Hang Me Up To Dry

I did not have any finals on Monday... so a free day of sleeping and watching movies and doing nothing, right?

No. I had two papers to write and my spanish final to study for.

First of all, my Crockett paper for Scholar Citizen.... those papers are infamous for being extremely difficult and time consuming. The topic: "Does Western philosophy and science grant us the knowledge to be effective citizens in a culturally complex world?"

Yeah, exciting.

I actually enjoy his papers. They're like a puzzle--its just a little difficult to make sure all the little pieces of argumentation fit together. This paper I had a lot of trouble with though; I worked on it Monday, got stuck and gave up, and then yesterday I was in the library from 5:00 pm until 9:30 pm. It was terrible. I was having problems.

Every once in a while someone I know would walk by, say hi to me, and then we would talk for a while..... I eventually figured out that putting on headphones and keeping my head down would make it look like I was extremely busy and I could accomplish a little bit more.

I argued that an effective citizen in a culturally complex world is someone that strives for social justice and peace. Western science and philosophy and their goal of discovering a unified redemptive truth is noble, but it does not lead to the creation of effective citizens. Science itself can lead to effectiveness, as a lot of tools can; a scientist might feel compelled to discover a cure for AIDS. However, that scientist is not motivated by science alone. Sure, he or she may be motivated by money or fame, but a lot of people are first motivated by intellectual experiences.

I defined intellectual experiences as both literary and experiential. One may read about the world through various pieces of literature (this includes worldwide religion and philosophy), and by reading numerous sources, that person will have a better idea of humanity. It is then that he or she is able to construct a more well educated view of humanity. The same goes for the experiential. People learn more from first-hand experience than anything else. Reading about something in a textbook will not do as much justice as actually visiting and touching your subject matter. Therefore, when trying to gather “truths” about the world and how people live, the best way to go about those goals is to personally experience as many different aspects of humanity as one can and to develop and interpret those experiences in order to comprehend one’s own opinions regarding the meaning of life.

And as someone develops their intellectual experiences, then they will be compelled to become effective citizens and strive for social justice.

Ta-da!

I have no idea if that gives my paper any justice at all... but I tried.

oh, and I was so angry last night... The paper is supposed to be 5 pages long double space... Only after printing my paper and rereading it, someone else said "Hey Adam, isn't it supposed to be double spaced?"

Yeah, I wrote my paper single spaced... which means I wrote about twice as much as I was supposed to.

And I stayed up even later fixing it and getting rid of some stuff. grrrr...

Holidazzle

Last night Katie and I went on a date.

I've only taken her out once since we got to Augsburg (Loring's Pasta Bar), so I decided to taker her out and relax before finals this week.

So we went to the Holidazzle parade downtown. We took the lightrail (which was free that day to prevent people from driving downtown and instead park near the mall of america) and got downtown at 6:30, right when the parade was starting.

We probably should have got there, considering Katie is basically 3 and a half feet tall and could not even see the parade... So i felt kinda bad about that, but she didn't really care. We didn't really watch the parade anyway... We both prefer to people-watch.

And while we were kind of watching the parade, we were also looking for someplace to eat. We had absolutely no idea where we were going to eat and we were kidn of just walking around aimlessly. Luckily, Katie wanted to eat at Applebees (I was scared that we might eat somewhere more expensive) and split some food. (Orange chicken is bomb)

After that we went to see the movie Australia. And I realized that my Intro to Cinema class has made me way more cynical towards movies.

A year ago, I may have liked this movie, but after watching all the great movies in my cinema class, it seems as if my standards have been raised.

The movie felt like it was concentrating too much on trying to be epic, rather than actually being epic. The action sequences felt like it was a wannabe Australian Indiana Jones. The romance seemed cliché. The plot between Nicole Kidman and the Aboriginal boy seemed like an afterthought... until the last 45 minutes of the movie focuses entirely on their relationship.

Or maybe it was just that I was tired... and the movie was 2 hours and 45 minutes long.

But it was a great night... Relaxing. And now I've got to write a paper today (after the Vikings game of course)

The Finish Line

Almost there... Finals week is all next week. Nerve-racking, I know.

I was pretty happy to finally be done with most of my classes. It really hit me Thursday after religion... "I am completely done with this class..."

I am definitely happy to be done with Spanish... I hated that class... Not really because it was a bad class but because I was really bad at Spanish. I am also happy to be done with my religion class. I'm usually obsessed with all that jazz, especially studying Islam and other world religions however, I felt like I rarely learned anything from that class. I actually would not be surprised if some students lost faith by taking that religion class... I'm probably being a little harsh, but the class left me with more negative moments than positive ones.

And tonight my professor for that class sent me an e-mail telling everyone all the things we need to study for the test on Thursday. It will be very hard... which is expected. But I was a little disappointed when a lot of the things on the test were barely emphasized on in class. It's not all that bad, I just have a lot of work to do.

My Spanish final is on Tuesday. It will take 15 minutes.

I have a paper due on Wednesday for Scholar Citizen. There is no final in that class. I also have a test for my Film class.

And lastly, I have that religion final.

Sunday and Monday will be spent studying. all day. like A.P.

World Premiere

Wednesday we showed off the film we made for my Intro to Cinema class.

First of all, thanks to our Editor, Amanda. She did a fantastic job. I storyboarded and scripted out pretty much everything in our movie, so most of the shots and cutting was pretty straightforward....

However, we were planning this huge extravagant dance scene that we were going to film in the student lounge... and rather than planning out the most difficult in scene in our movie, we decided to improvise it....

Let's just say that our big extravagant dance scene wasn't so extravagant... It was rather simple. We did make things pretty difficult for our editor though... we recorded the exact same scene from 5 different angles, handed her our footage, and basically said, "good luck". 

The entire thing turned out fantastic.

The story line was ok... we basically made a pastiche-esque film. It definitely wasn't serious.

JUST DANCE - The Tale of Jeffery Mitchell:

Basically this guy dances all over campus, into class, everywhere he goes, etc... People, obviously, think he's pretty weird so he doesn't really have any friends. Hilarity ensues. Eventually, the guy gets so down on himself that he ventures into downtown Minneapolis in the middle of the night, alone. BUT, he runs into the place of his dreams: Spin Nightclub. He has fun and realizes that there is a place for him in this world.

Definitely not a serious movie... especially compared to another group that filmed a movie about a relationship between a man and a woman... they are fighting and something has obviously gone wrong. By the end of the movie, it is revealed that the woman caught the man kissing another man....

Deep, I know.

But we did pretty good. Definitely better than some of the other groups.

Annie, Use Your Telescope

I made a very difficult decision on Sunday.

I had my first training to be an Orientation Leader (OL). I went through the application process, a group interview, and then a personal interview (it was long, but definitely painless) and I was finally announced as an OL last Friday.

Sunday after training however, I had to turn down the position.

It was really hard for me to do... Basically, it comes down to the rule that a student can not be employed by both Residence Life and the Center for Service, Work, and Learning. Which means I can not be an OL and a Residence Hall Adviser (RA) next year.

Everyone knows that OLs have the most fun on campus... Yeah, there's a lot of overtime, but OLs go through all the training together, camping overnight at a retreat, and then the experience of welcoming all the incoming First Years.

Being an RA would also be pretty sweet. Getting to know a whole floor full of guys, and offering them help if they need it. The only bad thing would be that I would not get to live with my friends.

Oh, and after all the fun and games of both positions... you would of course get paid.

Yup, college is expensive... Keeping that in mind, I turned down the OL position hoping to become an RA next year and get paid a little bit more. That's not my only motivation, but I am REALLY short on cash right now... I was planning on getting a job this semester, but I'm just to busy... Hopefully next semester will be a different story.

And hopefully next year I'll be an RA.

On a somewhat similar note, speaking of money, Ethan was in the bathroom tonight with his own little business... He's offering hair cuts to people (genius idea). So far he has about 4 clients; he asked me if i wanted a hair cut (I desperatly need one), but I told him that nobody touches my head except my grandma :)

She has cut my hair my entire life (and done a fantastic job). I've probably got a professional haircut less than 5 times.... It's saved me a lot of money.

But kudos to Ethan.

PS. the new Jack's Mannequin cd is A-MAZING. (hence the title of today's blog). get your hands on it, asap.

It's all good.

The Colors of the Wind

Yup, still sick.

So today, I went down to Murphy's (the alternative to the main cafeteria on campus... burgers, fries, chicken, deli, all that stuff) because they sell some things that you might need for your dorm. Soap, cereal, milk, and most importantly, tissues... which i was in dire need of.

BUT, the football team was having their banquet in the main cafeteria, therefore, lunch was being served in one of the rooms downstairs and the booths in Murphy's were being used.

For some reason, the dining service then thought that it would be necessary to close Murphys, which means that i do not get to buy my tissues. which made me mad.

and then i was more mad because i wanted to eat at murphys because today's brunch was a nasty roast beef sandwich and leftover soup... luckilly they did have delicious waffles, otherwise i would have protested and screamed. and yelled. and probably cussed.

oh, and this weekend i accidentally walked into a girls bathroom. yup, never saw that coming.

the only sunshine in my day today was that the vikings won. yay.

Yesterday i went to the mall of america with katie to buy hannahs bday present. I was very happy with myself that i did not actually buy anything. Yes, i looked all around for christmas presents (for myself mostly) but i've been kinda fruggle lately.

And then that night we went to eat at Chino Latinos. It was excellent. Katie made me try sushi, and it was bomb. Soo goood... but sooo expensive.

