On a Cottage Tribute

K. You have to push play and listen to the video
and the tune...
and read along with the tune.
:)
There's SO much more...
i could probably do this song twice, even.
but.... :)
enjoy.



Hey remember that time when we went up to Stevens Point, for my birthday?
Hey remember that time we decided I should get that bike tattoo?
Hey remember that time I jumped off of the.couch.stage?
Hey remember the those months when I lived with you in the cottage
So cheap and cozy, cottaaaage.

Hey remember that time when I threw up on your BlueGill (sorry)
Hey remember that other time when I outdrank you in the living room
Hey remember that time I tried to throw the dead chipmunk by its tail
The air conditioner got him and we found a second little carcas in the bottom.
I thought we were going to be sick, I thought we were going to be sick

Hey remember that time when I would only drink PBR
Hey remember that time when I would only drink plastic bottled Bud Light
Hey remember that time when I would only drink Piiiiink Fetish
Hey remember that time when I was broke
I didn't care I just bummed from my friends
Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum...

Hey remember that time when we read together outside
Hey remember that other time when I was balls dee......in that one ...
Well in the mornings we'd watch the Today show together and get ready for work
And I was all kinds of tired too but what I saw, man, I tell you it was...... freaky,
....freaky

On a photographic work day

Today...
I had to head to work a bit early...
A tour was being given out at
BECON (biomas energy conversion...center)....
they're engineers mostly, so their acronyms don't have to work.

Anyway. It was my job to snap
some shots during the tour...
safe to say...pictures with people in them
are never very good, so i won't bother sharing.


(i'm particularly fond of this picture...
i think it'll pop up now and again here...)

However....
I was particularly interested in this:

notice that there's no
"caution...women at work"
...maybe because women would...
read the manuals?
Nah...these guys don't need to read the manuals,
they freakin wrote them...
We need more women in chemical engineering and such...
but still......I found it to be a funny sign.
I think it particularly funny wheen I think
about our government.................derrrrr

On Bonking

I think its absolutely FASCINATING
what the body can be put through
how its limits can be tested.
Moreso, I'm amazed at what we do
to get ourselves through it.

Today...
I BONKED....



We did a 65mile loop (not bad, i Know)
The worst part was that I went with
someone who I had never even met before
*can we say, embarassing??*
Anyway, here's what it was



Its a good thing I've been doing tihs long
enough to know that...hey ....I Don't need
to prove much of anything and I'll make
up for it next time, maybe take an extra
pull or two instead of JW having to
drag my ass all the way back to Ames

but the route included going through Ledges State Park

as well as riding out to Pilot Mound...



The climbs Definitely kicked my ass.


But...
It was a deliciously nice day out
a bit humid...
CRAZY humid, actually,
but a good breeze that would actually be a little cool
now and then.

So in the end, I'm left to wonder...
How do you describe "bonking" to someone?
Not just the punding headache,
the legs that feel like 50 pound sledge hammers....
the explosions that happen in your legs anytime
any effort is used...

It goes beyond that
It goes to the mental thought process of
"i can't go further"
"i can't do that hill"
"I can't go on"
"we have to slow down"
"Shit, i'm out of water"
"c'mon flat time, c'mon flat tire"
"don't you dare stop pedaling"
"mmmm cheeeeseburrrger"
"mmmmm Hammmms beeeer"
"omg what happened? I SUCK"
"I can't keep going"

Yet somehow...in the end.
I've always ended up back at home.

Motivated by the thought
of sinking my teeth into THIS:

thank.you.culvers

On a more Honest topic

Something that's been on my mind lately is that
I remember always yearning for the dichotomes to be Okay
for the paradoxes and polarities to be Okay
I didn't totally understand how they could be,
and i didn't really experience that...unconditional sort of love
but I remember wanting that bothness to be Okay
and wanting all parts to be accepted.

