it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...

analyst + therapist analrapist | Sunday 12th of February 2006 **

I went disc golfing Saturday. It seemed like a nice day, and me, Nick, and Ramzi had nothing better to do. It snowed. Not regular snow, it was like dippin' dots. I realize that it is just hail that did not fully form. But it made things tricky. We had to cut our plans short, due to the weather, but we still played 11 holes. I can't wait for my new driver, and not having to lend out my discs, not that it is really a big problem, but it will just go smoother once everyone has their discs. I also find it a fun challenge to play with the discs I have. I need to bring a few discs back that I left at home. Saturday, and Sunday morning, I have spent watching television. I watched the last four episodes of arrested development again, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Doom, Fight Club, and a failed attempt to watch Tommy Boy. I am looking forward to break. I like my pace now, but I need an escape. It will be awesome. I only have to do a paper for english, some math review, physics review, and finish my computer applications project. I only have two finals this quarter. It will be interesting to see what will be. I think I could pull of some decent grades this quarter. I will not be taking my economics class. I have heard that there is going to be a lot of new stuff coming at me next quarter, so I have decided to take a slow ride.
I have to remember to listen to slow ride. I listen to slow ride, by Foghat, after ever major test I take. It just calms me down, and the song becomes a psychological trigger for stress relief. I don't know if that works.
My advice for the day is to: seek shelter when faced with a storm and to seek to provide shelter when others are. I always feel a disconnect when I travel between my Minnesota world and my Indiana world, it is like jet lag of the soul, and I don't know what time zone I am in.

the hypocratic oath | Saturday 11th of February 2006 *

For several years now I have considered hypocrisy to be the worst of behaviours. Now I must look into the mirror. For many years my favorite television show was Newsradio, but like Martin Luther at the church doors, I must look at the man inside me and understand my true beliefs. When lists are compiled of the greatest films of all times the top stop is always held by Citizen Kane. This film is good, but not great, there have been many greater films produced since then. It always annoyed me that out of honor or fear they kept the film on the list. I must not follow the fate of those lost souls. I renounce Newsradio as my favorite television series, for as of tonight, the hastily ended Arrested Development has become first among equals: king of comedy, long live the king. On a slightly related note, The last episode of Arrested Development ended a few minutes ago. Ever have your mind blown, well watch out, here comes Tom (Tom the visionary). Those episodes were insane. The last one was amazing. It was all a...
I think it is like the film Se7en, it is too brilliant for the average person to comprehend. Of course, me being greater than the average man, I was able to completely understand all of the subtle and metaphorical meaning. I played disc golf today, just me and Ramzi, it was just for fun, unlike usual, and I did well, I tried using the wrong disc for each situation. The order was put through, it is a little bit excessive spending $15 on a driver, but it is fancy, shiny, and it will really complete my bag. Now that I think about it, a champion viking 175g, would be amazing, it is the only unexplored branch, well I have been there, but I liked being in that place. I can see how Arrested Development could get back into being a series of Showtime picks it up. There is so much that makes sense after seeing tonight's episodes. It is like the parable of the cave, I am in the light now, or maebe it is an elaborate life lesson being taught to me.

of everything that stands | Friday 10th of February 2006

What does fox do with a show that in two years has earned six Emmys with seventeen nominations? Cancel it. Arrested Development is being canceled just like Family Guy. Now fox can run more of ...American Idol. Television is almost completely dead to me, the West Wing is going off the air, Arrested Development is in its dying days. I don't watch much television now, but the stuff I do watch is good and it is all going away. It is like the Lorax or something like that. The finale is tomorrow night at 7pm (8pm non-central time) on fox and is four episodes, back to back, the last four that may ever be made, so watch it. I put central first because I am sick of living as a second class citizen, well I am on eastern time here. But the question I am asking is why all the good television is being destroyed. The West Wing has been going downhill since Aaron Sorkin left after season three, seasons 1 and 2 are the best. Scrubs is the only good show I can think of left, I guess Family Guy is back, so at least fox has a four year turn around, but they will not be able to get all the actors back. I hope showtime picks up Arrested Development, I would gladly pay the extra cable bill. Arrested Development is doing something unusual, they are going out while they are still rising. I just do see the point in television now, it is all so horrible. I have always been a fan of television, I am just trying to think of a good way to express how upset I am at the system. Is all good television going to cable? Monk was good at first, but it has lost its Knack. I love allusions. So I will be spending my Friday night watching the smartest comedy on television go out, not with a bang, but a whimper. I never appriciated the show, I had watched it from time to time, but then me and Roomeye started watching the DVDs of seasons 1 and 2. We got what has happened so far is season three by other means, and now we have them all in .avi format, it is about 8 GB. But that is beside the point. I am glad that Jeff recomended this show a while ago, and that the DVDs were cheap on amazon, and that I started watching them in time to be caught up in time to see it all end. Like the West Wing, I am getting people on my floor hooked, I am going to need to play some disc golf tomorrow afternoon, I need to calm down, I have two tests tomorrow.
My average weekday for the last few days has been as follows. I get up between 10am and noon. I go to compapps, a very basic computer class, I go back to my room, do nothing, I try to not fall asleep during math, which interests me, but it hits me at a bad time. I go back to my room, go to lunch with people, get back, go to class, get back, chill, maebe play some disc golf, then at about 7pm me and some people go down to the SRC to work out. I spend about half an hour in the weight room, then I ride a bike until everybody is done, we go down and do meal exchange at the grille, back to the room, take a shower, chill, do homework, have Arrested Development in the background, streaming off Roomeye's xbox, modded by the noisy tech support across the hall, whom I take food from when they are not there, then people drift in and out, sometimes I go see people. I finish my work around 1 to 2 am, I sit down write this blog entry, I try to avoid logic loops in describing my day, I go to sleep around 3am to 5am. Then repeat. If it is a weekend, I don't go to class, and do less work. I am enjoying the pace I am at now, math is keeping me interested now, next quarter will have plenty new stuff to interest me, I will get into my engineering classes.
Arrested Development is going up against the opening ceremony of the olympic games. Fox has decided to curse the show, and not even allow the show to die in peace. God speed.

Highland Park? | Thursday 9th of February 2006 *

Today was a good day in disc golf. I will not make this all about golf. But me Jimmy, Nick, and Ramzi played a round today. I shot seven under par. It very good score. My shots were inspired and brilliant. The seven under par was all legitimate, this was not the every hole is a par four thing, this is going by the course posted par. This course is amazing, they really took their time and used the land well. I would have to say that this course verges on overthrowing Highland as my favorite course. It will be interesting seeing what the new Highland turns out. Check out this link to see the status of Highland. I had a good day today. Nick and Ramzi are both buying some disc online with me, so I am getting them hooked. The course here is a mile long 18-hole marathon, but is well planned and uses a lot of open space. I never liked wooded holes, I lose discs on them very often, it is just a hassle, and not like real golf. I am trying to think of what to advise them to get, I am thinking leopard, buzz, and aviar for Ramzi, viking (heavy), roc, and aviar for Nick. Those are two conservative sets, I have some better, but more radical ideas too.
Math, calculus III, was great today. I had a board problem, it was wrong in the book, the notation itself was wrong, I will not get into taking double integrals here, since most of you don't know about them, but it was cleaver. I solved the problem the way the writer intended, and then I just locked it up in general. "Lock it up" is a term that many people here have been using, it come from the Wedding Crashers, and is basically just used to tell somebody to keep it together and pull it throught. Ex: When Bob need to make the next shot to set his course record, you would tell him he needed to "Lock it up" and make it. It is similar to power negotiate, just a meaningless phrase.
In the non-disc golf world...I am going to be leaving on Thursday, staying with Jeff in Grinnell, maybe stopping to see Joe Reed, I don't know how it is all going to work out, but I guess I will see what happens, I don't know if I like having this haphazard arangement or not, it just all seems like a comedy of error, only not as interesting. There were three people killed in Afghanistan in riots for the Danish cartoons. It is starting to seem silly to me how things like this happen, which is bad timing with the start of the death-count for this. I keep returning to the idea of pluralism, and how some people won't let other people be. I really don't care what other believe as long as it does not affect me much. I understand that some people need faith is a greater power. But I just think of this world as a cathedral, I am not going to find the answers, but I wish to bring us one step closer. A journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step. That is a proverb by confucius, it is on a bookmark that I got from my parents, well two identical bookmarks, my parents gave me both of them, it made me feel special that they remembered me. But other than that, I am only bitter about a few other things, one of them is the IB diploma. I am not mad that I did it, I stand by that decision, but just that Rose does not credit it. Yes, I could be a junior at the U. I call the Univeristy of Minnesota:Twin Cities the U. mainly because I went there for psychological testing when I was a child, I went to the PRIME program with Jason and Jay, I went to the AHPCRC in high school, both my parents went there, it is the nation's largest university, it is a few minutes from my house, and I had always felt that I was inevitably going to go there. But I am looking forward to break, a mere 13 days away, that is as much time it took WWI to escalate from an assassination to armed conflict.
Winter is long and Scandinavians can be sour and unreasonable and Minnesota drivers angry and dangerous and you can't buy wine in a grocery store or pay to see naked people here and newspapers have gone to pot and our cities sprawl for fifty miles in all directions, and politicians are short, and winters are brutal, and yet, if that's what it takes to keep out the Texans, then we're happy. -Garrison Keillor

