Happy Birthday APT 212 Blogger MIKE COHEN

Other exciting things that happened on June 24th include:
- 1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
- 1664 – The colony of New Jersey is founded
- 1813 – Battle of Beaver Dams : a British and Indian combined force defeats the U.S Army.
- 1880 – First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français. - THIS ONE IS REALLY IMPORTANT!
 -1922 – The American Professional Football Association formally changes its name to the National Football League. - Typical to Mike
1988 - Ben Cohen, brother of Mike Cohen, is born. The simultaneous birth of Mike Cohen is said to be unrelated.
- 2007 – The Angora Fire starts near South Lake Tahoe, California, destroying over 200 structures in its first 48 hours. - Mike would later go to Lake Tahoe

Done.

Attention loyal blog readers!

Three highly qualified individuals; Matt (Forrest not Smola), Eric and Mike, are needing sources of employment. If you are hiring, know someone who is hiring or know someone who knows someone who is hiring let us know (and let them know about are amazing qualifications.)
We are a great addition to any team, fun to be around and people you definitely want on your side when the going gets tough.

But seriously, we really could use this.

It's so freaking hot...at least I can keep the fan in the window

To those who do not understand the title, you clearly are an APT 212 bandwagon follower (if you really want to know ask and I'll give you insight into the hardships we faced last summer.)

Let's see...I had a kind of exciting weekend. Christine Banks was in Chicago for an interview so I met up with her and KC Skelton at the Cheesecake Factory Friday night. It was good food and there was apparently some epic storm rolling through so KC's mom recommended we didn't leave, plus it was raining pretty hard. So we did what anyone in our situation would do, we drank for 3.5 hours at the restaurant. After the rain died down and we felt we had our fill, we ventured to Millennium Park so Christine could take in the Bean (the security guard begrudgingly allowed her to take a few pictures.) And then I happily headed home.

Saturday was uneventful during the day, went out to Wrigleyville at night. Was going to meet up with Mike, but  I failed epically at that one. I cried about it a lot (read: drowned my sadness in beer.) Had two people I only kind of recognized from Miami come up and tell me they knew me. Also did a dial-a-shot back to Oxford (delayed constantly because Brad and Nathan took forever). It basically consisted of Audree yelling a lot into the phone and me not really understanding what she was saying. Oh well we tried right?

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday consisted of more job searching. Applied to 17 more positions, probably will not get calls from any of them...sigh. I'm doing my best though and my cover letters are much improved from when I first started out in the job search. However, apparently employers don't feel the same way.

Broke the routine Tuesday to travel out to Evanston to have lunch with Liz Bersin to round out my own self-designed alumni weekend. Definitely good and we found out Giordonos has excellent lunch specials which made it even better.

Still hot, still sweating. I start working at the Taste of Chicago on Friday for 10 days. That's money right? And hopefully will bring some interesting blog posts. Sadly that means I can't go to Ohio at all this week or weekend, but it's the only source of income I have right now so I can't pass that up.

Currently listening to: Lots of fans blowing.
Currently reading: Half the Sky (must read!) & Soccernomics (couldn't pick so reading them both)

Glue

A few days ago I noticed a tile in one of our bathrooms that was loose. I loosened it more. I can't help it, its in my nature to take things apart. So, after I had the tile off the wall it occurred to me that the overall appeal of the bathroom had been damaged by the removal of the tile. So I took a bottle of Elmer's School Glue and glued it back on. It is currently quite secure.

Nuclear Powered Vehicles

Nuclear powered vehicles are awesome. Everyone about pees their pants whenever anyone mentions using nuclear power for electricity. There are bans on nuclear power. People are idiots. Submarines and aircraft carriers use nuclear power for propulsion. Nuclear subs can travel close to 30 mph and only require refueling once...in the middle of their lifespan...which is 60 years. Nuclear carriers can go on 6 month cruises and only meet a refueling tanker once, to take on jet fuel so the planes can continue to fly.

