strong as a can

today it is snowing here. first of the season. it is the first time i have seen snow falling since 2000. i love it.

we saw master and commander yesterday. just plain awful. what a disappointment. how could you make a movie like that and not even have any pirates? i kept hoping captain jack sparrow was going to pop out of nowhere and annihilate russell crowe's ship.

ok, ive started enough serious discussion for a while. and without further ado, i present friday's random thoughts:

-when my brother talks about crump he always refers to him as my friend "crunch."

-the o.c. is my favorite tv show. ever. if you haven't been watching and come in mid-season yul be lost. but trust me. it is awesome. wednesday 9pm fox. yes its a high school kid soap opera. i love it. nina and i haven't missed one episode. its the only show we watch regularly.

-thanksgiving may be my favorite holiday. you get to stuff yur face with something so delicious its simply called stuffing.

-my parents keep asking me what i want them to get me for x-mas. they won't take "nothing" as an answer. when is it ok to say "cash"?

-what do you think phil vilmorin is doing rite now?

so the randomness will have to wait a little bit, cuz i saw something on CNN this morning worth discussing. people in britain were protesting the war while bush was there and made a mock statue of bush and toppled it over (like the saddam one - quite clever i think). but nevertheless i find some things puzzling here:

to protest a "war", doesn't a "war" have to be occurring. last i checked "it" was over in may. whatever, this is just a technicality with dates. on to my real point.

what the fuck to these protesters suggest we do? pull out and leave iraq in a world of hurt? seriously what are they protesting at this point? the attempt to stabalize a war torn country? crying about the invasion that occurred 8 months ago accomplishes nothing. more importantly, if you are going to protest something you need to provide an alternative.

by no means am i defending bush and his decision to invade iraq. but it happened. nothing any protester can say will change that. but now that we're there, doesn't everyone realize if we leave before we fix it we would be making the worst mistake possible? whether or not you supported the iraq invasion is irrelevant. we're there now. you have to deal with the current circumstances and try have some sort of insight as to what would improve things in the future (and by future i don't mean tomorrow or next week).

is there really any alternative to stabalizing the country that we messed up? and if people are bothered by all the US involvement, by all means let the UN do it's job and take control.

all this economics-speak on lauren's blog leads me to pose the following question:

should income tax be
(a) held constant no matter how much you make (i.e. everyone pays $x)

(b) held at a constant % (i.e. everyone pays x% of their earnings)

(c) done the way it is now (i.e everyone pays varying %'s based on some pre-determined earning brackets)

(d) done away with

(e) done some other crazy way i've never seen before ("i thought we were in the trust tree. are we not?")

please please discuss. im really interested in this topic because i don't understand how the system we have was implemented.

i got an email from JAW!!! he says he will join the blogging circuit when he returns from to the western hemisphere. yes! also, nina told me kate z is out. so it all boils down to my sister. Operation Jake is over, we're on to operation my sister, or Operation Mister.

in the past year or two i have been trying to read more. nina is a monster reader and has encouraged me. usually im intimidated by really long books but apparently sports illustrated and espn magazine aren't all that mind enhancing. to make myself feel successful, here's a list of the books i read in the past 6 months or so, and i would recommend all of them:

harry potter #5
moneyball
atlas shrugged
bringing down the house
touching the void

umm, that's a pretty short list, espcially considering the last two can be completed in like 3 days a piece. i thought it would look more impressive. anyway i'm reading two rite now:

a tour of the calculus
the bretheren

and here's what's on deck:

that aldous huxley book lemmer bought us (i forget the name)
anything about the lewis and clark expedition (we saw an Omni-Max movie about it at the Cincinnatti Museum last weekend and it sparked some interest)

feel free to throw out some comments about what you all have read lately/suggest.

well i stopped being the guy who says "i fear change, i'll keep my bushes" in the quizno's commercial. yup i got the "good" comments.

a few things on a dreary wednesday. first, time magazine, ya know that reputable one, had a story on aqua teen hunger force this week. greg you are the shit for bringing them to my attention. i think you had some of meatwad's powers during the sandbox season and success resulted. also, a great move by the bjays to get lilly.

next, im eating popems (aka munchkins, aka the holes from donuts) with my coffee today. you should all be jealous of these wonderful chocolate covered delicacies.

either the comments weren't working yesterday or no one liked my ghetto poll. either way, fritos are better.

lastly, for greg and lemmer, i saw "donkey punch" vorhees this morning at the gym. i was tempted to give him an "OOOOWWWWWHHHHHRRRRR" salute but decided to pretend i didn't know him.

i forgot to mention that nina and i saw "love actually" the weekend before last. good flik. hugh grant is funny. there i said it. he better give divine brown some credit for his rise to success tho.

so i have a theory that only girls like salt n vinegar potato chips and only boys like fritos. let's have a ghetto poll - just answer in the comments - to credit or discredit this idea. i have a feeling ahren will be an exception to the potential rule.

who says football coaches don't wanna make out with each other? look quick before espn changes their main pic.

also MIT men's soccer won 5-0 on saturday and then upset Williams, the #2 ranked team in the nation, 2-1 on Sunday. NCAA play continues next weekend.

random shit. ready go.

-remember the band type 0 negative? maybe the coolest shit of our high school days.

-there is a drive thru beer store 1/3 of a mile from our house. that's some lucky shit.

-i still burn my tongue on my coffee at least once a week. my shitty learning curve looks like a candy cane.

-big week for MIT athletics: first, the men's soccer team is having arguably the best season of any sport (other than pistol) in school history. they are 15-2-1 and got a first round bye in the NCAA tournament. they play tomorrow. go beavers. then our friend zoomer gets mentioned in peter gammon's column on espn. (scroll about 3/4's down) gammons is one the most influential analysts in the country and here he is writing about our boy who used to throw kegs around baker. holy shit.

