I have a thing for…

Natalie Portman. Girls with brains in general.

Natalie Portman and Rashida Jones (Karen from The Office)- Get out and VOTE!

Vote tommorrow, yeah?

Remember that it only takes a basketful of people (around 500 or so)
to decide an election.

Thoughts on Election ‘08-

McCain is an ass
Obama is inexperienced and relatively untested

so-

Vote for Obama.

Let me explain.

I’m not trying to be hip just before election day by following what everyone else is saying. I’ve been following this election since last year. I was fervently for Ron Paul and his economic and foreign policies. I was incredibly disappointed when Ron Paul dropped out and then I looked at Obama with disdain for his proposed foreign policy and for having signed the FISA bill as well as for his strong support of the recent bailout. I’m still tentatively unsure what Obama’s plans are for the long run in this country, but I’ve realized that Obama is the one with grace and calm during the last days of his campaign. It has been really encouraging to see how down to earth he is, going around the country, getting to know the people who are entrusting him with their votes. That’s someone who I would trust with this country.

Scary as it is, this election is still surprisingly close. Knowing this fact, Senator Obama has been getting the word out about why people should vote for him, whereas Senator McCain is giving people an ultimatum. His ad campaign consists of reasons NOT to vote for Obama and thus I suppose he expects people to vote for him (McCain) because they’ll think that there’s no other options. “Vote McCain or you’ll get Obama” tells people nothing about HIS policies and what HE will do to make this country a better place to live in.

Man, I love the way Obama’s so good at inspiring others and just being encouraging in his speech and demeanor
For example, I love this ad playing in Virginia right now.
Maybe it’s the music that does it for me, but man, there’s some quality in him that makes me want to trust him.

So, Mr. Obama, I trust that you believe, deep down, that FISA was a gross violation of my First Amendment rights.
I trust that you will undo the damage of the previous administration’s disregard of the United States Constitution.
I trust that you yourself will truly uphold the document that had once made this country great.

Another thing is that I trust in Obama’s support for the Sciences and Technology.
I will trust that this will lead to America’s eventual rise back up to being an economic giant.

Obama/Biden ‘08

SRS Audio Sandbox

I found this program today called SRS Audio Sandbox. Now I don’t have much experience with these kinds of “virtual surround sound” programs, but I do know that I got this one and it makes my audio sound too much awesome.

It acts almost like an equalizer, not for individual programs but rather for my computer itself.

Furthermore, it increases bass response like none other, yet keeps it from reaching the point of “huge-douche-bag-with-crappy-sub-next-to-you-in-traffic.” I have yet to test it out, but I suppose that this is perfect for my cheap Sennheiser HD201’s which are known for being “classical music headphones,” or headphones that have really dainty and not bass driven sound.

Another one of the things it’s supposed to do is emulate 5.1 surround sound speakers. Maybe it’s because I’m not an audio crazed guy who pays the genital shrinking sum of 33,000 US dollars for speaker cables like the OPUS MM2:

33,000 DOLLARS?! RAGEEEE!!!!

but I’m not sure I hear the surround sound bit. I just hear that it’s making a huge improvement in my songs. Even the ones that have crap compression rates.

I Want it All

Don’t you see that bigger is better
And better is bigger
A little bit is never enough

Don’t you want it all!
You want it, you know that you want it
The fame and the fortune and more
You want it all, you want it, you know that you want it
You gotta have your star on the door
You want the world nothing less, all the glam and the press
Only givng you the best reviews.

Blessings Part I

From Nooma #8- Dust

For those of you who don’t know what Nooma is, it’s an organization
that makes concise, coherent videos addressing various topics in
Christianity, like prayer, evangelism, and relationships in a way that’s
easy to relate to: http://www.nooma.com

This video, Dust, really explained Jesus’ disciples for me. I never really
could quite understand why Simon, Andrew, James, John and the like
just dropped their nets, ditched their dads and family businesses and
followed Jesus. It just doesn’t make sense.

But Nooma #8 went into what the common practice of rabbi-ing was
back in Hebrew times. Schooling was quite different then than it is now.
Kids would learn the Torah (The Five Writings of Moses) at a very early age
and have it memorized before moving on (some of them) to the Talmud
(Hebrew collection of rabbinic teachings). Some of them would be truly
gifted and memorize the entirety of both the Torah and the Talmud.
Others, however, would “drop out” and essentially enter in the family
trade (like fishing, carpentry, etc). The gifted ones then sought out a
Rabbi who they could learn from. The Rabbi looked for one he could
pass on his interpretation of God’s word to. The Rabbi would interview
his student, and if he thought, “This kid is bright, but he can’t do
what I do,” then he would reject him. But if the Rabbi really believed that
a kid could learn all his tricks and emulate his teaching style well,
he would take the kid under his wing and teach him to be EXACTLY
like him.

These kids would turn out to be exactly like their Rabbis and look for
a new generation of kids to pass their teachings down to. But what about
the ones that were not chosen by a Rabbi or dropped out at that earlier
stage? Well, again, they would go into their family trade.

But this is when Jesus comes to them. He comes to Simon, Andrew, John
and James who I think were kinda dejected from being rejected from the
next step of their education. Jesus comes and says, “Come, follow me and
I will make you fishers of men.” They don’t even think twice. A rabbi is
offering them an opportunity to study under him. What an honor!

I can imagine them stuttering how unworthy they were and just saying things
like, “I may not be really smart, but I’m a hard worker!” and offering up
excuses to Jesus, trying to make sure Jesus wasn’t making a mistake.

so then “Dust” goes on to talk about Peter in Matthew 14, who tries to walk on
water. The whole spiel above explains why Peter wanted to do this. It wasn’t
because Peter thought that it’d be a sick ability to have, it was mainly because
his main responsibility as a disciple was to emulate his rabbi perfectly.

