This last month I feel like I've been in a perpetual state of delay. It is truly an annoying sensation. I feel like I'm waiting for life to continue. First, I'm tired of the election...right about now I'm beginning to think the people of North Korea don't know how good they have it. Don't people get tired of the name calling and bullying? I know I am. It's like they are running for class president of the 1st grade. I mean for real...These are the people who run the country? I'm so tired of the cretinous name calling and skewed views of "facts." Right now I'm just waiting until one of them says the other has cooties and is going to take away recces. The way they twist things is BS. I always thought that what they are doing is called "lying" and I heard a rumor that it's usually not a good thing to lie. But apparently they aren't "lying" they are mis-quoting the facts, or mis-stating. If there are 9 people in a building and I save 7 of them, but my opponent says I let 2 die, they may not be lying, but they sure as hell aren't telling the truth now are they? And what hurts the most is that people are to stupid to figure it out. They read something like Obama isn't a US citizen and they take it as fact. Besides all the data showing that indeed he is a citizen, don't you think that if he wasn't a US citizen that may be McCain might bring it up? I don't care who you vote for, just as long as you have an understanding of actual knowledge.
So I'm waiting for the election to be over...I'm also still waiting for carpet to be put in the house so I can move in. Had I known it was going to take this long I would of just moved in and moved back out when the carpet guys came. Don't ever hire Home Depot to do carpet. For one nobody there knows how to order the carpet, and after they did order the carpet, it was the wrong carpet so they had to re order...which they then realized after another week that the re-order wasn't going through because they had the wrong price in the store...Even with their incompetence they should of been finished by now. Darren called them on Friday and they guy told him to call back because he's eating lunch...When Darren told him he should call him instead the guy said he didn't have a pen hand to write down the number...I should have the authority to fire people.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Texans just don't understand...
I've been living in Texas now for almost an entire month and I've noticed a few fundamental differences between here and Minnesota. Of course there is the geographical differences which lead to a different climate, but I'm going to talk more about the people.
First, people in Austin can not fathom that there are people who are not Longhorns fans. Last weekend I went tailgating at football game and I was pretty amazed. When I was invited to go tailgating I pictured me sitting in one of those cloth back chairs that starts to fold together when you sit in it. I'd be in a semicircle with the rest of the people, I'd have a root beer in my built in cup holder and we'd all be waiting for the little black charcoal grill to warm up so we could cook hot dogs. I new Longhorn football is big so I figured there would be a ton of people in the parking lot with us...I was wrong on all accounts. Tailgating is apparently a misnomer. We had to park about 3 miles from the Stadium, but that didn't matter because tailgating in Austin is basically the size of the Minnesota State Fair. I can't think of a word to describe how big it is...big. There are people everywhere...Every open space, every parking lot, every lawn on the entire UT campus is filled with people. There are tents and trailers everywhere. There are flat screens with satellite hookups, and most importantly...food. There is free BBQ EVERYWHERE! Not just cheep BBQ. There are no Oscar Meyer hot dogs...I ate about 10 lbs of ribs. For free. I had about 5 lbs of meatballs, and 6 lbs of chicken tacos. There was dessert, vegetables, sandwiches, and drinks...all free. Sure they asked for donations...but I didn't give any...that means it was free! I have no idea who won the game. I have no idea who they played...We left like a half an hour before it started...which was good....Because with all the food came a lot of drunks....a lot. You can't drink at the stadium so everyone gets wasted before hand. When we got there at noon there were a handful of drunk idiots...by 6 there were a handful of not drunk idiots. Also there were a lot of dudes...which wasn't so awesome. But back to my point. The people there couldn't understand why I wasn't a UT Longhorns fan. I lived in Austin...I should be a Longhorns fan. I explained to them that I just moved from Minnesota, and they looked at me as if to say, "So you're here now though right?" It is impossible for the Texas brain to fathom that anyone cheers for a team other than UT...Especially if they live in Texas. To them football is UT football...they seem to picture heaven as a giant stadium in the sky where the UT offense plays a game against the UT defense for eternity.
