I went out Friday morning and bravely fought the day-after-Thanksgiving crowds. This was my first experience shopping on this day. I went out partially as an anthropological study and partially to take advantage of the good deals to be had. I bought myself a couple cd's, a couple dvd's, a video game, and a pair of shoes. I really didn't think it was all that bad except for the pain in the ass of standing in long lines at the checkout. I guess I survived.

Then tonight I started out by going over to Matt and Carrie's, where we once again played Trivial Pursuit. This time, for the first time, we finished with a winner. I must have bounced back-and-forth over that damned center spot for 2 hours before I finally landed on it and got the question right. Then the three of us and Corey went drinking at Raven's, where we were until 2:30. I dropped Corey at Matt and Carrie's so he could get his car and go home, and then the rest of us hopped in my car and drove to Perkins. Service was slow and shitty, so we acted and tipped accordingly. Now I'm home and getting good and ready to climb into bed.

Of course, this being Thanksgiving weekend, The Brat is home. He went out hunting Thursday morning and shot a buck by 9. By the time I got to my grandma's Thursday morning they already had it hanging in the garage. The rest of my family is going back to Grandma's Saturday to cut it up, but I'm not going along. I don't hunt them, I don't kill them, and I don't cut them up. My grandma asked then if I eat them, but truthfully, I could more than easily go without. I don't exactly wake up in the morning craving venison.

While The Brat still thinks he impresses people by hanging my mom's cell phone from his pants pocket, it seems he pretending to look intellectual. He got a haircut on Friday, after which he came home, shaved off his lame-ass goatee, and then proceeded to wear his reading glasses the rest of the day. I'm not fooled, but I guess I just know him too well.

I guess maybe it's time for bed.

Hola! Yes, it's been a few days since you've heard from me again, but for good reason - I couldn't get near my computer. Although my room had been quite the mess for a few months already, at least I could still access my computer. Well, until Thursday night that is. That night Corey and I went to Jim's Place with the intent of having a drink or two. Instead I got completely shitfaced. Corey drop me off after the bar closed, I stumbled in the door and down the hallway, and somehow made it into my room, where I immediately lost my balance, tripped, and fell over several boxes. After managing to get my pants and shoes off, I rolled into bed, but then realized I needed to pop some pills and drink some water before bed. I made my way back to the kitchen, where I found a large, new bottle of Advil on the counter and I helped myself. After returning to my room, I could feel the sensations of nausea setting in, but I was trying desperately to hold them back. I was successful for a little while, but I couldn't hold it all night. The next thing I knew, I was vomiting into my hands and then all over my room. I got it on my bed, on the floor, on both dirty and formerly clean clothes, boxes, books, papers, and countless other items. Hurrying to get to the bathroom, yet still drunk as fuck, I fell over when I got to my bedroom door, grabbed the cubes next to me, and spilled my 12" records and other items all over the floor, making a rather large noise in the process. By this point, I saw the light in the hallway come on and my mom opened the door to check on me. I said, "I tripped," before hopping back to my feet and running to the bathroom to puke some more. Ah, the fun of drinking too much. So, let this pictorial tour of the aftermath (as seen on Friday morning) show you how nice it all was....

My poor records and other items after the crash

Blankets, boxes, sheets, and other covered items

My bed with the sheets rolled up and soiled

Yes, I did spare you any really disgusting pictures. I suppose the carnage could have been much worse. I ended up drinking a lot because I was having a good time and also revelling in the fact that Friday was my last day at IntelliCAM. I ended up spending that last day hungover. I was still hungover and tired Friday night, so I didn't go out. Saturday night I was having trouble with headaches, so I had one beer with Matt and Carrie at The Bar before going home. Sunday I just fell asleep watching tv. Monday night Tony called me. He had gotten in town Sunday afternoon and was leaving today. We went drinking first at Jim's Place and then later at Jekyll's. Had we known that Jekyll's had $4 pitchers of PBR we would have just gone there in the first place. Last night, Tony, Matt, Carrie, Corey, and I went drinking again downtown. We went first to Speakeasy, followed by Cleo's, and then Jekyll's. Although the tap at Jekyll's still had the PBR handle, it had apparently been changed back to Honey Weiss. When the bartender realized this, she sold us the pitcher of Honey Weiss for just $2. $2! Corey, Tony, and I split the thing, meaning it cost us less than a dollar a piece (minus tip, of course). And speaking of good deals, Matt called me today on his lunch hour and was telling me about some bar in Madison running a deal with $.25 taps of Huber. Holy shit! That's some cheap beer. I'll most likely be drinking more tonight. I'm going down to Oshkosh with Matt and Carrie to see another of Gary's bands play. Carrie's dad is supposed to be joining them also. Sounds a lot better than spending the night at my grandma's.

