The David Digest

Super Tuesday

2008-02-05T22:11:00.000-06:00

Caucuses! Aren't they awesome? I get all fired up every time an election comes around. I think I'd be one of those over zealous types that lives for politics if I didn't value my non-school/non-work time so much. Anyway, the entire process amazes me.

The power that the individual has in this process is pretty cool. You can recommend changes to the party platform, elect delegates, and pitch your candidate of choice to the group. Where else can you throw your thoughts out there and have as much weight put on them as in the caucus? And since hardly anyone shows up for them compared to a general election your vote counts several times as much!

Funny caucus story - Everyone seemed to bring their kids to this thing. I guess whoever invented daycare forgot to also invent nightcare. Anyway, one of the kids was sick and puked in the garbage at the start of our precinct meeting. One of the first things we did was to take the vote everyone had come for, for the presidential nominee. The votes were tallied by counters nominated from our group, and the two came back with the final numbers. One of them asked if the original ballots were needed as the other casually threw them into the trash. Everyone looked on in horror as the ballets fell into the puke filled trash can. They pulled them out, puke and all, and put them in the envelope with a warning about the contents. Yuck!

Now where else can you get a great story like that, have influence on the direction of the nation, and feel like you're making a difference? Long live the caucus!

Hernias Suck

2008-01-11T16:59:00.000-06:00

I’m not usually one to rant but let’s be honest, hernias suck. There are few indisputable truths in this universe, but that is most certainly one of them and I’d like to have a word with anyone who says otherwise. I had surgery to have mine repaired, and I must say, hernia repair surgery sucks too. Yet even worse than surgery is having the doc reopen and clean out part of the incision of infection a week later using long toothpick like sticks, without painkillers. I knew I was in for a treat when he said, "I need to see how deep it goes." I now know pain beyond anything I have ever experienced in my life up to this point.

Every once in a while you need a reminder of how good life is. To put things in perspective. That certainly did it for me. I now know what “put a bullet in my head now or I will” pain feels like, and will never be able to accidentally slice open my leg or hand again with a kitchen knife and be able to complain about it as much.

Anyone out there with good pain stories? What is the worst you’ve had? I know by most standards my experience today was probably pretty weak. Show me what you got!

So Why The DeLorean?

2007-12-26T17:48:00.000-06:00

*Update: There has been some confusion about this post - I have NOT purchased a DeLorean yet. Don't worry, the plan is to do so by age 30, that is a little over 1.5 years away at the time of this writing.

When I was 6 years old I saw a movie unlike any other I had ever seen. It was a movie about second chances. A movie about making the right choice when it isn’t the easy thing to do. That movie was “Back to the Future.” I found myself liking George McFly, the dorky Dad who was shy but held hidden potential that was waiting to explode if given the opportunity. As you recall, as a result of Marty’s intervention George steps out of character and takes a stand against the school bully in a situation he would have normally backed down on. That one event changed the course of his life in drastic ways that he could have never expected.

That got me thinking, I want to recognize those moments in my life. Those moments when looking back I would say “if only I had…” I wanted to be able to live my life such that I would not have regrets in those moments. As George illustrated in the movie, it was the moments of inaction he regretted, those were the moments that destroyed his life. As a result, I try my best to take action when I know I should though I am tempted not too. That has served me well.

So why the DeLorean? The single most representative object from the movie is unquestionably the car. As a huge fan of the movie, I found myself reading up on all things about it. I came to the point where I could tell you hundreds of factoids about the cast, crew, locations, and situations around the film. Through this I also began to better understand the DeLorean, and the person behind it, John Z. DeLorean.

The story of the DeLorean car is one very similar to the movie, it is a story of chasing dreams, taking a big leap of faith, and not looking back. Here was a man who was an executive at General Motors, the largest auto company in the world at the time, who left it all to follow a lifetime dream of building his ideal car. In the same vein as the movie, he recognized that moment in time where he needed grab his dream, and he did. Say what you will about the fate of the DeLorean Motor Company, their business practices, and the circumstances around its demise, but the guts it took John Z. to make his dreams a reality is something to be admired and emulated.

This dream became my own in part many years ago. The car is the objectification of the impressions a nutty 80’s movie made on me and has served as my own motivation for bettering myself early in my life. A couple decades ago it became a goal to eventually purchase a DeLorean when the time was right. This has helped me to focus my life on establishing myself such that it will be the right time. It is amazing what a goal does for a person. It has motivated me to achieve things I previously had never thought possible.

…oh, and the sweet stainless steel gull wing doors don’t hurt ;-)

Nebraska And Football

2007-11-25T20:21:00.000-06:00

Have you ever been talking to someone for 10 minutes, only to find that the conversation has drifted to Huskers football? If so, you are talking to a Nebraskan.

For Thanksgiving my wife and I went to her Mom's place in Omaha. It just so happened that it was also the weekend that their college football coach was getting fired. I could not believe how big of news it was. It was on the front page of the newspaper, it was on the radio as I was flipping through the stations, it was on the 10 o'clock news as the lead story, then another 5 min during the sports segment. My mother in law was getting phone calls about it.

I admit I'm not much of a football fan so I'm not completely surprised by how out of the loop I was on this, but I realized this trip that Husker football is the Nebraska culture. Heck, they even elected a former Husker coach as a US Congressman! I knew it was big there, but I had no idea it was that big.

As a Minnesota boy, I was trying to think of something similar that all of us Minnesotans have that we rally around and defines the state. Probably nothing to that extent. Fishing? Hunting? Hotdish? I don't know. What defines Minnesotans?

Ask And You Shall Receive

2007-10-27T15:52:00.001-05:00

Every once in a while I have a class that changes my perspective. This week was one of those classes. I’m taking a class in negotiations and we did a negotiation exercise in which we had to negotiate a job offer with another classmate that acted as the recruiter. We were given a paper with point values assigned to different things to negotiate. In the process of this negotiation, we found we had many competing interests, so many that when we started negotiating about location, we didn’t ask for what we really wanted, we each gave in a little from what we really wanted. As a result, the one location that would have helped us both best we never asked for.

It made me wonder how many chances I’ve passed up just because I don’t ask for exactly what I want. This served as a wake up call that there is never any harm in asking for what you really want, the worst that you can get is a “no”, so go for it!

The Perfect Day

2007-10-18T23:12:00.000-05:00

I owe you all a big thanks for still checking in, I apologize for my lack of posting, I’m not living up to my own standards. But here it is at last, the wedding post.

Everyone says that their wedding day is the greatest day of their lives. I always thought that was one of those things people say because they have to say it. Kind of like those parents who say their baby is the most beautiful thing in the world, when it is obvious the kid shouldn’t have that strange appendage growing out of his forehead. Well, I’ve now become one of those people in regards to my wedding; it was the best day ever.

I’m sure you are familiar with the concept of “The Perfect Storm,” several rare and key pieces falling into place at exactly the right moment in time at exactly the right place to create something much greater than the individual pieces. That is the only way I can really describe my wedding day. It was really four huge things coming together where they needed to: the girl I love, family and friends, an awesome celebration, and yes, the car of my wildest dreams.

Let me begin with the most important part, the girl. Those of you who are married may or may not remember a time in your life when you spent years, the better part of 2 decades, believing you would never find that perfect person to spend the rest of your life with. If you’re single and my age (28+), you no doubt have thought this at some point. The hopelessness of that place was a difficult thing to shake, and something I had to shake before dating my now wife. Finally seeing her in her dress, ready to give the rest of her life to me, was no small thing, and something I pray I never take for granted. It was the perfect moment with the perfect person.

If that weren’t enough, nearly everyone I know was there to be there to celebrate it with me. It didn’t really sink in how many people cared and were there to support us until we turned around half way through the service and looked out at a sea of smiling faces, and recognized every one. There are few moments in your life when so many people come out to support you. I expect the next will be my funeral.

The third part of this perfect day, was the reception. The perfect reception. Now I have no delusions that my reception was any better than other billions of wedding receptions on Earth, but it was with people that were there to support me, and that wanted to be there with us. I’ll never forget the cheers, applause, and the general excitement as we went through our first dance, a dance we spent months working on and just over 2 minutes performing. It made all the time put in so worthwhile.

A side note on the reception. I may be the only one that remembers this, but during dinner the DJ played the song “Mr. Jones” by Counting Crows, one of the top 5 most influential songs in my teenage years. One line of the song says “We all want something beautiful, man I wish I was beautiful.” As we at dinner that evening, I realized I had found my something beautiful, and I was that something beautiful to someone else.

Finally, the object I identify most with was there that day…the DeLorean. The DeLorean for me represents achieving and living out my dreams, accomplishing the impossible, and most importantly living today in such a way that prepares you for a future greater than ever expected. I can’t think of a better way to describe my wedding day. I’m long overdue for a post describing the meaning of this car throughout my life, but it has been a part of my life for 22 of my 28 years and it still blows my mind that I drove it away from my wedding in it.

There it is. I’d love to post some pictures, but per my policy, I don’t post people’s pictures, and that is all that wedding pictures are. Ask me some time and I’ll go through them with you if you would like.

No post could ever capture the emotion, the excitement, and the joy of having so many things come together in one day for me, but I hope this gives you a glimpse into the why it was such a perfect day for me.

Sweat, Paint, and Tunes

2007-08-28T22:28:00.000-05:00

Few things make you feel as good about yourself as the occasional weekend of manual labor. Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather lounge around playing the latest FPS game or hanging out on the beach, but that feeling right after completing a large project is pretty rewarding. I was able to savor that feeling recently. My fiancée and my parents came over to paint my place in preparation for her moving in next month. 16 hours on Saturday and another 10 Sunday of nothing but painting. It took me a week to recover!

I patched up the many holes in my walls, removed the ceiling stars the previous owners had in place for the kid's room, and through out a bunch of my old stuff in preparation for the weekend. All that prep made the painting go much quicker, though it was still no small task.

I had never painted before, at least not in a setting where I cared about the result, so there were a lot of learnings that took place. Here are a few of them in case you haven't done much either.

Use plenty of that blue painters tape. It takes a lot of time to tape stuff down, but saves a lot of time when cleaning up. There is a school of thought that careful painters don't need tape, that may be true, but until you've done a lot of painting, that isn't you.
Flat paint seems to cover better than many primers or other finishes. I went with flat for the first coat in the room that had the most obnoxious color, and it worked like a charm. A second coat of eggshell took care of the color in a hurry.
Don't do it alone. It makes a huge difference to have someone one step ahead of you on laying plastic on the floor or helping tape, the more you can keep moving the better.
Play the latest Linkin Park album LOUD. Good tunes will make you more productive.

The end result of the weekend is a house that looks fantastic. The walls are clean, look brand new, and the entire house reeks of paint. What more could you ask for out of a successful project?

Replace and Upgrade?

2007-08-04T21:59:00.001-05:00

My fiancé had a wedding shower this weekend. We had registered at a few places before, and I was involved in the selection of all of the stuff (of course there is no DeLorean dealer to register at and electronics stores don't have wedding registries), but I must say, seeing some of it start to come in is a little weird. It's supposedly "our" stuff, but none of it looks like me. Weird huh? I was the one that helped to pick this stuff out. It's legitimately nice stuff, which is great, it just isn't me. If you've ever been over to my place, you would know what I mean. I currently have 25 year old furniture, 30+ year old dishes, nothing hanging on the walls, and only a few possessions (mainly technology related) that are of any value. That is all I've known and now it is all changing. I suppose most people would consider that an upgrade and I guess it is. It is just strange because I've never really put much value on that stuff and now here I am, becoming the typical "normal" middle class American, and I don't feel like that is me. At least, it has never been me.

Change is inevitable, I know that. I can't continue living as I do forever. No one with the exception of me likes living like this and I've known that if I got married this way of life would all change. Still, I like the way I live a lot and I can tell that I'm going to have a hard time letting it go. I've been trying to figure out what is going to be the biggest adjustment for me as a married man, and while I still can't give a definitive answer, I know that the dramatic change in the way I live is something I'm scared of and is going to be a huge adjustment for me.

An Excellent Choice Of Words

2007-07-20T12:58:00.000-05:00

My current situation if I may. I have been giving thought to this particular topic as of late, thus this posting. Perhaps your familiar with certain speaking styles. Styles which may seem rather peculiar to certain individuals, but are borderline humorous to others. Such a style have I with a certain friend, I'll call "The Third", who I met while attending my post secondary institution of learning. I'm going to go out on a limb and say every conversation I've had with the man over the past, oh, I don't know, 7 years, has been had utilizing this particular vernacular. I'm not about to state such a form of dialog for an extended duration of time as this is, shall we say, normal, however, I'd say there is most likely an 85% chance that you engage in various styles of communication depending on who that individual is. Now I'm no betting man, but I like those odds.

A moment should be taken to reflect on a quality individual, one that you maintain a certain speaking style with. Perhaps it involves heavily laden inside jokes or perhaps you always cover a specific topic, in any event, that particular style comes to define that relationship in some way does it not?

I will be the first to admit that deep conversation is borderline challenging at best and that referring to an item as a "vehicle entrance prevention mechanism" rather than as a car door lock can slow the pace of said conversation. Still, I believe that when one holds particular linguistic patterns with another certain bonds form, odd bonds, but bonds none the less.

Now, this is where you come in. Perhaps you could share your current situation with other individuals you maintain quality communications of this sort with.

Good day.

The IBM Model M

2007-06-19T19:44:00.000-05:00

I've had an old IBM Model M sitting in my closet for quite some time. Years I must say. I never really liked it because the thing was so loud. I'd rather hear the music I'm playing that the keyboard I'm typing on, call me crazy. Also, many geeks tend to have an unhealthy love for the model M. They have an elitist attitude that it is the only true keyboard due to it's lack of a Windows key, and the tactile feel. I've never really liked that attitude. I personally have always thought the real reason was because they aren't made anymore so they felt somewhat special to have one. So I went years without using mine out of spite.

Then recently on Slashdot I came across an article about how it is possible to put your keyboard in the dishwasher to clean it. Mine had about 8 years of accumulated sludge on it so I went for it. The process required about 5 days dry time afterwards so I needed to use a different keyboard while I waited for mine to dry.

So out came the IBM Model M. I was surprised to find out much I enjoy using it. My fingers seem to dance on it. I don't understand it myself, but I actually enjoy pressing the keys, I get some kind of sick pleasure out of the level of the slight resistance when I push down and the springy popping upward motion after the key has been pressed. It is hard to explain. All I know that at least for the next little while, I won't be going back to my more traditionally modern styled keyboard.

If you haven't tried one of these bad boys out, I highly recommend you do. They are very easy to get your hands on, tons are up on eBay. It will probably set you back about $20 after shipping. Give yourself a couple days with it before you make an judgments. If you miss your Windows Key (as I did), you can remap another key, such as one of your Alt's or Ctrl's, to act as your windows key. You can make the registry entry yourself or get a free tool to do it for you such as Sharp Keys.

Anyway, that is my hidden treasure find of the week.

I'm Engaged!

2007-05-15T18:23:00.000-05:00

How does that commercial go? "Life comes at you fast." It is so true. One day you're thinking you'll spend the rest of your life alone and watching reruns of The Simpson's while playing the latest installment of Halo (which isn't even close to a bad fate mind you), and the next your engaged to be married to the girl of your dreams. Amazing how that happens.

Let me back up a bit. Nearly 2 years ago I posted about the most amazing girl. Well, I didn't say exactly that at the time because I didn't want to get my hopes up. I was feeling down because she was moving to NYC, and I assumed I'd never see her again. Luckily for me, that wasn't the case. As you know, we dated long distance for 15 months, having all sorts of adventures up and down the east coast including trips to Maine, New Jersey, Philly, Florida (it counts as east coast right?), as well as a trips to Chicago, San Fransisco, and such exotic destinations as Des Moines, Omaha, and Wichita.

This past December she moved back to the Twin Cities and we finally had a chance to date locally. It was strange how similar it was in someways, and how different it was in others. Similar in that we were both the same people, and did and reacted to the stuff in the same way as before, but different in that we were actually able to spend time together! Yes, a novel concept. We started a 12 week pre-marital class at church to encourage conversation on various topics and call out issues we may not have seen previously, it proved to be very helpful in both getting us ready for the next step and setting more accurate expectations of each other.

Then, the proposal. That seems to be what everyone wants to know so I'll jump into that now. I had been planning to propose since the end of December, but due to the living hell that is known as ring shopping, I didn't have a ring in hand until April 12th. We were planning to celebrate the end of busy season for her and the end of the semester for me with a trip to Duluth on April 13th. Unfortunately, due to schedules out of our control, we had to reschedule for the next weekend. I played it as cool as I could, trying not to let on that I was planning the biggest moment of our lives for that date and it was killing me to reschedule.

