Tuesday, June 12, 2007

the future

looks like i'm a bro now!

if you read the ho blog, my contribution was letting everyone know i play video games and watch tv. i am getting good at guitar hero again. guitar hero ii sucks, except for playing skynyrd at stonehenge.

my brother (bros rule) just graduated eighth grade, so different groups of adolescent males have been eating pizza in my house all week. one day, my friend steve and i were killing time in the basement, and four young boys came downstairs to hit the ps2. one of the boys was adopted from the ukraine by a very wealthy and older couple. he consistently says things like, "did you know the man with the most cars in the world has 870 cars? ...i know him," or, "did you know the third most expensive house in california was down the street from mine?" i am sure he is lying. anyway, he took an extreme interest in 20 yr old, but seemingly wise, steve--i suppose because steve told them he's got a summer neuroscience research thing going on. the kid was just firing questions at him. off the top of my head, he asked him about the future of cryogenics, transportation possibly being independent of humans in fifty years, F1 racing in germany, and the role the brain plays in determining the weight of objects. the questions were in earnest, and so were steve's replies. at one point, the inquisitive young thing asked steve how he pictured the future, and steve replied, "good." this was satisfactory. kids are so funny sometimes, but other times they are not.

Break out the lawn chairs and lemonade...

I was worried about this week. On Sunday, a certain unexpected house guest made himself at home by flooding our bathroom--twice. Once with the shower (which is admittedly finicky), and once with the toilet. He did not clean up adequately after the second flooding, leaving nasty poop water at the base of the toilet. I only knew it was nasty poop water because I found the plunger sitting next to the toilet, in the trashcan, and still dripping said nasty poop water. Somewhere between the floodings, he ate our spagetti leftovers. Then, as I watched, he (in his mind) sneakily poured himself a drink of Issac's rum and coke, put in in the fridge, and then sat down in the living room.

"Hey, uhh, Tom. How's it going?"
I want you to leave. Now. "Alright."
"Oh, cool. Uhh, hey, there's this drink in the fridge. Can I have it?"
Oh, yeah, sure, so you found that drink, and drinking it is, like, your finder's fee? Fuck you! That's not even mine, why are you asking me!? "Yeah, sure."
"Great, thanks."
I hope you choke and spill all over yourself. "Sure."

I'm usually not a pushover about this stuff, but at this point, I was so pissed that a confrontation would have ended very badly. Not to mention, the kid is oblivious to the offenses that he is committing, which always makes things just that little bit more interesting. If I wasn't able to dominate him in Smash Bros. (and if he didn't get so visibly upset when I did so), we would have come to blows.

But then he left. I came home on monday, and he was gone. He decided to stay in St. Paul for the rest of the week. YES. [Note: our other two squatters for the week are pretty awesome to have around, or at least paid for their own shit. Jamaal can sleep on the couch all summer, if he likes. He's cleaned our kitchen three nights running.]

From there, the week has proceeded to rock, hard and summer-like. Sciuto and I went for a late-night country road-trip, and when the road ended, we laid on the hood and looked at the stars. I don't think I 'm exaggerating, here, I haven't seen that many stars in years.

"Sciuto?"
"Yeah?"
"No matter how much I wish you were a girl right now, I'm glad we found this."
"I was thinking along the same lines."

Today I scanned in Zoobook photos, and let me tell you, the Class of '11 is... no more or less attractive than any other Carleton class. Take that as you will. There's a guy whose last name is Bonin. Either he's a huge Bro, or very ironically anti-Bro (at this point, it's hard to say). Also, I'm pretty sure there's a girl with the last name Beavis, which I was sure wasn't a real name until this morning. The handwriting was a little weird, so I asked my supervisor what she thought. She said she concurred. We don't know each other very well; we both tried not to laugh.

Also today, I bought a bike. It's fixed-gear (say what you will), and it's awesome. Sciuto tried it, and now he's got bike fever. The guys from across the street sold it to me. They thought someone might be looking at it, but "better you than that long-haired hippie dude." Ummm...

Libe

I'm on the top floor of the library. It's completely dead. The research librarians are having one raucous meeting by me though. You know the brar is dead when the librarians are the people talking the loudest.

Off to find some brooks!

Monday, June 11, 2007


There are two books I'm supposed to read before arriving in Ireland on Saturday (one, Year of the French, is to the right), and they total about 1000 pages. I've mostly been reading comic books since coming home, and haven't started, but it's a long plane ride, right?

