Of Miles Rausch

Graduation ends in bullets, blood

Massacre? Indefinate

The Associated Press

MILBANK, S.D. – June 12th was supposed to be one of the happiest days of their lives, but for the graduating class of 2004 in Milbank, South Dakota, it was a very different kind of day. Instead, it became, for some, the last day of their lives.

Reportedly, Miles Rausch, an alumni of the high school, had been sitting quietly in the bleachers throughout most of the ceremony. As diplomas were being handed out, he suddenly snapped and produced a semi-automatic weapon that he had hidden in his jacket. Those closest to the alleged were the first to go, said one bystander sitting opposite the gymnasium.

Said one parent, there to see her daughter graduate, “The scene was horrible. It was so loud with the screaming and the gun firing. I saw his face, his cold unmoving face. Then when the gun stopped, some of the screaming subsided and I swear I heard him singing.”

After several minutes of firing, Rausch fled the scene, leaving 57 injured and 24 dead. Police arrived on the scene minutes later but were unable to locate Rausch. Ambulances moved most of the injured to the hospital south of town where some of the most badly hurt were air-lifted to Sioux Falls, 150 miles south.

Investigatory documents and testimonies all point to Rausch as the culprit and a warrant was issued for his arrest. This is where the twist in this story lies. Police, after questioning his parents and relatives, dispatched to his home in Madison, South Dakota. It was there they discovered that Miles Rausch is paralyzed from the neck down.

In February of 2000, Rausch had recently become depressed over a breakup with a long-time girlfriend, then a freshman. He located his father’s handgun from the closet and, after taking several handfuls of pain killers, he attempted to end his life. The gun, however, slipped several inches lower than where he had planned to fire, and the bullet managed to sever his spinal cord.

Even after years of physical therapy, Rausch has only gained minimal use of his fingers in his right hand. He is wholly unable to dress himself, feed himself, or perform most functions alone. Doctors are sure that Rausch would be very unable to have done this crime both physically and mentally.

“Miles is a very kind and gentle soul. In his condition, he would need several people assisting him to do what [the witnesses] say he did. I firmly believe that he is not responsible,” said one doctor. Police are baffled as to who is actually responsible for the Milbank Massacre. Theories abound as to who did it and why. One thing seems certain, though. This was definately the worst act of violence in South Dakota history, regardless of who’s responsible.

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I hate ruining the illusion that I try to create with my wallpapers, but I am moving towards not putting copyright credits directly into the picture. It’s just a pain in the ass for me, and I think it hurts the visual integrity of the work. So, that means I have to credit in the text. I would like to thank :resurgere: for his wonderful blood stock pack. Otherwise, the photos taken of the graduation were mine.

You can get the deviantART download or get it in the gallery, under “Wallpapers”.

It started with Megan saying that we were going to Sioux Falls for a surprise trip. We had planned on going on Friday, to see Spider-Man 2 again, and to do some shopping she needed done. This was only Wednesday, though. I was immediately wary.

It actually took a lot of mind work to get that out of her. Then she got irritated with me for a while. I tried to get out of her what I wanted, but she wasn’t having it. She used the guise that it had been our 9 month anniversary on July 4th and that she was taking me out to celebrate.

If you know Megan, then you know why I was suspicious.

There was much drama about where to eat. She wanted me to pick. I wanted to eat at HuHot. The problem with that is that the last time we ate there, she had the flu. So, no when she thinks of HuHot she feels sick. We finally at at the Olive Garden, which was actually very reasonably priced. I thought it would be much more than it actually was. And best thing: she payed.

She still hadn’t told me the real reason for coming to Sioux Falls. She simply stressed that it had to be our last stop. Hmm… I tried my best to get it out of her, but she wasn’t having it. I kept bugging here throughout all the stores we went to. Through the mall, the drives, and finally in front of Best Buy she let a hint slip. I said, “Why won’t you tell me?” She said, “Because if I tell you, you’ll try to stop me. You don’t think I’m responsible enough.”

That was it. Ever since Jeff almost got a kitty Megan has been lamenting the dorm’s “No Pets” policy. The policy pretty much limits your pet selection to fish or crabs, neither of which are very cute or cuddly. I had never said that she wasn’t responsible. But if she were to get a pet, like a kitten, it would have to stay with me (assuming my new place allows pets). That would mean that I would probably end up being the sole care provider, and I don’t have time for a kitten.

