Oi.

How goes it? Things are going okay here in my neck of the woods. Last night at the Dinkytowner, I blew a lead in Scrabble when I got stuck with poor letters and didn't do a good job of remedying the situation. As a result, I went from 40 points up to losing again. I'm still 0-since-January. Yeah, kickin' ass and takin' names. Came home last night to find a parking spot right at front - at 1:45 in thr morning! No freaky guys stalking me last night either. Today I wasted away the better part of the day, but I did go grocery shopping and wandered around Barnes and Noble, coveting many books, but buying none. Tonight? Off to the Entry. I'm not sure if I'm hungry, but I should make up my mind soon I suppose. Back to Lorelai and Rory....

Hmmm... where to start? It ended up being a long day for me, Tuesday was. I started out by hopping in my car and cruising around. I left my apartment about 11 and I had to be to work by 2. I went to the Roseville area (both Rosedale and Har Mar), Midway, and the Quarry. What did I learn from it? 1) Where I can find 3 different Target stores. 2) Where to find a really crappy Toys 'R' Us. 3) I hate driving. Yeah.

I went to work, did a few things, and then got sent over to the Bell for a press screening of Son of Mary. I decided to stick around to watch the movie, but luckily it wasn't long. I also watched the early showing of The Legend of Rita. At 10, I met Molly at the Dinkytowner, where we saw The Gods of Times Square. We were there until after 1:30, I think. Coming home, I had to really circle around to find a place to park. That's when it got interesting. I noticed this car sort of following me, so I got a little disturbed. I found a spot and parked, and so did that car. The man driving walked up to me and said, "Yep, sure is crowded tonight." I replied, "Yeah, I had to circle around a few times to find a place to park myself." I then started to walk away and he stood there for a moment before walking back to his car. He got in his car and drove past me slowly, following me with his head, before driving off. As I neared my apartment, he circled past me again, once again slowing down and watching me. Man, was I happy just to get back home! I mean, he wasn't scary looking, and he wasn't really intimidating generally, but his behavior is what bothered me.

I returned home and checked my email only to see that my professor had emailed me back (I had emailed him Tuesday morning about the grades not being posted). He said I got a B+ on my paper and a B+ on my final, resulting in a B+ in the class. I'm sure it's all I deserved, but that means that my gpa only calculates out to a 2.9175, meaning that once again I missed out on a 3.0. Maybe next year.

I've successfully wasted away a lot of time in the past few days, so I'm hoping to get a little more motivated and active quickly. I'm working on it....

Oh, I almost forgot also - I was checking out the toy sections of several stores today, and I see that Matchbox finally came out with some new cars. In fact, they must have just replaced every one in the catalog! Too bad I don't collect anymore, because there are some cool ones again (but with more lame paint jobs).

Oh, I forgot something... The Spark has a new test up: The Stress Test. I just finished taking it, and I scored only 27% stress, which it classified as well below average. It went on to say that I'm "lazy and retarded." Guess I can't deny either of those accusations, now can I?

Last night, Molly and I went to Hopkins to see Snatch. Man, that's one hopping place on a Friday night. As for the movie, it was decent. I mean, it was nothing great, but I still liked it. Afterward, we went to the Dinkytowner, where I proceeded to begin falling asleep in my booth. This afternoon I have to go to work, working the box office at the Bell 4-10. If any one out there is interested in seeing The Legend of Rita, it's showing 16 times this week, and I'll be there working 10 of them myself. In the mean time, I'm going to eat some lunch, and I'm debating getting a start on the new Groutflow page. I'm still coming up with a basic layout plan, so it may take a while.

Update, schmupdate. Yeah, I've been slow lately. So, what's new? Well, my prediction for Wednesday's game was little off, but Bayern still won, and now they're European Champions for the first time since 1976. What a great season! Bayern and Liverpool won both European trophies between them. In fact, betweem the two of them, they won 4 cups and 1 league a championship this season. Pretty great.

Of course, more has been happening in my life than just soccer. I've been trying to stay warm and dry among Minnesota's new cold monsoon season. Word on the street is that the sun may pop through for atleast a few moments a couple days from now. I hate this weather!!! It's summer, damn it! I should be out sunbathing in Loring Park or beating up grade school kids for their lunch money. Instead I'm stuck inside freezing my ass off.

I'm also working here and there. Looks like you'll be able to find me every Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Bell this summer. It's money. I'll get some reading done hopefully.

