Day after the day after

Home is a different world for me and every time I venture back, I have to reacquaint myself with this world. This is the actual order of events thus far in the new world:

I stopped by a good friend's house the first night back to watch the laker's game (he loves the lakers and kobe). A couple beers later, his younger brother, also watching the game, calls over a couple of his younger friends. One of the younger girls was trying to be extra friendly towards me,to which I kindly explained that it was weird knowing that I graduated high school when she was still in middle school... the night ended shortly thereafter.

BUT before I left though I learned of an interesting story that I wish to tell as it's weird and only one party involved actually reads this blog. Story:
Man A(friend from Random Lake) goes to College A. His roommate, Man B, is dating Girl 1, from College B. Man A's other roommate, Man C, is dating Girl 2, also from College B. Girl 1 and Girl 2 are now roommates at the same sorority (randomly). Man 1, friend from college B, is "dating" Girl 1. Man A, actually dating Girl 1, has no idea about Man 1; no clue about the other way around. Girl 1 keeps both in limbo. Lesson: Everyone always finds out. (Yes, Man C and Girl 2 are irrelevant for the overall picture, but it adds to the extra weirdness.)

Christmas eve came and our family got together at our house; no gifts were opened. None. I learned that day that one of my cousins is five months pregnant, another is going to Cali to work for Paul Mitchell and a third got back together with his old (cool) girlfriend who originally dumped him for not growing up. The family's growing AND improving. That counts as three gifts. A good hint for me to continue the trend (second part).

On the other side of the family, I finally met my oldest sister. We hadn't met face to face in four years. She's really climbed the ladder at (sweet company) helps high-end customers integrate the company's new software into their systems (similar to this, but not exactly). She's living in London now and may move to Budapest or Paris in the next year. I also found out she ran two marathons. TWO. And they were both finished... in fucking Austin. My life and aspirations are slowly ending up very similar to hers. And we never had any real communication growing up. I wonder how much is really is my genes?

Finally, there was a fire in Random Lake. The bowling alley was the only thing to do in random lake when it's cold and you can't go ice fishing. Luckily for me, we "borrow" the neighbors unsecured internet connection so that I can pass the time blogging. (if it's unsecured, you deserve this, right?)

Lastly, Robot Chicken (example) is messed up. mmmmmmeeeesssssssseeeeeeeeeddddddd up. I completely blame the show for this "tidbit of my life" post.

killin' time

If you can watch and enjoy this music video sober, then you may understand me a little more.

Never heard of the band before I downloaded the video from videopimp. Here's the other one from Cobra Starship that I thought was appealing.

For some reason youtube is being cool and not letting me upload the video in my blog due to the fact it stalls when I try adding it. messed.

I was thinking about a Chicago New Years celebration; now it might be a Milwaukee one. WSC only makes sense to see people, not to actually do anything at the conference or pay $500+ to be there.

My sister, who used to live in Austin, but left two weeks before I got there and now lives in London, will be in Madison from tonight till wednesday. if the other sister from random lake comes down to madtown, all of my siblings might be in the same place at the same time for the first time in my life. strange.

new job

i got hired by a temp/placement company to install new routers and switches for a temp/placement company. kinda weird.

Other than pulling the wrong power cord out of the socket for a bit, the first install went well. The bus system is sweet. Cars are very over-rated. It's hard to keep telling myself this when the weather is freezing, like now, but it's true. I save a lot of money and health not owning a vehicle.

I've recently re-found the awesomeness of Rage Against The Machine. Amazing that they only really released 3 LPs and still are considered one of the greatest rock bands of all-time. I know many people (older ones mostly) have asked something like"What's the machine and why are you raging at it?" Tom Morello, lead guitarist, had this to say about America (via wikipedia).

America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you've lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn't belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don't care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve.

I hope that helps explain part of the machine. My only question for Tom is this: "How could you pick Chris Cornell to front your next band? Seriously. I love the guy. Soundgarden, Temple of the Dogs, great stuff. But come on, how could you lose the political activism when we(Americans) need it more now than when you first started playing?"

double standard

so a lot of people have their dramas; i have sports. There is almost no professional sport that I can't knowledgeably talk about.

so when the average person here's steroids and sports they most likely think of baseball. immediately.

Situation One: Baseball, America's Old Past-time
Mark McGwire is on the ballot for the baseball Hall of Fame. The man's hit 583 home runs (top ten ever) and has NEVER been proven to have taken steroids. Is it very likely he did? yes. But he hasn't, so why is he labeled a horrible player and not Hall of Fame worthy when his statistics say otherwise.

Situation Two: Football, America's New Past-time
Shawn Merriman, last year's Defensive Rookie of the Year, is CAUGHT taking steroids. He gets a four game suspension and is STILL being talked about for this year's Defensive Player of the Year. No headlines, no talk about him being a bad player. Most writers are something in between"He's young and made a bad decision. He'll learn from this and be a better player." to "I'm glad he's back from his four game suspension. The Chargers [his team] will be contenders once again with him back."

Performance enhancing drugs are in sports. I know kids in High School that essentially took speed before and during every football game. And these were the model players getting all the accolades. And I know for a fact this is not a blip on the radar. I was even pressure by my High School cross country coach to take legal, but, in my opinion, unethical substances to help me run and recover faster. And he was told about them from a different coach from a different school who had been a coach for 30+ years.

bringing it back to baseball: steroids have been in baseball (and most other sports) since the '80s for sure. There's no reason Big Mac should be left out, especially without being proven guilty. In fact, I wonder how Ripken got his game streak. Steroids are VERY helpful in recovery; who says he didn't use any, especially with his good friend and long time teammate Rafael Palmeiro taking them. It's not just the big guys that need to be questioned.

i've diverged too much.