Grease Stains

I am exhausted. Last night, my family and I moved my stuff to a storage space in Fridley. It took several hours but it was done. You would think that my night would have ended there but my fun was far from done. Last night and for over two hours this morning, I was down on my knees cleaning. I lived with a clean roommate so I thought I would be pretty good but I was mistaken. The stove tops were filthy, the oven was filthy, there were carpet stains all over, the refrigerator needed to be scrubbed, the blinds needed to be cleaned, and on and on and on. However, after several hours, it was clean. I had off of work today. At about noon, an attractive young woman came over and inspected the apartment. She said that I had one of the most clean apartments she had ever seen and then proclaimed she wished she had a man in her life like me who would clean her apartment. I will take my compliments and flirtations whenever I can get them. She did say that I will be assessed a very minor fine for grease stains in my oven. I tried for a long time to get them off. Does anyone know how to remove grease stains?!?! Okay, now for my usual musings about topics I find semi-relevant.

1. When did Seth Rogan of Superbad and Knocked Up fame become an action star? Apparently he has been cast as The Green Hornet. WTF Mate?

2. I rented the movie Sicko this afternoon. It is Michael Moore's newest documentary. This particular one is less funny but still very very interesting. It basically shows how a universal system works in countries like France, England, and Canada and how it could work here. It talks about with the amount of money the average person pays in health insurance costs anyway, it would not be that much of a difference for universal health insurance. If someone has seen the movie, please call me up, I would love to talk about the pros and cons of Michael Moore's ideas for American health care.

3. What does everybody think about Facebook's new BEACON advertising? I'm not as upset with it as a lot of people but I do yearn for the most simple yesterdays of Facebook.

4. What a great time to be a sports fan! NBA, NHL, NFL, NCAA football, NCAA basketball, College hockey... Every night there is something for someone on.

5. However, if the twins lose Torii Hunter to free agency and they trade Johan Santana, I am going to upset.

current mood: nostalgic

This will be a longer posting. I can just feel it. I rarely have a set plan when I blog and so why should this one be any different. I'm in the middle of moving out of my apartment and so going through all of my stuff has made me feel nostalgic.

1. Every move I have ever made I have been really excited for and has always caused me excitement. I always lived in the same house growing in Bloomington, MN, so, of course, I was really excited for my first move of my life. On a 100 degree day, my family and I moved my belongings to Ames, Iowa. I had no idea what to expect. I did not know my major, my roommate, the city, et cetera. All in all it turned out okay. My next move was a little more interesting. I knew one of my roommates, Andrew, fairly well but barely knew the other two guys I was going to live with -- Nimit and Jim (Jimit for short). But, we were moving into a beautiful new apartment and I was starting to enjoy college more and more each day. The move was great. My final year in college, Jimit and I moved to a place closer to campus. After a summer of basically just taking a couple of classes and relaxing, I couldn't wait to move. After graduation, Elyse and I had numerous discussions on whether we should live together or not. In the end, I was very excited and my year with Elyse in Roseville was the best of my life. I had never lived with a girl before and there were so many wonderful benefits. About a year after we lived in our Roseville apartment, we decided an upgrade was in order. I had received a nice raise in my job and Elyse was working for a new company that paid her more. So, we moved into a gorgeous apartment in Minneapolis. It had a whirl pool, great pool area, billiards, enormous master bedroom, et cetera. I was unsure if we could afford this place but Elyse's excitement sealed the deal. We moved to the Minneapolis apartment and I was really excited. Well, it has been a very sad, and crazy five months since we moved in and in three days I will be completing the cycle by moving back in with my parents. I don't quite know what the future will hold but this time I am not excited. Every move of my life was a step forward. This is at best a lateral, put the world on pause, move. For the first time in a long time, I am not excited about the future.

2. Moving absolutely sucks. Moving in the past has actually been kind of fun (or at least bearable.) For instance, this summer, even though it was really hot. My family, Elyse, Andrew, and Josh Koo all were instrumental in helping me move and there was a lot of joking around, eating, and even a little golf was played on that day with Josh Koo and me. Today, however, I took the day off of work and spent the whole day sorting, cleaning, and moving in the bitter, windy cold. I will be storing my stuff in a locker garage. It was just so barren and cold in every sense of the word. In my past, I moved my stuff into a new chapter of my life. Today, I moved my shirts and bike into a brief pause in my life. The locker represents no future, just temporary pauseness while I try to sort through the mess of my life. There was no chapter written today. My nostalgia has come from going through some of my old college papers I never threw away until today. My nostalgia came from reading through some old letters and cards that Elyse wrote to me. I think I kept them all. My nostalgia came from remembering happier times with all of my roommates in the past.

3. At this point, I don't know if I want to live by myself or with roommates. I know I don't want to live with random people though. I have now spent approximately 25 days in the past seven weeks living in the apartment by myself. I hated it. I felt lonely. Watching sports or movies is not at all fun by yourself. Going on a run by yourself is lonely. Making a nice dinner and eating it by yourself is lonely.

4. I don't know.

Chuckabee 2008

Although Chuck Norris is not the first celebrity to support a candidate in this upcoming election, he by far has the coolest ad:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/thank-you-chuck-norris/

I might disagree with many of Mike Huckabee's political platforms but I respect that he is clearly targeting young voters and showing that sometimes showing you have a sense of humor never hurt anyone. It certainly didn't hurt Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton.

