Christmas gift...

How much does my fiancee rock? She got me a freakin' Ipod nano for christmas. I'm like a little child in a toy store!!! Or if it were me when I was a kid, like a little child in a Lego store (legos rock)

continuation of the previous post

I have had a day to sit and think about the story about Cuba not being able to play in the WBC and I have come to the conclusion that countries which are schedueled to participate in this tounament should boycot until Cuba is allowed to play. Last night on Pardon the Interuption (ESPN, 5:30et/4:30ct PM) Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon (the hosts) pointed out that in 1996, when the olympics were held in Atlanta, the Cuban olympic baseball team won the gold medal. Now, Tony and Mike did not come right out and say it, but they eluded to the fact that maybe the decision by the US to ban Cuba is not politically motivated, but is motivated sportswise (I guess you could say) in that the US does not want Cuba to play because they could win the WBC. It was an interesting thought, but I still stand by the fact that Bush and his cronies don't want a baseball team from a communist country to participate in the WBC.

If anything, the US should encourage the Cuban team to play. Why? Because it could lead to defections to the United States and could improve the players in the MLB. A bonus for the United States showing the people of Cuba what a "great" country this is and this could lead to a great talent pool for major league baseball, which is something that I think MLB needs. Because of the number of teams in the league, the teams are not as talented because the more talented players are spread out throughout the league. If we had players from Cuba and other countries come to the United Sates and stay and join a major league could improve the game immensly.

Let em play....

Alright, so coming up here pretty soon (okay, in March) there is going to be a baseball competition between the United States and a bunch of other countries like Venezuela, Mexico, Japan, China, Puerto Rico, Canada, etc. called the World Baseball Classic. Something new and cool. Basically, think of it as the World Cup, but on a baseball field. Sounds like a good thing for everyone who loves baseball, you can see how good other country's players are. If I were a betting man, I would put money on Venezuela.

However, there is a slight problem. The United States, who is hosting the event, has banned the Cuban team from participating. Why? Because they are a communist country. Oh dear, maybe it's just me, but I thought the Cold War ended close to twenty years ago. This is a game of baseball, not a political rally where Fidel Castro would show up and try to convince other countries to join Cuba and North Korea and convince them that communism works. The world has realized that this political idea does not work, so what is the problem? Some people point to the embargo that the United States has on Cuba. If we can't buy their cigars, why should we allow their players to come onto American soil to play the game that they love? Cuban players are already in the MLB so what is the problem? The United States is not held in high regards in the worlds eyes (in case you didn't notice) and to ban baseball players from playing a game that they love, grew up playing and loving, just because they come from Cuba is just plain stupid. The government can play world policemen all they want when it comes to terrorism and shit like that, but to ban a country from playing baseball (once again, it is called the WORLD baseball classic) is moronic. Hang your head in shame American government, hang your head in shame.

definitly real snow now!

Yes, yes there is snow on the ground now. And not just (oh, Hey You by Pink Floyd just came on the radio) a few skiffs like before. There is actually about 2 inches on the ground. Two inches! Very, very exciting. It finally feels like December down here. I can't stand it...I don't know what to do. A great story:
So Andrea and I went to Bennigans for dinner last night around 6:30. It was snowing just a little bit, nothing to severe, like I said a couple of inches on the ground. At any rate, as we are leaving, we see that they posted a sign on the front door stating: Due to bad weather, we are closing at 8:00 tonight. Sorry for any inconvience. HA!!! We got a huge kick out of that because they aren't use to getting weather like this this early into winter. You know, back in the day when I was in high school, we'd get two inches of snow and what would happen? Jack shit. People down here are weak.
Another great story:
A woman that Andrea works with by the name of Chris asked her yesterday if she (Andrea) got this kind of bad weather where she use to live. Andrea's response: What bad weather?
I just love being down here for the shock factor people have about what little snow we now do have. On a sadder note, it might not be here by the start of next week. :o( It is suppose to be in the 40s and rainy this weekend. Too bad, so sad.


A sight I will forever miss no matter where I live. Sunset on Brevort Lake in Moran, MI. A great place where great times have been had by many in the past and will surely be had in the future.

SNOW!

I woke up this morning and looked out the window, and what do I see? Green grass, a whole lot of green grass, but with snow! Okay, so by snow I mean barely enough to make a snowball, using all that fell over night! But still, you are missing the point, this is the first snow fall of the year in Wichita, which is really depressing because when I talked to my family, they got hit with a snow storm in the Soo, which is one thing that I really miss. Its damn near December and you can still see the grass down here. Three hours north of here runs I-70 running east-west into Colorado and a part of that interstate was closed last night because of snow, why couldnt that happen here? Stupid warm weather....grrr.
A month from now it won't matter because I'll be home in Michigan where there will be foot upon foot of snow and I'll be thrilled.

the day before Thanksgiving

This year is the first year that I will not be spending Thanksgiving with my family. At first thought, one might say, oh that's too bad, or oh I'm sorry, etc. etc. However, I would like to take a quick moment to tell you all it sucks to be all of you that are spending time with your families. You have to get dressed, I can stay in my pajamas if I want, you all get turkey, I get steak (yeah, STEAK!), You have to travel, I have to travel to my couch and watch the Lions play Atlanta (which is great because I haven't been able to watch much Lions football this year, please refrain from any comments, I will always be a Detroit sports fan (Lions, Tigers, Wings, and Pistons) even down here in Kansas).
That is all, and don't forget to thank your local Native American for saving the white man from starving that first year (What a mistake that was. :o)) Enjoy your time with your families and eating your turkey...I'll be on the couch with my steak.

