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September 25, 2009

Built to Spill Was Built to Rock

For the second time since I've been here, Built to Spill came to the Barrymore Theatre. And for the second time since I've been here, Built to Spill put on one of the most best shows I've ever seen. The set list was a very good mix of older stuff and stuff I've never heard, presumably because it's on their new album. While they failed--again!--to play "Car," they did play my two other favorite BtS songs: "Virginia Reel Around the Fountain" and "Else." Both versions were spectacular. Doug Martsch is an amazing guitarist. He might not be the most technically...

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August 10, 2009

"1970 Pontiac Firebird. The Car I've Always Wanted and Now I Have it. I Rule!"

Ok, no, I didn't buy a 1970 Pontiac Firebird. In fact, I didn't buy any kind of car. But I did get something I've always wanted: a Gibson Les Paul Standard. This one, to be specific: I've written about being fourteen and having my mom offer me an electric guitar if I cut my hair. Well, at some point, I started taking guitar somewhat seriously. I've never sat in my room and practiced scale runs over and over for hours on end, but I've spent a lot of time learning solos and songs, and I've also tried to learn a...

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July 12, 2009

Shows on PBS Were Awesome

We didn't really have cable when I was a kid, but we got PBS, so I was pretty happy with the offerings. I only have vague memories of "Sesame Street." I remember a lot of Kermit the Frog and some sketches with The Count. But I don't remember too many specifics. I think by the time that we had TV, I was too old for "Sesame Street." But I definitely remember watching some of the dorkier shows when I was ten or so. My favorites were "3-2-1 Contact" and "Square One." I don't remember too much about "3-2-1 Contact" except...

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July 5, 2009

A Good Fourth

Chelsadilla and I started the day out at the farmer's market. We walked around for a while, but we weren't really need anything, so it was just sort of nice to go on a walk. And then we found the Capital City Band playing on the square. Being big fans of classical and semi-classical music, we hung around and watched for a while. They did an awesome little brass-band version of "Billie Jean" as a tribute to Michael Jackson, and then they did a tribute to the armed forces. With the honor guard standing behind them, they played the theme...

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June 25, 2009

"I've Been a Victim of a Selfish Kind of Love"

I remember this one time in high school. Me and some friends were in my friend's car. My friend's brother was also there. He was listening to HIStory on his Walkman. I made fun of him for it. I made fun of him for it because I was weak and stupid and because I was more concerned with being perceived as cool than I was with being honest. Because, although I railed against Michael Jackson, the truth was that I loved Michael Jackson. I remember being ten years old and buying Dangerous on tape. It was the first album I...

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June 24, 2009

The Next Thing I Love that Hollywood's Gonna Fuck Up

I've known for a while now that one of my favorite books, Youth in Revolt (if you haven't read it, go do that now--it's fucking funny), is getting made into a movie. This knowledge fills me with an difficult to understand mix of emotions. On the one hand, I'm excited to see these characters and scenarios on the big screen. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that the movie probably won't be as good as the book. Out of all of the numerous adaptations I've seen, the only movies that are anywhere near as good as their source material...

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June 21, 2009

Woot Shirts FTW

I love t-shirts. They're comfortable and versatile and, best of all, they give you a great platform from which to express your love of a band or your irreverent sense of humor. In high school, I had enough Smashing Pumpkins t-shirts to last for two weeks without repeats. I also had several shirts from Hot Topic because, hey, Hot Topic was awesome when i was thirteen. Fucking deal with it. But the problem is that most t-shirts are sort of boring or just far too cliche for people to really wear. For example, the first time I saw a "Trust...

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June 17, 2009

My Crazy Cat

I have two cats. The oldest one, Smash, is a pretty standard cat. He's playful and he requires constant attention. He chases my ceiling fan and meows. He loves cuddling and being pet. The younger cat, Lily, is another story. She's the most bizarre cat I think I've ever met. For starters, she never meows. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard her do a straight meow. That isn't to say that she doesn't make sounds. She barks and grunts and whimpers. But no meows. She also hates to be touched. She'll come up to you and make some...

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May 30, 2009

I Succeed at Dinner Again

chelsadilla and I were out and about today. We were specifically going to go grocery shopping and to look at some mattresses for me for when I move and get a new bed. Since a lot of the places we were going to go were on the West Side, we stopped and had lunch at the Atlanta Bread on University. After we ate, we walked down the sidewalk to Penzey's Spices. We had been there when we visited the Spurgh, and I was really excited to discover that we have one in Madison. So we walked around for a bit...

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May 28, 2009

Singing and Dancing is Awesome

I've always loved musicals. It's true. I really do love them. My favorite is probablyChitty Chitty Bang Bang, but I really like but Mary Poppins and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory are awesome, too, obviously. I've also really enjoyed every single musical stage production I've seen immensely. I think that life would be awesome if it was more like a musical. Think about it. Instead of fighting, we'd dance and sing and have stylized, choreographed pseudo-conflicts. You'd have an orchestra and a chorus line to back you up when you're feeling down. And if there's a better way to...

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May 18, 2009

Spring Cleaning!

Chelsadilla and I went on a walk in Maple Bluff today. I discovered my new favorite house in Madison. It was fucking gorgeous. But we had to cut our walk short because about halfway through, we both developed an inescapable need to urinate. There were no public restrooms in sight, so I speed walked over to the Tenney Locks, hoping that their restrooms were still open. No dice. We managed to get to the seXterra and drive to a nearby convenience store before having what were undoubtedly the best excrementory moments ever. Then we came back to my place and,...

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May 17, 2009

Chicago Again

Mr. Vice, pH, chelsadilla and I headed down to Chicago this weekend to celebrate EiC's birthday and just generally hang out. It was a fun weekend. I'm completely fucking exhausted, but it was worth it. Mr. Vice and pH headed down on Friday, and chelsadilla and I joined them on Saturday. Chelsadilla and I were staying at the same hotel everyone had stayed at during our last Chicago extravaganza, so it was convenient to get around. Our first stop: IKEA. God, I love that place. The Chicago IKEA is, according to one of the employees we talked to, the largest...

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May 12, 2009

Mmmm... Hollandaise.