Over the past...6 months I think my aspiration has
really been about being as transparent as i can be.
I still have So far to go....
but this summer, I've Really found out that
the more visible I am ...whether its about my
vulnerabilities
political beliefs,
emotional world,
or or...spiritual beliefs...
....the more peacful I become.
There's less to hide.
I feel like SO much energy gets put into
hiding and...
secrecy...
I believe in privacy, for sure,
but there's a big difference between privacy and secrecy
secrecy is like...fear and
and trying to hide from each other...
feeling separate.
and being transparant is really...
a couragous act, a loving act.
It also relates us to each other.
I feel like if we were all ready to put
Everything out there on the table
we'd be Really shocked to see the thread of continuity...

I think what I'm getting at is the belief in...
in that whatever it is that people are known for...
lets say someone's known for strength,
I usually can be assured tha tthe opposite, flipside is something
that person is terrified of.
So if someone is really outgoing, and has this Huge presence in a room
maybe their biggest fear is that they're
DULL and they're NOTHING....
but if we're to embrace tha twe're
Huge...AND that we're also boring and nothing
then we have access to whichever we want
and we're not compulsively driven to the opposite
of
of
that wich we're Terrified of.

if there's anything I've taken away from the
people who I have surrounded myself with lately,
on that personal, learned level...
it would be being More okay with ....
all that is inbetween those dichotomies and feelings...
Not wanting to be this perfect/good/happy person
but not wanting to drown in my own cynicism
but to have everything between be...Okay.


yum

On Google Earth

Don't even worry guys
Last night was another
successful VICTORY
at pubstumpers.
I tried doing a sudoku
...and failed
but that's neither here or now...
I'm a bit upset about the new
prizes though...
t-shirts??? Seriously?????
Although, I must say that the
Miller Chill koozie works quite
nice in this...900degree apartment.
:)


-------------------------

Let me share with you...
some of the STRANGEST
google earth images that
you'd find out there...
to begin:
I swear, it'll be the next iPod commercial


Dubbed The Badlands Guardian by locals,
this geological marvel (Google Earth coordinates 50.010083,-110.113006)
in Alberta, Canada, bears an uncanny resemblance to a human head wearing
a full Native American headdress--and earphones, Of course.
Yeah...
maybe Americans should stop being such assholes
to the native american's .....
They were CLEARLY listening
to iPods before we were...
sooo innovative they are.
WOW what a concept it would
be if we'd LISTEN to other cultures
instead of just pushing them around
and telling them to do things our way...
maybe the iPhone would have come out 6 years
ago and not cost a bagillion dollars....


Next on the list of awesome things
seen via google earth

clearly.crop.circles
the best thing that ever happened to crop circles is Google Earth.
Yeah...if you look hard enough
i think you can see the aliens...
as said in the great movie "Contact"

"do you believe that there's life out there?"
"the universe would be an awful waste of space if there wasn't."

This next one is for all of us
graphic designers out there
The latest craze of
DESIGN ANYWHERE
truly comes out with

I bet aliens drive Fords....
just because of this one....
BUT don't worry
while driving their Fords
they're probably drinking
Coca-Cola
thanks to that ...
etched into a hillside in Chile with
70,000 Coke bottles.
Haven't they heard of recycling?

On being a Graphic Designer...

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A GRAPHIC DESIGNER WHEN:

You can spot bad typography from 100 yds away

You are pro-facebook because 95% of the myspace accounts burn your retinas

You can name more than 200 fonts in under five minutes

You are completely immune to subliminal advertising

You look upon a well-designed project with either:
sympathy OR extreme jealousy

Your hand is permanently stuck in the shape of a mouse

You tell stories of exacto-knife inflicted wounds with grizzled sort of pride

You practically take caffeine intravenously

You've been spending three days non-stop on a project and it still looks like shit.

You find your pulse increase at the sight of a lovely ligature, glasses steam up when an unusually elegant arm, leg, or tail comes in view, and a well-kerned paragraph is apt to make you break into a sweat with excitement.

You buy a CD or DVD for the artwork, even if you have no idea what the actual music or film is like.
(even worse, you don't actually watch or listen to it, just stare at it for hours and hug it in adoration)

you look at the clock and see it's about midnight and think 'I'll go to bed now'... and you actually go to bed about 2-3am.

you need someone else to point out that you're sitting in a room in front of the computer with all the lights off, and haven't noticed

you know what "kerning" is and you really, really like it.



