Comic Space 2.0

I sure hope you're not expecting a whole new post today after all my work last night. I expect a bagillion comments after all my hard work. I expect praises and gifts. I mean, this took me hours... and I have another paper due on Monday. Do you see what I sacrifice for you?!!??

click to enlarge

A Three Post Day!

• Alright, below is an open letter to one of my loving fans who recently left some feedback reguarding Tuesday's Post.
• This Post here is simply a heads up. No big deal.
• And coming later tonight is a REALLY special treat. I don't know what drove me to do what I'm about to, but its got a lot of potential. So start getting excited.

I feel like I should give you some content. I only slept 2 hours yesterday (10 am - 12 pm) and it was quite rough. But the paper's done and turned in. I had to go to class last night, which was a bit rough (6-9pm) on as little sleep as I had. But then to top it off, my genius roommate talked me into going to the movies last night to see Serenity. I hate him sometimes. Don't get me wrong it was a great movie, but I was going on VERY little sleep. I'm glad I went, but I still hate him. Seriously, just try playing Burnout with that kid. Its a racing game, and no matter the outcome, no matter how badly he lost, he'll talk about how he "kicked your ass in drift." Even in Burnout 4, when they no longer give your Drifted Distance at the end of the race, he makes it up. For those who may be missing the point, Drift is when you lose traction on your turns and has no real impact on the game or the winning of the game. But he yells about it everytime reguardless.

Oh and speaking of beating Scott at games. Current chess score: 6-0

An Open Letter

Dear Mr McJake,

You should count yourself lucky that the powers that be over here at Rob's Space 2.0 have decided to take time out of their busy schedule to address your concerns. at 10:06 am on October 4, 2005 the following comment was received :

Jakey McJake said...

Thanks for your list of websites that EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS ABOUT. I'm so lucky to have your internet commentary to teach me things I never could have possibly figured out...unless I actually used the internet.

But it's the thought that counts, I suppose. Pervert.

First, I need to start with your name. Frankly, and as I believe we here at Rob's Space 2.0 have indicated previously, it Sucky McSucks. We try our best here to provide actual content for our readers, unlike some people who create and devote an entire podcast to let his peers know that a 13 year old boy had been banned from the forums.

Mr McJake, there are other people who read Rob's Space who are less computer/internet savvy than others (pronounce savvy: "ob-sess'-ed"). And I like to sometimes share things that might help them, just as I sometimes discuss inside jokes that only Scott, Tim and Ro might be a part of. So now, instead of your insults affecting me, it is probably more likely that they were poorly received by my readers. I hope you feel like a big man now.

I can just assume that you missed the point that I was trying to share web fundamentals and not trying to bring groundbreaking new material forward. You also seemed to miss the open invitation where I wanted to have others bring their own basic, frequently visited sites to the group. So, even when you had your own grievances about the content, as well as an open invitation to add your own, you did nothing to actually improve your misperceived state of things. Wait a minute. Complaining about misunderstood situations... Elitist attitude... taking no actual action yourself... You're a libertarian, aren't you? This conversation is over.

Commies Burn in Hell,

Rob's Space 2.0

No post for today.

Today is a Paper Due Day. No time to post. No time to sleep. No time to work, crap.... no it's 7:30 in the morning, guess I'll just go to work early today and bail out WAY early. Maybe I can finish my paper and sleep before class. Would you care for an excerpt from my paper? My brain hurts, I couldn't keep it up throughout the whole paper. I know that those first two paragraphs are exactly what he wanted, but my writting style quickly degrades as my graduate-student-writing-mode endurance fails me. eh, I got to say... I'm impressed I was able to spit out as much of that as I did. You really don't have to read what I'm attaching here, it's incredibly scholarly (aka impossible to read). Just thought you should see what grad school is like. Stupid sleep.

Institutions are a ubiquitous, often overlooked presence in the world. Their influence is felt at all strata of society, from world leaders at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to a local Junior High Yearbook Staff, we require hierarchy and a system that provides allowances and restrictions. Left to his or her own devices, and resisting an established structure, humans will almost inevitably descend into a state of chaos and inefficiency. Rare is the case that a leader will not emerge from a group and become the focal point of organization and action. Thus, once such a structure is set, a pattern followed, and a social hierarchy understood, an institution is born.

