Imbibe me

Peace Out...

2008-06-23T22:43:00.001-05:00

Minnesota. We had fun. See you in a couple years. Stay sexy.

Love,
Pete.

Dear Tall Tony and Fuller,

2008-06-20T20:11:00.003-05:00

forgive me for not hanging out the other night. I have been working like a Japanese beaver lately, and playing a lot of golf. (i'm getting it while it's free.) Is it still possible to hang out before i leave? are you still in the cities fat one? again, forgive me.

Gas...

2008-06-05T19:37:00.002-05:00

prices have been through the roof lately, as i'm sure you obviously already know. I noticed it went down to $3.75 today and i got kind of excited. i remember three years ago Drew, Luke, Mark and myself took a road trip out to California. the price of gas then was around $2.50 in minnesota and most of the way out there. give or take a few cents. i remember when we got to Malibu we found that gas was over $3 a gallon and we were out of our minds that it was that high. Never would i have guessed we would be paying about $4 a gallon for gas.

i've been parinoid about gas lately because of my new truck. which gets pretty good gas milage for a truck. 22 mpg. but it still takes $70 to fill the tank. quite the dent in my wallet. but i was thinking this afternoon how we hate the price of gas. i keep hearing people ask, "how can those big shot oil bastards keep raising the price of gas? aren't they rich enough already?" i myself was one of these people asking that question. (and i do know gas prices are up because a single barrel of oil costs like $120) BUT, aren't we kind of getting what we've been asking for since the whole global warming issue came up a few years ago? i mean, america has been begging people to take the bus/subway/car pool for the last few years. right? when gas was cheaper people drove to work alone, didn't even consider taking the bus or subway. right? well what if that's ACTUALLY the whole idea behind the high gas prices?! what if the government (or oil companies) saw how much Americans were consuming so they decided to do something about it. what if this has been their plan (gradually raising gas prices) the whole time to force more people to be smart about traveling?

so even though it really sucks paying $70 to fill my gas tank, it has certianly forced me to AT LEAST thing of alternative ways to work, and has made me think twice about taking unnecessary trips. it has forced me to make the most of my gas. and i'm sure i'm not the only one. god help us if i am. but this IS kind of what we americans have been asking for, isn't it?!

also, thinking of that same idea, cigarette prices are at an all time high as well. probably to get people to stop smoking. however, i'm not sure that i agree with this. smoking is bad for your health, yes, but still who is anyone to tell me what i can and cannot put into my body? i saw on the news yesterday that in one place (i can't remember where exactly, California somewhere i think) that the price of a pack of cigarettes was $8 a pack. i don't know, i just don't like the idea of somebody else telling me (or strongly suggesting) what is right for me to eat, drink, smoke, etc. if a guy has a hard day at work and wants a smoke, i say have your smoke. but, it is what it is right now, and i bet smokers are at least smoking their cigarettes more slowly, eh?

Bo Diddley...

2008-06-04T15:38:00.002-05:00

passed away a few days ago. Now, i would be a liar if i said i listened to him. I've heard some of his music and i know who he is. if you showed a picture of him to me i could tell you that was Bo Diddley. I know he was a pioneer in rock 'n roll, but i read something the other day that rubbed me the wrong way.

i found this in the New York Times (online) the other day.

"Still, for all his fame, Mr. Diddley felt that his standing as a father of rock ’n’ roll was never properly acknowledged. It frustrated him that he could never earn royalties from the songs of others who had borrowed his beat." (Whole article here)

Now, i don't know about you, but don't you think that mr. diddley should be happy enough that he's even considered "a father of rock 'n' roll?" I mean, i'm sure he worked hard at the music he produced, and if it weren't for him who knows where rock 'n' roll would be today, but to me if i came up with a rock beat that pretty much all of rock followed, i would be flattered, let alone complain about not getting paid for it when another band uses it. when the first musical note was ever played music has progressed. it always has and it always will. there needs to be building blocks for that progression to build off of, and mr. diddley came up with one of those beats. here's what that beat sounds like. i'm sure you've heard it.

Here is U2 using that beat. modified a little of course. or progressed as i like to think of it.

i;m sure somebody could come up with a good argument against me here, but i guess i like when people are humble. ya know, a ... "god, i can't believe the beat i created became SO popular that nearly every rock band uses it in some way. it's unbelievable. just hearing that beat used by others is thank you enough." i don't know, maybe i'm way out of line here. maybe he's right to be pissed about not getting paid for others using his beat. after all he did invent it. but if it weren't for the blues and other music before him, would he have come up with it? the way i see it he progressed the music before him, and his music is being progressed everyday. it's give and take.

i think bo diddley has gained something better than royalties, he will never die. his beat will live on in the music. when people hear U2 or the Beatles or Tool or AC/DC use that beat, that's Bo Diddley.

It's been one week...