With a serious lack of anything resembling decent radio here in northeast Wisconsin, I've been forced to resort mostly to NPR since moving back from Minnesota in September. Even my beloved WRJQ has gone to shit since it was bought out and no longer plays the likes of Tiny Hill. Tonight I rediscovered WLFM - Lawrence's station. Now don't get me wrong; it's not like I'd forgotten about WLFM. In fact, it's the first saved setting on my car radio. The thing is, that was set mostly for the sake of the weekends - especially Friday nights. Checking out their listings of programming tonight, I discovered that, even though the dj's are a bunch of pretentious liberal arts school students who hate us townies as much as we despise them, there seem to be a higher percentage of them these days playing some good music. Maybe I need to give them more of a chance.

Last night was the official unofficial grand opening of the new Fox Cities Performing Arts Center here in Appleton. I believe the official title of the event was the Hard Hat Preview. Basically it was a chance for all the employees of Boldt and the subcontractors who worked on the PAC to see the place and be entertained. Performing last night was the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble. I, as a (temporary) employee of IntelliCAM (we did all the signage), was invited to attend. I managed to get 2 extra tickets and invited my parents, but my dad had to work late, so only my mom got to attend with me. We actually had great seats, as we were sitting in the first row near the center of the Dress Circle, which is the first balcony. We were near all the big-wigs like John Bergstrom and the architect. After Oscar Boldt made his opening remarks the jazz ensemble played for something like 40 minutes. Then there was food in the lobby and drinks for sale and everyone was allowed to wander all over the building and get to see the place. Mom and I checked out the seating on all the different levels and investigated all the various behind the scenes areas such as the gridiron and catwalks. It was pretty cool. The theater is really quite nice. It's hard to believe that we now have such a structure in Appleton.

I realize the Packers have had their troubles over the last few years in the Metrodome, but those were very different Vikings teams. So why are the Packers - the best team in football - only 6.5 point favorites over the Vikings? Come on! The 5-4 Colts are 7 point favorites over the Cowboys, the Buccaneers are 9 points favorites over the Panthers, the 4-5 Rams are 10.5 point favorites over the Bears, and the 6-3 Eagles are 11 points favorites over the 4-5 Cardinals, yet the 8-1 Packers are only 6.5 point favorites over the 2-7 Vikings? What morons came up with those odds?

UPDATE: Sure, once again the Packers make me look like an ass with my foot in my mouth. I still say the Vikings suck and that the Packers are the best team in football. Remember - back when Green Bay won the Super Bowl in '96 they lost to the Vikings in Minnesota also. The officiating was so ridiculously poor in the first quarter that I was sure the refs were paid off, but thankfully they got better after that (but still not great!) and the Packers had only themselves to blame in the end.

I went out tonight to Jim's Place with Corey and Amelia. Amelia was just in town for the weekend to visit her family and what not, but we talked her into joining us for tonight. She had one drink and then left. After she left, Jim's Place turned into a fucking class reunion! The bar itself is a decent place, but every time I go in there I run into shitloads of people from high school, and tonight was the worst yet. At one point I must have known 25 people in there! I mean, that's the reason I left this god-forsaken town in the first place, and now I'm back here and stuck with it. Luckily, most of them never acknowledged my presence. The one one who did was Breck, but that wasn't bad, because he always was a pretty stand-up guy. I swear, I just need to quit going to that place in particular.

I'm glad to hear that the Regents approved Bob Bruininks to take over permanently as the new U president. As much as he claimed he didn't really want the job, we all knew he was the best qualified person to continue to carry out the path that Yudof had established for the school. Congratulation Robert Bruininks - 15th president of the University of Minnesota.

