Two days ago in the afternoon, our poor doggy, Gizmo, was the victim of a vicious attack by the wheel of an auger being hauled into our yard. I was in the house eating supper with Ryan when the incident occurred. We heard a yelp, but when we looked outside we didn't see anything and figured it was probably just the animals fighting with each other like they often do. Little did we know Gizmo had actually been ran over and had run off.
The guy that ran him over simply went about his business at our house. He unloaded his auger and tried to set it up and then as he was on his way out he decided to tell us that he had ran over Gizmo. Couldn't he have told us right away after he did it? After he told us, Ryan, my mom, and myself all went looking around the farm to see where he was and if he was all right. I kept imagining him all broken up or spewing out blood from internal bleeding. I couldn't imaging getting run over as being a fun experience so, naturally, I think my train of thought ventured into a somewhat morbid direction.
We spent around an hour searching every piece of our property as well as looking in all the sheds, across the road, in the fields, and anywhere else we could think of. We didn't find him, though. Ryan took the four wheeler over to the neighbor's house and told them to keep an eye out for him. After we had given up looking for him for the night, our neighbors called saying they thought they saw our dog out in the field next to their place.
Wanting to see if it was him, I took the four wheeler over to the area where he was supposed to be and sure enough, he was out there in the field, about a half a mile away from our house (and he ran there injured too). When he saw the four wheeler he started running further away, most likely because he was afraid of the vehicle. I got off and walked over towards him and as soon as he saw me off the four wheeler he came bounding up to me and almost bowled me over. I could tell that he was absolutely petrified after what happened. He was huffing & puffing and he had that scared look & feel to him. Even so, he was more than happy to see me and to have me giving him attention. It was rather sweet, actually.
Even though Gizmo isn't our favorite pet, he's still one of our family (even if he was added into our family against our will, but that's another story). Sure he's a big, dumb, slobbery animal, but he just wants to be loved and get attention. I can't recall him ever not being friendly towards us. He's never once growled at anyone, at least that I can recall. He'll always follow you around no matter what you're doing, with only one thought in his mind, "I like you and just want to be noticed by you." No, I can't read animal's minds so don't even ask, but it is easily apparent by the way the dog acts around us that there is nothing but love in his big, dumb heart for our family.
Anyhow, after I got him somewhat calmed down, I wondered how I was going to get him home. I tried putting him on the four wheeler with me but he didn't like that so much, and I couldn't really force him to ride since he's a big dog (probably 40 or 50 lbs). Instead, he just followed me home as I rode the four wheeler. Since he was still walking gingerly from being ran over, it took quite a while to get him home. I think around a half hour or so, but I didn't really keep track of time. When we got home, it was good to know he was back. Everything seemed back to normal. Even though I might not show it enough, I'd miss the big beast if he had passed away. For being as dumb as he is, I can't help but like the dog deep down. He's dumb in a loving way.
Friday, April 16, 2004
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Countless Fires in my Area
So the big news in the Hayfield/Blooming Prairie/Brownsdale area is the rash of fires that have been taking place. In the last week there has been at least 15 fires that the local fire departments have had to respond to. I knew about 6 of them because a couple happened close to our farm and to my grandparents' place, but I had no clue that there were as many as 15, especially with them all happening in such a short period of time.
A couple of the fires have been chalked up to it just being extremely dry out since we haven't had any rain in our area for a couple of weeks, but many of the building site fires have been classified as arson. It's a little scary knowing that there's people (my guess is some stupid-ass kids whose parents aren't watching them well enough) running around with the intention of lighting buildings on fire. The fires that have been classified as arson mostly revolved around the fires that involved abandoned building sites. I'm not sure if they've classified any of the fires at occupied residences as arson or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were.
I really hope that whoever is doing it gets caught asap. My grandparents' own an abandoned building site with a few barns on it and we're hoping that nothing happens to it. I also feel kind of bad for the fire departments in the area because they've been so busy. My brother has a teacher at school that is on the fire department and he's hardly gotten any sleep the last week because all of the fires have been happening in the evening. If I go to sleep tonight without there being any fires, this will be the first night in the last 8 that I've been able to go to bed without there being a fire somewhere in our area.
On a somewhat related note, I just finished watching the anime series Hellsing. It's an anime series about vampires, specifically an institution (the Hellsing Institute) that is vowed to wiping out the vampire and undead population of England. The interesting twist is that two of the Institute's members are vampires themselves. I had high expectations for this series going in and now after it is over, I'm somewhat fulfilled, yet also partially let down.
The animation of the series is superb and there are some great action scenes. These scenes don't hold back on the gore factor, though, so if you have a weak stomach, they're probably not going to be too enjoyable for you. The big disappointment for me is the storyline. The first few episodes don't play into the end of the story at all. I don't really know what their purpose is. The main arc of the series also doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I think this might be from a combination of way too many parties being involved in the plotline and some murky translation. In the end it comes down to a big vampire on vampire battle a la Dragonball Z, but not nearly as crappy. With the finishing of this series, and since I'm still on an anime kick at the moment, I think I'm going to watch the Bastard! series or maybe start Escaflowne.
A couple of the fires have been chalked up to it just being extremely dry out since we haven't had any rain in our area for a couple of weeks, but many of the building site fires have been classified as arson. It's a little scary knowing that there's people (my guess is some stupid-ass kids whose parents aren't watching them well enough) running around with the intention of lighting buildings on fire. The fires that have been classified as arson mostly revolved around the fires that involved abandoned building sites. I'm not sure if they've classified any of the fires at occupied residences as arson or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were.
I really hope that whoever is doing it gets caught asap. My grandparents' own an abandoned building site with a few barns on it and we're hoping that nothing happens to it. I also feel kind of bad for the fire departments in the area because they've been so busy. My brother has a teacher at school that is on the fire department and he's hardly gotten any sleep the last week because all of the fires have been happening in the evening. If I go to sleep tonight without there being any fires, this will be the first night in the last 8 that I've been able to go to bed without there being a fire somewhere in our area.
On a somewhat related note, I just finished watching the anime series Hellsing. It's an anime series about vampires, specifically an institution (the Hellsing Institute) that is vowed to wiping out the vampire and undead population of England. The interesting twist is that two of the Institute's members are vampires themselves. I had high expectations for this series going in and now after it is over, I'm somewhat fulfilled, yet also partially let down.
