I normally don’t post YouTube videos unless I muy muy love them. This is one such video.
You Get Used To Strange Band Names
Well, Holli turned 21 on Sunday. It was a much anticipated day for her, not so much in that she finally gets to drink, but in that she finally has the option of being able to drink, if she wants. I’ll let her tell you about the day we had, but I think she had a good birthday, and I did everything I could to make it special.
Check out my Holli’s 21st Birthday photoset.
At Certus, our boss-boss-boss is coming to visit, so us guys in the office have been getting all dressed up, ready to impress… only to have him cancel and reschedule. Then, it happens all over again. It’s like having a crappy boyfriend. You love him (and he loves you!), so you keep letting him do this to you. Hopefully, Thursday. Fingers are not crossed nor is breath held.
Strange band names, you say? Can you list some, you ask?
- +/- : Makes using any search engine to find information a little difficult
- Arcade Fire : Sounds like an 80s video game geek’s worst nightmare
- Death Cab for Cutie : Death – bad. Cutie – good. Cab – draw. The band does it all
- The Decemberists : Are there fan groups for months of the year?
- Hot Hot Heat : Redundant and repetitive much?
- In Ink Please : It’s a sentence; no, it’s a band name! (from North Dakota, at that!)
- The Long Winters : You guys would love The Decemberists
- Menomena : A name was chosen for “the way it rolls off the tongue, sexually, or something“, it really sounds more like a disease
- OK Go : For those who need a band to tell them what to do, but are tired of Marilyn Manson
- The Postal Service : While not expressly weird, it can be confusing if you want to mail one of their albums to a friend
- Rilo Kiley : It sounds like a name, but it’s not one that I’ve ever heard, and it doesn’t seem to belong to anyone in the band
- The Secret Handshake : If you stray too far into Google search results, you’ll enter a world of limp wrists and rainbows
- The Shins : Perhaps the most overlooked body part in music
- Snow Patrol : Who are we kidding? Snow needs no one to look after it
- Sufjan Stevens : It’s actually a name!
- Sunset Rubdown : You’re gonna do what to what??
- Taking Back Sunday : I know that Tuesday’s Gone, but I hadn’t heard of Sunday being misplaced
- They Might Be Giants : Who is? And are they, or aren’t they? And what are we going to do unless they are?
- Unicorns : Bryce and Tony have worse names for this band. I’ll let them explain that
- The Weakerthans : Nothing says “indie” like a self-deprecating name. At least, I think this is self-deprecating
- Weezer : see above
- Wolf Parade : A very funny visual image that quickly turns into a very horrifying visual image
- YasBM : Is it an acronym or just a desperate grasp at an untaken band name? If the BM means what I think it does, then that explains the quality of the music
If you do like indie music, and you want to see some acoustic concerts, check out these awesome Take-Away Shows. Do you guys have any weird band names you want to add?
Coach Tim Miles Mentions MilesRausch.com At CSU Press Conference; Sorta
Well, it’s official. Tim Miles has accepted a head basketball coaching position at Colorado State University. Below is a video of the highlights of the press conference. He even mentions MilesRausch.com!
Coach Miles joins the CSU Rams. Here are highlights from the press conference.
Music:
- Rob Costlow – Goodbyes
Alright, I lied. He never mentioned my site, but things sure sound strange out of context!
Elsewhere, online communicants are not quite so enamored with Tim as his family is. The Bison Media Blog has one such post. It’s not that the Media Blog hates Tim, it’s that some of its commenters do. Tony Rolfes, and myself, have decided to take up the cause. Here are some excerpts from the comments page.
The conversation turns ugly in a hurry. Four comments in, and a The Haters appear.
Honestly, people in the media, and idiot Bison Fans are going too far with the “Miles moving up” crap. Its seriously getting ridiculous. What has the guy actually accomplished?
– Didn’t even win the pathetic independent league this season.
