Ana's Playground

So some of you may remember that film internship I had last spring for a movie called Ana's Playground.

It was a great experience and I am very happy that I was involved.

Well now the time has finally come... The movie is being shown Tuesday night, October 27th, 7pm at the Mall of America Theater. This showing is for cast and crew only. I have already RSVPd and I will let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, take a gander at the official trailer of the movie, Ana's Playground:

Lights! Camera! ... and more lights...

I am currently enrolled in Film Production 1, which marks the first time I have ever worked with film cameras...

It's nerve-racking.

Our Professor has said that we should probably film our first project outside... because it probably won't turn out anyway.

That's right... Film is hard. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of patience.

So me being me, I have decided to challenge myself. Yup, I am going to film my first ever film project in my dorm room...

I checked out a (brand new) light kit from the film department, experimented a couple days, and now I'm feeling (a little bit more) confident. Shooting will happen sometime within the next week, I will keep you up to date.

The reason I won't be working on it this weekend is because:

1) It's Homecoming weekend. Stuff is happening.

and

2) The Augsburg 48 Hour Film fest is also this weekend... So I will be busy with that (we will be using digital video cameras though... to make life easier/cheaper)


Peace and love,
Adam

Eid ul-Fitr

Today is Eid ul-Fitr, a major Islamic holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan. I have numerous friends at Augsburg of Islamic faith, sooo I attended the party in Sana's room tonight to celebrate.

There was a lot of food from Pakistan... and I liked most of it.. (I love to try new things) But I noticed a reoccurring trend: almost everything I ate had the exact opposite taste of what I was expecting.

In fact, the first thing I did was pour myself a large glass of Fruit Punch kool-aid and chugged it down.. But.. it wasn't Kool-Aid.. It was rose water (I think).. which is definitely a sweet drink, but it wasn't exactly as sweet as kool-aid.

There was also a dish that looked oddly like refried beans... but had a very spicy beef flavor to it..

And something that looked like apple sauce but tasted more like... well, it kinda tasted like apple sauce i guess.

And there was some type of sweet pudding that I took a big gulp of... little did i know, it wasn't sweet. It was spicy.

BUT, I had a great time... And Bi, my friend from Vietnam, gave me a henna tattoo of a pig.

An overall good night.

And now I'm going to watch Bed and Board, an old french film from Francois Truffaut, my favorite director :)

Oh joy, oh joy

So. I am all moved in. I am back at Augsburg.

And I am busy as usual... so I will keep things short.

I have already finished off my Grandma Kern's cookies and my Grandma Spanier's Chili.

I attended the 9pm mass last Wednesday night and it was great.

My classes are awesome (more on this later).


I am running out of food... Went grocery shopping today and bought: milk, roasted red pepper hummus, two packages of pita bread, a long loaf of french bread... and that's it.

My new love is soccer. I have never played a competitive game of soccer until about 2 weeks ago with my fellow CA (community advisors... during our training week), and I love it.

My new love (soccer) has caused me much pain... I'm starting to get an ingrown toenail and it hurts and I don't know what to do.


Frederick Douglass has easily become one of my heroes. He has one of the most impressive lives I have ever read about.





I have already worn my Brett Favre Vikings jersey twice.

My room is not fully decorated yet, but the Bavarian flag is hanging above my futon.



And I found this thing called the Rasterbator... It basically turns images into tiny dots so you can print them out into poster size images... and that was a terrible explanation, so go look at it for yourself: http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

This is the first image that I made from Rasterbator and it hangs in my bedroom (Jean-Luc Goddard, french filmmaker):



My new favorite sound is laughter.

All is well. I am healthy and dreaming.

God bless.

Lake Wobegon Woes

Garrison Keillor once said, “Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.” On July 4th, 2009, people from all over the country attempted to escape vanity, greed, and the current economic crisis by traveling to Avon, MN, for Keillor’s 35th anniversary broadcast of the Prairie Home Companion, and perhaps to experience the friendly an small town life that Keillor’s broadcast often depicts. On that day, in an effort to embody the “campfires of gentle people,” I, Adam Spanier, along with my friend Cole Schiffler, decided to welcome these people with a cold glass of lemonade and a friendly hello. Unfortunately, as I learned on that beautiful day, a few of Avon’s organizers do not embrace the generosity we intended to share with our visitors, and within a couple hours, Cole and I were banned from handing out free lemonade on the public property where Keillor’s show was broadcasted.

First of all, in order to explain my motives more clearly, I will let you know a little about myself. I am a former Albany High School grad, National Honor Society President, President of Minnesota’s State student council organization, two-time Central Division Student Council executive board member, and a founder of the St. Benedicts Youth Group. I donate my time as an Avon Little League Umpire on Tuesday nights, and just last year Albany Superintendent Dr. Thielman recognized me as a “Hometown Hero”. I see myself as an ambassador to the area and decided to give back to my community by handing out free lemonade during the Garrison Keillor broadcast. After all, what would make a better impression on the thousands of visitors than a free, cold glass of lemonade and a cheerful, “How are you doing today?” Unfortunately, a few people were dissatisfied with our acts of kindness, eventually using intimidation and threats to remove us from the premise, thus preventing Cole and I from giving you, our neighbor and friend, a cold glass of lemonade.

I will now raise an important question: what is wrong with handing out free lemonade to children and the elderly in an effort to make people happy? Apparently, a few people had a problem with this. After helping an older man carry some boxes from his car, helping him set up his “Dahlin’s Supermarket” stand, and then helping the Avon Women of Today set up their popcorn machine, Cole and I proceeded to hand out our fresh lemonade. We were having a great time keeping people happy and even posing for a few pictures with Garrison Keillor’s self-proclaimed “biggest fan” (an elderly woman from Avon, Connecticut), and posing for pictures with members of the Prairie Home Companion. However, it didn’t take long for a woman named Shelly Pierson to approach Cole and I, telling us that we must leave the premise and hand out our lemonade somewhere else. We thought she was joking and offered her a glass of lemonade, but to our surprise, she was working under the command of Cindy McGaughey, one of the women in charge of booking vendors for the event.

In an effort to scare us off of the property, Cindy and Shelly used multiple arguments—all of which contained logical fallacies—to support their case. In return, I provided reasonable rebutles to their concerns, of which I will now reiterate. First of all, they told us that we were physically blocking other vendors, to which we courteously responded by moving to a spot next to the bathrooms. They then said it was unfair to other vendors that we were on the grass, despite the fact that a couple other vendors were also on the grass. Both of the aforementioned arguments were also illogical due to one main reason: Cole and I are not considered “Vendors.” We are just a couple of teenagers handing out lemonade, we’re not selling a product or a service, therefore, we are not vendors and do not need a permit to hand out free lemonade. They then told us that we do not have permission to be on Lake Wobegon Trail, which is another false argument, considering that we had received permission from the Avon Police Officers to be on location, and the police officers assured us that we were doing nothing wrong. Cole and I were initially asking for donations to compensate for the costs of lemonade, cups, and the wood used to build the stand, but after Cindy and Shelly expressed dissatisfaction with our free lemonade, we told them that we would give all donations to the Avon Women of Today; unfortunately, they were already determined to kick us out.

Knowing our rights, we refused to leave the premise and continued to hand out free lemonade. We attempted to state our rights to Cindy McGaughey and Shelly Pierson, but they were intent on removing us from the location, instead calling upon Ray Schmitt, head of Avon City Maintenance as backup. After they stated that it was unfair to the vendors that we were handing out free lemonade, we acknowledged that our generosity encouraged competition among the vendors and we were doing nothing wrong (We later noted the irony that capitalism and Adam Smith’s finest economic principals were being condemned on the Fourth of July… But don’t worry; we doubt that these anti-capitalistic ideals are present in all City of Avon employees). In a last-ditch effort, we asked Ray exactly what we were doing wrong, to which he responded, “Nothing.” Then, with a pointed finger and an intimidating tone, Ray told us something along the lines of, “You have 15 minutes to get your lemonade out of here or I will come back and get it out for you.” Alas, we packed up our lemonade in dissatisfaction and left the premise.