And when we came back from the restaurant, they all partied.. and i went to bed because i didn't feel good. luckilly, i have the best girlfriend in the world and she kept me company and watched Scrubs with me till I fell asleep.

Today i finished filming my movie for my film final, but this week will be ROUGH....

And as i type this, i am also finishing some other school work while i also watch Pocahantas with Katie. she has to study it for her American Indians in Cinema class... there's nothing like watching Pocahantas at 11:30 at night...

I gots lots'a work to do.

Down with the sickness

I am sick. It is the worst possible timing. Ever.

So yesterday Katie went with me to Target. (We no longer go to the Target on Lake Street... We found that going to the Downtown Target, although a longer trip, proves to much more of an adventure). I had two things I needed to get: cough drops and a box of tissues (what is the plural form of kleenex?). So we went there, avoiding all temptation known as subway/chipotle, and she found all the things she needed.

P.S. Macy's was an adventure all in itself... First, it took a long time to find the girls bathroom for katie, and while i was waiting for her, I met a person in line wearing a St. Martin sweatshirt... for those of you who dont know (basically all of you), St. martin is the teeniest tiniest town next to my home town... basically, population barely 300 people... It was extremely random and made me laugh. Also, while i was waiting for her, i found a blouse thingy that was supossed to be worn over a dress.. guess how much it cost? yup, $2,450... crazy.

And then on our way back, I realized that i forgot to buy my tissues. i think if i blow my nose one more time with the toilet paper from the bathroom, either: 1) my nose will fall off, or 2) my nose will bleed profusely and i will die.

Luckilly, Katie has been taking care of me, making me sleep, and force-feeding me tea.

Unfortunately, I have a lot to do today... aka film a movie, work on a powerpoint presentation.

Dang.

The Science of Sleep

Yeah, I took a 5 hour nap yesterday..... Accidentally of course.

I stayed up really late doing homework the night before.. I woke up the next day extremely exhausted. It's actually a miracle that I went to both of my morning classes. After class, I ate a quick lunch, and immediately went up to my room for a nap... and I set my alarm for 1:15 so i could wake up and get ready for spanish.

Unfortunately I slept through my alarm and woke up 5 hours later.

I think my sleep schedule is completely thrown off.

Not only that, but finals are coming up. And it's stressful. I have a film due, a powerpoint presentation, and a test... things aren't going to be fun the next week. 

Tonight I have to go downtown and film some scenes for my movie... at 9:30 at night.. I won't get back until late again.... grrrr..

Let's Get Down to Business

Today I had a meeting with Peggy Cerrito, a business teacher here at Augsburg.

I came to Augsburg knowing that I would be a film major, and I knew that I wanted to double major in something to fall back on... I'm still not sure what I'm going to do.

But when I talked to my R.A., Avery, and told him that I was interested in majoring in business, he told me that he would set up a meeting with Peggy. He said that he was an assistant for Peggy (or something like that), delivered her mail and stuff, and that she was a very nice woman. So today, he brought me up to her office and introduced me to her.

I ended up talking with Peggy about the Augsburg Business program for about 30 minutes... and she really sold it to me (like a real business woman, i guess). It actually made me pretty excited; she told me exactly what i was looking for.

I'm on the right track so far... I'm taking Marketing and Microeconomics next semester, and I really don't have to pick my Business emphasis for a while yet, but she definitely narrowed down my search.

I'm thinking of a business major with an emphasis in either: Economics, Management, Marketing, and possibly Financing (which I doubt).

Basically, it comes down to whatever emphasis i think will help me the most as a film maker.. I'm either leaning towards management or marketing, but I have a while to decide. Today definitely made me feel a lot better about the entire situation though... Peggy even gave me a free Augsburg mug as a kind of "welcome to the business program" gesture. She seems sooooo very nice.

I really can't wait until next semester now... ya, my classes will be much harder, but i'm just ready for my finals to be over...

I'm pretty stressed out right now.

On Eagles Wings

There was a special service during chapel today for an Augsburg student that passed away this weekend:

It was really a sad day for members of the Augsburg community... over thanksgiving break, an Augsburg student was killed in a car accident. The chapel service held today was a chance for everyone to come together and grieve, but ultimately, to celebrate her life.

She was a well-known student... She was in honors and was my teachers assistant for the honors play that all first years put together... Katie and Claire knew her well from the school of americas protest in Georgia... she was also an orientation leader, Augsem leader, and a member of the Riverside Singers.

At chapel today, it really hit me when i realized how close of a community Augsburg College is... there were a lot of people that were affected by this death.. I can only imagine being a student at the University of Minnesota and a death happening.. an organized chapel service attended by many members of the college would be unlikely.

I'm glad to be a member of such a close-knit community.

All my thoughts and prayers go out to Katie's family.

Black Friday

shopping was pretty crazy on friday.

I had some friends stay over at my house on thursday night... we stayed up pretty late, expecting to pull an all nighter (which didn't happen)... we went to bed and then woke up and left at 5 in the morning.

unfortunately, (or fortunately, whatever way you decide to look at it), best buy opened at 5 in the morning... we were about 30 min. late. We did run into one of our friends from high school though. he said he was in line at 4:15 (45 min before best buy opened) and the line was still 200 people deep. So there were a lot of people there at 5:30, just not as many people as we expected.. of course, it was still crazy though. the line wrapped more than half way around the store.

all i needed to buy though was a 1 terabyte hard drive for 150 bucks.. pretty good deal. and i need something to store all my videos on.

heres a good tip though: check amazon.com for christmas deals. i was pretty excited to have my list complete, go shopping on friday, and then be done shopping... however, the night before i looked at amazon.com and everything on my list was the exact same price on amazon.. they even had free shipping... which means not having to get up early (unless you like to people-watch like my friends and i)

target however, was a different story. it was crazy. imagine hundreds of moms with shopping carts, willing to kill for a deal. wow. we walked to the electronics department, decided nothing was worth standing in line for 45 minutes, and then left.

which reminds me... a walmart worker was killed after being trampled to death in a new york walmart... which i think is pathetic. i don't know how people can be in that situation and not try and prevent a death... do people really care about getting their plasma tvs that much?

here's the youtube video about the incident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S6UKRaM5fA

Cause I'm a Window Shopper.

I'm going shopping tomorrow. Just decided.

I don't know what I'm in for... My mom told me I won't survive.

But I think that Black Friday shopping is something that everyone should experience... I'm not sure what kind of benefit that would have on someone... But I'm sure it would be entertaining.

I don't even know if I need anything. I spent a little bit of time today looking at ads and trying to determine if I really need anything (I don't). And then I looked at amazon.com and most of the things I was looking at are the same price online anyway... so i'll buy them online... But i'm still going tomorrow with some friends just to experience it.

Speaking of which, one of the kids in my film class was talking about black friday shopping yesterday. He said that he would most likely be outside of a best buy at 5 pm today, waiting in line already with a chair that he will set up right in front of the door. (5 pm... really?) Oh, and did i mention that he takes a loan out of the bank in order to buy as much stuff as possible... and then he sells it all on Ebay and makes a few hundred bucks.

I sometimes wish i was that hardcore. ;)

Thanksgiving

It's good to be home.

Sleeping in my own bed is the best feeling in the world. And in the spirit of thanksgiving, I had pumpkin pie for breakfast this morning. That's right, for breakfast. (speaking of pumpkin pie, don't you love all those seasonal foods that they have at restaraunts right now? aka pumpkin pie blizzard at Dairy Queen... it sounds gross, which was my first thought, but it is A-mazing!)

I'm trying to avoid eating a lot now though... I plan on eating at least 3 plate fulls at my grandma's house. My grandma is the best cook in the world. I love eating her meals. I can not wait.

The rest of the day will involve relaxing, taking a nap, watching some football. Speaking of which, I bet that the Lions will lose to Tennessee by more than 21 points.. for sure. The Lions suck. I think it's almost as impossible to go undefeated as it is to win every single game, but the Lions have a shot of going 0-16 this year... And I'm not sure why... Just last year Kitna predicted winning 10 games. And they were decent... what happened?

Anyway, It would have been nice to not have class yesterday.. Most of my other friends from high school didn't have class and were home tuesday night already. But 2 out of my 3 classes were cancelled and i got out of Minneapolis by 2 yesterday afternoon. Traffic still sucked.

either way, Augsburg ends school pretty early... I think the last week of April, but i'm not sure. It's definitely earlier than a lot of other schools. Which is nice.

But I'm going to go eat some turkey.

And SCENE!

Hon 120 Scholar Citizen Theater Lab is officially over.

It is a sad, sad day.

Our play went excellent by the way. Nearly perfect. And the crowd loved it.

Professor Crockett sent us an e-mail the next day too:

Cheryl and I thoroughly enjoyed the play last evening. I am very proud of you!

We will do some reviewing before the quiz. See you tomorrow.

Larry Crockett

So I figured he would give us a break the next day and make the quiz kind of easy.. Not true.

Anyway... Despite our play making fun of Crockett, everyone was pretty excited that he enjoyed it. The honors play has been going on for 4 years now, and one of the seniors said that it was the best play (as a whole) that they've had in all 4 years. I dare you to try and beat our play.. I'm still amazed that we pulled it off in such a short time.

and after the play: PARTY TIME.

Yeah, that's right. An Honors Party.

complete with food and drinks, a d.j. and the craziest game of Catch Phrase i've ever played.

On Monday night, we all got together again and watched the video that Erica (our director) put together for us. It was funny to see all of us at the beginning of school (she recorded pretty much everything form the beginning to the end of the whole semester). We all looked so awkward as we were trying to learn everyone's names and fit in. Erica made a DVD for everyone of us too.