A friend once remarked that, judging by the blog, my relationship with chelsadilla consists almost entirely of me cooking ridiculous meals for her and us eating them. I told him that wasn't exactly true. Today, I realized that I hadn't blogged about any cooking exploits for a while, so I figured I'd revive that trend. Given that I have absolutely no court scheduled today for the first time in recent memory, I decided to cook up a little bit of an amazing breakfast. While chelsadilla was still asleep, I started frying some D&G bacon (from the farmers' market), slicing potatoes...

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May 7, 2009

Happy Birthday Dane101 (Warning: This Post Contains Butt Funnel)

So, Dane101 is apparently four years old. To celebrate, they threw a party at my favorite Madison venue, the High Noon Saloon. So RPM and I, along with some others, went down there. It was a good time, and I got to talk to Jesse, who I have a bit of a heterosexual man-crush on (his favorite band is The Pixies! I love The Pixies!). The music, though, was a little, um, let's say "eclectic." The first band up was Little Red Wolf. This was apparently their first show, but I wouldn't have known that had I not been told....

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March 29, 2009

On Wisconsin

Chelsadilla and I got to play host to her sister and her sister's boyfriend this weekend, and it was a lot of fun. It was cool to see things that I take for granted from the perspective of someone who had never been here before. And it was also cool to realize just how much I love Madison and Wisconsin generally. It's easy to reduce Wisconsin to a few stereotypical things: beer, cheese, the Packers. But while those stereotypes are certainly warranted, there's so much more going on here. Whether you're having a meat and cheese platter at the Weary...

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February 23, 2009

A Weekend in Madison

This weekend was awesome. Let me tell you why. On Friday, a bunch of us met up at Brocach for drinks and food. Our original plan was to go to happy-hour Gomeroke, but that shit ended at like 7, which was lame. So we went to Brocach and had some drinks. I hung out on the fruity side of things, enjoying some brady old fashioneds and a midori sour. Then I had a vodka gimlet, which wasn't very good, frankly. Chelsadilla and I split a shepherd's pie and some fries. It was friggin' awesome. Around ten, RPM, L-Dawg, X-tina, chelsadilla,...

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January 29, 2009

The Big Lebowski: Fucking Short Version

Hilarious:...

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December 23, 2008

"I Like to Be Here When I Can."

So I actually came far too close to having that nightmare scenario from that terrible JTT movie come to pass. I woke up at 2:30am Central and drove to Milwaukee. The drive was pretty ridiculous, actually. The roads weren't terrible, but they were far from good. In the end, though, I made it to Mil-town without too much of a problem. My parking and shuttle situations worked out fine, too. The problem started when Frontier Airlines decided that, instead of de-icing the plane and taking off, we would sit on the runway for a long time. Like, an hour. After...

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December 17, 2008

Engage Christmas Spirit!

I should give credit to Dee--I bastardized her Facebook status for this post's title. Anyway, for a number of reasons, I feel like I'm finally ready to start thinking about celebrating Christmas. I was most certainly not ready in October when the ever-expanding Christmas season started this year, but I'm ready now. First of all, I bought my plane tickets home today. So, while several courts are desperately trying to keep me in Wisconsin over the holiday, I will be in California with my family. I haven't seen my mom since graduation in May of 2007, and I haven't seen...

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December 1, 2008

Four Day Weekends Are the Best Things Ever

I kept thinking that yesterday was Sunday. Do you know what it's like when you wake up having gone to bed thinking you were going to wake up on a Monday and find that you've actually woken up on a Sunday? It's like God said "You know, I think you've been working really hard lately and I know you could really use an additional day to do nothing but goof off, so here, this one's on the house." And when God does something like that, it would be a huge mistake to actually do anything. Accordingly, I did nothing today....

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November 27, 2008

Giving Thanks and Whatnot

I wanted to come up with something clever and un-cliche to say for this year's Thanksgiving post, so I went back and read last year's post. And I realized that the thing I'm most thankful this year is my job. I mean, I have a job that I love. I look forward to work every day, as much as that's possible. I enjoy almost every aspect of my work. My co-workers kick ass. And though it can take a lot out of me, I don't feel like it's grinding down my soul. Plus, while I can't "win" everything I try...

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October 10, 2008

Well, That Was a Good Week

After last week, I was feeling sort of beaten down and worthless. I had gotten my ass handed to me several times in court, and I wasn't happy about it. I was feeling like a failure, frankly. Then this week, a whole lot of good things happened. I mean, I didn't win a trial or anything, but I got some fairly good results for my clients, and that's what's really important, I think. So I did the only thing I thought was reasonable: I took a half day today. Yup, I drove to the office, made my one scheduled appearance...

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October 7, 2008

"Where You Once Belonged"

Valerie, a friend of mine from Wisconsin, is currently kicking it in the good ol' Flagstaff, AZ (I've never liked calling it "Flag"--anyone who does is a loser). Talking to her in the past few days has made me realize how much I love that city and how much I miss it, which is strange because I had sort of thought that I hated everything about Arizona and didn't miss it at all. Last night, Valerie was telling me about driving from Phoenix to Flagstaff. And I couldn't help thinking about how many times I made that drive by myself...

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September 25, 2008

Huzzah!

You know, sometimes life seems like a constant stream of disappointments and letdowns. I know that my life has certainly felt like that in the past month or so. I can't really explain how much I hate getting excited about something and then having it fail. What sucks the absolute most is when you try to keep your excitement under control, when you spend all your time analyzing and rethinking the entire situation because you've been let down so much in the past that you don't even want to start getting excited unless you're pretty sure you've actually got good...

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September 1, 2008

Chunkin'

As you may recall, last Saturday was my birthday. I went out ot dinner with my friends and had a really good time. Oh, and Co-SME and The Reeg threw me a party at their place, which was also a house-warming party for the place, which is awesome. It was a lot of fun, and I would have been more than satisfied with those two awesome things. But Mr. Vice nonetheless told me that I shouldn't make any plans for this Saturday because we were going to go out to dinner with RPM and Mr. Utah, who had not been...