I consulted with my uncle, a huge fan and frequent visitor of the north shore on Lake Superior, to see what options he could think of for an amazing scenic view. He recommended Corundum Point, a place he considered to be one of if not the best bluffs overlooking the lake.

We drove to the head of the trail and with lunch in our backpacks and a ring in my coat pocket started hiking. You can see our route here. It was already 12:30 when we started hiking, so we were a bit hungry. She offered to eat lunch a few minutes into our hike, but I insisted we wait until we reached the point. I think she found that a bit weird, but probably figured weird behavior was expected from me anyway. We reached the point after about 40 minutes and I pulled out of my backpack stuff to make a fire and the fixings for smores, and she pulled out the lunch she made for us. We had finished our lunch and smores up there and were enjoying the spectacular view (my uncle was right about the view!), when I started in on some "lovey-dovey" talk, got down on one knee and pulled out the ring. She was very surprised and the happiest I've ever seen her! It was a great moment. I pulled a bottle of champagne out of my backpack alone with some champagne flutes and we toasted to the start of our life together.

Here it is in her words:

"I got engaged! David proposed this weekend in Duluth. He had planned a weekend for us to go hiking and celebrate end of busy season/MBA semester. We had been hiking for about 40 mins, when we stopped for lunch at this point on these rocks high about lake Superior. We ate our lunch and he had stuff for a fire and smores. Then, he of course gave this beautiful wonderful cheesy talk and got on one knee and proposed with the ring. Of course I said yes and cried. I was very surprised. Then, he had brought a bottle of champagne and champagne flutes and we had a toast. It was perfect. The only thing was that it was a bit chilly and windy and so I was wearing a hood! I can't believe I was proposed to while wearing a hood. I know we'd been talking about getting married and it was just a matter of time, but I was still very surprised and it doesn't seem real yet. I can't believe I have to plan a wedding. Any advice or suggestions are welcome. Not sure on a date, we'll keep you posted."

There you have it. My big news! Now I get to savor all the joys of wedding planning!

Finally, I've had a few requests to see the ring, so here it is:

The Easter Bunny Is (Not) Real!

2007-04-14T16:22:00.000-05:00

When I was growing up I was told from the start that Santa, the Easter bunny, and the tooth fairy were all imaginary. Since last weekend was Easter, it got me thinking again about how I’ll raise my kids, and what I’ll tell them. I’ve gone both ways on the issue, and although admittedly I lean more towards telling them the truth, I like the idea and fun associated with these stories.

When I’ve told people that I’ve known as long as I can remember the truth about these classic kid conspiracies, the reaction I get is that I was robbed of a key part of my childhood. I completely disagree. I think it helped me understand early that I shouldn’t blindly accept everything I’m told, gave me a more accurate world view by helping me understand magic isn’t real, and gave me more confidence in the word of my parents.

The other side of this is also compelling. There is a perception people have of these characters personifying innocence, and encouraging imagination. Why force a kid to think like an adult when they are kids? Shouldn’t we embrace childhood fantasies in an effort to give our kids the best and most enjoyable childhood they can? Kids are kids for a short time, let them live like kids. You don’t tell your kids the whole truth right away about things like violence in the world and sex, so why isn’t a hiding the truth about holidays to enhance the kid’s life ok? I don’t know if there are stats, but I’d wager that most people who were raised believing in Santa think it added to their childhood experience. Doesn’t that make the lie worth it?

I don’t think that if you’re telling your kids the Easter bunny exists that you’re being dishonest or a bad parent, but at the very least this “white” lie seems to encourage a distorted view of the world to your kids. So is the magic of a childhood Easter and Christmas worth the lie? As I stand now I’m not sure I’d be able to tell it to my kids were I to ever reproduce.

Spring Updates

2007-04-01T19:32:00.000-05:00

How long has it been? 5 weeks? Yikes. For the few of you still checking in on me here, thanks. I don't have a good excuse for my silence as of late. Yeah, I've been super busy the last month with work and school, but I've also managed to find time to watch the latest episodes of 24. In short, there is no excuse. I'm here now, hopefully that counts for something.

First, I'd like to comment on the events of last weekend. I had one of the best weekends I've had in months last weekend with a couple old buddies from my hometown that made the drive to visit. It had been a long time since we last had some real in depth conversation, and it was interesting to think about how much each of us has and continues to develop. They seem to be under the impression that I've changed the least. I've given that some more thought, and I think I've changed plenty over the past 10 years, but in less visible ways. I've become very confident in who I am and why, MUCH less frugal, more directed, and place a higher value on my friendships (although due to school, less time). There have been other negative changes, but nothing I'd share with the world on a blog. Anyway, the short of it is that it was one of those rare moments when guys actually connect with each other in a meaningful way outside of smashing beer cans on our heads, something which is also greatly needed.

St. Patty's day was a blast! I've never actually celebrated St. Patty's before, well, on second thought I think I attended a work friend's party one year. Anyway, my girlfriend's mom drove in and we went out for dinner and went out to see some live music and bust a move. I know partying with the girlfriend's mom doesn't sound very cool, but it was actually an amazing night. It was another chance to connect with her mom and talk, something we get to do once in a while, but distance usually prohibits.

There have been a lot more development as of late, and I wish I could share them all with you, alas, time is always a constraint. I'll get you all updated eventually.

Sincerity of Statements

2007-02-25T22:38:00.000-06:00

I was talking recently in a group with some friends who were married a few months back and someone asked the typical newly married question, “so how’s married life?” What kind of a question is that? What are they going to say in a group setting, much less with their new spouse standing beside? Even if life is the worst it has ever been, the answer will be something like “every day is more beautiful than the last, it is like a sunny day on the beach eating fresh peaches and ice cream.” Ok, maybe not quite that cheesy, but it will be a glowing review. This got me thinking about the sincerity of that question and many other similar questions/statements people say to each other.

First a disclaimer. I’ve said most of the following stuff myself. I have never meant to be artificial or shallow when I’ve said it. I know we all say this stuff. I’m just being a bit sarcastic about it all. I’m sure most of these have been the fodder of many a stand up comic, but I wouldn’t know.

1) Say hi to __________ for me.

Come on. You don’t really want to say hi to that person. If you did, you’d pick up the phone and call them, you’d send them an email, or you’d stop by yourself. Furthermore, you know whoever you say this to most likely won’t deliver the message. Let’s be honest, this is an attempt to earn points with either the person you are asking to deliver the message or the person the message is being delivered to.

2) Does this ________ make me look fat?

“No, your lard makes you look fat.” You know if you are fat. Everyone else knows if you are fat. A piece of clothing won’t change people’s perception of your fatness, it will change how repulsed they are of your flaunting it.

3) How was your weekend?

Do you think most people who ask how your weekend was really care? Maybe. Or maybe they just want to appear friend and hate awkward silence.

4) Do you like it? (in reference to gifts)

Come on, do you really think they are going to tell you? They know what they want, not you. Give the person cash, let them give you cash. On second thought, skip the gifts all together and tell each other that you still like them. I thought it was the thought that counted anyway isn’t it? Or is that just talk?

Do you have any others?

Art Rediscovered

2007-02-01T21:22:00.000-06:00

Last night I went to my first professional "showing" of an artist's work. I'm not one to seek out an event like this, however a friend had an extra ticket and invited me to come along. It was fascinating. The evening began with a near limitless supply of wine, beer, and bottled water. I'm not sure what it is about wine and art, but there was a lot of it flowing. There was time given to browse the work, talk to one another, and mellow out a bit. It was very relaxing. Those there reminded me much of my nights out in NYC, at least half of the people there were dressed in black, the other half in the latest designer clothing (as if I know something about fashion). In other words, not at all how I was dressed.

About a half hour into the showing the artist spoke to us about the work, pointed out many of the details and what he was going for in each painting, and other typical artist speak (you know: pallet this, conveying feeling with that). For some reason though the artist speak actually got to me. It actually made me appreciate the art more. I never thought it would. Maybe I'm getting soft, or maybe I never really thought about art in that way.

In any event, I'd recommend if you haven't been to an event like this to go at least once. It was a fantastic life experience and I feel like I've been exposed to another world I never knew existed.

Dihydrogen Monoxide Poisoning

2007-01-18T22:12:00.000-06:00

In high school my sister, my cousins, and myself thought it would be fun to have a water drinking contest after my mom, a nurse, mentioned a then little known fact that it is possible to get intoxicated on water. Thinking that sounded rather funny we sat down and started drinking glass after glass around the circle going one for one with each other, the goal being to see who could drink the most. I felt like I was doing pretty well, but after countless glasses, I finally lost it, and vomited everything I had drunk. Not to be gross, but it was really strange, I hadn’t eaten anything and it tasted the same coming up as it did going down. One of my cousin’s ultimately one, in the end each of us ended up losing what we had drunk. It’s funny, but I’ve never drunk enough alcohol to vomit, but I can’t say the same about water.

I bring this up, because last week yet another case of water intoxication killed a person, this time to win a Nintendo Wii console. Two years ago a guy died in a similar frat hazing. In each case those that asked the person to drink the water got in a heap of trouble. This is so rare and as far from people’s minds as possible, that I have a hard time believing any fault can be placed on those that initiated the drinking. They could not have expected the outcome and the participants did not anticipate it either. In my opinion these were honest mistakes, not neglect.

So if I would have held my water that day many years ago and ultimately died, could/should have my mom been tried for child endangerment? Were these cases of reckless irresponsibility or good ideas gone wrong?

Oh My Deer!

2007-01-07T20:48:00.000-06:00

Recently I was visiting a couple friends when the phone of the guy's place we were at rang. It was a neighbor. "A Mercedes just hit a deer in front of my house, it is a big one. I talked to the cop and was able to get a permit to keep it. You want to come pick it up?"

I imagine I should have considered this a surprising turn of events for the evening, but I've come to expect this sort of thing when hanging out with these guys. "Sure! I'll be right over!" he said hurriedly as he hung up the phone. He was clearly more than just excited.

We jumped into a large conversion van and drove off into the night towards our next meal, which was patiently waiting for us in a nearby ditch. When we arrived at the site we had little trouble locating it. It was a fairly large buck, 13 point, and had to have weighed a couple hundred pounds. After a few proud pictures with our find (posing with a rifle to make it look official), the three of us dragged it across the street and somehow managed to throw it on a tarp in the back of the van. The body was still warm and but luckily it wasn't bleeding too bad.

The trip back to his place wasn't pretty. We had the windows open trying to rid the vehicle of the stench of roadkill dead deer, luckily it was a big van, had a lot of windows, and it was a short ride.

When we returned back we called another friend who knew something about cleaning deer and asked him to come over to give us a midnight lesson in gutting. It was amazing. I have some pictures I could post, but for our weaker stomached readers, I'll leave you with your lunch intact. I have never seen so much blood in my life. I have also never seen such skill at removing organs. I gained a lot of respect for those that clean deer that night. There is a real art to carving a deer to remove skin and organs. I once thought it was as simple as slicing down the belly and pulling everything out, but in order to make sure it all separates properly, there is an order and special cuts which must be done. You almost need to be a surgeon to do it properly.

When it was all said and done, there we had nearly 80 lbs. of meat and a big mess in my friend's front yard. Good thing he lives somewhat out of the city.

New Update On The New Year

2007-01-01T18:53:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year! It is now 2007 and I have been off of work for nearly a week and a half. It feels like it has been a month with all the activity. My girlfriend and I went to Iowa to see her Dad’s family, Nebraska to see her mom’s, Minnesota to see mine, and now it is back to work tomorrow. I had a great time making the rounds, but it was a lot of driving and a lot of family time on both of our sides, so we have talked about scaling back next year. This seems to be one area where I’m more talk than action. Perhaps that is something to make a New Years resolution about.

Following up on my previous posting on greed, let’s talk about the materialistic side of Christmas. Santa was good to me this year. My loot includes a gas grill, an electric chain saw (to handle all the fallen branches I regularly get in the yard), cash, books, gift certificates, and even a framed picture. I couldn’t ask for much more!

School starts up again in 2 weeks! Is it just me or does it feel like I’ve been going to school now forever? It has only been 1.5 years. With any luck, it will only be another 2. That means I’ll be over the hump after this semester, that is somewhat of a milestone right? I’ll relish the victories I can!

Is Greed Good

2006-12-22T16:23:00.000-06:00

With Christmas nearly upon us, nearly every time you turn on the TV you see another Christmas TV show, and eventually you come across Scrooge. I don’t think anyone out there would look at scrooge as a role model, but it did make me think. How bad is greed? Is it as evil as scrooge illustrates? It can be seen a number of ways. Taken to extremes as Scrooge did, yes, it can bring out the worst in people. Heck, it made one of the seven deadly sins, and I’m not about to argue with that. But can’t it also bring out the best in people? Without some level of greed, how many people would be motivated to become contributing members of society? Without intense greed would the libraries Rockefeller funded have been built? Would the medical research funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation still take place?

This is another instance where finding balance is needed. Greed seems to be a necessity in order to be generous, since you can’t give what you don’t have. It is also a protection mechanism, without it we would be unable to support ourselves. In short, I think there is more good to a little greed than there is bad.

This rant has been a more than just a little biased. Talk to me. Is greed good?

1200 To 3 Miles

2006-12-03T20:56:00.000-06:00

Yesterday my girlfriend moved back from New York for good! I'm excited about it. Not only that, but she now rents a town home only 3 miles away from me. That is a serious step up from the 1200 mile trip to visit her before. We had only dated 2 months prior to her moving, so this whole dating locally concept is new to us.

All of you who still think I'm pulling your leg about her can actually meet her now. She does exist!

All Good Things...

2006-11-06T22:37:00.000-06:00

The final trip to New York was one to be remembered, well, they all are to be remembered, but this seemed to be a good capstone to the trip as it included everything from local fun with friends to hitting some of the major NYC events and landmarks.

It was my girlfriend’s birthday and her friends had organized a party for her the night I flew in. New York is full of musicians and dancers, and so was the birthday party. One of the guys had brought his guitar and could flawlessly play any randomly requested song, old classics or new pop tunes, just by feeling it out. The dancing students in the group were then able to build up the energy of the evening by singing and getting everyone moving to the beat. That on top of all the food made it a very festive birthday party.

We finally got around to seeing a few classic New York landmarks I had yet to see in all my trips. The Empire State Building was our first stop. It can not be understated how unbelievable a view of the city there is from the Empire State. All other buildings appear insignificant, and to think the building was constructed over 76 years ago amazes me.

Empire State Building from Street Level

View facing south from the observation deck

Rockefeller Center looked as spectacular in person as it does on TV. The ice rink, fountain, lights, and golden statue made me feel like I was really living the New York life.

The Museum of Natural History was even more fascinating than I had expected. I’ve never seen so many dead animals in one place! The museum’s collection includes an alligator killed and mounted in the late 1800’s, a wide assortment of fish and spiders, recreated lifelike scenes of animals from every contentment, and of course nearly an entire floor dedicated to dinosaurs. I highly recommend it if you are planning a trip to NYC.

The most surprising highlight from the trip was the NYC Marathon. This year was Lance Armstrong’s first marathon attempt, as well as that of a few people my girlfriend and I knew so we had to go check it out. We watched the winner cross the finish line on TV before walking the 2 blocks to Columbus circle where the finish line was. We positioned ourselves 200 yards before the finish line as the crowd was only 3 people deep along the railing. From there we had an excellent view as Lance Armstrong ran by with his escort, however the pictures I was able to get (of the back of his head) were far from ideal. We never saw our friends come by, although with 37,000 faces running by it was difficult to look at each of them to check if we knew them.

It seems like just yesterday that I made my first trip to visit my girlfriend. Actually, it was more like 14 months ago. I’ve since made 7 flights to NYC and 5 flights to various other destinations to spend time with her (she also made many flights). Today I finished my last trip to see her. That is still sinking in. She moves back for good in just 3 weeks. It is hard to believe that all the travel is finally over.

I kept thinking this whole weekend about all the lasts. This was the last time I’d see her apartment, the last time we’d be walking around the city together, riding the subway, going to the airport. So many lasts. Its even more important however to be focusing on the firsts now as she moves back. There is so much to look forward to.

As she was driving me to the airport, the song “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol came on the radio. Just as I was thinking about how fitting a song it was that it was playing on my final trip to the airport, she asked what the song was about. I didn’t have an answer, but I had always associated the song with my time in NYC with her. Listening to it again now on the plane, I realize why. It begins talking of a time in a persons life when they feel they are independent and don’t need any others. The character in the song then slowly starts to realize he needs other people, that there is something bigger out there than the day to day and he wants to seize it before he misses his chance. For me, NYC was the same. It was there I discovered how much I needed others in my life, where I learned more about living for today, and was able to “just forget the world” long enough to remember who I am.

My girlfriend and I have had a lot of great adventures together over the last 14 months in NYC and have made a lot of amazing memories. I’ll miss New York.

