After going to bed and being completely worn out last night, I woke up to find that my body was still very much on Icelandic time - it was 6:30am. It took me a while drag my ass out of bed, but then it occured to me that the Liverpool - Man Utd match was today, so I popped up and rushed over to see how we'd done. After I finally got my computer to work, I was delighted to see that we had beaten them 2-0, giving us our first league double over them since before I was born and only the third team to pull the double on them since the inception of the Premiership - woohoo!!! Now I found out that my parents will be arriving here this afternoon, so I have lots of work to do before then. I not only have to clean, but I should get started on that homework I was going to leave to tomorrow because my parents are staying overnight also.

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Hej alla, yours truly has returned from the big spring break trip to Stockholm and Reykjavik. After several hours on planes and buses, I'm a little worn out, but don't worry, I shall return soon enough with all the juicy details about the week that was. I hope everyone else had a great week also, and hopefully everyone who still hasn't returned home has a nice trip. As for me, I have lots to do and I really want to get to bed, so I'll return very soon.

Don't ask why, but I'm still up (even though I'm going to bed as soon as I finish this post). I couldn't help it, I got inspired. I've noticed that I've had quite a few more and different visitors lately, and as a result, I've started to become curious where everyone is from and who everyone is. As a result, I sat up all night working on writing and modifying the script. No, of course I didn't actually write the script. I'm stupid, but I'm not stupid enough to bother learning perl just to make a guestbook. Instead, I'm using someone elses. I know, it sounds stupid, but you'll see later. I'm going to wait until after I return from vacation to actually post the guestbook, but I doubt any of you would actually miss it anyway. Nighty night!

Getting ready to go to bed soon on the last night before we leave for spring break. 24 hours from now, we'll be on the plane from Reykjavik to Stockholm. Of course, I have lots to do between now and then. I need to pack and I also need to clean up this dump. It was fine until about a week ago, and then all of a sudden my apartment just became a huge mess. Not only do I hate returning home to a messy apartment, but my parents are most likely going to be visiting the weekend we arrive back, and I don't want to be rushing around trying to clean before they arrive. I feel like such a dork, because I'm bringing a huge stack of homework with me on the trip, but you know what? Russian waits for no man.

Speaking of Russian, I noticed that the U has posted the schedule for fall semester on the web. I am soooo screwed. I have 6 classes that I really need yet to graduate, and only 1 of them is being offered fall semester. What the hell am I supposed to do now?! Perhaps the most irritating and disappointing omission from the schedule is the junior-senior seminar for film studies majors. That cocksucker Silberman wouldn't let me take it this year because he said he needed to reserve space for seniors, but now he apparently isn't even going to have the class until spring semester next year. Bastard. It'd be so much easier if he'd let me do my major project in German instead, but he won't. Grrr.... If it wasn't so late in the year, I'd delay graduating a year and look into opportunities to study abroad next year. That year in Iceland is looking really appealing right about now.

Ah... I just finished my damn paper. I guess it doesn't help any that I didn't even start until 3am. Oh well, atleast I'm done. It had to be 5-7 pages, and I just spilled a few lines onto the seventh page. Now I think I'm going to go to bed. I'm not going to set my alarm and I'll get up whenever. If I miss class - so be it. I want to sleep instead. I still have to go to work, so I'll have to keep that in mind. Whew....

Just when I'm starting to think that the Minnesota Daily is becoming complete trash, they go and print a photo like this... and completely redeem themselves!

My last-gasp shot at happiness this evening was thwarted. I had hoped to join the bitches slurping up the Shamrock Shakes, but when I walked upto the counter tonight after work at the Dinkytown McDonald's, I was greeted with the sad news that they were completely out of shake mix. I had my little heart set on slurping up that Shamrock Shake, and then tragedy besets me. Life sucks.