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August 18, 2008

Meat

Saturday night, in order to celebrate pH's recent acquisition of gainful employment, we went somewhere we had been wanting to go for a long time: Samba. Samba is one of those Brazilian steakhouse places that seem to be all over the place now. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, you basically pay a fee for all-you-can-eat meat, which is delivered to your table on swords by dudes dressed like pirates. Or not dressed like pirates, depending on which specific place you go to. Several of us had previously been to one of these places in Chicago. We were...

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August 14, 2008

"Tapestry"

I just watched this episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "Tapestry." You can read the whole plot synopsis here, but basically it involves Captain Picard almost dying. Q gives him a chance to go back and undo one of his biggest mistakes. See, when Picard was an ensign, he got in a fight because he was sort of an arrogant jackass. And during the fight, he got stabbed through the heart. Well, Picard took that back. And then he saw that the arrogance of his youth made him the confident, badass leader he would become. Had he not...

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August 5, 2008

I Fucking Hate Fucking Internet Fucking Explorer!

Seriously, this isn't so much a browser as a steaming turd that occasionally loads HTML files. Not only does it lack tabbed browsing, it loads pages slower than molasses and it makes my computer run slower than... molasses! Why am I using Internet Explorer and not my beloved Firefox? Because Firefox has decided that the bset possible thing for it to do is crash randomly. It doesn't care if I'm loading a page, playing a youtube video, or just letting it sit there, if it's the exact time I don't want it to crash, that's when it crashes. What the...

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July 24, 2008

Weezer Kicks Unbelievable Amounts of Ass

I heard about this on the radio a while ago but then forgot about it. Anyway, apparently Weezer decided that they wanted to do some shows where they would invite people to bring their instruments with them and play along with the band. At the time, I remember thinking it sounded cool but couldn't possibly work, and also that it would be fun to be there but that it would suck to watch. Well, I was wrong on both counts. Check out this version of "Say it Ain't So": And this version of "El Scorcho": I especially love the look...

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July 20, 2008

Go See The Dark Knight

There will be spoilers here, so if you haven't seen The Dark Knight, you should probably stop reading. So I've now seen The Dark Knight twice--once painfully alone and once with friends. And here's what I've got: it's obviously the best Batman movie ever. Anyone with any sort of lingering love for Tim Burton's Batman movies just has to accept that. It's also clearly the best superhero movie ever. This admission pains me, but it's just true. It's also the most awesome movie I've seen all summer and the best movie I can remember seeing this year or even in...

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June 10, 2008

Weezer (The Red Album)

As I said, I was pretty apprehensive about the release of Weezer's new album. In fact, I had completely forgotten that it was supposed to come out last week. Forgotten, that is, until Mr. X called me up and reminded me. At his insistence--and on his recommendation--I went out and bought the thing. And I've been listening to it nonstop since. In broad terms, it is simultaneously a very typical Weezer album and something completely new. I say that it is typical because it has all of the elements we've come to expect from Weezer albums good and bad: it's...

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June 8, 2008

Fuck It All, I'm Growing a Goatee

After about three seconds of thought and consideration--and against the advice of some of my most trusted advisers--I have decided to grow a goatee. Yes, I'm following in the footsteps of Evil Spock and Garthe Knight. This is gonna be totally awesome. Or not. After not shaving since Wednesday, I decided that the time was right to carve a goatee out of my facial hair. So that's what I just did. It's still rather thin, but it doesn't look entirely terrible. Although I have to say that I'm having a hard time taking my reflection seriously. That bodes ill for...

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June 5, 2008

Grammar for Idiots, Part II

In English, we use the apostrophe for several purposes. Two of these uses are most common: we use the apostrophe to indicate that some noun possesses something ("This is John's book" or "That is my cat's favorite toy") and to indicate contractions ("I'll be back" or "He's more machine, now, than man"). We do not use the apostrophe to indicate plurality--ever. So all those fucking signs out there that advertise "CD's" are not only wrong, they are offensive. That's all fairly simple, I think, but now it's going to get complicated--if you're an idiot. See, people seem to have trouble...

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May 28, 2008

Weezer! Now With 98 Percent More Lightsaber!

I have to admit two things. First, I really liked "Beverly Hills," the lead single off of Weezer's last album, Make Believe. Second, I fucking hated the rest of the album. I was pretty much done with the whole band. I mean, I guess I've already talked about what I think of each of Weezer's albums, so I won't rehash that. But the point is that I was somewhat sad but mostly relieved when I read that Weezer had broken up. And then I was cautiously excited but mostly apprehensive when I heard that they were actually releasing a new...

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April 21, 2008

I Want a Prius

I currently drive a Nissan Xterra. It's a fucking awesome car. I've had it for almost six years now, and in that time it's broken down exactly once--the fuel pump went out. Granted, I was offroading in the middle of nowhere at the time, but that's not the car's fault. And it was covered by warranty, anyway. That's the only time the car's ever let me down. Other than that, it's done everything I could ask of it. It moved me across the country, carried my friends and I to Miami and back, and took me to all manner of...

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March 25, 2008

It's Like I'm a Lawyer or Something

The last hour and half has been a ridiculous whirlwind of communication. My cell phone, office phone, e-mail inbox, and physical mailbox have been inundated with various requests, questions, and myriad other demands for my time. It's as if everyone in the universe who has any reason--personal or professional--to contact me decided that they were gong to do it right after lunch on Tuesday. That's fine with me--the time's absolutely flown by, and I've actually gotten a lot of things that were floating in the air above me taken care of. And I was able to actually help a few...

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March 18, 2008

Acoustic Guitars Totally Rock

I don't know why, but I almost always like unplugged versions of songs more than the original, plugged versions. I mean, that might be a bit of a stretch, but I almost always really like unplugged versions, even if I like them in a completely different way. For example, "Cherub Rock" is one of my favorite songs generally, but I especially like it if I need to get excited or pumped up--it's a great song to listen to at the beginning of a night out, I think. On the other hand, the acoustic version is awesome in a whole different...

