up the previews for last night's episode.

Even if you have nothing but harsh things to say against those two, you have to admit that they are handling the way that this is going to affect the kids well. The kids will get to stay in their new $1.1 million dollar house and Jon/Kate will live there when it is their designated times with the kids. Apparently these problems have been around long before the tabloids picked it up and I like how Jon put it "It just isn't working. I don't want to us to be yelling at each other in front of the kids."

Feel free to continue this discussion in the comment boxes below.

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