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“It wouldn’t be New Year’s if I didn’t have regrets.” – William Thomas

Within a minute, it will be a new year. The year that was 2009 will be over, and a new decade will begin. Its a time for fresh starts, clean slates, and resolutions that will fail within the first three weeks. It is a time to forget the mistakes of yesteryear or the horrors that the last decade brought. Also, it is a time to look forward to the history that has yet to be made, and  with the events that have recently unfolded, the teen decade of the twenty-first century will be challenging and interesting. I do not want to ramble for too long, so I just want to say that I hope the new year and decade will be better than the last for you, me, and all humankind.

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“Just relax and let your mind go blank. That shouldn’t be too hard for you.” – Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine

I found this quote to be quite telling of the film. I will not give away specifics of the film for those who still have see it. I will say that this film will knock your socks off visually. It is the best CGI I have ever seen. There are actually times where you forget you are watching CGI of blue humanoids. In some scenes the details of the graphics is so well done that you fully become emersed in the fictional world of Pandora. If you go into this film thinking it will give you an elaborate original story, then you may be disappointed. If you are just “going for the ride” or are interested in how 3D should be done, then you will leave the theater quite satisfied. Personally I left quite happy. I think it is ridiculous to see a movie in theaters when they charge you fifteen dollars to get in, so normally films I see in the theater I do not approve of. I often only go if I have an extremely high interest in seeing them. I mean, I generally go to the theater once a year. Avatar is definitively worth seeing.

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This morning, I woke up. It was like any other Saturday morning. I got the best night of sleep for the entire week. There was little on my mind as I had gone to bed the night before. The weekend was to be filled with academical adventures in history. As I woke up, I went about my Saturday morning as every other. I got up, used the restroom, and went to the kitchen. My mind had not began function at its proper level yet. I was looking in the refrigerator for something good for breakfast. While I was still groggy, I reached for a pepper because they are good. My mind did not quite realize what it was commanding my body to do. A pepper is hardly a pre-breakfast snack. The pepper is not the variety that are not fairly hot. I was expecting to bite into the pepper and taste the satisfying juices of the pepper while I continued my search for something more fitting as a meal. This pepper, however, was not your normal run of the mill pepper. I bit into the pepper, and it sure woke me up! It was extraordinarily hot! My mouth was on fire for ten minutes. Within the first five seconds, I was immediately alert and ready to go for the day. I didn’t even need a meal for me to be on my way. All I had to do was put out the inferno that had become my tongue. Hell, I was even in a good mood when faced with a day of study and work for a change. I was able to conquer all my lessons and essays that I had planned for completion. It was all thanks to one rather absurd pepper. Lesson of the story: eat more hot peppers, if you need to wake up!

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I would like to take this opportunity to say that my blog will be inactive for a couple weeks. At least until December 16, 2009. My academic endeavors that is the study of history, is taking over my life. I have much to finish, in only a small bit of time. The semester is coming to a close, and I must be triumphant. Start checking back on the 16th of December for new updates, stories, and oddball related topics!

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I do not have much time to post, as of right now. I am working on my final papers for the semester, but this has been on my mind for quite some time. I want to make sure I go “on record” with my views and analysis.

I think this is a positive endeavor which Obama is undertaking. I have spoken with veterans of the current wars, as well as military historians about the Afghanistan and Iraq issue. The beauty of being a history major, is that I am surrounded by these types of individuals almost consistently while on campus. One of the main consensus that the military historian gave me, is that to win a war you need strong numbers. That is something that has been lacking in the Afghan war. The U.S. media made a mistake of making the Iraq war the primary war, when it clearly should have been our secondary war. Afghanistan became an afterthought. To help contain, and improve the situation in Afghanistan, there needs to be a troop increase. Many of Obama’s supporters have become unhappy with this decision. This has worked through the history of the U.S. military, just as it did in Iraq. But Obama is right when he has called Afghanistan the “war of necessity.” Furthermore, it is a war we must win.

The only criticism I have of Obama is that it took him a while to figure out that a troop increase was a necessity, and workable option. Yes, there is the problem of how we will pay for the increase, and maybe that is what he was mulling over. Just as this war was a necessity, the increase is a necessity. Especially since it has been released that the U.S. could have had Bin Laden but failed to obtain him in December of 2001.

If I have time, I will respond to Obama’s speech tonight about this very situation where is is going to lay out the plan. ABC is going to air it, tonight at 5pm PT. Again its the last few weeks of the semester, and I really need to concentrate.

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