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March 7, 2008

Fascists Come in All Shapes and Sizes

As some of you may or may not have noticed, I love curse words. Although I have lately attempted to cultivate the ability to curb my use of swearing in certain circumstances, I nonetheless talk like a sailor in normal circumstances. It should come as no surprise, then, that I find South Pasadena's attempt to ban cursing to be, well, fucktarded. South Pasadena's City Council passed a proclamation making the first week in March "No Cussing Week." It's a largely symbolic gesture aimed at increasing civility and "elevat[ing] the level of discourse." Because there's no better way to elevate discourse...

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March 4, 2008

The Clothes Make the Man

I'm not really sure why, but pretty much as soon as I started caring what I wore, I wore almost exclusively black. In high school, I had so many black Smashing Pumpkins t-shirts that I could--and often did--wear a different black SP shirt every day for two weeks without repeats. It was pretty awesome. Eventually, I expanded to include Marilyn Manson shirts, too. Black ones. That whole "wear a lot of black" thing persisted through my early college years. My friend Morenononsense likes telling the story about the first time he saw me: I had a green mohawk and was...

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February 18, 2008

The New Knight Rider

Writers' strike notwithstanding, it's been evident for several years that Hollywood ran out of ideas several years ago. This is obvious because rather than bringing us new ideas, plots, and characters, they're instead repackaging things we loved when we were kids and claiming the thing is new and improved. More often than not, the producers of these "reimaginings" completely fail to understand what made the original thing awesome but, what's worse, think they understand exactly what will make the new thing awesomer. And, inevitably, what we get is some asshat's vision of something we've known and loved for years that...

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January 26, 2008

Me and 9,999,999 of My Closest Friends

I have a deep, dark secret. One that only some of my closest friends know about. But it's time I come clean. I feel that, by hiding this secret from the world, I've erected a barrier between myself and the world at large that prevents me from finding real intimacy. So here goes. I play World of Warcraft. There. Now you know. Please don't judge me too harshly. It's a natural progression, really, seeing as how I played a hell of a lot of Magic: The Gathering in high school. Yeah, the girls loved me. For those of you who...

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January 14, 2008

Where No Untalented Black Man Has Gone Before . . . . (Updated)

I'm just going to go ahead and admit this for anyone that hasn't already picked up on this: I love Star Trek. I never really liked the original series. I think it's cheesy, predictable, and boring. I can see past the amazingly crappy special effects, but most of the stories are transparent morality plays and, as a result, all the characters are either completely flat or absolutely overdone. No, my love of Star Trek started with The Next Generation. That show was awesome. I still remember being relatively young and getting really excited whenever Jean-Luc Picard would start doing his...

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January 12, 2008

Allez Zombies!

Attention Iron Chef America fans! What this trailer for a movie called I Am Omega, which is apparently a horrible, low-budget I Am Legend rip off. Notice anything--or anyone--familiar? It sort of blows my mind to see him in a different context. As long as there's no Mario Batali or Alton Brown sex tape, though, I'm fine with it....

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January 7, 2008

What's More American than Gladiators?

The new version of American Gladiators is awesome. I just watched what is apparently the second or third episode. It was pretty fucking cool. The producers have somehow managed to keep all the things that made the original series so awesome--including most of the best events. In fact, the only omissions I care about are Atlasphere, in which the competitors and gladiators rolled around in giant hamster balls, and Human Cannonball, in which the competitors swung on ropes and tried to knock the gladiators off of pedestals. But the absolute best events--like Assault and Joust--are back and, in the case...

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December 24, 2007

'Twas the Night Before Christmas . . . .

As I've said, this is the first Christmas I'm spending apart from all members of my family. I can remember one Christmas when I was a teenager that I spent in California with my aunt and cousins rather than my mom and grandma, but I think that was the only time I haven't been with my mom for Christmas. So, I'm sort of bummed. But not super bummed. I mean, it sucks that I'm not there, but it's not the end of the world, and I'll get to see them really soon. And my mom promised that whenever I make...

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December 15, 2007

The Dark Knight Looks Awesome (Updated!)

I know I've been doing that thing where I just put up pictures rather than actually write something a lot lately. I figure I'll continue the trend for one more post and then stop. Anyway, the sequel to Batman Begins--which was by far the best Batman movie ever--looks awesome, at least based on the posters. Check these out: I mean, I think those look awesome. And apparently the trailer is coming out soon and might even be with I Am Legend, which I'm going to go see later today. Sweet. So, as planned, I saw I Am Legend. Although it's...

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December 14, 2007

Knight Industries Three Thousand?

So, Knight Rider, perhaps the best show of the 1980s, is, like everything else that was once good, bad, terrible, excellent, or mediocre, getting remade. That may or may not be cool, I'm going to wait and see. But the show's already got one strike against it: KITT will not be a 1982 Trans Am. Instead, it'll be a 2008 Ford Shelby Mustang: Now, I love Mustangs, and I think that the late-model ones, this one included, look really fucking awesome. I really like the pseudoretro design. But they're just not KITT. This is what KITT's supposed to look like:...

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December 12, 2007

NoooOOOOOooooOOOoo!

This is bad news on so many different levels. At least the other, hotter Jessica isn't knocked up yet:...

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December 5, 2007

"A Freshly Fallen, Silent Shroud of Snow"

I was vaguely bored and not at all sleepy about an hour or so when I noticed, through my window blinds, that the outside world is that distinct shade of orange that means it is snowing outside. I hadn't left the apartment since earlier today when I went to the grocery store. It was snowing then, too, but I didn't know that it had been snowing the whole day. By the time I looked outside, there were a good six inches of new, fresh snow. Having nothing better to do, I decided to dig the seXterra out of it's snowy...

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November 22, 2007

Thanks

Some times it's easier to find something to be thankful for than others. I'm having a hard time coming up with things to be thankful for right now. I mean, I'm thankful for my family. I owe them everything. They've always been there for me and supported me. And forgiven me. Even when I really, really didn't deserve it. So if you're reading this and you're someone I'm related to, thank you very much for everything. I probably don't say it often enough, but I love you. And I'm thankful for my friends. Sometimes, it takes realizing that someone wasn't...