Slate ran an article today about the difficulties of thinking about the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's album, which is worth your time: http://www.slate.com/id/2167998/pagenum/2/
For me, it's an album that I haven't listened to all the way through in a good four years or so, with neither the relatability of Rubber Soul or the eccentricities of the white album. I still love "Good Morning Good Morning", "Fixing A Hole" and "Day in the LIfe", but after giving it several thorough listens in high school I wasn't able to think of it as the Beatles' best, much less the best album ever, and as far as my personal favorites I'd rank it below a pre-drugs release like Hard Day's Night.

On the subject of our blog's sidebar/list (currently "Our Favorite Non-reptillian TMNT Characters"): theoretically, I have no problem with this. But these lists should be made dembrocratically if they're to be done at all. These are not my favorite non-reptillian TMNT characters. Let's look at who's actually listed:

- Rat King: A homeless dude with rats crawling on him. He can communicate with them, and is probably shat on by them a lot. A loser.
- DeathWatch:
A serial-killing janitor who, at some point during the Carter adminstration, was apparently sent into space. This list was chosen totally at random, I guarantee it.
- Mr. Go: Has only appeared in the most recent TMNT animated series.
- Master Splinter: Yeah, dude. This choice is a good one, and one time my brother went as Splinter for Halloween.
- Shredder: A formidable villain in every incarnation, particularly menacing in the first live-action TMNT movie. Another good choice.
That's about 40% correct, or an F--. Some suggested alternatives:

- Krang: Nigh-invincible and hilarious. His wikipedia article says it better than I can: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krang
- Baxter Stockman: Mad scientist; appeared in the second turtles comic ever, developed both the turtle-hunting little robots the mousers and turned into a bomb-ass human fly.
- Usagi Yojimbo: His name is Japanese for "rabbit bodyguard" and he has had his own solo series since 1984.

Movies

So, Tom, Anne, and I just signed up for Netflix. Does anyone have any suggestions for movies the three of us should watch this summer?

A few thoughts:

Social Security Numbers tell you absolutely nothing about a person, not their age or relative age or place of birth. I can't figure out a rhyme or reason to them. I can usually spot patterns (like the bonus for Ladybug Mating is 50*lvl*number of green in a row), but it's too complicated for me.

I don't like bottled water. It tastes weird and not very good. Culligan, your company is a sham! Your bottled water is subpar. And yet people drink it! I sit right next to the water cooler, so I get to see the ladies bring their plastic bottles and fill up. I have a plastic cup. To entertain myself, when there is only a little bit left in the cup, I pretend it's cheap alcohol and take a shot of it. No one has yet seen me take a shot of water. It's pretty intense.


Student loans suck. I'm processing them right now, and it seems like all of us who took them out are screwed. Whatever you want to do with your life, it'd better be enough to make the minimum payments. Unless you're going to be in the army, a nurse, a corrections officer, or a low income school teacher.. then they greatly reduce the amount you must pay.

The house is temporarilly Knight House. I woke up this morning, came down stairs, and found Jake Hilty, Jamal, and Ben Mirren sleeping in the living room. There's a lot of people in that little house, but thankfully the weather is nice and sitting out in the garage with a book is about the most enjoyable thing to do.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Obama Wins Forever

So the other day, I met Barack Obama.

I was in the office, minding my own business. He was in his, apparently in some important meeting with big advisers- James Carville, Henry Kissinger, Janeane Garafolo, among others.

The bustle in his office filled the room with cacaphonous argument. Everyone from Communications to Finance was able to hear the deafening shouts of Kissinger bouncing off the walls. There was some serious disagreement.

After five minutes of this, Barack exited the room with a heavy sigh, leaving the pack of consultants to their yelling. He looked across the room, dejected. "What is this crazy game I'm playing these days?" he seemed to be asking himself. "What have I become?" He looked once more across the room of intrigued staffers. No one said a word. The room was tense.

As Barack scanned the room, his eyes met mine- my baby blue, idealistic, hungover eyes. He smiled and began to walk briskly over to me. My heart beat quickened. Oh my god. What does he want? What will I say? What will I do?

Hey Kid.


I rose to my feet. Oh hello Mr. Senator. Pleased to, uh, meet you.

Listen kid, what do you say we go out for a cigarette?

Oh, jeez, well, I dunno- you know my mom doesn
't really-

Meet you on the roof in a minute.