Okay, perhaps I overdramatized the situation a bit, but I really was disappointed to not get one. I swear, there's a conspiracy to keep me from getting a shake this year. To top it all off, I retreated back up to the street level to wait for the bus when I spotted the stupidest advertisement I've seen yet for the vaunted U-Pass. If you haven't seen it yet, there's a billboard above the Starbuck's at 4th and 15th in Dinkytown advertising the U-Pass and Metropass. The billboard features a background with a psychadelic swirl and the words "Diesel fumes are trippy." Great.

The reason why I had to say that it was my last hope for happiness this evening? Now it's time to write my CSCL paper finally. I started it earlier today, but I barely got through the introduction. I was even more disturbed when I went up to the hypocritical professor after class to ask her where to turn in the paper, since I'm turning it in a day early, and she sort of blew it off when I told her I would not be in class on Thursday. Man, I can't stand her!!! I had to sit through even more of her stupid gender politics ranting today and I had to tune out to keep myself from getting too pissed off. Grrr.... Okay, off to do the paper....

It's another late night and I'm considering getting started on my CSCL paper. I just emailed my mom the info about our trip and discovered the hostel in Stockholm, Långholmen, has a web site. It's all come up so quickly! It's almost hard to believe that at this time 3 days from now, I'll be on a plane between Reykjavik and Stockholm. Crazy.

The only other homework I had to worry about getting done for this week other than my paper was my Russian homework, which I finished on time and turned in during my class Monday night. Afterward, Molly and JP were there to pick me up and head over to Molly's place. Boy I'm [yawn...] tired. Maybe I won't work on my paper. Blah.

Before I get started here, I have to begin with a big Happy Birthday Molly!

Whew, okay... so I didn't end up going to my soccer game last night. After I ate dinner, I started to get rather sleepy. I ended up falling asleep sometime around 9. I woke up again a little after midnight and had a hard time falling back asleep. It was close to 2 before I finally dozed off again, and then I couldn't drag myself from bed until 10 this morning. Great, and I have plenty I need to get done. Worst of all is the Russian homework which is due tonight. It's for chapter 15, and we didn't even get started in chapter 15 last week. I also got nothing done on my damn paper. Doesn't look as though I'll get anything done it tonight either, which means I'll have to go to class on Thursday just so I can turn that damn thing in. Fuck. Anyway, I'll live. ; )

I was sort of disappointed to find out that I have a soccer game tonight. I have plenty of things I need to do, so I was looking forward to sticking around here today. I would skip out on going, but I don't want to risk the team having to forfeit in the event that not enough people show up. Grr... could end up being a late night now if I can stay up that late.

Just another rant by a dumb Frechman. Not only is Henry a poor loser, but he demonstrates his lack of football knowledge. He claims Elber dives, when actually Elber stays on his feet quite well (better than Henry himself!). He also shows his lack of German football tactics by complaining about Bayern defending and playing the counterattack. Idiot. I hate Arsenal. What a bunch of crybabies.

Enough on him. For Bayern, it's now a pair of quarterfinal dates with Manchester United, followed by a semifinal with either Madrid (another team of overpaid crybabies) or Galatasary (a team actually worthy of being in this position). No thoughts about Arsenal again unless they should pull off the impossible and actually make it to the final.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Get your shamrock shakes while you still can!

I had problems earlier on Friday with my webpage not being accessible, but the problem has apparently been rectified. Since then, new issues have come up. Perhaps the most amusing was the guy at the Dinkytowner tonight who thought that Morgan, Jonathan, and I were staring at him. We were actually watching the tv above him. He came over by us, called us fun boys about a dozen times, mentioned something about us going home and packing, and then said that if we wanted to continue the staring game, we could take it outside. I can't believe people don't love going to that place! Every night seems to be find a way to be better than the last!

So, anyway, the weekend is finally here. I have write a paper for my hypocritical Canadian professor for Thursday and I have to work at the film society Saturday night also. I had forgotten about St. Patrick's Day in agreeing to work for Josh, but then I remembered - I'm only 20, so who cares?