The animation of the series is superb and there are some great action scenes. These scenes don't hold back on the gore factor, though, so if you have a weak stomach, they're probably not going to be too enjoyable for you. The big disappointment for me is the storyline. The first few episodes don't play into the end of the story at all. I don't really know what their purpose is. The main arc of the series also doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I think this might be from a combination of way too many parties being involved in the plotline and some murky translation. In the end it comes down to a big vampire on vampire battle a la Dragonball Z, but not nearly as crappy. With the finishing of this series, and since I'm still on an anime kick at the moment, I think I'm going to watch the Bastard! series or maybe start Escaflowne.
Friday, April 09, 2004
I Wish They Were My Words
With my back to the wall you've somehow pinned me up against.
Fingernails in the palms of these tightly clenched fists.
And I'm somewhere in between a held tongue and a curse.
Or I could keep it inside, and hide it.
In hopes my avoidance will cure it.
But there's no time for this.
So light it up and let it fly away.
A Molotov Cocktail, my dreams symbolized in flames.
Put your back to them all, I swear they're not getting you there.
A blueprint for the outside, when it's cold out there.
It's not clear, but I refuse to breathe from these machines again.
You all depend on the filters that keep you away
From the pain when you cry, and the praises you sang.
It's not real so I refuse to breathe from these machines again.
So light it up and let it fly away.
A Molotov Cocktail, my dreams symbolized in flames.
And I won't ask a lot from you, I just pray that the masks will come unglued.
I hope I can be with you soon.
So light it up and let it fly away.
A Molotov Cocktail, my dreams symbolized in flames.
And I won't ask a lot from you, I just pray that the masks will come unglued.
And this routine feels like a knife, entering my back then down my spine.
I've withstood the sting for long enough, and I'm prepared to discard it.
So light it up and let it go away. So light it up and let it fly away.
Fly away.
Fingernails in the palms of these tightly clenched fists.
And I'm somewhere in between a held tongue and a curse.
Or I could keep it inside, and hide it.
In hopes my avoidance will cure it.
But there's no time for this.
So light it up and let it fly away.
A Molotov Cocktail, my dreams symbolized in flames.
Put your back to them all, I swear they're not getting you there.
A blueprint for the outside, when it's cold out there.
It's not clear, but I refuse to breathe from these machines again.
You all depend on the filters that keep you away
From the pain when you cry, and the praises you sang.
It's not real so I refuse to breathe from these machines again.
So light it up and let it fly away.
A Molotov Cocktail, my dreams symbolized in flames.
And I won't ask a lot from you, I just pray that the masks will come unglued.
I hope I can be with you soon.
So light it up and let it fly away.
A Molotov Cocktail, my dreams symbolized in flames.
And I won't ask a lot from you, I just pray that the masks will come unglued.
And this routine feels like a knife, entering my back then down my spine.
I've withstood the sting for long enough, and I'm prepared to discard it.
So light it up and let it go away. So light it up and let it fly away.
Fly away.
Sometimes it’s easier to let other people’s writings express what you feel. I know I often have a hard time truly articulating what I feel. I never have an easy time wrapping my head around what I feel well enough to be able to translate those feelings into words, let alone elegant and symbolic poetry. The above is by one of my favorite bands, Dead Poetic. It’s entitled “Molotov”. As I was listening to the cd this morning that song, along with one other, really related to me. I felt a connection to what was being sung. Somehow what I was listening to expressed what I wanted to say but couldn’t figure out how.
I’m sure that the way I interpret what they write is different than how they intended it, but that is the beauty of music and poetry—their format lends themselves to illuminating different responses in different people. Heck, I could probably relate to the same song in completely different ways depending upon the situation I’m in. Life is wonderfully fluid like that. That fluidity also helps keep me sane when things don’t go my way.
I have a hard time accepting when things don’t happen as I want them to. Sometimes I’ll be a mopey brat about it too. What brings me out of that bratty slump is usually the realization that something good will happen down the road. Maybe not right at that moment, but eventually I’d hope something went my way.
Hmmm…I guess I don’t really know where I was going with this today. Must be because it’s Friday or something. Wow, it is Friday already. This week flew by. Anyhow, I’ll end today’s post with another Dead Poetic song, “Bury the Difference.” I really wish I had the talent to express myself as eloquently as so many of the gifted writers that are out there…
Bury all the differences between us. When I still can't find the air,
You keep the toxins flowing for me,
And I'll bury all the differences between us.
And I still can't help but care for moving mountains,
But your, your head's held high again.
You will find me out. You will find everything.
We all, we just battle ourselves. We just battle ourselves again.
Bury all the differences between us, that same mechanical sound.
That keeps on ringing for days and days.
And you're standing like a clueless titan.
And everything around falls right down on you.
With your head held high again.
You will find me out. You will find everything.
We all, we just battle ourselves. We just battle ourselves again.
And there's a storm cloud waiting over,
On the land that's sinking
At the bottom of these buildings again.
With your head held high again.
You will find me out. You will find everything.
We all, we just battle ourselves. We just battle ourselves again.
You keep the toxins flowing for me,
And I'll bury all the differences between us.
And I still can't help but care for moving mountains,
But your, your head's held high again.
You will find me out. You will find everything.
We all, we just battle ourselves. We just battle ourselves again.
Bury all the differences between us, that same mechanical sound.
That keeps on ringing for days and days.
And you're standing like a clueless titan.
And everything around falls right down on you.
With your head held high again.
You will find me out. You will find everything.
We all, we just battle ourselves. We just battle ourselves again.
And there's a storm cloud waiting over,
On the land that's sinking
At the bottom of these buildings again.
With your head held high again.
You will find me out. You will find everything.
We all, we just battle ourselves. We just battle ourselves again.
Thursday, April 08, 2004
Something I Really Want to Do
I think that this weekend is going to be the day that I do it. Yep, I really need to. This site’s design is annoying the crap out of me. I’ve let this website become a monster since I originally made it almost two years ago. Back then I had very little web development experience and this site has been lingering in the accumulation of unoptimized pages, crappily coded HTML, and many other things I haven’t had the time to properly look at or fix. Heck, I don’t spend much more a half an hour a day on this site, and that’s usually just writing the post for the day. Actually, I’d be lucky if I managed to dedicate an entire half of an hour to a post, but I’m sure it has happened a couple of times in the past.
I read so many other online journals and I also look at the work I did on Kingland’s web site and it amazes me how much I’ve let this site turn into something so junky looking. After reading some of my past posts, I also realize that I should start proof-reading them before I put them up…but that would take too much extra time and effort so I’m afraid you readers will have to suffer with my occasional lack of grammar, punctuation, or spelling for the time being. It’s just a pain to proof-read even more text when I’m poring over pages upon pages of text at work. Oh, on a side note, the manual I’ve been working on is at the beta stage now, which means it’s pretty much done except for the review process. It only weighs in at about 170 pages, which is much better than the 200 I thought it would end up being.
