In college, I wondered why there wasn’t a Resident Evil-esque Humans vs. Zombies game. It looks like someone is doing that with Nerf guns and has created a pretty formalized set of rules.

But man is it fun to do it while wearing a nice set of headphones.

May God’s shalom be with you all tonight.

Sometimes I forget.

Like snow in summer or rain in harvest,
honor is not fitting for a fool.

26:1

But we’re not moving to Australia

We love you SO MUCH. Check out the leaf. All the leaves have been colored with red markers, I think. Also, here’s the drink your mom bought me. Peppermint coffee thing. Very tasty.

It’s been ten years since student teaching and the educational climate has changed quite a bit over the years (I had previously thought that RIF was what guitarists played. I like that definition a whole lot better.), but if a friend of Devin needs help, then here we are. (For my other readers – Devin messaged me on Twitter with a plea. This is the response.)

Let’s get this out of the way at the beginning: teaching is worth it. Our students really need people who will help them analyze the world around them and be world-changers, not just consumers. Here’s the kicker, though: you will hardly ever get to see your investment played out first-hand. Some students will come back to update you, and those have been encouraging, but many will move on to bigger and better things – and that’s what we want, really.

The biggest advice I can give is to jump right into any responsibilities that you can. I took over a class on the very first day of student teaching, even though it wasn’t required, and it benefited me tremendously. They were MY students to the very end of the semester. I didn’t have to worry while doing observations. 1st hour I paid attention because 5th hour I needed to know how to teach it.

I also went to all of the pre-semester meetings, the ones where teachers get trained on what to expect for the year. You’ll be just as clued in as the staff. It’s also where teachers shared about their summers. I built relationships that were supportive and much needed when mid-semester hit. If you’re student teaching in January, make sure to attend the staff meetings, especially at the beginning of the semester.

In college, I freaked out about presenting a lesson for 15 minutes. Quick hint: class periods are longer than 15 minutes. But when you have the whole scope of the unit, it makes planning the smaller chunks a lot easier. One idea, one concept, one objective, one activity flows into the next.

Lesson planning and classroom management is all about flow. It’s very “leaf on the wind”, except that you get to be the wind. Keep activities to ten-minute increments. Students can pay attention for 7-10 minutes and then they need a state change, whether it’s a body movement or a switch in activity. Push that 10-minute threshold and you’ll see the consequences.

This probably has been said before, but make sure that early on the expectations you express, both verbally and nonverbally, are the expectations you want to live with for the rest of the semester.

You are not the students’ friend. Friends don’t assign each other lunch detentions. You can be kind, consistent, and caring, but not a friend. Students need adults who are kind, consistent, and caring. They get enough buddy buddy from adults who think they’re cool but aren’t.

Introduce yourself to the principal and the office staff. Be memorable as someone who is professional. You want to be as much of an integral part of the campus as you can. It definitely gives you an edge over the random job applicants. Even if you don’t want to work at the same school you student taught at, you’d be surprised at just how connected administrators from other districts are. Ask for a screening interview at the end of the semester, if only for the practice.

Do whatever you can to help out the secretaries and the maintenance staff. You make their lives easier, they brag about it. You give them trouble, they will crush you.

Yes, there are fewer teacher openings out there than there were ten years ago when I applied. The downside is that there is a tinge of paranoia. The upside is that those that have jobs are generally pretty thankful for them. Even if you don’t get hired right out of student teaching, long-term sub. Teaching is a skill and you don’t want to get out of practice. Sure, you can read a book about teaching, but it’s the delivery of the lesson that counts.

Here’s a timeline of fear that I’ve seen play out in my experience as a district mentor (I work with every new teacher that gets hired to my school):

The Fears/Doubts
Student teaching – Did I choose the right major? Did I waste four years and thousands of dollars? Will the students like me? Will my cooperating teacher be a jerk? Can I afford to not get paid for a semester of work?

First year – Are you sure I chose the right major? This is nothing like student teaching. How can I do this the right way? My cooperating teacher never had this trouble. Are the veteran teachers making fun of me? Does the staff respect me? Will I always have to stay at school until 6pm?