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November 16, 2007

How I Accidentally Stayed Up Until 5:30am

Ok, seriously, not having to go to school or a job has fucked my sleeping schedule. I'm not even doing anything important--I just find myself watching TV or fucking around on the internet. And that's never been more apparent than tonight. Here's what I've been doing since about 1am. First, I wanted to find an interview with Tim Kring, the creator of Heroes that Purple Hays told me about. It's not as long and extensive as I would have liked, but he definitely admits that they've fucked up the show to some degree and--perhaps most awesomely--promises that not all of...

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October 14, 2007

So, What the Fuck Was All that About?

Santi's comment on my last post got me thinking about all the ridiculous things that happened to me when I was a kid. For the most part, they were all positive--or at least resulted in positive stuff. But then I remembered something that, in retrospect, made no sense. When I was in elementary school--maybe third grade, although I can't remember really--I used to watch Gilligan's Island a lot. In fact, because some episodes of the show were broadcast in black and white and others in color, I had this vague idea that there was some period in history when the...

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October 10, 2007

In Rainbows

Lots of people have already discussed the fact that you can download Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, and pay as much--or as little--as you want. I think it's great that Radiohead is doing this, but mostly because it means that I get their new album for free and don't have to feel guilty about it. I don't think that it'll have any effect on the music industry at large, though. What's more important, though, is the music. So, here are my thoughts on my first listen. 15 Step. I think this is a really strange opener. It just sounds to...

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October 6, 2007

I Hate the Care Bears

The fucking Badgers lost to the Fighting Illini. What a load of bullshit. I can't say it was unexpected, though, and, after the first quarter, I'm surprised the score was as close as it was. I mean, seriously. People often cite the Ronnettes' "Be My Baby" as the most perfect example of Phil Spector's wall of sound technique. Well, today's football game was definitely the best example of Brett Bielema's patent-pending Care Bear defense. Unfortunately, while the unprecedented depth that the wall of sound brought to mono recordings was a very good thing, the Care Bears defense's main feature--allowing the...

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September 24, 2007

New Poll

Number five was the biggest douche. Awesome. Now, by request, the new poll asks who you think the best Simpsons voice actor is. I omitted both Yeardley Smith and Nancy Cartwright because they each only do one character (if you count Marge and all of her relatives as one character, which, vocally, I do). Anyway, my vote goes to Hank Azaria, mostly because of Bumblebee Man....

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September 19, 2007

"The Hypocrites of Homosexuality"

One of my favorite books is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Although it's ostensively a science-fiction book, it's one of the few pieces of writing that I think truly transcends that genre. Anyone--sci-fi geek or otherwise--would enjoy that book. Although I've known that Mr. Card is a member of the Chuch of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for some time, I hadn't really cared too much. Then today, for some reason, I wandered over to his Wikipedia page, and found a link to an article he wrote called "The Hypocrites of Homosexuality." In it, Mr. Card discusses his--and the...

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September 8, 2007

"I Saved Latin. What Did You Ever do?"

Rushmore is one of my all-time favorite movies. I hadn't seen it for a while, though, but we remedied that tonight. And I have to say that it just gets better every time I watch it. I don't really know why I like the movie so much. The humor can be pretty subtle--like when Mr. Blume lights up a second cigarette even though his last one is still in his mouth--but that's part of what makes the movie so good. You notice something new each time you watch it. And let's not forget the famous "Oh, are they?" line. But,...

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September 7, 2007

"Sky of Blue and Sea of Green" or "In Defense of 'Yellow Submarine'"

I recognize that this may be controversial, but I would put "Yellow Submarine" in my personal top-five Beatles songs. In no particular order, I think the other four would be "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Love You To," "Yesterday," and maybe "All You Need Is Love." The last three are definitely up for discussion, but I won't budge on "Yellow Submarine" or While My Guitar Gently Weeps." In the past, when I've told people about how much I like "Yellow Submarine," I've been laughed at and mocked. I don't really understand why. The song is awesome. In the dark days...

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September 4, 2007

What the Fuck Happened to Coldplay?

I know I'm a few years late on this, but, seriously, why did Coldplay decide to call off being a good band? After some initial waffling following the release of A Rush of Blood to the Head, I have since concluded that Parachutes is definitely their best album. The first five songs off of Parachutes are all excellent--they each earn at least four stars on my iTunes list. "Don't Panic" is a great opener that really sets the tone for the album; "Shiver" is a really good follow-up to the first track; "Spies" is one of my favorite tracks on...

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September 2, 2007

Of Sports and Upsets

As anyone who has met me at any time between elementary school and the present can attest, I hate sports. I'm not sure if my inability to succeed at sports lead to my disdain for watching sports or if the complete lack of interest in following sports lead to my total lack of motivation on any of a number of sports fields. I've tried, but it just doesn't stick. I played little league baseball when I was really young. Our team, if I remember correctly, actually won the championship for our league. But I could be making that up, I...

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August 29, 2007

Honor Shakespeare, Dishonor Nirvana

I went to see an outdoor performance of Much Ado About Nothing tonight. Although I have read several Shakespeare plays, this was the first time I actually got to see one performed. I thought it was pretty good, although I still think that Shakespeare is pretty ridiculous and the dialogue is sometimes impenetrable, especially when it's mumbled in an outdoor venue. Still, the outdoor stage made the whole thing much cooler, except for the part where it started raining really, really hard. But that only lasted for about ten mintues and, after a brief break, the play resumed. The second...

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August 20, 2007

My Weekend and Myspace

So, as I expected, I did pretty much nothing this weekend. In fact, I forced myself to go for a drive tonight just so that I could say that I actually left the apartment this weekend. I did some reading--I finished Over Sea, Under Stone, the first book in the Dark is Rising series, which is apparently about to be made into a movie or something. It was decent, although really short. I think I'm going to read the rest. Man, I love young-adult literature. I rule! I also watched some TV. There's this show on GSN called "Without Prejudice?"....

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August 15, 2007

"Bartlet for America"

Although Mr. Vice lent me the DVDs about a year ago, I've just now finished watching the seventh season of The West Wing. I have to say that I think it was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the first four seasons. I really missed some of the older characters, and I was happy to see Sam come back. It sucks that Zoey didn't really get to do much and we never found out what happened between her and Charlie, but it was good to see Charlie go off to law school--you know he's going to be a...

