Is anyone going to be in Brainerd the first week in March (besides the high schoolers)? I'm coming home for spring break and taking a car back to Nashville with me. I might also be able to make some trips to visit people who aren't around...
There has been a new feature added to the main blog since I got back from break that I haven't mentioned, and I'm not even sure you guys know about it. If you figure it out, leave a comment.
Last night I went to a Belmont Hockey Club game. Basically, we suck. but the games are tons of fun to be at, especially when the other team didn't have any fans there and three of my friends and I were pretty much the only people in the stands at all. Thus, I got to scream my head off for an hour and a half. We lost 12-3, but that's an improvement over the last game I went to (21-0). I'm gonna go back to every game I possibly can from now on, and we're making posters and cheers and stuff to do too. It's going to be amazing.
Congratulations to Erin on her victory in the January blog game competition. The February challenge begins tomorrow, so if you've been waiting to jump in until you weren't so far behind in points, now's the time because the points start over.
More people should do the Oscar challenge. I realize that there's almost a month until the actual awards, but right now it's gonna be between me, Maya, Capelle, and Parker (if he ever gets me his e-mail address). In conclusion for this point, sign up and vote or die!
Isn't it rather ironic that, in the year when P. Diddy championed suffrage under the "Vote or Die" campaign, Iraqis would have to actually take the risk to vote AND die? The elections of yesterday give me a great amount of hope that the war will end in due time, and that Iraq will be able to survive as a free nation.
How do you guys say "aunt"? "Aunt" or "ant"? My aunt is coming to Nashville today for work, and we're having dinner tonight, and when I told people down here that, they said I sound like a rich snob when I say "aunt" and that "ant" is the normal pronunciation. Whatever, they call a drinking fountain a "bubbler". People from Wisconsin are just plain weird.
Information taken from Joey's 1999 album "Stay the Same"
Number of tracks: 13
Number of tracks written by Joey: 12
Times the word "baby"is used in the lyrics, not including repetition of phrases in songs: 33 (no joke, it's the same as Jordan Knight's)
Songs about relationships: 13
Lyrical Highlights:
"Believe in yourself
Reach down inside
The love you find will set you free
Believe in yourself
You will come alive
Have faith in what you do
You'll make it through
Whoa...Hey!"
- "Stay the Same"
"I'll never forget what you've done for me
When I think of the past few years
And what I've been through
I know I couldn't have done it without you
I'm a new man, baby
I'm a new man
Yeah!!!
(because of you)
Ah yeah, well, well, whoa!
(because of you) "
- "Because of You"
Special features of album insert: Folds out into poster signed by Joey
Total pictures of Joey on insert: 12
Number of Former "New Kids" thanked: 1 (Donnie)
Just when I think that I've gotten away from BHs and, thus, CORE math, I get side-swiped by Mathematical Inquiry. I have had this class for three weeks already, and here are the assignments so far:
1. Write a math autobiography.
2. Do some logic problems.
That's about it. During class, we've been going over how logic works, and yesterday we went over how to annotate simple and compound statements to determine whether they are true or false.
In conclusion, I've done more writing in this class than math. And I'm pissed.
I would like to take this moment to speak on behalf of everyone who is not able to attend the "Chaz and the Jumper Cables" show tomorrow and say that people who do get to go should only post pictures if they have any, not write about how amazing it was and such, because frankly I don't want to hear about all of the fun people are having without me.
In other news, it's 8:36 and my roommate is asleep. I assume that he'll get up in a little while, but if he doesn't I'm gonna be piassed, cause then I can't do stuff like watch a movie or listen to music.
Tomorrow, I will be working from 2-10 PM, meaning that I'll do another Contemporary Lyrical Masters post. Let me know if you have any suggestions/requests.
I've decided that adding Nate Lucas to the thosekids blog will add more traffic to that blog than ever before. Maybe if I create a fake name and pretend to be him and post on this blog, people will read and laugh and then everyone will like me because I will be Nate Lucas. Or maybe not.