Third year/fifth year/seventh year – Am I teaching what I want to teach? Are the students actually learning? Is this my career? Can I put up with one more crazy parent? Did I handle that situation the right way?

Tenth year – Am I really one of the old guys on campus? Why am I making all the decisions? Why is everyone complaining about my decisions? Can I please just worry about one more crazy parent instead?

One really cool aspect, though, is being able to recognize the spark of learning. Over time you get to see those moments add up and know that you did something with your life. If that student then grows up and positively impacts another person’s life…Exponents are crazy. You can either positively or negatively affect a whole bunch of people’s lives. It’s a lot of responsibility. And, you know, you get summers off(-ish).

Let’s test your Dress for Success knowledge.

Yes, if you have a really contagious disease, go seek out your RA.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Yeah, so the Hollywood Hotel got hit by lightning and opened up a temporal vortex, but we already paid for the rooms so we’re good.

Popoids are weird.

shirt.woot has the LAUNDRY SMASH shirt. Can you imagine the conversations that would start? Please help Hulk. Every donation counts towards getting him some new pants.

Reading the dialogue versus listening to Jeff Bridges, I had missed something key while reading: every single line out of Rooster Cogburn’s mouth sounded like my Grandpa H.

This is what you look like after you’ve just eaten a fly.

Same brand. Should be the same color. Yep. Time for summer.

Love – that bird in flight, living out its purpose – much like I feel leaving this district leadership meeting

Annoyance – that’s my flippin’ car on the other side of a locked gate

This time of year conjures memories of my grandparents as well as many other memories of my various family members. I hope that all who read this bloggh have the opportunity to create new memories with the ones they care about.

Over part of these holidays I have the very cool opportunity to head over to California and hit as many of the major theme park attractions as I can with my wife, which is when she’ll get the best chance to laugh at me while I temporarily transform into a 5 year old on these rides….although I think I’ll have to bring the kleenex for “It’s a small world”…that ride gets my wife every time…(not really). It’s going to be very strange going to DisneyLand without Star Tours, but all that means is more time on Indiana Jones and Space Mountain.

Happy Holidays and prayers to your family and friends

The paper, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, focused on three metriorhynchids from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous: Dakosaurus, Geosaurus and the newly named Torvoneustes. All three were “hypercarnivores,” which lead author Marco Brandalise de Andrade, defines as a carnivore with a diet made up of at least 70 percent meat.

70% meat? That describes the eating habits of my side of the family. Do we qualify as T. Rex’s?

I think the bad fish taco has attached to my brain. I could have sworn I saw that Microsoft now has the Double Rainbow Guy on payroll.

I did read a forwarded message today, though. The video was worth watching. A staff member watched over my shoulder and said that the speaker in the video had been to her church and that started a conversation. Here’s the video.

Today a high school librarian e-mailed all of the secondary librarians in the district about how her principal was horrified learning what the junior high librarians were asking for.

I wanted to Reply All: “How horrified? Like ‘Holocaust’ horrified or ‘Jersey Shore’ horrified?”

I think it’s best that it remains an e-mail not sent. All I know is that the release date for Black Ops is too far away.

Here’s the original ad:

Here’s what they did after PETA got a hold of it:

E3 looked great, and of the many games that are coming out I’d say I’m looking forward to “The Old Republic” the most, as well as “GoldenEye” which is coming out on the Nintendo Wii. I remember several days where I’d be up all hours of the night playing with a neighbor of mine while growing up. The moment this game gets to pre-order status I’m jumping on it.

My only real complaint about future games is that I think there needs to be a “Left 4 Dead” on the PS3. If you’re looking for a game to freak you out while you play it at night this is it. I had gone over to a friend’s house to play the original Left 4 Dead with him on his XBox 360 and it was unbelievably terrifying as we played it in a pitch-black room with surround sound hooked up in full theater-style. All I will say is I’ve never been terrified like I was in that moment. FEAR 3 is another game that is coming out that will provide some pretty freaky stuff for the player.

The future of gaming is looking very bright in my opinion, and I hope it continues to progress.

Thoughts?

I mean, at least our planet’s not being eaten by a sun.

I wish I had the resources to save the people of Wasp-12b, but I probably wouldn’t make it in time. The planet will race to its death over the next ten million years.

