A random hodge-podge about whatever I feel like at the moment

I feel like I haven't been a good blogger lately, my updates haven't been as frequent of late, mainly because I haven't done anything worth mentioning of late. Really, the past few days have just been spent reading (Then We Came to the End), sleeping (when I'm not sweating all the time), watching episodes of The Office (which has been great, I think episode 1 of season 3 ["Gay Witch Hunt"] was one of the funniest TV shows I've seen in a while, season 3 has been amazing this far, I'm 11 episodes deep), playing video games (SMU has gone on a streak, we've won our last 3 Big-12 games and are bowl-eligible), and avoiding the 90-plus degree heat as much as possible. Which means either sitting between two fans at home or going somewhere the air conditioning has been running. This weekend the a/c might need to be turned on here, it's supposed to get in the upper-90's, and the humidity is supposed to be on the rise. Great.

I'm getting really excited about going to Milwaukee next weekend to see the Brewers/Royals series with KP. It should be an awesome time, it turns out that a friend of mine from work is getting married in Milwaukee the Saturday that we'll be up there, so we're going to be crashing the reception and imbibing the free beer that will be available. Then, we'll find a place to stay the night and maybe hit up the game the next day, which just so happens to be Bill Hall bobble head giveaway day. Sweet! (And A, if you're reading this, I hope you liked the game tonight. That'll teach you to talk shit about a series before it's over, the Royals wiped the walls with the Cardinals tonight, 17-8, and won the series 2-1. Way to go.)

I think now, just for H, I'll list off the Hawkeyes (current and former) that I've seen out and about in the past week: Seth Gorney, Matt Roth, Nate Kaeding, Albert Young, Dace Richardson, Jake Christensen, Duez Henderson.

Speaking of former collegiate athletes, Bill interviewed former Iowa State Cyclone and current professional basketball player Paul Shirley today. Shirley's senior year at ISU was my freshman year there, and I would occasionally see him eating in my dorm's dining center. And occasionally I'd sit next to him (for lack of another seat) and strike up a conversation, just about whatever, trying to not bring up the fact that he was nearly 7-feet tall and on the basketball team. He went to Iowa State on an academic scholarship, and is extremely easy to talk to, so we had all these short snippets of small talk. Anyways, when Bill was here this week, I jokingly told him to ask Mr. Shirley if he remembered me from the Friley Hall Dining Center. Little did I know that Bill would actually ask him. Unfortunately, Paul didn't remember me, and probably won't be calling me to catch up any time soon. I don't blame him, he's probably talked to all sorts of interesting dudes, and has a hard time remembering some random redhead from nearly 9 years ago. I forgive you Paul.

Well, it's time for bed now. And since the "internet" isn't really working right now, this will probably be posted in the morning, but don't be fooled. This was really written at the time it states, 11:45 PM on Thursday night.

5 Burning Questions (an interview by Minty)

Well, you are now reading the blog of the newest member of the Buffalo Wild Wings' Blazin' Hall of Fire. At the BWW in Iowa City, you become a member by downing 18 of the Blazin' Hot Sauce wings in under 5 minutes. I got it done in just over 4, which was a little disappointing to me, but I finished, and that's all that really matters. Honestly, it wasn't that hot. I went through them so fast, it didn't have that much of an affect on me. The hardest thing was actually eating the wings in the time allotted. The wings had just come out of the fryer, so they were hot to the touch, and burned my mouth just from their temperature. So now, if you're in the area, look for my picture on the wall, and I can show you my new shirt, proclaiming my accomplishment. (Naturally, I got ice cream afterwards)

Today's post is an interview of The Flenker by Minty! She posed some thought-inducing questions, which were a pleasure to answer! If anyone out in the ether wants to be interviewed by Flenker, read the directions at the bottom of the post. Without further ado, let's get Minty on Flenker.

1. What day/event would you relive/redo if you could?

If it's just one to straight-up relive and have the same experience, it would probably be the day that the Iowa Hawkeye football team destroyed Ohio State in Kinnick a few years ago. And not just because of the Hawkeye win, but it was just overall a great fall day. The weather was almost perfect for me, I watched the game in Muscatine, sat in the hot tub, and had an excellent night back in Iowa City. All around, a good time.

As for one that I would like to redo, it gets a little trickier. There are a lot of things that I've been reflecting back on, things I think I should've handled differently. At first I thought I would redo my whole going to Iowa State University, but then I wouldn't know some of my best friends, including Bill, Heinricy, Charczuk, Jim, and others. I also, in turn, wouldn't know Haley, and may not have ended up in this here blogosphere. And, my life would've been totally different, I wouldn't have had many of the experiences that I've lived. That's not to say that one way is better than the other, I can't say that. But I don't regret what I've done and where I've been in that regard. I think the main events in my life that I would like to redo are the social events, when I've just been awkward and all-in-all a party pooper. I wish I would've been more supportive of going to different parties. And I wish I wouldn't let a negative attitude towards things (movies, bands, people, etc.) get me in such a bad mood, to the point where I can't enjoy anything, and I bring the other people around me down as well. I can think of a few instances of this happening in the past few months, and I apologize for all of them.