1. I see in the richest contract in sports history was signed by Alex Rodriguez (Third basemen for the New York Yankees.) He just signed a 10 year 275 million dollar deal. I have to ask the Yankees front office? What are you thinking? Do you really think he would turn down 10 year 265 million? Also, unlike some of the other professional sports, baseball contracts are guaranteed money. If A-Rod tears his ACL next year and can no longer play, the Yanks still owe him all of his money. What a terrible terrible deal.

2. I can't believe Lloyd Carr is retiring from Michigan. I really feel that this is the third best coaching job in the country behind USC at number two and University of Texas at number one.

3. Minnesota is supposed to get its first snow this Wednesday. That makes me pissy.

No comment

Considering all of my trips in the past twelve months to Iowa and Illinois, maybe some people I know should take the effort to see me in Minneapolis! Tuesday musings below for your reading pleasure:

1. The immature boy in me has always really enjoyed the show Family Guy. I am a bit puzzled at this feud between the Creator/Executive Producer, Seth McFarland vs. The Writers/Fox. It appears that the writers are writing their own shows without the consent of McFarland... Of course there is only one problem. McFarland is the voice for many of the main characters! If you want to read more: http://countingdown.com/movies/3240210/news?item_id=4002603&loc=interstitialskip

2. Please check out Andydrum.blogspot.com's entry entitled "Jim is gaying things". It definitely made my day.

3. Has anyone seen the show Hot Shots? I have told it is excellent and I would love it but I've yet to see an episode.

4. The Decemberists' "Oh Valencie" is stuck in my head. Not that that is a bad thing.

5. I think there might be a new low on the Reality TV front. I thought Temptation Island was a terrible idea. I thought A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila made me vomit a little in my mouth. And now, NBC has announced that beginning December 17th, the airwaves will encounter a cacophony of crap called, "Clash of the Choirs". Five C list celebrities will try to find their own 20 person choir and then they will "battle" other choirs. This is a new low NBC. Shame on you.

6. If I had to choose a Republican candidate for president, it would be Mitt Romney. He is still holding a small lead in Iowa right now but Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is surging. No, Mike Huckabee is not as much of a douche as Fred Thompson but he is not very far away. It is only November of 2007 and Rudy Guilani already annoys me. I hope he doesn't get the Rep. nomination because I don't want to see his mug on the cover of newspapers and magazines for the next 12 months.

7. I don't see how Hillary won't get the Republican nomination. I really do hope she picks Obama to be her running mate although I don't think she will. I think she will choose John Edwards. I like John Edwards a lot but his wife is terminally ill with Breast Cancer that cannot be treated. It is time he sets his ego aside and tend to his wife for her last couple of months (or hopefully years.) He might have good intentions and his wife might even be encouraging him to run but I don't like the fact that he is running one bit.

All Hallow's Eve

Let me first point out that I along with most neo-feminist men do find the idea that Halloween has morphed into a drunken party where women get inebriated, dress like sluts, and as the night goes on, act like sluts. I am however a man and I went to a bar last night with the roommate and yes, I did very much enjoy the show. However wrong and whorish it was. Here are some more things I think I think:

1. I was on CNN.com and they have pictures of Ashley Olson (from Full House) and Lance Armstrong making out. I sure as hell hope they were rehearsing for a movie! He's 38 and she just turned 21!! Ish.

2. I hope that I never lead off with celebrity gossip as my number one post again. I'm just prettty grossed out.

3. I see they are making a Shrek IV which will come out in 2010. This is good news I think.

4. Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer of Weezer, will be releasing a new CD full of unreleased solo demo's plus Weezer is currently finishing up recording their sixth studio album to be released the summer of 2008.

5. The Republicans have another Gay Sex scandal on their hands. This time it is a representative from Washington state. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

6. A new Office is on tonight. That makes me happy.

7. The College basketball season begins tonight. I'm glad I bought the cyclones online pass so I can watch the whole season online. I'm hoping for big things this year.

8. And finally, I say fuck you to the University of North Dakota. Their mascot is the Fighting Sioux and they refuse to change the name. The tribe that resides in northern North Dakota is not called the Sioux, they are actually called the Lakota or Dakota tribe. However, when French Canadians first discovered the tribe, they called the tribe the Sioux. The Sioux is French for snake. And from what I understand it means less the animal snake, but more the insult, "He is a snake." However, U of ND doesn't care, they like the name, and they are planning on keeping it. Several other big colleges around the country have changed their mascot (Marquette, Stanford, et cetera) after it was found out that their names were racist. What makes UND so high and mighty. And I hate that in arguments that their stupid fucking response is that well all mascots are making fun of something. Wouldn't gophers be insulted by the U of MN, wouldn't wolverines be insulted that they are the mascot for Michigan. Bottom line, don't name your mascot over a group of people. Yes, I know all about Notre Dame. They're a bunch of idiots as well except that Irish people have always sort of embraced their hard nosed, tough reputation while Native American groups around the country abhor the stereotypes that they are violent savages. Bottom line, the Sioux name must be removed.