I'm sure Molly might mention this (especially since she icq-ed it to me), but I think everyone needs to check out this article about Qwest and the Minneapolis post office.

Anyway, I'm sick of typing. Wish I could drink green beer with you all, but I'll have to stick with my shamrock shakes for today.

Oh, almost forgot one thing! I found out tonight that Jonathan knows Dema Kovalenko of the Chicago Fire. I noticed the other day that Dema's from Rochester, so I asked Jonathan tonight if he knew him, and he said he went to high school with him, but had no idea he was playing professionally now. Cool.

I am on the verge of going upstairs and kicking some ass. Why the fuck do people have to be so inconsiderate?! My neighbor upstairs has taken lately to singing at 1am. It would be annoying enough even if it were good singing, but it's not. In fact, the moaning sounds like more like a dying animal than singing. What's even worse, the dumb bastard is being reinforced by a giggling girl. What dipshits.

I'm also getting sick of coming home and finding out that my power went out. Once again, I returned home tonight to find my clocks flashing. This is the third or fourth time in a week!!! Why is our power going out so often? It's just simply aggravating.

Thursday is another day. Unfortunately, I hate it. I mean, Thursday is still my favorite day of the week, but that doesn't change the fact that I hate going to class. I start out the day with a lecture at 12:45 by the most hypocritical professor I have ever encountered. You can be certain I am going to write plenty in her evaluation at the end of the semester about how hypocritical she is and how little I can stand her. Thursday night I have my Chekhov class. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the class. The problem comes in the fact that I am too busy to fully prepare for class each week. I am hoping that spring break will allow me to get caught up some, but that will only help so much.

Grrr... that motherfucker upstairs!!!!! I'm about to kick some ass! I'm really going to do it!

Okay, that's about enough out of me. I'm tired, and even so I have lots of reading to do yet for the Chekhov class. Nighty night.

Okay, this isn't usually my style, but I need to rant about various random people and things which piss me off. Let me note that these things listed are in no specific order.

1) Minnesotans. I suppose this doesn't apply to all of them, just a large majority of them. Why do they have to be such fucking idiots? Where do I start? They pronounce everything, even foreign names, with the most grating and annoying Minnesotan accent. They don't shovel their sidewalks in the slim hope that tomorrow will be 80 degrees out and it'll all melt. You live in fucking Minnesota! It's not going to happen! They think the Vikings will actually win a Super Bowl. They think that anyone else in the world gives a fuck that the Twins won the World Series a decade ago. They're convinced they're not in the middle of Bumfuck Egypt, yet they're surrounded on three sides by Iowa, the Dakotas, and fucking Canada! I could go on and on.

2) My neighbor upstairs. I'm not certain that he's a Minnesotan, but he's an annoying son-of-a-bitch. I'm glad he finally quit singing - he was singing loudly for over an hour just a little bit ago, and it's now after 2 am. He's up all night walking around. I get sick of listening to him crank Abba and Corey Hart after a while also.

3) The University of Minnesota. Sure, it's a good school, but they have their heads so far up their own asses that they don't even realize their school is on the brink of collapse. In addition to everything else, I'm glad the fees committee decided I need to fund even more of a student union which I never supported renovating in the first place and I only got use for just over a year before my money started paying for something I'll never get to use. Fuck future students! The entire staff of The Minnesota Daily needs to be canned also - everyone from the board and editors down to the lowliest freelancers. I can't believe they waste away perhaps the best college newspaper in the country by filling it with such garbage. It's so bad, it's not even worthy of me wiping my ass with it. Even so, the board is upset that the fees committee didn't give them the extra $150,000 they requested so they could further line their pockets. And to think they're asking for that at a time when the U is desperate for money. Jackasses. Enough about the U.

