Well folks, I have another serious post for you.
A few years back, my town heard we were going to have some unwanted visitors. Anyone ever hear of Fred Phelps or his family? The family from the Westboro Baptist Church, the ones that make outrageous claims against gay people and the soldiers in Iraq? If you have no idea what I'm taking about, take a minute or two and watch the following videos.
There you have it, nuts in a nutshell. In any case, these people came to my town's Mayor's Cup, and decided it'd be a good idea to protest against our gay mayor and say that he's doomed to hell and the like. This didn't bother me too incredibly much. After all, while Phelps was essentially protesting our mayor's sexuality, he was also protesting the town, and by doing that we united, backed up our mayor, and many joined the "Stop Hate" program. He eventually left... but guess what! He's coming back.
This time, he's not attacking the mayor (who's now out of office), he's attacking our schools. My high school and SUNY Plattsburgh are his new targets. My high school likes to promote tolerance, and therefore started a GSA (Gay Straight Alliance), which a friend of mine was head of, and one of the founders for our school. Many students are members.
SUNY Plattsburgh also has a similar program I believe called the Laramie Project, which they focus on Matthew Shepard, the man who was murdered and tied to a fence for being gay.
All these programs do is promote peace and acceptance. Phelps and his little followers believe however that the people involved in this program are "sinners". So now they're planning a trip back here to protest at our schools.
This infuriates me. Kids, regardless of what gender(s) they want to sleep with have every single right to go to school without being hassled about who they decide to love. I wish I still went to that dreadful little high school, just so I could show them a thing or two. The thing that really gets to me, is the fact that what these people are doing is perfectly legal! This shit needs to end. Protesting should be preserved for things that improve the quality of life for other people, not for things that make people feel shitty about their lives and to promote hatred to a minority.
These people are part of the reason I'm an atheist. I don't want any part of some religious cult or otherwise. I like knowing that I have control of my life. I like believing that you're not a sinner for loving someone. More importantly, it's nice believing that masturbation isn't a sin either... If it is, I'm certainly going to this alleged "hell" faster than anyone else. I accept everyone regardless of their race, religion, orientation, whatever.
I'm not saying people who have a solid religion are all crazy like these people... That's certainly not what I mean. I have the upmost respect for any religion that doesn't preach hatred. These people, however, have not earned that respect.
Anyway, I felt I needed to say something about this. People like this who believe in causing torment in the lives of other people should be locked up and put in a looney bin if you ask me. I think lighting them on fire is a more fitting answer, but who am I to decide their fate.
I more than welcome your thoughts and opinions about anything mentioned in this blog.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Watch your mouth!
Today at my college was a special day. We had a fire drill! I've been at this school now for over 3 semesters, and not once have we had a fire drill. I was in the cafeteria and apparently it was someone's brilliant idea to not install fire alarms in teh cafeteria. I can't imagine why they would anyway. Lets face it, fires don't happen in places involving food and stoves. That's unheard of!
In any case, my friend Wendy and I went outside in the freezing cold air and stood around and joked about the people around us. I then reminded her of last week's episode of The Office, where they also had a fire drill. I then started quoting it and laughing about it.
As we were going back inside after the drill, I quoted this one part where Michael Scott said, "Stay fucking calm! JUST STAY FUCKING CALM!" and this lady who works at the school turned around and said, "HEY! Watch your mouth!" and she gave me a seriously angry look. I was so offended! I mean, not only was I not actually cursing at anyone in particular, but she has absolutely no right to tell me what I can and cannot say. I'm less then 2 weeks away from being 20 years old, and I don't need some old bat telling me to watch my mouth. Regardless of whether or not I was saying anything vulgar to her or anyone around me is none of her business. People really just need to let things go and not try to control what other people do or say. It was really asinine.
In any case, my friend Wendy and I went outside in the freezing cold air and stood around and joked about the people around us. I then reminded her of last week's episode of The Office, where they also had a fire drill. I then started quoting it and laughing about it.
As we were going back inside after the drill, I quoted this one part where Michael Scott said, "Stay fucking calm! JUST STAY FUCKING CALM!" and this lady who works at the school turned around and said, "HEY! Watch your mouth!" and she gave me a seriously angry look. I was so offended! I mean, not only was I not actually cursing at anyone in particular, but she has absolutely no right to tell me what I can and cannot say. I'm less then 2 weeks away from being 20 years old, and I don't need some old bat telling me to watch my mouth. Regardless of whether or not I was saying anything vulgar to her or anyone around me is none of her business. People really just need to let things go and not try to control what other people do or say. It was really asinine.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
"Jewelry, This is Dianne!"
