and i'll fall off the planet entirely

Class was canceled on Thursday so here's a rundown of what my college tuition is paying for. I woke up at 1:30 in the afternoon to an angry alex mersmen questioning if I was just now waking up (I was) and complaining that I had gotten a whole night's more sleep than him. I then played guitar for an hour and did the, "should i shower or should i sit and play more guitar" game in my head. The guitar won out.

I figured I should get outside and let the sunlight see my skin so i ventured to downtown Naperville. I went to Barnes and Noble and read the new Alternative Press while sitting across from a homeless man who was either A) taking a nap or B) dying a painful death. I could think of worse places to die than one of those big, comfy couches in Barnes and Noble.

Reading is a roller coaster for me. Sometimes I get in grooves where all I do is read, but sometimes - normally after reading a bad book - I get in funks where I don't read at all. I'm in one of those funks after reading The Bell Jar so I knew I needed a book that could get me back. Some friends of mine had read Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman (wrote for Spin) so I went to the library and checked it out. The Naperville Library is INSANE. Nick looked up to see if they had The Departed and they had some 400 holds on 100 copies of the movie. With the amount of stuff they have at this library, they could afford to build a spaceship and send a different Napervillian to the moon everyday.

After the library I headed to Wallgreens for some soap. When I had to ask where it was, I realized soap is one of those awkward things in life that everyone (except the homeless guy at the Barnes and Noble, HA!) has an association with. I was looking around while waiting in line, with my soap, and I felt like I was getting some looks; but all of those people know how long it will be until they have to buy some soap. And boy are they dreading that day. The worst thing is that soap was the only thing I was buying so people are automatically assuming that I'm dirty and smelly while waiting in line. I could have thrown in a pack of magnum condoms then I would have been the cool kid, but instead I was just the lame guy who is buying soap on a Thursday afternoon.

I came back to my room and ate a Cage corn dog (closest thing to a steak at north central) and read some of my book. I went to dinner with Nick and Erik and we talked about Nick having the same eating habits as a 7 year old and how we would be mad at Katie Kring for dying because we wouldn't be able to watch the 2nd half of The Majestic on Wednesday (partially kidding).

We all went back to my room and watched The Office. I think Creed could have his own show and I'd watch it every week. Erik left to go play video games with some girl (I know right) and Nick and I watched Even Dwarfs Started Small. Mr. Puma showed my American Lit class this movie my senior year of high school and I remembered to buy it just last week. If you can read the description of that movie and at least not smirk to yourself, than I don't like your humor.

After laughing for a good 2 hours about little people in interesting situations we headed to the radio station to record a song about Parker. For those of you who aren't myspace friends with the Battle of the Bulge, here's the deal. My friend Kyle and I were song battling for about a week. Just something fun to do when you don't want to do homework. Parker somehow got word of this and decided to record his own rap song - with professional recording equipment - and then post it on the site. Of course he is going to show us up because A) we were recording with a camera B) we realize we're white suburban kids and can't rap and C) ok, yeah he's got talent. Nick suggested recording at the radio station to get Parker back and we started the process last night. The highlight of my night was having Sal Ochoa enter into studio and lay down a rap. We will hopefully have it done soon for the masses to hear.

Yeah, so that was my day. We're going to see Alex in Cabarat tonight and then off to an 11:25 showing of Reno 911! Miami. Should be a fun night. Tomorrow Mark, Justin, and Greg are coming up from ISU for their maiden voyage to NCC. I was going to make a joke about Mark's underage girlfriend here, but I stopped. Oh you know that line on the top of the shrimp? That’s feces.

Snowman redeemer

To the left is the Christ Redeemer in Rio. To the right is the snowman some seybert kids built this week. The snowman even faces a church.

I hope you come back tonight

An asteroid has a 1 in 45,000 chance of hitting the earth on April, 15th 2036. Supposedly the IRS told it to hold off for a couple days, so the asteroid moved its arrival time back to the 15th. I'll take my chances, but it's still a frightening concept.

It's ok though, we have these guys on our side:



Here's the link so you know I'm not pulling a War of the Worlds on you:
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9748/1066/

love will tear us apart

Congratulaions! You have been accepted to participate in North Central College's Study Abroad Program in China/Japan. As many returning students have reported, studying abroad is a life-changing experience in many ways - personally, academically, and professionally. We are pleased to announce that you will be taking part in this experience and representing North Central College.

This was the letter I received in my mailbox on Friday afternoon, informing me that I will be taking part in the fall '07 study abroad program in China and Japan. I decided on applying after my experience in France and hearing great feedback from friends about this trip. It's unique in the sense that it is a duel country trip. We will be in Beijing (home of the 2008 Summer Olympics) for 8 weeks and Kyoto, Japan for 7 weeks. 1 of those weeks in Beijing is China's national week off (not the real name of it) in which the entire country is off of work and school. During this time a lot of people travel and we will as well. You're on your own when it comes to this, and Nick and I have discussed South Korea, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and others. We still have a lot of time so we'll see what comes about.