I knew it was a pet, but I didn’t know how she was planning on keeping it when the school year came. Megan never ceases to amaze me, though. We finally get to the pet shop. We look at the puppies, fish, birds, bunnies, and people. Then she shows me the kind of pet that she wants, and its perfect. Megan wants a turtle.

The hitch at this part is that a turtle was quite a bit more expensive then she had wished for. In fact, the kind we were looking at was $50. The problem is that Megan doesn’t have $50. She gets paid next week, but that’s not going to help her now. With a sad heart we headed home. I started a surprise plan of my own.

The next day we went to Sioux Falls again, and picked out the turtle. I knew that I would end up playing with and holding and loving this turtle, too, so I decided to pay for half of it. So, I decided to become the proud co-owner of a new turtle. I know what you’re thinking, some of you (mom), but a pet is not like having a child. And Megan and I co-owning a pet isn’t like getting married and having kids. It’s just a turtle! Calm down already.

That having been said, there have been problems when a couple buys a pet and then breaks up. But Mike seems fine now, so everything worked out great. And we’ll even bring Haji to work sometime so he can see her.

Anyway, back at Mini-Critters we talked to this guy named Ajay for about an hour. I don’t think he gets a lot of customers (turtles aren’t a hot commodity) and so he wanted to tell us everything he absolutely could before we left. The total cost came to about $120. I figure, I made over $1,000 on my last paycheck, I can afford $60 startup cost on a turtle.

So, now she lives at my place (a much better environment than Megan’s cold, cramped house). Her name is Haji, which is Japanese for “hold”. This isn’t as in, “Hold me, I’m just a scared turtle”. It’s more like, “Hold onto her or she’ll leap out of your hands.” She’s spunky and really active. She also gets grumpy if you come home from lunch to see how she’s doing, and you think she’s dead because you’ve never seen her sleep before, and you go to rub her leg. Then she’ll hiss at you.

Haji is a three-toed box turtle, Terrapene caroline triunguina. She is native to places like Missouri. Hence, she loves it humid, overcast, and warm. We let her play outside, and she loves it. She’s always moving, unless she’s in her aquarium. I think we should have done some research before we bought her, because now I’m rethinking living quarters, and I could have saved us $10.

She eats crickets sprinkled with calcium. So do I.

As soon as I can, I’ll have pictures of her up here. I’m sure Megan will steal them and put them on her site, too. What a copy cat. I had this post written first, but she wrote less so she could get done faster. She even tried to say that Haji is “all hers” and not “half hers”. And I say, “Then you can get your dirty turtle out of her before I cut her open.” That shuts her up. In a hurry.

Ode to a Night’s Raven

Vous ne dormez pas.

RAVEN of the dark
            
         obscurity
only the deep blue rest of the sun
affords your comfort –
                    secrecy.
pinpoints of distance, heat, life –
“a canopy with holes punched in it” –
this background is your playground.

no one claims you
only the tree you call home is yours
and you belong to it,
solitary RAVEN of the slumber hours

a wastrel moon, a wasting moon
spotted like a wild creature, but muted
                                        
and hanged
like a wild beast instead
this sits as your watcher
a silent laconic guardian

you glide on wings, oh RAVEN, of purest coal
You are black, feared, hated, yet respected.
you wear a corbie suit but a human demeanor
and as You glissade en l’air to your bed
i glissade à terre to mine
and rest in ravenous dreams;
                 hungry creatures of night.

Ils sont vos enfants.

You can get the deviantART download or get it in the gallery, under “Wallpapers”.

You Are The Love Mummy

The Ultimate Aqua Teen Hunger Force Quiz brought to you by Quizilla

It’s almost been a week and I haven’t seen Spider-Man 2 again yet. Life is getting darker as we speak…

Had a family reunion. It went well, except that I hate typing that word because I always want to spell it “reuinion”. Made up a fictitious band that I will post about later. Megan had a crap weekend.

All in all, I’m the only one in the office again. You know what that means? Nude typing. Heh. Alllllllright.

