( Wisconsin Becomes a National Power by Staying Close to Home )

Shit, I'm loyal to UW and I'm not even from Wisconsin...

Vedder Warms Up For Solo Trek With Seattle Gigs

( I am so insanely jealous, whoa. )

He's playing "Forever Young"???? If I attended a concert and he played that song I'd need a new pair of underwear.

Clinton: Wright 'would not have been my pastor'

That's so completely fair. The Wright debacle has my head spinning a bit, still. But! The real nugget of this article:

Clinton said she was "sleep-deprived" and "misspoke" when she said last week that she landed under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia in 1996, when she was first lady.

The lolz just keep coming.

For posterity, here's the ( entire article )

I have an 'election 2008' tag? Shit. I should use it.

-'A More Perfect Union' Because everyone needs a transcript of this speech.

-Stop dodging the issues, Barack!! Mark Bazer brings the lolz in today's Chicago Tribune. You know, I honestly don't know if the fact that people are still writing that they don't understand Obama's specifics on issues means that Obama hasn't gotten any better, or if people are just throwing the same tired criticism at him because they are Not Getting It. I lean toward believing the latter, myself.


( Blather. )

Content strike over. Unlocked last night's post. Mostly, I just needed to rant then about apartments. (I'm still cranky.)

My NCAA brackets are fucked. And yet, I am going to watch basketball until the end of the night. While crocheting. yes yes.

Question. Why can't Pearl Jam tour anywhere near where I'm living this summer? I finally am not living in Iowa during a tour... and I get ignored anyway. So not fair, lads!

I* spent 50$ on yarn today. (10 skeins.) And those were cheapies, too... whoa, yo. But I'm going to have the most brilliant double crocheted afghan ever created.

I also got a pair of brown pants at the Gap on sale. And socks! Including a pair of argyle ones.

I haven't gone shopping in ages...

I'm working on an afghan right now, actually, switching back to the crochet topic... it's pretty bright. And happy. And a little ugly. But mostly happy. I'd like to call it "Happiness Is An Ugly Blanket" when it's finished. It's going to be warm as fuck though. It's just made out of cheap Walmart yarn--it's a blanket on a college budget, unfortunately. But I like! I picked up crocheting again when I had to go 72 hours without media (TV, internet, music, cell phone, etc). And it's stuck... hopefully, for a little while, since I have about 3 blankets to do...





*my mother

what's up, obama.

'For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.”'
-Barack Obama, 18 March 2008
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/03/18/text-of-obamas-speech-a-more-perfect-union


That's fucking beautiful. The whole speech is great, but that part is just amazing. I love this man. Despite my annoyance at the time, I really am glad that I had a chance to caucus for him in the state of Iowa. I'm really proud of that!

So, the homepage tells me it's been 31 weeks since I've posted an entry. Whoa. (I didn't mean the neglect!) I also got an e-mail reminding me that my automatic payment had just gone through... again, whoa. (I guess I forgot to turn it off oh-so-long ago, so I've apparently been a faithful supporter for all 31 weeks as well!)

I don't want to give up on LJ... so much of my life is packed into the couple thousand entries I've posted. I just feel like I have no time to write or keep up. Between boys and class and committees and ensembles...

Currently what's getting me is Hillary Clinton. I've been watching her campaign with complete disgust for the past few days (well, longer than that, but it's been notably deplorable as of late). I was actually on the Joe Biden train until he dropped out... I tried to caucus for him, but my precinct did not have enough Biden people (one short of 15%!) so I switched to Obama. I've been there ever since, I do believe... I've even made my first political contribution, to him. Anyone watching the debates tonight? It should be interesting...

What up, LJ?

I cannot believe how amazing it is to be back at home.

Seriously.

I took five days off from work and came home to Iowa... for the longest time, I didn't really miss home at all, but during the last couple of weeks I've really started to miss it. So, home I came. I'm here until Thursday night, when I [a bit unfortunately] have to go back to the Twin Cities...

This afternoon, I watched eight episodes of The West Wing with my mom and little brother. Mom has always been a big West Wing fan (she's partly why I started watching, in fact) and my brother became a fan as soon as he saw some of the pilot this afternoon. I just bought season one, and none of my roommates appreciate how awesome this show [was], so it was fun to watch it with my fam. God I miss the show in its early days... there isn't really anything as awesome on TV right now. (Not that I actually watch TV right now... it was so wild to flip through channels last night, it was like I was rediscovering the ability to walk or something.)

Right now, I'm working on making some new icons for my LJ. I finally renewed my account; I think it expired in November? And yeah, it was time to get rid of all of those old icons that haven't been changed for over a year... I'm so rusty with Photoshop, though, so I don't know how these are going to turn out. (Anyone know a torrent site that's got a cracked Mac Photoshop? I could really use it on my laptop!)

I'm also devoting this time back at home to rereading Harry Potters five and six. I'm 100-some pages into OotP right now, and am gonna knock out some more once I'm done on the computer for the night... you know what's sad? I had totally forgotten about things like Petunia getting a Howler, all that shit with Mundungus Fletcher, etc etc. SO SAD. My retention is miniscule, clearly. Hopefully I'll get done with HBP by Friday, so I can dig into Deathly Hallows right away! And, hopefully I'll be able to find it at a Walmart or something at midnight. I really need to get some info on these release things. This is a great example of how little I've been paying attention to all the hubbub surrounding DH...

( so. order of the phoenix. )

ETA: So I wanted to watch the "childhood home" episode from S1 of SPN, right? And for the life of me, I could not remember what it was called when I grabbed my DVDs... so I'm flipping through reading all the shit, going "what the fuck is it CALLED?"

And then it dawned on me. Hey. It's probably called "Home".