On another work related note, I’ve finally been hired on to a full time salaried position at Kingland. It’s nice not to be stuck in intern limbo any more. The pay is also a little better than what an intern gets, and I actually get benefits. I’d been meaning to make a note of this earlier, but I always forgot to.
Anyhow, as for the updates to this site, there’s a few I want to make. First, the layout that is here has to go. I want to make something that has a cleaner feel and will stay simple and not require much upkeep. I also want to clean out a bunch of the older random pages that have been hanging around forever. The reviews section was something I just did when I had a couple minutes of spare time at work, so I think I’ll axe that. The thought archives are functional, but I’d like to set up a different way of accessing them, probably using some asp scripts. The pictures will probably stay how they are for now because I don’t want to go through them. I’d also like to make a style sheet that all new pages would adhere to. The only problem with that is there would be a distinct difference between the look of the new pages and the old ones because I am not going to go looking through the old pages to try to fix them up. They’re too full of code fragments that I don’t even want to imagine all the work I would have to do to make them CSS compliant.
Anyhow, I just wanted to give a little bit of a warning to anyone who regularly comes here that there might be some construction, destruction, and page errors for a while over the weekend, but don’t be alarmed because I’ll be taking care of everything in time.
I read so many other online journals and I also look at the work I did on Kingland’s web site and it amazes me how much I’ve let this site turn into something so junky looking. After reading some of my past posts, I also realize that I should start proof-reading them before I put them up…but that would take too much extra time and effort so I’m afraid you readers will have to suffer with my occasional lack of grammar, punctuation, or spelling for the time being. It’s just a pain to proof-read even more text when I’m poring over pages upon pages of text at work. Oh, on a side note, the manual I’ve been working on is at the beta stage now, which means it’s pretty much done except for the review process. It only weighs in at about 170 pages, which is much better than the 200 I thought it would end up being.
On another work related note, I’ve finally been hired on to a full time salaried position at Kingland. It’s nice not to be stuck in intern limbo any more. The pay is also a little better than what an intern gets, and I actually get benefits. I’d been meaning to make a note of this earlier, but I always forgot to.
Anyhow, as for the updates to this site, there’s a few I want to make. First, the layout that is here has to go. I want to make something that has a cleaner feel and will stay simple and not require much upkeep. I also want to clean out a bunch of the older random pages that have been hanging around forever. The reviews section was something I just did when I had a couple minutes of spare time at work, so I think I’ll axe that. The thought archives are functional, but I’d like to set up a different way of accessing them, probably using some asp scripts. The pictures will probably stay how they are for now because I don’t want to go through them. I’d also like to make a style sheet that all new pages would adhere to. The only problem with that is there would be a distinct difference between the look of the new pages and the old ones because I am not going to go looking through the old pages to try to fix them up. They’re too full of code fragments that I don’t even want to imagine all the work I would have to do to make them CSS compliant.
Anyhow, I just wanted to give a little bit of a warning to anyone who regularly comes here that there might be some construction, destruction, and page errors for a while over the weekend, but don’t be alarmed because I’ll be taking care of everything in time.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Making Babies... But Why?
Kristin asked me the other day if I believed that teen pregnancy and self-esteem were related. The easiest and most logical answer to that would be sometimes yes and sometimes no, depending upon the person’s personality type. In most cases do the two correlate? This is a harder question. I would think that self-esteem, namely low self-esteem, relates to a good number of teen pregnancies, but I don’t think it applies to all of them.
I’m going to base most of what I know on my personal experiences here in the small town of Hayfield, MN. There were the occasional pregnant students in our school, much like any high school, I would imagine. You’d usually hear rumors about how so and so was supposedly pregnant. She’d outright deny the fact, though, sometimes even claiming never to have had sex to support her stance. It would be utterly terrible if anyone knew that she was doing the nasty with someone else in school, or possibly out of school, as it has been known to happen.
Then one of two things would happen, the girl would either drop out of school, thus confirming her pregnant state or the girl would finally admit to being pregnant and attempt to finish school. The latter option rarely succeeded. So was there a specific trait that all of these pregnant school kids shared? Actually, there was. Most of them were pretty slutty. Most of them were also hanging out in the “bad” crowd. You know, with the kids who drank, smoked, cursed, and showed up late for class because they were so damn cool. In all actuality, though, these kids often ended up being the trash of the school—they just never realized it. Or maybe they did, and that’s why they resorted to their tendencies of illicit activities.
So is simply a girl being slutty the only trait the pregnant ones shared? Well, that and, as I explained above, they were in the “wrong” crowd. The crowds really didn’t start to form until the end of middle school and the beginning of high school, but when the groups started forming the one you started in was usually the one you’d always be in. So if a girl had low self-esteem during the clique forming phase of high school, it might have driven them down the path of hanging with the wrong crowd, but I don’t think that alone would cause them to be slutty. There were many kids in the wrong crowd that weren’t slutty—they were just jackasses.
Maybe the slutty girls had a perpetuating sense of low self-esteem that led them to be vulnerable to male persuasion into knockin’ boots and the girls that managed to gain a little self-respect stayed in the wrong crowd but managed to keep away from sleeping around. I don’t know, really. I’m not a teenage girl and I never was so I’m just speculating. I do, however, think that a big part of the self-esteem portion of the equation stems from the kid’s parents.
Most of the kids that were in the dregs of high school society were the ones with the horrible parents. They had parents that were divorced and didn’t want them or their parents were horrible drunks or they wanted to spend more time at the bowling alley then with their kids or they spent a good portion of children’s younger years in prison or any other related scenario. The kids with the good parents (ie: the ones that took interest in their schoolwork, the ones that came to their extracurricular activities, or the ones that simply cared about their kids) usually were in the good crowd, which of course had it’s divisions into the jocks, nerds, and wannabes, but at least they weren’t the troublemakers.
So in the end, does self-esteem have anything to do with teenage pregnancy? Yes, it does. Is it the only factor? Not by a long shot.
I’m going to base most of what I know on my personal experiences here in the small town of Hayfield, MN. There were the occasional pregnant students in our school, much like any high school, I would imagine. You’d usually hear rumors about how so and so was supposedly pregnant. She’d outright deny the fact, though, sometimes even claiming never to have had sex to support her stance. It would be utterly terrible if anyone knew that she was doing the nasty with someone else in school, or possibly out of school, as it has been known to happen.
