Welcome

This is The Benign Archive, a storage blog where all the previous posts from the motherblog The Benign Manifesto (http://benignmanifesto.blogspot.com/) are kept.  Now that the Benign Manifesto has changed its direction from an online journal to a political-ideoglogical blog, most of the older journal posts are no longer relevant.  But instead of deleting the old posts, they have simply been moved here for anyone who still wishes to view them.

Second attempt

Okay, I'm back, I guess.

I haven't posted on the Manifesto for a long time, mainly because the process of having to write out my day EVERY DAY became tiresome, boring, and -quite frankly- a pain. Well, I'll just say that it isn't my style.

But I've decided to take the Manifesto in a different direction. What was then a boring online journal is now a sort of whiteboard for political, ideological, and religious philosophy. Basically, I'm gonna scribble my ideas about politics, news, and the Christian faith. It won't have a schedule, I'll just post something whenever I feel, ya know, inspired. Or whenever I find the time. Okay, this is Take 2 people.

gone for the week

My youngest brother Jack has gone camping with his best friend/neighbor Aaron for the week, it'll be strange here without him. He practically lives across the street, always having sleepovers and playdates at Aaron's. When he got the invitation to go his face lit up like it was Christmas. He left today, taking half his belongings with him.

'Course, this means my brother and I will be able to watch movies we usually aren't allowed to see, like Austin Powers and Airplane. Still, I'll miss him.

I'm Back again, here's a recap

Hello yall, I'm back. Just needed a break from writing.

Let us see...
A lot's happened since I wrote anything, last week had a lot going on. There was a bike ride with our swim coach Kai around lake Natoma, there was an allergic reaction to a walnut-tainted M&M cookie during said bike ride, there was a swim meet against Del Norte (our swim team's rival team), there was a Parents' Day at my grandparents' house (I'll post some video later), and there was an incident while trying to export some old videos.

More to come, stay tuned.

Change of schedule

I'm going to take this week off the Manifesto. I've got a lot on my plate and need a break. See you next week, sorry.

Late COTW

Sorry this took so long, I couldn't decide which one to post. Anyway, here it is.

Friday

The first week of June is closing, and I have to say that it's not very summer-y. There is a 60% chance of showers today and a 50% chance of another thunderstorm tonight.

Today is a graduation party for a swim friend of ours. She's going to have the party at her house, and her older sister and I (highschoolers) have to supervise her and her friends (8th graders). The original plan was to make it a summer pool party, but I'm not sure how the situation will change on account of the weather.

Another swim meet tomorrow, this time it is a tri-meet (three teams, one pool).

Pretty lights

We were watching The Hulk from Netflix last night when our next door neighbor called us outside. They were looking up at the sky, I couldn't see anything at first until I got out the door. It wasn't raining, so I thought it might be a far off view of a night-time airshow. Then the sky lit up.

There was a thunderstorm just south-east of us. Really spectacular, all the neighbors came out to see it. Strangely, there were no thunderclaps. The lightning was there, but there weren't any loud BANGs- just a constant, low rumbling. I tried to get a picture of the lighting, so I just clicked away at the sky and hoped for the best... nothing. I did get a shot of some of the clouds, but it's a little blurred.

We were watching the storm for about ten minutes when a very large wet raindrop hit my head. I looked at the ground where another had fallen, it was a big raindrop, about the size of a half-dollar. Then, without warning, it poured.

Within a few seconds, the entire street was drenched, and the sidewalk gutters were bursting their banks. The lightning continued, and the younger children were running and splashing and getting completely soaked. Ross even got a chance to use an umbrella hat a friend gave him.

After about fifteen minutes, the storm passed over our house and out of convenient sight. The rain slowly lessened and was reduced to a light sprinkle. We went inside to see the radar image of the storm and watched the big red blotch slide over Sacramento. So much for the first week of June summer sun.

Monday-Tuesday

Didn't post anything Monday, I had a bit of a wrench thrown into my schedule. I have to start next year's math early, so I'm starting Algebra 2 now. Luckily, the first lessons are very simple, I just needed to acclimate.

Hmm... what to talk about...

Ran this morning, felt very rusty. I haven't ran in a long time, and I was still sore from yesterday (swimming, dodgeball, etc.). I'm glad I did it though. Now my legs are aching.

This week has been "mystery weather" week: Two days ago it was hot, yesterday it was cold, and now there are forecasts for thunderstorms for the rest of the week. I thought this was supposed to be summer.

I'm working on getting audio posted onto the Manifesto. For some reason, I can insert pictures and videos into my posts, but no audio. Once I get it figured out, I want to start a monthly podcast.

I think that's just about it.

Ghillie suit update: Dyed and painted

I finished spray painting the front of my flightsuit. The front won't have any burlap, so it needs a light camoflage pattern.

I've also dyed most of my burlap. I used the same dye bath for all of them, but after each batch, I added either a packet of yellow dye (to make the next batch lighter), or more water (to make the next batch more faded). This resulted in four different shades of green.They ranged from a forest green (closest) to a faded grass green (farthest). The lightest colors are best suited for the environment I will be testing my suit in, i.e. lots of grass, most of it dried. I did not dye all my burlap, since its natural un-dyed color is perfect for blending into the tall tan grass I'll be hiding in.

All I need now is lots of 3/4" netting.

