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.