Then one of two things would happen, the girl would either drop out of school, thus confirming her pregnant state or the girl would finally admit to being pregnant and attempt to finish school. The latter option rarely succeeded. So was there a specific trait that all of these pregnant school kids shared? Actually, there was. Most of them were pretty slutty. Most of them were also hanging out in the “bad” crowd. You know, with the kids who drank, smoked, cursed, and showed up late for class because they were so damn cool. In all actuality, though, these kids often ended up being the trash of the school—they just never realized it. Or maybe they did, and that’s why they resorted to their tendencies of illicit activities.
So is simply a girl being slutty the only trait the pregnant ones shared? Well, that and, as I explained above, they were in the “wrong” crowd. The crowds really didn’t start to form until the end of middle school and the beginning of high school, but when the groups started forming the one you started in was usually the one you’d always be in. So if a girl had low self-esteem during the clique forming phase of high school, it might have driven them down the path of hanging with the wrong crowd, but I don’t think that alone would cause them to be slutty. There were many kids in the wrong crowd that weren’t slutty—they were just jackasses.
Maybe the slutty girls had a perpetuating sense of low self-esteem that led them to be vulnerable to male persuasion into knockin’ boots and the girls that managed to gain a little self-respect stayed in the wrong crowd but managed to keep away from sleeping around. I don’t know, really. I’m not a teenage girl and I never was so I’m just speculating. I do, however, think that a big part of the self-esteem portion of the equation stems from the kid’s parents.
Most of the kids that were in the dregs of high school society were the ones with the horrible parents. They had parents that were divorced and didn’t want them or their parents were horrible drunks or they wanted to spend more time at the bowling alley then with their kids or they spent a good portion of children’s younger years in prison or any other related scenario. The kids with the good parents (ie: the ones that took interest in their schoolwork, the ones that came to their extracurricular activities, or the ones that simply cared about their kids) usually were in the good crowd, which of course had it’s divisions into the jocks, nerds, and wannabes, but at least they weren’t the troublemakers.
So in the end, does self-esteem have anything to do with teenage pregnancy? Yes, it does. Is it the only factor? Not by a long shot.
Monday, April 05, 2004
Working in Rochester
Mission accomplished. Well, at least it’s almost accomplished. What mission, you may ask? Well, the mission of getting Kristin a job in Rochester for the summer. This weekend she came down to visit and on Saturday she went in for an interview at Hiawatha Homes, an organization that takes care of the mentally and physically handicapped. This job seemed like a natural fit for her considering her social work major. I also thought it would be a good job for her and would allow her to get some good experience in the human services field, especially since she’ll probably be working with people the rest of her life, unlike yours truly who will probably spent a good majority of time conversing with a computer screen in frustration.
So anyhow, I took her in on Saturday for her interview. It was supposed to be at 11:15 am. We managed to get there at a little after 11 (I hate being late for anything so any time I take anyone anywhere they also will never be late). We then hung out outside the door of the building. Why did we stay outside? Because the doors were locked. No one seemed to be in. once 11:30 rolled around we both started getting nervous that she was forgotten about. I took a lap around the building to see if I could find anyone while she waited at the door in case anyone showed up. Still nobody there when I got back from my trip around the area. Finally, as we were about ready to give up and head out the lady that was to interview Kristin showed up. Whew. From there Kristin filled out a bunch of forms, watched a video, and had the actual interview while I sat in the lounge reading Dracula.
On a side note, I’ve been reading Dracula for about 3 months now. It’s not really that long of a book and it is engaging, but I just have such a hard time focusing on reading it at night, or any text for that matter. I want so badly to finish this book, and many more that are on my reading shelves, but after poring over thousands upon thousands of words of text at work every day, my motivation for reading more, no matter how interesting it is, wanes once I get home. I think this is also the reason that most of the reading I do at night is in comic books. There are pictures in comics! I don’t get that at work. All I have there are words and technical diagrams. Hopefully one of these weekends I can use a good chunk of time to sit back, relax, and finish Dracula.
So Kristin finished up the interview and let me know she got the job. The interviewer was actually quite impressed by her qualifications and Kristin seemed to be very anxious about the job. I am quite happy for her, but one obstacle remains—making sure she can live down here for the summer. My family has offered her a place to stay in our house, Ryan’s room to be exact. Actually, it’s not really his room anymore since he’s migrated to sleeping in the basement on the living room floor every night. The only remnants of his occupying his old room are some assorted posters, a few things lying around the room, and a dresser with his clothes in it. The bed has been untouched for probably a year (except for the times mom wants a nap when we’re being loud in the living room or when we have a guest). My parents also have a makeshift closet clothes hanging thingy for the corner of the bedroom for her to put her clothes. It’s all pretty much ready for her to move on in.
I’m really hoping she can stay with us. It would be nice to spend more time with her as opposed to talking occasionally on the phone or IM and then seeing her on the weekends. I also know my family would love to have her around, especially Ryan since it would mean there would be one more player in the house for video games and cribbage. I could also dump off a bunch of my chores on her so I could have more lazy time to myself…… ok, so maybe I wouldn’t dump all of my chores on her, just a good chunk of them! So anyways, I’ll continue to keep my fingers crossed and hope that all will work out for the summer time.
So anyhow, I took her in on Saturday for her interview. It was supposed to be at 11:15 am. We managed to get there at a little after 11 (I hate being late for anything so any time I take anyone anywhere they also will never be late). We then hung out outside the door of the building. Why did we stay outside? Because the doors were locked. No one seemed to be in. once 11:30 rolled around we both started getting nervous that she was forgotten about. I took a lap around the building to see if I could find anyone while she waited at the door in case anyone showed up. Still nobody there when I got back from my trip around the area. Finally, as we were about ready to give up and head out the lady that was to interview Kristin showed up. Whew. From there Kristin filled out a bunch of forms, watched a video, and had the actual interview while I sat in the lounge reading Dracula.
On a side note, I’ve been reading Dracula for about 3 months now. It’s not really that long of a book and it is engaging, but I just have such a hard time focusing on reading it at night, or any text for that matter. I want so badly to finish this book, and many more that are on my reading shelves, but after poring over thousands upon thousands of words of text at work every day, my motivation for reading more, no matter how interesting it is, wanes once I get home. I think this is also the reason that most of the reading I do at night is in comic books. There are pictures in comics! I don’t get that at work. All I have there are words and technical diagrams. Hopefully one of these weekends I can use a good chunk of time to sit back, relax, and finish Dracula.
