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November 30th, 2009

10:45 pm - "So how good was the Boondock Saints II?" Luke posed that question to me last Tuesday as we sat in Griff's chowing down on steak and drinking beer. I told him that it was a great movie, maybe an 8.5/10. Unlike most movies that rank below perfect or near-perfect status in my eyes, though, I'd be willing to go and see the movie a second time in theaters. I don't think I've felt that way about many movies, and I doubt I'll feel that way about many movies in the future. I invited Luke to join Alan and me in going to see the movie again tonight. He declined due to some prior plan with Liz, but Derek ended up coming along. I expected to be disappointed at points where I anticipated what was coming. Thankfully, I was wrong, the jokes were almost just as funny the second time around. Heck, even Rocco's preachy moments weren't quite as bad the second time around. Go figure... Current Location: Home Current Mood: amused

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November 29th, 2009

10:18 pm - Texans vs. Colts (only three games to go!) Sleep just wasn’t on the agenda for tonight. Trust me, I would have liked for that to be an option, but it simply wasn’t to be. I got home around 12:00am and was in bed by 1:00am, but for some reason couldn’t fall asleep. Around 3:00am I nodded off briefly, then woke up at 4:00am. At 5:30am, I got out of bed, and got ready for work. I arrived at work before Anthony, but after the other supervisors. I was informed that Dario was back as a supervisor, which I guess means Lindsey felt she really needed the extra hand on deck. Dario was on a completely different page from us the whole time, getting his money bag, RVC report, etc. before the rest of us do it. Probably a more efficient means, but simply not the way Amanda, Tre’, Anthony, and I do things regularly. We were a bit short on servers, so a lot of servers ended up getting a section and a half to cover the difference. Most of them had no problem with it, but some seemed uncomfortable with working two sections. For the most part, things ran smoothly, except for one period where several servers noted that their orders weren’t coming out. The main issue seemed to be the lack of runners, as we were at half capacity compared to the previous two games. As such, the expo was overworked, so I temporarily relieved him and had him work as a runner. The Texans got off to a hot start with two touchdowns and a third drive that should have been a third touchdown, all in the first quarter. The referees ruled a possible touchdown pass to be incomplete (fans claimed it was a catch and fumble that rolled out of bounds, hence possession retained), Coach Gary Kubiak challenged and lost, and our momentum was gone. Despite scoring a field goal to make the game 17-0, the Texans couldn’t hold on, eventually losing 35-20. Current Location: Home Current Mood: drained