Well, it's Memorial Day weekend and maybe I'll go pretend to enjoy myself. Happy Birthday Shannon and for the rest of you... nah, nothing.

It's been a while, but it's mostly because I got sick of dealing with the family computer back in Appleton. Now that I'm back in my apartment with my computer, I feel more freedom to post at will. It's cold, windy, and raining outside, but inside it's all good.

Grades are posted with the exception of 1, and I'm now eagerly awaiting that final grade. I was going to scan and post the pictures from trivia 2001, but then my scanner got fucked up somehow, so that'll have to wait. Hell, it's been 4 months, what's a few more days, right?

Molly and I went to the Dinkytowner tonight and were going to go to the Twins-Mariners game tomorrow, except it starts at 12:05 and Molly has to work until 1. Instead we're going to watch FCB demolish Valencia in the Champion's League final. Okay, maybe not demolish, but you know. Maybe I should make another of my bold predictions.

Okay, here goes: Bayern beat Valencia 2-1, with Elber scoring the opening goal in the first half. Valencia will score right before the half on a goal by Sanchez, after Sami Kuffour gifted him a 1-on-1 with Kahn. Bayern's second goal will be scored in the second half by Zickler on the break with an assist by Hargreaves. Seriously, if I'm even close, somebody out there atleast buy me a beer.

Okay, I'm seriously considering going to bed now I guess. Later duders.

I'm back home in Appleton, as I have been for over 30 hours now. I visited Matt and Carrie last night and hung with Trixie and Nick at GW. This morning I got a haircut and bought the new R.E.M. and Go-Go's albums. Now I'm kind of bored, so maybe I'll sit outside and read this afternoon. Who knows? I was hoping to go see Traffic this afternoon at Valley Value, but it's only showing at 7:40 and I can't get ahold of Trixie. Yeah.

Oh oh oh... I was just checking out the WLFM webpage, and I couldn't help noticing that they're now broadcasting over the internet also! I clicked on the link and it didn't work, but maybe they only broadcast while students are on the air and not while broadcasting WPR. Anyway, this is very cool. Okay, I really need to pack now.

Just one more thing I forgot to mention before... watching "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" earlier tonight, it had to be the most pathetic episode ever. I don't think I've ever seen a bigger group of idiots on the show before. I mean, if you missed it, these people were just plain dumb. What an insult to other Americans... of course, I can't figure out why I was even watching the show in the first place, so it's partly my fault as well.

Well, looks like we'll be leaving even earlier yet. In fact, we'll be leaving Minneapolis about 12:30-1 tonight, which would put us in Appleton by 6. Maybe I'll fall asleep in the car, or maybe I'll go to bed after I get home. I'm in the middle of cleaning and packing right now, because I only have about an hour until Jonathan will be stopping up here so we can go pick up Molly. It'll be nice to get away for a week and attempt to get out of the school mode. Even so, it still feels like I need to get to bed so I can get up and go to class tomorrow. I need to break that streak, and hopefully tomorrow will be a start. Maybe I should get back to work. Next update will probably be in Appleton, but first we have to hope that Blogger fixes whatever error they have in the system right now that is not allowing me to publish this to my page. It'll get up there sometime. Bye bye.

We went to the Twins game this afternoon, which they won 7-3. I've seen some poor performances by pitchers before, but the starter for the Royals today had to be among the worst. Man, was he terrible! My clothes are in the dryer right now and I'm waiting to hear definites from Jonathan, but I think we're going to be leaving tomorrow. I guess that means I'll be returning to Appleton already tomorrow afternoon. I think my clothes might be done....

The semester is over and it's party time, baby! I turned in my Chekhov take-home exam yesterday after finishing the film studies exam and all of a sudden the semester was over. Molly, Jonathan, and I went for dinner and bowling last night at Elsie's, and then we came back here to play Monopoly. I just checked finally and found out that Liverpool beat Arsenal 2-1 for the FA Cup!! That's 2.... Michael Owen had both goals - man, is he on a fucking hot streak! 2 against Arsenal, 2 against Chelsea, 3 against Newcastle - damn. Tonight? I don't know just yet. I'm working on cleaning up my apartment now, because it really needs it after this last week.