But I do agree that it would be pretty sweet to walk/breakdance on water

What Jesus Could Do:

So Peter asks Jesus if he could do it too, and Jesus beckons him.
Peter tries to walk over to Jesus, but looks around him and doesn’t
believe what he sees, and sinks. He cries, “Lord, help me!” and Jesus
saves him and says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” we
all know gist of the story.

But looking closer, you can get the following- Peter’s faith in Jesus
only got him some of the way. Jesus’ statement makes us think
that it was Jesus himself who believed in, who had faith in, Peter and
brought Peter the rest of the way, to be by his side.

I think this is powerful. To think that God believes in you, has faith
in you? You who do not even begin to compare with this guy:

Kim Ung-yong

who got accepted into college at the age of 3 and was invited to work
for NASA at the age of 7. God STILL chooses you and believes in you,
even if you’re not the best of the best.

This provides me tremendous encouragement and really puts the following
verse in a new light:

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you
were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were
of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the
wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose
the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that
are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

-1 Corinthians 1:26-29

More to come soon.

To Marry:

Pamela Morgan Beesly

Combine them somehow and I will pursue her past the ends of the earth.

Scariest Girl in Anime

This is a year late (School Days came out in 2007). But I must get it
out of my mind.

I think I blocked this out of my mind, cuz I was terrified of her, but

This is the scariest girl in all of anime:

Kotonoha Katsura.
Looks sweet, huh?

No.

Let me you a story:

A boy, Makoto Itou, decides that he likes a girl, Kotonoha
and another girl, Sekai Saionji assists him in dating Kotonoha.
Unfortunately, Sekai finds herself in love with Makoto and
Makoto eventually sees that and starts reciprocating those
feelings, making Kotonoha feel like:

The plot goes on with her being lonely and eventually
going crazy, not knowing why the guy who said he loved
her, Makoto, seemed to be spending so much time with
Sekai instead of her.

Turns out that later, Sekai falls out of favor in Makoto’s eyes
and Makoto turns back to Kotonoha’s welcoming arms.
She, having gone batshit crazy, welcomes him as if nothing
were wrong.

Sekai, however, has different plans. She decides that the
best course of action is to tell Makoto she’s pregnant,
go over to his apartment, cook him a meal, stab him
to death and leave.

The following is the scary part:

Kotonoha, crazy as she is, comes home to find her dead
boyfriend on the floor of the apartment they share together.

Now, I don’t know what the step past lunacy is, but she
successfully reached the definition of that step.

She cuts of Makoto’s head (presumably as a souvenir to
celebrate her complete plunge into the depths of derangement)
and gives Sekai a call with Makoto’s phone (creepy) telling her
that she needs to go to the roof of the high school that they
attend.

(Note: ATTEND as in they still go to HIGH SCHOOL.
What did you do in high school, knock over some
mailboxes with a baseball bat as you drove past
on Halloween? These kids say they’re pregnant and
KILL each other out of jealousy)

Kotonoha waits there- with Makoto’s head in a duffel bag-
for Sekai and when Sekai shows up, she sneaks up behind
her and asks, “Did you go to the doctor?” Sekai, who
knows Kotonoha is retardedly imbalanced, is confused.

Kotonoha explains that Sekai should probably have gone
to the doctor if she’s really pregnant. Sekai responds that
she really is pregnant and she don’t need no doctor to know
it and she loves Makoto and she wanted him to love her
back and why doesn’t he love me and why would he go
after you and betray me and… etc.

To which Kotonoha replies, “He’s right there. Ask him yourself.”

Now I don’t know what she thought Kotonoha meant by that
statement, but she OPENS THE FREAKING BAG.

Clearly regretting this action, she stumbles and pukes.

Kotonoha taking advantage of the situation proceeds to
take out a butcher knife:

and says, “Please allow me to check (because I guess Kotonoha
got her medical degree along with her crazies) whether you are
actually pregnant or not.”

Sekai brought her knife with her and she senses that the
large butcher’s knife is not a good sign so she brings it up…

but Kotonoha nimbly swipes it out of Sekai’s hands
(because kung-fu lessons come free with utter psychosis)
and slices her neck open:

Then, while Sekai’s busy dying, Kotonoha proceeds to do the
most logical thing, and tears open Sekai’s womb to check if
there’s a fetus in there:

So. Scary.

I can’t believe no one’s picked this as a URL yet.

Hello World.

I’m Imabones, a clever, digitally generated anagram of my true identity. That’s all that I will ever be on this blog, an internet ID name. Concealed, until perhaps you find me on Facebook and I foolishly accept your friend request.

Let’s put it out there that I did not make this blog for a specific purpose.
I write here because I want to be a little bit like Demosthenes and Locke from Ender’s Game
I write because I enjoy watching as my thoughts press keys and produce sentences.
I write because sometimes there’s no way for me to express something otherwise.
I seem to gain some level of mental organization from writing on here in short segments.

I gain some kind of pleasure from doing personal research on what I am interested in
what makes me laugh
what makes me angry
what makes the world cohere to itself.

This is actually the third blog that I have professed to owning.
The first two fell through because I relied too much on gaining feedback from others.
I write this blog not for approval, but rather to see my thoughts get published (selfish I know).

Some people just like seeing their thoughts displayed somewhere
public. Perhaps it comes from the days of seeing an assignment
posted on a refridgerator door or the days of seeing your answer
come up as an example of a “good” response in class. No one
knows it was you (unless you tell everyone like an imbecile)
who wrote it, but it still fills you with a sense that you’ve
accomplished something.

So let’s not say that this blog is about the best ways to do something or
even what makes my life more interesting than others’.
This is a forum for my thoughts and only I get to post.
I am a selfish bastard.

But there’s Jesus.