Baby it's cold outside

I would just like to point out that it's cold here. Dang cold. Current air temp: -8. Current wind chill: -20. Ri-frickin-diculous.

It was beauty that killed the beast

So I saw King Kong tonight with my parents. It was... decent. Maybe even good. I just can't get past the fact that movie was 3 hours long! Seriously, he could have cut at least a half hour without losing any storylines or impact moments. There were multiple times when I thought a scene should have ended and it just kept going and going and going. It was very well done though overall, and it was worth seeing, I think.

I heard some people on some entertainment show talking about whether Kong was going to top Titanic at the all-time box office. The answer: No freakig way. I'll be surprised if it breaks $300 million. This is not the type of movie that I can see large numbers of people seeing multiple times. What got Titanic it's biggest boost was 12 year-old girls who went and saw it every weekend for two months. I remember sitting in 6th grade during DARE and Officer Bruer would ask us what we did that weekend and this one girl said she saw Titanic every weekend until she had seen it a dozen times. I can't see that same girl sitting through repeated viewings of scenes like a man getting eaten alive by giant centipedes/epitome of nastiness things that come up out of the mud (This seriously happens and is not only one of the grossest things I've ever seen, but is also one of those scenes that just keeps going).

All right, tomorrow brings the BHS Christmas Choir Concert, an annual ritual that includes some great music, my little sister, and a director who is a bit too full of himself for his own good. But I'm not bitter about him. Not at all.

Christmas Party = Wednesday, December 28, 7 PM

Before I forget, I'm having the Christmas Party on Wednesday the 28th this year (I guess it's a post-Christmas party, but that's the best night for my schedule). My house, 7 pm, be there. Everyone.

All right, finals have been over for a few days, but I've been in transit, so here's my turn to say they all went fine, and my final grades so far are all A's except for a B+ in speech (which should really be an A-, but I'm not gonna argue with her on that, cause I never have to see her again, and this makes me happy). So I was done with tests on Tuesday and finished up a few essays on Wednesday. I then helped Tracy move to her new apartment and headed out. Started at 2, drove til 9, and stopped in Bloomington, IL. Started again today at 9 and got home at 5:30. So thats 15 and a half hours, which would have been less if it wasn't for the snow. The roads weren't too bad until I got to MN, and even then not terrible. I survived.

I got quite possibly my favorite e-mail ever on Tuesday. It went something like this:

Hey Mark,

Congratulations! You’ve been selected as an intern for Jan 2006. After further review of your resume and qualifications we decided that you would be best suited as an intern with the A&R department. Have a great Christmas and we’ll see you next semester.

edlyn forero

marketing coordinator

gotee records

Basically amazing. I'm really excited for this, it should give me great experience. Now I just have to figure out what to do this summer...

I like being at home right now, and one big reason for this is the snow. We have tons of it! A lot better than the last few years. And it'll stay until Christmas, so we'll probably have at least a foot of snow. I love it.

Home until the first, then back to the 'Ville. I'll have to make the most of it.

Hmmm...

This ad was played before Narnia. I think I like it. Maybe.

New Orleans, Narnia, and Ninjas (Actually, no ninjas, but some other stuff)

All right, New Orleans...

We left Thursday morning and the trip was good, pretty much identical to the October one. Coming in to the city was different this time, however, because it was dark. Not just no sun, but no street lights, houses, anything like that. There's something about knowing everything that is there and should be there and not being able to see it. It was definitely more disturbing.

Friday started out with the whole group going to a man named Roger's house to clean out his yard. His house had already been cleaned out, but his back yard had all sorts of knick-knacks strewn about that needed cleaning. We got that stuff cleaned up, and then started working on a dilapidated fence and raking up the leaves and debris left on the ground. Roger told us his whole life story and brought his wife over for us to meet, and they were both so great and thankful.

We went back to the church after this, and most of the group went on to work on cleaning out 2 houses, which they finished up in the afternoon. I went with Pete, Dick, and Whit to clean up trees with this guy named Tom. I remembered Tom from the last trip because he led worship on Sunday morning. The man I saw that afternoon was completely different from what I thought he'd be after seeing him singing up front.

The tree we were supposed to get down was approx. 60 ft tall and tilting at a 55 degree angle. Because of the location of the tree, we had to get some of the branches off so it wouldn't fall on either the house next door or the orange trees in the yard. I confess, I was a bit confused as to how this was going to happen, but Tom sounded confident. So we started out with a 20 foot ladder, which didn't get Tom high enough to use any branches. So then he started nailing boards to the trunk, making a ladder that got him maybe another 10 feet. This allowed him to reach a branch, which he cut down.

Once he got this high, he just started manning it up the thing! He wrapped his legs around the trunk, and, because of the angle, was able to shimmy up the thing. He tied a rope to his boot and whenever he needed to cut a branch, he pulled the chainsaw up from the ground. The rope was 50 feet long, and at one point he was so high he only had about 5 feet of rope to spare. Seriously, one of the most ridiculous/amazingly sweet things I've ever seen!

That night Sara Beth and her sister Catherine made chicken and sausage gumbo, which I had never had before and was excellent. Those two were so hilarious together, I was very happy they came along. Things are always interesting when the Geohegans are around!

Saturday we stayed together as a group and went to Franklin avenue Baptist, a large church in the 9th ward. The area had only just opened on Wednesday, and the church had been under a ton of water. Mold was rampant, the stench was incredible. We were there with about 300 other people to try and get the church cleaned up as quickly as possible. Several thousand people attend there on a regular basis, and its in a poor area of town, so the faster it gets back up and running, the faster the church can start helping its neighbors.

Me, Sara Beth, Catherine, Catie, and Ryan all went with the "N" team to clean out the gymnasium. The place was covered in mud, sewage, and water. We started out by taking out the chairs, then moved on to the tarps that had been covering the floor, which now were waterlogged, slippery, and overall gross. Once this was done, they started tearing down the walls. The sheetrock came pretty easily, but was really heavy and crumbly, so we brought pieces of the tarps back in to drag it out on. The only problem with this was that the tarps were so heavy already that dragging them out took way too many people.

After a few rounds of this and an annoying old guy thinking he was in charge and bossing us around, we switched to the kitchen, where I spent the rest of the day. This involved a lot of swinging a crow bar, hammer, and sledgehammer to get drywall out. Ryan was working on the pantry, getting things cleaned out of there, including several jars of old mayo. When he got everything cleaned out, we started sweeping it out, which released the absolute foulest, most nasty stench I have ever and ever hope to experience in my life. Ridiculous. It died down a bit when we started piling sheetrock on it, but still smelled pretty potent.

Around 3 they closed down the site so they could clean up while it was still light outside, and our group stuck around to help with that. Then we drove to the 17th street canal break, which looks 100 times better than it did last time, which is to say it still looked pretty creepy and scary and disturbing. We went out to eat at the Flying Burrito that night. Good food.

The trip back began after church at First Baptist New Orleans, which was very Christmas-y and got me in the mood for the next month. The next 10 hours were all very uneventful, filled with music, Trivial Pursuit the 90's, and Sudoku. We even got back in time for me to work on homework that night.

Overall, another great trip. A different group dynamic; not bad, just different. It was great to get to work with Pete down there, as well as other people that I knew from before. I also met a lot of really cool people for the first time. I would love to go back down this spring some time if I get the chance. And if I'm supposed to,
I'm sure I will.

*******COMPLETELY UNRELATED*********

Ok, my classless period has been amazing. Tuesday night was Refuge and Apples to Apples. Wednesday involved watching Alias, getting groceries, playing Rummikub, going to Famous Dave's, and watching Elf. Yesterday began with more Alias, then Narnia tickets, followed by more Alias and making Monster cookies, then eating beef stroganoff and playing Spades (which Autumn and I killed Ben and Jessica in). Then, Narnia!

OK, I'm not going to write a whole lot about this for several reasons:
1. I don't want to say anything that I thought was negative and jade you from liking that aspect.
2. The movie and book differ in some respects, as they should, and I don;t have a problem with that.
3. I want you to see it for yourself.
I thought it was an excellent movie, and I'm excited to see it again on Saturday. And that's all you need to know.

I e-mailed Gotee to see if there was any news on whether or not I got the internship, since Danielle had already been told she has it and several other people had been told they didn't. I got a response that they're circulating the applications around a few other departments for them to pick their interns. So I should know by sometime today or Monday. It's kind of encouraging to know that I haven't received a definite yes, but also a bit unnerving that I haven't received a definite no. I'll keep you posted.

Trains and sewing machines

This is not the New Orleans post, that will come Wednesday most likely. I will say that it was a good weekend, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Today was not as bad as it could have been, mainly because I put off studying for my tests and focused on my paper, which I just finished roughly a half hour ago. I think it turned out decently. Seriously, I just need to get through 6 PM tomorrow relatively unscathed and I'll be set for the semester. I think it might just happen.

After tomorrow I have nothing until Monday, so the plan is as follows:
Wednesday: Sleep in, chill out, go to Famous Dave's and watch Elf
Thursday: Sleep in, chill out, Chronicles of Narnia at midnight (my year will be complete then)
Friday: Sleep in, chill out, more chillage
Saturday: Sleep in, chill out, Chronicles and pizza at 5, more chilling
Sunday: Church, football, community group, chill

This could be one of the greatest weeks of my life.

Glory be, da funks on me.

On the road again

Well I'm off to New Orleans tomorrow morning. I'm kind of excited, but it does not feel like i'm doing this right now. Going on a four day trip in the middle of the last week of classes is probably one of the most ridiculous things I've ever done. We'll see how it all shakes down in the end, but I'll let everyone know how the trip went in due time. Might take until Tuesday night, as Monday and Tuesday are devoted to my NT paper and the three tests and speech I have on Tuesday. Good times.

The Last 72 Hours

Well, Friday night I saw "Walk the Line" with Jenny, and, I must say, it was very good. The story itself was decent enough, but the acting was exceptional. Kudos all around.

