To Be Young

Movin' Out

2006-06-13T22:30:00.000-05:00

With over 70 posts since I started posting my inner-most thoughts here on 11/16/04, I've decided to close up shop. Only 'sorta close though.

See, over the past year I've had a small - and appreciated - group of close friends read this thing. I never bothered to promote the blog or put up subscription feeds, because it was mostly for my friends entertainment and my own release. Well, being on MySpace for a while now, I figured it might be a bit more sensible to integrate my blogging into that and open up the chatter to a wider audience of friends. So if you're still here (yep, another looong gap in posts) I'll be around, just set up at another address. If you're not one of my good friends, but you've been reading from time-to-time because you've somewhat enjoyed these random musings, please follow me over there and add me to your friends list - it'll even make you look more popular!

I'll be here: http://www.myspace.com/dreamingsfree

Peace, love, and fishgrease.

- E

I Can't Sleep

2006-05-24T01:28:00.000-05:00

A little too much going on upstairs tonight. Usually I'm the type to be out like a rock too.

What do you do when you can't sleep? When you've got too much racing through your mind. I've never taken a middle-of-the-night run but right now seems like a good time for one.

Speaking of Sports Radio...

2006-05-23T14:15:00.000-05:00

I started another blog project with my friend Aaron. If you didn't just stumble across this blog, there's a good chance I've told you about it. If you're still in the dark, click here.

Not 100% sure if we're going to do the podcast, but keep your eyes open and please, please, please spread the good word.

Top 5 Dream Jobs

2006-05-23T13:26:00.000-05:00

"Thank God dreaming's free, 'cause I spent all my money on make believe" - Ryan Adams

One of the characteristics of my personality that has definitely been evident over the course of writing this blog is my penchant for lists. Making lists of things to do, things I like and ranking things. It's definitely my main idiosyncracy. It's also a small reason (of many) that I love the movie High Fidelity. Outside of the standout humor scenes of the movie, one of my favorites is when Rob (John Cusak's character) breaks down his dream jobs with a top 5 list, the running motif of the movie. I saw the movie on t.v. a few weeks ago and thought about my own top 5 then and when popped back into my mind again today, I thought I'd make a quick post about it.

Now unlike Rob, I can accept at this point that it really isn't feasible for me to become a professional football player or a musician in a well-known rock band (a small-time band would be tough given my lack of experience on any instrument). Instead, I'm going to focus on things that I could actually do given my skills and potential ability to be successful in the position.

1. Independent record label owner (Second-tier: replace label with any business)
2. Writer/Producer for television or movies
3. Full-time travel writer/travel show host
4. Copywriter/Creative Director at my dream ad/marketing agency (ie. Crispin Porter, GSD&M, etc.)
5. Sports radio show host

Now looking at this list, it doesn't look like any of them would be impossible. The problem I always have is pinpointing one thing and dedicating myself solely to it. If I had to choose which would be easiest right now, I would have to go with the Copywriter gig, BUT it would be more of a hybrid creative communications position involving marketing copywriting, blogging, and marketing within social media and new media. Out of all of them, my ultimate gig would be a toss up between owning an independent label and being a writer/producer. I'd be quite happy owning any business that I was passionate as an alternative to the record label as well.

Sitting here reflecting on this list and the possibilities of my future, I know I can land one of them. I just need focus...and a whole lotta grit, determination and resilience. New goal? Be sitting in one of these positions within the next five years...that is, unless I've found something better.

Feelin' the music

2006-05-17T18:48:00.000-05:00

I haven't written about music in a while and with the variety I've been rotating lately, I figured it was a good time. I've always felt like people listen to music for two different reasons: because of melodic enjoyment (the way it moves your body) and because of a lyrical message that resonates with them. Some people seem more geared towards one or the other, but I pretty much fall in between, favoring each type based on my mood and the setting. Here's some of the new music that I've been into lately and my reasons for "feelin' it."

For the former:
Wolfmother - Love Train
Jamie Lidell - Multiply (dope blue-eyed soul!)
The Roots - Doesn't Seem Right
Secret Machines - Lightning Blue Eyes (Saw them perform it Live @ First Ave - AWESOME)
Snow Patrol - Hands Open

The latter:
Mason Jennings - Be Here Now
The Raconteurs - Together
Rogue Wave - Eyes
Drive By Truckers - Dress Blues (Live on The Current)

Download those songs and you've got a start to a pretty hot mix. For more goodies, check out this live recording of Bloc Party's set at the recent Coachella Valley Music Festival.

Papa's got a brand new Mac

2006-05-16T23:48:00.000-05:00

Soon enough anyway. After a long-awaited release, I jumped online this morning to find the MacBook glamourously featured all over the front page of Apple's site. About $1500 later (bought the Apple 3-year warranty), my spankin' new laptop is on it's way.

It can't come soon enough.

Finding purpose in what we do

2006-05-10T16:09:00.002-05:00

If you've been reading my rants, raves and ruminations here for a while, you know quite well that this blog is more of an inconsistently updated personal journal than a themed or focused piece of editorial. While I often write about my passions and things I enjoy, such as music or sports, I also sometimes delve into deeper thoughts and personal stories. Well, here's one for the latter so leave right now if you were expecting fun.

If you did read a few months ago, you probably caught me sharing thoughts about my first "career" job and how I felt about the whole career thing in general. I was uncertain if I made the right choice taking the job I did, as I wasn't totally in line with the things I had been passionate about for a while. Well, since then it's been a lot better. As the situation has been, the position/industry is not ideal, but I'm getting great experience in a wide variety of things and seeing where my work impacts the business, so I've started to enjoy it more and see its benefits.

In addition to thinking about my initial career out of college and the life that comes with the 9-5 grind, I began thinking about the bigger picture. For one, how I might be in this type of work lifestyle for the rest of my life. On a deeper level, I began contemplating the purpose of what I do.

When you're bored at work or sitting in traffic on the way home, there's A LOT of time to think. Sitting in a car and looking out and seeing tons of other cars, you start wondering what the life of the person in the lane next to you is like - and then, how big the world is. And you're just one person on a globe that's filled with billions.

So this is something that has been on my mind lately. In addition to continuing to try to enjoy my work and eventually putting myself in the position where I love what I do, I've been thinking about my place in the world and validating what I do in that career that I go to for 8-9 hours a day. Sure this is easy to do if you're a doctor or a teacher, but if you work in Marketing or PR? Maybe the purpose of life is as simple as us just being here to experience life and enjoy it as much as we can. But I also feel an inherent push to find something greater in what I do. And that's an immensely added weight of thoughts for someone already questioning if they enjoy their job on a level of self-satifaction.

Do you have ever have these type of thoughts or do I just think about this stuff too much for a 23-year old with most of his life ahead of him? None of this would matter if I was content with "just getting by." But I'm not. My girlfriend questions my level of spirituality and though while I guess I don't casually bring up subjects this profound very often, there's a whole lot going on in the internal monologue. I think I've just started to scratch the surface of the spiritual exploration and it's not something you figure out overnight.

So recently I decided to get myself involved in more activities outside of work. I think more involvement these things will suck up the free time I have to ponder what I'm doing with my life and cure my need to question it in the first place.

This post has probably gone in circles so excuse me if it was a bit of a ramble.

CURRENT LISTENING: The Postal Service/Ben Gibbard - Recycled Air (acoustic)

I can smell the summer

2006-05-03T14:53:00.000-05:00

It's getting gorgeous outside and that's enough to make many-a-Minnesotan happy. The season for hangin' out by the lake, pickup basketball games and scent of sweet bar-b-ques is right around the corner. I'm lovin' it.

Speaking of lovin' it, I had a blast watching the NFL draft and enjoying some cold lager in the company of good people over the weekend. The University of Minnesota Spring Jam was once again spoiled by rain but I wasn't really participating anyway, being a graduate and all. I won't get into it much but I was very satisfied with the Packers draft and it looks like I wasn't alone as they pretty much received high grades across the board from national sports reporters. While draft grading is pretty worthless since you don't know how good prospects will be in the NFL until they've actually played a few seasons, it's hard not to get excited by Green Bay's 2006 draft class. Spearheaded by the animal that is Ohio State Linebacker A.J. Hawk, the Packers rookies look like the core of a team headed in a new direction: intelligent, athletic, hard-working, tough and most of all, REAL football players.

I'm gonna leave it there for now. Here's my Top 5 for May:

1. Cinco de Mayo
2. Developing a blog for my employer
3. Border Battle
4. Lake Calhoun
5. Gnarls Barkley

CURRENT LISTENING: The Vines - Take Me Back

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

2006-04-27T12:51:00.000-05:00

That might seem strange given that the date on the calendar is April 27th. But it is, my friends, and it isn't the teenage Christmas where you know you're going to get a bunch of clothes and probably some stuff you don't like from your relatives. It's the 5-year old kid, "there's so many cool new toys this year" Christmas. Yes, if you're a Green Bay Packers fan, and even a fan of football in general, it's a good week to be a fan.

First off, came Tuesday's breaking news from 1265 Lombardi Avenue that Brett Favre had indeed informed the team that he was coming back to play for the Pack in 2006. This is great for several reasons: a) it gives the Packers a fighting chance; b) new coach Mike McCarthy has a more talented team to work with; c) it's another season of watching Brett Favre. To sweeten things, on Wednesday the Packers made their big free agent splash by signing veteran Cornerback Charles Woodson to a seven-year deal. This move increased the Packers offseason focus on shoring up its defense, adding a much-needed playmaker to a defensive backfield. With Al Harris and Woodson, the Pack could now hold one of the best CB duos in the league. Let's just hope Woodson can stay healthy this year - knock on wood.

As if the previous news wasn't enough to put fans into a state of Green and Gold euphoria, the 2006 NFL Draft still awaits us two days from now. Holding the fifth overall pick, Packers GM Ted Thompson has kept the team's intentions close to vest, though most mocks have them taking either Ohio St. LB AJ Hawk or the draft's most talented receiving playmaker, TE Vernon Davis, whom I must mention is a physical freak running the 40 yard dash in 4.38 seconds at 250 lbs. Either way, I'll be happy and I would expect the like from most of the Packer faithful.

Besides the Packers top pick, the entire first round looks to be quite a roller coaster ride with no picks seemingly set in stone except Reggie Bush at #1. There could also be an unprecedented number of first round trades this year with speculation running rampant about teams wanting to move up to get a player as the days to the draft grow shorter. It's going to be an exciting ride. I don't know what you'll be doing for the draft, but if you're looking to spice things up a bit, this will do the trick: The Official 2006 NFL Draft Drinking Game, courtesy of Deadspin.

To keep the football theme going, I have one more great tidbit to share. For all you '80s kids and other fans of Tecmo Super Bowl, there are emulator versions of the game (replica versions for your computer) floating around various sites on the web, with some even adding updated rosters. So yes, not only can you relive the joy of zig-zagging your way to 80-yard touchdown scampers, but you can do it with Edgerrin James or Antwaan Randle El. See this for more.

Have a great weekend. I know I'll be enjoying mine with the help of some cold brew, NFL draft coverage and tons of random fun via the University of Minnesota's annual Spring Jam celebration.

CURRENT LISTENING: ESPN Radio Podcast

Return of The King

2006-04-27T12:48:00.000-05:00

Of course you already heard. But there had to be a post in honor of the news.

Are we in store for a record year? Only 24 touchdown passes needed to tie Marino, 25 to pass him.

Sometimes you just need to go home

2006-04-13T14:15:00.000-05:00

For the third consecutive year in a row, I attented the Minnesota Twins home opener at the Metrodome on Tuesday. While every baseball fan gets excited for the home opener, the enthusiasm was a little bit tainted going into the game after the Twins started the season 1-5 on the road. Well, proving that the homefield really can provide a strong advantage, the Twins beat the Oakland A's after staring out the game down 3-0. It was a good time made even more exciting by a strong finish. The only thing that was lacking was the half day of tailgaiting which I missed out on due to not taking time off from work. I did end up sneaking in a few before the game with some friends who were out there all day doin' it up for the rest of us.

Proving that they weren't a one day home field fluke, the Twins won again yesterday after another disappointing early lead by the A's. It was done in dramatic fashion as Justin Morneau came through with a 3-run dinger in the third inning. The Twins never looked back. The funny thing about the start is they've actually got the bats going moderately well but their pitching has left a lot to be desired, which is exactly the opposite of preseason prognostications. Things came together today though as the Twins won 8-2 to complete a three game sweep. Maybe they're headed in the opposite direction of my other team - the Brewers - who have seemed to simmer down after a 5-0 start.

Speaking of going home, this weekend I'll be back in the homeland - visiting family in Wisconsin for Easter. I look forward to getting away from work and Minneapolis for the weekend. It's a quiet, small town environment and although that's quite far from my preferred situation for everyday living it's a nice one to be in a couple times a year. And even though the visiting routine is the same, it's easy to enjoy as I only see the relatives a few times per year. Plus, that side of the family makes the BEST bloody marys after mass on Sundays.

Almost two weeks until the NFL draft.

CURRENT LISTENING: Bob Dylan - The Man in Me

Sometimes you need this kind of validation

2006-04-06T16:09:00.000-05:00

Some days I get really bored at my job. Whether it's not having enough to do, not being challenged or thinking about how I'd rather be concepting/writing copy all day, it happens. All there is to do is try to make the best of it and some days that's pretty damn hard. Especially the days when I have to call VPs of corporations ("soft" cold-calling) or put together another powerpoint presentation. Others it's easy, when I'm putting MY ideas into action, working on a B-2-B execution or online marketing initiative. Today has definitely fallen into the category of the former. Luckily, either myself or Mark Cuban had great timing because he wrote a post on his blog, Blog Maverick, about "getting paid to get experience." Cuban (Mavericks owner/billionaire) outlines the story of himself right out of college. Working at jobs he wasn't crazy about and having to cold call and do some things that you despise early in your career. The moral of his story is that in the end, doing those things on a regular basis will be better experience is sales and other types of skills that almost every career requires at some point than going back to school and learning in the classroom.

While I'm convinced I never want to work in a full-fledged sales career, it's easy to see what he means by this because in any creative career you'll always have to sell your ideas to people. I'm still convinced that I'll only be truly happy as a writer, brand manager or best of all - running my own business, but it's a bit inspiring to know that a billionaire who is incredibly passionate about his work was in the same situation in their young career and can illustrate how it benefitted them.

I don't know why I write about so much serious stuff.

Opening day and the comfort of new socks

2006-04-03T23:08:00.000-05:00

One of the most awaited days of the sports calendar arrived today: the opening day of the MLB season. Baseball has lost much of it's luster for me since my childhood: big market teams can buy their roster due to a lack of collective bargaing system (what makes the NFL successful) and in general, I usually don't have much interest in watching a full game. But, I'm still a casual fan - attending a few games and watching the highlights of the rest on Sportscenter - and Opening Day still stirs my interest. There's nothing like the start of baseball to signal that spring is here and we have the warmth and fun of summer to look forward to.

This year, my Twins and Brewers are both being touted to be surprise teams in their respective divisions. For some reason the Twins were one of the only teams not to open today, taking the field tomorrow against Toronto (was today a Canadian holiday or something?). But the Brewers played in front of a sold-out field in Milwaukee and I'm sure the sausage was good and the tailgate lots were rockin'. In what hopes to be a sign of good things to come the Brew Crew won 5-2 on a two-run single by pinch hitter Jeff Cirillo, a former Brewer who returned this year facing the twillight of his career.

On a completely unrelated note, I bought some new socks this weekend. I needed them badly as it seemed every time I did laundry the number of socks diminished and the ones that remained gained more holes. After today I gotta say that wearing new socks has to be one of the most underrated comforts out there.

That's all for now. If you're bored this week round up a bunch of conservative friends and take them to see V for Vendetta.