Dumbfounded, I gathered my bag and headed for the elevator. Barack retrieved his suit coat from his office and joined me in my walk. I could see Kissinger sneer at me as we left.

On the top of the Sears Tower, alone. No tourists here. Only the Senator and Lanny the custodian knew about this little treasure in the middle of Chicago. As we looked out over the picturesque city-scape, we took deep, pensive breaths of smoke. The Senator and I were in a tranquil state of mind, separated from the frantic shuffle of urban activity 114 floors below.

Y
'know kid. This town- this crazy, mixed-up, busy town- there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

Oh yeah. I know what you mean.

Somebody
's gotta grease the wheels of commerce, if you know what I mean. And you know what- theres a lot of powerful people out there. A lot of wealthy people with a lot of influence.

Barack-

Please, call me Barry O.

Ok- Barry O. I don
't think I get what you're saying.

What I
'm saying- What my consultants are saying- is that I need to take this big bribe from Ray the Snake Liotta. They are saying I cant pay for the TV spots without it. That I can't be president unless I sign this bill into law allowing oil pipeline drilling in the south side of Chicago.

But Barry O-

I know... I know...

You can
't! You simply can't! After all that you've worked for-

Don
't think I don't know that. But Kissinger says-

Listen. Barry O. You tell me who your most senior adviser is- Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger... or your heart?

Barack broke down. His sobs were only punctuated by the words "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Over and over again. And as I held him, in that humid, summer air, all I could do was tell him- "It's ok, Senator. Everything is gonna be...ok."

The next day, Barack vetoed that bill. His signature killed Liotta's cynical ploy, which is, by the way, how the US Senate works.

A couple weeks later, Barry O, my close friend, became President of the United States of America.

Shiftless When Idle



Word has it James Hannaway met Barack Obama recently. This is, by any account, a post-worthy thing, but we've seen no post about it. Here instead is my imagining of how an account of this meeting, written by James, would read:

"I met Barack Obama today Baltimore. I know there's something out there, but I don't know if I wanna call it "God", 'cause like, I believe in God, but I don't know that I think God is some guy on a throne with a long white beard. God is, like, it could be anything. It could be like, literally, it could be this table. TOTAL BUZZKILL. He is shorter than I expected, but still an inspiration, and I'm very happy to be working on the campaign."

I'm back in Ames now, and biding time till I leave for Ireland. I saw friends from high school, and it was depressing. They sit, drink, and don't even really wait for things to happen anymore. But my parents are well (my Dad had a new book published and has taken up running; my Mom can't read the menu at a Mexican restaurant without glasses anymore but has started her professional life over as a social worker, and is now working with the suicidal at a Des Moines hospital), and my brother is in Africa for the next month building a school. He'll be editor-in-chief of the school paper in the fall, which means the Hunter brothers may be The Ames High Web's first dynasty.

I'm restless, and won't be particularly happy till I'm out of town again, but I'm glad to see so many posts in the past couple days. Also, Leah doesn't have a dong (we think). Problematic?

Beirut, Pt. 2, Ch. 2

So, yeah, Sciuto and I ate a lot of shitty, shitty Chinese food, and somehow derived satisfaction from it. Calling it The Mistake of the Year helps, I think. Issac (who is the essence of Bro distilled, btw) had already mentioned Beirut, and The Dudes (good call, Alex) were out on the porch across the street when Alex and I got back to the house, so, in the name of neighborly relations, I invited them over. Three hours later, the whole house, half the Knights, and most of the employees of Mike's Bikes were out in the garage (which is amazing), rip-roarin' drunk and throwing ping-pong balls at red cups (Dan, I agree, Solo cups are a must).

For reference, here is a working list of "The Dudes:"

Trip - Nice guy, rides a great mountain bike. We talked about mountain biking, which I can talk for hours about, but have not done in years. He wants to go riding sometime. I am afraid of sucking too much.

Stu - Did not stay long. We'll call him the Sciuto of the group.

Adam - Completely bonkers. More on him later.

John - Another nice guy, but I didn't talk to him much last night.

Bryce - His mom owns the house across the street. He lives there. Seems like a good guy; we haven't talked.

Dude who played computer games and didn't say anything when I met him - Did not come over. 'Nuff said.

Dude who was wasted and did his best to make things awkward when I met him - See above.

Okay, so we all had some beers and then played Beirut. When the Dudes showed up, a Townies v. Carls grudge match was proposed. Jake and I murdered John and Adam. Carleton 4 Life.