Shocker of shockers, it is called "Home"... on disc three.

Duh.

I = genius.

So I'm at the point in my life in which I think the thought of "wow, I just made myself a real meal" when all I did was put some popcorn chicken and garlic cheese bread in the oven, warm some green beans and marinara in the microwave, and pour myself a glass of milk.

(It's better than the crispy crust pizzas my roommates all live off, but still. It's not that great!)

There's a storm rolling in right now, and I'm just sitting in my living room watching the lightning. It storms differently in a large city than it does in rural places, I think...

I just got back from the Mall of America... I went to the Apple store to play with the iPhone! And it's pretty much amazing. The store has them set up everywhere to play with... one of the guys working asked if I wanted to try it out, and of course I did. He pointed me toward a big iMac, and I was like, uhh... until I realized oh, there's one set up by it. It's so sleek, though... it hardly feels like a phone. Everything works so smoothly, and it's really easy to type on. The only problem is that it's black, and it starts to look really fingerprinted really quickly (which is a huge pet peeve of mine). But, overall... nice. I can't imagine spending 500$ (or shit, 600$ for the 8GB model) on a phone, or actually, you know, using AT&T (the rates for plans are ridiculous, I think...) but, what a phone. Apple pretty much owns me at this point, it's so sad...

I ended up getting off work early today (at 2), which is why I went to the MoA at all... it was a pretty busy morning, but they started sending ticket sellers home, and I was one of two lucky ones chosen to go home today. Normally, I'd be a little upset about being sent home four hours early, but today I didn't even care. I wasn't in the mood to sit in a booth and sell tickets, at all. Luckily, Sundays are big family days, and the dads are usually the ones paying, and they're (surprisingly) not the biggest assholes we get. It's the mothers that are our worst customers, and you deal with a significantly smaller number of them on the weekends. It's kinda great.

So it's Saturday night, right? Instead of actually doing something, I sat here and watched the US Figure Skating Championships, specifically the men's long program. ( And oh man. )

And hey, because my nerdiness tonight knows no bounds, I'm staying up to watch Federer/Gonzalez at 2.30 on ESPN2. oh yeah.

... I'm going to be social tomorrow.

Was Harry Frankfurt on something tonight? Jon was admirably trying to keep that interview afloat, but I imagine it's tough when you ask a question and simply recieve a blank stare in response. I remember his last appearance, for On Bullshit, but I don't remember it being quite so, uh, uhhh. Jon was gold during the bit about Rep. Ellison of Minnesota being sworn in on the Koran tonight, too, as well as the Obama/Osama madness! Jon, I still love thee greatly. Don't let Stephen tell you otherwise.

I didn't know Owen Hargreaves was getting his own BBC column? You make me sad, Owen, with all of this transfer-to-Man-United talk. This column, though, I tell you... his choppy dancing about the question is equal parts annoying-to-read and annoying-to-think-about! Next week has the potential to be interesting, as he will be answering questions. This is a call: they will leadoff with one about his transfer. They will follow it up with a question about his leg. Then perhaps a question on playing for England. Just a guess, though. :)

Reminder to self, don't forget to watch the USMNT against Denmark on 20 Jan. If you do, you'll just be sad about it...

I need to throw some money at Livejournal so I get my paid account back. I miss my Brad Radke layout (though I need to update it) and I really miss my icons. These seven are getting really old! I should have renewed before I let the damn things expire, but that was back in November when I was at my brokest. Now I'm simply broke, and really need to find it within my checkbook to spare a few for the betterment of, uh, my happiness. (I miss the good ol' days, when the icons and pretty just flowed...)

Merry Christmas, everyone! If you're not a Christmas-type, hope you're at least having a nice day. I would be, if there was freaking SNOW on the ground. Hi, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at something other than my car, that sort of thing.

But I did get my digital camera from mother and father, so life is not looking too down. I took a picture of my snow-less Iowa a few minutes ago, for evidence of how I have been screwed this year. This is the first time I've never had snow. (And I'm clearly having trouble dealing.)

That was the best Colbert Report. EVER. omg.

I just saw Drogba's INCREDIBLE goal from the Everton match today. I felt like running and jumping about like Jose was on the touchline! That's just brilliance... I know the buzzword about Chelsea (one of the few positive ones, anyway ;) for the season is "spirit," and well, they sure seem to have a bit of it don't they?

(I also saw the other two goals, Michael's big blooper and Frank's shot, too--haha, I almost had a hard time believin' it WAS Lampsy, but yes, it was! Good to see!)

Why is it always the boring affairs I get to see and these exciting matches that I miss? Unfair! FSN thinks it prudent that I see Manchester United's match this week. (Although, seeing as West Ham just completely upset them, I may watch that after all...)

I loved this bit from an article on soccernet, on Chelsea's formation (featuring a bit of Jose for good measure):

when Drogba's wonderful half-volley completed their win, Chelsea's outfield players comprised one central defender, two left backs, four central midfielders, a right winger and two strikers. Conventional it was not. [...] 'We finished the game with Kalou at right back, Drogba at centre back and Ashley Cole, an attacking left back, as the third central defender.' Whether inspired, intuitive or desperate, it worked.

Also, there is a hilarious picture of Mourinho in this article, on the BBC:
Self-belief won it, says Mouriho

Look at that face!

So you'd think all of that would just about make my day, right? (It would.) But apparently my day needed to be MORE made, because I then I see that Bayern scored FOUR against Mainz (who netted none) yesterday. Here's the video of those, including a bullet by Basti (no. 4) and an improbabe third by Claudio Pizarro (look at the set-up)! I also like the brief look of fear on the face of one of the Mainz players (couldn't catch his name) after Olli charges out of the net at him and plows his shit over. <3