Hey

Hey you all. So I figured I would try to update everyone on my life and also have a chance to write a post. Well nothing much has changed since my last post. I visited Carleton twice last month. I went up to see the Minnesota Challenge and I also went back about a week later to watch MIAC’s. My main motivation to go up was mainly to see my gf, but it was nice to get to see some people swim which for some would be their last competitive meet as a Carleton swimmer. Also both times Tim was a pretty tight host as he got me acquainted with Big Buck Hunter, which I beat him in, and we got to bottle some of the beer he started brewing. Tim should blog about his beer to let us know how it turned out.

EPIC FAIL

Remember when I said I was going to post weekly about the class I am TAing? My bad.

Here are they spark notes:

Livin La Vida

First off,

I would like to apologize for my recent lack of blogging. Training, coaching, and school have seem to enveloped my very being. Anyway, enough excuses; let's get to blogging.

The big news is that about three weeks ago I adopted a dog. I would like to introduce all of you to Vida.

Vida is about one year old (not entirely sure) and she is a pure-breed boxer. Having a dog is a lot of fun, but at the same time, a lot of work. Just recently she managed to get into her dog food and stuff her face. Anyway, she is really friendly and I am looking forward to the chan ce to introduce her to you guys.

As far as my work goes I am busy sound designing a graduate thesis film. There are a shortage of sound designers so a couple of the second years get to help out with the third year projects. I am fortunate enough to be working on one.
In addition to my sound design work I am also editing together a small documentary for my Kilimanjaro hike. The doc will be about the making of the 3D film and I will post it when I'm done.

For those of you who have not seen my documentary from Tanzania this past summer, here is the link.

Please let me know what you think. The film has already been accepted into several festivals and we will have to see how it does.

Iron man training is going well. I have the LA marathon March 20th and that will serve as a good indicator of where I am and what I need to work on.


-Nonberg...........adios

300 Posts!

As we near the 2nd birthday of the blog, it's pretty cool to say that we've had 300 posts!

I've mentioned this before, but I'm pretty proud that our blog has lasted so long. People start and give up on blogs so fast in this day and age, and i think its cool that this one is going the opposite direction. Not only have we added two new contributors, but it appears that we are producing content at a much more steady rate. (At this point last year, we only had done about 20 posts in the first two months of the year.)

But actually lets take a look at the distribution of our blog posts:



What do we notice? Obviously we had a strong start, and then the honeymoon period was over. But we also notice, that aside week 20, in the last month, we've produce more a week than ever before (not taking account the honeymoon period).

I do wish we had a visible and significant increase that shooted up from the lull that has defined the blog since our first few months. I've noticed this on google analytics too. Then one day, maybe we can finally press the big red monetize button and rake in the dough.

But what I am really saying is that I'm optimistic about the blog's future.

While I thought about doing a Tedley-esque, Highlights of the last 200 posts, I decided not to because of the time commitment. But I do highly recommend going back through some old posts. I've done this a bit and have had quite a few good laughs. It's also interesting to see which labels get tagged the most (First Mate Charlie, Beer, Alfredo, Music...).

May we keep growing, creating, and contributing.
Molson out.

Free-Ho is a dirty, filthy liar. Also: me becoming an adult.

Hello all. I have been planning on my first post relating to my foray into the land of becoming a pseudo-musician. Unfortunately, that will have to wait a few more days. Instead I need to address something that occurred this past weekend.

Yes. I was in DC. Yes. I got to see Free-Ho, Elliot, Jen, Julia, Barb, K Sloan, and some random other Carls. As you certainly noticed there was no drunken/blackout posting by me, despite Free-Ho's promises. I can think of two reasons for this.

1) I made the mistake (or had the brilliant foresight?) to register a random e-mail address to this website so that google couldn't follow my EVERY move. Of course this meant that I had to spend the last ten minutes guessing eight-thousand iterations of all of my passwords to figure out which I used for the registration here. I clearly would not have been able to figure out my password if I had been drunk.

2) I may have finally learned how to drink like a real life adult. The first time I ever drank was two weeks before I showed up at Carleton. Predictably, I ended up passing out on the floor of a locked bathroom after getting sick. This was the start of my inability to practice moderation of any sort. If you put alcohol infront of me I will drink it, and I will drink it quickly. Many of you have witnessed this amazing trait of mine in regards to junkfood. 1 lb of peanut butter with a spoon in 15 minutes I am looking at you. My drinking in college often saw me have a great time and feel fine UNTIL I laid down in bed. The second my head hit the pillow I would get nauseas and become sick. My nights would be unpleasant for a few minutes, but I would never get hungover. As I have aged I have stopped getting sick, and instead I have begun waking up with a wicked hangover and a very fuzzy memory of the previous night. Usually I only realize I have sent some ill-advised text messages, but there has been the occasional night in the drunk tank on halloween. There have still been the occasional nights where I get sick and gloriously throw up off of a 7th floor balcony. None of this drinking comes close to being anything "responsible".