You may have noticed a few changes around the site. Let me tell you what, I have been busy on this thing. If you can’t tell, the theme is “Spider-Man 2”. I am a big Spider-Man fan. The more I watch it, the more I love it. I know that there are a large number of philosphical and instinctual reasons for my inherent love of the Spidey story, but there are also cool stunts, which never hurt. Unfortunately, there is Willem Dafoe, which does hurt, a lot. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that his name was made up specifically to play villians. If you say it fast it becomes, “Well, I’m the foe.” I wonder if anyone’s picked up on that on his fan sites.

The changes I’ve made to Awayken.com, some not permanent, should be as exciting and breathtaking as Spider-Man 2, itself. I’ve read a review as printed by Newsweek magazine which raved about how good the second film is. It’s nice to see that Sam Raimi, the director, hasn’t forsaken quality, emotional movie-making for a quick blockbuster-style action flick, as the 4th of July weekend is prone to seeing (note: Independence Day and Men In Black).

One of the things you’ll notice first is the theme. Titled “Spidey”, this theme incorporates colours and graphics reminiscent of the Spider-Man franchise. Look at the top picture. I got that from the official site. I love the way Spider-Man and Mary Jane’s colours bleed into the rest of the site. In order to fully appreciate this, you need to get Mozilla, Netscape, or, my personal favorite, FireFox..

Another change is my recent fascination with PHP. PHP is a web programming language which helps make dynamic pages. It basically combines C or C++ styles programming with regular web HTML. Like my blogging software, PHP, given some of that programming, only needs one page to look different every time. As I look more into it, I may (in fact) change my entire site into a PHP site, perhaps even getting rid of the CGI-based Movable Type, but I’m not sure yet.

One of the PHP goodies on my site is some (very simple) polling code I found on a site called Fat Scripts. I’ve messed with it, skinned it, and finally come up with decent look for it. So, if you want, you can take it. You can only vote once, and it works on IP address, so if you wanted, you could vote and then move to a new computer and vote again. I hope you don’t though, because I want my first poll to be accurate. So, if you’re ready, you can:

The final change is a more permanent one. This one is Spidey-themed, PHP-based, and site-bettering all in one. It’s the new image gallery also from Fat Scripts. You can click the “gallery” link under “Awaykened Works” or just click here to access it. Gone is the old, crappy, javascript run pop-up image gallery of yesterday. This new code makes it much easier for me add in new images. I just upload the images and thumbnails and it does the rest. The code is all dynamic. It uses the folder names as the name of the gallery, so if I changed a folder name, when I refresh, the page is changed.

I’ve added some galleries to the list, also, and you might enjoy them. For one thing, the pictures from my room are there complete with descriptions as before. And now, if you look at that entry, you will not find the pictures, but a little note asking you to visit the gallery instead. It looks like the rest of the site – beautiful in design and temperment. Here is where you’ll find a gallery entitled “Spider-Man 2 Exclusive” which features exclusive scans from the Newsweek I bought and some buddy icons from the official movie site. Check it out!

Within the gallery you will also find my wallpapers. In fact, you’ll find all of them, 1600×1200, somewhat organized. No more simple links to deviantART. Here’s my plan – I keep the big wallpapers on the site for you to download, and if you want the small + big zip files, you can go to deviantART. There is also a set of new wallpapers. They should have been Spider-Man 2 wallpapers, but they’re 28 Days Later-inspired wallpapers. Every one of my wallpapers, including the “rage” set, has its deviantART descriptions included at the bottom. THAT was a lot of work. So were the thumbnails. But that’s for another day.

With so many changes to the site, what is there left to do? Watch Spider-Man 2 of course! I’m off to the movies. The deluxe DVD I got at Wal-Mart for $20 has a free Spider-Man 2 ticket included and I’ve already redeemed it. I just hope Megan finds a way in to the theatre, too.

I’m becoming a little more like my dad every day. Or maybe I’m just becoming more “Rausch”, as it were. If you don’t know, there are two sides to my family – the Rausch and the Miles, “Miles” being my mother’s maiden name. The Rausch side is German catholic and the Miles side is Irish Catholic. You can imagine how different those two sides would be. The Rausch side tends to be more laid back, quiet, and, well, German. The Miles side tends to be more outgoing, loud, and, well, Irish. As my grandma, Alyce Miles, says, “The only thing Miles about him is his name.” And I must say that she has a point, most of the time. I have my decidedly Miles moments.