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November 28th, 2009

10:17 pm - Suzy's Wedding It’s always nice to know that things are going your way. I left work later than I’d hoped, heading for Spring, TX for Suzy’s wedding. As I was heading North on I-45, the radio station I had on was doing a traffic update that began with “the highways are clear right now, especially if you’re headed North on 45 heading to Spring”. That was convenient. After a bit of a detour due to misunderstanding Google’s “slight right” direction, I finally arrived at Shady Oaks, the wedding oasis set up amongst everything else in the area. The wedding was outside, which mystified me because that meant that it couldn’t be a Catholic wedding. I looked around to see only Laura Hamzo, James De Vera, and John Reese as the people I knew from UST. I was a bit surprised by this, then realized that some of the others I knew were probably her bridesmaids. Sure enough, when the procession began, that’s exactly what I found. Katy (Suzy’s freshman year roommate) and Elizabeth (Suzy’s senior year roommate) were the first to walk down the aisle. As the carriage pulled up with the first two bridesmaids inside, the music director started to play “Hail to the Chief”, and everyone stood. Don’t know if they were expecting the bride or President Obama, but people sat down when they realized it was only the bridesmaids. Finally, the bride arrived with her father. The carriage stopped behind some shrubbery that was probably organized there to hide the bride, but it didn’t do a very good job since I could clearly see her between the branches of the palm. As she walked up, it looked like she was on the verge of tears, a stark departure from her usual demeanor. I got the impression that the tears weren’t those of joy, but I filed that thought away as the ceremony began. The wedding itself was very “Protestant”, which surprised not only me, but Laura and James as well. The minister was obviously not a Catholic priest, and the ceremony resembled the Protestant weddings I’d been to more so than the Catholic ones. Judging from Suzy’s conservative Catholic upbringing and proud faith, I’m not sure what to make of this. After the wedding, we processed out from the pavilion to the dining hall. I struck up a conversation with the girl who parked right after me and sat next to me at the wedding. Her name was Andrea Vasquez, she knew Rudy (the groom), but met Suzy and became better friends with her, she got her BA in 2008, she’s currently working on her Masters of Psychology at HBU, and she was sitting at the next table over from me (reserved table spots), so that pretty quickly killed the conversation. I caught up with Reese and the others at the bar. The wedding party came in and we went through the congratulations. Suzy acknowledged that her tension was due to the families not getting along. Elizabeth provided a lot more detail, but we just left things at that because the wedding party was about to be introduced. I took my seat and found James and Laura at the same table. That was a nice surprise. James provided the bulk of the comedy for the evening with his inane remarks and claims that various girls looked like they were teenagers. Laura decided that James has a thing for teenagers. Following a dinner consisting of fajitas, we went into the grand march. Andrea disappeared at this point and never returned. The others at her table were couples aside from Reese, who proceeded to join James, Laura, and myself at our table. Katy came by and coaxed Reese onto the dance floor, then quickly said, “I have to go” and took off in a hurry. Reese sauntered back to his seat and made fun of his own situation. Someone handed me a sheet of paper that they thought I dropped. I thanked them and proceeded to look at it, realizing that it was a wedding itinerary. Someone else must have dropped it. That didn’t stop us from analyzing it, though. As the dancing picked up, it was evident that we were well behind schedule. The bar closed at the designated time, James and Laura were ready to leave after the bouquet and garter tosses, and Reese finally got his coat back from Elizabeth, so we all said our goodbyes to the newlyweds and headed out. Current Location: Home Current Mood: surprised

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November 27th, 2009

02:45 pm - Black Friday 2009 I wasn’t feeling up to it when I left the house, but I managed to get out to Target anyway by 4:45am. The empty lots I saw just a couple of hours earlier were a mere memory, as a long line wrapped its way TWICE across the front of the store. I got in line and was handed a free reusable shopping bag. We were promptly let in around 4:59am. I wandered in and immediately grabbed a cart, heading towards the appliances. I grabbed two of the $3 sandwich makers my mom wanted, then nabbed two coffee makers and a toaster as well since I figured they would come in handy at such a cheap price. I swung to the back to fetch some video games, weaving through swarms of pushcart traffic. It was interesting to see the crowded carts and the empty carts. I’m not sure if the empty carts were due to people who had no luck collecting their door busters, or if the people simply couldn’t find what they wanted. I grabbed the video games, which then allowed me to get into a shorter line at check out since they needed to check them out at the back. I was out the door in about 40 minutes, which was pretty good considering the chaos that otherwise filled the store. I thanked the managers for providing an efficient system as I walked out the door. From Target I headed over to Wal-Mart, where I saw exactly just how not to manage the chaos. The employees seemed to barely understand English and couldn’t answer a single question, meaning that I had no clue which direction anything was in. I eventually found a manager who didn’t seem like she recently crossed the border—thankfully, I was right, she spoke English. She wasn’t much more help, though, so I gave up on trying to grab the discounted Rock Band and headed for the DVD section. I did manage to get a few of the things I was looking for, but not nearly everything I’d wanted. My ability to weave and duck without a cart (I abandoned it halfway through the store) happened to speed up the Wal-Mart process in general, though the employees were no help. I managed to exit the store at 6:00am and headed to the GameStop across the street to pick up a couple of items. Thankfully, I selected a low-volume store, so only about a dozen people were there—as opposed to the lines of 50-60 people which form outside other locations. With that completed, I headed down to Office Depot, the store which always has the best idea when it comes to door busters: put them all on tables, sorted by price, right in front as customers walk in the door. I grabbed exactly what I needed and got in the short line for people who weren’t trying to purchase laptops. That might have been the shortest trip of all, as I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. Having accomplished everything I figured worth locating, I decided to call it a morning. I swung by McDonald’s for my traditional post-Black Friday shopping breakfast, then headed home to take a nap before I needed to head into work. Current Location: Home Current Mood: exhausted

