NES on DROID

You know you've got a great phone when you can play games like this on it. I've had the moto DROID for almost two weeks now and it only keeps getting better. Not only can i play nintendo and super nintendo games on my phone but i've also got an ebook reader as well as several other great apps. Plus i get signal just about anywhere. One of the coolest non technical thing about this phone is the name itself. DROID. Thats such a cool name. Whats even cooler is that the name is owned by George Lucas. Mr star wars himself is making money off this phone. Totally sweet. This phone is totally sweet. Its fast its clean its smooth the graphics are great. I love it! Especially when i can go retro with sound effects and games. Well til next time.

May the Force be with you,

The Nerd

Mexican American

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a coworker and he mentioned something he had heard on the radio. It had to do with Cinco de Mayo and an incident about a flag. Anyways what he had said was that a person called into a radio program and was told that they were American. They were not Mexican American, they were American. My coworker agreed with the comment and said he didn't understand how someone could be Mexican American, or African American or anything other than just American. Now I know this might be obvious at this point, but my coworker is white. He asked me if I was American or Mexican American. I told him I was Mexican American and here is why. I am a Mexican. My family is Mexican. And i'm not just talking race here either. I'm talking culture. My family still has their roots in Mexican culture. My wife's family still has their roots in Mexican culture. A lot of the things that we do and the way that we live our lives is because of the way our parents were raised and the way their parents were raised. Mexican. I celebrate Mexican Mother's Day. I celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I take pride in Mexican Independence Day. I wish to learn more about Mexican history and where my families come from. I want to learn to be more Mexican and to be proud to be Mexican. Does this mean that I'm not proud to be an American? Of course not! I love being an American as well. I've grown up surrounded by American culture as well. I'm proud to celebrate Independence day, and to know about the civil war, and the revolutionary war. I'm honored to say that my uncles served America in the military. America can be a great country. But i'm not going to give up my roots, my history for this country. I believe that is what is wrong with America. People come here and forget where they come from. They no longer know their history. They don't know where their ancestors came from aside from the fact that they came across on a boat. By losing our history we lose part of our identities. I won't let that happen. I will stand as a Mexican American and continue to show other people that their are two sides to where i come from. Will you?

Agent J

last words

I wrote this a couple years ago and just found it so I thought i'd post it up here. Let me know what you think.

The day has come to bid farewell.  Farewell to all whom you have loved Farewell to your mothers and your fathers, and your husbands wives and children.  For today is the day that you go to war.  You go not because you want to, but you go because you must.  You go to protect those that you have bid farewell to, hoping that one day you shall return again to see them.  To turn and run is foolish.  You cannot escape the enemies that hunt you.  You cannot escape the fate that has called your name.  As you walk away you turn and take one last look at all that you are fighting for.  Your loved ones, your family, your friends.  Now take up your sword and your shield.  Place the iron helmet over your head and march.  March to war.  March to victory.  March to the quiet fate that has whispered your name.  What may come of this journey no one knows.  But do not fear.  For your fate has already been decided.

Hope you enjoy this.
The Nerd

Robin Hood (with a little bit of iron man)

Well I saw the new Robin Hood movie yesterday with my mom and my wife and these are my thoughts on it. This isn't going to be a summary of the movie and there is going to be a spoiler alert if you don't already understand the foundation of the film So if you don't want to know what happens stop reading. First off, in all honesty, i was not particularly interested to see this movie. I'm tired of remakes and i'm tired of fifty different interpretations of the same story. So with that in mind i was a bit skeptical about whether or not i was going to like this. Also i had my doubts about russell crowe. I'm not denying his acting abilities or anything like that because he is a talented actor but for me he didn't seem to fit the roll of robin hood. Obviously being the age that i am, robin hood for me was kevin costner (who by the way did an excellent job). Anyways, the movie started off rather slow for me. Or not slow, but confusing. It was hard to follow along and made little sense. As it continued on it started to unravel itself and make more sense, though in my eyes it was absolutely NOT the Robin Hood of the 90's or even of the Disney kind either. The story was all wrong, Robin only robbed from the King once, and he wasn't yet living in Sherwood forest. So at this point i'm thinking the only thing that makes this movie Robin Hood is the names of the characters and the setting in which it takes place. There was no hatred between Robin and the Sheriff of Nottingham, no robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, heck, Russell Crowe barely even picked up his bow but a few times throughout the movie. I was enjoying the movie but at the same time angered about the fact that it wasn't Robin Hood. Finally after the climactic battle towards the end of the film, the plot opened up and revealed that this isn't the story of Robin Hood, this is the story of how a man named Robin Longstride became Robin of the Hood, an outlaw and criminal banned from any city in England, specifically that of Nottingham. IT was a Prequel! I had no idea walking into the theater that this was a prequel! Had i known that, i may have enjoyed the movie a whole lot more! Leave it to the movie industry to make a movie about a man and then wait til the end of the flick to show you that this isn't his story but how he came to be the legend of lore.

On a side note, saw iron man 2 the weekend it came out. After standing in line for about an hour, it was totally worth it. My only major problems with it were 1: Don Cheadle. He's a great actor, but he doesn't fit the role of war machine. Terrence Howard would have done a much better job. And 2: there wasn't enough fighting. Yes there were some cool fight scenes and explosions and battles, but they weren't long enough and they were all at the end of the movie. Then again, the story was about tony stark's internal struggle to be iron man and still live. The best part of iron man 2 though was the secret scene after the credits. I won't spoil it completely, but if you're not a comic book fan, or don't know comics very well then go home and google God of Thunder and that may help you understand that last scene. I'm so excited! Until next time

May the Force be with You.