Weekend

Friday was the graduation. It was at a church, and a "graduation service" was held for the pre-highschoolers, communion was even offered. After the service, everyone piled into the gym for cake and conversation.
It was strange seeing our friend after about a year. No one was sure what to say. Then someone made a funny remark, and the barrier broke. We couldn't stop talking, about Tae Kwon Do, about what we used to talk about when we were still doing Tae Kwon Do, and everything else. Unfortunately, we couldn't go back to her house for the rest of the party because we had a swim meet the next morning. We went home and went to bed at around 10:30.

Saturday was the swim meet. Very good meet, many of our swimmers got best times. Luckily we won the meet, and all the smack talk from the other team was blown off into the ether.

Sunday was church as usual. I'm going to be one of the leaders for the new summer Sunday school class. I think it'll be a lot of fun, since I'll be learning along with the kids.
After church, we went to my grandparent's house and went to an oriental buffet place for lunch. Then we went home.

Seeing isn't believing

While I was searching the Internet for some image I can't remember, I saw this picture on some random website.

I had to stare at it for a minute, Trying to figure out whether this was part of another jackalope-esque hoax, or a shot from a new live-action Pokemon movie. I typed in the link in the corner Human Descent.com. It's a website where people with a lot of time on their hands photoshop images to make them strange, unrealistic, and quite frankly really creepy. Just goes to show that you can't trust pictures anymore.

Full weekend

Lots going on in the next few days. Aidan is coming over today for another sleepover. Tonight is also the graduation party for a friend of ours who we've known for about ten years. She, Ross, and I were the "Three Amigos" back when we were in Tae Kwon Do, haven't seen her in a long time.

Tomorrow is a swim meet against the Gold River swim team. They aren't part of our league, but a meet has been set up in order to give our team some harder competition. This meet is also pretty personal, our coaches have been reporting a lot of smack-talk from the Gold River swimmers, and even some parents. Our team may be the best in our league, but the Gold River team is in a tougher division. It'll be an interesting match. Aidan will also be accompanying us to the meet, and we'll all have to squeeze into the car pretty tight.

Summer reading

While reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis for my summer reading, I read this excerpt that completely, simply, and elegantly described why atheism is wrong. Here's the excerpt:

...atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning.

The logic and clear writing of C.S. Lewis continues to astound me.

Backed Up

Sorry I've been so behind. It's taken me awhile to post the Memorial day recaps. Don't worry though, nothing worth mentioning has happened since then.

Ghillie suit update: So Close!

I just bought the Rit dye for the burlap at OSH. Now all I need is the netting and I can actually start. I bought the powdered form of the dye, 4 Dark Green, 2 Golden Yellow (to mix with the Green), and 2 Dark Brown. I bought a lot, since I knew I was going t'mess up trying to find the right colors. Now I can finally dye my burlap!

Memorial day weekend: Monday

Woke up early on Monday. Took a drive with Aidan and his family to the beach. When we got there, the sky was clouded over, you couldn't see the sun. We ran with the waves, ate Doritos, and rolled down large sand dunes. I saw some rocks farther up the beach and decided to check them for tide pools. I love tide pools, and I almost never get a chance to explore them. Unfortunately, the rocks were pretty barren. So I drew things in the sand with Aidan and Ross.
Ross drew the "Chicka Chicka Chaaa!!"
I then decided to dig a hole in the sand. We didn't have any shovels, but I was able to dig a hole about 4 ft deep by mushing up the sand with my feet, then spooning it out with my hands. I couldn't go any farther after that because the bottom began filling with water and the ground turned to slop. It was extremely entertaining.

Went home afterwards, fell asleep for some of the way back. Once home, my entire family including me collapsed.

Memorial day weekend: Sunday

Sunday began as usual. Went to church, went home, nothing special. Around four, we went to the house of some of our church friends and had a barbeque with other church friends. Had fun went home, went to bed, nothing special.

Memorial day weekend: friday-saturday

Friday was Ross's birthday party. Just invited two two people, our neighbors Aaron and Aidan, we've been going for small birthdays lately.

At around four o'clock on Friday, Aidan came over with his sleeping gear, and we drove him to the Racquet club. We had swim practice on Friday, so we brought Aidan along with us. Jack's practice is before ours, and while the younger group swam, Aidan, Ross, and I, along with some of our swim teammates went into a racquet court and played intense rounds of dodgeball. It probably wasn't the best idea, everyone still had an hour of swimming to do.

After swim, got home, picked up Aaron, and watched a few youtube videos. Then went straight to our Xbox 360 (now don't get all indignant, we had just spent three hours playing at the club, so we weren't being a bunch of couch potatoes). Which reminds me:

This Week's COTW:
A random, non sequitur take on batman and spiderman. HINT: Don't try to make sense of it, just don't.



We played Halo 3, which we hadn't touched in a long time. We came up with our own version of Ninjanaught (one player is almost completely invisible, everyone else has to kill him). We found it so entertaining that we played it nearly non-stop from around 8:30 pm to one o'clock in the morning. Then we were forced to go to sleep.

Saturday morning we ate homemade pancakes, then went to the movie theaters to see Terminator: Salvation. Because of memorial day, there was no swim meet. Terminator: Salvation was pretty good, totally cool. The special effects were mind numbingly awesome. The storyline was okay, though don't how it had anything to do with salvation. It keeps in line with the original plot very well, but the main storyline is a little shaky. Course, that doesn't really matter when everything is exploding.

