I’m getting excited about this.
Who Am I This Time?
Sorry, I haven’t written in a while. There hasn’t been much to say. Holli and I celebrated 2 months on Tuesday, but she had to work, so we didn’t really do anything special. We didn’t even have supper together.
Wednesday we had auditions. DSU’s spring production is going to be a couple smaller-casted plays. One I know is called “The Actor’s Nightmare” where a man suddenly finds himself in a play. He doesn’t know the lines or the characters or even what play it is, yet the show must go on. It’s a comedy, and it pokes some fun at theatre. Then there was another piece that Sue was adapting for stage. I don’t remember what it was called, but I read the part of Harry, a shy man who becomes each character he is cast with every fibre of his being. One of this lines, after being asked to audition for a new production, was “Who am I this time?”
The auditions went well, I think. Holli had to leave a little early for Senate, but there were only four of us there, total. This meant that we read the entirety of “The Actor’s Nightmare”, and we read the other one twice through. I haven’t decided if I’m attending tonight’s rehearsal.
Uhh… what else, what else. I don’t know. I got a lot of books on tape. I figure, Dad does it, Holli’s doing it, and I don’t have much time to read anymore. When I do, reading seems to make me really tired. My first book will be The Horse and His Boy, by CS Lewis. I started reading this one, so I want to continue it. And finish it. And suchforth.
I don’t know. I’m rambling again. Still ill, but a couple steps closer to actually seeing a “D”-word about it. Not many, mind you. Additions to the website coming soon.
Cheers.
Guess Who Lost
Now look at that. I could never be a sports writer. I just ruined the result of the game in the title. Imagine if you wanted some buildup, some sort of dramatic crescendo to the results of the game this Saturday. I just ruined it. Sure, you can get stats on ESPN, but you wanted a flair, a creative, artistic writeup of the event, something to captivate and entrance as well as entertain and inform.
Well, I’m really freakin’ sorry, but titles aren’t very easy to come up with.
So, Saturday. It seems a long time ago. Still fighting my illness, I purchased some new medicine stuff, hoping that it would help out. What I got was Benedryl. As it turns out, the best thing Benedryl did for me was turn me into a zombie (and not the cool kind, either). Our plan was to meet people at 5:30pm. Holli wanted to go to Wal-mart first, so we left at around 4:00 or so.
I fell asleep on the way up. Wal-mart was what is expected of Wal-mart. I don’t even remember what she got. I do remember that we walked around and ended up at the DVD arena. And I remember being angry at some DVD or something. I don’t know. Holli was disappointed that Wal-mart only had certain seasons of shows. If you’re going to have Season 4 and Season 5, why not carry Seasons 1, 2, and 3? Stupid Wal-mart.
Then we met the Circus at Z’kota. There was an enormously large number of people there. There was me, Holli, mom, dad, Molly, Laura (Molly’s friend), Brenna, Sue, Bryce, Lindsey, Chris, Kelsey, Tony, Tyler, David, and Chris Fellows. That was a mouth full. Anyway, I was pretty out of it, so I mostly just sat there and ate my gigantic burger. From there we headed to Frost Arena. Of course, we had to follow Bryce, and (of course) he was ten miles away before we pulled out of the parking lot. Never let Bryce lead the way.
Frost Arena is peppered with Daktronics Sports Marketing stuff, which Holli interns for. So, we got a picture. The scoreboard was pretty impressive, and massive, and bright. We took our seats and enjoyed the game, which was close. In the end NDSU lost by only 2 points (and it was a pretty close 2 points). It was a good game.
Afterwards, we waited to talk to Tim. He gave a press conference, then he talked to people. Then Tony stole a cowbell (those SDSUers love their cowbells). Then we drove back home.
Lazy sunday. Holli went to Mass with me. We watched the rest of Arrested Development Season 3. I gave up on medication and have taken up medical marijuana. Monday Holli worked all day, so I lounged around here and tried to get some writing done. I did get a really bad skit hacked up, and I felt very ashamed to have to Bytes perform it. Met with Megan. She took Haji for the weekend, got her wisdom teeth out, and got Haji back after Bytes rehearsal. Then Holli and I rented a movie (The Corpse Bride) which I found disappointing, and then I came back here and went to bed.
Well, that’s not exactly true. I checked my email quick, and I rediscovered some folders on my desktop that were related to web design. So, I checked them out. I decided that one of the them (BubbleTooltips) would be easy enough to integrate onto the website, so I did it. I started to integrate another one, but it proved more tricky, so I didn’t do it. Then I realized that I was hungry, so I grabbed what was left of my chinese food from lunch and my mountain dew from evening and I consumed both. Then I got to thinking about all the vast number of plugins for WordPress, and I went a-searching and I installed about a dozen of them, activated them, tested them, and then either integrated them or deleted them. I did stick with the Last.fm plugin for sure, but many of the others weren’t game for 2.0, so I didn’t try to make them work.
