Because I'm Batman! I'd like to think I'd be a sort of creative superhero that was sexy and strong. I guess Batman fits the bill but I probably would stay true to my gender.
Actually, this comes at a great time because we just bought Lego Batman. It's really the first game I've ever played with Ryan on the XBox 360 (or at all) and I like it quite a bit. It's definitely cute, which is what I thought of Lego Star Wars as well but Ryan seems to be frustrated at the game for the same reason he disliked the other: sometimes it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. Still, even if the plot isn't super strong, I like it and it brings out all of the famous Batman villains and a few who are more obscure as well.
Although I've been playing Robin and this quiz thinks I'm Batman, I'm really more a catwoman person myself. We haven't really gotten to the part where we can play all sorts of cool characters but I've only managed to get myself killed a few (hundred) times. LOL
I really enjoy the EverythingEverywhere blog run by Gary whose hometown happens to be Appleton, WI - not too far from my own hometown. His daily photo today is that of the world's first hydroelectric power plant created by Edison in Appleton.
Sustainability, has been on my mind today. The idea of humanity being able to remain advanced and modern indefinitely means having indefinite resources. Of course, because resources do not simply appear out of nowhere, it requires a plan that regenerates resources. However, not all resources can be regenerated and a number of resources we currently use - like plastic - can continue being made but are not biodegradable and continue to pile up after that hey been used.
With Global Warming, many people have been more aware of humanity's effect on the Earth and, more specifically, their own effect on the environment around them. However, it becomes increasingly obvious that while we may be exhibiting some sort of beneficence to those around us, we have not been doing the same to the planet we inhabit.
I am definitely a prononent of living "green" or ecofriendly but it's also become increasingly obvious just how difficult it can be, especially when we are apart of a society that values fast and easy rather than sustainable and prolonged. To the credit of Americans, living green has become an important issue in the current presidential campaign but I think more has to be done.
More than personal choices but societal changes must come into effect. In a world where it's not only easier but expected of you to buy products for one time use, the companies must produce products that are green so that consumers can purchase them.
I admit to using many things for convenience, speed or ease that are not necessarily green. Surely there is a solution that benefits both myself and the environment. Of course, there are things I currently can and do engage in to be more green but I'd like to increase the number of things I do to benefit this planet so that it may sustain another generation.
What, if anything, do you do to green your life?
Cole @ 8:23 AM
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Frustrations Abound
9/21/2008
To start: if you read any of this post, this is it!
After we shipped off my computer. I signed onto AIM on the laptop and was met with an empty buddylist. Not just 1 in fact, but all of my linked lists were empty. Gone. This was not of any doing of my own as I certainly would not have the patience to delete around 200 buddies and I don't really have the desire to.
I had the same issue with every other computer I used and resigned myself to hoping that once I was back on my computer, my buddylist would be intact or I would somehow be able to get it back.
Well, it wasn't and I couldn't. So, if you were on my AIM list or even if you just want to be now, let me know your name.
My second frustration is something which has been solved to a point: my bathroom. I thought the tub was leaking because there was always a huge puddle on the floor after we showered. It appeared to be coming from under the tub which was alarming and strange. I called the office and they put in a call for maintenance.
A few days later maintenance shows up and the guy says it's coming not from under the tub, but from the side of the tub (near the faucet) and water was dripping down onto the side and dripping onto the floor from there. I was dubious but he went ahead and put in a little bracket thing on the side of the tub to stop it, told e to wait 4 hour before I used the tub and I did.
Now, we have been putting up with the worst-shower-head-ever! EVER! Instead of water shooting out as a reasonable speed and distance, it simply falls straight down from the head. This resulted in us having to stand no more than 6 inches away from the shower wall. This only furthered our puddle because the water from the shower was basically going right onto the side of the tub and down onto the floor, creating our big puddle.
So the bracket does seem to help, a bit. Even though I waited over 5 hours, when I took a shower the water that got on the bracket made the sealant leak in a little white puddle. So I have been wrapping the shower liner around into the shower and using water suction to stick it to the shower wall which seems to work more than the bracket itself.
The one saving grace of the bathroom is that we have now purchased a new showed head with more pressure that shoots out much straighter and further than the old one. It also has different settings which I don't much care for but it's a plus anyway.
Sadly, there's still 1 more thing wrong with the bathroom: lately the chain inside the toilet tank keeps falling off so you can't flush. Now, the toilet tank itself isn't as dirty as the bowl but I'd still prefer not to have to stick my arm in there if I don't have to. In fact, I even dreamt about it the other night. Ugh.