I always love watching the previews before the movie, but this time they left me a little angry and a little depressed. One was about the movie District-9, where peaceful aliens are persecuted by humans, who are refusing to let the aliens go home. Another was about a bunch of little dolls that run around the twisted decaying wreckage left behind after we humans destroyed ourselves.

Still, good movie, had fun.

Went home, relaxed.

Customer Service

I'm having some trouble finding the last materials for my ghillie suit. I need Rit Dye and a large sheet of 3/4" netting. Walmart had neither.

I suggested to my mom that we should try Home Depot, and she said I should check their website and call the store closest to us. I checked their main website and searched for the materials. Nothing came up. I tried to mentally picture seeing bottles of dye on the industrial steel-frame shelving of the store, but found that the two didn't really match. Same with the netting, I can't picture large canvasses of the stuff fitting in with the rest of the wood and PVC products.

But I resorted to calling the nearby Home Depot anyway, ask if they happen to carry it. Called the number, and was told to press "6" for Customer Service. A lady answered and asked what I needed.

"Hi, I was wondering if you carried three-fourths inch netting."

"Three-quarter inch netting? Um... Let me transfer you to the departm-- *click*"

*beep*... *beep*... *beep*...

I stayed on the line. I wasn't sure if the transfer had worked.

*beep*... *beep*... *beep*...

I waited a little longer, a minute passed; I started to worry.

*beep*... *beep*... *beep*...

For a brief moment of thoughtlessness, I wondered whether I had mistakenly pressed the "off" button with my palm. No, I could hear my breath through the phone, maybe they mistakenly hit the off key, or maybe on purpose.

*beep*... *beep*... *beep*...

Then it hit me: This is customer service.

I hung up.

I'm going try try and swing by a nearby OSH and see if they have what I need.

sorry, can't think of a title

I know that as the blogger it is my duty to come up with some sort of quasi-clever title that ties in with the content of the post, but right now, I can't think of anything.

Aaaaanyway, I just wanted to say how happy I am to have brought another blogger to the force. Sammyman is the online alias of Sam, a good friend of mine. He has started a blog called "Friendly Times" (find it here). It is very new, but please check it out.

Learn C

My father brought this home recently. It's part of one of this year's summer projects: learn a programming language. "C" is one such language. Apparently it is possible to learn it in one full day. I haven't looked through it yet, but I'll probably get to it soon, though I haven't the slightest idea what this course entails.

Thursday, May 21

Woke up this morning at the usual time. Showered, dressed, all the rest. Went to the kitchen and decided I wasn't in the mood for cereal. Instead, I had a bowl of Top Ramen.

I know everyone who likes Ramen has their own personal preferences as to how they like it cooked and so forth. I like mine soft and salty: less water and longer boil time.

It was very cold, so I put on a pair of socks... then another pair, over the first. I've never done that before, don't know why I haven't, it's very effective when you're really chilled.


This Saturday is Ross's (my second youngest brother) birthday. We're going to see a movie, I'm not sure which though. Right now, there are so many good movies out or coming out that it's hard to choose. There's The second Night at the Museum, Terminator: Salvation, the second Transformers, and Pixar's UP. I think I'm most eager to the tranformers movie, the mish-mash of special effects and weaponry and military hardware from numero uno has me hooked.

Wednesday: sleeping in

Woke up at 5:00 this morning as usual. Got showered and dressed as usual. Went in to the living room, lost all my will to continue standing up, and fell down onto the couch. That doesn't usually happen. Of course, I went to bed last night at 11:15, so I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked. I woke up again at around 8:15 and just stayed there for another hour.

I know a lot of my peers extol the wonders of sleeping in, and boast about sleeping in 'till 2 in the afternoon. Personally, I am incapable of sleeping in past 8:30, and I can't stay in bed any longer than 9:30. I in fact, I find sleep rather boring, and sleeping in just means there's something exciting to do that you're not doing.

Still, the rest of the family was sleeping in as well, so the house was completely silent. I wish I had the video camera with me. I was staring through the glass sliding doors into our backyard. The windows were opened just enough to hear the birds and feel the cool (not chilly) summer morning breeze. The the trees cast light shadows in the light of the early sun. The swaying leaves were silhouetted against the blinds of the windows, and the rays that made it through floated and drifted on the warm wood of the coffee table.

Not feeling it? Oh well, I'm not much of writer, that's the best I can come up with. Still, a picturesque moment, if there ever was one.

COTW

This is an old SNL clip that my dad showed me, sorry if the quality is a little bad.



The vid doesn't play when I embed the video, so you'll have to use the thumbnail link.

Help Wanted: No Jerks

I found this on the window of a Taco Bell close to our home. I was able to snap a picture of it as we drove by.
I doubt that this has filtered any applicants: "Hmm... For hire at a Taco Bell. The wages probably aren't that great, but still, I -- oh darn it. They want friendly people. Well, guess that rules me out, drat."

Perhaps this was an advertising scheme. Taco Bell wants its customers to know that they care.

Tuesday: nothing happening

Nothing to report today. Just doing the last lessons of geometry. Can't progress with the ghillie suit until I get more materials. Nothing exciting to look forward to either. I'll try to post a video or a commentary later, but there really isn't anything going on right now. Sorry.

Almost ready to start

I went to the local Army surplus store and bought a flight suit for my ghillie suit project.

The flight suit will serve as the base for the 3/4 inch netting, which is attached to the back with shoe goo (which I've also bought). Once the netting is attached, I can tie the burlap fabric into it, thereby creating the suit. First, however, the burlap needs to be dyed, and I still need to buy the dye.