I had thought about offering a LOST commentary from last night’s series finale, but I think it can be summarized in one sentence:
Mike was right.

Would you trust someone like this?

No question.

He is currently in a state of beardery similar to this:

but with more PVC pipes and face paint.

Once I regain full control of this site, I will need a bigger challenge. I’m interested in car computers.

And yes, standardized testing has officially trampled all over my sleep schedule.

Did he not see my staff shirt? Maybe he didn’t think things through.

Video

Totally wish I knew how to embed…because I would.  Instead I will just link.

And yet Jimmy Kimmel still tries too hard:

Dear Fiat,
Now that you’ve bought Dodge, can you make them not stink?
Molto amore,
Booyor

and make you want to hit yourself in the face:

I love that YouTube has these as related videos.

It reminds me of Street Fighter, when we would have a double knock-out:

And this car is made:

No wonder George Orwell warned us about 1984. I thought that this car only existed in the realms of the Thunderdome, but it drove past me this morning.

I wonder how this Mustang is welcomed at Ford family reunions. The one that passed me this morning was green, if that works in its favor.

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Password:

Superman III:

And yes, Star Wars guys, J and I just finished with removing the last of the nest. Now on to my school homework: searching for YouTube videos for the meeting that was planned during the meeting.

Immigrant Song, by that Police Academy guy, Michael Winslow:

Just kidding. This video is for the meeting.

Yeah. While he’s a director I respect, I liked the movie better when it was called The Guild.

Or is Polar Bear vs. Walrus more your thing?

Updated: ALLIGATOR GAR!

I knew that there were catfish that could breathe out of the water – but I didn’t know they were killers. Oh, I guess the flatulent sound they make is killer.

A piraiba catfish gets so ticked it growls at you. Like taking an arapaima to the chest. How come Nook didn’t warn our Animal Crossing friends?

As the conversation progressed I felt the need to beg the question, “Man are you serious about all this?” followed by, “She’s crazy, have you heard the music she creates? Do you realize how weird that crap is? If I was married to her, I’d be afraid that in the middle of the night I might wake up from a sound sleep to see her draping herself in sheets dancing around the room while covering her face with paint singing ‘Sail away sail away sail away..” He then responded with, “yeah that would be weird wouldn’t it…but man it’s ok cause it all shows her creativity and free spirit… I respect that.” After an awkward pause, we moved on back to talking about free agency soon following that.

Ah….what NBA Free Agency does to the sports fan’s mind….

And the last thing I’ll leave you with is the reaction the rest of the NBA had once they learned that Ron Artest had signed on with the LA Lakers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc&feature=related

I have discovered the surefire method to killing both of these freakish things that not even a can of Ultra-Raid Spray can do. This weapon is so powerful that if you shoot the Gator Gar or this spider, it will send a telepathic message to all of their respective kinds saying, “Step the Eff Off o’ me”.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris approve:

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The alligator gar is native to the southern United States. Fishers hate them because they tear up bass and other trophy fish.

But these things can grow up to eight feet long and top 300 pounds. The babies are three feet long. You don’t catch these with a rod and reel. It turns out that the favored tactic is shooting them with a crossbow. [insert your own World War Z/Left 4 Dead references here]

You add to that crazy group of guys the man who deems himself now the “Colossal Cavalier” –

and you’ve got a locker room that will make you wet yourself of laughter before you even get on the court.

Meanwhile on the Phoenix Suns front…well…it’s hot outside…and…well I guess the question would be is what exactly is the direction of their team? Who knows but whatever happens unfortunately I don’t think they won’t be sniffing a Western Conference Finals for quite some time, and that’s very sad to say after remembering the not so distant team they had with Joe Johnson, Quentin Richardson, Eddie House, etc..

