Harvey and Irma Schluter have been married for 75 years. That's an insanely long time. I'll be lucky if I even live that long. He's now 104, and she's 92. They've seen just about everything during their lifetimes, and now they've got to see two of the most damaging hurricanes in history come back-to-back, sharing their names. Fortunately, they live in Washington, so they're not getting pelted over the head with any sort of irony at the moment. Anyway, glad to see how seriously the state o
Governor Mark Dayton just signed a proclamation, as seen here, declaring April 21 to be Prince Day in Minnesota, in commemoration of the untimely passing of the artist formerly known as Prince. Minnesotans are encouraged to wear purple in honor of The Purple One on this day. 24601
Why not? Valentine's Day is a stupid holiday. Always thought so, always will. It wouldn't make a difference if I was in a relationship, because the things I value in a relationship transcend hearts and chocolate (although to be fair to chocolate, it is one of the greatest inventions ever). I mean, to have society try to associate your relationship with such a commercialized event that has seemingly nothing to do with relationships when you two are too busy doing something that's actually im
So what I found out it that my governor, Kim Reynolds, made it so that henceforth in the state of Iowa, Columbus Day is also Indigenous People's Day at the same time. Sure, I can get behind that. I'm not Italian and don't really care much about Columbus. And frankly, the point behind that day isn't just to celebrate one man, but the whole general idea of world history including both hemispheres for the first time. Personally, I still like the idea of just calling it "New World Day," but I'm
This opening week in May has been real busy with an onslaught of special days. May 1 was May Day (also, if you were living in the Midwest, it snowed on that day). May 4 was Star Wars Day. And now we've reached the end of this crazy week of holidays, and we reach the most special day of them all... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0 24601
Before I get into the title of this entry, let me just congratulate Beverly Paquin, an IOWAN who, at age 22, managed to run a marathon in each of the 50 states, plus D.C., the youngest person to ever do so. This was back in 2010. I'd love to meet her. Super-proud that she comes from my state. Let's hope that the next person to break her record is also Iowan, like perhaps a little homeschooled girl who tags along with her parents and completes the challenge at the age of 8. Boom. Good luck
It's true! My sister wanted a game of Disney Monopoly. I can understand her interest. It sounded pretty fun. However, once it was opened, we find out that Hannah Montana and High School Musical are Park Place and Boardwalk, respectively. It's a slap in the face to see them put in the highest places of honor. My mother expected Snow White to be Boardwalk and Fantasia to be Park Place. It would have made a whole lot more sense, because those are two of the oldest classics. I mean, ten yea
Today I dressed up as Inspector Gadget. He was the only thing to come to my mind since I hadn't planned anything ahead of time and I had to make do with the regular clothes that I already have. Fortunately, I buy some rather interesting clothes. Take, for instance, a cream colored fedora and trench coat. Even though the Inspector didn't wear one, I put on a bowtie because it gave the outfit the feel of a children's cartoon. What was really cool was that everybody could get who I was. I kn
So I've been thinking, in the ninety-nine blog entries I've made so far, from confessing that I felt like a self-obsessed git to posting a story so long it didn't even fit the page, that this here person has come quite a long ways. Writing down some of my thoughts and experiences has done a lot for me. I am proud to have written such entries as "Logic and Wisdom" and "Personal Isolation". It's been good to get my thoughts down. In what ways I have have matured I cannot pinpoint, however I kn
This is going to be an incredibly brief review. Basically, this movie is exactly what you'd expect after watching the trailers. There are no twists, no surprises. it's pretty straightforward. It's masterfully directed, as is to be expected from Mel Gibson. The one thing that I wondered during the movie was whether or not the majority of the movie would be spent in the training camp, where Private Doss would spend a great deal of time petitioning to be allowed to not carry a gun, since that
Well, James Gunn is out, for reasons we shan't discuss...but we can talk about who's going to be in it. Alrighty then. Here we go. Should I still use spoiler tags? I'm going to use spoiler tags. 24601
It's official, the first major female superhero film has grossed more domestically than even Iron Man 3! It's currently sitting at #5 on the all-time domestic box office list. The only films to gross higher are either Batman sequels or about the Avengers. Way to go, Princess of Themyscira! 24601
Gravity is a very good film, as any critic will not hesitate to say. Just look at the 98% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Not too many movies get such a positive reception. People had their doubts, but I was never one of them, as I am an avid follower of Alfonso Cuarón and have been keeping track of this movie for a year. Cuarón is known for his dreamlike, pristine cinematography, and pat of how he gathers this feel is by combining elegant camera strokes with rarely practiced long cuts.