As a born and raised member of the Avon Community who now attends college in Minneapolis, I relish the moments when I come back to this small-town atmosphere and the abundance of kindness present in the air. Unfortunately, as demonstrated on July 4, a few people no longer appreciate these very things that make Avon so great. Plain and simple, we got kicked out of the Lake Wobegon Trail Park for handing out free lemonade. On a day intended to celebrate our freedom, our community, and our small-town kindness, a few people diminished it to a day of powertrips and profits. As a result of our generosity and kindness, a few people unjustly, and unlawfully kicked us out of a public park for handing out free lemonade. They used intimidation, threats, and their so called “authority” to prevent us from handing out free lemonade. They did not have the right to threaten and kick a couple teenagers off of public property for doing absolutely nothing wrong, and frankly, I am ashamed and disgusted by their power-hungry actions.

In conclusion, this is a message to my community in hard times and economic troubles: please do not lose the very things that make this community so great, as a few others have done over the weekend; please, learn from their mistakes. Continue to be kind, generous, and “above average”. Do not sacrifice those characteristics for greed, selfishness, and power. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade… and then give some to your neighbor.

-Adam Spanier

Schools out, for the summer.

Yesterday was my last day of school...

And it was a very hectic, out-of-control day.

My last final was on Tuesday... So Wednesday, my last day at Augsburg, I had a lot to do before I left.

And if you don't mind, I will now vent about all the things I had to do.

I had an Ignite meeting with an Augsburg Alum at 11, and it went great. She was a studio arts major from Augsburg, so we had a lot in common; it all makes me a little less nervous about the real world when I hear success stories from other Art people... I don't mind being a starving artist, I just don't want to be starving. I'm sure you know how that works.

So after the meeting (one of the few good things about my day), I proceeded to my room around 12:30/1. The plan: write my final two papers from 1pm to 3 pm and then be absolutely done with all homework.

Unfortunately, I got a call at 1:15 because my Lib Letters professor (Bob) needed me to work at the Honors Desk because a lot of people had tests to take before they went home. So much for getting my papers done... I worked at the honors desk from 1:30 to 4:30. I then had a couple minutes to go to my Ignite Job and my blogging job to fill out my time sheets, and then proceed to the science building to get some DVDs to my professor.

Oh and did I mention that I didn't finish packing yet? At 5, I had roughly an hour to pick (which I had PLANNED on doing after i finished my papers at 4) and then my dad showed up and we had to load everything into the truck.

Oh, and then I couldn't find my RA to check out of the building... We didn't get to leave until 7:45.

I got home at 9pm and then ate for the first time that day... It was rough. Oh, and I didn't get to say goodbye to most of my friends, or my girlfriend.

What a fitting way to end the year: being consumed by responsibilities and not being able to do anything else... for some reason that sounds familiar...

AAHHHHH!

TWO MORE DAYS OF CLASSES!!!

AAHHHHH!

I can't take it any more. Stress to the max.

I guess the best way to describe it: You know those cheesy action movies where a bomb is about to go off and the main guy (or girl, to be politically correct) has to cut the red or the blue wire otherwise the bomb will go off and everyone will die?!?!?!?!!!!!!

Yup, that's what i feel like.

And I'm choosin the fricken blue wire. Wish me luck.

Bon Iver was excellently amazingly beyond words.

Also, second Student Government meeting of the new administration tonight... Also the last one of the school year. All is well. We be regulating.

Peace on earth.

Road Trip

So I'm going to Wisconsin today with my three favorite people.

Yup, all the way to Eau Claire.

We're going to see Bon Iver perform his old high school. 10 dollar tickets. Beat that.

We made a cd for the road trip there... Complete with:

Mmm'bop by Hanson
Dirty Pop by Nsync
Some Tom Petty
MGMT
Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind
The Beatles
Bob Marley
Earth, Wind, and Fire
The Police
The Shins
The Killers

Etc...

And so I will leave you with a little bit of Bon Iver magic...




Skinny Love, by Bon Iver

Great Song

What is going on?

Everything is happening at once.

And everything is moving in super-sonic speeds.

And I can't handle it.

So I'm going to slow things down and go to sleep at 9:30 tonight. That's right. 9:30.

And then I'm going to wake up tomorrow at 9 am and do work until my 11:50 class.

I'm going into super-recharge mode tonight.

And, oh, have I got news for you. :)

Easter Break

Katie, my roommate, and I are the only people on campus tonight...

Basically.

Today was the last day of class before Easter Break... So everyone (almost everyone) went home pretty much immediately.

Soo.. therefore, I have no idea what I'm doing tonight.

We might have a pretty nice night, "we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."

(Old School quote :) )

I can't wait until Lindsay comes to pick me up tomorrow afternoon.. I am going home and doing nothing but relaxing. It will be great.

NetFlix

I just signed up for the free NetFlix trial... completely random.

My first 6 movies that I ordered:



Nanook of the North (1922), Robert Flaherty (The first widely successful documentary EVER)






The Flowers of St. Francis (1950), Roberto Rossellini






Umberto D (1952), Vittoria De Sica (If you have not seen The Bicycle Thief, you MUST go rent it now... De Sica is an amazing film maker)





Mamma Roma (1962), Pier Paolo Pasolini






Seven Samurai (1954), Akira Kurosawa







Raging Bull (1980), Martin Scorsese

Master Clas with Director Ramin Bahrani

I'm either busing/biking to the Walker in a couple hours...

That's right. I'm skipping class.

I'll let you know what's up.

I am an Idiot

Tonight Jasmine says to me as Aaron, Katie, Radford and I are walking to Chipotle, "I have to go to some film thing tonight for my Farsi class... It is at the Walker"

I say, "Oh... yeah. I got invited to that because I'm a film major.. I don't think I'm going to watch the movie tonight though... I have to study for one of the most important tests I've had this year (Microeconomics...). I am leaving class early to go to the Walker tomorrow though... the same director is giving a class and Augsburg Film majors get to attend at a discounted price of 7 bucks..."

So Jasmine and Claire go tonight.

I stay at Augsburg and study for Micro.

I AM SOOOO FRICKIN STUPID!

While sitting here looking at X's and Y's, I think, "Maybe I should look up what time that whole film thing is tomorrow..."

So I check my e-mail, and guess who the director is: RAMIN BAHRANI


(He's in the center of that picture http://images.nymag.com/anniversary/40th/twothousandfortyeight081006_250.jpg)

He is basically the up and coming film maker and he is at the Walker tonight showing his films.... The more I sit here and look up stuff about him, the more pissed off I get at myself...

From Cinemawithoutborders.com (http://www.cinemawithoutborders.com/news/127/ARTICLE/1383/2007-11-03.html) :
"I see every film as its own entity. It begins and ends with itself. we must accept that i am making films about how the majority of people in this world live, and we must also accept that this majority is utterly ignored by Hollywood and independent film (or belittled and exploited by using famous rich actors to play the roles of the economically poor in order for said actors to try and win awards)."

I could not agree with him more!

From NYmag.com:
Ramin Bahrani, Filmmaker, 33
Columbia grad Bahrani has already defined himself on the international film scene with three landmark pieces of street cinema. Man Push Cart mythologizes the day-to-day life of a midtown Pakistani street-cart vendor. Chop Shop captures the hardscrabble survival of two Latino street kids in Queens. His latest, Goodbye Solo, follows a Senegalese cabdriver through North Carolina—and just won the critics’ prize at Venice. Bahrani’s startlingly assured films—often featuring amateur actors—are the next chapter in the urban ethnic story told in turns by Lumet, Cassavetes, Scorsese, Allen, and Lee. This Iranian-American New Yorker is poised to redefine polyglot New York cinema.

I am going to walk to the Walker tonight and see his last film if I have to go by myself. Microeconomics can wait.

Liberating Letters Trial

I'm sitting in my Liberating Letters class as I type....