The Holocaust Cartoonists | Wednesday 8th of February 2006 *

In the most recent development of the Danish Cartoon Crisis an Iranian newspaper has started a contest for the 12 best cartoons about the holocaust. Now the Muslim world may not have an appriciation for what a taboo this is (a great family game, or really for any group of people) in the Western world. The thing that angers me is that Muslims need everyone to be with them, they don't understand pluralism, that is what freedom is. Now the paper is challenging all the papers that printed the cartoons to print the Holocaust cartoons, a completely different issue, not to mention the spirit of these cartoons are not misinterpritable. This news story has become my focal point on the outside world. Several people have died now in the protests. This event is bringing Europe into the fray. Europe had seen themselves as a third party in the battle between the US and the Middle East. A third world country is actually a term used for countries that did not chose a side in the Cold War, it was just later applied to poor countries, those that didn't have influence on the world stage, but the Swiss were neutral. The Colbert Report will not show the cartoons, and neither will any US publications, I think they don't want it to spread. The cartoon is really just the straw that broke the camel's back. I really hope this issue doesn't bring up holocaust revisionism, I have talked to too many survivors to believe it didn't happen, and after TOK I don't think I can even see it as a possibility. One of the worst things that has come out of my extensive study of the Holocaust is the understanding that it should never happen again, but I feel that that genocide is not on its last chapter.
When I look back on my old entries I have found that I seem to be teaching people things instead of reporting on my life. So I guess I should try to write more about me. I worked out Tuesday, it was just me and Doug, it was a good workout, I didn't get the stationary bicycle I wanted, but oh well. I think I finally have my plan for break, I have a rather crowded schedule, but I don't have a final on thursday anymore, so me and Jimmy are going to leave on Thursday morning, well probably about ten, me and Jimmy understand the importance of sleep. I find that being able to relax is the greatest luxury a person can have. Just remember nobody ever died wishing they had spent more time at the office, but then again, most people die wishing that they aren't about to die.
I understand now how poets like T.S. Elliot were able to have no many literary allusions in their work, it is just easier to write that way. There was always a disconnect for me because I thought that if I wrote something I would have to make references to old works, but really they just used stuff from their time. The German economy is very robust now, just saying that I am sure that it looked very much like this in the early 1930's. Germany likes going to war like the...I was going to make a French joke here but I won't, why, because I am a patriot. The United States of America would not exist had it not been for the French, and for that, I will be the one American to realize that The US and France are two identical people who both act hatefully towards eachother because of the clash of our national identities. We are both arrogant and full of ourselves. We both like freedom and at least saying we have a seperation of chuch and State. It is like I Heart Huckabees when the two characters realize they are eachother in the end, but that their internal fear caused them to hate eachother. Paranoia strikes deep, into your heart it will creep...

The Two Cathedrals | Tuesday 7th of February 2006

I want to start out by saying that I am not a fan of organized religion, if there was one true faith, it would need no support. The chuch to me functions as a safety net for society, if the state should fall, the church could help the world function. I guesstimate that it would take 125 years for the world to recover if the governments were all disbanded. But back to the main point, the importance of cathedrals...
It should be understood that cathedrals are, or at least were something grand. They represent the peak of man's abilities, or at least they did. The most amazing and awe inspiring thing about them is how long they took to build, and what that meant. nowadays, builds are built in a manner of months, the new walmart in Terre Haute is going up with great speed, and will be done before I leave for the summer. But a cathedral back in the day could take a century to finish. This means that the people believed in doing something that did not benefit them directly, but instead would be for the greater good of the future. It is that belief that I enjoy, not the god, Jesus is a cracker, drink his blood/wine thing. People would live their lives and maybe they didn't start it, and maebe they won't be around to see it finished, but still they continued. I find it interesting that such structures were built. It brings up the subject of the church and science.
Science and religion have not always been at odds. Science, back in the day, which was a Wednesday, by the way, was often funded and carried out under the power of the church. This does not mean the chuch always liked what science had to say, or that it was the best was about it. When we talk of scientists being persecuted, we must remember, that the pope was good friends with whoever "first" discovered that the earth revolved around the Sun. He was more fearful of losing a friend than what the church would do to him. On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres was written by Copernicus, he was the first. It was not Galileo. I still hate the church. I guess they did a good job in organizing child molesters together to wear robes all day. Molest come from the french molester (spanish molestar, to annoy) then the latin molestre, meaning troublesome. It has aquired a different meaning lately. I like Kepler myself, he came up with the theories, Galileo was a maverick: Galileo made the telescope, Kepler showed why it worked. But that is the fate of many great men. The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources: I just thought this up. Just remember that the meek will inherit the earth, what, did you think they would take it by force?

STAR SL (starfire star) | Monday 6th of February 2006 *

This is the disc that I have decided will anchor my bag. I need a good distance driver, I need something that I can depend on to tee off with. I am going to use it to replace the spot once held by my champion viking. After I sold that disc to Nathan my bag was less cohesive. I just need a stable understable disc that works downwind. If you don't go to Rose, or just if you don't find yourself in the middle of a technical conversation you know nothing about, now you know. Just know that the only thing more persistant than overhearing such a comversation is being in one. I am getting some of the people around me interested in disc golf. Of course Me and Jimmy know how to play and have discs of our own. But I think I can get Ramzi and Brandon, Roomeye doesn't seem as interested. They don't understand what a wonderful game it is. It is one of the few games that you could never keep score and still enjoy. Disc golfing to me is very cathartic. It sends me mentally to a simpler place. I find that disc golf calms me down and lets me focus on nothing in order to clear my mind. I just realized how much I enjoyed disc golf, and thinking back on this weekend I really like having it in my life. Disc golf is a social, friendly, low-impact sport. The sport is also dirt cheap, you could play for less than ten dollars - free if you just go find some lost driver. Disc golf is one of my favorite activites. It really took my breath away from me when Highland was taken away. I will remember every hill, tee and branch on the course for the rest of my life. The last time I went I achieved my record there: 42, it is 29 at Edina. I hope that the course by my house will go in soon, but I know, more than most, that it will be a while. I know it may seem like a minor thing, the picking of a new disc, but it is a very big decision, for my favorite sport.
Pain, I am glad that I did not join Delta Sig. It was a little wierd on Sunday, they were all off getting initiated, all day. I didn't watch the superbowl. I don't care. Organized sports and organized religion are both pointless to me, but at least the superbowl has good comercials. They did not seem to have much fun. There is something to brotherhood, but I am more of a lonewolf, a desperado, if you will...
But other than that all I did on Sunday was go to chruch. I realized from where I was given my moral spirit, it was certainly not from any actual chruch, but what do I think of when I thnk of Sunday. I think of listening to A Prarie Home Companion playing in the background of some conversation with my parents about my days of radio theatres, my radio days, and then his monologue would find its way into my ear, and I hear about what it means to be a good person, and I realize that this aligned me religious as a Minnesotan. My preacher is Garrison Keillor, my church is the back of a toyota corolla, at dusk, as the wheels turn over the snow covered pavement, and I bundle up, for the car is cold, from being left to be, as we were inside, rehashing the same old stories. Then that brings up the table at family meals. I was always, always, put at the kid table, I always resented it. I felt bonded to them for eternity, stuck in the gapping hole between me and the next oldest person, a good twenty years. I always felt above them, if there hadn't been a large group of adults above to keep me in line I would have become overly arrogant about it. I need to make a list of all the ways my family has directly or indirectly affected me, then write a sitcom about it, but I don't think people want another Arrested Development. So I still am going to mull over my flagship driver selection, I will follow (as you should too) the Danish cartoon situation, and I will as always, keep it real.

