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.

I hope I have a blur someday...

Yesterday was Sonshine day, and today was crash/work/crash day! So I worked from 8-10:30 yesterday, then got cleaned up and on the road to Willmar. My arrival time was approx. 2:30 PM CST. First thing, I went to see who was on what stages at the time. Barlow Girl was just finishing up on the Main Stage, some random band was on Stage 2, and the Showmobile Stage looked to be between acts. I took a walk through the merch building, which was kind of disappointing to be quite honest. The coolest shirts there were mocks of the "Jesus is my Homeboy" shirts that said "Tobymac is my homeboy" on the front and "Jesus is my savior" on the back. They even had them in decent colors, but EVERYONE and their brother had them already, and I'm not a big fan of the type of shirts artists produce anyway (always that stupid retro tight look with super short sleeves), so I passed. On my way out of the building, I bumped into Jill, and we talked about what was happening when for a little bit.

After this, I partook in the greatest of all Sonshine rituals: The Hawaiian Shaved Ice booth. Since it's we're in the middle of the hottest week of the year, the line was pretty long, and I ended up waiting about 20 minutes. But it was totally worth it. Mmmm, Grapeade.

While in line, I saw Danielle from Belmont who lives in St. Cloud, and so we talked for awhile and she helped me pass the time in line, and then we headed over to the Showmobile because MuteMath was on, although I missed most of their set, which was very disappointing because they were pretty sweet. Later, I would purchase their only album, Reset", an EP, and thoroughly enjoy it on the ride home. While my reason for being at the Showmoblie was MuteMath, Danielle wanted to see Disciple, who were up next. I stuck around for them, and they were much better than I expected them to be. If I could have heard the lead singer better, I probably would have liked them more, but still a good show indeed.

At this point, Danielle and I got seperated for the duration. I went through the merch building again, and this is when I purchased the aforementioned EP, along with Mat Kearney's album, which I thoroughly enjoyed on the way home as well.

This is when the wandering began.

I'm not sure exactly what I did for about an hour there, but by 6 I was at the maindtage, waiting for TobyMac to start. He played a pretty sweet set (I LOVE Nirva Dorsaint, who does back-up vocals for him. Keep waiting for her rumored album to surface, but so far, nothing.) I would have liked it if he'd done a bit more off of his new album, but it was still good. He did an encore of "Jesus Freak", which got everyone really pumped. And, with all of this energy, people did... nothing, mostly because the evening speaker was up next, so people were forced to calm down if they wanted to reserve their spot for the later shows. I got some pizza and wandered some more, then caught the end of the speaker when he did this sweet chalk drawing on the spot in front of everyone. One of the coolest things of the night.

Following what felt like an eternity of soundchecking, Relient K began playing at about 8:45 I think. Not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed with them. They had to keep stopping after every song because they couldn't hear themselves in the monitor or something. You're professionals! Just play the fricking music! It doesn't matter if you can't hear yourself, the thousands of thirteen year-old girls (myself included) are drowning you out anyway!

The intermission between RK and Switchfoot was about as long as the previous one, but this one was better because the brought a fire hose over and sprayed down the crowd, which I think got the biggest applause of the night. Then, magic happened. Switchfoot took the stage and blew everyone away. My left contact had been bugging me all day, and I was tempted to leave after RK bombed, but I'm so glad I stuck it out. They played almost every song off "The Beautiful Letdown", including a version of "On Fire" that opened with Bob Dylan's "The times they are a'changin'", complete with harmonica and acoustic guitar. They played 2 songs off the new album, "Nothing Is Sound" (which drops Sept 13 btw). The first was the opening track, "Happy is a Yuppy Word", which I loved. It's kind of hard to think a style for it, but it's excellent, trust me. They closed with the first single from the album, "Stars", which was excellent as well, and which may be my favorite song of the moment.

Switchfoot finished at about 11:30, and I arrived back at home at 1:45 AM CST, at which point I promptly fell asleep until 7 this morning, when my dad woke me up to say goodbye to my sister, who left today for a two-week mission trip to Detroit. Fell back asleep until 9, worked from 10-6, and now I'm sitting here, thinking about how much I want to sleep. I realize that very few people will make it this far in the post, but I'm gonna keep goign anyway with 2 rants specific to yesterday.

1. I think one of my top 5 pet peeves is when people try to move their way to the front of a crowd at a concert or whatever. They come through all nice, with their "Excuse me"'s and their "I'm just gonna sneak through there"'s, and I just want to punch them in the face. Not so much the short people, because I can understand how frustrating it owuld be to not be able to see, but people taller than me trying to get through is just plain rude. and the worst is when they decide to move past you and can't move anymore, so they stop, and you have to move back to breathe. I mean, seriously, if there was more room further up, I'd already be in that space, so why the frick do you feel the need to check it out anyway and take my spot?