First, people in Austin can not fathom that there are people who are not Longhorns fans. Last weekend I went tailgating at football game and I was pretty amazed. When I was invited to go tailgating I pictured me sitting in one of those cloth back chairs that starts to fold together when you sit in it. I'd be in a semicircle with the rest of the people, I'd have a root beer in my built in cup holder and we'd all be waiting for the little black charcoal grill to warm up so we could cook hot dogs. I new Longhorn football is big so I figured there would be a ton of people in the parking lot with us...I was wrong on all accounts. Tailgating is apparently a misnomer. We had to park about 3 miles from the Stadium, but that didn't matter because tailgating in Austin is basically the size of the Minnesota State Fair. I can't think of a word to describe how big it is...big. There are people everywhere...Every open space, every parking lot, every lawn on the entire UT campus is filled with people. There are tents and trailers everywhere. There are flat screens with satellite hookups, and most importantly...food. There is free BBQ EVERYWHERE! Not just cheep BBQ. There are no Oscar Meyer hot dogs...I ate about 10 lbs of ribs. For free. I had about 5 lbs of meatballs, and 6 lbs of chicken tacos. There was dessert, vegetables, sandwiches, and drinks...all free. Sure they asked for donations...but I didn't give any...that means it was free! I have no idea who won the game. I have no idea who they played...We left like a half an hour before it started...which was good....Because with all the food came a lot of drunks....a lot. You can't drink at the stadium so everyone gets wasted before hand. When we got there at noon there were a handful of drunk idiots...by 6 there were a handful of not drunk idiots. Also there were a lot of dudes...which wasn't so awesome. But back to my point. The people there couldn't understand why I wasn't a UT Longhorns fan. I lived in Austin...I should be a Longhorns fan. I explained to them that I just moved from Minnesota, and they looked at me as if to say, "So you're here now though right?" It is impossible for the Texas brain to fathom that anyone cheers for a team other than UT...Especially if they live in Texas. To them football is UT football...they seem to picture heaven as a giant stadium in the sky where the UT offense plays a game against the UT defense for eternity.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Texas
I haven't even officially moved into my house as of yet but I have started thinking about the idea of becoming an actual citizen of this state. I like "thinking about the idea" of things, it's a nice of saying I doing nothing. Anyway I'm not sure of the actual process of becoming a citizen of Texas so I've been brushing up on my Texas history in case there is a quiz. You wouldn't think there would be a quiz, like the one to become an American, but the people here talk like Texas is its own country, so who knows? Recently I found myself in a local library where I noticed 95% of the material would give me much needed "Texas" information. I'm not sure Texans know this, but there are books without "Texas" in the title. That being said checking out a book at a library involves bring back said book...which seems like a lot of work. So instead I took to the Internet to supply me Texas history.
My first stop was wikipedia. Wikipedia gets a bad rap, but I think a lot of it is from people who were dumb enough to pay hundred of dollars for a printed encyclopedia, when they can get the same info online for free. That being said I have come across bad info. For instance, consider the following:
As of the 2006 US Census estimates, the racial and ethnic distribution in Texas are as follows:
48.9% White non-Hispanic
German (10.9%)
English (7.2%)
Scots-Irish (7.2%)
11.6% African American
3.3% Asian American
0.6% American Indian
13% other racial groups
35.7 total Hispanic or Latino[5]
White Hispanic 21.0%
Mexican (25.3%)
Let me save you the math. That adds up to 113.1 percent. Apparently everything is bigger in Texas.
After reading that I soon learned that the Texas State Fair is going on right this very minute, and being easily distracted I instantly started looking up the Sate Fair giving up quest of Texan knowledge. I justified this by asking myself, "What better way to learn about Texas, then a celebration of Texas?" Also I am a sucker for a fair...I don't know why really. I think the Minnesota State Fair is pretty awesome, but the only reason I can come up with is that I like the food there. I apparently can recreate the best parts of the fair with a deep fryer and random edible items to insert into it. Like a twinkie, banana, anything chocolate, or the usual like french fries.
Anyway I went to the Texas State Fair web page to learn about it. It is apparently in Dallas, which is only about 4 hours from here. The first thing I did was check out to see what was part of the entertainment package at the fair. With everything being bigger and Texas, and Austin being the live music capital of the world, I expected the fair to have a large music offering...boy was I wrong. On the list of "entertainers" the most recognizable was Bell Biv Devo, which they describe as the super group that came from New Edition...The rest are presumably struggling country singers...and an Elvis impersonator! Oh wait!! I take it all back...Jessica Simpson is going to be there!
My first stop was wikipedia. Wikipedia gets a bad rap, but I think a lot of it is from people who were dumb enough to pay hundred of dollars for a printed encyclopedia, when they can get the same info online for free. That being said I have come across bad info. For instance, consider the following:
As of the 2006 US Census estimates, the racial and ethnic distribution in Texas are as follows:
48.9% White non-Hispanic
German (10.9%)
English (7.2%)
Scots-Irish (7.2%)
11.6% African American
3.3% Asian American
0.6% American Indian
13% other racial groups
35.7 total Hispanic or Latino[5]
White Hispanic 21.0%
Mexican (25.3%)
Let me save you the math. That adds up to 113.1 percent. Apparently everything is bigger in Texas.
After reading that I soon learned that the Texas State Fair is going on right this very minute, and being easily distracted I instantly started looking up the Sate Fair giving up quest of Texan knowledge. I justified this by asking myself, "What better way to learn about Texas, then a celebration of Texas?" Also I am a sucker for a fair...I don't know why really. I think the Minnesota State Fair is pretty awesome, but the only reason I can come up with is that I like the food there. I apparently can recreate the best parts of the fair with a deep fryer and random edible items to insert into it. Like a twinkie, banana, anything chocolate, or the usual like french fries.