The play has brought us all so close together. So sad that it's over... I'll miss those monday nights.

Field Trip

For class on Wednesday, we took a field trip to go see the movie Ana's Playground being filmed. This is the same film that I have interned for a couple times, so it was definitely a unique experience seeing it from my perspective.

I don't think people know how much work goes into making a movie... You know those barriers that you barely see of in the distance of that 10 second action shot? Yeah, that took me 3 hours to paint... (see what I mean?)

The was another thing I noticed while I watched them film a couple scenes... It looks extremely fake.... Yeah, when all the editing and post-production is all done, the movie may look like it came right out of a scene in the middle of a warzone... but, while we were watching the filming process, there were about 50 people standing behind the camera and watching everything that took place. It kinda makes you appreciate the work that the actors do.. how can an actor act something out with so much emotion while 50 people are watching every single move.

Anyway... Later that night I went to the downtown Target with Katie. She needed to get some groceries for her trip to Georgia. The Augsburg CSA (Coalition for Student Activism) is bringing students down to Georgia to protest the School of Americas (which now has a different name... not sure what it is). Thanks to Augsburg Day Student Government, the cost of the trip is only 5 dollars per student. That's right.. wanna go to Georgia? Well, then pay 5 dollars.

I really wanted to go, but I had my honors play and I couldnt skip that... Anyway, we went downtown to the Target, and since it was so cold we took the skyways... and got lost. We walked from the lightrail to Target in the skyway, got there, bought our groceries... then we started to walk back to the lightrail, somehow went in a circle, and ended up back at Target. It was frustrating. And i missed the new episode of the Office.

But that's what the internet is for.

Title and Registration

Tuesday was registration for next semester's classes... which meant that basically every First Year student was sitting at their computer and counting down the minutes until 5:00 pm.

First Years were the last to register, so I was pretty nervous when I saw that some of the classes I wanted were already half full (or half empty???).

Each student is given an adviser to help them through the registration process. I was pretty confused at first, mostly because I wasn't sure which college credits from high school transferred into which classes.

And then it came down to picking classes... I was kind of disappointed that I did not get to take any film classes next semester. My film professor suggested that I wait to take my production classes so I can take them with fellow First Years... mostly because I will be more comfortable taking them with the same people for the rest of the film classes. Either way, I'm already ahead of the other film majors in my grade anyway because I had so many english credits transfer.

So I decided to take the required business classes for a business major.

I'm almost 100 percent confident that I will double major in film and then business. I'm not quiet sure what kind of emphasis I will have on my business major though... Either Business Administration or a combined major in Business and Economics.

So here's my schedule for next year (I luckily got all the classes that I wanted):

Principals of Marketing
Honors: Science, Technology, and Citizenship
Honors: Liberating Letters, the Humanist Tradition
Principals of Microeconomics

I'm really not looking forward to that Science class, however... I hate science.

To be, or not to be?

At this very second, I am sitting backstage for the Honors Play 2008.

I am nervous.

After 2 months of writing, directing, practicing, gathering props, etc. the night to show off our play is here.

I am nervous.

This has been one of my favorite experiences here at Augsburg so far. I've grown so close to all the other honor students as we've put this play together. It's been stressful.. It's been fun.. I'm excited.

And nervous.

I've never been nervous in front of crowds before, but this is different. We've put a lot of work into this play.

And it's 7:05.. the play is starting.

I'll let u know how it goes :)

Meet the Parents

I woke up at 8 in the morning on Sunday... Tragic, I know.

And it was all because I am a nice boyfriend and decided to go with Katie to her relatives house for their early Thanksgiving... which happened to be all the way in Moorehead.

I guess it was a good thing though. I got about 100 pages of reading done for Scholar Citizen.. which was very good. I probably would have waited until 10 o'clock that night to do the readings if I didn't have the car ride to do it. I even got a little bit of a nap in there. So it was all good.

And then, the moment finally came for me to met Katie's family. I already had met her mom before, so I wasn't really worried about that. Maybe just slightly nervous about making a good impression to her grandma and her other relatives... So I was expecting a nice little get together, some small chatting over lunch, watching the football game in the living room, etc...

That was until Katie's aunt gathered the entire family up in the kitchen and Katie had to formally introduce me to everyone. Here I am, in the middle of the kitchen, surrounded by her entire family as they stare at me and measure me up... I felt like I was being judged. I felt like a dog at a dog show... Yes, that's the best comparison I could think of...Yes, I am slightly exaggerating... but yes, it was still a slightly terrifying experience...

After an excellent home-cooked meal that I had been looking forward to all week, it was time to watch the Vikings game. During the entire meal and the chit-chat that happened afterwards, I had been thinking about that game... I was cringing over the fact that I did not know the score (how could there not have been a single vikings fan in her entire family?!?). Luckily, perhaps by chance, one of her uncles turned on the TV, exclaimed "OH.. the Vikings game..." and I was relieved...

That was until we fumbled a kick return that basically lost us the game....

And then the Bucs missed a field goal that would have gaurenteed them a victory....

And then we failed miserably at our last-ditch efforts to make a drive down the field. And we lost... of course.

I wanted to scream... I wanted to cry....

But then that wouldn't have looked very good in front of her relatives.

So instead, i decided to bottle up all my emotions no matter how painful that might be....

Hey Jealousy.

So I spent most of my day Saturday in freezing temperature and 20 mph winds.... Why you might ask?

Well... Remember that film internship? Yeah... I helped Set-Dress the set for 6 hours. It involved carrying fake barriers and then setting them up to look like those cement barriers used in war zones. Oh, and did I mention that I forgot to bring gloves? I felt like my fingers were going to fall off... Until a merciful man let me borrow his gloves... Which didn't happen until AFTER I cut my thumb between two of the boards... Yeah, it wasn't exactly a glamorous day.

But it was a great experience... I was amazed at how the set was set up. It didn't look like much. Just a fountain here, a wall here, some pillars over there... But with a little movie magic, BOOM... I couldn't help imagining how I would shoot a particular scene a certain way, and all that jazz...

And then, the director came to the set... I was so jealous watching him walk around and talk with the director of photography about how they were going to shoot the scenes. I was sooo jealous. I wanted to be in his shoes, and not lifting plywood boards... You gotta start somewhere though, i guess.

If your interested in the film, it's called Ana's Playground. Check out the website here:
http://anasplayground.com/

And so that was my Saturday... I got back to campus around 6:30, which felt like 10 at night because it gets dark so early... And then i did absolutely nothing. I was exhausted and tired, and wanted to sleep... So Andy and I watched Superbad instead.

Down and Out

I just (most likely) failed my Spanish test.... So I went to Cooper's and bought a Mocha Auggie to drink away my sorrows....

I actually studied for this one too... I studied last night and I studied for a solid hour and a half before class.... It feels pretty crappy.

I think I'm going to blame the fact that I got absolutely no sleep last night.

First of all, Nathaniel was watching TV until 1:30 in the morning... Finally, he falls asleep... Luckily, I brought ear plugs with me to college (a necessity considering Nathaniel's snoring can be heard from the opposite side of the hallway), however, the radiator in my room sucks.

We did not even have the heater on last night, yet it makes the most terrible noise ever. Imagine someone hitting a metal bowl with a metal spoon next to your ear every 11 seconds. Combine that with Nathaniel's snoring and you have a full-piece band.

Considering this was one of the worst days I've had in a long time, my weekend has officially began. Hopefully things will start to look up.

Temple Israel

Today for my Augsem we went and visited Temple Israel in Southern Minneapolis.

Until I got to Augsburg, I had never met a Jewish person. Ever. That was until I met Dan, a kid from Plymouth who lives on my floor.

And then today, we went and visited the Temple. It was definitely a great experience. Temple Israel is a Reform Jewish Temple. Reform Judaism is a form of Judaism that is a relativily modern, middle of the spectrum sect of Judaism. Rabbi Saks gave us a tour of the Temple, explained the foundations of Judaism, and then answered some questions.

After today and last week's tour of the Mosque, I've come to realize that the great three monotheistic religions are more similar than one might think...

All three follow the Old Testament.
According to Islam, Moses, Abraham, Jesus, and Noah (along with many other Old Testament characters) are all important.
All three are peaceful, loving religions that value social justice.
And there are many many more similarities.

But I've got a lot of homework to do... And I have an intermural Volleyball game tonight at 10:30.

Blue's Clues

I'm sitting in the Honors Suite right now... we're doing a run through for our Honors Play that will take place on Saturday the 22nd.

I may have talked about this earlier... I've had play practice every Monday night since school started. Basically, all First Year honors students work together to create a play based off of the first book we read for The Scholar Citizen, "The Question of God". We were all split into four different groups and come up with four different plays involving themes from the book... All four plays also have a theme based off of various kid's TV shows.

I am the Stage Manager for my group (in charge of props, script changes, blocking, etc...). Our play is Blue's Clues. The basic plot is Sigmund Freud and CS Lewis are stuck in the Blue's Clues house until they find all the Clues and learn the Truth to all life's questions. Hilarity ensues.

Our play is pretty cool, but it's not as risque as some others.

Example: The Sesame Street play... Big Bird gets shot. Oscar the Grouch gets pleasure and happiness from causing pain on others. Bert and Ernie visit a strip club in search of happiness. Yeah, it's crazy.

The Honors Play is one of the most unique things about Augsburg College... It has definitely brought us honors kids closer together.

Speaking of the play... I have to miss practice next Monday (which I usually wouldn't do, but I think that we're all prepared for the 22nd)...

I got tickets to see Atmosphere at 1st Ave. next Monday.... Yay.