CURRENT LISTENING: T.I. feat. Pharrell and Common - Goodlife

Awake is the new sleep

2006-03-28T13:58:00.000-06:00

I am the antithesis of a morning person. Every morning I wake up and have to hit the snooze a few times before I'm actually ready to get out of bed. I've always been this way. In high school and college I would doze off to sleep during class - not because I was completely disinterested - because I just couldn't keep myself awake. You can probably see my natural connection to Red Bull somewhere here...

I've tried solving this by going to bed earlier, but even on the mornings when I've gotten a nice 7-8 hours of sleep it doesn't seem to help much. Well, the other day, BoingBoing, a blog I read from time-to-time - and probably the quirkiest one on the web - had a post that covered a "How to..." article someone had written on another site about how to become an early riser. I was a bit skeptical at first, but read on. The approach detailed by the author (who seems to have had the same plight as me) is actually pretty simple. In the author's words:

The solution was to go to bed when I’m sleepy (and only when I’m sleepy) and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time (7 days per week). So I always get up at the same time (in my case 5am), but I go to bed at different times every night.

I go to bed when I’m too sleepy to stay up. My sleepiness test is that if I couldn’t read a book for more than a page or two without drifting off, I’m ready for bed.

So simple, but I can see how it might be easy on the body clock. So I've decided that I'm going to try this out starting this week. We'll see how it goes. If it works out you'll know. You'll start seeing more posts with a timestamp around 7:00 am.

CURRENT LISTENING: Matt Pond PA - Athabasca

Counting down the hours

2006-03-23T14:22:00.000-06:00

Approximately 6 hours until tip-off of the first game of the NCAA's Sweet 16.

About 9 days until the Major League Baseball season opener.

36 days, 20 hours, 30 minutes, and 42 seconds until the 2006 NFL Draft.

Guess which one I'm anticipating most?

This is where I want to be right now

2006-03-21T11:16:00.000-06:00

Well actually it ended a few days ago, but Austin's annual music industry SXSW (or South by Southwest) took place March 15-19 and it sounds like it was bigger than ever this year. Now in its 19th year, SXSW has been known for rockin' showcases that put bands on the map and create a buzz, and of course rockin' parties. As someone who interned at a major music distributor and once dreamed of being a record label exec (before I realized the only way to get hired was to be an unpaid intern for 3 years), this would be a dream environment to me. This year the conference expanded to include interactive and film components, most likely only exponentially increasing the fun.

I do have to say that last weekend was quite a blast. I spent two days consuming large amounts of basketball and beer in the company of some friends. I've come to the conclusion of no matter how much basketball you watched the first two days of the NCAA tourney, you still want more. Those upset moments are just addicting.

And of course march madness brings the ubiquity of NCAA pools. While they're usually referred to as "office pools," that term holds no significance to me because when you work at a 22-person industrial design firm there's none taking place. Luckily, I managed to enter three different pools with groups of friends. After sitting in the middle of the pack at the end of round one I've moved to the top three in each thanks to some nice sweet 16 picks. Gotta love having extra incentive to watch the rest of this thing play out.

I wasn't planning on talking about anything marketing-related in this post, but I just read about one of the coolest online marketing initiatives I've ever seen. Nike and Google have quietly launched the first invitation-only Web site for soccer-mad fans around the world. The site, Joga.com, went live late last week and will be running in 140 countries and 14 languages. It looks like the site will be incorporating profile pages, forums, video and rich media conent, and more. It sounds very similar to MySpace, but the bigger thing here is this is the first example I've seen of a brand getting the social marketing thing right. If the content is as good one would expect from these brands, this thing could really catch on with soccer hooligans worldwide and provide an authentic, interactive brand experience for Nike (not to mention further cement Google's reputation for amazing content). If it does catch on, we're also going to see A LOT of shitty, contrived attempts at the same sort of thing. Gotta love clueless marketers.

Alright, I'm out. Go UConn! (Daddy needs a new pair of shoes)

CURRENT LISTENING: White Stripes - Walking With The Ghost cover
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Good Night, and Good Luck

Meet idiot #2

2006-03-10T18:54:00.003-06:00

Not to be outdone by Mr. Culpepper's idiocy, the most notable athlete to score under a 10 on the Wonderlic test since Vince Young is also demanding a trade: Javon "I wear my own jersey to the the club" Walker.

As reported by ESPN.com this morning, the Packers star receiver who sat out most of the 2005 season with a torn-ACL in the first game is seeking a trade due to what he views as "unfair treatment" stating that he has "no interest in being in a Green Bay Packers uniform or playing for Green Bay again." But it doesn't stop there. He even goes as far as to say that he'd rather retire next season than play for the team he has no desire to be a party of. Quite a threat for a guy who has no leverage considering he's coming off a major injury and has only performed at a Pro Bowl level once in his career.

Of course the Packers could not less let this mess pass without commenting. GM Ted Thompson issued the following statement:

"During his time as a Green Bay Packer, Javon Walker has been well thought of by everyone here. I like Javon, certainly as a person and as a player.

That said, Javon is under contract, which he signed as a 2002 first-round draft choice. That contract is governed by the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which was negotiated between the National Football League and the National Football League Players’ Association, and we expect him to honor it.

There have been several highly publicized cases of player discontent in the National Football League. I don’t anticipate us making any concessions in this matter.

We will continue to stay the course, and the Green Bay Packers will have no further comment on this topic."

Javon, meet brick wall.

All kidding aside I think the Packers will probably end up trading Walker as it would be more of a detriment to have a tantrum-throwing player like this around to become a cancer in the locker room. It's too bad. I used to really like Walker. He seemed like a hard-working player and improved each of his first few years in the league. But he's not the player he is in his own distorted, little mind and for that, I hope he gets traded to some team with a shit QB and learns how good he is when he isn't catching passes from a future Hall-of-Famer.

QUARTERBACK FOR SALE

2006-03-10T10:15:00.000-06:00

If you give a rat's behind about the NFL offseason, you've probably noticed that everyone's favorite Sex Boat Captain, Daunte Culpepper, has been part of an ongoing soap opera thus far. Said soap opera also stars the Minnesota Vikings front office, including owner Zygi Wilf, and carries a varying plot-line based on the Quarterback being on the trading block, off the trading block, receiving his soon-due roster bonus, to finally demanding for a trade or release. The main catalyst for all the controversy has been e-mails to the media, who seem to be the only people in Minnesota who still love Culpepper.

Had Mr. Culpepper not suffered a major injury or been involved in the lewd acts of that Lake Minnetonka boat cruise last year, he probably would've been gone by now. But it turns out, while there has been interest for the QB, the Vikes haven't exactly been offered the type of value that they're expecting. But never fear Vikings fans, for one of your sharp-thinking faithful has found the solution: send Culpepper off to the highest bidder...on eBay!

The bidding starts at $1 million and the questions are already flying in like the strippers were last October. Damaged? Only slightly. Young? Definitely. Talented? That's debatable.

If only it were this easy (and fun!) in real life. In reality, it turns out the Vikings have found some offers and are getting ready to pull the trigger.

Speaking of trades, Green Bay bonehead receiver Javon Walker is seeking one for himself now as well. More on this crap later.

Are we ready to see it on the big screen?

2006-03-05T21:42:00.000-06:00

On Saturday afternoon I went to see the movie 16 Blocks with my girlfriend. It was a great action flick with an outstanding performance by Mos Def, but that is not the significance of this post.

About halfway through the previews, I was completely taken-aback by the start of a preview that featured the visual of an airport flight-tracking grid that seemed to be depicting something eerily similar to the events of 9/11. It turned out, that's what it was.

The movie is called Flight 93. The trailer was not very telling, mostly omitting any actual film footage except for a small, blurred segment. But the audio told the story. It was filled with air traffic control checks, passenger phone calls to loved ones, talk amongst themselves and screams. And paired with the simple, but chilling digital depiction of the planes changing course on a monitor, it was enough to get your heart racing.

The first thing I thought to myself upon seeing the preview was "holy shit." The events of that tragic day are less than 5 years behind us. The movie comes out in April. Is it too soon? How soon is appropriate? This is the debate that's sure to be all over the media within a few weeks. Given that the movie comes out in April (the 28th is the release date I found upon some research), I couldn't believe I hadn't heard a thing about the film yet.

I'm completely compelled to see this movie. In fact, it's the only situation where I think someone could be moved to tears seeing and hearing a preview, as I almost was. But for how many people is this situation going to be the same? I remember that day as clear as any of my four years of college and maybe as clear as any day of my life. But I was blessed enough not to suffer the loss of any family member or friend, or anyone I knew for that matter. Many people were not.

As intrigued as I was by the preview, the first thing I did when I got home was jump online and do some research on the film background. Somehow I had missed this New York Times article that was published on January 1st (though I can imagine why I was not reading any newspapers that day). From this article, I not only learned more about Flight 93, I found that there are three other films in the works with storylines related to 9/11, including a picture by Oliver Stone. Not only is this arguably going to be too early, it could be too much.

The question must arise whether Hollywood studios are capitalizing off of America's pain, or if there are just too many Producers/Directors with a desire to show the world these events in a different way and spread larger messages. There isn't much information on the other three films yet, but I can tell you that Flight 93 fits the latter. The movie is being directed by Paul Greengrass, best known for directing The Bourne Supremacy and the less well-known, but more intention-showing Bloody Sunday, a 2002 movie that depicted the 1972 incident in which 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators were killed by British soldiers in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

Upon reading even further, and discovering this website devoted to the movie, I am convinced that Mr. Greengrass is serious about magnifying the true story of what the individuals on that plane experienced, and creating a dialogue about how these people were really the first conversation in how to deal with terrorist attacks in our modern world. According to the website, the movie "tells the story of the day through a meticulous re-enactment of events surrounding United 93, the last of the four hijacked aircraft, in the belief that by examining this single event something much larger can be found - the shape of our world today." The film run in real-time of the 90 minute flight with phone calls to loved ones and conversations between passengers, pilots, etc. being as authentic as possible. That being possible from the two dozen phone calls and 30 minutes of cockpit recordings that stand as the only true records of the events.

I'm preparing myself for an intense, emotion-wrenching viewing experience. Will you be going to see it? (View the teaser trailer here)

Speaking of movies, I just got done watching the Oscars. If it wasn't so inappropriate this would be an easy time to make a joke about a looming Armageddon after members of Three 6 Mafia won an Academy Award for "Best Original Song."

It's that wonderful time of year

2006-03-02T08:35:00.000-06:00

When I was at the peak of my sports-crazed youth, in junior high, I once declared that March Madness was the second best time of the year only to Christmas. While I no longer devote quite as much attention to college basketball as I once did when I was playing the sport, I'm still a fan and the upcoming start of the greatest tournament-style playoff in sports still gets my blood rushing. I can hardly wait for that first day of simultaneous and back-to-back-to-back hoops contests. I even heard something on the radio the other day that with all of the people watching the games or checking for score updates online during the first two days of the tournament, U.S. employers lose something like $3 billion in productivity. Bummer.

Although the NCAA tournament is still a couple weeks away, March Madness officially started with a BANG yesterday with Florida State upsetting #1 ranked Duke at home, after arguably getting a Duke upset stolen from them earlier in the season with a lack of an apparent foul call. As any jacked-up fans would, members of FSU's student section rushed the court. The one tiny detail they overlooked was that there were still seconds on the clock. I could really care less about this. It happens all the time and the game was realistically out of Duke's hands. But the downside of this is, Coach K got the opportunity to take attention away from FSU's performance by acting all miffed about the whole thing. Sorry Coach K, but there are bigger fish to fry, such as is your team even going to beat North Carolina and when is J.J. Redick going to get his stroke back?

Unfortunately I will have no home team to root for in this year's tourney. While my Minnesota Golden Gophers have been playing their best ball of the season in the last month and beat several ranked opponents, they also started the season 0-6 due to injuries and an overall lack of identity. Thus, my loyalty will probably be turned to my home-state Wisconsin Badgers (and of course whoever I pick to go far in my bracket).

Anyway, it's been a while but I gotta get back on track with the Top 5. Here goes for March:

1. March Madness
2. St. Patty's Day - to steal from a sports blog I read I'll be "0% Irish, 100% drunk"
3. A big tax return
4. My new Panasonic digital camera (in the mail!)
5. Dave Chappelle's Block Party

Be cool.

"24 is a soap opera for men"

2006-02-28T17:41:00.000-06:00

Said my friend Jon, also a devout fan of the show.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm a soap opera addict.

Mankato, MN: Most drunk students per capita?

2006-02-28T13:40:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend I hung out with one of my best friends from high school where he goes to college: the town of Mankato, MN. This was probably the fifth or sixth time I had been to Mankato for "leisure" purposes, though I've been to their campus area in the double digits because of my part-time job with Red Bull in college.

My friend, who I jokingly refer to as "The Mayor" due to the fact that he seemed to know everyone down there as a freshman, is truly enchanted with his college town, even going as far as calling it "the greatest place on Earth." On the surface, this town of 32,427 people looks anything but a potential treasure to a twenty-something from a major metropolitan area, though it could easily seem to be an exciting place for someone from a bit of a smaller town. But dig a little deeper (translation: go out at night) and you'll find what all of the fuss is about. From campus house parties to the highly concentrated few blocks of bars fighting for students with cheap drink specials, it is as big of a party school atmosphere as you will ever see. Sure, UW-Madison holds the official title, which if I'm not mistaken is awarded anually, but they have the bias of a larger and more visible student body. Of Mankato's approximately 14,000 students, I have to believe that at least 70% of them "binge drink" on a weekly basis (the def. of "binge" states "5 or more drinks in a single setting"). And sure, my friends and I did a fair share of partying ourselves at the U of M, but when you go to a school that's actually academically rigorous, you can't drink 5 out of 7 nights of the week (though I'm sure a few people I've met would argue with me). My counterparts at Mankato can do this when they choose to, and they love their school for it. I don't know how they'll all turn out, but at least they have Timberwolves owner and MSU alum Glen Taylor for inspiration.

He said it

2006-02-24T10:27:00.000-06:00

Reggie Bush on what he likes most about the possibility of playing pro football in Houston: “No state tax.”

What about-to-be-rich twenty-something would blame him? Reggie Bush knows he's money and he knows he's all but solidified the number one pick in the upcoming NFL draft. What comes as a refreshing deviation from what's becoming the norm in pro sports is that the NFL's next big superstar is a surprisingly humble, level-headed guy. You won't find Bush talking himself up when the microphones are in his face. He just lets that ankle-breakin' play on the field do the talking.

Speaking of the NFL draft, the thing is still about two months away, yet the hype and speculation has already started to occupy at least 20% of each SportsCenter broadcast. I guess I really can't blame them though. As much as I love baseball, the stories from spring training tend to be as exciting as quarterly corporate financial statements.

The NFL draft combine has gotten exponentially bigger each of the past three years and this year it's almost as big of a media circus as Super Bowl week. This draft prospect meat market is now even being covered on the NFL Network and the event itself has garnered corporate sponsors (I'm personally waiting to see The BenGay NFL Draft Combine). Personally, I still think scouts put way too much stock into the draft. Just get some "football players." You know what I mean. Favre. Urlacher. John Lynch.

Okay, 180-degree topic switch. Last night I was out for an ultra-belated holiday party for my previous part-time employer, which I was graciously invited to even though I was done working for them in January now that I have a full-time job. The first part of the night was a group trip out to ComedySportz, a live improv comedy show that offers good, clean fun for the entire family, but also manages to be completely hilarious. Since we were in somewhat of a mall-type complex -- it's called Calhoun Square and has various shops and restaurants -- we had some bars at our disposal. I rounded up a few of the guys and threw out the idea of us going to get a shot before the show. So we scurried over to the bar and I was hounded by a few people to buy the round, being one of the only guys with a full-time, "real world" job (although I can't say my disposable income is much higher than any of them, especially when one of the guys still has his rent paid by his parents). So I give in. The shitty part is, one of my friends takes the liberty in choosing what shot to order and has the audacity to choose a $6-per shot selection. Fine, whatever. I didn't have a whole lot of money set aside for the night, but my friend tells me everyone will hit me back later. Okay, cool.