Anyway I went to the Texas State Fair web page to learn about it. It is apparently in Dallas, which is only about 4 hours from here. The first thing I did was check out to see what was part of the entertainment package at the fair. With everything being bigger and Texas, and Austin being the live music capital of the world, I expected the fair to have a large music offering...boy was I wrong. On the list of "entertainers" the most recognizable was Bell Biv Devo, which they describe as the super group that came from New Edition...The rest are presumably struggling country singers...and an Elvis impersonator! Oh wait!! I take it all back...Jessica Simpson is going to be there!
Monday, October 6, 2008
Community Service
I am slowly gearing up for the move into my new house. It is still about 2 weeks away from me being able to move in, since it doesn't make sense for me to set my things up when the tile and carpet need to be put in. Two weeks when compared to most lifetimes is a short amount to be waiting, but really I've been waiting since April when I first decided I was going to move, and I'm not a patient person. I try to find methods of coping with my with my impatience, and the best way seems to be thinking of things to put in my home. I have been browsing craigslist daily, and have even went to a few Goodwills, to try to find diamonds in the rough...let me tell you though, most Goodwills are all rough...no diamonds. My plan in the next couple months is to try to find nice things for cheap, and failing that, just buy the things I need. I keep trying to think about practical things that I'll need, like a desk, or a BBQ. BBQ doesn't sound that practical but when it's 90 degrees out every day you don't want to be cooking in the house that often. I'm going to need bookshelves, tables, chairs, shower curtains, and all those little things...but I can't seem to think about any of it, until I get the most important thing organized...the living room. Really it's all that matters to me in a house. How big is the living room? How will I be able to set up my home theater, and couches? These questions keep me up at night. So I finally just concluded that until I figure out what I want and need for the living room I'm going to be unable to think about the rest of the house. So I've been looking for a TV stand or an entertainment tower, since I stupidly decided that mine was not important enough to be one of the things I could fit for the move here, and let me just say that it is impossible to find a decent setup at a decent price. Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to spend my entire furniture budget on a TV stand, but it just doesn't seem right. I've been shopping the usual websites, craigslist, Bestbuy, Target, Froogle, searching for a decent stand and have come up with nothing. Everything is to ugly or to expensive, but mostly not in stock. Apparently Austin had a surge in demand of entertainment centers, as they are hard to find. Especially if you have a 50 inch Plasma. So today I decided to give up on the search for entertainment centers and instead decided to buy some speaker wire and other cables I thought I might need. And this is where my community service comes in. If you're like me you've been buying you cables and speaker wires at the store. I know when I bought my Ps3 I paid 70 dollars for a 3ft HDMI cable. It was the cheapest they had at the time. They tried to push the 90 dollar version but I thought I was to smart for them. You see I know that HDMI is a digital signal and unlike an analog signal Digital signals pretty much work, or don't work...so buying the souped up version of an HDMI cable really does you no good. So I was a genius for buying the 70 dollar version saving myself 2o dollars which meant I was going to buy one 30 dollar BluRay DVD. My math is sound unless we are talking electronics...then logic goes out the window. So about a year ago I found a website, www.monoprice.com which turns out is the greatest website known to man. I just bought 3 super duty 6ft HDMI cables for like 4.50 a piece. So the price came to like 13.50, plus 6 dollars shipping, so I bought 3 of them for under 20 bucks...At Walmart I think HDMI cables are 30 bucks...best website ever. I also bought 100 ft of speaker wire...I don't really need it, but it was so cheap I figured I might as well. I also bought 2 speaker stands for 12.50 (for both). They are like 70 in the store. I've even considering buying a wallmount for the TV. I don't particularly like wallmounts. They are very modern and nice looking, but I've been known to randomly decide to move my entire living room around for no reason, and having my TV stuck to the wall would limit this possibility. So yes...go to monoprice.com if you ever need any time of cable or anything for a TV.
Friday, October 3, 2008
man without a country...