Saturday began with my getting hooked on Alias, and was followed by an evening of chilling with the crew, at least those still in town who didn't have boyfriends to hang out with that are apparently more important than seeing me. We also played Apples to Apples, and we almost used all of the green cards. Good times.

I went to church Sunday morning and we headed down to the cities a little after 3. We got to my aunt and uncle's house around 6 and I then proceeded to the Xcel center in St. Paul with sisters Sarah and Abby, cousin Matt, and friend Jessica Pugh. Why did we go here you ask? To see a country show. Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson were performing, and my sisters love them, so I got some free tickets through Pete's brother. The seats were amazing, the show was pretty sweet, and there were a lot of really awkward drunk people there. It was great.

We got back to my aunt and uncle's around midnight and I tried to fall asleep for a few hours on and off, but I had a bad headache and my ears were still ringing from the show. I finally fell asleep around 4, and slept until 9:30, when my family left to get back home before the blizzard hit that I missed by 24 hours. (That's right, I didn't get to see real snow this weekend. Kind of lame.) My uncle brought me to the airport at 1:30 for my 3:08 flight. Well, 3:08 came and went. So did 4:08. and 5:08. Finally, after a few mechanical problems and a new plane, we began boarding at 5:39. I arrived back in Nashville just before 8, and Tracy and Tim were kind enough to give me a lift back to campus, where, after having my glasses break on me, I have spent the last 3 hours writing a speech that I have to give tomorrow morning. But it's done, and that's all that matters right now.

That and sleep.

Sweet Home Minnesota

So I got back to MN Wednesday morning. Since then, it's kind of a blur.

Before I get into all of that and bore everyone with way too much information on my break thus far, I need to tell everyone from Brainerd that I'm having a get-together tomorrow night at 7. I'll try calling a bunch of you, but if you see this, spread the word. Again, 7 PM, my house. You know how to get here.

Anyway, we went to the Mall of America, where I didn't buy anything, but my mom bought Il Divo's Christmas album, and I'm a huge of fan of that at this moment. We went back to the airport after that and picked up my sister's friend Jess, in from Colorado for the weekend. Got back to Brainerd around 4, and I chilled until 6, when we headed to church for a Thanksgiving Eve service, and that was great. After, I went to a friends house with my sisters and played Trivial Pursuit the 90's, which the guys whooped on by the way.

Thursday started fairly normally. We left for my grandparent's house around 10:30, and arrived about 1. It was me and my oldest and youngest sisters, Jess, a few cousins in their early teens, and 6 cousins 6 and under, including a recent adoptee, Jaden, from Guatemala. He is adorable. I basically spent the next 4 hours eating and throwing little cousins around. Good times. Once back at home, I got all of my sources for my speech and headed to bed...

...Only to wake up 5 hours later to be at Best Buy when it opened. I don't shop for others on Black Friday, only myself, which means movies. At Best Buy, I picked up Meet the Fockers, The Pianist, Apollo 13, and Catch Me if You Can. We got into the store just before 5 and were out at 5:08. Total spent: $21.26. Next was Wal-Mart, where I found Murder by Numbers and The Client. Total: $7.33. Wal-Mart took about 15 minutes, so it was 5:30 and we had nothing to do until Target opened at 6. My sister decided to get a down throw from Herbergers, so we made a pit stop there and then headed to Target. Here I planned to just get The Interpretor, but found, to my surprise, Crash for 8.88. I have yet to see this film, but hear its amazing, so I took a chance. Total at Target: 18.91. So my total for the day was 8 movies for $47.50, or just under $6 each. Another successful morning. And it was only 6:30.

I slept for a few more hours after shopping, then had a haircut and worked with my dad for a few hours, followed by an amazingly huge feast at Famous Dave's. When I get back to Nashville, I'm organizing a group to go to the one in Cool Springs, because its such good food and you get so dang much of it. It's fantastic.

Now I'm chilling out at my house, typing up this and trying to decide what to do tonight. Again, everyone from Brainerd who's made it this far, I'm having a party tomorrow night at 7, so come. Seriously. It'll be great.

To those of you in/from Nashvegas, I'll see ya'll Monday night. Actually, I have a speech Tuesday morning, so probably not until Tuesday evening or something like that. Anyway, we've only got 2 and a half weeks left this semester... I'm not sure what to make of that.

And the Lord said, "Let it be cold(er)," and it was so.

In honor of Nashville finally getting some semi-cold weather (it was below freezing yesterday), I have changed my colors. I'm working on changing the header too, but for now, this is the way it will have to be.

Today has been mostly uneventful. I went to Target and found out that you can buy any season of Friends besides the last for $19.99. At random, I bought the 8th, which should be pretty good. I picked up my little sister's birthday present as well, and I get to give it to her in person, both good things.

I've been working since 4, and it's starting to get long. Real long. but I have friends here now too, so that'll help until they leave. and we're supposed to watch Madagascar at 10:15 at my place, so more stuff to look forward to.

Goals for the weekend:
1. Write my new testament paper
2. Write my speech on why Wal-Mart sucks so I don't have to when I'm home
3. Go to Harry Potter

Realistic? I really hope so.

Is this the last hurrah?

You gotta love early morning registration days. Just great.

So I got the schedule I basically wanted, with just a change in time for third year writing. My spring looks like this:

Tuesday:
8-9:15 - Third Year Writing
9:30-10:45 - Accounting II
12:30-1:45 - Principles of Marketing
2-3:15 - Business Finance

Thursday:
Same as above, plus:
5:30-9:30 - First 8 weeks: Jesus in the Gospels and Film (Junior Cornerstone Edition)
Second 8 weeks: Physical Education Activity

I'll also have an online Wellness Nutrition class for the first 8 weeks, and I'll have a 1 credit internship. This gives me 18 credits total, and I dont think it'll be any harder than what I've got right now. The 8 week cornerstone class could be a little rough, but it was definitely the best option on there, so I'll have to just suck it up.

And since it is far too early for me to be functioning on a day I don't have to be anywhere until 11, I'm going back to bed.

Mondays, boy I hate Mondays, they make me so steamed

I'm not a fan of today so far. Not one bit. The only redeeming elements of this morning were I got a paycheck and I can sit at my computer and listen to Imogen Heap.

Does it make sense that I, having completed 59 credits and being in the process of completing an additional 18, have to register with the sophomores? This basically means that even though I will graduate with or before over 3/4 of the undergrads at the school, I know have to register with or after 3/4 of them. Bitterness anyone? I've got plenty to spare.

I also was supposed to go to an internship fair this morning, and totally forgot about it until there was 30 minutes left. I ran around to print off a few copies of my resume and get there with 15 minutes remaining, so most employers were either gone or packing up. I didn't give out a single resume. I did sign in saying I attended, so I can actually intern this spring, I just need to go talk to the internship department now and take my chances.

Frick it all, today was supposed to be boring and uneventful, just the way I like Mondays to be. The most exciting thing I was supposed to do today was practice with Susan and the crew for her seminar on Wednesday, which I'm still looking forward to, but I'm still just kind of pissed. I need to take a nap or something. But me? Take a nap? Impossible. I'm stuck watching Family Matters re-runs on ABC Family.

I kind of want this week to just be over now. And it's only Monday.

This weekend was a good time, I think. Friday night was work til 10, then played three-handed pinochle with Ben and Jess. That was good, even though I lost (again). Saturday I watched Holiday Inn and made corned beef hotdish, one of my favorite meals ever and enough to last me most of this week. The studio beckoned at 2, and I recorded BGV's for Autumn's song, which went well once the power came back on. Saturday night was the Country Music Showcase, and that was...interesting. The first and third acts were not exactly good, especially the third, who totally were up there as a big joke that was only funny to themselves and made me think the whole time "Thanks for wasting my time so you can have a laugh between friends. Sweet." The other two guys did very well, though I thought the one that didn't win did better than the one who did. The best thing to come out of this is Ben gets to play in Best of the Best, even if it is for a country act. Now we just need to get him in with the Urban or something.

Following the showcase we hung out at the after party until Ben was done,then watched "What Lies Beneath". Sunday was very relaxing, and I was excited to get to watch the Vikings down here, especially considering how badly our offense played in a win against a very good team. There's still hope for us yet.

I need food. Peace out.

Responsibility? What's that?

Ok, so after a week of mild stress including a speech, group presentation, and 3 tests (the busiest week I've ever had at Belmont. scary, huh?), I now have nothing due until next Tuesday. Gotta love BU.

I worked 13 hours this week and didn't sell a single thing. Not one. But hey, I got paid to do it, and thats all that matters.

Anyone else addicted to Sudoku? If you're not, you're one of the lucky ones. I envy you.

My music publishing class went fine, I used Hooked on a Feeling for the one scene, and Reset by Mutemath for the other. I think they both fit pretty well, but neither one won the class vote. Its cool though, I enjoyed the assignment.

Since I don't have any way to modify the pictures from New Orleans, I think the best way for people to check them out is the photobook I made of them on Facebook. For those of you without Facebook, thats too bad. I'll show them to you if you ask though.

Today should be pretty easy going. I'm recording background vocals for Tim's Audio II recording of Autumn. Then I think I'll go to the Country Music Showcase, and Ben's hooking me up with a ticket to the after-party. And by hooking me up, I mean giving me and Jess tickets so that he doesn't have to awkwardly try and make small talk with a bunch of self-important "industry" people.

Last night I tried to buy my ticket to the midnight showing of Goblet of Fire at the IMAX theater, but it was sold out. Dang it. I'll survive though. I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will want to see it again, so I won't be going by myself. at least I hope not.

Extinct like the polar bears

This was too ridiculous NOT to post, so, submitted for your approval, the Dispatch Open Forum:

It's a beautiful fall day but there is something seriously wrong.

The month is November and the frogs are still calling.

On the surface that may not seem like anything to be concerned about but we would be wrong.

Frogs spend their summer storing just enough energy to make it through the winter at a reduced metabolic rate. But now the frogs are basking in the November sun and their increased metabolic rate is burning up their energy stores with no access to the food needed to replace that energy. Many will burn up their energy stores before food is available next spring and will starve this winter. I've seen the unusually high numbers of dead frogs in recent springs following prolonged fall.