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November 26th, 2009

10:18 pm - Thanksgiving Day Same old, same old... and how nice that can be at times! My family met up with another family we trade off hosting holidays with. They cook Thanksgiving dinner, we cook Christmas dinner. New Year's is kind of a toss up between the two families, and rarely they'll go out. I'm even more rarely a part of those festivities ever since high school, when I first found more interesting things to do on New Year's Eve... I went online today and did a little bit of early Black Friday shopping. The only place that had everything I wanted already online was Radio Shack, so I made my purchases there. The other stores will have to wait... Current Location: Home Current Mood: chipper

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November 25th, 2009

10:18 pm - "She's got elements of my dream girl and aspects of the perfect girl for right now." Yes, I said that quote. No, I'm not expounding on who it refers to. I'm sure people have guesses based on a number of things, from whom they've seen me hang out with to whom I've blogged about to whom I've spoken about. But guesses are nothing more than that. Today is my only real day off until sometime around December 27th (maybe even later than that). Tomorrow will be filled with Thanksgiving stuff and Black Friday preparations, and Friday will start with shopping before ending with work. Maybe I'll get really lucky and people will want to get out of the house afterward... but I'm not counting on it. Current Location: Home Current Mood: relaxed

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November 24th, 2009

10:18 pm - Looking forward to REAL time off... GSA and Sport Clubs each aren't doing much this week, so while I'm still putting in my 30 hours of work in the form of office hours, I've got a lot more free time to work on other projects. With a term paper, presentation, and test leading off the three days of next week, that time is eaten up very quickly. Speaking of my SOC jobs, my stipends still haven't posted to my account, and I'm really not sure what to make of it. I went by the Financial Aid Office today to see what was going on, but they insisted that they had nothing to do with the process and that I needed to speak with the Business Office. I wandered over to the Business Office to find out what they could do, only to be told that I need to speak to Financial Aid if I'm going to get this sorted out. I was incredibly ticked off at this point, so I simply walked off. I figured I'd swing by the Political Science house and speak to Dr. Taylor (the new GSA adviser) about the situation to see if he'd made any headway with the thing. I ended up running into an impromptu tailgate that they had organized, so I just went ahead and joined them. Taylor told me to grab a beer, I turned to do so, and all of a sudden Cosme was behind me handing me a beer he had just opened for me in anticipation of Taylor's command. Gotta love Poli Sci, they just might have the best customer service on campus. Now if only Financial Aid and the Business Office could be so prompt... Current Location: Home Current Mood: mellow

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November 23rd, 2009

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November 22nd, 2009

11:01 pm - Nights at House of Pies Friday Dickerman, Kenneth, and Carrie wanted to grab something to eat, so I decided to come along. More like Carrie forgot she had my arm and dragged me along, then caught herself and apologized. Or she at least made it seem that way. Anyway, we headed down there and began waiting for no good reason. I walked up and asked to get our name on the waiting list, to which we were instantly seated. Must have been the all-black suit. Dickerman managed to spill his water immediately, prompting a series of jokes. Carrie talked about random stuff she shouldn't have said, such as using the words "illegal" and "kiddie porn" in separate sentences when the people sitting in the booth across from us were uniformed HPD officers. Kenneth was probably the most subdued of the lot, responding to the waitress' question of what flavor tea would he like with "black". She brought him Earl Grey. ------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday After the GSA Night at the Rockets, Nicole and I swung by CVS to get her some Tylenol, then I took her home. Amanda had sent me a text requesting that I join the people at the Harp, so I headed out there. She was drunk by halftime, so she probably shouldn't have been at a bar period. I arrived to find her and Aaron as the only two people there. I grabbed a drink as Amanda nuzzled Aaron on the couch, realizing that a couple of fellow SJ grads were at one of the tables near the bar with some girls I didn't know. A few minutes later, Aaron name dropped one of them (Tommy Garibaldi), so I mentioned that I thought I saw him. Aaron said I must have been mistaken and that he'd have noticed Tommy. At this point, the SJ alum group got up to leave, so I proceeded to point as Tommy stood up in their sight. Aaron yelled, Tommy was startled, and new conversations ensued. We relocated to House of Pies so Amanda could get something to eat. Poor girl had trouble navigating a gluten-loaded menu with her allergies, but managed to settle on sausage and eggs. Aaron and I proceeded to reminisce as Amanda tried to follow along in a hazy stupor. About an hour and four or five weird memories later, we were ready to head out. Aaron made an interesting point about how sad it is that we're calling it a night so early (around 1:00am). I pointed out that we all have day jobs now, which he accepted as reason enough... Current Location: Home Current Mood: amused

