Start the Weekend Right Link Series – Volume #1, Edition #4

Start the Weekend Right Link Series – Volume #1, Edition #4
Major Student Loan Announcement: My Student Loans Are Fully Repaid!, JerseySmarts.com
This week we begin right here on JerseySmarts.com. If you’re a consistent reader of this blog, then you know that I’ve been pounding away at my student loans since they kicked out of deferment and into full repayment in July 2006. After paying $149,455.12 to my student loan lenders (including $120,603.31 in consolidated principal and $28,851.81 in interest), this past Monday I made my final student loan payment. And that’s it. No more student loans. It’s finally over!

After All Of These Years, This Is What The Finish Line Looks Like, JerseySmarts.com
Hey – it’s my blog and if I want to take the top two spots on this week’s link series, then guess what I’m going to do? This post was a follow-up to the entry above in that it shows the actual zero balance on the remaining student loan. I have to admit, it feels pretty good to be free of those loans…

When the light at the end of the tunnel finally passes by, Marty’s Malice
One of my long-time internet buddies, Martin Hawrysko, was kind enough to dedicate a page on his blog to my student loan repayment story. He has some kind words about my student loan repayment story and I appreciated every one of them. Martin is a good writer and I always enjoy reading his entries – especially about existing and emerging technologies. If he’s not on your blogroll, then I recommend that you strongly consider adding his blog. I think you’ll enjoy it!

Boxed copies of DuckTales Remastered bounce to retail, Joystiq
Not much discussion on this one. If you’re someone in their late 20s/early 30s and you had a generally normal childhood, then during your video gaming past you probably came across the phenomenal Duck Tales game. Well, like all good things this video game from the past is back. However, this time around it’s cleaned up, polished, buffed, and made for today’s consoles!

And Xavier Makes Three, Minding the Campus
On to some more serious content with this article. There is an epidemic of stupidity in this country and it doesn’t involve the same old, same old story that we’ve been preached for more than two decades on college campuses. That same old, same old story is that men are sexual aggressors and that if there is ever a claim of sexual assault made by a girl against a guy, then the guy is guilty until he can be proven innocent… but can he even be proven innocent in such an anti-male atmosphere? The epidemic that is spreading around the country is one of dumb young girls throwing around the term “rape” left and right when there was no rape involved. Here’s a clue, girls: don’t throw around that claim if it isn’t true! And for you stupid hippies out there reading this let’s make this clear – yes, we understand that there are many levels of rape and that it doesn’t take just one form. However, I challenge you to read the case in this story and the other cases referenced in this story and not come away with a firm understanding that young men are under attack by hateful, spiteful dummies. And these stupid idiots are harming and slowly calling into question whatever progress the sexual rights movement made over the last several decades. But hey, that’s part of America today – some people are just selfish, moron idiots.

Sayings 2.1, Doghouse Diaries
The Doghouse Diaries are an online comic series that I find very entertaining. Sometimes, their comics make me chuckle out loud at the office and other times I read posts like the one linked here and see the funny genius in their work. Sayings 2.1 takes some common phrases are replaces them with modern, techno-based updates. Seriously, if you have a minute and you like the internet and technology, then I think you’ll smile after reading this graphic-based update. Enjoy it!

Beware of Warrior Cops, Reason
Thankfully, after years and years of this problem spinning out of control the issue of “warrior cops” is starting to receive some traction and wider coverage. I experienced warrior cops firsthand when I was going to school at Monmouth University. It wasn’t the university cops that were out of their mind, though one of their officers shrieked at about 20 of my 30+ year old alumni and I last November as we were tailgating. A fellow alumnus and I worked hard to bring those alumni back to campus for the first time in years and it was totally unacceptable to be treated like undergrads and yelled at by an overzealous warrior cop. In fact, that episode pushed us to move our annual reunion tailgate from Monmouth to Rutgers – we’re even considering starting a small scholarship fund at Rutgers (which we were trying to build support for at Monmouth, but that shrieking cop ruined several years of hard work in one overzealous moment). Anyway, when I was an undergrad it was the Ocean Township Police Department that went totally overboard. Not only did they trample every single civil right that you could imagine on a weekly basis at my fraternity house, but they did it in an arrogant way. I distinctly remember sitting in my house at 2am one night watching a movie and eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when I heard some noise and turned around to see a few warrior cops walking through my living room. I asked them if I could help them and they said no, but that they were told a party was going on and wanted to check it out. I turned my back and kept watching TV, but I did say to them, “Yeah, I’m sure you got that call. There’s obviously no party here tonight.” And they were gone.

Ocean Township Featured in New York Times Real Estate Section on Sunday, Asbury Park Sun
And why anybody would want to move to Ocean Township when they’re overrun with overzealous warrior cops who enjoy destroying the civil rights of college students is beyond me. However, the New York Times seems to think that it’s a good place to live. Then again, how often does the New York Times know what they’re talking about these days?

Will I See My Pets in Heaven?, Busted Halo
An interesting thing about studying the Bible and learning about what it says is that you can come to these weird conclusions that are both supported and contradicted by scripture. For example, if you read the Bible word for word, then you can reasonably argue that we will not see our pets in Heaven. However, if you believe (like I do) that we as humans can’t quite understand what Heaven really is, then it is totally possible and damn near confirmed that our pets will be in Heaven waiting for us when we cross the bridge. I wrote back in January about how one of my family dogs passed away on Christmas Eve last year. Odie brought me and my family an incredible amount of joy and happiness over the years that we had him and I, for one, was genuinely happy to have him as a dog. So if seeing Odie lifted my heart and made me happy while he was alive, then I’m sure that my family and I will see him again if we make it to the Pearly Gates. In fact, I’m very confident that we’ll see him again.