I am on the Defense defending the Devil... The charge:

"In this honorable court of letters, the Hesser House Firm charges the rebellious falling angel Lucifer (i.e. Satan, the Devil, etc.) for taking and corrupting the soul of Dorian Gray"

Which I personally think is ridiculous... I will explain later.

Phillip Kaup, one of the people kind of in charge of the Honors program, is playing Dorian Gray... And he keeps making references to his beauty, whoring himself around, etc...

It is quite funny. Even yesterday he was making sexual advances to some people in the class while two women stood next to him and fed him grapes at the witness stand.

I'll let you know what happens.

Stupid Lab Report!

Today I think that I somewhat offended someone when I called lab reports "busy work".

I hadn't really put much thought into it until I talked about it with this person, but for Science Majors, these lab reports are their "work". That's what they do... Unlike all those papers about "Symbolism in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray" and all those other essays that I consider "fun". (I am kind of kidding when it comes to the "fun" thing, but I would rather write that kind of paper than fill out a lab report). But the truth is...

I hate lab reports....

Especially the long, stupid, formal ones.

I've been busy all day and I have been working on this stuff for quite a while:

In this lab report, multiple lab experiments were conducted in order to: (1) become more familiar with Newton’s Laws of Motion, and (2) explore the properties of thermal energy as heat interacts with different substances.

Newton’s laws of motion transformed science into something completely different using his three laws of motion (laws of inertia, action and reaction, and acceleration proportional to force)..... blah blah blah.

(Isaac Newton, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GodfreyKneller-IsaacNewton-1689.jpg)

And ya know.... sometimes you just have to pick your battles...

This is one battle that I am just going to rush through. I don't care.

I still have a group meeting at 8:15 tonight for another project... Oh, no...

To Do List, Part 2

I forgot... I also have a 5 page (I'm guessing it will be about 5 pages) Lab Report due tomorrow....

Damn...

To Do List

Since I decided not to accomplish anything this weekend...

here is my to do list for today:

Take a Liberating Letters quiz on the Gallileo book (and study for this quiz)
Fill out a resume thing for an award that I was nominated for.
Get pictures of the three groups of people running for Stu. Gov. Pres and V.P
Send those pictures to Marketing and Communications
Figure out my classes
Contact my teacher from high school to get a syllabus
Bring that syllabus to the english department in order to get credit for the course
Go to HR and notify them of my two new jobs.
Talk to Phil about my new job and set up a schedule.
Call Alumni for my Ignite job.
Make a Facebook Group, "Adam Spanier for Student Government 09-10"
Clean my room... it got kinda messy after this weekend
Go to an Honors House meeting tonight.
Meet with my Lib. Letters group about the Trial that starts tomorrow.

And I have to shower.....

And avoid the temptation of playing Killzone 2 all day:

(Image from http://www.marnscda.com/downloads/NerdsGM/wallpaper_killzone_06_1024.jpg)

Spring Cleaning

So I borrowed a vacuum from Devyn today... a crappy little vacuum

And I went all out cleaning... moved my bed, dusted, did windows, arranged my clothes... It's just something I do when I'm really bored...

And then FINALLY, I was done cleaning and reached down to shut the vacuum off... BUT i pressed the wrong button... and...

The bottom of the vacuum fell off and dust fell ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was disgusting.

Grr.....

I also went to the Mall of America today... Bought Killzone 2.. one of the first videogames I have bought in a long time. My brother and I are splitting the price though, which is nice considering how expensive video games are now a'days.. I'll let you know how it is.

Freedom

So I figured out why I didn't fall asleep unitl 2 in the morning last night..... It's because I didn't wake up until 11 in the morning yesterday... (And Nathaniel's snoring didn't help)

Bad Decision.

So yesterday was pretty busy:

Class
I had class from 11:50 to 3. Nothing too exciting... actually, I take that back. In Liberating Letters we had Professor Dallas Liddle come give a guest lecture. He is an expert on the Victorian Era (mostly literature stuff) and he talked to our class about Dorian Gray and aestheticism. Probably one of the most interesting lectures ever...

He showed us this painting:
Turner (http://www.paintinghere.com/painting/The_fighting_Temeraire_tugged_to_her_last_berth_to_be_broken_up_4177.html)

The general consensus with our class: Pretty painting, but not a masterpeice.

Professor Liddle then proceeded to explain the meaning of the painting... (There is no way I can do this story justice... I am sorry)

During the Battle of Trafalgar, the British ships were vastly outnumbered by the numerous battle ships of the French. If the French could just draw the British ships away, Napolean Bonoparte would be able to send forces to Great Britain and take control... so yes, this was a VERY important battle.

Basically, one of Britains most powerful ships was being attacked by three different French ships... the British were getting their butt kicked. But just as the French were about to board the British ship and take over, a little British boat, the Saucy Temeraire, floated inbetween two of the French ships by surprise and, basically, saved the entire British fleet...

That tiny little boat is the subject of Turner's painting:

The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up

Our class then decided that yes, this story makes the painting a little more powerful. Looking at it again,from a different perspective, some people decided that they view the painting in a completely different way and that it could be considered a masterpeice. This theory, that the more ideas a painting symbolizes (morality found in art), the better the actual peice of art will be. Art is more than just lines and colors and beauty... it holds moral importance.

Agree with it or not, I find it a very interesting theory. I wish I could do the lecture some justice...

P.S. That painting up there... the one that our class initially thought was "just pretty"... yeah, in 2005 it was voted to be the greatest painting in the any British art gallery.... How's that for "just pretty"?

Recap

Wednesday
Wednesday was busy... i had class, did homework etc.... and then...

Basketball
I had this very random itch to play some basketball... I never played ball in high school, and I am definitely not good, but I decided to get some guys together to play (of course I picked people who were also bad at basketball... so I wouldn't embarrass myself too bad). We played 4 on 4 for a while... and then 3-3.. and then some other random people that I have never met played with us for a full court 5 on 5 game. I was sooo sore the next day, I felt pathetic. And then that night...

Hard Times Cafe
To celebrate the end of the Student Government term, we all got to go to the Hard Times Cafe and eat... for FREE. I had never been there before, but it was awesome.. The atmosphere of the place was amazing...
(Outside of Hard Times... Picture from: http://www.readthebridge.info/2448)


(Inside Hard Times.... picture from http://www.flickr.com/photos/lithium_glitter/3278097304/)

For those of you who don't know... Hard Times serves only vegetarian food (they do serve egg omelets however... Vegan options are available).

So instead of going for something regular, like a burrito.. I tried something completely new...

Seitan Fajitas: Seitan is made from wheat gluton... yeah, strange. Sam recommended it. and I had faith in him... It was pretty good. The seitan tasted kind of spicy... it was pretty good, but I did not really like its texture.. It had a mushroom-like texture (and I don't like mushrooms). I was satisfied.. but next time I will get something different.

(Seitan Fajitas... from: http://i.pbase.com/o6/25/660225/1/78549462.J5D1ULR8.P1050502.JPG)
I would recommend going to Hard Times on a Friday at about 11:30 at night... I don't think you will find a better atmosphere in the entire Ceder Riverside... It is awesome.

Still Not Sleeping.

It's 1 in the morning. I'm still not sleeping. I can't for some strange reason. I tried to get to bed early. But. I. Can't.

I have a test for marketing tomorrow too (today, i suppose). Which means I'm getting up at 7:30 to finish studying.

I can't wait until 1:15pm. Then I will be free.

Schedules

I'm trying to get ahead of the game and figure out my schedule for next semester a couple weeks early....

So I went and talked to my Film professor and we came to a general consensus that these are the classes I should take next semester:

Shakespeare
Film Production 1
Acting
Readings in African American Literature

Unfortunately.... I came back to my room and realized that both acting and African American Lit take place at the exact same time....

I don't know what I'm going to do and now I am stressed out..... Grr.

Motivation

I've got about 4 solid ideas for movies.

I don't know what has got into me.

And no I won't tell you.

I am writing down everything.

The Last House on the Left

Why is it that when one babysits, it is nearly impossible not to think of the most recent horror flick?

