Summer Adventures '05 Part IV: Culture Clash

One big thing I have obviously been doing this summer is living in Iowa. And not just any part of Iowa, but the world's (heh, "world's") most boring part of Iowa. Now those of you who know me are probably thinking, "Oh boy, here he goes AGAIN." But bare with me, there will be a point to this.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind having space, quiet and the ability to be as loud as I want since there is no one around to care. But to give you an idea of the kind of area we live in, try this on for size: you have to drive sixty miles, SIXTY MILES, to get to a Wal-Mart. Now love or hate the store, Wal-Mart is known to be everywhere. The only brand-names that are in more places than Wal-Mart is either McDonald's or Subway (which are only about ten miles away BTW). The bright side? You can drive about sixty miles in any direction to get to a Wal-Mart.

To further drive the point that there is little here:
Major tourist attractions: the World's Largest Cheeto and the World's Largest Grotto (which I'll admit the grotto is pretty cool)

Big news of last week: The old, one-screen theater was dumped when the brand-spankin new three screen theater opened up.

Anyways, on to the meat of this post. A while back, while I was getting carts from the parking lot for my uninspiring job, I stared to enumerate my interests and weighing them with what the area offers. The following is a list of those interests. My interests are certainty not limited to this list. I hardly have enough time to enumerate everything but this should cover most of it. The specific examples (like Star Wars) are just a small representation of some of my favorites with in each interest. Well, here it is, Daniel's Thrilling Interest List of Doom! (cue the over-blown music):

• Lutheran Theology
• Computers
• Algorithms, data structures, programming, exotic operating systems and platforms, history, custom built machines, leading edge technologies, Macs and other various intricacies of computers
• Model Rocketry
• Music
• I am willing to listen to just about anything, but I tend to prefer the old 'n moldies (that is guys like Bach, Mozart, etc), symphonic band, movie soundtracks (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc), anime soundtracks, video game sountracks and sacred. I have also been known to enjoy playing bassoon, alto sax and piano over the years.
• Video Games
• The Legend of Zelda, RPGs, Super Smash Bros.
  
• Musicals
• Movies
• Sci-Fi, fantasy, good stuff (that is Apollo 13, The Terminal, Cinderella Man, The Incredibles)
• TV
• Stargate, Star Trek, MythBusters, America's Funniest Home Videos (with Bob Saget), Quantum Leap, some parts of Adult Swim (mostly the anime)
  
• Anime
• Yu Yu Hakusho, Trigun, Full Metal Alchemist, Cowboy Bebop
• Online Comics
• Megatokyo, UserFriendly, The Joy of Tech
• Conservative Politics
• Books
• Books about anything listed above
  

Things I loathe:

• Athletics
• Except paintball and arctic Frisbee can be fun. Yes, I have tried athletics, both watching and spectating.(Edit: I mean both watching and participating.) Note though I don't mind exercise. I used to bike around town quite a bit before we moved out here.
  

Yeah, I'm a geek, nerd, anorak what ever you want to call me. I'm darn proud of it. Also, remember, these lists are hardly inclusive of everything I enjoy or of everything I enjoy to not enjoy. Ok, now that I have listed all those off let's list the things on the list that this area has the capacity to support directly (I just know someone is going to debate this):

• TV
• Online comics
  

Hmmm. Not much. Just what is around here that captivates the locals?

• Athletics
• Agriculture
  

Note to self: Move to a more populated area.

I must make a note here that the people in this area are definitely nice, even if we share little in common.