2008-05-27T19:17:00.004-05:00

since i've retired from college. it's a change of pace. at school i'd wake up around 10 or 11, now i wake up at 5 and eat lunch at 11. at school i barely worked, now i work more than 8 hours a day ... tomorrow will be my 10th day in a row. at school i was a poor bastard, now i'm making money. at school i had a house full of friends, now i have none. at school i had the V-dub, now i have this.
at school i had a crum bum of a computer, now i have this
i might have been poor in college, but now i'm in debt. i took out a loan for my truck (it'll be paid off in 5 years) i love the truck. it only had 24,000 miles on it. it's got tinted windows and a sweet radio in it with an ipod hook up. the previous owner put a lot into it and barely drove it. the only downside to it is, obviously, the gas. i'm getting about 20 mpg, which isn't THAT bad, but now that i got my own truck i'm parinoid about the gas. when i'm driving i don't watch how fast i'm going ... i'm watching to see if the gas needle has moved at all. but i knew i wasn't going to get very good gas with a truck, but so far i'm pretty satisfied with the milage i'm getting. big oil can't keep this up for long. (i know i just jinxed it ... damnit sorry.) i'm taking out a loan for grad school (if all goes well it'll be paid off with one true sentence) and the imac was a gift. a beautiful beautiful gift. i can't get over how extraordinary this machine is. i would try to explain the cool stuff it has on here, but you probably already know, and probably more than me, and i wouldn't be able to explain how this stuff works in a million years because when it comes to computers i'm mildly retarted. one feature i must mention however, is the ichat. you just talk at the web cam. no typing, just talking. and it's real time too. i mean no choppy crappy video of the other person. if they move it doesn't take 5 minutes to show the movement. everybody should get ichat. it's phenominal.

now, i used to be a windows user. a faithful one at that. then i started using imac's our school had in the computer lab. i loved them. i mean, i really loved them. borderline obsessed with them. i'm a born again apple user. i say born again because i used apple in 3rd grade. Oregon Trail sure as shit wasn't on windows. neither was that paper air plane game. yeah, you know which one i'm talking about. the one where you had to hit the vents to keep the paper airplane airborne.

i have to mention this as well. (this is pretty out of the blue) every year around this time my brother and i have a beard growing contest. this year was the 3rd annual beard growing contest. the last two years have been pretty close. this year i was humiliated. my brother started growing his beard in the middle of march while we were boarding in UP Michigan. here is the winning beard. I know it's not a ZZ Top caliber beard, but it was pretty thick. i was impressed and took the loss gracefully. to tell you the truth, i knew i lost long before he came up for my graduation. (that was supposed to be the end of the contest,) but about half way through it he sent me a picture message of it and sent it to me on my cell phone. later that night i trimmed my beard. i know i'm a quitter. it was just too damn good.

Since I've Graduated...

2008-05-23T17:09:00.002-05:00

I haven't had much time to sit down and write on this. I graduated last friday, packed up and moved in with my folks on sunday and started working on monday. I got hooked up with a job at a golf course for a couple weeks before i head out east to Vermont. the course is in Somerset, WI (about 30 min. away) i have to be there at six, so that means i wake up at 5. i usually get off work at around 2 or so. today i didn't get a lunch break. i ate a crappy salami sandwich on my mower today. i worked 9 hours straight.

it's been really hard getting used to waking up so early. i don't mind it once i'm up, but when the alarm goes off at 5 i want to shoot myself. but on the plus side i've seen the sun come up every day this week. that's more times than i have in the last 5 years. i like sun rises better. they're more elusive. every one is awake when the sun goes down. i mean, anybody can see a sun set. but (especially in the summer) you have to be up pretty damn early to catch a sun rise. i guess what saying is, mornings are cool, but waking up for them blows.

lets see, what else. there's a good chance i'm getting a new truck this weekend, which rocks. i sold the Vdub when i was up in Bemidji. it sold for $1200. not bad, considering its condition. i'm already sun burned. i've forgotten how bad sun burns suck. well anyway, i'm tired and i can't really think of anything of importance to write. a lame entry, but i figured i had to write something. i'll write something cooler soon...

in the meantime, listen to AC/DC.

that teacher...

2008-05-07T20:22:00.000-05:00

everyone has their favorite teacher. the "cool" one. you know the teacher in high school that swore every once in a while, or was an easy A because everyone knew they didn't really give a shit. then there is the college professor that is cool because they're actually down to earth, and they're actually passionate about something, and they bring it to class every day. well, i've never had that teacher, until recently.

i started writing just for kicks and for myself when i came to college just about five years ago now. never did i ever think it was something i wanted to do. i decided to take a few creative writing classes and i liked it so i took some more. when i took all the poetry classes BSU offered i decided to try my luck with some fiction. I took a class with Maureen Gibbon

i just want to explain how fantastic this teacher is. from day one she was the most approachable teacher i had ever had. i wrote some stories i thought to be just so-so at best. one day she told to stay after class and talk to her for a minute. i had no idea what she wanted to talk to me about. i'm a pretty quiet guy in class so i knew i didn't do anything wrong.

MAUREEN: how long have you been writing fiction?
ME: since the beginning of your class.
MAUREEN: you're a writer.

i've had a lot of people call me a lot of things, and i've called myself some things here and there, but never have i been told i was a writer. ever since then she's kind of taken me under her wing. in my whole life i've never had anyone believe in me like she has. of course there are your parents who think everything you do is phenominal. (quick side story on that topic. my folks came to visit a couple weeks back, and i'm taking this painting class. a beginning painting class. i've never painted anything before this so i decided to show my 'rents a few i've done. i swear to god they thought they were the best paintings they had ever seen. there were other students in the art room while i was showing them, and my mom says, "these are the best paintings i've ever seen!! you're so talented Peter!" yes, i was embareassed. they took a picture with me standing by one of my paintings. yes, i was terribly embareassed. i got them out of there before they could do any more damage.)