So far I have unstrung burlap strands, a flightsuit, a hat (for the headpiece), shoe goo, and natural colors of spray paint.

All I need now is 3/4 inch netting, natural colors of dye, and a thick padding material (this is for the pads that are attached to the chest, knee, and elbow areas of the suit that allow for more comfort and protection when crawling).

Invitational recap... very short

Saturday was the invitational. It was very long. I had just five races spread through the entire meet. We arrived at around six in the morning and left at four. It was also very hot, no surprise there. Luckily the meet went very well. Came home afterwards, whole family sat down and watched a cheesy movie on the Sci-fi channel. I was so tired that I wasn't capable of clenching my fist. Glad it's over.

Twitter-worthy ghillie suit update

I finished stringing all three burlap sacks. Now all I need is dye, netting, a flightsuit, and just about everything else. Also need to scope-out the area I will be testing the suit in so I can tie in the correct colors.

Big swim meet

Tomorrow is a big day. I'm a member of a swim team called The Rollingwood Rockets, and tomorrow is our swim league's invitational meet.

Usually, swim meets are between just two teams at a time. An invitational meet is when all the teams of the league come together in one huge competition. The only other time this happens is during championships.

It's going to be an early morning (you must check-in at the pool at 7:15am) and a long day. Usually, there are only 3-5 heats of any particular event. At the invitational, the number jumps to about 8-15. There will be a lot of time to kill. Oh, and did I mention we'll be outside the entire time in 102 degree heat? Whoopdee-doo.

Still, the invitational is a good time to see familiar faces. There is a unique relationship between you and the swimmers on other teams that you befriend. You only see them three times during the summer (invitational, dual, championships), but the competition drives you together. Then by the end of champs, you just say "See ya next year!... Um, what's your name again?" The invitational allows us to reacquaint ourselves.

I'll try to squeeze out something tomorrow, but don't expect much.

Random Picture

I love summer.

So does the bunny.

First concert... ever

Yesterday I got an e-mail from the Director of Christian Education of my church asking whether I'd like to go to a concert for a christian rock band called "Above the Golden State" with the other highschoolers. I've never been to a live concert before, so I think it'll be fun.

Personally, I don't listen to the type of christian rock you find on stations like The Fish. It's not like I'm against the message, I love the message, it's just that I don't find the music very appealing. Some of it is too similar to the music of today's boy-bands (i.e. whiny, sound like they could fill a swimming pool with concentrated angst, etc.). Instead, I listen to musicians like Phil Keaggy, whose songs focus as much on the christian message as they do on good music.

Luckily, I listened to some of Above the Golden State's songs and they sounded pretty good, so I'm looking forward to the concert.

COTW and summer project

Here are the COTW. Today it's tied in with my summer project: make a ghillie suit.

First thing to do is to spark your interest, and make you go "Hey! Now I'm interested in reading the rest of this post." Well, here goes: (watch in HQ when possible)





So... that's what ghillie suits can do, pretty cool huh?

I've wanted to make one since February, and added it to my "things to do this summer" list. I found a documentary by some military experts that lays out all the steps in the process of building your very own (No, I'm not going to tell you the name of the documentary until I've completed my suit, otherwise you wouldn't listen to anything I have to say now would you?). Turns out, ghillie suits are basically flight suits with netting glued/sewn onto the back, with dyed burlap tied into the netting. It really isn't anything fancy.

I learned that you can buy ghillie suits online, but the military experts from the documentary strongly disapproved of it. According to them, a ghillie suit must constantly be changed, depending on the environment you're using it in and the time of year or season.


right now I'm in the beginning stages: unstringing the burlap strands out of burlap coffee bags.



It takes a while, and I've unstrung two large bags so far; more than enough for a single suit.

Here's a bundle of unstrung strands.
I'll keep you posted as I go through the steps.

End of BSF

The beginning of summer has marked the end of BSF, Bible Study Fellowship. Every Monday evening, I would go to a church complex with a bunch of other teens and study the word of the LORD. This year we were studying Moses, and read from Exodus all the way to the end of Deuteronomy. I have to say it was the most fun I have ever had learning about the old testament. Being a fairly recent convert, I was enamoured by the level of faith expressed by the teachers and by the other highschoolers. Their example has been one of the most powerful motivations for further developing my own faith, and I thank God for giving me such an opportunity. If any of you from BSF are reading this, I want to thank you also, and I apologize for not mentioning your names due to privacy issues. I'll miss all of you, and I eagerly await next year.

T-shirt-material quote from BSF:
"Don't Follow the Herd, Stay with the Flock"

I'm Back

My school is now officially over, all that's left are a few geometry lessons that I need to clear up, but that's really it. Now I plan to start daily posts on the Manifesto, and re-format a lot of it.

Over the spring, I began developing a "Things to do this summer" list that I would add to whenever I thought of something fun that I didn't have any time to do. For example: I would be sitting at my desk, being forced to describe what qualified Star Wars as a "great epic" (Hint: it's not). Then my thoughts would drift to activities that I would much rather be doing during the week, but I couldn't because of my homework. I couldn't do it next week either since I would have to describe what made Westside Story such a great musical (Hint: it's not). In fact, I would not have time for that activity until the school year was over. So I would jot it down on a scrap of paper, then type it on to a Word file once I was finished. Here are some of the main points on my list:

• Make a podcast
• Learn how to pick a lock
• Learn how to edit video
• Make a ghillie suit
• Watch a ton of MST3K.
• Write a novel

As you can see, I was pretty desperate for things that I would have rather been doing during school. I don't think I'll be writing a novel anytime soon (or at all), and I have already seen 3 volumes worth of MST3k. So I've kind of ruled those out.

