For the first time, probably since 10th grade, I made a lunch today. During my prep I went to Stater Bros. and picked up all the essentials. Some good deli meats, sliced muenster and provolone cheese, spicy brown mustard, a head of lettuce, french rolls, lime and chili fritos, and some mountain dew. I’m in the middle of a 10 day sub job at West, and so far I’ve been living off of Taco Bell. So am I saving any money?

The food I bought will last me six days, and totaled just over $20. My average meal at Taco Bell is only $3.50, which for six days would be $21. Not much of a savings there. However, if I were to branch out from Taco Bell my lunch could easily be $6 at say Subway. Six days of Subway would be $36, almost twice as much as my “bag” lunch. Maybe it is worth it.

I’m sure this will ruffle some feathers.

Recently there have been quite a few teacher-student sex scandals in the headlines. Oddly, they’re almost always a female teacher having sex with a teen boy…or boys. While I’m not advocating this is OK, there does seem to be a bit of hypocrisy.

A quick search will find a number of teens who have shot and killed someone, and then been charged as an adult. But then, when a teen has sex with an adult, why don’t we charge the student as an adult, and then make the whole thing legal? (This is called playing devil’s advocate for anyone about to blow their top.)

It seems hypocritical to say a 13 year old that kills someone should be tried as an adult…but then come back and say sorry, you’re not old enough to have sex. In a murder case we’re saying that a 13 year old is mature enough to be slapped with the same punishment we give to an adult, or in other words, they’ve acted in an a way that is on par with adult behavior. However when it comes to sex, we are unwilling to give children that adult label. What that distinction really does is make sex more of an adult act than murder. Sex is only reserved for adults. We never look at a teen in a sex case as an adult, but we do in a murder case. Still with me?

Let me make clear I’m not advocating that either is ok, and no I don’t think students should be having sex with teachers. However, it seems the measuring stick we use comes in many different sizes.

So lately I’ve come to the conclusion that politicians simply have too much time on their hands. While this may also be a problem inherent in our political system, it seems politicians sit around thinking about what MORE they could do. The result is a huge bloated political system with laws and procedures we don’t need.

Here is a prime example. A senator from Rhode Island wants to keep athletes from charging for autographs. Why on earth does he think this is part of his job?! I’m telling you, he’s bored. We pay him too much money and require him too work far too many months out of the year.

This is where I’ve come up with a new theory, much broader in scope. Goverment only grows. Sure, we might cut a program or two when the deficit grows, but by and large, goverment just gets bigger. It seems that politicians today, and most of the people that elect them, have NO concept of what goverment should be doing. Instead of simply providing national defense, police and fire on a local level, roads and highways, and just keeping the peace…politicans get BORED and have made government bigger than it should have ever been.

There are two problems with this. One is that we need to first stop the goverment from growing any further, and second is to begin reducing it. To solve the first problem I would drastically reduce the time during the year in which politicians work. If senators only work 2 months of the year, they’ll be forced to focus on the things that really matter, like establishing a budget. The second issue is a much bigger one. Reducing the role of goverment in non-essential areas is almost impossible. No politicians really want to do it, because it would put them out of a job. No one wants to make themselves extinct. Any ideas?

Tonight at The Burn we had a really awesome band come play called Last Tuesday. I’d heard them on an internet radio station a few months back and bought their CD online. I shot them an e-mail asking if they ever play in Cali, and one of the guys Carl wrote me back saying they’d be here to record in Jan/Feb. So as the date got closer we worked out the details and they were able to make it!

LTF opened for them, and then they played a great 40 min set. Everyone seemed to have a great time and the band sold a lot of stuff. To make it even better, they were just an awesome group of guys. They’ve got a new album coming out in May that they worked on with Matt from Relient K, and I can’t wait to see how awesome it is.

Thanks to everyone that helped put it together. Timmy, Hector, Mike…couldn’t have happened without you guys. Thanks to everyone that showed up to! Rock on.

Yay! I get to teach the same class at West for the next 2 weeks! I have lesson plans for the next week and it’s nothing too difficult. Luckily most of the classes are well behaved. It’s nice knowing I won’t have to wake up to a ringing telephone for a while.

I just finished the first book in George R.R. Martin’s series, A Song of Fire and Ice, called A Game of Thrones, and it was amazing. Start to finish it was a great read, and very difficult to put down. I think there is a certain stigma attached to the entire fantasy genre, like it’s all dorky elves and crystall balls and stuff only nerds can like. The book is really quite accessible though to non-fantasy lovers. It’s very medieval with Kings, Queens, Knights, succession to the various thrones, battles between families and nations. I think the only aspect that makes it fantasy is that it’s a made up world in a made up time, much like The Lord of the Rings. I can’t recommend this book enough.

Now I can start the next book in the series, A Clash of Kings, which is even longer than the first at 768 pages (A Game of Thrones is just over 700). There are many unanswered questions and potential plot twists, it should be interesting. Then I have book 3 to read, A Storm of Swords, which is a whopping 992 pages! Then book 4 should be out sometime this year, which will easily be over 1000 pages. A good book is like a good movie…as long as it’s made up of good stuff, it can be as long as it wants!

We’re having a super cool concert at the burn this Wednesday, for FREE! Read more here.

As of today I am half-way done with my new fantasy book. I have the next two books, which are even longer than the first one, but 350 pages down, and over 2000 to go! haha. So far it’s been awesome. It’s got everything…cool battles, kings and queens, impending doom, and lots of questions! There seems to be a major battle between two families coming up, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I know you’ve read it Nick, so don’t blow it for me.

I found this on Amazon…it gives a good description of what goes on in the book.

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.