I finished my Chekhov take-home exam (no more Chekhov class ever!!!), but I figured it wasn't worth going to bed because I'd never get up in time for my in-calss exam at 8 am. As a result, I'm now still up and working on studying (as much as that is possible) for that exam. In 3.5 hours I'll be taking that exam and in 5.5 hours it'll be summer vacation - woohoo!!! Okay, that "woohoo" came off as being much more lively than I really am. Truthfully, I'm really fucking tired. I'm getting really low on liquids around here other than water and beer, so I'm going to have to choose one of them to start consuming soon. I drank the last of my milk last night and I'm down to only 4-5 cans of soda. I'm dirty and disgusting, just like my apartment, and I'm starting to feel a little sick also. Hopefully a shower and a little sleep can do something for me. Those will have to wait for a few more hours right now, because I have other important things to attend to in the mean time.

Minnesotans never cease to amaze me. It began several months ago with the article I read in the Strib about considering sales of wine in grocery stores. It was decided that would not be a good idea because obviously we'd all become winos. The next incident came a week or so ago, when while watching public television of the Minnesota Senate in debate over putting cameras at traffic signals to catch drivers running red lights, one certain elderly Senator rose and said, "I remember reading 1984 before it was 1984. First we put we cameras at intersections, and then how long until we have them in the bathrooms?" Those were his exact words (as well as I can remember a quote I heard a week ago), I shit you not. Well, the latest indication of Minnesotan conservativism comes in response to the Twins-Yankees series at the Metrodome last week. For anyone not in the know, thousands of fans showed up in force to heckle and hurl objects at former-Twin-now-Yank and major-ass-hole Chuck Knoblauch. In response, I returned home to find this article in the Strib tonight. Now, in case officials have not noticed, this sort of fan behavior (while admittedly detestable no matter how much we may all dislike Knoblauch) only took place because of Knoblauch's presence. Other teams have not been met with this same sort of reception. In fact, I was at the 3rd game of the series with the Orioles, and Twins fans have to be the lamest, tamest, most laid-back fans in all of MLB! The fact that they apparently think that this is some new sort of common behavior among Twins fans is just more evidence of why not only am I proud not to have been born and raised here, but why I can't help but get some nice shits-and-giggles every so often from those who were. No, Minnesotans never cease to amaze me.

After getting out for a few hours, I've returned home with a new sense of optimism. Before I left for work, I managed to find the source of 12 of the 15 quotes on the final. While at the Dinkytowner after work, I read Ivanov and The Sea Gull, leaving only 2 more plays to read and much more insightful concerning the last two parts of the final. I may just pull this off yet! I've got until about 1 this afternoon and then a little time after work before I want to get to bed so I can manage to drag my sorry ass back out of bed Friday morning in time for the Art of Film final.

Oh yeah! Bayern beat Real 2-1 (3-1 aggregate) this afternoon to advance to the Champion's League final. Maybe now that the game's over, I should try to convince myself that it's worth working on that fucking take-home test again. This is such fucking shit. Grrrr....

FUCK CHEKHOV!

I was in a slightly better mood by the time I came home last night, and I was even partially motivated to get started on the fucking take-home final. Well, I've now hit my end. I threw my fucking books across the room and said "fuck it." Unfortunately, the final is worth 40% of our final grade, so I'm going to have to build up some sort of ambition to do it, but I don't know how. I'm currently stuck on finding the fucking quotes. There are 15 and so far I've found 3. He said they are all one's which we talked about a lot in class, but I only really remember 2 of the other 12, and I don't remember which stories they were from. I'm so fucking screwed. I just want to hit somebody or something!

Woo-woo! I just found out that the Go-Go's are playing at Taste of Minnesota this year! July 3, 7:30pm, Strib Main Stage, State Capital Grounds - be there. This is, of course, in follow-up to having seen them on Leno earlier tonight. Their new cd, "God Bless the Go-Go's," is due to be released next Tuesday (May 15 - same day as the new R.E.M. and Weezer albums). I'm still wound-up pretty tightly, but this news really helps to loosen me up a bit... just 7 short days....

I'm currently in the process of trying to jump-start my brain. I started bugging out this afternoon, but I finally hit the wall in the middle of the final tonight. I went first on the oral part, so I got that out of the way. When I started the written, I made it about half way through page 3 of 5 and then my brain burned out. I'm fried. I need to kick start myself somehow because I need to get to work on my Chekhov take-home final, but I don't know how I'm supposed to do that. Too many things on my mind and I don't know how to clear it. I'm taking deep breaths and trying to relax, but I just can't relax. Blah.

