Avast, marmots!
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
The community band I play in recently changed practice venues to a different high school. As I'm getting ready for practice to start last night, I look over and see the Euphonium locker at the back of the room. Curiosity gets the best of me and I take a peek inside. Little did I expect to find a picture displaying hilartity of pee-in-the-pants proportions.
I give you... the Pirate Beaver.
This raises so many questions! Why is he stabbing the fairy? When he gets hungry, does he nibble on his peg-leg? We may never know. What we do know is that the artist possessed the unbridled genius inherent only to those of the Tone clan. Hats off to you, euphonium players of Edison High School in Fountain Valley, California.
PS - Fear not, I will return your picture at our next practice.
Author: Goat » Comments:
Straddling the line
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Ah, nothing like using the title of a blog post to reference a quote by a band director at ND who was before my time and I never met. I fully expect Mal or Ball to make some comment about said quote, though. Maybe even Jism, too!
And now, to explain my seemingly nonsensical practice in paraphasing.
I have just taken a highly scientific, extremely accurate political survey to determine just how conservative or liberal I really am. I must say, I was really hoping for something along the lines of "You could be Rush's understudy." Sadly, I got something different.
| Your Political Profile: |
| Overall: 55% Conservative, 45% Liberal |
| Social Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal |
| Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal |
| Fiscal Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal |
| Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal |
| Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal |
Look at me! My political views are more bipolar than a pregnant woman on steroids during her period! What can this possibly mean? Should I start my own party? Will the two sides of my political soul continue to fight each other until it rips itself apart? Even worse, will one side win out? And what if it's the liberal side? I think from those results that I can rest assured that as long as money is still part of society, I'm safe from the last possibility.
Sarcasm aside: As with any polls or quiz, you have to step back and question the bias of the author. Obviously, this was written by an extremist -- someone who only paints in black and white. A friend told me it has more conservative undertones. Beats me. All in all, though, it scored me pretty accurately -- moderate right. (I was joking about the Rush stuff)
Author: Goat » Comments:
Take me to your leader!
With all the talk about illegal aliens in the U.S. lately, someone at MSNBC thought it prudent to put up a sample of the U.S. Citizenship test so anyone can test their knowledge of this fair country. At first I thought, "What a great idea!" But when I clicked on the link I immediately became a bit worried, seeing as how history was never my strong point. Lo and behold, though, I ended up getting an 18/20 on the quiz! Booya. Thank heavens I know at least as much about the United States as a naturalized immigrant.
Care to
test your citizenship?
FYI - I missed the question on constitutional ammendments address voting, and the one about the INS form.
Author: Goat » Comments:
Summer Reading List
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Since graduating and starting a real job, my liesure reading has increased tenfold (maybe more). Once you start reading, however, you start hearing about more and more books you want to check out. So here's a list of some of the books I'm looking to read in the near future along with a list of the ones I have recently read. The lists are sorted by author, in case you were wondering. Feel free to make suggestions!
Current Dig
- The City of Fallen Angels, by John Berendt
On Hold
- Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, by Steven Levy
- A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink
- CCNA INTRO Exam Certification Guide
Future Reads- The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson
- Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885-1945, by Martin Blumenson
- The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
- Beclouded Visions: Hiroshima-Nagasaki and the Art of Witness, by Kyo MacLear
- And the Band Played On, by Randy Shilts
- The Miracle of Saint Anthony, by Adrian Wojnarowski
- Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter
Recently Finished
- World War Z, by Max Brooks
- Make Love! (the Bruce Campbell way), by Bruce Campbell
- First Meetings in the Enderverse, by Orson Scott Card
- The Plague, by Albert Camus
- The Fabric of the Cosmos, by Brian Greene
- Just Another Soldier, by Jason Christopher Hartley
- A Brief History of Time (10th Anniversary Edition), by Stephen Hawking
- The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, by Stephen King
- The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, by Stephen King
- The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, by Stephen King
- The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, by Stephen King
- The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, by Stephen King
- The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah, by Stephen King
- The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, by Stephen King
- The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson
- Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
- The Alphabet of Manliness, by Maddox
- Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
- Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Night, by Elie Wiesel
Labels: books, summer
Author: Goat » Comments:
Fire de Missiles!