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November 21st, 2009

11:38 pm - GSA Night at the Rockets I picked up Nicole and we headed straight for Toyota Center. She mentioned that it was a lot more crowded than for the hockey games, so I explained to her that basketball is big in the United States, but that no one in the south cares about hockey that much. We found Josh Massey (the Rockets' group sales rep) who exchanged our tickets for lower level seats and told us to send the others by. We went up to Section 407 (our actual seats) and began relocating everyone in the group down to Section 108, where Josh gave them tickets for Section 124, a serious upgrade over the previous seats. We took our seats shortly after tip off, with the Rockets getting off to a hot start. Over the course of the game, Sacramento worked their way back into it, even taking the lead several times. I noticed that Nicole largely lost interest in the game, so I did what I could to keep her interested. Didn't seem to work. Just before the half, I pulled 20 of the 50 people in the group and we went down to Section 108, where one of the court side reps brought us down to the court, gave us instructions, and lined us up. The players started filing out of the tunnel as the halftime break ended, and we had the chance to high-five each of the players as they came out. I wisely loaded up on girls in the group to make sure we were very loud... definitely a fun experience. Current Location: Home Current Mood: pleased

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November 20th, 2009

11:38 pm - Aeros vs. Admirals After not hearing back from Nicole all week, I found out that Carrie is a hockey fan last night, so I invited her to come join me for the game. We arrived early and loaded up on cowbells (the give-away for that night), then headed to our seats. Gary Blanchette and his wife came by and sat down. They mistook Carrie for some kind of romantic interest or girlfriend of mine. He suggested Carrie come along for Clergy Appreciation Night. I relayed the details, she said it sounds like fun and that she'd come, and then I promptly proceeded to explain to Gary that there was nothing going on between me and her. By the way, if I haven't clarified it before, Gary is another District Deputy in the Knights who happens to have the tickets right next to mine. The game got off to a miserable start, with the Milwaukee Admirals scoring twice in short order. The Aeros were playing the worst hockey I'd seen from them in the last two years. They couldn't control the puck, were missing shoulder checks constantly, and even slipped on the ice several times. It just wasn't the same team I'd been watching all season. We quickly got bored, at which point Carrie began commenting on how the cheerleaders were tucked away where no one could see them and how pointless it is to have them if they're going to be up where they are. The Aeros tightened up in the second period and gave up no goals, but couldn't score either. They gave up a goal to start off the third period, then tightened up and scored two with a few minutes left in the third period. Carrie and I had gotten up to leave between the first and second goals, figuring the first to be a fluke. We hovered at the top (ironically enough, near one of the vacant cheerleader locations) to watch the remainder of the game, then jetted out of there faster than I've ever gotten out of the Toyota Center garage... Current Location: Home Current Mood: disappointed