We haven't located us yet.

I love Tuesdays.

Especially this particular Tuesday. My one class of the day was canceled so we could get together with our groups and work on our city project. My group has to write about the significance of cities in the bible and the role various religions have played in the city of Jerusalem.

I don't think it will be that bad.

So... I rolled out of bed at 9:34 this morning, brushed my teeth, strolled up to the 9th floor in my pajamas, and then met with my group at exactly 9:40.

After all that was all done, I decided to be productive.

So I went back to my room and watched "A Complete History of My Sexual Failures" in the warm comfort of my bed.

It's a documentary where a 30-something year old man tracks down his ex-girlfriends and tries to figure out exactly why they broke up... hilarity ensues. It's a decent documentary.. most of the time I was pissed off at the guy because he seemed to ruin every decent relationship he ever had... If you ever want to learn what NOT to do, watch this movie.

And then I decided to realistically be productive and reorganize all the things in my room. It was a good feeling. I also have to finish my homework that I fell asleep doing earlier today.

And right now it feels like midnight but it's only 8, which is an awesome feeling. sometimes i wish there was more time in a day. sometimes i dont.

So i'm wasting more time watching the Darjeeling Limited (hence the title).

Song of the week: "The Temptation of Adam" by Josh Ritter

I don't know why I love it so much.

Procrastination is the Devil

I hate Microsoft Word.

Maybe it's all my fault that I finished my spanish paper 2 minutes before class started.

Maybe it's all my fault that I was tempted in to beating the crap out of Nate in a game of Madden and then ordering pizza and then watching The Incredible Hulk when i should have been doing my homework last night.

Maybe I shouldn't have slept so much while I was home this weekend and laying in my awesome, comfortable, warm bed.

Oh, well... It was fun while it all lasted...

...That was until 2:15 today (15 minutes before class) when "Microsoft Word has unexpectedly quit" as soon as I tried to print my Spanish paper.

I skipped lunch today, started working on my paper at 12:30 (two hours should have been plenty..), and i refused to be distracted by Facebook, Youtube, etc... That's right, I sat in the Honors Suite and did nothing but my spanish paper.

And it was damn good.

Until Microsoft Word taught me a lesson:

Never procrasinate. It's bad... really bad. I did it a lot in high school, and I learned my lesson once... So I thought I'd get by this weekend... Luckily, I have a friend named "Auto-Save" and about 3/4 of my paper was saved automatically... That meant I had approximately 8 minutes to retype the rest of it, make corrections, and then get to class... I was only about 3 minutes late.

But I learned my lesson.

P.S. The Incredible Hulk is a decent movie... nothing groundbreaking.. It's awesome if you're a comic book fan like myself, but the film-maker in me keeps saying "i could have made it better"  :)  Definitely better than the last one directed by Ang Lee

P.S. P.S.  I saw "Rachel Getting Married" last week after my film professor briefly talked about it in class.... I loved it and do not understand why he had some problems with it. It's a very cool take on realism.

P.S. P.S. P.S.  After doing kinda bad on my first film test, I studied hardcore for the second one and we finally got them back today... Yeah, that's right.. I was the only one in my class to get a 4.0.  Whoop, whoop.  :)

Life of an Auggie

The life of an Auggie:

In order to truly experience what it’s like to be an Auggie, one has to do a little bit of exploring. Yes, campus has got a nice, homey feel to it. You can spend some time in Murphy Park and (somewhat) feel like your out of the city. For the most part, everything you’ll ever need can be found on campus. But who doesn’t like to get out every onece in a while, right?

In order to really live the Auggie life, some exploring is neccassary. In my short few months here at Augsburg, I’ve definitely figured out how to get around Minneapolis.

I’ve been to the U of M.
I’ve gone to Dinkytown.
I’ve gone to Uptown.
And just the other night, I went Downtone.

I haven’t gone Downtown all that much.. I’ve been to the Dome for a Vikings and Twins game, and once to go to Club Spin… But when I was Downtown late the other night, it reminded me exactly why I decided to go to Augsburg.

The city is alive.

Take advantage of it. You’ll learn soo much, just by exploring (do it with a few buddies of course.. and be safe). But there’s soo much to do. The possibilities are endless.

Another great experience… yesterday my Augsem went to tour a Mosque in the Cedar-Riverside building. Coming from a (very) tiny town, this is NOT something I ever would have done back home...

It was a great (important) experience. There are so many misconceptions about Islam now a’days… It’s rather unfortunate.

We visited the Mosque, a young man explained the basics of Islam and the goal of their Mosque, we watched a prayer service (of about 50 men, which was amazing), and then he answered our questions.

It was one of my best experiences at Augsburg so far…. My explanations will never do it justice… It’s just something you have to experience on your own.

Divided We Fall

So my friend Dustin asked this question the other day after the election:

Should we be worried about the way that other countries are celebrating the election of Barack Obama?

My answer:

Yes We Can

I might not be able to sleep tonight.

Whether or not you supported Barack Obama, the President-Elect, in this year's election, I hope that you recognize the truly important thing for the future of America:

Unity.

McCain or Obama, either way, I hope that you stand behind the President of the United States.

Please continue to question authority. Continue to voice your opinion. Continue to fight for your rights.

But please, please, please... recognize that you live in the greatest country on the face of the earth. The world is a mess right now... and now, more than ever, is the time for all Americans to work together and fix the problems faced over the last 8 years.

From Obama's Acceptance Speech, according to http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/11/05/president-elect-barack-obamas-acceptance-speech/

"America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?"

Politics will no longer be expected to work from the top down... It is the responsibility of the people to keep our leaders honest.

I also believe in compromise... that's why I will stay awake until the Senate races are done... I am kind of afraid in the overwhelming amount of power obtained by the democratic party tonight. I can only hope that our politicians will abstain from resorting back to the "us vs. them" mentality that has occupied our politics for so long.

Compromise: one of the main reasons why this country is so great. Don't forget the minority.

And of course, Welcome to the new America.

Get Out the Vote

I've been up since 6 a.m this morning.....

At 6:30 a.m., I reported to the Century Room in the basement of the Christensen Center in order to get ready for election day.

At 7, when the polls opened, I walked across the Franklin Bridge to the polling location to make sure that everything was going smoothly. 

Every two hours I then had to go back and check how many people had voted at my precinct and then report those numbers to the Obama campaign. This is basically just to prevent anything really funky from happening at the polls and so the campaign will be able to notice if something is wrong.

I've also helped people (in a very non-partisan way) know their voting rights... we also went and knocked on all the doors at Augsburg to see if anyone voted, and then escorted them to the voting location... It's been a long, busy day.

At 8 o'clock we have to walk over to the polls and make sure that people's voting rights are maintained by assuring them that they can vote as long as they're in line before 8.

And then... it's time to relax. Or try to anyway. I'll probably be up all night... Partying, hopefully.

Today was a day of firsts:

I drank coffee... I NEVER drink coffee.

I skipped class to help out. I never skip class.

OH, and of course, I voted  (I actually voted last Friday, but either way, it's a first)

God bless America.

Crowd Control

Last night I went to see Bill Clinton speak.

Or as my grandpa likes to call him, "Slick Will".

I'm not a huge Clinton fan, but it was an opportunity that I could not pass up.

In fact, I would love to go see George Bush speak too.

But, about 6:50 pm, Dustin knocks on my door, and asks "Do u want to go see Bill Clinton speak?"

Three minutes later, we were running to the lightrail in order to make the train to downtown.

While on the train, we met an extremely nice man named Abdul. He moved to America from Samalya about 20 years ago. He has a son my age. He loves Minnesota, but he misses home more than anything. We talked for quite a while.

As we were talking to him, I was thinking.... I miss home a lot... But, I could not imagine being away from home for 20-plus years... It would be pretty hard to accept the fact that going home would be too dangerous and out of the question... here, i know that my mom can come pick me up if I really need anything. I can go home, sleep on my bed, look out over the lake, walk in the woods.... I'm pretty damn lucky.

And then Abdul got off the train with us and showed us how to get to the convention center. He was a lifesaver.

So... we got to the convention center around 7:30... waited in line and finally got situated.

FINALLY, two hours later... Bill Clinton came out to speak.

I have to admit... he is one of the best speakers i have ever seen.

And as I listened, i payed close attention to the crowd... it was a weird feeling... as if i was at a huge football game or something... people cheered. people booed. It was intense.

There were also some parts that i found disheartening... I know the same thing goes on at any political rally, regardless of political party, but I could not get over the "us vs. them" mentality... it was SOOO prevalent... but oh well.. the point of a rally is to get people excited... and it worked.

Oh, and I also voted yesterday :)

If you haven't done so already, get out there November 4th.

Express your opinion.

The Times, They Are a'Changin.

The Times, They Are a'Changin

In order to get into the Halloween spirit, Katie and I are watching the movie Se7en.

Yeah, so far, it's pretty disturbing... I mean, nothing that I haven't already been sensitized to as any other 19 year-old, Saw watching, Grand Theft Auto playing, youtube addicted, college kid... but none the less, it's still pretty disturbing.

I've made it a personal goal to educate myself when it comes to movies (good idea being a film major, huh?) because the more I talk to other film students, the more behind I feel regarding all the classic films.... I'll keep you updated on this.

Oh, and another obsession: failblog.org

It's pretty funny.

So my Wednesday was pretty busy.

Wake up at 8:15, shower, clean up, all that jazz.
Walk to class at 9 till 10.
Do homework until my next class at 11 to 12.
Eat lunch then do homework.
Go to my last class at 2:30 to 3:30.
Do homework.
Student Government finance meeting from 5:15 to 7.
Run to Cooper's and get a coffee and pastry because i did not get to eat dinner.
Actual student government meeting from 7:30 till a little after 9.