My Rausch moments seem to largely over-shadow my Miles moments, however. The other day, for instance, I had nothing to do so I washed my car. Now, if you know my father, you know that he’s a truck freak. He’s not a freak in the sense that he has Dale Earnhardt the III’s racing number memorized, or that he can say “I’ll need to check out your chassis” with a straight face. I mean that he’s a freak about his own truck. He keeps her washed and cleaned and working and all that jazz.

When he gets back from a trip to Nebraska or Iowa or Watertown, he always looks wore down, beaten. Then his eyes light up at the prospect of what comes next, washing his truck. He grabs his stack of tokens, rushes out to the dirty vehicle, and speeds on down the road. I once heard a legend that dad only married mom because he thought that mom’s dad was a car wash owner. Of course, Grandpa isn’t and never was a car wash owner. I bet dad was disappointed to hear that; I heard that he cried.

Now I’ve partially caught the bug. My car was really dirty. I was feeling rich enough for a $6.00 car wash, so I drove over. The machine in Madison allows you to use your credit card. So, for fun, I did that. Mistake. Apparently the machine has to run my credit card request over to the moon and back. It takes some time, and I don’t think that the moon cares at all. I made some mistakes in my first real trip to the car wash.

Mistake #1: using the automatic wash.
Mistake #2: buying the $6.00 one when the $5.00 one probably would have done a better job.
Mistake #3: not having quarters on hand and having to run over to the change machine half way through.
Mistake #4: using the automatic wash.
Mistake #5: not having a wash cloth to clean your floor mats.
Mistake #6: letting the vacuum run out because you forgot to put more quarters in.
Mistake #7: not doing it more often.

I got even more Rauschey when we went to Sioux Falls the next day. Her mom was getting a wheelchair slapped onto the back of her car so wanted to meet us in Sioux Falls to eat or hang out (or whatever). One of the clothes places we went, “Half As Good” or “You Only Live Twice” or some pun on second-hand clothing, was right next to the 26th street Rausch Brothers’ Office.

So, like my father would, I went into a monument company’s office to window shop. And, of course, I drug my girlfriend along. She had to go to her stores, her shops, her clothing outlets, and I get my granite. So, we said “Hi” to the salespeople and walked around. I did my own little granite presentation, admiring the stone, frowning at the non-granite rock there.

I told her stories from the Farm-And-Home shows that I’ve been to. I told her stories from working at Rausch Bros. Monument Co., Inc. I told her about Pam and Jurich because we actually saw their work. I told her about the interiors, the little that I knew.

I did not, however, tell the people there that I was a Rausch. I didn’t let on that I knew about granite and that I knew probably more about how they actually make the finished product that they do. I did ask a question I didn’t know the answer to: How many offices does Rausch Brothers have? The answer: 4, Sioux Falls, SD, Sheridan, IA, Big Stone,SD, & Rapid City, SD. I finally found out where Sheridan is. From Big Stone, it’s like a 9 hour drive. How Mike ever found that place or decided to build an office there, I’ll never know.

The only other dad-like thing that I did was culinary. I ate Japanese food and liked it a lot. Still in Sioux Falls, we finally convinced her mother to take us to Hibachi. Hibachi is a Japanese sushi restaurant and strip club. As we entered, the techno music was overwhelming, brutal, erotic. The front part of the sushi restaurant is the sushi bar. It was here that most of the middle-aged Japanese businessmen forgot about the pressures of their day. In a depressing, psuedo-F. Scott metaphor the west met the east with brilliant reality and fantasy.

Ok, maybe not. It was quiet and largely empty, for as many people as it could hold. There was no bar and no drunk Japanese person. In fact, I saw one Japanese person – the guy at the door. After that, the grill chefs were all Mexican. Megan’s mom, even though she knew this, tried a bit of random Japanese to ask for more green tea. He just stared at her. It was only after she held her bowl up that he figured out what she wanted and got our waiter for her.

We had several kinds of sushi. We had these pork dumplings that were really good. Then for a main dish we had chicken and shrimp. It was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. There were fried vegetables and rice and shrimp and chicken and little sauces. I used chop sticks the whole time, too. It was wonderful.

So, I can say that while parts of me are becoming more like my dad, parts of me are staring into your soul and remembering all the dark secrets you hoped to hide from the world. And I have the world at my fingertips, for all to read.