Against All Odds | Sunday 5th of February 2006 **

I am not going to be doing a big entry. I watched the entire series of Police Squad!, well, it is six episodes. The Postal Service song "Against All Odds" is great. I have every song they have made, including all of their EPs. I have really been enjoying their music more lately. In Syria the Norwegan and Danish embassies were set on fire by Syrians, they were angry about the cartoons. When you think of all the things that would set off Islam, the last thing I thought it was going to be was some danish cartoons. But lately I have found myself thinking in ways different from how I have before. Most of this is from Friday. In class on Friday I learned something genuinely new in math. I discovered a way at looking at calculus and math in general in a new sense. I really didn't think I could be surprised by my schooling anymore. It has to do with taking integrals by pie slice shaped regions radiating from the origin. I am leaning towards buying the Star SL in about a 167g disc, I could use a good all out driver in a sturdy plastic, I need a flagship, I need a go-to distance driver. Innova makes the disc and they just came out with star plastic, grippy and hyper-durable. I really didn't realize at the time the hole in my game when I sold my champion viking driver. Carl Weathers: I buy all my cars at police auctions.

Opening season | Saturday 4th of February 2006 **

I did something that I am surprised that I had not done before. I played disc golf today for the first time east of the Mississippi. It is the first time I have played in a long time. Jimmy and I went after class today. Deming Park is an amazing disc golf course. We had a grand old time. It felt so strange to play, having not played in months. Then tonight me and Roomeye watched the rest of Arrested Development. That show is amazingly brilliant. It is so self contained and interdependent that it’s just blows me away. I am starving, but I have already brushed my teeth, and I don’t want to go through that whole process again. Anyways, it is too bad that AD has to go away, fox just doesn’t know what it’s losing. The world is still keeping it together, well, there is not a full on war between Europe and the Middle East. I had a very good day today, by that I mean Friday.

Hey there woodchuck chuckers... | Friday 3rd of February 2006

If you don't get the picture to the left, then you are not a friend of mine. The brilliance of that film is that it never even tries to explain how or why he is experincing his situation. I think it makes it more of a symbol of the tedious and repetitive nature of daily life. Speaking of the minutia of life, I got back from 8th hour early, and it was raining, so I wanted to not go to physics. I knew I was not going to learn anything new, but I went. I learned the units of voltage, oh wait, I already knew that, J/C, by the way. I missed seeing City of God, but I guess that I did watch Groundhog Day and half a season of Arrested Development. I will post my paper as a link in my written work section after I finish it. By the way, things have snowballed in Eurasia, some armed gunmen took a German hostage by accident, and some other gunmen stormed an EU building. I don't think I need to mention which side was invading the other, it is strange that Muslims have found the perfect way of waging war. They do not use typical armies, but have their citizens independently attack the targets, influenced by years of propaganda. I admit that I, and everyone for that matter, has been brainwashed to a certain point by propaganda. But I have been taught, using government dollars, to question bias. I would really like to be act impartial and thus give myself a false sense of piety, but I feel a little devoted to one side, I always pick the side or freedom of expression and civil liberties over defense. I also have no problem in being dismissive of religious rights, I believe people have the right to believe in whatever thunder god they want. Zeus and Jesus are a little too similar for my tastes, they are just spin offs. Christmas was originally a celebration of the winter solstice, it once fell on the same day, but popes changed the calendar to accommodate their whims. So that is another one of my problems with religion. The popes back in the day - which was a Wednesday, by the way, just a fun fact, think about it - would just shift what day it was, they had absolute power, and now we are living in what is left. So no, there are not 365 days in year going back to year 0. In fact, when everybody was celebrating the new millenium and arguing over if it was actually on January 1st, 2000 or 2001, they failed to realize that they were celebrating the wrong day anyways. Apple stole the Postal Service music video for "Such Great Heights" for their ad for their computers with Intel chips. I rather like their music video, it is simple. Back to the day at hand...
Groundhog day was orignially a German celebration that used Hedgehogs, and involved knowing how jittery the creatures were, and then knowing if they sense a harsh winter ahead. In a way it makes sense, like how animals at zoos in earthquake zones, even those that are not natively from earthquake zones, are sensitive to coming earthquakes. It is legitimate, it has to do with sensing electromagnetic waves from the pressure created and the hair on their skin. It is on par with the pacific islanders who took off running for the hills before the Tsunami hit, even though they have never themselves experienced a tidal wave.
The basic principle I follow as far as creulty to animals is as follows. If it has a central nervous system I do not mess with it, it can feel pain, and it is just not cool with me to mess with that. I understand animals have to die for me to live, and I have made peace with that, I eat meat. They should be killed humanely. We are the first species ever to be able to think of other beings in such an abstract way on such a level, I believe that comes with the responsibility to not cause damage to other when possible. I believe that we have it within our power to do so, and I don't see any need for us not to. By the way, the most depressing thing I have ever encountered is the feeling when you are in a humane shelter and realize that several of the animals around you will be put to death, of no fault of their own, and when you walk off with a kitten a chill comes over you of greed and selfhate. If you don't feel this, you are not a good person. I am not saying you have to be a cat person, just that you don't have a respect for life. Not respecting life is like not respecting yourself, but then again I used to think of how adults could dislike children, since they were once one themselves, but I realized at about age 11 that is not always the case. Nothing you do for a child is ever wasted. But when in comes to invertebrates I don't press my luck. There is too much evil between people for use to do it towards animals. This entry had little or nothing to do with Groundhog day, I guess I just don't have a good ending. By the way, the last line was ironic if you think about Groundhog Day the film. (if has little to do with the actual day, and has a horrible ending)

Jeg Støter Danmark | Thursday 2nd of February 2006

I have a paper to write on this issue, that I will post later. But I just want to say that I fully support Denmark in their struggle for freedom. After seeing all that has happened I understand how WWI started, and I also understand how people would be willing to go to war. Because I can see a bad moon on the rise, and I can just see this snowballing. I really really don't like saying it, but, there is a difference between the two cultures, not in what they are doing, but in their reactions, we don't call in bomb threats when they print something offensive to us.

Arrested Development | Wednesday 1st of February 2006 *

Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together. It’s Arrested Development. I think one of the things that makes me enjoy Arrested Development so much is how I can relate to Michael. I think that is more a result of good writing than my actual life. He is meant to be sympathetic and easy to relate to. He is meant to be the only sane person in an insane world. I guess it is also a dangerous thing to think: identifying with being distant from society. That is always how they describe domestic terrorists and serial killers. But then again, I am very much a part of society. I am part of the man's plan. I am a tool. But I guess realizing I am a tool makes me not one, but then I am, then I'm not, then I am, ad nauseum. Ad nauseum means to do something to the point of becoming nauseated. I will not be having another thousand word blog entry, I have been busy tonight, but I have enought time to write some. By the way, the Bluth company is the fame comany in Arrested Development, and the opening lines of this entry is the opening lines of the show. Hey, I don't have class until 12:40 tomorrow, up until then I am completely uncivilized. That joke is getting very old very fast. One thing I do want to mention is that a kid in Rhetoric yesterday said that author of an essay was a homosexual and jewish, and thus could not be relied on as a source because he was not even following his bible. I think I was the only one to catch it, or I was at least the only one to burst out laughing about it.