I for one think there should be nuclear land vehicles. Like a nuclear powered dump truck, or a nuclear powered crane. Nothing would be too heavy. They go 30 years without refueling! Awesome!

And, for the record, this is actually awesome. Not something that some lame, bored person decided to write about and claim it as awesome. That person should consult a dictionary before setting off to write 1000 blog posts about drivel.

Happy Official Summer

Hey all. So at midnight it was/will be depending on where you are officially summer. I spent my this past weekend ushering it in.

I was in the city last night. I went to dinner at the Billy Goat Tavern which is a Chicago centerpiece (you have to go if you're in town) and the spent the evening at Millennium Park. My buddy Josh, who I've know for 15 years here in Chicago, had never actually been, so we and a few others took him to the spitting fountains and the bean. Then Ben heard some classical music, so we naturally followed him as he wandered over there and listen to some Beethoven something or other before walking to the lake front. We then sat on the pier with our feet over the water and watched the Saturday fireworks at Navy Pier before calling it a night.

I spent Father's Day with my dad, and we went to some outdoor car show. Eric would have loved it. Ben took a bunch of pictures for him. Then we saw Alice and Wonderland, the Tim Burton one. That movie was really freaky. I'm not a big Tim Burton guy, so I don't watch a lot of his stuff but Ben said it was classic Tim Burton, so I'm gonna describe it like that.

This week should be good. I heading down to Cincinnati on Wednesday and will celebrate my birthday day there on Thursday. Then I'll be in Oxford on Friday to celebrate some more before heading up to Cleveland to see Matt Smola and celebrate Jenn's graduation with some of the gang.

Things That Are Awesome

I am going to point out some things that are awesome. This might turn into a sort of blog series thing. Should be similar to the things that always sound good post, but that one ran out of steam. I'm hungry right now and everything sounds good.

Anyways, you know what's awesome? Clouds are awesome. Think about it. They are huge masses of water suspended miles above the ground. Sometimes they seem peaceful, but at other times they produce some of the most violent displays of electricity on the planet. Big, fluffy white sky drifters, spewing bolts of electric energy. Awesome.

Both Matt's are now sunburned

The Cubs game today has left me beet red, but more on that later.

So it has been awhile since I've blogged so I'll quickly bring you up to speed from last Wednesday until yesterday morning. The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley cup! Went out to celebrate Wednesday night. Traveled home on Thursday. Went to a friend's 22 birthday party for a while. Got up early as hell on Friday for the dentist (missed the Balckhawks rally because of it) Saturday passed uneventfully. Sunday met up with my friends Katie (fresh from her year in DC) and Allison at Goose Island Micro-Brewery - really good beer! Monday and Tuesday back to the job hunt! Hooray! (I just want work, please. Anyone out there willing to hire me?)

So now we're at Wednesday. I get a call from Molly Dull, she's in Lombard and informs me that her and Sarah O are going to come and visit. I get excited. She calls me back and tells me they are no longer coming. I am now sad. Then Molly calls me yet again to let me know she is going. I remain unemotional, I do not want to be let down again. Molly and Sarah arrive and Sarah is beyond excited to be in Chicago. We venture off to a bar, Hop Leaf (I think that's its name), and grab some beer (Sarah undergoes typical post Oxford sticker shock upon seeing the prices). We are then shoved around the entire place and constantly told that we can't sit there, can't eat if we choose these tables, we can sit there but only for the next 20 minutes. Finally, we found somewhere to sit, found some good food and were shortly joined by our friend Chris. The conversation was great, we laughed a lot and it was great to catch up with Molly and Sarah again. They left and I passed out in my bed exhausted.

This morning I woke early and ventured to Wrigley Field to go to the Cubs game with my sister for her 18th birthday. We had bleacher seats which is basically a free-for-all, for those who have never been before think Miami Hockey game, and Eileen wanted front row. We got front row and all was well, minus the boiling heat and thus no matter how much sunscreen I put on I still turned out burned as ever. Some guy threw up 5 rows behind us, think waterfall of puke spilling down the bleachers, it happened. Thus a larger hole appeared in the crowd as we all moved away. The game was long and hot but the Cubs won in the end and so all is well. Came home, showered and fell asleep for a good 5 hours. Ate dinner at like 10 because of it and so now I'm here and probably won't get any sleep - great.

