Fall quarter went meh. I'm thinking of the highlights and all I can think of are the cute girl vs Kirk Cameron video I made that I think I can officially say "went viral" and I got a tooth pulled out, a crown put on, and I actually joined a research project dealie at school.

Grade forecast:

Archaeology of Warfare: A- to A

Earth and Space Sciences: B to B+ to A- but probably a B+

Animal Communication: B- to B. Unless everyone did poorly on the final.

Regards,
Joe Creason

Step it up!

I am studying for my ESS 1 (pretty much beginning geology) midterm that I have tomorrow and one of the key terms that I am apparently supposed to know (but don't) is "blocky lava".
I just did a google search and the very first result was http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-blockylava.html

Not a Wikipedia link but a..a-a an Encyclopedia.com link.

I think Wikipedia is slacking off. Frankly I think that "blocky lava" is a pretty key article to have in your...pedia.

Get on it!

Regards,
Joe Creason

I am absurdly into the show "Lost" right now. All I do is watch episodes then look up stuff on Lostpedia and then watch episodes. What I like about Lostpedia is that for every article there is a theories article that includes different people's theories for whatever the original article discussed.

I was just reading the theories second for a character on the show named Desmond Hume:

"Through time travel Charlie forgets his name and becomes Desmond.

The Hume family returns to the island but arrive in the 60's. Because Desmond lived on the island, ... Charlie survives. Eliose, haveing seen the whole thing, takes in Charlie and give him to a family. Charlie grows up to be Desmond.
+ Eliose said that the island wasn't through with desmond yet. He will return.
+ We have seen nothing of Desmond's childhood.
+ This is why Elloise keeps setting Desmond to his Island destiny
# Se did the same with Daniel.
# She makes him choose his destiny in Flashes Before Your Eyes.
# She tells him he will go back 316
...

* This is POSSIBLE genetically. Adult Desmond passes 1/2 his genes to his charlie, Penny passes 1/2 her genes to her son all in all Charlie/Desmond ends up with some Genes from his penny and some from himself.(genes are like cards shuffled in a game) this would wrap up the time loop nicely
o Where did the other half oth Desmond's genes come from?
+ They always existed in a time loop like Richard's compass
o haha he did his mom lol "

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Desmond_Hume/Theories

Ah yes, the Grandfather paradox. Pretty gross.

Regards,
Joe Creason

Internet speak I will use.

I am glad that I do not use the following internet-ized terms:
lol

u, instead of you

r, instead of are or I've even seen our replaced with r

wut

lmao

t2yl

Making this list had made me realize that over the years I have been slowly using more and more of these corruptions of words. Here are the ones I do use:

brb

wtf

atm

imo

bc

and ppl, which is the newest one.


See what happens when I try to update this piece more frequently? You get worthless posts like this one.


Regards,
Joe Creason

I don't hate religious stuff

This is gonna be a rather quick blog post because several people have been under the impression that I hate all things religious. I'm gonna write this blog to make sure I have something to refer people to who think this about me.

I totally went to Costa Rica for 28 days and it was freaking fun as all hell and I met a lot of awesome people. I'll have a hardcore post on that trip soon I swear.

OK. Several times people have come to me with stories pertaining religious stuff. People talking about church or Sunday school, people praying, co-worker A is super religious--those types of stories.

The problem I have with these conversations that come up is that they end with a slam on religion in some from and people look at me for approval or will flat out say, "Don't you hate religion?"

A few months back that quote was said to me after the speaker pointed out Muslim students doing one of the 5 prayers that they do near the campus bookstore. They were brought to my attention and then it was suggested to me by the speaker that we should go and do something malicious to them or make fun of them (I can't remember the exact thing the guy said to me).

OK. I know that I was formally the president of BASS. I know that I used to table on bruin walk a lot, and sitting behind a sign that read, "Ask an atheist." I know I am an atheist and like to be (not "in your face") open with the fact that I'm an atheist.

BUT. All those things don't mean that I hate religion. I agree that religion has and is, responsible for A LOT of crappy things in this world but it still is a HUGE part of billions of people's lives. I have many friends who are religious, I've gone to church with some of them on Sundays in the past.

The short version of this post is: I don't hate religion, I don't enjoy mocking it. At all.

srsly.
Regards,
Joe Creason

[explicitive deleted]

I'm all alone in my apartment and have nothing to do. Here is a blog up date.