I love pranks. I love plotting them, pulling them on people, and watching their usually horrified reaction. Lets face it, the best pranks are the ones that are borderline mean, but still funny.
One of my all time favorite pranks is one I pulled on my friend Dianne when she and I worked at Sears. I was working in the shoe department, and she was working in the adjacent department, jewelry.
One night, sometime last August, it was really slow I felt like being a little mean, so I devised a brilliant idea.
When you use the phones at Sears, there's numerous nifty things you can do with it. For instance, if you hit "8-1" you go over the intercom. If you hit "*-8", you can talk to another department over the speakerphone on their phone, which usually subsequently scares the crap out of them. Scaring people like that though is a bit tired, but still a little funny, especially when you make noises into the phone. It's also fun to do that and pretend to be a customer and say "Hello, ma'am? Can you help me over here?" and then watch them from afar say "Where are you? How can I help you?" ... It's pretty great.
Anyway, I picked up the phone in my department and hit "8-1" to go over the intercom, and set the phone very carefully on the table. I then went over to Dianne and told her a customer was calling about a watch that had broken and they apparently had a problem using the switchboard to get to the right department. So I asked her to come over and take the call.
As she was leaving her booth, a manager stopped her and asked her to start putting the jewelry away since we were closing soon, but Dianne told her she had to take a call in my department. The manager understood and said to do it after and that she'd wait for her in the department (managers have to watch associates put the jewelry away for security reasons). Dianne came over and I carefully handed her the phone as to not make any noise. When she put the phone up to her face to answer the call, throughout the entire store rang the words...
"JEWELRY, THIS IS DIANNE!"
She then stared straight ahead and hung up the phone quickly. The look on her face was absolutely priceless. I still laugh to myself whenever I picture it. She promised she'd get me back even worse, and I'm still waiting for it. I looked at the manager, who at this point was trying really hard to look angry, but even she couldn't help but grin a little. She did manage to say "Phil! That's not what the phones are for!"
Dianne, thank you for having a sense of humor.
One of my all time favorite pranks is one I pulled on my friend Dianne when she and I worked at Sears. I was working in the shoe department, and she was working in the adjacent department, jewelry.
One night, sometime last August, it was really slow I felt like being a little mean, so I devised a brilliant idea.
When you use the phones at Sears, there's numerous nifty things you can do with it. For instance, if you hit "8-1" you go over the intercom. If you hit "*-8", you can talk to another department over the speakerphone on their phone, which usually subsequently scares the crap out of them. Scaring people like that though is a bit tired, but still a little funny, especially when you make noises into the phone. It's also fun to do that and pretend to be a customer and say "Hello, ma'am? Can you help me over here?" and then watch them from afar say "Where are you? How can I help you?" ... It's pretty great.
Anyway, I picked up the phone in my department and hit "8-1" to go over the intercom, and set the phone very carefully on the table. I then went over to Dianne and told her a customer was calling about a watch that had broken and they apparently had a problem using the switchboard to get to the right department. So I asked her to come over and take the call.
As she was leaving her booth, a manager stopped her and asked her to start putting the jewelry away since we were closing soon, but Dianne told her she had to take a call in my department. The manager understood and said to do it after and that she'd wait for her in the department (managers have to watch associates put the jewelry away for security reasons). Dianne came over and I carefully handed her the phone as to not make any noise. When she put the phone up to her face to answer the call, throughout the entire store rang the words...
"JEWELRY, THIS IS DIANNE!"
She then stared straight ahead and hung up the phone quickly. The look on her face was absolutely priceless. I still laugh to myself whenever I picture it. She promised she'd get me back even worse, and I'm still waiting for it. I looked at the manager, who at this point was trying really hard to look angry, but even she couldn't help but grin a little. She did manage to say "Phil! That's not what the phones are for!"
Dianne, thank you for having a sense of humor.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Jean Grey is possessed!
...And not by the Phoenix either...
My favorite X-Men of all time is Jean Grey, hands down. She's got cool powers, and she's hot... and she has a cool personality. That's important too, right? If you're new to the whole "X-Men" thing, you can find out more about Jean here.