Philly Wit Cheese

2006-10-26T17:36:00.000-05:00

I went to Philadelphia last week for training with work, I went alone, but it was fun anyway. After I checked into the hotel I was looking for the elevator when my girlfriend surprised me by asking in a yell down the hallway where I was going. I was so shocked I wasn't able to tell her I was lost. We only had time for a brief dinner before she had to make the drive back to NYC, but it was one of the sweetest things she has done for me, and on a work night no less!

I got out into the city one night, it was fun to get out. There was a train station a little under a half mile from the hotel, so I hopped on a train there. The trains operate much differently than I had expected. While many cities offer such systems (NYC's subway, Chicago's L, San Fran's BART), I've never been on one like this. The trains operated with only two cars, arriving at stations every 1/2 hour. Tickets were purchased on the train with cash from an employee walking the aisle, then at each stop the employee would shout out the name of the stop. Not surprisingly, the man shouting out the stop had a very scratchy voice, it was obviously not his first day on the job.

Liberty Bell

Although it was after dark and everything was closed, I was able to at least walk by a few historical sites, even if I couldn't go inside. These included the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and City Hall. I also walked around on South Street to check out what living large was all about in Philly. Apparently it has a lot to do with cheese steak. Similar to Maine's obsession with lobster, Philly seems to be obsessed with the cheese steak. I couldn't escape restaurants that were selling the famous sandwich, and I did indeed succumb to it myself. I bit into one at Jim's Steaks. The authentic way to prepare a Philly cheese steak is to use Cheese Wiz and "steak" (I use quotes because it was far from lean) that has been cooking too long. It wasn't a favorite of mine, but it was still worth doing. Not that it was expensive, but it also helped that my company foot the bill.

One Wiz Wit Onions (half eaten)

Market Street Stop

South Street

To ducktail on my previous post, I actually set my watch to eastern time while I was there, something I rarely do while traveling just because I don't want to mess with resting it for the return trip. I figured since I was out there for a week it was worth it. You may be asking yourself "aren't you lying to yourself about the time if you don't change your watch?" Good question. The answer of course is no. In that case the watch is still accurate, within a second, of the true time, just not the time zone I'm in. Location doesn't change its correctness (since it still matches one time zone), only changes how it is interpreted. Time is location independent, interpretation of time is location dependent.

Truth In Timing

2006-10-12T21:41:00.000-05:00

I was just thinking about time. More accurately, I was thinking about my fascination with time. For some reason, I find pleasure in knowing what time it is. Not approximately what the time is, but exactly what time it is, at least to the best of my ability to know. All my clocks are set accordingly: my microwave, my wall clock, my watch, my computer, heck, even my XBox.

Call me crazy, but there is something that seems inherently wrong about owning a high precision device that can keep time within a few thousandths of a second, such as any $5 clock/watch produced today, and casually setting it 30 seconds to a minute or two off. Then you have a very precise device which is precisely wrong.

Would people care if the pistons in their car fired at precisely the wrong time? Would anyone mind if a traffic light always turned green at exactly 30 seconds too early? Then why don't more people find a clock which is consistently wrong a problem?

I don't think this is so weird, but a few people I've talked to about this think I'm overly anal about this. When did it become anal to seek truth?

So...Am I alone on this one?

Welcome To The Maine Event!

2006-10-07T17:29:00.000-05:00

Another weekend on the road! I went out to visit my girlfriend last weekend and we drove from NYC to Portland, ME, making a few stops along the way. I have a feeling that when the typical person thinks of Maine, they get a picture in their head of quaint little villages, lobster, the ocean, and lighthouses. And they couldn't be more correct. I was shocked as to learn how similar Maine is to what all the stereotypes are.

First of all, there is lobster advertised everywhere. You can buy it at any store, including many small ma & pop convienence stores, steak houses, and I even saw it advertised at a small town gas station. I also couldn't believe all the ways it was prepared. They have "lobster roll" which is a sandwich of lobster meat with mayo, kind of like a ultra expensive tuna sandwich. They also offer what is known as "lobster pie", which is something that us Minnesotan's would label as a "Hot Dish." Why on earth anyone would do such a thing to $20 a pound meat is beyond me, but they certainly like their lobster.

We visited two lighthouses while we were their, the "Head Light" lighthouse (top) and the Nubble light house (bottom). You have undoubtedly seen photos of Head Light lighthouse on the cover of any book you have ever seen discussing Maine. It puzzles me why so many people are fascinated with lighthouses, so much so that they decorate their houses with pictures, figurines, and paintings of them. I don't decorate my house in GPS receivers (also used so ships don't run aground), actually I don't decorate my house at all, but if I did people would think I was crazy. I can appreciate the aesthetics of them, but I still find it amusing.

All the towns we visited had that typical Maine feel to them, right down to the alleys. Below are a few pictures of them. I could say more about them, but I'll let you fill in the details.

If you enjoy hiking, there are some amazing trails you can do with fantastic views. We did one which was a cliff hike along the ocean in which you follow a winding trail along the edge of the rock, through the openings carved out of the thicket growing around the trail, and could watch the waves crash against the rock. Here is a little bit of what it looked like.

Sunday we spent in NYC, and just by chance happen to catch a movie crew shooting a scene with Will Smith for the upcoming movie, "I am Ledgend", a film about vampire like creatures that have taken over the world and the only human left, Will Smith, must stop them. They were shooting just outside my girlfriend's apartment building which was pretty cool. The scene was of a red Ford Mustang driving the wrong way down a one way street. Even though I know very little about the movie, I'm now anxious to see it.

New Weekend Plans

2006-09-22T22:35:00.000-05:00

My weekend plans changed pretty quick this week. A good friend of mine lost his father on Wednesday morning to cancer. It all happened so quick. It's been only a month and a half since they discovered it and now he is gone. I know life is fragile and our whole lives can be turned upside down in an instant, but it is one thing to know it and another to see it happen.

It has been difficult to relate to, I've never had anything quite like this happen to me before. The most difficult part of all this for me has been to watch my friend go through all this and feel like there is nothing I can do to help and no way I can truly relate to what he must be going through. I suppose just being there is enough, or at the very least a start. It seems like there are never the right words to say, so I find myself saying very little, maybe that is best anyway.

Dealing with death is never an easy road, but is good to know that I'll have friends to stand by me when I have to deal with it next.

How To Dissuade Yourself From Becoming A Blogger

2006-09-13T21:20:00.000-05:00

For those of you who blog, you should check this out. The title pretty much says it all: How To Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger

I thought about all of these before I started this blog. If it wasn't for the insistence of an old high school friend, I probably wouldn't have. I guess you can blame him for this whole mess that is my blog.

I'd like to comment on a few of the points from this how-to.

Criticism #1- If you create a blog, it will be as boring as 5 randomly chosen blogs.

Response - Most blogs aren't for random people. They are for people that person knows. Yes, it is boring to read about John Doe's latest problems with his untrained dog, but if you know the person you want to stay up to date on their life and thoughts. Blogs help.

Criticism #2 - Your 1 voice makes no difference.

Response - If you are trying to start a revolution, that may be true. Don't rely on a single blog to start large political unrest.

Criticism #3 - Write into WordPad for a few weeks, see if you hate it.

Response - The reason this doesn't get old is because people read it. People give feedback, people care, or at least pretend to care. Blogs aren't writing for the sake of writing. They are writing for the sake of communicating.

Criticism #4 - Wouldn't you rather do other stuff with your time?

Response - Sure I would! I'd also rather do other stuff than cleaning the toilet, but likewise this serves a purpose. It keeps me connected to people I may not otherwise be able to keep in contact with or update on a semi-regular basis. Most of the people I know who visit the site don't post replies.

Now, I'm aware this article was written partially in jest and is more a joke at the blogger culture than anything, but I've heard these same arguments from some of my friends who think it is nuts that I maintain a blog. I'm sure you bloggers out there have heard the same.

For you bloggers, do you blog for different reasons? For you non bloggers, is this why you don't?

Smells Like 27

2006-09-06T19:54:00.000-05:00

Monday I turned 27. It happens to be my favorite number. There are a few things about 27 that have interested me for quite a while. First of course would be the presence of 27 in the work of the great Weird Al Yankovic. For a complete (or at least as complete as you will find) list of his 27 references, please see The 27 List.

Additionally, you may have heard of what is called The 27 Club. The 27 Club is a group of young musicians who's quick rise to fame ultimately ended in their death at age 27. The four members typically referenced are Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Kurt Cobain. Lucky for me I'm not a rich rock star.

I have a feeling 27 will be a good year for me. Its my lucky number after all. I'm determined to find my destiny this year. I'll keep you posted and let you know when "it" happens, whatever "it" may be. (If you couldn't tell, that was a bit tongue in cheek)

Other interesting facts about 27:

There are 27 books in the New Testament.
The current number of Amendments to the United States Constitution.
~~The number of outs in a regulation Professional baseball game.~~ (Correction: there are 54, my bad)
It is a perfect cube, that is 3³ = 27.
The number of completed, numbered piano concertos by Mozart.

Orlando The Ride!

2006-08-21T15:44:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I went to Orlando to spend time with my girlfriend while she was there for a class she was teaching. We had the chance to go to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and Wet ‘n Wild for cheap thanks to a friend who got a job there about a year ago.

My friend went above and beyond the call of duty for the weekend. In addition to getting us the discounted tickets, he drove us around, took us to a great restaurant, and guided us through the parks. It was certainly nice having an expert there to navigate the rides and hit all the best ones, maximizing our time.

For me, this trip was a dream come true. As you know, I’m a huge Back to the Future fan and ever since the ride opened in 1991 I’ve wanted to ride “Back to the Future The Ride.” One of the highlights of the ride was seeing one of the time travel modified DeLoreans. As a BTTF freak, I plan to purchase one soon, the plan is to do so in the next 3 years. When my search gears up you will no doubt hear more about it. I believe the one at Universal was actually used in the films (although most of the add on pieces are no longer the originals), but who knows for sure. They have built a few since then for promotional purposes.

The BTTF ride was amazing. Despite being one of the oldest rides in the park, there was a significant line, forcing us to wait for nearly 30 min (a substantial amount of time for a ride in the off season). If you are unfamiliar with the ride, the premise is that you are on a tour of the “Institute of Future Technology”, a research facility run by Doc Brown, in which your group is to travel 1 day forward in time for the fun of it. This all goes horribly wrong when the 1955 Biff is found to have stowed away on one of the research time vehicles and ultimately steals one after locking Doc Brown in his lab. As the only ones able to get to a time machine, you must track down Biff and save the universe from a time paradox. This is one of those rides where the motion matches the projection, in this case a huge omni screen theater.

While in line, you listen to music from all three soundtracks, watch videos introducing the Institute of Future Technology, and even see props from the movies. Some of the props which were present included Einstein’s (Doc’s dog) bed, Marty’s guitar, several of the clocks from the opening scene, a hoverboard, and the alternate 1985 newspaper archive.

The coolest part of the ride is that you get to ride in a (fake) 8 passenger DeLorean, like the one shown below. While the interior wasn’t true to the original time machine design, it did have a small dashboard mounted flux capacitor and time circuit unit. The dash also contained a speedometer and gauges matching that of a real DeLorean and a small monitor which tracked Biffs status and allowed him to communicate with us. You can see the movie we saw here.

I had seen all the videos, pictures, and reviews associated with the ride over the 15 years that I had waited for this moment, so there was little surprise when I was actually there, however there was something unexplainably different about experiencing the sites, sounds, and feel in person. Although I can’t honestly say it was the best ride of the weekend, it was without question the best experience. The wait was worth it, it lived up to all my expectations!

Today I found out a sad piece of news about the ride from my Universal friend, it will be closing in less than a month. I suppose this could either be seen as good news or bad news how you look at it. It is good that I was able to see it before the end, bad that it is going away forever. If you want to see the ride, book your tickets now! More info can be found here.

The water park was also a blast. I can’t even remember the last time I went to one, but it had been far too long. The best slide was Disco H20, probably the strangest water slide I’ve ever been on. Up to 4 riders get on a raft and are sent through traditional twists and turns, arriving in a large bowl like structure where a 70’s disco party is taking place. The music is blasting, multicolored lights are flashing, and the disco ball is hanging from the ceiling. The momentum keeps the raft spinning around the room for couple times, then falls into the exit tunnel. I’d never been to a disco party in my swim suit before, I guess there is a first time for everything.

Our first night in Orlando we went to City Walk, Universal’s night life central. The place was full of neon lights, spot lights, live outdoor music, and of course more than a few places to eat & drink. Here is a picture of it during the day (right), but you get the idea.

It had been six weeks since I’d last seen my girlfriend, and in case there was any doubt, that is a LONG time. As great and exciting as all my trips to NYC, Chicago, Orlando, San Francisco, and Des Moines ;-) may sound, I’d much rather have a local relationship. But as I’ve said before, she is more than worth it! We will see each other again in just under 2 weeks, and thankfully won’t have to go 6 weeks again before her move back. Thank goodness!

Here are some other photos from the trip:

Hype In A Theater

2006-08-21T15:28:00.000-05:00

Thursday night I went to the opening showing of “Snakes on a Plane.” If you haven’t seen this movie yet, I’d recommend you don’t waste your time. That said, it was probably one of the best movie going experiences I’ve ever had. While the movie was laughably predictable, had no character development, and severely lacking is meaningful plot, the audience made it all worth while.

If you are computer savvy enough to read this, then you have no doubt seen the fan based internet hype that lead up to the release of the film. The audience was filled with people who participated in that hype, some bringing rubber snakes, one even wearing a snake costume.

At every poor attempt made to have a snake “creatively” kill someone the audience burst into either laughter or applause. Any time Samuel L. Jackson busted out a cheesy line (nearly every 2 min), the audience would cheer. I had never been in a crowd with so much mock enthusiasm. It made the movie for me.

The B Word

2006-08-13T16:55:00.000-05:00

Rather than boring you with the mundane details of my life as is so often the case here, I figured I'd bore you a little with something I've been thinking about a bit lately. Budgeting. Yeah, I know, it doesn't seem like a very exciting or interesting thing to think about. To many this is the B word they keep out of their vocabulary.

First let me say that I've never liked the concept. To me it has always seemed like setting up a budget for myself was not giving myself the extra spending flexibility for when I needed it, or conversely forcing me into a pattern of spending when it isn't warranted. In short, I've always thought of a budget as an inflexible tool designed for people who couldn't trust themselves to make the right decision at the right time.

Not that I'm there yet, but after taking a finance course this semester, I'm starting to warm up to the idea a bit more. Finance is all about understanding your cash flows, and making decisions based on those cash flows such that you can work towards your goals. Part of this process is capital budgeting. In capital budgeting decisions are made where to spend the money, and in what amounts in order to reach a predefined required return on investment.

This process loosely relates to personal finances I think to some extent. We all have financial goals, stated or unstated. Maybe it is maintaining a certain standard of living (eating out, concerts, hobbies, ect.), maybe it is saving up for a big purchase (car, house), or maybe it is building up your nest egg. Many of these goals are conflicting. For example, it is difficult to both maintain a hobby of piloting airplanes while saving for retirement. Budgeting in an amount to spend on each of these can help ensure you can do both without worrying if one will affect your ability to reach your goals in the other.

In my own life, what I have found is that I have large swings without a budget. I will put nearly everything towards savings or everything towards the next toy. While some may call that flip flopping balance, to me it seems like it carries more risk, as neither side of the pendulum is controlled. Uncontrolled cash flows, whether they be directed towards savings or spending, can be harmful. Controlling where cash flows are directed helps in reaching stated goals and gives you a better overall picture of where you are and where you are going to be within a designated time frame, thus reducing the amount of stress and worry associated with those goals.

So am I starting myself up on a budget? I'm still thinking hard about it. Most of my savings is already budgeted and school & utility bills/mortgage/food are pretty much cleaning out the rest so I'm not sure what I have left to budget. But all in all I've begun to warm up to the idea.

Are any of you operating on a budget? How has it worked out?

Fun with Foam

2006-08-04T23:37:00.000-05:00

I apologize that it has been so long since my last update. I know many of you have become frustrated with my lack up postings. I still plan to post, but it isn't easy. I'll give you one word: school. I do a lot of studying. This weekend I'll be studying a minimum of 20 hours Fri-Sunday. I don't want this to sound like I'm the busiest person in the world, because I'm not, so I'll just leave it at that.

Last weekend I went out with a few friends to try out foam dancing. If you are unfamiliar with foam dancing, it involves a fenced off outdoor area in which detergent is mixed with water above you and suds spill onto the ground and fill up the fenced in area. The foam gets to be shoulder high in places, and near the source can stand 6-7 feet high.

Dancing in foam has several advantages over your typical run of the mill dance floor.

No one can see your cheesy white boy dance. This is unquestionably the greatest feature of the foam. You don't need to know how to dance, you just have to be able to move around. No one can tell if you stink.