– Never won an NCC title in D-II.
– His records in D-I have been: 16-8 this season against D-I’s, and 12-12 last season in D-I. Wow, I’m soooooo amazed.
– Pretty much lucked out getting Andre Smith to sign here, after he had committed to an A-10 school. Without that guy, NDSU hasn’t had a winning season yet.
So explain to me what he’s accomplished to warrant all of these big time job offers that are sure to come his way? Gotten two upset victories by playing a zone defense and praying to God for a bad shooting night from Marquette and Wisconsin? Ohh, how do I sign him, what an amazing coach to think of playing zone against Wisconsin. Oh wait, they already got knocked out of the tournament with a better team by playing games like that.
You guys are idiots. He’s not that great. All of these big time schools aren’t calling because he hasn’t gotten crap done.
And why I’m on this topic, NDSU isn’t going to be nearly as good next season with the loss of Dre. That guy opened up everything in your offense, and was a defensive beast. You could probably play 6-5 and not get the stats from two of your players he was putting up.
I’m sure you won’t believe me though… you’re winning because of a 5’11” guard (who gets his open looks from teams doubling dre). Right.
Posted by: So Stupid. on 3/20/2007 4:30 PM
Some remark that a name like “So Stupid.” speaks for itself. Speaking to defend Tim against The Haters, is Tony Rolfes, using the moniker BigTBison.
Every school Tim has gone to he’s turned the program around. No one can deny that. Has anyone ever thought that Tim might be trying to recruit a specific type of player? What if the kid is a great player but doesn’t listen to his coaches or his teacher. Not a type of kid I’d want on my team. Something to think about.
Posted by: BigTBison on 3/20/2007 6:11 PM
Take that, The Haters! Despite the crystal clear logic in Tony’s post, the response was harsh. The Haters don’t back down that easily.
Give me a break BigT, Miles and all of NDSU were drooling over signing Quavle. Your little revision of history isn’t going to fly, because I KNOW that Miles offered him. Its pretty pathetic that you act like Miles didn’t want the kid after he signed somewhere else.
Seriously, what is the “type” of player Miles is looking for? I bet you have no idea what that even means. I guess he must not be interested in 6’11” athletic centers, huh? No, Miles doesn’t want that on his team. LOL.
Point is Miles, for all of his “amazing” recruiting couldn’t land the big man of the future for his team from ND. Thats pathetic, and was the most needed piece on the team.
Posted by: Give me a break. on 3/20/2007 6:53 PM
The response is harsh and hard, using the word “pathetic” twice and a fully capitalized “LOL”. Tony, seeing that things could get out of hand, tries to bring a certain amount of self-restraint to the conversation.
Woo settle. I honestly don’t know anything about Quavle and if Tim did offer him and he rejected it that’s to bad. Maybe Quavle didn’t like that Tim was really really rediculasly good looking and it scareded him away. God damn you Tim Miles and your good looks!
Posted by: BigTBison on 3/20/2007 7:15 PM
Honesty is the best policy, and Tony uses his trademark humor to disarm his opponent. It must have worked, because a full three minutes passes without a response. Tony attempts a further advance with another post.
This picture would scare anybody! http://www.flickr.com/photos/awayken/421347712/
Posted by: BigTBison on 3/20/2007 7:18 PM
Some of you might recognize this picture. It’s one from my photostream on Flickr. This caused some confusion amongst family members trolling the site. My uncle Kevin saw the photo and recognized my Dad in the background, and he thought I was the source of the posting. This passed to my Mom and Dad, though no one knew what the website was or where it was located. All I knew was there was a website somewhere where someone posted some picture I took of Tim with my dad in the background. A little detective work, and I discovered it was actually Tony. He sent me a link to the site, and that’s where I got in on the action.
Despite being a Johnny-come-lately, I take up the Tim Miles Cause with this genius comment.
