It’s been a while since my last post.. life has gotten busy, but what’s new right?
So let’s bring ya up to speed… my last post was the end of April, and a lot has happened.. Here are some of the highlights.
I turned 30.. and survived. I really don’t feel any different. No overnight hair loss, etc..
I found out that both of my sisters are pregnant, so I’m going to be an uncle twice over. My sister in Sheboygan is having a baby girl in December, and my sister in Arizona is going to be having a baby boy in January. Needless to say I’m pretty pumped to be an uncle.
I bought a new bed. Why is this exciting? Because I’ve had the same bed since well.. 2002 or something. Oh and the bed is complete heaven. I actually find myself going to be early to spend more time with it.
Probably the most exciting thing? Late this summer I met someone special, a young lady by the name Meghan. Things are going fantastically and it’s definitely brightening up my days.
So it’s Tuesday and I’m enjoy relaxing on the couch. On Friday I came down with a cold that I originally thought was a bad allergy problem. It put a bit of a hamper on my Halloween weekend, but I still managed to have fun. I dressed up a nerd, and Meg and angel. Pictures to follow (eventually). I didn’t go into work yesterday, but ended up spending a good 6 hours working from the bed or couch, but think that I’m finally starting to beat this cold, something I’ve frequently said that I never get. So in case you were keeping score, I’d unfortunately have to say it’s: Cold 1, Nick 0, but I’ll win out eventually.
So obviously there’s a lot more, but I need something to blog about right? :)
So until then.. Good afternoon, Good Evening, and Good Night.
Elliott Smith, one of my favorite artists, died on October 21 2003. Recently I found out that Ben Folds wrote a song about Elliott Smith, which in remembrance of him I thought was worth sharing.
Ben Folds – Late
Under some dirty words on a dirty wall
Eating takeout by myself
I played the shows
Got back in the van and put the Walkman on
And you were playing
In some other dive a thousand miles away
I played a thousand times before
And like pathetic stars, the truck stops and the rock club walls
I always knew
You saw them too
But you never will again
It’s too late
Don’t you know
It’s been too late
For a long time
Elliott, man, you played a fine guitar
And some dirty basketball
The songs you wrote
Got me through a lot
Just wanna tell you that
But it’s too late
It’s too late
No, don’t you know
it’s been too late
for a long time
Oh no
Things were looking up
Least that’s what I heard
Oh no
Someone came and washed away your hard-earned
Peace of mind
When desperate static beats the silence up
A quiet truth to calm you down
The songs you wrote
Got me through a lot
Just wanna tell you that
But it’s too late
It’s too late
No, don’t you know
It’s been too late
For a long time
It’s too late
It’s too late
No, don’t you know
It’s been too late
For a long time
When life gets busy it seems like my blogging seems to be the first thing to go. This is not because I don’t have anything to say, but just that I end up spending my time doing other things.
Anybody have any suggestions? :) Anybody still reading this? :)
The good: The weekend is almost here and the Brewers have won 4 straight and moved from last in the NL Central to 2nd. Go Brewers!
The bad: Parra has the mound tonight and I could have saved money on my car insurance by switching to Geico.
About mid week my throat started to get scratchy. I didn’t think much of this because I never get sick…. right? Well guess what? I got sick and being sick sucks. The weekend was relatively uneventful especially with my time spent on the couch. Now I’ve been in March Madness pools before, but it’s never really kept me extremely interested in watching the games. Previously all I did was log onto espn.com and check out the game results, especially if Marquette and Wisconsin haven’t played all the well. The NCAA tournament pool I’m in left me with UConn & Pitt at this point. All in all not two bad teams. Fortunately UConn made the cut and made the final four while Pitt did not. All four games this weekend were good and I’m excited about the games next Saturday. The only good thing about being sick? I don’t have to feel guilty for laying on the couch all weekend getting fat.
My parents had spent the past week or so visiting my sister Kate in Phoenix. They also visited because once they retire in a few years, they’d like to be able to spend a few months down there renting a place for the winter. I spoke to my mom on Friday and informed her of the snow that we got this weekend, which coincidently happened to arrive around the same time as their plane was. Thankfully they made it home without incident.