Damn movies.

So I am spending my first Saturday night of spring break babysitting my cousins. It's all good. I actually don't mind at all... I am relaxing... which I don't get much of.

Unfortunately, my plan to read all of The Picture of Dorian Gray tonight failed... I left the book in the wrong car. I am therefore improvising by sitting on Facebook and listening to the Ben Kweller station on Pandora (3 thumbs up).

My schedule today:
Wake up at 8am to pick up my little cousins.
Drive Ashley to her Just for Kix dance thing at 9:30am and sit through the entire show.
Immediately rush to my cousins house to make food for the kids.
Lunch gets cut short... Dad calls and says Mitchell is wrestling earlier than expected. I put the sandwiches in bags and rush to get the three little girls into the car.
Make it to Albany in time to see only one of Mitchell's wrestling matches... good job big brother...
While taking Mitch and the girls to the car after wrestling, I run into two of my old teachers. I need to go to the high school sometime this week and do some catching up...
Drive the four kids to my house in order for Ashley to get packed.
Drive the girls back to my cousins house. Get them all ready for a nap.
I am exhausted... I get ready for a nap.
The girls wake up before me. They force me off the couch so we can have a wrestling tournament. I lose of course.
Dance with my cousin Katie to the song "Single Ladies." She orders me to "Keep dancing!" This song is repeated at least 11 times.
Make dinner.
Dance some more. Then color.
Food is done. Feed the kids. Dishes.
Clean.
Movie time while I clean.
Get them ready for bed.
Call dad. Doesn't answer. Call mom.
Call Grandma. We all say our prayers together, over the phone.
Lay down with Katie until she falls asleep.
They sleep at about 9. I watch 'Milk'. Sean Penn is impressive.
Now go to read Picture of Dorian Gray... crap.. I forgot it. Soo... facebook and this.

Goodnight America.

Synecdoche, New York

It is 12:45am and I just finished watching Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kauffman's directorial debut.

It is achingly beautiful. I love it, and I have yet to comprehend it.

Ah-mazing.

Seriously.

Spring Break, Day 1

Last night my friends and I had a little get together in my room... We stayed up all night talking, knowing that we wouldnt see eachother for a little more than a week.

So yes, I stayed up really late.

Which resulted in me sleeping through my alarm this morning and missing my only class of the day... And my mom arrived to pick me up around 12 o'clock, asking "Why aren't you all packed up and ready to go home yet?" Little did she know, I only woke up about an hour before she got there....

I am an idiot. It wouldn't have been as bad if I didn't skip Micro, the only class that is challenging me this semester (challenging me in terms of grades... If i do well the rest of the semester, I might get a 4.0 in that class).

Well, I sucked it up, got in the car with my mom, and took the hour and a half drive home.

The first thing I did when I got home was make myself a fried-egg sandwich and then layed in my bed.

It was beautiful.

So tonight I'm not doing anything... I stopped at St. Johns to visit a few buddies, but now it's about 10pm, I'm gunna watch a movie, and then go to bed.

I have to wake up early tomorrow and drive to my uncles house... I will be babysitting all day.

Peace.

Resolution

There is a certain buzz around campus today.

Those working walk the hallways with a certain sense of purpose.

Remember that midnight Student Government meeting? and the numerous gatherings that followed?

Well, something big happened on campus. In an effort to explain, I will start with the basics. First of all:

All students pay a $90 activity fee every semester.
All that money is put into a huge fund to be used for student events and activities. One of Student Government's many responsibilities is making sure that the student activity fund is used in a responsible way and that various organizations on campus receive that money.

Chartered Organizations
Chartered orgs can come to student government and ask for money whenever they would like to. They just have to provide information on their activity and where they are buying things, and then receipts. Paperwork must be filled out and then approved by the Finance Committee (which I am on).

Commissioned Organizations
Commissioned orgs are also student organizations that do activities on campus, but these organizations have a set budget at the beginning of the year. They are given the money requested, and they can always come ask for more money if they overspend.

So here is the situation:
At the end of every year, chartered orgs can apply to be commissioned, they just need to go through an evaluation process. Commissioned orgs go through the same process in order to be recommissioned.

This year, however, student government decided not to recommision two of the biggest organizations on campus, ASAC (Augsburg Student Activity Council) and KAUG (the Augburg radio station).

This was a HUGE decision... after all, the meeting went until 12:45 at night. It was not an easy decision to make. I also had a meeting Monday night, Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday night, and then tonight is the appeal meeting. I have been busy.

A lot of senators had felt that both orgs were taking steps in the wrong direction. I will not get into specifics on this blog, but if anybody would like to chat about it, let me know.

What this means:
ASAC has a budget along the lines of $80,000... that is a lot of money to just take away from an organization. KAUG does not have a budget quite as large, but it still makes an impact on their org. Both organizations will be chartered, will continue to ask for money, and they will continue to host events on campus.

Yes, this will make it more difficult for these organizations to get money, but Student government felt that this decision would provide more pros than cons.

What's next?
Tonight I have a meeting at 7:30. Both orgs are appealing the decision made by stu. gov. and the decision may possibly be overturned....

I'll keep you updated.

Like a Machine

This morning I woke up with one thing on my mind: Productivity.

That's right. I was going to work non-stop today and get things accomplished.

So I woke up around 8:50 am to get ready for Microeconomics which started at 9:10. That went for an hour until 10:10.

I made it back to my room and worked on one of my new goals to read the newspaper every day (We get a free Star Tribune, USA Today, or NY Times everyday... NY Times is my personal favorite). I did that for about 40 minutes.

11:00 rolled around and I took a shower. I cleaned my room a little bit afterwards and then went to lunch.

Lunch lasted until 12:10 when I went to Marketing. Marketing went for an hour.

At about 1:30 i made it back to my room and started reading my book for Liberating Letters to get ahead of things. I read a couple chapters out of "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Unfortunately, I realized at about 7pm that I was in fact supposed to read those chapters anyway, thus not actually "getting ahead" as I intended.

Next, I spent about a half an hour cleaning my room and rearranging laundry stuff. exciting.

Then, i started to be less productive and took a nap... unfortunately. I failed.

I woke up around 4:30 and had an early lunch.

After lunch I went into the honors suite and worked on a paper for a few hours. I then proceeded to work on another project.

And then 8:30 came along... remember how I said last week was my last Senate meeting for the year?.....well it wasnt. "Stuff went down" as I said (I still need to fill you in... it will happen tomorrow) so we had a meeting tonight to go over everything...

And that meeting lasted from 8:30 to now... 10:19pm

And I still have homework to do.

My only goal for today was to get to bed early because I have class from 8am to 3pm tomorrow... (and now after the senate meeting today, i have another meeting at 3pm and then 8:30pm tomorrow night... grr.)

So much for productivity.

Last Senate Meeting

It is 2:30 in the morning...

I had a finance committee meeting for senate at 5:45pm today... which lasted until 7:30pm... which was the starting time for my actual student government meeting...

WHICH LASTED UNTIL 12:45 in the morning!

Yes... I was in the same room having student government meetings for 7 hours....

It went until 12:45 am!!!

And let me tell you... stuff went down.

You will get the update tomorrow (and i know i said that on the last post.. i've been busy and i'm sorry)

ps after our last senate meeting of the year (this term, technically speaking) a few of us went and chilled for an hour or two... ya know, talk about parliamentary procedure and all that jazz :) hence the reason why i'm not going to bed until 2:30 am.

Oh, and i dont have science class tomorrow... which means i dont have class until 1:30

yes.

Untitled

Just worked on homework in the honors suite for 3 hours.

We have our liberating letters trial tomorrow and i am on the prosecution based on the play Galileo by Brecht.

Our Charges: The Church is guilty of indirectly threatening Galileo with bodily harm.
and The Church is guilty of impeding Galileos efforts to advance his theory of heliocentrism

and now i am done and going to bed cause im sick of doin work.

plenty of updates tomorrow.

peace.

Untitled

Just worked on homework in the honors suite for 3 hours.

