Ok I think I've finally figured out a way.

I think I've finally figured out my new posting schedule. I'm going to try to do this at least once a month now. Whenever I do get around to updating, I'll set a status in gchat to let everyone know. Also, I will try to stick to a fairly regular schedule, updating around the end of a month. I will always make at least one post a month. In addition, if interesting things continue to happen, I might start doing this more often (like twice a month). That ties in well to what I wanted to get to next, I apologize in advance for what I anticipate will be quite a long post. I'll try to keep it reasonable. At the very least, remember you have at least 2-3 weeks to read this, so don't feel like you need to do it all in one sitting. I've ramble enough here, so I think I'll just get going on the post.

First off, check out this article. What the heck, Marvel? First you kill Captain America and now Fire Man (The Human Torch)? I get it, you hate me! And what' worse, they're replacing him in the Fantastic Four with Spiderman of all people. With every new comic they produce, they find new ways to disappoint me.

Theology of Peace:
So in news of classes, my opinions of classes have changed since last time. Especially for this class and my macro class. In the case of this class, it really seems like a class designed for people that haven't figured out their lives yet. Everyone in the class (save for myself and a couple other cool guys) are very emotional people and it can get kind of frustrating for the three of us since we are guided by logic. Another issue I have with the class is it needs a name change. It should be called Theology, then Peace because we are not learning about theology and peace together; we are separating the two. The professor was in El Salvador during the civil war they had in the '80s, so she has some interesting stories, but that's as cool as it gets. In many other ways, she will preach something one minute and do the opposite the next. For example, she recently brought up "violent" turns of phrase such as "Bite the hand that feeds you" and other things like that that suggest violence. She then proceeded to suggest that we not use them. Just today, she used another phrase, "Throw the baby out with the bathwater"(yes it's a real turn of phrase). But the point is, did she not realize what she just told us earlier in the quarter? In addition to that, it's ridiculous to assume that someone is using a "violent" turn of phrase in a malicious way in my opinion. She has actually missed a few classes because she has had surgery for her hand earlier in the quarter, so she had a friend of hers fill in. He is a lot peppier than her and it's nice to start the day with him. He's also an expert on the El Salvador Civil War, which is what we've been learning about. That has been cool to have his knowledge about that since it's a fairly interesting topic.

One day in the class, the professor was setting  up (or at least trying to) a video for us to watch and was having trouble. She called for a techno genius to come up and help her. Now, I know enough about technology to know that I would not consider myself a genius in that field, but I have learned that tech genius level for her falls well within my abilities. One other guy came up to help her though before I volunteered. I decided to keep an eye on the situation anyway. She was trying to load a DVD into the DVD player, but kept putting it into the PC and couldn't understand why the DVD wasn't playing (the projector was on the DVD player input. The guy helping her couldn't figure it out either, so finally I leaned back to tell her "If you want it to play from the DVD player, you have to put the disc in the DVD player." She took it out of the computer and put it in the DVD player and it worked. She asked me how I knew which one was the DVD player and I responded "PCs typically don't have VHS slots."

In general, the class is pretty light. I can't tell if it's either graded easily or if I'm getting good at faking the emotions I need. Either way, I've put as much thought as I think I need to into papers and essays so far and I'm doing exceptional in the class, so I see no incentive to stop doing it there. Fortunately also, videogames have only come up once the entire quarter. I didn't say anything in their defense because the girl talking about them had a valid point. She wanted to know whether people playing FPS games would still play if they actually felt the pain of being shot. I suppose she's correct, they would probably not. The girl I like from frisbee still sits next to me in the class, so that is nice. Between this class getting out and my next class (and hers which starts at the same time) we will go to the building where our classes are and talk or something for the 10-15 minutes between classes. Sometimes it is longer, but only if the theology class ends early. Talking with her has been pretty nice, even though it seems we are both as awkward as each other (or maybe I'm just so awkward I bring people down to my level (I like to think that is not the case)) which is something Davis seemed to find great humour in. She hasn't shown up to frisbee practice as much this quarter as she did last quarter, but when she does, it's pretty cool to have someone else to talk to besides the usual guys that I see every time.

I realized recently that the makeup of my school friends is very different from what it was in high school or even what it was last year and the year before. The last couple of years were kind of a stepping stone, with me hanging out with more girls than I did in highschool. Currently, if I am not alone or in a class, I am hanging out with a girl. Outside of frisbee, all the friends that I consider hanging out with regularly are girls. Uh oh, am I becoming the gay friend? Curse you, friend zone!!! One day, I shall break you!