Well, the ERP summit was a success. It closed on Wednesday to smiling faces and promises of return. During the week, I really got to know the instructors who came. It was a bit like summer camp, where everyone shows up at a central location where they stay overnight, everyone bonds, makes s’mores around a roaring fire, discusses how a Human Resources roadmap must not only include query and reporting but it should be a seperate section, and then finally says “Bon Voyage” (if they are french) and gets the hell out of my state.

*content sigh* Next year I probably won’t be so stressed. Not having any idea what to expect, but having to expect any idea, was a bit nerve-wracking and I didn’t like it one bit. Next year that would be different. I will know what to expect, and I’ll be a lot more advanced with PeopleSoft software. It’s funny. Some companies spend millions of dollars on this stuff, and I just goof around with it. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

alright
all ready?
we’ll all float on
no
don’t you worry
we’ll all float on

As it turns out, the Skipper’s guy is catholic. There was a strange twist. But I think that maybe he doesn’t get along with his wife. Or she left him. Or she’s dead. Or he never had one. Cause, maybe that’s why he’s so bitter at everyone. Plus, there was no mother, only a couple of daughters. Maybe he’s also bitter that his deceased wife never gave him any sons. That seems a little “King-of-England” to me, but it could be true. The Skipper’s name will not live on in his family. It’s up to his drunk, redneck brother and delinquent nephew to do that.

Also, my posts have gotten more random.

See, summer makes it hard for one (being me) to keep one’s (my) train of thought. I start a post and then completely change direction, often keeping the original title. Sometimes, if I look back at the title, I can remember what it was that I wanted to write about in the first place.

Megan’s birthday was also a success. I think she had a really good day despite the test she had in College Algebra and having to work. We did have a good time, though. I got her a book, a shirt, and a DVD. I also wrote her a song, but I don’t think I’m going to ever perform it for her. I get insecure about my music, so it’s probably best if I stick to bad covers. The lyrics are nice, though.

I like Modest Mouse. Their new album is really good. I know that everyone is getting into them now that MTV is on the boat, but I could care less what MTV has to say. They are also paying the new Franz Ferdinand song to death, and people are going to get sick of it, and Franz is going to have to pull a miracle to get out of that death dive.

Megan received, among other things, a book on learning Japanese. She also got a tape set to teach Japanese. This present has me excited. I don’t know anything about Japanese. I really want to learn though. First cool thing: bread is the same in Japanese as it is in Spanish: pan.

Well, I think that’s all for now. Spider-Man 2 on June 30th! I’m so excited I have to change my pants everytime I think of it.

So, I’m sitting in the same room I used to have my Data Structures and Org & Arch in. There are three other people here. Sitting in front of me is a PeopleSoft instructor. Her name is either pronounced Michael Lynn or Mishulinn but it is spelt neither way. In the same row, on the left side, is a Texan instructor whose name is Willie but it actually a black woman. At the front of the class is a Canadian man named Peter Morgan who, I’ve noticed, makes all his ‘o’s long.

This is the Human Resources track for the CRESH ERP Summit 2004. I work at CRESH, Center for Resource Enterprise Systems Hosting, here at DSU, Dakota State University. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. A Summit is the top of the hill. 2004 is a number slightly larger than 2003 and slightly smaller than 2005.

This is the 2nd annual attempt at this summit. See, CRESH is a PeopleSoft hoster. We have PeopleSoft software on some computers here, and we let other Colleges use it for a price. Oh, and then we make everything work all the time. The summit serves as a way for professors to talk about techniques they use, ways they teach, and tips/tricks/hints with the help of these certified PeopleSoft instructors.

I wish I was just watching. No, instead, I am helping run this thing. Key word is “flexible”. When I first was told about this, I heard that there would be an Intro to PeopleSoft/CRESH/Everything track. Mike says, “Put together a PowerPoint.” So, I started to work on the PowerPoint. A couple of days later Mike says, “You’re going to teach the track.”

Time passes.

Mike says, “It’s going to be four hours on Sunday and Wednesday, and it’s going to be 8 hours on Monday and Tuesday.” Panick passes. To tell you the truth, folks, at CRESH I am the weakest link, so to speak. When it comes to technical, that is, I am the weakest link. So, I’ve tried to be important in other areas, read: PR papers, but suddenly I had to teach this stuff to other people. I work and work and work on it, in between making name tags and drinking tickets and phone calls.

