By the Power of Greyskull

So I went to my roommates' basketball game this evening and it was a blowout. I came back to go on a run. As I started to get ready, I went out in the front room to chat with my roommates Matty Cakes and Squints. I started putting on my socks and lacing up my sneakers as Nancy Drew opened the front door. He was standing there with his girlfriend and I said "Hi" to them both. Of course she sat there with an absolutely terrified look on her face because I hadn't put on my shirt quite yet.

She acted like she was about ready to run away and really did not want to come into the apartment. I just kept going, I wasn't going to let it phase me. It wasn't the end of the world. Besides I make a pretty good living on the weekend like this guy.

Nancy Drew made the comment it was just like I was going swimming so it wasn't that big of a deal, but she wasn't biting. She came inside with incredible hesitancy and continued to ignore me even after I put a shirt on.

I'm kind of surprised about it, she went hot tubbing the other night with Nancy Drew and so she clearly saw him with his shirt off. Nancy Drew kind of looks like this without a shirt on:

And I, without a shirt on, look a lot like this:

Comic Books

"You know what this has to do with? The man in the cape--I bet you he is mixed up in this! I don't trust men in capes."
"You can't cast aspersions on someone just because they're wearin' a cape. Superman wore a cape. An' I'll be damned if I'm gonna stand here an' let you say something bad about him."
"All right Superman's the exception."
- Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza in The Chinese Woman

So I think I was a pretty typical little boy. I played sports, loved video games and cartoons. Also, my friends got me into comic books. Comic books are pretty amazing. I mean you collect them, they have value, and they're fun to read and look at. The funny thing about it too, you could talk about comics and superheros for hours. I mean come on, everybody has imagined having super powers. And then there's also all the speculating on exactly how super powers work and such.

So the other day I was talking about Matty Cakes because C. had commented on my previous blog post. C. is one of my most faithful readers and I love her for it (and I will give her blog a shameless promotion right now. Seriously, go check it out it's fabulous and will totally brighten your day). Now C. does some very interesting things in her writing. If she ever quotes herself at the beginning of her posts, it's always as C. However, she quite often refers to herself as Smalldog, being both the name of her post and her chosen pen name. This interesting contradiction struck me as being a bit odd. So I wondered why the disparity exactly. Are C. and Smalldog different personae? C. is a darling, intelligent girl. Smalldog often has a fierce bite and describes her circumstances as "Ever been bigger on the inside than you were on the outside? Happened to me…" suggesting some ferocity on the inside of that small frame (yes, C. is small in stature). Is C. Bruce Banner and Smalldog The Hulk?

This is just a simple example of how comic books really can be applied to everything. Even in the beginning, comic books often had their own lessons to teach society. Clearly the classic characters were not typically as jaded and conflicted of characters, but rather they stood for things like "Truth, justice, and the American way!" The X-Men, which is definitely my favorite comic book series, was all about teaching the idea of accepting others that are different than you. The movies took this to another level by having some major anti-homophobic overtones undoubtedly due to the influence of openly gay director Brian Singer. Many of the comic book movies have taken up the charge of teaching moral lessons. I even had a Sunday School class in which the teacher referenced Spiderman 3 because he saw the major theme as being the idea of forgiveness. Really it is amazing what can be found in these comic books.

Because of all of this, it really is possible to apply comic books to pretty much everything in life. There is almost always some sort of connection that can be drawn from comic books and it makes me happy. I thoroughly enjoy looking at the parallels and realizing that one of my best friend's has The Hulk for a wife. Also, Matty Cakes is kind of like Professor Xavier because he's severely confined by his current physical limitations but capable of great things with his mind. Psycho T is kind of like Beast, the physical feats he's able to accomplish are just unreal. And Nancy Drew is like the the one wimpy superhero that everybody is always having to bail out and always whines all the time. There's also that guy in my fantasy sports leagues that is always my Lex Luthor. Thankfully I know I can take a stand against him for the sake of "Truth, justice and the American way!"

Not Quite Chemical Heart

"If life is so fair, why do roses have thorns?"

-Tickle Me Emo

So love it or hate it, the emo movement is very real. I'm sure you've heard some of the music and seen some of the emo kids. I think we can all relate to our emo moments even. Pain is a very real part of life. I know I had a status up on Facebook recently that stated "Scott is wallowing in his sorrows." My friend sent me a message stating she hated my status. I guess she thought it was me being all emo, which I guess you could say I was, I was definitely in mourning over a recent funeral. Of course frankly, I think most of us look at the emo stuff as mostly something to laugh at, which brings me to the real reason for this post: The Emo Band Name Generator. I thought this beauty was pretty wonderful. I played around with it a bit and it does seem like it uses a regular pattern to create names. When I ran my name multiple times it came up with the same answer and only a slight variation when I ran it with my first name instead or my full name.

My emo band's name is Not Quite Chemical Heart.

My emo band's name with my first name instead is Some Kind Of Chemical Heart.

My emo band's name with my full name is Some Kind Of Helicopter Heart.

They aren't the most thrilling ever and I think I like the original the best. I ran my roommates and those were pretty good I'll just quickly list them:

James - Somebody's Shimmering Application

Terry - Everybody's Lack of Application

Jeff - Projected Resplendent Cola

Jordan - Some Kind of Shimmering Significance

Matty Cakes - Metal Head Helicopter Valentine

I definitely like Matt's the best. It doesn't seem like the list is exhaustive as far as the possibilities, but it's definitely a lot of fun. But have fun with it and post your own in the comments section. I'd love to see any other good one's.