We have our liberating letters trial tomorrow and i am on the prosecution based on the play Galileo by Brecht.

Our Charges: The Church is guilty of indirectly threatening Galileo with bodily harm.
and The Church is guilty of impeding Galileos efforts to advance his theory of heliocentrism

and now i am done and going to bed cause im sick of doin work.

plenty of updates tomorrow.

peace.

Slumdog Millionaire: Overrated?

Slumdog Millionaire is overrated.

Slumdog Millionaire’s success at this year’s Academy Awards was inevitable. That’s right—everyone knew that this movie would win over the hearts of the Academy and bring home a few gold men. The real question of the night was “How many Oscars would be won?” And the answer: eight. Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire won eight Oscars on Sunday night, becoming the eighth film in Academy Award history to accomplish that feat. Of course this is a tremendous accomplishment, but Boyle has more than himself to thank for the movie’s success; Boyle might as well write personal “Thank You” cards to Hollywood’s directors for the lack of great films released in 2008.

Simply put, 2008 was a bad year for movies. In 2007, we were graced with classics such as Norbit, The Mist, Black Snake Moan, The Number 23, I Know Who Killed Me, and Epic Movie. All jokes aside, many movies released in 2007 (No Country for Old Men, Atonement, There Will Be Blood, Into the Wild, Once, Juno, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and 3:10 to Yuma) were better than a majority of the movies nominated for Oscars this year—and oh yes, that includes Slumdog Millionaire. Slumdog Millionaire is one of the most overrated movies that has ever won an Oscar.

Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of Jamal, a young man from the slums of Mumbai who somehow appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? After doing surprisingly well on the game-show, the show’s host and some law enforcement officials become suspicious of Jamal and believe that he is cheating the game. Through the use of various flashbacks, viewers become aware of Jamal’s troubling past and it is revealed how he knows most of the game’s answers. Slumdog Millionaire is an entertaining, feel-good movie, and the acting—particularly among the children—is pretty good.

But of course, Slumdog Millionaire has many flaws. Some of the sequences reminded me of an MTV music video, concentrating more on the hilarity of the children stealing food to the tune of MIA’s Paper Planes than the actual depressing thought of children needing to steal in order to survive. The plot, although interesting, was predictable and offered little for character development. And the relationship between Jamal and Latika, which ended up being the main plotline of the movie, was shallow. Prior to Jamal revealing his true love for this childhood crush, the two had only spent about five minutes on-screen together. And does this cute little story offer anything new or insightful to the world of cinema? No. It is merely an entertaining Cinderella story that attempts to make people feel good about Jamal’s rise from the slums. The film Disney-ifies the poverty of Mumbai in an effort to gloss-over the true horrors of a life in the slums and suggest that money is the key to happiness. At one moment in the movie, Jamal is beaten by an old man and exclaims to some American tourists, “You wanted to see a bit of the real India? You’re in it!” The tourists respond with, “Well here’s a bit of the real America” and then hand Jamal a hundred-dollar bill (At this point, I puked in my mouth a little bit). Walter Shaw, a movie critic for Film Freak Central, argues, “If Slumdog Millionaire isn't a racist melodrama that uses real misery and human degradation as the backdrop for a fairytale of how everything works out in the end (and it is), then it's a movie that says the key to escaping the hell of privation and a complete lack of hope for the future isn't betterment through education, but winning a goddamned Western game show.”

Others have argued that the film is an insult to the country of India and its people. In the weekly magazine India Today, an Indian filmmaker named Priyadarshan called it “absolute and intentional exploitation of India” (New York Times). Does this movie cross the line? To answer that question, one must ask them self if there is a moral problem with portraying human depravity and anguish as objects of art used to fulfill the voyeuristic fetishes of the Western world. Some have even gone as far as to call the film “poverty porn.” London Times’ columnist Alice Miles argues, “As the film revels in the violence, degradation and horror, it invites you, the Westerner, to enjoy it, too… Slumdog Millionaire is poverty porn.”

So what is it that I am suggesting? Although Slumdog Millionaire is a pretty entertaining film, it is definitely not a great film. It misconstrues the image of India and it’s poverty problems by romanticizing the setting. The first 45 minutes of Slumdog intrigued me as it began to dwell on the disgusting underbelly of Mumbai’s child prostitution and begging ring, but ultimately, the film disappointed. Maybe it was the hype, but I believe the film did not accomplish much more than basic, on-the-surface entertainment, unlike great Oscar winners of the past (The Godfather, On the Waterfront, and even No Country for Old Men). Perhaps it was the uniqueness of the film that seduced Western viewers, but compared to some of the great Bollywood films, Slumdog is mediocre at best. Shyamal Sengupta, a film professor from Mumbai, criticized the film by calling it a “white man’s imagined India. It’s not quite snake charmers, but it’s close. It’s a poverty tour.”

Next time you watch Slumdog Millionaire, watch it with a critical eye. I believe that you will be able to understand were a lot of these arguments are coming from. And if you want to see a truly good film that realistically portrays the effects poverty has on a country, go see the newly released Italian film, Gomorra. Hopefully the Academy will one day recognize a film that portrays the true horrors of poverty and not just an entertaining, overrated film such as Slumdog Millionaire.


PS. I sent this article into the Echo (student run newspaper).... easiest 20 dollars i have ever made :)

Academy Awards

I watched the Academy Awards last night. Pretty good show.

I loved the format for best actor/actress... It made the award seem so much more meaningful when the past winners praised the nominees for their performances... I just wish there was someway to also show clips of the performances... That would be nice.

Everything was good except for the Hugh Jackman and Beyonce dance skit... a little forced.

The Pineapple Express skit was HILARIOUS. Especially when they laughed at "The Reader" and "Doubt". The Academy deserves to be made fun of a bit.

Oh, and the Queen Latifah "In Memory" thing... It would have been much more powerful if they had not kept panning out to 2-shots of her singing and the "In Memory" screen. Sometimes it was even hard to read the names of the people who had passed. Next year, please respect those who died by focusing on them the entire time, not Queen Latifah.

Best Picture/Director: Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire
It's an entertaining film. But I do NOT think that it is Oscar worthy of the Best Picture. There were very few strong films this year, but Slumdog is overrated. However, Benjamin Button is the only thing that could have even come close to competing.... maybe Milk. But Slumdog had this award in the bag the entire time. Did anyone even doubt it?

Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
I loved Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married. Amazing film. Amazing performance. She deserved it just as much as any of the other nominees did.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Penelope Cruise, in Vicky Christina Barcelona
She had an excellent performance in this pretty good movie.

Actor: Sean Penn in Milk
I have not seen any of the films in this category (in fact, I have barely seen any of the films nominated), but Sean Penn is amazing. I still need to see Aronofsky's The Wrestler and be amazed by Rourke (it's the next movie on my list). Penn taking home the Oscar was an upset though.. many people thought Rourke had it.

Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Night
No contest here... None... Great thank you by his family.. It was very simple and sincere. One of the best moments of the night.

And as much as I am intrigued by the rest of the technical categories, I did not see most of the films nominated and to talk about them would be blasphemy.

Maybe I'll get you my Slumdog Millionaire review within the next couple days though.

The Fundamentals of Our Economy Are Strong

I have two jobs lined up... I'm one of the lucky ones.

About two weeks ago I had an interview for the Student Representative position... It's a new job at Augsburg as a part of the new Ignite program. From my understanding, the position requires students to set up meetings with Augsburg Alum and to basically... talk with them.

Sounds pretty easy. And I love talking. And I get paid for it... so count me in.

I'm pretty sure the main goal of this is to keep Alumni involved with the school... Find out what they're doing... And of course to encourage them to donate money to Augsburg (which I realize is even more important now that scholarship weekend is over with... soooo much money is given to our students as financial aid and scholarships, it's amazing).

The day after that interview, I had an interview for the CA (Community Adviser) position. It's like the RA (Resident Adviser) position in Urness (I have the best RA ever... Avery), but it is in an Upperclassmen Resident Building. This is the job I really want... I basically get to organize events for my floor next year, be there for moral support if anyone ever needs to talk to me about anything, and then make sure that our entire floor gets along and loves each other (read: does not kill each other).