Shaq felt like he could sum up everything he was feeling about the transition from Phoenix to Cleveland in a new rap, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ylarBerl78

Axel Foley is slated to make a return appearance in “Beverly Hills Cop IV” in 2010, the role being played reprised by Eddie Murphy. In a recent interview with Extra TV, Eddie Murphy expressed doubt in returning as Foley as “the movie wasn’t ready to be done.” In a later interview with MTV, Murphy stated that he would be returning for a fourth installment. One reason he stated was that “the third Beverly Hills Cop was horrible!” and that he “didn’t want to leave it like that”. Michael Brandt and Derek Haas were hired as screenwriters for the film. Director Brett Ratner has been quoted as saying, “It’ll be back but it’ll be a whole new interpretation.” What that means in code is, “We want to make money, and the way to make money is to make it rise to a similar quality as the original.”

If they can’t bring back Pinchot, they could certainly bring in Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs to fill in for him, I’m sure he would be more than happy to do it considering his team won’t be getting very far in the post-season anytime in the near future.

Check out the similarity:

—————————————-

Ghostbusters III is another 80′s franchise that has been talked about for some time, only as a fanboy’s dream and fantasy, that is up until now. In a telephone interview, Comingsoon.net talked to writer/director Harold Ramis (Year One, Analyze This, Groundhog Day) and received some details about the upcoming Ghostbusters III project. Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd wrote the scripts for the first two movies and both starred with Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver. Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who are regular writers for “The Office”, are developing a first draft of the script and Ramis says that he’s confident that the new movie will feature most if not all of it’s original cast:

“I wrote the story for the new movie with Eisenberg and Stupnitsky, and Dan Aykroyd and I’ve been consulting. We’re just waiting to see a first draft and where we are … Everyone says they’ll do it; they’ve all said they’ll do it. No one has signed anything yet–we haven’t signed anything either–but there’s the spirit of willingness in the air.”

Ramis also touched on whether or not the original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman will take control of the new movie:

“I don’t think he wants to; I’m not sure I want to. It’s just a lot of open questions. Until we see a script, I don’t think anyone really knows how they feel about it. Everyone’s open to doing it, that’s the main thing, that’s what got it moving forward.”

Ramis says there will be a much younger team of Ghostbusters for this adventure, with the original characters taking on more of mentorship roles(Bill Murray a mentor?).

With all of that said, “Ghostbusters III” is currently slated for a release sometime in 2012, if that actually comes to fruition or not we will find out.

My only request is that if you are going to bring back installments of these great franchises, please put forth a product that is going to be worthy of the names. If you don’t believe you can produce a great product, don’t do it…otherwise you’ll end up with George Clooney and Val Kilmer trying to be Batman-like results..the same thing that teachers tell us from a very early age about anti-drugs applies directly to this concept, “just say no”.

Thanks, @ElScorpio.

Pirate vs. Knight? Anachronisms…building…

Wayman Tisdale

Today the world has lost a great sports figure as well as musician. It’s rare that you come across people in this day and age that by their very presence can liven up a room. Many in this world of sin and corruption will pursue fame, they’ll pursue fortune, they’ll pursue pleasure and they will do whatever it takes to grab hold of material things. This man was not one of those people. This man was one who worked hard on the basketball court to produce solid results by becoming a three-time All-American, as well as claiming the record for most points scored by any player in their freshman and sophomore years. He won a gold medal as a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball team coached by Indiana University’s Bobby Knight, and the Indiana Pacers made Tisdale the second overall pick in the 1985 NBA Draft. As a center and power forward, Tisdale averaged over 15 points and six rebounds per game in a 12-season professional career with the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns. His best season was in 1989-90 with the Kings, when he averaged 22.3 points and 7.5 rebounds a game. Tisdale and Mitch “The Rock” Richmond combined to one of the most dynamic duos in the NBA. In 1997, Tisdale retired to focus on his musical career. Tisdale released his debut CD, Power Forward, in 1995. In 2002, he was awarded the Legacy Tribute Award by the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. As a result of Tisdale’s fight with cancer, his experiences have led him to create a foundation to raise funds to help amputees with the prosthetic process, which is not always covered by health insurance. His efforts on the court have been doubled by his work in his own surrounding communities as well as throughout the nation.

In April 2009, Tisdale accepted an award from the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, and then set off on a 21-date national concert tour.

Tisdale died on the morning of May 15, 2009, at age 44, at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was admitted to the ER for breathing troubles.

I am a musician as well as a fan of the game of basketball, and I will miss this man greatly.