I did end up sneaking off yesterday for free eats at the Whole show. I ended up staying for the whole show too, because the bands were cooler than I had expected. I didn't finally get home until I think about 1 last night. I got up this morning and I've been studying (nay, cramming) as much as possible for the Russian final tonight. It's now time to go and fail that final. Wish me luck in that I may fail it with honor.

It's now Sunday and time is flying along. Tomorrow is the dreaded Russian final. I have an amazing amount of studying to do for it, and I haven't a clue where to begin. Gack.

As you may have noticed, I added my guestbook finally. I didn't make it really prominent, because I don't expect that many people will actually sign it. Oh well, it's there. We'll see just how long it lasts.

Yesterday was the big SUPA end of the year show of hypocrisy and pretentiousness. Atleast there was free food involved. Of course, the same could be said of the Whole show this afternoon, which I may sneak off to for some free eats. I'm cheap and proud of it.

I know I should be in bed, but I just heard the news that Chicago traded for Eric Wynalda today (well, technically yesterday for those of you who have gone to bed already). Granted, at 31 he's no "player for the future," but I think we've already seen what quality veterans (read: Stoichkov and Nowak) can do for the team also. Now I definitely want to take a road trip to Chicago for a game this summer! How could I miss out on an opportunity to see the beloved Fire crushing some weakling of a team with a frontline composed of Wolff and perhaps Stoichkov or Wynalda? Damn - who needs Razov?

Sort of a round-about day going down in the last 24 hours. I was elated to finish my paper and turn it in, only to follow it up with fear after receiving the take-home final for my Chekhov class. Scrabble night was so-so, but then I returned home and was rather pissed to find that the sound on the copy of Sonnenallee is absolutely terrible! Luckily, Crazy seems to be fine so far. I really should go to bed soon, but I don't feel like it. I don't feel like doing much of anything.

I need to find a job. A summer job. Finding those is absolute hell. Nobody wants to hire you just for the summer. That involves training someone to do work which they're only going to do for a few months, and then they quit. Any job that will hire you, despite the fact that you will only be there a few months is not worth it either. Those are the kinds of jobs that any old idiot can get. As a result, they treat you like an idiot, even if you aren't one. Typically you have to work with customers who also treat you like you're an idiot. Yes, summer jobs are perhaps the most humbling work you can do, and yet I have to find one every year. Grrr....

It was about 5:30 in the morning before I finally fell asleep last night, which is why it's so surprising to me that I'm still going now. Must be the Mountain Dew. I hate the stuff, but it's about all I have left. Guess I drank too much when I was younger. Anyway, I bought my course packet finally Tuesday night right as Paradigm was closing and when I finally got home, I started reading and taking notes. I can't believe the professor is only requiring a 5-7 page paper! This being a 5xxx-level class and with the topic she gave us for the paper, it could easily be 15-17 pages! In just what I've read tonight since returning home, I could fill up 5-7 pages just with quotes and without even adding any of my own input! She definitely either picked too large a topic or too small an assignment. Anyway, I'll write that paper tonight (Wednesday night) and it'll be good and ready to be turned in on Thursday.

As for this rain - when will it end?! Everyday! Everyday it rains! It's raining again now. Early tonight, a storm passed through (sometime between 5 and 6 pm). The air raid sirens were going off, there was heavy rain, and we had hail atleast an inch in diameter. It all passed through in a matter of about 10-15 minutes. Storms, I tell ya. Anyway, I should be considering going to bed sometime soon.

Monday was just another completely boring day in the life of me. After signing off this morning, I worked on my paper rewrite. I ate lunch and went to class. I did my Russian homework in office hours and then went to what most likely be my last ever Russian language class. Final is next Monday night. After class, I talked to the prof for a bit and then ran into Annemarie on my way to the bus stop. I missed my bus and was a wee but hungry, so we went to McDonald's and grabbed bite to eat. Missed the bus again, so I had to wait for the 11:45 bus. It was then 12:15 by the time I got home. For some reason, I'm wide awake right now. The fact that's it's over 80 degrees in my apartment could have something to do with it. I wish I had my stuff for my CSCL paper right now, because if I'm awake, I might as well have been working on it. Let's hope I can muster up this kind of sleeplessness when I actually am writing the paper. I hope I can get my check today also, because rent is due today and my rent check will bouce if I don't get that money deposited today. Blah.