And then it's movie time.

It's all about time management :)

Oh, and good job to Augsburg College:

95 Theses - organized by student government. allows students to voice their concerns, we compile them, and then present them to the president of the college.

Composting - Not only has Augsburg started "trayless tuesdays" (every tuesday, trays are not allowed in an effort to use less water/soap, and because students grab an average of 1.5 ounces less w/o using trays... which adds up to a little more than 100 gallons of food not going into the trash on tuesdays... i think it should happen everyday, and we're working on it.).... but Augsburg also started composting all the food that students don't finish.

Better food - with the help of student government and various other organizations last year, Augsburg's previous contract with their old food provider was cancelled early... from what i've heard around campus, the food this year is WAAAY better.

Ice-cream - AND, we now have ice-cream in the caf. It makes me happy.

In the Back of Yellow-Checkered Cars

So i went home again this last weekend... mostly because my friends and I are a part of "Dock Crew". Basically it's me and three other guys who put in/take out docks for money... and I'm a college kid and I need money.

Friday was our Fall Break (which didn't seem like much of a break.... seriously? one day?) so i didn't have class all day.

However, I did have my internship for the movie being filmed in the Cedar Riverside Neighborhood (Ana's Playground)... which i imagined to be delivering coffee, running errands, etc.... HOWEVER, Thursday night i spent three hours painting plywood... and Friday morning i did not get to enjoy my day off because i woke up kinda early (10:30 is early on a day off) and i sanded dry-wall for a couple hours... exciting right?

Afterwards, I visited one of my best friends, Lauren. She plays soccer for the University of Wisconsin Madison and they happend to be playing the Gophers this weekend... so i biked the short trip to the Radison at the U of M and chatted for a while. it was a lot of fun to catch up on all the things that have been going on.

And then cole came to the cities and we went to Lauren's soccer game (excitement=thinking soccer games cost 8 bucks but going there and realizing that it is 1 dollar ticket night).

And after that we visited some other friends because Cole had his car and it was convenient. And then I got home at midnight friday night.

I've been pretty lucky with finding rides home and such... It would be nice to have a car down here, but it's not really necassary. You can get anywhere in Minneapolis using the lightrail, bus, bike, walk, etc...

And speaking of public transportation... I was thinking...

I feel like my life right now is a long taxi-cab ride.

I know where I want to go... I might even know how to get there... but I wish the driver would drive a little bit faster. (And I probably don't have enough cash to hand to him and say "step on it, please.")

Toga!

some things are quintessentially college. for example:


pizza and ramen. the foundation of the food pyramid.
staying up late. 3-4 hours of sleep is all you need.
youtube. education in its purest form.
sneaking fruit from the cafeteria. do u want us to stay healthy or not?
rock band (which my has spent 87 hours doing over the last week). goodbye conversation, hello mindless staring into a tv.
going to the library. hahaha, just kidding (but really... i go there a lot)
grocery shopping. only buy what's on clearance/expired.

and that's all i can think of right now... there are more things, but i have a meeting in 10 minutes.

oh, and today i had my second film test. after doing terrible on the first one, i figured studying would be a good idea... luckily, i think i aced it. it's the best feeling ever.

and tomorrow is Claire's B-day. we're going to go to Club Aqua... although i'm not a huge fan of clubs....

... sacrifices. that's what it's all about.

Send Me All Your Vampires

Tonight was stressful.

Every honors student is required to participate in the Honors Theater Lab... So basically all 40 something honor students write four different plays, act, direct, publicize, etc.....

I am the stage manager for one of the plays... This means I over-see set design, props, and all that stuff... the hardest part is figuring out entrances because our play is soooo complicated. It's really frustrating, but the play is bringing all us honor kids really close together.... some upperclassmen have said that most honor kids are best friends for life, and this play is one of the reasons for that...

On a much more random note... for some reason I've read a lot about the whole abortion issue and how it effects the election this year:

It all started when I went home this weekend. I come from a conservative family. I would consider myself an independent, however, my entire family is super republican and pretty much disowned me when I told them I would be supporting Barack Obama. So this weekend, it was no surprise to me when my 9 year old brother asked me why Barack Obama supports killing "babies still inside mommies tummies".

This didn't really bother me at all... I explained to him, yes Mitchell, it's called abortion and it happens when someone gets pregnant when they don't want to....It reminded me of my days in elementary school when kids would say "I'm not voting for John Kerry because he doesnt like hunting and wants to take my dad's guns away".

The next day, I went to church with my family. On the way out, I grabbed our church's newsletter thingy, and inside was a pamphlet titled "Voting with a conscience the Catholic way":

1. The right to life is the most important issue.

Now I'm paraphrasing, but that's pretty much what it said... And then last night on facebook, I saw a friend comment on someone else's note titled "Abortion" and people were really going at it... after looking at that, i noticed a lot of hardcore arguments on wheter or not it is the most important issue for Christians in this year's election.

And finally, I found this: http://www.newsweek.com/id/163896/page/1

I highly recommend reading that. It's pretty interesting. Pepperdine University law professor Douglas Kmiec, formerly dean of the law school at the Catholic University of America and a minor official in the Justice Departments of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, basically discussed three main points on why pro-life supporters (specifically Catholics) can feel good about supporting Obama. According to him:

1. Lawfully, the abortion battle is lost to pro-life supporters. It will never be overturned.
2. Abortion is not the only "intrinsic evil" of today. The Bush administration has been charged with "policies on interrogation of terrorist suspects, in its failures after Hurricane Katrina and in its detention of terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay."
3. And thirdly, "Senator Obama 'supports government action that would reduce the number of abortions,' including an "adequate social safety net for poor women who might otherwise have abortions."

So there ya go... I'm not telling you what to think.... Should abortion be the most important issue of today?

Church Bells Ringing

So the wedding was pretty fun.The day was loooonnng though... I was at the Bride's house at 8:30 in the morning recording every little thing that went on until 1:00 in the morning.

It was a long day.

And now i've got HOURS of video editing to do so i can get the bride her wedding video. I'm not really looking forward to the busy busy week. I'm still exhausted.

And going home was... fulfilling. I guess.

It was nice to see my family for the first time in almost two months. It didn't really seem like i was gone that long though... Of course i missed my family A LOT, but a lot of the little things really hit me:

1)Driving.... I don't have my car at Augsburg. You don't really need it. But going home and having to drive everywhere after not even getting in a car for 2 months is weird...It leads to a lot of unintentional speeding.

2)Home-cooked meals.... i miss them... and it's even harder when your mom is an excellent cook. Luckily, i brought back some cherry cheescake desert and some chicken dumpling soup... mis favoritos.

3) A Big Fridge... this kinda goes with the food thing.. but this morning i woke up, walked upstairs, and then opened the fridge... i could practically hear the angelic humming of angels.. After sharing a tiny personal fridge with a roommate (especially a roommate that eats/drinks a lot), it's hard to underestimate the value of a full fridge... some day you'll understand.

4) MY BED. It was so nice to sleep in my own (queen-sized) bed... comparable to heaven i'd say. granted, i barely got any sleep because i had to wake up for church this morning, i loved it.

And now, i'm back at my new home. It's nice to be back... not so nice to have to go to class tomorrow, but oh well.

Oh, and Nate bought rock band 2 over the weekend... i got a feeling that my room will be a less-friendly study place for a while....

Cause I'm Comin Home Again

Some good news:

Last night I attended a film screening at Augsburg. The movie was titled “Bits” and it was created by a couple former Augsburg students. It was a somewhat formalist movie, kind of John Lynch-ish (Mulholland Drive… a really f-ed up, yet good, movie we watched for Film class) and I was impressed with how good it was. I guess it’s kind of reassuring to see a project like that coming from Augsburg students… It leaves me with a sense of “I want to do that when I graduate”… and now I know that it is possible.

More good news: On that same Thursday (before the movie screening) I went on a professional tour of the Cedar Riverside neighborhood with my Augsem. It was great… I think a tour like that should be required of all incoming students. Some people expect that some of the neighborhoods surrounding Minneapolis are automatically bad places, however, going on a tour like the one I went on Thursday really makes you appreciate and recognized the history of the Augsburg location. We went in to an African Mall and it was one of the most unique things I have ever seen. It felt like I had stepped into an entirely different world. (and they also have pretty cheap shirts, dresses, and scarves).

And the best part of it was, our tour guide started talking about a small film being shot in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood. It’s called Ana’s Playground, and shooting begins _______. I began to ask the tour guide questions, I told her I was a film major, and eventually, we exchanged information. It turns out that she had talked to the director of the film, and he is looking for people to help out with various aspects of the project. As of now, it looks like I might possibly have an internship on the film… I am really willing to do whatever they need. I’ll serve coffee or something if I have to, as long as I get to watch and learn about the movie-making experience…I’ll keep you in touch :)

Oh, and right now I’m on my way home… It’s the first time I’ve gone home since I came to Augsburg. I have a wedding to work at tomorrow, so I’ll keep you up to date.

Busy-Body

It's been a LOOOOONNG time.

I've been so busy.

Almost too busy.. we'll see I guess.

About 10 days ago I had a student government retreat. It was awesome, and i think it will be my favorite organization here at Augsburg. We went to a campground out past Plymouth....

While there, we started with "team-building" exercises... and i'm usually not that much of a fan of those forced interactions activity kinda things.. but this really helped. I now feel like i'm pretty good friends with everyone on the senate board.