If you weren’t at an NBC press conference back on May 4th, the news that Life (starring Damien Lewis) was being cancelled probably flew in under the radar.  For those who didn’t follow the show, this is no big deal.  Afterall, Jay Leno needs his new show…

But for those of us who were loyal fans, this might easily have been the best shows on television (yes, Chuck fans.  Charlie Crews would kick Chuck Bartowski’s butt!–House gets the overall nod for me because of the time I have invested into it).  I didn’t anticipate being a fan of Life, though.  Back before the writer’s strike I saw a couple commercials on NBC about the show.  It was advertised as a show about a cop who spent 10+ years in prison for a murder he was framed for committing.  DNA evidence was found exonerating him and now he wants to get revenge on the people who set him up…oh, and he wants his job back plus a $60+ million settlement (which he gets).  Season one was cut short because of the strike, but season two was even better.  However, NBC started it off on Fridays (not a great time slot) and then they moved it to Wednesdays (promising).  The season (now series) finale was FANTASTIC!  I still have it recorded on my DVR and I have watched it several times.  The best part, however, was it was left open for more awesome plot lines revolving around the mystery of the LA PD and Charlie Crews.  Well, that’s dead unless another network picks it up (doubtful since it will be difficult to carry the series on a new network with all the background required to obtain a new audience on top of the old one).

In short, if you haven’t watched the series you need to get on Hulu and watch Life.  Once you’ve seen it, you’ll be just as upset as I am that it didn’t get another shot.  Damien Lewis’ Zen charm is Emmy worthy and the beautiful Sarah Shahi shares my birthday. 

In the meantime, now that ER is gone, NBC can fall off the planet now.

Oh, and I don’t even watch Lost, but I am upset about what they did to Elisabeth Mitchell.  Maybe not Life upset, but upset nonetheless.  Can I blame NBC for that?

The day has come, I have finally achieved unlimited rocket launcher ammunition as well as unlimited ammunition on any gun known to man in Resident Evil 5. If any gamers read this article and are wondering about how to go about doing these, be careful who you listen to…but here are the ways to do it:

1.) There’s an actual option you have to unlock called “unlimited ammo” in the game, but the only way to unlock it is to beat the game from beginning to end. Once you’ve beaten the game go into chapter select and switch on the mode “unlimited ammo” to yes.

2.) Even though you have turned on unlimited ammo you need to fully upgrade each gun you wish to have as being infinite. Once you have fully upgraded the weapon of your choice, you must go into the main menu and select “Bonus Features”, and under that there will be an option to exchange points to unlock the specific gun’s unlimited option.

3.) To unlock unlimited rocket launcher ammo you have to beat the entire game in under 5 hours. The RE5 guys make this a bit easier because you can go into individual chapter-select mode and beat one chapter at a time until you get the time of completion down to your desire. The moment that you beat the game in under 5 hours a happy message will bleep up on screen that says “unlimited rocket launcher”, and after that happens you’ll get a cold sense rush through your body and you will hear a faint “oh noooeesss” come from the zombies….not really.

The game was pretty tough, and even frustrating at times, but upon completion and once you’ve taken the liberty to unlock all the unlimited options for weapons you want it becomes even more fun than before. You can tell that the developers knew how much the player would desperately want more ammo, because throughout most of the game unless you headshot every zombie you ever come across, even bosses, you still won’t have enough ammo to make it…so now with unlimited ammo, all I can say is the 4 horsemen of the apocalpyse come in the form of the:

AK-74 ,
Lightning Hawk Magnum ,
RIF Sniper Rifle ,
and the Rocket Launcher .

I think I even heard one zombie whimper out a “please don’t hurt m-” at which point at point blank range he got blasted in the face.

^-The face of the first zombie to witness the apocalypse.

Raja Bell took a Kobe elbow to the face a few plays before this altercation.