Whale Tale Lake | Tuesday 31st of January 2006

All good things must come to pass. Bad news on the home front. It looks like the family farm is being sold. Thinking about this now it seems kind of cliche, to worry about what it means to lose the family farm, a symbolic act of modernization. I only hope that I am able to visit the farm one last time, to walk in the fields of prarie grass that boarder the farm land. To walk down the path that despite all efforts of nature has remained in the faintly detectable trail to the dock. Of course there is no dock anymore, just a hole in the cattails where it once stood. The skating pond, now visible only from space as a bagel of water surrounded by the thick weeds. But alas, progress is coming. The sprawl of it all is coming out to about a mile from the farm. One of the more depressing parts of it is how much work was put into the house, and how it will be bulldozed to put in multiple housing units in a development. I have know this was coming for a few years. I understand why it has to be sold, and I am in no way opposed to the selling of this farm. The farm is on the lake, not that it was used as anything other than a vista. I still don't get how there is better cell phone reception out there than at my house in the city, well I do, there is a tower that can be seen across the lake. Still, there is something quaint about the place. But if farm life has taught me anything it is how life and death go hand in hand. But now that I am in a great mood, I will go on to the next topic of the day, how there are no cool muslims.
I enjoy making vague general statements. Of course there are cool muslims, like Tony Shalhoub or ummm that other dude. But Islam had the problem of not being cool. What I mean by not being cool is not being tolerant. All of this is sparked by me reading the story of Denmark being boycotted in the Muslim world for a cartoon in a private newspaper. The Islamic press is bitching about how it is degrading their religion, and calling on the UN to put trade sanctions on Denmark. To clarify, I am not talking about Israel, it is Denmark, from northern europe. First off, I am very much for free press, and part of freedom is speech is dealing with what other people say. I find comfort in knowing that some crazy person can make offensive comments, it gives me a sense of security to know that I can say what I want. The other side of freedom of speech is freedom of choice, you don't have to listen or pay attention to anybody. If anything, the American education system has proven that. Do they understand how many t-shirts have Jesus on them? Do not try and tell me The United States is not a mostly christian nation. There is no national faith, but we get christmas off. But there is no forced faith. We are not, despite whatever anybody says, a religious nation. We do not all practice the same religion, we don't learn it in school, we are not a religious nation. Now back to my main point is people who are not tolerant. My largest problem with this Denmark problem is the hypocrisy of being intolerant of another person's intolerance. And talking about the root of why it is offensive, the muslim faith, like many other faiths, does not allow religious idols to be made since it would lead to the idols themselves being worshipped (which says alot about these faith's faith in their people to know that God is not represented by a picture of him) but I can deal with not praying to idols, but why be worried that people might pray to a cartoon in Denmark, which I am sure has a huge Muslim population. I think it is more something that a bunch of people had to react for the sake of reacting and it snowballed (a term that I am sure most of the Muslim world understands). It is this reason that I have an issue with Islamic culture: they don't understand what freedom is, it is not free. Back to the start of this arguement, we just need people to stop being so angry. Islam is too proud for its own good. Fanatacism is a dangerous thing, and it is not a state of having an opinion but of having the only opinion. This is why I don't do the religion thing. How do we know that if Jesus existed, he himself was not a false prophet? It reminds me of a line from the Simpsons, they believed that god is the sun, ha, I believe he was a carpenter that died two thousand years ago. Religious fanatics have set themselves up to instantly be in complete opposition with the majority of the world, and they wonder why it feels like everybody is out the get them? This is not just a problem of Islam, Christianity has its own special people too. I would prefer apathy to these extremism. I understand that most Muslims want peace, as most people in all cultures do, but they have a few bad apples that feel they have to act, they have such poverty that such a thing seems inevitable, but is that really an excuse? Mainly all of the trouble is because there is not alot of water, and it is very hot.

How does it feel, to be without a home? | Monday 30th of January 2006

I have been listening to Dylan lately, a Minnesota native. Born in Duluth, a fine harbor up on the bottom of Lake Superior. Dylan is a great musician.. So sunday was a nothing day. I don't know what I did, but I did it all day. I guess I was recovering from all of the hours and hours of work I did on Saturday, wait, I didn't do anything on Saturday. I guess I was just not feeling it. The Speed 2 gang was blowing up bottles down on Speed beach. They would put some drain cleaner in a plastic bottle, basically something with alot of HCl, hydrochloric acid to the layman. It is the stuff in your stomach (tummy) that digests food my being very corrosive. You then take some aluminum foil and throw it in the bottle, shake it up, and run. It explodes in a cloud of chlorine gas. The bottle does not explode. The pressure of the gas on the inside stretches the bottle until it breaks and sounds like a cannon being fired off. By the way, pluralizing cannon yields cannon. In other words you should say that you have seven cannon, not that you have seven cannons. Papal canons are pluralized like normal, as I have just done. Just thought you should know that, in case you are at a fort and talking about all the lovely cannon. On the topic of strange plurals. Court-martial is pluralized as courts-martial, as is Surgeon General as Surgeons General. So if you become a military lawyer or are ever speaking at a summit with more than one Surgeon General, and you need to refer to them, you know how to do it. I really don't see the difference between accepted meaning and social meaning. I see conotations and denotations as standing on the same footing. I need to go talk to the registrar's office tomorrow about where I am with taking microeconomics in the spring. I just wanted to correct what now seems to be an ironically major misconception about me, I am, or at least planning to, have a major in mechanical engineering and a minor in optical engineering. I am now, I guess, a senator for SGA (student government association) here at Rose. I just got an email, do you want this position, I gave a politician's answer, and, well I am one now. Greatness is just thrust upon me or something. I have really enjoyed listening to the classical music that I haven't listened to in years, or months, whatever. I hate using the word hate, but it is so easy to use. I also hate using words like like, whatever, and stoked. That is not a typo, I don't like using the word like. I get into a valleygirl accent, and it all just goes back to sixth grade, and there I am, doing radio theatre, having a conversation with myself in alternating male and female voices, of which after months of coming after school so I could work on an additional radio project, I have only heard that show once, and it was an unedited and unfiltered version. I once thought, many years ago, that my life had a void, that I laked having a passion for anything. At that time it seemed like everybody had something, but thinking back I did have passions for things. Radio theatre is great, because you can wear a robe to work. Every day I thank god this isn't a televison station. Now that the ritual obscure NewRadio reference is out the way...I guess that one of the reasons I like a Prarie Home Companion so much is that it fuses alot of my interests/passions/whatevers. It is liberal Minnesota comedy with dramatic story telling and it all just speaks to me. In summation, Dylan's greatness comes from his singing, not that it is good, but that the rest of him is so great that his inabilities are overlooked.

BMR | Sunday 29th of January 2006 *

I wanted the title of BMR so I googled it and found this image. It is just about the creepiest thing ever, well not actually, but it does make a person think of why someone would make that. Back to normal. I guess I really don't have much to say, which is something not unusual. But usually I can find something to write about. I am sure that something will come to me. Last night it was awesome blowing stuff up. It was raining a bit, but we didn't care. because we are badasses. Okay, here is something, I will talk about the old dude at Wendy's last night. He was in line behind us, and laughing at all of our little jokes, then as the woman behind the counter was giving me a little bit too much attitude, something I don't need right now, he leans over to me and says quitely "soup nazi." I started to crack up of course, the very notion that this very old man was referencing Seinfeld was amazing. I guess it gives me hope that aging is an completely horrible process, so that is an encouraging thought. To think that life is not just another version of Flowers for Algernon is great. So now that I have retirement to look forward to...for the next few years I guess I can find something to fill the void. I am past the halfway point, both of the school year and the time between breaks. I am a little angry at my advisor, I emailed him on Lunes and he has yet to respond to me, so I think adding an HSS elective to my summer schedule is a remote possibility, and since that is something I really should do...
AD: What's your idea, Beads, BEES?, no Beads, BEADS?, Gob's not onboard

Sin City | Saturday 28th of January 2006 *

The term sin city was originally a term coined by Terre Haute papers about all the crime and gambling in the city. So that is interesting. The coke bottle shape, the one not used anymore, was created in Terre Haute. The Columbia House record club is located here, 100 records for just 99 cents. The smell of the town is considered one of its most notible assets. The eastern part of Terre Haute does not have an odor, but West Terre Haute has quite a smell to it. I am writing about this, while listening to a Prarie Home Companion, who is on the road, in Perdue today. Just a few hours north of here, in Indiana, wish I had know, would of tried to get tickets. I cringe as Garrison talks about them as an Engineering school. I don't really have a problem when janitors retitled themselves sanitation engineers, but must Perdue brag about that. Altough Perdue shares the Wabash valley with us, the engineering we do is quite the same as what they consider to be engineering. We are a step up. Anyways, now that I am done trashing Perdue, Perdue basketball, it will comb you over. Terre Haute also has the federal prison where Timothy McVeigh was executed here. It is a horrible town, that I only am in for Rose, which is good enough for me. There is not even a target. I just found this interesting. There have been a few famous people from here, not to many famous people here, they leave, of course, if they are worthy of any creedence they would have to have the intelligence to leave.
If I cared about sports, I would go to a Div I school, or at least one that is not the Fightin' Engineers. I don't have much else to say. By the way, if you mix HCl and Al it creates chlorine gas. So just take drano and aluminum foil, mix them in a bottle, seal it, and run. I do not advice doing this at all, you do it it is your fault. I also want to make some thermite, but that is for later.