You know when you see teachers, parents, other people of authority... and you can't imagine them having a life other than teaching/parenting/being authoritive... that's kind of how it felt... I saw some of the student government students around school, usually doing business-like stuff and being serious.

Well after the retreat, i see those same students as being really close friends... and it only took a day and a half.

Maybe it was being completely freaked out in our cabin (i swear that Adam, Max, and I saw a person running through the woods... it was terrifying), and telling horror stories until 3 in the morning... I don't know... Either way, i think being involved in student government will turn out to be one of my favorite things here at Augsburg.

Another exciting thing happened last Sunday.... First of all, I am a huge vikings fan (sometimes it is quite unfortunate) and my friend Clair surprised me with tickets to the game.... mostly because her and I are the ones yelling at the tv every sunday afternoon.

So we took the lightrail 4 minutes to the dome, watched them (luckily) beat the Lions (even though we shouldn't have to rely on luck to BEAT THE LIONS!!!!!!!). Either way, it was awesome. I totally saw 3 guys get kicked out of the game for being too drunk and swearing... at times it was more entertaining than the game. Yay American Football :)

A Night on the Town.

Cole William came to visit me Thursday-Saturday. I was excited.

Cole has been my best friend since 5th grade. He goes to St. John's University (about 5 minutes from both of our homes) and this first month of college has been the longest time i've gone without seeing him. So when he came to visit me at Augsburg on Thursday afternoon, I had a schedule of events to keep busy.

First of all, I brought him to Spin on Thursday night. Yes... i actually sacrificed my sleep to bring him out and try and show him a good time, and I think he had a good time. Now I am not exactly the clubbing type... It was definitely an experience, but most likely it won't happen again. It's just too... dirty, for lack of a better word (not "eewww" dirty, but "i-don't-think-grinding-with-random-people-is-right" dirty) I'd much prefer going to a cafe with music and TALKING to people.. not dancing with the most random girls from Minneapolis. But if you like to dance, than Spin is definitely a place to check out.

p.s. an alternative place to dance is First Ave on Saturday nights... it's more techno music, but I heard a lot of people say it's better than Spin. check it out.

So on Thursday night, while cole slept on my awesome couch until 12:30, I woke up for class at 9. While I was busy going to class until 3:30 that day, cole said he was doing homework (which most likely didn't happen). Later that night, Cole and I met up with some friends from high school who now live on East Bank. We recieved a grand tour of their apartment, went out to Pizza Luce (AMAAAAZZZING!), and then went to Frat Row that night. I was exhausted. One of the Frats we got into was basically Spin all over again (aka dark room with a million people, flashing lights, and loud music) but it was great seeing all my friends again.

And of course, Cole wouldn't let me go to bed until 3:30 in the morning. He wanted to party all night. I needed to rest... because...

I had a retreat to go on Saturday/Sunday..... because....

I was one of the four Augsburg First Years to get a spot on student government... not only that, but I am also the First Year Student Government President.

It made me happy :)

More on the retreat later....

I don't know about you, but I came to party.

Tonight was a great night. And I don't know why.

Classes were okay... I handed in my first paper for Cinema... I interpreted the very first shot from the first Godfather.... as I was typing my paper last night at midnight, I realized how much more I've learned about film after my first three weeks here at Augsburg... and then I realized that I am only 2 chapters into our text book... I guess you could call it a humbling experience... I'm not quite sure.... I know I've got a lot to learn. Oh, and today I took my first test for my film class.. which went okay. I know that i forgot a couple things (what are the three main aspect ratios used in film over the last century?), and some of the questions i had to B.S. my way through... but i did alright... a lot better than the 75 percent I got on my first spanish test (worst test of my LIFE... i NEED a tutor.. mostly for motivation)

Today I wanted to take a nap at every opportunity i had.. but i refused my instincts... i was both mad/proud at the same time.

And tonight I had play practice. Every honors student is required to take part in the "Scholars Citizen Theater Lab". Basically, all honors students work together to put together a play about the themes in our book "The Question of God," a book about the conflicting ideas of Sigmund Freud and CS Lewis. Most former honors kids say this is one of the best experiences in their college life so far.... tonight we started writing our one act play (The honor kids are split into 4 different groups and each group develops their own one act). We decided to have a somewhat connected theme by everyone creating a mock t.v. show type thing... My groups play (which I am the stage manager for) decided on the television show "Blue's Clues"... except our show deals with sex, violence, love, and death... ya know, basic Freudian principals... I'm liking the way things are going so far.

And the best part of the night....

Doing laundry. 

I did laundry. And I hate laundry. Fortunately, I have awesome friends who also do laundry with me.

We stayed in the laundry room for a couple hours... and all it took to make good out of a pretty boring situation was a couple cans of rockstar. Now I don't normally drink caffeine. I actually never drink pop, and i don't like coffee. So after 40 ounces of energy drinks, laundry is no longer as crappy as it may seem. Sitting down there with my best friends from Augsburg reminded me a lot of "Breakfast Club" but the laundry room version.  We easily entertained ourselves. 

By the time our laundry was finished, the caffeine fully kicked in... Luckily, Andy, who suffered a shoulder injury from flag-football, is on a prescription of vicodin... this makes for some high-fueled dance parties.... or just people laughing at us.

And now i've got another 100 pages of reading to do  :)

good night.

Any Given Sunday

None of us were in a party mood last night.

So we all went for a walk.

One of the best things about Augsburg's location is that it is sooo very close to the University of Minnesota. We're on West Bank (where downtown Minneapolis is) and the U of M is on East Bank (dinkytown) so it's only a short walk across Washington Bridge. Last night we met some of my friends that go to the U and they gave us the grand tour. After chilling in Blake's room for a while (which he said was "clean" because his parents visited him that day...), we got hungry and they suggested Mesa Pizza... so we went. Getting to Messa meant walking through Frat Row, which was an experience in itself, of course....

I've never been through Frat Row before... I've actually never seen it at night, so i was amazed at how many people there were. Some of the houses looked pretty crazy to. If you ever need a party to go too, there will always be one on Frat Row... It must be very hard for all those studious frat kids to ever get any homework done....

And finally we made it to Mesa Pizza. It was awesome... definitely a place for college kids. A huge slice of pizza only costs 2 dollars. And it's soo good. They even have macaroni and cheese pizza... which i heard is delicious (i wish i would have tried that... i got hawaiian instead).

And then we walked back.

And I went to bed.

And woke up at 11:45 AM. If the Vikings weren't on today, I probably would have slept a lot later than that.

Debate Time.

Oh, i love fridays.

3:30 every Friday is probably the best time of my week. At 3:30, it is officially the weekend for me. When my spanish class get's out, I feel free. The best thing is.... i dont have to worry about going home and doing chores, laundry, the dishes, babysitting, and all that jazz.... i can go in my room and take a nap... or watch some tv... or go to the Mall of America.

That is until Sunday night when I remember how much homework I have to do.

I also had a meeting for all Film Majors today... I found it very interesting... It's kind of weird to hear of all the movies that my proffessors and the uperclassmen enjoy. It's interesting to hear why "Transformers was the worst movie I have ever seen" and why the only time my proffessor walked out of a theater was doing the new King Kong movie... I definitely think I'll learn a lot.

And tonight's agenda:

Watch the debate at 8. I'm really looking forward to it. There are a couple spots on campus that are set up for "debate watching parties", and the entire financial crisis makes things even more intersting. I am glad that the debate did not get cancelled. I strongly believe that tonight's debate is an important event that does not need to get pushed back.....Most people here at Augsburg take politics pretty seriously.... It's pretty cool.

And then after that... I don't know what I'm going to do....

Not homework, that's for sure.

Spin

Some certain themes have become pretty apparent after my first few weeks here at Augsburg College. First of all...

Thursday nights are for Spin.

Spin is a night club in downtown Minneapolis. Thursday and Saturday nights are 18 plus, and a lot of people end up going down there together.

I have yet to go... I'm not really the clubin' type (even though I've never gone to one... but I've got a pretty good imagination). I probably will end up going one of these nights... just for the heck of it.

And while a few of my friends went out to dance (i was feeling pretty tired/had homework), I took Katie out to eat at Dinkytown. Luckily i have a loving aunt that lives in Minnetonka and she dropped off some food for me then drove us to Dinkytown. 

We ate at Loring's Pasta Bar. It was delicious. I don't know if it's quite at a college kid's income level (just our two meals cost 30 bucks), but you can only eat taco-bell so often (there's also a jimmy-johns pretty much directly on campus... it's my new favorite place). And after we got done with our meal, we decided to walk home because it was a beautiful night. 

Then we watched a movie (Rocket Science... great indie flick. i def. recommend it) and ate ice-cream (i swear i've bought out the Winner Gas Station of ice-cream already.. i don't know what i'd do without a freezer/fridge combo). And I was just about to go to bed when Claire came home, looking very sad.

She forgot her ID, they wouldn't let her into Spin,  and so she had to come back home. Rough night, huh?

And now Katie and I have to console her until her roommate gets back from the club... hopefully soon so i can get some shut-eye.

Spontaneity

You wanna know the best part of going to Augsburg College?

Yeah, it's a private school and i have small classes.

Yeah, people are surprisingly nice.

Yeah, the school is tiny enough to recognize everyone's face but still be able to meet new people.

Yeah, there are a million other reasons, but my favorite one is....

Spontaneity is entirely possible.

Tonight, at 5:30, my friends and I decided to go to a twins game. It was random. I just felt like going.