A few hours later, everyone's at the sushi bar chowin' on sushi rolls and putting back sake. Without much money left and wanting a brew, I'm patiently waiting for one of the guys to step up and offer to buy one. Well, no one made the move. The great part is, when I subtley ask the friend discussed earlier if he would be kind enough to hit me back, he relies "I'm not going to buy a drink here" like the prices made the idea blasphemous. Nice. Real nice.

Well, I've fulfilled my rant obligation for the week and while it's quite possibly the slowest day I've experienced since that time I actually watched grass grow, I can't think of anything else I want to write about to extend the life of this post. So this is it.

CURRENT LISTENING: Built To Spill - You Were Right

Now THAT'S good advertising

2006-02-22T11:39:00.000-06:00

"People don't read advertising. People read what interests them, and sometimes that happens to be advertising." - Howard Gossage

In an age of DVR, product parity, thinly spread individual media consumption, and perhaps marketing overkill, this statement rings especially true. That's why Crispin Porter and Bogusky is so amazing. Campaign after campaign, they deliver, engaging viewers and building their clients' brands in ways that have profound impacts on sales (see: Burger King, MINI). Well guys, it looks like they've done it again.

The latest and greatest campaign from CP+B is their first work for Volkswagen and features some of the most entertaining commercials I've seen in a long time. After U.S. sales slumped for five consecutive years, Volkswagen picked up their $400 million account and took it from Arnold Worldwide to CP+B without a review. It looks like it was a good idea.

The new TV ads for Volkwagen's just-released GTI performance car made their debut during the Winter Olympus coverage on NBC and have been running constantly throughout the coverage. The campaign theme is "Make Friends With Your Fast," with the "Fast" being the "thing" inside drivers that makes them want to drive...fast, naturally. The thing that makes the campaign ridiculously entertaining is that the "fast" is embodied in a strange little black creature figure that looks like it was the spawn of Darth Vader and some type of rabbit. Various plots have the "fast" riding with the owner of a GTI and start speaking to the driver in an evil voice as if it's their conscience. These humor-inducing situations include being pulled over by a police officer and driving around with a girlfriend.

The quick impact of the campaign has been unmistakable with all of the ad blogs and trades producing stories on it. More importantly, viewers are loving the spots and talking about them with their friends. All four commercials made their way onto a GTI fan site called myfastgti.com before Crispin Porter could even launch a campaign minisite for Volkswagen. But you know you're really creating a buzz when you have people wanting to get their hands on some type of figure of the brand icon you've created. There were several reader comments similar to this one following a BusinessWeek feature on the campaign:

Nickname: Michelle
Review: Where can I get a "My Fast" character? Every time the commercial comes on everybody stops what they are doing to watch it! We have Tivo so my sons have been taping the commercials so they can watch them over and over again. Does the "My Fast" come with the car?
Date reviewed: Feb 19, 2006 3:56 AM

The geniuses at Crispin Porter + Bogusky have created yet another amazing brand icon. But this campaign doesn't only demonstrate the impact of creating an icon that really personifies a brand: it's another lesson that in order to be successful in building a brand, you must find it's true soul.

As a Wisconsin-born and loyal guy, I'm sure glad to see Miller moved it's Lite brand over to CP+B. That's the best call (bad pun intended) they've ever made.

CURRENT LISTENING: Rogue Wave - Postage Stamp World

Coffee, coolness, and human disposition

2006-02-16T12:26:00.000-06:00

- As a college student and generally morning-challenged person, I've always needed something to get me going in the morning whether it's a shower or a caffiene-loaded beverage. Working for Red Bull for 2 1/2 years that was never a problem. While from time to time I'd mix it up with something else in the morning, that was my fuel of choice. Since I started my full-time job in December, I've started to mix it up a bit more having coffee or tea some mornings and if possible, just water (which is tough and rare). One of the most frequent consumer beliefs we had to dispel when I worked for Red Bull was the idea that the stuff is chock full of caffiene. While it does have a solid amount of caffiene (80 milligrams), lately I've found myself much more wired on the mornings that I drink coffee. Today in particular my mind seemed to be whizzing in all sorts of directions and putting me in an ADD-like state. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I'm so used to Red Bull it doesn't affect me in the way it once did, but on the other hand coffee doesn't have an ingredient to help focus as taurine does in the Bull. Either way, I was about as focused as a kindergartener after a jumbo pixie stick this morning.

- A recent study discussed on Agenda, Inc. this morning found that technology is a huge factor in in being 'cool' among today's youth, with cool kids now being defined as the "creatives."

No longer are today's generation of cool kids defined by the brand names they wear -- now they're defined as being the "Creatives," according to a recent study. According to the Energy BBDO study of teens across 13 countries "Creatives are the most wired, most innovated and most influential teens worldwide."

My question: does this mean the teenage bloggers and Sidekick users are getting laid more than the jocks?

- Finally, the other day I was thinking about my career choice and how I couldn't see myself in any career other than marketing/advertising or something that involves writing. Besides my natural proclivity for creative outlets, I was thinking on the larger scale of my personal dispositions to certain types of thinking . Though I can be pretty good at analyzing thinkings and making deductions, I absolutely hate math and never really had a strong interest in how machines worked or other things that engineering types are sometimes into at a young age. Moreover, my interests have largely been in activities involving human emotion/relation or expression, which are obviously a huge part of branding, marketing, and advertising. Now it could be a rather narrow and short-sighted view, but it seems to me that you could place (white collar) careers in one of two categories: people/emotion-oriented or analysis/logic-oriented. This is like the whole left brain and right brian argument where it's pretty ignorant to say people completely fit one or the other, but relatively speaking I think it applies. Thinking of the people I know and what type of job they're in, I can definitely see those dispositions having a magnetizing effect.

I know, lots of cerebral stuff today. I'll write about something fun next time. For now, go read about modern day yacht pirates.

CURRENT LISTENING: Stevie Wonder - "As"

Hallmark: The kings of PR

2006-02-14T08:50:00.000-06:00

Like millions of people, I will be spending the night celebrating this "lover's only" holiday with my girlfriend. We'll be going out to a nice dinner at a restaurant that we haven't checked out before and of course have bought each other some little gifts as the Valentine's tradition has come to be. Now I'm not a huge fan of the holiday for several reasons. While I truly love my girlfriend and celebrating the fact, I am one of the believers that I don't need one specific day of the year to recognize it by spending copious amounts of money. The fact that this tradition has been created by the PR Machine of America's largest greeting card company only makes my opinion of it dip even more. But, as a advertising/marketing student, I have to believe this whole phenomenon would make a pretty damn good case study for one of the college courses I took.

The lady and I have a good practice of setting spending limits for holiday gifts. Of course I like to go above and beyond that sometimes, particularly when I have an awesome gift idea in mind. For this Valentine's Day we decided to keep things on the low end, which I like. I'm not a chocolate fan at all and I really don't need any stuffed animals so my girlfriend's options often fall into more personal things like framed photos or out of the realm of traditional "romantic gifts," which is quite fine with me. As for what I buy her, I bought her flowers on Valentine's two years, but am no longer going that route. I try to stay away from the standard gifts and I think flowers are better given in spontaneity anyway.

A few things outside of V-day that I've been chewing on:
- Is it just me or do people have a slightly different work habit/schedule on Mondays? The last two weeks I've noticed that when I leave for work around 8:00 in the morning (about a 10 min commute, mind you), the roads have been considerably less congested with cars than the rest of the days of the week. On my commute home, the roads are even more wide open. Now as the sole marcomm guy at an industrial design firm I'm almost never busy to the point where I have to put in time outside of my normal work day. But based on the way the Monday drives go for me, I'm led to the conclusion that most Americans trickle into work a bit late on Mondays and put in longer hours than the rest of the week. Is this assumption correct? Friends of mine (who have full-time jobs): how often do you end up putting in a day longer than 9 hours? Even though I'm sometimes unhappy that I'm not working in the exact industry I'd like to be in and don't have the level of passion I've had at previous workplaces I definitely can't complain about my work environment and the culture there. I'm sure a lot of recent grads have some big gripes in that area at their workplace.
- Speaking of commutes, in addition to the low traffic PM commute I enjoyed yesterday, it was great to get home when it's still completely light out. Yes, the dark Minnesota winter is starting to pass. Unlike many people winter doesn't get me down too much, but when you work until 5:00 and it's completely dark out when you get out it can be a little depressing sometimes.
- I'll leave you with just one link today (because everyone already knows the Vice President shot a lawyer): T.O. is getting his own reality show. Yes, everyone's most hated receiver is coming to prime time. Here's a brief synopsis courtesy of Businesswire.com:
"The show will combine T.O.'s passion for working out with his natural curiosity about other people. Guests on the show will come from the worlds of sports, entertainment and even politics -- and no subject will be off limits. The show will rely on T.O.'s witty personality and tendency to speak his mind."

As much as I hate T.O., I have a feeling this is going to be like a bad car crash for me (I won't be able to help but watch). It'll be interesting to see if Drew Rosenhouse ends up on there pretty often. I'm sure he'll end up proving to the two people that don't already know that he's T.O.'s bitch, reminding him that he's the greatest wide receiver in the world as he does his laundry and washes his car. Let's just hope they find a way to work in Ron Arest, Jose Conseco, and the infamous Flava Flav.

Cheers,

EH

CURRENT LISTENING: Rocky Votolato - "White Daisy Passing"

Tearing through the terrain of...the skyways?

2006-02-09T13:19:00.000-06:00

Last night I volunteered to help on the course at Red Bull SkyRide, their latest major original event to take place in Minnesota. SkyRide was a mountain bike race through the skyways of downtown St. Paul complete with stairs and many a hard corner. There were 50 racers (mostly from MN) and each racer got two runs through the time-trial course. The coolest thing about the event was the complete originality of the idea – the birth of MN Mountain Bike fanatic Adam Buck. He also happens to work for the company on the local field marketing team that I used to be a part of. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the event it wasn’t very spectator friendly. It should get a lot of press though. Here’s an article and an unedited video of the entire course via bike-cam from one of the local news stations.

Just another great example of Red Bull involving the brand within a core culture that it fits in a unique and authentic manner. Keeping with the brand personality, they threw a nice lil’ V.I.P. after party too.

More Awesomeness:
If you’re a Google mail user, like myself, you’ll probably dig their latest and greatest feature addition to your mailbox: Google chat. Yep, they went and embedded instant messaging right into the mailbox page. Apparently only a limited amount of users have the feature upgrade showing up right now but Google promises that everyone should have it within a few weeks. The one catch: the only “contacts” on your buddy list will be other Gmail users that you have sent or received e-mail from (but they’ll show up automatically). So whaddya waitin’ for friends? Go get a Gmail account!

CURRENT LISTENING: Birdmonster - EP

Hooray for Steel City! Hooray Beer!

2006-02-07T16:27:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to the Pittsburg Steelers for reaching the pinnacle of all sports by winning Super Bowl XL, even if it's disputable to some. I can't say the play was anywhere near spectacular on either side of the ball, but with a few big plays and a little help from the men in the black and white stripes they did enough to fend off the potent Seahawks offense. I am glad to see "The Bus" ride off into the sunset in an ideal fashion. It'll also be nice to not have to hear any more of the human-interest pieces about him playing his last game in his home town.

I had a great time at my Steeler friend's bash, consuming plenty of food and even more of the official beer of football (unfortunately no twins were present). Winning the first half of our football pool didn't hurt either. But ultimately, the thing that makes Super Bowl Sunday the most enjoyable for me is being surrounded by good friends with everyone from your hardcore fan to the "I'm just here for the beer" guy engaged in the event. It's a day that falls just below Christmas, the 4th of July, and New Year's Eve in my book.

As an advertising major (and hopefully lifetime professional), I take even more interest in the entire spectacle that game day due to the infamous multi-million dollar commercial spots (a cool $2.6 mil per :30 this year). I'm not going to give an in-depth analysis like every ad and marketing blog out there seems to be doing, but I will say I thought the commercials were above average as a whole this year. Generally speaking, the humor was a bit smarter than last year, staying away from the crude and crass stuff in favor of more outright quirky stuff. My favorite spot was either the Fed Ex Cave Man spot or Bud Light's "Magic Fridge." I was definitely a little disappointed by Burger King, though my dwelling on the concept would never go as far as this funny little diatribe in comic form.

I've also found it interesting how many advertising and media experts have argued the "value," or complete lack thereof, in the Super Bowl :30 spot. There's good arguments on both sides of the coin. While marketers could surely find a lot more effective (and more creative) ways to spend $2.6 million dollars, it's hard to argue against the post-game buzz and the number people going online to watch free downloads of the spots available via countless major websites.

Well, that's my little "Post Super-Bowl Wrap-up." It's going to be a long three weeks without any worthwhile sports to watch (see: March Madness). Yes, I did just discount the winter Olympics.

Before I go, let me remind you that the next time you're out on the town, do it up like Big Ben does...

Is the average person paying attention to blogs? Not my friends

2006-02-02T10:51:00.000-06:00

One thing I've been meaning to share here for a while is reactions people have had to my blog, whether in real-life or in the form of a Facebook message. Here are some of the highlights:

"What the hell is a blog?" - a friend/former co-worker

"You have a blog?!?" - a friend, in a surprised, "wow, you ARE a geek" fashion

"Love yer blog dude!" - Facebook message most likely drenched in sarcasm

"Just read your blog 'o fun. Interesting." - Facebook message

Those are a few of the more unique choice quotes. Other than that I have a few friends who read the blog on a regular basis, really understand what it is, and are geniunely interested.

Some of the reactions from people, all my own age, made me wonder what the actual readership, awareness, and interest in blogs is. After a quick search, I found a March 2005 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll that revealed some major findings about the actual level of most Americans' familiarity with weblogs. Interesting figures:

"More than three-quarters of Americans — 76 percent — said they use the Internet, but only 26 percent said they were “very familiar” or “somewhat familiar” with blogs.

Just 7 percent of adults said they read blogs at least a few times per week...Forty-eight percent said they never do."

With the current number of blogs at a staggering 26.9 million, it would seem surprising that only 26% of internet users read blogs -- and only 7% of total American adults.

While I could not find anything focusing particularly on Generation Y, the one that I belong to and the one known for being the most socially connected through the internet, I would assume a huge concentration of those percentages lies there.

And while blogs have certainly come into discussion in mainstream media in the last 6 months, they probably haven't quite hit the tipping point in mainstream America the way instant messaging and most recently, MySpace, have. From talking to friends, I only know a few others who actively read blogs and an even smaller number of people who write their own.

It's still a fringe thing. And that explains the sarcasm and "geek" type responses.

Onto other things...
- I'm attending a cool party this weekend thrown by a friend/former co-worker and some of his buddies. The party is billed as "The First Annual Random Party" and the invitation came with the following description:

"The concept behind the random party is simple…you're much more likely to meet new and interesting people through your friends than at a packed bar full of "striped shirt guys" and "cougars" (look up the terms if you need to!!!)."

I can't say I disagree with that premise. The party is being held at Martini Blu, a classy, albiet somewhat "yuppie," downtown Minneapolis bar located in a swanky Hotel. I don't know if I'd pick the same setting and vibe, but I'm up for getting dressed up a la "Swingers" and doin' it big at a nice place a few times a year. Should be a good time.

- Work has been somewhat slow this week. I've been keeping myself steadily busy throughout the day, but it kinda feels like the week has dragged by. In addidtion, my workload now involves more calling random people on the phone. Although my title is Marketing & External Communications -- not particurly sales -- a part of my duties is lead generation before we create and send personalized marketing materials to decision-markers at target companies. I wouldn't call it cold-calling, but it's not too far off, and I'm not particularly thrilled when I have to do it. Guess there's positives and drawbacks to every job...

- I'm pretty excited for Super Bowl XL, as it should be a great game. Things are definitely heating up between the players right now. I'll be watching at the house of my hardcore Steeler-fan friend with plenty of beer and food in tow. A few friends of mine and I tossed around the idea of not only wearing, but making, Seahawks gear to wear over. Steeler friend would probably find it funny until his team had the lower numeral in the score column.