So Kristin finished up the interview and let me know she got the job. The interviewer was actually quite impressed by her qualifications and Kristin seemed to be very anxious about the job. I am quite happy for her, but one obstacle remains—making sure she can live down here for the summer. My family has offered her a place to stay in our house, Ryan’s room to be exact. Actually, it’s not really his room anymore since he’s migrated to sleeping in the basement on the living room floor every night. The only remnants of his occupying his old room are some assorted posters, a few things lying around the room, and a dresser with his clothes in it. The bed has been untouched for probably a year (except for the times mom wants a nap when we’re being loud in the living room or when we have a guest). My parents also have a makeshift closet clothes hanging thingy for the corner of the bedroom for her to put her clothes. It’s all pretty much ready for her to move on in.
I’m really hoping she can stay with us. It would be nice to spend more time with her as opposed to talking occasionally on the phone or IM and then seeing her on the weekends. I also know my family would love to have her around, especially Ryan since it would mean there would be one more player in the house for video games and cribbage. I could also dump off a bunch of my chores on her so I could have more lazy time to myself…… ok, so maybe I wouldn’t dump all of my chores on her, just a good chunk of them! So anyways, I’ll continue to keep my fingers crossed and hope that all will work out for the summer time.
Friday, April 02, 2004
An Interview with an Up and Coming Author
The following is an interview that was conducted earlier today about my latest and greatest novel that I have been concocting here at Kingland Systems. The interview was conducted by none other than the very famous Neville Tanden. So, without further adieu, here is the interview!
Neville: I see that your epic semi-autobiographical mystery suspense thriller romance horror fictitious nonfiction self-help book has been topping the NYT Bestseller's List for 13 minutes now. "Indy IV: The Reckoning", the title really grabs you and says, "Hey, read this or I'll tell everyone what you did."
Rick: Hehehehe, that's funny stuff. I can't believe it's doing as well as it's doing, especially considering the lead character is SO homosexual. Just shows how our society is changing
Neville: I don't think I'm overestimating the impact of your book when I say, our society is changing because of the deep insight into the squirrel psyche it provides.
Rick: it always has been a passion of mine, it really has. squirrel's have always seemed to possess that 6th sense that allows them outwit any other small rodent of comparable size. Really, they are an animal of grandeur.
Neville: Truly scrumtralescent.
Rick: I'm already hard at work on the sequel, Indy V: Squirrels Gone Wild
Neville: You have shown us the squirrel way. A way that transcends the bonds that holds the human race down - In particular, our lack of nuts for the winter.
Rick: True, I am often amazed at how short sighted us humans can be when it comes to getting our nuts together. We're so content to just play with our nuts, but we often forget the big picture--we'll need some of those nuts when it gets cold out! When will we learn?
Neville: I am going to use your book as required reading for both my 3rd grade class and my graduate level literature course, "Expanding the Horizons of the Idea of Womanhood and the Impacts of Such Horizon Expansions on Developing Countries of the South Pacific."
Rick: How interesting! I would be very interested to sit in on a class and see how a 3rd grader's psyche reacts to such a plethora of information about the life of the squirrel and how it relates to womanhood. For me, squirrels and women seem like such kindred spirits.
Neville: In the developing countries of the South Pacific, women are often betrothed to squirrels.
Rick: Interesting. How, exactly, does a ritual such as that work?
Neville: It doesn't, that's why the squirrel population in developing countries of the South Pacific are dwindling, and I think you book will server as a wake up call to the world about this problem.
Rick: That is so sad. The world should definitely know about this type of situation and if my book can accomplish that, then with God as my witness, I will make it my goal to put Indy IV in the hands of every living being on this continent that has money to donate to saving the squirrels. We can't do this alone.
Neville: do you realize that people will shoot 300 squirrels to yield 600 pounds of meat when they know they can only carry 100 pounds back to their wagon. These people should die of cholera, dysentery, or drown after the wagon overturns after trying to caulk it and float across the river
Rick: I am actually guilty of this myself. When I was younger and a little less informed, I would take my dad's rifle, go into the back yard, forge the river, and just kill relentlessly. I tried as hard as I could to carry more than 100 lbs. back, but to no avail. I was weak.
Neville: I told you before you left that you needed some extra sets of clothes. Look at me, I just foraged for berries and I'm as healthy as a yoke of oxen.
Rick: I always have been a little jealous of your healthy, young looks my dear friend, but that you've always known, haven't you!
Neville: Yeah, I could tell. The way you watched at Kingland as I walked to the bathroom...Oh, and the signs you put up in the break area that said, "Justin, I have always been jealous of you healthy, young looks. -Rick" kind of tipped me off too.
Rick: I thought adding my name might have been a bit much, but heck, I couldn't hold back those feelings lest I become spiteful of myself for missing the opportunity of a lifetime--to let you know how I felt
Neville: I have to say, that summer was the time of my life. Nobody puts Baby in the corner.
Rick: Ah, the memories. They truly are something to behold. In my reminiscing, I have lost track of time, I must be leaving now, my good Mr. Tanden. I thank you for this wonderful chance to converse in such an elegant fashion. Until I gaze upon your face once more, remember to live like the squirrel that is inside of you.
Neville: El pleasuro waso mino
Neville: I see that your epic semi-autobiographical mystery suspense thriller romance horror fictitious nonfiction self-help book has been topping the NYT Bestseller's List for 13 minutes now. "Indy IV: The Reckoning", the title really grabs you and says, "Hey, read this or I'll tell everyone what you did."
Rick: Hehehehe, that's funny stuff. I can't believe it's doing as well as it's doing, especially considering the lead character is SO homosexual. Just shows how our society is changing
Neville: I don't think I'm overestimating the impact of your book when I say, our society is changing because of the deep insight into the squirrel psyche it provides.
Rick: it always has been a passion of mine, it really has. squirrel's have always seemed to possess that 6th sense that allows them outwit any other small rodent of comparable size. Really, they are an animal of grandeur.
Neville: Truly scrumtralescent.
Rick: I'm already hard at work on the sequel, Indy V: Squirrels Gone Wild
Neville: You have shown us the squirrel way. A way that transcends the bonds that holds the human race down - In particular, our lack of nuts for the winter.
Rick: True, I am often amazed at how short sighted us humans can be when it comes to getting our nuts together. We're so content to just play with our nuts, but we often forget the big picture--we'll need some of those nuts when it gets cold out! When will we learn?