Anyway, it's cool to have someone believe in you like that. so since she had so much confidence in me, i started to believe her. i started listening to what she was saying about me. i started writing with some confidence. i'll tell you what, confidence in yourself can take you a long way. if it wasn't for maureen gibbon there is no way on god's green earth i'd be headed to vermont for grad school in a month.

April 27...

2008-04-27T11:31:00.003-05:00

this is Steve's Saab with a foot of snow on it. mother nature is trying to make up for her "mistake" today with sunshine and warmness. I DON'T BUY IT. this happened a couple weeks ago...okay. April 27th...straight up kick in the balls. three days ago there was a thunderstorm here in Bemidji, now there is a foot of snow on the ground. if Al Gore ever came to Bemidji i promise you he wouldn't be making such a big fuss about global warming.

Stuck in my head...

2008-04-23T15:29:00.000-05:00

Play that funky music white boy.
Play that funky music right.

This guy doesn't have a clue...

2008-04-15T19:29:00.004-05:00

Here is an article my brother forwarded me today. It's an article written by a Mark Kiszla from the Denver Post regarding the Minnesota Wild/Colorado Avalanche playoff series. This guy doesn't have a clue.

Ugly Betty hockey in Colorado's future
By Mark Kiszla

The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 04/15/2008 10:10:20 AM MDT

Let the mugging begin.

It's the only way the Minnesota Wild can win.

To advance in the NHL playoffs, the Avalanche must embrace the darkness. When playing this goon-it- up Wild bunch, hockey is a no-holds- barred battle of attrition, not skill.

The only good thing that can be said about Minnesota's 3-2 overtime victory against Colorado was the game lasted so deep into the night that it ended past the bedtime of most kids who could be frightened by the way the Wild mauls all the beauty from the sport.

In a long playoff series, this is the Wild motto: If you can't beat 'em, break 'em.

"You hope to wear down the opposition," Minnesota mauler Aaron Voros said Monday.

"By Games 4, 5 or 6, those bumps and bruises start

Minnesota, the land of 10,000 dead car batteries, has an inferiority about this hockey team. The Wild's style of play is as ugly and obnoxious as the uniforms, which look as if designed by a toddler who randomly pulled two crayons from the box of 64 and began scribbling.

This hard truth makes the Wild faithful grumpier than they are after waking up to yet another subzero morning. But why deny what makes the team so successful?

It figures. On a play that could have ended on an icing call, a weird, lucky bounce instead allowed the winning goal to be scored by Minnesota's Pierre-Marc Bouchard almost 12 minutes deep into the extra period. The Wild likes overtime, because it gives these grunts more time to knock the spirit from you with every cheap shot.

When Avs forward Peter Forsberg turns his back, even for a second, he will get jumped and roughed up, in true back-alley fashion, by some Minnesota mugger.

Or did you miss the assault on Forsberg during the second period by Wild defenseman Sean Hill, who owns the dubious distinction of being the first NHL player suspended from the league for steroids?

If Colorado goalie Jose Theodore makes too many brilliant saves, the Wild response is not to create traffic in front of the net, but cause a train wreck.

And maybe that explains why Voros felt it necessary to tackle Theodore in the most crass act of Game 3.

That the Avalanche put 46 shots on goal ultimately made no difference, because the Wild put more hard hits on Colorado.

Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire, mean enough to chew the glass surrounding the rink, has an unabashed fondness for tough guys. The more the scarier.

You've got to hate watching the Wild play, but love the way Lemaire refuses to give an inch of open ice. The never-surrender attitude of his team must be born in the cold recesses of Lemaire's heart.

The dark hockey arts are practiced by every member of the Wild. Even a player as remarkably talented as Minnesota center Mikko Koivu is not adverse to hacking and tripping when Colorado's Ryan Smyth is carrying the puck on goal.

Every videotape of a Minnesota game is film noir, packed with the moral ambiguity of doing whatever it takes and never apologizing.

Anywhere the Wild goes, flowers wilt, the sky turns gray and beauty dies.

After three games, can there be any doubt?

This series is doomed to be a bloody mess.

"I think we're playing pretty physical," Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote said.

And a serious question is how long Forsberg, whose banged-up body has been an injury waiting to happen for years, can hold up to the relentless battering he receives on every shift.

"I don't try to look at the number before I make a hit," Voros said. "Sometimes, it looks that way because Forsberg has possession of the puck so much."

When scores are certain to be scarce and the mugging is beyond the control of any referee, what's the lone goal for the Avs now?

Be the last men standing, and live to play something that resembles beautiful hockey another day.

Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com

Mother Nature...

2008-04-11T13:22:00.002-05:00

is basically taking a dump on us. she must think it's pretty funny snowing on us like this. well mother nature, it's going to pretty hilarious when i get you back. you seem to not like it when i litter, or use your non-renewable resources in abundance, or when your precious trees are cut down with out being replaced, or when your harmless animals are hunted to extinction, well if this madness doesn't end soon i might have to take up some new hobbies. Yes. That was indeed a threat. You're kind of being a bitch and i don't like it. it's spring. it should be raining, not snowing. get your shit together. remember the saying "april showers bring may flowers"??? April blizzards won't bring may flowers will they??
you know, we all make mistakes so i think i can forgive you for the ten feet of snow we've got in the last week. maybe you just ate some bad shrooms that gave you a bad trip and you during that bad trip you thought it would be funny to pull something like this. that's a legit excuse in my book. it happens to the best of us, but if we get anymore snow, i think God will be the only one who will have the power to forgive you. i'm only one man and i can only take so much.

