Actual NCORE, Part 1

I suppose you are all wondering what I exactly did at the NCORE conference in New Orleans. Well, I will tell you, but I did so much that I’m going to have to break up my explanation into two parts.

The first NCORE related thing I did in the city was go to the NCORE student scholar ceremony at Tulane University. That’s right; this awesome blogger was awarded a scholarship because the heads thought that I was a great representative for diversity. Honestly, I have no idea why they gave it to me, but you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, right? I met some pretty great people at the ceremony, and I can now add this to my resume which will help me with graduate school. Life is fantastic.

The next day was when the sessions at NCORE started. One of the sessions I attended revolved around the idea of post-racialism in today’s society. The main point here is that there are a lot of people who say we are getting close to ending racism because of some political and social achievements. However, to say this you are ignoring all other aspects of society. I thought this was a great presentation which also served as a way to prepare me for the rest of the conference. The other session I attended that day revolved around presenting the inequality in society in terms of statistics and numbers. I am a fan of statistics, so to see the inequality in number form really put it into perspective. The first day was great, but little did I know that everything would build upon that greatness.

On the second day, I stumbled upon a session that introduced me to the Fisher court case that is currently being decided in the U.S. Supreme Court. This session was presented by OiYan Poon who is not only a very beautiful lady (I kind of have a crush on her), but she is also very passionate about her work. She gave a keynote speech the previous day that informed me of some of the issues that the Asian American community has encountered. During her other presentation she related the Fisher court case to Asian Americans. I’m not one to insert my political beliefs into a blog that no one reads, but I think that the loss of affirmative action in colleges would be a bad idea. Colleges need to allow for a certain amount of diversity because it benefits no one to be around people who only look like them. I became aware of the Fisher court case at NCORE, and I am going to keep up with the news on it because I feel it will be important for colleges and possibly our entire nation.

So I learned a great deal in the first two days. The discussions our group had after each day helped as well (but that’s for tomorrow). Like I said before, each day built upon the lessons and experiences of the previous day, and the final two days were huge in my eyes. 

The Five Days of NCORE

So I’m sure that everyone is wondering what I have been up to lately. I can assure you that I was not eating cheesecake. Okay, maybe I was eating cheesecake, but I was also doing important things. Last week I went to New Orleans, so that I could represent Iowa State at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity. It was a fantastic week with great speakers, good food, a lot of learning, and a lot of humidity. If you have been paying attention to this blog (which I know you have), you will have noticed that a while ago I went to South Dakota, and after the experience, I blogged for five days about my experience. This is exactly what I’m going to for the next five days. I will blog about NCORE, New Orleans, my experience in New Orleans, and what I learned overall. It shall be exciting.

So what should I say about New Orleans? It’s a great city with a lot of culture and a plethora of history. I mostly stayed in the touristy part of the city, but I did manage to get a look at the residential areas, and the areas that were affected most by Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane may have affected the city eight years ago, but it is still a part of the city. Businesses and people in the city explained how the hurricane had affected them and how they did their best to recover from it. I have a lot of respect for the city for staying strong even when things were tough.

I have to say that the touristy part of the city is widely different from any city I have ever seen. I can see the French roots, and the modernity as well. I had seen New Orleans in movies and TV before, but nothing compares to seeing it in person. At times, the city felt like a maze I could get lost in, and if I had gotten lost in it, that would have been fine with me. The crowd of people was a little too much for me, but I guess that’s what a city like this normally brings. This city has a lot in it, and I am saddened that I could only spend six days exploring it.

And wouldn’t you know it; they decided to put a conference on race and ethnicity in this city for an entire week as well. I believe that being accepted for my college’s NCORE program while it was in New Orleans was a blessing. I feel that this city was a great match because of the diversity and racial issues in the city. But this is something that should be talked about in the coming days. So, for now, I suggest you all learn more about the city. Not just the French or Spanish history, but the native-american history as well. It is all very rich.

Also, Bubba Gumps is a fantastic eatery. 

Changing Reality

So I was thinking about Back to the Future the other day when I realized that time travel is weird. For the sake of this entire post, we are going to ignore the “smarties” like Stephen Hawking and assume time travel is possible. If you travel to the future, you’re going to be depressed because you might find out that what you want might not be want you get. And if you go to the past, you’ll try to change a few things and end up turning the United States into a dictatorship by accident (insert current events joke here). Of course, when you really REALLY think about traveling to the past, a horrifying thought occurs.