I'm getting bored with the Movie Reviews section for two reasons:
1. I have to actually think about the movie after I watch it
2. I have to post about it or people will stop looking at that page because new reviews are never added (which, judging by the poll that I added on there, has already happened)
On that note, I watched De-Lovely today, and it was a decent movie. Most of the music was good, and I liked how they had contemporary artists like Alanis, Sheryl Crow, and Elvis Costello perform some of the songs so that I didn't get annoyed with Kevin Kline's voice.Worth a watch if you like musicals, but don't expect the typical musical (not a-typical like Moulin Rouge, but different nonetheless).
If you make it this far in the post, congratulations! You made it to the end! At least that's what you think...
I got to meet one of my favorite artists last night, Chris Rice. Now, to most of you, that name means nothing, and I'm sure Hobson will leave some comment about how my taste in music sucks, but I could care less. I would describe him as acoustic/folk/pop, and he has a live album coming out in two weeks that I'm kind of excited for. Also on the horizon is a full album from Eisley, a group of sisters, a brother, and a friend that have a pretty cool sound that I don't think I could describe, but I'll get it anyway based on their two EP's.
In closing, my roommate is stirring, which means there is hope for a normal night at last.
Peace out.
Just so everyone knows, there's a new game, and you only have to play it once to enter. Just pick the Oscars, it's that simple. Click the link for more information on how it all works.
Why is it that, whenever I tell someone down here that I'm from MN, they ask me if I've been to "Prarie Home Companion"? I want to be like, "Yes, MN is so small and backwards that we spend a good portion of our time visiting radio shows."
I've decided that I like this semester a lot more than last. The only problem is that I kinda want to either minor or switch majors to film, but they don't have that here. So maybe I'll minor in graphic designor marketing or something fun like that.
I'm starting to think that the Open Forum idea is stupid. I'm gonna try posting a more controversial topic and see if I get any more response, otherwise it's over, and I'll have to switch to a never-ending story or guest column.
I have class tonight, but I really don't want to go. It kinda sucks to sit through a 3 hour class on business law that could easily be done after 1. But, I get credit to sit there, so I might as well go. AND, if I don't miss any of the classes, I don't have to take the final, so further incentive to get off my butt.
I just remembered that I haven't posted about my Old Testament teacher. She seems like she'll be an OK teacher, but I'll describe her physically: approx. 5'10", 300 pounds. Giant glasses that always fall to the end of her nose. left eye? lazy. hair is red, and goes to the middle of her calves. She also has a slight lisp caused by the noticeable build-up of spit on her lower lip.
Ahh, Good times.
Just a quick note to alert everyone to the presence of a new Open Forums section of the blog. The first topic is posted (I started out non-confrontational) and more will follow soon. Further details on the page.
So I've decided not to start the music reviews section, mainly because I'm lazy. Instead, whenever I work, I'll post a "Contemporary Lyrical Masters" post on the main blog. That is all.
Information taken from Jordan's self-titled 1999 debut.
Number of tracks: 13
Number of tracks written by Jordan: 8
Remixes: 1
Times the word "baby" is used in the lyrics alone, not including repetition of lyrics within the song: 33
Songs about relationships: 13
Lyrical Highlight: "You say it's been too long
Since you had some
Just say I turn you on
Like a fire that's burning inside
You think that I'm the one
You see in your dreams
I know what you mean...
I'm the place to be and soon you'll see
I don't care who leads as long as we move
Horizontally
Anyone can make you sweat, but I can keep you wet"
- "Give it to You"
Jordan thanks: God (see above), Miguel Melendez, Robin Thicke, Jimmy Jam, and Evy (presumably his wife)
Fan Club: http://www.jordanknight.com
A Florida police officer has been accused by a couple of dumping out the ashes of their infant daughter, thinking that it was cocaine.
Apparently the man carried the remains in a cross around his neck, and the officer asked him about it during a traffic stop. The police department is denying that the event took place, saying it is ridiculous to think that an officer would dump out what he believed to be evidence, thereby destroying it.