OVER THE LINE!

So this weekend, Andrea, Jason, Pam, Marc, and I (see, I have some friends) went bowling. A good old time was had, although it took a couple of frames to get use to a new lane (I had a score of 14 in the first four frames of the first game, not good at all), and it was a Saturday night so it was loud and there were annoying high schoolers running around everywhere, but other than that it was a fun night. HOWEVER, two things occurred at this bowling alley that rarely happened at DonDee up in the Soo. 1.) The people in the lane to our left (the lane we shared the ball return with) decided to use about ten balls for five people. What the fuck? And after they were done, didn't return any of them. How annoying and rude. Honestly, what the fuck? 2.) Lane ethics. You know how if you are up ready to bowl, generally the person on your left and right should (and usually do) wait for you. Oh no, not Saturday night. Come on now, be courteous to your fellow bowlers. If you are ever bowling, don't just run up there and throw the ball down the lane. Make sure that the person to your left and right are not bowling, and then proceed. It makes for a much better time and it makes you a better bowler in the eyes of those who share the lanes with you, and for the love of god, return your balls to the racks when you are done. By the by, I ended up with a 339 average (102, 130, 107), not too bad.

the best movie I've seen in five years

I just got back from seeing Good Night, and Good Luck. And this movie is phenominal. There is no other way around it. The story, the acting (some awards are in order), the directing, the script, everything was top notch. Honestly, this movie is now my favorite, and that is saying quite a bit. The one thing that makes this movie great is that it is in black and white, something that draws the audience into it. Televison wasn't in color in the 50s and I think that Clooney deciding to do this movie in B&W gives you a great sense of "being there". Great movie, and it should win some Oscars, and if not oscars, definatly golden globes and some awards from the screen actors guild. This was an independent film, and it didn't have tons of explosions, so I don't know if it'll win any oscars, but I can always hope...

and the rest....

Here are a couple more pictures from this summer and the last summer...



On the left is Carolyn and on the right is Katie. Two very wonderful people that I worked with. This picture was taken at the 2004 vintage baseball game which is played on one of the oldest regularly (I hate saying that word...I get tounge tied) used baseball fields. Yes, they are proudly promoting Mackinac State Historic Parks in their Victorian dresses, but with work also comes play as you will see in the second picture of them...















There really isn't anything that needs to be said about this picture...













I just love this picture that Matt took this summer. I think mainly because the sun reflecting off the water actually looks like a snow covered plain because the water is so so so calm. And the reflection looks really cool. It gives you a sense of what I saw for about eleven months of my life the past two summers.

What I did the past two summers.

Picture time, WWWWWHHHHHEEEEEEE! I just got around to putting some pictures that Matt ,MSHPs photo intern, took this summer from a CD onto my computer. So here are some of my favorites that I was given.


What you are starting down are three Springfield .45-70s. First manufactured in 1873 and used for twenty years by the United States Army. All the rifles that we used at Fort Mackinac were original. Left to right is Craig, Paul, and me. The uniforms that Craig and Paul are wearing are the dress uniforms inspired by the Prussian army of the 1880s. The spiked helmet gives that away. And I am in fatigues or everyday dress, just a little different from the Civil War uniforms that they are usually associated with.





All the guys that I worked with this summer. All lined up facing the Mission House, which is where I lived for the past two summers. The water behind us is Lake Huron. Can you believe that every morning I woke up and saw that? It was great. Left to right are the soldiers: Trace, Joe, Geoff, Ben, Craig, Brent, Paul, and Me. If you look at Geoff and Ben's rifles, the bayonets are visible, but its kinda hard to see on the rest of our rifles, but they are there.







This is the last picture that I'm uploading today. It's just us marching in the Lilac Parade. But it does give a better sense as to what the rifles look like with the bayonet attached to it. Yup, we're a bunch of dorks, history dork mostly, but you have to understand one thing. We played with cannons and rifles all summer. How fucking cool is that?

did you ever have that problem...

have you ever had that problem where you don't have too many friends around and you can't find a job? well step on in to the boat which i have been sailing in for the past month. Still no job, but I've put out a few apps. Still not a whole lot of friends other than Andrea's, but not all of them i like. There are about four of the people that she hangs out with that I really can deal with and the rest...well, the rest are the rest. They all work together and I can't seem to fit in. Fuck em all. :o)

I put in my first application for a real world job at a children's museum called Exploration Place. Didn't apply for anything in particular, just a job would be nice. You know with financial stability and whatnot. And if worse comes to worse, its the holiday season and so places are looking for seasonal employees so I guess I could go work at a store if this job hope doesnt work out.

