It was officially cold as fuck this morning, but I'm alright with it because I had a very "Fall" weekend. It was also the fastest weekend ever. Went to Bay View Bowl on Friday night and we barely broke 100. By the end of the night we got into an intense and drunken conversation about the merits of 90's alternative dudes - Chris Cornell and Layne Staley came out on top and Kurt Cobain lost. Waking up and staying up through a 8:30-3:45 class on Saturday was brutal...class has been generally insane...the minute I finish one project, the next is due. Sunday I woke up and went over to my mom's for one of my favorite things of the year - trick or treat. For the last 10 years or so, I've been going to my mom's house and we put together little treat bags for all the kids. How awesome is it to go to one house and get an entire bag full of candy?! I grew up right next to a school in a very residential area, so we had 125+ kids. My favorite was a tiny boy in a chicken costume who clucked at us. :) Then Russ and I went Halloween shopping and I decided on a costume for this weekend. We came back to my mom's and had dinner with my brother and Carolyn, who is looking mega pregnant. It's exciting. They said their name choice, if they have a girl, is "Ava Amanda", which made me verklempt. Their ultrasoud tech slipped and said "she" a couple times last week so here's hoping we have a little Ava running around soon.

I'm in the market for a laptop. I'm on the fence between a PC and a Mac. Basically I want it for school stuff, iTunes, uploading my photos, and internetting. I haven't bought a computer in more than 5 years, so I just want something that's going to perform well and last a long time. Is the software and stability of a Mac worth the $$$?

Happy Halloween Week! Buy this and carve some pumpkins using these...

This day has been a little blah...I have class for the next two nights so Tuesdays are always kind of a drag. But I just turned on the radio and one of the most beautiful songs in the history of humanity just started. Russ and I sang it at karaoke a couple weeks ago, which was almost blasphemy, but it’s so good you can’t help yourself. It’s one of those songs that I can never listen to just one time - instant multiple replays are always necessary. Any crappy afternoon at work, any average night at the bar, this song always reminds me that anything can be instantly elevated through music…

blink blink blink

For the past two months, it seems like life has been a string of obligations, some good and some not so good. I’m in class for six hours a week on top of working, but beyond the couple classmates who have no business even thinking about teaching, I’m enjoying it. Ed psych is especially interesting, but I keep thinking about how to best put theory into practice. It’ll take time. I have a funeral tonight and then a wedding on Saturday so it’s going to be a weird weekend.

I managed to catch most of the debate last night and it was actually entertaining! McCain looked pissed. The most ridiculous statements of the night dealt with issues I very much care about – special needs, education, and abortion (I think I’m just used to getting raped money-wise so I care more about rights issues). God, when abortion came up and McCain referred to women’s “health” and did the little quotey fingers, I wanted to punch. See the video here. How dismissive and insulting. He also claimed Sarah Palin is now a special needs expert because she has a five month baby with Down Syndrome. At this point, a parent can’t even begin to imagine what a life with an adolescent will be like. This is parallel to the Alaska-Russia argument. He also proposed that people who served in the military shouldn’t have to become certified to teach. This goes against IDEA, and NCLB, and I’m currently spending $15,000 to become a “highly qualified” teacher, which should be a necessity for all of us. Mostly, McCain came off angry and unfocused. I had some sympathy for him before this…I thought he was a decent man who is being handled carefully by his party…but that sympathy is disappearing. He dismissed women. He defended the people at his rallies. He lacked spirit and kindness. But he did say “Senator Government” which was fucking awesome.

Now let's all have some patriotism.

The black!!!
And in other news of soulless people, someone slashed the massive, pumpkin-shaped Halloween store a half mile from my house. They were probably afraid of the black, too:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=806202

Something positive.