I think the whole things straight up weird. If my daughter died, I would not carry her physically with me all of the time. That's just sick in my opinion.
The article also mentioned that the incident allegedly took place around the time that Hurricane Charley was hitting. Logic would say that the dad accidentally dropped it in the storm, and happened to get pulled over or something, thus they decided to blame the officer and make a quick buck off of their daughter's spilled ashes, which would be even more sick.
My Golden Globes score: 10/24 on who I thought would win
6/24 on who I wanted to win
Most of the major awards were fairly predictable. There was never any doubt that Sideways would win, and there was little that The Aviator would win as well. Jamie Foxx probably had a spot cleaned off on his mantel before he left for his new statuette. Leonardo DiCaprio was a little surprising ( Iwanted Depp, thought Neeson), as was Hillary Swank for Million Dollar Baby. My favorite surprise of the night was Mariska Hargity winning best actress in a drama, because I love her on Law and Order SVU (Let the comments about me being a corporate sellout, conformist, etc. commence). I was also happy to see ABC Sunday nights representes well, with two wins for Desperate Houswives and William Shatner taking home best supporting actor for Boston Legal.
Now it's Oscar time! If anyone wants to compete against me, I'll post information on how to do that once the nominees are announced on Tuesday, January 25.
On an unrelated note, it's good to know that ISD 181 finally got their act together AFTER I left. Thanks Walseth! Love you too!
This bear was criticized by mental health experts for being demeaning to the mentally ill. I think it's hilarious. 
I just wanted to make everyone aware of a movie trailer on iTunes. It's not really a trailer, more of a mini documentary, but still i'm excited. It's for the first film in The Chronicles of Narnia, coming out this Christmas, and I'm getting REALLY excited about it. I'll probably post a bunch on it in the future, cause I have a feeling these films are going to be simply amazing in every way. And if they're not, I'm going to be really disappointed. Just check it out.
An Atlanta judge has ruled that stickers placed on science textbooks that say "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered." The judge decided that it violated the separation of church and state by saying that evolution was a theory. The judge elaborated by saying, "Due to the manner in which the sticker refers to evolution as a theory, the sticker also has the effect of undermining evolution education to the benefit of those Cobb County citizens who would prefer that students maintain their religious beliefs regarding the origin of life."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't evolution called "The Theory of Evolution" for a reason? Evolution has been referred to as a theory since it was first proposed, and yet this guy has a problem with it being called just that in a textbook? I'm not even coming at this from a religious standpoint; the fact is evolution is a theory. For this judge to claim a violation of the constitution was made by the school stated a widely accepted explanation is judicial activism at its worst.
Just so that I'm not posting in vain, I thought I'd point out the newest feature of my blog, "Movie Reviews". You can look at the first one, Shaun of the Dead, by clicking on the Movie Reviews link under Features on the sidebar. Also, I added the polls just for fun, and I'll update those every week or so. I'm still not sure when I'm starting again at the music store, so the music reviews are on hold until further notice. Peace out.
The following is an excerpt from an article on cnn.com:
"A Presbyterian minister collapsed and died at the pulpit after saying 'And when I go to heaven...,' his colleague said. The Rev. Jack Arnold, 69, was nearing the end of his sermon Sunday at Covenant Presbyterian Church when he grabbed the podium before falling to the floor, said the Rev. Michael S. Beats, the church's associate pastor."
The producers of "The Simple Life: Interns" recently approached a New Jersey school about filming an episode of the show there where Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton spent the day as substitute teachers and cafeteria monitors. The administration was surprised when they recieved some resistence to they idea by parents, and they have sinced cancelled the idea. What surprises me is that, out of 374 permission slips that were sent back, only 34 parents did not consent to have their children participate! That's a 10:1 ratio! Are parents today really THAT irresponsible that they would let their children be subjected to that kind of crap so easily? Sure, the show was going to donate $5000 to the school to do it, but that does not justify bringing the kind of values that they stand for into the public school system. Call me old fashioned, call me conservative, call me whatever, but I have a hard time following people's logic and reasoning sometimes.