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August 13, 2007

Apparently, "TLC" No Longer Stands for "The Learning Channel"

I'll probably post something else later, but I just thought I'd point this out. Although Mr. Utah has been arguing that TLC's programming has, as of late, been less about learning than about "reality" and house flipping, I maintained that the network still broadcast generally high quality stuff. But, as it turns out, I was wrong. You see, the channel supposedly dedicated to learning has agreed to broadcast the Miss America pageant. This is stupid for so many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the stupid Miss America pageant needs to just go away. But, no,...

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July 23, 2007

Stress? What's That?

It's the night before the bar exam, and how do I feel? Relatively fine, actually. The bar exam doesn't matter too much. Even if I fail, I'll be admitted in Wisconsin, and there are plenty of law jobs there. Failing doesn't matter much. Except for one thing. I want to live in Chicago really badly. It's pretty much awesome down here. Anyway, wish me luck. And good luck to all of you other recent law grads taking bar exams across the country. Let's show this thing who's boss....

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June 21, 2007

"They Look Like Big, Good, Strong Hands, Don't They?"

One of my favorite movies when I was a kid was The Neverending Story. Anyway, remember at the end, when Atreyu meets with the Rock-Biter, who tells him that the Nothing has taken all his friends and that it will soon consume all of Fantasia? And the Rock-Biter sits there and he's looking at his hands, and he's saying that, even though he's big and strong, he couldn't stop the Nothing? That scene always resonated with me. And it did so especially today, which ended up being one of the worst days I've had in a long time. For various...

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May 17, 2007

My Path to Guitar Godliness

Some people make New Year's resolutions. I make those, too, sometimes--although I haven't kept a single one. In addition to resolving to do certain things at the beginning of the year, though, I usually resolve to do certain things at the beginning of the summer. This is largely due to the fact that the summer is, historically, the part of the year during which I've had the most free time. This being my last summer of relative freedom, I think I should set some pretty lofty goals. I've been playing the guitar for about eleven years ago. Although I think...

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May 5, 2007

Sweet Fancy Moses!

Go here. Watch the highest-resolution version of the trailer you can. I know it sucks, but it'll all be worth it. Just trust me....

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April 11, 2007

Man, Wisconsin Kicks Ass

As the little header to this post indicates, today is April 11. About a month ago, we had a gorgeous spring day--it was about 80 degrees, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, there was a slight breeze. In short, it was an awesome day, and we all declared the arrival of spring. And, although I guess I was ready for spring, I was sad to see winter, my favorite season, go. Then, of course, I spent last week in Florida, where it was 84 and sunny every single day. Which, again, was awesome, but I don't know if I...

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March 14, 2007

The Seventh Thing to Love About Madison: Spring

Goddamn, it's was cold for a while. But it looks like winter is now mostly behind us. Although the official start to spring is still a few weeks away, we've had a precursor to the season of rebirth here in Madison. Where before there were huge piles of snow, there are now only large puddles, which themselves dry up rather quickly. Where before there were several frozen lakes, there are now mostly unfrozen lakes, although some idiots are still out there icefishing. Where before there were down jackets, there are now t-shirts, at least for me. It's a great feeling...

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February 25, 2007

Bring It On, Blizzard!

There was apparently a blizzard today. In fact, it's apparently still going on, and will be for the rest of the weekend. I, for one, welcome the blizzard. My free heating and four-wheel-drive vehicle mean that I'm completely invulnerable to the effects of the ice and snow. Apparently I'm in the minority, though--the school closed down at six this afternoon and won't open again until two tomorrow. That's kinda wussy, in my opinion. The roads aren't even very bad, although they'd be better if the snow plows were doing their job. The best thing about this so-called blizzard, though, is...

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February 3, 2007

Damn Stupid Cliffhangers

The last few days have been pretty quiet. I felt pretty bad for a few days, as if I was getting sick. I still might be, I'm not feeling 100% yet. I've been almost nonstop busy, although, somehow, I'm about a hundred pages behind in classes already. I got home at about ten o'clock last night and, though I had previously said I was going to bar review, didn't. In fact, I went to bed at around eleven. And then I slept until about one o'clock this afternoon. It was awesome. I went into the office for a while today...

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January 31, 2007

The Fourth Thing to Love About Madison: Bucky Badger

Now, I have to admit that the first time I ever saw Bucky, I thought he was the gayest mascot in the land. But that's because I saw the wood carving statute at State Street Brats, which, it must be admitted, is rather gay looking. But, since those first naive days of my 1L years, I've come to love Mr. Buckingham U. Badger. Bucky is the best mix of manly aggression and adorable cuteness. Yeah, he's technically part of the cheerleading squad, but he's also able to do something like sixty push ups when we're beating second-rate football teams like...

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January 23, 2007

Concerning Television and the Many Measures of My Worth

The recent lack of amazing serialized television in my life has been disturbing. But, today, the powers that be deigned it appropriate to treat me to two hours of great television. Spoilers follow, so don't read on if you didn't see tonight's episodes of Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. First up, Heroes returned tonight after having left several weeks ago. I was left a bitter, empty shell. There were so many unanswered questions: What happened to Sylar? What was the Haitian going to do with Claire? Nikki turned herself in? Hiro fights a what now?? And, in...

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January 17, 2007

Can I Create a Meme?

I figure that if some asshole can come up with the "what's on the top twenty-five most played songs on iTunes" meme, I can come up with one, too. Maybe I'll fail--who knows. My proposed meme is simple but it'll make you think, maybe. The rules are as follows: 1. In no particular order, name your top ten favorite songs--ever. 2. Justify each choice. 3. The list should be completely subjective. The point is to name the ten songs you think are best, not the best songs you think everyone else thinks are best. So, here's my list (remember, in...

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January 15, 2007

I Was Just Thinking . . .

I've got a bunch of stuff on my mind right now, so this is going to be one of those random posts. First off, I was reading Althouse today (I don't know why, it's one hell of a crappy blog), and I suddenly realized: I hate coffee shops. I don't necessarily hate the people in the coffee shop, I just hate the coffee shop itself. Althouse posted pictures of herself at one of the coffee shops here in town (she didn't say which one, although it's pretty obvious from the pictures. Still, if she doesn't want to give away which...