Financial Systems and Economic Development:
I finally learned the name of the course! I was wrong about this professor, I have taken quite a liking to her. She is very tough, but once you have a few classes with you, you learn she is actually very funny. She has kind of a deadpan sense of humour; she will say very funny things and never crack a smile, always acting very serious. I've only seen her smile twice this quarter. One of those times was in class (she was pumping us up for a test and said something that made herself laugh (and by laugh, I mean chuckle before catching herself and going back to serious mode)) and the other time was when she probably didn't even notice I saw her. Speaking of being observant like that, I have noticed she is as observant as I am. She picks up private conversations from halfway across the room (my curse of selective hearing and the reason I read people's lips when there is a lot of background noise). She also has a photographic memory which is something people have thought I had in the past, but I know I do not. She does have a very great memory though. It's pretty neat.

The thing I like best about this class is that she expects a lot of all the students, but at the same time, it has never been more clear what is expected of me. She is really into transparency and she will give you the reason for why she does everything and explains how every aspect of the class is going to work. I'm glad this class falls in 10:00-noon time area because I don't have much trouble staying awake then for some reason. Coupled with the fact that I am terrified of what she might do if I fall asleep (I'm being dramatic, she is very subtle about waking me up the couple times it has happened), I have little problem staying awake in the class.

From that class, I have a break before my next one. I typically head to the library at that point and hit up a cubicle to get work done or watch minecraft videos before the next class.

Law, Politics, and Society:
This class has been pretty smooth. The people in the class are nice as is the professor. There is one lady though that has a hearing disability that was either not properly treated for the first 3 weeks of the quarter or has gotten rapidly worse since the start of the quarter. She's been finding more and more intrusive ways to require assistance. None of them have directly affected me though, so I don't particularly mind. She often has ASL translators come in, which has actually been nice for me too because those people like to really mouth the words, so that helps my comprehension go up because I like to read lips in addition to hearing. I also am interested in ASL (not learning, just viewing), so that has been fun to watch too. Recently, she also brought in a lady that had some contraption that copied down the entire lecture word for word as it was spoken onto a computer screen that she could read. It was pretty neat and I don't understand how it works. Now the problems with her are that she frequently comes in late, we're talking half an hour, not some petty lateness. She also has displaced people recently with her new equipment which kind of sucks because those people had their seats claimed for the first 6 weeks of the quarter and all of a sudden, they were taken when the lady was doing fine in her other seats. Again though, none of this directly affects me, so I don't personally feel anything against her.

I think the professor of this class has taken a liking to me because I tend to say smart things or perhaps it's because I think like a lawyer. Perhaps it's both, but she seems to have been supportive of my answers that I've given to questions lately, which is always nice.

From that class, I've typically been going back to the cubicles until I leave. Recently, I decided to get back into going to the gym. The new years resolutions people finally wore off around midterms, so there has been room to move in there again. Unfortunately, the gym is going to be closed for the next couple of weeks due to construction. They're renovating it for next fall, so they are screwing around with the standing structure in the meantime.

As for frisbee, that is going well too. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but for a long time, everyone thought I was a freshman. It took some time, but I think almost everyone on the team now knows that I am actually a junior transfer student and that is why I haven't been around the past couple of years. It seems like there are only about 3 or 4 of us regulars that are juniors (myself, the two captains, and one other guy). There are two regulars that are seniors, one regular that is a second year law student, and the rest are freshmen. I also recently found out that I'm the only legitimate lefty on the team. The other left handed guy (who people often mistake for me because we look similar (except I have facial hair) turns out to be right handed in real life, he just throws lefty for some reason. Oh well, we can't all be born great. I admire his dedication to try to make himself better.

I can't quite tell how valuable I am to the team right now. I haven't felt confident since that tournament in Oregon in November where it felt like I had to be babysat on the field. I'm sure it wasn't seen like that, but I was pretty unimpressed with my level of play. Since then, I've received feedback on my play ranging from light suggestions of how to do something better to being considered someone that looks like he knows what he's doing. I don't know for sure where I stand, but I feel pretty confident about my standing I guess. We had a scrimmage a couple weeks ago and I was picked fourth, which was pretty surprising for me. I was picked over players I thought were better than me, so that was a confidence booster.