4) Metro Transit. Are there any bigger morons? We're talking about the pinnacle of morons in the state that is already the pinnacle of morons - the true apex of stupidity. Man, I can't wait to get my car. Know why so many people prefer their cars over mass transit? It's inconvenient. Metro Transit is almost as inconvenient as Valley Transit (which we won't even bother with now), but even that cannot compare with the employees. Where do they find these drivers? When I graduate, I want a job there. I mean, they let any moron drive a bus and they pay them nearly $15 an hour to start. I'm also curious to know who the geniuses are who make the schedules, plan the routes, and decide what size buses to send on the route. Sounds like a hard job, but really it's not. Is it really hard to leave your office on occassion and go see if your plans actually work? They're worse than meteorologists who could be more accurate by simply looking out a window.

There are plenty more things which piss me off, but I'm getting tired, so I don't feel like typing anymore. Maybe that's a good thing.

Sorry about that last post. I don't know why I have this need to go online when I'm drunk. I didn't even think I was as drunk as I was last night until I left the party and started walking home. It was a good thing that I left though, because I think I was starting to piss people off. They were all winding down and even trying to fall asleep and I was all energetic and wanted to run around. I didn't even have that much to drink, but I was the last one to arrive and then I drank a decent amount in a very short amount of time with little food in me. Okay, enough about that.

So, I called home last night and finally found out that the fam has been busy. Apparently my mom has emailed me twice, but I never received the emails. They're just as busy as I am the way it sounds. Good to know everything is okay with them.

Short film festival was this weekend and I'm so relieved to have it over. Oh sure it's fun, but it's such a relief to have it over. I hope we found some new customers among it all (which was part of the reason for doing it in the first place).

I got up about 1 this afternoon and studied up on some Russian. I think I'm going to be up late tonight yet working on more. Damn Fox - I'm starting to waste away my Sunday afternoons watching Nascar now. I hate Nascar, but I have to admit that there have been some interesting races thus far (today's photo-finish included). I don't know if it's the water here or what, but macaroni and cheese just doesn't taste the same. I was really craving it today, so I made some for lunch, but when I actually got to eating it, it just wasn't all that good. We had our last regular indoor soccer game tonight and won 4-2, so we should be in the playoffs. I had a nice goal myself, deflecting in a free kick. Too bad it was a goal for the other team. I was partially responaible for their other goal also, but there's not much I can do when I'm being obstructed and the intramural refs are too big of dipshits to see it. I know lots of players hate bad refs, but as a ref myself, I hate them even more - they give those of us who actually are good a bad name. I've been so busy lately that it doesn't look like I'll be reffing this summer. I never got recertified (actually, I haven't been recertified in about 3 years) and I haven't contact any soccer clubs about working for them. Ah, maybe I need some time off anyway. Okay, back to the Russian homework.

Where am I and how ds /i get here? Fuck , sam /i drunk. I didn'r think I was this drunk until I got up. Fuxck.

Another mostly lame and boring, but typical Wednesday and Thursday have passed. I'd elaborate, but it'd all be the same as every other Wednesday and Thursday. You know, one person pisses me off followed by another. I hate people sometimes, but even more when I'm tired. It being now 4:30 am, I definitely hate people. Blah. Short film festival tonight!

I just arrived home from a long and glorious walk home. I missed the bus by about 30 seconds and didn't feel like waiting 30 minutes for the next one. It was simply gorgeous out tonight, so I decided to walk home from Dinkytown. I went down 4th to 10th Avenue, over the bridge to Washington, Washington to Chicago, passed the Metrodome to 6th Street, up 6th passed U.S. Bank Place to Marquette, down Marquette passed the Wells Fargo Center, the IDS Tower, and the Foshay Tower to 9th Street, 9th Street to Nicollet, Nicollet to 15th, and 15th home. As I neared home, I passed Vanessa and a friend and they invited me to the bar, but alas I have 39 days yet until I am legal, so I had to respectfully decline. Overall, it was just wonderful. I'm a little pooped now, but it was worth it. Tomorrow ought to be a pretty easy day, so I think I can more or less relax tonight. Ah, it's not all bad. Now it's time for NewsRadio and reading the Star Tribune.