Not only are tickets only 4 dollars (if you show your student id) but there are also dollar dome dogs (which taste heavenly when they only cost a dollar). AND, i love the Twins. AND, they are sooo close to winning the division and we played the white sox tonight.

It was sweet. And it was only a 4 minute lightrail ride away. :)

On the downside, all my professors are giving out the most homework i've gotten all semester. I feel like they all got together and said "hey. lets give out some homework right now because we love our students and we want them to get smarter so we'll give them sooo much homework because we know they love it."

but really. it's piling up. and i need to do it right now  :) it will be another late night.

So Here We Are

So i promised that i'd talk a little bit about my movie night...

Requiem for a Dream: one of the most depressing movies i have ever watched. Technically speaking, it was very well made. It had a well defined (formalist) style that was amazingly maintained throughout the entire movie. The best part of the movie was the acting, especially by the older mother. The characters were REAL... that's the best way to describe it... Did I like the way they ended up? well... no, not really... but could it have been done any other way? definitely not. I would recommend not watching this movie at 2:00 in the morning either... it might make you to sad to go to sleep... seriously. This movie is the definition of pain.... the journey for pleasure... (insert other deep themes here). It was good. I would recommend it for the sole reason of finding out exactly how you don't want your life to end up.

Last night I was going to write a blog about my day... unfortunately, my day was way to busy... i had class... i had sooo much homework.. and then we had our pepfest.

The pepfest was ok... nothing too special.

They lit fireworks off in the middle of murphy park, which was awesome.

Tonight they had a campus-wide game of capture the flag. I was sooo pumped for that...

Unfortunately, Tuesday nights are "First Year Experience" meetings.. two members from each res. hall floor are selected to represent the first year class and decide what things need to be changed on campus...so yeah... no capture the flag for me... oh well, I've gotta make sacrifices.

And last night i stayed up till 2:30 reading... so sacrificing sleep seems to be a recurring theme. But my body's used to it by now.

Requiem for a Dream

Yeah.... it's 4:00 in the morning.

D' and I just finished watching Requiem for a dream.

And before that, a whole bunch of people chilled in my room and talked.

And before that we had a dance party on floor 2.

And before that, I did the normal, college, saturday thing and relaxed, homework-free.

It was an eventful day......

A lot of people went home this weekend... I got some people together though and we put on a little dance party. Alex supplied the AWESOME speaker system, Lewis was the DJ, Katie and Hannah were in charge of decorations, and Brad let us use his strobe light. It was pretty sweet. There weren't that many people here at Augsburg this weekend (I guess the three week mark is when everyone goes home to visit), but we still had a lot of fun...

And afterwards, a lot of people went to the U for parties and all that jazz... I decided that i was tired (even though I'm still not sleeping), and that i would stay home tonight... despite my decision, people still ended up coming in my room and talking....

Eventually, it was just D' and I. It was pretty in depth... you know, God, life, and politics... all that jazz... and then at 1 in the morning we decided to watch Requiem for a Dream. Being a film major, I am ashamed to see that I have never seen this movie before... but D has... and he said he hated it, even though he said he considered it as one of the top 5 movies he's seen... so he made me watch it.

And i've never seen anything so depressing.

In fact, I don't even want to talk about it right now. I'm going to bed, and hopefully, I'll wake up to sunshine :)

Oh, and you'll get my critique soon.

Testing, 1, 2, 3

Today started out EXCELLENT....

I took the first college quiz of my career on Monday for Scholar  Citizen, my honors class. It wasn't too hard, but I still had some first-college-quiz-ever-jitters. 

So today I got the quiz back and... i got 95 percent :) So yeah, i was pretty darn happy. 

BUT THEN, i had a spanish test today.... and it was probably the worst I've ever done on a test, EVER. It was a total buzzkill. I'm not looking forward to getting that test back and seeing how terrible I did.

But I'm over it.

Now I know that I need to study more... or i might get a tutor for spanish, considering they're free. 

And another story: after my scholar citizen class (which ended at 10:00) i went back to my room to take a nap. I set my alarm for 10:52 so i could make it to my cinema class by 11:00. Unfortunately, I set my alarm for 10:52 PM.... so i took a nap a little bit longer than i was planning on and showed up for class 20 minutes late.

And tonight's agenda: homework, homework, homework... mail a few letters, reorganize my room, other boring stuff, etc....

SONG OF THE WEEK: "Butterfly" by Mason Jennings. CHECK IT OUT. Mason Jennings is good.... It will make you happy. Listen and repeat.  :)

Down to Business

I've been busy lately... what's new, right?

On Sunday night I had a banquet for honors kids... it was our first meeting together as a group and we basically just established how some aspects of the program work. The program is split into four houses (not literal houses) that serve as a way to organize different parts of the program. I am in the Pike House, a group that focuses on Alumni relations and that kinda thing. So after the big group meeting, we split into our houses to elect House Presidents....

And I was elected.. somehow.

It made me really excited, and I am totally looking forward to getting involved... while I'm not quite aware  of all my responsibilities, I know that the Honors program at Augsburg is one of the things that the college is most proud of and I am happy to be a part of it... not only that, but they told me that this was the first time a freshman has been selected as a president of the pike house... :)

And then tonight, I had both a Barack Obama meeting at 7:30 where we planned a few things on campus, and then I had to go to a "First Year Experience" meeting at 9. The first year experience committee is made up of two representatives from each floor of the dorms on campus and serves as a way for students to voice their opinions on what they would like changed at Augsburg.. the committee was responsible for some renovations to dorms and also played a small role in changing the food provider at Augsburg this year. 

Tonight we voted for executive board positions, but I knew right away that I didn't want to spread myself too thin and become more exhausted... in fact, i spent most of my day sleeping because i only have one class on tuesdays... 

oh, and i still have my main goal of becoming one of the four student council members on campus...

oh, and i'm planning a floor 2 dance party this saturday....

everyone's invited  :)

From Cafe Street Corners

Last night was random... After spending 20 minutes relaxing in the middle of Murphy Square (which sometimes somewhat feels like laying in my backyard back home), D came up to Andy, Claire, Katie, and I and told us he just booked a show at the Acadia Cafe on Ceder-Riverside... he wanted us to go check it out with him, and because we had nothing to do of course we walked there at 11:00 at night....

And I am so glad I did.

It was a really chill place... a bar and food and drinks and all that jazz... and a show was going on when we got there. It was a woman (with an EXCELLENT voice) accompanied by a man on bass guitar and sometimes cello. They were really really good. Not only was the music good, but i started to partake in everyone's favorite hobby: people watching.

There was such a wide variety of people in the cafe, and they were all laughing, telling stories, and of course enjoying the music... One man (i think he was of Somalian descent) actually came up to us and said something along the lines of, "You know that today is 9/11 right? And you know what's so good about this country? Years after such a tragedy, we can all still sit together here, and listen to this music. Music brings people together. It's beautiful.... so please listen, because on the inside, she is crying as she sings... pouring her heart out...and it's beautiful"

And as I listened, i stared out the window of that little cafe and watched all the people passing by.... a wide variety of people... and it was truly beautiful.

It was a near-perfect night.

New American Classic

Today I started a list.... The Adam list... a list of movies, music, books, all the stuff that i need to see/listen to/read... Here's a little taste:

MOVIES I WANT TO SEE
burn after reading
Kabluey
the last mistress
boy a
kicking it
overnight
savage grace
mister foe
reprise
my own private idaho (old)
casablanca
the godfather pt 2
murderball
bigger, stronger, faster
raging bull
startup.com

Books
'This history of love' by nicole krauss
"Rant" by Chuck Palahniuk

music
kate nash
mason jennings
elliot smith - memory lane
a rocket to the moon
brighten

google/watch/read any of that stuff... then thank me later. :)

I also started making a list of concerts that I want to see (Girl Talk, The Academy Is..., JACK'S MANNEQUIN!), but then i realized that i have spent a lot of my money on books and school junk... I definitely went out to eat a few too many times the first week or two of college. I have already decided to cut back on that (but i still have a "free sub" card for Jimmy Johns, my new all time favorite place).

But as far as good news goes, I'm all caught up on homework. which is good.

and I had a meeting for the "Students for Obama" organization (although we're not quite official) tonight, and things went well... On tuesday I clipboarded (which consists of me walking around the christianson lobby asking people if they support obama and then taking their contact info) for about an hour and got about 25 new supporters, which is pretty good. thursday we're planning on doing a door-knocking thing all over campus, which should be fun.

and now, I'm going to go watch a movie... probably Kill Bill Vol. 2.

"With a little help from my friends"

I just decided that I am going to run for student senate....

It really wasn't that much of a "spur-of-the-moment" kinda thing... I of course had thought about it before I even knew which college I was attending... The only reason I was pretty hesitant was because I didn't know how busy I wanted to be during college... But after a summer of relaxing, I know that I want to get involved again.

So tonight I told my roommate Nate that I was running for a spot on student senate... 10 minutes later he had already created a facebook group for me... it was pretty exciting. I've already appointed him as my campaign manager. He knows A LOT of people on campus and I'm lucky to have him helping me out.

I've still got to go down to the Student Senate office tomorrow; i'm hoping to talk to the current student body president and find out exactly what I'm getting in to... Either way, I'm about 99% positive i'm going to go through with it...

And by the way... in case you haven't noticed... i'm sleep deprived...

And it's totally my fault.

I think (know) that i need to settle down a little bit. Knowing that, I denied a movie night tonight to go up to my room, finish a reading, type this, then go to bed.

I've only gone out Fridays/Saturdays, but almost every other night has been spent chilling in someone's room or watching a movie... And of course I've been getting my homework done... And i've had a lot of homework... and a lot of reading...