Currently listening to: The fan & Breakeven by The Script

Directions

I am planning on making a pretty long road trip around Ohio next weekend. With stops in Toledo, Cincinnati, and Cleveland, it should be quite the tour. In preparation for this trip, I did a little Google mapping. Basically one of my long pondered questions was answered. I have always thought it would be about as fast to go up 75 then over to Cleveland from Cinci as it is to go the route that takes you through Columbus. Turns out, Google Maps wants me to go down 75 to Oxford from Perrysburg, then head right back up before taking route 6 and 80/90 over to Clevetown. I was right. I should have known. When will I learn to not doubt myself?

There is really nothing else going on. The days are running together so bad, I had to text a friend yesterday and ask if I had texted her recently because the act of doing so this time started sparking memories of doing the same thing. I am losing my mind from applying for jobs. I feel like that bodes ill for me. On the other hand, I took a reasoning test for P&G yesterday that is supposed to take around 30 minutes and I did it in less than ten. I think they should hire me. I am clearly one of the quickest minds out there.

Listening to: My brains drip out of my ears

Oh! The Tigers have swept two series in a row! I just tried to make series plural and now the word looks really weird. I need to go lay down.

Burn Baby Burn

Disco inferno!

Right. So I'm sitting in the sunroom, my computer is on an ottoman, and there's a USB cord going out the door to...my camera. Big surprise, I'm sure. The goal is star trail pictures, but we'll see. It's a work in progress and if anything decent comes of it, I'll fill you in.

I actually took a bunch of silly photos today, involving sparklers, flashlights (thanks Nicole!) and science-y stuff. One of them was pretty cool and could be a facebook profile picture, but since Eric just demanded that I change it, I think I'll hold out for a while.

Went down to Oxford a couple days ago! Most of my friends bailed on me! I also had no wallet/ID so I couldn't do much, although no one was really carding anyway. I had most of Monday to myself, since my parents and sister were busy with orientation stuff. I walked around campus, took some pictures, and got myself up on to the back roof of Alumni Hall. After 4 years of checking doors only to find them locked, it turns out all you have to do is ask for a key. It would be better in the fall.

Had lunch with Bailey, then taught her how to use her new camera. I'm not sure I did the best job of teaching, but she'll get better as she messes with it. IT RAINED LIKE HELL (contradictory statement?) Monday night, but the lightning looked cool. Touchdown Jesus on I-75 was struck and burned to the ground. Now it's like Touchdown Terminator.

Powerwashed part of the patio today. Got sunburned pretty bad. I'm going to go slather more aloe on myself.

Currently Listening to: Dad snoring.

Good Weekend

The game Friday was excellent. Tigers won, lots of hits, good company, Little Caesars, not much to complain about really. I even made it out of Detroit with my life! After getting lost on the way home! We didn't even get shot at! I am surprised frankly. The getting lost did mean lots of time in the car to talk about people, which is one of my favorite things to do. I would like to thank all of my friends for being interesting.

Saturday was pretty plain. Babysat for the three girls next door. We had Little Caesars for dinner, so of course it was a good time. They are really lovely girls too. I play with them when they are over here, so being able to get paid for watching them is pretty nice.

Sunday we went to the lake. Saturday night I downloaded Star Trek, so me and Jarod watched that on the way up and back, so the trip was like nothing. It was really cloudy when we got there so we figured it would be kind of a bummer of a day. It has been years since it was a nice day at the lake. There was a NASCAR race at MIS at 1, so we were watching the jets doing the fly over. It was pretty sweet. Four of them flew low right over the lake, made a turn over the track and flew right back over. My mom was on the dock waving at the jets and about jumped in the lake she was so happy when the last two tipped their wings at us! Went out on the boat for a while, swam, drank, ate, it even got sunny for a few seconds. When we got home we were all a little burnt and my face was bright red. Can't say I'm disappointed.