Did anyone else catch all of the apologies coming out of the NBA Front Office lately? Ron Artest’s Adam’s Apple hit Kobe’s elbow prompting a technical on Ron. Then a hard foul by Artest later in the game resulted in a Flagrant II and automatic ejection. The league later rescinded the call the next day saying that it wasn’t a flagrant foul. That was nice of them. But Houston still lost and nothing happened to Kobe for his elbow. A couple days later Dallas was up with a few seconds left and had a foul to give. They intentionally fouled the Nugget player, but forgot that the NBA referees don’t like to call fouls in the playoffs…even when you are intentionally trying to foul. As a result, Anthony hit a game winning 3 pointer. The league office apologized for that too.

Where were all these apologies when the Suns were in the playoffs? The Suns have experienced some REALLY bad calls in the post season and all they got was an early exit (even a lousy shirt would have been nice). I especially remember a game in 2006 when Nash was attacked and (surprise) fouled intentionally and no foul was called. Instead, (New York Restaurant Owner) Bennett Salvatore called a jump ball (even though the Laker who was tied up with Nash (Barry White impersonator Luke Walton) was standing out of bounds). This led to a Kobe moment that we all get to see in those FAN TASTIC NBA Playoff commercials. There is no justice I guess.

The NBA: Where fan money is sucked into a dark abyss so that the pockets of David Stern can grow happens.

The NBA: Where at least we aren’t the NHL happens.

The NBA: Where you shouldn’t get your hopes up if you live outside of LA, Boston or Cleveland happens.

The NBA: Where I hope Booyor’s Internet starts working again soon happens…

1.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

2.) Diablo III

3.) Star Wars: The Old Republic

4.) StarCraft II

5.) The Conduit*

The reason I placed an asterisk by the title is because about 10 years ago an independent group of developers coming from out of nowhere named “Dynamix” showed the entire gaming world what a real team-based FPS game is supposed to be all about, so here’s to hoping that these guys put out a great product. The jury is still out with this game. The Conduit guy has gone from looking like a geeky kid showing up to a nerd convention to looking like a futuristic Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat.

All of the games that I listed above each have their own potential to be incredible games that will suck the lives away from millions of normal average citizens and transform them into cave-dwelling hermits whose skin burns at the slightest contact with sunlight –

Who knows when StarCraft II or Diablo III will come out, Blizzard seems to be taking their sweet time with both titles and fans world wide have clung to rumors only to end in disappointment. Another RPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic has promise because the vehicle behind it is BioWare, and they have yet to let me down…just hoping this will not be another Star Wars: Galaxies.

In my opinion Modern Warfare 2 will be the redefinition of shooter games by ushering in a new style of teamplay action. This game is the one I am most excited for, and since Infinity Ward is behind it I have full faith that they will spend a considerable amount of time making an incredible game.

If you’re looking to pick up a few books this week- and you should be- you might want to make your way over to PJ Haarsma’s website. You might remember Haarsma from his visit with Booyor last September, and he’s got a charity he started with some guy who was in Professor Awful or something. That charity helps libraries buy books for kids, which I think is a cause we can all support, and you can help buy using the coupon at Haarsma’s website. All for something you probably would have done anyway. So give it a go. There’s always a new book worth picking up.

On a related topic, my sister went and saw a high school production of Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog, and she described it as “adorable.” I did find a flickr set of pictures up, and it looks pretty awesome. Mike, I believe you have your spring musical for next year.

*No, I’m serious- Hunger Games! Hunger Games!

Later on I was watching TV and I came across a guy I’ve never seen before, and I hope to never see again. The product he was pushing was the “Sham-Wow” but he has an interesting approach at trying to get you to buy his stuff. He uses sarcasm and insults the viewer enough to where either the viewer walks away feeling dejected or wants to buy the product just to shut him up.

So I ask, which one is more annoying?

Billy Mays:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SabRvYb0eE

Vince:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwRISkyV_B8

A new picture – I guess they require it to be updated every five years. My photo was from my junior year of high school in which I ditched out on study hall (a study hall monitored by a certain coach that started with G and ended with Neck (“You must be smart. I see you read.”)).

The ladies at the counter had to keep checking to see if it was me. Skinny neck, no facial hair, pompadour greased to the side. They agreed that it was time to update the photo.

Crazy situation: the workers were nice.

I showed up at 4:35pm. They close at 5pm but stop serving customers at 4:30pm. (Why not advertise a 4:30pm close time? That extra 30 minutes is Seinfeld-watchin’ time. I don’t know.)