I was flipping through channels last night before bed, and through the hateful haze of 24-hour-news stations, I came across Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. I usually hate pundit television, but she’s a breath of fresh air – smiling, funny, and very, very thoughtful. Even when being attacked (by David Frum last night), she still has respect for what others are saying, and gives them smart and real answers, as opposed to just yelling at them. She makes the women on Fox look like dumbed-down Stepford wives. I didn’t even think there was a place for this on cable news anymore. And she’s a Rhodes Scholar. I think I have a crush…

http://www.buffalonews.com/185/story/463017.html

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rachel+maddow

Even McCain is disgusted by his crowds....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gx21oan3uc

And insead of spin, we get straight lies...http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/palin-makes-tro.html

You know, I almost understand that campaigning involves bending the facts to benefit your cause, but when you start terrorist fear mongering, it brings out scary things in people. I would hope that it wouldn’t be worth the office to manipulate people into hate. I want to punch this blonde girl and her grating voice right in the mouth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVFWahLTdUo

How do you not say something...

The last few weekends have been fun…we have Russ's little one every other weekend, but the grandparents took him last Friday so we could go out. Went on the Edelweiss booze cruise with Jesse and everyone, which could have been completely obnoxious based on who else was one it, but it was relatively laid back. I felt strangely in my element eating nachos and watching a dude who looked like Bizzy Bone hump a chick to Timbaland. I'm sure the all you can drink beer helped.

The Friday after that we met up with my brother and some friends to see Opeth. I was lucky enough to see them the first time they played in the US, at Metalfest 2000, with Katatonia. It was the worst show I've seen either band play, and I loved every minute of it. Opeth has really improved live and especially with the release of Watershed, seem to be rocking out a lot more. Mikael is always funny and sweet and seems to be having a great time playing. The set was varied and beautiful – Serenity Painted Death, The Night and the Silent Water, and lots of Watershed stuff. Towards the end of the show Mikael picked up a note someone had thrown on stage and read the entire thing – starting with "Dear Opeth, I love the contour of the cock in your pants". In reality was from a girl explaining that her dad's birthday is coming up and asking if Mikael would call him and wish him a happy day. He said "of course I'll call your dad". It was a great show. We went out to the bar afterwards and I saw some high school friends there, so we stayed until bar close. I woke up two hours later and went to my parent's house so we could get on the road by 6:00am to head to the illustrious Retreat Fair. It was all about a "parade" of tractors and classic cars, including a black '70 Mustang restored and driven by my grandpa, an awesome (and massive) $6 chicken dinner, and a tractor pull. Wow. Pictures are here. My cousin Jonpaul came in from Portland that night, so he and I headed out to The Thirsty Turtle, a surprisingly normal bar about 20 feel from my grandparent's house. We had drinks, listened to Marvin Gaye and Al Green and old Michael Jackson, and played a video hunting game. It seemed appropriate. It was a great time to spend with him, and my grandparents, who aren't getting any younger.

I suck at Netflix. I've had La Vie En Rose, The Dividing Bell and the Butterfly, and Lust, Caution at home for a month. I finally watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly last week, which was simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring. I guess I'm an ideal Netflix customer. But I can't bring myself to send these back because I really want to see them. I guess I've had a little movie ADD lately – I can only watch hour long episodes of Deadwood and Dexter. I WILL watch one more of these movies next week...

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5973452&page=1

My mind is boggled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbg6hF0nShQ

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/palin-on-russia.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z75QSExE0jU

Sadly, this is making me hopeful about the upcoming election, but the fact that people are willing to give their votes to her for the most superficial reasons is insane. I’ve never understood the American desire to have someone “average” in the office, because the President should be anything but. Read this:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080

Also, a detailed yet readable explanation of our current economic situation:

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/diamond-and-kashyap-on-the-recent-financial-upheavals/

I need to drink more. The Office premier party tonight and Opeth tomorrow…thank fucking god…

Calfa got married over the weekend, and it was a great reason for all of us to basically go on vacation together before summer ends. The resort was absolutely beautiful – right on North Bay and Lake Michican. We drove up on Friday night and spent the night drinking and talking around the fire, woke up, ate breakfast, and discovered some ridiculous bike trails belonging to the resort. It was perfect outside – slightly overcast and misty. All the life that had sprouted over the summer was stunning. We came back and got ready for the wedding – thankfully the rain let up and they got married right on the shore. It was a late afternoon ceremony so we headed to the lodge for cocktails, dinner, and the most dancing I’ve done in a long time. Everyone was pretty drunk, so I wasn’t too surprised to come back to our room to hear a couple of our friends loudly boning, but thankfully I passed out shortly thereafter. Sunday Russ and I went to Peninsula State Park and hiked around. Afterwards we went to a bar/grill in Fish Creek for some food and the newly married couple and other friends were there, so we watch the Packers beat the hell out of Detroit. It was the perfect way to end summer and spend a romantic weekend away. I love Milwaukee, but it’s awesome to find new places in your own state that rival the beauty of anything you’ve seen (and listen to a shitload of Swedish metal while doing it). I recently got a new camera so I went a little crazy with the photos, but everything was so overwhelming and I just wanted to document it all. A few photos...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bundlesofvitals/sets/72157607302890410/