Looking for more jobs today. Still waiting on my security deposit check from Century 21. The week is not shaping up to be as good as the weekend.

I'm Alive. And Stuff.

So this is quite the throwback. I'm sitting in King Library because it's a) hot outside b) lonely in the hotel and c) I want to. I know I've been missing for a while. I'm not going to apologize. I just have nothing to write about. Mostly.

I'm hoping to go uptown tonight with Sam and Alex (Scotty?) and here's the kicker--I left my wallet at home. I discovered a small stain on my shorts and changed into new shorts, and although I took my wallet out of the old ones, it didn't make it into the back pocket of the new ones and as such is still at home. Womp womp. My weak plan is to put a picture of myself at graduation and use that as a "hey man, I graduated, do you really think I'm underage?" I doubt it will work. My best bet is if I know who's working the door, but at this point I'm not getting my hopes up.

I'm reminded of last summer as my phone is really starting to piss me off a la Eric's phone. The battery doesn't last worth a damn and sometimes in the middle of phone calls the screen just starts blinking on and off and freezes up. Not happy. Part of why I'm in King is because I forgot my phone charger at home and I have to use a USB to charge my phone. Gah.

Saw some summer tours going around campus today. In all honest, they seemed kinda weak. I would tell our manager that I heard some guy say "dorm" and stuff, but I don't really care enough to be that much of a prick. He was even walking backwards. God bless him.

So that's all for now. I should have some more to blog about later. Sam is bringing my gnome to Oxford, finally!...I hope.

Mike's coming to my sister's grad party! Eric probably will too! Matt Forrest........? Make it happen.

Currently Listening to: Don't Stop Believin' (Glee Version)

I'm Back and I Went Back...In time.

Hey readers. Sorry it's been so long. I was out of town and then had a family issue, but everything is resolved and I'm back.

I've spent a lot of time playing basketball lately, and I have my shot back which is really exciting. Back a long long time ago I could ball pretty well, but didn't really have the chance to keep playing. So I've been going to the park everyday and shooting, and I'm ready to take anyone on. I've been sweeping games of horse and one on one although my 60 year dad won the half-court contest. My brother decided he wanted to have one and he missed his first shot and then I missed mine. My dad was rebounding, and I asked him if he wanted to try, and he shrugged and said what the hell. And first try he hit the half court shot...UNDERHAND! Rick Berry style. He just took to hands and threw them towards the sky and sunk the ball from 46 feet. Ridiculous.

I'm still looking for jobs. But instead of doing that today, I took a trip down nostalgia lane. I looked at all the pictures I had from college on facebook (Thank you Matt Smola, Courtney Bradley and Matt Forrest) and then for the first time in years I read the messages people wrote me in my yearbook senior year of high school. It was hilarious. I highly recommend doing this. Some of the people I haven't talked to since they signed the 400 page tribute to my high school, others reminded me of things I haven't thought about since I roamed the halls of New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois (Not gonna lie, don't miss them all that much). But what struck me was how the vast majority of the comments people wrote were about either how they could not understand how I had so much energy, or how they can't wait to listen to me broadcast games for a living. I felt like I was living a different life. It was kind of cool for awhile. And no, I don't feel like an utter failure because I'm still unemployed and am tired today.

I'd share some stuff with you guys, but you don't know anyone I'm talking about. One person called me Ben. That was confusing. Also, I looked really really young. And my senior photo and quote were kind of ridiculous. I guess what they say about looking back at your high school yearbook is true. You always think everything is ridiculous.

Tomorrow I'm going to borders and I'll probably play more basketball. And if I'm lucky I'll get to talk to you.

300!!!

I'm pretty surprised no one has stepped up to make this historic post. I suppose it is only fitting that I do it since about half of the other 299 are mine.

I have some good and some bad today. The bad is that I have a sty on my right eyelid. It is quite painful. I looked up these little buggers online and it says not to wear contacts while you have one. Fat chance of that happening.