45 dolla for a holla | Friday 27th of January 2006

I am not sure on the legality of using the Grand Marais harbor cam on my website. But I would at least like to give credit, if the IB programme taught me anything it was that you get in way less trouble for stealing intellectual property if you at least say who the author is. So now that I have at least set up that it is done in the best of intentions, I shall pave the road to hell.
I seem to have a aura of something around me. I woke up this morning from a nightmare. I was dreaming that it was late at night, I had just gone to the bathroom, and I heard a noise outside. I went down to the end of the hall, past our snowman wrapping paper covered door. I turned the corner, went down into the stairwell, and out the back door. And in the distance there was a light over the SRC that was moving. It looked like a spotlight. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to call someone, but I wasn't getting any service. So then I walked out onto the steps to see the lights as they got brighter. Then I realized what they were, the lights were from the giant evil machines from the war of the worlds, they were about to kill everybody here, and I was the only person around who know about it. So I turnded back inside, slipped on a sheet of ice, and then, as I was loosing consciousness, I realized that soon it would come to an...and then I woke up. I looked over to my clock, 10:55 in a faint red glow, I needed to get up, I had a computer applications midterm that started five minutes ago. Then I realized how screwed I was. So I decended from my loft, onto the floor, threw on my pants, shoved my laptop into my bag, managed to get my mouse in too. I threw on a hoodie and went calmly out the hall. Then I realized what could happen, and how my prof would probably not be too understanding, so I ran. I got there, set up my laptop. I was up and running MATLAB by 10:59. I went trough the test quickly. All my code was done flawlessly, everytime I tested it it turned out right. So then I get it all together and did one final run to check. Then the screen was filled with a few graphs, some data was printed out in the command window. Then for some reason the numbers three through four-hundred thirty eight were printed out. I had more than five minutes left, I scrambled, and found nothing. I put holds in the program to isolate the problem, nothing. I was more disappointed that I could come in five minutes late and leave five minutes early than I was upset about the code not working. So I turned it in, with a few extra numbers. Then I went back to my room. I knew that Jay might be stopping by, so I hoped to get there, to IAIT, and then back before he could get there. I was just turning around and there was my pledge dad. I was not looking forward to this conversation with Jay, I knew I had to have it, but is still not a fun thing to do. I didn't want to do it at the house. Nick had an intervention when he went to the house, and I really don't need that now. He was ambushed, he had a half dozen people asking him why. The reasons I depledged and Roomeye was thinking about it are very similar, not to mention very difficult to explain. I just don't see what they can do for me now. Not to mention the hypocrisy of a group of people who are incompentant at their jobs and expect us to answer their questions. That isn't the only thing. But back to my story. I finally did bring my laptop to IAIT. I sold off my hat and sweatshirt to Brett.
Nothing else has really happened. By the way, there is a funny story about Grand Marais, it is too bad that I never got around to it. OH my, is that good story.

Star Tribute | Thursday 26th of January 2006

I don't know how the Edward Solomon Park disc golf course is coming along. I emailed a contact at the Minneapolis Park Board to find out. I have recently been catapulted, well not actually, into Rose involvement. I am probably going to be a senator for SGA, I am going to try to be a part of SAA, I am going to try to be an SA next year. I am not going to do the AHPCRC thing next summer. I ran out of abriviations to use.
My favorite disc golf disc company came out with a new plastic, it combines the grip of pro with the durability of champion. I just felt like I would talk about the most trival part of my day. I guess that I don't really know what I did today. I worked out in the SRC tonight, not for much time, but it felt good. I have a few extra dollars in my coffers, since I don't have to protect the money I have been saving up so I can covertly join a fraternal organization. It is probably not a good thing that I have made a game out of hiding things from my parents, but it is fun.
It has been kind of awkward to see all the DSPers around, but I find that fun too. I never liked Catcher in the Rye, I just felt that Holden needed to get some real problems. I don't know why everyone identifies with him so much. I guess that by not identifying with him I actually am alienating myself more from the mainstream - whatever that is - which makes me more like him, so that is a nice logical pitfall. I cleaned up my room today. Just to give you more mundane details about my life. When I say today, I really mean yesterday, I write this late at night, and the switch over is tricky. The local news is horrible, I accidentally left the TV on FOX for a while, they had two big stories: how to deal with daylight savings time and how to best buy cabinets for a kitchen renovation. Indianans are just now learning how to use the mysterious tool of spring forward and fall back, they, Arizona, and Hawaii don't observe DST. Really I realize that my last entry was also ironcially named, for I realized that my life was almost the same with or without DSP. I just don't see what more I get out of it, not to mention the few hundred dollars I'll save each month. I am not going to get into that now, I have spent more time lately talking and thinking about it as sleeping, not including naps. I need my sleep so I can yell at my incompetant compappy's team, I would have put it all together, half the work, and all they had to do is email me their data, well good luck and good night.

The Song Remains the Same | Wednesday 25th of January 2006 *

One great thing lately, the Jimmy Eat World album Clarity is great, Roomy played it when we were driving in Illinois. I know, I should have used the creedence song "Looking Out My Back Door" as the title to my last entry, from the first line "Just got home from Illinois lock the front door oh boy!." But I wanted to keep with the theme of my Leducation, not to mention Coda was such a great coincidental and meaningful title. A Leducation is a powerful experience of spending a week dedicated to Led Zeppelin, I have a greater appriciation after last week. I also realize how random my taste in music is, I like classic rock, folk, classical (orchestral), modern hip-hop, and really I don't know where it all comes from. But then again, if I have learned anything in life, it is that nothing in reality is two-dimensional, and if anything were, it would be quite boring. Religion, if there was an answer to it all, why has nobody figured it out, so is it even worth trying to figure it out, why must I ask why, and why can't I just appriciate what is? Well, I will just keep on keepin' on, like the dude. I realize how much good folk music there is, that is if you count Bob Dylan and CCR in that catagory. There is just something folksey about it I guess. I would be a really good bad comedian. I like how one of the big lessons I learned from high school was the greek thing about moderation, religious fanaticism is a dangerous thing, the most dangerous force the world has seen, for it is a way for people to instantaneously disagree, and from that unabatable clash of wills comes the hate that fuels war, death, and pestalance. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. This a line from the West Wing. I view the four hoursemen of the apocalypse as representing what the was back in the day considered the four races of the earth, symbolizing metaphorically that man is the only thing that will cause the end of the world. Oh, and I had a french dip in the ARA last week, it made my day. Just to let you know, I am doing fine, I just overheard that line from the West Wing yesterday.
Times have not been great lately. But yesterday was supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. It was not great going through things, and I still have more to do. It was difficult explaining my reasoning with Alex and Jordan, it is not them or that part of them that is my problem. I felt really bad after that. Then talking with Scott was not as much a porblem, but me and Nick were both there. I feel bad for what happened to Nick, Roomy (Nick) went to the pledge meeting and then had an intervention like thing with a bunch of people, and I understand that that must have been difficult for him, he is going through just about the same thing as me. I will talk to Chunder and Jay later today. The most difficult part of it is telling people why, because it is not just one simple thing. I feel that it is something that shouldn't be entered into lightly. I have spent alot of time thinking it all over, not to mention about 8 hours spent talking about it with people. I guess the reason why I don't want to join are not the problem, but the lack of reasons why I want to join. I don't know what I am going to do for housing next year, but I know that I don't want that to influence my decision; I can't let the minor things overwhelm a big decision. I don't know how Roomy is going to handle all of this since he is in the same situation as me, or at least a very similar one, but I must admit it is easier knowing someone else is going through the same thing. I don't enter into things lightly, if anything, it is a fault of mine, that I overthink, and I also have a will power that verges on fanaticism, and a unique sense of universal altuistic justice. I have been mulling over comprando una systema de sonida con cincocientos vatios de fuerza por mil y trienta dollares. One thing that bothers me, not that i am annoyed with the people who told me it, but when people tell me that I haven't offiicially depledged because they have to approve it in chapter, I know they are just giving me time to make up my mind, but I see it initially as, them telling me when I am being allowed to leave, and I hate that kind of stuff. Well I don't worry, no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to derail my life, this train just keeps on going, despite having run off the track a while ago. I know I sound mopey, but it just feels strange with every day above 50 in January for it is just a little off the reservation for me. I am actually doing rather well, I am planning on getting more involved with Rose. The pentumvirate still stands, we were hallmates before frat brothers, and we will always be the pentumvirate, or quinquervirate, the proper term, which I found out after doing some research. I am writing alot because I don't have class until 12:40 pm today, I don't always have time to write a thousand word essay on nothing.