4 Years in the making...

2008-04-08T19:16:00.002-05:00

It was once referred to as "the race to end all races." and end it i did. 4 years ago Steve Montain challenged me to a foot race on the remote beaches of florida. i won. he said it was fixed. i told him i would give him a rematch before we graduate. well graduation is soon and being a man of my word, we set a date. we ran the race last friday. here are the results.

I have been listening....

2008-03-19T11:10:00.001-05:00

to a gross amount of music lately. (it seems i write about music a lot.) anyway, it's just been exciting that's all. i love how i have listened to song after song after song after song for hours not finding one i like. but then there's one i find that totally blows me away. and finding that one song completely makes up for the hours i lost listening to the stuff i don't like. i'm sure you get the same sensation i get when you hear a song that really lights you up. you know, the chill that makes all your hair stand up.

usually i am a guy who looks for songs that have righteous music. that's what really gets my attention, but lately it's been the lyrics. here a some that have been stuck in my head like crazy lately...

"when the bible is a bottle and the hardwood floor is home/when morning comes twice a day or not at all/if i break in two would you put me back together/when this puzzle's figured out would you still/be around."

that's an Uncle Tupelo song called 'still be around'

here are other songs that melt my brain...

'Hallelujah' by Jeff Buckley.
'52-50' by O.A.R.
anything that Son House sings.
'Maps' by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
'Sylvia Plath' by Ryan Adams.
'Still Be Around' by Uncle Tupelo.
anything by Xavier Rudd.

Superstitions...

2008-03-05T12:33:00.002-06:00

I consider myself a very superstitious person. there are a number of daily rituals i go through each day. for example, when i wake up i don't get out of bed unless the time reads an even number. when i put on my deodorant i apply an even number of strokes on each armpit. (usually 4 per pit) when i put on my shoes, the left shoe always goes on first. if i have a presentation or a hockey game or something, i always remember what i wore to it. if it goes good i wear the same thing, if it goes bad i change it up. an example of this is we had an intermural hockey game and i wore a canadian post office toque that mandy's dad gave to me to the game. we lost. the next game i wore a beavers toque mandy gave to me. we won. from then on i wore the beavers toque. we haven't lost since.

recently i read an article about superstition. back in the midevil times or sometime around then, a man held a dinner party at his house. he invited 14 guests. one didn't show, so the dinner party ate dinner with 13 people. aparently after that dinner each person who was there died. after that it was known as bad luck to have 13 people at a dinner party. sometime later a non-superstitious person decided to put that legend to the test. he created the "13 people only dinner club" or something like that. i forget the actual name of his club. but it was basically a club that ate dinner with 13 people, walked under ladders, let black cats cross their paths, spilled salt on purpose. things like that. in an interview the people in the group said they couldn't be more happy. apparently superstitious rituals worry people to the point where they become very unhappy because of how much they worry about it.

so recently i have been trying what the people in the "13 people only dinner club" does. in the mornings i get out of bed regardless the time, i try not to count how many strokes of deodorant i put on, i put my right shoe on first. however, i don't find myself "more happy" than i was as a superstitious ritual follower. when i do something out of the ordinary i just think about how i used to do things. i mean, every time i put on my right shoe first, i think...i used to put my left on first. i find myself thinking more about superstition than i did before when i was superstitious. BUT i must say it is kind of liberating in a way. change is always a good thing in life, i think so anyway. we all know we have our mundane everyday rituals. i do, and doing these things have been very different and it's been kind of nice. a different pace, ya know. different paces are good for the soul. go fast sometimes. go slow. mundane is so mundane.

The trilogy is complete...

2008-03-03T20:48:00.002-06:00

Here's the third (and final??) music video masterpiece produced by yours truly and Bemidji rap legend Matt Brown.

Enjoy.

it seems...

2008-03-02T13:59:00.003-06:00

that i've blocked out some people from reading my blog. i think i blocked out the only two people that actually read this. (tony the fat & fuller. my deepest apologies.) i have been messing around with it lately and i think i turned on a privacy setting or something. but i'm pretty sure it is fixed now.

onto spring break. it's my last one as a college student, so we decided to go out with a bang. steve, tyler, peteISU and me are headed to the upper peninsula of Michigan to shred the hell out of Mt. Bohemia. here's a good visual of what we'll be up against. (except we'll be on snowboards of course.)

i guess it's all back country runs. no groomed runs. the easiest one is a black diamond. the hardest is triple black. gnar thrashers only. there are only two chair lifts. the amount of snow they get per year is equivalent to what colorado gets. so i'm expecting it to be bomber.

The...

2008-02-22T23:16:00.000-06:00

mohawk is gone. i had enough of it.

Quickly...

2008-02-19T00:23:00.001-06:00

i have to say how terribly i'm in love with finetune.com. please check it out. i promise you'll find something you're looking for.

it's just beautiful.