On to the good. I am going to the Tigers game tonight! They better win. Verlander is pitching and they are playing the Pirates. Who I believe are a triple-A team. Anyway, I am going to have fun regardless. Going to fill out an application to work at a liquor store later!

Nostalgia for last summer...

Thinking back to those days when Eric, Matt and I would all head off to the library for Internet and blog. Often posting within ten minutes of each other about the same exact thing. Those must have been Molly Dull's favorite days of the summer. Or moving around Bree's apartment in search of an Internet signal (note: only one of use could actually use the Internet at any one time) while watching Next Food Network Star in anticipation and yelling at the screen the whole time...I think I might start crying or something soon.

In tribute to last summer: 

Currently listening to: Daylight - Matt & Kim
Talk about nostalgia.

I apologize for my absence...

...I have no excuse as to why I haven't blogged in about 5 days. I'll admit, I was lazy and every time I opened this window to begin a blog I simply changed my mind and wandered off, my apologies (kind of). But in other news a lot has happened since last Thursday so I actually have something legitimate to blog about for once! Okay that was a boldfaced lie (ha ha pun.)

Friday night, I ventured to the U of Chicago to visit my friend Allison. The trip took much longer than usual due to some bus stopped in the middle of the road. Upon arriving we were getting ready to cook dinner when we learned the stove did not work, at all. Complete fail. So we ventured for some take-out and I got some really got pizza out of it so all was not lost. I watched Shutter Island which is a really creepy movie until you get to the ending and then the whole thing seems kind of silly and sad at the same time. Oh well.

Saturday, ventured back home for the graduation party for my sister (and unofficially me too, but we don't do college grad parties in my family - so I kind of lucked out that my sister is four years younger than me. Win!) A lot of the family came over, there was of course really good food and lot of Corona. Despite the on and off rain all morning, the day went well enough so we could spend time outside and all of the little cousins could too. My goddaughter still wont look at me, but that's okay I guess, she wont look at my sister (godmother) much either. I ate the most amazing homemade tortilla chips ever and there were chocolate covered strawberries...so while I didn't get to go to the bonfire I think I fared pretty well. That night my mom, of course called for beer pong and cluster and so we had some good friendly family competition (my sister's college roommates were there too, so we did have some fair competition). My mom even convinced a few cousins to stay around and join in (convinced or forced, not completely sure). The night ended well enough and I went to bed happy.

Sunday it rained all day. Ventured back with my sister and her roommates around mid-afternoon to head downtown, while they caught the train back to Milwaukee to head up to Marquette. Got some stuff done and got ready for the premier of this season of Next Food Network Star! It was epic and can't wait for this season. Texted back and forth with Smola the whole time - Bree is sure going to miss out being in India the whole time - that's what we call a bad choice. (You can check out her travels here though!)

Monday and Tuesday passed rather uneventfully. Applied and searched for more jobs (Hooray!) Last Comic Standing came back for another season on Monday, so I'm pretty much really excited for that one as well. Now I'm off to buy some thank you notes and stamps. Have to mail my friend Mia a postcard from Illinois and if you are in any far reaches of the US you should consider doing the same.

Currently listening to: Airplanes - B.O.B.

Peace out!

The Bonfire

Most of you were there, but the rest of you should know what you missed out on.

I checked the weather starting the evening and it said that there was a 100% chance of rain during the 11pm hour. This was concerning. It turned out that this was false. What we did get was lightning all around, but nothing directly overhead. It was quite lovely.

Adam tended the fire with a loving care that was truly touching. It was like they had a relationship. I on the other hand, just found medium sized pieces of furniture that I no longer wanted and threw them in, destroying the "engineering" Adam was doing. It turns out the dresser I had been using the past two years is made of something very similar to paper and burned in about 30 seconds.

The most robust part of the dresser was the back of a drawer. It easily withstood the onslaught of a blackbelt. No one was surprised.

In short, everyone had a superb time. There was good food, good drink and a great group of people. I would do it again in a heartbeat, if only there was something left to set fire to.