MY last frustration is certainly the biggest. Remember my new phone? Stylish? Cute? Small? Mine? Yea, well I've had some issues.
I have returned it twice because, eventually, the instant messaging feature has stopped working. While it certainly won't kill me, I think I should be able to use all the features the phone has. The first two times it took about a week to stop working, even though it worked fine directly out of the store. Yesterday I called tech support for my second phone, tried to reset and when that didn't help, they told me to return it which I did.
Last night, already, the IM feature stopped working on my third phone. T-Mobile's policy is that I can do an alternative exchange or upgrade after 3 returns for the issue but, honestly, there's no other phone I like as much, so I don't really want to do an alternative exchange.
Unfortunately, since the software was put on it by T-Mobile, Nokia can be of no help. Even worse, TMobile tech support and store associates have no idea what's going on. To add insult to injury, Ryan has the exact same phone and has not had any of the problems I have.
Instead of exchanging, I thought I would find an application online to use instead of the one provided by TMobile. Unfortunately, the TMobile settings block all third party applications so I can't even do that, it seems. I think I am stuck trying to debrand the phone myself and, if that fails, paying them to unlock it to see if that will help.
Ugh. I really enjoy the phone besides this one issue which I keep running into and it only frustrates me that it just seems to be me having it. What am I doing wrong?
Cole @ 4:15 AM
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My Fears Confirmed
9/20/2008
One of my worries about taking classes online was the quality of education I would be getting. Being in an actual classroom and interacting and discussing topics with other students and your teacher can lend valuable insight to a subject. It can also enable the teacher to bring in knowledge from his or her personal experiences and sources outside of the textbook.
This lack of personalization really worried me and I am sad to announce that I have experienced it and happy to announce that I also haven't. As I have discovered, some teachers put in about as much effort into online classes as the majority or students and some don't.
Several days before class started, my psychology teacher e-mailed everyone to let them know she was setting up the online site and how it would work. In fact, she gave us the first week entirely to familiarize ourselves with the site. Since then, she has posted an announcement at the beginning of every week including assignments and she also e-mails us these weekly announcements as well as special announcements, such as when she has completed grading an assignment.
Assignments themselves consist of textbook reading, reaction papers and discussion participation on the forums. The reaction papers, while relevant to the section of the textbook, do not follow it exactly and require a bit more thought. The same can be said for discussion questions which require each student to answer the question and then respond to others' answers as well. The assignments also include sources and work outside from the textbook to give us a little more variety.
Overall, I have been pleased with this professor. She adds the human touch and I am getting more out of this class than if I were to just read the textbook which is absolutely necessary in my opinion; otherwise, why am I even paying for the class if I can just buy the book?
On the other hand, my accounting class is quite sterile compared to the 'loving touch' of my other professor. With only one announcement in over 3 weeks - and that one was after the class began, to boot- it's increasingly obvious that this professor does not think highly of online education or wish to enhance the information in the book in any way.
The only thing he updates is the assignment list. Assignments are very cut and dry; read a chapter, do the questions and check back next week to see if your answers are correct. Each section has an online quiz and exam which is timed and because assignments are not checker or graded, these are the only scores which count.
In my experience the time alloted for the quizzes and tests is many times the time necessary and provides time for reading the text if you have not already. Combined with ungraded assignments and there is really no reason to do any of the work.
If the tests and quizzes were adequate, this might not be an issue as test grades often make up the bulk of your grade in college courses. Of course, all of the questions were true or false because they were entered into an automated system so there isn't much room for discussion, argument or even thinking.
As someone who likes a challenging class and strives to feel as though she is actually learning something useful, I am quite disappointed with that class.
Overall, I am both relieved and disappointed with my experiences. While one professor is going beyond the bare minimum and I am getting my money's worth, the other is barely doing that and I would be much better off if I had simply read the book.
When it comes down to it, quality of education probably has more to do with the teacher than the medium.
Cole @ 11:22 PM
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Show me the Money!
9/18/2008
Money is today's topic and we're not talking about personal finances really. I was just considering the millions of dollars which go into presidential campaigns. According to Open Secrets, Obama has raised just shy of $400 million dollars during his campaign with $66 million of that amount being raised in August alone. According to that same source, this is most than twice the amount which Senator Mccain has raised and what makes this most impressive is that Obama's campaign raised much of that money through donation by Every Day and Average Joes just like you and me.