This is only one of an infinite number of changes we are forcing on our children.

Why should we care if a bunch of dumb frogs starve?

For that matter why should we care if our gluttonous energy consumption causes them to go extinct like the polar bears?

Those are questions we need to ask ourselves and sooner rather than later.

John Reynolds

Merrifield

Brought to you by...

I was just looking at the Nashville forecast, and the low tonight is supposed to be 62 degrees. This is ridiculous. It's fricking November 8! Tomorrow has a high of 81. Wow.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the weather at that time had been brought to me by Mexico. Kind of like the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and viewers like you, except Mexican.

Today had potential to suck. See, I had this speech that I was supposed to give at 9:30 this morning, and, had I gone, it would have sucked. Hard. Alas, we ran out of time, so I'm first on Thursday, which gives me time to practice so it doesn't suck and I can convince people that they should be nice and give blood.

I still had back-to-back tests this afternoon, but neither was very challenging.

For music publishing, we're supposed to find songs that we think would work in the background of two scenes from Eurotrip. The first is when they first get off the truck and find themselves in Bratoslava or wherever, and apparently they want something moody, unless I think something else fits. I might go euro-techno or something a little different and see how it works. The other scene is when Michelle Tracktenberg first gets to the nude beach and they do the whole slow-motion sequence of her stripping ot her bikini. I'm thinking I might do "Hooked on a feeling", the ooga-chucka version, not the crappy pop ballad. The more I play it in my head, the better it sounds.

Um, lets see... work tomorrow and speech practiceage. I should probably go to the grocery store sometime soon. And I kind of want to go buy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Or at least go and decide if I want to buy it, and end up buying something else, like Imogen Heap.

And I'm taking off the video because I can imagine it can get annoying, but here's a link to the video in case you want to watch it again: http://www.hrtwrk.com/video/gooddoctor.mov

Need a good doctor?

Scrumtrulescent

People ask whether it's better to be loved or feared; I want people to fear how much they love me.

I'm gonna do my best to relay this experience to you, but it's really hard to put into words...

So my New Testament class has started doing group presentations. Each presentation takes a look at a chapter from our textbook that examines a current social issue and what the New Testament says about it. Well, the first group went yesterday, and their topic was Violence in Defense of Justice. The first girl gets up to talk about her section, and I was seriously lost for 20 minutes. I don't think anyone in the room, including her and the professor, knew what she was talking about. Thankfully, the next few people were much clearer and had actually taken the book and explained it in their own words. Finally, they got to the end of their prepared stuff and began open discussion.

BUT, before this got going, the first girl decided she wanted to give everyone a visual of what they were talking about.

SO SHE PULLED OUT A SWORD. A FRICKING SWORD.

She calls one of her group members over and has her hold a Bible in front of her. At this point, it is VERY obvious that no one in her group saw this coming at all. The girl holds the Bible as the crazy chick procedes to swing at her with the sword. This was supposed to demonstrate how Christians are supposed to fight in the world today, with the Sword of the Spirit rather than the sword of men. This would have at least made sense had she not continued to swing the sword and let out primal screams over and over. Then she had two guys from the back of the class get up and do the same thing, to represent "brother fighting brother." She continued to yell, "Hit him again! Do it!" and I was thoroughly distubed/not really concentrating because I was laughing so hard. The best part was my prof just sitting in the back of the room and letting it happen.

My group goes tomorrow, should be a good time. I hope we do better than they did. It would take quite a bit not to.

"The Office" last night was amazing as usual. It included, along with the title of this post, the following lines:

Toby (who is divorced): Michael can you get this done so we can go home?
Michael: Well Toby, you don't have anyone to go home to, so...

Jim: Was that your mom?
Dwight: No, it was my sensei.
Jim: I thought it was your mom.

Dwight: Did you wash your hands Kevin?

Ryan (On his cell phone): Hello?
Michael (in a high-pitched voice): Hi Ryan, this is Michael Jackson calling from Wonderland.
Ryan: You mean Neverland?
Michael: (pause) This is Tito calling from...

The biggest news of the episode is that Dwight has been secretly promoted from Assistant to the Regional Manager to Assitant Regional Manager. Its under a 2 month secret trial period though, so I have a feeling Dwight's gonna tell someone and he'll lose his promotion. But for now, this is huge.

At least it's something

So it's probably about time that I updated this thing. If only I had something interesting to say...

The past week has been relatively uneventful. Strike that, there's nothing relative about it, its been straight-up uneventful. Nothing was due in classes, life has gone on as normal.

We had our New Orleans reunion on Friday night, and it was great to see everyone again. We got picture CDs too, so I'm putting a few of those at the end of this post. And, I signed up for the December trip this morning, so I'm going down 2 days after I get back from Thanksgiving.

Fall Follies was hilarious. HILARIOUS. Seriously, one of the funniest things I've been to in a while. They did a whole thing about how guys at Belmont don't ask the girls out because the girls already have the curch booked by the second date. It even included Gollum stealing a girl's ring because it was his precious. Another funny sketch was Belmont Request Live, which culminated in a parody on "Gold Digger" called "Lot Thicker" about girls gaining the freshman 15 (Chow down girl, go 'head, chow down). That was great. Then the guys watched Jet Li's "Unleashed", which was better than I expected and very respectable as far as Jet Li goes.

Next week will suck, mark my words. I've got a speech, 3 tests, and a paper due. Thankfully my New Testament prof moved our paper back two weeks, or I would have had to spend this week doing that. And that would just be wrong, doing homework before it's due. So wrong.

That's all I got for now, at least it's something.

And by putting pictures at the end of this post, I really mean I'll do that sometime soon, assuming I can get the pictures to be smaller. So sometime.

New Orleans

It's finally here: the New Orleans post. This is from the journal I kept during the weekend, along with a bit of expounding on my part.

Thursday, October 13

The drive down here went as well as I could have hoped. My van had a great time getting to know/making fun of each other.

I was amazed at how far away we were when we started seeing snapped trees along the highway. I think it was about when we hit Tuscaloosa, which was a good three hours outside of New Orleans.

The aftermath became progressively more frequent and severe the closer we got to New Orleans. It looked like a poorly-sharpened lawn mower, with about half of the trees knocked down, probably more.

It wasn't until just before we crossed Lake Ponchatraine that I saw the true scope of the damage. Driving down the narrow road through the swampland was completely surreal. I still can't quite grasp what I saw; it almost felt like I was watching CNN through the car window. Mounds of debris hovered on both sides of the street, and I was amazed that Brent was able to focus enough on driving not get us all killed.

We drove past house after house that we all knew were unsalvageable. And this area wasn't even severely flooded. I think the thing that struck me most was all the cars and boats strewn about in every imaginable position. It was like a kid had dumped out his toy box and left before picking anything up.

Crossing the lake, we saw another bridge a quarter mile away that looked fine when looking at it straight on, but when we got further down we looked back and could see that half of the lanes into the city had collapsed. Insane.

Once in the city, we began to see the major flood damage. A visible line had been drawn on everything, marking how high the water had reached. Entire lots of new cars were covered with water stains and unimaginable filth. We drove past countless cars that had been left behind and now stood with wide-open drivers' doors, a tell-tale sign of looting. It's hard for me to imagine people who have nothing breaking into a useless car to steal useless audio equipment. Where are they going to take the $1,000 sound system that now weighs twice as much as it used to because of all the water in it? I guess I can't know how I would react unless I was in that position, and I selfishly pray I never am.

I am so grateful to Sarah Beth and her family for opening their wonderful home to us. The house is in the Garden District, which didn't flood, and the houses are all very nice. Her neighbors even include Archie Manning, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and author Anne Rice. It is so nice to be in a comfortable setting for the evening, and I'm sure I will appreciate this situation many times over come tomorrow evening. Now, I just need some sleep.

I was listening to Caedmon's Call in the car today, and they talked about an attitude that I'm sure I will witness this weekend, and I hope to emulate it eventually with God's help:

This world calls me poor...
He always provides
Sure as the sun will rise
So I sing Him songs of praise
'Cause I know He keeps me in His gaze...
Jesus is all I need


October 14

Today was not what I expected at all. We got to the church around 8:30, and they split us into three groups. There was one that was going to do some demo that I kind of wanted to be on, but of course I always want everyone else to be happy, so I let the other guys that I knew also wanted to go take that job. I ended up staying at the church.

First Baptist New Orleans is a gorgeous church building. Practically new, this multi-million dollar facility was spared the brunt of Katrina's wrath, with no flooding, but did sustain roof damage that led to a mold problem. They had been working on cleaning it up for at least a week, and things were moving much faster since they gained their power back on Thursday, and I think they said the flood waters had receded from the area about two weeks ago.

Much of the work was mindless: vacuuming, mopping, hauling trash. The largest project we took on was the mold-infested sheet music library that was stacked behind the church. There had to be 1,000 boxes of music there, and in the 5 or so hours we worked specifically on that, we got a little over half done. I was disappointed we couldn't finish it, but we ran out of storage boxes, so we did all we could.

The whole time I was going through that music I kept wondering why on Earth I was doing this. The music was all old, most had probably been performed once, and that was in 1959. It will take someone literally months to go through the boxes we gathered today. Even now, I still don't have a clue as to why we were supposed to do that today. I may never know. But I know it encouraged the coordinators, Carol and Emmitt, so maybe that's all we needed to do. Who knows?

We left the church around 3:30 to help another group that was packing up a house. The house had not been flooded, but the single mother who owned it was moving to Austin, TX anyway. They had been at this place, all four of them, for over 7 hours, and were on their second room. I felt so bad for them, I know I would have been completely discouraged. The rooms in this house were basically filled with the equivalent of everything I have ever owned in my life, and each room was that full. So much crap; I was dumbfounded.

I didn't think about it at the time, but someone mentioned later how ironic it is that we came down here to help people who had nothing and ended up helping someone with everything you could possibly imagine. That woman needed us just as much as anyone else in New Orleans. Funny how God works like that.

