Blog of Josh Hall

you’d think if they have the time and means to make green ketchup, they could make orange juice that doesn’t suck before or after toothpaste.

Thinking about how parents and adults curse the name of video games because they are too violent. They said these games shouldn’t be created at all. I am curious to how these same people react to the invasion of iraq. Is it just a matter of having “justification” for violence? Is it different because they can’t see it? Is it different because it can be thought of as patriotic? Does that make any of the World War II games more acceptable? What do they think about the military releasing their own game, America’s Army? I think if they don’t allow kids to engage in virtual violence, that they wouldn’t let them participate in any real army violence, meaning not enlisting at all. I guess i can’t really say too much without getting some actual data, but it would be interesting to query some parents in the mall, first asking them if they think video games are too violent and need to be stopped, and then asking them if they support the soldiers killing people. You might even go as far as calling video games training for war, and by not letting your kid play, could make their chances for surviving in war less, if there were ever a draft. How slanted is that!?

I have always wanted to start my own business customizing things. It started off with thinking it would be cool to have a guitar amp that was like a sphere, with 4 speakers around it, and the jack on top, and people could play out in a crown with this amp, so everyone got the sound. It would be cool for parties, or street shows. Then i thought about how i like to customize things, and seeing things like computer cases and cars, i think it would be a great business. We’d have laser etchers, metal fabricators, painters, carpenters, artists, the whole works, and we could customize anything you wanted. the company name would be “Custom Eyes”

so we have this special occasion speech (SOS) tonight, and we had to submit an outline for it. There were no examples for it in the syllabus, no examples in the SOS section on the webpage, and no criteria listed anywhere for it. She was saying last week that it was a very easy one, and it’s only 3-4 minutes. So i basically submitted an outline along those lines of simplicity. She suggested things like wedding toasts, so i thought i would do a mock one for my sister. So i submitted something like:

I Serah and me as kids
II What I first thought of Mike
III How I think the two of them will get along in the future.

this is what i got back:

“What is this, a joke? Why would you even submit this? It clearly does not meet any of the assignment’s criteria. I hope you take the delivery of your speech much more seriously.”

Can you believe this?!?! I seriously want to report her. how the crap is that supposed to help me in any way? she gives me no constructive criticism, not telling me anything about where i went wrong, and it’s down right offensive.

So, i wrote back:

“Ouch. You’re being very harsh. There is no example for this outline anywhere. There is no outline section under speech 5. There is nothing about the requirement for the SOS outline in the syllabus. I have never done an outline for a SOS before. I can’t meet criteria if I don’t know what they are and I don’t understand them. I thought it was a simple assigment and did the best that I could think of given the simplicity of the speech. Perhaps that is where I err. So, I apologize if my efforts were offensive to you, and I feel quite insignificant for you thinking it was some sort of a joke. I guess the only joke here is me, as a student.”

the fact that her appearance and personality remind me of an X girl friend do not help either. I can’t stand her now.

So i have been trying to lose weight and get in shape and eat right and all that jazz. I usually eat one meal a day, and everyone was telling me that the key to good weight loss is to eat more small meals rather than large meals. They say to eat a breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The more i tried to change my eating habits, the more i realized that it wasn’t going to work. This meal plan is formulated for the average person who wakes up in the morning, and goes to bed at night. I wake up at 3:30am, go to work, come home at noon, go to bed from ~3 to ~6, up for a while and back to bed at ~12 to do it all over. so if we are supposed to have 3 meals a day, what constitutes a day in my case? bodies don’t know days and nights, and hours. They measure things with muscular exertion, how much rest they have had, and all that jazz. The only thing that has validity is the practice of not eating before you get to bed. With me though, I am never sure when to eat because i could go to sleep within the next hour or two at any time either than work. And all i do at work is sit on my butt, so it’s not like I want to eat before that and just sit there. My whole life, i’ve never really been hungry consistently, like i could go for 2 days without eating, and i don’t feel that hunger in my stomach, and i’ve done it before. Sometimes, i just forget to eat altogether. So far i’ve been trying to eat a bowl of cereal in the morning, and either eat as soon as i get home or later on when i wake back up, and it seems to be working. i’m down to 198 or so, and i want to get down to 190. I just find it interesting how people can put this blanket diet guide out there, but not really give any building blocks for those with alternative lifestyles to build their own structure. I know guys who live on the geek calendar of 36 hour days, what should they do?

(Upon talking about a college-aged kid who was killed by a car while riding his bicycle) “I bet he wasn’t thinking about dying. He was just out riding his bike. Funny how we distract ourselves with life.”