The day-to-day affairs of a poor student

Weather Woes

2011-02-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while since I've last posted here so I figured that it's time for an update.

This last week or so, Indiana was walloped by a string of bad weather that, I have no doubt, was a total pain for everyone. Northern Indiana experienced 50 mph winds and about three feet of snow. Here in Bloomington, we didn't get nearly that much snow, but we did receive close to an inch of ice. Though the campus technically remained open, many classes were cancelled and there was much rejoicing.

We've had some weird weather here this winter, though. Generally, there will be a cold stretch with several inches of snow, but then temperatures will rise a few days later and melt it off. For example, this week we're looking at temperatures in the twenties and thirties, with a low of 16 degrees and some snow, but by the weekend it's supposed to hit 45.

Classes are ok, though. I got stuck taking two poetry classes to fulfill my major, but it is what it is. I'll try to update a bit more frequently, when I can find the time.

Of Updates and Elections

2010-11-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

Well, the weather has finally turned here. We still have the occasional warm day, but overall temperatures have become much more seasonal lately. Three weeks ago, the tornado sirens went off at around 9:40 a.m. October 26 was unnaturally late to have a tornado warning but fortunately, to my knowledge, no one was hurt and the warning was cancelled at around 10 a.m. Ironically, after that the weather cleared up and it was a beautiful day. But onto other matters...

Indiana has gone red once again.

I generally stay out of politics as a rule, but last week's election was almost a complete reversal. This was somewhat of a surprise to me, but from what I understand, the Tea Party had a great deal to do with this upset. Honestly, I just can't take them (the Tea Party) seriously. They seem to expect all of the benefits of an organized central government, yet refuse to pay the costs that come with it. Unfortunately, you can't have your cake and eat it too, and I sincerely believe that if they continue down this path, then the Tea Party will just become more and more irrelevant as time goes on. But maybe it's just me.

Maynard's Wine Gums - Nightmare Fuel

2010-10-03T19:17:00.000-07:00

I found one of the most bizarre and surreal commercials last night that I've ever seen. It's for a product called Maynard's Wine Gums, a confection popular in the U.K., but not widely available here in the U.S. This is the kind of thing that ends up scarring little kids for life, but I enjoyed it anyway. I'll probably end up buying some eventually, just to see what it's all about. I just don't want to spend the cash right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5pBm2UBTF8

Chew... chew... chew...

Weather Woes

2010-09-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

In the four weeks or so since I moved back to Bloomington, the weather has been warm and sunny for the most part. Good, right?

Wrong. It's been hot and dry (I think that it's only rained once so far), and the grass is turning an unhealthy shade of brown. I'm as fond of summer weather as the next person, but it's been in the 80's and 90's most days so far. Honestly, give me temperatures about five degrees lower and a bit of rain now and then, and I'll be happy as a clam.

This has been another frustrated rant from your friendly neighborhood college student.
Oh, and please feel free to click the adds. Tuition doesn't pay itself. >.<

Update and Firearms Petition

2010-09-14T22:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it's half-way through another week here, and the heat is still more or less as oppressive as it has been for the last few weeks. Allergies are high, making for an altogether miserable experience.

On another note, I was surfing the web a year or so ago, and I came across the website for a company called Izhmash. I don't know if any of you have heard of it, but they're the original manufacturer of the AK-47, and they export a line of sporting rifles and shotguns based on that system here in the United States.

One of the items that is not imported anymore, however, is the Tigr - the civilianized sporting version of the Dragunov SVD sniper rifle. It was banned in the mid-90's as a result of the anti-gun fever that swept the country at the time. In truth, the Tigr is no better or worse than any of the other types of sporting rifles on the market but due to the fact that it looks very much like its military counterpart, it was singled out for exclusion.

To remedy this, I have started a petition to hopefully allow these rifles to be imported once again. I have already written to the BATF on the subject, but many voices have far greater power than just one. I hope that you will sign this petition, if for no other reason than to correct an inadequacy in our importation laws that has stayed on the books for far too long.

http://www.petitiononline.com/izhtgr12/petition.html

Start of school and Youtube

2010-08-31T16:49:00.000-07:00

Not much of an update here. School started, and textbooks are a pain as always. If I didn't know that it was an effective business strategy, I'd almost think that they took a perverse pleasure in charging students ridiculous prices for books, and paying back just a fraction of it later on.

But enough of my griping.

On a more positive note, I've decided to post the link to my Youtube channel. Feel free to drop by and check out what I've got up. I hope to do more in the future, but I'm still somewhat of a novice when it comes to video editing.

http://www.youtube.com/user/AnimeFanatic5602?feature=mhum

Update and end-of-summer blues

2010-08-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of the year again. Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish anything near what I had hoped for this summer. The economy sucked for yet another year, and the only work that I could actually find was yard work. I had to retake a math course, which ate up a considerable amount of my time and resources, and now that I'm finally done it's almost time to go back to school.

D'oh.

But enough of my whining. At least the weather is nice. More or less.

Update and random product plug

2010-08-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally finished the class that I was taking this summer (with about 3 weeks until I go back to school >.<) and managed to pull off an A.

On another note, I got a really cool flipcam for my birthday last week. It's a Kodak Zi8 HD, and it works really well. I'll post a more thorough review after I have a chance to use it a bit more.

Iraq: the end of an era

2010-08-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

I know that it's been plastered all over the news but it bears repeating. The planned withdrawal of all U.S. troops will be completed by the end of the month. Though a transitional force of 50,000 will remain to make sure that things go smoothly, this marks the end of the 7 year conflict.

I, for one am happy to see this end, but I remain skeptical about how things will go from this point. Iraq is still very unstable, and they may just end up worse than they were under Saddam. However, the sad fact of the matter is that we couldn't stay there forever. It now falls to the Iraqis to build their own future from this point on.

Greetings

2010-08-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Tyler. I am a 21 year old college student and this is my first real blog. It's late and I have class tomorrow, so I think that I'll leave it at that for now.