Category: News

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Update, I’m Back, Douglas, Swag, Running, and Happy Birthday

As William Gibson

First off, I didn’t hate Philly. I think there was some confusion, which is understandable given the content of the post, but I really did have a great time and would love to go back (assuming that Bryce and Lindsey still live there, otherwise it wouldn’t be nearly as fun). Also, I’d love to pretend I was doing a parody of Holli’s Marshall experience, but I’m not that clever.

Second off, I just got back from Princeton. No, I’m not enrolling. I was there for work. It was a sort of panic-inducing experience, as most work trips are, and I won’t say much about it here, just to say that I think we left the client satisfied. Also, I didn’t take many pictures so as to appear somewhat professional. Check out Panicking in Princeton photoset.

Third off, Nate Hoffman, who played “Narcs” in the Season One finale of Newsbleep, is debuting his movie, “Douglas”, at the Science Center at DSU at 8:00pm on August 25th (Saturday). To add to that, the “Grief” trailer for Newsbleep is going to preceed the airing. So, if you can, you should make the trip for that.

Fourth off, a playwriting project I was involved with became the Project of the Week for the Celtx website, and so I got a USB drive, t-shirt, and stickers with Celtx on them.

Fifth off, congrats to Molly and Brenna for running well. Holli said you both did well.

Last (but not least) off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LINDSEY!!

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Domain Issues

If you’ve been visiting my websites lately, you may have noticed a problem or two. My hoster is moving my account to a new set of servers, and it hasn’t been without its hiccups. All my domains quit working for a while, but they seem to be up and running again. Also, all of your (you people who have blogs on my site) data is safe (except for Tony’s, which is having problems again).

Oh, well. This, coupled with all my issues trying to dual boot Windows XP and Windows Vista, makes for a stressful week. I got a call from my cousin, Chuck Rausch, regarding a domain name for his business. Well, it appears that it was up for renewal, and got snatched up by another (ad-conscious) company, and he wants me to get it back, if I can. I’m just hoping I can.

If you’ve sent me e-mail this week, you should probably resend it, because I might not have gotten it.

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Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad

Happy Birthday of your Marriage, Mom and Dad. I feel privileged to be the only child of yours to be with you today. It’s only fitting since I was the only child there on the original day. Giggity! (I mean after the ceremony, of course)

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Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Bryce! He’s 23 and that rhymes with “gotta be”, which always preceeds “cool”.

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Requisite Weekend-based Post

Confirmation

I haven’t posted in a while. Molly and Micaela got confirmed.


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Molly gets confirmed.


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Micaela gets confirmed.

Check out the photos at my Confirmation – 21 Apr 07 photoset.

Holli's Awards

Then, Holli had her awards banquet, where she did very very well. :) She didn’t post about it, but she got “Campus Student Leader”, “Who’s Who Among Students In American Colleges”, and “College Student Leader” as well as the “Certificate of Merit” for her club, The Student Ambassadors, of which she is president. Her parents came up for it, and we had a good time.

Check out the photos at my Honor’s Banquet – 23 Apr 07

Then, also, Molly went to prom. I don’t have any pictures of that. I could go into a long story about how my mom tried to blame her weak batteries on me, but I don’t want to kill the vibe we got going here.

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You Get Used To Strange Band Names

At the Restaurant

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?

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Super Gr8mm!

IMG_5986.JPG

Well, MacBook is back. For those of you who don’t know, here’s the story. Last week, on Tuesday, I woke up as usual. I went to my MacBook, and I turned the screen brightness back up. Or, at least, I tried. It was unresponsive. So, I tried various troubleshootings: close lid, hit spacebar, hit enter, hit eject disc, hit keyboard in frustration. None of those worked. I finally decided to hold in the power button to hard restart it.

The system went black. I waited a couple seconds, then I pushed the button again. The first sign of trouble was that the harddrive was clicking. That is never, never, never, never a good sign, and it’s usually a sign that you should have backed up your data about three minutes ago. After a long boot period I finally get something to show up: a blinking folder with a “?” on it. I’ve never come across that with my Mac, but I’ve used computers enough to know what it meant. It meant a trip to the MacDoctors.

Well, when they finally got it back to me, they gave me a new harddrive (unable to get data off the old one), fixed a crack in the top panel, and replaced a gouged delete key. All of which was covered under my warranty. Furthermore, I had backed up a little less than a month before, so things were pretty much all good (which some strange quirks and some missing data, but, oh, well). It was nice to start over.

My other super news is that I bought a Super8 camera on eBay. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s the most popular film camera ever invented. Basically, it’s a home video camera that was affordable, lightweight, and good enough for most families in the 60s, 70s and 80s. If it was all that then (and if inflation works the way I think it does) it should be mega-cheap now! Well, that’s not quite the case, but I don’t think this whole process won’t be too cost prohibitive.

For those who do know what that is, you’re wondering “Why?” Well, I’ve been reading The Filmmaker’s Handbook, and the book does a good job of convering video and film cameras in the beginning. The book made me think of all the advances made in technology, and that I feel a little less like a filmmaker and more like a videomaker. So, I wanted to get dirty, and now I am.

To my further benefit, after winning the auction, Holli discovered that her Dad had his Super8 camera and splicer (used for editing film or putting a couple small reels into one big one) and projector. The projector has a problem with the back reel, so when Holli and I checked out an old home video of the Gregg family, I had to manually rotate the back reel the whole time. All in all, I’m excited to find new and exciting uses for this old and boring equipment.

Easter was decent. Holli had to housesit over the weekend, so I was flying solo to Big Stone where I’d spend pretty much all of the weekend with Tony, who’s family also left him. Sue had an Easter brunch at her place, which was excellent. Tony helped me film, which included him saying, “I’m director, right?” every three minutes. Then he got tripod envy. I managed to con Sue into helping out, too, and she let us film in the school. Easter means a lot of Guitar Hero, a lot of church, and a lot of discovering more strange things about Hogan.

Check out the Super Gr8mm Photoset.

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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!


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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.

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Happy Birthday, Dan!

Dan turns the big, landmark 24 years old today. If he had watched one episode of the first season of the TV show 24 on each of his birthdays, he, today, would get to see the season finale.

And, 52 comments is insane. You people are weird.

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Happy Birthday, Brenna!

Sorry this is so late. I figure I owe you a present from California… which I got you! You’ll have to wait another week or so to get it, though. I hope your day was glorious!