The Nerd

The Conduit

Well I just finished The Conduit for the wii. It was definitely tougher than it first appeared to be. Great game though. For those uninformed, The Conduit is a first person shooter that actually reminds a lot of the first halo for xbox. The controls are nice though. I dont think i can go back to regular thumb sticks for a first person shooter. Anyways, the game was smooth, the graphics are nice. I know they are not hi def, but they seem to do well enough. Aside from a few times where the game bugged out and froze up on me it was actually a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to the second one coming out in november, but until then, i can bide my time by continuing the conduit online. The AI definitely got smarter towards the end as well. where as before they would stay back and fire from a distance, the bad guys towards the end were running around dodging and taking cover while still managing to fire on me. It was absolutely totally frustrating at times, like all games should be, but i managed to finish it. Well i guess that's all for now. I've a got a couple more games to beat and i'll be sure to comment on them here once i do. Til then.

May the Force Be with You.

The Nerd

SB 1070

Alright, now that i've spoken my mind on the issue of Ethnic Studies being banned in Arizona, I believe i should now speak on where I stand on SB 1070, especially considering I live in the wonderful state of Arizona. Honestly, i have mixed feelings about 1070. Is racial profiling wrong? Absolutely. Is respecting the law right? Yes. For anyone living under a rock, SB 1070 gives law enforcement the right and the requirement to ask a person's citizenship if reasonable suspicion shows they may not be one. the big stink about this is that people believe that it is giving law enforcement free reign on racial profiling. What makes it even worse is the simple fact that at least half of arizona residents are of hispanic origin. Now i myself am hispanic. I'm as brown and mexican looking as they come. But am i here illegally? no. I am a proud U.S. citizen. Will i do anything to give a law enforcement officer reasonable suspicion to ask for my citizenship? Hell no. But if he chooses to anyways, i will just shrug it off because i know he is wasting his time. I will smile and hand over my driver's license which will show that i am in fact a u.s. citizen and he just wasted his time in stopping me. Is it right that he would stop me simply because i look mexican? Of course not, but ignorant people are fools, and all i can do is stop and laugh. On the other hand this is what i see. The word illegal: means not legal. So illegal immigrant is an immigrant who is not here legally. Which means it is wrong. Now i know that my tata crossed the border illegally. I understand that he did that because his wife and his family were here. He managed to make a good life for them. Now, i'm glad that he did because now i have a great family here and a great life here, but does that make what he did right? Of course not. I know that there are over 12 million illegal immigrants here. Here's my point: what about the people that are doing it the right way? What about the millions of immigrants that are working hard to save money and apply for legal status, for citizenship? By allowing illegal immigrants to stay, by allowing them to keep crossing, we are telling all the people doing things the right way that they are wasting their time and money. All the work they put in to get their papers, all the money they saved up was a waste of time because you can cross illegally and still make a life for yourself and get the same rights as if you came across legally. If people can pay thousands of dollars over years to pay a coyote to sneak them across, why can't they take that money and put it towards the fees for a visa or citizenship? Yes its a long process, and it may cost a lot of money. But what's worse? Coming over her legally knowing you can't be sent back and earning a living the right way, or sneaking over every couple of months and hiding and running every time you see a law enforcement officer? So why is it wrong to detain illegal immigrants? As for 1070, if you are here legally, you have nothing to worry about. You have no reason to hide from law enforcement because as long as you have a valid drivers license they can do nothing to you. Now is this going to stop racial profiling? Of course not, but remember racial profiling was around way before this bill was passed and it will still be around long after this bill is forgotten.

Agent J

Ethnic studies in AZ

Gov. Jan Brewer just signed a bill banning "certain" ethnic studies in public schools. what the Hell?! Really?! So now that means that if you are not white you cannot learn about your history or heritage in public schools anymore. Racism at its best. According to reports ethnic studies classes are teaching children/adolescents to resent white people. So that automatically tells us what groups of people she is targeting. Hispanics are going to be the main target because there are so many of us here in AZ. But the question is this...without both sides of history how are we supposed to learn? Every story has two sides and in order to understand fully you need to hear both sides. What she is doing is taking away from what makes this country so great. This country was not founded on the belief of creating a whole new culture. This country was founded on the freedom to believe and do what you want without fear of oppression. This country has too many cultures and races and ethnicities to be able to single one out as the only one. So does this mean that black history month is out the window? Because that is ethnic studies. And we can obviously say goodbye to spanish heritage month. That is definitely too offensive. But i guess that means that we also need to get rid of European studies because those are ethnical and cultural studies that aren't american right? If you stop and think about it, Gov. Brewer is scared. Caucasian people are no longer the majority in the United States. Hispanics and Blacks and Asians and non white peoples have learned that they are just as good and just as powerful and just as deserving as whites are. All people are created equal, and now that we as minorities have learned that, Gov. Brewer is afraid of that power that we now know that we have so she is trying to knock us down again. Well guess what lady, it ain't happening. We are here to stay. We will stand strong and we will stand united and we will stand with anyone black white brown or otherwise that isn't afraid to stand with us.

Agent J