Institutions are a social framework, often created and maintained by the very same people who must adhere to it. In his article “Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance,” Douglass North defines institutions as “humanly devised constraints that structure human interaction,” which have either been formed purposefully or have gradually developed over time. It is the institution that allows or restricts certain actions by the various members of the group. Each person must work within the constraints he is given and failure to abide by the rules results in a penalty, not only to himself, but in effect, the team as a whole. The institution often values some rules more than others, resulting in varied repercussions for different violations. It can then be assumed that some rule breaking is expected, and therefore considered a legitimate strategy for obtaining one’s goals, provided that severity of the punishment does not outweigh the potential for benefit.

I’m a Peeping Tom

But I don’t mean to be. Sometimes I just can’t help it. Seriously, when you’re just walking around at night and there’s these windows just glaring at you, it peaks my curiosity. I don’t stare, I don’t even break stride, but my eyes always drift up to those bright, open windows.

I took note of this last night when I was taking out the garbage. You have to walk to the dumpster which has apartments all around, I don’t even remember there being a street light out there…. Just shiny beacons of window light in the pitch blackness, what else are you supposed to look at?!? I'm not looking or hoping for anything in particular, windows are just there!

I just know that one of these times, some girl is going to be changing clothes and it’s going to totally catch me off guard. And in my second of shock, before what’s happening can even register, THAT’s when she’s going to turn around and see me standing out there. “I was GOING to avert my eyes!” is what I’ll tell the cops. “We don’t take kindly to perverts in these here parts” is what they’ll reply to me… and then comes the pistol whip. There goes my career, my dignity, my life… It doesn’t help that I have so much black in my wardrobe as is.

Anyways, my second part of my being nosey post is I want to know what sites you frequent. And I’m not talking to Tim or Scott here, I pretty much know what sites they frequent, but they’ll tell us anyways I’m sure. So I’d like to see in your window… your browsing window that is. (Woah. That was painful. I apologize for that statement/pun. It wasn’t even intentional, it just came out.)

Here are my top 5 sites that every person should know about:

1. www.google.com (Google Search, Google News and Google Images) utilize and worship. Click the button at the top right and personalize it if you’d like.
2. www.wikipedia.org Online encyclopedia covering everything from Governor Blagojevich to where the metal in Wolverine’s claws came from.
3. www.imdb.com Internet Movie DataBase. Anything you ever want to know about a movie, or actor, start here.
4. www.fark.com Ridiculous news. Updated about every hour.
5. www.digg.com Like Fark, but better, and about technology. For the tech-savvy or those who would like to be.

Decisions

Sometimes close contests have a “judge’s decision” like boxing for example. Others sometimes have a “majority decision” like our legislature. There are still other kinds of rulings, such as the ever popular “monetary decision” (who has gold makes the rules sort of deal). Well, the contest that I posed on Friday has been decided, and not by any of the previously mentioned methodologies either. What started off as a close race has turned into a landslide victory. At the end, pulling ahead by somewhere around 1000 points, Tim Ryder is our winner!! That’s right folks, by an official “Phil’s Decision,” Tim has bested Google without question. Congratulations Tim!! (It should also be noted that Rob’s Space has always and will continue to support “Phil’s Decision” in any matters of… well, anything.)

The picture I posted is of my favorite person. I know that most of the face is hidden, but I still think you can figure out who it is. (And the textbook should be a dead giveaway)

That was during our study session last night. I was reading horrifically painful articles about institutionalism and legislatures and balance and power and how corrupt Illinois is… all in all, a good time. Almost as good of a time as when we were playing poker at the Ryder Household. I had the pleasure of knocking Scott out of the tournament and then Tim and Josh more or less took themselves out (I don’t remember). The final three was Allyn, Ro and I. I, of course, won. One day they’ll all learn they’re being hustled. One day… So that puts me winning 2 of 3 poker tournaments and 5 out of 5 chess matches against Scott.

I am STILL awesome.