Anyway, Treadstone is back, and the Manifesto should have full posts every day (except maybe weekends).

COTW: Guacamole/Foodstuff commentary

I LOVE GUACAMOLE. There, I said it.

This video was from food network, it's a little jingle about the greatest chip-dip ever conceived... ever.

While we are on the topic of guacamole, I think it is appropriate to make this observation:

This is not guacamole. This is what happens when you try to serve sour cream on St. Patrick's Day and throw in some small bits of ground up fish.

On the rare occasions that I have guacamole, my dad always makes it. Then one day, my mom had a revelation: Wait, why don't I just buy some at the store? We could have it more often, and it's a lot easier. She went to the store and saw this:

Looks good enough at first. Unfortunately, she did not look at the fine print:

Darn them, darn Mr. Dean, whoevertheheck he is, and darn capitalism for letting this happen. Turns out, this guacamole flavored dip contained less than 2% avocado, which makes you wonder what's actually in it.

Note: although suggested by the picture, never dip Doritos in guacamole.

No Posts

Sorry for the lack of media this week, it was crammed, so I couldn't slide anything in. I had a nasty combo of the Star testing, rolled in with an Econ exam at Sierra College, mushed up with a literature essay, and sprinkled heavily with a biology unit test. You try squeezing in random satirical comments with that on your plate.

Anyway, it's all behind me now, so I can resume with renewed gusto.

Well, maybe the gusto will have to wait. You see, my school ends on May 8, so I have one month of school left (including a big Econ research paper) before I am done with it completely. I have a lot to finish up to do, so the Manifesto must be pushed down on my Priority List. Once Summer starts though, I'll start to really get it revamped and upgraded. I'm planning on full daily posts, a podcast, more sophisticated videos, and a general format organization.

Until then, I will try and put in a little something here and there, so stay tuned.

COTW: clip(s) of the week

I saw the Dark Knight before christmas. It was a great movie, if a little too dark for my tastes. Afterward I was told about a funny spoof of the interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker.



I dug deeper and found another spoof on the party scene:


Ha ha, funny (I'm not in the mood to comment deeply on them right now) .

Peering ahead

Not much to report. I'll try to squeeze a comedy vid out, but don't expect much.

Looking forward to the weekend, which is chock-full of stuff to do. I'm also looking farther ahead to this coming Summer, and the fun it will hold. The "fun" basically just boils down to "spare time," which I have none of currently. Even when school takes a flip to the light side for a few days, there is always something(s) that I still have to do.

Luckily, my school (Apex, an online learning system where I communicate with my teachers over the computer, seeing as they all live in other states), ends in the first week of May, about a month before most other school years end. The way I see it, I'm taking accelerated courses, so if that means working nonstop(that includes the absence of Spring break) I'm fine with it.

In anticipation of Summer, I have begun to compile a "Things to Do this Summer" list. So far it only has blog related items, two to be exact, but hey; it's a work in progress, and I've got time to fill it up.

How the Modern Liberal Thinks pt. 2

Here is the second lecture by Evan Sayet at the Heritage Foundation. This is two years after his first talk. It is a must watch after the first, since it goes much deeper into his ideology about the liberal mindset, and ties in more current events.

As with the first, parents should watch this video before showing it to their kids, since it goes over issues like teenage promiscuity.

How the Modern Liberal Thinks pt. 1

I saw this video awhile back.

It's a lecture given by Evan Sayet, a conservative comedian who converted from his originally liberal views after 9/11. After he converted, he went on a quest to understand how the modern liberal thinks (i.e. how can roughly half the population of America believe that America is the most imperialistic and oppressive country in history).

This was his first lecture at the Heritage Foundation, about two years ago. He has recently come back with a second lecture (also at the Heritage Foundation) that further discusses his findings. I will post the second one shortly.

Note: this lecture does go over some inappropriate issues like teenage promiscuity. Parents may want to watch it first before letting their children see it (though I doubt many children enjoy watching long lectures like this).

Quick Recap

Due to the lag of posts on the Manifesto, I am bringing it back to speed in a fast outline sort of format.

Saturday:
Workday at church was great, lots of fun (8:00am-3:00pm)
Replaced halogen bulbs on church grounds
Women's retreat brought too much pizza; free lunch
Went to visit Grandma, she's doing well
Got home, very tired

Sunday:
Went to church, it was cold
Did Sunday school, also fun
Did piano lessons
Went to visit Grandma again, Uncle Ken & Aunt Mary were there
No time to swim, drat
Went to highschool game night at church, small group (only eight)
Played board games
Had leftover leftover pizza from retreat
Went home, very very tired

Monday:
Very busy, up 'till 11:00 getting Econ 1A homework done
Attended BSF (Bible Study Fellowship)

Tuesday:
Very busy Tuesday, up 'till 12:00 getting an essay done
Had to miss swim to get it done.

weekly vid: giant tax man

I've been seeing these commercials recently on television. They are for J.K. Harris, a company that helps people deal with the IRS. Being a fourteen year old, these commercials would usually put me to sleep. The only reason I take an interest in these ones is Mr. Harris himself. Watch these clips, you'll see what I mean.