Thus concluded one of the best days ever. Thanks to everyone who made it so.

[You pick the title]

Not a whole lot going on lately.

Went to Eric's for a bonfire on Friday. I suppose he was too distracted by lunch to fill us all in, so I will. Highlights:

-Burned a lot of stuff. A table, desk, dresser, several drawers, and probably a bunny.

-Hit a bird on the way there. I tried to warn it, but it didn't listen. It was flattened. Surprisingly, Mdull wanted a picture. She got it.

-Turns out Black-belt Emma is all talk and no kick. She couldn't even break a board! Shenanigans.

-It didn't rain, we beat the killer tornado by a day. Phew.

-Panic. Panic. Panic....

-I should've taken my camera. There was a gorgeous rainbow and I missed it.

Not a whole lot else going on here. I applied for a cashier job at Best Buy today. And I reserved an apartment for next year that seems promising. Anyone up for a trip to Chapel Hill with me to go apartment-browsing? The sooner the better.

Found a new photo contest to enter. Now all I have to do is get some decent photos to enter. Cleveland-area people, I'll need your help. Details to come.

Oh! Next Food Network Star premiered last night and I watched it with Matt Forrest via text. It was grand. We're planning a skype session for an upcoming episode.

Currently Listening to: "The Bitch Went Nuts" by Ben Folds

One of the Best Days Ever

This past Friday was one of the longest days of my life. It was also one of the best.

It started out very early, and not very promising. I woke up about every hour the night before and had to get up early. The reason for my dawn awakening was plans to visit the greatest amusement park on the planet: Cedar Point! I could barely contain my excitement on the drive there, only slightly tempered by the fact that Court's car does not have cruise control. We got to the park shortly after 10, didn't have to pay for parking, got a spot ten rows from the door, and barely had any traffic on the way in. Then we got to the entrance. I have never had to wait in line to get into the park before. I blame all the stupid buses that apparently all got there at the exact same time, which corresponded precisely with our arrival. Whatever, we got in eventually.

The lines for rides were a little confusing. Some, well most actually, had surprisingly short waits for how many people seemed to be in the park. The SkyRide had a line around the loading platform, so we walked. Raptor had a line back to the photo booth, so we skipped that one too. Then we got to Top Thrill. Half hour, you can't pass that up. After a short technical delay, we got on. Court almost died. I'm not kidding. She could barely walk after it and for the rest of the day kept gazing up at the top of the hill muttering about how she could not believe she was up there.

After that we went to our old standby, the Magnum. There is a sign next to the line for Magnum telling how when it was being built, the original Game Boy was being released. I thought this was fitting, since I had been playing our original Game Boy the previous day. We rode that one twice, then walked onto the Gemini. We have terrible luck riding wooden coasters. One of us (Court) always gets hurt. Have her tell you how much she likes the Mean Streak sometime. Well we were on the Gemini and at one point the ride snapped to one side, her head got whipped around, and I elbowed her in the neck. She was thrilled. After that we got a meatball sub and fries and a raspberry iced tea.

Next stop, the Millennium Force! We expected a long line. It was less than half an hour. So we rode it again. Its the tenth anniversary after all. The Millennium Force is the only hyper-coaster in the world without brakes in the middle of the ride. It is so fast. I love it and want one. If anyone has $25 Million laying around, let me know.

More stuff happened that day, but its time for lunch.

+/-, but mostly +

Ok so there's good news and there's bad news. Which would you like to hear first? Ha, you don't really have a choice, but I suppose you could try to skip the first paragraph if it's not to your liking.

Bad News: Went to visit my old boy scout troop (this isn't the bad news yet). It was good to see everyone, especially the guys that were only in 5th grade when I left for college. They're growing up and taking on leadership roles and fortunately, many have changed for the better. (This is the bad news part) I also found out that my former scoutmaster is going through cancer treatment. As sad as this is, he has a good attitude about it. When he mentioned it I said "wait, what? I'm so sorry." And he just said "Oh, I'll live." I'm pretty sure he will. His prognoses are good and they already did surgery to remove the tumor. Either way, it's still a bit of a downer.

