Cinematographically speaking

I just re-opened my Blockbuster online account, and upon looking through the various titles that are available, have come up with a very small queue. I need suggestions and I need them quick.

I do not appreciate when the first day of fall is also in the mid 90s. That's not supposed to happen, I was just getting in a Christmas mood yesterday for goodness sake! Come on!

In one of the most unfortunate moments of my young fantasy football life, I had Kevin Curtis and Donovan McNabb sitting on my bench today while they went and outscored my entire starting team by themselves. I think I might still win though, so not a total loss.

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Adventures in creation

I have just added a new application to Firefox that allows me to blog from my browser anytime I want without signing in to Blogger. Needless to say, if this thing actually works, I think I'll be keeping this thing a bit more current than every two weeks (or more). I guess we shall see.

This week went by extremely quickly, even with it being a relatively boring work week. I enjoyed the week on the whole, though, so I'm completely ok with it.

I have started hosting a community group through Rolling Hills on Monday evenings. We have met twice, and both times have been great. Everyone seems to really want to be there, want to invest in everyone else there, want to create a community. I'm excited to see how this goes in the coming months.

I went to my first quasi-official Big Loud Bucks company event on Tuesday, as Craig Wiseman was hosting his annual "Stars for Second Harvest" show at the Ryman. In the past this show has included the likes of Ronnie Dunn (of Brooks and Dunn fame), Keith Urban, and Bon Jovi, but Craig was having a hard time getting his friends signed up, so the whole show was performed by the Hit Men of Music Row, four songwriters that have written a combined 38 #1 country songs. The guys were extremely entertaining, the music was awesome, and it was at the freaking Ryman Auditorium; you can't go wrong with that.

As for the title of my post, it refers to my two adventures in the kitchen this week. The first was Sunday afternoon's effort to create a gluten-free Mark Wad, in celebration of Rachel's birthday. It was pretty easy to make, the only real difference was Rice Krispies instead of oatmeal, but the result was drastically different, with a lightly dense consistency. I personally prefer the original, but these kind of grew on me over time.

On a related note, I've decided to host a Christmas Ball party in December where everyone will get to create their own Wad. I'll have snickers, peanut butter cups, cereal, fudge, caramel, and everything else anyone would want to put in a Wad, and everyone will be able to leave with a recipe for their Wad. I'm weird, I know.

My second creation of the week grew out of my trip to the grocery store this morning, where I spontaneously decided to make soup today. Not having any sort of recipe and only a slight reference as to what you need in a soup, I got some chicken broth, potatoes, ham, ground beef, cheese soup, pork jowl bacon, cheese, and half and half. I pretty much threw the first six ingredients together in a crock pot for 4 hours and added the cheese and cream 15 minutes before eating. The result was an incredibly filling soup that I think, with some tweaking, could be much better; the pork jowl bacon needs to be switched to something a bit less fatty, and I might work on quantities of ingredients. I also now have seriously a tub full of soup to eat for the next week. No joke, I don't think I'll have to eat anything else until next Saturday.

Be on the lookout in the near future for more rants like my last post and hopefully some fun news (no idea what that would be, but I'd like to think fun news comes along once in a while, and I don't think I've had any for a bit).

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It's Rant-eriffic

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the infrequency is lame, I know.

I've decided one of my least favorite things in the world is when other people have their "That could have been me" near-death experience, or at least what they perceive as "near-death."

This was never more apparent to me than last month when the I-35 bridge collapsed. I would hear all of these accounts from people who would say, "I was on that bridge last Tuesday, it could just have easily been me on there!" and I would just want to smack the person on the TV or leave a bitter comment on their facebook wall. Because, really, it could have been anyone. They could have interviewed a 37 year-old woman from Nashville and heard her say, "I thought about going back to school one time last summer, and the University of Minnesota was on my radar. It could have been me on there." How ridiculous does that sound?

Maybe it's that I get annoyed by some of the things that cause people to re-examine their lives. Or things they claim cause them to re-examine their lives. Like it being a wake-up call for a girl who has never had sex to take a pregnancy test on her doctor's orders: what did she really think was going to be the result? If the test comes out positive, then obviously there are some serious questions that are raised. But the girl who takes that five minutes of what should best be described as curiosity and makes it a turning point in her life is living in denial. She's in denial of the importance of her life: she doesn't think the rest of her existence is exciting, so she has to take these brief brushes with danger and tragedy and make them more than they are.

