I feel like posting, but I’ve used up my allotment of words for the day. I think that was around third period actually. Regardless, I will think of something.

Peaches. Millions of peaches. Peaches for me.
No, scratch that.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is in “trouble” for firing 8 or something district attorneys, and Democrats are having a field day. It wasn’t a big deal when Janet Reno fired ALL 93 when Clinton took office. They serve at the pleasure of the President. There’s nothing illegal about getting rid of them. See, elections do matter!

No, scratch that. Nobody comments on my political posts, as evidenced by “Blarg Stats.” According to that, teaching and television garner the greatest amount of responses. Let’s give that a go.

Have you seen that new TV show about TEACHING. Oh man, the comments are going to roll in now! I’ll try them separate now.

Teaching is going well. State testing is coming up. I might have time to chew through some more of the Dark Tower series. I’m stuck on book 5. Oops, that’s about books, not teaching. I cut up a soda can today to explain that the lateral side of a cylinder is a rectangle. It was cool!

Oh look, this paragraph is about television. Heroes resumed last night. WOW. Oh, and last week’s survivor was downright awesome. It was possibly the greatest episode ever. Trent knows what I’m talking about.

I cleaned the laptop yesterday because it was really gross looking. The I key on the laptop is completely without the letter I. The letters O, L, N, S, and E are also rubbing off. Good thing I know how to touch type. I guess I should stop going around typing “E LIONS” all the time. That’s all I could spell using those letters.

The only movie I’m super excited about right now is TRANSFORMERS. Holy cow that looks sweet.

Super cool band called All Time Low.

THE END

I just finished book 4 of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King entitled Wizard and Glass. The following is spoiler free. The series is about a gunslinger named Roland and his quest to reach the Dark Tower. He is accompanied by several companions on his journey, all drawn from "our world" to Roland’s. His world has similarities with our own, like an oil drilling station with the words "Exxon" on them. Basically it’s a parallel universe with a different timeline, because things have turned out quite different in Roland’s world. If you want to know more than that, you have to start the series.

This book is almost entirely a flashback, and could probably be read independent from the rest of the series. Aside from a deeper understanding of Roland and his world, most of the characters are new and from a time in Roland’s life that we know little about. Also different is the love story that dominates much of the book, which is really fantastic.

We hit up the library today and picked up book 5, Wolves of the Calla. Should you read this series? I would say my interest is growing with each book, and why that is I’m not sure. I think it’s partly that King has become a better writer as the series goes on, and I’m also growing more accustomed to his style of writing. If you like fantasy that isn’t overboard, and you’re looking for a big commitment, I would check this series out. After you read A Game of Thrones though.

I just beat the first dungeon in the new Zelda. Woot! I’m 7.5 hours into the game now. Only another 30-50 to go.

I’ve been told I need to make it known what my Christmas present desires are. If I have to make a list I’m sure I can come up with stuff, but there’s very little that I "need." Between my Wii and TV my entertainment needs are covered. Then I’ve got the dog to play with. I’m only on book 4 of 7 in the Dark Tower series, but then I’ve got a 6 book series by Robin Hobb to read. If you do the math that’s 10 books to read. I guess I need to do some serious thinking.

Thirteen more days of school until Christmas break.

I just finished book 3 in the Dark Tower series. It’s a fun series so far with a lot of good sci-fi content but also some really great characters. I don’t want to say much about it because Kevin is also making his way through the series, but I think I’m ahead of him now. It’s interesting because book 1 was written in the 70′s, and book 3 was written in ’91. By the time I finish the series they will have spanned four different decades.

Before I move on to book 4 though I’ve checked out State of Emergency by Pat Buchanan. Hopefully this will be a good motivator for pre-election day postings. I’d also like to plug the local library where all these recent books have been checked out. The Dark Tower series might be worth buying, but I wasn’t about to spend $150+ on the hardbacks to find out. I’m hoping State of Emergency is also really good, but it’s probably not something I’ll go back and read in 10-20 years. The library is a great resource and money saver, and they even have a website!

I finished book 1 of The Dark Tower series today and picked up book 2 at the library. I feel like I can’t fully review the book because I haven’t fully read the series. It’s much like watching the The Fellowship of the Ring without knowing how the rest of the trilogy plays out. While I can’t fully appreciate the entire series, or the clarity that future books in the series will bring to this first book, I can give my impressions fo far.

The book is only 200-250 pages and a pretty quick read. I found myself confused for much of the book, but in a good way. The reader is left in the dark about both time and place. Very little is told of the main character’s life and where he came from. While quite a bit happens in the book, the reader has very little context to place anything. At first it was frustrating, but it eventually became intriguing. I’ve never read a Stephen King book, so getting used to his style took a little time. I remember at the beginning I felt like he was personifying everything. "Outside the wind was blowing….like it was in a hurry." I don’t know if he ever said that or actually used personification at all, but that’s how I remember it anyways. About halfway through the book though I was in a groove and caught up in the story. This is one of the first things King ever wrote, so I’m curious to see how his writing has improved over the years.

I’m now onto book 2. I’m checking these out from the local library because buying the series would be a big investment ($150 for all the hardbacks). If I really love the series then I would definitly consider adding them to our slowly growing library.

I finally finished The Da Vinci Code. I hit a rough patch where I wasn’t very impressed with the book, but I think things improved near the end. I enjoyed the book, but I would recommend Angels and Demons first. I think the controversy around The Da Vinci Code made it more popular, not necessarily because it was better. I’d still like to read Dan Brown’s other books, but they will have to wait. I’m back to the world of fantasy.