We will be taking 3 credits of Chinese and 3 credits of Japanese in the respective countries. This way I can fill my language requirement since I already took 3 credits of French this fall. It should be interesting trying to learn these languages, but a good experience none the less.

As an added bonus, Erik will be in China at the same school as us. He is going on a more independent program to work on his Chinese, but he will be in Beijing for the entire 15 weeks, where as we will leave after 8. It will be good to have a familiar face who has a familiarity with the country and the language.

When we head to Japan we will be going to the same school as my friend Hiro. He has been studying at north central since the fall and leaves to go home in a couple of weeks. It's crazy to think I will be able to look up friends when i get to Japan, but it's just another unique opportunity that Ncc has allowed me.

The program goes from the end of August through the middle of December so I will be gone about 4 months. I will turn 21 in China - which isn't that big of a deal there - but it's more than worth it for the experience.

I google imaged some pictures of what we will hopefully be seeing on the trip. Here you are:

Beijing's Forbidden City




Beijing's Tiananmen Square:




People riding bikes; my kind of people:



The Great Wall (it has a slide going down it...not a lie)



Kyoto, Japan



courtesy of parker gadbois







What I'm looking forward to the most, Tokyo:





Ok, that's enough, sorry for the picture brigade.

I love British accents. I think they're adorable (on girls). I think I chose the wrong trip to go on...

good day

Animals don't feel pain

I laughed a lot today.

After reading Erik Mothersbaugh's blog I brought up new jinx rules to some friends. The loser of the jinx cannot talk until their name is said on 3 separate occasions from any person. Ryan was the first real victim of this today and he continued to wonder around the cafeteria looking for random people who might know his name. He then continued to have a pretty lengthy non verbal conversation with Jill Ruggiero in which after probably 3 minutes she finally said his name. These new rules have great potential.

Later in the library Alyssa Vincent texted me because she needed to give me a present from Berlin (a nice Japanese stop light pin; thank you Alyssa). When I was talking to her I turned to my left and there Ryan is sitting in his gap size 8 girl pants (we checked in the middle of the library for some reason), a striped shirt that looked like it was worn when he was 11, and a beige cowboy hat. A mixture of shock and hilarity caused me to fall over in the middle of the library.

I guess Ryan Hansen just caused me to laugh a lot today.

I thought this was very cool. Kevin Wall - the man behind Live 8 - has teamed up with Al Gore to create a Live Earth concert, which will be going on for 24 hours on 7/7/07. Acts all the way from the Chili Peppers to John Mayer to Snoop Dogg to Fall Out Boy will be performing on all 7 continents, including Antarctica. It's supposed to raise awareness for climate control and coincides with Al Gore's An Inconvient Truth. Maybe this isn't much news to the average person, but I am always fascinated by large music events like this. It sounds like it has the potential to be very effective.

I hope you watched the office tonight. There really is no reason you shouldn't be. Everyone should go business casual on thursdays as a sign of respect to this show.



Possible weekend plans: sleepover at Parker's because Alex's friends are staying over. We have talked about putting poetry to chill guitars and piano. I'm sure wine will be thrown into the mix. Sunday is the Chinese New Year celebration downtown. A bunch of us went last year and it was a blast, so I more than likely will be making a return trip this year. I want to go to the thrift store and buy the vest portion of a suit. I think it would look exquisite.










Happy 20th Birthday Mark Miskell. Mark was my catcher for the better part of 10 years and not once were we ever on the same page. Nonetheless, he is a great friend and he will do his best to be 1/10th the man his father is. In middle school Mark once brought home animal porn and left his backpack open. Upon his mom finding it and asking him what it was, he found no shame and blamed his good friend Jeff. Mark once went out with a girl for a month longer than he wanted, not breaking it off, because it was just easier not to. Here's to you Markus.

newyorkcity: chicago on steroids

I'm back after 4 days in new york city with my mom visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Some of you know my cousin's involved with the new york city ballet at 18 and this weekend was a big performance for her. She's rising through the ranks very quick and it was fun to get to see some of it first hand. So if you're ever in nyc look up kathryn morgan and you'll see the morgan family at its best.

Over the 4 days we did the tourist bit, saw some sights, and had an overall awesome new york experience. I'm sure I'll be back soon and I'm looking forward to being there when I don't have to wear my scarf as a bandit face mask.




I would write more, but I'm tired and looking forward to not sleeping on a blow-up mattress but here's a little preview of new york city pictures:



Yeah, that's Drew Barrymore on the Today Show. I'll post some more tomorrow in between a busy Tuesday. 8-12 inches of snow is expected tonight and Alex is praying for a snow day. I feel like I'm 7 years old all over again.

I love coming back to a band after not listening to them for awhile. I've listened to the same 5 songs by the Sounds all night and not once have they gotten old. So catchy and sexy.