Impressiveness aside, I just cannot help but wonder: What the hell costs so much?!?
Now, I know what I do not know and that is how a campaign is run. But I also know that the most prominent results of these campaigns cannot possibility cost near the millions that each candidate has spent. It seems implausible that the cost to film and air ads, produce merchandise or even salaries.
A little research shows that 75% "of a campaign’s outlays will ultimately go to paid communication: direct mail, radio, television and Internet ads." But although Craig Smith might have been Lieberman's campaign manager 4 years ago, I cannot help but wonder if he's ever actually had to budget.
And this is pretty apparent when Hilary Clinton admits that much of the money goes to FedEx shipments. Seriously? Shipments? To me, this seems like something that a normal person would try to cut down on and while I can guarantee presidential candidates have more of a need for shipments than I do, it seems like they just think "I have millions of dollars to my name, I can afford to send this and this and this and..." I bet if you took at all those little, unnecessary expenses and tried to weed them out or consolidate as much as possible, a presidential candidate wouldn't need hundreds of millions of dollars.
Of course, it's not just presidential campaigns that get me. I wonder the same thing when the president asks for millions more to go toward the war effort. It seems like the obvious things that need to be paid for - salaries, weapons, food, contractors - can't really add up to the insane numbers that are requested for the effort. Granted, I can at least see a need for money in this field whereas I can't see a whole lot of need for money at all when it comes to campaigning.
I believe that in both of these examples, the person doing the spending and the person issuing the money are far apart. Estimates and requests are made, money is handed out and, again, because people feel they have a never ending source of income, they don't budget properly. Sacrifices have to be made and it's often in the wrong place. Cutting funds when it comes to armor and weapons is not going to protect our troops out there.
However, where the money is going is not the only qualm I have. Where the hell is it coming from? Because our nation is in debt and it's such a debt (over $9 trillion!) that we wouldn't even be putting as much as a dent in it if we applied all the money from presidential and war campaigns to it!
It seems to me that a debt like that is essentially indicative of the fact that we, the United States of America, do not have any money and, if that is indeed the case, where the hell are we getting money to put into anything least of all to throw at the war?
Whenever my mind tries to compute large sums of money in the millions, billions or trillions it just fries. I simply cannot imagine that many $1 bills (or even $100 bills for that matter). It's become increasingly obvious that the people who are involved with that money cannot either; they are only involved at a level where they pick a nice number, track on some zeros and call it good. Because the money is never actually seen and only exists (or does not exist) somewhere in some bank's computer, we become out of touch.
What does this mean at the end of the day? We continued to spend, the debt continues to climb, the value of the dollar continues to fall and the economy continues to drop making it hard for the average Joes like you and mean to exist while other parties, purposely or not, continue to squander away our money without thinking twice.
Cole @ 11:22 PM
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Hangin' Around
9/17/2008
Ive been hanging around this town on a corner Ive been bummin around this old town for way too long Ive been hanging around this town on a corner Ive been bummin around this old town for way too long
Really, relaxation hasn't been key these past few days. Friday we finally moved into our apartment, after I finished a paper for my psychology class and submitted it to my teacher. both things provided a bit of excitement for me. Of course, I had been waiting quite impatiently to move and it seemed like the day would never come but it finally has! I also shared some of those same feelings when it came to going back to school but I am no longer not doing anything with my life! yay!
Really, we didn't have that many belongings to move in so after planting my luggage down, I continued to read. I recently finished The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan so I have begun to reread The Death Gate Cycle by Weis/Hickman. I'd forgotten how fast reading those books were (and short compared to the Robert Jordan books) and I'm really glad that I enjoy them as I did when I first read them in high school.
Sunday introduced the presence of our brand new bedroom set which is still gorgeous and I will be enjoying for many years to come. Unfortunately, lack of mattresses has been a bit of an issue so we're still using the air mattress until tomorrow night.
Yesterday left me exhausted and sore after unpacking most of our stuff that was delivered. Save for a few boxes I still need to go through, the only thing left packed are things were don't yet have space for. I have a neat little idea for furniture that will really make the dinging room wall more useful for us. I definitely need more drawers because the kitchen doesn't have nearly enough.
Today wasn't much better when it comes to exhaustion. I put together our desk without instructions, from memory; I called and requested them but didn't find them in my e-mail until well after I was done. with a little logical guessing, I think I did a decent job. Ryan was quite surprised, I believe "awed" was the word he used for my workmanship. Hehe.