I'm not...

2008-02-18T15:02:00.004-06:00

quite to this stage yet with my mohawk, but give it time. this is my first time ever with a mohawk. i can't help but feeling a little bit rebelious. i probably look like a tool but i think a mohawk is something everyone should try at least once in their lifetime...even if it's for only a day.

i don't know how long i'm going to keep the 'hawk' ... i like to call it that ... but for now i think a week or so at least. i haven't gotten too many weird looks yet, but i haven't had it for a day yet. so we'll see. maybe if things go well i'll look like this dude. or maybe that's a picture of a chick ... i don't know. all i know is that's a bitchin' mohawk.

fuck the man. i had to say it.

The ...

2008-02-18T02:36:00.001-06:00

mother DID NOT change in 'Gone Baby Gone.'

New Music.

2008-02-16T17:14:00.003-06:00

For a week or so now i've kind of been obsessing about new music. I've been trying desperatly to find new bands that simply rock. Mandy has been giving a lot of suggestions. She's been trying to get me to like Arcade Fire, but i just can't get myself to like them. the music is good but i'm not a fan of the singing. a few other bands she's suggested: Silver Sun, Bravery, Young Galexy, Hot Hot Heat, City and Color, and The Stars.

I've been on a ton of websites just clicking from link to link to try and find new bands i haven't heard of, but the search so far isn't going very well. I've found a few prospects like, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volta, the Yeah Yeah Yeah's (even though i've heard of them before i haven't really listened to their stuff. check out 'Maps'...bitchin song.) i'm kind of looking for underground stuff...kickin' bands that aren't overplayed on the radio. bands that are only heard of through word of mouth...you get my drift.

Anyway, i guess what i'm saying is...you should let me know of any of these kinds of bands you know of. then i will listen to them. so if you know of any, holler at me.

It's been a while...

2008-02-10T14:28:00.000-06:00

since i last wrote on this. but since then some shit happened. first and foremost, i'm for sure heading off to grad school next year! i'll be writing stories. pretty exciting i suppose. Vermont College accepted me. I probably won't hear from the other schools i applied to (U of Iowa, Syracuse U, U of Virginia, and Colorado State) until about end of March or April. it's cool though because now i know what i'm going to be doing after i graduate here in May. Vermont sounds pretty cool though. I've heard really good things about Burlington, Vt. the college i got accepted to is in Montpelier but i think i'd opt to live in Burlington if i decide to go there. the word on the street is Burlington has some bitchin' snowboarding.
Anyway, Vermont college has kind of a different program. it's called a "low residency program." that's where i only have to show up for a workshop session with the profs. like once or twice a semester. so it's not like a regular college semester. so i could live in Burlington and do my writing then head to Montpelier for the workshop stuff. kind of confusing.
so anyway, i haven't heard back yet from the other schools so i haven't for sure decided to go to Vermont College, but i got accepted somewhere i wanted to go, so i'm in like a bag of doughnuts.

One...

2008-01-22T17:08:00.000-06:00

semester left and i'm a college graduate, and it only took me five years. some might say "hey, it took you five years to graduate because you're nothing but lazy."
Lazy? no, i just wanted to get the entire college experience. and i'd like to think that's exactly what i got.
But there is something that i didn't know when i was freshman that i still don't know now...i have no freeking clue what i want to do with my life. i didn't worry about it much when i was a freshman because i thought "hey i don't have to worry about it now because i still have three more years (four more as it turns out) to figure out what i want to do after i graduate." well, in about four months i'll be a college degree richer but i still have no clue what i'll be doing after. i got a few plans but they're not yet for sure.
i keep telling myself "shit will work itself out." and in my experiences it usually does, but if you're anything like me, thinking that "shit will work itself out," doesn't quite cut it. i'm a strong believer that everything does (at some point or another) work itself out, but why can't i know how it does now? ya know?
anyway, nine semesters down one more to go. it's shaping up to be a barn burner. i'm anxious to see how things turn out. (but not too anxious if you get what i'm saying. (i'm saying college has been wicked fun and i'm not in that much of a hurry to look back at it.))

John Butler...

2008-01-13T19:25:00.000-06:00

Trio is a small diamond i found in the rough. The song 'Ocean' is kickin', which is why i put it in my kickin' music videos section. check it out. I think the video is a little messed up, but it's the music that's important here. (check out his fingernails too. yes sir.) Anyway, I'm still looking up more music by these guys but i'm pretty excited, because i think it is so cool finding good music. There is so much music out there, finding something new you enjoy is like finding ten dollars in your winter coat the first time you put it on again at the beginning of winter. I know you know what i mean. "shit yea!" That's what i say when i find ten dollars in my winter coat. "Shit yea!" even when there isn't anybody around i say it. "shit yea!" okay, no more "shit yea!'s" in this post.

"shit yea!"

it slips. i'm getting off the point that i don't have. oh, i remember. Just check out 'Ocean' by John Butler Trio.

2008-01-09T11:13:00.000-06:00

Buy this.

how was your chocolate ice cream...

2008-01-08T22:39:00.001-06:00

"meh, i take it back."

Start the cruise with the booze...