You have a thing for chairs. You don't know why.

You giggle whenever you use the colors F0CCED, EFF0FF and 44DDDD

You give your relatives a lecture about color spaces and profiles when you email them your vacation photos.

Seeing someone use Lens Flare or Comic Sans adversely affects your blood-pressure

You maintain a grid system for your refrigerator magnets.

You organize your CD collection according to the Pantone chart.



You sit at work for eight hours straight just looking at your monitor, waiting for a spark of inspiration that doesn't come.

You're up 'til 5am because you came up with the best idea ever while brushing your teeth.

The hottest dream you ever had was "Trace contour... Find Edges... Pinch... Extrude... Smudge Stick... Motion Blur.... Sprayed Strokes..."

You know Lorem Ipsum by heart.

Your kid knows Lorem Ipsum by heart.

The preschool teacher complains your child won't color inside or outside the lines – only indicate colors on a separate sheet.

Looking at a menu make you go "hmmm, ITC Baskerville italic" rather than "mmmm, lunch!"

And when you finally order, you go for Layer Based Slices with Grain Texture...

You use words about fonts you dislike that other normal people reserve for fascist dictators and serial killers.

Apple+Z is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something.

You know that rivers are more than just water.

Kerning and leading on your shopping list actually matters to you, and you don't see a problem with that.

Several South American economies suffer noticeably any time you try to give up coffee, or even cut your consumption of it by half.

You know that "bleeding" doesn't hurt.

If you could go back in time you wouldn't go back to see the rise and fall of civilizations, you'd go back in time to destroy comic sans and papyrus.

You've considered naming your children things like 'Kern', 'Pica', 'Bézier', and 'Serif'.

You can understand everything on this list.

On a Wednesday at Work

The display is getting SO close.

I took a bit of a break on it to put
together the newsletter,
but We're printing to a 1/3 scale and putting the pieces
together on foam core...
I'm getting excited
and more and more happy
with the design every day. Yaaay!

For purposes of the display,
and because we lack in this sort of image
the boss lady went out to Lowes
and picked up a bunch of
cfl light bulbs....
just for us to photograph... haha. Awesome.
So Abbs and myself took a bit of time
aaand despite the grass allergies, we had some good results, i think.

On a Political Revolution

If you haven't checked it out yet,
http://www.youtube.com/debates
You should definitely give it a whirl
and watch some of the debates

This is fantastic news, related by Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig:
who by the way, has written quite a few Great books...

discussing Intellectual Property and laws of cyber space...yadda yadda...gotta love philosophy of tech.
ANYWAY....for the quote:

"Due to the historical nature of presidential debates and the significance of these forums to the American public, CNN believes strongly that the debates should be accessible to the public. The candidates need to be held accountable for what they say throughout the election process. The presidential debates are an integral part of our system of government, in which the American people have the opportunity to make informed choices about who will serve them. Therefore, CNN debate coverage will be made available without restrictions at the conclusion of each live debate. We believe this is good for the country and good for the electoral process."

Yer probably a bit surprised to even learn that, yes,
the television networks hosting the debates have always
held the copyright to the appearance of the candidates.
If you wanted to use the debate audio and video,
you would have to assert “fair use” and the associated
provisions (comment, criticism, parody, and proportionality
in relation to the whole work). blah blah.
C-SPAN was the only one who had said they would "free up" the coverage.
But the announcement by CNN is the first one by a major media company.

I think its uuuuh what's the word?
.
.
.
.
Revolutionary??
.
.
.
.
It may (or may not? I could Definitely be wrong)
Change the way debates are held.

I think the biggest impact will be in the audience
that will be reached. ...I wouldn't have sat
in front of the TV to watch a debate taking place
.......Definitely not
THIS far away from an election...
but you put it on YouTube and...
and when that time comes around where I need
Anything to distract me from
homework or
cleaning my room or
doing something more productive...
you better bet I'll go watch some video.