I'm pretty tired tonight, mostly from being drained by the sun. Tomorrow is really another day of uncertainty for me. After hearing all day that we would have the chance to do demolition tomorrow, I have been placed on a team that isn't scheduled to do anything like that. I may even end up packing boxes at Miss Adele's again for awhile. I want to serve in any way that is needed, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm gonna be disappointed if I don;t get to swing a hammer.

God, give me peace in whatever I do tomorrow. Provide energy, joy, and passion to help me make it through. I think joy would be most important to me, and hopefully that's infectious.

I better get to sing tomorrow too. A day without music is a day not fully lived.


October 15

I can hardly hold this pen to write, my hands are so sore, but I know that if I don't write now, I will forget important things about an amazing day of work.

This morning, I had the privilege of helping Frank Catalenotto and his wife, Kay, as they cleaned up their snow ball stand, a family business for the past 50 years that spent weeks under 10 feet of water. This short Italian man and his southern-twanged Italian accent was so thankful for our help, and we were happy to give it to him.

The shack that had once housed his business now reeked of one the foulest, most indescribable stenches I can imagine. Somehow, God basically plugged my nose, since I hardly noticed. I have the uncanny ability to detach myself from stressful situations, and that is how I spent most of this morning. The styrofoam cups, straw, refrigerators; everything is a blur right now. Everything, that is, except the syrup.

In a moment of genius, Chris Loffi decided it would be easier to dispose of the gallons of flavored syrup down the drain and throw out the empty jugs, so we began pouring bottle after bottle of fruit flavoring down the drain.

After a few bottles, the smell of the syrups began to overpower the stench. Pina colada, almond, strawberry, all mixing together to form an amazing aroma. Frank was so pleased when this happened, and he said that was how the shop used to smell all the time, At that moment I could picture him back in his shop serving over-heated children with a smile on a hot New Orleans day. I think he could see it too, and I was glad we were able to give that to him.

Once we finished the cleaning, we went with Frank and Kay to their house to help their neighbor by cutting up a few trees that had fallen in their yard. This gave Chris and Jonathan the opportunity to use their chainsaw skills, and Darin even got in on the action.

Our next stop was the Ashe home, a gorgeous residence built about six feet above the street that sustained water damage in their house about 8 feet high, meaning the water was close to 15 feet deep at one point. So much more water than I can even imagine in a residential area. We helped them get some large pieces of furniture out of the house, and then began the daunting task of gutting the house with the little time we had left. The sheet rock was so rotten I could basically shove my hand through it and drag it down to the hand, crumbling in pieces at my feet.

As we were leaving, we realized we were close to the 17th street levee breech, so we decided to drive through that area. Within the first 100 feet of our drive, we realized we would need to go through again, this time on foot.

The devastation was unimaginable. It was like a massive tornado had gone through, tearing everything to pieces and leaving a thick layer of mud wherever it went. The houses, at least those that were still there, were typically missing half of the main level. We saw foundations with no signs of the houses that once occupied them. Cars were strewn about in trees, yards, and dilapidated homes. One house looked normal until we realized it had shifted 10 feet left of its foundation.

I can't really describe what I saw accurately, probably because I switched into detached mode again. But I do know what I saw are things I will never forget.

This evening was an amazing chance to hang out with the amazing people in this group, and I enjoy spending time with all of them.

I hope that I can begin to process this sometime, but its too much to try and think about at one time, and I can't even begin to think deeply about this experiences implications in my own life, but I know I'll figure it out eventually.


October 16

Church this morning was great. The music was a mix of hymns and mid-90's praise songs, including an unexpected minor progression for the third verse of "Blessed Assurance". It was great to see all of the people we had helped as well, and everyone was so appreciative of our help.

I would seriously come down here every weekend if I could. The need is so great, I bet I could help full-time for a year and hardly make a dent. I really hope I get the chance to do this over Christmas or something like that.

The people that I've met here that came with me are great, and now I have another group of people at church with which I share a common bond.

I'm not sure I will ever fully understand why God burdened me so much with the plight of this city, but I love the opportunities He has given me to act on it. Everywhere I turned this weekend I saw devastation mixed with frustration and hope. Everyone we met had hope for what God had planned for them in the coming months and years. For many, it was a wake-up call to change, others to serve, others to live. The community of New Orleans will never be the same, but I think the new attitude of those who have been displaced will permeate throughout the country, impacting countless lives with the profound power of hope in the darkness.

Brent read us a quote from a book he's reading that said "Why do we blame the darkness for being dark? We should ask the light why it's not brighter." That's the best way I can describe the work this week, and that's the way I'll remember what we did.



At church today they announced that there's another group going December 1-4. I'm gonna do everything I can to be on that trip too.

In case you missed it

Tom DeLay can be added to the booking photo hall of fame, not because he looks crazy, but because he looks a bit too perfect for his own good.

A Weekend in the Big Easy

Ok, so New Orleans was really really good, I'm very glad I went. Definitely more productive than going home or chillin out here. I would write a bunch of details and such right now, but they had us journal each day, and I'll be getting that back this weekend, so I'll get that typed up on here with some pictures that other people took.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful, I spent most of the day trying to begin studying for my new testament midterm today. That never really happened though.

Today was very good. It included, among other things:
1. A new testament midterm that was much easier than anticipated.
2. Getting back my History of the Recording Business Test back and getting a 93 on that.
3. Finding out I got a 98 on my accounting test.
4. Music Publishing was canceled.
All of this, and it's only 6:30.

I skipped my first class of the semester this morning. I did it to study for my midterm. I am such a rebel.

Now that the midterm is over, I have to prepare a speech on SPAM (the meat product) for Thursday. This could get interesting.

Batman Begins releases on dvd today, and if you haven't seen this movie, you should. Even if you don't like Batman or Katie Holmes or comic book/superhero movies, watch it for no other reason than Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.

Operation: Mid-terms and mold

So this time tomorrow, I will be in a van on my way to New Orleans. That's insane. I was watching NBC's "Three Wishes" this week and they had a family from New Orleans that they were relocating Brookings, SD (it was much cooler than it sounds typing that out). ANYWAY, they went into NO and found the family's house and showed them some footage of what their house looks like now, and it gave me a bit of an idea of what I am getting into. The most telling part for me was that the host was pretty close to puking on camera from the stench. This does not bode well for me, but we'll see.

In other news, I'm done with classes for the week as of 5:13 yesterday, which is when I finished my Music Publishing mid-term that started at 5 and had 50 questions on it. I love tests like that.

A bunch of us went to Pancake Pantry early this morning (7!) to celebrate making it through the first quarter. We had a great time, and learned all about the Adopt-a-Felon program that Rachel was involved with as a child.

I realize this post has no continuity and keeps jumping from past to future events and back again, but that's the way things are coming right now. Deal with it.

Last night we had the weekly ritual of watching "Gilmore Girls" after Refuge, and I'm glad the characters are starting to not suck so much this season. The first few episodes I just wanted to shoot all of them except Luke. Now the list is much shorter.

After that, Ben, Jessica, Autumn and I played Spades for a few hours, and autumn and I were again victorious. We're basically amazing at cards. Well, Spades at least.

Oh, and Monday night I went to Tower at midnight to buy the new Jamie Cullum and Alicia Keys albums, both of which are... good (I think). Jamie's not quite as much jazz as his first album, so I think that's just gonna take some getting used to. Alicia is good, some of her songs are just OK, and she has a pretty boring monologue in the middle, but it definitely showcases her voice and piano skills over production quality since it's live, so that's a plus. Both of these will get at least a good amount of consideration for listening on the way down tomorrow.

Someone needs to go see North Country this weekend and tell me if it's any good, cause I'll probably end up seeing it anyway since it's set in the MN Iron Range, but I would like to know if it's worth inviting other people along to. So yeah, somebody get on that.

I'll hopefully post Sunday night, but most likely it will be Monday sometime before I have the energy to do so, so until then, peace out.

All good things

1. Today "The World According To..." turns 1! So many good times. My favorite archived posts I think are:
a.

My Weird Dream

So last night I had a dream that I was eating lunch with Nicki Spear and Ashley and then Nicki said something about inviting Amanda Hanson too, and then Amanda appeared next to her. Then Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came up and talked to Ashley, and that wasn't weird for anyone because he was her father. Then I woke up.
- October 11, 2004

b.

From My Calendar

"I was coming to work early this morning down Fifth Avenue in the predawn darkness and it reminded me of the old days when I was doin the Today show, because I saw the homless people in the church shleters and the park benches....And you feel great sympathy for them. But you also envy the extra hour of sleep that they're getting...you go by and say, 'If I were them, I would still be sleeping.'"
NBC Newsman Tom Brokaw, filling in for Matt Lauer

I, personally, appreciate Mr. Brokaw's honesty. I too am jealous of the homeless people's ability to sleep in.
-October 9, 2004

c.

Random things that I don't Understand

1. Killing/Injuring Senior Citizens: Every once in a while, I hear stories about people who killed their grandparents or burglars who stab 87 year-old women named Iris. I think there is a heirarchy of acceptablility in killing (from most acceptable to least)

1. Men aged 21-55
2. Men aged 55-70
3. Women aged 30-55
4. Men aged 70+
5. Women aged 21-30
6. Men 16-21
7. Women 70+
8. All women youner than 21 and men younger than 16

And the second thing...
2. Why is it that news programs have this fascination with stories of abused animals. Do they really have nothing more important to report than a guy who got arrested for having 8 malnourished dogs? I mean, sure, you can report it in the middle of the newscast, but does it have to be your top story? What does that about our values when they report a reclusive old woman with 75 disease-ridden cats over the death of two people in a car accident? I could care less about the affairs of Health and Human Services and Animal Control. Tell me what really matters, what could impact my life in a tangible way. Don't give me some 20-something intern reporting live from the reposessed animal farm.
-November 10, 2004

d.

MARRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Hey everybody! I just wanted to take this oportunity to thank everyone who donated money to buy clothes for the family on Thursday. Me and my dad brought the presents to there house yesterday, and they definetly needed what we got for them. Oh, and the girls looked like they would absolutley LOVE the clothes, and the boy looked about the right size too. I can not wait until tommorrow, as I will spending the day with my dads side of the family. Its not that its better with them, just different, as my mom's side has a half dozen kids under 6 year's old, and my sister Abby is the youngest on my dads side. So yeah anyway, I just wanted to thank everybody again for coming to the partay, and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

P.S. This entire post, while completly heartfelt, contains several glaring spelling and grammatical errors that are driving Maya insane right now. She probably wishes she had acess to my blog so she can edit it herself, but, alas, she can't! Merry Christmas Mayah Kuhn!
-December 25, 2004

Yeah, that's the first 3 months, I'll revisit other posts in later reflections.

2. It's cold! Well, maybe "cool" is a better adjective. It's maybe 55 today, and the collective high for the next 48 hours is 65. I love this and wish it could stay forever. But that's not realistic. For now, that is...

3. A week from today I'll be in New Orleans! I'm starting to get really excited for this, and I think it'll be a great trip and a great experience. Plus, Autumn's coming on the trip too, and if we can find two other people who know how to play Spades or Pinochle, the drive down will be a breeze.

4. My New Testament mid-term was moved to a week from Tuesday! This is some of the best news I've had in a while, as it cuts my test load on Tuesday from 3 to 2, and gives me more time to prep for what should be the hardest test of my college career thus far.

5. Wallace and Gromit comes out today! I'm hoping to see it sometime tomorrow, either afternoon or after Pop/Rock Showcase (which the videos are looking AMAZING for, fyi). The movie's received great reviews, so my expectations are high, and I have a feeling this will not be a repeat of "History of Violence".

That's all she wrote, peace out.

Cleaning house

I stole this from Hannah:
A Music Inventory
How many songs?
3641 songs, 9.7 days, 13.4 gbs.

Sort by song title:
"'10'" - LA Symphony
"Zak and Sara" - Ben Folds

Sort by time:
"Shut Up" - Five Iron Frenzy
"Blind/Four Seven" - Jars of Clay

Sort by album:
"12 Stones" - 12 Stones
"X&Y" - Coldplay

Top Five Most Played Songs:
"Better Together" - Jack Johnson
"The Fox" - Nickel Creek
"Kingdom Come" - Coldplay
"Never Know" - Jack Johnson
"Quicksand" - Andy Davis

First song that comes up on Shuffle:
"Salome (Zooromancer Remix)" - U2

Find "sex" How many songs come up?
0

Find "death" How many songs come up?
4

Find "love" How many songs come up?
148

Besides that, I was also tagged by Sarah Mudd, and I get annoyed when I tag people and they don't do stuff, so here you go:

Music Tag

The Rules: List 5 songs that you are currently loving. It doesn't matter what genre they're from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now.

Post these instructions, the artists, and the songs in your Xanga, then tag 5 other Xanga friends to see what they're listening to.

1. "Lemonade" - Chris Rice
2. "The Fatal Wound" - Switchfoot
3. "Beautiful Mistake" - Rob Blackledge
4. "West Coast Kid" - Paul Wright
5. "Control" - MuteMath

I will tag GotItSoICanReadJessies, shanesullivan, thecatnamedvirtue, RachyRach24, and desolateweed.


In completely unrelated news, I got my tire fixed today and put it back on all by myself. A huge moral victory. Now I just hope it doesn't fall off while I'm driving.

No, not awkward at all...

So this weekend was guys weekend.

Friday night I worked until 10, then watched the first of the The Godfather Part II in Ryan's room cause he was on duty. I slept in on Saturday, then watched a bunch of college football and put the spare tire on my car so I can eventually get the old one patched. Then the me and the guys went to Chick-Fil-A, which was my first time going, and I have to say it wasn't as good as people made it out to be. I was more impressed with the waffle fries than my chicken strips. We decided that there's a chicken plateau that no chicken can taste better than. I'm not sure if Chick-Fil-A reached this plateau for me, but at least now I won't get evil glares from people when we talk about Chick-Fil-A.

Then we went to see "History of Violence". Before I get into how the movie was, I was first disappointed with the theater because they pulled a Movies 10 and only accept cash. Lame. So I really ended up paying $12.25 to see this movie, once you factor in the ATM fees I had to incur in order to pay. And then the movie started.

I had read several reviews online, and had not heard anyone say a bad thing about it. Most of the guys I was with wanted to see it too, and really the only thing that made me hesitant to see it was Wanninger's comment that it had some of the most awkward sex scenes he'd seen in a while, and he was 100% accurate with that one. The movie ticket, once ripped in half, just said VIOLENCE in real big letters across the top, and that pretty much summed up the movie. The acting was very good, and there were portions of the film that I liked. There were even times that I enjoyed the movie. And then something would happen that would take me out of the movie and make me feel like a terrible person for sitting through it. The violence was very realistic, and I really didn't have a problem with it, but there were times that they would show a picture of, say, Viggo Mortenson covered in someone else's blood, and everyone around me was laughing because it was just so awkward.

Of the 8 guys who watched it, 3 said they liked it or thought it was decent. The rest of us were not fans at all. I'm so glad we went to this movie with just guys, cause mixed company (especially several couples who would've been there) would have been even more awkward than it already was. My reaction to the film has softened somewhat since last night, and while I still don't like it, there are parts of it that I can somewhat appreciate for their cinematic value.

I'm gonna stop myself there before I go on for too long about that movie.

I really wish I had something interesting or exciting to talk about on here, but I've really got nothing that I can think of. Remember when I used to post about random things that I'd find on cnn.com and stuff? Those were the days. I was just looking at the archives a bit, and there were some really random topics early on. I'm very glad people told me about blogging though, otherwise I might have gone insane last year. Seriously.

Out of frustration came inspiration

So I was checking blogs and getting frustrated at Parker for not posting since Sunday, and then I realized I haven't since Sunday either. So I'm remedying that situation right now.

I did something at work today that I rarely do: work! The manager had a job he wanted done, so he e-mailed me and I got it done as far as I can tell. I think I did a decent job with it too, so I actually feel content with my work today. That's a new one.

I haven't had time yet to go to Target or Best Buy and get the Family Guy movie. If anyone's seen it yet, let me know if it's worth the trip.

The forecast for Nashville the next few days is glorious: Mostly sunny and highs of 69, 74, and 79 each of the next three days, respectively. I can actually wear jeans and a sweatshirt tomorrow night and not be sweating profusely. I'm sitting on our porch right now and I can feel the cold front coming through. Sooo nice.

So I'm still trying to figure out what to do for Katrina relief. The trips through school only cost $60 at the most, so I can definitely afford them. BUT, there's a church downtown that is taking people down every weekend for a while, and they're doing it for free. So, in theory, I could go down with them like next weekend and have Fall Break to chill or do something fun. Or, I could go down a second weekend too. So many choices, and time is quickly running out. I need to decide, and soon.

I haven't done any homework at all this week. Not a bit. I find out how I did on my speech tomorrow, though, so I will get a grade at least, and I guess the lowest anyone got on the first day was a 78, so I know I didn't completely bomb.

I'm taking the boat
keep the beast at bay
leave my olives
they don't understand
creation
greeting me in the face
grudge them not
i'll try to calm
those evil rabbits
fudge of lust
run and hide
eat the matador
and gyration.

I have no idea what that even means, and I'm not gonna go back and edit it. I just felt like typing randomly, and now that urge is over.

It's kind of odd to think that a year from now I'll be worrying about what I'm gonna do after school. I guess I could do a preemptive strike against anxiety and figure that out now. Whatever, I'm too indecisive to decide now. Plus, that would tarnish my record of procrastination.

Guys night on Saturday, I need to find a good guy movie to go to. Something decent enough, but where lots of stuff blows up. Looks like Transporter 2 may be in the lead right now, except I think some guys have already seen it, so I need to come up with a Plan B.

I love MySpace music sites.

Green Card: Touchy-Feely; Red Card: Hellen Keller

So yesterday I did the following:

Watched Hitchcock's "Rear Window" - A classic.

Watched the Gopher's beat Purdue - Also a classic, really one of the best games I've seen in quite a while.

Won 23 straight games of Free Cell - a new personal best.

Birthday dinner for Rachel at Chili's - only the second time I've been there, but still very good, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Apples to Apples at the girls' apartment - So much fun, we're playing again tonight. Tracy and I have to settle the tie we ended with last night.

So that was my day. Not bad overall. Today has been good so far, with the Vikings winning (finally) and the Packers losing.

So I'm trying to decide if I'm going to go on a Katrina Relief trip over Fall Break. My options are:
• Slidell, LA
• Biloxi, MS
• Picayune, MS
I want to go, and I think I will go, but right now these are the only details I have on the trips at all. I could really care less which place I end up, maybe I'll just sign up for the one with the fewest people on it. I don't think it'll cost too much either, seeing as the only thing needed to reserve a spot is a $10 deposit. When they first announced these trips, I was really excited, but now my excitement has lagged. I'm going to talk to University Ministries tomorrow to see if they know anything more, and I'll hopefully have my decision made by tomorrow evening.

I don't think I have any homework due this week, so I don't plan on doing a whole lot. I do think I'm going to do a paper for NT that's not due until next week. Yes, you read that right, I might do homework further in advance than the day before it is due. This is a new concept for me, and I don't expect it to catch on anytime soon.

The Family Guy movie comes out on Tuesday. It better be funny. I'm deciding whether I want to buy it now or watch someone else's copy and wait to get it for Christmas. Actually, I have a few sisters who are still promising me birthday presents, maybe I'll drop a hint or four there.

I want some new music. I might be able to wait until the new Jamie Cullum in a few weeks. We'll see though. Wait, the "Songs Inspired by the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" releases Tuesday. Might have to pick that up.

The first new episode of The Office was hilarious. Keep it coming boys.

AMAZING BIBLE STUDIES!

Have you ever typed in a blogger address, but instead of putting blogspot, you put blogpsot? Cause every single one of those adresses leads you to this site. Good times.