8 of the 9 AL Gold Glover winners are from Western Division teams?! What the fuck?! Did I miss something? I know about their offensive skills, but did I quietly miss Eric Chavez, Bret Boone, John Olerud, and Ichiro Suzuki having great defensive seasons? Fuck the Gold Glove! I can understand Molina and A-Rod and Erstad, and, of course, Torii Hunter. I can even believe Kenny Rogers (although I doubt he deserved it more than anyone else). How is it that the best defensive team in the AL (the Twins - duh) only finds one of its members awarded a Gold Glove? You're going to tell me with a straight face that Eric Chavez had a better season than Cory Koskie, John Olerud had a better season than Doug Mientkiewicz (or Scott Spiezio for that matter), and Ichiro had a better season than Jacque Jones? I don't think you watched the same 2002 season I did then. And it's not as if I'm a big fan of the AL East and all its high-spending teams, and not meaning to take anything away from A-Rod's season, but didn't anybody taken note of Mike Bordick's errorless game streak at short? Come on, he broke one of Cal's records! Sure, maybe his bat can't compare with that of A-Rod, but the Gold Glove is supposed to be a DEFENSIVE award. I guess nobody caught on to that part. Anyway....

The Brat is home this weekend. And, of course, he came home and instantly took over the house. Left his dirty-clothes bag sitting by the door, signed onto the computer, and then went in the shower. I keep telling my dad to make him pay for his own gas if he thinks he needs to come home this often, but he won't. Fucking spoiled, spoiled brat.

I went with Corey to a conference on globalization at Ripon College in Ripon (birthplace of the Republican Party!) last night. I guess he gets extra credit for some poli sci class for attending. Anyway, the guy speaking was from the AFL-CIO, and as expected, he toed the typical labor union line. He said absolutely nothing that none of us hadn't heard before, and then his answers to the questions were less-than-satisfactory. I asked him about the motivation of corporate execs and politicians to create change when their jobs are potentially on the line if they do, and, seeing that I was a "young person," he gave me some line about colleges and sweat shops that didn't even remotely answer my question. Bah, it was half-way interesting just to watch and listen to the other people. I especially enjoyed the guy who refered to himself as an "intellectual" as he relayed a story about being at a Wellstone rally a few weeks back. Afterward Corey and I went to the Cold Shot for a couple beers.

Okay, so I'm not totally sure what's going on tonight. I tried calling Matt and Carrie, but I guess they're just going to sit home watching anime. Corey is working until 11. I hear Amelia is in town, so I might try calling her, but for some reason I doubt she isn't already out for the evening. I'll find something....

I suppose I should sign off. I'm told The Brat wants to get on.

I learned to read braille today. Well, not entirely, but not too shabbily either. Since we're including braille on all our signs for the PAC, we have to actually add it at some point. Today I was working on that. With the words written normally right above the braille, it allowed me to understand the patters and begin being able to read it. I quickly found that they can use a braille proofreader. One sign says, "Stairway to Entrance 43," but the braille reads, "Family Circle Right." They're not redoing the sign, so if you ever find yourself in the Fox Cities PAC, look for that sign. They were working on the signs for another project when I discovered quite an amusing error. On a sign for a construction company, the sign says, "Mechanical," but the braille reads, "Lockers/Shower." I pity the poor blind bastard who stumbles into the mechanical room and strips down to take a shower.

I'm pretty tired. This whole getting-up-at-4:30-a.m. thing is wearing me out. Should be just 3 more days of it. Although I could use the money, I think that if they don't lay me off on my own after we're done with the PAC stuff, I might just quit. Although the work is fairly easy, it leaves me so drained at the end of the day that I'm wasting away my life pointlessly on a job with no future.

My brother called yesterday. He said he might be home again this weekend. That'd be the third time since school started in September! Thanksgiving then would be his fourth. Jesus! My freshman year, I never came home before Thanksgiving. In my four years at Minnesota I only came home four times other than normal breaks (Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break, and summer), and those were all for trivia weekend. He's been home three before his first Thanksgiving. Now, some might say that he's homesick, but the thing is, he's gone almost the entire weekend when he's here. He'll be gone visiting friends and whatnot (yet he finds it necessary to completely invade the bathroom and cover every available square inch of counter space with his crap). I just think he's a pussy who can't make new friends and can't put up with ever being alone or lonely.

...and a good morning to you, too.