At some point, I stopped playing Beirut and started talking to Trip, who is about as amicable as they come. I've spent the last five minutes trying to figure out how it came up, and I honestly can't remember, but really, the important thing is that it came up: The Phut. That's short for Party Hut.

When these guys were 12 or 13, they built two additions on the shed in Bryce's backyard and christened it The Phut. The Phut subsequently became the place for middle-schoolers to go and get drunk, stoned, and knocked up. Everyone was welcome all of the time, so the place was never empty. The Dudes would just go back there and hang with whoever was there. According to them, The Phut has a level of notoriety that rivals the annual Jesse James Days festivities. PTA meetings were called to discuss The Phut. Teachers joked about The Phut.

They gave us a tour. The place looks like it came out of a movie about delinquent teens. Low ceilings, Bob Marley tapestries hanging from every wall, ratty couches filling almost all of the floor space. I was in awe.

When we asked Adam (one of the original "Phutters") how The Phut came into being, he launched into an involved story (which in no way answered our question) of his most harrowing run-in with the Northfield Police Department (he never said what, exactly, he was being chased for, but he did say that running from the cops was one of his favorite childhood pastimes). Then he told us about how, when she came to yell at him (once again, the details were hazy) he (direct quote, with sweeping arm gesture) "cast his mom out of The Phut."

I ended the night completely baffled. The Dudes are unsung heroes.

Change of gears: you should all listen to this song. Colin, you played this for me during Winter term, and it popped into my head a few days ago. It's impossible to not get it stuck in your head.

Wild Beasts - Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants

I like the explosion of Brog activity lately (credit for the coining of the term "Brog" goes to Erinrose, I believe). Dan, you are nuts. You should go crazy every night so I can read about it.

Wal-Mart Part 2

also, anyone who hasn't downloaded rap songs off the internet in the past should just listen to hear the shitty DJ talking over the track. its oh so annoying

aaron

Wal-Mart

today i went to Wal-Mart and bought Neverwinter Nights 2 (they didn't have Baldur's Gate).
have you heard Kanye samples Daft Punk? http://youtube.com/watch?v=h4d7Gy9piaA&mode=related&search=
i like

aaron

Hot Ladybug Sex

My Summer Job

The following is a list of words, phrases, and acronyms I don't understand from one randomly selected page of the research protocol I am involved with this summer:

1. colony stimulating factors (csf)
2. granulocyte-macrophage csf
3. granulocyte csf
4. macrophage csf
5. spastic arteries
6. hematopoetic lines
7. neutrophils
8. chemoattractant
9. monocytes
10. selectins
11. adhesion molecules
12. integrins
13. p-selectin
14. e-selectin
15. icam-1
16. monoclonal
17. arachidonic acid
18. prostanoids
19. lipoxins
20. leukotriens
21. phospholipase A2
22. cyclo-oxygenases
23. lipo-oxygenases
24. GriPGHS

That was from page 16 of 23 pages. Yipes! It's really annoying to be flipping back and forth between this protocol and a bio text book. It's like school... but... more real. It's funny to be feeling more pressured by something because there is no grade. Weoooo.

So yeah. Anyhoo. How are you all doing? I like the blog so far. It's cute.

Oh, side note, I bought tickets to Pitchfork. Now... I just have to figure out how to get there. Did you guys know that trains are more expensive than planes? That's fucked up.

Xoxo,
Colin

Beirut Pt. 2

Tom will have to add in the details of last night. I went to bed early because I am lame.

After our once-a-year mistake of going to China Buffet for Dinner, Tom and I came back to the house. We had to get there by five o'clock because his new used desk was arriving from the resell it shop. Thank goodness I am handy with tools, cause that desk with all its legs wouldn't have made the turn into Tom's room.

After that, people just started coming over with junk to store in our house. We woke up in the morning with John Bardas's stuff and a couch in the front yard, Neil Remington brought over two couches, Kirke brought over a couch. Jose dropped off his couch yesterday. I believe Isaac is also bringing over a couch. That makes ten couches in our possession.


I don't say 'in our house' because we moved five couches into the garage. We arranged the furniture into a second living room, and as day ended last night, we opened up the garage door, and the christmas lights the girls didn't take were turned on casting a pretty sweet glow. It was awesome.

The dudes (I'm officially christening them "the dudes") from across the street came over, and then I went inside and to bed. I hate people I don't know! Strangers scare me!

On Beirut

No, not the indie pop band. I'm talking about that great drinking game in which any wasted college student can become an instant hero by sinking ping pong balls into red Solo cups.