I find it slightly disturbing how Mr. Harris towers over his coworkers. I understand that the other people are sitting down, but still: either he's huge, or his subordinate staff have a severe deficit in HGH.

comedy vid

This is going to be the last, if not one of the last comedy vid posts . The problem is that a lot, if not most comedians are rated above the "PG" level. This means I am not allow by my parents to post them (this is reasonable, I have no qualms with it). Frankly, there aren't enough postable videos to keep it going.

Aaaaanyway, here it is.

This is Mark Lowry, a very funny Christian comedian. He also has a great singing voice, and is know for making musical parodies of songs.

Friday: Pi-day eve

Ahh... School work is temporarily low, allowing me to work on next week's stuff. I'm trying to build up a little time lag, so I'm not up till eleven every other night. It also means I have a (mostly) free weekend. So now it's preparation time. This weekend is loaded both with things that need to get done, and things that belong in the ooh-goody-spare-time-what-should-I-do-with-this-golden-moment category.

This weekend, Saturday to be precise, is officially "pi" day, seeing as it is the fourteenth day of the third month (3/14). It was established by Congress on the 11th (yesterday), I kid you not. Now there are two ways to take this: a) get even angrier at Congress than you already probably are and begin wishing that those dang nobles who wrote the Magna Carta had stayed in their castles, or b) understand that if they're passing legislation on circumference/diameter day, then they aren't passing legislation that pushes us further towards complete collapse. I always favored the more optimistic point of view.

I will be spending Pi Day at my Church, which is having its annual workday. It's pretty much spring cleaning on the grounds and in the buildings. It's a lot of fun actually, since the adults are the ones planning the clean up and worrying about what needs to be done. I and the other younger members just do the grunt work, moving various materials from arbitrary position a to arbitrary position b. For, us it's just doing yardwork with our friends, and with the spring colors in bloom; it should be quite enjoyable.

Then onto Sunday, where my family and I will be able to give our new and improved Church a test run. Following that are a few more things scheduled, but I'm sketchy on the order.
They include:
1. piano lessons
2. visiting Grandma at the Manor Care nursing home (she's rehabilitating from an accident)
3. go to the Racquet club to run/explore around the bike trail/swim.

Then we go home and relax... and probably watch TV.


Final comedy vid later.

Sour gummy fun bugs

At church, during Sunday school, one of the teachers came to the highschool class and passed bags of "Juicy Oozers" around to us. They were basically bug shaped Gushers with dustings of those little crystals that categorize the candy as "sour." They actually weren't all that bad, but I have never been a fan of gummy candy, whatever kind.

What intrigued me was the packaging:


Sour Gummy Fun Bugs! It's like they tried to stuff as many descriptive words to the front as the large, charismatic font would allow. Of course, to call them Gummy Fun Bugs would be incomplete, since it left out the all too important Sour aspect. Sour Fun Bugs likewise, we don't want people to think that these were hard candies, no sir, they need to know the texture involved here. So that leaves Sour Gummy Bugs, but no one wants to eat those, so add a positive aspect. Make people think that eating boiled horse-hoof Jello shaped like a household pest is Fun.



Also note the cycloptic little spokesbug sitting there in a relaxed, laid back, "wass shak'n?" kind of pose as his insides are bursting out of his abdomen.


Final note of interest: On the back of the package, right under the ingredients list, is a safety warning, which reads "Warning: Small objects such as hard and soft candies may inadvertently become lodged in the throat."
1. Hard and soft candies? So are "not especially hard yet not especially soft" candies okay then?
2. If your audience consists of people who read the safety labels on gummy candy bags, don't you think big words like "inadvertently become lodged in the throat" are a little much? Even "You could choke" is a stretch.

Busy Weekend

Last Friday night was the registration for swim team. It is like an annual get-together for all the returning swim team families, and its usually like a really fun get together for all our swim friends. Unfortunately, me and my brothers were unable to attend, seeing as mother had a headache/illness/sickness thing going on. Instead, we had a sleepover at my house with our friends Aaron and Aidan. (We did get registered, my Dad was part of the set up and his office is close by, so he registered for us). I grabbed the camera and took some shots.

We had fun.

We played video games, (He's playing on the computer)

tried to hide from the camera, (I was too quick for blue though)

and made funny faces, (lots of them)

On Sunday, after Church, I asked Ben (good friend of mine on swim team), who had attended registration, how much fun we had missed out on. "It was pretty boring, and I was starving." So he says. Now I'm not saying that I'm necessarily glad he had a boring time and that we weren't able to come, but I am happy that we had such a fun sleepover.

COTW: Clip of the Week

This time it's a short video I got off the rebelution.



I love the dull monotone he uses. I also highly recommend the site listed above. I believe it is the most popular Christian blog. It focuses on breaking today's low expectations of teens.

Making fire: cotton balls

I bought the magnesium flint striker at Wal-Mart (sporting/camping section). They aren't very exotic items. They're pretty cheap too (about $6 if I can remember correctly, but I could be horribly off).

I notice that in the beginning, I say "um" a lot. This was my first instructional video, and I now realize that it is harder to speak in front of a camera than I thought. I'm hoping that some more practice should clear that right up though.

P.S. Les Stroud (from Survivorman) actually recommends that a roughly nickel-sized pile of magnesium is sufficient, not that it makes much difference.

Title: Incognito

It seems that the title of the Manifesto has followed suit with this month's title picture. It seems to have gone into "stealth mode" with the 117 Nighthawk. Mind you, I can't choose the font color, it comes with the template, and seeing as I like this template, I guess it'll just be like this until April.