My Bob Dylan speech is over now, and I think it went fairly well. I'm predicting a B, which I will be satisfied with, considering the amount of prep I put into it.

Must go to class, more updates to come later (like tomorrow).

I will try to fix you

So last night was amazing.

We got to Starwood around 6:30, which gave us plenty of time to find a spot on the lawn. If you've been to Starwood, it's an outdoor amphitheater, with reserved seating under a canopy around the stage, and then general admission on a large, open-air lawn behind the seats. We found a spot about half-way up the lawn, just left of center stage. Rilo Kiley started 15 minutes earlier than we had thought they would (7:45), and they only played about a 45 minute set. They did a great job (I think they basically played "More Adventurous"), finishing with "Portions for Foxes", my favorite song of the set.

We waited another 45 minutes or so, and then the main event: Coldplay.

They started with "Square One", which was a decent enough intro, but things really got moving when they broke into "Politik". They did an amazing job with this one live. They had a video wall behind the band that either showed some abstract/psychedelic images, or showed the band live, but usually put through one of several filters, which made it look very cool. The lighting was incredibly well done too, and spot on with the timing.

They did a nice mix of old and new stuff, which was one concern I had going in. One of the highlights of the show for me was when they played "'Til Kingdom Come." It was originally written for Johnny Cash to record, and he was all set to before he died last year. Well, being in Nashville, they felt very honored to be able to dedicate it to him and June Carter. They played it wonderfully, and then transitioned into Cash's "Ring of Fire". It was weird to hear that song played by a British pop/rock band, but it totally fit, and the crowd absolutely loved it.

They "ended" the show with "Clocks", I think, but of course they had three more songs to play, so we were happy with that. Sitting here now, I'm trying to remember the last three; I'm pretty sure it was "In My Place", Swallowed in the Sea", and I know they ended with "Fix You". When they did that big build up after the second chorus, it was so sweet, the built up the lighting and video and everything to a crescendo with "Tears stream down your face/etc..." Very cool way to end the show.

My friend Jon had a camera, and he posted his pictures here.
So yeah, that was my night. It was incredible, definitely worth the 35 bucks I paid for it, and if they came to Nashville next week I'd pay to see it again.

Simply amazing.

Good job, Joachim

The following is from an article on cnn.com concerning a man breaking the world record for watching tv the longest in a single sitting.

Joachim, who lives in Toronto but hails from Sri Lanka, now holds more than 16 Guinness records, including the longest duration balancing on one foot (76 hours, 40 minutes) and bowling for 100 hours. He does it, he says, to raise awareness of suffering children.

Do you hear that? That's right, it's impoverished children around the world praising Joachim for his sacrifice. In one united voice, they seem to cry out, "Your works shall not be forgotten, Joachim! We will tell our children's children of the man who suffered through 70 hours of According to Jim that we might feel peace and contentment."

Meh

So I had my first tests of the year this week, one each in accounting, history of recording business, and microeconomics. Coming out of the accounting test, I wasn't sure how it went. I knew that I did fine on the application portion, but the multiple choice were kind of up in the air. Well, turns out I got a 98 on that test, so I was extremely happy about that, especially after hearing all of the accounting horror stories. HisRecBus went fine, 120 MC that I don't find out my results for until Tuesday, and same with econ, which was only 20 MC, but I never really know whether I did ok on those or not. Overall, not too shabby.

Here's a dilemma: should I study more for tests to relieve stress going in, making me feel prepared, or keep cramming the night before, feeling anxious going into the test, and do just as well (at least I don't think I'd do too much better the first way)? I guess the latter has always worked for me in the past. I say change is bad.

I have to give a biographical speech Thursday on Bob Dylan. I originally wanted to do it on c. S. Lewis, but someone else had already taken him by the time the sheet got to me, so I made a split-second decision and went with Dylan. Why? I have no clue. I need to come up with an interesting perspective on his life now, so if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Can someone please tell me I'm really stupid for wanting to see "Just Like Heaven"? And, if it's actually in a theater around you, can someone please see "Everythig is Illuminated" and tell me how good it is? That'd be great.

Second season of "The Office" starts this Tuesday, September 20, at 8:30 CST. Have I menitoned how much I love this show before? If it's getting annoying, just tell me, but I would really like to see this show get the following it deserves.

In a rare moment of politicalness, I would like to say that I think President Bush's speech last night presented some excellent ideas. I love the homesteading project, and I like that he continues to take responsibility for the federal government's failures in response, even though there's no way you could blame him for all of them. I do have a bit of a problem with the amount of money that he's talking about throwing down there. There are really 3 ways to get this money: 1. Print it up, which would have dire consequences on the entire economy and devalue the dollar to a point so far below what it has ever been. 2. Re-appropriate the funds fromother projects: This has some potential, but it would be nearly impossible to fully do, especially with the aremd forces projects in the middle east, which, contrary to popular opinion, I don't think we can just abandon. 3. Borrow the money, basically what we'll end up doing, putting us further into the debt of countries like China.

None of the solutions are ideal, and I would love to see a combination of the last two done, but I fear we'll end up going loan heavy. I mean, $200 billion is a crapload of money by any standards.

Realistically though, this event is rahter unprecedented, especially in the U. S. Sure, natural disasters take place around the world all the time, but it is an extremely rare occasion that they displace a million people, and even more rare that this happened in an industrialized nation. since the Tsunami is kind of in a league of it's own, I guess the closest comparison would be the 1999 earthquake i9n Izmit, Turkey that killed thousands more people (17k in all), but was also centralized. I guess its hard to compare the destruction from Katrina to anything else we've ever seen, now that I try and do so. I guess an unprecedented disaster requires an unprecedented response.

I just wish we didn't have to jeopardize the future to deal with the present.

Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

This is an excerpt from the above book that my roommates have to read for moral theory. The name of the chapter is "The first poisitive task of schizoanalysis":

"...But who will be able to describe the desiring-machines of each subject, what analysis will be exacting enough for this? Mozart's desiring machine? 'Raise your ass to your mouth...ah, my ass burns like fire, but what can be the meaning of that? Perhaps a turd wants to come out.... Yes, yes, turd, I know you, I see you, I feel you. What is this - is such a thing possible?'"


And that was the last thing I read before going to sleep last night. Good times.

Nothing is Sound

All right, I've got class in 15 minutes, so lets hope I have enough time to finish this....

Last night was very...interesting. I had originally planned on doing some homework and then finishing "Braveheart" at Susan's, but people ended up with too much homework, and that turned out to be a good thing. I got the rest of my birthday presents from my parents in the mail in the afternoon, which turned out to be 3-d puzzles of the Sears Tower and Venice, Italy. Well, Venice is fricking huge, so there wasn't nearly enough time for that, but I decided to start working on it. And I kept working on it for a while. Then, I decided to make beef stroganoff for me and the roomies, which turned out surprisingly well (the left-overs were good today too). Following that, more puzzle. Next on the agenda, I went to Steph's and watched a few episodes of Gilmore Girls in a vain (or vane? i can never remember) attempt to catch up before the season premiere tonight. Came back to the apartment and worked on the puzzle more, went out at midnight to buy the new Switchfoot album (which I'll comment on later), and then back to finish the Sears Tower by 12:30. Not a terrible night by any measure. Who knows what tonight will bring...

One more week until the new season of "The Office" on NBC. 8:30 CST, Tuesdays. Be there or miss out.

So yeah, I need to hear the new album a few more times to really judge it, but first impression is not too bad. Not as good as Beatiful Letdown at this point, but i didn't expect it to be. I ended up buying the DualDisc version, which wouldn't work in iTunes, and I've since come to find out that the discs are all write-protected, so you can't put them on your computer or mp3 player, let alone make copies for siblings. I have some friends with some audio equipment that might rememdy this situation though, so we'll wait and see on that.

First test was today, on the first 3 chapters of Accounting I, and it wasn't bad. The MC were a bit rough, but the problems were piece of cake, so good times. Thursday brings tests in Microeconomics and History of recording business, so we'll see, I might have to actually study tomorrow.

That's all I got... and in only 10 minutes. Plenty of time.

Ooo, later, I'm gonna post an exceprt from my roommates' text book for Moral Theory. Psycho.

Missionary Kung-Fu

Blogger is being stupid today, so I'm switching things up and posting a link to my xanga entry on here so that I don't risk losing everything I typed out. So, here you go:

Monday, September 12, 2005.

P.S. The Vikings better not suck this hard the rest of the season, or i'm gonna be piassed.

Tears stream down your face

Coldplay tickets for Sept 18, 2005 were purchased yesterday on ticketmaster by me. That sentence could have made a lot more sense if I'd worded it differently, but it's there now, so it doesn't matter.

College retreat this weekend for church. Should be a good time, I'm looking forward to it.

I've come to the conclusion that "This Side" is Nickel Creek's best album. Although I have not hear MAS, so I guess I can't say that definitively.

Work today. 11-12, 4-10. good times had by all. maybe I'll ressurrect Great American Lyricists tonight. That could be fun, eh?

I'm a twentysomething

Speaking of, new Jamie Cullum releases stateside October 11, 2005.

I'm pretty sure that I could write for quite a while right now. I'll try and spread it out over a few days to save you the effort, but here it is.

The rumors are true. I am no longer a teenager. This is so insanely odd for me to comprehend. I think of someone who's 20 as being on their way to adulthood, if they're not already there, and that this milestone is a joyous point on their journey. The problem for me is that I don't think I'm ready for that. I mean, I am in college, and, in all reality, will be completely on my own in a mere 20 months or so. I guess I always imagine adults as having desk jobs or manual labor jobs, neither of which I plan on having if I can control it. So, while many would think that this new age gives me new responsibilities and opportunities, I just see this as upping the ante in my quest to remain young. Not physically, but mentally. I'm sure you get the idea of this whole thing, so I won't keep on rambling trying to explain myself.