Who’s Tim Miles? Is he that guy who always takes his jacket off before every game? He’s hawt and aweseme.
BigTBison – that’s an AWESEME PICTURE!!!!!!!1!
Posted by: BigBisonFanButNotReallyUpOnSports on 3/23/2007 11:38 AM
Bamf, baby. Despite my comment taking place a full sixty-four hours after the comment it references, I obviously rended a devastating blow to The Haters. Not a single comment has been posted since. Tim Miles 1, The Haters 0.
Good luck, Tim! If you use Facebook, show your support with the Tim Miles is the BEST coach ever! group.
My Next PS2 Purchase
I’m really excited to get this. I’m going to beat Chicken Dance on hard.
I Love This Commercial.
I don’t know who Evan is. Who is Evan?
Why Being Incredibly Lonely Can Sometimes Be Super Awesome
People really discredit being lonely. With such a large assortment of “social” websites (see Facebook, MySpace), it’s sometimes hard to remember that people used to physically hang out with other people, once upon a time. But, why is there such a focus on being social on and off the internet? It’s because people don’t remember how to be lonely. They don’t recall how much fun it was sitting in your room, drawing fake tattoos on your arms, listening to The Cure (or Linkin Park), while writing love poetry to the wife you haven’t met yet.
Let’s explore the ways that being incredibly lonely can sometimes be super awesome.
- Lots of time to think to and about yourself
- You can file everything as “me time”, because it is!
- You don’t have to waste valuable time “finding yourself” because that’s what you’re doing 24/7
- You can exhaustively play over your largest or tiniest foibles over and over and over
- You cherish the time you spend with other people
- Family and friends become floating debris in an endless, black sea of nothingness
- You no longer think in terms of “Do I really want to go to that?” and start thinking in terms of “Dear God, Please Invite Me!!”
- Every minute with people who can stand you in their vicinity is worth its weight in gold (which is hard to measure, but worth it)
- Crying is your body’s way of leaking lonely
- Hobbies need love and attention, too
- All that time alone will let you perfect your unparalleled knowledge of lightsaber martial art forms
- Mozart didn’t get good at guitar by being social; he was born really good, so he didn’t have to practice much
- Who says video games and chat rooms are waste of time? Not lonely people like you!
- Learn to stalk; it will come in handy (trust me!!)
- Everyone loves a mopey-dopey
- You’ll spark conversations that start with “Why [the $%&!] are you so mopey?” and end with “I’m never going to talk to you again!” (said by you to them, in a huff)
- You’ll have everyone’s shoes memorized
- Death, misery, and suffering are topics that you’ll be able to speak on endlessly
- The music is awesome
- Lyrics can say what your heart knows as the poetry of loneliness; like cut my life into pieces / this is my last resort / suffocation / no breathing / don’t give a (doo-honky) if I cut my arms bleeding
- You can learn to play most of these songs on your guitar, assuming you can learn three or four bar chords (lolz)
- Your parents will appreciate that you play that one song on repeat, as they get a chance to memorize its hatefulness, too
So, you see, being lonely has its up sides. A capitalistic society puts a primary focus on being “number one” or “standing out from the crowd”, which promotes a solitary lifestyle. These people then find success (or at least money; rarely happiness), and they push that same lifestyle upon their friends, relatives, or (worst) children, which proliferates the cycle. This system of cycle-proliferation only serves to further the cause, which is great (!) for those of us desperate to have more lonely people around.
Remember: when friends and family have given up / loneliness will fill you up / with loneliness.
We Terrorize As We Shoot The Bird
I’m closing the eSIP voting page at 5pm CST on Thursday, March 8th. Results will be up the following Wednesday.
That picture is Apple’s System 7.5.3 running MacPaint on an emulated Macintosh Plus computer running on my iPod shuffle. If you want to, then you can do what I did.