Last week I got to go observe a missile test launch up at Vandenberg AFB courtesy of the rotation program I'm in at work. I can't tell you a whole lot about it and not because it was classified (because most of it was), but mainly because they really didn't tell us too many details. But what I can do is tell you that they fired off one of these
bad boys. During the launch I sat in an observation room with another guy in the rotation program and a Lt. Webb (I think that was her rank) who was in charge of the press release that was to go out the next day. During the two hours of waiting for the countdown to finish, we talked about life on base and typical twenty-something stuff. Awesome.
And then there's North Korea over there threatening to do a test launch of one of these
not-as-bad boys. While I want nothing of the sort to happen, part of me is excited to get to see our missile defense system in action. After working on this stuff for a year now, it definitely makes watching the news more interesting these days.
Okay, not a very exciting post, nor very humorous. But blame it on my new rotation, which is about as exciting and funny as digging a hole in the ground. Awesome.
Author: Goat » Comments:
SuperTerrificMegaHappyFun Reunion
Sunday, June 11, 2006
This weekend hosted the impromptu yet highly succesful Animal House mini-reunion. In fact, it turned out to be bigger than just the Animal House itself. Along with the former residents -- Ball, Mal, Cahk, Nips and myself -- we were blessed with the company of Moose, Doozer, Cahk's woman, and our favorite falto, Lizett.
The weekend started off smashingly well as we enjoyed the best burger in town at CJ's. T'his was my first Super Pub since the recent demise and rebirth of this fine establishment, and let me tell you, it's still effing awesome. Also, apparently the burger isn't called a Super Pub (I couldn't find one by that name on the menu), so instead I enjoyed a delicous Four Horseman with bacon. Mmmm, bacon. Okay, so it was no Golden Domer, but still a scrumptuous burger, nonetheless.
Next we moved on to Oscar's pool hall for the sole purpose of relieving AniMal of his DD responsibility. God knows none of us wanted to be in the car with him sober, much less drunk. Man, that man can't drive. That's right, Mal, I just told the whole world that you can't drive without and substantiating proof! What are you going to do about it, huh? HUH? Good times were had by all until someone kept farting. I don't know why that person decided to eat a giant mexican burrito the night before traveling cross country to see his college buddies, but rest assured that it will never happen again.
Oh, and for the record, I drank approximately 1 gallon of beer Friday night. Fact. Mothball drank a gallon of beer at CJ's alone, and probably another at Oscar's. Also fact. AniMal is a scrawny white boy with chicken legs. Also also fact.
Went to Chili's for sweet sweet queso and fajitas for lunch Saturday. Nips started explaining all the cool stuff he was working on these days and an extreme dichotomy was evidenced as Moose and I began to get excited and Cahk and Kristine's eyes started to glaze over. Ahh, the engineer effect. Anytime one of us talks about our studies or work, normal people fall into epiplectic siezures followed by a catatonic sleep. Beware. Besides the point, Nips is doing some pretty sweet-ass work and I'm actually jealous of him. I've been at my job for a year now and just when I started to sink my teeth into something interesting and worthwhile, they make me rotate to a new office where there is nothing for me to do. But we'll talk moore about that later.
True to form, Cahk wanted to toss the old disc around in front of Fisher. I'd almost forgotten how much I missed throwing the frisbee around. Playing ultimate last fall was a lot of fall and I'm secretly hoping that my third rotation is in the DC area so that I can join the league again. It wasn't quite the same without Alaska there to make fun of my crappy throws, but I'm sure he and I will remedy that sometime soon. Does Alaska even read my blog? I need to call that kid.
We hit up Kay's for dinner. That place was deserted, which makes no sense seeing as how hot dogs and beer are uber-cheap there. And tasty. I actually didn't have hot dogs since I had a bad experience the last time I had Kay's hot dogs. Jism can vouch. I still blame the Rolling Rock at the trumpet party. So awful. Damn you, Rolling Rock!