Pretty well related to that...
is that WE get to ask the questions.
No more boring unknown standing in a suit
asking questions that everyone knows
will be asked, and that some punk dope-head
wrote the answers to for the candidate to read from
(someday .....someday one of thoses writer-punks
should add "i shaved my legs and wrecked-em"
in a response......)
The best example I think would be this selected debate:



Its clever. Its witty.
And it asks an extremely important question.
Unfortunately though,
the downside is that some questions people ask...
eah, are dumb. Oh well.

My favorite debate question that was asked though was the
"What's to like and dislike about the candidate to your left?"


I'm sorry, but for those of you who Couldn't answer
that question....
or considered it to be "ridiculous"
..It means that you're not willing to be honest with me.
If you Sincerely have Nothing negative to say
about the person next to you...
to me that says that when
you have something remotely negative
[and possibly important] that I as a citizen need to know....
you're not going to be honest and let me know about it?
I loved and hated that question because....maybe it revealed
TOO much.
Most people who answered said Overly superficial comments...
"I like your family"
You like my FAMILY? what about me?
There were few who said that they admire that PERSON to the left...
and FEWER who had something legitimately Negative about a person.
Maybe the negative lists are too long, i don't know.
But c'mon, at least humor us...
at least tell us something like...
"hillary, I don't like how ...
how you can't control your gas"

or...
"Edwards...I hate it when you forget to wear deoderant"
And to the lame-ass who thought the exercise
was RIDICULOUS.....I say...
...."ooooh, you're THAT kid"
You know what I'm talking about.
The kid at all the team building retreats/conferences
you were at who was too Good to participate fully.
You're THAT above us?
Holy Balls.

And now for your moment of ....
random

On a Great Weekend

ON CAMPING

What a great weekend...
wow.
I took a good good friend of my camping
this kid's lived in WISCONSIN before AND MINNESOTA
and has NEVER been camping....
i'll forgive her this time...
but did you know that she hasn't been
to a demolition derby, either?
.....we'll get it taken care o



---------------------------
ON GREAT PEOPLE

KT came to visit on Saturday!!!
If I had a paper clip for everytime
she gave me one when I sayd "I dunno"
I'd have enough to get organized...
So why aren't I organized quite yet???
"I dunno"




-------------------------------

ON LOVING YOUR JOB

Next up. I'm still Loving my job.
Last Tuesday we went out and
took photographs of cyclists against
riding along the Iowa landscaped
brushed with wind turbines.
They turned out Great.


I'm currently working on some display thinger, though.


I Really Really fear for the day
that I don't have such a care-free job.
It might even be one of my greatest fears
It MIGHT even be a sort of reason
as to why I want to live in a river shanty...
So that if I have a job I'm not happy with
Then "so what" ...I could move on
Not that I ever really find myself unhappy when working...
Plus... who wouldn't want to live the simple life?
Go to work for...as long as I want,
come home to the dog (tank?)
go for a bike ride,
go swim in the dirty nasty river...
grill some chow....
and sleeeep!!!!

Yeah.
Sounds good to me, too.

------------------------

ON PLAYING SOFTBALL

Sometime last week I was saying to myself:
Self, I really wish I could find a softball team to play on...
Not for a Long time, just for a game or two.
Next thing I know...
I'm playing w/ some folks
and its a delightfully steamy, sunny, dirty day
We practiced together a bit,
then had a game Tuesday.
We may have lost
but I got to slide back to first to tag up...

And lets be honest.
Is it a softball game w/o some blood?
I didn't think so either.

There was a good sort of lesson behind it though.
Something about ....doing it Just for fun.
That we didn't win, didn't matter
that that dude playing left field
couldn't catch the ball...let alone throw it....
didn't matter.
We were all having fun.
we were all meeting some new friends
we all got to feel the bat hitting the ball
Sometimes there are more to some things...

ON AWESOMENESS...
checkout that sweeeeet belt buckle...hott.

On Being Famous:

"Great bike ride affords good times"
do i look scared, or WHAT!?

"It's a great community builder for bicyclers, or even anyone remotely interested," Topp said. "It's a lot of inexperienced riders though, so I have sort of shied away from it since I found out what it was - I don't want to get injured."

