I guess I need to jump back to Saturday night. I was online until almost 11, but then I got sick of being locked up around the family, so I went out. I first went to George Webb, where I did homework and wrote in my journal. It started to pick up in there about 1, so I packed up my things and left. I headed on over to Trixie's, where there were many cars, but nobody was answering the door. I went to the side and saw there was a party going down in the kitchen, so I went back to the front and let myself in. I must have arrived right about the climax of the party, as it slowly started degenerating thereafter. When I left at 3, everyone was settling into their alcohol and there was a lot of silly drunk talk. I was back home and in bed about 3:15. Of course, Mom and Dad found it important to wake me up for church anyway, so there I was on 3 hours of sleep. I ended up napping for chunks of yesterday afternoon and fell asleep early last night as a result. That also means that I was up pretty early this morning. That's not exactly what I wanted for New Year's Eve Eve.

Today's entertainment shall come courtesy of my old friends the Marx Brothers. TCM is showing their movies starting at 8:30 this morning, with the final one starting at 3:15 tomorrow morning. My parents aren't happy that I'm taking up one of the tv's for 8 hours tonight to record movies, but ah... I don't care.

On a positive note, I mostly avoided the questions about my future. A few relatives asked a question here or there, but for the most part the subject was avoided. I just hate having to answer questions when I don't know the answers myself. I guess for the most part the family avoided most conflicts today. Yep, that's good.

"Look, Jesus Christ had critics who called for his crucifixion. I expect people to be skeptical and critical, and that's OK. This is America."
-prospective Minnesota Twins buyer Donald Watkins, quoted in the StarTribune concerning his ability to buy the team and finance a new stadium

My first problem popped up either Monday night or Tuesday morning. That problem occured when someone stole my brother's AOL password and subsequently used his account to send a bunch of spam emails. AOL put a hold on our account and changed all of our passwords. We got that problem cleared up by calling AOL Tuesday night and they informed us of what had happened. When I finally got a chance to get back on then, I went to Blogger, and wouldn't you know that they had been hacked. So, once again, I couldn't update. In the mean time I just worked on other things, which I'll get to shortly.

So, since I missed it, Merry Christmas. Okay, got that out of the way. Now, back to Monday night, the 'rents and I went to church at 11. After we returned home, I watched the end of The Apartment (which I was also taping) and a little of something else before going to bed about 2-ish. My parents woke me up about 8 Christmas morning, and as per tradition, we ate breakfast, opened gifts, and went to my grandma's. We spent the balance of the day at my grandma's, where I ate, watched Shrek, napped a little, ate some more, shot the shit, and came home. I tried calling Matt and Carrie that night, but they were at the movies, so I ended up sitting around at home and watching tv. Eventually I just turned off the tv and slept on the couch.

I was awoken about 5 Wednesday morning by the sounds of my mother and brother getting up for the day. My brother was going skiing, and my mom dropped him off at a friend's house before going to work. I ended up just getting up and watching tv all morning. TCM is my lifesaver. After eating lunch I went online for a bit, and then I went downtown. While down there, I wandered around snapping photos and checking out town. I also made a stop at the library to check out their vhs and dvd collections - not bad. I then came home, ate dinner, and fooled around on the computer some more while waiting for Matt to call. He and I met Carrie at the bowling alley just as her team was finishing up their last game, so the three of us went to The Bar for drinks and wings. We then went back to their place and hung out until about 1. At that time they went to bed, but I wasn't ready to, so I first just drove around town looking at Christmas lights and admiring the newly fallen snow (however little it may be). About 1:30 I decided I should quite driving around aimlessly before I call suspicion from the police, so I stopped over at Trixie's. She was in the livingroom talking to some people, Nick was in his room, and Kara was upstairs. I sat around mostly silent and listening to others talk. At 4 Trixie went over to the neighbor's to watch Heavenly Creatures, but I've never been a big fan of the film, so that's when I chose to take leave. I gave this guy a ride home, and now here I am, home safe and sound and online.

This year, Christmas was good to me. My parents gave me all sorts of useful goodies, including underwear, an answering machine, a vacuum cleaner, and a digital camera. While the first three have gone relatively untouched so far (that'll chance once I get back to Minneapolis!), I've made plenty of good use of the camera. I started by snapping photos of my dad, the house, myself, the cats, and the yard. Wednesday afternoon I finally ventured to leave the house and snapped a number of pictures downtown. I would have taken more, but the batteries died on me. I have the first batch posted, and I'm sure they're just the beginning. I'm still figuring out all the tricks to it, so most of the first pictures are pretty poor, but rest assured I'll get better with practice. That is all... for now.