According to the first pages of Action Comics #1, Clark Kent's "physical structure was millions of years more advanced" than the ordinary human's. His strength was explained right away as being analogous to that of an ant's, which "can support weight hundred of times its own." His strength was, therefore, explained to be more a part of his "advanced" genetics rather than being tied to the physical demands of living on Krypton, which his species would have adapted to even when they were in thei
I put on my bowtie and visited my cousin's graduation party on May 12, the week before graduation. When I arrived, the number of pictures hit me. He didn't throw the party alone. He had a couple of good friends share the event. It was something I had wanted to do, though nobody wanted to cooperate with me. Then I looked at all of their pictures they had growing up. Almost every single picture was taken with friends while participating in strange and grand events that I knew nothing about.
I went to church, got a ride home, and was able to introduce one of my good church/college friends to my mother, who had come down from Minnesota to visit. It was, after all, my graduation. In the hours before the big ceremony, we did the only sensible thing, which was to eat at a restaurant with a buffet. We talked, we joked, and my Godfather wouldn't stop giving me a hard time about girls when I mentioned some of the events that happened at the senior campout. Somehow I couldn't convince
At first I thought that the last day of school was boring, except it wasn't. The school day itself was nothing remarkable, but the rest of the day was a blast from 11:59 PM onward. What we traditionally do as seniors is have a senior campout in the school parking lot. It's sponsored by nobody and everyone who comes brings their own food. We decided to start coming around around 8:30 to 9:00. The thing is with these kind of unofficial events is that we make like the Spaniards and come at le
How do I describe my last day of school? It was weird and hazy. I really wanted to start a food fight, but was talked out of it. Failing that, I really wanted to have a picnic, but nobody was in on the idea, even though I brought the food. Then I found out later that other people in my lunch period had served themselves a picnic, and I felt a little cheated and left out. Then I found out that it was purely among people in cooking class. Then I had a special lunch with my best friend. Tha
Immediately after the Awards Ceremony, I was offered a ride to the baccalaureate that night by the principle, since I didn't have any means of transportation myself. I shared a concern with him, that I was afraid I wouldn't be remembered. He thought that was ridiculous. I think he's right. The baccalaureate was out of town. Most people came. The first person I saw when I arrived was a girl who recently I've been becoming friends with. She was wearing her blue robes, and underneath those
It was on the Wednesday of May 16, and I apologize in advance for what I am about to say. Normally I am calm and collected in my writings, as if I have everything all together. A person like me, with such a clear vision of the world, shouldn't be so blind when it comes to himself, and yet this is a fine example of how my reasonable and my emotional realities don't align. All my friends won numerous awards. Pretty much everyone got mentioned. Tons of scholarships were given out, and there w
I had it written up, but then my computer crashed, and it wasn't saved. I AM SO FURIOUS! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! *goes on rampage* I AAAAAM GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!* *(I freaking** hate technology!) **(Only I didn't say "freaking.") 24601
I finally got him yesterday. In this blog entry, I'm not going to give him an official review of the set, but I'm going to tell you my thoughts and feelings after getting the Monster Gresh that I didn't have when I only had canister images and an advertisement with awesome action but a cheesy announcer. Let me tell you first the process of buying him, which was interesting in and of itself. I walked to Wal*Mart, in temperatures below zero with killer wind chill, all just to buy Strakk and th
It just occurred to me that Google Maps is a misnomer. It's more like Google Map. It's all one giant map. Also, I'm using it to find my way to the nearest offices of the Internal Revenue Services. I've been trying to get on top of all of my tax information for the better part of this year. Expect a rant on this later. 24601