In another quite note about frisbee, I finally got new cleats. My old ones were from the last two years of playing with the lazerbeams, so they were at least 5 years old. They had gotten to the point where the top of the shoe was detatching from the soles, so by the end of their lives, I had duct taped around them to prevent them not only from leaking (the grass we played on was frequently wet, making for uncomfortable playing once my socks got wet), but also to just hold them together. I went out and got new cleats recently though and I'm really liking them. They're football cleats (couldn't find any lacrosse ones) and they're called "Land Sharks." After I saw that name, I knew I had to get it because of the meaning of that term in a frisbee context (hit up urbandictionary if you're curious).

Around the house and at the rest of the family's houses, it seems like nobody can keep their stuff straight without me. My mom got mad at our internet recently and reset the router. That was a fun time spent getting it back up. At least our new password isn't 20 characters long though. I was glad about that. I'm not really complaining about having to do more work here, quite the opposite. Being needed more by the family makes me feel more vindicated for remaining at home while I'm pursuing my undergraduate degree (besides the convenience and cost saved by staying at home). I am planning on moving out though after I graduate, so heads up to all of you. Maybe by then, Keir will come here for law school (hint hint). Either way, that decision is a ways off at this point.

I still go to Steven's every Saturday where he and I play Munchkin (and now some Wii as well) with Chris and Eric. A few weeks ago, Steven was looking at the Guild Wars 2 page because he was reminiscing about his time spent playing an MMO. We joked with him a bit and I reiterated the point that I would only get GW2 if Steven got and if he would play with me because I didn't want to spend that much time playing alone or playing catchup, especially with SC2 being out. Anyway long story short, a couple days later, he emailed me saying he reinstalled it. I did as well and now we've been getting back into it since seeing how close we were to completing our hall of monuments for Guild Wars 2. We've decided we want to try to get to 50/50 (he is close than I am) and/or the God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals title. As far as gaming goes, that is mainly what I've been doing since the end of January. This time around, Guild Wars is better. Steven and I play together and we don't pull ludicrous hours anymore. We get bored with it for the night at more normal rates, so it keeps us from going crazy with it again. Once Chris gets his laptop back though, I think we'll wind up doing a bit more Minecraft as well again because there are some modes we want to try out.

Ok well I hope I didn't forget anything in there. I'll try to get the word out in my status on gchat tomorrow (or later today, it's Friday as I'm posting this (I know I'm late, sorry -_-)). I might try to post before the end of the quarter, but it does end in exactly one month, so we'll see. If you feel like you want to know something more about anything that's going on, feel free to chat me up sometime. I'm generally not doing anything important. At least not so important I can't set it down for a bit. Anyway, until later, peace out.

Well I got my prediction right for the Superbowl, so I guess going 6 for 11 isn't so bad in the end. This was a pretty great season for football, getting to see some new teams making the playoffs and generally seeing a more competitive scene with all the teams performing what some critics considered to be rather mediocrely. I like when teams aren't undefeated going into week 11 and I really like when the last two weeks of the season still matter. I hope next season is just as good. Fantasy football starts in late August, so try to drum up some support if you can.

And now to make a longshot prediction for next season. I'm going to abandon the Texans for this time (sad, I know) given how the second half of their season went. I'm not going to say to watch the NFC West for the Rams or the Seahawks either, though I think both will have winning records next season. The team I am picking to do much better than they have in recent times next season is...........The Browns! Hopefully I am right and Colt McCoy uses his superpowers to turn that team into a playoff contender. Perhaps he will even lead them to their first ever Superbowl (though I doubt they'll have that dramatic of a change in one season). I do think they will do much better than this season though, even though they are in a tough defensive division with the Ravens and the Steelers.

I'll make a regular post on Thursday. Feel free to bug me relentlessly if I forget.

Well looks like I'm still no better at predicting football than your average coin. Good thing I didn't pick the pro bowl too because I would have lost that. I figured the AFC would just start the entire Patriots team, but they did not, so maybe that's why they lost. Anyway, it's time to pick the superbowl champion!

Packers vs. Steelers: Packers by 10 points:
The Steelers are hot, they've been hot, they'll be hot for a few years to come. They have the playoff experience that Aaron Rodgers and the Packers don't have. The Packers have shown this season though and especially in the playoffs that they are an offensive force to be reckoned with and their defense is also excellent. While the Steelers will stop a large chunk of the points that could be scored by the Packers, it won't be enough. The Packers utilize every chance they get to score, so the Steelers will need to step it up on offense to match that, which is something I am still waiting for them to really do this season (at least not when they're playing the Browns). Packers win, I go 6 of 11 and feel slightly less ashamed at how my postseason picks went. Don't let me down Packers!