Coda | Tuesday 24th of January 2006 **

The day the music died. There is no easy way to put it, the West Wing was cancelled today. The show will finish out the season and I guess I am glad they didn't try to have it jump the shark, oh wait, the ER producers did that in season 5. Jump the shark is a term used for when a television show stays on too long, it references the episode of Happy Days where Fonzi jumped over a shark tank, the episode is widely considered the beginning of the end for the show. Oh, by the way, the next section is rather important, for it is a defining moment of my life, or just another in the endless stream of minutia that fills my life. I need to go to sleep, oh wait, I have stuff to do, like write the next section. But isn't that all there really is, or not.
I find it very fitting that this entry's name is coda. Coda, for those of us majoring in something that can get us a job, is the finale of a musical movement. So I am no longer a pledge for Delta Sigma Phi. For those of you who don't know I was joining a frat, well, way to keep up with my life. I was fun, I really like most of the brothers, but it was not for me. There is not one cause, what is this, physics I, there are many forces working on this particle. I have spent several hours talking about this with people. No, this is not just about the paddle thing (we get them signed by every active, there is not any hazing done with the paddles) as many of you may think. I don't remember telling my family, I know you read this, so, yeah. At least Andre's parents weren't the ones to tell you. Anyways, I don't have any, hard feelings about it. I have things I would like to write about, but I feel that this event eclipses just about anything else I could write. So far I have only told the pentumvirate and Chunder so far. I feel like a load had been lifted, so I feel that I have done the right thing. I got these cookies at subway tonight for meal exchange, it was a big mistake, I ate them too fast, and they were the last ones of the batch. Then today I found out about the other door at the SRC, it is a way shorter walk to the weight room. Me and roomy have been watching Arrested Development lately, it is such a good show. It is too bad that it was cancelled. But all good thing come to an end.

In Through the Out Door | Saturday 21st of January 2006 *

Well, I don't know if I am doing good or bad. Not in the moral sense, but in some abstract kind of how is your day today. I almost got screwed while doing spring term registration. I have a weekend wednesday next quarter, this means I don't have class on Wednesday, at all, at Rose it just works out that way sometimes. Other than that, I don't know, just running through the jungle. I have been very tired lately, and that is not a good thing since I have a lot of work to do. I know it sounds strange, but I want to create a field simulation engine, I don't know why, but I don't have time. I still need to get my laptop reimaged. This time now is an interlude, the largest one, if that makes sense for an interlude, but it is seven weeks in a row of solid school. I rocked those physics tests, so that is good, don't know about that math test today. I really want to get into something, but it is late. I hate to take advice from him, even though I respect him, Jamie Foxx once said that if you live the way you grew up you will always be happy. Sometimes I think it is true, other times I think it is a fabrication made to simplify our world. The strangest thing I find in science is the obsession to reduce the world, to make it simpler, when really it is a daunting and often impossible task. The world is complex, sometimes we all must learn to accept it, and understand that for the beauty of it.
By the way, I have been having a problem with a slight wavering of faith lately. Yes, I know, it sound strange for me, but I have. I actually thought for a while that I might believe in a higher power, that there were just too many coincidences in life for it not to be. But rational heads prevailed, I refounded my orthodox atheist, that every so often verges on nihilism. I wish I could believe in god, but I can't, I wish I could live in that mentality, I have often thought of just taking the blue pill, but after watching Shadows and Fog I realized what I believe, and to actually know what you believe in is a great feeling. Oh, and earlier this week I thought I was on the verge of creating the Grand Unified Theory (theory of everything) but I think I am just doing too much physics and calculus work. It is a dangerous idea to think that a line of reasoning should not be followed because surely someone would have discovered it by now if it was that simple. 99 percent of the human body is composed of only six elements: Oxygen, Carbon, Hyrdogen, Nitrogen, Calcium, and Phosphorus. I also find it interesting that I said that the human body was composed of those elements, as if it all was made, by something or someone, hmmm, not so much. So, good thing I didn't get into something.

Presence | Thursday 19th of January 2006

There are few things in this world that get me angry. But last night I was staying out at the house, and we were going through google video, seaching good key words like claymation, crash, and attack. Then we watched a hilarious video of cats doing silly things. Then John Barton brings up bonsai cats. I thought he was joking, but sure enough there was a site wtih information on how to best do it. A bonsai cat is a cat that you put in a jar as a kitten and let grow inside the jar by use of feeding and air tubes. I found this one of the most disgusting things I had heard of. I was considering dropping out of school and waiting in the shadows to kill these people because anybody who does this needs to be removed from the gene pool. I really don't see a debate of this, they are to be put to death, this is not just me being sarcastic. I feel that violence towards animals is just about as low as it gets. I understand that we need to kill animals to eat, but senseless torture is not justified in any sense. I believe that humans were gifted with intelligence, and that it is their responsibility to not do stupid things. I don't care, gas them, I have no sympathy, I don't care, I'll shot them in front of their family. After a little more reseach I found out it was all a hoax. But still, I would gladly end the life of another human being if they commited cruelty towards animals. I have thought it over, and really, I don't believe they have the right to exist or reproduce, they invited this by their actions, I don't care if they inherited the trait, it is then fruit of the poisonous tree. I don't discriminate based on race, gender, or sexual orientation, I don't care, but I do hate those who do such things. I know this seems a little too severe of a rant, even for me, but I feel it necessary to tell people what I think.
Not to mention someone ate some of my cheetos, there is at least a chip clip on the bag, but I think I know the circumstances in which they were eaten, and quite honestly, it is the combination that I don't approve of. It is out of my sense of moral justice that I am so pissed off, especially considering recent developments. Altough I can think abstractly, I am still nothing more than a collection of selfish genes, of course this is the same excuse I said was invalid before. This is how my mind works in case you are interested, only with a few more random jumps.
Good news, my site has had 1000 hits, good job me, for making it, wow do I love myself, I am such a great person. I really wish I could take a class in me, and major in me, maybe go to graduated school, then get my doctorate in me. I guess this is why I am an ME (Mechanical Engineer). I took a test about an hour ago and my success went strait to my head, well I didn't screw it up like I though I did, not to mention I hit the other physics test on tuesday out of the park, I hate using sports analogies. I don't even think I spelled analogies right, I am a horrible speller, is that even a word. Despite all of this...I don't remember where I was going, but I was going there fast, I'm on a highway to hell. I don't want to go back to my IB sleep schedule, I can get by on five hours of sleep a day, but it is not fun. Despite all of this, the sun will rise tomorrow, the grass will grow this spring, and the rivers will flow. Well, except for rivers like the Red river in northwest Minnesota, which flows north, which causes floods in the spring, when the river trys to send meltwater into the ice blocked northern portion. But the sun will probably shine!

