Watching Old TV

Thanks to Netflix streaming and not a lot going on at work, I've found myself starting up Season 2 of 24. I've also started watching Veronica Mars with Aubrey, and I think we're going to do LOST (I've seen all of it, she only saw season 1 back in high school) at some point too. Sidenote to Netflix: Hurry up on that iPhone app, and it better be free, I'm not going to pay you twice (and don't worry, I definitely won't get Hulu Plus, I won't pay for commercials).

So I figure while I'm watching all this old TV, I ought to be keeping a record somehow.

Anyway, here begins 24: Day 2 (2002).

Some background:
Four years ago I saw season 1, half of 3 (I think), half of 4, and all of 5. Then last year I followed the first half of 7. I'm far from a 24 noob, but there's just a lot I haven't seen and even more that I probably don't remember. But If I actually keep this up, I probably won't watch season 6 anyhow because Wayne is the president. Wayne is stupid. Also stupid: When they killed off Edgar. WTH?

So far I've seen the first 4 episodes, which started at a blessed 8 AM instead of Midnight like the 1st season. That just makes more sense. Here's a plot update and some character forecasts:

Plot: Thanks to torturing some Korean guys torturing another Korean guy, and then forwarding the only words excluded from subtitles to some white guys in another room, who then made a phone call to another guy who was on the boat with The Man in Oregon, we know that LA is going to be nuked "today" by a middle eastern terrorist group. Finding a resolution to a crisis that only lasts one day is obviously the work of one Jack Bauer, so they starting trying to get a hold of him.

Jack, meanwhile, is still on hard times emotionally from his wife dieing in the last season. We know this because he's scraggly and because when he give a gun a meaningful look we get a "wooosh" sound effect. He gets on board eventually and starts killing people almost immediately. He goes undercover with a rather lame anarchist group (featuring both Squareface from The Rock and the nappy bad cop from Date Night) and helps them blow up CTU. (The daughter from Rosanne almost dies in the explosion. That's weird.) He tried to tell The Man ahead of time to worn them but he only gets to talk to Red Hairy Lady and Jerkface stops her from telling The Man in time. At the end of the 4th episode, we find out that the planner of the CTU bombing was given the order, date, and info by some lady that we're supposed to recognize (We can tell that before we even see the photos). I think it's Nina from the first season. I'm kinda rusty.

Character profiles:

The Presidency

• Pres. Palmer: The Man. The solution to every problem ever. The epitome of what Obama wishes he could be. He's just got that voice. And those good hands.
  
• Lady with the red hair: The President's....secretary? I'm not sure what her job is, but whenever Jack tries to call Palmer, he has to talk to her instead. Very lame. I've got the feeling she's bad.
• Jerkface with the annoying, constantly purposeful tone: Also in the Pres's staff. Keeps trying to undermine the Pres and was just "removed" from his job. Don't worry, he'll be back.
• I'd also like to take this opportunity to money down now that Palmer's crazy freaking wife will show up to cause trouble too. She's like that.
  

CTU people

• The office decor: Better than Season 1's but way uglier than Season 4 and on. Good thing they blew it up.
  
• George Mason: Seems nice enough. He's gonna die "Perhaps within a day" so I guess we can count on him in case we need any Butch Cassidies or Sundance Kids. (Speaking of which, remember the time Samwise Gamgee did one of those? That was crazy.)
• Tony before he died twice and shaved his head: Seems fine. Needs a haircut.
• That Michelle lady before Tony marries her: Not really a big deal yet.
• Daughter from Rosanne: Just hurry up and kill her off so we can get Chloe instead.
• Jack: Jack can do two things. He can yell at people and he can kill people, but not usually in that order.
  

Hitherto irrelevant Wedding people

• Bride to be: Annoying.
• The sister: Also annoying.
• The Groom (and cousin just flown in): Totally a terrorist.
• The Dad: Terrorist. Ge with me on this one, good guys don't have bears like that. (Or he's an old Gordon Freeman, which is ridiculous.)
  

Oh, and Kim Bauer's here too and nannies for some weirdo abusive family. Not sure how that ties in yet. I'd be ok if they just cut her out altogether. And the Dakota Fanning knock off, cut her out too.

So that's what we have leading up to episode 5 (Noon to 1PM)

Getting your facts straight.

Ok, just a quick post here, but I'm going to drop a bombshell: Not everything people say on Facebook is true.