This was going to be a post about the Aqua Teen scare a month ago. What had started as a publicity stunt turned into a terror alert, as citizens of Boston called police and bomb squads over some blinking LED cartoon characters. When I was going to research and write this, I pasted a link to a SignOnSanDiego.com write up of it. I was going to try to tie the whole thing to Philly cutting trans fats and Anna Nicole Smith’s death.
No dice.
My message to you guys is to write when you feel like it. Even if you only marginally feel like it, get out your whatever and write. Just do it.
This weekend was one of SNOW! Holy buckets. I had an idea for a Newsbleep that would actually be fake reporting about a real event as it happened. Then I decided to not film until Saturday, and the snow had stopped, and then it started melting. I’m not sure if I’ll finish writing the episode and shoot it anyway (as per Holli’s suggestion that it’d be funny to talk about a blizzard when the snow is all melting away) or just wait until it snows again or scrap it.
We also went on a mini Christopher Guest marathon. We watched This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, and A Mighty Wind, with For Your Consideration soon. I didn’t realize Eugene Levy was such a writer. Finally, last night, we watched The Departed, and both enjoyed it. Did it deserve an Oscar for Best Director? I’m not sure.
This weekend we’ll probably be heading to Big Stone City for whammy kicks and guitar giggles. Bring your rocking face or get your face rocked off!
P.S. Dan’s birthday was a good day for me, too. I got presents like a clever t-shirt and The Prestige.
Vote or Die
I don’t think you can use that phrase too much. Go vote, nerds. Vote, and to the victors, the spoils! Which, in this case, is a web graphic declaring your post as the winner!
If you vote more than once, I’ll take your latest vote, but please don’t make me go through that work. The voting page is above (where it says “2006 eSIP Awards Vote”) or you can use this hyperlink that points to the 2006 eSIP Awards Vote page.
Quick Links
Big Photo Update
I just uploaded a lot of pictures and videos.
Rendered Winter
I took some pictures one frosty, winter morning. They are in my Rendered Winter set.
Taking It Easy with Tony
Tony came up to visit us, and we had an awesome rockin’ time. I put the pictures in my Taking It Easy with Tony set.
David and I rock out in Guitar Hero.
Holli and I rock out in Guitar Hero.
Sioux Falls Bridal Show – Jan 06
Holli and I went down to a bridal show in Sioux Falls where we met her parents to watch the show and look at the booths. I have more pictures in my Sioux Falls Bridal Show – Jan 06 set.
Brings back memories of The Wedding Fiasco.
Dinner with the Brasses
Molly Brass was going back to Europe, so she invited Holli and David and I down for supper and some hanging out. I have picture of our delicious rib dinner in my Dinner with the Brasses – Jan 06 set.
The MilesRausch.com Excellence in Serialized Internet Publishing Awards
Do you think you have what it takes to win an eSIP? Will you take home the coveted internet coffee cup, symbolic of the hours you spend in coffee houses drinking tea thinking up new topics to write about (and also a visual metaphor of the “SIP” part of “eSIP”)?
Fill out the linked form and nominate one or two of YOUR OWN POSTS. That’s right. Instead of nominating someone else, I want you – the writers – to pick your best work to show off. Then, in a follow-up, readers will get to vote on what they think are their favorites. They will probably be wrong, so I’ll have to alter the results.
The nominations cease at exactly 11:59:59pm on January 31st, 2007.
Conditions:
- You must nominate posts, not weblogs
- You must have written the post in 2006
- I must be able to deduce that you are, in fact, the owner (or an author of) the post you nominate
- Paste the link to the post into the Nominee boxes below
- It must be from your blog
- It does not have to be a MilesRausch.com blog
- Any blog works (WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, etc.) as long as the content is available freely and on the internet
That’s it! Just head on over to the 2006 eSIP Awards nomination page and nominate!
Winter Wonderlanden
Well, it sure has been a while, hasn’t it. I wonder how many blog posts start out that way. I’m willing to bet it’s a very large number. Like, ninety a hundred. What’s going on, Miles Man? Hit me with the Newsizzle.
