Our campus has been overrun...

By anti-abortionists. There was some guy standing outside the physics building this morning shouting at us to embrace Jesus and stop killing infants, and a dude standing next to a huge picture of bloody, dead fetus was trying to hand me a flyer saying not to get an abortion. Because, you know, being a guy and all, I had really been considering one.

There was also some guy standing outside the library, telling us we're all going to hell for being at college. Because, clearly, if God had wanted us to learn, he would have given us brains. Oh, wait...

Not that anyone around here is really all that ticked off; this is the most entertaining thing to come through campus this semester. But for any anti-abortionists or other generally crazy people out there, let me give you some tips: You are not going to win a single, solitary convert by coming to a college campus and being loud and obnoxious. At college, if you're being lound and obnoxious, it usually means you're drunk, and we don't pay a lot of attention to you. The way you're going to win converts is by logically persuading us that your position is the more sensible one. Why religous fundamentalists have yet to try using this approach will no doubt remain a mystery...

Random Notes

I was about to sit down and write a post about Nintendo's recently announced Revolution controller, but I didn't really have anything original or insightful to say. I think it's an incredible idea, I really hope they make it work, and I have no doubt that if I end up buying any of the new generation of consoles, I'll be buying a Revolution first. Because Nintendo, you see, makes interesting games. I will grant you that they don't make many, and they don't make them fast. But, examining the Gamecube and Xbox from a position that's pretty close to the end of their product cycles, let me observe that the Xbox still has not one single game which is proprietary to that system that I have any interest in playing, where the Gamecube has a sizable library. You will not find Pikmin on the Xbox, and despite being backed by a behemoth like Sony the PSP is not the most popular handheld in the world; the DS is. If you want to read an extremely interesting and lucid commentary on Nintendo's role in the gaming industry, you should check out this article.

On a completely unrelated note, and because I don't have anything more interesting to talk about, here are a couple of things I've run across recently that are cool:

Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs is the newest album from Andrew Bird, violin virtuoso formerly (nominally) of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. The new album is a long way from the hot jazz-style stuff of his first couple of solo albums. It is kind of folksy, very chill, and extremely good.

Sin City in movie form is out on DVD. Sin City is a series of comic books by Frank Miller that was recently adapted into a movie. It is certainly very violent, though like so many films its detractors don't seem to notice that the vast majority of the violence occurs offscreen. However, it is extremely graphic in its implications, and if you don't like violent movies you won't like this one. But, if you have ever read and enjoyed noir, or seen and enjoyed film noir, then Sin City is highly recommended. It is noir to the maxx.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is my lord and savior.
(That was sarcasm. If you are an actual, honest-to-God creationist or intelligent-designist, don't tell me, because we can't be friends anymore.)

I have no idea how many people have already heard of Mitch Hedberg, but the man is amazingly funny. You should definitely download yourself a copy of one of his standups from that thar inter-net.