Have you ever read that book? I think I have...or may be it was an excerpt...I think I had the gist of it....I did see the movie "Terminal" with Tom Hanks. It is one of my favorites by the way. It's really swell. He has to eat ketchup on crackers because he doesn't have any money but he has to stay in the airport because his country no longer exists. Then he somehow gets a construction job and buys a suit to impress a lady...Interesting side note, they built that entire terminal set just for the movie. But I digress...I am feeling like a man without a country right now. I just moved to Texas and I've living out of boxes, which is frustrating. I have a house to live in but it is being upgraded. It is more that adequate the way it is, but they are putting in new floors and fixtures and marble counter tops and lots of things that don't have to do with where I put my television, which is my main concern. Anyway I am definitely pleased that I will be living large soon, however things take time and until then I am living at my brothers. All of my things are packed away at the house I am going to be living in, so it is basically like I am on vacation somewhere. Vacation where I have to work. The frustrating part is living out of boxes, and not being able to set up life. For instance, mail. I can't set up my mail yet as I'm not living there. I could forward everything to my brothers but that doesn't make much sense since I will be in the new house in a couple weeks. So my mail is currently going to my house in Angora, MN...and my father hasn't proven to be the most reliable of sources of passing on my mail. I also can't really explore my new neighborhood the way I would like. I suppose I could spend the day just driving around Kyle, TX but really I don't have the time. Besides having to do my work, my spare time is spent painting walls and installing lights. Never mind that I have to be at the new house in 4 hour chunks to get water, electricity, gas, and cable hooked up. It really is ridiculous. This is how you get your gassed turned on. You first call the City of Kyle and ask them to turn the gas on. They say that you need to prove first that there are no leaks, which means you have to call a plumber. The plumber who is apparently always busy picks a day he can go there and tells you he will be there sometime between 6AM and 6PM so you sit and wait at the house all damn day only to have the plumber come for 5 minutes and plug in a pressure reader. He then says he has to wait a day and see if the pressure stays the same. So you do the same thing the next day waiting for the plumber...who then comes for 5 minutes and checks the pressure valve. He then says it's OK and you call back the city of Kyle and tell them to come turn on the gas. They then tell you that in 5 days they will send someone out there to check if you are lying about having the pressure checked. So you wait all day that day for some guy to show up, look at the pressure thing just like the plumber just did and he puts a green tag on it...he then tells you it will be another week before they can come out and turn the valve to turn the gas on...even though he has all the tools with him...that's not his job...he just puts on stickers. Houses are frustrating and I can't wait till it's all done. I should note however that there are worse places to be stuck living then at my brothers house on a country club on a golf course...It is nice being here and I enjoy living with him and bonnie, they make me feel very welcome...so may be I shouldn't complain...
on to my second reason why I am feeling like a man without a country. Politics.
I listened to the first debate on the radio on my drive here to Texas. And I watched about 3/4 of the VP debate last night, and I have to say I'm not that impressed with either party right now. I'm pretty sure that who ever wins things will change for the better, just having a fresh face in the office will hopefully help. That being said I'm disheartened that Obama isn't really the agent of change that I want him to be, and McCain isn't the straight talker I want him to be. Listening and watching the debates I have noticed that both sides just spit out statistics that are bent and twisted to a point where they don't even make sense. If you are a straight talker why would have to twist words to try to make yourself look better? If you were a real straight talker you would just give plain facts...facts that weren't twisted...that way when the opposition said twisted facts you could call them out right out in front of an entire nation. But instead you're doing the same thing they are doing, so you can't call them out because they will call you out, and you will spend the entire debate like this.
Moderator: Person one I will start with you; Is grass green?
Person 1: Grass is not blue.
Person 2:Grass is not blue, but what person 1 has said isn't the entire truth. Grass is also not orange.
Person 1: Oh come on now, we all know grass is also not orange.
And if you've noticed this is pretty much how the debates go. If you want to be an agent of change or a straight talker...try just saying the truth, and in a way that doesn't resemble a lie. I don't care how you vote, but I hope you go to factcheck.org and check out some of the actual facts.
on to my second reason why I am feeling like a man without a country. Politics.
I listened to the first debate on the radio on my drive here to Texas. And I watched about 3/4 of the VP debate last night, and I have to say I'm not that impressed with either party right now. I'm pretty sure that who ever wins things will change for the better, just having a fresh face in the office will hopefully help. That being said I'm disheartened that Obama isn't really the agent of change that I want him to be, and McCain isn't the straight talker I want him to be. Listening and watching the debates I have noticed that both sides just spit out statistics that are bent and twisted to a point where they don't even make sense. If you are a straight talker why would have to twist words to try to make yourself look better? If you were a real straight talker you would just give plain facts...facts that weren't twisted...that way when the opposition said twisted facts you could call them out right out in front of an entire nation. But instead you're doing the same thing they are doing, so you can't call them out because they will call you out, and you will spend the entire debate like this.
Moderator: Person one I will start with you; Is grass green?
Person 1: Grass is not blue.
Person 2:Grass is not blue, but what person 1 has said isn't the entire truth. Grass is also not orange.
Person 1: Oh come on now, we all know grass is also not orange.
And if you've noticed this is pretty much how the debates go. If you want to be an agent of change or a straight talker...try just saying the truth, and in a way that doesn't resemble a lie. I don't care how you vote, but I hope you go to factcheck.org and check out some of the actual facts.
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