Hobokin, Fat Cat, Ninja Parade

I am loving being done with Finals, but I still have many an errand to acheive before vacation time begins. I need to finish my packet, Get somebody to work for me saturday night, clean the house, get an oil change, sell my textbooks, finish registering, cancel the milk service for the rest of the month, and figure out what the heck I am going to do in California for 5 days while I wait for the rest of the family to get there. I am thinking of literally becoming a Hobo. Just to see what it feels like. Gonna sleep in the car with a loaf of bread and peanut butter and read a book and not shower or shave at all... That sounds pretty fun.
Also I am sure I would enjoy just sightseeing a bit. Maybe I will go see a movie or something. I will try to spend Christmas day with some family down there though.

My sister had a cornet through High school that she does not play at all anymore, so they are supposedly bringing it to me at Christmas. That will be great. I can play just a little bit and with some practice can probably become decent. I just dont know how I am going to practice because the walls are just to thin in the condo. Maybe I will take it up to the institute building a few times a week. That should be something to keep me busy, aside from School, DAT study, and the guitar I want to get.

David's parents are in town for his graduation. The apartment is pretty messy, but they are staying at the Crystal Inn so probably wont be here too much. I think they leave Saturday night.

Oprah is claiming she has fallen off the Health Wagon again. I hate that Health Wagon. People are always falling out of it. But nobody more than Oprah it seems. Its like everytime she gets on, she is off again..so she gets some product that supposedly will fix the problem. Everytime she gets obese again, it seems she gets some new "sponsor" to help her get rid of the weight. I bet nobody knows more about the different weight loss plans than she does...she has tried about half of them.

Speaking of Health Wagons, here is the world's fattest cat. Are people shoving food into these animals intravenously or something? Just give them less to eat!!!!



Here is a dang funny video from The Onion's website...probably my all time favorite fake report from then. I especially like the little kid with the candy. This was pretty clever.

Finals, Gavin Bryars, Howling Wolf and Burl Ives, Edge of the Word

So Sorry for the lag time between posts. I just figured I had to put my mind focused on Studying for Finals. Things went ok. Could've gone slightly better. I think I ended up with a B+ in Corp Finance, A- in Marketing, A in Physics, and an A- (crossing fingers) in Physiology. Man the Physiology final was brutal!!! So much information to know. He never goes easy on the tests it seems. I had an extremely late night studying for that one. I thought I pulled a better grade than I actually did, but thats the way of things sometimes. Needless to say I am extremely tired.


The other day I bought this great album off of Itunes. Its a bit weird, but its amazing, its called "The Sinking of the Titanic" and is a very long orchestral piece by Gavin Bryars. It is basically a repeat of the same melody over and over again with varying instruments and sounds of water. He basically wanted to simulate the sinking of the titanic, with the string quartet playing as the ship sinks into the ocean slowly. So year hear really strange sounds like screeching metal, water rushing, clanks, soft shreaks...all kind of breaking ship sounds. And then he mixes in very muffled accounts of the story by various survivors. It makes for a very interesting hour of music. Some people probably wouldn't care for this little experiment, but I think its a great idea. In fact, without exaggerating, I probably listened to that thing at least eight times this week so far. Mostly because it was excellent to study and try to memorize things to, but I would listen to it alone as well. And if you fall asleep to it you will have some crazy ship sinking dreams. I guess a while ago he recorded a version in a water tower and its hard to find...but its on vinyl. I think I will have to look for that one. He also does a similar thign with another song "Jesus Blood Never failed me Yet" and mixes in some Tom Waits vocals...which is never a bad thing.

I bought that album because I got a 25 dollar Itunes Card from the Village Inn Christmas party. I also go two others with it...a Howlin' Wolf compilation, and a "Best of Burl Ives" album. I know those may seem like some strange choices, but I am really getting excited about some of that older stuff these days. Howlin' Wolf does Blues like nobody ever does, and Burl Ives actually writes some great sad love songs. I think "Funny Way of Laughing" is like what an angry teenager today would write if he were clever enough to come up with the lyrics...just expressed differently. I always thought it was a little goofy when I was younger...but tastes and opinions change.

I like how Howlin' Wolf holds up that dollar up while he is looking so seriously at the audience. Such a weird captivating performance. And here is Burl...

There voices sound great together. I know some people might say it was a bit prideful to have his own show...but I think this would be the type of thing I'd like to watch today even. Instead you have to watch Pink sing on Saturday Night Live. I heard Elvis Costello has his own show on some channel, I should look into that.

Speaking of the Christmas Party, my group played for it, we did about a 50 minute set with a ton of originals and some covers too. Andrew a. played with us and I added some bells to the tunes. We actually plugged a friend's Minidisc recorder into the mixer and recorded the show, so we have a pretty good mix from the soundboard. I will get it uploaded for you to check out, but that probably won't come up until January. Some of it sounds pretty good...some of it sounds cringe-inducing. But it is what it is.... I also won 10 dollars to Hamiltons STeak House.

Tomorrow the goal is to finish off the Dental Packet and be done with that. So its not over yet. That will take some time. Friday Coltan is coming and I have to get ready to leave that night for California and the cruise. That is going to be awesome. I just have to figure out what I want to do during the few days I will be there all by myself. Maybe I can pick up one of these while I am down there.


Last weekend I did have the chance to watch the newest Herzog film. Its called Encounters at the Edge of the World and is about the people who work in Antartica. It was pretty interesting...its like only a certain type of person is willing to leave society and go that far into nowhere. They are like today's pioneers...they are looking at things very few other people see. It was pretty well done. Here is the trailer incase your interested in it.


I will try to post something funny tomorrow if I get time.