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January 13, 2007

Shots

Sometimes in life you have to get together with some of your best friends and resolve to do nothing more than drink. That's just the way the world goes sometimes. That's the way the world went tonight. Starting with the always horrible Philips vodka, Mr. Utah and Mr. RPM and I worked our way through the liquor cabinet. Then, after we all realized that we were, in fact, drunk, we walked to a party consisting mostly of undergrads. Mr. Utah, in an amazing display of badassery, walked on a broken limb--without crutches. Upon our arrival at said undergrad party, we...

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December 31, 2006

Contrary to Popular Belief, I Can Spell "Poker"

The most interesting thing that's happened in the past few days is that I played poker at the Commerce Casino. I went with my cousin Noel, as I do every time I'm back out West. We went on Friday night, and I had an excellent night. We were sitting at a table with players that seemed like they barely knew what the fuck they were doing. Noel got beaten by someone who had called a sizeable preflop bet, while not ona blind, with a 4-2 off suit. It was fucking disgusting. After the showdown, the guy looked at Noel and...

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December 29, 2006

Sometimes You've Got to Buy Yourself an Old Luxury Car

Nothing too interesting has happened for the past few days. Today, though, my aunt bought a car. A BMW. Convertible. From 1989. She's picking it up tomorrow. I kind of can't wait to drive it. I've never driven a convertible, and, given that the weather out here is anything but Christmas-y, tomorrow should be a perfect convertible driving day. The other thing that happened is that my uncle from Redwood City got here. He's a pretty cool guy. He owns this gardening and landscaping business in the bay area and he's pretty successful at it. Anyway, he started this foundation...

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December 23, 2006

Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas!

Yes, it's Christmas Eve eve and The Lovers of Sight and Sound have a treat for everyone. I've recorded a version of my favorite Christmas carol, the Carol of the Bells. Rather than using prepubescent boys to sing, though, I used my guitars. I just took the normal arrangement for the song, played the parts on the guitar, moved a few of the parts around an octave or two, and this is what I got. I don't know how satisfied I am with it, but whatever. The Lovers of Sight and Sound - Carol of the Bells Let me know...

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December 11, 2006

This is Entirely Unacceptable!

Look. Wisconsin does a few things, but it does them well. First, we make beer. The beer here is better than the beer anywhere else. Fuck you if you don't agree. Second, we have brats. We have an annual bratfest, for fuck's sake, and we try to set a world record for the most brats eaten in a single weekend every time. Almost 200,000 brats in three days is nothing to sneeze at. Third, we drive drunk. Let me rephrase. I don't drive drunk, but a hell of a lot of people do. My 1L criminal law professor told us...

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December 9, 2006

The Second Thing to Love About Madison: State Street

You know that scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where Sam stops and he says that if he takes one more step, he'll be further from home than he's ever been before? Well, I had one of those moments when I left Flagstaff and drove East. Although I had been to New York City and Boston before, I hadn't driven further East than the Eastern Arizona border. Yes, even though I had lived in Arizona my whole life, I had never been to New Mexico. Now that I have, I know I wasn't missing much. Anyway, my friends were...

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December 2, 2006

The First Thing to Love About Madison: Winter

Ever since I was a little kid, winter's been my favorite season. The thing I really like about winter is that it's the season when it's easiest to feel cozy. There's nothing like looking out your window, seeing the beautiful snow falling to the ground, and then rolling over, curling up with your blankets, and going right back to sleep. I did that this morning, in fact. Yes, the Midwest got hit by the first snowstorm of the year today. I hadn't been reading the weather forecasts, so I was kinda surprised when I looked out my window and saw...

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November 26, 2006

"The Wii-gle Has Landed!"

First of all, the horrible pun that is this post's title is not mine. It's David's. Just so you know. Anyway, yes, I now have the Wii, thanks to David's heroic all-night Best Buy stake out. I got it home, set it up, and started playing right away. It's really, really awesome to be able to affect things on the screen simply by moving your hand. The Wii Sports game that came with the Wii is pretty cool, although it's also pretty simplistic. But it gives you a pretty good grasp on how the cotrols and stuff work. Tennis is...

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November 24, 2006

The Cart Well Before the Horse

I am the proud owner of the latest Zelda game, Twilight Princess. How does it compare to the Ocarina of Time and Windwaker? I have no idea. You see, I bought the Wii version of Twilight Princess. This poses a bit of a problem because I don't actually own the Wii yet. See, people have apparently been camping out in front of stores for the Wii. That's fucking crazy, as far as I'm concerned. There are certain things I'll camp out for (i.e., Star Wars movies), but I refuse to wait out for a new game system. Or, rather, I...

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October 8, 2006

The Repository of All Human Knowledge

I spend so much time on Wikipedia, it's not even funny. I go there ofte to look up something I don't know anything about and, next thing you know, it's 4am. Tonight, I decided to look up Indiana Jones because I saw a story on Yahoo about how George Lucas is planning an animated Star Wars cartoon. At the end of the article, he mentioned the much-discussed fouth Indiana Jones movie. Having grown up in a household that didn't have a VCR with parents that weren't particularly keen to drive an hour to take me to the nearest movie theatre,...

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October 4, 2006

Brown and Nerdy

Weird Al's got a new song out called "White and Nerdy." If you haven't seen the video, you have to watch it now. It's awesome. Now that that's out of the way, here's an update on what I've been up to: I was at school all day today working on various things. I have to say - although today was a 16-hour day, I didn't mind it very much. I find most of my classes interesting. My favorite right now is probably Remedies because I want to litigate so I find the topic inherently interesting. My second favorite class is...

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October 1, 2006

Fuck You, You Lazy Piece of Shit

You know, I used to have sympathy for panhandlers. Cause, you know what, if you're a parapalegic and you're down on your luck, I'll give you a few bucks if I've got it. But I have no fucking sympathy for able-bodied fucks who are too lazy to fucking get a job so they just sit there on State Street begging for money. For example, I was walking back to school from the Parthenon today. I notice that there are some people, probably around my age or younger, sitting in one of the benches. They've got these worn out duffel bags...