Everyone can do a perfect "worm". You know that annoying guy at every wedding dance that has to do that weird thing where he lays face down on the floor and bends his back up and down such that he squirms like a worm? In the foam, you can be that guy. Simply drop below the foam, then come up and claim your accomplishment.

Showering that day is optional. Sure, I suppose you could lather up in the shower before heading into shoulder high detergent, but why? You can dance as hard as you want all night, and you never have to worry about embarrassing underarm odor.

If you ever decide to give this a try, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Chafing - This may sound strange, but after 3 hours in soap, skin becomes irritated and dry. Anything you don't want chafed, salve up or put a bandage over. I had to learn this lesson the hard way. I'll let you figure it out from there.
Extra Clothing - You get wet, really wet, like you have been dunked in a pool. Bring a towel and extra cloths to change in the car or you are going to have a wet, soapy ride home.
Bad DJs - Let's face it, when was the last time you were at a club with good music? Odds are you will be treated to the likes of Yung Joc, Cherish, or Shakira. It isn't that there isn't good pop music made anymore, it just isn't played.

So there you have it. The world of foam dancing. It isn't for everyone, in fact I don't think its even for me, but you should get out and try it once, it is an experience you won't soon forget.

Another School Update

2006-07-15T20:15:00.000-05:00

I figure since school is such a major part of my life and it has been keeping me away from all of you, I should at least update everyone on how it is going!

If you didn't know, I'm currently taking IT Management and Financial Management. For IT Management we are working on a group project in which we are developing the existing business plan for an internet startup called FlySpy. There is currently an alpha version of the site that is available for use. Anyway, in researching what we can do to develop the business, I sent off an email to a competitor site, FareCompare.com, telling them I was a student and was interested in some info about the industry and how their company operates. I made very clear that I was working on a class project related which focused on one of their competitors, but they were still happy to help me out. I emailed with the President, Rick Seaney, and spoke with the Chief Operating Officer, Neil Bainton. It was such a great experience to be able to talk to them about the industry, where they see the business going, and how IT is used at their company. Granted, they are a small company, but to help out a student with a project as much as they did was going above and beyond. Their site is great, so if you need airline tickets, be sure to check FareCompare out.

My finance class has been very interesting for me as well. For the first time I'm starting to truly understand how money grows and things like the valuation of stocks and bonds. I know this is all elementary stuff for anyone who has had an intro to finance course, but as my first exposure to it, this has been very eye opening. I had my midterm today and it felt great. I think I'm on track for a strong semester!

The only downside about school was that I missed Cornerstone. It has been an annual event for a group of my friends since I was in high school. Yes, I know many of the people there are literally half my age, but I like the music. I had to miss it this year because I would have missed my IT class, which I'm already going to miss for a work trip to Dallas next week. It was a major bummer. I probably won't be going back until after I finish school. So goes life.

Down with the Sickness

2006-07-10T22:19:00.000-05:00

For the week of the 4th I went to visit my girlfriend in NYC (bet you didn't see that coming). We had an amazing weekend planned of time on the beach, a trip to Washington D.C., and checking out the NYC fireworks. It was going to be awesome. Then I got stomach flu.

We still did it all, but I felt horrible and didn't make the trip any more fun for my girlfriend. I should have just stayed back and let her do her thing. I guess my efforts to not mess up the weekend back fired a bit there. In any event, I have some pictures to share with you all!

In the 2.5 hours I wasn't laying in bed or losing my lunch in D.C., we had a chance to walk around a little take a look at a few of the monuments and land marks. The highlight for me was the White House. It is one of those things you see in the news or on TV all the time, so to see it in person was a little surreal for me. This is a picture from the south lawn. It should be no surprise, but it was interesting to see the amount of law enforcement around the White House and in D.C. in general. They are everywhere. I wasn't able to walk 10 feet without being watched by someone in uniform. I can only imagine how many more cameras are watching my every move. Not that I'm paranoid, but I've never felt like I was being stared at as much as I did then.

Next we walked out on the mall. That place is massive. It never looked like too long of a walk on TV, but TV lies. We sat at the WWII Memorial, stopped at the WWI Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Signers of the Declaration of Independence memorial, George Washington Memorial, the reflecting pool, and of course the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. While I was at Abe's I was thinking of the Simpson's episode where Lisa tries to talk to Abe above the noise of the crowd at his feet; that crowd is real! This was probably the busiest memorial we saw, I'm sure because it is at the far end of the mall and everyone stops here before the return trip back. In any event, Abe is an impressive fellow.

Towards the end of the trip we ventured down to Coney Island on the far south end of Manhattan. It is funny to think that these types of places still exist. It isn't at the level of a full amusement park, but it is more like a state fair gone crazy that never ends. We couldn't go to Coney Island without riding something, so we took in the "Wonder Wheel" since that seemed the most tame with an upset stomach. It was also the best place to see the island from. You can see from this picture that the beach was packed. This is the best, perhaps the only, beach accessible via the subway so it is a hotspot for cooling off on a warm day.

I don't have any pictures, but Coney Island is still home to one of the last remaining freak shows. They had guys on the street yelling out to the crowds about all the fire eating, ear lobe pulling, sword swallowing, and snake handling that went on during their show. It was carnie life in its purist form. Naturally, a few people in the show are Guinness world record holders in their field of expertise (or so we were suppose to believe), and it was humorous to see the crowd rush in after the big marketing presentation. I opted to save my $4.

Finally, we checked out the NYC fireworks. Luckily, I was feeling much better by this time. One of the coolest things about the fireworks was that they were synchronized perfectly across 3 barges. The fireworks you see here aren't spectacular, but you can see how they are perfectly synced. They launched and exploded at exactly the same time, and maintained that through the entire show. Also, I had never seen so many unique fireworks. They had various shapes such as stars, cubes, planets, and smiley faces, to ones with strange behavior such as jelly fish like ones that would hover in the air and move a little up and down. At one point there were some that looked like strings of Christmas lights hanging stationary in the air for 20 seconds or more. It was easily the best show I've ever seen. It will be hard going back to "regular" fireworks now.

Aside for getting sick, it was all in all another great trip. I won't be able to wow you with any more adventures for a while. I won't be going to Orlando for another 5 weeks, and in the mean time I'll be doing a lot of studying. Maybe I'll have to update you on that front soon. Catch you all later!

Roommateless

2006-06-27T00:03:00.000-05:00

My roommate moved out this week. After 3.5 years of having the same roommate, he moved in with his girlfriend. It is kind of weird having the place to myself now. It is hard to believe its really just me now. It is certainly different not having him around. I mentioned a while back about the selfishness that develops when living alone, I guess this means I’m about to become a bit more so ;-)

In any event, if you happen to know of any guys looking to rent a room, have them drop me a line. I have an opening.

Class Reunion

2006-06-26T23:43:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I went to my girlfriend’s 10 year reunion. Class reunions have a lot to live up to for most people. After a decade of goal setting, hard work, and weight gain, people have a lot they want to show off. Everyone seems to have a different take on how it will go and what the focus will be. For those with kids, all they want to talk about is their families, others want to try to impress you with all their travels around the world, and the rest with their careers. What I found most interesting about the reunion was to see how these different groups mingled.

Those with kids pulled out the photos without even being asked. In fact, within a minute and a half of meeting one woman, I was already being shown her children’s photos. The travelers were a bit more subtle, and worked it into conversation playing off their travel like it was no big deal, but were sure to interject it into whatever conversation was going on. The careerists would throw around titles, companies, or people they worked with into conversation. When these three groups spoke with each other it was like a dance of story telling, with each picking up the story of the conversation and telling the next piece about themselves.

None of this was done in a selfish “me” attitude kind of way, after all the whole reason people go to reunions is to find out what is going on in people’s lives, but it was such a different communication style than what I’m accustomed to I found it fascinating. I’m looking forward to my 10 year, and finding out what role I end up playing (no, I won’t be the kids role).

A Year, A Raft, and A Semester

2006-06-12T22:04:00.000-05:00

Another great weekend. My girlfriend and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We had dinner at a place on Lake Minnetonka and checked out a nearby county park. A quiet evening, but a lot of fun. It is hard to believe it has been a year already. It sure goes quickly. It is amazing how much life can change in just one short year. Makes me wonder where I will be a year from now. I know many of you probably don’t feel like you have even had the chance to get to know her over the past year, I guess that is the trouble with a distance relationship. I’m sure there will be more opportunity when she moves back in December (yes, she is going to be able to come back 9 months early!).

Sunday I went rafting near Duluth. They weren’t the wildest rapids of all time, but wild enough to throw a few people out of their rafts, luckily no one from my raft. It is hard to beat the thrill of heading directly towards a large bulge of water only to have it engulf you as you paddle for dear life.

Prior to rafting, we had lunch on the deck of a restaurant overlooking lake Superior. When the waitress came out with the food a seagull swooped down and nabbed a hunk of meat out of my sandwich! I swear animals are out to get me. First my iPod, now my lunch!

School starts for me tomorrow. I’m ready to get back into it. I don’t look forward to the workload, but I’m excited to check some more credits off my list. Also, I think this semester is going to be especially interesting. I’m taking a IT course and a finance course, both areas which have interested me for a while and ones I’ve been wanting to take since the start of the program. Bring it!

Long Weekend

2006-06-04T19:02:00.000-05:00

For Memorial Day this year I went to CA to meet up with my girlfriend who was training in San Francisco and we stayed with my sister who lives nearby. Both of her roommates had moved out within the last week, so we were lucky enough to each have our own bed.

Saturday my sister rounded up five of her friends and we drove to Sacramento to hit up rafting on the American River. Without a doubt it was the highlight of the trip. It wasn’t much of a river as far as rapids, but there is just something about being on the water that can’t be beat. About half way through the trip we stopped on the side of the river for lunch. A rope hung from a tree on the opposite bank next to a steep hill, setup so you could swing from up on the hill to down over the water. Naturally, I was enthralled. I had to do it. Since it was still fairly early in the season, the current was moving at a pretty solid rate, more so than it would have been practical to paddle the raft over. I walked up stream a bit and then started swimming straight across, reaching the other side just as the current brought me to the rope. The effort was well worth it! The rope launched me a good 15 feet in the air above the water, arms and legs flailing, before I crashed into the water below. I can’t remember the last time I had the chance to do something like that, which is pretty sad considering all the water around here.

We also went to a party at one of my sister’s friend’s homes who lived up in the mountains. Talk about a wild daily commute! They have to drive 2.5 miles on a one lane road without guard rails to get to there home every day. In places the road was ¼ missing from a mudslide, and in many other places blind corners, steep inclines, and no street lights did not allow for easily spotting any oncoming traffic. It was about a 15 minute drive to go those 2.5 miles.

We grilled out at their place, and played a little Frisbee. My most embarrassing moment of the trip happened at this point. Since the house is on the side of a mountain, it wasn’t surprising that at the immediate edge of their yard was a very steep decline which went down about 100 feet to the road. Their yard was essentially a flat area carved out of the side of the mountain. One of the throws to me was a bit high, and in an effort to catch the Frisbee I ran to the edge and jumped. I just barely touched the disc, and in the same motion and in true David form I made one last extension of my arm out for the disc as I was landing, tripped as I hit the ground unbalanced from the extension, and fell head first off the lawn. After two summersaults, I was able to stop rolling, work the crick out of my neck, and climb back up to the top where everyone who witnessed my act of coordination cheered/jeered me on.

All in all it was a great weekend. I love long weekends!

Sad iPod

2006-06-04T18:16:00.000-05:00

It didn’t take long. You may remember my splurge from a couple months ago when I finally dropped the cash on an iPod. Well, my iPod ownership is over. It was charging on a table at my sister’s house and her cat thought the power cord would be a fun toy. She pulled the cord and the iPod came crashing down. I now it displays the unhappy iPod icon on most boots. When it does boot, it will play for a couple hours then just stop. Yet another instance of me realizing I have no desire for a pet. They seem to cause more harm than good.

My sister was very generous about the whole situation and has even offered to help with part of the replacement cost. That was very kind of her. Anyone want to buy a partial working, mostly broken iPod?

They All Must Die

2006-05-21T21:09:00.000-05:00

If you have been to my place in the last 3 years, then you will know I have a serious weed problem, and that is has been getting worse each year. This year I'm taking care of business. I have vowed to kill all (or at least 95%) of my weeds. This is all new to me. I never have needed to take care of a lawn, and have never learned how, which is I suppose why mine has gone to pot.

I'm not sure if I'm doing anything right, but I gave the whole lawn a dose of weed killer this afternoon. I plan on hitting it every weekend until they are gone. I will have my vengeance on them. I will be victorious.

My only concern is that with the amount of weeds I have that once they are dead I might have a lot of bear spots. I'm not sure what my lawn/weed ratio is, but I would think 50% is generous. We will see by week end what is left!

Sushi

2006-05-21T21:01:00.000-05:00

I made my first sushi roll yesterday at a friend's place. There are some pictures of what we did on Karin's blog entry. Mine looked very similar to the picture of her's. Anyway, it was surprisingly easy to make it. Simply layer and roll! How much easier could it get? I'm not a big fan of fish, but there is something about sushi that screams "cultural experience" so I couldn't pass it up.

Dogsitting

2006-05-21T20:48:00.000-05:00

I've always wanted a dog. Ever since I was a little kid I've loved playing with them, taking them on walks, and seeing their excitement when they see me. This weekend I had the chance to take care of my friend's dog and it reminded me again about those childhood dreams. It also reminded me that I don't have time for one. Every 8 hours or so I had to come home to let her out, something I needed to consciously be aware of. I had to remember that if I was out for the day I needed to come back for her, take care of her. I think that's called responsibility.

I find this to be interesting in that after living on my own for so long I just have to think about me all the time. It is a rather selfish existence. Not that it can be avoided when I'm on my own, but it is something I never really saw happening. I know the dog analogy is a little strange, but it got me thinking.

Mother's Day Corpses

2006-05-14T20:38:00.000-05:00

In traditional Mother's Day form, I went to look at corpses with dear Mom today. It isn't quite as bad as it sounds, we went to the Body Worlds exhibit at the science museum. They are real corpses that have been treated by a plastics process to preserve and pose them in an effort to display various parts of the body. It was absolutely fascinating. As a nurse, my mom loved it. I found it a bit disturbing, but at the same time was mesmerized.

One of the more interesting things to me, was how they displayed the circulatory system. They pumped special plastics through the blood vessels, let it harden, then placed the bodies in a solution used to burn away the flesh and bone. The result was a complete body shaped construct consisting of every vein, artery, and capillary in the body. I had no idea this type of thing was even possible to do. Amazing.

There was also a pregnant woman, with her stomach cut away so you could see the baby curled up inside. It was bizarre just to know this was all real. I couldn't help but wonder what each one of these people's stories were as I was staring at their skinless bodies.

One of the most surprising things to me, was that most of these bodies were out in the open, no protective glass or anything. While there are signs indicating not to touch them, there was nothing from stopping you. I imagine glass isn't required for this type of thing since most people, myself included, aren't overly excited about touching dead people.

In addition to the full bodies, there were organs throughout the exhibit that were partially dissected to look at. I can't think of an organ that wasn't on display individually. If one wasn't on display, I'm not aware that it exists. This was truly like slicing apart the human body yourself and digging around without getting your hands soaked in blood or having to do 20 years to life for doing so.

I'd highly recommend you check out this exhibit if it is in your town.

How About That Weather?

2006-05-08T21:16:00.000-05:00

Holy Moley! That was a serious storm tonight! My whole house was shaking with the thunder and the yard was filling with hail. Here you see a picture of my deck. Hail is just too cool. Aside from the millions of dollars in damage to everything it touches, how can't you love it? The concept of balls of ice falling from the sky seems so strange. That there is enough wind in some of these storms to keep ice whipping up and down through a system long enough for it to get that big is the kind of thing that makes a guy wish he was the small town local TV meteorologist that the whole city makes fun of.

To the left you can see my steps. This happened in all of about 2 minutes. That is another interesting thing about hail, it comes down in no time flat. One second it is raining, the next you have this much ice on the ground. Then, just as quickly as it started, it is over. Have I mentioned how cool hail is?

Where I've Been

2006-05-08T21:07:00.000-05:00

There is a lot to say. My girlfriend has been in town for the past two and a half weeks, so when I haven’t been working, I’ve been hanging out with her. We have been crazy busy. There have been nights of meeting up with her friends here, a grill out at the lake, a day of canoeing with my Dad, a weekend trip to Omaha to visit her Mom, dinner with a few of my friends, an evening out for chocolate fondue, an evening in for a neighborhood walk, my cousin’s concert and a wedding (in which she did an awesome job singing, you should hear her!). That is the short of where I’ve been the past couple weeks.