Newsbleep
With Bryce home, and my new camera in tow, it was time for another Newsbleep. This one went on the theme of a “Pimp My Ride” show, and I tried to play up some of the cheesy motifs of such shows: the “victim”, cool teenage language, using family members as collateral, mocking the vehicle in dire need of “pimping”, nicknames of the crew so they seem more like a hip-hop posse than car mechanics, and (of course) the “reveal”.
This one was tricky. All of Holli’s stuff had to get shot on Saturday, but Tony and Tyler were going to be gone on Saturday and wouldn’t get back until Sunday. Lindsey didn’t want to shoot Saturday, but said “maybe” for Sunday. Then, on Sunday, she went fishing, so we had to shoot her on Monday (and cut a bit of her part). That and I had about two or three more characters than the original script had featured. But, it went well, and you can’t really tell that anything seems shot out of place. So far, the response has been positive. And, so far, I’d say that it’s my favorite. But, of course, the latest one is always my favorite.
Also, it was nice to get videos from family and friends to put together a “Happy Holidays” montage at the end. I really liked that, and I think I’ll work in “Call for Videos” again. I don’t know if I’ll use Mediafire again, however.
Visit my Newsbleep 007: Christmas and Must-Nots set.
Merry Christmas
Of course, the list:
- From Holli:
- 1/2 of the new video camera
- love
- boxers
- sweats
- From Mom and Dad:
- 1/2 of the new video camera
- 1/4 love
- video camera case
- From Larry and Carol:
- “The Office” t-shirt
- 1/2 of a tripod
- 1/2 of Apples to Apples
- 1/2 of a Texas Roadhouse gift certificate
- 1 ticket for Century Theatre
- From Bryce and Lindsey:
- Kids in the Hall Season 1
- Kids in the Hall Season 2 (still coming)
- From Adam and Cari:
- 1/2 of Deal or No Deal
- From G’ma and G’pa
- $$$$
- From Aunt Sue:
- From Aunt Karin:
- Gift certificate (which she unfortunately misplaced, but I’m sure it’ll turn up)
- From Molly:
- From David:
- Something awesome that I can’t talk about until everyone has theirs
- From Tony:
- 2 bags of microwave popcorn
- $10 gift card to Mr. Movies
- From Holly and Bob:
- Something, but I’m not sure what yet as they still have it
- From Santa:
Christmas was good. It seemed a little anti-climatic seeing as I got the video camera, my big gift, so early, but it was still good. And the bag is something I was planning on buying myself, anyway. All-in-all, it was a predictable Christmas. I think I requested or expected a higher percentage of my presents this year that usual. I’m not sure I’ll be so exacting next year. A big “Thank You” to everyone for your gifts. I love them!
View my Christmas 2006 set.
Our Anniversary Date
Holli’s and my anniversary was on December 21st, and we had big plans, buddy, but it didn’t work out. Instead, we ended up staying at my apartment because of the roads. We did, however, have a nice present exchange and meal at Skipper’s.
Then, on the 27th, Holli came up to Sioux Falls, and we had the date we had planned for the 21st. We at at Johnny Carino’s. It was good. I had a hard time choosing my meal, and the waitress wasn’t great. At one point, another waitress came over with two plates and said, “We have the fetuccini alfredo.” Holli and I looked at each other. Neither of us ordered that. She eventually gave the food to another table. Then, later, she came back with a to-go package in her hands. “We packed up your food to go.” And I thought, “Why? Are you kicking us out?” We gave her blank stares, and protested that it must not be this table. As it turned out, the same table near ours must have gotten the wrong dish, and so they got either the original order or the food they started eating to-go, on the house. It was confusing, but the food was still good, and we ended up getting to-go boxes ourselves.
Then we went to Falls Park. It was beautiful and more lit up than a high school drop out. It was perfect for romantic picture taking.