Boring, Elvis, Jason

Things are busy. I am trying to put together my packet for the Dental Board at Utah State and it is not really all that fun. I am supposed to write an Autobiographal Statement. I now understand that it is important to do that once in a while to realize exactly how PATHETIC you are. I dont know if I have accomplished anything important in at least that last 3 years. Or maybe ever. Leastwise, thats the way it makes you feel. You are supposed to talk about all the awesome stuff you have done, but who has time for that when they are trying to work and go to school at the same time. Maybe Einstein. If I were Einstein I could write something like "I came up with the theory of Relativity in my spare time while working at a patent office." My mind doesnt work like that. The only comforting thing is that, no doubt, nobody I know is all that fascinating either. In fact, although I may be boring, there are people out there who's life is Wake, Eat, Work, Sleep. My Roomate David is a good example. He won't read this so I am safe writing this...if I went school to become disinteresting for 10 years and worked hard at it, and my mother was the most disinteresting person on the planet and my father was a zombie, I still would be more interesting than that. I am annoying myself now.....

Practiced last night for Sunday. It will be an interesting show. I borrowed some Bells from Andy to play for a few of the songs. He will be playing guitar with us this time around as Tyson T. will be in Wyoming.

This afternoon I am going to go learn about Contraception from Andy Anderson's wife for my Physiology Lab. Should be a hoot. I will tell you all about it sometime. Speaking of Andy, I went to check out some questions on the last test and gave him a copy of the song "The Death of Elvis" which is a little rap I wrote inspired by one of his lectures...he was talking about the medical reasons for Elvis passing away. He enjoyed it I think, so I gave him the copy. He thought it was pretty funny.

I am listening to "A short history of nearly everything" on my ipod. It is alot more interesting I think now that I have taken classes that have gotten into the subject matter at a great depth. I understand what they are Bill Bryson is saying and recall the experiments and scientists he mentions.

Its infomercial Wednesday.

Yeah. If someone was wearing that when I walked in the house after school I would think that I was about to die. Could not they have gone to the trouble to make the mask look less like Jason's? Geez. I hope nobody bought that one. I'd rather have the Hula chair.

THE WHISTLES GO WHOOOOOOOOOOO!

Man I am hungry right now. Subway is in order. But first I need to meet with my corp. Finance group and do some studying for finals. Sheesh. Its coming soon. My last one is on Wednesday, a week from tomorrow. I have alot to do before then, so today I will keep this short.

We are playing at the Village Inn Chirstmas Party on Sunday and have a pretty good setlist just about ready. WE just need more practice and it should be a good show. I am excited for the Hamiltons Catering. Their food is the bomb.

This news report makes me laugh. Its as if "Bubb Rubb" can't help but imitate the whistle everytime he talks about it. I like how he also says, "You supposed to be up cookin breakfast!" Its like an alarm clock!

The whistles go WHOOOOOOO!

Follow Recipes, A Christmas Gift for you and yours, Horatio Caine

So the weekend was nice. Did the whole rest and relax thing for the most part. I read quite a bit, went to Thanksgiving at the Cook's house, among other things. Really good food at the Cook's house, especially the candied yams. I cannot believe how tastebuds change. That stuff is amazing.
Now it is time to buckle down and get to work. Finals are next week and I have alot of preperation to do before then. And then comes the cruise to Mexico and Christmas in California. This will be awesome.

I decided to do some cooking during the break. I made Frogeye salad as I said I would, and it went pretty well. I made a few mistakes, first when I bought pineapples, I accidentally bought crushed pineapple instead of the slices, and also one can of big slices. So that was a bit weird. And I added about twice the amount of pineapple juice as I should have. But it worked out alright. I had no idea how much it was going to make though, after weighing it on scale I discovered I had made 10.5 pounds of pasta salad. I also realized that nobody was very excited about it, and as much as I tried nobody wanted to eat it. I guess its not all that popular of a salad, they think it looks gross and most people dont like the consistency. I ended up eating a little over half of it over the past 3 days before I had to chuck it out. The effects it had on my digestive system were not pretty. In fact, it reminded me of this day in high school where I attempted to eat an entire watermelon over the course of the day. That night I had to attend a court of honor for boyscouts, and I remember having to run to the bathroom while I was standing in line waiting to get some merit badges. But now things are starting to normalize.

Last blog entry I mentioned some of my favorite Christmas Albums. Well, here is one to add to your list. Think of it as an early Christmas present from me. Free to download, the incredible Christmas LP was recorded in about four hours or so. 9 classic and not so classic Christmas tunes for your listening pleasure at www.myspace.com/nocouponnopizza. Just a little something to get you into the spirit of Christmas early. That is another thing I did during the break. Its called Nocouponnopizza saves Christmas. I like the Jingle Bells song.

Had to work last night and Saturday night. I hate sunday nights at Village Inn. If you ever go to resteraunts on a late sunday night, then shame on you. Especially if you dont think you need to tip. I got stiffed 3 times last night. I am definitely not cut out to be a waiter. That is for dang sure. I feel like Bruce Banner half the time...on the verge of explosion.

Real quick, I really don't care for that CSI Miami Show. This is the reason.

David Caruso may be the worst actor on T.V. Its as if he thinks his job consists of putting his sunglasses on and off and saying a one-liner. I like how he always pauses before he hits you hard with punchline.."Our accident.....is not an accident at all." Its as if he applies that formula to every line in the script. Then he walks away as fast as possible. A man on a mission.

If David Caruso was acting in a comedy, it would be a different story. Its as if he saw an over-the-top cop comedy, and thought that was how all cops really act. Its so bad that you would think he is playing a person who is supposed to be a horrible actor playing a cop in a comedy. Maybe he saw this clip from Seinfeld and based Horatio Caine's character off of it?

You never know I guess