I'm obviously a little behind in my news since returning to Appleton. I just found out that Liverpool have signed French striker Nicolas Anelka! It's only a loan deal from PSG to the end of the season, but it includes an option to buy out the remainder of his contract at the end of that period. With Milan Baros also being granted his English work permit late this last week, that brings Liverpool's current strikeforce to Owen, Heskey, Litmanen, Anelka, and Baros - quite possibly the best in England, if not all of Europe! Of course, don't forget the two fabulous young Frenchmen set to join the team after next campaign. Wow.

By now I'll bet most of you have seen the Nike commercials with the rain or snow or whatever. I hate Nike the way it is, but there are just too many things wrong with the snow one, that it has to have been made by southerners for southerners who have never seen snow. Two of the problems are related. The road being plowed isn't slick enough for that big truck to get stuck and start slipping. In the event that it were slippery enough, then that truck would be spreading salt or snow, and the runners couldn't follow behind it. Of course, if it's cold enough for the truck's tires to slip on that little snow cover, it must be really cold, yet you can't see the breath of the runners. Then, there isn't that much snow, yet there are no tracks in the snow in the middle of the city. The only way that there wouldn't be tracks would be if there was a wind blowing snow around and filling tracks. Of course, there is no wind and there are no snow drifts. I'm sorry, I just don't like bullshit commercials. Well, unless they're of the local variety, such as George Corporaal or any with Fancy Ray.

My parents returned home about 10:15 last night, so I left about 10:30 and met Trixie at Perkins. Nick was there also, but he had to leave about 1-ish. We sat there talking for a while, and then Shane showed up and joined us as well. I took leave of them about 4 this morning, came home, and sat up reading for my Bergman class until about 5:30 this morning. I slept until a little after 10, then I got up and listened to some music, took a shower, and my brother and I ate lunch. He's getting a haircut right now, and I ran home to pick up the check to pay for it. After his haircut, we're going to go to the movies, but I'm not sure yet what we'll see. I really want to see Vanilla Sky, but we'll see what happens. We might do some Christmas shopping as well (especially since I had to remind him that today is the 21st already).

My parents arrived right as I was leaving for class last night. I went and wrote my test, which sort of sucked, but I'm glad it's all over. After I returned home, we drove down to Bloomington to drop off my car. Of course, my parents got lost 3 times on the way. Eventually they got there. We then returned to Minneapolis and ate dinner at Market Barbecue. We went back to my place, watched a little tv, and went to bed early. We got up about 5:30 this morning and hit the road about 6:30. We got back to Appleton about 11:30, my parents left for work, and I've wasted away my day watching tv. Nothing really exciting to announce for now otherwise.

This afternoon I was sitting around eating the last of my Haloween candy, and while opening a Fun Size 100 Grand, I noticed it said:

For nutrition information,
call 1-800-258-6728,
Mon-Fri, 8am to 4pm Pacific.

Then I got to thinking, you know, I'll bet hardly anybody ever calls them for nutrition information, so maybe I should. Two minutes later I was on hold with Nestlé Customer Service. After being on hold for about three minutes, a nice young lady named Colleen answered. I told her that I wanted some nutrition information, so she inquired what information I was looking for. I asked her for the daily percentages of riboflavin and calcium in a 0.75oz Fun Size 100 Grand. She then put me on hold, and about a minute later came back. She was apparently having trouble finding the information for the size I was requesting. She then told me that a regular size (1.5oz) 100 Grand has 4% of my daily calcium, while a King Size 100 Grand has 8%, to which I commented, "Oh, I could eat less of those and still fill my daily calcium requirements!" Then she asked me what the other one I was looking for was, and I told her riboflavin. Then I had to explain to her what riboflavin was (Vitamin B2 for those of you who were curious), but she still couldn't find it on the list. So, the point of the story is that I'm disappointed in Nestlé for not having information on the amount of riboflavin in their products. Do I look like I want to end up short and bald? I need a certain amount of riboflavin in my diet daily, but I guess Nestlé's 100 Grand bar isn't my optimal choice for riboflavin. I let her go on her merry way, and I went on mine.