Well, that's it for the day. Have an awesome weekend.

New decorating around here

2006-01-31T22:22:00.000-06:00

As you can see, I decided to make a few changes to the look and feel of the blog. It pretty much came down to me being sick of the previous color scheme, not to mention the difficulty reading the font.

I also opted for a change in title. "The Graduate" seemed too generic and while "Too Be Young" isn't a big leap in complication or intellectual references, it embodies my personality and spirit perfectly and happens to share the title with a song by one of my all-time favorite musicians, Ryan Adams.

Finally, I was thinking the topics and content I've been covering when I sit down to write a new entry. If you've followed this blog since I started it -- there's gotta be 2 or 3 of you -- you've noticed that I went from updating about once or twice a month to the couple times per week I've made the concerted effort toward as of late. And while I've been writing more often, it's also been more of just posting links to major news and cool stories. So I'm takin' it back to my original intention for this thing. To reflect on all of the things I'm currently celebrating, pondering, or agonizing over (all of the topics listed in that little description below the title) and to share what's goin' on in my life with whoever cares to read. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert about marketing or politics, because quite frankly, I'm not and there are plenty of much better blogs you could read of you wanted that sort of thing. But I am going to express my ruminations and go on the occasional rant...so, maybe the content isn't changing much at all.

Anyway, I should continue to post on a pretty regular basis. Leave me more comments and drop an e-mail if you like something, or if you especially don't.

I'm ghost like Swayze...

CURRENT LISTENING: Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up (yep, Kanye jacked it!)

Dear sports reporters: Just leave Favre alone

2006-01-30T17:47:00.001-06:00

In case you slept all day or didn't get a chance to read, listen to, or watch any sports coverage, Chris Mortenson's Sunday ESPN interview with Brett Favre realed that the legendary Quarterback is leaning toward retirement.

"If I had to pick right now and make a decision, I would say I'm not coming back."

About 3 years ago the media launched what has become an annual "Favre retirement talk" circus. Throughout the disappointing 4-12 season that the Packers endured last fall, fuel was continually added to the fire with speculation and questions about the end coming from sports reporters at every opportunity. Since the end of the season, it has only gotten worse and has now enlarged into a full-blown spectacle. Can't the media just leave this guy alone and let him make his decision when he's ready?!?

Now I know what you're thinking. If Brett didn't want to do the interview, he should've have granted one. As much as Favre really doesn't care for the limelight, the ol' southern boy has always been admirably frank and candid when posed with questions from media, whether it was during the announcement of his addiction to painkillers or after the death of his father. At this point, I think he went on camera to discuss his uncertainty with wanting to continue playing because he isn't sure and wants people to decide for him. Or maybe he wants to show Packers GM Ted Thompson and new Coach, Mike McCarthy that he's serious about possibly retiring and that they better make some moves to shore up the talent on the roster while he's waiting to decide. I don't know. But I do know that it would certainly be great if the media just put the speculation to rest and leave the man alone about his decision until he's ready to announce it for real.

Is he going to retire? I think most fans are thinking yes right now. But, if the man was serious about retiring, don't you think he would've just announced it by now? As much as some of his comments about desire concern me (I never wouldn've thought his desire would wane), I would love to see Brett decide that he's going to play one more year -- and no more -- and put everything he has into going out with a great one. If he does decide not to come back, Packer fans should be thankful for 14 years of watching one of the greats and let the man ride off into the sunset...on his lawnmower of coursre.

Onto a few other topics...
-Minneapolis ad agency Carmichael Lynch developed a series of unique Porsche-inspired film shorts that will run on IFC Films' Cult Theater. They are currently running 11 of the shorts on their website (right-hand column). I like "Masochist" and "Sunshine Supercar."
-A good tutorial on how one can take professional-looking photos without being a professional.
-Lonely Planet "Bluelist" is a website that I recently discovered and like quite a bit. To "bluelist" is to recommend a travel experience and the site has a large selection of travel recommendations on a diversity of list topics ranging from "best beaches to visit worldwide" to "best places to get naked" (I swear I didn't find that second from a keyword search). Oh yeah, they have a cool new book out based on the Bluelist too.

That's all for now. I'm aiming for at least one more appearance this week...no promises.

CURRENT LISTENING: Neil Young - Heart of Gold

Just "Blink"

2006-01-26T11:41:00.000-06:00

Let me start at the beginning.

As a recent college graduate who just began his career, I’ve heard from plenty of people that I should start saving and investing money while I’m young and that the sooner you start saving, the sooner you’ll be able to retire. Since starting my job I try to save at least $200 per month in my savings account though the money in there will be going toward a new (used) car in the spring.

Rewind to 3 or 4 months ago. As a loyal Chipotle-goer, I wondered to myself whether the company would end up splitting from McDonald’s and ever offer stock. I did a little searching and found some speculation online and talked to my investing-crazy friend who at 23 seems to follow the stock market like many of us follow our sports teams at that age. He mentioned to me that he had heard some talk about it, but nothing for sure.

My whole interest in Chipotle stock is based off of a few simple, but somewhat marketing and business-savvy observations. I saw a company who had a great product offering, taking a ton of business away from traditional fast-food outlets with its “gourmet food, fast” position. I also saw a well-developed brand, great store design and experience, and excellent customer service and promotions including “free burrito” giveaways on holidays and “buy one now, bring back the receipt for a free one on X date.” Most importantly – and the result of the previous three factors – is a cult-like following that sees people standing in 15-minute lines on their lunch break just to get a craved burrito.

Now I have zero stock market experience whatsoever. While I’m no student of finance, I’m smart enough to understand the core variables like capital, assets, and debt on a balance sheet. But a few things that I would hold at an equally high level of importance as balance sheet and growth plan are a company’s dedication to innovation and customer service and their brand power – the presence of or ability to produce a brand loyalists and zealots. With Chipotle having many of these things, I saw them as a great investment opportunity.

This week my investment-crazy friend was texting me news of Chipotle announcing the release of an Initial Public Offering later in the week. We started discussing it on the phone and through e-mail. It was speculated that the IPO would be $18-20 per share. I started pondering the thought of actually buying some stock, but since I was also saving for a car I figured I could throw down $300 on shares at most. I didn’t have an online brokerage account (and wasn’t going to open one anytime soon with many services requiring a minimum of $1000 to start), so my friend was going to buy the shares on his E-TRADE account for me.

Well, today was the actual IPO. Last night I didn’t talk to my friend about when the market opened in the morning and whether to get on and buy it for me. He was hanging out with his girlfriend and I was with mine and we put the subject off until the next morning. I came to work this morning, did some research on the IPO and because of a few sentences of concern over the capital required for their growth strategy – amidst much of the talk of high buzz and other potential – I couldn’t decide whether I should buy for sure or not. I hadn’t heard anything from my friend either. So what happened? The market opened and I got a text message an hour later from the friend telling me that the stock had leapt to $42 per share, double the initial offering, within an hour.

Point of the story: I didn’t make a quick, decisive action. I didn’t Blink.

(It would’ve helped to hear from my friend BEFORE the market opened too).

Why Sports Guy rules

2006-01-23T20:51:00.000-06:00

If you frequent ESPN.com or have ever checked out any of my links to the left of the page (yes, those links) you may have read a column or blog entry by Bill Simmons, aka "Sports Guy," a regular columnist on ESPN.com Page 2. The Sports Guy is an often humorous, always entertaining ruminator on the current happenings of the sports world. He also entertains mail from readers once a week on Page 2 and is
known to discuss about many things out of the normal sports world subject
matter including famous women and pop culture. The following letter serves as a perfect example of why I love the "Sports Guy":

Q: I think I was actually more upset over the assassination of former President David Palmer on "24" last night than I would have been if our actual president would have been assassinated. It was like I lost
a member of my own family. Maybe I'm just screwed up, but I don't think so. Here is my question: If you forced every registered voter in America to watch seasons 1-4 on DVD, and convinced Dennis Haysbert to legally change his name to David Palmer, don't you think he would win in a landslide in 2008? I have bounced this question off several people and Palmer has every vote so far, and most would have voted for
him over Bush and Kerry.
-- Ryan Desmond, Miami

SG: Obviously I'm with you. But while we're here, some readers were upset that I revealed the "24" plot twist in Wednesday's column
because they hadn't watched the show yet. So here's my question...how can you call yourself a "24" fan and not watch the season premiere of "24" right when it airs? Are you kidding me? Would you save the Super Bowl on TiVo and watch it later? What about Game 7 of the NBA Finals? When "24" came on the tube Sunday night, my baby daughter
could have had a diaper covered in six pounds of poop and I would have waited until 10 o'clock to change her. I'm not apologizing for this one. You had three days to watch it -- unless you were trapped in a well or something, there's no excuse. That's like saying that I shouldn't have discussed the Bettis Fumble.

It was a good Monday

2006-01-23T17:42:00.000-06:00

I'm someone who hates Mondays. It's something that was preingrained long before I started the 40 hour week, but that certainly hasn't helped things. That said, today turned out to be a pretty good Monday. Nothing special, but it felt "alright" for a Monday. Maybe it was the solid night of sleep I got last night. Or it could've been the fact that I had some things to jump on right away at work and was steadily busy the entire day. It could've even been my comfort in knowing that I won't have to see Jake Plummer play in a Super Bowl. Who knows, but I hope a few of you out there had a good start to the week too.

I'm not going to post much today, but here's a few stories worth reading:
- The New York Times reports that Dub-ya is going to start taking unscripted audience questions during his appearance. We'll see how long that lasts.
- Kobe Bryant dropped 81 points! on the Raptors last night. I say he's a ballhog. I'm only half-kidding.
- Long time coming film "Little Miss Sunshine" starring Greg Kinnear and Steve Carrell finally makes its debut at the Sundance Film Festival.
- The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team SUCKS (No link necessary).

Finally, if you're as much of a fan of Conan O'Brien as I am you'll thoroughly enjoy reading this transcript of his Commencement Speech to the Harvard Class of 2000. Nothing short of awesomeness.

Only two hours until 24!!!

CURRENT LISTENING: Cat Power's "The Greatest" and The Flaming Lips' new single, "The W.A.N.D."

Pack + the Playoffs (not in the same paragraph)

2006-01-22T13:07:00.000-06:00

Throughout the past few weeks, some strong winds of change have whisked
through 1265 Lombardi Avenue (that's the offices of the Green Bay Packers
for all you who ain't knowin'!). I've declined to post any comments
here yet partially because I've been pretty busy and partially because I
wasn't sure how I felt about the situation. My beloved Packers
went out and hired Mr. Mike McCarthy, Offensive Coordinator of the SAN
FRANCISCO 49ers?!? The collective gasp and ensuing backlash from much of the
Packer faithful luckily isn't being felt to the same magnitude out here in
Minnesota, but reading and hearing things from afar, I can tell that GM
Ted Thompson is on a very short leash with fans from here on out.

As someone who tends to let my emotions control my reactions and
judgements, I tried to remain level-headed and find out more about Mr.
McCarthy before joining the lynch mob in the streets of Green Bay (I wanted
to see Thompson hire Defensive Coordinator Jim Bates). So a lot of
reading, I found out that McCarthy...
-Is a no nonsense guy from blue collar Pittsburgh who demands respect
from players
-Has a good track record of developing Quarterbacks, including Aaron Brooks, Jake Delhomme and Matt Hasselbeck
-Is widely regarded as a creative playcaller in NFL circles

In addition, McCarthy has a relationship with Brett Favre after serving
as Packers Quarterbacks Coach in 1999. Hopefully it's enough to bring
Brett back for one more go around. If he doesn't, we'll be starting the
2006 season with a first-time, unproven head coach (and the third named
"Mike" in a row); a new, first-time Offensive Coordinator; a new
Defensive Coordinator; and an inexperienced, second-year Quarterback. It's
sure to be quite an interesting season. I'm going to support the coach and wait to see how things turn out. Good Luck "M3" -- you might need it.

Alright, enough Packer talk for now. I'll put it away until the draft
pending any major events.

Only 14 days 'til Super Bowl XL. I can't say I was sad to see the Colts
lose last week. Peyton Manning just can't get it done during the
playoffs. I kinda feel bad for Dungy though. It's fine to give your
intelligent, highly skilled QB the license to call the plays and audible at the line of scrimmage, but when you let him wave off the punt team in
your face on 4th and 2, your authority -- and balls -- are starting to
come into question. Then again, why were they even going to punt that late
in the game when they were down by three scores?

I'm not even going to comment on the atrocious call by the officials
in that game. I'll leave that to Joey Porter...

Today's Conference Championship games should be some great ones.
I can't remember the last time the playoffs were this wide open. Any
team could win it, but my picks for the Super Bowl are Pittsburgh and
Seattle. A hard-nosed defense versus a the league's most high-powered
offense could make quite a game.

Next time I post I'll deviate a bit from the football talk. It's just that football, beer, and snowboarding is what it is this time of year.

CURRENT LISTENING: Rogue Wave - Desceded Like Vultures
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Lord of War

That king is so hot right now!

2006-01-11T19:37:00.000-06:00

Apparently a series of paparazzi-style photos of Brooke Burke and the one and only Burger King have been circulating around blogs and photo sites. While no one knows for sure it's pretty easy to assume that this is another viral effort from BK's ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Another buzz-generating -- albeit simple -- idea. View the photo series here.

So...after looking at the comments section I take it people don't exactly care one way or another what I do with this blog?

What to do, what to do

2006-01-05T15:49:00.000-06:00

With the start of a New Year, we're always in a full press of self-reflection. Questions like 'what was great about the past year?' and 'what could've I have done better?' fill our heads as we look ahead. I have done plenty of it myself in the past couple weeks and one of the things I've been thinking about (though much further down the totem pole) is what to do with my blog.

I continue doing this for a few reasons. Keeping friends updated on some of the events in my life, having an outlet to vent or express my inner monologue and finally, to write more often outside of work. You don't have to be a great guesser to determine which one has failed in its purpose the most.

So for 2006 I've thought about a few different things I'd like to do with my blog. A natural course of action would be to just ditch it, as I only bring myself to write in it 1-2 times per month anyway. Another option is to continue writing, keeping the journal style going and making a valiant effort to write much more frequently. The final option -- and one I've thought about a lot lately -- is to narrow the blog down to a specific focus, whether it be music, football or just news and thoughts on the happenings of my good ol' Green Bay Packers. It should be obvious that I'm never going to use this blog as a money-making outlet, and while I don't care a ton about the number of readers I know that if I focused the topic (and of course, wrote frequently) I would have a bit more of a readership.

So what do you think? Drop a comment for once...unless you're another one of those blog spammer scumbags.

Oh yeah - Happy New Year!

- EH

Bet you you didn't expect to see this

2005-12-23T10:40:00.000-06:00

Once again it’s been drought season on this blog. It’s been a busy past month and a half and while I’ve probably had plenty of chances to update this thing I’ve been relaxing a bit more. We’ll play the update game once again to cover some highlights of all of the time I’ve missed.

In November I went out to Milwaukee with my buddy “Dirty” (the nickname isn’t for what you’d assume so clear your mind of all thoughts of the creepy roofie-slipping party guy). We visited a couple high school friends that I get out to see a few times a year and caught a Bucks game (OT win versus the Mavs), hit Milwaukee’s version of Brother’s, and went down to Chicago for a day where we attended Shedd’s Aquarium, ate the original Chicago-style pizza at Pizzaria UNO and had a few drinks at the ESPN Zone. In that same time period I also found out one of my friends was now engaged and was asked to be one of the groom’s men so that was a great way to top off a fun three day trip out of town.