Note: Not exactly sure why I posted this. Just, thought it might be worth mentioning.

I love spinter

Been having great weather recently. As winter and spring slowly converge, the general outdoor ambiance has just been fantastic. It's either grey and raining, or bright and shining, there are no interjacent periods of gloomy fog. In fact, I don't think we've had any '09 fog yet.

I do like when it's grey and rainy, but never when its just grey. Call me peckish, but rain always cancels out the nastiness of a dark day. I think its because it makes all the outdoor colors more vibrant, like when you get a dull stone wet.

See what I mean?

The rain created an interesting effect on our windows too:

The rain fogged up our windows like the front pane of a car.

This has never happened before. Intriguing.

Sorry, fellas

Work has been horribly thick in my schedule. I had decided to take a week break from the Manifesto, to get things in order. I'm starting back up again, so stay tuned.

weekly clip

Here is another funny animated short.



There's something about animated shorts that I'm just drawn to, I'm not sure what though.

Blank's Blog

My brother has a blog called "Acoustic-Electric" that I recommend. It is listed under "Personally Related Sites." Its a blog all about guitars and has tons of interesting stuff. My brother is in contact with a legendary luthier (guitar maker) named Linda Manzer, who gives him a golden source of guitar-related information.

Here's a tid-bit of the kind of stuff Blank posts:

Visit his blog for more.

comedy vid

This is Catherine Tate. She's a British comedian who has her own show on BBC. She's more into skits than stand up.

My parents watch her show frequently, but it is often too inappropriate for my brothers and me.

It's not over though (continuation of the "Reporter speaks the truth" post)

However, we have a long way to go. The American youth is still being indoctrinated, bewaaarrre.



Now, I don't have anything against this guy, I think its good that he's expressing his opinion. I just think that he might want to learn a little more about what he's talking about. Also, the rushing soundtrack is a little much, perhaps too large a dose of pathos. But hey, he could turn around, would probably make a good politician too.

Reporter speaks the truth, scares the heck out of the rest of CNBC

I heard about this on the radio. A news reporter for CNBC, Rick Santelli, spoke out about the problems with the current liberal ideology concerning the economy (e.g. spread the wealth, pay for your neighbors, basic socialism).


I love how the CNBC reporters try desperately to downplay him.
"They're like putty in your hands."
"Have you raised any money for Blago?"
"Just get the mob behind you again."
"You can't do it at will can you?"
It's about time for the anti-liberal movement to pick up steam. I mean, look at the people he roused, there are certainly a good number of people out there who get it.
"Well," some of you say, "why don't I hear about them?" Probably because you a) don't listen to conservative talk-radio, and b) the mainstream media is primarily liberal. Still, this video has given me a right jolly skip in my step.

Blanky's B-Day pt. 2

The next morning, we played more video games, and watched about half of Madagascar II again. We had the obligatory, sleepover morning, semi-continental breakfast (i.e. it had bacon and eggs and toast). At around 12:00, we went to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

All in all, Mall Cop was a pretty good movie. It took a while to get going, but I liked the idea of an over-weight guy with a good heart completely whooping a bunch of punky, skateboarding, college kid criminals. I was also pleasantly surprised that they did not rely on potty-humor much, if at all. Again, good movie, well worth renting.

We came home, played until about 3:00, then our friends had to leave. Blanky's party was officially over... my parents took a nap, a long, longggg nap.

Blanky's B-Day pt. 1

Our two neighbourhood friends, A1 and A2, came over on Sunday. We started out the way we always start out sleepover/birthday parties: video games. We switched off multiplayer rounds on Call of Duty 4 (COD4). A1 and Blank (best friends) then went to the computer to do Medieval 2: Total War, and Blanky and A2 (uber best friends) went off to play something else. This allowed me to do the COD4 campaign, where I found the final lap top. At aroun--

WARNING: TANGENT INBOUND
For those of you who do not know, in the game Call of Duty 4, there are thirty special laptops hidden throughout the campaign. As you collect more of them, you unlock cheats that edit the game in various ways (e.g. turn the screen black-white, make bad guy's pop into bunches of tires when shot, enable slow-mo gameplay, etc.). I learned that collecting all thirty unlocks the coolest cheat of them all: infinite ammunition. This does not only mean that your ammo reserves are limitless, but you don't even have to reload. An automatic weapon will continue to fire until your finger gets tired. Semi-autos, like pistols, do not become automatic, but will continue to fire as long as you keep clicking the trigger. RPGs become automatic (Note: they will fire faster if you are aiming down the sites rather than firing from the hip, also, it becomes difficult to aim after the first few shots because the smoke blocks your view of what you're shooting at), and I think the grenade launchers on rifles like the AK-47 Grenadier do too. You also have unlimited grenades (this is extraordinary when coupled with the cluster bomb cheat). So far as I've seen however, Claymores and C4 are not affected, but I could be wrong. Still, it is a cheat well worth getting.
TANGENT END

-- around, hmm, I dunno, about eight, we ate dinner (burgers) and opened presents. One of the gifts was Madagascar II, which we watched right after presents.
Madagascar II really wasn't all that bad, in fact, it was pretty funny. I love the lemur, King Julien, along with Mort, the little annoying one. Madagascar II did have some weird bits though, but hey, its a movie for younger kids, I'm fine with that.

We stayed up to play more video games until 12:00, then hit the proverbial sack.