Click on the headline for the full article.
I got back to Nashville yesterday, and so far things have been going all right. My roommate is back too, and he's been fine so far as well. Classes start tomorrow, but I only have a 9 AM and a 6:30 PM, so it's not too bad. PLUS, since we have an active black minority on campus, we get MLK Jr Day off on Monday. A three day weekend? So soon? Well, if you insist...
Some creative parenting: A mother and her boyfriend were sentenced to 4 years probation for locking her 7 year-old son in the trunk of her car while they celebrated her birthday at a bar. I'm guessing that, if this is any indication of how the mom operates, the son was more than happy to hop in the trunk and get away from her for awhile. I know I would've.
Also, a couple was arrested at the Mexican-American border for attempting to traffic an illegal alien. Where was the passenger? The 10 year-old girl was jammed underneath the dashboard on the passenger side. I think Circqu du Soleil was the planned recipient of this cargo.
I know you probably didn't think it was possible for my blog to be any cooler, but I somehow found a way to do just that. If you direct your attention to the sidebar, you will notice a new category: features. The links underneath this category allow you to access the two sub-blogs I've created. One is for music reviews, and I am looking for other people who would like to do album reviews alongside me. The other is for the blog game, so that those of you who have absolutley no desire to even bother with them don't have to, and those of you (parker) who don't want to even bother with anything else can just bookmark that blog instead. Ok, I think that's it for now. I might eventually create a few more sub-blogs, depending on how boring/easy school is when I begin semester #2.
Peace out.
I really have nothing to post about today. The brain-teaser was a stupid one, so i'm not even wasting my time with it. and it looks like Parker's gonna run away with the title if he keeps this up (probably because he has nothing better to do). I must sleep now.
Yes, that's right. There's been some changes to the ol' blog. I've get it pretty much the way I want it, but I'm having some problems changing the header, so bear with me for a little bit. Otherwise, I did add some links to other blogs, and there are more additions coming soon, so look for those in the coming weeks.
Peace out.
Ok, so I got a new Page-A-Day Calendar when I was in St. Cloud yesterday, "365 Mind-Bending Puzzles". Thus, I have the first official blog game out of all of the ones that I keep track of. Each day, along with my normal posts, I'll post the puzzle (if I can) and the first person to comment the right answer gets a point. I'll keep track of points, and whoever has the most points at the end of each month will get a prize. Points will start over on the first of each month. Only 1 puzzle will be posted on weekends, as that's what they gave me on the calendar. I'm posting the first couple of puzzles now, so I can catch up. Have fun!
Insect conversion.
Start with the word "bee". We will now transform the sequence of letters until "bee" becomes "ant". Here's how: during each turn, you can either insert a letter to the growing sequence, you can change a letter, or you can remove a letter. Each turn must create an English word. Using this process, can you convert "bee" to "ant"? The person who does it in the fewest number of turns by noon on Friday wins.
A devious spy has planted spying devices in a secret government facility composed of sixteen rooms in a four-by-four array. Your mission is to determine the number of bugs in each room given the following information: 2 of the rooms contain three bugs each. 2 of the rooms contain two bugs each. 4 of the rooms contain one bug each. The remaining rooms are bugless. Can you determine the number of bugs in each room? The numbers below indicate the total in each row, column, and the diagonal from upper left to lower right.
hello to everyon2
hello to everyon5
hello to everyon1
hello to everyon6
5 ell2 o3 ver4 o4
(Pretend there is a diagram there and pay no attention to the lettering, I had to add it to make it appear like a diagram)
Proceeding from the top row to the bottom, choose one letter from each row so that a six-letter word appears when you read from top to bottom. Hint: It's something you eat.