One good beat...

We were lazing around last night and out of pure “oh I have cable again” curiosity, I watched the beginning of the VMAs. I liked Russell Brand in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and thought he might be funny, but the first 20 minutes of this thing (all I could make it through) were painfully unfunny and unparty…bad jokes, bad music, bad people. This is pop music nowadays? I mean it’s always kinda sucked but it they’d throw in a few legitimate musicians and nugs of entertainment here and there. And this isn’t because I’m nearing my late 20’s and feeling out of touch, because I can jam “Girls All Around The World” loud as fuck in my car and enjoy it (thankfully it samples “Ashley’s Roachclip”, which is used on Eric B & Rakim's "Paid In Full" among others, so maybe I’m just enjoying its origins...see 3:31 here), but man this show was baaaaad. I never thought I'd miss the days of RATM bassists climbing the set and Courtey Love yelling about drugs. As usual, fourfour sums it up perfectly...

I just had a long conversation with a co-worker, a woman about twenty years older than me who is like this calm, benevolent mom of the office. She always sees both sides of issues so I can talk to her rationally about pretty much anything. I brought up catching some of the Republican National Convention last night for the pure entertainment value, and I mentioned how hard it is for me to get involved in anything political, since I get a robotic, disingenuous vibe from about 90% of statements politicians make. It creeps me out that there are people’s entire lives that are dedicated to pleasing (i.e. lying to) large numbers of people, namely people who’s jobs consist of twisting the same situations to represent different things (from both parties). Bizarre. I really pride myself on being able to see both sides of a situation, but last night it was very, very hard. I mentioned that Giuliani and Palin’s speeches were particularly weird since statements like “clinging to religion” were met with screams of pleasure from a bunch of old white ladies in straw hats, among other things. But our IT guy made it clear that he thought the exact opposite – that the Democrats had a negative vibe and the Republicans were merely celebratory. I made some neutral comment to try to diffuse the situation while my other coworker and I made “what the fuck” eyes at each other. Yikes. He’s also suuuper into Jesus. I just hope he doesn’t block my internet access.

Anyway, here are some things I learned from 20 minutes of the Republican National Convention:

John McCain can “protect us from anything nature throws our way”. Next tornado warning, he better be here doing some ridiculous shit.

Todd (“Second Dude”?), Padge (or whatever the older son’s name is), and the rest of the Palins look like all the douchey jocks from high school. Yes, I’m judging them based on appearance. Todd.

The shots of Giuliani in front of the water looked almost exactly like the bad CGI shots of Wyckyd Scepter performing “Getting the Shaft Again” for all those gay guys.

Roberta McCain, mom of John McCain, is still alive. Wow!

Calls for offshore drilling from Giuliani will be met with chants of “DRILL BABY DRILL” followed by his maniacal laughter and Joker-like smile.

The kid who knocked up her daughter looked freaked the fuck out. It ruled.

One random old man likes to wear his baseball hat backwards. It was kinda cute.

After that it started to get unsettling, so we watched Bear Grylls eat a raw sheep’s heart after pulling its body from a peat bog. It wasn’t that much different…

Ugh...

Speaking before the Pentecostal church, Palin painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord.

"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God," she exhorted the congregants. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

Religion, however, was not strictly a thread in Palin's foreign policy. It was part of her energy proposals as well. Just prior to discussing Iraq, Alaska's governor asked the audience to pray for another matter -- a $30 billion national gas pipeline project that she wanted built in the state. "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said.