I'm still waiting for my parents to arrive. I guess they're not going to get here before I have to leave for campus, so I have to leave my keys behind for them. I just told them not to lose them, as they're my only set. It's time for "Jeopardy!." Too-da-loo!

I gave myself a nice, sustained chuckle this morning. I all stemmed from thinking about Hemingway and his A Farewell to Arms. Then I started thinking about someone saying farewell to their upper limbs. "Good bye arms! Have a nice trip!" Next thing you know, you're like a limbless Mr. Potatohead. No arms. I'm easily amused.

Al and "The Lonely Guy" must have just had the most serious conversation I've ever heard between them. Usually their conversations amount to a lot of joking back and forth, but tonight they were onto the topic of the Twins, and for once Duane (or is it Dwayne?) wasn't tossing little shots Al's way.

Now I'm getting tired. It only seems logical, seeing as the sun set something like 10 hours ago and we're only two days away from the shortest day of the year. To explain further, it's 2 am, I have stuff to do tomorrow, and I didn't do much today. Nighty night.

I'm still trying to figure out the logic behind attorney James Brosnahan's plan to change the public image of spoiled-little-rich-boy-turned-traitor John Walker Lindh. Public opinion doesn't hold that he's a nutcase like all the religious extremist members of the Qaida. Public opinion is that he's a traitor who chose to fight against rather than for the US. Brosnahan's not going to change public opinion in this one, he's just going to make himself look like an incompetent idiot. Of course, if that's what Brosnahan is aiming for, more power to him.

I finished my reading in preparation for this afternoon's journalism final, put away the dishes from last night, washed the rest of them, and now I'm letting the butter soften up before making grilled cheese. It's really weird looking around this place and seeing it, for the most part, clean. There are a few things lying around, but those are everyday necessities (such as my bag) and items to be brought home over break (such as my senior paper and the accompanying videotapes). I woke up to find my apartment had a smell of lemon and tobacco. I don't mind the lemon, but the tobacco is nauseating, so I'm burning the last of my incense right now as well. I have my final at 3, after which I'll probably head down to the film society office, as I'll need to kill a couple hours somehow. I'm working at the Bell tonight, and Molly's supposed to meet me there to pick up her tape. Tonight I have to start packing, as my parents will be here tomorrow.

Note to self: Call the old lady out in the 'burbs.

I have to give props to Representative Dean Johnson. He recently sent a letter to the Vikings telling them it'll be difficult for him to continue supporting a new stadium for the team if Randy Moss continues to run wild. The Vikings' response? They think he should concentrate on the positive things Moss does. What?! Moss does positive things? What does Moss do that's positive? He gets paid millions to play a game, and on occasion, he actually feels like doing something to earn atleast part of the millions he's paid to play the game. Where's the positive in that? He acts like a 5 year-old on and off the field. Where's the positive in that? There is no positive in Randy Moss, but the Vikings put up with it because on occasion he decides to try. That's nearly as ridiculous as Carmen Policy coming out initially in support of Cleveland fans on Sunday. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Liverpool and England super striker Michael Owen beat out the likes of Raul, Oliver Kahn, and England-teammate David Beckham today to be named European Footballer of the Year. This makes him the first Englishman since Kevin Keegan back in 1979 to win the prestigious award. Damn straight. Now if he could just stay healthy....

After I finished work tonight at the Bell, I took the deposit to the office and did the paperwork so I wouldn't have to go to the office tomorrow (or should I say today?). Not only do I not want to have to leave my apartment just so I can do the deposit, but I'm also getting sick and tired of the childishness of my co-workers. When Adam can sit around the office with his finger up his ass, surfing the internet, making personal phone calls, and going out to eat while on the clock, but Kyle won't even pay me for the work that I do, I tend to have a problem with that. I also have a problem with the way people try to get out of doing work by offloading it on someone else. You have no idea how many times Al asked Bruno to do something, Al left to run an errand, Bruno ditched out on whatever Al wanted him to do in favor of going home early, and then I had to explain to Al when he returned how "I think Bruno did it, but I don't know, because I'm not his babysitter." Let's not forget about me getting stuck postering because no one else will do it, or me getting stuck schlepping because no one else will do it. If it wasn't for the fact that Al's apparently intimidated by me, the combination of all of them would have driven me to quit a long time ago. As is, I'd look for another job, but I don't think it's really worth it until closer to graduation.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I did the deposit and memberships before coming home. After getting home, I ate dinner and cleaned the bathroom. Well, it's not totally done, as I still need to mop the floor, but that involves buying some floor mopping crap first. I have the mop and bucket, just not the soap stuff. I'll have to get that later today. That leaves the main room, the kitchen, and the entryway left to clean. I also started reading my journalism stuff for the final, but I have a long way to go before Tuesday afternoon. Almost made it to winter break.