Then, Mike says, “Turns out it’s 4 hours everyday.” So, I rethink, realign, become flexible. So, some of the days get crammed, but it’s okay. Everything is working well; I’m happy. I have the PowerPoint done, but now it’s only for one day, the Portal and CRESH intro. Then I have these things called EUTs, End User Training, and I figure I’ll do these and have people watch me. It’s just a matter of cutting them down.

Now, Mike says, “There might not be any intro track.” Is this relief? Actually, it kinda is. I was so nervous. I don’t really feel confident in my PeopleSoft skills. I feel confident in my b.s., make it up skills, but these people might know something whereas the people in my Org & Arch class knew nothing about my watch, so I could lie all I wanted.

It may still be on, but for now I sit. And take notes. And wait.

This almost became another post title with one of these, !, in it, but I held back my excitement. Then I decided to change my post title altogether, to sound less junior highish. I actually started to comment on my own site, right under his comment. See, I was checking to see if anyone had anything to say about my new room. And for a long time, no one did. Then I noticed on lone comment. I eagerly click the link and wait for the popup window to load, admiring the beauty that is my new stylesheet.

Up pops a rather long comment, considering what I normally get. I was shocked and began reading. It said:

Well hello there,

I’m glad you like my songs.

I’ve been keeping my eye on this site since I found you in Allens’ Fanlist on Garageband. I’ve been working in isolation for so long I’m finding strange and exciting to see my songs taking on a life of their own in the outside world.

I’ve been grappling with this one all week: My mother told me she took my CD to her AquaAerobics class. There is now a group of 50-something women in a small town in the mid-north of South Australia doing AquaAerobics to my music. I bet Thom Yorke can’t say that.

I’m working on four new songs at the moment. When I’m finished, I’ll post them on my website and begin reviewing the 120 songs I need to post on Garageband.

Thanks again,

Jason Allen.

Holy Crap! Jason Allen posted on my website! And, unfortunately, I posted about one line about him. I never thought he’d actually come to the site, let alone several times, let alone comment, let alone comment incorrectly, allowing his name to appear twice which I then fixed to make it look nice and then had to fix again so the link would pop in a new window!

I think that I can safely say Radiohead music is not for aqueous recreation. If anything, most of the songs would depress the Aerobickers, and possibly cause some to attempt to drown themselves. This would be fine if the class was competition, and you were Jason’s mom, but it is not good for the overall morale of the class. In fact, I think Thom, himself, is a very poor swimmer and has almost drowned on several occasions, including MTV’s Spring Break. That, ladies and gents, is not a joke: it’s a fact.

You’re probably thinking, why didn’t the rest of the band comment on your side? What I failed to mention about the band, Allen, is that it has only one member: Jason. If you went to his GarageBand site, you probably read this:

I started playing guitar at age 8 and started writing and recording music at age 15. I completed a Bachelors Degree of Music at Adelaide University, South Australia, majoring in composition, in 1995. At university I wrote experimental music based on the works of John Cage. In 1999 I completed a Graduate Diploma in Contemporary Music Technology at Latrobe University, Melbourne, Victoria and began working as a professional Sound Engineer. In 2002, my wife and I moved temporarily to Bern, Switzerland, where I have locked myself in a small room with my equipment and have been writing and recording ever since. I am currently preparing to play live in Bern and possibly other venues in Switzerland. My live act consists of stripped-down rock arrangements of my studio work performed on electric guitar and vocals, with some songs including backing tracks on CD. If any kind souls would like to help me organise some gigs in London, that would be fantastic.

In honor of this unexpected comment I am declaring today “Allen Day”, and I will only listen to his music my entirety of being at work. Not only that, but I’m going to burn a CD of his stuff to give to Megan to listen to. Not only that, but I already did it.

Please, go to his site; download his tunes; enjoy his music. And try to figure out if he has an Australian accent or a Swiss accent. Food for thought.

Megan and I found this great Chinese restaurant on 12th street, in Sioux Falls. The restaurant is called “Golden Harvest”. It’s a sit down place. As you look around the place, you spy dozens of seemingly authentic Japanese/Chinese prints. Some have landscapes, others depict a gathering of people, and two feature very cute pictures of baby animals, like the Panda and Tiger.

We arrived a bit late. They were to close at 9:30, and we arrived somewhere around 9:00. They were bare, speaking for customers, but friendly, speaking for staff. The lady ushered us in, was very nice. Our waitress took our order quickly, and kindly, and we began to get excited about our meal. We had ordered two rolls, one spring, one egg, to serve as appetizers. The appeared home made, and they were delicious.