But it leaves so little time for sleep.

I've got a routine now that I'm all settled in, and Augsburg is really starting to feel like home. I've gotten to know sooo many people in the last week and I'm surprised how friendly everyone is.. it definitely makes the transition a lot easier.

BUT, it's not bed time :)

It's not so bad, It's not so bad

Things are going great.

So today (Saturday) marks the first official weekend of my college career. I started things out right by not getting up until 3 minutes ago (11:30). It is pretty sweet.

I had my other classes on Thursday: my Augsem, Honors Search for Meaning and Vocation (something like that), and then a film lab. (All my other classes are on Monday, Wednesday, Friday). So thursday was a good day of classes too. For the Vocation class, we have to read A LOT of books, which makes me pretty excited. One of the books is titled "The Year of Living Biblically", and it tells the story of a man who lives a year trying to follow the bible as literally as possible.... I pretty much want to start reading it right now....

For my Augsem (Augsburg Seminar), our teacher just went over a couple of the things we'll be doing in the Minneapolis area, and then he explained how the Minneapolis street system works, which was helpful. We got down a little bit early so I went with a couple of friends to see Howard Dean speak on campus (Chairman of the Democratic National Committee). Now... I like Howard Dean a lot... he's a funny guy, but mostly because of his early disapproval of the War in Iraq. (Oh, and Keith Ellison was there, and he is bomb). However, I am getting slightly sick of all the finger-pointing going on between both parties... sure, it is a (somewhat) cleaner election than past years, but both parties have been saying "All they do (point finger here) is bash us... They don't know what they're doing and they don't talk policy..."

Well I'm still waiting to hear policy.... and that's my rant for the day.

ANYWAY. After listening to Howard Dean, I had to run on over to my film lab. Every thursday for Intro to Cinema we watch a movie and then discuss it. This week's pick was Alfred Hitchcock's "The Rear Window", and excellent choice considering our week's topic was the Voyeur and why people are captivated at watching others (especially through film). I was pretty impressed with myself and all the notes I took.   :)

SOOO, the agenda for today: I don't know yet. Possibly organize my room a bit... maybe go to the Mall of America/ Ikea... The possibilities are endless.

"Back to school"

I think last night was the first night since I've got to Augsburg that I went to bed before midnight... It was so nice to get all that much needed sleep....

I had my first ever college class at 9:10 this morning. I really had no idea what to expect. Half of me was thinking that I might be sitting through a long, excruciating lecture, and the other half had no idea.

My first class was 'The Scholar Citizen', a somewhat general honors class that prepares students for other honors courses and the liberal arts (at least that's what i think it is). My prof (who seems very cool) talked about his life (which seems very interesting) and the course (which might be one of my favorites) for the first few minutes of class... after that, he made us all sit in a circle around the room, introduce ourselves and then tell others in the group about our life...

And that was it.

There was a lot of good discussion, but the thing i found most interesting was the assortment of people that were in that class. So many of the students had lived such interesting lives, far different from my own, and I know that I have something to learn from every single person in that classroom.

And then I had my english class "Intro to Cinema Arts". I have been SOOOO extremely excited for this class.....

Until, a couple minutes after my teacher gave roll call, I realized I was in the completely wrong classroom..... My class had been moved to a different building.

"Welcome to (insert name of hard sounding math class here)" were the first words I heard... and then I got up and left the classroom, somewhat embarrassed. The prof was cool about it though, and pointed me in the right direction...

And then I got to my cinema class 10 minutes late, and luckily my prof understood. This class was also full of mostly discussion.. I found it very intriguing, and I can't wait for my film lab tomorrow afternoon.

And lastly, I had Spanish class, the class I was most worried about... My spanish was a little rusty, but it was harder for me to stay awake than it was for me to remember some of the spanish that I had learned. It was the prof's fault at all, but by 3 o'clock i was extremely exhausted...

And then we watched "Matchstick Men" in my room, went to eat at Davanni's, and then watched Borat tonight... everyone was pretty tired and wanted to just chill...

And now I'm going to bed.

Augsem Q

Recent Events:

So i promised this story a couple nights ago... It was the second night on campus and a couple of us were looking for something to do. We decided to take the bus down to Dinkytown. First of all, we waited 25 minutes for the bus to arrive... the last one left basically 2 minutes before we got there.... And then finally, we got on the bus and went down to Dinkytown. Right when we got there, I looked at the bus schedule and noticed that the last bus going back to Augsburg was leaving Dinkytown in about 25 minutes... meaning we had only 20 minutes to spend down there... which sucked... because we wasted so much time... and i was exhausted.. and i was sad.... and i learned my lesson, which is good.

BUT, things got better...

Today was definitely the best day so far:

We had an opening ceremony where all the teachers and faculty welcomed us to Augsburg. First of all, the woman singing was amazing. And the speeches were pretty good too.

And then we got together with our Augsem, a group of students (my group is made up of all honors students) and all Augsem groups went to a different location in the city to do community service projects.

My group went to a church in South Minneapolis, The Holy Rosary (Santa Rosario). The church is attended by MANY minority groups, immigrants, and refugees. One of the main goals of the church is to act as a bridge for these people to the community and to help them live a better life here in the cities. Specifically, one of the things that the church does is serve meals to many of the locals in the church basement. Because the state and federal government have very strict regulations regarding sanitation at these kind of events, it was the job of my Augsem to thoroughly clean the chairs and tables.

I never knew chairs could get so dirty, but i don't think any of us minded at all. Between all the introductions and talking, it went by pretty fast. Afterwards we were taken upstairs where one of the Sisters talked to us about the mission of the church. We watched a couple videos and it was very interesting..... Then something very cool happened.

Our group got into a discussion involving immigration....Just as we were about to wrap things up, a girl in my Augsem, who happens to be of Mexican decent, raised her hand and began to talk about all the things that she has had to overcome in her lifetime. She spoke directly from her heart.... Her testemonial was one of the MOST honest, sincere things I have ever heard anyone say.

It was the best experience I've had so far at Augsburg.

It wasn't just some documentary, or some news clip on TV. It was such a personal experience, not something I could have learned in a textbook....

And the weird thing is, I didn't even start my actual classes yet....

I need a power nap

So today was another event-filled day. I woke up and did my run in the weight room... It was so very tempting to just sleep for another hour but you know what they say about the freshman fifteen.....

After my run, I randomly ran into Joe (a kid from my neighborhood group) and we decided to go get breakfast. Unfortunately, it was 10 o clock and thus breakfast time was over... which was sad because i was starving. Joe and i then decided to take an adventure over to the gas station and buy some milk because my mom loves me and packed me an excellent assortment of cereals. Joe and I then proceeded to watch some funny show on comedy central and chilled in my extremely hot room.

After TV time, we went down to eat lunch, which was surprisingly good. I've heard horror stories about the food here at Augsburg, but luckily they just got a new dining service provider. Today the chicken sandwhiches were excellent.

And then we proceeded onto an educational talk about drugs, sex, and sleep. I was dreading this, but it turned out to be a good presentation. It was funny how straightforward the speaker was, and she did a really good job.

Next, we had free time, which has been hard to come by the last couple days. A couple guys and I came up to my room and we watched (slept) the Harold and Kumar White Castle movie (mostly because Cal Pen is coming to Augsburg for a political action type thing and we were excited).

After waking up, I ate lunch, then we all went to a play by the Pilsbury Theater group (i think i got that right). It involved a lot of topics like racism, sexism, drinking, etc... Your typical college stuff, but it was done in a unique play presentation. It was good. It was funny. It was entertaining.

And best of all, I was impressed by the discussion afterwards. When the play was done, one of the women facilitated a discussion between the entire class of 2012, which, initially, i thought would be a bust. I was wrong. People (a lot of people) had really good opinions and input. It was intellectual. I liked it.

And now i'm going to ignore my body's want for sleep and find something to do tonight.

So move-in went excellently well. 

It was kinda hot, which sucked, but everything went according to plan. My dorm room layout worked out even better than i expected. 

After I got everything out of our vehicle and into my room, we (almost) instantly had to go to our neighborhood groups. It was slightly awkward for everyone. There were a lot of new faces and I've never had to force myself to try and be so social. I was exhausted and wanted to nap.

And then we went to the chapel and were entertained by all the extremely excited Orientation Leaders. We had a motivational speaker also, which was alright. Finally, after all the festivities were over, it was time to go meet people once again.

And then..... we tried to find something to do that night for fun... and it was both a terrible and useful experience, and I will tell you about it later because I am late for dinner and my tummy is grumbling.  :)

"The Bare Neccessaties" (Sing It)

So I woke up at 7:30 this morning to finish packing.

I think that I am bringing WAY too much stuff.

And I think today will be a looooongggg day.

BUT, I'm excited.

After spending days putting all my belongings into little boxes, in about an hour I'll be leaving my house to go to Augsburg. I want to get this moving in business to get done as soon as possible so i can sit back and relax in my dorm room, but i doubt there will be any relaxing tonight.

Last night I went to the high school football game, and a lot of my friends were home for Labor Day Weekend. Not only did we beat Yellow Medicine East 55-0 (and I realized how much i really really really miss football), but i had a lot of fun sitting and talking with my friends about their college experiences so far. It was also a little bit weird that I had to say goodbye to them. I won't be seeing a lot of them for a few months....

Anyway, I think I've got everything I need. My mom's been going crazy the last couple days: "Oh, you need this, and this, and this..." But really, there are only a few things that I NEED to bring:

my movie collection
my guitar
balderdash (best game ever)
my computer
my camcorder

...and that's about it...