Halloween party tonight...

So there are two rules, that I have found to be true during Halloween, and I'm sure that everyone who has been through college has learned them as well...but for anyone who has yet to get there, here are the two basic rules of Halloween.
1.) Show up to someone's house (preferably someone you know) with lots of booze and get drunk.
2.) If you see a female dressed up very skankily (if it's not a word, it is now), you cannot make any rude comments. Halloween is the only time women can get skanked up and not have to deal with any shit from anyone.

Those are the two basic rules that I have found through my four years at Central...and they still hold true, even down in Wichita. Now, my Halloween costume is something that only a few people will appreciate and those few people are people that I worked with throughout the past two summers on Mackinac Island, so in essence, history people. I got a red shirt that has a sickle and hammer on it and under it has C.C.C.P. I'm going to carry around a copy of the Communist Manifesto and a bottle of vodka. Thats right, you guessed it....I'm a communist! Its something that I thought up on my drive down to Kansas. I was on my way through Missouri and if anyone has ever driven across MO, you know that there isn't anything there to really keep your attention. And so, after I was done talking to a couple of people on the phone (I know, something you shouldn't do) my mind started to wander and the thought of my Halloween costume just popped into my head. Originally, I was going to dress up as Karl Marx, but I didn't feel like going out and finding a big gray beard and gray hair, and so my mind went down the chain and stopped on a communist. I enjoyed the idea, my friends enjoyed the idea, Andrea on the other hand, did not...but that's okay, because I'm dressing up the way I want to dress up and no one can say anything about it...they can just give me weird looks and roll their eyes because in a couple of hours of being at this party, no one will care because we are all going to get drunk.

and that is that...
I am out.

still no job

the job market is pretty dim down here. I'm going to have to resort to working in a store until i can find something that I want to do in a museum, which would be quite a bother, even though it would be money.

I miss my Island. and my Island friends, and my Island bars. The two greatest bars I have ever been to are the Downtowner (in the Soo) and Sinclair's (on the Island). And unfortunatly, they have placed the bar for bars so high that everything else just seems not good I guess you could say. Although, Indigos down here is Wichita is pretty decent. We went out Thursday night to dinner and to the bar with a bunch of people that Andrea works with. It was a good time, but they talked a lot about work and didn't talk about a whole lot of anything else, which kinda sucks because where does that leave me? Sitting on a bar stool drinking my guiness and shot of whiskey like a loser just sitting and listening, but it didn't make a damn bit of difference because I didn't know what the fuck they were talking about. I miss the arguments that Ben and Trace and Brent and Travis would get into over stupid stuff like politics. Granted when ben and trace got going, it eventually just got annoying, but still it was fun to listen to and laugh at.

But alas, I'm far away from that now in "grown-up land" fuckin' a.

I am out.

It's all coming together...

Life down in Kansas is starting to fall into a groove. Went and got my driver's license this week, also got some car insurance, just need to get a license plate and I will officially be driving a Kansas car. One thing that hasn't happened yet is a job, but I'm still looking. Haven't gotten a bank yet either, which sucks because I have a check sitting in my room waiting to be put in there. So some things are working out, some things aren't. I do have a job lead though...one of Andrea's friends works at the post office doing data entry. It doesn't sound like much fun, that's for sure, but when the job starts out at about 12 bucks an hour....its kinda hard not too look that way. Money is money, and hey it beats turning tricks down on the corner.

The move in went smootly and I've settled in...I'm just going mad with nothing to do. I do try to keep busy by doing shit like dishes, and laundry, and on occasion cook (it's only happened twice). There's lots of left overs from when her parents were down here, so we have slowly been wearing down that food before it attacks us when it goes bad.

I am out.

crazy...

All moved in down in Wichita, KS. The trasition so far has gone smoothly, minus the whole not having a job thing, but you know, I'm working on it. Well, not really, I haven't looked for one quite yet. I'm taking a week to adjust to living down here, and its working out great, with the exception of one thing...Andrea's parents have been down here for damn near two weeks! Its been driving us up the wall, but thank god that they are leaving tomorrow. I dont know why they couldnt come down for four or five days. That's just the way they are. Her mom is very clingy I guess you could say.

Thats just the way it is some people would say, but it is driving us crazy. Try living in a one bedroom apartment with three other people, two of whom are guests, and tell me that it wouldn't drive you bonkers. And to those of you who have the "thats just the way it is" mentality, I will tell you one thing. You are all a bunch of morons, and that is being polite.

I am out.

another one falls to the temptations of people reading their thoughts

Okay, okay...let's see how these things work out. I write down my thoughts, then you read them, and then move on. Quite right. Well, I was pointed in this direction by a good friend of mine and a good friend will never steer you wrong...or would they? No, of course not. Besides this is such a good friend that they decided to make me a blanket for my birthday in high school, so that shows that they have a good head on their shoulders, because it's cold here, for about seven months.

So, with that, I shall give this a try...it might not work out, my head is all over the place at the moment...I am in the midsts of moving from Michigan to Kansas and my room looks like a fucking bomb went off. Well I'm off to bed and then more packing tomorrow.

I am out.