LMFAO rips off MSTRKRFT?

So I was listening to some MSTRKRFT remixes on Sad Steve and in one of them I came across a beat that seemed very familiar. Take listen to the "Element of Danger" MSTRKRFT remix (2006) on Sad Steve and decide whether you think LMFAO's song "I'm in Miami" sounds like they just stripped down the beat added a few chirps and then rapped over it? This isn't really a horrible thing; there's been tons of sampling and recycling going on in hip-hop, rap, and electronic music for a long time. I think it just gets to the reason why I could never totally get into LMFAO. There's no originality; it's just catchy club beats with womanizing lyrics.

Anyway you should all check out MSTRKRFT on Sad Steve. I'm not a a huge fan of their original compositions (though "Heartbreaker" with John Legend is really good), but their remixes are generally original (not just the same song with a club beat) and catchy. The D.A.N.C.E. remix is great.

Stadium 110/The Ocho: A Mistake? A Loveable Bastard Child?

I spent my evening yesterday enjoying homemade pizza, good conversation, and a game of Mad Gabs (!) with a few other Carls in St. Paul. It was an enjoyable evening and I left feeling full and content. One of the most notable occurrences of the evening was when one person commented that all of the "Stadium 110 Boys" love each other so much. That being the case, I did not deny it. However, since I am funemployed and have plenty of time to think, I thought about said assertion for a quite a while. What I will now speak of is what I concluded:

The Ocho was a Loveable Bastard Child, a Cherished Mistake, a serendipitous rooming situation, a fortuitous outcome from a confluence of (at the time) not-so-fortuitous events. Our 2008-2009 school year would not have happened as we know it but for a series of individual events that occurred and that because of which we are better off (does this count as a hanging preposition?).

As you all may recall, we entered room draw as a fragmented set out eight. If I remember correctly, Mark, Ted, and Elliot wanted to live together. John and I wanted to live together. Nonberg, BK, and Toto were planning on living together. We all are vying for Sevy, and planning on combining groups as was sensible at the time. While many enter senior year room draw with a battle-plan and a sure idea of what would happen, we "hadn't the foggiest". We weren't really helped by the draw either, as group after group snatched up Sevy quads and quints, and we were left scrambling.

John and I would not have even been at room draw had John not decided to go off campus winter term. As you may recall, John and I were about "this close" to living above Erbert and Gerbert's. Had that happened, there would have been Six. Maybe Stadium 202 would have occurred (is that the Sextet?). But, where would Alfredo have fit in all of that? We'll never know.

What if one of the Sevy rooms had been open? I believe they are almost exclusively quads. Nonberg had the lowest number, so he would have drawn BK and Toto and... who else? That would have left me, John, and two of Elliot, Ted, and Mark. I have a feeling Mark would have been fucked because, well, he was a freshman and in his words he "didn't really have any say at all" because of that. If Nonberg had opted for Sevy, John and I had taken Erbs and Gerbs, that would have left presumably two of Ted, Elliot, and Mark out in the cold. Elliot and Ted had terrible numbers. Burton double?

When Elliot, John, and I were picking our triple, we picked 203 almost randomly. I remember standing there and being like "Oh, which is bigger? Hmm I don't know. Okay we'll take 203." Surprisingly, we didn't think about proximity to 110 at the time, and to this day, I'm not sure why. Furthermore, we must consider that Stadium 110 dropped incredibly low in the draw. It should not have gone that late. Those triples usually go fairly quickly too. Yet, they didn't. Was it meant to be?

So many things occurred senior year that would simply be unthinkable without the existence of The Ocho. We didn't plan The Ocho. The Ocho was a mistake. Yet it was the best year of our college lives. Funny how that works, right?

Sober blogging

Hey guys. I think it's my turn to do one of those "It's been too long posts."

I got a chance to catch up with some of you, but there are still lots of things for me to blog about, so I'm just going to go James Joyce stream-of-consciousness on this bitch.

Like Mark, I've been thinking about the decade we just left behind. I actually thought about doing a post a month and a half ago but decided it was too soon. Now it's too late. Oh well.

Anyway. I think we'll all remember the Aughties better, or differently at least, than any other decade in our lives. After all it was the decade in which we lived the most formative part of our lives. I know it shaped my worldview quite a bit.

To me the 90's feel like a decade of comfort. And when you look back on them they certainly were pretty simple and comfortable. The 00's on the other hand were clearly pretty turbulent and, I want to say, complex. 9/11, two wars, two recessions, global warming, Katrina, we all know the stories. In many ways, things really went south in the Noughts. But I certainly had many good times in the past decade as well, so I have a lot of mixed feelings about the decade. Also, the 2000's saw the rise of the internet, which, while it was certainly around in the 90's, but not like it is today, not as ubiquitous. In general this has been a good thing, though sometimes more ambivalent. (Sidenote: those Evony ads have gotten pretty ridiculous haven't they?)