End of Summer

I love the beginning of school year buzz…buying supplies, teachers coming back, work getting crazy, etc. And I’m very much looking forward to classes starting again for me next week. But with summer ending, I’ve been trying to take advantage of the beautiful weather as much as possible. A few weekends ago we went up to Fremont with Russ’s sister, her boyfriend, and some of her friends, and it was just beautiful. Not much is better than sitting around a campfire at night and waking up in your tent with a view of the lake. Saturday morning we woke up and were told everyone was going out on the boat, so we packed up coolers and sunscreen and headed out. We parked at a sandbar with a bunch of other boats and hung out and drank all day. It was Wisconsin boating for sure! Besides the sunburn and a sore ass from tubing, it was a great time. On the way home on Sunday, Russ and I decided to take a detour and try to find summer camp I went every summer for most of my childhood. I hadn’t been there in ten years, but with the help of a gas station dude in Waupaca, we found our way. I was a little worried about just walking around the campground, but this was a Christian camp, so what were they going to do, kick us out?! But the grounds were quiet so we explored, found the cabin I used to stay in, and sat with our feet in the amazingly clear lake. It was so overwhelming to go back to a place I had such strong memories of…I could remember exactly when and where things happened as we walked around. When we got home I called my mom and thanked her for sending me there for a couple weeks a year.

Last weekend was interesting…we threw a bachelorette party for Calfa, one of our first friends to get married, and it was out of hand. Lots of drinks, a man dancer, and a stretch Escalade filled with 15 girls and ODB (via CD). The next morning I went to Russ’s sister’s wedding shower which was considerably more laid back, but a lot of fun. That night my brother called and said he passed his black belt test in Jujutsu that day (so awesome), so we met him at a festival across the street from him. We grabbed drinks from the house and a cover band was playing Rush and Yes medleys (and well!), so it ended up being a surprise party night...I think I was the only one who made it to work on time the next morning.Also saw some shows...Melvins/Big Business and Testament were particularly good.

I’m off at 11:30 today and then we’re heading back up north with Monica and Franjo for one last camping/Dells excursion before school begins. I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!!

Brett Favre is an ass.

A quote from the humble Brett Favre:

Said Favre: “Them moving on does not bother me. It doesn’t. I totally understand that. By me retiring March 3rd I knew that could possibly happen. All I was saying is you know I’m thinking about playing again."

Could possibly happen???!! Ugh. I've stopped watching news in an effort to avoid hearing about it. You would think this was all that was happening in Wisconsin.

"It's tempting just to, as everyone said, you know, call their bluff or whatever," Favre said. "I think it's going to be a circus in itself already, whether I go there, whatever."

Please let him go have a few mediocre seasons somewhere else!

It's July 10th and just now feeling like summer. I think I filled my quota of Summerfest trips this year, which revolved around seeing RUSH. I was so excited for this tour, and everything seemed to fall into place. I had a temporary freak out when Jesse called me and said the tickets he had been promised fell through, but at least I had an entire day to find other tickets, so I placed a desperate craigslist ad and got a promising reply from "Jeff", who was getting rid of 4 decent seats at face value. Yes! So Russ and I drove to Planet Marky and took the shuttle bus (a schoolbus you can drink on) from there to the fair grounds. The bus made one more stop at another bar on the way, and I looked up to see Jesse walking out of the door! Awesome. And some random hesher immediately lit a joint and shared it, which the bus driver didn't seem to care about at all! We arrived and met up with "Jeff", who was nice if a bit weird, got the tickets, grabbed a beer, and went into the Marcus...
( Photos, etc... )

So good. Our second trip to Summerfest was to see the Gin Blossoms. Seriously. They have (had?) some beautiful songs and I was hoping to relive some sort of mid-90's evening...turns out it was just old guys struggling to keep up with mid-paced alternative songs. But it was nostalgic enough to be fun, and this happened! Poor guy. But yeah, the older I get the less tolerance I have for Summerfest at midnight. It's the most annoying drunken people soup ever...even if I'm drunk.

A recommendation for your week - download and listen to a TED talk on your way to work each morning. They're about 15 minutes each and are a hell of a lot more fun and interesting than Milwaukee talk radio.