Physical Graffiti | Wednesday 18th of January 2006 ***

It snowed here. Not very bad, but it did. I was driving with Roomy and right as we were going out of Rose at about five miles per hour he taped on the breaks and we spun around and did a perfect 180. That was fun. One of the things I find inconvenient is not having LeeAnn Chin's or an axeman around here. Today I don't have much to do, so I am doing this thing. I broke down and got a Kroger card. For the uninitated, a Kroger is like a Lunds, Byerly's, or Kowalski's, only of lower quality. It is the higher end around here. They have a card that gives you good discounts at Kroger, I thought it made me a little too integrated into the Haute, but it saves me money and doesn't make me make up excuses for how I left it at home. Today it is again very warm, I shouldn't be able to wear shorts in January, I feel guilty about it. Half of January so far has had a high above 50, what is going on? I should not feel a day that is 60 outside. I don't know if this is global warming, el nino, la nina, or if this is natures way of saying watch out. Arrested Development is a hilarious show, it is very well done, fox is cancelling it, like Family Guy, but all good things must come to an end, people weren't watching it, not that fox did anything to keep it in its time slot, so many good shows have been destroyed by changing the timeslots. I have been listening to a classical music mix I made in 10th grade, it is strange that I don't listen to much classical music nowadays.
Although I often have free time, I always seem to be overwhelmed with work. I don't know why. When I look at how much work I have to do now I just look back on IB and laugh at how little I do now. I have been trying to pick something to go on a rant about, IB seems good. The International Baccalaureate, a term I have only recently learned how to spell. To descibe what IB means to me seems like a daunting task, ironically, one thing that IB didn't get me ready for. I have to regrets about doing IB. If I could turn back time, I would still do it. Sure IB steals your soul, but who doesn't love a debate on the difference between choking and panicking. When I look back it seems like I don't do anything to learn what I did, but somehow through sheer luck or some master plan, I came out of there better than when I went in. It gave me a leg up here, I am not learning very much new material, just going a little more in-depth. IB teaches you advanced comprehension skills, just the ability to understand what is going on. This does not mean that I left IB on good terms, we don't talk anymore, but it was something worth it in the long run. It also gives you a sense of arrogance that is rightly founded in the fact that earning the diploma is equivalant to a freshmen year of college. On a side note, I could be a junior at the U (University of Minnesota), at a school of more than 50,000, more than any other in the nation. But like IB, I stand behind my decision.

Houses of the Holy | Monday 16th of January 2006 ****

So the Colts lost today. I found it funny. If memory serves me correct, a rare occurance, I believe this is almost exactly what happened to Minnesota a few years ago. Everybody thougth they were going to make a comeback. The only reason I would want them to win is so that I can say I work out in the same weight room as the superbowl champions, I use the same bicycles, I run the same track. But it was equally awesome to see other people suffer. I think that it is so funny that everybody thought this was going to be a walk in the park. They had a nearly undefeated season, their kicker had not missed a single field goal within the 40 during the regular season, but not in the post season games. They fell from greatness, one of my favorite topics, the failure of others. It makes me feel like a better person. But now that that is over. The place with five radio stations in one building building, that that one radio station is in, street, jr, don't think that you will get that, just wanted to remember what Jimmy said, cough. I find it kind of arroangant to feel joy in the pain of others, but I find my own downfalls funny, so it all works out. I need to get more sour cherry altoids chewing gum. I am too tired to write any more crazy. Wait, I would be willing to wager that UA flight 93 was shot down, and that everybody involved thought it would be in the best interests of everybody to lie. Of course this could be an example of a social breaking point, like that book by that guy that wrote blink. You should read both to understand something. If you are just going to watch TV, watch good TV.

Led Zeppelin IV | Saturday 14th of January 2006 ***

Life is good, stay out of the wood. Don't piss in my pocket and tell me it is raining. I have many items of homework to do this weekend, it won't take much time, they are all minor. The food here is terrible, and in such small portions. The Big Lebowski is a great movie, not that it wasn't before, but I am doing my Rhetoric paper on Shadows and Fog instead. I am writting this in the afternoon, it is a cold saturday, I still put shorts on to go to Walmart, got some stuff I needed, like 40 bagel bites for 6.50. I will write more later.

Led Zeppelin III | Friday 13th of January 2006

Just to clarify something, the dates of these articles are usually the day I do them, but it is really the day I intend it to be released, for it covers the previous day's news. So this entry with Friday's date was about Thursday. So now that that is out of the way...
Today was warm, very warm, too warm. Being a pround Minnesotan, in case you can't tell, I feel it strange to feel too warm outside in the middle of January. Today the temperature asymptotically approached 60 degrees fahrenheit here in the Haute. I put shorts on shortly after my computer applications class was over. I was so overjoyed at the feeling of March and April that was in the air that I forgot to bring my laptop to IAIT to get it reimaged. The wind was blowing so strong that it made me remember the spring break I spent up at Lutsen, how we went right up to the Canadian boarder and most people fled to the tropics. There was snow on the ground then, and a steady cool breeze came from the mammoth lake, the largest freshwater in the world, that seemed to have no end. I have seen both Oceans, but at the time I was too young to understand the scale of such a thing. But I understood that lake. Last summer I spent the fourth of July with Andre, and I didn't even know we were in Wasconsin, and as we drove into the small town, off Madeline Island, the town of Bayfield. We walked around this town and I found out we were in Wisconsin, and fireworks jumped right into my mind, but then I realized that I knew where to go in the small town, not where to get fireworks, but where the taffy shop was, and where the docks were. I had been there before, I, took a trip sailing with my friend Max on lake superior, but that had been in Minnesota, well I guess not, the sailing trip, that I had always thought was in Minnesota was actually in Wisconsin, so that was wierd. But lake superior is something amazing, in between the seasons the temperature of the lake of down ten feet changes less than a degree, which being below 40 degrees is not fun to fall into. But Duluth has a great sandwich shop, that my uncle showed me, that I only know to get to by going to Lutsen and then I know the second that I go too far.
Today was a warm day. It felt great until I realized that it was but a passing thing, and that I missed the winter in more way than one. I realized that it was a false hope, that summer was around the corner. I miss the cold, and I am all the more glad that I took my walks in the snow, over the last break, which didn't last long enough. I dislike fall, and the weather seems to be perpetually trapped in it. I hope that when I am in Iowa there is a Blizzard, for they are inspirational. And that is the news from lake Woebegon.
Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens will change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

Led Zeppelin II | Thursday 12th of January 2006 **

If you know your modern history you remember the strategy for the second Iraqi war. We went in to fight terrorism, or for freedom, or for WMDs or something. Well in order to fight the war on terrorism (global struggle agianst extemism) we used a tactic called shock and awe. Now to fight terror we used shock and awe. I don't know if this is brilliance, poetic justice, or just good ol' fashion irony. But I remember thinking of this...several years ago, but I remembered it and thought I would record it for posterity. For the record, I was not against the Iraq war. I remember the day Wellstone's plane went down He was another great American hero, responsible for more 99 to 1 votes than any other senator in our nation's history, a true Minnesotan. The best way to describe him was a the real thing. He voted what he believed, and almost lost reelection because of it. But we respected him for that, even people who disagreed with him voted for him, he was untouchable, he was the meaning of grass roots. If you are a West Wing fan you will be interested to know that he hid MS from the public and was reelected. I am depressed that I never had the honor to vote for him. He is a man who even if you disagreed with his far-left philosophy, you had to admire him for his convictions. I remember the radio playing American Pie later that day, I remember Mr. Kennedy scrambling to turn on the TV, I remembered listening to the music of that day, and as the flames climbed high into the night...
Paul Wellstone! was the only senator seeking reelection to vote against the Iraq war. It brings me back to the day of the protest. As I stated earlier, I did not oppose the war. I thought that I didn't know enough about the matter to choose. In retrospect I thought this despite knowing more aobut the matter than most people around me. I didn't know if their were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but I feared that they could. I didn't think it was enough. But I kept that to myself. I am not going to act like I knew what was going down, I was down the same path as everybody else. But I prefer pacifism. I believe that violence begets violence, and that war is a final alternative to diplomacy. But I remember sitting in Zhao's room, talking with Zhao and Lydia in the back room about it. The rest of the class left, to either protest what they didn't understand or to just sneak out. My little sister went and stood on the 50th street bridge over 35W and held a sign, I told her she was adorable. I have a dark cynicism that often makes me look at the fruitlessness of such activities. I remember what set all of this off. I remember missing my bus, getting a ride from my mom on that Tuesday morning and listening to NPR, going with her to vote in the primary election where R.T. Rybak defeated the incumbant Sharon Sales Belton who once read to my 4th grade class. But that news was not heard that day. I remember what I said when the first one went down. I remember that when I heard that it happened twice I knew exactly what had happened. I remember Mr. Rumppee not letting us watch the TV. I had assumed Maren was dead when I saw the second fall in History with Meyer, I remember the first time I heard his name. I remember knowing what day of the week it was for the rest of the September based on that tuesday, for it stood as a momument in time, like a cross by the side fo the road. The past, you can never escape the it, you can never change it, and right now is about to be in it.
To lighten up this somber occasion. When I die I want to go peacefully, just gently fall asleep, not kicking and screaming, like the other people in the car. If I am lucky I will get five hours of sleep for today, I slept until 3:37pm yesteday (Wed) and didn't have any class, or any classes to go to, can I at least get a pity laugh. Last night I watched Fear and Lothing in Los Vegas, it made no sense at all. And that's the news from lake woebegon.