Yesterday was a pretty dang boring day for the most part. I got up at 8 and opened the package that my parents had sent me last week, which also had a present from my little sister in it. Then, work struck like the plague from 11-2, which wasn't terrible since I was able to watch the first season of the Cosby Show that I had opened that morning. Steph also brought me a cupcake, which was excellent. Then chilled out from 2-5, followed by work from 5-10. Around 9, a big group of my friends showed up with cake and toilet paper (don't ask). They stayed until my shift was done, and then we parted ways as I went back to the apartment and did a bit of homework. So that's what my day entailed.

My new testament class is taught by Keanu Reeves. Just an fyi.

Has it really been over a week since I posted on here? Odd.

When are the good movies gonna come out? Seriously. Oh yeah, Hitchhiker's comes out next Tuesday. You have to go into this movie thinking it will be completely ridiculous, because it will be. Mos Def does an excellent job, and once you get past the over-abundance of dolphins at the beginning, you'll love it.

Umm...yeah, that's it.

Hrrrrrrrothgar! Hrrrrrrrrrrrunting! Hrrrrrrrrrrrrethel!

From cinemaeye.com:

Variety reports that Angelina Jolie has been cast in Robert Zemeckis’ BEOWULF. This is going to be a motion-capture animated flick along the lines of POLAR EXPRESS.

All I can say is wow.

I can't stop the rain

Yesterday afternoon I had one of my most fun times ever. Period.

After church, the college group was having a free lunch in Centennial Park, so I went. After eating, we started throwing the football around, and then it started to rain. And it kept raining, so we decided to play Ultimate Frisbee in the rain. When we a\started playing, it was kind of raining, but not too terribly bad. After an hour of playing, the rain had become a steady downpour, and we had to end the game because of lightning. I don't think I've ever been that saturated in my life. It was so much fun, I hope I can do that again. Maybe I'll get the chance to on Tuesday when we get Katrina, but if it doesn't get super bad, I have no chance, because class is from 9:30-6:15, and if it is really abd and they cancel class, I won't want to be outside anyway. So scratch that, it won't happen for a little while.

Pete came yesterday, which is really odd. I love having him around, it'll just take some getting used to after a week of solitude on my side of the suite. We went to Mellow Mushroom for supper, which was amazing as usual, and then I watched the Transporter with Ryan, Tim, and John. Or, I guess we tried to watch it, but TiVo cut off the last 5 minutes because it's clock is off. So we'll finish that eventually.

I actually have homework that I could be doing right now! Crazy, I know. Maybe I should get on that... after a few more games of Free Cell.

Speed is patrolled by radar, laser, and airplane.

First, the title of this post is a roadsign that I actually saw today in Nashville.

Second, in order to avoid another incident like happened on my last post, I have decided to turn on the comment word verification feature, which basically means you have to type in a special word that they show you each time you comment. This keeps people from spam-blogging this site, which I can't stand.

In other news, I went to Brothers Grimm last night, and it was... interesting. I think I liked it. Don't go if you like cats though, you'll hate it because of one scene. If you hate cats (like me), that scene will become legendary.

Cause I have caused the pain but I cannot heal the wound

First day of classes were just kind of there. Pretty sure my least favorite will be Speech, mainly because the room is tiny, I know no one in the class, and the teacher seems a bit out of it. Favorite will probably be Music Publishing, which I, oddly, have with no one I know, but sounds like it's gonna be super interesting and creative. The prof is an adjunct who works for a publishing company in the creative department, and he was talking about the stuff he does and stuff we'll do in class, and it sounded like a ton of fun, so I'm pleasantly surprised by that one.

Work stirkes again today, this time 11-2 and 4-10, so I've got 2 hours left at the most. I guess I could close whenever I wanted to really, but I get paid to sit here and surf the net and listen to music/watch movies, so I can't complain. I'm hoping to go to a movie still tonight, preferably Brothers Grimm, which looks decent enough, and I haven't seen a movie in the theater since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (at least not that I can remember). August has kind of sucked in the movie area. Wait, no, my last movie was Dukes of Hazzard. That's it. Ha, wow.

I was gonna do some rant about exestential crap, but that'll have to wait, as I have visitors who desire to play Spades with me. So, until then, peace out.

The greatest story never told... Until now.

Um, ok, get ready for this. I know that many of you will want to plan the next few months of your lives around this release, so I thought I'd give you a heads up:

Samuel L. Jackson is working on a film called "Snakes on a Plane."

And guess what it's about? You got it, it's about poisonous snakes that get loose on an airplane. Why did no one think of this before?

To top it all off, I'm pretty sure that one of the production shots has Keenan Thompson in it, so you know this movie is gonna rock. There's no release date yet, but I would imagine the plan is to have a midsummer 06 release.

Just a little something to get you through the winter.

Seriously now...

OK, so I've got a bit more time now to update this thing now. "Why?" you ask? Because I started work today. Yes, I'm back at Reverbmedia this fall, and I have no clue how this is going to be. I work MWF 11-2, W 5-10, and F 4-10. That's 20 hours at a place that hardly anyone goes to. PLUS, I'm working with another person at all times, so while that does give me some company, it also divides the work in half, which leaves me, miraculously, with the less than nothing to do (Trust me, the math makes sense).

Working on just MWF is great though, since I only have class on TTH. I think I'm either:
a. insanely lucky
b. insanely genius
c. insane
to put my schedule like this, but on the "T" days, my schedule is thus:

9:30-10:45 Speech Communication
11-12:15 Microeconomics
12:30-1:45 Intro to New Testament
2-3:15 Accounting I
3:30-4:45 History of Recording Business
5-6:15 Music Publishing

As I sit and look at this schedule, I am slightly leaning toward (c).

So yeah, still doesn't quite feel like I'm back at school. I love being here though, and it's been great to see everyone again and hang out with most of my friends and make a few new ones that are pretty cool too. Still have a few friends that I haven't seen, but that will occur all in good time. I found out why my roommate Pete is coming late: he worked at a camp for special needs kids in Missourri, and one of the kids is getting an Extreme Home Makeover this week, so they got all of the staff from the camp to help out on it. I'll update you guys later on when that episode will be airing, because there is no doubt in my mind that Pete will do something to get some air time, and completely by accident too.

Speaking of roommates, my room is pretty sweet. It's a 4 bedroom apartment, so I get my own that is about the size of my dorm room last year that I shared with Pete, so I'm excted about that. PLUS, we get full beds, a family room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and laundry all in our apartment! Simply amazing. And I guess the water heater or something broke before we got there, so they gave us new carpet, new paint, and a new entertainment center.

I haven't really done anything specific that has been tons of fun. Played sand volleyball, went to church, and lots of hanging out at people's places. We tried to go to "The Wild Horse" on Sunday, but they were having a private party or something, so we couldn't go. I was rather disappointed, but I'll get over it.

I think that's all I should bore you with for now. More to come...
Peace out

We're not in Kansas anymore, but I think I just saw a house fly. Seriously. But I swatted it, so it's all good now.

Yeah hi...

I made to school just fine yesterday. I've spent the last few days catching up with people, unpacking, and going to target and kroeger. I think this will probably continue for the next few days. I'll post more exciting information (read: long winded) once my computer actually works on the internet and i don;t have to use my roommate's new Apple G5.

Peace out.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you're a racist, I'm gonna attack you with the North."

So much going on... and by that, I mean trying to get everything figured out before leaving on Friday morning.

Today was my final day of work, which is a mixed blessing. I'm glad to finally be done with it and moving on to another year, but it's been a great summer job and I've actually enjoyed it. Plus, there's no way I could make that much doign pretty much anything else while sitll in school. Who knows if that'll bring me back to B-town next summer (right now I'm leaning toward no, as I would like to start a bit more independant lifestyle that would have me gone from home for junior year, the summer, and my senior year next year.)

My boss (aka my dad) took me and his other employee, my friend chuck, golfing yesterday. It was a gorgeous day, mostly sunny and not too hot or cold. I shot an 87, which is a personal best for 18, including a 42 on the back-9, a personal best for 9 holes. That 42 started out with a triple bogey, so I was pretty pleased with my play overall. I hope to play a bit this fall in Nashville if I can.

I also purchased the first season of the American version of "The Office." Basically, this is the funniest show on television right now, and the first six episodes are absolutely hilarious. HILARIOUS! You should totally watch this show whenever you can.

Closure

As of approx. 2:30 PM CST, I am the proud owner of a blue 1996 Ford Taurus. Thus ends a slightly exciting/annoying chapter in my life.

So I was thinking today, the Black Eyed Peas' first two singles off "Monkey Business" are "Don't Phunk with My Heart" and "Don't Lie". So what, they release one popular album (more like one popular song), and they can boss everyone around? Maybe someone could write a song for them called "Don't Suck at Life".

Do the hustle

Well well well.... I really don't feel like doing this, but I know that I will feel better after I do, so this is what you get.

Work continues this week. I've got 4 workdays left, and then a day off, then off to Nashlantic City.

I got an e-mail from my roommate Pete, in which he told me that he would not be arriving at Belmont until the 28th, a full week after everyone else, and a half-week after classes start. It'll be good to see him once he gets there, but it will be a bit weird until he does.

Last night I went Gogolin's house and played Goldeneye, WWF Smackdown, and Guess Who. Then, somebody decided to watch TV, and VH1 had this special on R. Kelly's Urban Opera, "Trapped in the Closet." This 5-part mini-drama is basically one of the greatest things I've seen in a long time. It's an opera, but the only one who sings at all is R. Kelly, so he does the voices for all characters, including the women. IT WAS FRICKING HILARIOUS! If you haven't seen it yet, you have to. If I were to see R. Kelly on the street, I would say, in the words of Will Ferrell as James Lipton, "You make Ghandi look like a child pornographer." And then I'd realize that was kind of awkward since RK is one already.

Things I learned from Trapped in the Closet:
1. Black people have affairs all the time.
2. The funniest name for a gay black lover is Chuck.
3. If your lovers' husband walks in on you, stick around and wave your gun at people for no apparent reason. It works great every time.
4. Never trust a smoking cop. Especially a black one.