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November 19th, 2009

11:38 pm - Stressed... GSA Night at the Rockets is two days off and I'm already out of tickets. Even worse, reservation requests have exceeded 90 tickets, while we only have 50 tickets to give. I've been turning down literally dozens of people. If only Student Government hadn't cut the budget so badly. We would have been able to purchase twice as many tickets without any problem. Things got a bit dicey earlier in the week when I realized that my officers were selling tickets and not updating the reservations/sales lists. I was booking reservations up till 48 people, figuring maybe one two-ticket sale would go through that wasn't reported. I was right, Ashleigh had made such a sale. But Guillermo had gone and sold an additional SEVEN tickets without reporting them, meaning we had a total of 57 sales + reservations with only 50 tickets to go. Even worse, when I brought it to his attention, he asked if we could split the budget even further by getting Career Services to pitch in more. I asked him what the hell he was talking about, at which point he informed me that he was told Career Services was contributing to the event. Yes, people, this is my Vice President... I'm going to ban him from using his computer during meetings, because he's obviously not paying attention... Current Location: Home Current Mood: stressed

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November 18th, 2009

11:36 pm - Talk about a loaded weekend... Got a GSA meeting and the Knights of Columbus fraternal benefits night tomorrow. Got the Aeros game and Shadwell Wake on Friday. Got work and the GSA Night at the Rockets on Saturday. Then I cap it off with more work and mass on Sunday. Looks like no classwork is getting done over the next few days. Even worse, Monday is one class before I run to work Monday Night Football, oh joy... The worst part of Monday Night Football has to be that it's the Houston Texans vs. the Tennessee Titans. For those who don't know, the old Houston Oilers left for Tennessee in the late 1990s, leaving a gap that later got filled by the Texans in 2002. This year's Monday Night Football theme is "throwback", so the Titans will be wearing... yep, the old Oiler duds... on the road... in their old home town. That'll rile up the local fans. Current Location: Home Current Mood: frustrated

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November 17th, 2009

11:32 pm - Facts about Texas (State History) Texas will be represented at the ISA event on Tuesday, so I figured I'd provide you with some information about the greatest state in the nation. Third up, some important dates in the history of Texas. EARLY TEXAS 1519: Alonso Alvarez de Pineda explores Gulf Coast 1685: French settlers begin to claim areas that now comprise North Texas 1689: Spanish settlers dispute French claims to Texas, gain advantage 1690: Spain considers Texas an official colony. MEXICAN TEXAS August 24, 1821: Mexico defeats Spain for independence, claims Texas as it's territory. October 4, 1824: Coahuila & Tejas is established as a province of the new Mexican Republic. 1833: Santa Anna elected President of Mexico, Texas representatives demand more fairness. 1834: English authorized as a second language in Texas. TEXAS REVOLUTION (1835) October 2, 1835: Battle of Gonzalez-- Texans repeal Mexicans and start the Texas Revolution October 28, 1835: Battle of Concepcion-- Texans repeal Mexican forces again in a major victory December 10, 1835: First Battle of the Alamo-- General Cos & 1000 soldiers surrender to Texas TEXAS REVOLUTION (1836) March 2, 1836: Texas Independence Day-- Texans declare independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos March 6, 1836: Second Battle of the Alamo-- Texans lose during a 13 day siege of the fort. March 27, 1836: Goliad Massacre-- 400 Texans murdered by Santa Anna. April 21, 1836: Battle of San Jacinto-- Houston's troops win in the last battle of the war. May 14, 1836: Treaties of Velasco are signed, ending the war officially. REPUBLIC OF TEXAS 1836: Constitution of the Republic of Texas is established. March 16, 1836: David Burnett becomes interim President of Texas. October 22, 1836: Sam Houston becomes first official President of Texas. 1837: Houston declared the first official capital of Texas. 1839: Austin declared the new official capital of Texas February 28, 1845: US Congress authorizes the government to annex Texas if the vote permits October 13, 1845: Texas votes to be annexed into the United States December 29, 1845: Texas state constitution is approved, annexed by the United States AMERICAN CIVIL WAR February 19, 1846: James Pickney Henderson becomes first governor of Texas. February 1, 1861: Texas secedes from the US and joins the Confederate States of America. November 6, 1865: Last Confederate forces surrender, ending the American Civil War June 19, 1866: American troops arrive in Texas, signifying the restoration of the union. MODERN TEXAS January 10, 1901: First oil well found in Beaumont, TX November 22, 1963: Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates John F. Kennedy November 23, 1963: Lyndon Baines Johnson becomes first US President from Texas January 20, 2001: George W. Bush becomes the second US President from Texas Current Location: Home Current Mood: calm