2. People crowd-surfing during slow songs. Sooooooooo lame. I think crowd-surfing in general is lame, but especially during slow songs. It's the people being passed around and those that put them up there that make menot like some concerts as much as I should. They're not there for the music. They could care less who is singing up front. All they want is to look cool. Trust me guys, it's not the way to go about that. There are a million different things you could do to try and be cool, and this is probably ranked 7th as far as least effective goes.

Congrats! You made it to the end of a super-update!
Peace out.

P.S. Happy Birthday Ben Stein

Because Ashley tagged me

1. Total number of books I own: not counting school books: 82. nout counting juvenile fiction series I read a decade ago, 44.
2. The last book I bought: "White" by Ted Dekker. Part of a trilogy, dang good.
3. The last book I read: "The Are of Being" compiled by Constance Rhodes.
4. Books that mean a lot to me: The Bible and the Chronicles of Narnia (I could never decide on just one)
5. "Tag" 5 People who HAVE to put this on their blog: parker, ben stein, tracy, shane/aana (whichever sees this first), and carmen, because a blog needs to be updated more often than once every 5 months.

Aana just called me a slut.

I need to process this for awhile.

Things I've done since last we talked

Right off the bat, I need to discuss War of the Worlds. I saw it on Sunday with Hannah, Ashley and Boos, and we went to the theater in Jenkins. Impressions fo the theater: quaint. It's pretty small, but it has five screens, so the theaters only hold like 150 people at most. And the best seats for the stadium seating are towards the back. Like a half hour before it started, Boos was tlaking about some girl's lactating nipples, and the guy in front of us asked him to be quieter, but he was kind of rude about it. It got Boos quiet though. The movie itself was very well done, and I liked it overall. There were some plot points that didn't quite add up, and the ending made everyone in the thater go "What the frick?", but beyond that, it was decent, no matter how bad Ashley says it sucked. Boos even thought it was decent, so that's saying something. Not nearly as good as Batman Begins though.

Let's see... I had people over last night and we watched Lif of Brian, which was pretty good, but not nearly as funny as The Holy Grail.

We went swimming at Erin's a few nights ago, and then played the final game of Shout About Movies Vol 2, which was much harder than the second game, and the guys cleaned up with a score of like 100-0 (literally) because the girls thought that Star Wars came out during the Reagen admininistration, and the boys knew that Indecent Proposal came out during Clinton's tenure.

I got a new CD in the mail yesterday. It's Andy Davis' "Thinks About Her", and it's very very good. He's a recent Belmont grad with lots of talent and I think he'll make it big eventually. If you like acoustic pop with a bit more piano (think almost Billy Joel meets Jack Johnson), it's at least worth checking out http://www.myspace.com/andydavis . "Black Keys" is my favorite as this point.

I have 3 friends who are interning in London this summer, 2 of whom were on the London subway system when the bombs went off. Luckily, they weren't near them, and all three are doing fine. I think it's insane that people would do things like that. And it's really only a matter of time before something like this happens again in the U. S. In fact, I'm surprised it hasn't already happened. Do you ever find yourself thinking "If I was a terrorist, I would bomb this", or "I would attack on this day"? 'Cuz I do. Is that odd?

Anatomy of a 3 mile traffic jam in central Minnesota

For those of you not from the Brainerd Lakes Area, let me give you a picture of Fourth of July weekend here. Normally, there are approx. 20,000 residents here. In the summer, on an average week, it's probably up to 40-50,000 people counting snow birds and and vacationers. For the fourth? I'm guessing here, but I would say conservatively over 100,000 people descend on Brianerd, MN and the surrounding communities, probably more. Needless to say, traffic blows. Hard. There are some fun events that go on, like the parade, and some pretty dang sweet fireworks/ Beyond that, I could really live without this weekend.

No work during the rest of the weekend though, so I'll learn to live.

So I'm watching VH1/MTV right now, and they've got the Live 8 concerts on, and the one in London looks fricking sweet, and I have friends interning in London right now, and I'm really hoping they're in Hyde Park at the free show, and if they are it would be so insanely sweet.

I worked for about 5 hours this morning, and it wasn't too bad. Plus, my dad wasn't with me, so I get payed more. Nice.

Went to Coco Moon and Northwest Pizza last night with Aana and Ashley, which was fun. Then we tok our pizza to Whipple and had a picnic, which was even better, and Drew and Seth came too. Then we went to Erin's, lost Drew and Aana, gained Shane, and played Shout About Movies Vol 2, which was a ton of fun, and I would totally buy it if they weren't so expensive and/or had more than 3 games on them. Seth, Ashley, and I smoked Shane and Erin (not really, but we did win).

I've heard rumors of Crosslake fireworks tonight, but I'm not sure. And War of the Worlds is happening tomorrow afternoon. Good times.

The only purpose for this post is to fix the margins, and that's it.