Good News: The travel editor from MSNBC called me today to infom me that I won the vote for the travel photo contest I entered! Of course, the scale was fairly well tipped in my favor. I definitely have a renewed faith in social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Haha, I just said I have renewed faith in them but I'm not sure I ever had 1st-round faith in them so whatever. Either way, thanks to some helpful tweeting and facebooking, I beat out the opponents pictures (who probably have way fewer idling friends than me) by a last-known margin of more than 100 votes. The guy on the phone today did a little interview, and the article should be posted tomorrow morning. I'm sure I'll slather it all over facebook and maybe even twitter. Also, some random person in CA that voted for my picture (Thanks Cassie Kim!) wants the full-size version to print off and hang in (I suppose) his home. Baller! Maybe this will become a second source of income if I can get other people interested and actually charge them for prints. (Selfless preview: http://flickr.com/photos/msmola)

In other news, my mother and I are going to start a web-based greeting card and inspirational poster boutique (because that's what you call small, barely-to-not-at-all-profitable shops). She's also painting the bathroom I share with my sister in girly colors (yeah, I thought about what I just said, Mdull).

In other other news, I picked up some photo prints from Wal*Mart today from the night of graduation and they've replaced some photos from high school in frames in my room. So I think a large portion of the readers of this blog are now also in my room, behind glass.

Bonfire! tomorrow! Yes!

I have judged my life to be the most boring...

So I haven't posted since Sunday and now that I think about it, I know why. No matter how hard I try I can not think of one really interesting thing worth blogging has happened since Sunday.
Did go out to a bar Sunday night because it is memorial day so nothing is happening on Monday. Met some interesting people, pretty sure we broke into an off-limits section of the bar to use the bathroom and then went home and went to sleep. Exciting, I know. I've been actively campaigning to get Matt Smola's photo to win in this weekly photo contest (you want the Golden Gate Bridge), which I am pretty sure everyone is hyping up to be something equivalent to winning a Pulitzer (does that prove how dull our lives have gotten without Miami?). But I mean we did prove that a bunch of bored unemployed college grads can accomplish a lot. Wow imagine if we got jobs, how much good could we do in the world?

Other than that I have been applying to jobs. Two major ones this week which both took up a lot of time to get done, but I wanted to make sure I was putting my best foot forward. Additionally, I had to create a CV which I have never heard of before, used or had any formal education on. That took A LOT of research to learn how to write one and make sure I was doing it right (aka ate up the bulk of my time these last few days.) Basically, I like to think of it as a resume on steroids as it is 2-3 pages. But I got it done and submitted. Hooray! Now once again I just have to hope they like me. I have done as much outreach and research as I can, now it's outta my hands for a bit.

I've picked up running more actively in my daily routine. It is slow building and still painful for my body to get use to this whole being active thing but I will get there soon enough, I hope.

Finally, been following the Blackhawks through the road to the Stanley Cup. Makes me wish Miami hockey and thus everyone at Miami (especially my fellow Apt 212ers). However, I also realized how little everyone else knows about hockey and it is funny watching these Chicagoans try to figure it out and act knowledgeable about something they know nothing about at all. Woomp woomp.

I'm currently watching the HBO mini-sersis John Adams. If you have not seen it you NEED to do so ASAP, it is epic and probably one of the best made historical reconstructions I have seen in a long time and the acting is amazing. Besides that Abigail Adams is badass! End of story.

Grad parties and stuff this weekend...hopefully that makes for some interesting posts (though currently heartbroken that I will not make the bonfire.)
Peace out!

NOOOOOO!!!