In any case, she has a costume in a green mini skirt which I've always liked. It sported a rather geeky mask, but I really liked the look because it was very "retro" and was the coolest costume before she ever came in contact with the Phoenix. In recent months, they've advertised a statue of her in this very costume, pictured below:
So anyway, my Dad ordered this for me awhile ago for my birthday. It came in today (a lot earlier than I expected), and he gave it to me a few weeks early from by birthday, which if you don't know, is February 18th.
Needless to say, I was really excited to get this today. I have a pretty extensive statue collection, but I finally have my favorite character in my favorite costume ever.
I opened it up and instantly made a spot for it on one of my statue shelves, in the middle of Nightcrawler, Rogue, Storm, and Cyclops. I wanted to then show everyone my new statue, and what better way than to take a picture of it with my phone and send it to everyone, right?
I got out my phone and proceeded to take a picture of her. When I went to send the picture, however, I noticed the file was corrupt. That's happened before if it instantly saves the pic to my memory card, so I went to the options menu and checked where it was saving, and it was already saving to the phone, so I switched it to the memory card. I tried again to get a good picture of her, but the file was still corrupt. I then thought maybe the lights were too bright, so I adjusted the lighting on the statue, and was still unable to take a picture of her.
I then lifted my phone up a little bit, for shits and giggles, and went to take a picture of the shelf directly above her. I wasn't able to. Then I told my Mom my camera on my phone was broken and I'd have to go to Verizon (again) and get it fixed. I went to take a picture of my cat to show her what it was doing, but it worked this time.
Excited that my phone probably wasn't broken, I went back in my room and went to take a picture of Jean. Still corrupt. Then I decided I'd take a pic of an adjacent statue, and I was able to take a picture of Nightcrawler, Storm, Cyclops, and Rogue, but still not Jean!
I stood back a little and tried to get a group shot. Still couldn't take the picture. Thinking maybe it's the position of the statue on the shelf getting some interference, I moved my Rogue statue off the shelf and moved Jean to where Rogue was standing, and I still wasn't able to take a picture. My Mom and I were getting really creeped out.
Finally, I took the statue into the living room where I was finally able to get a picture of her.
What the heck? Is she haunted or something? I mean jeez. That was kind of ridiculous. She's now on my statue shelf right next to my computer, just looking at me. My other statues are too, but not the way she is.
STOP LOOKING AT ME, JEAN!
I swear to God, I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning with bloody hand prints all over my room. That'd be scary as hell.
Update: I'm alive! And there were also no bloody hand prints. Anyway, here's the picture I was able to get...
My favorite X-Men of all time is Jean Grey, hands down. She's got cool powers, and she's hot... and she has a cool personality. That's important too, right? If you're new to the whole "X-Men" thing, you can find out more about Jean here.
In any case, she has a costume in a green mini skirt which I've always liked. It sported a rather geeky mask, but I really liked the look because it was very "retro" and was the coolest costume before she ever came in contact with the Phoenix. In recent months, they've advertised a statue of her in this very costume, pictured below:
So anyway, my Dad ordered this for me awhile ago for my birthday. It came in today (a lot earlier than I expected), and he gave it to me a few weeks early from by birthday, which if you don't know, is February 18th.
Needless to say, I was really excited to get this today. I have a pretty extensive statue collection, but I finally have my favorite character in my favorite costume ever.
I opened it up and instantly made a spot for it on one of my statue shelves, in the middle of Nightcrawler, Rogue, Storm, and Cyclops. I wanted to then show everyone my new statue, and what better way than to take a picture of it with my phone and send it to everyone, right?
I got out my phone and proceeded to take a picture of her. When I went to send the picture, however, I noticed the file was corrupt. That's happened before if it instantly saves the pic to my memory card, so I went to the options menu and checked where it was saving, and it was already saving to the phone, so I switched it to the memory card. I tried again to get a good picture of her, but the file was still corrupt. I then thought maybe the lights were too bright, so I adjusted the lighting on the statue, and was still unable to take a picture of her.
I then lifted my phone up a little bit, for shits and giggles, and went to take a picture of the shelf directly above her. I wasn't able to. Then I told my Mom my camera on my phone was broken and I'd have to go to Verizon (again) and get it fixed. I went to take a picture of my cat to show her what it was doing, but it worked this time.