As you may have guessed, it has been awesome having my girlfriend around for the past 2.5 weeks. That is the longest period of time we have been able to see each other on a regular basis since she left for NYC 8 months ago. Although we have been able to visit each other quite frequently considering the distance, it isn’t the same as just living life within 25 miles of each other. I must say, after the past couple weeks I’ve learned I like 25 miles a lot more than 1,200! There is too much to say about the last 2.5 weeks to detail it here so I won't even try. If you want to hear about it, call or email me.

My sister just became SCUBA certified last month and has the bug big time. She went to Belize this past week, and has some amazing stories from it. She has now seen the stuff I’ve only dreamed about seeing. It doesn’t seem right since I’ve been certified now for 7 years. There are few things in this world I enjoy more than SCUBA diving, and there are few things in this world that I do less of. I guess it is a combination of cost and location. Expensive equipment and cold murky local water slows down the SCUBA process.

I’m also getting the bug to get back into playing guitar. I’m not sure how much time I’ll actually have to do it, but I’m going to try to play from time to time. Don’t be surprised if this is the last you hear of guitar playing, it might become less of an option in about a month once I’m drowning in school work.

I registered for classes last week for the summer and am ready to roll! I’ll be taking Operations Management and Financial Management. I’m starting to feel the hurt that is tuition, I just need to keep reminding myself that it is an investment.

School's Out For Summer!

2006-04-16T22:04:00.000-05:00

It is safe to say I'm a little excited right now. I wrapped up class last week and am very much excited about my 2 months off! I won't actually have school off for the summer, I just stole that line from the Alice Cooper song, but 2 months is nearly a summer's worth.

This past semester I took a course in Marketing Management. It was a very interesting course. Marketing is a lot more than advertising. I was amazed to learn how it impacts nearly every part of the company from product R&D to putting it on the shelf.

I know I haven't been in the MBA program very long, but so far every class I've taken has been fascinating. It wasn't that way in my undergrad. Right now I'm taking my core classes (aka MBA Gen Eds), but unlike undergrad Gen Eds, these actually apply to my field of study. I can see why a MBA is recommended for so many professions, it really changes the way you look at business. If you have ever considered going back to school to learn more about business, this is the way to go!

My girlfriend comes on Wednesday for a 2.5 weeks, the timing couldn't be better. Now that I don't have class, I have all the time I want to hang out with her while she is in town. It will be a nice change from the once every several weeks thing.

We have a number of adventures planned, so I'm sure I'll have some adventures to report on as the weeks progress!

David In NYC: April Edition

2006-04-06T20:59:00.000-05:00

In this month's edition of David's New York adventures, you will learn about all the fascinating things I saw and did while in New York City this past weekend! Prepare to get your David in NYC fix! I joke about this, only because I'm sure you are all sick about hearing "New York this" and "NYC that." Well too bad, this is my life. (for the sarcasm impaired this stern tone is in itself a joke)

This past Saturday my girlfriend and I went to Roosevelt Island, a small island just east of Manhattan. To get there, a tram is available to take you over the river. It is a very scenic view of Manhattan, the island, and the water for the 4 minute ride. While we were there we followed a walking tour I printed off from the internet so we were able to get a good feel for the island and its history.

The Island was at one time home to an insane asylum and a small pox hospital, it was basically where New Yorkers put all the people they didn't want to deal with (could that be why they got me to go there?). Much of the island is run down, and there are a few ruins on the island they have left to maintain its history. This medical research laboratory from the 1850's is one of them.

Roosevelt Island also home to some strange art, such as these sculptures along the water line. This is one in a series of three that has something to do with the "marriage of money and real estate." Don't ask me what that means, I have no clue, but they are interesting none the less.

The last thing I would like to point out about the island is this church. The "Chapel of the Good Shepherd" is one of the oldest churches in NYC, built in 1889, and when it was first built it was considered such revolutionary design that in the first year after it was built people came from Europe and Australia to see it.

Sunday we went to Bear Mountain to do some hiking. We ventured off the beaten trail for a little while to do a little climbing around on the rocks. Even though there was a lost a pair of sunglasses, a few bruises and a cut to the leg, we were ready for more action. Next time we will have to hit up a larger, more deadly hiking trail. Mt. Kilimanjaro anyone?

I won't be heading back to NYC until at least June now. My next flight however will be to CA. My girlfriend is doing training in San Francisco and we will be spending memorial day weekend out there with my sister. So keep posted for more travel updates!

Death of a Camera

2006-04-06T20:47:00.000-05:00

You may recall my dear friend, compatriot, and long time companion, my Canon A70 digital camera. Well, as with all good friends, it too at one point must pass away. That point is now. Yes, the camera that documented all the adventures you have read about here is no more. A moment of silence please........... Thank you.

I never knew I'd miss my camera so much. It has made me realize how much I love pictures. There is really no better way of recording life history. As strange as it seems, the thought of me missing a quality life moment was a bit traumatic.

So what does a guy do with a memory card he dumped $60 into, batteries and a charger he dumped $30, and a camera case he put another $15 into? Buy the same camera again of course! Aside from the accessories I already have, I figure if I'm going to beat the next camera to a pulp as well, I might as well buy it cheap. A 2.5 year old used camera is certainly that! Plus I've always been happy with the picture quality. Who needs 7 megapixels anyway right? 3.2 has served me well. At least so far I don't know any better and that is what I'm telling myself.

Teaching An Old Airdog New Tricks

2006-03-25T15:59:00.000-06:00

Do you ever get that nagging feeling in the back of your head that you haven't punished yourself enough lately? Last night I got that feeling big time, so I hit the slopes with my cousin and uncle to take on snowboarding.

I'm sure most of you are snowboarding champs, but this was my first time. I never thought it was humanly possible to take as many unintentional face plants as I did. I now know differently. It is a little humiliating to watch an 8 year old kid catch air on a jump while I'm doing my best not to catch an edge.

After about an hour and a half of bunny hill action and tail bone destruction, I was able to do some basic cutting back and forth, but still not very aggressively. I was feeling pretty good, so I figured I'd take on a real hill with the rest of the group. We went down a fairly straight path down the front of the hill, and I was feeling like a rock star, only one fly swatter! The next time, we took the back path, and it curved right the whole way down, which meant I had to ride my front edge for the majority of the trip. That is when things got ugly. Nearly every 50 feet I was on my knees and wrists. Ouch. Towards the end I felt like I was really starting to get the hang of it, but I have a little bit of work left to do.

For those of you who have never done it, I was surprised at how much more fun snowboarding is than skiing. At least on a recreational level, snowboarding seemed to be much more technical, with balance and foot control much more important than in skiing. There is a common misconception (I had it myself) that snowboarding is much like skateboarding or wakeboarding. The balance and turning in each of these is much different than snowboarding. The dynamics of traveling on a slanted surface along with the difficulty of cutting into hard snow or ice as compared to water or ball bearings makes getting down the hill a much more challenging experience. It is the challenge though that makes it all worth it.

A time or two more and I have a feeling I'll be feeling pretty confident out there.

One Year

2006-03-19T20:31:00.000-06:00

I just realized this month makes one year that I have been blogging. Since my first post I met the most wonderful girl, did some traveling (Atlanta, California, Kansas City, and New York), did some nutty dancing, and started up again with school. If I would have known all that all of this would happen so shortly after blogging, I would have started much earlier ;-)

Thanks everyone for a great first year of blogging! I hope this has been as interesting and helpful for you as it has been for me!

Matching Time To Values

2006-03-16T20:09:00.000-06:00

I was reminded again today, by two different people regarding two different situations, about the importance to be keenly aware your values and to structure your life and time commitments around them. Lately I don't think I have done as good a job of that as I could. I know I've posted on this topic before but, it is always good to have a reality check from time to time.

NCAA & Me

2006-03-16T20:03:00.000-06:00

To my surprise, I learned that today was the start of the NCAA tourney and the bracket that I am in. I'm guessing a key part to having fun with this sort of thing is paying attention to what is going on. Having never cared enough to pay attention to the event in the past, this requires serious effort.

How do you guys keep up with this stuff? I suppose the standard way is to watch the games, read the articles, and check the scores, but I'm having a hard time understanding where the entertainment aspect comes into that. It must be a lot like cigarettes, coffee, or Splenda, an acquired taste.

We'll see if I can acquire it.

The Weekend's NYC Trip

2006-03-13T21:40:00.000-06:00

The blinds. They taunted me. They mocked me. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but this was the third trip I've attempted to hang blinds in my girlfriend's appartment. Her ceiling is made of cement, which proved quite difficult to screw or drill into. They resisted every effort I made to put them up from requiring a drill to requiring masonry bits and finally screw mounts. Well, they couldn’t continue to stand up to my efforts, and they are now successfully hanging in her windows! It only took 3 trips to NYC to get all the proper tools in the proper place, but it is done!

This trip I had the opportunity to ride the famous “Staten Island Ferry” from Manhattan to Staten Island. I was surprised to learn the ferry is free, about the only free thing available in NYC. The ferry runs near the Statue of Liberty and provides a great view of the statue from the water. I had been to the Statue about 7 years ago, but it is a completely different feel seeing it as those who came in to Ellis Island would have seen it. I understand how the site of it would be so welcoming after such a long voyage at sea.

If we would have planned initially on going to Staten Island I would have done a little research to see what there was to do/see while there. From what I could tell, it was nothing but residential and minimal business, almost a suburb. There are plenty of New York trips left, so if we ever get back to the island I hope to be more prepared.

Only In New York

2006-03-13T21:36:00.000-06:00

New York continues to surprise me. Saturday night I went out with my girlfriend and a few of her work friends for a drink at The Stone Rose. The place had great atmosphere, and was exactly the James Bondish type place you would expect a New York bar to be. Almost everything was in classic New York black. The chairs were black, the table tops were black, the waitresses were wearing black, and most of the customers were dressed in black, many in suits. I came in a white striped dress shirt and jeans, but I figure underdressed is my style.

We had a wonderful time chatting, laughing, the whole bit, all in all a pleasant experience. After we paid the bill however the waitress came back and asked us if there was a problem with the service. After saying no, she asked again, and again we said no. Then she asked again. Apparently she didn’t think we tipped enough and wasn’t shy about saying so. Granted they weren’t the 3-4 dollar drinks you would find in a regular city, but how much are you suppose to tip someone to bring you a single drink? And even if she thought we were too cheap, why on earth would it be necessary to keep beating the point? Only in New York!

Airlines

2006-03-13T21:33:00.000-06:00

You've heard that one? Ok, well how about this:

A guy books a flight for 8:00 a.m., with hopes of getting back to the office by noon. Bad weather comes in and the flight is pushed to 11:30. He isn't happy, but deals with it. A few hours later the 11:30 flight is also canceled and he gets put on the 1:30, so much for getting to work at a decent time. Well, this guy finally lands at 3:30 after a three hour flight, only to wait a full 2 hours for his luggage. Yes, at this point is officially a bad day. A 11.5 hour travel day for a 3 hour flight.

No, I didn't forget the punchline, there wasn't one. In any event, it wasn't long ago, approximately 3 months ago, that I said to someone that I actually enjoyed flying. If you hold that same belief, you obviously haven't flown enough yet. After today I have now flown enough.

School Update - David Gets A Big Head

2006-03-06T21:32:00.001-06:00

I'm sure at least 2 of you are wondering how school (my marketing class) has been going. I have good news: school is going great! After I nailed my first paper, my confidence in the class hit an all time high. Not to brag, but paper #2, due this Wednesday, is set to be a sequel worth remembering.

I think I'm starting to figure this grad school thing out a lot better. I'm not saying I know what I'm doing, far from it, but at least I'm not drowning in ignorance anymore. I can actually concoct logical arguments around course subject material and demonstrate knowledge in an easy to understand way.

The class is split into teams, each working on a different presentation related to a marketing topic, and my team is smokin'. While we all have different ideas about what a good presentation should look like, we are able to get our work done on time (well, every team has that 1 guy) for group meetings and are willing to put in the extra effort. Much better work ethic than even my senior level undergraduate teams.

So, if you happen to have some markets that need segmenting or some groups that need focusing, let me know. I'm a trained and dangerous!

Mechanics

2006-03-06T21:32:00.000-06:00

Stop me if you've heard this one.

A guy brings his car into the shop with engine trouble. The mechanic says, "No problem, we just need to replace this one part and you will be on your way!" After hearing the estimate, the man is a little taken back, but reluctantly agrees to move forward with the proposed work. A day after the work is complete the check engine light comes on and the owner of the vehicle realizes that nothing has been fixed. He goes back to the mechanic. The mechanic says, "No problem, we just need to replace this one part and you will be on your way!" After hearing the estimate, the man is enraged, is able to get the repairs done for 1/2 of parts and free labor, and walks away swearing to never do business with said mechanic again.

Yeah, last week hurt.

Gambling Man

2006-02-26T21:34:00.000-06:00

I have never been a gambler, and still am not, but I tried a new thing this week, the "sports bracket" picks. A friend asked me to throw in $2 and guess how this weekend's golf tournament would go, and I figured why not. It was time to step out there and give 'er a go! A little youthful indiscretion! Oh, wait, that probably would have needed to have happened in my youth.

Knowing nothing of golf and calling on a strategy my sister once used (yes, I get gambling advice from my little sister) I used a coin flip to determine my picks. I figured with 7 people in it my odds were good that a 2 would pick horribly, 2 well, 2 great, and I would fall somewhere in the middle. I was hoping I would fall on the high side of middle, but worst case at least my results wouldn't look like a guy who knew nothing.

The first couple rounds were ugly, very ugly, and it wasn't until the second to last day that I actually was looking competitive due to a couple upsets. It was at this point I was jokingly informed by one of the players that if a coin flipper won, he wanted his money back. Apparently some take the game of golf a little more seriously than myself ;-)

In the end, by some strange twist of fate, I actually won! For knowing nothing about golf, I figure that is pretty decent.

NYC and V-Day

2006-02-21T22:48:00.000-06:00

I have had a few New York posts as of late. There are more to come. I have two more flights already booked within the next 1.5 months. I'm starting to feel like New York is a second home, at least the Upper West Side. I'm sure my girlfriend would tell you that I don't know the difference between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave, which for all intents and purposes may be true, but I am getting very comfortable around parts of the city.

The iPod came in very handy on the flight out. A group of 4 teachers from California were on their way to NYC to meet up with some friends. Despite my efforts to try studying and blocking out their loud exclamations, I learned how many guys the each made out with, which of those guys they all had in common, how hammered they were going to be all weekend, and that they thought a cab from Newark, NJ to New York, NY would only cost $20. It was about that time I decided it was time that I put on my headphones. If Arnold Schwarzenegger is wondering why CA schools rank 46th in the nation, I think I might be able to help shed some light on the subject.

I've never been big on Valentine's Day, I still say it is an excuse to stimulate the economy. Lucky for me, I'm dating someone who agrees. While we did go out for dinner, and briefly dropped in a jazz bar, we kept the hoopla to a minimum. We exchanged small but thoughtful gifts, kept it simple. I really couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate it. I sure am a lucky guy.

As Frugality Falls, I Begin To Think DifferentTM

2006-02-12T16:33:00.000-06:00

I am what many may classify as "cheap." I prefer "frugal", or "thrifty", but I'll let you call it what you will. I'm one who rarely spends money on going out to eat, going out for drinks, or other miscellaneous expenses. Instant gratification is something I won't let myself slide into.

None the less, this weekend, after 3 years of lusting after it more than was probably healthy, I have purchased a 60GB iPod off eBay. It is used so I got it for $170 less than retail, I guess I'll know by the end of the week if that was a good deal or not. Apple is expected to release G6 iPods April 1, but between all the long plane flights and driving I've found myself doing as of late, this seemed like the right time.

I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but for me dropping that kind of cash to listen to a few songs was far from easy. It is such a frivolous expense, a luxury item. I don't think of myself as much of a luxury item kind of person. It always seemed to me like the "extra" money spent on those items could go to better, smarter uses. Maybe I'm learning that quality of life needs to be balanced into all of this, or maybe I just got materialistic.

In general, I think I'm slowly becoming less frugal. Maybe that isn't the right way to phrase it, I'd say I'm becoming more practical. I'm still as frugal as ever, but am realizing some things are worth spending money on. Plane tickets to NYC would be a perfect example, as would my cell phone (I'm sure many of you remember when I was too cheap for a cell). All in all, I think I'm starting to become more balanced. Maybe this purchase isn't part of that balance, but it got me thinking more about how I handle my money.

The Joy of Taxes

2006-02-12T16:16:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again. I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon working on my taxes. It took more hours than I'd like to admit, but I think my federal taxes are finally done. I know you are asking yourself right now, "Isn't David dating a CPA? She could do it for him in under 30 min!" That may be true, and she did offer to do them for me, but I figure it is important know why the government is running away with my money rather than simply finding out how much they ran away with.