Oh, and did I mention that I get paid for that too?

So just last week, I got a call from Institutional Advancement and they told me that I got the Student Representative job.

I was ecstatic.

And then on Sunday, I had to do the second round of interviews for the CA position. It went very well... but now i have to wait a month until I found out if I got the job...

I can only pray....

sigh.

Scholarship Weekend is over.

Yay.

It wasn't bad at all. I feel like I need to do much more for the Augsburg Community because I am in so much debt to the amount of money they have given me as a result of attending Scholarship Weekend last year.

And so Saturday night, via a 7 hour meeting, I did what I could to pay my dues. That's right, it took us 7 hours to evaluate the students that attended this weekend. However, I had a lot of fun. We hope to be adding a lot of GREAT leaders to the Honors program and I am excited for next year. The competition this year was stellar; I couldn't believe it.

It was also really interesting to see some of the professors outside of the school-setting... I even heard an F bomb or two. And a few interesting comments from Groven regarding pedophilia. It was a good time. And we were fed excellent food. And I had about three cans of pop and 100 hershey kisses.

So yes, I needed to go dancing at First Ave that night... It was a great time...which resulted in me determining that the coolest kids in Minneapolis are at First Ave every saturday night.

For reals.

Relax. Just do it.

I am completely ignoring my best interest of going to bed tonight.

I just got down with a 7 hour selection process for Honors. It's been exhausting. I've been running around since 6:45 this morning and I got very little sleep last night.

Right now, I need me some... yeah, u guessed it... TOO MUCH LOVE.

Me and a couple of my friends are going dancing right now. That's right, dancing.

We're going to First Ave.

Probably a bad idea, but I need to unwind after a long, stressful scholarship weekend.

And then, I will sleep all day tomorrow until my 2:00 interview for being a CA.

Wow...

Mean Girl

PS I also had another run-in with the mean DPS officer-student yesterday. I have always complained to Katie and Claire about how rude she is, and they didn't really believe me... Until they tried to talk to her yesterday and were surprised at how dead-on I was when describing her....

Grrr.

Scholarship Weekend

It's Scholarship Weekend today and yesterday... Which means I did not really get to relax this weekend because a lot of stuff needed to be done and I am hosting two prospective students.

Basically, about 90-100 students were chosen out of a really large pool of applicants because they applied for the Presidents Scholarship (which is actually harder to apply for than admission into Augsburg). They came here yesterday, sat through some speeches and stuff, walked around campus, brought their stuff to my room, ate dinner, and then did some of the events on campus.

I hosted two students, both from Rodgers. They were really nice guys, I just wasn't exactly sure how I was going to keep them entertained.

I teamed up with Claire and Katie and their two prospective students and we walked around campus a lil bit. We eventually made it up to the fourth floor of Urness, played some Ping Pong, and then a huge came of this catch-phrase-type game (it's better than catchphrase). We weren't exactly allowed to take them to any parties or off-campus, which is understandable. We still had a lot of fun anyway.

And then after a long night of fun and games, they had to get up at 6:45 am and get ready for the day.

I remember doing the exact same thing last year. I stayed with Phil, who happens to be one of the main honors student-planner-people-of-high-prestige, and there were about 6 prospective students sleeping on his floor. We walked around campus until about 2 in the morning.

And the next morning (basically today for all the prospective students) was one of the most important days of my life so far.... They all have to type an essay and have an interview with a couple faculty members and an upperclassmen. Today it will be decided who gets the huge scholarships...

And I've got a busy day ahead of me.... especially since Cole (friend from high school) is coming tonight and we're planning on going to the dance club "Too Much Love" at First Ave....

We'll see how it goes.

It's not personal... It's just business.

So I walked around Christensen this morning talking to people, bought a coffee, walked all the way to my marketing class, etc.... then guess what?

I realized that I had my sweatshirt on backwards the entire time.

It was fashion statement... I guess.

So last Thursday night, I studied for about three hours in the honors suite, interrupted by only one break to watch the new episode of the Office... I studied a lot for this Marketing Test, mostly because I assumed it was going to be really really hard. My teacher, who does not teach us much anyway, scared most of my class into thinking that it was going to be the hardest test ever.

So 40 minutes later, I'm done with it, out the door, and thinking that I most likely got every single question right. One of the easiest tests I've ever had, I can't even believe I studied as hard as I did.... Most of it was common sense.

So I got to lunch a little bit early, and therefore, Eli and Andy (my regular lunch buddies) were nowhere to be seen.

I decided to sit with my film professor, Mr. Cowgill. He asked me why I looked so bored, I told him that I was just somewhat pissed that I studied so hard for the easiest test of my life.

And then he basically asked me why the hell I am taking Marketing. I completely saw this coming from him.

And I guess I wanted to hear it.

So far, my business classes have kind of been a waste of time. Micro is kind of hard and I like it, but I'm still a little weary. Cowgill basically told me the same thing and said that I would learn more from taking other classes. He said that sociology, political science, history, or english would all be much more beneficial for me....

And the funny thing is, I have been thinking this the entire time, I guess I just needed someone to tell me that....

We'll see what happens.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Watcha Gunna Do?

There is one student who works for DPS (department of public safety) that I really do not like.

Yes, she is probably doing her job... but she just isn't nice.

I have had three separate incidents with her. One time I called DPS to pick Katie and I up from the U of M law school. She asked "are you there yet?" and I said "Yes, I am walking there right now". Then she said "Ok, call back when you get there" then HUNG UP ON ME. Ok, whatever. I'm fine with that. Yes, I did tell her that I was walking her there. I just called her back precisely 1.5 seconds later and told her I was there (because I was).

The next time, on Superbowl Sunday, I had a room full of hungry people and a few pizzas to make. So, I went and got my RA so he could get the key from DPS. This particular student that I don't like (at this moment I forgave her for the first incident... it wasnt that big of a deal. I just wish she wouldn't have been so rude) was working. She told my RA that both keys were rented out and we would need to wait 10 minutes until they would probably be brought back. So my RA went back to his room and I went back to my room. 10 minutes later i called from my room and asked her if either of the keys were returned. She asked if I was an RA, I said no, and then she told me that "I can't give you that information". Seriously? You can't tell me if the keys for the kitchen have been returned?

Ok, she was probably just doing her job. But she was also being rude again.

And then today, I have my mom's car here... so naturally I went to DPS to get a visitors parkingpass. This has been the third time over the course of this year that i have needed to get a parking pass. However, that student was working and told me that she could not give me a parking pass unless my visitor came to get it. she would not give me one.... grrr... I just walked away, waited an hour until her shift was over, and then got a visitors pass from the next person working.

She is a meany.

Joy Ride

It is 11:34 pm.

Just got back from Rainbow Foods. Reason: I really really had a desire for chips.

Well, there's actually more to it than that... Today my family drove out to the cities because they are all going to Arizona to visit my grandmother. Which of course means that they brought the car to Augsburg, I drove them to the airport, and the best part.... I get the car until next Tuesday.

It is almost a mini-holiday for me.

Of course, you don't NEED a car at Augsburg.... that is really one of the points that they try and sell (enforce) to incoming students.

With that said, I WISH i had a car down here. It would be so much more convenient. I would probably only use it a couple times a week, but I would definitely get out a little bit more... Most of that has to do with the weather though. I would prefer walking and biking during the summer, but lately, it's been just too dang cold.

So after the long day of class, and the student government meeting (imagine being in the same room for 3 hours and 45 minutes!!!!! it was long) i came up to my room and wanted a snack.

And along with the car-holiday came special assortments of food and snacks. One of them being salsa con queso (YES!).. unfortunately i didn't have chips.

So katie and i left to go to Rainbow Foods at about 10:45 and then bought stuff and then drove around downtown minneapolis for absolutely no reason and drove absolutely nowhere. it was an adventure.