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November 16th, 2009

11:43 pm - Facts about Texas (State Insignia) Texas will be represented at the ISA event on Tuesday, so I figured I'd provide you with some information about the greatest state in the nation. Second up, some symbols that are considered the official such symbols of Texas. I apologize in advance if any of these are inaccurate, I grabbed the info off wikipedia. State Flower: Bluebonnet State Motto: "Friendship" State Nickname: The Lone Star State State Tree: Pecan State Soil: Houston Black Soil State Bird: Northern Mockingbird State Song: "Texas Our Texas" State Mammal (small): Nine-banded Armadillo State Mammal (large): Texas longhorn State Mammal (flying): Mexican free-tailed bat State Dog: Blue Lacy State Air Force: Commemorative Air Force State Bread: Pan de campo State Cooking Implement: Dutch oven State Dinosaur: Brachiosaur Sauropod State Dish: Chili con carne State Fiber: Cotton State Fabric: Cotton State Fish: Guadalupe Bass State Folk Dance: Square Dance State Fruit: Texas Grapefruit State Gem: Texas Blue Topaz State Gemstone Cut: Lone Star Cut State Grass: Sideoats grama State Insect: Monarch butterfly State Molecule: Buckyball State Musical Instrument: Guitar State Nut: Native Pecan State Pepper (native): Chiltepin State Pepper (foreign): Jalapeno State Plant: Prickly pear cactus State Plays: Fort Griffin Fandangle, The Lone Star, Texas, Beyond Sundown State Reptile: Texas horned lizard State Shell: Lightning whelk State Ship: USS Texas State Shrub (foreign): Crape Myrtle State Shrub (native): Texas sage State Slogan: "Don't Mess with Texas" State Snack: Tortilla chips and salsa State Sport: Rodeo State Sport: American football State Stone: Petrified palmwood State Tartan: Texas bluebonnet tartan State Pastry: Sopapilla, strudel State Vegetable: Texas sweet onion Current Location: Home Current Mood: mellow

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November 15th, 2009

11:38 pm - Facts about Texas (Holidays) Texas will be represented at the ISA event on Tuesday, so I figured I'd provide you with some information about the greatest state in the nation. First up, state holidays as recognized by the government of Texas: January 1: New Year's Day January 19: Confederate Heroes Day January (third Monday): Martin Luther King, Jr. Day February (third Monday): Presidents' Day March 2: Texas Independence Day March 31: Cesar Chavez Day April (variable): Good Friday April 21: San Jacinto Day May (last Monday): Memorial Day June 19: Emancipation Day in Texas July 4: US Independence Day August 27: Lyndon Baines Johnson Day September (first Monday): Labor Day September (variable): Rosh Hashanah October (variable): Yom Kippur November 11: Veteran's Day November (fourth Thursday): Thanksgiving Day November: Friday after Thanksgiving December 24: Day before Christmas December 25: Christmas Day December 26: Day after Christmas Current Location: Home Current Mood: lethargic