So, this past weekend may have come as a complete shock to myself and everyone involved. I managed to drink three nights in a row, get fairly drunk each time, and not make a fool of myself. There was no getting sick, no blacking out, and very minimal levels of hangovers. Sure I woke up one morning at 5:30am with a colander on my head, but that is to be expected anytime DFH gets a hold of a sharpie and decides he wants to draw on people who are simply tired and laying on the floor without any shoes on.

I'm not exactly sure what it was that told me to stop being an idiot and drink less, but whatever it is I am happy it manifested itself. There is something fantastic about being able to get a bit intoxicated with good friends, have a great time, and regret nothing in the morning. Lets hope this responsibility thing hangs around for a while.

Jefferson Starship

Something funny happened at practice on Monday that I would like to relate to all of you. Paul "Phatty" Regan, a name you should recognize from the men's team entry video, was on campus to talk about the Peace Corps and he dropped by the pool. He asked us if we still watched the men's team entry video and revealed the secret identity of "Package." I forget his name. BUT, he was a freshman that year and just happened to be walking by Nourse while they were filming the video. According to AC, he swam the 50 at MIACs and disqualified because he missed the wall on the flip turn, but still won his heat. The reasoning behind the nickname? In the first few days of practice, AC referred to him as "the complete package." According to Phatty, the women's team never really bought this explanation.

However, the true reason for this post is what happened after we discussed the men's team entry video. Phatty joked that he had several AC stories to tell and asked if we had heard the starship story. Andy nervously laughed and said, no, he doesn't tell that story anymore. I inquired as to whether this might be the Jefferson Starship story. Andy spun around and looked at me and asked how I knew the story. "Elliot" was all I said. Later, he told Mamoru that it's a story from his foolish youth and that he should ask me to tell him the story.

So - AC now knows that we know. He also used to tell the men's team the starship story, but subsequently decided that it was a bad idea. That was one unnecessary practice that was WELL worth it.

Live Blogging the Oscars

I'm hanging out watching the Oscars and decided hey, what better than to post my immediate reactions to everything? So I'm starting late, but I'll summarize the first bit.

James Franco and Anne Hathaway are terrible hosts. Several presenters have upstaged them handily.

I'm very glad Christian Bale got an Oscar, he's had one coming for awhile and this role was certainly deserving. I was hoping to see Hailee Steinfeld win the supporting actress, but she's young. The Fighter has been sweeping the acting so far.

I'm so pumped that Trent Reznor won best soundtrack, electronic music doesn't often get recognized and his soundtrack for The Social Network has been on the top of my iPod for some time.

Aaron Sorkin definitely deserved best adapted screenplay, but that was a crowded field this year. The Coen Bros. had an awesome screenplay as well.
I really like the speeches for the small awards because I think they're the most deserving winners. Susanne Bier gave an awesome acceptance speech for best foreign film, I need to check "In A Better World" out.

OK, here we are to real time.

8:57

The Wolfman won an Oscar. WTF. It may be makeup, but seriously, it has 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.

9:16

Luke Matheny has the best haircut I've ever seen. He directed God Of Love, which won best short. Awesome speech. I don't think many film school students win Oscars... I just looked him up, God Of Love was his thesis! I bet he got an A.

9:21

Inside Job wins best doc. I haven't seen it so I can't really judge, but I'm kind of disappointed Restrepo didn't win. I guess the financial crisis is a timely deal, but Restrepo is the best documentary on a war I've ever seen.

9:35

Film Editing. What a strong field this year. The Social Network deserved it, the rowing scene alone was worthy of the Oscar. But it's a pity that Black Swan and 127 Hours had to be turned down. I guess that's what happens when you have Aronofsky, Fincher, and Boyle competing at what, in my opinion, they are the 3 best at.

9:47

Best Song goes to Toy Story 3. I only mention this because Randy Newman has been nominated 20 times and won twice. Most noteworthy, he lost for "You've Got A Friend In Me," which I feel is the most known of his songs, at least, I don't remember the song in Toy Story 3.

10:02

Best Director. My favorite award. AGH! The King's Speech won!? Aronofsky totally deserved this one, at least we can predict which movie is going to win Best Pic now. I guess I should actually watch The King's Speech now, if he managed to beat Aronofsky, Fincher, AND the Coen Bros.

10:14

Jeff Bridges is again the classiest man in Hollywood. His introductions of best actresses was fantastic. Natalie Portman wins, no surprise there.

10:22

So sick of the Facebook jokes. Again with The King's Speech. I'll watch it. I generally dislike films that idealize monarchy, but who knows. One of my roommates says that films about British monarchs are to movies what cats are to the Internet.

10:32

Best Picture. Good year for movies. Good intro by Spielberg. They've used so much music from Black Swan, aka. non-original music tonight. My pick: a tie between Black Swan, 127 Hours, and The Social Network. The winner: The King's Speech.

In retrospect: by my count, The King's Speech won 4 Oscars, but they were all the major ones. The Social Network and Inception split the technical awards, which was to be expected. 127 Hours was winless, which is a pity. Boyle did a great job with a film that is seemingly the opposite of what would be a good movie. But, he won a lot two years ago. Fincher and Aronofsky are still winless directors! This was a good year for movies, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the best foreign films. I'm curious what you guys all thought, comment on this year's films below.