They let me in. It pretty much was the online registration, but now at a kiosk. It took me a while to figure out to scroll down. It just had a statement, but nothing to click on. The woman next to me had the same issue.

Registered, form printed automatically, went to go stand in line for the photo.

I stood in front of the screen to take the photo. I’m bigger than the screen. They made me crouch down.

Next time you see me, ask to look at the card. Definitely a “different” ID.

It may not have the stereotypical science geeks that the Big Bang Theory offers, the franchise history of Terminator, or the genre ties of Heroes, but Chuck is a little different. While the storylines are, to some degree, nerd-centric, the real beauty of it lies in the little things. The casting- Voyager’s EMH as a computer expert, Meriadoc Brandybuck as a British rock star, Imhotep as a Fulcrum agent, and Firefly’s Jayne as the CIA thug. The show’s set decoration and prop choices are second only to The IT Crowd in nerd decorations- I love that Chuck has an issue of Knights of the Dinner Table on his wall, and the fact that he’s put the plans for the intersect into a copy of Ex Machina- a magazine about a guy who has superpowers given to him by a electrical accident- is a pretty brilliant choice. Plus it is loaded with references to other things nerds love- callbacks to Spies Like Us, IG-88 grenades, tickets to Zihuatanejo, and getting an “Oh, boy” from Chuck’s dad? Fantastic. Pile on top of that things like playing arcade games to Rush, a businessman named Lo Pan in Chinatown, jokes about ComicCon, and episodes directed by Lieutenant Tom Paris, and this show is nearly overloaded with the geek love.

One of the greatest things about the show, though, is the nerds- they look like normal people. Sure, they don’t look like most of the people on TV, but you don’t have any of the Urkel-esque “pants hitched up to the waist, snort when I laugh” overdone nerds that you see on, say, The Big Bang Theory or Ugly Betty, which both seem to follow the theory that TV nerds are good looking people made ugly by glasses and bad fashion sense. If you saw any employee of the BuyMore walking down the street, they’d just look normal, rather than Hollywood’s parody of what nerds look like, and that is surprisingly nice to see on TV today.

On top of that, the show is just fun. After following the heavy plots and turns of Heroes and Terminator, it can be pretty nice just to switch off the drama-ometer and enjoy the show. Don’t get me wrong, Chuck has some great plot and tough moments for the characters, too, but it’s never as heavy and dramatic- you’ve always got Morgan, Captain Awesome, or Casey around the corner with some dialogue that’s going to make you laugh after a bit. Sure, it may have similar problems to Heroes, in that so many things in this story seem to tie to people Chuck knows, but I can accept that easier than with Heroes- maybe, somehow, Chuck triggers my suspension of disbelief better than a show about people with superpowers. On the other hand, maybe I’m just willing to forgive a show that doesn’t take itself as seriously. Either way, there is no show out there that triggers my sense of nerdjoy the way that Chuck manages to on a weekly basis.

This was my face at the end of the day:

It’s all good, but I definitely thought of the high school students that I’ve regularly had the pleasure of working with and it nearly brought tears to my eyes to think, “Just a few weeks ago I was helping students learn about the inner chord structures and progressions found within the piece “Witch and the Saint” and now fast forward and what am I doing? ‘Old McDonald had a Farm”, which if I had it my way would be entitled “Old McDonald had enough of hearing kids sound like fart playing his song so he left the friggin’ barn”

No matter what happens to me during the day good or bad, seeing this picture will always bring out a laugh:

With over 900,000 views in the past week, I’ll take this guy over any current politician in congress with the exception of Jon Kyl and Mitch McConnell.

Darth Maul

vs.

Lobo

Superman

vs.

Perfect Cell from Dragon Ball Z

Lindsay Lohan

vs.

Mama from Mama’s Family

Who wins each match?

Completely unrelated – sixth sales call this week where I’ve explained what it means to have soft capital funds frozen – “I can’t buy your stupid books. I want good books.” – explaining the probable $16 million cut for our district next year. The guy today actually asked, “Well, will you have funds soon?” I told him to keep watching the news for a good economy and to talk to his legislators.