Also, I wish I would have gone to see the Apples in Stereo when they were in town a few months ago.

2. Is there a word that you can't spell correctly no matter how many times you try?

I know there are some, I just can't think of any right now. I'm usually a very good speller, and good grammatically, but every now and then my fingers don't want to work properly. Usually, I'll have troubles with words ending with an "-ly", not knowing if it is"-ally" or "-ely" or just simply "-ly." One of my favorite words to spell, conversely (see, I had to look that one up), is "awkward." Not only because it fits me so well, but I really like the w's being that close together.

3. You have to eat from one fine fast food establishment for every meal for the rest of your life; which is it and why?

Well, if Oasis counts, I would go there and eat falafel every day and be happy. I eat there almost every day as it is, so it wouldn't be too much of a change. But if I have to pick a more "traditional" fast food joint, I'll go with Wendy's. I could survive on Jr Bacon Cheeseburgers, fries, and a Frosty until the end of my days. (Of course, the fries would be dipped in the Frosty)

4. If you were given the chance, what famous person (dead or alive) would you want to interview you?

This is kind of a tough one for me, there are so many musicians and writers that I'd would love to find out what sort of questions they would ask of me, and how the conversation would go. But I think I'd have to go with Buck O'Neil. When he died last October, I literally cried, even though he had reached the age of 94, and had been in fairly poor health. As I've noted many times before, he's one of my heroes, and would love to have him pick my brain, and, even if he would be the one asking the questions, I would learn so much about baseball, and probably a lot about life. Of course, we'd have to toss a ball around, and catch a ballgame in Kansas City. Then we'd get some barbecue and have some iced tea.

5. Which Wilco song is your favorite from a lyrical standpoint? Which is your favorite from a musical standpoint?

Another excellent question, it's very hard to choose just one. . . Lyrically, "Pieholden Suite" is probably my favorite, while "Forget the Flowers" might be my favorite musically. Now if you ask me this again tomorrow, you may get two different answers. But I feel that both of these are solid songs.

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Now everyone else plays along! You may have seen this done elsewhere, but now it's your turn. Just follow these simple rules.

1. Leave me a comment on this post saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Radio Days

My last music recommendation post got me reflecting on my days as a DJ at ISU's college radio station, KURE. (note: when I was there, the logo was much cooler, I had nothing to do with this current one.) My buddy Chris Charczuk and I got a radio show, mainly because I knew a guy that lived down the hall from me that was in charge of "hiring" new people, so he hooked us up, and got us a decent airtime, lunchtime on Friday. So when people would be packing over lunch, before heading home for the weekend, they'd listen to us. At least, that's the way it worked in my mind. I imagine we had about 7 listeners, all friends. Much like readers for my blog.

Chris and I had similar music tastes, overlapping for the most part, but then around the fringes we'd differ. Which was nice, it added a little variety to our shows. We'd both have some "indie" bands to play, then we would add some harder, heavier stuff (not metal hard and heavy, but more grunge-ish, maybe. Though not quite grunge.) and I would play the punk and ska side of things. There were a few times when one of us couldn't make the show, whether it be a test or just feeling lazy and not wanting to get out of bed (yes, sometimes we'd be sleeping at noon on a Friday, it's college, you're supposed to, right?), so occasionally one of us would have the treat of doing a show on our own. Which was a little daunting at first, but once you got into the flow of things, it would just move right along, the two hours would fly past. Plus, there was a schedule of things we had to do, the public service announcements at :15 and :45 each hour, weather at :30, and station ID at the top of every hour. The promos and station ID's and a few other things were all on DAT, which would be testy most of the time, and wouldn't work correctly. I imagine they've upgraded since. Plus there was a (slow, very old) computer in there, so we'd give sports updates, because that's what all listeners of college radio want: to know how the Royals or Boston Bruins did the previous night.

Eventually, a few semesters later, we branched out and did our own, separate shows. Every once in a while, we'd make special "guest appearances" on the other's show, reuniting our old "Chris and Chris" fame. (yes, we were huge dorks. I guess it's redundant to say that in a post about being a college radio DJ, though.) Eventually, I started reviewing new CD's for the station, which was most excellent. I'd get most of the new indie/punk/random stuff before it came out! Some of my favorites that I got a sneak preview of included Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Now It's Overhead's self-titled album, The Shins' Oh, Inverted World, a few albums from the Mountain Goats, The (International) Noise Conspiracy's A New Morning, Changing Weather, and a host of others that I'm forgetting right now. All in all, a pretty sweet deal. I wasn't paid for it, but listening to the music was good enough.

I'd like to think that I did a decent job at DJ'ing, maybe it's something I should look into doing again. I mean, why not totally switch what I'm doing again? I could get into the glamorous world of radio!