Welcome, new readers! “Inside the Terrordome” is a collection of posts, posted about once a month, where I write short recaps and/or opinions about interesting state and national news stories, some stories that caught my eye, and mainly personal stories, such as the status of classes.
– The big co-story of the nation involves Kentucky, and once again, it’s not a positive story. To sum up: a group of students from Covington Catholic High School were recorded in a confrontation with a Native American elder. There was outrage. Then, 2 longer videos surfaces, showing that a group of Black Israelites were also there, yelling racial and offensive stuff at the kids, who yelled back; the students also started chanting “Build a wall!”, while wearing “Make America Great Again!” hats. I’ll let you Google the videos; I’m tired of the “story”. All I’ll say is:
1) The Black Israelites aren’t getting near enough criticism for instigating the whole thing
2) The Cov. Catholic students are not the ‘poor innocent victims’ that their supporters claim they are, esp. the kid with the smug smirk on his face. You learned a valuable lesson in “Free Speech”: it can have consequences.
3) The chaperones aren’t getting near enough criticism – they could have calmed the students down or pulled them away; instead, they stood back and watched until the very end
– The Los Angeles teachers strike has ended! A “congratulations!” to childhood friend Erika for being on the front lines for the teachers!
– The other big co-story: The Government Shutdown, Day 33. I hope America has learned from its 2016 mistake… but I might be way too optimistic. After reading some people’s statuses on Facebook, The Trump Brainwash appears to still have a firm grip on some.
– On a happier note, WWE’s Royal Rumble is this Sunday! I will have a prediction blog post up in a day or 2. For now, I’ll say: “don’t be surprised if Drew McIntyre wins the Men’s Royal Rumble”. That one was on the house. 😉
– I am more excited about this year’s “Goodreads Reading Challenge” than previous challenges! I’ve always liked to read but the last few years, leisure reading took a back seat to school, work, and all other manners of ‘life stuff’. I set a 2018 goal of reading 30 books – I read 7. This year, the goal is 25 books; I finished one book from 2018 and just finished reading a 2nd book. I have a few unread books on my shelf and many more that I plan on buying in the next few months, including Books 6-10 in the Dresden Files series, the latest (and last! *sob*) books in the Shannara mega-series, and, finally, the Wheel of Time series. Looking forward to entering new and familiar literary worlds!
– I am really looking forward to the Friday release of the “Resident Evil 2” game on PC! It sounds like RE is returning to the ‘survival horror’ style that the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 games unveiled. I did not get a chance to play to 30-minute demo that was released last week, sadly. The full game releases on Friday, January 25th; I won’t have much time to purchase and play it but next week might be a different matter. Looking forward to my return trip to Raccoon City!!
– I don’t know what the last animated movie was that I saw in a movie theater. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Dragon Ball Super: Broly” will likely be the next one or 2. I have heard great things about ‘Spider-Verse’ from many people, including a couple of the “Comicdom Wrecks” writers. Nearly equally good reviews have come out about ‘Super: Broly’, which immediately piqued my interest. I’ve only seen a couple of the “Super” episodes of Dragon Ball but I did see the original DBZ movie about Broly. If it’s anywhere as intense as that movie, ‘Super: Broly’ will be amazing! If I can find a movie theater close enough to my hotel, I might watch one of them this weekend.
– Speaking of this weekend: Cincinnati Tradition is holding Camp #5 on Sunday, barring inclement weather. Same as previous camps, I feel pretty good about my music and playing prep; I feel ok-to-decent about my visuals (holding the horn, Mark Timing, etc.); and I feel ‘meh’ about overall fitness, even with the weight loss. Nevertheless, I will not whine about any of it – I will bring my ‘lunch pail and go to work’ for 9 hours on Sunday!
From the Personal corner:
- I have had one of the weirdest weeks, school-wise, and I haven’t opened one textbook or started one assignment! In short: I had maxed out my available college credits for federal Financial Aid, so I have to appeal each semester for federal grant or loan money. 2 semesters ago, I was approved; last semester, I was denied. This semester, I appealed 5 weeks before the deadline. I never heard back from WKU, even after 2 emails. I dropped the classes that I signed up for… then heard that Northrop Grumman (“NGC”), the parent company of TRIMARC, has Education Assistance for employees. That info leads to me scrambling to add classes again. I have 2 classes but am waiting for the email chain between NGC and WKU to pull me back in. This Assistance includes On Demand classes – now I can knock out at least one required class! I will turn in class work this weekend, so that the professors don’t remove me from their rosters next week.
- I finally have Health Insurance again. Now I can get an overdue Heart Echo and an INR reading. It’s amazing how expensive some things are without insurance (for example: it costs $209 just to get in for a heart Echo).
2019 is off to… an adventurous start. Much more to come, in the next few weeks and months!
The Nexus 