Neville: I am going to use your book as required reading for both my 3rd grade class and my graduate level literature course, "Expanding the Horizons of the Idea of Womanhood and the Impacts of Such Horizon Expansions on Developing Countries of the South Pacific."
Rick: How interesting! I would be very interested to sit in on a class and see how a 3rd grader's psyche reacts to such a plethora of information about the life of the squirrel and how it relates to womanhood. For me, squirrels and women seem like such kindred spirits.
Neville: In the developing countries of the South Pacific, women are often betrothed to squirrels.
Rick: Interesting. How, exactly, does a ritual such as that work?
Neville: It doesn't, that's why the squirrel population in developing countries of the South Pacific are dwindling, and I think you book will server as a wake up call to the world about this problem.
Rick: That is so sad. The world should definitely know about this type of situation and if my book can accomplish that, then with God as my witness, I will make it my goal to put Indy IV in the hands of every living being on this continent that has money to donate to saving the squirrels. We can't do this alone.
Neville: do you realize that people will shoot 300 squirrels to yield 600 pounds of meat when they know they can only carry 100 pounds back to their wagon. These people should die of cholera, dysentery, or drown after the wagon overturns after trying to caulk it and float across the river
Rick: I am actually guilty of this myself. When I was younger and a little less informed, I would take my dad's rifle, go into the back yard, forge the river, and just kill relentlessly. I tried as hard as I could to carry more than 100 lbs. back, but to no avail. I was weak.
Neville: I told you before you left that you needed some extra sets of clothes. Look at me, I just foraged for berries and I'm as healthy as a yoke of oxen.
Rick: I always have been a little jealous of your healthy, young looks my dear friend, but that you've always known, haven't you!
Neville: Yeah, I could tell. The way you watched at Kingland as I walked to the bathroom...Oh, and the signs you put up in the break area that said, "Justin, I have always been jealous of you healthy, young looks. -Rick" kind of tipped me off too.
Rick: I thought adding my name might have been a bit much, but heck, I couldn't hold back those feelings lest I become spiteful of myself for missing the opportunity of a lifetime--to let you know how I felt
Neville: I have to say, that summer was the time of my life. Nobody puts Baby in the corner.
Rick: Ah, the memories. They truly are something to behold. In my reminiscing, I have lost track of time, I must be leaving now, my good Mr. Tanden. I thank you for this wonderful chance to converse in such an elegant fashion. Until I gaze upon your face once more, remember to live like the squirrel that is inside of you.
Neville: El pleasuro waso mino
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
RSS Feed
New site feature alert for all of you nerds out there! As of today I’ve started an RSS feed for this site. For those that are so inclined to know what this means read on. If you don’t care, skip down a little ways because this will be boring. Anyhow, an RSS feed is basically an XML file hosted on my site that keeps track of my most recent posts. When I add a new post the XML file is updated and if you have an RSS aggregator (there’s tons of them out there) it will grab the newest headline and alert you there is a new post. This way you don’t constantly have to check back to my site to see if there’s a new update. I’m sure there are so many of you that are constantly refreshing this page just to see if anything new has popped up J
Right now on my desktop I have an RSS aggregator that works like a stock ticker across the top of my screen. I’m subscribed to about 20 different RSS feeds so whenever there are new stories or breaking news information, I have it scrolling across the top of my screen. No more checking the BBC or Slashdot constantly to see what’s new. Now when a story hits, as soon as my aggregator grabs the XML files for the RSS feed, it shoots the new story into rotation.
I find that this is nice for blogs as well. Some that I read are updated more than once a day while some are updated less than daily. Since I am subscribed to their RSS feed, whenever a new post gets made, whenever it might be, I’ll know about it. If there’s nothing new, I don’t have to worry about checking out their site only to be greeted by the same story or post I’ve already read. So for any of you geeks out there who read this and don’t already use an RSS aggregator, go find one (use Google to help you out), and subscribe to my RSS feed. My feed is at the bottom of the page. It’s the little red RSS graphic.
Now that I’ve gotten my latest bit of dork out of my system, I’m free to move on to other non-geek related subjects. Well, actually, I don’t have a lot of time to delve into anything else at the moment so all of you readers that aren’t geeks kind of got shafted today. Sorry.
Right now on my desktop I have an RSS aggregator that works like a stock ticker across the top of my screen. I’m subscribed to about 20 different RSS feeds so whenever there are new stories or breaking news information, I have it scrolling across the top of my screen. No more checking the BBC or Slashdot constantly to see what’s new. Now when a story hits, as soon as my aggregator grabs the XML files for the RSS feed, it shoots the new story into rotation.
I find that this is nice for blogs as well. Some that I read are updated more than once a day while some are updated less than daily. Since I am subscribed to their RSS feed, whenever a new post gets made, whenever it might be, I’ll know about it. If there’s nothing new, I don’t have to worry about checking out their site only to be greeted by the same story or post I’ve already read. So for any of you geeks out there who read this and don’t already use an RSS aggregator, go find one (use Google to help you out), and subscribe to my RSS feed. My feed is at the bottom of the page. It’s the little red RSS graphic.
Now that I’ve gotten my latest bit of dork out of my system, I’m free to move on to other non-geek related subjects. Well, actually, I don’t have a lot of time to delve into anything else at the moment so all of you readers that aren’t geeks kind of got shafted today. Sorry.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Ipecac Replacement
Over the last few years I’ve tried more than a few of the billions of special energy drinks that are out there. Out of all of them that I have tried, a solid majority of them have all tasted like vomit. I can’t understand the draw of these drinks—Sobe, Elements, Arizona teas, and all the other crazy rip offs out there. None of them taste good. Out of morbid curiosity I picked up a Snapple Elements Mind Fuel drink today. The subtitle on it said it was Rain flavor with agave cactus. The name even screamed out “I taste like a monkey’s bottom”. The thing that is attractive about this drink, though, is its container. It’s a nice, heavy aluminum that has a sweet metal and dark blue design. Pretty bitchin’ looking if you ask me.
Unfortunately, a sweet looking bottle does not make a good drink. I cracked it open and tried some. The initial taste wasn’t good. It was definitely prickly like a cactus. Actually, I think licking a cactus might be more appetizing than finishing off a bottle of this Elements drink. Not only does it have a horrible initial taste, but it also possesses a mild aftertaste of grossness. Again, I try another energy drink hoping for something I might like and again I am confronted by the reality that there are no decent tasting energy drinks out there, except for the Red Bull and Amp, of course.
