Big Day

so I already mentioned that my dad has cancer, well today is his surgery. I don't think anything bad is going to happen, but it is still surgery. I plan on stopping by today to see him after the surgery. He is in my prayers.

thoughts...

2 weeks to go in summer and all is well. Nothing much to mention except 2nd semester is alot harder, in fact the last 3-4 chapters are all brand new material. Should be interesting.

I have been thinking about writing a book of all of my UPS stories...I worked there for 5 years and have quite a few to share. My students seem to appreciate them and you know the saying sometimes truth is stranger than fiction? well that sums up UPS.

I do get off track don't I? I was going to list my favorite canceled shows like 2 weeks ago...ok well here they are in no particular order.

Everybody LovesRaymond
The Andy Griffith Show
King of Queens
Wings
Newsradio
Justice League Unlimited (I gotta do a write up on these guys to show my comic book nerdness)
Transformers Beast Wars (see above)
Star Trek: Enterprise
Magnum P.I.

that's pretty close to what I watch.

In terms of music this week...back to the Industrial Metal scene with a new band Divine Heresy - Bleed the Fifth. I heard a few songs on their myspace page and it sounds killer. Their guitarist used to be the guitarist of Fear Factory and this has early FF all over it.

My dad is going in for surgery for his prostate cancer. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. All I can say is that I am glad they found it early. I don't expect anything bad to happen, but it is still surgery.

Album of the moment

Ok so every now and then an album comes along, grabs my attention and then a few weeks later I forget about it. Then about 5 months later I listen to it and remember why I loved it the first time. Well Protest the Hero's Kezia is an album like that.

Protest the Hero is a band that falls under the metalcore genre, but they aren't metalcore. To me they are the closest thing to Into Eternity. If you know anything about Into Eternity, they play so many different genres of metal, but get labeled a progressive death metal band. Protest the Hero plays everything from thrash, rock, metalcore, and progressive in one song! Seriously, the time/tempo changes are amazing. You can be enjoying a heavy riff and then within a second go to a calming piano interlude. The drumming is top notch as well. I'm no expert in math metal, but to me it seems as though the drummer is using different times with his hands and feet. Guitars are switching from heavy riffs, to soloing, to just classic rock style. Vocally, the bands uses screams and clean "emo-style" vocals. There is defintely more clean than screams and there are also some female vocals thrown into the mix, but used as background vocals mostly.

I would say if you like that sort of music that is unpredictable then check out this band.

Protest the Hero's Myspace Page (4 songs from the album)

This could have been me

When I watch this video, it reminds of what could have been if I had stayed at UPS. Oh man...if you ever wondered what I looked like listening to music, this is pretty much it...air drums and all. Classic.

honesty...

well 1st semester is about 6 hours from being completed. I still feel that everyone is going to pass 1st semester, but who knows about 2nd...it's a different beast.

so I was thinking yesterday about how much better everything would be if people were just more honest. Seriously, I had to wait 2 1/2 hours for an oil change at the dealer yesterday. He could have told me they were backed up or something. When I went back after an hour and a half he told me that it would take 20 more minutes...he must have forgotten the 40 minutes on top of that.

Somewhere in this world we live in we changed to a society that doesn't want to hear the truth. Why? When talking with students, they get offended and sad when you tell them material is difficult or that if they don't master a concept they will fail. Well I can't say that because it hurts their self esteem and they feel defeated. Why not take it as..."hey I gotta do this to pass".

At UPS no one was honest. Whether it was lying about downtime or how much was left in the back...everyday a lie. And it was just accepted as the norm. Then when I was looking for a promotion no one would be honest as to tell me why I wasn't getting a serious look. For 4 years I got so many different excuses. It wasn't until my last week that I found out why...I was too honest with everyone. They didn't want to hear the truth...no I'm serious.

Honesty...I have always felt that being honest is the way to go. And I have decided that I will keep being honest with everyone despite the consequences.

The Sun Always Shines on T.V.: Are you kidding me?

Ok so I am watching t.v. this weekend and I am watching 3 of my favorite shows when I realize I didn't list them here. So let me add onto my favorite t.v. shows if you will.

1. The Soup - ok this show has a special place in my heart because when I was in high school and the first few years of college it was known as Talk Soup. Greg Kinnear was the host for the first few years and after he left the show it kinda went downhill until it was canceled. Well a few years ago I am flipping through the channels and find this t.v. sho showing highlights of other talk shows & reality ala Talk Soup. Then I find out the name... The Soup. Oh was I happy. The new host Joel McHale is a throw back to Greg Kinnear. He has a quick wit attitude and doesn't really care what he says. They make fun of The View, Rosie, Tyra, Oprah, and Maury...just like Talk Soup would have, but now they have reality shows to make fun of. You name it, they have probably made fun of it. You know I could talk about it but check out their YouTube page.
The Soup's YouTube Page
The Soup's Homepage

2. Robot Chicken - If you grew up in the 80's then this show is for you. Created by Seth Green, the show uses stop animation techniques with dolls to create short (like 1-2 minute or even 5 second) clips based upon pop culture. Let me put it this way, the first episode had Optimus Prime getting prostate cancer. Ok that's not too funny, but then when he dies he transformed into a casket...that's funny. Robot Chicken just had a big Star Wars episode. As a Star Wars fan, watching some of the clips were hilarious...whether it be Darth Vader telling Luke that he created C3P-0 or a janitor picking up the bodies at the bottom of all these pits where the villains fall down. If you are a fan of Star Wars check that out. In fact you can watch the entire episode on their site HERE.
Robot Chicken Homepage

3. Best Week Ever - ok in a nutshell, this is like The Soup only with a bunch of people commenting about shows instead of one guy. It works mainly because of the editing. The way they switch between comments is what makes it funny. This show started because of all of the I Love the ____ shows VH1 was doing, so they created a weekly show. They have free podcasts of the show at Itunes as well. So basically if you like The Soup, you will like BWE.
Best Week Ever Homepage


BTW, for any of these shows, if you want to see some clips (or whole episdes) just go to YouTube and type in the show...something is bound to come up.

Ok next time, my favorite canceled shows.