I am a little upset right now. Mostly because no one else has posted today. I am also upset because history was robbed. Or somebody was robbed anyway. Armando Galarraga. Perfect game. 28 outs. That is the sad part. Anyone who knows anything about baseball can figure out that there are 27 in a game. This guy had to get 28 and it ruined what should have been an awesome performance and made a fantastic outing heartbreaking. You can see it here and judge for yourself. Many people are calling this, along with the travesty that was officiating at that the end of last season, a reason to replace every umpire in the league. I can't say I disagree. The past two nights I have seen a home plate umpire who seemed more interested in making trouble with the players and coaches than calling the game, and one who clearly does not know an out from anything else that is happening around him. I'm pissed, quite frankly.

On the other hand, we have what could possibly be the best catch of 2010. If that link doesn't work you can watch it by means of the earlier link. Austin Jackson, MLB rookie of the month in April, knows what it means to make a big play in the pursuit of perfection. That boy deserves the rookie of the month honors for June based solely on that effort. He also had a few hits in the game I believe. My favorite part of that play was the look on Galarraga's face after the catch. He just smiles and goes back to work. If only every player in the league had that demeanor.

Well I have forgotten for the moment the recent skid of the Tigers. I love them once again, and hope to go to a game very soon. I'm looking at you Sam.

Summer has Arrived

It is good to see that our readership has dropped back to a respectable, but not outlandish 40-some hits per day. The pressure was starting to get to me.

Wipeout! is back on the air! The summer season of one of the more hilarious shows on television started today. If you like to see people who seem to have a complete lack of coordination, this is the show for you. I can't imagine Matt Forest doing any worse than these people. They added in some new courses this year, and they are wonderful.

The Tigers better start winning. Every pitcher they have faced recently has looked like Cy Young's cousin against us. We even played the Indians today! If we do not win most of our next ten games against the Indians, Pirates, and Nationals, then we should just give up. I may not even go to a game if they are going to keep this up.

Basically two days left till the bonfire and I have heard from three people telling me they are coming. I have heard rumors of two others. It should be interesting. The forecast says it is going to be an awesome day. I am pretty pumped.

Road Signs

I'm finally back from NY and home in Chicago. The road trip wasn't too bad today. But I have basically spent 4 of the last 6 days in a car. The thing that kept bothering me was the Deer Warning signs. I understand that there are deer everywhere. I think nowadays you always need to be on the lookout for Bambi. But what I don't understand is how these Deer Warning signs are placed.

Example 1: On a stretch of road in NY we pass a Deer Warning sign that says Next 7 miles. What I don't understand is the following?

1. What about the stretch of road preceding these 7 miles?

2. What about the stretch of road following the 7 miles?

Example 2: Still in Central NY, we pass a Deer Warning sign that says next 5 miles. We pass it and then 1/2 mile later we see another Deer Warning sign that says next 2 miles.

1. Do deer really not cross in that 1/2 mile of road?

2. Wouldn't it have been easier to make a sign that said next 7 1/2 miles instead of two separate signs? No wonder our country is in debt.

Example 3: Again in NY, we pass a Deer Warning sign that says next 1 1/2 miles. In that 1 1/2 miles there is another Deer Warning sign that says next 2 miles.

1. Why would you have a sign within a sign range when the second sign is greater than the first sign?

2. If this was a result of entering a new township or village, does each town or village get to arbitrarily decide where to tell motorists that deer are going to cross?

Any enlightenment would be helpful.

Things I Wanted to Blog About But Forgot

I remembered these when I woke up this morning and wanted to share them

The "fake it 'til you feel it" advice that is all over this blog is actually good advice. I got a book from a friend's parents (thanks Alex's mom & dad) called "The Long Life Equation." Of course, it piques my interest because it involves both a) practical advice and b) math and science. One of the entries talks about how laughing and smiling can make you healthier. They even go so far as to say that fake or forced smiles are helpful. So look at that, life-saving advice right here at your favorite silly blog.

I got out of the shower yesterday and heard "Bad Romance" playing rather loudly. I assumed my sister was home with her stereo on. I was wrong. My mom was watching a "Lady Gaga Takeover" on VH1 or some similar channel. This continued for at least an hour. I was stunned.

That's all I've got.

Currently listening to: "Magic" by B.o.B. feat. Rivers Cuomo