And I think that this finally gets to the root of my annoyance: selfishness. Maybe more self-centeredness, although I believe they are interconnected. This annoyance manifests itself in those moments when someone asks you how you are only so they can tell you how they are, when someone makes their momentary trials the latest in a string of close calls. People like this seem to have a Struggle of the Month that, even once resolved, will remain in the forefront of their mind until the next SOTM comes along. Wake up call: Not everything is about you! Not even everything that happens to you is about you! Thinking that it is keeps you from recognizing the things that actually matter. Things like friends in trouble, family in pain, strangers in need. You will fit in each of these categories at some point in your life, and it's at that point it might be about you. Until then, make it about everyone else and you'll be surprised how much easier and more fulfilling life can be.

I just got paid

First, how many of you first thought of N'Sync when you read that title? Just checking... moving on.

Another week gone.

Work was pretty good; I still like my job, so that's what's important, I guess. I also received my first pay check yesterday, most of which I won't be able to actually use until a week from Monday because my checking account with Bank of America is so new they have to put the balance on hold. I'm not entirely sure why that is, but I'm sure they have perfectly illogical reason for it, so I won't question it.

Jon's parents came into town last weekend, and we saw Bourne Ultimatum, which I liked quite a bit. I would say it was at least as good as Supremacy. Ben's sister was in town too, so we played a lot of cards too. I would also like to point out that, on Tuesday, I whooped up on Jess and Ben in Pinochle at Fido.

I'm getting into a bit of a groove of the whole work thing. My schedule has stabilized, and I like that I've still been able to have plenty of fun. I haven't been getting tired either, which I think I'm going to credit to a summer of hard work and my daily running. Really, everyone's getting ready to go back to school and it hasn't been weird at all for me. It feels completely normal that I should be working in an office right now, that I should be independent. Working around my friends' class schedules shouldn't be a big deal. (I say that now, before class has even started, so I could be eating my words in a week).

We got a new couch today from Susan's old roommate, who needed a place to store hers for the year. Jon and I picked up a new slipcover for it, as the previous one was quite nice but red like the walls in our living room. I had no idea how expensive slip covers are; I mean, it's basically a sheet, and they want $80? Screw that. I bought a simple one for $40 that matches the other couch and will serve its purpose quite well.

I'm losing steam on this post. Until next time...

Return of the Blogger

Wow, it's been close to a month. My bad.

I started my job on Monday, and this past week has gone pretty well. It's kind of a slow time for royalties because they're due on the 15th, and that means all the companies will start sending them then (just the way the music industry works). This has given me time to get familiar with the songs we work with, and I've started making some of the spreadsheets and databases that will eventually allow me to give our clients better data and more accurate projections for each quarter (kind of the whole reason they brought me on in the first place).

My schedule for work is your standard 9-5, which includes a flexible lunch. Some days will be a little longer than that, but I can live with that. The people I work with are great and have been extremely helpful in getting me used to all the processes and procedures of the office.

Which, speaking of, here are some pictures of my office and a video of the view from my desk chair.

The Big Loud Shirt/Bucks building


My office








And an extremely poor quality video:

Bigger, Louder, and... Buckser?

Wow, so much awesome news!

First, I am back in Minnesota. I drove up Friday, and will be returning to Nashville on Saturday the 28th. I'll get to do osme more flooring work while I'm up here plus I get to help my parents with their newest project...

A new house! They first looked at this place a week ago yesterday, and will now be closing on it Thursday. It's an awesome house, tons of space, and perfect for my parents. It will be a great place to come back to...

From my new job! That's right, I have accepted the royalty analyst position with Big Loud Bucks copyright administration in Nashville. It's gonna be a lot to learn early on, but eventually I hope to take the tasks and make them my own, making them more efficient and effective. I start there on August 6, so three weeks from today I will be moving in to my own office. Incredible.

I think that's plenty for one update, I'll wait until you've digested that info before giving you anything more (not that there's anything too exciting left, but it might keep you coming back for more).

I said, "No No No"

All right, a shotgun post, seeing as it's been two weeks since the last one:

1. I arrived in Nashville a week ago yesterday, and things have been pretty chill ever since. My interview at Big Loud Bucks went great, and I'm going to a writers' showcase Wednesday to meet the rest of the employees. I think that's a pretty good sign...
2. I have seen Live Free or Die Hard and Transformers since coming down, both of which were excellent, especially Die Hard. I also went to Ratatouille with my family the day before coming back, and it was great as well. Now it's on to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I have a feeling my string of luck will continue.
3. Fireworks in Nashville are incredible, even from several miles away, and they capped a fun 4th that involved grilling, friends, and lots of hand and foot.
   
4. I will be heading back home on Friday the 13th for a bit more time with the fam before hopefully coming back down in early August to start a job or at least do some hardcore searching.
   
5. Ummm... that might be it for now. WAIT: Check out Sara Bareilles' CD "Little Voice" for only $6.99 on iTunes. It's great piano pop, a few too many songs about love on it, but still worth $7 for sure.

I'll post more later, I promise!