"What was a prayer, if not creation? Making something where nothing existed. Creating a wish out of despair, a plea out of anguish. Bowing one’s back before the Almighty, and forming humility from the empty pride of a human life." - The Way of Kings

Once again, its YouTube Friday!!! The chick that made this weeks videos Ive become totally smitten with. Shes just so damn cute! And extremely talented besides. So, get watching!

“The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.” - Eddard Stark; Game of Thrones

Welcome back to YouTube Friday here on Sporadic Zen. As you've all probably gathered, I'm a big Game of Thrones fan. This Sunday, Season 2 of Thrones starts on HBO! HUZZAH! I'm a little excited. I loved what they've done with season 1 and cant wait to see what they do with it in season 2. So for the videos today, Ive got the trailer for season 2 and a couple covers of the intro song to the show. Enjoy:

"I use to be an adventurer like you, until I took an arrow to the knee" - City Guard; Skyrim

As kind of a way for me to get back into the routine of trying to Blog on a regular basis, Im gonna start doing some short little posts every Friday called "YouTube Fridays!" Yeah, I know. Real original. But whatever. They're just going to incorporate one or two videos every post of Videos that I thought where entertaining. You might not think so, but that's your loss. In my last blog, I mentioned that I have been playing a lot of Skyrim, so for this weeks YouTube Friday, Im posting a couple of covers of different songs found in the game. So, enjoy:

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon. Too often, we forget that.” - Wit; The Way of Kings

Wow. Its been a long time since Ive posted. But what you gonna do when life gets in the way? (that's what I'm blaming it on because Ive been lazy) Lets see, whats happened since last July... I went and got myself some learning over the last 6 months. I enrolled in a local program to get certified as a Pharmacy Technician. Its been a real eye opener. Who would've thought there would be so many different drugs! And I have to know what they do?! Brain almost asploded everywhere! Lucky, it didn't. Would've been messy (or not, depending who you talk to). I got done with the course work March 1st, and since then Ive been trying to get done my internship hours I have to do. Why you have to do 180 hours is beyond me. And I wont lie, it kinda sucks that you don't get paid to do it. There has been a few things that helped me get through it all. I bought a PS3 on Black Friday last year ($200?! Yes please!) along with a copy of Skyrim. Best. Game. Ever! At least it was the Game of the Year for last year. Which is still pretty awesome. There's been plenty of nights where I went to bed around 4 in the morning. Actually, one of the main reasons I purchased a PS3 is so I could have access to a blue-ray player. I got a bundle of the first 6 Harry Potter movies a few years ago for Christmas, but I had nothing to play it on. Now I do. So who's up for a Potter Marathon? :) Ive read some excellent books the last little bit as well. I made it through a rereading of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, capped off by reading the latest book that came out last year for the first time. One thing that pissed me off is that I read a spoiler about Jon on the interwebs before I even reading it. So note to self. Don't read through forums about new books that you haven't read yet. And I don't really want to give anything away, so Ill just say it was decent. Not great. Just decent. For my book club, we read Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson. I loved what he did with the Wheel of Time books and was excited to read one of his original books. And it didn't disappoint. The characters where likeable, entertaining, and believable. Since that went over so well, I started reading Sandersons monster of a book, The Way of Kings. It actually took me awhile to get into. I think one of the marks of a good book is how relateable it is. Because the quicker you can start relating with the characters and imagining yourself in that world, the better experience you're going to have. The world Sanderson built for this book is, well, foreign, and it took me awhile to wrap my head around it. One of my friends said it best "There are at least two moons in the sky, the weather would make the eye of Jupiter feel like kite flying weather, and his taxonimy includes flying eels and Jurrasic sized crabs. It is an interesting crosspollination of fantasy and sci fi. You have knights in armor competing for control of a very midieval feeling feudal society, but the armor is some sort of alien armor infused with electricity." But once I got into it, it was great! Now to read his Mistborn series.

“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..." - Roy Batty; Blade Runner

We had a nice little thunder storm roll through my neck of the woods this afternoon. I love thunderstorms. I could just sit and watch one for hours. The whole atmosphere of a good storm makes me day. From the way it just makes everything seem... Fresh. And the energy of it! Its great.
I went and finally saw the last installment of the Harry Potter movies. I'm a fan of the book series and the movies didn't disappoint. This last movie made me tear up, had me cheering for the good guys and made me feel glad to have Voldemort finally get his ass handed to him. If you like the series and you're one of the few people that haven't seen it, go now and watch it.
And here is a little something to tie this post together:

“A government is a body of people usually notably ungoverned” - Sheppard Book

Ive been wanting to do a Political themed post for awhile. But Ive been delaying it forever because 1)People get needlessly angry when the talk of Politics ever comes up, 2) I'm still sick of hearing all the needless slander from the LAST election cycle, and 3) I'm been trying to iron out what I would like to see happen in the Government.
I guess the real point behind this post is to see if I can get my thoughts down so I can pound out reason number 3 a little. If you want to have a grown up discussion about this and you think you can add something, by all means, post something in the comment section. If not, Ill have no problem deleting your ass (I mean that in best way possible :)).
Health Care
Id like to see the Government get involved in this, but the current bill that's in place is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Premiums and such are getting way to high. I think Part of the reason is because you have these people that always get sue happy around doctors. We need to fix that. Do I think the Government can Help? Absolutely. Lets try hammer it out please.
Immigration
A touchy subject where the term Racist gets thrown around a lot. Am I racist? No. But that doesn't mean that I think that the people living here illegally should get amnesty. Those people here illegally should try to rectify the problem through the proper channels. I think the government could make it easier to get worker permits if that's all they want to do. No problem with that.
Military
Im a big fan of the Military, so I don't want you all to take this the wrong way. I think that it could have a lot more accountability in the way it spends its money though. I don't think a little defunding would hurt it at all.
I would stop sending those that are enlisted for the National Guard to serve in wars over seas. Its the national guard for a reason. They need to be here. And I certainly wouldn't mind putting them on the Border.
Foreign Police
I would like to see more foreign help in Wars and problems overseas. That doesn't mean we need to be totally out of the picture. But I don't think America needs to be heading every operation and being world police men.
I think we should cut way back (and I mean wwaayyyy back) on foreign aide. How many trillions of dollars are we in debt?! And how many billions do we give in aide?! I wouldn't blank it all out entirely, but a large amount of it. Some countries certainly need the help. Countries like Iraq. If we blew up half a country, we can help rebuild it.
Size of Government
I so think think that it could shrink in size a lot. But on the other hand Local Government could grow a little bit. Instead of one big central Government, I think it could be more localized.
Taxes
Im not threatened by having to pay taxes. Its how things get done and payed for. But I think we could switch to a flat tax. No loop holes so you can pay less, no deductions, no return at the end of the year. Just set it at like 20% of what you make (By no means that percentage is backed by anything. Just throwing it out there to make a point).
Welfare
By no means is the Welfare police perfect. I don't think it helps anyone out. It seems like when people start getting it, people just stay there. There's no good draw for them to get out of the position. Its like "Hay! Free money!" Who would WANT to leave that? I think it should be remodeled after the LDS Welfare program. Welfare should be there for People to help themselves out of the position they're in.

I guess that's a start. If you want to ask question, Discuss why I'm wrong and why a certain thing wont work, and remember to talk nice.

"Either way it is a historical fact: Sharing the world has never been humanity's defining attribute." - Professor X

Ive seen X-Men: First Class twice now, and Ive found it rather enjoyable. I thought they did a great job with the movie, but there was a couple of things that just bugged me. Going to gripe about those just to get them out of the way.
Kevin Bacon as Nazi? Oh hell no! Once he got the German vibe out of his system, I thought he did a wonderful job. It was either the acting or the writting that bothered me. But it did. Actually that whole 'get Magneto to use his powers' scene bothered me. And the two kids that portrayed both Xavier and Magneto respectfully, I could've taken a wiffle bat to both of them and I would've felt like I was doing the movie a service. I also would like marvel to hire someone to help with the continuity in between the movies.
Now, on to the positive, It was really well written. The guy that played Magneto Did an excellent job and I thought he nailed the part. He was definitely did the bet acting wise. I also like how they portrayed Xavier. Instead of the the faultless leader being we usually get, he wasnt perfect in the movie. A skirt chaser with mental powers? I bet you all wouldn't loved that when you were young and single. Im also glad that they kept it in the same time period of the actual comic where. That was a nice touch. I dont think ut wouldve worked other wise.
Not a compliant per say, I didnt know a third of they mutants they used. There was some major time spent on wiki after the movie. This kind of brings up another thing. hat other mutants would I like to see in future installments? (and there will be. I went Last night and it was still sold out. And how long has it been out?)
For me I would like to see a young Havok/Cyclops family dynamic, and I think they could easily play off it with throwing Mr Sinister in to that mix as well. He has a unhealthy obsession with those boys. If not that itll be interesting to see more of the 'regular' Hellfire club members, and not ones that just stand around looking menacing. On the same thread of "Family", they could do Polaris and/or Legion if they want to bring any of Magnetos and Prof. X's kids into it. What mutants would you all like to see in the next movie?
And kind of Off topic, I would to see them try and tackle the Age of Apocalypse for the big screen (on the account its my favorite X-Men story arc), but Itll probably never happen.