Range_This11

Sounds of the Loop by Joe Morello Genius.

I had a very interesting and compelling professor last semester for my Principles of Sociology course. His name was Dr. Abbas Mehdi and he is an Iraqi. He has served under Saddam Hussein (unwillingly) and now serves as a trainer for Minnesota National Guard troops being deployed to Iraq. He has traveled to every continent (except Antarctica) and fluently speaks 7 languages. Needless to say he is a very experienced person when it comes to dealing with social problems around the world. Some of you may also remember the "Iraq Aid Money Stolen or Wasted" topic I posted a few months ago featuring his testimony to the U.S. Supreme Court. My point in this is that Dr. Mehdi had a very interesting viewpoint on why suicide rates are so high in Western and "civilized" countries and why, as he said, there are hardly any cases of suicide (aside from suicide bombers) in his home country of Iraq compared to the United States. Dr. Mehdi concluded that because well-off Americans are so task oriented, they tend to have more stress than the most impoverished farmer in Iraq. Think about it, how many things in your day are task oriented? First of all, you've got your daily tasks. Get up, feed the family pet, catch a bus/ride/drive to work/school. Finish all your work at school, maybe participate in a sport after school, and of course worry about the big game coming up against your conference rivals. Now balance that with your every day course load of homework. Don't forget you also have to worry about managing a girlfriend or boyfriend if that's what is going on in your life. And those are just your every day tasks. What about long term tasks? Mid-term papers, band or choir concerts, the all-school play, what college you're going to pick, maybe the military, how about what your major is going to be, do you have a job to pay for school? How are you going to pay for school if you don't have a job? As you can see, those are just a few examples of tasks that young Americans have to face EVERY DAY. Now Iraqis, as Dr. Mehdi put it, do not face those kinds of issues. They live simplistic lives (of course not all of them, but a majority of them do). Every day they get up and either farm their land or go to their job to simply provide food for their families and to save up what extra money they can. There aren't these ridiculous tasks we have every day as Americans. They have less stress, even though they may be impoverished. And that is why, Dr. Mehdi concluded, a higher percentage of Americans kill themselves, and will continue to do so, compared to Iraqis and even more impoverished people.

Just finished On the Waterfront. In my opinion, Marlon Brando's best performance of his career.

You should definitely switch, it's much better for you and works a lot better than any chap stick/lip balm I've ever used and I've had to use chap stick regularly since I was 5.

Go talk to Israel for army size. It has one of the smallest, yet best trained military in the world.

First couple episodes were decent, but after that, they really dropped off in quality.

Gustav Holst :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: If you haven't (which I'm sure you most likely have), listen to his First Suite in F and Second Suite in E flat. Absolutely amazing pieces. I've had The Planets CD since I was 8. Great stuff.

Haha, High School. Must be a tough life.

Taxi Driver. I'm on a rampage of classics and I loved this one.

Fireworks/Fire (I work at one of Wisconsin's largest fireworks store) My Girlfriend of nearly 2 years Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Table Tennis Running My best guy friends Movies (especially ones pre-1960) Music My dog Maggie, she's a Weimaraner and she's amazing.

Homosexuality would not be a taboo had the Christian church not condemned it for thousands of years :|

Actually the date is changed to June 5th in Europe and June 7th in the US. Both the songs (Soap on a Rope and Down the Drain) are on their MySpace.

http://www.myspace.com/thechickenfoot Joe Satriani's new gig. He finally found a band with a singer. This album is going to kick major [wagon].

Why?

Countless slapshots to the foot playing hockey. That's what I get for playing defense, though, I guess. The worst pain was definitely my Senior year in hockey I took a slapshot directly jamming my thumb upwards and breaking it. My coach helped me reset it in between periods, taped and braced it. I played the rest of the game and season with a broken thumb because I would have had to take time off from playing to let it heal and I wasn't about to do that when we were close to a conference championship. I've had countless hockey injuries, none have been treated haha.

This season is so good. They're becoming more and more blunt as the seasons progress and I love it. They have a way of describing events in the simplest ways that make the most sense. Great social commentary.

:thumbdown: Why? I don't know, I typically have a hard time thinking movies are awesome that the general public really likes and that I see later than everyone else. I felt the same way with The Dark Knight, all my friends loved it and I thought it was mediocre. The Godfather was a good movie, but it wasn't as good as I expected it to be. The storyline really didn't seem to go anywhere and I didn't much care for the plot either. Although I will say the acting was good in it, but other than that I just didn't like it. Maybe in a month I'll re-watch it and reconsider.

A step in the right direction for sure. Although the article is ridiculously biased and I don't like how it's written, here it is. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emma-rubysachs/falling-short-of-full-con_b_182808.html Discuss.

I get chapped lips really bad in the winter, so I need it. Some people don't get it as bad as others. You can't really compare it to bottled water :|

Shouldn't he have some sort of scar, though? I mean bullet wounds are pretty nasty.

Obviously you have never used it. And no, I'm not kidding.

The best chap stick ever. So if any of you are like me, you're addicted to using Burt's Bees chap stick like a crack addict. And if you're not, stay far away from this stuff or you will become addicted. Discuss any and all Burt's Bees products. I love this stuff and will never buy another type of lip balm/chap stick for the rest of my life.

Alright I was just making sure, and yeah the part with Hurley and Miles was awesome. I'm sure it'll all fall into place eventually.

There was a great quote I once heard: "Hair-gel is only used to identify douche-bags from a distance" One of them lived in his basement for 6 months being unemployed and supported by his girlfriend because he didn't want to go get a real job because of his "love for video games". Another was hospitalized and when he was told that he might lose function of his right arm, his first thought was that he "wouldn't be able to play his Xbox" and that he would "have to learn to play video games with his feet". Honestly some of the most pathetic crap I've ever heard in my life. I feel sorry for anyone who devotes that much time to a video game.

Yeah, because that's what I said. I just figured that some people that weren't "sit in my basement and watch anime" would be making a game like this. These guys don't even seem that intelligent. Most of them have degrees in "business" and being a college student myself, I know how hard it is to get such a prestigious Business Degree.