New Year’s
Whereas Christmas had been spent with my family in Big Stone City and Sioux Falls (with Holli able to share parts of that), New Year’s was spent with Holli’s family in Hawarden and Council Bluffs. I was very happy to have the latest Newsbleep up on the internet by the time I left for Holli’s house no Friday, so I had no editing I had to do over the weekend.
When I got there we played poker, of which I was first out, but after that we played Guitar Hero. I’d never played before. Holli said it gave her headaches, so I played with Marissa. We sucked worse a NASA airlock. Unfortunately, there are pictures, but we had fun destroying some classic guitar songs.
The next day we travelled to Council Bluffs to hand with their grandpa, Lauren. We went over to their uncle, Allen’s, place. He and his wife have a very nice place. Connie is a party designer, and she’s very good. As such, their house is very much a designer house. We watched a couple football games, ate some pizza, and then headed to our hotel. There we watched a Newsbleep, planned out church (for me), and went to bed.
The next day all hell broke loose. We left as early as we dared, because the weather was fast getting awful. The ride back was terrible. It was white-out conditions mixed with stupid drivers and ice. It was stressful, but Larry weathered the storm (pun intended) beautifully. I sat back and read (and eventually prayed a rosary for good measure) and listened to music while we made our way gradually home. Once back, it seemed way too late for mass in the area. My options, as I figured, were to travel to Sioux Falls for a 7:00pm service, and then it would make the most sense to go back home. New Year’s would have to be spent alone in Madison.
But, before that, Holli and I went and talked to the priest in Hawarden. I thought, at the least, maybe he could consecrate a eucharist for me, and I could read the readings or whatever. As it turned out, they were having Mary feast day mass at 5pm, and that could count towards my Sunday obligation. Score!
New Year’s Eve night was spent playing games with Marissa’s friend, Travis, and everyone else except for Adam and Cari. It was fun, but I could have done with less Fergie.
Visit my New Year’s 2007 set.
How did you spend your holidays?
Best Eight Albums of 2006
I missed this last year, so this year I’m putting in my picks for Best Eight Albums of 2006. I’m doing eight, because I really couldn’t come up with ten. I think I just found a love for older music this year. I considered doing a Best Of 2005 list, but you guys are smarter than that.
- In Ink Please – Formica Table for Two (50)
- The Streets – The Hardest Way to Make An Easy Living (27)
- The Decemberists – The Crane Wife (23)
- Thom Yorke – The Eraser (18)
- Guster – Ganging Up on the Sun (15)
- Cursive – Happy Hollow (15)
- Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I Am Dreaming (12)
- Snow Patrol – Eyes Open (11)
The numbers represent total play counts for the entire album (totaling play count per song). It’s not extremely accurate (especially since my library has seen a lot of modification this past year), but I agree with it. Guster beat out Cursive because I put two of their songs on a CD for Holli from that album, which I thought should count for something.
What is your list of top 2006 music albums?
Quickly Now
Ok. Apologies to Camp Friends for not posting about last weekend. Last weekend, Holli and I went to Camp Okoboji. It went well. The atmosphere felt really relaxed. The girls did scrapbooking (which is a huge industry, I’ve discovered), and the guys played video games. Thanks to Luke for his patient explanations of the games as I painstaking learned my way around them. I’m sure if he hadn’t already beat them all hundreds of times, he would have been pretty frustrated with my n00b console skills. Pictures are in my Scrapbooking – 18 Nov 06 photoset.
Also, to Bryan, Luke, and Keith: this is the “Lazy Sunday” video that was parodied in the “Lazy Scranton” video in that Office episode.
I haven’t posted (for reals) this week because I’m way behind on the novel, and I’m also trying to put together a Newsbleep episode, so I don’t really have time to fill you retards in on my daily life. Just kidding! Well, I am kinda. Anyways, I’m going to sleep. Good night!