I know! Who would have thought that!? For example, a fellow I know from my mission is very torn up about the Health care Bill. He often posts derisive little snippets about it. Today's offering:

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. -Thomas Jefferson

Yes, well, that's nice I guess. I don't like to argue with TJ, he knew his stuff. However, I won't lie, Imma bit of skeptic so I Googled it. What came back was a page from what calls itself "The Jefferson Encyclopedia" which stated,

"if we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy." - Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 29 November 1802^[1]

Note: This passage has often been mis-quoted as, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Ford and L&B have also slightly mis-transcribed the original text as, "If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy."

So after 10 seconds of effort we now have the truth. Or at least, what TJ actually said, citations and all. And what started out as a statement about the American People preventing government subsidies in general is actually a statement about the government itself preventing waste. The two are still pretty close, and Mission Buddy could probably use the real statement to argue his point, but I don't think it would nearly as easy. Crazy.

That is all.

Postgraduate

Observant readers might have noticed my earlier note about my intention to go into the Food Science industry. Or at the very least, I've changed my major to Food Science. Following such, I've received the question, "What is that?" or something like it from many people. Wikipedia says:

Food science is a study concerned with all technical aspects of food, beginning with harvesting or slaughtering, and ending with its cooking and consumption. It is considered one of the life sciences, and is usually considered distinct from the field of nutrition.

I'll add that it's basically Organic Chemistry with a food orientation. More specifically, the preservation, development, and enhancement of foods (making it so people will want to eat it). This branches out pretty wide, including those who want to make food more transportable/sustainable for those or need it, and those who want to make a food as delicious as possible as to make lots of money of it. I would want to be more of that first group. But either way, as the Western Diet gets worse and people start to freak out about it more, people will (ironically) look to food producers for answers. This means that the industry will continue to grow.

This leads me to my next point: There is currently a 100% job placement rate among food science graduates at all universities (excepting those who go on to graduate studies or professional programs) with high demand for more. Those with a Bachelors degree make at least $50k/yr to start plus benefits. Those with a Masters are around $70k/yr, and PhD's are about $90k/yr. And that's just to start. Did you catch that, Mom? No one will be starving to death.

So while all that is nice, what do I plan to do with it? I'm not too sure at the moment, to tell the truth. I know it sounds fascinating and that I'd rather be part of the "Good Guys" than The Man. But I simply don't know enough about it yet to make a decision. I'll working on some career research and talking to the professors over the summer while things are low-key. Hopefully I'll have an answer for that soon.

Now that I've gotten all that out there, I've received some suggestions of other careers I might pursue. I'll list and address them here.

Doctor/PA: You know, I'm really not sure about this one. I like the idea, but I'm just not sure. Either way, Food Science is a great major for pre-Meds and if I do really well, I'm going to apply for Med School anyhow. I'm not ruling it out, but I'm not making it my focus anymore.

Finance: While being a high-roller businessman seems pretty glamorous, I'm pretty glad to have given it up. This doesn't seem very attractive anymore.

Join Air Force and become a lawyer: I'm not really sure how this one came up. But I'm thinking no.

Become Large Animal Veterinarian, move to Oregon and start practice with my brother. We'll call it "H****** & H******" or maybe even "Kick @$$ Vets." There would probably be a show on Animal Planet about us. Of those listed, this one sounds the most promising as an alternative. High demand, good pay, lots of time outdoors. Not to mention all the time with cute, fuzzy farm animals! I only just recently discovered that horses get all furry in the wintertime! How cool is that? They're like giant puppies!!!

Almost-Broken Promise

Firstly,
Happy Birthday Aubrey! I love you!

Secondly,
I once made a promise that I wouldn't get a Blu ray player until Space Jam comes out on BR because that movie's awesome. I've kept that up so far, But something happened. The completely awesome Fantastic Mr. Fox happened.


Aubrey and I decided that we definitely wanted to buy work of genius. I figured the DVD would be like $16. That's how much new DVD's are on the release day, right? Wrong, they wanted $18 for this one. But I spied that the Blu Ray was $25! I thought those things were like $40. They certainly used to be...you know....a year and a half ago. I guess things change. But back to the point, the BR includes not JUST the BR, but also the DVD, and 3rd disc so you can make copies on your PC and iPod. Cuss Yeah!! So after we went and got tasty Thai food last night after school (thanks, Mom!) we went and picked it up. It's even better when you watch it at home because you can talk about the cool stuff (and, you know, pause it when you need to). Also, I never realized Dumbledore was the voice of Bean. That's freaky.




























Also, Nemesis, you're the only person I know with a BR player, so if you wanted to borrow that disc, you totally can.

P.S.* Just as a note: No, we didn't buy a BR player. We just bought the disc.

So yes, I went on dates, then I got engaged, then…

…Yes, I did get married. For anyone that might not have had a chance to ask me how it is, I’ll tell you the same thing I tell everyone else: It’s great. Two thumbs up!