Tax season always seems to get me in a bad mood. It seems strange that every year I have to pay the government thousands of dollars and that I have to spend countless hours filling out paperwork to do so. Yes, I'd rather do that than get charged even more, but at face value it just seems ridiculous.

Is Nothing Sacred?

2006-02-05T13:15:00.000-06:00

If you know the slightest bit about me, then you must also know that my favorite movies are those in the Back to the Future trilogy. Today my roommate informed me of the most unnerving thing: A home made BTTF trailer cut to make it look like a parallel story line to Brokeback Mountain.

I must admit, it is very clever, well edited, and very humorous. As a BTTF fan however I have a responsibility to bad mouth it as garbage. I'll let you decide for yourself:

Brokeback to the Future

NYC in a Few Words

2006-02-02T22:09:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I ventured off to New York city to visit my girlfriend. It is such an amazing city. Amazing in that anyone would enjoy living there for their whole life. Ok, that may be a little harsh, but I realized this past weekend it how hard it is to do the simplest things. Everyone knows that if you live in NYC you walk everywhere for everything, but knowing and doing are two different things. We walked to the grocery store, church, the park, to dinner, to meet friends, to everywhere! I know I sound like a spoiled suburbanite, and maybe I am, but it was a very eye opening trip to what life is like in the city.

We needed to buy some picture hangers, some blinds, and other standard errand stuff. As strange as it sounds, this was a major task! We drove to a Target in NJ, the busiest Target I have seen in my life, and fought our way through to get everyday life stuff. And that is the suburbs!

It was a very good lesson for me. I am not a big city guy. I still think it would be fun to do for a year or two, but that kind of living would do me in. Still, it has its advantages. For instance, my girlfriend can see this sunset every night:

And Central Park is a thing of beauty. Despite the fact that is was the last weekend of January, the park was still a gorgeous place:

It is hard to believe that so much grass and water can exist in the center of such a massive city. It is a marvel.

In short, it was a great trip, and you should for sure check the place out if you haven't. I just wouldn't recommend a long term plan that involves living out there unless you are used to massive cities.

In other news, school is going well so far. My first paper is due Wednesday so much of my weekend will be filled by working on it. I'm trying to squeeze some fun in there, but I'll be plenty busy.

School, Flash, and Everything In Between

2006-01-22T20:50:00.000-06:00

School started this last week, I'm back in the thick of it again! I'm taking a marketing class this semester, which so far has proven quite interesting. I'm starting to learn there is a lot more to marketing than trying to get people to buy things they don't want or need. I'll be sure to post my key learnings at the end of the semester.

This weekend I visited my Dad to celebrate his 52nd birthday. It was interesting because he and his wife are currently taking care of her mother, his mother in law, who is 98 years old. She is in good health and able to move around on her own, but has trouble getting around in the winter so she stays with them for the season. Anyway, it just got me to thinking about how in as little as 20-30 years my Dad could be in a similar state and how that doesn't seem that distant anymore. It is strange to think it might be that close. I have this childhood image of my father, a guy in his late 20's/early 30's who is big, strong, and unstoppable. I think that will always be the image I have of him in my mind.

It is kind of funny how we remember people like that. Either wearing specific clothing, at a certain age, or doing a certain behavior. What is it about that person that makes us remember that? For my Dad I can only assume I remember the strength of his youth because I looked to him as my childhood protector. Similarly, when I remember a friend it is typically of them doing the one activity that best defined them or wearing the one shirt I always saw them in. Interesting.

Well, that is enough time dedicated to an aside, here is the rest of the dirt my current happenings...

I'm leaving for NYC this Friday to visit my girlfriend. I'm thinking this time I should be at the airport at least 24 hours early to catch my flight. There is no way I'm going to miss this flight after what happened last time. It has been a month since we last saw each other. I know I've said this before, but going a month in between visits is killer. At least this is a temporary assignment for her. 5 months down and only 19 to go before she moves back.

I've been playing with Flash on my own time lately. It is pretty cool stuff. Although ActionScript from what I can tell is the worst language on the face of the planet (a tainted version of JavaScript) and the IDE Macromedia provides is junk compared to nearly any of the other programing environments (most notably Visual Studio), just about anything can be done with it. The program I wrote is a simple scrolling menu with some drag and drop functionality, but it forced me to learn many of the basic concepts and workings of Flash. Anyway, it was a fascinating little project to do before school geared up again. It is always good to have something new to learn to broaden my experience base.

Finally, for all you coders out there, Krista posted a link in this post about this hilarious site. Every day it highlights a new abuse of basic coding principles as witnessed in real life.

A Real Programmer

2006-01-12T20:59:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine emailed me a link to a story about a "real" programmer. The story is from 1983 and it is funny how little things change. I remember back in college some students would brag about how they wrote all their code in notepad because they were just that good. Or that C++ is the only true way to program because you can control your memory usage, unlike Java or .Net. Of course they were also very unproductive.

Similarly, this story refers to Fortran as a crutch in favor of machine code. Granted, it is a little tongue in cheek, but it tells a interesting story and gets its point across. If you don't code, you may not appreciate it as much.

Here it is:
The Story of Mel

Christmas Week Adventures

2006-01-02T19:51:00.000-06:00

What an awesome week! I took the week off work to spend with family at various Christmas and New Years events. My girlfriend was a saint to put up with it all for 10 days straight, I am amazed she is willing to put up with all of it. We spent a couple days at my Dad's place, all the steps were in town so we ate too much, slept too much, and played cards too much; all the things that need to happen over holidays.

Christmas with my mom's family was a blast too. Every year for the past 5 years my uncle and I have been exchanging Potted Meat Food Product in unique ways including encasing it in cement, building a cage for it, and creating a potted meat 8 Ball. This year it was my turn and I created a toy pet out of it, and titled it "My Pet Meat." The idea was to make a children's toy so kids could play with their food. Despite this being kid friendly food, I strongly recommend against feeding this to your kids. One look at the ingredients would explain why. Out of respect of the reader, I will not list them here, however the previous link contains the highlights. It may not seem overly complicated, but it is crazy difficult to spray paint cardboard and coat it such that it solid white. Cardboard soaks up paint like Homer Simpson soaks up Duff. On top of that, Elmers glue doesn't stick to smooth aluminum very well. Still, I think the finished result was worth the effort even if it looks a little rough. Needless to say, my uncle got a good laugh out of it.

My girlfriend's mom and her mom's husband came and stayed at my place for a couple days. They drove all the way from Nebraska for a little Christmas with us. It was great to have them around, it gave me an excuse to try my hand at a little cooking, something I never do any more. We were able to get in some ice skating with them and checked out the Narnia movie. My mom and her husband even had a chance to come over for dinner and meet everyone. Very relaxing time, and a lot of fun.

My step brother's wedding reception was New Year's eve. It was about a 40 miles from my Dad's place, so afterwards we planned to spend the night at his place. The only problem was that the spare key was not where it was supposed to be, I think it fell and buried itself in the snow. Lucky for me a friend of mine who lived near by didn't mind a 1:30 a.m. phone call and unexpected visitors. Talk about saving my butt. Now that is what you call a friend.

Happy New Year!!!

Its Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas

2005-12-21T21:29:00.000-06:00

I just sent out a mass email with a link to my blog, so I'm assuming a few of you out there are new to this site and are scouring these pages for references to yourself. To ease your mind you should know that I never post non blogger names (including my own full name), pictures of people I know, or anything related to work. You can look for such things, but you will not find them. Check out my first post for my other self imposed blogging rules. Also, please feel free to leave a comment on any of the posts. I get my kicks out of comments.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year. Normally I hate it when my life is hectic for the holidays and trying to divide my time fairly between two families. I've always loved Christmas (who doesn't) but I haven't been so excited for it in years as I am now. On a completely unrelated topic, my girlfriend will be coming to town for Christmas! We have a big week planned, everything from meeting my extended family to skiing, to a wedding reception. It should be a great week!

Also helping to get me in the spirit, I went to a community play that a good friend of mine was in this past weekend. The show was geared more for the younger audience, but it was still a ton of fun. To top it all off, in one scene he wore a dress. Don't ask me how a family oriented Christmas play could include cross dressing, but some how they pulled it off.

Many of you know or have heard my cousin play (name mentioned because it was already publicly posted), well she played again on Saturday and it was one of the best shows I've seen her do. While it wasn't a Christmas show, I was able to see her and her parents so with all that extended family it felt like Christmas.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Kansas City, Kansas City Here I Come

2005-12-13T19:51:00.000-06:00

I spent the weekend in Kansas City with my girlfriend and her family. It was a ton of fun. The whole city lights up for Christmas, with more cheer than a college football stadium full of drunken students. We took a horse drawn carriage ride which took us around Crown Plaza, where the majority of the lights are located. Literally every building was outlined in lights, most with other architectural features accentuated. To the right is an example of one such building.

There are few things I enjoy more than spending time in the water, so I was in heaven with the hotel pool. The pool is almost entirely outdoor, with only entry stairs indoors. I can't imagine what it costs to heat the thing year round, but there is something about outdoor swimming in December that seems to make it seem justified. You swimmers out there may be asking yourself right now how the guy in lane 3 can do his flip turn on the far wall with the tunnel there. Excellent question.

Like myself at that age, my girlfriend's nieces love escalators. Sunday morning we had to have gone up and down them twenty times in a row. It was better than any amusement park for them. With so much time on the escalators I was also able to end an age old question - If you send a slinky down the up escalator, will it go on forever? The answer is no. In fact it won't go anywhere. Surprisingly enough the steps are too deep for a slinky to step from one to the next. I guess if I ever want to do this I'll need to build my own slinky. It just might be worth it.

It was great to spend some more time with her family this weekend. Now that I know everyone it was a super relaxed weekend and a great chance to simply kick back, enjoy the time, and get to know everyone better. We played cards (yes, I now know more than Go Fish), chatted, and just hung out. What more does a person need?

The only downside of the trip was how it started. I missed my flight. I've never missed a flight before, granted I've never flown a lot, but I like to think that I'm a bit more responsible than that. I left after work, and gave myself 2 hours and 15 min to get to the airport, big mistake. There was an hour and 45 minutes of traffic on a normally 20 minute drive and Northwest wouldn't allow me to check in 20 minutes prior to the flight taking off so I missed it. I felt terrible about it. Lucky for me I'm dating the most forgiving person and she took the news very well. I caught the first flight Saturday morning and it all worked out well from there. Yet another lesson learned.

Searching for Direction

2005-12-06T21:29:00.000-06:00

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I am helpless at finding my way around. This past weekend I was supposed to go to a friend's birthday party downtown and I drove around for a half hour looking for the place, called, got directions, then spent the next 1.5 hours not finding it. I've lived here for nearly 3 years, you would think I could find my way around the city by now. I must not get out enough. Too much time studying I imagine. Actually, my theory is that I spend so much time concentrating on my safe driving that I don't realize where I am or how I got there. I'm sure anyone that has ridden with me could testify to my safe driving habits ;-) So, if you didn't pick up the hint yet and are still looking for a Christmas present for me, look no further.

Meet the Family

2005-11-29T23:13:00.000-06:00

Meeting family is both an exciting and nerve wracking time. This Thanksgiving I spent roaming the Midwest with my girlfriend meeting all her family, everyone including her sister, aunts, uncles, grandma, cousins, great aunts, and even the nieces.

It was exciting in that there were so many new people to meet, and being as I’m a fairly people oriented person, it was a lot of fun meeting them. They are all very eager to meet me, I can only assume some fairly exaggerated stories were told in order to pave the way for my entrance ;-) We stayed at 3 different family member’s homes and I was shocked at how welcoming and accommodating everyone was. Each of them went above and beyond.

It is also exciting because you are able to learn so much more about the person you are dating, the environment they grew up in, customs they are accostumed to, and they people they learned from. It is an angle you can't get by simply spending time with that person individually.

Still, despite being treated so well, meeting family can be a little stressful. I never try to be someone I’m not, but to some extent it can feel like there are expectations to be met. Other than the “just be yourself” advice, is there anything else that can ease the stresses of meeting family? Overall, I think I handled it well, but it would be interesting to hear what the rest of you think.

Hell Week And What I've Learned

2005-11-16T20:38:00.000-06:00

I'm not exactly how else it can be described. I've never enjoyed finals week, but then again I doubt I'm alone on that one. There is just something about staying up until midnight studying and waking up at 5:30 for work and having 0 down time that wears a person out. Luckily, after tomorrow it will be over for 2 months.

As this is the end of the semester, I figured it would be fitting to share with you a couple not-so-academic (as not to overly bore you) tidbits of information I've learned my first semester back at school.

Accounting is a lot like computer science, although not nearly as fun. Both require a lot of number crunching, creative means of handling data, and mechanisms that initially seem bizarre but later seem to be the most intuitive and practical way to solve the problem. That is the kind of stuff that excites me. What pushes computer science ahead of accounting for me is that your work has a tangible product. A running application excites me for some reason more than a stack of reports. Still, if I would have been born in 1940, I would probably be a CPA today.

Strategy is developing what you do well and choosing not to develop the rest. This seems like to some extent it could apply to life as well as business. No one can do everything, and it is important not to try to or you will do nothing well. The most difficult thing is to chose what not to do, and to find ways to build upon your skills. This could mean taking those skills into new places, or applying them in new ways.

I'm heading out on a 10 day Thanksgiving adventure next week to meet my girlfriend's family, so I might not be able to post until Dec 1, but I'm sure I'll have plenty more to update you on then!

College Dining

2005-11-09T22:08:00.000-06:00

This week I officially became a college student again! I purchased 4 packs of Ramen noodles for $0.50. Creamy Chicken and Roasted Chicken varieties of course. I figured the best way to really dig into the books would be to dig into the college food. I was right! Maybe it is the malnutrition of the noodles warping my perception of reality, but somehow I feel more studious.

This weekend my step brother is getting married, which happens to be excellent timing since I have finals and papers due next week (please note sarcasm). I seriously am happy for him though and I'm looking forward to the wedding, it is going to be a lot of fun. I'm still not exactly sure where or what is going on, but it will be a fun crowd which is all that matters.

I recently learned that my cousin is going to China to work for 9 months! How cool is that? That is a serious adventure, it is definitely right up her alley. She is going to do great out there. Now if only flights weren't $1,500+ I might actually be able to afford to visit. Oh well, I'm sure she will take at least take a picture of herself in front of the Great Wall, as long as I see that I should be ok with the family right?

A big thanks to all of you as you have been so supportive of my school quest! It has been a major help to know that I have so many people behind me on this endeavor.

3 Weeks to Go!

2005-10-30T20:37:00.000-06:00

As I warned previously, my posting has slowed as a result of my hectic study life. I am at no shortage of things to discuss, and I hope to get you caught up, or at least fill in some more of the gaps once school wraps up in 3 weeks for the semester.

In short, here are the latest happenings:
I spent last weekend in NY visiting my girlfriend. NY is awesome, definitely not a bad place to show up every other month! She had only been in her new apartment a day when I arrived, but already had the city mapped out and was able to show me around without missing a beat. It is amazing how quickly she can adapt to new surroundings. We did Brooklyn Bridge, the WTC site, Little Italy, China Town, Greenwich Village, a Broadway show (Avenue Q), and checked out a few of the local restaurants. It was a packed weekend!

School is consuming my life. When I'm not working, I'm studying. I have a test tomorrow, a big paper due in 2 weeks that I started today, and 2 finals the week of Nov 14. Needless to say, I'm busy. I feel like I've all but abandoned my friends to keep up in my classes, I have had to skip out of Halloween parties, dinners, and various get togethers at friend's places. The plan for next semester is to take it down to one course so I'm not driving myself into the ground. I'm no good to anyone, be that work, school, or friends if I'm burned out. Balance is key to success. Once I get back into the groove of school I'll bump it back up to 2 courses.

School Update - So Far, So Good... But Not Without Effort

2005-10-06T21:39:00.000-05:00

Classes are going. I'm putting in a lot of study time again, I hope it pays off. I had 2 tests this week but was unsure as to how they went. School is starting to wear me down a little. I have been fighting a cold for the past week and trying to work ahead so I have a little buffer room. It probably isn't necessary, but I hate being behind the ball on school work.

I'm not feeling pessimistic or down about school, I'm just ready to be done with the semester. I'm 5 weeks in, only 5 weeks to go. I can do it!!! Go me!

Long Live The Party

2005-10-06T21:05:00.000-05:00

This past weekend my girlfriend flew in and was in town through Wednesday while she was dealing with getting the right stuff moved from storage to her apartment in NY. It was great to see her two weekends in a row, I'm getting spoiled, the past couple of weeks it hasn't felt like she is 1200 miles away at all.