-how great is it when you show up at work and the first thing that happens is a secretary telling you she bought everyone krispy kremes? i think that qualifies as da shit.

-my parents are in town so that should be interesting. last nite after our soccer game i had pizza rolls and beer for dinner. my dad grimaced and looked at me like i was eating horse shit.

next time yur at a cd store where you can preview cd's check out copper blue by sugar.

i am a selfish blogger. i get so much utility from other people's blogs and don't give back much more than some disconnected ramblings on fridays. oh and lots of comments. so i am going to try to add some people to our blogging circle. first, JAW and kate z. why are they not here already? and second, my sister. this one may be a stretch because when she's not working on a horse ranch or sneaking into the local church to use their piano or hitching somewhere her computer access is limited to the jackson, wyoming public library. oh and i would love to read an ahren-marlow debate on just about anthing. here goes nothing.

my watch is busted. the battery is dead. it reads 4:27. i just looked down out of habit. it's right. what are the odds? (yes ahren i know it's 1/720)

im stoked to finally be living up north again, mostly cuz we can snowboard semi-regularly again. snowboarding is one the most fun sports i could imagine. none of this skiing bullshit. you can have fun snowboarding on a hill of any size, which is not the case for skiiers. i've spent hours on a 100 foot hill, just working on jumps, unstrapping my board and walking back to the top. and it is awesome to just rip down a mountain carving or popping tricks whenever you see a little bump.

yes it is dangerous. i separated my shoulder. so did jaw. my sister broke her wrist in the half pipe. one of my brother's friends went for huge air and his forearm wound up in at funny angle. and when you are first learning your tailbone will hurt so much you won't want to sit down. ever. ask nina.

but there are few things that compare to being on top of a mountain knowing you are going to fly down it on a 5'x1' piece of wood and fiberglass. you are in total control and can take as many or as few risks as you want. it's a challenge you can't get by playing pick up basketball or running a 5k or doing whatever sport you might nomally do.

we are blowing our families off and going to tahoe for x-mas. i can't wait for us to drop in a bowl like this and shoot snow off our edges, surrounded by powder.

so all this talk about moe and the archimides movie script got me thinking i should give an update on the novel im writing at work. im most of the way through chapter 3 and have thus far had nothing but rave reviews. ahren the editor even said "so far it's not such crap for crap." i also heard cheerleader say it was hella tight.

i highly encourage everyone who reads my blog (both of you) to start writing a book while at work. anytime you're bored just go at it. or beat the expert minesweeper level in under 2 minutes while eating a snickers and listening to captain america.

also i think i know the perfect cd cover for the next "fagittarius" cd.

well i didn't blog for shit this week. so with out further ado here's friday's random thoughts:

-is it bad when on halloween you start rationing the candy at the end of the nite so you have some left over for yourself?

-we had a soccer game last nite, have a crud tournament tonite, and are going rock climbing tomorrow. not a bad 3 day stretch.

-so powerbars, METRX bars, all that crap for crap have become so popular lately. but energy boost bars have existed for a long time. they're called snickers. next time you have a red bull, give it a snickers chaser. don't plan on sitting still for a while.

-the dads have new uni's. check em out. when are they gonna realize they should just go with what they had in the late 70's and early 80's? check out those beauties here.

-today a moe mix courtesy of the lemmer and brushfire fairytales have made it into my cd rotation at work.

-there are updated "holidays" on the hsr site. but i'm sure everyone reading this already knows that.

our weekend with ahren is unfortunately over. nina and i are at work, and ahren is most likely driving across the ohio-pennsylvania border rite now. here's the weekend recap:

FRIDAY
-ahren arrives 6:30am. sees his new trogdor sweatshirt. passes out.
-nina and i get home from work early. backgammon begins.
-late lunch at ranchero grande.
-drink ahren's homebrewed beers while we watch room raiders on mtv, ahren's favorite new show.
-play scene it.
-nap time, 5:30pm-7pm
-dinner and drinks at dublin's pub. ahren keeps talking about his bangers and champ all weekend. local band playing there must've got their set list from the breakfast club soundtrack.
-more beers at home.
-download keller williams songs til 2am

SATURDAY
-nina cooks up some fantastic bacon, sausage, eggs, coffee.
-hiking in john bryant state park. talk about global economy. eat a lot of sunflower seeds.
-stroll through the beatnik town of yellow springs.
-barnes and nobles for coffee. ahren buys us an aldous huxley book.
-cicuit city, then best buy. we impulsively buy x-box and 3 games.
-set up surround sound and play x-box.
-dinner at thai 9. ahren sweats under his eyelids from spicy food. nina gets a great bloody mary.
-beers and x-box. nina goes to bed around 2am, i join her at 2:30, ahren stays up playing dead or alive girl's volleyball until god knows when. we we left him, he hadn't ever won a match. by morning he's winning 9 in a row.

SUNDAY
-more good eggs and stuff.
-barnes and nobles for coffee and a sunday edition crossword (successfully done). remember that fortified wine is madeira.
-hit the grocery store for BBQ makings.
-ahren and nina make stuffed mushrooms.
-play battleship the card game while BBQing steaks.
-talk a walk around our neighborhood.
-hit taco bell for our second dinner.
-rent the sims for x-box, realize it sucks in about 15 minutes.
-try to solve a fortran math question by hand. decide nina should use a computer to solve it.
-play scattegories. i try to pass off 'ozark" as an animal that starts with the letter o. i don't get the points. for things that are black, starting with 'a,' ahren uses "ankle - mine after rolling it." he doesn't get the points.
-play trivial pursuit (the new version). ahren decides he is never playing it again.

end of fun weekend.