Excited that my phone probably wasn't broken, I went back in my room and went to take a picture of Jean. Still corrupt. Then I decided I'd take a pic of an adjacent statue, and I was able to take a picture of Nightcrawler, Storm, Cyclops, and Rogue, but still not Jean!
I stood back a little and tried to get a group shot. Still couldn't take the picture. Thinking maybe it's the position of the statue on the shelf getting some interference, I moved my Rogue statue off the shelf and moved Jean to where Rogue was standing, and I still wasn't able to take a picture. My Mom and I were getting really creeped out.
Finally, I took the statue into the living room where I was finally able to get a picture of her.
What the heck? Is she haunted or something? I mean jeez. That was kind of ridiculous. She's now on my statue shelf right next to my computer, just looking at me. My other statues are too, but not the way she is.
STOP LOOKING AT ME, JEAN!
I swear to God, I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning with bloody hand prints all over my room. That'd be scary as hell.
Update: I'm alive! And there were also no bloody hand prints. Anyway, here's the picture I was able to get...
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The Reason I'm a Comic Book Superzero
Someone inadvertently pointed out that I never write about comics and comic related things. I suppose this could be a let down to some people because of my blog's name and such, but I can't help it. Not to say I'm never going to write about comics and other related things, but I just haven't had anything to write about in regards to them.
Liking the X-Men is a big part of who I am. I think that in order for a blog to be about me and the stories I have to tell, it has to have a name that really relates to me as well, hence "Comic Book Superzero".
Furthermore, while I haven't read more than half (maybe even a quarter) of all of the comics I own, one could argue that I'm too busy keeping my X-Men collection up-to-date.
My X-Men collection is definitely something I've taken pride in for most of my life now. I started liking the X-Men at the tender age of 4 or so when the animated series was all the rage. Since then, I've always been interested in their merchandise. Around ten years ago, I started collecting everything MIB (mint in box, a term referring to the condition of an action figure and related things, for all you people who probably don't spend a good portion of their paychecks on toys).
Over the years, I've managed to obtain a lot of X-Men things, those of which I'm going to share with you in the following pictures. I hope you all enjoy!
I'll answer any questions in the comments. But, to cover some basic ground...
I don't know what I'd do in case of a fire.
I don't know what I'll do when I have to move.
Dusting's a pain in the butt.
Those seem to be some common concerns. Just thought I'd get them out of the way. =)
Liking the X-Men is a big part of who I am. I think that in order for a blog to be about me and the stories I have to tell, it has to have a name that really relates to me as well, hence "Comic Book Superzero".
Furthermore, while I haven't read more than half (maybe even a quarter) of all of the comics I own, one could argue that I'm too busy keeping my X-Men collection up-to-date.
My X-Men collection is definitely something I've taken pride in for most of my life now. I started liking the X-Men at the tender age of 4 or so when the animated series was all the rage. Since then, I've always been interested in their merchandise. Around ten years ago, I started collecting everything MIB (mint in box, a term referring to the condition of an action figure and related things, for all you people who probably don't spend a good portion of their paychecks on toys).
Over the years, I've managed to obtain a lot of X-Men things, those of which I'm going to share with you in the following pictures. I hope you all enjoy!
I'll answer any questions in the comments. But, to cover some basic ground...
I don't know what I'd do in case of a fire.
I don't know what I'll do when I have to move.
Dusting's a pain in the butt.
Those seem to be some common concerns. Just thought I'd get them out of the way. =)
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Old people protesting?! This must be serious!
First off, here's the video I'm going to be talking about:
For those too lazy to click, a cat was kicked out of a post office in Alabama because someone wrote a letter complaining about it. Now I'm not going to point any fingers at people who might be capable of writing such a letter, but someone must have a strong opinion about cats. Fair enough I guess. Some people are allergic to cats, so it would make sense to have pets like that in privately owned stores and such, and maybe not a federal government building. All in all though, that cat probably wasn't doing anyone any harm.
But, once these old citizens caught windthanks to their oxygen tanks of the horrible thing that happened to this poor cat, instead of maybe adopting the cat like a sensible person might do, they're actually protesting. Seriously? Of all the things these guys could protest in this world and use their limited yet valuable time tring to change, they pick a cat.
Understandably, while the cat will probably live longer than the majority of the folks in that video, they could still protest something meaningful, like why this video is the most viewed on YouTube of all time. Decent song I guess, but really?
For those too lazy to click, a cat was kicked out of a post office in Alabama because someone wrote a letter complaining about it. Now I'm not going to point any fingers at people who might be capable of writing such a letter, but someone must have a strong opinion about cats. Fair enough I guess. Some people are allergic to cats, so it would make sense to have pets like that in privately owned stores and such, and maybe not a federal government building. All in all though, that cat probably wasn't doing anyone any harm.
But, once these old citizens caught wind
Understandably, while the cat will probably live longer than the majority of the folks in that video, they could still protest something meaningful, like why this video is the most viewed on YouTube of all time. Decent song I guess, but really?
I'm going to be a doctor! (Because I watch TV)
I was just watching a commercial for Plavix, which apparently is some sort of pill that prevents heart attacks and blood clots. Let me set the commercial's scene for you, incase you haven't seen it:
It's a bright, sunny day.
There's a family reunion.
Everyone's playing some sort of sport involving a ball, except the one older guy who's sitting in a folding chair.
A younger man jogs over and asks the old man to join.
"Not on these old legs!"
Then the younger guy goes on about Plavix and explains how it can help his heart condition and whatever. I'm sure you've all seen the commercials that are basically montage of physically active people while a monologue by an unseen narrator basically gives you a public service announcement explaining the risks of the disease and talks about the benefits of the pill. This, of course, is followed by the side effects of taking the pill, which is almost everything short of death (and sometimes even that. Erections lasting longer than 4 hours can be fatal!)
After that, the camera cuts back to the 2 men and the younger guy says, "Seriously, ask your doctor," in a variety of different ways. Really? Ask his doctor? Is that even logical? By "asking his doctor", not only is he suggesting you ask your doctor, but he's basically suggesting that your doctor's completely oblivious as to how to treat your disease. And you know what? He is. He probably doesn't watch Plavix commercials while watching endless hours horrible day-time television. He doesn't know about erections lasting more than for hours. He doesn't know anything about Abdominal pain, agitation, anxiety, constipation, decreased sex drive, diarrhea or loose stools, difficulty with ejaculation, dizziness, dry mouth, fatigue, gas, headache, decreased appetite, increased sweating, indigestion, insomnia, nausea, nervousness, pain, rash, sleepiness, sore throat, tingling or pins and needles, tremor, vision problems, vomiting.
But you know what? I do! During my winter break, I've watched more mindless TV during the day than you can shake a stick at. Not even a Wiimote.
Next time you're sick, come to me...
...Dr. Phil.
It's a bright, sunny day.
There's a family reunion.
Everyone's playing some sort of sport involving a ball, except the one older guy who's sitting in a folding chair.
A younger man jogs over and asks the old man to join.
"Not on these old legs!"
Then the younger guy goes on about Plavix and explains how it can help his heart condition and whatever. I'm sure you've all seen the commercials that are basically montage of physically active people while a monologue by an unseen narrator basically gives you a public service announcement explaining the risks of the disease and talks about the benefits of the pill. This, of course, is followed by the side effects of taking the pill, which is almost everything short of death (and sometimes even that. Erections lasting longer than 4 hours can be fatal!)
After that, the camera cuts back to the 2 men and the younger guy says, "Seriously, ask your doctor," in a variety of different ways. Really? Ask his doctor? Is that even logical? By "asking his doctor", not only is he suggesting you ask your doctor, but he's basically suggesting that your doctor's completely oblivious as to how to treat your disease. And you know what? He is. He probably doesn't watch Plavix commercials while watching endless hours horrible day-time television. He doesn't know about erections lasting more than for hours. He doesn't know anything about Abdominal pain, agitation, anxiety, constipation, decreased sex drive, diarrhea or loose stools, difficulty with ejaculation, dizziness, dry mouth, fatigue, gas, headache, decreased appetite, increased sweating, indigestion, insomnia, nausea, nervousness, pain, rash, sleepiness, sore throat, tingling or pins and needles, tremor, vision problems, vomiting.
But you know what? I do! During my winter break, I've watched more mindless TV during the day than you can shake a stick at. Not even a Wiimote.
Next time you're sick, come to me...
...Dr. Phil.
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