Led Zeppelin I | Tuesday 10th of January 2006 *

I was tring to come up with a cool name for this entry, it is an homage to NewsRadio, whose episodes were, at least for some time, named after Led Zeppelin album names. Yes that was the correct use of "an" earlier, the h in homage is silent. I realize now that the title to this article should be bad moon rising, but that seems to be the story of my life. I am going to be in a bad mood for a little while. So here goes. First off, television was great last night. My only problem with Rose is the high number of tools let into this school, if you don't know what I mean by tool, get off my site, you don't belong, you are not among friends. For example, the kid who had to get his mini pizza cooked more at the worx tonight, I am not talking about when room-eye (nick) got an uncooked calzone. I was doing fine for a while, but right now I am upset. I am preparing just in case I need to go to war against someone. But cooler and calmer heads will prevail. I just almost burned the room down. Me and Jimmy - a fellow Minnesotan, and Minneapolisian - like to burn isopropyl alcohol in a pan, well this time it got out of control, so we will be doing that outside from now on. Went to the SRC for the third time today, mostly just cycled, not that into the power lifting thing. But I need to be ready to bike this summer, as I will hopefully get a job, which I would have to bike to. But besides that, I still have 136 days left before that, so. I am not looking forward to thursday, it will be the first day I have to wake up before noon in weeks, so that is going to suck, not to mention that it is for a physics lab. Legality and morality are two different things, I was watching this wierd movie on commedy central about a family of thieves, no comedy at all I thought that they stopped doing that years ago. I want to bring up my favorite new dissodent: Jeannette Rankin. She was the first woman elected to the congress. She was a republican, but back then it was cool. She was the only person in the U.S. congress to oppose WWI in 1917, she repeated her opposition to war in 1941, when she was the only congressperson to oppose WWII, then war stopped being declared, she was an activist against Vietnam, she is largely forgotten in history, paved over by jingoism. She is the essence of American spirit, an idea all but forgotten, of people believing what they believe is right despite popular opposition. The weekend was bought with the blood of countless patriots, I find it so interesting how little is taught to school children about the many massacres that gave us modern labour rights, many of which were done by the government against its own citizens, we need to learn that liberty is something entrusted to us by our forefathers, think how many have died for the liberties we have today, the civil war alone... Of course civil liberties are being destroyed today. I am not going to point fingers. But I would like to bring up Benjamin Franklins' quote that ",any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
Nothing is less free than freedom.

downhill pain | Sunday 8th of January 2006 *

I know these billboard thing seem strange but I found a site with a bunch of them, so I ripped them off. So now that I got that bad-ass thing out of the way...my legs ache, not as much as yesterday, but I did a few squats a few days ago and I am still feeling it. Me and roomy both walk strange. Oddly enought it hurts to walk downhill. Tonight alot is going down, by that I mean I am going to watch TV. There is going to be a new West Wing, Family Guy, and 12. oz mouse. But then there is the entire french dip debacle. The ARA did not serve french dips for lunch on friday despite their menu saying otherwise (click on the dancing animal) and then at Arby's late last night (we have a 24 hour Arby's here) I, half asleep, found out that Arby's no longer sells french dips. So now I have been cut off from my french dips, one of the few things I was looking forward to. I have some work still left to do, not much. I am not going to save it for late tonight. OH, and today Rallies (think McDonalds with more grease) is having their 49 cent hamburgers (59 for a royal with cheese) so that is going to be awesome. So that is what my life has become, doing work, and looking forward to fast food and television. Long live the American dream.
The American dream is something hard to define. If you live here and have not figured it out good luck on life. For those who don't know just understand it is the idea that any person can rise to greatness, a promising idea. Of course this is a spun version of the truth, opponents would say that the American dream is that of pure greed. Capitialize is the greatest motivator of all time, think of it, the idea of earning more money motivates people more than the church telling them that they will burn in the eternal fires of hell. It is the force that gives us meaning. The American dream is what it is, don't expect it to go away, it is the opiate of the masses, and is doing very well at perpetuating itself. On a slightly different note, G-D, Greg, a friend who goes to Harvard, won $2000 in 17 minutes playing poker heads up with the 1983 world series of poker champion. But the sun will still rise tomorrow.

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple | Sat...7th of January 2006 **

Today was okay, it was friday, a good day, but it brings with it a ton of pointless stuff. I have to finish my physics and turn it in today by 6pm. I have to do a ton of work tomorrow. I am very tired, the SRC is catching up to me, but I want to keep on keepin' on. I need to be in shape to bike this summer. I want to find a job, any job almost, and I need a way to get there. I feel like Kleinman in Shadows and Fog sometimes. I know this is too obscure a reference for anybody to get. This is going to be a short entry, I would like to go off on some rant about some, but let me say this. I realized once that I had no real arguement against gun control. I don't know how of why, I just knew that I was for it, to an extreme degree. I was watching a West Wing episode were this was brought up and I realized as the characters realized, I don't like the people, it is not as much the guns as me not liking the people who like guns, the people who feel a need to have such a tool, I feel superior to them. Thus leading to Crime and Punishment, I think I am a Lebezyatnikov, but then again, human suffering is both inevitable and necessary. But it is late in the morning, and I have lunch tomorrow, and the beat goes on.

power negotiation | Thursday 5th of January 2006

I am retooling my format, I like the european way of writting the date, I just picked it up from IB, like several other behaviours, although I can't remember what they are at the moment. I went to the SRC (sports and recreation center) today, me and Room-eye (roommate) lifted weights after having both slacked off for the last sixth of our lives. We basically lifted the bar and were like blind men at a marionette opera about a mime who metaphorically discusses the importance of sphereical aberration in lenses. So that was fun. I went cycling, I need to make sure I am in shape for the summer, because hopefully I will have a job, ojala que! There was an attempted robbery in my hall! Some hautians (residents of Terre Haute, who don't deserve capitalization) parked a van out from of Speed Hall the night before break was over and went inside. Now There is about a quarter million dollars in stuff in unlocked rooms in Speed hall they could steal. They simultaneously proving their hautian-osity and stupidity (I used a thesaurus), stole some clothes from the box of lost and found clothes in the laundry room. They then went outside and tagged the building with a gang sign. Campus security caught them, Chad saw it all go down and just watched, and they borrowed batteries from them to power their digital cameras to record the damage as time was an issue. You see time was critical because as storm front had been on the move and the storm might wash away the chalk. You read that right, chalk, they used chalk, the clear inability for them to think even partially coherantly proves they are hautians. Who graffitotags a building with chalk. Did they borrow it from their little sisters? Criminals frustrate me, I could do it so much better. I have only had one class so far, it was fun, I actually enjoyed learning this strange property of vectors. I have learned that I think I am the only person who enjoyed going back. I mean not that I don't like it hear, I do hate to Haute, but I love Rose. It feels awkward because it seems like I am the only person here who didn't hate every minute of being back home. So to end on a fun note check this news article out, it is about how cheap it is to live here link to article.

once more unto the breach | Wednesday January 4th,2006 *

So I am back. My flight was delayed. I got back here at 2 am. So now it begins, 7 weeks and counting. Then I go visit Jeff at Grinnell. I figure that I wrote a ton last time so I will cut back this time. Those coal minor are still alive. Tomorrow/today is wednesday, waffle fry wednesday, I don't even remember my schedule, which is a very comforting thought. I think I have to go to math and that is it. I don'