2008-01-07T21:48:00.000-06:00

hello...this is mando...i'm sweet and hard to beat...ayoooooooo.

we just got home from our cruise in the carribian. the weather kind of sucked (really sucked actually) (windy and cooler than we would have liked) but it was a helluva lot warmer than here so we loved it. we went to miami, then to coco key, then to nassau, then back to miami, and now we're drinking orange juice back here in the Grove. it was to windy and wavy out to take a boat from the cruise ship to the small beach island Coco Key so we didn't get to relax on the beach at all. i was pretty bumed. Mandy was too, "but i still had a good time," said she. the day our captain decided it was to rough of seas for the little boats to bring us to shore he decided to just bomb around in the open seas searching for sun.
we did a lot of sleeping. we'd wake up early, eat breakfast, then go lay on the top deck by the pool and read and nap in the sun (when it wasn't being antisocial hiding behind clouds.) then we'd get ready for dinner. every night there was a fancy 4 course dinner. i tried escargot (snail) for the first time. it was delicious. every night i ordered the thing on the menu i couldn't read. i figured because i couldn't read it, i probably haven't tried it. i was right. everything i had was actually really good. i can't remember everything i ate but here is what i remember: snail, roasted duck, ox tail soup, raw salmon, catfish, a rack of lamb, & scallops to name a few.
because of the cancled day at coco key we made it to nassau a night early, so tyler, mandy, and myself went for a couple drinks at senior frogs. and by a couple i mean we got shitfaced. then on the walk back to the ship we did some freestyle walking (of course.) tyler did some dancing with the locals. the bartenders gave out free shots too. we just lined up and they stood on stools around the bar, and when we got to them we just opened up and in poured the booze. we stumbled back to the ship in time for the late night pizza buffet.
the next day was cool again and we did some more laying by the pool then that night cruised back to miami where we got off and caught a flight back home. it was a short trip but a goodie. the sun recharges the batteries, ya know?!

2007

2008-01-01T22:02:00.001-06:00

ended on a wonderful note. i just got back from thrashing Lutsen the last few days. a couple of my brother's pals got a cabin for new years and asked if we wanted in. it sounded sweet so we tagged along. as it turned out the cabin was right on lake superior. i mean the lake was our back yard. it was awesome. the weather was perfect too. it was overcast and lightly snowing both days we were boarding and it wasn't too cold. the conditions were good, but late in the day it got kind of icy, but over all good. i was hoping for it to snow a bunch one of the days to get my fix of powder but it just wasn't in the cards.
i went to Lutsen last season too, but we went earlier in december and there weren't too many runs open. but this weekend, almost all of them were open, so i got to board a lot of new runs i didn't get to last year.
my brother is a noob at snowboarding. we went to afton alps once before Lutsen, so he was having a rough time at first but he got the hang of it. it was only us two boarding the second day. by mid day on the second day he was boarding double black diamonds with me.
and why is the food in chalets so damn expensive?! i bought 3 snickers and it cost me six bucks!! that's two bucks a snickers! one guy in front of me in line that afternoon bot a bowl of chili, a bottle of water, and a basket of fries...$21. redonkulous. our first night there, a band was playing in a bar so we decided to check it out. it was 6 bucks a beer!! good thing we decided to drink before we went out drinking.
anyway, money aside, the year ended in style. another year gone by way to fast.

can i post...

2007-12-11T22:10:00.000-06:00

two times in one day? is that legal? well i'm going to anyway. i want to touch briefly on the musician Ryan Adams. That man is a genius. the song 'sylvia plath' that's about as perfect as a song gets. if you haven't heard it, get it, you won't be dissapointed i swear it. 'so alive' is a bitchin' song too. oh, and i can't forget about 'magnolia mountain' that's about all i have to say right now about Ryan Adams. he just rocks, hard.

God speed matt brown.

I got no ...

2007-12-11T17:56:00.000-06:00

job. i got a girl but she's a thousand miles away. i am lucky. my car is old and it has a flat tire. it probably won't make it through this winter. i borrow money from my parents. i am lucky. i am lazy. but i am lucky. some might see it otherwise. my computer is outdated, but i still have one. i am lucky. do i need all of it? no. but i do need her. i am lucky. i have cavities and they need filling. my cell phone is old and i have too many clothes. some are expensive from j. crew and american eagle and abercrombie, but i don't always wear them. my favorite are the old and ragged. my best pair of jeans are so torn my own sister is embarrased to be seen in public when i am wearing them. but i am lucky. i will never get rid of them because someone thinks they are ugly. i don't care what other people think about my clothes. i'm color blind and i usually don't match. fuck it, it matches to me. i am lucky.

the funniest joke in the world...

2007-12-06T12:26:00.000-06:00

two friends were in the woods hunting when suddenly one fell on the ground. the man's eyes were rolled back and his face was pale white. his friend called 911 on his cell phone. when the dispatcher answered he said:
"Ma'am please, my friend just fell over and i think he's dead. what do i do?"
"Well sir, first you need to make sure he's dead."
there was a brief silence on the other line and then the dispatcher heard a gunshot. then the man answered again and said:
"ok, he's dead. now what do i do?"

Beautiful Beautiful...