Hmmm... been a couple of days again. Sunday, we won our soccer game by forfeit. We didn't want to make it a wasted trip to have shown up, so we scrimmaged. Monday was mostly unnoteworthy except for two things. I felt like such an idiot in my Russian course again (I swear it shall be my undoing!). The other thing is that Jonathan finished booking our hostel rooms for spring break - we're now good to go.

So that brings us upto today. I have rediscovered "The Price Is Right." Sure, I used to watch it almost everyday, but then I went into a lapse where I sort of just quit watching it. Well, now I'm back and it's as great as ever. Also, while watching today, I found that Mr. T is in yet another new commercial. Damn, I already forgot what it was for, but it was some food thing. The Mr. T revolution is on!

Another one of these here "weekend" things seems to have flown by. It's already late Sunday afternoon and I feel as if I've done nothing. Friday and Saturday evenings were both devoted to Bijou. Friday, went to the Dinkytowner after the movies and it was hoppin' in there. They pulled in some pretty good business, which is definitely good for them and will probably will encourage them to do more shows. It's fine with me, just as long as my booth is open when I get there! Saturday evening, we were going to go bowling, but after driving around, we didn't find a worthy and open bowling alley worth visiting. We ended up back at the Dinkytowner and were there for a while. Afterwords, Molly, Jonathan, and I came on back here and sat around for a bit before playing a spirited game of Life. I got my ass kicked again. My $2 million would have been enough to win against most people, but noooooo... Molly had like $3 million! How the hell do you get $3 million?! On a teacher's salary?! Geez.... We were up until like 8 atleast before we finally dozed off. Since she hadn't driven, she stayed the night and just left a little bit ago. Now I need to eat and get some homework done before I have to leave for campus for my soccer game. Russian quiz tomorrow night and I'm in deep shit.

Decided not to go to class - I'm a bad, bad boy. Oh well, anything is better than sitting through Silberman's class. Sure, I missed the movie, but I can rent. I can't get back the hours wasted in his lectures.

Inspired by a certain-someone's bad example, I am contemplating skipping my class this afternoon. I really have no interest in going out. It's not that I have anything better to do, and it most definitely has nothing to do with the weather outside (it's not even sunny!), but I just don't feel like sitting through another of Silberman's extremely boring and pointless lectures. So, with my mind so completely made up to be delinquint today, why am I hesitating? It has to do with a little something called insecurity. Silberman has it, and if I upset it, it effects my grade negatively. You see (and this is especially important for any of you not in college), some professors have this overriding fear that some people can pass their extremely pointless course without ever opening a book or attending one of their lectures. Wait - if students don't need to come to class, doesn't that mean that they aren't learning anything? If they're not learning anything, what's the point of the course to exist? Axe the class, the prof doesn't get paid. So what's the best solution for handling the teaching of a course which students only take because they have to? You require attendance and then take away from students' grades when they don't show up. So what do students really learn in college? Grin and bear it because stupidity exists everywhere - even in schools of higher learning.

Looks like no roadtrip this weekend. Jonathan just remembered that he has to work on Saturday morning. That's okay, I have plenty I need to get done around here anyway.

It's Friday already! Where the hell did the week go? Not that I don't love weekends, but this semester is going so fast. Roadtrip this weekend? We'll have to just wait and see.

Sometime between the last post and this one I got hooked on trying to find out a little something about the ol' family ancestry. You know, it doesn't help any when you barely know the family names. Atleast by having names that are a little more rare, you don't encounter the problem of running searches and bringing up lots of names, but none of them are what you're looking for. And then, to top it all off, it's not like my family is any help when trying to research genealogy. I wonder if my dad even knew his dad's birthday? I probably have to do some traveling just to search records to even get a start. Ah well, I'm going to try to get atleast a few hours sleep now.

Oh, by the way... sorry about the hideous green colors. I'll try to find some that are a little less hideous when I get a chance. No matter what though, I have to be green for St. Patrick's Day (what kind of Irish-American would I be if I wasn't?).