T P C
A E O
O S T
H N A
E R T
I W E
Last night I went down to St. Cloud to hang out with my sister. It was a good time all around, but the best part BY FAR was going to see "Finding Neverland". The best way that I can describe the experience? Enchanting (Yes it's cheesy, but it's the most accurate description I can think of). This film should definitely win the Best Picture Oscar this year. If it doesn't, I want to see the movie that does, because it must be amazing. Finding Neverland is one of the best movies I've ever seen. I think it creates a new benchmark for the type of film that I described a couple of days ago, having both sentence and solace in large portions. Johnny Depp's performance is great, but he's overshadowed by the children in the film, each of which plays their role with wit and passion. I could go on and on for quite a while about this film, but I'll save you the time. Just seriously go and see this movie as soon as you possibly can. I don't care if you have to drive for an hour or two, it's worth it.
Let me preface this for Hannah: This film has been known about for quite a while now, but I decided to wait until now to expose it.
Coming soon to a theater near you: Son of the Mask
That's right, The Man decided that the world would be a better place if movie-goers were subjected to another sequel to a 90's era Jim Carrey comedy that doesn't feature Jim Carrey (See also Dumb and Dumberer) The premise, according to Yahoo! Movies:
Starting over from scratch, this newest film in the "Mask" series focuses on aspiring cartoonist Tim Avery (Jamie Kennedy) who's feeling reluctant to become a father when he finds that he has to take care of a baby with amazing abilities... somehow, the baby has the powers of the Mask of Loki, a mythological object that transforms its user into a manic shapeshifter alter-ego. As bad as a baby with godlike powers might seem, the *really* bad news is that Loki (Alan Cumming) wants his mask back.
Doesn't that sound like a winner? That's what I thought.
Opens nationwide February 18!
First off, before I start, welcome to 2005. It's great to be here, I guess.
For my initial post of the new year, I have decided to do something different. I may get halfway through this post and realize it's the last one I'll ever do in the genre, but then again, maybe not. ANYWAY...
"And which of you that bear'th him best of all,
That is to say, that telleth in this case
Tales of best sentence and most solace..."
- Geoffrey Chaucer, "Prologue of the Canterbury Tales"
I've decided that the criteria set before the travelers in their game of story-telling is the best definition of the purpose of films. Because the words "sentence" and "solace" are not used in the same sense today as they were when Chaucer was writing, the sentence is basically the meaning of the tale, and the solace is the entertainment factor. So, essentially, the inn-keeper in TCT wanted the most entertaining story that also had the best moral or that taught the audience the most about themselves and the world around them.
And I believe that films need to be judged by the same criteria. This is not one of those bitter condemnations of Hollywood that some people love to go on and on about. Every major movie ever made falls under at least one of the two categories. Sure, most try to incorporate both , but the typical film, no matter where it's made, is either made to entertain or teach.
Stereotypical "Sentence" film of 2004: Fahrenheit 9/11
Stereotypical "Solace" film of 2004: Dodgeball
I can't stand the people who think that movies made for the sole purpose of entertainment are stupid. Similarly, the people who think movies that teach are boring or too hard to follow are lame as well. If a person wants to truly experience the joy of cinema, there must be a balance between the two.
And that balance is what makes great movies so great. They connect with the audience beyond face value, but still have a certain something that rings true with the common man with little to no introspection. That is why great films can easily cross cultural borders, language barriers, and gender gaps.
Keep this in mind during the upcoming awards season. I have found that while some films that get nominated fall into both categories, many critics and film groups focus more on the meaning then on the entertainment. Case in point: Halle Berry winning the Oscar for Best Actress in 2002 for "Monster's Ball." I'm sorry if any of you liked that movie, but frankly, I thought it blew. Apparently the Academy focused on the themes of racial tension and the death penalty, failing to take into account the most awkwardly disturbing sex scene in a non-porn film. Some call it "realistic" and "sexy"; I call it "disturbing".
Finally, since I'm going back to school next week and I've already paid my Blockbuster Online subscription for this month, I was hoping some of you could give some suggestions as to movies that fit both categories.
Also, I have no idea if this post is remotely coherent, so please let me know if I should post others like this or go back to the old way of things. Thanks.