That's...Hardly what I said....Especially the word choice of "bicyclers"??? ....*shakes head*
Cyclists, please.
I don't think i'd Ever say bicyclers...

But that's Okay, its a decent article...
except that....the ride Doesn't start on the
Missouri river........
The dude who wrote it ....
wrote it at like 11pm the night
before it was due...
Fortunately, no one reads the Summer Daily.

Nah, I'm being too harsh.
Its a good article,


Hey hey,
remember this article, though?
and how
"Asked about whether she was nervous about making her downhill race debut, Topp said, "Nah, I'm just hungry."
Thanks MNDaily...

it seriously is one of my favorite moments...
reading that that's what they put in there from me

On a new roomate:

Well guys
Friday's the day that...
that I leave the Cottage...
by leave I really mean that
i Might sleep over some other
place about a block and
a half away, but that's...
detail.
But I will have a new roomie!

This is Maria and her paintings
at the DSM art festival
Maria. you're fantastic.

Remember when we worked forever on Rob's stuff
ooooh about this time Last year?

*siiiigh*
Now That was a painful....adventure.
good to be... pseudo done.
Good work Maria!
Way to go with that whole...
follow through thing...
I'd imagine Rob

has lost my cell phone
number by now...
That man needs sleep.

Anywho.
remember when we went
garage saleing....saling?
and...found lots of crap.

And by crap,
I of course mean Main Street
and Cafe Diem and muffins........
I'm excited for winter so i can wear my hats.

Yep... Maria, I hope you're ready
for me ....
I'm good at dishes.

Don't even worry Summer Cottage Dwellers...
There will be a summer tribute coming soon, I'm sure.

On Self Worth:

$4525.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth. From Mingle2 - Free Online Dating

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

I must say I'm impressed....
And knowing this...I can answer the question of:
If you were to lose an arm in an
accident and they CANNOT
replace it or fix it...
and so they offered to cook it up,
stir fry, style...maybe w/ some
d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. soy sauce or something
would you, i ask
WOULD YOU
taste?

That said, an arm is...what? ....15% of your body?
That's a.......$680 dish just about....
And everyone knows that....
food THAT expensive MUST be tastey.

-------------------------------------------

i have an urge to make a movie...
but am too busy this summer
maybe some other time.
Any good ideas?




-----------------------------------------


On a really exciting note
the New York Times featured a GREAT
article:

"NO TYPECASTING Unlike running, a sport usually dominated by young, rail-thin athletes, cycling is more forgiving of body type and age because of different aerodynamics. The best cyclists going up hills are those with the best weight-to-strength ratio, which generally means being thin and strong, but heavier cyclists go faster downhill."



I think its a Great point and just another
reason why ....there's no excuse to not
get out there and ride
....unless its raining
....or too hot
...or too cold
....or...you're too hungry and out of cliff bars....

On Small Town Stuff...:

Attention...
Area code 515...
Central iowa...
I have a special announcement.........

no, actually, no announcements here...yet.

*thank you Leslie Hall, you may be seated*




Go make a hip-hop album.
Do it.

AND maybe listen to Leslie whilst you do it...



-------------------------------------


On Small Town Bars:
Lately there's this thang they do...
all.together.now
in some small bar
in some small town
where 'adventure' never seems to be avoided...
This week's host was Nevada, Iowa



And though they have themselves a very nice wind turbine or two...
they also have a bar called Minsky's...
and on a nice enough night
with nice enough folks
and hardly nice enough ....bud light....
we all.together sang
Cecilia



along with these good 'ol boys.

Then we scored some pizza from....
none other than a
Jackson Green...
yeah. like the color.
He may have been a toolbox,
a drunken toolbox ///// the worst kind
but what.ev.


____________________________



IN OTHER
less important news...

According to CNN
"Back-to-school pricetag: $18.4B
Survey: Consumers are expected to spend an average of $563 on computers, shoes and other stuff, up 6.9% from 2006."

...."and other stuff"???? Who writes this shit? And more importantly....who Really cares?
C'mon CNN....don't you know that
Kim Topp didn't do much of anything at work today...
down 8.9% from yesterday's output?
THAT's front page news, now.

Now...
Go play in the street..