A Day Behind

Blanky's B-day party was Monday, so I was only able to post the weekly clip. Stay tuned for a post-B-day synopsis. It may take a tiny while, school is pretty thick on my schedule right now.

On another belated note: Sunday marked the first week of the Manifesto's existence. My hit counter currently marks 79 hits, although it probably translates into about 55 by me, since it includes my views as well. But still! Thank you for the estimated other 24!

Weekly Clip

This is an old superbowl commercial, I think 2006. It's the funniest football commercial I've seen so far. Note: there were about 20 other related videos also called "The Best/Funniest Commercial Ever".

Friday: Comedy Vid

This guy, Brian Regan, is my favorite comedian so far. He's funny, he's clean, even Dennis Miller thinks he is currently the best stand-up man out there. (this vid is part 1 of the entire routine, here is part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6)

I've listed his homepage under Sites I take interest in/visit regularly

Step aside Hollywood, this is real

Yesterday evening, I was with my friend B watching the Bourne Identity. If you've already looked at my profile, you know that the Bourne Trilogy is my favorite movie series ever. We've seen it about a billion times, so we tried to pull a MST3K on it. It's great fun analyzing movies, like noticing how they put tears on the back of Jason's sweater to remind you that he had been shot at the beginning of the film.

We also used the slow-mo feature on the fight scenes. The Identity's scenes are a little less realistic than the other two Bournes, but they aren't flashy trash like the bond films: a spin kick? who throws a spin kick? The self-defense moves in the Bournes are generally accurate and reasonably effective. The only fight scene I have real trouble with is the one in Bourne's apartment (watch it here)

The attacking assassin must have really thought things through.
Okay, I got this guy completely unawares in his apartment. He's virtually unarmed, this'll be cinch. Now, I'm a treadstone agent, so I know my way around methods of termination. What'll it be this time? Poison? Strategically placed explosive with cellphone detonator? Silenced sniper rifle from rooftop of building across the street? No, I know the trick, I will swing into the window on a bungee chord, sub-machine gun blazing, and hope he happens to be there when I break the glass.
This guy was thorough.

Yes, I can be Googled

Ever since I started this blog, I've been checking to see if I pop up on web searches. After two days of nothing, I googled: "the benign manifesto". I was one of only five results. The first two were just articles, the only two pages in the world/on the web that had also uttered the phrase "benign manifesto", proving I wasn't the first to use it. The other two were written in obscure languages that had different alphabets. Jeez.

Well, at least I have made a slight grab at internet attention. I consider this my first anchor in the web-world. Okay, maybe not an anchor, but perhaps a a grappling hook, or dental floss tied to a bent paperclip. You get my point.

Birthday

Blanky's birthday was last Thursday, he turned 10. His party is scheduled to be this weekend. We don't do big parties, we usually just invite our two or three closest friends over for a sleepover, along with a movie. This time the movie is giong to be Paul Blart: Mall Cop (More on that later).

Every sleepover, we try to pull an all-nighter, but we never have. Usually, this is just because our parents tell us to get to sleep by around twelve, but on the rare occasions they don't, we never have the energy to stay awake. It's just like the cartoons, eyes snap open, then slowly, slowly close, then snap open again, and slowly, slowly close, then snap open...
For those of you who groaned when they heard we were going to watch Mall Cop, hear me out. I know my way around really bad kids movies. For example, Blanky still owes me his soul for making us watch Gremlins 2. When I saw the commercials for Mall Cop, I thought the usual: stupid white male character, entire scenes with whiny vocal soundtracks, over-fixation on potty-humor, etc. And that's probably what it'll be, but hey, if its funny, I'll take it.

Last weekend was Blanky's family birthday (even though it's on Thursday, we have swim in the evening, so we pushed it to Friday). Funny thing was, it turned into a pre-party birthday party. It began when we asked if our two neighborhood friends, Aaron and Aidan, could come over to play. One thing led to another, and they both wound up having a sleepover. Because it wasn't "official", Blanky is going to have 2 parties! Sweet!

Sorting things out

Sorry I'm not posting much, I'm still formatting the blog. I want to get it in tip-top shape before I start any hard-core posting. I'm hoping to finish by tomorrow.

Monday Weekly clip

This one was a guy's thesis for his Master's Degree in animation. It created quite a stir, and people actually became attached to the little bird. In fact, some created add-ons where he did something like pull a parachute at the end. Interesting what people will spend time on.

My anonymity has a cold

Blanky has some sort of bug in his system. He's laying on Mom's bed as I type. Note: I apologize for refraining to use my/my brothers' real names. For those of you who know me, it must be slightly annoying. The reason I prefer to remain anonymous is obvious enough and I hope you understand. If not, boo-hoo. Just know that Blank is my older-younger brother, and Blanky is my younger-younger brother. Of course, those of you who do not know me may conjure up strange mental images of Blanky as a cross of a young brother and one of Pac-man's ghoulish nemeses. Ah-well.

Actually, my family rarely gets sick. We are generally pretty blessed to be devoid of any sort of colds or fevers. I suspect that Blanky does not have as major an immunity threat as he makes it out to be. You know the deal: "Uuuuuugh, I'm so sick, I can't possibly finish math, I guess I'll have to just lie here helplessly and play my DS."

Welcome

Greetings non-existent readers, this is my first post on my new blog. Right now I'm pretty tired, so I'm not planning on posting much. Hopefully you will find this blog interesting with my future ramblings, but not now. I can't. So tired...