Man, that was a rambling post.
Karl Pilkington
He’s thinking, “This isn’t right. As much as I love bananas, this isn’t right.”
House Keeping
Matt, Carrie, originally uploaded by m!les.
Well, I’ll try to keep this short as I have a basketball game to write about tomorrow or Monday.
First off (and I already posted this, but) Holly Smith and Bob Davidson are engaged to be married!
How did the rest of my week go? It went well. I forgot to mention that The DSU Drama Club put on an event at the Beverly retirement home in Madison. An impressive number of members showcased all kinda of artistic talents that they had. Of course, I took pictures for everyone.
Another big thing was that I was asked to give a talk on Hyperion, a new product that we’re hosting at CRESH. I was very nervous about the talk, because I really don’t know that much about Hyperion beyond what I’ve figured out with messing with it on my own. The talks seemed to go well. They were for Professor Josh Pauli‘s classes which met conveniently enough to allow me to rearrange my schedule and not have to miss class or work for it.
Holli and I are now done with Season Two of Arrested Development. I wager that by tomorrow, even, we’ll be done with Season Three, and then we’ll have nothing to do when we’re together. Leave suggestions for how we can fill our time together in the comments.
In somewhat disappointing news, a skit I had written called Happy 125 DSU was going to be performed at the Spring Convocation. However, due to timing issues, the only way the Student Senate could fit it in is if I could chop down the 12 minute skit to a 7 minute skit. I decided that to maintain the “artistic integrity” (read: all the funnyness) of the piece, such a cut wouldn’t be possible, and I opted instead to not perform it. Hopefully we’ll get our chance to do it later on this year.
In somewhat depressing news, I’m still sick and not getting much better. It’s taken a lot of pills to make very little improvement upon my situation. I’m trying new medication, but Holli keeps dropping the “d” word. She even threatened to “stop feeling sorry” for me until I went and saw a “d”, but I’m so terribly pathetic that she hasn’t been able to keep that up.
On the other hand, I’ve been learning a little Ruby on Rails. Who knows what killer internet app I can write with it. I may even take over the world, one object at a time.
Ok, now I’m going to bed. I should have been asleep an hour ago, but I didn’t want to leave you guys hanging. You… you complete me.
Great News!
Holly Smith and Bob Davidson are engaged to be married!
Happy Valentine’s Day
What did you say?!, originally uploaded by m!les.
So, I’ve been sick lately. Like, really sick, and I just can’t manage to shake it. Nothing I’ve tried has worked. I was so medicated all weekend that I totally missed what a rotten time Holli had, and on Monday I couldn’t feel my teeth. Well, no more. With only two pills remaining, I convinced myself that on Tuesday I would be all better so that I could have a sick-free Valentine’s Day.
I’m kind of an idiot. I don’t know why I thought that would work.
I woke earlier than my alarm, as per usual during this illness bought. I immediately got to work on two unfinished parts of Holli‘s Valentine’s Day presents: Songs to Listen to UpsideDown. It was a mix CD in two parts. It was going to be eclectic. I’ve been gradually introducing her to the various artists I favor, and this was going to be a way I could push the “weird” envelope (like I don’t already).
As such, my progress on the CDs took such time as I couldn’t make it to my first class, AJAX. As it turned out, Holli had bought for me an lol card (*awwww*), and, based on her understanding of my schedule, that was the best time to send it. Well, I missed my greeting.
I’d also written Holli a poem (which is also a wallpaper), so I planted the handwritten part of the poem and the CDs on her door and I went to class. At class I learned that I have to give a lecture on Thursday to Professor Pauli (Josh)’s, and I also learned (via email) that I had missed Holli’s lol. But, we made plans to eat lunch. With the illness, I really can’t talk that well, so singing would be a lost cause, which afforded me an open lunch hour.
At lunch I gave her her next present, some chocolates that I bought in front of her in Big Stone. Then we got some lunch. There was this African drum band playing, and they were nice, but they were kinda loud. We had to leave at around 1 so she could change into her Drama Club shirt and deliver lol cards. It was there that she discovered presents one, two, and three. Man, I’m am really damn good at this sweet boyfriend stuff. Seriously, I got the poetry thing down, and music, and I listen to girls and understand emotions. A tiny voice in the back of my head wondered how Bryce’s pink elephant gift went. Last I knew, when he gave it to her, he was going to have it say, “You’re my favorite Republican!”
From there I went to class, she delivered lols and I got my first surprise of the day when they showed up to deliver two lol cards to me in my class. The first was read by David and was written by David. The next was read by Ben Fox and was written by Holli. Holli was there, mind you, but she played guitar and winked. After hugging Ben and David, the lolers left and the class resumed working on our assignment. I ate the chocolate almost immediately.