2007-12-02T21:06:00.000-06:00

snow!! I'm sure the rest of the state got just as much snow as we did this weekend, but good god i love when it snows. i woke up at around 9 yesterday and it was already snowing, and it was still snowing when i went to bed around 2. winter hadn't really hit me until yesterday. we got snow earlier in November and October but none of it stayed around long. We got some a little before Thanksgiving break too and that stayed around, but it still didn't feel like winter, because i was still riding my bike around. but now i think we got around a foot of snow, which is much more than glorious because now i can go snowboarding. good god thank you for snowboarding. i didn't get out to buena vista (probably the worst hill in the tri-state area) this weekend, but i suppose boarding is boarding, and i should be greatful i don't live with the cake eaters down in Iowa who have no idea what snowboarding is. i'm sure there are a number of good skiers down there tho...goddam cake eaters. i didn't do much last year which i terribly regret, but i did get out a few times. hopefully over spring break this year we'll make it up to Montreal and shred with some french canadians. eh?! the name of the mountain we're planning on going to is something like 'mont che blon' of some thing. i don't have the slightest idea how to spell it, but i'm sure you can use your phonics and sound it out.
anyway, another Matt Brown/Pete production was filmed today and should be making an appearence on youtube in the coming weeks. its about a prank call that went bad. pretty funny though.
finally, i'd like to touch on 'the roots' guitarist kirk douglass. he's one bad mother let me tell you. 'the roots' opened for DMB this summer at alpine valley, and Kirk Douglass played a few with them. on 'jimi thing' he played possibly the raddest guitar solo my ears have ever heard...ever. i think you might be able to find it on the internet but it probably would require some searching, but i promise you you won't be dissapointed. check out some 'the roots' songs too, pretty damn good i swear.

Christmas time...

2007-11-28T13:09:00.001-06:00

is cool. Here's a picture from our house photo shoot. Some should expect a christmas card from Dick's Bar in the near future. Check out my book-of-face page for the rest of them. They're pretty hilarious. We laughed our asses off anyway.

Drew needed to do some photo shoot for a class in a studio on campus and we wanted to make christmas cards and send them out, so we figured this would be perfect. we killed two birds with one stone ya know?!

I think we ended up taking 91 pictures or something. It was pretty fun tho.

Anyway, Merry Christmas from Dick's Bar.

My...

2007-11-22T22:40:00.000-06:00

belly is full.

Turkey...

2007-11-22T00:11:00.000-06:00

is delecious. Good God turkey is delicious. Thank you pilgrims. Thank you generous indians. Thank you turkey for being fat and so damn good to eat. Thank you family for letting me eat turkey with you. Thank you friends for being my friends. Thank you Mandy for being so beautiful. Thank you, just, thanks. There aren't enough thank you's in my lungs to express how greatful I am. It always feels good coming home. it's good to see how things have changed. It's good to see those who i haven't seen in years. It's good to remember. it's good to see how i've changed. it's good to see how i haven't changed. Life is just good. Even though it can suck pretty hard sometimes. It's just way to awesome.

I tried to pay...

2007-11-19T15:22:00.000-06:00

a parking ticket i got in july today, (i procrastinate more than most people) again. i went to pay it about a month ago and was steered to building after building. i finally found someone who would take it, but then a few days later i got it back in the mail saying i turned it into the wrong place. so today i finally got around to trying to pay it again. when the ticket was sent back to me in the mail ther was a sheet of paper that gave me a building to go to, to pay. i went there. i gave the ticket to a lady and she said i needed to bring it somewhere else. i instantly got pissed because that's exactly what happened to me last time i tried to pay it. i showed her the slip that said it was in fact to her, where i was supposed to bring it. apparently she didn't believe it so she sent me to another building i had already been to. i just took the ticket and went there again. when i got there it was the county judicial building. a security guard and a metal detector met me at the entrance.
"i can't let you in the building with that cell phone." the guard said.
"alright"
so i put my phone and ipod on a ledge outside the door. then i preceded to go back and forth through the fricken' metal detector four or five times.
"all this to pay a parking ticket" i said.
"don't get a ticket next time" the guard said.
I was this close --- to headbutting the bastard. what a prick.
anyway, i went up to the front counter and gave a lady my ticket.
"oh, you need to go to city hall to pay this" she said.
"no," i told her "i've been there already. twice. and i've been to three other places. i was told to pay it here. take my check."
"let's see" she said "how much is it for?"
"thirty bucks," i said.
"thirty bucks. we dont' even need thirty bucks" she said under her breath.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! THEN GIVE ME THE DAMN TICKET. I NEED THE THIRTY BUCKS!!
now, honestly, who would say that?
"well let me check again," she said.
"ok"
she typed on the keyboard for a minute then said.
"well, it looks like you actually owe thirty TWO dollars. do you have another two dollars on you?"
now, here's where i lost it. she just told said they don't even want to take the thirty bucks and now she's bitching about TWO FUCKING DOLLARS!!! i can't even think it anymore. it just makes me mad. so anyway, i took back the ticket and left. it might be another few months before i try to pay that damn thing again. to hell with paying parking tickets in this damn city.

on a lighter note, i bought some boxed wine two nights ago and it's delicious. i really like boxed wine. god bless boxed wine.

Last Night...