But today was also a blessing as cable, phone and internet were installed all relatively quickly and without hassle even if we do have a big cable box and the workers didn't come until 2 hours after they told us. I'm grateful to be back online even if I still have to deal with the laptop for a couple more days.
Thursday, when our unaccompanied baggage arrives, will be the last shipment and we will definitely be able to relax and enjoy our home. It's not quite as nice as I remember it from viewing but it certainly beats out other apartments we saw and it's really shaping up as we add furniture. After the staples are taken care of, I can't wait to tackle the decor; I definitely have some ideas!
I love how large my bathroom is and all the storage space in there. It's been too long since I actually had drawers and counter space but the shelving is really the icing on the cake! Plus, 2 closets in the main room as well as a walk in bedroom closet are something I didn't find in any other apartments we looked at and I knew we'd need a lot of storage space because we had 4 closets and an extra bedroom in Misawa.
Things are really going to quiet down soon and I'm not sure if I'll be relieved or disappointed. I guess you'll have to hang around. ;)
Cole @ 12:41 PM
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Rarities, B-Sides and other Oddities
9/10/2008
This weekend we headed downtown and visited Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum and Louis Tussaud's Wax Works museum. Ripley's was, as always, interesting. Full of the weird, scary, death-defying, unnatural and other just plain stupid things people have either the natural ability or took the time to learn, it's sure to amaze. Add some of the interesting people who are naturally different and you can spend a few hours gawking. Of course, since I've spent so much time watching the TV show that some of the stories were already familiar.
The "odditorium" was much larger than it might appear, perhaps due to unique organization of the building and we traveled through several rooms seeing giant skeletons, locks of hair belonging to celebrities like Marylin Monroe, shrunken heads, tribal tools and weapons, lots of art made from matchsticks (like a 24' Eiffel Tower), torture devices and more. Toward the end were rooms with information about the Titanic and Mars which seemed a little out of place. Overall, however, it was quite interesting.
On the other hand, Wax works was a little disappointing. I suppose because it was smaller and, by its nature, there's less to do but to see the statues, figure out who they are supposed to be and determine if you think they actually look like the person. Unless your Ryan, then you do your best Tom Cruise impression and jump on the chair next to Oprah.
Toward the end was a section of horror wax works and I was a bit nervous because I didn't know if anything was going to jump out at me or whatever. Of course, nothing did and I probably wasted the experience a bit, being a 'fraidy cat.
Before that, we stopped off at the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch which was good but not great. It was a nice atmosphere and we enjoyed our time there, even if we were distracted by our new cell phones which we had purchased the day before.
Saturday we'd stopped at T-Mobile and signed up for a family plan. I had decided on either the Nokia 5610 or 5310 online and headed to those while Ryan like the Samsung blast. The staff were very helpful and brought out the purple version of the 5310 for me, which I decided on. After looking at the 5310, Ryan decided he wanted one also, only in red. The copycat.
So we walked out with new phones and have been enjoying them ever since, for the most part. It seems that the phone can lag a bit and I am having trouble using MSN on it now, even though it worked before. Hopefully that clears up soon.
Besides that, I'm very excited about moving into the apartment on Friday and on Sunday our bedroom furniture will be delivered! Yay!
Cole @ 3:12 AM
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Tick Tock
9/05/2008
We're counting down the days, only 8 now, which are going more slowly than I would like but faster than the first 3 weeks we spent here. Ryan is back at work which keeps him away for about 15 hours a day. It will definitely be easier to spend time together once we are in our own apartment which is only 10 minutes or so from base.
We have had a chance to do some fun things recently, though. We went to The Incredible Pizza which is sort of like Chuck E Cheese but much bigger. Besides games and food they have a movie room, a 3D movie, mini golf, mini bowling and go karts. While it might have been intended for a slightly younger age group, it was a lot of fun. We mostly went to mini golf which was fun, even if it wasn't 18 holes and I sucked. We found a bunch of tickets someone had abandoned, scarfed them up and wound up with enough tickets to get a stuffed Mickey Mouse prize. Woohoo!
Aside from that, though, life has been pretty quiet. My classes started this week and I've already done all my reading homework so I'm just watching too much reality TV, if you couldn't tell from my other posts. Speaking of school, Samantha is in kindergarten now! Can you believe it? I didn't think so! LOL
Cole @ 4:01 AM
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