So I rented "Kung Fu Hustle" yesterday and got to watch it tonight. First off, 5 bucks is way too much to pay to rent a movie for a week. Seriously. Second, the movie was decent enough. Not nearly as funny as people made it out to be, but the fight scenes were sweet, and they did some cool effects, so I can't complain. No I can't complain. Yeah she can't complain. No, she can't complain.

Sorry, I've been listening to Nickel Creek's new album for the last three days straight, and it's pretty sweet overall. A bit more pop than I was expecting, but they get their bluegrass in there, so it's all good. My favorite three songs are, in order: 1. Best of Luck 2. Somebody More Like You 3. When in Rome. If you have no idea who Nickel Creek are, check them out, they're amazing.

I'm hoping to do something fun for my last weekend in town. I have no idea what that will entail, but I will make it my goal to do something before the weekend is through. And since I have Saturday off, this has potential to actually happen.

A few summers ago, I went golfing. A lot. And I liked it. I've never been very good at it, but I don't care, cause it's relaxing, especially if you're with the right people. Well, last summer I didn't go at all, and this summer was looking like the same, but I've now golfed 27 holes, and I'm hoping to add 18 on Tuesday. The crazy thing is, I'm actually playing decent! Decent for me is the potential to hit in the 80's on Tuesday, so if that gives you a reference point, there you go.

Oh dang, I can't think of any other random topics of interest. Must be time to stop.

Things I've learned this summer

While at work this summer, we've chosen to listen to Oldies radio. This serves two purposes: 1. We don't hear the same song 5 times a day. 2. Everyone could agree on it.

And from this experience, I've discovered 2 important facts in life:
1. Society would be so much more simple if we had more songs about clowns. They had them all the time in the 50's and 60's. Songs like "Tears of a Clown" and "Clown with a Broken Heart" really reflect the innocence that we've lost. If only we could convince a group to record a clown song, the world would be a better place. I nominate DMB, Mariah Carey, and Enya to fulfill this service.
2. More importantly, I've found the absolute worst song ever written. It's by Jim Jones, and the words are as follows:
"You Talk Too Much"

You talk too much
You worry me to death
You talk too much
You even worry my pet

You just talk
Talk too much

You talk about people
That you don't know
You talk about people
Wherever you go

You just talk
Talk too much

You talk about people
That you've never seen
You talk about people
You can make me scream

You just talk
you talk too much

[Instrumental Interlude]

You talk too much
You worry me to death
You talk too much
You even worry my pet

You just talk
Talk too much

You talk about people
That you don't know
You talk about people
Wherever you go

You just talk
Talk too much

You talk about people
That you've never seen
You talk about people
You can make me scream

Aren't those inspiring? So much depth, meaning, insight, I can hardly describe it. I especially love how he uses his pet as a metaphor to speak for the emotions of those who can't vocalize their own frustrations with this busy-body.


And now for something completely different...
Dukes was better than I thought it would be. Completely mindless, juvenile, sophomoric, etc..., but I would not consider it the worst $7 I've ever spent. Plus, Jessica Simpson is pretty dang hot in every scene she's in, so it makes it worthwhile. Not that I promote stereotyping woman and degrading them liek that, but she was dang attractive in that film. Dang attractive.

I'm not going to see "Dukes of Hazzard" tonight...

Nope, no chance. Why would you even think I was going? Not at all in the realm of possibility.

I'll let y'all know how much it sucked though a little later.

Wheels just keep on turning, the drummer begins to drum

Let's see....

I think I've decided on a car, and it turned out to be door number 4: a blue 1996 Ford Taurus. It's a good car, and it's a great deal, so I can't really pass it up. All I'll need to do is add a CD player and I'll be set. I'll hopefully be getting that early this week (Tuesdayish).

My little sister got back from a 2 week mission trip to Detroit last night, so that was good. Now she's home for a week, then gone for a week, and then I'm gone. Crazy.

I've got the first few days of this week off of work because we couldn't find any, so I'm going clothes shopping tomorrow in St. Cloud and Albertville. I don't mind shopping if I can do it on my schedule and not have to wait for my sisters who will try on 12 shirts and buy 2 at the most.

The trailer for "Walk the Line" is online now, and it looks pretty sweet. Joaquin Phoenix does an excellent Johnny Cash, and I think he'll definitely be an Oscar contendor this year. Other new trailers: "V for Vendetta" (Natalie Portman looks hot even witha shaved head) and "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" (Why did I even watch this trailer? I hate 50 Cent, and I hope his movie bombs, which it won't for the same reason he could release a new album of crap every week and they would all go platinum.)

I'm out at Camp Shamineau right now helping with registration for the new week. It gives me something to do since most of my friends end up 1. working or 2. napping on Sunday afternoons.

The past 2 weekends in movies have kind of sucked, I'm not gonna lie. Actually, next weekend's probably gonna suck too, since the only wide release is "Dukes of Hazzard". Sure it'll be the top movie for the weekend, but it's biggest competition will be 2 movies that have already been out for 3 weeks. Hey, at least we have "Deuce Bigalow:European Gigolo" to look forward to on the 19th.

Speaking of the 19th, that's the day I'll be traveling to somewhere in Illinois for a night's respite before taking Nashville by storm. Maybe I'll hit DB:EG that night. Or maybe not.

My dilemma for the day (and probably a few more after this)

So, I'm trying to find a car to take back with me to Nashville. Right now, I have three main options:

1. 1995 Chrysler LHS: It's a bigger sedan, four doors, with nice leather interior. Silverish exterior. Also the cheapest of the three.
2. 1999 Mercury Sable GS: A medium/large sedan, four doors, decent interior. Kind of that greenish color with a hint of blue on the outside. Right now, probably trailing the other two.
3. 1996 Chrysler Sebring JXi Convertible: A white, two-door convertible with pretty much all the bells and whistles. Nice leather, 5-disc cd system with new speakers. Basically I would have already bought this car if it wasn't for 2 reasons:
a. Money: It's a bit more than I wanted to pay for a car, and insurance on it might be pretty steep.
b. Size: I think it's smaller than I'd like it to be, but still, it's a fricking convertible, so I could learn to deal.

All of these cars have roughly the same miles on them and get roughly the same gas mileage, so that's not a factor either. Basically, I think it's going to come down to whether or not I can afford the convertible. If I can, it's mine. If I can't, then I'll take the LHS.

This all assumes that no one buys any of the cars before I decide.

This week looks like it will be a pretty decent work week. I'm getting payed for 25 already, and I'll most likely get another 40 before the week is out. Sounds good to me.

It's actually kind of cool here this week, which is in stark contrast to the last 2-3 around here. I realize we've got nothing like the heat the southern-Midwest has had, but I'm definitely enjoying being able to wear jeans after work and not feel gross.

Next album on the horizon: "Why Should the Fire Die?" by Nickel Creek. It lands August 9 (2 weeks from today) and if it's anything like their first 2 albums, it'll be simply amazing. I've heard a few of the songs, and I don't think I'll be disappointed.

Dude, only 23 days until I leave for school. I'd use an exclaimation mark there, but I don't think it portrays the correct emotion. Not that a period does it justice either, but I'd rather people thought I was subdued than freakish. An exclaimation point, in my mind, screams "Insane cheerleader." I could just as well say "Oh my gosh! Only 23 days until I'm back on campus! I'm, like, totally excited! Yeah Belmont!" But that's not the proper context for this statement. It's more of an eagerness for the future with an eye on the present. I'm still in B-town, and I'm gonna act the same way I have all summer, but I'm also anticipating my return to Nashvegas. So yeah, that's how oyu should take it.

Peace out.

Four day weekends should be mandatory

If only we lived in France...

So my parents went to our cabin for the weekend, leaving me without work. Thus, I spent the weekend doing two things:

1. Watching Season 2 of Gilmore Girls
2. Watching movies

As far as the former goes, I've slowly become a fan of this show. Sure, the dialogue and relationships are completely unrealistic (no mother is that close to her daughter, and no community has that much collective wit), but it's thoroughly entertaining, and the fact that the wit and sarcasm is unrealistic doesn't make it any less funny.

Now, the movies that I've watched since Thursday (all for the first time):
A. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Very good, but not as good as the original. Depp had his moments, and I thought the kids were great, but it was just different. I guess it's not fair to compare this one to the first movie, since they weren't really trying to redo that movie but moreso a re-visioning of the book.
B. The Great Escape: A classic. Period. Great acting, great story. It makes me want to see more movies with Steve McQueen in them. I hope to own this movie someday.
C. Dirty Harry: Pretty good overall. The tracking on this one kind of sucked, since it was on VHS. But Clint Eastwood did a good job, and the guy who played the psycho killer convinced me he was crazy, which is always a plus.
D. Snatch: Yes Aana, I realize that you told me not to waste my time with this one, but it wasn;t as bad as you made it out to be. A very odd story, with decent enough acting.
E. The Usual Suspects: I don't know if I can be object about this movie, since I already knew who Kaiser Soze was going in. I still didn't quite see how it was going to come together in the end, but yeah, it was still a good movie. A little too much swearing for me, but I became desensitized to it after awhile.

So yes, this is all I've done this weekend. Seriously, how lame am I? I want to do SOMETHING tomorrow, so if people are doing stuff, they better call me, or else I'm gonna be piassed. And I do believe that I heard a rumor that it's under thirty days until I'm back in Nashville, so good times ahead and behind.

Wow, I can't believe that I just said that.

Parker's new roommate

Here he is, courtesy thefacebook. Make your own judgements and please share them ASAP.

If only I had worked in a steel mill to pay my way through college

Oh yeah, I was totally right in thinking that Bush would go for a moderate Hispanic woman. Yep, I have my finger on the pulse of the political world, absolutely.


But really, does Bush think this guy is really going to be confirmed? I mean, he'll probably be on the court for at least 25 years at his age, he's about as conservative as they come, and he's not even a minority or a woman. Now I know that Mr. LaShomb taught us that a president will send in someone he knows won't get confirmed before sending in a slightly less radical nominee that he really wants on the court, but all the fanfare makes it look like this is Bush's guy. A little confusing.

I'm glad he worked in a steel mill though. Everyone should work in a steel mill at least once in their life. Builds character.