I was thinking about signs of the decade to come. I thought it would be interesting in the theme of the whole Father-Time/Baby-New-Year thing to look at the notable deaths at the end of each decade (babies generally don't do anything notable, so births probably wouldn't give any insight).

In December 1999, there was Scatman John and just 33 hours before the year 2000 oldest living person Sarah Knauss. The death of Scatman John was truly saddening and probably marked the end of nineties music, oh how I loved thee. And could it have been an omen of things things to come that the oldest living person didn't hang around to see the new millennium? Maybe, but probably not, 119 is really fucking old.

In December 2009 there was evangelist Oral Roberts, wide-receiver Chris Henry, and actress Brittany Murphy. I have no idea what these mean.

I've sort of lost my train of thought. This is what comes out when I try to do stream of consciousness. I don't think I'm doing it right. I was going to also include some life updates, but I've been writing long enough.. I'll have to post again soon.

Drunk Blogging 201: The ultimate Drunk Blog

How many of us are in grad school; the answer is a lot.

Right now I am at my gf's house at an undergrad party....I am mot sober. This is a curcuial fact in what is happening in my life right now. Whereas many of my firneds here like to think they are cooller than anyone else by not partying with undergrads, I embrace it. I heard Ted and Tim were nto at calreotn today..what bitches..............that's a lot of periods........i can't believe how drunk i am....i lvoe tim and ted so much... Iwish I was in the ocho. oke bye

Beer Drinking 102: Drunk Blogging

Fuckin' beer ice pot motherfuckers, Bryant Lake Bowl bitches,. So bnoiw we are drunken blogging. We have ciome toi teach you a lesson about Beer Drinking 101.

If you ever go to Bryant-Lake Bowl (convenientaly located at Bryant and Lake, Southwest Minneapolis MN (and overpricwed to beat)), you will enjoy it nbut you;'ll be mkad that it cfosts as much as it does.

Also, if you start a new turn at bowling and the front (number 1 ) pin is a BLUE SPARKLY PIN tyoy win a FREE PBR TALL BOY. HAOLY FUCK!!! THAT'S SO SDWEET. We won twice.

New gan]me b eer icwe pot. Like a shot out of a ice3 shot glass except you chug as beer out of a ice beer pot insteadx.

Also, we will come to your campus on SATURDAY night and be drunker than tyou atre, smarter than tou are, and more alumni than you ar.e We will wear alum buttons and kick all of your asses at any drininmc competitioon that you challenge us at. Fucka ll yall.

We ate dubnbher tonight bitches. Fuckin pork tendferloion and aspargus. And now my piss smells. We also drank wine. And Summit Batch #2. Fuckin mystery beer ytou assholes.

JMark is a bitch. So is BK.. And Alfredo is a meji. Unless you all powst tomorrow. SepaRATELY.

P{repare yourselves for SaturdA you bitches.

Love always,

Tim and Ted

WHY THE HELLO NOT?!

i CAN DRUNK BLOG ALL THE TIME.!

my new years was wutei fun. and then i come back on new years morning (2010) and i get on facebook and i drunkbook. its what i do.

i hope wall had a good nye. i did. cept for that bitch,. but it was all good. fun times. bed now. risk tomroow.

yea... that seems right,

End Of The Decade Nostalgia

The end of 2009 is fast approaching and with it comes the end of this Decade, which I guess doesn't have a name yet. And because of this, the usual coundowns, top-ten lists, and reflections by important people are abundant in the media. I've been eating it all up. I love it. I'm a reflective person and I just can't get enough of it. I've been skipping the 2009 stuff for the most part - I'm all about looking at the decade as a whole.

It started when I read TIME's December 7th issue. It bashed the decade although it did have a small article titles something like "The Good Times from 00-09," which talked about mostly research breakthroughs.

After that, I kept going. Newsweek online had a TON of material, and it was in a cool looking layout, so I spent a good hour on that one day. There is list of most memorable quotes (like Cheney's "Go Fuck Yourself."), things that were unknown in 99, but standard now, most important cultural moments, and even predictions for 2010 (even though they have a whole section about the last decade called "Worst Predictions"). They also have essays - one describes how it would have been if Gore won.

And the other night Stephen Colbert interviewed Tom Brokaw, who called the decade the "Holy Shit" or the "Oh My God" Decade, "where everything was out of sync with what it had been before" and the old rules didn't apply. He also said that we took a lot for granted in the 90s, such as national security and financial negligence.

On a silly note, my friend sent me this list of "That Were Popular At The Beginning Of The Decade That Aren’t Popular Anymore." It's great.