Oh sure, things look nice after you clean them, but is it really worth all of the effort you put into cleaning something just to have it look nice? Sometimes I don't think so. At this point, I'm starting to think that cleaning my apartment is a real pain in the ass. It's quite obvious by now that I'm making progress, but the path to completion is not an easy one. I guess it's my own fault, seeing as until yesterday I hadn't even finished unpacking everything since I moved in about 16 months ago. It's also my fault that I haven't given this place even a small cleaning since probably about May or so.

I have most things put away now, and most of the remaining work involves sweeping, vacuuming, and dusting, but I'm considering leaving the rest of that work for tomorrow morning. I can only handle so much cleaning for one day. The mound of garbage which I have piled up today is amazing. Actually, the most amazing thing about it is how much stuff I decided to throw away that maybe a year or two I never would have. Yes, I'm a pack rat, so sue me. Well, today I went against my pack rat tendencies and tossed out all kinds of papers and things for which I finally came to realize I'll never have a use.

I thought it important to begin the day with that. Now, moving on, I started out last night being pretty productive. I started the long and arduous path toward a clean apartment, but I quickly realized that there was nowhere to put everything that's just lying around because my closet was too big a mess. So, I started cleaning out my closet. I don't remember what time it was, I think it was somewhere between 8:30 and 9, I sat down to eat dinner. My dinner entertainment was Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, but it ended up being my sleeping entertainment as well. Noticing that I was dozing off, I turned off all the lights, set the sleep timer on the tv, and laid myself back down on the couch. So much for my two-night bed sleeping streak. Right now I can't really get to my bed, as it's covered in all kinds of crap that I dug out of the closet. Most alarming is the stack of garbage that I pulled out of the closet. I have all kinds of random empty cardboard boxes and plastic bags that should have been discarded long ago and are the biggest reason why my closet was such a mess.

Goals for today? 1) Make more progress in cleaning. 2) Read for the journalism final. 3) Not fall asleep again before 10.

S-A-N-T-A! C-L-A-U-S! Hooray for Santy Claus!

I came straight home after class instead of stopping at the office. I know the only work they'd have for me would be to poster again, but I don't know why I should have to do it all the time when they have Adam. I've never seen Adam do a damn thing. Adam shows up in the office, surfs the internet, makes personal calls, goes out to eat, and just sits around, but never does any work. Since he's friends with Kyle, Kyle doesn't force him to do anything, and says nothing to him about paying him for doing nothing or for padding his hours. So, if they want crap done, how about I let Adam do something for once? I doubt he will.

This weekend will be a combination of reading and cleaning my apartment. I have lots of reading to do for my journalism final on Tuesday. It's scheduled for 4, but he said today that we can take it at 3 if we want. I suspect that's what most of the class will do. There isn't really anything I can read for my sci-fi final on Wednesday, so I'll have to just take that one as it comes. We're getting so close....

One week until I go home. One week until winter break. One week until I leave the city for a whole month. Of course I'm excited, but I also know what happens when I go home for long periods of time. The first week is usually pretty good: my parents and I get on well and everything is swell. By week two, they start getting irritated by me getting in at 2-3 am every night and by me lying around the house in my pajamas all day watching movies on TCM and AMC. By week three they're yelling at me to get off my ass and do something. Seeing how lazy I'm being, the inevitable what-are-you-going-to-do-with-your-life-after-college question gets asked of me about a dozen times a day, to which I get pissed off and finally answer, "I'm going to be a truck driver/mime/burger flipper for the rest of my life! What's it to ya'?" Come week four, I'm begging to get back here and get classes started again - anything to get away from the 'rents. I know that's exactly how it'll play out, because that's exactly how it always plays out.

Notice I can just talk about my parents like this, and I don't worry about them reading it? That's because even after 3 1/2 years of having a website, they don't actually know about it. Unfortunately, they're starting to get wise. My mom sees me at my site quite often when I'm home, and when she asks what it is, I just reply, "Oh, some website." Last thing I need is for them to find this, because imagine how much I'd have edit what I say. Sheesh.