Oooo... two more things just occured to me. 1) March 1 = need to pay rent. I just ran downstairs and tossed the check in the office mailbox. 2) March 1 = exactly 3 weeks until we leave for Sweden. Wow, it's coming up fast. I guess time really begins to fly when you measure the length of a semester in games of a Scrabble losing streak.

Ah, March is here, but the only March Madness known to the king of this web kingdom is called midterms. Sure, I lack all of the tests and things that some of you poor saps have to endure, but instead I have many-a-paper deadline quickly approaching and nary-a-topic chosen. Instead I waste valuable time telling you about my adventures in Ambivalenceland (where the caterpillars prefer a nice fat blunt over a few puffs of opium and the hatter isn't very mad, but he's pretty wasted after drinking a whole case of 40's of Schlitz Malt Liquor).

Before happy-fun time at the Dinkytowner tonight, I labored away the better part of the day at preparing a "playlist" for the short film festival and typing up said list with short blurbs about each film. After hurrying to the SPSC (that's St. Paul Student Center, not the Special People Social Club) and scurrying around like a doped-up lab rat trying to find the cheese at the end of the maze, I completed my weekly mission in St. Paul and hopped aboard the Connector back to the West Bank.

Here's where the story fails to get interesting. I sit in my regular seat (gosh I love the comfort of regularity) in the back row, one seat to the right of center. At the first stop back toward Minneapolis, this girl gets on the bus and heads directly in my direction. I should point out that there are plenty of open seats elsewhere on the bus. Sure she's cute - there's thousands of them - and sure she heads straight for me, staring me in the eyes the whole time, but then she stops before me and says, "Excuse me," only to sit in the middle seat directly next to me. Uh-huh. A moment later, she whips out an apple and begins to consume it (bonus points - apples kick ass). Then she begins to reveal her true side - she slouches down in the seat and makes a few failed attempts at resting her feet on the seats before us (minus points for the "so cool I need to kick up my feet even on the bus" attitude). When that seat finally vacates completely, she moves up there and after finishing the apple, she pulls out a small jar and a giant spoon. Intrigued, I watch as she opens the jar and begins pouring the thick, milky white liquid into the spoon and puts it in her mouth. What the hell is that?!?! I watched her do it again and again. It looked like she was eating liquified mayonnaise and reminded me of my father taking spoonfuls of Maalox. Finally I broke down and had to inquire about this substance. Apparently it was yogurt (huge point deduction - I HATE yogurt) that she had put in a Smucker's jar. Blech. I got off the bus at Willey (pronounced (WILL-ee, like Will Clark, not While-ee, like Wile E. Coyote - idiots) Hall and left her with her nasty, little dairy treat.

I finally arrived at my CSCL class over an hour late and caught like the last half hour of Festen. I must have missed a lot, because I caught onto a few things that late in the movie, but most of it made no sense. After arriving at the Bell and opening up the box office for business, I grabbed my requisite 2 copies of the City Pages and quickly paged through to the film section in the hopes that they had done Cary Grant weekend at the Bijou justice and reviewed one of our films. I quickly found that not only had they reviewed one of the films, but they had reviewed both! I was so happy that I started jumping up and down and hooting and hollering. I went into the auditorium and ran a victory lap around the aisles before returning back to the entrance triumphantly. Thanks City Pages for doing us the honor of recognizing the genius of Cary Grant (even though Katharine Hepburn steals the show in your reviews).

I guess that really brings us back upto-date. I still need to decide upon a paper topic for my Chekhov class and that is really dragging me down right now. Reading over Polakiewicz's suggested paper topics, I'm really seriously considering either the comparison of two Chekhov stories (I work better in tight quarters) or the comparison of the portrayal of peasants in Chekhov and Tolstoy (or atleast with my small working knowledge of the two). I need to decide soon because the natives are getting restless....