2007-11-17T17:00:00.000-06:00

I witnessed violence that is probably the ugliest of all types of violence. Let me set the scene. Mario, Steve, Teen Machine, and myself are watching 'Ocean's 13' in Teen Machine's living room around 11 p.m. last night. Out her front windown of the living room is the main drag of Bemidji Town. About half way through the movie we notice a man walked a ways down the side walk in front of the house & then sprinted back towards where he came from. I stood and looked out another window to see the man smash the windshield of a black four door Pontiac. He then hit the car a few times while he ran around the car. We thought he was either vandilizing the car or was trying to steal it. Then the car pulled forward, stopped, and drove in reverse to the other side of the road it was parked on. A woman got out. Teen Machine was on the phone with the police, i next to her watching from the window, while steve and mario went outside to a side deck area to watch. when the woman came out of the car the man ran across the street and started beating this woman. Teen Machine and I both said "holy shit!" at the same time, then she told the dispatcher it wasn't a car jacking but in fact a man beating a woman. it was dark but i'm pretty sure the man didn't get her with his bat, just open and closed fists. i ran outside to join mario and steve on the side porch to watch. why didn't the three of us go over and stand up for this woman?! the only reason i can come up with is it all happened so fast. we really didn't know what to do. we were just kinda froze there watching. thinking about it i feel pretty worthless that we did just sit there and watch. after the man hit her a few times he jumped back in the Pontiac and drove forward and backward and forward and backward. then he backed it over the curb and into the lawn where the woman was lying in tears. the police responed very quick to Teen Machines call and the man was taken down and cuffed. more police showed up and put a blanket over the woman and soon an ambulance showed up and she was taken probably to the hospital. both the man and woman seemed drunk or high but who knows. i still feel stupid that all we did was watch.

I just finished...

2007-11-15T17:44:00.000-06:00

reading the book "into the wild." It's about this kid, alexander supertramp, who after college graduation packs his shit and takes off west without a nickle in his pocket. he had a $25,000 bank account that he gives up to charity. he didn't say a word to his kin about where he was going or why. he just got sick of society and wanted to drift. he thumbed north to alaska and walked into the bush where he was later found dead of starvation by a group of moose hunters.

i admire supertramp (chris was actually his real name. he just called himself alexander supertramp.) how many of us have the balls to actually go out and do what we dream? most of us will graduate from college and get a 9 to 5er to pay for the gas for the car that drives us to work to pay for the gas for the car that drives us to work. it's a vicious cycle. but obviouslly most of us aren't going to abandon family, friends because working sucks. after reading this i can't stop thinking about how powerful money really is. i'd like to think that i'm a non-materialistic person, but damnit the thought of being rich and not having to worry about money is nice.

i like this quote. "happiness only real when shared." i can only think of one person when i read that because she's the only person i ever think about. every time i laugh, it doesn't seem real without her laughing with me. (or at me) nothing seems real without her with me. but soon i'll wake up and she'll be there and it will be real and happiness will be an understatement.

i'm going insane without you mandy.

Action Movie...

2007-11-14T15:21:00.000-06:00

bad guys always have their minions. You know, the ones that get wasted by McGivers' homemade flamethrower made from chewing tobacco, paper clips and rubber bands. How do you get to be one of those guys? Where do you find an application for a job like that? Do they put their resumes on Monster.com?

Where are there always so many of them too? I think Swartzenegger kills about 500 in Comando. Do they get paid well? They must. What do they tell their families at dinner when they come home? "Hey honey, how was work today?"

"oh, fine. Rambo broke in today and shot Ted, Frank, Allen, and Eddie. Ted owed me $20 from poker last Friday too."

"oh my."

"I was a lucky one, he only busted my arm in half over his shoulder. It coulda been worse. Mike got his knee caps kicked in, so he got lucky too."

And why do they always SUCK at aiming? Never once in any movie have i seen Van Daam or Segal get hit by one of the million bullets shot at them. And quit fighting one at a time!! Bum rush the bastard!! He might get one or two of you but if all 50 of you tackle him he's dead and your boss gets the ransom money or nukes the world for once.

What about the honest guard at the front desk at Vinnatech that gets his neck snapped by some terrorist breaking in to steal a vial of infectious virus for ransom. That guy never even has a chance. Poor bastard. He's just working the night shift as a second job so he can pay for his bratty daughter's pony or something.

Once Again...

2007-11-13T14:01:00.000-06:00

I have started blogging. I believe this is my third attempt at keeping up a blog. I kind of hope I stick with it this time.

My senior thesis is killing me. My college career is coming to a close after five boisterous years, but certianly not without stress. Of all the semesters I have under my belt this has turned out to be the worst. In about one month here is what I must have done: Senior Thesis and Senior Thesis presentation, graduation plans, & five grad school applications. None of it is extraordinarly difficult, just time consuming. The kind of time consuming where you want to scream because it just sucks.

Being poor also sucks. I can't find a freeking job. I did have a pretty sweet gig announcing women's hockey games but thanks to BSU & their sweet budget cuts we now only do 4 games. which gives me approx. $100 for working all 4 games. urg. $100 doesn't sound bad but here's what $100 can buy these days: about 2 weeks groceries (if you ration well), Halo 3, two nights at a bar, half a tank of gas, a used text book (probably with a few pages missing), 1/3 of rent, part of utilities, or a few cases of Old Milwaukee. Doing without any dough for a long time forces you to make choices. Do I want to eat tonight or do I want beer? Rent or the 3 month overdue gas bill? Walk or Drive or hitchhike?