These past few days have been a glimpse at what high school would have been like if my stars had aligned just a slight bit differently. My best bro from home is moving to Arizona, so his parents left town for a few days this week to go househunting in Phoenix. Despite the fact that the house was immaculate in preparation for its sale this Monday, this was the last opportunity we'd ever have to hang out in this house, so the obvious thing to do was invite a bunch of high school friends over and get really wasted.

Things begin casually on Friday night. It's me and Schaffer (aforementioned friend) hanging out in his house, imbibing everything we can get our hands on from his mom's booze and pill stash: Magic Hat (awesome VT microbrew), André, some white wine and a bunch of Vicodin. Everything is swell, when we get a call from our friend Nesdill--who, by the way, has undergone some personality changes since contracting with the army last year that begin to fully reveal themselves when he's drunk--who says that some 15 friends that we don't know have converged at his house with half an oz. looking for somewhere to smoke. So of course we invite him and his crew over.

About twenty minutes later Nesdill and his crew show up--size as advertised--introduce themselves, and then sit down and start rolling blunts. The house looks like a veritable blunt rolling factory--kids all over the dining room going to work with their Phillies and plastic baggies. In no time, seven immaculate blunts are rolled. The night begins to get hazy at this point. Two girls I knew from high school showed up, these blunts all get smoked in the gazebo, and there becomes a clear separation between the Nesdill crew and my friends. I end up going home around 3 a.m. and pass out for 12 hours.

The next night we plan the same thing, only there's a few different variables. Two of Eric's frat brothers come down to party, along with my other best bro Curtis (who showed up briefly the night before for the blunts), and, of course, Nesdill.

Now, so as to not short-change anyone on the title, I have two brief and ultimatey irrelevant observations re: beirut. One, Solo cups are definitely essential, since were playing with these Target red cups that produced more rim hits than I thought possible. Two, apparently six-cup beirut is an anomoly in college, and I guess ten cups is the game for when high schoolers become big kids. Alas, we're playing some beirut with a mini keg of Heineken and some Beast, getting wasted, more painkillers, etc. Anyway, here's a summary of the highlights of the night.

- Fenton, one of the two frat brothers at the party, passes out on the couch long before anyone else does, contradicting my prior belief that these dudes would drink me under the table.

- The other frat brother, Ben, passes out in a chair outdoors after puking all over it. Again, this is way before anyone else passes out. (Ben, by the way, wakes up in Schaffer's car, apparently having hopped the fence from the backyard to the driveway sometime during the night for a little bit of warmth).

- Nesdill and Eric take a car ride to the local Wawa (the best fucking convinience store, ever, as confirmed by the New York Times Magazine) to satiate some drunk munchies. Eric was fooling around and leaning pretty far out the shotgun door of Nesdill's van, and Nesdill freaks out and hits the breaks, causing Eric to goes flying several feet across the Wawa parking lot. Some kids outside of the Wawa ask him if he's all right, he tells them he's fine, and they go in and get their food without incident. As they leave the Wawa parking lot, Eric (who, even sober, has no gague about what's appropriate, ever) shouts out "faggots" at the same kids who asked him if he was all right. These kids then follow Nesdill and Eric back to Eric's house, but only Nesdill is still in the car when they get there because he's taking his time putting the hood on his jeep. They begin to get belligerent, and Nesdill pulls a bat out of his back seat ready to slam in their windshield. The kids drive away and shout "faggots."

- Nesdill wants to call it on a night on the couch that Fenton's passed out on, so Nesdill goes into drill sargeant mode (which he's done several times already this night, with prominent use of the pejorative "cockholster"), and eventually Fenton gets up. When Fenton gets up he somehow ends up at the fridge, opens it up and lets loose a bona fide beer piss right into the fucking fridge. Curtis and I think it's hilarious, but Nesdill goes absolutely apeshit, reverts into drill sargeant mode, and shames this kid into cleaning it all up. The night ends with Nesdill confiding in me that he's likely an alcoholic since everytime he drinks he needs to black out drunk, and implores to get me to take shots of rum with him at 3:30 a.m.

When we wake up, Eric's cat has gone missing, Nesdill's passed out naked on the couch, Curtis is no longer in the house, Decker's passed out in Schaffer's car, and the irrigation guy knocks on the door demaning $150 for some work he apparently did that morning. Such a fun, fun night, and a great way to say goodbye to the house.