All posts by Mike

Homework Mania

Gaming, Movies, School

Well, this time it actually is the end of the month. Some crazy stuff has been going on: school, work, Thanksgiving, more school, video games, movies, school. There sure is lots of stuff to keep me busy enough to not update this blog, anyway.

Saw Casino Royale the day it opened. Awesome flick. Also picked up Painkiller from GoGamer for a measly ten bucks and I am already stuck at the second boss. I had to quit, though because I had a nice hefty research paper and presentation to get ready for my computer architecture class. Now that that’s done, I get to do a ton of Calc homework and work on my Software Engineering project.

Oh, and then there are finals…

Farewell, October

Random, School

We hardly knew thee. It’s not the end of the month yet (unless we were to somehow skip right over Halloween), but I didn’t feel motivated to postpone posting this until tomorrow.

I have so much homework to do it is not even remotely funny. I also have the privledge of taking a Calculus test tonight, for which I am attempting to study right now. As you can see, I am not doing a very good job.

Must See TV

TV

I don’t think I have ever been known to watch a lot of TV (apart from those awesome 80s kids shows I loved as a kid). However, I think this new fall season has some of the coolest shows. I have never been as excited about a TV season, so it’s kind of new to actually want to watch some TV.

  • Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is the new show in town. I watched the pilot episode that got “leaked” a few months ago and found it to be intellectually stimulating and a far reach above your average mindless TV sitcom. I never watched more than five minutes of The West Wing or Sports Night, but after watching the second episode that aired this past Monday, I think I would actually like to check it out in my lifetime.
  • The Office, now in its third season, is just as awesome as ever. A neighbor of mine who is an attorney told me about this show one day and how much it reminded him of some of his fellow office dwellers. I didn’t immediately check it out, but am glad that I eventually did, because this is definitely my favorite show on TV. I bumped into it sometime in February when they were already well through the second season, so I had quite a bit of catching up to do. The first season is surprisingly not so good, but Season Two is orders of magnitude better and hands-down the funniest show I have ever seen.
  • House and 24 were shows I was already familiar with, but still love. House is now in its third season and seems to be just as great as I have come to expect. It is indeed a bit formulaic, but every once in a while there is an episode that breaks the mold and is shockingly provocative and insightful. 24 doesn’t begin its sixth season until January, but as far as mindless action goes there is nothing finer. Season Two and Season Five stand out above the rest (apart from the first season, which is exempt from comparison), and I remain hopeful that Six sets a positive trend.

I don’t know why, but no other show really catches my interest. I detest reality TV and game shows and I am not aware of any great comedies coming out of the UK recently. Red Dwarf, what has become of you? 🙁

Straight Outta Lynwood

Funny, Music

Yesterday I picked up Weird Al‘s new album, entitled “Straight Outta Lynwood.” I don’t know why I keep buying his CDs, since I don’t listen to them very often. However, I do enjoy his humor and I thought the song “White And Nerdy” was awesome and the video even more so.

In fact, this album wasn’t even a CD; it is called a DualDisc, with a CD potion on one side and DVD on the other. The only problem is this arrangement interferes with converting said CD to MP3. Nonetheless, the DVD extras (5.1 surround and a bunch of music videos) is a nice bonus and more than justifies the $9.99 that Circuit City had it on sale for.

There are some great songs on the album, such as “I’ll Sue Ya,” a Rage Against The Machine style original that is awesome for a number of reasons, “Confessions Part III” which I found funny even though I have never heard an Usher song in my life and certainly not the one that is being parodied, and “Trapped In The Drive-Thru” which is six degrees of awesome. It’s pretty amazing that “Weird Al” is still capable of such amazing work. Now I just need to keep an eye on tour dates 😀

Parking Tag Woes

Rant, School

The University of Utah has a tiered pricing scheme for all their parking lots, meaning that if you want a “good” parking space, you have to pay two or more times more than if you were complacent with a “decent” parking space. That is highway robbery >:(

At SLCC, a year of parking is $20 and you can park in any space that isn’t reserved for faculty.