New name, zero improvements!!!

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

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

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.

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

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

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...

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

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

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?

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

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!!!

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!

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...

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

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

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

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

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.