I've been up for a while now and decided to add an entry while I'm shitting around. I'm at Matt and Carrie's right and now and using their computer because I ended up spending the night here. The two of them, Corey, and I went out drinking last night. We started at The Bar on Lynndale with a couple drinks. Then we went downtown and started first at Houdini's. I take credit for that bad choice, because pressure was mounting for me to think of something quickly while we were standing on the corner of College and Appleton trying to think of where to go. After a beer there, we next went on over to Bazils, where I downed a few more. Since I actually didn't have to drive for once, I decided to make the most of it last night and get a little drunk. At one point at Bazils I had not one, not even two, but three Rolling Rocks from which I was imbibing at the same time. It was good. We then took a trip through the drive-thru at Taco Hell before coming back here and getting started on a rather unheated game of Top Shop. Corey needed to head home, but I decided I'd rather stay here and enjoy the rest of my drunken state. After he left, we finished the game and then sat down to watch Office Space, but I fell asleep rather quickly. They're still upstairs sleeping, so that's why I'm in here killing time. Thankfully, although I'm still slightly woozy, I'm not hungover like I was on Sunday two weeks ago. Whew, that was a rough day. Anyway, that's me killing time.

Hello hello hello everyone. I am here in one fashion or another. I decided that even though any life that I once had has more or less been tapped from my body, I should still drop in every once in a while to check on you all. Frankly, I don't know how people could have the ambition to keep up a 40 hour work week year after year after wasted year for the rest of their lives. I've only worked the last two straight and I feel like my life is headed nowhere. You come home after 8 hours on the job only to be confronted with the latest soul-damning prime time line-up. How does anyone ever peel off enough of the growing apathy to move onto bigger and better things? I feel like I'm drowning in a flood of directionless ooze. Anyway, how was your day?

Okay, so to put it most simply, I haven't done much of anything interesting lately. I've been coming home from work, eating dinner, and passing out on the couch. Sometimes I wake up and crawl to bed and sometimes I just say Screw it! Last night I went over to Matt and Carrie's. They had just bought the 20th Anniversary Edition Trivial Pursuit. We started playing, but I didn't have time to finish because I was supposed to meet up with Corey after he got off of work. Corey and I went downtown to Raven's. For those of you not in the know, it's a newer drinking hole in Appleton. It purports to be a big-city hipster bar, but it's actually just another Wisconsin tavern decorated by Ikea. The one bonus is that the ratio of "attractive females" (my attempt to be pc for my readers from the fairer sex) seems to be much higher there than in other bars in town. When they kicked us out at 2:30 we went to George Webb, where the waiter lost and then screwed up our bill. Since he charged us less than we actually owed, we weren't complaining.

I'm attempting to make the most of this weekend, as I have to work starting at 6 am every day next week up until who-knows-when. I'm not sure what's on tap for tonight, but I'm supposed to call both Matt and Carrie and Corey. I also went this afternoon with Matt and Carrie to see Jackass. Before you comment anything, you must understand two important things: A) Ben was working, which meant we didn't pay to get in, and B) I've never seen the show. I knew of it and I knew what sorts of things they did, but I had never actually seen the show. To be honest, it was funny - I laughed. Is it stupid and immature? Sure, but it never pretended that it wasn't. Anyway....

I went out to lunch with my parents this afternoon. As my dad's birthday is on Monday, he chose to go to Red Lobster. I refuse to eat seafood, but I wasn't going to stop him from going where he wanted to go. Truthfully, if I wouldn't eat fresh seafood when I was in Iceland there isn't a chance in hell that I'm eating seafood at a Red Lobster in Wisconsin. I got chicken fingers instead. Their fries tasted just awful. I think they must have been fried in the same oil as some shitty seafood and so they acquired the taste and smell. Blech. At least I got a good amount of food. My mom's crab legs cost $10 more than my chicken, and there had to be about 1/4 the food. Why anyone would willingly pay that much for that little food is beyond me.

Congratulations America, you've done it. You've successfully driven those damn pesky Democrats out of control in Washington. Now the Republicans can finally push through all of their initiatives without interference. The economy - who cares! More tax cuts for the rich - you bet. Abortion - illegal. Gun control - gun what? Free speech - gone. Carpet bomb any non-Christian country - coming soon. I'd like to revel in having helped elect the GOP to power, but unfortunately neither of our senators here in Wisconsin were up for election. As for Wisconsin House District 8, Mark Green (R) won in a landslide, but I have to admit that I voted for the Green Party candidate. So fear not American, for even though I have voted against you, there are obviously many more of you than there are me, and now we can drive out those liberals and reinstate this country as the rich Christian-centered, rights-hating land it was never meant to be.