After class I went to the library to tutor with Tom. I recounted for Tom the story of the lols, and then Holli showed up. She had a present for me. I unwrapped it and discovered Arrested Development Season 2! I have wanted this for weeks. After I bought Season 1, I was just going to copy Season 2 from John Larson. Then I thought, why do that? I love this show. I’ll just buy it. So, I announced my plans to purchase Season 2, but Holli would say, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” At first I would misunderstand this, thinking that she was lecturing me on the value of money. Then I would come to understand that she really meant that I shouldn’t buy it because she had plans to buy it for me. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting that she had plans to buy it for me, so this situation repeated itself three or four times until it stuck, and I quit making resolves to buy Season 2.
Feeling no better time, I read aloud (and loudly) my lol card to Holli in the library. It inspired Tom to pen a Valentine’s Day poem for Kristen Grimm, full of inside jokes and crude references to grisly murders. No, I made that last part up.
From there I hit up Lewis quick to buy more medicine. It had become apparent in the hours since I was last under the umbrella of medication that I wasn’t going to out will this illness. At work I discovered a message from Morgan on my board, started to prepare my lecture, and left a message for both Morgan and John.
I stopped by Holli’s to pick her up for supper. We decided on Common Grounds, but it was less than stellar. I think, in switching locations, they lost a lot of the coffee house charm that they had. They seem more “Midwest” instead of “artsy”. They used to have art-for-sale on the walls, but no more. And the food is expensive. I was disappointed. I think the next time I go there, it’ll just be for the Jet Tea Smoothies.
From here Holli went to work, I worked on some stuff at home, and when she came over later, we hit the store, she bought us ice cream at DQ, and we watched Arrested Development Season 2. All-in-all, it was a pretty good Valentine’s Day. Apparently, part of my V-Day present is still coming, so this might be an extended holiday for me. How did you guys do? Oh, yeah. I had to beat Holli senseless at DQ.
The Weather
The weather today seems quite a bit insulting. Mocking, even.
Making It to Marshall
About a 10, originally uploaded by m!les.
I feel like that dog sled guy who would come to our schools in Grade School and tell us about how crazy-cold the snow is in Alaska. You know, Vern something. Why do I feel like him? Cause we totally almost died this weekend.
My ill-fated journey began the night before we left. Holli and I were dining with Holly Smith and Bob Davidson at a local cafe. This is where I began to feel the effects of some sort of illness. I managed to catch on digital film the awesomeness of our meal, but I felt none the better for it. The cafe, in fact, was undergoing renovations, and they were down to one waitress for the entire building. And she wasn’t very good.
The next day it appeared that it would snow something fierce. There was cloudy skies and blowing snow and drifting and all kinds of horribleness, that, for a moment, it appeared that we could not make the journey. Holli, however, was very eager to do it. “We can! We have to!” she would say. And so, we did.
We loaded up her vehicle, and she drove. I was starting to feel the beginning effects of the illness that would, in time, claim my life. I road shotgun and picked the music. Our goal was to beat the darkness to Marshall, but Darkness rides on hoofed angels, and it was really cloudy. The drive was awful. Bryce called to remind us that we were missing the beginning of the Arrested Development 4 episode season finale.
We finally get there. Bryce tries, real quick-like, to fill us in on what we missed during the commercials, but we really just tune him out. We order pizza, Katie Burnight, Holli’s best-friend-from-high-school comes over, and to finish up the night we played some games with Katie’s friend Lori. Losing pretty handily at Trivial Pursuit DVD edition to Bryce and Lindsey, I faked a stroke and we all went to bed.
I didn’t sleep well. I woke up at 7:30 and showered and hung out waiting for everyone else to wake up, which was like four hours later. After Bryce woke up, we decided on a game plan for food. Bryce asked where we wanted to eat. I asked if they had a Burger King, which they did. So, being hungry, Bryce, Holli, and I jetted to Burger King to eat. While in line, Bryce suddenly blurts out, “We have a KFC. Do you like KFC?” For a moment he thought that he had forgotten to list that off, but there had been no list; there had only been choice. He continued to bring up random facts about KFC until we were pretty sure he wanted us to eat there instead.
It was here that we noticed how much Holli rolls her eyes. I have always naturally assumed that she rolls her eyes when she’s excited. Her eyes get fluttery, like they just can’t look at one thing, they have to take in the world! At least, that’s the only explanation I can come up with as to why she rolls her eyes so many times around me. I’m just that amazing. Bryce started to keep track. He was just as fascinated with this profound new “excitement meter” as I was.