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September 20, 2006

Why Can't I be a Kid Now?

I was looking around the internet, completely at random, when I saw the new version of Tickle Me Elmo, the T.M.X. Elmo. Now, I don't know how much I would have liked this toy as a kid, but it got me thinking: toys nowadays are so much more awesome than the toys that were available when I was a kid - and nevermind the toys I actually had as a kid. I mean, look at the multitude of new Transformers toys that are available. These are scale models of real-world cars that turn into foot-tall robots! That's fucking awesome. The...

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September 18, 2006

TV's Warm, Glowing Warming Glow (Back From the Dead!)

A new television season is starting up. Since I've recently acquired cable, I kind of care - for the first time since high school, really. While some people are really excited about the new seasons of Nip/Tuck and The O.C. - Chris, I'm looking at you - I'm not really all that interested in those shows. That's because I hate coming in in the middle of things. I hate starting to watch a movie in the middle, even if it's a movie I've seen a million times, and I'm starting to feel that way about TV shows, too. That leads...

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September 9, 2006

Let There be Cable

After two years of not having cable, I have cable again. It's fucking awesome. I have no idea how I went so long without it. I can predict right now that this is what I'm going to be doing when I don't have work to do. Which, unfortunately, will not be very often. Due to circumstances outside of my control (read: the Essen Haus), I was incapacitated for most of the day. I got home at about 3:30 last night, and was in class at 9:55. It was terrible. Then I came home and napped for about six hours or...

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August 22, 2006

All Out

So, my aunt and I went to the Morongo Casino today. She went and played her slots, and I once again tried my hand at live poker. I generally believe that, when you gamble, you should set aside a certain amount of money, consider it lost, and then see if you can keep any of it. I failed at keeping any of my money today. But that's ok, really. This was the first time I played in a casino in almost a year, and the first time I had played no limit as opposed to limit. I had a great...

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August 21, 2006

Oh my God, Mexican TV is Even Worse Than I Remember!

Alright, today was a pretty good day. More about that later. What's important right now is that Spanish TV is not only terrible, low-quality, and sexist. It's also - somehow - has even less moral fiber than its American counterpart. Right now, I'm sitting here with my mother and aunt. The show we're watching is called "Cantando Por un Sueno." It translates as "Singing for a Dream." Here's the best way I can come up with to explain how the show, which is one of those pseudo-reality shows, works. First, think about American Idol. So, there are singers competing for...

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August 20, 2006

Hope and the Laws of Physics

I didn't fly a lot when I was a kid - my family didn't travel a lot. Now that I live half-way across the country from my family, I fly at least twice a year, once at the end of the summer and once over Christmas. Like so many other things that I didn't get to do when I was a kid, e.g., watch movies, eat out, I love flying. There's something that I find really thrilling about the fact that, once the plane takes off, there's nothing keeping you up except hope and the laws of physics. While I...

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August 5, 2006

If I Had a Million Dollars . . .

I would buy a Guitar Center. The thought of owning so much musical equipment makes me giddy. Yesterday, I decided that I would go to the local music store down the street from my house and buy one of the several cheap guitar accessories I've been wanting for a while, probably an A/B box or an in-line tuner. When I got there, I found out that they were out of stock of both of those things. That kinda pissed me off, but, worse, it made me determined. Determined to spend money. I went to this store to get rid of...

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April 27, 2006

Dorks

Alright. The time has come for me to fucking comment on something. I absolutely hate it when people who are absolutely not dorks claim to be dorks in an attempt to be cool. Listen to me: if you're super-popular and very socially adept, great. But don't fucking tell me that you're a dork because you read Harry Potter. Look, unless you can do the following things from memory, you are not a dork. Just so you guys know, i didn't look any of this shit up: Lord of the Rings Give at least one additional name for Gandalf.Name both of...

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April 5, 2006

Another Reason to Vote for Rain

So far on the current poll, 3 of you, or 25%, have voted for lightning as your favorite weather phenomenon. I'm the only one thus far who has voted for snow. That's probably because i'm from the desert and snow has not yet lost it's magical feeling for me. Regardless, i just experienced a reason for why you should vote for rain. The law school, in its infinite wisdom, chose to gave the Grand Reading Room what appears to be a glorified corrugated tin roof. I was in here tonight, working on my final cite checking packet, when it apparently...

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March 7, 2006

Now We're Back Together Again, La La La La La

Holy fucking shit! Conan O'Brien and Ismael Richter are working together again! I'm not sure if the idea of an accountant accidentally forced to be a private investigator is good or funny, but i'll give it a chance based on the fact that Conan and Ismael kick ass together, at least when they're improvising self deprecating comments....

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February 20, 2006

Vodka.

Vodka has long been my favorite liquor. I pretty much love it in all forms: on the rocks, vodka gimlets, vodka tonics, vodka sours. I do prefer dirty gin martinis, but vodka martinis will do in a pinch. This begs the question, of course, of what vodka is my favorite. Well, i've had many vodkas: Grey Goose, Svedka, Stoli's, Finlandia, Skyy, and even Philip's, which is even worse than you'd imagine a cheap, plastic-bottled vodka could be. However, to this day, i have had no better vodka than Level, which was the first bottle of alcohol that was ever opened...

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February 16, 2006

Holy Fucking Blizzard

I skipped my first class this morning. I went outside at about 10 to turn on the fucking car, and it was burried under 10 inches of snow. That was pretty awesome. Thanks to the seXterra's four wheel drive, i got to school just a few minutes late for Evidence. My last class has been cancelled. Man, i love snow....

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February 15, 2006

Snow

It's snowing outside. Looks like maybe an inch and a half. Outside my window, every surface that is close to horizontal looks fluffy and white. I love snow. Perhaps it's a function of growing up in Arizona, where snow was rare, but i always thought that snow was awesome. In my mind, it's almost as if god decided that the world wasn't beautiful enough, so he added something to it - an ethereal, intangible something. Snow is tied, i think, for most awesome meteorological phenomenon with monsoons. Here in Wisinconsin, though, we don't get many monsoons. I'm always surprised when...

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