The following week I started my full-time gig at the Industrial Design firm. It’s been going pretty good so far. It’s a smaller firm (17 people), but for the ID industry I guess that’s medium sized. I have to say that the space we work in is amazing and it’s definitely a creative environment, which I like a lot. The people are pretty nice too, which makes any job better. The biggest challenge for me is coming in as a Marketing guy and learning enough about Industrial Design and their process to eventually be able to write and talk about it intelligently. That’s going to be a bit of a hurdle and is part of the reason they haven’t thrown a town of work at me yet. I’ll get there with time. This is a good place to start my career and gain experience doing a lot of different things since I’m the sole Marketing and Publicity guy. In my heart, I know I’m going to want to get back over to the ad agency side or get a position with Red Bull if I can, eventually.

When you’re working a full-time job, the weeks go by like days. December has flown by and I feel like I haven’t had much of a chance to stop and take in my favorite time of the year. For Christmas this year I’m heading out to Wisconsin with my family and significant other to spend the Christmas with my Dad’s side of the family. I haven’t been out there in a while and even though it’s real small-town, I enjoy it. Christmas Eve will be at my Aunt and Uncle’s new house and then on Christmas morning the girlfriend and I will be getting up early to drive to back to the cities and spend the day with her family in St. Paul. Thank God I have Monday off to relax after all that driving.

To change subject, I'm just going to say that I was sooooo wrong about my prediction for the second half of the Packers' season. I'm back on the Sherman must go tip, and pray that the Packers find a good replacement coach, get Favre to come back and patch up some of the gaping holes in their lineup in the offseason. Actually this editorial sums up what I'd like to see happen quite nicely.

Since it’s the end of the year, you’ve probably noticed that every media outlet, blog, etc. has been coming out with their 2005 lists. Lists of the best music, books, movies, events and probably even celebrity sex tapes. Fimoculous has a good collection of categories from all sorts of media. My love for music is surely no secret, so although I’m no Pitchfork writer, I thought I’d post my top 10 albums of 2005. Drumroll please…

10. Lucero – Nobody’s Darlings
9. The Shout Out Louds – Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
8. Spoon – Gimme Fiction
7. The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday
6. The White Stripes – Get Behind Me Satan
5. Josh Rouse - Nashville
4. Ryan Adams – Cold Roses
3. Kanye West – Late Registration
2. Wolf Parade – Apologies To The Queen Mary
1. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm

Sorry, no Sufjan Stevens or Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah for me. While they were ubiquitous in 2005, topping most pretentious indie writers’ best of lists, they’re not my cup o’ tea.

No clear plans for New Year’s yet. I’m sure my friends and I will end up getting crazy sauced as usual so I’ll fill you in on that (and maybe include some visual evidence) in a later post...assuming I actually update this thing in 2006. To close the year, I thought I’d revert back to the customary top 5. Here’s five for 2005 and five for the coming year.

Top 5 of 2005 (as always, in no particular order)
1. Graduating college
2. Getting a job
3. Two-year anniversary with Vanessa
4. Learning how to snowboard and getting really into it
5. Jon’s Minnetonka boat/downtown graduation party -tie- Spring Milwaukee trip

Looking forward to in 2006
1. Getting a new car
2. Vanessa’s brother’s wedding in Maui
3. Going to Vegas or NY
4. Seeing where my career goes
5. (Hopefully) seeing a healthy and vastly improved Packer team

That’s all for now. Merry Christmas and God Bless.

- EH

P.S. There’s no “War on Christmas”

A glimmer of hope?

2005-11-14T19:21:00.000-06:00

The 2005 Green Bay Packers beat the Atlanta Falcons 33-25 yesterday. It's true. All sarcasm aside, I had a good feeling about the game yesterday morning but I'd be lying if I told you I thought they would win for sure. As ugly as their 1-7 record is, the Packers are better. Almost every loss has come by a few points and no team in the NFL has had their offense decimated by injury worse than the Packers. But the team has played hard and God sent them a gift in the quick, hard-running, and humble Samkon Gado. I'm not going to get overhyped about the Pack, but I do think the newfound run game is going to get them over the hump. The defense is top 10 right now and has played consistently solid all season, outplaying the expectations of most critics. Given this equation and the fact that Sherman has actually had the team practicing and playing with heart all year, I predict a 6-2 record for the rest of the season and believe it wouldn't even be a long shot to win out. Oh yeah, if this happens, I'm still a critic of Sherman but I WILL be the first to eat my words.

I'm only a week late, but if I actually updated this thing more I would've been talking about the bathroom stall bar-sex between the two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders. There have been thousands of stories and jokes about this all over the internet so all I will say to you is that I celebrate with my fellow man in the fact that one of our greatest fantasies has finally played itself into reality. SHA'MON!

In news pertinent to my real life, I found out last week that I will be starting my "real" job the first week in December which is pretty good news overall. It'll be nice to start making some decent money and have a consistent schedule, and I am excited about going to work for the firm as it seems to be a growing organization with a creative environment. Of course any recent college grad is going to be apprehensive about entering the 40-hour work week but we all have to do it at some point. The good thing is I have a few weeks to ease out of the part-time, lax lifestyle and enjoy some free time before starting. I'm looking forward to a long Thanksgiving weekend with family and possibly being in Iowa for the Gophers game and then visiting a friend in Milwaukee the following week. We're planning on attending a game between the surprisingly-hot Bucks and the Mavericks and of course having a few good nights of Wisconsin bar debauchery. I hope to finally check out Wolski's Tavern and bring home the infamous bumper sticker that shows you closed the place.

Randomness:

If you live in Minneapolis and like the band Spoon you should be very interested in going to your local bar and trying to win tickets to their 400 Bar show on Schell. Hope I'm lucky enough to be there December 8th.

After hearing and reading about VH1's latest reality hit Breaking Bonduce, I finally caught the show by chance today. It's what else but a reality series following the life of former Brady boy Danny Bonaduce through the trials and tribulations of his marriage and overcoming addictions to alcohol, steroids, and vicodin. After one episode I'll say you won't believe you're wasting your time watching it, yet you'll be highly entertained.

I'm really looking forward to the following: having HBO and watching the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, and listening to covers of Christmas songs by great bands in the next couple months (no joke, I love Christmas).

I'm going to leave you there. Too much blog writing make Eric something something.

- EH

CURRENT LISTENING: Shout Out Louds - Howl, Howl, Gaff, Gaff
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Jarhead

Fire Mike Sherman Pt. 2

2005-10-24T15:15:00.000-05:00

I said it two games into the season and I'm saying it again. There's no excuse for yesterday's loss (well except maybe Ryan Longwell's foot). Green Bay played not to lose the whole second half. No blitzes on Culpepper after having great success going at him in the first. What happens? The Vikings offense comes alive. Then, on the game-tying drive Sherman calls for a draw play on 3rd and 2 when Favre was hot the whole way down the field and you have the 3rd string running back in the game. Why merely try to tie a game and send it to overtime rather than march down and try to win it? That is what you call coaching with no balls.

I'm sorry, I know the outcome of the game usually depends more on the execution of the players than the coaching, but it's hard to look past the fact that despite his good record with the Packers, Sherman never wins in big games. I was glad when they stripped the GM title from him last Spring but the man really isn't the answer here at coach either. He runs a country club training camp (which leads to more injuries), doesn't know how to motivate his players, and doesn't make the right calls when the game is on the line. Smart man, probably a great coordinator, but not a strong enough head coach.

The season is all but over for the Pack after a 1-5 start and an even further depleted offense with injuries to Ahman Green and Robert Ferguson yesterday. The sad part is, Brett Favre is playing as good of football as he has any time in the past five years. Yesterday's statline: 28 of 35 for 315 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs. That's probably his best performance in two seasons -- need I remind you, with only one of his starting receivers! We can only hope that the man's love for the game will be enough to bring him back in '06.

*Sigh* Time to start looking at the top '06 draft prospects.

At least fantasy football has been fun. My records in my two leagues are 6-1 and 5-2, respectively. In the latter -- the more competitive league -- my team MVP is the Colts Defense/Special Teams. I don't know if that says my team is sad or that I made a real good pick but they've definitely won a few games for me.

On a non-football front, I have a third (and final?) interview for the Marketing & New Business position at the industrial design firm tomorrow. The mock project presentation really wowed the interview managers. The potiential client they assigned me was someone they've already been working with, so it was clutch that my research was right on, and they really liked the marketing ideas I concepted as well. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report back on the next post.

Saw Wedding Crashers over the weekend again with the girlfriend. I forgot how absolutely hilarious Chazz Reingold is -- one of the best niche characters ever. Not too many big movies out that I'd like to see right now but there's a lot of great independent stuff out including Capote, Good Luck and Goodnight, and The Squid and The Whale. I just signed up for a Netflix account a few weeks ago and I love it. My que is nicely backed up with a list of movies that I probably wouldn't go rent over new releases if I was making a trip to Blockbuster.

I still need to pick up the new Matt Pond PA album. The songs I have heard are great though. Go check it out if you like good music.

Cheers,

EH

CURRENT LISTENING: 1972 from Josh Rouse and new Bloc Party tracks

Believe it or not, I still post here

2005-10-12T20:31:00.000-05:00

So it's been a little while....okay, a long while. Here's a few things that have gone on in my life and the world at large since I last posted:

- I scratched my cornea after getting accidentally poked in the eye amid the post-game celebration of the Gophers' Homecoming game win over Purdue in double-OT
- The gulf coast was hit with another hurricane
- Paris Hilton and her fiance broke up...and no one seemed to care
- The Gophers got smoked by Penn State in Happy Valley
- Tom DeLay was indicted
- The Packers lost more games and started out 0-4 for the first time since the Lindy Infante era
- Ryan Adams released another album, this time going back to his alt-country roots
- I had a job interview at an Industrial Design firm
- Major League Baseball playoffs started...I for one, didn't care
- NHL season play came back...see above
- A major earthquake shook Pakistan
- The Gophers beat #21 Michigan in The Big House
- The Packers got their first victory of the season beating the New Orleans Saints TO THE TUNE OF 52-3
...and last, but certainly not least: Word of Minnesota Vikings throwing a sex party with strippers (or prostitutes?) aboard two rented luxury boats on Lake Minnetonka goes abuzz in the media

I have nowhere near the time or energy to ruminate on all of these happenings and I'm quite sure my opinion about a lot of them would be about as valuable to you as a second youknowwhat hole. What has been lingering on my mind quite a bit lately is my place in life and what I'm going to do in the immediate future. My daily search for jobs usually brings me to the same point of discouragement, though I did recently have an interview for an opportunity that I felt a spike of excitement for (more on that later). The marketing jobs I usually find captivate me about as much as the Twins season-ending series with the Detriot Tigers and I've even started to question whether I still want to go into marketing. What I think would make me happy right now is a copywriting job at a great ad agency, and that isn't possible without a knock-em-dead portfolio. So go to portfolio school, right? Well, if it weren't for the fact that doing so is another $30,000 education investment for a career in a dangerously volitale industry, I'd be there right now. But let's hypothetically take away the big investment and risk involved in it all. I still have issues because my subconscious has also weighed the fact that I should be doing something with my life that makes a more positive impact on the world than generating more consumption. So what is my true calling? Fuck me...I'm having a post-college crisis.

Let's jump out of my sub-conscious and into the real world. The job interview I had last week was with this unique design firm that takes existing products and re-invents them for companies. The position was a Marketing & New Business Development post that they were creating -- sort of a jack-of-all-trades that would handle potential client research, new business marketing and a little PR. The position sounded interesting to me and it would be part of a company that does something to improve people's lives. Yet I go to the interview, come out of it, and have second thoughts on whether I should be there, somewhere else, or sitting in a damn portfolio school class. I still have interest in the position and I'm actually spending time this week on a mock project before having another interview, but I just don't know. It would really be easier if someone came to me in a dream and told me the path that I should follow...or a new one to pave.

I don't know what's with all of the existentialism and self-reflection I've been having lately but I hope I find my way soon. Other things have been good. The Packers finally got a win, and a big one at that. Things are great with my girlfriend. My brother is coming to town this weekend for the Battle of Paul Bunyan's Axe (Wisconsin vs. Minnesota football game). I think I could still use a vacation like I've been talking about for the last couple months. It's not that I deserve one because of an uber-stressful 30-hour work week -- I just need that escape for a few days to completely clear my mind.

Excuse the rant. I'll leave you with a semi-interesting read: Fortune's new list of The 25 People We Envy Most. I don't know if I'd want to be in the shoes of all of them but I can tell you right now that if I was doing what Tiger Woods, Jon Stewart, Theo Epstein, or Jake Burton do I wouldn't have any second-thoughts about my career path.

Until the next episode...

- EH

CURRENT LISTENING: New music by Matt Pond PA, New Pornographers, and Ryan Adams sprinkled with does of Mike Jones for good times' sake

FIRE MIKE SHERMAN

2005-09-18T18:37:00.000-05:00

The Packers head coach. Green Bay sucks right now and as much as there is glaring lack of talent at some positions, the coaching is even worse. Sherman does not motivate this team to play and can't put together any semblence of a game plan on offense.

At least fantasy football is exciting.

Three day weekends are a tease

2005-09-06T16:22:00.000-05:00

Too short to be a vacation, yet just long enough to enjoy more than the typical weekend. I had a pretty good one and I hope all of you can say the same.

I ended up at "The Great Minnesota Get-Together" twice. That would be the Minnesota State Fair for those of you of the non-MN ilk. If you go to the State Fair one year, you've basically been there every year. I hold this philosophy, yet still end up going, usually solely for something to do with friends. On Friday, my roommate and I hurried over after my half day of work and arrived in time to catch the last hour of Dan "Common Man" Cole's show broadcasting live on KFAN (our local sports radio). If you've never had the privilege of listening to Common's show, it's basically a two-hour window of half-sports banter, half whatever the hell they randomly end up conversing about. This can range from politics to pop culture to obscure insider jokes and references. Overall, the show is most entertaining due to Common's relationship with his callers -- many of which have a cult-like following -- and his laid-back, yet outlandish jokes and references that involve the ability to both subtlely poke fun at bizarre callers and be self-depricating on various occasions. It makes for an interesting listen almost every day and Friday was no different with a Bob Dylan impersonation contest between Common and State Fair crowd challengers and the second day featuring of the great "Mouth Guitar Man." After eating greasy foods and washing them down with beer we did a walk of most of the grounds and ended up back at the KFAN booth to finish off the day watching an interview with Minnesota Governor Norm Coleman. It was an enjoyable afternoon overall, though a completely different experience from going with my girlfriend on Labor Day, in which we basically walked around getting different foods and doing more "couple-ish" things.

On a more serious note, things started turning around a bit with the situation down in New Orleans. It was good to see things finally being taken care of with the relief effort on the part of the government and even greater to see the millions of Americans reaching out with their wallets, hearts and hands to assist victims of the Hurricane Katrina. I'm not even going to comment on the way the government handled the situation with the disaster -- there are plenty of other blogs out there to read opinions and political analysis. But there was one political critic whose name has been inescapable the media after a comment on an NBC benefit over the weekend: Kanye West. In case you missed it, here's a good run down of what happened. Basically, Kanye deviated from a teleprompted script to offer his own opinion on the matters taking place including a silencing claim that "George Bush does not care about black people." Obviously media pundits have gone nuts over this comment with many of them completely damning West for his comment. I don't know what to think of it. On one hand, I partially agree about Bush, but I don't think it's a matter of race. It's that Bush doesn't really care about POOR people. At the same time, the comment was horribly timed as there is no way this could possibly be good for anything right now. Bush is probably deserving of more criticism for the way he has handled many affairs (most recently this relief effort and many actions that even prefaced the hurricane) but in the current climate of our nation, this polical finger-pointing should really be put on pause. It should be time to focus on cleaning up the gigantic mess and assisting those who are suffering. The Republicans will get what's coming to them in '06 and '08 anyway.

Curveball.

My internship ends on Friday. What's even more uplifting is that I have a job interview for a gig that I'm pretty excited about this week as well. All that and the NFL season kicking off this weekend! It's hard not to feel guilty celebrating given the current face of the nation, but things are positive on this front...

Peace.