Going back to the question of what to do after college, we had to take an occupational survey in high school to see what we'd like to do with our lives. It was just included at the end of the usual standardized tests we were administered every other year. When I took the last one, my parents were rather angry with me when I got the results. You see, the only jobs it said I'd have interest in were in the transportation sector. It specifically listed jobs such as truck driver, bus driver, and forklift operator. Thing is, I couldn't help it - the survey asked stupid questions! It asked questions like, "Would you like to operate a blast furnace?" and "Would you like to grout bathroom tiles?" Well, duh! Of course! How answering yes to those questions added up to getting a job in transportation I'll never know, but it seems to be the life for me. My parents are still disappointed that I changed my mind about being an architect. I guess for them there is a huge difference between proudly announcing to other parents, "Our son is an architect." and admitting, "Our son studied German and film studies, and now he's only making minimum wage in a job he loves, but we're embarrassed to admit he does." Well, sucks for them.

Well, I now have two more days until my last class of the semester. I turn in the paperwork part of my presentation and my 1-page response paper for the test. Tuesday is one test and Wednesday's the other. Mom and Dad get here that night. I'm sure every college student in America is saying this right now, but this was one fast semester. Luckily, that means only one more to go.

244.430. Heating facilities. The owner of every building containing habitable rooms shall provide heating facilities and shall be required to see that said heating facilities are properly installed, safely maintained and in good working condition, and that said facilities are capable of safely and adequately heating all habitable rooms, bathrooms and toilet rooms located therein to a temperature of at least sixty-eight (68) degrees Fahrenheit, measured at a distance of thirty-six (36) inches above floor level, and not closer than thirty-six (36) inches from any wall at all times when the outside temperature is at the design level or above. (Code 1960, As Amend., § 71.040; 78-Or-244, § 14, 11-22-78)

So damn it, get the heat turned on!!!

Now that I'm home, I have work to attend to. After working tonight, I made a stop at Wilson and picked up a few books. I don't really need them for my presentation, as I've already found all the info I need and then some on the internet, but I do need them for the annotated bibliography that I have to turn in on Friday. The real bugger is, I'm already tired now, so sitting up working on a presentation is not exactly what I want to be doing. I'll pull through.

Bayern's opponents in their upcoming DFB-Pokal match, third division VfL Osnabrück, might not be in for the drubbing that a healthy FCB should be capable of giving them. The current European Cup holders could be without the services of Oliver Kahn, Bixente Lizarazu, Sammy Kuffour, Giovane Elber, Claudio Pizzaro, Roque Santa Cruz, Hasan Salihamidzic, and Willy Sagnol for Wednesday's match. The one bright spot for the counter could be the return of Jens Jeremies, who has missed the last 6 months of competitions due to knee injury. He will likely start on the bench though, as Stefan Effenberg and Thorsten Fink are expected to get the start in the center of midfield. Looks like we might not get a nice rout after all!

As for Liverpool, they have been paired up with Birmingham City for their third round FA Cup match. The encounter will feature last year's two Worthington Cup finalists. Luckily Liverpool has been much luckier on the injury front this season, with almost everyone available for team selection in their upcoming matches. The one exception will be Didi Hamann, who is set to miss matches against Fulham, Chelsea, and Arsenal due to suspension following his sending off for a two-footed tackle in their 1-0 win over Sunderland. These next three Premiership matches could go a long way toward establishing any title hopes they might have for this season.

I wish the Minnesota Police Benevolent Association would stop calling me every year looking for donations. I'd sooner blow all my money on drugs and hookers than give it to the fucking police. I spent the first 18+ years of my life being harrassed by the police, but once I'm considered an adult, they want me to give money to them? Fuck that! Look to some other ignorant moron for money. I know benevolent associations help families of cops when the fucker is killed in the line of duty, well you know what I have to say to that? That's your fucking problem for marrying a cop! Yeah, I'm a little bitter about the police. It just got touched off today when an independent rep called asking for donations. I immediately told him off and hung up on him. Support the police my ass.

As for my other fav team Bayern, they're self-destructing at the moment. While you can't be expected to win the league every season, they are currently holders of the European Cup. Their draw today with Wolfsburg dropped them six points behind leaders Leverkusen into fourth place. Admittedly, the top five teams in the Bundesliga are all really even this season, but with the money Bayern spends on players, you'd think they could bring in the needed players to stay atop. Anyway... enough soccer for today.