One other thing interested me about this drink. On the inside of the cap was the question “Why doesn’t a husband take the wife’s name upon marriage?” Interesting. So now our drinks are being produced with sentences questioning the status of society on them. I’m sure the type of people that actually enjoy drinking loads of this crap enjoy these questions, but I found it kind of dumb. I guess they’re trying to stimulate people into thinking about society’s status quo, but it comes off as a somewhat pointed remark, especially when the outside of the cap claims “Open cap, open mind”. So by opening the cap, drinking the goat piss that’s inside, and thinking about the question they pose you are somehow opening your mind? Wow, if I knew it was that easy all along I would have given up on my philosophy degree years ago.
I’ll stop railing on energy drinks now, but only because I want to talk about something even scarier than all of the crap put in pretty bottles—marriage. Yeah, that’s right, I said the M word. Actually, it’s not a bad word, but when it is applied to my peers it is, simply because it means that I am growing up and getting old. I’m not ready for marriage or the babies that’ll come with marriage. If I’m not ready, how can my friends be? Well, obviously they must be way more mature, but that’s not the point. This weekend I ran into a couple of friends I hadn’t seen in a while and somehow between this weekend and the last time I’d seen them they’d gotten engaged.
I’m happy for them and all, but wow, it’s hard to image that people younger than me are going to be getting married so soon (one of them in May of this year!). Congratulations Katie Johnson and John Nowak, you are two brave souls. Hmm……hold on a sec, that kind of made it sound like they were marrying each other. Just for the record, they’re not. Each is getting married to someone else. Whew. Didn’t want to create a controversy or anything.
Now I’m not trying to say that marriage is a bad thing. I’m just simply pointing out I don’t think I’m ready for something like that yet. I’m still trying to get my employment situation ironed out while attempting to live in my parent’s basement. It’s hard readjusting to having all my crap crammed into one room, but I digress. It just seems like there is so much added responsibility and stress that comes with marriage that I don’t think I could handle it yet. I’m sure I’ll eventually be ready for it, but I’m simply amazed that people I know are already making that big, bold step.
Unfortunately, a sweet looking bottle does not make a good drink. I cracked it open and tried some. The initial taste wasn’t good. It was definitely prickly like a cactus. Actually, I think licking a cactus might be more appetizing than finishing off a bottle of this Elements drink. Not only does it have a horrible initial taste, but it also possesses a mild aftertaste of grossness. Again, I try another energy drink hoping for something I might like and again I am confronted by the reality that there are no decent tasting energy drinks out there, except for the Red Bull and Amp, of course.
One other thing interested me about this drink. On the inside of the cap was the question “Why doesn’t a husband take the wife’s name upon marriage?” Interesting. So now our drinks are being produced with sentences questioning the status of society on them. I’m sure the type of people that actually enjoy drinking loads of this crap enjoy these questions, but I found it kind of dumb. I guess they’re trying to stimulate people into thinking about society’s status quo, but it comes off as a somewhat pointed remark, especially when the outside of the cap claims “Open cap, open mind”. So by opening the cap, drinking the goat piss that’s inside, and thinking about the question they pose you are somehow opening your mind? Wow, if I knew it was that easy all along I would have given up on my philosophy degree years ago.
I’ll stop railing on energy drinks now, but only because I want to talk about something even scarier than all of the crap put in pretty bottles—marriage. Yeah, that’s right, I said the M word. Actually, it’s not a bad word, but when it is applied to my peers it is, simply because it means that I am growing up and getting old. I’m not ready for marriage or the babies that’ll come with marriage. If I’m not ready, how can my friends be? Well, obviously they must be way more mature, but that’s not the point. This weekend I ran into a couple of friends I hadn’t seen in a while and somehow between this weekend and the last time I’d seen them they’d gotten engaged.
I’m happy for them and all, but wow, it’s hard to image that people younger than me are going to be getting married so soon (one of them in May of this year!). Congratulations Katie Johnson and John Nowak, you are two brave souls. Hmm……hold on a sec, that kind of made it sound like they were marrying each other. Just for the record, they’re not. Each is getting married to someone else. Whew. Didn’t want to create a controversy or anything.
Now I’m not trying to say that marriage is a bad thing. I’m just simply pointing out I don’t think I’m ready for something like that yet. I’m still trying to get my employment situation ironed out while attempting to live in my parent’s basement. It’s hard readjusting to having all my crap crammed into one room, but I digress. It just seems like there is so much added responsibility and stress that comes with marriage that I don’t think I could handle it yet. I’m sure I’ll eventually be ready for it, but I’m simply amazed that people I know are already making that big, bold step.
Monday, March 29, 2004
That Freaky Math
As another work week starts, another weekend comes to a close. Again, it seems that the happenings of 3 days (the weekend) are so much more interesting than the other 4 (the work week). I suppose that having to use 40+ hours of the week for work and work related activities can do that. I keep hoping for the day where I’ll be able to reverse those statistics and have only 3 days of work and 4 of “my time”, but then I let reality cloud my view and I realize I won’t have anything that good until either retirement or death, and in either case it skips using the ratio altogether and puts me right in the work 0 days, have 7 to myself…although the being dead option isn’t one that I would like to explore anytime soon. Early retirement, though? The sooner the better, if you ask me!
Anyhow, Friday was a fun evening. After slogging through rush hour traffic in the cities once again, I made it to Kristin’s place, just in time to hang out for a little bit and then head over to my old apartment for some much needed losing of money…err, I mean gambling. Berg had organized a night of Texas hold-em poker. I managed to walk out of there losing a solid $10. The worst part about losing the money, which I’m sure you’ll all get a good laugh at, is that I lost it to a horribly intoxicated Mehle and a pair of girls. If that doesn’t kill your ego, I’d have a hard time thinking of something that could.
Saturday morning Vu, Nate, myself, and one of Vu’s friends, Aaron, participated in the annual Johnnie/Tommie 3-on-3 basketball tournament. Just being there dribbling a ball again after such a long time off made me realize how much I really missed playing. Thank goodness the winter is finally drawing to a close and I can get back outside and do some shooting around. The next thing I’ll have to wait for is for Randy to come home for the summer so we can play some one-on-one ball again.