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November 14th, 2009

11:37 pm - "Who ordered the whoop-ass fajitas?!" ~Romeo My plans for the evening fell through, so I met up with Alan, Alizeh, Charlotte, Jess, and Skye at Hooters for dinner. Alizeh took off and we relocated to Edwards to see Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day. Nathan met us up at the theater. I think he was supposed to be with someone, but the other guy didn't show. We got into the theater and the girls ran to the restroom. I joked with Nathan that I'd do the exaggerated "stretch-arm-and-put-it-around-girl's-shoulder" move to get a reaction from Jess, and encouraged Alan to get Skye to do the same to Charlotte. Both moves failed, though... Alan wouldn't tell Skye to do it because Charlotte would punch him. I tried it on Jess, but she'd had so many awkward moments in her life that she was able to shrug it off very easily. Oh well... Nathan and I got upset during the previews when we saw a trailer for a movie with Willem Dafoe in it. We felt it was spitting in the face of the actual movie, considering that Dafoe had been approached about being in the movie and had been the only major character to decline. They did address the character ("Agent Smecker") to write him out of the movie, but I won't go into details or spoilers here. The movie itself was amazing. I was a bit disappointed in the parts with Rocco, which struck me as very preachy. And no, don't worry, they don't try to bring him back from the dead. The movie as a whole was a very serviceable sequel to the original, and left the door open for a third installment. If there is one, I just hope it doesn't take another 10 years to come out. Current Location: Home Current Mood: impressed

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November 13th, 2009

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November 11th, 2009

10:37 pm - A fair enough tribute to the veterans I'd anticipated going to Luby's today since our Marketing Applications project was on the restaurant. Diana and I both skipped lunch since the class was released for us to work on the project. Unfortunately, Trey had other plans, and Max, being the spineless peacekeeper he is, just agreed with the most forceful person in the group. After work, Max and I went down to this Vietnamese place off Montrose that serves really cheap chicken fried rice. We were watching CNN coverage of a couple of stories when we encountered an interview Wolf Blitzer had with retired army colonel John Galligan, the civilian lawyer for the suspected Ft. Hood shooter Major Malik Hasan. Blitzer pulled no punches during the interview, but I had to say that the sharpest line had to be his closing. Galligan kept noting that the important thing is that Hasan receive a fair trial, and to do otherwise would violate what freedoms and rights the soldiers fight for in the first place. Blitzer got in the proverbial "last word", though, commenting, "I'm sure he will get a much fairer hearing than those 13 Americans who were brutally gunned down the other day. I'm sure he will get all of the rights that are applied by the military code of justice." Galligan stumbled through a response that largely consisted of repeating himself. It was a nice final blow from Blitzer to put the whole occurrence in perspective after a very pro-Hasan interview from the lawyer. I'd never thought much of Blitzer before, but I'm impressed with his willingness to step aside and say something bold enough to throw Galligan off. I respect what the lawyer is standing for, but there's no chance his client is getting anywhere if 30+ people were shot by the accused and didn't die. They all live to testify against him... Current Location: Home Current Mood: impressed

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November 10th, 2009

10:37 pm - Random Frustration Knights of Columbus chapter meeting tonight. The highlight had to be the fact that the Chapter president wasn't there, meaning we had essentially prepped for a short meeting. I don't know if word got out that he wasn't present, but it seemed like it did because we had the lowest chapter turn out in recent memory, and fewer state and committee reporters than I'd ever seen before. Dickerman and Laura wanted to go out to Buffalo Wild Wings, so I decided to join them. He called Nicole just before we left, which reminded me of something. I addressed the fact that he never actually got her phone number from her, but that he took her phone, called himself, and saved her number. He attempted to defend his action by telling me that she said it was okay when he mentioned that he had it, which isn't really a response considering that there's no way she could have told him to delete the number without coming off rude. I also addressed the fact that he apparently wasn't very courteous with his choice of calling and texting. She never told me to say anything to him, but after I've been told on three separate occasions that she's frustrated with him repeatedly texting her about something, repeatedly following up about something she's tried to tell him she's not interested in (probably in her "try to be as nice as possible about it" way), and texting her at hours of the night which woke her up from her sleep. I left out the part where she was annoyed that the late night text claimed to be "important", and when she followed up in the morning it was just an invite to come along with us to BW3s. I told him to delete her number from his phone and stop contacting her. He acted like it was no big deal until I stood right where I was and told him I would not be accompanying them until he acted. In a surprising show of solidarity, Laura (presumably agreeing with my arguments) also stood her ground, and Dickerman made a show of adjusting something of his phone and claimed to have removed the number. I wonder how telling it is that I don't actually believe he deleted the number...? Current Location: Home Current Mood: aggravated

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