I've never really had to worry about employers or my parents or whatever looking at my facebook or blog or my online presence in general.

I'm trying to go on this awesome sounding field course and the organization running it is really into having their own group(s) on facebook and communicating with the people who are going on the field course through facebook. I mention this because I just got a message from one of the organizers.

This type of thing is a good idea, I know a lot of people who would not respond to my emails but would respond to my posting on their facebook wall. The issue is that now I DO have to worry about my online presence.

After I got the message I started thinking of all the potential things that would make me look undesirable to people who want to admit me into their program like the people in www.danta.info.

I'm looking through my facebook now and I've decided to list all the things I might not want to show people who are deciding to accept me in things:

-My info page profile picture is of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed:

Head douche behind 911.
Justification: Is this not the worst/best picture of anyone ever? Who makes shirts like that?

-Me with a Hitler mustache:





























Justification: I like that shirt I'm wearing. Also, that is the night SPENCER KICKED ME INTO ANNA'S COUCH, LAMP AND WINDOW.

-I put as my religious views 'Agnostic Free Masonry - UCLA Chapter' And though I don't think that it is necessarily a bad thing but I don't think anyone but a few of my friends from BASS and the agnostic free mason douche who I totally internet-DEVASTATED in a comments-argument. I should write about that and I will soon but for now that whole duel of words and retorts can be summed up in the following clip:


-I am in the following clubs:

I've seen the Pterodactyl video

"May the fetus you save be gay"

Every time a cute person is religious a part of me dies

Stop losing your fucking phones

There's probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.


Ok wow. I had to stretch on a few of those because I don't have nearly as much offensive stuff on my facebook as I thought there would be. Now there are some things that I put on my facebook that would make me look weird or immature but I don't think are necessarily offensive. And one might argue that all the atheist stuff might not come off to great but I figured that if some organization/employer/whatever decides not to admit/employ/whatever me based on my atheism then they are not people I'd probably want to work for. Furthermore, I find that super religious people would probably still want me because they could convert me. I come off as not being sure of my atheism to a lot of people, specifically this Lutheran pastor at my school, so they all think that they could easily get me on the right path.

Hmm that should do it for a good update-blog-post. I graduated the other day, that's cool.




Regards,
Joe Creason

Fixed Ipod

Guess what kids, I fixed my ipod that was broken and never mentioned in this blog. I have decided to join the club of people who believe that you can fix any computer-type thingy buy taking it apart and then put it back together again. It always works.


Regards,
Joe Creason

One is the loneliest number...

I just realized that with Sam no longer living in our apartment and Robin sleeping over at Lady Powells' I've started kind of talking to myself...

Regards,
Joe Creason

Last quarter was my best quarter ever at UCLA:

Anthro 186P Cultural Evolution : A

Anthro 131 Misc. Topics in Culture : A-

Anthro 149A Language and Identity : B

ESS 116 Paleontology : B-

I must admit that _every_single_ grade I ended up with was a shock to me. 186P and 116 I was praying for a C- because I didn't do so well on the midterms. I do not know how I got an A in 186P. I miss semesters because back when I was at LBCC I was having the same problem I have at UCLA: I mess up on the midterms. But in semester you had more than just a midterm and a final going towards your final grade and much more time to get your crap together.

I was surprised by my grade in Language and Identity because I actually thought I was for sure getting an A. I got an A- on the midterm, I showed up to all the classes, I turned in almost all of the questions we were required to make about our readings AND the professor LOVED me. The latter NEVER happens, professors and teachers are either indifferent towards me or annoyed by me/dislike me. The ignore thing isn't surprising considering there are a billion people in all my classes. But I shocked by this grade and it turned out that I got a low B on the final and on the group project that I was apart of. The latter was even more confusing because those are ALWAYS giveaway As and our presentation went well.

The thing that also bugged me was that my prof for that class might not like me as much because of how poorly I did in the end. I need to get letters of recommendations out of these people and the universal policy professors have is "if you got an A in my class I'll write one for you" I dunno, maybe she'll still like me. I did get an A in the head of our departments class though, and I'm taking another one with him this quarter, that would be awesome if that resulted in a letter of recommendation. God knows I need them.