Lazy Sunday

It took me about two days to fully recover from Saturday night.

I probably did not fall asleep Saturday night until about 5 AM for some odd reason... you can imagine that Sunday was spent doing pretty much nothing.

Every Monday/Wednesday/Friday i wake up for my 9:10 Microeconomics class and cry. For some reason it is so hard for me to get up (and yes, i know that it is not even that early... i do not know what is wrong with me... i don't go to bed that late...). Every day I contemplate skipping that class.

I have only skipped class once this semester (i skipped micro) and i fell behind pretty easily... it was a mistake. I won't do that again.

However, after Marketing class today, I feel like I could skip that class every day and be fine. It is kind of sad. I actually left class very frustrated and upset today. I have a marketing test next Friday, and I do not feel like i have learned a single thing!!!! GRRRRR!!!!

On other notes....

If Zack Snyder does it right, there is absolutely no reason why the Watchmen movie should not be nominated for best picture next year. ABSOLUTELY no reason. This movie is a filmmaker's dream. The entire story is basically perfect. If I were Snyder and this movie disappointed comic book fans, i would probably fear for my life. I can't wait to see this movie. So far the previews make it look average... I hope to be amazed.

I love the band "Iron and Wine"

Remember those two jumbo sized pizzas bryon and I ordered and obviously didnt finish? The bag full of pizza is mysteriously missing from my fridge... Nathaniel?

Too Much Love

Last night was a party.

It was not planned out entirely. On Wednesday, Lindsay (the girl from my high school who was planning on coming to Augsburg until a week before school started... she attends mankato state instead) decided that her and sara (another girl from my high school) were coming to the cities to visit me.

And this made me want to get all our minneapolis high school friends together. Blake and Kurt came over from the U of M, and Brooke came over from AVEDA. Even Cole drove here all the way from St. Johns.

Lindsay and Sarah went to the Mall of America first (typical: they had to buy outfits to wear for dancing that night.... i made fun of them a lil bit) then they came here and showered in katies bathroom and got ready.

All my high school friends went out to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory. It was pretty good. I wasnt that hungry....

STORY TIME: Bryon and I were hungry around 1:30 in the afternoon. He had his car here and a coupon that his mom gave him for uptown pizza... buy one get one free. so we got in his car and started driving. We didnt know where the pizza joint was, but we luckilly found it. When we got there we couldnt decide what size we wanted... so we ordered a jumbo pizza for 22 bucks (and we got a second jumbo pizza for free). Between the two of us, we could not even finish one of those pizzas, so now, i have an entire half of the other pizza sitting in my fridge. gotta love leftovers :)

But back to my other story: i wasnt that hungry so i ordered one of the cheapest meals. With tips and everything i probably spent about 11 bucks.

We then proceeded back to my room, i called most of my augsburg friends, and we had a party in there. on average, there were about 20 people in my room. it was crazy.

finally, at about 10:30 we walked to the lightrail (i walked there in just a t-shirt because i did not want to pay for coat check-in at first ave.. it was surprisingly not-that-cold outside and i was fine).

We took the lightrail to the last stop downtown, walked to First Ave, and we all danced.

Definitely one of the best nights I had here.

There's a Class for This

New semester = new classes.

This is what's up:

Intro to Microeconomics. Professor Norgard.
Microeconomics is kind of a fancy word that people use to explain buying using graphs and numbers... so liking and being good at math is kind of expected.
Fortunately, I like math.
Unfortunately, I don't remember a lot of stuff from my calc class... but at least i'm not going to take physics. I heard that class is hell.
So far I like this class. I find it really interesting; in fact, i was actually thinking about minoring in the economic-business program. It is still a possibility but most likely not going to happen.
Class is interesting, but not all that exciting. Mostly powerpoints and explanations. The teacher is alright: he is a young guy and he seems to know his stuff. He likes extreme outdoor sports (rock climbing, etc...) and always likes to talk about the glory games of ndsu while trash talking the gophers. Homework is done on the internet with about one online assignment a week, not too hard. Unfortunately, I forgot to do the assignments twice already. I think I will be fine, but i know that the tests will be pretty hard...

Principles of Marketing, Professor Lohman
Meh... I don't know yet. My professor knows a lot about the subject matter, but I don't really think i am learning that much so far. She told us that one student has described her class as "death by powerpoint" so she is trying to liven it up a little bit... she has been somewhat successful. Class gets interesting once in a while when we go off on a tangent and start talking about funny commercials. I have yet to get a homework assignment for this class, but i'm thinking that she is going to surprise us all with a rediculously hard test.

Honors Science and Citizenship, Professors Engebretsen, Kuntz, & Butkowski
I hate science.
I HATE science.
This class is designed for honors students who are not majoring in a scientific field. The topic of this semesters class is natural disasters. We study catastrophes, health epedemics, weather disasters, etc in an effort to make the class more interesting. The lectures are probably some of the most boring lectures i have ever had. Nothing against the professors; they are all great people (I have 3 different professors team-teaching the class. they all have different scientific specialities) It is a lab science, which means I have to wake up at 8 am on tuesdays and sit in a lab for 3 hours (the labs are pretty fun so far), then i have 50 minutes to eat and then i have to go back to class at 11:50 for another hour and a half. I kinda hate tuesdays... cause right after class i have to sit through another hour and a half of....

Honors Liberating Letters, Professor Groven
This is my favorite class though this semester. And Groven is my favorite teacher. I would put some of his jokes online, but unless you know the man, they might seem somewhat innappropriate. The class basically studies Western literature and how it has affected the world we live in... and we do it in a really fun way. Example: we just finished reading the odyssey. Now, one group of students (the Crockett Firm) is charging Odysseus with (something along the lines of) First Degree Robbery, stealing sheep and rams from the cyclops and all that jazz. The class is super-interesting.

So, what i thought would be a difficult semester full of homework is a little less difficult and homework-filled than what i thought it would be.

oh well, no worries. it gives me more time to work on my films.

Things I like.

Pandora.com
I am obsessed with the Mason Jennings station. That is all I have been listening to lately. It blows my mind how awesome Pandora.com is.

Taco Bell
Until I came to college, I had taco bell once in my life (and it was a bad experience because I can't stand guacamole and it was all over whatever-it-was-that-i-ordered. Unknowingly, i took a huge bite...eww.) That was until I came to Augsburg and fell in love with crunch-wrap supremes. wow. my mouth is watering right now. recently however, i have had to make budget cuts thanks to the economy (and my growing waistline) so i am limiting myself to one tacobell visit a month. (which unofficially becomes taco bell day, a great celebration). (ps i cant believe i just wrote that much about taco bell).

People-watching
Free entertainment. 'Nuff said. (the lightrail or Mall of America are my favorite spots for this... I swear Katie and I could people watch for hours)

Ice-cream
I thank the heavens that my roommate bought a freezer. Over winter break, Katie introduced me to Ben and Jerrys (my mommy always ordered ice-cream from the Schwanns man, which is delicous) and it is awesome (Cherry Garcia, woot woot!). BUT, for some reason the cafeteria no longer puts out ice-cream during ANY meals. WHAT THE HECK? (Budget cuts--see "taco bell" above-- have lessened my ice cream consumption yet led to the frustration of not getting free ice cream any more).

The Godfather Trilogy (but the Godfather book is better)
Francis Ford Copolla is bomb. It is my aspiration to become a consigliere. I'm actually thinking about dropping out of school, moving to New York and begging the first mob family i see to let me do it.

Amazon.com
the movie "Raging Bull" for 20 bucks at FYE? somewhat tempting.... the same movie bought used at near mint condition from Amazon.com for only 7 dollars. Yes sir.

Kurt Warner
I was hesitant about you at first, old man, but you won me over. I think that you are a genuinely nice man and you deserved to win another SuperBowl. Unfortunately, the Steelers made a few amazing plays and you lost. Damn...

