The 'Mercian Dream

It really is amazing how many people you hand large sums of money when you are buying a house. It really is quite ridiculous. You know what else is ridiculous? You just bought something that costs six figures! (I assume) SIX FIGURES. That is a lot of money. In fact, it's a lot of money that you probably don't have. But someone thinks you can pay it back plus interest (which is no small thing) over thirty years, so they just hand you over the money. Which is other people's money, by the way. It's all very weird and it feels like a house of cards -- which it kind of is, look back to 2006, for example.

Anyway, congrats.

I'm trying very hard to not type an eight-paragraph rant on the idea of "The American Dream." Scam. Instead, I'll just leave this quote here:

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." -John Steinbeck, possibly (most likely paraphrased from him, anyway)

 I'll also leave this quote here:

"Verifying quotes on the Internet is a pain in the ass. Also, it's stupid. It should be about the idea, not who said it. Which, by the way, is everything that's wrong with politics and... Shit. I'll stop." -Jeff Ford

Enough with the politics. So, the pope I murdered in Assassin's Creed was one of the Borgia family popes. Either Calixtus III, Alexander VI, or Innocent (ha!) X. He put up a good fight, though. As I was trying to kill him I was all, "Damn. When did they start teaching Popes hand-to-hand combat?" I'm pretty sure Assassin's Creed is historically accurate. Also, the current Pope only seems pretty okay because every other Pope has spent most of their Papacy covering up for child molesters. Which he's also done nothing about, by the way.

I completely agree with your assessment of Girl Scout Cookies. If you haven't yet, you need to try Potbelly's Chocolate Brownie Cookie. My various Top Three lists of things are pretty fluid, but the Chocolate Brownie Cookie has been sitting atop my Top Three Cookie list for several years now.

I don't even remember what I got on the SAT's. I know that I was shooting for 1400 but didn't get there. I took it more than once because I didn't think my first score would get me into Notre Dame. My classmates thought I was crazy, but I also went to a school where people were very impressed by any score that registered four digits.

Speaking of Notre Dame, I just found out that the neighbor kid who mows my lawn did not get into Notre Dame. I'm bummed because: 1) He's a good, smart kid and I think he'd be good for ND and ND would be good for him, and 2) He asked me to write him a letter of recommendation. He'll be fine, but I may never recover. I guess Notre Dame doesn't value my opinion as highly as I might have thought. Maybe it's due to my history of Pope murder and Pope badmouthing? Nah. It's definitely because I don't donate enough money.

Also, I'm the old guy who writes recommendation letters for prospective college students now. I'm really leaning in to this gray hair thing.