Our initial plan for the night was to start drinking, then move to a bar carrying the Zibby fight. Much to our demise, no bars in the town of South Bend were showing the fight! What the eff? So we carried on with the drinking portion of our plan. Cups at Corby’s, Guinness and good music at Fiddler’s, good times at the Oyster Bar, and then back to Corby’s (why, I have no idea). Kristine and I both had a craving for the 24-hour Burger King, so we decided to hit the drive-thru. There are some guys in front of us trying to walk through the drive-thru when we get there, but having no luck. So Kristine (who’s driving) offers to pull up over the sensor. This works, so she backs up to give the guys space. Wham! Well, more like “thump.” Sure enough, hit the car behind us. Cahk jumps out and makes sure everything’s okay and all seems well until we pull up to the window for our food. The cashier says the lady in the car has our license plate number and wants to talk to us, and that the cop working security in the parking lot is coming over. Snap. Things are look bad. Mind you, this is not the safe, clean part of South Bend (does one even exist?), but rather downtown at 1am. Despite our surroundings, Mal is more scared about the fact that there are four people in the backseat, none wearing seatbelts. Awesome. I roll up my window and AniMal says the second-best quote all night: “Good idea Goat. Less talky, more rolly-uppy.” The best quote is not decent for posting on a blog. Long story long, the cop checks to make sure none of us are drunk, then waves us on. You thought the end of that story was going to be much more hilarious, didn’t you? Ha-HA! You were sadly mistaken. Circle gets the square.
That pretty much ends the funny part of this post, so if you don’t like plain stories, skip the rest. For those of you who have been dying for a post by Nostalgic Goat, read on.
This morning I went to mass at the Basilica which was awesome. A little detail I noticed at mass is that they still kneel through the entire Eucharist at ND. When did the rest of the country start standing during it, and why? Afterwards I took a walk around St. Mary’s lake and soaked up all the nature. I must have seen a couple dozen species of birds including an oriole and a blue jay. Best of all was all the green. For those of you who really know me, you know I eat that shit up. I know it might seem weird to post about it, but you have to understand that I don’t get that kind of stuff in California. The place is basically a desert that they’ve pumped water into from all over the West to make it inhabitable. In it’s credit, though, it does have cool marine life like dolphins, sea lions, and the ever-elusive whale.
Walked by Zahm and North Quad on the way back to Ball’s and the memory flood-gates seemed to open up. It’s amazing how just being at a place can bring back so much you hadn’t thought about in a while. Part of me didn’t want to leave today, but I reminded myself that I would be back before I knew it for football season.
Speaking of football, who applied to what games? I’m definitely coming to Stanford, and then either Purdue or UCLA. Also, anyone who wants to go to the USC game in LA is welcome to crash at my place. Unless you’re Remball.
ps - Despite the fact that I took my camera to South Bend, I did not take any pictures. No visual enjoyment for you, suckers. At least not until Doozer sends me some of her pictures.
Author: Goat » Comments:
Crossing 'em off
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Despite the amazingly low number of posts lately, I actually have been doing a lot of stuff, especially on the weekends. And it just so happens that some of those activities were on my list of
Things To Do Before Leaving LA. Check 'em out.
Watts TowersMy super awesome girlfriend came out two weekends ago and we decided to tackle a few of the smaller things on the list. First up: the Watts Towers. Back in the 1920s, an Italian immigrant named Simon Rodia started building a "ship" on land out of concrete and broken plates, bottles, mirrors, and other sundrious household items. Some 33 years later his masterpiece was complete; a "ship" complete with three masts (the towers) and a cabin at the back which served as his house.
While we were waiting for the tour, Ginger and I walked into the visitors center which his apparently a political activist safehaven. The whole place was covered with artwork protesting the prison system and bashing the government in general. I'm pretty sure we both had the same thought going through our heads as we walked out two minutes later: "God damn hippies." Not that I don't necessarily appreciate their opinions, but their methods have become trite and overdone. Then on to the tour. We got stuck in with a group of Brits that had to leave 10 minutes after the tour started, so our guide was really pushy. She gave us about 3 minutes to wander the grounds by ourselves, then called us all in to the "gazebo" to read us the poem she wrote for the last seven minutes. Ah, California, land of the self-serving artists. To be honest, the lady must have been a second grade teacher at some point, because that's how I felt I was being treated.