Okay, so I sat up last night watching Snatch, and then I fell asleep afterward watching whatever the hell was on tv. I woke up in the middle of the night, turned the tv off, and fell back asleep. Now that I'm up (I've been up for almost 2 hours), I don't know why I don't make better use of my Saturdays. I typically leave the tv on most of the day even though there isn't shit on tv. People are home on Saturdays, so why don't the networks show anything worth watching on Saturdays? Do they just assume we're all ambitious and get out and do stuff? Pffft. Right. Nobody does anything on Saturdays. The day was invented to be lazy. I want to be lazy, damn it!

I wish there were a decent coffee shop nearby. I don't even know of a decent one in the cities. I'm not talking about one of these fancy-pants places that offers every coffee drink known to man. I'm talking about a place with booths and only two coffee drinks: regular and decaffeinated. I'm talking about a place where all kinds of people hang out at all hours and the waitresses keep the cups filled. I'm talking about a place where I can sit for hours doing whatever I want, and nobody is hawking over me telling me that I have a 2 hour limit and have to spend atleast $3.00 an hour. That's what I want. I'd sit there for hours drinking coffee, writing, and thinking. I'm sorry, but sometimes I just get in a mood to throw everything else aside and sit down to do some real writing. I was inspired to do so last night, but then I got caught up in other things. I got inspired again tonight after watching Wonder Boys, but once again I don't see that possibility arising. Alas... back to my television.

"The pride came from finding the knowledge and from knowing how to use the device and not from the knowledge itself, compared to having pride in having the knowledge oneself. We don't have pride in our memory. We have pride in knowing how to access what is stored external to us."

I find it interesting because it seems to apply well to the direction that the annual WLFM trivia contest has gone. While knowledge before the internet became widely used for finding answers often came from books and databases of files, the real work came from personal knowledge. That personal knowledge has lost some necessity (although it still helps tremendously), as teams are able to quickly and easily find information on the internet. The world is changing, man.

At the moment, I'm at a loss to classify the film. I've heard it classified as film noir, but I have to respectfully decline that genre classification, as the film bares hardly any conventions of the genre. Well, other than using black and white film stock. An observation outside of serious discussion is that in the film, Billy Bob Thornton smokes. A lot. I don't think I've seen anyone spend so much screen time smoking since Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Now getting down to business, the audience never identifies with a single character in the film, nor does it seem we are asked to. In fact, I'm having trouble identifying any sort of archetypal character in the film. In a way, Thornton's Ed Crane is a bit of an anti-hero, but he even fails that description, as it's not that he's really negative as much as he's "not there." I'm sorry, but that's crap I have stuck in my head from my sci-fi lecture from last night. Another interesting part of the sci-fi lecture that pops up in the film is Werner ("or maybe it's Fritz") Heisenberg's uncertainty principal. Strange.

For a the majority of the film, we never seem to be heading in a specific direction. As quickly as a suspenseful moment is thrown at us, the screenplay cuts through it. Sure, things happen, and there are consequences for these events, but until the end, none of these ever really appear to carry enough weight to be of conclusive importance. The only real mystery of the film is if and when comeuppance will ever come. I mean, he is only the barber. He does get himself into situations his whole life where he doesn't intend to be, but since he never says much, and his facial expressions belie the truth, he'll just continue taking whatever life gives him and won't complain about it.

How important is the truth if you're the only one who knows it, and they wouldn't believe you if you tried to tell the truth? Are you really lying if you never tell a lie, and when you tell the truth, nobody believes you? Which hurts others more - the real truth or the perceived truth? It's not that the film is this confusing, because it really is straight forward. No, it's just that thoughts after the film are not so easy to relay. Don't worry though, this is still a Coen Brothers movie, and as such you'll still find their brand of humor and Joel's mastery behind the camera that made him co-winner of the Best Director award this year at Cannes.

Thanks for baring with me as I ran this film through my head and straight to the keyboard without much editing. Like I said I would, I rambled on about the film without giving any of it away. That's all from me for now.