Speaking of sexy, have you seen Justin Timberlake's new music video? For those of you who haven't: all he does the entire video is make out with Scarlett Johansson! He gets paid for this stuff. I need to rethink my career options.

knock, knock

My flight to new york leaves tomorrow morning at 9am. We're seeing my cousin dance on saturday and going to see a broadway show on sunday, but other than that it's free time in new york city. Expect pictures and stories upon my return monday afternoon.

I wrote a song about Kyle's love for aliens.

Watch the Police on the Grammys sunday night.

Would anyone be interested in seeing bloc party on march 21st? Regardless, I'm going so if you want to join me that would be pleasant.

Does anyone have the of montreal cd? I don't think it exists.

I've been spelling judgment wrong my entire life.

Have a good friday-monday.

i wear sweatpants under my jeans

So my good friend Kyle (Ryan Hansen's roommate) comes into my room yesterday and asks me how I write songs with no background in music theory. I told him not only do I have no music theory knowledge, but I don't even know all the chords. Instead I just write what sounds good and go from there. We chatted some more about music and then he left.

When he left I picked up my guitar and started strumming with no particular direction. After a minute or two the line, "Kyle Boyd has a huge dick in his asshole" came out of nowhere. I laughed to myself and decided I should record this song through the audio option on my camera so I could show it to Kyle.

Kyle laughed at my attempt at a song (he studies music and plays like 5739 instruments) and then I proposed a song battle. What's a song battle you ask? Well, Kyle is in the studio sweating, creating, and building a song as we speak. We will see what is born in the next couple of hours. I created a music myspace so everyone can have a place to view our music battle, as it grows and becomes something magnificent. Appropriately, it is entitled: The Battle of the Bulge. Check it out here: www.myspace.com/austinkylebattle.

We will continue to battle until one person reigns over the other, or until I break my guitar over Kyle's head because his songs are too good. May God be with us all...

thanks for the memories

it was an eventful bears' season that produced some great memories. getting to see them in the super bowl was a feat in itself and something i won't forget the rest of my life. who knows what the next couple of seasons will bring.

i go to new york in 4 days and the excitement has just now hit me. it'll be a short trip and i will have to pack a lot of sights into a little time frame, but i can sleep when i'm dead. the 30 degree new york weather will feel like a vacation to the Bahamas.


name this song:
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime


I can't control these trembling hands

Led Zepplein, Rage Against the Machine, The Police

All of these things are the same as the other.

I had to write a paper all day Thursday, but when I finished I ended up having a really good night. Dale and I went over to Hiro's and hung out with some nice people, including his two friends who are visiting from Japan. They were both incredibly nice guys and they go to the school in Kyoto that I would go to if I get accepted to the program (more on this later). Eventually Arson showed up and the events became hysterical. Arson is from Taiwan and he chose the American name Arson because he liked how it sounded. He speaks pretty good English and is a rather outgoing individual. He talked us all into playing this drinking game that had some pretty complex rules, but turned out some great moments. Alex called after an hour or two and I went back to our room.

Alex is watching his brother's dog and house while he is in Jamaica so thursday night we stayed at their house in Aurora. They stacked the house with everything Alex could ever need. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to live with me for the next 2 weeks. After stuffing myself with chicken, chips, ice cream, and beverages I sat on the couch with a dog on my lap, watching digital cable. It was comparable to the feeling you get when you jump into a warm bed with no alarm to wake you in the morning. A truly great feeling.

Tonight the last comedian of NCC's comedy series performed and he was amazing. He's been in 10 Things I hate About You and Not Another Teen Movie. I haven't seen either, but supposedly in NATM he plays the guy who does the slow clap. Maybe this will strike a chord with some of you. We laughed for a good hour and a half and then we went back over to Hiro's to hang out with his friends one last time. They leave tomorrow morning for Japan, but hopefully I'll see them in the fall.

Parker, Nick, and I came back to my room and joined by Ryan we watched Battle Royale. Watch this movie as soon as you can. 40 some students trapped on an island in a death battle. That's all the overview you get. Buy it, borrow it, steal it.

The new bloc party cd is infectious. I want to be those British boys.

I listened to the new fall out boy cd as well and I enjoyed it. They know how to write some catchy songs and you can't take that away from them. Paul Wall is joining them on tour in the spring; I never once thought I would be able to reference Paul Wall in here.

Parker gave me this music program from his computer called Fruity Loops. It allows you to create all sorts of beats and sounds, then organizing them into songs. It's addicting as oxygen? and and makes everything sounds cool so I've been pretty infatuated with that. I feel like I'm creating beats for the Beastie Boys or Dre.


This is Alex's picture up on the screen before Mr. NCC: This Charming Man

love like winter

Tomorrow I have a big english lit midterm and i have to write a paper for style so this will be quick.

Parker and I had an epic talk today at the library. We sat at the opposite ends of a long table in the library and talked about life, work, taveling, etc. It's always nice to be reminded that there are really good people around; Parker is the perfect example of this.

I applied at Burger King today. Yeah, I didn't mistype that.


Classic