Don't let my bitter recount of the tour deter you though. The towers themselves are actually very cool and worth seeing. It's impressive that one man could be so devoted to his work to spend over 30 years on it, and also to have a creative vision that was decades before its time. Hats off to you, Mr. Rodia. Also, what's really amazing about the Towers is the stark contrast to the neighborhood around them. For those of you who have never lived in LA, Watts is not the nicest of neighborhoods. It's obvious just from visiting the grounds that the area was a lot different when the towers were being built. Urban sprawl had not yet taken place and Rodia's "home" was probably isolated from the nearest homes. Now, it is merely another lot on a street with dozens of other houses, all built on top of each other. In fact, the city originally planned on demolishing Rodia's creation in order to build more houses, but was thwarted when people protested. Lucky for us!
Ferris Wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Okay, so this one was a no-brainer having Ginger in town. Is there anything more fun than making out at the top of a ferris wheel? I propose that there is not. For a mere $9 the two of us were able to take in the awesome view of Santa Monica and the Pacific coastline. To top it all off, we had a delicious funnel cake. Is there anything more delicious than fried dough? I propose that there is not.
The Getty CenterAs an advocate of the arts, I couldn't not go to the Getty Center before leaving. My friend Maria and I went up on a Saturday afternoon. If you've never been, go check it out. It's located on the top of hill right off the 405 and has a great view of Santa Monica and the Pacific. On top of that, the architecture is pretty sweet. I mean, I'm no architecture major, but I enjoyed it. Very contemporary and very bright. They had a pretty sweet garden on the grounds, too, with lots of water and bridges.
It turned out to be a good day for exhibits as they were hosting several Degas prints. My favorite piece of the day was his "Title Here" (see pic). There was also an Impressionism wing with several Cezanne, Monet, and Manet pieces. We even got to see some Remington. I felt cultured.
AmoebaNo, it's not referring to the single-cell organism. And no, it's not a club in Hollywood full of people with the intelligence of a single-cell organism (which was my first guess). No, it's a super-awesome music store in Hollywood. If you're looking for it, they've probably got it. It's so awesome that there's a man at the entrance to the parking lot letting cars in only when a space opens up. Maria introduced me to it. I ended up buying aCD and 3 LPs after spending like 2 hours in the store.
The Old Spaghetti FactoryI've been to the one in Louisville dozens of times, so I couldn't pass up the offer to hit up the one in Hollywood. And it was just as delicious as the one in the Ville for the same delicious price. The only complaint I had was that the bread wasn't the awesome brown bread you get in the Ville and they didn't give us garlic butter. What's up with that? The best part though is checking out the building it's in. They always pick an old warehouse or department store and the furniture is made from crazy bedframes or something. I highly recommend it if there's one near you.
Author: Goat » Comments:
Exhibit BE
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Tonight after surfing (which was most excellent, if I must say) I decided to take a shower to wash off all the briny sea water. In the process, I somehow managed to get a substantial quantity of Head & Shoulders in my left eye. How? I have no idea. What I do know is that it hurt like hell.
My track record isn't looking so hot lately...
Author: Goat » Comments:
Exhibits BC and BD
Further proof that I am my own worst enemy.
Exhibit BC: Sometime last weekend I misplaced my sunglasses. I assumed that I left them at work on Friday evening, so I thought little of it. Come Tuesday I find they are not at work. Last night I start looking everywhere I can think of, but to no avail. Later, I toss a load of laundry into the dryer and notice it's making an unusually amount of noise. Further inspection reveals my sunglasses inside the dryer, broken across the nose and missing a lens.
Why did I ever throw them in my hamper? Why?? Because I am my own worst enemy.
Exhibit BD: On the way to work today I filled up the tank with gas and decided to wash my windshields. As soon as I finish I look down to see the entire right half of my tan shirt is wet and covered in black gunk. Guess who leaned up against his oil-refinery-soot covered car? Yup. Luckily I got most of it out with a paper towel and water, but half my shirt was wet for about 2 hours.
Author: Goat » Comments:
