The Nasty hit by the Yellow Fever?

And the answer is.....

C

Vituperative means verbally abusive. The opposite of defaming someone with vituperative remarks would be praising them — C's laudatory means expressing praise. As for the other choices, lethal means deadly and incapacitated means incapable or unfit. In D, insulated means protected, as in insulation, and prominent, E, means famous.

Graduate Record Examination

Took the GRE yesterday. It was more difficult than I anticipated. Turns out, my vocabulary is much worse than I thought. I've added a sample question, which pretty much sums up how I felt through the entire verbal section. There are several of these antonym questions on the test. Just pick the antonym. These questions, theoretically, should be extremely easy. I could probably figure most of them out with some context, but Nooooo, just the word. Who am I? John Tesh? Not hardly! I don't know what these words mean.

VITUPERATIVE:

A. lethal
B. incapacitated
C. laudatory
D. insulated
E. prominent

Just for kicks, whoever's reading this, post your answer to this question. Please, scout's honor. No wiki or google. I'll post the answer later. I'm looking for the antonym of VITUPERATIVE.

Dance Prep

The Bomb Squad. Backstage. We're on in 20. We just don't care. The show dances for us.

Shredd. Big Time.

Two years ago. We freaking shredd.

Literal Videos

Not sure if you've seen these, but they're awesome. Nothing clever about the lyrics, just singing what's happening on screen.

Seriously?

Well, it's come to this. United Health Insurance just rolled out their newest product called "UnitedHealth Continuity". For the bargain price of 20% of your current premium, you can ensure your insurability will be insured; unless you're currently sick, then you can't insure your future insurability.

Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of this assinine concept in the first place? A healthy person would be able to find another policy. This still leaves out the people who can't get insured to begin with.

Am I going crazy? What the hell is going on!? What...the hell...is going on?

Seriously?

Associated Press: "Parents' desperate plea: No more ads for toys"
"By bombarding them with advertisements ... you are placing parents like me in the unenviable position of having to tell our children that we can't afford the toys you promote."

Am I going crazy? What the hell is going on!? What...the hell...is going on?

MK vs. DC

Last night Superman defeated Dark Kahn with a combination of devastating body blows and heat vision.

Seriously, though. This game is AWESOME. It's classic MK with better graphics, animations, and DC characters. I was Captain Marvel for a bit and he has a move where he grabs the opponent, bear hugs them as they face upward, he yells out "Shazaam!", and a huge lightning bolt strikes your enemy. Oh god, it's awesome.

Mamaaa.....these shoes.....with....baby jesus....help...

The title of this post is a hint at the name of the song Tom Reynolds rates as "the most depressing song in modern recording history" in his 2007 book I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard

13 years ago, this summer....

Wyatt permanently damaged his spine by attempting to stand balance on top of Okoboji's giant earth ball. Perhaps if we would've been playing with it outside, as design intended, the grass and earth would've absorbed some of the force that rocked Wyatt's tail bone. Maybe Balst or Wyatt can refresh my memory, but I'm not remembering what his purpose was on top of the ball. Was he trying to walk on it like a circus bear?

Watch 4 times minimum...

to really appreciate the quality construction of the table.

Stupid Party Stunt Ends Terribly - Watch more free videos

OBAMA 08

Netbook

One of the newest genres of Laptops are ultra portables dubbed "Netbooks". I'm currently typing on one right now. It was only $320 and is the same machine, internally, as Shannon's laptop she bought a year ago. I realize that computer technology moves pretty quickly in a year. All I wanted was a word processor and something to surf the web with. It's awesome. 2.2 lbs with a keyboard an inch larger than other netbooks as well as windows xp. It's perfect for taking to PDX.

So awesome.

McCain cancelled a rally in the Philly area on the same day due to the rain.

No big deal

"Our son's acting ability has improved DRAMATICALLY since he's been attending Columbia Gorge School of Theatre!"
-says John Schneider, star of "Smallville," "The Dukes of Hazzard" and co-founder of the Children's Miracle Network.

I called this camp today as one of the follow-up calls I make for my ACA responsibilities.

"I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live."

Quote from McCain in 2000 about his captors in Vietnam. I understand the Vietnamese tortured him. I'd hold a pretty big grudge against them, too. But since "gook" is a pejorative term for Asians, he insulted his captors by simply calling them Asian. This guy sucks. Bad.

Rudy Ray Moore: March 17, 1927 – October 19, 2008 Rest in Peace.

Choice

Since I know the future, am I able to change it? I have choice. Or will destiny prevail?

For every Palin disciple.....

there's People like this. This sounds corny, I know. But I've never been inspired this much by a white person speaking about race. This is amazing. Please take the seven minutes and watch. Obama/Biden 08

Coming home

It's an odd paradox of going home but leaving the motherland.

Pizza Hut

In Korea, the pizzas are made to suit the cultural tastes. It was good, don't get me wrong, but from my perspective, seemed to be a bit schizophrenic. We had the crispy potato pizza. Criss cut potatos, corn, onions, peppers, light sauce, cheese, and a drizzle of mayonaise.

Lost in translation

A few examples of the Korean meaning getting a bit blurry in the translation to English. Have a feeling fine day!

What trade embargo?

Katie bought us a couple of Cuban cigars. Not a big deal in Korea. It made me sick, though. Felt horrible the whole next day.

Obama and the Palin Effect: Deepak Chopra

Piece from the Huffington Post


Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses . In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.

Look at what she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.

God bless the ACLU

I'm very pro-union. The concept is one of the few safeties the working people have against big business/big government. The ACLU has been involved in fighting for worker's rights and civil liberties since its inception in 1920.

The ACLU just filed a federal suit in PA for Stephanie Babines (pictured above). She was denied a permit to open a dance studio which featured classes in pole dancing, striptease, and my personal favorite, Power lapdance. The ACLU was stepping in because of infringments upon the first ammendment: the right to hottness. Or maybe it's freedom of expression. I'm not sure. What I am sure of is this; any studio which teaches "power lapdance" is good for America.

Every weeknight at 9pm

We ditched out extended cable package about a year ago. So all we have is basic cable. Super basic. Like, major networks, Discovery, CSPAN, nothing else basic. However, they must have just added this jem to the basic package recently, because I've been watching it now for the last month or so. Good ol' Retro Television Network plays Knight Rider every night. It's awesome. Awesome. I can't begin to tell you how fantastic it is to watch a television show where a car is the ultimate weapon. It seems that in every episode, there's at least one instance where the bad guy say something like, "That damn car!"

Angry?

Spain's men and women Olympic basketball teams. Spain's 2008 Federation Cup Tennis team. Argentina's women Olympic soccer team (which lost to China, 2-0). All of them getting in on the fun of ridiculing over 60% of this planet's population.

A group of my friends walked into a restaurant last week and someone declared "Hey look, it's the Olympics!". I'm not even sure what that meant, but it was the nicest way he could think of to make fun of our race.

People often dismiss my claims of racism and acuse me of being oversensitive or unable to turn the other cheek. These gestures are juvenile, but far from harmless. It's like a gnat fluttering past your ear; barely a sound but all consuming. It's impossible to not notice. All we're told is "it's just stupid, don't worry about it, it doesn't mean anything". If people are this bold to have pictures published of this type of ridicule, what happens when pictures aren't being taken or the conversation is private? People of color know what happens, white people assume it goes no further.

Asian pop band CD art

9 Years

After my ninth season as a camp director, I'm finding myself at a place I've never been before; I'm looking forward to next summer.

Unity

As I age, I've come to find the Adoptee Camp program more and more significant. Hundreds of thousands of displaced children over the past 50 years being told who they are. Only recently have we been able to identify ourselves. Choosing our own name and values, we move together through this social experiment born of war and love.

Together, we'll move forward.

Stuntin' is a habit!

I don't know what that means.

Green

I bought a $56 bike at Target the other day. Costs nearly that to fill up the gas tank everyother week. So, I ride it to work now. It gets a billion miles to the gallon and makes my ass hurt. But it's saving money and a small way I can contribute to mending our planet in peril.

Reverse racism?

I always cry foul when I hear someone make an argument about reverse racism against whites. But this video makes a compelling argument.

It's hard to believe......

that Obama didn't win WV.

He must be a CEO

The Nasty and I always joke about sports commentators taking their job a little too seriously. Why do they wear suits? "Oh, who's that? He must be a Senator or something. Nevermind, this is the Meineke Car Care bowl post game analysis"

However, after watching this video of an ESPN contributor, I think I may have been too harsh on the boys in suits.

He must win.

This is a great segment of Real Sports about the role basketball's played in Obama's life. I wasn't sure of how athletic he was after seeing the horrific video of him bowling. Turns out, he's pretty good.

Endorsements

Hillary just got endorsed by Governor Mike Easley of North Carolina. A pretty big deal. But that's not what I'm concerned with. What I find odd, is that when these politicians make their announcement about their endorsements, they give a big speech with their candidate of choice behind them. All the speeches go something like this, and I'm paraphrasing here, "America needs a politician who's better than me. I mean, I'm not a bad politician, but I'm not good enough to lead you into the future."

I understand how it works. But I get that sense everytime I hear someone declare.

Dumbest man alive?

You decide.

Aloha!

"Welcome! You must be from the Hawaii/So. Cal. section. Registration's right over there!"

The greeting was friendly and the woman was cute. In spite of that, Josiah and I shook our heads with grimaces on our faces, ignored her friendly smile and guiding hand gestures, and simply walked towards the registration table at the far end of the room.

When a friendly girl trying to help me is met with hostile emotions and irreverence, it illustrates a larger narrative on racism. After a lifetime of swallowing assumptions and stereotypes, it's difficult to accept "good intentions" when they're paired with ignorance. Just as drops of water gradually penetrate rock, each racial encounter erodes our willingness to turn the other cheek or understand their true intentions. It's this erosion of will for people of color that needs to be addressed. How do we maintain the mental posture to see the individual's good intention through society's racism? I don't know, yet. What I do know is this: People of color have accepted this erosion of will as inevitable identity development. It seems that the innocent child who loves the questions about their looks will eventually become jaded and uncomfortable with similar questions as they develop. Is it possible to maintain the innocent coping mindset of children? Would we want to? Not always. But sometimes.

$5.95 steak and eggs at Binion's after 1am.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” - Rumi

As a result of an Ambien induced deletion of my last blog, I've been cautiously waiting for the perfect opportunity to rejoin the blogosphere. With current events such as the presidential race, Gen. Petraeus' testimony on the Iraq War, the recent anniversary of the assassination of MLK, and the constant threat of terrorism unfolding before me, I knew that my thoughts could be silenced no more.

So join me on this fantastic voyage. Our destination shall be truth. Together we will find the fortitude to stay the course without evil deviating us from our ultimate goal. I cannot guarantee success, only growth. The development of your person that must be explored on that field which is found beyond right or wrong; a safe place.....this place.

This is me with Al Roker at Madame Tussauds wax museum.