As Doc brown explains in this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OPkqY9doGE, because old Biff went to the past, gave young Biff the almanac, and had young Biff kill George McFly, Marty is now in an alternate timeline. The point here is that something was changed in the past and it affected the present which created a parallel universe. When you think about it though, how big do the changes have to be before a parallel universe is created?  If you travel into the past, would you have to kill a historic figure or would you just have to scratch up someone’s car in order to change the timeline? My point here is that just by going into the past, you change the future. You were not there previously, and you are now. Someone saw you, a camera captured your image, or you left footprints somewhere. While you didn’t create a history making change, it is possible you changed a tiny bit of the past which influenced the present somehow.

This all brings me to my terrifying point. By going into the past, you insure that you are never returning to your original home. You can’t return to the same present you left if you accidentally (or purposely) created an alternate universe. You are effectively leaving your friends, family, pets, acquaintances, enemies, and adoring fans. That timeline is still continuing, so everyone you ever knew will most likely worry about where you’ve gone. They will never find you which will tear them apart, and it is all YOUR FAULT.

As for the new timeline that you so stupidly created, the people in it will potentially be unrecognizable from the people you used to live with. They will have memories and experiences that you might not remember. It would be like living with aliens.

The take home message here is if you’re going to time travel, make sure you hate the people you’re around first. 

Heroes and Villains Revisited

I feel it’s time to revisit our fine discussion concerning superpowers. As I mentioned before, there are a great deal of super powers one could have. You could have super strength, laser vision, meat vision, or even the power of flight (just make sure not to use capes). Furthermore, you could also choose between being evil with puppy kicking and candy snatching or being good with old lady saving and robbery foiling. Yes, I realize that just “good and evil” is not really how life works, but we are talking about super powers here. This argument cannot advance if we are talking about antiheroes and other gray areas.

Knowing that there is good and evil, a lot of people want to be a hero. But what does that truly entail? You stop crime, save the day, get the keys to the city, and win the girl. Sounds like fun, but there is way more to it than that. And it’s depressing when you think about it. Yes, you stop crime, but you also create more crime. Villains and small time criminals will rise up just to get the opportunity to fight you. If you saw some self-righteous person in weird looking pajamas stopping crime, wouldn’t you want to stop him/her? I definitely would want to punch that person. Movies like The Dark Knight and others make it a point to say that the criminals are a result of the hero (like Joker), and in other cases, the hero accidentally creates his nemesis (look at the Spiderman comics).

Also, do you really save the day if more criminals are rising up to fight you? You save the town one day only for another dumb villain to create a crazy weather harnessing scheme the next. If you are a true hero, then you would never rest because Gotham is a shithole where crime happens 24/7. You better hope that one of your powers is super no-sleep because you are going to be getting very little of it. Finally, does winning the girl (or guy) really matter if you can’t spend any time with her/him, or if he/she is dead? You aren’t going to have any time to spend with your significant other because of all the aforementioned crime you have to fight. And when you are with the one you love, you’re going to have to worry about all the villains using her/him to get to you. You could say that they won’t know about your secret identity, but that’s a silly thought. If you keep disappearing to fight crime, someone is bound to notice and tell everyone that the do-gooder protecting the city is you. After that, you are pretty much screwed for privacy. The life of a superhero sounds terrible.

On the other hand, there is the life of a super villain which is much better. As a villain, you don’t have to answer calls for help, you can take whatever you want, and you probably have a team of henchmen at your disposal. You could even argue that you have an evil league of evil on your side. There may be a Justice League and an Avengers team and other such teams, but think about how hard they are to form. Thor lives in a parallel dimension (or something, it’s not really clear). Aquaman lives under the sea. And Superman travels throughout the universe. Getting the heroes together requires a lot of work. If you want to get villains together, all you have to do is offer free pizza and say that you want to destroy Spiderman; you are guaranteed to form an alliance then.

As for taking what you want, it would be incredibly easy. If you have powers, then you could use those to steal the money, jewels, or parts for your doomsday device. If you aren’t stupid and don’t go off telling everyone about your plans, then the heroes will never find out about your plans. You can get away with almost any crime if you want. It may be your decision to destroy the heroes because they are your nemesis. That is your choice too. Of course, you don’t have to do it yourself. You could always hire henchmen/henchwomen to do your bidding. They could steal the goods for you and fight the heroes for you. If you were smart, then you would tell the henchmen about the weaknesses of the heroes. You could kill them without having to fight them. Although, it wouldn’t be a problem killing the heroes in the first place since all you have to do is wait for other criminals to attack the hero and weaken him/her. It’s only a matter of time before the hero is too weak to stop you. Then it’s just a matter of breaking into Wayne Manor and breaking the bat. 