Since I didn’t have a series I was dying to start, I decided to go to the library and find something. I ended up with book one in the Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger, by Stephen King. I’ve never read a Stephen King book, so instead of going out and buying anything, I’m giving them a test run. While I enjoy buying books, it’s a little like collecting for me. If I’m going to put books on my shelf, I want them to be good books that I really like.

The Gunslinger goes pretty quick, and so far I’m intrigued. It’s not very clear at all what is going on so far, but I’m curious enough to continue. I’ve read that even King himself says the series doesn’t get very good until book two, so I have that on hold at the library. I’ll read book two before I make any judgements about the series and whether or not I’d like to finish all seven books.

Anybody read anything good lately?

For the last two weeks our school has been in testing mode, but today marked the first day that I personally administered a state test. Not only does this mean I haven’t had to plan much in terms of work, but  it also means I have hours of silence the entire day. What better way to spend that uninterrupted time than by reading. I feel like a substitute again.

I’ve read over 100 pages today in Angels and Demons, and it’s really getting good. Great thriller and very Indiana Jones-esque. The Da Vinci Code came in the mail the other day, so I’m crossing my fingers that maybe I can finish both books by this weekend. Da Vinci Code is a little shorter, so that should aid my efforts. Anyone else read Da Vinci Code that might be interested in seeing the movie?

Since I’m on a reading kick, I’m already thinking past Da Vinci Code at what I’d like to read next. Dan Brown has a couple other books out that I could go for, or it’d be fun to start a new fantasy series over the summer. There are some big names that I haven’t touched like Goodkind, Brooks, and Jordan. There’s also the Dark Tower series. I haven’t read any good sci-fi fantasy either, like spaceships and alien stuff.

Back to reading, err, I mean testing.

Most posts focus on a single topic, which aids the reader in focusing on that which the writer wants them to focus on. This post however will have zero focus.

Right now I’m sitting in the CSUF library wearing my CSULB Dirtbags hat. Crazy CSUFers have been mad-dogging me the whole time, it’s awesome. I saw a stupid girl wearing a t-shirt that read "Stop judging me based on your IGNORANCE." I wanted to tell her "Stop assuming I give a rip about  YOU." I think it would be awesome and she wouldn’t know what to say. How idiotic do you have to be to wear a t-shirt like that? I’m sure she feels so unique, because after all she bought a t-shirt and was able to put it on correctly.

Yesterday we went to Alcatraz Brewing Co. at the Block with Fanny and Mark. It was good. Then we went back to their house to watch part of the Dodger game and kill some time until cheap bowling started at Del Rio. Unfortunately when we went to Del Rio, not only was there a huge wait, but there were 1,000 dirty little kids running around at 9:30 pm! Now I realize it is spring break, but take your dirty little kids home and put them to bed so us adults can have some fun. Due to the dirty little kids and the idiots that work at Del Rio, we left without giving them a cent of our hard-earned money. We instead went to our house and watched the movie Derailed. Very good thriller and I highly recommend you view this movie.

I’ve been eyeing a computer upgrade for the last week and talked the wifey into letting me buy. I’m replacing a 4 year old videocard, a 4.5 year old sound card, and upgrading memory (which in turn will let me overclock). I’ll post more when I actually get the parts tomorrow and have a chance to see them work. It was only $15 more for overnight shipping, otherwise it might have been delayed until Monday, and that would be as annoying as the girl with the stupid t-shirt.

Spending time on a college campus like this reminds me of my years working on my bachelor’s degree. Can anyone explain why it’s "bachelor’s" and not "bachelors"? Who and what exactly is a bachelor, and why does the degree belong to them? Why not "bachelor degree"?

In case anyone was wondering, I still think we should build a wall on our southern border. In fact, the Minutemen are thinking of taking matters into their own hands. They already have landowners there on the border that would let them build. I love the entire Minuteman project. Ordinary citizens willing to do something when the government is not. If you’re a whiny liberal who thinks the Minutemen shouldn’t be doing what they are, then grab a big box of tissues. They’re only helping to enforce the already existing laws that our country has adopted. Citizens Arrest in da house!

I made what I thought was an awesome post over at Amy’s blog, but the only one who deemed it worthy of a reply was Kevin. I spent a good 20 minutes and a great deal of creative thought developing that post!

Who messed up the church bulletin? It went from a clearly defined layout broken up by ministry to just a garbled mess of text. I liked seeing everyone’s mug next to their little column.

The last two paragraphs were only a couple sentences long. I bet you think I’m running out of stuff to say, right? Wrong!

So now that I’ll have a computer that can actually run games created in the 21st century, any suggestions what I should check out? I’ve got Half-Life 2 with CS: Source, so I’ll definitely fire those up. I tried Oblivion on Andrew’s machine and it looked intriguing. Otherwise there are a ton of games that I haven’t even played like BF 2, F.E.A.R., Farcry, Call of Duty 2, Doom 3, Quake 4, and anything else that came out in the last couple years. I’m not really interested in a MMORPG. Star Wars Galaxies held my interest for quite a while, but that was because I had a profit motive. WoW got old…killing and questing for hours on end…and for what? So what should I check out?

I’m almost done with Feast for Crows. I don’t know what to read next though. There are a lot of other fantasy series I could check out like the Dark Tower series, or Goodkind, or Brooks. I’ve read several apologetic books regarding Catholicism, but I’m interested in reading some about Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Muslims. I know I disagree with them, but I’d like to know a little more concretely "why" I do.

I’ve now spent 30 minutes typing random thoughts, and while it’s been fun, I need to go work on homework that is due on Monday. Off to Disneyland after this and probably going to meet up with a buddy from work. Adios bloggers.