Foreign Drivers

10 bucks says it was an Asian

              Ok, ok.. I know this topic might seem a little racist. But honestly: today, while my fiancé's mother, my fiancé, and I were driving, we were rear ended at a stop sign by a little South African woman who wasn't looking the right way. This marks the 2nd time in 2 days that I've been in an accident involving a minority who was at fault (Yesterday my fiance couldn't react in time to slow from 40-0 cause a Chinese mother decided to brake hard for a squirrel). So, I propose, the theory of bad foreign driving, based off of general knowledge, internet videos and pictures.

1. Anyone from a non-English speaking country drives poorly (This is general)
2. There is a noticeable difference when comparing drivers from the US/UK/Germany and Asia
3. Africans have cars???
4. Because Mr. Ford was American, and cars have been here the longest, 1 and 2 correlate well as our society has had a century to master them.
5. Asian driving laws are extremely lax... see any videos of Indian/Japanese/Chinese intersections.. and extremely dangerous drivers are commonplace, not the exception.
6. MXC... nuf said.

Alright, alright.. I'm sorry for the quasi-racism, but there does seem to be a substantial amount of proof that these people can't drive well. I'm sorry to the decent non-American/European drivers out there, and I commend you, cause you are far and few between.

Here's a video if you had put your politically correct ideals aside for a couple minutes while reading this and will continue to do so while watching the below.

"Ilium" book review

Dan Simmons' Ilium (Locus Award Winner 2004)

         Next on the list: a brief review of Ilium, a book I recently read and highly recommend to any serious sci-fi/fantasy fans.

      Ilium portrays the lives of several people far in the future--namely the reborn scholic Hockenberry in a futuristic, terraformed Mars where the Greek gods oversee the great Trojan war as fictionalized in Homer's Iliad/Odyssey, a moravec (space robot)--Mahnmut of Europa who has an avid interest in Shakespeare's sonnets, and the eloi-human Harman of a futuristic, Orson Welles' The Time Traveler inspired Earth filled with naive humans while evil gods from another dimension threaten the fabric of the entire universe.

       As you may be able to tell from the huge sentence I just wrote, this book is damn complicated. But Dan Simmons manages to weave this highly intertextual "literary science fiction" piece well--there is much character development from the lowly Harman to the Greek gods themselves; along with plenty of action, amazing mind-pictures and panoramas, romance, greed, destruction, and violence. Even those who wouldn't consider themselves sci-fi readers would probably find Ilium a great read.

        Simmons manages not to have any glaring plot holes, grammar errors, or generally annoying literary mistakes--he also honors the literature that he pulls elements from--perhaps inspiring further interest in Prousts' In Search of Lost Time, Homer's works: the Iliad and the Odyssey, along with Shakespearen sonnets and many other titles. However, this is a book that will probably never be required reading--it's too entertaining and interesting.

         At 731 pages, Ilium requires a lot of time investment. But if I've piqued your interest enough, it's well worth it to read.

Schwarzy ol' Schwarzenegger

           So I heard today that the Govenator has had yet another pitfall in his life outside of California's failing budget, the rise of gang warfare throughout cities there, and the fact that his muscles are rapidly atrophying as he gets old: Schwarzy's got a love child. After investigation by reporters (this came after the former governor announced his divorce with Ms. Shriver) they found out that one of his staffers had been impregnated by the pro bodybuilder.. during his marriage. This makes for some juicy stuff, California! I'm expecting a movie within 4 years (Michael Bay, undoubtedly, with explosions and fireworks in the background as Schwarzy enters the bedroom...) Full article--thanks to CNN--below. 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/17/california.schwarzenegger/?hpt=T1

No wonder Shriver's leaving him

Teardrop in a Waterfall

         Today, I decided to get on this blogging bandwagon for the first time. I've been pretty tech-savvy all my life, but I never extended my view to this interesting and diverse new world. In a way, I'm excited. There's so many options, so much I could write about, but you know what they say--reality is stranger than fiction. And that's the material I suppose I'll discuss first--it's kinda relevant to us all. So, a quick rundown of my thoughts and what events occurred in my seemingly insignificant (but highly important to yours truly) life today.

• My fiancé and I got into a wreck today (a small fender-bender) because those wonderful Asian drivers love to drive 15 in a 35 and stop suddenly. Her war-torn Ford Fiesta was towed away, undrivable, while their SUV drove off with a couple scratches. They refused to give us their insurance information until the police showed up an hour later, and barely spoke any English.. fun stuff. A picture (it's not the best) of the damage.. 

As you can tell, the fender is practically coming off and the hood is all bent up.
Her car was leaking radiator fluid and smoke came out of the vents for a moment. 

• Had to fill out paperwork for a couple hours for a new job as a data processing intern--perhaps a sign of times to come? Then I found out that they couldn't process any of it until they received a second form of ID. They also couldn't administer the state-required drug test on site.. had to wait for an hour at a clinic for a 5 minute test.
• Reorganized my small room into something that I can actually be happy in... feng shui is present now! 
• Watched the season finale of Chuck and Castle. Surprises in both, but I was amused by Morgan getting the Intercept uploaded, Chuck on a superbike, and other entertaining shows. I don't watch TV often, but I have my old favorites that I'm glad I can come back to.
• Also reorganized my computer--Rocketdock (http://rocketdock.com/) is an amazing application, along with Rainmeter (http://rainmeter.net/RainCMS/)--if you are adept with computers and want to have something other than a typical bland desktop. Got rid of that old yucky IE9-- went with Chrome (or Firefox) for better speed in the interwebs dept. Here's a preview of my desktop... quite minimalist. 

    Well, this newfangled blogging apparatus seems to be working out quite well--I think I'm addicted already. Hope y'all enjoyed my rambling.. I promise I won't post too often.