Year five

So, yesterday was my birthday. I turned 25. I watched basketball and started to think this was the most uninteresting, uninspiring NCAA Tournament I've seen in quite some time.

But anyways...

Today is the four-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Which means, if you do some math, I will have spent one day of my adult, drinking-age life in peacetime. Which wasn't that great to begin with, since that day was spent with the Bush administration preparing for the war the following day.

Any parent who has given or seen the birth of their child on March 19, 2003 will have every day raising their child in the shadow of war. Their children went to nursery school today not knowing what peace looks like. When it does arrive, it will be alien to them, having to see it for the first time ever.

September of next year, they will go to kindergarten, and no one really knows what the state of the world will look like then. Perhaps it will be better than today, but the promise of peace that the Bush administration has given to the American people remains uncertain as ever. Until then, if ever, we will have to raise our families under the constant threat of our own demise.

I was really hoping to get out of the house after a few days of spring break spent on classwork and research. Did you guys know about the snowstorm that came today? Because I didn't have a clue until I woke up this morning.

On the plus side, got to watch the NCAA Tournament all day today. It is not nearly as exciting as past years, I got to say. My bracket remains intact, for the most part, though.

• On the down side, here are some dumb things I was exposed to today:
  A DirecTV commercial where some fat poser turns down courtside seats because he's got high definition. I got high definition and would travel cross-country for courtside seats to a Knicks game. This guy would rather sit on his couch. Moron.
• John Oliver again. The crew that Jon Stewart had one year ago today was alot funnier than this crowd, which is disappointing.
• A replay of The Colbert Report. Don't get me wrong, everything was funny...except the interview. He was actually like a deer in the headlights, trying to figure out how to interview an atheist expert on Islam (? - didn't pay that much attention, to be honest). Ended up reciting half of "Our Father." Um, no.
• A happy ending on 1 vs. 100. No, not the first contestant that won $100K+, which was sweet. I mean the woman who had to use a help because she didn't know if there were more red or white stripes on the American flag. She knew it was thirteen stripes, and still polled for how many people picked red and white stripes were of equal color. Much to my delight and the salvation of civilization, she got it wrong. Nice.

Eventually I will get around to working on my presentations at Anime Boston. Expect the C&C Workshop to run like a teaching pedagogy class. I really wouldn't be able to teach how to critique fanfic without my teacher training, despite ten years as a writer.

DC sucked last night. Honestly, between Houston and DC, it's not difficult saying which one has more firepower. And Chivas being better didn't have anything to do with United screwing up on their own.

John Oliver on The Daily Show

Can't stand him. Just can't.

Today's pet peeve

I put my iPod on full shuffle all day today. Doesn't it seem to everyone that Wyclef Jean, in every song, must mention "Fugees" at least once? OK, we get it, we know where you're from.