Then Bryce gave us a tour of the school, including the Forbidden Zones, and we learned a whole lot about what to steal, where to steal from, how to get away with it, and how often to attempt to steal it. Oh, and the Spur.
After the tour we visited Katie’s apartment, looked at her room (which is covered in photos), met her roommate Allison and her roommate’s little buddy, Maria. They were making a super wide, strange-looking yarn bracelet. We never did figure out what it was supposed to look like. After some chit-chat there, and some TV watching, and some catching up, we headed back to Bryce’s to have some lasagna which Lindsey and Bryce made and watch some Season One of Arrested Development. I’ve seen Season One enough to have most of the dialogue memorized.
After food we went to the basketball game. It was here that Holli noticed that her cellphone was missing. Bryce had some uber-problems with the paper (and getting a camera for pictures), and after sitting with the students, we instead sat in front of the band. It was here that one of the opponents got a rebound and got fowled. Then he suddenly screams “AHHHHH!” with Bryce standing right in front of him. Bryce cowers and begins to shrink away when the crowd answers back with “AHHHHHH!”. He practically jumped into Lindsey’s arms. He was pretty sure the basketball player was coming after him.
Then we rented Red-Eye. We actually wanted to rent Elizabethtown, but no place in Marshall had it. Bryce had tried another list to help us figure out what to do, but a list is only as good as the person who decides to take charge of it, and if someone wants to take charge of it, then why don’t they just figure out what everyone wants to do? More eye rolling, and everyone was guilty this time. I fell asleep during Red-Eye, and I’m not sure that I missed much of anything.
Sunday, then, was mostly mass, cell phone searching, cell phone locating (it was in her car), and Mike’s Cafe. Bryce seemed keen on getting me to talk, even though my voice was nearly non-existant. Despite my attempts at making Holli my megaphone, I eventually gave up, attempted to actually talk to people, and then just lapsed into moody silence, as is my perogative.
The drive back was nicer than the drive up, and I got a little sleep in. God bless Holli for driving me around. I think, all in all, it was a great weekend. Holli seemed to get alone really well with Bryce and Lindsey. I haven’t read it yet, but I know that Holli posted about this weekend. Bryce’s post seemed pretty positive, too. I guess, despite my crippling desease and illness ravaged body, everyone had a great time.
Arrested Development Over?
It seems to me that maybe Arrested Development is over, but at least it got a great ending.
Back to Big Stone
Check out all the pictures on my special Big Stone photo set.
Well, I was kinda expecting this to be long, but I feel absolutely awful today, so I’ll keep it short. Basically, Holli got to live with my family for a weekend. All that was missing was Bryce, and hopefully we’ll make that up this weekend. David accompanied us back (and forth), which was nice. I think sitting in the back made it hard for him to be in the conversation, so he played Diablo II the whole way. He’s done saving the world, and now he’s saving Hell.
Not much exciting happened, but it was a nice weekend. What made it extra nice was that Tony made the journey back to hang with us. That was cool. We watched Chicago, the movie, which my mom owned. It’s a bit racier than I had anticipated, which caused some mad-crazy sexual tension between me and Tony. Holli pretended not to notice.
Tony taught Holli cribbage, and then he beat us both handily (what happened to my skillz??). David came over with Tyler and two chicks, and we watched ghost specials on TV. We also had Sunday morning mass, where I played guitar with Mom. I got my laundry done in the new, space-age washer and dryer set. Everytime I come back they have something new…
Note: if you see Hogan, his new nickname is Doofus, and he totally lived up to it. Holli decided that Patches was her favorite of the dogs (go Patch!) but, also, he’s probably dying. At least, that’s how it looks to me. I had a really good time this weekend. Holli seemed to fit in really well with my family and Tony. She said that everyone made it really easy for her to “just be Holli”. So, I appreciate that, family and Tony and David and Tyler and chicks.
Other things: the blogs are back up and running. You’re going to see a lot of changes to MilesRausch.com in the coming weeks as I hack and slash this theme into what I want from it. Who knows what craziness I’ll add!
lol greeting cards are going well. We’ve sold at least 10 so far, and we’ve even had orders from as far away as Omaha. I think it’ll be a big hit.
I took some pictures the other day when I really had nothing else to do. Toodles.
Vault Soda
Vault soda is not worth the money. It’s just Mello Yello.
Faces
You know, some people have the kind of face that appears different in every photograph. You look at the person, but you can’t really recognize them in any pictures – they look different everytime.
Happy Birthday Brenna!
Brenna turns ten years younger than me today. I mean 13. Did you get her anything as cool as this?
Also, for the downtime, I am working on bringing the blogs back up. Right now I have Holli back up, and David should be up soon, as well. I’ll keep you guys posted as I get the others back up and going. Themes may be a little while in getting set up, yet, but I’ll try to get you a nice selection to choose from.