I think I am going to pick up a Theatre Minor here at Loyola. I brought in a few Theatre classes from UWM and I might as well get the other 4 classes required for the minor. Also looking at getting a Women’s studies minor, considering it rolls over my required “core” classes very well.

Walking out of Loyola with a Political Science Major and Computer Science, Womens Studies, and Theatre Minors. That actually shouldn’t be that hard…

Since I came back to Loyola I have not had a single drop of alcohol. I have no smoked anything. I have not stolen or beat to death small animals. I have gotten up at a reasonable time each day and tried to get a good amount of sleep (although sometimes it is during the middle of the day, which is no fun.) I have gone out with friends and explored the city. I have had “fast food” very little. I have been involved in an extra-curricular activity ( Mock Trial ) and have stayed out of political campaigns.

And I am still doing like crap! Behind and utterly confused in Italian (which complement each other well.) Missed way too many downtown classes because the fucking shuttle fills up (god damnit Loyola.) I have until November 2nd to drop classes, so I am going to fight through these things until I know that there is no hope left.

I am something of a fan of The Simpsons… I have always found it entertaining, but not something I go out of my way to watch. In fact, I think the only TV show I watch every single episode of is South Park.

Anyways, The Simpsons is full of movie references. Just a ton. And this guy decided to catalog them all, putting the a picture of the Simpsons’ scene next to a picture of that movie’s scene.

Pretty cool.

I have come to a conclusion- If General Petraeus says that we are making progress in Iraq, we are probably making progress in Iraq. Military progress.

Which is a good thing. We have at least SOME of the country under control. Not all of it, but perhaps as best as we are going to be able to do as an occupying force. I trust what Petraeus is as good as we are going to get from the pentagon no matter who leads the country.

This general is not going to put his reputation on the line for some shill political line. His “report” may be bullshit, but I trust what he says in front of the committees.

But what I see the most here is this: Politically, Iraq isn’t going anywhere. If we leave there won’t be any government to take our place. Until there is a government sectarian violence will continue at such a rate that there is no way that American forces could keep up.

So we really have some choices: Start bringing troops home and force the government in Iraq to sink-or-swim, or stick around and pray that democracy becomes something of a reality.

We can’t just leave. For two reasons: You can’t just up and move 130,000+ people out of any one spot overnight. And can we really say “fuck you all” to the Iraqi citizens? American troops are going to die no matter what, but the cost in lives of Iraqi civilians will be just unacceptable.

What a quagmire

Let me say something here: This city’s cable market is beautiful. Why? Because there are 2 competitors who are fighting it out for business. RCN and Comcast.

Of course, only Comcast is in my building.

Which sucks.

Mostly because their DVR is a piece of crap. Not really from the hardware side, the specs are damn good. Huge hard drive and picture quality is top notch.

But the interface, especially the DVR interface, is just crap. I have never had so much of a problem recording shows! I tell it to only record new shows of something, but since The Daily Show is on 10 times a day it records it every time it is on during the day. Especially with the current re-runs, no matter how I set the settings it is still recording the same damn thing every three hours! I have tried every single setting and it still won’t work.

Not to mention it is difficult to navigate the DVR menu in the first place.

Now I know this sounds a bit like whining about a luxury that most college students don’t have (although a friend of mine loves his lifetime-subscription TiVO) but still… it needs work.

Plus RCN has a 20Megabit internet plan that you can get. Comcast has something the same price, but you only get 8Mbps. One nice thing about the 6mbit plan I have is that I can burst to 12Mbps for a few seconds at the beginning of a download. It makes viewing YouTube videos, trailers, and downloading small files REALLY nice. Still not 20Mbps, but it would be nice if they had something similar in Milwaukee.