Somebody better tell mother nature that this is spring and not winter. -N
Where has March gone? And even more importantly, where have my posts been? I’ve always found blogging and updating my personal website hard. It would be nice if it was something that I could do from work — but with the high number of blocked websites at work, I’d expect that a high amount of traffic to my site would only lead to it becoming one of the blocked sites. I really could use a job where I can get paid, yet do no actual work. That’d be perfect.. Anybody have any openings?
So to the point — I mentioned Vegas right? Yeah so this past week I was lucky enough to get to spend the majority of the week in Vegas for a software conference. I went to the same conference back in 2006, but knew a lot less about the subject matter than I do now, so there was definitely much more value going this time. So there was significant value in attending the conference, but it also didn’t hurt that it was in Vegas. Whenever I tell anybody that I went to Vegas, they always ask me about what I did while I was there. Well the conference went from 8am until 6pm, but with dinner and being forced to have free beer (or networking if you prefer), etc. I just didn’t get much time to get out and see the sights. We did catch the monorail up the strip and then walked back, but we really only checked out the fountains at the Bellagio and whatever else along the way. I also played a few slots, but there was nothing really worth mentioning there – I only walked away 20$ down.
I took a bunch of pictures which I’ll be posting soon. -N
Last weekend I went to Barnes & Noble and didn’t buy anything, something I’ve done many times before. The reason I didn’t buy anything doesn’t have anything to do with the store itself or that I don’t like books or anything, but rather because I’ve become so accustom to shopping online. I looked at a bunch of books and thought to myself.. “I wonder if they’re any good”, mostly because I’m so used to being able to read reviews before purchasing something. So instead I noted a bunch of the titles in my blackberry, and then looked them up on amazon and half.com to see if I could find a better price. Why do I do this?
A) I’m cheap
B) I don’t need instant gratification, having the book in my hand immediately.
Why would i buy when i can buy with reviews on amazon.com? Books are the pefect thing — electronics you want to hold in you hand before you purchase, but do you eally need to do this with a book? So the question becomes why would anybody but offline? -N
Although I never wrote about, there was a second bigger layoff at Kohler in late January. Again I lost a few good friends in the process. I guess I was a bit more prepared for this one than I was the first and I didn’t really think that it impacted me. This morning I woke up after one of the more “real” feeling dreams that I’ve had in a long time. After a quick reality check I really got to thinking about what I would do if I lost my job, something I haven’t really given a lot of thought. Honestly I think that my position at Kohler is as secure as any job could be, so I can really do is update my resume and not waste too much time thinking about it.
With my first weekend free in quite a while, I’m going to try to get some cleaning done. Wish me luck-N
In case you missed it, Radiohead’s live performance at the Grammys last night. They didn’t win for best Album of the year which doesn’t surprise me, but I think that their performance was definitely one of a kind. -N
This year’s Superbowl was one for the ages. I went over to my co-worker Brett’s place in Gibbsville to watch the game. The group that gathered was all from the Fantasy Football league that I was in this season. I started the game out with a text message to my brother-in-law David taunting him a bit with a “Go Steelers!” message. As the game progressed I experienced something I rarely experience. I ended up cheering for both teams. As the Cardinals made their amazing comeback, I was standing up cheering for Larry Fitzgerald as he scored a touchdown. I can’t say that I wasn’t at least a little bit dissapointed with the Steelers coming back for the win, but I feel confident that the better team won, and that Santonio Holmes truly deserved the MVP.
Jaydiohead is a mash-up album combining the vocals of Jay-Z and the music of Radiohead. It is produced by Minty Fresh Beats (uh-huh). You can download the album for free via links on their site. In my personal opinion it’s worth the download, granted I might like Jay-z more than the average radiohead fan, but either way, you gotta check it out.
Other radiohead news? Did you hear that they’re going to play at the Grammy Awards this year and that they’re new album is currently in the works? Believe tr or not, their newest album “In Rainbows” is actually up for 5 awards including best album. Good Stuff.. -N