When they brought our meals, sesame chicken for me and shrimp for Megan, they couldn’t smell better. We enjoyed our meals immensely, tasting a bit of each others, making great note of the location for further visitation. It tasted so good that neither of us could finish our meal in that sitting. We did, however, take our time enjoying the quiet, the calm. The hostess even walked over to us and told us to take our time, there was no rush. Soft oriental music glistened like raindrops around us. It was the perfect scene.

See, it’s necessary to understand the tranquility, the calm of this scene. The oriental people, except maybe Thailand, are peaceful and delicate people. They communicate as much as possible without talking. They sit in silence, finding excessive TV, radio, and internet to be dulling. They are as beautiful as the lands they come from. The reason it is necessary to understand this is the same reason you have to understand light to understand shadow.

That said, my mom’s side of the family is very unChinese. If you have ever met the Miles family, then you can understand “chaos in harmony”. When Megan and I arrived at my cousin Britt’s graduation party, at my aunt’s house in Sioux Falls, the scene we spied was the opposite of that which I described above. People everywhere, noise, shouting, drinking, a little food, TV going, and of course, laughter. If you want a visual description of Irish, come to a Miles family reunion. And, for those keeping track, a reuinion for the Miles family is whenever one or more are gathered together.

This was all that I had started of my first 66 & 77 post. See, I call it that because of this song, Sixes & Sevens by a band called Allen. It’s a good song, and I like the rest of the stuff he has. Check out his page and down some of them hits.

That’s when you get the idea. That’s when you understand that it’s the anti-cliche. – greenplastic.com on The National Anthem.

Karma Police is just a joke. It’s the only funny song on the album. A sentence like “Karma Police, arrest this man” actually belongs in a textballoon for a comic strip. – Thom Yorke.

Ok, enough with the random – on to the fandom! After sitting downstairs for ages, Megan came down. “I’m done,” she smiled. “Now, stay here while I shower.” Girls can really take their time when they want to.

Finally it was the reveal! I nicked Jeff’s digicam and we headed upstairs.

After the reveal, we traveled to Sioux Falls to see the new Harry Potter And the Prisoner of Azkaban. Megan has recently become a fan of the series, though not the books yet. When the movie was over she asked when the next one was coming out. Isn’t she cute? 2005, I said, and quite whining.

On a serious note, however, there was this creepy guy at the movie place. We were in line, standing next to him, and he would talk to us every once in a while. He mentioned how he used to have long hair and a Henna tatoo that stretched all the up his arm. It was tribal art. And he’s been waiting 30 years for the AVP, Alien Versus Predator, movie. I can only forsee the movie being terrible, and so did he, but I didn’t think the comic book would have been very good either.

Then Megan went up to get some snacks. While she walked away, I felt decidedly uncomfortable with the man. Then he snickers and says, “Good job.” I realized that he was referring to my girlfriend. “No, really. That’s nice,” and he gave me a thumbs up. Oh my God. I didn’t know what to do or say, so I just laughed it off and began praying for the line to get going. I mean, what kind of middle-aged guy stands alone in a line for the new Harry Potter? Ok, I probably would. But who kind of middle-aged guy is scoping out 18 year old girls? The creepy kind that’s who.

We should have suspected something. The Carmike theatre, where we saw it, is the ghetto, white-trash version of the Century. It’s only a dollar cheaper. West Mall 7 is much cheaper and a lot cleaner, open, and friendly. The Carmike Theatre is a shady place, folks; don’t go there. As Megan put it, “No offense, but geeks work here.” No offense, indeed.

Rap music is a beautiful thing. It seems to be the only kind of music that one can get away with not being musical at all. It’s the combination of crass, cheap poetry and that one drum beat over and over and over and over.

The best kind of posts are those that just flow, those that write themselves. That’s what was happening to Sixes and Sevens, the original. It was basically about the two graduations I went to. Last weekend was my cousin Dirk’s and the weekend before was my cousin Britt’s. They were both touching graduations. Britt’s had a mass before it to make it interesting, and Dirk’s had a student-made going away video to make it interesting. Both had really good parts and both were long. The post, however, wasn’t interesting at all, and I had written quite a bit. This post won’t take me any time at all to write, and will be three quarters more interesting than the first could ever been.