P.S. Yes, C. (I'll refer to you as C. since that's what you refer to yourself in your blog as) I did steal the opening quote idea from you. I think I'm going to employ that regularly because I really like the lead in that it gives yours. Of course I'll probably be more likely to quote things such as songs or ridiculous Youtube videos.

Capstone Paper Day 1: Signing Off

Well, I suppose I should address first things first. I can imagine there's been quite the uproar among many of my Facecrack friends. Yes, my status does read "Scott is signing off..." and I can imagine some probably have wondered what on earth that means. No, it is not the end. But I am taking a break from Facebook. I can imagine this is probably much to the detriment of many a good soul I've entertained for countless hours on Facebook. So I especially apologize to my roommates (my apologies to James and Jordan for that link. I don't know of an apartment picture with the two of you). And I apologize first and foremost to Matty Cakes. Love ya Matt :) :putnam:! Oh and I despise you and all that you stand for.

So the next big question I can imagine a lot of people are asking is why? Well as the title of this post suggests: I have my capstone paper due! It's on Nixon and the environment. On the plus side, it's not due till next Tuesday. Of course the down side is I really have not done nearly as much as I should have, so I'm going to definitely have quite a bit to do over the next few days. I figure I should have most things done with it other than like some of the fine points such as a bibliography by Thursday. But yeah, I definitely know not having Facebook in my life for a bit will help with some of my productivity, especially with something that is so crucial to my graduation.

So that leads to the next question: How long? Well, the quick answer to that is however long it takes. I think I'll probably be back by the weekend, but we'll see for sure. Of course that doesn't mean I'm still not going to have some fun along the way, but Facebook is the fun I'm taking out for a bit. I will be attending Cougar Tip Off tomorrow and then my flag football game afterward. Now I will give everyone fair warning as well. I will also be taking another Facebook hiatus starting Election Day. That one will be one full week. I have my reasons for this and I'm sure the world will be far different for it, but it's really my own little Facebook Fast. It's somewhat of an experiment and such.

So that being said, next question: How do you contact me if you want to talk to me? Well I'd recommend either email, my blog (yes, you could actually post a comment for once you pinko commies!), or come see me in the basement of the library in the Political Science Section. Yes, Harold and I have gotten to be rather good friends over the past little while. Although I've known him well through my years here at BYU. You can try to call or text me, but I don't get service down here usually and I will be down here for long hours typically so it will probably be a while before I see that I have a text or message. All right, I think that covers most of the questions, so I'll give everybody a quick update on my day.

I started my day really early. I went running with my friend Megan. This was the first time I had been running in quite a while and I was shocked I faired as well as I did. We were out there long before the sun was even up. It was fun running and chatting for a bit and that's going to be a daily ritual for us now. I like it because having a running buddy ensures that I'll actually run. She's a really fantastic person and so she made me an awesome pancake breakfast afterward. So great! Thanks Megan!

So I definitely was feeling it a bit afterward, but I was somehow able to stumble up to campus. I didn't have class till 3 today, so I was doing plenty of homework for quite a while. This included working on the dreaded research paper. We'll see how this all comes along. Class was AMAZING today. Professor Daynes is so funny. He is amazingly liberal. Look and I know I'm pretty conservative, but this is legit. He starts yelling and screaming during class, it's pretty funny. He gives all the conservatives a really hard time, it's semi-jokingly but it really is kind of messed up. If it weren't for the fact he's like 80, I'd probably be a bit more concerned. He goes off all the time about how Bush is the worst president ever (and no, I don't need comments agreeing with that statement, I've heard it plenty). So I can't deny I get a little bored in that class. We just talk about these reading assignments that are really pointless because it's for my capstone and most of the time they're not really on topic or anything. Just believe me, very little of it is related to what I'm doing. So I was reading some news on the internet (no Facebook though as I already stressed). And my friend that was sitting next to me (mostly because he was jealous he didn't have a laptop) goes "Oh man a royal flush!" So everybody in the class cracks up and my professor of course stares at me and honestly thought I was playing poker on my computer. We assured him I was not, but he was a bit overly concerned that I was "multitasking". Well, later he accused another student of "multitasking" as well and so I told my professor "Oh yeah, we play poker together all through class!" and my friend next to me says "Yeah, I watch and get all sorts of good poker strategies." Needless to say, everybody laughed pretty hard about it. Man, the jokes that fly around that class are hilarious and so often it is because of the inflammatory comments made by Professor Daynes. We've all learned to be rather sarcastic with him. And lest you think it's a case of Republicans/Conservatives gaining up on the Liberal/Democrat, a lot of the class is actually rather liberal. It's about half. But yeah, good times.

So afterward I've been working hard in the library finishing up this paper. I know, I know you're saying "Wait a second, you're 'working hard' yet you're writing your blog, that doesn't add up." Here's how it goes, writing is like everything in life. The more you practice it the better you'll be at it. Also, you really should kind of warm up, so that's what this post is: a warm up. But yeah, I really feel it all coming along. I really am working hard on this paper, good thing I have a built in camera on my computer so I can show you myself:

And a quick shout out to my buddy Ian. He also had a good (although much more brief) post about writing papers.