We hosted a party (as mentioned in the last paragraph here) on Saturday, kind of a meshing of friend groups, both hers and mine. We had a pool tournament, video games on the wall, and cards going. The same friend who last year brought road kill rabbit to grill this year brought a keg. The downside was that it was only 1/3 full. Oh, and it was bottled back in June. And did I mention he found it baking in the hot sun at the bottom of a ditch, where it had been for at least 2 months? Yes, that was some scary brew. Luckily, I'm not much of a drinker so it was no real loss.

It was cool to meet some new people, and just to have people over for once. I hate hosting so I rarely have friends over. It isn't that I don't like having people over, it is just the whole planning, prep, and cleaning part of it all. If I could afford to hire someone to plan parties for me I'd be hosting every weekend.

I had a friend come up from Mankato just for the party, I was blown away by that. Although we keep in contact, we rarely see each other. I doubt he knew how much it meant to have him show up, and I'm too macho of a guy to ever tell him.

Every year it is tradition for me to give away cheesy door prizes, and this year was no exception. Candy cane lights, a PC controller from 1995, CD-ROM based board games, and a stuffed animal. With prizes that strong, how could you not show up?

Weekend in Chicago

2005-09-25T23:15:00.000-05:00

As previously mentioned, I spent this past weekend in Chicago visiting my girlfriend, and it was a fantastic trip. Not only because we got to see eachother for the first time in 4 weeks (yes, I know that sounds super cheesy, give me a break), but we kept quite busy in the city.

Friday night we went out on the town with her fellow instructors, it was quite the mix. They were from all over the U.S. so there was a lot of making fun of each other’s accents. Surprisingly, my Minnesota accent (which I’m usually told is sickingly thick) was never dwelt on. Then again, why pick on the Minnesotan when there are Brooklyn and Canadian accents to poke at? We ate at a pretty swanky place called Nacional 27, a “nuevo latino” style restaurant. I’m not entirely sure what Nuevo latino means, but it must have something to do with how stylin’ you look eating it. I never would have thought that eating food could make a person look cooler, but this somehow pulled it off. One of the instructors covered dinner and drinks for the 6 of us, so it turned out to be a super cheap night. It sure must be nice to have a per diem!

Saturday we spent bumming around the city. We opted for the $5 CTA day pass, it lets you ride the el and busses around Chicago all you want for 24 hours. We at lunch at Gino’s East, the only real pizza place in the world. They have a sausage pizza that uses a single sausage patty to cover the pie, it is to die for (and with the amount of grease in it, your heart might agree). From there we walked over to the Navy Pier, although it started raining so we didn’t do much walking on the pier next to the water. That evening we hit up the White Sox game. Just by chance, they were playing the Twins, but it wasn’t a good day to be a Twins fan. The beating was embarrassing. 8-1 final score pretty much says it all. Still, it was fun to see U.S. Cellular field, eat nachos, and yell in frustration.

Today was a short day. Slept in, grabbed lunch, and caught a flight back to MN. Weekends go far too quickly, but I definitely feel like I was able to make the most of this one.

Looking Forward

2005-09-18T21:30:00.000-05:00

The past couple weeks have been busy, but it has gone very well. I initially approached school with the mindset that it would consume my life, just to prepare me for the worst. School has not been even close to as bad as I had imagined. I've been able to find time for friends, family, and a little bit of personal time amidst it all. Granted, my time has to be a little more structured now to make everything fit, but I'm seeing as I progress through the semester and get more of a handle on the whole school bit again how I am having more and more time opening up.

I'm anxiously looking forward to the next couple weeks. My girlfriend will be in Chicago for the next couple weeks and I'm planning to meet up with her for the weekend. We haven't seen each other since Aug 28th, so I am super pumped about the visit. No real plans so far other than taking in a Sox game and bumming around the city, but I could use a relaxing weekend so it will work out perfectly.

The next weekend she will be flying here to go through her stuff in storage before it is shipped off to NY. That means two weekends in a row for us to meet up! I'm going to get spoiled. Anyway, we are going to organize a get together for both her and my local friends at my place on Oct 1, so if I somehow miss you on the mass email I'll be sending out in the next couple days, just let me know because everyone, including you, is invited. Just be prepared for mingled social groups.

School Starts - Posting May Slow

2005-09-04T20:43:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder and a warning. I will be starting school at the U of M Carlson School of Management this Wednesday 9/7/2005, and I expect it will be monopolizing most of my free time. I will do my best to keep my blog updated with all the latest, but please realize that may not be possible. I love hearing from all of you, so if the posts slow too much for you, feel free to call or email! If you don't have my number or email address, be sure to post a comment below so I can send it to you!

Happy Birthday Me

2005-09-04T18:48:00.000-05:00

Today is the 26th anniversary of my travels through and out of the birth canal. I am actually surprised at how good of a birthday it has been. My friends from church got me a card and everyone signed it. I know that probably isn't a big deal for most, but I can't remember the last time anyone organized a card signing for me. Maybe sometime pre-college? For sure during my chemo treatments in high school, but that wasn't birth day related. Anyway, it has been a while. I don't think I showed it very well, but it was greatly appreciated. Very thoughtful. It surprises me, but maybe I care about my birthday more than I lead on.

Likewise, my girlfriend came through with a stellar card that I received in the mail yesterday. It is a shame we will have to wait to celebrate until mid September, but the wait and anticipation will just make it all the more fun.

I met up with my Mom and Grandparents on Friday to celebrate. As always, Mom made my favorite, lasagna. We feasted, chatted, and then it was over all too quickly. It sure is nice to have family nearby, even if I typically only see them on holidays and birthdays. There is never enough time to spend with family.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Me! Whoo hoo!

Man Down!

2005-09-04T18:21:00.000-05:00

I lost another one of the pose this weekend. This was the third youth leader wedding of the summer. Youth ministry seems like a strange place to be working the mojo (I could be saying that only because I once tried and failed miserably), but it seems to be working out well for people thus far. My thought process was that it would be a little weird dating any one I worked with, whether that be in paid employment or volunteer work. I would expect one to interfere with the other. In any event, I'm thankful I don't have to debate such things for my own benefit any more.

Back to the wedding summary... Everything was picture perfect. From the old stone church to the fancy country club like reception, it was perfect. The wedding service was just the right length, aside from my showing up 45 min early (so maybe I got the time wrong), the decorations weren't over done, and the exit was quick and smooth. It was a desert only reception, but they went all out on fancy hors d'ouvres and deserts, not to mention full open bar. My only complaint was that the wedding dance consisted almost entirely of pre-1990 and country music. That resulted my dancing being a little forced, but all in all it was a good time and the socialistic was first rate.

Only 2 more weddings this year! Maybe. I hope.

California Post 3

2005-08-25T20:33:00.000-05:00

The past three days I've spent at Yosemite National Park. I was very impressed. They have beautiful tall redwood trees everywhere, tall waterfalls, crystal clear rivers, and more rock formations than you can shake a stick or any other large pointy object at.

We didn't have reservations, but we were able to find the nicest camp site of any there at a small backpackers camp just north of a main camping area, complete with running water and flushing toilets! Many people book their site a year in advance and don't get anything as roomy or convenient as our site. The down side was that we had to hike with our stuff about a mile from where we parked, but we packed light enough that it wasn't a big issue.

Our first day there we went to Lower Yosemite Falls for some swimming and site seeing. There was excellent bouldering to be had at the falls, it took us about 20 minutes at a leisurely pace to work our way up to the base of the falls. The water at the falls is cold. REALLY cold. After being in the water for about 15 minutes the best I felt was stinging pain all over my body. What was most surprising was that the water was at least 8 feet deep in places, but I could see all the way to the bottom. This is something I'm not accustomed to coming from MN lakes. We sunned ourselves on the rocks for about an hour while watching the climbers work their way up the cliff face next to the waterfall, then headed back to camp for the evening.

As far as hiking goes, Yosemite has it all. Anything from leisurely hikes/drives to see the more well known sites to multiple week/month hikes to experience the park first hand. Our second day there, we chose to do the trail to Half Dome, which was the only trail listed as "Extremely Strenuous", the most difficult designation for the Yosemite trails.

The plan was to make a day hike out of the 19 mile (from our campsite) round trip journey so we left camp at 7:00 a.m. We soon learned why the trail was designated extremely strenuous. The entire 8.5 miles from the trail head was uphill. At times there were stairs which stretched on for miles, and other times simply a steep dirt and rock trail leading us through the woods. The scenery was majestic. We passed by two waterfalls, various streams, rivers, and gorges which thirsted for the blood of hikers.

At the half way point to Half Dome, we ran into a group of hikers that informed us the final leg of the hike was closed for construction until 4:00. We weren't very pleased since this new development put us 5 hours behind schedule, but were determined to finish the hike. Two hours and 6 sore legs later, we made it to the base of Half Dome.

We hung out for 5 hours waiting for the construction workers to finish their shift so we could start up the trail. They were adding stone stairs to the dome, something that didn't seem necessary, but I can see how it would be nice to have. About an hour of our time was spent talking to the ranger guarding the trail. It is amazing the stuff you learn when talking to these rangers. Apparently since national parks are under federal jurisdiction they need their own court house and jail, all of which are within the park. When we asked about a man who died in the park a month prior, the ranger told us a woman fell off the falls we were swimming in the day before and died, just a couple hours after we left! It is amazing how people are so concerned about bear attacks and other wildlife, but forget that they need to be careful near 300 foot cliffs with fast moving water flowing over them.

Eventually we were allowed to head up Half Dome. There were about 30 people waiting to head up, but we managed to spearhead our way to the front of the group. It was easily the most difficult leg of the hike. Stairs stretched up as far as could be seen over the curve of the rock and it did not take long before my legs were burning. After the stairs came a 40 degree sloped rock to walk up for a couple hundred feet before we reached the famed "cables."

The cables are used as hand rails to keep you from plummeting to your death as you climb the 50+ degree slope of Half Dome. If it weren't for the fact that we had been hiking all day and breathing thin air, it probably wouldn't have felt like we were going to pass out. Unfortunately, we had been hiking all day in thin air.

Reaching the top felt great. We could see the whole park in all its glory. It made the whole grueling hike worth it. Since we had such a late start, the last couple hours of the trip back to camp were in the dark, but the flashlights kept alive long enough to get us back safe and sound.

A few pictures:

California Post 2

2005-08-20T18:19:00.000-05:00

Today we went to a place simply known as the “Mystery Spot.” It is a fairly accurate name. Gravity seems to have different rules while you are in this 300 foot diameter circle. I thought for sure before we went in that it had to be a hoax, but after watching water run uphill on a surface a level says is definitely uphill I was a believer. In certain places you can even stand at a 17 degree slant without falling over. It sure is weird looking straight down and seeing your feet behind you. UPDATE: I'd like to think I'm a logical thinker, but I was totally taken. I did some further research and found my initial suspicions were true.

After the Mystery Spot we headed out to the beach for a big bash my sister organized in my honor. It was a massive beach, stretching out for miles. On one end there was a whole amusement park complete with roller coasters right on the water’s edge and then on the other a ton of sand, volleyball nets, and fire pits. For whatever reason Californians don’t seem to like the ocean, myself, my sister, and one of her roommates were the only ones out of a group of 50+ people that ended up getting in the water. Why live next to the ocean if you don’t like the water? I don’t think I’ll ever understand these people. Still, we were able to get people into the volleyball, a game of touch football, and roasting marshmallows around the bonfire.

Through out the night I and one of the guys at the party were joking about doing a midnight surf run, then at about 9:45 he was taking off. I accused him of backing out on our plan, and to my surprise he took off his jacket and without missing a beat said, “Let’s go.” I stripped down to my suit, and he was in his street cloths and we made a mad dash for the ocean, screaming the whole way. It was cold, wet, and the most exciting thing we did that day.

California Post 1

2005-08-19T18:18:00.000-05:00

Just to warn you, these entries are going to be long. I tend to get carried away when I have some time to actually write a little. I left today to see my sister out in CA. The plan is to stay there a week, so some hiking in Yosemite, spend some time on the beach, do some salsa dancing, and who knows what else. A mutual friend of my sister and I is flying out from NY so it will be the three of us finding adventure for the next week. Should be a good time.

My girlfriend (yes, its now official) was out in Atlanta this week for training. Her flight was scheduled to land here at 7:00, and my plane was scheduled to leave at 8:35. Since we were at different terminals, I wasn’t expecting to be able to see her until I returned, a total of two weeks apart. She surprised me by flying standby on an earlier flight and we were able to meet up for a quick food court dinner before my flight. It wasn’t long, and it is probably cheesy for me to even bring up, but I thought it was pretty cool that she went so far out of her way for such a short amount of time.

On the plane I met the two nicest mother-in-laws going to visit their daughter/son in CA. They seem to have so much fun together, it is amazing. The one hasn’t spent more than 2 nights away from her husband since they were married 22 years ago. Wow. I’m not sure if that is cute or way too codependent. I’d lean toward the latter.

Orientation

2005-08-19T18:16:00.000-05:00

Carlson orientation. I finally got to see where I’ll be spending the next 3-4 years of my life. I went a couple hours early to tour the campus and buy my books from the bookstore. I had never really seen the U of M campus before, it is a beautiful campus. I walked from the West Bank over to the East Bank, the east is definitely nicer. It is a shame I’ll never be able to spend any time over there. Both old and newly archtectied buildings and bridges, well kept gardens, lawns, trees, and some of the nicest walk ways I’ve seen.

I had almost forgot how much of a wallet raping college is. I dropped $146 on an accounting book and $63 on a packet of photocopied paper. It doesn’t seem right. Now I remember why I got out and got myself a real job ;)

Orientation was 8 hours, lasting until 7:30 at night. It was probably the worst timing possible. Not only did I have to take a vacation day for it, but they ended so late it monopolized my evening. What is wrong with 8-4? I guess no one ever said school made sense.

More Wedding Fun

2005-08-18T18:14:00.000-05:00

Sunday I went to the wedding of couple friends from church, they are fellow youth group leaders with me. I’ve been to a couple other youth leader weddings, and as a general rule they are a lot of fun. There is something about that whole group of people that just lends them to be fun people, more so than your average run of the mill folk.

Still, as with every wedding, I have my comments. After going to as many weddings as I have, it is near impossible for me not to dissect them. I’ve never been a big fan of the Sunday wedding, and this one reinforces that thought. The best part of any wedding is the wedding dance (unless you are the bride/groom, but I’ll let you figure that one out), but unfortunately Sunday weddings don’t warrant themselves well to staying up until midnight busting a move to the latest Emeniem song when work is looming in the morning. I felt bad leaving at 9:30, but it was a 30 minute drive home and it had already been a long weekend. The wedding service itself seemed to run a little long for my tastes as well. Not that it matters, they should do whatever they want for their wedding. But being forced to sit through a 15 minute slide show after an hour service seemed a bit excessive.

Heidi in Concert!

2005-08-18T07:11:00.000-05:00

I have a ton to write about, but have had no time as of late, still I had to get this urgent nugget out there. I know a lot of you have seen my cousin Heidi play, well, this weekend is her biggest gig ever, Higher Ground. She is the only unsigned artist playing at the festival and will be sharing the stage with Michael W. Smith, the Supertones, Rebecca St. James, Barlow Girl, and a number of others. If you don't have plans this weekend, go support her!

Band List(direct link to Heidi's listing):
http://www.hgmusicfest.com/music.html#heidi

I'm headed to CA tomorrow, so I'll do my best to write some updates while waiting around in the airport and on the plane.

Skiing: Always an Adventure

2005-08-07T20:58:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I went water skiing with my Dad. It had been 2 years since we had been skiing together, mainly due to him getting married and buying a house. This was our second time on the water this year. The first time the boat had issues with some spark plugs not firing, so we never were able to ski. Now Dad had all that fixed and I was ready for a full weekend of wet water fun.

We were about 5 minutes on the water, checking out the lake looking for calm water when Dad saw a small inlet. He was convinced that another lake joined up and this was where it came in. We decided to check it out. Dad started accelerating into the inlet and after I mentioned the bouyies up ahead and how we should probably slow down he gunned it.

The sounds I heard over the next 1.5 seconds were some of the most gut wrenching screams of pain I've ever heard come from a marine vessel. The nashing of propeller on rock and fiberglas scraping on lake bottom ripped through the air, and took my hopes of a weekend of skiing with it. We were in less than a foot of water and what was connected to the engine could hardly be called a prop any more.

Dad felt pretty stupid and was very sorry about the whole situation. We ended up spending the next 2 hours tracking down a boat shop that was still open and were luck enough to find a replace the prop. The last prop of its kind in southern MN. The weekend was saved!

It was certainly a close call, but we were able to still enjoy the weekend. Below is a picture of me tearing it up.

One Of Those Embarrassing (A.K.A. Fun At My Expense) Moments

2005-08-07T20:26:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a while, although it hasn't been for lack of material. It has been a hectic few weeks. Work is busy as always, youth group is wrapping up, and I've started seeing the girl I posted about earlier a lot more. She is still moving to the east coast at the end of the month, there isn't anything that can change that. For now we're planning to see how things go, and then figure out what to do come the end of the month. Nothing like the pressure of the clock to really make you think things over.