It’s getting sunny. I’m moving. Oh, much better. I’m sitting in the lawn in front of Beadle Hall on campus here. I took work off today because I value sleep more than money. Plus, I’m going to put in 8h this weekend sometime. That’s not why I’m here, though. I got kicked out of my house. No, not by my housemate or landlord or God or Buddah or my drug habbit. I got kicked out by Megan. See, this week I’ve been sorting through my books a bit. That means that Megan gets to enjoy the squalor that I live in. Inspired by shows on TLC like “While You Were Out” and the Bravo masterpiece “Queer Eye For The Straight Guy”, Megan has decided to make over my room, complete with $40 budget. And, while in WYWO the person has no idea this is going to happen and in QEFTSG the person has some say in what happens, I, instead, get to sit out on the lawn as my tablet battery slowly dies.

Slowly… I have 0:48 hours left. I want to post this before the battery goes, so if it doesn’t have an ending, be forewarned.

I’m a bit scared. I have no idea what she’s been doing up there. I’ve been downstairs all day since she woke me up at 8. I need to start locking the front door at all times. So, I slept on the couch downstairs until 12:45. We ate, went to class, and now I’m here reading online comics to the ants and bunnies gathered on the grass. I mean, getting eaten by ants while bunnies mock me as I try to read online comics. Of course, when my battery dies, I won’t be doing anything. Megan took the book I was reading because it was part of her ‘design’.

I’ve been trying to get all sorts of info out of here. Trying to get her to let something out. “Oh, I forgot about all those papers behind my dresser – did you find them?” I’ll look for them when I go back up there. “You know, my bed would look great against that other wall.” I’ll keep that in mind. “Do you want me to move my DVDs upstairs, since we can watch DVDs on my computer?” If I need them, I’ll get them. “You’re putting a lot of work into this, but you’re forgetting one thing: what the hell is that??” Nice try. Get out.

My musical tastes are varied. I have ALL my songs on my playlist, and random, and I just got David Bowie, Radiohead, StainD, Nas, Wu-Tang, Kenna, Alkaline Trio, Blur, Brand New, Justin Timberlake, the Beatles, Styx, Led Zepplin, Korn, The Dust Brothers, The*Ataris, Wagner, and Jeff Gabhart. This makes me wonder about the music of today. Can any radio station do my tastes justice? Obviously not. In fact, most people have tastes like these. Each artist/song/album fills a certain nich� for a particular person. This doesn’t mean that radio stations shouldn’t at least try a little bit.

Pop Radio sucks. It even pains me a bit to know that Pop radio was a vehicle that the Beatles and, later, the Wonders/Oneders used to get popular. Now, popular artists don’t have to try to be musical. I like Justin, but most of his music is party music. People write tunes that other people can dance to. It’s no longer about applying the musical ideas and templates from people like Mozart onto modern instruments and lyrics. It’s not longer about discovering how music works and what makes it beautiful. Like everything else in America, music sold out.

If you go to vtext.com the number one ring tone is : All Falls Down by Kayne West. Besides being unable to pronounce his name, I can’t figure out what this guy is about. His hit before this was “Through The Wire”. This was an awful song. Here’s the very overplayed story. Kayne West was a producer. He produces hip-hop/r & b records. Then he was in a “near-fatal” car accident that left his jaw wired shut. As soon as he got better, he released a record capitalizing on his “tragedy”. A quote from this new star: I would just like to stress that Prince produced his own music.

God – I’ll listen to Prince before I listen to you. Right now I’m getting the Led out through the Immigrant Song. Up next? Dashboard, Coldplay, and Bush. Kayne West is through all right.

Hello, folks. I am currently working on my next post, about my last weekend, entitled Sixes and Sevens.

For now, however, check out the new theme. I like this one so much that every page is like this now.

I love it. Let me know how you feel.

What’s this?, you think. He’s posting again after the book he wrote last time? I pretended to read it three times already – I still need a week get through it – how can he post again?

Well, as you can see, this post isn’t very long. That’s because all I have to say is:

While the LG site doesn’t have my exact phone, you can look at the VX3100 and then pretend that it’s about 100 better. I love my little VX3200 flip phone. It has color, animations, sounds, and tons more. Megan’s a bit sick of how I keep talking about my beautiful phone. My precioussss….