I got back from my brother's graduation yesterday. It was all good, even though we had to sit in the cold while they read 940 names. He already plunges into fulltime work today... that boy's crazy.

Today marks my first real day at home, and I kicked it off by sleeping until 3:20pm (oops). Unpacking and getting situated at home is the name of the game today. That and watch movies.

Speaking of movies, I watched The Producers last night, and it was alright. Matthew Broderick, Will Ferrel, and Uma Thurman are in this one, so you know it's gotta be at the least a decent movie. The acting was pretty good, and the actors did very well in their roles. The only thing that disappointed me in this movie was all the musical numbers they did (a few could have been left out). I say this knowing that the movie is based on an actual play, which has musical numbers. I just think they could have left a couple more to the play and adapt it more to a movie format.

Broderick is the main character, playing the timid, cowardice accountant who meets Max Bialystock (played by Nathan Lane) and develops his character throughout the movie. Lane is the outgoing, charismatic one of the duo, helping Broderick as they scheme to make money off of a Broadway flop. Thurman plays a Swedish woman who is the love interest of Broderick (and might I say Thurman looks very good in this one!). Ferrel plays a hilarious role as a "mentally-confused" neo-nazi with a thick German accent. He wrote "the worst play ever written," called Springtime with Hitler, which Broderick and Lane choose to make their Broadway flop.

Throw in a bunch of homosexual stereotypes, a lot of horny, old, rich women, and many more eccentric characters, and you get a hilarious play. As a movie, however, it could have been better.

The Producers gets a 7/10 in my book. Fun to watch, with many jokes in the movie, but it didn't live up to my expectations. The movie is a remake of both the play and the movie made back in 1968, so it has no excuse to be anything but awesome. Still a good movie to see at least once.

I'm watching Full Metal Jacket tonight, so look for another review soon.

My second rant, Reality TV, is now up for your enjoyment. I hate reality TV, and I hope many of you do as well. It's just so... stupid! I also decided to make it easier on you all and keep my rant shorter so you don't have to read for so long.

In other news, I GO HOME TODAY! After my last final I can go back home and then leave the next day for my brother's graduation. I won't be officially home until late Sunday. I can't wait to be on a 5-hour-long trip one way in a van with my parents and grandparents! ::sigh:: Hopefully it will all be over quickly and I can get back home and truly enjoy life once again.

I never realized how much stuff there was to do while preparing to go home. All of the cleaning and packing, and at the same time wondering why you brought so much stuff up in the first place. Next year will be sweet though, because I'll be coming back by myself, and with my car! I love my car. In addition to that, since I'm rooming with the RA next year, I can move in early and avoid the 2-hour wait to use the elevator (and I can use the elevator more than once, as opposed to silly freshmen who only get one trip up the elevator).

Next year will definitely be the shit.

It has recently come to my attention that there is now a real threat towards Net Neutrality. What is Net Neutrality?

"The internet currently benefits from network neutrality. The telecom companies, Internet service providers and cable companies can not discriminate against any data, traffic or programs running on their network. Everyone gets a fair shake and no preferential treatment. End users can reach all websites without interference from their provider. It allows the playing field to be level and encourages innovation. It's what allows the little guy to make his dreams reality."
  - Scott Kurtz, pvponline.com

The law, known as the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (COPE), will end network neutrality. They will force people running businesses online to pay service providers for higher connection speeds and priority over other sites amognst other benefits. This means that the smaller businesses who cannot pay service providers will recieve a slower connection speed and possibly having people who try to connect to their site forcibly redirected towards a site doing the same thing that DID pay your service provider.

These laws will essentially eliminate small companies from competition in the online world, and the chance on becoming a successful company will dwindle dramatically. They also have a high impact on major companies. Say for example Google did not pay your service provider. Google is then subject to having people with that service provider being redirected to another search engine while attempting to connect to Google.

The threat is real, and needs to be stopped before the internet is changed forever. The COPE is being debated NOW, so swift action is necessary.

Click on the picture on the left side of the page, or go to Savetheinternet.com for more details. You can also check out pvponline.com to get a better idea on how it will affect small businesses like Kurtz's online comics.

I have added a rant page to the site! Now you may be asking, "why not just put it in the blog?" I created a seperate page because I plan on doing a lot of rants, and I want them to be seperate from my everyday-goings-on that I present to you, the reader, in my blog. I decided to kick-off my rant series with something I feel very strongly about: Kids in America. I believe that our moral society in America is rapidly deteriorating, but it can be fixed. In my rant I explain how it starts with kids becoming more-and-more "unacceptable" to the standard code of morality with each generation, and that is caused mostly in part by parents, and how this continuing loop of moral decline will one day lead to catastrophe.

If you read my rants, please read my little disclaimer on the main rant page. I cannot express enough that these rants are solely my opinion, and that they shouldn't be criticized. Feel free to create a counter-point, but do it on your own shit, because I'm not about to go invade your territory for whatever you have to say. We have the First Amendment for a reason, you know :)

One thing I wanted to include in my rant but did not was how America was created on a standard of morals consistent with Christianity, and how the loss of religion in America has contributed to the deteriorating moral values we now face. The problem with this is I would include religion with my rant, and that is something I want to try to avoid, because if the world knows how to disagree on something, it's religion. Many wars have been fought because of religion, and I certainly do not want to rattle the chains further by throwing religion in with my opinions.

I am high on energy drinks.

All I can say is PHYSICS CAN DIE now because I took the final and I don't have to worry about stupid electromagnetism anymore. That class was a major bitch, so I look forward to moving on. Only three finals and a make-up test to go!

I added all my classes (Fall 2005, Spring 2006, and Fall 2006) to the site, so have fun checking those out if you're interested. I can't wait for next year: The classes are going to be easier, I don't have a history course to take, and I get to room with the RA next year. It will be two doubles with an expanded common room, where we'll use the extra space to put in an entertainment area, complete with 27" TV, PS2, XBox, N64, VCR, seperate speakers, a futon, two fold-up chairs, and maybe a couple of other things.

Only one more week until I'm on the road to see my brother graduate! How the time flies... So yeah he's going to stay by his college and do full-time work at a firm for awhile. Good luck to you, brother!

Welcome to the newly-created Mark "Rasputin" Ross' Homepage (and blog, too, i guess). With my first year of college coming to a close, I am looking for new things to do, and this blog is it. I will now let people access my opinions that may be very biased and based on half-truths like the countless other blogs out there.

I threw this page together in about an hour. In case you haven't noticed, there's only one image on the entire site. All of the code I wrote from scratch because it's easier than using shitty writing programs that add 93429 extra lines of code that don't do anything. And don't think I'm a nerd because I can... it takes about one week to master html (in other words, it's unbelievably easy). The reason: I was tired of making shitty geocities pages and wanted to learn how to make better stuff with more options. I do admit that geocities is good for beginners, but after three days you're like "wow, my page looks like shit. I wonder if I can do a better job without geocities PageBuilder™."

So that's where I am at this point in time. Finals week coming up, then a 3-month block of mmmmmmmmmmmm goodness. Summer's gonna kick ass.