Well, I was looking forward to getting my tire changed today, but I'm not so excited anymore. My dad wants me to take it to Sears, so I whipped out my handy-dandy Yellow Pages and opened to "department stores." Unfortunately, Sears wasn't listed. What the fuck?! They weren't listed under "auto repair" either. Now getting slightly daunted, I decided to look under "tire," and there they had an ad for Sears Auto Center. Alright, we're back in business. My closest choice is the Sears in St. Paul a block away from the capital. Of course, that involves having to drive to downtown St. Paul, which I don't really want to do. My next closest option is the Ridgedale Center in Minnetonka, but that's way the fuck out there. Damn it - why can't we get any ugly, big box department stores in Minneapolis?! Why do I always have to drive out to the suburbs if I want to patronize the big corporations instead of the little guy? I don't know what time they open (there was no answer when I tried calling about 8:30), but I guess I'll end up driving out to Minnetonka. What the hell... I guess I can live through going out to the suburbs. It'll take all my willpower to keep from killing someone while driving down 394, but I'm sure I can manage.

Translating this now to tonight, callers have been calling in about random things, and then Al would ask them their opinion on this man who was taken prisoner along with the others in that prison in Afghanistan and then proclaimed himself an American. Most of the callers, who had previously been very civil and subdued, will exlaim, "He's a traitor and we should string him up!" Al told one of them, "We can't do that because of the Geneva Convention," but the other guy replied, "Who cares? We should just take him out back and shoot him like we do with all the traitors." Minnesotans can be soooo entertaining.

Oh my god! Al and this guy are discussing the Carpenters right now. The guy says it's not okay for him to like the Carpenters because he's a guy. Al keeps forcing him to listen to more Carpenters songs so the guy will cave in. When Al asks him why so many guys owned Carpenters albums in the 70's, the guy says, "it's because all of their girlfriends bought them for them thinking they liked the Carpenters." God I love this show.

We finally had an interesting MNF game. Granted the Packers seemed to have a little luck on their side tonight, but sometimes good teams need a little luck to win a game. In reality, they looked terrible in the first half, while the Jaguars for a time looked like they could do anything. Dan Fouts and Al Michaels several times refered to the second of the two pass interference calls that set up the first Packer touchdown as "dubious," but I have to disagree. Yes, it was pretty weak, but the defender grabbed Schroeder's arm while the ball was in the air, and by definition, that makes it pass interference. The second half was a completely different story. For once, Tom Rossley did some good play calling, and for the most part, the team did a good job of executing. Overall, it was just nice to see them dig in and win a tough one.

Now let me talk to you about cars. First of all, I wish they were doing all of these 0% interest deals next summer after I graduate so that I'd have time to work more and buy a car. I can't afford to buy one now, and they'll probably nix those deals by then. My car is dying on me, but it's running well enough that it'll last me through the winter, as long as I can afford to replace it next year. And then there are the commercials. I don't even remember what car the commercial is for, because I see it once a week during the MNF game, but I think it's Nissan that is running the commercial with Blur's "The Universal." It's quite surprising to hear them using that song, but at the same time, it's refreshing to have a company use a Blur song other than "Song 2." As for another commercial, I'm disappointed that Chrysler has changed their current commercial for the Concorde. It used to be funny when the girl was grossed out by figuring out what her mom was implying. When they changed it so that the mom says, "Concorde, New Hampshire silly!" (or whatever she says), the whole commercial loses its effect and just becomes like any other lame, old car commercial.

Okay, that's enough for me tonight. Well, at least that's enough for me on cars and football.

I'm disappointed in Radio K's lack of musical variety. Almost everything I request from them they don't have. Glen Campbell? No. Tiny Hill? No. Rick Springfield? No. Barry Manilow? No. N*Sync? No! They need to update their music library quick, fast, and in a hurry. Arrrrrrrrrgh!!

Since I came home, I've been online trying to find information on Tiny Hill, but there just isn't anything decent online. I found one brief band bio, but otherwise, there isn't much to be found in the way of his discography. So, I gave up and started trying to find into on WRJQ. I was surprised to find out that they were sold back in October to Woodward, the same people who own WAPL and WHBY. Not being home, I don't know if they've changed anything about the station, but I hope not. More important to me right now is getting some sleep, because I'm just worn out. Zzzzzzz....

We didn't arrive at the Metrodome until almost 8, because we were busy getting amped up for the event by listening to Asphyxiation, but it didn't matter, as the event didn't start until around 8. The pro stadium trucks lack the excitement of the monster trucks, but the monster trucks were awesome. The racing of the trucks was exciting enough, but the show really got great when they turned to the freestyle session. You know... smashing cars, trucks, trees, barriers, and everything else that got in their way. As they took their turns, the edges on the smashed cars got sharper, and that caused plenty of ruined tires, which caused most of the latter trucks to retire before their 90 seconds were up. The one exception was Grave Digger, who blew out a tire and kept going anyway, which really got the crowd fired up. After the freestyling monster trucks came the demolition derby. I can't understand why so many people left before the demolition derby, because how can you pass up smashing cars, smoke, and fire. Rar!