Boom or Bust

2005-08-30T10:16:00.000-05:00

A few weeks after my first fantasy football draft (of three this season), I have been pondering the quality of my players and fate of my team. One thing I noticed in looking at my team compared to others in the league is that I tend to draft younger players who have upside or a chance for a breakout season, rather than crafty old veterans. A few examples of this on my roster are Running Backs J.J. Arrington and Mewelde Moore, Wide Receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Lee Evans, and Byron Leftwich at backup QB. These guys are going to make or break my roster. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The good thing about being in multiple fantasy football leagues (besides it being really fun) is that you can go back and look at how you drafted previously and note any players you may have reached or guys you may have missed out on. I'm pretty confident heading into my next two drafts. The first one was full of hardcore NFL fans who study up and for the most part, know their stuff. The next two are definitely more winnable leagues with about half of the owners being more casual fans. Those leagues are always fun, but I definitely prefer the challenge of trying to win in a league of guys on your level of football knowledge (or higher, of course).

The job search continues. I think I've been a little stressed out about it lately and it's completely unnecessary. I could've easily landed a job a long time ago but I'm only pursing opportunities I really want and it's going to take some time because of that. I still search online on the daily, but I've realized I just need to chill out more and something will hit. My internship is over in less than two weeks and it will be a relief to go back to strictly part-time hours after working 55 a week between my internship and job all summer. I might plan a vacation...nothing major though. It'll definitely be continental U.S., maybe some place where I have a friend to visit (New York, Jackson Hole, Sacramento). As long as it's a place that offers some new and refreshing surroundings. We'll see how much money I have to play with.

My brother left for school last weekend. All this talk of friends and siblings going back to college almost makes me miss it. Thing is, I'll pretty much have the same lifestyle minus the classes and homework in two weeks.

With my brother heading back to school I'm now driving his car for the timebeing. It's ugly. Driving a 1988 Pontiac 6000 is even more inspiration for finding a job soon. At least it's got a nice CD player.

Speaking of CD's, I have to get out and pick up that new Kanye West album. The few tracks I've heard have been stellar and I've read nothing but glowing reviews including 5 stars in Rolling Stone and a 9.5 on Pitchfork (I didn't even know those guys ever gave ratings like that to acts that people have heard of). Look for me next weekend rollin' around in that hot 6000 bumpin' some Kayne. I might be at the State Fair too.

CURRENT LISTENING: Kanye West - "Touch The Sky"
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Red Eye

Chardonnay + Peanuts

2005-08-18T13:03:00.000-05:00

This is what the girlfriend and I had while watching Kung-Fu Hustle last night. Definitely not a conventional combination but it turned out to be "pretty dece" as one of my friends would put it. I'll still take an ice-cold beer with my peanuts in a second though. That said, I don't think I'm the type of guy who can ever be a wine conisseur. It's enough for me to get into the different styles and flavors of micro and import beer offerings that I don't think I have a place for wine. Whine doesn't go too well with my love for football either...

Oh yeah, back to the movie. Kung-Fu Hustle was incredibly entertaining. It had the right mix of zany comedy, unique characters, a well-written plot, and of course, crazy special effects-enhanced kung-fu fight scenes. Definitely a two thumbs up.

I'm going to see Big Boi (of Outkast) at First Ave tonight. Not counting Atmosphere, this will be only the fourth hip-hop show I've been to. Would be nice to catch the full duo but I'm sure seeing one half of the Stankonia emcees will still be highly entertaining.

On the music tip, I recently signed up for this service called LastFM. You download this plug-in for iTunes and it tracks the music you listen to and creates charts of the artists and songs you listen to most as well as your most recently played tracks. The whole point of it is, it connects you to other listeners based on your played results and gives you the opportunity to see what other bands people with a similar taste are listening to. It's a pretty cool tool. I haven't listened to enough stuff to create any "neighbors" (people who listen to similar music) yet, but for someone who loves checking out new bands I think this will be pretty awesome service/community tool to use.

Starting Sunday I'll be in Fargo for a few days working for Red Bull. I haven't ever been there and while I don't presume that it will be a very exciting place, I always enjoy visits to new and unfamiliar territory. If anyone knows any quirky, tourist-y things that we should stop and check out or has good bar recommendations (hey, we don't work all day) please post them in the comments.

I think I'll end his one here. One random thought: the NFL preseason is probably the longest 5 weeks of the year (at least since I stopped believing in Santa).

Peace.

CURRENT LISTENING: Days Away - God and Mars

I didn't know I was so popular

2005-08-16T15:20:00.000-05:00

Apparently some idiot thought my blog was read widely enough to spam the comments section on the previous post with 3-pages worth of fake stock market sham. That has since been erased, but seriously, there can't be more than 20 people who read this on a given day. Save your junk for e-mail boxes....better yet, leave the world alone!

That's all I have for today. That, and the new Limbeck CD is a really fun album. Can't think of many bands that are better to listen to on the road or when drinkin' with a group of friends. Go get it.

Two days in a row

2005-08-11T16:15:00.000-05:00

That's right, I did it.

Going to make this a pretty quick one. I wanted to follow up yesterday's post about Quite Frankly by commenting on how hilarious it was to see Stephen A. Smith and Leigh Steinberg call out Rosenhouse's method of operation as an agent. It's about time someone stepped up and stated the obvious publicly.

Today, local blog Slanderous Minneapolis posted their "first annual Slanderous City Awards" and some of them are quite amusing. Here are a couple of the highlights:

* Best Place to Drink Cheaply:
TIE: Liquor Lyle's and Grumpy's Northeast
Best Answer: Under bridge

* Best Place to Pick Up Very Drunk Girls:
Brothers
Best Answer: Wayzata High School

I'm out like a fat kid in dodgeball. Can't wait to sit on the couch and watch the Pack tonight. Yes, I know it's only preseason.

CURRENT LISTENING: Phoenix - Everything is Everything (acoustic) courtesy of Stereogum

Quite Frankly, I'm surprised

2005-08-10T15:23:00.000-05:00

If you watch ESPN even occasionally I'm sure you're well aware of who Stephen A. Smith is. For a while, this guy was the most annoying person I had seen in sports broadcasting. He came onto Sportscenter and NBA broadcasts seemingly out of nowhere and made a lot of noise with his attitude and brash viewpoints and predictions. I wanted to turn the channel at times that this guy would be talking and a friend of mine who was even more annoyed by him went as far as to research what his actual sports credentials were. What he found was that the guy played Community College basketball for two years and averaged something like 17-points per. Not exactly expert material. Well as of a week ago, Stephen A. Smith has his own show called "Quite Frankly" weeknights on ESPN2. I can tell you right now that I was rolling my eyes the first time I saw a promo for it on ESPN. Out of curiosity I watched one of the first shows last week. Now this show is different from all of ESPN's other material -- it's a one hour talk show where Smith sits and gives an indepth interview with various figures of the sports world. After watching the first show, I gotta admit, I was a little intrigued. Smith interviewed Allen Iverson and he asked some good questions that got to the heart of things -- even bringing Iverson to tears over the subject of his relationship with Larry Brown. At the same time, the guy can pump up some of the athletes too much by caking on what he loves about them. Overall, it seems like it's going to be a show worth watching and I'm sure it will draw both praise and quite naturally, sighs of agony from those put off by Smith's personality. I have yet to watch another full episode but I've already TiVo'd tonight's feature that promises to be an intriguing one: Drew Rosenhouse. Oh yeah, for a little more info on Smith's rise to his pseudo-star status...he went from being a beat writer for Temple basketball in the Philadelphia Inquirer to sports columnist to a career with America's biggest Sports Network in 10 years. Not a bad climb.

I was a little aggravated yesterday...my pre-order of the Limbeck album (along with Demon Days by the Gorillaz) did not come . Damn towerrecords.com to hell. In the meantime, I've been listening to The National, Death Cab For Cutie, Days Away, and possibly the album I overlooked the most this year: Ryan Adams' Cold Roses.

Only four days until the long-awaited Fifth Quarter Fantasy Football league draft. You know the wheels are in full motion on the fantasy football think tank!

That's it for the moment. Cheers.

Random, random, random

2005-08-08T16:23:00.000-05:00

Had a pretty fun weekend, but it went by too fast. They almost always do...

Nothing too exciting going on. Another pretty slow day at the internship but I've happened upon a lot of interesting and funny things on the web today so I'll spare you the usual run-down of my life and give you some fun stuff to check out:

- Jon Heder (of Napoleon Dynamite) is finally going to be in another movie. He'll be co-starring Billy Bob Thornton in School of Scoundrels, a remake of a 60s British comedy of the same name. Heder will portray a meter reader who enrolls in a confidence-building class to help him win over his dream girl. Thornton stars as a motivational speaker with whom he competes for the same girl. The big news...the movie is being directed by Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip). Sounds like it has all the right ingredients...

- Death Cab for Cutie's new album Plans has been leaked (surprise) on the internet and is already receiving raves from bloggers and e-zine elitists. Here's one gushing review of the album.

- Today I discovered a unique brand of entertainment that basically consists of movie shorts made through video game play, voiceovers and some quite clever writing and sponteneity. This new genre is called "machinima" -- "an ungainly term mixing 'machine' and 'cinema'" and thanks to a New York Times Magazine article I was able to kill some time watching the hilarious "Red vs. Blue," a series of mini-movies that spawned from some guys playing Halo 2 and doing voiceovers for the characters. It might sound lame at first but the dialogue (and the creation of characters through it) is quite funny and the plot consists of what might be the existential meaning of the game itself -- two teams of soldiers who are constantly at war but have no idea why. Check it out for yourself and then tell me if it's awesome or I'm just a dork.

- Finally, Limbeck's new album Let Me Come Home comes out tommorow. If haven't heard of Limbeck yet you must be new to this blog. The good part is, now you have an awesome band to check out. From the songs I've heard, the album should be amazing but I'll share some indepth thoughts after I've gone home, torn open the package, and given it a couple listens tommorow.

I'll leave you with a quote that seems to embody my life right now:

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." - Lewis Carroll

I hate cover letters

2005-08-01T15:45:00.000-05:00

A cover letter is supposed to give a potential employer a brief overview of why you're interested in the position, their company, and why you'd be an ideal candidate. The catch is, most of this stuff is bull that people cake on in order to hopefully get in for an interview. Most cover letters end up having the same general format and overall message. You can try to infuse some personality into it, but that's difficult to do without getting to an informal level. Best of all, you have to try to impress them while keeping it as concise as possible. You might spend 2 hours researching a company, writing, and revising. Conversely, the HR person is going to spend about 30 seconds or less reading the letter. Since last spring I have probably written at least dozen of these. Kill me now.

Yesterday I was driving back to Minneapolis on 35W North from my parents' house. When you get down by Hwy 13 the highway road is on a slope and you have this great view of the Minneapolis skyline on the horizon. I love that.

One of my college friends who moved out to Omaha this summer for law school is coming back into town this weekend. Definitely looking forward to that. This guy is a staunch (and blindly loyal) Conservative who knows so much about law and history that he can can make you believe he's right in a political debate even when he's dead wrong. Somehow him and I became friends. Given our political positions, this seems highly unlikely to some people. Then we go out and party together and they soon understand.

I'm almost ready to give up on the Twins for the rest of the season. Since the All-Star break we've been on a downward spiral and with the injury to Hunter and lack of a trade made before the deadline, things look to be getting worse. Unless the hitting turns around our playoff hopes are over. It's a bummer too, because more than a Twins playoff berth I really wanted to see the Yankees NOT make the playoffs for once. Maybe that can still happen.

JWalk showed up to the veterans arrival day of Packer camp. I agree with his stance on being grossly underpaid so a cheesehead can only hope he matches or exceeds his level of play from last season and gets rewarded with a contract extension during the season. I'm getting insanely stoked for football season. I wasn't too optimistic about the Green Bay defense a few months ago but from what I've been reading in training camp reports (yes, work downtime) it sounds like Bates could be putting a much improved product on the field. I'm not going to hold my breath for a Super Bowl but it would be great if they could make the playoffs again and have an awesome season for Favre.

Before I go, I must note the hilarious spawn of two of the most popular features to ever hit the internet: HotorNot + Google Maps. Yes folks, you can now find hotties that live in your neighborhood on the internet.

Keep up the barrage of comments!

CURRENT LISTENING: anything by The Secret Machines

Yo Javon, get in there before you ruin my season!

2005-07-26T16:53:00.000-05:00

Javon Walker. Currently my least favorite Packer and one of my two keepers from last year's Fantasy Football team. That means I'm counting on this guy for two big reasons, but with the Packer receving corps in good shape this season, I'm a little bit more worried about how his holdout (should it go into the regular season) will affect my fantasy lineup. I have money riding on this people!

On the subject of holdouts, I think Drew Rosenhouse is on a lot of people's "people to kill" list right now. The guy is a complete bonehead. I know some of these players feel they deserve more money and would probably holdout regardless of agent, but this guy pumps so much crap into players heads about how they're getting screwed and how he can get them a better deal that it's preposterous. It's even more ridiculous that he's doing it with players who just signed a new deal last year (ie. Terrell Owens) and guys who don't have much left in the tank (see: Grady Jackson). I'm not even gonna touch on how much this crap is runining the game for the fans...

I realized this afternoon that I really miss watching Pardon The Interupption on ESPN. It was never a daily thing for me but now that I work until 5:30 every day except Fridays I never get to see it. The things we take for granted...

This post is ending here because as always, the subjects I've been meaning to write about are escaping me. As you may have noticed, I did add links to some blogs that I think are pretty cool. I'm going to leave you with a recommendation of a song that I've been listening to constantly since I've heard it on The Current (God bless them).

Cheers,

EH

CURRENT LISTENING: AC Newman - "Miracle Drug"
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Million Dollar Baby rental - worth the hype

Zip, nada, nothin'!

2005-07-20T15:10:00.000-05:00

It's 3:10pm. Since 10:32am I haven't done a thing at my internship. Nothing, unless you count going to lunch, browsing the web, and talking on AIM. I've asked supervisors if there's anything that I can be doing and have basically gotten the "there's nothing I can think of at the moment" response each time. I was fine with "at the moment," but the amount of boredom I have right now could probably be harnessed and transformed into some sort of alternative fuel resource. There's only so long I can keep my interest tuned into browsing webpages. To make matters worse, I don't have my iPod today and I'm in desperate need of a Red Bull right now.

This place is great but I need some real work. Give me a brief and have me brainstorm 100 different interactive executional concepts. It doesn't matter if you're not going to use ONE of them and if you do, that's one heck of a bonus.

That was some wicked air guitar

2005-07-11T11:23:00.000-05:00

After a good string of posts, I seemed to have reverted to my old habit of the rare update. Summerfest came and went. We missed Petty, Phantom Planet was pretty cool (besides possibly being the only ones in the crowd old enough to drink legally), and I wish we could've caught more of Rusted Root. Spent a beautiful day by Lake Michigan and introduced another friend to the Safehouse, an activity that is inherently part of every Milwaukee visit. The food sucked but it's still one of the coolest restaurants ever. Overall, it was a good 4th of July weekend.

This past weekend, I spent the evening on a boat on Lake Minnetonka with a group of friends and an open bar. My friend's parents threw him a graduation/birthday party by renting out this boat for 4 hours and allowing a group of recent college grads to go nuts. And we did. The weather was beautiful, the beer was cold, and the Zeppelin was blaring. The night proceeded with a stop at Maynard's and a limo ride back to Uptown. The rest of the details are mucky.

Right now I'm without a cell phone. Coincidentally, it broke the night that I just described. It really wasn't a surprise that it broke given that the hinge of this flip phone was loosely hanging by a thread for the past month. If you own a Samsung Verizon camera phone with a swivel head that rotates 180-degrees and is connected by a small neck-like piece, I hope you have insurance on it. These "customer service" reps at Verizon don't have much sympathy for broken phones so because I'm "not eligible" for the promo prices yet I either have to pay the full retail price on a new phone (about $180 for the bare bones model) or find a used one somewhere. Next time I'M getting the insurance!