We met up last night and went for a walk around the neighborhood. The sun was down and we were walking through a school playground. I have horrible night vision and there were no streetlights nearby so the whole playground was near to impossible for me to see. We walked to the edge of the sand, where there was a short wooden barrier to keep the sand from spilling into the grass. Luckily, I saw it in time not to trip over it. I took my next step over the barrier and to my horror the world fell away around me, or more like I fell away from it. I learned very quickly the barrier I stepped over was 4 feet above the ground. This was very funny to one of us and rather painful for the other! As mean as it sounds, it really was a rather humorous situation. One second we are having a serious conversation and the next I'm lying on the ground in a muddle puddle 4 feet below. She was laughing the whole way home.

Back to the Future in the Theater!!!!

2005-07-22T22:37:00.000-05:00

I need a couple of you to do me a favor. I'm leaving to visit my sister in California on August 19th, which will no doubt be an excellent trip full of adventure and death defying reckless behavior. The problem with this, is that the next day is quite possibly most important day in recent Twin Cities history, the theatrical showing of Back to the Future.

I have not seen the 35mm version of BTTF since the 2000 MSU screening. I need to experience this through you. Please go see it and tell me all about it!

http://www.bttf.com/index.php?/weblog/more/back_to_the_future_screening_in_minneapolis_mn

T-Minus 1.5 Months

2005-07-19T22:20:00.000-05:00

It’s starting to hit me that I'm running out of time. I'm really looking forward to school, but at the same time, the thought of the next 3-4 years of my life being monopolized is a little scary. I've been able to live it up this summer, but I'm starting to feel the walls close in. I guess this is why most people don't go back to school and why those that do get compensated for it, but that doesn't make it any easier.

I've always thought it interesting how different people view bettering themselves. Some (like me) see school as that avenue, while others see travel, relationships, religion, or entertainment as the way. I don't think anyone would argue that balance is needed in all areas of life, including how we choose to improve ourselves, but achieving that balance is always an difficult task. I doubt any of us truly has it figured out and if we were to live our lives a hundred times would probably never do so.

I got away from it all this past weekend. I had a free weekend at a super nice cabin in northern MN. The place is nicer than 90% of any of the houses I've ever been in, plus its on a lake. Since we were fishing all weekend, I buckled and bought my first fishing license. I never fish, but I have a 1967 True Temper 420 reel, given to me by my dad when I was a young'n. It was his first reel as well. I didn't catch much of anything but it was still fun.

While up there I went to my first tractor pull at the local county fair. Those things are nuts. They put hundreds of thousands of dollars into machines built to go 250 ft after which they park until the next pull. One of the beasts sported a helicopter engine which shot flame 8 feet in the air, probably more for show than anything. If you have never been to one of these things, don't worry, you aren't missing much.

Cornerstone 2005

2005-07-06T21:15:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have never been to Cornerstone, this entry may be difficult for you to understand completely, for the other one of you, it has changed a lot since high school but you will get the gist of it.

Cornerstone is a massive field. Some 2.7 million acres of land....well, maybe not quite that big, but it is freakin' huge. On to this land pour tens of thousands of freaks. 70% of these freaks are under the age of 20, and the rest just forgot to grow up. You have never seen so many tattoos, body piercings of recklessly large gauge, and uncontrolled angst. It is a human work of art. Most don't have money to pay rent or eat, but they find their way to just outside of Bushnell IL on borrowed gas money and stale Ramen they dug out of dumpster. I am one of them, and this is my story.

We bought all our food once we arrived, it was much easier than bringing it along. My personal food budget for a typical Cornerstone is $20. Yes, I know that is considerably more than my average week, but hey, this is vacation. The hard part about buying food for a week when fridge space is low (we only had 2 fridges at our campsite for the 16 of us) is finding food that will keep well in the heat. Last year that meant generic granola, a couple apples to eat day 1, and highly processed meat. This year I went all out and got canned pears, peaches, and beans. I washed that down with bagels and peanut butter. I also pitched in for some communal dogs and Dinty Moore Beef Stew. It all set me back a little over $18, but I was technically under budget so I couldn't complain too much.

Our camp site was stellar as always. We spent a little over 6 hours trying to hang a massive tarp above our site, it was at least 100x80, it was intended to cover a large house when shingling in the rain. Despite our efforts with massive amounts of rope, it sagged worse than an 80 year old mother of 10. We scrapped the large tarp effort and went with 3 smaller ones.
In past years we have always done the large single shower stall, custom built of course out of PVC piping, tarp walls, and miles of rubber hose. This year we broke it into two stalls. We found assembling the shower to be much more difficult than usual. Normally we venture into town to relieve the burden of excess pallets from the local merchants to use as shower flooring and go dumpster diving for carpet to cover up the pallets so we don't cut our feet on them. As luck would have it, both our primary source for carpet and our source for pallets were no longer in business. The next 45 minutes consisted of our two vehicles driving around town looking for pallets and getting told to get lost by store employees. Eventually a small grocery store brought us our bounty and we were back on our way.

I suppose the main draw of Cornerstone is the music. It is a music festival after all. If you eat, breathe, and sleep hardcore music, this is the festival for you. While hardcore is leaps and bounds above country, I don't come close to enjoying it. If you are unaware of what hardcore music is, just imagine driving heavy guitar in a near punk rock beat with a double base drum and a mountain lion on vocals. There currently isn't any mainstream secular band that I'm aware of that does this style. Maybe the closest would be Cradle of Filth, of which I've heard only a couple songs. The largest Christian hardcore band out there is Zao, check them out, I'm sure you will hate it. In any event, I wasn't there for the hardcore, but it was fun to watch.

Watching a hardcore show is a mandatory part of experiencing Cornerstone. The pits (mosh pits) are something I would have never believed had I not seen it. The roundhouse kicking, the windmill punches, and the back to back arms clamped joint air kicks are truly a dance. Each of these moves is recognized as a legitimate pit move and each has a name. There is a right way and a wrong way to do each, and I have heard stories of people practicing these moves in their bathrooms in preparation for a show in the bathroom and hitting their head on the sink hard enough to bleed. A couple years previous I was impressed by the handkerchiefs people wore to keep the dust out of their face, last year I was impressed by the teeth guards, this year it was a girl standing in the middle of the pit keeping peace with a bat. Of course it is all for looks, but what amazes me is how trendy this subculture of rebellion has become. It is just a progression of building on the last look and the last move.

There is so much more to tell about Cornerstone - the awesome bands I saw (one was named "88 Miles Per Hour" after a certain movie close to my heart), the swimming, the video game playing, one of our guys getting shot at, the rave we dance at the first night, and so on, but I've bored you enough already with my tales.

Later kiddos.

Danger in Chi-Town

2005-06-26T19:58:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I called my cousin to wish her a happy 21st birthday. She was on her way to Chicago with some friends to celebrate so she couldn't talk long but was happy to hear from me. This morning at about 8:30 I got a call from her, which was very strange. She is one that is not known to be out of bed before noon on a regular basis and called me even less. I figured something had to be going on.

I answered the phone only to find that she wasn't on the other end. The phone had apparently been bumped and called the last person who had called her, which was me. I listened for about a minute to what appeared to be stuff shuffling around. Thinking nothing of it, I was about to hang up the phone when I started to hear voices. The voices of men speaking Spanish to each other and laughing and talking about something I couldn't follow. Now this really didn't seem right. I quick moved into the computer room and attempted to get the computer setup to record the audio. I soon realized I had neither a proper microphone nor the software to do such a thing installed. After listening to the men talk for nearly 20 minutes, I could hear one of them grabbing the phone and beginning to dial numbers. Realizing the phone was on, he ended the call.

I'm not usually one to let my mind wander, but I also don't usually receive strange phone calls like this. I wasn't sure what to do, had the phone been stolen? Had my cousin been mugged or abducted? I ended up calling her parents. They assured me that she was with Columbian friends who frequently spoke Spanish and not to worry. I felt like an idiot.

Two hours later I got a call from an unknown number. It was my cousin. She didn't recognize it was me who answered and sounded very uncomfortable over the phone. "This might sound a little weird, but who is this?" she said, still sounding unsure of where this conversation was going. I identified myself and told her the story. She said her cell phone was stolen and she had contacted her cell provider to find out that my number was called along with several others. I realized I'm not an idiot.

It was a relief to know that only her cell was lost, and a very interesting experience overall. I had never been in the middle of a crime like this before. Granted it was relatively minor, but a unique experience none the less.

So Close, But Yet 1200 Miles Too Far

2005-06-25T16:09:00.000-05:00

I started hanging out with an old friend from my college days as of late, a girl I lost track of about 4 years ago when she graduated. We ran into each other by chance about two months ago and have met up a couple times since then. Today we went out biking and I learned she is going to be moving to the east coast for work and will be out there for the next two years. Granted, I may not have had much of a shot at it here, but it would have been nice to find out. On the bright side, I'm up one friend and haven't done anything to screw up another friendship.

The 29 Hour Shift

2005-06-22T21:25:00.000-05:00

I like my work, but I wouldn't consider myself a workaholic. The past two days have been nuts though. One of the sites I'm responsible for went down yesterday and it was one of those things where it just had to be up. Then began a my first ever 29 hour shift. Aside from a 3 hour stop at my mother's place for dinner, I was working from 8:00 a.m. Tuesday to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday.

It is really strange, because I hated it at the time, and was super tired, but now looking back on it 5 hours later it doesn't seem so bad. Now approaching my 40th hour of wakefulness, I don't think I have ever gone without sleep for this long, and I know for certain I have felt a lot more tired than I currently am. It is almost unsettling how good I feel. Just as experiment some time it would be interesting to see how long I could go without sleep. I've heard stories of people suffering long term effects from sleep deprivation, but I doubt I could ever make it more than 3 or 4 days max.

It is also really strange how we all know the human body is an amazing and wonderful tool, but then people (such as myself in the above paragraph) take such interest in abusing it to see how much it can take. Similarly, if you spent thousands on a decked out hummer would you take it up a mountain and scratch up the shiny paint job? Somewhere between safety and insanity is a common ground called having a life, don't forget that!

Nebraskan Funeral

2005-06-19T21:31:00.000-05:00

I drove my Grandparents to Nebraska this weekend to attend my Grandmother's sister's funeral. They are starting to have a harder time traveling long distances and they didn't mind the company, so it worked out well for me to drive them.

We went to the funeral with one of my other Great Aunt's who lives in Omaha. Have you ever gotten 3 people over the age of 75 in a car together for a 2 hour road trip? Strange things start happening. Old hymns are broken out and you are expected to start singing along. I haven't been to a church where hymns are sung in many years, and only recognized two of them so I was very much the odd man out. Conversation revolves around the current state of the wheat growing in the fields and when so and so is going to harvest. I found all this fascinating. We were all big city dwellers yet the conversation was almost entirely about weather and wheat. I think there is a lot I don't know about growing old.

As it is with any of these big family functions, I met a lot of relatives I never knew I had. I wasn't the only one learning of new family. Apparently I have a second or third cousin that married a Mexican, and it was brought up several times how tainted the Swedish line is now. I guess that includes me since I'm a German-Swede hybrid.

We made it back alive, but I'm shot. I think I could sleep for the next week. Too much driving and not enough sleep. More later...

Carlson Here I Come!

2005-06-16T18:23:00.000-05:00

I have been officially accepted into the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management! I received the acceptance letter today! I'm super pumped about it. Granted the next 3-4 years of my life may be a social void and living hell, but it all pays off in the end right? Right?

Classes start on September 6th, which is coming up faster than I can believe. It will be a little weird getting back into the whole study/school thing, but I'm sure I'll get the knack back. It has only been a 2.5 years since I finished my undergrad and I still remember what a book looks like.

Finally! It Lives!

2005-06-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

Big day today! The fruits of the last 4.5 months of my life went live today. Now you know what I do everyday when I go into work. Check it out! It is a pretty poor main page, but if you click on any of the ads at the bottom of the screen you will be able to find your way in. The other half of the site is for coordinators, which you won't be able to get to.

Another Weekend Another Wedding

2005-06-06T23:07:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while I attend a wedding where the bride and groom seem like the happiest people on Earth, Saturday was one of them. It was amazing. Both of them were glowing all night so much it was just bizarre. I honestly had no idea it was possible for people to be that happy. It made me wonder if I've been settling for a mediocre life. Not in regards to my being single, but just life in general. I've never been that happy. It was almost as if their entire life goals were fulfilled. It was the kind of experience that makes you want to go out and conquer another little piece of the world... if that makes any sense.

I imagine that little piece of the world needs to be something of real value. I know buying my dream car won't bring that kind of joy (although it sure wouldn't hurt ;-) ), but I don't know what would. The churchy answer is that all that joy comes from God, and that joy is not the same as happiness and all that jazz. In any event, the point I'm getting at is that once again the weekend left me with more questions than answers.

Memorial Day Weekend

2005-05-31T05:12:00.000-05:00

Three day weekends go by way too quickly! It was certainly nice to have some time to recharge this weekend.

Saturday was my Star Wars Marathon party. Nine people, including myself, showed up for it and watched Ep 4-6 and 1-2 in my basement on the wall then we headed over to the theatre for Ep 3. Being that Ep 3 has been out for over a week and a half, the attendance of the party was relatively low, but it seemed like those who came enjoyed it. Mission accomplished. I think this is my last movie marathon party. Movie viewing is such an anti-social event and while I suppose I have a prime spot for such an event it seems like a waste of a day I could spent actually talking and getting to know people.

I haven't had much time for "fun without a plan" for a long while, and Sunday was a great day for not having a plan. It felt like I was back in high school, just hanging out with friends, killing time outside, no real plan. I can't remember the last time I did that. Life gets so busy it is so easy to forget how important it is to just connect with people. Those are the kind of times you remember for a life time, where you are able to hang out and be real. No structure, just basic, honest fun.

Back to the work world now. Time to make some money so I can afford to make some more real memories.

Plumbing

2005-05-22T10:17:00.000-05:00

At 6:30 a.m. Saturday it was raining and predicted to rain all weekend. As such, my plans of putting up gutters were cut and I told my Dad not to come up. Naturally come 10:00 a.m. the sun was shining and there was no rain for the remainder of the weekend. ARRRHHH!

It wasn't a wasted weekend however. My faucet has been leaking like mad from the handles and was all around a piece of junk. Fresh from working at my friend's place on his basement plumbing, I felt confident I could remedy the situation. While I was able to successfully cut the existing copper pipe, install stop valves, supply lines, and the new faucet, I learned an important lesson about plumbing: Minimum water pressure is all that is needed to create a big mess.
Halfway through the project I thought I might be able to get some water out of the basement sink if I turned on the main super low and had all the basement valves open. After all, water goes down before it goes up right? Maybe, but it doesn't go down fast enough. I had to break out a few towels upstairs.

Weddings: It's Go Time!

2005-05-16T21:22:00.000-05:00

Let the festivities begin! I went to my first wedding of the year Saturday. The first 1 or 2 of the year are always the best. It is before I get burnt out on having every weekend of the short summer eaten up, and are typically during poor weather anyway. I know both the bride and groom, they are a couple friends from church. Aside from having to deal with finding parking in Minneapolis it was a great wedding, beautiful church, and not overly wordy. After the wedding we had about an hour to kill before the reception so we ran over to the nearest non-Starbucks coffee shop.

It was nuts to meet up with some people I hadn't seen in a year or so. It always amazes me how quickly people's lives can change. Apparently one of them dated, married, and had a 5 month old kid all within that time. Either that or I was so out of touch a year ago I didn't notice. I'm guessing the latter is more likely.

At the wedding I met the great Erin, and she was even more enthusiastic in person. Her husband was quite swell as well.

The dance was one of the best I have been to in years, despite it being the shortest. This was the second wedding dance in a row I got to do a special performance, how odd is that? The last wedding I was at I did my OuttaSync "Bye, Bye, Bye" bit (originally from my stint in Rochester, MN circa 2001). This weekend it was the Nap Dyn dance. Wow was it rough. No practice or anything since the April 20th original performance and the music was the album version, not the movie version. Yikes. Still, it was a blast.

This was also one of the few dances in a while I've been to where I knew about a quarter of the people on the dance floor. It is always easier to get the groove on when you don't have to work at getting into all those clicky dance circles that inevitably evolve.

Afterwards a couple friends came over and we were able to wind down from an exciting evening with the less than adequate movie "Collateral." Wow was that movie mediocre. Everyone got what they deserved in the end, the good guys win, and yet nothing is resolved. But it is always more important the company you spend your time with than what you do. At least I had that going.

The next wedding has a lot to live up to. June 4 is 19 days away and counting! Woo hoo!