The crowd were an interesting mix as well. For one, I was blown away and completely confused in seeing the number of frat boy/ sorority girl types in attendance. Most of them weren't really watching - in fact, they spent large amounts of time wandering around - so why they were there was strange. Annemarie thinks it was for the beer. Sitting behind us were the too-punk high school kids. You know the type - once again, not interested in the proceedings, but plenty interested in chain smoking in the dome. I enjoyed going home with my clothes covered with ashes from their irresponsible smoking. And then there was the crowd you'd expect at a monster truck rally: beer-chugging, Polaris-jacket-and-tight-jeans-wearing, mullet-sporting folk. These were our people. They're the one's who made it a family affair. At the same time, there were some interesting one's among them, including the young man sitting about 3 rows in front of us. He cheered on every underdog in the races, got people booing at him, and yet he'd be the first one to pop up and high-five everyone whether his truck won or not. I wish I could go to the next one, especially since it's going to have Truckasaurus, but unfortunately I'll be home, having just gotten my wisdom teeth out. Damn.

As I thought I would, I ended up falling asleep in front of the tv. I watched Sound of Music on Fox, and then I popped in my tape of Meet Me in St. Louis, and during that is when I fell asleep. It was still fairly early, which is the reason why I'm up plenty early this morning. I really think my goal for today (other than the excitement of the monster truck rally) should be to clean up this dump. Looking around my apartment, it really has the look of both midterms/finals and of a guy who hasn't left his apartment in like 3 days (which is getting to be true). Actually, I did run to the store yesterday, but I wasn't gone for more than about 10 minutes, so that hardly counts. I didn't feel like dirtying another pair of clothes for 10 minutes, so I just put my clothes from Wednesday back on (since that's the last time I got dressed).

It just occured to me of how little substance my posts have been lately also. They've mostly been autobiographical stories about what I've been upto lately. No opinions; nothing. How about a dream for ya? Okay, so last night I had this dream...

"I kept going back to the movie theatre every night. The rooms were all small and of weird angles. In fact, each individual theatre was more like a tiny classroom, some with folding chairs and the like. I kept running into this guy I've known since elementary school there, who apparently worked there in my dream. He probably never would have popped up in my dream, except I saw him in a bar the day after Thanksgiving, and it was probably the first time I'd seen him since high school. Anyway, I had had a lot to drink one day at the movies, and I really had to use the facilities. Okay, for those of you worried about it, yes, this is going to become another of my dreams that takes place in a bathroom, so beware. Anyway, walking in, opposite the entrance door was a row of sinks, followed down the wall to the right with a row of urinals. On the opposite wall from the urinals was a row of stalls. I walked up to one of the first urinals, set my bag down, and was about to commence urination, when I noticed the doorless entryway to my right. I walked over to it and noticed a labyrinth connecting dozens of rooms with urinals on every wall. Wandering through a few, I came across another doorway, but this one was to a large central room, which I had to step down stairs into. The room was larger than a basketball court, but hexagonal in shape, and there were rings of urinals. Each ring stretched the full circumference, but there were six sets of stairs (one for each side) that proceeded down to the next level, which was another ring of urinals. There were no walls or dividers, just free-standing urinals. There were about 4 of these levels, and then a main central ring. For a man desperate to release the results of a full day of soft drink consumption, I was like a kid in a candy store. But which one to use? Being all alone in this dimly-lit monument to ceramics, I started using one of the central one's, but then decided to pinch it off and try using every one in the central ring before I was done. Just as I was finishing, I looked up and noticed a man in a tuxedo (not a good one, but one of those tacky one's that movie theatre employees wear) standing at the top of one of the sets of stairs and holding my bag. He asked me if it was mine, and I acknowledged it. He then told me I shouldn't leave it just lying around like that, because he found a kid digging through it and playing with 'that plastic thing.' Completely confused, I inquired with him just what this plastic thing is, but he only told me, 'You know, that plastic thing. You just shouldn't leave this thing lying around, or the kids are going to get into it.' I walked up the stairs, took my bag from him, and walked out. That's when I woke up."

There, is everyone happy to read about another one of my dreams? Well, you should be damn it. I'm going to go do something else now.