Besides music festivals and the 4th, July is great for another thing: the start of NFL training camp. This is the time when football fans start to get that itch for football season and have an unquenchable thirst for any news related to their favorite team. It's a time filled with arm-chair quarterback analysis and hypothesis. Who is going to emerge and be make a needed impact on a weak defense? What rookie is going to make plays? Can the offensive line gel with the holes it has filled? These are all questions I ask about the Pack these days. It's definitely going to be an interesting year and my anticipation for opening day mounts daily. Along with all of this speculation and excitement for the regular season comes the buzz and research of prepping for fantasy football drafts. Last year I was in two leagues, this year it might be three. No wonder women think men are ridiculous when it coms to this stuff.

Time to wrap up. I'm checking out a premiere of Wedding Crashers tonight. Hope it's as funny as it has the potential to be.

CURRENT LISTENING: Black Eyed Peas feat. Q-Tip, Mos Def, and John Legend - Feel It
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Spanglish

New name, zero improvements!!!

2005-06-27T20:37:00.000-05:00

So you may have noticed something changed around here. As I started to post tonight, I decided the blog was due for a name change. Though the last one was fun, it wasn't really a very fitting name and it sounded like the title of a bad emo song. This one is short and sweet and though lacking creativity it summarizes most of what I post about these days in a nutshell. So there you go.

I've been sitting around tonight watching NBA draft coverage and mostly just relaxing. I gotta tell ya it feels great. For someone who recently graduated I actually don't get a lot of time to just lay on the couch and do nothing when I work a full-time internship and another 15 hours per week on top of it. As much as I could care less about watching the NBA these days, I'm always interested in the NBA draft for some reason. To some people it's the most boring three hours of t.v. they could watch but I can get into it. There's something exciting about watching the top prospects get picked and see where guys land if you do a mock draft. It's even better when your team has a top pick. This year, the Bucks pick #1 and the T-Wolves actually have a pick, #14. It seems a given that the Bucks are going to take Center Andrew Bogut from Utah, which I think is great. He's a kid with good size and athleticism, great experience at a high level of play, and he seems to have some good character. It will definitely be interesting to see who Minnesota takes. They need help at a few positions so it's basically going to come down to whoever is left when they pick. I'd love to see Sean May fall into their lap.

While I haven't posted much about it here yet, my anticipation is mounting for the annual trip to Summerfest. In case you haven't heard of it, Summerfest is a 9-day music festival featuring all different types of music and entertainment (from hip-hop artist Talib Kweli to obscure Wisconsin polka bands) and A LOT of beer drinking (What else do you expect from Wisconsin?). I'm going out there Friday night with a few friends and we'll probably try to sneak a spot on the knoll for Tom Petty and The Black Crowes in the Ampitheatre and then Phantom Planet on one of the general admission stages to finish the night. Aaaah Milwaukee...always a good time.

This whole being-graduated thing is providing me a lot more opportunities to write here. That does absolutely nothing to make up for having to wake up at 7:00am five days a week.

See y'all later.

CURRENT LISTENING: Coldplay - X & Y
LAST MOVIE SEEN: Batman Begins
CURRENT READING: Do magazines count?

That's hot

2005-06-23T15:49:00.000-05:00

The tempature reached 100 degrees in Minneapolis today but that still isn't as hot as the new Jessica Simpson video. I don't know if there's any emoticon that could fully capture the feeling of watching it.

NBA Finals Game 7 tonight. I really haven't paid much attention to the entire series but I'm always up for watching a Game 7. I'm cheering for the Pistons for two reasons: one, they're a client of the ad agency I intern at and two, there's something about Greg Poppavich that really irks me. Also, Tim Duncan seems like the nicest player in the NBA but I've never been a fan. Rip Hamilton is the shit though.

MUSIC: More summer tunes and Acceptance!!!

I swear I tried to resist

2005-06-22T16:18:00.000-05:00

Here I am, writing a blog entry at my internship. The internship is actually going pretty well, but over the last 2 days they haven't been giving me much work to do and I go over and inquire if there's anything I can do with the people in my department so often that if they had something for me they'd shout or at least "put up the bat signal" as one of the project managers joked. So, in lieu of having no tasks at hand I have spend a lot of the day surfing the web (so much that I don't want to be anywhere near a computer when I get home) and concepting/writing headlines and taglines for a possible project in my book. Hopefully they'll throw me to the wolves again next week because I'd much rather be busy all day and feeling like I'm doing a good job than sitting around not doing anything and feeling guilty. With all that lack of work I haven't even gotten in a game of horse on the job in about a week. At least there was free pizza today...

Oh yeah, about my previous post, I got an apology from the one friend who I would've expected to make one. That's cool I guess but he still doesn't have the balls to speak up on things when in the company of certain people.

So with all the time I've had to think over the past few days I've been thinking about my business idea a lot and gotten really excited about it. It just seems like having the money and the right time to do it has been really elusive. I should really get on the planning part now and see if I can get the ball rolling once the internship is done. I feel like I'm going to get caught in a conundrum between getting a job offer with solid pay and benefits and trying to start this business that could take a while to get going and will leave me with nada on the health coverage. If only I had some rich uncle to borrow money from.

On the music tip, I noticed that the dude from American Idol has the #1 album on iTunes today. That is sad. I'd like to know the true demographic of iTunes purchasers because I get the feeling that it's a lot of junior high and high school kids that get that iTunes "allowance" from their parents. Com'on kids, don't waste it on Bo Bice! A band I got into just recently and am REALLY liking is The Redwalls. They have a sound that's very reminiscent of The Beatles, which of course I dig. Their album comes out in a week or two I think but that's added to a long list of albums that I need to get (half of which I'll probably never get around to).

I suppose I could end this now. At least maybe I've been looking busy typing.

One week 'til Summerfest!

- Eric

CURRENT LISTENING: The Redwalls and a good mix of summeresque music (Jack Johnson, Limbeck, Matt Pond PA, Phoenix, etc.)

People.

2005-06-18T00:02:00.000-05:00

I'm a little hungover so this post isn't going to be too long. I don't understand people sometimes - or maybe I should've called this post "friends." Maybe it's just people my age, but as far as communication and keeping your commitments is concerned, I've found that a substantial amount of people are pretty bad at it. Basically I am writing in reference to last night. I was pre-partying/hanging out with roommates and the girlfriend and a couple other friends and we were all going to go out to this private party a friend of mine was throwing at a bar. To make a long story short, we decided to leave a few minutes before they were going to, only they never showed up (and instead went downtown to meet some skanks at some other bar). I understand when you suggest a plan early in the week and someone says they'd like to come but either forgets about it, forgot about a prior engagement, or has something bigger come up, but when you're pre-partying with a group of friends and you're all planning on going to the same place, you usually expect them to show up. I at least would've respected them a little more if they would've called me to say they were changing plans. It seems to be that the people who most often make commitments only to cancel are either eager to please everyone or they're the type of person who goes along with whatever seems "coolest" at that point in time. Either way, it's things like this that make it a lot clearer who your real friends are and your "that sounds like something fun to do" type friends.

Sorry for that came out as a run-on paragraph of whining, I just had to vent the annoyance a bit. If you're in your 20s you probably know people like this and understand exactly what I'm saying.

Oh yeah...I'm interning in the Interactive department at Olson + Co. now. It's going pretty well so far but I've only been there a week. I'll talk about that more soon. For now jumping back in bed seems like the only viable option for the morning.

Talk soon.

CURRENT LISTENING: Ray LaMontagne - Trouble (damn good album for relaxation)

It feels like it's time for an update

2005-05-31T13:15:00.000-05:00

Because what else do I have to do right now? Here I find myself, sitting in my room with time to relax the day the rest of America gets back to work from their weekend of relaxation. Yes folks, this is the life of the recent college grad. Amazingly I did get up by 10:00 today but it's really because I don't want to feel like a lazy bum. My activities so far in this day have consisted of checking my e-mail, reading some news, showering, cleaning up the place a bit, and eating lunch. I do work my part-time job at 3:00 but that's not much of a burden. Everyone keeps telling me I should enjoy this period of time between being a college student and working 9-5 everyday - and I am - but I feel like I'm not quite where I should be either.

But alas, this laid-back lifestyle may be pretty short-lived. I have had a few sparks on the jump front recently. Last week I had an interview at an Event Marketing agency in Milwaukee. I could hear back from them with a job offer as soon as tommorow (although I could also not hear anything at all). I also found an Interactive Internship opportunity with an ad agency I've always dreamed of working for. I shot off my resume pretty hurriedly for a gig that only pays $125 a week. So things are pretty up in the air right now and I'm going to try to go with the flow and not worry about things. I get anxiety when I await responses on opportunities like these so I really just need to keep them out of my head and let them happen. The last time I wasn't worrying about this stuff so hard a call came right out of the blue for an opportunity I had almost forgot about. I could really use a lake or a beach stint for the next few days...

Had a pretty fun weekend of seeing some friends after my interview in the Mil, going out with some friends back in the cities, checking out some live music, and eating way too much. Speaking of the live music, what's with random, out-of-place older people at concerts? Last night I saw Lucero and The Honorary Title at Triple Rock (two very underrated bands I must add) and I saw more than a few of these types in crowd, particularly one couple who looked to be in their fifties. I always figure these people are either label reps or family, but how many people can be at a show like this for some indie label bands? Strange. I'm not hating though - if these people are really just fans of the music more power to 'em. I'll probably be that "too old for concerts-looking" type guy someday myself.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the sweet news: our NSAC (Nat'l Student Advertising Competition) team qualified for the National Competition. This is taking place this weekend (June 4-7) in Nashville, TN and coincides with the American Advertising Federation National Conference. This pretty much means a few days in a famous hotel/complex (the Gaylord Opry), rubbing shoulders with major Ad execs, and a lot of whiskey. Sounds like fun to me. Too bad I have a pretty strong distaste for country music...don't ask how I like Lucero.

I guess that's really all that's on my mind for a moment. I think of a thousand different things I'd like to vent or comment on when I'm away from home during the week only to be too busy to post something or just forget altogether. Thanks to the couple people who bug me about not updating this for a while.

'Til I return from Honky-Tonk Heaven...

Eric

CURRENT LISTENING: The Format - Snails EP and Lucero - Nobody's Darlings

Now it'll be "immature" to do a beer bong

2005-05-09T17:20:00.000-05:00

I've reached that time...I'm officially no longer a college student. While I don't have that piece of paper that states this fact quite yet, the deal is sealed.

Weird.

And the countdown begins...

2005-04-07T00:57:00.000-05:00

So it's April 7th. There's nothing significant about the day itself, but in the larger scheme of things, it means I only have about a month of my college career left. As I've mentioned in previous posts, this is both exciting and a little nerve-racking. Being an aspiring copywriter, I have little hope of attaining a full-time job right out of school (although I have recently applied for a few promotions and events marketing jobs) which means I will either be continuing to work for Red Bull all summer or working for Red Bull and interning somewhere. I pray for the latter. Either way, if I'm not working the standard 9-5er, I have decided that I am going to go on a megadope road trip out west. The plan is entirely rough right now but it would probably consist of staying with my buddy Adam out in Jackson Hole (where he'll be a guide on the Snake River all summer), then to my buddy's parents' Condo on Lake Tahoe, and finally out to the beautiful beaches of the California coast. This road trip will consist of amazing music, incessant photo capturing, tons of gas station and fast food, a high level of (insert fun word for binge here) drinking, and the jokes and pranks that are inherent in any good road trip. Suddently that 9-5 doesn't sound so necessary...

But enough of the time is short sob story. The next months could be one of the best of my life. Starting tommorow...er, today I guess (it's after midnight here for all you confused readers) I'll be hearing back from the One Show College Competition on whether or not my campaign is a finalist for the Awards. Then, we have a Gopher hockey game tommorow night which could catapult us into our third champship game in three years. But wait, it gets better...Twins home opener and the 4 hours of tailgating that will preceed it on Friday and within a few weeks the NSAC Regional Competition, The 2nd Annual Phi Psi bar crawl, and Spring Jam week at 'The U.' I'll keep you updated on the fun.

I'm going to cut this short for now but before I go I'd like to say R.I.P. to comedian Mitch Hedberg, a truly hilarious and unique comedian and Minnesota native who passed away last week.

On a much larger scale, I also feel it is necessary to show some respect for the passing of Pope John Paul II. Although I may not be the most religious man and that type of material definitely does not get touched upon in this blog, I am a person of faith and I would definitely like to recognize the amazing things he did for the world in his life time. I am sure that he is already getting quite comfortable in his seat next to God up there...

The stairs aren't my friend

2005-03-24T14:06:00.000-06:00

Over last couple days, I think I've tripped while going up public staircases 4 or 5 times. I don't know if the frequency of this happening is because of my boots or the fact that I just wasn't paying enough attention. Nonetheless, it sucks. It especially sucks when you trip on the stairs in the Carlson School of Management while drinking a pop. The thing didn't completely spill but lets just say I got a bit of a splash to the face.

On a good note, the weather was fantastic yesterday. It's crazy how noticably better people's moods are when the weather is really nice in Minnesota. I notice it in myself. That reminds me why I need to move to California.

Another thing that's really awesome is that it's only two weeks until baseball's opening day. I'm not the biggest baseball fan as sometimes I get bored with the game but I have a great time making a day of going out to a game with some friends and tailgaiting. I have my Twins home opener ticket in my wallet as we speak and the thought of a fired-up grill and flowing beer in the parking lot is lovely. Gotta love the Twinkies...no steroid users.

Finally, I got a pretty sweet (though very belated) birthday gift from my girlfriend. She got me this messenger bag made by this company called LoopNYC out of where else but New York. What makes it awesome is the unique style and materials that comprise it - specifically the shoulder strap made out of the same strong synthetic material as a car seatbelt. It'll be nice having this thing because with the amount of stuff I'm usually lugging around in my backpack my back hates me sometimes. Anyway, here's a picture of the bag:

I'm sure you're amazed I updated again so soon. I can't even believe it myself. I'll definitely try to write with this type of frequency more often. By the way, if you do read this blog, drop a comment every once in a while and let me know what you think.

Until next time, I'll be at the Bacon Tendercrisp Cheddar Ranch.

CURRENT LISTENING: 3 new jams from a Limbeck live college radio performance

March Madness...Literally

2005-03-21T03:42:00.000-06:00

So it's 3:42 am on a Sunday night and I just woke up from falling asleep in front of the t.v. on the couch. That also means that my spring break is officially over although I'm not so sure I ever really got one. The past week was possiblily just as chaotic (or dare I say MORE) than the normal week for me. Besides being that exciting and crazy time of year for NCAA baksetball - which I'll get back to in a second - the term "March Madness" could apply to several things about my spring break week. First off, the weekend trip to Milwaukee last weekend to visit a couple high school friends. Now anyone who has ever been to Milwaukee can see where this is going but for the kids who aren't 21 or have no interest whatsoever in going to Wisconsin I'll just throw out the random fact that Milwaukee has the most bars per capita out of all of the major U.S. cities. Couple that with the fact that we drove right into a blizzard Friday night that was so bad that we had to stop the car at one point because we couldn't see the road at all (I swear I wasn't hallucinating) and you have a pretty crazy weekend in the bag. Overall the trip was a great time but I still don't consider that a spring break as I'd take a 3-day road trip to Milwaukee over any normal weekend of the year.

Next, we have the madness of NSAC. That's the National Student Advertising Competition in case you don't take classes in Murphy Hall. I won't get into it too much but right now our team is right in the thick of developing a campaign to brand and promote Yahoo! to 13-17 year olds. It's an interesting challenge and a tough one. How tough? The past week saw us carving away at the campaign work day and night. It's rewarding to believe our work has paid off and we've pounded out what looks like a great campaign but it's definitely been stressful. Madness.