That reminds me, I have absolutely no idea what I'm gonna do after I graduate. Not a single clue. I'm serious.

How's that for a post, eh?


Regards,
Joe Creason

Update, plugging and my parents

I needed to update this piece so here I am.

My parents seem to be the only ones who read this besides Alyssa, Alan and this girl named Jesse who I'm pretty sure I know but maybe I don't.

So I'm gonna post some photos of my roommates so my parents can know who to go after if I'm found dead or something and this chick I like too.

Roommate: Robin, in his natural habitat, Powell library.

Roommate: Sam

Chick I'm kinda into: Ariel

Me doing my Dennis the Menace impersonation and wearing my favorite shirt.

Oh and I got glasses, they're totally hip.
Regards,
Joe Creason

I wonder...

I wonder what Richard Dawkins thinks of the film Mission to Mars. Seriously. It's totally panspermia! With Tim Robbins! And Brian De Palma!

In other filler blog post news, I was listening to the Loveline episode with Ben Stein in it, and he detailed that he was smoking weed, hash, and popping prescription meds from 1966 to 1988. Maybe this would explain his views towards evolutionary biology? I don't think this completely excuses him, but--no no, I won't make a clear eyes commercial joke. It's been done.

Oh and I'm president of BASS now. I would plug our blog, but it's down right now. Off to a good start.

Regards,
Joe Creason

Yes, I still love talking to crazies.

Hey mom and dad, and I guess Alan,

I was thinking about how bummed I've been the first two days of class because I have yet to see my favorite crazy fringe cult of personality folk, the LaRouchebags. I'll explain them in a little bit but I should say that at least I was able to have a reasonably decent Ask an atheist tabling day yesterday.

As always a lot of people who were excited that there was a club that catered to their worldviews and blah blah blah--no one wanted to come up and argue. I know that that should be considered a good thing, but I've said it before and I'll say it again, I just like arguing with folk. But the closest I got to in an argument was this elderly black man who came up and asked me (I'm a little fuzzy on the first few questions)a couple of questions and here's my recollection of the ordeal:

EBM: Do you guys hate religion?
Me: No, of course not, why should we?
EBM: Because it's the exact opposite of atheism.
Me: Well I would disagree, I mean, I think religion can do a lot of good, I've got nothing against that--of course I'm against the bad things that religion and its followers do but really--like ok, do you accept evolution?
EBM: Yes.
Me: Do you fell that homosexuals have the right to marry?
EBM: Yes.
Me: Do you think the Earth is 10,000 years old?
EBM: It's 6,000 years, yes.
Me: All those things accept for the age of the Earth part are all I need to be concerned about reall--
EBM: I'm just pulling your leg, I'm a communist.
at this point we were all talking about once and he said something like I just came over here to test you guys and mess with you and I asked,
Me: Oh, how did I do?
EBM: Ehhh you need to strengthen your arguments a little more it comes off as too [I can't remember what he said here]
Me: Well I meant all the things I said, if you're down with evolution, separation of church and state, not supporting the literal truth of the bible--which I would be no bs on, if we continued.

Then it kind of fizzled out and he went back to the communist table that was set up a little up bruinwalk. The reds love us cause of the irreligious and secular aspect and they all seem nice but I generally try to distant our club from there's cause yeah Marxism has flaws, but mostly because I don't want BASS to be anything else but nonpartisan. But what was cool about that whole thing was that Alan told me that he thought I handled him really well, and that I was articulate and had an answer for every thing he threw at me. And Alan is someone who's opinion I totally respect even though I think he's way too nice towards me, haha.

Regardless, I can only agree that I have improved a certain amount by putting myself into these situations but I know I still got a lot of work ahead of me. I think that the LaRouchebags can help some of that and I've decided to make a more detailed post about them later on. Far now though here are some quick things and links about them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Views_of_Lyndon_LaRouche

They want to turn the Sahara Desert in fields of crops
Think that Newton was a fraud and stole every thing from Kepler
They worship Kepler so much that they took his work on harmonics and concluded that they should sing as choirs. At our schools. With chorus lines found in their songs like, "he is a nazi" repeated 5 times.

And one of them has accused me of being a protectionist
Another called me a Malthusian
And another called me a Tory because I didn't want to help take down the British empire....

What?

Regards,
Joe Creason