And then if you haven't seen them, check out the 2009 JibJab Year in Review. They do one every year . I started looking at them in 2007 and I think that one is my favorite. But the 2008 one is worth checking out too.

I think I may be so interested in it, because I really came of age in the 00-09 years. Personally, my years as a 10-20 year old were more enjoyable and fullfilling than my years from brith to reaching double digits. But it's also wierd to look back and say that I developed my values, principles, and identity in a time of poor leadership, terrorism, war, partisanship, technology and information overload, and clashing cultural values.

And there is no use looking forward to the next decade, because the world is ending in 2012. (It's true, I saw it on the History Channel!)

Well, here's to living our last hours of 2009 to the fullest before closing that book for good. And here's to a fun New Years Eve! My good friend is throwing a party at his apartment downtown. The theme is "A Very Lumberjack New Years." It should be a slendid old time!

Final Project

Hi All,

Here is my final project for my first semester of film school. For those of you wondering how exactly our projects are graded, I took the liberty of attaching my professor's critique. As always, please let me know your thoughts.

David,

Here are my suggestions for improvements:

1. I would have made a big head trim in the black and white shot of the lifeguard running to save Jesse. It is so obviously the same guard, and this is implausible since the near drowning supposedly took place in the past, most likely somewhere else.
2. You should have stopped them from over acting. You did not need the performances to be this broad. It does not make it any funnier. It just makes it look obviously staged. Broad humor has to have some reality to it, otherwise it looks like bad acting.
3. After Jesse gets caught trying to wear a disguise and you show him back in the lockerroom, the shot is too short. Also it would have been better if you had changed the angle, because it too obvoiously is the same shot you used before.
4. Jesse’s pov coming up from behind the trash barrel is a confusing shot. Only at the end of the shot is it clear to the audience what they are looking at. Zemeckis taught me never to shoot a mystery pov shot especially if the camera was moving because you see the camera moving if you do not know whose pov it is. I think this would have been better if you had done a shot of Jesse from between the barrel and his eyes. Of course you would fake this by removing the barel.

The action of Jesse saving the guard was well shot. You did an excellent job of putting the camera in the right place to cover the action. In addition you shot enough coverage to keep it energetic and disguise the fact that it was staged.

Overall this is a very good assignment. Not great or exceptional. So I am going to give you a B plus for it.

Fighting cyber-crime one fraudulent credit card transaction at a time...

It's been a while since I've blogged. It's been a while since I've communicated with most of you. It's been a while...

Anyway, the last month has been pretty interesting. I flew to East Hampton, NY for Thanksgiving on Wednesday the 25th - as I passed through airport security I began a 3.5 month long distance relationship. I arrived in East Hampton tired and confused, but after a few days of excessive eating and drinking (split a liter of Jameson w/ my brother and drank to Ted Mullin numerous times...) things seemed alright.

The Monday after Thanksgiving I started my month-long temporary gig as a customer service representative and fraud detection specialist at an eGift Card issuer based in downtown Portland, ME. This job was actually fairly interesting. The company issues eGift Cards for a large national pharmacy chain, a large national home improvement store, and a number of national restaurants chains, among others.. A lot of people who steal credit cards like to buy gift cards because it's effectively a way to launder the money that they have access to on their credit cards. My job was to stop them during this busy holiday season. Basically, my fellow CS reps and I would review orders, do a lot of research on customers (more than you'd like to think...) and decide whether we could build enough of a legitimate profile for a real person to determine that their transaction was legit. Sometimes we uncovered somewhat elaborate fraud schemes by people using proxies in other countries, prepaid cell phones, etc. I know a lot more about how to "be a fraudster" at this point. Pretty cool stuff. Sometimes stupid customers would call in as well and ask dumb questions and I would get frustrated. A lot of the time I would be on Facebook.

So, that job ended the day after Christmas and now I'm sitting around for a few days before I head back to the Midwestern tundra that is Minnesota. When I do that, I'll be in full-on job search mode and hopefully be able to land something at least temporary as soon as possible. I'm also considering being a valet parking attendant on weekends.

A few random stories:

I went skiing on a day off a few weeks ago. I ended up somehow falling so that my left leg, just below my knee, fell onto the inside edge of my right ski. The edge cut my snow pants, cut my fleece pants, and cut my leg to the tune of five stitches. It was gruesome and bloody, and therefore I will share the picture that I took before the ski patrol lady bandaged it up so I could go back out:

My high school swim team had their alumni meet on the 26th. I got to swim a bit. Kelsey also brought Cancer Sucks caps, so my bro, sister, Kelsey, and I all wore them and took a picture. The cause is spreading.