Finally, there's the college basketball tourney which I'm disappointed to have only watched a combined 86 minutes of...approximately. Of course I'm in two pools and of course I made plenty of "educated" (see: ESPN analysis) sleeper picks, but a lot of them turned out to be the wrong ones. Who would've thought Syracuse, UConn, and Wake Forest would be out by the third round? Obviously not my bracket. So with Wake out, I lose one of my Final Four picks and I'm not so sure where my chances of winning the dough are. I still have plenty of teams in it along with my Champion, North Carolina, whom I picked to win over Illinois. Assuming that I'm not going to take home the cake I'm pulling for UW-Milwaukee to continue to turn the basketball world upside down. I did at least pick them for the first round upset - PANTHERS BABY!!!

To wrap this up, I'm going to do a little something that is a tradition of one of my favorite bands on their website. That is, post my "Top 5" for the month. This Top 5 is a loose list of any 5 random things making life fun, interesting, or exciting right now. It can be themed but usually has no such organization to it at all. Anyway, here goes:

Top 5 for the month of March
1 - Surviving the drive through the blizzard of '05
2 - NSAC campaign work in full throttle
3 - UW-Milwaukee Panthers
4 - trip to Milwaukee
5 - Kings of Leon show @ The Fine Line

Hope you're doing just fine.

CURRENT LISTENING: Songs from both of the latest Bright Eyes releases (and Aaron Rhody's fantastic trip mix)

Which cartoon character will be on the Most Wanted list next?

2005-02-28T11:47:00.000-06:00

By now everyone must have heard about the ridiculous claims by some conservative group that the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants teaches kids about homosexuality because Spongebob happened to hold hands with one of the other characters when out on the trail of adventure. I thought this claim was insane enough but apparently it was only the beginning. While I was getting ready this morning I happened to turn on the tv while I was sitting down to eat my bagel (both of which happen very rarely as I'm usually in a rush each morning). The channel that turned on was playing some talk show where women were discussing the implications of cartoon characters depictions on children's minds and the first example I heard was the fact that Donald Duck doesn't wear any clothing on his bottom half. Are these people INSANE? Last time I checked I grew up watching every cartoon from Looney Tunes to Beavis and Butthead and I'm pretty sure I've turned out just fine. It's funny how all these ultra-conservatives (the religious right) want to spread "freedom" abroad, yet at the same time try to find any reason they can to censor every source of media out there. Why don't these lunatics all just go buy some island, as I'm sure they have the money anyway, name it Freedom Island, and live there together as one big cult-like family happily ever after.

What a great way to start out a Monday. I usually am not one to come down with a "case of the Mondays" but since I woke up feeling even more shitty from a cold than the day before, it directly transformed me into a state crankiness. Hearing crazy conservative talk during this type of state is certainly not the best thing for it.

On another note, it was great to see the Vikings ship off Randy Moss last week. One side of me was sad to see him go because I love to see his dejection whenever the Vikes lose to the Packers, yet on the other side it's great to not have to worry about the threat of him scoring on our lackluster defensive backs when he's playing at 75% health. That's about all that's been interesting to me on the football front lately. Favre hasn't made his announcement yet (which I hope means he's moving closer to coming back) and the draft is still a month and a half away. It's too long 'til football season...

Luckily, March brings college basketball excitement and for the first time in a long time my beloved Gophers may be in the tourney. After suffering through two disheartening NIT-bound seasons as a basketball season ticket-holder, I didn't get tickets the last two years. This year I was expecting absolutely nothing out of the team (as many probably were), due to the fact that they seemed to have no real impact players on the team. But alas, some Juco transfers played much bigger than expected and the Gophers proved the value of having a real TEAM. Though they've been a bit inconsistent, the Gophs can explode at any time as they did Saturday against Purdue and earlier this season against Wisconsin - an amazing game which I attended - and proved that they can run with some good teams. Let's hope they continue to play strong in the Big Ten Tourney and DANCE, DANCE, DANCE!

Back on the personal route, my job/internship search continues. I'm getting a bit frustrated by the fact that Minneapolis is such a great city for advertising, yet I haven't seen one copywriting/creative internship at an agency (even more thin are the chances of getting in as a junior creative). It really sucks hearing of your other graduating friends interviewing and/or getting real jobs before they graduate and then having to explain to people how difficult it is to get into the ad industry as a creative. Most people don't have a clue how much reality there is to that statement so I figure I should just start telling everyone that I've decided to take a year off after college to travel the country in an old conversion van and explore the meaning of life. "Let's keep in touch!"

If you've actually read I'll this, thanks for tuning in. I'll try to make the next update sooner than a month from now.

CURRENT LISTENING: Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak

Let's call it "snot-freezing" cold

2005-01-14T17:30:00.000-06:00

Today the tempatures are hovering below zero. Tempature gauges are shattering, wolves are howling, and if you were to cry outside the tear would probably freeze before it hit the ground. As I was walking from Coffman Union to my campus job this afternoon, it hit me that Minnesotans really needed a term for this type of uber-chilly weather - something other than the typical "cold as (insert expletive here)." And it took no less than a minute for me to coin a term. All I had to do was think about the sensations my body was feeling and there was one that stood out more extremely than any others. The feeling in my nose. So from this day forth, the Minnesota days that sit on the other side of the zero are going to be known as "snot-freezing cold." There will be no dispute over this so just go ahead and adobt it now.

As any of you who still might actually check this blog (which could very well be no one) may have noticed, I post at the most random times, with updates being very few and far between. Sorry, that's just the way it's going to be. I forget about having this thing a lot of the time and that probably stems from being far too busy and spending my free nights "drinkin' with the boys." So if you read this and do care to read it again, I'd say check back every 2-3 weeks. Thanks dudes.

Since a lot has gone on since I last posted, I'm going to put together some recent news that I'm interested in and my brief thoughts on them. Here goes...

-VOX Medusa Around The World New Year's Eve party....interesting idea, wasn't quite what I expected. The venue was cool (but not really decorated to theme), it was hard to get drinks, and the crowd was older than my friends and I. Luckily I had a lot to drink that night.
-Turning 22....not that cool. Granted, I had a great time celebrating my birthday (and being alive another year), it just sucks knowing you don't have anything really eventful to look forward to with the birthdays after 21. Wait nevermind, in a few years I can save money on car insurance!!!
-Green Bay's first-round playoff loss to Minnesota....I'm not ready to talk about this one yet.
-Green Bay's hiring of Ted Thompson as GM....it's about time that title was stripped from Sherman. This guy sounds promising. Now we can only hope that Brett will stick around and Thompson makes the right coaching, drafting, and free agency moves. Not that much to ask, is it?
-Graduating in 2005....I have a little over 4 months left in my college career. That's both exciting and scary on a few levels. On one hand, I'll be ecstatic to start making money and not rack up any more debt, yet I'll be weeping to leave the college life when I start the 40-60 hour work week. I think it would help if I got some traveling in some time next summer.
-Music in 2005....it could be a very exciting year of new releases. Personally, I'm heavily ancipating new albums from Coldplay, Limbeck, The Format, Motion City Soundtrack, Brand New, Acceptance, The Mars Volta, Beck, Ryan Adams, The Flaming Lips, Outkast, and hopefully some new Kanye West.
-USA in 2005....okay that just sounds funny but on a serious note let's hope that we can get out of the mess in Iraq, that our contributions to the Tsunami disaster aid might help improve other nations' view of America, and that W. can manage not that fuck things up any worse.

Two fingers,

Eric

CURRENT LISTENING: Green Day - American Idiot (my pick for album of the year in 2004!)

Holy Mackrel Batman, it's ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!

2004-12-18T15:36:00.000-06:00

That wonderful time of the year is almost here. Unfortunately I haven't been keeping up with the count down chart this year because I've been insanely busy (how unusual). It has been nice relaxing over the last two days but that of course comes at the cost of having two finals on Wednesday. Who are the bastards that decided to schedule the finals period up until two days before Christmas? And why do my professors have to go ahead and schedule them on that day? Blasphemy!

I'm sure Wells Fargo is enjoying my patronage at this time as I've been forced to put Christmas gifts on my credit card over the past couple weeks. Yep, I'm dead broke. I don't know quite how it happened but when it was time to pay my rent this month my checking acount had about $100 less than expected. Funny how that happens.

On a really good note, tommorow night is the long-awaited Motion City Soundtrack and Limbeck show at First Avenue and it's going to be f*cking awesome (the censorship was for the kids). I always love seeing MCS and Limbeck play but it's going to be even more dope seeing them at the legendary First Avenue as I haven't been to a show there in over a year. YAY!

Finally, I've been fixing to watch some Christmas specials lately. Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer was on a few weeks ago - yes the original, Claymation-style special with the lovable Bumble. Ever since I've been thinking about all of the great specials I used to watch as a kid. I'm not sure which would be my favorite but I've narrowed it down to a top 5. *Drumroll*....

Top 5 Christmas Specials of All-Time (In no particular order)
- Rudolph
- How The Grinch Stole Christmas (animated)
- Charlie Brown's Christmas
- The Muppet Christmas Carol
- The Family Guy Christmas episode

I need a video or DVD with all of these on. And Mickey's Christmas Carol if only for the snowball fight short between Donald Duck and his nephews. Someone hook it up.

That's enough for now I think...there's NFL on Saturdays now. Happy Holidays!

Oh yeah Santa - this year all I want is a Packers Super Bowl appearance, a car, and a gig at a great ad agency upon graduating. (If that's too much to ask I'll settle for Green Bay beating Minnesota on Christmas Eve and an internship).

CURRENT LISTENING: Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

Wow...it's been a while!

2004-12-15T00:20:00.000-06:00

Sorry to anyone out there who might actually be checking this thing for new posts. I know I've been MIA for a day or 16. Bars...final projects...finals. WHEW! That's the sound of a semester winding down.

I'll be back soon.

You know you're seriously busy when...

2004-11-28T23:12:00.000-06:00

Your alarm clock is unplugged and you don't unplug and set the time for 3 days.
You plan on vacuuming your room but the vacum just sits in the corner of your room for 5 days.
You have to write things you need to remember to do on your hand like you did with homework assignments in high school.
When you go out to bars, you drink A LOT. I guess this would be the antithesis of what a busy person should do since hangovers are not conducive to getting work done, but it's what happens to me.
You're addicted to Red Bull. This is made easier by working for the company.

On the subject of busy, I wish there was a way of updating my iPod without having to hook up the USB to my sluggish computer and sit there and transfer files. Like iPod library ESP. That would be great.

Alright I'm busy so I gotta wrap this up. Go PACK tommorow night!

CURRENT LISTENING: Say Anything - Yellow Cat (Slash) Red Cat

A letter of recommendation, St. Brett, and fantasy football ire

2004-11-23T01:03:00.000-06:00

So I just finished the task of writing a letter of recommendation from the perspective of my professor for a national scholarship through my fraternity for Journalism and Mass Communication majors. When I approached her about doing it, she said she was always happy to do those types of things for students, but she also required them to draft up a letter she would revise and add her personal voice to. I really didn't think much of this at the time, realizing that she is probably quite busy and even though I know her better than I know most of my professors, she may not know me quite as well as your standard constantly-visiting-office hours, brown-nosing student. When it came time to actually write the letter, it was initially a bit of a struggle to write good things about myself without wondering if I was being over the top and if all the things I was saying were true. That's when you remember that $2500 is on the line and all of that goes out the window.

For those football fans of you out there, particularly of the Green and Gold persuasion, I hope you had the opportunity to watch the legendary #4 work his magic again this week. While I really hate the Pack making me sweat out these close last-second wins, it's always awesome to watch Brett completely takeover a game and orchestrate the game-winning scoring drive in the final minutes of a game. Like him or hate him, you've gotta admit he's one of the best ever.

Finally, I want to give a big screw you out to the New England Patriots defense for giving up too many yards to Trent Green tonight, allowing my fantasy football team to lose by 2 measley points. I guess I could've started Kevin Jones over Rudi Johnson and everything would've been fine but who saw Jones rushing for 100 yards coming? Okay, maybe everyone should've considering the Vikings defense as of late. I still blame the Patriots 'D' for my team's loss though. With a record of 5-6, it's time to put the rally cap on.

NOW PLAYING: Pacers vs. Pistons brawl...on repeat

Let me tell you a thing or two about Metro Transit

2004-11-20T20:27:00.000-06:00

Before the bus ride home from work (campus) today, my iPod battery died. This was quite disheartening since I was bored out of my mind waiting for the bus, but I quickly got over it. Since I wasn't able to listen to music, I had a lot of time to sit and contemplate. Now for those of you who don't take the bus very often or have never taken it at all, it can be quite an interesting experience. The route I take to and from campus and uptown is the 6. Route 6 is probably the greatest route there is for people/environment-scoping because it covers the best parts of Minneapolis: U of M, downtown, and uptown. Here's some of the things I've noted on the ride back from campus (because in the morning I'm still half asleep): when you stop in front of Aveda, you'll usually see some dolled-up girls and a flaming man. When you swing through downtown, you'll see all sorts of things and there will often be someone that tries to get on the bus without fare. Finally, when you swing through uptown you'll of course see any combination of gays, punks, and hipsters. I've also come to notice that on any bus, you'll pretty much always have the following:
-a bunch of people listening to headphones
-a student reading or doing some type of math/science problems in a notebook
-someone talking waaay too loud on their cellphone
and
-someone sleeping against the window

The Metro transit is fairly reliable on times, but it's really a bitch when you get to the stop exactly at the time the bus is supposed to be there and see it about half a mile down the road. I usually want to throw a rock.

Even though the transit sounds shitty, it's not that bad. For me, it's often one of the only slow parts of my day and definitely a time that offers reflection. What DOES suck is being used to having a car on campus and taking the Metro Transit. When I want to be somewhere fast, I can't.

That's enough ranting for today. I added Ernie as my profile picture to keep the stalkers away (and he was always my favorite character as a kid).

CURRENT LISTENING: Limbeck - Perfect Teeth (cover)

No wakeup calls to the roommate from Darth Vader

2004-11-17T16:40:00.000-06:00

In a great example of unconvential marketing genius, Target is promoting it's two-day post Thanksgiving sale (Nov. 26 & 27 of course) by letting shoppers sign up for a wake up call from an array of personalities both recognizable and fabricated including Darth Vader, Cheech, Heidi Klum, and a rooster named Dennis. Now, one could guess that my initial reaction was to sign up some friends for a nice 5:30 am wake up call from Lord Vader himself. But of course, Target and Mother, the ad agency brains behind the campaign, had thought of this possibility already. So when I sign up I come to learn that I have to call a 1-800 number to confirm my wake up call within the next two days. Which brings us to the present...Operation: Steal roommate's cell phone.

Go here to view the site: http://www.target.com/wakeup

The story of the day in my life is my Psychology of Advertising midterm (yes, VERY EXCITING). The issue I have - and I don't know if it's one of trickery, stupidity, or just plain oversight on the part of the prof - is that in the review session on Friday the TA spent all the time going over stuff on information processing and learning theories and told us that was going to be the bulk of the test material. So, of course I spend most of my time reviewing this info only for the actual test to be comprised of exactly what we weren't told to study. Not cool.

CURRENT LISTENING: The Academy Is... - Seasons

My First Blog

2004-11-16T23:54:00.000-06:00

Hello.

Welcome to my weblog. I decided to do my own blog for a few reasons. First off, with how stressful my life sometimes get with all the stuff I have going on I figured it would be nice to have the ability to just pause and spew out whatever's on my mind. Logically, a blog is perfect for that. Second, as an aspiring copywriter, it's good for me to have a constant writing outlet, not to mention the fact that I just enjoy writing. Finally, I don't get quite as much time lately to keep in touch with friends and family and although this in no way parallels real conversation (and will probably involve a lot of things I wouldn't discuss in a normal conversation), I figured it would at least be a way for people to keep up with me if they wanted to.

Don't expect quality entertainment.
Don't expect it to always be nice.
I do hope you enjoy reading...though if you don't I'm not doing it for you anyway.

Stay tuned.