Anyhow, the tournament was a lot of fun, even though I wish we could have played a few more games. We finished the day at 2-2. We should have won our last one and kept going in the tourney, but because of the creative score keeping of our opponents, we lost. The games at the tourney were played to 21. First team to get there won (no win by 2 rule either, which I found quite odd). We had managed to take the lead 19-17. I got hammered shooting a five foot shot which could have won it. Situations like that had been a problem at the tourney in years past so they implemented free throws to take away the option of continually fouling the other team if they were shooting a potentially winning shot. Since this was one of those potential shots, I had a chance to win the game. Making free throws, for some reason unknown to myself, has always been a horrible downfall in my bball game. I can rattle off three pointers and jump shots like nothing if I get on a roll, but putting in a free throw is something I find hard to do.
So I step up to the line. I make the first. We’re now up 20-17. I shoot the second. It rattles out. They take a three point shot and make it. It’s now a tie game at 20-20……or so we thought. Apparently, according to some abstract math that the other team was using, their three pointer was worth four points. I don’t know how they figured it, but they somehow managed to do it. With that, they walked off the court and reported their win. We would have disputed this atrocious miscounting of our score, but the team we were playing against was the group of students who were in charge of the tourney. Pretty freakin’ cute, huh? We were bummed, but as it was I still had a good time. It was nice seeing Vu and Nate again, and the rest of the tourney went pretty well, except for our first game.
After we had warmed up and tried to work the rust out of our systems, we played our first game of the tournament. A short while later, the game was done with us on the losing end 21-2. Apparently we were still pretty darn rusty. We managed to work it out, however, and won our next two games 21-12 and 21-5. One of those games was almost surreal—not because we played so good or anything, but because I could have sworn that two of the members of the other team were hobbits. One of them resembled Frodo and the other looked like a generic hobbit. I kept waiting for the Frodo look alike to start bugging out and grasping for a necklace under his jersey. I guess I never knew that hobbits were any good at basketball.
After the tournament, I spent the rest of the day with Kristin. We had one very memorable moment while we were at Media Play that bears repeating. It was raining all day on Saturday so we were just tooling around St. Cloud before going to her place to watch tv. As were leaving Media Play in the rain, we briskly walked to where we thought our car was. I walked up beside what I thought was my car, unlocked it, and got ready to sit down. That’s when I saw that the interior of my car had suddenly and mysteriously transformed itself. There was a Simpsons foot mat and a briefcase in the front seat. What the crap? That’s when Kristin and I noticed that my car was parked behind this one. My key worked on another Saturn. That was amazing and scary at the same time. Amazing because I could get into another, similar Saturn. Scary because other similar Saturn owners could get into my car if they wanted to.
After we had a good laugh and started for her place we realized what a great pranking opportunity we had missed out on. We could have taken the other Saturn and parked it somewhere completely different and watched as its owner wandered aimlessly trying to find it. Imagine how hilarious that would be. What would you do if your car suddenly disappeared? Missed opportunities……*sigh*
Anyhow, Friday was a fun evening. After slogging through rush hour traffic in the cities once again, I made it to Kristin’s place, just in time to hang out for a little bit and then head over to my old apartment for some much needed losing of money…err, I mean gambling. Berg had organized a night of Texas hold-em poker. I managed to walk out of there losing a solid $10. The worst part about losing the money, which I’m sure you’ll all get a good laugh at, is that I lost it to a horribly intoxicated Mehle and a pair of girls. If that doesn’t kill your ego, I’d have a hard time thinking of something that could.
Saturday morning Vu, Nate, myself, and one of Vu’s friends, Aaron, participated in the annual Johnnie/Tommie 3-on-3 basketball tournament. Just being there dribbling a ball again after such a long time off made me realize how much I really missed playing. Thank goodness the winter is finally drawing to a close and I can get back outside and do some shooting around. The next thing I’ll have to wait for is for Randy to come home for the summer so we can play some one-on-one ball again.
Anyhow, the tournament was a lot of fun, even though I wish we could have played a few more games. We finished the day at 2-2. We should have won our last one and kept going in the tourney, but because of the creative score keeping of our opponents, we lost. The games at the tourney were played to 21. First team to get there won (no win by 2 rule either, which I found quite odd). We had managed to take the lead 19-17. I got hammered shooting a five foot shot which could have won it. Situations like that had been a problem at the tourney in years past so they implemented free throws to take away the option of continually fouling the other team if they were shooting a potentially winning shot. Since this was one of those potential shots, I had a chance to win the game. Making free throws, for some reason unknown to myself, has always been a horrible downfall in my bball game. I can rattle off three pointers and jump shots like nothing if I get on a roll, but putting in a free throw is something I find hard to do.
So I step up to the line. I make the first. We’re now up 20-17. I shoot the second. It rattles out. They take a three point shot and make it. It’s now a tie game at 20-20……or so we thought. Apparently, according to some abstract math that the other team was using, their three pointer was worth four points. I don’t know how they figured it, but they somehow managed to do it. With that, they walked off the court and reported their win. We would have disputed this atrocious miscounting of our score, but the team we were playing against was the group of students who were in charge of the tourney. Pretty freakin’ cute, huh? We were bummed, but as it was I still had a good time. It was nice seeing Vu and Nate again, and the rest of the tourney went pretty well, except for our first game.
After we had warmed up and tried to work the rust out of our systems, we played our first game of the tournament. A short while later, the game was done with us on the losing end 21-2. Apparently we were still pretty darn rusty. We managed to work it out, however, and won our next two games 21-12 and 21-5. One of those games was almost surreal—not because we played so good or anything, but because I could have sworn that two of the members of the other team were hobbits. One of them resembled Frodo and the other looked like a generic hobbit. I kept waiting for the Frodo look alike to start bugging out and grasping for a necklace under his jersey. I guess I never knew that hobbits were any good at basketball.
After the tournament, I spent the rest of the day with Kristin. We had one very memorable moment while we were at Media Play that bears repeating. It was raining all day on Saturday so we were just tooling around St. Cloud before going to her place to watch tv. As were leaving Media Play in the rain, we briskly walked to where we thought our car was. I walked up beside what I thought was my car, unlocked it, and got ready to sit down. That’s when I saw that the interior of my car had suddenly and mysteriously transformed itself. There was a Simpsons foot mat and a briefcase in the front seat. What the crap? That’s when Kristin and I noticed that my car was parked behind this one. My key worked on another Saturn. That was amazing and scary at the same time. Amazing because I could get into another, similar Saturn. Scary because other similar Saturn owners could get into my car if they wanted to.
After we had a good laugh and started for her place we realized what a great pranking opportunity we had missed out on. We could have taken the other Saturn and parked it somewhere completely different and watched as its owner wandered aimlessly trying to find it. Imagine how hilarious that would be. What would you do if your car suddenly disappeared? Missed opportunities……*sigh*
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