The Urge to Purge

So I was looking through the Internets searching for some cheesecake recipes when I stumbled across a trailer for the movie Purge. Take a look at it.

Crazy, right? From what I gather, for one night out of the year, crime is perfectly legal. I plan on seeing this movie. But I don’t want to see this movie because of the plot or the actors, I want see this movie because of the implications of the policy of allowing crime for one night of the year. Could a society allow this to happen? How depraved does a society have to be to let people kill for one night a year? Is this a government thing (apparently so according to the movie)? What would other countries think about America instituting such a policy? I realize that the movie requires the suspension of disbelief, but it brought up this weird premise, and we must consider it.

Also, think about the people in this society. Their behavior has to change, right? They have to be nice and such for 364 days out of the year out of fear that if they did anything wrong, someone will put them on their “kill list.” Angered someone at work? You are going to be hunted. Accidentally insult someone? You might be hunted. Cut someone off on the highway? That person will follow you home, take note of your address, and hunt you down on crime-free night. It’s ridiculous. Crime may be at an all-time low because of fear of retribution. Unemployment is low because if you don’t hire someone, they will kill you. Or unemployment is low because there are tons of dead people which opens up the job market. This may be utopia, but it’s a utopia with a dark secret.

Other questions that pop up are how can you truly trust your friends? If all crime is legal, then you have to truly trust your friends in order to know they won’t try to kill or steal from you or rape you or do other horrible crimes. One final question is how are businesses still around? I hope the movie addresses what crimes are legal, but if all crime is truly legal, then that means robbery, embezzlement, and other white collar crimes can happen without consequence. If that’s the case, what’s to stop CEOs, business people, and normal citizens from stealing from companies and businesses? The movie argues that it is peoples’ natural tendency to commit crimes, but if that were the case, then shouldn't all companies fail. How can unemployment be low if companies cease to exist? I really want the movie to answer these questions, but I know that a two hour movie can only do so much. I plan on seeing it, and I hope it’s a great experience.

Still, one of the aspects of the movie is that cities shut down during “the purge.” This includes emergency services. However, I believe that during all of this Walmart is still open. 

Strange Questions and Adequate Answers

So I figure with my many blog posts, you are probably wondering who is this dashing, young man that I have come to love. Well, allow me to answer your questions. Consider this an FAQ for my blog. Here are some questions that may allow you to understand the true essence of my being?

1. How old are you? 20
2. Who is/was your favorite comedian? George Carlin
3. Who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman? Batman, hands down. Superman can get weakened by Kryptonite which would put him on Batman’s level.
4. Have you ever killed someone? Nice try, chief of police.
5. When can I get your new album? I haven’t released one yet. Why would you ask that?
6. Are you crazy? Only a little.
7. What is your favorite food? Paella and egg salad sandwiches.
8. Can I have your autograph? If you see me, just ask for one.
9. What is your Twitter handle? @agentniles
10. What’s your favorite color? Red.
11. What is your search engine of choice? Google
12. Who was your favorite president? I am rather fond of Woodrow Wilson.
13. Do you think anyone actually cares about these answers? Everyone cares. These answers are important because they allow society to function?
14. How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie roll center of a Tootsie roll pop? 226.
15. Have you ever been in love? Yes. It was a pleasant feeling.
16. Why would you stop at 16 questions? That’s a bit weird, isn't it? Absolutely.

Those are some answers to your questions. Do you have any more for me?

Reasons Why I'm Banned from Disney World

We've all done some stupid things at amusement parks before, right? Here are a list of ten reasons why the owners of Disney World don't want me coming back.

1. I tried to take over the castle and rule over the park with an iron fist. People had problems with this.
2. Jasmine doesn’t like it when you hit on her repeatedly
3. No one likes it when you get into drunken fist fights with Mickey
4. Letting all the animals in the Animal Kingdom go free is a bad idea
5. Surfing down Splash Mountain is frowned upon.
6. Derailing the Epcot train is considered “bad”
7. There are many issues with Mickey’s slave ownership of Pluto, but it was a bad idea to bring this up in a park full of children.
8. Reprograming the “It’s a small world” ride to have all the puppets attack the visitors is a bit harsh
9. Upon reflection, it was inappropriate to steal a Goofy costume and do mean things to Donald
10. Turning Disney World into a real life West World may have caused a few inexcusable deaths.

So those are my reasons. Why have you been banned from a popular tourist destination?