That was over two months ago now. Life is sort of calming down now. Actually, that’s a lie; it’s pretty wild and crazy all the time. Those people that told me I’d have more free time after I got married were full of it. My brother Dave was the only one who gave it to me straight. Last month Aubrey and I were hometeaching* and someone asked us “what we do for fun” and neither of us had anything to say. After a few seconds I managed to say, “Sit on the couch for a minute?” But then I realized this might also include the things I’d like to do for fun, such as riding my bike and snowshoeing.

As for the things that have been keeping me busy, it’s just the same ol’ stuff.

- We’re still in the process of getting our apartment into “Home Mode,” but we’ve made good strides. If you look at just right angle from the couch, its looks perfect. (Photo forthcoming)

- School is still going. Side note: Don’t get married during school. I know I did it. I don’t regret it. I like being married very much. But coming home to homework when all you want to go home too is your wife totally sucks. A nice, no-homework post-marriage period would have been awesome.

o Another note there: I changed my major a while ago to Food Science. I’m actually really excited about it, but I’m not sure which Food Science-type career I want to pursue at this point. I know I have a very strong desire to stick it to "the Man" of the food industry, but I'm not sure in what way.

- We just got our taxes done: BBBLLLLAAARG! That’s all on that one

- Aubrey’s job is sort of in jeopardy. Not because she isn’t good (She’s the best little teacher in the world! That’s a fact), but because she only got a one-year contract and her school administration are kind of pussy-footing around on what they’re doing next year. So we're crossing our fingers on that one too.

But summer's coming soon. Praise the heavens...

Horse.com: Revisited

I'm sure no one remembers that one time when I blogged about getting worked by Horse.com.

But either way, redemption came yesterday. I was busy planning my post-marriage vacation on Orbitz (note: You get some pretty redonkulous deals on hotels on that site, just saying) and I was dissatisfied. Sure, going to San Francisco was going to be cool, but there's was a Promo Code Box next to my subtotal that was just screaming to be filled. I was a bit weary of that box. I've lost some of my deal-scavenging mojo because of that stupid horse tape and I wasn't sure if I wanted to get into that all over again. However, I was feeling a bit daring:

Step one: new tab
Step two: Google "Orbitz Promo Code"
Step three: click first option, Couponloco.com
Step four: Find something that looks relevant to 2 round-trip flights and 4 nights in a hotel.
Step five: Copy, Paste, Enter
Step Six: $50 off my honeymoon.

Bam baby. Fifty free bucks, just for me! The mojo's back! Put that in your trailer and tow it, Horse.com!!!

But Aubrey dear, I've already bought you diamonds this week

I totally said that last night in a very snooty voice. It was said at the Salt Lake Capital Theater shortly before the performance of Macbeth that we attended (boring, it was an opera and they took a lot of liberty with the story). They had some blingy stuff out at the merch table (or whatever you would call those tables) for the rich folk to buy. Best part was that I actually had bought her diamonds that week. Why did I do that? Because I'm totally marrying her in January and the ring (which I had custom made) is finally done.

All of you are probably saying "So wait, didn't post for the last two months because you've been too busy falling in love and getting engaged? Oh, that's okay then." and you'd be totally right. I'm glad we're on the same page and that you're okay with it. Some things are just more important than broadcasting myself onto the internet.

So anyway, yes. I'm getting married. You may be invited. We'll have to discuss it. Who am I marrying? None other than Aubrey (as noted in the title, that's her on the right!), the very same Aubrey that attended Food Inc. with me a couple months ago. After the movie and such we had a great chat and things pretty much picked up from there. Now you might be asking "Hold on, you're already engaged and two months ago was only like you're thrid or fourth date?" to which I say, "Actually, we got engaged about a month ago, I just never told you, suckahs!" That's just how it worked out, and I couldn't be happier. Aubrey would like me to add that we've known each other for over a year, which is supposed to make it look like we spent more time together before we decided to get hitched. Don't let it fool you though, we hadn't so much as had a conversation until I asked her out in May (but then a bike accident got in the way).

Other updates: I'm switching back to pre-med in school because that's what I actually want to do (wish me luck). Turns out being engaged isn't conducive to good grades, but I'm working on that. My brother and his wife had their first child this week, which makes me the uncle of four now. AFI (one of my favorite bands) put out a new album this week, and it's actually pretty dang good. Cafe World is the best Facebook game ever, totally killing the farm games. If you feel like you deserve a wedding invite (or at least an announcement) and we haven't talked about it yet, you should probably mention it now.