Also, a slightly funny story: In preparation for my arrival back in Minnesota, I decided to pay my internet and gas bills today. I also realized I had yet to receive an electricity bill at my apartment - I assumed it had been sent after I left, so I called Xcel Energy just to ensure that my electricity would be on when I arrived on the 5th. Turns out they have not had a name/address to bill to since November 2008, and so electricity was cut on the 29th of November. I find it really funny that nobody paid a bill for a year, and they only just got around to turning off the electricity. I also am glad that I called because I really didn't want to have to deal with no electricity when I arrive late on the 5th.

Training Trip 2009: Northfield and Puerto Rico

So we got back from our training trip last Friday. As I explained before, it was a new format with one week in Northfield, one week in Puerto Rico and then 4 days after in Northfield again.
I thought I'd share about what it was like because it was a pretty different trip from the past two I've been on.

While we were in Northfield, the women's team and men's team practiced separately. While this was really good for Men's team bonding, it meant that we saw very little of the women in the pool. ALSO, since our practices would be after their practices (or vice versa), we never saw them for meals either. By the way, having like a floor to share a small burton kitchen sucks when everyone eats at the same time...

The captains put together some whole/gendered team events in the evenings like movies (Inglorious Bastards = Amazing), bowling night (HOLLER), ice cream sundays, etc. We also went to the house of a freshman who lives in Farmington. His mom cooked a metric-ass-ton of good food and their house had a pool table, sauna, hot tub, etc. It was awesome.

But I think the highlight of the evening activity line up was The Men's Team Vs. Women's Team Trivia Showdown. We all gathered in the 2nd Burton Lounge and battled it out in a game of trivia pursuit. Long story short... both teams got REALLY COMPETITIVE. During the last few turns, 2nd Burton was erupting in clapping, screaming, and laughing. The Men's team obviously dominated. Some girls took it poorly. (EX: One Junior girl, "Just remember which team is a Conference Champion...")

Other nights we just chilled in people's rooms or lounges, watching tv, eating and chillin out.

On the last night of the First Week, the night before we left for Puerto Rico. Some shit went down in terms of a select few who decided to drink. They were drinking because we had finished the Mac Meet earlier and we were leaving at 2:30am for the airport, which meant no morning practice. Well long story short, ResLife/ Security is a bitch and shut down a little gathering and took names of a few people. And that SHOULD have been the end of it. But it wasn't...

We get to Puerto Rico and are doing are thing down there, when in the middle of the week we get this email from Leon that he wrote to winter break athletes: (excerpt)

The party with the swimmers was broken up quickly and without incident. They weren’t so fortunate with the basketball party. Although the party itself was quickly disbursed, the building received considerable vandalism and damage (trash cans dumped all over the floors, broken window, a broken table, and food eaten out of the floor refrigerator). The RA on the floor and the resident who made the initial noise complaint also had harassing messages written on their doors.


The next morning at 5:30am, as we are meeting in the Lobby before heading to practice, Andy calls the people over and talks to them as everyone else heads to practice...

One way of looking at it: Andy wouldn't have known about it if we all hadn't gotten that email, and Leon wouldn't have sent the email if the BBallers didn't go crazy one night in Northfield.

Andy was pissed. We had a team meeting. Big talk about loss of trust and responsibility to each other. It was a damper on the day. There was some drama, because there were some people who were drinking, but somehow didn't get their names written down. Most eventually confessed to Andy. But afterwards, I was talking to Andy when everyone was clearly bummed and he goes "Aw common guys, I wasn't a perfect kid when I was in college either."

So there is still some fallout from that but for the majority of the team it's no big deal.

As for Puerto Rico, it was Puerto Rico. We stayed in a different area than from when the team was there 4 years ago. It was more touristy and there were no chickens anywhere. We didn't have kitchenettes, so we had to eat out everywhere which was expensive, but also fun. Eric Brenner and I (the thrifty bums we are) tried to not spend more than $100 dollars. But failed... BUT ONLY BECAUSE OF THE GOD DAMN AIRPORTS! It was okay though because we got a Stipend from the athletic dept. for the days we were in Northfield, which I carried over in PR. Overall I think I broke even. Which is awesome.

We had a half day off. Some people went snorkling, other went up to the rainforest (check out my pics if ya want, it was friggin awesome at the top), some went to a really nice beach, others checked out the old fort and an ambitious group went to the bioluminecent swamp/forest thing.

Back in Northfield, everyone was tired and broken down. We only had one day out of the almost three weeks of no practice and it was the travel day when we were up for like 24 hours straight, so it wasn't exactly restful. On the last day, we did a Pentathlon for our last practice and we had another team dinner, but at Perkins (classy, I know).

Overall it was a blast. The set up was interesting and Andy wanted our feedback on it. I liked the training in Northfield, but not coming back to it after going somewhere warm and training there. And Puerto Rico is nice, but the set up and conveniences of Ft. L are pretty nice.

And I'll leave ya with this.