Because I need to say something

Opus' greatest fear

2008-04-06T12:03:00.001-07:00

Today I got out of bed, made my breakfast and started reading the newspaper. Of course for me, reading the newspaper means going straight for the comics, as I did this very morning. One of my favorite comics is Opus the sweet, sarcastic little penguin whose daily life reflects the faux pas of today's society; and today I laughed especially hard.
The comic starts off with Opus asleep in his bed. He is awoken by his kindergarden librarian who reminds him that he still has to pay his late fee for a book that he had not returned. Opus asks how much it is and she tells him. At the same time, a bullet comes flying past our friendly penguin from somewhere off the panel. Opus kindly asks the fear to stop attacking as his more formidable fear, the librarian has currently beat the former fear to the punch. Hearing this the second fear attacks the librarian "Not the taser!" Opus cries, but it is too late. The second fear comes into the room and Opus introduces Hillary Clinton, dressed in war gear and a gas mask to the librarian.
I find this comic appealing for several reasons. Firstly, I have little respect for Hillary as a presidential candidate. She may be a senator, but if she cannot work out her personal life effectively, how is she supposed to run the nation? Secondly, that Opus finds his librarian a bigger threat than hillary is an interesting comparison. He shows that he is afraid of Hillary running the country and at the same time shows Hillary's stubborness in being his second worst fear. Her determination seems to come out boldly in this comic. The fact that you cannot see her face is yet another interesting point. What does this mean symbolically for hillary? that her friendliness and charisma are a disguise for the stubborn and aggressive woman she really is?
This is why the comic Opus itself is also particularly interesting to read. It forces its audience to think while at the same time it does it in a manner that is funny and ambiguous. It just goes to show that the best place to read this comic is where it is now: in the newspaper.

The tyrant teacher testing alliance theory

2008-02-16T15:28:00.000-08:00

Ah, the great week of testing... but it's not midterms or finals. Rather it is the sudden onslaught of tests that every teacher seems to give at the same time. It first begins in high school. You'll have six or seven classes a semester and it never seems to fail that three or four weeks into it, at least three of them will decide to give a test in the same 24-hour period. The same occurs in college when your German language teacher, your anatomy teacher and even your chemistry teacher decide "Hey, y'know what? I believe it's time to pull a fast one on the student body," and with that, you all of a sudden have three exams practically back-to-back-to-back. Furthermore, despite that the fact that you now have three unrelated tests to study for, you're also expected to do well on them. For the immaculately studious, this may be possible, but let's be practical; the immaculately studious make up maybe 3% of the student body population. It seems to me that this may be a conspiracy set up by the college proffessors against the students. I would bet that they have a meeting every other week planning simply to make every test week as miserable as possible. But why would they go to such lengths to do so? for some it may be a test of perserverence. They think that by posing this challenge they can weed out who's here to learn from those who are just messing around. Then again, that's what I thought the tests were for. It would also be probable that some of these teachers had their own miserable experiences in college and wish to share the misfortune with others. For the rest, they're probably just enjoying messing with the student's head. I know I would, but then again, I'm a miserable, suffering college student having to take three exams in two days.

WOOT! MARDI GRAS!!

2008-02-06T11:59:00.000-08:00

Oh. My. Gosh! I am beginning to think that Mardi Gras is one of the most super awesome holidays of the year. For those of you not familiar with this particular event being a school holiday, I am deeply sorry for your misfortune and I highly advise moving to the south for this advantage. Anyway, tangent aside, I can't help but love Mardi Gras for several reasons. One of course is the parades. The thought and work that is put into the creation of these floats are quite the site to behold and it is no easy task to put these suckers together. The beads are fun to catch too, but I prefer catching the coconuts from Zulu. Secondly, all the good food I get to eat makes the season feel like thanksgiving all over again. No, it's not a turkey feast, but it is a feast of red beans and rice, gumbo, po-boys (which by the way was called poor boys during the depression and was shortened to spice up the name afterwards), fried chicken and muffalettas.
Probably my most favorite part of Mardi Gras, however, is seeing the costumes. Everywhere you turn you see a different bizarre configuration of clothing on some person's body. I saw a group of friends walking around dressed like the characters from Sesame Street. Another couple was dressed up like a pair of sad clowns. Sometimes people wear practicly nothing at all.Two men on bourbon street were in their underwear and a set of angel wings each. Whether the outfit offends or amuses however, Mardi Gras allows the wearer to express themselves in a way that is denied to them the rest of the year (except maybe for Halloween, but that's one night as opposed to a whole day and for some, a weekend). They are free to explore their clothing creativity be it to mock, criticize, admire, amuse, or entertain; and I am grateful for their shamelessness because it makes my mardi gras that much more enjoyable.