When Nathaniel Takes Out the Garbage
There had been a box of 17 empty pop cans, various plastics, an old dirty rotten molding salsa jar, and some nasty smelly soup cans laying in a corner of my room. I was counting down the days until my roommate would finally take these things out to be recycled, considering 100% of the things in there belonged to him. Three weeks later: Thank you Nathaniel, and congratulations.

The Movie Theater in the Mall of America
Five dollar movies on weekdays? Why did I not know that before?!?!?!?

Sleep
But not naps. New Years resolution: don't take as many naps. Therefore, I have a greater appreciation of actually real sleeping and it is awesome. I also switched down to the bottom bunk this semester (taking turns is good) and it is wayyy better. I can not put it into words how awesome this is.

Books?

My hometown has a really tiny video-rental store... As much as I used to spend there, I probably could have bought the entire store.

Going to Cash-Wise to rent from the old section (77 cents for a week-long rental) was, basically, heaven to me.

So, naturally, I thought that I knew a lot about movies.

That was until I came to Augsburg and a majority of the other film majors completely showed me up with their abundance of movie-knowing knowledge.

After briefly chatting with my film professor from last semester about movies or books I should be watching and reading (Mr. Cowgill--he is a very very very smart man) he responded, "Be as promiscuous as possible." He further explained something along the lines of, "Watch as much as you can... and when you have the choice, pick up a book instead." I told him that I would probably visit him sometime soon at his office for a list because I was in a hurry and had to leave....

...So today, after being very productive and getting everything else done, I went to the library--a place that I have not visited as often as I did earlier in the year.

And so I did something else that I haven't done yet... I just walked around looking for interesting books.

So imagine the big smile that came across my face when I found the film section of the library (a beautiful place that I have never encountered before) and gazed upon the hundreds of books about film.

I picked out two books...

"Truffaut (A Biography)" by Antoine De Baecque and Serge Toubiana.
After seeing three of Truffaut's films, he has easily become one of my favorite directors. I definitely need to see more French New Wave movies... they are not created solely for entertainment as most Hollywood movies are, but rather to convey an aspect of humanity. Please watch "400 Blows" and then ask yourself, "What does this tell me about society?" I would love to hear your answers and thoughts.

I also picked up:

"Becoming a Film Literate" by Vincent LoBrutto
It is a collection of essays about favorite films that reflect certain aspects of film theory and practice. I already read 3 or 4 of the essays and I love it. I will keep you updated.

PS. my roommate listens to extremely crappy music.

I have a dream.

The Martin Luther King Jr. convocation was PACKED.

So many people attended that the chapel was completely full and people sat in the lobby listening to the speech.

Hollis Watkins, civil rights activist who worked with Dr. King and founded Southern Echo Inc., a non-profit leadership and educational organization. He is a very funny, intelligent man.

Over-all, magic was in the air throughout the entire day. People felt it.

It was kinda weird coming back to school after such a long time at home. I really missed a lot of the people here and it was good to see them. Home was relaxing of course, but it was good to be back.

Oh, and the last weekend before I came back to school, I spent the entire weekend with my Katie's (my girlfriend) family. Was it terrifying, you may ask? Well... of course not. I had a lot of fun. Her family rented a very very very nice home up in Brainerd and we spent the weekend relaxing. We also played a lot of board games, which i love doing.

Balderdash is the best board game ever.

Scrabble isn't played often enough.

And when I got back to school I had a poker night with some friends. After a good hour+ of playing, it was finally Jaron and I left in the game.

So I quit because I was tired and took my money and went to bed.

Happy MLK Day

I have an 8 am class tomorrow. The fact that I am watching a Man Vs. Wild marathon at 12:30 at night amazes me... What am I doing?

yesterday was a great day. Katie and i took the bus to the Minneapolis Institue of Arts Museum. (I like riding the bus for some reason..finding your way around is kind of challenging at first, which I like, but it is also a completely new experience for me... and yesterday I had a bus driver who liked to sing and announce the street names like he was a game=show host or something).

It was a lot of fun and pretty spontaneous.... we also went and ate at Noodles, which I love.

Then I did some homework and eventually took a nap... I was planning on decreasing the naps this semester, and yesterdays nap was one of my first ones since I got back to school, so i was pretty proud of myself.

And then last night about 10 of us decided to go to the club at around 11. We got to the lightrail about 30 seconds too late, so we had to wait 20 minutes for the next train to come.

While we were waiting, Tim and I were racing around the benches to keep warm. Oh, and he picked up a peice of cloth to throw it in the garbage... but it ended up being a dirty diaper.... i almost puked.

Finally, all 10 of us got out of the cold and on to the train, got to the club, and then realized that Katie forgot her drivers license... which meant no club for her.

being the nice boyfriend that I am, i went back to augsburg with her (and on the lightrail we had a nice conversation with two Minneapolis Public Transportation police officers... very nice men. we talked for about 10 minutes... i think i accidentally insulted them when i told them that i was surprised they got to carry guns around, but i think they forgave me)

We bot back to Augsburg around midnight, decided to go to Taco Bell because we were starving.
I was exhausted and we fell asleep on my couch watching tv.

Today I woke up around 11, went to lunch, did homework, and then at 1 i went to the Martin Luther King Jr. convocation....

more on that tomorrow. I need sleep.

Finals Finals Finals

Wow.

It's been a LONG time since I've worked on my blog.

A LONG time.

I guess it was somewhat intentional... I really just wanted to relax over my break after the last few stressful weeks of school. So I guess I will start where I left off.

FINALS - I guess it was what I expected. I studied A LOT. I kind of felt that some of my grades were on the line between an A and B+ so I knew that I needed to do really well.

Scholar Citizen: technically, no final for this class. We just had to write our final paper, something along the lines of 'Does Western philosophy and science grant us the knowledge required to be an effective citizen in a culturally complex world?" It was a very difficult paper, mostly because Professor Crockett expects a lot from these papers and his students. He was definitely my favorite teacher and I will miss his class.

Honors Religion: hmmm... soo much to say. I studied a lot for this final, probably more than any other final. I spent an entire day (not exaggerating) in the library mostly studying for this final. Our professor let us take as many notes as we could fit on one side of a sheet of paper, and you should have seen my paper... it was a work of art, i do not know how i fit everything on it... smallest writing ever (I actually wanted to keep it and hang it up in my room or something, it was beautiful, but my prof made everyone hand in their cheet sheets). And the reason for studing so much? Quanbecks tests sometimes have information in them that may have been briefly mentioned in class for 3 seconds 8 weeks ago... pretty much everything is fair game. Luckily (thank the lord), Quanbeck gave us the essay questions ahead of time, which resulted in me, i think, doing pretty well on his final. This was definitely the most frustrating final I had however.

Spanish: hmmm.. spanish. I'm not very good at it. I was expecting to get a C in this class, therefore, I studied a lot for my spanish final. Basically, we spent the last three days in class watching a movie (in spanish with subtitles) and then we had to have a 10 minute conversation with our teacher in spanish. I was afraid. I studied all week and then crammed for a few hours the night before, and then i woke up at 7:45 the next morning to eat breakfast and study until 10. After I had my convo with prof. Fischer, she told me that she could tell that I practiced and that I did a pretty good job.... definitely one of the happiest moments of my entire week. I was basically flying.

Intro to Cinema: Possibly my most difficult final (they were all pretty different, it's hard to tell). I memoriezed the directors of all the movies we watched in class, and basically a whole bunch of terms. Someone asked my professor what we should study for the test.. he just responded "the glosary... all of it". Luckilly, I realized that I knew most of the terms pretty well and the test wasn't that hard. When it comes to analyzing some of the scenes, all I could do was use as much of the vocab words as I could and then hope that Cowgill was a little lenient on my answers. Despite my preperation, I flat-out did not know the answers to some questions, but overall I think i did pretty good.

Finishing my last final was one of the best feelings EVER! It felt like a ginormous bolder was lifted off of my shoulders and i was happy to think that i would not have any homework over the weekend...

Until I realized that I had to memorize some lines, figure out a riddle, and get recomendations from some family members for my honors class, Liberating Letters... oh well, i didn't necassarily expect to be completely free...